Tuesday 5-5-2026

This tree is at Harvey’s nursing home. I have no clue what it is. I’m amazed at the huge green ‘fruit’ hanging from some of the branches.

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Mango.org

Speaking of fruit, Brian received a gift when he was out walking yesterday afternoon. A lady who runs a Thai food shop stopped him. (He really likes that place, but her hours run such that, since we don’t eat lunch, we basically can’t go while she’s open.) She gave him a mango (a yellow one), just to be nice. We shared it for breakfast this morning and I don’t see how a fruit could taste better. It was perfectly ripe and very sweet. Absolutely delicious!

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AND, speaking of how NICE people are here in Chiang Mai, when we were at the cafe this afternoon, the nice lady server I gave the earrings to brought me my mocha. She had noticed that I always get up soon after my drink arrives, and get two napkins – one to fold under the glass and the other to wrap around the drink. (The glass gets wet and I can’t do my sketches or finish my painted sketches with wet fingers. ) Today without a word, my drink had a napkin folded under it, and another napkin wrapped around it in such a way that she had ‘TIED’ it to stay on the glass. She is really spoiling me. (The other two servers, including my guy I had the water fights with) don’t do that, so I’ll just enjoy the spoiling when it happens. :0)

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AND – a special treat while I was at the cafe – a lady stopped by my table, looking amazed. Then she had a delighted look on her face. She asked me if she could take a picture. She did, and thanked me. I told her I was just trying to teach myself how to draw and then painting the sketches. Before we left, I stopped and thanked her for making my day. 🎨

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These are new painted sketches.

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We went to visit Harvey this morning. He was comfortable and calm, but basically wanted to watch TV instead of talk with us. We confirmed that he is reading his book – not whether or not he’s using the reading light he asked us to get for him – but that was the whole of the conversation today. I’m thankful he was content and interested in the pretty ladies doing something similar to a QVC channel.

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Acoustic Guitar

I’m making a bit of progress on relearning my basic chords. I can now play “A” and “E minor” without referring to anything and they sound okay. “C” is still a disaster – I can hear my teacher from the Dark Ages telling me to “keep your flesh off the box, dahlin'” as my strings are all flat and muffled. I’m trying to learn to change my grip so my fingers will stretch, and push hard enough, but the fingertips give out before I can get the clear sound I want. I keep practicing really short sessions several times a day, trying to build up my callouses so I can practice longer…

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The Today Show