Moving

Those unholy hours when the truck ban is lifted that we hear the almost non-stop screaming of brakes from the semis as they line up single file on the lane assigned specifically for them. Every now and then the fart-like honking from the drivers who were losing their patience (and who wouldn't in that situation?) would blast in the wee hours of the morning.

Ah, to live merely half a block away from the always busy C5 road - one of the main thoroughfares in Metro Manila. This despite staying in a room that had been sound-proofed (more like sound minimized really) for that particular purpose. 

We recently moved from our cozy two-bedroom apartment to a huge house in the same village. Why? you'd probably want to know. And the answer I'd like to give is : It's complicated. 

I always believed that circumstances happen for a reason. Even if I can't understand why at the moment. Perhaps, in the future, the reason (or reasons) will unfold before my eyes and I will finally understand why such a seemingly nonsensical decision was made.

For now, my wife and I are in the process of settling in and getting ourselves accustomed to a different kind of ambiance, so to speak. The bulk of the work is over but there are many things that still need to be done. Like getting used to traffic noise in the middle of the night.

We've moved. I just hope I can say the same thing about the vehicles half a block away from us.

Up Plant Down

Typhoon Glenda's howling, more than 150kph winds brought down the fortune plant next to our apartment, practically inhibiting our egress. So I had to do what needs to be done - put the tall, heavy plant back where it belongs. That was when Glenda decided to pour her torrential rain.

Needless to say, my lower back and both thighs were groaning the day after from all that exertion. Oh well, at least it was not a mango or narra tree that went down, otherwise I would have to put on my monkey suit and clamber over just to get out of our home.

Oh Caffeine, My Caffeine

For five agonizing days I suffered. I had a relapse of some sort from the very same thing that caused me to be hospitalized last November. Intermittent stomach pains and extreme difficulty in peeing every single day. Thinking on what could possibly have caused this misery of mine, I came to a conclusion: caffeine! And meat. Both where responsible for my troubles eight months ago. My doctor told me that. However since the side effect of those killer food have already been surgically removed, I thought I could go back to my gastronomical inclinations. Big mistake!

I believe it started around May when I started drinking coffee in the mornings again. Then an occasional Coke every now and then. Add to that, the liempos and the steaks and their ilk that had become an almost daily fare on our table (and when eating out). That had been the routine, so to speak, until that fateful Monday morning when I woke up with stomach pain that had me doubling up. A trip to the toilet even aggravated it. I discussed the situation with my wife and we both agreed that its time to revert to the good ol' meatless/caffeine-less diet. Coincidentally, we are going to have our church's mid-year prayer and fasting beginning that Tuesday. Since we always participated in that, I prepared myself mentally, physically and spiritually.

The pain and urinating difficulties caused by the diverticulitis of my urinary bladder remained during those three days of fasting. When I woke up early on Saturday I was surprised by the lack of pain and even my peeing was a bit easier. Although we are back to the three meals a day routine, I made a firm resolution not to have any caffeine and to minimize my consumption of meat. By Sunday, our friends noticed how I have already lost some weight. Nevertheless I felt fine. No more stomach pains. I feel better and I pee better.

Successful? Me?

While doing my daily devotional I came across this quotation from Orlando Aloysius Battista, a Canadian-American chemist and author: "You have reached the pinnacle of success as soon as you become uninterested in money, compliments or publicity." That got me thinking. If that statement is true, then I would consider myself very successful!

First of all, I am not interested in money. Not because I am uber-rich - I definitely am not. But I am not poor either.  Relying on fixed pensions as our sole source of income, my wife and I are living quite comfortably. We have come to a point in our lives where we are contented with what we have therefore the need for acquiring more wealth is not important to us. I'm not saying that we would reject any financial blessings that may come to us - we would of course be grateful should that happen. But to actively pursue the acquisition of more money? Not interested.

Now about compliments and publicity which are related to each other. Isn't it that compliments are obtained through publicity? Being in my senior years, I no longer need an ego boost. I have come to accept who I am - acknowledging my weaknesses and aware of my strengths. A recent experience would best illustrate this.

Sometime in January this year, birders and bird photographers were alerted to the news that a pair of wild Philippine Eagles - one of the rarest birds in the world - was nesting in Mt. Apo in Davao. Naturally, birding groups travelled to that site to see and photograph this raptor family. Cynthia and I were among those who had been blessed with being able to see both parents and the chick in perfectly good weather. I posted two photos - one taken by my wife and another by me - of the eagles in flight in Facebook just to show that we got lucky at seeing the birds despite the odds (it rained two days before, both parents already seldom visiting the almost fledged chick, military operations in the area). We received a good number of comments saying that our shots were the best of all the Philippine Eagle photos that had been posted on Facebook so far. We were very grateful and appreciative of those comments, of course, but because I am not interested in compliments and publicity, I never posted those pictures in the various Birding Groups that I belong to in Facebook. It is not important to me whether I get a huge number of "likes" to my postings or not. I post for the simple reason that I want to share the pictures of some of the birds we had taken in our birding trips. Don't get me wrong, Facebook "likes" are always appreciated and my wife and I are thankful to those who liked our postings.

Come to think of it, I don't even care if I'm successful or not. What matters to me is that I am happy and content with the kind of life I am living now.

Starting the New Year with a Bang

We were both awakened by it - our room swaying like a raft on turbulent waters.

"Earthquake!" I told my wife in an insouciant manner. It was 4:01 am. We really intended to wake up early so that we could be back to our home in Quezon City before dusk, but not this early and certainly not with this kind of wake-up call. 

We rose from our slumber, showered and then dressed up for the long trip home. I loaded our luggage into our car while Cynthia went to the hotel desk to check-out. Soon we were off, leaving the beautiful city of Laoag. Around six in the morning we started to feel our stomachs grumbling. We looked for the fast food joints - Jollibee or McDonalds  - from every big town and city that we passed through. None were open! Because it was new year's day, these eating places decided to give their employees time off so they could celebrate the holiday with their families.

More than three hours later we entered the city of San Fernando, the capital of La Union province. Again, both McDonalds and Jollibees were closed. Then we passed by a Pancake House restaurant and they were open! I did a quick u-turn, parked the car and hurriedly got in. There were only a few customers and just a single server. Her name was Cass. So it was Cass only at that restaurant on New Year's Day. My wife and I ordered the same thing - ham and cheese omelet and coffee (regular for her, decaf for me). No omelet tasted this good and the servings were quite huge that we weren't able to finish all of our food.

Our hunger satisfied, we moved on. I was cruising smoothly on the National Road enjoying the fact that there were only a few tricycles and motorcyclists impeding our progress. After negotiating a gravel portion between asphalted roads, I heard a grinding noise and a bang and our car slowed considerably and then stopped. Through sheer effort and multiple attempts I was able to move it to the concrete shoulder. At first I thought we had a flat but when I checked, all four tires were OK. I got back to the driver's seat and shifted the gear to drive - the car won't budge. I tried the second and third gears, still no progress. I tried the reverse and it moved! I stopped and parked the car on the shoulder again. I got out and looked under the chassis to see if there were any telltale signs of transmission breakdown. As far as I can tell, nada. I gave Cynthia the number of our insurance provider and she called them immediately. While she was being transferred to a local tow company I walked along the shoulder and saw a huge bolt. I don't know what prompted me to pick it up but I did.

Cynthia negotiated with the tow company. To their credit they promised to send along a mechanic to see if he could fix the trouble on the spot. We were advised that they would be coming from the town of Aringay, roughly 11 kilometers away. About two hours later (they had to wait for the mechanic who explained to us later that he was up in the mountains earlier that day) they came. After doing some tests on the transmission the mechanic concluded that that was not the problem. He was mulling things over when an "aha!" moment came. He saw that the brake mechanism on the right front wheel was loose. They (the tow truck driver was helping him) took out the tire and then showed me the reason why - one of the bolts connecting the mechanism to the wheel was missing. 

the part of the brake that gets stuck to the tire rim

the missing bolt

He was already saying that they may have to go back to town to get a replacement (and not even sure if any auto shops were open it being New Year's day) when I showed him the bolt I picked up from the street earlier. He was surprised. "That's exactly the part I needed!" he exclaimed with understandable incredibility. "Now we need a washer" he continued. Again, to go to town to buy a washer with the uncertainty of seeing an open auto shop weighed upon us. Then Dado, the mechanic, had an idea. He took out the washer from one of the levers from the tow truck, tried it on the brake mechanism and voila! It fit!

Several minutes later, Dado assured us that our car was now good to go all the way to Manila. We thanked him and the truck driver profusely. The fee quoted over the phone by the tow company manager was P1,500 which we thought was very reasonable. We gave both of them a generous tip as well.

The rest of the trip was thankfully uneventful. Cynthia and I did not even bother to have lunch because 1) Our breakfast was really heavy, 2) the breaking down of our car made us a little bit tense and therefore did not make us hungry or 3) a combination of both.

It may not be the best first day of the year for us - for some it may even be construed as an omen of things to come - but still we were thankful. When our car broke down I was not really, really worried - sure there were some anxious moments - but overall somehow I just had the feeling that things will turn out right. Why I even picked up that bolt was a question that still lingers in my mind. That Dado was smart to improvise was a definite positive to this seemingly bad circumstance.

Our new year might have started with a literal bang but our faith in God's promises to be with us at all times gives us the comfort and assurance that the rest of the year will be more than just fine. It will be a great 2014 for us.