snow day

It's 12:57 in the afternoon and I'm three minutes from being out the door.  In India we don't get snow days, but we do get potential violence due to religious fervor days:
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/09/30/india.ayodhya/index.html?hpt=T2

power to your elbow

Thank you for the love. All of your well-wishes helped us get through a hard time; however, one sympathy card stands above the rest:

sad today

The Paul family has recently suffered two losses, and today we are remembering Aunt Penny and Grandma Jean. Penny passed away a few weeks back, followed not long after by her mother. Brad is sad, to say the least, and we are both feeling the distance from our families, really wishing we could be HOME.

So lately the mood at Monsoon Manor (my petname for the house) has been glum. We are, as always, grateful to have each other, but also, again, as always, missing our family and friends back home.

India isn't making a hard day any easier. I was covered in sweat before I even left the house this morning. It was 90 degrees at 8 am. Since it's Wednesday I got a nice layer of dust to coat the layer of sweat on the rickshaw ride to work.

I am escaping the heat of Chennai for the heat of Bombay this weekend. Taking the swimmers to their big tournament. So Brad will be on his own. Send him some love if you can!

And lots of love to the Paul family. We wish we could be with you today.

38-Meter High Dive Goes Wrong

Brad and I got a kick out of this:

Sunday

Sunday I woke up feeling a little stronger and excited to watch the Iowa/Iowa State game. We record games and then watch them first thing Sunday morning since they're on in the middle of the night, India time. Normally I make some eggs and other snacks for football, but I've been on a diet of toast and Gatorade, so I stuck with that. Brad had coffee, I was jealous.
But not so long after kick-off the tables had turned and it was Brad feeling bad. In case you don't know, the Hawkeyes STOMPED the Cyclones. It was ugly, and beautiful. I think this will be a particularly good year to be a Hawkeye.
Here's what football morning looks like at our house:

Our TV system is a little complicated, but it mostly works. There's a slingbox connected to the TV in my parent's laundry room, which is also connected to their internet. So we get their TV on our computer through the internet. Then it's just a matter of hooking up the computer to our TV. The other, small problem, is that all the controls are on the computer, so to fast-forward, pause, rewind or change channels, one of us has to get up. Not a big deal, and a small price to pay for such quality entertainment.

This is our Buddha, Buddy.  Buddy the Buddha.  We got him at the weekend market in Bangkok.  The gold thing is an ashtray that we use when we burn incense, which I do a lot.  It's India.  That's just what you do.  On Saturday I used the "harmony" incense.  There's also a "healing" one.  Brad says I'm a hippie.   

After the game I thought I was feeling pretty good.  Good enough anyway to run one errand.  Brad got a gift certificate to a bookstore from his students last year that expired on Sunday.  So we went to spend it.  I also used the opportunity to get some blog material. Almost all of these pictures were taken on the main road by our house. 

This is our street corner, and these are some celebrators of the Ganesh Puja, going on right now.  The only thing I can tell you about the celebration of the Ganesh Puja is that it's loud.  Saturday morning Brad asked me, "Did you hear that person ringing the bell all night?"
"Yep."
"And then did you hear all those other people ringing bells come down the street and the one that rang the bell all night marched off with them?"
"Yep."
"Can you believe that?  What time did that happen, like 4 in the morning?"
"Yep."
Mostly I think the noise is coming from the neighborhood temple, which is just on the other side of our house.  Last night they set off a bunch of fireworks and then furiously played the drums for a while.

I'm going to have to get a better picture of this. I think this used to be a store or something, but now it's just a huge stack of mannequins, starting on the roof and ending near the street.  It puzzles me every day.

Not going to go in the beef stall.  Not ever. 

This is what traffic look like on Sunday, a light day.

This is not an unusual sight.

Sari, skirt, or pants, women seem to always ride side-saddle.

 Sunday strolling

The line at the bookstore

This Ganesh statue is at the end of the street.  From what I can tell people bring a smaller Ganesh statue and any other offerings to the big Ganesh.  Can you see the little statues lined up in the back? 
Probably by self-appointment, the boys take the offerings and put them around the altar. Here's another view:

So, I said I thought I was well enough for the outing, but I was wrong.  By the time we got home I was exhausted and feverish again.  I went to bed right away, but before I fell asleep I gave Brad my final instructions: "Don't marry anyone after I die, tell my family I love them, and goddammit tell those bell-ringers to shut the hell up!!!"

sick, sick, sick

My friend Laura recently blogged about why she hadn't been blogging.  She had five fun reasons for being away, I only have two: I've been sick and sicker. I think I got worn out from the first disease then picked up another one. That's the only way I can explain how sneezing and coughing turned into high fever and diarrhea.

groan and whimper.

Last night I wanted to crawl out of my skin.  Finally I gave up on sleeping and called my family, who were all together in Maine, cooking lobsters on the back porch.

This seems unfair.  

a bunch of tripe

Someone / something is leaving piles of guts on our doorstep.  It seems to be a Wednesday thing. This morning Brad warned me, "There's something gross on the driveway.  On the right-hand side.  Don't look at it."

Like I wasn't going to look!  I saw a white tube (intestine?) and a pile of purple guts, sitting side-by-side.
Last Wednesday he/she/it left a string of guts on our doormat, I say string because it appeared as though the something had gone through the trouble of unraveling the guts into one long (horrific) line.

Who is doing this?  Where are the guts coming from?  Rats?  Cats?  Small dogs?  Why Wednesdays?  If some larger animal is eating a smaller animal, what are they doing with the bones?  Why go through the trouble of delivering the guts to our door?  Are guts inedible?  WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?

Answers please.