Monthly Archive for July, 2011

Love In The Wild … Mamons and Popping our Geocaching Cherry

Published on July 30, 2011 in Baby Boomer. 0 Comments

We had a couple Love in the Wild moments today…

The first Love in the Wild Moment involved fruit.

Pat and John introduced us to the Grecia, Costa Rica, feria where we discovered Mamon Chino fruit. A vendor was offering samples. It is one intimidating fruit with the spiky looking skin, but when he sliced it the skin easily pulled away revealing a luscious fruit.
Sampling! Has the guy been to Sam’s Club?
It worked, I ate it, Pat bought a bag, I returned and bought a bag, then went back and bought another bag!

Mamon (left) Birthday Cake for Nanc (right) Love in the Wild!

Our second Love in the Wild moment came when John and Pat introduced us to geocaching. We had our geocaching cherry popped. I had read about it but never talked with experienced geocachers. Pat explained…

It’s using multi-million dollar satellites to find hidden trinkets”

As we toddled (do people toddle anymore? they should) from Alujuela, Costa Rica to Atenas, they explained the concept further. As we expressed our interest, Pat revealed that we would be passing a geocache they have hidden. John told me where to pull off the road and they put us within 5 meters of our first search.

They were gentle on our first time. You could tell by their loving instructions and guidance and patience that they were trying their best to make sure our first time was a memorable experience without getting us all worked up over if we were doing it right.

When our Love in the Wild geocache climaxed, I think they both wanted to lie back and light a cigarette and enjoy our pleasure.

Near the site of losing our geocaching virginity

They let us enjoy the moment for a while and then we did it again… this time near their home.

And then we went home to watch the cows toddle down the road. Love in the Wild indeed. Nothing like a bunch of bovines toddling to make one think – all is right in the world.

Cows toddlin' by Sedolder

Four Guys, Two Chain Saws, a Rope, a Beater. The Trees Didn’t Stand a Chance.

Published on July 29, 2011 in Baby Boomer. 0 Comments

1. Anchor tree 2. Victim tree 3. Utility lines 4. Gravity

Here’s a scene that plays out across the globe. Four guys, two chain saws, a rope, a beater four wheel drive — and two trees that were “in the way.”
The trees didn’t stand a chance. But they didn’t go down easily and threatened to do serious damage via gravity.
A good time was had by all.
As with most guys, there was a lot of yelling and finger pointing and laughing as the “plan” to take out the two trees was “formulated.”
Since one of the trees was “on my property” (that’s a story yet to be resolved) and had the potential to do the most serious damage to the utility lines, I wanted to be reassured that I wasn’t liable for damages.
Silence.
In Spanish, Patrick asked the chain-saw guy if the tree would fall on the utility lines.
No. No. No.
And then he grinned.
And Patrick grinned at me.
We will wrap the rope around the tree and around another tree and pull it up the hill away from the lines, he explained.
I grinned.
Apparently Patrick and chain-saw guy had not heard about gravity. When the car is lower than the tree and the anchor tree is at the same level as the victim tree, and the utility lines are lower than the tree, there is no other way for the tree to fall than — wait for it — down.
The victim tree was dying from the inside. What was left were three giant limbs growing out of basically a stump. He says, justifying what just was way too much fun.
The other victim tree was at the base of a major drain – built under the supervision of Patrick – without permission on our property. (Pura Vida!) The torrents of rain of course were washing away the root support systems and that tree WOULD eventually fall on the utility poles.
So it became a victim too.
Nancy said it was quite entertaining to hear a bunch of yelling as chain-saw guy yelled at care-taker guy who yelled at Patrick, piloting the beater.
Then much laffing.
Then chain saw noise.
Then LOTS of yelling. LOTS.
And the beater roaring it’s disapproval of the abuse.
And the tree cracking.
I even got in a few choice words. As St. Todd DeCubbville, the expert tv camera operator, points out, I missed the money shot.
Then a moment of silence followed by more laffing.

But it’s not bad considering I had my eyes closed the whole time.
Four guys, two chain saws, a beater, and two trees become two stumps.
A good time was had by all.

My "Oh Shit" Moment of the Day

Horrible Internet Connection Requires New Entertainment Mindset

Published on July 25, 2011 in Baby Boomer. 1 Comment

Wholly crap.

Who would have guessed that an internet connection could be so bad? When we were looking for places to live in Costa Rica, I knew that connecting to the internet would be a necessity. For communications and entertainment.

Usually the internet connection was included in the real estate listing.

Internet: Yes.

When we got very serious about this house, I asked the question:
Is there internet?

Yes.

Unasked: what is the download speed?

Costa Rica has gone wireless across the entire country. Almost. Every place we visited had better internet connections than most of the US countryside – either via DSL or the monopoly phone/electric company’s wireless network. There are even competitive wireless internet providers.

We get our connection through what’s called a data card. It’s a USB with phone SIM card. The only thing missing with the connection is the modem squeal.

This connection is so crappy that animated gifs won’t play! Video? Pfffbbt. Only if you like to watch vids in 6 second jerks.

Streaming music ain’t bad.

iTunes does OK. I download stuff overnight to listen to during the day. I’ll also sometimes live stream news/talk radio from the states. But even those have to buffer and rebuffer from time to time. Especially if I’m trying to load another page.

Today I found a great music streaming site: Sound Cloud. The clips load quick and play straight through. I’ve been a big fan of Pandora.com and this is right up there.

I love the serendipity of just letting tracks play. Not sure how often the tracks change, so SoundCloud.com won’t be a “go-to” site everyday. But it’s playing in background now.

I like it. If you like music online – free – check it out. Now get up and dance:
01 – ‘Immo’ – July 27 on BEATPORT (BugEyed Records) by sirsirmusic