Monthly Archives: April 2025

April 14, 2025 · 9:11 pm

“Seasons in Chiang Mai, Thailand

  • Hot Season (March-May): This is the warmest time of the year, with temperatures potentially reaching above 35°C (95°F). 
  • Rainy Season (June-October): This season brings heavy rainfall, especially in June to August, with July having the most rainfall. 
  • Cool Season (November-February): This is the most comfortable time to visit, with daytime highs around 30°C (85°F) and cooler evenings. 

Key points to consider:

  • Air Quality: During the late dry season (March-May), air quality can be affected by agricultural burning in the surrounding areas. 
  • Festivals: Chiang Mai has several festivals throughout the year, including Yee Peng and Loy Krathong in November, and the Chiang Mai Flower Festival in February. 
  • Songkran: The Thai New Year, Songkran, is celebrated in mid-April and involves water throwing. 

The image above is from Harvey’s and my creating of metal decorations to attach to our mailbox when we lived in Greenwood, Arkansas. This we called, “Hot Man,” and a lot of people related to him during the hottest part of the summer.

In our new home, there are three ‘seasons,’ but ALL of them are hot. Right now, the ‘hot season’ is also known as the ‘smoky season,’ because farmers are burning off the residue of harvesting crops for the season, to prepare for the next one. Air purifiers are really getting a work out now, and they do a great job. We have two of them in our air bnb. I don’t know how many we’ll need in the new condo when we move (around the end of April or beginning of May when all the paperwork is done, filed, etc.)

Our son describes the seasons as “smoky,” “rainy,” “hot,” and “hotter.” 😳

I AM starting to acclimate a bit. I used to shower in the morning and then it would take me half an hour or so – sitting in front of the fan over and over – to get dry enough to dress. This was with the a/c set at 19 or 20 degrees celcius (66.2 degrees F.) Now I have it set to 29 (84.2 degrees F). With the fan moving the air in the room, I’m comfortable. I’m taking a much cooler shower and blow drying my hair with the cool setting.

When we go to the hospital, they have the temperature set at 20 – making it feel like a meat locker. We have to put up with it in the ICU, but in the private room we found where we could turn it OFF! 👍🏻

My husband had his pacemaker installation yesterday and spent the night in ICU. Hoping he can move to his private room again today. We leave in a second.

Have a good day.

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April 13, 2025 · 6:44 pm

Harvey’s Private Room

This is part of the view from Harvey’s private room on the 11th floor of Bangkok Hospital. Last night we saw fireworks from the festival out one part of the window. They were wonderful, but I felt just looking at his view of the city was spectacular on its own.

Another part of his view out the same window.

This was the part where the fireworks display was to the left of the view.

This is nicer than some apartments I’ve lived in in the past. Some nurses came in yesterday to give him a bath, and there was a curtain they pulled between here and his bed to give him privacy from any other personnel entering the room, and another they pulled between where we were seated by the window and his bed.

TV with remote. Brian had to re-teach how to turn the TV on, plus change channels, but Harvey picked it up pretty quickly. The personnel put him through a whole lot today, so he quickly fell asleep while ‘watching’ something.

Added ‘bonus’ of this view of his bathroom is the image of the amateur photographer😂 trying to take the picture!

His shower. He’s having bed baths now, but hopefully, he’ll get to the point where he can enjoy a shower with help into the bathroom, sitting down while he showers, and help back to bed. Ahhhh!

This completes the tour of his private room. I can’t say enough about the good care he received yesterday. Not only competent and a good rotation of people in and out, but CARING. Patting his hand, painting his forehead and cheeks with a bit of water based ‘paint’ to bring him good luck in the coming year (via the Water Festival celebrations), squeezing his hand and talking to him when trying to calm him when needed, and encouraging him and cheering when he was able to sit, stand for a few seconds, and more.

We’re going to the hospital early today, hopefully arriving dry there on Day 2 of the festival, so we can hopefully talk with the night nurse we hired to stay with him before knowing how good the care would be.

We are hopeful to see more improvement, good results from the CT scan of the brain for signs of any bleeding, before MAYBE scheduling or actually doing the placement of the pacemaker. today. Please continue thinking good thoughts for us.

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April 13, 2025 · 10:07 am

Day 6 in the hospital

Today was Day 6 in the hospital. After a carotid artery ultrasound, he was moved from ICU to a private room. We are now on the 11th floor of the hospital. I think this is the top floor.

We were worried about this move because we thought he still needed the really close monitoring, and we didn’t know what to expect in a private room. We hired an extra nurse for tonight to make sure he got the care he needed.

After spending the day in his room, we are calm now that he is receiving excellent care. There are nurses, physical therapists, doctors, and all sorts of people coming in all the time to do some special thing.

He had a really good session of physical therapy today, with him sitting on the side of the bed by himself for a minute or two (bookended by the therapist and her strong male aid), standing twice and lasting for several seconds both times, getting arms and legs exercised, encouraging him to do the moves, but aiding him if he wasn’t able to fully yet, and more. He showed a lot of progress and really put honest effort into it.

He said several words today – one word answers to questions, but answers don’t have to be lengthy, do they? He tried to say other things but we couldn’t understand. He kept putting his hands up near his nose, concerning us, because he still has the nasal feeding tube in. We explained to him that he needed to leave it alone, but then watched him like a hawk because his hand would come up over and over. We explained what the tube was for, and that it would be removed once he showed he could swallow reliably. I also mentioned at one point that if he managed to get it out, they would have to put it back in. Hopefully, that and the extra nurse watching him tonight will do the trick.

The carotid artery ultrasound showed plaque in both arteries, but not enough to cause a stroke or need surgery. They think the stroke was caused by atrial fibrillation plus really slow heartbeats per minute to the point of stopping for some seconds (this sounds similar to MY problem in February! He is now scheduled for a brain CT tomorrow we think, to make sure there is no bleeding. Next they will install a pacemaker (the second in our family in two months!) They think that the pacemaker and a blood thinner that they will start soon will give him the best chance going forward.

We went to the hospital today with all electronics in plastic bags. Brian even got us fancy bags for our cellphones especially made for protection during the water festival. It hangs around your neck, completely sealed. We made it to the hospital without incident. It started raining while we were there, making it really difficult to navigate on the way home through the throng of party-goers undeterred by the rain, all heading to Maya for drenching, dancing, listening to music, drinking until all hours, etc. I have honestly never seen anything like this.

Three lanes of vehicles on either side of the big highway and several lanes of motorcycles and motor scooters, each holding from one to four people – and animals! all darting in and out of the lanes, between the cars, nose to tail all traveling at a high rate of speed. Truly amazing to watch. And then a gazillion people walking on both sides and filling up all available space. The rain was causing the streets to flood, and water was half way up my shoes when we got back to our condo. Thankfully, though the entrance to the condos was full of revelers, no one shot us.

This was Day One of the Songkran new year’s water festival. We have two days not only LIKE, but exceeding what I saw today. Hard to imagine. It’s a challenge to travel, and if we didn’t need to, we wouldn’t. We ordered a Mexican dinner to be delivered this evening, but were notified the order was cancelled due to the Grab motorcyle rider refusing to deliver in the pouring rain. I don’t blame him. Luckily, we had some chicken and some canteloupe left over from yesterday.

Here’s to Day Two of the Water Festival. I really hope we don’t get doused because Harvey’s room is like a meat locker.

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April 12, 2025 · 8:53 pm

A Small Thank You

While we were at the hospital, Brian ordered several things to be delivered to the condo receiving area, including some dinner for us.

He was primarily ordering things to give to the two men who work in the parking area of the building who he had to wake up for help the night my husband had his stroke and needed an ambulance. They called for one, got the people up to our place, helped get Harvey on a stretcher and into the ambulance. How do you ‘thank’ people for going above and beyond like that, in the middle of the night when they are not on duty?

We got home and hauled everything upstairs to his condo. We came down to our air bnb and ate dinner, then went back up to divide the gifts between two big bags. We got things like three kinds of fancy nuts, some soup, some tomato type drink in an 8 pack, fancy coffee, and a big heavy box Brian says is a food Thai people love, plus cans of tuna. We also got a music playing thing for both of them to share. I think that’s it.

We went down toward the parking area and found the first man doing duty in the office/control area for the building. We thanked him profusely, Brian speaking Thai, and me trying to pronounce ‘thank you’ in my awful, but sincere, Thai accent – “cawp coon, CA!” bowing and putting my hands together. The man seemed to be saying the equivalent of ‘I was just doing my job,’ or “it wasn’t much,” but we knew differently. We left him starting to open the big bag.

We found the 2nd man on duty at his post at the front and to the side of the parking area and repeated our actions.

We felt good to be able to personally thank the two men face to face so they knew how special we think they are. There is simply no way to thank someone when they help through a traumatic situation to get help for someone you love.

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April 11, 2025 · 8:43 pm

Food in Thailand

Brian ordered delivery of some chicken tenders recently to go with the fruit and salad we already had. It came in a box with this message on the lid. I’m not sure if he had ever ordered from this place before. They just take the information from the electronic order and make the experience personal and pleasant.😊

Food is literally everywhere in Thailand. There are small stalls up and down every street, shops everywhere, people cooking on the street, restaurants, etc. Brian is trying to help us get healthier by sticking to a simple low carb diet for us since we are wusses about hot or spicy food, and we’ve had such incredible health problems starting in February when we were still in the states.

We can order almost everything – a whole cut up roasted chicken, slices of pork, salads, eggs and bacon, chicken tenders, soup, and more. Brian orders and pays for it via his phone. A few minutes later, his order has been delivered to the lobby/office/mail area downstairs by Grab (their Uber) and he is notified. He goes down and retrieves it. And the prices are really amazing. My husband and I had chicken, pork, fruit and salad for a total of $6.00 – delivered, within 20 minutes. We created a chef salad recently for the three of us by ordering salad with hard boiled egg and all kinds of other things, plus some chicken strips separately. We cut up the chicken into the salad, divided shares, and dug in. All for a bit over $6 for the three of us.

We are weird here, not liking spicy/hot food, AND we are trying to get healthier, eat low carb, and I’m still trying to lose the lard. We are also walking most days until my husband had his stroke. Now my ‘exercise’ is walking in the hospital to ICU where Harvey is, out to the waiting area when they need us to leave, downstairs for a hot coffee to warm up, as we did for the first time yesterday, etc. We will try for more when life returns to normal.

Happily, just looking on his phone, Brian comes up with a lot of variety for us with different meat, eggs, fruits on the Keto approved list, and salads. We have been delighted with our meals since we came, thanks to him. When we move into our new condo around the end of the month, I will have an extremely small kitchen, augmented by equipment we can get, such as a crockpot, a vous vide (equipment that allows precise cooking on everything known to man, including meat, fish, veggies, etc. in a sealed pouch and water.) I had never heard of this and am eager to try it. We’ll get a hard boiled egg cooker, a hot water pot, and maybe an air fryer. We’ll look at things carefully.

Honestly, as cheap and delicious as whole cooked, cut up chickens, and sliced pork done to perfection are, it’s hard to fight simple continuing to order those. Most people here seem to have one main deep skillet they use to cook lots and lots of things. It’ll be fun.

Did I make you hungry yet? 😜

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April 10, 2025 · 6:49 pm

Songkran

Songkran

Festival

“Thai New Year or Songkran, also known as Songkran Festival, Songkran Splendours, is the Thai New Year’s national holiday. Songkran is on 13 April every year, but the holiday period extends from 14 to 15 April.” – wikipedia

This is a city-wide celebration of the Thai new year. People celebrate by buying the biggest water guns they can find (sold everywhere right now) or standing on balconies and dumping buckets of water on the passersby below.

If you go on the street the 13th through the 15th you are giving your consent to be completely drowned by delighted participants. It doesn’t matter who you are, young or old, you will be hosed down or dumped on.

Our son, Brian, participated one year and that was enough for him. We plan to stay in, have food delivered, stock up on water so we don’t have to go out. I plan to watch from my bay window alcove in our air bnb when I can.

The only problem this year is that Brian and I will be traveling to the hospital and back each day during the festivities. I don’t know if we can call a Grab, wait on the street and get into the car without getting hosed. Hopefully, we can. Otherwise, it will be a long, cold day in wet clothes in the frigid hospital.

Maybe we should take backpacks wrapped in trash bags to have some dry clothes to change into…

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April 10, 2025 · 8:26 am

Update on Day 3 at Hospital

The good news is that my husband doing enough better that they removed his breathing tube. This is a huge positive step. He still has a tube for possible oxygen and a feeding tube.

I was hoping to hear him speak, but it wasn’t in the cards today. A therapist came in to see where he was in being able to speak and follow directions. She asked him to swallow, asked him to say “ooh” and “ahh”. We all encouraged him, but he just couldn’t. His lower lip is swollen from the breathing tube and he seemed to have trouble getting his tongue to do what he wanted. I was really disappointed, but tomorrow is another day.

I lost it when Brian sat at his side and held his hand. My husband immediately squeezed it, and Brian sat there for a long time, giving him comfort. It was a beautiful, though sad, sight. We traded places all during the day and evening. I think our efforts helped my husband today. This is the first time he was more than vaguely aware we were there.

Another bright spot was when Brian asked if he wanted to watch TV. Imagine finding a Steven Segal movie when everyone spoke Thai! We muted it, but my husband now had motivation to keep his eyes open. 😂

We left, exhausted, at 6:30. We ordered some food and combined it with what I had left in the fridge. We hadn’t eaten since breakfast, so food was welcome.

We will both hit the hay early tonight. It’s 8:19 pm on Thursday here. We’ll be back at the hospital by 9 or so in the morning, geared up to encourage my husband while bolstering each other. We are SO lucky to have our son.

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April 9, 2025 · 8:52 pm

Day 3

Thank you to all of you who are bearing with me, only writing about my husband’s health lately. Please just skip over these and I hope I’ll be back soon with my more normal posts.

This is day 3 of my husband’s surgery for a stroke and fall. He is doing better. The surgery cleared the two arteries in his brain that were completely occluded and damage from the blockage was minimal, the doctors say. They are now focusing on his low heartbeats per minute and low blood pressure. This improved yesterday, and I’m hoping it will today, as well, so they will be able to take out the breathing tube

I long to hear his voice, hoping he can speak. I hope he is alert enough that we can explain his situation more clearly, see if he is able to walk without problem in the near future, and what the doctors recommend.

Our son and I are spending almost the entire visiting hours at his side, except when they are doing something where they ask us to leave for half an hour or so. There is a waiting area right down the hall. Otherwise we are watching the monitors, watching him, seeing the good care he is receiving, and are available if a doctor comes and wants to talk with us.

No one can no the future – even the good doctors.
We are all essentially waiting and doing all we can for him. We are there every time he opens his eyes, taking his hand, kissing his forehead, letting him know he isn’t alone. It’s sad that they are having to restrain his hands and feet, but it is essential now that he not disrupt the equipment. He tends to flail a lot when not restrained, putting himself and the equipment in danger.

Brian and I enjoyed a nice delivered breakfast of eggs and cheese, bacon, and a salad. We then took a walk to the laundry farther out, out by our koi pond, since the one in the building was closed. He showed me that he weighed the bag of laundry on a scale. There was a chart on the wall re the cost of the weight. He put the ticket with his name, phone number and email address and the payment in a bag and then put the bag inside the tied up laundry bag. Then there was a chute where you dropped your laundry. He says they will call or email him when the clothes are ready to be picked up. Interesting system!

We visited the koi for a bit and then continued our walk around the block. We will leave again in a minute to get a Grab to take us to the hospital for the day.

I hope to bring good news, and more regular blog posts in the coming days. Thanks again for bearing with me during this scary time.

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April 9, 2025 · 2:09 am

Kindness- Compassion

I have been here a little over one week and I am amazed at the kindness and compassion shown to our son and the complete strangers that we are.

One example was when I suddenly was overcome by the heat and “Tourista” and needed help getting back to our place. We weren’t far and our son ran to get a wheelchair from our building. He couldn’t find one and came back, calling a Grab. While we were waiting, two complete strangers came and offered help.

The man who works at the parking area in our building dropped everything and called an ambulance for us in the early morning when my husband had his emergency. We will try to thank him for that.

The man who runs the massage placed was really concerned when our son explained why we had to cancel our Friday massages.
The lady who works in the office in the building asked how Brian’s dad was.
Each of the doctors helping my husband searches us out and takes to a computer to show and explain the test results, what they think and will do next, plus answer questions. I have never had a doctor do this.

To say I am impressed just doesn’t tell you how I feel.

This is an amazing group of people like you won’t see anywhere else. We feel special and welcomed. Such a warm wonderful feeling in what is a very scary situation!

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April 8, 2025 · 10:21 pm

turning on a dime

sometimes life turns on a dime.

we are at the hospital for day 2 since my husband fell in the bathroom and suffered a stroke. He had surgery to remove blockage in the arteries in his brain, thankfully before significant damage was done. I will update when I have more information

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April 6, 2025 · 11:16 pm

Monday 4-7-2025

I melted when Lisa sent me this photo of her husband (and our new friend, Tim) and our sweet dog, Amber. Tim and his family adopted Amber when we decided to move to Thailand. We met this wonderful family when we were starting to shed some of our stuff before an auction that will be held next month.

Tim, Lisa, and their daughter, Serena, each found things they would like – happily falling in love with Amber in the process and providing a loving home for her. Amber won the lottery, gaining a new family, complete with kids, dogs, and a cat. I think this is a classic photo of bliss. I’m so happy for all of us.

My husband and I got our first pedicures ever yesterday. (yes on Sunday!) To say we’re delighted and feel quite pampered is a vast understatement. My husband looked astounded at how good his poor, diabetic feet looked and felt.
That’s the most important thing here. He wouldn’t allow me to photograph his feet, so you’ll have to make do with mine. I feel very decadent, having such well scrubbed, lotioned feet with well cut toenails, including the ones that have been trying to become ingrown, and my mauve colored toenails. 😌 We will see how long their good work lasts, and then plan to return for another pedicure.

I wrote a good review on their website yesterday. Brian says that a lot of small shops like this one struggle to make a good living, and I was particularly impressed by the great job the lady did on my husband’s feet, since I have tried to cut his toenails and had a very hard time, both cutting the nails and not hurting him. I hope the review helps them because they really deserve it.

This is our condo building. It’s called “Hillside 2”, and has 10 floors. We are in an air bnb on the 4th floor while we wait for our condo on the 5th floor to be available for us to move in. Our friends are on the 8th floor, and our son is on the 9th floor. We are all in good communication. Our massage place is on the lobby level, and there are two halves of a 7-11 on either side of the lobby level. One has more pharmaceuticals and the other more general supplies. There is a also a place we can wait in comfort while our son calls for a Grab to take us someplace.

We stopped for a coffee this morning at the end of our walk, right next to our building, called, “Yesterday.” My husband likes the cappuccinos they make while I’m becoming addicted to iced coffee. While we were there, Brian’s friend, Effie, came over to our table visit with her seven month old daughter, who is cute as a button, in a stroller. The baby held Brian’s finger, and smiled when my husband played with her toes. She captivated everyone. Plus, we got an invitation for dinner Wednesday evening! 😊

I think I go see the ear doctor tomorrow. Hopefully, he can help me get my hearing back.

I hope that your days are joyful.

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April 6, 2025 · 8:12 am

48 Hours of Travel

I think I told you that the total time of travel from Greenwood, Arkansas to Chiang Mai, Thailad was 48 hours, but I would like to share more of the trip with you.

We drove to the Fort Smith airport and waited for the first leg of our journey. We actually went through a pretty good security check. I showed my magic card that gave information on my pacemaker implant, plus my ID bracelet and they skirted around some of the xraying. Apparently, the security check was good enough that we didn’t have to do more until we were in Bangkok, Thailand.

This was a short one hour flight to the Dallas/Fort Worth airport, where we waited again. We had to do a lot of walking we weren’t expecting to GET to the railway or whatever they call it that will whisk you to the next gate. It was a bit much for two old recently sick people.

We then flew the LONG flight – 14 hours – from DFW to Doha, Qatar. This was in the lap of luxury, our first ever business class flight. We had good food, comfortable recliners that eased into all kinds of positions for maximum comfort, including the makeup into a bed by the attendants, with a nice pillow and the best blanket I have ever slept under. I think I showed you a picture or two of the seats we had, with my husband and I sitting side by side and across from our son with the partition removed. We basically slept most of the flight after enjoying the amenities.

All of the airports were nice, but this one at Doha, Qatar, was spectacular.

This was followed by another pretty long flight, from Doha, Qatar to Bangkok, Thailand. Another nice business class flight, not as nice as the first one, but nicer than any other flight I’ve taken in my life, 2nd only to the one to Doha.

We were met in Bangkok by a team of experts hired by our son to meet us, handle the baggage change, customs check, security check, and all the other things required when landing in the main hub city in a country. Even with all that my husband’s energy gave out and we needed to find a wheelchair to get where we needed to go.

We left the Bangkok airport only minutes before the earthquake. The pilot came on saying that we would have to turn around and return to Bangkok because the Chiang Mai airport had closed. Our poor son was then trying to figure out what he would do for accommodations there, booking a new flight to Chiang Mai, meals, and more. The pilot came on again saying the Chiang Mai airport had reopened and we were resuming our flight there. Whew!

Now we find we MAY have to fly to Laos to the Thai embassy there, to get a magical stamp on our passports that the banks here will like so they will let us open bank accounts. Then we should be able to take the bank account information to the visa people and get a retirement visa. Fingers crossed!

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April 5, 2025 · 10:24 pm

Sunday 4-6-2025

This is my new computer! It looks greeen in this photo, but it’s glorious purple. The screensaver I chose is of Dubai, not only because I like the photo, but also because ‘it’s purple.’ ☺️. I’m really having to work at using the keyboard because it’s little and cute and the keys are much closer together than I am used to. I’m trying to place my fingers on the home row and then plant my wrists on the counter so I don’t flail as much. I’ll get this. It’s going to be wonderful. Any problems are user errors🤪.

We just came in from a morning walk. We did a little better today. We said hi to the koi fish, rested a bit, walked on to our people-watching steps and rested some more, and then came home. There are LOTS of steps in our walk and the streets and sidewalks are very uneven – a challenge for old, weak folks. We have to really watch where we are going, when we’d rather be swiveling our heads trying to see everything. We are getting better at doing the walk, not falling on our heads, AND getting to fish and people watch.

We are going for our first ever pedicures today! My husband is a diabetic, though he’ll deny that, saying he has a sugar problem. He has trouble with his feet and we would like to provide something that eases that and brings him comfort. Hopefully, the pedicure will solve a couple of problems for him. I’m just along for the ride, soaking up the luxury of having one.

Not sure what else is in store for us today, but it’s all good. We are solving problems daily on endless details needed for us to be legal, up and functional, etc. We will solve all this eventually, and are learning new things every day.

I hope things are good for you today. It’s Sunday here, 10:21 am.

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April 5, 2025 · 12:24 am

Saturday in Thailand 4-5-2025

It’s almost noon here. If I’m calculating correctly, that means it’s midnight on the 4th for people in the United States. I hope that my publishing this doesn’t cause notifications that wake you up.

I took a picture of my brand new computer (!) with my phone but I can’t get it to show up here yet. It’s lovely. It’s lovely, purple, and the brains of the thing are in the monitor. Other than the slim monitor, there is what to ME is a teeny tiny keyboard on which I am bringing “fumble-fingered” to a new art form. Then there is the rectangular “mouse.”

All my computer habits are wrong now and I’m frantically practicing and taking notes on how to add websites I frequent to a special favorites folder, get ONTO the websites and do what I normally do, all the while typing the wrong keys… I will learn how to use this. It’s sleek, stylish and not at all like its owner – but that can be one of its character-building tasks. 🤪

I went to get an audiogram this morning regarding the sudden hearing loss I have since I left the hospital. We will now take the results back to the ear specialist I saw last evening. I really am amazed that people have evening hours and have appointments on the weekends here. I’m going to get used to this in a hurry. 😄

My husband and I have an appointment for pedicures tomorrow (Sunday!) This is especially wonderful since my husband has Type II Diabetes and needs to take care of his feet, which have numb spots. His toenails are especially hard to cut, so having a pedicure by someone who understands his situation will be wonderful. I’m going along for one, too, just to indulge myself. Neither of us has ever had one.

We are trying to do two walks a day now, continuing to try to build our strength. Yesterday we took one while the maids were here to clean the air bnb. It’s included in the price of this place. This is the first time I have ever had anyone clean a place I lived, and I really like it. Our son has a maid come either once a week or once every other week, I can’t remember. He says it costs next to nothing. Amazing.

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April 3, 2025 · 8:09 pm

A Day of Therapy

Another view from our future condo.

Each day here is filled with new things – new sights, sounds, ways of doing things, things to learn and enjoy.

Yesterday I had a massage. The place is right in the lobby of our building. I contacted Effie, a friend who lives in the building, asking for her recommendation. She gave me “Weaw” (pronounced “way-o”) saying she would give me a good gentle oil massage. I booked an appointment for 2pm.

I was really unsure because my therapist Lynn Moody, spoiled me forever for anyone else. (Lynn, if you are reading this, I love and miss you and wish I could hug your neck).

Weaw was little bitty and cute as a button. I was glad I specified gentle because she had super strong hands and fingers plus used her knees to do everything including folding me into a paper airplane and flying me out the window during my session .

I felt really good afterwards. The incredible thing was the cost – $10!

I have signed up now for a massage every Friday 😊. I even convinced Furface, my curmudgeon husband, to try one next Friday with her. I even got him to bow and smile as we left.

I also saw an ear specialist yesterday because my hearing is really bad since I left the hospital. He checked me over and is sending me for an audiogram, the results of which we will take back to him. Hopefully he will be able to restore my hearing.

I hope you are well. I learned – Kind of – to say thank to yesterday. I won’t try to spell it, but it sounds like,”Cawp coon Ca!”

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April 2, 2025 · 10:11 pm

Walks

This is my husband with the eyeshades our son Brian got for him. I laugh every time I look at him.

We have been trying to rebuild our strength after being sick for so long. We are essentially building up from nothing, so making it around the “block” this morning was really good for us.

We found a koi “run” on our walk this morning. It was long and narrow, with running water and nice shade, plus protection from things falling from the trees overhead. We rested and looked at the beautiful fish.

Most of them were about 16 inches long. There was a white one, several orange ones , and several combinations of colors. Lots of small ones, too.

We enjoyed them for quite a while. Such a treat!

Note- my son said I look funny typing on my phone with one finger, and that I should be using 2 thumbs. So this post has been typed with my 2 thumbs – still looking funny.😜

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April 1, 2025 · 8:42 pm

Water

You must use bottled water for drinking or cooking.

You must concentrate on staying hydrated. We drink water with every meal and then sip water constantly throughout the day.

There is only hot water in the bathroom shower. There is hot water heater hanging on the wall of the shower that you can dial to the desired temperature.

Tap water is used for all else, including washing dishes. I was kind of shocked, but our son Brian told us that is common here. He has been doing that for 9 years and is quite healthy.

Everyone washes dishes by hand. Much of what we are eating is ordered in, so very few dishes involved. Brian cooks for us and washes the dishes right away. This is to discourage any teeny tiny ants or other bugs. Brian said if he doesn’t wash and dry all surfaces quickly, he sees the tiny ants. I saw some on the counter around the sink in our air BnB, and quickly followed his lead. None since thanks for hanging in while I am laboriously using one finger on my phone to send you one post.

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April 1, 2025 · 2:26 am

A Bit of Drama

we went on our new routine walk this morning. Suddenly I was sweating, dizzy, and needed a bathroom fast. We got a Grab and got back to our Airbnb fast. After some time in the bathroom, drinking some cold water and resting in front of a fan, I was fine. I was amazed by how many people stopped, wanting to help.

Later we went to “the big mall” to try to get some 🙂Skechers Step-Ins for each of us. They have good cushioning and good tread for our walks. They will also be easy to take off and put on again when we leave them outside or just inside the door of a private home.

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