Page Two
These pics are of of the sights in childhood that give me
the fond memories I have today. Kalesas, kalabaos on the side of the road. The most basic stuff. I used to actually take a Kalesa to school 
when given the choice as a child going to school in Batangas. A car would have taken me if I had preferred but whenever I could, I took a Kalesa. When I look at
the photo on the left, of the kalesa, the sight of it sends warm surges of comfort up and down my spine, so
much did I enjoy and love them.
I used to wake up to the sound of the horses hooves in the morning..a slow clop, clop, clop, clop. The smell of fresh baked pan
de sal wafting up to my second story bedroom window from the bakery across from where we lived in Batangas. Chickens from the coops crowing. I was so lucky and didn’t even know it. Well, now I do. I’m so happy to have
seen the sights I’ve seen.
Feb. 20th-2001 -3:32PM
More snow.....why am I living here...OmG if it snows anymore I am going to go
ballistic I swear!! No NO! Get a grip. Hey no one forced you to live here, I say to myself. Self, I say to myself “you need serious psychological help.
Looking forward to that burger Tony is bringing back home. Poor guy hardly gets any home cooked meals anymore. I think I will ask for sainthood to be bestowed upon him.
I miss Michele, I’m glad she’s happy in Mexico, but man do I miss her. I miss dad. He’s back in Manila having a good ole time. My phone bill is going to be crazy this month.
09 February 2001
We are getting buried in snow. It’s still coming down. Over a foot since this morning. Had to shovel out the gazebo housing the hot tub. God forbid I get cut off from the
jacuzzi right when I need it. That’s Tony digging the truck out from under the snow.
There’s nothing quite so beautiful as fresh fallen snow on the fir trees. They don’t
look real. It’s like living in a winter wonderland. It’s so quiet when it snows too. Then of course the reality sinks in, get the driveway shoveled or you don’t get out. Well
not exactly true since we have 4 wheel drive, but those slippery walk ways are beastly on visitors.
02 February 2001
Its’s so comforting to come here and see the old school I went to on the banner for this site. The school burned down a few years ago. Wow, it was built in the 1800’s. I found a
couple of tiles amidst the rubble, from the tile insets in the walls and brought them home. When I heard of the school burning down, my heart sunk. Then when I was home last
November, I saw it for myself. A mere shell. I suddenly just started to cry.... It’s so odd because I didn’t like going to school. I liked the old building and would often go up the stairs
next door at the old church bell tower. Straight up a pole staircase that
was the most peculiar experience to climb because you had no room to swing for a next step at all. You had to sort of lean into the handrail and go straight up, round and round. Had to be there I guess. I took the photo
of it when I went back home in 1976. It’s still there now.
I had to bend down to enter a low wooden door, it opened below this bell on the left, I would look up and see the
clapper in the middle of the bell. These church bells were made in the mid 1800’s. I always got goose bumps. You could look out from this level and see the dome of the Cathedral, built around the same time.
I would go hide out up in the bell tower at least once a week. The other kids never went there. I could be alone, I could look out over the Calumpang river and recall some of the local legends about dwendes and
such. I would get so deliciously scared. 
The bell tower was my secret hideaway. It was a good place to cry wasn’t it? I cried a lot as a kid. I was always so melancholy. I didn’t fit
in with the other kids. I didn’t seem to think like them or act like them, I felt like a freak. No one who would meet me would guess these things I suppose. Until I got old enough to express myself without fear of
reprisal, like demerits and going to the head nuns office for counseling. Oh geez. Things seemed so intense then.
Well that was a long time ago. But it reminds me where my roots are and what is dear to me. Right now, in present time, it’s snowing. I’ve
turned on the Christmas lights which stay up all year now, and my neighbor has turned on his lights on his little live Christmas 
tree which he planted when it was very small. Its grown a lot since then. This is a present we give each other whenever it snows. He’s a nice neighbor.
that white stuff is snow...we have a couple of inches of it on the ground now. It was a perfectly clear blue sky day too. I love that lil tree with the red lights. And I love my green rope lights too.
Feeling blah though..I wish I could walk along a beach barefooted with nary but a t-shirt and shorts on, and not long johns, and socks and a sweater, hats, gloves....no wonder I hardly leave the house anymore.