The Lawsuits We Would Have

Now and again I'll see things that are so incredibly negligent. Today I was driving the motorcycle on one of the major highways - 6 lanes. Up ahead there was a road crew putting in a telephone pole. Instead of blocking off a couple of lanes to do the work (like they might do for a wedding), they suspended the concrete telephone pole right across all three lanes of the side they were working on. The crane holding the pole up was using some kind of hemp looking rope that didn't look like it could support a kite, let alone a 2 ton concrete structure; the workers looked like got a job from the temp agency that morning. So anyways, usually in these situations you want to get through it as soon as possible; which in this case means hitting the accelerator and getting to the other side. Just as I started to drive under it, one of the workers dropped a bolt the size of a baby's arm about 2 feet off the left side of my bike. Driving at 50mph, this entry just about didn't make it into this blog.

Domestic Disturbance

As many of you know, there are few things that get under my skin as much as a spiders- particularly ones residing in my house. So it was to my particular chagrin when I came home to find a palm sized one hanging out next to our dish drainer. There are few times that I have a hard time living the Buddhist lifestyle as much as when I am forced to follow the rule "Thou Shalt Not Kill Spiders". Of course it would probably be easiest to just ignore that I ever saw the thing and move on. However, just the thought of that thing coming out from a dark corner when I least expect it, well, it's just too much.

So the next 1/2 hour would be spent trying to trap lightning in a bottle, without touching it of course. The whole thing got a lot more complicated when it escaped into the underside of the cupboard that holds all the coffee cups (it has a slotted bottom to allow them to dry). After covering up the slots with a cutting board, I went through the most terrifying task of lifting each coffee cup, one by one, bit by bit, hoping against hope that the giant spider wouldn't be faster at getting out of the cup, than I would be at slamming it back down.

Not even close. A scream, a dropped cutting board, a broken cup later- the spider dropped down into the sink. What was so interesting was that the little monster couldn't pull itself out. It looked exactly like the little spiders that you find in your bath tub. I was able to eventually put a plastic bucket over the top of him and ferry him over to my neighbors yard. I only captured a little of it on video, but I feel like it shows the drama of looking for the spider pretty well.

The Highway Wedding

Planning a wedding (I'm guessing) is all about compromises. Your family wants to invite 300 people, you can only afford 200. Your fiance wants filet mignon, you settle on chicken fingers. Reception on top of the gondola becomes a pot luck in your back yard.

Somehow Thai's are able to stretch a wedding budget in ways we would never conceive. Need a venue for 200 people? No money to rent a place? No room in the backyard (or no backyard)? Have it in the front yard. Only have a 6 lane divided highway in front of your house? Move the wedding tent into the first two lanes of the highway. Put some cones up and blast some music to cover up the sound of the traffic. Problem solved. Check out the venue: video here.

Like any good Thai wedding it did not fail to disappoint. The bride's family was so sweet to put eight of us up for two nights- room, board and some of the nicest company I've ever kept. Check out the updated photo gallery for some highlights- including the cockroach crawling up an unsuspecting wedding guests shoulder. Some day I might be nice enough to take the roach off before I photograph it. Today is not that day.

The Rainiest Season

So I showed up 2 weeks early to surprise Pui this year. I didn't have a specific plan, but I though I could wing it when I got here. Unfortunately, I totally botched the surprise this year by inadvertently calling her office's cell phone. After she saw the caller id, she knew I had slunk into town early. That being said, she was still surprised, just not a blog-worthy surprise.

This is my first time back in Thailand for the rainy season; and September is as rainy as it gets. The deluge that pours forth from the sky can turn into a sketchy flood pretty quick. Last week it went from dry streets to shin deep rainwater in about 20 minutes. It's a little disconcerting when you realize that some of that water is overflowing from the sewers.

If you're riding your motorcycle, you can either brave it out (and hope you don't get any splashes), or do what I'm becoming fond of. Pull the bike over to the closest Thai masseuse and go for the 3 hour massage.

Even though it can be hard to get out of the rain, I'm definitely making up for it by catching up on all of the craptastic reality tv I ever wanted to. Click here for the Paradise Hotel 2 homepage. Or don't.

Always Leave a Party Wanting

I had a really hard time trying to decide between titles for this entry. It was either going to be this title, or 'Best Summer Ever'. The title I chose is comes from one of my favorite quotes from Jeff Burke. The basic idea is that whenever you are really enjoying some thing, some place or some experience, it's a good time to leave. That way you'll always want to come back.


When I came back to Jackson this summer I was so not ready to leave Thailand. Life was good in the land of smiles and I didn't want to jump back into the fast pace that my U.S. lifestyle is. Oddly enough, 3 months later I'm not ready for that fast pace to stop. From snowboarding early season, going out with friends, hiking the classics, spending time with family, hitting the music festival weekly, to swing dancing at the cowboy and shutting down the bars every night, life was very full this summer. I have to give most of the credit to my partner in crime, Erin Roy, who was always up for a good time. Here is the video of us dancing at the Cowboy. Watching it definitely makes me nostalgic.

One of the tools that made this great summer possible was my new monster truck. Purchased for $5000, this 1995 Forerunner on a liftkit was nothing short of 'high school awesome'. At 13 miles to the gallon, standing 7'2" tall with the biggest subwoofer you've ever seen, listening to nothing for 3 months except for this hip hop group out of bozeman, EightTrack Mind; it provided me with hours and hours of entertainment.


Finally, my summer was spent growing out my ridiculous haircut. What started as some misguided attempt to be the first person to actually try to grow a comb-over, turned into a full on obsession. Now I'm stuck somewhere in the middle of bad high school teacher hair and full blown clown hair.

Homecoming

So I finally came back to Jackson. Flying into the airport gave me an odd sense that I was only visiting as a tourist. I've tried over the last few years to work out a system of 9 months over there and 3 here and I think I might finally be there. I was a little reticent to come back at first because the lifestyle is soooo different. Turns out though, that it is different good. First off the weather here is much easier to just exist in. The last few months in Thailand (before the rains) it was well over 100 degrees with all the humidity you could handle. Going to sleep at 10am and waking up at 4pm just to stay out of the hottest part of the day was starting to wear on me.

So the good news for my family and friends in Jackson is that I'll be here for the whole summer (winter if it keeps up). I probably won't be blogging that much (unless some really crazy stuff goes down), but looking forward to getting back to it in the fall. Stay cool this summer -josh

The Things That Go Bump

Ever since I moved to the giant house in the old city I've been cataloging the zoo that my house/front yard is. From gecko's to squirrels to bugs to you name it, we've got it. You can sit out on our front porch and just watch the nature come to you (or crawl on you, as the case may be). I updated the photo album with the highlights from the last 4 months. I also got a pretty sweet video of a gecko eating right outside my office window.