tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54626252009-02-21T16:39:28.734+05:30Continuing the journal of my life journey in Sri Lanka . . . thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07361584486147100509noreply@blogger.comBlogger86125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5462625.post-1084106247603039522004-05-09T17:57:00.000+06:002004-05-09T18:55:45.093+06:00

Welp, "all good things come to pass not to stay", as Eric Butterworth used to say. Eric was/is one of my earliest spiritual mentors, whom I was privileged to know and work for during the early years of my recovery, while living in New York City. And it is time for this blog to move on into an early retirement . . . It's amazing -- it is almost eleven months to the day, since I opened it up early

thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07361584486147100509noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5462625.post-1083774700760180962004-05-05T22:14:00.000+06:002004-05-09T15:58:10.360+06:00

Just like in a video war game, rippling the subtle muscles under my bronzed-skinned forefinger, I gallantly opened several screens, multi-tasking the whole way through the help menus, not too frantic, and zapped, I mean eliminated like greased-lightening, the second of the double post I made of the previous post. Apologies to those who had to scroll through the same stuff twice; for those of you

thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07361584486147100509noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5462625.post-1083760603935230952004-05-05T18:36:00.000+06:002004-05-05T18:41:19.153+06:00

Have almost finished downloading another hour or so of music from iTunes. Most cool. The day is wending down to a gentle finish. That's good. Gentle is good. And so is my final latte of the day . . . You know, I never did load up any of the picture of the ruins from Polonnuwaru that I took last week. Now is as good a time as any to do so. Here is . . . A Southern Asia Hot Tub from the 8th

thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07361584486147100509noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5462625.post-1083747618359566432004-05-05T14:59:00.000+06:002004-05-05T15:46:27.746+06:00

Where I have been since Monday late afternoon, basking in the glories of broadband. I'm sitting at the Delifrance Cafe, listening to smooth jazz, savoring lattes, watching the Pretty People, same as in Bloomies in my favorite NYC or Park Place in my second favorite Tucson, and jacked-in to their WI-FI, grooving like the 60s to fast connectivity. I've updated all my software and been downloading

thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07361584486147100509noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5462625.post-1083481232601426532004-05-02T12:55:00.000+06:002004-05-02T13:03:41.590+06:00

A brand new look on the same old srilankanjourney blog . . . Feel pretty pleased with myself that I with only minimum frustration was able to actually actuate adding links to my blog, which as is rather obvious necessitated a new theme with this rather garish new look, but I'm not complaining. Who says an old dog can't larm hisself some new tricks . . . I've added three of my favorite bloggers,

thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07361584486147100509noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5462625.post-1083474189433012862004-05-02T11:02:00.000+06:002004-05-02T11:10:32.606+06:00

And I am pensive. A bit down. This too shall pass. What bummed me was a little while ago I was in the kitchen fixing Soraia and I cups of coffee. A flying insect flew onto to my arm. Instinctively, without a moment’s hesitation, I smashed that bugger into pulverized squash. Then a roach crept out of the drain into the sink. Whop, that sucker was a deader too. I stood there, frozen in a moment

thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07361584486147100509noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5462625.post-1083464700074565282004-05-02T08:19:00.000+06:002004-05-02T08:28:08.543+06:00

Those of you on the other side of the world have just gotten an object lesson in how randomly relative reality is . . . This and the previous post are dated Saturday, May Day, while I wax and wane about it being a Sunday Mor -- oo --ning . . . Maybe when I try to upload some links to other blogs, if I can figure it out, I'll try and fiddle with the date/time stamp to become synchonous with

thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07361584486147100509noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5462625.post-1083462863177145542004-05-02T07:51:00.000+06:002004-05-02T08:16:08.153+06:00

Ah yup, I've added a title for each post field, and I'm humming the Young Rascal's 60's tune, Groovin' as I type . . . Top of a mighty fine morning at cha, wherever ye might be in whatever timezone. The morning waxes a bit gray again here in the Landa of Lanka, but the teeming showers of most of yesterday have stopped, and a couple of song birds are steadfastly, valiantly I observe, warbling

thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07361584486147100509noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5462625.post-1083418812156402372004-05-01T19:23:00.000+06:002004-05-01T19:57:35.216+06:00

So, okay, I’m a bit better, at least I can grit my teeth and grimace a smile of semi-contentment, as I watch the gentle rain outside and the serene solitude of one heron carefully stalking water bugs (or is it minnows?) in the river. The Church Bell tolls for whom I know not, and Chuck Mangione sweetly wails nostalgic from the mid-70s. Thinking of Richard Dreyfuss for no particular reason, one

thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07361584486147100509noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5462625.post-1083404135436412532004-05-01T15:35:00.000+06:002004-05-01T15:51:01.170+06:00

Happy May Day. Read in a Sri Lankan newspaper today that May Day started in the late 19th Century in the U.S. with some of the earliest labor unions. Now how historically weird is that? I mean during most of my childhood and adult life up until the late 80s, May Day was the 4th of July, Memorial Day, Thanksgiving, Veterans Day par excellence for the arch enemy of the US of A, the USSR. Jesus/

thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07361584486147100509noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5462625.post-1083335230098408992004-04-30T20:22:00.000+06:002004-04-30T20:31:27.860+06:00

Most strange is this curious Kosmos we spin our tales in . . . Despite time differences across the date-line and other arbitrary machinations of the mind, the two previous posts were made exactly 12 hours apart with a full day of living in between, 6:57 p.m. April 29th and 6:57 a.m., April 30th -- and I haven't even read yet the Trilogy of Four Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the

thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07361584486147100509noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5462625.post-1083333817947242902004-04-30T19:57:00.000+06:002004-04-30T20:20:21.983+06:00

Holy Moly Magoligan !~!~! This is a banner day, even one doused in day glow red – this is the second entry I have made within a 24-hour period. Now that’s more what blogging should be about, eh? Today I got an email from the VFP listserv apropos of my Mini-Rant concerning the nefarious Child Recruitment activities of the U.S. Government. Rather synchronistic, don’t cha think? Here is a link to

thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07361584486147100509noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5462625.post-1083285865495890752004-04-29T19:57:00.000+06:002004-04-30T06:56:29.890+06:00

I've really got to get more precise in this blogjournal -- another 25 days of at times too much distraction caused by living life since I've jacked-in and blogged. Not good. Very disrespectful of myself and those of you, whoever you are out there, especially the 78, more or less, ones that I email a notice of a new posting to. So, maybe instead of putting up another gargantuan load of pics and

thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07361584486147100509noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5462625.post-1081080262979932832004-04-04T17:50:00.000+06:002004-04-04T18:07:04.046+06:00

Thirty-six years since I returned home from my first war experience. Seems like most of my life has been focused this time around on the theme of war. Herein follows a long prose poem written six years ago on with an Epilogue written last year, and a brief Epilogue written today . . . April 4, 1998: Homecoming Anniversary It's thirty years today since I returned to the U.S. from Vietnam, and I

thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07361584486147100509noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5462625.post-1080262658193789392004-03-26T06:43:00.000+06:002004-03-26T07:04:45.046+06:00

March 25, 2004 Blog Entry: Early evening time again, my favorite time of day, here in Sri Lanka as anywhere else on this wide planet made smaller by our technologies that I’ve been blessed to tread dust upon. Cows munch lazily in the field beyond my view, flocks of crows swoop and flit from palm tree to banyan tree, exploding in parabolic skeins of flight, the light softly fades from utter

thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07361584486147100509noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5462625.post-1078062807026577222004-02-29T19:34:00.000+06:002004-02-29T20:40:19.310+06:00

Welp, are ye fully ready for some serious Sri Lankan Journey blogging ?!?!? This whole entry could be subentitled, "What an incredible difference a couple of weeks makes, thanking all gods & godesses !~!~!" Two weeks gone, since the trauma that Soraia and I experienced with Thor contracting rabies, which resulted in me having to mercy-kill him and for us to take an emergency trip to Colombo

thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07361584486147100509noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5462625.post-1076934886167593332004-02-16T18:34:00.000+06:002004-02-16T18:49:49.560+06:00

Ah, the best laid plans, etc., etc., etc. . . It's the day after tomorrow, and I can't put up any pictures because I am not in Mutur, I am in Colombo, and I don't have my computer, it's in Mutur by accident because I left it in the van that brought us from Mutur to Colombo yesterday. Long story short, it is safe, and I shall be reunited with it tomorrow morning. Yes, you can imagine how deeply

thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07361584486147100509noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5462625.post-1076773022772846572004-02-14T21:27:00.000+06:002004-02-14T21:42:07.390+06:00

Valentine’s Day, 2004. Once again I am in a strange, foreign land, where I am alone with a sweetheart thousands of miles away. The first time I was in a strange and foreign land it was 1968, and I was in Vietnam as a faux-warrior officer. My sweetheart was my first wife who had several months earlier given birth to my first child, daughter Rebecca. On that Valentine’s Day, jeez-us, 36 years ago

thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07361584486147100509noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5462625.post-1073610486531058552004-01-09T06:52:00.000+06:002004-01-09T07:15:52.000+06:00

Yesterday morning Karen, the current teammate from Germany, and I took the long, lovely bike ride to Velgam Vihara, a complex of ruins out in the middle of the jungle of Trincomalee Province about 10K out in the countryside near some sacred hot springs in Kanniya. The ruins are 2200 years old and absolutely stunning, especially an ancient statue of Buddha that for centuries has been worshipped by

thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07361584486147100509noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5462625.post-1073608834543908262004-01-09T06:24:00.000+06:002004-01-09T06:41:48.716+06:00

4:47 p.m., Thursday, January 8, 2004 Trinco Beach Resort Bedroom The New Year over a week old already; comfortably full after a delicious French Toast and pork sausage brunch. I’ve discovered a local bread, sold by the large loaf which when cut is perfect for pan-frying, either as the French Toast I just deliciously made or a garlic bread, which I did last night for my second meal of the now

thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07361584486147100509noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5462625.post-1073522619950358072004-01-08T06:29:00.000+06:002004-01-08T07:00:11.043+06:00

OK, the blog fixed itself over the night time, while I lolled in forgotten dreamland -- here is what I was unable to upload last night . . . 7:59 p.m., Wednesday, January 7th Trinco Bedroom Blog Entry It’s been a while, a long holiday while, since I’ve taken the time to catch up on the blog, so here goes a lot of pictures from the past several weeks of my life with not necessarily a lot of

thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07361584486147100509noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5462625.post-1073487921129705182004-01-07T20:59:00.000+06:002004-01-07T21:07:39.466+06:00

Two weeks since last entry; the holidays for better or worse have come and gone. The New Year is a week old . . . Welp, I'm bummed. Apparently the blogger upload a file feature is either blogged down or not working, because I have waited over a minute for it to load and it doesn't, so I am unable to upload the bunches of pictures from the Adam's Peak Climb, a bunch of pictures I took yesterday

thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07361584486147100509noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5462625.post-1072350185153237102003-12-25T16:33:00.000+06:002003-12-25T17:04:05.420+06:00

Christmas Afternoon Trinco Bedroom Another gorgeous day in Sri Lanka. The Indian Ocean rhythmically caresses the sandy shore. The ubiquitous seacrows caw and swoop about. The fishermen just gathered up their long skeins of nets. This is my second Christmas Day outside of the U.S.A. The first was in 1967, when I was in Vietnam as a warrior in the unnecessary war of my generation. I am saddened

thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07361584486147100509noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5462625.post-1071292899569191762003-12-13T11:16:00.000+06:002003-12-13T11:23:44.436+06:00

In Colombo at my fav Internet shop; just had a delicious croissant and latte at my fav hang-out place in Colombo, the Delifrance -- life is good . . . Had an all-night trainride from hell Thursday night from Trinco to Colombo, crowded, cramped, stinky (ode de commode), jerky, bangy and otherwise most awful, plus it was two hours late. Yesterday spent mostly queued up at the Indian Embassy to

thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07361584486147100509noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5462625.post-1071144890763073582003-12-11T18:03:00.000+06:002003-12-11T18:16:47.623+06:00

6:06 p.m., Thursday, December 11, 2003 Beach Resort Room Quick post to include this poem, the sole effort of my beach weekend away, now removed several days already . . . In a couple of hours Karen, Soraia, and I catch the night train to Colombo, sleeping in 2nd Class sleepers. That ought to be really fun. We get in to Colombo about six in the morning, spend the day there doing some shopping

thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07361584486147100509noreply@blogger.com