Rainy morning

This morning, we had another unusual rainstorm, very heavy. (The first time I've experienced this in Chiang Mai.) The skies looked ominous last night so we had put our bikes up on the patio. When I woke up to rain on the roof at 7AM, that wonderful sound drowned me in sleep again and I didn't wake up until 10AM! Needless to say, I've not been sleeping that well and it felt great to jump out of bed at 10, energized. Jim had been up for hours and, after my shower, I made us some breakfast - a bowl of fresh pineapple, tangerines and miniature ladyfinger bananas with yogurt and coconut milk.



Because it was still pouring hard and much too heavy to consider going out even with an umbrella - which we have here but have never used - I looked glumly at the guesthouse-supplied packages of nescafe and realized that was going to have to be my coffee fix this morning. I took my "coffee" such as it was (I ask non-coffee-drinker Jim, how he would like dehydrated beer with water added to it) out on our roofed patio and spent a few hours perusing my email and reading online news. When the rain cleared, it was a glorious, clear day, cool and sunny without humidity. Jim decided to head down the "tall trees road" to Lamphun, to connect with several friends who are looking out for some suitable housing for him there. Because westerners have no presence there at all, there are few guesthouses, only apartments for students and workers and resorts for Thai tourists.



Jim rode his bike part of the 26 kilometers, then hitched the rest of the way and emailed me from the public library that a doctor had picked him up offered him a place at his daughter's resort of a very reasonable monthly 4000B (32B=$1) so that's on the short list now.

By the time, I headed out for REAL coffee I decided I was a bit hungry,too, and after greeting my hosts with "a-run sà-wàt" (they replied "not morning. now afternoon") I had a platter of their delicious fresh spring rolls. Later, back home on the patio, I spent hours trying to figure out how to add an icon to this blog so folks can subscribe only if they want and not be pestered with email from me.



I had expected by now, two weeks on, I'd be settled down into something of a routine, cleaning the room, reading email and news, writing in my blog, setting aside daily time for studying Thai and some computer projects, but time seems to evaporate as quickly as it does at home even in this sinfully easy lifestyle. We have to face the fact that searching for, acquiring and enjoying meals here is the Number 1 activity and, with hundreds of food stalls, fruit stands, vendors, hawker food, and little restaurants, it's not easy to choose. (Much) more on food later.



Fifty Years Ago Today



As many of us were doing this past week, Jim and I were recalling the terrible days following the assassination of JFK. [He was living in Japan with his family and I was in 8th grade.] This past week we've each come across some unusual stories.


Here are three stories you may not have seen.

Hear What Happened At Boston's Symphony Hall After JFK's Assassination "...'one of the most emotional pieces of radio ever recorded'...what is most remarkable to me as as listener, hearing the Boston broadcast from Symphony Hall on that Friday afternoon, is the sense of how those people in that time and place — performer and audience member alike — process this shocking event collectively, in a way that is totally unimaginable to us 50 years later, as we learn each minute's news within the weirdly solitary glow of our screens. First, we hear the gasps and shushes after BSO music director Erich Leinsdorf utters the words: 'The president of the United States has been the victim of an assassination.' Second, a wave of groans and sighs after Leinsdorf continues, 'We will play the funeral march from 's Third Symphony" — as if the crowd's shared response is that they couldn't possibly have heard the first part right, but that then the orchestra's change in repertoire confirms the awful, unimaginable truth. And then, for the next 14 minutes ... utter silence, save for the incomparably somber music.'"
[Ten minutes before the start of the performance the orchestra received the parts of a Beethoven funeral march as they were being told that President Kennedy had been shot and was dead.]

Read the story of Clint Hill, the bodyguard who believed all of his life that if he'd been a second sooner, leaping onto the back of the president's car, he could've saved his life. 'I completely failed': Guilt that still haunts bodyguard assigned to protect JFK's wife Jackie on day President was assassinated 49 years ago

And two classic newspaper columns by Jimmy Breslin - one about the surgeon in charge when Kennedy was brought to the emergency room at Parkland Hospital and the other, about the man who dug the grave where the president's body was put to rest.



Loi Kratong or Yee Peng in Chiang Mai






Photos above were not taken by me - I don't have a tripod and it's difficult to take photos of this remarkable event without one. The first two pix show children launching their kratongs into the river and the third one shows the thousands of lanterns that are lit and released into the night sky. It's actually pretty dangerous - but beautiful.

The festival marks the end of the rainy season and symbolic of floating away - letting go of - all one's grudges, anger and mistakes, in order to start life anew in the coming year.

In 2013, more than 800,000 krathongs [boats] were floated in Bangkok's river. . . Meanwhile Chiang Mai International Airport reported more than 900 floating lanterns falling on the runway ground Sunday night; itis believed that the wind blew the floating lanterns to fall on the airport compound. The airport has special teams to collect the falling lanterns immediately and has sought cooperation from all airlines to put off landing or take-off. Yikes.

Welcome back to my blog - where I haven't posted anything since March 2011. I'm going to try to resurrect All's Well in an attempt to keep in touch with friends and family back home.

The first problem I'm encountering is I have NO idea how to add links, photos, edit, etc. I have forgotten everything so bear with me and fingers crossed that the re-learning curve is not too steep.

We left Portland, Maine on November 12, arriving 28+ hours later in Chiang Mai in northern Thailand. This feels like our home away from home as we have been coming here for many years - this is my 11th winter and Jim's ... 18th? We have used CM has a home base to explore other areas of the country as well as Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, Bali, and Burma.

Jim's photos below: Orchids in Thai Airways bathrooms, Tuk-tuk delivering us from airport, and our first night at Trigong.