Gualby Nation : Conor is back in Panama!

Penny and I have been singing a Thin Lizzy classic these past few days. . .

I have been lead vocals (of course) and Penny has been filling in on the back-up vocals. Our performance can be heard from the boat multiple times through out the day. Meg starts out: "Our boy is back in town", Penny right on cue: <our boy is back in town>, Meg: "Our boy is back in taown ah, ah ahown." Pen: <our boy is back in town>" Depending on how excited we are and our audience reaction determines how many times we repeat our lines. And Penny is just as good as me at knowing correct lyrics to songs so we only just repeat those two lines over and over. In case you haven't figured it out. . . CONOR IS BACK IN TOWN, AH, AH, AHOWN!!

Everyone on board Gualby is incredibly happy, especially me. I know people all over the world go way longer than 2 months without seeing the love of their life, but I don't. That was my first time and I am so ecstatic, gleeful, delighted, elated, thrilled, excited and overjoyed to have my man by my side again. I had missed him so much! The dogs and I are behaving almost the same right now. We are all competing for affection. We all want to sit next to him, play with him, and receive his love and attention. I feel a pinch ridiculous.

The night Conor arrived back to Bocas it was dark by the time we got to the boat and the dogs were growling and protecting me against this strange man that was boarding the boat. At the first sound of Conor's voice, the growling stopped, tails started to wag, and all was right with the world. Our boy was back in town. The dogs were unbelievably excited to see him and they spent as much time loving on Con as they did smelling his bags, as if they could figure out where he had been for so long. We had a delicious dinner of steak with a mushroom and onion sauce, potatoes I cooked and forgot to serve I was so flustered and excited, steamed veggies, and fresh bread. I kept interrupting Conor eating because I kept wanting to just hug him. It felt so good to put my arms around his strong shoulders, bury my head in his chest, listen to his heart beat, and just breath him in. Damn, I had missed that boy.

The next day was similar to Christmas. Con had brought all sort of goodies back from the USA. We looked through boat parts, new clothes and bikinis, new camera (Yay for the blog!), candy, and notes from loved ones. In the afternoon we decided to go the beach. I was looking forward to showing Con how great the dogs and I do getting ourselves to the beach. The dogs have been really well behaved and we have been a great team together since Con has been gone; I couldn't wait to show us off! Let me first tell you how the process went pre Conor and then I will explain how things went down on our first walk with Con. Usually the dogs and I paddle to the dingy dock in the canoe. Both dogs wait very patiently while I get out, tie us up, get my backpack on, and then once I give the command to get out, then and only then do they get out of the canoe. And truly this happens every time. They are both on leashes and we walk the fifteen minutes to the beach more or less with no pulling. They know the turns and route so we walk along nicely. They both sit once we get the beach, I remove their leashes, and then they run wild. It's a nice little afternoon we have together. I am proud of this routine, I am proud that they obey me and are well behaved with just me being in charge. I was totally looking forward to showing this little routine off to Conor. So, we all pile into the canoe and I can tell the dogs are already way more high energy than regular, understandbly so but I think "this is not good for our routine." We get close to the dingy dock and Penny looks like she is about to jump from the canoe towards the dock, I am so surprised I only grab her right at the last minute to stop it. Then, both dogs jump right out as soon as we are close enough to the dock. I quickly pull them close to me and with a sheepish grin I look at Con and say, "this is not what usually happens." Con is carrying a surfboard so I offer to walk with both dogs (I mean I have been doing that for almost two months!). We start off down the jungle path and immediately I can tell that my obiedient dogs are gone. A time when they listened to me is now just a glimmer in my memory. Penny is pulling hard on her leash away from me and towards Con, who is walking maybe half a step behind me. She wants to walk right next to Conor and not one part of her cares that I am pulling her up to walk with me and Bubby. Penny wanting to walk next to Con presents another problem, Bubby does not have one alpha bone in his little long and strange shaped body. He does not like to lead the way down the path. So Penny is pulling hard on the leash to go backwards towards Con, I am pulling her forward, Bubby keeps stopping and timidly looking back at us because he doesn't want to be first in line so I keep tripping over him or his leash trying to coordinate the two. Conor is laughing and does not seem overly impressed. At the beach, as I'm sure you can imagine, Penny has selective hearing, Bubby follows suite and I look like I made up what great, obiedient dogs I have. Well, at least it didn't take long for life to get back to normal!
M.