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Have your days seemed pass slower or be longer and then your weeks and months passing faster? It is an interesting psychological phenomenon you can read about on BBC at this link: Why time seems to be going faster while we are in lockdown
Or if you are one of those weird Americans who prefers to read American publications, try this one in the LA Times: Is time flying by oddly quickly during COVID-19? Here’s why you may feel that way
Now . . . back to the future in Costa Rica! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
I spent nearly an hour searching my books and all over the internet for an ID on this interesting fellow I saw while walking to town the other day. He is possibly in the large Scarab Beetle family or Stag Beetle family or seems related to our Rhinoceros Beetle and Hercules Beetle, but even with those I can’t find photos of one with these large, wide “horns” or divided head. New surprises every day! 🙂
“Any foolish boy can stamp on a beetle, but all the professors in the world cannot make a beetle.”
―
See my “Other Insects of Costa Rica” photo gallery for more insect oddities.
¡Pura Vida!
I envision Jesus weeping over Jerusalem in Matthew 23:37-39 and Luke 19:41-44, and wonder: Has He already given up on the United States? Or is He still crying and hoping? Or maybe rolling his eyes in hopelessness?
I grew up assuming I was in the greatest country in the world. I was told so repeatedly as a child and was proud of being born on the fourth of July! I enjoyed the patriotism of Boy Scouts, flags, school programs, marching bands and the holiness of church. That was while growing up. Then I became a cynical adult, progressively seeing more of the under-belly of that “don’t Tread on Me” snake, the self-centered hypocrisy of leaders, even in church, and was becoming disillusioned. Today, living in another country, it is embarrassing to admit that I’m an “American” – though the title rightfully belongs to more than just the states; to all of north, central and south Americans. (That’s another issue!) 🙂
I believe that the Racist & Fascist Republican Party and their immoral idiot president are destroying what is left of an already failing “great nation.” They promised to “Make America Great Again” and now . . .
MAGA is the . . .
1. GREATEST PLACE ON EARTH FOR RICH PEOPLE with the biggest inequities between rich and poor in the world and constantly getting more so as Republicans continue to give tax breaks to the rich that the poor and middle class must pay for and do everything they can to keep the poor and racial minorities from voting. Great? No, pitiful!
“An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.” –Plutarch
2. GREATEST RACISM in the world with a white supremacist president they fully endorse and mimic while calling KKK and killer cops “good people.” I’m not sure if racism is the country’s “original sin” as some say, but it is something real leadership would help the country to come face to face with and correct! It is a major factor in the downfall of the states, while Republicans show much more concern over the looting of millionaire businesses than the murder of an innocent, unarmed father. Not Great! Pitiful!
“At the heart of racism is the religious assertion that God made a creative mistake when He brought some people into being.” – Friedrich Otto Hertz
3. GREATEST AMOUNT OF VIOLENCE IN THE DEVELOPED WORLD with so-called “Christians” embracing the NRA, Tea Party, international warmongering, the military industry, and the political party that kills in every realm while supposedly championing “Right to Life” so they can control someone else’s body. Why is the hypocrisy not obvious to them? Why do they look the other way as gun violence in America increases almost daily along with police violence? Trump cheered the gun-toting demonstrators against life-saving pandemic closings but says to shoot those who demonstrate for justice. Why do they accept money from NRA and the war industries to continue promoting violence daily in America and war overseas? Greatness? No! It is selfish power and control like the fascists of Italy or Nazis of Germany. Great? God help us!
“We lose eight children and teenagers to gun violence every day. If a mysterious virus suddenly started killing eight of our children every day, America would mobilize teams of doctors and public health officials. We would move heaven and earth until we found a way to protect our children. But not with gun violence.”
―
4. GREATEST IMMORALITY IN THE WORLD! Republicans and evangelicals support an adulterous president who averages 15 documented lies a day, brags about sexually assaulting women, name-calls worse than any spoiled brat, encourages violence and hatred, demonstrates bigotry daily, has caused the death of thousands more because he would not accept the world pandemic and do something early, and well, the list has no end with so much immorality in the White House and the Republican Senate that it is nauseating. And to think that some of these hypocrites used to call themselves “The Moral Majority.” Ha, ha! Greatness? Not in my book!
“How can one be well…when one suffers morally?”
―
5. GREATEST FAILURE OF HEALTHCARE SYSTEMS IN THE DEVELOPED WORLD. Oh? You like it? Then you must be rich! Like almost everything else in the U.S. it is for only the rich and about money – with Republicans helping insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies and for-profit hospitals get richer by the day and if you are rich, money can buy you almost everything, even good healthcare! While the poor, most middle class and the elderly without money suffer or do without. And they are still trying to destroy the one Affordable Healthcare Act the government has provided in years. The private healthcare system that rules in the USA is a disgrace to the country and just one more of the reasons I left.
“America’s health care system is neither healthy, caring, nor a system.”
―
6. GREATEST ANTI-DEMOCRACY “DEMOCRACY” IN THE WORLD! The whole Republican philosophy of governing is for select rich people to rule and keep the poor and the minorities under their thumb. They’ve continued that in so many ways as they support the most autocratic and self-centered president in the nations’s history – a true fascist and racist. And in their unfair ways of making the judicial system political, and their systematic ways of suppressing the public vote they thumb their noses at the people. They believe the country should be run by the rich plantation owners and the poor people be damned! While in my opinion, so-called “leaders” like Trump, McConnell and Barr belong in jail.
“The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerated the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself. That in its essence is fascism: ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power.”
―
7. GREATEST ANTI-ENVIRONMENT COUNTRY IN THE WORLD! Totally ignoring global warming and the huge climate crisis that will destroy much of the world we know today is almost a requirement to be a Republican and especially a Trump supporter. You must support the destructive oil and energy companies but never the health of the earth! 10 to 20 years from now some of you will look back on this time and wish you had taken a different attitude. The climate crisis is real and destructive! Your children will pay for your sins.
“We are the first generation to feel the effect of climate change and the last generation who can do something about it.”
~Barack Obama
8. GREATEST ISOLATIONISTS OF MODERN HISTORY and maybe all history! We used to be the world leader and now the USA has become the selfish rich kid, building a wall around himself as we pull out of WHO, UN, NATO, the Paris Agreement, etc. ignoring our friends and becoming a more selfish or self-centered nation. And you wonder why the U.S. has little respect around the world? It used to be different, even with some Republicans . . .
The United States will not retreat from the world, and we will never surrender to evil. America rejects the false comfort of isolationism.
―
Yep! That’s MAGA! If you like that, then, by all means Vote Republican!
But if you want to save America from its selfish self before it is too late, vote Democrat at every level of government! This November election may be the most critical ever in our history! Please vote Democrat! Save the U.S.!
Not at a seafood restaurant but in my garden! It’s English name is “Golden Shrimp Plant” and it is a beautiful heavy-bloomer year-around, at least here where we have year-around Spring! The last additions to my garden included one of these plants and I love it. Read about it on Wikipedia or since it is used in gardens in the states during warm weather, read more on this Master Gardener website.
“Hidden in the glorious wildness like unmined gold.”
―
More flower photos in my Flora & Forest Gallery.
World Day for Cultural Diversity
Thursday May 21, 2020
¡Pura Vida!
He was showing an interest in one of my dried up flowers in the garden the other day and I have not found a name for him yet – just another interesting creation of God!
“Why should man value himself as more than a small part of the one great unit of creation? And what creature of all that the Lord has taken the pains to make is not essential to the completeness of that unit — the cosmos?”
― A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf
¡Pura Vida!
See my “Other Insects” Gallery for more fun bugs.
Or “Tree Trunks in the Rain!” which sounds like it could be a song or poem in addition to one of my “Nature as Art” experiments. I was sitting on my terrace watching it rain when I got the inspiration to photograph the wet tree trunks during the rain – and yes, they do look different when wet.
You could do this anywhere in the world with many different kinds of trees, so give yourself a “quarantine break” for a little creativity – try it!
This is the kind of thing I really expected to do more of in retirement and in this blog – so maybe I will now! 🙂
And oh yes! The rainy season has started! Good rains two days in a row! (Saturday & Sunday) My favorite time of year! And it is made even better because tourists don’t like to come when it’s raining! More peaceful! 🙂
“Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.” ― Martin Luther
¡Pura Vida!
See also my gallery: Flora & Forest
At what I consider the biggest and best supermercado in Atenas, La Coope, you now have a 4-step procedure to enter the store due to COVID19. I’ll illustrate them with 4 photos:
The guard has a rope over the entry and tells you when you can enter. On a busy day like Saturday, as one person exits he allows another to enter. In all lines, including meat department, service desk, and checkout cashiers, you have these X-lines with people 2 meters apart (like the 6 ft. in states).
And as stated earlier, the cashiers have a Plexiglas shield between you and her/him and if charging, you slide your own card in and out of the machine; they don ‘t touch your credit card. (Now cash is another whole issue they don’t seem to have a solution for. But one of my friends actually washed all her cash in the sink – bills & coins!) 🙂 Money-laundering?
And only a small minority of us are wearing masks, but I don’t mind being different!
The Coronavirus Pandemic will give us stories to tell for the rest of our lives! 🙂
Some of our restaurants are providing “To Go” or “Delivery” services which the government now allows. I haven’t done it yet but will try to soon.
“Go to the bank looking like a bank robber!”
―
Hey! I did and they let me in with mask on!
¡Pura Vida!
Like in other countries when the world-wide pandemic became obvious, even in well-prepared Costa Rica, there was a bit of “panic buying” of hand sanitizers and hand soaps, emptying the grocery shelves of both (plus I still can’t get Clorox or Lysol Wipes). So my grocer first filled the hand-soap shelves with “refill containers” of the most popular antibiotic hand soap made locally (Bactex). I got the limit of 2 per customer.
And then the following week they dug into their unsold Christmas items to bring out this “Christmas scented” antibiotic hand soap that evidently did not all sell last Christmas. 🙂 So of course I bought the limit of 2 per customer and now my very clean hands also smell like Santa Claus! 🙂
Naturally this week the shelves are now restocked with the regular antibiotic hand soaps we always had, so no real shortage, just a temporary panic wiping out of their stock, likely by a few neurotic American expats here. 🙂 And life continues in Costa Rica with hands as clean as we want them to be and even smelling like Christmas now! 🙂
See also the Tico Times Coronavirus Update article from Thursday, including the shutdown of the country for Easter Week (a really big deal here!), cars driving on limited days based on the last digit of your license plate number, a map of where all cases are located in Costa Rica and the continuation of the CLOSURES of all “non-essential” businesses by government order – pretty much everything but grocery & pharmacy. We added 28 new cases of the virus this week, bringing our total to about 375 for the whole shut-down country.
“Quédate en casa”
“Stay home”
?
“Life is ten percent what you experience and ninety percent how you respond to it.”
―
¡Pura Vida!
Interesting Report on Coronavirus Progress in Costa Rica including police arresting people who do not follow the rules! 🙂 You auto tag number determines which days you can drive your car is one example.
Because there is so much to write about now, I’m writing posts for several days ahead and these photos were made last Friday when I went grocery shopping after paying a bill at the Bank (which is also not normal and with fewer people, even on Friday).
Since no pharmacy in Costa Rica has surgical masks in stock, I am now using a bandanna tied around my mouth and nose when I go out such as to bank or supermarket. Bank employees have masks and rubber gloves (secret source?). My supermarket has now built a Plexiglas shield between the cashier and the customer (they can’t get masks either) and if I use my credit card I must insert it in the machine myself and then remove it, all for the protection of their employees which I really appreciate!
PLUS the next person in line must stay behind the black line (6 ft. from the cashier). People are taking the pandemic seriously here (except for a few Expat American Republicans here who are still saying it is exaggerated! Lord save us from Republicans, a minority here among expats, thank goodness!) and because Costa Rica takes it seriously, we have fewer cases here and fewer deaths. And businesses are working hard at protecting both employees and customers. Plus many businesses are closed now which is sad for those employees, but the government is helping them some. We must stop the spread of Coronavirus!
Note of explanation for below: The photo of my cart behind the black line has a sign which indicates it is a line only for the elderly, handicapped and pregnant women (just like the banks have always had, but new here). The black line is as close as the next cart should be to the cashier (caja).
“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”
Signs posted by city downtown:
🙂
¡Pura Vida!
THE BUTTERFLY
Well, another butterfly, the feature photo, that is difficult to identify and different from most because it was so small, about the size of my little finger’s fingernail or in U.S. currency about the size of a dime. Seeing an enlarged photo makes it seem to be one of the large category of “Brushfoots,” maybe more specifically one of the fritillary or crescents or tanmarks by the designs, though I have never seen one this small. No positive ID in my big book of butterflies yet. Let me know if you think you know! 🙂
THE ROOT CANAL
Thursday I saw my root canal specialist. She drilled into the hurting tooth (through a bridge) to find that it was very much infected because someone in the states had started a root canal but did not finish it and then went ahead and put a bridge on that tooth. So much for the trust I thought I had in my dentists in Nashville.
She packed it with antibiotics for a week and this Thursday I will get the infection-free root canal. The total cost for treating the infection and doing the root canal is the CR Colones equivalent of U.S. $220. Root canals in the states are between $900 and $1,800 and in my case one was never completed, even at the very high prices. Glad I’m in Costa Rica now! 🙂
LATEST VIRUS NEWS (From Tico Times):
Costa Rica reaches 35 cases of coronavirus; all bars and nightclubs ordered to close (As of Monday)
A very social-able country is now practicing “social distancing” which is a challenge! 🙂 No more of that kissing cheeks or even hand-shaking which seemed funny when the very friendly bank guard elbow-bumped me the other day! 🙂 But the virus is spreading very slowly here and only in the capital and its suburbs now.
I just emailed my hotel in San Gerardo de Dota about my mountain adventure beginning March 30 to confirm that I’m still coming and get an assurance from them that they are still open. Tourism is being greatly hurt here by this virus and the limited travel since most of our tourists are from out-of-country. So I think they may appreciate that I’m still coming! And if not many there, easier/safer for me with my “social distancing!” 🙂
“Wherever you go becomes a part of you somehow.”
―
¡Pura Vida!