james curtin (aka james morena)

he was again there sitting on the gutter raising his hands to greet us. this is another morning for a miracle, he shouts. i asked why. he says it is always so whenever we visit him.
he is quite glib.
he reached for what he called his "most precious possessions" from his plastic grocery bag and showed me this picture with a list of songs he used to sing. he used to be a club singer until mt. pinatubo and, i suspect, old age displaced him. but his manners are still stellar.
i told him that i have been blogging him on internet. he responded, "sorry, i don't have internet to see it."

my boxes

my clothes in a box























my music from a box
















using the sandals of someone in a box
















i have been surviving on boxes. and i have most of my clothes in a box. even my music is coming from a smaller box. and lastly, i just received the sandals of a friend who is now in a box. and that is just stretching it a bit.
but i have no qualms. the sandals look new. hardly used, the wife said. originally, the wife gave them to my driver. my driver says it does not fit him so he said i should have them instead. and so i got them. after all, this is the footwear of a dear dead friend who loved life so much that in spite of his dreadful disease lived for a period longer than expected. that is not a bad idea at all -- loving life.
soon, the family will be moving back to our refurbished home that has become less of a box that it was.
in the meantime, off to work i go walking in a dead man's sandals, loving life as much as he did.

the week that was

she finally went for her tests this morning.



















house is almost finished but the road is halfway through.











joy with fr. basil and some sinful shellfish.













she joins me to celebrate my former classmate who turned 50.

i attend the wake of a former classmate who died while serving a life sentence for the possession of illegal drugs. he was a musician. he became the lead guitarist of the prison band. they got featured on tv once.

time for coron

a play pen as a mezzanine is what this humongous wood structure is all about. for the future grand kids ... but for the future lolo and lola for now. ;)

but joy is shocked at the size. i forgot to tell her what cliff and i cooked up. ooops. and she is slightly upset.



































the temperature outside was a searing 34 degrees. with a partly opened roof what used to be a three degree difference is noticeably wider now. and it helped cool her head.












as cliff hammers away showing how he would like the finishing touches to look like.





















she is back to normal preparing for a few days in coron, palawan.