Adios Costa Rica – Hello Again US

Posted on by August 5, 2017

Downtown Atenas Costa Rica, July 7, 2011

We pulled the plug on our six year Costa Rica adventure and have returned to the United States. After five years on the market, we sold our house and closed the deal July 24. They loaded our shipping container with our worldly goods on 7/22, Nancy had her “surprise” birthday party on 7/25 and we were on a plane for Florida on 7/27.

We will be living near Bulbous and St. Todd de Cubbville.

So far we have bought a car, a house, and a new phone. We’ve purchased car and home insurance and got new Florida driver’s licenses. Someday I’ll tell you about which was the most challenging.

We’re temporarily living in the “Wal-mart furniture” house (as Nancy calls it) via Airbnb.com

I know there are a ton of questions “why?” and those will be addressed in later posts.

Suffice to say for now that we both have a lot of good memories about living in Costa Rica but it was me that pushed to move back to the US.

Here are upcoming topics (depending on when our shipping container arrives and how I do getting “stuff” unpacked.)

NOTE: don’t jump to any conclusions that all these topics are reasons we left – as with most things there were pros and cons…

  • Medical
  • Driving
  • Walking
  • Talking
  • Eating
  • Governing
  • Entertaining
  • Shopping

 

After S*Town podcast, deathly silence at our house

Posted on by April 3, 2017

Our bedtime routine is to settle in and listen to a couple podcasts. I’ll read my Twitter feed and Nancy will read a book or play a game on her iPad.

Last night, Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me (a favorite podcast) had Sarah Koenig, the creator of Serial a viral sensation podcast, on as a guest. She helped launch a new podcast series call S•Town.

So I downloaded a couple episodes – and I’m hooked! Although all the episodes are available for download immediately, I’ll spread out the listening…

Normally, I’ll fall asleep during the last 30 minutes or so of the 180 minutes of podcasts in the queue.

Last night was different because of the compelling nature of S•Town. Last night, the podcast ended, and I just laid there, thinking about the surprise ending of Chapter Two, listening to the night sounds.

EXCEPT THERE WERE NONE.

Soundless. No night sounds.

Since I have tinnitus, I never experience total quiet. I have a 24/7/365 ringing in my head.

But last night – aside from the tinnitus – I could not hear a sound.

  • No gecko chirps
  • No cicada whine
  • No iguana scrabblling across the tin roof
  • No Facebook alerts
  • No night bird calls
  • No congo monkey howls
  • No music
  • No text alerts
  • No cars or trucks
  • No news website alerts
  • No distant thunder
  • No frog croaks

This went on for at least 15 minutes. Total and complete silence.  Eventually the sound was broken for a few seconds by the five staccato chirps from a single gecko in the house. Then total quiet again for a few minutes. A car went by on the road below. Then total silence again.

Then Nancy rolled over and grabbed her phone and launched the WGN radio app and tuned in the WGN Radio Theater. Last night the episode was “Box Thirteen: The Haunted Artist with Alan Ladd” a program from 1948.

I laid there and recalled listening to the radio when I was a kid (born in 1947.) I also remembered the road noises that came in through the open window in the summer. We lived on US 12 at the edge of a very small town – right where the speed limit changed from 40 mph through town to 55 mph (night-time speed limit on highways.)  I would hear the trucks down-shifting as they slowed to 40 mph going eastbound and up-shifting as they increased speed going westbound.  I could hear the trucks shifting 4 or 5 or even 6 times going westbound.

Don’t hear that anymore – and don’t miss it.

Now I tune in the phone to play a podcast or radio station and drift off to sleep.

Anything to drown out the tinnitus.

 

 

Parking tokens in Costa Rica – a scam or April Fool’s joke?

Posted on by March 31, 2017

Is this Tiddlywink a Costa Rica scam? It’s a cheap plastic token dispensed by a parking kiosk at a huge local hospital. I looks exactly like a Tiddlywink. It can’t possibly contain any electronic chips, but yet somehow when you give the token to an attendant (or drop it in the payment kiosk) a charge for parking magically appears on the screen.

Impossible, no?

Other parking lots print out a lightweight cardboard with a black stripe on the back imitating a “magnetic” stripe.  I can somewhat accept that this is legitimate.

But plastic Tiddlywink? Hardly.

Another Gringo Tax?

Inquiring minds need to know.  Weigh in with your thoughts. I’m gonna invest in a bunch of Tiddlywinks and start charging a toll to cruise our road.

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