Unmasked


This morning we ended up going out early on. Jim needed to hit the bank to transfer funds. We're trying mightily to switch law firms here. You cannot do a damn thing here in Costa Rica without hiring a specialized lawyer for it. Need to register your brand new motorcycle? There's a lawyer for that. Want to buy a house, that's another lawyer. Need someone to keep an eye on the taxes, paperwork, investments for you, that's another lawyer? Have businesses, another lawyer. Have rental property you're definitely going to need a lawyer.

We're trying to move the house and the incorporation oversight to someone else because we're in the middle of opening a couple more small businesses to go under the incorporation umbrella We're still looking at property for building rental homes and a possible mountain top home for us A home at the sea, and one in the clouds. Our original lawyer has the tendency to file forms without letting us know, and then demanding the fee that is two to three times more than it should be. The Gringo Shuffle again.

I'd been telling Jim for days now that the government has ordered mandatory masking. He didn't have a mask for a long time, making do with a bandanna before just tossing it. There were no masks to be had anywhere. I have my own, have had them quite some time. My masks are fitted to my small head, not his ginormous potato head. He learned it the hard way today. Walked into the bank without one, and they sent him out. I'd gotten him some official washable masks a few weeks ago, and I had one with me in the car.

He was grumbly, but he finally officially wore a mask, not a bandanna. He's not too happy about it, but he's less happy with the large fine they could sock him with. This afternoon I made him a pile of simple cotton masks to rotate with this black knit one.

While we were out switching lawyers and paying the kings ransom the first demanded to release our records to the new lawyer we got a rather disturbing phone call. Remember our Canadian friends who left  his car with us? That same car that is a clattering, clinking, clanking pile of tin cans that we could not get past inspection two weeks ago? He called up to say that he had no intention in fixing it to pass inspection, and he wanted us to buy it from him.

Oh, ho ho ho hell no! I had a feeling, told Jim, that we were going to get stuck with this bucket of bolts, moldy towels and ant nests wrapped around metal. It's a rolling trash heap. We run it weekly for him, like we promised we'd do, but no buying. We're discussing what we will do with the thing if he never comes back. Don't tempt me, I'm ready to push it outside the gate and light a match just to kill the lurking bugs.

That Sahara dust storm is here. We notice when we were out how hazy and dark the skies were. It's here and we're having to use eye drops and run the filtration system on the house to keep the dust out. Add in another tradewinds storm this afternoon and I was curious to see if it would be pelting down mudballs.

So far the French drain is performing superbly.  Best two thousand we've spent so far, and we didn't need  a lawyer to get it done.

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