Ron had a lot of problems posting photos to the blog so we went to a website that allows us to post photos and for you to view them. The website is www.rtsla.photofreeway.com. We just started this weekend so you will need to check it from time to time for updates. He will have a few categories like ‘countryside’ with photos of places we travel to, ‘home’ with photos of our house, etc. Then within each category of multiple photos that you can click on to get a larger view. Hope this makes sense. As you can tell, I’m no technical writer.

Yesterday was a Red Letter Day for us. One of our goals this year was to pay off our mortgage. We’ve been working on it for a couple of years by making larger payments. Well yesterday we wrote a big ole check and paid that baby off! Yippeeee! We are now completely debt free and it feels good. Now we can save a significant amount so when Ron really retires we won’t feel so pinched.

Because this house, and my guess is most houses here, are not built to standards, we have had workmen here for four days manufacturing shower doors for two showers on the spot. Three men were working on it with another man who would check their work from time to time. Imagine the cost if they were working in the US. As they were finishing up, they cracked one of the glass panels so have to come back, supposed today.

Yesterday we had a visit from someone we met shortly before we left Portland. Shariff works with an NGO here on the peace agreement between the Tamils and the government. The LTTE has been escalating their activities since the election with killings of security forces. The president has said he would not be provoked into going back to war. That makes me feel more confident. Although I don’t feel personally threatened, if war broke out we would need to leave on short notice and that causes me great concern, with a house full of furniture and furnishings that we plan to ship to Thailand when we leave here. More importantly it would be such a tragedy for Sri Lankans to have to endure more civil war. No more wants the war to start again.

Our next house project is to have cushions made for the sofa that Veena is letting us use. The cushions that are on it are ‘dead’ and the covers are ‘tired’ looking. We bought a DVD set of six seasons of West Wing that we never saw when we were in the States but are desperate for entertainment since movies aren’t available. There are DVD movies but since most are bootleg you often get a DVD that doesn’t work. So when we sit on this couch to watch West Wing our rear ends hurt after about 40 minutes because the cushions don’t have any cushion left in them. Saturday we found some material we both like and today the cushion guy is supposed to be here this morning. It’s now 11:00 and he is a no-show. Normally I wouldn’t care but I have errands to run and can’t leave until he shows up.

We love having DSL at home. It has made life a lot easier. We called our kids this weekend using Skype, an internet phone service that costs about two cents a minute, Most of the time it works and for two cents a minutes, we aren’t going to complain!
I can be more active with email correspondence and more regular with blogs.
Well that’s it for today from SL, where the men are gorgeous, the weather is sultry and the Bergmans are having an adventure!