It’s another Hash Monday and that means a short morning post with less substance than normal. You are welcome!

I do sense and feel an increasing decline in my mental faculties lately. The symptoms manifest in various ways. Forgetfulness is one of the biggest. Last night I left the bar, got a ways down the street, and then realized I’d left my phone behind. I’m sure my faithful readers have noticed a worse than usual butchering of the English language here. You should see it before I do the cursory proof-read. There’s the not uncommon leaving a word out of the sentence. Sometimes I will use an entirely wrong word that has no context or meaning within the thought I was trying to convey. In my head, I’m thinking one thing and my fingers are typing something entirely different. One of these days I’m liable to wake up, look in the mirror, and see Joe Biden. Scary!

Yesterday afternoon I walked out to Baloy to play in the Lagoon dart tourney. The manager sadly explained that the Sunday tournament was no longer being held because the pool league has started up again and the person who ran the tourney plays pool on Sunday now. Well, damn. Still, it is yet another indication that little by little things are going back to normal around here.

As normal as they used to be, which is not all that normal. I got a nasty surprise when I reviewed my bank statement yesterday. I had made a 10,000 peso ATM withdrawal a few days ago, But the ATM said I made TWO withdrawals of 10,000 peso. I’ve reported to my credit union in the USA and will attempt to get the local bank here to issue a refund. I’m not hopeful though. I requested a receipt when I made the withdrawal but the machine didn’t issue one. That’s a $200 dollar scam!

Today I went to the money changer to exchange some dollars for pesos. Tomorrow is December and so I need extra money to pay my helpers the traditional “13th-month” salary. I guess in the States we’d call it a Christmas bonus, but here it is part of the labor laws governing salaried employees. Technically, my helpers are independent contractors, not employees. I expect them to pay taxes and social security on their own. Anyway, two different money changers rejected a couple of my $100 bills because they weren’t in perfect condition. I could understand it if they were torn or defaced, but these just had some minor defect that I couldn’t see when pointed out to me. Oh well, I’ll spend them in the USA if I ever make it back there.

Since I couldn’t play darts yesterday, I walked back into town and had a couple of beers at BarCelona. Then I headed up the street to Sit-n-Bull for an early dinner.

Then I moved on to Mango’s to finish my day.

After some more beer, I walked on home. Just as I arrived the full moon peeked out at me from between the clouds.

So, time to get ready for today’s Hash. I’m not expecting any surprises because I participated in scouting the trail on Wednesday and Friday. The first part of today’s Hash will be up Black Rock mountain. Not an easy climb but not Guenter-like either. The last portion we scouted on Friday and it was not pleasant. I’m not sure if the Hare’s have made any adjustments or not. I guess I’ll be finding out in a couple of hours.

Here are some photos from Friday’s scouting expedition:

Okay, gotta run now. Well, walk. You know what I mean.