Welcome to the late 20th Century!

Technically we officially have internet at the house. But only technically. One might think that four men would be able to rig something that was reasonably well designed and reliable. But then you'd be wrong. Because we're living in Georgia -- a country that appears to just be entering the 20th century. Much like the state, I suppose.

The internet is "provided" by a dish that points at the TV tower across town. Since I conveniently live in a house that is on a hill with a SUPER clear line of sight to this tower you'd think it would be reliable. Reliable that is until the power blips a little bit, or as happened today, it rains. Now, it may do just fine in normal drizzle or even steady rain, we have no idea yet. Today, after about 45 minutes of feeling like she was on X, Meg was pushed back into the bunker, cut off from the world as it started to rain.

It rained. And then it REALLY rained. Apparently cars were floating down the hill like logs and homes on a California hillside. She bailed on work due to the lack of cabbies driving Arks and even after the rain subsided, I had to fight drivers on the way home from work. These guys make Maryland drivers look like geniuses. (Go talk to Strange Ground Chuck for more info on geniuses. I hear he's in Mensa.) Normally, they're reasonably decent about stop lights. Today, once the light turns red, they all flooded into the intersection. As if traffic was going to clear out for them magically after they jammed it up. I almost got out and walked. That is until I realized I had the big D plates on the car and just went through the intersection in the middle of a red light and pushed my way through. What are they going to do, pull me over?

We'll talk more about driving here later, I'm sure. But for now, at least the internet is up. It's slow. It's finicky. But it's here. It's good, 'cause it means my posts can't possibly be random as much as usual (yeah right) otherwise, the internet will cut out in the middle of my post.

Better go before it starts to fog.

The Adventure Begins....

Well folks, this is definitely going to be quite the adventure. Meg arrived in the weeee hours of Wednesday morning (3:00am) which meant I had to get a cab out there and back because while I had figured out how to drive there during the day, there was no way I going to make the trip without any visual queues in the middle of a sleep induced stupor. Thankfully, it all worked out and she's here.

Internet access has yet to be figured out for the residences, so right now, I'm posting from an Internet cafe. GEL 2 / hour = $1.25 per hour. Not too shabby. Catch is, Google appears to be smart enough to try to use Russian. Which doesn't really work out so well for me. It took me a few minutes to figure out how to post here.

Meg's still working on her first week here, while I'm pushing into my second week. So far, we've figured out how to:

• Buy groceries (a bit comical I'm sure since there's a lot of pointing and use of calculators to explain how much things cost)




• Buy gas. Also an adventure as we seem to have moved to NJ where we can't pump our own gas. (The similiarities between Tbilisi & NJ are kinda creepy, but I'll save that for a future post.)




• Get air put in the tires of the truck




• Figure out how to park the pickup in the super tight garage




• Order dinner at restaurants




• I've found the local beach, but Meg hasn't gone yet. (Was hoping to do that today, but the weather is kinda cool and overcast today, so maybe next weekend.)




• Get a cab to take us where we want to go




• Get a cab to take us to places we don't want to go. (Go figure, this is easier than the one above.)




• Get cell phones working in town that don't cost us a fortune in roaming charges. (Email us if you want the #.)




• Found a horse track that is being used by folks to run around. 1.8 km around of C&O trail type of running. Not bad to start with and pretty close to home.

It's quite humbling how challenging things can be when you can't speak the language, can't read the signs and generally are living in your own world. Meg feels pretty vulnerable right now, but I think that'll wear off as she gets used to living here. She's shown quite the adventuresome spirit so far, and seems to be increasing her confidence as it goes on.

Work was SUPER busy for me for the first week with a turn over and a number of visitors showing up that I had to help take care of. That's finished now, so I can finally work on settling into a routine. The new Embassy is GEORGOUS and certainly makes it easy for me. We'll see what Meg's office is like, but she already has two half-days scheduled this week and is looking forward to being gainfully employed in the city. (Colombo Charlie I'm sure knows all about this problem.)

We'll go to our first hash on Sunday and hopefully meet some folks from outside the Embassy community there. We've started making friends with random folks that I've found at the cafeteria and through the CLO, and I'm sure it'll be very soon before our social schedule is packed again.

Ok, I've rambled enough for today. Again, as soon as I have legit internet, I'll try to post more frequently and some photos. Hope all is well for you guys out there.

Pete's Outdoorsman Honor Badge Recinded

A quick update on my friend Pete who did the below trip to Rainier. We've been good buddies for quite a while and he's got quite a history of doing outdoorsy stuff. I like to think I can handle myself outdoors, but Pete certainly has more experience than I do.

Well, the other day, we were out on a camping trip which involved a bit of a hike, followed by lunch then tubing. Well, Pete decided he needed to take care of some business in the woods (kinda like a bear, if you know what I mean). He figured he'd use the river to clean up a bit. Well.. he's squatting there, and looks up and sees this group of perfect sized leaves to use for TP instead.

A few hours later, he wonders why his butt it kinda itchy. I mean, really itchy. Hrm... it was a group of three leaves..... uh oh.

That's right. Pete wiped his butt with Poison Ivy. We've all made the jokes but he did it. It took me a week to write this because I was laughing my butt off so hard I could hardly type. He's feeling a little better.. doc says it should clear up in about a week.

Sorry Pete, but I had to post it somewhere.