Catching Up

Well, catching up never happens, but rather than worry about getting things up from Friday, I'll just put up some stuff on today and let the other stuff get up when I can do it.

My bike ride to the office is a delight. I pass a couple of wats (Buddhist temples) and more or less rural areas even though we are in town. A few noodle shops, mostly homes of various sizes and styles. I'll try a video one day soon. You've seen some of that in the house hunting post. The weather has been cool - down into the sixties at night - and the humidity low so it's been comfortable. I stopped here for breakfast this morning.

The office is getting empty. There's a meeting in Lampang, neighboring province, and others are going to Bangkok. I've been getting into the office close to 9am the last two days and today I was the first one there, so my 10am arrivals weren't all that bad. So hardly anyone is around this week which is good since J comes tomorrow morning. Everyone is gone so I was wondering how I would pick her up. But Grib came by today and offered to pick me up to get Joan. Since no one was there - at least in my organization, there are other people from the other organizations - I left early and went back to the market I'd been in last night. Most of the shops that had household stuff were closed last night. Today I did fine and got some of the things I wanted before Joan got here - hangers, a pair of plates, bowls, mugs, and fork/spoon/knife sets, a pot, and flowers. Actually they look like much less than when I bought them. But there are two bunches of mums, a bunch of orchids, a bunch of roses, and a clump of fragrant gardenias, and a jasmine bud necklace. I cleaned things up this morning and when I got the hangers home hung up Joan's clothes that I brought along.

Poor J is somewhere between Tokyo and Bangkok. And won't be here til tomorrow morning.

Tonight the AJWS volunteers in Chiang Mai are meeting tonight at the Hindu temple. There's something going on and then vegetarian Indian buffet afterward. I'm going to see if I can get an electric burner on my way, so we can do a little cooking in here.

Here's a view from the bedroom. The living room view is similar. I've seen already a lesser (I think) coucal and a red whiskered bulbul (the link has a great photo) and another bulbul like bird that had an red/orange chest and white neck. I couldn't find anything like it in the book.

I can sit at my desk here and be bird watching. At night we have interesting bird sounds. I recorded some, but realize I lost it. But that one has been back each night. We also get roosters crowing out there from about 4am on and sometimes the neighboring dogs get yappy. But it hasn't been disturbing for some reason. I saw a bunch of roosters around the closest wat this morning when I rode to work.

And I've learned there's another word for organic. This one basically means 'safe from poison".

Enough, I quick nap and then off before it's dark. I brought a rear bike light from home. I called Sak at the bike shop about buying a new one tonight on the way to the temple, but he's playing tennis, but he said to call on the way back, maybe he can open the shop for me. That's Thailand.