Great Sleeping Weather

Historical average temperatures for October 30:

                         High           Low

Chicago, Illinois        57 (14)        37 (3)
Seattle, Washington      55 (13)        43 (6)
Bangkok, Thailand        88 (31)        73 (23)

Conditions don’t get much better than this here. It’s been cooler than normal for late October. Tonight the mercury dipped below 70—a record low for this date in Thailand.

There was none of the usual sweaty forehead on Jip, whose wacky internal thermostat usually leads her to request more blankets than she really needs. I tucked her in at bedtime and then went for a run. In the wonderful humidity-free air, I felt like I could keep going till sunrise.

Now I’m finally home again, googling historical average temperatures. In a minute I’ll look around for whatever blankets are left over, and sleep like a brick.

No Looking Back

We’ve now been in our new apartment about two months. It’s been a good move in almost every way. There are only two things I miss from our old neighborhood.

One is a pad thai cart that sold a very impressive plate of noodles. I ate there about once a week. I even made a point of stopping to say goodbye to the wok-meister before we left.

The other is a decent DVD rental place. There are video stores where we live now, but mostly the movies are for sale only. Also, the categories are very different from what I was used to. Here is a representative sample of the shelf labels at one of the shops I wandered into this afternoon:

Car Action
Hardboiled
Panic
Sky Action
Splatter

I am not making these up.

Double Birthday in the Midwest

The blurry picture below, taken around 1980, got a nice update last weekend as we all gathered for a double celebration of the big round-numbered birthdays of our parents, who were born a month apart in 1930. Fall Midwestern temperatures were perfect for a Saturday picnic and slumber party.

The highlight was watching the beaming smiles on the two guests of honor, as they floated around chatting with their seven kids, six grandkids, and a swarm of significant others. If Jip had made it, we would have had 100% attendance. That turnout—21 showed up for Sunday brunch, from four different time zones—was a fitting tribute to these two marvelous people.

Thai Politics, Update

Thailand remains a tinderbox, nearly five months after the capital burned as opposition protesters scattered following a military crackdown on their extended central-city demonstration. Since then, opposition leadership has been silenced through jailings and selective blocking of radio and web communication. Nobody can say how many back-channel conversations are taking place that might lead to reconciliation between people at opposite ends of the political spectrum here.

A bomb went off yesterday in another part of the province next to Bangkok where we just moved. The explosion was quite a distance from our place, but it does serve as a reminder that lots of bitterness remains, in spite of a “Together We Can” campaign started by people representing the silent majority.

An emergency decree outlawing gatherings of more than five people remains in place for Bangkok and surrounding provinces. If elections were held tomorrow, the prime minister’s party would lose and the current government would be replaced by one that would like to bring back Thaksin. It’s still a potent mix here of globalization coming to the villages, obstinacy coming from the old guard, testosterone, fear, and legal mumbo-jumbo.

Somehow, Thailand’s economy churns along. Tourism seems to be rebounding, and the baht has rarely been stronger.