Changes coming

Heads up!  That is, if there is really anybody still reading this thing.  Changes are coming to my Blog, effective after July 17.  We are returning to Texas on that date, with no plans to come back to Costa Rica, unless/until we sell our property here.  So, since current plans are to return to live in El Paso (Del Norte), the name of this thing will necessarily change to something more appropriate to that locale.  Keep in mind that this is still based on the ramblings, musings, complaints, whining, or rants of a dyed-in-the-wool curmudgeon, who still has a few axes to grind.

don't know what to call it, but the name will indeed have to change......any ideas?

Our Dream of Pura Vida has turned to mala vida

"There is no such thing as "fun for the whole family."  -- Jerry Seinfeld

Or, as Peggy Lee once sang, “Well, all right, OK, you win………” - - Except when she sang those words, she was talking about admitting to pretty much the opposite of what I have to admit to here and now. My admission is that we have given up on our dream of living in paradise. My admission is that what we thought was a paradise is mostly window dressing, and physical appearance, with nothing behind the curtain.

As you know by now, we came here three years ago with the firm belief that our last years on this earth would be tranquil, peaceful, smooth, totally happy, and without problems. Boy, were we wrong!

At first, as you may recall, things did actually go swimmingly. We received our personal belongings in good shape, and in a very timely manner (albeit nearly 50% higher in cost for shipping than the shipper had quoted prior to the move*). We were able to obtain a construction loan for our little house, and it was completed in only ten weeks time (although the interest rate on the loan is nothing short of usurious).

We were able to purchase a decent car with little trouble, and it has indeed proven to be well worth the (exorbitant) cost. [We paid $16,000.00 for a 2005 model Suzuki Grand Vitara XL7, in June of 2009]. We made many new friends and found ourselves with the busiest social lives we’d seen in many years. We obtained our legal resident status with only a few glitches along the way, and never had to hire an attorney during the process. We were able to have our entire front porch screened, so as to enjoy the view without being bothered by too many bugs. We were able to add both a garage/workshop and a carport to our house.

Yes, things were looking good. We received and entertained a number of visitors, both friends and family over the first year or so that we were here. We were aware that the increasing cost of air travel was having a negative impact on the family members we had anticipated entertaining down here, and that was certainly disquieting. We thought we were adjusting to the difficulties always encountered when trying to purchase just about everything in a small, backwater country. Just about anything manufactured has to be imported, so that logically means higher cost. In this particular little country, not only are manufactured items more costly due to shipping costs, but the truly ridiculous import duties make many things just out of the question. Worse, the quality is very poor because just about everything is imported from China.

What really rang our alarm bells, however, was what occurred on and around the First of March, 2011 (see my Blog entry for April 4, 2011, titled “I Fear That The Blush Is Off The Rose……..”). At about that same time, we also found out that there had been some serious overcharges on our electricity billing (that I did not Blog about until August 4 & 7, titled “Didn’t see this coming…..” – Parts I & II).

Those two events, occurring so closely together, coupled with so many other negative things that had been happening to us, pretty much led to our decision that maybe Costa Rica is not for us, after all. I mean, look at us. We first thought that this would be a place where our small pensions would go farther, and then, when the economy took such a dive, the cost of living here dumped as badly, or worse. When you consider that too many things were already too expensive here (gasoline, manufactured items of every kind, decent food), the rest pretty much took that blush right on off the rose of our dream.

We do not regret this decision, only the delay in reaching it, and its actual implementation. We cannot sell our property, but we cannot let it go, either. We cannot afford to pay anyone to be a caretaker for the property, nor can we pay the electricity, or water, or phone for someone else’s use. So, we have hopes that a young Tico couple will live here rent free, in exchange for which they will maintain the place and pay their own electric.

We will leave here – gladly – on July 17, bound for El Paso, Texas. We do not have high hopes of anything once we get there. We won’t have anything because we cannot afford to pay to ship anything back to the states, which means we quite literally may well lack the proverbial pot to piss in. But, that is OK, because we will lack the window to throw it out of, as well. We expect to rent, most likely a small apartment, if we can find one that we can afford. Our income will have to cover our mortgage payments down here in addition to whatever living arrangements we can manage in Texas.

So, even though we are leaving here, and even though the name of the Blog may no longer be appropriate, I do intend to continue to write the occasional musings of an old grouch (or, those of an habitual bitcher, as my father was wont to say) from wherever we land. We currently have no plans to return to this place, until/unless it finally sells. However, to be honest, if or when it becomes obvious that it will never sell at any price, I think we’ll be happy to just let it go………..

P. S. – I should mention that the electricity went out only once while I was writing this piece. Yeah, even after three years here, we still have power outages 3-4 times per week, lasting from seconds to hours. And, no, they are not usually associated with a lightning strike, or storm event, but just happen randomly.

*this reference is from an email I sent to Charlie Zeller, with a moving company called shiptocostarica, on 3/9/2009, his quote had been $10,465.00, and I emailed him assuring him that I would have that much money ready. His bill (prior to the actual delivery) was over $16,000.00.

ICE Wins Again!

"No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets."  -- Edward Abbey
You may recall that we suffered considerable damage to some of our electrical and electronic devices in April, and that we (foolishly) submitted a claim against ICE for the power surge that caused it.
Well, the local administrator did finally respond to our claim in May, but I have held off on commenting on this further until now. According to his letter, which must have taken him all of five minutes time, after an “exhaustive analysis” of our home’s electrical, ICE cannot find what caused our problems. We were given three whole days in which we could appeal this decision, but we lack the funds to seek legal recourse (not to mention the patience to wait these bastards out), so they win again.
On the one hand they acknowledge that we are their clients, and every time you interact with these assholes, they always say “para sirvele,” but the last thing on their mind is obviously NOT service.
We already knew we want out of here, but now I know that I want out much more than I did before. It is simply unconscionable for any entity to be so uncaring, so lazy, so blind, so useless as is ICE. They charge more for electricity here than private or public utilities charge in the states. They remain top heavy with administrative personnel who do nothing. They own too many vehicles to cart their important administrative types around. They will do nothing without money up front. They have a large number of employees in general, who do nothing (the two cretins who performed the ‘exhaustive analysis’ at our home did nothing more than measure the incoming voltage (252 volts!), sniff the burned out capacitors of the dead power surge protector, and look at the items we showed them.
That’s right. A power surge protector! What could have burned out such an item, if not a power surge? How could anything in the house (on the receiving end) that belongs to us possibly cause a power surge?!
Now, even fifty years ago, I believe that whatever technology was extant at that time was capable of showing exactly where and when spikes or power surges occurred. Picture a big room somewhere, with a wall of meters and lights, all indicating the current conditions across the power grid. That would have been fifty years ago. Skip forward to today, and even if ICE is still that primitive, all the jerk in the local office had to do was call over to Tilaran (the county seat, and the location of the ICE HQ for power generated in this general area), and ask them to check their records for the day and time we provided to him. Any reasonable and responsible admin type in the world would have done this for a customer, upon whose continued business his company should depend. But not Mario whatever the hell his name is, the Jefe in the local ICE office. I have never in my life encountered a more unmitigated bastard than this two-faced bureaucrat.
At the end of the day, ICE, in the person of this jerk, denies responsibility, and we are still stuck with the repair costs. God save us from these people. This extremely high cost, not just for the electricity itself, but for all of the devices that have failed in the three years we have been here, has more to do with our decision to get the hell outta here than any other single event or series of events.
For those keeping score, the final is like this:
ICE – millions
Me – Nada, Zero, Zilch, double goose eggs, and 0

P. S. - His name is Mario Murillo Castro, and his title is 'Coordinador,' whatever the hell that means.  I suspect it means that he coordinates ways in which to screw customers, while deflecting their complaints, so that ICE takes in more and more, while delivering less and less.  Lou Cristie sang his theme song, many years ago:  "Two Faces Have I."

Color me Independent.

"Elections are won by men and women chiefly because most people vote against somebody rather than for somebody."  - - Franklin P. Adams

I identified myself for many years as a Democrat. When I created my Facebook profile, I even put Democrat. But, that was before Washington went totally bonkers. I now have very strong feelings that neither political party can be trusted, because neither appears capable of making a serious effort to do what is best for the nation. As a matter of fact I think the term politician should be a four-letter word, and anyone who wants to be a politician should be banned for running for any public office. Ever.

There are so many words that seem to escape these jerks in Washington. Words like compromise, deal, agree, progress, or work, just to name a few. They were all elected to do the right thing, no matter what their political affiliation. Evidently, none of them have a clue as to what the right thing might be, however. What is the right thing? Basically, it would seem to logically be to get to work and find some way to try to repair the damage done by a totally clueless Republican Administration during the eight years that followed a very successful Democratic Administration.

Unfortunately, from where I sit, the last two years plus of (in)activity in Washington, D. C., have shown us (and the world) some of the most childish partisan politics that have ever disgraced that once beautiful city. Both parties are to blame for this, and it is truly unfortunate that this had to happen at a time when we so desperately needed to show the world a united front. It was bad enough for the world to see us as a clumsy, unfeeling bully, and to have the world grow to hate us so actively (and rightfully so, in the wake of the bumbling Bush/Cheney/Rove ‘Axis’). But, for the world to now see us as this quibbling, back-biting bunch of spoiled brats fighting over scraps is heartbreaking and truly shameful.

Now, it is true that the GOP has been laboring under the stigma of trying to defend those actions that got us into this mess since after all it was their guys who did this to us. So, in any effort to come up with solutions they start with a serious handicap. While trying to defend an indefensible position, they are clinging to their antiquated GOP methods to fix the mess. The Democrats really have no excuse, other than the fact that they are currently outnumbered in the Congress. Meanwhile, if ever there was a time in the history of this once proud nation for all parties to put aside their differences and do what is best for the nation, this is it (and, has been since 2008). But, what is still happening?

No, I most definitely am not leaning toward becoming a Republican, because I haven’t accepted much of anything from the GOP since Teddy Roosevelt, but even he was a progressive, and I doubt that he would be at all acceptable to today’s crop. As for the Democrats, I just happened to agree with more of what has come from their side of the aisle, and that goes back to FDR, through Truman, to JFK, LBJ, even Carter, then Clinton, and now, it is ending, not with or due to Obama, but because I no longer believe that there is such a thing as a politician who can be trusted, or worse, a politician upon whom anyone can depend for anything (unless you depend on them to lie through their teeth).

So, who can any right thinking person support today? Damned if I know…….I do not see a single individual out there who gives the impression that he or she cares enough to put party aside, and bring the nation back together to clean up the mess.

Last one out, please turn out the lights!

“Turn out the lights, the party’s over.” (Willie Nelson [song: The Party’s Over] via Dandy Don Meredith, MNF)

The Thursday before last, early in the morning around 7:30, we had one of our common ICE moments, where the power abruptly surged up and down a few times, burning out several electrical devices, and leaving us with only about half power. I say half power because after this event, if we turned on one light, and then a second light, both lights then failed. We were unable to turn on anything that might draw current, like the fridge, or the TV, or even the gas stove.

There are about three different phone numbers that we are supposed to be able to use to report electrical problems, so we began trying them. The first one, which is to an ICE office in Cañas (no, I do not know why we would be calling so far, but this is one of the numbers we’ve been given), did reach a live person. This guy would not even let Blanca explain what had happened before he cut her off, saying over and over that whatever problem we had was internal to the house, and thus not ICE’s worry. I then became very discouraged, but later on tried the other two numbers. One was not working, and the other was to our local ICE office in Arenal.

I spoke with a clerk at the local office who knows me, and he said that he would send some people out. If they came, we never saw them. We ended up waiting all day long for the only local electrician of any worth. Jose Alfredo did show up late in the afternoon, after 5:00PM. He explained that the connections to our neutral bar, within the circuit breaker box were all corroded, especially the main neutral line, due to cumulative affects of too many power surges. He cleaned up the main connector, and recommended that I replace the entire bar.

So, at the end of the day, we did have electricity again, so that the fridge did begin to run once more, we could turn on lights, and use the stove, and so forth. Meanwhile, our outside security light (a dusk to dawn affair) was no longer working, our coffee maker was dead, the microwave oven was dead, the fridge no longer makes ice, and the freezer is not as cold as it should be (ice cream is like mush, and the temp, according to my special thermometer, is only around 20° F; - - just how cold does it have to be for ice cream to stay solid, anyway?). It was not until a few days later that I discovered that my all-in-one (multi-function printer/scanner/copier/fax) machine is also dead.

Now, this is not a small thing, and with this latest event I would point out that in the two years and several months that we have lived here, I have had to buy (as replacements), or pay for repairs to, more electrical and electronic devices than I have had to pay for in the previous twenty years! And, that is most definitely NOT good.

I was very much aware that the electric provider (my good friends at ICE) is totally responsible for this event, and for any damages that we have suffered as a result. Furthermore, I was very much aware that the laws of Costa Rica even say this. We discussed this at some length over the next few days, and shared the report of the incident with anyone with whom we came into contact. We ultimately decided to not pursue any efforts to recoup our losses, however, simply because of our firm belief that ICE would just do the same thing to us that they did the last time we had a problem with them (that would be nothing, other than belittle us).

Well, the son of our builder, who is now some sort of big shot engineer with ICE, got involved and told us we had to file a claim, and provided the written policy showing the requirements for doing so. Also, he contacted the guy who is in charge locally, and that guy had a letter formally delivered to us, informing us that we could submit a claim, and outlining what we needed to submit with the claim. – Picture this, if you will. He sent an employee, driving a large ICE truck, all the way out here to our house, so that the employee (who happens to be a lineman/tech of some sort) could have me sign for the receipt of the letter.—

Now, the requirements are nothing short of next to impossible, but I did my best. The requirements include receipts showing ownership of whatever was damaged, and of course, my full identification. It took me a few days to put it together, in Spanish, and then we went to the office in Arenal to submit our claim one week after the event. He was ready for me, and he (the local supervisor) apparently had nothing else to do but answer the phone and prepare the paperwork connected to our claim. He accepted my declaration of ownership for those things for which I no longer have receipts, and handed us a written response to our claim.

This response starts out by saying that we are accusing them (ICE) of having damaged our things, and tells us that they will conduct an “exhaustive technical analysis” of our entire house and the articles in it that were damaged. It also informed us (a week after the incident) that we must maintain the items right where they were when damaged, without repairing anything or making any effort to change anything in any way. By this time, I had already found out that the coffee maker was not repairable because the technician in nearby Tilaran could not find parts, so I had already told him to throw it away (yeah, that’s right; we bought yet another new one). The microwave had already gone for repair, and was back in place. And, of course, the electrician had already cleaned up our neutral connection to get us back up and running.

Furthermore, if we were to follow this particular requirement (that of not touching anything), this would mean that we have lost any hope of recouping any part of our losses the moment the electrician got us back on line. And this would mean that they expected us to have existed this past week without electricity, to have allowed all the food in the fridge to spoil, and so on.

I ask you, is this absurd? First, they themselves did not respond to our telephone calls. Second, and rather obviously, we have to have electricity. But (and, here’s that Catch 22), if we get the electricity working on our own, then we have essentially destroyed the evidence of their screw up! Oh, yeah………and, then there’s the timeline. Their letter informs us that the ‘exhaustive technical analysis’ may be done any time within the next ten days, and may take as long as two months!

So, what can I say? Welcome to our version of pura vida.

I have some pet peeves (OK, lots of them).

"I'll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there's evidence of any thinking going on inside it."    Terry Pratchett

(This started out to be about a pet peeve (as in, just one). Then, as I started to write, the one became two, and then, before I knew it, I was up to three, and by now, we’ve gone beyond one or a couple, so this is just me doing my best to emulate the late Andy Rooney).

Why is it that every freaking commercial on TV, all too many TV shows, and all too many movies, feature guys who have not shaved for two or three days. It’s like they’re too wimpy to grow a real man-beard, too lazy to shave on a daily basis, or just plain stupid. Did somebody tell them that this is a cool look? When a guy has a real job to go to every day, do you suppose he really shows up looking like this? In real life?  I sure don’t recall seeing anyone that has to deal with the public looking like this. 

I seem to recall that Crockett and Tubbs, the main characters on Miami Vice way back in the 80’s, were perhaps the first ones to feature this look, and I would have thought it would go out of style along with their pushed-up Armani jacket sleeves, but obviously I was wrong. BTW, why would someone pay Armani prices and then deliberately wrinkle the garment?

I guess what troubles me about this is that the only place you see this is on the tube, and in movies. I can’t think of any time that I have ever seen a real person go around looking like this, except maybe a guy who doesn’t shave on his day off. I mean, would you really buy a car from a person who looked like this? Want to deal with someone like this in applying for a loan? Do any kind of business with a person who looks like this?

Meanwhile, while I strenuously object to all television advertising pushing prescription medications of any kind, the worst, the most offensive, the very stupidest are the ones for Cialis/Viagra. First of all, all the guys in these ads are sporting this truly dumb haven’t-shaved-for-a-couple-of-days-‘cause-somebody-told-me-it-looks-cool look, and all the couples are (at the oldest) in their early 40’s! These people don’t need this kind of drug! Whatever happened to truth in advertising?!

If they were a little bit honest, they’d show some old fart in his 80’s, drooling over a bright young 20-something who is eager to get her hot little hands on his, um, er, ah…..money (what else?).

You know, it is bad enough when any prescription medication’s ad starts to list all the possible side effects (you’d think that alone would deter the average person from wanting to use the damn thing), but then they go on and show you people (always paid actors, by the way) who obviously do NOT need the drug, you just gotta wonder, “Am I really as stupid as these manufacturers and advertising agencies think I am?”

And, somebody please tell me when did the word, ‘gift’ become a verb? As in, “I want to gift my husband a new toy. Is that all right?” NO, it is NOT all right! Find yourself a vocabulary, and give the poor SOB whatever the hell you want to give him, and, after you have put this word to a proper use, just leave me out of it, thank you very much!

And, when, dear Lord, will people understand the difference between I could care less, and I could NOT care less? Do I really have to spell this out? OK, look. If I could actually care less about something that implies that I actually might have positive feelings about it. On the other hand, if I could NOT care less that means my feelings are, like, non-existent towards that thing, which means what y’all are trying to say, but always seem to miss.

And, now, two of my pet peeves have been combined! During the course of an ongoing discussion involving Monsanto, on an internet forum recently, one the true haters of Monsanto actually wrote this:

“There are many profit seeking entities that could care less what they do to
humanity; Monsanto happens to be one of them. Their focus is on their bottom
line, nothing more, nothing less, even if it reaches the point of being self
destructive. I am proud that Costa Rica is sticking to it's guns. There happened
to be a documentary a few weeks ago showing how agribusiness in Mexico almost
got the shaft as a result of genetic engineering.”

You see, the entire debate involving the incessant whining from these folks who stand firmly against GMO foods is ridiculous enough by itself. But, these people compound the ‘ridiculosity’ (if you will) by the use of that phrase I hate to see! - - ‘could care less.’ - - That’s the one! I ask them to please refute that one question for me, and this is the response I get. I ask them to suppose that they are indeed correct in their belief that Monsanto is out to dominate the world to the point of poisoning us all (including themselves), thus killing off the entire population of the world. What would that do to that precious ‘bottom line’ this person has referred to? Do you really believe that they would kill themselves just to make a profit? Obviously, he does, because he says so!

Ultimately, I think if it was left up to these people, we’d all – if we were ever born in the first place – be squeezed into the British Isles, or the European continent, because you know Columbus would never have been able to launch the Nina, the Pinta, or the Santa Maria! (That’s because they are the sort who would persist in believing that the world is flat, the sun revolves around the earth, and so on, get it?)

And, somebody please tell me when did it become allowable to apply the verb, grow, to inanimate objects, as in, “If you want to grow your business,” or, “In order to grow the economy”???? Think about it. Here are some synonyms for the word: crop, cultivate, culture, dress, promote, raise, rear, tend. Would you try to promote the economy? Or, rear the economy? Granted, you might want to promote your business, but promoting a business is not really the same as making it grow. Isn’t promoting a product or business really about just getting the word out in an effort to help it to grow? Yes, your business can grow, but I do not believe that one actually grows it.

Oh, here’s another thing that puzzles me, if it doesn’t piss me off.  Why is it, when you watch a movie, or a TV show, and the scenes show a family, or a couple, in their home, the windows never have curtains, or blinds, or shutters (unless a storm is coming and they have to close these in a hurry), or any window treatment?  I mean, here these people are, going about their private lives, and the whole world can see whatever they are doing?!  Whenever we have moved into a place, the first thing we have always done was to put up some sort of window covering temporarily, and then get either blinds or curtains, wherever we have lived.  I mean, it’s one thing to demand privacy in your life, but quite another to go showing the whole damn world what you’re doing behind those closed doors, because you don’t care enough to cover the frickin’ windows!

OK, that’s it……’nuff for now……..catch ya on the rebound…..

An Update of sorts.........

Well, it has been a while, and now that we are back in Costa Rica, maybe it is time for an update.  Blanca was in Texas from last August, until our return here on April 3 (I had gone up in November).  My eyes are relatively stable, but I will need a cataract surgery some day.  I am using the eye drops that have no preservatives added to them (they come in little plastic throw-away ampules, and naturally cost more).

We anticipate staying here no longer than about three months.  We hope to be able to sell the place, but don't really expect that to happen so quickly.  So, we need to try to sort through our personal belongings, so as to try to take back with us those things most important, and protect those things that will have to wait until we can afford the cost of shipping (btw, if anyone knows of any shippers who will pack and move stuff from Costa Rica back to the states, please let me know).

Internet service is - if anything - worse than it used to be.  Curiously, even though there are new providers, they apparently are no better able to provide service in this remote area, so we are still stuck with whatever ICE wants to give us.  The plan I have now is a pre-pay that costs a lot less than what I paid before, but the bandwidth is very bad.  I have gotten it to work with the new router I brought back, but find that I can barely stream audio and a television feed from ustvnow.com.  Skype calls are not at all good, even just voice.  If I try to download a video, then the internet is no good for anything else.  And, I know that it is not just me (my neighbor, who pays more per the month, with the same old system, has no better connectivity than do I).

We found the microwave to be DOA, and the coffee maker as well.  Some of our kitchen items are MIA, and others totally useless..........the yard work that I had left money to pay for never got done..........one of the two batteries for my drill is DOA (at least our guy did call me to tell me to bring another charger, while I was still in Texas)......

So, onward and upward..........we are here, for now.........