Powerless Procedures

First of all, the good news. My mother-in-law is back home and recovering. She was finally released from the hospital on Monday. My Favorite Panamanian remains in David to help out with home care for her mom so my geographic bachelorhood proceeds apace. In today’s update, she revealed I would not be picking her up tomorrow as planned. She is going to continue her role as a PCA until Saturday. I have a sneaking suspicion that she’s enjoying her time back in her home town with the opportunity to hang out with Tia Loca. I certainly don’t begrudge her that, family is just that. I’m not exactly suffering either, as I just looked up after writing that previous line and saw the waves beckoning. They have been sub-standard this week so it hasn’t been a cake walk. The Saturday change is because we will be celebrating my brother-in-law’s birthday, which is actually today. So, feliz cumpleanos Hermano!!!

The Birthday Boy and his Wife

As my time in this tropical paradise winds down, I made the crucial error a couple weeks ago to remark on how lucky we’ve been with power outages this year. I know, rookie mistake. You can all guess what that has led to since that unfortunate statement. Yesterday was a scheduled outage, which is a little easier to prepare for. That period joined a couple of other unscheduled ones, including a fourteen hour one. The Upstairs Neighbors decided to abandon the condo complex yesterday while this was going on so I had the entire place to myself, kind of lonely, but again, a tropical paradise.

Today's Completely Substandard Sunset

But We had a Great Crew

We have honed our power outage techniques over our years here because they are a regular occurrence. The complex has a generator which is supposed to kick on when the power goes out. That only feeds the common areas and the elevator and not inside the individual condos. Once the power goes out, we have a spooled-up power cord that reaches out to one of those common areas which we can plug the fridge into. We also draw the curtains to block the tropical sun since the air conditioning is not working. I spent the entire day out on the beach under our rancho since a nice breeze was blowing. The only time I was in the condo all day was for a short lunch where I hooked up a small fan to the external power.

Power Out - Fan Set Up

Fridge's Lifeline

Curtains Drawn

Since I was by myself last night a horror movie was appropriate. The Bride is a wild mix of horror, humor, and just plain craziness. Jesse Buckley follows her Oscar winning role with something completely different. That is a vast understatement. She is compelling as a resurrected lady in 1930s Chicago at the request of Christian Bale’s Frankenstein monster. They are a bizarre couple, to say the least, but despite their body count, you can’t help but root for them. The bride is possessed by the spirit of Mary Shelly and that didn’t really work well, distracting when it didn’t need to. While this movie has a lot of faults, it’s hard to look away from and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

FBR with Pistachio - Can't Wait to See Them Soon

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------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