Weather You Like It Or Not

* the following entries were written using a pencil and a sheaf of scratch papers serendipitously found in the glove compartment while stuck amidst horrendous traffic at the height of the wrath of Tropical Storm "Ondoy"

Commonwealth Avenue 9/26/09  1:00 PM

I'm permanently stuck in non-moving traffic headed towards the QC circle amidst what appears to be the worst storm to ever hit the Metro in recent memory... I actually found myself thinking "Man, where the hell did all this water come from???". I was supposed to meet up with my girlfriend today, for what would probably be our last date before pre-residency. Apparently, the heavens had other things in mind...

Before I left the house, it was already raining heavily, but having driven under similar conditions before, I had no idea that it would be this bad. After dropping off mom and bro at the hospital for checkup, I settled myself down for the long trip ahead, and what a long trip it turned out indeed! :P

When I made my way along EDSA, I began to notice that something was amiss.. The very idea that EDSA could be flooded HEAVILY was beyond my imagination (since I don't really drive around much anyway), until now..

Having narrowly escaped being trapped along Highway 54, I began to wonder how I would get home while I neared the QC circle via Quezon Avenue. Traveling along Commonwealth, it was really raining buckets already, with visibility reduced to about 4-5 car-lengths ahead. As I neared the Fairview branch of Wilcon Depot, the traffic slowed to a crawl, and as luck would have it, I found myself close to a u-turn slot. After much waiting, debate, and hesitation, I decided to turn back, aided by the advice of a local resident that the road ahead had been rendered unpassable due to waist-deep flood waters.

After making the U-turn to head back, I proceeded cautiously, knowing fully that I wouldn't be able to go home anyway since it's reportedly flooded there already. What surprised me was a text I got from my uncle saying that it was already flooding INSIDE the house and that it was already knee-high!! 😨

Oh well, the important thing is that everyone close to me is safe and sound. As of this writing, I'm in front of the UP-Ayala Technopark nearing the QC circle and I've been on the road for about 4 hours... Luckily there was a lady vendor going around selling baked goods (I though she sold buchi because she handed me a soft yellow rounded goodie covered in sesame seeds which turned out to be some kind of bread) so bought a pair and I didn't have any food problems.

Good thing I was able to bring along the plastic cylindrical case of my shades, so I had an improvised wee-bag as well.. hehehehe! 😜

I'm trying my best to make light of the situation since being a worry wart never did anybody any good, and besides, it looks like I'm gonna be here for quite a while... Will rest first, and I'll try to make another entry while there's still daylight.. (1:49 PM)

Entry #2 3:30 PM - still haven't moved an Inch..

Whew! That was fun! A short while ago, I decided to leave the car for a while to buy provisions to last me the night, because although I still have another piece of bread to serve as dinner, the fact remained that I had absolutely nothing to drink (wee-wee is out of the question! 😅). Not wanting to compromise my very healthy urine output, I knew I had to do something..

After informing dad of my little plan, I said a little prayer and left the car to head to the nearby Petron station for my supplies. I had luckily brought along both an umbrella and a jacket before I left the house so getting wet was never really an issue.

While braving the downpour, I was suddenly concerned whether they still had anything in stock, since we motorists have been stuck here for quite some time now. On arrival, I noted only a handful of C2 bottles on the shelves. Luckily they still had considerable stocks of purified drinking water, so I hurriedly grabbed a pair of 500ml bottles for my own. They didn't have much food left, so I had to content myself with a pair of small Goya chocolate bars.

Just as I was finishing the above paragraph, the cars in front began to move, but about 50 meters later, things are at a standstill once again.. 😅

Anyway, as I made my way back to the car with my precious cargo on hand, I had the misfortune of half-stepping into a shallow puddle and I got my feet wet. 😐

So, prior to the aforementioned disturbance, I had already been preparing to hunker down for a most memorable night since I felt that I had all the provisions I needed for an overnight stay...

Safe Haven 4:50 PM - Petron Commonwealth near Philcoa

Woohoo!! I'm finally off the road and am now sitting pretty here at the Petron station just after the Technopark. I was really lucky to be able to have squeezed in here as I had already missed the entrance but was able to back up because the cars to my rear refused to move forward, leaving a clear path for me to enter this oasis.. (Thank you Lord! 😇)

Now I can kick off my shoes indefinitely and hang up my poor little socks up to dry. 😛 I guess the main reason why I managed to remain this cheerful in spite of everything is because I have already resigned myself to spending the night in the car. 😅

Mmm... the Goya chocolate bar is really delicious, or maybe it's just because I'm really hungry.. 😅 I'll save the other one, along with the "buchi-bread", for later. It's getting dark, and I better set up camp before nightfall.. 😐 (I wonder when I'll be able to blog all of this?...)