David van Harn

The screening of "Brooklyn" scheduled for today has been cancelled. We were notified at the last moment that La Villa Coffee Lounge will be closed Sunday and Monday. The BCP Board of directors assures me that we will be back on track this week with new cafe management. If all goes well, I will verify the moving out the schedule one week, and hope to show "Brooklyn" next Sunday. As they say in radio, stay tuned for details. We apologize for the short notice.

f you are interested in helping out and joining the enthusiastic group of Jazz Festival volunteers, contact Lori Hart via e-mail at (LLHART160 at aol.com). You don't need to be available every day or all day. SUV's are best, If you have one and want to help out and personally meet some of the musicians, this is a fun opportunity. Lori Hart - who filled in for me last year when a mild heart attack put me in the hospital during the festival - is the transportation coordinator again this year. David van Harn

$200 - includes original remote control. An excellent Sony product - and has always been used with a surge protector. I bought this high-quality Sony Bravia LCD-TV new in the box shortly after I moved to Boquete here in 2012. This TV has seen light usage, and is in like new condition. (I don't subscribe to cable TV, and used it only for movies, videos and music in the evenings.) -- Contact: David van Harn - 6706-7236 (voice or text) or email [dvanharn at gmail dot com] .

And what will the increase in the Medicare deduction be? My SS pension net payment has gone down the past couple of years. However, according to this October 4,2016 Money Magazine article: "The majority of Medicare beneficiaries have nothing to worry about. Most people who have their premiums deducted from their Social Security checks are protected by what’s called the “hold harmless” rule: Their Medicare charges can’t increase by any more than their Social Security income goes up." Bottom line, I don't expect to see any increase in my SS retirement benefit payments in 2017.

Tank is full again - water must have come back on in the past couple of hours.

Interesting - I thought my barrio in Volcancito abajo got its water from up the hill - didn't realize that it was pumped up the hill from down below. A truck was distributing potable water to local residents across the street from the Food Box about an hour ago. I have agricultural water still flowing - using buckets of that for flushing toilets - but it is nasty looking stuff full of sediment and stringy things. Bottled water, paper plates and personal deodorant will have to do until potable water is flowing again.

I rent a house on the side street off Volcancito Road just past the entrance to Santa Lucia - a dead end lane lane that heads back down the hill towards Bajo Boquete. My water supply has been iffy for several days, but now I have no water flow & my reserve tank is empty - first time in three years of living at this location. I also understand that Bajo Boquete is having water pressure problems. Anyone have a clue as to what is happening?

As a former corporate IT desktop and network administrator, my computer and e-mail security practices and habits mean that I very rarely get e-mail scam messages, but I got one this morning, as did friends who also use good security. The scam e-mail "appears" to originate be from the account of Robby Robinson at "Real Panama Tours." If you get this e-mail, delete it immediately - it is a scam that is "phishing" - trying to get you to give someone your private information and e-mail password so they can steal your e-mail contact list. The subject line is "Re: Signed Document." and in the e-mail is this graphic: Don't follow the included link.

I also echo the thanks given to Bud and Marcelyn. I dropped by Boquete.ning this morning after a couple of weeks of totally ignoring it, and saw that the global warming denialists there were trying to bait me again. Since in general, willfully ignorant people and conspiracists do not accept understand science and rational thinking, and they don't accept evidence and reason, I merely posted some silliness, and then quickly left without engaging the instigators. I have also given upon posting my artisan woodturning "event" notices there because no one seems to monitor the requests and approve them in a timely manner and post them promptly as Fran did in the "old days." (The News.Boquete e-mails listserve and the posting of them here is a much better option - and certainly more reliable.) And now it's time to try out some new ideas for artistic woodturnings...

Although I do like to get out and about and enjoy Boquete's local tourist-town Panamanian culture and day-to-day life, I also enjoy the unique experience of Restaurante La Villa and its park-like setting at the BCP Center. It's nice to hang out for a while and enjoy some coffee or other drink and occasionally a light breakfast or lunch. When there is no event in progress, the place is peaceful and serene with the river burbling quietly in the background. There are a couple of hammocks and hanging fabric chairs on the back terrace in addition to tables and regular chairs. Elizabeth and her staff in cooperation with the regular BCP staff have done a great job of cleaning up the facility and its grounds, and Elizabeth is constantly planting new and interesting things such as herbs, flowers and even a few pineapple plants. I have been a friend of Elizabeth (a.k.a. Lucy) for sometime, and now stop by La Villa hang regularly. She and her staff serve a nice - and always changing - selection of food and drinks, including excellent coffee that is fire roasted weekly right there at the BCP Center. La Villa usually has a small selection of delicious - and healthy - breakfast and lunch items as well. I have been talking to Elizabeth, as well as BCP Board of Directors members Bernie and Carol, about showing art house, foreign, documentary, and perhaps classic films (not main-stream movies or sports) weekly at La Villa. A new large flat-screen TV is being installed this week, and I hope to schedule a first showing very soon. I am starting an informal "Boquete Film Club" that will include a blog which I hope to set up today. I hope to utilize the new blog, as well as this forum, and perhaps an informal gathering at La Villa to discuss ideas for the film screening events. Keep your eyes and ears on alert - the local "arts" community is about to have some new events and opportunities.

My condolences, Bonnie. You and Larry put together a good life for a retired couple here in Boquete, and were a good example for other expat couples thinking about living here.

I used to sell very high quality solar hot water and home heating systems, including home and commercial pool heating. The owner and founder of the company was a Swiss born Ph.D. Economist/statistician/engineer, and he was fanatical about making sure that the engineering and technical information was correct. We always recommended a pool cover to reduce evaporation, and in Northern California, many people could simply used a good pool cover for a three-month summer swimming season. The cost of a solar system could not be justified except except to extend their swimming season. Like operating a passive solar house which often requires active manipulation of ventilation window covers/shades, passive pool heating requires active participation, which many people reject as too much bother. The opaque foam blankets have to be removed during the day to allow the sun to heat the pool, and put back on the pool to prevent night-time heat loss. The transparent solar "bubble blankets" which can be used in warmer climates like ours, can be left on day and night, and only removed when the pool is to be used. There are a myriad of factors affecting temperature control in swimming pools. Heat loss from swimming pools is primarily via evaporation (which also causes pool chemical loss) and radiation, especially to cold air and clear night skies. Conduction losses through the pool walls are relatively insignificant, and short of insulating behind the concrete when you build a pool, is ignored. Years ago, there was much resistance to pool covers based on aesthetics - many people wanted to see the water like a lake or pond on their property, and would spend a fortune on pool heating to preserve that aesthetic. Foam Insulating covers were the best in cooler climates where spring and fall temps were chilly, especially at night, but I am guessing that the lowest cost and most effective solution here in the Boquete would be a "solar pool blanket" or "bubble blanket." "Bubble blankets" are made of a material that is similar to bubble wrap but is much more rugged, and the material is formulated to be UV resistant to delay degradation from sunlight. The Home Depot home improvement centers in the U.S. sells solar pool blankets for a reasonable price, but I don't know if they are available in Panama. Some people use a few smaller bubble blankets - the "lily pad" concept. These are safer for children and pets who might fall into the pool. Dogs have been known to jump on pool blankets not realizing what they are. These are rare occurrences - but they do occasionally happen, and then the animal can panic and get trapped under a full-pool blanket. The various diameter above-ground covers sold by Amazon look like a great bargain - and can be used as large "lily pad" solar blankets. LINK Pool blankets can also trap debris, and when pulled off the pool, they can be swept or rinsed off - which would probably be helpful here during the dry windy season here.

Since I had blocked Windows 10 installation notifications and download, I had to initiate the upgrade from my Windows 7 machine manually. It took almost 12 hours to download the upgrade, and then I let the upgrade process itself run overnight. This morning, I followed the prompts to finish up the details. I told Windows that I didn't want to share anything, and deleted all of the tiles from the start menu to give it a clean, uncluttered Windows 7 look. I then removed the Cortana personal assistant - a new personal assistant app that is very intrusive and downloads scads of personal information to better allow it to help you. I also made sure Firefox was my default browser and removed (right-click and unpin) the MS Edge browser from the taskbar, verified my default programs. The entire process was extraordinarily straightforward, and I had absolutely no problems at all. This was the easiest and cleanest upgrade I have ever done - going all the back to upgrading from DOS 2.1 to DOS 3.1 in 1985. Every app, including my anti-virus software, seems to be working fine. Google searches quickly found solutions and step-by-step instructions for everything I wanted to do to customize windows 10. I have no regrets - Windows 10 works fine, and seems to be even easier to configure and customize than any Microsoft operating system product in the past. I'm glad I did it before the free upgrade period ends on July 31. I now have the pleasure of challenging my 74 y/o brain with three operating systems - Windows 10 on my laptop, Linux Mint on my Intel NUC HTCP (Home Theater PC) media system, and Android on my tablet and smart phone. But don't ask me for help - there is a big step from being able to muddle through managing one's own "intelligent devices" - and being competent and comfortable enough to assist others with anything except the simplest tasks. Twin Wolf, Marilyn Jenkins, Juan Arauz (Overclockers) and other true experts are available if you need help.

Adding some random silliness - considering two of our great local products...

Like you, Hil, I worked with networks and desktop computing as a professional. I was a Novell CNE (Certified Netware Engineer) and an MCP (Microsoft Certified Professional). I did contract work for major corporations in San Francisco in the 1990's, but left the field in 2001. I like Windows 7,and I am quite familiar and comfortable with it. However, after nearly one year of observing the Windows 10 world from a distance, I am now confident that it is ready for prime-time, and I will perform the upgrade right after I post this comment. Some worry about "telemetry" or the automatic sending data back to Microsoft, and indeed, until I disabled it on my Windows 7 laptop, performance monitoring showed that it often added a lot to my boot time. Supposedly, the data that is "mined" and sent to Microsoft is for technical purposes and not spying on personal information. Either way, as a semi-paranoid techie, I know how to disable automatic updates and telemetry in Windows 10. The Windows 10 free upgrade period ends on July 29, and no one knows if Microsoft will renew the offer. Even though I have disabled the Windows 10 Upgrade notifications on my laptop, I will simply follow the instructions at this LINK, and report back after the update is completed,and I have checked out that everything is working o.k.