Hello @Brewer fam 😄 I didn't really go anywhere, just been busy with work. Gotta make a living! But yeah, it's fun to publish a new video and say hello! 😄 How are you???
I was wondering how you were doing, but I remembered that you commented about getting busy with some work load. good way to make use of down time though! There's an outside chance I'll be going to Duma in Feb, you get to that area often?
Hey there @Phils to Phx ... yes, I have been up to my neck, in a very good way, with work stuff. As for Dumaguete, no, I haven't made it down there yet. It's about a 5 or so hours drive, and just haven't had the reason to go. Maybe we need to plan our next getaway and go down there. Great to hear from you! 😀
Welcome back Boss, good to see you again, was getting worried about ya. Glad you and the family are doing good. Was that an alien walking behind you (1:38)? 🤣 You never realize how much you use and rely on things until you don't have them. Had a power outage here in Germany due to a thunderstorm the other day, and I was like "Well, now what do I do? Guess I can make something to eat, but nope stove is electric, grocery store needs electricity for the registers, restaurant needs electricity." So I pulled out the 50K lumen flashlight and a good old deck of cards. Luckily they're good about getting power back on here, usually just 30 mins - an hour. Sometimes it takes something little to remind us to get out into the REAL WORLD with the family and friends and enjoy life.
Hello there @Eric Taylor 😄 good to hear from you also! No need to worry... just been busy with work... gotta make the living you know. And yeah! It DOES look like an alien! That is SO funny! HAHAHA! I get really frustrated with the brownouts. It seems like it should be getting better, and just when you think maybe it is getting better, then it goes south again. Oh well, if thats the worst thing, then I'm still loving life. 😆How is everything with you??
@@G5Philippines Glad to hear all is well, I forget not everyone is retired and don't always have so much free time. Any day I wake up is a good day, the day I don't wake up I won't care any more 🤣 It's finally starting to warm up here (Mid 60's in the afternoon), I used to love the cold, but these old bones just aren't having it any more. Maybe all the brown outs are caused by all the ladies charging their phones to make TikTok videos. You would think the scheduled brown outs would be so they can upgrade their power grid. Hope you and the family have a great day Boss.
Thanks @@ejtaylor73, yeah you would think so, but I think it's more reactionary work, between old assets failing and trying to keep up with increase in customer usage. Speaking of the temps... we're hitting in the mid to upper 90's since the first of the month. April and May are called the "dry season", but this one seems way hotter than the last years. It seems like our A/C's are working overtime and struggling to keep the house cool.
@@G5Philippines Mother Nature has been busy over here. Can't make up her mind, one day it's mid 60's, the next is below freezing, rains 2-3 days, then 1 day of sun and back to raining. In the summer, I have the portable A/C going and a fan near it on the side blowing the cold air across the room as it comes out, that is if the dog isn't sitting right in front of the A/C taking all the cold air 🤣 Have you tried getting those temporary room separators? Put those up in a big room to split it into a smaller room, so you're only trying to cool off a smaller space. Since cold air sinks it won't go up over it. Another thing you can try if you have ceiling fans is change the direction so they are sucking air up instead of blowing it down. Cold air is more dense so it sinks and pushes hot air up, so the ceiling fan is only sucking up the hot air to the ceiling and away from the living space. Hope you find a solution, I know I get sluggish and moody when I'm hot. Have a great day Boss.
@@ejtaylor73 thanks for the tips. Actually, the rooms in our house are small enough that room dividers wouldn't work that well. However, what I have done is to section off the open doorways between the main living room to the bedrooms, as well as the doorway to the back of the house where the utility room and the back door to the outside lead. What I did was hang curtains. These are heavy curtains that we brought from the U.S., and by doing that we sort of contain the A/C in the main living room. The bedrooms have their own A/C units, and we just close the br doors to keep them cool. The actual and biggest issue throughout the house is that by Philippines standards, there is NO, and I mean NO insulation in the attic. Between us and the sun, is a metal roof, and a 1/4" plywood ceiling. I can literally feel the heat when I stand up from a chair. 😂 Now you might ask, why don't I have insulation put in. and yeah, I have gone through the motions to figure that out. I am renting this house, and the landlord already denied me on them having that done, AND I'm not motivated to do a bunch of upgrades. However, I am already thinking about going ahead with it, the cost being about $500 for the 5/8" "so-called" insulation that we can get here. And, my thought is when we eventually move out, we'll be taking the insulation with us. 😄 You also mentioned ceiling fans, of which I am a HUGE proponent. And your idea is definitely logical, but with the rooms being as small as they are, the hot air would be swirled out to the walls and right down into the cooler area, making it harder for the A/C to keep us cool. so we do better with pole fans circulating the cooler air around us. I have my custom house all planned out in my mind. Basically a core set of rooms that will be A/C all the time, with outer rooms and spaces that will be more open to the outside. Then the roof will be an open air space for outside sitting or entertaining. And then above that would be a roof that will cover the entire house and outside sitting areas, with a full-on solar grid for power, and water.
Hello! I'm still here. Just been busy working the last 6 months. Still busy for that matter, but I miss making videos. And yes, I definitely want to do a 2022/23 cost of living video. the last year has seen an increase in monthly expenses. I'll try to get that out over the next week. Thanks for your support of my channel. 😀
I have a question. Hope you can answer. Is 3640 dollars a lot to pay for Christian Filipina to take care and guide you through a fiancee visa for coming to the United States?
Hello @Buzz Mccabe 😮my initial reaction is WOW, that's steep! All things being subjective to varying considerations, some might think its well worth the cost. I can tell you that I did the K1 process as well, and I did it all myself. It's been 11 years since I did it, so my memory of all the particulars is spotty at best, but the phases are submitting your application to Homeland Security to get approved to sponsor an immigrant to the U.S., then that approval is forwarded to the Philippines Embassy for processing of her VISA to the U.S. You'll most likely need to cover her costs for things like her passport, her travel expenses, and I remember there were other legal processes she had to go through on her side. It wasn't thousands of dollars, but it was easily a couple hundred or so. I have said in the past that the entire process from start to finish, including my trip to the Philippines to meet her, which is a requirement, all of the paperwork, and finally her travel to the U.S., all totaled about $10,000 all said and done. Those costs will not be deferred by contracting with Christian Filipina, so add their $3600. The only real benefit to them doing it is they know the process inside out and will handhold you through the whole thing. But you still have to provide all of the documentation, all of the stuff that they cannot do for you. It really just comes down to you, do you want to own it and do it yourself (which if I can do it, you can) or do you want the handholding that they provide. I do hope if you decide to use them that you use my link -> www.filipinovisa.com?affid=1566, I get a little referral fee that helps me with the channel. 🙂 But however you go about it, you can totally feel free to reach out to me for questions. I'm always happy to help!
@G5 Philippines Thanks for the quick reply. If I use them I'll use your link. I'm 65 she's 60. We video talk on messenger. She's a government worker. Video talk at her job and her home. Feel quite sure she's true and not a scam.
@@G5Philippines I've heard some in Dumaguete complaining the power goes off a lot in that area. You guys seem to have figured out a fun way to deal with it, though 🙂
