Once Upon A Time or this is no…

Day in and day out my friend Carlos who is in from Oregon for four months, and every day we walk the purok and say hello to our neighbors, all the kids give us our morning blessings (Or the Mano Po’s) a lot of the kids belong to my family so I’m Lolo daddy Paul, now that Carlos is in town he is now known as Daddy Carlos which he seems to like a lot. But another reason is my two new Dachshunds “Fritz and Francine” Christmas gifts from my granddaughter (Well really from my daughter and Chris my Son-in-Law) But the kids love the two puppies. Before it was my Chocolate lab named Coco (She’s passed) it was her that they loved, because she was so big and so gentle that only the adults were afraid of her. Because of their kids that fear went away quickly.

So now the kids want to walk the two pups with them on the leash while Carlos and I slow poke along and the pups run ahead with the gang of kids. And we are both under doctor’s instruction to walk every day. Mr. Schofield (Carlos) was a WW-II US Merchant Seaman during the “Big One” a couple of years before I was born. He stayed a seaman his whole life and retired a while ago. Two old seamen, we never run out of sailor yarns to talk about every day. So our daily walks are very enjoyable.

The quintessential difference between a fairy tale and a sea story is, the fairy tale will always start; “Once upon a time”, whereas sea stories always start; “This is no shit!” We know the difference! But we won’t explain it to others. The kids on or morning walk don’t really care what we are saying as long as they can frolic with the puppies. It is now a simple life we lead as our respective medical folk have banned us both from cocktails. The new truth is I really don’t miss it very much, and Carlos told me he felt the same way. I told my set of Doctors to leave my coffee to hell alone, you can have everything else!

The thing I do miss is the traveling around Luzon and seeing the sights in all the quaint little villages and towns. Like where most of us live here in the Philippines, it is so clean outside of cities and towns, with life moving at slower pace, a speed that is easy to grow accustom to, unlike when I was younger and traveled around the world seeing all there was to see, I just wish now that during those days I’d just had slowed down and enjoyed it more. One of the TV shows I enjoy is a Blond tattooed girl from California who has taken motorcycle trips through Borneo, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Why did I put that off until my medical problems totally stopped me from doing it?

No lecture from me but if you are still healthy, get out at least one weekend a month and do it. It doesn’t have to be on two wheels, why not a bus, Jeepney’s your car or a Bangka boat (Boat Boat! Why do I find that so redundant?)
What is it they say, you’ll never miss the water until the well goes dry. So now It’s me and my dogs walking the purok everyday (With the kids), lunch in town every week, and only blaming myself for waiting until I lost my chance.

My Buddy Carlos is heading back to Oregon next week; we’re planning on doing this again next year. Even after all these years and it being our first time sober, it was still a great visit. I wish him fair winds and following seas. I just can’t figure why he’s going back, all his family lives here. It can’t be because of the rainy season, after all he’s from Oregon where like Washington State where you rust instead of tanning. But the year will bring more friends to visit and spend some time with so I’m looking forward to that.

One of the greatest things I like about being on LiP is all the great folks you meet over the years. I remember someone asked me years ago if Bob paid me, my response was; “Hell I should be paying him!”