Earthquake

 

   Early this afternoon, we felt effects of the earthquake (7.7) that hit central Burma/Myanmar.  (My rough guess is that it was around 600 miles from us.)  It brought down a high building under construction in northern Bangkok and has shaken a lot of folks up, many of whom were evacuated into the street from high buildings.  This doesn’t happen much in Thailand. 

   I didn’t feel anything and didn’t even know there was an earthquake until Tuk came into my ground-floor kitchen very excited.  I had just returned from a grocery shopping trip and was busy unloading stuff from my pack.  I was on my feet and didn’t feel any ground motion at all.  The only unusual thing to me immediately upon my return was a noise from above in my second-floor area.  I thought it might be Tuk up there using a broom and being clumsy and noisy about it, hitting the wooden handle against the wall or stair railings – yet she rarely goes up there, so I was mildly puzzled. 

   Then Tuk comes into my kitchen exclaiming about an earthquake.  She went on about sitting in her ground-floor living room and thinking that she was dizzy; then she saw overhead powerlines outside swaying and heard the glass sliding doors on her living room rattle. 

   I was skeptical at first.  In my second-floor bedroom, I’ve often felt my bed sway any time big trucks and buses rumbled by on the street below.  It feels just like a mild earthquake.  Our old brick building sits on soft alluvial sediments, and it shakes like jelly when big vehicles go by, so I had always wondered what the effect of an actual earthquake would be like.  Scanning the news, BBC was first to break the news that an earthquake in Burma had indeed affected Bangkok.  And I think this explains the unusual knocking noises coming from upstairs. 

   Nothing in the house seems to have been damaged or even disrupted, nothing knocked over, etc. 

-Zenwind. 

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Last Cool Day; Exercise

 

   I think today will be the last cool one this season, because forecasts predict that, starting tomorrow, temperatures will rise radically along with much more intense humidity – i.e., oppressive dew points every day.  The dread Sweat City is approaching for the next several months. 

   Re: my exercise routines.  I stopped exercising after 21 November last year when I had my cataract surgery.  The eye doc forbad it since it would take a month for my eyes to heal.  Also, I stopped micro-dosing Cannabis then because I mainly use it for goading me to exercise, and I vaguely knew of its effects on eye pressure.  (Cannabis had historically been recommended for certain glaucoma treatment, since it affected eyeball pressure; I didn’t know the details, but I thought I should stop toking pot just to be safe.)  And, since marijuana is one of the most dramatic incentives for me to exercise with vigor, I lost the inspiration to work out. 

   In the weeks after my eye surgery, I had my prostate crisis.  Enlarged, but benign, prostate meant a catheter and the Rezum surgery on 3 January.  That surgery didn’t work.  The continuing need for a catheter is fundamentally restricting, and my old exercise routines of radical stair-climbing had to stop.  I have become a couch potato, only reading or watching films, not moving enough. 

   I have lost an incredible amount of muscle.  One worry is that, with weakening core muscles, my crippling sciatica pains will return.  I’ve already felt the beginnings of such pain.  What exercises could be possible to keep from collapsing into such downward-spiraling weakness?  Maybe some dumbbell work and Yoga for the upper body and core – while restricting the legwork only to stretches, moderate walks, and no radical stair climbing. 

   But my months of inactivity have let me slide into a mindset of sloth.  That’s a tough morass to clamber back up out of.  What can inspire me again?  Cannabis! 

   I have again tried micro-dosing with two tokes of weed.  It is amazingly transformative; in that it immediately gets me into a Tai Chi workout that is focused and that makes me work on so many different muscle groups with mindful concentration.  Not just token Tai Chi movements – but intense focus on all needed muscles that need waking up and care.  The incredible awareness of my physical body is beyond compare.  Cannabis is excellent medicine when used in moderation. 

   Also in these weed sessions, I moderately do my USMC calisthenics, Yoga and stretches.  Then I do the Tai Chi and calisthenics with lite dumbbells. 

   Throughout my life, a micro-dose of marijuana has encouraged me to physically move out, work out, and aspire to greater things.  It is life-affirming. 

   After full exercise routines today, I sat out on my camp lounger on the veranda, watching the day cool down.  Maybe the last comfortable evening for a while.  Pairs of birds race by.  The wind is still.  There’s a lot of silence, punctuated by bird calls.  Life is good. 

-Zenwind. 

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End of the Cool

 

   We’ve had remarkably comfortable weather for this, our “winter” Cool Season.  Nighttime lows have sometimes gotten down into the high 60s*F, and daytime highs rarely got up into the 90s.  Dewpoints have been consistently low for long stretches, longer than I can ever remember here, with an incredible lack of oppressive humidity and sweating.  The only discomfort is when you’re in the hot tropical sun. 

   This comfortable weather has made it easier for me to recover from eye surgery and ongoing prostate problems. 

   Unfortunately, higher dewpoints and temperatures will arrive soon as the extreme Hot Season looms ahead in the next couple of months.  And, most unfortunately, my prostate problems continue to disrupt my life. 

   I had prostate surgery on 3 January (the Rexum “steam treatment” therapy).  Luckily, prostate cancer has been ruled out, but my prostate is still extremely enlarged and I still have to wear a urinary catheter in order to drain my bladder.  This cramps my style, to say the least.  Like a ball and chain, I must wear my catheter – the current one is the third I’ve been fitted with over two months; I call its collection bag “Sancho III” – and it’s with me from bedtime to shower to any other activities of the day and night, 24/7.  The prostate has still not shrunk enough, so Sancho is by my side for the next two months.  I do hope that more prostate surgery will not be needed after that. 

   All my physical exercise programs had been halted, starting ten weeks ago when I had my eye surgery.  I still cannot exert myself with the catheter.  This lack of exercise is alarming.  In a couple of weeks, I will be 75, and, with aging, it becomes harder and harder to build up and maintain physical conditioning and strength.  (What was it that Moses said?  “Teach us to number our days, that we may get a heart of wisdom.” – Psalm 90)

   I’m numbering the days to when I’m free of this damn catheter and, hopefully, free of current prostate problems, and then I can start moving out again, rambling on foot (or, shuffling along as best I can), climbing stairs, working out with light weights, and generally getting strong again.  Hope is stubborn.  Maybe I’ll gain some wisdom out of the whole ordeal. 

-Zenwind. 

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