Sundays come and Sundays go; without a calendar, it would be hard to tell them apart. Except when I’m out of town, like I was last week and will be next week. So, I guess this Sunday stands alone, even if it is a tad familiar.

When I got up to take my morning piss, I noticed this circle on the floor:

We kicked off the morning with the Candy Walk. I did one of my lame videos of the beginning of our journey. It’s eleven minutes long, but that’s why they make 2X speed to ease your suffering.

We dispensed 270 candy bags on our 6K walkabout.

I heard from the peanut vendor, Emmanuel, that he was once again experiencing breathing difficulties, and he asked me for some money to refill his oxygen tanks. I’ve helped him out in the past, and I wasn’t going to say no this time. We met up at the Baloy 7-Eleven while I was en route to the Hideaway feeding. There are now seven girls working at Hideaway (up from four), and the food total from Jewel was 1500 pesos. That provided some perspective on the money I had just given to Emmanuel. Food is nice, but air is better.

With the feeding accomplished, I headed for the beach.

Then we were off to dinner at John’s place.

A brief nightcap visit to Green Room, and then we were homeward bound.

As I continue my journey through the LTG archives, I’ve discovered that most of my posts back then were every bit as mundane and meaningless as they are today. And yet, here we are. But sometimes, there’s a flower among the thorns. A post from May 2005 called Sorry is a good example of that. It’s one paragraph saying I was going through some shit (I don’t recall what now) and was taking a break from the blog. But what made it worthwhile reading again was this comment from my mother:

the Brave man wins the battle, cause he fights and fights to win….many battles to be fought in a lifetime my darling son…..I love you….

Thanks for that, mom. You were right. My battle had only begun back then. I miss you!

I don’t recall viewing today’s YouTube vlogger previously, but the subject of online sextortion is something warranting situational awareness. Before my move here, I was scammed by a couple of the girls I’d met online, but not in this way. I just foolishly sent them money.

And we’ll cleanse the palate with these:

Okay, that’s enough for now. It’s Hash Monday and Leech My Nuggets is the Hare. He is known for his challenging, but well marked, trails. If this picture he posted is any indication, he has elevated his standards today:

And there is always the shortcut option.

When you are retired for going on seven years, weekends lose the charm that they once held. Even Saturday night is not worth staying up late for. Or maybe I’m just an old geezer shouting at the clouds. Whatever the case may be, my window for adventure doesn’t stay open long these days. A sweet Saturday stroll with Swan in the morning, some beach time in the afternoon, food and live music in the early evening, and back home by 7:30 p.m. That’s pretty much how I’m rolling through life lately.

I fill the hours between the morning walk and late afternoon imbibing wasting my time on the internet and wasting your time with boring blog posts like this one. As beer o’clock nears, I try to decide where I’m going to plop my sorry ass to down some brews.

Anyway, I thought we’d do a Baloy Beach Saturday evening, starting with that new bar, Drunken Sailor, at the Baywatch Resort. I was curious if business had picked up any since my last visit. I guess it hadn’t, because it was closed. That’s a shame; it could be a nice venue with a little effort. Oh well, not my problem.

Then we popped into another newish venue, Kim’s Place, ordered some beers, and pulled up a seat on the beach. I chatted with Kim, and he is ready to host the March 31 Hash On-Home.

Then we moseyed up the beach to Treasure Island and enjoyed the live music.

Over the course of three hours, I had three beers at Kim’s and four at Treasure Island. If my math is correct, that’s only one beer every twenty-five minutes. I guess I really am learning to slow down. And despite it only being half past seven, I was ready to call it a night. I’m not complaining; that’s just the way it is these days.

I’m no expert on CICO diets, but if my total intake for the week is in line with the sum of my daily goal, does that work? In other words, if I’m over by 300 calories total for We, Th, Fr, but under by 300 on Sa, am I still on track to lose weight? Yeah, I’d best just stick with trying not to exceed my daily target.

I don’t know, maybe I was getting a little homesick four months into my Korea life almost twenty years ago, but I posted some pics of American gals at the Mardi Gras. Meow! In the comments, my dad advised me not to take my gun to town. I miss those days when I had family that gave a shit about my life.

Facebook reminded me that six years ago, I was enjoying views like this while Hashing in Palawan.

I really need to go back there again one day soon.

Today’s YouTube video talks about weird aspects of Filipino culture. I don’t know, I’ve been here long enough that everything is getting normalized. Except the driving. Damn, still amazes me how bad they drive with no common sense or skills. Choosing not to drive here was the right call.

How about these:

Time to get back to those Sunday routines. Feeding, floating, eating, and drinking. What a life, eh?

Another day, another walk. Later on, I got a chelation injection. And in a refreshing change of pace, I visited zero bars yesterday. Not to worry, I had Zeros at home and took them with me to a gathering with the next-door neighbors. Here’s some of what I saw as I made my way through another Thursday in paradise.

No issues with the needle Dr. Jo stuck in my vein. She commented on my recently lowered blood pressure (110/70 yesterday) and that my reduced dosage of bp meds will relieve strain on my kidneys. Next week is the final round in this chelation session (two injections, one IV). After that, I’ll have my blood work done again to see if I’m getting results like lowered blood sugar. Here’s hoping!

The neighborhood gathering at Jeff and Devina’s was a day at the races theme. That horse racing board game is their second favorite social activity after karaoke.

We played three rounds, and I was lucky enough to win once.

I went a little crazy when we got back home…

Today’s weigh-in has me at 231.7, up from 231.6. Not too bad, considering my recent lack of discipline. Hopefully, the downward journey will resume this week.

Back in April 2005, I wrote about having The Rainy Day Blues after a night of overindulgence while playing pool in Itaewon. It does have a familiar ring to it. One of the things I’m enjoying about these long-ago posts is the comments, like this one from my then-wife:

Here is a better idea. Don’t go to bars except on odd occasions. You never use to go to bars. You sat at home and played Civ III or blogged. You filled up your entire evenings and weekends. Maybe we could play virtual scrabble or cards. Look in to it before you develop a habit that I simply will not tolerate when you return home. Sorry to sound so much like a wife, but I am the wife.

She’d hate my life in the Philippines.

Here’s a headline from five years ago that would lead to a scamdemic overreaction by the local authorities here in the Philippines.

I’ll be turning seventy years old in August (assuming nothing goes wrong before then), so today’s YouTube video about seven signs predicting how long you’ll live after that milestone caught my eye. I’m happy to report that I’m doing just fine in six of those categories. Standing on one leg for ten seconds is something I need to work on. Of course, getting squashed trying to cross the National highway or falling off a cliff while hiking would negate all those positive signs. My plan remains to keep living until I die. Wish me luck with that!

Maybe you’ll find these funny:

And that’s all he wrote. For today, anyway. Who knows what the future holds?

Sometimes, it is just hard to say no regardless of the consequences. C’est la vie.

The Wednesday Walkers took a Jeepney ride out to Calapandayan and commenced hiking from there. We began with a climb up a trail we hadn’t been on for years, and from the look of things, no one else had either—a leafy mess with low overhanging branches to maneuver around. We wandered around up top for a bit before making our way back down to the familiar streets of Calapacuan.

The usual shit at home, then back to Barretto. The first stop was an overdue haircut; then we grabbed some dinner at Sit-n-Bull.

It had been a week since we last visited our regular haunts, Green Room and Wet Spot. I had a bag of treats to share with our bargirl friends. In addition to the usual cookies and lollipops, I brought along two of these:

I’d never had this Filipino delicacy before, but an acquaintance kept sending me begging messages to purchase some for her church fundraiser. I finally relented and bought five.

Naturally, when I got home I had a slice. Smothered in vanilla ice cream, of course.

Fifteen years ago, I was darting and drinking at my old hangout, Dolce Vita, there in the heart of Itaewon.

My lefty pals seem to have fallen in love with that Ukrainian comedian. None of them seem to want to join the fight, though.

Today’s YouTube vlogger suggests that pussified men of the West are fleeing to places like the Philippines. I don’t know; I haven’t seen what he describes in my retirement community. I did witness several young men in the bars last night (probably civilian seamen from merchant ships in port) surrounded by bargirls and spending big on lady drinks. That’s a win for the girls and a profit for the bars, so no complaints from me about that. Have fun!

Funny or not, here they come:

Chelation is on tap for this afternoon, then a gathering at the neighbor’s house. Better get those brownies in the oven!

Hey, they wouldn’t be routines if you didn’t do them routinely. So, yesterday, I did what I did on Tuesday.

When the shopping was done, I took a walk to get reacquainted with the neighborhood.

When beer o’clock rolled around, we headed for Baloy Beach. If you’ve got ten minutes to waste, you can join us on our walk through Alta Vista as we made our way.

It had been a while since our last visit, but not much had changed on Baloy.

Kim’s Place is penciled in for our Hash On-Home venue on March 31. I’ve discussed it with owner Kim, and his only concern is adequate seating for 40+ Hashers.

Kim will see if the neighbor will let us use some of the adjoining beach huts. Hopefully, it will work out, and we’ll have an occasional beach venue to enjoy.

We finished our evening out with some dinner at Treasure Island (we shared enchiladas and tacos).

I didn’t lose any weight last week, but it doesn’t look like I gained any, either.

Almost twenty years ago, I ventured up “Hooker Hill” in Itaewon and discovered a dive bar called Grand Ole Opry. I wrote about the experience here.

Back in 1973, I was practicing gun control at “The Filthy Five” (some land my parents owned in Perris, California):

I joined the Facebook political chorus with these submissions:

Yesterday’s YouTube video sucked, sorry about that! I’ll make up for it today with some good stuff from the Filipina Pea. I always enjoy it when she opens the mailbag and answers questions from her viewers:

And the funny business:

Okay, well, at least I tried. Thanks for your indulgence.