To Fly or Not to Fly, that is the question!

This is a classic photo I needed to repost.

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I spent from 2:30 to 8:30 at the Puerto Plata Airport in the Dominican Republic waiting to take a plane to Miami. It was raining and American Airlines finally canceled the flight.

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Funny part about this was that they canceled it because of WEATHER and there were 6 other departures and arrivals between the time the flight was supposed to arrive and the time they canceled.

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American didn't want to give out any vouchers for cabs, hotels or anything else. I have flown over 200,000 mile with American and I will now consider flying Continental to POP when I go to NY. I just hate starting all over again with the Frequent Flyer mile program and the other things in my bag of tricks that reduce my cost for flying but American is getting a bit annoying lately so I have to consider the competition. What really bothers me is that they just keep you waiting and don't tell you a thing which really pisses me off. Worse than that is when you call them on the phone they just lie to you.

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Good thing is that I met a guy who was also on that flight who was a real nice guy. He is an architect working on a project here and very interesting to talk with. I am in the Real Estate field and enjoy hearing about projects and design and talking about the same. When we got canceled I called Niko the Commie to come pick us up and take us back to Sosua for the evening. We went to Dori's Restaurant at Eddys Sports Bar in Sosua for dinner which was delightful. I was starving and hadn't eaten all day and I was also exhausted from standing around the airport ALL DAMN DAY.

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After 3 beers and a full belly things were starting to look better to me. Went out for another beer after dinner and then went home to pass out. Took Kyle the Architect to the airport this morning as he was going to try to get to NY through Puerto Rico first thing at 9am. He has been stuck here since Sunday because of the poor weather in NY and needed to return for appointments. I look forward to seeing him here in the Dominican Republic in the future as he returns for his project here.

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Now my plane is leaving at 1:30 pm today and if it doesn't get my arse to Florida today I am going to go postal. It was unreasonable on AA's part the way it went down yesterday. I had a car at the airport in Miami to take me to Boca Raton and I just didn't get there and now have to make arrangements for today. Pain in the arse!

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I am going to spend a couple of weeks in Florida going to Hunter Jumper Shows and also going to attend the Paso Fino show in Ocala which I am looking forward to. We do business there selling Bronze Sculptures that Dawn does and this should be a worthwhile trip for us. We have a rep that displays her work at the shows and a Gallery as well. Besides trying to book a bunch of business such as limited edition sales we also get commissions to do pieces for private collections which is a good combination. We are hoping to find a model to do a Freisian in a limited edition. Dawn will actually do some Life work and the horse and I will photograph the horse in detail both in digital stills and video so she can complete the piece back in the Dominican Republic.

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Dawn is known mostly in the Sporting Art field and is a very popular artist and amoung the best living artists doing sporting art in the world today. Branching out into other breeds and also into other animals and people is our goal in the next several years. We plan on entering many show competions that are Juried this year to get some notoriety in other fields. I look forward to this challange and so does Dawn.

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I love handicapping the competitions and am very good at it. I can always pick the horse that will finish 1st or 2nd. Last time I amazed Dawn when we were at the Washington International Horse Show and the Harrisburg International Horse Show. I handicapped about 95% of the winners in shows that ranged through many breeds.

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Dawn asked me how I did it and I told her. I normally don't share things such as recipes mainly because I don't even know what exactly I throw into the mix nor do I keep track but with the handicapping it was easier to explain. I look to see how the horse moves. Usually if they move well their structure is where it is supposed to be. If they were out of shape in one way or the other they wouldnt be ABLE to move well. I use to show German Shepherds and that is how we were able to tell if the Dog was a good dog and figured that horses would be judged in the same manner. It worked great!

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I will be posting pictures of the Horses and the shows we will attend in the next couple of weeks. I am not sure what my connectivity will be nor how much I will be posting but once it is up I think you will enjoy this two weeks of travel and writing.

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Wish me luck in getting out of the Dominican Republic but since I just heard a plane taking off it should be ok. American Airlines better NOT delay me any further or they will lose a customer for sure today.

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Hasta Pronto!