Beach Friday Restorations

First Friday ceremonies returned yesterday after the first interruption I can recall in at least ten years. I don’t have to explain why no one in the family as ready to party. I’ve written before about the evolution of First Friday with the advent of the pandemic. We started a family First Friday FaceTime call that became one of the very few excellent developments attributed to Covid. While my two kids usually bow out after a half hour, my Favorite Panamanian and I always stayed on line with Soxfather and Great Aunt for an hour or more, usually ending with the expiration of battery life. Therein lies the reason for the unprecedented pause in observation of the First Friday of the Week, the permanent absence of Soxfather.

Frist Sunset I've Taken in Since Soxfather News

It turned out I was wrong with that last statement. Soxfather was with us last evening as I sat on the beach while my snowbound family gathered inside around their screens. We talked about Soxfather and the treasure chest of memories he left us with. He loved the First Friday calls and we all realized how much he would have insisted we carry on. The call had to be rough for Great Aunt but she and I stayed on for our usual extra hour after the kids departed. While the pain is still raw I think our conversation helped both of us cherish the Soxfather memories instead of only mourn his departure. I am so proud of my big sister.

Beach Walk This Morning

The big ole world continues to move on without my adequate attention. Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine may turn out to be a huge miscalculation by Putin. If news reports are correct, he sent enough troops for a quick decisive victory but nowhere near enough for sustained combat in such a large country or certainly any sustained urban warfare. The Ukrainians are putting up a lively fight and I think Putin thought the country would welcome a return to the USSR. The Ukrainians have had more than twenty years of western style freedoms and don’t want to return to the days of commissars. The Russians should eventually win but they will need hundreds of thousands of troops to occupy a resentful Ukraine. I’m surprised because Putin has ever been a big talker but only took small, edible bites. I think he has massively miscalculated.

Beach This Morning

Buzzards were Dining on this - No Idea What it Was
Escapee from Isla Nubar or Sorna?:)

Birds Too Lazy to Move this Morning

We were held up a couple times on our drive back to the condo by demonstrations. This had nothing to do with Ukraine. The dwellers of the interior of Panama who Panamanians refer to as “Indians” closed the Inter-America Highway to protest something. This happened a couple years ago where we were held up for nearly three hours. They basically march on to the center of the highway and don’t let any traffic through until someone form the government comes to talk with them. I was wondering why a couple trucks passed us going the wrong way on our side of the highway until I got around the bend to see the massive backup. We were only held up a total of 45 minutes at both of the times we were stopped. Neither my wife or I know what they were protesting. Life in Panamá can be weird.

On our way back to the beach this week my wife and I stopped off for a date night movie in David. Uncharted is a big hit but I was surprised by how shallow it turned out to be. It was as if the filmmakers tried to bring to life a love child between National Treasure and some sort of video game. The story made no sense and only served to move the film to the next set of very entertaining stunts. The movie is saved by Spidey as Tom Holland demonstrates real star power and effortlessly carries the film while a very generous Mark Wahlberg lets him do so. They make an interesting set of buddies. What made the National Treasure movies so good was keeping the plot, while wildly impossible, at least credible. That thought goes out early on in this movie but the very engaging cast rescues it and makes this movie at least very watchable, if a bit frustrating if you look beyond the stunts. But, hey, at least it was honest and didn’t try to be anything it wasn’t, a big dumb action flick, so, of course, I liked it.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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; idayWingmom – 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