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I Voted Today!

Yep! I voted “Absentee” today and tomorrow will put this envelope in the mail.
It will arrive in Nashville in a week to 10 days and be counted in November.
Overseas citizens vote in the last voting district they lived in before moving.
Meaning I will probably vote the rest of my life in Hermitage, Tennessee!
I am shocked by the number of so-called “U.S. Citizens” who do not vote,
both here in Costa Rica and those still living in the states. Shameful!
I consider it a duty, a moral obligation, a responsibility of a citizen!
VOTE!


Voting is a civic sacrament. 
~Theodore Hesburgh
“Half the American people never read a newspaper. 
Half never vote for President – the same half?”
~ Gore Vidal in “Screening History,” published 1992. 
”It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government
 except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” 
~ Winston Churchill, on the floor of Parliament in November 1947.
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With My “Gold Card” I’m Officially OLD!

This makes me officially an old person “Adultos Mejor” as stamped on my file.

But what is really nice is I now ride the bus for free and get in all national parks free and other benefits I haven’t even learned about yet! Plus I get to wait in the shorter lines at bank and other places plus it is just nice to live where there is a sincere or genuine respect given to older people.

And don’t forget to check out my newest book, My First 50 Butterflies in Costa Rica:

Click image to preview online
and do it with full screen view! 


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Split-banded, Heliconia or Linnean Owlet Butterfly

Split-banded or Heliconia/Linnean Owlet Butterfly
In My House, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica

 

Split-banded or Heliconia/Linnean Owlet Butterfly
In My House, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica
Sorry for out-of-focus image, but needed for identification, top side

Yes, the bottom side (wings folded) is similar to Owl Butterfly but the top side is different! The bottom is a fair match for “Split-banded Owlet” but the top seems to be closer to the “Heliconian or Linnean Owlet” meaning that I am not sure! Sorry top is not in focus but seldom opened and only for brief second rapidly. In both shots he is on my kitchen window screen.

See also MY BUTTERFLY PHOTO GALLERY for many more species of butterflies, 54 now!

For identification I am now primarily using the book A Swift Guide to the Butterflies of Mexico and Central America. It has more photos and species included than any book I have found yet for this region and I double check on the internet. The National Audubon Society’s Field Guide to Butterflies is the best for North American butterflies but does not always include all in Central America such as this one which is close on the bottom side to one of the “Pearly Eyes” but not a match. The only Costa Rica book on butterflies is woefully lacking in species.

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Orange-chinned Parakeet

Orange-chinned Parakeet zoomed in on him in my Strangler Fig Tree
My garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica

Orange-chinned Parakeet zoomed in even more
My garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica

Most are very timid and it is difficult to get close enough for a good photo. See my collection of birds in my BIRDS PHOTO GALLERY with nearly 200 shot in Costa Rica, a hundred in Nicaragua, plus more in Panama, Guatemala and Mexico. Central America is full of colorful birds!

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My almost wasted Friday!

It was the first week of July when the CAJA set up my next appointment with my assigned doctor who was not there then for my initial physical. They scheduled it for September 12 with lab work on September 2 and for me to go to Alajuela for a EKG in that larger clinic, which I put off.

I had two different prescriptions for these two free testings, but filed them away and forgot about them. Last week I went to the clinic in Alajuela and told them I was supposed to get an EKG. They can’t do it without a prescription from a CAJA doctor. Well, I’ll tell Doc on the 12th, figuring I didn’t have one.

This morning at 7 was my appointment at the clinic lab for my blood work. I’m there by 6:30 (walking) and wait an hour to get to front of line where they tell me they can’t do it without a prescription. I walk back home and dig through my CAJA folder and sure enough, there it is AND the prescription for the EKG! I’ve become a FORGETFUL OLD MAN! Tired and sweaty by now after the two mile round trip walk, I call a taxi and take both prescription (I’m going to Alajuela after the lab and finish this stuff today!)

I’m back at lab by 8 and with my blood given and out by 8:30. Walk to bus station and in Alajuela’s Clinica Marcea Rodriquez with my prescription for a EKG by 10:00. I’ve about got this testing licked I thought! I’m escorted to the cardiology waiting room of musical chairs where I’m only 3rd in line. Good prescription they tell me but you must have a cita, an appointment! So after several minutes on her computer she tells me my appointment is 26 December at 11! My helper who walked me over there said, “Oh! You’re lucky! It’s this year!”  🙂   Well, I have an earlier EKG from a private doctor, so I’m not worried and it is no skin off my new doc’s back! Go with the flow and learn the system!

Part of the Pura Vida spirit of Costa Rica is having a “What? Me worry?” attitude. All of this kind of stuff is seen by so many people here as God’s will and you just take it as it comes! But it would have helped a whole lot if I had remembered that I had prescriptions and where I put them!

I ate lunch at Taco Bell in Alajuela (we have no fast food in Atenas) and bus had me home by 1:00 – very tired! 

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Exotic Flowers Hiding in My Garden

In the back corner of my garden beyond the big Heliconias and
behind these Red Gingers are some tall green, leafy plants, not flower-like.

If you get close, you see they kind of
look like tall, leafy stalks, similar to corn,
but that is not a corn cob in the back!
It is the flower!

If I stand on the hill above my garden and look down 1 of 4 is peaking out.

This is one full-grown Maraca or Shampoo Ginger Flower

Another Maraca or Shampoo Ginger

And a Baby Maraca or Shampoo Ginger

In my pre-move travels all over Central America I saw these unique tropical flower and always thought they were the most unique. Thanks to my gardeners and especially Alfredo, I now have a plant that has grown well and spread in my garden. I can now walk out my back door and see them, well, with a little searching!  🙂  They are somewhat rare and not available in all the Veveros (plant nurseries), but my good gardener Alfredo found one in his uncle’s yard for me! Be nice to your gardener and he will be nice to you!  🙂

I’m just starting my garden photo gallery but it has quite a few photos already!

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Old Man’s Joy: Having Gardeners!

A team of 6 young men come every two weeks to cut grass, edge beds,
weed, and trim shrubs, flowers or trees as needed. That’s Cristian above.
6 guys swooping over my yard in an hour. Neat! And at just $50!

 

They save my back and other potential aches and pains as well as time,
and they do it fast and very well. I am fortunate! And they are my friends!
This is Alfredo above.

 

My back garden is still the centerpiece, but the whole yard is a garden!
I love living here among the tropical plants with doors/windows always open!

I’m just starting my garden photo gallery but it has quite a few photos already!