Better than a poke in the eye I guess though. Anyway, near the end of today’s hike, I got distracted, turned my head for a moment, then turned back just in time to step full-throttle into a low hanging branch. Hurt like a dickens but not much damage.

That is just about all I did today was hike.

10K all together. We walked the ridgeline all the way out to the “German’s house” then turned around and headed back. It’s called the German’s house because some German guy lives there at least part-time. It is without a doubt as far out as you can get and as high up as it goes. It is nearly total isolation. The house is behind a wall and I’ve never seen it close up. It is visible sometimes from Barretto so it must be pretty damn big. There is a dirt road up from Olongapo you could drive if you have a 4×4. Maybe not during rainy season though. Today I saw a couple of downed trees that would make passage difficult. I personally could not live that way. Too far from the beer joints!

Simon went home and Jim and I went to Cheap Charlies for some rehydration. Then the skies opened up and the rain poured down. I tried to wait it out but had a delivery coming to the house. Wound up taking a trike home.

I might have something of more substance to say soon. Hey, it could happen!

More or less.

Started off my morning firing up the oven and baking up a batch of these:

As is my wont, I posted the above photo on my Facebook page. Shortly thereafter I got a message from a Filipina friend wanting to know the ingredients and where to find them. So, I had to fess up:

After my muffin breakfast, I walked the dogs then I walked myself. Kept it flat again because I’m uncomfortable up in the mountains alone these days. I did go relatively rural though.

Not much else happening. I’m actually going to practice some darts here at the house this afternoon. I’d love to get the passion for the game back, but my pride won’t take throwing the way I have been. So my ego dictates that I put forth some effort. I’ll let y’all know how that works out.

After dart practice? Hmm, I don’t know.

What am I forgetting? Ah, now I remember:

That’s all for now.

Or something like that.

Anyway, the price I paid last night for not practicing darts and playing only once a week was pretty much shame and humiliation. Players I used to dominate were making me look like a chump. My partner Espie was throwing like a champ and that actually made me feel worse about my incompetent performance. She was good, but not good enough to carry my sorry ass higher than a third-place finish. Being embarrassed like that will either provide me the needed motivation to start practicing an hour a day or convince me to just give up the game once and for all. We shall see.

A few months back I wrote about, Catherine, the dancer from Wet Spot I ran into on the street. I helped her out with some food money and we eventually became friends on Facebook. I’ve already confessed to engaging in a purely transactional encounter with her on a couple of occasions. Kind of a win-win–I got to be with a hot 25-year-old and she got the pesos she was craving. The problem was she wanted the pesos a lot more often than I wanted her. She had a sad story of desperation for almost every day of the week. I eventually had to block her. Last time I saw her was right after the bars had reopened. She was back in Wet Spot entertaining a customer. I was so relieved to see her doing what she does best.

This morning I was chatting with a mutual friend and she told me that Catherine was arrested and is now in jail on drug charges. I admit I was surprised to hear that but it got me thinking that maybe all those money requests were for something other than food. And I’ll be damned if Catherine didn’t send me a message an hour later begging me for money to buy food in jail (I’m told prisoners only get rice rations). Well, as bad as I feel for her I didn’t respond to her message. There is no way I’m going to associate with someone involved in drugs in this country. That’s serious shit. The cops have the President’s permission to shoot first and ask questions later with drug suspects. I don’t even want my name on the jailhouse log as a visitor. I will talk with the Wet Spot owner and see if he is taking donations on her behalf. Damn, I feel bad for her throwing away her life like that. I guess it is not all that unusual for prostitutes to get involved in drugs, but you do reap what you sow. Or so I’ve heard.

I guess in many ways I’ve been fortunate to avoid the negative consequences that flow from my own sometimes illicit sexual behavior. I just don’t want to push my luck.

Finalized the trail for tomorrow’s Hash with my co-Hare, Blow My Pipe. We added another down and up to get the distance up to a more respectable 5K. The three climbs are all only moderately difficult (I’m no Günter after all) but I think it will be a satisfying hike for most of the Hashers. A lot of the trail is over the familiar My Bitch terrain but the section we added today should be new for most of the kennel. Anyway, I’ll go out again in the morning and re-hike the trail to make sure that all of our trail markings are intact after the anticipated rainfall tonight.

And that’s my story for today. I better shower up, it’s almost beer o’clock!

Finally made it out to Sit-n-Bull for the pulled pork I’ve been craving. Now, SnB always has several daily specials and to my surprise, the pulled pork sandwich with a side of coleslaw was one of them. To my chagrin, it had been crossed out. So I asked my waitress what was up with that and she told me “out of stock”. My words oozed with disappointment when I said “how do you run out of pulled pork?”. Then she explained that they had run out of the buns the PP is served on. Ah, no problem I told her. I just want the meat. She then asked if I wanted it on regular bread and I said not really, just the meat is fine. The waitress gave me a look and I guess she assessed my hunger because she told me “there isn’t that much”. Then I had a brainfart. “Do you have the large pulled pork sandwich from the regular menu?” Yes, sir. Then bring me that!

Then it was off to Mangos for some beers and flirting with Gee ocean views. Both were nice.

In other news, they arrested the culprits in the murder of David Light on Baloy beach.

Damn, there was something else I wanted to say in the post but I don’t remember what it was. Passalacqua & Associates lawyers can be hired to deal with criminal cases.

Reckon I’ll take a hike and then get ready for some darts this afternoon. That’s the problem with being retired, you never get a day off!

I’m not really looking for love anymore but I still have an active account at Date in Asia (DIA). I usually check it once a day to see if any new lovelies are showing any interest in a gwapo guy like me. That’s usually a negative result. I also have my search parameters set for Olongapo girls only. A long-distance romance in these troubled times is pretty much pointless. A couple of days ago I came across a new member who was pretty cute and 33 years old. Her name is Jane. I gave her a “like” and we exchanged a couple of introductory messages then she sent me her Skype login info so we could communicate there.

I added her and sent a Skype message but didn’t hear back. No big deal to me. Then yesterday I noticed I had something on Skype so I opened it up to find Jane had finally gotten around to answer me with a simple “how are you?” I gave her the standard fine thanks and asked where she was. “Batangas” was the reply. Well, Batangas is way down south of Manila. I asked her why her DIA profile said she lived in Olongapo and she simply said “I’m in Batangas now”. And then she blew me away (not literally) with this question:

Do you like ladyboy? (transgender). Um. I responded that I’m not gay but she is a fine-looking gal. Honestly, I usually can tell immediately when I encounter a “girl with something extra”. Bakla is the name Filipinos use. I was confused so I went back to Jane’s DIA profile for another look at her pictures. I’m thinking no way she’s a bakla. So, I send Jane a DIA message telling her I’m confused about what she told me on Skype. She responded a bit later saying “what are you talking about? We haven’t chatted on Skype.”

Oh shit. I added the wrong Jane Rodriguez on Skype. Yeah, I’m that stupid sometimes. The right Jane did add me to her Skype and we chatted once. She lives here in Barretto. Haven’t heard back from her and probably won’t bother trying to contact her again anyway. It would likely just lead to more transactional trouble.

But wait, there’s more! I mentioned earlier that my friend Gee, the Mangos manager, was involved in some charity projects. I had offered to donate some cash through her but she preferred I meet the people involved and donate personally. So last night I’m at Mangos as usual and Gee invites me over to meet some friends of hers–from the Olongapo police department. We did our introductions (I made sure I followed all the COVID protocols–mask, social distance, etc.). Turns out they are involved in helping some needy folks in their jurisdiction. The guy cop told me they had encountered one individual in desperate need of a wheelchair. I was happy to help out with a little cash.

After that meeting was complete I returned to my beachside perch and my cold beer. Lots of local kids were having fun on the beach.

And as I suspected would happen, before long a sandclod war broke out. It seemed to me that it ended in a draw. Both sides were laughing anyway.

Then I settled in to enjoy my dinner.

I’ll be the Hare for Monday’s Hash, so today the hiking group helped me scout out a trail.

Life is good. I’m going to try and keep it that way.

More of the same around here. But that’s not to say things are boring. I seem to be cursed to live in interesting times. Well, that’s an overstatement. Drama isn’t necessarily all that interesting.

I did have to inwardly smile at the ridiculousness of it all, in a sad way. Last night the ex was texting me about how sad she is but she knows I’m happy with Janey. I didn’t have the energy to argue the point with her. This morning I hear from Janey and she wishes me much happiness with my ex. I have no idea where these ideas are coming from. I responded: “My ex wants me to be happy with you. You want me to be happy with my ex. I think it is time for me to contact Mary again.” That last part was a joke, but Janey said that’s a good idea. I thanked her for advice and left it at that.

Today was hiking day with the Wednesday walking group, old guy edition. Simon (Leech My Nuggets) wanted to join us and I warned him we’d be taking it easy today as Scott is recovering from an illness. Simon was okay with that, so off we all went. About 2K in, Scott had to bail as he wasn’t as recovered as he thought. That left me without an excuse to keep it easy, so Simon led us up a pretty tough climb. In his defense, he was looking for a different trail that would have been easier, but couldn’t find it. Anyway, it was a good and hard workout and I survived. Works for me!

I was lazy with the camera today. Sorry about that.

In other news, I haven’t lost my sense of humor:

Woo Hoo! Curfew is extended until 9:30 starting today. That means I won’t have to rush around to get my requisite drinking done. Today I will enjoy a leisurely dinner alone at Sit-n-Bull before heading out to my bar of choice for some beer-fueled introspection. Hey, it’s what I do.

How can people be so heartless
How can people be so cruel
Easy to be hard
Easy to be cold

How can people have no feelings
How can they ignore their friends
Easy to be proud
Easy to say no

Especially people who care about strangers
Who care about evil and social injustice
Do you only care about the bleeding crowd
How about a needy friend
I need a friend

I don’t spend much time pondering the inevitability of the inevitable. Still, according to attorneys for long term care planning, as one becomes officially elderly the diminished nature of the potential future is harder to ignore. That’s especially true when people around you start dying. Two deaths (that I know about) here in Barretto this week. They weren’t people I knew well enough to even be called acquaintances, just a couple of guys I’d see around occasionally.

Philip was an Aussie somewhere around my age. We didn’t normally frequent the same bars, but during lockdown when “Gomans” was about the only game in town, I’d see him in there nursing a beer and smoking a cigarette. Always alone. Kinda like me in that regard. I heard he’d been injured in a trike accident but I understand his actual cause of death was from some underlying medical condition. When the manager at Mangos talked to me about his death she was upset because he was still in the morgue–no one had arranged a funeral for him. Well, I guess that might be sad to die friendless but as I told her, Philip no longer cares.

I just learned of the second death yesterday. A guy named David was murdered (stabbed to death) out on Baloy beach where he resided.

I’ve walked by his place many times over my years here and he was often sitting alone outside wearing shorts with no shirt. Tall and skinny. I’m told he was 75 years old. I never spoke to him as I passed by but I often wondered what his story might be. I figured he was probably some pensioner barely getting by, but still wanted to live the dream in the Philippines. Turns out he used to be an actor and had been living here since the 1970’s! Rest in Peace, Mr. Light. A sad end to a long and interesting life. I wish I had sat with you and shot the shit. But that’s just not my way.

Yesterday’s Hash didn’t kill me, so I’ve got that going for me. It was actually a pretty nice trail with the exception of a couple of spots coming down from the mountain. One place was so steep I finally just sat and slid down on my ass. Another I literally had to climb down some tree roots. Ah, the challenges that we overcome are the ones that provide the most satisfaction in life, right?

Welp, I’m alive and kicking. Let’s hope I can keep it that way. And no, the thought that bad things come in threes never entered my mind. Until now. Damn it!

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee

Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;

For those whom thou think’st thou dost overthrow

Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.

From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,

Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,

And soonest our best men with thee do go,

Rest of their bones, and soul’s delivery.

Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,

And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,

And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well

And better than thy stroke; why swell’st thou then?

One short sleep past, we wake eternally

And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.

–John Donne

We are now into the “Ber” months as they are called in the Philippines. That means it is officially the Christmas season. I haven’t been to the mall yet this month, but I am quite certain they are playing yuletide carols and have the big signs up counting down the days until the celebration of the Savior’s birth.

It’s Hash Monday so this is going to be a rushed post, but hopefully better than nothing. I guess I might as well start with a tale about a woman I’m rather fond of. I’ve actually known her for several months now and she is a joy to be around. Always laughing and happy, quick to offer words of encouragement, and pretty damn attractive–especially for a woman in her mid-40s. Anyway, she is married to a foreigner and is not the type who would ever cheat (she’s one of those Pentecostals). We have done some very light and good-natured flirting, but it is all in jest. She’s friends with my helpers but I probably only see her briefly once a week or so.

A few days ago (let’s call her Judy) came by and wanted to talk to me. That was a first. All of our previous communication had been brief and only in passing. So, we sat at the kitchen table (my helper also joined us) and chatted. I learned she had two grown children from an earlier relationship and that the father had recently died. She also had some land in her home province of Visaya that she hoped to develop someday. Then she talked a bit about her husband and it wasn’t pretty. He wants nothing to do with her family, including her children. That means he contributes nothing towards their support and even worse, refuses to allow Judy to visit them or have them visit her. She told me he is a very jealous man and that he has hired private detectives to follow her around. He gives her 1000 pesos ($20) a week for her personal use.

None of that is any of my business of course. Still, I asked why she puts up with that kind of demeaning behavior and she just shrugged it off. He was her husband and it was her duty as a wife to stand by his side. I guess that is taking for better or worse to the extreme. And then we got down to business. She mentioned that she knew I was helping out some people and that she respected that. Turns out, Judy’s daughter in Manila wants to continue her college education but lacks the funds to do so. Bottom line, 15,000 pesos ($300) would get her back in school. As I say, I really think Judy is a great gal and I am quite sure that the money request is for the stated purpose. So I agreed to help her out.

Not to worry, I’m not going there. Although I did go so far as to wonder what might have been. If I hadn’t delayed my move to the PI for those 8 years perhaps I would have met Judy before she was married. Ah well, as John Greenleaf Whittier said so long ago:

God pity them both! and pity us all,
Who vainly the dreams of youth recall;
For of all sad words of tongue or pen,
The saddest are these: “It might have been!”

Moving on.

I went into the DiviMart the other day. I met all the requirements: temp check, hand sanitizer, mask, and face shield. As I entered the store, the guard stuck something on my shield. I didn’t look at it until I got back home, but it gave me a good laugh:

The 27th Anniversary of the Subic Bay Hash House Harriers is coming up next month. And that means ordering a brand new Hash shirt to commemorate the event. Here is this year’s design:

And now I need to go put on my Hash attire and get ready to roll on out of here. ON-ON!

Oh, I’m not sure who’s work this is, found it on Facebook. But I liked it:

When you love someone, you know in your heart that your love never died. You feel their presence in your heart, even if they are out of your life. Sometimes, we may not always get what we “want” in life, however, we will always get what we need in order to grow. We may not consciously ask for certain situations, but on a soul level, we brought them into our lives in order to heal, grow and learn what pure love is truly all about.

Can you understand that you have always done the best job you knew how to do at any particular time with the knowledge and level of growth you had at that time? Yes? Good! Now, you can extend that same understanding to the other person from your heart, and that is why you will not require them to say: “I’m sorry.” You will understand, and they will understand. It is that pure understanding that allows what may have bruised our ego to melt away. Once our fears and ego are out of the way, we truly can love purely. You will never have to say you’re sorry to someone you truly love that genuinely loves you. You will only have to be yourself – that is all you will ever need to do.

Today has been bizarre, even by my low standards. I need to get drunk and think about it take some time to process the events that occurred. Look forward to a post on my latest shit tomorrow.

Here are a few photos from my Friday hike, a little over 10K all told.

My head is spinning. I need to go out for some medication. Think I’ll see if they have what I need at Hot Zone.

Greetings! Busy day here but I’ll post more on that later. For now, a couple of photos from my Philippines life to tide you over.

Anyway, I’m making the best of things. Notwithstanding my bitching all the time I know I am indeed blessed.

Oh you can count me out of your triangle
I’m number three I’m too late to lie
And I don’t need heartache at all
I can’t stand the fall
And the moon just turned blue
Goodbye, goodbye
Little darlin’ the moon just turned blue
So baby goodbye

A lovely Monday morning here in the Philippines. I’ve got the Hash to attend to soon so I wanted to throw some love out to my faithful few readers who look forward to my pathetic posts. I won’t let you down!

Let’s start with this:

Some protesters who stayed in the District after the March on Washington ended Friday afternoon continued to spread their message, and elements of mayhem, around the city by temporarily shutting down major roads and tussling with police, even while rain deluged the area at nightfall.

Kevin Kim, do you see a problem in the above passage from a recent Washington Post article? Althouse did. As the world’s foremost authority on comma usage, I’ll let you be the final arbiter on the issue.

And speaking of Kevin Kim, today is his birthday. Any of y’all who appreciate his insightful comments here as much as I do should go give him a holler at his Hairy Chasms blog. And if you aren’t reading him every day as I do, you are missing out on some fine content. Check him out!

I ventured out yesterday afternoon in defiance of the Sunday lockdown order. Made it to my favorite beachside bar without incident and enjoyed me some cold brewskies. Now, I had plenty of beer at the house but I just enjoy watching the beauty that mother nature provides. Especially the sea gals.

Tomorrow is grocery shopping day, and I’ve got my list prepared:

Sadly, I don’t have a wife to do the shopping for me. Kinda like this poor guy:

Okay, that’s all I’ve got for today. Assuming I survive today’s trail (Leech My Nuggets is the Hare) I’ll be back with more tomorrow.

A little lazy lockdown Sunday potpourri. I’m not kidding about the lazy part, I’ve been sitting on my ass all day playing solitaire on the computer. I did achieve Card Shark level, however, so I guess that’s an accomplishment of sorts.

I had a big surprise when I saw my old buddy Jeremy Frye was posting on Facebook again. He’s the one who got convicted in the death of a Korean he had a bar brawl with. I guess he got released a few months early from his six-year sentence and he’s currently staying with his parents back in Florida. I’ve not had a chance to chat with him yet, but I did leave a comment that he ought to write a book about his experience. He responded: “Of course. It also doubles as my autobiography, which doubles as a self-help book. It’s called “Lessons I Learned the Hard Way”. Hmm, that may be sarcasm. He does appear to be somewhat embittered, but I guess that’s to be expected. He still believes he was wrongfully convicted:

I’m putting this video on Facebook so that my family and friends in America will be better able to understand what happened as I explain the area, environment, scene, etc. This is not for any other reason, but it should be noted that the “victim’s” friends who were at the hospital giving accounts of what happened werent actually at the scene. On top of that, even though the reporter was standing in front of the police station, the detectives kicked him out without giving him any information, which should help everyone to understand that this KBS news segment had very little actual facts.

You know… I know that many people are disgusted with me for having “punched a man to death”, but in reading the news articles, comments, and other case-related crap, I”ve realized (what I had already known), that nobody on the outside ever knew what really happened. I had begun a complete dissection of the case and was going to post videos to expose the corruption using the court records that the prosecutors tried to keep from me, but I think that I’m going to save myself tons of hours of work and money simply by posting the autopsy photo so that everyone can see clearly that it was impossible for a fist to create the blunt-force trauma, especially from three punches.

I don’t think he posted that photo, but here’s the KBS video he mentions. Welcome home, Jeremy!

And I also was reminded of the three year anniversary of the passing of this little guy:

Well, that’s enough sad shit for one day, don’t you think? Last night was pretty satisfying:

After finishing darts at Alley Cats, I went across the street to my beachside bar:

Hotels are allowed to serve their guests on lockdown Sundays. And I got invited to be a guest by the manager. Woot! Just might take her up on that offer in a bit. If I can break away for my perch in front of the computer.

What else have I got for you? Well, this is both true and funny:

Speaking of the 1940s, I found this on the internet and it purports to be the real thing. I have my doubts, but maybe I should get me one:

Anyway, I’m maintaining positive thoughts and I remain hopeful that my chosen path will lead to happiness. Whatever that may be.

Think I will shower up and defy the lockdown for a bit. I hope my next post isn’t from jail!

Made it through the birthday and I’m newly resolved to make the best of whatever lies ahead. Luckily, it seems my physical health is holding on and my mental health is not much worse than it’s ever been either. So yeah, I threw a little pity party for myself yesterday but it’s a new day today and I’m moving forward.

I do keep track of my vital statistics on a daily basis and I’d say I’m doing alright for an old fucker.

• BP: 123/84
• Resting heart rate: 59 (that’s lower than it’s ever been!)
• 72 sleep score (as measured by my Fitbit, that’s in the fair range)
• Averaging just under 20,000 steps per day
• 35.7C temperature (no COVID yet!)
• 204 pounds (that’s 5 more than I like, and seems to be confined to my beer belly. No idea what that’s from though.)

Anyway, I’m in much better shape than I was five years ago. Even my damaged lungs seem to be, um, taking a breather. Haven’t needed to use my nebulizer or inhaler for quite a while and no coughs or other COPD symptoms. Overall, I’d say I’ve got much to be thankful for healthwise.

Nothing special really for the “big day” yesterday. Walked My Bitch alone and visited a bit with Olivia, the matriarch of the mountain family. Got a message from Scott about halfway through my hike that they needed to move the Hash gear from Johansson’s and wondered if I had room for it at my place. So, I hustled on over and helped load up the Hashmobile. Sad news to see Johansson’s close down, it’s been a fixture in Barretto and our Hash home for many years. Just another casualty of government incompetence and ignorance.

Later on, I popped into Cheap Charlies to enjoy a beer and they played the birthday song for me. I guess I have a mutual Facebook friend with one of the girls. My old crush Heidi, who manages the place, even sat with me for a chat. I bought a round of drinks for all the girls as a birthday present.

I was feeling hungry, so I walked up the street to Sit-n-Bull for some supper. Ordered the French Dip and it was quite good. I had a nice chat with the owner and mentioned that I rarely see a French Dip as a menu offering these days. He corrected me that what he offers is a roast beef dip. To be a true French dip the beef has to be finely sliced and he serves his version with thickly sliced wedgies. Well, yeah, now that you mention it. Still very tasty and enjoyable though.

I finished up on the beach at Mango’s and then headed on home ahead of curfew. I was in bed before 9 p.m. once again which seems to be my new normal.

Exciting times, eh?

A busy day ahead so I wanted to throw something up here while I can. Yeah, a vomit post!

Have my Wednesday hike group to attend to this morning. This afternoon I’ll be attending a birthday party. Janey invited me! It’s at the bar where the guest of honor works, but still…

Althouse linked to a Twitter post that listed the “top 7 warning signs on a man’s bookshelf”:

1. A Dog-eared copy of Infinite Jest

2. Too Much Hemingway

3. Any amount of Bukowski

4. AYN. RAND.

5. Goethe

6. “Lolita is my favorite book.”

7. “‘Fathers and Sons’ Is my favorite book.”

I’m not a literary expert and haven’t even heard of a couple of these. But there is no such thing as too much Hemingway and don’t you dare attack my relatively new hero Bukowski. And Ayn Rand could see into the future for chrissakes. I’ll concede Lolita might be a little concerning without additional context. I’d keep my eyes on my teenaged daughter for sure!

Speaking of Twitter, Alexandra Occasional Cortex went there to attack the GOP convention. About the best she had was to mock the elephant symbol. As you might imagine, that didn’t work out well for her. Here’s my favorite:

Anyway, I’m far, far away from the madness back home. Glad to be here. But still…

Okay, gotta run. Well, walk. But you know what I mean.

…and cake on my head. That pretty much summarizes yesterday’s Hash. I’ll tell the story in pictures:

It’s Hash Monday and that means I’ll be hitting the trail in a couple of hours and hitting the bottle shortly thereafter. So if I am going to post something here today I’d best do it now.

I wrapped up my lockdown Sunday with the movie Pay it Forward. It had been quite some time since I’d last seen it and with my Biden-like memory it seemed almost new to me again. For example, I’d forgotten that it was filmed in Las Vegas. Anyway, I had downloaded the film a few weeks ago in anticipation of sharing it with my friend Jhen on the occasion of my presenting her with a new laptop. Instead, she took the gift and fled. She did thank me profusely later and I saw that she recently posted a clip from the movie on her Facebook page, so at least she understands the concept of paying it forward. I hope she will.

When I went upstairs to my bedroom and was closing the sliding window in preparation for going to bed, I somehow managed to squash my thumb between the window and the jamb. Hurt like a motherfucker! This morning I have a big black bruise under the thumbnail. And no, the several beers I enjoyed with the movie had nothing to do with the accident. I’m almost sure of it.

In my morning internet explorations, I came across this clip of conjoined twins who recently were hired as a schoolteacher.

And while we are in the realm of YouTube, I’ll share a video from a Filipina vlogger who attempts to answer the question “Does your Filipina REALLY love you?” She is actually a little irritating to watch (at least to me, your mileage may vary) but she makes some points that are consistent with my own observations since I began visiting the Philippines. I’m going to be doing a post soon on the whole concept of “transactional relationships” and this video might provide you some useful background information for that discussion.

That’s all I’ve got for now.

As I was leaving my subdivision yesterday afternoon one of the guards approached me and advised that several cases of COVID-19 had been reported in San Isidro, the barangay directly behind Alta Vista. In fact, my house is technically in San Isidro which is part of Subic town. Anyway, I understood the guard to say that no one from San Isidro (other than residents of course) would be permitted to enter Alta Vista. I acknowledged this info and went on about my business.

Today I’m hearing that the construction workers have been told to either stay on site or be denied re-entry. And even more concerning is that no visitors will be allowed to enter Alta Vista. I was more than a little incensed about that, thinking on what authority is a security guard going to tell me who can visit my house? I checked with one of my neighbors and he believes unescorted visitors may be denied entry, but not if I am with them. Hmm, guess we’ll find out about that one way or the other. Of course, I know several ways to bypass the front gate so I’ll continue to do as I damn well please, being the selfish bastard that I am.

The “official statement to follow” verbiage is concerning. I won’t be surprised if there is yet another government overreaction shutting everything done. Hope I’m wrong about that.

In the meantime, life goes on.

And that’s about it for now. I’ve got a long-postponed lunch with J. today and later I plan to play in my first dart tournament since the COVID madness started back in March. I need to try and get back to normal, whatever the hell that is.

This may not be funny if you don’t know anyone for Scotland, but it made me think of my old friend Alistair and cracked me up:

Rows and flows of angel hair
And ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons everywhere
I’ve looked at clouds that way

But now they only block the sun
They rain and snow on everyone
So many things I would have done
But clouds got in my way

I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down, and still somehow
It’s cloud illusions I recall
I really don’t know clouds at all

Yesterday afternoon found me at Bar Celona. I thought perhaps I would rendevous with J. there but alas, she was a no show. Other commitments ran late then the curfew loomed, and so it was not to be. Another time perhaps.

So I sat and drank in the beer and the view.

A restless night because I couldn’t get my damn brain to shut the fuck up. Oh well, it happens like that sometimes.

Here’s an update on our COVID numbers:

This mornings perusal of the internet revealed this madness:

Apparently this is a new series on Netflix featuring young girls being sexualized. Guess they are going for the pedophile market. I canceled my Netflix account when they hired the lying bitch Susan Rice to their Board of Directors. Not sure if she had anything to do with approving this travesty but damn, are pedos the next oppressed group the libtards are going to get woke about?

I needed a nice long walk after seeing those “cuties”, so I took one with fellow Friday hikers Troy, Jim, and Anne. Scott couldn’t make it so picking the trail was my job today. I had us start out across the river in Matain, then head out past Black Rock mountain, around Easter mountain, back across the river in San Isidro, then over to my house for beers and chicken nuggets. Around 12K all told, mostly flat. It did rain like a motherfucker about halfway through, but nothing you can do about that except suck it up and keep plodding along.

And that’s how things are here in these parts.

Moons and Junes and Ferris wheels
The dizzy dancing way you feel
As every fairy tale comes real
I’ve looked at love that way

But now it’s just another show
You leave ’em laughing when you go
And if you care, don’t let them know
Don’t give yourself away

I’ve looked at love from both sides now
From give and take, and still somehow
It’s love’s illusions I recall
I really don’t know love at all