A Mango Shake from Scooby's

There are quite a few Scooby's located in Dumaguete, but for the purposes of this mango shake review, I choose the Scooby's Fastfood located on San Jose Street - across from Hotel Nicanor.

Of course, I'm not privy to the secrets involved in making Scooby's mango shakes, but I didn't taste any dairy in the shake I had there. I'm not holding that against them. The shake was quite good and at only 50 pesos, you can't beat the price.

Auto Body Work Done

We found ourselves with a little extra money this month, so on Monday, my wife and I dropped off our car at a nearby auto-body repair shop to have some much needed work done on our car. Naturally, I took a few "before" photos.

The work was completed on Thursday. When the car was originally dropped off, the technician sanded the vehicle and applied - what I believe we call in the U.S., bondo - After it was applied, my wife was able to bring the car home over night, which is when I took the second set of photos.

The final photos were taken this morning after I returned home from bike riding. I'm happy with job done.

 

Metal Posts and Scaffolding

Our new project began in earnest yesterday, and I'm continuing to document the progress. Today, I've taken 18 photos of the work done so far. That's way too many photos for one blog post, so I'll be doing as I did with the installation of the new gate and the construction of the wall going around our property.

I'm going to divide these 18 photos and put them into a post on each of my three blogs simultaneously:
Scaffolding and Metal Posts
The Scaffolding and the Metal Posts
Metal Posts and Scaffolding

Anyone interested in seeing all the work done today can simply click on another link to be led to another blog post.

 

An Earlier Project

There was an earlier project around the house, which I've neglected blogging about. On March 05, we had small gates put up, basically to prevent our dog from getting out of the yard and into the garden.

Not quite sure why I neglected posting these photos, but as they say, better late than never.

 

The New Project Begins

I mentioned yesterday on another blog that we would be beginning a new project. The workers arrived this morning. We had ordered materials and work on the patio begins today in earnest.

The two helpers began cutting away at portions of the block wall; this will be where the metal posts will be placed. When finished, the post will be basically inside the wall. The cutting into the block wall is being done with a hammer and a homemade chisel of sorts. I would not care to do that job.

The head man is welding the angle iron. Once the angle iron frame is assembled, the workers will build a scaffold with coco lumber. I'm assuming that will be done tomorrow.

Anyone interested in reading about earlier work done at our house can check out these blog posts.

Our New Gate
Photos for Tuesday
Monday's Wall Photos
Thursday's Photos
Two Days' Work
Flooring Begins
The Ceiling - Day Six
The Ceiling - Day Two
While Away From The Internet........
Work on the House Continues
Update on the House.

 

Along the Diversion Road In Sibulan

 

I took the bicycle out this morning just before 7:00 for a little ride along the Diversion Road in Sibulan. I planned on riding in the upper section of the road where I knew there would little to no traffic.

I suppose one can say I'm making progress but I most definitely have a long way to go to get back to shape. I was winded and sweating before I had gone any real distance. Of course, I have no way of measuring my distance. I know where I turned around to return home, and if I can go a little farther tomorrow, I'll be happy.

Spider

 

We're having a pest control man over today to combat the ants, and while he sprays inside the house, I was asked to go outside. I thought this might be a good opportunity to take my camera into the wooded area nearby. I recently spotted a Philippine Coucal and I thought I might get lucky enough to get a photo this morning.

Although I heard the distinctive cuckoo sound, I was unable to get close enough to see the bird - much less close enough to photograph.

Not wanting my outing to be a total loss, I took a few photos. Unfortunately, the only photo that I found interesting was this photo of a spider - some sort of Argiope. At first, I thought the spider was the same type as one I photographed outside my in-laws' house when I first arrived. Comparing the webs and the differences in body shape, I now believe these two are of the same species but of different genus.

Walking versus Cycling

Anyone familiar with any of my blogs may recall that, prior to October of 2020, I wrote quite a few blog posts about walking in the area in and around Sibulan and Dumaguete. Toward October, I was averaging over two miles a day.

These daily walks ended when I had an attack of sciatica. This was written about in my post on my round of acupuncture treatments. Eventually, the sciatica went away - whether that was due to the acupuncture, the weekly massages or just time, remains a question.

Although no longer plagued with the sciatic pain, I'm afraid that my arches have fallen which makes walking difficult. I mentioned yesterday that I bought a new bicycle. Not having done any aerobic exercise since October, I experienced difficulty breathing after cycling a short distance. On the other hand, there were no pains in my legs or feet as a result of the bicycle riding.

This morning, my wife had an appointment to drop off our car at a nearby body repair shop located near the Smiles on Demand call center. This is fairly close to our house (slightly less than 1 km), so the plan was for her to leave the car and walk home. I decided to accompany her. I noticed a huge difference between walking this morning and bike riding. I had no difficulty breathing while walking (as I had with the bicycle) but unlike the bicycle ride, my feet where in pain from the relatively short walk. It seems that with walking, my entire body weight is on my feet, where as that isn't the case with riding a bicycle.

I'll continue to work of my cardiovascular conditioning by bicycle riding. I may have to consult an orthopedist or podiatrist before I can get back into a long distance walking routine.

New Bicycle for an Old Man

 

For several months, I've been wanting to buy a bicycle. I finally bought one this morning, just a few days after the Biden Bucks arrived in our bank account.

I'm less than a month away from my 69th birthday, and this is the first time I've ridden a bicycle in 40 years. I knew I'd have a rough time, but I'm not in as fine shape as I thought I was. It's about 1.5 miles from the bicycle shop where I purchased the bike to our place in Magatas. I honestly thought I'd be able to go the distance.....but no such luck. I didn't get far before I was completely winded and unable to go farther.

My wife and I put the bicycle in the car, and we drove home. I see now that it will take several days of riding before I'll be able to go any good distance to speak of.

Slowly but surely....a little more each morning.

 

17 Million Views

I just received an email from Google Maps letting me know that the photos I've posted on the website have received more than 17 million views.

Actually, when I go to the Google Maps site, I see that the number is currently 17,565,675 views.

This number is an increase of more than 1,000,000 views since I last wrote about this in December, 2020.

I'm especially proud that my photo of Bernie Sanders sitting outside a McDonald's in Dumaguete has received more that 450 views.