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| Last Night's Celebratory Wings and Beer |
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| Daughter and Son are Providing Pictures of Granddaughters Which Help Morale So Much - BRS Still Laughing |
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| FBR Helping out in Kitchen |
The next stop had a government bureaucrat
who wouldn’t accept the electric bill as evidence since it was for July and not
August. We then had to go to the electric company for a statement that the August
bills wouldn’t come out for another couple weeks. This bureaucrat kept asking our
lawyer how much my retirement pay was and my lawyer told her it was none of her
business because those taxes were paid in the US. She finally told her that my
pension was $12K a year because she thought she was looking for a bribe and
this would put her off.
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| Exploring |
Our final event was obtaining what is
called a paz y salvo but in an attempt to move into the 21st century
this is only available on line now. My wife, our lawyer and I sat around my mother
in law’s dining room table as I battled the log in system and an extremely
balky Wi-Fi signal. We were on the verge of giving up when I figured out a
missing step. I think I was channeling my two kids’ consciousness as they have laboriously
tutored me over the years on the electro-magnetic spectrum. We finally made it
to the document we needed but it wouldn’t allow me to save it, only print but,
of course, we had no printer. Another lesson from my daughter clicked in that I
could print to file and saved the document that way. I then sent it to the
lawyer’s office so she could print it out. I can only imagine what some of the older
Panamanians, without access to the internet, would have to go through to get
this paperwork.
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| Deep Dinner Conversations with Family Friend |
In way of celebration I took the family
out for wings and beers last night which was exactly what the doctor ordered.
Sustained laughter with family is the absolute best way to mitigate the pain of
dealing with entrenched bureaucrats. Since our work prior to next week’s meeting
is done we’re headed for our beach condo for the weekend. My prediction –
serial Atlas consumption.
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| Fun with Daddy |
Since telenovelas are not my calling I’ve
spent a lot of my down time here in the evenings pursuing my predecessors on Ancestry.com.
It really is addictive. I now have over 3700 people on my family tree. A couple
of the latest additions were one of the Salem ladies accused of witchcraft (but
not one that was executed) and a British knight called Bloody John. He was one
of Queen Mary’s most ardent prosecutors of protestants and he was rumored to be
a vampire in his home village. We’re also descended from the second mate on the
Mayflower who was also the navigator. I’m not sure this is something to crow
about though because I think the Mayflower was supposed to land in Virginia,
not Massachusetts. This is pretty cool stuff.
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| Keene Friend is Providing Photos of Progress Back Home Looks Like the new Floor is Almost Done |
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RECURRING CHARACTERS
BRS - Blog Reader the Sequel - second granddaughter; FBR
- First Blog Reader - first granddaughter, ABFA –
Amazing Best Family Athlete = my daughter in law, formerly known both as MEF – Most Excellent Fiancé
& MEG – Most Excellent Girlfriend; Wingman – my son
in law; Keene Friends 1 & 2 – friends since high school
from my home town of Keene, NH; Soxfather - my brother in law; Great
Aunt = my elder sister; Cantankerous Friend – friend since
grade school who likes to argue about everything, poses as radical leftist to
attract women; Pittsburgh College Roommate – high school
friend, also a “minor Celebrity” in Pittsburgh; Deckzilla
– our backyard deck which
grew to monstrous dimensions once my wife got invole din planning; Maine and
Virginia Musqueteras – two close friends of my wife – her US sisters,
my wife is the 3rdmusquetera (musketeer); Buddy – AKA
the Wonder Pooch – family dog, a black lab – hates squirrels, died
in 2017; Riggins - also known as the Grandpuppy,
son's dog, surrogate grandchild while awaiting arrival of the BRS; PanaGals –
female relatives/friends of my wife from Panama; Panamanian/Latin Mafia –
inevitable group of Latin friends my wife accumulates wherever we have lived
& their spouses; Neighborhood Mafioso - wife's close
friend and Panamanian mafia member, Favorite Panamanian - the wife
(of course); First Friday – celebrations to mark the First Friday
of the Week; Excellent Boss – my former direct boss at
work; Voices of Inappropriate Worth - members of public who
come to every Worcester public meeting to complain, all are on public
assistance along with demeanor issues
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