2002-09-07 - 2:04 p.m.

Friday, August 30

15:40 Happy Birthday to my "baby" brother! He's the youngest, but at our ages, there's not that much difference. "El Viejo," as he calls himself, is the Spanish-speaking brother. He spends about half the year in South America. He's the wittiest Wilson. At age 2, he was doing pull-ups on his crib-sides. When asked what he was doing, he said, "I'm getting my exercise." At 12, he overheard a group of teenagers fretting over a pregnant classmate, and said, "Ah, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to conceive." Rather precocious.

My son and I got together Thursday. He'd gone to Chung-ju to visit old friends (that's where he taught in 1993-94). We went to the chiropractor's, got our shoe inserts, and he got an adjustment. Then we went to Ali Baba's for a light supper. The fellow that I'd left a note with the day before said "hi, Jim!" Wow! You shoulda seen his double-take! The guy looked so much like one of the Lebanese-Americans Jim had gone to high school with that he was flummoxed for a minute.

We walked around Itaewon until nearly 8 p.m., and had a very good time. Saw some customised Harleys and other bikes. He's a real motorcycle fan, so we studied them carefully and with great appreciation.

He fronted my September rent money, so now I've got to hurry around and find work to pay him back. I figure that a dozen private students, each at 2 hours a week, will be the equivalent of a full-time school paycheck. They will get one-on-one teaching which should make for faster progress, too.

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This is a re-write of something I thought I had uploaded a week ago (but it got lost in cyberspace, I guess).

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Sat., August 31

22:45

I got a really good night's sleep last night and was up and functioning at 7:30 a.m. Went over to the PC bang and cleaned up my mailbox (it was too near being full). Spent close to 6 hours, between that and reading and writing journals. I came home and made a late lunch, then went to visit Carol.

She'd planned a supper at the Thai Orchid as a farewell to CK, who's headed to U. Mass in Amherst for her doctorate. There were 19 of us, and we took up a *very long* table. I was seated between Montreal John and a Korean medical doctor and his wife. Mary, Walt and CK were across from us. We had a lot of fun sharing our food and gabbing about everything from used furniture to pumpkin flowers. John and I are going to go furniture hunting next weekend with my shopping cart!

We are having a typhoon this weekend. It has been raining and getting more windy all day. I'm guessing that the worst of it will have blown through here by Sunday. If we don't get clear and cool weather in a couple days after that, I'll be surprised. These things behave like hurricanes back home, from what I've seen and heard. It should draw down a continental high pressure system in its wake. The temperature is already cooler than any time since last spring, about 24 degrees C / 75 F right now.

I wore my "clamdiggers" (slacks cut off just below the knee) and they got wet halfway up my thighs [blowing rain] after walking from Thai Orchid to Han-gang-jin subway station [a bit less than a kilometer, maybe half a mile]. At 10:15 p.m., the wind was out of the north-east at 8 mph, gusting to 12 mph. It gave my umbrella a bit of a workout, though I was holding it at a 45-degree angle to spill as much wind as possible. It's a trick to keep the wind from getting under the edge and flipping the "bumbershoot" inside out, when it gusts.

Most of the shops closed early. There weren't many people out. Saturday night is usually busy. Even the young men who go drinking were home.

23:45

The rain and wind stopped a few minutes ago. There's nearly no traffic. All I can hear outside is trees dripping! One squall line down, how many to go? Good Night.

I hope all is well with you and your dear ones.

Happy Trails!

~ Sil

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