Death by sunshine

The leaves are turning fall colors, but not in the way they are supposed to. So many trees suffered through the heat wave. My living Christmas tree met an early death. So sad. :-(

This is in my apartment complex, or that's what I call it anyway. Everyone in this country who lives in a city lives in a high-rise building like this; families own their own units. There are no apartment complexes like in the U.S. where you rent an apartment from the management. You can only rent from an individual who owns an apartment, and you find them through real estate agents. I guess it is more like the condominium concept.

Trunk envy

Just remember ... someone always has it worse than you. And often times, I am that person ... that person that makes you feel good about yourself and causes you to appreciate all that you have as part of your comfy American/Australian lifestyle. :-) Haha!

This was my life this week.

(Top photo) I went grocery shopping at a French-owned chain store that somewhat resembles Super Wal-Mart. I put the two biggest and heaviest bags in the space designed to park my legs. Another bag hung over the left handlebar. Because there was no place for my legs, I had to keep them elevated all the way home (30 minutes through crowded bicycle lanes). By the time I got back, my legs hurt like I'd been riding a horse. Seriously, I have arthritis or something, so it is very uncomfortable.

(Bottom photo) I went across town to a home furnishings shop. It is about 45 minutes from my place, and requires going through the most crowded part of downtown. I was hoping to get home before rush hour, and before it started raining -- I succeeded this time, but my timing is not always so great. On this shopping trip, I had two bags in the leg area and one bag on each handlebar. Very awkward. Luckily the big white bag between me and the dashboard was a big pillow, kind of like a safety air bag that has already been inflated.

If I had wanted to go to another store while I was on that side of town, I would have been out of luck. I would have to make another trip on another day. Hopefully a day when it wasn't raining. Each trip usually ends up taking 3-4 hours. Shopping like this is wearisome and time-consuming. And both trips were taken when the heat index was around 110°F, as it has been day and night most of the summer.

So, just be glad you've got a trunk, or space in the back of your SUV, or whatever you have. And I'll take heart that I have a super-trendy e-bike with lime green tire rims that is far better than a bicycle with a tiny little basket attached to the front!

Feel free to comment if you really do have it worse than this. :-)

Northern Thailand

I am in Chiang Mai, the largest city in northern Thailand. The city is famous for its night market. I've been there many a time, but decided to take a few photos for you this time. Unfortunately, most of the photos were too blurry to post (they were taken after dark). The market has food stalls, pharmacies, coffee shops, artists, travel agencies, banks and vendors that sell clothing, watches, jewelry, linens, toys and souvenirs. Bargaining is allowed, and since I've lived in Asia for so long, I've become pretty good at that.

Brightly colored good are very popular.

 Buddhist relics for sale.

You can ride elephants and gawk at long-necked Karen tribe people all in the same day, according to this travel agency advertisement. Uh, come to think of it, I may have been on that tour once. Sounds awfully familiar.

            

Many fine artists draw based on photographs. This man has a photograph in his left hand that he refers to as he does his work.

This artist negotiates with Muslim clients. On the left you can see brightly colored shirts for sale.

The night market -- the place to see and be seen in Chiang Mai. 

Summer Picnic

I had a picnic with some of my friends at a public park back in July. It was right when the heat wave was starting. Still, most didn't wear shorts. Some observations: (1) the young woman above wore white to sit on the grass. Fortunately I had something for her to sit on. (2) iPads may be important picnic gear; I would have thought a sandwich was more fitting, but no one seemed concerned about eating at this picnic (Subway sandwich, across the street, finally got their business.)

The guy on the left is 33; the guy on the right is 22 and just graduated from college. These are very fine young people that I am fortunate to know.

This pretty girl is well educated and beautiful; like many in China, she's in her late 20s and can't find a suitable husband.

 This guy is a character, the life of the party.

I offered to blow-dry her

More of the same

Three bronze children try to pull an ancient Chinese coin down the sidewalk. Not sure why. Cute though. Not surprisingly, the only people out on the sidewalks this summer are fake ones.

I asked my local friends if they wanted to come over last weekend. They said it was too hot to get out. So it is not just me. This summer has been the hottest one I've ever lived through, and the hottest one on record for this area. It is has put a temporary hold on almost all social activities and outings.

When I lived in West Texas, the temperature would sometimes get up to 114°F. That was the actual temperature on the thermometer. And I remember days of miserableness.* But I think it lasted a week or so, not all summer.

Here, this summer, the thermometer temperature has gotten up to 104°F, but when the humidity is factored in, it is almost always around 116°F. And it stayed that way for two months. I have spent inordinate amounts of time indoors this summer. I don't have a car, so I can only go out on e-bike or foot, and it is blazing hot and dangerous. Even grocery-buying has been put on hold. I went out on my e-bike yesterday and turned around and came right back home.

Technically the heat wave is over. Tomorrow will be the coolest day all summer at 95°F (heat index 101°).

Maybe sometime soon I will stop talking about the weather. But I guess my point is, I have nothing else to talk about. Because I haven't been anywhere, done anything, seen anyone. And my blog posts of late reflect that. :-)

I have another short trip coming up in a few days; maybe that will be fun. Please pray for safe travels.

--
*I love to make up new words, don't you?

Buying produce

I think the main reason that veggies are so cheap in this country is because there is no overhead. Sellers just lay the veggies on a sheet on the ground on the side of the road. Some are retail sellers, but some are selling what they've grown themselves (49 percent of the people in this country live in rural areas). Veggie prices are extremely reasonable, even after the high inflation of the last decade, and we get some of the best looking produce I've seen anywhere.

Shopping like this can be hard on the knees though. Fortunately for me, some put their veggies on tables instead of on the ground.

A little heart to heart

Dear Summer,

It seems you are an overachiever. You take your job way too seriously. I don't want to hurt your feelings, but you really need to stop. We get it. You wanted to break records. You succeeded. Why must you continue on this rampage when you already achieved success way back in July? Yes, yes, I know I whined all winter waiting for your arrival. But I was hoping for the old you. The new you is too harsh. Just give it up. And when you go, please take the humidity with you; the two of you have conspired to add 12-16 degrees to the weather via the heat index. [Sigh.] I do love you summer. But somehow we've got to figure out a better way to work together.

It's not just me. Little babies are wearing watermelons to beat the heat. Did you HEAR ME summer?! Babies are WEARING watermelons. (Click here to see them.)

Furthermore, it has come to my attention that a lot of people walk around inside their homes in their underwear to keep cool. That's fine (kind of weird really) as long as no one can see inside their homes. But I can see inside about 30 homes in the building across from me, and when they walk out on their balconies it is hard to ignore. Summer, this is too much for me to bear. I don't want those images seared into my brain. No pun intended.

I can't take it anymore summer. So, you know, stop.

Please.

Pure water

Photo taken near my place. The blooms are perfect!

First I went off Diet Coke. Then a week later I went off coffee. On the same day I dropped coffee, I went off of two prescription medications. I'm trying to be proactive and make my life better. 

With caffeine withdrawal headaches and no medication to make them go away, my life is not feeling better yet. I'm sure it will be worth it some day down the road, if I stay the course. If I miss a few days on the blog, it's because my body is recalibrating following my switch to pure drinking water, and it hurts. :-)

In the eye of the beholder

Art is a curious thing. Recently I visited a sculpture park. Here's a quick tour. Above is a really big badminton thingy (shuttlecock?).

Interesting idea, that humongous thumb. Interesting, but not really beautiful.

 I prefer green peppers to beige ones.

My logical way of thinking doesn't really get all of this. Sure, you can stick a gigantic fork in a gigantic beige pepper and put it in a gigantic park, but why would you really want to do that?

 I kind of like this one though ... birds flying up and out of a coil.

This is one huge non-functional faucet and water hose. To give you an idea of the scale of this thing, check out the man in the white hat at the bottom of the photo.

Art appreciation -- seems to me that beauty should be self-evident and not require an expensive college course to teach you how to recognize it. But that's just me.

Uh, no thanks

The complex management came knocking on my door today. (My doorbell is broken, so Mimi notifies me of visitors when they knock too faintly. This one was loud though.)

The man told me that the elevator was broken. Ooh, like my doorbell!

For about a week, it has continued to go up and down the way an elevator should, but the doors won't open unless you know a special trick that I figured out and shared with a few neighbors. But it is not ideal. They've sent half-hearted repairmen, but they didn't fix the problem. But the knock on my door told me that management was finally going to do something about it. It's going to take several days, maybe 3 or 4 or more, he said.

The man said "You can still use it. But it is not safe."

Okay! Well there ya have it. I live on the 8th floor and we're having the hottest summer since 1934 (stairwell is not climate-controlled). Mimi has three outings per day. I'm soooooo looking forward to this mandatory exercise. I'm pretty much sweating just thinking about it.