The Cat atop a Fence on a Rainy Day

View from the 3rd floor

Listening to Love by Lana Del Rey

I've been going to the gym five times a week for about a month. I'm doing everything I can to resist smoking. I’m trying to enter and very much welcome a #NicotineFree2023. And I’m already a non-smoker for two days. 😌👍🏼

Every morning, it's the same old people, music, and mood. My brother-in-law and I maintain a strict schedule: 5:30 AM, I open the store with my man (my lovely store assistant), prepare the items while waiting. At 6:15, brother-in-law arrives driving the family car. We drive to the gym, arrive, sign in, stretch, and run on the treadmill for thirty minutes.

The weekly schedule is as follows: Shoulders for Monday, Back and Chest for Tuesdays, rest day on Wednesday, Arms for Thursday, Core Friday and Saturday Leg day. Sunday's a cheat day for him, but I like to be religious.

My small town— indeed, the Philippines—is experiencing what one news report described as a "Flood Christmas." A deluge woke me at 1 a.m. on the 25th and didn't stop until early afternoon. It happened again yesterday, on the 26th, even knocking out our power. The store had no electricity from 8 a.m. until 10 p.m. Obviously, the ice and beverages weren't sellable. We at least had the "blessing" of a postponed ice cream delivery. It would have been a disaster if we had the ice cream delivered only to have it all melt away.

Thankfully, remarkably, we made an above-the-mark profit, enough to treat my boys to a couple of pizza slices each. Not for me, un/fortunately; I have a few unwanted calories I need to shed.

It was Back and Chest at gym today, a few hours ago. As usual, I conceal my fabulous gayness and queerness. One gym buddy today even said, "Abs! Aim for abs! Then you’ll get a girlfriend!" while her Arabian boyfriend chuckled. (Every morning during her workout, she videocalls her boyfriend). And my thoughts were, "If I’ll dedicate my abs to anybody (should I achieve that), it will be to your Arabian daddy, not you 😆".

During rests between exercise sets, I like going to the fire exit for some air. Outside, there’s an abandoned house and lot sold for 20 million pesos (my gym buddies say). The owners are nowhere to be found in this city. Sadly, they even left their gorgeous cat, who now has to depend on their neighbors for food. A poor king in its barren kingdom.

Every morning, it meows from the top of a fence to the window on the other side. Its neighbors only deign to feed it. That morning it waited for its food, crouching, assuming the Sphinx position, eyes closed, head bowed, its fur wet with rainwater.