The Sea is a Salty One

  Someone shared this crumbled up piece of paper on my social media this morning. She was mourning the fact that someone tossed it away because she would have treasured it from her mother. Girl, me too! Right now my mother resides in a locked memory care unit. The decision to place her there fell to me as her only child. It was devastating and sort of soul destroying to take this step because she always had a fear of ending up in a place like that! While we're never been estranged for more than a few months never have we been close. I would have never once received a card or letter with something that sentimental on it. She's made it clear through the years that I am an enormous disappointment to her because we could not have been different. She's told me repeatedly I never heeded her advice, or lived exactly as she did and she couldn't stand it. As if she's the living embodiment of Scarlett O'Hara from "Gone With The Wind". Very much a Southern Belle ...

   A cave wave carved near a beach named in Spanish "The name of Jesus". Took this photo and a pile of others on Sunday on a big boat on the Pacific. Saw humpback whales. Saw a ton of tiny islands and deserted beaches, swam in the Pacific and got waited on hand and foot by the staff. I could get used to that. One thing I didn't count on was how quickly those whales surfaced, and disappeared in the flip of a massive tail. Don't really want to talk about the trip because I took a tumble, broke toes, injured my hip and discovered I also have a cracked rib now. No more "Ahoy sailor" for awhile. Today two of my biggest baddest stressors resolved. First, the husband finally started taking his blood sugar problems seriously. He takes his readings, he uses his insulin and he no longer whines about it, trying to bargain it away. I guess I got kind of over the top insano mean to him while chasing him about with the blood sugar meter and trying to keep him on the stric...

  Our cat Stinky submitting to a big iguana he'd been fighting. This bout stopped all the silly attempts to land a five foot iguana. Ignore all that silly whining and whinging I've been doing. It all fades away into the silliness it actually is. Day before yesterday, last at night our cat Stinky started to follow around and cry so piteously. That "Mom, Mom, it hurts and I frightened" cry I last heard when Miss Porque was dying. No he wasn't dying but yesterday morn as soon as the good vet clinic by the house opened we brought Stinky in. As I suspected it was a urinary blockage.   This handsome fellow had minor surgery and is staying several days as a guest *coughcoughUnwillingPatient* at the animal hospital until his blood tests show that the infection is going.  I went to see him this afternoon and he was so so pitiful in the clinic's kennel cages in the back. But after I knelt down to talk to him and pet Stinky he finally started making eye contact with us b...

 Heck, I have tried thrice to insert a moody atmospheric photo of the gardens at that missed Arenal hotel that has now been razed. Just imagine it's here. Something in this thingabob isn't working right for me tonight. So on brand. Today was a wild one, tough, trust-busting, and brought some big surprises accidentally.  Husband and I had a disagreement. That's not too unusual. We do not agree on a vast many things and it's okay. Even silly things like who gets to clean out the crisper drawer in the fridge. We still manage to find our ways back to each other. Yeah, we're that couple that does not go to bed angry. We might be going to bed hurting or sad, but having talked out the heat of the matter that diffuses the anger aspect of interpersonal dramas. I discovered that a pretty big boundary had been breached in my privacy. I found out entirely by accident when he handed me his cellphone to fix and when a strange set of messages popped up as the first thing. It wasn...

.......Fantasy Football season where I morph from my grumpiest form - Fantasy Football Widow!  This is where we are right now. The husband gearing up to pick his fantasy teams, scream at the tv, spout obscenities, and acting a fool. Over the freaking NFL! An organization that exploits the players, sure, they pay them well but the emerging science that shows what this does to their brains and their bodies makes it seem like this is a blood payment for that which should not happen. I realize my thoughts on this sport brand me almost as UnAmerican considering how much of society worships at its altars. I hated it when I attended LSU, I hate it now!  So in the past two weeks the husband has been doing two things, one - he's been asking for a cauliflower pizza he can eat because he misses it. The second thing is more problematic - he wanted me to go with him to one of his fantasy football drafting events. To sit all night with strangers, a wife and young children I do not know whil...

  A disappeared world in Arenal that is now a fancy hotel instead of the quiet place I loved. Nothing stays the same forever, not even my misunderstandings and emotions. Things shift, my slight friend and the outright disliked person from the other day? Yeah, I still deeply dislike Charity Lynn, but I went out of my way to help her. My husband came home and told me what happened when Charity was dropped off late that night. She arrived in the middle of the meeting being held at Kaitlyn's house, which, I think, is how Kaitlyn decided the husband might help driving her there. I held my boundaries and said no because I was worried that the husband wasn't well enough to pick her up from the bed and tote her to the car like a sack of potatoes. She showed up, crying and hollering how much pain she was in. I am sure she is in pain. That night one of my good friends said she was going to go to her storage unit and dig out her walker to bring to Charity. I don't get why Charity was ...

  Sort of my level of agitation this last week starting with the flood of messages over the course of several days from Miss O. In the week since everything you could imagine selling a house overseas has crash landed, all of it not something I had done.  When we hired the real estate agent she told me it was no problem to do the sale with me in Costa Rica and the sale being in Louisiana. This was true right up until her telling me a few weeks ago I needed to just scoot out a few days before closing and have my copy of the papers notarized and overnighted back. After I pulled myself back off the floor from laughing I told her the truth, that here any notarized paperwork went through the Embassy and you had to book the appointment six weeks in advance. Cue realtor freaking out until I came up with the plan to have my Aunt who is also on the Power of Attorney to sign. In the meantime Auntie says she didn't have a copy of the PoA, which I did leave with her last summer. I ran arou...

  What I finally ended up doing with that tray and other items I picked up at the resale shop. I take my coffee and tea seriously. Not seen, my CR coffee pour over, my French press and the Keurig I took from my mother's house. I need coffee so badly right now. Bad crazy asthma. Bad crazy asthma anxiety. And so Miss O has continued spamming me after I told her in no uncertain terms that I could not drive her, lend her my car or arrange her transportation with friends. I told her those were my final words and to not bug me. Her emergency was not my responsibility to fix. She's still sending reams of words. I am not reading them, shunting them down the garbage chute with all the other nutcase ravings that get sent to me regularly. Since then I have heard from two different folks that she brags about being a "bulldog" who never accepts a no, or stops asking because she knows she can wear anyone down. Whelp, she has met the immovable object that I am, filled with a vast am...

  There may be no place like home, but my home here isn't far enough from my personal bete noire Miss Ogress. I sometimes call her the Big O, although there is about thirty pounds less of her now.  Tonight, I'm headed to bed, book in hand about 9 sometime at night on a day I got little done and we had a number of quake shakes in one day. I spent the day trying fruitlessly to find a company to ship 3 boxes of things from my mother's home. Also my aunt has lost her mind, and misplaced her power of attorney so I get to go out and overnight a copy to the law offices handling the closing on my mother's home. My messenger suddenly exploded on my computer, multiple messages coming in fast and furious with the rapidity you usually only get when a pile of faux romance scamming individuals show up. I sigh, roll my eyes, thinking it's the husband again. We're coordinating his arrival in a few days. Returning to Costa Rica requires a printed out airline ticket proving you a...

  It's a Sunday and I should be elsewhere, but church here is a huge problem as long as they refuse to ask clueless gringos not to bring their poodles to church. So much for legal disability accommodations and the love of Christ I guess. A few days ago I had to reach out to my aunt, the one that holds secondary power of attorney over my mother's life with me. I hated bugging her because her husband is in the early months of six months of aggressive chemotherapy. He has cancer in his pancreas and kidney. It's been horrible, so I try to keep my requests to her very minimal. She, like I, has a serious chronic illness there isn't much treatment or knowledge of. I remember how hard it has been going through the health crisises of my own husband. I have no wish to add to her burden. But that whole thing about having my signature notarized on the closing problem had to be overcome. Thankfully she was happy to sign for me. Then she gave me the real updates on my momma. The home...

  Not my momma's house!   Selling my momma's house and one of the people involved just told me I need to skip right on out and get something notarized then overvnighted back... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!!!!!! (on the floor laughing so hard!) This is Costa Rica where getting a notarization of a document requires making an appointment at the US Embassy in about a month's time and a good 6 to 7 hour drive there plus an overnight stay and a drive back.......... Sort of sets the theme for my time back, hurry up and wait. I love Costa Rica, I really do since I'm usually moving as slowly as a sloth. My gall bladder is rumbling and I may be facing a removal soon. I feel like death warmed over this month but couldn't figure out the why until the familiar but rare pain started last night. At least I can get fast delivery of about a week afterwards I guess.... Just hoping I can avoid the surgery because I'm here alone with an expired drivers license I've been trying ...

It is late and I'm having a Biblical bout of mast cell insomnia. Just got back from the States a few days ago. Sleeping hours topsy turvy after sleeping a mere 2.5 hours before my flight Sunday. My pattern since back seems to be one night regular sleep, one night no sleep, and so on. It's the breaks. Add in a new late big wave of Sahara Dust and you get not just these types of spectacular sunsets, but no sleep, no breathing right. Afraid to get in the bed. No sleep till this breaks and I get used to being home again. House was very nearly clean when I got home, and with it just being me here for a few weeks it took one simple clean to keep it sparkling and keep it that way.  Stinky my kitty has been clinging tighter to me than wet underwear since I got back. I know it's not all about the six pounds of cat treats I muled back with a pile of truly silly and/or thrifted things. My stash minus a couple of fountain pumps and a huge pile of fabrics bought in Amish country a few w...

  We're not quite this level of highjinks but we're not that far off. I got a new glucose meter a few days ago. Pulled out the old one the day before and it was very dead. I test very infrequently now. I go get the A1C checked at the clinic every three months so there's not much reason to poke myself with that damn lancet and ooze blood like insano. Spent a few minutes wrasslin' with the slapping it together, lancet in the new poker stick, reading the instructions, setting it the first time, world without end. I'm telling the husband to get ready because we needed to test him since he'd been complaining of fatigue. He looked right at me and said " You first. I never see you check yours. " Okay, big talker, it's on like Donkey Kong.  Poked myself, got the blood droplet on the test strip and put it in the meter. It spun a display on the main screen before displaying a very respectable " 90 " Did I calmly show him? Did I explain? Nope, I sho...

  This has been a difficult week. On the heels of finishing up his over two years of cancer high-jinks we discover that the husband has developed insulin dependent diabetes, his kidney function is not good - he only has one - and a number of other things wrong with him. I am diabetic, a well controlled diabetic of many years merely using metformin and diet so none of this is new to me.  So this week crash lands with the most squeamish man on the planet having to learn to give himself insulin injections. He's only been doing that since Monday, so it's all new. Says he feels worse than he did before. This afternoon in the middle of the Do-It Center his blood sugar tanked, sweaty, pale, light headed, hot mess tanked. I was almost panicked to get the fruit juice in him and try to bring up his levels. One healthy meal later at a nearby Tico Soda and he's somewhat better. I wrapped up buying my box of pricks, err, prickles, or cacti and we started for home.  We don't get far ...

  I absolutely love this completely bonkers photoshop of Joe Biden getting up close and personal with members of the starship Enterprise. I am an equal opportunity offender this morn. Trying to elevate my mood. Last night I heard that Ryan Stollar killed himself. Hit hard. I've known him a long time now. The pool guys and the plumber are here. That recent earthquake cracked the hot tub and loosened some of the faucets and pipes in the house. Repairs ongoing. Stupidly did a long beachwalk yesterday and started paying the crazy no spoons price immediately. Can barely function today.  A couple days ago I knocked heads with a ridiculous guy name calling after I pointed out his stances belied his self-applied sobriquet. Said I'd tell a tale of the most inappropriate flirtation I ever experienced. No, it wasn't at my father's funeral or anything like that. It happened during my honeymoon. We flew to the Bahamas on one of those package deal honeymoons. The Bahamas were lovely,...

  Yesterday was the opposite of this! A lot of silly things happened including the cat peeing on me and getting boinked on the noggin by a big old heavy box from the top shelf in the laundry room. Headaches and pee. Protip - do not snatch up your cat while you see him squat down on the rug to annoyance pee because a stray came into the house or you might end up with pee in your hair! I had barely finished washing the pee out when the husband dropped a huge bomb shell on me - he suggested, quite out of the blue, that we take Viking River cruise somewhere in Europe, maybe even their 21 day Grand Tour. I ran around the house squealing and laughing for a full hour! Mr. Tighter Than a Speedo suggested a super expensive trip for our soon to arrive 40th wedding anniversary. I have a catalog from my mother's mail I looked at in the fall and mentioned longingly of perhaps going one day and it looks like it might actually happen! Our anniversary is within the week, so it's not happening ...

  Not the rains here now, but a rainy day. We have been having like six days of rainy weather, all day, all night rain. We usually only get that in Sept-Oct. I read a LOT of books when this happens. This time it's a  cyclonic storm off the coast of Central America. We've been battered for days. I even got so desperate for the beach I went during the rain the other day. I have a video up on my Facebook of the wild waves that day in the few minutes it wasn't raining. Crazy times. We're supposed to have more of this next week~ Usually this point in rainy season we get beautiful sunny mornings, noon and many times in the afternoon. If the showers hit it's usually late afternoon or early evening. Nope, not right now. So what am I doing? Reorganizing the house, cleaning, and working on my mental health. I am glad I am as my big trigger person just returned and immediately summoned the husband to their house on some faux emergency. He finally escaped after explaining over ...

  Recent morning beach walk Playa Punto Pelencho on a recent day here in 'Rainy" or "Green Season" During low tide you can walk right out to that little isle Isla Loros. We're in the ups and downs right now. Big news: The deal fell through. Not on my end. They verbally agreed to a price point, my realtor put the contract together, she signed, I signed and we sent it over to the buyer's agent. Crickets. More crickets. Then the other agent came back with a " the client has chosen not to proceed " just like that! I asked a few whys and the answer is that the new price point was all of the client's money. Le sigh. I didn't want to go up, I wanted to sell it at the original contract, but truthfully it's stupid to risk every penny you have, even on your dream of living on the country club golf course. I get it, I really do because 30 something years ago we had to walk away from a Victorian manse I wanted so badly, but we'd be risking every...

  Hiraeth: A Welsh term, a deep, bittersweet longing or homesickness for a home, place, or time to which you cannot return. The both horrible and interesting thing about dealing with Mom's situation is not the mild depression that comes on days when I'm forced to deal with some mundane detail I don't want to in her care. It's the low-key ever presence sense of missing my own home, both childhood and the Virginia one I lived in for nearly 30 years.  Right now I'm attempting to write a list of everything that I'm taking from the house. We're dickering now, We have a solid offer that looks likely to go through, for the entire place, the lock, the stock and the barrel. I've already taken most of the things I bought, like the sheets and towels I had to buy for Mom's stay in assisted living, and last trip I took the sheets and towels I had to buy to actually live in the home without resorting to shreds of terrycloth and destroyed bedding.  I've combed ...

  Me on the grounds of the Old State Capital in Baton Rouge back in 1982. Young and feckless. Got a solid offer on the Manse of Haunted Dolls. Really want to accept it. Cash in hand in a few weeks. The sticky wicket? The husband, trying to put together counter offers and other just sheer stubbornness. He wants me to counter. I do not! It's a fair offer, it's quick and it's off our hands. We'll be done with Bob, the stupid country club and everything else all lousy about Louisiana, including how sick I get with my asthma every time I slide in there. Stay tuned. There may be big fighting ahead! I tend to trust my instincts more than he and I believe this is more than we really can get. 

  This picture is the day before Costa Rica imposed lock down rules due to Covid in 2020. I remember the security guard made me remove my N95 mask! Spending the day here today. Le sigh! The thing about the banking systems here is sometimes frustrating. If you're Canadian and have access to Scotiabank you have it a tad easier than most expats because you can open a Scotiabank account in Canada and use it here. Same bank. Those of us from the USA don't have it that nice. Why? Couple of things. First, only two banks in this country have anything like the FDIC in the USA - the two government backed ones - Banco Nacional and Banco Costa Rica. The others are not, and that can matter a lot in a place where financial institutions can falter and close with no notice, taking your hard earned dolares with them. BAC is not government-backed, but they are huge, so little chance of losing your money. They are the only one besides Scotiabank or a credit union I might consider. Keep in mind al...

  My life here is very dull, errands, the beach and so on, so let me tell you a tale of old. Something that happened nearby this silly Baton Rouge landmark. Last night the husband and I were talking about Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry's recent invite for the children of Greenland to just visit the Governor's mansion in Baton Rouge. I was laughing over the complete absurdity of the offer with him, and remembering another visit to the Governor's mansion. One not taken by me, but by folks I met at a party in the downtown area. Back around 1980, back in the Stone Ages, I had friends that flipped houses before anyone ever heard the words "Flipper" before. They'd take these old grand dames of a turn of the century homes, buy very cheap, move in and renovate and then turn around and resell. I'd been pressed into service painting more than once. One of their big traditions was a huge party after the renovation although it might have made more sense to hold it pre...

  All shells point east on Playa Grande. Not back there yet but tomorrow morning we head out first to Florida and then up to Maryland. House listed, there's been a load of interest in the day it's been listed. Showings start tomorrow. Oh, and fuck Bob. He's still upset I listed it. And the ancient guy doing the appraisal flaked. Still no appraisal 21 days later. While I'm sympathetic to his health plight this is business. Stopped payment on the check this morning. When I told a friend about his terrible fall she said, and I quote "Great, brain damage has entered the room." Poor old guy! I feel bad about it. Yesterday was the depths of despair and the highest happiness. First, we finally had the dial on the house safe drilled out and the safe opened. Even as I joked that I didn't know if the safe was filled with expired coupons and old S & H Greenstamps my mother kept saying there was a lot of cash in there. I wasn't expecting much, I figured there ...