[smartads] It’s All Fools Day. April Fool. Most of the Filipinos here have no clue what I’m talking about when I tell them that. It’s one of many things that they and I have to get use to if I’m going to continue to live here. Me more than them. There are so many holidays here, official and unofficial, plus festivals. Seems that at one time or another there is a festival going on somewhere in the Philippines, depending on which Saint your barangay is associated with. Here in Calbayog I believe the festival will be in mid-May, right about the time we are getting ready to leave. It’s not ideally when I wanted to leave, but when I let other people influence me, things happen and it usually ends up costing me money. I told Lita, it ain’t happening anymore no matter what. So I will buy tickets when they are the least expensive for us no matter what else is going on, short of an actual emergency. Of course we all hope the emergency never happens.
I had leftover to eat today. Leftover adobo. According to Lita, adobo tasted better when you re-heat it. Personally I like it right after it’s made. I have no problem with the leftover part, although I’m not big on eating leftovers.
Lita went to church this morning, the 10:00 mass. I think she actually left a little before 10:00 today instead of the normal few minutes past 10:00. When she gets out of church she will be going shopping, mostly for the store, but she will get a few things for in the house, like some more peanut butter, bread and vegetables. Also she will pick up some macaroni and bacon because she is in the mood for mac n’ cheese later.
We will not open the store today. I’m trying to get her to leave it closed every Sunday, but that’s probably not going to work. As far as I know, she still plans to cease store operations around the 15th, but since we probably won’t be leaving until probably mid-May now, she might opt to leave it open all month.
Okay, she’s back from church and making the mac n’ cheese. She brought a little of it over to Titing/Neneng and Titing said that he thinks she bought it at the Ciriaco and brought it over. I think he was kidding, but these people really have no idea how good of a cook my wife is. They are learning one dish at a time, but sometimes they don’t want to try the food. Well for Titing and Neneng they usually try about 95% of whatever. Cathy will try about 95% of anything that doesn’t have hot peppers in it.
We had the locks fixed on our doors today. The plates came out and you couldn’t lock the door at the handle. Of course we have the other locks on the outside doors, but our bedroom door would not lock. The maintenance guy from the Ciriaco fixed it for us. His name is Lino. He’s the one that likes to play his music so loud when he comes over here to eat. He put fresh concrete there and reinserted the screws with some new plastic casings and made sure they were good and tight. I didn’t watch the whole procedure, but he seemed to know what he was doing and he does work maintenance. I do know that the doors all lock now that the concrete is set.
I started taking notes in short sentences instead of the long notes I have been taking. I tried that once before, but I forget why I stopped doing it. I’ll try it again for awhile and see if I remember. The notes for this post are the first.
The kittens have their eyes open now and moving around a lot. They can not get out of the box yet, especially since it is a little deep. One of the kittens, one of the tan ones, is a real whiner when he is hungry. All the other kittens were sleeping, but he/she whined for a good hour looking for mama to eat. When she finally did show up he was ready. I thought that by the time she showed up, he/she would be tired and sleeping and the other would eat without him. It must be a ‘he’ because of the hunger thing.
We are still working on getting the new site up and running. I think that he has done just about everything he needs to and I’m the one holding things up. I’ve got changes to make to the current blog so it will be adaptable to the new theme. Between to that, doing these posts doing honey-do stuff and trying to keep sane in between, I run short of time. Either I need better time management or less things to do. These posts may be a little shorter with less pictures for a few days, as a result. In fact I’ll probably just be using 1 old picture until I get all caught up again.
By the way, all those ‘smartads’ things that you see at the beginning of these posts, just ignore those. They are for the new website and I’m trying to get in the habit of putting them there. Besides, if I put them there now, I won’t have to put them on when these posts are transferred over.
Tomorrow Lita and I will be going back downtown. I hope things turn out better than the last time we went.
Salamat, Paalam
Man!! Good luck with the Space-A. Being a old retired Civil Servant, Dont think I can use it. Sure wish I could tho. Good luck if you wind up on Okinawa. That doesnt mean “Big Rock” for nothing. Tho a bud of mine says he has pretty good luck with that. And good luck with getting to SA, too. I got a C% once from Kelly to Hickam. Couldnt tell when it got off the ground, couldnt tell when it touched down and not one bump along the way! smoothest ride I’ve EVER had. Before or since. But that was back while I was working.
From Osan it pretty simple to get to Okinawa. I did 2 tours in Okinawa and I loved it there. I’m actually looking forward to a visit there. I haven’t been there since 1993 and I want to see how much of it has changed. I still have a map of the base and the surrounding area in my head and I want to see if it’s even close to the same.
I guess that “C%” is suppose to be “C5”. I’ve been inside one of those and it’s super large. I never got to fly in one though. The closest I came was a C-130 and it’s big, but not near as big as a C5. I was actually even stationed at Kelly for about 3 years too, back in 1978-1981. I’ve been back to the base a few times since then though and Kelly is actually my official retirement base. Since my last duty assignment was overseas (Okinawa) and you have to retire at a stateside base, I chose Kelly.
You’re right C% is supposed to have been C5.
I left about 25 years at Kelly in 1991, went to George and had orders in my hands to goto Clark. had to stop off at Tinker and while driving up there heard about the fissures. when I got to Tinker, BOOM!! Up she went and I would up at Kadena instead. hated that place for 2 years cause it wasnt Clark till I finally realized it’s a pretty nice place. Still a Big Rock when you trying to get off space-A tho I suspect. Only got to spend about 3 years there myself but I retired out of HillAFB. That’s as close to home as the bigwigs at Langly AFB would put me. did a 2 yr. tour at Osan too. 2 yrs in Misawa, and about 17 months at Eielson. All as a civilian.
I never got to fly one of the C-135’s but have done C9, C12, C5, C130 & C140. No C17 either dern it. But At one time I was shot-peening C5 engine blades! far cry from electronics and automatic test equipment! Welcome to the Air Forces Career- change department. aka RIF !
Too bad about not getting to Clark, but you got closer than I did in the sense that you at least had orders. It was #1 on my Dream sheet from 1981 until I retired 12 years later and never got orders there. I did get to visit once before they closed it down though. I was there in 1984 to visit my father-in-law for the first time. Most of my career was spent in Texas, but I did get one remote tour to Shemya. If I would have been single, I think I would have extended there a few times. It was damn cold, and I don’t like cold, but it was a pretty decent place I thought.
I’m wondering if you have as much trouble with broadband there as I do down here. Here is about 1/2 way between Calbayog and Catbalogan. When we “goto town” it’s Catbalogan. Anyway, Smart has the best cellular btoadband connection in my area. unfortunatly, that aint saying much! We only have 2G aka GPRS, and the bottom end of that. I’ve seen it pop up to 60KB on a few occasions but didnt stay more 10-20 seconds and even if something’s downloading, it never gets back up that far. just in the last month it has improved to the point I get 10 or maybe 20kB download speed. from the time we got here in Aug last, it had been decling slowly but right at new year the rate of decline increased to the point 600baud ( you remember that from back in the early 80’s!) was a luxury!! Now, I understand Smart has bought out 75% of Sun and sun has a pretty new tower about 100-200 yards from the front of our house. dont think it’s supporting Smart broadband yet tho.It’s not even supporting Sun Broadband!
I’m not real sure what it was the other day cause I already tried to reply here then but apparently it never got to you.So I wonder what your experience has been.
Got a question for you tho. Do you know any other ex-pat Hams in Calbayog area? I’m in need of a little hardware and coax here.
de DV5/WA5QJH
My internet is about the same as yours and I use Globe. Sorry I don’t know of any Hams here, but maybe one of the other guys here do. I hope they are reading this and will respond.
John: I’ll keep this site hot on my list here and check it frequently from now on. Curious if you know Jim Boyd at the RAO in Angeles? He too is a Texan.
I was a bit disappointed that Wayne was leaving so soon after we met. I didnt even know he was in Tarangnan Which, by the way is just off the road to Catbalogan and about halfway there from Calbayog. You see the sign for Balugo which says, I think, 10 KM to Tarangnan Proper.
Since I’m “tuning in late” wonder about where in Texas you headed? We just came from Kerrville last Aug. Lived in SA for a year or so before that.
Anyway, will keep in touch. You too. And Safe Trip!!
Hey again Gary. Glad to be hot on your list. No I’m afraid I do not know a Jim Boyd and I’m not even sure I know RAO.
I’ll have to look for that place next time I’m in that direction, which should be next month on the way to Tacloban to the airport.
Well we are trying to get our free flight all the way to Ft Hood in the Killeen area. That’s the closest to the old stomping grounds. We may end up in Austin though or even at Kelly Field in San Antonio. San Antonio I have always thought to be a nice city.
Thx for the safe trip. I hope for a free trip also.
Hi John,
If you end up in San Antonio on the 15th or 16th email me and we’ll see if we can get together. I’ll be busy in the day time but free evenings. Flying out the 17th and heading back to Calbayog. Seems we keep going in opposite directions, lol.
Mark G.
John
San Antonio may be a little tough to get into, even Fort Hood may be. There’s a convention of Gov’t buyers and contractors in San Antonio that week. Don’t ask how I know, hehe.
Mark G.
I doubt the government buyers will be using the Space A system to get there though. They are probably all flying 1st class.
Okay Mark, but I doubt we will. I’m hoping for 1 of the 2 or 3 flights from Travis to Ft. Hood about that time. I think they even have 1 a month to Randolph.
Some military personnel attend so it just occured to me they may be trying to do the same thing with the Space A especially with all the possibilities in the San Antonio area. I have run into quite a few on commercial flights to this meeting before though. I hope it works out for you and Lita.
Mark G.
Hi John,
I assumed you’d already left for Texas. Hope you’re feeling better. Your hotel section seems a bit off. The individual pages are missing. I was going to send somebody a link who asked about hotels in Calbayog. Yours is the most complete listing I’ve seen in one place with reviews by real people, lol. Is that from migrating stuff to the new site? Talk to you later,
Mark G.
I wish we were already in Texas. We will be soon.
Thanks for letting me know about the problem. It’s more than just the hotels and it does look like because of the transfer to the new site. I’ll talk with the new host today and see if we can get a solution or something. We should be transferred by now, but I lost that week of doing my part. I’ll let y’all know later.
Okay, all the information about the hotels and the other stuff that was gone is back. Some kind of glitch with the new stuff, but it’s a lot of work and a bit confusing at times. We’ll get it all figured out soon. Hopefully before we leave for Texas.
Hey!! Wayne told me about you and I’ve just started on your website here. I just wanted to checdk in with you and say hi. I’m down in Tarangnan Samar. only been here since August but also just got back from Manila last nite finishing up getting Permnent Resident 13(a) card.
Hopefully, Can get up to see you one of these days if and when we goto Calgayog. There must be a lot of ex-pats there.
Hi Gary. Today is my first, hopefully full day back on the site in a week. Damn gout got me again. I’m glad Wayne and others are spreading the word about the site and I hope to be able to get back on track now. I need to get caught up at least before we head for Texas.
Okay Gary now I have time for a proper response. Glad you decided to give the site a try. I have not been down to Tarangnan and not even sure how to get there. I do know about where it is. I decided not to get a 13a, at least for now. I kind of like the idea of leaving the country once a year. But I guess we could still do that if we had the 13a. I guess there are a lot more ex-pats here than in Tarangnan, but not too awful many yet. The number will be increasing I think though because through this site I have met several people that plan to move here. Even one person that is thinking about it even though he and his wife were going to move someplace else at one time. I’ll bet that when the mall finally gets built, then that will help the attraction. I’m hoping to get a small restaurant built here and have monthly ex-pat meeting in there. I’ve been dreaming that for a long time and it seems impossible at times, but I haven’t given up. I suppose we could still all get together someplace else for now, just as soon as we all find out about each other. That’s part of the reason for this site. Anyway, I hope you can make your way over here, but we will be gone for 1/2 of May, all of June and 1 or 2 weeks of July. I’m not sure of the return yet.
Hang around and check things out. Don’t be afraid to click on ads, there is no obligation for that. I’d like to hear some of your opinions and suggestions on things as you see them come up. I like it when everyone talks to each other.