I’m just back from the cafe. It started pouring just before I was about to go. I decided to delay my departure and see if the rain let up. Meanwhile, Brian texted me that he would walk me over when I was ready. See what a wonderful son he is? I got ‘my’ spot at the cafe and sketched comfortably for a couple of hours, finishing one sketch and starting two more.
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My latest.
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I had my gym time this morning without the companionship of the Ugly American. One can HOPE he’s gone, but I won’t hold my breath.
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I made a bit of progress on the chameleon puzzle, finally getting the two sides to meet. It doesn’t even bother me that it might take forever to complete this one. It adds so much nice color to that part of the room. :0)
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My friend Heidi leaves the country tomorrow 🥲 but she texted me to see if I could meet tomorrow before she leaves! I’m really looking forward to another face-to-face meeting. She will be back sometime next spring.
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I found a piece of bubble wrap in my closet and I’ve been popping bubbles like a fiend since I came home. This is probably a sign of my decline, but I just LOVE popping the bubbles! 🫧 😜 🤣
Since I wrote last, we visited Harvey at the nursing home, and then saw him again this morning at the hospital at his routine doctor visit. Yesterday he was still coughing and on oxygen and barely said a word to us. Suddenly he was staring at his Happy Wall. Brian asked him if he was thinking about the artwork I had made for him. He nodded and said, “We have to take it down.” On further questioning, we found out he was thinking about moving to Tate (the place in Georgia we went to a hundred years or so ago) and didn’t want to leave without the paintings. Then he said, “I want you to paint them again, on 4’x8′ sheets so we can hang them on the walls.”
In the hospital today, he was still feeling pretty bad and just looked at us, not saying anything. When the doctor came in, though, he seemed to rally. The doctor said, “How do you feel?” Harvey clearly said, “Crappy,” making the doctor laugh. Then as the doctor examined him, Harvey said, “Your hands are cold. You’ve been working with too many dead people.” We got the paperwork we need in order to renew Harvey’s medical visa. It was 12:30 by the time we got home. I was was exhausted and took a nap.
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My chameleon jigsaw puzzle is coming along very slowly. This one is odd because I seem to be working it from the inside out. I can’t make any progress on adding to the border, but I’ve found areas that are coming together.
This gives you an idea. I did find part of his mouth and eye, but otherwise, it’s all unnconnected ‘flowers’. I THINK I found his elbow…
Puzzle
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I’m going to get my act together and head over to the cafe very soon. Here is the last painted sketch –
These are called, “elephant pants.” I see lots, and lots, and LOTS of tourists wearing them. They seem to be a HAVE TO purchase if you’re visiting Chiang Mai. It’s unfortunate because they look truly awful. I haven’t seen anyone who looks good in a pair. The design goes all the way across the front making the wearer look like their bodies are about 3 feet across. Men and women both wear them, too. This is a style I will firmly ignore, embracing my status as having a retirement visa here…
I am back from the cafe. I had a really nice massage this morning. I changed my clothes and we immediately left for the cafe because Khun Bpaum and her helpers were coming early and doing BOTH of our places from 11:00 – 2:00.
I had a really nice time at the cafe. I met two ladies from China. One had two children. They met here and have become friends. Both are visiting for about a month. The boy saw me drawing and wanted his mom to let him come in and see what I was doing. They all came in and were quite complimentary about my stuff. We had a fun visit.
This is a door I thought was beautiful.
And this is the second lizard that lives somewhere around the cafe.
I’m working on a bunny rabbit, and also trying to draw a pair of ‘elephant pants.’ I guess every tourist has a pair. I have yet to find someone who actually looks GOOD in a pair, but they seem to be the thing everyone should have – except me..
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I came back to my beautifully clean place. I always check the windows to make sure they got locked (the cleaners clean them inside and out every week!) One was left unlocked, so I quickly took care of that. I sat down to write blog posts and had no cursor. All the things on my desk were lined up neatly. My track pad was working fine this morning, but I checked all the connections, even rebooted, but couldn’t get one to show up. I finally texted Brian on my phone. He looked things over and then showed me that there was a minute little button on one edge of the track pad that had been moved, turning the pad off. When he pushed it the other way, a tiny green light appeared and I had a cursor again. I didn’t even know the button was there, but I know what to check for if it happens again…
It’s supposed to rain all day today, though it has stopped now. I’m going to TRY to learn to handle “The Rainy Season” better this year. Last year I agonized when we had to go out when it was raining. I would think about deferring or canceling whatever the plans were, not wanting to be out in it.
Shumee Toys
Today it was raining when I was getting ready to go to the gym. Not a deluge, but a good, steady rain. I just made sure my umbrella was at the top of my carrier, that I had my rain suit in there, just in case, wore what I now consider my ‘rain shoes,’ and went on with our trip to the gym. I have washed my small stuff out and it’s hanging on my drying rack on my balcony. If it rains straight down, there’s a chance my stuff will go ahead and dry out there. I have things as close to my wall as possible in that hope. I’ll make further decisions when it’s time for me to go to the cafe. “The Rainy Season’ here runs from June through October, with it starting to get more serious now, so I’ll have plenty of time to handle things better. I am SO pleased that this time I have brand new windows that keep the water out!!!!
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This is the only sketch I finished yesterday. It didn’t turn out the way my mind pictured it, but it was fun to try. Today I’m working on the door I started yesterday, the second lizard that I saw at the cafe a while back, and a bunny rabbit –
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Our housekeeper notified Brian this morning that she (and helpers) will clean BOTH of our places tomorrow from 11:00 until 2:00. This means that I will come home from my massage, change my clothes quickly, and we will leave right away to go to the cafe. It also means that we will be able to come back much earlier than usual, just in case we want to… :0) Today I’m changing the sheets on the bed, gathering trash, getting out fresh towels, etc., to get ready
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I hope that you are able to stay cool wherever you are. I remember summers in Arkansas clearly where the temperatures were beastly day after day, drying everything out, causing you to pop out in sweat the minute you left the house. We burned our hands on the car doors and steering wheel.
Here it is super muggy. My phone says the humidity is 84%, though the temperature itself is only in the 80’s. Feels like you’re walking through a bowl of pea soup –
It is an absolutely stunning day today here in Chiang Mai. It’s only 82, sunshiny, and a nice breeze blowing. It was really foggy early this morning, causing some planes to have to delay or divert, but burned off pretty quickly. Brian said the fog is really unusual.
We visited Harvey at the nursing home this morning. Harvey wanted us to buy him a camera with a long lens and a truck. When we asked him why, it took him a long time to answer. Over the course of half an hour, we finally got that he wanted the camera to take pictures of the nests of the white birds that were congregating in the rice fields outside his window to prove that the birds were having babies, not just ‘tourist birds.’ Ooookaaaaay… The truck was a dual display Izuzu he saw on TV. It doesn’t need a key and responds to voice commands. Can you imagine him trying to d
rive this truck when it takes him half an hour to say, ‘no key,’ and ‘dual displays?’ Not to mention he can’t get out of bed… Since he was calm, showed some interest in what we were telling him, and didn’t seem to be in any pain, we declared the visit a success.
ZenArtSupplies.co
I’ve decided to paint Christmas cards for the people here who have been so nice to me. I have 14 people on my list so far. It isn’t much, but it will at least show them I’m thinking about them and am grateful that they have gone out of their way to make me feel more comfortable in my new country.
ElaineNeoWedding
We have been invited to a wedding at the end of this month! It’s supposed to be a very informal affair. I can’t wait to see what it will be like. It’s exciting to see a couple at the very beginning of their lives together.
Pngtree
I learned a lesson today. I was groggily awake at around 4 this morning when my walkie talkie on my nightstand started making noise. We got these as an emergency measure if I have trouble in the middle of the night when Brian turns his phone off. The device was saying, “Check the battery.” over and over. I charge it twice a week, starting when I get up at 5am. I unhook it from the charger when I get back from breakfast at about 8. Wednesday I was up super early and went ahead and plugged it into the charger. It was charged up before we went to the gym, so I unplugged it. Turns out the hour or so made all the difference on when it needed to be charged again. I won’t do THAT again…
Freepik
The building fix-it guys are due to come tomorrow morning sometime to work on my door. I’m counting the hours. I’ve taken a lot of things for granted over my lifetime, but being able to leave and come back to my place whenever I wanted without the door trapping me on one side or the other didn’t even make the list of noticeable things! I will be really glad if they can make me independent again!
On our travels today, I noticed a shop that was called something like, “Overseas Pet Shop.” We went by it very quickly, but I thought, “I want to visit that place!” Then, as I thought about it more, I decided, ‘No, it would be best if I didn’t visit. I would want to adopt most, if not all, of the animals there, and wouldn’t be able to even get ONE. That would break my heart. (I researched it when we got home and found my instincts on NOT going there are correct. I’m in love with the PICTURES I found.)
Finally, this is the latest painted sketch.
I hope your weather is wonderful where you are and that you’re packing your day with fun things.
Happy October 2025! I miss being able to drive down with a mailbox decoration from the shop and my husband and I changing out the one there for the new one twice a month. It was particularly wonderful when someone would start to drive by, stop, and get out of the car to tell us what a kick they got out of our decorations. Several people told us they drove by often just to see if we had changed the decoration yet. How wonderful is that! 🤗
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This morning I was up at 1am wringing out towels from my leaking windows with a hard storm from Typhoon Regasa. I got back to sleep, back up again at 5 in order to check the towels again and get ready for the gym. I had to wring them out again, but that has been it for the day. I got the towels on my drying rack out on the balcony, and everything is almost dry now. I have rolled up towels in the window sills again, in case we’re not finished with the remnants of the typhoon, but hopefully, it has passed us now.
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This is the latest painted sketch.
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We went to visit Harvey at the nursing home this morning. This is a 3 hour round trip we make three times a week to show him we love him and make sure he’s getting the care he needs. At first we thought he wasn’t going to talk to us at all. I had almost given up after about 25 minutes of our asking questions or making statements with no reaction from him at all when he suddenly said, “I’m trying to remember where I got your engagement ring. I want to get you a “better” wedding ring.” I sat there with tears running down my face.
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Today has turned out to be a beautiful day with lots of sunshine. Dark clouds are looming, but they haven’t won yet. I’ll take it! 👍
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When we got home, Brian walked me to my door. A couple of minutes later he was back with a small package in his hand that had arrived downstairs. I opened it and found two new squeeze balls! When he ordered the original for Harvey, two came in the package. He gave one to Harvey and the other to me. I have to admit I keep it on my computer desk, reaching for it and squeezing it whenever I’m here. It’s mesmerizing. Sadly, about 3 weeks ago I punctured mine inadvertently with a fingernail. I told Harvey about it when I was handing him the ball, encouraging him to practice with his weaker left hand. Brian quietly ordered another set. I’m thrilled! I have my toy back! We’ll take the other one to swap out for the original one the next time we visit Harvey. This new one is actually better than the old one.
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I hope your day/evening is filled with giggles and grins..
Now this is the attitude I love. The whole idea of doing something for someone ELSE on your birthday, rather than being the center of attention shows a desire to make a difference. This cheeky lady is showing she has a great sense of humor and wants to give others a special day. How refreshing is that! Talk about an inspiration!!! I will try to be more like this amazing lady.
We went to visit Harvey today at the nursing home. It was kind of sad because Harvey wanted to watch TV rather than talk to us, but we wanted him to be interested in something, and that’s exactly what he was doing.
The lady who picked us up to drive us home spoke with Brian much of the way home. It was in Thai, so I didn’t understand any of it, but she smiled warmly at me when I tried to say, “Hello, and wishing you a nice day,” in Thai. Roughly speaking, it sounds like, “Sawat Dee Ka’-ah.”
She took us to a stationery place so I could buy more heavy paper for the cards I make and then we got another Grab to get a chocolate. While we were at the chocolate place, I asked Brian what he and the lady had talked about. It turned out she recognized us, and has driven us out to the nursing home a couple of times now. She asked how Brian’ dad was doing and how I liked being in Thailand. Isn’t that amazingly nice?
I’m enjoying the afternoon now, with time by myself to do whatever I would like. The morning’s rain stopped, so I moved my laundry out onto the balcony. It’s supposed to be rainy all day, and there are some ominous looking clouds, so I’m keeping a watchful eye on the skies as I type.
This is the latest drawing. Those of you who follow the blog know what my ‘inspiration’ for this was. 🤪😜 I’m having a good time trying to get an initial handle on the new puzzle.
I have two more sketches that I did at the cafe to paint, also.
I’m having a great time in the evening listening to YouTube music. There is a search feature where you can talk into the remote, telling it a musician’s or singer’s name and it comes up with videos you can enjoy. I just LOVE that. I’m making a master list of favorite people, plus people I want to listen to to see if I like them or not.
I’m also enjoying watching a favorite movie if I have a totally free afternoon. I’ve watched two so far and look forward to enjoying more. I’m also interested to see what fare Netflix offers in this regard as time passes.
As soon as I finish blog posts for the day, you can giggle at the mental picture of me bopping around my living area with a water bottle in each hand, headphones on and grinning like a nut as I ‘dance’ to music with a heavy beat from the computer. It’s a really fun way to move a lot, exercise my arms and back with weights, all while not seeming to be exercise.
I showed you the flowers my housekeeper left for me last Friday. I think I told you that there are buds all the way to the top of the stems on this glorious display, so it’s the gift that keeps on giving.
Here it is this morning!
I hope you’re having a fabulous day and evening, doing something that gives you loads of pleasure.
