Remember when

There wasn’t much about yesterday that will make it memorable, mostly just more of the same old, same old. A boring 6K solo street walk to start the day, lasagna for lunch, a blog post, and a nap. My plans for the evening included visiting Whiskey Girl to wish my favorites, Jenn and Kim, a merry Christmas. I also baked up a batch of brownies to share with the crew.

The sun started screaming, “It’s beer o’clock!” so I headed into town.

Whiskey Girl doesn’t open until 6:00 p.m., so I sat my ass down at Sloppy Joe’s to wait it out.

It might be said that this was my first beer, but I don’t count that way.
After all, practice makes perfect.

My pal Chris and his gal Shie were there, so I had some company I didn’t have to pay for. Chris got control of the music remote and asked what I wanted to hear. I recalled that the forty-first anniversary of the death of Marty Robbins had recently occurred, so I suggested we play one of his songs as a tribute. Judging that the Sloppy crowd might not appreciate old fashioned country western music, I selected a more mainstream tune, “Don’t Worry”:

The song is from 1961, and my father was a big Marty Robbins fan. I still remember him coming home from work, putting an album on the record player, opening a beer, and sitting back in his easy chair to relax and enjoy the music. It’s funny the things you remember from your childhood when some days it’s hard to remember your name.

So, beers were drank, music was played (I also requested some Doors songs), and time passed. A few minutes before six, I headed up the highway to take care of my business at Whiskey Girl. I arrived a couple of minutes early, but the sliding steel door was still closed and locked. Some guy did arrive on a motorbike right at six to open the door, but since none of the staff were waiting to get inside, I knew it was pointless to pursue the effort.

Meanwhile, I got a message from Swan saying she was going to meet Aine at Wet Spot at 7 p.m. Apparently, Aine had asked to “borrow” some money, and Swan had consented to accommodate some, but not all, of the request. What Swan does with her money is none of my business, but we both know it is unlikely ever to be repaid. Anyway, with my Whiskey Girl plans foiled, I told Swan I would see her at Wet Spot.

I arrived at Wet Spot and put my “buy one, get one” coupon to work. I bought Irene, my waitress, a lady drink but when Aine approached the table, I told her Swan would be arriving soon, and she took the hint and departed. When Swan got there, Aine came back, but then one of her regulars arrived, and I was more than happy to have him buying Aine’s lady drinks all night. I used my savings (and a 10% discount coupon) to order dinner for me, Swan and Irene for delivery from Sit-n-Bull. The brownies I’d baked were shared with all the girls and seemed appreciated. We drank until a little after eight, Swan slipped Aine the “loan” in the CR, and we departed for home. I watched another episode of “Shameless” and then enjoyed a good night’s sleep.

As I say, there was nothing special about the day, but nothing wrong with it either. As far as I remember anyway.

My buddy Scott provided me a map of the portions of Kalaklan Ridge that we have Hashed in the past.

End-to-end on the green line is 14K. I’ve walked probably 8K of that trail. So far.

I also seemed to recall that a group that had hiked from Barretto to Angeles City (80K) had used the Kalaklan Ridge trail. Turns out my memory was mostly faulty. They went thisaway:

They did that trek back in 2014. I wish I had been around to join them. Nowadays, if I ever had the gumption to do a multiday hike, I’d need to be able to stay in motels along the way. And have frequent rest stops. I think I could do 10K in the morning and 10K in the afternoon (with a nap in between). So, I could walk to AC in four days under those conditions.

This YouTube video of that adventure is a good watch:

“It took 3 years to find this route, it’s not on any produced maps and only 4 people have the trail. The route is all off road and follows many animal paths and little known trails straight over the top of the Zambales Mountains. This was completed on 25th Feb 2014 and only 4 of us had the courage and ability to undertake it.”

The days when I had the physical ability to tackle a hike this are just a memory now.

In checking for title duplication, I came across this post from 2007 telling the story of my boss’ death and the obituary I wrote. Not all memories are happy ones.

Speaking of memories, Facebook let loose an onslaught of them today:

A darting adventure in Osaka, Japan circa 2011
A dart league championship in 2012
Hanging with the staff at Shenanigans in 2013.
The 8th Army Commanding General, Thomas Vandal, visits our office in 2016. Sadly, he passed away the first year after his retirement.
My last Christmas as a working man in Korea, 2017

Time moves on, and perhaps one day, I will look back at the memories I’m making now.

‘Tis the season
Well, we all know that Eve prefers a snake…

And I didn’t forget your Star Wars Trek pun:

At least they weren’t memes!

Alright then, it’s time to leave the past behind and get on with the rest of today. I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow!

4 thoughts on “Remember when

  1. And I didn’t forget your Star Wars pun

    Didn’t see no Star Wars.

    So, beers were drank

    And songs were… sang?

    (After the “were,” it should be a participle, not the simple past.)

    Apparently, Aine had asked to “borrow” some money, and Swan had consented to accommodate some, but not all, of the request. What Swan does with her money is none of my business, but we both know it is unlikely ever to be repaid.

    If Swan wants an “I’m Not Your Goddamn ATM” tee, she can buy one in her size at my tee store.

    End-to-end on the green line is 14K. I’ve walked probably 8K of that trail.

    With your revitalized nose/lungs, maybe it’s time to take a day to walk the whole trail! Bring a lot of fluids with you.

    Thomas Vandal looked too young to pass away so early.

    re: Adam/Eve meme

    More teeny-peenie information here.

  2. Kev, Star Wars, Star Trek. Does it really make a difference? Yeah, that’s pretty egregious. I’ll make the correction. I wasn’t even drank when I wrote it.

    Honestly, Grammarly told me to use drunk, but I didn’t care. I liked the way drank sounded in the context of a sentence that was trying to express a casual rendition of speech after several beers. I claim writer’s privilege!

    HaHa! I’ll let Swan know the ATM t-shirt is available. The funny thing is, until I brought Swan to the bar with me, she and Aine hadn’t seen each other for years. Aine wouldn’t have thought to ask if she didn’t know there was a white boyfriend involved. That makes Swan “rich” by association.

    Once you are up there, the ridgeline is a relatively easy walk. I’ve made the climb up to Tralala a couple of times, and it’s a bitch. Maybe next time, I’ll try to come down at Tralala.

    Yeah, when LTG Vandal retired, he and his wife had plans to purchase an RV and travel the highways and byways of the USA. Then, he got a prostate cancer diagnosis and died a few months later. A shame; he was one of the good ones.

    Thanks for the teeny-weenie link. I’ll watch it after Swan wakes up (don’t want her dreaming about small dicks!). But size doesn’t matter. It’s not the meat; it’s the motion!

  3. Relax McCrarey, I like how “drank” sounded in your sentence as well. As for me, last night I “spank”ed my monkey while looking at a poster of the gals from the K-Pop group Black Pink sounds way better than “spunk”ed my monkey, don’t ya think? Either way, I had a great time.

    Eve shouldn’t be trash-talking Adam about his short-comings. I mean ,she ain’t got no rack. My tits are bigger than hers.

    Loved the Walrus pics. Long Live the Walrus!

    Peace Out!

  4. I’m glad you are feeling so “spunky,” Soju! Keep it up! (ahem)

    Big or small, it is better than none at all!

    Yep, the Walrus lives on in our memories. Sometimes we don’t know how good we have it until it is gone.

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