The Sea is a Salty One

  The wall at Playa Grande in the parking lot that used to read "Let There Be Peace on the Land and in the Water" I was sad that they recently painted over this sweet sentiment. Sadly this wasn't the day for peace. My messenger on Facebook blew up today, and it wasn't all people wanting to steer me towards that religious group, or this bad behavior by a high demand organization. What happened on my messenger was people I barely know, or rarely talk to spamming me conspiracy theory videos about the Covid vaccine, and the pandemic. How it's merely a government plot to inject us all with mind control computer chips and stranger things. I've been pretty open about it on Patheos, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. I am pro scientific thought and evidence. Pro lengthy group studies and very anti fear mongering junk science. Masking works. Washing your hands and keeping a nearby box of Kleenex is always a great plan. Vaccines work, in fact they've always been require...

  From our time in Copey de Dota looking through the back window of the coffee shop and out into the coffee coops bagging floor. That's all coffee beans, including in the enormous silo. I feel like I need that much coffee right now. Wednesday is always a crazy day around here. So it has been. Jim planning his classes in the morning and dealing with people contacting him. We had one of his students from Copey contact us and ask if they could stay at our house, thinking we were still at Casa Madera with the lovely little cottages and the big house. Last time a Copey friend came to visit it was an awful shitshow. Over fifteen people crammed in our house and in four cottages. I was on edge the entire time and our German landlord was upset over some of their behaviors. Jim started asking questions and this time they needed accommodation for 19 people. No effing way! Our house is big, but I don't even have beds in all the bedrooms, there's not one in my sewing room, just a faux s...

 Yep, these gates! Yesterday morn I went to take a shower after my husband went to church. In the shower I heard a sudden loud MOOOOOOOO! I went outside to see what the heck was happening, just in time to see a beautiful healthy looking black and white cow in my yard. I think when Jim opened the gate and left the cow slipped in there before the gate closed. I was able to get the spare remote and open the gate. The cow rushed out to rejoin her herd. There's someone that once in a while runs his herd down our street. This morning Jim left to help out Cissy get her cars to the shop. She's taking about running out of narcotics and having to get more plus having no working cars, just three broken down ones. I made my views on the helping plain to Jim again, and he told her he'd help get the car to the shop, but that's for today. We will see. Turns out the car was out of antifreeze/coolant AND oil. When Jim pointed that out to her she shrugged and said some ignoramus shit abo...

  Okay, I am going to rant. Why? My Mast Cell, and I ran up on a situation yesterday that is a repeat over and over again. Yesterday Jim and I went in the morning to pick up t-shirts ordered for the church. We walked in and I had an immediate reaction to the screen printing inks being used on the tee shirt printing machine. Not an immediate anaphylaxis reaction, but my lungs tightened down. I got out of there quickly. I've been there before a number of times and never reacted, but they were actively printing this time. The smell was overwhelming. Get out, get home and medicate. The reaction starts building, getting worse as the day moves on. My lips and tongue started tingling, my face started swelling, my eye lids started to swell shut. Push a second and then a third round of meds. Go with Jim to run an essential errand that cannot be put off, and I start reacting to dust on the road, exhaust, the smell of road tar, you name it. Skedaddle on home, take round four of meds. Ju...

  No lovely view of Costa Rica today, just Jesus tinged bbq flavored political confusion. It's been quite the few days, and no, Cissy is not involved. She's only spamming us about some games party we're all supposed to attend tonight. I'm still undecided if I will even attend because its being thrown by someone I don't know and I'm unsure how many people will be there from the plague ratting church of non maskers in a country marked Level Four - Do Not Travel by the U.S. State Dept. Decisions, decisions! No, on Thursday Jim and Buddy slammed up against a cold hard reality at our old church. They attended that circle jerk of end times paranoia known as the men's Bible study. I figured something hadn't gone well when Jim and Buddy arrived back at the house within about a half hour. Boy, did something not go well! What? Joe Biden and Covid vaccinations. Add in that day's announcement by the Costa Rican government. Just that morning the CR government ann...

  This is what happens when you go to take a panoramic photo of Playa Grande and you lose your balance and start to fall. A good illustration of life right now. More days, more requests. A lengthy one appeared on Monday with our silly neighbor messaging us that her lawnmower was broken. At the end she tried for the gaslighting guilt button pushing by reminding us anew that her husband had left her. Jim is no mechanic and he's damn near all thumbs doing practical things. He finally messaged back that:  - He knows nothing about mechanical things  - He has never worked on a lawnmower  - There's a mower repair shop less than a block away Tuesday night. We're at a special Canadian Thanksgiving dinner at Playa Flamingo, at a restaurant when the requests for various things start. We tell her we're busy. This noon the messages start again, demanding Jim go pickup the daughter from karate classes, and other requests. Jim says no, we're busy. But I'm beyond annoyed now be...

  This morning during low tide in Tama. Finally, blessed peace, even if Jim did have to run around and make the Velma/Dave/Cissy Jim's taxi run. I went to the beach to walk. I meant it when I said I wasn't going back to church until infection rates drop significantly. I am foolish about huge piles things, but not about the 'Rona. Vaccinated or not. I went to the beach, Jim went to church. Square deal. Yesterday was lovely and peaceful with zero things that had to happen. We caught up on tv. Jim watched LSU get their butt stomped by a team that they usually beat handily.  Jim came back from an errand in the afternoon. He returned very puzzled. He ran into Jonathan Banks again, and apparently fan boyed up to him and said "Hey are you Mike?" Banks replied to Jim that nope, he gets told all the time that he looks like Mike but he's not Mike. I had to point out to Jim that the guy likely does not want to be bothered by fans, but yes, it is the actor that plays Mike...

    The last two and a half days. Blissful beautiful silence. Even Buddy settled down and was doing well. Right up until we were to the beach this morn, and Cissy called around noon. I was feeling relaxed. Cissy had started driving again. They changed internet companies and all was well. The beach was wonderful.. It always is, but I need to walk in the ocean waves to feel right. Something about the salt water on my feet and the surf breaking about my shins ...  ...and right as I was writing this my messenger blew up. While we were out at the beach, enjoying grilled zucchini, shrimp and rice the first message arrived. It was Cissy wanting us to do a grocery run. We said okay, sometime this afternoon or evening. We finished our errands and moseyed back home about 2:30 pm. Jim took a nap, I was busy with a fascinating book by a former Trump administration member, and looking at the books I reviewed for NLQ for my next YouTube book review. While I was reading and as I started...

  The fruit stand near the house. So our silly neighbor and her daughter are here. Right now. Why? Well, like I said previously, a pile of problems. There's no internet at their house. Poor girl has to study somewhere. Again Jim and I keep having conversations about boundaries and saying no, and yet again he's not saying no, not all the time. Sunday and part of Monday we were left alone thankfully, but it's started up again. Last night she spammed him about a million messages about a million favors she needed. When he gets tired he doesn't always understand things right, so he put her off. What did she want? She wanted him to drive her in the middle of the night to the Caja hospital in Punta Arenas, around three and a half hours away. She wanted to get back x rays and iv meds. He finally said wait and see how she was doing in the morning. This morning he checked with her and she'd driven herself to the private clinic last night for the x rays and got stronger meds. ...

  Traffic jam around 3 pm today on the road between Huacas and Villareal Costa Rica Today was the great car turn over and PriceSmart/Costco run. Jim must have his gross peanutbutter. He has to eat that in another room away from me I'm so peanut allergic. Our Canadian buddy asked to store his old purple rattletrap jeep-esque 30 year old tenement on wheels at our house. For free. Starting in early March 2020. Today marks the first day he could be back during the Pandemic. He wanted us to bring his old jalopy to the airport, park it, put the keys under the floor mat and stick a ten mil note in the visor. We did. I freely admit I've been saltier than the ocean about this situation. Why? Because we somehow went from keeping it on our property for free and starting it every now and then to keep the engine from seizing up to (in his mind) renting the car from him.  When the riteve came due three months later it took multiple repairs and trips to get it to pass. Buddy said he'd pay...

  This is my rocking chair, mahogany and tooled leather. I sure would like the opportunity to sit it in every now and then. Brace  yourself. I'm going to rant. I'm going to rant long and hard about my husband's inability to say no. We were still in the States a few weeks ago and the pinging of help requests didn't stop. From the pastor of the new church and from our neighbor, the hapless abandoned wife of Jim's scampered off BFF here. As much as the requests for help veered into pita (pain in the ass for all  you non acronyming folks), it was good to be able to say "Sorry, no. Not in country now" This week has been a doozy of calls. First from the pastor, right down to wanting us to allow a member we know with 'marital problems' to camp out in our guesthouse indefinitely until he decides what to do.  Jim, lovely pastor pleasing people pleasing Jim, told the pastor he'd have to talk to me, and the pastor thought it was a done deal, telling the g...