So how’s it going, one might ask – the shoulder, the trip(s), the rehab, the separation, the benching, the touring. Great! As with early retirement, “how did I ever have time for work”. Loving it actually.  The freedom to chase any rabbit that scampers across the ADHD landscape of the idol mind.  The ability to focus deeper than casual-ality allows.  Being one that could only read, when all the other distractions and chores were stowed, it’s great to follow a thread without reaching an early snag. Not that those threads come from any great fabric, more like following early childhood wonderment. Why not look that up!  Could it be that difficult to master Thai tones? Could I actually learn Objective C+? Now, if I was bandwidth-less, it might be another story, but right now it’s just great. Great!

What’s probably the most fun is not being on any schedule, save sustenance. This isn’t any monkish pursuit, just an opportunity presented by a manufactures defect, a spouses retreat, involuntary immobility and isolated comfort with broadband.  I have been making the rounds with my Thai friends, not a clue what most the conversation’s about. Wonder if there’s an app for detecting “trite prose” or for translating it into impressive trivia?  No Joy!

I’m smiling, just now, thinking about a friend who commented that he was waiting for a translation of an email. Perhaps he’ll be asking for one of this. So I should get on with “How’s it going”, besides the supercilious, great.

The shoulder was (emphasis was) 95% on Saturday when I consented to join as cycling marshal to a running race with the Trang Cycling Club (TCC). It was a 7 km race not far from the couch, and a good chance to test out the recovery.  All’s well, home by 9 AM more rest, and then an evening visit to the Thai version of a Baby Shower (on the anniversary of the first month – much more practical as you get to see the child and men are invited).  At the shower the TCC members offered to drive us to yet another short “fun run” out in the country a waterfall we’ve often cycled to.  Okay, 9 km to the pick-up point, a 6 km run up a paved road and then back home.

Unfortunately I felt sooooo good that I decided to say yes to riding back home, maybe 35 km. Not to worry it was still early in the day, I was on the mountain bike, no pain, it had been 15 days since the accident. The ride was fun, I did just fine, strong in fact, but the guys decided since this was their normal Sunday ride it should stretch out some.  I knew we were taking a different way home but it never occurred to me it would be almost 90 km by the time I hit the shower.  Felt good the whole way, only when I got out of the shower did I slip back to 70% healed. So I’m back in rehab for another week or at least until memory or swelling fades, whichever comes first.

Stanna is enjoying her Wednesday Ladies Hiking group outing, for at least another 3 Wednesdays.  Been to India, currently in Bhutan and soon to be in Nepal. The best thing I heard was, “I’m sure you would not be happy on this trip”, but “we probably need to come back to Bhutan by ourselves”.  India and even Bhutan hotels all have wifi so we’ve “talked”/texted each day. I wasn’t sure any photo log of the adventure was ensuing, because none to the messages or emails had a single shot.  It was when I switched the MB Air over to Stanna’s user side that I saw her iPhone Photo Stream was in high gear and had uploaded almost 600 photos thru the Cloud and back to the MBAir I’m typing on.  Little did this tech savvy guy know, she had it totally under control and was worried the 1,000 iCloud limit would lose the earliest photos. (It doesn’t, if you have a computer with iPhoto pulling each photo off the cloud.  Done automatically in the Mac world.)

With my spouse away the Thai mice want to play, more. My friend SunSern has seen to it that I’m not excluded from anything interesting going on, not to mention lunches where he wanted to let me experience those Thai treats most farangs/westerners wouldn’t conscience.  You know, foods hyped on those reality shows.  I’ve now tried just about every part of the pig, except that one featured on the Planet Money show about calamari (don’t ask).  As my dad used to say, “I’ve had it twice, my first and last time!”.

Most interesting this week was the search for a foundry that would melt a metal specimen  that TigerSong got from his son’t metallurgy program. Said to be super special, he wanted

to see if they could forge it into a knife – while we wait I might add.  An old master was found at the second foundry and they fired up a forge and blower, and within minutes the egg-sized cube was welded to a piece of rebar and glowing that iridescent orange.
Assigned to photograph the process I jumped when the glowing cube came quickly out of the blast furnace and dropped onto a steel stump. Bang, bang, bang and it was over.  Stopped.  It wasn’t until 15 minutes later I learn why they had search for a more suitable scrap of metal in the “bone pile” and began forging another knife.  The first premium select pilfered cube had cracked on the second swing of the sledge.  Not good, it wouldn’t flow and therefore was unsuitable for sledging into a blade.  Interesting process, this rural shed-style foundry specializes in making Rubber Tree knives.  Crude knives with a centimeter hooked blade for scarring the tree such that the liquid runs into it’s cup everyday for 30 years.

As for the other exercises: the Thai tones are near impossible for an aging tone deaf guy, the book on Shame by Brenè Brown outstanding, and I’m now a struggling dyslexic coder.

Plus I have another week till blog-a-sition 101 homework again.

Most tourists don’t have to consider visa renewal as a part of their travels. And for foreigners visiting the US they can easily see most of the US in their 90-day visa allowance.  In many countries US citizens are allowed 30 days automatic visa with no prior approval (other than TSA, the airlines and all those other secret agencies).

Thailand is one of those countries that automatically give the US tourist a 30-day visa on entry.  Since we like to be considered a traveller rather than a tourist by lingering longer in a country, we have to consider longer visas or visa renewals. Throughout our sailing adventures we faced this same requirement, so it’s common and easy to deal with in Thailand.  In our case this year we purchased, thru the Thai consulate in the States, two 60-day renewable visas so that we only had to leave the country one time during our 100+ day stay.

Most of the younger tourists do a “visa run” every 30 days, and almost every city has a travel agent that can book your “visa run” to the nearest border.  A van ride with 13 other “farangs” costs between  $20 and $30 to zip you to the border and back in a long but fast day.  I say “fast” because these vans travel at light-speed, and their license evidently allows them to drive with impunity.

You check out of Thailand, walk across the no-mans-land a hundred yards to Malaysia where you check-in at one window and check-out at the next window (if you don’t want to wander around their boarder kiosks).  Then back the same distance and check-in to Thailand for your automatic 30 days or in our case the second 60-day pre-approved allowance.  (It used to be only 15 days at a border crossing, but in November 2013 they changed it to 30 days, same as arriving by air.)  Stanna wouldn’t have needed the extra 60 days had we known, because she only needed 10 days before her next adventure.

She also didn’t count on my injuring my right shoulder and squelching her chance for a hair trim.  Our Belgian friend Louisa gladly filled in after doing her husband Rik’s hair.  I’d visited the local Thai barber earlier in the week which is an amazing experience for 70 baht ($2).  No waiting, takes 5 minutes (when you want it all off) and he even shaves you with a straight razor blade. He did miss one thing, because Louisa gave me an eyebrow trim which I’d never had before. Wonder how often I’ll have to add that to my list at home when I run the #1 blade over my head. Something tells me I probably need to choose the #3 instead.

Other than visas and personal grooming, the week has been subdued by shoulder recovery.  The expectation that it would heal in 4 or 5 days has been dashed and searching the Web narrows the prospect down to a tear or contusion in the right

rotator cuff region.  Thanks to a couple of internet consults with friends in the know, and a visit to a local highly regarded Thai physician, I should avoid the call for surgery and concentrate on stabilization, medication and rest – with a little mild personal PT as pain allows. Photo credit to NYTimes and ADAM, Inc. Every day it’s incrementally better and the sling is still in use.

Last on Stanna’s list of Trang highlights, besides one final trip to our favorite Panang Curry restaurant (sparing you the photo), was visiting the Buddha we watched being cast two years ago just adjacent to a Temple addition here in Trang.  One of our past blogs featured that process and the fact that we wrote our names on metal foil that was added to the boiling metal before it was poured into the inverted molds. The temple now
has walls which are in the process of being painted with various Buddhist stories and symbology. Some of the painting is gilded with gold as you can see in the photo above. All the filigreed plaster trim and tiny glass mosaic for the temple is produced on site inside the cavernous temple.  Thailand has over 37,000 temples and most are added on to and finished as contributions allow. Perhaps next year, if we visit Trang, they might have the interior and exterior completed.  I’m including a couple of photos from the casting process we watched in 2012. They melted the bronze, and for the top-knot gold, right on site and then in an elaborate ceremony in the evening, ritually poured the molten metal contributions into heated casts.  The sculpture was cast in three parts plus the top-knot. We learned that in this day-and-age the castings were transported back to Bangkok where they were brazed together and finished, before shipment back to Trang.