Early Morning Arrival

My Favorite Panamanian and I are safely back in the gentle embrace of Worcester, Massachusetts. It’s going to take me a while to get used to wearing socks and long sleeves again, but I relished being a little cold outside for the first time since 2025. The return home was a bit of an adventure, but it feels so good to be home. I’m writing once again from the depths of my subterranean hideout, the Man Cave. I had to knock down a couple spider webs and there’s still some Christmas stuff hanging around as well as the odd patch of mold, but all in good time.

With my Wife's Family for Wings and Laughter

It was a bit sad to see the condo all closed up and put to sleep for eight months. I took these pictures of the aftermath of a couple days of really intense cleaning thanks to the really intense cleaner I’m married to. She didn’t seem to appreciate my doubts as to why we had to deep clean the place, since, after eight months of tropical humidity, we’ll have to do it all over again in December. So it goes. After the final throes of our cleaning frenzy, we decamped Saturday morning for David to spend some time with Maria’s mom and family before our Sunday departure.

Sad Condo All Packed up
Wife's iPad Next to the Lamp

That time in David turned out to be a lot of fun, as usual since my wife’s family was involved. My wife had a hasty repair done to her recent toenail polish which was damaged in a tragic boogie board braking incident. It is still too near in time for me to adequately express my shock and dismay at this unfortunate incident (hee hee). Once the repair was accomplished, as well as an unscheduled haircut, she set out with Tia Loca for some last minute, you guessed it, shopping. Left to my own devices, I recovered from the cleaning energy expenditures by reclining in an air conditioned room and reading. Luckily, I had the latest John Sanford Lucas Davenport thriller to devour. It did not survive the trip home, as usual, it was great.

My wife and Tia Loca returned to the house with a huge order of chicken wings. We moved a table out to the front porch and in short order my wife’s entire family was sitting around telling stories from their youth while devouring the wings. Tia Loca and my brother-in-law played their usual game of trying to one up each other with embarrassing stories. There was non-stop laughter well into the evening. It was a great way to say goodbye to these incredible people.

My wife confronted another crisis late in the day when she learned she had left her beloved iPad back in the condo. We confirmed it in the above photo I took of the condo before we left. This was a true disaster for my wife. I wasn’t really upset because this meant I won’t be hearing the loud daily masses she broadcasts as well as the loud playing of Russian soap operas dubbed into Spanish (it’s a thing). We contacted the Upstairs Neighbors who were still in Las Lajas. They rescued the iPad and will take it with them to Arizona and then mail it to us, so I’ll be hearing what happens between Ludmilla and Yevgeny sometime in May. In a hilarious move, the Upstairs Neighbors have been sending us photos of the iPad as it makes its way north with them. I’ll publish them as a set when it completes its journey, way too funny.

The First Photo, iPad Saying Goodbye to Las Lajas

My brother-in-law and his wife showed up early Sunday morning to transport us to the airport. After making so many trips to the same airport this year to pick up friends and family it felt odd to be the ones leaving. Copa Airlines had a big surprise for us. We are lucky enough to book our trips in business class and were stunned when we got onto the plane and saw an amazing set up. The flight was only for thirty-six minutes but we had fully reclining seats and large personal video screens, including game console controllers. We held out hope we would get a similar setup for our trip to Boston but that turned out not to be.

On Our Way Home

The Cool Seats

The Upstairs Neighbors informed us that with business class tickets we could access the VIP lounge in Panama City free of charge, something we had never done. Since we had a five-hour layover before the flight to Boston, this was key. After the obligatory shopping stop to find and secure my Favorite Panamanian’s Mother’s Day gift, we checked out the lounge. It was so cool, a free lunch buffet, free drinks, and supremely comfortable seating. After lunch, I found the Celtics playoff game playing over the bar and watched the entire thing in a comfy chair before we left to find our Boston flight.

In the VIP Lounge

The flight to Boston was uneventful although I did get one last sunset in. This one was while we were over Cuba. While we did not have any of the cool entertainment options of the first flight, there was a QR code placed in our booth where we could log into and watch movies or TV shows. I could also track where the plane was and, being a huge map gee, loved tracking where we were as we made our way up the East Coast. My wife was less impressed with my excitement, she was trying to sleep. Getting through immigration was so quick, they did not even look at our passports, we looked at a camera and then had to say what our names were. That was it, I’m guessing facial recognition software at play.

Sunset Over Cuba

Since Logan Airport continues to go through its seemingly endless construction cycle, as we walked out to where we thought our van would be, we ran into a huge crane. We wrestled our luggage back to the terminal and received a text from the driver who directed us to the new location. That would have been really helpful ahead of time. At least the van didn’t break down this time. We pulled into our driveway about 2am and were in bed by 2:30 after a very long day. Of course, we had no food in the house, so we headed out for breakfast this morning. We didn’t want to hit the grocery store hungry. I had never been to the iconic Lou Roc’s diner, a Worcester landmark. I was completely unprepared for the huge helping they are famous for. I ate the whole thing, thinking (when it was delivered) that this was proof positive we were no longer in Panama. My wife could only manage half of hers and said we had to go find a homeless guy to give the other half to (it’s who she is). Again, so good to be home.

Tulips Coming Up in Wife's Vast Garden Complex

Amazing Breakfast at Lou Roc's

Front Yard Tree Starting to Bloom

FBR has Blue Hair, Huh!

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

Fuego Finale

This will be my final post from Panama as our beach time is rapidly dwindling in the face of the onerous onslaught of time. All that being said, I’m sneakily excited to experience temperatures in the 40s next week in New England. Of course, that could be because I am sick to death of the week long cleaning extravaganza we’ve had going on. Today’s little slice of heaven was cleaning our gas grill in the 90-degree heat and 100% humidity that tells me the rainy season is imminent. One of the true downsides of getting older is the two hour cleaning exercise drained my meager energy resources much faster than what seems fair.

Pyro on the Loose

I chose to do that little workout because my Favorite Panamanian was gone for the day back in David. I always seem to work better without supervision which would have been omnipresent if she was on station. One of the lessons I learned early in my marriage is that wives are issued, upon walking down the aisle, with an encyclopedic knowledge of virtually any chore, enough to more than adequately guide their hapless spouses through practically any task. But I digress. I wheeled the grill downstairs and utilized a de-greaser (as recommended in a handy YouTube video) which made the work so much easier. In addition to the grill, I finished the final laundry and packed my lone suitcase (before it could be commandeered by certain spouses). There was also the cleaning and storage of beach furniture along with, well, you get the picture. On the upside, the waves were great once again for both morning and afternoon boogie boarding sessions. My wife made it back just in time for a rousing sunset social hour with the Upstairs Neighbors.

Today's Sunset

The big event though, titularly hinted at, was the final beach bonfire of the year. That happened yesterday with the more than able assistance of those worthies once again, the Upstairs Neighbors. I was so excited about the impending fire that I almost forgot to take the sunset social crew shot. I was rescued from that faux pas by the Upstairs Neighbor lady who reminded me just as we were getting on the elevator. They had done yeoman work earlier in the week, while I was out of town, gathering a huge pile of driftwood. I borrowed a rake and a wheelbarrow from the condo caretakers yesterday which I used to rake up the very dry kindling lined up at the high tide mark along our beach from a very high recent one.  We also utilized it to load up a couple huge driftwood logs.

Yesterday's Sunset

The Crew in Front of the Elevator

The result was a very respectable bonfire prepped on top of the seemingly invulnerable huge stump that had defied two earlier fires and continued to taunt us from its position just down the beach. My pyromaniacal side was in high gear as I approached the fire to ignite the festivities only to have my lighter decide to die. That meant the long walk back up to the condo to retrieve some matches. It was totally worth it as, with one match, the fire started on one side and quickly spread through the thick layer of very dry kindling and we soon as a veritable conflagration on our hands.

Bonfire Prepped

We Have Ignition

Upstairs Neighbors Sitting as Close as was Comfortable -
Fire Was so Hot it Killed the Humidity in the Vicinity

That Didn't Keep the Pyromaniac Away Though

The Upstairs Neighbors are good sports about letting me flit around the fire making adjustments as needed. Yep, a definite pyro. The best part remains sharing this with these best of friends and reflecting on what a great year we’ve had together at Las Lajas. I went out this morning to find the remains of the fire still smoldering despite a near hit by the overnight high tide. I threw the last small piece of a large log back onto the pile. The afternoon high tide swept up and over the fire, finally killing it. The recalcitrant stump is no more, it has been reduced to a vestige of its former confounding self. It was a great sendoff, especially since my wife and I got to share it with our good friends and we didn’t start any major brush fires  (as they say, that’s my story and etc. etc.). The next time I write will be from the Man Cave!!!!

The Remains Still Smoldering this Morning

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

Reunited and it Feels so…..Busy!!

My Favorite Panamanian has returned from her nursemaid role assisting her mother recover from her recent fall. That is all to the good although my wife was seriously exhausted from those efforts. It was worth it to see my mother-in-law back to herself and looking healthier than I’ve seen her this year. It’s very good to have my Favorite Panamanian back in residence. We returned Saturday night after attending my brother-in-law’s birthday party. We now have only five days remaining on the beach as we leave on Saturday in order to catch our early morning flight out of David on Sunday morning.

Friday Night Pizza with Upstairs Neighbors

With our Dedicated Matre Di

My brother-in-law’s party was a bit of an adventure also. I’d been to his house twice last year and thought I could remember the route through the rabbit warren of streets where he lives. I was wrong. I turned off one street too early and thought I could wander back to the right street. Again, I was wrong. Adding to the excitement were the three Panamanian ladies I had in the car with me, offering their cogent suggestions and observations as I wandered through some slums. One of the most clear came from my wife’s twin sister, a teacher. She said her students warned her never to enter the area we were in as it was a very violent gang neighborhood. So, I had that going for me.

At the Birthday Party with my Co-Pilots

The Party Crowd

We reached out to the birthday boy who sent a map with his house pinpointed on it. That was very little help as he couldn’t provide an actual address. I noted a street near the house and used Waze to navigate towards that. My wife, ever the “helpful” co-pilot, was looking at the map and told me I was going the wrong way. Once I followed her directions, she admitted I had been right and we U-turned back the way we came, eventually passing right by the party location. Since they had it sealed up pretty good, we didn’t recognize it. Eventually I got us back to the airport road and my brother-in-law came out to guide us in.

Birthday Boy and his Wife with the Hulkster Assisting

Good Times

After all that “fun” the party was sort of anticlimactic. Most of the other party guests were from my brother-in-law’s wife’s family, very nice people. The six-year-old dancing star of their wedding remembered me and welcomed me with a Hulk stance. We sat around in a large circle eating dinner and then ice cream in the sweltering heat. My wife was on her last legs as the nurse duty offered very little in the way of sleep. We begged off early and headed for Las Lajas. I’ve written before about how much my wife seems to enjoy packing suitcases. She denies it but, after a day of rest on Sunday, she launched this morning into packing and providing abundant guidance on what I should be doing to assist in the effort. It’s very important the condo gets cleaned to surgical standards before we leave it for eight months. At least that is what she tells me. We are currently involved in that effort which resulted in the titular “busy”.

Beach This Morning

I’ve still managed to get out for boogie boarding this morning, before she got up a full head of steam. It must be time to go home because I cannot seem to derive the same amount of joy out of the boogie boarding. It could be the lousy waves we’ve been having lately but I think I’m ready. Another sign that it is time to go home was yesterday’s sunset ceremony. The rainy season is imminent. After a gloomy late afternoon the clouds settled in and as we walked out to set up for the sunset social crew, it started sprinkling. My wife, despite coming from here, one of the rainiest countries on earth, executed an about face and declared she wouldn’t endanger her freshly washed hair in the rain. The Upstairs Neighbors and I bravely set out to our designated location but had to retreat to a rancho when the rain picked up. It was still fun hanging out with them.

Under the Rancho Sunset Crew

Poor Sunset

Speaking of fun, the BRS and BR3 learned this past weekend the big secret their parents had in store for them. They’re going to Disneyworld!!! They were understandably excited when we spoke to them briefly. In a nod to a well-remembered and cherished visit of his own when he was about their age, he booked them to stay in the Wilderness Lodge, which is where we stayed on that earlier trip. The FBR had the tips of her hair colored earlier in the weekend because she was attending a concert with her mom that involved a pop star where that was a thing. I’d, predictably, never heard of that worthy. The in-family pop star is out on the west coast this week as Wingman and his band have a weeklong tour.

FBR's Gilded Hair

Finally, yesterday was also an auspicious day in that it marked the date our good Lord decided the world needed a dedicated commentator on, well, just about everything. The Cantankerous Friend marked his 71^st birthday yesterday and Keene Friend sent me this picture at old friend, the Lab ‘n Lager, along with some other good friends. I’m sure the afternoon was spent digesting my good friend’s “observations”. I wish I could have been there and look forward to getting back to buy my share of birthday beers for my Cantankerous Friend. Yep, ready to get home, if I survive this week’s cleaning efforts.

At the Lab Yesterday

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