This past weekend saw temps soaring into the nineties along with a less than healthy dose of humidity for the first time this year. This signaled that I had a bunch of outdoor chores to do. One always seems to go with the other. I finished off the neighbor’s wall on both Saturday and Sunday. Saturday to what he wanted and then Sunday with the additions requested by his wife. I also rescued the decapitated Virgin Mary statue from the back woods and re-attached the head. My Favorite Panamanian couldn’t find one she liked so I was permitted to begin restoration work. I withheld comments about having the lug the broken statue up the hill in the first place only to lug is back down again. I may be learning.
Finishing It
I also installed a shade screen on top of Deckzilla which permit its use during the morning hours when the sun is usually beating down on that side of the house. This is something my wife has been calling for and I recently acquiesced to. Again, the learning continues. Saturday night the next-door neighbors treated us to a dinner on their back deck to thank me for the wall. This is where the Sunday additions were decided. Sunday evening ended even better when we were summoned to the Neighborhood Mafioso’s house for an impromptu gathering with them and another couple. It felt almost like pre-pandemic days. I may have sent a few beers to an early grave as we enjoyed the warm summerlike evening. There was some target practice with a bb gun on an intruding rabbit but the best part was hanging with old friends again. While I was tired after my physical exertions over the weekend the Red Sox lightened the load significantly by completing a three game sweep over the hated Yankees. Sweet.
It
was a busy weekend on the granddaughter front as well, both aquatically
inclined. Both the BRS and BR3 took their first swim lessons on Saturday and
the BRS was still gushing about it a day later. She seems relatively fearless
about the whole endeavor. BR3 now plays peek a boo at the start of every
Facetime call with us. Beyond cute. Meanwhile the FBR was a moving target down
in New Jersey. Her parents were able to pry her out of the pool long enough to
travel to a friend’s lakeside house about an hour away. The most memorable
event was seeing a dead fish that still had its eyes open. Along the way she became
acquainted with a chicken, slid down a zip line, and spent almost all of Sunday
frolicking in the water. 
The New Sun Screen
BRS at Swim Lessons 
FBR Thwoing a Chicken into the Air 
Then Zip Lining
I
ventured back into horror movies this weekend, watching The Conjuring, The Devil
Made Me Do It. I started out on Friday night but then decided watching it in
the dark by myself was not the type experience I was looking for, it scared the
hell out of me. I safely watched it completely on Saturday afternoon with light
streaming in from the window. The Warrens return for more occult hijinks as they
try to help a local possessed boy with his murder charges. The boy made the rookie
mistake of volunteering to take on a demon during an exorcism. Hasn’t anybody
seen the Exorcist?, but I digress. Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga return as
the Warrens and remain the bedrock of this series. They “blessed” Wilson with a
heart condition this time out which was distracting at times and definitely not
what you want to deal with when battling demons. It turned out the first
fifteen minutes were the scariest of the entire movie but there was well layered
tension and jump scares throughout. It, again, scared the hell out of me.
And Hitting the Pool
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; Kindergarten
Friend – friend since kindergarten whom I reunited with after many years; 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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