Grind Return

We had yet another sterling example why radical Islam needs to be eradicated from the earth with a homicide bomber in Manchester attacking a bunch of teenaged girls at a concert in Manchester, England. It still boggles my mind that any sane entity could ascribe to the hate that permeates this ideology. As I’ve said before this level of insanity can only be cured by ending those who ascribe to this failed thought process. Civilization must respond and the sooner Raqqa is reduced to parking lot level, the better we will all be.

Return of the Wonder Pooch

All vacations must end which mine certainly did yesterday with a fair amount of finality. Mondays are never fun but returning from a tropical paradise spent with excellent people only compounds the misery. I held my Monday morning staff meeting and found it hard to credit I was in Panama less than 24 hours earlier. I also had a huge project from one of our contractors awaiting me which actually helped. Staying busy is certainly one way to avoid being overly reminiscent.

Getting Recent Hug from my Favorite Granddaughter (so far)

I also had the very enviable task of making a run down to Rhode Island to retrieve the Wonder Pooch from his canine paradise at the Great Aunt/Soxfather compound. My wife’s uncle decided to accompany me as co-pilot. As we were pulling out of driveway my wife came running out, which was notable because it was raining and my wife simply does not do rain, despite growing up in one of the rainiest countries on earth. She handed me an IPhone and I thought she said it was her uncle’s. It was in a lavender/pink carrying case which I thought odd but decided not to judge. I handed it to the uncle and off we set. We were on the highway when he asked me what he was supposed to do with the phone because it wasn’t his. We then thought it belonged to my mother in law. We were about halfway to Rhode Island when we received a call from my wife asking why we hadn’t dropped off the Neighborhood Mafioso’s phone two houses down from ours. So the mystery was solved but the phone would have to wait for our return trip.

Receiving Instructions from Her

Buddy was enthusiastic to reunite and kept a close eye on me as we sat down for a quick conversation with Great Aunt and Soxfather. I served the role as translator as they got to know my wife’s uncle. My sister was nursing a seriously painful knee which is overdue for replacement (scheduled for July). I don’t know how she does it since she continues to work as a nurse and we all know nurses spend their entire day on their feet. Tough stuff there.

Before we left on our trip overloaded with telephones we also reunited with the First Blog Reader and our daughter via FaceTime. Our granddaughter seemed genuinely pleased to have us back in her orbit. I played some hide and seek as she continued her assault on the big bottle of ketchup we supplied. My daughter finally came through with some photos, some dating back to our recent trip down to New Jersey. I was counseled, in no uncertain terms, by my daughter that I had to ration these photos on the blog and not use all of them today. I’ll try to restrain myself.

Helping Abuela in the Kitchen