Netnet Camomot
IT was aircon weather in Cagayan de Oro early Sunday morning — 20 degrees Celsius at 4:24 am.
I’m sure it was 4:24 am. I even took a screenshot of the weather app.
The cool weather continued throughout the day, making that Sunday the perfect time to stay in bed and read books. No aircon required — a kind of P.S. to windy Saturday.
Weekends are best spent at home, resting weary bones.
With tensions in the Middle East, and a seemingly uncontrolled U.S. president not intent on easing them, I felt I deserved a weekend where I could chill and just be. And last weekend’s weather was definitely chill. Brrr.
Pair that with home-cooked carnivore meals whose ingredients I’m sure of because, hey, I did the grocery shopping, didn’t I? Unlike in restos, where chefs are pressured to add more ingredients to ensure the dish is at its most delish — and will make me go back for more.
For Pinas to have spring and autumn has always been my wishful thinking. If climate change ever makes that happen, I’ll be the happiest Pinay in this corner of the world.
Winter has snow — great for snow angels. But plowing my way out of the driveway? No way.
Summer means higher electric bills just to keep the aircon running 24/7. Who needs that amid rising fuel prices? Not me.
For now, Pinas has only two seasons: hot and wet. Oops. That sounds like some other kind of “weather.” Let’s switch to general parlance: dry and wet. Still a bit R-18, but that will do.
“Wet” means rainy, by the way. In case you need more specific terms, the wet or rainy season can also be muddy, “flash-floody,” and even “landslide-y,” sometimes with an unfortunate Pinoy buried underneath.
Wet can also escalate to Typhoon Signal No. 5, which is not only muddy, “flash-floody,” and “landslide-y,” but also blow-your-house-away. Literally. One moment the house is there. The next second, it’s gone with the wind and the rain.
This may sound funny, but it’s not. Try telling this to Sendong survivors. Let’s see if they will laugh their hearts out.
No, they won’t. This will only trigger painful memories, as many of them lost family members in the Sendong flash floods. The loss left them numb for a very long time.
At the time, I was a member of a group that provided tent cities and conducted relief operations. Survivors told me how they had lost their loved ones.
Sendong was not even Signal No. 5. It was Signal No. 2.
The weather can be treacherous, especially in a tropical country that typhoons love to visit. Its reactive government doesn’t help much, as it tends to act only at the last minute — right before the typhoon’s arrival — while apparently focusing on securing commissions from flood-control contractors. Oops, allegedly.
The government is already aware of how destructive typhoons can be, but the controversial flood-control projects suggest that some officials continue to have other priorities — preferably personal in nature.
If they learned a lesson from the 2013 pork barrel scam, it was not how to prevent another scam from happening, but how to steal more from the national treasury and get away with it — oops, allegedly.
