The back yard plants from my Favorite Panamanian’s vast garden complex apparently do not like her wind chimes any more than I do. It’s a point of real contention between us. She loves hearing the wind induced chimes ringing out at all hours. I think they’re cute for about thirty seconds and then become a nuisance, worthy of a small explosive charge. In the salt rubbed into wound category, her chimes are set up outside the only window in the Man Cave which means they serenade me regularly as I enter into the deep cogitation reserved for that location. I’ve taken to some devious methods to silence the damned thing but she always finds out and fixes it, but not before delivering the usual stinging lecture. She says they only ring when the wind blows which means, since we live on the top of a hill, virtually 85% of the time.
FBR Torturing her Abuela Last Night
Yesterday
while out working on the back yard project I noticed that the climbing flower
she had placed directly below the wind chimes had reached up and intertwined
with the clapper rendering them silent. This was a real juxtaposition because two
elements she treasures, the plants and her wind chimes, were locked in combat.
I helpfully pointed out that attempting to unwind the vines would likely kill the
plant (call me Team Plant). She eventually realized this was true and
acknowledged the chimes were silenced for the summer. Win. Speaking of the back
yard project, I started on the excavation part today and reached the needed
level in the area directly adjacent to Deckzilla. This will serve as a guide as
I expand the beachhead out from there into the hill. This points out how much
dirt will eventually have to be moved to reach the needed level. I wish my engineer
son was closer but he is decisively engaged with the BRS and BR3. I’m making do
with YouTube tutorials. So far, so good. Tomorrow I’m going to emplace the
downhill retaining wall because that’s where some of the dirt I’ve excavating
will need to go to reach the patio level. 
Plant Silences Chimes
We
had a really fun talk with the FBR last night. She proudly proclaimed that she
had “convinced” her mother, our daughter, to agree to extending her August stay
with us for two weeks versus the originally planned one. This set her and her
abuela off on the planning tangent about all they planned on accomplishing during
the visit. I’m sure some shopping will be included as well as a return to the Southwick
Zoo. The FBR has discovered she really likes talking with her abuela, if only
to torture her with the latest sweet dessert that the FBR can have but which my
wife is denying herself. She seems to take an almost savage pleasure in hearing
my wife’s wails. Grandparenting, best job ever. Latest movie to fall in my A-Z
quest, 17 Again, first movie to face elimination into deep storage, since I’m
not a teenage girl, Zac Efron just didn’t do it for me.
Day 3 Progress
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 3rd 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
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