Todat is a very nice day,especially for me. The weather is perfect for outside activity. I took my daily walk from the Cliff House to the end of Golden Gate Park. That is very unusual for me . Since I started to take Avandia for controlling my diabetes, the diabetes was well controlled but my strenght seem getting weaker and weaker, before I can walk 3-4 miles easiely without any problem , at the peak, I can walk from the cliff House to the zoo and back with no problem except tired. After Avandia , I could not walk to the end of Golden Gate Park without taking many rests in between , forget about uphill walking. At first I thought it was effect of old age , it came so fast ! Then it darn on me that it might be the Avandia that weaken my heart! I have read report about Avandia's effect on the heart. I stopped it after consult with my doctor. It was four months ago. Now my strenght come back slowly, I can walk more and more even uphill is not so hard any more. Today, I try to walk to the end of Golden Gate Park , I feel fine . I stopped a few times in between to watch the school kids came in by bus load to pick up trash from the beach, what a beautiful sight. I do not think that they pick up a lot of trash, but who cares, it is the thought that count. To imped the kids with a nice habbit and idea, to let them learn about taking care of the environment around them . They sure have fun and I am also have fun watching them. On top of that I am really happy that I can walk to the end of the park with out any problem, next goal is the zoo ! I hope it is not too ambicious .

can you believe this ?

Most of Thai people are Buddhist. Buddhism is the national religious of Thailand. Many Buddha immages in Thailand are pasted with gold leave (real 24 karat gold that make very very thin ) . This is a very commom practice in Thailnd. Some of the Buddha immages in the famous temple have pretty thick gold leave pasted on it. Lately, with the gold price went sky high that some criminal mind used some acid to melt the gold on the immage or jsut scrape it out right from the immage to sell for profit! A practice so sinful to Thai people that no body ever think it can happen but it happen right now in Thailand. The police much work very hard to stop this. There is a saying that when the virture is one foot high the satan will be one meter high. Human nature is so difficult to understand. There will always be some good and some bad I guest.

WeWe all have problem.

Yesterday in the EVA air lounge we met a friend from Stocton. She told us about her son who finished his residency, passed the specialy board but refuse to practice medicine, want to try acting instead. Both she and her husband do not know what to say. We told her about our problem too. Come to think of it, which family does not has problem > some more, some less , some are serious and not too serious. For us, when you come acress the problem of can not tell right from wrong, that is very serious , especially when it involve the third person's well being, even she is your own child. Unforgiveable mistake ! Want to show some authority is a human nature especially in person that does not has much to show , they will try everything to show one's authority, to satifiy his or fer own ego, never think what will be the effect of their action. Our family really have a big problem. There is nothing we can do . May be only thing we can do is to pray for the little girl, for her safety. One of the first rule in one's failure is to think that you know everything. To think that you are better than other people. Only time and result will show.

At the air port

Finally I know how to get into my own blog ! Right now we are at the EVA SF airport lounge, quite comfortable here. Met a friend from Stockton ! We are on the same flight to Thailand. What a small world. The shuttle bus came right on time. Hopefully the rest of the trip will be on time also. Will try to post on my blog as much as possible when I am in Thailand.

Now I know

I always want to know what the actual process of election is. Yes, I vote many times before but how do the system works? How do they count it, how to take steps to avoid and prevent cheatting. Finally, I got my chance. I volunteer to be a poll worker on the last super-Tuesday ( 2/5/2008 ). Boy, did I learned !
It started at 6.00 am on 2/5/2008. Actually for me it started much earlier than that. First, I could not sleep all night, because of excitement or drank too much tea the night befor . Bt 5.30 am I already finished my shower and had my breakfast. At 5.45 am I asked my wife to drive me to the poll place. The rice-bag that I have to bring to the place is too heavy , even with a wheel to
pull it still heavy. I arrived at the poll place right at 6.00 am, one poll worker is already there. We bagan to prepare for the big event. I phone the election center to report that I have one worker did not show up, actually he told me the night before that he is not coming . The center told me that they already send a replacement worker for me . About 15 minutes later the new worker arrived, not one but two ! I do not need two workers ! There is no job for the extra worker ! so the extra one was sent back. They assigned her to other place.
We were lucky that we have two student workers that has worked as a poll worker before and familiar with the set up. The poll started right on time at 7.00 am. the first voter came right on time at 7.oo am too. The first vote went smoothly and getting better as time go by .
Once you get familiar with the procedure it is not that diificult at all. We worked in a garage, no heat, and SF weather that day was so cold ( in the 40s ) lucky I wore thick cloth. We each has about two hours lunch break. Times go by fast when you are busy. The busiest time is between 7.00am to 10.00 am and 5.00pm to 8.00pm , the time that people going and coming back from work. Our polling place has 1,000 registered voter. That day we have about 350 voters showed up, that keep us from boring. We worked 15 hours continously !.
The most satisfied for me is that we have quite a few people say thanks to us for doing this. I got pay about $160 too !
One thing that bugged me a little is the " FED " . I do not not know what her job description really is. She suppose to come check to make sure thing went smoothly and give help and advice when needed or just rush in to look for some mistakes ( no matter how small and unimportant it is ) and demeaning tbe worker and rush out . This is a worker that we sure can do withiout .
After finishing dinner I went to sleep right away , hasn't been this tire for quite a while. I slept 8 ours straight !

ปีใหม่

เลยปีใหม่มาสิบวันแล้ว ตั้งใจไว้ว่าปีใหม่จะเขียน blog ภาษาไทยอีก ครั้ง ไม่รู้อะไร ไม่ได้ทำสักที ปล่อยให้เลยมาได้ตั้งสิบวัน คงไม่ได้ตั้งใจจริง กลับไปทำงานเป็นอาสาสมัครอีกเมื่อวานนี้ เพี่อน ๆ ที่นั้นดีใจที่เห็นเราอีก เราก็ดีใจที่ได้เจอเขาเหล่านั้นอีดเช่นกัน พวกเรามีความรู้สึกคล้าย ๆ กันคืออยากทำอะไรสักอย่างให้สังคมโดยไม่ได้หวังผลตอบแทนได ๆ เลย คนไข้ที่นั้นจน ไม่มีทางที่จะสู้ราคาค่าหมอที่แพงหูฉี่ของที่อเมริกาได้เลยและส่วนมากก็เป็นพวกที่หนีเข้ามาทำมาหากินในประเทศนี้ด้วย ไม่ค่อยกล้าเปิดเผยตัวเองนัก ที่นี้เราไม่ขอดูบึตรประจำตัว ไม่สนใจว่ามาจากไหน ถ้าไม่สะบายเราก็รักษา ไม่มีตังส์ชีอยา เราจะพยายามไปหายาฟรืมาให้อีกด้วยถ้าทำได้ ทำงานที่นี่รู้สึกสะบายใจมาก ถีอว่าเป็นการทำบุญมากกว่า คนไข้เหล่านี้ที่แท้ไม่ได้ทำความผิดอะไรมากมายหลอก หนีเข้ามาก็เพราะจะหาโอกาสได้ทำงานเลี้ยงครอบครัว ทางสังคมอเมริกาก็ต้องการแรงงานถูก ๆ อย่างนี้ด้วย เดี๋ยวนี้คนเหล่านี้เป็นกำลังสำคัญทางด้านเศรฐกิจของอเมริกาไปแล้ว ลองนึกดูชิครับว่าร้านอาหารร้านไหทไม่มีคนงานชาวอเมริกาใต้ทำงานอญุ่บ้าง ผมเห็นคนงายอเมริกาได้เป็นคนป้นซูชี่ในร้านอาหารหลายแห่ง เป็นคนผัดไทยก็มี แต่มีคนบางกลุ่มที่ยังปากแข็งไม่ยอมรับจนได้ จะปั้นเป็นเรื่องใหญ่เพี่อผลประโยขย์ทางด้านการเมืองมากกว่า หวังว่าปีใหม่คงมีข่าวดีสำหรับคนงานเหล่านี้ ซึ่งเราต้องผึ่งอยู่แทบทุกวัน

Rain Storm

Today I experienced one of the most strong rain storm in San Francisco. With the wind of over 100 miles per hour, there were many falling trees on the street. One of the worker that cut tree died because of accident. We have to see Jan today because she and her mom have a hair cut appointment in down town . Even with rain coat and wormly dress, the wind was so strong that we have to take shelter at corner of big building or else I am sure we will be blow away by the wind. It took us quite a while to reach The Withfield Center. It was worm and no wind there. We had a nice lunch there. I always like to have lunch at the food center of this place. So many place of us to choose and it all taste good.

New Year, New hope

I hope this coming year will be a better year for us . Last year was kind of hard.I do not want to live thru it again. The new year eve was the first in many years that we did not went out to celebrate , just the two of us spent an quiet evening together. It was not that bad, like when we were in Redding, There were many new year eve that we spend alone. Actually we kind of enjoy it.
Looking at our lives, it was not bad at all. We are lucky than a lot of people, some of my friends has to go back to work or can not retire because of financially not that strong. For the past 8 and a half years, we travelled a lot, went back to Thailand more than ten times, that is our original plan to spen our retired time half in the US and half in Thaland , not quite half and half yet , but it getting there, I do not know if we really want to spend half of our time there. Our childrens are here and the weather here is much better .
We pray that our childrens ' life is as good as our. Of course, that will depend a lot on each of them,and how they conduct their life .
I will try to stay healthy to enjoy our retirement. I am glad today I finally talk my wife to try on the sttionari bike for 5 minutes. It is a good beginning.