The Sea is a Salty One

Get up this morning after very little sleep to that most annoying no sleep problem. Crazy blood pressure numbers. Crying, laying down and copious pills brought it down, but pretty much shot the day. I felt too much like shit to do a thing, I didn't even show up for my fund raiser shift. I sent my regrets. Pretty sure I will not be missed because the night before they had so many volunteers they were tripping over each other. The only thing real I did all day besides crash after getting the blood pressure numbers to come down after about 30 minutes was take Stinky to the vet. At least I tried. Our regular vet, a lovely lady from Spain directly across the street from our old rental house, said she was going out of business. She's closing up her office, selling everything and no longer offering what Stinky needed, his shots and yearly exam. It's bad enough when we take Stinky there, and he knows and loves that vet. It's still a ballet of flailing cat limbs trying to av...

The last week has been emptying those boxes, sorting putting away, and dealing with the unfun part of moving. I knew that the customs, aduana, was thieving here in Costa Rica. My first shipment of household goods of 40 boxes left us missing a set of large metal mixing bowls, a dozen linen kitchen towels back in November 2017. This time it was everything of value. It's been hard to take. We've been busy documenting the empty boxes and thievery. You can only cry over something just so long because it gets overwhelming and stupid. I have reached the crying no more stage. Jim finally finished painting the outside of the house. I took an afternoon to paint two murals on the walls past the windows outside of our guest bedrooms. I haven't painted in ages and it's been literal years since I did a mural on concrete. But I'm pleased by how both turned out. Today was baking for a fundraiser. One of the local private schools is trying to raise funding for a bridge...

Today started awful. I was almost throwing up my coffee it was so bad. The shipping company delivered the last of our household goods. The company delivered the wrong damn boxes. Remember back in November when we went, sorted out our boxes to figure out which ones to keep Recap: Nearly a year ago I went back to the states, sorted out all of things in storage, splitting into piles for going to the dump, dropping stuff off at Goodwill, that friends and relatives would soon pick, and lastly boxes to ship to us in Costa Rica. I paid the realtor selling the house pretty handsomely to get a crew to load those boxes into a container. The realtor waited for no one, have everything, trash, kids things, an abundance of things Goodwill was to get, and the things we wanted. Once the shipping container reached Costa Rica and the contents list did not match we had issues, but were told 'we get everything by paying a big fine. A 3 month strike in customs on unimportant person possessions and ...

We're still engaged in the paintathon here, which is why I haven't been posted. I've been painting the master bedroom. While I was able to knock out the other bedrooms in one afternoon each the master was a bit more problematic. More like two seven hour stretches and now I'm cleaning up the painting mess in there. Our bedroom  is huge, with one full wall being taken up with a twenty foot picture window. There's a dressing room, a portion with a tv and rocking chairs. It took time. I haven't been sleeping well because I've been sleeping in one of the smaller bedrooms because of the smell, which is thankfully fading due to the fact that I've cracked open those enormous windows. I cried at church Sunday and have been mostly out of sorts because of the paint fume inhaling and my asthma. Today my blood pressure is way way up from the lack of sleeping. Guess what I am saying is that it hasn't taken  much to ruin my cha-cha, and it's definitely be...

Today Jim and I were invited out to one of Jim's friends houses to look at their homemade furniture, custom made by some Tico artist. We're in the middle of the great remodel and Jim has been raving about the furnishings at his friend's house. I was very much less than enthusiastic about going. This is the same 'friend' we first met back in August that acted like a total and complete jerk the first time I met him and gave me the lecture on our weight. Ain't nobody got time for that. Plus Jim tells me every time he stops by this dude's house the guy is in the stupid clutches of Fox News. I definitely  have no time for that! But we went this morning, around ten am, with me grumbling slightly, and the day being what has to be the hottest one all year. Since Jim did not remember the street number we had to park at the Playa Grande beach parking lot and hoof it across the burning sand the twenty minutes to the back of Mr. Trump supporters house. I was wilt...

Today started out as usual with a pre breakfast swim with coffee, followed by the usual laundry and housework. Jim continued on with his task painting and I scrubbed, rearranged and put out new bedding in the two guestrooms. We were stymied doing anything more than that because of the fact that we lost power around 9 am. There are only so many tasks you can accomplish with no power and low water pressure. No additional laundry done,  no floors mopped, de nada. I went shopping for curtains for the bedroom that still has pink curtains, and for additional sheets for the guestrooms. The sheets left by the original owners were pretty much old and worn out. I have pretty quilts I've made in all of the rooms, but felt like I needed to redo the rooms for the upcoming rental. I'm also working on finishing up the guest house in lux furnishings since we're going to be living in it for Santa Semana and I have relatives arriving soon. Last year, nice as a regular hotel room, this ye...

Well, I'm back, but I don't have time to explain all what happened right now. On my way out of the door to get groceries and attend *please someone stop me!* a Pi Day celebration involving pizza, mathematics and physics. I am all peopled out and the day is not over. One hint as to how the hotel tour went.  She has a live in maid and gardener, yet is begging for dough. So many thoughts now, but it basically boils down to he bought her the hotel to keep her happy and she's completely gutted the thing. There's no way in hell she'll ever make a go of it.

Today started with a bang. Jim and I trading painting services with each other. I cannot reach the very tippy top of the bedrooms to paint, not if I stand on the step ladder, de nada. I am short and this house has high cathedral ceilings in most of the rooms. I told Jim I'd paint the columns outside, the carved bases and all if he would trim out the ceilings in the bedroom. So that's what I did. I just didn't count on Jim freaking out by my not taping or other preparations he does. I did get the painting done, but there were a few words between us, at least until he calmed down after I showed him that the few little paint speckles come right up off the tile with some water and a quick scrub. Different skill sets entirely between the two of us. Part of me thinks that Jim enjoys worrying and fretting sometimes. He kept freaking out thinking I was about to slop paint everywhere. It was during our painting that we both got phone calls. For what? For money. Both of us were a...

A little less angry today over the begging for money. We're not loaning or giving them a cent. I'm sorry they are dealing with their mess, but it is their mess. This is what happens when fools rush in without research or just observational time in an area. They did something I have seen repeated in Costa Rica many times. Got in over their heads. Costa Rica is less expensive than the U.S. and yes, you can live on less here. But.. fantasies that you can come here and live like a zillionaire on less than a millionaire's money aren't realistic. There are those here, some of them realtors, that push the Costa Rican Dream instead of the American Dream. Come here, get a fancy condo or house and live large. You deserve it. If you believe that lie you'll get taken. Just look through the turnkey business sections of the local real estate market and I can tell you a tale of someone who came here, decided they needed more money and either bought or opened a business. If y...

If the last few days have been a demonstration of anything they show why you shouldn't park your common sense and your ways of doing things to blindly do what your husband says. Like Lori Alexander and many of the female cultural enforcers say. We are painting right now. Both of us. Jim is doing the outside of the house and I am painting the badly scuffed up and odd colored bedrooms. We picked an outside color we could both agree on, a task in and of itself and then we picked a three shades lighter version for the bedrooms. Here's were the fun starts. Jim questioned me copiously as I prepared to paint bedroom one yesterday. Did I have a drop cloth down? Did I tape everything? Did I have enough rollers to keep switching out? And a million other questions. I said no and soldiered on. I've been painting for years now. I used to do all the painting in the house for many years. I used to help my dad when I was a kid. I know what I am doing now. Jim started painting last ...

"You would think'' is a phrase we end up saying a great deal in Costa Rica. In particular after you've run into some quaint Tico way and see how inept and not efficient it is. Example: Buying paint brushes at the hardware store. First you have to find the guy manning the paint brushes counter. You tell the guy behind the counter what brushes you need. He pulls them out from the stockrom, you pick them, he writes you up a ticket before he hands the brushes off to another guy to hold, you go pay the cashier and then go to another guy who is holding all the merch people are buying. four people and a lot of steps and running about for something that should be as simple as pick the brush off the rack, pay the cashier who bags your purchase and leave. That sort of describes today, except you get to add in a Canadian and an American burnout and mix it with Tico directions and the fact that there are no displayed street names and zero numbers on houses and businesses. Bryc...

Some folks just never learn. After posting a long rant on Facebook on Saturday after being added repeatedly to groups involved in brainstorming about fundraisers this same money-grubbing person added me to a few others like that this afternoon. This is after we had a messenger conversation where I said I would not donate and to please stop adding me. She's gotten the last time from me after a relationship that has seen me give in the thousands to her. It's bad enough I know what this person has done financially. None of it is good. Money collected for doing her job. Money collected for various planned charities. Money collected for personal debt. Money collected to change situations. By my estimation she may have collected as much as 50K over the years off of people. Rarely has any of it been used for the stated purposes. And folks think that Razing Ruth was the worst of the scammers. Ruth does not even start to hold a candle to this woman.

Monday afternoon we did something I was dreading. We picked the paint color for the outside of the house. Jim and I agree on almost nothing paint color wise. When I painted the entire interior of  the guesthouse a very light turquoise Jim complained the entire time. Later he was forced to admit it was lovely and made the entire interior look bright and clean. If it was up to me I would paint the entire exterior a white or a light blue or turquoise, but Jim wanted to stay with the same light dull yellow. We ended up compromising with a brighter yellow, no dulled down light shade.It's a buttery color. Yellows are so hard to pick. Chose the wrong one and you're living with an expensive investment that pokes your eyes out. The secret, I learned years ago from the Christopher Lowell show, is picking a shade with more of a red undertone than green. Red undertones seem more inviting and relaxing. You can happily live with it longer. I love Jim, but I do not love how long it some...

One anecdote I neglected to pass on that had Jim and I puzzling and laughing. Stompy, Jim and I were talking about her upcoming European trip when she mentioned she was going to be in Amsterdam a few days. I squeal and tell her had I know I would be loading her with money and a shopping list for the Van Gogh museum. I really, really, REALLY want that entire set of sweet Samsonite with his almond blossom painting on it. She turns to us and tells sue she's going to the Sex Museum instead. Oh holy crap!

One of the great pleasures of living in Costa Rica is the mix of people, the types of Americans you might not normally find in your sphere of influence. While I would never be bold enough to name my kid after a Norse god, or work as a physical therapist it's been a joy getting to know Maggie. I have another lady I know well from New Jersey who has started coming down to Costa Rica more frequently than before. She's around my own age, late 50s, and she cares for her thirty something son with cognitive difficulties. It's taken a toll on her, she's developed some serious health issues and depression, at least until her husband started getting her to come rest and recharge in Costa Rica. Her times here are getting longer and longer with lesser periods with the son. Her son is transitioning to a group situation with simple tasks he can do, and living with other young adults with challenges. One day soon she, and her husband will retire here and spend less time in New Jerse...