Hisfault

Oddly, one of the questions I get from readers asks me questions about my politics. Kinda nosey huh? They want to know if I follow the US political/economic scene, for whom am I going to vote… etc. Most of the time I do not answer as I believe that my blogs are supposed to be about Costa Rica and related topics and I guess my politics or personal views are not appropriate.

Lately, however, I see people who are just so unhappy living in the USA that their questions are not so much asking about my views as asking about if things will be better living here. Recently I wrote something about how I felt the USA was broken and needed repair. That was less a political statement than my observations from afar. Saying that, I guess if readers really want to know about life here, will it be better than living in the USA, will their life issues resolve themselves by moving here, maybe it is not a bad idea to address this.

So… if my personal opinions and politics are of interest, read on!

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After all the planning and enough food to feed 50 people, the thing is over! I’m speaking of our annual Fiesta del Arbol.

I have no idea how many people were here. A shitpot full seems about right, and a LOT of them were kids which made the whole thing just great. They were soooo cool!

Also… I have now officially changed my opinion of fake Christmas trees.

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Tomorrow is the big day.

ML has invited Costa Rica to come to our home for the annual tree decorating thing. Well of course she did not invite the whole country, just her relatives which is no more then ten percent of the people here. My son, his wifey and my granddaughter are coming too, so there will be some representation from North America. I invited some childless friends to attend but they suddenly had other things to do. Even free booze could not budge them when faced with 20 plus children.

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So ML says to me, “I have this meeting in Puntarenas. Come with me and we can spend time together after the meeting. The meeting only lasts an hour!”.

I have an immediate issue with this. First, I have been to Puntarenas several times over the years, mostly to take the ferry that departs from there to cross the Gulf of Nicoya to a really nice part of Costa Rica. Every time I have gone there, I told myself I will not go there again. Every time I go again, there is some overwhelming reason why I do go there again, in this case, the wife.

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My wife loves animals. Actually, it would be more accurate to say she adores any living thing. She probably should have been a vet. She dotes on all the living things in this house, including me, but I can tell you the amount of noise created in this place can be deafening. Let’s start with THE BIRD.

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As regular readers may recall, I am not a huge fan of things with more than four legs. This can been read about in some of my priors encounters with Rolando and of course the famous cucaracha episode. So now that you are clear on this, it is time to discuss my bug loving wife and how that affects our relationship viz-a-viz spiders.

As spiders meet the more-than-four leg requirement above, they fall into the “keep them the hell away from me” category.

Maria Luisa, my bride of almost two years, does not have these issues. She thinks spiders are neat, and in fact all bugs are just wonderful. This, as you may imagine, sometimes brings conflict into our relationship. I prefer the “squash ‘em now” approach, while she would invite them to dinner and prepare something special. I am not permitted to hit them with a shoe or she has told me she will hit ME with a shoe. This applies even when we are visited by humongous tarantulas the size of a baseball glove. (Click to enlarge photos)

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My nephew sent this to me. I have decided to share this with my loyal readers. I am presuming that he actually wrote this… though as always, it is possible I am violating someone’s copyright. I tend to think he did as his political bent is somewhat to the right right of Genghis Khan. If I am violating someone’s rights, I apologize but do not bother writing me to tell me to remove it as I live in Costa Rica and I am pretty much threat-proof.

WARNING: If you are a Liberal, you may find this slightly…ummm… well, anyway, read it if you wish! It’s pretty funny and kinda accurate.
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Yesterday, at about 7:00am, we hit 12.5 degrees Celsius or about 54.5 Fahrenheit) - and that appparently set a record for November that lasted about 25 years. It is NASTY here! It is STILL cold today, but a bit better.

Now all you North Americans, don’t even START on how sad you are that we have temps in the 50’s. If you’re still living there, it is because you want to. We Costa Rica transplants have voted NO SNOW and that includes NO COLD. We don’t even DO furnaces here.

Anyway, ML will be home soon… so that means we either go to Thanksgiving Dinner or to bed… either is fine with me!

A recent downturn in my health has brought me into very close contact with the CAJA system, and more accurately, the system in Hospital Calderon Guardia, the second largest CAJA hospital in Costa Rica.

There are two types of health care here, public (the CAJA) and private. If you are here in country with your (legal) residency, you may join CAJA for almost nothing. Very cheap insurance indeed. The private system is far more expensive but costs can be covered by buying any number of international insurance poiicies or by using your friendly, local monopoly, the INS.

So what do Tiger Woods and a lab worker in CAJA have in common?

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Pharmacies in Costa Rica are quite different than those you find in North America. A regente or pharmacist runs each pharmacy. Most, if not all, also have their doctorate. They can provide a lot of help in choosing medicines and providing good advice.

The services are quite different. You can get an injection or you can buy a pill. Yeah… one pill… or 6… or 11. Many people here cannot afford a whole bottle, so they can buy just what they need for 1 or 2 days, then return to buy more if needed.

One of the good… or bad… things about a Costa Rican drugstore (aka droguería but far more common in Costa Rica, farmacia) is that you can also buy just about any prescription drug you want without a prescription.

While this seems like a great deal, and maybe it is, when a person makes the decision to self-medicate, to buy a prescription drug without a physician’s advice, the burden of making the correct decision is removed from the hands of the doctor and placed squarely in the hands of the person buying that prescription.

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