Here’s a quick catch up post.

This cold that’s been kicking my butt

…has moderated considerably  —  I still sound a lot like Maude/Dorothy (Beatrice Arthur)  — but I’m in good enough shape for tomorrow’s trip to the U.S. Embassy to get my Social Security statement notarized for Migracion next week after I get it translated to Spanish for them.

Deb (my landlady) brought me some cold medicine on Monday. I took one full dose when I got it, and then four subsequent half-doses afterward whenever the phlegm started to get too far out of bounds for my liking. Today I feel 80% to 90% better.

I’m finally down to the last two tablespoons of the first bag of coffee I ever bought for myself in my entire life (about two months after I got here) but, foreseeing this eventuality, I bought another three pound bag a few weeks ago, so I don’t need to panic there! LOL!  (My mother would be celebrating my “coffee conversion/addiction” were she here to witness it!)

COSTA RICA COFFEE ROCKS!

Have walked everyday all three “sick days”

…right here in the apartment while listening to Spanish lessons (and repeating them) or to Indigenous meditation music on youTube. It helped the time pass in a wonderful way. Kinda forgot I was even exercising!

Jon, bless his heart, picked up my printed SS docs

…appointment page and resolution letter from DIMI yesterday and says he will fetch me a big bag of Bentonite cat litter today. Adilio will drive it home for me when he brings me back from San Jose tomorrow.

Cindy has had a bag of cat litter

…that she bought for me a week ago, too, but we’ve both been too under the weather to get it to me, so Charli has been dealing with less than her usually-pristine litter box for a day or so.  The litter that gets lifted out when I scoop lessens the amount that’s left, and that’s problematic. But all will be pure as the driven snow again tomorrow!

When I have the notarized SS Statement in Hand

… I need to email a photo of it to a local translator who will translate it for Jon to pick up on Monday so we’ll have it for next Wednesday’s trip to Migracion to complete my pensionado application package.  It’s the final hurdle. You read about that last post.

Hopefully (but doubtfully) I can get the application absolutely confirmed immediately at Migracion.  If so, Jon and I can plan dates and times to jump through the CAJA and DIMEX application hoops (and fees) so I’ll be able to give thanks by Thanksgiving that I’m a certified, recognized, health care-covered Costa Rica pensionado resident!  THAT would be fantabulous!

Other than walking and studying Spanish

…I’ve been resting, which is what is supposed to happen when people develop a significant head and chest cold. I’m drinking what feels like gallons of warm herbal teas and eating every several hours (mostly protein). Just the occasional coughing and sneezing bouts remind me that I’m still recovering. Otherwise, I feel fit as a fiddle, or I don’t reckon I’d be able to walk 7500 to 10K steps every day! Duh!

One of the local/regional Facebook websites

…that I visited yesterday (which doesn’t allow any advertising except on Mondays) sent out a request: “Tell us what you do for a living that is a product or service so we can tell others.”

So I sent a short blurb with a link to this website. Which led me to click on it for the first time in ages (as if I were a newbie here) to see how easy it was to find my testimonials page from the link I provided.

Which led me to actually reading (for the first time in probably two years!) the testimonials again.

Good heavens! 

That was certainly a gratifying experience! I mean, it even became a bit EMBARRASSING to read so many rave reviews. I am not a spotlight-seeker, as you know. (My favorite quote about writers is “Writing is show business for shy people.”)

But when I divorced myself from the fact that they were written about me, and looked at them from a prospective client’s viewpoint, they reminded me of the immense VALUE I had added to so many business owners’, entrepreneurs’ and Creatives’ lives and bottom lines. And a number of testators have their own powerful way with words, so to know I helped even them shine brighter, communicate better and sell more really made my day!

I do need to get some more recent testimonials up there, though

When AI came along and shut the pipeline to so many newbie entrepreneurs (who decided to let AI do the writing work, much to their ultimate detriment and subsequent demise), I just pretty much retired and stopped promoting my services.

But I still had  a few regulars who I served, and then a few others found me, too. But I have never asked any of them for more recent testimonials, and that’s no good.

It Isn’t That I Want a Ton of Work

…these days, but writing is my passion and if I can use it to help someone boost their business, or their books, or their whatever, I’d love to be doing that on a semi-regular basis.  Maybe up to six or eight hours a week, even. (Not sure about that! I am loving being retired and living the Pura Vida lifestyle here in Costa Rica!)

The extra income would be a big help, for sure, especially with the currency exchange rate what it is right now.

So… please keep me in mind

…if you hear of anyone looking for an available, reliable writer or editor with lots and lots of darned impressive testimonials. (Blush, toe in rug). Send them to my testimonials page at this site and let them decide for themselves if they want to take a chance on me.

A great many people have, and I’ve only had to “fire” two of them (out of thousands) who were major, massive PITAs. (Yep, both turned out to be male white supremacists with anger management issues, so bye bye. If you’re MAGA, I’m definitely not your service provider! I screen and research clients before taking them on, as best I can. So, just a heads up on that!)

THANK YOU!!!