Stuff Of Little Interest, But Somebody Has To Say It

The tree in our yard that looked so dead a couple months ago is now lushly leafed. It has become a bird magnet and I can see four species of our avian pals out there right now, chirping their heads off, trying to distract me from the task at hand. "Hold it down Worm Breath, I'm trying to write here!" Yesterday, there was a large hawk with dark wings and a pale yellow under belly perched up there and I put the glasses on him for a closer look. Beautiful. We are getting more and more birds of late and I don't know if it is a seasonal thing or whether they are just returning now that the noise of construction has stopped. No matter, it's nice to have them around even if they are bit flocking noisy.

There was a nice downpour for an hour or so yesterday and the lawn is looking chipper and the flowers perked up this a.m. as a result. RTGFKAR's homemade drainage system - he buried many feet of pipe - passed its first test. The hard rain, did though, like a good teacher, demonstrate to RTGFKAR a few more spots that need attention before the wet season begins its annual deluge. When your house is carved into a hillside, you can't have erosion.

From the here's how it works in the Third World department, are two stories I'll tell briefly. (A friend of mine used to say, "to make a long story a headache.")

I hitched up the buckboard to go into town and pay my seat belt ticket Friday. I went first, as suggested by our cleaning woman, to the Municipio where I was told that I needed to go to the Tesoro on the other side of the building. I drove around to the other side because it was a large building and I had Gus with me and he gets frantic when I've gone to some place out of his sight. There were four entry doors on the building's far side and at the fourth, the only one unmarked outside, I found the Tesoro. (treasury) I waited for ten minutes while the only person there talked on the phone. At the conversation's conclusion, the woman said, "Digame" (talk to me) and I showed her my ticket. She perused it for a minute or so and then shouted to someone unseen somewhere else. A voice answered back in unintelligible Spanish for the most part, but I did catch the word David. I need to go there to pay the ticket because it was issued by a Transito cop and they're out of David. Guess I'm lucky I didn't get a ticket from a Panama City cop.

Friday, I called my local number for Direct TV because I wanted to order the Baseball Package. After a long, struggling conversation is Spanish, they gave me the number for the home office in Pan City. It was an 800 number so it couldn't be called on a cell phone, the only kind we have. I drove to B and L's because they have a land line and called from there. Got a nice fellow on the phone who spoke English. After giving him our account number and passing myself off as RTGFKAR - the account's in his name, he asked me for my identifying number. What's that I asked and he said my passport number. I asked him to hold and called RTGFKAR on my cell. He didn't answer. He was probably outside burying pipe. I then picked up the phone and tried to explain that I wasn't really RTGFKAR but rather his brother and I didn't know his passport number and I would have to call back after I had returned home and got it. The guy was very understanding, not the least bit suspicious, and suggested that he call me because I didn't have a land line to call out from. Nice. Fifteen minutes later he did, talked to RTGFKAR and now we have two baseball games a day for the rest of the season. I will probably only watch one or two a week, but that's worth the $55. cost.

And now, this being Sunday, breakfast is in my hands and I need to get to it. I'm thinking bacon and eggs because RTGFKAR made apple cinnamon bread last night and nothing goes better with it. Yum. Tonight we go to B and L's for chicken fried steak. I have been exercising diligently for three weeks now on both the elliptical strider and our free weights and have only lost two pounds. Can't imagine why. Can you?

And, oh yeah, Go Kansas.