Burn It Down With Claws!

 

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 madness with my ongoing virus and Jim's recovery the owner of the Trash Panda (my new name for the car we're storing for someone) trotted in to say he is not returning here, and he wants us to take care of the yearly Marchamo for him. He wants us to pay half of the yearly rather high taxes on the car as 'rental' on a car we never wanted until he returns in a year or three. Keep in mind he still owes for the repairs we put in just to pass Riteve. We're something like three hundred dollars in a car we do not drive and do not want.

Jim, happy go lucky easy going Jim is "No problemas, good buddy!" and I am furious! Beyond furious, like push the car outside of the wall with the keys in it, or put it outside and set it on fire! We're doing someone a favor here and getting hosed as a result. There will be continuing conversations about this. I think I am going to put my foot down and tell him to find someone else to store the car. 

At the same time I am dealing with the duplicitous cell phone repair shop here that still has my Ipad. Almost three weeks from first going in there. They broke it while replacing the screen and instead of just admitting it I'm getting the "Oh it must be the battery!" "Oh, we cannot find the right battery!" One of the things I find the most maddening here is the Tico propensity for never telling you an unpleasant truth. So they just mouth pleasant lies. I knew after the screen replacement what was wrong, talked to Apple and they concurred. Told the shop and they claim it's the battery. It's the video card they ruined. 

I'm cranky because my sleep is messed up now, there have been the sirens going off here and one of the big charter sail boats went down the other night. We stood on the beach in the dark and tried to watch but it was too dark to see a thing. The crew of 18 got away fine, but the boat sunk.

We're supposed to be going out to dinner with pals soon, and half my book is with my editor. So the week hasn't been a complete wash out. Add in that I just started reading Doug Wilson's truly horrible book "Ride Sally Ride" about sex robots propositioning young Christian boys and his idiotic idea that pot is delivered in a hypodermic needle and it's good for a huge laugh. I need a laugh.

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