Suzanne is Salty...The ravings of "That Crazy Feminist Writer"

  Been out driving again! No, not really. This is a photo I took like 18 years ago driving through Amish country in Pennsylvania. I thought it was striking with the different colored bumpers and car pieces. We're in Arenal at the volcano at our usual place. Yeah, this joint. Today we got into our car, our old Honda CR-V that's been having some issues for sometime. We'd already ordered parts for the transmission solenoid so that it could be worked on this summer after our daughter's wedding. But it's not to be, coming down off the mountain the transmission started acting most strangely. It would not go into gear, at all. You could turn it off and then turn the car back on and put it in gear. You'd have first and second gears for five minutes or so, then the gears would drop out again. We immediately went to a highly recommended repair shop here. They drove it and said that the gears were all burned up, the transmission is all flubbed up. Total transmission replac

  Lake Arenal in February from that point where you turn off the main road from Tileran and first see the lake. There's a set up of vendors, people who hand make any sort of craft you could imagine and food trucks. Beautiful sight! I need to go back soon for another mental health break. Yesterday I had something of a crazy day. First I had to go into the bank to sign the paperwork setting up a separate account just in my name for the soon to arrive Social Security payments. I ran into a bit of problem. Why? My stroke of a year ago. One of the things I've been left with is less accuracy with my hands. I've done some occupational therapy and kept using them, but there are differences now. Differences in my signature significant enough that I had to rewrite the bank signature card 7 times to get one close enough to my passport signature to pass the bank examiners. Which leads me to the question - what do you do if you are so physically incapacitated that your signature is now

  I like to think I am like this heliconia in my yard, beaten up by the drought of the dry season, but springing back as soon as they get a little water. They're ever returning to the places in the front yard that got dug up to make room for my sidewalks. While the rainy season is in full swing here, and the birds of paradise, and two different types of heliconia are bounding back I'm not doing so hot. Stomach issues have me kind of knocked down. I'm struggling not to go off the deep end at folks over on Twitter due to the paranoid nonsense being spouted there. Alliances formed, crap thrown at folks for the most random of reasons. I cannot be assed about any of it because of how literally crappy I feel. Book going well in fits and starts. It's part of why I'm not on this much. I'm writing out my entire story of leaving my old toxic church and sometimes dredging up long dead memories has been a bit uncomfortable.  Hit another uncomfortable one yesterday when anot

  Recent Tamarindo sunset. Long time no see. We've been without internet and since it came back I've been stepping and fetching because I have a man with a cold. And you know how men are when they get colds. They are DYING! To be fair it's a bad cold for well over a week with lots of coughing. Me and my shot immune system had it for a day and a half, but I killed it hard with asthma drugs. Usual stuff going on, going back and forth to the beach, hanging out with other permanent residents here on the beach, cold be damned. Jim's very busy because he's interviewing potential students for the school he teaches for and for the scholarship program he's running now. I've been busy doing a deep clean here because I'm finally well enough to do so after months of this kidney infection. I even weeded and planted our vegetable garden this morning. Tomorrow I have sewing projects to knock out. That mending pile is higher than the tallest building in Tamarindo. But t

  Good grief! Look how short my hair is! Six years ago on one of our scouting trips to Costa Rica. Feeling much better. No recurring fever. No bitching about my lungs. Denada! I am incredibly happy because as of Sunday that will mark the first time since early February I've not be felled by anything serious for nearly two weeks. Now if those darn butt bruises would just fade more. Had a really weird conversation with the bride to be today and learned something I did not want to know about two members of the family. Me: Hey I need to buy new underwear when I arrive.  Bride: Just promise me you'll be actually wearing underwear under your dress at the wedding. Me: Of course! No commando except when in the nightgown preparing to sleep. I always try to wear underwear. Bride: Well two of the bridal party do not wear underwear and that is just nasty! Eww! I got out of her who it was and I am surprised to say the least. I'm likely to be side eyeing them.

   Pondering the surf and life. Today was all kinds of stressful in the weirdest ways. The brokerage company we've had large investments with locked me out of their website when I attempted to do what I always do. Log in through our tax software and do an electronic download of tax documents.  Nothing worked like it was supposed to and I attempted to log into the company website so I could just download the tax info and then uploaded into our return. Locked out. Told Jim to give them a call since neither of our passwords were working and I could not remember how much we had there. We'd transferred the bulk of the investments elsewhere but I knew there was something there. I don't do the monthly looking at our accounts. Jim does. His obsession, his fixation, hence the other day and his calling around to another place that hosts our investments.  Just like I figured there was little there. Jim found out there was a small amount available in my personal Roth IRA fund. The comp