Or so it seems.

In the wee hours of yesterday morning, I woke up feeling breathless. I got up and slapped the oximeter onto my finger and got a reading of 85%. Normal is 95 and above.  The experts say to call 911 if you are below 90%. Given that I have COPD, a “normal” reading for me is in the 93% range.

I instituted my standard procedures: a couple of squirts from my inhaler and firing up the nebulizer. That only brought me up to 91%, and so I opened the valve on my oxygen tank and sucked in some pure air.

It took a while, but I eventually got my blood oxygen levels back up to an acceptable 95%, so I went back to bed. A couple of hours later, I woke up again, and the oximeter said I had dropped back to an 89 level. So, I repeated the steps as described above, and this time, I slept through the remainder of the night.

I experienced shortness of breath during the dog walk, even though it was mostly flat. The Wednesday Walkers group was planning an excursion to SBMA (the old Navy base) for an 8K hike. I had been looking forward to the trek, but given my breathing issues, prudence dictated that I bail out.

Only two other hikers showed up, and Scott messaged that they would save the SBMA hike for another day. He invited me to join them for a flat walk, and I agreed.

I was glad to have gotten some steps in after all.

I got home and baked two batches of brownies, one for each party I was attending. My first stop was my old darts bar, Alley Cats.

Back in the day, Alley Cats was my regular hangout, and I played darts there four times a week. Yesterday was my first visit in several months. There has been a large turnover in staff, but I still knew most of the other dart regulars. I sat in my old seat at Kevin’s table and felt right at home. Speaking of Kevin, I was surprised to learn he had suffered a heart attack back in April. I am glad he lived to tell me about it!

After a couple of hours at Alley Cats, we grabbed a trike and headed across town to Dave and Jo’s place. In typical Filipina fashion, the girls congregated downstairs, with the menfolk delegated to space on the second-floor patio.

So, basically, Jo’s birthday party was with her girlfriends. The consensus of the fellas seemed to be better up here away from the craziness and off-key videoke singing. Those gals are also notorious for downing shots of the hard stuff and getting sloppy drunk. Around eight o’clock, Swan sent me a message asking to be “rescued.” I told the guys goodnight and headed downstairs. I guess the peer pressure was too much for Swan, and she had over-indulged in the whiskey-drinking festivities. She took a last shot with the birthday girl, and we found a trike to take us home.

I’d never seen poor Swan so drunk before. The room was spinning for her when she lay on the bed, so I had her move to the floor. Regular readers will recall that there have been occasions when my excess drinking led to me being floored. Swan rejoined me back in bed a couple of hours later and doesn’t appear to be suffering any ill effects today.

I had another tough night breathing-wise, but this time, I never got below a 91% oxygen level, so I didn’t have to resort to using my air tank. I wussed out of walking today and have been resting at home. Maybe that’s what I needed; just now, I’m at 95%. I’m going to seek out a good pulmonary specialist for some advice on how to deal with my lung issues.

Facebook memories included this post from three years ago:

A brief YouTube video featuring Baloy Beach for your viewing pleasure today:

I’ll go easy on the humor this time:

Okay, here’s hoping for a better tomorrow. See you then.

But not jacked off. Here’s the story of my Tuesday.

As usual, the first order of business was grocery shopping. And someone knows my schedule, because like clockwork she’s waiting for me on the corner almost every Tuesday morning as I head for the highway.

Shopping came with the usual frustrations. This week, there was no Coke Zero or Diet Coke in stock. Seriously, how does that happen? There is a Coca-Cola distributor right up the highway. Being out of a popular item like this is just poor store management. Anyway, we stopped at a local market on the way home, where I was able to purchase my weekly ration of soft drinks.

In the afternoon, Swan and I ventured out to the Subiza Resort on Baloy. We will hold our annual anniversary Hash celebration there in October, and I met with the manager to discuss menu options and pricing. The plan is to have a set price buffet and the meal cost will be included in the Hash fee for that run. Maryjoy at Subiza will send me the food options and pricing for 100-125 guests for the Subic Bay Hash House Harrier’s forty-first-anniversary celebration in the next week or two. We anticipate lots of out-of-town Hashers will be attending, and she is offering a special Hash discount for lodging at the resort.

We also got our waterfront view fix satiated during our Subiza visit.

When we finished our business at Subiza, we walked next door to Harley’s for dinner. As you might imagine, the views are very similar. What’s different about Harley’s is that it has a nice pub vibe. The place was busy with other diners and drinkers, but next door, it was only us. It just goes to prove that it is not all about location; you have to create an atmosphere that attracts customers.

There’s a “fun” option on my phone camera that I’d never tried, so we played with that while waiting for our food.

Dinner is served:

When we finished our food, we headed home. It was still early, even by my low standards, but I had a plan. Earlier in the day, I came across this clip from an old movie that made me laugh:

That’s from the movie Billy Jack. It’s hard for me to believe, but it was released FIFTY-THREE fucking years ago. I know I watched it back in the day, and I watched it again last night. It was filmed in Prescott, Arizona, a town I lived in from 1978-1983. Some of the buildings and scenery brought back old memories that reminded me of the life I once lived. Other than a couple of the fight scenes, I didn’t remember much from the actual movie. Truthfully, it wasn’t as good as I expected it to be. I mean, I did get a kick out of seeing those ’70s fashions and haircuts, and the hippy vibes were pretty far out, man. But the story seemed off somehow to me. Oh, it had some religious overtones and Native American philosophies, but it just didn’t seem to all come together somehow. The reviews I read in the Wikipedia link above were also decidedly mixed. It was apparently one of the first movies featuring kung-fu fighting, and if I read the credits right, it was the Korean variety. Kevin Kim, why don’t you do the film justice with one of your famous reviews? You can watch it on YouTube for free.

I did drink some more beers while I watched the film, but it was still a different way to end my day. One of these nights, I may give the forerunner, The Born Losers, and the sequel, The Trial Of Billy Jack, neither of which I’ve seen, a watch.

No Facebook memories to share today, but I did come across this post of mine from 2016 sharing my religious viewpoints. I think I wrote it after I got in trouble at work for calling Mohammed a pedophile. My motivation was to establish a basis to claim religious discrimination if I was disciplined for telling the truth about the guy who married a twelve-year-old. Turns out I didn’t get in trouble, so I didn’t have to defend myself.

Today’s YouTube video is from Reekay discussing an issue I’m sure most of us have experienced–a twenty-year-old virgin. Well, believe it or not, cherry girls have never been attractive to me. Some guys pay a hefty premium to barfine them, though. I guess they really want to be the best the girl has ever had. Dating the eighteen-year-old mother was kinky enough for me, thank you.

To the humor, then.

Alrighty then, I have two birthday parties to attend today, so I’d best hit the shower and get on with it. More to come tomorrow.

Listen children to a story
That was written long ago
'Bout a kingdom on a mountain
And the valley folk below
On the mountain was a treasure
Buried deep beneath the stone
And the valley people swore
They'd have it for their very own

So go ahead and hate your neighbor
Go ahead and cheat a friend
Do it in the name of heaven
You'll be justified in the end
There won't be any trumpets blowing
Come the judgment day
On the bloody morning after
One tin soldier rides away

So the people from the valley
Sent a message up the hill
Asking for the buried treasure
Tons of gold for which they'd kill
Came an answer from the kingdom
"With our brothers we will share
All the secrets of our mountain
All the riches buried there"

Now the valley cried with anger
"Mount your horses, draw your sword"
And they killed the mountain people
So they won their just reward
Now they stood beside the treasure
On the mountain, dark and red
Turned the stone and looked beneath it
"Peace on earth" was all it said

So go ahead and hate your neighbor
Go ahead and cheat a friend
Do it in the name of heaven
You'll be justified in the end
There won't be any trumpets blowing
Come the judgment day
On the bloody morning after
One tin soldier rides away

Back to my regular routines after a hangover-induced day off, and it was good to be on the road again. For my morning walk, I decided to do the trek out to Waltermart. And since it was a special occasion, or felt like one anyway, I did the photo every 1000 steps thing. Here they are:

A good hike overall, except for that heavy breathing portion. Oh, and one of the straps on my backpack broke near the end of the trek, so I carried it on one shoulder the rest of the way.

Saturday evening, I took Swan to Treasure Island Resort on Baloy so she could enjoy some live music and beach views. It was a good time.

It was another good time with my sweetie. Swan enjoys live music and Engine is one of the better bar bands around this area. For shits and giggles I made a playlist of the songs they performed during their first set yesterday:

• Tequila Sunrise (Eagles)
• A Horse With No Name (America)
• I Don’t Want To Talk About It (Rod Stewart)
• Cat’s In The Cradle (Harry Chapin)
• Have You Ever Seen The Rain (CCR)
• Bad Moon Rising (CCR)
• Crazy Little Thing Called Love (Queen)
• Under Pressure (Queen)
• Paint It Black (Rolling Stones)
• Honky Tonk Woman (Rolling Stones)
• Brown Sugar (Rolling Stones)
• Satisfaction (Rolling Stones)
• Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love (Van Halen)
• You Really Got Me (Kinks)
• Jump (Van Halen)
• Here I Go Again (Whitesnake)
• Beds Are Burning (Midnight Oil)
• Free Bird (Lynard Skynard

They played Free Bird at Swan’s request (and 100 pesos in the tip jar). They play a nice mix of classic songs that an old fart like me can enjoy. It is also nice to be able to see live music performed early in the evening (they start around 4:30). Live music offerings in Barretto begin at 9 p.m. or later in most other venues.

We did have one little bothersome event occur. I had a discount coupon from the SOB for a 10% discount on food and beverages for up to four guests. When the waitress brought our tab, we were not given the total discount to which we were entitled. The bill said I had ten beers, and Swan had two wines. Swan didn’t think I had that many beers, but I didn’t keep count, so I can’t argue with that. What left me shaking my head was that we were only discounted the ten percent for two of the beers and the two wines. According to our waitress, the “four guests” limitation meant that only four drinks would be discounted. Well, that’s a bullshit interpretation, but I’m not going to get too upset over a couple of hundred pesos. I did reduce the amount I intended to tip.

We headed home at seven after another nice date night. And so ended another Saturday in my life. I could do with lots more like it!

You know, back in the day, I could party with the best of them, and classic music from that era went hand-in-hand with that. And yeah, I remember some of my favorites who partied too much and died too soon. I didn’t realize until I came across this today that 27 was an unlucky number.

A political meme or three okay with you?

Speaking of memories that made me laugh, I posted this on Facebook nine years ago:

I can’t recall if I posted this YouTube video here previously, but for those of you curious about the Barretto bar scene, this is a pretty comprehensive exploration:

And now for your daily dose of humor:

Alright, it is Sunday and that means a feeding at Hideaway and a dinner date with Swan at John’s place are in my immediate future. I shall return tomorrow if I survive another night.

Yesterday was full of a lot of nothing. Sometimes you just need to take a break, I suppose. Especially after a night of celebrating the birth of a nation by downing numerous beers. These two shots pretty much sum up my Friday achievements:

And that, dear readers, was the extent of my activity yesterday. And the weird thing is, I enjoyed being lazy so much that I’ve resolved to give up walking altogether and fill some of those hours by drinking earlier in the day. Relax, I’m kidding. I was back at it this morning with a 7K walk to Waltermart. I’ll share that adventure in tomorrow’s post.

I’m not sure what’s in store for tonight, although I’ll see if Swan wants to listen to the band at Treasure Island.

Fourteen years ago, I was enjoying my first and only trip to Bali.

When it comes to Filipino culture as expressed through street foods, I’m notoriously a non-partaker. For those who have an interest in such things, today’s YouTube video will whet your appetite.

I found these worthy of a smile:

Swan just confirmed we’ll be marching out to Treasure Island soon. Tell you about it tomorrow.

Yesterday’s rooftop gathering in honor of the declaration of our independence from King George III on July 4, 1776, was a huge success. It was by far the largest party I’ve ever hosted, with upwards of fifty participants over the course of the evening. There was lots of food and plenty of cold beverages, most of them containing alcohol. And naturally, this being the Philippines, karaoke amongst the female attendees broke out early in the event. I did sing “The Battle of New Orleans” to honor my British next-door neighbor. We didn’t have a parade, but that didn’t stop us from getting rained on. I’d been watching the weather forecast, which called for a 20% possibility of “light showers.” We could see the clouds building up throughout the evening hours and saw some rain on the horizon. Around 8 p.m., it was our turn. And it was a heavy, wind-blown downpour. We scurried around, turning off the electronics and ferrying some of the perishable foods downstairs. There wasn’t room under the roof for everyone, and even those fortunates couldn’t escape the wet wind. The women folk retreated downstairs, and some guests called it a night. Luckily, the rain didn’t last long, and the hardy attendees continued to party. I had my first beer at 3:30 and my final just before ten when the last of the guests departed. Here are some photos documenting the good times:

What’s on it? Well, here you go:

So, it appeared everyone had a good time and enjoyed the celebration. Thanks for coming!

Plenty of leftovers I’ve been enjoying today.

It was a long day, prepping and partying. I’m feeling it today and haven’t done jack shit other than snacking, napping, and writing this post. I do plan to attend the SOB this evening, though.

Facebook memories took me back six years when my runaway Buddy was rescued:

Four years ago, this scamdemic idiocy was in full swing:

On YouTube today, Reekay compares grocery prices between the Philippines and the USA. Some things are cheaper, and some are a lot more expensive. Some imports are so expensive (like cheese) that I won’t buy them out of principle.

Are these funny?

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.

As true now as it ever was. No more Kings attempting to imprison political opponents. Oh wait. There are signs that people are beginning to wake up to the threat of the bureaucratic state (aka BS). Hopefully, it’s not too late. Some of the recent Supreme Court decisions should limit the reach of the BS, but people need to stand up and fight for their freedom, just like our founders did.

Anyhoo, it’s been a busy morning preparing for this afternoon’s shindig at The Rite Spot. Chili is the crockpot, cornbread muffins, and brownies are baked. I’ll need to head upstairs soon to get the rooftop set up for an as yet undetermined number of guests. I’ll cover how everything goes down in tomorrow’s post.

I once again woke up with breathing issues. A scary 85 blood oxygen level reading on the oximeter. I used the nebulizer and my oxygen tank to bring it back to the normal range and went back to bed. A couple of hours later, I again awoke, not feeling quite right. I got an 89 reading this time, so I repeated the process. I had a hard time falling asleep again, but my Fitbit says that happened at 2 a.m., and I slept through until six. It looks like it is time to schedule a consultation with the doctor.

Last night, we did our “me time” thing. Swan went out with a couple of friends to Baloy Beach, and I visited BarCelona. I had a few beers there, and then I finished things off for the night at Wet Spot. I had a Sit-n-Bull discount coupon, so I came home with some food for my girl and the help.

I did some people-watching as well.

Swan was pleased with her surprise lasagna from Sit-n-Bull, which included a pecan pie for dessert. I had a pulled pork sandwich and brought pizza for the rest to share. Swan asked if I had enjoyed my “me time,” and I told her yes. It makes me appreciate the time we spend together all the more. And that’s the truth.

We did share the morning candy walk and visited some different neighborhoods than our regular Sunday version.

And that was how Independence Day Eve went down.

Reekay speaks about finding a peaceful retired life in today’s YouTube video. He lives in Bohol, which is at the top of my list of places to visit. But I’m satisfied with my decision to settle in Barretto. There is no way I could handle the big city life of Manila or Cebu. A girl I was courting BEFORE I moved here wanted me to come to Samal Island and live. Nope, it’s too small for me. That’s the point, I think. Everyone is different and needs to find the right fit for them.

And for your smiling enjoyment:

Alright, that’s all for now. There’s work to be done. See you here tomorrow!

Another Sunday, another candy walk. We started out a little late, and some of our regulars said they thought we weren’t coming. It’s a bit pressuring to think of the disappointment a change of plans would bring to those kids we’ve addicted to chocolate. In the meantime, we’ll just enjoy the mutual satisfaction of trading candy for smiles.

My afternoon agenda included the Hideaway feeding. There are still only three girls working there now. During my visit, I was the only customer. Joy said they closed at six on Saturday because they hadn’t had a customer all day. That doesn’t bode well for the future. Honestly, I have a purpose for being there; otherwise, there would be no reason to visit Hideaway. It’s kind of depressing, truth be told. The owner is due back in a couple of weeks; maybe he can turn things around.

After the feeding, I dashed across the highway for my dinner date with Swan at John’s place.

We did a brief nightcap at Green Room, then headed for home. That’s how we roll these days.

I’ll be rolling along on a Hash trail this afternoon. The dog walk this morning left me breathless again, so I’m hoping the Hare won’t be overly aggressive. I’m fully prepared to shortcut as my needs dictate. I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow.

Facebook reminds that eleven years ago, I was at the Grand Ol’ Opry in Itaewon. The bar tradition was to salute the flag with a song (Star Spangled Banner?) at midnight. Yeah, hard to believe I stayed up that late in those days.

Speaking of Facebook, yesterday they slapped a “fact-check” cover on a meme I shared featuring clueless Joe.

In today’s YouTube video, Reekay talks about a cultural phenomenon in Filipinas known as “Tampo.” Essentially, you piss off your girl somehow, and she gives you the silent treatment, sometimes for days. I’ve witnessed it in the past, and I have very little tolerance for that kind of drama. I’d much rather have a classic yelling and screaming at each session to get everything out and on the table. I just asked Swan whether she ever goes into Tampo mode, and she said she sometimes does. She mentioned that incident last week where she thought I ignored her as an example. Luckily, that only lasted hours, not days.

The daily dose of humor: