25/7/7

Living in a neighbourhood where many of the people are worried about having enough money to live on puts all my problems into perspective. I keep reminding myself that even my bad days are better than their good ones, in most cases. However, that doesn’t stop me from getting mad or worried when negative things happen. I have had three days in a row here. Nothing serious, but it all started last week. My lawyer in Judas, Julian, found out for sure that I could get my identity card in Puntarenas. This is the last step in my residency. I have had my papers since April 27, 2006, and have missed two meetings that the ARCR had arranged for me, but was waiting for another one. We went to Puntarenas on Thursday and found out that I needed the original residency papers, and the receipt from the bank. After some phone calls to ARCR it was decided that all papers would be ready at the reception in their office in San Jose, at 8 a.m. Tuesday morning.
I decided I would buy the two new tires I needed in Canas on Monday. Saturday, my wipers quit on the highway. Monday, I went to the mechanic in Malinche, but he wasn’t home, so I headed on to Canas to get the tires. On the way, the muffler fell off. I got to Canas okay after wiring up the muffler, and bought my tires at the tire shop. The owner there led me to a muffler shop, where I got that fixed, and that owner led me to a mechanic who fixed my wipers. There is always a good side. The tires were cheaper than Canada, but more than San Jose, or California. The muffler guy did a good job, maybe better than new, for fifty-six dollars. The mechanic figured out why the wipers broke for the second time in a year, fixed the problem, and added a screw to make it more secure, for twenty bucks.
Julian and I headed out for San Jose at 5a.m. Tuesday. When we got there, the papers weren’t ready. Julian went about his business, and I waited 2 ½ hours for the lawyer to get there to give me the papers I needed. I made my way back to Punta Morales without further incident, and other than the waiting, and the trip itself, which I don’t like to make, it wasn’t too bad.
Today, when I took my papers up to Julian to see when we would go into Puntarenas for my card, I started to wonder if I had done the right thing. He didn’t know Linda was going for her residency, or whether my papers covered both, we do need to wait for an appointment in Puntarenas, yesterday I made the trip to San Jose that this was supposed to save, and now Julian has to phone ARCR to find out what’s going on. I took my file from one lawyer, who has been doing well, and works for ARCR who do nothing but immigration stuff, and turned it over to someone who may or may not be able to finish off this process. Julian is trying to be nice. Trying to make this easier and quicker. He isn’t charging me for it. Once again I am hearing people say don’t worry. I am even saying don’t worry, but it doesn’t mean I stop worrying. Anyway, like I said, no life threatening problems, but I’m putting today in the negative column too.