Waved Off

I have jokingly referred several times here on the blog about the potency of BR3’s colds and her ability to pass them on. We had planned on going up today to spend the weekend with my son’s family. That is until I received a text from my son saying BR3 and he woke up with mild colds. While I, despite my prior skull drag from her, would have chanced it, it wouldn’t have been smart for my 90-year-old mother-in-law to take that same risk. We were therefore waved off from that trip. My Favorite Panamanian, having her heart set on an escape from the house, inveigled a trip to the Natick Mall. I say, inveigled, because I was tasked with driving them.

She used one of her tried and true techniques by reminding me of the nearby movie theater to the mall. Since another day spent in the Man Cave wasn’t that attractive either, I bit the bullet. I got to the exit on the Mass Pike and realized I had been lulled to misconception by our retired life of only traveling during weekdays. There was a backup at the exit of people trying to get to the popular mall. Since I used to work in the area, I knew about a back way and deposited them without issue. My son was laughing earlier when I told them I was going to see a horror movie. I had mistakenly admitted to him that I didn’t like going alone to these type movies any more. My wimp factor with my son skyrocketed with that admission, so I had some work to do. See review below on the movie which I survived, although I won’t say my eyes were open the entire time. Now it’s time to continue the memory rummaging from yesterday with photos mined from the basement storage bins:

FAVORITE PANAMANIAN AND PARTIES

With Skyla & Estrella, Virginia Early 2000s

Panamanian Mafia at War College 2001

Best Friends at War College

Partying with Them at Carlisle

Mindy the Cat Backing off the Dogs

FAVORITE SON

Adolescence Arrives

High School Prom

Assaulted by Tia Loca

Showing Namesake Nephew Computers

Walking Around Fenway Park

FAVORITE DAUGHTER

With Her Teddy

Rare Snow Picture (which they both hate) with her Mom

First Communion

Christmas Girl

With me 1984 at Fort Benning

SON AND DAUGHTER TOGETHER

Teenagers

Mom's Kitchen Helpers

Disneyworld!!!

Atop Mt Washington with Me

Universal Studios Child Abuse

FAMILY

Wife Targeted by the Pets

Wife and I, Mid-1990s

Kids with my Mom

Christmas Season 1996

Annual Christmas Photo Mom's House

ANCIENT HISTORY

My Dad - Loved to Fish

Dad, 1973

Dad Loved to Golf

Dad, Vermont, 1973

Dad and My Uncle Ted, 1970

ARMY LIFE

Wife Receiving Award for Charitable Work While Battalion Commander's Wife

My Change of Battalion Command Speech

Reviewing Battalion Troops Last Time 1999

With my Company Commanders 1999

With Wife at Battalion Formal

MISCELLANEOUS

Keene Friend, Soxfather, Pittsburgh College Roommate & I, 2002

With a Lt Buddy, Amador Causeway, Panama 1982

Same Day, Wearing Hat from Cantankerous Friend's Ship

Keene Friend's Christmas Party

Estrella and Skyla - Miss Them So Much

Smile is a scary movie, really scary, with the jump scares that sent my heart to the deep south. A psychiatrist greets a new patient who in the course of some very brief therapy passes on a curse of a smiling demon. I’ll never be able to see a picture of someone smiling without a bit of hesitancy, starting to look over my shoulder. I guess that’s a mark of a truly effective horror movie because it certainly makes you think. I hated the ending which reverts to formulaic tropes. The cast was uniformly good and the special effects appropriately creepy. Those smiles will haunt me for a while.

One movie fell in my A-Z effort, a keeper, The Big Bounce (based on Elmore Leonard novel with great cast along with personal memories of Hawaii’s north shore)

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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; Connecticut Riverboat Captain – another close friend from high school, renowned sailor of the big river; 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 named 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