Vacation, Independence Day, and back to work

Well its been a month since my last post, delayed primarily by a 2 week trip to the US, so let me try to catch you up on things.

My last post was after an angina attack that put me in the hospital for a few days, followed by the Vicar General's direction I should do nothing for a week or so. So, that's what I did. Once we were back on Andros with new medications and a relatively clean bill of health we got a surprise email from one of our tenants saying that things were tight and they didn't think they were going to be able to make their rent so - they were leaving in 2 weeks. Despite having a lease committing them thru September they were simply abandoning thier lease and leaving.


While this was a shock, it was complicated by our having told the other tenant that since they had been unable to make their rent payments we were exercising our option to ask them to leave (they were a tenant-at-will month to month renter). So - while I was to avoid stress and take it easy, all of a sudden we had no tenants renting our home and that income was how we paid the mortgage, insurance, taxes, etc. We had tried to sell the house prior to starting this ministry but, due to the housing market, were unable to do so and we rented it. Now we still have the financial obligations but with both tenants leaving we are in a financial bind.

So Ginni headed home to deal with finding new tenants and get in some nursing to make a few dollars. We had planned to take a few weeks in June to go home for my nephew's wedding, but now our trip had double duty - the wedding and the house. Originally it was a one week trip to go to the wedding but now I had to arrange coverage for two weekends here in Fresh Creek because of this renter situation. In the 3 years we have been here I have never been away for two weekends in a row but the Archdiocese assured me they'd find coverage and I was to deal with the problems at home.


A week after Ginni left I followed. The tenant who left on two weeks notice had left, but had left alot of personal items behind, while the tenant we had asked to leave was still packing up. The house was in chaos but we were able to clean one apartment and begin showing it to possible tenants pretty quickly. With a few possible tenants on the hook we sent off their credit info for credit checks and then took the vacation we promised ourselves we needed.


Ginni had traded a timeshare we have for a week in the Berkshires and it was great to be back in that part of the country where I grew up. I grew up in Pittsfield and we stayed in Lee. What a difference from the dry flat tropics of Andros. Here were green mountains and hills, lush green seemed everywhere, while the rain had yet to arrive in Andros and our grass literally crunched under your feet there. The first 3 days we drove thru back roads and visited my old house; Bear Town State Forest, where I used to camp; and used the putt-putt mini golf and pool at our resort. Later in the week it rained a bit so we visited the Norman Rockwell Museum, a local winery, the National Shrine of Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, walked the grounds of Tanglewood, and even rediscovered the old ShadowBrook Jesuit Seminary (now a Yoga Center). Ginni and I met on a retreat at ShadowBrook when Ginni was at UMass so it was wonderful to see the place again.


With the rain persisting we left a day early to deal with the house and spent a day following up on possible renters and cleaning before leaving for my nephew's wedding and an overnight stay in Lowell. A high point of this trip was seeing our newest grandson again. I hadn't seen Leo since the winter when he was only a month or two old - he's a different little boy now at 6 months old. Sitting up by himself, smiling and rolling over he will be a handful once he starts crawling! What a cutie. The other high point was our son Mike brought a date to meet the family. A scary step with my family but one she handled very well. Mike has been dating her for several months and he is smitten - time will tell where this leads.


Anyway, now its back to the house and finally getting the upstairs tenant to come and remove their belongings. We also hired a friend from St.Timothy's who works as a contractor to come and fix a long list of items needing repair who made great progress while we were in the Berkshires and at the wedding. One thing we found was that, with the housing crisis, alot of people looking to rent are people who have lost their homes by not being able to pay their mortgage. Consequently, the credit checks are all pretty horrible. We finally settled on one man who was divorced, but liked the larger apartment because it gave his kids a place to stay when visiting on weekends. His credit was just as bad as the others but his mother was willing to co-sign and her credit was great. So we do the final meet the day before I have to fly back to Andros, his mother signs, I sign, and Ginni and the tenant were to sign a few days later when he would bring his security deposit and the 1st month's rent. So, I fly home and when Ginni meets with him he can't come up with the money and his mother really doesn't want to loan it to him. So that falls through and we are back to square one interviewing tenants.


Ginni has to return to Andros and currently our friends are showing the apartment and collecting Rental Applications and sending them off to the credit check company, who email the results to us. Doing this from the Bahamas is a royal pain, but we have no choice.


Anyway - when Ginni returns I meet her in Nassau and the next day it is my followup appointment with the Doctors who treated my Angina attack. All the test results were fantastic, I have no coronary blockages at all, 100% clear, and the drugs have my pressure down - all is well. The Dr that did the MRI says I have arthritis in my neck that will continue to cause me discomfort but no heart issues. So I can resume life and get back to work.


With the Dr's under control we fly back to Andros and Ginni has her first day home in about a month. Of course as soon as we get home the power goes out, the water pressure drops to zero, and the heat and humidity is through the roof. Eventually power returns, we unpack settle in, and Ginni goes to take a shower. First, she runs into a 3" spider crawling up the shower curtain, kills it, turns on the water - and there is none. She takes a bird-bath in the sink and comes into the bedroom. She turns on the lamp on her nightstand and it flickers so I suggest it needs a new bulb. She goes and gets a bulb and when she comes around to her side of the bed she says, "OH, Oh, Fire!" and I see that the extension cord from her lamp to the outlet had split and now it is spouting sparks and fire. Well she unplugged it and we cleaned the scorch marks off the tile and replaced the extension cord, then climbs into bed - that was Ginni's first night home.

So the first week back has been uneventful but July 10 is Bahamian Independence Day and so on Saturday, July 9, after our normal Saturday liturgy at the Navy Base, I head over to the Queens Park for a ecumenical prayer service led by all the clergy here in Central Andros, followed by midnight fireworks. Since we were away I didn't have any particular role other than being present on the stage - until the moderator realizes they need to fill about 10 minutes before the fireworks and she turns to me and say into the microphone, "before we end tonight why doesn't Deacon Tremblay come share a few words". So, thrust into the spotlight, I do an impromptu talk about to be truly Indepent, we need to be Dependent upon Jesus. Then remembering last week's homily about our being yoked to Jesus, I took off on how the Bahamas has done exactly that, explicitly stating in the Constitution that the Bahamas are a Christian nation. I guess it was pretty well accepted, I got a few AMEN DEAC's from the crowd and I filled the 10 minutes without embarrasing myself.


Next week we will be helping ANCAT, a local conservation group, with their summer camp for youth. Our new Parish Ctr will be a gathering point and our van will be a resource to get campers from point A to point B, but we will benefit from learning more and more about the the flora and fauna of our island and they teach the kids. It will be a busy few weeks but an opportunity to learn and share the faith a bit when opportunity presents itself to both the kids and parents.


Summer time is also a time for us to begin planning next years CCD curriculum and we will begin doing makeup sessions for 2 women who were in our RCIA program and had to withdraw due to work requiring literally all their time. If we can catch them up in July and August, they can resume in Sept and receive the sacraments next Easter! PTL!

Another item coming up is our annual review with the Archbishop. We will have been here 3 years in Nov (imagine that) and when I sit down and list all we did last year in preparation for this meeting I am amazed at what we were able to do. CCD for 57 children, RCIA, funerals, baptisms, restoring St. Gabriel's church, a parish mission, . . . the list just goes on and on.


I want you to know that WE know, without you and the Holy Spirit we would probably have been sent home after the first year. Your prayers and support are a major reason we've been able to do what we have done - THANK YOU.
So - until next time