April 16, 2008

Signed the house papers

Dear Dad,

There is a bird singing in a tree outside my office.  The sound is musical and reminds me of all the birds we have at home and Punta Coral.  The bird song is sweet and a nice sound compared to the traffic noises. I feel like the bird is singing just for me since it is in a tree outside my office window. J

Today David and Celiece and Marlon are in Puntarenas making the deposit and signing a contract for the new Casa Calypso.  Yes, we bought the house I wrote about in my last letter.

It was just too good a deal to pass up.  We need to get away from the greedy and impossible to deal with landlords and be self-sufficient and also provide a wonderful waiting area for our guests.

One of the future plans it to build a small coffee shop with goodies to sell to the tourists as well as a line of Calypso products that we sold in years past.  This should add value to the house and of course more income to off set the monthly payments.

We have a friend who is a contractor and golfing buddy of David’s that is going to stop by and give his advice about remodeling the new house a little to fit our needs.

I hate moving but am glad that we will once again be independent.  Image, it is always about image.

This last weekend I got my clothes ready for our trip.  It is hard to believe that we will be flying out of here next week.  I certainly hope that all the airplanes have passed inspection by then.  The news about faulty wiring on the landing gear when we are ready to fly out of here is un-nerving.

Thursday

Celiece and Marlon were at the house early this morning after an early morning appointment at the American Embassy to get the visa that Marlon needs to go to the US with us.

Marlon and David left for the office and Celiece, Bryan and I went to the vet to see a young yellow/orange kitten.  The vet called yesterday in the afternoon to let me know that a man had brought a kitten to his offices. 

The vet, Dr. Moreno, knows how much I liked Harry and has been trying to get me a new orange/yellow cat.  Do I need another cat, probably not.

We arrived at the vet and walked to the back area where the cages are and saw the yellow/orange kitten.  He had his eyes open and he looked dead.  It was creepy and the three of us stood in shock until we looked more closely and saw a gentle breathing movement.

There was no-one is reception and we had to wait a few minutes until she returned.  She is a nice woman and told us that the cat had been neutered in the morning and would be awake at 3:00pm, ready to go home.

We are leaving in less than a week and having a new kitten in the house is difficult especially since we will be gone for three weeks. 

The nice receptionist told us that the kitten is very affectionate and now I an trying to think what to do. On the way to work, Celiece and Bryan and I were thinking up new names.  I might have a new cat.  I have a new cat bed waiting too.

I had a lot of work piled up on my desk and didn’t go to lunch with David, Celiece and Marlon.  They promised to bring me some Namul -  a spinach and bean sprout dish that I like

While they were gone and I was busy working at my desk I heard Mario in reservations swear.  Swearing is not allowed and any one caught has to put 100 colonies in the ceramic pig in the kitchen.

Before I could remind Mario of his deed, he came flying into my office to tell me that there was a man on the corner with a machine gun in a car without license plates.  WHAT!!! 

Someone called 911 (yes, we have emergency call service here too) to get the police to come.  In the meantime, I had everyone get away from their windows in case it was a crazy person and he was ready to shoot (too much TV?)

The ¨rubber-neckers, my employees,  were all standing at the window in David’s office watching as a man took out a briefcase and put it in the back of his white Toyota truck.  There was another car also.

We watched and speculated and waited for the police to arrive.  It took about 15 minutes and the whole office staff crowded in David’s office to get a good look at some action.  As soon as the police arrived we all held our breath.  The man had kept looking in our direction; but the blinds were pulled closed.  After a moments conversation with the police, the two men got into their cars and drove away. Nothing was searched.

We sent our guard to ask what happened and the police men told him that the two men explained they were a private security guard company.  So what?  With a machine gun?

It is against the law to own a machine gun here no matter what type of security job you might have. 

A while later, after everyone calmed down, our armed guard went and talked to the neighbors who tell a different story.  Apparently in this neighborhood where our office is located, is a collection of houses that sell illegal drugs. All during the night cars of all sorts arrive and brief cases are exchanged.

I think that the police know what is happening and just do nothing because the problem is so big and seems to be everywhere that stopping the drugs and drug dealing is impossible. It pays too well.

We even called the alarm company and they refused to send a guard.  There reply was ¨what can we do – a pistol against a machine gun?¨  They are right too.

Before we heard the drug dealing story we speculated that it might be a hit man or maybe a kidnapping in process.  Like the rest of the world, we have these problems here too.

Our distress call is anonymous and hopefully the ¨bad guys¨ will not know who blew the whistle on them.

It is now 3:30pm and no lunch.  My stomach is growling.  I sit here and wonder what David, Celiece and Marlon were thinking I would have for lunch.  Yea, you guessed it, they obviously were not thinking about me.

It is time to go home and first I have to go to the grocery store.  Tomorrow we are going

to Punta Coral but will return on Sunday.

The office is very busy.  Everyone is excited about the new Casa Calypso.  We have three months before we have to move Manta Raya from the dock where we are now.  Pablo, the owner, received the letter this morning letting them know that we are not going to renew the contract.

We have been there for a long time, so long that I cannot remember how many years it has been.  I am anxious to move to a nicer location that is our own and we will no longer be under the stress of the greedy and impossible landlord that owns the dock where we are now.

Tomorrow we will let the owner of the building where the kitchen is know we are leaving too.  He too is another difficult man and will probably blow a gasket when David gives him the news. We have three months to move the kitchen.

It will be nice to be on vacation and David will have the drawings or plans of the new house so we can show everyone and make plans for remodeling and installing the kitchen and building the bathrooms we need.  We want everyone’s opinion.

We have to move the carpentry shop too.  There is a lot to do, but with a good plan it should go smoothly. J

This is the news for the week.  I hope you are well and happy. 

Linda sent me a photo of you and Sierra and Conner that she got from Shelly. You look a little uncomfortable holding two tiny babies.

I am so excited to see you in a few weeks.

I love and miss you.

Besitos,  Cecs