I’ll take as many more days as I can as long as I am able to keep doing the things I enjoy. Getting old sucks sometimes, but it beats the hell out of the alternative. And my little retirement town provides me with everything I need: hills to climb, beaches to walk, and beers to drink. I want to keep on keeping on as long as I can!

The Wednesday Walkers gathered up at the usual place and headed up into the hills to see what we could see.

In other news, Swan started a new job yesterday. She’s a part-time waitress at the Subiza Beach Resort on Baloy. Her shift is 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., and for now, she only works on Wednesday and Thursday. She wanted to work, even though she doesn’t need to work as I would, of course, support her as needed, in addition to her monthly allowance. I’m in favor of whatever makes her happy.

I did the feeding at Hideaway last night. They are down to four girls now, and I was the only customer. Not sure what’s going on with that. I had some SOB coupons to expend, so I made my way to Green Room and stayed for a couple of beers. Next up was Wet Spot, and it was pretty dead as well. I decided to make it an early night, so I could be home when Swan returned from work.

I brought Swan a pecan pie, her favorite, and awaited her arrival on the front porch. When the trike pulled up a little after eight, I pulled out my wallet intending to pay the fare but Swan beat me to it. So, when she came up to me, I handed her the fifty peso note. And she refused to take it, saying I give her enough already and she could manage her budget. I tried again and she still wouldn’t accept my gift. So, I threw the money on the ground, grabbed a beer, and went up to the roof to pout. Yeah, I can be a real asshole sometimes. I don’t handle rejection well, and I thought it was rude to not appreciate my kind gesture. Anyway, I eventually regained my sanity, we talked it through and made peace before going to bed.

My plan tonight will be to imbibe on Baloy and visit Swan’s workplace before she gets off so we can ride home together. I’ll pay for the trike!

Facebook memories took me back to my final 8th Army days six years ago, when I participated in a meet and greet with the Secretary of the Army.

I found this on my Facebook feed as well:

In the land of Star Trek there is this:

One bad pun deserves another:

And that’s just about enough for now, don’t you think?

Like a Sunday should be. Here’s a taste of the flavors I experienced.

We did our nightcap at Wet Spot. Aine and Irene were both missing in action. That saved me some money on lady drinks, so I decided to splurge on this:

A couple of commenters mentioned the lack of drama in my life now that I’m in a relationship. That’s true, but there are always potential landmines where you least expect to find them. At Wet Spot last night, I got up to go to the CR. That’s when I had the bright idea to grab some pecan pie next door at Sit-n-Bull. I used the side exit from Wet Spot and was gone for less than ten minutes. When I came back in through the front door with the pies, Swan had a weird expression on her face. She loves pecan pie, so I was expecting something more gleeful. Swan told me that when I didn’t come back right away from the CR, she assumed I was seeing another girl in the bar. She was happy the sweetness that distracted me was pie. So, everything was good after that, and it never reached the level of drama. I still need to watch my step, though.

Home early for pecan pie a la mode and a re-watch of the “Shameless” episode I’d slept through the night before. And now it’s Hash Monday, and the trail starts here in Alta Vista, so that will be convenient. In fact, my stroll yesterday covered a good bit of today’s trail, except for the climbing part. It’s alright; I’m up for it. (ahem)

How about some food puns today?

Okay, I’ll let it be for now. More of this banality tomorrow. Come back and see!

I had no idea this song originated in the 1920s.

You don’t have to go far in my neck of the woods to change your view. Our Friday group hike demonstrated that loud and clear. A Jeepney ride three kilometers out of town, then a climb up to Kalaklan Ridge, a stroll through a hillside graveyard (nobody whistled), and a long, wet walk on the beach. It doesn’t get much better than that.

It was interesting heading up to the ridgeline again so soon after Monday’s Hash. The trail we took up was within a hundred yards of where the Hash began, but it was a completely different path and experience. For one thing, half the climb was on steps. Most of the rest of the way up was through a hillside shanty village. The big difference came in making a right turn at the ridge (the Hash trail had turned left), which provided a gentle descent instead of the arduous climb in the opposite direction.

It had been a couple of years since I last hiked through the cemetery, so that felt like a fresh adventure. Same with walking the beach from the lighthouse back to Barretto. There had been some changes on the shoreline that necessitated wading into the bay in several places. We were fortunate it was low tide. Otherwise, our route wouldn’t have been walkable.

Lots of pictures taken along the way, and here they are:

I had to hurry home to shower and blog; then, it was off to the VFW for the AGPU meeting. I had done some looking for a new Hash truck, but it turns out the Hash is losing money every month, so there is no budget for that. We did elect a new GM:

So, the meeting was over at 3:00–too late to go back home and too early to start drinking. I resolved the dilemma by drinking anyway. I began at Sloppy Joe’s, then moved to the Green Room when they opened at 4:00. The Green Room was hosting the SOB, so I secured the best seats in the house by arriving early.

I was past the stage of had enough when the show ended at 8:00. Still managed to enjoy an episode of “Shameless” before bed.

This morning I decided to bake a batch of blueberry muffins. And then I saw this:

I had a follow-up appointment with the ENT doc who performed my surgery this morning, and she seemed pleased with the results of my healing. So there’s that.

And here’s something I haven’t seen before–a Lord of the Rings meme/joke:

Today’s Star Trek smile:

I’ll close with these words of wisdom that appeared in my Facebook memories:

Sometimes the light's all shining on me
Other times I can barely see
Lately it occurs to me
What a long, strange trip it's been.

Just back from my Friday group walk at 11:30. I have the Hash AGPU (Annual Group Piss Up) meeting at 2:00, so this post will be a quickie.

Swan joined me for my Thursday Solo (nee couple) hike through San Isidro, Calpacuan, and Matain.

As we passed the Divine Mercy Memorial Park, Swan asked if we could stop for a minute to say hello to her mother. Her brother is also buried there.

Later in the day, Swan went for a massage, and I went to Cheap Charlies. She met me there when she was done with her rubdown.

We had some food delivered from Foodies, the restaurant downstairs from Cheap Charlies.

We did our nightcap at Alaska, then called it an early night and headed home. Two more “Shameless” episodes (I am into Season 7 now) then off to bed.

On the dog walk this morning I saw that I’ll be getting some new neighbors.

And that brings you up to date. I’m planning to do the SOB this evening at The Green Room. A full report tomorrow.

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.

My Tuesdays are generally nothing to write home about, and yesterday was no exception. Of course, that has never stopped me from blogging about it anyway. So here goes.

Grocery shopping in the morning as usual. And my Tuesday afternoon routine is a walk to Baloy Beach and a visit to the Kokomo floating bar. I baked a batch of brownies for the girls and they got devoured this time, so I guess I satisfied the sweet teeth of the brown knees.

On Facebook this morning one of the Baloy resort owners was bitchin’ about customers sneaking in McDonald’s food despite the posted signage saying outside food is not allowed. The advice from commenters was to enforce your rules or shut up–you can’t blame McDonald’s.

One of the views from the floater resonated more than usual.

So, the music was fine when I first boarded the floater, but then the volume increased to a level that drowned out any possibility of enjoying the songs. I was a bit surprised because the owner was there and didn’t seem to notice. I asked my waitress if it could be toned down some, and she immediately had the bartender reduce the volume to a tolerable level. With that problem fixed, I was able to rock along with a decent playlist. One of the songs played was “Hotel California,” an old favorite of mine. The next song was “Californication,” and I started thinking, what’s next, “California Dreamin'”?

As a person born and raised in California, the music triggered a flood of memories. It wasn’t a bad place to live as a child. I grew up in Orange County, and in my early years, I was surrounded by orange groves. But they succumbed to a housing boom as subdivisions replaced trees. One of my early childhood memories was having to move because our house was being torn down to build the Garden Grove freeway. I used to ride my bike the eight miles to Huntington Beach and swim in the ocean all day. In those days, my bike ride was mostly through oil fields. They were replaced with houses, too. By 1978, I was twenty-three and married with two kids. The state wanted to bus them to Long Beach to help integrate the schools there. That’s when I knew it was time to leave California behind for good, and the next stop on my life’s journey was Prescott, Arizona.

Anyway, back here in the present (or yesterday, as it were), Swan and I departed the floater and had a pork chop dinner at DaKudos. We then triked home for some “Shameless” and a good night’s sleep.

Here’s some other stuff I found as I explored the internets:

One more for the road:

Alright, it’s time to shower up and get on with my Wednesday. Hope you check in to see what happened tomorrow.

Happy New Year!

2023 went out with a bang. Literally. For me, one of the least comprehensible aspects of Filipino culture has been the love of all things loud and the apparent joy in finding creative ways to disturb the peace. And a holiday like New Year’s Eve is the perfect excuse to raise the volume to a whole new level. The most irritating are these hollow tubes that somehow emit a sound like a gunshot, only louder. Then there are those plastic horns that blast a nerve-grating “tune.” Add in the videoke machines and music being played at ear-splitting volumes and you have the unique experience of the local folk welcoming in the new year. And almost every other day of the year. Yeah, yeah, I know. In many US cities, the noise would be coming from real guns and the explosions that come with “peaceful protests.” I’ll continue to count my blessings living here.

Here are some scenes from my 123123:

Swan invited me to join the New Year’s celebration with her family, but I’m just not “up” for midnight celebrations. So, she spent the afternoon making preparations and I tended to my Sunday feeding at Hideaway.

With the feeding completed, I strolled out onto the beach and made my way to the Arizona floating bar. Swan joined me there.

Are you ready to watch the sun go down again?

Swan wanted to take a picture of us together.

Once it was dark, I could see that the mountain on the Subic side of the bay was on fire.

I’m pretty sure it was the annual grass-burning ritual, but I hesitate to call it a “controlled” burn. I have no idea how they manage not to burn it all, but looking at the mountain this morning, I can see the fire is out and can’t detect any evidence that anything was destroyed. Go figure.

Swan and me had our nightcap at BarCelona. We were supposed to meet a friend of hers there, but he didn’t show up. Got back home a little after eight and the noise from across the river was already crazy loud. I closed the door to my bedroom patio and turned on the seldom-used aircon (I prefer fans) to drown out some of the sounds so we could get some sleep. Swan set her alarm for eleven, and her brother came and picked her up to join the family gathering. The partying/noise-making going on outside now made it impossible for me to get back to sleep, so by golly, I was actually awake when the new year rolled in.

And at the stroke of midnight, all hell broke loose across the river from my place.

Anyway, around 12:30, things died down enough that I could go back to sleep. Swan returned home a little before 4 a.m., crawled into bed beside me, and that’s how our new year together began.

I came across this article about age gap relationships and kept thinking: you ain’t seen nothing like what we have here in the PI. I’ll be 69 this year, and Swan will turn 40. And Swan is one of the oldest gals I’ve dated since moving here. Regular readers will recall my brief fling with an eighteen-year-old last year. That was too weird even for me–especially when my granddaughter celebrated her eighteenth while I was still with Mary. Nope, no can do.

Then I found a link to this article about tipping culture. Now, back in the USA, I was your standard 20% tipper unless I received poor service. I soon discovered that other expat nationalities despise that American custom and revile us for spoiling the ladies. I don’t give a shit about that, but over my time here, I’ve made some adjustments in my manner of tipping. Ten percent is my baseline, but there are exceptions. One thing I learned early on is that in many venues, you are not tipping your server; it goes into a community jar. And when I found out that some businesses take a cut of the tips, I changed my strategy. Now, if I can’t tip the girl directly (usually by sticking it in her pocket or cleavage), I only leave change in the tray. That’s just the way I roll these days.

Speaking of rolling, it’s Hash Monday. And today is a special one for me–my Hashaversary. Yep, it was six years ago today I lost my Hash virginity. I blogged about it here.

I was still a tourist back then. The woman next to me is Gemma, a gal I met on one of the dating sights. I saw her a couple of times after I moved here and thought we were friends. Until she scammed me for a thousand bucks (the biggest of several times I’ve been scammed). Last I heard, she was in Israel. Let’s hope her bad Karma didn’t follow her there.

Anyway, for today’s Hash, Leech My Nuggets is the Hare. His trails are never easy but always well-marked, so it’s hard to get lost. Scott sent me an advance look at the trail, and it will be a challenge.

Assuming I survive, I’ll let you know how it goes tomorrow.

Alrighty then, on with the year! As always, thanks for dropping by.

For three years running now, the hiking group has sponsored a charity event for the Aeta people’s village in barangay Old Cabalan, Olongapo.

A teacher I know, Grace, turns our cash donation (25,000 pesos this year) into bags of food to be distributed to the locals. Swan and her friends participated this year, collecting additional rice and food donations, and they prepared a spaghetti lunch with a drink for the children. It was an impressive effort I was proud to be a part of.

And that was that until next year.

Joy said only four girls were working yesterday, so not much food was needed. She suggested a pizza, and that worked for me. I brought Choco Pies for dessert. Mission accomplished.

Swan met me at Wet Spot for the nightcap, and I treated her and Aine to some Sit-n-Bull. Then home for another episode of “Shameless” (Netflix is working on my TV again. Yay!) and then off to bed.

I saw something yesterday that said we have two jobs in life. To learn and to cope. I’m not too good at either, but at least I’m still in the game.

But stuff like this is ageless:

Today’s song is an old favorite from Mary Chapin Carpenter. Hadn’t heard it in a while, but I thought of it when Swan told me to “shut up and hug her” this afternoon. So, here you go: