…in the normalcy of familiar routines.

Cheap Charlies for a couple of beers to start off my Saturday on the town As soon as I sat down I had a gal on each side of me, looking on expectantly with puppy dog eyes. I guess they aren’t allowed to actually ask you to buy them a drink, but I know that look. I don’t reward that behavior from Buddy and Lucky, and I resisted their unspoken entreaties until I ordered my third beer (I usually buy a lady drink after my first). I’m not sure why I wasn’t feeling more generous last night. I do prefer to treat one girl to drinks at a time and I don’t like feeling pressured or expected to be the big spender in the bar. On the other hand, I was the only customer on early Saturday evening, so I’m sure their desperation was legitimate. There were probably a dozen other gals looking enviously our way. Ah well, finished my beer, gave them each 50 pesos, and headed on out.

Next (and last) stop was Mango’s for my ration of beach views, beers, and food. Had some friendly banter with my favorite waitress there as well.

I noticed on my way to Mango’s that all the hotels I passed had full parking lots. And as I said, Cheap Charlies was empty. Barretto has become a popular destination for Filipinos these days and they spend their time on the beach, not in the bars. That’s going to be the new normal for the foreseeable future.

Caught a trike home after enjoying my meal. Coincidentally or not, I had the same driver as the previous night. I overpay trikes, 100 pesos for a 50 peso ride, so the drivers are on the lookout for me. Oftentimes when I’m walking past a trike stand I’ll be greeted with calls of “Alta Vista!”. Heh, better to popular with these guys than not. Besides, it’s one freakin’ dollar extra I’m paying. It makes their night (most of their trips with locals are 20 peso rides) and I don’t mind spending a little extra to get home safely. Anyway, this driver was determined to conquer the hill that had defeated him the night before, so he really revved it up, downshifted, and gave it full throttle. It was a close call, but he made it up and on over to my doorstep. Well done!

This part of the subdivision I live in now is much noisier than my former residence. The house down the hill is constantly blaring music. He started a little before six this morning, but of course, I was already up. Also lots of barking dogs around here. I hope my relatively quiet dogs don’t get blamed for that. The only thing that really bothered my sleep last night though was my upstairs neighbor’s air conditioner. It must be dripping condensation and it drips on top of my aircon which is directly below. I’m going to close my window tonight and hopefully escape that irritating sound.

I had some inspiration for my solo walk today. Kevin Kim, who is well on his way to recovery from a recent stroke, did an 18k hike yesterday in under four hours. Impressive in the best of times. Kevin has always been out of my league but I wanted to see what I had in me so I pushed myself today. This was the result:

I pretty much max out at 8K in one go, and I wouldn’t have been able to resist the urge to shortcut but for wanting to see just where I stood vis a vis, Kevin. Of course, there is no comparison to the master, but I was pleased with my effort regardless.

So that’s about as normal as things can be around here, I suppose. Thanks, as always, for dropping by.

And if Spock says so, it must be true!