Ok, it’s really not that hard to grock.

i grew up in the northeast of the united states, a place that can be super cold. i eventually moved to san francisco, los angeles and finally bangkok. i’ve realized that i hate the cold but going back to visit it for a few weeks can be really nice. it hit me recently how the line between living and dead is blurred in the winter. trees appear dead but are really just resting from the cold, flowers wilt away and then come back and with the lack of sun many of us get depressed and withdraw inside.
shot with a yashica 125G and agfa rsx II film, in new york and vermont. below are three diptychs from the series, the rest are here.

when i was in vermont, dad gave me a beautiful pinhole camera hand-made from teak wood. the “lens” is a hole cut via a laser is F138, which means that pretty much anything is in focus. exposures have to be long, about a second in very bright light and minutes indoors. these black and white shots were done with kodak tmax 400 film and the color shots were on agfa rsx II 200 rsa film (all medium format). if you like the first image, please vote for it over at jpgmag. if you like it a lot, tell your friends to vote for it too.

all photos were shot in killington, vt, usa and aside from some cropping have had no post-processing. the blue in the colors photos comes from the manner that the light reflected off the snow and played with color film.

click the image to view it larger in flickr.

i made a few corrections to the last post on idioms (thanks pueng and wan) and added in one more that i was having trouble translating properly (thanks pank). this next group is คำพังเพย which my dictionary translates to mean either axioms or proverbs. again, feel free to comment on my translations … and if you can think of similar axioms in english, please add those too.

1. น้ำท่วมทุง ผักบุ้งโหรงเหรง
   พูกมาก แต่ได้เนื้อหาสาระน้อย
   water floods the fields, morning glory (a leafy green vegetable) is little amount.
   when you talk a lot, but don’t seem to say anything.
2. น้ำร้อนปลาเป็น น้ำเย็นปลาตาย
   คำพูดที่ตรงไปตรงมาแบบขวานผ่าชาก ย่อมไม่ถูกใจผู้ฟัง ส่วนคำพูดที่ไฟเราะอ่อนหวานย่อมถูกใจผู้ฟัง
   water hot fish live, water cold fish die
   flies are easily caught with honey; it’s easier to catch flies with honey than with vinegar
3. ตำข้าวสารกรอกหม้อ
   หาเพียงแค่พอกินไปมื้อหนึ่งๆ ทำพอให้เสร็จไปครั้งหนึ่งๆ
   pound milled rice fill up a pot
   to get just enough food for one meal; to finish something one task at a time
4. เหยียบเรือสองแคม
   ทำทีเข้าด้วยทั้ง 2 ฝายตัดสินใจไม่เด็ดขาดว่าจะเลือกข้างไหน
   step on a boat two edges
   to support both sides because you can’t decide which side to pick; to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds
5. ไก่เห็นตีนงู งูเห็นนมไก่
   ต่างฝ่ายต่างรู้ความลับของกันและกัน
   chicken sees feet of snake, snake sees chest of chicken
   both sides know each other’s secrets
6. ฝนตกก็แช่ง ฝนแล้วก็ด่า
   ทำอะไรๆ จะให้ถูกใจคนทั้งหมดเป็นไปไม่ได้
   rain falls then curse, rain then scold
   you can’t please everyone
7. หัวหกก้นขวิด
   เที่ยวเตร่เร่ร่อยไปอย่างไม่ห่วงข้างหลังว่าจะเป็นอย่างไร
   head falls bends rams (or maybe butt against?)
   to wander about without worrying about what’s behind you
8. วัวใคร่เข้าคอกคนนั้น
   กรรมที่ผู้ใดทำไว้ย่อมสงผลแก่ผู้นั้น
   cow wishes to enter bent person that
   any one person’s karma (action, deeds) can impact someone else
9. เอาไม้ซีกไปงัดไม้ซุง
   ตัดค้านผู้ใหญ่หรือผู้มีฐานะสูงกว่าย่อมไม่สำเร็จและอาจได้รับผลร้ายแก่ตัวอีกด้วย
   take wood piece, go open wooden tree
   arguing with someone older or of higher status than you will not lead to success and will negatively impact you too
10. เด็ดดอกไม่ไว้ขั้ว / เด็ดบัวไม่ไว้ใย
    ตัดขาด ตัดญาติขาดมิตรกันเด็ดขาด
    pick flowers not at the end (of the stem) / pick lotus flowers not at the stem
    to stop communicating with friends or family
11. กินน้ำเห็นปลิง
    รู้สึกตะขิตตะขวงใจเหมือนอาการรังเกียจที่จะกิน้ำแต่เห็นปลิงอยู่ในน้ำนั้น
    drink water see leach
    to feel as if you were drinking water and found a leach in it
12. ขี้ไม่ให้หมากิน
    ตระหนี่ ขี้เหนียว
    shit don’t give to a dog to eat
    to be stingy
13. น้ำลดตอผุด
    เมื่อหมดอำนาจความชั่วที่ทำไว้ก็ปรากฏ
    water decreases stump appears
    when power is gone, the evil that appears
14. ตีวัวกระทบคราด
    โกรธคนหนึ่งแต่ทำอะไรเขาไม่ได้ ไพล่ไปทำอีกคนหนึ่งที่เกี่ยวข้องและตนสามารถทำได้
    hit cow collide with a rake
    to be mad at someone who you can’t do anything to, and instead take it out on someone else involved; to beat the dog before the lion

i really do hate the cold, except when it’s on the other side of a window from me and i’m not forced to go out into it. if i can get up when i want, enjoy a fire, relax and only go out when i feel like going for a walk or getting some exercise then it can be really fun … well for a few weeks at least. the real hassles seem to happen when i might have to get up early, shovel snow, wear way too much clothing and brave way too cold weather.

i’m up in Vermont at dad’s all this week, spending lots of time reading, studying thai (again), eating great food, drinking some amazing wines, having really good cheeses, reading back issues of the new Yorker, listening to dad read the obituaries out loud and just relaxing. i haven’t had a chance to see my dad, his girlfriend or my brother since they visited thailand, so this is really nice to be able to just spend a week hanging out. i haven’t practiced my ashtanga practice in a few days, but have been taking long walks in the woods with dad and zak every day.
as it seems to be all over the world, the weather is a tad fucked-up here too. it is much warmer than it has been in previous years and no snow yet (when i was growing up there were feet of snow by now). the mild weather has let us fall into this rather nice routine: dad and nancy get up around 7 and goes to work, zak and i get up around 9, we have coffee and read until noon, dad comes home to cook lunch, then hiking for 2-3 hours, back to nap, then dad or nancy cooks dinner, bed around 11.

when i saw the al gore movie, An inconvenient Truth, it was the first time in a long while that i felt any sense of national pride. watching my ex-vice president / man-who-should-of-been-president speak about climate change and climate problems with passion and dedication was a very welcome change from watching the asshole-who-is-president speak about killing people. al gore talks about how the increase in carbon gases in the atmosphere over the last 100 years has caused a very measurable change in our climate. he shows how average temperatures are increasing and as they do, the number of natural disasters each year increases too. when i notice climate changes each year, i can’t help thinking about the movie. each winter i come back to visit vermont it seems warmer than the previous year. my dad lives out in the middle of nowhere in a converted one-room schoolhouse. normally we can go snowshoeing right out the backdoor, but last year there wasn’t enough snow to go even once. this year they might eventually get some snow, but aside from a quick-to-melt dusting, it sure hasn’t happened yet.

the last two pictures below are from winter two years ago when there was lots of snow.

me trying to stay warm

with my brother at a waterfall that should be frozen by now

with my dad on top of a hill outside his house

me with my paternal grandparents and my cousin jessie

out hiking two years ago with dad and zak

chopping wood for the fire two years ago

i’m in kilington, vt now visiting my dad … there is snow on the ground, barren trees and not a chance of sun. in some ways it is really pretty. i don’t think i could stand more than a week of it and the temps have all been around the 20s-30s (F) which isn’t that bad i guess.

i’m staying at his girl friend’s house which is a converted one-room school house from the late 1800s, they heat totally with wood (which they chop themselves) and about 5 cars per day drive past the place. if it doesn’t rain later, we’re going to throw on snowshoes and head into the woods out back.

the cloud cover is too thick to see the sun and tell which way is east, so i just did my yoga practice facing the wood burning stove. it was the first time that i had practiced since last fri (almost a week), which is really too long but in some ways i think the break can be really helpful. when i practice 5-6 days a week, i’m always feeling the effects of the practice. when i get away from it and come back, i notice a change in the way that my mind and body feel.

click on pics to see a full version

see, i told you i was butch

dad with one (of MANY) wood piles

people in california should get a kick out of this

walking in the cold with my brother and dad

a somwhat frozen stream near my dad’s

a bird feeding out the back window

damn beavers

getting warm by the wood stove