The Klatsch received this note from Mr. T down in the Dominican Republic
on February 24th, 2005. Since it is the first e-mail The Klatsch has ever received
from a foreign land, the Mayor thought he'd immortalize it for posterity:
Howdy folks,
Thought I'd drop a line and let
everyone know I'm keeping tabs on where the Koffee Klatche's are being
held. Today marks a month since we left Calgary and we are finally at
the point where we can start to relax a bit - or at least get back to
the usual type of work.We've spent all of our time so far painting,
changing electrical plugs completely disintegrated from the salt air,
changing plumbing for the same reason, cleaning tiles, putting up new
fans, buying furniture and a car, and a bunch of other stuff. The
weather has been quite cool and not particularly humid so working has
been much easier than last year when it was extremely hot. Most days
are sunny with rain about 50% of most nights and temperatures during
the day about 23 to 25 degrees. By this time tomorrow we should be
finished and Dawne can start her suntanning and I can get back to
working half-time for WIN. We don't have a land telephone or internet -
just a cell, and I do my computer work at an internet site in Sosua
owned by friends we met when we were here last year. It's a standard
ADSL line and seems to work fine but Sosua is about 15 minutes from us
so it’s a pain to go daily. In Canada it wouldn't be considered much of
an issue but here it means travelling by car and that is an interesting
proposition at the best of times. 
There are no rules but common sense
and often that's lacking as well so driving can be interesting. The
only way I can describe it is to say this is a latin nation with latin
temperment to match. There is a lot of give and take and amazingly,
there appear to be few accidents but it is nerve wracking all the same.The place we bought is right on the ocean. I've attached a few pics -
one from the balcony (which constitutes about 50% of a very small
livingroom) and one a couple of hundred feet to the left of us where
there is a lot of coral. Reema - one just for you of Dawne and Susan.
This part of the Atlantic isn't particularly good for swimming but
about 10 minutes away there is a great beach. Dawne is getting homesick
already so not sure how this is going to work out on the long term. I
must admit I miss family and friends as well. Guess there are tradeoffs
for anything one does. Our middle daughter Jac, her husband James, and
our grandchildren (just incidently Jac and James children) Ryley and
Maddy arrive in a month to spend a couple of weeks. Our youngest
daughter Andrea works for an airline and they can get cheap fares but I
need to go to Newark to meet them because Dawne and I as Andrea's
parents have rights to fly internationally and can take others in the
clan with us but we need to be on the flight. Anyway, that's it for
now. 
Went out yesterday and bought 8 paintings (all original oils) for
a total of $90. They come with a stick frame and instead of getting
proper frames, we're just painting the edges. No point in having a
frame worth more than the painting. So tomorrow they go on the walls
and we're done. I'll take a few shots inside and send at another time.
Also bought a Bob Marley rustocretian (sp) wooden sculpture about 3
feet high and he sits on a ledge high above the livingroom looking down
on us wiith very weird eyes. Don't know what kind of wood it is Barry -
red, hard, and extremely heavy. Anyway, we've decided he's kind of
creepy. Take care.
Dawne and Bob T.