I plan to attend Halloween parties as an empty wallet. I’d be the scariest.
Empty. Wallet.
Texting Solutions
There was once a time when social media weren’t as popular. 10 years ago people still buy and read newspapers and I was among them. It was also during this time when boredom leads to texting and some texting results to bragging rights. Here’s an example.
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Mood: 4/10 Honks! (Keep calm and wait. For the next payday.)
What’s The Plan?
Our cat I suspect is now in heat and it follows, from my little understanding of our furry friends, that male cats nearby can detect it. In the recent weeks, the three of us at home have been fending off cats who pay our pet a purposeful visit and Marcus has been the most active in this duty of preventing any of those visitors from hooking up with our calico. Today our son comes up with a plan and it’s the first time I heard him refer to something he has drawn.
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Mood: 3/10 Honks! (I hope that this is Marcus’ day 2 of playing with our neighbor’s kid. He badly needs outdoor activities–other than spraying cats.)
The Real Oggy And The Cockcroaches
Cat and mouse. This I’m sure that anyone will recognize the famous rivalry. It’s been like that. For example, when I say Tom, someone will highly likely say Jerry. When I start with ‘when the cat is away…’ it will be easily continued by anybody with ‘…the mouse will play.’ Yes, everyone just knows the relationship between the two.
But how many are aware of cats and cockcroaches. For one, I don’t, I never did. I was so clueless that I scratched my head when I first saw the cartoons Oggy and the Cockroaches. Who would have thought that it’s a good idea to create an animation about the misadventures of a blue cat named Oggy and his archnemeses Dee Dee, Marky, and Joey. Well, Jean-Yves Raimbaud seems to know what he was doing.
Marcus started watching Oggy and Cockroaches when he was a lot younger. He loves the show so much that now at age six and with our cable TV subscription gone, for a year and half already, he would mention that it is still one of his favorite cartoon shows. He now hates the others he once watched almost regularly–like Ben 10, Dibo, and, thankfully, Barney–yet his fascination of Oggy and the Cockroaches stays. But do cats and these horrendous smelly creepers meet in real life? Yes, just not as amusing.
We have seen our cat, Mittens, so many times bring inside our house– of course, to our utter disgust–cockroaches to play with and eventually kill. I would often wonder if the poor cockroach would have preferred being sprayed with pesticide rather than the torturous demise due to being tossed around from the cat’s fangs and to be pummeled by its soft paw with sharp claws. Sometimes out of compassion, I deliver the quick death with the classic slipper whack.
The latest encounter happened this early morning while I drag my sleepy self from bed to the toilet. As I was about to open the faucet to wash my face I came eye to eye with the shiny brown pest and by instinct I had my hand ready with a slipper. I saw also that Mittens was right behind me, its iris opened, fully focused, and ready to pounce. The poor cockroach was almost trapped, it hesitated, and decided to avoid the cat. It seems that our cat’s notoriety has spread around the filthy roach community. Oh by the way, its name should’ve been Oggy but we later learned it’s female.
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Here’s a trivia I read from Wikipedia. Did you know that Dee Dee, Joey, and Marky were among the members of the American punk rock band The Ramones? Now what are the chances that their song I Wanna Be Sedated is about a cockroach begging to escape slow death from a cat.
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Mood: 2/10 Honks! (Holiday today. Another day off for Marcus.)
Keep Your Sanity: Learn How To Drive In Tight Spaces
Anyone who watches TV or listens to the news on the radio cannot help but mostly capture bad news. We crave for inspiring ones yet these news are all over: bad governance, overpriced ‘world-class’ buildings, questionable police integrity, bad celebrity role models, bad this and that, etcetera. Then there’s of course bad traffic jam. The good news is, we can do something about how we drive so as not to contribute to the ever worsening traffic. What we need is to learn how to adapt in tight situations.
Truth to be told, I have been driving for about ten years already but it was only last year when I learned how to drive in tight spots. Thanks to this cake that I had to get from a place with the narrowest streets I have been so far, so narrow that I almost turned back and decided to take public transport instead just to bring home the Ninjago-inspired cake for our son, Marcus.
Idling and weighing my options, with my right hand about to put the stick shift to reverse in surrender, I noticed that despite being tight several cars are parked on one side of the street. Unbelievably, none of those cars seem to have those tell-tale scratches. “How do the other vehicles able to get in and out of the place without sideswiping the others? Do they shrink or do they have soft fenders made just for this place?” I mused.
And then, as if to answer my question I saw one SUV drive out. It was quick, it was without any incident. If it fits, then my sedan can too. There was hope.
After making sure that there are no more vehicles I commit to drive and make my way through. As I have expected, it wasn’t easy. But to cut the story short, I got the cake and made way back. How did I fare? Well, it took me almost 30 minutes to get in and out of the rather short distance.
Driving out was harder because I have to back up and turn around—back to the same narrow street. The 2-point reverse maneuver didn’t work, not even 4-point. Almost static, my hands, feet, and eyes got busy—clutch, shift, gas, mirror, clutch, shift, gas, mirror— just so I can squeeze the car out without leaving any dent on it and the other cars parked nearby. By the way, I had to fold one side mirror just to be sure.
Other than getting out unscathed, that stressful experience improved my depth and width perception. In fact, I have had fewer encounters of what I once consider near misses. Inner two-way roads have worried me less and have lessened my urge to honk my way through. (Lately, whenever I honk, it’s just force of habit—a bad habit that I hope to correct soon.)
To drive comfortably and confidently in tight spaces is a skill to be had to keep our sanity. Especially with the fast approaching holiday everyone should anticipate worse (or worst) traffic. People, cars, and other types of vehicles will have to be dealt with because tight traffic will become tighter, slow will become slower but with a better driving skill these shouldn’t be a problem. Happy and safe driving everyone!
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Yesterday, we fell victim to another bad traffic–and bad time management. We were supposed to attend a baptismal celebration just to find out that we took the route where Maynilad have extended their water pipe overlaying project. Wifey and I ended getting a massage in SM Bacoor with Marcus left to play with other kids in a pay-per-hour playground.
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Mood: 1/10 Honks! (Had cereals for breakfast. One that Marcus got tired eating.)
Goodbye Bad Hair Day
What was supposed to be a short trip with Marcus to a sari-sari store to buy a Coke led to something else. This was after I realized that the stores I used to know near wifey’s place have either closed or have ran out of softdrinks. And so moving farther we eventually reached the area close the barber shop where we both get cheap haircut whenever in Batangas. Feeling the late afternoon heat I decided that it was the best time to get a haircut. Or rather something shorter, cleaner–a bald head.
It was my first time to have my head shaved cleanly. I was excited, Marcus was curious. I can see him watch from a bench behind me with a funny expression when the barber started using his razor to remove slowly every bit of my hair that was left by the clipper. At some point I was thinking if I should, or could, still stop the barber from proceeding further as he slowly exposes my scalp. But it was over soon. Barely ten minutes after I saw nothing but shiny flesh.
Stepping out of the barber was weird. So was walking back to wifey’s place. And I had that same feeling when I finally arrived home that night and stared longer at myself in the mirror wondering once more if I regret the new look. Then there’s that anxiousness showing up at work bald for the very first time. Thankfully I got over it sooner than expected. It was just a matter of meeting every people I know and showing them the new me–whether they like it or not.
Since then, a month and two weeks after, I have learned to love being bald even if it takes new routines to maintain it. I don’t know if I should be glad that my hair all over my head still grows fast as it requires me shave my head every other day just to stay bald. I have yet to perfect shaving it myself so every now and then I get those nasty cuts especially if I do it in a hurry. And while I have lessened my need for shampoo, my head needs an aftershave and a lotion to prevent it from flaking and razor rash. Right now I use wifey’s lotions, good thing she doesn’t have those with strong scents that I smell at work, but the internet tells me that there are products appropriate for bald heads. Well, there’s always a price to pay for everything, a price for saying, “goodbye bad hair day!”
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Mood: 3/10 Honks! (Car needs battery.)
Updates Waiting
Itching to write, anything, but first the updates.
Same Sunset Different Day
Another dusk signals another end to a busy day. Its reddish glow appears like a big traffic light saying stop, it’s the day’s end, another one has come to pass. A day that has its own challenges, little or impacting, be it a slow traffic that seems endless; or a strive to perfect work that seems impossible; or a parenting job that gets tougher as the kid continues to grow as an inquisitive and active one; or a relationship that needs to be perked up soon–maybe through an inexpensive date or a simple walk in the park.
Every dusk gives us time to reflect, to get the rest we deserve as we prepare for the next day to start all over again, fresh and full of vigor, as morrow’s dawn strikes again. It is when we start our lives as an employee, a spouse, a parent, an entrepreneur, or a student who–when dusk fills the sky, again– simply looks forward to tell himself, “Yes, it’s the same sunset but today’s a better one.”
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Mood: 2/10 Honks! (I do not expect to see a sunset today but I just hope today’s a better one.)
It’s Christmas Time (Again)
The most awaited start of the ‘ber’ months is here. It is the time when us Filipinos begin to feel the spirit of Christmas. Like today while waiting for Marcus to finish his class I heard on the radio Band Aid’s It’s Christmas Time. What’s more, the station will now play one Christmas song every hour until December.
It is also to be expected that any time soon people will see malls with Christmas decorations and yuletide tunes playing in the background and in effect, like a subliminal message, entice more people to spend and splurge.
But one doesn’t need money to enjoy what we claim as the longest Christmas season. In the name of tourism–local and foreign, spectacular giant Christmas trees and sparkling lights are expected to illuminate streets of major cities and business centers–Makati commercial business district, Rockwell, and Nuvali are places to be. Petron gas stations have likewise held their annual Christmas decoration contest which I hope they continue this year.
A better way of course to feel the real spirit of Christmas is to start as early as now to realize the true reason of this celebration. Admittedly, however, in the midst of strong influence of commercialism, to see Christ in the middle of it all is a big challenge. For most of us, we get lost when we have the material things that give us that Christmassy feeling. It therefore helps to reflect regularly each day and recognize that there is deeper reason behind all these. God bless everyone, it’s Christmas time.
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Mood: 3/10 Honks! (Labor day in the US.)
Write About Writer’s Block
A day left before August ends and it’s me – 0, writer’s block – 1. No reason, just excuses. But this tweet from @AdviceToWriters uplifts me:
Writing about a writer’s block is better than not writing at all — CHARLES BUKOWSKI
On a traffic-free day I arrive early at work and when it happens I either read or write in the car. These past few days I drafted some but never had the time to polish my ideas, one of which is again about hitting the dreaded writer’s block. But I didn’t post it for fear that it will soon become the biggest among my tag cloud. So thank you @AdviceToWriters I learned another tip from you. Yes, anything to write about is probably worth writing.
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Mood: 2/10 Honks! (Had a good run, had good breakfast.)
Marcus Can Blog 