More sunsets

I seem to take more pictures of sunsets than anything else. I have never lived in a place before where beautiful sunsets are the norm not the unusual. Here are the best of the best I took last night. For a novel evenings bike ride, I did not get strinkled on, rained on, or dumped on. I expect during this rainy season to get wet regularly.
There is also thunder in those clouds now. This evening I got half way across the parking lot when a loud thunder clap rumbled. I turned around. That was my ride this evening. As you can see it's still raining out. I needed bottled water and took two 3 gallons bottles to the water store (the untreated local water can be drunk but it tastes awful). I got about as wet as the water in the bottles. The benefits of the rainy season are that everything turns green, green, green. This picture is out back of my apartment.

Sunsets

Last Sunday I was late leaving the house to go bike riding. Then, on my ride, there was a sunset so grand I have no words for it -- and no camera. The Lord really knows how to put on a show and sometimes all I can do is drink it in.

This evening (Tuesday) I rode down the cliff road to the marine lab at the University of Guam. Part of it I have to walk up. The rest of the road tells me that I am making progress in getting into shape. I went down, up about 2/3 of the way, turned around and whizzed back down to just before the steep part to a parking lot and back up past where I turned around and didn't stop once until I got to the point where I have to walk. The first time I went down there, I had to stop 3 times to recover before getting to the always walk part.

There also was a quite nice sunset and I got sprinkled on.

I have learned from several people here that you have to be really careful if you get any kind of injury here in the tropics -- that infections take off really quick. This was after I lost a fight with a Corell dish I dropped on the floor where it smashed and got me in the leg. I didn't go right away to see if I needed stitches but was told I should get it checked the next morning. So, I did. Too late for stitches. I don't think it needed any anyway. I think it's healed enough that there will be no infection.

PIU campus has been pretty quiet. The team that went to Thiland will be back by next week and then faculty will start arriving on various dates starting August. Things will get really busy really quickly then.

Pink Sea Sunset

On my bike rides I often get the opportunity to see some spectacular sunsets and cloud formations. This evening I was amazed by the pink sea with a pink sky.


Then, I looked at the sunset where the sun goes down and this is what I saw:

I don't see these sunsets from my home. So, my bike rides are a blessing at seeing God's beautiful ocean, clouds, and sunsets and getting in better shape.

Guam Liberation Day

Tuesday, July 21, was Liberation Day. This island wide holiday commemorated the 65th anniversary of the beginning of the US invasion of Guam to take it back from the Japanese who occupied Guam a couple of days after Pearl Harbor.

There was a parade and fireworks.

The parade was about a mile long and took place on Marine Corps Drive (the Guam "main drag"). I drove down to the Agana Shopping Center which is quite a hike down to Marine Corps Drive. So I brought my bike and an umbrella. I used the bike as a chair and the umbrella as shade. I rode and walked down to Marine Crops Drive and arrived just as the beginning of the parade reached my location.

The crowd was large and the BBQ's were working overtime. I stayed for an hour or two and got some pictures and then went home to watch the rest on TV which was broadcast on the local PBS station.

This year's theme was "We are Guam". Here is the color guard.

It was really a beautiful day and I don't think it rained at all. The umbrellas are for the sun - not rain. I slathered on spf 50 before driving down to the parade area. The float is for the Guam Air National Guard.I think we had some air cover -- a reminder of the large military presence on Guam. It seems every branch of the military marched in the parade. The sky is beautiful also.
In the evening I went to Bayview Baptist Church to view the fireworks. No one seemed to know exactly where they would be set off. Most thought it would be to the North in Tumon Bay but it actually took place to the South at Chamaro Village. The picture below shows the view in that direction. What an awsome world God has created.
I still havn't figured out how to use my camera at night. These are the best of my tries to take pictures of the fireworks. It was a very nice display.

Interesting Things on Guam

The college has been blessed with funds to build the pavilion pictured below. What I want you to notice is the forest of posts under the roof. They are what seem like metal jacks holding up the concrete roof while the concrete cures. I was told it would take 21 days to cure. This is with a new kind of concrete. Previously it would take about 4 months to cure.

The forest is now gone and work has continued. I think they are installing electric wire encased in concrete.
The tree below is a very wonderful example of God's creation. The trunk consists of a chaos of trunklets. I can actually see daylight though the trunk. But, from a distance, it looks like one trunk. When I look up in the branches, they are going everywhere, but from a distance it looks like an organized tree. It's like a bush that looks like a tree. Beautiful and strange. Order from chaos.
The rainy season has arrived. I haven't been taking my camera with me bike riding because I don't know if I will get wet. I see lots of people carrying umbrellas. When it rains, it pours, the wind blows, and lasts quite a while. Today it was partly cloudy and didn't rain at all. Last Saturday I got drenched. It's a good thing people don't melt like the Wicked Witch of the West.

I enjoy hearing the rain falling outside or on the roof. It's one of the things the Lord created that I really enjoy -- like I enjoy his sunshine.

Independence Day Fireworks Celebration

Anne Stinnete and I went to see the fireworks display on the Guam Navy base. Following are a few pictures of the display. It was a wonderful time despite the rainy season downpour soon after we arrived at the viewing area. We ended up eating our Jamacian Grill dinner standing up but we stayed dry!

I really need to discover how to take night pictures without the flash. But that would mean reading the book!

Enjoy.......

Random thoughts on Guam

Joyce Owen agrees with me. People complain about the traffic here but we don't think it's as bad as Folsom, CA.

Everyone complains about the bumpy roads. If you really look at it, most of the rough parts are caused by laying pipe across the road and doing a really bad repair job on the pavement (the pavement washboards like dirt roads). But, I don't see much that compares to the parts of Ponderosa Rd in Shingle Springs.

On the other hand, I have run into many many cars whose dome lights don't work (including mine) and my theory is going over oto many bad repair jobs.

Not that there are no pot holes. There is one that cars wouldn't even notice but I hurt after riding through it on my bike. There is grass growing in it.

There are a lot more birds than there were when I was here in Feb. 2008. Sometime between then and last October, sparrows showed up. There are now thousands of them (at a guess). When I arrived in October, it seemed like I only saw them near hotels and restaurants. Now, I see lots of them everywhere I go.

We had a thunder shower on Monday. I am told it is the start of the rainy season. It has been relatively dry and the ants have disappeared, mostly, from my kitchen. I assume that they will reappear in force when it really starts to rain.

I have a TINY kitchen. It's so tiny, the fridge door won't open all the way -- it runs into the stove. There is only one drawer in the cabinet. I didn't bring much and I didn't buy much but I had to expand the kitchen into the dining area because there was no place to store stuff.

My workshop is finally set up. I sometimes have to walk sideways but my tools are all usable.

The flowers are beautiful here as well as the fish at Ypao beach. I will do a post on flowers and one on fish soon. I have a waterproof case to take fish pictures while snorkeling.

Here, if one store is out of something, probably all the rest are also because they all come on the same container ship. I was looking for a "network coupler" and 2 stores were both out. Last week, they were still out.

If you see something you like, grab it, there may not be any when you run out. For example, if I see chocolate chip mini morsels, or fat free cheese, or fat free dress, or half and half, I grab it and freeze it.

I like discount bins at the grocery store. I get sandwich meat and freeze it, yogurt, and other things. Just don't pay any attention to the expiration date.

I was taught to always freeze bread. It will turn green in the fridge before you can eat it if you don't. Keep rice in the fridge, they get bole weavels (bugs) if you don't and it is a pain to pick them out of the rice. Much easier to just refrigerate it. Long grain Jasmine rice from Thailand is the best when cooked in a rice cooker. California rice is short grain and it makes a real mess of the cooker even if you wash the raw rice.

A rice cooker is an essential part of kitchen equipment. Pour in the rice, water, plug it in, and push the cook button. The switch pops when it's done. Yum. I never ate rice in the states. Here, I never buy potatoes.

Any other kind of food needs to be in the freezer, fridge, or sealed containers -- or the bugs WILL get it.

I am told potatoes grow here - the purple and orange ones. Cherry tomatoes grow really well here. They are sold in the grocery stores but aren't any cheaper. I gotta start farming in a pot.

Cochroaches here are about 1 1/2 inches long and 1/2 inch wide. I have seen only one in my apartment and it was alive. I smashed it wth the first thing that came to hand, and then I had to wash the floor and the masher tool. I was told that I then needed to either throw it outside or flush it because dead isn't dead. All the others I have seen have been dead.

There are gecko's everywhere. They are not the cute green ones like in Hawaii. They are a light tan and poop on things and run across peoples ceilings. I have one living behid my refrigerator. Probably helps keep the bugs down.

There are also little lizzards running around everywhere inside and out. One time I saw a monitor lizard about 1 foot long - it ran into the Men's Dorm. I don't know how it was ejected.

Bannana's grow everywhere here. I am spoiled by the taste of the local bannana. The commercial ones in the stores have no taste in comparison.