Back to Normal?

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22 November: What is normality here in Thailand, anyway? Well, the opposing political factions are demonstrating in the streets and/or threatening to riot against each other, and that seems very much the status quo ante here.
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Today my parents-in-law hired local people, who are out of work because of the flooding, to clean up our courtyard front and back. I am very grateful, because doing it myself would have probably killed me. I cannot lift another sandbag. I spent last night unable to sleep because of aching, screaming-in-agony pain all over my body. (Well, I did not actually scream out loud, but I did bite down hard on a towel to keep from moaning and waking Tuk or scaring the hell out of the cats.) Some day I will admit that I’m getting old, or that I’m out of shape.
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Workers have torn down the elevated boardwalks in our neighborhood that we all used to navigate above the floodwaters. We can walk down dry sidewalks now. Things smell a bit better. I think normality is on its way.
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-Zenwind.
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