In Panama today, at a hotel in the city of David
(pronounced Da-VEED),
Lisa and I are doing our three days out of Costa Rica to
renew our visas.
At
breakfast, I mentioned to Lisa that I thought it was time
for a DSP. She
agreed.
"But not much has happened lately," I observed, adding
that there wasn't
much to write about. No epic swells (consistent shoulder
to head high,
though, which ain't bad), nobody nocturnally bit by a
terciopelo, no
dogs dying, no problems with psychopaths (although I think
our local
asswipe yelled "F#%ck You" at me in the lineup a couple
days ago as he
paddled away safely distant), no house-rocking terramotos
like the 7.1
beauty last December, no moon phase-related epiphanies,
no...
..."You mean nothing much happened aside from you spending
two weeks in
the hospital with pneumonia and almost dying."
"Yeah, but that's boring," was my view on almost dying. "I
mean to other
people."
If I had actually died, you probably would have been
impressed.
"You could write about what a pain in the ass it was
getting here," Lisa
suggested, after finally agreeing that almost dying wasn't
the stuff of
an entertaining DSP.
Lisa was referring to how we had to bribe the sleazeball
at Panamanian
immigration 20 bucks to let us into the country. The guy
gave no reason
for the shake down, no spurious rationalization, like a
new entry tax or
whatever. Just pretty much said Give me the money or turn
around and go
back to Costa Rica.
No, I was thinking, I don't want to get into that, don't
want to
criticize the folks down here, deserve it though they may.
I mean I'd
rather be an American getting hassled by a slimy
Panamanian bureaucrat
than, say, a Panamanian in the United States, maybe a
wide-eyed tourist
from down here, now up north, a fellow with a swarthy
complexion
(Panamanians tend to be dark skinned) who some stateside
immigration
official figures looked a bit too much like an A-rab and
who therefore
ends up in a detention center with no legal recourse,
thanks to the
Constitution-ravaging Patriot Act...
So, no, I won't go near that one. I might wind up on one
of my rants,
which I've promised not to do...
What I will do is something I've promised, which is to
post on the site
one of my "lost chapters" from In Search of Captain Zero,
an occurrence
from my wanderings that for one reason or another didn't
make the final
edit.
It's another dog story.
The similarity to a fine Jon Krakauer book
notwithstanding, I've titled
this one "Into the Wilds." I'll let you get right to it.
Here's the link:
http://www.aweisbecker.com/contents/shiner-gone.shtml
I'll be in touch.
Pura vida, Allan
P.S. I have more people to thank for their help with the
computers for
schools project, but since the whole deal is coming to
fruition (I hope)
this coming week, I'll wait until the next DSP to talk
about it.
----------------------------------------
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Hi folks,
My last DSP, which described my dog Flaco's passing,
elicited more
responses than any other, even my political rants (notice
how I've kept
my promise to shut my trap about that crap).
Many of your messages were short and sweet and simply
supportive. Others
were detailed remembrances of similar experiences in the
passing of a
beloved pooch. In many of the latter sort, I sensed your
motive in
writing was similar to mine: The expression of grief to
better deal with
it. For what it's worth, I was there with you as I read,
as I sensed you
were with me as you read about Flaco.
I've often apologized for not being able to answer your
messages
individually, due to either nonexistent or super slow
Internet access.
So please forgive this non-personal thank you:
Thank you. Your kindness and sensitivity is much
appreciated.
#
Big time thanks to Byron McManden and Mark Gaffney for
donating laptops
to our computers-for-local-schools project. William Rennew
for donating
an Oylmpus digital camera. Special thanks to Mike Cohen
for his gift of
three laptops. And our own Phil and Candyce Speck,
proprietors of the
Arte Nativo gift shop in beautiful downtown Pavones
coughed up a
printer. And thanks to Bill Harris, too, for the printer
he dropped off
when Lisa and I were out of town.
And special thanks to Bill and Rebecca Wheeler, who
brought the four
laptops down from the States. (See you guys next time.)
Everyone mentioned will get the gift I promised. You'll
like it.
Hooray for Sarah Carlson, who is donating a bunch of her
time collecting
equipment and organizing things for us in the states.
Sarah also works
for the SurfRider Foundation.
#
I'm writing these words on March 21st (the DSP may not go
out for a few
days, for the Internet access problem). As many of you
know ö or should
know -- this calendar day is a special one for our planet.
Here's a little excerpt from something I wrote exactly six
years ago, a
few months after I first came to this end of the road
enclave.
The reason for the following stuff ö and why we have
seasons here on
earth ö is that the earth is tilted on its axis with
respect to the sun,
so as the earth revolves around the sun, the orientation
of the two
celestial bodies (with respect to the earth's equator)
changes -- one
complete revolution being "a year."
This stuff is worth knowing, in my view, as opposed to,
say, astrology
(the list of crap people believe in is endless), which is
an insult to
the couple billion years of evolution that gave us our
wonderful, if
schizophrenic, human brains.
Also, the following assumes a clear, flat horizon at sea
level.
March 21, 1998, Pavones, Costa Rica Today is the equinox,
one of two
days a year (the other being September 21) when the sun
"crosses the
line" as the nautical expression goes, meaning that at
local noon at the
equator the sun is directly overhead. (On those two days,
a line drawn
from the center of the sun will intersect the earth's axis
at a right
angle.) A result of this fleeting alignment of the sun and
earth is that
at latitudes far enough from the poles that the sun rises
and sets, day
and the night are of equal length for that one rotation of
the earth.
Very near the poles, where the sun stays under the horizon
for the
equinoctal twenty-four hours of "day/night" (there being
no meaningful
distinction), the total ambient brightness of the sky
remains constant
while the sun does its 360 degree revolution below the rim
of the world.
Darkness and light are hence in equilibrium on the
equinox, everywhere
on earth. It is, in a sense, a day of balance. Of
symmetry.
I wish you balance and symmetry on this astronomical
holiday.
I'll be in touch.
Pura vida,
Allan
As always, a couple P.S.s:
P.S. Lisa also wrote about Flaco's death, from her
perspective of being
there at the time. I'm posting it on the Members' Contents
page. Be
forewarned: It's a heartbreaker. Here's the link:
http://www.aweisbecker.com/contents/flaco.shtml
P.P.S. I continue to be heartened by your responses to my
In Search of
Captain Zero screenplay adaptation. Still only one
negative out of
--it's a PDF, so you'll need Acrobat Reader to read it.
P.P.P.S. If my description of the equinoxes is somehow
faulty or
misleading, I'm sure I'll hear about it. There are some
terrific
analytical minds out there amongst you, who have corrected
past
blunders. I welcome that sort of feedback.
----------------------------------------
If you have any questions about life in paradise, do not
write me until you have gone to my FAQ link:
http://www.aweisbecker.com/faq/index.php?category=Living+in+Paradise
You are currently subscribed to aweisbecker as:
cbeacham@ihug.com.au
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My Website Links:
Member's Table of Contents:
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Sign Up for my Newsletter:
http://www.aweisbecker.com/enews/
My Homepage: http://www.aweisbecker.com
Hi folks,
A quick note: I want to get in touch with the fellow with
whom I exchanged emails about a coffee table edition of In Search of
Captain Zero. I lost your email address.
Back home at the end of the road at the bottom of Central
America. Just got back from a surf session at one of the semi-secret
spots not far from here. (Semi-secret = a dozen out today, unusually
crowded.)
Oh. Hey. You’re going to get to see where
I’m writing this from! I mean maybe you don’t
care, but if you do, you will.
My website has been revamped and expanded by my site guy,
John Benedetti (iluminada.com, if you need some site stuff done) and
is ready for viewing. Photos of my house and its surroundings; shots
and descriptions of the village and the folks who live here. No new
surf shots, not yet. My problem with surf photography is that when
the surf is good enough to shoot, I’m out in it, not
photographing it.
More about the site in a bit.
Anyway, great session this morning, head-high, perfect.
Only negative is that I broke my favorite board, the Will Alison 9-oh
that I’ve been riding for the past year and a half.
By the way, while I’m plugging people: You want
a fine surfboard designed and built, call Will in Wilmington, NC.
Will has been making my boards for a long time. He’s a
great guy, former National Amateur Champ (mid 1980s), master
craftsman. Talk with him about your needs, he’ll build the
stick, ship it to you. Long, short, doesn’t matter.
He’s good. Say hi for me. 910 686-0043. Will is currently
making me two longboards, step deck noseriders, one for here and one
for Montauk, for when I visit there. He also made me a 7’6
rocket for when The Point really goes off. You should see that one.
Wow.
Emails from you guys continue to arrive, in support of my
right to say what I want in this venue – keep up the rants
kind-of-a-thing. Don’t be intimidated by assholes,
you’re telling me. The hostility.
As much as I appreciate the support, I may have given the
wrong impression. I’m not intimidated by the hostility, or
especially by the couple death threats I got. Some moron shows up
down here with hostile, let alone deadly, intent, he’d
better be well-armed and unconcerned with his own safety. Even if he
manages to take me by surprise. Especially then.
Tell you a story. Back in ’97 when I first came
here I rented a house on the bank of El Rio Claro, about 300 yards
from the cantina that is the focal point of the social scene here.
The house where I wrote a lot of In Search of Captain Zero. Shiner is
buried in the yard there.
One night I’m reading in the downstairs hammock
and suddenly there’s a commotion in the bush by the river.
Something is barreling my way, crashing through the dense tangle in
the pitch dark. Shiner is out on the porch barking like crazy.
I join her on the porch; I put my million candlepower
spotlight and 9mm on the table within reach.
Back in ’97 there was some tension here due to
the squatter problem. I was doing an investigation into the shootout
death of an American expat named Max Dalton. I had some worries due
to stuff I had uncovered. Hence the pistol. I also had booby traps in
the yard, fishing line tied to cans dangling from bushes. Noise
makers, in case someone tried to sneak up on me.
Now I can hear heavy breathing along with the sound of
branches breaking. The thing in the bush is closing fast.
I pick up the 9mm, let it dangle by my side. The spotlight
in my other hand.
Then whatever it is bursts out of the bush into the yard
and right into one of my booby traps. Incredible racket. Shiner tears
off in his direction. I open up with the spotlight.
Some guy is all tangled up in my fishing line, cans flying
all over the place, Shiner right there by him, now in her snarling
mode, which is way worse than the barking mode, if you’re
what’s on her mind. The guy is a newcomer gringo
I’d seen drinking at the cantina that afternoon, all
disheveled and wild-eyed and cut up from his sprint through the dense
bush, and now blinded by my mega-flashlight. I point the light at my
chest; the reflection gives him a gander at the 9mm.
Meanwhile, from behind him, from the way he came,
there’s a serious commotion in the bush. Sounds like a herd
of elephants.
Human voices now, raised in some sort of battle cry. I
immediately sense they’re after this guy: he’s
obviously more worried about the approaching hordes than Shiner, or
me with my piece.
He untangles himself and sprints off into the bush toward
the Rio Claro bridge with Shiner in hot pursuit.
Then, like twenty guys are streaming into my yard from the
bush. Guys I know, mostly. Surfers, campesinos, precas (squatters),
an Indian guy from up at Altamira. Seeing me, the lead guy, a Tico
surfer I know well, yells, “A donde va?” Where
did he go? I point. The horde is gone in that direction.
What was going on was this: The newcomer gringo everyone
was chasing had cold-cocked an expat surfer, a guy who’s
lived here for years, in the cantina. Just a drunken asshole move.
He shouldn’t have done that.
Here’s the thing. People here stick together.
Even the squatter who the expat surfer had been having problems with
had joined in the posse. Everybody. You’re an outsider, you
don’t fuck with someone here.
I found out what had happened the next morning. Including
this: A radio message was sent to some Ticos down the road to be on
the lookout for this guy. Not that he was going to drive out. His
rental car, parked in front of the cantina, was trashed.
There’s only one road in here. One road out.
The Tico surfer who’d led the charge told me,
“We took care of him.” I didn’t want to
know the details.
So someone wants to come down with hostile intent, good
luck. You get past my four dogs, my shotgun, my bow and arrow, my
wrist-rocket, you still have to get out. I’m well-liked
here.
(By the way: The squatter problem is over, except for some
lingering court cases. The heavy-weight squatter, who in
’97 was a hard core communist, is now a real estate
salesman. Which is a perfect example of something. )
Anyway, I’m going to really cool it with the
rants mainly because it just doesn’t seem fun.
And, anyway, a while back I did promise no more of that
rant stuff.
But again, I thank you all for your support. In my last
DSP I promised to get eloquent about thanking you, but I’d
rather tell you about the site improvements. Think of the new site
links – and the easier site navigation – as a
further thank you. It’s been time, effort and money. So
it’s sort of eloquent, in a sense.
One of the things we’ve done is put in a
Contents page for subscribers. This is where all the new stuff will
go, plus the DSP archives. And some of the cool stuff that was
originally on the public site, the site you get to via
www.aweisbecker.com.
You can only get to the new Subscribers’
Contents page through clinking links I’ll always provide in
my DSPs. (I also suggest you put the page in Favorites.) The best new
addition is the Captain Zero Photo Tour for Part II. Been a long time
coming. A close second is my Screenwriting 101 piece, which was
originally a DSP.
Here’s the link to the Subscriber’s
Contents page: www.aweisbecker.com/contents/members.shtml
The Photo Tours for Parts III and IV are in the offing.
Stay tuned.
Hey. If you want a look at where I’m writing
this from, I have a new section on Paradise, with photos of my
office, my house and Pavones. Click Here.
Site nav is now easier, due to the new menu bars. Also:
there is now one home page, not two.
If you’re interested in buying land down here,
there’s now a link to photos and descriptions of
what’s available. Click Your Own Piece of Paradise wherever
you find it. The land listings are all from people I know well and
can vouch for. I’ve got several acres adjacent to my
property that is for sale, too.
A continuing aspect of my DSPs and site additions will
have to do with land buying down here. If you know anyone who might
be interested, maybe forward them this email.
I know. I’m trying to make a buck. So shoot me.
(I’m also trying to protect myself and the environment here
by having some control over who buys land near me and what they do
with it.)
Even if you don’t see a home in paradise in your
immediate future, take a look, maybe fantasize a little.
As usual, I gotta go. Won’t even have time to
rewrite this. Lisa and I are doing a border run today, go to an
internet place to get this off.
I think I’ll have internet access at home, soon.
A new cell phone system. That’s another reason for our
border run. Start an account with the local server. If this works,
I’ll be able to respond to your emails individually. As you
know from previous DSPs, I’ve been feeling guilty that I
haven’t been able to do this. Especially lately, with all
the support.
Working hard on the rewrite of the screenplay to In Search
of Captain Zero, plus, more or less in my spare time, my new book.
Busy. Keeping out of trouble.
Eventually, you’ll hear more about both
projects. I prefer not to blab too much about stuff I’m in
the process of writing.