Hi,
Dark clouds hung over Chiang Rai for most of the day. There were occasional shafts of sunlight, and still no rain. How strange that we'd be wishing for rain. Even weirder is the fact that we're in the rainy season and it's not raining. Hmm. It was a busy day anyway.
It seems that the 'Zany Day' song has thrown some of you for a loop. If you're at all familiar with The Godfather of Soul, then you should recognize the tongue-in-cheek references in this tune by a group from across the pond.
"Excuse me. Oh, will you excuse me? I'm just tryin' to find the bridge... Has anybody seen the bridge? (Have you seen the bridge?) I ain't seen the bridge! (Where's that confounded bridge?)" Hint: Hard to give a hint to a made up word, but I can tell you it isn't grunge.
This morning I made a point of checking in with Tatt to see the results of his craftsmanship for Teacher Day. He had picked flowers and leaves from the garden to make a gift for his teacher. The result was a beautiful cone-shaped arrangement with a border of folded leaves. I still can't figure out how he did it. I may ask him to show me some day. I thought you'd like to see it.
Tatt's Gift for 'Teacher Day'
The big plan for the day was to go to Central Plaza and appeal once again to the young man at customer service. We got to the mall as soon as it opened and marched down to the 3BB desk. On the way we passed a very elegant display of BMWs, that included a little reception area with couches. It was like a mini showroom. The guy at 3BB made some calls and set up another appointment. This time I let him know how slow things were with numbers from a speed test. We left him and crossed the aisle to Power Buy, a place that has every kind of appliance you can think of. We got a new modem/router with the latest technology and promptly went back to 3BB for all the numbers we'd need to connect it. So far it remains a mystery as far as the 'simple installation' goes. For the moment, the old system is working but barely.
After lunch I dashed off for my coffee date with Siam. It turns out that the experience he was anxious to share with me was the 9 days he spent as a monk at the temple on top of a hill. There is a tradition that one year after the death of a son's mother, he goes into the monk hood for a retreat. This is what Siam did with the help of a friend who is a senior monk. He was laughing when he described his first morning, but he said it wasn't funny at the time. They wake up at 3am, eat a small portion of food and then begin a day of meditation and study. To him it felt like being in the military, very strict. At one point he was meditating in what he called 'sets'. A set consisted of one hour of seated meditation, one hour standing, and one hour walking. He finally worked up to several days of three sets. We discussed many aspects of his experience and how he feels now that it's over. We sat for over 2 hours, talking and laughing and understanding things we hadn't quite realized before. I'll meet with him next week for more coffee and talk.
Now it's time to go back to Wimbledon and watch the tennis. Eventually I'll get back to playing with wires and button, trying to make the red light turn green. (555) Oh joy.
Have a Thrilling Thursday.
Peace,
Danny
"When you come to the end of all the light you know,
and it's time to step into the darkness of the unknown,faith is knowing that one of two things shall happen:
Either you will be given something solid to stand on
or you will be taught to fly."
~Edward Teller
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