What’s not to like about the rainy season here in my Bataan paradise?
It follows a two-month period of blistering heat; it turns all plants from brown to green and makes my new lawn look great.
Plus it’s a good excuse to stay home and consume a few canned consumables. The wife will explain about the shortage of rice in her kitchen, and I can say, “I think the National Highway is washed out.”
While watching the local News last year, it was announced that Mega Manila was 90% ready for the rainy season! Then three days later it was shown that Mega Manila was flooded after the first rain fall, not from a Typhoon. I figured that must have been the 10% that was not prepared.
The Department of Public Works then had the great idea of removing manhole covers to aid in the draining of the streets. If you do that, the open manholes then are covered with a foot of floodwater rendering them invisible; it would be wise to mark that area, to insure that your citizens don’t just disappear while walking along that street. That is the plan for this year, as I understand it!
I am in no way making light of the three disastrous Typhoons last year that took an incredible toll on the people of Manila later in the season. Living on a mountain as I do, and having a basic understanding of gravity, when I built my house I had the workers install 3 inch drains on both sides of my house with connecting pipes to aid in the run-off during the rainy season.
The guy next door informed me that the run-off was washing away the dirt in front of his gate and that I should pay to lay cement for him to prevent this from happening! I explained that there was a church up the street and he should speak with them about this problem, as the gods send the rain, I keep what I need, and return the excess back to the gods! Should I have to fix his leaky roof also?
The thing I like most about the rainy season is the lack of dust. Dust coats everything during the dry season. So my wife has hired some extra help to clean the house from top to bottom, and I picked up 12 cans of spray Pledge (lemon scented) to aid in her project. I do my part.
With the upcoming Typhoon season, trees must be trimmed, to prevent damage to houses and electric lines. My Barangay is very pro-active in this aspect and some of the work is already started. Last week on Monday, we’d had no electric since 9pm the night before, Tuesday seemed like a good day to trim our mango tree, April Boy and his sons are working on it, and clearing the leftover mangos as a side benefit. They’ve fill one rice bag so far. I noticed that a lot of my neighbors are taking advantage of the brownout and are doing the same to their trees.
My generator guy is coming up to tune and service the Honda, and I’ll increase my fuel supply just in case. The Boy Scouts have it right, “Be Prepared”. Over the past years, with countless typhoons and storms, my Barangay has weathered well, and I’m tasked with charging all cell phones during very long brownouts And we only can hope that our luck is continuous.
Another point in our favor is the people up here have banded together to prevent illegal logging further up the mountain, and to date we’ve not had a landslide. Everyone pitching in will insure another safe and very wet season. I’m glad I choose to live here, Just let it rain, I like it.
Hey Paul,
Yip, no point in whinging about it, if it’s gonna rain, it’s gonna rain!
Very nice to hear that there are people who realise that the illegal logging is often what has caused or contributed to the landslides. We might eventually live on a mountain side, sounds idyllic; and if this dream comes to fruition, I will spend any bored hours sniping potential illegal loggers. I’ve always thought that the one sure way to halt crime was to shoot the criminals, you see. It stops them re-offending, and it acts as a disincentive to potential future criminals. Call me radical if you wish, I don’t care!!
Jim;
Radical? I think not, you have a plan that would be most effective. You could be the cause of the old saying “Get the lead out!” when you want a job done.
Our Kaptain is very strong on stopping illegal logging, as he would also would lose his house during a landslide.
Hi Paul,
Another timely post! I enjoy your philosophy of dealing with it and taking it as it comes, but being prepared is foremost. The best one can do is to anticipate potential problems in regard to the inevitable rains and their after effects.
Our house in Calamba, Laguna has been flooded to the depth of about 2 feet twice in the past 5 years since it was built. We own it and it can’t be raised to a higher elevation. All of the major improvements are made to the 2nd floor and to the lower floor the improvements have been limited to what must be done to ensure that the flooding damage can be dealt with. The house is located on the flood plane of a small river. I wasn’t there when the construction occurred and Daisy did a remarkable job in coordinating the efforts, having never done anything even close to this before. A layer of fill would have raised the foundation not enough to alleviate the flooding, but would have helped some. We love our home and we are happy there. Hindsight is 20/20; we live and learn. The Atienza compound is is a comforting and protective place for us and especially Daisy as we are not together forever, just yet.
Jade
Jade;
My best friend has the same problem, he had to abandon the first floor of his house. But the 2 nd floor has been totally re-built and it’s a palace. We were all there for a party and a newbie asked who lived below, he smiled and said, “That’s my indoor pool!”
You’re right all you can do, is adjust, and make the best of the situation.
Jade- had the same problem myself. I used to own a house in Florida near Tampa – right on the Gulf of Mexico. In order to get flood insurance- something which ALL banks required before they would give you a mortgage- you had to have the ground floor unfinished, with openings at both ends [ one for the water to come in and one for it to go out !! lol] Of course everyone went ahead and finished off their ground floors, and put their expensive heat pumps there. I got away with it for 4 years until Hurricane Andrews hit- 8 foot swell on a high tide, so the water was 12 feet deep – and 7 foot deep in my house. And like Katrina the salt water wasnt the big problem- it was all the fertilizer, motor oil, insecticides, septic overflow etc that the salt water contained.
Ian;
I know what you’re talking about, I owned a house in Largo Florida (By Clearwater) I was one block from the intracoastal waterway, luckly it was in a non-flood area, but I still had to buy flood insurance. No floods but five tornados during the few years I owned it. Ain’t Florida Grand!
Hi, Paul:
Uh-oh. Sounds like you have a difficult neighbor like Bob has, but I like the way you handled your neighbor’s belly-aching about the run-off washing away the dirt from his front gate. That was a quick-witted comeback as any. I can almost see his jaw dropping half-way to the ground. Ha ha ha. Just curious, was he able to come up with a retort just as quick and good?
Now, tell us, Paul – your decision to build your house in the mountain, instead of in the flood-prone lowlands of Luzon as a way to neutralize Mother Nature, would you give the credit for that great foresight to: a) Boy Scouts training (you mentioned the Boy Scouts motto); b) your Navy training; or c) your wife’s training? 🙂
John;
Navy training, I’d be living on a pier. Boy Scout training, I’d be in a tent, my darling wife’s training, I’d be stuck in downtown Olongapo close to the market. After 30 plus years at sea I wanted high ground (lol)
The neighbor bought cement and took care of the problem, with no retort, (The church turned him down). Then he sold out and the new people are good neighbors.
Well Paul..sounds like you best get to the rice store and get a 100 kilo bag of nice rice so your wife will be happy. I think in a house hold in the Phillipines with the rice bin low could not be a good thing! A Fillipina with out her rice would be like you with out your San Migs or other drinkables…Lol…
Dan;
I was joking about the rice, I’m smart enought never to let the rice supply ever get too low. I like breathing air as much as I like SMB’s, and will do nothing to stop either one (lol).
But I do have one old dog who refuses to come in out of the rain, he’ll just stand there and get wet. Whilst the rest of the dogs are in the three different shelters they have. I know he’s old and blind, but dumb too?
Hey paul,
I’m wondering why they don’t have the forsight to put some sort of barricade over the open manholes. Maybe they’re affraid sombody will take them.
This reminds me of my Grandmothers orange grove in Anaheim when I was a child. There was an outhouse in the middle of the orange grove. Uncle Frank dug a new hole, and moved the outhouse. He never filled in the old one. As they were flood irrigating the orange grove, we hear Uncle Tony calling for help as he was stuck up to his hips in the old hole…Oops!
Hudson;
I’ll wage that only happened once to Uncle Tony. So you once lived behind the Orange Curtain? Maybe someone took Tony’s barricade!
Yeah, I grew up in Garden Grove.
Uncle Tony was more upset by the fact that his Tobacco pouch full of half N half was wet.
Hudson;
With the half N’ Half, just dry it in the sun and it will taste the same lol.
Hello Paul, Thank you for sharing here a taste of the wet season. I’m missing it so bad obviously. Despite its potential havoc, I love the rain in the Philippines. If I’m in Manila, I imagine seeing the trees looking so “full” after a night of heavy rain. It’s a joyful feeling when the heavy rain pours outside and you have everything you need in the house–good book and comfort food. When you get tired of those, card games & beer w/ friends is also great. Somehow you wake up to a city that’s a bit cleaner the morning after. It also rains in the midwest (duh!) But somehow the experience is so different. The damp earth doesn’t smell the same and even the wet bushes & rotting leaves. The house even reacts to the extra moisture in the air. Necessarily, the market teems with different delicacies you do not find during dry season. Your wife is right to be on guard w/ her kitchen provisions. Best regards.
Roy;
There are many great things about the rainy season, and you named a few. Card games and beer with friends, I like the way you think. My wife watered the lawn yesterday, and then it rained. I said nothing, I just smiled.
Paul my only problem is that the internet connection doesn’t like rain. Maybe the guys peddling the generator can’t afford raincoats or something. I recently got a PLDT landline but it’s even worse than SMART Bro. I suspect the landline has a few gaps where the signal has to get out of the cable and swim.
Other than that I like the rain more than I expected I would. In Australia summer rain is awful because the heat tends to stay the same and the humidity skyrockets. But here the temperature drops quite a lot, and the humidity was sky high already.
Ken;
That’s so true about the internet, and I use a cell phone to connect. But an added trouble is durning hard rain I lose my Dream Satilite TV, so for years I buy DVD’s at the market and save them for just such times, (I hope they’re legal) Or like Roy said, a good book, while hearing the rain fall…
I have noticed the cooling effect the rain has here, vice Florida where it stays the same temp, but it’s just wet.
Senior;
Looks like your neighbor is trying to get over on you, how many years have you been there and this is just now a problem. I smell a fish (something for nothing).
When the States had a so-called rice shortage to drive the prices up my wife made me buy 200 lbs of is 4 sacks. That was the only topic they talked about for months.
Remember a Filipina without rice is a day without Sunshine for YOU. 🙂
Mike;
That was an old neighbor, he’s gone now, and I don’t miss him. He was an angry man, and thought the world owed him a living. (Wow, he might have made a great American) He told me that I just had to much and it wasn’t fair. I told him that he was the lucky one as when I was at sea working all those years he was home making babies, never had a job, and living off his family. How come I never got to do that? The new neighbor is Pinoy, retired after 40 years working and living in California.
BTW: During the rainy season, I have a lot of days without sunshine, so one day without rice…? Nope, you’re right about the rice!
Senior;
Yea your old neighbor would be on the bandwagon with all the other beggers in the world wanting to redistribute the wealth of hard working people. Heck wish I had the time in port to make five or six babies and send me money maybe I wouldn’t be so grouchy. On second thought NO two was more than enough and my pride and manhood is sacred .
Enjoy the rain Paul we have a tropical storm brewing in the atlantic so we should get some rain too.
Mike:
J-Ville never used to get hit by many storms, I guess that’s all changed now, thanks to Al Gore and his Global Warming, first he inventerd the internet, now this!
Then there is Zaldy, 47 years old, never had a job (his sister surports him) 3 kids, and then he asked me for a loan (read gift). I smile and chant, JOB, JOB…..
Condom, Condom, Condom. Amen to that
I say it slightly different down south Work, Work…..then i give you money to buy foods.
Yep, we like the rains here, it tops up our swimming pool that appears in our backyard everyday. I still ask the previous owner why he built below sea level, ah well.
Plus it’s wet and humid rather than warm and humid, nice for a change. The rain cleans the air, stops the people trying to burn wet rubbish ( yet they still try)!
Oh forgot, we can fill a bucket of water from the rain quicker than it takes to get it from the tap……go rain!!!
Boss;
The rubbish does pile up during the wet season, I at one time would bag up the trash and take it to the Olongapo Land Fill, until the wanted to charge me. So then I’d put it in front of my buddies house on pick-up day, and have a beer with my friend. But I do like the green after the dry season.
So
1. there’s no trash pick-up in Pita???
2. I gotta get a generator.
3. check my elevation
All good ideas Mike! My area is punished by the Mayor, as he’s never won here. So we in Roosevelt get nothing from Dinalupihan, except taxes.Then he can’t figure why he can’t win, you must give to receive. I don’t know about trash pick-up in Pita, hell, we just got city water 3 months ago.