Local stuff today.
First off, you may have heard that we had 6.1 shaker here last week. A lot of folks, me included, felt that it was the most violent one in our time here. It was at 1pm and was right about when I was waking from my lunchtime nap and the initial jolt swayed the entire building. It was also the day our cleaning lady comes so as we are shaking, she runs into the bedroom as scared as I was. We lost some glass and ceramics, and there were a bunch of new cracks in the wall, but otherwise OK. Our Mariner bobble head did fall from the shelf and cracked his neck but is still in one piece. He is now a wobble head and that seems perfectly apt.
No one died on the island and life went on normally immediately. They had a slightly bigger one in the Philippines a few days later where a few folks died, but the wildest video I saw of that was the pool on top of a building getting shaken out and thrown to the ground.
Last weekend saw the bi-annual school Fair and for the 5th year/10th Fair in a row, helmed our hot dog booth. I declared to my volunteers and the organizers that this was gonna be the last time I did it as it was just time to do so. Did find them a replacement and look forward to him making the booth better. We sold out our 800 dogs and averaging over this 5 year span, have sold 8000 dogs and made roughly NT$680,000, or about US$22,000, for the PTA. That is some real scratch. I felt no pangs of melancholia when it was over although I will miss the time with the team of volunteers that have been with us most of those years.
After getting back from baseball in Bangkok from last time, had a day off and then started in with the Middle School baseball program. They agreed to kick me a few bucks for doing that so am now a full time baseball coach. I sorta hoped that winning the coveted Spirit of IASAS award would have secured me a lucrative multi-year deal, but the market is not great for a Western baseball coach with no local language experience so there are few offers out there, and am more than confident and willing to bet on myself season to season. These Middle School kids are a mixed bag with 3 teams being bad, worse, and abominable. There are some decent prospects, but a bunch of these kids come out with no baseball experience just for something to do. I love 'em all, even the kid that wet his pants last night, but it is hard to watch sometimes. I would not trade a second of it for anything cause you can watch your words make a difference almost immediately in some cases. And with so many kids, I cannot walk onto that campus without some kid or parent saying "Hi Coach Imbro" That is such a sweet sound. One of the other coaches who knows his history has been calling me Buttermaker at times. Being impervious to reacting to nicknames, let it go but was a bit hurt at first cause Buttermaker was a slobby drunken curmudgeon (guilty) , but came around to it cause while he was those things, he also was a savvy coach and there was no question that he loved the kids.
While we're on pant peeing, you gotta check out this video of a best man fainting during a wedding. This minute video has it all...bad singing and dresses, fainting dude, and you must wait till the end when they walk him out.
Betty was around town for a couple weeks so we took the opportunity to go out with friends a few times and a topic that came up was how unusual it was to have her around and the things that come up around the house when she is. Specifically, the kitchen towel rotation. We typically air our disputes in public as it keeps the dialogue civil and it is nice to have independent parties weigh in on our disagreements so that we can decide who is right or wrong. The specific issue here is that I have been blessed by being a Virgo whose mother was also a Virgo, so we value order and cleanliness as virtues above most others. Living in a hot and humid climate, cockroaches are a significant part of the landscape and one must remain vigilant in keeping all foodstuffs in containers/the refrigerator/etc. or they will get the scent and become part of the family. That means nothing is ever left out and all kitchen surface areas must me kept immaculately clean. As the main food preparer, I am also the main cleaner and have a system in place to keep things tidy and one of those is a strict towel rotation. At all times, there are four towels out in the kitchen. Two of these are inert towels, one for dishes to dry on and such and the other for the coffee makers to dry during the day. The other two are active. One is to the left of the sink and it's role is to mop up messes. Coffee spills, wet counters, etc. The other is to finish drying off dishes before they go into the cupboard and so is always clean. Once the mop up towel becomes too dirty, it is sent to the laundry room and the clean dry towel is moved to mop up duty and a clean towel is brought out to do the plate drying. Pretty simple, the towels are always in the same spots and this rotation has been declared as sacred. Lemme pull back the curtain with this glimpse of the area in question..
1 - Mop up towel to the left of the sink
2 - Drying towel under the Moka coffee pot
3 - Drying towel on tray where clean dishware sits waiting for their return to the cabinets.
4 - Clean blue towel to finish drying the clean dishes or washed hands.
So why does my clean drying towel always get used to mop up spilled effin' soup? My only theory is that people are generally right handed so subconsciously reach for the towel on the right. This theory can also be used when deciding what x-ray line to go through at TSA as people will gravitate to the right, so always go left. Not fool proof but on average is a sound strategy. Is my towel rotation regimen anal retentive? Absolutely, and I even have a rotation system in the drawer so all of these towels are used the same amount and should all wear out simultaneously, but I keep that to myself. But is the above unreasonable or illogical? And if I am doing the lion's share of the cleaning, shouldn't my wishes in the kitchen be respected? I am not looking for any medal from Reader's Digest (although it'd be deserved). So when we are out and I go into the long form rant about my towel obsession, every single sole agrees with the brilliance of this method but ultimately takes Betty's side and thinks I am overreacting. "It's just a towel." Do they love disorder and filth, or are they simply taking the opportunity to push one of my buttons?
I also have two sponges in the sink and if you are interested in hearing what specific uses each one is for, please send $5 and a self addressed stamped envelope for a copy of Kitchen (and Life) Etiquette.
A follow-up to a post from a month or two back about the obese American passenger that made the flight attendants wipe his ass on an EVA flight...he died. That article doesn't go into specifics other than he died in Thailand (natch) of "an illness". Shudder to think of the crap he made the desperate Thai people do to him. See ya on the other side buddy.
Finally for today, but it'll be a constant thread till at least October, is that it got hot here this week. Last four days have hit 107 and while we are supposed to get a break this weekend, am not holding out hope. Three showers a day, loads of perspiration soaked clothes and sweaty . The paper described this snap as 'sizzling', but I use the term 'soul sucking'. I was gonna transition this 'hot take' into a screed on global warming and cognitive dissonance, but was talking to Mom today and she volunteered to talk Orange 45 and that she feels 'sorry for him'. My heart sunk. Was not hard to tell she is sickened by what he says and just refuses to admit she was wrong to ever support him and is looking for anything to justify it in her mind. I read a lot about cognitive dissonance but no where can I find a useful suggestion on how to get people to open their minds to the fact they might be wrong. I look at this stuff cause I want to change some of my behaviors too, but the solutions all seem to be bullshit. Work in progress. Comments welcome.
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