Melancholia

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25 November: No, I’m not suffering from melancholia, but I just saw an interesting film by that name. I went into Bangkok, just for movies and books, for the first time in a long, long while.
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The express boats finally resumed service this week after a month off, and I got to see things at river level again. The river is brimming, and many locations along its banks are flooded badly. Riverside houses that have always seemed to be suffering foundation failure are now collapsing. Other houses are probably now doomed. Everywhere, huge pumps are trying to get water out of the neighborhoods and back into the river. As I’ve said before, it is astounding that so much water is flowing by.
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I almost missed the express boat. As I was walking toward the pier I looked ahead and saw the southbound boat coming in, and they wait for no one. Waiting for the next one would mean a 20 minute wait, so I ran an obstacle course around sidewalk vendors, children, homeless sojourners, and sleeping soi dogs. The boatswain had just thrown the cable from the pier’s peg back onto the boat and had piped to the pilot to go on, when I took a running leap to land on deck. (Love those sure-footed sports sandals.) This was much more exciting than waiting for another boat.
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The film Melancholia (2011) was a rather odd movie, two hours and ten minutes of strangeness. Oddness and strangeness are not necessarily bad. Written and directed by Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier, it starred Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kiefer Sutherland, Charlotte Rampling, and some other good actors. I am not really recommending it, since most people will not like it, although a few might. I had wanted to see it for weeks, but the flooding kept me from getting to it. Afraid it would soon end its run in the one theater here that has been showing it, I made a point to come in and see it in a matinee.
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It is about two sisters who seldom ever get along, and now a huge planet named Melancholia is suddenly going to crash into and destroy Earth. During earlier “normal” times, Justine (Dunst) is crazy, dysfunctional, hurtful and disturbing, while her sister Claire (Gainsbourg) is stable and comforting. But watch how they each deal with the coming annihilation as it closes in. Great acting by two great actresses. My main criticism is the poor sound quality; in early scenes the whispered dialogue given by Charlotte Gainsbourg is inaudible; I will have to wait for a DVD with subtitles to find out what she said.
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-Zenwind.
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Back to Normal?

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22 November: What is normality here in Thailand, anyway? Well, the opposing political factions are demonstrating in the streets and/or threatening to riot against each other, and that seems very much the status quo ante here.
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Today my parents-in-law hired local people, who are out of work because of the flooding, to clean up our courtyard front and back. I am very grateful, because doing it myself would have probably killed me. I cannot lift another sandbag. I spent last night unable to sleep because of aching, screaming-in-agony pain all over my body. (Well, I did not actually scream out loud, but I did bite down hard on a towel to keep from moaning and waking Tuk or scaring the hell out of the cats.) Some day I will admit that I’m getting old, or that I’m out of shape.
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Workers have torn down the elevated boardwalks in our neighborhood that we all used to navigate above the floodwaters. We can walk down dry sidewalks now. Things smell a bit better. I think normality is on its way.
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-Zenwind.
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Dry

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19 November: In the last two days things have almost dried out, although other areas are still dealing with floodwaters. Tuk and I left on an outing today at 08:00 and still had to exit via the boardwalk and ladder over the wall, because of the thick mud still in the courtyard. But when we returned at 16:00 her parents were directing some hired folks who were shoveling out the mud and garbage from the alleyway and courtyard, so we could walk in the front gate for the first time in three weeks.
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Our outing was a trip to Chonburi, a two-hour drive to the Gulf of Thailand. We went to visit some dogs and to get out of town for a break, now that transportation has improved. Tuk’s brother’s three dogs were taken there for safety when his house (and soon ours) was flooded three weeks ago. A family outside Chonburi boards dogs and takes very good care of them. I was impressed by the guy’s knowledge of dogs and love of them.
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We had to cut straight across Bangkok, and I hadn’t been into that part of town for years. I was gawking at the skyscrapers and freeways like a hick on his first trip to a city. In the open countryside south of Bangkok it is surprising once again to see how incredibly flat the land is.
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Chonburi, however, has a few hills, and I saw actual bedrock for the first time in quite a while. (I saw additional rock when Tuk’s friend bought herself a new mortar and pestle made completely out of granite. The handle end of the pestle was polished glass-smooth, and it was beautiful to see.)
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The direct sunlight was hot, but the shore of the gulf had nice breezes, and we had a good meal there before returning north.
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Thailand seems to be slowly returning to normal, including the norm of rising political tensions.
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-Zenwind.
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Floodwaters In Retreat

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17 November: The floodwaters are giving way a bit. Our ground floor room (our former main living quarters) is almost dry, but outside in our courtyard and in our entrance alleyway it is still choked with filthy water almost up to the knee. The small soi off to our northeast is still deeply flooded. To leave our property, we still must use our elevated plank walkway and the ladder over the wall. Technically we are still flooded.
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However, the floodwaters out on our main soi started to go down dramatically yesterday afternoon, and today its sidewalk is completely dry. Floodwater remains in lower lying neighborhoods, such as our place and the soi to the nearest wat (Buddhist temple). It is hard to say when these areas, including ours, will drain.
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Yesterday I did not venture out; it was a rest day for me to catch my breath because my back, pelvis and knees are still screaming with unholy pain from this whole long ordeal. Today I stretched thoroughly and carefully, and then I walked (sauntered) my customary 4k walking route to the hospital and back, and for first time in weeks it was dry the whole way. My feet did not get wet once. Garbage removal was well done. It is almost back to normal in the larger neighborhood.
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I bought some token snacks (mainly small cans of cold coffee and chips) from the small sidewalk concession of a Chinese mother and her adult son on route, as I usually do every time I pass by them. They are treasured friends. Further on, the river was high, fast and brimming the levee as usual these days, but the water was contained. A lot of water is still streaming southwards.
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Many Bangkok residents who had a place to go up-country away from the floodwaters had left town weeks ago. A lot of them are still gone because their homes here are still flooded and there are no places to park their cars. So the streets and sidewalks are a bit less crowded at the moment and it was easy to walk fast.
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My friend who has a key-duplication stand across from the hospital has returned, and I talked with him today. He speaks very good English because he had lived in the USA for a few years at one time, and we chat whenever I pass by. He is a great guy. Recently he had gone up-country to stay dry and has now returned for business. I will bring him some keys to duplicate soon.
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Apparently this floodwater retreat will mean easier transportation into downtown Bangkok in the future, plus the ability to return home late, which is critical. Tuk is suggesting a couple of ventures outside our neighborhood in the next few days, so I am plotting to get her to agree to visiting a live music venue or two this weekend on our way home. Heh, heh. I’m completely evil, I know, but get over it! Even evil folks must hear the Blues and Rock n Roll now and then.
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-Zenwind.
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Neighborhood Flood Zone

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15 November: On today’s walk around my neighborhood, I had slightly more dry sidewalk than ever, but I still had to wade through deep water to get out of our house and block. The water level in our ground floor has risen up almost to the ankle again, but the level on the streets and sidewalks beyond our block is down a few inches. Once I get to the river the sidewalks are quite dry. The river level is still very high, almost brimming the sandbag levee. The amount of water streaming past us from the north is amazing – it just keeps on coming. Our main street south past the hospital is still deeply flooded, and we are still boxed in and unable to travel.
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Thai friends along the way communicate how high the water is at their houses by gesturing knee level, waist level, chest level, neck level, etc. Our once highest flooding of knee level makes us very lucky compared to most people.
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For the first time in weeks, the big mountains of garbage that were growing on many intersections are cleared. People had also thrown out flood-damaged furniture and other debris, and sometimes I had to walk in the street to get around it. At one spot today a huge bulldozer was scooping up junk from the sidewalk and loading it into big trucks.
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Now that every day is quite sunny, people are bringing out wet stuff to dry, and it is giving me a good indication of how much people have been affected by this flood. Few got by unscathed.
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It seems that sandbags were not enough in most cases when it came to stopping the water. Even sandbag levees packed by experts suffered leakage because of the slow, steady rise of water from every direction. The only benefit from our horrendous labors building sandbag levees around our place is that the water that seeped through to our ground floor room was filtered a bit to exclude larger bits of garbage. The water is still quite vile, especially outside around our house.
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Now – ironically when it is too late – I feel I have a bit of experience with sandbags and their effectiveness. If I had it to do over again, and if I had enough materials and help, I would use 10 times the sandbags along with two hundred meters of sturdy plastic sheet. Along with that I would have four or five powerful pumps to pump water seepage out. Ah, blessed hindsight!
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-Zenwind.
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Outsider

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12 November: I will probably not be posting here every day now that being surrounded by floodwaters is becoming the norm. We are still surrounded by water on all sides, and we don’t know when it will drain. It's a long haul. Many everyday items are still not available, but we are getting used to it and it’s not a big deal.
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Our biggest street going southwards into Bangkok still has unpredictable flood levels, and traveling anywhere is uncertain. The biggest hardship for me about all this is that I cannot venture into Bangkok for movie theaters and bookstores, and, especially, to attend the newly re-opened Tokyo Joe’s Blues Bar, the premier Blues venue in-country that had closed well over a year ago but is now back for four nights a week. But since many others here in Thailand have suffered much more than me I will quit whining.
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But you can bet that I will be there at Tokyo Joe's listening to the Blues the very first chance I get. Until then, I’m an outsider trying to find a dry spot above the floodwaters. And being an outsider has definitely never been an unfamiliar vantage point for me.
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-Zenwind.
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Marine Corps Birthday

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To all Marines: "Here's health to you and to our Corps..." (see Marines' Hymn)
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Happy Birthday. Semper Fi.
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-Zenwind.
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Headline: Thai Floods Reduce Beer Supplies to a Drip

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9 November: Yes, it’s that bad. Beer rationing signals the decline of a civilization, and we might be headed there.
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However, before we even placed the first sandbag here at home, I had hoarded a substantial amount of Chang Classic, my first choice of beer here. This hoard was increased by the generous gift of a case of the same beer from Tuk’s girlfriend on the very day the flood hit us. Bags of ice are now more easily found in the neighborhood, so we are doing okay in that respect.
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This morning I walked to the hospital for a prescription and then checked out the flooding on the way home. The river is still high but not brimming over, and in some places the water appears to have receded a bit. Because there is still dirty water at calf height all around our compound, we still exit and enter via an elevated footbridge and a ladder over the wall.
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Our ground floor – which was always our main living quarters – is now cleared of all but an inch of water, and most of the wet junk is thrown out. Best of all, our regular ground floor shower room (Thai-style, water tub under faucet with a dipper) is operational again, although we must still use 2nd floor toilets. I am beginning to like this dry and airy 2nd floor living, and I appreciate more than ever why classic Thai houses are built up on stilts.
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-Zenwind.
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Exhausted

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8 November: Apparently we will not see much more flooding in our neighborhood, although other parts of the Central Plains south of us are still expecting the floodwaters to reach them soon. We still wade in water on the ground floor and outside the house. We could still have water levels rise again in our house and street, but after what has already hit us it would not be that dramatic.
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We are flood veterans now – although many Thais have experienced much, much more traumatic flooding for a longer time. For us it went through several phases: watching news predictions; moving stuff upstairs and building sandbag levees around the house; the flooding itself when the levees were not enough for the huge volume of water; now the gradual receding of floodwaters. Next will be clean up, but now is time for exhaustion.
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I had lifted heavy sandbags and moved heavy stuff upstairs – efforts that I never thought I could do at my age. My knees and back still scream with pain. Now I’m just tired out.
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-Zenwind.
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Electricity with Water Everywhere

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6 November: Among the 500 plus deaths caused by the recent flooding here in Thailand, there are many who died of electrocution when wading in water. I have always been scared to death of electricity, I respect it, and I take no chances. I thank my cousin for his concern and his reminder of the dangers involved.
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We are lucky that our electric service was never cut off during this crisis – without electric fans I would wilt, and the mosquitoes would eat us alive at night. Our two main circuit breaker switches, both the one for our half and the one for the parent-in-law half of the house, are located high on the ground floors (about eight feet up), and all electrical outlets on the ground floor are at least chest-high. This house was designed with floods in mind. We only threw the main switches a couple of times, and only temporarily. This was when the water was at its highest, knee-high.
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My procedure when handling main switches or outlets went like this: Dry hands; place a sturdy plastic stool with a dry top under switch; fold a dry foam camping pad over four times and put on stool; lift one bare foot up and have Tuk dry it with a towel; place dry foot on pad; lift other foot out of water and have Tuk dry it; gain sure balance on stool and pad; make sure hands are dry and not touching any metal; touch switch/circuit breaker only with dry plastic over hand. I take no chances with electricity, and I think Ben Franklin (bless his genius mind) was insane and very lucky.
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We power our new 2nd floor abode (which has no outlets) by extension cords from below. The wiring in this building is unbelievably ancient and scares me. We are careful to use only some electrical devices in combination so as not to overload the archaic system. Someday we will replace it with a properly grounded system.
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Water levels continue to go down, but very slowly. The smells of the beached debris below us and outside in the neighborhood are strong. In my daily walk I saw huge piles of garbage, because no pickup has been possible. If we don’t get flooded anew this week by high tides, the tasks ahead are being watchful for waterborne diseases and cleaning up the aftermath. I feel like I’m working in a hospital again, given the strict hygienic regimen we follow.
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-Zenwind.
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