Odds & Ends

I woke up this morning to my first "gloomy" morning...socked in, foggy but beautiful, peaceful and so calm.

The rainy season is upon us with a vengeance. It rained on Sunday for hours but 2 hours were an all out torrential, tropical downpour. Water was running a foot deep on my gravel road. You can imagine what that did to gravel...it's all at the bottom of the hill.

For me, life is returning to normal. Whatever that is in retirement and the tropics! Most of my construction activity is over, well at least minimized.

Yella is now in the barrel! She is under the gun to set up a household before she leaves on November 5th. It is intense!

And the signs of wear and tear are apparent.

I fell her pain.

On a different subject...

We attended Rafael's son's funeral. The service was in the Lions Hall. Only about 30 people could get in so 2 (maybe 3) hundred of us stood outside for an hour waiting for the funeral march to the cemetery.

We all walked behind the hearse for about 12 blocks to the cemetery where, of course, we had to wait for somebody to move their car so we could proceed.

Only in Panama do the dead wait too!

Another crypt side service was held. Most bodies are in crypts rather than in the ground.

It was an emotional service. The 6 sailor, pall bearers (they looked like babies) were sobbing at the loss of their buddy. I think everyone was in tears.

They mixed up mortar right their on the spot and sealed the crypt. I thought that was a little unusual.

We were the only gringos. Rafael walked back through the crowd to thank Yella and I for coming. I believe it meant a lot to him that we attended.

Yesterday he called to say he was not going to work for a couple of days and he told me again how much it meant to him and that he loved us.

I was touched.

And on a different subject...

Many things are obtained on "the black market" here. What I mean is that you have to go through a friend of a friend to get it.

I need guitar strings. The ones they sell in the stores are terrible. So I found a guy that has some strings. I hope to meet him this morning for "the exchange." I will have to buy him breakfast to seal the deal.

So on to the day and life in paradise...