Good MORNING, Bejuco!

It isn't always cloudy in the mornings, and yesterday was one of those perfectly blue, sparkling days with Costa Ricans (Ticos, as they are called here) grouped in large family bunches along the beach, grandmas on chairs under umbrellas, babies splashing chubby legs in the water, boys surfing and boogie boarding, and clusters of women, poking through the shells, strolling, always chattering and all enjoying this week of complete shut-down for a soul like me who needs a lawyer to issue me some legitimate documentation before ICE, the electric company, will put on my electricity. Don't MESS with the institutions like ICE! If you have a $4.00 invoice, PAY UP.

Batteries on my flashlight are running low, and I bought some more yesterday, thinking they looked big and fat enough, but alas, they are Cs, and I need Ds. There's the project for today. Life is rough down here...

Filled up the hummingbird feeder, but they seem to be onto me; nary a one has set its little beak into one of those fake red flowers! I wait and I watch.

Hammock is hung, car has been watered...

and chairs are out. I have boiled the sugar water for the hummingbirds to cool for tomorrow's feeding; every lil' critter here is happy, including my dog friend, Playa, who came over to visit and began to weep and whine with joy at my presence. Life is good despite no electricity which requires a visit to a lawyer's office, documentation, and another trip to the electric company to get it re-established... In the U.S. if we don't pay our water bill one month because $12.00 isn't really worth writing a check for, we just wait until the amount is big enough; nobody turns OFF the water! Here, if you miss two payments (approximately $4.00 a month when I'm not here), they shut down your entire account, and to open it up again, you must get all sorts of documentation. Then there is the "marciamo," which is due on your car every year by Dec. 31; depending on how much your car is worth, you can pay up $1,000 or $100. It's like mandatory insurance, but nobody pays taxes and cannot afford to pay for tickets, so the country is perpetually out of money. Much to my delight, however, the main road has been repaved, taking some of the "fun" out of driving but probably saving some serious wear and tear on my friend the Galloper.

The sky is partly overcast but has moments of sunshine. The temperature is sublimely warm, so I'm worrying about nothing and just letting my soul catch up to my body.

Thinking of going up to San Vito to visit some people who have recently built a house up there where the Italians first settled (go figure), but driving the dear Galloper up the "mountain of death" may be a challenge I defer; I'm going to see how far I get with my books and see whether I need a diversion. There are loads of fireworks at the beach on New Year's Eve if I can stay up that late, but another week without electricity may force me into the car and on the road...

This is really a dull entry for which I am sorry - a waste of my time AND yours!