The Sea is a Salty One

  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 ...

  Visited Rosedown on Sunday. Jim insisted even as I don't like visiting plantations that just glorify slavery and gloss over it.  Bob is still, well, Bob. He keeps yammering out doom and gloom involving the house. I am ignoring him just so I can work in the yard weeding and replanting the flower beds. Going with all flowering things like petunias, lavender and canterbury bells. Discovering bushes and other half-dead landscaping beneath the weeds.  We got so frustrated waiting the real estate appraisal that we went to the cop shop to ask for a well check on the guy. He finally contacted us, came back out to do another measurement and left his phone on the lawn. Go figure. He's ancient and I'm getting the vibe that Mr. Dementia is at play again. He had disappeared because he fell down the parking lot drop off in front of his office. However that was Monday and today is Wednesday and still no report. It's been 13 days now. I remember when this man came home. I told my hus...

 Ah yes! My favorite asthma meme! Mr. Asthma is here so hard I'm having to keep consuming those delicious drinks with Delta 9 in them. Plus I got crazy left handed carpal tunnel. Such is life. Just had the yard done at Mom's and yet again Bob skeedaddled across the street to talk shit about us to the lawn mowing guy. Then that crazy Gladys Krabitz extremely nosy neighbor kept stopping him. At one point she chased me down to moan it could only be 'the right people'. Translation: No blacks allowed! I told her that I didn't care if the buyer was from Mars or Pluto as long as they have the long folding green for me. I wonder if real Martians or aliens with green skin would be preferable to her over people of color. Now I know Betty will sound the alarm to all the neighbors so I'm expecting more awkward conversations about 'the right people. None of them  get that the price of the house alone is going to be out of the reach of many folks, shiftless whites or othe...

  Not my mother's haunted doll mansionette, but I feel like spray painting this on Bob's wall. Bob continues to be a fly in the ointment. We got a real estate agent we like a lot, and we're in the process of figuring out a price. She thinks the place will sell rapidly because it's right on the country club golf course, even needing a new roof and a few other improvements. It's move in ready, I mean you can live there no problem, while you do the work. Bob is LIVID! He shouted at the husband yesterday. He didn't know I was right there, just inside the door listening. I love my husband as he forced Bob to stop using polite euphemisms and spit out what he meant by "undesirables" - Blacks, of course! Get fucked Bob! You offended the wrong gal with mixed race heritage.  We're clearing out the room of boxes - the dining room. House is clean, even if I must pick up a bit in one of the bedrooms. Life is good, just not with Bob. Mom is not good, she's w...

  I am here, near toxic Big BR! The traveling diaries.  April 3rd Flying was a complete shitshow under the best of circumstances. Right now is definitely not the best of circumstances. We bought the tickets right before the debacle that was the partial government shut down complete with copious unpaid TSA personnel. ICE joined in to help the nightmare circumstance that security lines devolved into. The TSA folks got some emergency funding before we flew, like a day or two before, but not by much. Turns out none of that silly confloption affected our flying. What did was the blow back of the aftermath – flights delayed and sometimes canceled. We were more than an hour late leaving Liberia and more than 90 minutes late hitting Charlotte for our next flight. I was on the sharp tines of a set tenterhooks hoping we’d make our flight. Going to Charlotte we had to get through customs and immigration before going through TSA and heading to our next flight. Held little hope. As s...

  Flamingo yesterday. I had an epiphany this week. Over the time since Covid I'd become somewhat depressed. Not continually, more like feeling uncomfortable in my own skin in my dear home here. Why? Well, the constant demands of our neighbor here I have had such issues with. Also I've been mourning my old life, my healthy life, a life were walking into a building holding lit cigarettes, fuzzy dogs, strong colognes, and cleaning supplies didn't mean epipen+emergency room. Back almost twenty years ago when I got my diagnosis I went through an extended period of mourning over the changes. Now I'm seeing far more clearly what I've lost, and it hurts.  What's the deal? I watched as they took advantage of my husband, again, again, and yet again. Every time he tried to break away only to have this person push the guilt buttons hard. I've talked to the husband endlessly, including him complaining about this person to me. But the husband could not stand up to this pe...

  Bought a new sewing machine. The computer screen on my Bernina finally kicked the bucket and cannot be repaired here, so I'm going with a Janome for all my quilting needs.  Light blue and covered with pictures of cats, yes please, what more could a girl want? The last few days, actually weeks, has been sort of rough with the exception of the days in Arenal. My darling husband had being going through quite a lot after finding out a few weeks ago that one of his best friends since middle school, Big Joe, was terminally ill with lung cancer. On Friday he finally passed on even as my husband was fretting and trying to decide if he was going to fly to the States and see Joe. Airline prices had gone nuts after the USA bombed Iran. I am merely surprised it took this long for Joe to develop lung cancer. Lordy could that man just smoke and smoke and smoke.. and drink beer at Max's bar. I have hoisted a few with Joe at that place listening to his stories of crowd surfing and the local...

 We spent most of last week on vacation. Figured we needed some days away before we head to Louisiana for the final things to do for my mother. It was good and bad at the same time. A rare photograph of the Arenal Volcano completely exposed. Many times it's ringed in smoke. Not this time. The drive was fine. We stopped for pastries at the German bakery before arriving at the usual place we stay, a hotel on the mountain above the Arenal Waterfall looking out at the volcano and Cerro Chatto. We pulled up into the parking lot and the parking lot was gone, just a small amount of gravel to park on. At first I was upset because sitting on the huge pool deck reading was one of my favorite things to do there, but they are rebuilding much more nicely this starting to look shabby hotel. Turns out they tore down the hotel and are rebuilding it, with, get this, 6 count 'em 6 handicapped accessible rooms too. That's amazing. Most hotels do not have that capacity! None of this affected u...

  Using this photo for the back cover of my book. It's Copey, a typical evening with the clouds coming down over the mountain peaks, very otherworldly. To the extreme left you see a tiny view of the church that burned down about a month before we left. Large several hundred year old wooden church in this tiny town burned to the ground. Using a photo of the church burning down as the front cover. I had real fun with the back cover adding fake quotes from various Christian Evangelical provocateurs I've knocked heads with, including adding in a fake Kenneth Copeland "WHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhoooooooo" More amusing than trying get other writers to do a book blurb about my book being amaze balls. Very few books are that amazing, I don't think mine is. But I like fun, I need fun because right now isn't very fun at all. So what's my major malfunction, Kenneth? Just family. Church. Church had eight - count 'em - eight dogs equals mild anaphylaxis for me hooray. Prep...

  Walking the unpaved back roads of Copey when I first got here almost nine years ago. Believe it or not that little mountain stream holds trout.  I should have known that the offer was codswallop. It's a local realtor trying to buy my mother's house at a fire sale price. Nope. I know what it's worth. I know what others on that block not on the golf course have sold for when they needed a complete remodel. Oh please, I know for a fact that the few undeveloped lots in the neighborhood are going for at least the amount of the offer. I think some folks see an empty house, listen to town scuttlebutt and try to get in at an unbelievably low price. I can afford to sit on it for the right buyer. And now the Aunt Heap has spoken. Late last night one of them messaged me, telling me to call the across the street neighbor. I told her I would have the husband do it. He's the one with the relationship with the eighty six year old man there. This is the same neighbor that emailed the...

  Waiting on an offer on the haunted doll house on the country club 5th hole. That photo is just the dolls in the living room. You should see the stacks in the other rooms. Heard last night that someone is eager to buy my mother's home. I am supposed to be going there next week. This thing might all be over with now except for the exchange of moneys and the shouting. Gawd I hope so. I have no genuine need or use for the house. It would be a good house for someone, just not me.

  Feeling pretty belssed right now. Even in the heat, the dust and the copious wildfires. Oh, the wildfires you would not believe them. Every year during dry season someone burning leaves gets out of hand and large swathes have been known to burn. Right now it's in the mountains above Hernandez, not far from Avellanas. Smelled and witnessed it the other day at twilight as we rode back from Santa Cruz and the credit union/co-op. Hanging around between the beach and the road. It creates some magnificent sunsets. The more smoke and dust, the prettier the sunset. Like this: or this:   The air was horrid that day. I'm always darting out to get spectacular sunsets even in the dust/smoke if the asthma's not so bad. See the panga boats anchored just offshore? To get out to the big sailboats and cruisers.  I've been in the best mood I've felt in I swear it's been three years, maybe even four. The summer I came back and discovered the person feeding our cats had been givi...

  Tamarindo beach in black and white. Still sick but only whining about it on my page The Mast Cell Block Tango . Let us just say that walking out into the world beyond our living room is like stepping into the dry heat of a blast furnace right now.  We're still trudging back and forth to the credit union over an hour away, still trying to scare up the right documents to move the bulk of our liquid assets there since the bank is suddenly paying diddly squat. Nothing in Costa Rica happens in a hurry and it doesn't pay to think that it will. It just makes you crazy if you ignore Tico Time and think anything will happen rapidly. I've long since lay down my illusions and frustrations over Tico Time and now I expect it. Saturday we went out to see 2 new friends of the husband's. They were DJing 80s music at a bar we'd never been to before. The place was merely meh, it didn't even have the virtue of being on the beach like most of the joints we go to. It was positivel...

  The yearly flowering of our banana tree. It's been pretty dull this week. Going to and fro from a credit union in the next big town over to get a better rate on our CDs. Very tedious and time consuming. However in the middle of the quietude with our home and lives in crash lands my mother yet again. One of her neighbors tells me that he saw steam coming from the roof vent and went into the house to take a closer look. It was the faucet in the bathtub running full on. He accused me of leaving the water running after telling me he shut the water off at the main valve and I must hire a plumber the next time I visit. I did not leave the water on! Not at all! I did notice you have to give that old thing a hard wrench to turn it off so there was zero dripping. Which is what I did. I am not really surprised this happened because I'm pretty sure my mother stopped all maintenance work the house something like ten years ago. There are some repairs that need to happen.  Came to the con...

  Trying to stay peaceful, which isn't easy right now! Asthma drugs have amphetamine like side effects so many times I feel like kicking ass but I don't! Popping benadryl like effing TicTacs. Stuck inside for now. The Ogress never appeared! Good! She's back trespassing on someone else now. Last week when she was trying to use our pool the husband drug his feet on her. He never allowed her in. She contacted our tenants and wanted them to allow her in. No dice! Goodie, goodie, gum drops. I know this runs contrary to what my husband keeps trying to manifest -- helping anyone that asks. He sometimes gets taken advantage of by the unscrupulous. I'm proud of him for his reluctance to allow her to be here. Says a lot about how he also does not want various folks here any more than I do. But today is a new day and I am rejoicing, well, as much as I can rejoice from the bed. Skipped church because of the dust levels outside.  Positives this week? The jeweler finished my emerald ...

 Man I wish this was real and it actually worked because I could use some coconut silkiness. Asthma gone haywire right now, but I'm not whining about my idiotic health here any longer, just in my Mast Cell Block Tango page . Separated it out because it's a lot and I needed to detail it for anyone else maybe mightily struggling to get a MCAS or systemic mastocytosis diagnosis. Right now I am this.  Yep, Crackheadin' Mast Cell city right now. I know I said I'd never talk about this awful woman again but it's rant mad shirt or explode at this point. I am LAUGHING at all of this. I don't have the mental bandwidth to actually be terrifyingly angry because, well, mast cell. I will make my displeasure more known once this lifts. So in the midst of this, my grief over Porque, my annoyance over Mr. Ogre and pal standing up the husband and trying to deal with Bottomless Babs from long distance the Ogress inserts herself again. How this time? She whines to the husband, and...

 Not just because of the asthma, but other things. The fact that the husband was stood up yet again by Mr. Ogre at a social event was infuriating. Wish he would realize that the guy is nothing but bad news. I did paint a portrait of Miss Porque. The house feels very strange with a mere one cat now. So much so we've been talking about getting a kitten. I don't know how Stinky will react.  Here's Porque's portrait. Tomorrow I am doing Stinky's picture. He's happy as a clam to be the only one in the house. Much more relaxed.