190831 These storms seem to be getting fiercer every year

Weather direction has changed overnight. 

Previously the weather was moving from east to west. 

For now it is arriving from south-southwest.

My rain bucket collected 4.5 centimeter (1.77 inch) over the last 24 hours. That is very little compared to other areas.  Sakon Nakhon is not listed in today's weather alert. Udon and Khon Kaen are still under heavy rain warnings.

Some of the worst flooding reported in Esan is Roi Et, Nakhon Phanom and Mukdahan.

Aside from flooding, most damage locally was caused by extreme winds felling trees and damaging countless metal roofs .

สกลนคร Sakon Nakhon

A loud blast right around 8 pm last night

One of those blasts when a transformer explodes. Residential lights went out immediately. Street lights stayed lit.
Big screen tv went black, the movie continued on the laptop. WIFI switched automatically to the portable transmitter. I do consider buying a few extra USB fans.
Electricity restarted at 3 am.
Overnight rain accumulation was half an inch

Expect a mix of rain and clouds with occasional wind gusts all day today, Friday, August 30

I would not recommend any travel through mountain highways today

http://weather.tmd.go.th/kknLoop.php	https://www.yr.no/place/Thailand/Sakon_Nakhon/	https://www.wunderground.com/forecast/th/
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สกลนคร Sakon Nakhon

190829 Tropical Storm Podul downgraded to tropical depression

As I had mentioned in my morning post: "The center of the storm may veer either north or more likely south of the City of Cities."

Expect rain throughout the night.  The depression is moving south-southwest of the city.

สกลนคร Sakon Nakhon

"Tropical Storm PODUL, category 3 "

Expect HEAVY WINDS, HEAVY TO VERY HEAVY RAINS beginning today (Thursday, Aug 29) 
Had been monitoring the tropical depression 13 earlier this week. It's since been upgraded to Tropical Storm PODUL.
The weather system had been forecast to head into Laos has since been 'updated' and is pretty much headed straight at us.  The center of the storm may veer either north or more likely south of the City of Cities

RP5.RU forecasts 68mm rain this evening during a 6 hour period

Thai Meteorological Department - Announcement


Thai Meteorology Satellite Animation


NOAA West Pacific Loop (Flash)

Tropical Storm Podul | Weather Underground Tracking


สกลนคร Sakon Nakhon

Extended use of mobile devices

My 1300mAh power bank  recently died.  It lasted two years and was frequently used.  

I replaced it with a 3000mAh power pack which has three USB ports, a flashlight and a digital readout of the capacity percentage.

I use the power bank most often on my $10 boom box which I hook to my motorcycle.

Power outages are quite frequent during the rainy season. The power bank extents the use of various USB devices from mobile phone, portable wifi, headsets and fans

สกลนคร Sakon Nakhon

TROPICAL STORM PODUL

storm tracking

9:30 am local time

สกลนคร Sakon Nakhon

236 ฿ ÷ 4 apples = 59 ฿ each = US$1.94

สกลนคร Sakon Nakhon

Baht continues to exercise it's muscle

สกลนคร Sakon Nakhon

Football next Sunday, final game of the season, may well be a watersport

For the moment expect plenty of rain arriving from the westsouthwest in somewhat of a swirling motion.

Tropical Depression Thirteen is headed this way from the Philippines and is expected to reach us this weekend. 

Final Game of the T4NE league season

Sunday September 1, 4 pm, Provincial stadium

Sakon FC hosts Muang Loei

 

Muang Loei is the top team in the league

สกลนคร Sakon Nakhon

190826 Wanon Niwat roads back to normal after some rapid flooding early in the weekend

สกลนคร Sakon Nakhon

2019 Asian Women's Volleyball Championship Final today

Championship game Thailand vs Japan, Aug 25, 14:00 hrs  Live broadcast on Thai Rath 32 and SMM TV.
สกลนคร Sakon Nakhon

More heavy rains in the forecast, flooding in many areas likely

Approximately 19 hours of rain collected

The above Facebook link provides the following information translated with Google Translate Sakon Nakhon ... Please be prepared to handle heavy rain for another 3 days. Due to the low pressure trough lies across the eastern region. North-northeast causes heavy rain in Sakon Nakhon province. To very heavy in many districts as follows. --------------------------------- Saturday 24 August 2019 will start to rain from afternoon - evening. Until late, starting on the east side of the area first Teacher Kusuman - Phon Na Kaew - Khok Si Suphan - Tao Ngoi The city of Sakon Nakhon and gradually falls to cover all areas. Of Sakon Nakhon province during the evening. *** Special surveillance area Sawang District - Charoen Sin - Wanon District Weather - Kham Ta Kla - Ban Muang -------------------------------- Sunday 25 August 2019 will begin to rain again during Evening-Night-Night *** Special surveillance area Sakon Nakhon Qualification and area in the upper part of Sakon Nakhon ------------------------------- Monday 26 August 62 in the evening to late .... *** Special surveillance area Ban Muang District - Kham Ta Kla Weather - Monkey - Charoen Sin - Sawang สกลนคร Sakon Nakhon

That sinking feeling

I was totally surprised by such a drastic lineup change for the Surin game. The 3-0 loss knocked the team to 7th place.  I suspect the downward trend will continue today. 



A Surin City win today will drop the team to 8th place.



What happens during the final season game, a home game with Loei, is anyone's guess. Unlikely but possibly Sakon FC could end in 9th place

190821 Sakon FC 5 Mashare Chaiyaphum 2

A bit of silliness before the game was a pleasant change from the formal ceremony.  

Then of course the high scoring translated to a exuberant crowd.  

Heavy tropical rains and three inches of water on the ground in some places, 

did not prematurely stop this game

The economy is going South

Downturn in the economy really became apparent last year.
The decline of Mass Chinese Tourism had a ripple effect on other businesses.
A major boat accident last year had little to do with the sudden downturn, it was not the main cause.  The tradewar, most likely caused major unemployment in China. The Baht continues to gain over many foreign currencies

Recent headlines in the financial world all scream "worldwide recession."

Tourism money will become a low priority household expense unless you are rich.

Global economy may face recession in 9 months, but not India: Morgan Stanley

The Predicted 2020 Global Recession | The World Financial Review 

The global economy is slowing down. What can governments do about it? | The Guardian

Markets are braced for a global downturn - The world economy

สกลนคร Sakon Nakhon

I know it's coming "Hysterical Laughter"

สกลนคร Sakon Nakhon

2019 Sakon Nakhon Longboat Races and Wax Castle Festival dates announced

สกลนคร Sakon Nakhon

Rainy Season Power outages likely

TM 30. 
Not all immigration offices seem to be aware of recent changes and are still using previous procedures.
What is certain is that you should have the 90 day report (TM47) and address report (TM 30) verifications stapled to your passport. I have yet to see a deadline date for TM30 to be completed.

Power outage

Still very common during the rainy season.  Had one in my area two days ago. Apparently it only affected this area. Looked at the sky toward Big C and the whole area was well lit.

I have rechargeable flashlights in each room.  Was able to boot up my laptop and portable WIFI and resume watching the movie within minutes. 
USB fan kept me cool till power returned over an hour later.

Important here is to keep all battery devices charged



สกลนคร Sakon Nakhon

190816 Tao Ngoi September Festival

สกลนคร Sakon Nakhon

Counting Goals

The chart is from Thai League. It and other charts are continuously updated.  



Here I shuffled the list of Sakon Nakhon FC players to show the number of goals they've made.



Sall Tafsir and Yoshida Sohei stand out. Sall has participated in four games and achieved 3 goals.  Yoshida has participated in five games and achieved three goals.



Of course  they've had help from fellow players, it's a team effort.



Unfortunately there are only four games left in the season, not enough to propel the team standings past the halfway point.  The final game should be especially thrilling when Sakon Nakhon hosts Loei United.

190811 The professionalism was impressive

Moments after the Sakon Football halftime whistle blew  an officer appeared to be ready to collapse when two officers came to his aid.  The apparently ill officer was foaming from the mouth. 
He was rushed to a gurney and attended to by medics and rescue personnel.
The ambulance was underway in less than three minutes from the moment the officer was assisted off the field

สกลนคร Sakon Nakhon

190811 Sakon FC 4 at Yasothon 2

190811 Baht continues to strengthen

Chinese devaluation of the yen had no impact. Thai reducing lending rates also made no difference

Talk of increasing tourism to 30% of GDP sounds like a wet dream

สกลนคร Sakon Nakhon

With a win today Sakon FC would propell to 7th place

Sakon Nakhon FC sank one rung back down to 9th place yesterday without even playing.

Surin temporarily took over that spot (8th) with a 3-1 win over Kalasin yesterday

Today Sakon FC hosts Yasothon.  A Sakon FC win would propel the team  to 7th place.
Win over Yasothon has been done before 

June 1, 2013

Recent five games Sakon FC got better

TM30, the dust has not settled yet

There is a petition drive underway by expats.  I don't hold much hope out for that.
Bureaucracy always wins, even when it makes little sense.
Best option is to find the simplest way of doing it. Thai immigration online services

Have not seen any deadlines when everyone will have to have a TM30 on file.  Did my  90 day report just a week ago, no mention of the TM30 requirement at that time.

Article below by Richard Barrow  (Facebook link) 
Been reading Mr Barrow articles on and off since the day I got my first internet connection in Thailand. His website is well worth following


สกลนคร Sakon Nakhon

Sakon City Waterfront now a hospital parking lot

You can scroll in either direction and consider yourself lucky if you find a parking space.

Where there is no car parked you will find a vendor parked

Lake water level continues to drop

A dam building project  near the park has been underway

Red flags probably mark shallow water 

You would not want to swim in the water due to liver flukes

สกลนคร Sakon Nakhon

They seem to like Rock n Roll

Spotted some cows along the road. A bird perched on one of them.
Made a u-turn to get a closer look.
Intriguing was that the cows looked up and came toward me. I had my stereo reasonably loud playing 60's and 70's rock




สกลนคร Sakon Nakhon

New Governor

Facebook Link
Mr. Monsit Phaisan, Thanawat, Inspector General, Ministry of Interior Is the governor of Sakon Nakhon

สกลนคร Sakon Nakhon

Name that tune $ € £ ฿

สกลนคร Sakon Nakhon

Obviously it all can't be true, or can it?

Earlier this week weather services sounded the alarm of an impending storm.

I wrote  Weather alert 🌩🌤🌦🌩 MAYBE
From my observations I figured it to be unlikely.  That storm passed far to the north. Remnants of that storm may rain on Northern Thailand  in the coming days
Some clouds and occasional sprinkles here and there over the next coming days.

Sakon Nakhon Hospital emergency has been moved to the new buildings at the lakeside entrance. Drove by there the other day and the huge parking lot was near capacity.  Could have been open ceremonies?

Regarding recent bomb incidents in Bangkok: Don't believe early reports. Seen reports of one up to 9 different bombs. Seen reports were RED's are accused. Seen reports were teenagers are involved. Obviously it all can't be true, or can it?

When I talk Crap I mean crap. Recently the lid to a cleaning product got flushed down the toilet. Tried a toilet snake, garden hose, nothing worked.  Was ready to demolish the toilet and buy a new one.  Worker patiently chiseled away the grout, removed  the wedged in lid and saved me a bundle of money in the process 

สกลนคร Sakon Nakhon