Several days this week have been rainy and each time presents random memories.
Baptismal by Rain
Thursday. I commuted to work on my motorcycle. Unfortunately, when I headed back home the sky went dark and the threat of rain became a reality–my first time to get caught in the rain while on a motorcycle. I was almost soaked midway of my trip and the laptop in my backpack forced me to seek shelter. While waiting for the rain to stop, I had flashbacks of days when times like this doesn’t matter. As long as we’re with our bikes, sunny days and rainy days seem to be just the same. I miss the carefree days when we’d be racing in the rain and bunny-hopping puddles oblivious to the dangers such as riding without a helmet or any other body protection. Back then it was just our bikes and us, no worries.
Star Tollway
Friday was another rainy road trip. After dropping by work earlier than usual and then driving to Sto. Tomas, Batangas to meet my brother-in-law and his wife for an urgent and stressful meeting, I decided it was the perfect time and reason to hit the long road again to relax. Thanks to the scarcity of the road signs and markers in the Star Toll way, I missed the exit to Lipa which made me decide to go straight towards Batangas City as the rest of Star Toll way’s well-paved highway made me achieve 120 KPH with almost no effort at all.
The long and fast drive sent me back to a mixture of memories and imagination. I began to remember Kuala Lumpur’s road wherein Mercedes Benz and compact cars are as ubiquitous as our Jeepneys. I also recalled my dream-like trip from Wisconsin to Madison which until now I can’t believe I was there for a moment in my life. This also reminded me of disaster movies. The whole horizon was covered with thin nimbus clouds that it was easy to forget it was just noontime then.
After lunch in SM Batangas, we started our way back home around 4 PM. The drive turned out not to be uneventful. We had a near miss when some guy placed an improvised spike on the middle of Star Toll way. Good thing I noticed him doing something fishy and I remembered from motoring forum threads that this modus operandi is being done by some vulcanizing guys to get customers. I was doing 100 KPH and had that spike punctured our tire, some funeral homes will for sure profit from that a**hole’s enterprising scheme.
Sta. Rosa Exit
That Friday wasn’t meant to be SSDD. After dropping Noel and Lani back in Sto. Tomas, my wife and I took another route home to Cavite. I’ve had enough of bad roads and I won’t mind another long drive. So we took the Sta. Rosa exit instead of Carmona. This route has been in construction for a couple of months already and even to those familiar with it may find it dangerous especially at night.
But all’s not so dark and gloomy. Somewhere in the middle of our trip while tuned in to Magic 89.9′s Friday Magic program, I heard a familiar name greeted by another familiar name. Hahaha. It was my wife who sent an SMS greeting for me over the radio. She’s done it several times in the past which still surprises me every time.
The last time we passed the Sta. Rosa route was more than a year ago and we still have our cute Kia Pride that time. Nothing has changed so far but at least it’s better than keeping my eye open for road under repair signs (or the lack of it) in Carmona. An obvious improvement though is noticeable right after we reached Tagaytay. Now, large portions of the road have a dividing line between two lanes. Years ago, one has to drive with wide eyes open and lights in full beam to survive. At least, some of our public works officials finally(!) acted on this problem. I’m just wondering though who (or how many) got into an accident for this to happen. I just hope he’s a politician.
Marcus Can Blog 