Thinking Playas del Coco, by Bob

Baby It's Cold Outside

The temp crept up to 29.  The sun was bright winter.  Now the rays slant long to spotlight clumps of ice hiding on the north sides of things.  It's January 19 and today brings the first real touch of winter.  That should be enough for us.  In nine days we hop a jet to Liberia, Costa Rica, then on to Playas del Coco for a month.  It's the New England dream, to get the hell put of Dodge during the winter and return as spring is coming up all green and full of flowers.

Dreaming at Fireside

Connie is locked into an eBook story of a couple who emigrate from the US to Costa Rica, buy land, build a house, create jobs.  We have no such fantasy.  Ours is a fantasy of lazing about in a beach cafe sipping a cool drink.  But we will be back here to our village on Boston's Northshore come spring.  It's hard to imagine that life gets any better than this, even including winter and snow.

La Pura Vida

It's a phrase associated with something about the Costa Rican philosophy of life.  Right off it's interesting that the Ticos have their very own philosophical catch phrase.  Americans have something similar, commercialized, of course, "life is good."  It's actually a trademark phrase associated with a chain of stores selling tee shirts and hats.  I think that "life is good" refers to time spent in the enjoyment of time away from work or chores, vacation time really, a time of gift shops and ice cream cones, and riding your jet ski, that sort of thing.  We don't have a chain of tee shirt stores with the phrase, "work is good" printed with a cartoon character.  So Ticos like to say, "Pura Vida."  I'm hoping that Ticos include work as a part of the pure life.  I'd like a Pura Vida that made no distinction between work and play. Stay tuned.

Staying Productive

I think my life's take away is that joy springs from a job well done.  This may sound prudish to many.  Popular culture has it that joy springs from being waited on by others and spending money. Hitting the lottery beckons especially when the pot gets really big.  I'm thinking that little, if any, joy waits for the winner in the bottom of the big lottery pot.  My problem in Costa Rica will be to find something meaningful to do with myself.  It is in this iPad and stringing together sentences that I am planning to find some purpose, the Pura Vida.

Buying a Two Piece Swimsuit

I am a 72 year old man.  Some might think that we old men don't give much thought to the persona we present to the world. This is not true.  I am a man interested in avant guard fashion. So it's only natural that I would give some thought to my swim suit for Playas del Coco.  My first thought was a one piece black thing. This approach covers a lot of skin and a lot of accumulated scar tissue, certificates of  completion from the college of hard knocks.  After some Googling, I did find a few.  Connie was not at all receptive to this style. But, al fin, I hit on the idea of a tank top combined with some skimpy trunks.  [See pic, to come.]

The Dark and the Cold

An arctic cold weighs heavy on New England tonight.  The stove burns bright and warm between Connie and me.  She's reading about scorpions, a common critter in Costa Rica.  I ask whose idea it was to go to Costa Rica anyway.  We can't remember.  Should I pack a hammer, the better to beat a scorpion to death?