On the Great Chao Phraya River

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I haven’t been on the Chao Phraya River express boats for a long, long time until the other day. I haven’t been going to Bangkok as much in recent months, and when I have gone into the city I’ve taken a taxi in to at least the closest Skytrain (light commuter elevated rail) station and then a taxi back home late. I’ve been opting for the coolest rides in air conditioned comfort. I must be getting old.

Yesterday was my annual trip to the US Embassy to get a notarized document for my annual big visit to Immigration in two weeks to apply for an Extension of Stay in Thailand based on Retirement. I intended to take the boat in the morning, but I was running late and it’s hotter than Hell here, and an empty taxi happened to come by. There are no good movies playing, so after the embassy visit I made a quick bookstore run and jumped on the express boat for the afternoon trip home.

Standing outside for 10 minutes I felt like I had just taken a swim with all of my clothes on. The other day gave us a freak hard thunderstorm which made the night cool. The following morning wasn’t too bad while the clouds blocked the sun. But when the sun finally came out, all that moisture just hung heavy in the air. Sweat city, without mercy.

Looking at the city from the lowest elevation, at river level, I could see a lot of changes. Bangkok is a dynamic place. Buildings and infrastructure are going up everywhere. One new bridge for elevated rail is already finished not far down-river from us, and I got to look at the new bridge(s) closer to us. I was amazed that there are two double train track bridges being built together. These rail connections will soon make express boat travel antique, as air conditioned fast rail stations will be within walking distance to us in a couple of years.

But you cannot beat the scenery experienced from the river’s level. You see the extreme poverty of collapsing tin squatters’ shacks on stilts on the river’s edge right next to luxurious new high-rise condos going up – that’s Asia in a nutshell.

The Great Flood of 2011 still has its reminders left along the banks. Wooden structures are now showing their immense foundational decay from that deluge. And a couple of riverbank temple monasteries are finally showing their damage as debris is slowly being shoveled out of their ground floors.

Ah, I long for coolness.

-Zenwind.

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Silly Willy, R.I.P.

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[This post was moved from "Zenwind" to this blog.]

Silly Willy, our silliest but beloved cat, died recently after a year-long struggle with some kind of a feline virus. The vet had tests done in late 2013 and told us it was a terminal case, but Willy didn’t give in without a fight and lived much longer than expected. He was seven or eight years old.

Willy was a favorite of ours, and he always wanted to be close to Tuk – until the last weeks of his sickness when he would snuggle next to me because I sleep more. Right from the time he was a kitten, he was always doing silly things, hence his name. He just looked silly. I would always greet him by saying, “There’s that silly little guy!” and he seemed to like that.

He liked to hear us talking to him, and during his last days and nights I would recite a short Mahayana verse to him that I got from reading Jack Kerouac. Although I don’t believe in the Mahayana ideas of rebirth, etc., I do admire their sense of compassion. I really like some of their ideas – which I look at as metaphors -- of a long series of karmic rebirths that have the potential for all sentient beings who think and act virtuously to work their way up to the state of complete Buddha-hood. The Kerouac verses, into which any name can be substituted, went like this:

-- “Willy: equally empty.” [“emptiness” meaning that our individual natures are not fixed; we can overcome ourselves, improve ourselves, and climb higher]

-- “Willy: equally to be loved.”

-- “Willy: equally a coming Buddha.” [even Willy may, in some far future eon, reach that highest of moral heights]

Willy would weakly look at me as I recited this, appreciating the attention. I couldn’t resist assuring him that after his final rebirth he would become famously known as “the Silly Buddha.” I don’t think he took my humor in the wrong way. We sure loved the little guy.

-Zenwind.

Over 100 Degrees F. and Humid

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The title of this post says it all.

And yet what did I do at noon? I took a march around the neighborhood and down past the river.

"Mad dogs and Englishmen/ Go out in the midday sun." All the dogs I saw were sane; they relaxed in the shade. It was me who was the April Fool.

-Zenwind.

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Tropical Storm Hitting Us a Bit

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It's still our Dry Season (which lasts from about October to June), and it's also the Hot part of that season (with the hottest time being March to May). So it seems a bit unusual for a big thunderstorm to come through, but it's coolness is welcomed. We have had warning of it, and I always check out the daily weather reports. Yesterday I carried an umbrella with me for the first time in several months, although I didn't need it.

This noon the sky became dark with rumblings of thunder, and our cat Pinkie came downstairs and hid under some clothes. But Jiuu Jiuu was not as frightened, probably because she was born outside during the last rainy season, and then she was orphaned and lived on a roof in the neighborhood before Tuk rescued her.

The air is fresher and cooler than I've known in a long time. I stepped out on our second-floor veranda in the back and relished it. We have a new improved roof on it, so when the rainy season does come again I will set a chair out there.

Blessed coolness. Zen delight.

-Zenwind.

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How Hot Is It? ...

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It’s horrendously hot and humid here, and I’m wilting in a pool of sweat. How hot is it?

I’ll let the late great Robin Williams answer that from his tropical weather report in the film Good Morning, Vietnam! (1987):

“The weather out there today is hot and shitty with continued hot and shitty in the afternoon. Tomorrow a chance of continued crappy with a pissy weather front coming down from the north. Basically, it's hotter than a snake's ass in a wagon rut.”

“It’s hot. Damn hot. The hottest thing is my shorts. They’re so hot, I can cook in ‘em. Do a little crotch-pot cooking. It’s so hot, I saw two of those little guys in orange robes burst into flames. It’s hot, hot and wet, which is fine if you’re with a lady but not so fine if you’re in the jungle.”

Ah, Robin, you really nailed it. (And you left us too soon.)

-Zenwind.

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Hot but with a Dry Breeze in the Shade

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I haven’t posted here in a while. We are getting daytime temps up in the brutal mid-90s*F, and the direct sunlight is unbelievably oppressive. Our “cool” season will be over very soon. I know that readers suffering through extreme cold in the great white north don’t want to hear this; but the “hot” season of March, April, and May is our own most dreaded time of year because of the hellish humidity.

I am determined to get air conditioning into our two rooms before the worst hits us. So when I’m feeling well enough I’ve been doing a lot of work clearing junk out of the way for when the guys eventually come to install the a/c. This being Thailand, there is no guarantee that we will get it in, but I dread another year of the heat without it.

I did the moving and cleaning early today but still was drenched in sweat while working inside. And my back started hurting worse than in recent memory – making it painful to even breathe. After de-frosting our ancient frig (which ices up quite fast) I showered and went to the neighborhood store for ice and especially for some cold Beer Chang.

Returning, I cleaned all of our major floor fans outdoors and left the parts out to dry. The final thing on the agenda was to be outside to receive the delivery of chicken livers for our two remaining cats. A woman rides her bicycle by and brings the liver between 14:00 and 15:00 hours every Wednesday.

As I had made a respectable dent in my agenda, I finally sat in the shade and went through a liter of beer with ice in a big mug. The breeze was surprisingly dry in the afternoon, and I stopped sweating – which is unusual for outdoors. The Beer Chang numbed my backache.

My personal sound system is the best I’ve ever had in my entire life, and I made use of it today. Waterproof (sweat-proof) phone and headphones from Sony. For “cleaning music,” Led Zeppelin is the best to get me moving, and I added some Queen later on; hard rocking fast-moving jumpy stuff. (The cats think I'm insane.) For “sitting in the shade music” later, I listened to the Dixie Chicks, and their song "Traveling Soldier" always makes me weep.

It’s evening now, but the house is still hot. The beer anesthesia has worn off and the pain is acute. I should have bought another pint. So I will stop typing and lie down.

-Zenwind.

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Pipe Bombs Go Off Outside Downtown Mall

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Sunday night two pipe bombs with watch timers went off outside Siam Paragon shopping center in Bangkok’s center. No one was hurt even though it was during a busy time. I walk by that spot at least once a month.

Conspiracy theories have really taken off, and there are all manner of villains blamed. “TIT” (“This Is Thailand”) and I’m rarely surprised anymore. We will continue to be vigilant when out and about.

-Zenwind.

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The "Cool" season is here

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We are enjoying our January's all-too-brief respite from the tropical norm of extremely uncomfortable heat and humidity. Yes, we still drip with sweat when venturing out and being physically active. But the relatively comfortable dryness of the air at this moment is astonishing and is welcomed beyond belief. The Dew-Point (a calculation of "felt temperature" combining heat and humidity) is very, and rarely, low. Thus, when I meditate, the inhalation of breath is much more free, and the cooler inhaled air is ecstatic beyond description.

This week, the temperatures dropped down into the mid-60s F, and I had to cover my feet at night, and one night I had to turn off the fan!

I have accumulated a huge collection of eBooks for Kindle reading, and I don't know where to start. So many books; so little time! I am going to re-start working out on the treadmill again (despite my doctor's orders), because I can read and exercise at the same time. I am so sick of being idle and weak.

So, ever and always, upward!

-Zenwind.

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New Year's Eve 2014/2015

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We are hanging in there, and this year we escaped flooding once again (unlike the dread year of our 2011 Flood), although southern Thailand has had some bad flooding this year. We now have a very brief respite from the worst of the tropical heat. The year 2014 started with anti-government protests, mass demonstrations, and a bit of violence. But the Royal Thai Army stepped in with a coup d’etat on 22 May and declared martial law. Parliament was sent home. We had an Army squad on the corner by the police station for quite a while, but Thailand has seemed to quiet down for the time being.

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Our biggest personal loss this year was the passing of dear Mommy Kitty. She had been sick for a long time, and one day when at her lowest ebb she crept off to die in private. We miss her. (I still intend to write more about her heroic motherhood.) She slept by my feet for years, and I still roll over carefully in the night, thinking that she might be there. But a new generation showed up in the form of little Jiuu, a rescued kitten that is tearing up everything in reach. Together with Willy and Pinkie, Tuk and I are celebrating at home tonight.

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Of the many books I’ve read this year, here are some of my favorites (with links to any reviews):

On the Nature of Things by Lucretius;

Cato: a tragedy (1713) by Joseph Addison

Classic exposes of Scientology by Russell Miller and Jon Atack

The Eiger Sanction by Trevanian

The Darkship series by Sarah Hoyt

Ayn Rand: the Russian radical by Chris Matthew Sciabarra (not yet reviewed).

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The best movie I’ve seen this year:

Whiplash, without a doubt.

Honorable mention:

Edge of Tomorrow.

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-Zenwind.

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Post-Christmas Post

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Christmas 2014 came and went without much community notice up here in Nonthaburi, although Christmas carols could be heard in the major malls down in the city. (And carols on my streaming internet radio stations are inescapable.) All of December has had a festive atmosphere on our street since HM the King’s birthday is on 5 December, and yellow light displays are on all the trees. (Yellow is the color associated with the King.) The lights are kept on until after New Year’s Day, and they are really something to see. Stumbling home after a pub crawl, it’s like traveling through a winter wonderland – without the snow and cold.

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The highlight of my Christmas was telephoning my sister and her gathered family in the old homestead in Pennsylvania. It was their Christmas Eve, and we talked until my voice gave out. (I’m not used to talking that much!)

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I never did get to see the Geminid meteor showers as I had hoped when writing my last post here. By the time it got dark enough, haze had made seeing any stars impossible. Now I know why there are no astronomy clubs in the greater Bangkok area.

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I’m feeling better, although I’m still weak from the forced inactivity from the thrombosis. The doctor told me to not do any treadmill work for a while even if I felt up to doing it. I see him again after the New Year. But I have been walking the neighborhood loop down by the river and around by the hospital – a neat little 4 and one-half klick distance. I see my Thai friend who makes key copies near the hospital and stop to talk with him briefly. He speaks a bit of English because he had spent some time in the USA a long time ago. Nice guy. On my walks I see a few other Thai folks I know, most of whom do not speak English but who know me by sight. The friendliness makes it truly my own neighborhood.

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Some mornings during this our Cool Season are fresh like a summer morning on the farm. But the sun is still hot. The two previous days were very humid, with rain falling one evening. Yesterday was more of the typical hot-humid hell day we would find most other times of the year. I wish I could get out to walk earlier in the morning when it’s the most comfortable, but my evening FMS meds make me too groggy to do much of anything before 11:00 AM.

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Sick Skinny Silly Willy sleeps next to me now. Why do animals near death seek me out? He likes to go out and lie in the sun at midday.

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Our new kitten, “Tiny” (or, “Jiuu,” in Thai) is a clown. She is about seven months old and rips a destructive path through her world as only a young cat can do. She terrorizes poor old Pinkie, who is shy. But Silly Willy just stares her down. Jiuu will charge straight at Willy in full fighting mode, only to veer off at the last moment. It’s as if she is reading Willy’s mind, “Come on, you little bitch; I’m too sick to chase you, but if you come close enough you’ll be sorry; come on, make my day.” Jiuu just watches him with mystification from the sidelines as Willy turns his back on her with contempt. Little amateur cat up against the (ailing) big-league feline.

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I just finished reading the lengthy Ayn Rand: the Russian radical (1995; 2013) by Chris Matthew Sciabarra. Wow! Chris has been an internet acquaintance for several years from some neo-Objectivist discussion e-lists. He is quite a gentleman and one hell of a great scholar. I would like to review this book properly someday on Zenwind, but here I will just mention that he looked at Rand through the context of the culture she grew up in, in Russia’s “Silver Age” of literature and philosophy. He focuses on her (very Russian, and also very Aristotelian) “dialectical” methods of explaining history and philosophy – and I must say that he brings up integrative trends in her thinking that I had noticed from the very first and which he analyzes in the wider context of Western philosophy. It is a unique and masterful work of scholarship – and it’s the second volume of a trilogy he has completed on philosophy. (The temptation is gnawing at me – shall I examine the other two volumes?)

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Enough.

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-Zenwind.

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