Joy

Hi,

It would appear that we’re moving into the ‘Hot Season’.  That leaves last week’s hail storm a bit of a mystery, since it’s been very hot during the day.  

So, the ‘Old School Music’ tune was “Tears On My Pillow” by Little Anthony & The Imperials, and, as my brother asks, ‘Who says t’was?’  Anyway, it’s time for ‘Easy Monday’ and I’ll bet you know this one:  “Hot town, __ __ __ __,  Back of my neck gettin’ dirty and gritty.  Been down, isn’t it a pity, doesn’t seem to be a shadow in the city.  All around, people looking half dead, walking on the sidewalk, hotter than a match head.”  Hint:  Title is four words, it’s a seasonal song.

Adventures with Chopper continue.  He and Daku are best in the mornings, at least at this point.  The morning exercise now includes Chopper running a few times with Daku, and then ambushing him in the middle of the lawn.  Daku makes a game out of it and they have fun, but later when it’s time to rest, Daku wants to be left alone.  Imagine, you’re taking a nap and all of a sudden a little wide-awake ball of energy pounces on you and wants to play.  This is when Daku barks.  Chopper gets it and leaves him alone.  The beat goes on.

Saturday we were out looking for odds and ends and decided to try a new coffee shop.  Lisa spotted one on a busy little street behind the government hospital.  It’s called ‘Chao Doi’, meaning ‘People of the mountain’.  They served Lisa a very strong cup of tea and I got a ‘heavy’ cup of coffee.  A little hot water to thin them out and it was almost good.  At 30 Baht ($.95) a cup, it’s the cheapest in town so far.  We usually don’t buy coffee based on price, we just notice.  I suppose they are catering to the neighborhood and folks who visit the hospital.  It was an experience.

We seem to be having odd luck with the coffee this weekend, which is crazy since we’re in the coffee capital of Thailand.  Sunday afternoon we went to ArtBridge to so Lisa could submit a piece for the ‘Small Painting’ exhibition next month.  Once again, coffee was not very good.  I think that baristas are so used to making the drinks with lots of milk and sugar, that the art of the simple cup of coffee has been lost.  There are places that still do it right.  It’s time for a master list of shops that brew ‘real coffee’ (555).  

Sunday evening we had dinner at the mall with our friends Lisa, Molly and their dad Edwin.  Lisa and Molly are half Thai and fluent in Thai and English.  I always get a kick out of the looks they get from the waiters when they order in Thai, because they don’t look Thai.  They live on Buffalo hill and their account of last week’s storm was very different from ours.  They had big hail, but they also had a tornado.  The twister wandered through parts of Chiang Rai and did some damage.  Lisa showed us a video of the rain coming into her house.  A section of the roof was gone.  Edwin has four daughters and when they visited, he took all of his kids to the movies to see ‘Black Panther’.  He mentioned that the theater keeps the English language films as long as they are getting traffic.  When attendance falls off they pull the films.  Guess I’d better get down there before it’s gone.

Today, Lisa went to The Wanderer to have lunch with Nurse Pay.  At least that’s what she thought.  I got a call informing me that Pay had wanted both of us to come.  She and her husband Boy and their son were also there.  I had just finished my lunch when Lisa arrive to take me to The Wanderer.  We had a nice time with the little family.  Loo Lit, their little boy, is 2 years and 4 months old and has a cute personality.  Once he got comfortable with us, he offered to take me to see the big long fish that he calls the alligator.  Our little adventure took us to the koi pond and then every large pot that had fish inside.  Note: they all have fish in them.  Boy teaches electrical engineering and repair at the vocational school.  He doesn’t speak English but Pay keeps him in the loop.  Loo Lit would rather listen to short stories in English than Thai.  Pay wants him to be bilingual.  

Today’s photo was taken at The Wanderer after our lunch today.

Have a Great Week.

                   Peace,

                             Danny

“The noblest of pleasure 

is the joy of understanding.”

~Leonardo da Vinci