27 December 2011

Winter

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27 December: Am I still on the same planet? (You don't know how many former high school teachers, classmates and fellow citizens have asked that exact same question of me for my entire life -- in slightly different contexts of course.) Writing in this date of late December is a shock, because in this time of year I was usually ice skating, x-c skiing or ice climbing, yet here I am turning on the fan and lighting mosquito coils for the doorways. It is a latitude-leap, a climate-warp.
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However, last night really was cold. I turned the fan off before midnight. In our winter I sleep with long pj bottoms and a hooded top, with a blanket to cover my bare feet if the fan is too cool. But it was cold -- down to about 60*F -- a Two Cat Night, requiring two cats huddled around one's feet to stay warm. Taking a shower this morning without hot water was a real wake-up call. (We have never had any heating system for the house nor any hot water system.)
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Today we took a trip through insane Bangkok traffic to visit a shopping mall. We walked a bit before getting a taxi, but it was an air-conditioned ride to the a/c mall and theater. An a/c taxi back home at sunset; back into swim trunks and flip-flops after turning on the fan; I didn't sweat once today, and that is very unusual.
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I just read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2005) by Stieg Larsson, and I could not put it down until finished. The film, in its English language version, will be in our theaters soon, so I wanted to read it first. It is a dark story and a bit edgy and twitchy, so it's not for everyone. Delicious. The DVDs of the original Swedish films of the trilogy are available here, so I will later view them.
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The day after finishing the above book I started reading Dan Simmons' Flashback (2011). I love anything Simmons writes, and so far I'm not disappointed.
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-Zenwind.
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