I’m so happy to be back in the office today which is
a marked departure from the way I’m usually thinking on Monday mornings. The
weekend got off to a rollicking start with another group FaceTime First Friday celebration.
I got my Favorite Panamanian away from her sewing and macaroon baking long
enough to fully participate, albeit with moscato instead of beer. These family
group calls are definitely filling the gaping void left with the forced closure
of Brew City.
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| My Favorite Panamanian and I at First Friday |
The bedecked part comes from my weekend with
Deckzilla – which sounds like the title to a bad sci fi movie. If only. The
winter, precipitation, and the morning sun have combined to give Deckzilla its
annual spring appearance of gray desolation. One of my rites of spring is to
attack said weathering with my power washer. Sixteen hours spread over Saturday
and Sunday saw the job done although I’m sure my neighbors all hate me from hearing
the constant buzz of the power washer. In corollary news, I’m getting too old to
spend sixteen hours doing this kind of stuff, especially since part of it calls
for me to balance atop the damned thing.
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| Deckzilla Sunday Morning with Just the Elevated Part Done |
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| Monday Morning |
I spent six hours on Saturday knocking out the
elevated part of the deck assisted by a fairly brisk wind. I relearned the
lesson that as you get tired you make mistakes, like forgetting you can’t
shuffle your feet to get a more comfortable position when balanced on a slim 2
by 4 eight feet in the air. The less said about that the better. Sunday saw me
back out there to finish the job which seemed to take forever. I polished off
the last section as the sun was setting and found it nearly impossible to stand
up straight after so many hours bent over. Now all I have to do is go over the
thing once again to coat it with sealer to preserve the natural wood color
which is why I do this every year. I’m painting the damned thing next year.
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| BRS dancing Away Saturday |
The bedazzled part of the title comes, predictably,
from my granddaughters. The BRS has apparently inherited her abuela’s
consummate love of dancing. My son and ABFA have enrolled her in a toddler
dance class which is meeting via video nowadays. After the class was over on
Saturday she continued to dance around the house for a full half hour, intermittently
demanding her parents put more music on with the call for “More Song!”. She was
dancing again on Sunday when we caught up with them as, like most New Englanders,
they were outside enjoying the first really nice day of spring.
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| FBR Modeling |
Not to be outdone the FBR was also doing some twirling.
My wife and I bought her a bunch of new clothes which arrived Saturday. The FBR
was so pleased she demanded the opportunity to model them all immediately, while
also dancing, of course. Making granddaughters happy is one of the true joys of
grandparenthood. Although I did mention to the FBR that I found a multitude of
small rocks lodged between Deckzilla’s boards. The FBR feigned innocence but I enjoyed
it as it reminded me of her visits which inevitably ends up with a lot of
landscaping pebbles on the deck.
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| Looking Scarily like a Teenager |
I wasn’t the only one laboring in back yards over
the weekend. Wingman attacked his back yard fence. It was in poor shape,
damaged by years of bushes that grew into trees literally through the fence. He’s
getting a new one installed but had to remove the old one himself, with very little
in the way of tools. I felt bad because this is the kind of thing I would have
loved to help him with but travel restrictions prevented it. I’m impressed at
his work with a pair of small wire snippers and a shovel.
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| Wingman's Completed Project |
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| 007 Progress |
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RECURRING
CHARACTERS
BR3
– inbound
granddaughter #3, BRS - Blog Reader the Sequel
- second granddaughter; FBR - First Blog
Reader - first granddaughter, ABFA –
Amazing Best Family Athlete = my daughter in law; 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 3rd musquetera
(musketeer); Riggins - also known as
the Grandpuppy, son's dog; 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; Curbside Girls – close friends of my daughter acquired during her
single days in Brooklyn
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