Bon Voyaging and Tech Breakthrough

So, our cable company, through which we also have our cell phones, was offering a good deal on upgrading our iPhones. My Favorite Panamanian and I stopped into their storefront before going to the movies this week, thinking there would be the whole wait for it to be sent kind of thing. Nope. Inside of an hour we both had brand new phones. While that is a good thing, this is the first time I’ve done it the transition between phones without some inhouse tutoring from my IT section, namely, the son, daughter, and/or their spouses. I guess I paid attention last time as I wandered the tech landscape of figuring out how to configure the phones and then sign back into all the apps, a feat not for the weak of heart. I even went so far as to consult the internet god of information, Google, on how to relink our iWatches. The scariest and probably most unexpected outcome is that everything seems to work. The world doth turn.

Stair Repair

I was out in the back yard yesterday addressing the recurring problem of the steps between the terraces. While most have held up for the past six years, there’s a couple that fail each year. I decided to handle it with concrete. I removed the base stones and poured a concrete bed into which I put the stone stair treads. It seems to have worked, but only time will tell. Speaking of my Favorite Panamanian’s vast garden complex, the mulch guys finally showed up today. This is the first year we’ve hired someone to do the mulching instead of doing it myself. After watching them work for a while, I’m convinced we made the right decision. This, at my age, is definitely a spectator sport as I don’t have to whittle down a huge pile of mulch as I’ve done for the past almost twenty years now. My wife, ever the commentator, mentioned that these guys are much more careful when moving around her garden. The implication being obvious.

Front Yard Mulch

I watched something extremely scary last night on television. The presidential debate. While Trump was his usual self, completely detached from reality and unable to tell the truth, Biden was a disaster. There’s no other way to put it. From the get go, he looked confused and doddering. It says a lot when you’re able to make Trump look like the lucid one. Trump handed him so many opportunities to land crushing blows but Biden wasn’t up for it. This scares the hell out of me. As a lifelong republican, I find myself horrified for having to vote for this guy who obviously isn’t up to the task but I’ll do that if Trump is the alternative. So scary. I’m getting old but he looked like he’s already out to pasture. The only redemptive feature is that at least Biden surrounds himself with talented people while Trump has devolved to only wanting sycophants. Scary, indeed.

The Bikeriders was date night viewing this week. I’ll watch anything with Tom Hardy in it and he’s back as the leader of a 1960’s motorcycle gang in Chicago. He possesses so much cinematic charisma that I wonder why, in so many roles, they reduce his dialogue to mumbling, which happens again here. The film traces the rise and fall of the gang focusing on the relationship between Jody Comer and Austin Butler. This is really Comer’s movie and she shines as the reluctant bride who watches the club devolve into chaos, a reflection of the 1960s. Worth the view just to see Comer and Hardy carve up the scenery but always tough to ascribe any kind of hero status to what were basically hoodlums.

Finally, this will be my last post for a while, for June certainly. This afternoon we head to the airport for our ten days in Ireland and Scotland. This means, predictably, that my Favorite Panamanian has spent the last two weeks hopelessly devoted to packing and excoriating me for my lack of due attention to same. We’re both packed now though and it took me a lot less time, not that I’ll ever mention that to her. In a weird turn of events, Facebook removed my last post saying it didn’t meet their community standards, which is strange when I consider some of the content that apparently does. I thought it was the ultimate innocent post but I guess someone was offended. Any rate, see you in July!

In my A-Z watch, three fell since my last post, all keepers: Kick Ass, one of my favorite movies in last twenty years, mainly for Hit Girl; Kick Ass 2, not as much fun as first but still there’s Hit Girl; and The Kid Who Would be King, sneaky heartwarming flick tapping into the Arthurian legend.

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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; 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