The werewolf crossed the street to the burger stand.

The July leaf falls off my planner.

Five more months and 2018 will be over.

Actually, when writing in Latin, you have to use all caps and no punctuation marks.

Was tied up the whole afternoon watching the men trim the dragon tree.

J. assembled Angelique's bathroom rack, then they went to check out bathroom hardware stuff and go to their favorite coffee shop to study.

Aubrey and R. are having dinner at Gateway.

Home alone. Brought the men to M.'s cafe and bought them dinner.

We are working on the roof deck tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, after Lito has sufficiently rested.

Jimboy and Lito trim the dragon tree outside the blue tower.

Few people know that woodcutters are more expensive than carpenters and masons.

Your Messenger message:

"Magtatanong lang po sana ako kung may mga seminars/talk po kayo about shamanism? May mga kakilala po ako na nabanggit kayo. Yung isa is nag-undergo raw po ng training nyo po nung member pa sya ng Spirit Questor. Not sure kung totoo. Hehe. Gusto ko lang pong maging mulat at iexplore ang spiritual life/world."


My reply:

No, this is my PAINTING year (March 31, 2018 - March 31, 2019). I am painting all of this year, and am deliberately abstaining from magical, paranormal, and psychic activities.

Two cups very black, Moccona espresso.

Good morning, Cubao!

The clouds are white tourist buses in a parking lot.

The werewolf crossed the street to buy a purple yam ice cream cone.

Finally, varnished White Beer Stop.

Back from jalan-jalan. Paid our cable bill, did groceries at the supermarket, and bought a bundle of joss sticks at the Chinese store.

A hot, sweltering day.

Good morning, Cubao!

The sun is a glass jar of multicolored, rock candy.

Now the TV tuned itself to the Discovery documentary of the 2010 rescue of 33 Chilean miners.

The kuman thong have been wrapped in black since Wednesday, July 18, some 12 days now. They were brought from Thailand to Malaysia, where they were shipped to the Philippines after an unforeseen delay. Still waiting for them to arrive.

Despite my post-retirement seclusion as a hermit I find that I have to go to the center at least six times a month: Four utility bills come in usually at separate times and I prefer to pay them as quickly as they arrive; I also need to take two trips every month to the supermarket, the Chinese store, the Korean grocery store, two different hardware stores, and an art materials store to buy consumable supplies.

Twentieth-century commercial writing seems hard to get rid of. I laugh out loud when watching a suspense thriller that has, at the very end, the murderer inevitably facing his final victim, the protagonist, and the protagonist asks, "Why are you doing this?" The murderer then launches into expository dialogue, sometimes with matching flashbacks, that the writer evidently is merely using to tie all loose ends together.

He who rushes to succeed also rushes to fail.

What the sky gives, it never takes back.

What the earth gives, it always takes back.

Upper body, lower body. Upper mind, lower mind.

Yes, even the mind has anatomy. Always be mindful of it.

When people disagree with you, it is useless to try to change their mind. Remember that you buy shoes that other people would never buy, and that they buy shoes that you would never buy.

Good morning, Cubao!

The sun is a golden pen rack.

Happy 19th birthday to my third granddaughter, Aubrey Rose!

My baby! Grandpa loves you!

12:20 AM. Let in Aubrey's high school friends a little past midnight. It's Sunday, July 29, and Aubrey turns 19, and everyone connived to give her a surprise. My baby is now 19. She is a Rabbit, like me.

Quiet night turns into a night of shrieks and laughter.

The TV tuned itself to the documentary Operation Thai Cave Rescue on Discovery again. Must be a message from the two Thai kuman thong en route from Johor (after traveling from Wat Hat Yai Nai) to Cubao.

Quiet Saturday night. A perfect time to rest.

M.'s cafe now has a fourth flavor for buffalo wings, honey and lemon, on top of barbecue, sweet and spicy, and jalapeno. Must try it sometime.

A new, male hand reported for work, and M. is training him to operate the day shift. 

Dinner at home with Aubrey and R. Angelique and J. are having dinner out and are coming home late.

To know what silence is, shut off all electronics and everything that runs on electricity inside your room.

Side balconies clean. Now, the side porches.

The driveway and the street are wet with rain whenever I wake up in the morning.

B. arrived to clean the house today, because he was unable to do so last Thursday.

I have to stay home the whole day.

Good morning, Cubao!

The clouds are ice sculptures on the banquet table of the sky.

Caught the X-Files episode on FOX featuring Mulder and Scully's now grown-up "son".

Wearing my rings and enjoying them while my new canvas hasn't yet arrived. I don't wear rings when I'm painting.

Post-retirement age is probably the best of all best times to take an interest in good clothes, because it is when one can really afford to buy them.

Ironically I am waiting for my shipment of two Thai boys (kuman thong) to arrive, and I know that they are terrified of being jostled about in darkness.

Caught the documentary Operation Thai Cave Rescue on Discovery last night. I was conducting a workshop in Singapore when all of that happened.

Though our porches are screened all round, the dragon tree outside our house manages to get its leaves in the most unlikely places inside, including our kitchen and rear passage, as though it were sending us notes and messages.

Today I received one such note on my Virginia Woolf writing tablet, which I use whenever I am in the small loggia.

A beneficent father or a truly hospitable person, after he asks you whether you've had lunch and you say that you have, will invite you into the dining room and say, "Well, have lunch all over again".

Whenever I do that to my guest or guests they are struck speechless. I think it is because people have been brainwashed to believe that it is inconceivable to have more than one meal for lunch or dinner.

He dreamt that I gave him a book, a wand, and a talisman.

Keep calm. Take a cup of tea.

Reversals in weather cause manic behavior.

Avoid other people if you can.

Two cups very black, Moccona espresso.

The sky is a child's cheek streaked with tears.  

Good morning, Cubao!

After a dry day, another wet one.

Halfway through my reread of Hallowe'en Party.

Angelique and J. bought five kilos of dog food for Kichiro Mayuzumi, then went jalan-jalan to go to the bank and hang out in a coffee shop. 

Encourage and support co-artists, but never in the direction of mediocrity.

The werewolf crossed the street to buy a chocolate ice cream cone.

Good morning, Cubao!

The sky is a set of fresh bedding.

Night chores done.

Going to bed again with Agatha Christie.

To earn big money, specialize.

To enjoy all of life, generalize.

A snake by any other name is just as dangerous.

When things are too slow, time does not march on. It sashays.

One cannot avoid history, because all of life is saturated with it.

Still not varnishing. Not taking any chances.

A small goblet of sirop de cassis on a dry afternoon

In the men's room, when I can smell the piss of the men to the left and to the right of me, I can tell what they'd recently eaten or what their psycho-emotional states are.

Mosquitoes don't have hives, but I suspect that they have queens. 

Good morning, Cubao!

Sunshine hatches from its golden egg.

One becomes immediately richer when one stops spending money on friends.

Sauntered over to M.'s cafe for a bedtime meal. Tried their bangsilog with a can of root beer. Quite good; the medium-sized bangus is deboned, breaded, and deep-fried.

E. shipped the two kuman thong to me today. Will deposit money in her bank account tomorrow or Thursday. The kuman thong played tricks on her while she had not yet shipped them. When they finally arrive and I have them enshrined, I know that she will encounter a good fortune series.

I'm now obsessed with chandeliers. Lots and lots of them. I somehow believe that no other ceiling lights exist but chandeliers. In my book A Filipino Werewolf in Quezon City (An Author's Notebook), I even swore that there are chandeliers in heaven.

Restraining myself, though, because the granddaughters want their upstairs rooms to look very modern.

Thank God for excellent electricians. The granddaughters' four, new, bathroom ceiling lights and the three, new, downstairs electrical outlets have been installed. Switched a few lamps round the writing area.

I'm very selfish about and possessive over my house workers. I don't share them with friends, and am always pretending that they exist only for me.

Brought the men to M.'s cafe after and bought them a sizzling sisig dinner.

Back from jalan-jalan. Bought four new electrical outlet units, four new ceiling lights, and a roll of electrical tape. I seem to be in a light mood, pun intended.

A cozy reading light for the rainy days

Busy-hive Tuesday. Ben is cleaning the upper floor and Danny is arriving to install three electrical outlets in three walls.

Good morning, Cubao!

The clouds are a thousand, tumbling rolls of paper towels.

Back from jalan-jalan. Bought fluorescent light bulbs and starters for the granddaughters' bathroom ceilings. Also bought essential oils and an empty oil bottle for mixing. The temptation to have a snack at the Cubao Leaky Cauldron was great, but I decided to go home.

Tony Perez's Art of War: Whether it is your enemies or your friends who are shooting, always stay away from the line of fire.

Two cups very black, Moccona espresso.

Good morning, Cubao!

The clouds are heavy-duty laundry machines.

The rains stopped as though someone turned a giant faucet off. If there are more to come, they are still far away, because, now, the sounds of cicadas, of vehicles on the road, and of conversations of passersby arise and dominate the air. When rain stops, one feels as though the rain were but a dream. Windows open. Doors open. The night greets you. It is visible once again, but, instead of stars in the sky, there are only the lights from neighbors' houses and tall condominium buildings in the distance.

Time is not completely linear, that is why a person's stardom neither fades nor can ever be taken away.

Wrong: "A recurring dream I always have is..."

Right: "A recurring dream I have is..."

Right: "A dream I always have is..."

Good morning, Cubao!

The clouds are stainless steel shower heads.

Sometimes the rain rattles past like roller coaster carriages on their steel track. Outside, the air is nippy, like it is in a wet autumn in Virginia. I remember many Decembers when I was in high school and college, when Fiesta Carnival did not yet exist. It was an ultimate joy to visit the Christmas carnivals temporarily built on empty lots. I rode the octopus and the ferris wheel even in the rain.

Today, at 67, I am happy to forego such adventures. I am thankful that, before I retired, I had our house wrapped all around with glass, sliding doors, and that all we have to do to keep out the heat and the cold is to shut them.

Yes, today was a deliciously lazy Saturday for me. Did a first batch of laundry and had a slow, afternoon drink.

Going back to bed now to continue rereading Hallowe'en Party.   

The werewolf crossed the street to the burger stand.

Dinner at home with Aubrey and R. Angelique and J. are at a party.

Mae Shen's 13.13.13 opened Thursday, July 19, 2018 at TheatreWorks Singapore.

Here are photos I took of the run-through Friday, July 6, 2018.