While it is hard to believe there is any
downside to the time we spend here in paradise each year, yesterday highlights
one of them. The BRS turned seven yesterday and we weren’t there to celebrate with
her. A few years ago, we mitigated this annual pain when she was here with us
for the day. My Favorite Panamanian and I were able to inflict our fractured singing
of Happy Birthday to her yesterday through the magic of FaceTime. I don’t think
this will cause too many nightmares for her. The ABFA and my son, with the
stalwart assistance of her other grandparents, went out of their way to make
her feel special yesterday. A party involving a lot of jumping and obstacles
culminating with an ice cream birthday cake did a lot for that. I’m sure they
were a little nervous about her younger sister, BR3. She jumped off the couch a
few days earlier, despite being told not to, and produced an epic level nosebleed
after colliding with a table. Happy birthday BRS, you truly and definitely rock!
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| The Birthday Girl Yesterday |
The upstairs neighbors returned Thursday
with an addition to our sunset crew. His younger sister is joining us for the next
two weeks and she fit in immediately with our august crew. The return of the
full team also meant outstanding sunsets both days. Since it was the First
Friday of the Week, we all headed into the village to partake of the Sunset
Pizza delicacies, including their matchless gelato. It was a very fun night.
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| Friday Augmented Sunset Crew |
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| Welcome Back Sunset For Neighbors |
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| Sunset Pizza Time |
Another annual debit to the almost
non-stop enjoyment in paradise is the requirement to file taxes. I went through
that “beloved” experience yesterday once I figured out how to jump through the seemingly
endless hoops in the electromagnetic spectrum to access all the needed documents.
It was an expensive day but there was definitely a feeling of weight lifting
off of shoulders getting it done.
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| Saturday Sunset |
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| The Crew |
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| With my Sunset Date |
In good news, because that’s a lot more
fun, the boogie board repairs seems to be holding. The Las Lajas waves finally
showed some attitude this week which provided an acid test and four days into subjecting
the board to the biggest waves of the year, the repair is holding. I guess you
can repair Styrofoam. Of course, as soon as I made the repair, boogie boards
re-appeared at the store in David. Wanting to hedge the bets on my repair acumen,
we bought a couple. We now have five boogie boards so we could have a half-squad
out in the surf at any one point. Like that’s going to happen.
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| Our Haul and Initial Cuts |
I was volunteered by my Favorite Panamanian
this morning to assist the condo caretaker to harvest some coconuts from the
beach palm trees to get some “agua de pipa” (coconut water with coconut meat
floating in it. He’s a little nervous about climbing the ladder up so I took up
the role of ladder holder and coconut catcher. That’s important so they don’t break
when dropped from the tree. Once he was safely back on the ground he took out
his machete and drained the water into a bottle and then scooped out the meat
to follow it. I made the mistake of telling him how much nearly two gallons of
coconut water would cost back in the states. I’ll leave my wife to negotiate
any price increase with him, it’s usually four bucks, until I opened my mouth.
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| Pouring the Water into the Bottle |
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| Scooping out the Meat |
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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 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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