Sorry I haven’t been blogging for a couple days — I’m depressed.

 

Have been sleeping a lot.

 

Lisa — my best friend in the whole world — flew home on Friday.

 

It sucks.  It really sucks!

 

I’ve walked twice with Crystal. That helped for the 90 minutes or so that it went on each day. Thank you, Crystal, for checking in and helping to keep me on an even keel!

 

But then I came home and there was nobody there except Charli. (Thank heaven for my beloved Charli, but she isn’t Lisa!)

 

I have to get my baseline back

 

This is no fun.

 

I knew it wouldn’t be, but it’s even worse than I expected.

 

The house is spotless. (Bereavement cleaning. It’s usually clean, but now it’s ridiculously clean!).

 

I’m back to eating mostly beans and rice with added ingredients.

 

I plan to ride the bus to Grecia on Wednesday morning early to do a few things: get cat food, a Subway sandwich, and my INR checked.  That outing will feel more like baseline life again — except that the last time I was on the bus, Lisa was with me…  *sigh*)

 

And I’ll do the feria and lunch on Friday, so I can hang with my also-precious-to-me Costa Rica family for several wonderful hours and get  more ham and organic lettuce and other things (probably more tilapia and hongos/mushrooms).

 

Deb, my landlady, brought me homemade peach cobbler last night

 

I was asleep when she stopped by, so she left it on a chair on the back patio and then texted to let me know; she followed up the text up with a phone call (which I missed) when I didn’t respond back.

 

I heard the call come in and jumped up to get it, but she hung up right away so I’d see the earier text (I suppose), so I texted her back thanking her. Minutes later, texted her again to let her know it was the best peach cobbler I have ever had in my life. She said Lisa’s soup was wonderful, too. (She sent the cobbler back in the bowl I had put Lisa’s soup in for her to have.)

 

The MOON last night was sensational

 

I tried to get a decent picture of it but there was some atmospheric anomaly that shows two moons — one glowing brightly but almost round, the other smaller and to the left of the glowing one that showed what my eye actually witnessed: a half bowl-like image. The image below is nowhere near as impressive as what I saw, but it’s at least suggestive:

 

 

 

I don’t understand how my phone camera caught TWO moons in the image — the big glaring one (which wasn’t there at all in the sky). You may have to enlarge the above image to see what I saw.  I could actually see the craters in the “bowl moon” that sits beside and to the lower left of the “fake” moon.

 

Neal Degrasse Tyson would have to explain the second, bigger moon anomaly to me.  I sure wish the camera had captured what I actually saw without the “fake glaring one”. I took this image out on the patio, so there was no “through the glass” anomaly, for sure.

 

It’s a mystery to me! 

I live on Planet Earth. We do not have two moons!

Oh, well!

 

It’s gorgeous again today

 

I walked (alone) this morning, so I was down on the soccer/futbol field earlier than usual. The school and preschool places were packed with cars, parents and kids, which was a surprise to me.

 

I took the usual six laps, but this time I walked on the field instead of on the track because the track was filled all the way around with cars, kids and their parents heading for their schools.

 

When the elementary school opened a few minutes later, a sort of celebrity (or school?)  “mascot” (human in a Disney-like character costume) was arriving to welcome the children, so I’m guessing this is the first day back to school following the winter break, which around here lasts for a little over two months between mid-December and right about now.

 

Costa Rica does this because this is a family first/relationships country, and a lot of employers also turn their employees loose to enjoy serious “quality time” with their families and friends.  In other words, Costa Rica is a civilized country. The Almighty Dollar — er, colones — don’t dictate how much or how little you get to spend time with the people who matter most in your life.

 

It’s so freaking refreshing to live in a country that values LIVING over earning a living. People here are happy, relaxed and tranquilo on a lot less money than you can even imagine if you live and work in the U.S.

 

That’s all for this time.  Gonna go sit on the back patio and take in the gorgeous view for a while.

 

PURA VIDA!!!