Tranquilidad

Siesta: Mew y Esqui

Christmas Lights, 12/18/2010

Jim drove Donna, Jean and me around Arlington and Alexandria tonight to see some spectacular Christmas displays. The one above was featured on the news this morning. It takes 11 days to set up, has 230,000+ lights, seven miles of cable and music coordinated with flashing sets of lights.

We have had a great time with Donna and Jim and will see them several times before we leave, but it is time to join in the excitement of Geoff's new place. It is a fine little brick and block place in Rockville. The previous owners kept it wonderfully maintained and the home inspector have it a score of 90. I would score it higher. I have never seen a better older home. There are some things that Geoff can do, and is planning to do, to open it up a bit and upscale some flooring and wall covering, but the structure and mechanical features are damn near perfect.

Jean and I will use the first floor bedroom. Easier for her, and speaking of easy there is a ramp from the driveway to the front door!

Most of her doctor visits are over, two to go; and one more test.

Dinner at the Koenigs on the 20th. The 23rd is some event somewhere celebrating something. Christmas Eve will be Roast Beast with the Kasicas. Christmas Day will be shredding paper and a turkey at Cory and Jerry's with ALL the boys in attendance. Some time between the 26th and the 30th we will get together with Lou Mayo.

Then on the 31st we return to Qunita casi el Cielo arriving mid afternoon for a little siesta before a fondue and Cava New Years's Eve Party with a few friends.

=m=

It's Tough to Leave

It's tough to leave.  I want to see family and friends very much but I want to stay here in paradise even more.  The wall of flowers behind me right now as I type could never be duplicated in Virginia. Thousands of impatiens planted by God, and at a cost of zero colones instead of 6 for $1.98 at Merrifield Nursery.

It's tough to leave.  Jean needs to see all her doctors and renew prescriptions and I can tend to her needs.  She is not demanding.  But her care here with help from Mari and Carmen and Reina and Flor and Juan is better. And, it's only a month.  We fax prescriptions right from the physician's office to Medco, Blue Cross/Blue Shield; and using our Florida mail drop address they are mailed directly to us for about ten dollers per three month supply of each med.  ( A cost well worth paying rather than staying an additional four to five weeks.)

It's tough to leave.  I have grown spoiled by the weather and the ability to slip into Tevas, shorts and a polo every day, wellllllll long pants on Sunday.  Shoes that encase my feet and clothing in layer are foreign to me.

Right now Mari is bathing Terry while Carmen cleans the kitchen, makes coffee and starts breakfast.  Carmen covers for Mari on Saturdays and is here with Mari on Mondays to do the heavy stuff, windows etc. Carmen will miss her two days a weeks pay, but her four weeks aquinaldo pay and two weeks vacation pay gave her some Christmas pay.  Mari will stay her while we are gone.  Mari is placing Christmasy votive candle holders around the sala right now, her way of fixing the place up for Christmas. 

Packing is almost done. Only my clothing and the laptops remain.  Better get to it.See most of you soon.

Love,

El Marteen (as Jimka calls me)

Getting Ready for a Christmas Trip to Virginia

Getting Ready for a Christmas Trip to Virginia

Redcap and wheelchair pusher tips: rojos, 1,000 colon notes, and bucks, 1 dollar US bills need to be gotten at the bank. And while at the Banco de Costa Rica might as well pay the Costa Rica departure tax; it's a lot more convenient than standing in yet another line at the airport and then trying to fill out the forms while balancing ticket and luggage.

Local coffee, Lizano and wildlife fridge magnets are a must as stocking stuffers. Our own coffee will not be processed and roasted until later this month so I bought coffee from Gerardo Capulina's little beneficio in Altos de Naranjo. He heads up an organic coffee associaton but also does custom processing of other coffee, mine will come from there.

Stock the house with food for the housesitter, and for the dogs and cat.

Pay aquinaldo, the 13th month. Annual bonuses are not only traditional they are the law. Employees are also entitled to a two week vacation which they often take around Christmas. If they do not take the leave they get the money.

Pack, of course. Here I wear only shorts, polo shirts and Tevas. Fortunately we have a stash of winter clothing at the Chapkeys.

Today I have to go downtown, San Jose, to pick up 18 newly framed photos. John Desarzin and I are going to have an exhibition of HDR photography in January and so I framed some large Adorama prints in the same style as his exhibition stuff. Tomorrow is a little show and sale and they will be handy there too.

So, with all of that there is not time for much else before our plane leaves on Monday the 6th.

Next missive will be written in the Olde Dominion.

.m.

Dry Season Started

Volcan Turrialba and Volcan Irazu are about 35 Kilometers distant
across the Valle Central, but when the dry season starts and they can
be seen without the rainy season cloud cover they appear much closer.

This morning they appeared. Not as clearly as they will a little
later when sunsets backing the plumes from Turrialba will be recorded
on all the digital camera in Atenas and on this side of the Valley. I
have a couple of good ones, but now that I am using HDR I hope for
somethingmore spectacular and check the view early while making
coffee.

Speaking of coffee, yesterday was the last of the first round of
coffee harvest here at Casi el Cielo. We got 58 cajuelasl, about 900
pounds. When the final accounting is done that will net us about
$500. I am very curious to see what the entire harvest thus far has
been, but hating number I will wait until Jean "does the books."

Jean is feeling a little better and will do her physical therapy in
the pool for the first time in over a month. And exercise is
essential to keep the blood moving in her legs and prevent further
arteriosclerosis of her legs, especially the right one.

So, good morning to all from midway up the Avocado Mountians in San
Isidro de Atenas.

-m-

Harvest Continues

Got back from Jean's dental appointment about 1:30pm and the pickers were waiting. Mari and I counted as they poured from bag to cajuela measure and then into another bag. EIGHTEEN Cajuelas, two shy of a fanega which is worth 80,000 to 90,000 colones.

The pickers say that they estimate there is another ten days of five or six persons picking left.

Do the math! If they are right there is another fifteen hundred dollars waiting to be picked.

And about the same amount of green cherries waiting to ripen and be collected in late December. Keeping the finca weeded, fertilized, and protected against insects and fungus has really paid off. Recall that these are just regrown plants which are only about half size. George, get those labels ready! =m=

Remembering Margaret

Margaret, Peggy, Mom, GG was: born in Jerome Arizona grew up in Anaheim, CA got her RN in San Francisco had two kids retired from Laguna Honda was a “getting old” role model died in Front Royal, VA and then did another two years teaching med students!

*

I got an email yesterday from the anatomical donation department of Georgetown Medial School informing me that the cremated remains of Margaret M. Lively were now available for pickup. Mom had made the gift of her body to the University years and years ago and had designated me as the beneficiary of her cremains. She wanted to avoid all last expenses and to continue her medical service into the future. In DC the dust of her sits in an 8x8x6 urn. I will get it in December and bring her memories to Costa Rica. She loved it here, lived at the Villa Alegria in Alajuela for a couple of years. The staff loved to see her wheel out into the garden after dinner to watch the flowers fade into black. Having to deal with her remains prompts me to think about my own, and Jean’s. Death is the final act of living and it is time to plan. So I will visit the City Hall and see what is available there for Mom’s urn and then later for Me and Jean and Terry. Dad is interred in a cremains niche in Sonoma with a vista of the vineyards of Sebastiani. It would be fitting for Mom to be near us surrounded by the Avocado Mountains and a thousand shades of green -gml-