Greg

Normal In Las Vegas

Posted on by Laughingnomad

Had an outside lunch with son Greg, his Punjabi surgeon friend, Jody, and his wife Heather, and Greg Smith who was a classmate of Greg’s in high school.

Playing with Val, Greg’s 16 month old yellow lab who is constantly underfoot.  He is now jumping by himself in the pool and getting out and jumping in again over and over…shaking himself on us each time. “OMG, close the door!”

Son Doug calls from Salem, Oregon

Greg gives me a knife to carry for protection when I travel. He worries about me. Gives me a lecture called the Color Code of Mental Awareness

White:    Unaware of any threat in your immediate surroundings
Yellow:   Aware of your immediate environment
Orange:  Aware of specific, potential threat; continue to observe
Red:        Aware of specific, real threat; no doubt in your mind
Black:     The line in the sand is crossed by your assailant

I clean and polish all of Greg’s stainless steel cookware

Noi, my Thai friend Skype-chats me from Bangkok.

A high school classmate visiting here in Las Vegas will drive over to see me.

Great Greek dinner last night with Greg and erstwhile girlfriend, Adela, at a Greek restaurant

Naps during the afternoon.

In other words I am no longer aware of any danger in my environment.  It’s nice.  But Greg says I should always be aware.  Ok, so I usually am when I travel.  But I figure an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

An Unlikely Discussion About Bodily Remains

Posted on by Laughingnomad

This is actually kind of funny…

My husband wrote me and our three sons an email the other day telling us what he wants done with his body if something happens to him in Thailand…where he lives…where he has regular bouts of road rage…while driving…or dodging threatening cars while on his motorbike. I have to admit, drivers are worse in Thailand than they are in Mexico and that is saying something!

My husband:

I just stumbled onto a site re USA embassy procedure for a death of a US citizen in Thailand. The embassy makes an effort to notify the next of kin, coordinates wishes re transfer of the remains, organizes and disperses the personal property and forwards all the official necessary documents.

Not always a palatable subject but I do have some preferences: -no need to transfer any remains — arrange for a cremation in Thailand, ashes left under a tree anywhere.  And prefer no memorial service. – I have little personal property of any value in Thailand (beatup pickup, obsolete computers, generic TV, poorly functional gold clubs and misc shorts, T-shirts and sandals). I will arrange for local dispersal.

I am registered with the embassy and receive their periodic updates, warnings etc. It is a worthwhile feature. Statistically, most likely, I will be around for a while. But an accident –esp with my motorbike riding is always a possibility so when I saw what the embassy does I just wanted to express common sense wishes.

Also in Thailand the medical profession goes to inappropriate heroic measures to prolong life.  Shutting off a ventilator is apparently not an option so step in if I am incapacitated and veging inappropriately…

Not anticipating checking out anytime soon but just wanted to simplify any decision making……..

A friend recommended Effexor for road rage but received no comment…:))

Son number 1 who lives in Las Vegas:

Ok.

As long as we’re on the topic.

My preferences.

I want to be buried in the middle pasture at Black Butte Ranch. I’ve often thought about this. It’s the happiest and most serene and most beautiful place I can ever remember.

I dont care if it’s my whole body, but I think the BB folks would NOT be cool with something like this (full burial in public w/o permission with guests passing by with frowning faces) so it will probably have to be clandestine. So that means cremation and then plunk me under a cow pie somewhere while no one else is aware of whats going on.

Im serious. I dont want a headstone. I dont want to be in some no name cemetery.

As far as my belongings, I dont care about any of it. Disperse it, share it, trash it. It wont matter to me. My estate attorney, he’ll help with all that.

Ok. Got it? Black Butte Ranch. Cremated. Buried in the pasture, maybe a couple meters off the bike path that cuts across it. NO sign or maker. I just want to be where I can see the sisters, Mt Washington and Jeff.

K?

Got it?

Good. Im not kidding.

Afterward, hike up Black Butte, stand at the top breath the clean eastern oregon air and think, “it’s good to be alive and not under a cow pie!”

You dont all have to be there, but at least got to be one of you otherwise it wont happen.

(My day is coming, just like everyone else’s)

Then son number 2 who is married to a Thai wife and lives in Thailand:

creamate me, add the ashes to soil, grow a pot plant and my friends can smoke me.

Not a peep from son number 3 who lives in Hong Kong…yet…:))

I told my husband that in Mexico, where I am, any unclaimed bodies are cremated…no charge! :)) Of course all this is predicated on at least one of us being around to honor various wishes.:))

But all is duly noted..and recorded here…:))  Mainly so as to not drive future genealogists crazy who would uselessly be looking for headstones.

Waiting for Alaska Flight 624

Posted on by Laughingnomad

Had a heck of a time getting out on the plane in the worst storm in the NW in 40 years! After a two hour trip from Salem to the Portland airport over icy washboard Highway 99 because the freeway was plugged with snow plows, the HUT Shuttle driver kindly unloaded my 6 duffels and 2 carry-ons and then helped pile them all onto a cart at the airport. Then, hitting a bump, I dumped the whole load in the middle of the street in front of a block long line of cars! Thanks to the generosity of two young guys who refused a tip, (it’s for our good karma, they said) I made it into the airport! A nice gentleman helped me lift my carry-on into the compartment above on the plane! Now my 42 year old son and his girlfriend are heaping loads of love and care onto me!

May you all enjoy similar care from complete strangers as well as family!

Greg Misses His Wife

Posted on by Laughingnomad

Had a nice long visit with Greg (oldest son) last week. He tells me about the mini triathlon he ran that day…happy that he is back into running, biking and swimming.  And he tells me he misses his brother, Josh, who stayed with Greg in Las Vegas for a week while he waited for his visa to Hong Kong.  He misses Josh’s job as cook, pool cleaner, conversationalist, companion…all with no demands.  We laughed then.  Doug, third son, is due in to Salem from Thailand on September 7 for a month.  I’m going to make him do some work for his board and room! :)))  

Oregon In Summer

Posted on by Laughingnomad

Oregon is most delightful in summer! Everything is so green. And my mouth has been watering for local strawberries, raspberries, peaches and cherries. And Walla Walla Sweet Onions! Cars obey the rules, garbage is picked up and motorcycles don’t try to run you down. And sweet faces of old friends are a joy.
This blog has just been sitting here while I have been planting flowers and maintaining the house for the last month since I’ve been home. I’m not used to house maintenance. I’m not used to making appointments and keeping them on time. My inner mechanisms are a jambles. The world news is upsetting and I’m sick of the negative campaign and mindless pundits. So I have been planting flowers. And enjoying my home. It’s like being in a 5 star hotel after all the cheap guest houses in Asia.

A couple weeks ago I was treated with a visit from two of my sons…Josh and Greg. They were on a mission to see their 92 year old grandmother in Portland. Josh was in between jobs so he spent a few days here and treated me and some of our old friends to a wonderful dinner here at the house…4 hours in the preparation of. Just like old times. I loved the banter. I miss it now. Then he flew to Las Vegas with Greg where he spent a week or so before flying to Hong Kong to join his wife Amy and begin work. They are happy to finally be out of mainland China…especially with the Olympics coming.

I’ll have a month of peace before Doug arrives from Thailand the first week of September…leaving the end of October. And time to catch up on my reading. Finished “Bangkok Blondes,” a book of short stories by expat women living in Bangkok. And “Tales From The Expat Harem,” also a book of short stories by expat women living in Turkey. Now I’m reading a short history of the Balkans where I hope to go next fall.

I am looking forward to leaving the house in the care of a renter in November and returning to Oaxaca Mexico for a couple of months before going to Cuba and Guatemala with an American expat friend in Oaxaca. Then I hope to go on to other Central and South American countries before returning to Oregon next summer. So that’s the deal…taking advantage of a window of time while I am still able to walk and before the cost of airline fuel prohibits any more travel.

In the meantime I spend time on http://www.couchsurfing.com making friends in all the prospective countries I will be visiting. It’s an online community where you hook up with friends and arrange to stay with them…and they with you. And join CS activities in their local communities. If you travel try it! You’ll like it!

Xmas in Las Vegas 2007

Posted on by Laughingnomad

Spent last weekend with son #1 in Las Vegas. (He shines so bright I call him son. Sorry, my mother used to say that to the kids all the time.) Great time with sushi and a Lynard Skynard concert. It was my xmas since the kids are scattered from hell to breakfast….”kids” being 34 (Beijing), 38 (Thailand) and 40 years old (Las Vegas)!

Disneyland For Adults I call it. Many go there to let their freak flag fly. The brand message is “Whatever happens in Las Vegas, stays in Las Vegas.” This includes your money. No other city like it unless it’s Macau China. Unless you live there. Most locals ignore the strip. The morning after is referred to as the double hangover…one for money and the other for alcohol.

It so happened that my visit there overlapped with an Aussie friend that I met and traveled with in Laos and Thailand. Such excitement because we thought we would never see each other again! Greg took me to the hotel she was staying in. As I walked down a hall to the elevators I’ll never forget seeing her running toward me with her arms outstretched!

Visit From Son Doug

Posted on by Laughingnomad

My son Doug arrived in Salem from Thailand on Friday November 9th and hit the ground running…cleaning up the farm for the sale and tying up his loose ends in the area before he goes back to his wife on Koh Samui…all with the help of his personal assistant, of course…me! So I’ve been off the radar for awhile. I can tell. I am getting email from friends again asking me where I am now! Nice to have supporters trying to keep track of me!

For his part, Doug says he is mourning the sale of the farm. After all, his childhood was spent there…helping grampa feed the cows and eating grandmas fried chicken, fry bread and apple pies.

I’m getting a break this weekend. Doug flew down to Las Vegas yesterday to have brother time with Greg. We left Salem at 4:30pm and after nearly three hours in bumper to bumper traffic finally arrived at the airport at 7:25 for a 7:30 flight. Upside of flight delays. He surprisingly made it on the plane in time. But the packed freeways in the valley were a big surprise for me after being out of the country for the better part of the last six years!

Contemplating Leaving

Posted on by Laughingnomad

My one year visa in Mexico expires August 8. After visiting my son Greg in Las Vegas I should be back in Oregon by the middle of August…driving from Oaxaca to Queretaro to pick up my friend Patty who will be my traveling companion along the way. I have mixed feelings of course. Returning to my home country will be the measure of things great and small. In the fall I will return to Asia to visit son Josh and his wife Amy in Beijing and son Doug and his wife Luk in Thailand.

In the meantime I am reading my irreverent, indepensible, if tattered, “The World’s Most Dangerous Places” by the consummate journalist Robert Young Pelton. After Asia, maybe a visit to Syria? Or…? Then maybe a return to Oaxaca to get that language down after all.

A regular columnist for National Geographic Adventure, Pelton produces and hosts a TV series for Discovery and the Travel Channel and appears frequently as an expert on current affairs and travel safety on CNN, FOX and other networks.

“The United States has a very comprehensive system of travel warnings,” says Pelton, “but conveniently overlooks the dangers within its own borders. Danger cannot be measured, only prepared against. The most dangerous thing in the world,” he says, “is ignorance.”

Welcome to Dangerous Places…”no walls, no barriers, no bull” it says in the preface. “With all the talk about survival and fascination with danger, why is it that people never admit that life is like watching a great movie and–pooof–the power goes off before we see the ending? It’s no big deal. Death doesn’t really wear a smelly cloak and carry a scythe…it’s more likely the attractive girl who makes you forget to look right before you cross that busy intersection in London…

It helps to look at the big picture when understanding just what might kill you and what won’t. It is the baby boomers’ slow descent into gray hair, brand-name drugs, reading glasses, and a general sense of not quite being as fast as they used to be that drives the survival thing. Relax: You’re gonna die. Enjoy life, don’t fear it.

To some, life is the single most precious thing they are given and it’s only natural that they would invest every ounce of their being into making sure that every moment is glorious, productive, and safe. So does “living” mean sitting strapped into our Barca Lounger, medic at hand, 911 autodialer at the ready, carefully watching for low-flying planes? Or should you live like those folks who are into extreme, mean, ultimate adventure stuff…sorry that stuff may be fun to talk about at cocktail parties, but not really dangerous…not even half as dangerous as riding in a cab on the graveyard shift in Karachi.

[A big part of] living is about adventure and adventure is about elegantly surfing the tenuous space between lobotomized serenity and splattered-bug terror and still being in enough pieces to share the lessons learned with your grandkids. Adventure is about using your brain, body and intellect to weave a few bright colors in the world’s dull, gray fabric…

The purpose of DP is to get your head screwed on straight, your sphincter unpuckered and your nose pointed in the right direction.”

I love it.

New Year’s In Las Vegas

Posted on by Laughingnomad

Went to Las Vegas to spend a week with my son Greg over New Year’s. Greg and I went to bed New Years Eve at 10:30…he got called in at 1:30am for an emergency…a four year old had gotten bit on the face by the family pet Dachsund. The dog was sleeping and when the child leaned over to kiss it the dog became alarmed and bit him. Sad. Then Greg had to get up the next day at 5am to work again. New Years Day, Greg had a bunch of friends over to eat pizza and watch a Bowl game. I felt like I had entered a time warp after being in Oaxaca.
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Greg in the brown shirt on the couch

Now it’s weird being back…from one galaxy to another and back again! Plane left 1am on the 5th so getting here at 11am left me pretty frazzled. Really enjoyed Greg and his friends…so high energy! But relief to get back where things are slower. Didn’t even go to one casino. They just leave me feeling vacuous. Just hung around his house…wallowing in luxury and convenience. Toilet seat didn’t even slip around when I sat down. Did some computer parts shopping…got a strobe light for my video camera…missed filming some things here over Christmas because I didn’t have one. And got a connector for my 20 inch flat screen. Now can watch movies and not lose my eyesight. Greg now has my desktop G5…just couldn’t bring it down here on the plane…plane from Houston to Oaxaca is one of those tiny two seats on one side and one seat on the other configurations…tiny overhead. Cooked some nice meals for Greg and his friend Mike who is staying with Greg until Mike lands a job…much to their delight…but mostly stuff I missed eating myself..like rack of lamb!

Have been burning and uploading videos of the last seven months of the teacher strike here. And videos of fiestas and parties…all can be accessed on “My Links” in the column on the right hand side of this web page.

About Me

Posted on by Laughingnomad

Backpacked The Hippie Trail In The 60’s? If Not It’s Not Too Late!

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Taking the kids to Mexico, the grandparents to Hawaii and ourselves to Central Asia in the mid 1990’s on an 18 day trek in the Atlas Mountains had pretty much been the extent of our international travel together. Bob had climbed Mt. Rainier and Mt. Kilomanjaro and some of the lesser mountains in Nepal and Tibet but he thinks climbing mountains is a thing of the past for him. “Crossing borders and boundaries…climbing cultural mountains much less painful and ultimately more rewarding,” he says.

So in 2002, after Bob retired from 35 years as a pediatrician in Salem Oregon and I retired as an educational administrator and after raising our three sons, Greg now 41, Doug 39 and Josh 35, we rented our house and set off for a year around the world with only our backpacks. But we didn’t honestly do the “Hippie Trail.” Landing in high-rent London in February, we forged our own trail and moved quickly through France, Spain and Portugal. Looking for warm weather we finally found it in Morocco.

Then back to Southern France, Spain and Italy before moving on to Athens, the islands of Sifnos and Santorini in Greece, Cairo and Luxor in Egypt and finally to Nairobi Kenya where we took an overland truck with about 15 twenty and thirty-somethings from England, Australia and New Zealand for a month and a half through East Africa (Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia and Botswana) and across to Namibia on the Atlantic and down to South Africa where we, desperate to be in one place for awhile, rented an apartment for a month in the beautiful Cape Malay district of Capetown.

After a few days in a bed and breakfast in Soweto, the Black township near Johannesburg, we flew to Mumbai, India…in hot July…which, after Rajistan and New Delhi, made Bangkok Thailand feel luxurious! After backpacking through Thailand, Burma, Laos and Vietnam and Cambodia we spent two months in a cold wintery China with no central heating and gratefully ended the year on a beach in the Philippines.

A year eventually became four years. A few months after we returned home, Bob took off for Argentina, Chile and Uruguay.

When Bob returned home, and with our then unmarried sons living in Las Vegas, Thailand and New York, we found ourselves ready to hit the road again. So in July 2004 we rented the house again, flew to Frankfurt Germany, traveled across Eastern Europe including my maternal ancestral home, Poland, and on to home stays in St. Petersburg and Moscow. Then we took the Trans-Siberian Railway across Asian Russia and through Mongolia to Beijing…spending two more months in China before going on to Southeast Asia again (Burma, Viet Nam, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos). After a month driving around the island of Bali we returned to Thailand.

In the meantime, our son, Doug married his Thai girlfriend so we spent several weeks in Krabi Province visiting them…Doug and Luk having barely escaped the tsunami with their lives the day before we arrived! They now live in a little Thai-style bungalow on the island of Koh Samui and welcome visitors.
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We emailed our renters to not pack up anytime soon, however, and we sublet a furnished apartment from September 2005 to January 2006 in Brooklyn so we could be near our son Joshua who was a chef at the Tocqueville Restaurant near Union Square in Manhattan at the time. Upon arrival Josh and Amy, who was getting her PhD in history and was teaching at Rutgers University, surprised us with wedding plans that would take place at the Brooklyn courthouse in two days!
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Our oldest son Greg who is an anesthesiologist in Las Vegas, visited us later in New York.
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January 2006 saw us in Thailand again…I spent a month in Bangkok getting dental and medical work completed and then to Koh Samui Thailand to spend a month with Doug and Luk while Bob disappeared somewhere in the Thai environs. After Bangkok I went to Chiang Mai in Thailand for a month and on to Laos for the rain festival in April.

With the renters out of the house by this time, Bob flew back to Salem on March 29, 2006. I flew back to Bangkok to catch a flight to the States at the end of April. I visited my son Greg in Las Vegas before continuing on to Salem to pack up my stuff for my move to Oaxaca Mexico June 1 2006. Bob rented the house in Salem for two more years and returned to Thailand with a year-long visa in August 2006.

Josh and Amy and about a dozen friends celebrated their “real” wedding on Poipu Beach Kauai Hawaii in July. Josh then took a position as Chef de Cuisine of the new “One East On Third” restaurant at the Hilton Hotel in Beijing China. Amy followed at the end of her term teaching at Rutgers in September 2006. She taught history at an international school in Beijing.

A year became 6 years. I obtained a one-year Mexican visa to live in an apartment in Oaxaca City. Oaxacan teachers were striking and had been camped out in the Centro for a month when I arrived June 1 2006…at once educational and harrowing. They have been striking every year for the last 26 years. They were finally driven out of the city on November 25 2006 by Federal Riot Control Police using tear gas and arrested and beat scores of people…many were innocent bystanders.

I drove nearly 4000 miles from Oaxaca to Salem, Oregon in August 2007. Being in my house in Oregon felt like I was on vacation.

I returned to Asia in February of 2008 for Chinese New Year and visited Josh and Amy in Beijing China for 12 days. It was unearthly cold so I went south to Kunming and then Jinghong China.  Next was Bangkok Thailand in March for unending dental/medical care. In May Doug, Luk and I flew to Kuala Lumpur Malaysia to renew our visas.

Josh and Amy since moved to Hong Kong in August 2008  where Josh is the Executive Chef at the American Club and Amy taught school at the HK campus of the same school where she taught in Beijing.

Bob and I separated in 2005 and he is living in Thailand in Jomptien, south of Pattaya. He returned to the States in May 2008 to visit our oldest son Greg in Las Vegas and his mother in Portland, Oregon and take care of some business.

I returned to Oregon in June 2008 to spend the summer and fall of 2008 in Oregon.  I rented out the house in Salem and  returned to Oaxaca Mexico on November 1, 2008 where I live in a beautiful apartment in the Centro with a veranda overlooking Conzati Park.  I returned to Salem on December 17th, in the middle of an ice storm, to pack up some kitchen and personal belongings on December 29…via Las Vegas where I spent Christmas with my son Greg. After returning to Oaxaca, I then took a short journey through mountain villages in Guatemala for two weeks…returning to Oaxaca through San Cristobal Chiapas.

The end of September 2009 I joined Greg’s father in Las Vegas and then up to Salem Oregon for a month to see son Doug, some friends and Bob’s 93 year old mother. Then Bob flew back to his home in Jomptien Thailand and I flew to Hong Kong to see son Josh, (newly divorced) then Thailand for 5 months…a good amount of dental work…and a month on Koh Samui with my daughter-in-law and her mother to help them set up the new beach restaurant that my son rented. Watched the demonstrators rally but left before the burning of Bangkok. Then back to Hong Kong for a week before flying back to Oregon for a couple weeks and home to Oaxaca via Las Vegas. Whew! I didn’t care if I saw another airport again!

However, I missed having a car to visit mountain villages in Oaxaca, so in September 2010 I flew to Oregon where I spent a month with my son Doug who was visiting there from Thailand, negotiated the purchase of a Nissan Xterra, and drove to Las Vegas where I spent 3 weeks with my son Greg. Then picked up a Oaxaca expat friend near Palm Springs and drove across the border at Nogales…no searches…no stops! 🙂 On to Guadalajara, Guanajuato and then Queretaro to see an old expat friend. Then took the new toll road from just south of Queretaro straight across to Puebla and down to Oaxaca.

You can view pictures and videos I made of our travel by clicking on the links under “My Links” on the right side of the screen if you scroll down a ways.

With kids scattered all over the world, thank goodness for Video Skype.

Eunice “Zoe” Goetz

Oh, I forgot. I hitch-hiked through Europe with a friend the summer of 1965.