11/11/7

Bill and Linda, my friends from Casa Sanfrancisco came by for a visit yesterday. They had emailed earlier to say that they would bring hot dogs over to barbecue. They knew I was staying home weekends to keep an eye on things, and wanted to relieve the boredom, and provide some much needed entertainment. They brought a new American friend, Herb, who is planning to move down to Costa Rica. He is staying with them for a while. Bill started complaining right off the bat. Now, I am used to Bill’s complaining, but it is not normally directed at me. He is getting sick of looking at the same blog entry every time he looks it up. I explained that the last month has not had a lot of positive experiences to relate, and that I have not wanted to relate all the negative things that have happened. All small stuff, insignificant really, in the larger scheme of things, but enough to put me in a generally bad mood. He let it go, and we had a great afternoon visiting, eating, drinking, and telling jokes and other lies.
This morning I got an email from Bill. I think he went to the Tough Love school. He gave me proper heck, told me to snap out of it, and write something positive. He said again that I shouldn’t expect things to be perfect, and shouldn’t let things get me down. Things aren’t perfect in the U.S. or Canada either, and it feels a lot better to look on the bright side.
Well, we are in the transition month. October was the wettest month I have seen since I got here. For the first time, I almost ran out of clothes. Almost every day had been sunny enough to at least dry one load of laundry, but in October we had almost two weeks of practically steady rain. Now, we are back to mostly sunny days, with mostly rainy nights, but not every night. Next month will see the end of the rain, humidity and most of the insects. More days are breezy, or even windy, and come December we will again be blessed with pretty much constant air movement that keeps the weather comfortable, even though the temperature will go up by five degrees C.
The house is almost done. I hope it will be completely finished when Linda gets back on the 26th of this month. It will cost more than they said, but that is no surprise, and not a big deal, as they came in at a very low price, and the end price should still be good. My main paranoia was that they would not finish. I now believe that will not be a problem. They would be silly to walk away with so little work left to do, and there are a couple of other people down here now who would like Carlos to build something for them, so it will also be good advertising if he finishes it. They have done a wonderful job. Very strong, with many features we did not think to include. People say it is a beautiful house. The colour scheme, outside and in, looks wonderful, they say. I put this in the third person because I have no idea why one colour goes with another colour, or why it might not. Carlos says that the paint and tile selection in all the rooms is wonderful, and repeatedly compliments Linda on her good taste. From the beginning, we wanted them to fill the holes where the fascia meets the corrugated roof. When it was all together, the holes were still there. I mentioned this to Jose, and he didn’t know what I meant, even when I had a stick and actually touched the fascia. When he finally understood, he talked to Carlos about it. Neither of them had any idea about filling those holes, because no-one here does. Spray Decis up there twice a year and it kills anything that might have decided to live there. Once he understood what we meant, we went and bought spray foam, and he filled up all the holes. He thinks it is a great idea, and will incorporate it in future homes. He figures it will not only keep the bugs and bats out, but will stop the humidity in the eaves troughs from going into the attic, and further reduce any problems that could cause.
My residency is still not complete, and I would like to repeat a few warnings. Get an IMMIGRATION lawyer. I heartily reccommend the Association of Residents of Costa Rica, and be patient. Everything to do with any government takes longer than you would think.
Don’t be in a hurry to form a corporation. You will probably have a few reasons for wanting one, but they come with obligations. No use buying books, holding meetings, hiring bookkeepers, if you are not ready to do anything else. I want to put the houses and car into my corporation, but the title still isn’t established on the property, and I don’t want a cell phone. Make sure you are ready to use the corporation before you apply. It doesn’t take that long to get one. It is a fairly easy and fast process if you have a good lawyer.
Be careful! Protect yourself, and your house. A few precautions go a long way to avoiding problems. The crimes here are usually crimes of opportunity. Don’t give anyone the opportunity to do something easily, and they probably won’t do it. I understand that my old friendly home town of Toronto is not exactly safe any more either.
I still haven’t learned to downsize the pictures the way I have been told. I understand they take a long time to download, but I will try to include a picture of the house, now that it is almost done. Maybe this will be the start of more regular entries, and I hope it is the beginning of a more positive period of my time here.