Sodden Peace

We’re getting what has become the signature weekend weather for 2025, a steady rainfall. For the first weekend since our return from Panama neither my Favorite Panamanian nor I have anything on our schedule so it has become a vegetative day. I thought retirement would hold a lot more of these than it does. Somehow days get filled up and are gone is truly accelerated mode. This modality comes more from doing things we enjoy versus the drudgery of employment, but still, it seems almost unfair that time now moves so much faster. I can remember my elders telling a younger version of myself to enjoy my youth because it is fleeting. I wished I had listened harder.

Saturated Deckzilla Today

In celebration of our unencumbered day we decided to sleep in. That’s not as easy as it sounds. I blame the Army because sleeping beyond 7am is almost impossible for me despite staying up until after midnight. Assisted by some entertaining dreams, I pushed on beyond the usual wakeup. I assign all responsibility for this welcome development to that blessed Leesa mattress and the steady rain beating down on the roof. It helped that the preceding weekdays had been liberally filled with physical labor.

Front Yard Not Any Better

I celebrated the First Friday of the Week with a lunch date with my Favorite Panamanian. We returned to Holden and Quinn’s which was up to the task of providing an excellent time. We returned home in time to engage in the Family Facetime call which was well attended for the first time in a while. I was thinking of ending this tradition but then we have a call like last night and all those thoughts retreat. My son was dealing with the usual cacophony associated with the BRS and BR3. My daughter was assisting the FBR with hosting a sleepover for the gal who was sick last week and everything was right with the world in that case. Great Aunt had a busy week, successfully managing multiple visits with her granddaughter.

Great Aunt Enjoying her Granddaughter

Once we ended the call, I realized two things: it was still Friday and that I missed seeing our Upstairs Neighbors from Panama because Friday was always our day to hang out. I solved that by reaching out via video call and catching her at home in Arizona. Her husband was still working but it was fun catching up with her and it felt like Friday again. We completed that Seis Amigo connection this morning when my wife received a call from the Panamanian element of the Seis. They’re up in Toronto celebrating the graduation of their son from college. Again, good to hear the voices of so many remembered great times in Panama.

Six movies fell in the A-Z watch, all keepers: Pirates of the Caribbean, At World’s End – best of the pirates movies;  Pirates of the Caribbean On Stranger Tides – always love seeing Penelope Cruz, but this is last pirates movie I have as it shows a descent; Pitch Black – origins of Riddick, loved Rahda Mitchell in this; Planes, Trains, and Automobiles – still incredibly funny, John Candy was a national treasure; Dawn of the Planet of the Apes – great action flick as I start in the three versions of the Apes starting with most recent; War of Planet of the Apes – really dark follow on film with a deadly Woody Harrelson.  

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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