Returned to the U.S. for the holidays.

Began trip by acting as "Pet Transporters" for the CocoMutt Shak by delivering a puppy and cat to the U.S.  Both animals were picked up on our arrival at Newark airport and transported to their final adoptive homes in Massachusetts, I think.

After Drs. appointments in early December my cancer was stable after a hormone injection and bone-strengthening injection in August.  That allowed us to schedule the next battery of Dr. visits for April and gave us a 3-month window to spend on the island.

Since we were having construction work done to house #2, Estie decided to cut short the holiday visit and returned to the DR on Dec 9 to make sure all the work was done correctly.  I stayed until Dec 31 and visited relatives and tested some international money moving operations that we would need in the new year.  I couldn't wait to get back when the temperatures fell before New Year's Day.  And as it turned out, they continued falling so I was happy to be in our warm home.

The main construction work has been completed and looks good, complete outside painted "purple", selected rooms inside painted, kitchen cabinets/drawers refinished or replaced, minor improvement to a small section of the roof, installation of ceiling fans throughout, and fixing some strange wiring issues.  Now we can move on to more fun stuff like furniture shopping, day tripping, and entertaining friends. Still haven't been to beach, but that wasn't high on our list of things to do.

We expect to stay in our new home until we return to the U.S. for Drs. appts. and injections in April.  Hopefully I will be blessed with another 3 months of a "cancer-stable" body.

Winter weather has set in and that means about 82F during the day and a comfortable 68F overnight.  Couldn't ask for better.  Despite being able to move around pretty easily without a car, our next major effort will be shopping for a vehicle. It really is necessary when you need to transport stuff you buy.  For vacationing it's totally unnecessary.

That's all for now. Stay tuned for our next update.

Finally, we have plane tickets for 10/21/17 for 2 humans, 5 cats, 1 dog. We plan to stay at the new house for a couple of months and return stateside for the holidays. After that it should be all 2018 in the Caribbean! I sure won't miss the winter this time around :-)

Estie has been actively engaged with old friends and new, via social media for the last 5 years as we've tried to get ourselves organized enough to move.  As serendipity would have it, a Belgian, ex-pat, Real Estate agent friend, notified us of a deal too good to be passed up. So we now have 2 homes in Republica Dominicana.

Estie has a job managing CasaBlanca Hotel and Surf Camp in Cabarete.  Yeah ... It was a surprise opportunity that demanded an even quicker response. Estie leaves for Cabarete on Tuesday for an 8 month stay.  I get to clean up the house and prepare to follow her in June/July.  So ... the circumstances have forced us to make the retirement decision.  It's now just a matter of executing the things on our To Do List, to be able to enjoy our new phase of life. Standby for the latest developments.

OK.  So we thought the last post with the video of the March 5 snowfall would be our last.  Well ... that sure was wrong.  Check the NEW snow video, under Home Pics & Movies, which really better be the last snowfall for this season.

  This may be the last time, for a while anyhow, that we spend a winter in Pennsylvania. March 5, 2015 was a nice sendoff with 8-10 inches of beautiful snow. But we would gladly give up the snow at this point if that meant giving up the brutal cold and ice that has marked this winter.  But this ride in to work was pretty!

Winters with highs in the mid 80s and lows in the mid 70s are now much more our style!

Had targeted January 2015 for retirement/move but we just weren't prepared.  But we have a plan in place now and are shooting for September 8 to retire, have birthday celebrations for Dad (9/9) and Estie (9/10) and then jetting off to the Caribbean 9/15 or there about.  Fingers crossed!

House Hunters International contacted us to consider us for their new 1-hour renovation program. We are exchanging information on renovation items, schedules, budget, etc. Stay tuned for more!

Through the La Mulata neighborhood watch on Facebook, we heard that there was a shooting somewhere in La Mulata. And that the victim was shot in the kidney and taken to the hospital. We will need to find out more.

We now have plans to return to Casa Veintiuno to dog and house sit in May for 2+ weeks.