It is often said that the only constant in the universe is change. Resistance to change is futile and change is inevitable. What I've been trying to do for the last few years is to maintain a mental blueprint for my future. Some people keep a written list of goals to remind them of what they want to accomplish. I keep that list in my head because it isn't very long. I spent 20 years in the military and personal goals don't mix well with military orders. It has only been since I retired that I've been able to set my sights on anything concrete.

Fixing Up the House

Although my house was built in 2006, there is still more to be done. I and my wife started building our add-on rooms to the rear of the house, a dirty kitchen and laundry room, but we ran out of money (money set aside for building) before we could finish them. [The term "dirty kitchen" is used for a kitchen designed to be more open and separate from the main house.] My goal in finishing it changed because it was forced to change. My goal is now to have it completed by the end of 2009.

Once both rooms are completed, we still need to install kitchen cabinetry. We'll either have to build them or make a shopping center run to the nearest SM mall (at the Clark Economic Zone or in San Fernando, Pampanga) for the prefabricated kind. Of course, we also have to get outdoor furniture since both rooms will be exposed to the elements (with the exterior doors being open more often than closed).

Furnishing the House

I didn't make furnishing our third bedroom one of my goals, but now I have to add it to my goals as another item to be completed by the end of 2009. My older son and his wife will be coming to the Philippines in January of 2010, when I and my wife celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary by getting remarried. [I personally don't care for the ordeal of a remarriage (once was enough for me) but my wife really wants it. If I'm to avoid a marriage crisis, I'd better play along.] We need to make a dedicated shopping run for the window blinds since we can't find the right colors and sizes locally. Again, we'll probably need to go to an SM mall. We also need a bed for the room, but we can get one locally without any problem. If there's one thing that Olongapo has a lot of, it's furniture. Most of it is sturdy, solid wood unlike the cheap fiberboard and pressed wood shiitake in the US.

We'll have to make several shopping runs for household items as we can afford them. I have no set dates for these particular goals because I'm not in a rush. I need to get a washing and dryer for the laundry room, once it's completed. I'm not talking about the POS Korean models. I'm talking about the same kind most people have in the US, designed to last 10-15 years with heavy use. The Korean models they sell here don't even last five years before they break down, and they're not very good to begin with.

We need at least one air conditioner and it's for the master bedroom where I and my computer reside. My younger son doesn't need one in his room because he's totally acclimated to the weather here. He rarely uses his floor fan. I, on the other hand, will probably never get completely acclimated to the weather. Well, I could if I never had to travel abroad again.

I haven't mentioned televisions yet. My son has one in his bedroom and we have one in our bedroom, but we want a 42-inch widescreen TV in the living room downstairs for family get-togethers (I have a LOT of relatives here). [Every time Manny Pacquiao (a Filipino celebrity hero) has a televised boxing match, Filipinos flock to whatever TVs they can watch it on.] Thankfully, it's the last item we'll have to worry about.

The flooring throughout our house is ceramic tile. We're considering rugs (not wall-to-wall) to reduce the echo factor, but it's not a priority. We have a lot of floor space, so they're not something I look forward to buying.

Traveling Abroad

Traveling abroad is something I don't like doing, even more so than traveling locally to go shopping for household items. Unfortunately, because I have an Internet-based home business which is tied to the US, I may have to take a trip sooner than later. I'm not worried about the travel part of it since I'm pretty familiar with all the rules for traveling abroad, but I am worried about the amount of time in which I won't be able to able to maintain the business and answer email. The total flight time, one-way including stops, is well over 15 hours and if you combine that with jet-lag, that's two days of downtime to the US and two days downtime returning.

Traveling back and forth between the Philippines and the US was never part of my goals. I returned once in August of 2006 for my older son's wedding (on Philippine Airlines) and once in March of 2008 for my wife's surgery (on Continental Airlines — that mistake cost me more than 20 hours of travel time one-way). I thought that would be the end of aircraft travel, but I know it's not. At the moment, I can only imagine taking one more trip abroad. In the back of my head, I have this feeling that it won't be my last trip.

There are other goals included in my future blueprint, but I'm not interested in mentioning them just yet. Most of the goals are subject to rapid change, so I don't dwell on them much.

• We're Replacing our Window Blinds with Window Curtains
• A Dirty Kitchen and Laundry Room
• Our House: Tin Roofing for the Dirty Kitchen and Laundry Room
• My Custom Kitchen — Cabinets, Cupboards, Counters and Electricity
• Building Our House in the Philippines