Little Cat Jiuu, R.I.P.

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Our beloved young cat, Jiuu (meaning “Tiny”), died today, barely one year old. We are heartbroken, as she was a vibrant member of our family. Jiuu was a cosmic clown, making us laugh continuously. She was a loving pet, and she just adored Tuk, sleeping near her every night.

Tuk had rescued her as a kitten after her mother was killed by a dog. Tuk had a good vet give her all the vaccinations in the book and brought her home on Halloween last. We kept her indoors, and we cannot understand how she got so sick. Animals don’t live long here in the tropics.

She got sick suddenly less than six weeks ago and went into a radically steep decline. The vets cannot explain it. She wouldn’t eat and went right down, despite our force-feeding her liquid nourishment, fluids, and meds. We took her to the vet many times, most recently just this morning. But she gave up the ghost this evening. Poor little girl. We miss her so much.

Here is a picture of Jiuu from the early days when we brought her home: http://pinetreewind.blogspot.com/

She was a darling.

-Zenwind.

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Bangkok Normal

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I went into the city yesterday and found Bangkok Dangerous to be more like Bangkok Normal, at least for the afternoon and evening I was there. After the bombings of earlier in the week, there were not quite as many people on the mass transit or in the stores, but the automobile traffic was in normal gridlock. The security people are checking bags more thoroughly.

I had planned on taking the express boat in and to land on the Sathorn pier where Tuesday’s bombing attempt occurred, but I stepped out of the house into the blazing heat and found a taxi right in front of me. So I skipped the walk to the river and took the taxi, riding in air conditioned comfort to the nearest Skytrain station. What’s happening to my sense of adventure?

It was our libertarian meet up night, which takes me out a bit to the east of the city center. I hate crowds, so my usual strategy is to go out there on the Skytrain in mid-afternoon when it’s not as crowded. There is a movie theater within walking distance of our meet up pub, so I passed rush hour in a/c comfort. From the Skytrain I got a good look down at the Erawan shrine where Monday’s bombing occurred, and although there were people there the crowd was much smaller than normal.

My friends all went home before 23:00, so I went to The Rock Pub – Bangkok’s House of Rock. There were only three of us there in the audience for the late band, Jimmy Revolt. The band knows me as a very enthusiastic fan of theirs, and if I’m there they always play “Rock and Roll” by Led Zeppelin. Although this band has its origins in Punk, they are always surprising me with their new covers of old classics, e.g., "Johnny Be Good," "Paint It Black."

After the pub closed, I sat at one of their outdoor tables talking to one of the audience, an interesting guy from Serbia. He has a PhD in music history and did his dissertation on something like “New Wave Rock Music in the Soviet Block,” or similar. Obviously, he doesn’t have a job in the field. Great conversation.

Normal taxi ride home after midnight with very little traffic and, surprisingly, few police checkpoints. Our street still has the trees trimmed with cascades of blue lights from the recent Mothers' Day (Queen's birthday), and at 3AM it looks magical.

-Zenwind.

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Explosion in central Bangkok

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There has been an explosion this evening in central Bangkok, close to the famous Erawan shrine that honors the Hindu god Brahma.

It is thought to be a big pipe bomb, and at least a dozen people have been killed and several dozen wounded by the blast. News reports are still coming in. Good old BBC was the first to alert me of this.

The site is at a major intersection, and I often travel by on the elevated Skytrain. I have often shopped at the nearby Amarin Plaza (where I bought my hammock recently).

Who did it is an instant controversy, as most Thais have their personally favorite villains to blame. The political thickets just get thicker and thicker.

Stand by.

-Zenwind.

Update: The value of BBC International News is apparent now, as no other news service is remotely as up to date. (Al Jazeera is a decent second.) CNN and Fox News are asleep at the wheel.

Update: Overnight there's been a lot of changes in reported facts and theories.

Update: This afternoon (Tuesday) a similar bomb was thrown off a bridge toward the Sathorn pier, but it bounced into the river and exploded there without injuring anyone. This is the pier I have often used when coming into the city via express boat down the Chao Phraya River; I land there and take the nearby Skytrain into the downtown area from there.

I still plan to travel into the city later this week -- if public transit is working somewhat normally -- although Tuk thinks I'm nuts.

-Zenwind.

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Cool Asalha Puja Rainstorm

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Asalha Puja – a major Buddhist holy day

The celebration of Buddha's First Discourse

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A tremendously windy rainstorm

Just hit us this late afternoon.

The coolness is exquisite

The fresh smells intoxicating.

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I had gone out earlier to my hammock

On our back-facing second floor veranda

With reading and writing materials,

And I started reading the First Discourse.

But it got so dark I couldn't read the printed paper page;

So I just lie back, watching the wind whip the big tree.

Then the sudden cool breeze hit,

Reminding me of my father's weather lore:

"It feels like it has rained somewhere."

And it had.

Then it rained and blew spray on us with a vengeance,

And I sat back and delighted in the blasts of coolness.

It doesn’t get any better than this!

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-Zenwind.

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St. Swithun’s Day 2015

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Let the Feast of St. Swithun begin! 15 July 2015

Old Swithun (aka Swithin), often considered the patron saint of drought/rain cycles, you are needed now to relieve the horrible drought in Thailand. It is the worst drought in countless decades and the farmers up-country need rain. We down in the parched central plains need clouds and rain to cool things down. The sun is scorching our brains! I don’t really believe in saints, miracles, or theological meteorology, but appealing to fantasies such as this can be tempting.

As the ancient lore claims:

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“St. Swithun’s Day if thou dost rain

For forty days it will remain.

St. Swithun’s Day if thou be fair

For forty days ‘twill rain nae mare.”

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Therefore, for centuries the old-timer farmers in England and America had a strict rule: you must get your first crop of hay into the barn by 15 July, because if it does rain on that day, what if it actually does rain for the next forty days? Superstitious? Or prudent?

However, I hear that in old Warren County, Pennsylvania, USA they have been getting too much rain. Up there, folks are going to want a dry St. Swithun’s Day!

-Zenwind.

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St. Swithun’s Day mid-year reviews 2015

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I consider this Feast Day of St. Swithun (15 July) to be the calendar year’s mid-point. It was about the midway point in public school summer vacations, vacations which I considered the high holy days of freedom when I was both a student and later a teacher.

So, this is a good time to pause and record things about the last half-year. I started recently listing the books I’ve read and the movies I’ve seen, mainly so that I could keep track of all of them and possibly give them as recommendations to those few (if any) who read my blogging. I’d like to review them all, but that might be too much. From New Year’s Day to St. Swithun’s Day, here they are:

Books Read:

Ira Levin – This Perfect Day (1970) [libertarian SF] [reviewed on Zenwind]

Marc Headley – Blown for Good (2009) [reviewed on Zenwind]

Victor Koman – Solomon’s Knife (1989/2014) [libertarian SF]

Elie Wiesel – Night (1958/2006)

Lawrence Wright – Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief (2013) [reviewed on Zenwind]

Steven Pressfield – Gates of Fire [great novel of the Spartans at Thermopylae]

Basho – Narrow Road to the Interior [master of haiku]

Richard Flanagan – Narrow Road to the Deep North (2013)

Nancy Many – My Billion Year Contract: memoir of a former Scientologist (2009)

Tony Ortega – The Unbreakable Miss Lovely (2015) [Wow!]

J. Neil Schulman – Alongside Night (1979) [libertarian SF]

E.M. Forster – The Machine Stops (1909) [libertarian SF]

Jefferson Hawkins – Counterfeit Dreams (2010)

Amy Scobee – Scientology: Abuse at the Top (2010)

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Movies Seen:

Predestination

Into the Woods

Blackhat

Guardians of the Galaxy (DVD) [recommended]

American Sniper [reviewed on Zenwind]

The Imitation Game [recommended]

Still Alice [recommended]

The Theory of Everything

Birdman

Lost River

Child 44 [reviewed on Zenwind]

Tomorrowland

Mad Max: Fury Road

Wild (DVD) [recommended]

Crazy, Stupid, Love (DVD)

Nightcrawler (DVD)

Unbroken (DVD)

The Voices (2014)

Spy (2014)

Inherent Vice (2014) (DVD)

Jurassic World

Love & Mercy [recommended]

The Kingsmen (2015) (DVD)

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I hope to recap the next half-year’s books and movies at New Year’s next. Let me know what books and movies you have experienced.

As far as our family, we are still doing well. I am still under treatment for chronic Deep Vein Thrombosis, blood clots in my legs. But I'm trying to stay fit and exercise whenever possible.

Swithun lives!

-Zenwind.

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Hammock Daze

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I got a hammock for the second-floor veranda out back! I haven't yet made it to the big flea market as I'd planned for hammock shopping, but I did get great tips from the online expatriate community and found a store with good camping gear with easier access in downtown Bangkok. The hammock is made of nylon parachute silk, which is not quite as ventilated and cool as I'd like, but it sure is nice otherwise. With it I got a mosquito net covering.

Our rainy season monsoon this year is a weak one, and we are not getting much rain. Yet we do have more clouds and a bit more wind, which are welcome relief from the heat. When the wind blows, I can cool off a bit swinging in the gusts with music and a book/Kindle. When it rains, I enjoy the occasional blasts of cool moisture while under the overall protection of the open and roofed veranda. (Gotta love Sony for their waterproof products!)

Blessed Coolness. Zen Delight.

-Zenwind.

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A Slightly Cool Relief

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The Rainy Monsoon is here (albeit a very weak one), and the constant blazing hell of the Hot Season has been replaced by days with at least some cloud coverage and some nights with rain. Anything is an improvement. Even if we do not get the rain, we can often feel the relative coolness in stormy winds -- reminding me of my father's summer observations during similar weather in NW PA, USA: "It feels like it has rained somewhere."

Blessed Coolness. Zen Delight.

I would like to buy a jungle hammock with its mosquito-netted cocoon that you zip yourself into. It would be great for sleeping out on our roofed open second story veranda during rainy nights. I had one in 1968, which I used heavily while hitchhiking through the Northeast and hanging out as a forest hermit in my home county.

There is a famous -- and huge -- weekend flea market in northern Bangkok that might have jungle hammocks, but I must take a taxi to get to it plus I don't like crowded places like that. (I'm still a die-hard hermit.) We will have to see whether I ever make the expedition there or not.

-Zenwind.

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Vesak 2015

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Toady is the full moon Buddhist holiday of Vesak, which in Theravada tradition celebrates the birth, enlightenment (at age 35), and paranirvana (death at age 80) of Gotama Buddha. Each of these important times of his life are believed to have happened at the full moon at this time of year (usually June). Big holiday. The neighborhood is very quiet.

-Zenwind.

I’m Complaining…

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...But I don’t know whom to complain to, and you’ve probably heard this gripe of mine over and over before. I’m complaining about how hellishly hot it is these last few days. It was easily 100*F today and was 104 and 106 on recent days. And those are just raw temperatures without factoring in the humidity, dew point, and Heat Index.

I know: I chose to move to Thailand, so I should be able to hack it. Maybe I’m getting old. Or maybe the heat just makes me grouchy. The one or two people who ever read this blog must be very sick of my constant comments about the heat here. But I’m still astonished by it.

(Trying to calculate temp and humidity into a Heat Index number on a day like this is as futile as trying to calculate Wind Chill when it’s 40-below zero with a stiff wind. One would just say, “It’s damn cold, and there is a brutal killer wind.” In both cases, one just scrambles to survive without bodily damage.)

I defrosted our old frig tonight because I couldn’t sleep and its ice builds up quickly in this weather. Then I went out at 23:00 hours to the all-night store for two packs of ice. As I stepped out of the house unto the street, I felt like I should be swimming instead of walking – the wetness of the air made it almost difficult to breathe. “Thick and soupy” would be the best way to describe the air, and there was no hint of a breeze.

We look forward to the relative coolness of the Rainy Season, which might start (hopefully) in a month or so.

-Zenwind.