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| Daughter and FBR with their Pie |
After a fantastic morning, weather-wise, not long after their arrival a
semi-ferocious thunderstorm blew through which required a return inside and
masks. This had the added benefit of scouring the humidity out of the air so
when we returned to Deckzilla it was even more pleasant. I had my window screen
work station set up there so we had a tarp that covered all the chairs.
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| My Most Welcomed Deckzilla Guests on Saturday |
Window screen station, you ask? I embarked on replacing all the windows in
the house over the weekend. Except for the recent room addition all of the screens
were showing wear from solar baking and the inadvertent stray shot from my
power washing. I waited until I was unsupervised because I knew my Favorite Panamanian
would offer some poignant observations on my technique. It turned out to be
pretty simple. I watched a Home Depot video, acquired a spline tool and I was
off.
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| The Work Area |
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| One of the Damaged Screens |
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| Removing Spline |
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| Cutting out the New Screen |
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| Removing Excess |
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| My First Ever Screen Completed |
I needed the tarp over the work area because the sun is bad during the mornings
on Deckzilla. I proceeded with real caution because my usual forte of brute
force and ignorance were not going to work on this project, something pointed
out to me by my Favorite Son. I taped each window down, removed the spline and damaged
screen and cut out a new screen which I then used the spline tool to place into
the frame.
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| BR3 Says Hi |
The final step was using a razor to cut the excess screen off and where
my greatest fear that my lack of patience would be tested. I surprised myself
when I finished the first window and it looked perfect. I counselled myself not
to get cocky but by the end of the weekend all of the windows had new screens
to include the much battered screen door out onto Deckzilla. I can’t believe
what a difference it made. I guess the screens were in a lot worse shape than I
was willing to admit. Don’t tell my wife that she as right as she had been
campaigning for this for two years.
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| As Does the BRS |
Thankfully Mrs. “I Told You So” was safely distant squiring the BRS and
BR3 around. The ABFA posted the attached video which showed the BRS being completely
overcome with excitement. None of the adults knew why she was so excited all of
a sudden. My wife accused our son of putting something in her pizza. It turned
out to be just a two year old’s exuberance bursting out. She’s really enjoying
her new playground and giving her abuela a lot of exercise. She also likes to
mimic her parents and borrows an IPAD and defunct phone to set up her own work
station. It seems she has been paying attention over the past few weeks when
both her parents were forced to work from home.
Down in New Jersey the FBR and her parental units were having a very busy
weekend. My daughter and the FBR created a homemade apple pie for Wingman. The
FBR enjoyed it so much that she was thinking of new pies they could make, to
the point she even had a pie cookbook and walked me through some possibilities during
our Facetime call. She also suggested we invent a water pie or a ketchup pie
but her mother and I convinced her these were probably not good ideas. The
whole family walked to central Maplewood to take part in a socially distanced
Black Lives Matter demonstration, the FBR’s first ever protest. Wingman also finally
got a chance to semi-celebrate his birthday, in addition to the apple pie, he
joined a few of his friends for some socially distanced libations.
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| At the Protest |
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| FBR Figuring Things Out |
I never thought it would happen but I think I finally understand the
Black Lives Matter movement, even more astounding I agree with them on a lot of
their issues. It took the blunt force trauma to my head of seeing the Minneapolis
cop kneeling on George Floyd’s neck to get my attention. What changed my mind
was hearing the experiences of so many African Americans who live in real fear
of the police based on interactions with them. I’ve always been a bit of an apologist
for the police but that will stop. They should be held to a much higher
standard. Good cops would agree with me.
 |
| Coming Home |
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| FBR looks Ready for Anything |
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| She Even Took Some Action Shots of her Mother |
I finished my march through the Rambo movie. My ranking of them appears
below. What I didn’t realize about these movies, because I is not what you remember,
but Rambo actually gets his ass seriously kicked in most of his movies. Of
course the perpetrators are more than paid back, Rambo style. I really liked the
last two installments but nothing beat the first one. I also embarked on my Wingman
suggested foray into Indiana Jones territory.
1 – First Blood
2 - Rambo (2008) ...
3 - Rambo: Last Blood
4 - Rambo III
5 - Rambo: First Blood Part II
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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 3rd 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
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