Although they are half a world apart geographically, and a world apart in personality, they both couldn’t be any closer in my heart.

Cathy was born Catherine Lynn in the early morning hours of January 24th, 1975 when I was just 19. She ended up teaching me more about myself than any psychologist could ever dream of accomplishing. And although she endured some very hard times, not the least of which was being the daughter of an overbearing active duty Army NCO, she turned out to be someone of which I am very proud. My only regret is that I could not spend more time with her because the US Army owned most of my time. The amazing thing to me is the fact that although I thought that she wasn’t even listening, she heard and remembers most everything that I tried to teach her.

DeeDee was born Davinah Dawn in the early evening hours of January 13th, 2008 when I was a mere 52. There has been no Army, or obligations of any kind in the way, and I have thoroughly enjoyed this privilage that I didn’t have the first time around.  She is, and I’m sure her sister will agree, skating through life with almost no care in the world by comparison. This is for the most part a fact since I am not the same person that I was 33 years ago. But rest assured Cathy, she doesn’t get away with everything, and I am basically still me

Happy birthday to both of you. I love you both with all of my heart. And I hope that I can still voice this same sentiment 20 years from now. You are both very special people to me, and don’t you ever forget it.

Tonight I was sitting outside, drinking a couple of beers, when this woman which appeared to be in her 40′s came by caroling with a small child. When they first came up to the gate I told her that I didn’t have any money, which I didn’t, and I wasn’t about to give her a large bill. They went ahead on and when finish she proceeded to give me hell, in English no less, that I was an American claiming to have no money.

Just as I was about to get up out of my chair to confront this rude woman, my 3 year old comes running out with 5 Pesos. If there had been time to stop her from giving the money to this nasty woman with an attitude I would have done it. Unbelievable!!!!

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 1,400 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 23 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Celyn made a ton of food

The pictures start here: https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=BE933E8363D342E1&id=BE933E8363D342E1%2110458

I have no way of knowing what the cost of such a move will be by then, but I can imagine:

$2,000 – Spousal Visa for Celyn
$3,000 – One-way airfare for 3
$1,500 – Rent and deposit on a small 2/3 bedroom house/apartment
$3,500 – Furnishings
$4,000 – Reliable used car
$1,000 – New wardrobes since we own only summer clothing

$15,000 – OMG!!!

]]> http://daspicer.wordpress.com/2011/11/14/omg/feed/ 2 12.879721 121.774017 12.879721 121.774017 daspicer http://daspicer.wordpress.com/2011/11/07/holy-crap/ http://daspicer.wordpress.com/2011/11/07/holy-crap/#comments Mon, 07 Nov 2011 13:17:28 +0000 daspicer https://daspicer.wordpress.com/?p=425 Continue reading →]]> On 1 Feb I will have been living in the Philippines for 5 years.  If my “economic beer theory” is even close to accurate, which I believe it is, then my cost of living not counting Dee Dee will have  increased by 40% in 5 years. With only a 14% increase in income, I am left with a deficit of 26%.

Should this happen in the next 5 years  I will probably have to develop a taste for fish and rice.

And we might be living in something like this.

]]> http://daspicer.wordpress.com/2011/11/07/holy-crap/feed/ 0 12.879721 121.774017 12.879721 121.774017 daspicer Unlimited Free Image and File Hosting at MediaFire Unlimited Free Image and File Hosting at MediaFire http://daspicer.wordpress.com/2011/10/31/tampo/ http://daspicer.wordpress.com/2011/10/31/tampo/#comments Mon, 31 Oct 2011 15:48:34 +0000 daspicer https://daspicer.wordpress.com/?p=399 Continue reading →]]> Not much all that interesting to write about this past month. So I thought I’d write about something that you’ve probably never heard of unless you’ve been in a relationship with a Filipina.

There is no English translation of tampo, but it’s best described in the English language as pouting or sulking.  It can be invoked for many reasons, there is no real anger involved, and it’s just to let you know that you messed up in some form or fashion. It normally takes the form of her suddenly being withdrawn and very quiet toward you. Her life goes on as normal, except for the fact that in her world you seem to no longer exist.

I first experienced tampo in February 2006, when Celyn and I were visiting Baguio City in the Northern Philippines. Where we were staying, there was a very large balcony just outside of the bar. I think it was more of a rooftop than a balcony. We were sitting out on this rather large rooftop balcony enjoying the cooler Baguio weather (5,000 feet elevation). Or at least I was, Celyn was freezing in this chilly 78 degree climate. We had already eaten and I was having a few beers while chatting with some of the  local foreigners about moving and living in the Philippines. The sun began to go down, as did the temperature, so Celyn went to the room to get our coats. About 30 minutes later , and the temperature now probably in the upper 60’s, Celyn nudged me and told me she wanted to go to the room.  Now keep in mind that this is all new to me and my way of thinking is still quite Western at this point. It never dawned on me that she meant we, so I handed her the key and told her that I would be there shortly. I went to the room about 30 minutes later , and I swear you could feel the cold in the air, and it had nothing to do with the temperature outside. Obviously I knew at this point that I had messed up. Everything was just fine the next morning though, like it had never happened, and I wasn’t about to bring it up. I experienced tampo 2 more times, and this was the only time that I knew exactly what I had done wrong.

The second time  was a little over a year later (I had been gone for a year) and to this day I have no idea what I did wrong. I recall making a comment about a girl on TV, but nothing about how she looked or anything of that nature, and that was the last time that I saw those pearly whites or heard a word spoken in my direction for 72 hours. I tried talking to her but to no avail. I even tried explaining to her that I had no idea what I had done and I didn’t care at all for this kind of behavior. Over the course of these 3 days  I tried to explain to her that if I do or say something wrong, then tell me and I can fix it. I may as well have been talking to the wall, and just as before, it went away like it never even happened.

The 3rd time was around June or July of 2007. We were staying on Boracay’s White Beach, and this time I had no clue whatsoever about anything. I immediately got pissed off, grabbed a 6-pack out the the fridge, and walked down to the beach to watch the bikinis walk by. About an hour later she was on the beach asking me what I wanted to eat. Still pissed off I told her not to worry about me, I would go get something  when I got hungry. That’s when the tears started and I felt like such an ass. She was talking to me and I was too pissed off to even notice.

I guess she figured that tampo wasn’t working with me and that was the last time that I ever saw it. Now if she has a problem with me she simply tells me what it is, and that happens more often than I like to talk about. I don’t know how she puts up with me, but I do know that I sometimes miss tampo

Not much happening this month, except it’s now Christmas. Here in the Philippines, all months that end in “’ber’ are considered Christmas months, and the malls have been playing Christmas music since the 1st.

The malls here go all out, for obvious reasons.

Although most people here are definitely in the Christmas spirit beginning in September, and the malls begin to fill up with more and more people as Christmas gets nearer, for a good portion of the population the commercially Westernized Christmas simply does not exist. That being said, the celebration of Christmas here does not lose a thing, and there are even some added twists.

I love food, so this time of year is a bonus for me.

Caroling is big here as Christmas approaches. But that has become  somewhat commercialized, probably learned from the West. Children, and even adults go from house to house caroling, but a small donation is expected for this sometimes not so entertaining festivity. Even though the Church here has a lot more money than most of the population, they are not about to lose an opportunity to collect money, and the Chruch caroling groups will hand you an envelope to contribute.

They can sometimes be quite talented and quite good.

Normally 10-20 cents is sufficient, regardless of who it is caroling, but gets a little old after a dozen or more episodes in one night.  Odds are this will start next month, which is far too early. When this happens, or I don’t feel like paying any more, I use a simple phrase that I picked up from Celyn. ‘Balik Pasko!’, which means ‘Return Christmas!’, and it usually does the job.

It’s very hard not to give something when their only instruments are cans and bottle caps.

Being a predominantly Catholic country, the Church is of course also a big part of this holiday season. Starting on the 16th of December, Celyn and Dee Dee will attend 9 pre-dawn Masses, getting up about 3 AM each morning. I’m so glad that I’m not Catholic I will however of course be expected to attend Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, which normally begins around 9 PM instead of midnight.

A scene anywhere in the Philippines beginning the morning of 16 December.

Just a few years ago I was a Scrooge, but now that I have a young child again the magic has returned. Hasbro should be shot though for the price of this little computer that appears to be a doll. She’s going to have to ask Santa for one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxKfWxzvubI

The car that I recently purchased, a 1995 Hyundai Accent, had what sounded to me like a broken shock on the right rear. Since the car has a shock within a spring setup, it wasn’t a big deal, but Saturday morning I took the car to the Basak San Nicolas branch of Tri-J, which is their main office and on our side of Cebu City, to get it repaired. After explaining the problem, and I should have left my opinion out of it, they put the car up on a lift and both rear shocks were very badly worn. Although they still somewhat  dampened,  judging by their appearance, they could very well be the  original shocks from 1995. I think due to the fact that I had mentioned the shock  in my description of the problem, this was as far as they looked, and they recommended the rear shocks be replaced. The cost to replace the very worn shocks was about $75 each. I told them to replace only the right rear for now. and I would come back next month to replace the left rear (which I still plan to do).

So off we go to the McDonald’s right down the street, thinking that the car would be ready, or at least close to ready when we return.  It was about 11:30 AM  and we had arrived at Tri-J about 11.  We got back about 12:30, the car was on a lift with the shock and spring removed, but they were waiting on a new shock from Hyundai to be delivered. No big deal, I’ve got nowhere to be, but three hours go by before my car is ready. I pay and we’re on our way about 3:30.

Pulling out everything seemed as it should be, with the rattle at every little bump now gone. We get about 300 meters before hitting the first pothole and the familiar rattle is still there, although not as bad as before, so I do a 180 and we go back to Tri-J.  They of course immediately want to know what happened, and I told them that I still have the problem. So they take the car, put it up on the lift again, and find that a retaining bolt on the right rear stabilizer support is missing. This allows it to lift up in a bump and then smack back down. The new shock, with much better dampening, had done a good job is disguising the problem, but the real problem still existed. The guy felt really bad because he had recommended new shocks, which I obviously needed anyway, but the real problem was just replacing this rather large bolt, which was probably an under $20 repair.

Being that it was now around 4 PM, he told me that he would order the part from Hyundai , bring the car back in at 8AM Monday morning, and he would insure than I was in and out as soon as possible. As I stated previously, these guys are really good, really professional, and I will be using their services in the future. They put 4 new Dunlop’s on the car last month, mounted and balanced for about $235, and the car was ready when my daughter and I got back from McDonald’s. They are quite literally a one-stop car shop.

UPDATE 8/15/2011: They replaced both sides for under $50. No more rattle.

After returning to Cebu, Celyn was nearly 6 months pregnant and I became concerned about something going wrong, or her going into labor in the middle of the night.  Although public transportation is readily available  in urban areas pretty much 24/7, we did not live in an urban area, which made finding transportation at 2 AM a dilemma.  So I decided to buy a vehicle.

I ran across this vehicle, which was owned by a Canadian in the local area. Since the price was right (about $2,000), and it’s pretty much all I needed, I bought it. These are Japanese surplus vehicles, cut into pieces, shipped to the Philippines as parts, and then reassembled and retitled here . This particular vehicle was first registered in the Philippines in 2001, which means that it was probably assembled from mid 90’s parts. It was now 2007, which made it in actuality at least 10 years old, but would serve the purpose  for which it was needed. I didn’t expect it to last all that long, but maybe I could get 2 or 3 years of service out of it.

44 months later we were coming home from Cebu City when it started smoking, losing power, and finally quit. I figured this was the end of this little vehicle  which had far surpassed the serviceability that I once expected. In that 44 months it had gotten new brakes, a new clutch, a new wiring harness, and a new head gasket, all of which had cost less that $200 combined to fix with surplus parts. In fact, in that 44 months  I only had about $4,000 invested in this little van including the purchase price, tires, fuel, maintenance, repairs, etc. The estimate that I got for rebuilding the engine was $300, and I didn’t want to put any more money into it. It had served its purpose and I was considering getting another one, except this time a new build.

I ran across this one for sale by a dealer for about $4,000. It was completely loaded including power steering, power brakes, power windows, CD player, A/C, and it was turbo charged; 660 CC 3-cylinder turbo The only thing that I had against these little vehicles, other than the fact that they are not very safe in an accident, is they have no seatbelts in the back. I’m sure I could have had some fabricated for very little cost, but that’s not quite the same thing from a safety point of view.

Then one morning about a week after my little van had given up the ghost, I sat down with a cup of coffee to look at vehicles for sale online and ran across this.  It was a 1995 Hyundai Accent which was imported to the Philippines and retitled in 2006.  The asking price was about $1,700. A quick trip to the N.A.D.A. site told me that the car was worth $1,500 in the USA in fair condition. I was certain this guy would take $1,500 cash so I gave him a call and indeed he would. He was a foreigner, leaving the Philippines in less than a month, and the car had to go.  He had paid about $2,000 for it in January, which is a more realistic price for a used car in the Philippines; they are all overpriced. He had also had an altercation with a taxi in Cebu City and the right front bumper, which is plastic, was scratched and damaged. He wasn’t really prepared to sell it right this moment, but I needed a car now, and so I drove it home. It has a 1.5L EFI 4-cyclinder, automatic, power steering and brakes, electric front windows, a nice stereo with CD player as well as USB, and A/C that will frost up the windows. I put new tires on it and am going to have new shocks put on the back due to one that is broken. So the total investment so far is about $1,900. If it lasts as long as the Suzuki I will get my money’s worth, although both will have cost about twice the cost of public transportation, which ranges from a peddled tricycle to a bus, and everything in between.

The most popular mode of public transportation here is the jeepney. It will take you several kilometers for under 20 cents. If you need to go farther, you simply pay for 2 rides.

Jeepneys are more or less in and between urban areas on main roads. Out in the rural areas, like where we live, you cram into one of these. They are just a little cheaper than a jeepney. I don’t fit in the front, so I have to either sit in the back or behind the driver.

I also have this, which I paid about $600 for a little over 2 years ago. It’s a 2005 Chinese bike with less than 2,000 miles on it. It was foreigner owned and only used when he was visiting the Philippines. I haven’t ridden it much, and it currently needs a new battery, chain, and cables, but I’ll get around to it.

By the way, the little Suzuki van we gave to the in-laws. They rustled up a mechanic to work on it and in 2 days time drove it away. Total cost to fix it was less than $50. I registered it for another year for them, so they’re good to go and happy campers. Now I just need to go to an attorney and get a bill of sale typed up for about $5.