Rocky Stairs

I remain extremely pumped for the upcoming weekend where my daughter and the FBR journey up from New Jersey following the FBR’s last day of kindergarten. They will be joined on Saturday by my Favorite Son, the ABFA, BRS, and BR3. As if that wasn’t enough to insure a totally apocalyptically good time, we will be joined by Great Aunt, Keene Friend and the ABFA’s parents for a Saturday afternoon barbecue. I’m here to tell you this is type of gathering has the word “epic” written all over it. I plan to be fully exhausted by Sunday evening if history is any indicator of the amount of fun having this assemblage of peerless individuals collected in one place.

Inbound Guests This Weekend - The BRS

And the Always Photogenic BR3

My Favorite Panamanian remains in the heavy prep mode I mentioned yesterday. I have been keeping a sufficiently low profile to remain out of direct line of fire. She was making a couple dozen empanadas last night while I watched the start of the Sox game. I’m into my third week of putting the chemotherapy cream on the one skin biopsy site that showed the basal cells extending beyond the rim of the biopsy. There’s only a week and half to go but this is the worst part as the skin does not take kindly to this intrusion. It feels like sticking a hot poker into the site each time I apply it. Since it’s under the shirt the cream gets spread around a little which extends the unpleasantness. On the upside, standing under a hot shower rivals some of the best, well, just let’s say it’s intensely pleasurable. At least I’ve got this weekend coming up to distract from the discomfort. Cancer, even in its mildest forms, like this, just plain sucks.

The Repaired Stairs

In preparation for the granddaughter arrival event I was out on the back hill yesterday. About five years ago I built a set of steps between the garden terraces of my wife’s vast garden complex. Ove the years several had shifted forward making the steps hazardous if you didn’t know where not to step. These steps are one of the first places granddaughters charge up when they’re released to the wild so I wanted to take care of it. It was a lot of “fun”. I found the main culprits were a series of roots from the uphill trees which had slanted the offending blocks forward.

The Trophy Rock

It also wouldn’t be a digging experience in my back yard if I didn’t come across a huge rock submerged exactly where it would require me to remove it. One of those ones where you keep digging away to find the edge. I always feel a surge of pride when I get the offending stone extricated. Since rocks are inherently hard to mount on the wall, I left it on top of the nearest terrace to remind other rocks what happens if they invade. So far that hasn’t worked. At all. The stairs, however, are back on as steady a state as I could make them. They still won’t win any engineering awards, which I’m sure my engineer son will point out to me this weekend. So it goes. Worth it.

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RECURRING CHARACTERS:                                        

ABFA – Amazing Best Family Athlete - my daughter in law; BR3 – Blog Reader #3 – granddaughter #3; BRS - Blog Reader the Sequel - second granddaughter; Cantankerous Friend – friend since grade school who likes to argue about everything, poses as radical leftist to attract women; Curbside Girls – close friends of my daughter acquired during her single days in Brooklyn; Deckzilla – our backyard deck which grew to monstrous dimensions once my wife got involved in planning; Favorite Panamanian - the wife (of course); FBR - First Blog Reader - first granddaughter; First Friday – celebrations to mark the First Friday of the Week; Great Aunt - my elder sister; Keene Friends 1 & 2 – friends since high school from my home town of Keene, NH; Kindergarten Friend – friend since kindergarten whom I reunited with after many years; Maine and Virginia Musqueteras – two close friends of my wife – her US sisters, my wife is the 3^rd musquetera (musketeer); Neighborhood Mafioso - wife's close friend and Panamanian mafia member; 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; Pittsburgh College Roommate– high school friend, also a “Minor Celebrity” in Pittsburgh; Riggins - also known as the Grandpuppy, son's dog; Soxfather - my brother in law; Tia Loca – wife’s younger sister; Wingman – my son in law; Wingmom – Wingman’s mom, of course