The Sea is a Salty One

  Things are finally starting to feel more 'normal' as we return to our regularly scheduled programming and boring every day lives here. I am trying to download and edit a few of the many photos I took at Lago Arenal, the volcano and other places on the trip including a pile of rainbow photos. It was rainy and cold around La Fortuna during our visit last week, but it just made the adults only pool next to the cocktail bar at the volcano springs place the best place to be! Soaked so long and hard in 100 degree water I started to feel faint. Upside: We've managed to move everything back where it goes and clean. Fresh sheets on the beds, both bedrooms that were used are freshly clean. Guesthouse pretty clean, I can put off the sweep/mop/dust a few days. Good thing too because I discovered today that our other guests used all the towels and extra sheets. Guesthouse sheets on the line right now drying. Towels first thing tomorrow! On top of it all now.  I just started something ...

  We were here again, on that windy road with warnings not to feed the coatimundis, or as the Ticos call them Pizotes. Yes, I did feed a pile of them. Breaking the law, breaking the law! Sorry the sign is so fuzzy.  These guys. So I know I said I was staying home from Arenal and my husband was taking his two friends, but what ended up happening is that Jim talked me into accompanying him because he didn't really want to be around them either. One of them is just ridiculous! His brother was fine save for handing out those religious tracts. I went because the husband requested it and boy it was a huge mistake, pizote feeding or not. Why? Well, Timmy, the guy that's visiting. Not Mike his brother, but Timmy. Timmy started getting on my nerves and didn't let up even after he left. He pretty much ruined my Tuesday and parts of yesterday too. I've come to the conclusion after this trip that Timmy must be autistic, or OCD, or some other diagnosed 'ism.' None of this is...

View from a restaurant of a dried up river bed.  Lately life has been that twisted tortured two-step clown rodeo with disabled hijinks at the airport and church followed by beaucoup of sciatica. I've been mostly housebound and on pain meds. Jim went through quite the travail to get home from that funeral in Ohio. His second flight, from Dallas to Liberia was cancelled due to weather. Two nights sleeping at the airport because the airline played that silly game of keep delaying don't cancel until every hotel room from Dallas to Denver was booked. Then he flew from Dallas to Houston, spent another night away, this time in a hotel room before arriving home on the busiest travel day I've ever seen.  Many of those stupid flight trackers were wrong and I ended up trudging back and forth to the airport a few times on faulty information and Jim calling to say that they were boarding the plane multiple times. Right now we have the second of two sets of visitors here. First set was o...

Quite frankly I'd rather be riding one of these horses on the beach. New Year's Day started with death. I got up and saw the news coverage of the terrorist attack in New Orleans, where I still have plenty of friends and family living. I kept reading through the coverage obsessively, trying to make sense of the pathway up Canal St to a tight turn onto Bourbon St. It's too tight of a turn for the driver to get much speed going, and just like that my mind has been down a conspiracy rabbit hole. Jim had to drag me away to a New Year's Day party at the house of a friend. I did not enjoy myself because my mind kept working it's way back down to New Orleans worrying while the sorriest excuse for a pile of strange foolishly preening self-focused Gringos kept yammering on about inanities around me.  Life has been a pile of more strange involving deaths since the first of the year. Jim's aunt Ramona died, his last living relative from his parents generation. Tomorrow I ta...

 My son was just here, and I'm still trying to put my life back together. I've been so sick that my head feels like this vista from Copey de Dota from before the fire took out the ancient wooden church. See the clouds drifting down among the buildings? That's my head right now. The armpit infection has morphed into a down the arm infection. Too many antibiotics and doctors poking the infected bits. I've put an end to that because I believe they've made it worse by the constantly draining and scraping. Don't ever get an infection here because instead of being told to use hot compresses and antibiotics it's all scraping and prodding. Enough about that boring health shit. Part and parcel of having an immune system illness. I was so sorry to see my son leave for home a few days before Christmas. I miss him so much, and our just hanging around the house. He did go hiking three times with Jim. One day I felt especially grumble-y about it because they hiked Rincon ...

  Mentally I'm back at this place. Been an unusually usually weird time! What follows is a crazy tale of when para-social relationships go beyond haywire. Ah, the old Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum! It's a very weird experience having the lowly barnacle on the bottom of the boat level of internet notoriety. I'm not as noted as the "Horky-Porky Kid" but thanks to my ten years writing and editing a daily column at a media site I have the glimmer of the very extremely worm's belly low, shudder, gasp, fame. What that means is that para-social relationships can sometimes be tricky to navigate even now. For many years folks reached out to me in private messaging to talk about their trauma surrounding the issues of spiritual abuse and recovery. Very difficult conversations to have. Eventually some just took it way too far and I started to feel like a nursemaid to nincompoops, an unpaid therapist substitute when it was obvious real serious mental health sessions neede...

  I woke up this am thinking about writing about foibles and follies of the media. An industry that I was part of for ten years that has turned deeply toxic. But I realized after seeing the blog posts of a few people I know, and many I don’t about moving here thinking it’s going to be a piece of cake, and slamming up against their own ignorance I figured it was time to explain things. It’s not that cake and eating it too, for some it turns out to be a urinal cake, an old sodden urinal cake. Look, I don’t want to discourage anyone from pursuing their dreams. I just ask you do some basic research about the place, what to expect, how things happen here before you show up with stars in your eyes imagining it to be just like your luxurious tropical vacation. Moving here is not for the faint of heart, and knowing what you are up against can make for a much better experience. We were lucky, our research paid off, we did many things right, but we also flubbed up a few times a...

 Yep! That's me again. I haven't really been right since the election. It's more than Trump fear. After seeing his nominees I feel like we're going to get the same ridiculously inept happenings. The only one of the bunch I really worry about is RFK Jr. and only because of my mastocytosis. I fear for proper medication access and the stoppage of drug research most of all. Enough about that. This week, it has been both coming attractions and past history. Tuesday we went to Price Smart with a friend from here in Tama. We always give her a ride. Got up that morning and just did not feel quite 'right', if that makes any sense at all. Once we were near the piles bags of pet food it happened. My oxygen levels tanked suddenly. One minute I'm slogging along like an over caffeinated sloth, the next minute my entire PriceSmart list erased itself from my mind, and I stopped being able to function as the Wifebot3000.  Luckily for me the husband took one long look at my w...

  This has been quite the week, hasn’t it?  We went to nearby Playa Grande one day around noon this week. We’re currently in the tail end of rainy season here in Costa Rica, meaning it can rain for days, peak rainy season, so any slight break in the weather is a good excuse to travel the roughly mile and a half to Grande with our beach chairs, ice chest and other accompaniments for an afternoon diversions on the sand at the part of Grande that is Palmeras Beach because of the large clump of palms growing there. Love the beach even during rainy season because you can get some dramatic photographs.   I briefly explored the tiny creek estuary I love. It was per usual filled with small hermit crabs scuttling every which way and with my beloved sea beans. Once I got back from nosing through the sea wrack looking for beans my husband Jim took his stroll on the sand to Dante’s Rock, a huge stony mountain of rock jutting into the Pacific Ocean that divides Grande from ...

  Aftermath of rain and debates. Last week was our one and only debate at the beachside bar. Apparently the long conservative lady was upset I brought my Ipad and fact checked her claims in real life. C'est la vie! If you cannot take the heat in the kitchen then just get the heck out of there! Not everyone should be cooking or debating.  So it turns out I never did explain the debate here. Story about the recent debate myself and others were in held at a local place, a sort of international group talking about the presidential election in the USA. Up on my Substack, meant to post it here! Whoopsie! Too many balls in the air at the same time!

 Does anyone remember this song by the Temptations? Heee! Reminds me of a band gig way back in the late 1970s where our band played on a boxing ring, and the canvas floor kept shifting. We did this song! So why is the ground so shaky? We had a 6.2 earthquake this morning and as of right now there have been 35 aftershocks, some around 4.0. I keep feeling them. I'm pretty immune to the earthquakes here in Costa Rica now. It just made the day strange. Happened while we were at the clinic, and on the drive home, and at the house. Jim has to go to see a surgeon about the mrsa problems he's having. It's just a question now of straight to surgery, or a CT scan and doctor's visit. All hinges on how he's doing Monday.  I swear I cannot WAIT for 2024 to end! The entire year has just been a complete and utter spitshow! On the good side I ordered a custom piece of artwork this week from a dear artist friend for Jim. I still feel bad we had to let go of so many things when we mo...

 Wish I was back in Arenal feeding coatimundis stale bread. Jim is sick and they think it's another round of Mrsa. I'm kind of overwhelmed thinking about that because of the amount of scrubbing, sanitizing, separating out of towels and linens. What the heck world? Just when I was kicking derierres and jotting down sobriquets. Dang! On the horribly funny side some wag with an ax to grind with hate pastor Steven Anderson posted this. It's juvenile, it's nasty but I am still laughing! Who has he managed to anger the most lately?

  Once picked up Gerry on this road and gave him a ride! You may not remember Gerry, he lives on a street between our airport to whorehouse street and the big grocery store. He's a few years older than the husband, he's interesting, entertaining and occasionally weird as all get out! He graduated from Berkley, but the more you talk to him, the more convinced you are that he burned way too many brain cells in nearby Haight-Asbury in the 1960s. I see him out and about often, walking his pack of stray dogs on a variety of frayed leashes. I've given him rides around the area, even if he has zero acquaintance with deodorant and it's pretty obvious soap and water rarely touch his body in a place in the high 90s daily. Luckily for me my noise is usually stuffed up by whatever pollen is happening, so that doesn't usually phase me that he smells.   Through the years as I run into Gerry our conversations range from the mundane to the brilliant to the "Oh holy shit he...

  So much to tell and so little. It's been a while. I'm still finding this year filled with more twists and turns than a drunk road contractor following a snake through the woods. Big crazy stuff happening in the world of non-denominational Evangelical that I've been detailing on my Substack - https://withstrangefire.substack.com/ On the personal side I'm struggling with reestablishing the boundaries I need. Jim is still not 100% recovered from his cancer surgery followed by mrsa and the incision opening up. I am still struggling to regulate my emotions, sleep schedule and a million dull medical conditions, all of which aren't happy about the low barometric pressures we've been having. Very dull stuff. I'm going to have to explain to a good friend that if I'm hurting over a huge heart hurt I don't need her trying to 'fix' me, which she's been attempting. I am beginning to think the kindest thing we can do with the grieving is to simply li...

  Yes, that's my kitchen, and yes, I have been to the produce store I always go to. This bunch ran about $40! Faint, shriek! Inflation has arrived. A few months ago this was about $10 less. All local produce save for the pears from Chile. Yes, I'm still trying to eat no processed foods while Jim fills his maw with every processed food on the planet. It means many days I am fixing two totally different meals. Jim insisted we name the Roomba. It's the best thing ever and does an amazing job on the floors. Newest family member and we named it Rover.  I am avoiding all things NFL and political right now after wishing things like painful genital warts on the one candidate that kept pushing some insane narrative about Venezuela. It all just makes my blood pressure rise if I pay it any mind. This week has been a strange one. Had a long almost contentious phone call from a friend I'd not heard from in a long while. He's going through something in his mind, something quite b...

  Gonna need a glass that big for tequila if I continue on like the last few days. I did finally calm down some even if I was "Bitch please!" yesterday morn.  I got up to a pious mewling ridiculous missive from Shrek. It was lecturing me about things I'd said on Facebook on some of the Costa Rica travel groups. Was it important stuff? Oh hell no! I was complaining about the fact that someone on my block was firing off a cannon-like device and it was rattling our windows and geegaws! My post was meant to be humorous, I referenced a silly scene in "Mary Poppins" where the nearby retired admiral fired off his cannon daily. This scene Communities around Guanacaste do shoot off what sounds like a cannon twice an evening leading up to a festival. The cannon alike fires in the village hosting the shindig, so it's a way for everyone in the surrounding community to know. I know this, I've known this the more than seven years we've been living here. Common kno...

  Cozy kitchen, and all those things listed above. I need this badly. My husband is flying back home tomorrow by himself, which worries me.  Today I'm rushing about cleaning the kitchen and living room because I want to start using my new Roomba that vacuums and mops. I want to start with extra clean and keep it extra clean, plus I needed to make sure there was nothing on the floor that should not be there. A strenuous task, throwing out the damn back and discovering all the places that got blasted by cat pee when I was gone. Apparently a new male that shows up to eat from our feral feeding has Stinky in a panic, and he's sprayed some of the strangest stuff, like the huge container or toilet paper from Price Smart I left sitting in the living room this week. I must have scrubbed more things with that enzyme cleanser. In the middle of this Jim messages me, telling me we have to pick up a pile of stuff for that evil ass church secretary. I scanned the list, sighed and ranted to ...

  Rough seas at Playa Grande. Shared this story on You Tube but I was something of a rambling mess yesterday because of all the traveling. When I do something hard it follows that I need a few days recuperation to do anything more. Add falling yesterday to the list and you got it. Stinky my cat accidentally tripped me into my giant Price Smart horde.  I traveled back here to Costa Rica on Tuesday. Asscrack of dawn flight with Delta. I have to say Delta is wonderful, and they way they handle disability flying is the best thing ever! It's the little things like I was struggling with my carry on and getting on the plane during pre boarding, and the sweet gate agent sent an employee down the jet way to carry my bag, give me his arm as support and take me right to my seat. It was a good trip. There was one thing that happened that just made me laugh out loud. I got called a "dirty hippie" by someone on the Atlanta to Liberia leg of my trip. When I went to pre board on that fli...

  Sunset at the park near my former U.S. home. Tomorrow morning I fly home, at least my home for now, back to that scant acre we own a mere mile from the beach. Part of me is looking forward, but a large part of me does not want to go! I am feeling some serious melancholia today mixed with nerves. I know there's no reason to be nervous, I think it's because Delta already cancelled my original flight, rescheduled me automatically to one with an eighteen hour layover before I had to go in and reschedule it again, and now they keep screwing with the arrival times in weird small increments. Just making me happy I broke down and booked Comfort Plus seats. Eh, maybe it's full moon-itis I'm having, I usually avoid anything to do with the general public if it's full moon because it does seem to discombobulate folks too much. Please, please, no Karens on my travels and keep me from Karen-hood. But what I think it might be is this last year. The struggling over Jim's canc...

Only photo I've taken here is our crazy former neighbor's yard festooned with crazy pro-Trump tchotkies. Only pro Trump anything I've seen so far and I have to believe that bodes well for the election. Right now in Maryland. Have been here two weeks now. Visited Rehoboth Beach for nearly a week and the rest of the time here near D.C. Good trip so far, barring things like American Airlines gate agents bad behavior in the face of disability access. Got accused of being "Jetway Jesused" by a few passengers unable to understand that the Thalamic stroke means walking with a cane in small airports, and taking the wheelchair in Miami. Gate agent picked up attitude from passengers, and attempting to skip calling anyone for preboarding. I sat with some pretty awesome folks on both flights and had a great time. Rehoboth was meh. Not the house we stayed in, not the family or fun, just the beach was meh. Every thing else was pretty great, including the mushy peas and fish and...