Family news

Today's the 4th anniversary of my husband's death so I went out and bought flowers for his grave.

It is also Joy's birthday, and she requested I check for nice pants she can wear to work at the "ukay ukay" (used clothing) kiosks at the Palenke. I found four in fairly good condition but we will have to see if they fit her, and probably shorten them (she is quite short).

She usually tries them on when she shops, but I figure at 75 pesos ($1.50) each, we can give them to the poor or the staff if they don't fit.

If you read all those articles lamenting how American used clothing is underselling local businesses, well, it is true: But the dirty little secret is that "new" (and fashionable but shoddy) clothing from China is almost as cheap.

If you want good clothing, you buy the cloth, and have a tailor make it for you, which is what Kuya finally had to do because all the used pants/jeans in his size were too shoddy to wear except around the house.

However, I do buy him polo type shirts at one Muslim lady's shop: today while buying for Joy, I found a Lands End one for him, costing 2 dollars and almost new, so I bought it even though he doesn't need any right now.

When I find clothing or shoes that seem to fit me, I often buy even if I don't need them right away because it's hard to find things that fit. Right now, I am wearing tan shoes I bought two years ago, but didn't wear a lot because my good black shoes were still in good shape., until they fell apart (and the puppies ate them) two months back.

Today is Palenke day, when vendors from all over come and sell stuff cheaply.

in other news: Both Joy and Chano are in Manila for a meeting of rice growers/sellers with the gov't agri department. So I am alone with the staff.

And with three old dogs, three half grown puppies, one small puppy and her mom, and sometimes the male dog from next door visiting to see if any of our females are in heat.

the half grown puppies have stopped eating shoes after a few corrections, (and keeping the shoes too high for them to find) but they are now up half the night barking at the traffic, both on foot and in the street.

The main Palenke is three blocks away, but on Palenke day, they set up kiosks in the middle of the street and parking areas at the plaza one block down from us. They start setting up shop in the evening and sleep there, or set up shop early in the morning, ofteh parking in front of our house, so the dogs were very noisy last night. I finally put them inside the house so I could get some sleep.

Hence the two previous blog essays being posted in the middle of the night.