Quote:
Originally Posted by HPF Bob
That reminds me. I'm not the only one adjusting to new digs - how is life in your new home?
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We're settling in ok, thanks. There are lots of small nuisances that I'm dealing with one by one, some anticipated, others surprising. The complex is great. We have a little pool in the yard which we have dangerously close to clean enough to use finally. It'll be great for teaching Daniel to swim. He does great in the water with a float thing we strap on him, pool, ocean, wherever. But I need him to start learning how to swim on his own, and that starts tomorrow. He's recently taken an interest in using a mask to see underwater so hopefully we can encourage that here, too, since he does almost everything according to his own schedule. I imagine a lot of kids are like that. He won't take any sort of instruction from me, but he will be incredibly receptive to instruction of all kinds from other people who exhibit any sort of mild authority.
There's a big park directly across the street, a big community pool, direct access to a beach that depending on the tides is often quite nice for swimming. It's really nice for walking, too, and somewhat to my surprise Daniel is happy to take walks on the beach and not necessarily go swimming every time.
It turns out that the school that we specifically moved out here to attend has in the interim seen a change in administration and after all sorts of delays our admission, which was assured by the old administration, was rejected. So that was a bit of a pisser. We were given all sorts of bullshit Panamanian excuses, all of which are lies. I suspected this during the interview and confirmed them as lies afterwards. I say We but I should really say I because once my wife heard they were rejecting us she scooped him up and marched right out.
Fortunately there was another school in the area that we really liked and we've arranged to send him there. It's a different sort of place, more academically fluid, and in many ways I think it will suit him better. So we'll see how that goes.
My biggest problem here is that the power goes out all the goddam time, at least once a day. And I do not dig that. For some reason I've become accustomed to having a reliable supply of electricity. I can't wait for the lights to konk off at about 12:30 on a random September Sunday.