I WAS STILL reading my morning poetry does when someone paid me an early call on Oct 16.
The quarry people next to my farm property are pulling out the following day.
Would I be interested to avail of the services of their backhoe to pave the short path to my promontory?
I don’t have the money for it, but since it’s a small hush-hush under the table deal, I said yes.
*
My neighbors asked me if I wanted my property quarried away.
I’m really torn.
I can use some money after Casa Dom Pedro depleted my savings.
But I’m pretty committed to preserving the natural terrain (now changed, of course, by the massive quarrying around my property).
I mean, it was the reason I bought the farm.
*
After the quarrying around my property ends in December, I’ll have the highest point in Dumangas.
My property can still make 2 to 3 million pesos from quarrying.
And that’s a lot of money to buy prostitutes!
And all of Panay will sink by 2050 anyway.
Still, I want Peter’s Place to be a beacon of hope.
Let’s see how long I can hold on to my principles.
*
Oct 17 — I paid my property taxes for 2020 in advance.
I mean, I like discounts.
And you can’t run away from taxes anyway.
So why wait; and if you miss it, pay for penalties?
*
Ejar Furniture (family business of my sculptor friend Jeanroll) delivered some furniture to Casa Dom Pedro on Oct 17.
I have ordered to furnish two rooms of six studios initially.
And then, I went to the city to celebrate another birthday.
It was a small celebration that involved batchoy, coffee and gelato, the movie Joker with the excellent Joaquin Phoenix, and Jollibee to go.
*
I wanted the pool on Oct 18.
So the SNB gang announced 5 o’clock somewhere at 1pm.
I took to swimming, they took to drinking.
Giving me rhum shots every few laps.
The warning says no food & drinks in the pool.
But I’m Peter Solis Nery.
Sue me!
*
Oct 19 — I had a storytelling session with the kids with cancer.
If you want to help, consider Friends of Cancer Kids Foundation.
I was just touched by their story when I casually met Dr. Socorro Martinez on Oct 15.
So when I heard of their Kids Day Out, I volunteered to story tell.
I performed my piece Ang Tatlong Elepante at ang Kilabot na Daga.
*
Tatlong Elepante was based on The Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf.
But the take away is this—We are only afraid of the things we don’t know.
Once we see the problem eye to eye, we will overcome it.
In the case of the three elephants and the mouse, the elephants are even scarier than the mouse they were so afraid of.
*
Instead of going to church on Sunday, Oct 20, I went to jail.
I accompanied a mother of an inmate, and got introduced to prison life Philippine style.
You can be politically correct and call it fancy, using words like jail and persons deprived of liberty.
But the fact remains that they are prisoners in prison!
Of course, they all claim to be innocent.
*
Anyway, I’m generally a softie so the inmates always get my sympathy.
As a sometime mental health jail nurse in Maryland, I understand a little about jail life, the loneliness, and mental/psychological stress.
I talked to the new Warden (and a lawyer to boot), and volunteered to perform a standup comedy show as part of their NaCoCo (National Correctionals Consciousness) Week celebration.
*
Oct 21 — I visited the local high school and realized that there’s an Inservice Training for all the high school teachers of Dumangas—
Dumangas National High School, Cayos National High School, Pagdugue National High School, and PD Monfort National Science High School.
I know many of the teachers from my lectures in their various schools in years past, and most of them know me.
*
Those who actively follow me on Facebook also saw my posts after my successful lecture at Passi National High School so it wasn’t really a big surprise that I was there to show them solidarity support.
I like to show support so I also joined the hourlong Zumba at the town gymnasium in the evening.
It was mostly a crowd of women.
But if I am to be a symbol of fitness and health consciousness, gender is not going to be an issue.
In fact, in my life, gender is never an issue.
*
I made another trip to the city on Oct 22.
I saw my dentist, Dr. Laila Lorca Dato-on at Medicus.
She was happy to report that my oral health is improving.
No big issues at this time so she just cleaned my teeth.
I discovered Dr. Dato-on only last year, upon the insistence of my friends who literally drove me to her. (500tinaga@gmail.com/PN)
