Wall Complete and Throwing Shade

This past weekend saw temps soaring into the nineties along with a less than healthy dose of humidity for the first time this year. This signaled that I had a bunch of outdoor chores to do. One always seems to go with the other. I finished off the neighbor’s wall on both Saturday and Sunday. Saturday to what he wanted and then Sunday with the additions requested by his wife. I also rescued the decapitated Virgin Mary statue from the back woods and re-attached the head. My Favorite Panamanian couldn’t find one she liked so I was permitted to begin restoration work. I withheld comments about having the lug the broken statue up the hill in the first place only to lug is back down again. I may be learning.

Finishing It

I also installed a shade screen on top of Deckzilla which permit its use during the morning hours when the sun is usually beating down on that side of the house. This is something my wife has been calling for and I recently acquiesced to. Again, the learning continues. Saturday night the next-door neighbors treated us to a dinner on their back deck to thank me for the wall. This is where the Sunday additions were decided. Sunday evening ended even better when we were summoned to the Neighborhood Mafioso’s house for an impromptu gathering with them and another couple. It felt almost like pre-pandemic days. I may have sent a few beers to an early grave as we enjoyed the warm summerlike evening. There was some target practice with a bb gun on an intruding rabbit but the best part was hanging with old friends again. While I was tired after my physical exertions over the weekend the Red Sox lightened the load significantly by completing a three game sweep over the hated Yankees. Sweet.

The New Sun Screen

It was a busy weekend on the granddaughter front as well, both aquatically inclined. Both the BRS and BR3 took their first swim lessons on Saturday and the BRS was still gushing about it a day later. She seems relatively fearless about the whole endeavor. BR3 now plays peek a boo at the start of every Facetime call with us. Beyond cute. Meanwhile the FBR was a moving target down in New Jersey. Her parents were able to pry her out of the pool long enough to travel to a friend’s lakeside house about an hour away. The most memorable event was seeing a dead fish that still had its eyes open. Along the way she became acquainted with a chicken, slid down a zip line, and spent almost all of Sunday frolicking in the water.

BRS at Swim Lessons

FBR Thwoing a Chicken into the Air

Then Zip Lining

And Hitting the Pool

I ventured back into horror movies this weekend, watching The Conjuring, The Devil Made Me Do It. I started out on Friday night but then decided watching it in the dark by myself was not the type experience I was looking for, it scared the hell out of me. I safely watched it completely on Saturday afternoon with light streaming in from the window. The Warrens return for more occult hijinks as they try to help a local possessed boy with his murder charges. The boy made the rookie mistake of volunteering to take on a demon during an exorcism. Hasn’t anybody seen the Exorcist?, but I digress. Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga return as the Warrens and remain the bedrock of this series. They “blessed” Wilson with a heart condition this time out which was distracting at times and definitely not what you want to deal with when battling demons. It turned out the first fifteen minutes were the scariest of the entire movie but there was well layered tension and jump scares throughout. It, again, scared the hell out of me.

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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