Monday, Monday

This whole pandemic thing, as well as my semi-retirement has taken the persistent sting out of Mondays. You see, I can say something nice about the past year. The unrelenting sameness of life in the pandemic was only broken up when I still drove into work each day. That hasn’t happened since August and I can’t say I really miss it a whole lot. I do miss the people as I was blessed with some truly excellent people to work with. In what I consider a landmark statistic, I haven’t set an alarm clock (for other than mid-day zoom meetings) to wake up since late August. I’ve written before that I have been an unrepentant night owl sine my high school years. The Army cured me of sleeping in, to the degree that I awaken around 6am each day, wide awake. Hence the lack of necessity in setting alarm clocks. The body has adjusted to this level of sleep over the past forty years.

My Favorite Panamanian is not a huge fan of my nocturnal schedule but has adjusted over the years to stay awake a little longer at nights so we can watch movies together. We topped off the weekend last night watching I Care a Lot, a dark comedy that absolutely skewers the care for the elderly, so timely in my case. Perpetual ice queen, Rosamund Pike, plays a predatory guardian for the elderly who targets seniors with the assistance of the medical, rest home, and judiciary accomplices. She oversteps her hand when she takes on the mother of a homicidal Russian mafioso, played by Peter Dinklage. My wife leaned over a couple times and asked if what the guardian was dong was possible and I nervously assured her our family would never let it happen (hear that kids!). It was a really fun watch if a bit nerve inducing for a senior citizen.

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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