Alley-oop!

Yesterday I took I step towards normalcy. Actually, 19,164 steps. That’s the most I’ve done all month.

Flat walking, but still good to be out and about

My morning walk took me on the backstreets and alleyways of Barretto, Matain, and Calapacuan barangays. Here is some of what I saw along the way:

Down I go into Barretto’s Purok 13. (A purok is like a neighborhood)
We’ve had enough rain to fill up the Matain River
I see dead people. I always check the funeral banners I pass on my walks to see if the deceased was older than me. In more than half the cases they were not. This bloke only made it to 54. Rest in Peace, stranger.
Into Matain we go
A narrow passage lined with litter (of course)
Bayside life
Calapacuan narrow passage
Boats on the bay
Out in the countryside
A not-so-golden pond
It is what it is
That’s a little better
What the duck!
The morning’s final alley
Sorry, looks like I won’t be needing you after all.
Back on the National Highway
I came upon a trike stand right when it started lightly raining. I took that as an omen and caught a ride the rest of the way home.
My morning journey was 7.5K and I still felt strong when I was done. Hooray!

It feels good to feel good again.

Thursday is date night with Swan, so I asked whether she preferred Kon Tiki or John’s place for dinner. She wanted her beach fix at Kon Tiki.

A Jeepney ride for 20 pesos each got us there.
My date
The view from our perch
Sand and wine makes Swan happy. (but not in the same glass)
Where the ridge meets the bay
Down the beach
The floating island
That girl again
I enjoy visiting Kon Tiki a couple of times a month for the beach bar experience that can’t be found in Barretto. The menu is limited and has resort pricing. I understand on weekends they do buffets with a variety of offerings.
I opted for the chicken fajitas
And Swan went with the shrimp fajitas
And we ordered a side of tortillas so we could make a wrap
Cheers, baby!

We took a trike ride back to Barretto and did our nightcap at Wet Spot. Aine isn’t talking to us anymore, apparently. It seems she wanted to borrow money from Swan, and Swan invoked Rule #1 (don’t be a sucker). Aine’s snooty attitude was a bit off-putting and pissed me off, but Swan and my waitress told me to calm down and that she wasn’t worth worrying about. I’ve been buying her drinks for five years, and she was a schoolmate of Swan’s, but she’s dead to us now.

Before leaving Wet Spot, we ordered some food to take home for the help, primarily because I had a 15% off coupon I needed to use or lose. Swan ordered a club sandwich and lumpia. I just wanted some pecan pie. The exact wording on the coupon was “15% off on F&B for up to four guests.” So, when the bill came, I looked, and they hadn’t discounted the pie. I asked why, and the waitress responded the coupon was only good for food and beverage. I asked what pecan pie was, and she said, “Dessert.” Crazy.

Anyway, I don’t sweat the small stuff (just write about it here) and didn’t let the insanity spoil an otherwise good time. Home safe and sound, another full night’s sleep, and woke up feeling as strong as ever. No complaints about that!

Another Facebook memory to remind me of the man I used to be and life I used to live.

At the Army Ball in Seoul. It was a good life while it lasted. Now I’m enjoying the new one I’ve been blessed with.

I guess this qualifies as politics:

I want to believe it was sheer incompetence, but there’s a voice in my head telling me otherwise.

My blog stats don’t change much week to week. I’ve got a few dedicated gluttons for punishment who visit LTG regularly (200-250 a day) and I appreciate your loyalty (or sympathy). Thanks for reading!

Stuck on you

Today’s YouTube video from Reekay discusses finding a Filipina girlfriend in three weeks (one you don’t have to pay for). It took me six years, but I had some fun along the way.

To the humor, then:

The joke’s on you, bitch! I cum, you don’t…
I just made a batch of brownies to bring to the neighbor’s dinner party tonight. I probably won’t mention this secret ingredient.
I wonder if he’ll be thinking about Dorothy?

Okay, I was feeling energetic this morning and led the Friday group hike on a nice trail that included my first bona fide hill climb in weeks. And I lived to tell about it. I’ll share that adventure here tomorrow. Next up is a visit to next door neighbor Jeff’s dinner party. I’m bringing my bullshit brownies and some cornbread muffins. Jeff will be grilling steaks and I’m looking forward to enjoying some meat, beer, and comradery.

See you back here tomorrow!

7 thoughts on “Alley-oop!

  1. Doubtless it feels good to be back pounding the pavement. And over 19,000 steps! Not bad, not bad.

    This bloke only made it to 54.

    And not even quite that! He got a little beyond 53.5. Had he died on or after December 6, he’d have been 54 or over. I wonder what killed him so early.

    A narrow passage lined with litter (of course)

    And look at all those hoses! Are those gas lines or something?

    The morning’s final alley

    Was it a deliberate choice to include the dog turds in the lower-left corner? If so: classy!

    Sorry, looks like I won’t be needing you after all.

    Breathless! The funeral home reaches for cheap and easy puns just as you do.

    My morning journey was 7.5K[,] and I still felt strong when I was done.

    Nicely done.

    Sand and wine makes Swan happy.

    Now, that makes for an interesting grammatical question. In the construction “X and Y make Z happy,” the phrase “X and Y” is a compound subject, so the verb should reflect the plural: “Sand and wine make Swan happy.” But there are times when something that seems grammatically plural is treated as grammatically singular, especially if the two collocated items represent a single concept. For example, in Star Trek III, Uhura says, “Peace and quiet appeals to me, Lieutenant.” The concept of peace and quiet is fused into a single thing in the speaker’s and listener’s minds, so the singular form of the verb is fine here: Uhura doesn’t get dinged for being ungrammatical. She spoke correctly.

    There are other examples of seemingly plural countable nouns being grammatically singular:

    Ten days is a long time to wait.
    Five minutes is a long time to hold your breath.
    Twenty miles is a fair distance to walk in a day.
    5 kilos is a lot of water to drink in ten minutes.

    I enjoy visiting Kon Tiki a couple of times a month for the beach bar experience that can’t be found in Barretto. The menu is limited and has resort pricing.

    The “shrimp gambas” caught my eye. Gambas is Spanish for “prawns.” So: “shrimp prawns”? Fascinating, Captain.

    I’ve been buying her drinks for five years, and she was a schoolmate of Swan’s, but she’s dead to us now.

    Until you get back to talking in a few weeks because it’s a small town, and all you can do you eternally bounce off each other. As Sartre said, “Hell is other people.”

    Well, take care of yourself, and may you have many more good breathing days like the ones you describe.

  2. Those blue cable looking things in the alley. Are they water lines ? Looks like there is a pressure meter on them.

  3. “Aine isn’t talking to us anymore, apparently.”

    Here’s the “logic”:

    Aine has a problem. You guys are in a position to solve her problem yet refuse to do so. Thus, she is a victim and you are assholes.

    Whether or not Aine created her own problem through irresponsible actions, or has the ability or intent to ever repay a loan, is irrelevant and exceeds the scope of the thought loop at issue here.

    Pouting doesn’t get Aine what she wants but instead eliminates a source of income and creates tension. However, it allows Aine to feel she has been treated bad and transfers responsibility for her continuing predicament to you, and thus serves a superficial emotional purpose by allowing her to rationalize her situation: she may have fucked something up, but now it’s all your fault that she still has a problem, and she is a slighted victim of callous cruelty.

    Seen this movie many times. It’s the very reason for Rule Number One. Spend your money elsewhere and be prepared for Aine to say nasty things behind your backs.

  4. Kev, no idea what killed that guy, but it does seem life expectancy here amongst Filipinos is low. Probably a combination of living in poverty and lack of access to quality healthcare.

    No, those are water lines in the litter alley. They are like garden hoses and seem to be the standard delivery system in poorer neighborhoods. I hadn’t noticed the dog shit in that other alley. It is so ubiquitous it just seems natural. I’m fortunate to avoid stepping in those piles most of the time.

    Thanks for the lesson on compound subjects and singularity. I don’t recall seeing it explained that way before, but it does make sense. I didn’t really think about it when I wrote the sentence in question; it just sounded right. Looking back at what I wrote, my point was Swan likes sand and wine–but not in the same glass. Doesn’t that make a case for plurality?

    Perhaps Aine will apologize, and I’d likely forgive her. But I see her in a different light now; whatever connection I once felt is gone. I won’t be rude like she was, but as far as I’m concerned, she’s just another face in the bar. I also have lots of other drama-free bars to choose from.

  5. That sounds pretty much spot on, Drain. Thanks for sharing these insights. Aine’s just a bargirl to me, but Swan considered her a friend, which makes this behavior even more unacceptable. Still, it is better to know the truth than pretend to maintain a faux friendship.

  6. Damn. I wrote:

    “Until you get back to talking in a few weeks because it’s a small town, and all you can do you eternally bounce off each other.”

    I should have written:

    “Until you get back to talking in a few weeks because it’s a small town, and all you can do is eternally bounce off each other.”

    Didn’t even notice my mistake when I hit “send.” Gettin’ old.

    Drain Snake’s explanation of the “logic” of perpetual victimhood rings true. I can tell that Aine used to be very beautiful once, and as a result, she likely got whatever she wanted from the guys around her. In such an environment, she has no reason to mature, but with age now catching up to her, all she has in her bag of tricks is the petulant-pouty-little-girl act, which is off-putting when anyone, but especially an older woman, does it. A sad life. And that’s why people need to find better-quality folks to hang with. I’m surprised Swan didn’t see this aspect of Aine before now. Or did she?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *