It’s time to catch you up on my Friday, Saturday and Sunday fun with Crystal and Dale Garrison.

 

Perhaps I should be calling this Garrison Gaeity Week.

 

I have been in almost constant companionship with them during my waking hours for — what — four days now???  Ever since my 75th birthday!  How cool is that!??

 

On Friday

 

… I rode into Grecia with Crystal for about an hour so she (and Jon, immigration coach and our dear friend) could get her picture taken for the DIMEX card at the correo (post office) now that she is entitled to it after being approved as a pensionado resident and paying the fees and the first month of CAJA payments. (Dale had received his a day earlier and had done the same thing, so he stayed at home because there were workers finishing the fence along the front of their property.)

 

While Crystal and Jon were in the correo, I went to the bank to get some colones for the feria, which we were planning to visit the next day (instead of Friday) because Crystal had an appointment with a patient at 11:30 on Friday. I also got some more cat food pouches very quickly at Mercado Municipal, just a block farther away from the correo.  I was back in plenty of time for Crystal and Jon to wrap things up.

 

I greeted Jon when he came out of the room with Crystal and then he waited with us until our Uber arrived. He told us that the Saturday feria is a much-truncated version of the Friday one and that I might not be able to find iceberg lettuce that day. I said I’d find out, for sure, and that if I didn’t get it, I could do without it for a week (by pouting a lot!).

 

We were back at Crystal’s within 90 minutes of leaving there, and I walked up the hill to home afterward to spend the rest of the daylight hours studying my Spanish books, which is among my favorite pastimes these days!

 

The one I’m reading and underlining now is called Breaking Out of Beginner’s Spanish (another book Jon bequeathed to me recently) and the author, Joseph J Keenan is an absolute hoot. I’m already more than three quarters of the way through it as a result. I will finish it tomorrow morning and then begin transferring it to the new notebooks I bought for that purpose. Writing down what I underlined helps me retain (and be able to find again!) the information I learned from it.

 

On Saturday

 

…I had walked 9541 steps by 5:36 p.m. because WHEEEEE! I spent five and a half hours in Grecia with Crystal and Dale. We Ubered to the feria first where I found everything I wanted: iceberg lettuce (three places still had it), ham, and avocados.

 

Jon was absolutely right. It’s a much less populated affair on Saturdays, with about half as many vendors and probably a tenth of the shoppers, but it felt like seventh heaven to me. As a result, we were out of there by 11 and on our way to Subway via another Uber (the Garrisons build up points on their card using Uber so their air and other travel costs less). Dale and I ordered chicken and bacon half sandwiches. Crystal has a gluten allegy so she ordered her meal “sin pan” (without bread) so she basically got a Subway salad!

 

We all loved our meals there.

 

From there, we wandered down the street to visit Mundo Magico because the Garrisons were looking for a bathroom scale.  Alas, MM didn’t have one, but we found one later at HEKA (more on that later in this post.) Dale was also in search of  a walking cane with a seat. His hip is getting much better but it’s good for him to be able to take a seat when they visit stores without chairs or benches.

 

I did get two more spiral bound notebooks while there (on sale) so I can continue to take notes during my Spanish studies.

 

Our first stop after Mundo Magico was Huracan

 

… the affordable place Jon had told me about to get shorts and t-shirts. I knew they had sundresses and skirts, too, because Lisa and I had gone there while she was here looking for a sundress for one of her patients, Kristin.  Alas, she didn’t find one that she thought would serve during that outing.

 

Crystal found a number of skirts (but alas, no sundresses that she loved) to try on. So, while she did that and modeled them for Dale to vote yay or nay, I went to the nearby grocery store to get bread, milk and nectar since the downtown stores are less expensive than the two places near where we live.

 

By the time I got back to Huracan, Dale was still waiting for Crystal to try on a couple more things, so I waited with him. The Huracan customer service ladies were wonderful and Crystal left there with some really beautiful and affordable treasures. I believe she got six skirts and pantyhose for what it would have cost them for a single skirt in the States.

 

Then Crystal Got a Replacement Engagement Ring

 

After leaving Huracan and walking across the street to Mercado Municipal, Dale led us to a jewelry place he knew of so Crystal could look at their engagement rings. She lost hers and wanted a replacement.

 

She found one she absolutely loved, so they ordered it.  We walked back up the street to get USD cash at Davidienda so Dale could pay for it.

 

We had three hours to make the three-block round trip

 

…because sizing the ring would take two to three hours, the jeweler told us. So, we “turtled/slothed” our ways up and back, stopping at Central Park to sit for a while and enjoy the breeze in each direction.

 

After Dale paid the jeweler, we had to think of something more to do for two or three hours while the ring was being sized, so we went to a soda at Mercado Municipal and ate our second lunch of the day at a place where Dale and a friend had eaten before. Dale said the hamburgers there were excellent, so we all ordered those (Crystal’s “sin pan”), french fries and Coca Colas and spent a good 45 minutes there. The server was super friendly and attentive, so she got an additional tip when we left (in addition to the default one they always get here in CR.)

 

There was another couple there with a son who looked to be about eight years old.  The boy kept looking at us as if we were somehow exotic.  I surmised (wrongly) that perhaps he was learning English (as so many young ticos are these days in their escuelas) and wondering whether he should come over and try it out on us, because he was looking at us as if he was rather excited and eager to make our acquaintance!

 

I said to him, “Hola!” and waved. He waved back.

 

I asked him, “Habla ingles?”

 

He shook his head no, so I let him/them know, “No hablo espanol bien, pero he estudiando mucho!  Como esta!”

 

He got real shy then! His mom answered in some way (belatedly, I guess) Crystal told me, but my head was turned and I didn’t hear or see that happen. By the time I looked over again, the small family was on to other topics, so our brief interaction with them ended!

 

When we left there, we started wandering, looking for the bathroom scale and cane.  We went to HEKA and found the bathroom scale.  They didn’t have a seated cane, so I googled them “en Grecia, CR” and information popped up saying that pharmacies might have them.

 

We were very near one, so we headed in the direction, but Dale spotted another clothing store and saw a sundress that he thought Crystal might like, so we headed in there and waited for 20 or 30 minutes while she tried some on.  Alas, the one she liked best didn’t fit. She did find an additional outfit there, though, so the clerk was happy about that.  She, too, was very helpful and friendly.

 

After that, we crossed the street heading for the nearest pharmacy

 

…at which time Dale and Crystal ran across three gentlemen/immigrants/pensionado applicants that they knew (from Kentucky and New York), so I had the pleasure of meeting them for the first time. I chatted mostly with Greg (from Kentucky), a little with his husband Forrest, and very little with the other gentleman because he was at the other end of this impromptu “sidewalk fellowship”. I’m afraid I don’t recall his name, but he was a lovely guy, too.  They were all terrific!  We visited with them for a good half hour, maybe more!

 

After leaving them, we visited the two pharmacies. Had no luck,  so (as mentioned earlier) I asked my pharmacy to see if they could order one in. They said they would try and will call me on Monday or Tuesday with the results of their efforts.

 

By this time, it was about 2:30 so we wandered back to the jewelry store. The ring was ready so I took a short video and some pix of Dale officially putting the ring on Crystal’s finger.

 

I also took a close up of Crystal wearing the new ring:

 

 

After returning home at about 3, I spent the rest of the evening reading the rest of my current Spanish book and eating dinner (tilapia and tomato slices).

 

This morning, Sunday March 8th

 

I met up with Crystal at her place at 7 a.m. and invited her up the hill to see my place for the first time, so we did that before walking down to the soccer field and circumnavigating it four times.

 

Here is a “selfie” I took while Crystal was here in my front yard:

 

 

On March 17th I Get to Dogsit Thio and Alice Again

 

…while Jon and Francisco take Dale and Crystal to a beach again. Crystal loves the beach; Dale, not so much!  (He grew up on a beach.) He says he’ll find a comfy place to sit down while the others do their wild and crazy things oceanside.

 

I haven’t seen the inside of Jon’s and Francisco’s new rental yet, so it will be a real treat to see it and to see how they have arranged it and set it up. These two guys have exquisite taste when it comes to home/sanctuary ambiance! And dear Adilio has already agreed to pick me up from there at 2 that day and drive me back home.  (I’ll Uber in from here with Crystal and Dale that morning.)

 

Reached Out to Dennis On a Tax Prep Update

 

…but so far… crickets.  I do know he received the two things he asked me for. Lisa confirmed that via Jackie. (For some reason, Dennis can get my emails but I can’t get his.)

 

I also reached out again to Charles Schwab since I haven’t heard back from them in more than two weeks. This time I lied (or said something prematurely, is more like it) and said I have from $25K to $100K to invest, thinking they’ll be more likely to get back to me than when I told ’em I have less than $24,999 in my 401k. I will eventually have more after Jackie sells our property, but that may not be for another year or two…

 

If Schwab doesn’t get back to me this time, I’ll go with Fidelity probably — unless they, too, ghost me because I ain’t rolling in dough.  I need to get my RMD out of my 401K soon and I can’t do that where it is right now because I no longer have a US phone number and they require one to send me a security code.  INSANE, since we can do a Docusign RMD transfer without a phone number!

 

Guess that’s all the news that’s fit to print for this time!

 

Have a great day and a wonderful week ahead!