Early Morning Arrival

My Favorite Panamanian and I are safely back in the gentle embrace of Worcester, Massachusetts. It’s going to take me a while to get used to wearing socks and long sleeves again, but I relished being a little cold outside for the first time since 2025. The return home was a bit of an adventure, but it feels so good to be home. I’m writing once again from the depths of my subterranean hideout, the Man Cave. I had to knock down a couple spider webs and there’s still some Christmas stuff hanging around as well as the odd patch of mold, but all in good time.

With my Wife's Family for Wings and Laughter

It was a bit sad to see the condo all closed up and put to sleep for eight months. I took these pictures of the aftermath of a couple days of really intense cleaning thanks to the really intense cleaner I’m married to. She didn’t seem to appreciate my doubts as to why we had to deep clean the place, since, after eight months of tropical humidity, we’ll have to do it all over again in December. So it goes. After the final throes of our cleaning frenzy, we decamped Saturday morning for David to spend some time with Maria’s mom and family before our Sunday departure.

Sad Condo All Packed up
Wife's iPad Next to the Lamp

That time in David turned out to be a lot of fun, as usual since my wife’s family was involved. My wife had a hasty repair done to her recent toenail polish which was damaged in a tragic boogie board braking incident. It is still too near in time for me to adequately express my shock and dismay at this unfortunate incident (hee hee). Once the repair was accomplished, as well as an unscheduled haircut, she set out with Tia Loca for some last minute, you guessed it, shopping. Left to my own devices, I recovered from the cleaning energy expenditures by reclining in an air conditioned room and reading. Luckily, I had the latest John Sanford Lucas Davenport thriller to devour. It did not survive the trip home, as usual, it was great.

My wife and Tia Loca returned to the house with a huge order of chicken wings. We moved a table out to the front porch and in short order my wife’s entire family was sitting around telling stories from their youth while devouring the wings. Tia Loca and my brother-in-law played their usual game of trying to one up each other with embarrassing stories. There was non-stop laughter well into the evening. It was a great way to say goodbye to these incredible people.

My wife confronted another crisis late in the day when she learned she had left her beloved iPad back in the condo. We confirmed it in the above photo I took of the condo before we left. This was a true disaster for my wife. I wasn’t really upset because this meant I won’t be hearing the loud daily masses she broadcasts as well as the loud playing of Russian soap operas dubbed into Spanish (it’s a thing). We contacted the Upstairs Neighbors who were still in Las Lajas. They rescued the iPad and will take it with them to Arizona and then mail it to us, so I’ll be hearing what happens between Ludmilla and Yevgeny sometime in May. In a hilarious move, the Upstairs Neighbors have been sending us photos of the iPad as it makes its way north with them. I’ll publish them as a set when it completes its journey, way too funny.

The First Photo, iPad Saying Goodbye to Las Lajas

My brother-in-law and his wife showed up early Sunday morning to transport us to the airport. After making so many trips to the same airport this year to pick up friends and family it felt odd to be the ones leaving. Copa Airlines had a big surprise for us. We are lucky enough to book our trips in business class and were stunned when we got onto the plane and saw an amazing set up. The flight was only for thirty-six minutes but we had fully reclining seats and large personal video screens, including game console controllers. We held out hope we would get a similar setup for our trip to Boston but that turned out not to be.

On Our Way Home

The Cool Seats

The Upstairs Neighbors informed us that with business class tickets we could access the VIP lounge in Panama City free of charge, something we had never done. Since we had a five-hour layover before the flight to Boston, this was key. After the obligatory shopping stop to find and secure my Favorite Panamanian’s Mother’s Day gift, we checked out the lounge. It was so cool, a free lunch buffet, free drinks, and supremely comfortable seating. After lunch, I found the Celtics playoff game playing over the bar and watched the entire thing in a comfy chair before we left to find our Boston flight.

In the VIP Lounge

The flight to Boston was uneventful although I did get one last sunset in. This one was while we were over Cuba. While we did not have any of the cool entertainment options of the first flight, there was a QR code placed in our booth where we could log into and watch movies or TV shows. I could also track where the plane was and, being a huge map gee, loved tracking where we were as we made our way up the East Coast. My wife was less impressed with my excitement, she was trying to sleep. Getting through immigration was so quick, they did not even look at our passports, we looked at a camera and then had to say what our names were. That was it, I’m guessing facial recognition software at play.

Sunset Over Cuba

Since Logan Airport continues to go through its seemingly endless construction cycle, as we walked out to where we thought our van would be, we ran into a huge crane. We wrestled our luggage back to the terminal and received a text from the driver who directed us to the new location. That would have been really helpful ahead of time. At least the van didn’t break down this time. We pulled into our driveway about 2am and were in bed by 2:30 after a very long day. Of course, we had no food in the house, so we headed out for breakfast this morning. We didn’t want to hit the grocery store hungry. I had never been to the iconic Lou Roc’s diner, a Worcester landmark. I was completely unprepared for the huge helping they are famous for. I ate the whole thing, thinking (when it was delivered) that this was proof positive we were no longer in Panama. My wife could only manage half of hers and said we had to go find a homeless guy to give the other half to (it’s who she is). Again, so good to be home.

Tulips Coming Up in Wife's Vast Garden Complex

Amazing Breakfast at Lou Roc's

Front Yard Tree Starting to Bloom

FBR has Blue Hair, Huh!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------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; Upstairs Neighbors – American couple and great friends who live in condo above us in Panama; Wingmom – Wingman’s mom, of course