It's a beautiful morning with Bob Dylan playing in the background.
Had my early fill of coffee for the day, er, the morning. Listening to a live version of Bob Dylan's One More Cup of Coffee. The violin sounds eerily pleasant and the bass lines are really cool.
One more cup of coffee for the road
One more cup of coffee 'fore I go
To the valley below
I ran out of my favorite kapeng barako brew, but this instant black coffee will do just fine. It will be enough to fill in my morning musings while listening to some music.
Throw in Dylan's familiar voice, a harmonica and a more upbeat tune and you've got the genuine, lighthearted, classic Like a Rolling Stone. Only a poet can spew out these lyrics:
Aw, you never turned around to see the frowns
On the jugglers and the clowns when they all did tricks for you
Never understood that it ain't no good
You shouldn't let other people get your kicks for you
Delaying the Inevitable
Haven't turned on the news yet, but I'm hopeful that things are better in Minnesota, Hong Kong and other parts of the world where civil unrest and violence have been escalating the past few days. I will have to look at what's happening out there later, to be aware and to be informed about the world around me. Call it curiosity, or maybe entertainment. At any rate, I like looking at the positive side of life first, then the other side. We can't have one without the other and things might take a turn for the worse, but at least I know that there is another side to every story and always light at the end of the tunnel.
Container Gardening
In the meantime, the ginger rhizomes I've planted a couple of weeks ago have grown. I'm happy that it did. Ginger prices have gone up since the quarantine and I have no idea why. 100 grams of ginger went up as high as Php100.00 (US$2.00) from around Php25.00 (US$0.50) a few weeks ago in the market. It's unbelievable!
For comparison, I bought these from a man selling fresh vegetables this morning for Php50.00 (US$1.00), which is a bargain. And, I did not even have to go out and queue at the grocery nor walk 2 miles to get it. It's a blessing to have these walking vendors or better known as ambulant vendors here in the country.
I'm already thinking about the culinary adventure waiting for me and the satisfying mealtime these greens will bring about: the sitaw (string beans) might become an adobong sitaw dish or ginataang sitaw at kalabasa(pumpkin and string beans cooked in coconut milk); the okra will probably be blanched and dipped in a soy sauce/calamansi/siling labuyo (chili) mixture; adobong kangkong (swamp cabbage or water spinach) with tofu sounds terrific; and, last, the sayote (chayote or mirliton) will become the main ingredient in a vegetarian tinola soup.
First Attempt
I tried sneaking in a few push ups, but got distracted and did not continue. Maybe it's just laziness that I have to overcome, but whatever it is, I won't let it keep me from exercising. My dog, Cobi, was enthusiastic at first but got bored after a few minutes of watching.
Conclusion
The world is at a tipping point, on the one hand we have a pandemic that is wrecking havoc to the world like never before. It has already affected millions of people and the economic and financial implications will be in the trillions when this is over. People have lost loved ones, and families have been separated because of the quarantine restrictions and those who have lost lives.
On the other hand, at the heart of this great unrest, tension is building up in both the individual/community level and on a worldwide scale that may signal the birthing of a new tomorrow, a better tomorrow, that will nurture and nourish our children for many centuries to come.
In any case, we have to stay even-keeled, vigilant and aware of our surroundings. The Coronavirus is just one among the many difficulties we are facing at this moment in time. And we have to survive and thrive for the sake of our children and the future generations to come.
Thanks for dropping by and reading the ramblings of a Southern Tagalog native. Keep safe and healthy everyone. :)
*I own all the photos used in this post.
** Thanks to #HivePH for the support!
