Much better day today.  We are still being tossed around by the swells the coming into the marina.  We went into town looking for some more fenders, but we couldn’t find any.  Dan did make some bumpers from some garden hoses (ingenious!).  We still can’t find a laundromat and since we haven’t done laundry since November 6th, these are desperate times.  Today, I washed clothes in a bucket.  What a milestone for me!

After that, bowling!!  But first, a shower.  After my shower, I was blowdrying my hair when disaster struck.  I blew out the electricity.  At first Dan thought it was the inverter.  That would have been really bad.  But after some troubleshooting, he realized the ends of the electrical cords were burnt.  That was better news.  Fortunately for us, there is a 110 outlet on the fuel dock, right outside our boat where we’re docked.  What are the odds?  So we ran our 110 extension cord out the window and plugged it into the dock.  We are now official Dominicans, stealing electricity!!!  All I need to do is string a clothesline here at the fuel dock and hang up my laundry. We can really redneck up the place!!!

 Anyhooo!! We went bowling and had a great time.  At first we were the only customers there, but later a few more came in.  We had problems with our lane from the beginning.  It wouldn’t return the ball, so he moved us to another lane.  This lane was fine for awhile until my turn.  I started to bowl but noticed something odd.

“Am I missing a pin?” I asked Dan.

Sure enough.  One of the pins hadn’t been set up by the machine.  I only had nine pins.  We called the attendant over and he went down the lane and into the back.  We waited.  We looked at each other in amazement and amusement as we heard the banging, clanging and grinding coming from the end of our lane.  It sounded like he was wrestling a large garanimal!  Eventually, order was restored, the machine reset and gave me 10 pins.  The attendant hadn’t come out yet and I was hesitant to throw my ball as I didn’t want to hit him.  I waited a bit more then said, “I’m throwing.”

“Don’t Mom!”  yelled Tristan and Tessa in unison.

“You’ll hit him, Mom!” cried Tessa.

“I’m throwing,” I teased them.

“Don’t Mom!” said Tristan.

“That’s so mean,” added Tessa.

It was funny how concerned they were.  I told them I was only joking and eventually the attendant came out a side door and I was able to bowl without taking casualties.  A few frames later, the same thing happened on Tessa’s turn.  The attendant again went down to work on the machine.  He reset the machine and Tessa was waiting to throw. 

“Go ahead, Tessa.” we told her.

We hadn’t seen our guy come out yet, but were fully expecting to see him come out the door.  As soon as she started forward to throw, his leg popped down out of the machine at the end of the lane.

“Stop!!” we all yelled at her, rushing forward to grab her before she let go of the ball.  We burst into laughter.

A few more frames later, the pins were set up for Tristan’s turn. 

“Look,” I said pointing to the pins.  “We we’re missing a pin.”  Right after I said that, out of nowhere, the pin is spit out by the machine and lands in the lane.  “Oh!  There it is!”  We crack up!! 

Dan tells Tristan to go ahead and bowl.  “You know, in a normal bowling alley you aren’t supposed to bowl with a pin in the middle of the lane, but here…….” 

Yes, we passed normal a long time ago.