A regular Friday in San Carlos

Two weeks have passed since we landed in our new home and a little of routine is beginning to take shape. Still I marvel at how casual life is and the size of the trees but here are the events of the day. Notice how trivial they are to some of the major events in yours.

• 6:30 get up, make coffee and watch the town wake up
• 7:30 Walk Grayson, our Weimeriener, to the beach and throw the tennis ball for 40 minutes into the small surf. I am the only person on the beach.
• 9:00 attend a casual Spanish class of expats
• 11:00 arrive home and meet the housecleaner ($10/day $15 if she does the windows)
• 11:15 A new acquaitenance pops in and asks for me to go help him get his car started 8 miles away
• First we have lunch at the Chinese restraunt across the street
• 1:30 return home and spend 2 hours painting our walkin closet in my underwear(I have no paint clothes)
• 4:00 I get a lesson from a retired hairdresser on how to do Linda's hair.
• 5:00 got to the beach with Linda and Grayson
• 6:00 watch sunset from the beach while it begins to rain.
• drive home in the rain
• 7:00 have dinner of ceviche, salad and soup while watching old versions of Three Men and Boy while Grayson is already sound asleep
• 9:00 go to be with all the widows open and the ceiling fans on

So you see our lives sometimes can be pretty mundane but still it feels like a vacation with a lot less expense and plenty of clothes an gadgets to play with.

What I did not metion was the holiday celebration that took place right in front of our house. You see November 2nd is one of the Independence celebrations in Panama. It is always a really big one because everyone in Panama City get paid on the 1st and 15th so they were flush. And really big in San Carlos because it is the government and social center of the region and the place of the parade. We had heard several bands practicing for days with snare and base drums, a few trumpets and lots of marchinng girls. Well the parade was seven hours long! It had bands from every little school in the region, with the kids in band uniforms and the girls dressed to the nines. The last two days have seemed very quiet in comparison. Next holiday is Nov 10th the Colon independence celebration.

I gotta go