SAD TIMES AT GREENFIELDS

Our warehouse man, Paking, has three sons working in our construction, Lando, the oldest, Jerry, and Alan the youngest. Sometime last year Alan was involved in a tragic tricycle (a motorcycle with a side car) accident. He and two friends went partying and on the way home, crashed, killing the driver. He and the other passenger sustained serious injuries. I understand both of them recovered. Not sure about the other guy but Alan seems to be OK, enough to be up and working again. He’s single and I guess he’s probably in his early to mid 20’s.

Anyway, this morning he got up early and roused his brothers telling them to wake up so they can go to work to start pouring concrete for our flooring. When everyone was ready to go they noticed him sitting around complaining of a slight dizziness and a headache. They told him to just rest for a while and they’ll go ahead and leave. But he told them, “No, I’ll go to work with you guys.” He was getting ready to board the tricycle, threw up and fainted. They rushed him to the hospital. His brothers took the day off.

When I got to the site this morning, I asked his dad how he’s doing. He said he was put on oxygen (respirator, perhaps?) and is under observation. I went out to lunch with Pap and Armin and we went directly to Angeles to check out prices on some materials we still needed. It was almost five when we got back to the site. Everyone was gone except for Kong Naring. He said a few more guys took the afternoon off because they heard that Alan went into a coma and they visited him at the hospital. When I got home tonight, I text’d Kong Naring asking how he’s doing. He said he’s still in a coma and the doctors gave him a 50/50 chance of surviving suspecting aneurysm. About half an hour later he sent me another text message saying he’s passed away.

Back to Normal

My ‘bride’ has left again yesterday. We took her the airport on her way back to California to take care of some more loose strings and then hopefully she’ll be back with me to help out in building our new home here in the Philippines.

With the flurry of our post wedding activity, I’ve missed to post happenings like the construction and occasions with relatives and friends.

May 5 was Kong Orling’s as well as Daniel’s birthday. Kong Orling treated everyone to a dinner at Fortune’s, a famous Chinese restaurant in San Fernando. We called and greeted Dan on his 23rd birthday.

Sunday May 7, Mike picked us up to go to Muntinglupa for a birthday party for Jay and his daughter who’s turning one. Jay has noticeably lost a huge amount of weight. He and Dan are a couple of days apart. We got there before lunch. We’re actually the first ones to arrive. Mergin, Didi and family came as well. They had a videoke machine so of course I tried it. We tried to call Reggie to greet him for his birthday but we couldn’t go through. Then we realized it was only the 7th.

We took off in the afternoon and Mike dropped me and Donna off at Dila-Dila, Sta Rita for what we thought was a going away party for Tan and Dandy but was actually a celebration of Tan’s birthday. The usual JASHS ’70 were there: Myrna and Vir, Marlyn, Eloisa, Nida Santos, Aqui, Ned, Emelita and Tonette. The party was great, lots of great food. Myrna and Vir took us back home to Baliti afterwards. Sorry Ed – forgot to take pictures.

May 8th, we called Reggie and greeted him. He said he went out with some of his Japanese friends.

Week 9 of Construction
This past week, we’ve contracted an exterminator to treat our construction for termites. They’ve performed an initial spraying and I’ve actually seen a dead spider – poor thing was at the wrong place at the wrong time! We’ve also ordered the roofing material and it’s due to be delivered later this coming week. It was unfortunate that a typhoon hit the Visayan Islands including Mindoro and Masbate. I've heard of some casualties due to some mudslides in Leyte. It’s been raining on and off for the last couple of days which prevented our welders from finishing the steel trusses. Rommel and his guys have continually worked on the plumbing lines however. Our masons are still finishing the walls and one has started applying the finishing wall textures for the master’s bedrooms. We’ve also ordered for the precast arches for the garage and porch. If the weather cooperates, I expect the roof to be put up by the end of next week.

I can tell I’ve been adapting well into this environment. Friday, when the rain started which cooled the weather down considerably, I actually missed sweating profusely!

Yesterday Pap and I went to church at 5:30 pm in the San Fernando cathedral, then we had dinner at A La Crème. Today I went with Jack to deliver supplies to her store in Florida Blanca and then we went to Mat’s home in Lubao for their town fiesta, pigged out on mixed seafood, steamed fish and salad. I got a text message from Donna saying she’s arrived in LA with her flight getting delayed both in Manila and Taipei.

I also got a text message this afternoon from Ann, Mon’s wife, and she said Mon is performing with Pinky Marquez at the Casino Filipino in Balibago. I informed everyone on my cell about it, not sure who made it. I didn’t have a ride so I’m updating my blog instead!