The Blue Moon

I just read that "Once in a blue moon" is happening this New Years Eve.

The term "blue moon" refers to the second full moon in a calendar month, something that hasn't happened on a New Year's Eve for nearly 20 years, NASA says.

(from CNN)The last blue moon on New Years Eve was in 1990.

There is also to be a partial lunar eclipse but it won´t be able to be seen in the Western Hemisphere. Too bad for us on this side of the Earth.

So while your partying in the New Year look up to the skies. Listen for those wolves (or humans trying to be wild animals) howling at the moon. Also say a little prayer and thank the Creator for the beauty around us.

Happy New Year to all.

There will also be a short meteor shower on January 4 called

The Quadrantids

The peak will happen mainly during the daylight hours of the 3rd but you should still be able to see the meteors in the evening in the Northern Hemisphere. Make sure you go out and see what you can see.

Sky and Telescope Magazine
CNN

My Merry Christmas Video To All

I could not find a Christmas card I liked so I decided to make this little video for all. Santa is singing softly so you might have to turn up the volume a little. The Chihuahua has a loud voice so beware.

Merry Christmas to all!

Palos Music at La Espiral 1

I love palos music (what is palos check it out on my web site)! I liked this type of music before I even knew what it was. It is sort of primitive but gets into the soul. At least it gets into my soul. I used my digital camera to take this video and it was dark so its not that great but you can get the idea. I also took a video of a lady dancing with the singer. They were both so good but, oh well, it was too dark and all that was to be seen was a black scene with a few little glimpses of light. I´ll try again another time. Usually on Friday nights La Espiral in Colonial Zone has a palos group so there may be more music to come.
Enjoy the video!

Dancing Silly in the Colmado

I was out and about last weekend and stopped in a Colmado to have me a bien fria (cold Presidente beer). The place is not a regular stop for me but I do pass by there every once in a while to say hi. The guy started dancing and I just happened to have my camera (I don't carry it around all the time as I'm a little paranoid about having another camera stolen). I asked him if I could take the video and put it on the internet. He was all happy to have his own style of dancing bachata shown. While taking this video I was sitting on the counter and holding in my laughing as I didn't want to have all the music drowned out with my noisy laughing (and snorting..yes I snort when I laugh really hard) Enjoy!

Guagua trip to Rio Nizao

I decided to take a guagua (small bus)trip by my self on Sunday. I have only taken a guagua alone to Boca Chica so this was all new for me. I wanted to be around some water (my son Billy Jay died 6 years ago on this day and I like to be near water this day and someplace away from the city) and someone told me about this river so I went. I didn't know what to expect so I didn't take any swimming stuff. I wanted to check it out before I committed to carrying a bunch of stuff with me.

I figured out where to get the guagua thanks to a friend that told me about the place. It cost me $70 pesos for the 1 1/2 hour ride (it took so long because of all the stops the guagua made). The ride was uneventful. I did get a bit of sun on my left arm from the window.

I didn't know where to get off the guagua so I asked the cobrador (the guy at the door of the bus taking the money and helping people off and on) and he said he'd let me know. But when we got to the town on Nizao he jumped off the guagua. There was only about 4 people left on the guagua at this time. A group of 5 guys got on so I asked them where I needed to get off the bus. They said to follow them. The next stop they pointed for me to get off.

They took me to the river and a little colmado to get my first beer. The river was deep and wide. It was wonderful. The water was cool and clean.You could see the Caribbean sea way in the distance. There were lots of people enjoying their Sunday afternoon. Young and old. The Colmado was playing Dominican music and some people were dancing. It was very comfortable and relaxing.

I sat with them and we talked. I was surprised that my Spanish just pored out of my mouth quite easily. My new friends and I talked all day. Drank some rum. Danced a little. Ate some fresh fish (yes, the fish had the heads attached). It was a good day.

At 4 I said I had to leave cause I didn't want to take a chance of missing the last bus at 5. The bus came about 4:30 and one of my new friends waited for it with me. The new friends told me to call them next time I was coming and they would cook fish for me. They also said there was an inexpensive hotel near by the river if I wanted to come for a few days which for sure I will do that soon.

So now I know how to get to a river to relax for a day. I have been wanting to do that for so long but no one seemed to know how to tell me to take a guagua to a river not far from the capital. Of course, many people here told me that it was dangerous to go alone but yet no one offered to go with me to protect me. I have been many places alone and I never found any place to be what I considered dangerous. If I didn't feel comfortable I would just leave. No problem.

Views From My Balcony - Grabber's Necklace Stealing Headache

A helmet wearing motorcycle rider
Heading the wrong way
Down a one way street
This day made a huge mistake
As he looked to pray
On an innocent victim
A sparkling necklace
Caught his treasure seeking eye
He made the grab
Forcefully removing a necklace
From the unsuspecting woman walking by
Much to his amazement
Someone gave him a shove
Down went Mr. Grabber
Onto the black rough pavement
The men in the street
Pounced
At least 10 to 1
Yells were coming from the mouths of all
The crowd had their way
Grabber had no hope of escape
A few minutes passed
Grabber was out of sight
As the mob of angry humans beat Grabber
The police arrived
It was their turn now
Grabber came into view
Looking much less smug
Then when he started his jewelry thieving quest
The necklace was returned
To the crying woman
The bloodied thief
Was taken
Sandwiched between the two police
On their motorcycle
Police-Grabber-Police
The police seated in the rear
Holding Grabbers black helmet
Very aggressively and with much force
Was using Grabber’s own helmet
Bashing him in the head
Pounding some sense into the thieves bleeding head
As they passed by
On the way to the police station
We, onlookers from the balcony above
Showed our support and approval
With a rousing applause
A thief was caught
Grabber was taught
That stealing is not good
And that it can be a real headache.

Catching Up - Sept. 2009

There's some stuff I needed to write but not really note worthy for an entire blog so here goes.
*Ended up at Colmado Vengaza and a friend joined me for my Sunday walkabout. This was his first time doing a walkabout. We ended up in Villa Consuelo where he played checkers Dominican style. He lost every game cause the rules kept changing but he had a great time. He will join me for more walkabouts for sure.
*The patron saint of the armed forces, San Miguel, was this month. I was going to go but the crowds just were a little too crazy for me to head there alone. I heard all the commotion from the beauty salon as I was getting my hair cut.
*Finally sold my old gold wedding band. Didn't get very much but it paid for me to go to the salon and get some hair dye and also some grocery shopping. So it was all good. I was just hoping to get enough to head to the beach for an overnighter but that didn't happen.
*It's been really hot and humid. Dripping giant sweat balls! One good thing so far this year we haven't had any real hurricane activity. Does this mean that next year we will get hit big time? Wait and see.
*I still can't get this Spanish stuff down. I hate it especially in the morning when I leave the house and my brain is in the English mode. When someone tries to talk to me I just give them the daahhh look. Does this mean that the older my brain gets that there will be many more daahh looks? Hope not because I'm turning 50 next month and I'm not happy about this at all.

Can't think of anything else. Life is nice and calm. Just the way I like it.

Mars Video

I was adding a new video to You Tube and found a video of pictures from my home town of Mars, Pennsylvania and just had to share it.


I also uploaded a video I took of musicians playing music in Parque Colon here in Colonial Zone. You can see it on the musica tipica page on my web site or on my You Tube page RDgringa. All links open in a new window.