Mulchified

In the best of Keyser Söze quotes, “poof and just like that”, the huge mulch pile in my driveway disappeared. Oh, that it had been that easy, but it is in fact gone and I offer photographic proof of same. I surprised myself with a determined afternoon yesterday of dozens of wheelbarrow loads pushed up the back hill to festoon the Favorite Panamanian’s terrace gardens with the brown stuff. I say surprised, because I feel I’m stronger than in past years because the pushing up the hill part wasn’t a problem. Of course, the 67-year-old body wasn’t entirely pleased with the effort involved. One of the things I’ve discovered about getting old is that you end up straining weird muscles you didn’t even know you had.

FBR and Parents at the Cabin

Near the end of the afternoon I felt a strange twinge deep in the upper thigh as I was properly using my legs to lift the 453^rd shovelful of mulch into the wheelbarrow. Apparently that’s the only thing this particular muscle is used for because I didn’t feel it except when I was lifting the final 256 shovelfuls. Ain’t getting old grand? But, as my Cantankerous Friend often points out, it surely beats the alternative. I availed myself of a mid-afternoon whoopie pie to augment the energy levels. I thought, with all the resident aches and pains from the past weekend, that it would take a couple days but I had it clear before five. I celebrated with a rare mid-week Coors Lite on Deckzilla. Small victories.

Where I started

And Finished

The Festooned Terraces

Celebrate!

I’ve included these photos from my daughter’s family’s past weekend. Each year they team up with several of their neighbors whose kids form the posse the FBR usually runs around with in their fantastic neighborhood. That’s kind of what makes the neighborhood so grand, great families/friends. They rent a cabin in the woods (FBR is too young to have seen Evil Dead yet) and spend a great time hanging out. It’s a major social event each year and the FBR was full of stories for us in a call on Monday. They even found a dead fish, so exciting. They toured a nearby Revolutionary War battlefield and took a group hike through the woods where my daughter ran across a four-foot-long black snake. She’s every bit the fan of serpents that her mother is. The FBR was especially excited to relate this to her abuela and was rewarded with the expected cringes.

Cabin had a Firepit

Which Meant FBR was S'moring

Daughter Enjoying the Nearby Lake

FBR With her Main Partner in Crime

We Found a Dead Fish!!!

This is So Cool!!

FBR Found a Library, so Like her Mother

The Intrepid Hikers

FBR in the Bear Room

Date night had us at the movies, where else. We saw Hypnotic, a Ben Affleck movie where he’s expected to emote a lot, always a struggle for him. While this movie is getting skewered by a lot of critics, I liked it. Robert Rodriguez is a favorite director and he delivers a taut psychological thriller with a lot of cool twists. Affleck is ably supported by another favorite, Alice Braga. Affleck plays a cop tortured by the kidnapping of his daughter and then runs into a scarily efficient master criminal able to instantly get control of nearby people through hypnotic suggestion. It gets a bit confusing at times and there are plot holes you could drive a semi through but it’s highly entertaining and the climax redeems the confusion. A good movie.

Two movies fell in my A-Z watch, both keepers, Dirty Harry, Make my day, punk! and Magnum Force, a man has to know his limitations, Eastwood and John Milius teaming up, yikes!

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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