Anniversary Eve

I'm guessing word of the strongly worded complaint I was ready to forward to the Las Lajas Chamber of Commerce was somehow leaked because I awoke this morning to find true behemoths crashing ashore. I hurried outside and rushed though my pre-boogie boarding exercises in order to get to the surf. I was not disappointed. I soon had my pick of some towering waves to ride in. The brought that little bit of doubt and fear that had been missing with the much smaller versions I've been dealing with over the past couple months. My sixty-six year old body was sending desperate messages to my adolescent brain as a particularly large wave loomed at least five feet over my head as I stood waiting for it. Nothing ventured etc. etc. so I launched and as I shot out from under the foam giggling in very un-senior citizen like fashion my adolescent brain was launching into "told you so's" with the more sane portions of the cranial cavity.

My First Friday Partner in Sunset Position

So the waves are back, so, of course, I'm leaving the beach for three days. It is, necessarily so, for a supremely adequate reason. Tomorrow, my Favorite Panamanian and I will celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary. We'd planned a huge party but that old culprit Covid mitigated against that. Since neither of our "kids" could make the trip, we decided a celebration was not to be. I can add this party to the list of pandemic victims along with my retirement party. We drove back to David to celebrate a little bit with my wife's family. We're going out to dinner tonight with her brother. Tomorrow we'll attend mass in the same church we were married in those 40 years ago. On Monday we'll travel up into the mountains to spend a night in the same hotel we spent our honeymoon at. Nostalgia on steroids is what I'm aiming for.

The Sunset

We lost internet service yesterday for most of the day. I was a little amazed at how much the electro-magnetic spectrum rules our lives, even at the end of the isolated tropical beach we were at. We lost access to the television programming we've come to enjoy (read - telenovelas for a certain wife of mine). The biggest loss however was the inability to join the family First Friday FaceTime call for the first time in recorded history. The phones started beeping with incoming text messages after 7pm and I was extremely pleased to see the family, including Great Aunt, had proceeded without me. It's called training, folks.

The Circular Rainbow

The inability to participate did not reduce my Friday beer consumption, dashing my wife's hopes. Some things are sacred. My slightly disapproving spouse agreed to participate since again, no telenovelas. We took an early evening walk down the beach and were treated to a circular rainbow surrounding the setting sun. I just can't make this stuff up, it was so cool. I thought the crew that is painting the condo building was to blame for the internet loss but we later learned the entire area had lost service at the same time. I was a little disappointed at the timing of its return as I had lined up one of my blu ray movies to watch with my wife but with the return, I had to resort to Netflix and something more mundane (and less bloody). After forty years you make allowances. As long as she was next to me.

Waves This Morning

Painting Proceeds

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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