Where have I been for the last 20 years? People are talking about the 80’s and 90’s like they were 20 or 30 years ago!! What? They ARE 20 and 30 years ago?? Where have I been. Just having my 73rd birthday in January, and Jim’s same number in March, we’re wondering where is time going? It’s flying away at a rapid pace.
First of all, my mom needs to move closer to my son, who married and moved to Orlando last year. Change for mom is not easy…although she has mostly good days, there are lots of spaces being created by her oncoming dementia. Upshot is we moved her, she’s spent weeks in the hospital after a fall, she now has a pacemaker and 7 day a week caregiver visits, but is still living independently. Prayers gratefully accepted….Son and family are so appreciated!!! Those who remember her better days are fortunate.
But, time goes on and here’s how 2016 started for us..
Two 73 year old farts!!!
Birthdays…73 x 2 = 146 years we’ve been on the planet, collectively. You’d think we would have learned everything we need to know by now, but here we are….learning something new every day.
Las Lajas Beach Resort, Panama on Jim’s birthday
There’s been lots of dirt flying around these days! Both on our property and in our area, in general.
First of all, the government is in a 5 year project to 4 lane the highway between David and Santiago (about 1/2 across the country). The fun thing is that 5 companies (none of them Panamanian or American) share portions of the project. There is one company that is finished, lines painted, packed up and gone home to Brazil. Another company still hasn’t laid the first meter of asphault. So it’s a patchwork.
Other dirt is flying around our property with the seemingly never ending development of Jim’s little golf course. He brought in a big yellow thingie home for 2 days to move dirt around, extending the pond excavation to including leveling an upper tee box for a good shot to the green and sand traps. (SEE OUR BURN PILE??)
This guy scoops from the back and lifts from the front
First he had to get down to the exact location
So here are some shots of what happening in about 12 hours….wish I had timelapse!
Breaking ground
Defining pond edge
Now..we move beyond the pond to the tee box
Upper tee box
From above the green…burn pile was moved away from casita before torching it.
The end result
The third thing that’s got dirt flying around here is the new $80,000,000 shopping mall that the KING of Panamanian malls, including the huge Albrook Mall near the bus terminal and domestic airport, is building one here in Chiriqui on the north side of David (that would be the side closest to US!!! Yeah!). He’s also building a new bus terminal for David there, which is desperately needed. The big stores in Panama City are “in” on the project, bringing us the “most US type” shopping Panama has to offer. This includes a RebaSmith grocery, which has been marching it’s way west on the isthmus for the last couple of years with new stores in Coronado, Chitre, and Santiago. Their David store will be the biggest and best and we are all soooo excited! More US name brand foods at our fingertips.
So….this shopping center is consuming a BIG piece of land. There was an enormous rock (like a small mountain) sitting in the center…they took a long time getting rid of it….where the trucks are parked…all the dark earth and rocks are part of what’s left of that rock. I just drove in and snatched this quick photo with my phone before the guard came running over, waving his hands and shouting….I apologized and left. I wonder how often I can get away with that….I’ll try to keep a photo-diary of the project.
I’m calling this one the BIG DIG…I couldn’t get even half of the project in one shot. Next time I’ll try video.
I always have to give you a peek at Connor Casin (my grand nephew…our family’s only baby!!) whenever I get a photo update from out in northern California. He was the most astonishingly cute new baby (not usually the case, except to the parents/grandparents) I had ever seen. And his sweetness surpasses his cuteness. Jim and I visited with him just after his 1st birthday, during our trip to northern California last October.
Connor Update…he’s getting cuter by the day. 18 months..hiking with dad!
Penny In Paradise 