By Estanislao Albano, Jr.
DATI A PIRDINA (THE OLD DEFECT)
There is a lot of truth in what Florence say that when it comes to motorcycles, the only means of conveyance we could afford, I only know how to ride and nothing else.
One morning last week, the motorcycle would not come alive. My brother-in-law and neighbor Mike Pekas who, knowing my weakness, has “adopted” my motorcycle – he trouble shoots minor defects and repairs them if he could and alerts me of some maintenance needs and if I could not attend to these, he would do it himself -, surmised the spark plug is the culprit and proceeded to unscrew the part and clean it. After that, the motorcycle sprung to life.
Yesterday morning, the XRM refused to come to life again so presuming that the spark plug is dead again, sometime during the day, I bought a new one. In the afternoon, Mike came to the house and changed the spark plug. The trouble was after that, the engine remained dead even when Mike used the kick starter.
At that point and as though something lit up in the mind of Mike and he declared with conviction: “Ammokon. Diay dati a pirdina man daytoy.” (I now know. It is the old defect.) He then opened the U-box and unscrewed the cap of the gas tank. The tank was dry.
The background of the statement of Mike happened more than 20 years ago. At one time, the motorcycle I was using stopped on the street and no matter how I tried to bring it back to life, it would not cooperate. I brought it to Bert, the motorcycle repairman in my neighborhood, and left it there. According to Mike as Bert had never mentioned the details of the incident to me until now, Bert had thoroughly troubleshot the motorcycle and found nothing wrong. In frustration, he pulled out the hose through which the gas flowed to the engine and nothing came out. Mike said that Bert was irked by the incident and had intended to scold me but when I went back he merely told me to go buy gas and I guess, he did not even charge anything. Belated thank you, Bert.
In both instances, I was not trying to be funny or something. It’s just that these details I guess fail to register in my mind.
JAPANESE BED AND BED SHEET REUNITED
Today, we assembled the knockdown bed Florence bought from a Japanese surplus store. The bed came complete with the foam which is around 10 inches thick. After we assembled it, she brought out a bed cover which she bought from the second hand store or ukay-ukay earlier than the bed. It perfectly fitted the foam.
Florence had no answer when I observed that the bed sheet was owned by the owner of the bed but sold earlier to a used clothing exporter in Japan and found its way to Tabuk City and bought by her to set up a reunion in our house just then, hehehe.
AGLAIA MARIE ON MY INTERNET HABIT
The short vacation of my two kids started on the wrong foot for me. Not expecting they would arrive so soon, I was at the computer when they did past 7AM yesterday. After the usual greetings, Aglaia Marie, the younger, told me to cut down on my Facebook time, a recurring sermon whenever they are home. I just shut my mouth and went back to the computer.
After some minutes, Aglaia Marie asked me to go make a reservation for her at the bus station for today as she had to be at work on Monday. When I got back home, she greeted me with the information she just changed the password of my Facebook account which I had left open. Without meaning to, I slammed the key of the motorcycle on the counter and then told her heatedly that the Internet was my only amusement and would have proceeded with my old dialogue in such situation of asking her if she would rather that I go out and drink or gamble but caught my tongue when she laughed and I knew she was just joking about changing my password.
She then told Pia Ursula: “Manang, nakitam la koma diay rupa ni Papa idi imbagak sinukatak password na. Nagmayat koma a naivideo.” (Manang, you should have seen the face of Papa when I told him I changed his password. Would have made a good video.)
As I was about to leave for the cooperative Board meeting, she asked me how long the meeting will go. Thinking it was a legitimate question, I told her that the meeting starts at 9 AM and usually ends around 4 PM. She observed: “Seven hours ka a ngarud a di makaFacebook.” (In that case you will be away from Facebook for seven hours.)
Sometime in the evening, the planned trip to Palawan being organized and will be shouldered by an aunt of theirs who works abroad came up. They both said they were invited so I jokingly asked them to tell their aunt to also invite me at which Aglaia Marie said: “Saan mo met laeng maenjoy, Papa. Awan kano Wifi idiay.” (You will not enjoy it, Papa. They say there is no Wifi there.)
Then with a mocking laughter she proceeded to relate that at one time she saw a post on Facebook containing Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs pyramid with an additional tier at the bottom marked “Wifi.”
NONSENSE DIALOGUE
Yesterday afternoon, I went to look for Naneng ex-barangay captain Edwin Anniban at his stall in the live poultry section of the Tabuk Public Market intending to ask about his grandfather Banawag who was one of the early local chief executives of Tabuk. In the course of the errand, I caught myself asking a nonsensical question.
Me: Ayan ni Edwin? (Where is Edwin?)
Vendor: Adda idiay balayda. (He is in his house.)
Me: Apay nagawid? (Did he go home?)
Which reminds me of another nonsense question which is common when two people hereabouts meet.
“Apay simmangpet kayon?” (You arrived already?)
Note: Here are two of the best reactions:
Eden Claribel Dupali
Hahaha! At dahil usapang ganyan, I also want to share my text convo with my cousin yesterday.
Cousin: Adda kan ba boarding? (You are already at the boarding house?)
Me: Yup. Makapabwisit awan kuryente (Yup. I am pissed. There is no current.)
Cous: Di awan pagcharge an? (So we have nothing to charge (cellphone) on?)
I called a friend early am.
Me: dialing kriiiiing…
Friend: hello fren good am…
Me: ay nariing kan fren? (You already awake, friend)
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