The Expendable Spoon

When my friend Chris was leaving for his European backpacking trip, our friend Howard gave him a spoon to take with him.  I asked him why a spoon and here is what he said (as I understood it):

When we are young and just getting started in life we buy what supplies we can on our limited budget.  Cheap silverware, maybe mismatched plates from the thrift store, whatever we need.  As we get older, we are able to have more stability and maybe we graduate to a house, car, matching silverware.  So the old stuff gets thrown in the back of the drawer.  

But every once in awhile, we may have the opportunity to go on a trip or do something that requires packing a lunch and we need to take a spoon with us.  We don’t want to risk losing one of our nice pieces, so we grab the old forgotten spoon from the back of the drawer because it is expendable.  

We go on our trip, come home, wash the spoon and put it away, back in the forgotten recesses of the drawer.  Next time we need an expendable spoon, we grab that one again, and it comes with us on another trip, another adventure.  

Over the years, our nice silverware gets used, washed, and put away, but this old spoon gets to go on all the adventures with us, and after awhile, it starts to take on meaning.  We start to attach fond memories to it and it becomes more than the old expendable spoon, it becomes the adventure spoon.  

That’s why he gave our friend a spoon, to teach him that the ordinary can take on an extraordinary new life.  

As I reflected on that story, thinking what a great concept that was, he added: maybe some of us are like that, we are the oddballs, the expendable spoons, but we go on the greatest adventures.  

My friend is a genius.

(Clever spoon photo courtesy of Chris Domingo
Spoon story courtesy of Howard Martell)

Adventures in Air Conditioning

View from the window

My air conditioner at the first place I stayed in Chiang Mai, Thailand didn’t seem to work very well when I moved in.  At first, the temperature didn’t get below 85F.  I gave it a day or two and then I told reception that my a/c was not working.  They sent a guy up who looked like he was about 16 years old...

He stared at it for a few minutes...

Then looked at me and said “ok?”  

"Not okay!"  I showed him the thermometer. “See? it’s 30C, it should be 20C.”  

He stared at it some more...

and stood there, looked at me, looked back at it...

Finally he opened up the panel.  "Great," I thought, "we're finally getting somewhere."  

He finally took the filters out and washed them in my shower.  It seemed to work and that night it got so cold I had to turn it off!  Hallelujah!  

The next day it crapped out again.  I told the front desk.  They sent the tech up again.  

He stared at the unit for awhile...

Then he grabbed the remote, pushed the power button and "beep!" it magically came on.

I had no idea what he did, I swear I pushed every button on that remote, but it seemed to be working.  He handed me the remote and said "Ok?"  There wasn't much I could say, the unit was running so I said "ok, thank you" and he left.

That night, the air conditioner was still not working.  After fiddling with it, I finally figured out what was going on.  It would run for about 1/2 hour then turn itself off.  What that meant was I woke up every 2 hours sweating from the heat, turned the a/c on, cooled down enough to go to sleep, woke up two hours later sweating from the heat, etc etc.  By the third or fourth go around, I had a screaming headache.  

I went to reception the next morning.  I told them “you keep sending the tech, and he’s a nice guy, but he’s not fixing the problem.”  They said they will send a real tech from “outside” the next day.  Great, so that meant I was looking forward to another hot night.  I went to the mall to see a movie with a friend.  

When I got back to my room, from down the hall I could see multiple sandals outside my door.  I rushed in to see five workmen in my room, one standing on my chair working on the unit, the tech I had before, two sitting on the ground by the window from what I can tell providing moral support, and another walking around.  I said hi to everyone and sat on my bed and watched.  They showed me that there was a broken sensor that they replaced. That was finally the end of the a/c saga and I happy to say it has worked ever since!

Buddha Park, Vientiane, Laos

Having the whole day to kill, last night I did some research and decided to go see Buddha Park, which is this park filled with giant sculptures of Buddha and assorted other deities.  It was a long ride out there, I wasn’t paying too close attention but I’d say at least 45 minutes.  It cost 5000kip to get in, thank God the mini mart had given me change in kip.  It was crowded and pretty hot and unfortunately the time of day meant the lighting really sucked.  Most of my pictures as first were just black, couldn’t see any detail.

After walking around for 5 or 10 minutes, my bowels decided to protest and I got a bad case of cramps and diarrhea (did I mention I’m also on my period?  Great time to be traveling).  I thought I was going to shit my pants so I frantically looked around for a toilet, almost doubled over in pain.  I asked the lady "toilet?" and she pointed to a sign way on the other side of the field.  I hobbled over there, and they charged 2000kip to get in, which luckily was the other denomination the mini mart had given me.  I hastily handed it to the little girl, who couldn’t have been more than 7 or 8 years old, and hurried into the toilet.  

First glance, nasty, wet, and squatty potty.  Great.  I tried to find the driest spot on the floor I could and placed my back pack carefully on it, and balanced my purse on that, and dug out my toilet kit.  This consists of extra pads and wet wipes, which come in handy more than I’d like to admit.  

I organized all my pants and shirts and money belt and did my best to squat in the right place, hoping I would have good aim.  By this time my bowels were screaming at me.  I finally got into position and let loose.  Relief was slow in coming, but eventually I did the deed and cleaned up without making a mess, amazingly.  

I got all my pieces and parts put back together and looked at the toilet to see what kind of damage I’d done.  Amazingly, my aim was perfect!  I gingerly took the scoop from the bucket next to the toilet (eeewww) and hand flushed (yuck).  I re-packed my kit, picked up my gear, sprayed my hands liberally with antibacterial spray and, feeling much better, headed out to try and get better pictures of the statues.  

It was much easier to concentrate when I wasn’t in pain, so I actually got some decent shots.  Out of about 100, I got 5 really great Instagram shots and about 20 more that I just saved for myself.  I also got nailed by what looked like a four year old with a giant water gun. 

Happy New Year.