To hell with the flooding! Damn the wind! It was full speed ahead for four hardy Wednesday Walkers yesterday morning. We thought it would be a pleasant umbrella walk, but Mother Nature unleashed Typhoon Carina to make things a tad more challenging. We did a lot of wading through puddles, and the umbrellas were of little help in defending against the wind-blown downpours that never relented during the course of our journey.
In our defense, we did expect that the forecasted easing of the rain would occur early in our hike. So, we loaded up for the Jeepney ride to WalterMart in Subic town and walked back to Barretto from there, a wet trek of nearly eight kilometers. Swan surprised me by asking to join in, saying she liked walking in the rain. Be careful what you ask for, although, to her credit, she never complained. Taking photos in the rain is a pain in the ass, but between Scott and myself, we managed to snap these:
I took a trike home and was thrilled to exit my soaked clothes.
I was on the fence about what to do with my Wednesday evening, but when there was a break in the rain around 4:30, I took it as a sign. Swan joined me on the walk into town, and only sprinkles fell on our heads. We had intended to visit BarCelona to start things off, but it was closed, so we settled for seats at Sloppy Joe’s. A couple of the other bars were also closed. There was a power outage earlier in the afternoon, and some venues just decided it wasn’t worth opening. Also, for staff living in flooded areas, getting to work would have been a nightmare (Olongapo City was hit especially hard, with some bridges closing and vehicles being stranded). Then the rain came back in full force, so we moved inside at Green Room next door.
Shortly into our visit to Green Room, the power went out again. Green Room does have a generator, so we weren’t in the dark for long. As usual, we shared some drinks with our regular waitresses. I was prepared to treat them to some food as well, but I was surprised to learn that Sit-n-Bull was closed. Apparently, their kitchen had flooded earlier in the day. I tried to call Shamboli’s to order a pizza but got a message asking me to try again later. I assume they were in the dark without power. I gave up the effort to have a good time around 7 p.m., and we headed home. Swan provided me with a plate of baby back ribs to quench my appetite. And so another day came to an end.
It’s been raining hard all day today as well, and despite my heroism yesterday, I haven’t left the house as yet. And I’ve pretty much decided to keep it that way. I’ve got cold beer in the fridge for emergencies like this. Tomorrow’s another day; we’ll see what it brings weather-wise.
I’ve not been tracking much news about the assassination attempt, but these questions do warrant an investigation IMHO.
Today’s YouTube video shows some storm scenes from Manila. The impact was worse there, but then, everything is worse in Manila.
And now there’s this lame BS:
Anyway, looks like it’s going to be a quiet day at home. Not sure what I’ll have to blog about tomorrow, but then again, that’s never stopped me before. See you then.
You satiate your hunger and quench your thirst, McRawrey!!! Who taught you English, Shaka Zulu???? lol!!!!
Ready to rumble!
Only now realizing how tiny Swan is. Asians are more compact cars than F-150s. Enjoy your Hobbit.
Open up those umbrellas; we gotta cross the highway to catch our Jeepney
These are some incredible rain pics. If this is the PI’s version of a monsoon, well, it’s more monsoon-y than Korea’s. At least currently.
Back up to the road we go
After a while, you have to ask yourself: why even bother with umbrellas?
Every picture tells a story, but I’m not sure what this one is all about
Looks almost as if you got teleported to Korea, Land of Abandoned Gloves.
Looks like someone flushed the toilet
Yeah, the ubiquitous pollution issue brings up a question: how much of this runoff rainwater is sanitary to walk in? Anyone ever pick up any diseases or weird rashes?
Scott’s turn to bring up the rear
See what I mean? Seriously, why even bother with umbrellas?
Good luck with that
You’d think that, with flooding like this happening almost year after year, they’d have learned to build bridges higher, improve drainage, etc. Ah, good ol’ government.
a plate of [baby-back] ribs to quench my appetite
Commenter Mike is right: that does sound weird.
unvoted for savior candidate
“unvoted-for”
the LT Dan band, featuring Gary Sinise
One of the few prominent Hollywood conservatives. Is he still getting work?
Far exceeds my ability to remember…
a. the hyphenation rule for phrasal adjectives.
b. the need to stop using the “don’t know, don’t care” joke so much.
c. that commas are our friends, but semicolons are, too.
You know, when you used “elegy” in the title of yesterday’s blog post, two things popped into my head: (1) you must’ve read or seen Hillbilly Elegy because “elegy” is for sure a new word for you, and (2) now that you know an elegy is a sad poem for the dead, you’d write a poem mourning the ending of the rain. Or something.
So where’s the poem? The pitchfork-and-torch crowd is getting antsy. You wrote poems in your youth, right? Surely, you have some more in you.
Kev, yes, good things come in small packages. Swan is the tiniest Filipina I’ve been with. There are definitely some F-150s here as well.
This monsoon is being fueled by an offshore typhoon, which makes it stronger than usual. Normally, we get three or four hours of heavy rain with some breaks. We are now on day three of nonstop downpours.
When I moved here, I was shocked at the lack of flood prevention infrastructure. The roads aren’t even crowned, for Chrissakes. A year or two ago, they did major drainage work on the National Highway. You saw the pictures. If anything, it made the flooding worse. I guess there is just more water than room for it to drain.
And yes, the umbrellas did not prevent us from getting soaked to the skin. There is some comfort derived when the rain isn’t pounding directly on your head, but it is not about staying dry.
We avoided wading through puddles as much as possible for that very reason–who knows what kind of shit is in that water. I’ve never got any rashes, but I’ve heard stories of people swimming the bay (especially after a storm) experiencing some ill effects.
Quenching my appetite had a creative ring to it, and it was less cliche than satiate. That’s the thanks I get!
I just checked Sinise’s Wikipedia page. He’s a fellow traveler born in 1955. It doesn’t look like he’s done anything new since 2020. Maybe he’ll be joining that new conservative production studio.
What? Are you saying I’m ignorant or apathetic when it comes to grammar? (insert punchline)
I probably haven’t written a poem in fifty years, but I did write some pretty bad shit in my youth. So, I wasted some precious minutes of my life this morning and wrote a shit poem for old time’s sake. I’ll post it on the blog today.
Mike, what makes you think I know English? You’ve seen my error-filled posts!