Today marks the birth, some four decades ago, of my eldest and still most favorite daughter. We were too late in coordinating with her, and she already had made plans for the weekend so we’re staying home. I’m fairly certain she’ll have a lot more fun attending a music festival in NYC with the Curbside Girls than hanging out with her parents. We’ll see her in a couple weeks when her schedule opens up. My Favorite Panamanian and I were reminiscing this morning about that, longest of all days in both our lives (more than twenty hours of labor will do that), when she arrived to bless our lives. I’m still amazed at the adults both of my kids have evolved into while saddled with me as their dad. My daughter has steadily risen in the corporate ranks while remaining loyal to her first love of writing. Along the way she’s also more than successfully accomplished the role of mom to the FBR and wife to Wingman. I stand in awe. Happy birthday Heart, your grandmother would be so proud of the woman you’ve become, I know your mom and I are.
We had a fun Worcester adventure last
evening. My Favorite Panamanian violated a house rule by agreeing to a social engagement
during the scheduled time of our weekly First Friday Family Facetime call. I
accepted it since it meant spending some time hanging out with the Worcester
Chapter of the Panamanian Mafia, including the Neighborhood Mafioso and her
husband. Those last two worthies volunteered to drive, and we set out to eat at
a new place, for me. This is not an easy thing, and I was steeling myself for a
challenging menu when I learned we were eating at a Cuban restaurant. The menu
was challenging but only because it was one of those QR codes to access an
internet menu. It didn’t help that our waitress was only on her fourth day and the
small restaurant was also hosting a wedding reception. This all added to the atmosphere,
very entertaining, as is the case whenever this group of friends get together.
In a development that will have my Cantankerous Friend smiling, the menu
offered a ribeye steak which he thinks is my go-to option in Panama or any
place with an overly ethnic bent. 
The Birthday Girl
Now, as to that titular delving, with a rare
free weekend on our hands, my Favorite Panamanian and I decided to address a
long standing and neglected task. One of the benefits of military life was the requirement
to move constantly, at least every couple years. I know. That doesn’t stick out
as a benefit. It was in one aspect. It forced us to jettison all the needless
junk everyone seems to acquire over time, to meet the mover’s requirements. Well,
with our transition to civilian life that no longer happened. I’ve mentioned
before that my Favorite Panamanian is quite an accomplished shopper. Check that,
a Hall of Fame level shopper. All this means the storage area of our basement
was overburdened with a lot of junk that hadn’t seen the light for years, some
since our last military move.
Fun Crowd Last Night
That all ended today with a determined
effort by the two of us to burrow into the boxes and decide what needed to be either
kept, donated, or jettisoned. Seven hours later, we ended our effort after a
nostalgic trip through so many memories and not a little bit of mildew. We
found those missing beach towels which my wife was convinced I had lost at some
point. We also found a bunch of my Army uniforms and accoutrement. My dog tags
now grace the large map in front of my computer. There was so much technology
related times that are now obsolete. It was exhausting but also a lot of fun as
we relived so many memories, including letters I’d written to the wife and kids
while deployed; a real snapshot into our life from thirty years ago. Rubbish
day this coming week will be a real challenge.
Wife Wading into the Morass
We also ran across a couple items from
my daughter’s pre-adolescent times. It’s kind of a family tradition (really
just me) to post embarrassing photos from their past on birthdays, so this was
ready made. One photo is a school photo where she and her mother had argued
about the state of her hairdo. My daughter won, going with what she wanted. I
bet she hoped this photo had seen the last of the light, a true bad hair day.
The second is a letter she penned to her pre-teen idol, the young actor, Jonathan
Taylor Thomas, one of the sons on Home Improvement. Even back in those days,
she did not approve of my musical choices, a trend that continues. The letter
also shows her remarkable writing ability, even at that young age. I’ve done my
duty and embarrassed one of my children. I’ve learned that is one of the critical
responsibilities of grandfathers, keeping it real. I may have a character flaw,
seeking disapproval from the most important ladies in my life. I still haven’t lived
down posting the photo of my Favorite Panamanian in curlers from last weekend.
I guess I like to live dangerously. 
School Photo, Bad Hair Day
 |
| The Letter |
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 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
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