Other Hobbies

Target Shooting

My roommate at UOP, Paul Pon got me into guns. Specifically pistols. He had a .45 caliber Colt Gold Cup, a collector's item. He sold it to me and I bought it. It became one of my prize possession. I also bought a .22 Hi-Standard. This pistol is heavy and with the small caliber round is great for target shooting. Yes I got into that.

.22 High Standard pistol

I would go to the target shooting place, an indoor place to shoot paper targets. With the .22 I can group my shots within 3 inches of the target bullseye. With the .45 there is a bit of a spread. I even took Nicki to the shooting place. She claimed she hit the bullseye the very first time she fired the pistol. I believe the target was in Lisle. 

Pol trying to be James Bond

Later I acquired a 9mm P26 Sig Sauer. This is the most reliable pistol I ever had. I went thru a box of ammo, about 3,000 rounds without misfiring. Later I also got a 9mm American pistol. This is not so good and kind of rough. When I get home

from target shooting the inside of my nose is black with soot from the powder. I collected those paper targets for a while. The reloading equipment is nice. I can cut down on the powder and decrease the recoil specially from the .45 Gold Cup.

My sister-in-law Guing told me that she is scared when Fred goes out of town on business. And that she sleep with a hammer for protection. I bought her a small .38 Smith & Wesson and a box of ammo. Unfortunately my brother, the hot headed, got into an argument in the parking lot. He pulled out the .38 revolver because the guy grab his spot. Unluckily or luckily the guy was a police detective. I have to produce the receipt of the revolver to absolve him of the weapon charge. 

In Houston I briefly joined a gun club. They come out every weekend to shoot. There will be several targets lined up, you go thru the paces. You shoot the hostage which is in brown silhouette but the white one which are hostages. You probably fired fifty times. I scored the highest but penalize me because I was using a 9mm and the rest were using .45. I never went back again. 

I also bought a reloading equipment for the .45. It is a money saving contraption if you shoot a lot and you can vary the powder charge to your liking. Somebody borrowed my reloading equipment and never returned it. I think it was Marvin from work, thief. 

After a while I got tired of target shooting. I still have my guns in the house for protection. My main pistol is the P26 Sig Sauer which is very reliable. The magazine is in the pistol fully loaded with Glaser ammo but not cocked. 

Working with Cars

I like tooling around cars. Instead of bringing my car for

I replaced a lot inside the engine compartment
even polishing the engine.

maintenance I try to learn and do it myself. When I got the '99 Miata I did this most of the time for that. I do the oil changes, disc brake pad replacement. My first first project was installing a cruise control on the Miata. That was extensive. The hardest part is getting under the dashboard to get to the wires. The cruise control work very well. I used an AudioVox kit. Then I did a series of install on it. I replaced the instrument panel with one I bought from Japan, horn, interior chrome parts, sound deadening foams, speakers front and back, new tires, new wheels, decals, chrome parts in the engine bay, rad, oil filter relocation kit. I even

Beautiful interior

have the intake manifold, engine top, throttle body remove and polish in an automotive shop. Yeah this was a fun car. I love driving it with the top down and changing gears along the way. I did the same thing with my other cars but only on routine maintenance like changing oil and filter. I'd rather do it myself than take it to a shop and wait there. I have a hoist and other stuff to elevate the car. Later Nicki ask me to stop going under the car for safety. I did. 

My '99 Miata taken in Reno

Bowling

When we moved to Reno, NV there were three couples who do bowling. So for the first time I went even bought a bowling ball. In fact I wind up with about three balls plus another one for sparing. Trini, Alice, Evie, Harvey, Meny, Rudy and Nicki and I went to bowling once a week. Trini is the best scorer. You can tell the meticulous ball that he releases shadowing his lifetime job as a surgeon, being precise and carefull. I was pretty close and was catching up after a while. 

We always entered the annual senior bowling tournament in Reno. Evie and I have gotten several medals in doubles. Trini and I partnered in the men's double and have gotten several medals too.

When we moved from Reno to Rio Vista, I must have 30 medals. I throw them away save for five that I keep for momento.

After bowling we take turn hosting dinner and rotate the host every week not necessary the same day. At Evie's turn, Harvey would make this wonderful BBQ. Harvey is an enthusiast of bbq, wake up very early in the morning to start his bbq. He has this automatically wood feed machine and slow roast beef tips. Hmm. Alice's specialty is oven cooked roast duck. Meny once cook indian food, unique. I was doing different dishes with Nicki. This is the time I was learning how to cook. I made italian dishes, filipino dishes, chinese. 

I was also baking bread. I learned how to do sourdough bread and gave a sample to all the friends. Baklava is a favorite of everybody. Filipino dishes and desserts like siapao, bibingka, ensemada, etc everybody like. 

In Rio Vista we formed a bowling league. Once a week we bowled at the Delta Bowling. There were some five teams with five members each team. We were doing good when covid-19 struck. Everything stopped including bowling. I have not pick up bowling yet since then. 

Poker

I like playing poker. I'd play way back in the Philippines. At that time we usually play seven-card stud, draw poker. In Chicago we have a small group that play poker. The style of Filipino poker is there is always a wild card. It can be five card stud, draw, seven card, draw and all sorts of invented games like triple cross, baseball, etc. Not until later did no-limit Hold-Em Poker became popular. We would play until the wee hours of the morning with Joe, Joe Mutya, Ruben and myself. Ruben cheats but we let him play. Drinking is the rule while playing poker. Then hold-em poker became popular when Chris Moneymaker won the poker championship in Las Vegas. I do not like to play with money at all. I am contented with playing no-money games. Even today I play Poker Championship in the internet. No money involved just numbers. It keeps me mentally alert.

In all of the casino games none favors the players, its always the casino that has the odds. That is understandable as the casino pays for the upkeep of their place, food, drinks, buildings to attract people to come and play. But the best odd for a player is the game of craps. I did studied craps but still I don't have the knack to stand there for minutes, even hours to play that game. Blackjack is comfortable to play being able to sit down. I tried learning how to count. And it takes a lot of discipline and I don't enjoy it counting cards. Besides counting cards is not a guarantee of a win. 

We have a an annual senior game in Reno. I played in the poker tournament. Once I came on top. This one was held in one of the casinos using the casino poker table and a casino dealer. It was a shootout where two winners from each table goes to the next table until one table is left. There were two of us left. I got him with a straight when he called my all-in. My name was engraved in a big trophy kept at the City Hall in Reno.

Racquetball

I played racquetball in Reno. We have a Silver Slipper membership which allowed us to join a gym club for free. This one has a court for this sport. I initially played by myself to get familiarize. Racquetball is fast much faster than tennis. And not much sublety. Just hit the ball as low as you can before hitting the floor so your opponent can not reach for the ball. Or hit it up at an angle and the ball bounces all over the four side court. Experienced players know exactly where the ball will bounce and can go to that spot. I have to run around trying to guess where the ball will go. There is a group of senior males who play in the morning. As a newbie I hesitate to join them but after a while I am getting the hang of it. Somehow I can not move as fast as I want to. I am betting of breath. I did not know that I will be having a heart bypass pretty soon. That must be the reason. I got hit on my safety googles that hit the rim and cut around my eye. It was not that bad. I learned not to look back when somebody is hitting from behind. I don't think he did it deliberately. I forgo racquetball when we moved out of Reno into Rio Vista. No gym with racquetball here. 

Fixing Around the House

I boast that I can fix anything thats broken in the house. I like doing it. We had several houses- Bolingbrook, Ill., Field Line, Tx, Carriage Way, Tx, Reno, Rio Vista about 5 houses. I usually can fix anything that breaks down- appliances, fixtures, automobiles, house structures, etc. I also do maintenance all around. Let me see some of the major projects I did. Bolingbrook I put a landscape mound in front of the house; decorative bricks in the toilet; wallpaper; 20x20 cemented patio; splashboard in the kitchen. In Texas we lived in the Carriage house for some 35 years so I have done plenty there. I painted the exterior and interior of the house with one paint brush all by myself, took me months to finish and that includes repairing any wood parts that rotted; fixed the swimming tiles and install a new pump and electric water heater and pvc piping; I fixed several large air ducts in the attic; cut down large pine tree branches; install mailbox; install access door to the upstair bathroom fixtures and repair leaking valves; window repair; floor tile repair; added wiring to switches; etc. So many house projects over the years, I have forgoten a lot of it. In our present house in Trilogy, Rio Vista I repaired two electric stoves by replacing the heating element. The hard part is it is glass covered so removing the glass is a bitch, all repair men I called refused to do it; plugged holes in the garage door to prevent mouse from entering using foam, etc.; landscaping fixes; install a reverse osmosis system. I am sure there will be more projects over the years.