Historic Pats and Basement Dervishes

The G.O.A.T.

Yesterday was colder still than my Sunday adventures but fortunately I had the NFL to fall back on as an excuse for extended time in the Man Cave. After the morning rush to accomplish Sunday requirements I was safely entombed for the Patriots’ game. That was a workmanlike effort as they walked all over a badly outclassed Rams team. The big news coming out of the game was Tom Brady becoming the all-time record holder for wins by a quarterback. It’s nothing short of amazing that he’s till doing what he does in a league that regularly washes players out shortly after they reach thirty years of age. Despite all the haters out there he can legitimately claim to be the best that ever was.

In Action Yesterday

Since my wife finally exhausted her efforts in the living areas of the house she turned her eyes towards the basement after the game. She’d seen the state of things when we were retrieving Christmas decorations and decided the entire storage area needed her unique talents. She knows the Man Cave is sacrosanct but everything else was in play. I was trying to watch an old Hitchcock movie whiley she was banging around the other side of the wall. I eventually got the hint (actually she came in and summoned me) and wandered over to see what was going on. As usual I was a little stunned by what she’d accomplished in a very short amount of time.

Partying in Cali

She had amassed a huge pile of items to be discarded, some had been moved with us for the better part of twenty years but were no match for her determination to downsize.

Buddy looked particularly concerned since we were delving into his habitat and any changes would have to be vetted thoroughly through his olfactory senses. He took up sitting at the head of the stairs and looking on mournfully as more and more of his hiding spots were reduced. We shared a look between us that said we both were smart enough not to object at this point.

Best buds

Earlier in the day we had our FaceTime call with the Frist Blog Reader. She’d spent the day hanging out with a fellow toddler who’s become her best friend over their joint first year of existence. Her friend was already up and walking so my granddaughter, demonstrating a nice competitive streak, also took a four step jaunt herself. She was, once again, in constant motion during the call stopping only at the backgammon game to show us she could throw dice. Each throw was accompanied by a touchdown signal which she expected us to join in with. I’m guessing she’s spent some time with Wingman, ardent gamer that he is, learning this. She’s also a fan of Christmas decorations which will make my Clark Griswold efforts of yesterday worthwhile. Someone asked me why I didn’t show photos of the lights lit up – so here you go.

3rd Floor Corner Is Ours

Seen from the High Tide Mark

I received another set of photos on the Panamanian condo construction. One offers a very good view of what will be our master bedroom. Another was an updated artist rendering of the finished product. They claim to still be on track for a February finish. Every time I see one of these photos the retirement bell starts tolling in my subconscious. Right now it’s fairly distant, barely perceptible, but distinctive nonetheless. Waking up to this scene this morning made the beach at Las Lajas a lot more enticing.

Fun Drive in this Morning

Griswolding

Wife on City Hall Plaza Last Night

My wife and I, together, would have made an excellent Clark Griswold yesterday. She had the vast visions of outdoor Christmas decorations while I was entrusted/directed to make them happen. It was surprisingly cold yesterday with a wind blowing across our hilltop to make the event even more special. We also had a few snowflakes fall to augment the mood. Once my wife realized how cold it was she retreated into the house and spent the next three hours making “needed” adjustments to the interior decorations. This was, of course, a good thing since it reduced supervision to what she could see from the window.

Buddy Guarding the Front Yard

Buddy always whines when I’m outside without him so I brought him out with me. I don’t think I’ll have to worry about him overreacting to me being outside without him again. He was good company as I tied him off to the mailbox while I worked out front. This gave him a chance to berate the other dogs who had the temerity to be walked along our street. He usually has to do this from inside so a lot less canine saliva on the windows this time.

The Lights Staked Out

My wife resurrected the lights on small poles that we used each year in Charlton. I thought I’d hidden them well enough to be spared that exercise but she’s relentless. I stole her small garden cart to sit down on while I emplaced each light and stake and almost ended up three houses down on my first attempt, I did mention the hill didn’t I? I’m glad there were no neighbors out to view my ungainly method of stopping the headlong downhill plunge.

Mafiosos With the Wife

Buddy liked the back yard even more when we moved there because he had greater range of motion. He was frustrated that he couldn’t reach the spot I was working and trip me with his wire, which is one of his go to moves. I spent a long time wrestling with the pine trees on the hill behind the house but as the sun was setting the wife, safely inside, pronounced my effort a success.

My Hands Full of Beautiful Women

Being outside in the cold for extended periods of time has a tendency to tire you out more than usual, not something my wife is acquainted with. I couldn’t rest on my laurels though as we had arranged for a dinner out with the neighborhood mafiosos. In an event sure to shatter some long held beliefs my wife was actually ready on time. We went to Peppercorns which has a very underrated chef not to mention their very own micro-brewery. We used to go there for First Friday until Brew City fixed their service issues so it was little nostalgic.

City Hall Plaza

The mafiosos, after dinner, drove us down to the center of Worcester to see the Christmas lights on city hall plaza. They’re both lifelong Worcesterites and had great stories of what central Worcester was like growing up. A determined group of city leaders are trying to reinvent that center and return to a more vibrant locale but have a heavy burden ahead of them. The plaza looked great, with festive lights, an ice skating rink, and no people. It’ll be interesting to see over the next five years if they can fix the people problem. It was a great evening though, as it tends to be when we’re hanging with the mafiosos.

California Christmas Party - Our Guys on the Left

Apparently there was also a very busy day for the California contingent as well, albeit with decidedly warmer temperatures. We couldn’t squeeze in a FaceTime call because of music classes, birthday parties and Christmas get togethers. The social life of one year olds in today’s society is to be marveled at. We did at least get some great pictures of her adventures.

She Likes Christmas Trees

Christmas Vector

So This is Walking!

Somehow we find ourselves surrounded by December already, how the hell did that happen so quickly? The upside if of course the approach of my favorite time of year – Christmas. I’m an unabashed lover of the holiday season and can honestly say I’ve enjoyed every single Christmas I’ve been lucky enough to partake of. Well except for the whole 1994 one where I was peacekeeping in the Middle East. Every other one I’ve been surrounded by family which is the defining aspect of the day.

She Loves her Grandfathers - Here with the West Coast Edition

Thanksgiving is about the extended family but Christmas is about close family. I consider my lifelong friends that have become part of our holiday tradition as members of that family. Work is going to keep me busy enough that I don’t get totally distracted in the upcoming weeks and online shopping will keep me out of shopping malls. That eliminated the one downside of the season – I hate shopping I stores with a white hot passion. I am going to have to enter a store this year to get something for the Favorite Panamanian but I was going there anyways to buy a movie so it doesn’t qualify as Christmas shopping.

This Game is Exhausting

The political leadership showed up at First Friday last night which was a welcome development, hopefully healing some of the wounds of the Excellent Boss’ departure. Speaking of that august personage he’s finally emerged from his post-employment funk and I’m taking a couple co-workers with me next week to take him out to dinner.

In teh Ball Tent

The First Blog Reader was in high form again last night as she entertained me while awaiting the return of her grandmother from, what else, shopping. My wife does not share my aversion to Christmas shopping. The California contingent’s journey east to join us at the Favorite Son’s house for a new Christmas tradition is what I’m most excited about. It just can’t here fast enough and then I’ll complain that it happened too fast. Now I’m just waiting for the smell of Christmas cookies to commence. There goes the waistline, again.

Stepping Up

The Superstar

A momentous event took place in California yesterday. I’m somewhat surprised it wasn’t carried on the national media but they’ve got this whole President-Elect Trump thing on their mind so I guess it’s kind of understandable. The First Blog Reader took her first step yesterday! You can now understand my consternation at the lack of Breaking News coverage.

At the Doctor's Office

She had a very busy day yesterday. In addition to taking that first step she had to receive the next series of vaccinations. She once again handled that with her usual aplomb, crying only for two seconds for only one of the shots. She may have inherited the family trait of pain tolerance. She also had a date with Santa and inherited her mother’s reaction to her first Santa, something akin to outright panic. So she’s more terrified of a kindly, white bearded Father Christmas type than having her skin pierced by sharp steel, so she’s got that going for her. She looked devastatingly beautiful in her Christmas outfit. I’m under strict orders not to release any Santa pictures since they will be used in the Christmas card.

Getting Ready to Meet Santa and all the Terror Involved in that

My wife has succumbed to the Christmas spirit which we all know means “shopping”. She and the neighborhood Mafioso disappeared for the entire day yesterday. She wasn’t home for lunch or when I returned from work. She even missed the nightly FaceTime call with the granddaughter. She was definitively in “the mode”. I was in a semi-conscious state in the Man Cave when Buddy cooked off upstairs and acted as if an army of squirrels had invaded late last night. It was just my absent wife ferrying loads of spoils from the Mafioso’s car to the front porch. I was summoned outside because there was too much for a single person to carry. She may have worn out a couple credit cards in her travels yesterday which is fine because it’s part of what I love about Christmas.

Combing her Hair

I didn’t miss the FaceTime call because I needed to congratulate my granddaughter on her momentous accomplishment. She was a little grouchy at first which I quickly ascribed to the shots received and terrorizing at the hands of Chris Cringle. She didn’t replicate the first step for me but when Wingman asked her to stand up she almost sprung to her feet. I was amazed but of course that’s a low threshold whenever this young lady is involved.

I had a very good day at work as the woman I’m hiring to replace me in my old job showed up for her interview with the political leadership. As anticipated she passed with flying colors and will be working one day a week for the next month as she dis-engages from her current job. It’s kind of weird that I’ll be her boss now because she was my boss when I started work here after leaving the Army. Oh, and today just happens to be the first Friday of the week and we all know what that means! YEAH!!!!!

Cave In

I finally persuaded my Favorite Panamanian to take a break from Christmas decorating and spend some time in the Man Cave last night. It required a few extra blankets since I haven’t deigned to turn on the heat down there yet. It’s electric heat versus the rest of the house which is gas. I’ve found that it actually starts to heat up after a couple hours, of course that could be the cumulative effects of a heavy mouth breathing dog (amongst his other emissions). Not something I want to think too hard on.

She immediately wounded my pride when she saw the movie I wanted to watch together. I’m heavily into nostalgia with my recent birthday haul and purchased a bunch of movies from the 1960s and 1970s. She squawked that she didn’t like “old time movies” which did absolutely nothing for my morale or creeping feelings of mortality. She did hang around though but spent most of the movie surfing Facebook and the omnipresent “What’s Up” app on her smart phone. She emerged from her electro-magnetic daze late in the movie to decry the ending which was kind of ludicrous. I tried to take the high road and point out she wasn’t authorized to comment since she hadn’t watched any of the movie. We can all imagine how well that comment went over.

We did get serial FaceTime calls in with each of our “kids” while we were down there. After the acclaimed response to her use of “Oh No” (her first sentence) my granddaughter has added that to her assortment of funny faces and peekaboo games we engage with each day. I’m so thankful her parents are willing to let us spend the time with her daily exchanging nonsensical faces. The Favorite Son is on the verge of regaining a normal life after the past few years with a commute from hell each day to Boston. He now works fairly normal hours and I could tell how happy both he and the ABFA were with that development.

The biggest task I have in front of me is collecting Christmas lists from everybody involved in what is shaping up to be a Christmas for the ages as we establish a new tradition in Portsmouth that will hopefully outlast me. Of course I look so forward to Christmas each year that this isn’t a big reach.