I´m Still Alive

Tuesday and Wednesday were not good days, and I did not want to even TRY to communicate with anyone. I did not get to leave the house and I was - grumpy, to say the least.

Today, however, I drove down to David by myself and spent about 4-5 hours shopping. Not that there was anything in the super-gigantic class of shopping sites, that I could find. But there were places to shop.

I went to the mall first. It is called Mall de Chiriqui and is on the PanAmerican Highway in David. It is a cross between a strip center and a north American mall. No mega-stores. And for that matter, most of the store in the mall were closed at 10:30AM. I have no idea why. The grocery store at one end of the mall was open, and I took advantage of that to prowl around and figure out what is what in Spanish. I found Vanilla extract (artificial, admittedly) by the GALLON! In a regular grocery store. ¿Wonder why? On the other hand, solid shortening (Crisco) is only available in pound cans.

One store that was open is a bookstore, "El Hombre de la Mancha". There were murals of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza on the walls. Fun. I found the Harry Potter series there - at twice the price in the States. And I found a tourists' guide to Cuba, as well as Fidel Castro´s autobiography. I almost bought the tour guide, but didn´t. I bought an English-Spanish dictionary instead. A big thick one.

Then I drove to Cochez, which is a Home Depot type store. I picked up another outlet cover for the kitchen, and some other stuff, including some reflective tape that Bob and I are going to sneak up on the back of one of the signs at the end of our road so we can recognize it at night. Even though we are quite close to "downtown" Boquete, it is still very rural, and we often miss our turn-off.

Then I went to the¨"Do-It Center", another Home Depot-Lowes typs store that also carries kitchen and bath items, bedding, and such like. I spent a fair amount there, but I got a doormat, shelf liner, organizer trays, dust mop, and a bunch of other stuff.

Last I went to Lumicentro, which is a lighting center. I wandered around in front of the sconces for a very long time, trying to find a pair of sconces to replace the fugly ones in the entry. I FINALLY made my choice, only to discover that there was only one in stock. So I took my second choice (a VERY close second), and headed over to TGI Friday´s for a slightly late lunch. After lunch I discovered the receipt for a chandelier we´d ordered for the breakfast nook to replace ANOTHER fugly light. So back I went to Lumicentro where I picked up the chandelier, and then headed home.

It was a mostly successful day. I bought almost everything on my list (and a couple extra things). After I got home, Bob installed the sconces, and they look wonderful. WAY better than the ones that were there.

We came to Boquete for dinner where I had Chilean salmon - YUMMMMMMMMMMMM.
And here I am.

I miss everyone dreadfully, but I am trying to stay busy and positive. We should have cable by tomorrow night, and then I´ll be posting pictures like crazy.

It is the rainy season: a shower nearly every day, and a frog-strangler nearly every week.
Please "write" me. I desperately need to "hear" from you all.