It’s time to catch you up, although there’s nothing earth-shaking going on (which is a good thing in earthquake/volcano-prone country, actually)!
Back on July 31st, I posted the following image to Facebook, mentioning that my apartment here in San Isidro de Grecia Costa Rica feels bass-ackwards to me:
I trust you can see why!
In Tacoma, The Pacific Ocean was due WEST of my living room and bedroom.
Here in San Isidro, the Pacific Ocean is due EAST of my living room and kitchen.
So, in Tacoma, I could watch the sun RISE over Mount Rainier from my den (except for some trees that were in the way of a blocked a full shot like this one):
Here in Costa Rica, I watch the sun SET from my bedroom window.
…and when I look out my bedroom window, it blows me away to know that NORTH (toward the U.S.) is located to my RIGHT as I stand there or on my back porch!!!
It takes some getting used to! I may never get there!
I am SO Relaxed and Content Here!
I love doing nothing without feeling bored or unfulfilled or lazy. It has taken this long for my mind to truly retire and not feel the need to keep pushing for fear of going broke before I croak! If I were still in the States I would continue to feel financial pressure, but here (and knowing that Jackie will be selling our place next year) frees me from that powder keg of trepidation. That chronic, relentless, overarching WORRY is GONE!
On August 13th I Wrote More on the Same Topic:
Feeling RETIRED today. No chores, no worries. I wish the whole world could feel this way at least three days a week. I am one fortunate human being out of billions and am fully aware of it. SOOO relaxed and untroubled as long as I stay unplugged from the Internet and social media — and even some of THAT is reassuring. (Not ENOUGH of it, but SOME of it: polls, wins, lawsuits, line-holding, MAGA defections… cats, horses, sloths, and more).
JOY is returning as HOPE Rebounds
If the line holds, we’ll start heading out of the darkness into the light by this time next year. Maybe even sooner (Nov 3rd is fewer than 90 days away), but it’ll be a slow going until at least 2028. We’ll get there, slow but sure, as long as enough voters turn out to save democracy from the tech bros, oligarchs and kleptomaniacs who are hellbent on buying politicians to feather their own nests with OUR tax dollars.
The people have heard, seen. and had enough of this century’s Robber Barons in both parties. The uprising has begun. We’re ALL banding together to say enough of this looting by the sociopathic Epstein Class. We are not going to willingly perform like trained seals (serfs and slaves) for them.
It all looks very promising, like a ROUT is coming for MAGA, the GOP and corporate DEMS. The sooner, the better. THE AMERICAN PEOPLE AND THE WORLD DESERVE BETTER!
I’m Dreaming at Night Almost Non-Stop These Days
Deaken. Other servals and animals. Mom. And on and on. I’m directing the dreams, too (lucid dreaming). Anything potentially scary gets managed to a successful conclusion, and the few that don’t, raise me to consciousness so I escape them that way by waking myself with “it’s just a dream.”
I don’t ever remember having many actual nightmares.
The few times I did, they were about natural disasters like forest fires or falling trees, houses shaking, rocking and tumbling down around me. And I always survived them.
Even when dreaming of plummeting off mountain roads into lakes below, the cars I was in sort of floated down, giving me enough time to figure out a way to get out after hitting the water and to get anyone else out who was with me. Cars without brakes going down steep inclines, same thing. They never ended badly. I kept my thinking cap on and managed them to a successful ending.
My mind doesn’t ever seem to panic, even when asleep!
During actual earthquakes, it goes into a Spock-like “fascinating” mode. Yes, even during Northridge in 1994 when I was just miles from the epicenter and it sounded like a freight train was in the house and felt like King Kong was “dribbling” the structure for however long it lasted.
I was “keenly aware and wide awake” lying there in bed, but I didn’t freak out and I didn’t need counseling afterward, as so many did. Although my brain did feel “off-line”: I was unable to remember how/where I filed things at work, etc. (Typical, I later read.)
Probably growing up on a ranch/farm with a Stoic Mom Explains It
Mom dealt with everything that came up without a fuss or a meltdown. I’m sure having her as a role model helped a lot! She was amazing when it came to rolling with the punches — sometimes infuriatingly so! I wondered why she never pitched a bitch or screamed bloody murder at times. (It wouldn’t have done a bit of good, and would have exacerbated the issues with Dad, and she knew that. Silverback gorillas gotta beat their chests and rattle the branches, ya know!)
Texted Gilberto and Lisa This Morning
Gilberto is super impressed by Lisa’s children’s stories coaching insights for Sonia. That makes me SOOO happy! I feel certain now that Sonia has the complete team and support she needs to fix what still needs help (world-building) so her stories will captivate readers and earn her stellar reviews, which she will need to gain school librarians’ and teachers’ and parents’ buy-ins.
If Lisa and I end up super proud of the finalized stories, I may suggest sending review copies to Dr. Jill Biden and other high-profile influencers who may be willing to write reviews for the stories (or the anthology). If we could get a few of those, Sonia would have a HUGE leg up, marketing-wise.
Yes, this is pie in the sky thinking, but the potential is there if Sonia can do what Lisa suggests to make it happen. And I believe she can. I’m beginning to imagine true success for these stories. Perhaps I’ll even encourage her to shop for an agent who can pitch the stories to Scholastic, providing the final drafts pass final muster with Lisa and myself.
On August 14th I Wrote
The biting dog was on the road again this morning. Damn! I was hopeful he was gone for good. I’ll fortify myself with pepper spray, an umbrella and my cane when I go down again. I really need to report him to SENASA. He’s a menace.
On August 15th I Wrote:
On the way back from dog walking with Cindy this morning, Biter Dog was on the road pilfering garbage from a canasta (metal trash bin). I had sprayed my pants legs with dog-repellent and had my pepper spray, cane and umbrella at hand, all ready to use if need be. Even so, I crossed to the other side of the road so he wouldn’t think I was after his morning meal.
Still, he crossed the road and growled at me, looking for a non-problematic way to get to me, so I popped the umbrella open and told him to back off as I walked past the trash area. When I was several steps past there, he returned to his pilfering and left me alone.
I need to report him to SENASA. (I just need to do it in Spanish, so I’ve been putting it off. I’ll use Reverso and do it this week sometime.) He’s a danger to the community, if his owners won’t keep him confined. If he attacked a child, he could really mess them up.
On August 16 I Wrote
Didn’t walk with Cindy this morning. I usually don’t on Sundays and Wednesdays. We’ll walk again tomorrow. We’ll also go to Compre Bien again sometime soon. I need a few things to carry me to the end of the month.
Read JAN PSAKI’s new book SAY MORE yesterday and today. And now I’m reading a Jewish scholar’s book about Jewish religious perspectives on the Torah (the first five books of the Old Testament). Fascinating stuff. Very different than what I learned at FPCH and CFAN. (Certainly the Jewish interpretations make better ethical/moral sense!)
I’m never gonna be sold on the personal God theory, no matter which faith tradition sells it, but I might be able to be convinced to be a Deist (believer in a non-personal god of the cosmos).
No one knows who/what created the universe out of nothing but scientists do believe it had a “birthdate.” If that is true, who/what occupied the available space before that date???
It’s a mystery, so people theorize and we have thousands of theories but no FACTS yet.
We’re curious creatures. How? What? Why? Are we (earthlings) uniquely special in some ways from other worlds/civilizations/humanoids/carbon-based units? ARE there other worlds and civilizations? (Mere conjecture, but I believe there are!) Did a godhead set this all in motion? No one knows! So I remain an agnostic.
We are all made of stardust, THAT’S a fact! And that’s amazing. But so is everything and everyone else in the cosmos!
Yesterday — August 19, 2026
I took the bus to Grecia for bloodwork, to get a few groceries, and to eat a Subway half sandwich.
My bloodwork results told me I have to add one 5 mg warfarin tablet to my weekly routine to boost the level above 2.0. (I have been taking 2.5 mg every day for a month, since my last test results said I was a little over 3.0) and that I have to start taking Vitamin D tablets again. My Vit D is a little low. I have them on hand. I stopped taking them when I moved here because I figured that being this close to the equator, the sunshine I get every day when I walk would keep me boosted, but Jon Graham Mitchell (my friend and a retired nurse) says my sunscreen might be preventing that from happening. I can’t be without it, though, so Vit D tablets it is from now on!
When I got back, I waited around until three o’clock when another of Mauricio Marin’s third year English students arrived to interview me for one of her class assignments.
The student, Magaly Granados Montero, arrived in an Uber with her eleven-year-old son, who was our designated videographer during the 30-minute interview. Magaly brought me a Snickers bar as a thank you for agreeing to meet with her. What a sweetheart — as is her son!
We had an absolute blast. We laughed and chuckled so much. She asked questions of me, I asked questions of her. We agreed about a lot as far as learning a new language. We both read and write our new languages pretty well but listening and speaking them are more challenging. People talk “too fast” for us to be able to separate the words so we can understand what is being said, and (at least in my case) my brain isn’t yet “translating” pronunciation-wise. What I mean by this is something I have written about before, giving the following example:
MADISON
English pronunciation: MAD-iss-un
Spanish pronunciation: MOD-EE-SOWN
My brain still goes “????!!!” when I hear Madison pronounced in Spanish. It doesn’t “get” it right away. I have to really think about it.. even though Spanish vowels are pronounced in only ONE way (unlike English vowels):
A — like the a in father
E — eh — like the ea in leather
I — ee — like the i in Lisa
O — oh — like ow the OWN
U — ooh — like the o’s in moon
My brain isn’t yet making the automatic switch that needs to happen when I hear words with vowels, and all words have vowels!
I can’t even imagine trying to learn English as a second language as an adult! My hat is off to anyone who undertakes it. It has to be ten times harder than learning Spanish!!!
Anyway, after the interview and our chat we exchanged contact information and I showed Magaly and her son pictures of myself with captive wild animals (since one of her interview questions was, “Have you ever touched or held a wild animal?”) while we waited for 4 p.m. to roll around. The bus to Grecia passes by here at 4:10, o I walked to the bus stop with them and waited until they boarded to head back home.
I remembered to get photos during the last few minutes before the bus came, too! We hugged before they boarded. I hope we meet again. It was truly a wonderful experience!
Here’s the image Magaly took.
It was the best of the bunch, so I’m putting it here…