Porcupine and perfectly un-fine.

Get away from me!

Porcupines are rodents with a coat of sharp spines, or quills, that defend and camouflage them from predators. They are indigenous to the Americas, southern Asia, and Africa.

They are dangerous to humans because their quills are sharp as shark teeth. And the quills are too sharp to touch. If you touch one quill your hand will bleed.

if the animal feels its life is at risk, it raises its quills. The normally flexible connective tissues beneath the skin stiffen up. When the quills make contact with an outside surface, they are forced inwards on the porcupine with as much force as they are forced into said outside object.  As the quills press into the porcupine, the now inflexible connective tissues break, allowing the quills to be easily released from the porcupine's skin, pulling loose as the object or person backs away in surprise.

Are there porcupines in your life?

Someone who may look threatening but simply protective of him/herself?  Or anyone who actually intimidates and harangues people by his/her confrontational behaviour and pronouncements?

Stay away from porkies.  It will save you aggravation, stress and  harm.

Human porkies feel elated that they appear dangerous and powerful, and those endowed with true wisdom avoid them like a plague.

Zipped file.

Zombie-like days happen during rainy days. Projects get hung. Bed beckons company. Breakfast is eaten in an instant, then snack, then lunch, snack again, dinner. Eyes constantly droop, and body and bones move like a robot.

Winter time in North America should be worse than these. But nope, I could cope better with winter blues.

During winter, the horizon is blazing white, the air is cold, the sun appears like a shielded warrior. But the crispiness of it all jolts you out of your pj's and of your dreams, and you jump unless you want to be frozen stiff. You need to move your limbs and your neck and your heart needs to warm itself by breathing continuously.

I remember my days while still working in Manhattan and jogging in place, just to warm and un-freeze myself while waiting for the bus to Journal Square. I had to constantly rub my gloved-hands together, stomp my booted-feet on ground, wet my glossed lips per second, keep my muffed-ears intact, and hunch my neck inside the woolen muffler.

But when snow fell, and everything was covered white, and kids appeared on bob sleds at the park, it felt wonderful.

Floods were ice slush; mosquitoes were lady bugs; and leptospirosis was non existent over in North America.

Back in Ohio, my faithful dog Spike aka Shadow must still be bloated by this time through the over generous feeding it gets from my sister ; Shadee, its counterpart here in Metro Manila, is just as bloated and as lazy.

Rainy days, I'm like a zipped file; I need to be unzipped quickly. I need a jolt.

Schlitz or Slits

Beer or red wine? It's lunchtime and I'm circling the mini mall in search of an unblocked second cell phone, and passed by the LCBO. So I went in to get a bottle of red wine and a 12-pack.

What beer to buy? There's Corona, Bud, Schlitz, Coor's, Heineken, Bush, etc, etc.

Red wine. There's a whole section of French wines, Italian, Australian, Californian, Canadian, Spanish, etc. etc.

There's the hard liquour section, too. Vodkas, Rhums, etc, etc.

So I settled for a French red wine, Piat D'or and a 12-pack Schlitz.

It's nice to have a cold beer on a summer afternoon, especially if you are reading and wondering what the hell those articles and blogs in the www's mean.

A lot of times, can't figure out what the author is talking about.

What the heck.

I'll drink my beer, and pretend I'm on the beach and that everybody loves me.