I’ve Been Bad
I have done my damage to my already poor health. Over the last year, I’ve been smoking too much. I’ve been sitting on my butt too much. I’ve also been eating to much of the wrong foods.
I have quit smoking about three times since September. The last time was going well. Then I was unable to get one of my 
medications, Effexor. So, I started smoking again. I still think that was a reasonable choice under the circumstances. After all, I didn’t kill anyone. I didn’t even want too. :)
Poor health and the lack of exercise tend to feed off each other. Its hard to exercise when it hurts to even lay down. And then, I’ve been plagued with rashes. Poison Ivy like blisters. Blisters that come from no where. Blisters that seem to have no cause. The heat makes them worse. the sun, well, it just hates me or my body hates it. Either way it makes me feel weak.
Now, I’m having episodes of impaired vision. One of them lasted for five hours and scared me to death. It depressed me significantly. Brought back that give up feeling that I hate so much.
The more I don’t exercise, the weaker I get. That makes it harder to start exercising. I don’t know how much weight I’ve gained back nor do I want to know.
Right now, once again, the electrical power to Bogo City has been cut. It is Sunday. They turned the power off shortly after 8am. The lights will stay off until around 5pm. Only four and half hours to go. This is my least favorite thing about living in the Philippines.
I’m at the local Jollibee. The fast food chain of the Philippines. Much like McDonalds, complete with Jolly Meals. They have a generator so it stays fairly cool here. Not as cool as I like, so I bring my battery powered fan, eat stuff I shouldn’t eat and go outside to smoke.
While outside just now, a couple of the local gays (that’s how they are referred to here) tried to flirt with me. Well three of them I think, but I wasn’t sure if one was a girl or a guy. One was a guy that wants to be a girl and one was a teen age boy. Oh geesh! If only the Filipina would do that. I’m lucky if I can get a smile out of them.
After I finished my death by cigarette, two of them, I re-join Jessie inside. By the time I get back, I’m trembling. Not so that others can see. Just the way I feel. I feel shaky. Even a long shower often leaves me feeling this way.
Time to Live Right Again
And I say to myself, I gotta exercise! I did once, last week! Well, its a start. I will try again tonight. In four months, I have to leave the Philippines for three days. I desperately need to improve my stamina before then. Airports and people in a state as weak as mine are not a pleasant thing. I learned that when I went to Canada about 15 years ago. I learned it again when I first came to the Philippines but that trip wasn’t nearly as hard on me. The heat within the airport in Manila wasn’t pleasant. I had learned a little from my trip to Canada though. Now my hand carried luggage has wheels. :)
When I wake up in the mornings, my lungs burn. The best way to relieve this discomfort? Have a smoke, several of them actually… I’m totally nuts!
I know I have to do better. If I don’t, I’m going to make my pretty Filipina girlfriend semi-rich. How will I do that? I will die! On that note, I think its time for another smoke break.
Tagged with: Bogo City • Health • Living in The Philippines
Filed under: Featured Articles • Health
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Hey Rusty,
Been following your site for quite sometime now and I must say it’s been a real pleasure. The vision issue is troubling to say the least especially with your diabetes, I’m no doctor in the field of medicine but you should get looked at. The rashes, judging from your skin are most likly heat related, I have had them before when I lived there in 84-85. With the effexor issue as well, from my understanding you can’t just stop, not good buddy. As far as exercising, well Rusty as a retired crusty Marine I know alittle about that. Going it alone is probably the most difficult, not to count out Jess, but you need a workout buddy. I’m making the plunge before years end and plan on staying at Virgina Beach or Skip’s for a couple months to readjust and unwind before determining where in Cebu I settle. Dinner will be on me and look forward to meeting you and Jess. The least I can do for keeping me up-to-date on the Philippines while in this hole of a place they call Portland, Oregon.
Semper fi, Don
Keep your head up Rusty!
Hey Don!
Do you also follow http://cebuexpereince.com ? Is this your first post?
Yes, everything could be related to diabetes. Another reason to walk. I did walk last night. Not far but I gotta do baby steps and smoking is just insane. However, the Effexor thing is driving factor right now. When heroin addicts say its harder say its the hardest thing to get off, that says something. Still, I’ve been doing everything pretty much wrong, completely backwards I’m just a huge clusterfreak.
Now I’ve had to stop naproxin. Since I did, my vision is better. I think one of the signs of paranoia is thinking someone put something in your meds. Okay, then I’m paranoid, but maybe I have good reason. :) Being paranoid can mean one is merely paying attention! haha Well, unless you think the government is trying to implant a device into your brain. Or maybe that would be normal for a retired marine. LOL
The rashes did start when I was still walking and walking a lot. I’m getting really tired of being cooped up. I was looking at some of the pictures I took before and I want to get out there and flirt. LOL I can always do it with my camera. I need a camera with a long lens, it helps flirting more than most are aware. I think the rashes are more likely lupus related. I use to get horrible rashes, especially when I got in the sun. Once I went to an airshow. I was thirteen or so. Wow, when you can remember a rash 40ish years later and the look on the adults faces, adults I didn’t know. That rash was bad, really bad.
And all the fevers I use to get after a day in the sun. I never put it all together until shortly after hearing a doctor utter the word “lupus.”
My head as been able to stay up mostly, though, last Sunday when I thought maybe had lost a large hunk of my vision forever and then the next day, it was the same, now that was a bummer and a moment the head probably dropped a bit. It did drop. I felt pretty bead down that day.
I’m not sure what is going on with me and doctors but I’m really having docotoritis lately. Then I think back to the time, for about three months, where I was seeing seven of them a month. Bunch of aswang I think. haha I was like, can’t you guys share my blood? That was followed with 15 years of seeing a doctor every month or at least, I was suppose too. I guess its understandable. I remember being surprised when I got out one day and I do mean one day, without giving them more blood. :)
Yes, I need to see a doctor. I didn’t go when I had good reason to believe I was having a stroke! Sometimes I bewilder myself.
I think the marines provide good expat training. Seems like most of them do very well here compared to the general population. I look forward to meeting you in person. Virgin Beech or Skips sounds like a good plan to me. I tell you though, I wouldn’t be in a hurry to settle down any place. If I came here without ties to a family, I think I would just move from city to city. Pension house to pension house. Not a bad way to go. Perpetual island hopping. Sounds pretty good to me. Finding a woman to partner with and take with you wont be that hard.
I tell people, come for the Filipina if you want, heck its a god reason to come but coming for a specific girl, that’s a mine field. One might get through it but you might also leave a little piece of you in that field. No, I don’t think Filipina are a bunch of scamming women, though I have known some that are. People do what they have to do. Most of the Filipina I know are really looking for a guy, with nothing but good intent. However, they often are living a fantasy and when the time comes, there is a lot of pressure on the women here. Family pressures that I still don’t fully understand, she may back out. She may have no choice. One Filipina, a really sweet woman, told me something like, “I can’t even love who I want to love.” I don’t know what she was referring too but clearly she was not speaking in general terms.
When I went for my short walk last night, Jessie pushed me to go further and I though, hopefully a month for now she’ll be complaining I’m going to far. LOL :) Oh wait, she never complains, she merely suggest. I know this because she often suggest that it is not a complaint. LOL She’s an angel anyway.
Heya Rusty and Jessie,
Your to funny! Keep pushing him Jessie :) ! Yes that was my first post and read the other site as well. To be perfectly honest, I’ll be 50 in November with hair way down my back these days. Over half of that has been spent abroad. I grew up in Turkey, Japan, Crete, Taiwan and went to Taipei American High School all before my 17th birthday and my own career. Father was Air Force. I have to laugh even though it’s cold and rainy here in Portland on July 1, (can’t believe this) often I have thought of just buying a new Jetski in Cebu City, trick it out with saddle bags and a set of Texas Longhorns mounted as my steering column in the front and go from town to town around the entire Island, it’s only 140 miles from North to South, that would be fun. I could find some hottie filipina to document the journey and go from there. No, I’m coming solo as I half most my life, tried the marriage thing once, lasted all but two years. Guess I didn’t get the memo saying “if the Corps wanted you to have a wife, we would have issued you one” at the time. Well I no longer have to worry about that and should the right one come along, who knows. I’m a pretty big fella though at 6’4 and 235, even played basketball against Baguio University while on an allstar service team back in 1985. Drink lots of water and enjoy your walk today :)
Semper fi, Don
Yes you are very well traveled indeed.
LOL @ Issue you one.
Long horn steering? I love it. I did meet a girl before I got here and many do have it work out fine but as you likely know, many are in for a rude awakening. Filipina are so awesome, geesh their hot! Though I think I’d enjoy hanging out with you in Bogo City, that idea of moving around sounds very good. I have not been able to visit most of the places I’d like too. I need to get up to see that volcano before it rumbles again and blows itself to bits.
SO YOure single now?het i have a single aunthie,,shes afraif of boys,,,lol,,,just want to play cupid only….keep in touch…visit this island in youtube.BUYAYAO ISLAND i think youre jetski is more working on that place
I’m not single but I’m not married either. One Filipina wrote on her FaceBook page the other day “I’m not single but I’m available.” I was amused but then she got mad at me. Dang, and I was polite, or so I thought.
I can’t figure the Filipina out. Can you?
I find a lot of Filipina are scared of “boys.” They often are afraid to follow through. They get scared and “run away” when it comes time to actually be with a man.
so,,who is jessie in your life?you like more girlfriends?
Jessie my girl friend. She is a wonderful woman. I suspect you’d find her to be very happy. I would enjoy more female friends.
hi rusty
i get up at 4a.m. turn the coffee maker on so i can run with my two dogs five days a week, 45 minutes, before the sun rises here in florida to avoid the heat and humidity. this takes real discipline, it was not easy to start doing, but thats how i get my exercise in. we dont have the air pollution here that you may have to deal with there, but the heat and humidity is killer. so probably by the end of the day, all that pollution isnt helping your breathing either when you take your walks in the late afternoon. maybe you can change your walking schedule to before daylight. you can do it rusty! you moved to the philippines and hanging in there so you can do it!!!!
Hi Maria,
I don’t live in Manila. The sky is Bogo City is so clear its like going back in time. You can only dream of such blue sky in Florida. :) I guess I need to go spend some time in the Manila area so I’ll have a better idea of what most people think the Philippines is like. Ceby City has a good deal of pollution. I know that surprised me when I got here. Too many two stroke bikes. They are cleaning that up. Will take time.
I wont be running at 4am. I’d rather go to the dentist. I might be going to bed about then. My clock is different than most. Since I was 16 years old, I found it easy to stay up all night and sleep during the day. At 45, i found it impossible to live on the schedules of others and trying to was making me quite ill. I felt horrible all the time. What you describe works for many. Makes it easier to fit in with the world. It isn’t me. I can’t live that way.
Walking at 1am is not unheard of for me. :) My gf looked at me like I’m nuts. LOL Its just me. And why not? The idea that we have to live on a 9 to 5 schedule is irritating to me. Its not who I am and I just to much of a rebel these days to even try to conform. I’m anti conformity. haha
I would never be able to run 5 miles a day. My health wont allow that. A year ago i was walking an average of 1.5 miles per day. I didn’t walk every day, nor did I have a schedule. I had a pedometer to keep up with me rather me trying to keep up with a freaking schedule.
Death to the schedule. LOL :)
PS I’m gonna get, you gotta be smoking hot working out that way. Wish I could do that. I have to be more realistic.
my husband thinks so……my father was waray so YOU KNOW, lol
I just can’t resist Maria, send me a few pictures and so I can see the benefits of your disciplined life style.
hi rusty
there are no pictures of me floating around on the internet and i like it that way. i have not been to the philippines since 1989, so going on 21 years now. im thinking about a trip by the end of this year. i’ve never been to bogo, maybe i can convince my couzin who resides in hawaii now to make a day trip out of it from mambaling, cebu (thats where his wife is from) to bogo city. how long do you think the drive will be with a private car?
Hi Maria,
I didn’t think you were going to share your pictures. After all, you use the “my husband” reply. But, I just couldn’t resist. They call me Flirtilizer.
You can do Bogo in a day, especially if you don’t use public transportation. I would suggest you stay one night though, at one of the resorts. I forgot the name of the two I have visited. I would love to meet you and your cousin, either way though.
PS my nick name is Flirtilizer :)
if i make the trip, and make it to bogo, i’ll say hello to you and jessie.
Hey Rusty. I love your site. Im a fellow southerner, from BFE North Carolina. I am seriously considering moving to the philippines w/n a years timeframe. I have a small to medium monthly income. I would appreciate you giving me any information you can on approximate costs of living there and potential areas good for us expats. Please email me at [email protected]
Thanks, Ben
Hi Ben,
Thanks for your kind words.
All the information you could ever want is on my CEX site. If you need more though you can hire me for one on one help. I’m also about to release my first Ebook. Its packed with information on my Cebu Experience. It should be out in the next few days. Possibly even today.
Hey Rusty,
Have you thought of swimming? Its easy on the joints & great ona hot day. & its great for releiving diabetes symptoms! I hope you feel better soon!
Soma
You know, that’s exactly what I need to do. I will try hard to join one of the resorts this month here in Bogo City so I can do that. They are not close though and I don’t have transportation. That’s the biggest draw back and I need to go at night. The sun is really bad for me.
i know i am replying to an old post but… i was talking to a 70 year old guy a couple days ago and back in the 1980s he spent some time in the sun on a cruise and developed a horrible rash. he only gets it when he goes into the sun but the rest of the time it doesn’t show at all. eventually the doctors figured out it is a kind of cancer. they told him just stay out of the sun and he will be ok. until that incident he had spent alot of time in the sun but has not had a tan since then. hasn’t had any more problems. he gets a little sun but only a couple minutes. never hangs out in it.
I have avoided the sun since the late 80′s because of lupus.
That salt water though, it is awesome for my skin.
Don’t worry, old post, new post, its all good to me!
Having impaired vision for 5 hours is quite scary. Taking small steps to a healthy lifestyle is a start. Good luck and stay safe.