Today, after securing the lower external outlets and my dog’s house at the back of our shed, I’m sat here, writing about what nearly was a super typhoon ramming the northern part of the Philippines. The last 2 days since Ompong’s existence was announced, the weather has been eerily quiet, and there was no sign of it except for the heavy gray clouds that cast itself on our usual sunny sky. I’m a lover of rains, it makes me write better, for some reason, but today, writing has been more of a documentation, because this typhoon is HARSH, and we hope to survive it in whole and unscathed.
Here is how my week went:
Monday
This is the only fact you need
God's got your back. God's got your sides. God's got your front and up and under. God's got you. That's the truth and that's the tweet.
— Caris Cruz (@hellocaris) September 10, 2018
Young Asa and young Chloe looked so adorable, I would adopt them. But girl, no, you do not blackmail a strange, needy boy just for the sake of your desire to have an adventure.
I just watched Martin Scorsese's Hugo and now I am terribly dazed.
One nice thing: having written for horologists, the appearance of an automaton (and a mechanical leg) was wonderfully pleasant. STEAMPUNK BB
Plus! Asa's eyes are beautifully blue.
— Caris Cruz (@hellocaris) September 10, 2018
Tuesday
What’s good, Pilipinas?
Tuesday morning. My mother said market prices were so high people would pass by vendors instead of actually buying. If we're finding it tough, how much more the less fortunate than us?
This. Was not. Supposed. To happen. This. Was not. What the government. Promised.
— Caris Cruz (@hellocaris) September 10, 2018
Wednesday
So many of my lucid dreams have my Inang in them.
Stranger Dreams #73:
Inang was not in her house. I've been staying in her room, reading her Bible. They say she went back to their old house to clean it. She came back with mid length black hair tied in a ponytail. Ate Kaye fetched her. She wanted water but there was none.
— Caris Cruz (@hellocaris) September 11, 2018
Typhoon Neneng is out, Typhoon Ompong, about to come in, and this is where it gets serious. So serious, that I think I’ve said something good.
I know this storm is going to hit most of Luzon, and my only prayer is that we stand strong and hold each other up during the downpour. Skies go dark, but never the sun and stars. x
— Caris Cruz (@hellocaris) September 12, 2018
Oh, and FYI:
PINOY (weather-related) CATASTROPHIC WORDS
Habagat = Southwest monsoon
Daluyong = storm surge
Bagyo = typhoon
Bugso = wind gust
Hangin = wind
Ulan = rain— Caris Cruz (@hellocaris) September 12, 2018
Thursday
Please allow me to take this moment and adore Howl and Sophie.
Spent the entire hour swooning at Howl's Moving Castle which I tend to rewatch at least once a year because ISN'T IT GLORIOUS 🖤 pic.twitter.com/xV5OW65ekh
— Caris Cruz (@hellocaris) September 13, 2018
Guess what? That’s all I remembered on Thursday.
Friday
On Friday morning, dad called to remind us we have funerals to visit, and so, I asked my mom if we could leave the earliest possible, since we don’t know the weather. I think I have deprived her of some things, including meeting whom she intended to meet should we come later in the day, and her getting a nice hour of sleep before leaving. But we don’t know the weather, and we were already dressed. And when we made those calls, I have realized a few things that emphasized how much I have deprived myself of so many life lessons.
I have so many thoughts about today and things only happened in what, 2 hours
Also, it's 11:56 a.m. it's not even half of the day BUT STILL
— Caris Cruz (@hellocaris) September 14, 2018
Still reeling from that, by the way.
Thankfully, I have a good, good Father.
Instead of breaking through my walls, You sang me a song for decades until I was brave enough to open the door and take tiny steps out of my cage
— Caris Cruz (@hellocaris) September 14, 2018
In Zambales, a province by the sea, people are lining up to get cheaper rice but sellers ran out of it, and so, there was a long pile of hungry buyers unable to get a food staple which THIS COUNTRY HAS BEEN KNOWN FOR PRODUCING. Pilipinas, what happened to us?
Sobrang sakit makita yung mga kababayan nating pumipila ng mahaba at di pa rin mabigyan ng sapat na bigas. 🍚
Sana hindi ganito. Sana napaglinang natin ang mga lokal na sakahan. Sana hindi mas nahihirapan yung nga taong kapos na sa buhay. 💔
— Caris Cruz (@hellocaris) September 14, 2018
Saturday
And now, our typhoon woke us up early in the morning with strong winds ramming over our roofs. An update:
Something just madly rolled over our roof (OR WAS IT OUR ROOF ~joking AND HOPING it was not~) but we're safe and warm and awake inside. 🏡
— Caris Cruz (@hellocaris) September 14, 2018
That thing, my dear friends, is a glass-and-aluminum cabinet my mom’s worker put at the top of the roofed water tank. And well, it tumbled down to a crash.
I also had a bad dream which woke me up with my heart angry and racing:
Stranger Dreams #74:
Landed in the airport on my own w/ only a duffle bag. I headed to the resort which accommodated all my needs. When I realized I had to take another flight, I asked one of the male staff to help me, but he was rude, so I got off on my own in a tricycle.
— Caris Cruz (@hellocaris) September 14, 2018
Ompong is wild, but I am glad to tell you that it smelled nice, at least.
Ompong smells like newly uprooted grass. The sound of yero dancing in the air is not a good sign. Outside, the giant bamboo tree across our house got its thin, slender poles mangled by the wind. And, not a surprise, our subdivision is already flooded.
— Caris Cruz (@hellocaris) September 14, 2018
There we go. A week in September gone past by in a jiffy. My dad is in SIUMC, for the first time, alone in this year’s most dangerous storm with no company but the Mateos’ dogs, chickens, and God’s army of angels. That same army is watching over you, so whether you are alone in the cold, safe in the warmth, or somewhere else other than home, please find rest and comfort, for you are loved and looked after.
Leave a Reply