27 May 2016

Just a Bubble

Just a Bubble

It was just a bubble in the linoleum - I only mentioned it because I was a little afraid that one day, the vacuum cleaner would rip the floor up. I thought, eh - squirt a little glue under there, and we're good. HAH!

Well, that was last week. Monday, the new maintenance guy came by, first to look at the bubble, then again to take pictures. By this time, he had spotted several more problem areas - both the corridor corners and kitchen had bubbles.

Tuesday, the vinyl repair estimator was here - he kept talking about "floating floors" (like everyone knows that means it's not glued?) and flattening out the bubbles by hand; I kept saying "glue" and "vacuum cleaner" - did we communicate or what? He eventually said a repair crew would be here the next day, and would have to move the fridge - so we should make sure nothing was in it that could be easily spilled.

Wednesday morning, the (one) vinyl repair guy shows up, looks at the bathroom bubble, presses around with his hands, and says he doesn't see a problem. I'm all like "vacuum cleaner" and "glue"... I show him the others. He says that our maintenance has to move the fridge. I say, "didn't the other fellow arrange for this?" We both go to the office - at this point, I'm pretty frustrated at what seems to me to be poor communication, and a lot of waiting around by yours truly. Well, a while later, two of them are trying to move the fridge out, and (yep) it rips a hole in the linoleum. Right about then, the vinyl boss/inspector shows up. They confab, and decide to replace the entire kitchen floor (with GLUE!). They have to go pick up more stuff. They get a dolly, Rick and I empty out the fridge, they move it and the stove into the living room, and we put the food back in the fridge. Meanwhile, they guy works on the corridor bubbles. Our alarm misbehaves, and he says that, yeah, the wiring for it is right under the bubbles. Hmmm.

Just before lunch, he's finished with the kitchen floor - he'll tell our maintenance that they can move the appliances back. We wait. We cobble together a lunch. We call, and wait. Finally, they're here and we reverse the food-fridge process.

That afternoon, the alarm misbehaves again! Maintenance shows up, pulls the power plug, and says the alarm company will come the next morning to fix it. Well, the batteries had to run down, so the darned thing went off every half hour or so. Thankfully, it died before bedtime...

So, here it is Thursday afternoon - the alarm guys came and confirmed that a wire had been shorted, setting of the panic mode - we didn't even realize we had a panic button! He clipped out that function and reset the alarm - peace!

Oh yes, after another cleaning day, the bathroom bubble is back.
Sshhhh! From now on, I am Sargent Schultz when it comes to bubbles - I know Nothing!
~~~~
Images swiped from the Interwebs...


21 May 2016

My Decade in Review

My Decade in Review

Wow! Has it really been that long?!? Ten years ago, 2006, we had researched like crazy, and determined that we could retire, as long as it was not in the USA. We could live well enough and indulge ourselves occasionally as long as we could find medical insurance. And that is what we couldn't get in the states. So, we had a list of countries to explore! At the top was Costa Rica, so we went to check it out. And, despite our cautious approach, we fell in love! We spent the rest of the year getting our residency from afar. This took several trips and a lot of paperwork, but we had help wading through the bureaucracy.

I also started to wind things up at work, and quit early in 2007. I left the question of "what will I do?" open; I wanted to see what I was capable of and interested in outside of the technical world. Of course, living in a different country meant figuring out how to do things a different way, in a different language - I learned Spanish! I learned bus routes! I figured out how to find unusual things in unusual-to-me places! I greeted neighbors in the street, and I made panhandlers laugh. I discovered new foods, and invented recipes (and almost all of them were really good). I started painting, and found the same sort of zone I enjoyed as an engineer. I went to parades and fiestas, and watched fireworks set off for "ordinary" neighborhood celebrations. We downsized, upsized, and downsized again. I started writing about life as well as living it!
JulieAndRickInCostaRica blog
JulieAndRickInCostaRica blog
JulieAndRickInCostaRica blog
JulieAndRickInCostaRica blog
We both discovered we were ultimately city people - we like the press of people in the streets and parks, and the constant flow of events. We lived in the capital city of the most stable country in the area - we got truly spoiled by all the embassies and their associated cultural centers. We listened to  music from around the world. Our news was world-wide instead of country-centric. We saw how another political system worked. We saw how another medical system worked. We lived without a car.

We saw a lot of our new country - rainforests, cloud forests, volcanoes, Pacific and Caribbean beaches. We loved spending so much time together! We had occasional visitors, and got to show them around as well!
Manuel Antonio
Manuel Antonio
Arenal
Different Food
After a while, I learned French, and we traveled to France. We visited friends and family in California and on the East coast.
France 2011
Santa Fe (road trip)
Big Basin
Englebright Lake
East Coast trip
East Coast trip
France 2015
At first, it was hard not thinking about work. I would get job notices, and think "Oh! That sounds fun!" But I wanted to give "the other side" a real chance, so I waited. Well eventually, I got the itch again and took a few contracts in the states.
Iowa Summer
Iowa Early Spring
Iowa Winter
It was after the last of these contracts that we looked for a new apartment in Costa Rica, and realized that costs had skyrocketed! While the exchange rate had stayed flat, the usual 10+% inflation rate had continued - our rent would now be 50% more than just a few years before. We checked a few other markers - groceries, taxis, restaurants, medications - all had gone up, with no slowing in sight! We had a serious discussion about what to do next. We could go back to our list, try some new countries, or hang on for a few more years and see. As it happened, the USA medical situation had improved during our time away - the Affordable Care Act had passed, and we could get insurance! AND it was not only affordable, it would also cover any pre-existing conditions (face it, at our age, life is a pre-existing condition)! Well, to be honest, we weren't really looking forward to more bureaucracy in another new country - it felt good to think about moving back.

So we did! There were definitely surprises, unpleasant as well as pleasant. But after 10 years of "different," we know how to handle those ;-)
Albuquerque Cactus Flower
My Decade in Review: It was a time of learning about and growing the other me. And I think I like her!
Me and Marianne in Costa Rica :-)

Politics?

Politics?

I've never been a political animal - in fact, the subject generally makes me a little bit ill. But just this evening, I (yes, me!) went to a political rally!

I think that my time abroad actually made me more interested in our process here at home. I felt the excitement of election parades, bus loads of citizens coming home to vote, and even a bit of pride in being in a country where a new political party can field a successful candidate for president within only a few years.

Yes, I still experience cynicism, but what was a duty to vote now has an element of hope.

~~~~~
Update: somehow I lost my photo :-(

15 May 2016

Old Town Music

It's music season in Albuquerque again!
From April to October, weekends in the plaza are full of music and dancing!
Today's group: Trio Los Amigos de New Mexico- Latin American

Today's Flowers:
Unknown-to-me flowering tree
Violets!



~~~~ Updates:
1) Sis K tells me the tree is (maybe) a Catalpa, and the flowers are violas. This website clarifies, and tells you *everything* you ever wanted to know about violas ;-)
2) It turns out that my video did not make it in the emailed posts (I suspected it would not). I should have included this link: https://youtu.be/cLxZeZlNFa8

14 May 2016

Death of a Spatula

More specifically, Death of a Rubber Spatula
Today, mine chipped a tooth!

Good-bye Faithful Friend!

03 May 2016

Italy!

It's decided! And it's ITALY!!!!

We'll spend half our time in Florence (Tuscany!) and half in Sicily (Southwest region).

Sooo - We're going to learn Italian (tourist level)...