The Sea is a Salty One

My Spanish is improving but when I mangle it I royally flub it up. Today in the pharmacy getting my prescription eye drops refilled because my eye infection has moved left to right, and they are both infected. I got "Ajo" and "Ojo" confused and told the pharmacy clerk that my garlics were infected. Oh my. This is working out to be a little more intense that my usual dry dusty pollen-y eyes during palm blooming season in the dry times. I spent much of the day not being about to see well, with itchy infected raw eyes. Sewing day! So without being able to see worth a damn I finally made that burgandy and tan fabric I bought back in August into a sofa cover and a recliner cover. I think, well I hope, they turned out alright. Looks fine from  here but what do I know. I'm having to wear my computer glasses to see a damn thing at all.

Just took a shower. Reached down to grab the bottle of body wash and felt something big moving beneath my hand. A big scorpion. A little early in dry season for them to make an appearance, but this is the third one we've seen so far this dry season.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Today started off with a bang. Both Jim and I were stumbling around from early on. We went to the beach a few days ago for the first time since his accident. He to get a massage, me to walk my fat ass down the beach to the estuary. I've discovered a path along side the estuary and places I'd never  been and I was off like a shot to crocodile watch and walk, and maybe scare the crap out of a few gringos swimming near the crocs. They so many times ignore the warning signs about not swimming in that end of the beach. I know, I know, I'm mean because I get something of a charge out of pointing out exactly where the croc is to them. Unfortunately I was so fascinated by the new path I discovered I went way, way, way away from the beach, our car and Jim's masseuse. One of those situations where you're so fascinated, absorbed in what you are doing you pay no attention to time and tide. I walked much farther than usual, ...

If you know anything about me in real life you know I love my short cuts, my backroads. Today I took two new ones, one up and over the mountains on the backside of Tama instead of the one paved road in. On my way out I took the road past the airport, that winds around past the wetlands. Both were wonderful. I got to see houses for sale here and there, found where the chocolate tour is and drove through some of the prettiest farmlands I've seen in ages. The road back behind the airport was glorious. Not paved but smoothly graded surrounded by wide open fields filled with cattle. Didn't have to ford any rivers or deal with traffic in and out of town. Had to go to town to pick up a cut rate Swiffer-knock off. My old one finally broke. No mopping Swiffer like things, so I'll have to pick one up tomorrow in Liberia when we pick up our friend. Instead I got treated to the stupidest reaction of all time to my Vog mask. Pulled into the back parking lot for the only really lux...

I'm down for the count and fighting a cold these last few days. Been a hard emotionally squishy hard week. It's the week of my mother's birthday, we're not close, but the burden of being the one to make the fuss falls on me because I'm the only child, even if I'm creeping up on 60 in six months. I love my mother, truly I do, but we're both so different, a real chalk and cheese situation. I sent flowers and then undertook the monumental task of trying to reach her on the phone, made even more difficult by our flickering internet connections due to the Papagayo Winds screwing with everyone's utilities. Under the best of circumstances she does not answer her phone. I can go months and months without being able to get through. Her excuse is always she has a sinus infection and was laying down when I called. However I know what the real subtext is here going on, and it is anxiety driven with some subtle other things going on. I finally broke down and call...

One of the absolute weirdest things about creeping on old age and getting hollering distance to my 60s is hearing that old boyfriends have kicked the bucket. Tonight I heard about Hayden, the younger brother of my cousin's boyfriend I dated all of a month way back in the 1970s. Eons ago. Usually we doubled with my cousin and her boyfriend now husband. We had little in common besides a love of rock and roll, Star Trek and a mutual love of making out like two silly sucker fish. It was one of those quick relationships where once you'd kissed someone almost to the point of dna exchange the mystery and the attraction quickly faded. You'd look back and think "Yuck!" unable to see what had first attracted you. Hayden struggled with sex and drugs and rock and roll through the years I'd heard. A few different marriages and died at the same young age as my dad. It's just so weird thinking about the vital young guy I knew looking bald and fish eyed and now gone...

Stuff on my mind tonight. Papagayo Winds  - This is what has been wrecking my electric, tv and internet connections. Apparently cold weather in the States circles around, creating intense winds in Guanacaste. It's been extra bad this year, Over two weeks of trouble, and my internet and tv still not right. Stupid Kolbi/ICE provider of internet and television that has been a big fat failure in fixing this the first time. It's been like crazy. Called the Saturday when it happened, told someone would be out Monday. Went by the office Monday, no one scheduled, reported and scheduled for Tuesday. No one Tuesday but several more trips to the ICE office. Last night at 6 pm it mysteriously started working without anyone coming out. Started acting up by late night. Get up this morning and it has worked perfectly. Now it's cutting in and out. I suppose the monkeys just must be pissing on the wires or something odd. Guess tomorrow morning is another trip to ICE. Our buddy the guy ...

No internet, so not much posting. High winds have removed internet and tv at the house. It's that time of the year here. Too bad because I have some things to say about bingo, Jim  and insanity. Without internet I wrote an enormous take down on one chapter of Debi Pearl's stupid book. The worst most horrible chapter. I am currently cybersquatting at Tamarindo's Eat at Joe's Nachos as Big as Your Ass loading the entire mess into NLQ. Yesterday was a pretty good example of both debunking Debi and my stupid life right now Out on errands, and gave a guy named Jerry a ride home. Jerry has to be late 60s and he's clearly taken one too many acid trips in the 60s. He spent the entire trip ranting about "Organic magnesium" which does not even exist because there is no carbon in it. He talked of only drinking water drilled beneath the sea, for some special "Keto" water, his plans to corner the medical marijuana market here and his belief that aliens ...

How do I describe today? Pantless. I've developed a crazy rash in an unmentionable place. I cannot wear underwear or pants comfortably. I've been pantless all week. Found out its a new freakier food allergy reaction. Go me. Which made tonight working at bingo most odd. Paranoid even. I wore a floor length skirt, but had to ditch the undies less than an hour after arriving. Thank whatever deities there be for not starting to scratch like mad in public. More Devil's Tic Tacs  to calm this mess down.

Today was a cleaning day, mixed with a bit of laying about. Jim took our car back to the Baptist mechanic because of one of  his repairs is so poorly done the brake pad is rubbing the front wheel. I did not want to use this guy ever, but Jim insisted. Not only is he a lousy mechanic, he is a horrid gossip. Jim went off with his friend, who is married to the gal with the yogurt name, to take care of some setup for tomorrow's bingo game. Jim  returned hours later, but he returned with disturbing  news, with gossip about the guy whose dog was recently eaten by the croc. They've  all Googled him, all the good little very conservatives, found a guy with the same name accused to shenanigans with prostitutes years ago. I do not know if it's our guy, and quite frankly I do not care! His wife is long dead. He's quite nice.  It's his business whatever he does with his sexuality, which as far as I can tell involves denada. he's only here locally a few months of the yea...

The high winds continue. The day hasn't come this week or last when I haven't either seen a downed power line, driven over a downed power line or done without power for most of the day. Everything, and I mean everything in Costa Rica seems like it was put together in the most lazy slap-dash fashion, including things like the electrical grid. There are still places with uninsulated wires and with wires festooned precariously about. Feeling rather dreadfully ill again as my blood pressure has tanked again, crazy ups and downs. Likely the stupid asthma. But that is not the only things causing me to have a down day. Other people. Found out my absolutely closest friend here is leaving. She and her husband are going back Stateside, having major relationship problems with money problems on top. Going back to try and save the marriage. It's illustrative of one thing, bring plenty of moolah when you move to Costa Rica. There are mostly two different monetary classes of Ameri...

Sunday and today have been windy again, complete with flickering electricity. It was giving me fits this morn as I tried to do laundry. During dry season it's not unusual to have cuts to our water, to have weak pressure and not much water between 10 am and  4 pm. Which means a morning mad scramble to do laundry, water plants and take showers. Add in having to stop and turn the washer back on every time the lights flickered. Jim got up and his left leg, the one with the huge patch of scraped off skin that didn't bleed I puzzled over, was hot and red. Not a good sign. One several hour trip to the clinic, lots of scraped off flesh later we're a couple of hundred bucks lighter, too many antibiotics and Jim was in agony even with a pain shot. The good news is all the scraped dinged up bits I'd cleaned and applied Bag Balm to were healing. There is likely no damage to the shoulder he had surgery on. The bad news is that weird patch with no skin that didn't bleed was a...

Couple of interesting things happened today. I woke up and realized I had gotten totally smashed, like slizzarded off two glasses of wine the  night before. It caused my blood pressure to go haywire, and I went to bed with the headache to end them all last night. I vaguely remember my problems with a  pile of  manplainers. This is life with  various ailments mixed with First Families blood.  I am  a super cheap drunk. This "That crazy feminist writer"   hates mansplaining most of all, particularly when those sillyz men mix in dumb threats that are ineffective. Another night of  3 hours of sleep. There's a DJ contest/festival going on in our village and the constant pounding of the bass line is stopping me from sleeping until they wind up the party around 3 am. Running on almost no sleep.  Suspect tonight will be more of the same, they are already gearing up and the cannon has been fired repeatedly. Except I think I'm going to medicate ton...

Wow, tonight was all kinds of fucked up. Yes, I am using the granddaddy of all eff words because there is nothing more fitting to describe the action. Today was high winds again and we lost power for most of the day. It happened right after I washed those nasty cheese puff be-crusted sheets. I had to hang them outside. They are now dry, but stiff as a 500 thread count board. They smell nice, I just don't know if I can sleep on them as hard as they are. I don't mind air drying my clothing, but I'm not fond of doing that with my sheets or towels. I like soft. We had a quick flying trip to our lawyer, trying to see if he can sue the hospital in San Jose that overcharged me a thousand dollars over my hospital stay for the stroke. They billed me, they bill the insurance and we both paid. I've been trying to get a refund for nearly a year now unsuccessfully. Healthcare is super cheap here, that's the good thing. The bad thing is that no Tico will ever tell you somet...

I married a man that eats cheesy poofs in the bed, In. The. Bed. Now the sheets are oranger than our president's fake bake.

Yesterday I did very little. The aftermath of Satan's Tic Tacs and no sleep the night before. By 9 pm I was snoozing in an awkward position avoiding squishing Stinky our cat, Jim was flopped across the bottom of the bed snoozing  and falling asleep petting Stinky. Of course Stinky managed to somehow be in the middle of our king sized bed snoozing. Everyone was up bright and early. I had NLQ up by 7 am my time, laundry done by 8 am, another section of my new quilt finished by 10 am and in the pool to swim by 11 am, Where it all started to unravel was the pool. It's the January windy season, meaning no matter how thoroughly I clean the pool the minute the wind blows hard I'm swimming in a sea of pollen yet again. Just like the day before it made for a super short swim followed by a quick shower to rinse off the oodles of pollen and taking Satan's Other Tic Tacs (my allergy drugs) Just about the time I started to put together a casual lunch at noon I heard a sudden lou...

Back many years ago, in the early 1990s, I experienced one of the biggest spectacular failures of my life. We'd started a small business, a general store near the hiking paths of the Shenandoah National Park and in just under four years we'd managed to run through a pile of our savings. The first three years we're make a lot of money, grown the business and been wildly successful. Then a devastating hundred year flood happened, flooding the store as well as destroying the surrounding countryside. There was no coming back from that flood. I'd been trapped in the building that day when the floodwaters rolled through. A local friend had taken my car and drove it way up the hillside, telling me that he thought the valley would flood. It did, to the depth of almost two feet. I remember the disgust, the discouragement, the sheer heartache I felt cleaning the mud and flood waters out of the store. I had to toss a four thousand dollar ice cream order I'd gotten that morni...

Jim is really bummed out this morning. Late last night he learned that one of his friends going way back to elementary school, that was also in school with him in Indonesia and Nigeria died in a house fire. We know very few details, just that it was a house fire and he slept through it and the smoke alarms. Jim and he both had parents who were professors that sometimes went to teach overseas. Jim had one of the most privileged childhoods you can imagine as far as traveling. By the time he was twelve he'd been around the world. I have his childhood passports here and they are filled up with stamps. His parents are how I ended up with Indonesian Delftware and those ivory carvings. Yesterday was a pretty average day right up until bedtime and Jim learning of his friend's death. So average I was thinking about how so many of us do the daily, cook, clean, do laundry, without complaint or word but knowing that Lori Alexander of The Transformed Wife would still throw some sort of ...

The last few days have been rough. The bombing of Soleimani in Baghdad has ramped up my free floating anxieties a notch or a million. Now instead of waking up in a sweat trying to remember if I turned off the garden hose I'm waking up wondering  if we're all about to die. Shades of my childhood, huddling under desks in nuclear bomb drills. Like a cheap piece of varnished government plywood is going to save your ass if the bomb drops. Even as a kid I knew that was crazy thinking. Now I worry about all three of our kids living in the shadow of D.C. The two youngest live in Fairfax County and my eldest is just up the road in Loudon. Too close if something very bad goes down in Washington, D.C. New worries. I can tell myself all night and all day long that the bouts of anxiety have more to do with Satan's Tic Tacs (steroids), know it in my gut and still have it. Part and parcel of asthma and the treatment. I think I merely notice it more now here because I do have long st...

When I flub up I flub up grandly. My mistakes are always nutty ones, like the time I stopped riding my bike in  a rain storm to wipe off my glasses and they flew from my clumsy hands and down the storm drain. Or the time I threw my back out taking off my swimsuit. A few days ago I topped those happenings by stupidly inserting myself into a large iguana and Stinky our car battle. They were going at it, and when I rushed up I poked my foot between them to break it up. What happened? I got bitten, bitten to the point of bleeding by both until they both backed off. Thought for sure that just showing up would cause the iguana to run. Usually getting within three feet away is enough to shoo off Big Iggy. Not this time. Here's the sucky part. Iguana bites and cat bites very easily get infected. They did. Trip to the doctor, foot cleaned and wrapped, and three different antibiotics. This comes during weeks of tossing in Satan's Tic Tacs (steroids) and other  drugs we asthmatic...