Most of the farmers carry a hand held scythe. They use it to cut plant matter to feed their live stock. It is an essential tool for life on the farm. The problem is they rarely put it away when they are not using it. They carry it around in full sight everywhere they go. Imagine you are walking down the road and some farmer with a bandana covering their face is coming towards you with a deadly weapon in their hand. I can never get used to this fact. I find myself paying close attention whenever I pass by anyone carrying one of these scythes. That is just one of the things I noticed about living here. I feel uneasy about living here anymore. I was walking the dogs around 5 a.m. yesterday. It is still dark I have a flashlight but I can see the road under the moonlight enough. I am on the road and there is farmland on either side. So I am walking and I pass this one patch of tall grass on the right. I get ten feet away and it is behind me All of sudden this guy comes out of the brush a few feet away. I swear I thought I was about to be attacked. He moves to my left crossing the road and I start yelling and cursing at him. The dogs were standing ready in front of me. I guess he thought the better of it because he went back onto the dry cornfield. I look down the field and there is a trike parked flashing a light as if signaling him. He walks down there and meets him. Was I walking into an ambush? Who the hell knows.
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The number of global Covid-19 cases approaches 2 million. Cases here in the Philippines just under 5,000 with over 300 deaths. We went into town yesterday for groceries and had to pass 5 check points to get there The public market was well stocked by 6 a.m. Entry requires showing a "pass" , getting a temperature check and wearing a face mask. They also had this tent set up for the shoppers to walk through at the entrance spraying a mist on top of the head. Not sure what kind of chemical it was or if it was just water. I am thinking maybe I should find out what that was all about. The grocery store Pure Gold had a line out front. Prices for ground beef going up to 450 pesos a kilo. That is about $4.50 USD a pound. Before the outbreak I seem to remember it being under 300 Pesos a kilo. There is still a limit on some items to discourage "panic" buying. There are more than enough unarmed soldiers around. We are hoping they will open the Cable company and Internet Service Provider soon. We lost service on the cable last week and I expect the same from our Internet company in the near future. There are still no newspapers to be seen anywhere. Corn and tobacco just harvested on the nearby farmland. Everything is dry as a bone. I expect the monsoon rains to begin in late May or early June
April 10, 2010
Global Covid-19 cases surpass 1.5 million with total deaths fast approaching 90,000. The number of cases in the Philippines is reported to be nearly 4,000 with 182 fatalities. Behavioral restraints mentioned in last post to stop the spread of the virus are still in effect. There are no confirmed cases in this province to my knowledge. Several of my dogs were sick recently with various medical issues. I lost "Bandito" to intestinal bleeding secondary to roundworm infestation despite previously de-worming him twice and treating with veterinary anti-parasitic medication. Three more of my dogs had the same ailment; two of which recovered after becoming quite ill. The pups are almost five months old. The number of confirmed cases globally approaches 500,000 with over 21,000 deaths. I am in the Philippines on the island of Luzon in the province of Ilocos Sur near Vigan City. There is a 2000-0400 curfew in effect. Travel between the enclaves known as Barangays is severely restricted requiring written authorization. Nervous shoppers are stock piling food while grocery stores place limits on some canned goods. For example; there is a 5 can limit on small sardines. The total number of cases in the Philippines varies according to who is keeping the numbers. The website www.covid19.live reported today there were 636 cases with 38 fatalities throughout the Philippines. While the WHO reported there were only 462 cases with 33 fatalities.There are soldiers and police checking temperatures of vehicle drivers entering the city. Authorization passes are required to enter the public market and some stores are offering hand sanitizing gel upon entry. Grocery stores and the market are open and so are the banks. Many of the numerous mom&pop stores are also open. I have not been able to find face masks, hand sanitizing gel or rubbing alcohol for weeks. Anti-viral drugs are also in short supply; if you can find them at all.
The pandemic is sweeping across the globe like wild fire and I am in hunkering down in north western Luzon away from the Manila hot zone. There are travel bans between the provinces and a curfew from 8 p.m. until 4 a.m. I rarely leave the house except to walk the dogs. Vehicle traffic on the North Manila highway is light and the neighborhood is quiet. You can't find a face mask, sanitizing hand gel or rubbing alcohol anywhere. We still have electricity, cable and the Internet, at least for now. The last report I read said there were 230 cases in the Philippines and 20 deaths from the virus. I can't get back on Facebook so
I will be blogging more in the coming months. I hear the pandemic should peak in May or June. I can only imagine the condition of the world by that time. I was a big fan of Facebook until last week. They won't let me back into my account because they want a mobile phone number for "verification" when it is really for tracking purposes. This leads me to the problem I am having with my I-Phone 4 and the selected carrier. I bought a Globe sim card today with load and that does not work Why does Apple make it so difficult to use their products? This nonsense about not be able to use non-designated carriers is a real inconvenience. I have to "jailbreak" the phone. That means opening it up to other carriers. I spent most of the day on You Tube trying to figure out that puzzle. Seems you have to download I-Tunes then a kit from China to liberate it.
Facebook makes no sense at all. Those that sign up share their lives to the point of obsession. What does Facebook do for them? Give them a hard time and cram it to the hilt. I will eventually get back into my account and if I ever get back to California I will make sure to stop by Menlo Park to tell him to not to screw with the customers so much. Zuckerberg has more than enough money to burn in that empty tin can of a heart of his. I recently published my book ONE STEP BEYOND 25TH STREET. This book is the culmination of months of research with limited resources. It is not my intent to fan the flames of racial disharmony, tarnish the reputation of Girard College or profit from the death of a fellow Girardian. I have no doubt he was a fine young man at the time of his passing and Girard is a reputable institution that provides an immeasurable service to the City of Philadelphia. Despite this fact; racial integration there was a difficult process both inside the walls and outside the front gate in the surrounding community. I was robbed at knife point on one occasion and chased on two others during my excursions outside the school while on a "town pass". Two of my classmates were assaulted and injured during these incidents. These crimes occurred in the 1970's on Fairmont Avenue, Poplar Street and Corinthian Avenue after the death of John Daubaras Jr. in 1969. The gang problem was still evident at that time.
References to MLB and the two teams playing at Connie Mack Stadium on April 20, 1969 are discussed seriously for informational purposes. Descriptions of the accounts of the game with associated player names along with their statistics are matters well established in the public record. They are available in numerous publications and distributed throughout the nation in the form of baseball cards. My book serves the public interest by providing insight into a criminal act with the sole intent of revealing facts and bringing to light a broader picture of the circumstances of that tragic day in April 1969. My book MONKEY BONE ISLAND has some eerie coincidences with the current epidemic in China.
1. The plot involves an flu epidemic 2. There is military involvement 3. The virus was created in a lab. 4. It was spread by person to person contact. 5. Some of those infected were quarantined on a cruise ship. 6. The ship name was "Restless" in real life it is "Princess" docked in Yokohama, Japan. 7. Mass arrests of suspected carriers of the virus. Home made cannons are popular in the Philippines. I used them when I was a teenager for a few laughs. We used to shoot tennis balls out of them. They use them here in the Philippines too especially during the New Year's celebration. This year was no exception. The problem is they don't stop after the party but continue for days afterwards. New Year's day there were plenty of cannon explosions around the neighborhood. Despite the fact people were shooting off their fireworks until 3:00 a.m. I guess they just can't get enough of them around here. The kids behind the house are the culprits. They were blasting their noisemakers all afternoon on the 1rst. I let them have their fun for a few hours while they literally denied anyone of their rest from the night before except those who drank themselves into oblivion the night before. After a about twenty of these blasts I went over to a neighbor's house and asked her politely to have the kids stop their booming of cannons. I must have talked to the right person because it stopped for the rest of the day. Today is the 2nd and the cannons are firing again behind the house. The faceless delinquents are taking full advantage of their anonymity. I yelled past the fence around 9 am saying I called the police and they were on the way. Then I talked to the teenager next door and told him to tell the kids that I was going to call the police if they continued with their cannons.I accept the fact that these "toys" are a Filipino tradition but is the practice worth the risk of harmful effects on a child's ear drum? You would think that any sensible parent would care about their hearing. Here they are seemingly indifferent. 1pm: the cannons are firing behind the house. The delinquents are disturbing the peace again. Looks like a matter for law enforcement.
Anybody that has ever had a problem with mice knows they can be hard to eliminate. They are opportunistic little critters that multiply faster than rabbits. I have about lost my patience with the furry rodents here. They have chewed their way through our bread, peanuts, cereal and the Raman noodle packets. Then they leave their droppings all over the floor and kitchen counter tops. I cleaned out a nest under the fridge a month ago and yesterday I found another habitat in the living room cabinet while I was looking for mouse traps. There I discovered a family of 11 new born mice among the shredded newspaper next to a pair of old sneakers. Three scampered away before I could catch them but I managed to capture 8 before relocating them to an old sardine can. I later transferred them to an old cooking utensil. Things were seemingly under control until I checked on them before supper time when I found they were all gone. Sorry to say I think one of our three dogs gobbled them up.
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