Clear Weather, Fine Moons

 

We have had a lot of fine weather with very clear skies in the last couple of our winter months, and, thus, I have been out and about quite a bit.  Seeing the Moon again, as she goes through her phases, is always a lifelong delight for me. 

A few nights after the last New Moon, I decided to trek to The Rock Pub to hear my favorite band, Mundee.  At about 7:30 in the evening, I took a few tokes of herb at home and then walked the mile to the nearest mass transit station.  I noticed the fine waxing Crescent Moon in the west as I hit the street, and while waiting on a train platform, I noticed it again.  Sharp and beautiful!  I looked around, but no one else was seeing it – they were all playing with their phones.  (Talk about different priorities!) 

The following Full Moon was the Buddhist holiday of Makha Puja, a major national observance.  Tuk went to a temple with friends, and I took a long morning march in the neighborhood on empty sidewalks. 

I like to stop and gaze when crossing the many small khlongs (canals) that flow under the roads and sidewalks on our side of the river.  They are relics of the past, when they were the main means of travel when Bangkok was known as “the Venice of the East.”  (Most khlongs on the eastern, Bangkok side, of the Chao Phraya River are filled in by development these days, but on our western, Thonburi side, many of them are still here.) 

Our summer has officially started.  The humidity is rising, and the next few months will be sweltering.  Sweat City. 

-Zenwind. 

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New Pack

 

I bought a new pack.  I am a life-long collector of backpacks, from huge-load mountaineering expedition packs to more compact-load alpinist climbing packs to daypacks and fanny packs.  I love packs.  They have always served me well, carrying essentials as I trek the path.  Here in the Tropics, it is more daypacks for me, and I also utilize cargo pants and shirts (with many pockets) to have important gear close at hand.  Fast and light. 

I have had to downsize to a smaller-capacity pack, mainly because of my recent lower back injury (lumbar disc ruptures).  My former daily daypack had too much capacity, thus tempting me to load too much weight, and it had a feeble waist strap that was unable to transfer the load more comfortably to my hips and thus take the load off my back. 

This former pack, the North Face “Router”, is an exceptionally fine model, with incredibly convenient pockets and features that make a full day of shopping and carousing easy.  It has a pocket for a laptop and abundant space for groceries, with many ingenious gear organization features.  I am wearing out my third NF “Router” pack in the last ten years; I am hard on equipment, and I use them constantly.  The only reason I must sideline my “Router” is that tempts me to carry too much weight and the load presses uncomfortably on my hip-sacrum area (a wide and better-padded hip belt would have helped).  I am now only using the “Router” for heavy loads while using my stiff back-brace to protect my lower back. 

I found a smaller pack with a comfortable hip belt, the tiny Merrell “22L”.  It has a limited capacity, allowing me only small loads, and it has well-padded hip-belt to put the load on my hips and legs if ever too heavy and uncomfortable for my back.  It is well-engineered, with many ingenious features, and I love the light-weight loads it encourages.  It has freed me up to venture further afield without pain.

However, the future of my backpacking experiences with big multi-day overnight loads, in any weather in all climates, seems to be terminally threatened.  With my weak back and my advancing age, at 73 – if I were to be totally honest – I am becoming skeptical of how much climbing and backpacking I will be able to do in future days.  Yet, I am stubborn and will try to tackle any of these profoundly personal aesthetic activities if and when I ever can, to whatever degree possible.  Excelsior! 

-Zenwind. 

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Siamese Winter

 

This has been about the coolest stretch of fine low-humidity weather I’ve experienced in my many years living here in Thailand.  It’s like fine summer days in northern Pennsylvania.  Nighttime temps have been frequently down to the high-60s F, really comfy.  Typically, we get only about one week in December that is this comfortably cool and dry, and then days will heat up and humid dew-points return.  But this year, persistent high-pressure systems in more northern Asia have pushed dry, cool air down to us.  Much of December was comfortable, as have been these first days of January. 

Blessed coolness.  Zen delight! 

I have been marching my neighborhood sidewalk routes relentlessly, taking advantage of the comfortable weather.  I barely sweat (which is radically different than the 95% of the rest of the days in a normal year, when I am drenched with sweat just going 100 meters and back from the store). 

My intensive THC-enhanced routine exercise warm-ups - of Tai Chi, calisthenics and stretching -  drive me to push my limits and increase the length of my marches, and with a much quicker pace, incredibly more than in any recent years.  My recent back-injury sciatica pain and disability has been reduced significantly.  I am exploring further and further into areas beyond my immediate neighborhood, seeing people and places new to me.  I thrive on such exploration.  I feel stronger every day. 

I missed another month’s diary-blog posting here, i.e., December’s.  Sorry.  I was too busy exercising (and reading) to turn on my laptop to write.  Good weather makes me want to Move, and I will move as much as I possibly can.  Happy New Year! 

-Zenwind. 

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Busy Day with Great Conversations

 

One day last week, I had to cram a lot into the day, racing against the clock.  Doctor’s appointment at the hospital first thing in the morning, ending with our monthly LP meet up – shopping, a movie, and much travel in between. 

With so much on my To Do list and limited time, coffee wasn’t going to get me moving, so I toked some good Cannabis sativa before my shower.  I didn’t have enough time to limber up with my usual morning follow-up of Tai Chi and calisthenics, so I was still quite stiff and sore.  I couldn’t find a taxi, so out of desperation I took a motorcycle taxi, something I very rarely do since it is so insanely dangerous on Thai roads. 

What a ride!  No helmet, stoned, wind in my hair, we flew through the streets, sped by the river and braked at the hospital door.  I was so stiff I could barely dismount from the cycle.  But it was an exciting way to start the day. 

It was a follow-up with the orthopedic doctor, who was pleased with my exercise program and gave me two rules:  don’t do any further injury to my spine, and keep exercising.  I then had a great conversation with my long-time hospital translator and case manager, about Tai Chi and many different exercise routines. 

Leaving the hospital, I had another fine conversation with a long-time friend who speaks English and has a business just across the street, making copies of keys and repairing watches.  He comes from Thailand’s rural Northeast and we often talk of our appreciation for life in the country.  I’ve known him for years and often stop by on my walks.  During our recent Covid years, we have all worn masks – and it is still the general practice most places, but it is getting more relaxed, especially outdoors.  On this morning, I wore my mask down on my chin, so I could breathe easier, as did he.  For the first time in a couple of years, we could now see each other’s smiles and laughs.  We sat down and reminisced about our younger days.  He was trying to remember a song that always made him think of America, and we finally figured out that it was “Take Me Home, Country Roads” by John Denver – back in the day. 

I walked the mile home, and there I finally had time to do my limbering-up Tai Chi and calisthenics routines.  I did some reading before again hitting the road for the rest of the day in downtown Bangkok. 

The mass transit was not crowded – I carefully avoid rush hours – and I was able to get seats on both train connections.  I walked to a cannabis shop, looking for a waterpipe, and I found a fine one.  It rained on me for the walk back, but my “traveling light” gear included an umbrella. 

I saw a movie, The Menu, which I really enjoyed, and then I walked to the restaurant for our LP meet up.  (I relish their Reuben Sandwiches.)  There were only two others at the meet up, but we had good conversation.  They left early, so I finished the final leg of my day’s trek at The Rock Pub, to hear a favorite band that I hadn’t heard in a long time. 

There was a good crowd – the tourists are back! – and the rock music was excellent.  They played the one song they all know is a favorite of mine, “Rock and Roll” by Led Zeppelin.  Later, when asked for a request, I chose “Paint It Black” by the Rolling Stones, and they played their own special rendition of it, really well done.  A night of fine music. 

After the last song, I had a good conversation with the band’s vocalist/ guitarist.  I’ve known him for years, and we had a lot of catching up to do. 

I caught a taxi for the long ride home after midnight.  This time I didn’t stagger or limp on the final walk to my house – the THC start to my day still put a spring in my step and an alert energy that the several evening beers could not dull. 

The best parts of this busy day were the many conversations I had with my rare old friends. 

-Zenwind. 

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Two-Month Post

 

I missed posting a monthly note to this site in September.  A lot has happened in 2 months.  Tuk’s parents have had some health crises.  I injured my back again, which makes it uncomfortable to sit and type. 

Father-in-law has been getting more helpless, and can barely walk short distances with a walker.  Mother-in-law had some kind of violent psychiatric breakdown – which may be beginning Alzheimer’s Disease – and had to be briefly hospitalized, but meds have stopped the worst behavior and she is home. 

Tuk retired after 30 years with the electric company, but it’s not an easy retirement with her parents needing such care.  She has commissioned a lot of work by a former work associate, and a fine ground-floor accommodation is being created for them on their side of the house. 

I have had highs and lows with my health.  It had been over 8 months since I had been able to march my loop route that’s just under 5k.  But at the end of August, I began doing this loop again, and doing it 3 times a week.  My THC regimen (detailed in earlier posts) got me marching again to old standards (briefly).  Two or three tokes, then Tai Chi and stretching calisthenics, and I was out the door with a spring in my step. 

Then, one month ago, I hurt my back again trying to help get Father in a car to visit his doctor.  My own doctors are telling me to absolutely not lift anything.  I’ve been too busy to do the THC therapy, and it’s been raining heavily for weeks. 

Our house and near neighborhood have not been flooded, but the river is high and trying to break through dikes.  I tried to visit my province Immigration Office this week, but they were flooded with knee-deep water all around it.  I will try again next week.  In a walk this morning down by the river, water was seeping through under the bridges and flooding the way so much I had to turn back.  The Rainy Season is about to end, but there is a lot of water upcountry and it must come our way. 

-Zenwind.  

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End of Self-Quarantine, Back to Exercise

 

Our Covid episode is over, with Tuk and I ending our self-quarantines.  And her parents did not catch it from us, so things are back to normal.  Tuk has been going in to work most days again. 

I am slowly working my way back to strength after over ten days of being couch-bound.  Before getting Covid, I had been walking regularly, and, because I was using my THC workout regimen, I was relying on my cane less and less each time out walking.  I had been lifting dumbbells too, but that also came to a halt when I tested positive – my reasoning being that I needed rest more than anything.  Getting started again with an exercise program after a lapse is frustrating and painful. 

The THC-regimen is the surest way to get me on my feet again and out the door.  Micro-dosing on just a few tokes of robust Cannabis sativa gets me immediately high, and makes me want to move.  I launch into the few Tai Chi forms I remember from decades ago, and it starts to loosen me up and get the breath moving.  I then add to this with light warm-up calisthenics bends and stretches, routines learned from Kempo and from USMC boot camp PT warm-ups – from over half a century ago. 

The cannabis, by itself, does not stop my pain.  It actually makes me acutely aware of all the areas of my body that are painful, tight and weak, so then I can carefully and mindfully move to stretch and work those muscles and joints without causing further injuries.  Strong C. sativa has a profound physical effect on me that way – it makes me move.  A morning micro-dose, and the movement routines it inspires, will find me at the end of the day with very little pain at all. 

My program of exercise re-start is pathetically feeble right now, after my Covid lockdown and also from my back injury and the debilitating hip pain that has plagued me for the last half-year.  My longest marching routes in the neighborhood have been abandoned a long time ago, and I have been focusing on my short 3km loop by the river. 

This morning, after two tokes of sativa, I did this loop while leaving my cane at home – for the first time in recent memory.  There were many moments on my march where the pain in my hip and leg flared up, so I immediately adjusted my pace and posture, experimenting with the use of alternative muscle combinations and strides.  Thus, finding comfortable movement again, I would find myself marching along at a fairly respectable rate.  I am not yet at the level of walking I was at a year ago, but I am slowly gaining back strength. 

The herb is wonderfully therapeutic for me.  Just the medicine I needed. 

-Zenwind.  

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Covid Invades Our Household

 

I suppose it was inevitable, despite our careful sanitation routines, for Covid to infect our family.  The virus has been considered “endemic” here, and most of the restrictions are in the past.  We have still been wary because Tuk’s parents are old and frail. 

Tuk came down with symptoms and tested positive first.  So, she self-quarantined to our third-floor room, and we didn’t see her for days.  She ordered food delivered to our gate, and I took some to her parents and left hers at her door.  We communicated via text. 

Some days later, I felt cold-like symptoms coming on.  Tuk gave me a Covid home test which came up positive.  Now we both are barricaded in our portion of the house, isolated from her parents who are so far ok.  Since I am no longer going out shopping, the deliveries are all-important.  I really miss going outside, to the courtyard in front and the second-floor veranda in back, but we stay away to let the parents use those areas. 

My symptoms so far have been like the tail-end of a very weak head cold, and they have diminished daily since Day 1 – I’m now at Day 6.  The reason, I think, is because of my vaccinations:  Two Astra-Zeneca (in July and October 2021) and a Moderna booster (in February this year).  Tuk had two Sinovac, then a Pfizer booster, then a Moderna.  She has cold-like symptoms that are a bit more pronounced than mine and which persist longer, yet they are still relatively mild.  Her parents have had a vax history similar to mine, but because of their age we try to keep them safe at a distance. 

I feel like I’m under house arrest.  I will be glad when the self-quarantine ends. 

-Zenwind. 

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Marijuana Liberated in Thailand!

 

It is Independence Day!  The Glorious Fourth!  And here in Thailand it is appropriate that marijuana has recently been legalized (perhaps) and we can now smoke high-THC weed recreationally.  Cannabis was taken off the prohibited drug list three weeks ago on Jun 9, and free-enterprising sellers have set up shop throughout Bangkok.  And very high-potency ganga is offered. 

I didn’t expect this, and neither did most people.  There were no plans in place for regulating it, except for “public nuisance” prohibitions for smoking in public and a THC-content limit on extracts.  It is a sudden rush of freedom. 

Yet, it is suspicious that such a reactionary society could take such a libertarian step.  Some speculate that, because of the enormous profits from the weed trade and the great stimulus this liberalization will give to the foreign tourism industry, many of the power-brokers among the elite establishment here have their fingers in the various money pies.  Corruption is endemic everywhere here. 

I am skeptical about how long this free market era of freedom will last without stupid regulations from the political class.  A committee is now drawing up new regulations (due around August), and I predict a slew of nonsensical laws from politicians, bureaucrats, and their cronies. 

But in the meantime, I’ve visited two dispensaries in Bangkok to buy the legal limit of 3 grams from each.  One shop was staffed by mostly Americans and the other by Thais.  Each shop was consumer-friendly in the best traditions of free-market capitalism – offering a great product at competitive prices along with very supportive advice.  (As my father always explained to me, as we sold our farm’s milk and eggs to the public, the customers’ preferences and satisfaction are of the most importance.) 

I intend to visit several more of the weed dispensaries in the city, out of curiosity but also from the desire to stock up a decent personal stash in case the government goons decide to crush this renaissance of free-market cooperation between buyers and sellers. 

This stuff is powerful, far beyond our 60s and 70s experiences.  I always tend to micro-dose, limiting my indulgence to two or three tokes, enough to get a buzz and still be able to be energized and motivated.  This mode of usage gets me to exercise, to move out, and to heal.  It especially gets me to have much more intense Tai Chi sessions. 

I have been quite crippled for the last several months with severe hip pain.  I had not fallen, and I couldn’t explain it.  Last week, my doctors speculated that I have suffered compression of the lower spine due to lifting heavy stuff at home recently.  The pain has been so bad that I must walk with a cane, and only short distances at that.  I am curious about how marijuana (the THC-high smoking type) affects this recent episode of pain. 

The pain is always uneven, inconsistent and unpredictable.  But after two weeks of intermittent toking of weed, I no longer have to use my cane for large portions of my day.  Grass doesn’t relieve pain, but I’ve always thought of it as allowing me to “climb up through the pain”.  It kind of forces me to pace my movements carefully. 

I am going to observe this personal use of cannabis more thoroughly and try to see to whether it actually does have consistent healing effects on me.  On the plus side, it does make music sound so much more intense. 

-Zenwind. 

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They're Baaack!! Return of the Tourists

 

The foreign tourists have been starting to come back to Thailand.  Not the former great numbers of Chinese yet, but “farangs”, i.e., westerners, and some Middle Easterners are showing up. 

I have been extremely spoiled for two years, because the Covid pandemic shut down all incoming tourism.  I seemed to be the “only farang in town”, and I admit that I really liked that.  The trains, malls and theaters were empty and I roamed freely.  I didn’t have to witness crude behavior from farang (Euro-American types) or Chinese tourists.  There were only Thais and myself out and about, and I felt like I blended in.  But the dread tourists are trickling back.  I feel crowded now. 

We are all still expected to wear masks everywhere in public – it’s the social norm here as well as the law – but some tourists are arrogantly ignoring it, thumbing their noses at Thai values, and to me, as an expat, this is embarrassing to see. 

What I hate most is that public spaces are more crowded again.  Yes, that is selfish of me, but I am by nature a solitary rambler. 

“Ramble on; and now’s the time, the time is now, to sing my song...”. (Led Zeppelin). 

-Zenwind. 

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Royal Ploughing Ceremony

 

The Royal Ploughing Ceremony was this morning, and I always try to watch it on TV.  It takes place around this time every year, to acknowledge the beginning of the rice-planting season, just before the Rainy Season begins.  It is an ancient ceremony introduced from India, its first mention being in the Ramayana.  Brahmins – Indian Hindu priests, these being historically attached to the Thai royal court – officiate at the ploughing field. 

After the Thai king has finished the Buddhist part of the ceremony at the Grand Palace, he arrives at the ploughing field.  Then two beautiful white oxen, huge with golden embellishments on their horns, are harnessed to an ornate wooden plough with a single blade.  Brahmins led the plough procession, followed by the oxen.  A chief Brahmin has his hand on the plough, and following are young ladies with baskets of rice seeds and flowers.  The Brahmin tosses seeds into the ploughed furrows as they go round and round. 

At the end of the ploughing, the oxen are fed.  Their given choices are:  rice, corn, green beans, grass, water, or rice whiskey.  Their choices are interpreted by Brahmin astrologers (who also have chosen the auspicious date for this ceremony) for predictions of the future harvest. 

Needless to say, my confidence in astrologers is zero.  But it is a beautiful ceremony to watch. 

-Zenwind. 

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