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

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.

Tuesday

What’s good, Pilipinas?

Wednesday

So many of my lucid dreams have my Inang in them.

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.

Oh, and FYI:

Thursday

Please allow me to take this moment and adore Howl and Sophie.

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.

Still reeling from that, by the way.

Thankfully, I have a good, good Father.

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?

Saturday

And now, our typhoon woke us up early in the morning with strong winds ramming over our roofs. An update:

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:

Ompong is wild, but I am glad to tell you that it smelled nice, at least.

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.

Let’s rise up after this, please? I’ll lend you my hand. x