A Revisit

Last week I received a treasure trove of additional photos from our friends who were visiting us from Rhode Island. There were some great photos of my Favorite Panamanian’s epic 70^th birthday party as well as some shots of my son’s and daughter’s visit. Since one of the stated reasons for this whole blog thing is to preserve evidence of our family’s life, I’m including many of them here. It was fun going through them to relive our special time with family and friends here in paradise. Enjoy.

Pre-Party, Me with my Kids and our Panamanian Family
Except my wife Who must have been Changing

Party Location with Formerly Floating Candles

Party Revving Up

So Much Fun

Upstairs Neighbors Being Greeted by Granddaughter
Party Welcoming Crew with Czech Shadow

Granddaughters Wore the Long Dresses Under Protest

Visiting Czechs

The Shadow

Wife's Mom had So Much Fun at Party

Wingman and Daughter

Wife's Brother and His Daughter

Me with Stateside Visiting Party Goers

Maine Musquetera's Sister and her Husband

My Daughter

Wife's Mom, Brother and his Wife

Wife's Cousin Table

Wife Giving Macarena Lessons

So Funny

Party Seating Area

Wife with her Siblings

Lot of Beauty on Display that Day

Upstairs Neighbors Enjoyed it

Tia Loca About to Start Trouble Somewhere

Brother in Law with his Family

Wife with her Uncle

Mother in Law with her Sister and in-laws

Awww - ABFA and my Son

Finally got a Representative Sized Piece of Cake

Wife with Sisters and Cousins

Mom in Law with Cousins

Mother in Law Loved Sunday Party Too

Tia Loca's Son's Girlfriend Forgot Flip Flops to Cross Hot Sands

Son and His Family

Maine Musquetera

Visiting Rhode Island Friends

ABFA and Granddaughters Taking Break from Beach

World Record Sunset Social Crew

Upstairs Neighbors Savoring Sunset Gelato

Czech Friends

Tia Loca

BRS and ABFA

Joined by Daughter and FBR

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------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; Czech Connection – Czech couple who’ve become good friends along with their daughter (the Czech Shadow); 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; Upstairs Neighbors – American couple and great friends who live in condo above us in Panama; Wingmom – Wingman’s mom, of course

Importance of Neighbors and a David Day

Those of you who see my daily sunset updates have seen repeated photos of the people I have dubbed the Upstairs Neighbors. While the beach here is every bit as delightful as I have painstakingly chronicled over the past few years (just ask my recently visiting high school classmates). The best part of the annual tropical escape is linking up with the Upstairs Neighbors again. I don’t think I would enjoy the time here anywhere near as much as I do if I wasn’t afforded a daily opportunity to interact with them. That got me to thinking (I know, a dangerous undertaking). Having good neighbors is a recipe for a decidedly enjoyable life.

Wife and I at Recent Sunset

My Favorite Panamanian and I are really blessed in both of our homes. The Upstairs Neighbors are perfect counterparts for our sometimes complex (bordering on strange) social activities – read that to mean my fascination with boogie boarding, beach bonfires, and Friday night pizza. Okay so I guess most of the social complexity derives from me. They are great people, always volunteering to help and my wife’s family has similarly adopted them, always asking how they are doing. They’re about our age and also had a semi-nomadic lifestyle until settling down in Arizona (and Panama). We are similarly blessed back in Worcester with both the Neighborhood Mafiosos as well as our next-door neighbors. Ever since we left the military, we have enjoyed that fortune as both our next door neighbors in Charlton were very special people whom we try to stay in touch with. I guess this is what it means to be a civilian where we don’t have to meet new neighbors every other year. I like it and we are blessed, so we’ve got that going for us.

With both Upstairs and Other Neighbors at Same Sunset

A perfect example of what makes the Upstairs Neighbors such an important, integral part of our beach lives took place on Sunday. They had recently patronized a restaurant down the beach and liked it. As we were sitting around the sunset social gathering on Saturday, they suggested we check it out together on Sunday, done deal. The restaurant, which we had been to many times when it was operated by Plinio (before his move up the beach closer to us). It turned out to be a revelation; the place had been completely renovated and cleaned up. It still offered amazing beach views (complete with thongs) and we enjoyed a steady offshore breeze during the excellent meal and conversation.

Neighborly Lunch

View from Table

Since visitors and various other tasks have reduced the opportunity to visit the movie theater (a big deal for a certified movie nut), I pointed out to my Favorite Panamanian there were two movies I needed to see playing in David. I planned on a normal (for us) Tuesday expedition, complete with grocery shopping and family visits. My wife one-upped me and said it would happen on Monday (remember, 51% of the vote). Since we weren’t on any kind of time crunch (except for movie showtimes) we approached it casually. We stopped off at my wife’s favorite department store and that’s where our casual approach took casualties. I had to buy a new bathing suit (that boogie boarding obsession wore out the new one I showed up with in December). I had the new suit within five minutes of looking, while my Favorite Panamanian decided there were a number of items that had to be perused. She’s a dedicated peruser. Two hours later, we left with “our” purchases and decided to hit lunch on our way to the grocery store. We stopped in at an old favorite, Gallardo’s. The Upstairs Neighbors (those people again) had talked about visiting it recently and we hadn’t been there this year yet. It was a very fun lunch, for a number of reasons (mainly for the company) but high on the list would be an Oreo milkshake (totally worth the brain freeze).

Lunch with my Date Yesterday

We left the restaurant and realized we only had an hour before the movie start time. That meant traveling through the David traffic near the hospital twice and knocking out the grocery shopping in between. After that we had to drop our purchases off at her mother’s house before driving to the theater. That’s much harder than it sounds, mainly for the traffic involved. My Favorite Panamanian totally behaved at the store with only minimal perusing and I drove like a Panamanian both ways to make the movie in time to only miss a couple previews. After the first movie I decided to forego the second movie (a horror movie I would be seeing alone) and join my wife for dinner with Tia Loca and my mother-in-law. Family is always more important than seeing an inflated body count. The first order of business was to see the newly arrived furniture at Tia Loca’s recently renovated home which my wife declared as very important. We then had a very fun dinner at our old favorite, Terra’s, before the late night drive back to Las Lajas. A very good day.

The movie we saw was the best we’ve seen all year. Project Hail Mary is a great movie. It probably won’t set any movie critic’s pulse racing but it is good, old fashioned entertainment. If there was any doubt about Ryan Gosling’s star power (there isn’t) it’s firmly quashed as this movie is basically all his. He plays a more than reluctant astronaut charged with saving the planet from an infection belaboring the sun. He’s left on his own until he links up with an alien on a similar mission. Gosling deploys sone real depth in approaching both his situation and the relationship with his “buddy”. There’s some well placed humor as well as a less than subtle message about what it means to be human. I loved this movie.

Earlier in the week I finally got around to seeing Trains Dreams. This is a quiet movie about the simple and tragic life of a solitary man in the Northwest in the early 20^th century. The movie benefits greatly from a tight script and expertly uses a narrator to explain some circumstances when needed. Joel Edgerton more than deserves the Oscar nomination as the central character. He’s understated as the plot calls for but displays the anguish and pain his life inflicts in more than his share. This is a great movie to watch alone on a free afternoon or evening as you’re immersed in the harsh environment the characters’ lives play out in but where they still find simple beauty and meaning.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------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; Czech Connection – Czech couple who’ve become good friends along with their daughter (the Czech Shadow); 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; Upstairs Neighbors – American couple and great friends who live in condo above us in Panama; Wingmom – Wingman’s mom, of course

Beach Day En Fuego

The First Friday of the Week was celebrated in elegant style yesterday thanks to the Upstairs Neighbors and their visiting brother and sister-in-law. My own family semi-abandoned me by bowing out of the First Friday Family Facetime call for various reasons (all valid) while my Favorite Panamanian stayed inside dealing with a cold. The Neighbors’ bunch filled in admirably even though we were both guilty of calendar malfeasance. Yes, I know, that last statement requires explanation. If you stop interrupting me, I can get to it. (sorry I was imagining explaining this to my spouse).

Very Fun Coco Loco Table

Both the Upstairs Neighbors and I received a text saying there would be a live singer down the beach at Coco Loco (the former Johnny Fiesta’s). The text said the event would be on Friday afternoon, so we all planned on going. As we drove up yesterday, there was virtually no one at the place. At this point we checked the text and realized the event is for next Friday. Not to waste an opportunity, we decided to stop in anyways. I’m so glad we did because it was a very fun afternoon. The beer was very cold, there was a nice offshore breeze, a couple well equipped thongs across the street, and a very entertaining table. At times, the unplanned occasions are the best. Without the music and huge crowd, we were able to converse and enjoy the company. A couple of iguanas crawled in on the rafters to check out what was going on as did a veritable herd of ducks. One of the best aspects of life at the beach in Panama is how relaxing life is. Yesterday was a perfect example and a lot more relaxing than usual, just a great afternoon hanging out with friends, old and new. My only complaint was the arrival of a delivery car which blocked the view of the thongs. It was almost as if my absent wife ordered it.

The Target Stump in front of What We Got for a Sunset

I know this will upset all my sunset “fans” back in the States but we were rained out of the sunset for the first time all year. Rainy season is definitely around the corner. My Favorite Panamanian came down to join us, but when she saw the rain, turned around and went back upstairs. This was funny on a couple levels because I told the Upstairs Neighbors as we sheltered under the rancho, that with the rain, my wife would never come outside, not knowing this had already happened. The rain  was problematic on a couple levels. We had promised a beach bonfire for the visitors and they were leaving Saturday morning. We had been gathering driftwood all week in preparation. We had a tight window to prepare the fire because our chosen target, the huge stump from the last fire, was besieged with the highest tide of the year. We had to wait until the tide receded to set up the fire and had only about a half hour before sunset to accomplish this. Then the rain started. It was almost as if there were some cosmic forces trying to prevent our conflagration.

Success!

The Gallery

We persevered. The clouds cleared, after the sun was definitively set, and we made our way to the site after a hurried dinner. I was a little nervous about the rain soaked tinder but after a tenuous start, it blazed away in typical Las Lajas fashion. I was able to assuage my pyromaniacal tendencies by shuttling a constant stream of additional wood into the fire. That damnable stump continued to laugh at my efforts to reduce it. There was a vigorous lightning storm in the distance out on the bay which added a light show. It was another entertaining beach bonfire and we were able to send off the visitors with another memory. We didn’t have to worry about cleaning up because that high tide would be back in the early morning hours.

The Resident Pyromaniac at Work

I went out this morning to find I had finally made some headway with the stump. All the branches which had been so solid when we left had burned off and the stump itself was a mere shadow of itself. Victory!!!! In another, most welcome win, Keene Friend 1 returned home today. He fought a persistent cough while he was here and finally got some medical care to address it when he got home.

All That Remains of Stump

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------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; Czech Connection – Czech couple who’ve become good friends along with their daughter (the Czech Shadow); 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; Upstairs Neighbors – American couple and great friends who live in condo above us in Panama; Wingmom – Wingman’s mom, of course