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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First Migratory Bird of the Season

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27 September 2011: Yesterday morning I heard a birdcall that I had not heard in a long time. It was definitely a seasonal visitor, a bird from the north coming down to make Thailand its winter home. It is a similar feeling to hearing the first robin of spring back in the States. Once this Rainy Season finally ends, some cool and comfortable weather will follow. We have also had the early surprise of a few clear days lately, and it makes it much easier to dry laundry outside.
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-Zenwind.
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Back to Health

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01 September 2011: I have recovered from over a full week of a nasty head cold. I still get about one cold per year, and, like summer colds Stateside, these warm weather colds are the hardest to kick. Because of my busted up sinuses – broken from boxing and from an ice climbing accident – my left Eustachian tube blocks up and thus the hearing in my left ear goes way down despite taking antihistamines. My left ear is my good one; the right ear has major permanent nerve damage from an in-coming NVA mortar round back in 1969; so I am a bit deaf for a while.
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Whenever I start coming down with cold or flu symptoms here in Thailand – body and joint aches, fever, chills, etc. – I immediately suspect Dengue Fever and rule it out first. That is the most dangerous mosquito-borne disease threatening us, and it would require immediate hospitalization.
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I took a short walk to the store in the middle of my cold bout, seeking ice and beverages. It is only about a 700 meter round-trip, but coming back I thought I would have to sit down and rest. It was so hot and I was so thirsty. Checking the weather after finally arriving home, I saw that the Heat Index was over 114*F. Wicked humid heat and major dehydration. Break out the ice drinks!
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It will be an up-hill battle to get back in shape, walking, marching and eventually lifting again. But then, life is always an up-hill battle, isn’t it? The Myth of Sisyphus comes to mind, in which Albert Camus muses on our ephemeral creations.
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-Zenwind.
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Sunny Day

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22 August 2011: There is not much new to report. I seem to have come down with a flu or cold, with major FMS symptoms, and it has left me weak, groggy, in horrible pain, with a sore throat. I shortened today’s walk because the sun was out and it was extremely hot. Sunny days like this during the Rainy Season are great for drying laundry, but I had to come in before long. I so look forward to winter.
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Two of my good friends here are leaving Thailand for good soon, and that is sad. I really liked talking with them and sharing ideas.
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I just installed a fine piece of language software, a Thai-English English-Thai Talking Dictionary, and I am hoping to study Thai more now. I am also still working on several book reviews and articles. If I ever do get them finished I will post them on my main “Zenwind” site.
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-Zenwind.
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Still Hot and Steamy Weather, and Mundee Still Plays Some of the Hottest Rock n Roll in Bangkok

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I know that I am constantly repeating myself, but two constants in Bangkok are absolutes and deserve repeating. One, after five years I still cannot believe how hot and humid this climate is. Two, the band Mundee plays outstanding Rock n Roll at Bangkok’s The Rock Pub.
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Today I did another death march at midday when the Heat Index was up over 110*F. I will never learn. And, why do I always try to break in new sports sandals in the hottest times of the year? However, after about 5k on the hot sidewalks I did make it back home, and I’ve been re-hydrating with iced drinks ever since. An evening thundershower finally cooled the outside air.
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I recently got another chance to stay in downtown Bangkok late to hear Mundee. They started at 00:05 and rocked solidly until 02:00. I cannot adequately express how much I love this band and their hard-driving Rock n Roll. I’m becoming a diehard fan.
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-Zenwind.
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Monsoon Rains, Nixon, and drug freedom

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After exercising in the horrid humid heat, marching over the whole of my regular walking route, I made it home to shower and sit in front of a fan with an iced drink. At dusk it finally started to rain hard. We brought in our laundry and battened down the hatches for a real monsoon blow. Standing outside under the eaves, we relished the cool wet air as the storm raged. Simple pleasures, gratefully enjoyed.
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It has been a week of intellectual upheaval for me, trying to read my impossibly long reading list of books and websites, trying to meditate and integrate all of my life’s adventures and insights. This last Full Moon was a celebration of the Buddha’s First Discourse, when he announced the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path. Meditating on this discourse does give me profound peace.
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But there are political considerations too. These are notoriously non-peaceful. Thinking back over my life’s many experiences, I remembered some young friends whose lives were cut short by the unintended consequences of government tyranny. On my Zenwind blog I reminisce about Nixon’s War on Drugs and the fatal collateral damage.
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-Zenwind.
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My Thai Neighborhood

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We have settled into the rhythms of Rainy Season life. This means carrying an umbrella whenever going out. At home we try to estimate how much non-rain time is in a given day in order to dry laundry outside. When the sun is out, it cooks, and the intense heat and humidity saps one’s strength. Evening rains are welcome relief from the heat.
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In my regular walks in our neighborhood, I have many acquaintances although language is usually a barrier to full conversation. But there is one taxi driver who is often standing about chatting in our neighborhood and he speaks very good English. There is also a guy on the corner who speaks good English and who sells various foodstuffs with his wife and whose sister is the best outdoor fruit vendor on the block. They are friendly and naturally curious because I’m the only farang (i.e., foreigner) in the neighborhood, and they ask me many questions on my background. I am slowly integrating myself into the neighborhood, but it is very slow due to my hermit nature.
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There is the guy who sells popcorn from his three-wheeled cart with a mounted popcorn cooker. In the morning he sets up by the bank, and in the afternoon he is by the police station. Nearby is the guy who fixes shoes (and who did an excellent job repairing my sports sandals). I have communicated to him some of the rather long marches I’ve taken in the city in the tropical heat, and he just smiles and shakes his head (crazy farang!). There are many other snack vendors and sidewalk restaurant owners that I see on every walk.
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The other day I was walking near the river and I came across a very old Thai man in a wheelchair whom I have seen often and have always nodded to in greeting. On this day he gave me a genuine military salute. Although surprised, I returned it. I am wondering if word of my military experience has been spread in the neighborhood.
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A small vacant lot along my walking route is being developed for some kind of building. The lot is a very small wedge-shaped one, and they are still preparing the ground. (Bangkok soil is unstable silt and mud, thus things sink, and so strong foundations are a major project.) The handful of workers involved now live on the site, and they have been building their own temporary living space – a tin shack, or rather one built entirely of thin corrugated steel sheets. Can you imagine how hot these will get in the tropical sun? Before they even had the walls finished, they put up a satellite TV dish. After all, there are priorities.
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I took an express boat ride down the Chao Phraya River last week, which I always enjoy. I saw a monitor lizard crawling up out of the river on some old concrete steps then over a low wall into someone’s front yard. Just tonight at dusk I was standing outside under the eaves enjoying the blissful cool of a hard rain, and I saw a monitor lizard (a 3-footer) slithering from our outdoor faucet to our sheltered butane cooker. They are extremely well camouflaged and hard to see, but my eye for them is getting better. They are also smart and quick, so I lost track of him when he retreated back into the dense foliage. They look like surviving dinosaurs.
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-Zenwind.
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Ron Diethrick, R.I.P.

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We just lost a wild and wonderful guy.
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He was my best friend from my youth. He mentored me and others on our climb to Eagle Scout. He taught many of us to truly enjoy life.
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-Zenwind.
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Rock and Roll Music in Bangkok

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Last night, 7 June 8, 2011, was a great night for Rock and Roll in Bangkok. Peter Driscoll and The Cruisers played once again at the Wine Bibber Sangria, aka, Club Bibber, on Soi Thong Lor between soi 9 and 11 and across from the Pet Hospital. If I seem repetitious by mentioning Peter’s gigs many, many times over the last year, it is because I’m a major fan and this music is an invigorating experience.
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Or, as Chuck Berry put it in the definitive statement:
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“Just let me hear some of that Rock and Roll music,
Any old way you choose it,
It’s got a backbeat you can’t lose it,
Any old time you use it.
It’s gotta be Rock and Roll music
If you want to dance with me.”
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It was another night of foot-stomping Rock n Roll music, with a focus on early Rock n Roll and Rockabilly with Peter’s excellent historical comments on the songwriters and the singers who covered any one song. Because 1950s songs were of such short duration (because that was the radio norm in those days), The Cruisers play a lot of songs in one evening.
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Among the songs covered last night were ones sung by: Chuck Berry, Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley, Ricky Nelson, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bill Haley, Buddy Holly, Dion (“The Wanderer,” one of my personal favorites), Eddie Cochran, and many more.
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-Zenwind.
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Hot

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1 June 2011: Our weather is still the transition period between the Hot season and the Rainy season. When the sun is out, it sizzles. The clouds and occasional rains are very welcome, and good breezes often catch one by surprise.
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The other day at dusk, the wind suddenly picked up dramatically and the sky got very black. As we brought in the last of the day’s laundry, it was obvious that the temperature had dropped significantly in a very short time.
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Just as it does anytime that this temperature drop happens, I thought of my father’s weather wisdom. He would say, “It feels like it has rained somewhere.” And it had. Within 40 minutes the skies opened on us with a hard rain.
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Blessed coolness,
Zen delight.
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-Zenwind.
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