The Sea is a Salty One

  Where sea and sky meet in Costa Rica! Been a jam packed couple of days. Shuffling the investments around. Buying stuff, and dealing with the copious weirdos here. The guy whose car we stored for free and even got conned into running through inspection just went home for good. The day before we left for the United States he called, trying to get Jim to come fetch him from the hospital in downtown San Jose. We didn't even know car guy was there! Jim said no, of course, since we'd be airborne from Liberia when the hospital was releasing the guy with the purple messed up car. Tried to ask if he was okay, but car guy blew Jim off without a word. But it turns out car guy has lung cancer. Not surprising since he was a heavy smoker. He's sold everything he owns here and jetted off to his home in the frozen north, his trailer, and his socialized medicine for treatment. I hope they caught it in time. I may be annoyed by some of the stunts he pulled but I still wish him the best. No...

  We came back to one of our banana trees blooming. We'll be having fingerlings soon! Excited. What wasn't exciting was coming back here. I walked in all three airports to avoid the United disability corral and possible missing a flight. I walked like a drunk without the fun of actually being a drunk. Will never fly United ever again if I can avoid it! Nothing of any use accomplished with my mother. I think I'm just going to call her, one morning while she's sober, and point out that I wish her to go into a retirement community asap or myself and the aunt heap will no longer be entertaining her hi-jinks. Lay out my position and stick by it. I am a direct person, and don't do passive-aggressiveness well. One of my aunts was so triggered by the way my mother reacted to my visit that she was very difficult to be around. Just explained to her that I always hold zero expectations when dealing with my mother. It's just emotionally safer that way. Jim is sick with a co...

  Exxon Baton Rouge Things have changed dramatically in the past few days. Games have been played, unfun ones involving substance abuse and passive aggressiveness. Finally I got a sense of why the aunt heap is collectively freaking out. Yes, situation very bad with my mother. After my mother lied to me about what she was doing on Sunday and Monday she called up the aunt I am the closest to and ordered her to call me up to tell me that mom was 'too sick' to see me on Tuesday. We'd left it that we'd get together on Tuesday. Somehow this got translated to we'd grab lunch. Not a word about lunch was mentioned between us. Too chicken shit to speak directly to me, and Mom ignored about a dozen calls from me before this. Mom then told my aunt that she'd get together with me for lunch on Thursday. Chicken head Mom, I fly out on Thursday morning! Came for the week, spent a mere four hours with her. Emergency meeting at the aunts. I told them I wash my hands of this mess....

  Calm blue ocean! Calm blue ocean! So now I'm here. I was there. I'm in South Louisiana to see my mother. I saw her yesterday, and all I can say I think my aunts have lost their f#cking minds. They had me super worked up yesterday when I got up, calling and making all sorts of claims against my mother. I just love crying into my coffee. My mother is 82. You're allowed some eccentricities when you reach that age! They're claiming she's playing games with them, and she may well be, but again she's 82. I think she would benefit from getting someone in to help with the house and with meals, like a service such as Home Instead. But she's nowhere near ready for the nursing home. I am concerned over her lack of eating. I did see evidence of that, and no food in the house. But I'm visiting tomorrow, first I'm stocking up, buying her groceries. I always do when I visit. Things I know she'll eat like peanut butter, soups and tuna. Some very basic supplies...

  Taken from my sewing room window FYI - I am circling ever closer to publishing my book, and may stop writing here and only post on my new website. At least I'm going to stop moaning about my health for a bit. It's as tiresome to kvetch about it as it is for you to read about. Plus I doubt anyone interested in the book is interested in a free floating stream of whining. It's a bad habit I have. New website is https://www.withstrangefire.com I have to thank a pastor friend for helping me with the name of the book inadvertently because he was complaining on a recent day about how many Christians start in a good place and end up in the weeds of a far place. I started thinking about that because that was my experience in my old church, not only ending up in that far place but doing so many bizarre things that it seems like the strange fire mentioned in Leviticus 1:10. So the book has gone from the working title of " A Quiver Filled With Assholes " to " With Str...

  You're getting an assortment of cat photos because this is heavy going. Nope, it has nothing to do with the Christmas that the Football Grinch ruined either! My personal Grinch did apologize for ruining Christmas by hellishly yelling at the tv for 12 hours. He has groveled and someone has an apology gift of rather nice new earrings by a custom jeweler in town. Water under the bridge that has rushed to the shore and been subsumed in the vast aquatic expanse of the Pacific. No, the horrible is almost unexplainable. My mother. Mom seemed fine the few times I managed to catch her at home. She had Covid, but like Jim and I, only found out she had it on the back side while she was recovering. She got her gift, and we had several nice conversations. I am always on tenterhooks calling her because I don't know what I'm going to get for sure, bad mom, good mom or something inbetween? She drinks pretty heavily and I've learned do not call after 1 pm!  Then my aunt called, the on...