Life Transplanet

During this trip to Puerto Rico in addition to looking at some properties, we had the great opportunity to meet up with some people we had been chatting with online but hadn’t yet the chance to meet in person. On our last trip to PR, we had met Nick and Miri and so it was wonderful seeing them again this trip. We also met the Kruses at their finca, and Jim and Cynthia of PCH to 413 at Rosa’s (one of our favorite blog commenters )  great party. We were also planning on meeting up with Summer and Stefan of CA2PR, but our schedules conflicted a little.

At Rosa’s House in Rincon

Some people wonder why we would blog and put our lives out there for so many people to read. Well, I have to tell you after meeting all of these great people, it has been more than worth it. Sometimes you put yourself out there and see what will come of it. In this case, so far, the benefits have greatly outnumbered any problems. We have also had the opportunity here in Colorado to meet Claire and her family at her wonderful farm.

Blogging takes a lot of effort and sheer tenacity to stick to doing it, but the rewards are worth more than gold. Of course, the Internet should never be used as a replacement for your other relationships, but is a great way to expand your friendship circles especially in finding others with your similar interests and outlooks.

For all of you with blogs of your own, all of our commenters and even you lurkers (you know who you are ), out there reading this, this one’s for you!

We knew that coming to Puerto Rico would bring with it an unknown number of adventures and interesting happenings -or a series of cumulative events that on their own don’t seem like much, but as they cumulate turn into things you just have to laugh about. That certainly has happened this trip.

Cassie likes to call it our “sub-stories” like the secondary stories in books. In the last few days, our sub-stories have been taking up a lot of our thoughts in addition to the primary story of finding a place to live and moving here.

I’ve been having some problems with our web server lately. There have been a lot of new bots crawling the site. It has been causing a crash about every week. (Sorry if you were trying to get on our site(s) and it was down, it’s a lot harder to fix when you have limited internet and tools!)

I had an interesting conversation in my head about the issue in the car. I was thinking about the Chinese bots crawling my server in Greeley, Colorado  while I myself am in Puerto Rico. Odd world we live in.  I’ve had a couple of bots hit the server so hard it crashed. I needed to get the site back up.

We were on our way to San German to  visit our friends Jeff and Katrina Kruse.   When we got there we checked out their property.  It was pretty amazing and fun to see what they have done with it.

 It was fun to hike around (in sandals!) and see all the fruit trees and the cute chickens, roosters and cats. We also enjoyed talking with them about their experiences in Puerto Rico. The night before, we had visited with Nick and Miri again. It’s almost like we already live here with all the friends we are making!

Graciously, the Kruses, let us use their internet to get our site back up (or so we thought), but apparently it either didn’t work, or didn’t stay fixed (let’s hope it works this time!) and so it was out all afternoon into the evening.

So we thought we’d just fix it when we got back to Rincon where we were staying. But when we got “home” last night the internet was out at the house, go figure. However the power was on and the water was too! We figured 2 out of 3 isn’t bad, so we decided to go to sleep and try to get the site back up and running today.

Turns out having the water on this time was a bad thing.  I woke up this morning and thought I was still dreaming or was at a swimming pool – the water was about a half inch deep on the floor and the blankets were all wet.  We had some clothes on the floor, but nothing important got wet.

1/2 inch of water in the bathroom, hall, and rooms

Our room-mate wasn’t so lucky.  He left his Apple laptop on the floor.  When he picked it up, water just drained out of it.

The toilet had been running most of the night and drained out onto the floor. Something must have got clogged or something…it was actually a pretty funny situation once we were sure our camera, laptop, cell phone and clean clothes were ok.

Also our rental car’s tire has a slow leak, we’ve been having to fill it up every morning.  Seems like we are having to deal with a few problems on vacation!  All the sub-stories of life…keep you on your toes

In other news…We stopped at a beach and we again, and were the only ones there.

Hundreds of empty spaces

Cassie hard at work keeping the palms up!

I had been thinking about making a new website/blog for some time. Something I am very interested in is personal finance and our money system. But it doesn’t just stop there. I am interested in disecting the reasons we do the things we do and how we are manipulated with marketing, advertising, regulations and social norms. Part of our pull and desire to move to Puerto Rico is the feeling that we are so tremendously manipulated and essentially hypnotized into the American “standard” way of life.  We want to expand our horizons and go forth and be fruitful in a new culture and a land of never-ending summer.

If you are interested in following along in some of my disections and discussions of these issues as well as tips and tricks I have learned along the way, check out Fruitfulista.com from time to time. The name is a play on words that mix being fruitful with fashionable frugalista. I have added it to the Transplanet sites link to the right on this website. If you have some feedback about different things I should cover that relate or have a magazine, book, or movie I should check out that speaks to these, I would love to hear from you. If I think it fits, I will then write a short summary/recommendation. If you’ve had any “aha” moments related to these things, help make the discussion even more well-rounded!

This week I have been setting up a training program at work.  I had to get a QA (quality assurance) environment up and running using the manual (RTFM).  I got it going which is good.  Now I have a list of people that need logins to access.  Once that is done I can learn about the very thing I just setup.  How odd is that?  Shouldn’t I take the training first?

I’ve learned that the way I thrive the best is ‘sink or swim’.  It is a very painful way to learn, but its how I do it.  Its how I learned to use computers, its how I learned to drive, frame basements, plumb, put in sprinklers, program computers, play guitar, and play video games.  If I am under pressure to do something I can do it.  There hasn’t been anything in life I haven’t been able to learn.  This relates to the post about risks.  I will do whatever it takes to succeed.   Heck just the other night I rode a girls bike home in the pouring rain to ‘make it work’ for everyone.  And you know what?  It turned out to be a super cool night.

Here is a song that relates to what I am talking about.  The style may not suit everyone at first; but I think the meaning and the energy matches perfectly. Tool – Aenima (right click and save as, unless you are easily offended…Seriously).   Its odd that I think this will ‘scare’ some people away due to its intensity.  It might.  But that is what I feel before I attempt something I am unfamiliar with.  I go all out.  And when you look at the lyrics to the song, it is all about being able to do for yourself and not on the system and some false idol.  Still,  Cassie will not approve

Fret for your figure and
Fret for your latte and
Fret for your hairpiece and
Fret for your lawsuit and
Fret for your prozac and
Fret for your pilot and
Fret for your contract and
Fret for your car.

Learn to swim.

I am not  depressed or anything, don’t take it to heart.  How else does a person get the energy to shovel by hand 10 tons of rock? These songs give me the energy to!

I can’t believe it’s been about a year since we first started this! Time sure flies. We’ve been thinking about updating our header on this blog for some time now. We wanted something that better reflected the contents of the blog, that is namely, our life in Colorado and in Puerto Rico and really across the planet -transplanet. So, what do you think? Take a second and vote in our poll.

And while you’re at it, leave us a comment about the blog itself. Do you like the blog overall? Is there anything you think we should change? Any topics you like more than the others? Thanks!