The Great Satan – 1st October 2024

Now settled in for the greatest joyful genocide
Where evil is no longer ashamed to hide
Death and mutilation a spectacle cheered
No prayers answered or conscience cleared

A playground of rubble where the children lay slain
Brothers mop up the body parts that remain
Rag-dolled and ruined by murderous intent
Fires fanned by despair of the innocent

A holy hand grenade signed and sent with a laugh
Floating ashes never find peace on this path
This fertile ground may never satisfy the beast
Once the Great Satan has been unleashed


Today I’m feeling:

Good again. Exercised and awake. The rain is back, making things a bit dark and plenty of students didn’t bother coming to school today for whatever reasons.

I cancelled my first class to allow them to finish off other work that needed completing but will still take my grade 8s this morning, carrying on a little of what we did yesterday. Not too much stress.

Health:

Physical: 7
Mental: 7

Today I’m grateful for:

Chinese-made goods. I ordered a new cheap laptop bag on Temu last month and whilst it’s not as good as the one I had before, today I was very grateful to find out that it has an extra quality I wasn’t aware of. (see below)

The best thing about today was:

…well this was not the best but was the most defining moment of the day.

As I was sitting at 22 Grams this morning Amy messaged me that it was raining hard at home and a little later it was raining hard in the city too.

I didn’t think too much about it but noticed that the roads were starting to flood around the school as I went to my class, the rain fairly relentless.

After about 40 minutes I got more photos from Amy of the rain and then a message saying I THINK I NEED YOU AT HOME.

Soon after she called and was sounding hysterical as she told me that our road was flooding. I decided to leave and got back as quickly as I could which wasnt easy as the roads were inundated with water all along the way.

As I got on the highway near home, traffic was stopped and it took me a while to get through to the road that goes around the back of our house but the rice fields were already overflowing and making the road almost invisible. I decided to risk and drive through but once at the back of our house the corner was completely flooded to the bridge and impossible to get through.

I went back the way I came and back onto the highway but there was no way to get down our soi as I saw people walking up to their knees in water.

I got past the traffic lights and into Kotchapol and drove up to a dorm a little bit higher and parked the car there, walking back down to the main road where there was nothing for it except to wade through the water, through the traffic, down our soi and eventually home. It took a while as the water was moving rapidly in the opposite direction and I could feel my hip muscles tested and twinging.

Our house was fine but the rice fields were full already and the rain was still coming. Amy had moved things from the kitchen and I started moving things off the floor in my man cave. After about an hour the power went out.

I lay down for a while and the rain had thankfully stopped. I was enjoying eating but couldn’t sleep and when Amy suggested we go and check our car maybe move it, I thought it best to go before it got dark.

We hopped on the bike but got stuck in the soi before we got to the main road. I pushed the bike through until I could get it out of the water and we discussed what to do next.

I got the bike going again but it was struggling and I told Amy to go back home. I wanted to get to the car and bring my laptop home.

I made it to Baipad’s house where the bike stopped again and it took me a little while to get it going again. Eventually I made it through to the car and got my laptop and set off but I didn’t want to go back the way I came figuring that there must be an easier way back.

As I approached the hill, water from the main drainage ditch was flooding the road and a rescue truck was there in the middle of it. I decided to go for it and a guy waved me by but as I went past, unable to see anything of what I was riding on, I plunged down off the edge and into deeper water and I was suddenly up to my neck in it.

A few rescue guys came over and as my feet were on some firm ground I quickly hoisted my laptop bag up and into their arms and said I’m ok, get the bike up!

They pulled the bike back up and then me. I got set, asked for my laptop bag and pushed the bike through to the other side, much to the bemusement is gawking uni kids.

I waited a while and got the bike started again and set off looking for another way back and after a couple of flooded dead ends took the university road and made it straight back home without getting stuck again.

After getting out of my second set of soaked clothes I opened up my laptop bag and was amazed to find that it seems to be mostly waterproof and my laptop was still buzzing away when I opened it up to check. My phone all good too!

We got electricity back at 8.15 pm. Woohoo!

What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?

There’s some messages coming from the school about filling out a monthly report of all our classes and what we do in our free time.

I’m choosing to ignore it at this point but not sure how long that may be able to continue.

Something I learned today?

I learned that little Fino is a champion!

I took this picture because the water was creeping up all around. Auntie next door didn’t seem too phased by it all but she also lived here when it used to flood every year, well before we arrived.