Considering leaving the rat race behind and retiring abroad?

I really like the extra month's pay in December, but its not a "freebie." It's figured into the yearly salary. I'd rather make less each month and get that "bonus" in December.

I'm hearing we're going to open back up next week, with in-person dining at restaurants and non-essential business back open. This week was quite a bummer ordering to go and cooking the remainder of our meals at home. I'm not sure if there's a happy medium between the two. We limit our eating out to restaurants with outdoor dining choices and fewer people.

Wayne Harrison wrote: I really like the extra month's pay in December, but its not a "freebie." It's figured into the yearly salary. I'd rather make less each month and get that "bonus" in December.

I'm hearing we're going to open back up next week, with in-person dining at restaurants and non-essential business back open. This week was quite a bummer ordering to go and cooking the remainder of our meals at home. I'm not sure if there's a happy medium between the two. We limit our eating out to restaurants with outdoor dining choices and fewer people.

America was actually lucky. Our lockdowns tended to not be as draconian as Europe, New Zealand and Australia. My fully vaccinated nephew wants to go to college in France in the Fall but I warned him he might want to wait a year. Paris isn't as much fun with no cafes and bistros open. Takeaway for a semester is not the way to depend life abroad.

If you consider 581,00 deaths "lucky".

Wayne Harrison wrote: If you consider 581,00 deaths "lucky".

581,000 out of 330 million Americans isn't even one percent. And not the three to five million deaths forecast.
Saw at least one study that says 33% of us got Covid-19 and survived.

We're really getting off-topic on this discussion. I would like to get back talking about Costa Rica in this thread, please.

Back on topic, I saw a doc. on Netflix about abandoned animals (dogs)...they named the town/village/area
but I didn't catch it. In your area is that a problem. The doc was about an animal sanctuary farm. The owner of the farm was ATTEMPTING to provide a "forever home" but the number of dogs was unsustainable and
donations were not enough to cover the cost.....it was a sad commentary on how our species finds
things so easily disposable. USA has the same problem,so C. R. is not alone...just wondering if your
area has experienced the problem.

Unfortunately, the woman in question has turned out to be a dog hoarder. She bought some land in the mountains about an hour from us and took in dogs from all over. Neighbors complained about the noise and smell but she kept taking in dogs. She can't afford vet bills for all the dogs, or food... according to some who have tried to visit recently. If you go, be careful where you step. The dogs run "free" over the property. In English, it's name means "Territory of Strays."

territoriodezaguates.com/

Oh, regarding COVID-19. The latest numbers of new cases are the highest ever in Costa Rica. All medical facilities are at full capacity. About 40-50 patients are waiting on ICU beds to open open. It's pretty bad. We've both gotten our two Pfizer vaccine shots and are still isolating except for a few friends and our cleaning lady. Her brother came down with COVID a couple of weeks ago but is slowly recovering.

Do u believe the increase is directly related to the relaxation of the "safety rules"? WE r relaxing here
on the Western slope in Colorado....no mask mandates (optional) and businesses r increasing their
capacity indoors and generally most r starting to normalize.

The disconcerting thing is we just came off an increased rules week, where restaurants were open for take-away only, bars were closed, all non-essential services were closed. This was because the daily count gotten up into the 2,700 cases-a-day territory the week before.

From my observations, I think it's likely due to people having large get-togethers at home. We've noticed several when we are driving around (a bunch of cars parked around a house).

We don't get out enough to really notice anything else (haven't been to the beach since March 2020). About 11% of the people here have received both doses of the vaccine (total population here is about the same as Colorado)