Family news

 I am now almost recovered from my post shingles pain. I still have arthritis/aches and pains, but I can live with that.

Right now it is TagInit (the dry hot season before the monsoons hit). Usually it hits 90 degrees F with 90 percent humidity, so I tend to stay inside during the afternoon with the airconditioner on.

Since it is dry season, the city is fixing the streets around our house.

With the opening of the economy after covid, there are new shops and apartments being built in our area (and a new mall a mile from here near the new city hall).

To control traffic, the main street is one way, and there is a fence down the middle of the street to encourage traffic flow and discourage the tricycles from weaving in and out of traffic and causing accidents. Traffic is especially heavy near the Palenke up the street, and the city square nearby where they hold parties etc. all the time, complete with a ferris wheel and a night market with street foods. 

But two blocks before the plaza, traffic is diverted to an alternate street: the street around our house that has long been used to divert traffic in the opposite direction. And the heavy trucks (usually carrying dirt/ gravel or during harvest time, rice) were breaking the older street, breaking the pipes beneath the road that carry water, and sometimes even breaking the lid over the drainage ditches. 

So for the last week we have a bunch of workers who have torn up the street and are laying gravel, presumably to be covered with cement in the near future.

When the heavy machine was pounding the old road into pieces, it was two men, but now we have eight of them out there doing heavy work in the hot sun.

They have a huge jug of water, and the neighbor is letting them get water from her pump, and our cook is giving them ice to keep the water cold, I gave the cook a small amount of money to buy them pandesal (small rolls) or other snacks for merienda, the mid afternoon snack. '

Money is tight....Lately the banks have gone crazy and I am having trouble getting my checks cleared: not just my personal checks but the cashier checks from a small pension I get regularly.

Usually I am on a budget, and cash a check to cover food and expenses every week. It takes 21 bank days to clear, so I try to plan ahead. Then last week, the check didn't clear.... and didn't clear... and didn't clear. I finally asked what was the problem, and was told it now will take 45 days to clear a check. 

This happened during the covid shutdown, when the bank would be contaminated and closed, and they weren't sending physical checks to Manila and then overseas to clear, but now I suspect it is just a way for the bank to cope with inflation (keeping that money longer means they get the interest on the money. Not much from me, but multiply that by hundreds and you see the scam).

So I arranged for my US bank to wire me money, as I did during the covid shutdown, and it should arrive Monday.