I thought I was, so I looked in the freezer to find something quick and easy to prepare. Then I remembered I’d bought a TV dinner, sort of on whim (was surprised to see it in Royal), and figured now was as good a time as any to pop it into the microwave.

It didn’t taste as good as I remembered, either. Oh well, sometimes those strolls down memory lane don’t go as planned. Best to leave the past in the past, I suppose.

Speaking of strolls, had a good one at yesterday’s Hash. And when I say good, I mean, good and hard. The “sane” group I hike with sliced about 1.5K off a 6K, Leech My Nuggets, trail. But that still left us with three climbs and two steep and slippery downs. (If you are wondering about the disparity between the number of ups and downs, the hike ended in Alta Vista after the third climb). And when I bitch and moan about the DOWNHILL more than the ascent, you know it had to be wicked bad. It wasn’t just the steepness going down, although that was tough, damn it was slippery as hell too. The grass and leaves are always something to be reckoned with, but yesterday there were loose rocks and pebbles underfoot as well. Gave a whole new meaning to “rock and roll” and I was moving along, kinda like a rolling stone.

Obviously, I lived to tell about it. I had also been worried about how my recent illness would impact my durability and stamina, but once I finished the first climb, it felt like I’d gotten my second wind. Leech My Nuggets always lays a tough trail, so it feels like a special accomplishment to make it to the end. The end was at Leech’s newly constructed house, and he threw a nice On-Home party, including a tasty spread of food, for his fellow Hashers.

Here’s the story in pictures (most of which aren’t mine):

Man, I thought maybe I’d sweated out the last of this bug that’s been bugging me, but I still have almost no energy. I took a nap before sitting down to write this post, and I’ll be damned, but I feel like I need another one now. Ah well, one of the benefits of being I retired I suppose–time is my bitch. At least until I run out of time. No time soon I hope.

It was good to be back on familiar ground at yesterday’s Hash. The trail technically started at the VFW, but since we knew it was going through Alta Vista a group of us just met up at my house. It was actually a nice and pretty easy hike up and over Black Rock mountain, then on out to our On-Home at Hunter Jo’s Inn in Calapadayan.

There was a second hill we bypassed. The Hare’s had provided a rope to assist with the climb, but we said nope to that and took the long way around instead. Afterward, the Hare asked if we had done the rope climb and we admitted we hadn’t. He said he had considered marking the way went as an “easy” version of the trail, but realized anyone inclined to take the easy route would already know which way to go. He was right about that!

I don’t recall ever doing three Hashes in a row before, but I have now for sure. Today is my off day so I’m getting recharged for tomorrow’s hike with the Wednesday Walkers. Here are the photos from yesterday:

I’ll be back tomorrow with some tales about the latest weirdness in my life. In the meantime, there is this:

Toe. Although I guess technically I walked a little over two miles to see a camel toe show.

Different Hash kennels have different personalities it seems. At the Subic Hash, we are irreverent and not PC at all. La Union, on the other hand, bills itself as a family Hash. They would never countenance some of the songs we sing in Subic. In fact, they asked some of us with crude names to not use them when we participated in one of their Hashes. This Corona group is WAY out there on the spectrum when it comes to sexual innuendo, and dare I say it, exploitation. The camel toe contest was an example of that. They also did a “big dickus” thing that I thankfully didn’t stick around for. Anyway, I’m no prude and I wasn’t offended, but some of the shenanigans were tiresome and made the circle last much longer than I like.

With that said, I’ll share some pictures I took of the camel toe event. It was hard to get good shots from where I was standing and the girls seemed more inclined to show their butts than their pussies, but here’s what I got:

Everyone has their own idea about what’s hot or not, but damn, #6 tripped my triggers. I’d actually noticed her long before the contest started and wished that…well, never mind. The other thing that stood out to me was her boyfriend, a guy who looks older than me and not in good physical shape, forced her to participate. She resisted and refused until he physically pulled her out of the chair and into the circle. Not a pleasant thing to see. Having said that, once she was in the competition she put forth some effort to win. Not in the slutty way some of the gals tried, i.e. twerking and the like, she just strutted her stuff with dignity. Let that hot body do all the talking as it were. Well, she did pull those shorts up some I guess to emphasize the feature that was being judged. It looked good from my perspective!

And the majority of folks in attendance apparently agreed, as #6 won the contest.

And there you have the promised camel toe post. You know, it seems to me cameltoe should be one word, But my spellchecker says that ain’t right. Sorta like this I guess:

Back home safe and sound. Well, as sound as I’m ever gonna be anyway. Now that I’m done with the Corona Hash weekend, it is time to gear up for today’s Subic Hash. So, let me do a quick down and dirty about yesterday’s happenings in Angeles.

We all gathered at the appointed time and place, the Premiere Hotel in AC. There were three Jeepneys parked in a lot and one nearby parked on the street. There was no one around from the Corona Hash to provide any guidance. At the appointed departure time of 1:30, a Hasher from La Union went over to the Jeepney on the street and the driver was heard to have said “this Jeep is for the easy trail”. So, the Hasher came back and relayed the information that anyone doing the short trail should board the street parked Jeepney and everyone else in the other three. About eight folks boarded the easy Jeep and five other people got in with me and my driver. I told my driver to follow the street-parked Jeepney to the trail. And so we waited. And waited.

As 2:00 p.m. neared I went over to the Jeepney and spoke with the driver. His English was very hard to understand, but I thought he said “waiting for 2 more”. That pissed me off, why should we wait on folks who couldn’t arrive on time? Still, nothing I could do about it, and not knowing where the “easy” was starting, we had to follow the Jeepney driver. When 2:00 passed I went over to a couple of Hashers sitting outside the sign-up venue. I asked if they could shed any light on the situation. They said we are Angeles City hashers and the Jeep is for Angeles Hashers, not the Corona Hash. Apparently what the driver had told the La Union Hasher was “this is for AC trail”, not easy trail. Well, fuck! I went and told the unhappy folks waiting in the Jeep that we were screwed. Now what? Went back to my car and discussed the situation with my riders. We had the GPS coordinates for the Corona Hash On-Home location, for all the good that did me with my non-existent tech skills. Well, not a problem for the Dutchman, Max (Nosy Bastard). I gave him my phone and in just a couple of minutes, we had a map to where we needed to go. I gave the paper with the coordinates on it to the other stranded Hashers and suggested they see if a cab could take them there. We pulled out and thirty minutes later arrived where we should have been 40 minutes earlier.

So we took off to do the short trail, which was incorporated into the long trail as was done on Saturday. There was steep, but not real long, climb to the top of the ridge. What made it more difficult for me was that the trail was covered in a powdery volcanic dust (Mount Pinatubo was only 11km away). Breathing that shit in got my lungs into full-on coughing mode. For the first time in a long time I needed to use the emergency inhaler that I carry for situations like this. A couple of squirts did seem to help, as did reaching the top relatively quickly.

After that, it was a nice hike along the ridgeline, then back down a not too steep path leading to the road that took us to the On-Home camp. Around 4.5K for the short trail Whatever temptation I may have felt to do the long trail was canceled by our late start. Probably a good thing because even the fastest of the Subic Hashers on the long trail arrived a good bit after we finished the short one, notwithstanding our late start.

And it the all’s well that end’s well category, those unfortunate Hashers we left behind in Angeles were able to contact the Corona Hash leader by phone. He sent a Jeepney to pick them up and they arrived in time to tackle the short trail as well.

The Hash circle on the other hand was another tiresome affair; longwinded, egotistical MC’s dragging things out much longer than necessary. My fear that this would happen is why I had my driver come a day early. By 6:30 I had had enough and bailed out early, forgoing the already paid for dinner portion of the Hash. There was one highlight, a camel toe contest, that I’ll cover in a subsequent post.

Here are some photos from yesterday’s adventure:

And that was the day. I’m told the circle continued after the meal and the proceedings finally finished around 10 p.m. So glad I planned ahead. And now it is time to do it again here with the Subic Hash.

The title of this post pretty much sums up my first experience with the Corona Hash House Harriers here in Angeles City.

First to the good–I rather enjoyed the trail. I took the shorter version and found it to be just about right for me; one climb, a somewhat challenging creek side portion, and an interesting walk through a village of the Aeta native people. I *almost* regretted not taking the turn for the long trail until I learned later that it included a knee-high river crossing. Who wants wet shoes for today’s hike?

The bad part came after the actual Hash hike. The circle started late, and was overwrought and over long. Apparently, there is some bad blood between the breakaway Corona hashers and the original Angeles City Hash. So we had to listen to songs and commentary bashing the latter for a good portion of the circle. There were four other Hash groups in attendance (La Union, Subic, and two from Manila) and they all took turns doing their shtick, which rapidly became quite boring. And it just went on and on and on. I grew increasingly agitated because I was tired and hungry. When the circle FINALLY concluded, we had to walk up a steep hill to reach the Jeepneys for transport back to town. No fun after a few hours of drinking–I was pissed under two definitions of the word. Almost three, as I really had to pee during the ride back.

Anyway, we’ll see how it goes today. I had my driver arrive early so he can provide transportation back to town if I can’t endure another Hash circle reaching it’s conclusion. This is the big one-year anniversary event for the Corona Hash and will include an on-site after-circle dinner. Could make for a long day, let’s hope they keep it fun and interesting. Yes, I know I sound like a grumpy old man. I’m afraid that shoe might just fit.

Here are the photos from yesterday’s adventure:

So, there was a group dinner back in town that I skipped. Had a mediocre chicken sandwich at a sports pub near my hotel instead. As usual, I was in bed by 9:00 p.m.

Time to grab some lunch now and get ready for today’s trail. I’ll try and keep a positive attitude and have some fun. If not, I’ll bitch and moan about it here tomorrow. Fair enough?

I am happy to report that there were no casualties during yesterday’s Hash. Well, one guy didn’t finish until after 5:00 (we started at 2:30) and we got a little worried about him. He’s one of us slow oldsters, but that’s even slower than normal. He said he’d taken three falls along the way on loose leaves and the like and needed a rest along the trail as well. I was disappointed to learn he’d been out there alone the whole time too. His girlfriend, along with most of the other females, opted to not do the trail and stick to the pavement. I felt bad for the guy, but what are you going to do?

Feedback from the other Hashers was mostly positive, so there’s that. There were a couple of places we could have made the trail markings clearer, but that’s the way it goes sometimes. The Hash circle seemed to go well, notwithstanding the time I spent on the ice as one of the Hares. My chili sold out again and I got lots of compliments on that. People even noticed that I used both pinto and kidney beans. Maybe I’ll enter the chili cookoff competition this year! (kidding)

Speaking of Hashing, next weekend I’ll be in Angeles City to help the Corona Hash celebrate it’s first anniversary. Kind of a last minute decision on my part to join a pretty large contingent coming from the Subic Bay Hash House Harriers. I’m a little nervous because the Corona Hash broke away from the Angeles City Hash in part, as I understand it, because the AC Hash wasn’t adventurous enough and had easy trails. Well, I don’t know the area very well so shortcutting might not be an option, but I’m going to give it a go anyway.

I must say though that just making a hotel reservation this morning proved to be quite the adventure in and of itself. First I went to the webpage of my preferred hotel (or at least the one most guys from Subic are staying at) and booked a room for three nights. Then I got a message that a deposit for one night’s lodging had to be transferred into the hotel’s bank by Thursday. WTF? Isn’t that what credit cards are for? Anyway, I don’t know the procedure for doing a bank transfer and I don’t plan to learn.

So, I booked through Agoda, which is how I used to roll in those long-ago days when I actually could travel and needed to make hotel reservations. Max, the guy who drinks poisoned water, is going with me and he secured a room as well through Booking.com. He shared the price he got and I wanted to compare the rate with Agoda. That’s when I realized that I had booked a room for Thursday night only–I’m arriving on Friday. Geez, not sure how I screwed that up. So, I went in a canceled that reservation and made a new one for the weekend. Then just before I left the house to go shopping, I got a message from Agoda that “something had gone wrong” and my reservation was canceled. I figured I’d deal with it when I got back home.

After finishing my grocery shopping, I checked with Agoda and still had no confirmation. To hell with that, let’s see how Booking.com does. Easy as pie! Had the booking, confirmation, and an app for my phone so I didn’t have to print the confirmation. While I was playing with my new phone app, I noticed something that seemed a little off somehow. So, I looked at the calendar. I’d been making reservations all morning for NEXT weekend, not THIS weekend when I’m actually traveling. Jesus. So, I canceled the Booking.com reservation and made the correct one this time. And it was actually about twenty dollars cheaper. Maybe I’ll use that money to get my head examined. Or change my name to Biden.

Groceries came in at $300. again, still too much, but better than $400 I was spending.

Now I’m going to take a walk to Baloy beach. Nothing too unusual about that except this time I’m going to be looking to see what’s available for rent. I think I’d rather stay in my overpriced house here than go through the hassle of moving, but I’ve made up my mind that I’m not going to suffer any rent increase whatsoever when the lease expires in June. So, if the landlady is to be believed, there’s a move in my future.

I’ve got some updated begging stories, but I’ll save those for another day.

Peace out!

Just back from a three hour jaunt in the mountains around Barretto to help mark today’s Hash trail with my fellow Hares, Pubic Head and Blow My Pipe. The regular trail is just a little over 6K with two decent climbs. By decent, I mean not insane. We also added a 1.5K loop with another climb for those who prefer a longer trail.

I’ll need to shower up then head out to the VFW for the 2:30 send-off. Then I’ll make my way back to the Alta Vista Community Center for our On-Home activities. Makes for a long day, won’t even have time for my nap!

A couple of photos from the trail:

In other news, I posted this on Facebook last night:

Carol responded: “I don’t think you have s good grasp on the concept of “Karen”.” Um, I can’t think of a better example of how Karens act. To better make my point I responded with an example I had personally experienced.

Oh, probably better than you. I posted a picture showing my dinner at a “speakeasy” that stayed open during lockdown for select customers like me. One of my facebook “friends” saw the photo and outed the restaurant by name. What a fuckin’ Karen! My being there had no impact on him while he hid like the pussy he is in his basement. I was born a free man and I choose to die as one should that become necessary.

Of course, when a lefty has no response, they just double down. Carol said: “yeah that’s not a Karen. You however are a scofflaw.” Okay, it was getting late and I had been drinking. So, I went “there” with a hypothetical: “Suedbeck [Carol’s maiden name}, that’s German right? Wonder if your ancestors had Jewish neighbors. I’m sure they wouldn’t be scofflaws and not report them. Geez, you’ve gone completely off the deep end.” Carol responded with laughing emojis and said she must have struck a nerve. Maybe I should have just let it go, but I didn’t.

That you could defend these idiotic policies makes me sad for you, that’s true. I will proudly wear the mantle of “scofflaw” whenever the government tries to impose strictures that imperil my freedom. It is what patriots do. So, run along now and keep doing what you are told by those who claim to know better than you.

Now, Carol and I have been fighting over politics since I abandoned liberal dogma shortly after 9/11/2001. It wasn’t the reason our marriage failed, but it didn’t help matters much either. What she said next was the typical crap I should expect, but it still surprises me that anyone could be so defiantly ignorant:

yeah Timothy McVey thought he was a patriot. And Benedict Arnold. And the idiots that stormed the Capitol. Being dumb, reckless and inconsiderate does not make you a patriot. It just makes you dumb, reckless and inconsiderate.

See what I mean? Oh well, it’s pointless to argue with someone who sees the world through those lenses. I closed out my argument with this:

keep telling yourself that if it makes you feel better about your surrender. That you would compare having a meal and a beer during lockdown with blowing up a building tells me there is no point in further discussion of this topic. Be a sheep if that is your lot in life. #donttreadonme #livefreeordie

And of course, Carol had to get in the last word: “baaa”. Well, at least she has embraced what she has become. Sadly, she is not alone.

Anyway, sorry for the detour into politics. I don’t engage often these days and the above exchange demonstrates the pointlessness of trying. Scary times.

Back tomorrow with more LTG goodness. Or whatever it is you call this crap.