Long day, but I think that it was pretty typical of how things go squirrely here and some of the beauty of living in Costa Rica.

I got up around sunrise to get an early start on the day and get a long list of things done.  After making sure that I had the tools and junk that I thought I would need for the day, I loaded up the car and hit the road...

It took me nearly ten minutes to realize that I had forgotten my coffee.   Dangit!   I did not want to take the 20 or so minutes round-trip to go get it, but knew that it was going to be a rough morning without.  Ah, well, such is life.

I arrived in Liberia after an uneventful 80 minute drive into the rising sun, and was sitting at the Revision Technica Gate when they opened for the morning.  I need to do a 'voluntary' annual inspection in order to straighten my vehicle paperwork.  The annual inspection is widely regarded as being slightly better than a dental exam, in terms of overall pleasure.  So there I was, smiling and friendly, chatting with the Person Behind the Glass Divider to get my place in line.  I was extra friendly and nice because I knew that I did not have an appointment (none available until end-of-month) and was thus at the mercy of said Person Behind the Glass Divider.  I knew that the no-appointment detail was unfortunate, but when I had spoken to the Person On the Phone yesterday, she told me that no-appointment status would take longer but was not a problem.

It was a problem.  In Liberia there is no provision for no-appointment status. You simply can't do it.  Would have been good information *before* driving all the way there!    Since the Phone Person was so wrong on the no-appointment status, I decided to ask the Behind the Glass Person to check for available appointments this week.  Pure genius on my part.  There *is* an available appointment.  Tomorrow (Saturday) in Nicoya, which is only an hour from my house.  Disco.

Slightly frustrated by my failure, but buoyed by my potential success on Saturday, I proceeded to the turbo mechanic.  The nice folks at Laboratorio Turbo Diesel are becoming friends of mine.  I see them twice a week this month.   After fully rebuilding my injectors, and accidentally giving me the wrong seats, which required removing/replacing the injectors not once, but twice;  then fully rebuilding my turbo, and not having a correct gasket which required a little fiddling, we were still right back as square one-  my turbo was only producing 5lb of boost when it should give 13.6psi.

It was a head-scratcher, but we rather assumed that the problem was the turbo wastegate, which they did not specifically remember testing when they had the turbo on the bench.  Too bad, the wastegate is pretty well hidden between the turbo housing and the motor and is thus a certified pain in the ass to access without pulling the manifold and turbo off of the vehicle (which is also a PITA, but at least it can be done whereas accessing the wastegate on-vehicle is closer to impossible).

I left the truck in their happy hands and went off in search of coffee.  I was pleased to eat at the bus station for the second time in a week (not sure about the 'States, but in CR, some of the best cheap food is always at public transit hubs: cheap and delicious).   The gallo pinto was fabulous, the coffee strong and hot, and my scrambled eggs with tomato were appropriately scrambled and tomato'ed.  The hand-made tortilla on the side could not be improved upon. 

After thoroughly enjoying my chow and watching the comings and goings of people at the bus station, I packed up and got ready to run some other errands.   Just then I got a call from the LTD guys-  they needed my ignition key to test the turbo.  "Waitaminute.  You've already re-installed it?"    "Yep".   

Now I'm worried.  There's no way that anyone short of a top-flight race mechanic on amphetamines could pull, troubleshoot, and install a turbo in the time it took me to eat my breakfast, it just isn't possible.  But instead of argue with the Office Guy on the phone, I walked back to the shop.  Sure enough, they hadn't pulled/fixed/replaced anything, but just needed to run the engine to trouble-shoot.  Okay.  No worries.  Here's the key, my bad for taking it (habit).

With that done, I walked back into town in the now-rising heat.   I walked to the bank.  Quick non chronological plot development:  Between the RTV and the LTD, I drove out to the COSEVI (similar to the US DMV, in a very broad sense of the word "similar") to see what need be done to renew my soon-to-expire CR driver's license.  Part of the process is to pay 10,000 colones ($20) at the bank and get a receipt.  In typical Costa Rican urban planning, the nearest bank is 10 or so miles away from the COSEVI office.  So I headed into town and here we catch the previous thread of our story....

In the bank I had number 110, number 74 was at the window.  There were eight windows with six of them staffed.  Quick mental math told me "Leave.  Come back later."  Which is precisely what I did.

I walked further into town to find a part for a neighbor.  That is it's own saga and I'll save the story for another day, but it involves many, many phone calls and several visits to Liberia to get a part fixed.  The part was never fixed at all, despite them having said that it was,  and we are back to square one.  Ridiculous.  Typical.

With no progress there, I walked back to the bank.  Not having a car is good exercise.  But hot.

In the bank again (nearly 45 minutes later) they were serving number 97, but there were only five tellers now.  Still, there was AC, so I opted to wait vs. head out to do other errands.   I enjoyed watching a four-year old boy who was playing soccer between the waiting-area chairs and the tellers.  He had a little 4" rubber ball and was aiming at I-don't-know-what, but it involved hitting the backs of complete strangers' legs.  Pay attention: this is one of the things that makes Costa Rica AWESOME:  each time the ball would carom off of a wall and into someone, the Someone would usually look around for the offending object, smile, and kick it back to the young boy. 

Can you imagine what would happen in most places?!?!    I saw this little miracle of getting along played out a dozen times and was impressed by the gentleness and kindness of the people each time.  Children are sacred in Costa Rica.

Eventually a little girl got in on the action, playing with the little boy, and the assault on people doing business came to an end.  The parents?  I don't know who they may have been.  Various adults got involved at various points, but nobody seems to have been in charge.  If I were more energetic, I would tie this story together and better illustrate the metaphor that this experience is for living in Costa Rica.   Maybe in my novel someday.

SNAP: back to reality. The only reason I got to enjoy this heartwarming spectacle is that in order to execute a very simple transaction (pay $20 to the COSEVI to renew my license) I had spent 40 minutes sitting at the bank after a 45 minute walk around two while waiting for my number to come up.

My take-a-number-and-wait ticket said 9:08am.  I walked out at 10:56am and was back on the now-stultifyingly hot street.   TAXI!!!  

I jumped into a nice, new taxi with a big stinky driver.  On the ten minute drive to the COSEVI I asked him about why his meter wasn't running.... and got a mumbled, invented response.  We arrived safely and he extorted too much for the fare.  I talked him down some, but still got a bad deal.  Such is life.

I got an even worse deal from the little "medical exam" place across the street from COSEVI.  See, to get your license renewed, you have to have a doctor (nurse?  quack?) fill out a form that assures that you are alive, and have enough limbs and digits to operate a vehicle.  After checking my blood pressure, height and weight (I didn't write down the bp, but I think that there were numbers like 70 130/XX involved? I'm at the same 66kg that I've occupied for nearly 20 years and unfortunately I'm still 1,70 short with my shoes on)  she asked me for my blood type (A+, I knew, because I had called my mother to check) and if I had any ailments.  That was the "exam".  Oh, wait, she also asked me if I could read aloud a poster that was part way across the room, I could, which was apparently good enough for her.  15,000 colones ($30) and I was on my way.  Complete ripoff.   

I got to COSEVI and the nice guard person behind the desk (GPBD) shepherded me into the inner building.  He and I had talked earlier (remember the non-chronological twist a few paragraphs ago?) and he was very upset then that my driver's license number did not match my residence ID number.  One thing that Costa Rica does well vs. the USA is that they try very hard to have all of your ID numbers *match*.  It makes book keeping much easier for all parties.  In comparison, my recently renewed USA  passport number is totally different than my original passport number and also different than my CA driver's license and my Social Security number.  My library card is different still, but that's ok, I don't go to the library much anyway.  Side to my aside:  you can't even imagine how inconvenient the change of passport number is, in a country where your ID number is yours from birth till death.  It is inconvenient.  

So GPBD was in a little bit of a tizzy because the numbers were different and took it upon himself to Make Things Right.  Which was just plain fantastic for me as I vaulted ahead of twelve other people in line, and instead of trying to talk through a 1" hole in the glass, I got to actually enter the office of the Person With the Computer.  PWC and GPBD had a conversation that couldn't have been more inane, yet amusing, as he explained the situation, she repeated it, he confirmed it, she repeated it to me, I confirmed it with GPBD butting in to confirm my confirmation, then some sighs and literal head scratching, then finally PWC opened one screen, changed the license number to match my ID number, and this massive problem was instantly vaporized.  Ten minutes of 'work' for ten seconds of actually fixing the 'problem'.    But, hey, I was in the air conditioned inner sanctum under the protective wing of GPBD, so ten minutes watching other people sweating in 100*+ heat while my problem was solved... didn't seem so bad.

GPBD's kindness didn't end there. Perhaps he thought I needed special care after the perilous non-matching-numbers episode.  I don't know.  Maybe it was my winning smile?   He took me from PWC to another Person with a Camera and Computer.   I was genuinely impressed that PWCC managed to snap my photo, take my digital fingerprint, and get me to sign a little digital thingy all while speaking in a voice that I doubt even *he* could hear, inside his own head.  Nice fellow, but boy it would help if he could speak up a little.  At least the stuff I had to do was relatively self explanatory.

Maybe this is commonplace in some places, but the next part wowed me:  the machine next to PWCC's computer and camera started whirring and clanking.  It sounded like a sewing machine was mating with a VW bug.  Less than a minute later, a minute filled with Mr. Quiet's lips moving but no way in this earth I could even hear his whisper, let alone understand him, and 'click', my new ID spits out of the machine.  All done.  Nifty!  I signed a little book of his stating that I have my new ID, and I was off again- back into the now *painful* 106* full midday sun heat.   I stopped to show GBPD my new license (correct number) and he seemed touched by my thoughtfulness.  I imagine most people just walk on by.  Poor guy.

Sweating through my shirt after just walking across the street, I took a seat under the shade of the bus stop, and awaited a bus.   After a few minutes,  a cabbie was pulling out and gave me a "What's Up?" gesture.  Sort of a palm upturned with shoulder shrug thing.  Very common here.   He then point towards Liberia.  I rubbed my fingers with my thumb in what I believe to be a more-or-less universal "money" gesture, and he showed me five fingers.  I thumbs-upped him, he drove across the street and stopped.  Still stinging from my earlier cabbie experience, I confirmed 500 colones to get to Liberia.  He said yes, I happily entered the meat-locker cold of his taxi and we were on the way.  He smelled nice, like inexpensive soap.   This was an entirely more pleasant taxi experience and 20% of the cost of the "To" trip.  Happiness reigned.

I got back to my truck (and was immediately drenched in sweat again- 105 with humidity just isn't fair) to find that they had made some progress in that they determined that the turbo was functioning perfectly.  Being a turbo-repair place, they couldn't help but say that with a hint of smug.  After a few more test drives (one without the exhaust in place, wow, that does make a difference on noise and power) we determined the problem:  the fuel filter holder leaks air into the fuel line at a fitting. 

Let me recap the basic situation here:  I've just spent $1,000 on major repair items, as well as about a week of my own time doing the labor for 90% of the repair, only to discover that a $35 fuel filter housing needs to be replaced- about a 1-hr job if you move slowly.    Happiness's reign had ended.  

While they buttoned up the exhaust and removed the old fuel filter housing, I walked (and perspired, a lot) the two blocks to get a new housing.  Along the way, just for giggles, I stopped at the Toyota dealer to find out what Toyota wants for a new housing.  A mere $228 for the housing and filter and water sensor, and it'll take 24 hours to arrive.   At least I got a delicious cup of coffee along with my comedy relief.  I walked another block to the parts store and paid $34 for the housing and a new filter.  I also got some hose, in case you were worried.  And some clamps gotta have clamps.

Israel, the mechanic at LTD, and I put the new filter in, which required drilling some holes, but that only took a little while.  Then took the truck for a spin.  Wooo-hooo!!  Power.  Power like this truck has never shown before.  Plenty of boost, and a whole new driving experience.  The turbo and injector repairs, while not necessarily the cause of what had gotten me into the shop in the first place, have re-awakened this old diesel motor.  I'm very pleased!

My being pleased didn't stop there, however, when I asked the guys at LTD what I owed them for them having put 1 and 1/2 guys on my truck from before 9a.m. until after 3p.m.  they said "Well, you paid for the filter, right?"  I said yes.  "Ok.  Thanks for your business, we're sorry it didn't work for you the first time.  No charge."   Now very very pleased, I left Liberia for the drive home, passing at every opportunity, just to enjoy the surge of power.   I should re-iterate that the fuel filter was in no way their fault/bad call or anything, yet they appreciated my laid-back tolerance of their minor mistakes on the other stuff, and thus I got a nice freebie out of it.  That's sort of how it is supposed to work here--  a lesson that is hard to learn, sometimes.

Unfortunately, the little rubber connector on my boost gauge tore while I was driving home.  Perhaps too much manipulation during the various repairs.  So I didn't get to enjoy watching the gauge zoom up to 13psi, but still wasted a lot of fuel charging up every hill available. 

I also have to reset my idle setting.  The lack of air in the fuel stream means that the injection pump is slighly overfueled now.

I got home before sunset, stopping along the way to pick up some more supplies.  Still joyful, I grabbed the mutt and we had a nice romp on the beach, with a swim.  After that I took my sandy self to a local cafe to deliver some stuff I had picked up on the way home, and enjoyed a nice martini on the outdoor patio, with sand on my toes and the dog happily greeting each customer who came through.  Deposed Happiness leapt sprightly to the throne again.

After a martini, I took us to Sharky's for a burger and beer (where I bumped into some friends and enjoyed a great conversation, and another beer), before finally heading home and into bed, exhausted.

Just a typical day here in what isn't always, but always could be, Paradise.

Labels: Costa Rica, dog, land cruiser, liberia, repair, tamarindo, weather

Nothing gets you up on the roof faster than realizing that the first "real" rain of the season might be starting, and that there are six months worth of dead leaves filling your gutters.  

My first reaction when the pitter-patter began was to head out to our lovely outdoor patio upstairs to watch the sunset and storm interact over the estuary.  Light, flowing trees, gentle breezes, gray clouds, and zephyrs... OHCRAP!   The roof is probably covered in leaves!

Out comes the ladder, and up I went.  Sure enough, the leaves were nearly a foot thick in some places (our gutters are less than 6" deep). 

So far, the rain hasn't arrived with any force, just gentle droplets that more-or-less evaporate without flowing.  But at least there are mostly-clean gutters into which all the droplets can flow if their buddies decide to make a party of it tonight. 

And there is one less thing on my list of things to do.  Double-bonus.

Labels: house, tamarindo, weather

It was over 100*F in Tamarindo today (nearly 40*C).   I, however, spent the hot part of the day in Liberia, where it was 41*C in the shade at nearly 5pm.  That's 106*F, folks.  Hot.   Damn hot.

Oddly for this time of year, it is also windy.  Which is great comfort as the wind, at least, helps make the heat a little more bearable.  My plants don't agree.  They seem to think that the wind and heat is a good excuse to shrivel up and die.  

Labels: Costa Rica, tamarindo, weather

It's darn warm in the garage, but once I got started.... 


I'm now pulling the injectors to send them to be serviced
and
cleaning the intake manifold and replacing gaskets that were leaking
and
replacing some heater hoses because the heater valve broke and I've got to McGyver it until my Dad flies down
and
I figure that since I won't have injectors until Monday, I may as well attack the big end bearings,
so
I'm draining the oil and dropping the pan
and
need to pound out dents and paint the pan
so
I might as well take it to the welder to get a skid plate added
and
the turbo is still acting up a little so I'm pulling it out
and
replacing a bunch of hoses and gaskets while I'm there

it'll be interesting to see how much I get done today vs. this weekend.

I'll try to take a photo or two, but not too likely as all the jobs involve much oil and I don't like that on the camera so much.

Now if only the temp were in the low 90s instead of near 100, I'd be happier.

Labels: land cruiser, repair, weather

Right around sunset we were doing some yardwork when a troop of about 9 Howler Monkeys cruised through out neighbor's yard, onto our fence (just about eye level, less than 3 feet away from us) then up into the neighbor's trees for a nice snack of tasty fresh leaves.

It amazes me that after nearly ten years of watching those beasties, I'm still totally fascinated by them.  They are just so amazingly....  primate.  How people can possibly persist in the disbelief of evolution, confronted with the intelligent stare of a monkey, is beyond me.   But that's another discussion.

Back to the antics of the Howlers.  They strolled through the trees, working their way to or back yard, munching on fresh bugs and blossoms while grunting and squeeking at each other.

We had made plans to have a small bonfire in the back yard and I worried a little that the fire/smoke would bother them, but it didn't seem to do so as at least one was in a tree almost directly overhead throughout the evening.

We watched a spectacular moonrise as little puffy clouds organized themselves into what looked like ripples on the sand at the beach.

This morning my love of the Howlers waned as their guttural screams greeted the first rays of dawn.  If you've never been awakened by a large howler monkey less than 10 feet from your window, I won't be able to describe for you the mix of terror and annoyance that you feel as your heart rate slows and your sluggish pre-dawn brain remembers that "It's just a monkey". 

And so we start another week...

Labels: monkey, photo, tamarindo, weather

For many days now Jocelyn has wanted a day trip to Marbella Beach.  Playa Frijolar, to be more precise, named for the gravelly beach that looks like a pile of beans in some spots.  An apt name.

I've been reluctant because I've spent a lot of time on the road recently and didn't particularly want to be in the car on a Sunday unless we were going somewhere new and thrilling, or particularly difficult to reach which involves a reasonably high chance of getting stuck.

Regardless, her feminine wiles overcame my masculine stubborn-ness and so to Marbella we went!

The key to the story is the simplicity.  We drove south for a while (40 minutes or so).  Stopped to snap some photos of my favorite windmill (which I never photograph despite tremendous being tremendously photogenic).  Then proceeded to a beautiful beach with very few other people.  We bathed.  We snacked.  We enjoyed a cold beer.  We strolled.  We read.  We harvested some driftwood.

The breeze was onshore and cooling, the water crystalline.  

We drove home mellow and sunkissed, stopping for another photo or two.

Turns out that Jocelyn was right, it was a great way to spend a Sunday.

Better-than-typical gravel road, Guanacaste	Beach, Wife, Dog. Happines	Goats!! We always yell "Goats!" when we see them, for some reason.	The roads are already dry and dusty, I predict a dry summer.

Labels: beach, Costa Rica, day trip, dog, photo, weather

Sure is windy around these parts right now.

The beach was spectacular this morning-- wind swept, perfectly clean and neat, hardly a footprint to be seen.  At low tide we stood with our feet in the cold (for us) water and felt the sting of the sand on our back while playing with a deliriously happy dog.  Funny how sometimes a beach trip will make her happy, but other days it makes her HAPPY.  I suppose that we all do the same sort of thing, at some point.

I was frustrated to see people watering the street this morning.  For those of you who don't live in dusty 3rd world countries, around these parts some folks waste a bunch of (evermore precious) water by spraying it onto the gravel/dust road in front of their home or business.  The thought process appears to be that by wetting the ground, one reduces the dust created by cars driving by.   I'm sure it works.  Absolutely certain.  For the first hour or so, I'll bet that almost no dust is created in the area thus wetted.

But most folks only wet the area right in front of "their" space.   So dust is still kicking up from either side of the moist patch.  And it is WIIIINDY right now, like up to 50mph gusts.   The wind is kickind up dust from all over the province and moving it kilometers in various directions.  How much does 10 meters of road matter?   Finally- the same wind and the tropical sun dry out the moist patch within an hour...

I suggest that these same folks would get a lot more relief by planting a hedge or some trees in their area and watering those instead of the street.  It would lend some shade and knock down the wind a little, as well as providing a host of other aesthetic and environmental benefits.

Some day, when I'm supreme ruler of of everything, this watering the road business is going to stop, dangit.

Till then, I'll just try to enjoy the wind storm for its howling fury and hope that nothing big falls on anything expensive around here.

Labels: Costa Rica, tamarindo, weather

We awoke early on the first of January... about 5:30, but after listening to fireworks, barking dogs, drunken revelry, and various other noises, 5:30 seemed very early.

We grabbed coffee, dog, and the camera and headed to Langosta Beach to welcome the first sunrise of 2010. We were lucky enough to watch the full moon disappear into the Pacific at about the same time, it was beautiful.

Steve caught what was almost certainly the first wave of the year in Langosta (and Sapo, too). Unless someone was full-moon surfing, that is. Which would have been a pretty cool idea, but probably not such a safe thing to do in Langy. The surf was decent and Steve enjoyed it. While he was doing that, Bb and the dog were doing yoga (and doga?) and playing with sticks and plastic bottles on a nearly-empty beach. It was an idyllic way to start the year.

After a nap, Bb had to do some jewelry work while Steve went next door to enjoy a rum and gingerale with the neighbors. Ginger beer would have been even better, but you gotta do what you can with what you've got, sometimes. It was a hot day- over 100 in the sun, but sitting in a breezy (windy!) patio in the shade talking with friends was just about perfect.

We finished off the day with a bbq and a few more glasses of cheer, then came home to sleep soundly, looking forward to the weekend (also, a great way to start a new year!).

Labels: 4wd, 4x4, beach, Costa Rica, dog, photo, tamarindo, weather

just a snapshot of a nice view, and the cruiser. Nice, breezy weather we are enjoying.

Labels: land cruiser, photo, weather

Low 70s (71 at 5pm) and drizzly.   Odd weather for late December in Tamarindo.  But darn pleasant!  I briefly considered putting on a sweatshirt (but then realized it was still above 70).

Interesting week included getting two "A"s in my Law classes (I'm pleased), a home invasion without any apparent theft (also pleased, but also frightened and angry), a rainy December day (pleasant, but weird), and bread that wouldn't rise (nothing good about it).

Maybe those 2012 wackos are wrong... perhaps it is all coming to a skidding halt *this* year.


But I really doubt it.

Labels: bread, weather

Got up slowly, for the first time in a long time, and watched the morning develop outside the window while enjoying a little air conditioning (more for noise abatement than for cold, the mornings have been lovely).

Threw the board on the rack and the dog in the back and cruised down to Tamarindo Rivermouth to catch some overhead waves with offshore winds.  Good surf, and darn fun despite the brief and painful longboard-nose incident.   No permanent damage to either part.

The slightly crowded beach (for here) gives me hope for a little micro-scale economic recovery, which is welcome.

Back to the house to do some yard maintenance, hand watering the yard on a windy, sunny day might not do much for the plants, but it feels good for the person doing the watering.

Baked a few loaves of bread, made some marinated cherry tomatoes and eventually cooked the pork roast that has been marinating for the better part of a week.   Jocelyn whipped up some yucca/sweet potato "mashed potatoes" that were wonderful, as well as an arugula and peccorino salad.  We enjoyed some delicious Zin brought by Ben last month, while cooking, then a little more of the same while eating. 

We dined by candlelight under the stars, on the pool deck, enjoying the evening breezes and an intermittent meteor shower to the southwest.   Eventually we turned out the lights, extinguished the candles and struggled through a losing battle with sleeping vs. star-gazing while enjoying some dark chocolate and a little more of that bottle of Zin.

Labels: food, tamarindo, weather

Just ran out to visit some friends in Playa Grande, and to do a little business (very rare that both of our businesses take us to a single location, serendipity, I tell ya).  It was just plain lovely out there and we enjoyed a little hospitality at RipJack Inn.  Incidentally- you can now find Jocelyn Broyles Jewelry at RipJack.

On the way home, the light was so lovely that I had Jocelyn stop a few times to snap a photo.  Guanacaste continues to be a beautiful area, we are lucky to enjoy it on a daily basis.

I mean, where else do you get a chance to see a guy gallop by on a horse while dialing his cellphone?  Just gotta love it!  :)

Labels: 4wd, 4x4, Costa Rica, jewelry, land cruiser, photo, weather

After class on Saturday I finally broke down and bought new tires.  I've been reluctant because I want to switch to 16" rims and a certain tire size (255/85r16) but between the higher cost of those tires and the additional cost of new rims, couple with the fact that it is difficult to find the rims that I want and also difficult to find the tires that I want in this area, I gave up.   Sounds dramatic.   I always fret too much over tire purchases because I figure I'll be using those tires for the next 3-5 years and prefer to do it "right" in the first place.

But the old tires were wearing very fast.  There was still plenty of tread- at least 30%- but the steel belts had burst through the outer layer on one tire last month, and another this week.  I swapped the first into the spare position, but had to drive on the second for a few days and was very nervous about it.   Driving around unsafe is dumb.

So I bit the bullet and bought some new tires in Santa Cruz.  Ended up with 33x12.50r15 Yokohama Geolander MTs.   I would have been happy to have put an all terrain on- saves a little bit of fuel consumption/noise, but there weren't any to be found in that size.  The slightly larger (I did have 31's) tires look great on the truck and it drives much better with new, balanced tires.

Since I now had tires (and had fixed some other stuff earlier in the week) I immediately drove the hour south to the vehicle inspection station to get my annual revision completed.   Dropping in without an appointment on Saturday was a bad idea.  I spent over an hour waiting to get into line, then about half an hour in line (faster than normal), then another half hour driving through the whole station, just so that a tech could look at my new bushings (10 seconds) and say "ok!".

One plus to being stuck in the station chit-chatting with the tech was that he was happy to help me weigh the truck-- they have a big suspension machine onto which you can drive front or rear tires, then it displays the weight at each wheel.

Mine were:

	driver's	passenger's
front	642 kg (1412 lbs)	552 kg (1214 lbs)
rear	664 kg (1460 lbs)	640 kg (1408 lbs)

Just in case you were wondering.  Not sure why the front driver's side is heavier, I certainly don't weigh 100kg (200lbs).  Not sure I care too much.

One the way home there was a transit police officer sitting under a shade tree, casually gunning people on the highway.   I passed and waved (I always wave in the hopes that over time they'll recognize me and be nicer should I be caught speeding- there are only 10 or so officers in this area in the transit division).  Then it ocurred to me that I could check the new tires effect on my speedometer against the cop's radar gun.  In the end, I'm more interested that my speedometer match the cop's gun than that it be accurate.  They're not ticketing based on reality but rather based on what the radar says.

So I turned around and drove back, pulling over at his truck.  I think it made him a little nervous to have someone pull themselves over.  But I slowly got out and chatted him up.  Once I explained what I wanted, he was happy to help out.

So I did another pass, he recorded my speed, and it looks like the taller tires have put my speedometer bang-on.  I was doing "just shy of 80 kph" on my speedometer and he showed me driving 77kph.  Good enough for me.   Chatting with him the second time, he was much nicer and asked me some questions about the truck.  I'm always amazed at the bad rap that police are given.  I've had some bad experiences, sure, but whenever I talk to them for a bit, they almost always turn out to be friendly.

Sunday was a lot of work for little progress.  As Jocelyn points out, I may have set a new record for installing my rear sway bar.  I started around 7am, planning to be done in about an hour.  I finished around 1:45pm.  Short version:  I sheared a bolt head.  Lesson learned:  a few minutes chasing out old, rusty holes with a tap before installing old rusty bolts is time well spent in prevention.

Lesson #2:  "Easy Out" isn't a good description for the tool it describes.   A better name would be:  drill-in-awkward-position, struggle to set not sharp tool into bolt, crank until passing through bolt, then have to weld rebar to shank to pull out before finally giving up and drilling out old nut to re-tap with larger diameter and use different bolt.   But that would be a lot of words to fit on a small package.  So I'll just have to remember that "Easy Out" isn't.  Lesson learned.

At least the sway bar is installed.

But I can't drive the truck to test it because my driver's window motor seems to have failed.  I'll be working on that this morning (Monday) so that I can actually close said window.  I don't like electric windows.

Sure is a pretty morning-  coolish, light breezes, time to shut computer and open car door to fix window.

Labels: land cruiser, repair, tamarindo, weather

As a novice gardener, I'm frequently impressed much more than I "should" be by simple things. I've been reading up on foliar fertilization and thought to give it a go a little while back. Using 10-10-10 fertilizer seemed to encourage growth, but with changing seasons it can be tough to credit the fertilizer vs. the "rainy" season (that hasn't had much rain).

So I got some "Ever-Green" organic fertilizer and mixed up a dilute solution of 10-50-30 to see if we could get some super-flowers. That was about three weeks ago.

While it is true that there are now more blossoms than there were before, I'm pretty sure that we also had some of these plants blooming last year at this time of year (though not all). Did the fertilizer do it? I don't think it hurt, so we'll likely use it again. Heavily diluted organic fertilizer is unlikely to hurt my garden so if it made even two or three more blooms than not using it, that's good enough for me. Besides, getting out and spraying the foliar fertilizer is a relatively pleasant way to walk around the yard and look at stuff.

Labels: garden, photo, tamarindo, weather

Thanks Rain!

I am happy to have a second day in a row with rain. I'm sure that I'll be biting my tongue in another month when the cats and dogs are falling, but I heard yesterday that this area is suffering the driest August/September in the last 70 (seventy!!) years. It has been awfully pleasant from a "spending time outdoors" perspective, but any extreme weather event has got to have some lasting repercussions on local wildlife. I know that our garden has been suffering, despite my half-hearted attempts to water -I just can't bring myself to water extensively in the "rainy" season and I haven't fixed our sprinklers yet- so I can only imagine what the effect has been on larger wild trees and plants and animals.

Unfortunately for me, the rain interrupted a little afternoon photo session. Ah well. Back inside to work.

"Coral Vine", Antigonum leptopus.
Growing nicely up the wall of the living room ---------------->

Labels: Costa Rica, garden, photo, tamarindo, weather

Another hot one yesterday. I spent the day finishing phase II of my gate project while catching the cellphone every so often*. I am feeling proud of the difference- note the old wood on the main portion of the gate vs. the newly refinished wood on the smaller gate. Yes, I know it has imperfections. Now that phase II is done, it doesn't look like as much work as it felt like while I was doing it! I'm sure that the heat played a role. Also stopping to catch the phone takes its toll on productivity. Occasional play breaks with the pooches didn't make it go any faster either.

This project has been a good reminder of the efficiency of specialized work. Once I figured out the best way to do a particular aspect of the job, and assembled the correct tools, it went much more smoothly. Of course, by the time I got all of that figured out, I was also done ;P One of the hazards of doing it yourself.

*Sometimes I like to take a second to enjoy technological advances. While I did have several very important business phone calls to handle, I was able to do so while doing some much-needed home maintenance. It was awfully convenient to be untethered from my desk!

In contrast to the gate project, I think I've pretty much got basic bread making down to a simple, efficient system. For those that aren't interested in a lot of time invested but do enjoy homemade bread, I think you'll have a hard time getting more streamlined than the following:

1. Grab flour container, yeast, and salt from wherever you store them. (this requires pre-planning in that I keep my flours in rubbermaid plastic bins that are large enough to dip a measuring cup, makes it easier to get the flour later and keeps it fresh).
2. Put ingredients on counter with 1C liquid measuring cup, 1 1/2 C dry measure cup, 1 teaspoon, 1 mixing spoon, 1 medium mixing bowl.
3. Put 2 tsp of dry yeast into 1 C liquid measuring cup, fill with hot tap water, set aside.
4. Put 2 tsp of salt into bowl
5. Put 3 Cups of flour(s) into bowl.
6. Go do something else that takes at least 5 minutes.
7. Add yeasty water to flour, mix well. If too dry, add a very very little bit more water. For me, it is usually a near-perfect wetness if I do it as above.
8. Cover with a towel, let sit for an hour, put in fridge.
9. Get up in the morning, pull dough out of fridge, pour a cup of coffee and go do something that takes 15-30 minutes (so the dough can warm up a little).
10. Remove dough, fold it two or three times, put it onto a cookie sheet or pie tin with some olive oil rubbed onto dough and pan, sprinkle a pinch of salt on top.
11. Set a timer for 45 minutes. Go do something else.
12. When timer rings, turn on oven to 475 degrees. If your oven chimes when it hits temp (mine does), then go do something else.
13. When oven is hot, slice some lines on top of the bread, add to oven, spritz oven with some water to increase humidity for a nicer crust (alternately, throw a handful of icecubes on the bottom of the oven, no bowl needed).
14. Set cooking time to 27 minutes (cooking time may vary). Go do something else.
15. Done. If you want a darker crust, let it sit in the cooling oven for a little while- you can basically toast the loaf like in this photo.

That's it. The actual "work" part is probably less than 15 minutes. You just have to start it the night before and also be around to do the little parts in the morning. Fresh bread is worth it.

Labels: bread, dog, food, house, weather

Wind Chime on "verenera" over pool.
basil, odd leaf curl, advice welcome.
New flower on tobasco plantPretty spider

Labels: Costa Rica, garden, house, photo, tamarindo, weather

Today starts as a cloudy, "cool" morning (maybe low seventies) and we begin the day with coffee, coffee cake, and birds. One of the pleasures of our home is the large number of birds that we see from our deck. There are two large "Jobo" trees in our driveway positioned such that the crowns of the trees are only 3-5m (10-20ft) above our eye level but at least 20m (~65ft) above ground level. "Ground" in this case is a hill, so some of the higher branches may be several meters further from the dirt. Regardless of actual height- birds seem to enjoy the trees.

We also enjoy a fairly sweeping view out over a woodlands that turns into an estuary, where more birds feed and congregate.

As a snapshot of what is out there, I list the 12 different species we saw this morning. Most notable today was a large (longer than my forearm) Laughing Falcon (Herpetotheres cachinnans) that we were lucky enough to watch fly up from the estuary directly towards us until it landed (amongst much distress from smaller birds) in the tree directly in front of us. It reminded me of watching a commercial jet come in for a landing with its heavy body and motionless wings as it approached. The bird itself is quite notable for two features: 1) it has a distinct "bandit's mask" coloration on the face. Think raccoon. 2) it's voice is very much like a laugh, and very loud. We have been hearing it for months but did not know what it is. Now that we know, it is even more fun.

There was actually a pair in the tree, but we were so enthralled by the first that we did not even notice the second until they flew away together (calling in duet).

H. cachinnans is primarily a snake-eater, catching venomous and non-venomous snakes, also lizards and rodents. Its talons are particularly scaly and tough-looking, I imagine that helps it avoid envenomation.

The rest of the list is as follows, with common name, then scientific in italics.

Laughing Falcon - Herpototheres cachinnans - pair
Orange Chinned Parakeets - Brotogeris jugularis - several small groups of 3-4
Great Tailed Grackles - Quiscalus mexicanus - various
Pigeon (?) flying by - probably red-billed pigeon- Columba flavirostris
Rufus Naped Wren - Campylorhinchus rufinucha - 2 groups of 2 and 3
Great Kiskadee - Pitangus sulfuratus - pair and single
Green Breasted Mango (hummingbird)- Anthrocothorax prevostii - single (hummingbird)
Hoffman's Woodpecker - Melanerpes hoffmannii - pair
Swallow (maybe a Martin) flying
Blue-Gray Tanager - Thraupis episcopus - pair
Striped-Headed Sparrow - Aimophila ruficauda - single
Orange Fronted Parakeet - Aratinga canicularis - pair

Of course, there are also squirrels, iguanas (Ctenosaurus), at least five types of butterflies (yellow, white, orange & black, green and black, small green), ants, some mosquitos, some millipedes, other ants, Melipona bees, dragonflies, and one cute mixed-breed dog. Nice little menagerie that we enjoy here!

Labels: bird, garden, house, tamarindo, weather