The Sea is a Salty One

  Our pool and hot tub area with the kitchen windows overlooking the pool area. I spent a couple of hours out there today until the rain chased me back in. Not reacting quite as much to the pool chemicals. Happy because I missing swimming in the hot sunshine. Last night was something a cluster-you-know-what. You know that stomach virus I have had for almost a month now? That comes and goes. Where I'm not hungry at all, yet if I fail to eat I start throwing up? Mostly it's just crazy dizziness making me stumble around like I'm the town wino and no appetite.  I gave it to Jim. Didn't find out until during that complete and horrid shitshow of a debate last night. Jim started complaining towards the end of the debate he didn't feel so well. Shortly after he started upchucking madly, which started my queasy stomach trying to exit my mouth every single time I coughed from my asthma. So the shitshow spread from the television to us. He staggered about miserably until aroun...

So funny how something can look one way, and then you sleep on it and realize it's idiotically stupid and you were really stupid for taking it seriously. Least said, soonest mended. Don't give mentally ill folks obsessional fodder. One of the funniest things happened this morning that reminded me so much of this song on 'The Simpsons'. I'm coming round the corner in town on my way to the fancy Gringo grocery store and over by the house of ill repute I spot a couple of young Tico boys, in that tricky 10 to 13 age group. They were shimming up the concrete wall to peek over the top at the large swimming pool area. I laughed as I drove on by.  Which led me to think about the various things I did as a kid. I wasn't much older than these boys, something like 15 years old the year I ended up taking my 3 year old step brother into Disneyworld for the day. We'd been on a family Disney vacation, and we had planned the next day that my father and step mother would ta...

 Oh man we had a funny night last night. Let me backtrack. Our neighbor who comes swimming here every few days did a quick trip back to the States and I had asked him to bring something back for me. Two ginormous bottles of generic benadryl from Costco Stateside. A thousand count for like five bucks. Here it is eight bucks for a blister pack box of 30. I tend to take maybe 6 to 8 or so on a regular day. More if I cannot breath or the mast cell is really acting up. We were all supposed to go out for dinner as a belated birthday celebration for Jim. I wasn't feeling it, still dealing with the crazy stomach virus but gamely decided to go. Got dressed up and ready and the neighbor man showed up. Found out his wife could not go and I told Jim I would stay back since I didn't feel great and the guys could have a guys night out. But before they left the friend turned to me and started babbling out some insano bullshit about being 'concerned' that perhaps I was 'getting hig...

  Stinky a few days ago. The only pleasant thing happening. Jim had a birthday but we're still staggering about not celebrating. Got him an enormous bottle of Crown Royal as a present. If you've been reading NLQ you know I had a rough few days after months of worry about getting our overseas ballots to vote in this election. They have made this much more difficult and harder than usual. Ran around for days getting questions resolved. The most stressful part is that instead of getting our ballot 3 to 2 months in advance we got it with less than six weeks to get it back, in a place that takes a minimum of 2 months when there is no pandemic to get something mailed to the States from here. Normally you are not allowed to use a courier service or express mail to return ballots. The election board did waive that requirement and I ended up getting some help and clarification on other issues. This is not our usual vote overseas situation by a long shot. Stressful. In the middle of this...

  A recent cloudy afternoon in Tama shot from the Rotunda. I know I haven't posted here and the posts at NLQ probably don't make much sense. It's been a rough week or so. Why? My virus is back and Jim has been put on a pile of pills to try and get some nerve generation back in his shoulder. The pills are making him sleepy. The virus is making me dizzy and exhausted. We're quite the pair right now. How bad is it? Two days ago at the Auto Mercado we both limped out of the store. I was moving so slowly Jim too over pushing the tiny cart before loaded it into our cart. I was so dinged out and dizzy I didn't even notice until we were pulling out of the parking lot that Jim had abandoned the cart against the back door of someone's SUV. We stopped, me with my theology based on if you put your cart where it goes or abandon it, Jim looked at me and said 'Floor it out of here!' I wasn't capable in that moment of moving the cart, trying to decide between throwi...

New neighbors, a pile of cattle on one teeny tiny lot. Been a rough couple of days. Book going well. I was electrified into restarting due to the lying lies of that video blogger trying to veer into that particular world she knows nothing about.  Flowing out now. What happened? In the last few weeks I have seen a ramping up of bullshit online. More people fighting, issuing crazy threats and behaving like they've lost their minds. Then the Notorious RBG died. With the passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg I've seen the crazy hate ramping up even more. Yesterday was a nightmare. I don't know how that video blogger does it, but I was busy online from awaking and going online at 7am and getting off around midnight. Why? I had to clean off something like seven zillion death threats and stupidity. And not all aimed at me, but at other commenters, at Lori Alexander, at a pile of folks right down to the Republican Supreme Court members. Crazy cakes. Took me hours to erase all this crap, b...

 The last few days I've been more intentional about time usage. I've been working on quilting and art projects along with working on the never ending book. I started a book last year and have taken it apart three times now. Why? Because when I wrote the series of articles the book is based upon I thought a certain way about the fate of the murder victim. Now I see it differently, I see that I missed the sex trafficking component that was likely at play in the murder. I have had to stop, and revamp. Which I am thinking about doing in my online interactions too. I'd gotten rather obsessional about a certain foolish someone that keeps digging herself deeper and deeper into her troubles. Over the last few days I've realized something about that situation. I'm giving her space in my head, and I don't much like it. She apparently caused dissention via some sort of silly Trojan Horse maneuver among a pile of new friends. I am watching them freak out, accusations flying...

  Today at the Rotunda area overlooking the beach and having milkshakes. Jim is still healing from his surgery and he's quite cross that he cannot get in the pool and swim. I swam once this week. Pool chemicals got to me again. Time to start tottering up the expenses to switch the pool over to salt water. He's just not used to inactivity, and is confused over my ability to curl up in the bed and read for hours on end during the worst of rainy season, which happens to be September and October. We are right in the middle of that depressing Atlantis stage here where it's a constant deluge of rain. I watched that same local road repairman stuff our crankcase busting deep potholes so deep you could bathe in them merrily stuffing them with dirt yesterday before it started raining again. Futility because to actually patch the road with asphalt would dispossess him of a job. Instead he just trundles around with a wheelbarrow filled with soil to tamp into the holes. We're dealin...

Pulling up to the gates leading to our home. It is my safe place that restores my soul, At least when Jim's not yelling at the television screen while watching football.  The past few days I've been pondering what types of trauma are most of us walking around with the scars of.  I think truthfully we all are. I've seen a couple of ladies that were moderators on other sites come forward with some horrific tales of being abused by the site owner. One so badly she lost her job, and the site owner turned her own young adult son against her. Hearing her tears, regret and distress live on a livestream video the last few days has been hard to take. Heartbreaking. I'm watching someone I love in the States taking plans and actions against their ex because he's behaving in an unsafe enough manner that it convinces me she's reacting to him out of her ptsd. One of the things I've done this week is rewatch a television show I saw with my youngest daughter a few years ago...

  Yesterday's beach view from breakfast at Johnny's.  I didn't get a photo of it but later when I was beach walking, walking off my breakfast and that morning's Pina Colada I got to see a Tico on horseback with a large old school boom box hoisted on his shoulder playing NWA's "Fuck the Police" A sight that sort of summed up the day. The last few days involve naps and running about. A Price Smart/Costco run with stops in Wal Mart and Moda Tex to get fabric to recover the chaise lounge cushions. We are both still suffering from various body boring bullshit like dizziness with the added complication of fevers, sore throats and coughing. Rona please stay away! I am annoyed because we had to go into two Coronavirus hot spots for Jim's surgery. But all of that madness was culminated in yesterday's goat rodeo two-step dance in boots on the wrong feet. Because of Jim's surgery I am the only driver now. Yesterday being Thursday was one of the two days w...

  Hospital food. Not too shabby here compared to some of the hospital food I've eaten in the States. Pollo de Plancha and vegetales. One of the things that particularly struck me during Jim's 'loose screws' removal surgery yet again is about love and loving actions. I've ranted about this before at No Longer Quivering, so I'm putting this here rather than endlessly repeat myself here. Last week was a shit show for me. The throwing up, the medicines, the endless trips to the clinic for more meds and IV treatment, the utter exhaustion, the laying on the floor crying (twice!) because I needed to eat to take the meds to not throw up but the smell of cooking was making me throw up. I was pretty much freaking out over the idea of having to drive to San Jose, five hours away, while feeling like dying was a vast improvement. Not good times for anyone! Why was I under stupid super stress mode? Because I wanted to be there for Jim when he had his surgery. I was willing to...

  A Nicaraguan farmer we saw three years ago near San Juan del Sur, back before the political violence in Nica forced out anyone with means and money. I often wonder if this man is still alive between the protests, the shootings, and now the unchecked Coronavirus killing many in Nicaragua where there is no available treatment or testing. We hear it's out of control there. It's not the only out of control in my life. Last year Jim and I were tooling around the Tama area in our four wheel drive bomber when we spotting a guy we knew slightly, Jerzey. How to describe Jerzey? He's in his sixties, like Jim, he is brilliantly smart with an analytical mind. He is also what I would technically term "Bat Shit Crazy" plus he seems like he's not acquainted with personal hygiene. Don't stand downwind, even if he is fascinating. We stopped and offered him a ride. Jerzey climbed in, and away we went, with Jerzey going right into some very long convoluted conspiracy theor...

 Well we are here, in the Hospital Metropolitano in San Jose, where Jim ended up 18 months ago for his fall and shoulder, and my mini stroke two years ago. I am here and just had to shower wiping off with paper towels. Yeah, I get it Covid has changed health care. Here pretty drastically. Fewer nurses, my pleas in Spanish and English for a towel never produced one. Earlier in the day when I requested breakfast three times I was ignored. No lunch. When the dietician came around for Jim in the late afternoon I had to insist I got fed too.  The security guard was awful to everyone I could see. Very weird compared to our previous experiences here where they provided meals and towels for whoever the spouse was staying without even asking. Now I see a handful of pleasant thoughtful actions and things that are skipped, likely for budgetary reasons.   Thankfully Uber Eats brought me a quick meal at lunch and I had some bananas, cheese and crackers in my bag for a makeshift breakf...

Today has been freaking miserable. I got up late and discovered that Jim's surgery was moved yet again. Up a week to this Saturday. This. Saturday! While I'm still gobsmacked by my stomach! After Jim got back from the pre op, which they did this time and billed the insurance company I was down to the clinic seeing my beloved Dr. O and Dr. A. I still was so dizzy standing was an issue, sick to my stomach, headache, fever and the whole nine yards. Ended up getting an IV with some meds. Apparently I'd gotten pretty dehydrated, and needed to be infused. I'd gotten so goofy and sick I didn't realize how bad I'd gotten in five days. Tests, blood work, CT scan to make sure it was not the place in my intestines that gets grumbly every few years. Turns out I have a virus, some stomach thing that my mast cell has decided is the WORST THING EVER, and sent out the immunio troops. Plus they spotted some new endo on the scan also likely bolloxing things up.  Didn't even b...

 Monday started off okay. Our monkeys showed up just outside our windows and walls, closest yet. I talked to the insurance company who told me they would pay 85 percent of Jim's hospital bill if we used the Liberia hospital. So we scampered off for Jim to do the pre op bloodwork, the EKG, the COVID test and the xray. Show up at the hospital, met at the door by the nurse with a handy dandy temperature gizmo. Pop a 101 temp. I had to trot back out to the car, and read a book while Jim did his pre op. Which I was nervous about, rightly it turns out. I handle all the insurance. By the time Jim came back out an hour later it was all bolloxed up, changed around. The insurance company refused to pay for the pre op, saying there was no indication that this surgery was necessary. Upshot now after two full days going back and forth with the hospitals, doctors and insurances. Jim is not having surgery tomorrow in Liberia, but in a week and a half in San Jose. That five hours away San Jose. Ou...