It's fly season and if there is one creature I hate above almost all else, it is the common fly. And they are coming in by the droves, and since no one in Costa Rica seems to believe in screens, we fight flys all day long if the door is open. And the door is always open. That means lots and lots of flys in the house.
Now I am grateful that we don't seem to have the "circling flys" that we had in San Diego. That is when about 10 of them decide to simply fly around and around in circles. Not too fast, not too slow, no apparent agenda but to simply circle in the air. I hate them especially because they are very hard to kill. They never land on anything. I would get so frustrated that I would wildly start swinging the fly swatter through the air which is a waste of time and energy because everyone knows it is almost impossible to kill a fly on the wing.
Lately Mike and I have taken turns going on these fly kill sprees. I've killed 11 during one session, and I have killed two at a time, no small feat. Diego the dog does not care for the swinging fly swatter, but since he isn't making any moves to kill the flys himself, he will just have to learn to deal with it.
Flys - a scourge of life
Destroy the serenity
Of a quiet day
There! That's my fly hate haiku. I am too lazy to write a sonnet. I suppose the answer is to find someone who can make screen doors. It can't be that hard. I bet Mike could do it if he wanted to. But he has enough projects.
Things have been going fine around here, though construction of our pizza oven and patio are at a standstill - we were told there is stuff being held up in customs - I say go deal with it and get my crap so we can get on with it. Customs can be very hard to deal with, I know from personal experience. So while I am sympathetic, I do think something needs to be done, like a personal visit to the office. That sort of thing often works.
It is still dry season here, and one of the interesting things about the dry season is the explosion of flowering trees. There are all colors and it is amazing, especially since the landscape is otherwise a bit dry looking. We have several in the yard. And we have another tree - lengua de gato - that is covered with little white flowers. These little white flowers are going to turn into these blue berries that every animal and bird love to eat. Hopefully Diego will not chase them away yapping infernally. One can only hope, anyway.
Today is a quiet day, and all I can hear are the birds and the bugs. Mike and Diego are taking midday naps. Life is still good.
"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony." (Mahatma Gandhi)
Saturday, April 7, 2018
Monday, April 2, 2018
Monday: Just Another Day to A Happy Retiree
I think I am going to fret about something here. But its private, so maybe not. I guess I'll have to think about it. Sorry for that.
We have been steadily at the house since we got back from the states and I am glad about it. I feel pretty well settled in for now at least. We have some things we have to take care of here - like getting on the list to have high speed internet and to get one of our cars registered.
The internet thing will involve visiting the ICE (ee-say) office and getting on some list. ICE is the electricity entity for Costa Rica. I have no idea if it is going to be difficult or not. We already went once but were turned away because we didn't have our corporation papers with us. (Side note: in Costa Rica,, foreigners set up corporations to do business. Our bank account is in our corporation's name, for example. Some people put all their cars and real estate in the corporation, but we haven't done that.) So now we have to go back, this time with our papers. We'll see. I want this internet if for no other reason than I can have Netflix.
The car registration is more intense than it is in the US. You have to have your car inspected, and if it does not pass inspection, you can't get it registered and can't drive it. It is called "reteve" (reh TEH vay). They check your brakes, and a bunch of other things that I can't remember. They check the tires. So we plan to take our car t our mechanic and make sure it will pass, and fix anything that needs fixing. Then we'll make an appointment with the reteve people and get that done. We have two cars and we already did it for our other (newer, nicer) car. It seems like a hassle, but it runs quite smoothly and it helps keep crappy cars off the road. It is always nice to get that sort of thing out of the way. The only thing hanging over my head at this point is taxes!!!
Now that I have bored everyone including myself silly, there is not lot going on around here. The weather has been awesome, with beautiful clear skies, lots of wind, and temperatures barely exceeding 80 degrees F. Mike and I have taken to having our coffee on the back porch and just gazing to the mountains in the far distance. This is the season to burn the sugar cane fields, so we can see little fires dotting the horizon. In the daytime we can only see the smoke, but at night we can see the flames. We are above that fray so we don't have to breathe in all the smoke, but because it is at pretty much the same level as the fires, the wind blows ashes all over it. They are sort of sticky and we definitely have to use the power washer rather than just hosing off the deck.
Also right now we are having our outside remodeled, sort of. We are adding a large covered patio that will house an outdoor kitchen. The pizza oven is going to be the first thing built, and we have to search for just the right grill to be added. We want a smoker and a cook top as well as the grill and the pizza oven. I already make really good pizza if I do say so myself, and the new oven will make it better. This is all Phase One - Phase Two will include a pool. And I still want desperately to buy the lot next to us. Plus I want to buy this farm I have had my eye on - the price keeps dropping. The sellers are apparently heirs who really need to sell it.
(I certainly do not need a farm. I know this. I would never be willing to do the hard work - in fact, I'd be looking for someone to sharecrop it. But I don't think I'll be buying that farm soon, no matter how much I want it. It's completely irrational. I still want to go look at it, but I won't because it would not be fair to the seller.)
Anyway, there is a lot of construction noise going on, which is not always fun, but they are making great progress. I don't know how long it will be before we move into Phase Two after the completion of Phase One. It is completely overwhelming for me, thank goodness for Mike. Plus I am NOT comfortable with the amount of money we are spending. Mike says we are fine, and I trust him because he is sensible about money and handles it all. I could handle it of course, but he wouldn't be able to not constantly kibbutz, which would bug the crap out of me, so I let him do it. I have certain things that have to be met or I get too nervous, and he has shown me that those fears are groundless. Nevertheless, I have PTSD about money things, and as long as he says things are okay, I am going to believe it. That is how much faith I have in Mike. While I may get furious with him at times, I do trust him with stuff like money (and whether or not an outfit "works"). There, that is what I was alluding to in my first paragraph. Yes, I am nervous about money. It is hard for me to spend money. It is hard for me to talk about money. I don't even like to think about it, really. I want the taxes done and not hanging over my head. I hate this time of year because it is time to think about money. You can't get away from it. And you know what makes it all so totally stupid? Our taxes are easy. No problems. But I still hate it. Not good for my mental health, always precarious under the best of situations, ha ha ha.
Next week I think we are going to go down to the boat so Mike can get to work on all the things we bought for it in San Diego. And he plans to pretty much rewire the whole boat so he will finally have the electrical system of his dreams. I will have to stand there and hand him tools and stuff. Maybe he won't need help and Diego and I can go to the swimming pool. But one good thing is that we decided to get a portable air conditioner so when he has to spend a lot of time working inside. We had one of these a few years back and it makes things a lot better. We only used the old one (and will use the new one) when we are at the dock. And I don't want to let it make us go soft. I am proud of the fact that we can be happy and comfortable even when the cabin is like 90 degrees F. As long as I have a fan on me, I can handle it.
Well, I think I should wind this up as I am really beginning to babble. Life is pretty good.
"Your net worth to the world is usually determined by what remains after your bad habits are subtracted from your good ones." (Benjamin Franklin)
We have been steadily at the house since we got back from the states and I am glad about it. I feel pretty well settled in for now at least. We have some things we have to take care of here - like getting on the list to have high speed internet and to get one of our cars registered.
The internet thing will involve visiting the ICE (ee-say) office and getting on some list. ICE is the electricity entity for Costa Rica. I have no idea if it is going to be difficult or not. We already went once but were turned away because we didn't have our corporation papers with us. (Side note: in Costa Rica,, foreigners set up corporations to do business. Our bank account is in our corporation's name, for example. Some people put all their cars and real estate in the corporation, but we haven't done that.) So now we have to go back, this time with our papers. We'll see. I want this internet if for no other reason than I can have Netflix.
The car registration is more intense than it is in the US. You have to have your car inspected, and if it does not pass inspection, you can't get it registered and can't drive it. It is called "reteve" (reh TEH vay). They check your brakes, and a bunch of other things that I can't remember. They check the tires. So we plan to take our car t our mechanic and make sure it will pass, and fix anything that needs fixing. Then we'll make an appointment with the reteve people and get that done. We have two cars and we already did it for our other (newer, nicer) car. It seems like a hassle, but it runs quite smoothly and it helps keep crappy cars off the road. It is always nice to get that sort of thing out of the way. The only thing hanging over my head at this point is taxes!!!
Now that I have bored everyone including myself silly, there is not lot going on around here. The weather has been awesome, with beautiful clear skies, lots of wind, and temperatures barely exceeding 80 degrees F. Mike and I have taken to having our coffee on the back porch and just gazing to the mountains in the far distance. This is the season to burn the sugar cane fields, so we can see little fires dotting the horizon. In the daytime we can only see the smoke, but at night we can see the flames. We are above that fray so we don't have to breathe in all the smoke, but because it is at pretty much the same level as the fires, the wind blows ashes all over it. They are sort of sticky and we definitely have to use the power washer rather than just hosing off the deck.
Also right now we are having our outside remodeled, sort of. We are adding a large covered patio that will house an outdoor kitchen. The pizza oven is going to be the first thing built, and we have to search for just the right grill to be added. We want a smoker and a cook top as well as the grill and the pizza oven. I already make really good pizza if I do say so myself, and the new oven will make it better. This is all Phase One - Phase Two will include a pool. And I still want desperately to buy the lot next to us. Plus I want to buy this farm I have had my eye on - the price keeps dropping. The sellers are apparently heirs who really need to sell it.
(I certainly do not need a farm. I know this. I would never be willing to do the hard work - in fact, I'd be looking for someone to sharecrop it. But I don't think I'll be buying that farm soon, no matter how much I want it. It's completely irrational. I still want to go look at it, but I won't because it would not be fair to the seller.)
Anyway, there is a lot of construction noise going on, which is not always fun, but they are making great progress. I don't know how long it will be before we move into Phase Two after the completion of Phase One. It is completely overwhelming for me, thank goodness for Mike. Plus I am NOT comfortable with the amount of money we are spending. Mike says we are fine, and I trust him because he is sensible about money and handles it all. I could handle it of course, but he wouldn't be able to not constantly kibbutz, which would bug the crap out of me, so I let him do it. I have certain things that have to be met or I get too nervous, and he has shown me that those fears are groundless. Nevertheless, I have PTSD about money things, and as long as he says things are okay, I am going to believe it. That is how much faith I have in Mike. While I may get furious with him at times, I do trust him with stuff like money (and whether or not an outfit "works"). There, that is what I was alluding to in my first paragraph. Yes, I am nervous about money. It is hard for me to spend money. It is hard for me to talk about money. I don't even like to think about it, really. I want the taxes done and not hanging over my head. I hate this time of year because it is time to think about money. You can't get away from it. And you know what makes it all so totally stupid? Our taxes are easy. No problems. But I still hate it. Not good for my mental health, always precarious under the best of situations, ha ha ha.
Next week I think we are going to go down to the boat so Mike can get to work on all the things we bought for it in San Diego. And he plans to pretty much rewire the whole boat so he will finally have the electrical system of his dreams. I will have to stand there and hand him tools and stuff. Maybe he won't need help and Diego and I can go to the swimming pool. But one good thing is that we decided to get a portable air conditioner so when he has to spend a lot of time working inside. We had one of these a few years back and it makes things a lot better. We only used the old one (and will use the new one) when we are at the dock. And I don't want to let it make us go soft. I am proud of the fact that we can be happy and comfortable even when the cabin is like 90 degrees F. As long as I have a fan on me, I can handle it.
Well, I think I should wind this up as I am really beginning to babble. Life is pretty good.
"Your net worth to the world is usually determined by what remains after your bad habits are subtracted from your good ones." (Benjamin Franklin)
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