Family news

Heavy rains for three days...internet out ...was fixed yesterday.Something wrong with the phone line connection.

Ruby was "surfing" via her mom's cellphone. Guess I need a smart phone. I have a dumb phone that has too many things on it so makes it hard to use (I had a cellphone in the US as soon as they were available, but it was a phone, not a phone/camera/addressbook/game playing machine).

The roads here are mildly flooded, but the real worry is if the rice fields flood, because the harvest is near. So far our fields are okay.

In Manila we hear about the severe flooding:  Manila always floods in heavy rain. It's the sewer system: Too much money for infrastructure went into people's pockets. But it's miserable for those in low lying areas or who are homeless. A lot of the roads are also flooded, and schools are still closed.

Here, the water in the town plaza area is a bit less than normal, probably because the first thing the mayor did was clean out a foot of garbage/dirt in the open ditches that drain the area. However, our ditches remain full of gunk. Luckily, when Lolo had them installed, he managed to make a gradient so they drain okay, which is more than you can say for our roof: The roofers fixed the gutters and leaks over the kitchen sink, but now it is raining where the skylight/raised roof for ventilation meet....and it leaks through the skylight panels. I don't know how wet it is up there, but the cats are sleeping on our bed instead of up there.


Here we had school/exams. Ruby is homeschooled, so is doing hers in the evening. So we went to see the latest "Percy Jackson" film on Tuesday, which was a bit better than the first (less "fights" and stupid special effects, and more story  although if you didn't read the book, you might not know why Clarice was bossing around zombie Confederate soldiers on the Hunley when they were inside of Charybdis: hint: Children of Ares can command dead heroes, and then there was the quip by Hermes about all the good TV shows being canceled...funny only if you recognized the actor). Again, the problem is that filming with teenagers changes the book, so now everyone are young adults, not early teens as in the book, but never mind.

We are back to the "Tsinales" (sandal) festival since that family is again mayor, and that's supposed to be today. Lots of stuff at the town plaza in the last few days, but it's raining so hard that George, the killer dog, refuses to go outside and get his feet wet, but instead does his thing in the garage, which the staff does not appreciate.

Lolo is okay. I am keeping the airconditioner on "dehumidify" to keep down the humidity and the mold from growing on the ceiling: Luckily the roof isn't leaking over us (yet).