That “year” thing.

Funny how we can look on a year and see if from different perspectives. 
When we lived in Puerto Rico, (have I ever mentioned we lived in Puerto Rico?) it turned out to be for only about a year,  and it seemed to go by really fast.  Of course,  Travelling Companion’s boss at the time used to tease me by saying, “Never know Bob,  it just might be five years!”  See, one year in Puerto Rico was just about enough.  Don’t get me wrong,  for any of you who were able to visit (and you know who you are)  the weather was pretty darned nice,  and for anyone from the North,  it was actually a little difficult to keep track of time.  See,  as “Northerners”,  we do tend to relate certain events to the weather.  You might not realise that.  Such as, “Remember the Easter when it snowed"?”   That kind of thing.




Every day in Puerto Rico was pretty much the same as the previous one.
Spring in Puerto Rico is a date on the calendar.  That’s it.  The seasons don’t really change.  I counted on very few fingers of one hand the number of days in that year when we had “mal tiempo”!  (“bad weather”,  for those who prefer not to use Google translate.)
Right,  “mal tiempo”  for the Puerto Ricans is when it rains all day!  And maybe the temperature drops down to a scary 75°F!  Better bundle up!
Anyway,  I think you get my point.  It was wonderful to live there because of the climate and all that,  but it was still nice to move back home again. Even though I ended up buying a snow blower.
Well, anyone who has been away from home for a while can relate.  Never mind the minor gripe about the snow blower.  That’s not important.
So then skip ahead five years to 2008, and we did the move to The Netherlands.  Thought that was going to be for the duration of the three year contract.  Nope.  Turns out we were on the move again after a year.   There’s that year again.  Then everything is all new and exciting.  At the present time,  for all intents and purposes,  we have another year to go. 
If you start counting on your fingers,  you’ll discover that the years don’t add up.  This should be the third year.  However,  back before Christmas I think it was,  Travelling Companion was asked if she’d be willing to extend her stay by one more year?  After some thinking on the matter,  we figured “why not?”,  since there weren’t too many places after this that looked or sounded all that appealing.  There was some talk about,  “Would you be willing to move to China?”,  and there was no need for deliberation on that one,  a simple “no” was the quick answer.   A few years back there was also some talk about a move to Australia,  but that’s a whole other story.  The Company that Cannot be named tend to move their Executives around a lot.
So now we realise that,  even without knowing what the next move would entail,  we would have been packing up and getting our cr*p in order for yet another move right about now,  with the actual move taking place possibly as late as August.  Instead,  we’re faced with being here for another year.   And no,  it’s not that big a hardship.  This isn’t Ice Station Zebra and the supply ship is nowhere in sight,  but still…
In terms of the Company that Cannot be named,  quite possibly the next step up the ladder for Travelling Companion would be one where she would being hanging out with all the Grand Poubahs at their “World Headquarters”.  The thing is though,  at least their “World Headquarters”  is on the same continent as our Canadian home.  

Not exactly magical,  but we could live with that.


Took me a while to dig out these pictures,  and they’re not even very good,  but here’s a couple views of our digs when we lived in “Plan Bonito”,  Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico.



Our back yard looked out over Mayaguez,  and the Caribbean.



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