Sunday, August 19th
I feel a certain uncomfortable pressure to produce the Ship’s Log for publication. Antsy and anxious, I can’t sit down to finish writing the post. I stare at the page, and it’s incompleteness bedevils me.
Today was the celebration of life for Jovino Óreas. I wrote about it here.
Monday, August 20th
Spent the whole day cleaning the house.
Today, because we are cleaning up after 2 weeks of kitchen construction, we went for the deep clean. All the furniture gets taken outside. And then you begin to sweep.
Sweeping. Cleaning here is all about sweeping. You sweep the dust, dust the surfaces that are made dusty from sweeping, then sweep again the dust that settled from the first sweep.
Once that’s done, you bring in the hose, the detergent, and you use the broom to brush/wash the floors. Scrub, scrub, scrub with the broom. Spray it all down with the hose. Rinse, rinse, rinse. We had to fashion a second broom for this, with an old broom head and a stick that made it look very witchy. So, one scrubs while the other rinses and pushes the quickly accumulating vast amounts of water out the door.
Once the soap is finally rinsed (Harry insists we need to perform the rinsing process many times) you use the broom to push as much water out as possible. Then you switch to the mop and dry what you can.
About 6 hours of sweeping. Calluses have formed. Repetitive motion strain.
Tuesday, August 21st
Lassitude
Sweep the house. 2 buckets of handwash laundry. All the laundry is handwash. Our machine is broken.
Sprayed for fleas
Harry brings home a new broom. It is top of the line! the sweetest bristles ever. I love it, it’s like dusting with feathers.
I made my best yet Agua Sapo. A wonderful beverage of steeped ginger, lemon, oranges and “tapa de dulcet” ( a kind of solid molasses). So so SO so So So good. Agua Sapo and Rum for cocktails. Wow. tasty.
Wednesday, August 22nd
Listlessness
Sweep the house. A bucket of laundry.
However the ICE guys come and install the antenna on the tower we built which will (finally) deliver to this house WIMAX – a wireless phone and internet service. Wireless to the antenna, that is, and then a really 3rd world looking hard wire is slung from it and fed into the house where the modem sits – blinking endlessly and delivering the world to us, once again.
Agua Sapo and Rum in the evening. Yummy. I think this shall be the drink of the house. We need to find a name for it
Thursday, August 23rd
Lassitude
Sweep the house. A bucket of laundry.
SHOWTIME! [Nurse Jackie]
Friday, August 24th
HBO! [Mad Men]
Listnessness
Sweep the house. 2 buckets of laundry.
We’ve run out of ginger, so, this evening it’s carambola (star fruit) juice and vodka. Amazing.
Saturday, August 25th
Lassitude
Sweep the house. A bucket of laundry.
AMC! [Breaking Bad]
To me, this is the Golden Age of television. The best work being done in the 21st century at the moment is on cable television.
Sunday, August 26th
I have embraced the reality of living in Guanacaste, and wake up every morning to sweep and do laundry. It’s the only way. So, how does my day start now? With a little rhythm I like to call – Retro Domestic Samba ( i wish there were an actual tune for this).
Prelude: hugs and pet the dogs and then push them out the door
A)Coffee and feed the dogs
B)Sweep (kitchen and porch every day. Bathroom and living room alternate days)
C)One bucket of laundry.
HBO! [True Blood]
Blood on the porch. What from? Something was killed?
Sweep the house. 2 buckets of handwash laundry.
Monday, August 27th
We paid for a tree from the neighbours property. Haven’t seen the tree, but she needed the cash so, we are going on faith. I am going on faith that the tree is worth the money. The plan will be to cut it down and mill it and use the wood for building. We have very many plans that involve the use of wood. This will be cheaper than buying it already planked.
Planted in the yucca patch at the top of the property some of the tomatoes and sweet peppers that I had started from seed when we returned. Since everything I had put to sprout died while we were in Toronto, it has been a complete do over with the plan to be eating from our own garden. So, we’re many, many months behind my expectations.
The neighbours pass by on their way to their house. The elder [82] comments how our yucca is looking like it needs help. Which I already know, because of the yellowing leaves. I ask what I should do. He says “take care of them”. Thanks, good advice.
Aaaaand, Mariposa is bleeding, oh god. Not now. Her heat is here for real. So what was the last one, an hysterical heat? Now we need to keep her inside, take her on walks to do her business, and watch Willie closely to be sure he doesn’t have any sexy time with her. Christ. Mariposa is not an inside dog. She’s not house trained. She’s a hunter, a boxer, a runner and a jumper.
Looked it up online, apparently dams can be fertile for 21 days. Hmmmmmm. And yup, she’s definitely got that puffy puppy pussy. And Willie is making very strange sounds.
This was the alt choice for the cover image. Hmmmm. sometimes my editing skills are nil.
Originally published September 19, 2012
Yorumlar