Welcome Respite

The weather finally turned a little bit yesterday as the penetrating cold retreated for a mild January thaw over the weekend. This allowed me to fairly comfortably address some minor snow blower repairs because I’m not delusional enough to believe that the New England winter is through with us. I stole a march on my usual Sunday chores as well as I’d planned on running up to my hometown to haunt Keene Friend until I received a very welcome text from Great Aunt on Friday. She and Soxfather declared they were coming north Saturday evening to take me out to dinner.

Was Having too Much Fun to Take Photo Last Night
But this in an Archival Photo of the Gang I was Hanging With

I shifted focus and invited Keene Friend to come down for the dinner so I’d at least have a date. I was also going to use the opportunity to convince him to come work for me in the near future. After the obligatory movie (see below) Keene Friend blew into town to catch the end of the movie It with me in the Man Cave while our dinner compatriots journeyed north from Rhode Island. Upon their arrival we connected with the ABFA of the swollen feet and Favorite Son as their waiting period is entering the critical final weeks. The ABFA continued to bustle around the house seemingly immune to being 8.5 months into her work on the BRS. We also caught up with the FBR, Daughter, and Wingman. The FBR seemed a little confused by the gathered worthies as she tried to steal some of her mother’s food – she is a veritable chow hound. They also reported the FBR had started speaking some Spanish words courtesy of her abuela and Dora the Explorer.

Cold No Deterrent to the FBR

Hair is Getting So Long

Still the Cutest 

The Panamanian Ladies at the Condo

That abuela was having adventures of her own down at our beach condo. She and the Neighborhood Mafioso had no less than seven of my wife’s family show up for a girls weekend at the condo. I’m sure the decibel level reached near record levels. My Favorite Panamanian was a scandalized at the beach on Friday when a gringo renting a house down the beach from the condo showed up on the beach au natural. She felt obligated to take the accompanying picture.

Naked Gringo on the Beach!

We went to Brew City for dinner because that’s never a bad idea. It was packed and we were told it would be a thirty minute wait for a table. While we were waiting I maneuvered to a spot I could see into the main room and my guardian waitress from First Friday spied me. She immediately to came the maître di and told him she had a table available for us. He meekly escorted us to the table and said we must know some important people because we were seated ahead of six other groups. I said no, I just tip very well. The magic that is First Friday continues to permeate. It was a great dinner with three of my favorite people in the world.

Earlier in the day I saw The Post. I figured this would be an overblown Oscar platform for Hanks and Streep but it turned out to be one of my favorite movies in a long while. They’re no denying the immense acting talent on display but it was the story that caught me up even though I lived through it and thought I knew all about the Pentagon Papers. It’s a timely lesson as well on the bedrock importance of a free press and the responsibilities that come with it. Timely in that the news media tries to re-invent itself in the social media age and is in danger of falling into a morass of its own making. Streep plays the understated Katherine Graham struggling to emerge from the male dominated world she finds herself surrounded in while Hanks as Ben Bradlee fights to publish an important story in the face of Nixonian attacks. While it may sound dry it’s anything but that. Expert story teller Spielberg is at the top of his game with this very important basic civics lesson of a republic.

The Bad Cinema project count finally, thankfully reaches #100 out of 100, with Silver Needle in the Sky, yet another one of those annoying Rocky Jones, Space Ranger TV series from the 1950s. I don’t know what I was thinking when I embarked on this masochistic enterprise and am truly thankful my ordeal is over. I may be off bad cinema for a long, long time.