Another few days of granddaughter residency
have fallen. Even though we have only one, the FBR, in house, the time has not
lacked entertainment. Monday was supposed to be an off day from events since my
Favorite Panamanian had her orthopedic appointment. Since the morning was free,
I made the tactical mistake of taking the FBR to a book store. This is something
I loved to do with her mother at a similar age. I had forgotten, however, that
my wife’s shopping genes (incredibly virulent) had been passed on to the FBR. I
was helpless in the face of this ability. She is an expert, at the tender age
of 8, especially in bookstores since her mom still frequents those with her.
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| FBR and I on the Sky Safari |
A second mistake was walking by the Harry
Potter section which resulted in several additional purchases. I thought I was
done, the damage sustainable, until the FBR mentioned she had spied a Claire’s
Store just a couple doors down from the bookstore. Again, I have to plead naivety,
I thought it was a kids store. Apparently, not. The FBR once again perused the aisles
with seasoned confidence and locked on a target of glue-on fingernails. I thought
they were kid sized because, again, I thought it was a kids store. Upon
returning home I was apprised of my mistake by the Favorite Panamanian who was
not pleased with my purchasing the fingernails. I then did what I should have
done at the store and questioned the FBR. She said she had wanted to buy them
for a long time but her mother always said “no”! Now I found myself firmly on the
proverbial horns of a dilemma. Obviously, I had been “schooled” by the FBR
despite my 60-year age advantage. A compromise was eventually reached where my
wife trimmed the nails down to kid size.
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| FBR and I Made a Cake Together |
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| FBR on the Loose in Claire's |
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| Out to lunch Before Doc's Appointment |
My Favorite Panamanian’s doctor’s visit
had been hugely anticipated since she had been on crutches for ten days at that
point. The knee wasn’t getting better. When the doctor saw her and she admitted
she had been hurting for nearly a year and only recently had it gotten truly
bad, he was a bit dumbfounded as to why she had waited so long. The good news
was she doesn’t need a knee replacement but she will need an arthroscopic
procedure to trim the meniscus that is torn. We were lucky enough to meet with the
scheduler who quickly became good friends with my wife (she has that effect). Since
you can’t fly until six weeks after the procedure, this put our late October
trip to Italy and Croatia in peril. The two new friends solved that by squeezing
in another procedure on the doctor’s schedule for next Tuesday. So, she’ll go under
the knife the day after Labor Day which will hopefully get her off crutches in
a couple weeks.
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| Fingernail Trimming |
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| And Application |
Meanwhile, the granddaughter visit
rolled on unabated, with me as the lone tour guide for the most part. Tuesday saw
our annual trek to Southwick’s Zoo. This was the first time it would be only
the FBR and me, but I felt confident I could handle the challenge. My only concern
was rest room breaks since hanging around outside the girls’ room isn’t advised
in today’s hypervigilant society. I didn’t have anything to worry about since there
was usually a group of dads and granddads outside with me awaiting their kids.
The FBR is an old pro at this zoo and was leading me around to her favorite activities,
which, of course, included the goat petting experience. Since school has
already started in Massachusetts, the crowds weren’t as pervasive in past years.
As with all places aimed at our young, the zoo administration latched a firm
vacuum to my credit card upon walking through the front gate, but it was money
well spent seeing the obvious joy on the granddaughter’s face.
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| Goat Petting |
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| FBR Was Popular |
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| Happy Granddaughter |
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| A Bit of a Ham |
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| Flamingo Pose |
One of the priciest deposits was the zip
line ride at $12 each for the entire 1-minute experience but the FBR was hooked
on it. I did aver making a second ride. We did make two rides on the sky safari
which is a really cool aerial tour of the entire zoo. There was a new carousel
ride which the FBR had to test ride, well, because. It was a very fun day as we
headed for the exit which meant we had to walk through the gift shop (that vacuum
again). I had given Great Aunt a good ribbing about her gift shop adventures
with the granddaughters last week. I have a better understanding after my own
experience yesterday. The FBR is just flat impossible to refuse. It was easier
with my son and daughter, when they were at that age, because money was a
bigger concern. I now can afford giving her anything she wants which makes it
harder to resist. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Please, though, don’t
tell her.
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| Sky Safari |
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| New Carousel |
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| Deer Feeding |
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| Lazy Cheetahs |
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| Mountain Goats |
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| Loose in the Gift Shop |
We were on the ride home when I received
a call from my Favorite Panamanian. Because things haven’t been sufficiently challenging
these past couple weeks, the garage door was on the fritz. When the new one was
installed in 2020, the installer had put the sensor light on one side into some
sort of solidifying foam. I didn’t notice until after he left, but it worked so
I let it go. I’m impressed it lasted four years but last week it failed and despite
some very enthusiastic and creative use of duct tape, the door wouldn’t close. The
installing company agreed to send a tech the next day and after 4pm so I had
time to get back from the zoo and not bother the invalid wife. The call I got as
I drove home was from that wife saying the tech arrived two hours early (when
does that ever happen?!). He was gone by the time I arrived home and I expected
to find more foam since I wasn’t there to object. I was pleasantly surprised to
see it correctly installed on the rail and learned my wife was so incensed at the
standard cost for any site visit, that she insisted the tech make several other
minor improvements that I wouldn’t have even thought of. So. Cool.
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| Sea Lion Show |
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| Ray Petting |
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| With Great Aunt |
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| Balugas |
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| Dino Time |
Today was another devoted to my animal loving
granddaughter. I had been thinking about taking her to the Boston Sea Aquarium
when Great Aunt reminded me about the Mystic Aquarium. The advantage being not
to have to navigate the chaos of Boston traffic and it would be about the same travel
time. Since it was her idea, I invited her along. I hadn’t been to the aquarium
since I had been a chaperone for my son’s first grade class when we lived in
Rhode Island. It had certainly changed and now included the aforementioned vacuum
cleaner on the wallet. A nice departure from that vacuum was the free entry I
finagled as a veteran. The FBR charged from one exhibit to another. She’s a
recent fan of Shark Week which meant the shark petting tank was a required stop.
She also was fully enraptured with the beluga whales.
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| Outside the Penguin Exhibit |
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| Hurricane Booth |
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| FBR in Megalodon Mouth |
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| FBR in Dino Land Playground |
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| Stalked by Dinosaur |
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| Inside the Fish Tank |
We moved through the many exhibits
fairly quickly, had lunch, and then visited the penguins which is always a
requisite stop for the FBR. She convinced Great Aunt that they should partake
of the Hurricane Experience which has you pay $6 to stand in a booth and have
hurricane force winds pummel you. Okay. Great Aunt then paid for us to experience
the Dino Exhibit which included a bunch on animatronic dinosaurs, a 4D movie
short, and a playground. We then faced the inevitable challenge of passing
through the gift shop to exit the facility. Great Aunt and I girded our
respective loins while the FBR immediately set about testing our limits. My
sister and I eventually split the damage between us and counted ourselves lucky
it wasn’t worse. Despite the pecuniary liabilities involved, I’m going to truly
miss having granddaughters around next week. The trip also allowed Great Aunt
and I some time to converse on the drive down and back which I treasured, because
there never seems like there’s enough of that.
Four movies fell in the A-Z watch, all
keepers with significant attendant explosions: Leon the Professional, awesome
action flick with very young Portman, when Luc Besson burst on scene; Lethal Weapon,
Gibson and Glover, team made in heaven; Lethal Weapon 2, whatever happened to
Patsy Kensit, white hot; and Lethal Weapon 3, Pesci becomes very annoying but
still solid action with welcome addition of Russo.
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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 3rd 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 (whom I miss more than I can ever
explain); Tia Loca – wife’s younger sister; Wingman – my son in law; Wingmom – Wingman’s mom, of course
