Family news

thunderstorms in the afternoon today, meaning maybe the monsoon and cooler weather has arrived.

The streets got badly flooded from the storm, probably because the trash and mud in the drainage ditches/sewers accumulates during the dry season until a few storms move it along into the nearby rivers.

In the last few weeks, the stores are changing to paper bags. This should help with the plastic bags that are discarded and clog up the sewers/drainage ditches and irrigation canals, but instead we are carrying our groceries home in a box.

Emie is back in the hospital, with pneumonia but seems to be improving. She is on dialysis here: there is a dialysis unit at the local hospital, but because Medicare doesn't pay for most medical care in the Philippines she has to pay for it herself. She could move back to Chicago to live with her daughter and have Medicare pay for it, but since she moved here to retire she prefers to stay here where two of her siblings live nearby.

Here we are healthy, but my house is full of sick dogs and hyperactive half grown puppies who aren't always house trained.
George the cat killing Labrador is completely blind now from cataracts, but is getting over an infection and is able to navigate via lights and shadows, but Blackie is not eating well and doesn't move a lot. And the small dog who we just got fixed after three litters in two years has dehissed her wound (due to poor healing from low protein diet and too many puppies) so we have to keep her inside and bandaged until it heals.

The four half grown puppies tend to eat shoes so we can't leave them inside the door as is the custom, and they learned how to jump up and get the dishtowels to play with. The real problem is when they get into the garbage and bring it back as a gift.

and the cats? Our three regular cats are fine, but now we have lots of visitors: probably because George no longer chases them. They sneak in and get the food we leave out for the puppies at night.

Joy and Kuya are busy with the rice business: with the rain, the fields have to be prepared, which means getting organic fertilizer and minerals to enrich the soil where needed. Usually we use a handplow but we still have one waterbuffalo. Later will come the planting of seedlings, which is still done here by hand.

The local democrats sent an email with a quote from AOC about celebrating Mayday. Yes, just ignore the 100 million dead from communism. And of coruse, if AOC had her way with the new green deal, we would have to give up petrol based fuels and water buffaloes who fart. Presumably we'd go back to using a hoe and pestle/mortar by hand.

StrategyPage has a good summary of China's pushing the Philippines around: They moved in and built artificial islands on shoals because PNoy (under pressure from Obama) didn't stop them, and now they are threatening a Philippine island with "fishing boats".

Many Chinese fishing ships are part of an unofficial but organized and paid naval militia. The Chinese maintain this force with subsidies (for building new fishing boats) and assurances that the navy will assist Chinese fishermen in gaining access to foreign fishing areas and exclusive use of fishing grounds in international waters. The fishing boats are the most numerous and aggressive component of this militia

their artificial islands have destroyed the ecology (no Greenpeace protests of course: They might get shot), and they have been taking endangered species out of the area, not to mention overfishing.

China is taking the slow and steady and stealthy aggression against everyone, and although Trumpie boy might slow them down, in the long run they figure they will out last him.

They are pulling similar stunts against other countries in the area, even as far south as Indonesia: but Indonesia is pushing back.

Sigh.

I already warned my son in Florida if war breaks out he might have us on his doorstep. He thinks I am paranoid, but since I had to leave Africa (twice) when wars broke out I am keeping my options open.

/s