The Sea is a Salty One

  What I am longing for. Well, yesterday was a fucking disaster. We arrived at the clinic at 8 am to have my vitals rechecked because of the mast cell. They said they wanted to listen to my lungs. I had no idea what I was about to walk into. Writing this listening to obscure bands, British Lions, Dead Boys, Daycare Swindlers, Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Mambo Sons to name but a few. I feel a little punk rockish today. When I arrived I was hustled out back quickly. I figured. I'd gotten the quarantine notice from the CR Health Dept - the Salud - shortly after I tested positive. Ten days from first symptoms. Tomorrow is day eight from onset. So I'm almost there now. The troubles started when Miss Dee, the young doctor treating me, said she'd consulted with a critical care pulmo about my case. They were preparing to wrap me up, and transport me to the Covid hospital in San Jose because they believed with my illnesses that I would decompensate and need more monitoring and...

  Well, shit, we have Covid. Billy Joel gave Jim and I Covid. Had no idea he had it. We're also being tested to make sure we don't have Zika, Dengue or Chigungunya. After seeing the hot mess of scarred needle track marks my arms are after my time in the hospital the phlebotomist took three tubes of blood from a vein between two of my fingers. New place to get stuck. Honestly this just feels like a bad cold. I have cough syrup at least now and I've been told to keep pounding the asthma drugs. I have to trudge back and forth to the clinic daily to get my lungs listened to. But that Billy Joel is a Typhoid Mary, riding on the bus to San Jose yesterday spreading virally goodness.  

Next project! Doot doot mutherfarks I am celebrating. Billy Joel left today for Alajuela! Haven't been in the guesthouse yet to see if there is any damage, but I did ask him to bring me the towels he's been using. Ruined, pure white, now thick with brown sludge on all six. Two washings with hot water and bleach did very little. Yesterday I was griping about looking out and seeing the wet towels laying on the bare ground under the almond tree. No sunlight penetrates there. I don't know why he didn't do like I do when traveling, laying them over the patio furniture until they are dry. Safe from harm and random dirt. I would have just given him pool towels had I had any idea. It was kind of funny because the second I posted that I was pissed about the towels yesterday on Twitter I got to see someone griping that if I was rich the cost of those towels would not bother me. Sweetheart, I am comfortable, not rich. There is a difference. We have been spending like fiends lately...

  Does accidentally drinking a lizard that got into your coffee pot and cup count as booze? Didn't even make me hallucinate although I was grossed out to find it at the bottom of the cup! So Billy Joel is here, still here, even as he was supposed to leave this afternoon. Basically the way it's gone has been Billy Joel in the bed until 9 or 10 am before limping complaining of back aches or fatigue, works slowly for two to three hours, and then says he's leaving to go see a man about a dog, or money owed him, or who knows. Billy returns in the wee small hours saying he does not feel well, but smelling of liquor. Today he got up at literally 1 pm. I just told Jim, very calmly and rationally though I sort of feel like shouting, that Billy must go. He's still not done yet with the work we're paid him for, but in my eyes I do not care that he still owes work. It's been an interesting few days. Poor Jim is felled by "Man-fluenza" that startling illness involv...

 So things have gotten officially wild here. Wilder than this begging coatimundi On a non griping side there have been glorious naps  and bookreading. We're still getting adjusted to the new kitchen island. Smack dab in the middle of the kitchen, six feet by four feet with four feet walking distance all the way around. If you strip it and our kitchen cabinets out the room measures roughly 20 feet by 20 feet, worlds bigger than our small galley style kitchen in Virginia. I can't decide if I like the bigger kitchen or the smaller one, but the kitchen island feels right. Even Jim has embraced it once he realized he does not have to walk across the kitchen to put his bowl of cereal down before getting the milk. I figured he'd like it once it was in. Photos soon. On the other front we have Billy Joel here building more furniture. I'm getting a small table made that I can do a mosaic top on with my broken china and a custom sewing machine cabinet.  Billy Joel being here is bo...

  Sunset over Playa Junquillal in Guanacaste. Lots of clouds because I took this during rainy season. Yesterday was sort of another goat rodeo day. I got up, drank coffee and perused the internet per usual before doing the other thing I do twice or thrice a week, get into the pool for some swimming, water aerobics and a touch of water yoga. Usual stuff, right? Gorgeous day, not a cloud in the sky, very unusual in this time of the year. October can be an endless parade of raining all the time. Happy to be swimming, swam for an extra long time. It didn't go haywire until I got out of the pool. I got out and discovered that the water was off. In Dry Season it is not uncommon to be without water for six hours or so while they fix the million and one leaks in the system. Costa Rica, construction, roads, houses are sometimes sort of slap-dashed together and these leaks happen. Usually the Asada (water company) sends us an email before they cut the water, unless an emergency has happened ...

 I am neither salt or light today. More cranky judge on LSD indeed. Jim wanted to go to the high end furnishing store near our house to check out their selection of kitchen islands. I tried futilely explaining that most folks have them built in at the same time they build their houses, and I doubted seriously this place carried them. But typically he had to see for himself. We get there, this enormous warehouse filled with twee trendy furniture and overpriced geegaws run by some Europeans we know. Immediately I was distracted by the hanging light fixtures because I want to replace the 3 recessed lights over the kitchen bar with the stools. They were pricey, but not too crazy. Very doable. Once we found our way deeper into it we saw that they had a high end kitchen cabinetry maker company on site. They did have a kitchen island on display, but trying to discover a price point was like trying to capture an eel coated in baby oil on a Slip n Slide. We never did get a price, we went ro...

  Jim on the estuary at sunset. Sun reflecting on the trees and the crocodiles and tree stumps hidden to trip you up if you don't know what you're doing. Like I rarely know what I am doing. I am seriously ashamed of myself today. We went to bingo last night at the surf and yacht club with the usual gang. It's the last time we'll all be together because two of the couples are returning to the States for good. One because they've experienced the dark side of the Pura Vida via a home invasion, another because they have apparently bought into some sort of sea cruise travel pyramid scheme that they think will earn them a zillion bucks back in the States. Before we even left I knew I was taking my chances. It was a high nerve pain day and I skipped the the extra dose of Lyrica I take on high nerve pain days so that I could be functional and converse without drooling in my food. But it is a risk, because pain equals a lower irritation threshold, and lawdy I crossed that th...

  Yeah, I did. Yesterday while doing a quick painting to use as a guide at an upcoming "Wine and Design" event I was going to be involve with. This one was interesting to do because you used one paint brush, squirted the paint right on the canvas and mixed as you painted. A big challenge. There's just one problem with it. For the first time ever I made myself sick by using acrylic paints. First time I've reacted to the commercially prepared acrylics. I've reacted to the oils, and oils are my preferred painting medium, but was asked to come up with a quick and easy acrylic project. I think my painting days might just be over. Other things I am over this morning. Relationships with close relatives that neither rsvped to the wedding, or attended. My own self for losing my temper many times. My dumb meat suit for being so defective. Selfish folks. Most television and movies. Many books.  Many YouTubers. Hulu for recognizing my VPN I've used for the last five years...

  Yeah, we did this again - the infamous 90 day border run to Nicaragua. I was on tenterhooks the entire time because I was a week past visa expiration date. They could have hit me with a small fine, or told me to stay out two weeks before I could return, but in the end my anxiety was for nothing. It was rather anti climatic, if not slightly more expensive - fees have gone up to a total of $56 dollars for two people. I had the sweetest Nica man helping me navigate the border in a pedicab. One of my closest friends in the States asked me if I felt that using a human powered transportation was demeaning to the guy peddling, the ultimate in white privilege. I had to point out while I could have made the walk I decided this was the best way to get a decent sum into the hands of the cab driver. Nicaraguans are in dire straights. Between the heavy handed dictator in power and some of the violence much of the tourist traffic has dried up. The middle class is gone, all the doctors, lawyers...

  Last few days, man, last few days. Quick updates - Velma and everyone else has been trying to borrow money from us. Not insignificant sums either. Velma is confused about her finances, unable to remember her online banking password. I think it's likely on Monday we're about to run her to her bank, have them log her in, get a print out and go from there trying to straight out her banking and figure out what her budget is. I swear, I'm pretty sure she has significant dementia. Super Christian Davey Jones of the moping, pouting and volunteering us to pay for Velma's surgery has told Jim he needs rides back to Liberia, but he wants me forbidden to ride with them. Jim said no. Sorry buddy, my name is also on the car, it's not happening. You are going to a place where there's always something on my shopping list I must have. He even offered Jim fifty bucks for the manly man solo ride instead of with the evil harpy that is I. Muuuhahaha.  Jim got a lecture on Titus 2...