My somewhat fractured plan for our four-month
deployment to Panama is weirdly coming together almost in spite of myself and
some other factors. The latest road block was my Favorite Panamanian getting
sick again, once again, thanks to our intrepid granddaughters in New Hampshire.
They seem to think a parting gift is required and the only thing they have that
is truly their own to present to us with is their latest malady. This time it
was a stomach cold that felled my wife in her tracks yesterday. We had the at
home Covid test which confirmed she wasn’t facing that, which is everyone’s
first fear nowadays whenever they feel under the weather.
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| Plants Relocated |
This meant the pre-deployment cleaning
tasks she had lined up, fell to me. In my own. In my less than humble opinion,
I think I did a great job. I did, however, use the wrong cloth for the kitchen
cabinet cleaning which my wife was only too happy to point out before she
thanked me. The big task was the migration of all the house plants from their
various locations to a central one in the dining room. The hose sitter will
have it much easier than I did in prior years when, during my wife’s absence, I
had to seek out and find each of the far-flung plants for watering. Woe be unto
me if one of them died in her absence.
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| The Family Typhoid Mary |
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| She Looks So Innocent |
One of the biggest challenges I had to
face involved the state DMV. I know. Scary. Since I bought the Highlander in February
a couple years ago, the registration renewal and annual inspection falls in
that month. Since I plan on longing on a Panamanian beach during that month I
had a conundrum to face. In a startling development that I would have thought
could have easily served as the basis on a highly unbelievable science fiction
movie, the DMV was easy to work with. I renewed the car registration online and
received it three days later. I knocked out the inspection this morning which
will move it January each year. The final hurdle was my wife’s driver’s license
which expires in February, her birth month. Once again, I went online and seven
days later, she has a new license, where they used her on file, five years
younger photo. The feared trip to the DMV and waiting the renewal license to show
up was completely unnecessary. I’m think I now operate in some parallel
universe where the DMV is easy to work with. I will admit to a serious amount
of prayer was involved when the mailman showed up each day.
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| Success!!! |
To celebrate approaching the finish line
of pre-deployment plans, I decided to test drive my new professional sized
popcorn maker. Alright, the real reason was the needed special popcorn arrived,
courtesy of Amazon, yesterday. The first lesson I learned, very quickly I might
add, as I rushed to close the front glass door, was to insure I pull the top
down to cover the pot so popcorn isn’t spewed all over the room. An important
lesson to be sure. The second load went much better and I felt almost
competent. I will have to clear the air in the Man Cave after each use but a
small price to pay form movie theater quality popcorn.
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| FBR Modeling one of her Christmas Gifts This Morning |
This morning dawned much better, despite
an intermittent ice storm. My Favorite Panamanian is back on her feet and says
she feels great. So only a 24-hour bug to vanquish, which is a definite
improvement over the head cold BR3 bequeathed to me during a prior visit.
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RECURRING CHARACTERS
BR3 – Blog Reader #3 – 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; Wingmom – Wingman’s mom, of course; 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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