Greetings from my little retirement community in paradise. Some days are better than others here, but I’m happy to keep taking them as they come. Yesterday was typical of my walkaholic/alcoholic lifestyle, and that suits me just fine. Here, see for yourself:
Later, the Wednesday Walkers convened:
That guy above in sandals is visiting from the States without proper hiking footwear. By the end of the hike, his feet were bleeding. Still, he told me it was the best time he’s had in the Philippines. I guess you can take that one way or another, but he seemed to enjoy himself despite the foot pain.
For my after-hike lunch, Swan surprised me with this:
At beer o’clock, we made our way to Sloppy Joe’s. Took our usual seats facing the street and settled in to enjoy the view.
As I watched him salvage the remains from the bottom of beer bottles, I was tempted to send him over a fresh one, but then I figured it might spoil the taste he’s grown accustomed to. So, we both sat across the street from one another, enjoying the beverages of our choice. I had to pay for mine, though.
We visited Green Room for the first time in over a week. Manager Jim has now left the job, although the circumstances of his departure are unclear. Owner Dave continues to recover, or maybe it is more like improve, from the ailments that had him on his deathbed recently. I’m told he’s out of the hospital at least. The pending sale of Green Room and Wet Spot is apparently still in process. Sorry to see Dave go, but there is more to life than bar ownership, and he should enjoy the time he has left as best as he is able.
I also had a chat with the mamasan about an issue a customer complained about on one of the internet forums I frequent. The guy said a girl he had taken out from the Green Room stole money and food from his apartment, and when he complained, the issue was ignored by the bar. There are two sides (at least) to every story, and the mamasan said his story didn’t add up. Anyway, if you are a purveyor of bar prostitutes, you are bound to be disappointed with your rental occasionally.
We headed for home after our time at the Green Room. And so another daily grain of sand dropped from the hourglass of life.
Today’s post from the July 2014 LTG archives recounts the tale of how I ran into an old friend and blog reader, Neil, aka Thirsty, at Dolce Vita in Itaewon. I haven’t heard from Neil in the comments for a while, but I hope all is well with him and his family.
Reekay responds to some viewer questions in today’s YouTube video. As usual, he’s full of good advice. My daughter-in-law no longer speaks to me because she disapproves of my lifestyle in the Philippines. I rarely hear from my son as well, but that might be about politics. Maybe one of the blessings of being elderly is not giving a shit anymore. If people choose not to be a part of my life, I’ll live whatever is left without them. It’s their loss, and once I’m gone, it ain’t gonna matter anyway.
Now for the funny business:
Some more earthquakes here in my province this morning, but I slept right through them.
Onward with my Thursday, then. Thanks for stopping by.
This is Scott’s first outing with the group since his mini-stroke. Spoiler alert: he made it the whole 7K!
Good to read that. Congrats, Scott!
That guy above in sandals is visiting from the States without proper hiking footwear. By the end of the hike, his feet were bleeding. Still, he told me it was the best time he’s had in the Philippines.
Brave, and stupid, to hike in mud with sandals. But I’m glad he enjoyed himself.
A leap of faith for Swan.
I’d be slipping and falling on my ass. I hate mud. For big guys like me, it’s treacherous.
(I just now noticed how poorly written the sentiments on that banner are.)
Think you can proofread it?
Good Morning John,
I am still around and still checking in on your day to day activities when i get the chance but not had much to comment on!
Glad to see things going so well for you in general and that there is far less drama than at times before.
All the best to you and Swan.
Cheers
Thirsty
Kevin, it needs more of a total rewrite than a proofread, but here’s my fix to what is there:
“Good things come through times of sorrow.” I disagree with the sentiment, but the sentence seems correctly written.
“Love is share bonds are strenghered.” Yikes. Make it shared, add a ‘that’ after ‘bonds,’ and spell ‘strengthened’ correctly.
“Commitment renewed.” “Faith is stored.” I’m not sure how you can store faith. I’d make it one sentence: Commitment renewed, faith is restored.”
“Have faith that you are strong and you’ll get through this tough times.” Either use these before tough or make it a singular time.
“Better days are ahead..” You need another period in those ellipses…
Anyway, I may have missed something, but that’s my take.
Glad to hear you are still a reader, Thirsty. Yep, things have mellowed out quite a bit recently. That’s why I’m enjoying reliving those “wild days” in Itaewon via the LTG archives.
Nice to hear from you again!
“Good things come through times of sorrow.” I disagree with the sentiment, but the sentence seems correctly written.
No argument here.
“Love is share bonds are strenghered.” Yikes. Make it shared, add a ‘that’ after ‘bonds,’ and spell ‘strengthened’ correctly.
So your correction is “Love is shared bonds that are strengthened.” Yeah, that works. An alternative might be “Love is shared; bonds are strengthened.”
“Commitment renewed.” “Faith is stored.” I’m not sure how you can store faith. I’d make it one sentence: Commitment renewed, faith is restored.”
For parallelism’s sake, add an “is” before “renewed,” and avoid a comma splice by using either a semicolon or a comma-and:
Comment is renewed; faith is restored.
Commitment is renewed, and faith is restored.
“Have faith that you are strong and you’ll get through this tough times.” Either use these before tough or make it a singular time.
And add a comma before “you’ll” to avoid a comma splice—your blind spot.
“Better days are ahead..” You need another period in those ellipses…
It’s just one ellipsis.
Okay, I phrased that poorly. About this:
“Have faith that you are strong and you’ll get through [these] tough times.”
Put the comma after “strong” because what comes after “strong” is an independent clause—not because you need to avoid a comma splice (which is still your blind spot because you still can’t tell me what a clause is). My mistake. I must’ve been high. A comma splice is when you improperly use a comma instead of a semicolon.
Remember: separate two independent clauses with a semicolon or a comma-conjunction. A sentence with two independent clauses is a compound sentence.
Bill sat down; he was tired. (compound)
Bill sat down, for he was tired. (compound)
Bill sat down, and he took out his cell phone. (compound)
Bill sat down, but he wanted to stand. (compound)
A complex sentence has an independent clause and a dependent clause. No semicolons here: use a comma if the dependent clause comes first.
Since Bill was tired, he sat down. (dep. clause first—comma)
Bill sat down since he was tired. (dep. clause last—no comma)
What’s a clause? A group of words with a subject and a related predicate.
What’s an independent clause? A clause that is a complete thought that can stand on its own.
What’s a dependent (subordinate) clause? A clause that can’t stand on its own. It needs (depends on) an independent clause to complete the thought. Dependent clauses are introduced by subordinating conjunctions: if, when, unless, before, after, that, because, although, even though, whenever, wherever, since, etc.
Over and over and over again until you can repeat this back to me. Up to now, you never have. I don’t know why.
Are these clauses? How do you know? (When you answer, don’t forget the “How do you know?” part. Otherwise, it’s just guessing, which is worthless.)
• Sheila belched.
• Eyeing the crowd, …
• When the aliens arrived, …
• After Sam had had his drink, …
Dependent or independent clause? How do you know?
• Unless you hand over the data, …
• If it rains, …
• …I plan to jump off my apartment building.
• …after they finished dinner.
Compound or complex sentence? How do you know?
• I’ll kill you if you do that again.
• Because you’re older, you need to go first.
• Sharon knew the turtle’s dark secret, but she would never tell it.
In your own words: What is a clause?
(second try)
Crap—I see that I wrote “Comment is renewed; faith is restored” two comments ago. Goddamn predictive software. I need to stop typing comments on my phone. And I need to proofread more closely before hitting “post comment.”
Commitment is renewed; faith is restored.
I wish your blog and mine had edit functions for comments. That way, I wouldn’t have to post these followups.
Kevin, I do appreciate your efforts, but the only clause I know is Santa.
And, the only words I know to describe a clause are the ones you taught me. (I think that saves me from a plagiarism charge.)
clause: a group of words with a subject and a related predicate
independent clause: a clause that stands on its own as a complete thought
dependent clause: a clause that cannot stand on its own as a complete thought
What a timely lesson! My problem is remembering this an hour from now.
Other than the comma issues, my correction was pretty good. 🙂
Yeah, I think I’m a lost cause when it comes to punctuation. Still, my grammar is better than my math.