Mountaineering with the FBR

It’s been a fast paced (in terms of events if not actual speed) over the past couple days as we spend our week with the FBR as the only granddaughter in residence. Monday she and her abuela burnished their already well-honed shopping instincts with a day spent pillaging local emporiums. My Favorite Panamanian always begrudged the fact that neither of her children shared her absolute devotion to the shopper ethic which she is fully invested in. That evolutionary failure has been more than repaired with the next generation as the FBR has fully inherited her abuela’s passion for shopping. I was told as they left that it would be a quick shopping trip to pick up some essentials. I nodded as if I believed their earnest pronouncements. I received an excited Facetime call while they broke contact with their acquisition activities to update me on their progress. I couldn’t help but notice how happy both of them were. They were gone nearly the entire day and returned to demonstrate their prowess with their accumulated procurements.

FBR and I on Top of Mountain

Facetime Call with the Shoppers

Pillaging Results

I checked with the FBR’s parents to see if they thought she could handle the climb of Mount Monadnock. They thought she could but looked doubtful we would be able to accomplish the ascent. I grew up in the shadow of this New Hampshire peak and climbing it was a normal part of my youth. I climbed the mountain with both of my kids when they were not much older than the FBR is now. She was completely in favor of the effort despite never having climbed a mountain before. I checked with a high school classmate on a preferred route because she climbs the mountain almost daily it seems.

Ready to Start Up

One of the Many Breaks

The Sitdown Strike

My Favorite Panamanian prepared a huge supply of snacks and lunches to take up the mountain with us, all in my hot pink backpack. My wife decided not accompany us because she’s climbed the mountain before and well, enough said. I decided to use the white arrow trail because that allowed us to check in and since it was only the FBR and I, wanted someone to come looking if my bad knee betrayed me. The first part of this trail is a dirt road until the former halfway house site. I knew that would be problematic because the FBR, like her mother, loves to climb rocks but those wouldn’t be available until we reached the end of the dirt road.

Chair Break

Smiling Now

Rocks!

Ready to Go

We got off to a great start but the FBR was soon questioning why the road kept going up. I told her climbing a mountain involved going up the entire time for the first part. She seemed to be questioning her decision to join me. She started insisting on breaks about every five minutes. By the time we were approaching the house site she staged a sit down in the middle of the road and pronounced she wanted to go home and abandon the climb. I tried every bit of motivational encouragement in my arsenal to no avail. I finally told her the trail would soon involve a lot of rocks to climb over. That seemed to move the needle a bit and she got up and walked the short distance to the trail.

Great Little Climber

Stopping to Take in Views

Above the Tree Line

We stopped off for a snack break at the site where she took up residence in a chair carved out of the granite bedrock. After the snack we walked out to the trail and this is where her mother’s affection for rocky trails manifested itself and it was love at first sight for the FBR. She was soon clambering up the mountain as I struggled to keep pace and assist where the rocks were a little too large. It was a lot of fun and I was quickly very proud of this little dynamo. I pointed out how the trees were getting smaller as we went up the mountain and she became very focused on how far it was to the top. That was not easy to quantify but I told her to hang out until we reached the tree line and then she could see the top.

On Top of Mount Monadnock

Lunch View

When we popped out of the trees she was very excited to se the top, still a good distance to climb. The trail at this point was a little steeper but the FBR was more than up to the challenge. She started noticing the vast views available of the surrounding countryside. I was proud that she wanted to take time to stop and admire them. We reached the top and she immediately wanted to call her parents to announce the achievement. She asked that her parents not tell her friends before she could.

As usual the mountain top was well populated, with mostly young adults. They seemed very impressed with the FBR who was definitely the youngest, by many years, to have made the climb on this day. We ate our lunch on top of the mountain. I was happy to reduce the weight of the pack by consuming as much as possible. The FBR also made serious inroads into the heavy bottle of Gatorade she had insisted on. The FBR then took up exploring the rest if the mountaintop. She was a bit of a celebrity as she made her way around the different groups. She had packed some binoculars in the pack for me to carry up the mountain which she took full advantage of.

Heading Down

Namesake Trail

Back to the Car

I was pleased with the state of the knee for the climb but knew the worst part lay ahead as we began the descent. Going up wasn’t a problem but the excess bending required for the downhill part is always painful. We made good progress however and were back to the road in fairly short order. This is when the FBR started insisted on serial rests again. She asked me how much further to the car a couple thousand times but was generally a good sport about the adventure. I am so proud of her for making the climb. While on top of the mountain she proclaimed that this was a “great day”.

Keene Friend Driveby

We topped off the great day by swinging through my hometown to drop in on Keene Friend. He had a social engagement that prevented us from staying longer but in truth I wanted to get on the road because while the FBR was the youngest climber of the mountain on that day I believe I was the oldest. A couch was definitely calling my name but it lay about fifty miles south of where we were. The FBR invented some silly games for us to play on the ride home which had me laughing all the way. The funniest was when she played the part of the GPS voice and declared spurious directions. She had us passing thought Texas and California on the ride. Seriously, in the immortal words of the FBR, a great day

Two movies fell in my A-Z effort, both keepers as I complete my journey through the A’s, Atomic Blonde (Charlize brutally efficient cold warrior) and Avatar (psyched me up for the sequels).

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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); Namesake Nephew – son of Great Aunt and Soxfather named after me; 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

Then There Was One

A weekend full of all granddaughters experience is never a bad thing but this one ended with us down a granddaughter at our place for the first time in a week, so a net loss. Saturday morning we mounted up to return the BRS to her parental care. There was first the inevitable I-495 summer weekend traffic to pass through. I can’t complain because my Favorite Son did it twice the weekend before when he delivered the BRS to our care, but I’m still going to. There are way too many people around and they all seemed to be on I-495 on Saturday. We reached my son’s abode to find BR3 in high anticipation for her sister’s return.

All Three Together!

Trying to do my Morning Ab Workout With These Two

And They Act Tired!

Riggins, the family dog, was also a big winner as he immediately came under the FBR’s serial petting fixation. She’s all about dogs despite her parents’ feline inclinations. There were two very happy grandparents since we had all tree granddaughters in the same location. I made a serious tactical error when I showed the BRS and FBR I could push their electric car when the battery died. That was the most serious cardio workout I’ve had in a while. I would get up a head of steam and whomever was driving would choose that moment to make a radical turn with the steering wheel. I came very close to having to execute my very rusty parachute landing fall skills on several occasions.

Son, With Tiara In Place ,Bravely Making Brownies with 3 Assistants

Abuela Time

FBR and Riggins

The granddaughters also declared I was their go to source for swing pushing. I was dashing between all three trying to keep them all elevated to acceptable levels even though both the BRS and FBR know how to keep their swing going without my help. It became a point of personal honor that the swing had to come from Grandpa if one received a push from me, so I blame BR3, the only one who really needed my help. The two oldest granddaughters halved my effort when they figured out how to both mount the same swing. That wasn’t without issue though as I had to be really alert to avoid high speed feet coming at me. Being a grandfather is all about agility, apparently.

The 3 Granddaughter Swing Push

The Electric Car

Grandpa Powered

C'Mon Grandpa, You Should have Anticipated that Turn

After building some soon to be destroyed sand castles in the sand box, I was escorted inside where the granddaughters proceeded to paint both their abuela’s and my son’s nails. I demurred saying I was too tired. That excuse lasted until they grew insistent and I cannot deny them anything so I was soon having my nails painted for the first and hopefully only time in my life. My Favorite Panamanian opined that the contrast between the yellow, blue, and pink nails was a particularly fetching look for me.

BRS and FBR Swinging Together

Grandpa Dodging Feet

Grandpa Getting Nails Done

A True Fashion Explosion

It was very cool to see the FBR and BR3 striking up a close relationship. BR3 was extremely fascinated in this older gal who wanted to be her friend. The BRS wasn’t as big a fan since she had been the only game in the FBR’s world for the past week. They worked it out however and were all very cousinly by the time Sunday morning and we had to depart. We’d tried to give my son a break in the morning by allowing him to catch a couple hours sleep and a shower while we squired the granddaughters through their machinations. The ABFA was away for a well earned “Goddess Weekend” with one of her cousins. Cousins, the gift that just keeps giving, all life long.

FBR and BR3 Bonding

Riggins with his Fan Club

We returned home to a dramatically quieter house. One granddaughter, even the redoubtable FBR, cannot be expected to maintain the noise levels achieved earlier in the week with both she and the BRS present. We had a special birthday party to attend last night so Great Aunt nobly volunteered to come up and babysit. To say the FBR was psyched would be putting it mildly. She had visions of increased screen time (their special thing) dancing in her head. While awaiting that arrival she and I filled the pool once again. While we were waiting for the pool to fill, the FBR and I sat out on Deckzilla and talked. Out of the blue she asked me what a blog was. I told her I was chronicling our time together so she could read it when she was older and remember me. She then said, “That means I can read it to my kids”. I thought my heart would burst and I told her that  I hoped she would tell her kids about me and abuela. She assured me that she would. I was then beset with a lot of dust motes in both eyes.

FBR Re-Filling Pool

Great Aunt also brought along Remy, her lab, so the FBR was able to fully enjoy her canine fixation for another day. This along with the aforementioned screen time. She and Great Aunt participate in this online game where Great Aunt accumulates thousands of points and when she and the FBR get together the FBR spends them all. It’s all a bit symbiotic, but they both revel in the time together. The only phone call we received while Great Aunt was babysitting was to ask where we kept out charging devices since they had already burned through the battery life of Great Aunt’s iPad.

Mafia Table Last Night

Wife Finally Taking a Break from the Dance Floor

The birthday party was for a member of the Panamanian Mafia and was held at what is rapidly becoming our “go to” hang out, the Auburn VFW post. The usual gang assembled led by the Neighborhood Mafiosos so a good time and a lot of dancing were inevitable. Both my Favorite Panamanian and I realized our energy levels were not where they usually were since the infusion of granddaughter care responsibilities but we still managed to hold our own on the dance floor. We returned home to find the door to the FBR’s room wide open. She admitted this morning that she had tricked Great Aunt by saying that was how we did it each night.

FBR (face in screen) This Morning with Great Aunt and Remy

Being Chased by Remy Through the Kitchen

Since it wasn’t quite eleven o’clock yet and both Great Aunt and I are dedicated night owls, I offered to improve her pop culture education by showing her Deadpool (I know – incredible that she hadn’t seen it). That was a lot of fun as we laughed into the wee hours. We had a very nice time this morning before Great Aunt had to return home. We talked for a long time on Deckzilla while the FBR and Remy continued their bonding. The talk inevitably turned to Soxfather and how much we miss him. It was a good thing though as it gave us a chance to acknowledge how lucky we are to still have him permeating our thoughts.

Remy Tired First

A Girl and her Dog

One movie fell in my A-Z effort, a keeper, The A-Team (much better than the TV show ever was). Oh, and I guess we can count Deadpool (a top 100) as well, although out of order.

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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); Namesake Nephew – son of Great Aunt and Soxfather named after me; 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