Mountain roads dangerous during extreme weather

Advice: 

• Avoid driving on Phu Phan highway during extreme weather conditions MCOT (Thai)
  Some road shoulders have slipped down the mountain side

Debit card users

• If you have a Thai Bank account, recently enacted policy throughout Thailand lets you use other banks ATM up to four times a month without charge.

Sakon FC vs Loi City FC

• Final Score Sakon 1 Loi 3

• Next Game at Ubon.

• MY OPINION: Sakon FC, formerly ranked in the upper half, is now ranked number 11 of 16 in the division. No surprise there. At the beginning of the season 5 of their players were traded to Nakhon Phanom. At mid-season foreign players left the team for teams where paycheck were not a worry.
  Hiring a new coach hasn't had any impact on team performance to date.
  Obviously it's a shoestring operation...

... compared to other teams.  Some teams additionally provide bus service for their fans.

Wetter than Wet

• TV broadcast of the Nakhon FC football game seem to indicate that they are getting more rain than in Sakon. Anyone having business on a thoroughly soaked field had to wade through an ankle deep stram surrounding the fields

Britons are behaving better than in previous years, 
or is it just fewer are traveling?

• ....the place Britons were more likely to be arrested was Thailand... Mail Online

Stock Market Jitters, Yeah me too

• My pension fund depends heavily on the stock market.
  Gives me a good reason to be nervous.
  The dominoes just keep on falling.

• Slim pickings World's richest man loses $6.7 billion in stock market rout The Sydney Morning Herald

Sakon FC start time moved ahead

Thailand's flood death toll rises to 13 MCOT Aug 5

SakonFC at Loi Saturday, link updated  Livestream

Saturday afternoon wind gusts 8 to 16 kmph (5 to 10 mph) ....
WEEK AHEAD Increased humidity 80 TO 88%.

Sunshine Garden 11 AM to 8 PM or much later. 
Now serving meals

S and P Downgrades US Credit Rating From AAA to AA+  

further downgrades likely

Sharia Law: Battlefield London 

NOK five remants

Two days ago, while the rain subsided I traveled south on I.T.U., past where it officially ends.
Past the new pavement where pothole highway begins.
Water runoff was fairly rapid. No extreme water levels.
But some locals will have to be extra cautious on their way home.

Vegetation flourished during the dry season in the river bed, now the river is widening on the side without vegetation.

Sakon FC has a new MERCEDES

At least new to the team. 

Latest I heard it was being 'repaired' before it's brought into service. Anyone have a guess what year this bus was new.  I'm guessing 1060'

From 110805 SakonFC bus

Mostly cloudy with occasional sun breaks, rain

The Google earth image can be somewhat deceiving. 

It seems to show only the upper atmosphere.

A better view of local weather can be seen at the 

Thai Meteorological Satellite page.
It indicates mostly cloudy with occasional sun breaks

No Surprise here!  Can't afford the insurance?

• Pattaya’s Jet Ski Problems Not Solved Yet Pattaya Daily

 U.S.A. Biggest meat recall EVER

Why would anyone want to dig a six foot trench on the Beach?

Sakon Nakhon Agricultural Fair and more

Sakon Nakhon Kasetsart University Agricultural Fair 
August 31 to September 4

• RYT9 (Thai)

Thailand to ban alcohol consumption in public locations

• Press TV
  

Thailand football violence.

• That red card should be permanent, but that's just my opinion

I've been fighting Alzheimer's all my life

• 2009 studies show caffeine markedly reduce Alzheimer's 

Municipal Advertising Stunt in Lithuania

Can you guess who's doing cyber warfare

UK seize biggest Cocaine haul

Using Cologne can be dangerous to your health

I'm really going to miss teaching!!

The change of my schedule by the school this semester, has made teaching English senseless.
My new teaching schedule of Thursdays and Fridays is repeatedly superseded by student and school activities on those days.
I see no sense in teaching English once a month, or even once every two months.

I have been with S-BAC since its inception and have hundreds, if not thousands of enjoyable memories, interacting with students and their  families,  teachers and staff.  Weddings, birthdays, graduations, public events... it's a long list of activities: Pleasant memories.




I'm really going to miss teaching!!

The Entertainer

And the heavens opened - and will remain open

 One  (Udon) death as storm ravages 14 provinces 
The Nation   

• In Sakon Nakhon...rainstorms damaged more than 5000 rai of rubber plantations. ...  
• ...Sakon Nakhon Governor Amnaj Pakarat convened an urgent meeting  ...

Almost non-stop rain in a two week forecast for Sakon Nakhon 
Accu Weather  


Three weather systems began to converge in our direction last evening. 

The locally strengthened system will probably observe a reduced speed limit over the Pu Phan Mountains, awaiting two systems approaching from the west.  I'm guessing here!!

Brace for heavy rain today and tomorrow

Warning: heavy rain...   Bangkok Post

1 PM, August 2, 2011

Monday morning is rush hour at the Immigration Office

I really should have known better

I was scheduled to submit my 90 day address report to the Immigration office.
Monday morning is not a good time to visit the Immigration office.  The place was overflowing with people.
To make things even worse, I had forgotten my reading glasses and had to have someone read my passport number to me.  Examining the form closer, I realized I had the wrong form.

I decided to start all over in the afternoon.  I arrived bespectacled at 1:30, no waiting.  Mission accomplished in a matter of minutes.

From the US Embassy Citizen Services

Beginning September 1, 2011, all non-emergency consular services will require an appointment. We hope that this will assist us in providing prompt and efficient consular services to American Citizens residing in Thailand.  Please plan accordingly.

Occasional Sun breaks

The weather map resembles a checkerboard. Variable cloudiness, rain and thunderstorms.
The weather is now moving from the west.  August is generally the wettest month in the region.

  
Oh I see the humor

Just received the mothers day promotion from Big C.  On sale are cleaning supplies, laundry detergents, and other such household items mothers will appreciate. 
In Thailand Mothers day is celebrated on August 12, HRH the Queen's birthday.

"The United States is worried about China's growing influence in Thailand" Washington Times


Thai prince to pay bond on jet impounded in Germany  Reuters


Brazil Competes With Thailand With Start of Rice Exports to South Africa  Bloomberg