Shower Investigations

I’m feeling a little embarrassed today as I watch the news reports of the storm heading towards the east coast and virtually everybody in the States that I love. I’m listening to the waves break outside the balcony as I type this with temperatures in the low 90s and a nice off shore breeze. The people I care about are facing what the hyperbolic news crews are calling a “bomb cyclone” of a Nor’easter. That doesn’t sound even mildly nice, hence the guilty feeling. While I am a huge fan of lording my tropical surroundings over my frozen friends and family usually, I do feel a bit remorseful that I’ll be having it so easy while they are getting pummeled. Honest. I’m being completely truthful here. Not buying it, huh?

Sunset Crew Last Night

I’m sure the granddaughters are psyched as they are all huge fans of the white stuff, especially if a certain saucer is involved. The FBR doesn’t like to appear on the Facetime screens anymore but she popped right up when I mentioned the storm and possible snowfall. My daughter confirmed that there would be enough snow to play in. I’m trying to remember the age where I stopped looking forward to snow storms. I’m sure it was about the point my parents split up and I, as the newly crowned “man of the house”, was getting hauled out of bed at oh dark thirty in the morning to shovel the driveway so my mother could drive to work. We had a long driveway.

Sunset Last Night

Nothing much to report on here, however, just to demonstrate that life in the tropics is not without challenges, the hot water heater in the condo is on the fritz. I know. Devastating. It was one of the things I had my wife confirm when we were looking into buying the condo, it needed to have hot water. It’s not something that’s common in many homes in Panama and my Favorite Panamanian has always laughed at my absolute need to have hot water to shower in. A hold over from my Army days was to cherish the piping hot shower to wash the grime of weeks spent running around the woods with well-armed friends. I should explain that the water that comes out of the faucet here isn’t really cold, a la New England. It is, at best, lukewarm.

Sunsets Sometimes Have a Second Wave of Spectacular Colors

We’re going to get it fixed but until then I’m showering with “cold” water. I know, poor baby (saying that before Great Aunt can). It’s not as if I can forego the shower either because of the whole sand getting into every nook and cranny during my daily boogie boarding and beach time. After “intense” investigation I have learned that lukewarm showers and air conditioning are mutually exclusive, at least for a wimp like me. The upside, there’s shower in the common area at beach which is not airconditioned and I can comfortably take my nightly shower down here. I’m just glad the towel I wrap around my waist hasn’t failed. Yet. I’m sure I’m not the only one feeling happy about that.

Beach This Morning

Finally, for those of you concerned about the sea bird my wife wanted to adopt yesterday, we ran into him again today during our morning walk. He is now officially an ex-bird. This confirmed my concerns about trying to help him, especially if he didn’t die of old age. Nature was running its course as the seemingly ubiquitous hordes of beach crabs were having their way with the carcass. Speaking of carcasses, a puffer fish washed up on shore last evening but apparently even vultures have standards because they swooped down repeatedly this morning but after checking it out, they left it alone. I was wondering about this and learned the puffer fish is the second most poisonous vertebrae in the world. Almost all pufferfish contain tetrodotoxin, a substance that makes them foul tasting and often lethal to fish. To humans, tetrodotoxin is deadly, up to 1,200 times more poisonous than cyanide. There is enough toxin in one pufferfish to kill 30 adult humans, and there is no known antidote. Things that make you go hmmm! Vultures are smarter than they look.

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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 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