Drinks at It Doesn’t Matter with Roan, then some takeout Korean-style chicken wings from The Pub; that’s the way I roll on Wednesday evenings. Last night was no exception and Roan was particularly delightful.

Wednesday might just be my favorite day of the week because it also features our walking group hike. Scott wasn’t available, so folks looked to me to come up with a trail. For some reason, I was feeling particularly energetic so I suggested we climb Black Rock Mountain. No one objected but some thought it odd no doubt seeing as how on past hikes to Black Rock I’ve shortcutted to avoid the climb. Actually, I don’t mind the climb up, but the descent down the other side is a little unnerving. Regardless, it had been too long since I’ve enjoyed the unique views Black Rock affords, so off we went.

You can Relive it here if you are so inclined:

Popped in to see how the new business is shaping up. Appliances and chairs have arrived and the signage is up.

I went to Sit-n-Bull after the hike and the owner, Ron, joined me at the table for a nice chat. Told him about the new place opening and he agreed these are challenging times in the food and beverage business. He also thought targeting a niche market like the Filipino working folks was a good plan, provided the low price point required wouldn’t undermine the quality of the meals being offered. Yep, that will be a challenge. Not my business though. I’m just the sucker investor financing the start-up.

As far as days go, I had a good one. Now let’s see what I can do with this one!

Well, the right eye anyway. It’s getting worse. Everything is blurry when it is open. Reading is starting to be an ordeal. I need the cataract removal surgery and I have no choice but to jump through the hoops and overcome the bureaucratic hurdles to make that happen. I’ve seen the eye doctor already. Now I need “clearance” for the surgery he recommends. And that clearance must come from a cardiologist. The one who works at the local hospital only has office hours on Tuesday and Friday from 10:00 a.m. until noon. And she doesn’t take appointments. You have to sign in and wait your turn. Which is bullshit.

My workaround was to drop my helper at the hospital Tuesday morning while I did the grocery shopping. After completing my supermarket duties, I went back to the hospital and sent her home to put away the groceries. Taking my seat in the waiting room I was pleased to learn my strategy had worked–I was first on the list! The doctor called me at around 10:15, asked me a series of questions, told me I’d need to get an ECG and chest x-ray. After she reviewed the results I could get the surgery clearance if everything checked out. She must have seen the look on my face, even through the mask AND face shield I was required to wear in her presence, because she told me I didn’t have to return, my helper could bring the test results to her. So, I guess I’ll make another trip to the hospital tomorrow for the required procedures. Ten minutes with the doctor, a $40. charge. I think I paid the skin tax on that one.

After my doctor’s visit, I sent Roan/Rochelle a message asking if she were ready for our lunch date. It was not quite 11:00 yet and I didn’t get a response. I caught a Jeepney to Barretto and got out at Arizona Resort, our agreed-upon meeting place for lunch (we’d left the time unspecified because of the uncertainty of when I’d been done with the doc), but still no response to my message so I hoofed it on home, arriving just before noon. Then I got a response from Roan (she prefers that moniker because it is not as common as Rochelle) and we agreed to meet to eat at 1:00. I changed clothes (the walk home had made me a sweaty mess) and headed back to Arizona for my lunch date. I arrived about ten minutes early, so I ordered a beer and chilled. At 1:00, Roan messaged that she’d be a “little late”. At 1:30 I sent a message asking if she wanted to reschedule. A few minutes later she texted that she was on her way, arriving just before 2:00. I guess you could say we got off to a slow start.

I was starving by now and ordered up some chicken enchiladas. Roan had the spaghetti. Over the course of our meal Roan explained that she was late because she had to prepare a meal for her “grandmother”, a chore her mother normally handles, but mom was unexpectantly not home. Okay, well at least this wasn’t a case of “Filipina time” causing the tardiness.

This led us into a fascinating conversation about her family. I was surprised to learn that Roan’s stepfather is an American. Sixty-two years old, which makes him younger than me. That felt a little weird. This was mom’s first marriage, but Roan’s siblings are from three different fathers. Roan never knew her father, but they wound up living next door to each other. Dad never acknowledged or spoke to her though. That was mind-boggling to me. The strangest and saddest story of all was where one of her half brothers killed the other brother by stabbing him to death. Roan was five at the time and witnessed it. That left me shaking my head. The surviving family members all seem to be doing relatively well at least. I told Roan her family history would make for a real blockbuster movie. Not sure anyone would believe it though.

I think I mentioned that Roan has two children of her own, nine and three years old, if I recall correctly. They’ve been staying with their father for a couple of weeks and after lunch, she was going to go to his house to visit them. I told her I thought it was fantastic that the dad was still involved with the kids, which seems rare in this country. I asked if her ex was in a relationship and she said, “yes, with another man.” No judgment on her part, they apparently all get along fine. She’s a fascinating woman and I hope we become good friends. If nothing else, she could entertain me with stories from her life!

I paid the tab and shared a trike with her as far as the turnoff for Alta Vista, where we said our goodbyes. I walked up the hill and grabbed my darts, then headed back down to Alley Cats for the dart tournament. Another singles tourney and both of my opponents threw exceptionally good darts, the best I’ve ever seen them play in fact, while I had one of my worst nights in memory. I didn’t win a leg at all and was the first one eliminated from the tourney. Embarrassing.

Feeling hungry again, I went next door to The Pub for some grub.

So, it was a full and busy day. Missed my nap and couldn’t find time to blog. I did share this on Facebook though:

This morning my old friend Jeremy posted that the image above reminded him of something he wrote while serving time in a Korean prison:

With Open Arms

Of house and home, love and loss, kith and kin,
Having which of them is a sin?
Only one remains true
While the rest eventually depart.
It stays when the others are through,
Unwittingly tormenting your lonely heart.
It is a faithful companion by your side
Telling you that all else is a lie.It reminds you of what you want and had before,
Unconsciously mocking you for what is no more.
Ignored when times are great.
In others, it provides something to hate.
Truly, it has done nothing wrong.
Only tried to comfort with a sad song.
Though you try your best to deny it as your friend,
Only it will be with you in the end.

And that’s the way it goes.

I’m not sure what got into us, but our Friday hiking group voluntarily decided to climb up to Kalaklan ridge from the Olongapo side via what has been dubbed “the stairway to heaven”. A lot of climbs begin with some form of stairsteps which eventually turn into dirt paths before you reach the top. The stairway to heaven goes all the way up to the ridge–some 200 meters, or 60 floors if the conversion calculator I used is accurate. It’s an ass-kicker, that’s for sure.

As much as I dislike getting up there, I really enjoy the scenery and views on Kalaklan ridge. Let me show you what I mean:

Let me try and leave you with a smile:

Well, the powers that be are beginning to demonstrate their ignorance once again. The governor of Zambales is implementing a new lockdown/liquor ban/curfew effective tomorrow. Luckily, the Mayor of Olongapo has not seen fit to follow suit, Yet. Our barangay captain has done this again though:

Oh, and they closed the gate to my subdivision advising that visitors are no longer allowed. That pissed me off. I told the guards, “so, the construction workers can come in by the truckload but I can’t have company?” I just got the blank stare and “following orders from barangay” response. Jesus.

Today we took the bus to Olongapo to start our hike. As we drove down the highway, I thought of all these bullshit COVID prevention measures being implemented.

I mentioned firing Joy from the FWB program for incessant begging. Now it seems Judy might be heading down that road. She’s more polite about it at least. School is starting and there are fees and supplies to be paid for. She did at least send me copies of the invoice. I told her no, we’ll see if that works. I have no intention of violating Rule #1 (Don’t be stupid). Well, at least I hope I can find new ways to be stupid at least.

And while we are on the subject of stupid, I’ll offer this for your amusement:

Anyway, time for darts. I hope I bring my smart game tonight.

Anyone up for a walk down Baloy Beach?

Right across the highway from the access road to Alta Vista is Baloy Beach road.

If I could find the right place I might consider living here. A nice expat community of its own and who wouldn’t want to live on the beach!

I need to rest and recuperate so I’ll write about today, tomorrow.

Hmm, and now for some reason I can’t load any pictures. So much for posting about yesterday’s hike. Told you I was having a sucky day. I’ll try again tomorrow.

As in Wet Wednesday Walkers. Hate to sound like a broken record, but it is still raining. By my count, that’s seventeen straight days. Oh well, life goes on rain or shine.

Nothing special about last night. A couple of drinks at Dive In. Just not the same for me without Jessa there. Then I had my usual good time with Roan for company at It Doesn’t Matter. And of course, it being “Wingsday” I hit up The Pub for some takeout dinner goodness.

But that’s why I walk, so let’s get to it. As I said, it was a wet walk. It didn’t rain all the time, but lately, we’ve been having heavy downpours accompanied by strong winds. Makes an umbrella pointless. So, I was soaked early and stayed that way for the duration. We took a Jeepney to Waltermart in Subic, then walked the 7K home to Barretto on the back streets. See for yourself:

Anyway, it was a good hike despite the wet conditions.

I might have some news tomorrow about a new business coming to town. Stay tuned.

I’ll leave you with this illustration of getting the most value for your money:

Shenandoah Bend is one of the more interesting streets in the neighborhood, and not just because I live there. It twists and turns and circles around unlike any other road I’ve seen. If anything made any sense in this subdivision (or country for that matter), this would probably be three separate streets. Not that it matters. Another factoid is that there has been more new construction on Shenandoah than anywhere else in Alta Vista. I’m not sure why, but it does have the highest elevation and best views, so maybe that’s it.

This also concludes our exploration of the Alta Vista de Subic subdivision. It was a good experience for me as a resident to take the time to really observe my surroundings. Hope you all enjoyed it too.

And here are the final statistics for whatever they are worth:

13 houses on Shenandoah Bend. (Somebody build another one quick!)

13 streets in Alta Vista. (Yikes! They should have named another cul-de-sac.)

64 houses, including those under construction now.

No idea how many lots are still vacant, but I’m guessing the subdivision is probably only at one-quarter capacity.

Sometimes you just ain’t in the mood for it, I guess. My scheduled day with the FWB, Joy, and we met as scheduled. In accordance with our routine, I treated her to lunch. This time I chose The Pub.

After our meal, I gave Joy the normal 3500 peso stipend and told her we wouldn’t be going back to my house this time. Said I was tired. We’ll see if I’m still tired of her in two weeks. I may need to start thinking of an extraction strategy.

Played in the dart tournament at Alley Cats last night. First time I’d been out for a couple of weeks and my dart game showed it. Only eight brave souls challenged the stormy weather to attend, so we played a singles tournament. I faced off with Billy, one of the top players, in the first round and she promptly dispatched me to the loser’s bracket with a 2-0 victory. I clawed my way back and faced off against Billy in the semi-finals where I returned the favor, beating her 2-0. Played Beth in the championship round, but I ran out of gas and couldn’t hang with her. Second place was better than I expected, and probably deserved, though.

Facebook memories reminded me of my final commute home from work at the United States Department of Education in Washington, DC.

I guess in a way it was two lifetimes ago. I had the Korean life ahead of me and now I’m doing the Philippines life. Who knows what, if anything, is coming next? I’m just taking things one day at a time now and working hard at being satisfied with good enough.

My diet discipline has not been good enough, however. I’m going to have to come up with some new strategies.

Still raining but now we are getting some pretty strong winds to go with it. I’m waiting for the trees that block my view to blow over, no luck with that yet, though. I got caught in a squall on the dog walk this morning. Wind and rain so hard that I took refuge in the carport of a house that’s under construction. The rain looked like waves in the sky which was quite impressive to see. I tried to capture it with the phone camera, but this is the best I could do:

We did a wet Wednesday Walkers hike later in the morning. I’ll share some pictures from that adventure tomorrow.

Keep smiling, bitches!

During my explorations, I came across three named streets without houses. Granted, there does appear to be at least one or two vacant lots on each that could someday result in these forlorn and empty roads being adopted into the housing community. Until then, here is how they look today:

So, we have one more street to explore and I saved the best for last. It’s the one I live on, of course. The adventure concludes tomorrow! Weather permitting, that is!

Tally:

12 streets

51 houses

It’s an aptly named street though, I can’t imagine it being any rainier than it has been these past few days. *ahem*

Anyway, it’s a pretty short street with only two houses. But both of them are quite magnificent.

Here are some photos I took at a birthday party I attended there last year:

One of the nicest houses I’ve been inside. Ever.

So, that’s it for Mount Rainer Avenue. It packs quite a punch for its short stature.

Totals so far:

9 streets

51 houses

…sayeth the rain.

Who knew Mother Nature reads my blog? All that bravado and trash talk about beating the rain came back to bite me. I was so good at predicting the breaks in the rain cycle–until last night. Even with the umbrella, I got soaked. Those wind gusts did the trick. You win, Mother.

So, it is Hash Monday and the rain has continued on and off throughout the day. Our “sane” group has decided not to climb the mountain the Hare had intended for us, and we have already plotted an alternative route. Full report on that tomorrow.

After some warm-up drinks at Palm Tree and Mango’s last night, I crossed the highway to The Pub for some dinner. I got enticed by the “senior special” the owner, John Kim, announced on Facebook:

Thanks for all the support last night. I thought I smoked enough turkey for two days, but all sold out in 4 hours. We will come up with something special every now and then. Anyways, when was the last time senior citizens got respected and treated right? Surely not during the pandemic. They were not welcome to go out, rejected by malls and supermarkets. I ran free haircuts for seniors but got nailed by authority. This time, I am going to do something easier; provide a special meal that gives people over 60 years old discount. Just because it’s discounted, doesn’t mean cheap food. I will be using high-quality material and charge everyone else normal price. I thought about several menus, but need more time to train people, so I am starting with REALLY CRISPY Sweet and Sour Pork. Regular price at P345 but for seniors, P250. Dine-in only to get the discount. You may take out or have it delivered, but won’t get a discount. You can now save money at The Pub so that you can go around and drink more.

How could I refuse an offer like that? I am happy to report that when I arrived only one table was left available–John’s hard work seems to be paying off!

This morning, I decided to try somewhere new for breakfast–the A.M. hotel.

It’s actually probably the closest dining venue to my house and I’d never even been inside. You enter through the street-level parking garage. The restaurant is on the fourth floor, so I walked over and pushed the button to go up. Nothing happened, so I pushed it again. Then the receptionist came out to advise the elevator was not in service. Hmm. Okay, I know a guy who is going to be climbing twenty-six floors as a hobby, I figure I can do four. So up I went.

I was the only customer. Pretty good breakfast selections, although the emphasis seemed to be on Filipino foods, which I expect is the target audience for this hotel. Still, I enjoyed the “cheesy beef” omelet I ordered. Brewed coffee came free with the meal, including refills. Never seen that anywhere else since I left the USA.

What else? Well, I’d like to report that I taught Lucky to play dead.

This innocent little cartoon got a rise out of my liberal ex-wife Carol.

I came across this article in Men’s Health stating that men need to ejaculate 21 times a month to reduce prostate cancer. Damn, I want to live a healthy life, but I’m not sure I can afford that many ejaculations at the price I’m paying. I’ll think of something.

In somewhat related news, here’s the answer to that age-old question:

Time to go Hash. I’ll be back tomorrow with more!

Where I come from we have avenues, boulevards, streets, roads, drives, lanes, circles, and parkways. Never heard of a bend before moving here. But the designation seems apt–Everglades is the longest street in Alta Vista, traversing the subdivision end-to-end, with lots of twists and turns along the way. So, bend it is!

Everglades starts at the main gate and meanders its way through the subdivision. It has more houses than any other street, which I suppose given its length is that surprising. My former landlords, the Ocampo family, are big property owners on this street. I’m not sure, but I think they may have been partners in the development of Alta Vista as well. One clue is that they are using one of the gates for advertising:

Okay, let’s head up the road.

And that’s the last house on Everglades Bend. But that is not it for the road.

So, that’s the story of Everglades Bend. Twenty-five residences on this one street, which more than doubles the count from the previous seven streets.

Still more to come!

Today’s tally:

8 streets

49 houses (including duplexes)

As I was leaving the house yesterday for my nightly foray in Barretto, I hesitated momentarily when reaching for my umbrella. It was still sunny, but there were some worrisome clouds out on the horizon. Better safe than sorry, I decided. Good thing, too. Just a few minutes into my walk there was a pretty intense rain shower. Didn’t last long, but I would have been soaked without my trusty umbrella. It wound up raining off and on all night long. I woke up around 0100 to the sound of water hitting the metal cover of my bedroom a/c unit. Sounded like a drummer’s cymbal, but the drummer had no sense of rhythm. I eventually got up and spent the rest of the night on the couch to escape the maddening noise. Yeah, I have a hard life, I know.

A friend of mine has opened up what she calls a bar and grill, so I dropped in for her grand opening last night.

I doubt I’ll become a regular, just a little too cramped for my comfort. I honestly don’t see how Marick can generate enough revenue on beer sales and pub food (burgers and appetizers) to make a go of it. I suspect she intends to cater to a Filipino crowd. Marick used to manage another bar and I think she has good business sense, the problem is the venue. It occurred to me that if she teamed up with my other Filipina friend who is looking to open a food operation, and they got a bigger building with a bar and maybe a pool table, they could probably make a go of it. I broached the idea with my friend but she isn’t a Marick fan. Oh well.

I headed over to Mango’s after leaving Marick. They let me sit on the back patio despite it being covered in sand from an earlier high tide.

I saw a caterpillar invasion on my dog walk this morning.

I guess I better keep the top securely closed on my margarine. Soon those critters will be butter flys. *sorry*

Did a two-hour hike this morning. The sky looked like this when I departed:

A pretty standard walk for me, so nothing new or particularly interesting to see along the way. Well, there was this:

Speaking of walking, Facebook shared this photo from four years ago today:

It’s odd how an innocuous picture like that can trigger so many memories. I actually remember that day and the route I was taking–my Anjeong-ri river walk. And of course, I remember the feelings I once held for Mi Young that were not reciprocated. But mostly this photo reminds me of my astounding ignorance. I’m sure I was not happy with my life that day, despite my massive salary and government-provided palace. I had it made, but all I could think about was what I had lost and how anxious I was to start my new life in the Philippines. I never allowed myself to live in the moment and appreciate the beauty that surrounded me. Ignorance is not really bliss.

A good reminder for me to live my new life one day at a time and to be thankful for all that I have. I’m getting better at that I think.