Today is Saturday March 21, 2026 and I’m planning, now, to sit and spill.

 

By this, I mean spill HERE all the stuff I’ve been handwriting for the past couple of days. The good, the bad, and the ugly.

 

First, the Bad and the Ugly

 

I have never, in my entire life, been as unsettled and frustrated over a single issue. The issue is financial RED TAPE.

 

You would think — wouldn’t you? — that simply transferring a Traditional IRA from one company to another would be a ten to fifteen minute, process. Maybe an hour at the absolute most?

 

Yeah, think again.

 

What a freaking PITA!!!

 

I have spent a total of 12 hours trying to get it to happen. And it has probably been 90% all my fault.  I over-thought the process by going to the Charles Schwab International site and making the mistake of trying to figure out (unilaterally) what the hell to do to make this should-be-simple transfer.

 

Started filling out several online docs there before realizing that none of them even listed Traditional IRA as options, which was just as well because they wanted all kinds of info that I would have had to provide had any of the docs been the right ones: proof of my residency here in CR by way of a utility bill — of which I have NONE since my landlady pays those — and other invasive information, despite the fact that I co-own property and have my mailing address in the States, and all of my financial assets are — and will likely remain — there!

 

Fuckety fuck fuck fuck

 

Getting just that far down the wrong rabbit hole took hours, plus calls to Lisa and to my present financial advisor in Tacoma, since I started the process with a DOMESTIC Schwab agent in Tacoma.  She told me finally that I needed an international advisor…

 

Finally picked up the phone and called the international help line number and asked, “How do I transfer a Traditional IRA account from another provider to you?”   The nice man on the other end said, “I’ll send you a PDF to fill out.  Fill it out, include the transfer document, and fax it to — and it will take from two days to two weeks to happen.”

 

He sent me the PDF. I filled it out and asked Dale Garrison (who just got his printer connected) if he would print out a series of docs, including the application form and the transfer form, so I can take them to DIMI sometime this coming week to have them faxed to the proper place for processing.  Turns out I won’t need  some of the docs he printed out (lease agreement, SS card, a copy of my passport, etc.) but at least I have them in case some other agency needs them in the future for some other reason!

 

I Don’t Handle Distress Well

 

My problem is that I have always, always, always had to rely on myself (well, up until relatively recently), so I always try to do things myself first so as not to inconvenience anybody else. But when I can’t get whatever it is to work out, I get all flustered, livid and teary-eyed, which does absolutely NOTHING other than make me miserable!

 

So, then, I have to stop everything for a while and talk myself down from the ledge. I have to remind myself, “Relax!  Breathe! Tranquilo! It will all work out — eventually! In a week it will be old news and you’ll laugh.  PURA VIDA! LIFE IS GOOD!  THIS IS A HICCUP, NOT A CATASTROPHE! Being angry and frustrated is temporary and manageable. Take good care of yourself. Stop berating yourself for feeling like a failure. Be gentle with yourself. It’s OKAY to be insecure and to ask for guidance in the morning. People are trained to help you. It’s OKAY to feel in over your head and seek help!”

 

It took all of that

 

….self-talk to calm me down!  And to start imagining it being a done deal so I could start to write, “After the account is approved and the funds get transferred — not longer than two weeks from now — I can ask for the RMD (Required Minimum Distribution) and put it into my liquid savings, along with whatever tax refund I get.”  I started imagining having the balance I want to have in my liquid savings account so I can truly relax again…

 

In the Meantime

 

…I’m cutting myself off at the pockets. I’m not going to have any more lunches out (except for one half Subway sandwich per week as a guilty pleasure) or buy anything other than groceries and cat food until April, which is just ten days away.  I don’t NEED anything more than that. The comradeship is great, but we can find ways to do that without having breakfasts and lunches, for sure.  In fact, I need to cut back lunches to half what they have been. Maybe do the feria twice a month, with lunch following that. That will save over $100/month that I can put toward savings instead.

 

I need to grow my savings

 

…in case Congress can’t get its act together before 2032 and extend the Social Security safety net so we don’t lose 25% of our monthly allotment then. I need enough of a nest egg to keep me solvent even IF that happens.  That’s going to take YEARS to achieve at (hopefully) $500/month into savings.

 

I Moved Here Partly Because of Finances

 

No way could I afford to live past 80 up there in Tacoma.  The cost of living is too damned high, and only getting worse thanks to T-Wrecks and his sycophants in Congress.

 

I can afford to live into my 90’s here in Costa Rica IF my SS continues at the rate it is now — even though I get significantly less than the average of $2000/month.

 

When I get my DIMEX card and start paying into CAJA, I can drop Part 2 Medicare and save money because CAJA will cost a fraction of what I’m paying for that now.  (It’s currently $235/month and will be higher in April, probably. CAJA might be as high as $150, but Jon thinks it’ll be around $100.)

 

Anyway, money has to remain top of mind. I have to be frugal because the future of SS (and hell, even the US dollar these days!) is so precarious.

 

In Other News…

 

I walked 7972 steps yesterday

 

… and so far today (Saturday) I have walked 8880 steps.

 

On Thursday I rode the bus to town with Dale again so we could get a Subway sandwich and (we thought) pick up his seated cane, but it turned out that the pharmacy couldn’t get one in for him. GRRRR!

 

After we  ate, we walked to an electronics store so he could get a cable to go between his PC and his printer. (He probably now rues the day he got the cable. I have been running him ragged with copies over the above Schwab situation! What a sweetheart he has been to do it all for me. I hope it will be at least another YEAR before I have to ask him for another copy of anything!)

 

Then I bought a smaller belt on the way back so I can attach a fanny pack/money pouch to it on the days when I go to Grecia wearing jeans. But, since then, I have realized I don’t need to attach a fanny pack to my belt, because my wallet, phone and passport/expediente items all fit snugly inside the jeans pockets, so I can keep the money pouch on the cart, as before. I always take the cart to town!

 

I am loving wearing jeans again!

 

But can only wear them early in the morning when it’s cool and during the winter because it’s too warm (for me!) to wear them any other time, even though lots of ticos wear them year-’round.  These jeans are snug from the knee down, so they make me look slim.

 

I Went to Grecia Again on Friday

 

…because I stuck to my guns and didn’t attend the feria or the lunch afterward.  I went there to get chicken, tilapia, brown rice, bread, peanut butter and cat food. It was a quick trip and I spent every colon I had on me! I still have coins for bus trips, but that’s IT until April or until the tax return comes in, which I expect this week sometime.

 

On the way back  – OINK OINK!

  

On the way back from Grecia yesterday, the bus was on Calle Rodriguez when I looked out the front window to see two half-grown pigs standing in the middle of the calle ahead of us!  The bus driver slowed down, allowing them to trot at least a block down the road ahead of us before they veered off and headed down a side road.

 

It was funny because Dale had told me on Thursday during our ride to town that his and wife’s Uber had been slowed by three cows that were ambling leisurely on Calle San Francisco the day before!

 

There’s never a dull moment out and about!

 

If it isn’t tractor-trailers filled with dried, brown sugar cane stalks, it’s hogs, cattle, iguanas, oxen, buzzards, and hundreds upon hundreds of different species of plants in every color imaginable.

 

This place is ALIVE!!!

I picked the right country. It’s a nature lover’s paradise.

 

LISA SAYS SHE’S COMPILING A CARE PACKAGE 

 

…to send to me. She told me that within days of getting back home, because she’s downsizing. I have no idea what she has in mind (beyond a pineapple corer/slicer and maybe some more Liquid IV), or how she’ll even get it to me since I don’t have a post office box or mailbox (GENERAL DELIVERY TO THE GRECIA POST OFFICE, perhaps, or using Jon’s or Dale’s PO Box in Grecia, or to the place where Amazon ships stuff in Grecia???) but she’s a real sweetheart to want to do that. I wish she’d save the $$ and put it aside in an envelope so she can come see me again sooner! Her PRESENCE would win over PRESENTS six ways from Sunday. But alas!  It’s sooo expensive to get here and back and will probably be even more expensive thanks to T-Wreck’s stupid attack on Iran.

 

All I can say about that fiasco (briefly) is that they had better not successfully rig the elections (again, allegedly) or the U.S. and the world economy will be TOAST. Great Depression-level toast. They don’t care who they hurt as long as it isn’t the oligarchs who believe that they own and operate this world. (They’re about to find out otherwise, methinks! People are fed up!)

 

And now… back to the PURA VIDA VIBE!

 

Angst makes me hungry, so I do my best not to go there very often! Comfort food is not on my shopping list, fortunately.  If I get hungry for crap, I have to settle for something healthy here.

 

The Dog Bite is About the Size of a Dime Now

 

It should be fading away soon.

 

I haven’t seen the dog again since the incident. (Never saw it before the incident, either.) I hope this means that its owner has it fenced in or that it has been dispatched. It needs to be STOPPED, PERIOD!  (I feel the same about T-Wrecks — and I trust the dog more because I know I can cane it into submission without repercussions and with the full support of the community!)

 

Not Back in Spanish Study Mode Yet

 

I’m not in the mood to study Spanish this weekend. Wanting to study happens in spurts for me: I’ll do it for a week or more and then not again for a  while.

 

I think it’s because I can navigate comfortably each day when I’m out and about speaking with clerks and ticos on the bus who speak only Spanish. They love that I half get it! And so many people here these days speak both languages so I don’t feel terribly “out of my league” even though I definitely know I still AM a babe in the woods as far as fluency goes.

 

HEARING/LISTENING to native Tico chat

 

…is still 50% catch as catch can. I understand perhaps 50% of the words, but the context can go missing that way. Imagine every other word being a mystery. It’s kinda like that. I wonder if I’m getting the full gist of what people are saying!

 

So, yeah, I plan to keep at it; just not obsessively/anally/neurodivergently! I want the process to remain FUN and EXCITING so it never begins to feel like a chore.

 

My enthusiasm will happen again. It always does. I just have to wait for it because forcing it doesn’t work.

 

Another Glorious Day Here in Costa Rica

 

Look what’s growing in a tall tree just outside my front door:

AVOCADOS IN ABUNDANCE!

(There’s just one in this image, though.)

 

I’ll NEVER get over it. This place is PARADISE if you’re a peace/serenity loving and patient/empathetic/compassionate human being. (Others need not apply! Let’s keep COSTA RICA COSTA RICA!)

 

This is all I have for this time.  Gonna go veg now. It’s 2 p.m.  Mellow Time!