Pretty Costa Rican Moth

(image above)

The only “close encounter” I’ve had over the past few days with Costa Rican wildlife was with a gorgeous moth that visited my porch. I was doing my walking routine on the back patio yesterday morning and spotted it on a column.  It stayed there, unmoving, for well over and hour while I walked, so I finally stopped long enough to get its picture for y’all.

 

Isn’t it gorgeous?

 

In Other News… 

 

I’ve been at home for days, except for early this morning when I rode the bus to Grecia to buy groceries at Pali, another box of thyroid medication at Farmacia Central, and additional anti-humidity packs at  Peri.

 

The eight packs of anti-humidity items that I bought at Mundo Pequeno a few weeks ago (when I got my anti-gravity chair) are nearly filled to the brim with water that was absorbed out of the air in my apartment since the rainy season began about six days ago.

 

The boxes I bought today should last longer than the hanging ones did.  They’re reuseable until the medium gets soggy and stops drawing water.

 

I may try to get the medium out of the hanging ones, too, and see if they will draw water into the plastic tubs that the other ones use. (I have six empty tubs, so all I need is the medium that absorbs the water.)

 

I also stopped for a Subway sandwich and limonada, as usual (my once a week guilty pleasure).

 

Spanish Lessons Continue

 

I’ve spent most waking hours of the last two and a half days taking notes from 1001 Pitfalls in Spanish, so I’m up to page 136 in that. Don’t think I’ll have to go much beyond page 150 — at least not as extensively — so I should be able to put this one back on a shelf by sometime next week unless I set the lessons aside again for some reason. There are two remaining Spanish books to peruse to see if there is anything in either of them that is new, exciting or different that should be written into my NOTES binders.  Once I get through them all, I plan to start reading Spanish novels and writing some in Spanish, to put my lessons through their paces.

 

I’m not at all nervous about navigating in this Spanish-language country

 

I know “enough” to muddle through most one on one conversations with Spanish-speaking folks, as long as they speak slowly enough for me to hear the individual words in their sentences.

 

I do have some “brain burps” when naming things I want all the time.  I cannot remember the words for cucumbers or pickles when I order at Subway. I know everything else, but my mind goes blank every time on those two words (pepinos and pepinillos).

 

And I can’t always recall the word for wings when I order chicken wings and breasts at Pollolandia for Adilio (alas and pechuga).  I know the Spanish words for what I want: musclos y cuartos (legs and thighs).

 

I write my shopping list in Spanish, so I’m familiar with everything that I get routinely: tomates, arroz, manzanas, frijoles negro molido, pan, hongos, queso cheddar huevos, leche, nectar de melocoton, pollo, tocino, lechuga iceberg, aguacates, mantequilla, salsa Lizano, etc.

 

Charli is Semi-Clinging Right Now

 

It’s raining and thundering (some) outside, so Charli has come indoors to sit near me.  She no longer heads under the bed unless the thunder gets seriously close and loud — so bad that it rattles doors and windows — so she’s acclimating well enough.

 

Thunder doesn’t upset me, so she borrows my lackadaisical attitude toward it as well as she can.

 

I wish there were more to convey, but that’s pretty much it for this time!  My life isn’t super exciting on a daily basis, but it is wonderful every day, so I feel very fortunate!

 

Costa Rica-fresh food from our trees here on this property!