The problem with being peripheral
NORMALCY is slowly returning to Naga, but at a much slower pace than it was after Typhoon Milenyo. Power was restored to much of the urban areas of the city late last week but after a quick burst of activity, it appeared Casureco II had other peripheral urban areas in its coverage to attend to.
Early this morning, as I was checking if Cabrê (which is how my kids call Vic Cabrera's Grandview Minimart) and Aman (their competing store across the street) are already open to get our daily Enoy's sliced bread, I chanced upon Luis Marasigan, Grandview Elementary OIC. Buying his own breakfast of probably champorado or pancit, he was complaining to the Escaños that centro Calabanga (which is around 30-40 minutes away from Naga) has already been energized! Our Grandview/Green Valley community, on the other hand, can only envy the brightly lit city center -- visible especially during the lately moonless early evening. It's been almost two weeks since Reming, and all we see are the still fallen Casureco posts and cables littering the Naga-Carolina road -- with a few solitary steel posts rising in between.
I woke up at past 2 this morning -- weighed down by some unfinished business I just cannot seem to put away -- and only had a few catnaps in between. For the most part, I alternated with my wife in vigorously fanning the humid air that is again making Pep, Nokie and Bada uncomfortable in their sleep. The windows are already open, but unlike the other night, there was no cold December air coming in.
I know, I know. One has to have tons of patience in times like this. But these are also the times I longed for the years when we were still renting a unit at the Barbosas of Calauag. Then, typhoons from time to time also visited Naga and blacked out the city, but being in the center (or pericenter, if there is such a word) of things, we reap the benefits that go along with it.
In my frustration with being peripheral -- and being way down Casureco's totem pole of priorities -- I quickly constructed the following verse in my cellphone while driving to fetch my wife from Cam High. Unfortunately, Mike and Grace already signed off so I just saved it in my "Saved Text Messages" folder. But I will surely fire it away this afternoon, the moment they sign on in that popular radio program at DWNX.
Tigsik ko an Casureco II
Kalbo na siguro an payo ko
Uda pang kuryente sa Grandview!
Photo by Bob Ursua
4 comments:
Wiily,
I know how you feel. Milenyo gave 9 days of torture. What's worst, the houses on my street had power while mine remained dark. All Meralco had to do was reconnect the snapped wire which took them barely 15 mins. to fix. The cable snapped even before the typhoon hit Manila.
How are the people coping? My friends and I are finishing up on our charity drive for Bicol. GMA 7 will be picking up our donations on Thursday. My prayers are with the people of Bicol.
You're right, patience is needed. These are extraordinary times, usually it's good to be far from the madenning center.
I'm sure, there has to be some positive attributes for “peripheral" living, otherwise you would not have opted to reside in that area.
Schumey, thanks for the charity drive. Our people will be grateful. Re lack of power, what is driving us crazy is the general feeling that the Casureco II crews -- like their Meralco counterparts of your Milenyo torture -- have been overtaken by oportunism. Worse, the management would not give us an update where/what their plans are. A timeline would have sufficed. RMN-DWNX is literally flooded with text messages, day in and day out, 95% of which are critical of the way things are being done.
Dave, you're right. Patience is definitely a virtue we need in these extraordinary times. But it snaps easily if, like Schumey, you see your neighbors having power, and you're left out in the cold, as if a child of a lesser god. Went through the same episode during Milenyo. I dunno this time around.
Jojo, there actually are, but short-sighted that we sometimes are -- and this is one of those times -- they conveniently disappear from memory. Actually, it's my wife's decision to move here, and I'm mighty glad she had her way, against my (at the time) better judgment.:)
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