What a fun way to start a Sunday!

 

I walked 8964 steps, visited with Diane and Miguel in their abode for a little while, and walked their dogs.

 

I’m in 7th heaven!

 

But First!  Hours Before That…

 

I awoke just in time to send Crystal a WhatsApp text wishing her a safe, smooth, uneventful flight back home to us from the States. She will be traveling all day, and I caught her just before she headed to the airport for the first leg of her flight. I asked her to let me know when she lands back in Pura Vida so I can relax again.

 

I slept from 6 pm or so until 2 a.m. and then got up. Couldn’t sleep any more just then, and I intuited that it was just about time for Crystal to leave for Logan Airport from her hotel in Boston, so I sent a quick, brief note wishing her well and telling her we miss her and it will be great to have her back home.

 

Within one minute, she responded, saying yes, she was just about the leave for the airport. She thanked me for the well wishes. (Thank you, Intuition, for letting me know just when to reach out and actually reach her before she got too busy to respond! Perfect timing!)

 

LAST NIGHT’S DREAMSCAPE 

 

My mind occasionally insists on giving me a dream that causes my amygdala to activate, even though I’m HERE now without a stressor in sight; I have zero existential worries or concerns. It’s kinda funny and I even half-realize it during these Red Alert type dreams.

 

In last night’s dream (or two separate dreams, actually), I was driving a car up a hill in a left-turn lane. At the stop light at the top there was a naked guy (his back was to me the entire time) on the immediate right-hand side of my car. To his immediate right was a car filled with what turned out to be his relatives — some laughing, some mortified — trying to talk him into getting into their vehicle with them, even though there wasn’t any room for him!

 

The naked man didn’t appear to be drunk, or on drugs, or in any way a danger, so I asked the driver in the family’s car, “Do you need help?”

 

Almost immediately, the naked man (now fully dressed!) was in the passenger seat next to me (miraculously!) and said, “Yes! Can you take me downtown?”

 

The location he mentioned was very near where I was heading, so I said, “Sure,” and waved to his family in the other car, who seemed surprised but happy to leave him in my hands (or in my protective custody, depending on how you want to look at it).

 

I took him to the location, parked the car (not paying any attention to where I left it inside an emormous, lookalike parking garage) and said goodbye.

 

But then he invited me to lunch. I had enough time before some kind of appointment I had, so I agreed and we had a fun, overly long meal causing me to miss my appointment time. But I just thought (pura vida style!), “Ay, no problemo! Manana!”  (There’s always tomorrow!)

 

But then I couldn’t remember where I had parked my car. I had no ticket and no idea even where to start looking for it, because I was in a huge, blocks-long mall of some kind and the parking garages underneath it spanned almost as large as it was.

 

I was in quite the pickle and beginning to feel frantic….

 

Immediately, the scenario flipped 

 

I was in a garage in a homelike setting with Dad, who told me he thought he was about to have a heart attack. He wanted me to accompany him to a hospital but he wanted to drive!

 

I said, “No way, Dad. Let me drive!”  (Ya don’t let someone drive who thinks they’re about to have a heart attack. Duh!)

 

He relented.

 

But on the way to the hospital, he asked me to stop by the side of the road. I thought maybe because he felt sick to his stomach or something, so I stopped.

 

He reached into the back seat of the vehicle and pulled out what looked like a traffic cone but it was white with a flashing front. It looked to me like some kind of device, perhaps explosive. And it was ticking!

 

He got out of the car, placed it on the side of the road we were on relatively near an intersection, and then returned to the car and told me through the window, “Now, call the police and report spotting the device.”

 

I asked him, “What is it?”

 

He said, “You don’t have to tell them what it is, just tell them where it is!”

 

That set my heart racing!

 

I looked at the glowing, ticking cone again and when I looked back to where Dad had been standing, he had utterly disappeared!

 

So, there I was with a ticking, lethal-looking, ill-defined something-or-other with instructions to call in its location from a Dad who had disappeared entirely!

 

Talk about “left holding the bag!”

 

 

By now I was halfway lucid dreaming, and I realized that Dad had been dead for a quarter century.But I still had this incident that I felt was my responsibility to resolve in some way!

 

So, I re-entered the dream, but this time with my conscious brain involved, not just my dreaming brain.

 

I felt that calling the police was certainly prudent and called for, but it seemed to be risky, too!  What could I say?

 

“Hello, I want to report a weird, blinking, ticking traffic cone at ______ and ______.”

 

“Your name, please?”

 

“Why do I have to give you my name? Can’t I report this anonymously?”

 

“You can, but why?”

 

“Wellll… my dad placed it and then told me to call you and report it.”

 

“Your dad?  What’s his name? And do you know where he is?”

 

“Well, I did. He was just right here with me. But he — he disappeared as soon as he told me what to do.”  And my conscious brain thought, he’s been dead for a quarter century, but I still felt the need to report accurately that Dad had told me that he thought he was having a heart attack so I was driving him to a hospital … “and then he did this!”

 

So, THAT’s the kind of creative NUTTINESS that MY mind delivers when it wants to exercise my anygdala!  Put me into cliffhanger scenarios and then just leave me hanging over the abyss like a leaf on the end of a dead branch!

 

After all, my brain can’t have its amygdala become like a usless appendage, can it?  HORRORS!!!  What if I happen to see a baby tarantula in my house and want to pick it up and pet it, fer gosh sakes!

 

Ahem..

What if, indeed!!!

 

Okay — about that baby tarantula… 

 

I didn’t pet it.  I didn’t even touch it.  But it was very adorable — about an inch long — and if I’d had a terrarium on hand I would have been tempted to keep it and make it into a pet.

 

Instead, I captured it and relocated it outside. Reluctantly, worrying about whether the leafcutter ants would find it and do unspeakable things to it. I could never forgive myself if that became its fate! (Don’t ask! You don’t want to know; trust me!)

 

So, there is that!

 

I guess it is a prudent idea to keep my amygdala in some kind of working order here in Costa Rica.  To remind me that some of the prettiest frogs, snakes, and other creatures are not practical or pettable (being toxic!), and that I shouldn’t pet anything that’s wild and free.

 

Check.  Got it!  (GRRRR!!!)

 

In Other News…

 

I Have All But Stopped Swearing and Cussing Here

 

I only feel like cussing these days when I think about T-Wrecks and his alleged (I include — to cover my ass!) Government of PDF protectors, so my swearing has dropped to near zero. I was so on edge in the States that cussing was an everyday occurrence.  Not anymore.  I don’t aim too much of my energy in the direction of that clown or his circus.

 

Leftover Crockpot Chicken

 

Today I’ll be enjoying what’s left of my crockpot chicken. Had some over a bed of rice this morning after returning from my walk and visit with Diane and Miguel, and will have more for lunch and dinner.  It’s totally yummy!

 

Oh!  About the fun morning walk and visit!

 

Sheesh! I just reviewed what I wrote above and realized that I gave you the preview but not the report about this mornings’ walk and the chat with Diane and Miguel.  Will do that right now!  (But alas, I didn’t take any pictures.)

 

I got onto the calle earlier than usual this morning and put in ten laps between my driveway and Calle Los Angeles (my customary 7500 steps), during which I ran into a young couple who is renting Casita Colibri for their holiday vacation.

 

I greeted them, found out they are from Missouri, and was told that they come here occasionally to check on the husband’s mother, who moved here at sometime in the past.  I asked them about how they like Costa Rica and driving here. They like CR and he is well insured against accidents here. (Smart man!) I wished them well for the duration of their visit.

 

Just as I completed my 7500-step routine, Diane appeared in her doorway and said good morning.  I asked her if she wanted to walk a lap with me.  She declined. But her dog Blanco wimpered his hello and then wagged eagerly so I said to Diane, “Want me to walk your dogs for you?”  (Because I could see they were certainly ready to roll with me!)

 

She smiled, “I won’t say no to THAT!”  She put a leash on Blanco (Dora the Explorer doesn’t need to be leashed because she doesn’t try to eat great-smelling plastics that sometimes find their way onto the calle during trash collection times) and away the dogs and I went, this time away from Los Angeles (where trash is placed in and around a huge trash collector prior to trash pickup days twice a week) and toward the other end of Calle Esteban Salas.

 

Blanco had a blast peeing about every 20 feet to mark the route all along the way.  Dora only went about a third of the way and then returned to Diane’s and Miguel’s; she’s 15 and doesn’t have the stamina that 10 year old Blanco has.

 

When we got back to Diane’s, she invited me in to see their place

 

From the outside, the home looks deceptively small in appearance, but it goes on seemingly forever once you get inside.  Diane has a crafts/sewing room that is enormous, and there’s also a very large bathroom (the second one is smaller). I won’t report  what’s in there in addition because I wasn’t given permission, but it’s absolutely lovely and comfortable.

 

She has seen a (dead) boa constrictor in her yard, but no venemous ones. I haven’t seen any snakes around here.  I’d love to see a wild boa. (Alive.)

 

We visited for about twenty minutes.  It was wonderful to get a glimpse of their surroundings and to see how artfully she has arranged everything. Her crafts room is perfection and the wearable creations she fashions from a vast collection of fabrics are to die for.   She is one creative individual! And we always have pet stories (past and present) to exchange, too!

 

I think that’s all that’s fit to print for this time. I hope your winter/holiday vacation has been every good thing you hoped it would be, in whatever way that feels right to you.