Bud

In addition to the above posting by @Sassy Blake, which was good information along with the other comments, I need to add that there has been some private communications initiated by Sassy to me. We are fortunate to have community members like Sassy who work to make things better for all of us. I now better understand some of the issues and constraints that PriceSmart deals with. Those issues probably face other businesses as well. Thank you, Sassy.

Thank you for sending out this information. You may want to include Papa Rico's (across from BCP and the Feria) if you do an update. Papa Rico's has great calzones and pizzas (and friendly service and great prices).

Interesting comments here. Thank you. Yesterday afternoon (due to an unplanned but necessary trip to David), Marcelyn and I found the Cascade (granted it is the powder version) and facial tissues (actually Kleenex brand) at Super 99 in David. That is a store that we do not frequent, but were pleasantly surprised to find these products.

I am loosing confidence in PriceSmart with regard to stocking policies. Some for instances here. They used to carry both a meat and vegetarian versions of frozen lasagna. I recall the brand name had something like Michael in it. We haven’t seen supplies of either variety in more than two years, even though asking store management about it. We haven’t been able to find facial tissues (Kleenex) for months. We haven’t been able to find dishwasher soap, either liquid or pods or powder, for some time. Also can find none at Romero, Rey, Super Xtra, Super Baru, or the smaller M/S stores. And yes, we know not that many locals have dish washing machines, but some do. What do they use for soap? And no, the shortage of facial tissue is not because of coronavirus because the shortage predates coronavirus. We finally ended up ordering supplies of Kleenex and Cascade pods from online stores in the US.

Hi, Squirt. Miss your songs and your company.

Marcelyn and I had to go to David yesterday (Wednesday) on business and for the requisite stop at PriceSmart. We had an early lunch at home then hit the road. We had three fairly short business stops before heading toward PriceSmart, followed by three business stops after PriceSmart. It was quite warm and the a/c was much appreciated. As we started the short ride to PriceSmart, at this time about 1:30PM, the outside temperature gauge started going up. By the time we got to PriceSmart it read 44C. Wow! That’s hot. Our time in PriceSmart was only about 30 minutes, and as a side comment the warehouse was notably uncrowded, which is a rare occurrence. After leaving PriceSmart we had three more business stops. As we were heading toward stop #2 the outside temperature then read 45C. That is the highest I’ve ever seen that gauge read in my 19 years of living here. As we were heading for stop #3 the gauge went up to 46C. Broke a personal record. 46C is about 114F. Note that I am NOT saying David was 46C yesterday as many factors affect what the car’s outside temperature gauge is reading. But It was more than uncomfortably hot in David yesterday afternoon. The a/c was straining to keep us comfortable. Upon transiting homeward in Bajo Boquete we were back to 25C. Nice. So glad I live in a place where I sleep under a blanket year round.

Just now watched this video, well some of it. Immediate reaction was marketing hype similar to International Living.

Yes. And here I suspect you are talking more than just the dictionary definition of truth.

We live in an area with water service by other than the Boquete municipal water system. We had no recent outage. However, we are now hearing from friends that the entire Boquete water system was shut down for a long period on Tuesday last. Cannot attest to the veracity of that information, nor the reason, assuming it to be true. Is your water back on now? In general we believe water accounts are rarely shut down, and certainly not without notice, for non-payment or late payment.

Wonder if this means we can expect more lengthy electrical outages (as we had on Saturday, Sunday, and yesterday)? But then in the area where I live we don't need high winds to go without electricity. Yes, we do have a generator, and I know I am being negative.

Oops. It is not like this was a short-fused requirement.

Sr Lasso recently raised his haircut price to $4.00. Still a great deal.

Alison and Bill, Oh how sad I am in reading of your loss. Flossy brought love to the both of you, and she knew she was loved in return.

If you are going to be in PC during this Christmas season, do yourself a favor and visit Federico Boyd street during the evening hours. Also some of the small parks within the city. The Christmas lights are stunningly beautiful. You might also want to read a bit about who Federico Boyd was. Check out this article on Wikipedia.

Marcelyn and I saw a “Nuro” vehicle today. Nuro is an automated (driverless, autonomous) vehicle that can be used to deliver goods. Interesting seeing all of the electronics on top of the small, white vehicle. “NURO” in blue letters was displaying on the side doors. For more info, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuro. Before you ask, no, this is not in Panama. In Houston.

Sold.

We have three (3) HP model 950XL (black) printer cartridges. Total value about $100.00. It turns out our model HP uses the 950 series, but is NOT compatible with the higher capacity (the XL) version of these cartridges. These cartridges were brought in from the US. Turns out PriceSmart no longer carries these black cartridges, but does carry the companion 951 series color cartridges. We bought our printer there a few years back. Go figure. Great deal here: $10.00 for the complete set. 720-2677 or email bud.huber@grommet.net

...for what purpose?

Really sad news. Michael was very much involved in our community, both for health/physical fitness and musical entertainment reasons, and truly was a nice guy. Marcelyn and I had taken stretching exercise classes with Michael at The Haven, and also were working with him on preparing some high end multimedia to help document and market his musical skills. Following John's lead above, below are some video recordings taken on September 27th at Boulder 54. It was a rainy evening, there was the ambient noise of recording in a functioning restaurant, and the audio was based only on the camera microphones, so not good quality. These videos were test runs only, and not intended to be made available to the public. However, under the circumstances it seems appropriate to publish these so as to share Michael's talents. We cannot confirm, but believe that these likely are the last videos taken of Michael prior to his passing because a few days after these recordings were made Michael traveled to the USA for about a week; we were on the same plane with him. That was the last time we saw Michael, on the plane from David to Tocumen on October 2nd. We do not think he would object to these postings. Along that line, we were working with him to produce higher quality multimedia recordings (using studio quality audio kit) in November and December. Again, really sad news for our friend. RIP. Posting here in your memory.

So sad. Hopefully Rosie will be reunited with you soon. Our dog, Anouk, really does not like thunder either (nor fireworks or other loud noise bursts). We understand how traumatic these sounds can be to our domestic pets, who really are part of the family.

Three of us had dinner yesterday afternoon at Bar Bamboo. This is the eatery that in the recent past was known as The Baru, and is located diagonally across from the post office in Bajo Boquete. It had been a very long time since last patronizing that eatery, so we wanted to see how things went with the new owner's version of the restaurant/bar. First off, there were no signs visible from the street as to the name of the facility. I saw only one "sign" that had been painted on an exterior wall that was hidden from easy visibility to the effect that the name is now Bar Bamboo. Service was quick, and the menu was extensive and reminiscent of the menu of the prior Baru establishment. We all commented upon reading the menu that prices for the food items seemed a bit high. We ordered some onion rings for an appetizer, plus one medium size combination pizza, which was to be shared among the three of us, plus drinks consisting of one each domestic beer, Coca Cola, and black coffee. The drinks and onion rings were delivered in short order. The onion rings looked attractive, but did not meet our expectations for taste. The pizza was delivered a few minutes later, and was very attractive and tasty. It was a LOT of food, even for three people. Glad that we had not ordered the large family sized pizza. The ambiance was quiet, which pleased us because the three of us like to chatter and catch up on the latest bochinche. On the other hand, we were the only patrons inside the restaurant (pardon me for calling it a restaurant, since the name is Bar Bamboo). The place was clean and well appointed. After finishing our meal, which included a request for take away container, we asked for the bill, but did not ask for a jubilado discount. I paid with a credit card; we were informed that tips had to be in cash. No problem with that. We paid, left a cash tip, and then departed. The outside patio area had only one table occupied. In other words, there were not many patrons there at what we think of as a normal dinner time. We likely will go back, but it is not at the top of our favorites list. No real complaints on our part, but it didn't seem a good value, and the onion rings left a bad taste in our mouths. It was not until getting home and logging the credit card purchase that I noticed that we were not charged for the beer. Obviously an oversight that would have been pointed out had I checked the bill prior to departure. Also we were given a jubilado discount without asking for it. The medium size pizza would have been $14.00 but with the discount it came down to $10.50. Had the bill been correct and no discount applied, the total would have been about $21.00. The bottom line of a dinner for $7.00 per person (not including tip) is reasonable to us, so maybe I should soften the earlier comment about the prices seeming high on the menu. And it was a LOT of food, and tasty pizza.

On our way into town today we could see no evidence of fire damage from the street. I had planned to take a picture to post here, but there is nothing to show.

Our housekeeper told us today that the owner of Milquiburger (near the Los Naranjos "Y") passed away earlier this week. He was suffering from a long term illness, but no details are known. For us "old timers", Milquiburger was known for good hamburgers, and especially for its fried chicken. RIP Sr Milquiburger

We, the larger Boquete area, had another electrical outage today. It began about 5:15AM and service was restored about 11:15AM, or about six hours. I got my haircut this afternoon, and learned while at the barber shop that the cause was a transformer that exploded. The faulty transformer was located somewhere between Boquete and Dolega, but exact location was not known. Interesting how quickly bochinche spreads in our community, probably faster than the speed of light.