smoking does hurt

7.25.14

A quiet overcast Friday, the Annapurnas are lightly hidden, the first rays of sun highlight patches of blue and let’s run to the top.  The Chinese in room six and four are Vietnamese, sorry about that, they’re at the top wearing their yellow star and red shirts and waving a big flag for everyone back in Hanoi.  

“goodbye my lover goodbye my friend” so sings the Spaniards who surely did not need to drink last night when they had a hookah sitting amongst themselves.  I completely missed it.  Ganji and cherry are actually kind of nice if one must confess.  The boys slept in and missed some majesty. 

I have offered to install screens for the six rooms.  How much you reckon?  They have to be measured and cut.  The labor plus the parts.  You’d rather have a flat screen?  Ha, let’s talk market place in a growing economy.  Competition.   And why is that important to you John if you don’t know what your relationship is going to be with the family when I am 67 years old and can no longer stay.   

I think I’m walking the Moti Way today.  Just go now while it’s still cool.  And wear your black silk t shirt which shows my girth quite well.  Nothing I wear is going to hide the belly so work it bloody off.  

Ram is below cutting buffalo grass.  He’s an interesting kid to observe, he’s got lots of quirky ways of beating himself up for whatever mistake he may have made or been accused of.  Asmita, the other young helper who’s been here for a year, is up with everyone to end of night washing dishes and with the Spaniards out she’s outside the rooms ready to clean!  Imagine that.  Sometimes we didn’t get to clean them until after 12 and here we are not even nine in the morning.  Go girl, you!

The 27 minute minute circle walk from and to room six is an excellent warm up for my efforts to lose what I want to lose.

6:30pm

Six hours in Pokhara shopping for food and screens.  Air conditioning is your friend, its air is clean.  Using it in the new car was something getting used to for the new owners and in the city during the monsoon it really helps when you’ve got a dozen to places to visit. 

A bursted cloud heads up the Kathmandu valley carrying a half rainbow that is moving with the thirsty cell.  It should hit the east end of the city in 20 minutes I’m guessing unless it turns or dissipates. 

My little hooka just tore a muscle in my rib and this could get a lot worse.  The ballooning of my left foot has gone almost completely back to normal.  The poisonous leech’s red circular bite zone is about a nickel size and it itches, meanwhile Ram comes in and he is learning to say “I am from Nepal” and it took a long time and I don’t think he is going to remember anything unless I ask him the same annoying question and I’m not going to do that.

9:16pm—The door is open, a San Miguel close by, my lower back weezes and wishes for me to sit up straight for a few minutes before slouching again on the edge of my bed.  Why not sit in a chair?

7.26.2014

I sneezed and the pain in my left lower back drove me to the ground.  I can’t cough without the pain.  Shit this could be a long day.  Sleeping was fitful, a moment of great gripping and then the chills and I can’t lie down.  And you’re gonna walk down to Pokhara tomorrow? 

An exceptional sunrise notwithstanding, this isn’t something I can stretch out.  The muscle is severely stretched, torn or both or it’s simply bruised nevertheless I don’t know what to do.  Wait it out I guess, like the leech bite, this throbbing indescribably painful episode will soon pass, right?  Meanwhile, no smoking, no sneezing, coughing, laughing.

A short nap was needed, the isolated lower left back pain is a stinker I’ll tell ya, having to get up and walk out of the dining room when I started to laugh which caused such pain, a sneeze I stopped half way, ouch, no coughing is pain free yet and if it is serious like a tear, I don’t know what I’ll do.

The weekend is today and large groups climb the mountain to the top.  Many are still doing the climb from where the sealed road to the city begins.  The sun is hot when it is out.  I did a quick walk to the top this morning, no mountains, not many visitors.  The Hill Top restaurant is one of the joints getting a new look, it’s the last restaurant in fact before you reach the mountain top and there sitting in front of her shop with a few handicrafts strewn about a much maligned and disfigured one who looked down, face pasty white bloated,  strange brown tracks cover her cheek and forehead.  Maybe she is sick, she’s looked like this for a while.  Sorry to know, I am and there is nothing else I can do about it but wish her well.  

Flights to the states next month are ridiculously high.  We’re staying put if necessary.  Well this cheap computer’s sound isn’t working so no music while I whittle the hours on a big clouds kind of afternoon.  A cloud shower is in the valley moving slowly west towards the city.  The rain fell hard during the night and I think everyone is fine with that arrangement.  The crazy dog barks at everyone walking by.  I can’t sneeze or else.

I should really be meditating on what I’ll do after UOB.  Should I really consider going back to school?  Would six months or longer in New Zealand be of profit for my long term plans which, there are none of, should I remain where I am, miserable place it is.  Of course it only takes one thing to change all that.

And of course there is 67, the last year I could work in Oman.  So, I plan the 16 year plan to be financially independent and to have a place to call home once and for bloody all.  Then there is someone who says such planning means you really don’t have the kind of faith the really holy people had.  You’re suggesting I simply let each day comes and when I am at that age, God forbid, don’t worry about a place to live or food to eat.  

I wouldn’t want to be a meteorologist in this area.  From atop the mountain you can see three rain squalls in the foothills, and further east, there is plenty of sunshine, meanwhile clouds from the north look ominous.  But it never falls and does when no one is watching.  Truthfully I don’t think a single person in this country follows the weather.  And for good reason, it isn’t necessary unless you’re a pilot.

Manab and another kid from the village are playing loudly in the dining room and seven French young people working in Dubai come in with a guide.  It’s 7.15.  Will they stay?  Why not, they’re using the internet, the first thing they asked before seeing the rooms.