Spent a wonderful afternoon yesterday with my friend and fellow bass player Michel Gauthier installing a new neck on my Fender Precision Bass. Sadly, the bass was caught in a flood (as was I) just after my arrival in Costa Rica. The neck warped and the instrument was barely playable.
Happily, I was able to buy a replacement neck through Ebay and have it shipped to friends in the U.S. who brought it here to the rainforest. Thanks Brent, Renee, Hope and Al. I have had the neck for some time but had not got around to the surgery. When Michel told me he had done this before and offered to help - I gladly accepted. Four hands are better than two on this kind of job.
We stripped the original neck of hardware and removed it, then installed the new neck and transferred all the hardware to it. It was a tedious, meticulous operation that took the whole afternoon. But at the end of the day my old '73 Precision was restored and is playable again. This instrument has quite a history and has traveled thousands of miles with me. It fed my family for years. I am glad to have it back. Thanks, Michel.
The snowbirds are leaving the rainforest. They do this every year - back to the U.S., Canada and other destinations. But they'll be back next year. Meanwhile, this community shrinks to a mere shadow of it's former self. Social life is drastically curtailed and the rain visits upon us. The countryside is transformed as the rain paints the hills green and all the flora that have been dormant throughout the dry season are resurrected to restore the lush, green luxurious tropical veneer. This is, in my opinion, the most beautiful time of year here and I look forward to it.
My sister and brother-in-law left today to spend six months in Canada as they do each year. They will return in October.
I have resumed my morning walks after several days during which I have been down with the flu or, as it is known here, grippe. I don't know where I picked it up but it sure put me out of commission for several days. I stayed home so as not to share it with anyone. I got a lot of reading and sleeping done, at least. My energy level has not yet been restored but I am going back to my workout program today......that should help. I am delighted to report that I have lost fourteen pounds since I began.
By the time the snowbirds return, I will be a new man.
Sad day today. When I returned from a 3 pm doctor's appointment, I was flagged down by the neighbour's gardener who was gesturing emphatically to the body of l'il Sally dog. He explained to me that she had been killed by a speeding car. Early this morning we walked the beach and she romped and danced in the surf. Now it's just Gracie and me.
Sally will be missed. She had made herself very popular locally by accompanying me everywhere I went even coming up on stage when I sang at karaoke. I know lots of pictures were snapped us us on stage but I don't have one.
Sally enjoyed a good life. She was abandoned at my house one day when she was really tiny. I took her in and we bonded. I guess Sally would have been five this July. I will miss her terribly. My last command.....Rest in Peace, Sally.
Monday, March 22, 2010
High tide has kept me off the beach for a while. I took to walking the inside roads here in Surfside but it's not the same. I went back to the beach yesterday and again today and walked half of it in spite of the water still being too high. It makes for difficult walking. The sand is soft, the angle of the berm is steep and the waves keep chasing me up the berm to avoid getting my walking shoes wet. So walking half is like doing the whole walk with an 80-lb pack on.
Still, the dogs love it and it is much more interesting than walking through Surfside. Maybe tomorrow will be better.
Got my Honda cuad serviced today. My neighbour on the next street is a motorcycle mechanic. So i dropped the cuad off at 7:30 this morning and he brought it back around noon...perfect. Otherwise I would have to have it transported to Huacas for service.
I have been told for years that here in the rainforest, if you stick something in the ground, it will grow. Well, experience has taught me that this is simply not true. And it's not that I don't have a green thumb...I have been successful growing things in many different places I have lived, except Alaska, where I didn't try.
So, when I dressed (or perhaps undressed) a pineapple, I thought "what harm...... stick it in the ground and see if it grows". I have tried this in the past without success but my neighbours have done it. So I dug a hole in the nutrient-deprived soil in the back yard, plunked in the pineapple top and filled it in. In an attempt to increase my odds, I sprinkled fertilizer around and installed a wire-mesh enclosure to keep it safe from the critters. A week or so later, I repeated the performance with a second pineapple top.
Initially, I watered them a lot to get them going and neither showed signs of imminent death. This was encouraging. However, neither did they show signs of imminent growth. I thought perhaps they thought I was being over-attentive as young pineapples are wont to do so I just ignored them except for the weekly watering I give all the plants.
Imagine my surprise and delight when I discovered that pineapple number two was growing. The photo on the right shows new leaves extending higher than the mesh protective enclosure. This is exciting and I can't wait to see if pineapple number one launches itself into growth mode or if any future pineapple tops I decide to plant reward me in this way.
I have found the secret to using the pizza stone. It removes all the frustration and mess that results when the prepared pizza does not slide neatly off the peel and onto the stone. The secret is parchment paper. In my research on how to use the stone I had come across this suggestion but had never come across parchment paper. I knew what it was but hadn't had any personal experience with it. I called my friend Pat who does a lot of baking to ask if it was available here in the rainforest. Not only is it available but she had an extra roll so she gave me some to try out.
Last night after happy hour and a foiled attempt to go to see my friend Donnie Walsh perform at a local restaurant, I decided to go home and experiment. The foiling was done by my little Sally Dog who surely would not have been permitted entrance to the restaurant where Donnie was playing. When we left Perla's we locked her inside with Perla's Rottweiler, Lizzy. As I was parking at the restaurant, Sally showed up and had evidently done her Houdini thing to get out of Perla's. So it was a no go.
In any event, I had promised Pearla a pizza and my peel-to-pizza stone transfer technique was pretty hit-or-miss. But I had high hopes for the parchment paper. So I took a batch of dough and worked it a little stiffer-than-usual. Then I formed it into a round on the work surface. I placed the parchment paper on the peel, sprinkled it with cornmeal and moved the crust from the work surface to the parchment paper. Then I built my pizza while the stone was pre-heating.
The transfer to the stone was flawless. I was thrilled. The pizza just slid right onto the stone and sat like it grew there. Nothing spilled or dropped. It was awesome. So now I just had to find out how to get the pizza off the parchment paper. That turned out to be as simple as the transfer. Nothing stuck and with two spatulas I was able to lift the pizza onto my cutting board. The pizza was a little larger than the cutting board but I managed to cut it up in any case. As usual it was delicious.
So today I made Perla's pizza. She's a little fussy so I made a pretty basic pizza - tomato sauce, onion, mushroom, pepperoni, tomato and cheese. I just realized I forgot green and red pepper - oh-oh I'm in trouble. It too transferred flawlessly. Now I had to transport it to her bar. I drive a Honda Quad. I had a large pizza pan so I put the pizza in that and covered it with an inverted cookie sheet, sat the works on a pillow and bungeed it to the front rack. I drove slowly up to Perla's for the big moment. She was asleep! So I left the pizza in her kitchen. She'll probably microwave it later and it will go all soggy and lose the beautiful crispy crust the stone delivers. Ah well, it's the thought that counts, right? Perla will be delighted just for the attention it will bring her.
I received a comment on FaceBook today regarding the trouble I was having with the yeast available locally. One of my FB friends had made an excursion to the closest north american style supermarket and gifted me with fresh, new yeast. She dropped it off at the house just before I had to leave for my outside appointment. I am touched and blessed.
On my beachwalk this morning there was a lot of activity. The locals were pulling fish in like crazy and there were "boils" all along the beach to mark the feeding frenzies. Many of the fisherfolk just wait around for these "boils" and upon seeing one run to the location and fling their handlines into the fray. They use artificial silver minnow lures that appear to be highly effective and practically universal.
I saw a small dolphin up on the berm on my way south. I couldn't tell if it was somebody's catch, since the locals just toss all their fish up on the beach, or whether it had died and just washed up there. On the way back I saw a sting ray which had definitely died and was washing around in the surf. The cycle of life in the rainforest.
Today was a good day. The beachwalks are getting easier each day as my conditioning is improving. My workouts are also getting more and more comfortable as I regain my strength and build new muscle. Today I have managed to stick to my meal schedule so I'm giving myself a silver star!
I was expecting to get my permanent, unrestricted residency today. It didn't happen. Immigration wanted me to go to San Jose to have my picture taken and to sign the card or agreement. I just did this at their Liberia office to renew my temporary (ten years) residence. They have my photo and signature on file. I am trying to get the file transferred from San Jose to Liberia. This could take a while the way they do things here. A local artist produced a bumper sticker proclaiming: "Costa Rica- we make easy hard". It has become very popular.
I'm staying home tonight.....maybe make a pizza using my new peel. My friend Joff used to make pizza for sale a while back and he had a peel he wasn't using so he donated it to my cause. I am hopeful it will perform better than the one I made in a hurry with sub-standard materials. We will see a little later on.
I am now a resident of Westminster, Maryland. Originally from Quebec, Canada, for twenty-five years, the province of Newfoundland was home. Most recently, I lived on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica for twelve years. Life was bizarre, fun, and very minimalist on my part. I lived in a little beach house about two minutes' walk from the Ocean.
