Christmas 2016/ New Year 2017

(Started on Thursday, Dec. 29)

Well, things just aren't going to slow down!  So I'd better just do the best I can and get SOMETHING put together. I had thought that I'd get the several weeks after mid-November all "blogged" about two weeks ago, and then run another "special" for Christmas and New Year season.  Meanwhile several "road trips" and projects plus lots of meetings and music-work have kept me pretty well occupied. So we will START with some Christmas things, and then jump back to around Thanksgiving, and work our way through whatever will FIT into an average-length Blog posting.

"Christmas Letter" / "Annual Report"


(AND JUST IN THE MIDDLE OF TYPING THAT THE ELECTRICITY WENT OFF.  ELECTRICITY HAS BEEN PRETTY DEPENDABLE LATELY - by Philippine standards - NOW, about 30 minutes later, I am ready to continue, GLAD that it was restored pretty quickly, but I can hear from the electric-fan speed that we are having  some up & down "surges" in current.)

NOW, where was I when the lights went out?  Oh, yeah - - "Christmas Letter" etc.,  I will fill in a few details as I go along here but most of what would make up an OFFICIAL CHRISTMAS LETTER is covered in the last several Blog Postings, so please navigate to them using the list at the right of this page, if you are particularly interested in reviewing.  THANKS!!

Christmas and Seasonal Stuff: 

Decorations seemed kind of sparse around this area this year.  But in the last week or so I have been in the "right place at the right time" a few times it seems.

Walking past the Barangay** Hall on Dec. 25, Christmas afternoon,

I noticed the star up in the balcony opening, which it seems I had

NOT noticed in driving past there which I do several times per week.

It being the ONLY decoration is one reason I view things as "sparse"

this year.  However, closer inspection revealed some interesting

details about this particular star.

Did you EVER wonder "What do you do with a Mountain Dew,

when the Mountain Dew is done?"  WELL, I had NOT wondered!

But someone else apparently DID wonder, and it appears to me

that this entire construction is from 2 sizes and colors of 

Mountain Dew bottles (There IS an "orange" Mt. Dew, here).

What a "tour de force" in creativity!  

**SIDE NOTE - - RE: "Barangay," above:  This is the word for "neighborhood" here. 

(There are FOUR levels of governance that I observe in the Philippines:  National, Provincial, Municipal, and Barangay.  The first two you are perhaps familiar with; Municipal is typically one prominent city, but usually with enough "ground around it" to be like a county in the USA. BARANGAY  ("ba-RON-guy") is the immediate neighborhood of a few thousand with the equivalent of a "mayor" and "council members" of various functions.  They use local-language names for those positions, but the setup is pretty similar.)

On the same Christmas Day walk I noticed these bloomin' 

Mimosa trees, on the opposite side of the highway.  MOST of

the USA would not expect to see such, on Dec. 25.  At

about 5 p.m., it was cool enough to walk for a little while.

At times when there is full sunlight here, I sit in the shade!
Our temperatures remain in the mid-80s F., daytime.

I don't get out much, at night-time here.  There's not much going on, so there's no point in leaving the house.  Things are reasonably secure as to safety, but "ya never know" what could happen, anywhere in this world.    HOWEVER, our one-day-turnaround "road trip" to ILOILO*** ran pretty late,so we were traveling the last 2 hours after sunset.  Bugasong, about 25 miles south of Tibiao, turns out to have had a contest among their barangays to create decorative lighted structures in their main plaza.  I stopped and took a few photos that evening, and we took Timmie down there by bus the following evening to see it all - so I got a few more photos.  Seems like the contest "theme" was famous landmarks of the world.

 

From a little distance, the sheer amount and variety of the

lights created a "phenomenon" for our area here "in the

provincial backwoods."

Statue of Liberty, 

"Big Ben"

"Eiffel Tower"

"Leaning Tower of Pisa"

and "Brandenburg Gate"

were among the featured works, 

among a dozen others.

This tricycle-taxi with many L.E.D. lights was in
the roadway as we prepared to leave the  plaza.

Christmas is "done" a little differently in this area, than in the USA.  I think in the larger cities and among the more affluent ones here, it begins to resemble Western-style.  But mostly things are pretty simple, with perhaps a little bit of "special" cooking.  NEW YEAR's EVE and NEW YEARs DAY, and ALL SAINTS' DAY and CHINESE NEW YEAR all seem to have equal-or-more observance  than Christmas.  I noticed that all the "small vendors" were open as usual on Christmas Day this year.  I THINK they will all be closed for a day or two around New Years, but I guess I'll see when the Day is here.

***Mention of the Iloilo one-day turnaround trip, above, reminds me to mention the reason for that quick trip.  The display- screen of the Yamaha Electronic Keyboard had gradually been darkening, one horizontal line at a time.  The control system of the instrument is many- layers- of- menu- screens which select things like the "voices and sounds" of the instrument, and complex operations like recording and overlaying pieces of music into arrangements.  Without the display screen working, it is pretty much impossible to do more than the simplest of "real-time" playing, and even that becomes difficult to select and control.  I was able to order a replacement screen from the USA, and it arrived many months later via our annual "care package" box with many other items, on Dec. 18.  So, on Dec. 20, by pre-arrangement with the technician, we went to Iloilo to have the new screen installed.   A 14-hour travelling + errands day.

As you see, the repair was successful.  "Before," on the left, had gotten worse with nearly half the screen darkened in bold horizontal blackouts.  "After," so far in two weeks' time, is looking just fine.   I'm grateful to have it working again!! 

I THINK I'm going to try putting the rest of items in chronological order, beginning from where I left off in the previous posting, which was a week or so before Thanksgiving.

This is ALMOST the complete group that I met on Nov. 25 at

the Kalibo Airport.  Seems like two were still collecting baggage.

(Map Link Tibiao to Kalibo area)  The distance to Kalibo is about

80 or 90 miles, and required around 2.5 hours driving.

All of these Manila folks were "Philippines Large" (130

pounds and up) except for Alex's daughter YeYe, who

was more typical for our area,5 feet tall and perhaps 85-

90 pounds.Eventually all were "shoe-horned" into place,

5 in the cargo bed and  4 in the back seat.

Aklan Province, Kalibo's location, is noticeably more-trees

and less- grass-and-brush on its hillsides.  They have

been more proactive in controlling tree-cutting, and

the results show, after a generation or so.

The crest of the mountainous section north of Pandan is the

boundary between Aklan and Antique provinces.  We stopped

there  for about 10 minutes, on a weekday, between noon and

1:00 p.m., and only 2 motorcycles and one truck passed us

in that length of time.  This is the main National Highway, and

I suppose that the usage is heavier at the beginning and

ending of daylight hours. 

These cut- and-eroded bluffs were near the provincial boundary,
and their interesting appearance prompted a shutter-click.

Sometime during that day's travel I encountered this sign, and
my first impression was that it was made to use up all the left
over and "extra" letters from the sign making kit.  After
studying the photo several times, I have discovered the actual
WORDS there: "Kalibo/ Numancia Bdry. 42 Km."   Maybe it's
just that "letters are cheap, signboard metal is dear?"  

Gathered around the lunch table, about 2:30 p.m., still missing a

couple "bodies" from the photo.  The reason these folks had

a few extra days off is that most of them work for a customer-

service call center, and their clients are mostly USA.  So they

were "free" on Thanksgiving weekend!

A little later, Pumpkin Pie made quite a "hit" with everybody.

Smallish green-skinned pumpkin-squash is common here,

but usually prepared in a "stir-fry" with other vegetables. So

this was something a little bit "new" to try out.


We all walked beside the sea for a while around sunset.  I
imagine it was a real treat for them to NOT be in a congested/
crowded mega-city area.  It was nice to have a pretty sunset, too.

(This is where I got interrupted on Dec. 29th.  Now Jan. 3, I hope to finish the blog and get it posted.)

 (Miscellaneous photos)

This "western style" fishing vessel was moored several hundred
yards north of where I usually walk, probably a couple days after
Thanksgiving.  The ones of these that I have gotten closer to seem
to be about 60- to 75- feet in length.  I think they must pose fairly
significant competition to paddled and/ or motorized "canoes"
which are generally less than 20- feet long.   

NOT a UFO!  This is an end-view of a boat, the category  which I
call "giant canoe."  These are 30- to 40- feet in length, but with
the narrow-hull common to canoe construction, and the "outriggers"
I see on both sides of every canoe here, for stability. These are often
large enough to have a shelter mid-ship, and are powered (likely)
with adapted automotive diesel engines.  There were about
eight of these moored like an armada off the Malabor beach
one afternoon, but I didn't manage any photos that day.

I happened to see this jackfruit cut up for vending, so I

took  a quick photo.  Before, I had no sliced- jackfruit photo

on-file, for some reason.  This particular one is the size of

a smallish watermelon.  They can grow to 50 or 60 POUNDS!

The flesh, when chunked and stir fried, has a neutral to slightly-

sweet flavor, with texture a little chewy like pineapple.  Mostly

it and the seeds are cubed and added to other food.  Those

seeds are often the size-shape-taste of water-chestnut, and I

have some plans to try cooking and "flour making" with them.

(link: Wiki "Jackfruit" article)

(Returning to "Thanksgiving")

In a Thanksgiving festival, this little guy was a real "live wire" as he got into the dance-presentation that his siblings and cousins were doing.  The whole "troupe" is to the right here.

ALWAYS more projects.

Wind and weather had stripped all the "nipa" palm-roofing off

our water-drum tower, in only about 6 months.  Earlier roofing

had lasted two to three years;  It is getting harder for the "makers"

to find quality materials as demand increases. The price of the

"nipa" has also gotten much closer to the price of metal roofing.

The bamboo framing of the drums-shelter was pretty well worn

out, so we milled some hardwood slabs into new frame pieces.

By late afternoon the structure was replaced, and covered with pieces of re-used galvanized-metal roof we had saved from other "upgrade" projects.

 Several weeks later, I'm still occasionally working on

the float-operated Water Level Gage.  It is an option

that I successfully completed in 2013, but it is finicky to

keep adjusted and accurate.  We fill the tanks almost

every day, so this isn't crucial to have, but working

with it provides a level of perversity and challenge

that is a sort of "fun."

One of my "perennial perplexities" has been keeping an old-style

wall clock operating here.  It came from my younger brother

Danny's "estate" about 18 years ago.  While in Kentucky it kept

nearly perfect time with very little effort or adjustment.  Here

in the Philippines it has been cranky and capricious since the

first year or so.  I finally removed the "works" and soaked it

in clean kerosene for a couple days, then blew gently with

compressed air, then operated it for a week or so out of the

case, while liberally applying solvent-lubricants like WD-40.  

This is a Korean-made reproduction clock from the 1980s, a

pretty common item in the "clock world" apparently.  It seems

to run nearly perfectly on- time now - I'm still "tweaking" after

several weeks.    This bears "a STRIKING resemblance" to one

clock owned by our grandparents, which is probably why

Danny got it.  

We pass this prominent house en route to and from
our San Jose errands; it's about 30 miles south of
our place at Tibiao.  Last month I finally took a couple
minutes to stop for photos.  Located on the east
side of the National Highway, it looks westward
across the roadway - - -

to this panorama of ocean and islands.  What a
view!

Well, I'm a long way from being out of photos from the last few weeks.  But it seems like I've gone "long" again on this posting.

Today is Jan. 3, 2017.  The weekend was busy, and

already it is Tuesday!  A little after 7 a.m. the stream

of kids returning to school had thinned out a lot, from a

solid moving mass 30 minutes earlier.  Now around

10:30 a.m. it seems like the sun is out to stay, and

maybe some of the outside projects can be moved

along.  We are beginning a modest roofed-over area

which will help to get the table-saw and large-work

projects away from the front of the property - to spare

us the dust and mess near the house!  Should take

a week or so to finish.

Bernadette had the camera handy a few evenings ago
and snapped a couple photos of Timmie.  He is 2.5 years
old now, and is the "lowest maintenance" person his age
I've ever seen.  He plays with his own "stuff" without
constant monitoring, doesn't get into much other stuff, seldom
whines (I've never seen anything close to a tantrum), and
is counting fairly well and just on the verge of reading simple
words from watching educational cartoons.  His "peeese,
gampaw!" is really cute when he wants to watch
such things on the laptop computer.

Well, we hope that your 2017 is off to a good start.  I will try to get some of the yet-unposted photos up, in a few weeks.  Meanwhile, have a great rest-of-the-week, and our best wishes and thoughts go towards your "aims and hopes" for 2017!

Tim and Bernadette Larson

Tibiao, Antique, Philippines

(Finished!  about 3 p.m. on Wed., Jan 4.)

4 Years in the Philippines

We are just passing our fourth year in the Philippines.  In the several weeks since I last wrote, there's been a lot going on.   I'll start by just putting up pictures as I find them in the file, and hope that it sorts itself into topics for you. 

One morning recently, this very nicely shaped yellow rose

near our door caught my eye, as I was headed inside for a

cup of coffee.  It doesn't look out of the ordinary in the photo

above, but appearances can be deceiving at times.

The first photo  is cropped from this one; that rose is an

extreme miniature, as shown by comparing its size with the

bottle cap.  It amazed me that anything that small could

be formed so closely like a regular sized rose.

Seems like the largest "item completed" in the last few

weeks was replacing our geriatric Sanyo refrigerator.  This

sort of purchase calls for a 50- mile road trip to San Jose.

On the return trip I was glad I had built the back "load rack"

of the  mini-truck to be removable, for hauling tall stuff.

 Backing into the lot at home, we had to leave the truck partly

outside the gate until we could gather a few "hands" to help

ease the new Samsung fridge to the ground.  The item

suspended beyond the fridge carton is the car-top piano

carrier, hanging in its storage rack.

 Placed in the kitchen, the 12 cu.ft. Samsung (medium size

 by USA standards) dwarfs the 15 yr. old Sanyo - which is

standing on an 8-inch riser box! The little fridge still runs

quite well, but its interior is the size of two file-cabinet

drawers - not much storage, there.   Using new technology,

we expect the Samsung to keep food much fresher and

to use scarcely any more electricity than the Sanyo.

Other than its small size, the Sanyo's big drawback has been

its inside-the-fridge freezer.  Opening and closing the fridge

allows warm, highly humid air to contact the freezer section,

and this extreme hard-ice buildup was typical of only about a

week.  Our climate here is just WRONG for such a design!

We hope to continue using the small fridge in a situation where

it will seldom be opened, maybe easing the icing problem.

While shopping appliance stores, we noticed this BRAND NEW
Singer treadle machine.  Still everyday-common here.  Maybe
that's one reason this is named "Antique" Province?  (NOT! 
The name of the province "ann-TEE-kay" seems to derive from
native- language words, corrupted to Spanish pronunciation.)

Fixtures on display at Citi Hardware gave me another blast
from the past.  On "Happy Days"  TV program, one of
"The Fonz's" frequent quotes was "SIT ON IT!!"  (I don't
think Fonzie was "toilet-talking," but the meaning was
never clear to me.  Oh, well, the photo was too "good" to
pass up!)  (No luck, looking it up in the "slang" dictionary.) 

On the return trip:  this tall crane is set up where a new
bridge is to replace this one-lane "bottleneck bridge" at
Patnongan.  Not in use when we have passed, but it
looks like it is set up to "pile drive" long concrete posts
directly into the ground.  Posts already in the ground at
the site had markings for 13- to 15- meters.  I'll bet it
shakes the ground for a half-mile, when it is hammering.

 On a longer road-trip to Iloilo (100 + miles), 6 'youths' and one

adult  fit into the cargo space for about 3.5 hours. Inside the

car were 6 people, and 3 adults ended up taking bus-service.

I watch the weight I load pretty closely - this was easily within

the limits of the vehicle but heavy enough for me to keep things

a little slower than usual.  Carrying "small folks" helps!

(With driving conditions here, typical speed is around 40- to

50- mph.  Covering 40 miles in an hour is quite good.  But

the speedo numbers at least LOOK familiar - kilometers, 

so I'm rolling at 70 to 75!!)

The meetings we attended were on Thur., Fri., and Sat., with

2 overnights hosted by members of the church where we met.

About 100 people attended, some from 6 to 8 hours' travel 

distance, which is why the sessions spanned those 3 days.

This type of cement post-and-beam open air structure is very

common here.  Other than some roll-down curtains for rain,

very little is usually needed for "walls."

Iloilo has its share of "sidewalk woes," too. (See San Jose, last

month's posting). Here, the steps to a pedestrian overpass 

nearly vanish behind vendor booths.  Many other places have

various occupations obstructing the walk-ways.  

 A REAL "Woe" for me is the pedestrian over-passes at inter-

sections, with more than 30 steps UP and DOWN.  I can

legitimately cross at street level, as a "Sr. Cit."  But locals

customarily jaywalk, in-between occasional crack-downs

against doing so.

This sign is on the mountainous section of the road between

Hamtic and San Joaquin (map link), where the ground often

slumps out from under the road- bed. The WAY it says what

it says, amuses me of course.  Maybe the Public Works

Department  will eventually provide road- psychologists?

Close to home, an update photo on the Tibiao River bridge

shows it complete, including the approach-embankments

with their retaining walls and road-base filler.  But the

approaches have been awaiting their cement-pavement for

many weeks now.  So this long, expensive bridge mostly 

serves as a solar rice-dryer; here, rice is spread on mats on

the approach embankments, but I frequently see shade-

umbrellas and vehicles of people on the bridge-span, also

drying their rice-crops.

Vehicle dealerships often install visor- film with their company
advertising in the vehicles they sell, as in the vans and
light-trucks I often see from this company.  We played with
"TONKA" toy vehicles a lot when I was a kid,  but they had
no working horns.  Seems like this one must have! 

Updating last issue's chair- project:  I thought it was just
about finished.  But the "sample" chair I featured was just
nailed and glued together.  The final chairs were all "mortise
and tenon" jointed (12 carved tabs, carefully fitted to 12 carved
slots for each chair). Alex's meticulous workmanship on
(eventually) 8 chairs took  nearly another week to complete.
(Alex is Bernadette's younger brother.  We LOVE having
him around here to hire for all sorts of projects.)

 Meantime, a much quicker project was another
mahogany- framed dining table.

We had saved Jackfruit-wood slabs for three years, 
to make this table-top.  Aside from bearing the largest
edible fruit in the world, Jackfruit has very durable
hardwood, often used for tool-making here.  ("Edible" is
a subjective assessment; it is OK as a 'filler" in some
types of stir-fry and stewed-vegetable preparations).
(link: Wiki "Jackfruit" article)

A stylish "coffee table" made from a Gmelina wood slab about
a year ago, finally got sanded and varnished.  "JIM-molina" is
a widely propagated hardwood, which resembles birch or ash
when used for furniture and cabinets. (link to article in Wiki)

I help out with the large projects, and work on a steady
stream of smaller things, too. This scrap of wood is part of
a bracket to secure the tire-change wrench in the car; it
has been a nuisance rattling around loose.  Lately I've
gotten the emergency and load-tiedown items organized.
I'm currently working on quick- hanging cleats and easy-
hookup wiring for the P.A. system at church.

We needed a paint-sprayer for a couple small jobs.  This
assemblage of a pill bottle, a juice-pack straw, a couple
wood scraps, and my compressed air blow-nozzle works
fine!  The air from the nozzle siphons and atomizes paint
out of the bottle.  Idea courtesy several YouTube videos.

The same day we returned with our new refrigerator,  Malabor
Elementary School had a special occasion with parades and
other activities.  These are pretty frequent - this one seemed to 
feature flags and costumes of nearby Asian nations.  The whole
school had assembled for a recognition program (we always 
hear the P.A. system) and then each class paraded.  (LATER:
Bernadette tells me it was United Nations Day.)

"End of the parade" is often the ice cream vendor!  This

company's units are an everyday sight, here. 

The school's location at the end of our street brings foot-traffic

in  waves, beginning at 6:45 a.m. and ending sometime after

5 p.m.  We vend items which are low-input for us from time

to time.  The "hottest-selling" item right now is ice-pops, and

neither we nor the stores in town can keep enough cases to

stay ahead of the demand.  We could probably double our

turnover, if we could just get enough stock not to "sell-out." 

Well, that's not everything that's been happening here for the last few weeks.  And, there's more to come, it seems.  I'll be getting some "take along" food ready for an early Thanksgiving celebration in a few days.  Thanksgiving Day, one of Alex's daughters and 8 or 9 of her work-mates will arrive at Kalibo (about 3 hours' drive? I haven't been there!), and I am to go and pick them up for a few days holiday in this area.  And of course, there is Christmas Season to look forward to, coming on fast!

We're grateful for our blessings!  We chafe sometimes because EVERYTHING doesn't happen as we think it should (still not much success with growing garden crops and raising any livestock other than poultry - i.e. no fresh dairy products and no "favorite" varieties of fruit and veggies).  But we are able to pick and to do mostly as we choose each day, and are reasonably healthy and comfortable.  There are plenty of useful and worthwhile things which we can get involved with. 

We hope that each of you are doing well and enjoying the waning days of 2016. 

TJ and Bernadette Larson

Malabor, Tibiao, Antique Province, Philippines