The Sea is a Salty One

    Just sitting around in my teak Tico leather rocker enjoying some sweet, sweet, sweet delicious schadenfreude!  I bounced around today between bouts of joy while dealing with talking to friends with some pretty severe issues today. I talked to three of my best friends, trying not to giggle while listening to some dilemmas. Today was my last piece for No Longer Quivering. I was happy, peaceful and content over it, feeling like the circle has come around and I've done what I need for my health and writing my book. So happy I took the step, but that's not why I laughed all day after discovering something yesterday. Why am I laughing? Karma, baby, sweet karmic realignment to someone that surely deserves it mixed with some vindication.  One Katie Joy of Without a Crystal Ball, former friend through work at Patheos. She's being sued by Tati Westbrook, another YouTuber. I haven't followed the entire Tati and Katie story. I do know that Katie has been 'reporting' on ...

  A newer stray, Pork. She's so sweet. She loves to hang out in front of my bedroom window and roll and purr outside the window. She's just now starting to let me pet her. By cutting off most of my social media, about three email boxes closed, and by stopping the hammer and tongs writing for Patheos I'm starting to finally regain a bit of time. This afternoon I spent one very long stint in the garden, something that fell by the wayside as I was sick this summer, and as my time was eaten up with YouTube, comment moderation, Patheos and everywhere else. Since June I have been on a daily time crunch. I did an enormous amount of weeding this afternoon, happy to see I was able to rescue the vegetable garden where most of the plants were doing well. I have kept them picked, but not well wedded. I resurrected my herb garden, harvesting the herbs about to go to seed, and replanting some of the containers. Cleaned up the areas around the hammock and guesthouse.  I got filthy dirty, ...

  Bananas in our banana tree when we first moved in. Putting in the pool upset the tree and it died. Since we've finally had a new banana tree grow from the old stump. Hoping for those delicious fingerling bananas this year. I've been quiet this week. The dizziness is back, and the vertigo is back, so it's been a week of books, naps and resting. Better today. Ran about cleaning, cooking and getting everything done. I don't trust tomorrow. While I'm not trusting tomorrow and falling down it's been a rough week in a couple of ways. Church and people. We lost someone we know to suicide this week here. The shut down of tourism killed his business, and I guess he just lost hope. I was sad to hear it.  Lots going down that has not been so pleasant to hear. Most of our American friends are back in the States, and we got word of another set going back. A couple we know well from church. Got here just about the same time we did. I don't know what the husband did in t...

  We've had a lot of four legged and winged visitors here lately. From the yellow naped green amazon parrots, through iguanas in all shades. This guy lives under our pool and is over five feet long. He hangs out in the starfruit tree every day. The golden iguanas with red spikes are rarer than the other varieties. It's a good thing it always feels like a Tuesday afternoon here, even this morning when we went out for breakfast at a charming cafe overlooking the beach. My mast cell symptoms have gotten so insane. I'm having more issues than ever before, and I wonder how much stress plays into it. We went out for breakfast and a grocery run before coming home and I crawled straight back into bed.  Hallelujah anyway. At least I can view the critters from the bed, I am not dealing with the debilitating dizziness I was and can walk without people pointing and saying I am drunk. The mrsa is back, the mast cell is the most active, and I'm almost a shut in by now., an exhausted ...

  Playa Grande recently near the big rock. Jim tried to get me to go to the beach today, but I was just too under the weather to make that happen. One very interesting thing happened. A set of friends just made it back from the States. They originally said they were staying here and going nowhere. But pretty quickly into the Covid lockdown someone in their family had an emergency and away they went back to the States.  As I've said before Tama is a ghost town, most of the rich millionaire types have departed. They are the first to return I know of. After listening to their tale of how hard it was to return and the costs of having to find a rental home, and everything else their little sojourn it ran a good twenty thousand dollars more than staying put would have. Wow!  I knew the airline tickets are now astronomical if you can even find a flight, but didn't consider the other costs. I'm glad we stayed put. They're even five hundred bucks out of pocket for the rapid Covi...

  The frutus and vegetals stand near our house. One of my favorite places in the area, and a weekly stop for fruits and vegetables.  Been exactly six weeks since Jim's surgery and now I have a mrsa spot on my nose. It never fails. I cannot go near a hospital without picking up a hospital infection, even if I'm not the patient. I had to fish out my tube of ointment and grit my teeth. It's way more painful that a regular skin infection. Stupid body, stupid immunio suppression therapy for the mast cell. But I've learned, to deal with things quickly. First throbbing this afternoon I'm slathering it with my prescription cream instead of of waiting. I'm getting better to figuring out needs and taking immediate action. Knowing when I need to let go and rest happen now that never happened in the past. I was thinking about that on Monday when the dizziness was insanely bad, I never even bothered to get dressed. I had coffee, did the minimum and lay in the bed listening t...

  That time Jim got a monkey on his back. I'm trying to get one off mine. The internet one. I have to say I will welcome the day when I get online and don't find nasty messages on every place threatening to shave my head and worse. They are still coming in, but per usual I'm just blocking and removing. But I have seen a down tic in them since announcing I am retiring. The idea that I can go online, or not go online and it does not matter is a marvelous one now. I feel completely free.  There were always things I was uncomfortable with during the last ten years, most especially when folks started complimenting me. I have always struggled to accept compliments, or people saying nice things. I was raised to not seek praise.  People being ugly rolls off my back. Always has because I'm a veteran of IRC chat, Usenet and other early internet interactions. You don't take that stuff seriously! Unless its a large angry mob like the NIFB. One big plus is that I no longer have ...

  Taken from a mountain overlooking Playa Pinellas here. One of my absolute earliest memories was the death of President John F. Kennedy in 1963. I remember it well because of seeing how much it affected the adults around me. It felt like a very unsafe transitional time. Our house staff was greatly affected, our housekeeper,  and our gardener most of all. I remember my mother holing up in her bedroom in front of the television with bon bons and her favorite adult beverage, crying for days on end. It marked a time of uncertainty for me. I have had a number of transitional times in my life that have felt unsettling, even if some were happy, like getting married and moving to Europe. Our last one involving moving here to the English language school in the mountain town for a semester. Buying our home on the outskirts of Las Baulas and Playa Grande. Selling our house in the States. For the past year I keep telling my friend Cindy and others that I sense I'm coming up on another ca...

  Raining this afternoon. Shot around sundown from my bedroom window. Sometimes when it's still like this and I have everything done I like to sit back, watch it rain and read. This evening was one of those. I see I have a crazy hit number on the post where I bitched about our neighbors being pushy. They were trying to persuade us to hire their maid, even though our house is cleaner than theirs and most here. I keep the houses pretty clean. One truism here is when work gets scarce every one you know will try to force you to hire their domestic help who are begging them for more hours. Not interested, don't need it, already have. They approached me exactly wrong way on an bad asthma day. Shrugs, least said, soonest mended. Last night Jim showed up all white and spooked. Asked him what was going on. He told me that the picture on the wall outside the master suite was moving and making racket. He was sort of freaked out. This morning I investigated. It was a lizard, one big lizard...

  Somebody else having a very bad day with the deep muddy pothole in front of Banco Nacional. We had to plod through it today too but we didn't lose our bumper. So Sunday night, I'm walking in the kitchen, going to grab another delicious Clight limeade, right between the fridge and the stove when there was a tremendous BOOM!!!!! and flash. Simultaneous, no lag.  I jumped  a foot, we smelled burning plastic and discovered that the lightning had run in on the electric and fried our router. The only thing in the house besides my Himalayan pink salt lamp plugged directly into the wall and not a surge protector. The salt lamp wasn't touched, but the router was toast. This was after two earthquakes earlier in the day. Heh. I thought they were rumbling trucks going by. Still having coming and going bouts of dizziness and stomach issues again. Back to the doctor, told yet again it's a virus and my Mast Cell is making this more complex. Meds changed again. We had to shrug and sa...

  Love him or hate him, it's been quite a weird newscycle. Today as we were shopping this afternoon at the Mega Super we kept running into Ticos we know. The question on the lips of most of them seemed to all revolve around what did we think of President Donald Trump's shenanigans. We have several years worth of friendships with folks working there now, and sometimes they are eager to know where you fall on the fault lines of life. Particularly on a week where we had a couple of minor earthquakes here. It seems to be the ultimate Tico litmus test. Do you like him, or dislike him?  It's also interesting that most of the  millionaire class Trump supporters that have lived here from the U.S. have gone home. Decamped. Taken their dough an returned home. Many putting their homes here up for sale or rent. I only know of one still here. Even with the borders open to parts of the U.S. now it's still relatively a ghost town. Still no regular flights and no U.S. mail here, just...

  I am feeling most salty right now. Tonight the electricity has been off and on and off and on several times during our usual evening thunderstorms. My asthma is particularly bad again. I am reacting left, right and center to foods again. Having to go back on the very restrictive allergens diet for a few weeks. Yesterday I was fine, the asthma was only moderate, and the flu seems like it is fading. Jim is even better. Towards late afternoon I started to be not so fine. Why? Recent friends who do not understand boundaries at all. Remember last week when our friend tried to play 'intervention' on me because I asked him to bring back an 18 month supply of fiber tablets and benadryl? That was the first incident. There have been a few "You should do things my way." from him in the past. He's an evangelical Christian, and I have noted that a lot of them have no awareness of boundaries and appropriateness. Example: he sometimes says very creepy things around me, I turn ...

  Our pool and hot tub area with the kitchen windows overlooking the pool area. I spent a couple of hours out there today until the rain chased me back in. Not reacting quite as much to the pool chemicals. Happy because I missing swimming in the hot sunshine. Last night was something a cluster-you-know-what. You know that stomach virus I have had for almost a month now? That comes and goes. Where I'm not hungry at all, yet if I fail to eat I start throwing up? Mostly it's just crazy dizziness making me stumble around like I'm the town wino and no appetite.  I gave it to Jim. Didn't find out until during that complete and horrid shitshow of a debate last night. Jim started complaining towards the end of the debate he didn't feel so well. Shortly after he started upchucking madly, which started my queasy stomach trying to exit my mouth every single time I coughed from my asthma. So the shitshow spread from the television to us. He staggered about miserably until aroun...

So funny how something can look one way, and then you sleep on it and realize it's idiotically stupid and you were really stupid for taking it seriously. Least said, soonest mended. Don't give mentally ill folks obsessional fodder. One of the funniest things happened this morning that reminded me so much of this song on 'The Simpsons'. I'm coming round the corner in town on my way to the fancy Gringo grocery store and over by the house of ill repute I spot a couple of young Tico boys, in that tricky 10 to 13 age group. They were shimming up the concrete wall to peek over the top at the large swimming pool area. I laughed as I drove on by.  Which led me to think about the various things I did as a kid. I wasn't much older than these boys, something like 15 years old the year I ended up taking my 3 year old step brother into Disneyworld for the day. We'd been on a family Disney vacation, and we had planned the next day that my father and step mother would ta...

 Oh man we had a funny night last night. Let me backtrack. Our neighbor who comes swimming here every few days did a quick trip back to the States and I had asked him to bring something back for me. Two ginormous bottles of generic benadryl from Costco Stateside. A thousand count for like five bucks. Here it is eight bucks for a blister pack box of 30. I tend to take maybe 6 to 8 or so on a regular day. More if I cannot breath or the mast cell is really acting up. We were all supposed to go out for dinner as a belated birthday celebration for Jim. I wasn't feeling it, still dealing with the crazy stomach virus but gamely decided to go. Got dressed up and ready and the neighbor man showed up. Found out his wife could not go and I told Jim I would stay back since I didn't feel great and the guys could have a guys night out. But before they left the friend turned to me and started babbling out some insano bullshit about being 'concerned' that perhaps I was 'getting hig...

  Stinky a few days ago. The only pleasant thing happening. Jim had a birthday but we're still staggering about not celebrating. Got him an enormous bottle of Crown Royal as a present. If you've been reading NLQ you know I had a rough few days after months of worry about getting our overseas ballots to vote in this election. They have made this much more difficult and harder than usual. Ran around for days getting questions resolved. The most stressful part is that instead of getting our ballot 3 to 2 months in advance we got it with less than six weeks to get it back, in a place that takes a minimum of 2 months when there is no pandemic to get something mailed to the States from here. Normally you are not allowed to use a courier service or express mail to return ballots. The election board did waive that requirement and I ended up getting some help and clarification on other issues. This is not our usual vote overseas situation by a long shot. Stressful. In the middle of this...

  A recent cloudy afternoon in Tama shot from the Rotunda. I know I haven't posted here and the posts at NLQ probably don't make much sense. It's been a rough week or so. Why? My virus is back and Jim has been put on a pile of pills to try and get some nerve generation back in his shoulder. The pills are making him sleepy. The virus is making me dizzy and exhausted. We're quite the pair right now. How bad is it? Two days ago at the Auto Mercado we both limped out of the store. I was moving so slowly Jim too over pushing the tiny cart before loaded it into our cart. I was so dinged out and dizzy I didn't even notice until we were pulling out of the parking lot that Jim had abandoned the cart against the back door of someone's SUV. We stopped, me with my theology based on if you put your cart where it goes or abandon it, Jim looked at me and said 'Floor it out of here!' I wasn't capable in that moment of moving the cart, trying to decide between throwi...

New neighbors, a pile of cattle on one teeny tiny lot. Been a rough couple of days. Book going well. I was electrified into restarting due to the lying lies of that video blogger trying to veer into that particular world she knows nothing about.  Flowing out now. What happened? In the last few weeks I have seen a ramping up of bullshit online. More people fighting, issuing crazy threats and behaving like they've lost their minds. Then the Notorious RBG died. With the passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg I've seen the crazy hate ramping up even more. Yesterday was a nightmare. I don't know how that video blogger does it, but I was busy online from awaking and going online at 7am and getting off around midnight. Why? I had to clean off something like seven zillion death threats and stupidity. And not all aimed at me, but at other commenters, at Lori Alexander, at a pile of folks right down to the Republican Supreme Court members. Crazy cakes. Took me hours to erase all this crap, b...

 The last few days I've been more intentional about time usage. I've been working on quilting and art projects along with working on the never ending book. I started a book last year and have taken it apart three times now. Why? Because when I wrote the series of articles the book is based upon I thought a certain way about the fate of the murder victim. Now I see it differently, I see that I missed the sex trafficking component that was likely at play in the murder. I have had to stop, and revamp. Which I am thinking about doing in my online interactions too. I'd gotten rather obsessional about a certain foolish someone that keeps digging herself deeper and deeper into her troubles. Over the last few days I've realized something about that situation. I'm giving her space in my head, and I don't much like it. She apparently caused dissention via some sort of silly Trojan Horse maneuver among a pile of new friends. I am watching them freak out, accusations flying...

  Today at the Rotunda area overlooking the beach and having milkshakes. Jim is still healing from his surgery and he's quite cross that he cannot get in the pool and swim. I swam once this week. Pool chemicals got to me again. Time to start tottering up the expenses to switch the pool over to salt water. He's just not used to inactivity, and is confused over my ability to curl up in the bed and read for hours on end during the worst of rainy season, which happens to be September and October. We are right in the middle of that depressing Atlantis stage here where it's a constant deluge of rain. I watched that same local road repairman stuff our crankcase busting deep potholes so deep you could bathe in them merrily stuffing them with dirt yesterday before it started raining again. Futility because to actually patch the road with asphalt would dispossess him of a job. Instead he just trundles around with a wheelbarrow filled with soil to tamp into the holes. We're dealin...