Mid April, it started to rain, 10 days later it’s still raining. I’m standing out in front of my house talking to the neighbors; I stated that this was the first time I saw the monsoon start so early. Well! You would have thought that I said that Pac Man can’t fight. Wow, was I shouted down. “The rainy season will start in mid May, and that’s it!” 7 May rolls around and it’s still raining, the same neighbors are talking about the Three Tropical Storms/Typhoons that have already hit the Philippines, and the one that was on the way in two days. I told them they were incorrect as I was told by experts that the rainy season won’t start until the middle of May.

I came out the other morning and my car wouldn’t start, since there was no sound coming from the starter motor I knew that was the problem. Anyway my mechanic was coming up in an hour or so to fix my alarm, I’d just wait for him. A little later the hood is up and there is a group of neighbors and my mechanic peering under the hood and coming up with all the reasons why my car won’t start. Again I stated “It’s the starter motor.” I get the look, you know the one. “What does he know” It’s the battery; it’s a short circuit, no gas, and my favorite “It’s the key, it might be bent.”  I asked mechanic if he could fix my alarm. And he started on that. I walked to the back grabbed, my Stanley Hammer, went to the front of the car reached in and tapped the starter motor a couple of times, sat in the car turned the key (not bent) and the Honda VTEC engine fired right up. The looks I received we amazing, I walked away asking if anybody there had ever owned a 1951 Mercury?

The other night I get a visit from my Son-in- law, my daughter and my granddaughter. Nice visit, stayed an hour or two, then it’s time for them to leave. (Their decision, I wanted them to stay longer, but I know what you’re thinking) They drive my old Lancer, and it just clicked and clicked when he tried to start it. My son-in-law digs out his tools and starts to tighten the terminals, again the same noise. “Daddy Paul” can you hook up your jumper cables and start my car? Yes I could, but I live on a hill and his car is standard shift, I told him to just jump start it. (I always parked my Merc. on a hill also). He told me he had no idea how to do that. Good to know I’m still good for something, so I get in, turn the key, put it into first, dropped the clutch and told him to push. When the car started you would have thought I’d parted the Red Sea. Twenty minutes of teaching him how to do it, and my daughter said “Daddy you’re my hero!” Well that felt good, and gave my old ego a boost.

I’m glad I chose to live here