Holes in the head. Sometimes that is my problem. I put an email aside until I can give it proper attention, it gets pushed down below other incoming emails and I never get back to it. I totally overlook a blog comment. I forget to return a phone call. Things just leak out of the holes in my head. I used to be super organized because I had to be but now that life is more relaxed, sometimes I get too relaxed.  Apologies to anyone I unintentionally ignored, and if it happens to you please poke me and remind me that you are waiting to hear from me.

That’s all I have on my mind today. Other than that, life is pretty normal el bario (the neighborhood). Well maybe not totally normal. There was a whole lot of noise this morning. The teak guys were sawing and loading wood. I haven’t seen them again since the truck left though and I have a feeling they are done. The guys across the street are adding a new room so they were banging around. Our other neighbor got a delivery of materials for his work. The yard guy was next door with his weed whacker. About the time I figured there was not going to be any more sleeping, our realtor showed up to collect the rent.

One of our banana trees has had bananas on it for quite a while, so we decided to harvest them a couple days ago. They are still green. I heard you can use green bananas like green plantains so I tried to make patacones out of one that got damaged in the fall. It didn’t smash well into the little pancake like things but it tasted good, a lot like a potato so it is now in the chicken soup.

Man a machete attack the tree

Man and bananas!

My Facebook friends have already seen these photos so excuse the repeats.

I have three plantain trees in the front yard. I used to have two but we had a tree fall last year and it smashed one of them. The roots put up two pups though, and that is why I now have three. The bigger one now has a flower!

Bananas and plantains make the most interesting strange flowers! Our veggie guy told me it should be about two months to plantains now. I will keep an eye on it as things progress.

Yes, our veggie guy came by today. Enrique gets up at 4AM, goes up to Cerro Punta and who knows where all else to get his fruits and vegetables, and then drives around town selling them out of his truck. We look forward to his visit every week because he has the best fresh produce. And, he’s a heck of a nice guy.

This afternoon the thunderstorms came through and really cooled things down! For us, this is quite cool and sent me looking for my long pants. Joel took it as an excuse to make hot chocolate. It poured like crazy for a while but finally settled down, and by dark it had quit (dark here is around 6:30. We are so close to the equator that the length of the days hardly varies throughout the year). Now at 10:30 it’s 73, a nice temperature for sleeping.

After the rain, my neighbor came over. She has been required to take English classes at the university (she is getting the credentials she needs to be the boss of all the special ed teachers!). I have been helping her which means explaining things in Spanish which helps me too. She is very smart and learns a lot faster than I do. I explain something one day and the next day she’s got it. I need things repeated multiple times over many days, and if I don’t use it in a month it’s gone again.

That’s quite a lot for someone who started off with nothing much to say! 😀 It’s late now though and time to wrap things up. So, along with a quick shopping trip, some yard work, computer time, and a few chores that’s what has been going on around here.