Friday Returns

Abandoned once again by my ever travelling wife and her accomplices, the latest version of the PanaGals, I took the opportunity to sneak back home to Keene. The Panamanian contingent was heading up into the wilds to linkup with the Maine Musquetera for the weekend, I'm sure shopping will be involved at some point.

After a quick ceremony to mark the First Friday of the Week I stuck the Wonder Pooch in the car and headed north. He really likes it when we take my car because he gets to stick his snout into the wind. I came up to Keene on Friday to hopefully hang out with the Cantankerous Friend, who's had a very tough week - see yesterday's post. He was decisively engaged early in the evening with family obligations so Keene Friend and I descended on downtown Keene in search of pizza and beer. We ended up in Athens Pizza which had plenty of seating despite a monster traffic jam at the front counter.  After pizza and watching the newly arrived college crowd in their lemming like wanderings around the center of town it was back to Keene Friend's house for the Patriot's game.
Buddy did his usual job of barking at virtually every small noise he heard. There was more than enough of that since Keene Friend lives in a house near campus and is surrounded by houses stuffed with students. After barking at every mosquito brushing up against the window he was completely quiet when the Cantankerous One showed up and knocked on the door. I don't think Buddy has a future as a guard dog, just a drama queen.

The Cantankerous One joined us for the game and brought us up to speed on his week. He seemed genuinely surprised by all the thoughts and prayers sent his way. Despite his acerbic wit people do see beyond that, at least most do. He seemed more like himself as the shock has had more time to settle. He even launched a couple of his trademark zingers towards the Keene Friend and I, normalcy was returning. We hope to get together again today.

This Made it Feel Better

The Patriots looked rusty, especially a certain quarterback and the bend don't break defense is back which means teams will march up and down the field on them again. We switched back and forth with the  Red Sox game which involved the wrong Japanese closer. Tazawa invents new ways to raise blood pressure each time he's called upon to close. Luckily even he couldn't blow a three run lead in the 10th despite walking four players in a row, who does that! I went to sleep listening to the mating dance conversations outside by the massed college students, maybe I can get Buddy barking real early some morning to re-pay their considerate behavior.

Scary Dude