Exercise

The local park at the lake gets quite busy daily around 5 p.m. with people jogging and all other forms of exercise.
There are a number of exercise stations with instructions.
This one caught my attention, is that a fart? Is it part of the exercise?

Invited to make merit...

Friday morning.  I had just taken a dose of medicine to kill old age and back ache pains.
I decided to lay down, there's very little else you can do when taking all this medication.

My friend Samat came by moments later, explaining that I am invited to a celebration.
When I asked him when, the reply was "right now."

I just love the Thai way of advance notice of an event.

Lucky we only had to go a block away to the main street.

From my understanding, it was a ceremony honoring the elderly, senior citizens from this neighborhood (Thadum 3).
Well, yes I am now a senior citizen, but somehow I felt very special that I had been included in this merit making.
As a foreigner I feel privileged to be accepted in the neighborhood.




All elderly attending received gifts to commemorate the event.

Mine's Bigger than Yours

In response to my recent post "Rain + frogs = snakes" I received these three pictures with the caption "mine's bigger than yours."




This one almost looks like a cute little pet, especially in the first picture. Commenting on my recent snake encounter, it was suggested to use insect spray. Not that insect spray will kill the snake, but teporairly blind it.

How do you translate that ? Up to you !

These road signs are at a local intersection. 

A typical example that there are different opinions in translating names.

Another example of differing translations is the North Eastern region of Thailand: Isan, Isaan, Isarn, Issan, or Esarn.

Sakon Nakhon seems to be the most acceptable translation of the city/ province,

however here also are a number of variations in translation:  Sakonnakhon, Sakol Nakholn, Sakorn Nakorn..

In Thai script the name is one word, while it becomes two words when translated. 

The meaning of the words also are not clear. 

Some translations indicate center of the universe, others claim it to mean international city, apparently also incorrect

Rain + frogs = snakes

Frogs and toads could be heard most of the evening last night after some fresh rain.

As I walked out of the house this morning, I made a very quick u-turn, grabbed some knifes and a machete, and began target practice.

Once I ran out of knifes to throw, I threw shoes, helmets and even an umbrella.

There are sort of bite marks in all the things I threw.
Nothing worked.  My next weapon was a cup of bleach thrown from an open window.

That apparently slowed down my target and I felt safe to leave the house.
Grabbing a  four foot metal bar, I was able to eliminate my three foot target.

A reminder to all, if you hear plenty of frogs, then expect snakes to be nearby.

And the weather forecast is...

High humidity with "FEELS LIKE" temps more like steam room conditions.

The water temperature in my pool is JACUZZI MODE.

Will add ice today. After all it is supposed to cool us down.

Chance of Rain forecast for the next five days (%)

Thai Meteorological Department 20, 20, 20, 30, 40 

Weather Underground 20, 60, 60, 100, 80

Of course these numbers are adjusted as new data is analyzed.

Sakon Nakhon Weather stations

Map, barometer, humidity and temperature measurements at http://weather.gladstonefamily.net/site/VTUS

Information listed may not totally be correct as demonstrated by the location on the runway.

Possibly a security concern. 

Next time I'm at the airport, I'll have to ask if I could see the weather station.