14 December 2006, a trying Thursday

Very trying.  As in Tom Paine's trying times.  Our attempt to get Tony an American passport struck out.  End of that story.

The trip began inauspiciously, with Tony turning out to be car-sick about half-way to San Ramon.  He hasn't ridden in a car as much as the average North American kid would, of course, and that stretch of road between La Fortuna and the outskirts of San Ramon is one of the worst...even the curves have curves in them and the level stretches are few and far between. 

I have to give some praise to the US embassy this time.  We arrived later than I had planned, naturally, so either the lines had thinned out from the morning crush or else we had picked a slower day, I don't know.  We ended up not waiting in any particularly-long lines, everybody was cheerful and helpful, and in particular the last young consular assistant, who understood our problem and was sympathetic but there wasn't anything to be done about it.  His name was Steven R. Bitner and he was from Midvale, Utah, a town I once knew and loved quite well, although he did not recognize the name of my former father-in-law...well, and what can I expect after half a century?  At least he spoke my kind of "standard English" and I thought understood our predicament better than most have.

What's left now is to get Tony his Costa Rica passport and then apply for Tony's tourist visa.  Bitner indicated we might be able to get one we only had to renew every 10 years and was good for 6 months a year in the US.  Also, if we ever decided to move back to the US for any length of time we could apply for his residence visa and a green card, and then after 5 years he could apply for US citizenship. 

So we hit a rock but the ship she ain't down yet.

Almost.  On the way home the rental car hit a rock and after about a mile started making noises I didn't like.  Since this is the EXACT scenario that landed our car in the repair shop (where it still languishes) because I did NOT immediately stop, this time I did.  We popped the hood and looked inside, looked underneath, didn't find anything dripping, but when I put the car into reverse, in particular, the grinding noise didn't sound good.

We were in a semi-rural area, which means that there were a number of houses scattered along the road and a small village nearby, about half-an-hour away from home, and fortunately in an area of at least spotty cell-phone range.  Enough to call the car agency and let them know the situation, they promised to send a replacement car as soon as they could (about an hour and a half, in the end, not bad all things considered).  So we sat in the car and waited.

People walked by and glanced at us curiously, and finally an older man (84, he said) walked across to tell us he was on his way "to town" and it was just down the hill, the car could probably coast to someplace it could be worked on.  He wanted to chat before he walked on...his wife had died and he lived alone in the house on the other side of the road, as plain-Jane a simple clapboard no-glass-in-the-windows Costa Rica house as you can possibly imagine, It was weather-worn and painted a uniform dull green.  The yard was overgrown, the fence and gate barely hanging in there, no steps up the dirt bank from the road to his house, which must have been 20-feet higher.

On his front door was a plain, unadorned, green Christmas wreath.

The young mother in the house in front of which we had pulled to the side of the road kept standing in the doorway and watching us from time to time.  Finally, after about an hour had gone by, she came over to ask if any of us needed a drink or water or maybe to use her bathroom?  Carol and Tony went, I elected to stay with the car.  Carol says the visit with the woman made her day,

Some days, they say, are diamond, some days are stone. 

Some days maybe we're supposed to crack open the stone?

Now the question before the rather tired house is do we take our documents and head for Ciudad Quesada tomorrow and round two?  It's either tomorrow or after the first of the year...Costa Rica's official departments disappear for the last two weeks.  ...  And the answer, delivered by phone as soon as I finished typing that line was: no.  I have forms I have to file and pay here in La Fortuna tomorrow morning, plus the car rental problem to straighten out...everything else goes on hold until next year.

Tony was a very good boy all throughout his big day today, a real trouper.  Even throwing up while car-sick produced not so much as a complaint or a cry out of him!  He was wide-eyed, interested, very cool and collected throughout it all.  We stopped for lunch at a chicken place right across from the international airport and he got to watch several big jets take off...now that finally caught his attention enough to make him blow his cool.

He hit the sack right on the bedtime nose tonight with little argument.  I'm trying to do the same but first I have to come down...even when tiring, driving on Costa Rican roads after dark in the rain builds up the adrenaline level, and late-night phone calls from your lawyer reminding you of forms you must file the next day doesn't lessen it any. 

How can I distract myself?  There's the New York Times...

I shouldn't even joke about this, and wouldn't if the guy's condition did not actually appear to indicate a full recovery, but didn't I hear Senator Reid say somewhere that a brain was not a requirement for a Democrat Senator?

And why should I feel bad about making a joke...the Democrats rushed not to worry about poor Johnson but to declare that their narrow majority would not be imperiled.

I only hope they are not counting too heavily on Lieberman.

What can he be talking about?  All I've read recently is how great is Kofi Annan!

And the Times says the White House (meaning Bush) is upset that some Senators are visiting Syria on their own, although I cannot imagine why.  How can he improve on this?

I think that's just classic, diplomatic virtuosity in action, but Kerry tries to top it:

So Kerry has been there before, along with Mr Nelson, asking tough questions while telling Mr Assad what to do, or not do, and letting him know he isn't trustworthy, anyhow...and, Kerry says we're still in a mess that would have been avoided if tough questions had been asked?

Next thing you know we'll probably be hearing from Jimmy Carter telling us how HE would have solved these problems if he'd only had the chance.  Oh, wait...

So now we know where he's been going in the past, at least.

I say let them go.  Let them talk to those foreign leaders.  Let them cut deals with them.  Let them come back and tell the American people about their heroic deeds.  Let them accuse the president of unconstitutional behavior...

More rope, more rope needed over here.

Has the Washington Post discovered something or merely revealed it?

What, Bush and his buddies at Big Oil don't set gas prices?