A good reminder yesterday that sometimes taking a chance and changing things up can result in a pleasant experience. The group hike with the Wednesday Walkers provided that opportunity, and we took it.

Four of us met up at our usual gathering spot, the 7/11 on Baloy Road. We discussed various possibilities of where to hike, and the consensus was to get out of town. Gary (a non-Hasher) suggested we do Kalaklan Ridge, but having just hiked it on Monday, I wasn’t ready for a repeat. So, we agreed to take a Jeepney ride to Subic town and do the Philseco Road loop back to the marketplace. Steve wanted to take a detour into the hills, but without an experienced guide with us, I was not confident we would find our way up there. Ultimately, we just headed up the road on the usual route.

And then we came upon this narrow passageway:

Someone said I wonder where that leads? Steve responded we should find out. I was the negative Nellie, saying it’s probably a dead end and we’ll have to retreat back. Steve answered, so what? Let’s go for it. I shrugged and said, alright, but I was fully prepared to offer my “I told you so” if it ended badly. It didn’t. I was surprised that it led us past several shanty houses, before turning into a dirt trail through some nice countryside. Best of all, that trail eventually led us back to the road that was our original destination. And it turned out to be a shortcut that was much more pleasant than a street walk. This is the way I’ll be going when I pass by here in the future.

Lunch, a nap, a blog post, and a shower. And then you know what time it was.

When Swan messaged that she was ready to come out, I suggested we meet at Oasis. I hadn’t been there for a while and thought I might try out their menu for the first time. When Swan arrived, I ordered her drink of choice, a glass of red wine. The waitress came back and advised that they were out of red wine. How does that happen? If you sell enough wine to empty the bottle, you should keep sufficient quantities in stock. The waitress responded, “I’m sorry, I’m just the waitress.” Yeah, I wasn’t blaming her. I know the manager and said I’d take it up with him. Anyway, if I’m running a bar, I’m sending someone across the street to buy a bottle of wine rather than disappoint a customer who was prepared to drop coin on food and beverages for an hour or two. Swan was willing to have a cocktail instead, but I said let’s just go somewhere else, paid for my beer, and left.

Next stop, Sloppy Joe’s. It was good to see Chris and Shay again. Chris was doing the DJ thing, so I had him play a couple of my favorite Traffic songs–a Traffic jam if you will.

We popped into Green Room for a drink, and I let my regular waitress talk me into a game of pool. She kicked my ass, of course, so I bought her a drink. Then, we headed next door to Wet Spot to finish our night on the town. We finally got to eat when the Sit-n-Bull waitress came by. I had a roast beef dip, and Swan went with buffalo wings. And yes, Aine was there to share in the bounty. It was a good night out.

Swan joined me for my morning hike today, and she handled the 7K jaunt as well as I did. She may have even enjoyed herself. I’ll post some photos of that event tomorrow.

Science has been in the news of late, what with more details of the lies and incompetence during the scamdemic coming to light and the whole global warming/climate change religion being shown to be based on data that doesn’t exist. The science is never settled, and Facebook memories showed me a meme I’d posted back in 2020 that still rings true today:

And my buddy Kevin Kim has seen fit to share a pun on his blog and tag me, so let me slap it up here for your amusement as well.

And here’s today’s Star Trek pun:

That’s all for now, folks. Hope to see you here again tomorrow.