Five straight days of heavy rain and no end in sight. The usual low-lying areas are flooded, but as far as I can tell the rivers have not overflowed their banks or the highway. Yet. A couple of friends have experienced flooding inside their houses which really sucks. Nothing to do but clean it up and wait for the next downpour I suppose.

My major inconvenience has been not being able to get out and enjoy a nice long hike. The wind and the downpours, not to mention the lightning, just take the fun out of walking. I’m actually getting pretty good at recognizing when there is a brief break in the storm on the horizon. These are usually only good for thirty minutes or so, but that’s better than nothing. Made it to Mango’s last night relatively unscathed and was able to do an Alta Vista reconnaissance this morning (see the previous post). Just now back from a brief afternoon jaunt in the neighborhood as well.

I couldn’t sit on the back patio at Mango’s last night because of the wind and the rain. The high tide the night before had also invaded the seating area there. The tide was low last night, but you could see where it had been.

I finally got around to grilling two of those big thick ribeyes I purchased earlier in the week. I need a new grill, that’s for sure. One of the burners is perpetually on low and the other looks ready to flame broil a Whopper at Burger King. Maybe it is hard to ruin good meat or maybe I just got lucky, but except for one small part that got charcoaled, they came out pretty damn close to perfect. And they tasted exquisite. I can’t remember a better-tasting home-cooked steak. At least that I prepared. They were so big I cut them in half and had a normal-sized serving. Tender and juicy and nicely medium-rare.

I chuckled to myself when my Filipina helper was enjoying a leftover portion and exclaimed how good it tasted. As I’m sure I’ve mentioned, well-done is how meat is prepared Filipino-style. As this handy chart illustrates:

Sorry I didn’t get any photos, guess I was just focused on preventing a disaster. I did have the remaining leftover piece (half of a half) for breakfast this morning.

I’ll try to do step-by-step photos when I cook the next two. Still have a couple more videos to watch first. I will not be marinating this batch! Gonna enjoy that pure prime beef flavor in all its glory!

That’s just about it from here today. I’ll leave you with some irony, or maybe it’s karma.