RSS Feeds: Four-Letter Words
There are a whole lot of four-letter words I can describe the past few days with and not all of them are bad words (censorship is not required). Of course, there are several variations of some really bad four-letter words I used as well. To get an understanding of what I'm talking about, follow along as I explain the sequence of events since the last time I wrote.
November 15th
It was my younger son's 24th birthday, but any kind of celebrating was to be delayed. Since my wife was due to arrive at the Philippine Airlines (PAL) terminal at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) at about 6 am on the 16th, I needed to get to sleep earlier than normal. Things did not work out as planned and I ended up getting no sleep at all.
One of our neighbors decided, on a Sunday night and through Monday morning, to hold a marathon outdoor Karaoke session without any regard to anyone else. The rest of the neighbors were on the verge of lynching those people. I shouted a few expletives from my windows a few times and I assure you, they were all four-letter words. They finally stopped 30 minutes before I had to leave.
November 16th
My driver (his name is Edgar) lives down the street from me. I took one of my nephews with me and headed to Edgar's place and let him take over from there. Getting from Olongapo to the airport in Manila should have taken about three hours from Edgar's house since we had to stop and fill up the tank. It took a little over two hours because Edgar doesn't dawdle… ever. He drove at the maximum speed limit and then some on both the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway and the Northern Luzon Expressway. In fact, the Monday morning traffic didn't impede us whatsoever.
My wife's flight, which was supposed to have a stop in Guam, didn't stop in Guam. Consequently, the flight arrived two hours early and she was waiting for us instead of the other way around. Unfortunately, her cousin in the US had alerted her own family and they were waiting there as well. I used a few four-letter words under my breath because I knew we had to pay for their trip home.
The trip back to Olongapo took a bit longer because we stopped at the only rest area on that side of the expressway and had breakfast. We ate at a place called "The Pancake House" because there's another store just like it at the Subic Bay Freeport Zone and we had never tried the food there. I had hoped it would have some slight similarity to IHOP but I was sadly disappointed. It's another restaurant crossed off of my list of places to try at least once. Once is all that franchise is going to get out of me.
November 17th and Onward
The only four-letter word remaining is "busy". Our plumbing problems turned out to be less severe than I anticipated. The downstairs main drain pipe has been replaced, holes have been filled, cement has been poured, etc. The only thing left for that part is to repair the shower tiles and drain.
The upstairs main drain pipe turned out to be okay, but there was a joint that wasn't sealed properly, so it's not going to be as hard to fix it as I thought either. I need one ceiling panel, a couple of elbows and a coupling (to go with the sealant and epoxy) and a couple of pints of white paint, both flat and semi-gloss. I'm estimating that the plumbing ordeal will be complete by November 20th.
I had two brothers-in-law and two husbands of sisters-in-law, along with two nephews, working at the same time in different areas. All I had to do was feed them. The estimated total cost when all is said and done is still going to be less than US $200.
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I can certainly sympathize with you regarding the neighbors.
Not to outdo your nightmare. However, we live in a two story double condo.
Our bedrooms are on the second floor.
Last September, on a Wednesday, two of our neighbors decided to have outdoor parties at the same time.
One was a jacuzzi party, and the other was a sex party.
I could not believe my eyes. I opened the blinds to see, on one side of the fence, men and women with little on (but something anyway) and very loud music playing with cocktails flowing.
On the other side of the fence was a man and women in missionary position keeping time with the jacuzzi party music.
I am not a sexual prude. However, even in California, this was just too much to bear (pun).
I didn't call the cops, but I did let the neighbors know of my displeasure. One of them apologized, the jacuzzi party. He is a policeman.