David Excursion

We rode to David in our friend Alan's new pick up truck, Alan driving. Alan likes to talk and emphasize the points he is making by gesturing with his hands. A thing that takes his hands from the steering wheel in what would generally be considered an alarming number of times. I say would be, because the disturbance factor is lessened by the speed at which Alan drives. I won't say he's slow, but a comparison to my grandmother on downers would be in order. (Alan if you are reading this, just kidding buddy. I felt safe the whole time except for that moment when you were comparing David to Tanzania or Kenya or some other African place and we damn near collided with those giraffes disguised as taxis.)

Our purpose in going to David was to buy a washer/dryer, stacker style. We found one sporting a decent price at the Do It Center, but they wouldn't let us have it. Our new pal, Tino, wearing a badge that said "facilitator" explained to us that the dryer part was set up for American gas, that is, natural gas, and it would have to be converted to use propane. The guy who does the converting wasn't available until later in the day. In my best Ahnold voice, I said, "we'll be bahk."

Our next stop was to the town's Nissan dealer where Alan had to sign his name...again. He had been trying to get his car registration for weeks but was unable to do so because he wasn't able to duplicate the signature on his ten year old passport. Alan has a slight tremor in his right hand and his signature varies a touch each time he signs it. Couple that with the normal change in handwriting over a ten year period and he just could not get a close enough match to satisfy the local officials. It's kind of funny to watch a guy sign his name and have someone else tell him, "nope, that's not you." Not funny for Alan though. His truck is now illegal and when he explained that to the official all he got in return was a "lo siento," sorry. The problem is still unresolved, but the dealer is going to get Alan's truck papers changed from Panama City where he had made the purchase to the dealership in David where, the dealer says, they are not as particular about signatures. We'll see how that goes.

After a nice lunch at the "Seafood Steak House" which features neither of those things, but rather, Chinese food, we returned to the Do It Center where they hadn't done it. Seems the conversion guy was in Boquete, wouldn't you know, and was not returning until later that day. We made arrangements to pick up the appliance Friday or Monday. Tino gave us his number, should we encounter any problems. I don't anticipate any of those, but I am a little concerned about the washer/dryer's brand name. It's Fridgidaire, the same as our kitchen stove. Our refrigerator? you might ask if I wasn't already telling you. Why that's a Maytag. And I'm not kidding.