SOUNDS sa kabukiran: a baby crying? a couple mating? cats doing whatever it is they do?
“Sa kabukirang walang kalungkutan/Lahat ng araw ay kaligayahan,” as the song goes. Or should that be, Sa Ysalina walang kalungkutan.
A couple may now prefer to mate under Cagayan de Oro’s Ysalina Bridge. Which actually happened several weeks ago. If you’ve been hiding under a rock, I hope its video is still out there because “to see is to believe.” Still, better that than young ones jumping off CDO’s Maharlika Bridge.
The Ysalina Bridge will be expanded to four lanes next year, and local historians are against this development as they want to preserve the iconic bridge. But couples will then have more space underneath—four lanes!
Anyway, aside from that kabukiran song, residents of uptown villages can also relate with “Silent night, holy night/All is calm, and all is bright.” More like all is dark. Still, the nights are usually silent and calm—puera buyag—but not sure about the holy part.
Even in the afternoons, I could hear the rain traveling from somewhere to here. I’d look out the window and wait for it to arrive, like what happened at 4:50 pm on September 11, 2023. Hard habit to break—writing down anything and everything I see, and including that in the draft for future columns.
By the way, September 11 was the 22nd anniversary of 9/11, but I don’t write about history anymore since sh*t happens all the time. Besides, there are many conspiracy theories surrounding each historical moment, and a clueless columnist analyzing them is like me trying to dance the tango.
An autobiography is usually a good read, though, even if it’s kind of history: Elton John’s “Me,” Jennifer Weiner’s “Hungry Heart,” Anthony Bourdain’s “A Cook’s Tour,” Neil Simon’s “Rewrites,” Michael Crichton’s “Travels,” Kevin Smith’s “Tough Sh*t,” Kevin Hart’s “I Can’t Make This Up,” Anna Kendrick’s “Scrappy Little Nobody,” Billy Crystal’s “Still Foolin’ ‘Em: Where I’ve Been, Where I’m Going, and Where the Hell Are My Keys?” And so on and so forth.
Yes, I’m a bookworm. I even wanted to go to Cebu upon learning that the Big Bad Wolf (BBW) Books would be there from September 15 to October 1. But since books could mean excess baggage for the flight back home, I opted instead to wait for BBW to be here in CDO. Perhaps by that time, I’ve already read the new books I’ve been buying and re-read the old ones.
Meanwhile, the CDO branches of Booksale, Fully Booked, and National Book Store do still have books waiting to be discovered, and I’m looking forward to Basa Books’ reopening at Centrio.
Yes, I’m still buying books despite my promise to stop buying them after realizing I had already read all the info that I need. Apparently, there’s some info I haven’t read yet. If only my reading comprehension can be extended to details such as that for online shopping. I’m so old school—I still prefer physical stores. Most probably because I’m the typical resident of the kabukiran.
