The Horsemen go for Curry

Curious tree in bloom now: Rondeletia aspera(RUBIAC)-Panama Rose. You can get more fotos at Manuel and Yami's site: www.elmundoforestal.com

The Horsemen are meeting at Taj Mahal today for curry. That usually means a long boozy affair, which continues on to another pub or out for cards & rutting down at the Del Rey. Today, only 3 of the Horsemen meet at the restaurant, and then the party continues over at the home of Pestilence. I will call Marj occasionally throughout the day to keep tabs on when I can expect Famine home.
By the time you read this, the party will hopefully be over.

On the way out today, GRAK came across our green Jeep at ‘Lubricantes Willy.’ No kidding. You can’t make this stuff up. The greasy gringo working there told him that Janet dropped off the car to fix a low tire. The gringo moved here 42 years ago from California and now works for a local car mechanic. We never knew he existed until today; lots of people like that live all over the landscape here.
I’m staying back at Tigre today, as usual, to deal with tons of issues. For one, the tempered glass for the shower door broke yesterday during installation. One step forward, two steps back.
We’re still waiting for our tempered glass front door that some guy destroyed at our flat in New Orleans. That was 4 a.m. Halloween night. We know because some other merry-maker filmed the whole thing on his cellular phone. Then he went home and crashed and forgot about the whole thing until weeks later. Police now have a copy of the phone-film but the culprits will never get caught, and meanwhile we’re still waiting for the replacement door. Cest la vie in the Vieux Carre. We still love that town!
Wonder how long it will take for the replacement here in Costa Rica?
Okay - the March 14th construction deadline does not include the tempered glass or granite…

GRAK has taken a sudden interest in security. In a prior life, we lived more in a state of Yellow-Alert and even learned advanced driving and counter-surveillance measures. We had such fun bashing cars and shooting paint-balls. GRAK is a sharpshooter, but I’m not bad now that I’ve started using my right hand! Turns out I do some things better with my right hand, even though I’m left-handed. At our last training session, the firearms/security expert said that I was great shot! Not GRAK, but not bad!
Gerry wants the guy to come back in February for another training session. Saturday for the employees and Sunday for us gals! I don’t want to compete in target practice with the employees. No reason to make them feel bad. Hugo was such a lousy shot that GRAK won’t let him near a firearm now. We’re trying to do everything legally and with the proper permits. That’s turned into a part-time job for GRAK, collecting documents to schlep off once again to the ‘Oficina de Armas y Explosivos’ in Zapote, and hoping that this time they don’t send him off again to the ‘Departamento de Armamentos’ in Coronado. He always returns home in a foul temper after one of those days dealing with the Tico firearms bureaucracy.
We train with firearms here at El Tigre so that we can defend ourselves in the event of that necessity.

We don’t hunt here – In fact, the only animal I’ve ever seen GRAK kill was a rabid raccoon in PA. He fired one shot to the head at 150 meters or so and the raccoon died.
Nor do we allow hunters to invade the forest. If we hear dogs and hunters, we go find them and ask them to leave. If we hear a lot of shooting, we call MINAE to help us get them out. As word has gotten out, we rarely have to deal with hunters now. We would actually like a larger corridor to bring in more wildlife and genetic biodiversity, but at least our remnant appears to be in balance. We see animal tracks near the streams and near trees where they feed on fallen fruit. Armando can identify animals by the tracks they leave behind.

This morning, while hiking with Flopsy, we came across a coral snake squiggling away from us across the trail and down into the forest. They are such timid little things - venomous, yes - but they have such a little mouth and so shy. One time, Wendy Brady and I came across what we thought was a dead Coral snake. We poked it with a stick and it squiggled away.
Anyway, while down in the forest this morning, I noticed once again that the trails are all squeaky clean this season. All the leaves have been swept away and the trails are almost too tidy. I noticed it first when I started walking alone with just the dogs. Armando still accompanies me on all the long hikes down to the waterfalls but, now that I’ve learned the ropes, I can manage the charral and secondary trails quite well on my own. Either Gerald told him to look after his daft, klutzy wife or Armando took the initiative.
Time seems to expand down in the forest. What feels like hours might only take minutes. That’s why I’m often late for breakfast – the minutes do add up. Mountain hiking feels like doing Taiji and Pilates alignments all day long. Now I understand what Elliott said. BTW, Elliott, heard about your awesome gig at the beach with the guy from the Grateful Dead. Did you upload everything to YouTube?

Patricia comes over tomorrow for a Taijiquan session. She’s good for the ego. Whenever I think I’m training pretty well, she comes over and puts me in my place. I’m trying to convince her to learn Mandarin with me and maybe then we can train in Beijing with Fan, if he accepts us as students. He will definitely accept Patricia – she’s got 25 years of experience over me and is a natural at the martial arts - trains with Zhang in SanFran! What do you say, Patricia? Want to go to Beijing?

Thanks for writing, G. You were my first real friend at an age when I was still carving out roles and identities, like dresses in a boutique…
…actress …chemist…writer…botanist…dancer... you could see me through all the roles. And in that frenetic whirl of adolescence, girls running in packs, you were a major settling influence. Please give your family a big hug from a grateful childhood friend.
P. Thanks for helping me stay with the Work, despite major second force, GRAK-force.