The Sea is a Salty One

  Sunset from Lucy's in Brasilito. Lucy's closed during the COVID crisis never to reopen. Different restaurant there now. I lost yesterday. One minute I was up making breakfast and trying to take my morning meds. The next minute I was down and in the bed. Felled by a quickly fleeing stomach virus. In the bed the entire day, able to crawl out around bedtime yesterday for toast and tea. Today started better, at least stomach wise. Jim was just getting under my skin, asking me again and again to go to church even as Costa Rica had 1,200 new COVID cases the day before. I said I was not returning until the rates dropped and I meant it. Still sorting through phone calls and messages much of the day. Around dark Jim asked me to come out and help him by holding the stems straight on the birds of paradise he was replanting. It didn't go well. Pouring down rain, thunder and lightening, mud everywhere including my hair and enough bug bites to use an entire tube of Benadryl cream.  Stu...

From our trip to Manuel Antonio a few years ago. How I wish we were there now, and not having to deal with the insurance. The tale below is why I like the idea of Medicare for all and socialized medicine. I had nothing but very positive experiences with socialized medicine in Germany. We got up this morning and discovered that our insurance will not cover Jim's upcoming surgery if he has it at the hospital in Liberia, even if it's just another branch of the same hospital in San Jose. There was a lot of back and forth between us, the doctors, the hospitals involved and the insurance company. It's still not resolved. But now I have an official billing statement from the hospital in Liberia with the full price for the surgery on it. The decision now is if we should just pay 100% out of pocket for the surgery in Liberia and then submit all the bills to the insurance company, or go to the pre-approved hospital in San Jose and have it entirely paid in full. Depends on how much th...

 I stumbled across this and copious pages of claims and replies earlier today. So now she thinks Jim Bob Duggar is obsessed with her? Knitta please! He may know who she is. Old Jim Bob does seem to keep track of the family detractors. I know that from meeting him during the book tour for the book that the four eldest daughters wrote. I introduced myself, told him who I was, and he said he knew already. C'est la vie! But there were no insults, or naughty words hurled. We were both unfailingly polite, as one should be with those one disagrees with. But to make the claim that she has somehow shamed Jim Bob into doing anything is pure delusional. This is a man that loves him a cease and desist order almost as much as she does. I am guessing any editing out of Jill and Derick's sons has more to do with the fact that there are no signed release forms on file any longer with TLC. Oh girl, knock it off! You're starting to look a teensy bit unbalanced here. Somebody is going to have...

  This is my view from my desk today on this very rainy day. This is what I am looking at when I do live video. We saw that water had overrun and flooded the parking lot of our local grocery store today, and a street over from us where friends live is under water. We are dry. Thank the heavens! Today started badly. Our insurance company. Our supposedly 'gold standard' insurance for government employees. I am doing that horrible delicate dance of informing them that Jim is having surgery next week, getting the ball rolling on pre authorization. I did discover that they are about 6 months behind instead of the usual 3 or 4 months behind on processing claims, which is why I haven't heard anything from them on all our earlier claims. But the truly upsetting thing happened after that. Our insurer pays if you keep up with tests and exams. They issue offers every now and then for things like a $30 to a 120 amount on a special co-pay Visa card. I do those things, I get my A2C level...

  Scored something crazy at the store, something missing for some months here. Clorox Wipes, that essential for daily MRSA prevention and COVID 19 avoidance. Many years ago Jim and I owned a country store near the main hiking trails in the Shenandoah National Park. It was a good, but hard three years. One night we had troubles with a regular at the store. This guy had so many DUIs that he'd not been able to hold a license in some years. He went everywhere on a bicycle. He was as nice as could be, but he wasn't all together there, I was never sure if it was because he'd marinated all of his brain cells in too much cheap Wild Irish Rose wine, or if it was because his family seemed to exemplify the whole inbred hillbilly genre of cousins marrying cousins and living off making moonshine and SSI payments for intellectual disabilities. I wish I was making this up, but it's the sad truth. You could see him riding the mountain backroads on his bike, spray painted a glistening s...

The roots of an enormous tree near the turn for the nearest grocery store.  Yesterday was primarily given up to shopping for folks here still under quarantine for exposure to Covid. Thankfully I think the quarantine lifts late this week. Shopping here is quite a task. I was explaining it earlier to a Stateside friend. In the States it wasn't unusual to have to hit Aldis, Trader Joes and then Wegmans to fill your list at a good price. Here it can be more complex, here, like there, you can break down and buy everything, well, mostly everything, at one place. But like the States some items are only at certain stores and if you want the best price you have to divide up the list. Meats - This is one I will not cheap. There are much cheaper meat places, but only the heavenlies know for sure what's in their meats. I use only the USDA inspected places here, getting all my meat at either Auto Mercado (expensive place with foods from around the world), or over at the wholesale meat mark...

 Kind of down in the dumps today. A reason for sharing a photo from sunset in January here. Today Jim went back to the doctor and hospital to have his shoulder looked at yet again. Eighteen months ago he fell off a two foot stepladder and broke bones in his shoulder. It was a medical flight to San Jose, surgery and four days in the Hospital Metropolitano. He's still not right. We just found out that the setting screws placed in to hold the bones together have worked loose and he's on the verge of a rebreak. Looks likely he's headed back to surgery. Either to remove the screws, or replace them in some fashion. I am so not looking forward to this. The only good news is that it looks like it can take place at the Hospital Metropolitano branch in Liberia, which is an hour drive, not a five hour drive away. Details as I find them out. Jim is one of the most miserable chafing at the bit sick people you could ever imagine. Wanting to be up and about, swimming, motorcycle riding, c...

 "Rained real hard and it rained for a real long time..6 feet of water on the streets of Evangeline.." - Louisiana 1927 by Randy Newman The entry way into our house where you can fold back the glass walls and open the living room up to the outside. Late last September when we got a tropical doldrums storm. This happened again today, not to the depth you see here, but still a good inch throughout most of the house. We had a tropical depression come through and dump copious amounts of rain in the morning. I kept nervously watching the French drain put in back in the winter, and it functioned well for the first few hours before being overrun by the storm. We got water in the house. Called up the guy that installed the French drain and had him and his crew out immediately. Nothing sat more than a half hour in the water, thank God! Not a single drop in the bedroom. I have to give Augusto and his crew credit, instead of days of me manning a mop and a squeegy they had it out lickity...

I didn't do much today. I made fresh pesto from the basil I accidentally picked up on my grocery buying errands for the quarantined folks I know here on COVID quarantined. There's no Instacart or Shipt in Costa Rica. During my rush through Come Frutas I grabbed two bulging plastic bags from the shelf labeled "Espinacha", seeing dark green leaves. When I got them to the recipients house it was obvious I had grabbed two bags of sweet basil No biggy. Ran out and got the spinach and hauled the basil home to make pesto. While I was making pesto CNN started reporting on who all the RNC has tapped to give speeches at the Republican National Convention. Contrasting their slate with who all has spoken at the ongoing Democratic convention was laughable. That demon sperm doctor! Kid Rock, Ted Nugent, the My Pillow guy, those two gun nuts in St Louis, and... drum roll please.... that Maga hatted kid that got into some sort of kerfluffle at the Lincoln Memorial back in January 201...

  Stinky looking most annoyed because I keep calling his name right after berating him for tearing into the cat food bag of the cheap stuff we feed the strays. You'd never know he gets the good grain free stuff based on his love of bread and Lil Frisky's.  Been another series of very odd days here. Sunday I did end up going out with Jim to grocery shop. We had several sets of friends with COVID exposure on quarantine we had to shop for along with our own things. Sunday was bad, not a bad asthma day, but I swear I had literally every symptom of COVID save one, never lost taste or smell. I stumbled and shambled around masked and exhausted playing everyone's favorite game "COVID or Cold?" We dropped off everyone's grub using really silly 'Secret Squirrel' type arrangements, i.e. "Put the bags halfway up the stairs and then knock" or "Place the bags in the back of the car and then lock the car door and we'll fetch them after you leav...

 ....to bed.. to some pain meds.... to fever reducers, etc. A recent visitors. These guys are much rarer that the green or gray variety. He's huge. Yesterday I should have known something was happening in the old body. I usually don't get negative and start questioning what I'm doing until right before I get sick. It, and extreme sadness or anger, are usually pretty good barometers that something is coming. The something happened. Got up today with a fever, body aches in every place I've ever injured. The usual lung asthma is coming tightness, low oxygen stats, lung pain and low blood pressure. It feels like I'm getting the flu with none of the nasty running nose and coughing. One very bad bit, blinding back pain every time I stand up on both sides. Not really back pain, more like flank pain, lower back between the small of the waist and the butt. I almost never get this type pain, but when it happens it's awful, takes heat, Tramadol and rest to go away. I'd...

Stinky asleep in the guesthouse last year after I was rained out of the house in October.  Last night we had to ride out to our friends house, Derwood and Krissi's. Derwood went back to the U.S. for his mother's funeral, and Krissi had driven into San Jose to pick up her youngest child. Somewhere on road Krissi's car died, and she was worried about her brood of animals. She called us to drive up to their home, five minutes from ours to feed them. We did, in the total darkness of the Costa Rican night. I had to laugh because when we pulled up because their huge dog Molly ran up, and licked my face. Did I mention I've never met Molly or their eight cats? But I did a ton of petting of friendly critters. Like I said a few days ago animals realize I am a complete pushover and either beg to be petted or fed. Last night as I was petting cats Jim looked at me and said "You cannot pet all the kitties!" He has a point. I spent all last night and some of today thinking a...

    Our view at breakfast. This morning we decided enough with errands, car repairs, and real life so we ran away into town for breakfast on the beach. Perfect day, sunshine instead of clouds. The beach was open to swimmers, surfers and walkers. Surf too gentle for surfing, but we got to see a pile of local guys fishing this morning. Once we sat down and ordered breakfast we were joined an unexpected guest. This guy. An iguana so used to people he was begging for food. I cannot stand begging puppy dog eyes in any animal much less an iguana, so what could I do but share my breakfast with him.  I've had stray animals beg me for food here. This isn't unusual. I always say there must be "SUCKER!" tattooed on my forehead in a language only animals can read, because wether it's a whining coatimundi asking for a granola bar, to an iguana asking with his eyes 'Hey buddy you gonna eat that slice of toast or what?' I get hit up. This entire restaurant was full, well...

 Recently I saw a clinic here offering botox, fillers and lip injections in a wooden shack about like this one. Not that I'm in the market for that stuff. It is big business here, and before COVID 19 shut down the borders cheap plastic surgery and cosmetic alterations trips from the U.S. to here were popular. They advertise the plastic surgeons along with the discount dentistry in all the travel magazines. But there are the cheap and nasty local places that do it for pennies on the dollar if you don't mind the dirt and the squalor. It's only your health! I'm not entirely opposed to plastic surgery. I have a good guy in Northern Va, that is the only one I let touch the skin tags on my face. He's done scar revision on my breast tumor scars too. He's good with a very light touch on the scalpel. If my eye lids get any saggier he'll be lifting them for me so I can see. The other junk, the fillers, the botox, are a big no no to me. I'm allergic to so many th...

 This morning we had to get up bright and early to take our car to the muffler shop. Here it wasn't Midas or Pep Boys, here the shop was literally translated to "The Witch Muffler Shop" Catchy name. Middle of nowhere, up a mountain near El Llano. Had to cross the craziest bridge I've seen yet here. No sides, no hand rails, literally a slab of concreto on concrete piers. I saw that and seriously thought about turning on the four wheel drive and fording the teeny river instead. Good luck crossing this late night after a beer too many! This morning was all errands, dropping of our car for muffler repair, hitting the hardware store, followed by the computer parts place, and stopping for refreshments on the way home. Tomorrow looks like more of the same. On the way home my mother finally called. I've been calling her for over a month unable to get through.The conversation was not much better than last time, but at least this time I managed to sit down and record her ta...

 I've been busy today. Over three weeks ago we had a crew of guys come in to redo the roof and then they moved on to the ceiling in the master bedroom.  This was the master bedroom suite two weeks ago. It was quite the job! The house has had several alterations since building, adding on the large master suite after the first two years it was built, bumping out the living room, kitchen and adding a maids room. The living room, master bedroom and kitchen have cathedral raised ceilings, the rest of the bedrooms jewel box ceilings with recessed lighting.  All these alterations had made for a roof with strange angles and steep pitches in places, leading to a leak here in the master bedroom at the very beginning of rainy season.  I dread these repairs for a couple of reason. One is strange people in and out of the house, dust, dirt, noise. Not to mention the fumes of drying paint and caulking and such making my asthma go insane. But a week and a few days after they rolled ...

I literally have zero scanned in photos of the years I lived in Germany. This is downtown Fulda where we lived during the winter. Last night I spent a good hour or so on the phone with a dear friend I met during Jim's years of service in Germany. We had a good natter and laugh talking about our time there. But a name from the past came up I hadn't thought about in years. Linda. Not mentioning her last name because I have no clue what it might be now and it's not an uncommon name. I am sure it's not the same because I doubt she's still married to the same guy. My friend told me about all the troubles Linda managed to stir up during her remaining time in Fulda. Who was Linda? Something of not so nice person for both of us. Back in the late 1980s I worked at the USO in an outreach capacity. My title sounded fancier than the part time position was. Basically I was there with my basic level of social work making sure that wives settled into  life in Fulda. Sometimes I wa...

I noticed a little while ago that a lovely man who's videos I sometimes watch named Jay did the classy thing and apologized to Katie Joy of Without a Crystal Ball. Good for him. He should, not that he did anything wrong, but she took what he said wrong. I'm still waiting for my apology from Katie Joy. 82 days later and I have yet to hear any apologies, or even one word from her at all. Why can she not ever apologize to anyone? I think from now on I'm going to note how many days at the bottom of each post and maybe even as NLQ or on YouTube it's been since that apology should have happened.

Have you seen this yesterday and today? A devastating tragedy that has happened in Beirut, Lebanon. Yesterday a warehouse filled with sodium nitrate exploded, killing many, and leaving the city in tatters, with more people homeless than with an undamaged home. I am heartbroken over this. A region flourishing after years of fruitless wars. Some of the kindest people I've met through the years are Lebanese.  But heartbroken over the massive suffering of a city filled with people. Keep hearing stories of the heroes emerging from this, like the nurse that rescued three tiny babies at the hospital, keeping them safe. Or the many people coming out to hunt for others alive in the wreckage. It gives me hope for the future, that not everyone in this world is a selfish mask-unwearing bastard. That people at heart are decent, kind, giving and forgiving. In the midst of death there is always hopeful life. I've been shuffling around from highly air conditioned room to room yesterday and tod...

When do you run out of patience with people? Sadly too soon. It's all too easy. Last night there was a large beetle, big, black and shiny, that I saw futilely flipped upside down. Legs waving in the air, finding no purchase. I turned him right side up about a dozen times, just to see him flip over again within seconds. I'm not sure if there was something wrong with him, or if it was sheer cussedness mixed with confusion. He was dead by morning. I get up and watch a friend struggling with serious issues complaining that someone at the food bank gave her food she does not like, and I have to think she's like that silly bug. I keep seeing her shooting herself in the foot, refusing to get off her back, making no attempt to help herself and demanding to be taken care of, yet eager to deride any type of help anyone tries to make. She does not understand that there are hard people out there, some connected with another church, that don't want to help anyone now because they ...