Waving

I’m into my third day of forced geographical bachelorhood as my Favorite Panamanian has stolen away to spend a few days back in her hometown hanging out with her mom. Far be it form me to criticize since she is so understanding about my repeated thunder runs back to my own hometown (of course there is the whole tax-free shopping incentive for her). Her mom is 91 years old and I want to give my Favorite Panamanian every opportunity possible to spend with her. If our rapidly increasing age has taught us anything, it is the fragility of life.

Some of the Waves This Week

Close friends and family will have no sympathy whatsoever for my forced solitude, however. They know where I’m “trapped”. I’ll have to admit Las Lajas is where I would choose to be stranded here in Panama. I also have the upstairs neighbors to provide the needed human contact. The waves have also been incredible with this week’s extremely high tides. My Favorite Panamanian had restricted me to the barracks for the early part of this week, due to a bad ear, while the aforementioned waves thundered in sight, but out of reach. I was finally allowed back on the beach Wednesday, after she departed. I have a sneaking suspicion that she appointed the upstairs neighbor as my unofficial monitor. When I didn’t appear on the beach yesterday, I received a message from them asking if everything was okay. They confirmed my suspicions last evening at the sunset ceremony.

Sunsets Remain Impressive

Now, as to the reason I was beachless for most of yesterday. The air conditioning in our guest bedroom has been shedding freon to the point we needed a qualified repair instead of the local guy (who means well). Fortunately, the brother in law of the Panamanian Couple of the Seis Amigos has a partner who does just that. They came in last week to perform services on all the AC systems and diagnose what was going on with the freon-less one. They were supposed to return yesterday to address that.

They did, eventually. My Favorite Panamanian said they would show up early in the morning, so there went my morning beach session. I had breakfast and awaited their arrival. She then messaged me they would be attending to the upstairs neighbors first. By mid-morning they still hadn’t showed up and I thought I could sneak in a quick boogie boarding session. I went out to the balcony and saw the beach liberally blessed with what I call the “Green Smudge”. We get occasional algae blooms here with the bathtub warm ocean water and all this sun. This leads to these green patches which the upstairs neighbors investigated online and assured me were not dangerous. Still, not something I wanted to boogie board through. When the waves are this big the attendant currents are frisky and the smudges get moved down the beach in fairly quick order. I took the picture below five minutes ago and as I look out now that smudge is more than a quarter mile down the beach.

Today's Smudge

Yesterday though, by the time the offending smudge had moved, the AC guys were here and working upstairs, so, trapped again. I spent most of the afternoon waiting them to finish but they didn’t show until after 3pm. The delay was worth it, as I learned later, they found some serious electrical wiring issues that required immediate repair as there was arcing between wires taking place. Since this was directly above our own condo, a fire would be a very bad thing for both us and the upstairs neighbors. They eventually came down and quickly got to work. They finally located the offending freon leak, and soldered a replacement pipe in place. There were two of them and they worked for over two hours, doing a very thorough job, even if it was robbing me of beach time.  Still, the repair cost less than $200. I shudder to think what a similar job would require in the States.

So, I finally reached the beach around 6pm, shortly before the sunset ceremony. The waves were big but not the best since we were near high tide and they lose a lot of their power at that point, cresting instead of breaking. I dodged a couple of small smudges and got my afternoon boogie boarding in under the wire (I know you were worried). I came up out of the surf to find the upstairs neighbors ready for the sunset ceremony where I learned of their air conditioning adventures prior to mine. So, a fairly mundane week, not counting the smudges. I am ready for the wife to return but my existence is not without benefits here. I am going to have to get this ear looked at next week, still stopped up somehow. Finally, my son sent me this picture earlier in the week, showing progress on one of the projects he is responsible for. Hard to believe this all started with a love of Legos. I am and remain, so proud of my legomaniac.

From Legos to This

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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; Seis Amigos - two couples from our condo complex and my wife and I; Soxfather - my brother in law; Tia Loca – wife’s younger sister; Wingman – my son in law; Wingmom – Wingman’s mom, of course