Tropical Friday

Yes. It is the First Friday of the Week! That means some significant changes/upgrades from the garden variety First Friday back home. First Fridays have suffered from my retirement as there is no gathering of workplace co-conspirators to kick off the celebration. In a side note, I noticed several weeks ago that my favorite First Friday watering hole, Brew City, was closed and up for sale. Time, my implacable enemy, continues to march onwards. The upgrades are, of course, being on a tropical beach, closely resembling paradise but it doesn’t stop there. With our somewhat spotty internet, the First Friday Family Facetime call still takes place but with sometimes frustrating interruptions. I still get to hear my son and Riggins give woeful expirations of breath as the BRS and BR3 tear around the house. After the call we head down to the beach to join the upstairs neighbors for the nightly sunset recognition ceremony, always an important part of the day.

Dinner at the Resort Last Night

Following the sunset, we run upstairs for a quick change before driving over our rutted road to the village of Las Lajas to the appropriately named, Sunset Pizza restaurant. So, a fairly full agenda we’ve established over the past couple years and I’m here to tell you that it hasn’t got old yet. That is entirely due to the excellent people involved, most notably, the upstairs neighbors (the hot water guru), but also includes whomever happens to be visiting and is sucked into the First Friday vortex of fun.

Wife with her Newest Acquisition
She Still Has Two Huge Bamboo Plants to Bring Up

Speaking of fun (I was), yesterday we accumulated even more of the same. My brother in law, a newly minted government muckedy muck overseeing the environment in the province, had a meeting in a nearby town. He stopped by in the morning to drop off his lady love and my Favorite Panamanian’s latest addition to her growing plant collection, a large palm tree. He continued to his meeting while we got to spend the day getting to know his lady. He returned in time for a late afternoon swim and then they both joined us for the sunset ceremony. We finished off the day driving down the beach for dinner at the Las Lajas Beach Resort. A very fun day.

Rhode Island Happiness Yesterday

I’ve got some catching up to do with news from the frozen north. In truly major news, my Namesake Nephew got married yesterday. He and his love tied the knot in a civil ceremony, much like my Favorite Panamanian and I did almost 43 years ago. January 14^th marks the date, at least for the Army, that I became a married man in 1982. I think my Namesake is getting more benefits from it than I did, since my wife didn’t consider us truly married until the church ceremony in March. One has to try though, and it got us on the married housing list, which was key.

Yesterday's Okay Sunset

In other news, the BRS and BR3 were spotted in a Facetime call from the beach yesterday industriously cleaning their playroom under the woeful eye of my son. They have guests coming today and had to clean up the bombed-out looking room (probably due in some part to my overactive Amazon purchasing sprees prior to Christmas). My wife and I laughed because we remembered him having to do the same thing at a similar age. Those two granddaughters, while a true handful, are so much fun to watch in action, as they both had to be constantly reminded to stop swinging from their gymnastic bar and continue cleaning. They both take skiing lessons on the weekends and probably ski better than their dad and grandfather already. There's that enemy, time, raising its obdurate head again.

The Ski Bunnies

On the Slopes

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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 her single days in Brooklyn; Czech Connection – Czech couple who’ve become good friends along with their daughter (the Czech Shadow); 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 (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