The weather forecast predicts rain most of the day starting very soon so I won’t be walking today.

 

Yeppers! Rain so robust you can capture it in an image!

 

That’s okay. I can do other things.

 

I got my Social Security payment today so I’ve paid off my credit card (I put my groceries and Sanchez Laboratory costs on it every month and then pay it off every month), put more money into savings, and ordered grocery delivery for later this morning. (I paid that delivery off already, too.)

 

Living in Costa Rica is affordable

 

I don’t owe anyone a dime down here so I get to put more money toward living longer. I still have enough left in the checking account this morning to pay the balance of the rent in two weeks. My rent, all utilities included, is only $750.00/month for a two-bedroom casita. That doesn’t include cable but I don’t need it. There are enough videos and other fascinating stuff on YouTube to keep me happy if/when I want to watch something. (I rarely do.)

 

Started writing some personal stuff by hand yesterday

 

During my Spanish study and note-taking, I re-discovered how much I love (and absorb) writing by hand. So, I started writing some personal diary-type content by hand yesterday.

 

What I like about writing by hand is that it slows me down and makes writing as much a meditation as a physical activity. It  gives my brain a chance to weigh and measure words, thoughts and feelings  instead of just spitting them out as stream-of-consciousness stuff.  Writing by hand feels patient, peaceful, and personal. 

 

I also discovered that I want to stop giving my available energy to negative thoughts and feelings

 

For about ten years now (except for about four intermittent years) I’ve been quick to share “doom scrolling”-type stuff on Facebook.  That isn’t who I am when I’m not online! It’s my political persona, a mere fraction of the totality of the person I am.

 

Perhaps I’ve done it because I want (still!) to feel (and look) “a part” of the T-Wrecks OH HELL NO, NOT ON MY WATCH! resistance movement. But it’s such a time and energy suck.  When I’m not online, my mind isn’t constantly on red alert here in Costa Rica the same way it was when I was back in the U.S. Here, my mind is prominently on enjoying,  appreciating, and anticipating the good that life has to offer.

 

Because I’m not going to live forever and this political saga isn’t going to be resolved in the years I have left, spending my time endlessly fretting over what’s happening is a massive waste of the time I have left. I simply don’t want to do it anymore.  I will vote and let my representatives (and a few other representatives) know what I’m thinking and feeling; that’s my duty as a citizen.  But I think that’s all from now on.

 

Beyond that, I will share Heather Cox Richardson’s insights and Robert Reich’s Coffee Klatch Saturdays on Facebook from now on but (hopefully) nothing else political. Y’all know where I stand and the dire straits I think we’re in politically and environmentally.  There’s no use in hitting the same nail after it has already been hammered in as far as it can go.

 

So, I’m going to wean myself  off the habit

 

Although my amygdala is primed for recognizing this particulr existential danger and wants to keep laser-focusing on it, like a person confronting a rattlesnake, it’s time to walk away.  I’ll let other people — younger people — who must live with the results of the threat behead the serpent. T-Wrecks and his GOP sycophants have rattled at me for the last time. I moved away. I’m (relatively) safe here (unless they gut Social Security), compared to those who are still within striking distance.

 

My heart aches for those of you who remain within striking distance of this dystopian Hunger Games-style regime, but I’m unable (unilaterally) to procure your deliverance. That’s up to each and every one of you who can still fight for yourself to do so, and to fight for those who can’t fight for themselves. Collective resistance is what it will take, including a sound drubbing of the GOP during every election for the foreseeable future.

 

The Democrats aren’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but they aren’t on record time after time voting like heartless bastards.