One more sleep

My flight leaves the San Jose C.R. airport tomorrow at 8:20 a.m. and I arrive in Phx at 7:00 p.m., 12 hours later once time zones are taken into consideration. A long day, but because it ends at mi casa it will all be good. I'm taking about three pounds of good C.R. coffee home with me which is something like black gold.

This morning's sermon was my last official ministry function here. The people were, as ever, welcoming before, attentive during, and gracious afterward. It's so frustrating not knowing Spanish. My vocabulary of words and phrases is up about 1000% and I can read a surprising number of business signs, but what I really want to do is communicate directly with them without the tedium of a translator. As good as Alonso is (and he does a remarkable job) it still feels herky-jerky.

Some misc. pics...

My hosts, Juan and Laurie, have several dogs including the most gentle Golden Retriever. But the character of the group is this Bulldog. How can you look at this face and not think of Winston Churchill? If you give her the least bit of attention - glance her direction - she'll roll over on her back with her stubby legs sticking straight up waiting for you to scratch her belly.

Here's a couple more pics of the beach in Viveves I took because the one looked so much like it could be the Oregon coast. Looks are deceiving, though, when you're here to feel the heat and humidity. (The one with the palm trees is pretty obviously from the tropics.)

I think it was Wednesday that Juan took me to the club to show me around. Tennis, squash, soccer, weight room..... From there we went to a huge area owned by his cousin with a cement block plant in full operation. C.R. has very strict rules about cutting down trees and is the only country in the world where forested acreage is on the increase, so they make all their buildings out of cement block. I discovered while teaching one night that they have no word here for stud (the kind in the wall, not the guy up in front teaching them). Nothing here is built with 2x4's. Want to make a small fortune? Make cement blocks.

Alongside that plant is a ranch where his cousin raises award winning horses and cattle. I saw some really big Brahman bulls and a herd of young Brahman out in a field cavorting like children turned loose at recess. Cool.

In other news, my laptop is dying. This MacBook Pro is about seven or eight years old and is on its second battery. I learned when the first one failed that it's located right under the touch pad and that as they start to go bad the swell making that touch pad unresponsive. Yep, it's happened again, with the "click" function gone except for a small area in one corner. I could take it in and have the battery replaced again, but it also needs a memory upgrade (2 gig now, should have 8) and a new power cord. Half the keyboard letters are just a blob of white light because the letter and it's surrounding black area are completely worn off. So, should I replace the battery and make the other repairs - probably about $500 - or double that and get a new one? It would be at the lower end of Mac's product line (I'm Scottish) but would be a serious performance upgrade over this one. Pam and I will talk about it when I get home.

In about an hour Alonso will come get me and take me back to their house where we'll visit and have a light supper. Then I'm taking them all to a yogurt shop that I learned last week is a favorite of the kids. (They don't know we're going.) Then back here for that last sleep.
Mui bueno!