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| In Atenas you can sell anything from your house. So, maybe I will start sharing interesting signs like this. They are all over town, many on my daily walk. |
Now a new photo gallery: Home Business Signs – Atenas
No Angiogram Today
Well, I did not get my angiogram today after two hours at Hospital Mexico (left) and another hour at Alajuela Hospital (my province hospital). It seems that the bigger hospital wants my regional hospital to perform some preliminary tests that they can do before the big hospital does my angiogram which is now rescheduled for 25 Agosto, oh, that’s August 25! And yes, they did tell me that earlier or the doctor scribbled it on the appointment sheet in Spanish that even my Tico friends could not read. Tough luck!
It is all part of the bureaucracy in the government healthcare that Ticos make fun of all the time but are also more naturally patient than Americans. And hey! I have more time than money! So, just another adventure! Plus Jason and I had a great lunch of Mexican food at Jalapeno Central in Alajuela today! They even have pecan pie! (Not something you find very often here!)
The other thing a learned today is how important it is to speak Spanish if you are going to live here as a local and use services like this! Sure wish I had learned Spanish when I was young! I’m a slow learner now! I really needed my translator today, Jason Quesada. My cardiologist will call me next week when he returns from a trip and get it all worked out. 🙂 Pura vida!
-o-
Costa Rican government responds to Trump’s climate accords exit is an article in today’s Tico Times. Plus an older article on Costa Rica’s Legislature ratifying the Paris Accord. And for my fellow readers and literary lovers, you must see this more sophisticated evaluation of Donald Trump that ironically uses a wonderful old Russian fairy tale to describe him:
REBECCA SOLNIT: THE LONELINESS OF DONALD TRUMP
Are any of my American friends aware that your president is now the most mocked man in the world? How sad! And even sadder, my cable TV subscription does not include the American NBC network, thus I don’t get to watch Saturday Night Live! Sob, sob. 🙂 And even the YouTube clips are not licensed for showing in Costa Rica, thus can’t go there! I occasionally see little clips on Washington Post or a pirated one somewhere. So funny!
Medical Test Tomorrow, Friday, Maybe
As mentioned earlier, I’m scheduled for an angiogram tomorrow, Friday, June 2. They were to call me by today and tell me the exact time. I never got the call. Long story, but I loaned my phone to a friend yesterday and he evidently turned the volume down to 0 or I could have accidently done it. I discovered it tonight and then found on the “recent calls” that the hospital tried to call me twice today. Darn!
Anyway, I am going to show up at Hospital Mexico at 7 AM tomorrow with my interpreter and hope I am still scheduled for sometime tomorrow. The devil is in the details and little things like the volume control button on my cellphone! Ugh!
-o-
It will be huge and just over the hill from Atenas, closer to me than the current SJO Airport. And I will only be 87 years old, so good time to come visit through the big new airport! 🙂 Click title to see pictures and read about this big infrastructure improvement here.
Saying Nothing
A great article I just read in Christianity Today online: Why We Argue Best with Our Mouths Shut and this link will open for non-subscribers of CT, a new service they now provide for people like me who like to share their articles. This describes my kind of Christianity (or evangelism) for a long time now and how I try to live it here in Costa Rica. It’s also interesting that science proves the title statement true according to this article and “the secret may lie in the charge put forth by James: to make every effort to be quick to listen and slow to speak (James 1:19).” Not easy for someone who likes to talk as much as I do! 🙂 Enjoy a free article from a great magazine!
And just for fun . . .
Spanish for ear: la oreja or listen: escuchar
Spanish for ear: la oreja or listen: escuchar
-o-
RECORD RAINY SEASON? Actually too early to tell, but . . .
Costa Rica May Set Rain Record for May, article in Tico Times
Note that “Rainy Season” in Costa Rica is May-November with much of the country having our heaviest rain in September & October. Let’s see what they say in November or December!? 🙂
“Professional” Landscape Photos
See this article about an Italian Landscape Photographer here with 10 of his photos. Some of his landscapes I haven’t seen yet. And my equipment is not as good. But I will end up having most of these photos in time except for the time lapse at Poas. Not my thing. Also note that beneath that first beach photo is a web address to his website with a 360 degree image of that same beach which is really cool!
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| My March trip was partly to get this photo, but a closed trail stopped me. I will go back and make my own photo one of these days! Rio Celeste Waterfall Tenorio National Park, Costa Rica |
And for some of my “amateur” landscapes, see my Vistas gallery or my Waterfalls gallery.
-o-
LOCAL REPORT: The rain is bringing in some new bugs and while typing I just watched one of my geckos eat one. They are little with long wings, chase the light, and pester me! Life in the jungle! 🙂
Where There Is a Lot of Water!
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| Flying over Corcovado National Park near Drake Bay Probably one winding river but whatever, a lot of water for one forest! The Richness of a Rainforest! Corcovado National Park, Costa Rica |
Sometimes I go back and look through photos from a trip and see something new to share. 🙂
My “Trip Gallery” for Drake Bay – Corcovado – Aguila Lodge
The Roca Verde Rock
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| “Roca Verde” literally translates to “Green Rock” – Is this it? Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| This big rock is just inside our community entrance gate. Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Our Entrance Gate Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica |
I have no Roca Verde gallery per se, but these include shots in Roca Verde:
My House in Roca Verde
“What are men to rocks and mountains?”
― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
Goodbye to a Good Friend
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| Garden Art by Anthony |
This morning at about 4:00 I said goodbye to my next door neighbor Anthony who has been a special friend this last year, as he was when he lived on the other side of me during my first few months in this house (before he traveled to Spain & Morocco for 9 months). He is the single artist guy, about 8 years younger than me, who is still driven to create. He did my garden art sculpture I’ve shown before and a painting I promised not to publish. You will have to visit me to see it – another contemporary bird!
Though Costa Rica is a great atmosphere for creativity, it is not the easiest place to get lots of different art supplies, especially for his clay and tile work. So he is moving back to the states, not to his native Indiana, but to an art community in Chicago where he can get everything he needs to create including many customers which he also needs at this particular point in his life. And he plans to take classes in a world renowned tile art school there. So I wish Anthony the best of life in lakeside Chicago and a fabulous new career as an artist in the states.
The house he was in, next door in this same compound, has already been rented and soon I will meet my new neighbor and see what adventures that will bring! And very soon I could be greeting a new landlord, as the whole compound is for sale. I met one lovely couple moving here from Houston who are considering the purchase. They are originally from Louisiana and we hit it off when they visited as “fellow southerners.” It seems that people know immediately when I speak that I’m from “The South.” Wonder why?
We will see what happens. My current French Canadian landlords will still be in Atenas part time in a smaller house, with their main house being built on a Pacific Coast beach north of Jaco. And the now vacant house on the other side of me (Richard’s casita) has a couple moving in for two months that I met through my blog and the local evangelical church, Iglesia Biblical. Change is maybe the most consistent part of life! And it always brings new experiences and new friends! Pura vida! 🙂
-o-
The Greatest Threat to the Church Isn’t Islam – It’s Us
Hoping non-subscribers to Christianity Today can get to this linked article by a Nigerian Christian. In many ways Africa is where Christianity is strongest today and there are many things Americans could learn from our African brethren! This article is a good example.
Why did I move to Costa Rica?
Nearly three years ago I started this blog to publicly discuss and seek guidance in what I then called my “Costa Rica Decision Process.” I just went back and read one of those early posts that really sums up my 16 reasons for leaving the U.S. and choosing Costa Rica for retirement written on June 28, 2014:
Click the above title and read the reasons I listed three years ago and you have my answer for today! Oh sure, I could add some things I’ve learned since that make it even better and some things that are more negative than in that list, but overall it sums up pretty well why I came and why I stay. And the list is totally mine, not from some website on retiring in Costa Rica. And yes, I’m really glad I did it! No regrets and I expect to stay here the rest of my life.
A few readers of this blog have written with specific questions and contact me when they come here to check it out. I am happy to help! Nothing in it for me. I’m retired and not selling services. 🙂
Now, I have wondered at what point we get too many Americans, Canadians and Europeans here!? There are a few “Ugly Americans” (Remember the 1960’s book?) already here and they are the ones constantly complaining about something that is not right here in their eyes. When an earlier neighbor was complaining about the relaxed atmosphere and infrastructure and said, “You know how these people are!” I thought to myself, “You need to go back to the states.” In three months he did. This culture and atmosphere is not for everyone! So check it out thoroughly for a good while before you decide to move here! But be sure that many of us love it here!
And for more reasons, just go back and read all the entries in this blog or see my Costa Rica Photo Gallery that I call: Charlie Doggett’s COSTA RICA and you will visually see why I love it here!
Meadow Haiku
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| Cellphone shot in Roca Verde Neighborhood, Atenas, Costa Rica |
This is the view that a few houses up the hill from me have. It is one of the views I have when I walk the kilometer circle through my neighborhood. Peaceful and rural.
My photo gallery of Vistas
My photo gallery of Haiku
“Mountains are the beginning and the end of all natural scenery.“
~John Ruskin