Afloat

River Cruise with Fabulous Hosts

I’ve haven’t been around the internet, much less Frail Deeds, for a couple days now (you are most welcome). The weekend was consumed with another crisscrossing of New England for a variety of very enjoyable passages (see below) while today was probably the busiest day I’ve had a work in more than five years. I went in early to get in some needed work on some scheduling software and that turned into an exercise in pure frustration. I threw in my weekly staff meeting and an afternoon long negotiating session with the union before I got back to drive a stake in the heart of the scheduling conundrum. That all culminated after 6pm so a very long day. There were some positive developments. Over lunch time I snuck out to the city offices to check on the status of my building permit application to find not only was it approved but they gave me an official copy to start work with. Deckzilla Dude was really pleased.

BRS Ready to Party

And Crawl

Abuela and Bis-Abuela (Great Grandmother) Time

That is all noise when I consider how I spent my weekend though. On Saturday we ran up to New Hampshire to hang out with my Favorite Son, the ABFA, and needless to say, the one, the only, BRS. Since I was traveling with two Panamanian women I went through my cat herding exercise which mitigated against the planned early morning departure. We arrived a little after noon following the obligatory shopping stop once we entered tax free territory. One of the implied purposes of our trip was overnight babysitting since the parents had an evening wedding to attend.

BRS is Moving to Solid Food But Peas Didn't Make the Cut
I Know Where she Inherited that From

Grampa time at the Pizza Place

And Abuela Of Course

After the usual hugs and mutual cooing session with the BRS we hurriedly loaded up the car with everyone to charge into Portsmouth. Certain Panamanians had planned on wandering the downtown streets to accomplish some more shopping since they knew they could foist me off on the plentitude of pubs co-mingled with the shops. The morning cat herding prevented that since my son and the ABFA had to be back home by 3:30 to leave for the wedding. We stopped by to see my son’s nearly completed parking garage project which truly impressed his grandmother.

Son and ABFA

4 Generation Gap

We then lucked into some convenient parking, an almost unheard of commodity in central Portsmouth (it was four flights up), and went underground to score some really tasty brick oven pizza. It was the same place where my Favorite Son met the ABFA on their blind date which has led to so many developments. The most important of those developments, the BRS, seems to revel in going out. She was a perfect young lady for the entire meal beaming at everyone which seemed to lend a little needed light to our subterranean environs.

Beautiful Family as Parents Head out for Wedding

Leaving These Two to Hang Oout

The cancelled shopping trip proved fortuitous since the customary, at least for this summer, Saturday torrential rain storm arrived shortly after we returned home. The “kids” got off for their wedding right on scheduled and we amused ourselves with the BRS for a few hours. She absolutely loves to FaceTime, since we connected with her cousin, the FBR. If I had to guess though I’d say that love of FaceTiming comes from her impulsive need to put the resident electronic device in her mouth. It’s so funny seeing her unable to reach the cell phone when she starts charmingly barking her frustration.

Wife and Mother in Law in Cruise Mode

Two Old Friend Looking Up River 

Official Panamanian Queen of the River

Host pointing Out the Sights

We were up fairly early the next morning and I was back into cat herding mode since we had to cross the state to Vermont by noontime. I had to convince the ladies that they had to focus not just on the time we were supposed to arrive but the distance we had to travel as well. It’s a learning process (lifelong). We eventually got on the road and I had to admit it was tough leaving that fun bunch.

Our Captain, my Friend

If I had to Guess I think They Enjoyed Their Day

We were enroute to Brattleboro, Vermont where we were finally taking a very old friend of mine up on his many offers to host us on his boat for an afternoon on the Connecticut River. We were very good friends in high school but lost track of each other over the years until I returned to New England after my military career. We see each other at the reunions and he is a faithful attendee of the birthday pub crawls. The marina we were headed to was directly behind an old roller skating rink I had last been to in junior high. I’m glad my friend had mentioned this landmark because the GPS was determined to send us further up the road.

He and his very gracious wife were the perfect hosts for an almost magical afternoon on the river. I’ve crossed that river literally thousands of times in my life but this was the first time I’d ever been on it. They have a fabulous pontoon boat with a lot of very cool extras. They’ve been boating on the river for decades and were superb guides pointing out many points of interest we would have missed without their expertise. They also seemed to know almost everybody else out on the river.

Lunch Break 

We pulled into a small cove for a quick lunch and then continued our idyllic trek north on the river. Since this trip did comprise members of KHS ’73 beer was involved in the festivities. This combined with my rapidly aging bladder system required a couple bathroom breaks which was the sole extra the boat was not blessed with. For the first one I had to brave a heavy riverside infestation of poison ivy. The second one was even more problematic not to mention more than a little embarrassing (more on that later). 

Our cruise took us all the way to Putney opposite the Westmoreland nursing home where my mother had worked for many years. The river patrol was out and we were scrambling to mask our open containers (not sure what the law is) but it turned out he was looking for a reported deer in distress in the river. We joined in the search but never saw the beast. The best part of the trip was catching up my friend. Although we’ve seen each other many times since re-connecting this was the first opportunity to spend some time really talking about each other’s intervening lives.

Meanwhile Down in New Jersey

FBR Still Hard at Work

We seemed to see new sights on the trip back down the river but still no deer. We were keeping an eye out for bald eagles which do some credible fishing in this stretch of the river. We ran into a guy with one of those car-boats from the 1960s. Of course my friend knew the owner as he pointed it out to us. We were just turning into the West River to return to the marina when the embarrassing stuff happened. I had to avail myself of a coke bottle since I didn’t want to do this once we were in sight of the marina which has a well-attended deck overlooking our approach. Our hosts were extremely good sports about my distress although it did impede the goodbye handshakes. They were such fabulous hosts for the afternoon in all aspects we hated to say goodbye and grabbed one more round of drinks in the marina bar where some well washed hands allowed the delayed handshakes. 

Friend hangs

1000 Watt Smile

I can’t say how much this afternoon on the river helped. It was so peaceful and just basic fun that stress seemed to waft away with each turn of the current. If you told me ahead of time that it would have that effect I would have laughed. Re-establishing contact with a good friend always had medicinal effects as well. I would have found today almost unbearable without yesterday’s river cruise to fall back on.

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RECURRING CHARACTERS

BRS - Blog Reader the Sequel - second granddaughter; FBR - First Blog Reader - first granddaughter, ABFA – Amazing Best Family Athlete = my daughter in law, formerly known both as MEF – Most Excellent Fiancé & MEG – Most Excellent Girlfriend; Wingman – my son in law; Keene Friends 1 & 2 – friends since high school from my home town of Keene, NH; Soxfather - my brother in law; Great Aunt = my elder sister; Cantankerous Friend – friend since grade school who likes to argue about everything, poses as radical leftist to attract women; Pittsburgh College Roommate – high school friend, also a “minor Celebrity” in Pittsburgh; Deckzilla – our backyard deck which grew to monstrous dimensions once my wife got invole din planning; Maine and Virginia Musqueteras – two close friends of my wife – her US sisters, my wife is the 3^rdmusquetera (musketeer); Buddy – AKA the Wonder Pooch – family dog, a black lab – hates squirrels, died in 2017; Riggins - also known as the Grandpuppy, son's dog, surrogate grandchild while awaiting arrival of the BRS; PanaGals – female relatives/friends of my wife from Panama; Panamanian/Latin Mafia – inevitable group of Latin friends my wife accumulates wherever we have lived & their spouses; Neighborhood Mafioso - wife's close friend and Panamanian mafia member, Favorite Panamanian - the wife (of course); First Friday – celebrations to mark the First Friday of the Week; Excellent Boss – my former direct boss at work; Voices of Inappropriate Worth - members of public who come to every Worcester public meeting to complain, all are on public assistance along with demeanor issues