Hasta luego. . .

Time for another break. We're going to meet Ma and Pa Eidson in the States to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.

We're heading to the land of 'Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil' where we will hopefully stumble across some haunts, more good than evil.

We'll be back at the end of August and will start posting around that time again for the other loyal reader (that won't be in the south at the same time as the art and editorial department).

No pics, but really cool. . .

The other day, we were all eating lunch at the house/office, when Mini-B started to go bonkers. Not unusual for Mini, though we spotted a reason for her nuttiness.

There were some baby armadillos feeding across from the house across the driveway. There were five of them and they were foraging and scrumming around in the leaves and detritus to the side of the driveway.

The little buggers are very cute, and blind, so we could get up to a few feet from them while they were digging about.

As long as we can keep the baby-armadillo-killer Mini-B in check, they will have a better chance of survival and get up to 10-plus pounds in a year or so.

Then Rolando can catch them by their tails and wow the guests.

The price is right. . .

For Bejuca and Mini-B, at about $200.00 for the two of them for the doping up, cleaning, removal of tumors (Bejuca) and grooming--clipping of nails, making them smell like a baby advertisement.

No root canals, but not a bad price at all. The vet is a young fellow that we found in Florencia about a year ago and Bejuca and Mini-B were some of his first patients, so they get a little bit of extra attention, which isn't too bad.

Happy Mother's Day!!!

While the editorial department is notoriously slow in good tidings, that is not the case this time. Today is Mother's Day in Costa Rica.

It is a big deal in the States and it is a huge deal in Costa Rica. Banks are closed, hardware stores are closed; if it doesn't have anything to do with tourism, it's closed today.

So, happy Dia del Madre to Patricia and Maria and all of the other madres out there.

Bejuca came through just fine. . .

Though hauling a doped-up, 70-pound lab/rottweiler out of the back of a car is a chore.

She came through with flying colors and the vet even noted that she has lost about 3 pounds since her last visit.

That meant time for Mini-B to head out. Mini-B definitely has anxiety issues, in not wanting to be away from Lucy for too long.

However, Mini came through just fine (not nearly as rummy as Bejuca--though no tumors removed, just teeth cleaning and nail clipping).

While the editorial dept.

Has been whining about its dental woes, the pooches here (Bejuca and Mini-B) have undergone their own teeth cleaning.

We had to take Bejuca in as we thought she had a bot-fly (just a small growth on her paw) and while she was there, we decided to have her teeth cleaned, her nails clipped and her coat shaved.

She came back looking like Brittney Spears after a rehab stint: Clean and looking lean.

Fortunately, the tumors were just growths, nothing serious.

We decided that since Bejuca sailed through, it was time for Mini-B.

Doesn't get cooler than this. . .

And I'm sure that the three loyal readers are tired of the editorial department's whining about some teeth.

This is a real picture, taken by one of the owners. No idea of how you can do it to get the fore- and background in focus like that, but it's pretty cool.

There are a couple of others like this that we'll put up later on .

Paying for the pain. . .

And, when everything was said and done, and I was dribbling at just a slightly slower rate than the doc's 6-year-old with his juice box, I got the news of the bill.

For each root canal, it was 110,000. That means 220,000.

Colones.

Out of pocket (no dental insurance here).


That's for the whole process, including the follow-up to do whatever they do for root canals. It comes to $440.00 for the entire shooting/drilling match, including the follow-up.

For the follow-up, it took a while to schedule it as the doc is booked ahead of time and the editorial department needs a quiet day at the hotel to get away.

Finally, it was settled for two weeks later at 5 p.m. -- when the "Big Bang Theory" is on the flat screen embedded into the ceiling of the office.

The lot has been cast. . .

And there was no real reason to back out at that point.

I did ask the doc how much it was going to hurt (and in between him admonishing his 6-year-old son who was bouncing around in the room with us to keep somewhat quiet) he said he could have everything done in 45 minutes.

However, I would need to return in two to four weeks time for him to finish off the process.

Not wanting to bail out in front of a 6-year-old, I submitted and let the work begin.

The bonus was that there is a flat-screen TV hooked up to the ceiling where I could watch. And, the assistant was like a personal remote control, asking what I wanted to watch.

Really.

They didn't get the NFL Network on the cable system, so she kept flipping through while I was numbing up until there was something in English that I could zone out to (Two and a Half Men).

At the office and in the chair. . .

 

Which cleared a lot of hurdles for the dentist-ically challenged editorial department.

Fortunately, the specialist was a young fellow who spoke better English than my Spanish (thus alleviating any fears of having everything pulled out). However, he did say that he cannot spell all that great. No worries, I thought, we're not writing a novel.

After we talked and he took some X-rays, and I explained to him that my dentist said I needed a root canal, he concurred.

Doc: "Yes, you need a root canal here."

Editorial: "OK, great, let's get it over with."

Doc: "You also need a root canal here."

Editorial: "Uh, so I need two root canals?"

Doc: "Yes, I will draw it for you."

Which he proceeded to do and though he flubbed the spelling of what he was doing, it was clear that I was in for a double drilling.

Rainy season. . .

Last year was a bit of a dry spell for the "green" season here. There wasn't as much rain and certainly no torrential downpours.

This year has been different. The rains are back with a vengeance and enough to cause all of the gutters and ditches here to overflow.

Naturally, it's accompanied by thunder and lightning (the thunder booms so big it sends Bejuca and Mini-B scurrying for cover) and it actually knocks clocks and paintings off the walls.

The other day, the rain came down so hard, and so fast, that it took out three houses in La Tigra (about 8 miles away). Fortunately, no one was hurt.

However, the deluge also took out the water mains for the whole area (carried away in the flood, who knows where they will wash up).

Hence, no water at the hotel (save for our little tank) so everyone gets to do a sponge bath for a day until the pipes can either be found or new ones can be brought in.

It doesn't just affect us, but several hundred folks up and down the aqueduct's route.

Delaying the inevitable. . .

At last, there were no more excuses and there was some down time at the hotel, so off I went to get my first root canal.

As a young buck, I had all but two of my baby teeth pulled by Dr. Roth, a very nice kid's dentist (though at the time, I thought he was a sadistic little man) as the roots of my teeth were deeper than the norm.

Hence the fear of a root canal.

"No necessito preoccupado," said my regular dentist.

"Todo bien, no hay problema," said the assistant.

"Suck it up, buttercup," said the art department.

A bit of a break. . .

This is actually somewhat of a decent excuse.

The editorial department had been putting it off for about a year, but it was finally time for a root canal. The local dentist that we go to had been harping for me to get it done.

Naturally, being a big-time wuss, I put it off as being too busy, heading out on vacation, etc.

What helped was that only specialists in Costa Rica do root canals, not your regular dentist. There's only one such specialist in this part of the country and he's booked up quite a bit ahead of time.

However, finally, ultimately, the time came and it was time to get it done.