My younger brother was home exceptionally early last evening, and my wife was here as well, so I was to sit up late that evening in the operation of our Android TV Box to locate an episode each for some of the T.V. series my brother and I follow in common.
I was also to consume two cans of the strong (8% alcohol) beer that I try to keep in stock. If my brother does not make an appearance by 8:30 p.m. this evening and I am thus able in good conscience to get to bed early, then it is my hope to pay a visit tomorrow morning to the closest government liquor store two miles from here as soon after its 9:30 a.m. opening as I possibly can, for I will be walking.
Yesterday I was in E-mail contact with Gerrit G., one of two Americans who were instrumental back in 2002 or even 2001 in helping the young woman who would become my wife in 2005, to get some formal English language schooling ─ she was then living in a village perhaps a 15-minute drive from the city of Udon Thani in Thailand.
I was not to meet her until January 2003, so both Gerrit and Mike "Doc" M. knew her before I.
It was through E-mail contact with "Doc" that I was to get in touch with Gerrit maybe a decade or more ago, for "Doc" had revealed that Gerrit might have photos of her that I would likely appreciate having, since they predated my involvement in her life.
It has been several years since I was last in touch with either Gerrit or "Doc", so it was nice to hear from Gerrit. Sadly, he let me know that "Doc" died sometime last year, probably attributable to alcoholism.
Anyway, Gerrit E-mailed me five photos of my wife that he believed I had not yet seen, but that was not to prove true ─ and one of the photos was actually taken in 2003 with my own camera. I must have sent the photo to Gerrit, and he had forgotten its provenance.
I am going to present two of the photos that might possibly be new to me, but I would have to perform lengthy and intensive research to see if they are indeed already somewhere in my collection.
His copies in the E-mail were small, so I have had to enlarge them. The first photo features "Doc" having strings tied around his wrists ─ a Buddhist custom in that part of Thailand designed to bring blessings to the recipient. You see, "Doc" was there to get married, and Gerrit had come along to photograph as much as he could.
And this was how they came to know my wife, who could already readily speak English and often served as an interpreter.
The image has been enlarged three times by me:
My eventual wife is the woman whose face is at the left border of the image, and just this side of "Doc".
His marriage was to be quite short-lived. I don't certainly recognize anyone else in the photo; but even so, I have never met his fiancée, so I cannot say if she is present in it.
This second image has been enlarged four times by me, and the quality is poor for that reason ─ I wish that Gerrit had sent me the full-sized images, if he has them as such. Anyway, this one features him with my wife in some "lobby":
I'm going to include a third image ─ I enlarged it three times the size of the version that Gerrit sent to me:
I don't know the lass seated in the fore, but behind her are my wife (left) and vivacious Vi whom I got to know in January 2003 when I first met the woman who would become my wife two years later.
In person, Vi resembled some hispanic señorita far more than she did a young Thai woman. When I met her she was 19, so she is probably 18 in this image.
But enough reminiscing for this post.
Yesterday in the latter morning, my brother and I watched the final episode of the current season of Australian Ninja Warrior. Thus far, there have only been four seasons, but never in the previous three had anyone completed the competition and qualify to be pitted against the climb of Mount Midoriyama.
This time, three competitors managed to get that far, and all three made the climb within the allotted time limit and became true Australian Ninjas.
But of course, only one of them could be awarded the cash prize, so fastest climber Ben Polson got the money. It was definitely an exciting episode, and my brother and I got quite caught up in it.
We were both sorry to see Olivia Vivian ─ the sole woman in the finals in that episode ─ make an error and fall to one of the obstacles and thus become disqualified. It would have been fabulous if she, too, could have made it to the top of Mount Midoriyama. Her emotional girlish antics are so delightfully heartwarming ─ it's impossible not to love the dear creature. My brother and I both wear big grins as we enjoy her.
I have a few other things that I feel I must do before the evening gets too deep, so I am going to bring this post to a close. However, one thing I want to do is again complain about having the new Blogger interface forced upon us. I detest it.
I don't know if it's due to my use of Firefox as my working browser, but it becomes impossible to highlight select text at the bottom of a post if I want to add a link or just copy a word or two. Instead of allowing me to select what I want, the Blogger composition field immediately starts escalating upwards while highlighting absolutely everything as it makes that climb.
I can try and try, but the result is the same.
What the hell is wrong with Google's developers? As I opined here, it is "starkly apparent" that the uncaring clods do not themselves use Blogger as their own blogging platform, or they would swiftly recognize what is wrong with the infernal product they have forced upon those of us who have blogged here for many years.
I suppose that I ought to also comment on the day's weather ─ solidly overcast skies, and the smoke from U.S. forest fires is still a dominant meteorological feature hereabouts. Today is now the seventh consecutive day in which we have had our sky and air sorely affected.
I am just glad that I do not live in one of the fire-plagues regions.
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