tUESDAY tUNES: Cuando Calienta el Sol

tUESDAY tUNES is a blast from the past since I am livng in a beach town and spending time on the beach and made a five decade memory resurface. What could be more appropriate than this original version of Cuando Calienta el Sol ... a song I learned in my early 20's. This is the original version ... not the Luis Miguel version.

 All I can say is, it's hot!

ORIGINAL TUNE : CUANDO CALIENTA EL SOL  

And here's the English version Love Me with all of your Heart  by Engelbert Humperdinck Love Me With All Your Heart

but LITERALLY ;

When the sun heats up here on the beach

I feel your body close to me.It's your heartbeat, it's your face, it's your hair, it's your kisses that make me tremble...

I like the Spanish version...

MONDAY MUSINGS: CASAS de AMOR

MONDAY MUSINGS: Casa Amor is where I was assigned to spend Monday through Friday mornings during my month here in Quepos, Costa Rica. A bus ride takes Steve, my co-teacher and me to Paquita, a small town 10 minutes outside of Quepos. 

(How surprising to see rice fields en route! I was then told that in their last rainy season there were 22 days of continuous rain. WOW!)

The bus driver already knows us and where we need to get off. A five minute walk then takes us to Casa Amor, a free men's rehabilitation center where patients voluntarily join a 9-month program in search of a life free of alcohol/ narcotics through routine and discipline. They have chores/work that may alter their class attendance. The residents hail from mainly surrounding areas but as we listened to their introductions, I  also heard Colombia, El Salvador and Nicaragua. Regardless, many come to consider Casa Amor home. Some have returned to the program more than once... This group's ages range 17-80 years old with varying degrees of literacy.

Our job is to equip them with some English which might be useful in their future lives, the service industry, in particular, food service has me scouring the net for useful vocab and ideas. Luckily, the book English for Restaurant Workers has been found and will be a terrific asset, in addition to my fixation with cooking shows and  legends like Anthony Bourdain. Wink, wink.

This project is good work, and I feel privileged to have a little part in their program. In such crazy times, we all need to provide 'casas de amor...'

FOTO FrIDAY:OUTTHE KITCHEN WINDOW

FOTO FRIDAY: I love a kitchen window with a view, don't you?

• The plant growing in the tires is called CULANTRO. And yes, it's related to cilantro.                                                                                                                       

 Last week's FOTO FRIDAY: LIFE IMITATING ART

TBT: ORDER

TBT:A throwback to 2019 and I had just finished watching the Marie Kondo methods of storing one's socks. I actually am still employing this method for my socks altho I might not have left my sock drawer as neatly as this pic. 

* My winter socks are in another area with those sweaters for cooler weather.

MIDWEEK MUSINGS: REMEMBER FAMILY?

 MIDWEEK MUSINGS this week reflect the Costa Rican family life. As I have mentioned my Costa Rican host family are two women, a mother about my age,  and her daughter,  Marcela. I should add they are both strong and independent.

Terri, the mother of the household, is a retired dietician with a pension and her daughter works for the company that brought me to this volunteer position, Maximo Nivel.

Every day the two women shop and cook for not only their 2 foreign guests but also make breakfast and lunch for Terri's brothers who live across the street. A couple of houses down is one of Terri's sisters. Her 20 yo niece took a bus 6 kilometers to hike with her aunt. She brought with her her 12-year-old cousin since kids are on vacation. 

I can't even imagine this labor of daily familial responsibility. We as a nation tend to move where our jobs take us regardless of where our nuclear families reside. (Of course, later in life we tend to move our parents geographically  closer.)

Did your parents live close to their siblings? I know my Grandmother did.   Never ever heard of my grandfather's side of the family...

tUESDAY tUNES: MARIA, MARIA

This week's tUESDAY tUNES selection comes from Costa Rica with a tico orchestra La Solución playing . Old school never gets old.

Take a listen:   María, María

How can you sit stil with cumbia classic. Cumbia, anyone?

This afternoon will be a free salsa class. Can't wait!

MONDAY MUSINGS: LIVING LA PURA VIDA

 MONDAY MUSINGS : I am so fortunate to be living la Pura Vida in person for a month in Costa Rica. Pura Vida's direct translation the pure life/simple life, does not really do it justice as it is all encompassing and probably is why it has been on my radar for about 20 years.

You see the Master Gardeners have taken 3 trips here over those years and I never could go due to that responsiblity called a job. But there was nothing stopping me now. And as one of my past students from the senior program, LifeQuest, admonished me for not having taught the term Pura Vida after she had attended my Spanish for Travelers class before vacationing in Costa Rica.  Well, touche as I had no clue of its importance until experiencing it personally on my first day here. 

Not only did I see it in marketing inn the airport but as I sat in the taxi heading for the bus station, I heard the taxi driver's phone conversation with the director of the program as she scolded  him that other students had arrived at the airport already and he needed to be there 20 minutes ago. He chuckled, and said we weren't even close to the bus staion yet and he would head back as soon as possible. Ending his convo with a pura vida. 

The term is a reflection of  Ticos (Costa Ricans) who tend to be more relaxed and worry-free. Who should worry when you live in Paradise? So it is a greeting and a goodbye, an answer to the question, "how are you?"  and even an expression. How special to enjoy life regardless of one's circumstances. A simple appreciation of life. 

Costa Rica is often listed among the happiest places to live and also is also known among all countries for its long life expectancy. 

My hosts, a mother younger than I and her daughter, my daughter's age , couldn't be more hospitable, a true representation of  Costa Rica's people.

I am really appreciative to be in this atmosphere and wish all of us could work on incorporating la Pura Vida, ¿no?

          On our 4 hour bus stop in the women's room, no less!

   PURA VIDA is something that we all can learn from incorporating        into our lives.

FOTO FRIDAY:SERIOUSLY!

 

FOTO FRIDAY: Shockeroo in January! Looked what popped up this week.  I know I live in the South.

Crazy, right?

TBT: 5 YEARS AGO TODAY

 TBT:January 15, 2021 Natureman has been on my mind a lot as the fifth year anniversary of his passing is in less than 2 months.

 In spite of his chemo treatments, here he was 5 years ago, where he loved best- out in the elements, snowshoeing no less, even when the week before he didn't want to get out of bed. The fresh cold air would cleanse him. And he did sleep really well after all that fresh air.

Natureman loved the outdoors. And I know he will be with me in spirit as I go birdwatching, hiking to waterfalls and swimming in remote areas in Costa Rica this next month.  He would have gone with me and enjoyed the ecotourism but be all the happier to be back in his own element as part of the End of the Rainbow Valley as we lived in our own paradise nestled in a valley...

MIDWEEK MUSINGS: MEMORIES

MIDWEEK MUSINGS are of  MEMORIES.  My 8-year-old granddaughter has become infatuated with me sharing stories of my youth as part of her bedtime ritual before she reads to me from her latest book.

Tonight I shared how I met her Zayde, her Mom's Dad, the first week of college in 1972 when the U of Iowa's fraternities took turns coming to hang out in my dorm's lobby (BTW the largest women's dorm in the U.S.)

I remembered I was wearing paisley overalls. (She's inherited her 'own' sense of style honestly.)

 Anyhoo, one of the other Jewish gals on my floor had come running down my end of the hallway yelling, Karen, AEPi ( the Jewish fraternity) is downstairs. We bounded down the 3 flights of stairs to go check them out. She was from a very little Iowa town and had met less Jewish guys than I.

Besides my apparel, these midwestern guys couldn't believe I was from Arkansas. And that's how it began, Rock Island met Little Rock... 

My granddaughter told me she is looking forward to more stories tomorrow night...

Do pardon me if I have shared this story with you before.  Memories at this age are clearer of past events, more than those of more recent ones.

(If I find a pic of me in those overalls I'll add it later.) 

tUESDAY tUNES:GOTTA WORK FOR IT...

 tUESDAY tUNES is a catchy one.. 

Just click on  WORK FOR IT

FOTO FRIDAY: ART IMITATING LIFE/ IS IT VICE VERSA ?

 

FOTO FRIDAY: After attending Arkansas Fine Art Center's evening with  Toast to Architect of Being, what will be a travelling exhibit by its curator and we could also revisit the exhibit.  One of the comments by a patron,  an artist, complimented that she appreciated how interactive the structure and composition of the curator's choices were.

I understood perfectly why when I saw her in front of her favorite pieces... LIfe imitating art, n'est pas?

Last week's FOTO FRIDAY was FULL OF LIGHT

TBT: 2019 WHITE FRAGILITY

 Back in 2019 when I supervised student teachers, one of my charges suggested this read. I defintely think it would behoove everybody toput it on their reading lists.  If you haven't read it, you should...

MIDWEEK MUSINGS: OIL & GREED

MIDWEEK MUSINGS suffer this week from the US imperialistic intervention of the removal of Venezuela's President Maduro. This makes me sick, even if I hadn't returned with a monster cold from the West Coast. 

What in the heck is the US doing in Venezuela?  I had hoped our country had learned something from history, but I was so wrong... 

Shockeroo ( I'm being sarcastic) to find out the oil deal made with the new regime with contingencies to sever economic ties with China, Russia, Iran and Cuba. If we were more focused on developing alternative energy sources, we wouldn't have to rely on oil as much.

Let me just remind folks what oil means to Cuba as the exchange of oil for their Cuban doctors provided care and clinics in Venezuela's poor neighborhoods due to their agreement with the late dictator Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. 

We all should be outraged by Mr. Trump's actions...

tUESDAY tUNES:PUALENA

 When I heard this tUESDAY tUNE again I knew I needed to share it with you. Smooth. Hawaii may be in my future... At 20 I skipped visiting there with my family when we were returning from Taiwan.   was in a rush to see my college boyfriend.  Aw, what we do for love... 

Here sung by Josh Tatofi... This love song envelopes you with its lyrics and melody... PUALENA

and the Hawaiian dance with it...  DANCE

MONDAY MUSINGS : INVESTMENT IN TODAY & THE FUTURE

MONDAY MUSINGS: Once you've visited Arkansas you'll understand why we are called the Natural State. To start the New Year  State Parks offered trail tours on the first.. And yours truly was one of those participants...

So many choices but I knew very little about DeGray Lake. This reservoir on the Caddo River was constructed by the United States Army Corps of Engineers in Arkansas about an hour from Little Rock.  It's our only State Park with a resort and is situated in the foothills of the Ouachita Mountain range.

Starting 2026 with a gorgeous sunny, 57 degree day with a hike with blue skies- a sweatshirt type of day.

As our Park Ranger Reana pointed out its natural features and provided historical info, we could see for ourselves what paradise looks like with stopping points vista glimpses of the 13,800-acres with fishing and water sports.  Although land had been appropriated in the 50's, the Korean War delayed the funding and in November 1955, the USACE held a hearing in Arkadelphia attended by Senator John McClellan and Congressman Oren Harris, both proponents of the project. Congress included the dam in the 1959 Water Supply Act but failed to attach any funding to it. Finally, in 1961, money was appropriated for the project. The dedication finally took place in '72 with a price tag of 64 million dollars. 

Ranger Reana shared the purposes of the resevoir near Arkadelphia to manage the water supply and support local needs such as: 

*Providing a reliable source of drinking water for surrounding         communities.

*Supporting recreational activities such as fishing, boating, and   camping.

*Helping with flood control by regulating water flow in the Ouachita     River and hydro power.

*Enhancing local wildlife habitats and promoting biodiversity.

*Offering opportunities for environmental education and conservation   efforts.

*Contributing to regional economic development through tourism and   recreation.

The Island  Trail was laden with fallen leaves hiding jagged stones and large tree roots, which required extra caution as these old bones don't need a fall. It was surprising to have such stillness and I only spotted one gaggle of geese as well as some yearling eagles and turkey buzzards/vultures circling overhead. 

 

By the way on weekends there are boat tours to go eagle watching with a Ranger Guide at 2 pm. Just call the DeGray Park lodge at noon when the desk opens on the weekend day you want to make a reservation.

The waters were calm. 

So very quiet during this holiday weekday.

Our public monies pay for our state parks and they are ours to enjoy. How foolish to not take advantage of these recreational areas and appreciate the investment in preserving nature for the future.

Happy 2026!