Football Ages

Yesterday was spent deeply ensconced in the Man Cave for a day that is rightly described as the best day of football in the NFL season – the conference championship games. I don’t think my wife shares that same opinion but, agree to disagree. She did perk up when I reminded her there was only one football game left in the season. The ageless wonder proved to be just that when Tom Brady led another team to the Super Bowl. While I certainly wished that team had been the Patriots I’m comfortable with the separation. I did feel a little bit of torpor engulfing my body after seven straight hours of football.(NOTE: I've been told if you are reading last Friday's post on a mobile device the video will not show up - recommend doing a search on You Tube for Kimmel farewell to Trump - totally worth it)

FBR Getting Goofy with Eyes and Fingernails

My Favorite Panamanian had an additional cross to bear this weekend. A few weeks ago, she dropped her iPhone and cracked the screen. She’d been after me to get it repaired and I finally got around to it this weekend. I knew, when we got the phones, I signed up for lost and damage coverage. It took me a few phone calls to get pointed in the right direction but I arrived at a website which made things very easy. They set me up with an appointment at the local vendor which was a Best Buy store in the next town over. It was kind of surreal walking into a store, other than a grocery one, again after so many months. They had to keep the phone overnight to effect the repair which has us arriving at the cross bearing part of the equation. My wife had to go nearly 24 hours without a phone. Those of us who know her realize this was a DEFCON 1 situation. He phone is her main means of communication, even before social distancing. I was concerned her lack of this distracting device would allow target engagement of me (see above comment on important football watching day). Fortunately, the repaired phone was back in her hands before the first kickoff. It was a nearly run thing though.

First Friday commemoration was once again a huge hit. The Family FaceTime session highlighted my son’s promotion at work as well as extended time with the New Jersey bunch since the FBR had skewered her movie night chances for the second week in a row, a silver lining to her misbehavior. Wingman got his first dose of the vaccine which was an additional cause for festivity. I thought I was going to be stuck at one First Friday celebration until my wife informed me we were rescued from that dark eventuality by her siblings. We conducted another zoom call with them and had the usual amount of fun and extended laughter, mostly at the expense of my wife’s younger sister, the infamous, Tia Loca, who responded by blaming all of the world’s problems on her brother and myself, too much fun.

Tia Loca

I received an update from the solar power company. I’ve had the solar panels on top of the house for over a year now. Besides having he power company owing me money I haven’t really paid much attention to it. Except of course when snow slides off them to fall on top of me when I’m clearing the driveway. They sent along a report which stated that in the past year the amount of power my panels generated meant that I prevented the CO₂ emissions of roughly 6,622 pounds of coal burned, 246 cylinders of propane used in home BBQs, and 676 gallons of gas guzzled. So, I’ve got that going for me in the cosmic scales department. It wasn’t that hard, either.

Latest Puzzle Completed

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RECURRING CHARACTERS                                           

BR3 – 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; Kindergarten Friend – friend since kindergarten whom I reunited with after many years; 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); 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