Beefing Up

We’re in the middle of prep week prior to our hopefully epic trip back to Europe next week. I haven’t been back to Europe twice in a year since the late 1970s. I can “thank” Hamas for their ill-advised attack on Israel last year. Originally, we were supposed to travel to Israel and Italy in late October. It’s all about the timing, as military doctrine once advised. The area blew up two weeks before we were scheduled to arrive. The travel agency postponed the trip for a year, but it isn’t a whole lot better this year as the Israelis and their Iranian backed foes continue to exchange jabs. The trip was morphed into a tour of Italy and the Balkans. It’s a church-based tour which includes attending mass daily, so, very excited 😊. My Favorite Panamanian is over the moon with that last factoid. I’m being tolerant since she suffered through the weather of Ireland and Scotland for my dream trip earlier this year.

Stickered Voters

She’s already packed and unpacked the luggage twice. If there’s ever an Olympic sport for suitcase packing, she would be a gold medalist favorite. I’m not sure why but she revels in the opportunity to pack (I’m sure Freud would have something to say about that). As soon as we’re back from this trip she’ll start packing for our end of year trip back to Panama. We were struggling to decide on what our big meal of the week was going to be. Instead of cooking a big lunch each day, she prepares a large one on Monday and we eat the leftovers for the rest of the week; so much simpler. Anyway, this week I spotted a large roast beef in the store which brought back memories of my youth when this was one of the staples of my mother’s table. My Favorite Panamanian scored a recipe from the internet and I’ve been in heaven all week savoring her first ever roast beef. So there.

Addition to the Man Cave
Found License Plates From our Time in the Military

My wife and I are now official voters in the 2024 presidential election. Since we get back just a couple days before election day we opted to do the mail-in vote thing. That was remarkably easy and we even got a couple stickers to prove we’re voters. Now we can join the rest of America in praying for the results. I guess that daily mass thing is looking better. I’m still mystified for the continued support for Trump. He tells blatant lies and gets a pass. I still believe in honor and he has none. I’m not happy voting for a liberal democrat but if he’s the alternative, there is no other decision to be made. He continues to deny being the architect for the single most serious attack on our form of government in recorded history, January 6. We cannot afford four more years of chaos and hopefully the Republican Party can emerge from whatever fog he’s submerged them in. 

FBR Facetiming Last Night, Fireworks Behind Her

Then Confetti

And Balloons

We spoke with the FBR and my daughter last night, or I should say, I tried to talk with them. The FBR has discovered how to elicit special effects on the iPad using hand gestures. The attached photos show a couple of them. When her abuela saw this, it became a contest between the two of them, which made a rational conversation between the two adults (my daughter and I) difficult. At least they had some fun with it.

Five movies fell in the A-Z watch, all keepers: Matrix Reloaded, not as great as first one but still awesome; Matrix Revolutions, satisfying if very sad end to original trilogy; Matrix Resurrections, so fun to see the original cast back after so many years; Maze Runner, when you knew Dylan O’Brien was going to be a star; Maze Runner The Scorch Trials, epic sequel to the Maze Runner.

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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

Jersey Jaunt

We arrived late last night from our latest trip to my daughter’s home in New Jersey. We made a belated attempt to celebrate her birthday as she was decisively engaged during both the weekends since that event took place. Wingman wasn’t present since he’s out on the Left Coast preparing for a couple Las Vegas concerts his band will participate in. That left it to my Favorite Panamanian and I to ensure our favorite daughter’s birthday was properly recognized. In a phone conversation earlier in the week the FBR declared that we had to come on Friday instead of the planned Saturday. Unbeknownst to us, our daughter perpetuated the story we would be coming on Saturday, so we could surprise the FBR. She shouldn’t have been surprised since it is well known we can deny our granddaughters literally nothing.

Lunch, Sans Wingman, at Wingman's Restaurant

That meant, of course, a mid-day trip through my traffic nemesis, the State of Connecticut. That nefarious environment exacted its usual pound of flesh, in the form of the usual delays on the Merritt Parkway even though there were no accidents or construction closures. It was just Connecticut. We only lost 45 minutes to these delays, which isn’t bad for a trip through the Nutmeg State. Upon arrival our daughter greeted us and then returned to her lair (attic office space) to finish up her workday. We then departed for the FBR’s school where we successfully surprised the FBR as she walked out. She emitted a scream and leapt into her abuela’s arms, which did nothing positive for her surgically repaired knee, but again, we can deny granddaughters, etc. etc.

FBR Surprised

We accomplished the Family Facetime, pizza night and movie night in one fell sweep. Before all that action though, the FBR insisted on taking us on a walk around the block. She recently became friends with a couple, very outgoing neighborhood cats who seemed to be waiting for her arrival. We made three different trips there over the weekend. She loves animals. Before we cranked up the movie, we revealed my Favorite Panamanian’s latest birthday cake creation, dedicated to our daughter’s love of reading. I committed a family faux pas by forgetting to bring Bonecrusher with me, so she had to slice the cake with a mere knife (very unsettling).

Mother and Daughter on the "Cat Walk"

FBR with her Quarry

3 Generations of Beauty

Birthday Cake Time

Birthday Guirl with her Mom and Daughter

Back to the Cats on Saturday

One of the highlights of the weekend for me was the time I got to spend with the birthday girl exploring movies. She showed me a great NYC-centric flick called Mistress America which was incredibly funny. She also shared a Netflix series called Nobody Wants This, which had me literally bouncing on the couch laughing. We only saw a couple episodes, but we’ll finish it here. It has a typical L.A. gal falling for a rabbi and the immediate war that entails with their families. Way, way too funny, one of the best written shows I’ve seen in a long time.

On Saturday we were supposed to be exposed to the anticipated splendor of the FBR’s cheerleading squad. That, however, failed to materialize as the football game was canceled. We filled in the gap by patronizing Wingman’s restaurant. This was our first chance to experience what has been the driving force in his life for the last year. He joined us via Facetime from the wrong coast and I could tell he was a little bummed not to be with us for this first visit. It is a game-based eatery and was doing great business while we were there. They’ve obviously established a great vibe as there were several family groups eating while enjoying playing board games with each other. This led to the FBR challenging me to a game of Battleship which I hadn’t played in more than fifty years.

Outside Wingman's Restaurant

My Lunch Buddy

Battleship!!!

The next planned event had me running for cover. The ladies decided some clothes shopping for the FBR was needed. The success of my marriage is based largely on never going shopping together. My wife takes it entirely too seriously, loving every minute spent and I hate it with a white-hot passion. So. I volunteered to mow my daughter’s lawn while they spent a very, very long time shopping. I considered it a bullet successfully dodged. My Favorite Panamanian’s credit card was not so lucky but the smiles on their faces, especially the FBR’s, was worth whatever it cost. We ended the day with a meal my wife spent a couple days making at the request of the birthday girl, arroz con pollo (the national dish of Panama).

2d Gen Curbsiders Waiting

Very Fun Dinner Crowd

Characters, All of Them

Sunday was a fairly quiet day starting out with all of us attending mass and then breakfast at our favorite diner. My daughter had a bunch of pre-FBR-school-week duties to take care of while the FBR had been promised time with her neighborhood friends. This allowed me to take up my usual autumnal coach potato position for NFL football. In a major blow to my personal calm, they do not have the NFL Red Zone, but I somehow survived, watching an entertaining game with Wingmom. Last evening we walked around the block to their favorite restaurant for a very fun dinner with one of the other Curbside Girls resident in Maplewood along with her kids. We hadn’t seen her in a very long time, having known her since our Carlisle days. There was a bit of a wait, but it was fun catching up with her and watching the three 2d Gen Curbsiders enjoy each other’s company. We hit the road for home as the FBR’s bedtime arrived. My daughter said it would make that event less taxing if the FBR knew we had already departed. So, I was up against Connecticut again, but it seemed surprised at our late night appearance and only mounted token resistance. A great weekend spent with some really special people.

Four movies fell in the A-Z watch, all keepers: Mask of Zorro, enjoyable remake of that classic character, and a young Zeta-Jones, Wow, just Wow; Masters of the Universe, love this movie because of the connection with my son, who worshipped He-Man when he was very young; The Matador, Perce Brosnan as an alcoholic failing assassin befriending a befuddled businessman, very funny dark comedy; and the Matrix, groundbreaking, possibly best sci fi movie ever made.

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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

Leafy Day

My Favorite Panamanian and I woke up yesterday and started comparing our upcoming calendars. We realized we had forgotten to schedule one of our favorite activities of the year, our annual leaf peeping day. Each year, usually on Columbus Day, we take a day to drive through New England admiring the foliage and generally just wandering the back roads. I made the snap decision that we weren’t going to miss it, told her to pack her gear, and off we went. I was about an hour into the drive when I realized I had made a huge error. Earlier this year, I had promised Great Aunt we would take her along for the trip. This amounted to a huge “whoops” and was only compounded a few minutes later when my Favorite Panamanian reminded me of the promise made. In my defense, I am getting older and if memory serves me correctly (poor choice of standard there) beer was involved when I made the promise. Next year, I pledge.

My Traveling Partner and I Yesterday Atop Greylock

Each year I try to take a different route while still hitting some of our favorite spots. I set a destination of Mount Greylock in Western Massachusetts as our initial objective. The GPS system was getting irritated with me as it kept trying to coax me onto the major highways instead of the small byways I followed. It was a beautiful trip through some places in Massachusetts I had never heard of, much less traveled through. It resembled Appalachia in some places more than Massachusetts. I have a character defect where I genuinely enjoy being places I’ve never been before and yesterday qualified. The drive to the mountain took a lot longer than if I had used the major highways but I engaged the Robert Frost mode, taking that less traveled way, and it made a difference.

Some Views from Those Back Roads

We hadn’t been to Greylock in years and the drive up the mountain remains a true delight. My Favorite Panamanian was a little fearful of the walk up to the summit from the car, but her knee passed the test with flying colors. It was a beautiful day on top of the mountain and we could clearly see Mount Monadnock in the distance. Since it as a non-holiday, weekday there wasn’t much of a crowd either. I was able to climb the narrow staircase in the summit tower without issue. My wife was practicing some new photo posing recommendations she found while surfing the internet during her convalescence. I was mystified as to their efficacy, but she assured me it was the way to go.

View From Greylock

Trying to Up My Selfie Game

Wifely Posing

Me In front of the Tower

Our next stop was one of those aforementioned favorite spots, the Golden Eagle Restaurant. It sits at the famous hairpin turn on Route 20 above North Adams. It offers spectacular views extending into both New York and Vermont. We were late in arriving and had the entire balcony seating area to ourselves. We couldn’t decide if the colors were up to their usual standard. It seemed in some places it was past peak while others were still green. I heard an ominous report recently on the news. The weather lady said that the forests of New England are transitioning to mid-Atlantic versions as the weather gradually warms up and that in a few decades we won’t have the same fabulous foliage. That’s kind of scary and yet another reason to enjoy what we have while we have it.

Overlooking North Adams from Greylock

Tower from the Other Side

Some More Posing

Wife Said there were Too Many Photos of Her Being Taken

She is Much More Photogenic Though

Exhibit A

After our late lunch, we snuck up into Vermont which seemed almost deserted. We were on some of those back roads again. We wandered into Wilmington and then followed Route 9 to the overlook at the Hogback Mountain Gift Shop. Another of those special places, this is where we spread the ashes of my mother, a proud Vermonter, born and bred, despite all her years of New Hampshire residency. There was a lot of nostalgia in play because this was on the route we always took when traveling between Keene and my grandmother’s house in New York when I was growing up. We never stopped at the overlook though. We should have, it is spectacular. After the obligatory shopping this stop entails (I was with my wife, remember), we set out for home. I used the major roads now, as the sun was setting, obscuring whatever foliage was about. It was still a fun day hanging out with the gal I’m married to. It still surprises me we actually enjoy hanging out with each other. Although, she did throw away my favorite slippers without informing me.

View from Hogback

Earlier in the week, on a much more mundane level, I finally tackled a procrastinated task that had been sitting at my feet in the Man Cave office. I’m honest when I say I remove movies from the library if they don’t pass muster in the A-Z review. I had a box under the desk that I was shoving them into. The box became two and finally five without any kind of organization. My Favorite Panamanian, under spousal agreement, has no authority to mandate changes in this one area of the house, but she had been looking at the eyesore it represented each time she walked in. It is a wifely tactic, and it finally worked. It took a lot longer than I anticipated as I’ll eventually sell them but they’re now in three Coors Lite boxes, packed orderly and out of the way, while a new box awaits further ejections.

The Initial Mess

In granddaughter news, the BRS is thriving in First Grade. My son says that she now reads to him each night instead of the other way around. The FBR recently had an adventure in Baltimore. She and Wingman went down there to visit her other grandpa and took in the world famous National Aquarium while there. The FBR has become quite a fan of sharks after seeing the ubiquitous specials bandied about. She says her favorite is the Mako. Her fandom went so far as to tell her abuela she wanted a shark themed birthday cake instead of the earlier choice of Taylor Swift. I’m sure it will change a couple more times before the actual day, which is approaching all too quickly. That damnable calendar again. I’ll say it again. No one warned me about how much faster time passes when you get old.

FBR Loose in Baltimore

Four movies fell in the A-Z watch, all keepers: The Martian, absolutely love this movie, best one Damon has ever made; Mary Poppins, a true classic, still makes you smile; M*A*S*H*, one of best and funniest anti-war movies ever made; The Mask, Carrey with a perfect vehicle for his zaniness and debut role for Cameron Diaz, so sexy.

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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