Walled in Again

It’s been a particularly desk bound kind of week at work which combined with the persistent week long drizzle that has defined this spring I was aching to get outside for a little bit. Last evening offered an opportunity even though it was still overcast. I had a couple hours before the daily deluge was scheduled. My Favorite Panamanian has been after me to build one of my retaining walls around part of her vast garden complex. I got to work shortly after returning home and by the time the sun set had accounted for all of the stones I had purchased the past weekend. I spent the last few minutes wandering around the lawn using the sod I had displaced to patch bare spots. I’ll finish it up this weekend which I’m promised will actually sport some sunshine.

FBR Heading Out for Pre-School Yesterday

Earlier in the day we met with the air conditioning contractor which is the last phase of the new master bedroom construction. We love our split air conditioning system, especially compared to what central air costs in electricity. It turned out the new bedroom is too far from the existing system to branch from  but he was able to come up with some options which will have that room cooled by the time the real hot weather kicks in, if it ever does in this doleful year. He also had some ideas about using the unit from our old master bedroom to cool down the other two bedrooms.

The Newest Wall

In big family news Wingman has achieved yet another level of celebrity. He was selected as a hand model!!! The below advertisement for his restaurant features his hands pouring a drink. To think I'll be able to tell people I knew him before the launch of this new phase of his career. The FBR didn't seem that impressed though but she's a tough audience.

The Twitterer in Chief is our problem and I don’t usually ascribe or even take note of what foreign opinion is, especially the snarky British, because Americans are hard to understand if you’re not part of our incredible stew. A couple friends posted the below however and it captured so many of the issues I have with our current president that I had to include it here. The hope springs eternal for some sort leader capable of bi-partisanism but we certainly don’t have it now. I don’t apologize if this offends anyone because it is the most accurate caricature of our president that I’ve read so far. This isn’t about his policies – it’s about the man.

Someone asked "Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?" Nate White, an articulate and witty writer from England, wrote this magnificent response: "A few things spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace - all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed. So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.

Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing - not once, ever. I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility - for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman. But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is - his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.

Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults - he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness. There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface. Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront. Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul.

And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that. He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat. He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege. And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully. That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead.

There are unspoken rules to this stuff - the Queensberry rules of basic decency - and he breaks them all. He punches downwards - which a gentleman should, would, could never do - and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless - and he kicks them when they are down.

So the fact that a significant minority - perhaps a third - of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think 'Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that:

 * Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are.

 * You don't need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man.

This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss. After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum. God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid. He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart. In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws - he would make a Trump. And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish: 'My God… what… have… I… created? If being a twat was a TV show, Trump would be the boxed set."

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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 involved in planning; Maine and Virginia Musqueteras – two close friends of my wife – her US sisters, my wife is the 3^rd musquetera (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 Latino 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; Deckzilla Dude – senior citizen carpenter/contractor; 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

Stormy Night

I was reminded very clearly last night of my Army career, actually multiple episodes of that time. I grew up in New England where tornadoes were something exotic and firmly assigned to the plains of the mid-west. I know now that was not exactly accurate but after living several years in that same mid-west I knew tornadoes were an annual and very serious threat there. My Favorite Panamanian was/is terrified of severe weather and this probably explains her antipathy towards the years we spent in the great state of Kansas (which I loved).

Another view of the Weekend Party on Deckzilla

This is a very roundabout route to arrive at the events of last night. Our daughter called to report that she was in the middle of a tornado warning in New Jersey and one had actually touched down a couple towns over. I will digress here to recount that my daughter in firmly in her mother’s school of thought when it comes to tornadoes. My wife always tells the story of a much younger version of my daughter being very angry with me because I was always deployed and away from home whenever a tornado warning caused disruption in our Kansas home. Hopefully she outgrew that antipathy but last night she performed like a champion.

FBR Sleeping through Storm in the Basement

Somehow (and this we’re still trying to figure out) she got the FBR out of bed, carried her down to basement, and then back up to her bedroom after the storm passed with the FBR never waking up. This is unheard of territory with the FBR, who fights sleep almost to the same degree her mother did. Since Wingman was working last night my daughter had to handle the situation alone so he should probably be ready for some of the guilt I was assigned back in Kansas days. I’m proud of my tornado trained daughter. In my own defense I was present for the only tornado that actually came down in our vicinity; we were living in Tennessee at the time.

BRS Preparing the Head out Complete with Purse and Offspring

Pied piper Working the Next Generation

Yesterday’s post was so full of the preceding weekend that I didn’t want to dilute my annual message to Soxfather on the occasion of his birth. We tried to reach him last night to assault his sanity with our usual singing rendition of happy birthday but he was predictably on his way to Fenway Park where he did a particularly bad job of motivating his beloved Red Sox. I grew up with three sisters so finding my long sought after brother back in 1979 was a very big deal. He’s done everything over the intervening years to cement my view on the intelligence of my sister in choosing him. He is simply one of the very best people I’ve met in this journey through life and I consider myself blessed to have him around. He’s already started his designated role as the pied piper of toddlers with the next generation. Happy Birthday Soxfather!

Weather was nasty around here last night but with no tornadic activity I was able to coax the Favorite Panamanian out for date night. We saw Booksmart which is a very funny film. It’s hard to imagine finding new and fertile ground in the well-trod ground of high school coming of age stories but here you go. This tells the story of two female high school overachievers who reach graduation night to realize they never partied. I have no basis to relate to that situation but the two young actresses do a superb job of pulling the viewer in. There were some incredibly funny moments as they crisscross L.A. trying to find an epic graduation party, ably assisted by the neighborhood serial killer. I particularly liked that the stereotypical supporting characters were not over the top and irredeemable. There was some real heart infused into the script without sacrificing the laughs. I think the word I’m looking for is poignant; one of the best movies I’ve seen this year.  

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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 involved in planning; Maine and Virginia Musqueteras – two close friends of my wife – her US sisters, my wife is the 3^rd musquetera (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 Latino 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; Deckzilla Dude – senior citizen carpenter/contractor; 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

Really Memorable Memorial

Together Again

I’ve been away from the internets since Friday and I can’t say that I really missed them all that much. That had everything to do with the outstanding people I got to hang out with over that period of time as well as some well-earned exhaustion. It started Friday night with arrival of my daughter and the FBR which was followed shortly thereafter by my Favorite Son, the ABFA, and the BRS. Having both my “kids” as well as both granddaughters under my roof was the perfect recipe for sustained happiness.

Very Happy Abuela

Son and the BRS

Both are Happy it Seems

Cousins!

It was during this arrival period that I also had to address the four yards of mulch that had to be delivered to cover my wife’s vast garden complex. This would not be my chosen activity after even an abbreviated First Friday celebration but it needed to be done to clear the driveway. My wife was an active participant as well helping me lift the wheelbarrow up the back hill thirty or forty times. The FBR tried to help but her contributions were mainly limited to throwing small shovel-fulls of mulch into the air, usually so they would cover the sweat soaked back of my shirt. When she wasn’t doing that she was moving pebble stone from the border areas and spreading it throughout the lawn. I was amazed when I loaded the large wheelbarrow load to clear the driveway just as the sun was setting and my son’s family arrived to have gotten it done.

FBR Pushing BRS on Deckzilla Swing

Hojaldras at Breakfast!

FBR Rock Painting Session

FBR Assisting Neighbor with Garden

Saturday was equally as busy as we prepared to host an afternoon party for friends and family. The two cousins immediately set about re-acquainting themselves and challenged each other in the cuteness department, almost non-stop. They both assisted grandpa making scrambled eggs while destroying record amounts of their abuela’s hojaldras. My son’s bunch took a quick day trip to Boston to the New England aquarium where the penguins were a huge hit with the BRS.

Penguins!

A record crowd showed up for the party. It should be noted Soxfather and Great Aunt were late again now that Great Aunt was part of the equation. Granted, it was only two minutes but time does count. J Nearly the entire Soxfather clan showed up as well my closest cousin from my father’s side and his very fun bunch. Needless to say there was also a representative faction of the Panamanian Mafia present which meant almost non-stop laughter and a constant flow of really good food. The biggest (and very best) surprise showing of the day happened early though when the doorbell rang and I opened the door to find Wingman on the front steps. It was a complete surprise to everyone, including my daughter and the FBR, that he got the night off from work and drove the 3+ hours to join us. I’d been talking with my daughter earlier in the day about how much I missed including Wingman in these gatherings.

Cosuin and His Fam at the Party

ABFA and Her Mom with some of the Mafia

BRS Motoring Between Groups

Wife with Mafia

Soxfather Fam - Great Aunt Covering Eyes of Camera Shy Soxfather Sister

Target Acquired

Great Aunt with the BRS

My son assumed his rightful role as grill master while I appointed myself as the grease fire containment crew. It was a magical afternoon as I got to talk with some of my favorite people in the world while granddaughters and Riggins flitted around and through the crowd. Deckzilla proved a perfect setting for the gathering and easily handled the forty or so people who attended. My most serious complaint concerned my favorite Hawaiian shirt which I donned for the party. Late in the day whenever I sat down the bottom three buttons would pop open, usually without my knowledge. I consider this a poor tailoring job and nothing, at all, to do with the massive amount of food and beer I had consumed. My daughter gleefully pointed out the infraction each time until I declared defeat and changed into a roomier t-shirt.

Sunday continued the fun with granddaughters in residence although the FBR, as a confirmed threenager, has decided she doesn’t need/want parental guidance anymore. This led to some spirited discussion on the matter. It was a nice leisurely morning, if hanging with two very energetic toddlers could ever be described as leisurely. Wingman had to leave early in the day to return to New Jersey which dampened the mood a little bit, especially for my daughter who returned to single parenting in the midst of the discussions mentioned above.

Wingman and I Watching Gals on Sunday Morning

BRS Ready to Garden

I ended up making two trips to the movie theater as well. My son and I saw Brightburn because I never go to see scary movies anymore unless he’s around to accompany. My wife refuses to see horror movies and I lack the courage to be scared without company (must be an Army thing). Later in the day I went to see Aladdin with my daughter and the FBR which was a whole other level of challenge. The FBR got bored with some of the talking parts and decided to go exploring. When denied this opportunity my daughter ended up with FBR’s red smoothie deposited in her lap, A whole new world, indeed.

Grandpa Getting Some Breakfast Help

Hojaldras!

We ended the day with a family dinner at the local 99 restaurant. We successfully penned the FBR into a well-guarded corner and she behaved for the most part. The BRS was very interesting at getting into that corner for cousin hangs. My son and his family were driving home after dinner which made for a melancholy dessert but I kept telling myself to appreciate the time we had together over the past two days. We posed for the family picture as we were leaving which was every bit the challenge you would expect.

Daughter Dealing with Cousins at Restaurant

Final Goodbyes

My daughter and I spent Sunday night wrestling with my Wi-Fi connection to binge watch the new season of Fleabag which had me in stitches for the entire time. This may be the funniest TV show I’ve seen in years. The best part was sharing it with my daughter. That is what I treasured most about the weekend. With the arrival of the FBR and the BRS most of the time I spend with my kids concerns their offspring. This weekend allowed me some alone time with both my son and daughter which reminded me how much I missed being around them.  

Brightburn has an interesting concept. What if the arrival of Kal-El didn’t result in Clark Kent but in a paragon of evil. I think the operative phrase would be – serious trouble. That’s why I was a little disappointed with the final product. It was a solid horror movie with Elizabeth Banks particularly good as the farmer’s wife yearning to be a mother only to find an alien crash landed in the back forty. Puberty can be tough, especially when you’re blessed with superhuman powers, and by that I mean on the other teenagers. I thought the movie spent too much time leading up to the implications instead of dealing with them. The most interesting part of the movie was the credits scene with news coverage of the emerging super villain.

Aladdin was always going to struggle trying to overcome the very long shadow of Robin Williams’ turn as the cartoon genie. Even someone with Will Smith’s undeniable charisma was bound to fall short and he does. That doesn’t mean this wasn’t worth the watch as the more sedate Smith does a commendable job which allows the two young leads the room to shine. Princess Jasmine is more than just a pretty face in this update which made me happy seeing this with my granddaughter. The special effects and action were up to Disney’s standards but the new songs fell really flat. I left with a new appreciation of just how deeply Robin Williams in ingrained into my perceptions.

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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 involved in planning; Maine and Virginia Musqueteras – two close friends of my wife – her US sisters, my wife is the 3^rd musquetera (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 Latino 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; Deckzilla Dude – senior citizen carpenter/contractor; 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