My China Kanfa.....China on My Mind

 A very long time ago China Wife and I, along with her parents, went to Thailand on a group tour.  It was terrible.  Just terrible.  I remember a few things distinctly.  One being trips for the laowai versus trips for the Chinese are different.  I recall driving in my air conditioned bus along the beach in Phuket, enviously looking at the bars as we motored past, at all the laowai so freely lounging about, in the open air, not a care in the world,  with a drink in their hand.   Now I'm older of course.  I can do that in America as well.  I do not rightly recall the beach, as I've been to so many, but one day towards sunset as I was walking along I saw a a tilted lawn chair, deep in the sand, as if it was listing.  It was listing, looking like at any moment it would collapse. A very old man sat in that chair.  The water coming up to his ankles.  He was snoring.   That's who I want to be.   I've since seen other old men.  One just recently was in a chair, giving out candy

Upon request, how will Biden be different from Trump?  I offer no specifics.  Specifics are boring.  Will you allow me to merely offer observations?   It is difficult to agree with 100% of what a person does, just as it is equally difficult to disagree with 100% of what a person may also do. Life is complex, and full of drama.  As such, it is good to learn from it.  We call it History.  Choose your topic.  Any topic, and I will tell you there is something to be learned from it, and something to disavow.   Men are complicated.    Only Nixon could have gone to China.  If Nixon had not gone to China, Mao would never have met a US President, because he would have been dead before an American President had showed up.   My guess is Reagan would have been the man to open up China.   Yet Nixon was a scheming, paranoid SOB that treated his own people like shit.  He never would have won any "Boss of the Year" awards.  JFK for all his glamour "talked the talk" about recognizin

 I've been gone a month.....which is typically what happens when I'm in China working.  No China this time.   Rather, I'm just busy, and the blog has taken a back seat.  I do work for a medical supply company, which should be enough said regarding my schedule.   I do have multiple things to talk about.  In the past, I would simply put them in one of my "fluff" posts....but I'd rather write them out....it's more fun! So let's get to it.  A friend of mine from Ningbo with a family in Canada actually left China during the Mid Autumn Festival to see his wife and kids, whom he had properly deposited in a nice neighborhood only just recently.  Upon leaving China and arriving in Canada he soon realized he was "stuck" there.  You see, China wouldn't even let him board a plane unless he'd had a negative test within a 72 hr period of his departure date.  Thus buying a ticket was difficult.  But now the vaccination is here, couldn't he just