Wednesday Snow

There’s a little necessary housekeeping to catch up on events. The opus that was the Birthday Pub Crawl consumed so much space in my last post that I failed to include a couple other noteworthy experiences. The first of which was yet another successful reminder to ourselves (note - the selves being my Favorite Panamanian, myself, and the Neighborhood Mafiosos) that we’re not going to acknowledge increasing age. Since it was Friday night, that meant we should have been out dancing and that’s exactly what we did. Once more into the breach at the local Legion Hall where, for once, one of the very good musical duos was playing. I played up the recent birthday as a reason to celebrate but it was the Frist Friday of the Week, so there.

Friday Night Party Crew

On the way back from Keene on Sunday my head was customarily foggy (see last post to understand) but my Favorite Panamanian was on the hunt for birch branches. She’s got into her head to create a new Christmas decoration and she needed birch tree branches for that. I blame Pinterest. Since our drive was taking us through a New England forest I thought it would be easy. It was. I took a short detour onto a country road and inside of two miles I spotted a downed birch tree and there you go.

Deckzilla Last Night

As I was heading to bed last night I looked outside and saw Deckzilla was liberally coated with snow. I heard earlier, in the weather report, that it was snowing but that it was too dry to reach the grounds. Apparently it got over it. It was beautiful, loved the imposed silence it brings. This wasn’t the only snow we were involved with yesterday. For date night my Favorite Panamanian and I took in Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. This is the origin story of the lead villain from the original movies, President Snow. We find him as a young man trying to survive, penniless after the ravages of the civil war that generated the Hunger Games. The games aren’t as popular as later versions and as a highly decorated student Snow generates additional interest when he mentors (you guessed it) a young female contestant from District 12. He’s actually likable for the first half of the movie until his descent into becoming presidential material. Viola Davis (as usual) is worth the price of admission all by herself as the evil games master. A solid if not spectacular addition to the Huger Games world.

Five movies fell in my A-Z watch, four keepers and one discard: Hart’s War, a WW2 POW soap opera that strains more than credulity, bye bye; The Hateful Eight, Tarantino at his finest, great dialogue and characters; Hawaii, epic 1960s film which I learned was filmed near a training range I used while stationed in Hawaii; Haywire, Carano can’t act but she can kick the crap out of anyone; and Heat, classic Michael Mann crime drama with DeNiro and Pacino at their best.

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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; CRC - Connecticut Riverboat Captain – another close friend from high school, renowned sailor of the big river; Curbside Girls – close friends of my daughter acquired during him 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; PCR - Pittsburgh College Roommate– high school friend, also a “Minor Celebrity” in Pittsburgh; PCR+1 - Pittsburgh College Roommate’s wife; 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