Russell Means (1939-2012) R.I.P.

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Many knew him mainly from his role as Chingachgook in the 1992 film Last of the Mohicans. 

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I remember hearing of both Means and Ron Paul for the first time in news of the September 1987 Libertarian Party Convention as they competed for the nomination to be the LP candidate for the 1988 presidential election.  Ron Paul won the nomination, with Means second.  
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I remember reading an account of that LP convention, especially when there was a panel discussion about decriminalizing drugs, and Means and some other LP folks on the panel sat on stage passing joints around during the discussion.  Ron Paul’s delegates were in suits and ties, and they sat in the audience a bit surprised at the culture they were entering.  Means publicly backed Paul for president in 2012.

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-Zenwind. 

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Maybe No Flood for Us

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Columbus Day 2012:  Our rains have slowed a bit – less intense and for less duration – so we may not be flooded at our home up here on the northern rim of greater Bangkok, unless a very wicked storm comes our way.  The problem is not an over-flowing river but slow drainage after hard downpours. 

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Today I did a boat run into the city to get some meds I needed, and I only carried my small umbrella tucked away in my rucksack (no huge golf umbrella as was needed last week, and certainly no rain poncho). 

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I saw the movie Argo (2012) while in town, a movie I highly recommend.  This fine film deals with a true event in the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979-80 and is very well done.  Seeing it on Columbus Day made me feel extra patriotic today. 

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This evening as I was feeding our cats, I heard a bird-song outside that caught my attention because I hadn’t heard this particular bird for a long, long time.  This means that birds are migrating here from northern Asia before winter hits up there.  Here it is their winter vacation/ breeding ground, and they will go back north in February/ March. 

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These first-heard notes of newly arrived birds here are like March back in the northern temperate zone, when the first robins announce that they are back and that fair weather will eventually come.  In North America it means warmer weather after the big freeze; here it means a bit of cooling relief after the big sweat. 

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-Zenwind.

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Simple Pleasures: Cool Rain with a Breeze

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It is a mixed bag.  Typhoon Gaemi, from the Pacific, threatens to flood us this weekend, and we are on edge and alert.  Yet this evening’s cool rain relieved us after an afternoon of oppressively hot tropical sun.  When the hard rain started after sunset, I stepped out of our hot quarters to batten down the hatches (windows, doors, etc.) and bring in the laundry, and I was hit by not only the thunderous sound of torrential rain but also by the rush of fresh cool air as the cloudburst filled the air.  It was a shock, a very pleasant one, and I paused to relish it. 

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Blessed coolness.  Zen delight. 

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-Zenwind.

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Flooded Again?

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We thought for the last couple of weeks that we might be flooded again. It still depends on how much rain falls – how hard it rains and how fast – for the rest of October.
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The Chao Phraya River is not abnormally high, and, unlike last year, the dams upriver have kept their reservoirs low to allow room for September’s hard rains. So it all depends on how much hard sudden rain we get.
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We did have one scary night last week when the drainage ditch out back of our place filled up completely during a long intense downpour, and our outdoor courtyard kitchen area was filled with water. The water came right to our front step, and another five inches or so higher would have come into our first floor. But it receded several hours after the rain stopped.
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Rains have not been as hard as predicted for the last few days, although there is still typhoon activity in the South China Sea as well as strong monsoons from the Indian Ocean. The north of Thailand has been the hardest hit with floods this last month, and a lot of that water is still upstream from us. So we are still watchful.
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-Zenwind.
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