Sunset front and back views

Two views of today's sunset, one from the front of the house, and one from the back of the house.

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Loy Krathong at Central Plaza Korat

Ten days of Loy Krathong festivities at Central Plaza in Korat. For me, the best part was watching kids feed the pigs and baby pigs. They feed the pigs using baby bottles of milk provided by vendors. Lots of good food on offer for humans as well, of course.

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Remarkably red sunset

It was a remarkably red sunset on Sunday 20221030. As usual, my poor photos do not do it justice.

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Phut Sa Lake

It took me three tries, but I finally found my way to บึงพุดซา  / Phut Sa Lake. This may have been a reservoir built way back in the Khmer Empire days. I came across at least one such reference online. It's certainly within the realm of possibility as there are plenty of Khmer civilization remnants in the area.

Phut Sa Lake looks like it would be difficult to fish in due to the way the bank is covered with massive vegetation as it slopes down to the water. I translated the Thai word บึง as "lake," but it might be more properly rendered as swamp/marsh/bog, which is what it appears to be more than a lake. 

บ้านพุดซา / Baan Phut Sa, the community surrounding the lake, is nice. I'm sure I'll be visiting often as it's becoming a favorite motorcycle route.

20221031

Temporarily seven-legged Halloween spider

Came across this (temporarily) seven-legged spider on the street in front of the house on Halloween. As I understand it, leg number eight will be regenerated soon.

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Nice sunset, despite a few obstructions...

20221026

Season of the toads

It seems that this time of the year, after the rainy season has ended, is the time of the toads. We are seeing quite a few of them, and they are very big.

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I accepted it as another item lost when moving, but now it is found.

I was pretty sure I lost my made-in-Germany, Solingen hunting knife that I've had since my teenage years or earlier. I thought it was lost like things inevitably get lost when you move. I had accepted the loss. But today, unexpectedly while looking for something else, I found it. It feels pretty damn good.

I'm not sure why it feels good, though. The likelihood of me ever using this knife is very slim. I may sharpen it. I may rejuvenate the leather sheath again. But that's all. It will sit in a drawer until I die. Then somebody will get an old knife, and they will know nothing of the memories associated with it.

The value of the knife is only my memories of using it when I was young. Those memories will come to a screeching halt one day. F'ing hell. Time marches on...

20221018

The retiree has time for proper maintenance.

One good thing about being retired is having the time to properly maintain all your vehicles. I challenge you to audit the tire pressure on any of our vehicles. Check the chains on the bicycles and motorcycle. All within spec--always. I guess I'm in the golden part of retirement where I've got time and still enough health to get things done. Count me as very grateful.

Regret my Covid retirement? No. Just glad I got out when I did with some health left.

Today's challenge was the Loctite on the two nuts for the mirror stalk. I struggled quite a while with my one adjustable wrench, channel locks, and WD-40. I finally went online for ideas: heat. Dipped that bad boy in some boiling hot water for two or three minutes, and that finally did something to the Loctite. I felt pretty damn good when I felt the nuts finally separate from each other.

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Sunset on our yet-to-be-numbered street.

We don't have a street number yet. We live in a housing estate that's still being built. There are only three or four houses with people living in them. We are enjoying the emptiness. When this place is built out, there will probably be three or four hundred houses.

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