The last few weeks were quite a contradiction in high activity and slumpiness. There was an excursion to San José, we booked our tickets for the trip back to France in November, attended a vernissage for the new Painters Association of Atenas and much more. On the other hand, there were lots of back problems, for both of us, culminating in a prescription for a generic form of Lyrica for me, cooked in some witches cauldron somewhere in Uruguay, or maybe Guatemala. I started taking the first dose three nights ago and it really throws you for a loop of dopiness. My doctora wants me to ease into the treatment and allow my body to get used to the meds messing with my brain, so I’m taking only a single dose in the evening for the first week, which also makes the ensuing dizzy- and ditziness less noticeable. Except, yesterday I accidentally took the evening dose in the morning. There I was in my kitchen executing my coffee brewing ritual when some evil entity kept whispering ‘mustn’t forget the pill, it has to be taken in 12 hrs intervals’, so I swallowed the darn thing. Within the hour a mellow fog pervaded my being, explaining the true meaning of Pura Vida to me. I didn’t dare do my usual laps in the pool, for fear of falling asleep in mid-stroke. But we did stick to our program of driving to Escazu and buying a new phone for the house and treating ourselves to a special lunch there. It went amazingly well, I think. I hope. Fortunately, I was tethered to my walking stick. It’s a beautiful stick, carved from local wood and the handle is fashioned in the shape of a crocodile snout, like this one in Zoo Ave in La Garita.

So far I haven’t been able to learn much about the logistics of this hosting site, which, predictably, drives me crazy. I can’t even get the post layout to follow my desires and commands. As I’ll still need more time to learn my way around my own blog. I’ve imported posts from the original ‘Not in a Straight Line’ blog, to give you something to read and look at, while I wrangle this new stuff into submission. For now, I leave you with another reptile, a much smaller, juvenile Black Iguana, one of many around our garden.