Taking a Trip

[Guest]

Thinking of you and your family, Box.

Katie

 

[Boxlicker101]

I referenced this thread for somebody so I am bumping it.

 

[wildsweetone]

I hope all is well with you and your family Box.

 

[cantdog]

What one can and can't access in public cybercafes overseas is often head-scratchingly mysterious. I found one where I had to send three paragraph letters to be sure I didn't time out and the whole screed vanish like a soap bubble. That was in Godzone, in Te Anau.

It is good that you were able to be there when this happened. It would have been cold and sad to have to sit on the other side of the world someplace and just get sad letters describing his death. Support of family is one of the best things there is.

Looking forward to your return. Best of luck.

 

[Boxlicker101]

I'm not sure how I double posted.

 

[Boxlicker101]

Well, I made it back home in one piece. Actually, it is Thursday morning now, and I am writing something to post to this thread when I arrive home. If you are reading this, obviously I am home and my plane didn’t crash into the ocean or other place. The plane is scheduled to leave Manila at 10:30 on the 15th and arrive at SF airport at 8:00 PM, which is 2-1/2 hours before it leaves, a neat trick.

As I said earlier, I am sad that my brother-in-law died. He was a good guy, and died too early at 55. At least, he didn’t suffer too much before he went, and he was thinking clearly until the end. My wife’s siblings, in some ways, resemble a flock of vultures and the deceased was aware of this so he got my wife to prepare a series of documents, transferring certain properties to his wife and some others, as well as assigning some receivables to her. He was a very generous and giving man, but his surviving siblings will find his widow is less so. I won’t say any more about that.

My wife is one of 11 siblings, five sons and six daughters. The three oldest sons have all died, all from liver conditions. This is because of an apparent genetic weakness, hepatitis, which is endemic in the Philippines, and the fact that they all did a certain amount of heavy drinking in their younger days.

His death put a damper on the trip, of course, but otherwise there were some very enjoyable visits with daughters and grandchildren. This is like saying something like “Outside of that, Mrs. Kennedy, how did you enjoy your trip to Dallas?” or “Outside of that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?” Anyhow, I must say that my grandchildren, even besides the one I wrote a poem about, are certainly good-looking. I can take no credit for this fact because they are all offspring of my wife’s children from an earlier marriage and not related to me by blood at all. I CAN take some credit for their well-being because my wife and I have been helping support some of them for the last six or so years, and the sole support of some of them.

Re-acquainting myself with my nieces and granddaughters has also inspired me to write four incest/taboo stories, and the first of them should be posted later this month. Because I have been unable to submit anything since last month, I have four poems and four stories, counting one Snip. story, ready to submit and I may finish more before I actually post this.

There was an election here on Monday for, among other things, president and vice president. Ballots here are primitive by American standards, a sheet of paper with a description of the office followed by a line. Voters write in the name of a candidate, and the individual names are counted. School teachers do the counting, which is a good idea because school is not in session now (June through March is the school year) and the teachers are available and, as government employees, they are considered to be less corrupt and more intelligent than most people. This is Saturday, now and as of 8:00 Pm last night, more than four hours after the polls closed, less than 14% of the votes had been tallied. Counting will probably take the rest of the month, and maybe part of June.

The newspaper on Tuesday described election day as peaceful and went on to describe how only six people had been murdered in election day violence. In at least one place, armed men attacked the voting place and burned the ballots and the registration sheets and everything else they could. I don’t know what will be done to enable the people there to vote. The registration sheet was a copy of the official one and they can replace the ballots and other things so the election there will probably be held later, if it hasn’t already been held. There are about 43,000,000 voters in this country and a turnout of about 85% was reported. Voting is taken seriously here.

Traffic is taken seriously too. There are traffic laws but they are violated freely. Hardly any of the intersections have any controls so people drive into them and then slowly make their way across, squeezing between cross traffic. Horns are used almost constantly. Pedestrians don’t have the right-of-way so they don’t bother going to intersections, and jaywalk whenever they feel like it. They are very careful because they know they are constantly at risk. There are surprisingly few accidents, partly because people drive slowly and there are hardly any drunk drivers and because pedestrians are careful. To go through many busy intersections, or to make a left turn, a driver is required to make a right turn, then a U-turn and then to make another right turn or go straight. The merging this entails makes enormous hassles.

Anyhow, this is actually Sunday morning now, and I have been having problems acessing this site. It may be okay now. I hope so. Thank you for the well-wishing and expressions of sympathy.

 

[minsue]

I'm so glad to know you arrived home safely, Box.