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Timberwolf

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  1. Timberwolf

    Lost - Part 2

    By Timberwolf,


    Stories
    Part 2
     
    As the sound of the truck disappeared in the distance, Mindy collapses to the ground in tears.  “What are we going to do, Sean?  What the hell are we going to do?”
     
    Sean reaches down and picks up the bags and brings them over to sit down and sit next to Mindy.  “First thing we need to do is check what supplies we have.  He said there was enough food for two days for the two of us, a knife and a revolver with five rounds in it as well as a tent.  Let’s check”, Sean said as he started emptying one of the bags.
     
    Mindy nods to Sean and picks up one of the other bags and starts to remove the contents from it, and Sean grabs the third bag and empties out with rest of the supplies.  “OK, what do we have”, Sean said as he picked up the notebook and the pencil.  He opened the notebook and on the first page was a small note from Micah.
     
    As I said to you, you have enough food for two days for two people, and a tent.  You will also find a blanket.  Don’t lose it.  It gets cold out here at night.  Use this notebook to keep track of things like how much food you’ve eaten, landmarks, and anything else you feel is important.  
     
    Good Luck!
    Micah
     
    Sean handed the notebook to Mindy, “Here, you can write down our inventory while I set up the tent and start a fire?”
     
    “Start a fire?” asked Mindy hysterically.  “Why would you do that?  They will be able to see us….”
     
    Sean grabbed Mindy and forced her to look at him.  “Stop!  I need to start a fire so we can stay warm.  We are fine for tonight.  He said they won’t come after us until noon tomorrow.  Now organize our supplies and make a note of everything we have while I start the fire and set up the tent.”  With that, Sean went back to starting the fire.  Once the fire was started, he and Mindy set up the tent for the night.
     
    ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
     
    A few hours before dawn, Sean’s watch alarm went off.  He quickly got up, got some water and a little bit of breakfast for the both of them ready and then woke up Mindy.  While they ate, Seans said “We need to get moving as soon as possible.  The more distance we can cover before the sun rises, the harder it will be for the hunters to find us.”  The mention of the hunters brought Mindy around quickly and they finished their small breakfast, packed the last of their supplies, and headed north.
     
    After walking for a few hours, Sean turned them northwest.  “Why are we turning?” Mindy asked, looking back the way they came.
     
    “I don’t want to make it easy for them.  I think they will expect us to go one of the four main directions, so I started off going one way, and then changed, and I will change again in a few hours,” Sean said looking over his shoulder at Mindy.
     
    “But won’t that take us longer to get to the boundary?  Won’t we run out of food?” Mindy asked on the edge of hysterics again.  
     
    Sean stopped and took ahold of Mindy’s shoulders.  If we walk in a straight line, it will make easier for them to find us.  If we change directions every few hours or so, but keep heading towards a boundary, it will be better for us.  Yes, we only have two days worth of supplies, but we have a knife,” Sean said patting his left hip, “and I have this revolver,” patting his right hip.  “I also know how to hunt and set traps.  We will be fine if we start moving before dawn and stop after the sun sets.  We can do this.”
     
    Mindy took a deep breath, visibly pulling herself together.  “Ok.  You’re right.  We can make it.”
  2. Timberwolf

    Losing Weight - Week 5

    By Timberwolf,


    Weight Loss Update
    So, here I am, 5 weeks in.  Honestly, on this day, I’m feeling kind of down.  I haven’t lost any weight, and for the past two weeks, I’ve only done a few sun salutations, and my hockey game, back on April 21st, I had a hockey game, and my knee felt so bad that I thought my hockey career was going to be finished at the end of this season.  I feel like the guy in this picture, and I'm not really very happy about it.
     

     
    One good thing that has happened, during and after my hockey game on the April 28th, my knee felt loads better, but I still haven’t done much of anything else.  I have been eating better a little better, which probably helps.
     
    I know this isn’t a race, and it’s better to lose weight at a moderate pace instead of a fast pace, but honestly, I am feeling a just a bit down.  I’m sure there are other contributing factors to this, but I thought it would be best to be honest about how I’m feeling here, nullas this is what this space is for.  I’m sure that in a few days, I will feel much better.
     
    I’m going to keep at it and do my best to make a blog post about it about every week to two (2) weeks.  As I said, I’m sure that I will get out of this funk in the next few days, especially as tonight, I have a Flying Farangs practice at the new ice arena that has been built here in Bangkok.
     
    Always Remember:  Don’t stop when times get tough!  You have the strength to keep going.
  3. Timberwolf

    Timberwolf - Losing Weight - Week 3

    By Timberwolf,


    Weight Loss Update
    OK, so here I am, three (3) weeks from my blog post Losing Weight - Week 1. 
     
    The reason I didn't do a blog post last week, is because I was on holiday in Koh Chang with @hirondelle, and some friends.  
     
    The good thing is that I haven't gained any weight.  I'm holding steady at about 237 lbs.  I've also started doing Sun Salutation A. 
     

     
    Now, I'm not doing them every day, but I am working towards that.  At the moment, I'm doing 5 in a row when I do them.  I did them for the first few days when I started, and then I didn't do them while we were on holiday, and then I did them a couple of times since we've been back.  Not enough, but it's a start.
     
    Always Remember:  There is no failure, there is just a new starting point.
  4. Timberwolf

    Welcome To My Fat Ass

    By Timberwolf,


    Welcome
    Welcome to the NL Community blog that is focused on helping our member with losing weight and their struggles with with weight.  All are welcome to make blog posts and comments, all that we ask is that people are respectful to each other. 

    In this blog, we can talk about what exercises we are doing, our eating habits, our triggers, or anything that surrounds our weight loss.
     
    The most important thing is that we support and encourage each other in this journey.
     
    Thank you,
     
    @Timberwolf
  5. Timberwolf
    So, I've been talking about how I need to lose weight.  And I even talked about how I need to lose weight in the My fat ass thread here at NL.  I figured this would be a good way to keep track of my weight loss.  
     
    So, one of the things I decided I was going to do a few things.
     
    Drink less beer.  When there is a game, football or hockey, on TV, I drink two to three beers.  I decided, that no matter what is going on, I'm going to only drink one beer a day at the most. Drink less pop.  I don't generally drink a lot of pop any more.  I used to drink a lot of it, but I'm going to keep it down.  One of the things I'm going to do is, on the days, game days, instead of drinking two or three beers, I will drink one pop.   I'm also going to start doing yoga again.  A minimum of three Sun Salutation As a day.    
    On thing I plan on doing is keeping a weekly log of how things are going.  If I miss a week, please feel free to give me a nudge to get back on track.   
     
    So, as of this morning, I weight 237 lbs (108kg), which is about 20 lbs (9kg) less than I thought I was.  I thought I was up near 260 lbs (118kg), so that's good.  That doesn't mean I'm not going to work as hard.  It just means I have less to lose than I thought.  
     
    The start of my weight loss was yesterday.  There was a hockey game, and I only had one beer, and I had 1 coke.  When @hirondelle and I went to bed last night, we both did 3 Sun Salutation As.  It actually felt pretty good to do them.  I've gotten pretty shit at doing them, but it felt good at doing them.
     
    There are a few reasons that I've decided to lose weight.  First and foremost, I just want to feel healthier.  I'm out of shape, and I know that once I start losing weight, the right way, I will start getting back into shape at the same time.  Another reason for me to lose weight, is it will help improve my hockey game again.  I feel I have gotten slower since my knee surgery and all the lock downs and gaining weight.  It really sucks, because I was starting to get decent.  The final reason for me wanting to lose weight is because my knee has started to feel sore, and losing weight will take some of the stress off of my knee.  So getting in shape, taking stress off of my knee, I think this will set me back on the correct path of getting my skill level back up for hockey.... I hope.  
     
    Well, that's all for my first post.  See you next week some time.
     
    Always Remember:  If you set your mind to it, you can do it.
  6. Timberwolf

    New Ranks

    By Timberwolf,


    Rank
    Hey all.  So, there has been a pretty big update recently to The Northlands.
     
    There are some really great things with the 4.6.3 update for Invision Power Systems.  One of the cool things is the new ranking system.  This is really exciting!  So, listed below are the new ranks:
     

     
    Runt Whelp Bairn Puppy Pup Cub Stray Mutt Mongrel Hound Wolfhound Wolf Dire Wolf Alpha Wolf  
    Every thing is based off of points earned.  There are different way to earn points, there are so many ways to earn points.  You get points for starting threads and commenting on threads.  Blog posts, image gallery posts. Following people... just to name a few.
     
    If you have any questions, please feel free to post here or message me.    Have fun!
  7. Timberwolf

    Roller Hockey

    By Timberwolf,


    Sports
    As you all know, I’m a hockey player.  I’ve written quite a bit about it here in this blog, so I’m not going to list all the blog posts, but a brief history, I grew up playing hockey, I stepped away when I was eighteen (18) years old and started again when I was forty-six (46) years old.  I play for the Flying Farangs, a foreign traveling team located here in Bangkok, Thailand.  We play in tournaments in the region, in Bangkok, and against the Thai Men’s National Team.  I also play for the Lion State, which I played with for two seasons before I had my knee surgery.  I’ve also played ball hockey a few times at the British Club as well.
     
    This past year has been great!  Back in September, I stepped back on the ice and started to prepare for a hockey tournament that was coming up in November.  This was the first real hockey I’ve played since before my knee surgery.  We ended up losing all our games on the first day, but we won all our games on the second day and ended up taking first place in our division.
     
    When I was recovering from my knee surgery, I wanted to go roller blading, so I took my skates to a local park where I used to skate before, but they stopped me and told me no skateboarding.  So, I never got to go skating, so that sucked.
     
    Then, on 03 July 2021, a friend of mine contacted me and asked if I was interested in playing roller hockey.  Of course, I was interested.  I’ve been wanting to play hockey again; I’ve never played roller hockey and I wanted to play roller hockey since the first time I got roller blades back in the 90s.  What do I need to do?  He put me in touch with the organizer, who happened to be a guy that I played hockey with one time and chatted with.  He told me what I needed to play, roller blades, gloves, shin pads and a stick.  I added a cup to the list, because you know, you must protect the family jewels!
     
    So, on Sunday, 04 July 2021 I packed my gear, and drove to the place.  We played on a futsal court, which was great as it had a center line, face-off dot, goal circles.  I think the guy that organized it made the nets for us to play.  So, the week before, they used a ball hockey ball to play, but a few guys decided to bring street hockey pucks, and a few of us were using these to warm up.
     
    Once we got started, it was pretty faced paced, and the dark team (not my team) scored an early goal.  That wasn’t so bad, but it didn’t take long for them to score their second goal.  Damn!  That was quick.  Next, we were taking the ball up the court and I didn’t see anybody open, but I did see that I had an opening on the net, so I fired a shot at the net, and buried the puck in the net.  Awesome!  The game went back and forth with both teams scoring goals.  About halfway through the game, we made a new rule, no scoring from the far side of the center line, which was cool.  Made us work a little harder, but no big deal.
     
    It was such a great night!  I had such a blast, and everybody seemed to enjoy themselves.  So much so that we are planning on doing it again the up-and-coming Sunday.  I can’t wait!
     
    Always Remember:  If you ever get the chance to do something that you’ve always wanted to try, give it a go!
  8. Timberwolf
    COVID-19, when it first comes to Thailand. When it was first talked about, Wolf and Goddess were going to Chiang Mai for Wolf to play in an ice hockey tournament. They talk about how people were reacting and what they did while in Chiang Mai. They also talk about coming back to Bangkok and what it was like back in Bangkok. Goddess expresses her fears for when Wolf had to have knee surgery right before there was a lock down in Thailand. They talk about a funny experience that Wolf had during the lockdown. Goddess expresses the fears she still had (at the time of recording this episode) and Wolf reassures her that they will be together.
     
     
  10. Timberwolf

    Changes

    By Timberwolf,


    Music
    Let me start off by saying that I've been a Black Sabbath and Ozzy fan for quite a long time.  Now that doesn't mean I have or had listened to everything they put out.  There is a lot of music there, and as much as I like Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne, they weren't and aren't my favorite artist.  
     
    So, in 2003, I saw Ozzy Osbourne on some talk show, I don't remember which one it is now, and he was on with his daughter, Kelly, and they did this song.
     
     
    It just blew me away and I immediately fell in love with this song.  I have since done some research on this song.  This piano was by Tony Iommi and the lyrics were by Geezer Butler and was inspired by  Bill Ward's breakup with his first wife.   Black Sabbath did this song in their album Vol. 4 which was released in 1972.  This is Black Sabbath's version of this amazing song which is so heartbreaking.
     
     
    In 2010, one of my favorite rap artists, Eminem, sampled Changes for his song Going Through Changes for his album Recovery.  He talks about his problems with drugs and losing one of his closest friends Proof.  How he fought through his struggles for his daughters and for himself.  This song, for me, is also heartbreaking, but very inspiring as he has fought through his difficulties.
     
     
     
    The final version of this song, which I happened to stumble upon just a few weeks ago, just tears my heart out.  This version is by Charles Bradley, which he sung after losing his mother, which really hits home for me.
     
     
    Some of you may know this, I'm a huge music lover.  I love a lot of different genres of music.  These are different versions of the same song and inspire some different feelings in me.  I love when a song sung by different people can do that.
     
    Always Remember:  Keep an open mind because you will never know what new thing you will end up loving.
  11. Timberwolf

    2020 Year In Review

    By Timberwolf,


    Life
    So 2020 has been one hell of a year.   I've seen lots of highs and lots of lows in this past year, as most of the world has seen and felt.
     
    I'll do my best to make this as coherent as possible, but I'm sure I will mix some thing up.  The good thing is, @hirondelle has put together a list for me to look at, so that will help keep my thoughts organized.  
     
    So, with out too much more preamble, let me get into it.
     
    To finish off 2019 and start off 2020, @hirondelle and I decided to go to Krabi and we asked Stef, our girlfriend, to join us.  There were some issues, but over all it was a pretty good holiday.  I wrote about it in the blog post titled Krabi 2019-2020.
     
     
     
    January was pretty good.  About the most exciting thing in January was planning for a hockey tournament that I will talk about soon.  I was having some pain in my knee, but I did take off of hockey for 3 weeks before the tournament to rest it.
     
    The hockey tournament was at the end of January beginning of February. They were having a 4-on-4 tournament at the rink up there.  The tournament was called The Northern Breakaway Tournament 2020.  They had two teams from Chiang Mai, a team from Hat Yai a team from Hong Kong and my team, Flying Farangs.  We had actually put together a pretty strong team for this tournament.  Below is a picture of my team.
     
    Back Row - Tom Price, Rob Taylor, Gabor Toth, Eddie McConnell
    Front Row - John Schachnovsky, Mike Nightingale, Dom Dumais, David Boere, Jesse Starosta  
    This tournament was a three day affair.  In the first day of games, on January 31st, we played Chiang Mai in the first game and Southern Wolf in the second game, in which we won both games.  We did lose David Boere to a broken hand in the first game and John Schachnovsky strained his groin in the second game, but David played a couple of shifts in the second game, and John continued to play throughout the tournament.  In the second day of games, we played Hong Kong Transformers, which we won, and I strained my knee in this game, but I continued to play in the rest of the tournament.  In our second game of game two, we played the Chiang Mai Jokers.  This team was arguably the best team in the tournament, although they were a very cheap team took some cheap shots.  We did give them a run for their money, though we didn't play all out.  This set us up to play them again in the championship game of this tournament on day 3.  Again, it was a really hard game, and we took less flack from them and they were still cheap, but we did eventually lose to them, and ended up taking second place in this tournament.  It was a lot of fun, not counting the cheapness from the Chiang Mai Jokers, but playing with this group of guys and being back in Chiang Mai was great.   After the tournament, I took two (2) weeks off from hockey to rest my knee again.
     
    Right before we went to Chiang Mai for the tournament, we started hearing about this flu coming out of China, which ended up being Covid 19.  It wasn't long after we got back to Bangkok that we started hearing about cases in Thailand.
     
    Also in February, I found out that the school I had been working for for ten (10) years decided that they weren't going to renew my contract.  I was a bit shocked at this as I had done everything they asked of me for those ten (10) years as well as helped them with a lot of things, but in hind sight, it was for the best really.  I hadn't been happy at the school for quite a few years, so that just spurred me on to find better work.  
     

    Dottie napping on the couch
    At the end of February, we also added a new member to our family here in Thailand.  On February 29th, that was when our little Dottie girl joined our family.  We weren't sure how Spike was going to take to her, because we didn't do a very good job of socializing Spike.  Now, when we first brought her home, Spike wasn't to sure what to think about her, but he didn't attack her or anything, which is good.  Then, a friend of ours, brought his puppy over, Ski, and Spike really wanted nothing to do with Ski.  Dottie and Ski were playing and Ski got a little bit rough, Ski is huge compared to Spike and Dottie, and Dottie yipped and Spike was right over there to find out what was going on.  A few days later, @hirondelle bought a couple of toys for Dottie, and Spike wanted to play with one of them, and they kind of bonded over that.  Now they get a long so well, it's like made Spike a young puppy again.  Spike who is 12 years old and Dottie who is now a year old, and they are getting along so well.  I love it!
     
    At the beginning of March, I was hired by an agency in the hopes that they would get me into a school.  On the 11th of March, they had me do a demo lesson at a school, and while I was sitting in a very small kid's chair waiting my turn to go do my demo lesson, I stood up and almost fell over.  I was in so much pain and I couldn't put any weight on my leg at all.  I tried walking around to make it feel better, but nothing was working.  I still had to do my demo lesson, and I informed them right away at the beginning of the lesson that I had done something to my knee so my lesson wasn't going to be the best.  Well, the school was happy with my lesson and ended up hiring me, which I will get into later.  After the demo lessons, they gave us a tour of the school they were building, and then we all went back to the agency office.  From there, I got on my bike and rode home.  Talk about being in pain.  When I finally got home, I laid down the couch to have a nap and rest my knee more.  After about an hour, it wasn't any better, so we decided to go the doctors.  The doctor was awesome and he examined my knee, and ordered an x-ray and an MRI for a later date.  After the MRI it was found out that I had strained three (3) ligaments in my knee, and there was some torn cartilage in my knee, and the doctor wanted to go in and clean up the cartilage, and then drill a few holds in the bone itself to cause it to bleed into the place where the cartilage was removed to create scar tissue to act like cartilage.  On the 27th of March, I went in for my surgery, and the doctor found out that the meniscus in my knee had torn, so he stitched that back in place as well as did the rest of the surgery he had told me about.  This put me on crutches for eight (8) weeks and out of hockey for nine (9) months.  
     
     
    April saw Thailand go into a lock down, which was good for me as I couldn't really go out anywhere.  I stayed home and watched Netflix and got fatter.  Also, @hirondelle got tired of me watching Netflix so much, so she bought me and Xbox 1X and some games.  Talk about exciting.  I bought a number of games, with Assassin's Creed being quite a few of them.  I bought Assassin's Creed The Ezio Collection, Assassin's Creed III, Assassin's Creed Unity (comes after Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag), Assassin's Creed Origins, Assassin's Creed Odyssey and Forza Horizon 4.  While in lock down and recovering, I completed Assassin's Creed Unity as Assassin's Creed Origin's, as well as Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag on the Nintendo Switch, but I didn't complete this 100%.  I will eventually go back and do my best to attempt that, but I'm in no rush.
     
    May didn't see much of anything from me other than playing lots of Assassin's Creed. 
     
    At the end of June, I started at my new school.  We started prepping for the students to come back on July 1st, and I had to teach a teach the teachers class, which was fun.  I had to co-teach that class with the other English teacher that was hired.  This school hired two (2) English teachers to teach English, two (2) Filipino teachers, one (1) for math and one (1) for sciences and one (1) Vietnamese teacher to teach Chinese.  One of the things I loved right away about this school was that I got to see all my students every day in class.  This is something I've been asking for since I started teaching fifteen (15) years ago.  This is awesome! 
     
    In March of last year, I wrote a blog post about being polyamorous. 
     
     
    @hirondelle and I had been in a relationship with this lady named Stef, and we were together for almost two (2) years.  Since before the end of the year, @hirondelle and I had been talking about ending things with Stef.  It wasn't anything that Stef had been doing or not doing, it was just that @hirondelle felt that she was pulling herself away from me, and both @hirondelle and I had always said from the beginning that our relationship is #1.  We always put each other first.  When we went away together for the New Year, it seemed kind of like things might be a bit different, but it wasn't long and @hirondelle was still feeling the same.  Over the lockdown period, we didn't see Stef as much, but then we started seeing each other again, and things just weren't the same, so at the end of July, we decided to end things with Stef.  We still care about her, but not at the cost of our relationship.  It was difficult, but after a bit of time, the three (3) of us are friends and have seen each other.  
     
    August didn't see much from me other than helping out a guy that was new to teaching, but that help didn't help him very much, because he didn't follow my suggestions or advice.
     
    Come September, things got really interesting.  First, @hirondelle and I had been talking about getting a car, especially since starting at my new school.  She didn't like me riding my bike that far every day.  See, on the bike, in the morning, it takes me about forty-five (45) minutes to get to school, and after school, on the bike, it takes me about an hour to get home.  Personally, other than getting caught in the rain a few times, it wasn't that bad.  I'll be honest though, there was one day, I was on my way to school and I got caught in the rain.  That same day, I was on my way home from school and I got caught in the rain.  Now, on the way to school, I could stop and put on my rain gear, but on the way home, there wasn't any place for me to stop, which sucked!  That's was convinced me it was time to buy a car. 
     
    When we first started looking, we decided that we wanted to go for some type of SUV.  The first car we decided on was a Nissan Juke.  It's a nice car with some interesting styling.  One of the things that I really liked about it were the bubble lights on the front end of the car.  Also, the look of the Nissan Juke reminded me of some of the hot wheels car from the 80s.  We also decided that we would look at second hand cars, instead of going new.  we found a Nissan Juke and went and looked at it.  It's smaller than I expected, but not too bad.  I got in the front seat, driver's side, and I couldn't get in.  I had to move the seat all the way back and tilt the steering wheel all the way up to get in, but once I got in, I could adjust the steering wheel down, but the seat had to stay as far back as it could go.  @hirondelle said I looked like I was a bit cramped.  It wasn't bad, but I could have gone for a little bit more room.
     
    After this, we decided to go for something a little bit bigger.  We decided to go for a For EcoSport.  Not a bad little SUV.  The EcoSport was launched outside of the US in 2012, but wasn't available in USA until 2018, and it wasn't a big seller.  I guess American's don't like small SUVs, lol.  I don't know.  Any way, we looked around for the EcoSports, and we found a few, so we narrowed things down to only buy from a dealership in the hopes of getting some type of warranty.  We found a dealership that had a couple, and we went and looked, and kind of liked how it looked, and it had more room in the front for me.  One of the things both @hirondelle and I liked about the EcoSport was they had the spare tire on the back (pictured to the right).  Something that we don't see on SUVs in Thailand any more.  Any way, so we talked to the dealership about the used EcoSport.  Wasn't that just a nightmare in a half!  First, I asked if we could get financing for the EcoSport.  They salesperson asked their finance person, who called their finance company and told them that I wanted a Ford eco car.  No, they don't do financing for Ford eco cars.  I said no, I don't want an eco car, I want the SUV Ford EcoSport.  This went back and forth for a few minutes and I got so frustrated because they weren't listening to what I was saying and @hirondelle and I started to walk away.  They chased us down and had us come back.  I explained the problem and the salesperson called another salesperson over who explained to our salesperson that yes, the EcoSport is a model of Ford and that it isn't an eco car.  So they called the finance company and said we could get approval.  @hirondelle and I went home and talked about it.  Then I decided to message them and ask about oil changes and whatnot, and the salesperson told me "No.  We don't don't oil changes or service and no warranty.  Needless to say, I was a bit shocked by this, so @hirondelle and I decided that no, we would do something else.  
     
    After some talk, and lots of research on my part, we decided we would go with a Honda BR-V.  This is even bigger than the Ford EcoSport.  One of the things we liked is we could get the version with seven (7) seats or the version with five (5) seats.  We decided we would go with the five (5) seat version because we wanted room in the back to put a cage for the Spike and Dottie.  Also, this game me room to put my hockey gear in as well.  To be honest, this was my first ever new car, and going to buy a new car was really fun.  One thing that I noticed was different for buying a new car in Thailand compared to buying a new car in USA (from what I have heard).  One thing is in the US, you go into the car dealership, and you decide on the make and model you want, then you start deciding on the options you want.  Each option adds a little bit more to your price.  Now, this is based off of what I've heard for buying new cars in the States.  In Thailand, they quote you a price, and this is what you pay for everything.  If you want to pay less, you start taking off the different options until you get to a price you want.  This was great, because there were certain options that @hirondelle wanted and certain options that I wanted.  For example, one of the options that @hirondelle wanted was she wanted roof rails on the top of the car.  For me, I wanted bluetooth in the car as well as a reverse camera.  So having these come with the price quoted, that was awesome.  There were things that we could have gotten if we had decided to go for a seven (7) seater that we didn't get with a five (5) seater, but one of those was fog lights, and well, living in Thailand, we don't get fog, so those were really not needed, so for me, that was really no big loss.  
     
     
    Another thing that was pretty major for me, was something that happened at my school.  My co-worker, that I started at this school with, well, he has never taught before.  I mean he did these drama courses, but he has never taught in a school before.  I did my best to give him some advice, and things just weren't working for him.  Then he lost his partner, which was sad, but he didn't really give himself a chance to recover from that.  To go with this, he was struggling with getting all his documents for his visa, and he didn't know how to control his classes.  Well, he had a really bad day and pushed two different students to the floor in front of Thai teachers, then he stormed out the class and went over to the kindergarten school to teach his classes over there.  Needless to say, he was sent home, then when they watched the video from the class, and they saw what he did, he was terminated, not only from the school but also from the agency.  That was scary, especially like a week after this, another school was on the news for a teacher hitting kids and it was a big thing for that school and all over Thailand. 
     
    Lots happening in September!  
     
    Now here we are, in October.  October was another very exciting month for me.  First, this was something big.  October 05, 2020 marked fifteen (15) amazing years for @hirondelle and I.  It's been an amazing journey.  Thank you my love.  I love you.
     
     
    Next, after about three (3) years away, I decided to go back to karate.  This was good and bad.  Good, because I've really been missing karate, and have been wanting to get back into martial arts of some sort.  Bad for me, because I hadn't practiced in years, and forgot all my katas, I had gotten fat, and my old Sensei had moved back to Japan.  Well, I did some research, and found out where my dojo had moved to, and I found their facebook page and I reached out to them.  I wanted to know if they still had adult classes, and what days they had classes.  They were happy to hear from me and told me that they now only teach combined classes.  They no longer have payment packages, just have to pay for every class I attend.  This was my positive of the day #275, which was on October 22nd.  
     
     
    Another thing that was exciting wast that I started to go back to hockey.  On October 30th, 2020, I stepped back on the ice for my first shinny since my knee surgery.  I was a bit anxious at first, but I did OK.  It felt amazing to be back on the ice.  I loved it.  My goal was to attend about four (4) shinnies to start to get back in shape for the hockey tournament that was coming up at the end of November, but I ended up only being in two (2) different shinnies, but that's OK.  It was worth it.
     
    In November, I played in my first hockey tournament since February.  My buddy, Ralf, set up a team to play in this tournament.  What was fun, is we had some skaters that I had never played in games with before, but I had been wanting to.  Our first day of games, we didn't do so well.  We lost our first game to Warriors B 5-0.  In our second game, against Chiang Mai, we did manage to score two goals, but we lost 9-2.  Our third game was against my BIHL team, Lion State, and we started coming together as a team, but we did lose this one 7-5.  To be honest, although we lost these games, the first and third game of the day was a lot of fun to play in.  Our game against Chiang Mai had shades of our game in February against the Chain Mai Jokers, which half the team from Chiang Mai were from the Chiang Mai Jokers.  Oh well.  Our second day of hockey was a lot better.  In our first game, we played Souther Wolf and we won this one 2-1.  Felt good to finally get a win.  In our second game, against a teamed called Old Timers, which the oldest player on this team was about 25, and the average age was about 17, this was another close one, and we won this one 1-0.  This gave us the recreational division championship, which was pretty awesome!  We were pretty stoked about that.  
      
    https://flyingfarang.com/samrong-ice-hockey-challenge-2020/
     
    Back row: Toni, Mark, Gary, Janne, Ralf, Alasdair, Matt, Dom
    Front row: Top, Lance, Luc, Bruno, Ono  
    For November, we had our normal Thanksgiving Dinner at a place called Bourbon Street which does this amazing Cajun style Thanksgiving buffet.  Sadly, this year, because of Covid, they really trimmed down what they were offering because they thought there wouldn't be that many people that would come.  They had a lot of people show up.  The food was still good.  Some friends, a couple, joined us, and we ended up sitting next to another friend of ours, so that was cool.
     
    In December, we started hearing about more cases of Covid in Thailand again, which sucked.  Also, my school decided, that since the school year was messed up because of the first wave of Covid, they would modify the schedule, which means were were scheduled to work through Christmas Day, and then have off December 31st and January 1st.  Thanks to the second wave of Covid, I had off Christmas, but sadly, with the cases climbing again, they gave us off for the whole month of January as well.
     
    Wow!  That's a lot.  Sorry about that.  I hope it wasn't too boring for you all.  That's all for now.
     
    Always Remember:  Keep the ones you love close to you, and tell them you love them often.
  12. Timberwolf
    For the last 2 weeks, I've been teaching a special class. Well, what my work calls a camp actually. It was a lot fun. I had a class of twelve 5 year olds. Every day of the class they learned a little bit about a different countries.
     
    Day 1: Orientation, Make passports, Make photo albums Day 2: Went to United Kingdom Day 3: Went to New Zealand Day 4: Went to Australia Day 5: Went to United States Day 6: Went to Canada Day 7: Went to China Day 8: Went to South Korea Day 9: Went to Japan Day 10: Back to Thailand

    It was a lot of fun! The kids were great. On the last day, we gave them certificates for completing the camp (see photos).


    For the first week, I started each day, doing 3 hours every morning with the kids, then they would go to lunch, and I would work on things for the teacher in the afternoon and the afternoons later in the week. then off to my normal classes to teach in the evening.


    We had one teacher that did Monday and Tuesday afternoon, and the kids loved him, and he loves the kids, but his normal teaching work took him away for the rest of the week, so they hired another teacher to cover him the rest of the course. Well, as it worked out, he is a shit teacher with kids. What he wants is to teach University Students. Oh, and he would prefer to only teach the University students that are girls. Funny how that is. But hey, at least the kids knew he was a shit teacher. The only problem with this, is that then I had to teach the second week in the afternoons on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. So on Tuesday, I taught from 9am to 3pm, then I had to hightail it to my evening class and teach them 4pm to 6pm, and I had to do that again on Thursday. I was freaking beat! But like I said, I loved it.
  13. Timberwolf
    I plan on making this post a bit of internal exploration. Now at times, I may wonder off track, but bare with me.


    About 2 years ago, @hirondelle I and moved from Bangkok, Thailand to Chiang Mai, Thailand. When we first got here, we rented a Honda Click (what a Click looks like) for a month until we bought bikes of our own. First we got a Honda Wave 100 cc (what a Wave looks like) for @hirondelle, and ordered a Honda Phantom 200 cc for me. When my bike arrived, we returned the Click, and used my bike to go every where. @hirondelle tried learning how to drive her Wave, but at that point in time, it just didn't work out, so we sold it.


    When we first moved here, I didn't find a job right away. I was unemployed from September to about February, when I was hired by a company called CEC, where they sent me out to this private school to teach English to Korean exchange students, which was pretty cool. The students were nice, and we seemed to get along. I was also covering on the weekend for teachers that were off for their kids classes at their main office, which didn't go very well, because they were one of the most unorganized and unhelpful places I've ever worked. I asked to many questions, and after a short period of time, they let me go, which was no big deal. I had already had an interview with another company called NES (New Zealand English Services), and things looked really promising.


    I talked with the owner (Paul) and the head teacher of all the centers (Ryan), and they were looking for a teacher with my enthusiasm and experience to be the head teacher at one of the three offices they have here in Chiang Mai. So, I signed on with them as a temp teacher so we could feel each other out. To start, I was teaching English to the staff at a new hotel in the area. Things were going really well, and on the first weekend, Ryan called me to pick up some kids classes, which I did, because I needed as many hours as I could get because they were only paying me 200 baht an hour. A huge difference from the 450 baht an hour I was making to start in Bangkok. Before long, things were going really good, and I had adult classes at one of their centers (the one I was to become the full time teacher at) and kids classes at their other two centers. When teaching at the hotel finished, they were feeding me all kinds of hours, and they offered me a full time contract making 250 baht an hour for 20 hours a week. If I worked over the 20 hours a week, I would have an additional percentage per hour. I would receive the over time pay every three months. Things were going really good for awhile, and I had dinner with Paul and Ryan and talked about things we could do to update the center and make it more modern. I was supposed to help them put wireless in all three centers, and put English onto their website. Also, I was helping them to write summer courses. Everything was going great! I would have done anything for Paul and Ryan. I was picking up extra classes, and I was covering classes for teachers that were off at their request. All was good.


    It stared when one week, I didn't complete the 20 hours a week, but I had already worked a number of overtime hours in previous weeks. When I got my paycheck, it was short on the hours. I was pretty upset about this, and Paul heard about it and confronted me about it, and we discussed it. We came to solution that we both liked, and he cut me another check to make up for what I felt I was shorted. I just had to make up the hours, which with the summer courses coming up, wouldn't be a problem at all. At this same time, I was in my center all day, working on things for the office and placement testing potential students, which I wasn't being paid for. Things started to look a bit better again.


    I was asked to re-write a kids course that somebody else had already done that Paul wasn't happy with. They gave me a whole stack of books for me to set up this course. I kept the books, kind of a lean to make sure I would get the money they owed me in case something happened with my pay again.


    I was offered a position with the British Council to teach classes at a college, making almost double what I was making at NES. I accepted this position, but I had to put off starting until I finished the classes I had with NES. I informed Ryan what was going on, and Ryan totally understood and told me to let Paul know, so I went back to the main office to talk to Paul about it. He seemed fine with it.


    A few days later, I got a call from Paul's wife Tann (the co-owner) informing me that I needed to return the books that were lent to me. I told Tann that I would return the books when I was paid everything that was owed to me. She got very upset about this, and told the accountant that she wasn't to give me my paycheck until I return the books. The accountant and I had a bit of a discussion about it, and I was upset, and I kept apologizing to her about it and saying that it wasn't her fault. That I didn't mean to take it out on her. I had a few more conversations with Tann... or I should say a few more arguments on the phone with her about the books and my pay. In the end, Paul called me and told me that I had until such and such time to return the books or he would call the police and tell them that I stole the books. I went to my classroom, packed up all my stuff, and apologized to my students that I wouldn't be teaching their class, and that I was no longer with the company. I went home, collected the books while telling @hirondelle what was going on.


    @hirondelle wouldn't let me go to the main office by myself, so she went with me. She didn't want me doing something stupid, like hitting Paul, which I'm sure that if @hirondelle wasn't with me, I probably would have done. When we got to the office, I walked up to the desk. Paul was in his office and refused to even look at me, let alone talk to me. The two front desk girls came up to me and said that they were sorry, but wouldn't say more. I told them that I wanted to talk to Paul or Tann to return the books. They went into the office to let them know that I was there. Paul went outside and Tann came over to talk to me. I returned the books to her, and told her that i wanted to talk to Paul. She went outside for a few minutes and came back in and told me that she didn't know what was going on, but I was asked to leave. So @hirondelle and I started to leave.


    When we got outside, Paul was out there laughing and joking with a couple of police officers. I put my shoes on, and walked over to Paul to tell him that it was an experience to work for him. I actually offered to shake his hand, but he refused. He said that the he refused to talk to somebody that treated the girl at the other office so badly (her name was Peung). That he didn't understand how us foreigners could treat the girls here so badly, when we don't treat the women in our own country so badly. I tried to tell him that I didn't treat Peung badly in any way, but he refused to listen to me. So @hirondelle and I got back on the bike and left. Thinking of ways we could really screw him over, which we never did, but we were pretty angry over the whole situation, me more than @hirondelle.


    A few days later was the start of the Songkrahn Festival here in Thailand. On the first day, we saw Peung and stopped to talk to her. I wanted to apologize to her if I treated her badly in any way. She told me that I didn't, and that she understood why I was so upset. We talked about it for awhile, but she keep telling me not to worry about it. We spent the next two days celebrating Songkrahn with Peung, her boyfriend and a few of the students, and had a lot of fun.


    A few days after the Songkrahn Festival, I turned in all my paperwork showing exactly how much I was owed (keeping a copy for myself), which was a large chunk of money. When it came time to pick up the pay checks, it was only for a normal weeks pay. When I tried to ask when I could expect to receive the rest of what was owed to me, Peung said she would get Tann for me. But instead, she sent another member of staff over, and at first, she said she didn't understand. Finally when she did "understand" me, she said she didn't know. So I said I would be back the following payday.


    During the week, I received an email from Tann, saying that I owed NES them money for quitting and not finishing my classes. I emailed her back stating that I didn't quit, I was fired, and that they still owed me the money. That was the last email I received from NES.


    When all this happened, Ryan, whom I thought was my friend, didn't even call me to see how I was doing. This really hurt.


    This whole thing really cut me hard, and I thought I had let it go. But as time here in Chiang Mai goes by, I seem to get angrier and angrier about things here. I've always blamed it on how stupidly they drive here. And something else, that I never noticed before, I was generalizing Thai people. I don't feel good about admitting this, but I also know that in order for me to heal myself, it's something that I need to admit.


    The healing process started this morning while @hirondelle and I went to breakfast with a friend of ours, and had a great time just talking and relaxing. At breakfast, we talked a bit about some of the problems we seem to be having here. And as per my usual, I was complaining about Thai drivers, but @hirondelle said that she thinks that maybe my bitterness goes deeper than that. And it started to dawn on me that it does. It goes back to this whole experience with Paul, Tann and NES. I started thinking about it more and more on the way home. And I started to notice a few things.


    The both times we were in Bangkok, I didn't have this bitterness, but as soon as we got back to Chiang Mai, the bitterness was back.


    I hadn't really let this whole thing with Paul, Tann and NES go.

    The reason I am writing this blog post, is in the hopes of helping me release this anger and bitterness that has been building in me for almost two years, that I didn't realize were building.


    In writing this, I have felt as if a great weight has been lifted from my shoulders.


    Thank you for sharing your time with me.
  14. Timberwolf
    I have to give you some back story for this before I get to far into this.


    Since the start of the Swine Flu scare, I've been kind of taking the piss out of it. Someone coughs and "OH NO, IT'S SWINE FLU! SWINE FLU, SWINE FLU!" That type of thing. At work we were told that if a child coughs a lot, sneeze s a lot or has a runny nose we should ask their parents to take them home. So I would joke cough and say I've got swine flu, can I go home. And things like that. I was also scoffing at people wearing masks, because it's a virus and the mask is totally useless for this. They are to help prevent dust inhalation.


    Well, this past Friday, I was at work, planning my lesson, and feeling worse and worse as the day went on. I started getting body aches and feeling hot and having a head ache. We sat down to watch a movie and eat dinner, and all I could eat were my mashed potatoes and I barely finished those. You have to remember that I love pizza, and we order pizza on Thursday, I eat half on Thursday and eat the other half on Friday, so me not wanting to eat pizza is kind of scary in itself. I decided at about 8 that I would go to sleep and hope that I felt better in the morning as I had to teach kids all day Saturday and Sunday. Well, about 9 I got my first bout of diarrhea and about every 1 hour or less I was back in the bathroom. At about 11 I told @hirondelle that there wasn't any way I would be able to make it to work to teach for Saturday, and she should text our boss and the most senior full time teacher in the morning to let them know that I wouldn't be in. At about 2 we decided that I would go to the hospital and get checked out, and I started thinking that this was it. I got it. After all this time taking the piss out of Swine Flu, I got it.


    Stupid me didn't think about it until about 5 in the morning that I should get some water to drink, so I stumbled down the stairs to get some water, and stumble back up stairs to bed, taking drinks of the water every time I woke up.


    I finally stopped rushing to the toilet at about 6 am and @hirondelle woke me up about 9 to see when I wanted to go to the hospital. She also wanted to get some food for me to eat since I was probably going to be quarantined to the house. I told her to go do her shopping and I would just sleep some more until she got back. I was beat, my whole body ached, my head was pounding, every time I moved my eyes to look some where, they hurt, and my bum hurt from going so much. She got back I showered and we went to the hospital to see the doctor. I got checked into the hospital and they directed us to place to take my vitals. I felt like shit to say the least, lol. She checked my temp, which was high, checked my blood pressure, which was high, which isn't normal for me, and my heart rate was high, again, which wasn't normal for me. I shuffled back out into the hall and waited for the doctor to see me.


    I went in to see the doctor, and this is when he informed me about my vitals, and said I looked really weak. Asked me a few questions and asked me to get up onto his table. He felt my belly and told me he was going to admit me at least over night. He told me I was dehydrated and he wanted to get fluids back into me. So I went back out into the hall with the nurses help to let @hirondelle know what was going on, and wait for a room.


    They brought me a wheel chair, which is the first time I've ever been given a wheel chair in a hospital. We waited around for a bit and then they took us up to my room. They also told @hirondelle that she can stay in the room with me, that there weren't visiting hours. They gave me some scrubs to change into because it would be easier for them to put the IV in me and such. So I changed, and they started getting things ready for me. One nurse came in and wanted to know what I wanted to eat for lunch and gave me an ice pack for my head ache and the other nurse started preparing the IV and the needle.


    The only problem was the bed was a little small for me, lol, but that's OK, because as you can see in the picture, I had pretty nurses to take care of me.


    I spent most of the day sleeping, waking up every time somebody came into the room. @hirondelle called Fon to ask her if she could take Spike since I would be spending at least a night in the hospital. After I got settled in, @hirondelle decided to head to the house to get a few things, like a book for me and clothes and such, and some things for herself, love the cats and to let everybody know what was going on, my family here at the NL and my family back in the States.


    After about 3 hours I had to use the toilet again, so I shuffled my way to the toilet and was doing my business. While I was in there, one of the nurses came in to the room, so I coughed to let her know I was in the bathroom. This is our conversation


    Nurse: Oh you are in the toilet? Pee pee?
    Me: Yes
    Nurse: Poo poo?
    Me: Yes
    Nurse: Remember sample. Call us when you are finished.
    Me: OK.


    The nurses were coming into the room at the most every hour to check my temp, blood pressure and heart rate. For lunch, I ordered a ham and cheese omelet, and it was the nastiest omelet and bacon I've ever had. For dinner I ordered a BLT sandwich. Before my dinner came, the doctor came to see me to let me know what my blood tests showed. I got a bacterial infection, which is from food, which is why I was running such a high fever and had so much diarrhea. And he asked how I was feeling.


    When my sandwich arrived, I found that I didn't get a BLT, I just got a bacon sandwich with this nasty sweet Thai mayonnaise. @hirondelle, the Goddess that she is, took all the bacon off of my sandwich and put it onto the toast that they gave me, then forced me to eat half of it, lol.


    In the morning, the doctor came in again to see me and to tell me that my blood pressure had gone back to normal, my temp was back to normal and so was my heart rate. I still had to take the last bag of fluid, but I looked better. I told him that I was also feeling better.


    @hirondelle decided to run home and get herself a change of clothes (she forgot to bring some for herself) and to check up with everybody online. While she was at home, the doctor came in again to see me and to see how I was doing. And asked if I wanted to go home today. I said yes, and he said OK. You can go home this after noon, but no fruit or vegetables for a few days and drink lots of fluids, and relax and that he was going to send some anti-biotics home with me.


    So we came home and I napped for a bit, and @hirondelle made me the best chicken noodle soup I've ever had. I'm feeling much better. Still have a bit of a head ache and a sore belly, but I feel good.


    And the best thing of all........


    I DON'T HAVE SWINE FLU!!


    Though it was confirmed at work that that was what I had.


    And a very strong reminder to me never to get anything from the T-Zone at work ever again.
  15. Timberwolf
    On Saturday, Tracy ( @hirondelle)and I flew down to Bangkok from Chiang Mai. We wanted some time away from Chiang Mai and we also had an appointment with an immigration lawyer on Monday (Today).


    Yesterday, we went shopping for a camera for Tracy ( @hirondelle)(she has been wanting and SLR camera) and we looked at a number of places, but nobody had the model she was looking for. Hell, most places didn't have have the brand she wanted. We settled on a really nice camera which she really loved. I told her that we weren't leaving Bangkok with out getting her a camera as that was one of the reasons I wanted to come to Bangkok. We also got some movies and some great books!


    Today we had an appointment with the immigration lawyer at 11. We arrived a little early, and he wasn't there. He was at the embassy for some things. Tracy ( @hirondelle) got a little worried at first because she hadn't confirmed the appointment before we left to come to Bangkok. I told her not to worry and I was pretty sure that he wouldn't forget, especially with all the correspondence those two had had. At about 11, he walked in to the offices and walked up to Tracy ( @hirondelle) and said hi to her, knowing her name, and came over to me and introduced himself to me. He asked for a minute to put his brief case away and to get our file, then invited us into the conference room. He took a couple of minutes to talk to us and get to know us and to tell us a bit about himself. And then refreshed himself on our case and asked us some questions taking notes.


    He had a great demeanor, and was very personable. We spent about 2 hours in his office going over what was going to be done, and about how long it would take. He asked for our passport photos, and Tracy's ( @hirondelle) were the wrong size. They were the size for British passports, not American passport, so his secretary took Tracy ( @hirondelle) out to get her picture taken again for the right size. While Tracy ( @hirondelle) and her were out we talked and he told me more about himself, and asked me questions about Tracy ( @hirondelle). When we finished with the meeting, he asked how long we would be in Bangkok, because he would have some of the beginning documents drawn up so we could sign them. We told him we were going to be in the area, because I had to go and talk to my old boss about getting my pay information for my back taxes, and he said that would be great.


    We headed out and stopped at the 7-11 so I could buy my boss a bottle of whiskey (scotch) as a kind of gift to and to help ease the process of getting my old pay information. After buying the whiskey we crossed the street to head to the office and here he was, heading down the street, I think he was on his way to lunch. We talked for a minute and I told him I had something for him. On the way back to his office, we talked for a bit and told him that we were planning on moving to the States and that we were here talking to a lawyer to help with the immigration process for Tracy ( @hirondelle) . He asked when we would be moving and we told him it would be about 6 months, give or take a few weeks, according to our lawyer. He asked what we would be doing for the next 6 months. He has always had hopes that I would come back to Bangkok and work for him again. He is a really nice guy and was a great boss.


    We got back to the office and found out that they are moving buildings by about the end of the year also. We talked for a bit and told him why I needed the pay information, and he was totally understanding. I then pulled out the bottle of whiskey for him, and he was very appreciative but said he couldn't take it as he is allergic to alcohol, and said I should keep it. And that he would really like to keep in touch with us and find out how we are doing in the States and everything.


    After we finished talking to my old boss, we went for coffee to wait for 3 o'clock to head back to the lawyer's office. We got back to his office and he was in a meeting and they told us it would be about 10 minutes, we were early again. When he was finished with the meeting, he came out and said hi, and he had to get the documents. He checked them over, but needed some fixing, but he would talk us through everything and fix it later.


    He explained what everything was for and why we had to sign this document and that document and why he had was having us sign so many copies, the USCIS and the Embassy have a tendency to loose paper work, and he wanted back up copies, lol. Over all, we are very pleased with him and glad we chose him for this.


    Once we get the last of the documentation and information that we need, he will submit our paper work to USCIS and get everything going for us.


    One of the good things is that there is a really good chance that Tracy ( @hirondelle)and I won't have to be separated at all during this process like the other lawyer had told us. And it should only take about 6 months, where the other lawyer also told us it would take about a year.


    So all and all, everything is looking really good. Also, with the Visa Tracy ( @hirondelle)will be getting, she will become a permanent resident the day she gets off the plane and will be able to start working when she wants. And she will be a permanent resident for about 3 years and then she can become a U.S. Citizen if she wants.


    We are very excited and very happy with him. All is looking good for us now.


    After that, we went and got me a new pair of sandals had died and were killing my feet. I got a really nice pair, and we also bought more BOOKS, lol.


    Will keep you all updated as we know more.


    Thanks
  16. Timberwolf
    Well, things have been a bit busy for me around here. As you all know, I've recently finished a number of skins, which I am very happy with. Just after finishing my latest skin, and just before heading to Bangkok, our desk top computer crashed. Well, the C-Drive crashed. Now that wouldn't be so bad if it was just the software, because then we could have gotten all the information off of the drive. But nope, the actual hard disk itself crashed. Which means we lost everything on that drive! All our pictures were on that drive. Everything saved in our network is gone as that was also on that drive. Now the good thing about that is this, the hard disk was guaranteed for 5 years, so we get a new 320 Gb hard disk for free. And we wanted to get a 1 Tb hard disk. So what happened is we now have a 1Tb hard disk and a 320 Gb hard disk, plus we will have a 320 Gb external hard disk. All our music and the movies we had on the other hard disk are fine. We actually have almost 200Gb of music, so that made me happy.


    Now, on to other computer things. I have recently been working on a new main page, history page and friends page. The new main page and history page are finished and they look pretty good. We are very happy with them. I'm still working on the new Friends page, and that is looking great. I'm just waiting on a few things from a few people to put the finishing touches on it. Once that's done, I will upload all the new pages.


    Now, onto non-computer things, lol. Our paper work is coming together really well. We just have a few more things to take care of, mainly my back taxes, but I got the paperwork from the company I worked for for 2006-2007 saying what I was making and I've contacted the CPA for American taxes to get those taken care of. Now I'm just waiting on him to get back to me.
  17. Timberwolf

    Going Back To Karate

    By Timberwolf,


    Karate
    As most of you know, back in March, I had knee surgery, which I wrote a blog post about back on September 14th, 2020.  Since before that, I've thought about going back to martial arts.  There is a place near me that teacher Brazilian Jiujitsu (BJJ), but to I have a few issues with going to that place, which I won't get into here.  To go along with that, I really wanted to go back to karate. 
     
    There are basically two (2) different disciplines in karate.  There is Japanese karate and Okinawan karate.  Here is a one of my favorite youtube people for martial arts, Jesse Enkamp, talking about 10 differences between Okinawan karate and Japanese karate.
     
     
    Now, there isn't anything wrong with Japanese karate or Okinawan karate, it's just that Okinawan karate was where I got my start when I still lived in the States.
     
    Now, in Thailand, I studied Japanese karate.  To be more specific, I studied JKS Shotokan Karate, which I really do enjoy.  I studied for about 3 years.  You can see my belt tests here with these videos:
     
    10th kyu (White belt) to 8th kyu (Orange belt) test:
     
    8th kyu (Orange belt) to 5th kyu (1st purple belt) test:
     
    5th kyu (1st purple belt) to 4th kyu (2nd purple belt) test:
     
    4th kyu (2nd purple belt) to 2nd kyu (2nd brown belt) test:
     
    2nd kyu (2nd brown belt) to 1st kyu (3rd brown belt) test:
     
    1st kyu (3rd brown belt) to Shodan (1st black belt) test:
     
    I felt so honored when I achieved my Shodan belt.  The problem was, my life got busy, and I moved away from karate for a bit, and when I did come back, I didn't agree with some of the things that I saw happening at the dojo, and I had a really hard time with that and I ended up walking away from the dojo.  I came back a year or so later, and it was pretty much the same, just fewer students.  
     
    Fast forward to November 2020, and I feel like I'm ready to go back to karate, actually, I'm kind of craving it.  So I went back to karate on October 22nd:
     
    https://www.facebook.com/Timberwolf1771/posts/10157352946052676 <=== My FB post about it.
     
    I have since done a total of 4 classes, with last night being my 4th class.  Now, I can't do as deep of stances as I used to, not yet anyway, and I can't quite move the way I used to, but I will get there.  It's just going to take some time, and I need to be patient.  Katas are slowly starting to come back, and I'm seeing different layers of the katas again which is nice.  Also last night, we were recorded doing the kata teki-shodan.  
     

    teki-shodan.mp4  
    I'm really happy to be back doing karate, and I'm looking forward to doing more.  I'm really looking forward to doing more karate.  I don't know if I will do any more tests, but I will keep learning and finding more and more layers to the katas.
     
    Always Remember:  You should do the things you love, even if you don't get the chance to do so in the autumn of your life.  Still do it, because you love it.
     
  18. Timberwolf
    Welcome family and friends. Today I start my new blog. A few days ago, we all started a new home here at The Northlands. And just a couple of hours ago, I started a new life.


    A five(5) months ago, our home crashed, burned and died. For whatever reason, our hosts server crashed. And for about two(2) months they answered my emails. About three(3) months they updated their main page, and stopped answering my emails. With their server down, I couldn't access any of the information to move our home. So, Tracy ( @hirondelle) and I decided to start fresh. We got a new board, some new skins, and some old skins and here we are. Welcome to ours and your new home.


    My new blog. I don't remember the name of my old blog on the old Northlands, but I decided to give blogging a try again. I will try to at least make some type of post a week. If I don't do it, feel free to give me a nudge, lol.


    Tracy ( @hirondelle) and I became husband and wife today at 12:30 p.m. Thailand time. It's an amazing feeling. I'm so happy!


    Our next step is to have the marriage documents translated into English (as we are in Thailand, they are in Thai).


    After that is to get Tracy ( @hirondelle) a visa so she can live in the States.


    One of the things we have been wanting to do is to buy a house in northern Minnesota. Either in Roseau, MN or in Warroad, MN. But we are having some issues. The biggest issue is getting a mortgage for a house. So far the one bank we have talked want us to wait until we get to Minnesota and come in and talk to them. Now this would be kind of hard for us. Why? Because while we are waiting on a mortgage, where are we going to keep our things? We have the furniture we want to bring with us, the electronics, the clothes and more importantly our pets, Lily, Roso and Spike. Now I am still talking to them via email and I will try to explain our predicament.


    But all and all, life is great! I'm incredibly happy to be married to The Goddess, and starting our new life together.


    Keep an eye out for us.
  19. Timberwolf

    15 Years

    By Timberwolf,


    Poems
    So, on October 9, @hirondelle and I celebrated our 15 year anniversary of being together.  On October 09, 2005, after 40+ hours of travel from Baltimore Washington International Airport (BWI) to John F. Kennedy International Airport (where I spent 8 hours) to Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (where I spent 2 hours in the middle of the night) to Taiwan International Airport to Don Muang International Airport, which at the time, was the only international airport in Bangkok just to hold @hirondelle in my arms for the first time.  I'd never traveled so far in my life, let alone to fly internationally.  It was so worth it! 
     
    🥰😍😘💌💘💝💖💗💓💞💕💟❣️❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🤎🖤🤍🤟👩‍❤️‍💋‍👨👨‍❤️‍💋‍👨👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩👩‍❤️‍👨👨‍❤️‍👨👩‍❤️‍👩♥️
     
    Yes, I know, that's a lot of hearts, but @hirondelle knows.   
     
    Anyway, for our 15 year anniversary, I decided I would write her a poem.  It was a bit last minute, but it was something that I wanted to do for her.  I have already given it to her, but I wanted to post it here as well.  I mean, this is one of the reasons I created a blog for, to share my writing.
     
    Oh yeah, before you read this, I made a mistake when I originally wrote it and something in my head told me it was 16 years.  
    I have since fixed it though.  
     
    15 Years
     
    Can you believe
    On this day
    15 years ago
    I stepped off
    Of the plane
    I couldn’t even
    Give you a hug
    Cuz of my bags
    So, I leaned in
    Oh, so close
    Just to be near
    To feel your body
    Next to mine
    You leaned up
    And kissed me
    Like I imagined
    1,000 times before
    We have had
    Some hard times
    We have had
    Some amazing times
    All based in love
    And now it’s been
    15 short years
    And I still have
    Not a regret
    I love you more
    Then I did before
    I love you
    My Darkness
    My Air
     
    ©October 8, 2020
    Domnick M. Dumais
     
    Always Remember: If you love somebody, tell them right now.  Don't hesitate.  
  20. Timberwolf

    2020 Honda BR-V

    By Timberwolf,


    Life
    For years, Tracy has been trying to convince me to drive a car. She wants us to do some road trips in the UK and here in Thailand. We’ve done road trips on the bike, and as lovely as those are, I’ve never felt comfortable with taking one puppy, let alone two, on the bike. Since I’ve started my new job, I travel farther for work. I used to ride for about 20 minutes to get to work, now it’s just shy of an hour, and Tracy has been concerned about my safety, understandably. I was starting to come round to the idea of driving a car here in Thailand, and then one day, on my way to work, I got caught in the rain. That normally wouldn’t be such a problem, but then, on my way home from work, on the same day, I got caught in the rain again! At least on the way to school, I could pull over and put my rain gear on, but when it happened on my way home, I wasn’t in a place where I couldn’t do that, and was soaked. I got home and told Tracy I was ready for a car. 
     
    We talked about it, and I told her that I wanted to go out with a driving school instructor, if they had them in Thailand, and practice driving so I could see what it was like to drive a car on the wrong side of the road and be on the wrong side of the car. 
     
    Now, in the States, I can drive an automatic and a manual, but as I felt everything would be on the wrong side, decided I wanted to start with an automatic, and get used to that. The driving school instructor said that was a good, because she only had automatic. The day arrived and she took me to a deserted area of Bangkok and we switched sides of the car and off I went. She took me through some Bangkok traffic, a lot of Bangkok traffic actually, , then she took me to a parking garage at a mall to try parking, but it was full, so she took me out on to the express way and we drove out to the airport and back. Then through some more Bangkok traffic and back to our apartment. When I was finished, she said I was fine and could take my driving test any time I wanted.  
     
    Now, for cars. Tracy and I did a lot of talking about cars, should we go new, should we go used. We decided on used, and an SUV, so we looked at some of the used car dealerships here in Bangkok, and first we looked at a Mitsubishi Pajero Sport, but thought we wouldn’t be able to get it into the parking spot. Next, we looked at the Nissan Juke. Nice little SUV, but Tracy felt I was almost too big for it. After that, we looked at a Ford EcoSport. We almost got one of these, but in the end, we felt we couldn’t trust used car dealerships. 
     
    So, we decided to go for new. I did a ton of researched on car makes and models, and wanted the best we could get within the budget we had set, and still get an SUV if possible. Once we decided what we wanted, we contacted dealership and went in to talk with them about what we wanted. Interesting thing, in my experience, when getting a new car in the States, you start off with a barebones model and as you add options, your price goes up. Here in Thailand, at least for the car we chose, we chose the model and it was a certain price (not going to discus how much we paid), and that’s with all the options. If you wanted to pay less, they start removing options. This was great for us, because then we could get everything wanted and the price would remain the same. 
     
    So, we ended up going for a Honda BR-V. Here in Thailand, they have 2 versions of it. There is the V and the SV. The V is a 5 seater and the SV is a 7 seater. We decided on the V version because we wanted more room in the back for the puppies and for my hockey gear. 
     
    We picked up the car last night and it’s amazing! And there is so much more space in the back than we thought. We need to get more puppies.  
     
    Sorry about such a long post, but I’ve been holding this in for a few weeks. 
     
    Anyways, my positive of the day is getting a new car! 
     
    Always Remember: If there is something you want, it's never to late to get it.
  21. Timberwolf

    Knee Surgery

    By Timberwolf,

    **WARNING – THERE WILL BE SOME GRAPHIC IMAGES OF THE INSIDE OF MY KNEE—WARNING**
     
    So, to start things off, I want to give a bit of a history.  I’ve led a pretty active lifestyle.  I learned how to skate when I was 2 and started playing hockey when I was 4 and I played until I was 18.  I also played soccer for a year, baseball for about 4 years, softball off and on throughout the years, American football for 3 years, professional wrestling for about 3 years, and martial arts off and on since I was 6 years old.  Also, I just started playing hockey again when I was 46 and played regularly for the last 3 years.
     
    To say that I’ve had injuries in my life is a bit of an understatement.  I’ve had sprained ankles, torn ligaments in my fingers and strained knees, just to name a few things.
     
    The first time I had any serious issues was when I was in the Navy.  This would be back in about 1991 or 1992.  I started having some pain in my left knee, and then I noticed that I had a lump on the side of my knee.  I went to the corpsman on base to have it checked out.  At first, they told me it was just strained ligaments and gave me some ibuprofen.  That went on for a few weeks, but it didn’t help anything.  I remember looking in their medical book and seeing something the describe all the symptoms that I was having, so I questioned him.  He didn’t like that very much, but I ended up being right.  They eventually did send me for an MRI and found out that I had a cyst on my knee.  The civilian doctor they sent me to decided that he wanted to go in and look into my knee to see what was causing the cyst.  Come to find out, part of my meniscus was deteriorating, which was causing the cyst, so he removed that part of the meniscus and the cyst ended up going away.  Now, I wasn’t a very good patient, and that night, I was at the pool hall on base and was shooting pool, walking around the pool table.  Not good for healing, but things worked out OK.  
     
    Now, it’s been 29 years since that surgery, and I’ve played softball, practiced and taught yoga, studied Tai chi, studied Muay Thai, went back to karate and earned my Shodan (first degree black belt), gone back to ice hockey and played ball hockey.  All of which I’ve enjoyed.  I’ve had some bumps and bruises along the way, but nothing major.
     
    As a matter of fact, the worst injury that I had (until recently) was when I strained a ligament in my finger, which I did during a karate class.  Was actually kind of funny.  I thought I had dislocated my finger, so I kept trying to pop it back into join, but nothing was happening.  It didn’t hurt at that moment, so I kept trying.  I showed my Sensei, and he said I should go to the doctors, which I did the next day.  Strained ligament in my finger, which cause the end to drop.  
     
    After that, I had tendonitis in my shoulder, but that’s wasn’t too bad, they just had me do rehab and they gave me a shot, and some exercises to do.
     
    About a year and a half ago, I was playing in an ice hockey tournament here in Bangkok, in one of the games, I clashed skates with another player and when down on my knees hard and popped my left knee out of joint, but when I stood back up, it went right back in.  I didn’t think much about it as this isn’t the first time that’s happened.  It happens when it pops out, while it’s out and when it goes back in, then it feels fine.  It was sore after the game, but nothing bad.  I finished up playing in the tournament and playing in the Bangkok Ice Hockey League (BIHL) and playing shinny every week for the Flying Farangs.  Some days, it was sorer than others and it would pop out of joint more often than before.  It was popping out of joint at least once a day.  That was a horrible feeling.  Sometimes, I would be sitting at my desk at work and pull my foot in under my chair, and my knee would pop out of joint.  I would have to slowly push my foot back out, sometimes with my other foot, just to get it to pop back into joint.  
     
    Then, this past February (2020), I was asked to put together a team for an ice hockey tournament in Chiang Mai.  This was the first time I had put together a team for a tournament, so it was pretty exciting.  I decided to take a couple of weeks off from hockey to rest my knee before the tournament.  After the first game, my knee felt pretty good.  During the second game, I did something to my knee, I don’t know what, but it was sore after the game. It was progressively sorer after each game.  When we got back to Bangkok, I decided to take a month off hockey to rest it.
     
    After I was feeling up to it again, there was an open shinny night for the SHL, so I decided to sign up for it and play.  After the game, I was feeling great.  I didn’t take any bad falls or twists or anything like, and my knee felt really good.  The next day, I felt great as well.  No pain or any issues.  This SHL shinny was on a Sunday.
     
    That Wednesday, I had a demo lesson with a new school.  I was in a separate room, with some other teachers, waiting my turn to put on my demo lesson, sitting in a little chair made for kindergarten students.  I stood up to walk around and was suddenly in so much pain.  There was definitely something wrong with my knee.  I couldn’t put any weight on my leg because my knee felt so bad.  I tried walking it off, but nothing helped.  When it was my turn to do the demo lesson, I apologized to the school and let them know that I had hurt my knee somehow, but I still did the demo lesson.  After that, I got back on my bike and had to ride 45 minutes home.  When I got home, I relaxed and laid down a bit, in hopes that the pain would go away.  After about an hour, the pain didn’t go away.  I was starting to worry that I had done something to the ligaments in my knee.  Tore my ACL or MCL or something.  We decided to go to the hospital to see a doctor.
     

    The doctor was pretty cool.  His name is Cholawish Chanlalit.  He listened to everything I said, gave my knee a thorough check, twisting it and turning it, which hurt like a sombitch, and then send me for an x-ray.  As is usual with things like this, the x-ray didn’t show much, and he put an order in for an MRI.  He also put in for me to see a physio therapist one time and got me some crutches to use.  After my MRI, they doctor told me that there was some cartilage damage in my knee, and he wanted to go in and clean out the damaged cartilage as well as perform microfracture surgery, which is where they drill small holes into the bone to get the marrow blood to bleed into the space where the cartilage has been removed.  What this does is it creates a cushion like cartilage from the blood, but the blood must set, so you can’t walk on that leg for a couple of weeks.
     
    What the MRI didn’t show was that my meniscus was torn.  So, when he was inside my knee, he cleaned up the cartilage, drilled the holes in the bone and then stitched the torn piece of meniscus back in place.  
     
    Because of this, I couldn’t walk for 7 weeks.  From not walking on my left leg for 7 weeks, I had to then rebuild all the muscle in my left leg and around my left knee.  This felt like such a long healing process to me, and the healing process had just begun.  
     
    So, I was on crutches for 7 weeks, and the good thing about this is that it was during our lockdown period, so I couldn’t really go anywhere anyway.  Once I got the go ahead to start walking, I started walking as much as possible.  Walking with a heavy limp, but still walking.  Going up and down stairs and damn did it hurt, but I kept doing it.  I also started seeing a physiotherapist to help rebuild the strength in my leg the correct way.  This was so difficult for me, because I’ve always had fairly strong legs, and I felt so weak in my left leg.  Just doing body weight squats was really difficult for me, but I kept working on it.  I did lots of walking, sometimes maybe a little bit too much walking, but it felt good.  I still wasn’t allowed to skate yet, which sucked.  The doctor told me that maybe by I will be able to skate and play hockey in October.
     
    So, after about 13 weeks of physiotherapy, my doctor said I could start skating and rollerblading again, because it is a non-impact on the knee joint.  I waited about 2 weeks, and then I tried to go rollerblading, but I was told to stop, because they didn’t allow rollerblading in the park we were at.  Then, a week later, I went with some friends to one of the local ice rinks to take them skating for the first time.  I didn’t go fast, and I didn’t go hard into turns or stopping or anything, I just took it easy.  It felt so good to be back on the ice.
     
    These last few weeks, the strength in my left knee seems to be almost as strong as the strength in my right knee, which is great. This is all to how hard my physiotherapist has worked me.  There have been so many times, especially lately, after our sessions, my legs have felt so weak, but that’s good.  It’s nice to feel the strength and mobility returning to my knee.
     
    Well, sorry for being such a long post, I hope it wasn’t too boring, but I had a lot to say.
     
    Always remember: No matter what bad things happen in your life, if you want it bad enough, you can fight through it.
     
  22. Timberwolf

    Krabi 2019-2020

    By Timberwolf,

    This year, for New Years, we decided to do something special.  @hirondelle, Stef and I decided to spend the turning of the decade at one of @hirondelle and mine favorite places.  We wanted to go down to Krabi to Railay.  One of the nice things about Railay is that it is on a peninsula where you can walk from the east side to the west side in about 5-10 minutes, so you can get amazing sunrises in the morning, hang out at some awesome beaches and then get an incredible sunset.
    @hirondelle and I have been to Railay two other occasions.  The first time was when @hirondelle took me there 14 years ago before I started working in a school for the first time.  We went there in May, which is the end of the season, so there were very few people.  We stayed at Railay Bay Resort & Spa.  The first time we stayed there, it was so basic.  They had like 3 or rows of cottages/bungalows and a row of multi-level suites.  There was a dirt path that ran down to the beach.  The beach was amazing, and on our second day, we found this lovely little coffee shop that made fresh coffee.  You could hang out there, and if you didn't have something to read, they had a shelf full of books for you to take a look at.  The second time we went, it was in October, which was the end of high season, and we stayed at the same resort, Railay Bay Resort & Spa, but everything changed so much.  the villas were much nicer, and most of the villas had their own private out door jacuzzi.  It was still really nice.  
    This time, when we decided to go, we looked at Railay Bay Resort & Spa, but it was so expensive, we decided to stay at a resort just north of Railay Bay & Spa at a place called Railay Phutawan Resort, which is in the mountains a little bit, which was cool.  They also had a lovely little cliff/mountain that people could learn to climb on, which was pretty cool.  I took a great nighttime photo of it.
    One of the lovely things about staying at Railay, is you can't drive to it.  You have to fly into Krabi town, go to the shore, and get a boat to Railay.  So we arrived at Railay Bay East, and climbed into a trailer attached to a tractor and drove us up to the resort.  When we got up there, our room wasn't quite ready yet, so they had us go up to the bar area, which kind of over looks all of Railay East and West.  Beautiful view.  We sat there for a bit and had a drink and relaxed.
    Our first day in Krabi, we spent just unwinding and recovering from getting up so early for our flight to Krabi.  It was nice though. 
    Our second day, Stef took us to this beach that previously could reach by taking a sea kayak to.  Apparently, they made a walk way from Railay Bay East to this beach just south of Railay Bay East and West.  All I can say, is this is the most packed I've ever seen this beach to be.  I couldn't believe it.  I've not seen this many people on a beach since I'd been to Misquamicut Beach in Rhode Island back in the early 90's.  We did eventually find a nice place under some trees back up from the beach.  Stef and I did have a quick swim in the sea, but Stef was being stung by jellyfish larvae, so we decided to get out. 
    After a bit, we decided to go have some pizza at a place Stef knew about on the East Bay.  We some pizza for lunch and some beers and relaxed.  I got some some great pictures of Stef and @hirondelle while we were at the pizza place.  I tell you, I'm one of the luckiest men in the world.
    After we finished our pizza, Stef wanted to take me to this massage place that she went to the last time she was in Krabi, but it was closed, so we wandered back up East Bay and found another place.  We both got oil massages and they were really good.  After our massages, Stef and I headed back to the hotel to get @hirondelle to go have dinner.  Stef fancied a burger, so we found a place on Walking Street that did burgers with a guy that playing guitar, so we decided to eat there.  The music was decent, but the burgers were kind of shit.  First, they didn't have cheese, and then when we got them, they were really small.  At least I had some great company.  ❤️ 
    The next day, we hung out around the resort mostly, but then in the evening, we decided we wanted to go have pizza at the pizza place again for dinner.  The reason why we decided on the east side, was because there were some Muay Thai fights going on at one of the local bars, and we wanted to go see them.  Once we finished dinner, that's where we went.  We saw a few fights, and they were pretty good.  No knockouts that we saw, but still really good.
    For our fourth day, we walked around a bit, but we had decided to have dinner at Railay Bay Resort & Spa.  When @hirondelle and I stayed here before, it was one of our favorite places to eat, because they had the best food really. and they usually have a great seafood spread.  Sadly, they didn't have have seafood, but we ordered some good food, and I got some great sunset pictures.
    The next day, was our final day.  It was New Years Eve, and our resort said we could book a table at their New Years Eve dinner, so we decided to have dinner at the resort, but I also wanted to try the kra paow burger at our coffee place, so we decided to go there for lunch.  That burger was awesome!  That night, we had dinner at our resort.  The food was really good and after dinner they had a fire show.  The fire show was cool, but the show was done with like teenagers.  Was still cool to watch.
    After that, we worked our way down to the beach to watch the New Years fireworks display.  The three of us hung out and chatted while we waited.  The fireworks were awesome!  I loved them.  Once the firewoks were done, we headed back up to the room.
    The next morning we caught our boat and headed back to Krabi to catch our flight back to Bangkok.
  23. Timberwolf

    Cotsy

    By Timberwolf,

    After I was re-introduced to hockey, you know, when I watched a BIHL game with @hirondelle, I was contacted by a guy about becoming a podcaster for his up and coming league, which sounded pretty cool.  What they wanted me to do was come to come to a few games and interview the player of the game for the SHL news.  So in the first interview after the first game, I interviewed Adrian Meyers, who gave credit to Jason "Cotsy" Cotsmire for helping them win the game.  At the time, I thought that was nice of Adrian.  As I became more involved with the hockey community, the more people talked about how great a guy Cotsy was.
    When I started playing hockey, I got to meet Cotsy myself, and we immediately struck up a fast friendship.  Cotsy suffered a knee injury that had prevented him from playing for awhile. and when he came back to hockey, he talked to me about his GoPro camera and this casing he bought for it that he could attach it to the net.  I told him to bring the casing and his camera and we would get it set up.  He brought out his camera, and we set it up.  He got some really great footage from those shinnies where he had his camera set up (see photo to the left).  It was a lot of fun.  I never actually got to play in a proper hockey game with Cotsy. only in shinny, but I got to watch him play quite a few times.
     
    Cotsy also helped out with the Flying Farangs websited, so when I took over running the it, I met up him Scott Murray at Cotsy's place so we could talk about what I had planned for the new site and also for Cotsy to transfer all the files over to me.  We spent a coupe of hours hanging out, eating pizza and chatting about the site and about hockey.  He showed me his goalie helmet collections.  He had somebody who would personalize all his helmets, and they were pretty cool.  He also showed me his hockey DVD collection, which was pretty impressive, and then he showed me his roof top balcony.  He had an awesome place really.  
    Last year, in one of the SHL games Cotsy subbed in the net, on December 13, 2018. He played for TRUE hockey, which was his first game back in competitive hockey.  TRUE did lose to Aware 4-1 that night, but Cotsy stopped 35 of 39 shots, which earned him the player of the game award for that game.
     
    Cotsy gave a great interview.  Even though TRUE lost, he was nothing but smiles.  This is the way I will remember Cotsy, always smiling and with a kind word for everybody.  No matter where I saw him, he was always smiling and happy.
    On December 1st this year, Cotsy was asked to sub again, this time for Aware against Hertz.  The first period wasn't so good for Aware, but they started making a come back in the second period.  With about 2 minutes left in the second period, Aomsin, one of the refs, came up to me and asked me if there was another goalie available because a goalie was hurt.  I quickly looked at both goalies and both seemed OK, so I asked who was hurt, and he told me Cotsy was hurt.  I went over to John, to find out if there were any other goalies.  He said no as the other two goalies from the earlier game had already left.  The end of the period sounded, and I called over the Jeremy, and John, Jeremy and I talked about it and came to a conclusion.  I could see Cotsy was on his knees.  We called Scotty over and explained what was going on.  He knew that Cotsy was hurt, and we explained his options, and he asked if they could go with 6 skaters instead of dressing somebody in goalie equipment, which was fine, so he went and explained it to his team, Aware.  While we were talking to Scotty, Aomsin assisted Cotsy to the Hertz bench.  Aomsin then came over to us and explained that Cotsy was having chest pains.  I got Brad, who is trained as a first responder and told him, then I told the rink staff to call the hospital.  I'm not going to go into all the details, but this is the most helpless I've felt in my life.  I didn't like this feeling.  Cotsy was rushed to the hospital with Scotty and John going with him.
    I got home that night with a bad feeling, but I spoke to Wolf and asked him to take care of Cotsy and his family.  I found out about 12:30 a.m. that Cotsy didn't make it. He had suffered a heart attack and died at the hospital.  I was floored.  @hirondelle held me while I cried.  I'm so glad she was there, I don't know what I would have done without her.  I decided to go to work the next day, but I wasn't worth a shit.  Thai funeral services last a week and often groups of friends or family will take on the role of host on certain days.  The SHL the Flying Farangs asked for a day and were given Tuesday and so on that day, all the hockey players to come in either wearing something dark SHL or Flying Farangs.  He was so loved, we had so many hockey players come to services.  I think his family appreciative that we came, and could feel the love we had for him. 
    I had shinny on Thursday, which was my first time back to the rink since Cotsy passed away.  That was really hard just walking into the rink.  I'm so glad that @hirondelle came with me.  There was such a subdued feeling in the rink. People were really down, but we all knew it needed to be done, and we knew that Cotsy would want us to get together to play the game he loved.  We started with a moment of silence to show respect to Cotsy and then we started the game.  As the game went on, people seemed to feel a little better.  It was very healing for our hearts.  There was more talk in the locker room after, not the normal amount of talk, but more than before the game.  
    Cotsy, you were loved, and we will miss you.  Get a shutout for me in that rink in the sky.
    Always Remember:  Live and love for today for we don't know what tomorrow will bring.
  24. Timberwolf

    Lion State 2019

    By Timberwolf,

    As you all know, I have gotten back into hockey.  I started off doing things for the Siam Hockey League (SHL).  After that, I got some gear and started playing shinny hockey.  For those of you that aren't Canadian, that means pick up hockey. 
    Then I was invited to play hockey on the Flying Farangs in a few tournaments. 
     
     

    Then in 2018, I was asked to play for Bunteng (which I'm told means 'to have fun').  The first year I played with them, we did better than the year before, which is what I hoped for.  The year before I played with them, they took 2nd to last place in the bottom division.  The first year I played with them, we took second place in the lower division, so that was a step up.  
    For 2019, Bunteng changed their name to Lion State.  With the name change, we got new jerseys, which you can see @hirondelle wearing at the right.  Pretty cool.  I was excited that they wanted me to be on their team again.  See, The Bangkok Ice Hockey League (BIHL) does things differently than the SHL.  The SHL has a draft every year.  They take all the players that sign up for full time play, put them in to a pool, and the four (4) captains do a draft, based on how they did in the previous season.  The BIHL allows the teams to come with their teams intact.  The BIHL allows each team to have up to seven (7) foreign skaters, the rest must be Thai.  Last year we had 3 foreign players on our team; myself, Scott Murray and Ralf Ditmer.  This year, I helped out captain, Ang Rattanachot, find 2 more foreign players.  I brought him Janne Kankaanpaa and Jesse Starosta.
    My team, Lion State seemed ready to go for our first game, and we were teamed up against a new team named Ursus.  I found out after this game that this was the first time they had played on a full size North American rink.  We won this game 9-0!
    Well, karma came back to get us, and we played Warriors A, they handed up a solid loss, we lost 0-7.  Ouch!  But, for the past 4 years or so, they have been the second best team in the league, and the last time we played them, last year, I think we lost like 14-0 or something like that, so we didn't feel too bad.
    Next up, we played Nakaraj Inter, which is the better of the two Nakaraj teams, and we lost 9-1.  Ouch.  That was a tough loss.  Next we played Young Ducks, and we did really well again.  We won this one 5-3, which put our record at 2-2.  For the final game of this portion of the season, we played Grizzly Bears.  Again, we really came together as a team and we won this one 5-1, finishing off the first half of the season 3-2.
    At this point in the season, the separate the teams into an upper division and a lower division.  Because of our number of goals and wins, we were bumped into the upper division, which meant we would be playing the better teams in the league.  The teams in this division were Warriors A, Thunder, Nakaraj Inter, Big Bulls, Lion State and Greatest Ice.  Really, my team, Lion State and Greatest Ice shouldn't have been in this division, but oh well.  We decided to make the best of it.
    In the first game of the second half of the season, we faced off against Nakaraj Inter again.  We were expecting to get our asses handed to us again, but we came out strong and actually led for most of the game.  When we got to the third period, we were ahead 3-2.  We ended up losing in the third period 5-4, which wasn't too bad at all.  
    Next we played Warriors A again and they really dominated us, and beat us 13-0.  Ouch!  Our next game we went head to head with last year's champions, Thunder.  Another game we got dominated in and lost 11-1.  
    Our next game was against Greatest Ice.  This is a team we should have beat, but we just couldn't get our game going, and I was so flat.  We ended up losing this one 3-2 in the closing minutes of the game.  Very disappointing.  Our final game of the season we had to play Big Bulls.  I have a lot of friends on this team, and they are better than us, but we really pulled together in this game and played better than we had all year and we ended up winning this game in the third period 4-3!  We couldn't believe it.
    The teams were now separated into three divisions; Elite Division, Division 1 and Division 2.  We did well enough to be in Division 1. 
    Division 1 Teams:
    OT-Yaksa Warriors B Greatest Ice Lion State As there are only four (4) teams, we only had to play two (2) games.  Our first game was against OT-Yaksa.  A team we lost to last year.  We were on a high from beating the Big Bulls, and it really pulled into this game.  Things got a bit physical in this game as well, and I got into a bit of a scrum in front of the net when they scored a goal.  They scored because they slashed our goalie to knock the puck loose, which upset me, and caused me to hit that player and sending him flying.  His team didn't take too kindly to this, and that resulted in a bit of a scrum in front of my net.  There were no penalties called, but things heated up.  In the end, we held on and won this game 5-3, which sent us to the finals to play for first place!
    In the final game, we faced off against Warriors B.  This was a hard fought game, not really too physical like the game against OT-Yaksa, but it really went back and forth, but in the third period we pulled it off and won 5-4!
    Talk about a fun season!  I can't wait for next season.
    Always Remember:  Don't stress about the future, and don't worry about the past, for now is what matters.
  25. Timberwolf
    When we lived in Chiang Mai, Thailand, we bought our first motorcycles.  We bought two bikes, a Honda Wave 100cc (left) for @hirondelle and a Honda Phantom 200cc (right).
    Before we got these bikes though, we had to rent a bike.  We needed helmets, so we went to a local helmet shop and bought helmets.  I didn't want anything fancy, and something that would just work and wasn't pink.  I felt that would be the best thing.  I got a really simple black helmet with white stripes that looked similar to the helmet here pictured to the right. 
    When we got our bikes, I felt this helmet wasn't cool for a cruising bike, so I decided to get myself a new helmet.  I wanted something that didn't make me look too much like a dork, but I wanted a helmet, because you need a helmet when you ride.  I decided to go with a "leather" covered half helmet similar to the helmet to the left.
    Here are the things I liked about having a half helmet.
    I liked feeling the wind on my face. It was easy to wear sunglasses My peripherals weren't restricted when riding. My hearing wasn't restricted when riding. After I lost @hirondelle's awesome Union Jack half helmet.  Sadly, I don't have any pictures of this.  When I went to buy her a new helmet, I saw a full face helmet, tried it on and it felt OK, so I bought it.  There were two things that I noticed about it right away:
    It greatly reduced my peripherals. It greatly reduced my hearing. I didn't think this would be much of a problem, and that I would adapt to it, but on more than one occasion, I scared @hirondelle because I didn't see and/or hear either a car or a motorcycle that was coming up behind me.  We discussed it and decided that a full face helmet wasn't the thing for me because of these two reason, so I switched back to a half helmet.
    When I went back to the big helmet shop, where I got my last two (2) helmets, I found a helmet that I thought looked interesting that was a half helmet, which looked similar to the helmet on the left.  Yes, I know it was a German Nazi style war helmet, but I didn't know that at the time, I just honestly liked the styling of it.
    This helmet was great for riding around town.  It didn't reduce my peripherals at all, and it didn't reducing the sounds I heard around me.  The only problem I had with this, was when I got up to 65 km/hr (40 mph), the helmet would start to lift off of my head.  That bothered me, but it wasn't often that I would be going that fast, only on road trips.  
    This helmet went with us, when we moved back to Bangkok from Chiang Mai, so that I wouldn't need to wear the small helmets that motorcycle taxi drivers carried for their passengers.
    When we moved from the house we were renting in Ari to the place we lived at in Sukhumvit 47, @hirondelle made a mistake and gave my helmet to our old cleaner.  She meant to give the cleaner her helmet, but it ended up being my helmet instead.  That sad thing about this, was that this cleaner was like my arch nemesis.  It was like WTF, but eh, it was probably better that I didn't have it any more as it did lift off of my head.
    After this, because I was riding motorcycle taxis a lot, a friend of mine, her boyfriend had a helmet that he didn't use, so they gave it to me.  
    I used this even when I got my next bike, which was another Honda Phantom 200cc.  It was another Fire Edition, but instead of the smoke grey, this was the normal red flame one.  I wore this half helmet, on the left, the whole time I had this bike.  One of the problems with this helmet was that when I would get up to about 80 km/hr (50 mph), it would slide off the back of my head.  Another problem with this was that the chin strap wouldn't stay in place.  Every time I would put my helmet on and take it off, it would loosen a little bit.
    When I got my next, a Honda Rebel 500, I still wore this helmet at first.  then, with Talking with @hirondelle about helmet, she convinced that it would be better to get a safer helmet.  This of course, Stef was all for, so I went to one of the helmet shops over near Saphan Kwai. 
    I tried on a few different helmets, and this is where I started to notice what some helmet said were larges, were too tight in spots, and other helmets that said they were large felt just too large.  I did finally find a helmet that fit well.  I decided to go with a face shield this time as well, so I got a bubble that snapped to the front of the helmet that fit me.
    I wore this helmet for almost a year.  One of the great things about it was that it didn't reduce my hearing, and it didn't reduce my field of view in the peripherals.  One of the problems though were that once I got up to about 70 km/hr (45 mph) it got really loud under the helmet, and also, when it rained, there is a gap at the top front where the bubble snaps to the helmet that water would just run through, and this would run right down onto my face.  A little annoying as I got the bubble to prevent water from running over my face, but I could live with it.
    Now, things got really interesting.  Now I know @hirondelle has been wanting me to be a bit safer on the bike.  Not really riding safer, but being safer in general on the bike, with gear.  An example of this was convincing me to get a better helmet than the half helmet I was wearing.  Well, roughly a week ago, Stef had come over to our place to see us as she had been out of the country for a couple of weeks and she missed us, and we missed her.
    We sat outside talking, and at just after midnight, Stef brought up that she felt, since I am riding more and longer, I should be more safe.  I needed a better helmet and I should have some type of jacket.  To be honest, I rebelled a bit, as I felt my 3/4 helmet was loads safer than my half helmet, and it was too hot in Thailand to wear a jacket.  
    Now, the reason the time is so important to me, is because this marked the anniversary of my mother's death.  I felt that this was my mother wanting me to be safe, and using the two women that I love to help me be safe.  To go with this, @hirondelle found a great video review on mesh jackets on YouTube done by RevZilla.
    So I did some research on the jackets listed in this video.  I also started doing some research on helmets.  Stef recommended a modular helmet, and a friend of mine, Ralf, used a modular helmet, so I asked him about his. 
    A modular helmet is a helmet where the visor and chin bar flip up.  One of the problems that some modular helmets is that they have a lot of noise, so I asked him about this.  He said his helmet didn't have any noise until about 140 km/hr (87 mph).  His helmet is a Schuberth C3 helmet, and I liked how it looked, and when he said he had no noise, that made me even happier.  Ralf let me try his helmet on, and I liked how it felt, so I figured I had found the helmet I wanted.  
    I asked Ralf about his helmet, and I did a lot of research about helmets and modular helmets, and Ralf sent me to place here in Bangkok, Thailand called Panda Rider, which has quite a lot of good quality riding gear.  This isn't your local little shop with no name helmets and gloves in there.  They carry licensed gear from places like Schuberth, Shoei and Rev'It, just to name a few.
    So, on Saturday, @hirondelle and I headed out to Ladprao to try find Panda Rider.  We arrived there with just a little less than an hour left of business.  The people at Rider Panda were great.  They didn't give us any funny looks for being there with less than an hour before closing, happily answered any questions I had, made suggestions for sizes.  They never rushed me, which was great.  Lastly, while we were waiting for my helmet to come from the warehouse, the sales associate helped me search for hard case removable saddle bags for my bike, (they didn't have any) and also talked to me about a communication system for helmets, so if @hirondelle and I wanted to talk, we could.
    First thing I looked at were the modular helmets, and I asked the sales associate for some help.  He had me try on a medium, and it was just too small.  Really pressed against my forehead.  So the associate had me try a large, and that fit perfect!  So we talked about what color I wanted, and he had his assistant head out to the warehouse to get the color I wanted.
    Next up, was a jacket.  I knew I wanted the Rev'It Airwave 2.  I didn't want anything heavy, but I wanted protection in the elbows and shoulders.  The Rev'It Airwave 2 is a mesh jacket with armor in the elbow and in the shoulders as well as a pouch for armor in the back if wanted.  The first jacket he had me try one was a large.  It was too tight in the upper arms, in the chest and in the stomach.  I couldn't even get it zipped up.  So he had me try an XXL, and that fit just right.
    Once we got everything organized and ready to go, they sales associate that his shop was having a sale next month, but because it wasn't next month yet, we could do a lucky draw and get between 10% and 30% off of the helmet.  The jacket was already on sale, which was awesome!  After everything was all said and done, the final price that we had to pay was actually less than the full price of the helmet. If I would have purchased the communication unit that night, I would have gotten 20% off, but I decided I would wait, when I come back, he said he would give 10% off when I come back.
    All in all, it was a pretty awesome time at Panda Rider. 
    As you can see from the picture on the right, I got all kitted up to head home.  The helmet was great. It didn't feel too heavy, and it didn't fog up, which was great, and the jacket, I could feel the air through it when I was moving down the road, which was great as it gets hot here in Thailand.
    Well, that's all for now.  I hope I didn't bore you all too much.
    Always Remember: There is nothing like traveling down the open road, be it 10 minutes of 10 hours, so get our there and do it!

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