0138E: Yoshi and Even More Rain

Don't Panic...

And so it's finally raining hard again, just like the bad rains we experienced earlier in the week. And yet all the rain throughout the week has just been the more or less normal rains that come with the monsoon season. And this snapshot of the weather conditions right now on the right - that's nothing to be alarmed about. It looked worse last Monday when it was really raining and pouring all over the Metro.

The bigger challenge is not the amount of rain or the strength of the coming winds, but more the inefficiency of the drainage systems in the city. We may be the metropolitan capital of the country but we're not exactly the most advanced in this area of city planning. Many experts have compared the Metro Manila area to a giant bowl of sorts  - and a shallow one at that. All we do is collect water instead of efficiently shunting it away and so we just make the most of things as the weather worsens. I can't imagine what it's like at the actual capital of Malacañang since it's located along the Pasig River, of all places.

It's a good thing that I keep an umbrella handy whether here or at the office. You never really know how the weather may shift without warning.

Yoshi: the Dirty, Stinky Dog

Yoshi is safely at Pet Express for his first-ever full grooming session. He's gotten pretty dirty over the past few weeks, especially since the completion of his vaccinations led to long periods when we weren't allowed to even bath him. So now he's getting the royal treatment and this should help bring his fur back under control. At the very least it'll clear the hair from his face that seems to be irritating his eyes and generating additional fluid production there. At least his ear mites are gone - resolving that little medical concern has drastically reduced his, um, rather distinct odor of recent weeks. Thank the stars!

Work has continued to be busy despite the US holiday right smack in the middle of things. I'm juggling at least three major deadlines, but at least I have the two more or less pinned down, pending a few items outside my immediate control. And I really need to make sure that I get everything done before the big Singapore trip next week, or my US colleagues are going to totally freak out knowing that I won't be able to work on their initiatives. Life can be pretty crazy that way.