Cloudy Set

I had an early morning call today. Tia Loca took the midnight bus from Panama City which meant a 4am wakeup to pick her up at the San Felix bus stop on the Interamericana Highway. Due to the miracle of technology, Tia Loca, using Wayz, called when the app informed her she was 45 minutes out. My Favorite Panamanian archly reminded me then that, in a moment of weakness, I had promised to drive her to pick up her sister. Technology worked as we pulled up to the bus stop exactly the same time Tia Loca’s bus did. There is a specific challenge to driving in what the Panamanians call the “madrugada” (early morning hours). It’s canine related. Once I approached the village of Las Lajas I started having to dodge dogs who decided, due to the lack of traffic, to sleep in the middle of the road.  Guess the roads are cooler and they end up there. I was up to the slalom requirements, probably fortunate it didn’t involve cats. Just saying. So, Tia Loca is in the house which should send up the entertainment quotient a number of levels.

Sunset Ceremony Yesterday

The last couple days involved way too many clouds, which is expected with the advent of rainy season, but still. After three months of daily sunshine (except when Great Aunt visited) it feels wrong. It’s similar to my time in Germany in the late 70s with the opposite direction. I remember being stunned when blue sky showed up after months of clouds. Although the prevalence of clouds meant a non-existent sunset (at least from our side of the clouds) we still religiously observe the sunset ceremony with the upstairs neighbors. We were therefore pleasantly surprised last night when the clouds on the horizon parted right at sunset and delivered one of the most awesome of the year.

That Sunset

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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; Seis Amigos - two couples from our condo complex and my wife and I; Soxfather – my brother in law; Tia Loca – wife’s younger sister; Wingman – my son in law; Wingmom – Wingman’s mom, of course

Wet Canadian Sangria Danger

The Panamanian dry season is definitely in its death throes as each of the last three nights included some vigorous downfalls. I wanted to be back in the water on Monday as my doctor imposed quarantine finished but I was thinking ocean more than precipitation. I was out in the surf first thing Monday morning before we drove back to David for the day. I was optimistic that we’d be back in time to squeeze in another boogie boarding session before nightfall. Alas, it was not to be. I had not counted on the long list of items my Favorite Panamanian had to pick up in preparation for this weekend’s Easter celebration. That entailed calls at three different supermarkets and a butcher shop and a hasty manicure stop before we picked up her mom, which I had been told was the whole point of driving to David that day. As we were leaving David, the rain started and it was impressive. The drive from David to San Lorenzo (one of the three towns we drive though on our way back to Las Lajas) took nearly 45 minutes instead of the usual 20. All the cars had their hazard lights flashing because the rain was so dense. It was almost as if Great Aunt was back in country 😊. A huge tree was blown onto the Interamericana Highway just after San Lorenzo but fortunately on the other side. We arrived after sunset at the condo but were buoyed when we were greeted by the Panamanian couple from the Seis Amigos who had also just arrived from Panama City.

Fun Crowd Last Night
Our Hosts on the Left

Yesterday I was headed upstairs from my morning workout session only to see the dreaded extension cord running from the utility room to our condo (for the fridge), a clear sign the power was out. Again. My Favorite Panamanian and her mom were packed up to go into the village of Las Lajas where my wife volunteers a couple times a week at the senior center. I was left alone, without power, but at least I had some entertainment. I wrote last week about the mysterious construction going on down the beach visible from our living room window. I don’t know if they read this blog where I passed on the comment of using a back hoe instead of hand digging but yesterday a back hoe showed up. The comedy began shortly thereafter. They dug in around the pipe and tried to use the back hoe to shove the pipe deeper. Eventually the pipe leaned over and the next thing I saw was the pipe being removed and the hole filled in as they gave up completely. Back to square one for them, but it helped me pass the time. The power was restored just as my wife and her mom returned late in the afternoon. The Upstairs Neighbor commented that my Favorite Panamanian always lights up a room when she enters. I kicked myself for not thinking to say that myself as I would surely have earned some serious points with her which never hurts.

Back Hoe Shows Up

Forced to Admit Defeat After A Couple Hours

Last night we were invited down the beach for dinner at the house of the Canadian guy we met a few weeks ago. He and his Panamanian wife hosted a dinner for another neighbor couple, from Iowa, who were heading north early next week. We had never met the other dinner guests but we quickly established a nice vibe comparing notes about life in Panama in general and Las Lajas specifically. The Canadian is particularly adept (and locally renowned) for his sangria. Our family history is replete with stories about the effect of combining my Favorite Panamanian and that liquid. I was therefore on my toes as the evening progressed. The Canadian and his brother bought the house about 11 years ago when they were both single and offer  wealth of knowledge on local history and characters.

Finding Halloween Crabs in the Pool Each Morning

We learned the provenance of their signature flag pole which has proudly displayed the Canadian flag for as long as we’ve lived here. The Canadian and his brother used to get fired up well down the beach and drive back to their house along the beach instead of the road. Several times their navigation skills were impacted by excessive lubrication and they missed the turnoff completely and ended up at the far end of the beach. They therefore installed the flag pole to give them a landmark to signal where they should turn in and here I thought it was a symbol of Canadian pride. Shortly after we arrived, the evening deluge started falling and was once again, epic. The Canadian had a weather app for the locale and over three inches of rain fell in just over an hour. I glanced out their back window and what I thought was a support pillar was actually a solid column of rain draining off the roof. As I said, epic.

My mother-in-law had remained back at the condo since the elevator still isn’t working. We returned home and I didn’t have to carry my Favorite Panamanian up the stairs which I considered a win after the amount of Sangria intake. We found the condo hallways inundated as the ferocious rain had invaded. We opened the condo door to find my mother-in-law serenely reading her bible. She reported the power went out just after the storm hit and was out for nearly two hours. Our upstairs neighbors guessed that she was there and we weren’t. They came down and hooked the extension cord up so she would have some light and mopped up some water that was seeping in. She was so touched by their kindness as we certainly were. We are truly blessed having them as neighbors. 

I saw the rebooted Road House this week. The original is a monument to 1980s misogyny and one of the coolest movies ever made. If a guy didn’t like this movie, he had to forfeit his y chromosome and predictably the movie was less than honored by most of the fairer sex. It was therefore a huge climb for this movie to measure up. It almost does. It’s hampered by an honest attempt to connect with both men and women. The only nudity is repeated shots of Conor McGregor’s naked butt which I certainly could have done without. The love interest, a doctor again, doesn’t have any chemistry with Dalton. The bad guys were a mixed bunch this time out, missing the innate evil of Gazzara’s character and while McGregor cannot act, even a little bit, he was an entertaining source of unbridled chaos. Dalton is called upon to save a Florida Keys road house this time and Florida offers an endless source of local color. There is a cute harkening back to the original with a strip mall diner called the Double Deuce spotted a couple times. The movie is saved by Jake Gyllenhaal whom I had serious doubts about going in. He plays a different kind of Dalton, haunted by a earlier tragedy. While not as ferocious as Swayze’s take, he combines humanity with dangerousness. There’s too much CGI in the fight scenes and while it’s impossible not to compare this to the beloved Swayze version, this movie stands on its own. I liked it, which I was not prepared to do, still missed the nudity though. 

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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; Seis Amigos - two couples from our condo complex and my wife and I; Soxfather – my brother in law; Tia Loca – wife’s younger sister; Wingman – my son in law; Wingmom – Wingman’s mom, of course

Neighborhood Mystery and Halloween Crab Season

I’m down to my final day of beach quarantine. Tomorrow I’m back in the water!!! Las Lajas took some pity on me over the last couple days as the waves were decidedly sub-par so I wasn’t missing much. It still hurt. They better be up for my return to the boogie board tomorrow. I guess the ear is getting better but that’s hard to gauge. My Favorite Panamanian is insisting on ear plugs for the duration (she’s fairly strict). We’re also dealing with a neighborhood mystery. Our living room wall is all glass, which offers a spectacular view of the surrounding area. A few weeks ago, a new rancho was constructed a couple lots down the beach. A rancho is a palm tree leaf covered structure offering shade at the beach. It’s where I spend most of the time on the beach. Shade is a premium commodity when it comes to the tropics. Anyways, the mystery involves what happened after the rancho went up.

Friday Night Pizza Time with Upstairs Neighbors

Viewed from our Living Room
Rancho on the Left and Pipe Next to 

Pipe About a Quarter of it's Length under Ground
Sandbags Hanging from Top Edge

Early last week, a truck delivered a huge plastic pipe and dropped it next to the road, about 50 yards from the rancho. That same night a couple guys strung hammocks up in the rancho and spent the night. The next day they started digging a hole next to the pipe. In a couple hours it was deeper than they were tall (lots of sand involved). It was at this point we took off for our trip to Volcan. When we returned on Thursday, the pipe had been stood up and lowered into the hole with a number of sandbags hung from the top edge. People would disappear down into the pipe and mystery material was handed up and out while they continued to dig around the base. This has been going on for four days now. I consulted with our upstairs neighbor who is a civil engineer and he was as baffled as I was. Today he went and checked it out. Apparently they’re going to keep digging until the entire pipe(weighed down by the sandbags) is buried which will then serve as a leach field for a future house. He shook his head while we discussed it and said, two hours with a back hoe or two weeks of digging by hand, kind of crazy.

Friday Sunset

We have new residents on the first floor. It is Halloween crab season. Each year around the beginning of April thousands of back and orange land crabs emerge from underground. I’m constantly reminded of my high school colors – Go Blackbirds!!! The birds and other crab eating predators have a field day/night. Each year a couple of the more adventuresome crabs sneak under the door and haunt the first floor, bristling at any human with the temerity to cross its path. The guy pictured below is the latest and was funny as hell this morning trying to block my path. One step towards him sent him scurrying for cover. When we drive the road at night you can see dozens of them running across. Each morning, we find a bunch of hollowed out shells where the predators have feasted. Life on the beach.

First Floor Crab

We reunited with the upstairs neighbors for Friday night pizza and had a dedicated visit from Chow Mein the cat. We passed on the granddaughters’’ best wishes but he was more interested in pepperoni handouts. Saturday morning saw the arrival of one of the inimitable PanaGals for a weekend stay. She usually spends more time with us but this year she was overseeing a complete remodel of her David home and all that entails. She’s a lot of fun to have around. Today my wife’s cousin and his ex-wife stopped by for the day. She, of course, is the other half of my Favorite Panamanian’s 2am conversation binge in Volcan earlier in the week. They brought a cooler full of dead animal flesh which was almost immediately searing on a charcoal grill.

Lunch Today

I really missed the elevator today as both my wife and I were called upon to go and down from the condo many times to retrieve items for the picnic lunch in the condo common area. Totally worth it though as we enjoyed the meat almost as much as the company. My wife’s cousin is very interested in buying one of the available condos in the building and my Favorite Panamanian got them access to a couple to check out. It would be so cool to have some of my wife’s ever superb family in the condo complex (I’m talking party time!!). All our guests had to leave late today, so my wife and I are alone again, but this week holds promise. Holy week leading up to Easter is a very big deal here, to include everybody being off from work starting on Wednesday. We’re picking up my mother-in-law tomorrow and Tia Loca is rumored to join us on Wednesday. In addition, the Seis Amigos should be reunited here tomorrow! As I said, promising. A telling harbinger that our time is growing short here is the end of the dry season. It’s rained hard the last two nights for the first time since Great Aunt was here in early February  as she was categorically blamed for that unseasonable rain. April 18 seems to be rushing towards us, my Favorite Panamanian says we need to start the luggage packing process which is, at least, much easier heading north than the southern leg.

Saturday Sunset with PanaGal

Sunday

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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; Seis Amigos - two couples from our condo complex and my wife and I; Soxfather – my brother in law; Tia Loca – wife’s younger sister; Wingman – my son in law; Wingmom – Wingman’s mom, of course

Whirlwind Mountain Trip

I’m back at my Las Lajas base after a couple days running around the mountains of Central Panama. For some reason Facebook wouldn’t allow me to post my last Frail Deeds post. I got a message that the post resembled spam even though I have specifically avoided putting any kind of advertising in the blog. For someone wanting to catch up, you can tap the post on the right, titled 7 Days etc. That post lays out why my Favorite Panamanian was able to pry me away from the beach, seven days without swimming due to the recalcitrant ear. She’s incredibly close to the ex-wife of one of her cousins who lives in the mountain town of Volcan. So that’s where we headed on Wednesday morning.

Wife and her Friend in Volcan

And the Upstairs Neighbors

We found a new road to Volcan which avoided having to drive through the traffic excesses of Concepcion. We were spending the night in the apartment the lady were coming to see rents out. It was luckily free for the night. Our hostess is a recognized artist and has beautifully decorated her home over the years. As luck would have it, the Upstairs Neighbors also happened to be in Volcan for the day so we vectored them into our location. Our hostess’ architect son lives next door and had seven, week old, golden retriever puppies. The very proud parents were a lot of fun and absolutely beautiful. It tugged at the heart a little bit as I was reminded of our beloved goldens, gone for so long now.

The Puppies

Proud Dad and Mom

My Favorite Panamanian immediately started campaigning to acquire one of the puppies but we’ll be back in the States before they’re available. That’s fortunate timing because I’m not sure I could have resisted. We all went for a fun lunch at a local eatery where I scored a rare, for Panama, treat, chocolate chip cookies!  The neighbors had to return to the beach while we retreated back to our hostess’ home. I went into this visit with my eyes wide open. I knew what was going to happen. I brought a fully charged Kindle because when my wife gets together with this friend, the conversation is going to be constant, without break. I set up in the breezy, terrace, enjoying the cooler mountain air, and started reading.

Los Brezos Dinner

My Favorite Panamanian came up for air in the early evening and we snuck out for a dinner at a nice local restaurant/hotel, Los Brezos, where I scored the pepperoni pizza I was denied last Friday. Then it was back to the house and the conversation. I was coaxed into the main house with a promise of chocolate cake and cable television. I watched a Marvel movie in Spanish while the two ladies carried on. I couldn’t hear much of the dialogue over the spousal conversation, because, as I have stated before, in Panama, the loudest one gets to talk first in any conversation. Our hostess is originally from Brazil but she’s been in Panamá long enough to acquire that tendency. Of course, she was up against the recognized master of the spoken word, my Favorite Panamanian. I retired after the movie while the ladies carried on, briefly noting my departure. I was awoken, despite my wife’s best attempts to quietly enter the room, around 2am which is when they finally ran out of either words or energy. I’m guessing energy. They picked up right where they left off in the morning as we prepared to leave. One of the developments of the night before dialog was a plan to return for a week next year where my wife will receive painting lessons. I’ll probably be left at the beach (hopefully). My Favorite Panamanian had also planned on stopping by another recently acquired friend in another mountain town so they reluctantly had to break off the conversation. This was indeed fortunate because my kindle was warning me it was almost out of power.

42 Years Later

We took a quick trip up the mountain road towards Cerro Punta to stop by the hotel where we spent our honeymoon 42 years ago. We stayed there a couple years ago and were disappointed that it seemed to be on a downward spiral. There must be new ownership because it looked great. Our next stop was the mountain town of Boquete. We reached it through a back road we’ve taken a couple times which I really enjoy riving because of the twists and turns and abject natural beauty the mountains of Panama offer. We arrived in Boquete in time for lunch and gelato (a wifely requirement whenever we visit and who am I to object?). Our new friends, who are considering buying the condo next to ours, live in a gated golf community called Valle Escondido.

Our Honeymoon Room on Bottom Left

There were a couple layers of security in this place and it was obvious this was a very exclusive place. One of the security guys jumped in a golf cart to escort us to our destination. This is where a large percentage of the foreign ex-pats of Boquete live, including a lot of Americans. We spent a nice short visit with our new friends in their villa where it was obvious they are really “well off”. He’s from Oregon and she’s yet another Brazilian and they feel like long time friends already. We hope they can make the condo purchase and we’ll have to increase our gang to “Ocho Amigos”. We wended our way out of Valle Escondido, which means Hidden Valley. It really is, within walking distance of downtown Boquete but hidden between two of the towering mountain ridges endemic to the area. Luckily my wife wanted to shop in Boquete. I know. That sounds weird. Me using the word “luck” in the same sentence saying my wife wanting to shop. The luck involves her forgetting her pocket book back in the friends’’ villa. If we hadn’t stopped to shop, she wouldn’t have noticed until we were back in David, well out of the mountains and the friends were leaving the next day for the States.

Lunch in Boquete

Side of Friend's Villa

Our immediate return to Valle Escondido involved a lot more drama. We were following a taxi towards our destination along with the security guard. There is a narrow twisting road up a steep hill and the taxi couldn’t make it up and started falling back towards us. He stopped short of us but decided he couldn’t make it up, so I had to back the rest of the way back down the road with verbal assistance from the security guard, the taxi driver, and, loudly, from my wife. As luck (there’s that word again) would have it, the backup camera screen in the car was hard to see since the sun was at a bad angle hitting it directly. The paved road was just a little wider than the car and lined with expensive foliage on either side. I ended up with my back tire off the road and that’s when I started getting a lot more “guidance” from all three sources. I finally blocked them all out and guided on the near side of the road which I could see. We got the taxi down, us up to the villa, pocket book retrieved, and the wife shopping. After a brief stop in David to see her mom, we just missed arriving back at the condo in time for the sunset. Small worry, it was good to be home and I’d just had a truly enjoyable time with my better half in some of the most beautiful terrain in the world. In two days, I’m back in the water!!!!

Back on the Beach This Morning, Still no Swimming
But the Kindle is Recharged

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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; Seis Amigos - two couples from our condo complex and my wife and I; Soxfather – my brother in law; Tia Loca – wife’s younger sister; Wingman – my son in law; Wingmom – Wingman’s mom, of course

7 Day Sentence and Another Goodbye

My heart is with my younger sister this week as she deals with the funeral of her beloved husband. Great Aunt is shouldering the load for our side of the family representation due to my tropical location. That tropical location is a lot less biddable today as I have been sentenced to seven days without swimming or boogie boarding. That’s a full quarter of the time I have left in Panama! I mentioned earlier on the blog that my ear still felt like it was full of water. It didn’t hurt but I was concerned it was another ear infection such as that sidelined me two years ago. My Favorite Panamanian returned from her time with her mom on Sunday and decreed we were going to the doctor on Monday.

Pee Wee and I Sizing up the Back Yard Birds

So yesterday we drove back to David where the heat was truly oppressive. You know it’s on a whole ‘nother level if the Panamanians are saying it’s too hot. We stopped in at the same clinic we used a couple years ago but the cute doctor no longer works there. She’s been replaced by a young guy who took no pity on me. We told him I had, at the urging of my wife, used some hydrogen peroxide in the ear to hopefully clean up any blockage. This was the universal recommendation of the Panamanian side of the family. It turns out. Not a good idea. He said the only body part I should be using to clean my ears was my elbow. Meaning of course, that I shouldn’t be probing them with Q-Tip’s (guilty) and certainly not using hydrogen peroxide. The wife looked appropriately abashed at that comment.

Saturday Night Sunset Ceremony Included a Dog!

It turned out I didn’t have an ear infection but the ear was definitely highly irritated, probably due to the home treatment. I was relieved to hear about no infection and envisioned myself back in the pool on Tuesday. Alas, that was not to be. The doctor prescribed an antibiotic ear drop treatment and seven days without ear submersion. Damn!! My Favorite Panamanian looked appropriately amused because the waves have been large and she worries. Today was my first day of enforced dry land training and the power went out at 6am, so no AC. This falls into the insult to injury category. My wife is craftily using my sentence to accomplish a two day trek into the mountains to visit relatives, something I wouldn’t have left the beach for, if I could still use my boogie board. Oh yeah, total cost of the in person doctor visit, $8.

After a Couple Misses, Finally Got a Great Sunset Last night

The New Jersey bunch is dealing with much larger problems that my lack of aquatic pursuits. Their beloved family cat, Pee Wee, had to be put to sleep yesterday. While he and I may have had a checkered past, mainly derived from an all-night awake hotel session when they first moved back to New Jersey (with my roommate Wingman, constantly reminding me how much my daughter loved Pee Wee to prevent taking the law into my own hands). Pee Wee was literally a rescue cat. Fifteen years ago, shortly after their marriage, Wingman noticed a small kitten coarsely tied up to a pole outside a NYC coffee shop. He freed the kitten and then asked the crowd in the shop who owned the cat. Everybody pointed at a full grown man, garbed in some sort of diaper as his only clothing. Obviously one of the Big Apple’s many eccentric crazies. He wouldn’t admit to ownership so Wingman took the kitten home, went to vet’s, and prepared to explain the acquisition to his bride.

Always Ready to Assist with Food Prep

Not only was this just after their marriage and before their honeymoon, but my daughter had recently lost Keanu, her previous cat to some sort of malady. It took guts for Wingman but he knew how important a feline presence was to his new bride. One look at Pee Wee was all it took. This started the fifteen year journey together that ended yesterday. He trekked with them to California, where they welcomed the FBR, and then back to New Jersey. He was a great cat on so many levels, even if he couldn’t jump up on counters (a plus really). They brought him up for Christmas and he was an elusive house guest (canine influenced) until the food prep started. He and I mended our relationship and I always looked forward to having him jump into my lap while I watched late night TV on our New Jersey visits.

I was worried about the FBR but she, like most 8 year olds, dealt with it with some tears and then seemed fine. I know this was devastating for my daughter since Pee Wee was her office mate when she worked from home, starting in California all the way through the pandemic up to Monday morning. Even Wingman abandons his cool rock star vibe when he talks about Pee Wee. He was truly an integral part of the family and so many pictures of the FBR as she grew up include her pursuit of Pee Wee who didn’t initially approve of the new interloper. Pets have always been an important part of our family and Pee Wee was the latest in a long line of cats and was certainly one of, if not the very 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; Seis Amigos - two couples from our condo complex and my wife and I; Soxfather - my brother in law; Tia Loca – wife’s younger sister; Wingman – my son in law; Wingmom – Wingman’s mom, of course