The Sea is a Salty One

Somedays I wonder why I bother getting up in the morning. Today was kind of a goat rodeo. I was trying to listen to/watch Michael Cohen's testimony on CSPAN online when Coopeguanacaste's electrical grid when down in my tiny corner of this world after hearing a loud 'PoP!' Was disappointed because I am of two minds about Cohen. I wanted to hear what he had to say. I heard his statement and got to hear Republican rage at the idea he was now testifying truthfully. I believe him from what little I heard this morning, and I believe him even more after hearing highlights from the proceedings. One thing is for sure - we live in very interesting times. I admit I'm interested now to see what will happen with Cohen. He's facing a three year jail sentence and had to eat some very large slices of humble pie. Will he come out and return to his formerly arrogant self, or will this be transformative? It's led to some interesting discussions online and between Jim and I...

When I was a kid, way back in the late 1960s, I remember hearing a strange rumor. The rumor shook my cousins and I to the core. I remember laying across my aunt's bed in her pink bedroom, in the soft darkness surrounded by cousins and aunts and hearing the shocking news that Paul McCartney was dead. The radio announcer droned on in that soft darkness, speaking of the "Paul is dead" theories that he blew his mind out in a car, just like that song, and had been replaced by an imposter. It's hard to believe right now, but back then it was cataclysmic. The Beatles were everything, they'd invaded every corner of the world by then. Everyone had a favorite Beatle. Some loved Ringo with his sad smile. Others preferred a dark George Harrison or a witty John Lennon. For me there was no finer man that the sleepy-eyed cutie Paul McCartney. I remember being upset for weeks, and even to this day I can remember the tension in that pink bedroom and our weeping. Turns out we...

I've feeling sad for the last week and wasn't even sure why. At first I thought it was the stress, trying to figure out what I was going to do with NLQ and talking to some website/position brokers followed by Jim ranting at Multi Modal, the company that has had our personal possessions for a whopping seven months now. Remember how in November we went down to San Jose and sorted our possessions so we could take the things we actually wanted? No doubt that all of these things mixed with the crazy tourist influx and the slipshod ways things are done in Costa Rica is affecting me. I'm dreading having that conversation with NLQs founder on selling NLQ. She's liable to freak out in the worst way. I just can't any longer. I need to do this for me. But I fully expect to be trashed all over the internet and lose friends from this deal. The shipping of our possessions has gone a little nuts since Jim took over. After much threatening and pestering they finally gave us th...

I am feeling burned out. Not about life in general. Life is pretty darn sweet. We get up, look at the cyber paper with coffee, run a few errands or do a tiny bit of housework, swim, get into the hot tub, walk the beach, repeat, repeat, repeat. Even with the interestingly strange ways that Ticos sometimes do things. Example. One of the few places that will send a fax and get it through is the local post office. It's quick, it's cheap. We've had no luck with the commercial places that do it. They talk a big game but the fax machine is broken half the time. We ran into an interesting wrinkle in faxing. The post office does not use cover letters. They had no idea what that was. So... anytime you fax here you must write up your own cover letter indicating who you are and where/what fax machine your document is coming from. It's a small thing, but there it is. We say the phrases 'You would think..' and 'Every day is always an adventure..' at least a do...

Just spent the most frustrating afternoon trying to explain to a well-meaning Christian that taking a mission trip to Nicaragua isn't what she wants to do right now. She keeps coming back with 'Jesus will protect me~' Which makes me feel all stabby and irritable. I don't like mission trips. I've done them. One of my children have done them. Back when we were still attending old crazy church. Now I think there is more value in putting that roughly 5 to 6K we had to cough up for each trip into the hands of a humanitarian group on the ground in that particular country. Why? Because mission tourism really sucks on so many levels. It's pure white entitlement in action. Show up, do something simple for a few hours, then spend the rest of your time doing touristy type of stuff. Even those trips like my daughter did with Global Expeditions where the kids were busy doing Christ-centered activities the entire time aren't good. People in other countries do not need...

One of the interesting things here is that a corvid showed up at our pool. Black, shiny, huge. Some sort of raven or crow. I'd just been reading about the hyper intelligence of corvids too. He started showing up to drink our pool water, and bath in the pool. He's gotten bolder. At first he would not approach if we were in the pool. Then it was okay if we were in the pool but there could have be glasses of drinks or flipflops near the steps. Now he bathes even if we are two foot away in the pool, or there is various flotsam of life around the steps. He's shown up and showed us things too. One day it was a shiny plastic bead he held in his beak, the next time it was a sizable cube of bread. We've started putting bread out for him, no matter what the local laws are on feeding wildlife. Now he brings friends, and the friends have brought friends. I've started naming them,like Hopalong for the one legged corvid. I'm glad I took the time to develop the relationshi...

Yesterday evening and today involved a lot of trying to navigate the dental system, dental insurance and two rather hard headed folks. One of my young adult children needs serious dental work, has insurance but the amount out of pocket is going to be ridiculously hard to afford. Jim decided they might be better off coming here for the dental treatments. Jim has a wonderful dentist, who tends to be less about 'We have to do this many root canals and crowns!' and more about holistic treatments. I've never used him, but only because I go to the dentist that does sedation dentistry. I don't do well at the dentist because the dentist molested me as a child. I take a specialist. Trying to get the dentist what he needs to give us a ball park price combined with navigating airline tickets, availability and other issues has been something of a hassle that makes me feel like I am stuck between the needs of the child and the needs of my husband. It's not easy because the...

Yesterday we spent a good almost three hours waiting in the bank just to talk for five minutes with the only customer service agent. Frustrating, but not unexpected. Mondays are hell at our bank. We're in the middle of selling the remaining stock market holdings we own and moving them down here to buy another CD. Tip: The banks in Costa Rica pay 8% on CDs. Try getting that in the States. Just make sure you buy your CDs at one of the two government owned and operated banks, Banco Nacional or Banco de Costa Rica. Scotia Bank might be safe too, because they are multi national, out of Canada and BAC while privately owned is huge so it might be safe. The rest of these banks in Costa Rica? Privately owned and not safe at all. I have heard expats who have lost all their money by putting it in one of the private banks that ends up going under. You really have to be careful who you bank with here. Plus, if you are planning on transferring in more than 10K at a time it really behooves yo...

Having had that stroke back in September has made me stop and reevaluate what I'm doing, what matters and what does not. A brush, no matter how slight it was and it was slight, with death tends to do that. Over the last five months I've come to the conclusion that I am ready for a change, a big change. I have made some big changes. I work out daily  unless I'm sick. Fifty lengths in the pool. I eat better. I keep to a sleep schedule. I try not to be mired down in things. Example -  this morning I got up with the idea that I was going scrub, clean and completely rearrange the laundry room since the plumbers and electricians had been here all week. We had all three of the electrical boxes rewired, had a hot water heater installed and pipes added carrying that hot water to everywhere you can imagine. Life is too short to live with no hot water. I don't miss it in the shower so much. It's hot enough where cold showers are refreshing, plus if you shower between the...

I've been mulling over dropping out of many aspects of my life, this blog, NLQ, some friends, and anyone's expectations at all. Just vanishing off the face of the cyber earth and some of my real life expectations. This afternoon was sort of the final straw in a very busy two weeks of repairmen, plumbers, electricians, gardeners, cook, baker and candlestick makers traipsing through on the various home improvements. Tomorrow I will have hot water, it was supposed to happen today but got rescheduled.  Why? I went to worship team rehearsal. I need to just resign and leave the pastor a note. Here's the note I'd love to leave but cannot. Dear Pastor Surfer Righteous Dude of Playa Fellowship several towns away, Please accept this missive as my notice that I shall no longer be part of worship team. I will no longer be available to teach vocal training or work with the singers. As you are aware I've stopped teaching voice since the stroke at the other three churches. Th...

Just heard that the new church, the supposedly good church, is forcing the pporest member, Maggie, to leave. Why? She made the mistake of repeatedly asking everyone for money after being evicted from her apartment. Told Jim I want to put her in the guesthouse rent free for a few months, but I cannot convince him that this is a good thing. A very black mark indeed. I don't care how badly she was begging for money this is just wrong, vanilla wrong. Only people with money need apply.