Tha Rae Christmas Star Convoy

Got a late start getting to Tha Rae.  Parking was at a premium, but we got lucky.  The parade route was changed from previous years.  Walked through town thinking the parade was already done.  When we decided to head for a place to eat we were confronted by the parade taking up one lane of westbound traffic on the main highway.

More street vendors than ever, more lights than ever.

Stopped off to get something to eat, where a number of local friends joined us for the evening

สกลนคร Sakon Nakhon

Football, Christmas, and an anniversary

Had the option to attend three football games Saturday.  Took the first offer which was the U-15 game. Some of those players sure looked a lot older than 15.
These young guys played fiercer than their adult counterparts.  Quite a few injuries and a few referee reprimands

181222 U-15 Sakon 1 Mahasarakham 2

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Tha Rae Christmas Festival gets in high gear tonight Dec 23

TAT advertises the longest fireworks display ever this New Year

Celebrating one year without cigarettes today. Used to smoke two to three packs a day.

The trade off has been weight gain on 10 kilo.

Due to injuries I have to limit my exercise to avoid pain medications. I hope to get some help with the aid of a tens unit. Used on for many years during my working years.

Late harvest hibiscus tea

As I harvest the last crop of the year over one hundred plants are already sprouting for next spring crop.  Each one of these buds has close to a dozen seeds. 

สกลนคร Sakon Nakhon

It's the season, expect evening road checks

I lucked out a few years ago. I was such a heavy smoker that not enough air came out of my lungs to activate the analyzer. I quit smoking December 24, 2017

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Pleasant temperatures over the holidays

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Whispers are getting louder "Economy heading south"

Locally heard at a wholesaler "restaurant shopping is down."
Restaurant business is down, more empty tables visible
A Facebook user mentioned that business is very slow where he works at a Sakon City home improvement center.
Tourism is way down, even though government agencies stated it's not.

Why are so many hotels for sale? | Bangkok Post: business 10 Dec 2018 

My picture diary keeps on growing

Had planned to create a slideshow of 2018 when I realized that I still had quite a collection of unedited photo albums on my hard drive

Uploaded a series of pictures of a local temple to facebook which promptly  asked me to identify these characters. 

I do not identify any persons in my photos.  Facebook does that automatically, occasionally  it's wrong

It wasn't all that long ago (November 1st, 2016) that the U.S. government came out with a directive that you could no longer wear glasses for passport pictures.

Facial recognition software had problems identifying people with glasses. 

Still today at Thai 7-11 stores software has problems identifying faces with glasses.

Not too far in the future, you won't need a wallet. You can already board a plane without a boarding pass, facial recognition handles all the details, including charging the flight to your bank account. The challenge here will be identical twins.

สกลนคร Sakon Nakhon

Slight warming trend over the Christmas holidays GO SEE Tha Rae

From the looks of this video, there's a lot more lights and decorations this year 

Sakon FC U-19 bad day at the office

Scored first, then let the opposing team score four times
1-4
The previous day U-15 returned home with a 1-1 draw

181216 U-19

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