Category Archives: Retirement abroad
Riding the Floor
About a week after we moved to Japan, my daughter, Bonnie, and I experienced our first earthquake. As we sat on the floor, Japanese style, our legs tucked under the kotatsu for warmth, the apartment began to sway. “Look at … Continue reading
Breaking Up With Hooligans
In Roxborough, the Philadelphia neighborhood where my family moved in 1963, the first fast food restaurant to litter the landscape was Gino’s. We’d eaten steak sandwiches and hoagies from Delassandro’s, in Wissahickon, for years, but Gino’s was the first hamburger … Continue reading
Creeping to Arenal
Toni said, “I’m sixty years old, and I’ve never seen a volcano,” so we set off for Lake Arenal. Who knew it would be raining? In the Central Valley, where we live, it hasn’t rained since Thanksgiving. We thought the … Continue reading
The Hug: A Handshake From the Heart
When I meet new people, I like to shake hands. I expect a firm handshake, accompanied by eye contact. If I find myself on the receiving end of a limp handshake, I struggle to resist the urge to wipe my … Continue reading
Reconnecting in paradise
Three years ago, my cousin was diagnosed with breast cancer. The thought of losing her galvanized me. We began talking again, visiting each other, sharing secrets the way we did in childhood. But I had one foot in Philly and the other in Costa Rica by then. We decided she had to come for a visit- the sooner the better. “I won’t go through chemotherapy again,” she said, in the understated way she has. Continue reading
Rooster today, feather duster tomorrow
0savesSave BufferBack in August, I wrote about a chicken who adopted us. She laid us a few eggs, and though they were tiny, we had dreams of an endless free supply. We bought some chicken feed, named our girl Henny … Continue reading
You CAN go home again
In Spanish, the word casa means house; as far as I can tell, there’s no word that means home. In English, we differentiate between house and home, but often use the two words interchangeably. Lately, I’ve been wondering: How can … Continue reading
Diamonds on the floor
Joan Rivers said: “I don’t exercise. If God had wanted me to exercise, he would have put diamonds on the floor.” But she’s skinny; I need to exercise because my middle is growing, even though the numbers on the scale … Continue reading
The Prisoner’s Village
I’d have felt boorish if we’d visited Cuba and not checked out Havana, but the words “beach vacation” ricocheted around my brain. After all, this trip was my escape from the rainy season. I booked three nights in a hotel … Continue reading
