I love these sweet kids. In the over 2 years I've known them—and while I was building their house—they have never uttered a cross word or expression to me. Not one.

Reflect on that. One of the problems or issues in Western culture is that when children become adolescents, one of the first things they do is become a bit hostile to any authority, including parents...and even older siblings. Not so popular in Thailand...a country where so many of your political footballs in the Western world are handled socially. You might observe them to be a rather compliant society, and you would be right. It's because compliance comes from social pressures and not the voting booth, where compliance is sought through politics and legal penalties.

Thais who speak some English can often be heard to say to a farang like me...especially the girls...'do what you want' (lou-dair koon), and it's always some measure of music to my ears.

Almost nothing is a federal case here and I'm not sure why, but maybe it's because there are 5 branches of governance, not just three. In addition to our three, they have the military and the monarchy. They all basically struggle for power—just as our branches of government do—but there's two more of them and the king is not just ceremonial, he has power. I think it's kinda cool. Legal scholars might do well to take a gander.

I adore living here. I wish to make it my chosen home for the remainder of my days, until they burn my cold dead corpse at the local Buddhist temple where—if I've still enough alive friends—they'll tip the monks who'll set off fireworks as I'm being torched. How much more for classic 70s and 80s Hard Rock played at an un-Buddha-ly volume? And how fucking cool would that be? Contrast it with donning black clothing, adorning dark glasses, and draping coffins with flags...or whatever the fuck. Barf.

...Because I was waiting for Covid to end—and thinking it would, soon—in early 2020 I embarked on the coolest thing I ever did apart from building a business from 200 bucks to 30 employees doing $3 million per year way back.

But I especially love this and I'm pretty proud of it because it raised those two girls and the boy from growing up in squalor of a level that I simply could not tolerate.