Delved Again and Magic Return

What would a Christmas week be without the obligatory doctors’ appointments. Both my Favorite Panamanian and I have long scheduled appointments this week. Which means we’ve been bombarded with messages on every spectrum, email, to text, to land line, reminding us that where we’re supposed to be. I guess they really want you to show up. Mine was yesterday and involved the semi-annual dermatology appointment where an attractive young lady runs her hands all over my body. While I would normally relish this type of attention (official as it is) these type of appointments usually end in pain.

Such was the case yesterday. I thought I was free and clear, a true Christmas present, when she noticed something on the back that required yet another biopsy. It really isn’t that painful, just the part where they inject the local anesthetic, and then gouge out a fairly impressive hunk of skin and supporting flesh. It will keep me out of the pool for a couple days which is the only downside. I actually burst out laughing when the nurse asked me if I’d ever been through this before. I told her I considered it a win that there was only one this time. They also froze three spots on my right hand so I’m ready for the beach. I summoned up enough courage to tell the dermatologist that I would be spending the next three months on a tropical beach. I assured her that since I started hanging out with her ilk that I hit the beach fully garbed up with a swim shirt and Betelgeuse level sun block.

My wife spent the entire day yesterday down in Rhode Island hanging out with an old friend acquired form the time we lived in Rhode Island in the late 80s. That reminded me of our struggle for my wife to learn English after moving to the states. The first place we lived, Georgia, another Panamanian gal lived right next door. Our next assignment in Virginia also provided a wealth of Spanish speakers to help her, including the original three Musqueteras. I thought moving to Rhode Island, ostensibly away from the military, would finally force her to learn English. The aforementioned friend was our next-door neighbor and, you guessed, was a Spanish teacher. She and her family became fast friends with ours and we’ve maintained the friendship over these many intervening years. They’re truly special people.

The Rhode Island Friend Yesterday
Christmas Lights Gone Amuck

They recently moved into a new house and my wife went down to help wrap presents but I think more so to just spend time with her good friend. She was little nervous about depending on the GPS but I assured her it was easy. I underestimated my wife’s ability to confound GPS and her absolute lack of any kind of geographical sense of direction (she so reminds me of Great Aunt in this respect). We allow each other to track each other’s location on our phones. The most recent upgrade to the iPhone allows us actual live tracking. When I knew she was headed back, I checked in on her and saw she was on the right road and was about to put it away when I noticed her taking an exit sending her in the exact wrong direction. This led to an entertaining if somewhat nervous ten minutes as she eventually made her way back to the correct road.

With all our competing appointments this week we figured out that Monday was the only day this week my Favorite Panamanian and I could take in a movie, together. That was an important note because this week’s movie was special, Avatar: Way of Water. I was wondering if all the time and effort Cameron spent on this sequel would be worth it. It is, and then some. I should have known after the revelation that was Terminator 2 but all the many years of work were readily apparent on the screen as we returned to Pandora. On Pandora no one is ever really, seriously dead so both Sigourney Weaver and the lead bad guy return, in spades. It’s a great adventure taking place 15 years after the original with the Na'vi now faced with a determined and upgunned human invasion. Jake takes him family to supposed safety with an ocean based clan. He’s faced with fighting a guerilla war as well as teenaged offspring, learning one is much tougher than the other. The persistent message of living in harmony with their natural world is still present but not as overpowering as the first film. The technology is so seamless and impressive that you really forget this was all generated on a computer and completely suspend disbelief. A truly massive achievement.

One movie fell in my A-Z effort, a keeper, Daredevil (better than I remembered, real chemistry between Affleck and Garner, go figure)

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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; CRC - Connecticut Riverboat Captain – another close friend from high school, renowned sailor of the big river; Curbside Girls – close friends of my daughter acquired during him 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; PCR - Pittsburgh College Roommate– high school friend, also a “Minor Celebrity” in Pittsburgh; PCR+1 - Pittsburgh College Roommate’s wife; 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