Fall, 2010

It is that time again, to hug the grandkids goodbye, and migrate with the birds for the winter.

We will fly from Grand Rapids, Michigan, on November 13 and stop in Durango, Colorado for a week at Mesa Verde Nat'l Park and Grand Canyon with Tim (hijo numero dos) and his new bride Katy (both Federal Law Enforcement Park Rangers who met at Yellowstone NP)
From there we fly to SJO and ... our plans, so far, ...

We hope that the laptop will connect with a satellite and we may have access to the internet from the house on the hill.
We have invited many people to visit, but in the words of a priest-friend "Many are cold, but few are frozen"

From Summer - 2010

It has been a fun summer. A friend has allowed me to use his Honda Twinstar CM200T motorcycle, and my first experience at riding involved over 4000 miles of open road in SW Lower Michigan, from Traverse City south.

From Soilless Gardening

Late summer involved the Hastings Farmers Market and the opportunity to meet many people who share my interests in vermiculture and the potential of soilless gardening to feed the world.

Outrageous!

Thanks to another "expatriot" (a person who lives in another country than where they are a citizen) I learned that the government of the USA has renewed an agreement with the government of Costa Rica that originally allowed the U.S.Coast Guard (Treasury Department + ATF + DEA) to pursue suspected drug trafficers into the waters of Costa Rica.

There has been a change in this agreement that is hardly a minor adjustment.

Until 31 December 2010, the USA has gained permission to also station 46 fully-armed ships of the U.S.Navy (Department of "Defense" + Navy Department + Pentagon) including submarines, helicopters, and (hold your breath!) seven thousand (7000) fully-armed U.S.Marines and all the equipment it takes to invade a foreign country (trucks, and armored vehicles) ... in a country that has no standing military forces to defend itself.

Most disturbing to me is the lack of interest by the news media of the USA, in spite of highly vocal resistance in Costa Rica by people who oppose this military intervention.

A case may be made that the agreement was made between the Presidente of Costa Rica (Laura Chinchilla) and the Ambassador of the USA (Anne ...) but any thinking person has to ask how a country as small and vulnerable as Costa Rica can refuse to allow a huge military force from the Collossus of the North permission to take over its sovereign territory.

Visitors to San Jose should expect to see groups of armed U.S.Marines strolling the streets of what used to be a peaceful nation.

I am often asked if I feel safe living in a "foreign country". I will have to answer, "Well, I used to feel a lot safer!".

We're back!

We returned to the USA at midnight May 4. It was a busy time and much was done in spite of a determined effort to be retired.



We agreed to invest the proceeds of my book sales in the local community in the form of labor dollars for two brothers who walked over twice a week from the next hill.