Herewith are some snippets from life in CR:

Life seems to be finding a nice rhythm since the first of the year. Tae had been going to school half day in October-December and, frankly, not loving it. In a sort of backwards logic, we ramped him up to full day in January and...he loves it. This has resulted in Tara and I making good use of our daytime hours. I have found a rhythm of getting something physically active in during the morning (either yoga, tennis or surfing) and then writing for up to four hours after that. The result is that I have finished up a (3rd?) draft of my first screenplay and just today started a second screenplay.

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Tara is finding a rythym this week after having had a wonderful ten days with her good friend Beata and her two daughters Clara and Beata. Together, Tara, Baker and Riley and the three Corcorans traveled from San Jose to Tortuguero to Rio Chirripo to Arenal and back to Nosara and had a ball. Highlights included a chocolate plantation tour and a whitewater rafting trip. But, as Tae and I were holding the fort down here, you will have to wait for Tara's full report.

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Funny thing happened the other day...One thing about living in a tropical beach town is that there are a lot of good looking people here. Basically, there are a lot of very fit twenty somethings walking around with very little clothing. Before anyone becomes upset with me for glaring at younger women in bikinis, please realize this works both ways. (No...not like that: the bikini-clad twenty year olds are NOT staring at me.) The men here are all buff, ripped and wearing almost no clothing. Tara is enjoying it too.

It is also impossibly dusty here. We have had no rain in well over a month and none of the roads are paved. Result: dust everywhere. We own a Quad (an ATV) and when one rides it, one gets incredibly dusty. These days it is almost impossible to go out without some sort of goggles or mask on because of the dust.

So, one day, the kids and I need to go to a friend's house. Tara has the car. So the four of us pile onto the quad. Riley in front, me behind her, Baker in the rear and Tae squeezed securely between me and Baker.(I tell the kids that the sticker on the quad reading "Never carry a passenger on this vehicle," is a misprint.) Because of the dust and, for god knows what other reason, I have decided that we should all wear the new snorkeling masks that my mom recently brought down for us. We have helmets, but it is so hot we don't want to wear them. We have sunglasses, but sometimes they don't do the trick. And so we set off: Dad and his three kids, piled onto the quad wearing our snorkeling gear. (No flippers)

As we reach the end of our long road down the hill, we catch up to the vehicle in front of us. A motor scooter ridden by a long-legged, golden-haired, sun-dress wearing, beautiful woman. We ride on in the dust behind her, rumbling along, Tae squeezed against me making my back sweat, my snorkel goggles periodically bumping into the back of Riley's head as we hit a big bump. And, then we get to the end of the road, which is a T-intersection. The beautiful motor-scooteress pulls to the left to make a turn and I, in my mask, pull up beside her to make a right turn.

I glance at her and she at me, for only the briefest moment. I offer up some sort of weak smile--something that says "a different time, a different place..." And then, she is gone. I turn my head and look at Baker and Tae in their masks behind me, hair blown up tall in the air. And, Riley turns to look at me, wondering why we are still stopped, and her mask sticks out inches from her face. And, I laughed and laughed and laughed. And the kids, bless them, had no idea why.

My three wonderful quad passengers...

...and the one that got away.

Pura Vida!

Jerry & Tara