nkped

Actually not bigger but somewhat comparable, according to our friends at Google, Perth - Auckland is 5,343 km. By contrast Chicago-London is 6,370 km. Longest would be San Diego-London at 8,843.

They have the taxi number but the last two times, I used it, the number was not correct. It also has the driver's phone #, which probably has to be accurate as it runs on the driver's phone.

Going from a recognized location, such as a major condo to someplace such as Bangkok Pattaya Hospital, it is a good option. A majority of the time, your taxi will arrive within 15 minutes and you can watch it enroute. It will show a price for the trip which seems to be market or even a few baht cheaper and the drivers honor that price without any dispute. Whether you would do as well going from your house to a darkside bar I don't know as I have never tried.

Watching Channel 3, the are getting some significant street flooding.

From OP Jomtien, some rain to the SE and a heavy squall to the SW. I think the heavy dark cloud is moving south. Raining just upstream from the Hanmuman statue now.

Think there may be one or two female humans about 3/4 of the way down the row. Equal opportunity in Middle Earth. Never worked, or played, with sheep, but something deep in archived data thinks the guy in the blue jacket behind the first sheep is a veterinarian doing something rude but professional to the sheep's nether regions.

Doing business with two banks and a credit union from Thailand. I haven't had any access problems. Two of them even accepted address changes reflecting my Thai address. I did that because I am using their credit cards and I will be here too long for a travel notification to cover the out of country usage. The third one, Wells Fargo, I haven't told. I don't plan to use their ATM card while here, but have done so in the past without any problems other than their fees.

Old school Singha, circa 1975, smelled much the same going out in the morning as it did the night before.

Jinx. We're doomed.

You have the airport bus which runs between Jomtien at the corner of Thappraya and Thepprasit and Suvarnabhumi Airport. You can get to Suvarnabhumi via the Airport Link train combined with either the SRT or the MRT. It's a reasonable alternative if you only have a back pack, more than that--not so much.

You can check the availability on the Dancewatchers site. Working through them is also probably the best way to check on rates as well.

Six pumps could help in areas where water can't escape. Won't do much good in the places where the problem is water escaping in a rapid manner down the street.

He hasn't visited the mess recently. It would not shock me if he was attending in person. If we see someone in the stands wearing a tent size kilt and a Scotland shirt carrying a combat bottle of Chang . . .

It took a long time to get that empty.

I have certainly heard music in Pattaya which would best be consigned to an urn.

The dog?

Nice try but many of those are certainly not April 48 babies without the need of Google searches. Barack, Sr., for example, sired a baby born in 1961. If you follow politics at all, you know Biden is in his 70s. Whether any of them were born in April 48, eh.

We did discuss which single focus lens to use. The two options he proposed was one to match the left eye and one a bit stronger. I went with the stronger lens. I can now read with the right eye alone, although not as comfortably as with the left eye alone. Of course, I read with both eyes. I can also watch TV without corrective lenses. As to the reason I did not inquire about a multi-focus lens, Bangkok Hospital markets them hard. For that matter, so did a clinic I looked at back in the U.S. However, you do some research and it seems they can pose challenges. If he didn't propose the idea, I was thinking I might not want to start him down that path. Anyway, that was my reasoning. I'm not certain I could not pass an eye test for a driver's license without corrective lenses, but I would not want to drive that way.

Part of it is all of the construction so there is less bare ground to absorb the water.

A field report from Surin this afternoon. Not my photo.

Came back from Bangkok yesterday on the 2pm bus. It was raining by the time we got to town but nothing crazy. That came a bit later.

I had known for sometime I had a cataract in my right eye. This thread had gotten me thinking about it and it had become a bit more noticeable recently. I had a cataract repair for the left eye in 2000 so I knew what the procedure involves. Various reports here and elsewhere made me think I did not want it done at BHP, especially the thought they would even consider doing it without local anesthesia. That wasn't going to happen. Instead, I made an appointment at Rutnin Eye Hospital in Bangkok. Made the appointment with Dr. Roy Chumdermpadetsuk on the basis of a recommendation on Thai Visa that he had trained in the U.S. and was fluent in English. Otherwise, I probably would have made the appointment with the cutest female doctor. They have a modern building. There is a snack bar in one corner of the first floor, but they aren't attempting to look like a hotel lobby or a shopping mall. No surprise they want to see your passport first time and then prep a patient ID card. The ID card has their address in Thai which helps with the taxi on subsequent visits. There were several diagnostic tests, one of which was an HIV test. There didn't seem to be as much shining very bright lights in my eye as I remembered from 15 years ago. Dr. Roy said, yeah, you have a cataract and he could fix it. He didn't say anything about a multifocal replacement lens. I almost asked about it but decided that if he wasn't suggesting it, I, perhaps, shouldn't raise the issue. Without my asking, he said it would be with a local anesthetic. He offered the option of doing it in patient, but I didn't see any reason for that. He told me at that point, the cost would be 60 to 65 thousand baht. So, last week, headed for Bangkok the day before and checked into the Royal President. Went to the hospital. While they wait until you are done and send you to the cashier for payment at the end for other visits, they wanted payment in advance for the big ticket item. They had a portable credit card machine and got my signature before I went to the prep area. Doing it out patient, I got to keep my pants on, which is a plus. They planted me in a reclining easy chair for quite a while. One benefit you would not get in farangland was that a matronly lady came by and provided a foot massage. Nothing too extraordinary about the procedure. The shot for the local stung a bit, but nothing that bad. The staff had taped a shield over my left eye. With the right eye numb, that meant I really wan't seeing much of anything. I'm a bit claustrophobic and while I was nowhere near a panic attack, I wan't happy. I asked the nurses if they could take the shield off the left eye and of course the answer was no. When the doctor came back, I asked him and he said yes without hesitation. I knew he was working on me, but I had less sensation of what point he was at than I remember from the left eye surgery. I don't think moving the eyeball was even a possibility due to the anesthesia. BTW They had charged my credit card for 65,000 baht. Before I left, they gave me back 2,000+ plus in cash. No idea what was in play about the cost. Of course, they taped a bandage and a shield over the right eye. Unlike the U.S., they didn't seem to have any great concerns about me going to the front door and catching a taxi back to the hotel. Other than dealing with the world with one eye, it wasn't an issue for me either. First time, I had ever had an evening meal at the Royal President as wondering down Soi 15 with no depth perception didn't seem like a great idea. Went back the next day and had the bandage removed. Everything seemed to be in order. I stayed a third night as I had not been certain how I would feel. That was unnecessary. I could have handled the trip back without difficulty. Went back yesterday, six days after the surgery. Things had come along nicely. He will want to see me again in a month, but that is hardly a surprise. I will still need contacts or glasses to drive and I'm a bit happier with a contact in the left eye. However, I can function for most purposes with no removable corrective lenses. It's the first time I can say that in something more than 50 years. I am reasonably hopeful of getting a significant share of the costs paid by my U.S. insurance. Getting the material for the claim scanned and the form prepared will be the next project.

The east side of Thappraya below Thepprasit was running curb full with water spouts coming out of the storm drains. I managed to cross the road to go eat, but I could imagine someone with a bit less ballast getting knocked over.

It was raining in Bangkok last night but nothing that heavy.

Under a Graveyard Sky by John Ringo. This is the first of a four book series. Ringo is one of my favorite science fiction authors, but his last series, which I would describe as engineering fiction, didn't do a lot for me. I had known about Under a Graveyard Sky for some time but had seen it described as involving the zombie apocalypse, a genre I won't read. Recently, I discovered it did not involve the undead but victims of a virus which left them incurably and violently insane and capable of spreading the virus to others by biting them. Ringo discloses early on that the virus is human engineered. I'm 30 pages into the second book in the series, To Sail a Darkling Sea, and he has offered no clue as to who engineered the virus. He has one of the characters, in what I tend to think would be Ringo's own voice, express disdain for conspiracy theorists so I'll be interested to see if he provides an answer as to the origin of the virus. Ringo really, really likes guns and writes rather good action, but also has, in a good way, a sick sense of humor. His broader theme is how people would react if the world went 97%+ to hell.