June 30, 2008

New traffic rules, plans

Dear Dad,

Today is the last day of June.  Herd to believe that another month has sped by.

 

I have been writing about the horrible traffic problems we have here for months, maybe longer.

Well, it looks like the government has a solution.  They have passed a law that once a week, depending on the last number of your license plate, that number is not allowed in certain areas of San Jose. 

It all started last Thursday and 1000 cars were ticketed.  It is working because the roads are a lot less congested and traffic jams have disappeared.

David cannot drive his car on Fridays and I cannot drive mine on Tuesdays.  We are lucky that we have two different numbers on our license plates.

The restrictions are during peek hours only-say 6:00am to 8:30am and later in the afternoon from 4:30pm until after 7:00pm.

There have been grunts and groans and some people ignoring the new laws, but for the law abiding citizens who have had to wait in heavy traffic it is a working success. 

David and I are still trying to get the plans for the new bathrooms in the new Casa Calypso 11exactly like we want them.  We have seen various ideas and so far nothing we like.  We discussed it again this morning and I drew my idea, David polished it and is now talking to the architect.

There are strict rules for wheel chair access and we are required to have the space needed in spite of the fact we rarely take anyone out in a wheel chair.   We have no ramps on the Manta Raya, but then we are not public transportation.

When we do have a handicapped person, they are lifted on board by the crew and then their wheel chair is folded and set up in the main salon. The bathrooms on board are in the hull. Since Manta Raya was built before the new laws I think we are safe.  Who knows though?

Tomorrow we will drive to Puntarenas for another meeting, this will be the third.

We have given the old owner notice that we want the house on July 7th so we can take out the old wooded floor in the room where we want to install the new Calypso kitchen.

The health department requires a tile floor in a commercial kitchen.

The good news is that the floor is 93 year is made of a rare wood called ron ron and when we sand it, it will be reddish in color.  What are we going to do with it?

We need a floor in the upper floor of the casona (big house) at Punta Coral, so after the carpenter pulls it up, we will send it to Punta Coral to be installed at a later date.
Now we have to go look for tile for the floor and bathrooms.  This can take a lot of time because more often than not, there is not sufficient tile of the one we choose and we cannot wait for 6 months for a new shipment to arrive.

Yesterday David and I drove to see Celiece.  She lives far away and during the weekdays the traffic is terrible.  On a Sunday it was not too bad.

We feasted on delicious food and great company.  Celiece is on vacation for a few weeks and rarely gets time home.  Marlon is out on a tour with a group and won’t be home until tomorrow.

It was wonderful to spend time with our daughter and listen to her plans and stories in her own turf.  We played with her two cats, one a big fluffy orange and the other a short hair orange.  The two of them were asleep on the dining chairs.

It was raining too hard to climb to the top of her garden and see the hydroponic garden she has growing.  They are just starting, but so far grow beautiful parsley that we use in the Calypso kitchen. They plan on planting lettuce and tomatoes and cilantro next.

Thursday

It is a go………………finally we have agreed on a plan that the architect has drawn up for the new bathrooms in the new Casa Calypso. Interestingly enough it is the first plan he drew.

We were there yesterday and had another meeting with the former owner and the architect.

We are finalizing everything now so that when we formally take over, next Monday, and the former owner leaves, we have everything signed and ready.  We won’t be moving until the end of the month.

Now, the process of getting approvals from the municipal government and then buying everything we need to start construction and picking out the tile and stuff will be next.

We have our main guard still on sick leave and Delfina doesn’t return until Monday.

The first thing I will do is have one of the girls who works in the kitchen go and clean the bathroom inside the house.  It smells so bad.  I hope that there is not a serious problem just a bathroom that the men working there never clean.  It is disgusting.

We took Happy, the new kitten and brother of Dexter who was killed by the villain, monster cat that we got rid of, with us to Puntarenas.  I want him to get used to riding in the car.

Celiece and Marlon went with us and we let Happy loose inside the house while David discussed business with the former owner. When we were ready to go, we could not find the cat.  Happy found a small area between two walls and was hiding and scared inside.  David wanted to throw water inside the space to scare the cat,, but there are wires and we might have started and electrical fire or worse – fried the cat.

Celiece, with the patience of a saint, took a mop handle and was able to scrap the kitten to freedom while David held a flash light.

Now I think the former owner, Bob, must think we are a bunch of kooks – first to travel with the cat and then the ¨Marx Brothers Movie¨ antics we all participated in trying to get the kitten to freedom.  Bob did say later it was all very entertaining. 

The guard who works during the day at the residential area where we live, was busy sharpening his machete when one of the women from a house in the area where we live came to the guard house all excited about a snake she had found.  The poor guard was still trembling when he told me the story.  This is what happened:  The guard and the woman went to her yard and beneath a philodendron plant (it has big leaves) to his horror the guard saw the biggest snake he has even seen in his life. Oscar (the guard) told me that the snake he saw was longer than my car (more than 10 feet long) and was bigger around than his arms.  Not caring if the snake was poisonous (to Costa Ricans all snakes are bad and they always kill every one they see) he shot the snake 4 times and then used his machete.

I suppose if I saw a snake that big in my yard I would get afraid, but I think I would have called a specialist to take it to a zoo or something.  Anyway the snake is a rat and opossum eater and apparently has been doing a great job of keeping the rats and other pests away by eating them and this is why it was so big.  David said the snake was a type of a boa constrictor and I guess in a neighborhood with little kids, cats and rabbits it was better not to have it around. 

We have boas at Punta Coral and a few weeks ago, the workers fouind one about a meter long dead on the beach with the beak of a Woodpecker sticking out through the middle.

As we know woodpeckers have sharp beaks and I guess the snaked ate the wrong bird.

We also have or maybe had a really big boa out there but I have not seen it in years.  His name is Tamba and may still be in the jungle hiding out and eating the rats that live in the Dry Tropical Forest.  I would rather have the snake than the rats that are big and scary looking.

David and I went to Tibas, a town near our office, that has or I should say had one of our favorite restaurant that served Mexican food.  It is gone and we are very disappointed because in one week our three favorite restaurants have been a big disappointment.  Machu Pichu our all time favorite and La Leda in Puntarenas are restaurants we have been eating in for years and years; both were not to same and now another one bites the

dust.

To frustrate me even further I received a phone call from the man who was to make covers for the patio chairs at Punta Coral over three months ago.  When I went to pick them up the sewing was so poorly done and one side had the pattern upside down that I refused to accept them.  Miguel, the owner promised to buy new fabric and make new cushions.  He did three and I have been waiting for the other three.  Guess what?  There is no more fabric to make the missing three cushions.  I purposely chose and bought expensive fabric that would not get ruined with wet swim suits and suntan lotion would not stain. He waited too long probably because the fabric was $25 per meter.  I spent over $200 on the fabric and paid $50 for the sewing of the first three cushions.  Now, if I accept that the backs of the cushions will have the fabric pattern upside down, I will have invested $300 and have a ……what?   Not what I wanted and I do not have a choice because the chances of the store ordering the same fabric, if he found it, would be slim.

Our main guard is on vacation and the Security Company has been sending subs until he gets back in 10 days.  Each day we get a new one and they get shorter and shorter.  Today’s guard is the shortest yet, probably too big for his gun.  It is hard not to laugh and makes me smile and try and not get myself too upset with the other frustrations that have been happening all week. 

Last night David surprised me with a new cabinet to put all my treasures.  Not that I have a lot of treasures, but I do have a collection of ¨dust collectors¨ that have meaning and stories behind them.  Some have been badly glued together because the maid doesn’t seem to like them and care for them as I do.  Now they are in a safe place and I can look and remember and know they are all safe.

The cabinet is pretty.  David bought it as Price Smart or our Cosco.  It comes complete in a box but has to be put together.  David and Bryan worked for a few hours last night putting it together and then Celiece and Marlon came for dinner and Celiece and I filled it with my ¨junk¨ calls it.  The cabinet even has a light.

David plans on buying more to take to the new house and use one for souvenirs and another for baked goods to sell in the new store we are making as soon as we move in.

We had better get there soon and buy them before they are all gone. We have been looking and everything else is very expensive.

I looked at an antique (maybe an antique) cabinet that I liked because it is narrow, but with a discount if I pay cash and not get a receipt it cost $675.  It has two panes of glass broken too.  Another one I saw cost $400 was wobbly and the door doesn’t close correctly. I guess we better go and get what we want before everything gets sold. 

This weekend we are going to Punta Coral.  We have visitors from Belgium and a small group for lunch.  We have another group of 28 on Sunday and a wedding next week.  Business is great and there is new interest in Punta Coral.  J  Happy is going too.

This is the news for this week.  Hope you are getting better and better each day.

I love and miss you.

 

Besitos,.  Cecs