Rain: I feel so good

Tonight my wife Nim tells me about her memory of rain as the thunder crackles sharply outside our condo in west Bangkok, Sukhumvit. Tonight we can forget the air conditioning. We don't pay much, but today I paid the electric bill, 3600 baht, $100, for last month. Normally half or less in the cool season. Our use of air con is sparse, nights only.

"I always think how good I feel when it rain."

"Why?"

"Because privacy. In my life, my home town, even outside one hundred people talking all the time, in the rain they go home and I can go to my room alone and not worry about anyone. I feel wonderful."

My wife is now fifty years old. Lately she praises anonymity, How she loves living in Bangkok because "I don' have to go anyone funeral".

What is it about tropical thunderstorms that spurs remembrance of things past?

Here in Thailand, we await the rains.....

That angry rising sun

Absent rain, the hot season deepens, even dangerously. Here I am driven to indulge in what was once a serious sin in English prose composition, the pathetic fallacy, attributing human feelings to the sun itself. Why should the sun be angry? Because we have messed up its little sister, the earth?

Anyway there are some serious points to be made here.

First, note that the sun is rising not directly to the east, but slightly -- five degrees -- to the north of east. This means that the twin condo tower on the right is not going to protect my bedroom from ascending sun over the next few hours, the way I imagined it might back ten years ago when I bought this place. It will become hot to the point where I will either get up and head out for coffee, or hit the aircon button and flop back into bed. A dollar or two of electricity for the latter course.

Record breaking discomfort in humid Bangkok

Thick haze at dawn in Bangkok with record high dew point at 29 C and daily low of 31 C dry bulb. Must check whether this breaks 60 year records for discomfort extending into the insufferable for the rest of the day. Yesterday 5/12 was the record Thailand aircon power consumption mid afternoon about 2 pm, brownouts abounding, and in the Gulf of Thailand water temps exceeded records at 32 C. In Bangkok many people fanning themselves on the sidewalk. We could be heading into a day of extreme discomfort. Or do the 8 am cloud masses show here signal a merciful break point?

Auspicious signs of rain from today's ploughing ceremony?

Today the famous ploughing ceremony described 200 years ago by a visiting Englishman:

Specimens of all the principal fruits of the earth are collected together in a field, and an ox is turned loose amongst them, and the particular product which he selects to feed upon, is, on the authority of this experiment, to be considered as the scarcest fruit of the ensuing season, and therefore entitled to the especial care of the husbandman.

The idea is that the success of the rains and coming agricultural season can be foretold on this day. The question is whether I can do better with my wonderful database of daily weather since the 1950s.

Reportedly today's ceremony led to promise of a prosperous upcoming 2016 season, but that was true last year and the result has been serious drought.

Auspicious signs of rain from today's ploughing ceremony?

Today the famous ploughing ceremony described 200 years ago by a visiting Englishman:

Specimens of all the principal fruits of the earth are collected together in a field, and an ox is turned loose amongst them, and the particular product which he selects to feed upon, is, on the authority of this experiment, to be considered as the scarcest fruit of the ensuing season, and therefore entitled to the especial care of the husbandman.

The idea is that the success of the rains and coming agricultural season can be foretold on this day. The question is whether I can do better with my wonderful database of daily weather since the 1950s.

Reportedly today's ceremony led to promise of a prosperous upcoming 2016 season, but that was true last year and the result has been serious drought.

People asking to be shot

Yesterday the heat began to seep back into the city, late morning was not nice in Bangkok: 

Ricky Roma: They say that it was so hot in the city today, grown men were walking up to cops on street corners begging them to shoot them. Glengary Glen Ross, David Mamet

but some errant breeze picked up in late afternoon and  I was able to walk from Emporium to Thonglor without sweat. The rains the day before appear to have broken the back of the hot season.