For the past six months, I have been making extensive use of my JAMBOX. This little “electronic box” connects via Bluetooth to my iPad, iPhone or Android, and even my laptop, and gives room-filling, high fidelity sound. It does require periodic recharging. And setting it up for Bluetooth connection can be shaky after six months of use.
Further, at over $150 price tag on Amazon for the small version, and $250 for the larger version, it can be a large ticket item.
For years I have dug into the potential of VBA (Visual Basic). While I am a firm believer in choosing the appropriate technology solution, and encouraging developers to add features, there comes a time when the you need to “enhance” the program by using automation tools outside the program.
The burst of innovation in law firm practice management is very exciting. It seems as if a new time and billing service is launched every week. Existing cloud vendors announce mind-expanding new features every month. Desktop vendors are busy trying to Cloud-Enable their software or build hooks into the cloud. When Frank Heckman lamented once that annual new releases of software was too fast for a software company to handle, he was wrong. It is in fact too slow.
It has been QUITE a while since I last wrote in this blog. It is not for lack of topics to write about that I have been silent. We have been quite busy, and marketing has taken a back seat to other endeavors. One very important change is that Basha Systems LLC is now an affiliate of the 3545 Consulting Group.
At last, my journal has caught up with the date. Most of the time, I have been too busy to make entries in my journal, too tired to write. I had hoped to keep this journal in real time, but found it hard to drive and blog at the same time. Perhaps we should have hired a driver, or paid for escorted transfers between hotels. Rather we preferred the freedom from other people’s schedules, not to be hurried when we wanted to linger (even if foolhardy) and to be able to skip faster at other times.
This morning, we lingered. We had to wait for a replacement car to come from San Jose to replace the rental car which turned out to have a dead battery. I lingered over coffee and sat on the hotel veranda looking out at the clouds and the rain forest. The temperature was cool and refreshing after the hot jungles of Arenal. We lingered for what seemed like ages — until 9:30 AM. At last, the driver arrived and we switched vehicles.
We awoke in the mist at 5:30 and put on a pot of Cafe Britt coffee. We were leaving on a 6:00 am bird watching tour. Guess what? It was raining again, a cool wet rain and mist that you can feel in your bones, in your clothes, and everywhere. Our perky young guide warned us that the birds didn’t like to fly in the rain, but she was nevertheless hopeful. I knew why. She had stacked the deck.
Every road seems to come back to the Pan American Highway eventually. Our trip from Flamingo Beach to Villa Blanca Cloud Reserve and Hotel was no different. We checked out early, as the drive was over 4 hours. We decided to take it straight with no stops.
We stopped for fresh pipas frio (cold coconut) and were on our way. The road was fairly straight, going through meadows and pastures where the real costa Ricans work. At one turn in the road we saw a line of tables by the side of the highway with baked goods. The patrons appeared to be of darker skin, likely native indians (indigininos). While I filled up with gas for the push into the mountains, Rose purchased a sampling of bread and pastries.
As resorts go, Flaming Beach Resort and Spa was beautiful. It had the large pool, the pool bar, the spacious rooms with balconies and the long sand beach with views of the Catalina Islands. It was the type of resort you would expect in the Carribean, although we were on the Pacific Ocean. There were palm trees and coconut trees (we have fresh pipas from the tree picked by a local man who climbed the tree and knocked it down for us).
Breakfast continued to include fresh fruit, to which was added bread baked on premises and a new twist — an omelette station – Yum
It was time to depart Arenal. It was 4 1/2 hours to our next Hotel. We did not know the condition of the roads (turned out to be more Costa Rican highway – well paved 2 lane roads with narrow or non-existent shoulders). The route to Flamingo Beach is amusing, since there is essentially one road with few choices to turn off. And so, you see signs for “tourist traps” many miles before they emerge whetting your appetite and inspiring you to pull off the road and part with your dollars and collones. One such place was aptly named “Toad Hall”. I pictured the “frog” in the Wind in the Willows driving his car down the open road. It was really a small hotel, cafe and gift shop on a steep hill overlooking Lake Arenal. We had the coffee (so so) and some Yucca chips (delicious). No toads in site.
Morning began with another cup of perfect coffee and ripe fruit: bananas, papaya, pineapple and watermelon. We woke up earlier than planned and decided to catch the 7:30 am tour through the canopy at Arenal EcoGlide. Rose checked out TripAdvisor to check whether the place was safe. When you are suspended 200 feet above the ground in a harness attached to a thin wire and travelling at 15 km/hr, you want to be safe.
One would think that “canopy tours” we saw everywhere were about nature and exploring wildlife among the tree-tops. That was the furthest thing from the truth. Yes, you were in the tree-tops, and yes it was beautiful up there, but there was NOT a word about nature on the tour. Rather, there were words about safety, how to hold your hands, how to lean back and cross your legs, and mostly, how to brake with your gloved hand.