Eating That Crow
It's finally dawning on me, now at bedtime, that I have a few apologies to make in the morning. I think I really angered an old friend this morning by suddenly ditching while she was telling me about her problems.
It wasn't her, it was the fact that during the last month of dry season they switch off all water at 9 am and I was bumping up against the hour in about ten minutes. I desperately needed a shower. My hair a lank tangled mess that needed washing and oiling.
This is one of those facts of life here that you are outraged about at first, stomping around in gringo entitlement, not able to understand why they don't just drill up more water. But after a while you're so used to it that you get up super early on laundry day, water the garden, do the dishes, make sure you have water in the sink to wash your hands with for the day before they shut it off. You shrug and move on. You do the tico thing.
I likely need to apologize to both of my elderly aunts. I know I was short with both of them. First one because she kept haranguing me about making a mask while I kept trying to tell her I have a pile of the good washable masks with changeable filters.
The other aunt kept insisting I hang a cross on my door frame while we were on the phone because she'd had the same vision as a Catholic priest she follows, that this Coronavirus is a sign from God, and all houses with crosses at the door frame like Passover and the blood on the door frame would be spared the virus.
I don't believe this in any way, shape or form. Seems ritualistic legalism from here, But I did it because my aunt was not about to let me off the phone until I did it. I was less than enthusiastic as she as ordering this.
There are other weird things happening, and I think we're all a little squirrelly right now. It's a pandemic that feels like an ongoing earthquake shaking and shivering us over and over again. I'm squirrelly surly from the asthma drugs. I see others struggling and squirrelly and perhaps am not the most understanding about it.
Gonna apologize in the morning, turn off all social media, phones, and tvs for the day. Do something else with my squirrelly.
It wasn't her, it was the fact that during the last month of dry season they switch off all water at 9 am and I was bumping up against the hour in about ten minutes. I desperately needed a shower. My hair a lank tangled mess that needed washing and oiling.
This is one of those facts of life here that you are outraged about at first, stomping around in gringo entitlement, not able to understand why they don't just drill up more water. But after a while you're so used to it that you get up super early on laundry day, water the garden, do the dishes, make sure you have water in the sink to wash your hands with for the day before they shut it off. You shrug and move on. You do the tico thing.
I likely need to apologize to both of my elderly aunts. I know I was short with both of them. First one because she kept haranguing me about making a mask while I kept trying to tell her I have a pile of the good washable masks with changeable filters.
The other aunt kept insisting I hang a cross on my door frame while we were on the phone because she'd had the same vision as a Catholic priest she follows, that this Coronavirus is a sign from God, and all houses with crosses at the door frame like Passover and the blood on the door frame would be spared the virus.
I don't believe this in any way, shape or form. Seems ritualistic legalism from here, But I did it because my aunt was not about to let me off the phone until I did it. I was less than enthusiastic as she as ordering this.
There are other weird things happening, and I think we're all a little squirrelly right now. It's a pandemic that feels like an ongoing earthquake shaking and shivering us over and over again. I'm squirrelly surly from the asthma drugs. I see others struggling and squirrelly and perhaps am not the most understanding about it.
Gonna apologize in the morning, turn off all social media, phones, and tvs for the day. Do something else with my squirrelly.
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