It’s all back to normal around here, and I’ll take the boringness of routines over the uncertainty of the unknown any day. Really, I enjoy the hell out of doing what I do to fill the hours, and I hope I can continue doing so well into the future. Live it while you’ve got it, and all that jazz.

The Sunday Sweets Street Stroll was how we started our day. We brought along 200 bags of candy but ran out before finishing our regular route. Two hundred smiles are still a nice way to kick things off. Here are some scenes from our abbreviated trek:

Here’s the video I made as we passed through neighborhood #3 on our stroll:

The way those kids were lined up was something we’d never seen before, and I found it funny as hell. Kudos to the adults who imposed a little military discipline for our mutual amusement.

Our candy walks are a pleasant way to get some steps in, and add some sweetness to the lives of the children we encounter. Fun in the sun!

My days are bookended by walking and beer drinking, so let’s get to that second part, shall we?

Well, quiet customer-wise. Manager Cliff handed me control of the music selections, and I went with a 70s classic rock playlist. One of the customers complimented me on my choices.

Next on our agenda was paying a visit to Gold Bar to join in the bar’s first-anniversary celebration. So we walked across town on the busy highway and arrived a few minutes before the scheduled 6 p.m. kickoff.

Gold Bar opens early, and when we arrived, the place was packed with customers unlike anything I’d seen before. It was nice to see a Barretto bar doing well these days. All the seats in the main bar area were full, so for the first time ever, we were seated in the room behind the dance stage.

My friend Nancy entertained the guests by singing karaoke-style at the beginning of the party. She has a good voice, and it was nice to watch her dance moves. Sadly, the speaker in the back room was blaring so loudly that it was almost painful to my sensitive ears. It was a relief when her four-song set was completed.

I’m on the introvert side of the scale, and crowded rooms become increasingly uncomfortable for me. The poor waitresses were trying their best but were overwhelmed, and the service grew slower. I’d had enough by 7:30, so we paid up and headed out.

It was still too early to go home (even by my low standards), so we crossed the highway and popped into the Outback Bar. We were the only customers at first, and having some space felt good to me after the overcrowded Gold Bar experience. Two or three other guys came in later during our visit, but there was lots of room for everyone.

Abby plays a good pool game, and she beat me twice without much difficulty.

I had made a batch of my Aunt Pat’s Recipe World Famous Fruit Salad earlier in the day, and as the evening wore down, I could hear it calling for me to come home and eat some. And that’s just what I did.

In the February 2023 LTG archives is a post where I share an editorial I wrote for my high school newspaper defending the First Amendment right to criticize school administrators. I was the executive editor of the paper and published it without our advisor’s knowledge or consent. I guess it worked because I wasn’t disciplined for speaking out. I enjoyed being a radical in the ’70s. In this iteration of my 70s, I’m just a grumpy old man.

Today’s YouTube video captures a chance meeting on the streets of Cebu. Let’s get something straight between us—she’s definitely a girl with something extra. And I don’t mean those tits. Take three minutes and see for yourself.

Shit, one of those vloggers that don’t allow embedding their video. Sorry to make it hard on you, but you can watch it here.

Here’s today’s lame attempt to be funny:

And now it’s time to get ready for today’s Hash. My intel says there’s a long-trail option (10K) and a medium trail (5K). The Hash begins at Barretto High School. I’ll walk the 2K over the hill from my house to the start, then attempt the medium route—a 7K effort. We’ll see how that works out for me.

In 1969, I was 14 years old and a freshman in high school. The No. 1 song that year was from the bubblegum genre, which many hard-rock fans derided. Well, I liked it back then, and it still brings back sweet memories. Enjoy!