BACK IN HEAVEN

I arrived safe and sound in Boquete on December 1. After all of the doomsday warnings about not being able to travel to Boquete because of the social unrest in regard to a proposed copper mine, it all settled down a few days before my arrival date. There are still some gas, propane and food shortages in town, but it sounds like things are getting back to normal quickly.

Fernando’s son, also Fernando – and just as handsome, picked me up in David without a hitch. We had a pleasant conversation en route to Boquete, filling me in on his and his father’s new construction enterprise. Sounds like business was slightly affected by the inability to get supplies for a while, but he sounded hopeful.

We stopped at Nancy’s to pick up my three plastic tubs of supplies and arrived here at my new place, The Rainbow House, at about 7 pm. It’s a long day. Dan and I left for O’Hare at 3:30 am. So, that’s nearly 15 hours travel. The “worst” is now behind me. I’m so spoiled. I think of how arduous this trip would have been (if possible at all), say even 50 years ago. Now, getting here in one day is a piece of cake.

When I picked up my things at Nancy’s, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Betty had left a bag of groceries for me to get me through the next day or so: milk, eggs, cheese, a bagel, two apples, some roasted potatoes with carrots, and a bottle of wine. How lucky am I? Then, Betty came over last night with a complete dinner of broasted chicken and rice with peas and mushrooms. It is so great to see my Boquete family again. There’s a little bit of an upset going on with them right now, but I know how much they love each other and depend upon one another. Things will soon be back to normal. I believe that there are plans for a holiday party soon.

My room here is perfect. I have no complaints whatsoever. All I hear are the birds singing and an occasional truck vendor driving by, announcing his wares via the truck’s megaphone. Someday I’m going to find out what the heck he is saying. He just rattles something off in a monotone, and then the last two syllables are like music notes – one up and then one down.

Here are a couple shots of my room. So… For some reason (probably bandwidth), my videos are not uploading to YouTube, so I can’t post those right now. I’ll try again in my next post.

This one I’ll try to post by just copying the URL. We’ll see if it works.

Suffice to say right now, I couldn’t be happier. I have a fabulous view, lovely owners (Jerry brought me a homemade pumpkin pudding yesterday), a super-comfortable bed, and plenty of space. I even discovered that the patio, which I thought would be too exposed to the sun, is perfectly shaded by a giant banana tree – the one in the video above. I am in the process of borrowing a table from Nancy, so hopefully I will be out there soon.

I spent the day today at home, inside (mostly), doing calligraphy and getting my 20 pages off to Kathie for our meeting on Friday. I earlier asked if we could put it off for a week, and she said fine, but also that she was okay changing back. As it turned out, I felt ready to start writing yesterday, and told her that I would be ready by Friday after all. So, I spent the majority of my day wording on that. I also did some final rearranging of my kitchen and pantry.

Jerry came this morning to address the lack of hot water in the shower and also the running toilet. He comes immediately when I text him. He said he installed a new, on-demand water heater, and he hasn’t quite figured it out. Turns out the water must be left to run about 3-5 minutes before it gets hot. Something doesn’t sound right to me. I’m sure he’ll figure it out.

He also asked me if I could tend to the plants outside my door. That works for me! So, I have my own little garden.

The final task today is to see if I can get PBS on this television. I brought my Roku box, and this is a Smart TV, so we’ll see how it goes. I had a good laugh a little while ago. Just before I left home, Dan and I bought Mickey a new iPhone 15. That wasn’t the original plan, but I promised that I would get her set up on our Spectrum account before I left, and I couldn’t get an older iPhone to work. Just before I left, I went over and got it set up with her. Part of that was showing her how to use Siri. So, just a few minutes ago, I got a text from her asking, “How do I call Cheri?” I told her she was calling the wrong person, that it was Siri, not Cheri. She figured it out. She always does. That’s how I want to be at 92!!

Just heard a rooster crow! Love that.