Heat and Humidity and Hef

I'm so sorry it's snowing in Summit County for those who are reading this. I can feel your pain. I'm glad I'm not there. I know how cranky I would be.
Last night we experienced our first power outage. Apparently Costa Rica is always experiencing the outages and sometimes the entire country is without power. The rains came and they came hard. We got back from the beach and I started cooking dinner and the lights started flickering. I knew when they were doing that to get my headlamp and the minute I put it on my head the lights went out. Luckily we cook with gas so dinner was not delayed.
Jack and I got up yesterday morning and decided we needed to get groceries. Getting groceries where we are is not as easy as you would think. We aquired some more bikes from Elliot's shed. He told us if we fix them we can ride them. So Jack got one fixed up enough to ride and we were now a 2 bike family. We told the girls we were riding to the grocery store to Villareal. Jack has a basket on his bike and we each had a backpack on. I packed a water bottle and we were off. It was pura vida. The ride was gorgious and there were people walking, riding,and on horse. Everying is waving and saying hola. We got to the town of Panilla and stopped at a little store. I, of course, was sweating like a pig and we weren't even a quarter of the way there. We talked, sort of, with the owner of the store and he sold us a bike part and we were off. The ride was long. We got the the super mercado and did our grocery shopping. We kept having to keep in mind that we had to ride the 10 miles back with heavy loads over hilly, dirt roads in the heat and humidity. The hilly, dirt roads don't intimidate me. It's the heat and humidity that do a number on me. About half way back I hit a wall something fierce and thought I was going to die. It's not a good thing when you have to keep going and know that you could be suffering from heat stroke. I was shivering and had goosebumps and I was not feeling well. We got to the store in Panilla and I asked the guy if I could fill up my water bottle. He did and him and Jack were laughing at me, in a good way. Good thing I have a sense of humor. I knew I was a total gringa with how I was looking and feeling. The guy kept pointing at our bikes and shaking his head like he couldn't believe we were even riding them. We had no choice. It's our transportation. I like our beach cruisers. I slammed down the whole water bottle in one gulp, said, "muchas gracias", and we were off, again. I got home and crawled to the cold shower as the girls were asking, "what's wrong with mom?" Jack was still smiling. I'm not sure if he was smiling because he was proud that I didn't complain even once or because he was thinking, 'it's good to see her get her ass kicked.' Probably both.
We ended up packing up the backpack for the afternoon at the beach and we rode down and parked our bikes and ordered some beers from Lola's and ate Civiche and pizza. It was heaven. The girls swam in the ocean for 3 hours straight. It was a great afternoon.
Every night we lay in bed listening to all of the strange noises outside. There are so many different sounds. Just when you think you've heard them all a new bird or frog or whatever starts to talk. They never stop. It's a beautiful sound.