As I briefly mentioned yesterday, it has been a crazy past few days here in the Philippines. Here’s the lowdown:

Friday night I did a “do-over” date with Malissa. She had expressed remorse and regret for allowing the memory of past relationship failures to prevent her from being open and responsive to my overtures. I in turn realized that I’m also carrying around the baggage of my many disappointments in the love realm and that contributed to my bailing out at the first sign of trouble. Will we get it right this time? Who knows. I’m going to be 63 next month though and I just want to enjoy each day the best I can. And one of the things I enjoy is having a warm body to snuggle with. That’s enough for now.

I woke up to pounding rain on Saturday morning. That’s not unusual, but this was different in that the rain was accompanied by strong gusty winds. Rendered umbrellas useless as the falling water was coming in sideways. In the afternoon my lights started flickering and I figured I was in for a power outage. And I was right about that. I had the security guys call the power company and was hopeful that the lights would be on when I came home from darts Saturday night. I was happy to see the lit houses as I entered the subdivision. But then I turned the corner and saw my place, black as the night. I kinda sorta thought the outage may have been a loose connection to my house, given how the power was intermittent before finally going out altogether. I was right as rain about that. So, it was a dark night at home, no aircon and no internet. I know now which one I can’t live without! I’m an internet junkie!

So I figured nothing could be worse than Saturday’s storm and I was glad to see the clouds breaking up when I awoke on Sunday morning. They even got my power restored, although the internet didn’t come back. Oh well, things were looking up at least. And then Josie blew into town. That bitch was a typhoon! Made Saturday seem like a drizzle. And Josie brought along lots of thunder and lightning to accompany her downpours. Soon enough my lights went out again. Damn it!

I had seen my pal Jerry at darts on Saturday. He’s a fellow walking hobbyist as well and has been living here for the past 15 years or so. I told him the rain really sucked as it was preventing me from getting my steps in (I had a paltry 8,000 for the day). He told me that he’d decided to just fuck it all and walk regardless of the weather. Made me feel like a wimp it did. So, despite Josie’s fury, I set about walking on Sunday. This is what I saw:

Right at the entrance to my subdivision I was able to ascertain why I had lost power. This was taken on Sunday morning, by Sunday night half of the house at the top of the hill was at the bottom. (as you can see in the picture I posted yesterday)

This is one of my regular waking paths, but on this day it was a river. Gave it a pass naturally….

And it wasn’t just the side streets. National Highway was having it’s own flooding issues, which got much worse as the day went on.

I was supposed to meet Marissa for breakfast but she was a no show. I gave her a call to see what was up and she sent me a photo of her apartment:

Damn. Best excuse for a broken date ever!

She also took this photo of the rescue raft passing by her place. She chose not evacuate and later regretted it. She wound up staying in the 2nd floor apartment of her neighbor.

Speaking of rescue, my domestic helper Tere was spending her day off in Olongapo City. I was surprised when she returned home in the early afternoon. Turns out she had to be evacuated from wherever it was she was with ropes! Yikes!

And even looking out at the bay gave me a sinking feeling…

Anyway, you get the idea. It was not a good day for many, many people. As for me, well, I’m king of the hill and all that. But even King’s lose their power (and internet) and I couldn’t bear facing another night at Casa Rosenda without them. So, I decided to sleep at the Pub.

The restaurant next door is run by a friendly Korean guy.

Well, I should have done my blogging before I went out for a few celebratory beers. By the time I came back to the room and settled in to give my faithful reader(s) an update, the power in Barretto went out as well. Oh the irony! Of course, the Pub Hotel does have a generator so the lights and aircon were back on in just a few minutes, but alas, no internet.

Me too, honey, me too.

So, here it is today. Power on but I can’t access my internet here (still). Although my wifi router is putting out a signal, my network is not appearing as an option. And I don’t have a password for the one that does appear. Someone is supposed to be out from CATV this afternoon to hook me up again. Savvy readers may wonder just how I’m composing this long ass post. Well, duh. I finally figured out how to turn my phone into a wifi hotspot. It’s amazing how three days of desperation will make you smart! Smarter anyway.

Meica from Alley Cats darts bar always inspires me with her t-shirt messages. I responded “are you talking about me?” She said, “no, of course not!” Sarcastically.

So now it is today and so far no rain to speak of, although rumor has it yet another storm is brewing. We shall see.

Took my Buddy out for a walk. He really gets excited at walk time now. He’s come a long way these past couple of weeks…

Saw a couple of the neighborhood kids as we walked about…

And enjoyed a “sunny” day, comparatively speaking anyway.

And I guess it could always be worse.

So, I’ll just Be Positive… (technically O+ just in case anyway in the emergency room should ask)

That just about brings you up to date I suppose. Will give you the weekly Hash update tomorrow. Rain or shine!