My hopes for an early restoration of power yesterday were dashed. There was still no electricity when I left for the Hash at one in the afternoon, and the wind and rain continued intermittently throughout the remainder of the day. Rumor had it that downed trees had taken out the powerlines and rendered all of Subic (my house is serviced by the Subic electric company) to darkness indefinitely. Well, nothing to be done but hope for the best.
When the Hash was over (I’ll get to that later in this post) I treated myself to a “last supper” at Mango’s:
With my hunger satiated, I caught a trike and headed for home, trying to maintain a positive attitude. And sure enough, as we entered the neighborhood, I saw some lighted windows and rejoiced in the knowledge that I would be able to complete my pre-trip checklist. The trike had insufficient horsepower to make it up the final hill to my place (that happens about 10% of the time), so I got out and walked the final block. I was surprised to hear one of the neighbor’s generators running but assumed they hadn’t gotten around to turning it off yet. When I opened my front gate, I saw that my helper’s bedroom window was lit up, so I was reassured that all was right in my little world. Only to be crushed with reality when I opened the door and saw the light was only candlepower. Shit.
The helper suggested I once again book a hotel room, but that wasn’t really a viable alternative. I was home and half-drunk with no transport back to town. And a place to sleep wasn’t what I required–I needed juice to charge my laptop and fire up the printer to prepare the required documents for the next day’s travel. So, I went to bed in a hot room with no fan and slept fitfully. I woke up again at 11:30 in a pool of sweat and couldn’t get back to sleep as my mind wrestled with alternatives for getting what I needed to do done. A friend had suggested I save the documents on a USB stick and take them to a print shop. A fine plan except for the fact that I don’t own such a stick, nor do I know where to purchase one. So, I started considering the logistics of having my driver pick me up in the morning and carry me and my computer and printer to some cheap hotel where I could set up to prepare my documents. As I thought through the various possibilities, there was a *click* sound, and the lights turned on again shortly before midnight. Hooray!
I got up to make sure the laptop and phone were charging, glanced at some of my favorite websites, then went back to bed. As I lay there listening to the rain pounding down, it dawned on me that one stray tree branch could once again render me powerless. So, I got up and went to work. Printed out my Cambodia visa, did an online check-in with Philippine Air, then printed copies of my itinerary and onward flight information. I slept much better knowing the paperwork was done.
This morning I finished packing, did the grocery shopping (helper and dogs need to eat while I’m gone), and bought some new clothes at the outlet store. So, I’m good to go. The driver is coming for me at 3:00, and my flight leaves Manila at 10:00. I’ll arrive in Phnom Penh just before midnight local time after a three-hour flight.
The last time I was “home” in the USA was four years ago this week. Facebook memories included this photo of me in my letter carrier jacket:
I’ve gained some weight since then, but I’m not letting that slow me down much. Should have those six-pack abs any day now:
Alright, to the Hash, then. I already knew that, given the weather, I wasn’t going to be doing any hill climbing. Most of the rest of the “sane” group shared similar sentiments, so we made our own trail.
Alright then. Almost time for me to go. My next post (assuming all goes as planned and prepared for) will be from Cambodia.
Oh, and for those of you who have any interest in what the Halloween version of the SOB dances looked like, here are a couple of samples:
The Wet Spot, this week’s champions:
And the Alaska girls, the second-place team.
Hmm, you’ll have to click on the YouTube link above to see this one. A little surprised it is “age-restricted”; there is no nudity involved. Certainly, nothing like the drag queen dances being held in elementary schools.
Oh well, I’m off to Phnom Penh. We’ll see what I see there.
before the Harsh circle begins
Was that deliberate?
And you don’t have a USB stick? How on earth did that happen? Want me to mail you one of mine? Otherwise, I’m pretty sure you can hit most stores and buy one off the shelf. Amazon sells 256 GB sticks for $20-$25. It’s a good investment.
Maybe buy a ton of bottled water for your next power outage—water you can use for sponge baths and maybe even for cooking/dishwashing. It really is a shame that you have to go through this inconstant-electricity nonsense. Do make sure that the generator at your new place actually works. Fire it up and plug some major appliances into it.
Meanwhile, have fun in le Cambodge. Good practice, blogging from your phone (or are you bringing a laptop?).
That’s an eerie first pic and an inauspicious start to what should be a stocktaking pickmeup traversion of Purnom Penn’s westerner friendly fleshpots. The spirits are warning you to always take your own light, to be on guard, and to never ever spend more than 6 dollars on a single beer.
So far, the most I’ve spent is $1.50 for a beer. But I’ve only had two. We’ll see what today might bring!
Yeah, I got rushed (my driver arrived early) and didn’t proofread as semi-poorly as I normally do. Thanks for not being harsh about it! 🙂
I guess we are lucky that the brownouts usually only last hours, not days. And to be fair, there was a named tropical storm passing through that caused lots of damage (McCoy’s on Baloy beach is completely gone, and the floating bar was also destroyed). I’d rent a room (you can actually get them hourly for some unknown reason) to shower than take a sponge bath. It’s things like not being able to flush a toilet that makes life unpleasant.
I had originally considered buying a small generator but was not motivated to follow through. The one at the new place is huge (industrial-sized) so I’ll need to be tutored in its operation.