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BRANDS Essence of Chicken: Accept no substitutes.

When you're on a road trip in Thailand, and you're feeling kind of rundown, well, there's only one solution. Get yourself to a 7-11 and buy some BRANDS Essence of Chicken. Drink it in one shot, without tasting it, like you're drinking some nasty whiskey. Within an hour, you'll feel much better. (Shouts in a Charles Barkley voice...) I guarantee!!!



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Jinglen, much bigger than Jingjok...

Here's a photo of a จิ้งเหลน / jinglen / skink. These are much bigger than our constant house companions, the จิ้งจก / jingjok / gecko. For the record, we bought a little net, and three or four jingjoks have been captured and relocated recently. 

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Unidentified possible bird nest.

Sighted an unidentified possible bird nest in the evergreen tree next door. The access hole is quite small. If this is, in fact, a bird nest, then it must be for a very small type of bird. Observation continues...

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Wat Sala Loi, where the trees were there first and the white-tailed squirrels dwell.

A little visit to วัดศาลาลอย / Wat Sala Loi today.

Chop down the old tree? Nope. Never.
All you have to do is leave a hole for the tree when you build the roof.



Not just the main trunk.
The smaller branches too.
Let them grow!!!

My first sighting of a white-tailed squirrel.

You might think a man-made waterfall would suck.
You would be wrong. It is surprisingly nice.

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Lazy old retired guy accomplishes a single task. Hallelujah!!!

I finally got around to showing some love for the Trek bicycles. I had a little washing and waxing session.

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A hard rain did fall...

In the photo below, you can see the storm approaching. The wind was blowing and vendors rushed about, battening down the hatches. We had a dream of maybe making it home without any significant rainfall. That didn't happen.

We weren't even a kilometer from the market when the skies opened up. How hard did it rain? Hard enough that pulling into a gas station and waiting it out for thirty minutes seemed like a pretty good idea. With nowhere they have to be most of the time, that's how retirees roll.

Regarding the lack of water in ลำจักราช / Lam Chakkarat, where they have the boat races, that has been addressed at least a bit. It was a hard rain, a good rain. Count me as very grateful for it.

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I never set out to be an observer of snails and slugs...

It just happened. I mean, you take the wildlife you get. And here in นครราชสีมา / Nakhon Ratchasima, we get snails, slugs, and toad frogs in abundance. Of course, that's a buffet for snakes, so we've got those too.


"I'm not a slug.
I'm just a piece of poop."
(Do you believe me?)



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After someone crosses over, you see things...

A month or so after my dear mother crossed over, she appeared to us one day as a beautiful red cardinal. There we were sitting in the car, and there was the cardinal, right near the car, not afraid of us in the least. We spent several minutes together. Then finally she flew away.

Things like that happen after someone passes away. In my most recent case, a family member's mom passed away. I attended her funeral, dressed in black like Mr. Johnny Cash.

That evening, the most beautiful full moon I've ever seen in Thailand lit up the sky. I wasn't surprised. Like I said before, after someone crosses over, you see things.





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The Man in Black

I readily admit that I'm just a pretender compared to the real Man in Black, Mr. Johnny Cash. Still, I wear those black clothes for the funerals. People keep passing on. Always have done. Always will, I suppose, including me and you one day...

All the more reason to live life to the fullest each and every day. Despite no direct communication between myself and those who have crossed over, I am confident that is exactly what they would encourage us to do.

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A bicycle ride wearing a KN-95 mask is better than no bicycle ride at all.

I guess it was my dream that the air wouldn't get bad until mid-January. I got back right at the end of the rainy season, and the air is...