February 2, 2025

I went for a hike recently on the Pipeline Trail. It’s one of my favorite hikes.

Sheree is from Texas. She’s going back soon to sell her house and then will move here.

I also walked with Yahaira Samudio on Tuesday in Library Park in town. This park is such a beautiful addition to the town center. Yahaira was the cleaning lady at the Glass Orchid House where I lived a couple of years ago. We were talking about how long I would continue to come to Boquete for the winter. She said I should still come when I’m 100, and she’ll be my nurse. 🙂 Doesn’s it look like my wedding ring is on my right hand?

I attended a party last night at Lesley and Don’s. I met new people Debe and Rodney Emerson and Louise and Gordon (last name?). Debe and Rodney are from Seattle (I think), and Louise and Gordon are from Prince Edward Island. That’s a place I’ve always wanted to visit – now that’s more likely. They are renting a little apartment here in the neighborhood. It’s certainly not as nice as this place, but I may consider it for next year. There are four apartments there, and two are vacant. The owner is a Panamanian woman who lives in David. She comes on Saturdays to work in the garden. I’ll likely meet her soon. Louise said that they pay $700. So, we’ll see.

I got home from the party at about 9:30. I logged on to our Bidding Owl website to see how things looked for our church auction, which started the next morning. Before I left for the party, I left a message for customer support and asked them to please group together some woodworking classes that had become separated, and I couldn’t figure out how to get them back together. When I logged on, what I saw made my heart skip a beat. ALL of the items were scattered and out of order, and no one from customer support was answering my emails because they were shut down for the weekend.

Saturday morning I got up early to check the site, still a mess. I waited as long as I could and finally called the “emergency” number. A groggy German voice answered. I apologized for waking her up but explained that our auction had already started, and things were scattered on the website. It went downhill from there. She said what I had asked for was done. I explained that it wasn’t. She then finally logged onto our site and saw for herself. Then, she commenced to blame me. She said I was overthinking it. What?! Then she said if I leave all the items together, the bidders will get bored. What?! It was a real test of my ability to not react and rip her a new one – which I usually do. She must have been the owner because I can’t imagine a customer service representative talking like this to a customer. She eventually said it was not that easy to fix and she had to trick the system and would get back to me.

When I checked an hour or so later, things looked much better. There were just a few things out of whack. I texted her about these things, and she said she’d do it later, she had to run errands. By about 4 o’clock that afternoon, I was so relieved that it was looking okay. No one from church complained, so we’re good. Hope I never have to deal with her again. Plus, I updated my notes to hopefully avoid a repeat next year.

Steffen just stopped over to pick up a SCOBY. He’s begun making kombucha. He didn’t trust his first batch because he said he didn’t think making his own SCOBY worked. So, I gave him a couple of mine. Hope it turns out for him.

I also showed Holly (my neighbor) how to make yogurt in the Instant Pot. I asked her about it at the party, and she said it was so delicious that she ate too much of it, and now she couldn’t eat any of the food at the party. It is a great way to make yogurt.

Today I made a big pot of soup in the Instant Pot and took some over to Nancy. I was so happy to see her looking so well at the party. We all thought she was on her way out, but she was determined to get rid of the catheter and start walking, and indeed she has. She is a strong woman.

So, I botched another calligraphy exemplar today. It had two mistakes. I have three more pieces of paper, so fingers crossed.

I was feeling really awful last week. I was getting upset with all the news about what Trump and Musk are up to. I was brought to tears at one point during a conversation and realized that I had to sop this engagement. I searched my psyche asking why I was doing this. What I came up with is that I, like many like-minded people, was feeling responsible, like I SHOULD be doing SOMETHING. But I know there is nothing I can do. Instead, I have gotten off social media and read only Heather Cox Richardson’s newsletter in the morning. I am also heeding the words of Yuval Noah Harari who recommends joining a group. I was working for the WisDems before the election, and I will return to them to volunteer.

I even downloaded an app called Notes, created by James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits. The app guides you to start a new/healthy habit or break an old/unhealthy one. I feel better already. It’s a scary time for sure, but I know that my first responsibility is to myself and my mental health.

Time to do some Zentangle while listening to this great YouTube video of waltz music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXsZru0mzbY&t=6628s