Nature

Hi,

Coping with the weather becomes a relative thing.  I am slowly adjusting to the cold that is colder than where this journey began.  The mind helps by reminding me that it’s colder somewhere else, and those who are in it are surviving.  Probably complaining, but still doing life.  

The ‘Easy Monday’ slipped by most of you.  I’m sure you’ll remember if you hum along to these lines:  “I’m painting my room in a colorful way, and when my mind is wandering, there I will go, ooh ooh ooh ah ah… I'm taking the time for a number of things that weren’t important yesterday, and still I go, ooh ooh ooh ah ah….”  Clue:  Repairs are in order.

This morning was about misadventure.  The ‘road trip’ to El Segundo, just south of the airport, was for a visit to EVA Airlines offices for an upgrade on the trip back to Thailand.  The offices were closed.  A drive back to Culver City, and what we still call the ‘Fox Hills Mall’, was to be for the purpose of an eye exam.  The crowds were already beginning to gather.  The earliest appointment wouldn’t be until 3:40pm.  We went home, then went to lunch at Emerald Thai, and a reunion with our dear friend Nid.  When we returned to the mall, the place was a mad house, traffic on top of traffic.  Inside, my name was not on the schedule.  What?

Someone asked me if I missed home.  Of course I do.  That’s why it’s home.  After over nine years I’ve become comfortable with the pace of life in Chiang Rai.  I’ve become fond of the simplicity, the little surprises that seem to come after all these years, the smiles at the vegetable market, the greetings at The Wanderer, and the relatively warm ‘cold season’.  Yes, I miss all of that, but I also cherish the relationships that still exist on this side of the ocean.  It is people that bring us back, in spite of the lengthy flight, the Jet Lag, the mind-boggling traffic and the little doses of culture shock.  

Today’s photo was sent by Natcha.  Here are two reasons I really miss ‘home’.

Our appointment book is starting to look like a schedule instead of blank pages.  Time to do what we came to do (555).  I guess we won’t be walking along the shore of the Pacific and feeling the sand between our toes on this trip.  I’ve never been a fan of cold sand.  Instead, we’ll sample some of the new additions to the landscape that is the west side.  

Have a Happy Tuesday.

             Peace,

                       Danny

“Nature never breaks

her own laws.”

~Leonardo da Vinci