Category: Photos

Monsoon Season

A big storm blew through here yesterday… At one point, it was gusting as hard as I’ve ever seen it. The reeds at the edge of the pond were blowing sideways, and the doors of the house seemed unsure of whether to blow in or out. The babies were sleeping at the time, and stayed that way even though the thunder seemed to boom right over us and the lightning tripped the Saf-T-Cut twice. Nam was still at work, and the street in front of our house flooded a bit, but not as bad as last time.

The storm blew over and the sun came out. The babies eventually woke up and Max must have remembered the floods from last year since he asked me to go get him a fish. Neither the pond nor the storm drains were overflowing this time, so there weren’t any fish.

I had to run errands on the other side of town and saw that the storm had blown down a huge highway sign right in front of our neighborhood. I hope nobody got hurt. The rear entrance was flooded again, like last time, and for a while it was a bit too deep to drive a car or motorcycle through, although pickups were making it through just fine.

If anybody stupid enough to drive through that storm was going under this sign when the telephone pole-sized steel legs bent in half, they either crapped their pants or didn't even see how close they came to being squashed because it was impossible to see or hear anything.
They closed off one side of the highway to pull down the sign with crane trucks. This was the only way to get into my neighborhood, though, because the rear entrance was still flooded.
This doggy found a juicy treat.

It rained again hard today, which made us scramble around to get things done (Nam’s car is in Khon Kaen getting resprayed so we’re doing it all in the Crown and with the help of my <150cc bike fleet), but it’s all good now.

Fishing Derby at Mile Square Park

Although we skunked out like most on that day (in spite of 1,600 lbs of rainbow trout being stocked a couple days before), we had a great time. We met Phil Friedman and everybody around us was friendly. The kid fishing next to us picked up his sister’s pole when it bent over late in the day (his sister had gotten bored and wandered off somewhere) and he pulled in the biggest fish of the day. All in all, it was a good day.

The Toyota “Kujira” Crown, Reborn

After five months of being held hostage by a rogue body shop, a brief return home, and then a serious accident caused by a negligent repair shop, the Kuj has returned.

These are the kinds of photos I really wanted to take before the accident, but I never had the chance. The body shop to which the work was outsourced did a good job – they pounded out parts I thought would be impossible to save, and finished the job slowly while looking for parts.

Only one rare part was totally lost – the lower right front turn signal lens and frame. The shop returned the car to me apologizing for not being able to source the parts in four whole months. At that point, I just wanted the damn car back so I agreed to accept it with this one glaring omission. Then I got my Google on and found the part in one day, shipped from a fellow Crown fan in Bangkok.

Ironically, a good smack in the front end seems to have cured several chronic engine issues. For now, I am just very happy to have the Crown back.

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Location: Maha Sarakham bypass, just around the corner from my neighborhood.