July 29--After a (not-so) short absence. A letter from the farm.
I didn't realize how much I have missed writing here until I started writing this post. I hadn't really even thought about it, but someone friended me yesterday, and that reminded me that this exists.
We're in Thailand for a while. Malida's here for a month and I'm here for two months. We are about two weeks in. We spent the first few days in Bangkok, attempting to get our US marriage license legalized (still waiting on that) and now we are out at the farm.
Malida's mom making sticky rice. She and Malida's brother are staying here with us, along with Grandpa, four dogs, and everyone else who happens to stop by. We had four generations at breakfast the other day.
One of the other things we had to do here was address some of MaMa's health issues. We were concerned that she had had a TIA or a stroke in the recent past, and we took her into the city the other day to have her checked out. She saw a neurologist, got a CT scan and some labs, and everything looked good. Most likely some benign inner ear thing. Malida and MaMa were both relieved, and I took them to lunch, where they devoured a big pot of fish soup and three big plates of rice. I had the delicious shrimp cakes.
It's the rainy season here, which means it rains a lot. We haven't really seen any heavy rain until a few days ago, and now it's raining steadily. Good for the rice fields, says Grandpa. It has been really humid, and the only cure for that is to accept it and take lots of cold showers.
We were planning to take a short trip up the Mekong to Mukdahan today, but it might be raining too hard for the drive. We have a very small, very old (24 year-old) Honda, which works good most of the time, but needs the right conditions for travel. We are looking into getting a new car, and will probably do that next time we are here.
A neighbor's buffalo, on the way home from sampling some of the local grass. These buffalo are among my favorite creatures here, and I never miss a chance to take a picture of them. If I lived here full time, I'd be tempted to keep one on the farm. I'd name him Hector.
I made a Spotify playlist to pay tribute to John Mayall, who passed last week. he was the godfather of British blues, and inspired many. Listen to it here:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0uBGyQEXK3epLCSZ5CN4dL?si=27af40bb540c4c72
We're in Thailand for a while. Malida's here for a month and I'm here for two months. We are about two weeks in. We spent the first few days in Bangkok, attempting to get our US marriage license legalized (still waiting on that) and now we are out at the farm.
Malida's mom making sticky rice. She and Malida's brother are staying here with us, along with Grandpa, four dogs, and everyone else who happens to stop by. We had four generations at breakfast the other day.
One of the other things we had to do here was address some of MaMa's health issues. We were concerned that she had had a TIA or a stroke in the recent past, and we took her into the city the other day to have her checked out. She saw a neurologist, got a CT scan and some labs, and everything looked good. Most likely some benign inner ear thing. Malida and MaMa were both relieved, and I took them to lunch, where they devoured a big pot of fish soup and three big plates of rice. I had the delicious shrimp cakes.
It's the rainy season here, which means it rains a lot. We haven't really seen any heavy rain until a few days ago, and now it's raining steadily. Good for the rice fields, says Grandpa. It has been really humid, and the only cure for that is to accept it and take lots of cold showers.
We were planning to take a short trip up the Mekong to Mukdahan today, but it might be raining too hard for the drive. We have a very small, very old (24 year-old) Honda, which works good most of the time, but needs the right conditions for travel. We are looking into getting a new car, and will probably do that next time we are here.
A neighbor's buffalo, on the way home from sampling some of the local grass. These buffalo are among my favorite creatures here, and I never miss a chance to take a picture of them. If I lived here full time, I'd be tempted to keep one on the farm. I'd name him Hector.
I made a Spotify playlist to pay tribute to John Mayall, who passed last week. he was the godfather of British blues, and inspired many. Listen to it here:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0uBGyQEXK3epLCSZ5CN4dL?si=27af40bb540c4c72