Kindness

Hi,

The weather over the weekend was mostly cloudy and hot, with a major storm on Saturday afternoon.  It cleared out in time for Walking Street to still happen.

The ‘Old School Friday’ song was “Kansas City” by Wilbert Harrison.  ‘Easy Monday’ should be familiar to some of you:  “When the truth is found to be lies, and all the joy within you dies.  Don’t you want __ __ __?  Don’t you need __ __ __?  Wouldn’t you love __ __ __?”  Hint:  This musical question was a part of the Summer of Love, 1967, by a very hip flying machine.

The storm on Saturday was quick and heavy.  It flooded both yards as well as our perpetual puddle in the street.  It’s clear that we still have some work to do for more efficient drainage at the entrance to the property.  

Sunday morning the little family packed up the truck and drove up Mae Sai to visit with Gong’s family.  Our Sunday was busy.  After my morning meeting I picked Lisa up and we went to The Wanderer.  We also had accepted a lunch invitation at The Riverie with our friend Lisa and her parents.  Since our second lunch was scheduled for 12:30pm, we decided to get a ‘snack’ to hold us.  So, we split one of our usual orders in ‘the woods’ and ended up eating more at Riverie.  We had never been to the Dim Sum restaurant in the hotel.  Apparently it has been extensively remodeled.  One thing that was noted was the fact that they took away much of the red that was present in the decor.  Red, in Feng Shui, is said to promote the appetite.  I’m sure there are those who know much more about this than me, but that was the topic for a moment.  The whole experience was new to us, since it was conducted in a different manner than in China Town in Los Angeles.  Our hosts had pre-ordered their favorite dishes and they were brought in a certain order.  We didn’t have to deal with the carts full of food.  They made sure there were dishes I could eat, and even had one special dish made.  We had a great time, trying new food, great conversations and the flowing river as our background view.  As an extra bonus, they sent us home with the remainder of the Peking duck and we had it with our dinner.  

Since Chopper’s immediate family was out of town, he spent the evening with us.  He was a perfect gentleman upstairs.  He let Daku have his space and basically chewed on a bone the whole time.  He would change beds when he got bored, but kept his exploring of the room to a minimum.  He’s learning the rules.  At one point, he tried to engage Daku in a little play, and I think Daku might have had fun but we can’t afford for him to get injured from playing.  

This morning we went to the big nursery in search of a tree for the middle of the lawn where Chopper does his overnight digging.  Lisa spotted a Red Bamboo like the ones we have in the back yard.  It’s a good height and will be a nice presence in the lawn.  Gong planted it this afternoon and we’ll have him put a little fence around it so Chopper gets the message.   Just as we were leaving the nursery, we saw two artist friends, Keofar and Siri, who were buying a tree.  Keofar told us he has wanted this tree for about 4 years.  The tree is 30 years old and he referred to the tree as ‘him’.  We hadn’t seen them since the exhibit in Nan, where Siri was one of the artists in the group with Lisa.  Keofar is a sculptor and also teaches at Maefarluang University.  

Have a Great Week.

                      Peace,

                                Danny

“How wonderful it would be if people did all 

they could for one another without anything in 

return.  One should never remember a kindness done

and never forget a kindness received.”

~Kentetsu Takamori