Tunnel Exit

That light at the end of our Covid tunnel burst into flames a little bit ago when both my Favorite Panamanian and I tested negative. My wife is still feeling a little weak but this means I‘ll be able to score those bricks for the wall (why does a song keep bumping into my head when I talk about that?). If I was a betting man (and I’m not) I would lay money on an intensive sterilization of the house in the coming week. My Favorite Panamanian always keeps a very pristine house, despite my best efforts to the contrary, so I predict an intense scouring in the aftermath of this viral invasion. My “kids” will attest, when she goes on a cleaning binge, it is not a situation for the faint of heart. Stand by for reports of my entry into the doghouse this week when I’m am not properly supportive when she insists on dry cleaning well, everything.

Double Negatives!!!

I’ve moved some serious dirt (and rocks) over the past couple days in the back yard project. I made it all the way to the back of the hill on the left side of the style challenged fireplace. My Favorite Panamanian once again tried to get me to remove the fireplace, saying it looked like an easy removal. I think she was kidding. As I’ve been digging, the mind is bound to wander and I wondered if this was the first time this dirt had been exposed to the sun in thousands of years, if the local Indians would have camped there, etc. etc. All those amateur paleontological thoughts were eradicated when I started running into a huge swath of construction fabric near the bottom of the dig. I’m guessing when they were building our house there was a serious erosion problem at the base of the hill once they removed the trees. To counter that, they lay down a bed of gravel and then covered it with this fabric which was then covered by the dirt excavated for our basement.

The Fabric

Today's, Day 22, Progress

It is weird how the mind works (at least in my case). These thoughts of paleontology brought back memories of my junior high years, when there were still junior highs instead of middle schools. I remembered falling under the spell of Roy Chapman Andrews’ books in the junior high library and deciding I wanted to be a paleontologist like him. He wrote about his adventures in the Gobi Desert finding dinosaur eggs and other fossils. Those hopes of a life spent excavating ran into the reality of what science was really like and I knew that I wasn’t a good fit (bit of an understatement there). I fell into a career that involved digging though, defensive positions (not fun) with requisite fields of grazing fire but I digress. Here I am, in my late sixties, still digging. It felt kid of cool visiting the memory halls of Keene Junior High.

Mt Jr. High Hero

Two movies fell in my A-Z effort, both keepers as I continued in my collection of the Alien movies: Prometheus (great theme song) and Alien Covenant (will someone please kill that android).

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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