January 29, 2008

Dear Dad,

Finally, a sunny warm day. It is really beautiful and although a little windy it is not as cold as it has been.

Today I went to the dentist. I dread going to the dentist, but today I am happy with a good check up. J I even passed on the Novocain shot because it always makes me feel awful. I feel great, but now I am really hungry, because I left the house without eating breakfast.

January is busy and we have been going full almost every day. The office is quiet and everyone is busy doing their jobs. I have my desk cleaned off at this minute but am ready to tackle another project in a few minutes. What project? You might ask, well…………..

I am editing my Dear Dad letters and they are being posted on the new Punta Coral web site.

I am starting with the last first and plan on working backwards until all the older letters are posted.

I have saved successfully my letters to you but have lost a lot of my stories. I can redo some of them, but I am really disappointed to have lost the big story of Celiece and Marlon’s wedding. I cannot find it and think it got tossed when we moved and no one else seems to have saved it either. I keep hoping it will appear.

David and I are going to go to the Miami Boat Show next month, leaving on the 13th – Wednesday and returning on Monday the 18th. We used to go every year but it has been more than 10 years since we have gone.

It will be fun to see all the big yachts and new products and best of all we will be staying with Cindy and Bill in Coconut Grove. This means we will have great company to spend a few days with besides all the great food we are going to eat too. Sounds like a Stone Crab Dinner to me; yum.

Wednesday

Today, while watching the news I saw a report on the tiger attack at the San Francisco Zoo. It was reported that one of the survivors had told the father of the young man that was killed that the three boys were standing on the railing teasing and taunting the tiger before the attack. No-one can confirm or deny this information.

The news story made me remember an experience we had with tigers over 25 years ago.

In front of Casa Calypso there is a plaza or soccer field. One summer a circus came to town. This was no ordinary circus but a European act with 17 tigers and a man on the flying trapeze.

It was very exciting to have 17 tigers in the front of the house, well for a few days until the unmistakable smell of ¨ big cat¨ poop and pee began to overtake any other smell and permeated our lives the rest of the time the tigers were there.

On the first day, while the circus people were setting up the tents and arranging the tiger cages and putting the safety rails to keep the public a safe distance from the caged animals, David and I took Celiece for a closer look.

We met one of the circus men as he was putting up the railing and next to him was a cage with a huge male tiger in it. The tiger paid us no attention until Celiece, then 4 years old, reached her little hand inside the cage and grabbed – there is no polite way to say this – the balls of the male tiger and gave them a squeeze. All of us were horrified, including the man from the circus. I almost dropped dead of a heart attack.

The tiger? Well, he turned his giant head in our direction and stared. Celiece, blonde and cute as a button was smiling at him. She could easily have been mauled by the tiger and her arm ripped off, but luckily the tiger just stared at her. Maybe it was the heat that kept the wild animal calm?

I will always remember the enormous head and paws of the tiger. It is the closest I have ever been to one. The man from the circus told us that this has never happened before and he has been with the circus for over 20 years.

David and I invited all the Calypso employees for an evening performance. We watched the same man we had seen at the tiger cage pull himself up a rope to where the trapeze bar was located. He did a few swings on the bars and when he went to give a bow something fell to the ground. It was his teeth. Poor man, the audience laughed and laughed hard because it was so funny.

Funny the stuff I remember about our experiences or adventures we have had over the years. I guess this is why I like to write.

Thursday

David returned from Puntarenas last night with news. As he was leaving town, he passed our old house, Casa Calypso and saw that the big wooden gates are gone and looking inside he could see that ALL the buildings including the storage closets on one side and public bathrooms on the other, the floating dock and pier, the fish pond and the house are gone. All gone. The property has been leveled and the only trees left and standing are 12 giant coconut palms that were there when we bought it.

It brings back memories because of all our history that started when we purchased the house in 1974.

Does it bring a tear to my eye? Maybe a little. There is a lot of history lived in Casa Calypso. Casa Calypso was an old wooden house that was used to tan sharks when we bought it and was always plagued with one critter or another. At one time or another it had termites, bats, gecko lizards, cockroaches, African bees, ticks, fleas, mosquitoes, vermin and I will never forget the 14 horrible giant wharf rats that appeared at night when we first moved in.

We were able to get rid of the wharf rats and the African bees, and cockroaches at the beach are eaten by the geckos and we sprayed for the fleas, ticks and mosquitoes and vermin when we needed to but as hard as we tried to get rid of them, the bats and termites were there forever.

We had wonderful times at Casa Calypso. David and I built a successful business. Our children grew up there. We made life long friends. Thousands of tourists passed through the property and most of them stopped for coffee in the morning on their way to board Yacht Calypso and go on the ¨Pacific Island Cruise¨ we invented..

Happily, Celiece and Bryan have fond memories of their first home. We had the beautiful gardens and the fish pond and the swimming pool to enjoy. They loved living there. They too made lots of friend they still have today.

What will be built on the lot? It will be fun to wait and watch and see something new and

wonderful constructed where we spent so much time. A new home or business? Only time will tell and it will be fun to wait and see.

At least we no longer have to look at the deteriorated structures because the person we sold the house to disappeared shortly after he bought it in 1994. When we put the house up for sale we re-did the garden, painted and repaired buildings and left it nice. It was difficult to watch the house crumble and the elements slowly destroy it all for lack of maintenance and interest. I always turned my head when we passed it on our way to Punta Coral, but the neighbors or people in town would always comment on the ¨lastima¨ or pity that what was once beautiful Casa Calypso, known to all who live in Puntarenas as a land mark was slowly dying. Now it is gone and only a memory..

This morning as I was getting ready for work, Junior – the young female cat jumped from her little cat bed and went outside only to return a few minutes later. I watched with curiosity because she was looking at something crawling on the floor. I went to take a look and was very surprised to see a black scorpion crawling along the dark wooden floor, almost invisible to me without my glasses. Yikes!!!! I called David with the news and then went and got the broom and dust pan. Carefully, I scooped the angry scorpion into the dustpan and covered it with the broom. I took it outside and let it go in the gardens in front – across the private road that runs in front of our house. Why didn’t I kill it?, you ask. I don’t like to kill anything. The scorpion has a right to live too, just not inside my house.

Celiece returned from her gira/tour today. All her people have been taken to the airport and she is once again home for a few days before leaving again. She and David have gone to lunch. I didn’t go because I stayed home to water the garden today. I also have to leave early to meet the man who installed the alarm because the metal box with the battery in it was making a noise and was hot to the touch.

The alarm was here when we moved in and has not been connected and I want it working especially for the time we go to Hawaii to visit David’s mom and California to visit you. It is only an alarm that will alert the guard with a loud bell and this is all we need.

We are staying home this weekend to watch the Superbowl football game. We have been invited to many parties, but honestly, I prefer home and besides now that we have a flat screen TV we have the best seats. I will make the chips and dips and all the rest of the football menu for David. He is content to stay home too.

This is the news for the week. I hope all is well with you and you are keeping warm. It is impressive with the amount of snow that is falling in some states and the amount of rain California is getting. Keep warm. I love and miss you.

Besitos,Cecs