Anticipation Mode

I am in extremely heavy anticipation mode as we’re moving into what I call the sweet spot of the year. We’ve already celebrated the FBR’s birthday, and now I’m confronted with my own birthday on Friday. It would be extremely self-absorbed to be overly excited about that (but I am). The main source of my anticipatory glee falls on Saturday when I head north to my hometown for the 11^th consecutive birthday pub crawl. It’s evolved over the years into a mini reunion for my high school class (some of the coolest people I know) which only adds to the attraction. The best news on that august event, in addition to my stalwart son, who has been to all but the Covid one, is that my daughter, Wingman, and Great Aunt are all also attending. The FBR will also be along as a shopping partner for her abuela, who doesn’t crawl. This has the makings of a truly epic time. So, you can understand why I’m a little jittery as this is truly one of the social highlights of the year for me. I love going back to my hometown and when you throw in all the classmates as well as the family, all I can say is a loud and thunderous “Hooo Ahhh!”.

Stop 5 on Last Year's Crawl

There will be some notable absences from the crawl. The PCR played cute for the past couple months, teasing us with a possible appearance as he did last year. Alas, he posted that his duties as a minor celebrity in Pittsburgh would prevent him from attending. He is kind of desperate because he wants one of our well lubricated phone calls from either the 4^th or 5^th pub. The other worthy not attending is my favorite cousin. He’s only attended one but that was truly heroic. He somehow managed to get lost in Keene after the last stop, not an easy task with his hotel fifty meters from that last stop. This led to a late-night search of Keene which missed his chosen resting spot along the banks of the Ashuelot River. He turned up at his hotel a couple hours later, muddied but unbowed. For some reason his wife no longer allows him to attend, but at least I have an iron clad modus to poke fun at him for the foreseeable future.

In some other housekeeping notes, in addition to the crawl on Saturday, my Favorite Panamanian, through her work with her fellow church ladies, has arranged a breakfast to honor veterans Saturday morning. The Neighborhood Mafioso will also be there to be honored, so that’ll be cool. One of the added benefits of my recent trip to Europe was the solution to a long-standing mystery that has bedeviled Great Aunt and me. Neither of us could remember the name of the store in Turner Falls, Massachusetts that our mother would drag us to every year for school clothes shopping. These painful events probably assisted in forming my lifelong hatred of shopping. One of the other members of the tour group was from Turners Falls and readily supplied the missing name, Rockdale’s. Now that nightmare at least has a name. I’ve made some real progress on the A-Z movie watch. I’ve reached the final third of the main movie rack. While it’s taken me nearly three years to reach this point, I am accomplishing what I set out to do, thinning the ranks of movies unworthy of continued presence in the library. You can see in the photo how the two sections on the left have more space for future acquisitions than the unwatched section on the right.

I’m still doing a lot of reading, although I don’t chronicle it here anymore. Earlier in the year I found myself out of favorite authors, with nothing to ready while I waited for them to produce something. Amazon’s mind reading algorithm came to the rescue by recommending Quentin Black to me. He’s a former Royal Marine and has written a very entertaining action series, based on a character named Conner Reed. It took me a little while to get used to the British slang, but Black is an excellent story teller. He included a lot of sex in the first few books, but I guess the editors reined him in a bit because the later ones lacked that (a real shame). I rushed through and read the entire series (9 books) quickly. He now joins the stable of authors upon whom I await their next book. If you’re looking for a great read in the action/thriller genre, I heartily recommend Mr. Black’s work.

Date night yesterday saw us back at the cinema to see the latest Tom Hanks movie, Here. I know this is not getting a lot of love from the critics, but I truly enjoyed this flick. It has the interesting concept, showing the events of a single spot of land and its inhabitants, dating from the time of the dinosaurs up to the present. The de-aging process they use for many of the actors is nothing short of remarkable. Most of the movie is spent the living room of the house built on the spot with the various families that inhabit it through time. The plot jumps back and forth through time but that is handled so effectively that it is not confusing at all. I think you have to be my age to truly appreciate the film’s message of the impact of seemingly minor and some major life decisions. We see the result of those decisions play out with the main couple of Hanks and his Gump-Jenny, Robin Wright, from teenage years to their senior citizenship. That message resonates with me for the years I have under my belt. Everyone’s life is driven by decisions made when you don’t always have the right mindset or knowledge to make an informed decision. This was a message eloquently delivered by this superb cast and extraordinary special effects. I loved this movie.

Three movies fell in the A-Z watch, all keepers: Michael, too funny with Travolta as a beer guzzling archangel; Midnight in Paris, absolutely love this movie with time traveling Owen Wilson meeting Hemmingway; and Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, guilty pleasure of slapstick comedy and I’ll watch Kendrick in anything (except those Pithc Perfect things)

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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 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 (whom I miss more than I can ever explain); Tia Loca – wife’s younger sister; Wingman – my son in law; Wingmom – Wingman’s mom, of course