31 October 2011

Halloween: The Monster Mash

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“The scene was rockin’ all were digging the sound …”
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This classic Halloween song always reminds me of my late great friend, Ron D. The full lyrics and backstory are found Here.
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-Zenwind.
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Still Knee-Deep

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Sunday 30 October: The floodwater level increased only a little during the night, so perhaps it won’t go higher. But we are still knee deep in the shit when we descent to the first floor or outdoors. I haven’t visited the internet since Friday the 28th, so I’m behind on the news. (See the post below for my first writing since we were flooded.) We have had continuing help from Tuk’s cousin, who is staying here for a bit to help us.
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Clean tap water is still not working right to the upstairs bathrooms, and this is due to the water authority being forced to cut their pressure and volume. But the tap in the flooded 1st floor still works, and we have been carrying bucket upstairs to bathe with.
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Finally, at dusk today, we rigged a hose from the functioning downstairs tap and going up to the 2nd floor. It still doesn’t quite reach the shower/toilet area, but it is close enough to haul there in buckets filled by the hose. Thus, more easily taken showers.
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The crescent moon is slipping down to the horizon, and my back is killing me, so I’ll stop writing for the night.
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Monday 31 October, Halloween: It is 14:00 hours and I’m too tired to move. Today I hauled all my books up to the 3rd floor. I’ve only been in Thailand for five and a half years, but I’ve accumulated quite a little library.
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We finally got our WiFi hooked up to get online. Before the flood hit us, I was reading news a lot. Now, I think I’ve completed withdrawal, and all news seems like old news. There is still too much to do here in the aftermath of the flood, and the water level is unchanged – still knee deep.
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At 17:00 the water pressure and volume will be high, so we will do the ritual of wading downstairs to turn on the water for the hose; then we fill the big shower barrel. Now I will do something I never used to do: take an afternoon nap.
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-Zenwind.
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Knee-Deep in the Shit

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Saturday 29 October: Last night the floodwater was ankle-deep in our first floor (i.e., ground floor) living quarters, but we still slept in our bed there anyway, too exhausted to move anything more. All of that brutal sandbag work was in vain, except that it stopped some of the more scary critters from coming in the house.
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We woke up to floodwater a bit higher and the promise of more on the weekend. All levees of ours failed – there is just too much water. It is incredible. We waded through the wreckage trying to take it all in. The first floor is up to the knee now in filthy water, and even higher out in the courtyard, and we cannot bathe properly. Considering the sometimes primitive sewage systems here, one doesn’t like to think too vividly about how filthy it is. This experience gives the old expression about “being knee-deep in the shit” a very personal meaning.
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Morning priorities:
1. Get cleaner tap water running to the upstairs toilet area which has a toilet and a bathing room (a 2nd floor open area that we will have to share with parents-in-law next door since both their downstairs toilet out back and ours in our quarters are swamped).
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2. Knock a hole in the floor of the 2nd floor room above us in order to connect us with two rooms directly above. The old stairway from 1st to 2nd had been sealed off for decades above a little loft that Tuk uses for storage. The parents live in a similar loft in their half of the building with a hallway running beneath to their back toilet area, but they have stairs leading directly to 2nd floor. To get to our two upstairs rooms, we have had to go to their side for the stairway. If a hole could be made, our three rooms would be linked. Not only could we then move stuff higher, but it would be a wonderful area to live: storage space plus direct access to my 3rd floor window leading out to my climb to the roof.
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3. Move things up when we can and however we can before water reaches them.
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Tuk’s cousin, a young Thai woman, came to help us, as did a friend of Tuk’s and her strong son. I don’t know what we would have done without them. We did some heavy work, especially connecting the 1st floor with the 2nd and 3rd by knocking out the floor separating the stairs. Once that was done, we hauled up huge loads up steep narrow stairs, e.g., the refrigerator, the bed, and the treadmill. We did all this work in bare feet – it is Thai custom to take off shoes before entering a house, and with some of the unspeakably dirty water in the tropics I can understand why.
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These days upon days of heavy sandbagging and moving big stuff have left me depleted and in pain at the end of each day. My knees and hips hurt, as well as my back. My feet are taking a beating from being in dirty water so much. The main reason people are needing medical care during this flood emergency is foot problems. At each rest period, and especially at night, I scrub my feet with an old tooth brush and antibiotic soap; then I dry them.
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Possible upsides for us from this flood:
(Caveat: We are luckier than most to have less than a meter of water and dry rooms upstairs; many Thais have lost everything.)
For us, this might be a great opportunity to lose weight and gain muscle, since there is not much to eat and we are working our tails off. The other thing is that it forced the opening of the stairway upstairs; I feel like it heralds a new life, since the 1st floor was shut in and always felt like a basement. As I type this, I have a window view of the Southwest and watch the waxing crescent moon make her passage. And my 3rd floor window to the outside and the roof is right there at hand.
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-Zenwind.
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28 October 2011

Ankle-Deep in Floodwater

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28 October: Actually, by the time I post this, it is over ankle-deep in floodwater. And the water just keeps on coming.
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Dawn: Water finally seeped in to our drainage ditch out back, my worst fear because it is the most vile water. Tuk woke me up at midnight to tell me water was appearing. (I am super groggy at night because I am now taking a bigger dose of FMS sleeper meds, my “zonkers,” since this backbreaking sandbag routine started.) I staggered out, and to my horror, saw that while I had slept, Tuk’s mother had decided to move sandbags that I had in reserve to plug totally useless spots. The two of them dragged/ carried/ muscled my reserve bags to the other side of the compound. I was so sedated I had to lean against the wall for support. I threw a few sandbags on the spot I had planned to reinforce at the head of the ditch, then I had to go back to bed and zonk out.
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Midmorning: This morning I went out at 07:00 and carried the misplaced sandbags back to more useful spots, dripping with sweat before 08:00 – and the sun was not even high yet (and my family in the States said they have already had snow!).
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Went up to the roof with field glasses to survey the scene. Water coming toward us from the East (from river) and from South and West, turning the streets into rivers. It is a slow inundation, rather than a raging torrent. But it is on the steady rise.
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Noon: Water invading. One of Tuk’s girlfriends just brought me an entire case of Chang Classic beer. Much appreciated, as doctors never give adequate pain meds to people in pain. Meanwhile, I have been trying to write this, trying to read the incoming news items, and trying to deal with the latest catastrophe. Tuk again found some sandbags and had them delivered by workers she hired from her workplace. These guys are sandbagging experts, and I learned a lot watching them pack those babies in. As I mentioned before, in Vietnam we manhandled many a sandbag, but we stacked them as protection from bullets and incoming explosive rounds – a very different art from stopping water.
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Mid-afternoon: News reports have said that the flood is bringing out snakes, centipedes, crocodiles, and other critters. Indeed, this afternoon Mother-in-law and I where reinforcing a sandbag levee in the back of the house when I saw a monster centipede a foot long on the lower wall not a foot away from our heads as we were bending over our work. She grabbed a broom and swept it away while saying something in Thai, and the tone said it was not a very welcoming message. The centipede swam away surprisingly fast. That big guy was a creature out of nightmares.
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Small-time, lower class, country folk entrepreneur families I’ve never seen before are visiting street corners, selling eggs, etc., from backs of small pickup trucks or just from baskets on the sidewalk with their kids in tow. This is true laissez faire capitalism at its best: supply and demand; cooperative voluntary interaction. Its structure as a group of buyer/seller equals solidifies a true community.
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There are ignorant laws here against “price gouging” and “crisis profiteering” – all fascist Nixonian-style idiocies. But if scarce items are in demand and needed, then the producer/ retailer who has the guts and takes the extra effort and risk to get it to us, the consumers who need them, deserves whatever profit he can get, whatever the Free Market – that great liberal law of fairness and voluntary cooperation – can bear. These entrepreneurs are heroes, and I hope their kids see the value of the individualistic effort, thought, and fairness that their parents model for them.
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After another heavy workout with new sandbags, I took a walk around my familiar neighborhood circuit to check on friends. A couple of them seemed to escape the worst of it so far, but no one is betting on what tomorrow brings.
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Our soi is almost knee deep in water. Our courtyard is ankle deep now. We have a decent system of levees that we hope keep water out of our living quarters. It all depends on how high the water gets. Parents-in-law live in a loft next door which is high enough to be protected. Tuk and I live on the ground floor and are more vulnerable.
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Our beloved cats are afraid to go out into the flooded courtyard, so I have brought in sand and am intending to potty train the bloody heathens. Hah! Let’s see how that goes. I'm a rabid individualist, but cats beat me in that category: "Piss on you!" is their motto.
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My back is killing me, and I hope to have some Chang therapy later. The water outside is half-way to the knee and rising. Water is now coming into our living quarters. Work needs doing. So I shall stop rambling.
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“If the levee breaks/ I’ll have no place to stay.” -Led Zeppelin.
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-Zenwind.
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27 October 2011

Feeling Beat: Beaten Up and Beaten Down

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27 October, evening: Screaming pain has now been added to the beat feeling again. (See the earlier note I wrote in the afternoon for the context.) While in the act of heaving the heavy sandbags, I do not hurt so much, but when I sit down afterward it feels like someone hit me square in the back with a baseball bat – a homerun swing.
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Tuk and I laid a good foundation for levees in four points of floodwater entry to our home. Trying to get the levees watertight is the challenge, and I’m still not sure how well we did the job. I never laid sandbags to stop water before but rather for bullets.
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I’m in too much pain to write anymore tonight.
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-Zenwind.
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Sandbagged

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27 October: My back is absolutely killing me; every muscle in my body is screaming in pain; and, to add to the aggravation, we have a good chance of being flooded tonight. Levees are breaking more and more everywhere around us, like falling dominoes.
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My pain is the result of working too hard yesterday with heavy sandbags. I have been out of shape for too long, and now I’m paying for it. Being an old guy is no excuse. And the job isn’t even half finished.
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I never thought that we could ever get sandbags, but yesterday Tuk somehow acquired some big sandbags through her friends. She and I worked last night after sundown, hauling and placing them. I was absolutely wringing wet from sweat by the time we quit for the night.
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I am not sure that our sandbags will even make any difference, since floodwaters can come into our home through so many different channels. Yesterday, while brainstorming and surveying our home environs, we found many unexpected huge holes in our perimeter that we are unable to plug. So it is now damage control, deciding which areas to try and keep dry, and which to allow to flood, if and when the flood arrives.
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All of this means going out to manhandle more sandbags tonight, and it probably means getting up during the night to check for incoming water – if I can even move by then. The worst thing about this entire nightmare is its long, drawn-out and never ending character.
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-Zenwind.
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25 October 2011

25 October Thai Flood Report

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My brother-in-law’s house – some 4 or 5 klicks away from us as the crow flies but reached only by twisted roundabout roads – has major floodwaters surrounding it, so my father-in-law is here with us. Brother-in-law’s house is not yet wet, but it now has about a meter and a half of water menacing it.
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My midday local recon of the river saw the level down slightly from last night, but I’ve found that doesn’t mean anything since the levels have been fluctuating wildly according to tides and unpredictable runoff from the flooded North. I walked as far down our main street as possible before reaching the section blocked by water. Riverside levees had broken in spots downriver from us.
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This slow and steady onslaught of floodwaters is wearying. The latest news is that this coming weekend will see the river overflowing its banks in most places because of high tides and runoff. To top it off, a thunderstorm is approaching right now. Dukkha.
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-Zenwind.
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24 October 2011

I Just Had to Look

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Evening of 24 October: Of course I just had to do an after-dark recon of the neighborhood, especially after reading increasingly alarming local web reports about flooding events getting closer and closer to us.
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I was shocked to find the Chao Phraya River was much higher than I had ever seen it, right up to the top of the sandbag levee and flowing fast. Much, much higher than yesterday, and much more than government officials predicted. The water seepage through the river-front levee was up to the sidewalk, and a pathetically thin second levee had been built a bit higher at the sidewalk level. The bottom line is that the river levees here are very close to being overwhelmed.
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Two of the three main roads connecting our neighborhood with the city are cut off by high water. The third, the bridge over to the east side of the river, is passable at the moment, but the other side has flooded areas. [Update: This bridge is now also closed; we are cut off from resupply; now is the time to go on a strict diet!]
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I guess this means that I won’t be getting any ice soon.
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-Zenwind.
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Breaking Loose

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24 October: It looks like levees are breaking in places around our area in every direction, and there is a good chance we will get some floodwaters anytime soon, if not tonight. It is not life threatening, as the water should be no more than a few feet high and spreading out slowly. If you don’t see any posts here in the future, it is because I won’t have electricity or an internet connection. It is more of an aggravating inconvenience than a scary situation.
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-Zenwind.
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23 October 2011

No More Ice

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23 October: This is bad. Local stores are all out of ice because re-supply of almost all items has been discontinued by flood-blocked roads. And our ancient refrigerator has about zero capacity to make ice cubes, so I always stock up on packs of ice from the stores.
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Street vendors are selling the last of their stuff as everything becomes scarce. Gone everywhere in the neighborhood are: coffee, eggs, canned goods, the better brands of beer, noodles, rice, and drinking water.
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We have a decent supply of drinking water, and we could always boil tap water if necessary on our propane stove. I have already been stocking up on a few necessities such as cat food. We really don’t need much food for ourselves because no one needs that many calories anyway in this awful heat.
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The state utility complex next door has added an impressive sandbag wall around their perimeter, so it looks like they will stay dry. But not us, because there are too many avenues for floodwaters to creep in with no ways of blocking it. It may take a full week for the water to get to us, or it might come fast “when the levee breaks.”

-Zenwind.
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22 October 2011

The Slow Creep of Doom

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22 October: Well, I guess the Universe did not end after all, as it had been prophesized by Harold Camping. He always did seem like a loser. But doom seems to be approaching locally.
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On the northern rim of greater Bangkok, we are in an area officially deemed as a “Medium Flood Risk” zone. (Maybe 0.5 to 1 meter of water may hit us.) It is a slow steady onslaught of floodwaters, giving us time to react but perhaps giving us false confidence. Big, big water is heading our way, and neighboring districts have been hit hard. It is like a severely crippled zombie slowly crawling toward you with a fixed purpose.
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“[It] is out there. It can’t be bargained with. It can’t be reasoned with. It doesn’t feel pity or remorse or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever!” (James Cameron)
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Cars are parked along our sidestreet, unusual for a weekend, as the owners are seeking to save them from high water. This may be a good sign in that they might see our street as “safe.” Maybe not, but one hopes. The mood is getting more desperate. Food and supplies are disappearing as people stock up.
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Hoarders and price gougers are demonized – i.e., vendors who are thought to engage in “charging unfair prices” can get seven years in prison and a huge fine. Shades of Richard Nixon. In a free society they would be recognized for their natural and legitimate role in providing goods to those who really want to pay the price in a market of scarcity.
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It is not good when government centers set up to shelter flood refugees are now being flooded and in need of evacuation. Dominoes are falling. Some are saying that it will take three or four days for the slowly seeping floodwaters to hit us. Another estimate is that this entire region will take four to six weeks before the excess waters drain completely. Watching and waiting.
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-Zenwind.
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21 October 2011

Waiting for the Apocalypse: Will the Universe Be Destroyed Today?

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21 October: Vast floodwaters are descending on greater Bangkok, and we are prepared to move out on a moment’s notice. But more importantly, today is the End of the Entire World! Today is the date that the American shaman Harold Camping prophesied as the cataclysmic destruction of the entire Universe.
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Yes, he did fumble a bit last spring when he prophesied that The Rapture would occur on 21 May 2011, and when it did not happen he admitted that he was “dumbfounded” about the non-event. Maybe the Rapture did happen and he was simply not worthy of being taken up. I don’t know. No one I know came up missing on that day.
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But, as these shamans always do, he later recovered with some kind of apologetic mumbling about what the true significance of the 21 May 2011 date was. He then declared that today, 21 October, was to still be the day of the destruction of the entire Universe (as his original prediction had stated, presupposing the Rapture of the worthy ones in May).
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This whole episode is but a common occurrence in history. For instance, see the Great Disappointment of the followers of the American preacher William Miller in the early 1800s. It is a fascinating pathology.
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However, the floodwaters are still bearing down on us here in Thailand. I won’t be so smug if I’m swept away to Hell in a deluge before midnight Indo-China Time.
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If you don’t hear from me by tomorrow at midnight, head for high ground.
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-Zenwind.
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When the Levee Breaks – Led Zeppelin

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“If it keeps on rainin’
Levee’s goin’ to break
If it keeps on rainin’
Levee’s goin’ to break
When the levee breaks
I’ll have no place to stay.
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“Mean old levee
Taught me to weep and moan
Mean old levee
Taught me to weep and moan
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“It’s got what it takes
To make a mountain man leave his home.
Oh well, oh well, oh well
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“Don’ it make you feel bad
When you’re tryin’ to find your way home
You don’t know which way to go?
If you’re goin’ down South
They got no work to do
If you’re going down to Chicago
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“Cryin’ won’t help you
Prayin’ won’t do you no good
Now, cryin’ won’t help you
Prayin’ won’t do you no good
When the levee breaks
Mama, you got to move
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“All last night
Sat on the levee and moaned
All last night
Sat on the levee and moaned
Thinkin’ about my baby
And my happy home
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“Going, I’m going to Chicago
Going to Chicago
Sorry but I can’t take you
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“Going down, going down now
Going down, going down now
Going down, going down
Going down, going down
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“Going down, going down now
Going down, going down now
Going down, going down now
Going down, going down
Down, down, down, down.”
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Written by: John Baldwin, John Bonham, James Page, Robert Plant, Brian Stone; original by Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe McCoy.
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20 October 2011

Floodwaters Bearing Down Hard

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20 October: These are interesting times. I did not go out on my usual recon walk yesterday, as I was reading local internet news updates on the floods and making preparations at home. Today I ventured out, and what a difference a day can make! My first indication that things were really changing was seeing middle class folks on our street heading out with luggage. Moving out. Jumping ship.
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When I got to the Chao Phraya River I found that the river level was higher than I had ever seen it, much higher than two days ago or even at its previous high last weekend, and it was straining against the upper rim of the sandbag floodwalls and seeping through. That is a lot of water. Huge volume, fast water. Massive.
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Leaving the river and walking back along the main street, I immediately noticed the anomaly: traffic was jammed in the lanes moving North, to the main roads that are still open out of the city. What is that old saying about rats leaving a ship?
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All districts in our province have experienced flooding, although we are still dry for the moment. The immense amount of water flooding the Central Plains is unbelievable, but, believe me, it is heading our way. We continue to prepare, watch and wait.
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-Zenwind.
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19 October 2011

Lots of Water Heading Toward Us

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19 October: We still do not know if we will be flooded out or not. It is a slow and steady onslaught of a huge water volume from the north, and it is getting closer. This is an extremely flat, broad and heavily populated floodplain, and the vast flooded areas upriver from us present a wide front of water wanting to flow to the sea. It is mindboggling to consider how much water is still upstream from us. Floodwaters find the paths of least resistance, and they break through in unexpected places along the long and over-extended system of quickly thrown-up sandbag floodwalls. It is closing in.
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If breaches in the floodwalls do divert water our way, we should have time to act before it gets too deep. We have already thought things out and are continually making preparations for the worst that could happen. Meanwhile, we stay close to home, watch and wait. And wait. And wait.
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-Zenwind.
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18 October 2011

High Water Remains

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18 October: We are still high and dry – so far at least. There is still a big danger of flooding in our area, because of the enormous amount of floodwater still keeping many provinces under water up-river to our north. That water must drain downriver, and decisions on how to drain it, and when and where to drain it, will have an impact on all of us farther downstream.
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There are raging disputes over the policies that determine this diversion of floodwaters. To save some areas, water is diverted into other areas which are then devastated. For instance, inner Bangkok is (maybe) protected by sandbag and earthen dikes that divert the southbound floodwaters to the capital’s east and west, flooding many suburban neighborhoods (ours?) in the process. To the north, some residents are angrily confronting authorities who attempt to build dikes, because those dikes will save some other districts at the expense of their own. Disputes about opening or closing flood gates and building new dikes are bitter. There is one English phrase that Thais know well when applied to unfair treatment in politics: “double standard.”
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This anger and resentment from flood-devastated people with nothing left to lose may cause some to destroy the last dikes protecting Bangkok in order to share and spread the suffering. This would be not only a material tragedy but also a cultural one.
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On my daily walk I found the river level to be the same as yesterday and slightly lower than Saturday. Our neighborhood seems to be going about business as usual, except for new installations of sandbags in front of a few homes and shops, just in case. I stop and talk to a few friends who speak English; they are not that worried but they do admit that the situation is uncertain. Maybe their lack of worry comes from the perspective that all of this entire sweep of human experience is just impermanence anyway.
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-Zenwind.
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17 October 2011

Have Floods Crested?

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17 October: Taking my daily reconnaissance walk by the Chao Phraya River, the water level still looked dangerously high, but I noticed that the amount of standing water that had seeped through onto our side of the sandbag wall seemed to be a couple of inches lower than yesterday. Some government officials are now claiming that the largest mass of floodwaters coming down from the north had passed Bangkok yesterday. Not that I trust any government's knowledge claims, but it does agree with my own hunches. Maybe we have seen the worst of it.
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There is still a lot of water upcountry behind full dams, in rice paddies and in flooded cities. This water still could drown us here if it were released to hit us all at once.
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Our mystery kitten that appeared over the weekend has just as mysteriously disappeared. Tuk saw its mother on the wall at one point. The kitten could have died, or its mother could have taken it. Perhaps “the monster,” as Tuk calls any monitor lizard, ate it. We fear the worst and wish we knew its fate.
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-Zenwind.
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15 October 2011

Still High and Dry, for Now

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15 October: Happy Birthday, Friedrich Nietzsche, wherever you are!
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Locally, we are still not affected much by the floodwaters that have hit neighboring districts so hard. No one really knows what will happen in these next few days, so it is watch, wait, and Be Prepared.
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Our latest news is that a stray kitten has mysteriously appeared in the corner of our courtyard. She is wild and scared and hiding under some corrugated metal sheets. When it rains, she cries, and it is heartbreaking. We put out some food, and she apparently ate it. Tomorrow we will start attempting to gain her trust with food and constantly talking to her from a non-threatening distance. One of my few areas of moderate expertise is taming cats, a skill learned growing up on the farm. (My nephew once called me “The Cat Whisperer.”) Cats are tough critters to domesticate – then after that they own you.
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For this kitten it is a race against time, because neighborhood monitor lizards eat small cats. The monitors tunnel under our wall frequently, and we see one every week or so. We lost a litter of four kittens a few years ago to them, one by one, and we only figured it out too late when the last kitten, an almost full-grown adolescent male who had just been neutered, was killed but was too big to be swallowed. Dukkha everywhere.
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-Zenwind.
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14 October 2011

Still Above Water

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14 October: We are not yet flooded here at home as of early evening. But a huge thunderstorm roared through and the rain was hard.
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We took Father-in-law to his hospital checkup (as well as me to my own checkup in the same hospital), and we had to go over a couple of bridges over the Chao Phraya River to get Father, as well as to return him. We saw a lot of flooding along the way. In particular, when Tuk and I were on our way home, our entire lane on a main road was running fast with water up to the taxi’s running boards, and it was not bad in that spot just an hour before.
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My new doctor, a hematologist, is great. My ultrasound showed thrombosis and he is taking over my treatment. His questions and explanations are thorough, and I have a lot of confidence in him. I could hardly believe the huge amount of blood they took from me. I was given a shot and take-home meds, and I go back to the hospital again for each of the next three days for shots and then for major bloodwork again a week from today. Because the meds for the clots in my leg must be carefully monitored for the safe yet effective level, the doctor carefully explained it all to me and made sure I understood. I took home a six page document about the meds. I have no pain, just a little swelling still in my ankle, and I feel great.
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We continue to closely monitor the news about the flooding. The latest word is that Bangkok will be safe from flooding but that those of us living outside the capital will not be. Tomorrow I plan to do a walking exploration of our neighborhood and scope out the waterfront. It reminds me of the Red Shirt riots in 2010, because everybody is wondering what will happen next. I will post news again soon, if the nagas be willing and the creeks don’t rise.
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-Zenwind.
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13 October 2011

Flood Update

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13 October 2011: It is worse than anyone thought. Our immediate neighborhood area (here on the northern rim of greater Bangkok) is not flooded yet, but neighboring districts in our province are. And whole provinces in the rest of Thailand are under water.
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The inner city of Bangkok might have built up enough floodwalls to save it from major deluge. But we are not in Bangkok proper, so we are not as well protected. The crucial test will be this weekend when a huge amount of flood runoff from the north will reach us just as the high tide occurs, the tide retarding the river’s ability to empty the excessive water. Bangkok is only two meters above sea level, so you can imagine the problem. And it keeps on raining!
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I walked to the Chao Phraya River this morning and looked around from the walkway on the bridge. Many homes along the river are flooded, especially the tin squatter shacks put up on piles over the water. I have wanted to take an express boat into the city to see the water levels, but family illnesses and the threat of home flooding have stopped me. I am sure that any waterfront levees that are not strongly reinforced will fail. The sandbag walls down by the river pier are holding it back so far, though water has seeped through because the river is up level to the shoreline and roadway.
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Today I have been reading the local news closely, and what has really sobered me are the maps of the flooded areas and the risks of each area. We are in a very at-risk area. I am writing a list of items for our “Bailout Bags” just in case we are hit hard and forced to pack up and evacuate. “Be Prepared” was the Scout Motto, and it never hurts to think ahead. Write the list; then assemble the stuff in a good old USMC “junk on the bunk” inspection layout (where you lay everything out on a bunk or bed for inspection); stage the stuff for quick retrieval later; then, if it comes to that, pack and go.
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The worst predictions now for our area – if floodwaters actually do break through – are for about a meter or maybe two of water. We can move valuable stuff upstairs, but it would ruin our refrigerator and treadmill. We would still be lucky compared to many poor souls throughout the country who have lost everything they own.
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One problem for anyone evacuating is that looters raid flooded houses that are temporarily abandoned. Anyone who knows me personally well might imagine how I would be tempted to handle this if it happened to any of my property Stateside: Lights off; powerful flashlight waiting in hand; sufficient caliber loaded and locked; waiting in the shadows; looters break and enter; the looter population goes down. Miserable goddamn cockroaches! Can you tell that I’m angry?
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Stay tuned for later developments.
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-Zenwind.
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10 October 2011

Flooding, Rains, and the Ailments of Aging

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The recent severe flooding in Thailand only gets worse. Entire provinces are complete disaster areas, people have been killed or have had their homes destroyed, and the great historical temples and museums of old Ayutthaya up-river have been overflowed. Here in greater Bangkok, our worst high water will peak around 16-18 October when the main water volume flows south to us. Yesterday, Tuk and I were in a taxi coming home, and the driver made a bad navigation decision; he took us into side streets in a heavily flooded area, and I could both hear and feel the water hitting against the underneath of the floor of the taxi. It was slow going but we made it. Our house still appears to be safe. But in the other danger areas I have seen more people filling sandbags than I’ve ever seen since Hill 55 in Vietnam in the autumn of 1969.
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The monsoon rainy season is supposed to be over, since the official end of the monks’ three-month Rains Retreat is the full moon of Wednesday the 12th, Pavarana, marking the traditional end of the wet monsoon in South and Southeast Asia in a tradition going all the way back to the Buddha almost two and a half millennia ago. But it still rains. I must admit that a hard downpour adds a brief respite to this constant god-awful heat. But there is too much water!
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As for my personal health, today’s hospital visit confirmed that thrombosis is the diagnosis for my ongoing leg problem for the last six weeks. The ultrasound spotted a few clots down in my ankle area, and I am seeing a hematologist in a few days for a follow-up. I am back to almost normal, with no pain, and I can walk quite fast and far. Stay tuned.
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My father-in-law has been sick lately, but has bounced back somewhat. He fell on a wet slippery cement slope – twice – and his hip and leg cause him intense pain. He was hospitalized for a couple of days for tests (no broken bones) and for treatment of a spike in Blood Pressure, which was perhaps related to the pain. He is now staying at Tuk’s brother’s house, but Tuk is the one most concerned about seeing to his care. I checked his B/P today with my own B/P cuff, and his reading is now much better than my own normal B/P. He is still in pain and still lame, but we are finding equipment to aid his ability to move around. I was amazed to see him sit in a half-lotus meditative position with the foot of his painful leg resting up on his opposite thigh, and this was most comfortable for him when sitting up! He is a wonderful man, a true sage. As a lifelong Buddhist, he knows that all of life is Dukkha and he takes it philosophically, but if anyone on this earth deserves to be free from suffering, it is him.
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This coming Friday, both father-in-law and I have medical appointments at the hospital. Tuk will be taking us there, worrying perhaps more than she has to. We old guys still have a lot of fight in us.
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-Zenwind.
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06 October 2011

Bad Flooding in Thailand

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We are not personally affected, but this is some of the worst flooding to hit much of Thailand in many decades. Floods have caused over 200 deaths and have affected over 2 million people. It is now getting toward the end of the normal Rainy Season monsoons, but a number of typhoons coming in from the west Pacific have added huge amounts of water to an already saturated ground and an overflowing river system up-country. Entire provinces are flooded.
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Walking along the Chao Phraya River this week, the water level was higher than I have ever seen it. Sandbag walls are everywhere, and floats made of long bundled bamboo stalks are tied out to help stop waves from hitting the sandbags. That is a lot of water moving downstream.
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-Zenwind.
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05 October 2011

Been Down So Long, It Looks Like Up to Me

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Forgive an old man for going on and on about his health concerns. You too will reach such a day; all you must do is live long enough. My leg problem is almost cleared up, although the doctors don’t know if it was thrombosis or what. For over a month I have had soreness and swelling in my lower leg and foot, and that meant not walking for exercise. At one point I was using a cane just to get around the house. For me, to stop marching/ rambling/ wandering afoot is to stop living in the complete sense.
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But things are looking up. My walking distances and speeds have come close to normal in the last week, and I’m approaching the rigor of true Marching. “Left, Right, Left, Right. One, Two, Three, Four, I love the Marine Corps!” Ooh rah!
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Today I have been sitting outside in the shade all afternoon, trying to keep our cat, Silly Willy, from major mischief. He is a full-grown neutered male who sleeps indoors most of the day and night, but sometimes he fancies himself to be a great wild tiger hunter and goes after birds outside. It is his nature and it doesn’t bother me, but my wife and other more traditional Buddhists in the household believe in literal rebirth and in the karmic consequences of actions in this life following on into the next rebirth. In short, they do not want to see Willy murder birds or mice lest his rebirth after this life places him in a lower realm of being. I am a total skeptic about any survival of death, but I like their (metaphorical) point a bit – as an aesthetic musing.
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So I have been thwarting Willy’s attempts at murder. He – being a cat – concealed himself well behind obstacles while intently watching some pigeons feeding nearby. One could sense his feline tension, wound up tight for the kill. I tried to scare the birds away by waving my arms and throwing water at them, but the dumb things ignored me. Finally, I picked Willy up high so they could all see him and said, “Cat! Cat!” The birds scattered, and Willy kept his good karma intact for the time being although he was not happy with me. Ah, we all just wallow through samsara as best we can.
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-Zenwind.
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