The Sea is a Salty One

  An early morning visitor one morning before we painted the concreto walls. I never knew chickens could fly because that's about ten feet straight up. This morning we were driving around. There's been shouting and tears, but no pot roasts flung, until we managed to come to an agreement on where the new bookcase was going, what to do about the flubbed up old bookcase and other critical decorating decisions. As I talked about today on my YouTube video when your husband retires and is around 24/7 and starts holding strong opinions about topics that were only yours before it can make for some tense moments. We're driving along to the store for light bulbs, sunlight gleaming off that eye gouging prideful blue-ness that is our new car when Jim said, "Say, is that not Derwood on the orange motorcycle?" Turned out to be Derwood. Have no idea how long he's been back or anything else. Derwood called him after total silence for the last four months and asked to " ...

  Horses this morning at one of the tourist places near Tamarindo awaiting riders. A very rainy day shortly after this was taken. We're getting the spin off split off from Hurricane Ian, or as they say here 'Tormenta Ian' This last week was a wash for me. I was unable to do much because the asthma kept coming and going and coming and going due to the gasses from the grumbling volcano. When I went into town to get more solution for my nebulizer it was in very short supply. I scored a mere two vials until today. Price Smart pharmacy to the rescue with full boxes of the solution! Jim's made a new buddy pal, a Tico with the legal name, I kid you not, 'Billy Joel' Rodrigues. I guess we know what music his momma listened to. He and his family are living in Velma's back room, taking care of her along with various volunteers. Billy is temporarily homeless. Jim's put him to work here at the house, putting molding up in the guesthouse bedroom and building furnitur...

  The trail leading down to Playa Grande, about a mile and a half from my beloved home here in Costa Rica. We go there often. So we went to see Velma once she came home. I had to pop my head in, wave and ditch. She's a chain smoker with a pile of dogs. It was hi and bye. But I had to laugh, she was laying on the sofa, half sitting up, half supine, smoking and watching Fox News while complaining about something. Velma's feeling better, she's going to make it! My husband Jim and I came to the same conclusion figuring she's right back to what she does so she's alright. Right now I'm planning a quick trip to South Louisiana. Several days ago my mother called with some convoluted story about my aunt needing my daughter's phone number because she was worried about my daughter and the terrible storm rolling through her area.  I gave my mother the number, and thought that is was a weird call. But because there is sometimes alcohol involved in my family of origin I d...

  The huge Catholic church in the oldest part of the city of Liberia, Costa Rica, mere steps from the hospital.  Today was better. Velma had her surgery and did well. Velma is obviously not her real name, it's the name I use for her here. I'm glad. Even better is that when Jim got to Liberia with the pastor of his church they managed to scrape up the rest of the money for the surgery. We didn't have to pay another dime. It looks likely after Jim's talks with the pastor that we'll end up eating that 5K amount we paid yesterday. I guess it is what it is, and I keep saying when you give money you cannot expect anything back, or how it will be used.  The pastor has already put in place a support group of volunteers for the next month once she gets home to care for her. I spoke to Jim about perhaps putting together a list at church for people willing to provide cooked meals for her and her helpers this month. We're talking also about taking over and running the food ...

  Calm blue ocean, calm blue ocean! I don't know if you can see the time I am writing this but it's 2:15 am right now. I haven't written because it's been a stretch of pretty typical days during the worst part of rainy season here. Get up, drink your coffee, rush to do a few things outside before it rains cats, dogs, goats and coatimundies. You rush to do a few errands between these just tremendous thunder storms. You read or nap once it's raining too hard to trot around outside. Very boring. Very wet. This is life here until mid November. In the glut of the rainy season. There's been idiotic YouTuber creator dramaz but I've mostly stayed away from that nonsense. So this morning I'm doing a YouTube live video and end strides the hubby Jim telling me he needs to talk to me. Recently I told him he always has the right to cut into any video or phone call to tell me to wrap it up because he has something important to say, and boy, oh boy, did he. Remember Ve...

 Yesterday this happened in the morning in the town nearest us. Rodeo time babeee! Our nearest town had a rodeo this weekend. I'd heard the cannon fire all week to remind folks of the coming fiesta! Took these photos at around 9 am yesterday morning and the crowds were already drinking hard on their Imperial beer. Saw our motorcycle mechanic on his horse and several others. That first horse was just, oh wowee, had special fancy gait! Later Jim attended the bullfighting and roping without me. Another bad asthma week including painting the guesthouse bedroom wearing a respirator mask. It helped, I only had minimal reactions. My own life is conspiring to unalive me. I just have to learn to med sooner. Started doing it sooner, but not soon enough apparently. Back to the painting. Used a very tropical looking new leaf green that contrasts nicely with the turquoise blue. Wondering if I can twist Jim's arm into painting my bathroom and the guesthouse bath that color now.

  Our view at lunch today in Playa Portrero. We've been running and gunning this week. Monday beach walk, and the rest of the week got away from us. Tuesday our new television and six foot long console table to place it on arrived. Wednesday I had to swing by and pick up a friend coming back in from the States. Thursday and Friday involved moving furniture around and setting up new stuff. My stupid asthma was a problem again. I was dragging ass. Today I went to church with Jim just so we could leave straight from church to see a friend playing music in Playa Portrero this afternoon and grab a meal there. No bueno. I wasn't at church more than 15 minutes when someone walked in with a fuzzy dog. I spent the service in the car huffing on my new portable nebulizer that plugs in to a USB port in the car. While I wasn't feeling great afterward (understatement of the year) I wanted to visit this restaurant. The food was fabulous! I had grilled lobster tail and shrimp pasta. One of...

It was Alexander Pope who uttered the famous phrase " a little learning is a dangerous thing " and boy oh boy was yesterday afternoon, night and this morning proof of that! I'm about to rant, disability rant.. rant rant it's the disability rant. If I were ever to turn rapper this would be my rap. So last week it was paint exposure leading to asthma, do not pass go, do not collect 200 dollars, spend a week tamping it down. Happened against last night, but harder now. Sitting in Price Smart, minding my own business eating a hot dog in the food court when I turned to Jim and said, " My throat is tingling... " and the wheezing started. No, it wasn't the hotdog, the condiments or anything else I ingested because that would have involved lips and tongue tingling too. But I did spot what it was quickly. It was a grinning blonde gringa standing at the membership counter around twenty yards away. She had a small poodle on a leash. A poodle in a store with a sign ...

  Photo of the marimbas in Santa Cruz. There is a special forest near Santa Cruz where the marimba wood is grown to make the instruments I've been told. Well, dang, I was doing so well when I walked into the ferreteria (hardware store) and was immediately exposed to that latex paint smell. Been to this place hundreds of times and never smelled it so strongly before. This happened on Friday, now I'm still laid up on Tuesday with assorted idiotic asthma-related bs. Both eyes horribly swollen and infected. An infected nose. A sinus infection. A fever. Such bs again. It's been since mid to late February since I've had a serious asthma anything I'd started getting cocky, thinking I was much better instead of in a temporary abatement. We have to repaint the bedroom in the guestroom because of replacing the ac units in the bedroom and living room. The bedroom unit was installed over the bed instead of tucked into the corner. Where it was in the corner is now dirty with a d...

  The view I had at work from my office when I worked for the children's residential treatment center. There are days when I miss the snow and some of the magnificent vistas from my sleepy Southern town. This day might be one of them as I'm craving a pumpkin spice latte and a piece of warm apple pie today. I've been dealing with a pesky stomach bug that is not Covid. I tested negative. But it's been a drag. I haven't even cared about driving the new car. Just hanging out reading and crocheting. Life is sort of strange, isn't it?

 So we bought this. Cash, drove off the showroom floor literally Kicks just keep getting harder to find. Sorry, joke, big joke, stupid joke about a old song! A song so old there are black and white video of go go dancers and Paul Revere and the Raiders singing. The car is the tiniest of cross overs by Nissan called a "Kicks" It's pretty sweet, drives well and we got the package with all the extras like cameras and geegaws and gadgets. Good pickup on the mountain road. Good pickup going around burros, bicyclists and carts along with assorted road detritus. Speaking of road detritus, the old junky car we've been storing is what we used to drive up to town to buy the car. Ran great until coming back from the dealership, when it promptly died. Making a hellacious racket! One minute Jim's behind me in the jalopy, the next he's disappeared, somewhere near the bridge over the Tempisque River where one can see crocodiles easily. The bridge is notable because it was on...

  Reproduction statuary at the Diria hotel here. I have that same shocked face as this statue for several reasons. 1 - Two days ago we finally bought a new car. A new 'new' car. A first in our 36 year marriage. In the States we always bought used cars from dealerships with factory warranty that just old enough to have depreciated out.  Here? Turns out buying used even from a dealership is a crap shoot. No consumer protections at all. You roll it off the lot it's your problem. It's like the States were before Ralph Nader came along and spearheaded the "Lemon Laws". We bought a cobalt blue Nissan Kicks, a small little crossover with twice the gas millage of our old Honda CRV. Bought right off the showroom floor. We'll be able to pick it up on Friday from our salesman Stalin. Yes, our salesman was named after a Russian dictator, hope it's not a bad omen. The not so good stuff. Costa Rica, in their infinite weird wisdom, decided to let the contract with th...

  Hibiscus growing over a stone wall near Playa Grande. The impossible juxtaposition of order versus nature, blooming rampant nature.    I am learning one thing anew, that my dear husband brings a certain element of chaos with him. It's a weird energy that has him hopping about. I'm not saying this as a negative, I'm just stating something I just realized. It took a good month away from each other to uncover this for me. A few months ago I was surprised to hear our daughter say that he brought 'negative energy' with him that she had no patience to deal with. I wouldn't say it's negative. It's the same energy that allows him to dream very big - like moving us to Costa Rica five years ago. It can be highly negative, but it's usually not. They were just knocking heads over wedding costs at the time. I can forgive and forget any number of weird things out of the mouths of folks in the middle of wedding planning. It's a stressful time! When I came b...

  Also known as Real Housewives of Tamarindo starring in "As the Stomach Churns" See that grody old barn? It was hidden until recently, just like the behavior of needy annoying friend until recently. We had no idea that barn as on our block it was so hidden behind vegetation. Turns out it was always there. Jim is home, and he's brought with himself his own frenetic energy. For the first time ever I'm realizing that he exhausts me, he exhausts post stroke me, so we're talking about him stepping up, and I'm feeling like laying on the floor and dying. I cannot complain too much, because he realizes all those fundytown years where I did everything for him have borne strange fruit, and utter exhaustion for me. Ongoing conversations, gentle reminders and a thanks for getting a decent licensed plumber out here today. Tankless heater ordered to be installed Saturday morning. No living with shut off water and only turning it long enough to shower, flush toilets and do ...

A howler monkey letting it all hang out. I'm effing pissed off right now! Cleaning, cleaning again and mopping with bleach to burn off excess pissed offedness anger. So I'm answering a few emails this morning when I get a message from our 'friend' down the street. It says that she went out this morning and her good air conditioned van started right up. This is a vehicle that two days ago she was claiming was in the shop broken down? Now she says I should use it to pick up Jim. No thanks, I say, he's taking the transfers turismo van for twenty bucks. So now she's told me she's going to go pick him up because she's afraid of this poor man and his luggage walking the block and a half. I told her not to do it, that I would consider that stepping over the line to inappropriate behavior. I'd told Jim how squirrelly she's been behaving and I think this is some sort of game angled towards making me look bad so he'll turn to her. Real Housewives of Ta...

  ...teats on a boar hog. Here, look at a festive Christmas time Stinky. What a few days it has been. Gardener has started chopping down the jungle in the front. The back yard is just not that bad right now. Locksmith came, cleaned, oiled and adjusted locks. Plumber scheduled for Friday, I just hope he doesn't give me any troubles for my request for a tankless hot water heater. We don't use much hot water and the tank we had was second hand, and that plumber got us, gave us the Gringo Shuffle of overcharging and here we are five years later.  Things since I've been back haven't been smooth, at least in regards to the so called friend that promised Jim she'd lend me one of her many cars. Well, that did not happen. She claimed she could not due to some scrambled mixed up plans involving Mary Moonbeams and something her teenager was doing. This lady lives right down the road, we've bailed he biscuits out so many times, so she does pick me up at the airport, but exp...

  Hopefully what part of the garden will look like after the gardener arrives! I don't trust everyone with a key for good reasons I will outline below. The weeds are nigh high as an elephant's eye in one mere month. I am felled with kidney issues after barely drinking a thing the day I flew. I slept during the flights and missed the drinks cart. From the kids house to my house I think I had one small cup of coffee and a small water. Got very dehydrated and am now paying the painful price. New meds added. Done very little on my list here. Suitcases unpacked and laundry done. That's it. I'm in the bed, or sitting in my rocker watching tv until the pain lifts enough to ditch the pain pills. I take that back, I did do one other thing. I cleaned every spot of white spidery web mold out of the house, swept and mopped. Apparently we're had such intense rain that the entire house was muggy and this grew on the weirdest surfaces. The handles of kitchen appliances, the back o...

 No photo. I am way too tired. Got up at the ass crack of dawn to fly from Reagan National back to Costa Rica. First flight very full, Sat next to a silent priest listening to hymns and a woman who spent the flight working on a pamphlet for an MS org. Quick, smooth, problemless in every way. Wheelchair waiting for me at door to door. It was the second flight that was the doozy. Last night they sent me an alert that they were having to push the flight back an hour. Negative perspiration, right? I noticed when they wheeled me up that there were more people waiting than usual an hour before boarding. Asked about and found out that the mornings flight to Costa Rica had been cancelled so my flight went from full to crazy full with oodles of folks on standby. I have never seen so many standbys. About thirty minutes before boarding I hear shouting in the distance and watch one of the flight crew, the cockpit crew, come storming out issuing curses. Turns out one of the officers quit after ...

   Me six weeks ago at Arenal at the Arenal Falls Lodge. Zinged out due to the crazy of the car situation. Still no car. The car we requested hasn't been shipped so we're going to be looking anew the day after Jim gets back. I am now leaning towards anything smaller they have on the lot at the Nissan dealership. But that's not today's laughs. I'm supposed to be airborne by this time tomorrow on one of the bigger carriers. I've been somewhat concerned about this because news is saying a boatload of stuff about cancellations. So let's just say I'm not upset or annoyed about that, more expecting it. Last year when I flew here in July I got moved back a day by the carrier. This morning, bright and early, I arise just in time to get a 'please check in now online with our airline' message. Aha! So we're still on! Awesome! I have cats to pet and weeding in my garden to do. An hour later I get an email asking if I would be willing to give up my spot ...

    Feeling about as comfortable right now as Stinky in submissive pose towards the iguana in our yard. It's not entirely the overturning of Roe V. Wade either. That's made for a pretty effed up few days, reading through the decision and fearing for what it may lead to. For the record I could never have an abortion, but at the same time I could never make that same decision for anyone else. This is a personal decision that should only be between a woman and her health care advocate. I'm afraid that this overturn will cause a trickling down effect of tragedy. Women who need a D&C for a wide variety of issues not related to purposely ending a pregnancy might find it impossible to find trained providers. They may die in the process. I think back about how many I have had because I had the type of endometriosis that needed a D&C a few times a year to end severe bleeding. This was why I had to have a full hysterectomy nearly twenty years ago. Add in the possibilities, th...