Why I feel this way - 2011 June
To recap
I’ve been here seven days. The change of pace and environment are jarring. I have to make decisions about this new lifestyle.
Do I really want to smoke again? Also, I need to insert regular vigorous exercise into my schedule.
Overall I need to establish a rhythm.
One of the things I’m realizing is the lower quality of things. For instance, my bedroom’s door knob turns with the knob.
Driving here is so different. People here don’t seem to care about their lives. Their daily behavior is full of risks that could be avoided. Motorcyclists are a good example. Seventy to 80 percent have no rear-view mirrors. So how do many make turns? They extend an arm out and begin to carve the turn. They don’t bother to glance and confirm that the vehicles behind them are slowing down! They’re fucking crazy. In the States the analogy are persons who just cross the road without looking both ways. They’re mostly the younger generation. They’re so confident that traffic will stop for them. Yes, pedestrians generally have the right-of-way but if the driver can prove that the pedestrian was careless and contributed substantially to the accident that killed or maimed the pedestrian, then the driver’s absolved. As I’ve told my kids and the occasional college kid I’ve yelled at, you might win your case but you’re either dead or maimed!
What a contrast. I moved from a society that emphasized pedestrian rights to one that has none.
(Risk is handled so differently here. I have to make adjustments.)
Now about the crowd I’m hanging around with. They’re mostly foreigners. American, Australian, Dutch, English, German, New Zealander, Scottish, Spanish, Swedish. They all have Filipina wives.
(With two exceptions, not one as per my Facebook conversation.)
Anyway what do they do? Frequent the bar, eat out, party. Stressful things. Lol.
I’m laughing at myself now. I guess fun things can be stressful too. Lol. This is the traction I need to write tomorrow’s post. Be sure to check retirednoway.wordpress.com tomorrow. I shall expound on this train of thought. 😉
Continuation
Spirituality. This Sunday, I’m attending the 9 a.m. service of this Christian church.
“Christian” is the term used in the States; it’s preferred for accuracy over Protestant.
So I’m remembering to hit the fine points too. Health. Spirituality.
Nutrition. There’s no problem with nutrition. In fact it’s one of the major benefits of living in a tropical rural setting. You’re just one step away from the source of fish, fruits, etcetera. That makes all these produce first-class in quality and inexpensive.
So what am I moping about?
Change.
Being older, it’s more difficult to handle change. But if I’m wise, I’ll engage actively with the agents of change. There are quite many and I just identified some and they’re things that don’t exist anymore and thus need to be replaced. These “things” were mostly habits and viewpoints. As I get older I become less materialistic. I think that’s true of many people as they age.
One of my lifelong habits is regular exercise. Two components I think are best: one to maintain the body and another to extend its reach. I’m thinking of Pilates and its more famous cousin, Yoga, for maintenance. And boxing for extending its reach.
2011 Jan, Trainer & Cooper, 1
(That’s a great sport by the way. When I was a kid I thought karatekas could beat boxers. Now I think the opposite. Pacman’s accomplishments are to be proud of!)
I can continue to do Pilates and Yoga. I just need to create a slot.
(In the States, or at least in my park district, it’s called PiYo. Excellent for your muscle tone and overall flexibility.)
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An article I wrote appeared in Trib Local.
Incidentally, before I left Chicago, I wrote an article praising my health club. It was my farewell after 18 years of a good relationship.
ONE OF ELMHURST’S BEST SECRETS
Why do I feel reluctant to divulge one of Elmhurst’s best secrets? It can’t be avoided if I tell this story. Elmhurst’s secret is our park district. We’ve got a great one. Thanks to their leadership, Elmhurst has a park district that keeps up with its residents. Courts Plus is one of our park district’s major facilities. It’s the gym and, over the years, it has grown. More tennis courts, a 25-yard swimming pool, and a climbing wall (which turned out to be a fad) were added. But what makes it a value is the quality of Courts Plus. It holds its own against commercial health clubs. Eighteen years ago, my then-wife and I had to decide between the local YMCA or Courts. At that time there was also a Nautilus gym in the old strip mall that Dominick’s (at St. Charles Rd. and Route 83) now occupies. We had young kids then so we needed a nursery. The Y didn’t offer it at that time but Courts Plus did. Kids Plus (Lol. I almost called it Nursery Plus!) at Courts Plus. My kids grew around it.
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I need to replace boxing. I’ll take up a new sport to extend my reach. How about scuba-diving?
The Philippines consists of 7,100 islands. Palawan has nearly a fourth of them. There’s world-famous diving destination Tubbataha Reef. For another kind of diving, Coron is the final resting site of 11 World War II Japanese warship shipwrecks. And I’ve already visited three of them. 😉  I’m pretty proud of that!
Mountaineering?
Palawan Island is dominated by mountains that run its length. A majority of the montane habitat remains intact, but the lowland forests have been destroyed by logging and slash-and-burn agriculture.
- Terrain Map of Palawan (Coron and other northern and eastern municipalities are not shown.)
The third largest of the Philippine islands, Palawan is long and narrow, consisting mainly of a steep mountain range whose highest point is 6,840 feet (2,085 m). Created as the result of tectonic plate movement, this ecoregion is marked by volcanic rocks and karst landscapes. Vegetation types on Palawan and other islands in this ecoregion are diverse and include beach forests, tropical lowland rain forests, lowland semi-deciduous forests, montane forests, and limestone forests.
But is casual gambling okay?
I was pretty much raised to be wary of gambling. I don’t have any outsize tendency to gamble. I love chess and I don’t gamble on chess. So I doubt that I’ll feel enamored with poker.
I wonder if I should invest in the effort to learn enough of it to play with the boys? I watched a bunch play poker after lunch today. There was Hans, Hans, Lito I think, Ana, Steve, Kiwi, and another Pinoy. The two Hans-es are Dutchmen. The second Hans seems to be the local poker fiend. The game was being played at De Negra Pearl, the bar where I watched the recent Pacquiao fight, the one with the cool website name–palawanicecoldbeer dot com.
Poker is one of the group’s primary pastimes.
That was very much on my mind when I “liked” Poker Mafia.
Poker Mafia
I played those Zynga games when they first came out: Farmville, Pirates, Vampires, Mafia Wars, Special Forces, and then decided they were wasting my time so I stopped playing all online Facebook games.
And now I’ve decided that I have to play a new one.  ;-(  But this time it’s to learn a new social skill. An important one I think in my new habitat.
Poker Chips that require real dollars
Did you notice something? These online games are pretty slick. Companies have finally settled on a business model that makes online gaming profitable. And among the first versions of that successful business model are those Zynga games. That’s why Zynga’s IPO is highly anticipated.
Did you notice something? To play, I need to spend real dollars. That’s the successful business model.
Hmmm… I just realized that Poker Mafia isn’t a Zynga game. I think I’ll mosey on down and check out Zynga Poker.
Don’t you feel better when you have a choice? 😉
Zynga Poker
But anyway…
I have to construct my lifestyle. The environment’s filling in a lot of the space with events and people. There’s also the driving, the food, the dust, the money, and so forth of everyday life. Now I have to insert the important things–health, spirituality, nutrition, love. And so forth.
My, my, this is going to be fun. 😉
Retired? No way! 