First Timing

At long last I met my third granddaughter for the first time. Granted I was behind a mask and socially distanced but I’m still counting it. Hopefully I didn’t imprint a jarring image in her two week old brain that associates her paternal grandfather with some sort of masked desperado. BR3 is exactly as advertised, a beautiful baby that bears a definitive likeness to my Favorite Son when he was that age. Since the BRS is almost a carbon copy of the ABFA, this is only fair. There must have been a lot of dust in the air because above my mask the eyes were misting up pretty significantly when the ABFA walked over and showed BR3 to me. It’s a moment I’ll remember for the rest of my days (same as with her two predecessors).

My Very First Sighting of BR3

The meeting was delayed until Sunday because my Favorite Panamanian pulled up lame on Saturday – our originally scheduled trip north. She’s been burning some serious midnight oil over the past two weeks creating face masks and with the deadline of her next two weeks up in New Hampshire closing in on her, she did what she always does, she over did it. She awoke Saturday morning with a migraine and spent most of the day in bed recovering from her excessive efforts.

Abuela Was not to be Denied

At Least One Very Happy Lady

Good Buddies

She was, by virtue of her two week quarantine from contact with me, not required to socially distance and shortly after our arrival she had BR3 in her arms. It was love at first sight. The bonding has commenced. I was a little bummed because we were a little late in arriving so I missed seeing the BRS since she was napping. We were late because nothing about moving my wife into a new living situation for two weeks is simple. Add to that having to run up and down the stairs to our only functioning refrigerator, since packing an appropriate amount of food was also required despite my assurance that they sell food in New Hampshire. Since I wasn’t driving up to New Hampshire on Saturday I spent that day finishing off my latest garden retaining wall. I’m actually stymied to think of another location within my wife’s vast garden complex that still needs a wall but I’m not thinking that too loud in case she takes that as a challenge. I also knocked out the middle movie of the LOTR trilogy and yet another 1000 piece puzzle.

Proud Three Generations of the Fam

I missed the BRS

Who is Totally Rocking these Pigtails

In yet another pandemic related development, puzzle wise, I discovered that the sky (usually the part of the puzzle I hate most) is actually much easier after a couple beers. After another thoroughly enjoyable family FaceTime observance of First Friday I ended up in the Man Cave with only the sky left to do. The beer must have opened another, puzzle related brain section because the pieces were flying into place and in less than twenty minutes I finished it off. I was looking around for a high five from someone but the wife was two floors above frantically sewing masks and would have shunned me anyways because of quarantine restrictions. The pandemic certifiably sucks.

The Newest Garden Wall

Puzzle with Beer Induced Sky

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RECURRING CHARACTERS                                           

BR3 – granddaughter #3, BRS - Blog Reader the Sequel - second granddaughter; FBR - First Blog Reader - first granddaughter, ABFA – Amazing Best Family Athlete = my daughter in law; 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 involved in planning; Maine and Virginia Musqueteras – two close friends of my wife – her US sisters, my wife is the 3^rd musquetera (musketeer); Riggins - also known as the Grandpuppy, son's dog; PanaGals – female relatives/friends of my wife from Panama; Panamanian/Latin Mafia – inevitable group of Latino 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; Curbside Girls – close friends of my daughter acquired during her single days in Brooklyn