Pacific Specifics

  I'm reading a book called Massacre at Mountain Meadows, by Walker, Turley, and Leonard. It was suggested by a good friend, whose grandfather was in the area at the time, but declined to get involved. It's about a dark piece of Utah history. Well, it wasn't even the State of Utah back then. There were 4 Indians to every white man, according to the historians. I'm still on the preface, but there are some interesting points made already. The book was published in 2008. But it speaks of things that reflect 2016, which is far too close to the times preceding the massacre. The tragedy was on September 11, 1857. (Is September 11th cursed or something?). More than 100 people were killed, and most of the victims were women and children. I have read a couple of books on the event, but this one has a cartload of details on how it was researched so thoroughly and put in context of the current state of the country and area.   I read 2 paragraphs and it could have been written thi...

    I woke up around 6am today. Just because. I went to yoga with Ron, at 8am. It's on the beach, and you can hear the waves. It's actually under some palm trees right before the sand starts on the beach. I saw a squirrel running around one of those trees. The squirrels here are very colorful with deep chestnut color, brown with a lot of red. That is the body, but the tail is a big bushy bunch of grey.   I went through the motions during the class, I didn't consider how much thinking I would have to do during an activity designed around meditation and slow movements. It's the anti-Zumba nature of it that appealed to me in the first place. But it's hard work. My poor wrists may never forgive me. Now I understand why the instructor has to tell you to breathe. I've never had to question whether I was inhaling or exhaling, and my brain was trying to multi-task that idea with all the other new things I was trying to follow along with. Oh, and I finally realized th...

One Drop             (how's that for a title??) This isn't about Costa Rica. It isn't about inspiration. It's just me, trying to create a story. The guy's name is Aldo, they call him Al. He's Italian. He's a tall man with broad shoulders, 22 years old. The girl's name is Kat, short for Katherine. She's 20 years old.   Do I tell a story, or I just describe things? This post is me working on my voice for writing. Aldo is Italian and lives in the US in a large family. The city he lives in has a strong network of Italians who stay connected in the New World. They keep a lot of the Italian identity and customs.   Kat is from a small and laid back family where her parents pushed her to find her own way, to think for herself. Kat grew up taking classes in many things from swimming to self defense to auto mechanics. She was encouraged to try many different hobbies and skills. She knew a little about a lot, but not a lot...

  Buenas Dias. What a long day. Church, scooter ride home: dodging potholes and horse crap and stray dogs, wind burn on my face, and now I'm too pooped to pop. (What does that even mean??) I wrote something to myself in church, and shared it with a few friends. My buddy Liz says I should write it here. We were talking about prayer at church. Of which I only understood 5% of it, because it was really noisy today. I hate thinking that things are difficult. Why do things have to be difficult? I think they were talking about the hurricane, which devastated some parts of Costa Rica. I just thought about how difficult times prove God. And God proves they can become less difficult. And prayer proves God. And prayer helps things become less difficult. It's that whole theory of: Do you pray that your problems become smaller, or that your faith and strength become bigger? That you can become bigger. Because chances are, your problems won't become smaller. ...

  I have to get pictures from Ron. We rode our bikes on the beach today, among other things. I was proud of how far I rode. Wet sand is a little harder to ride on. I spotted a dead baby turtle. It could fit in the palm of my hand. I wonder how it got to Samara beach, it's out of place. It's now how I expected to see one. Poor guy! I saw one jellyfish too. Also pretty rare. Of course, this was after we had played in the water. The blobby thing was completely translucent. Like it had on an invisibility cloak. It was so bizarre. I see why they call it a jellyfish, it was so unsolid (if that's a word?). Ron picked it up with a stick. So it had form, but it barely had from. There was still a tentacle thingy that hung down when it was suspended in air. Jellyfish have always been one of my favorite animals. "Cnidarians are among the oldest animals on earth; their fossil record stretches back for almost 600 million years! What can you say about animals that lack a central ner...

  I posted a few things/stories/pictures on Facebook today. Because I haven't figured out how to get pictures from my iPad on to the blog. Doh. I had more adventures today, that's for sure. Forget about The Eye of the Tiger. Today was The Eye of the Bull. I think I will use that expression more now: taking the bull by the horns. Also the expression: Vayas con Dios!   Also, Hurricane Otto just made Costa Rican history. They say it's the first hurricane to hit Costa Rica since they've been keeping track, for something like 170 years. We are on a hurricane watch here on the west coast. I also read that 7 people have already died in Panama from mudslides and flooding. Thank goodness for a solid cement house. Except for the creek near by...   Happy Thanksgiving! Almost! Stay sane, y'all. Cows everywhere.

  Can you believe everything that you read? They were surprised that Otto became a hurricane. They say the last time one formed in the Caribbean was in 1969. 5 people died in Costa Rica back then. 3 people have died in Panama already from Otto. It has already caused all kinds of flooding and mudslides on the east coast. State of emergency and all that. Schools closed in some parts. It's supposed to make its way to the west coast tomorrow. Here. We bought some water, but most Costa Ricans seem to take it in stride. No big deal. I don't know, maybe they don't watch the news?    We'll see how tomorrow goes. I'm going to take some pictures of the neighborhood. In case craziness happens, and they become part of a Before and After album. I spent 8 months in Florida, I don't remember being this concerned about a storm. The good news is that my Mom built a sturdy cement house. It's not the first house she's ever built, either. We will be fine, depending on if t...

  I think the Chinese missed an animal. Why pick a rat when you could have a year of the iguana? I love them. They are the coolest creatures. We were at a park in an outdoor area with tables, and a roof over it. On top of one of the poles was an iguana, just hanging out. I saw one in a tree, watching traffic, as we neared home. I had one in my window yesterday. Nothing between it and me except for 4 feet and a pane of glass. Thank goodness for mesh on the open window. Whew. I could admire without fear. But let me tell you, today takes the cake. I've seen all kinds of green ones, I thought I saw a blue one, but it was hard to believe my eyes. Well. Today I saw an orange one. So I started to wonder, and I looked it up. They can change color. How did I not know this? Then I saw another one today, in a tree. But the orange one! It was super fat. Usually they aren't fat at all. It was in the ditch right in front of the house. I need to show you the pictures. It didn't care about...

  Is yoga cool? I still don't know. Day 2 of yoga, which is supposed to be so wonderful. And day 2 of yoga on the beach. The sound of the waves, the breeze on my arms, and the smell of dog poop in the air, mixed with the scent of the ocean. Sigh. I learned some good stretches. I learned how to focus deep inside of me, the part of me that is separate from my past. I never thought to separate those 2 things before. I only snorted once. The instructor came up behind me, and raised my arm up for whatever celestial pose we were working on, and she said: I believe you have it inside you. I snorted, and not so gracefully. I thought yoga was supposed to make me more fluid and one with the universe and all that. I tried to breathe instead of responding out loud to her.   I also realized another interesting thing about my way of thinking here. In Cedar City, UT I was always running around. Alarm clocks, work schedules, To Do lists, and What Do I Absolutely Have To Do Next? Always calcu...

  So we went for a walk in the pouring rain. Being cold is so refreshing here. We found a tiny frog, or toad? It was the size of my thumb nail. Very adorable. Then later after dark, after we had dried off, we heard this horrible sound. It was high pitched, like something electrical gone wrong. So loud! Turns out it was bugs. We thought there were issues with the power lines. (Me and Ron, not my Mom: she's heard it all before). We like to watch the TV show Survivor while we eat dinner. I had to shut the front door, it was too dang loud. Then I had to shut the front window too. Thank goodness the cicadas have stopped, but the crickets are giving it their best shot now.   It's so different here. Water was pouring off of people's roofs, and then it stops and there is barely a puddle in the neighbor's yard. When 20 minutes ago all the streets were having a mini flood. Weird. Costa Rica has so much to offer. I don't know how long we'll be here, but it's such a wi...

  There are a few critters here that I was happy to see in person. Today I was more fortunate than happy. We were picking up a pile of leaves and there was a scorpion. I had gloves on, but Ron didn't. He was a small brown scorpion about the length of my thumb, and very skinny. It was kind of cool. I've seen 4 types of lizards/iguanas. Geckos lurk around the house, they have a sound like a chirp. An impressively loud chirp for something the size of my pointer finger. A decent sized lizard comes out on the same log next door, every morning. It's mostly grey, I named her Carmelita. I've seen green iguanas of all sizes, and I love them. And I saw on good sized blue lizard, with part of its tail missing.   One night we saw an armadillo across the street. I didn't even know I should be looking for them. After a good rain you can see squished frogs on the roads, perfectly flat. I've seen 2 different types around here. I am currently on the back porch and there is a ...

  I sometimes wonder if trying to be positive is just make believe. I believe in Keeping Things Real. But that is not the positive way, in some regards. I could have talked about the joys of yoga and my new awareness of my Core, as she kept saying it. But isn't it also just as interesting to note how different yoga might be if I didn't have to flick ants off my mat??   But then some people are so dang negative that pain and worry and whining are their only reality, with brief bursts of gratitude and wonder at the world around them. If I entertain myself with the challenge of being as positive as possible, then it really does alter my reality. As I squish ants as quietly and peacefully as possible while inhaling for a panting -dog -collapsing -stretch of my hind quarters.    I don't want to get real with my blog. Life in its entirety can be pretty gross and also quite annoying at times. And I am trying to avoid being annoyed. I think it's it's entirely unnecessar...

  I try to stay positive. It has proven to be a worthwhile pursuit for me. If I don't, I can get pretty cranky, and guess what? I end up annoying myself the most. My point is, don't get tired of being happy for me and my adventures. Chances are, I'm just sharing the amazing stuff. Not the stuff like having to clean up iguana poop in an inconvenient place, whose only redeeming quality is how dry it is.   This morning I set my alarm for 5:30am. I wanted to see the big gorgeous moon set in the west. But the sun was already up by then, I really didn't think it through, or even look up when the moon would be setting. I went back to sleep. Then I went to this thing they call yoga. It was next to the beach, which seemed pretty cool. I tired. I really did. And I didn't laugh, or anything. But it turns out yoga makes me sad. What's up with that? No more group yoga for me, that's all I know. I got something out of it, but man! All the twisting, balancing, breathing ...

  I saw that super moon! The sun had just set, and the moon crept over the mountains on the eastern horizon. We stood on the beach, and it was a really low tide, miles of extra sand instead of waves. There were 3 different bonfires along the beach. We were on the far west side, looking to the east. The moon was huge. It was orange. It was rising pretty fast. I always love how it transforms as it goes. Starting low, big, and yellowish and getting smaller and whiter as it climbs into the sky. We met some friends on the beach, it was amazing. Standing there, looking at the trail of the moon in the wet sand, and then in the water. It was a moment stolen in time. There are a lot of those here in Samara. So Ron and I decided to walk across the 100 yards to the ocean, following the path of reflected moonlight. We walked right in to the water. The view of the moon playing in the clouds, and the light it cast - it was a sight to behold. What a night. Have you ever stood in the sea ener...

  I'm working on the pictures. I slept in until 7am. I'm getting used to this waking up without an alarm clock, and getting up early anyway. Last night was a wedding and a baptism, same people, same night. We didn't get home until late, and made some new friends. Today we went for a bike ride on the beach at 8am, because we just barely missed the start of the yoga class on the beach.   Then we drove to the Big Town of Nicoya, 45 minutes away. Only it took much longer than 45 minutes. I need to find out the name of the event. We were stuck behind some kind of parade, lots of prancing horses. After we parked we walked over and saw that it was at least a 5 block parade with oxen pulling painted carts full of wood. I took some pictures until I was so hot it seemed like I was melting. But I was so caught up in the animals, you know? I wanted to see where the parade ended up, it sounds like they were going to take all that wood and cook some good food. But we had to get the rent...

  I think in categories. I have to get used to writing a blog which has to be different from my years of writing a journal. In my journals I whine a lot and work things out until I can let go of negative things. This will be different. Now let's see if I can post a picture. It's entirely possible to take too many sunset pictures, but I'll take that chance. I love how big and orange the sun gets when it sets over the ocean. This is the south Pacific ocean, in Costa Rica. I think this beach is called Buena Vista. We saw some broken shells on the rocks. The really huge kind. It's our dream to find one intact. This is our second sunset on this beach, and it's like being on a movie set! The tricky part was how slimy and slippery the rocks were as we explored low tide. This beach is a few minutes away from where we live, by moped.

I think I like this thing they call Blog. I was going to write a book, but this requires less patience. And the most fun of my book so far was coming up with the chapter titles. Like "The Middle of Amazing". I just need to figure out this website. Time for a positive affirmation. 'It's good to be me!'. Nope, not quite what I need, maybe I need to invent a new one. 'I am good at new things!'. Yes, I like that one. Affirmations seem to be that fine line between being positive and not telling yourself a fib so big that it's hard to believe. You know what I mean? I try to find the balance between hopeful and still honest to myself. 2 of my favorite traits. So now I just need to figure out what happened to my first post about the sunset tonight. Hmmm. I may need to call in my ever capable Husband for this. I love that man!