The Smell of Lysol and Departures

I mentioned yesterday that our house was about to undergo a serious scouring at the hands of my Favorite Panamanian. Sometimes (not often), I’m right. The assault began this morning as I was starting my back yard excavations. I heard the door open behind me and this was followed by virtually every carpet in the house ending up out on Deckzilla for airing out. A very determined Panamanian also had every window in the house open as a couple cans of Lysol sanitizing spray gave their lives in the effort to eradicate any vestiges of that pesky virus we’ve been cohabitating with for the past week. The washing machine has been going non-stop as everything we touched in the past week is washed. I’ve decided to contribute to the effort and bought a can of sanitizing spray exclusively for the Man Cave.

Day 22 Progress and my New Overseer

That was the other big news yesterday after we both tested negative. I was finally able to leave the house, masked of course, with trips both to the grocery store as well as Home Depot. I scored the last remaining bricks they had for my project wall and less than I needed. If they don’t resupply in a couple days, I’ll have to wander over to one of the other four Home Depots within easy driving range. I was able to extend the wall around the fireplace and now face the biggest hunk of hill I’ve got to remove so far. My Favorite Panamanian has already started decorating the site, as she is wont to do. Great Aunt gifted us one of the old statues from my mom’s back yard that had been languishing her place. It now sits on the wall to the right of the fireplace overlooking the future patio. I remember this angel statue clearly as it looks just like Namesake Nephew did when he was a toddler. So now I’ve got an angel looking over my job site with connections to my mother, Great Aunt and my Favorite Panamanian. I think I’m being sent a message.

A couple of deaths to report that hit me harder than I would have imagined. Bill Russell, the greatest NBA player ever (look it up, 11 championships in 13 years, averaging over 20 rebounds a game for his career). He provided one of the most memorable events of my life when the Celtics came to my home town for a pre-season intra-squad game in the mid-1960s. I was bound and determined to shake hands with my personal hero, Sam Jones. Late in the game at the local high school gym, I walked over to the Celtics bench and asked Jones for a hand shake. Not only did I get one of those but he had me sit down on the bench between him and Russell for the last minute of the game. A moment I’ll never forget. That was when the NBA was worth watching and not the travesty it has devolved into. Russell was a true renaissance man, both on the court and off it.

The other death was Nichelle Nichols or Lieutenant Nyota Uhura as I first came to know her when I fell in love with her and Star Trek in junior high. I grew up in a very white home town, we had just a couple black families in the entire city, but Nichols captured my heart immediately. Over the years I learned more about her as she was also a civil rights campaigner and beloved by all who worked with her. Martin Luther King junior encouraged her to stay on Star Trek when she was going to quit because of the example she was setting. The world seems a little diminished with the departure of these two icons.

Two movies fell in my A-Z effort, both keepers as I finish up in my collection of the Alien movies: Alien Versus Predator (because that had to happen) and Alien Versus Predator Requiem (why not).

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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); Namesake Nephew – son of Great Aunt and Soxfather namad after me; 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