Blue Jays and Defecatory Milestone

After the frantic traveling of the early part of this week, we’ve settled back into retired life at the homestead. Of course, any situation involving my Favorite Panamanian always exists on the knife edge of frantic so, there’s that. As I sink into senility and old age I’ve found one of my favorite small pleasures has been watching the bird feeder in the back yard during meals. I fought a years long battle against squirrels until I was gifted a squirrel proof bird feeder that actually works. The chipmunks still can get in but a little Vaseline on the pole dissuades their plundering efforts. I have to fill it up every day and a half as sparrows are truly voracious. If I was more ornithologically inclined I could identify all the other species that wander by daily. I have a group of four blue jays that are particularly good customers but the smaller sparrows chase them off whenever they need to. I guess its the size the fight in the bird versus the size of the bird in the fight. As I said, senility.

My Blue Jay Buddies

Keene Friend has been much less sedentary than I over the past week. He drove to Pennsylvania to hang with the Pittsburgh College Roommate. They then set out on an epic tour of rust belt ballparks, taking in games in Cleveland and Detroit. I’m willing to posit a guess that a couple beers were also sent downrange during the proceedings. I’ll have to ask Keene Friend what the dead deer count was on his drive back (inside travel to Pittsburgh joke).

Cleveland

Detroit

There were a couple of events in New Hampshire this past week that merit mention, both granddaughter accomplishments. The BRS is being elevated from her current pre-school class to pre-kindergarten. The ABFA was a little nostalgic, as she is wont to do, about her little girl growing up while my son was lathering at the prospect of kindergarten a year away; free school versus the arm and leg the pre-school charges. The other event was the first successful use of the toilet by BR3. Apparently she was a little stunned and little scared when it happened but bloomed into excitement at the instant parental praise she received. I think all parents can fondly remember the first time they were able to walk by the diaper aisle in the grocery store. Big news.

Since we were galivanting around northern Maine on Tuesday, Friday became date time for the wife and I as we took in Top Gun, Maverick. You might have heard this is a good movie. That is incorrect. It is a great movie that significantly improves on the original. Cruise is in a word, a true movie star, and he delivers once again. He brings the swagger but also the internal conflicts of the title character, dealing with advancing age while trying to teach a younger generation, including Goose’s son about combat flying. There is a vast improvement in the military hardware aspects over the original as well, thanks to CGI, of course. While the acting is very good it’s the action that makes this movie special. There were so many times you’ll want to jump out of the seat and cheer at the improbable, okay, impossible, hijinks displayed. A pure, summer popcorn movie that delivers on every promise. Best movie I’ve seen this year.

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RECURRING CHARACTERS:                                        

ABFA – Amazing Best Family Athlete - my daughter in law; BR3 – Blog Reader #3 – granddaughter #3; BRS - Blog Reader the Sequel - second granddaughter; Cantankerous Friend – friend since grade school who likes to argue about everything, poses as radical leftist to attract women; Curbside Girls – close friends of my daughter acquired during her single days in Brooklyn; Deckzilla – our backyard deck which grew to monstrous dimensions once my wife got involved in planning; Favorite Panamanian - the wife (of course); FBR - First Blog Reader - first granddaughter; First Friday – celebrations to mark the First Friday of the Week; Great Aunt - my elder sister; Keene Friends 1 & 2 – friends since high school from my home town of Keene, NH; Kindergarten Friend – friend since kindergarten whom I reunited with after many years; Maine and Virginia Musqueteras – two close friends of my wife – her US sisters, my wife is the 3^rd musquetera (musketeer); Neighborhood Mafioso - wife's close friend and Panamanian mafia member; 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; Pittsburgh College Roommate– high school friend, also a “Minor Celebrity” in Pittsburgh; Riggins - also known as the Grandpuppy, son's dog; Soxfather - my brother in law; Tia Loca – wife’s younger sister; Wingman – my son in law; Wingmom – Wingman’s mom, of course