And the brain hungers for the puzzles that go with adventure. This idea busted through the doors of my shifting thoughts about an hour ago as a torrential downpour destroyed the thinning canvas that protected my in-laws' house's terrace from the sun and rain. My wife, Joyce, and I had to act fast; if we let rainwater in, we'd already have a foot-deep wading pool.

So where's the adventure in that? Well, for starters, the rain—and, of course, the water—made it hard to climb up the terrace half-wall where water kept pouring in the large, uhmm, window. The canvas was also in tatters, making it difficult to hoist it into position again and to hold the damn thing in place. If we were not careful, we would probably have skewered each other with the pairs of scissors we were carrying.

The puzzle? Well, like I said, the canvas was almost in tatters. The trick was to pull it taut over the top part of the window, lash it onto the grill, and hope it holds and not rip itself into pieces. Doing this in fair weather is challenge enough. Doing it in the middle of a downpour is a bit crazy.

The entire episode pulled on the strings of my memory, back to 1990, when I was in Baguio City, studying at the University of the Philippines campus there. For those who don't know, a strong temblor shook the very bedrock of the Philippines' Luzon island on July 16, 1990, and Baguio City was one of the most devastated areas, probably next only to Dagupan City in nearby Pangasinan province.

Going back to the story, I was at the boarding house on that fateful day, relaxing with friends after a long day at school. Then the earthquake hit, and everybody panicked. Fortunately, I had the good sense to stay under the door frame. Some of my pad-mates were not so lucky as they fell off and rolled down the stairwell, from the third floor to the second floor mezzanine.

To make a long story short, I was stuck in Baguio City for a week, surviving on rations or whatever my friends and I could get our hands on with what's left of our money. We also slept on cold pavement or damp earth at the campus of the University of the Philippines. Water was a precious commodity, so precious that prices of bottled water soared to more than double, forcing us—and probably the lot of earthquake survivors—to gather rainwater in containers and drink the putrid stuff.

How did we while away the hours and the days? We walked around Baguio City and surveyed the destruction wrought by Mother Nature. Here's a stark reminder in dull 1990s color:



Sigh. If I go on and on about my adventures in Baguio City before, during and after the quake, you'll probably doze off from viewing fatigue. Need a different perspective? Go check out the July 1990 earthquake entry of Ramny from Winnipeg in Manitoba, Canada. Many thanks to Kylee, owner of the site Nifty 1990, for the photograph.