Good Summer 2012

We are in the fun city of Pattaya, Thailand. We're rested and over jet-lag from our eighteen hour California plane trip last week.  The weather here is nice today, around 90 degrees and the sun is shining.  We will rest here for a few more days and then travel north to our home on the Myanmar (Burma) border.

Pattaya has not changed much while we have been gone except for a little inflation.  I think that is the story all over the world.

We had a good summer making enough money to bring us back to Thailand for the next couple of months. 

Remember folks, the best thing you can do for your heating and air conditioning system is keep it and your air filter clean!


We were part of the celebrations of lots of birthdays this summer.  Some of us young folks enjoyed the cake, pony rides and bubble bounces. 

They would not let Ralphie or me on the bubble bounce or the pony.  Although we did eat lots of cake.

Some of us older folks celebrated birthdays, too.  I was happy to celebrate my emotional 24th birthday.  How I got that number is I started using mind altering stuff at age eight.  After Cub Scout Meetings some of us kids would sneak into the bushes and drink the whiskey we stole from our parents.  I stopped using all mind altering substances sixteen years ago and started developing emotionally again, alas age 24.

My Mom turned 91 years old in July.  My sister, Diane, arranged a big party at Flagship Health Care Center.  We eat cake, sang Happy Birthday and Mom had a great time seeing friends and opening birthday presents.

Daeng made her a beautiful picture tree with pictures from the last 90 years.

It really is a piece of art and took her over a hundred hours to make.

We visited with lots of friends to celebrate just being alive. 

We also ran into a few friends that we had not seen is a long time. 

Daeng wanted to see the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove before it changed hands.  It is my understanding that the church went bankrupt and the 40+ acre complex was sold to the Roman Catholic Diocese.  It is kind of beyond my thinking but I'm not judging, I'm just saying. 

You can read more about what is happening at the Crystal Cathedral by CLICKING HERE.

Deang loved the music from the stately Hazel Wright Pipe Organ inside the Crystal Cathedral.  It is the most widely heard organ in the world today, made possible through the television ministry.

It was a good summer.  We plan on spending the next 62 days here in the "Land  of Smiles" and then back to the "Good Old USA" for the Winter. 

Just give us a call if you need your furnace or air conditioning fixed.  Just CLICK HERE for DIAL ONE Cooling, Heating & Plumbing, Inc.

We will try to keep everyone up to date with the interesting things that happen to us along the way.

Our New Home in Mae Sai, Thailand 04/11/2010

Wow, we got a lot done here in the last two days. Yesterday, we moved from the Yeesun Guest House to our new place. All we moved were the four plastic containers that we have been storing clothes plus a few other things in when we are out of the country, along with our two suitcases and my back pack.

We hired Sai and his pick-up truck to make this small move. He picked us up at 9:00 AM. We loaded the stuff in his pick-up and headed over to Akoo’s Laundry to pick up the King Size foam mattress, a television and a TV stand that Tun & Hlong let us use. We were at the new place and unloaded by 10:15 AM. Sai charged us a 100 Baht ($3.00 USD).

We worked around the place for a few hours and the crew came to install the Satellite Dish so we can get English TV stations. They did a nice job but we won’t have television until they bring the control boxes and hard wire the Internet connections on Monday.

We did stop at the appliance place and bought a ductless air conditioning system to be installed, today. The one and a half ton system was 28,000 THB installed ($896 USD). We gave them 3000 Baht deposit and will pay the balance when installed.

Daeng was not felling well so we turned in early, like around 8:00 PM.

We slept okay but it was very hot in this concrete building! Also, this is one of the hottest times of the year here in Thailand.

Daeng said she still did not feel good but went to the market around 6:30 AM. She brought back melon, China pears, pineapple and sweet sticky rice with peanuts. China pears are like a cross between an apple and a pear. We eat and talked about the day.

The air conditioning guys and the electrician are both scheduled to come today. Thai folks work seven days a week; Sunday is just another day.

The air conditioning guys showed up right at 9:00 AM as scheduled. That is unusual in Thailand but is one of the reason we paid about 4000 Baht more than we could have at the “Cheap and Easy” place. They showed their professionalism right off by asking us how and where we wanted everything placed.

They checked with us for the exact placement of the inside unit and the outside condenser. We had them mount the outside condenser high on the wall so trucks or people would not run into it. This is also the first of a few that we will have installed and they will stack, kind of, over each other on each floor for the side rooms.

Just about the time they had the inside unit placed the electrician arrived. His job was to move the two hot water heaters, one from Daeng’s Mothers apartment and one from Daeng’s brother’s place. He had already been to their places and removed them. They don’t mind cool showers for a few weeks as it is now HOT here. If you take a shower in the afternoon even the cold water is warm.

He is also going to fix all the florescent lights and plugs as well as add electric receptacles on the roof and in the garage/outside cooking area.

I watched the AC guys and they did excellent work. If I could hire AC installers like them in California we would really be doing well. AC installed, system vacuum pumped, all wiring done, everything cleaned up and system started and tested.
It works perfectly! They even patched the holes the satellite installer made and completed the job in less than four hours. Yea, we have air conditioning for sleeping tonight.

The electrician worked all day to make everything work and put in the two new sets of plugs. He installed both hot water heaters as well. He had to replace several light fixtures. There are 27 florescent fixtures in the building.

Our friends Charlie and Jan came up from Chiang Rai and brought us a home warming gift, a set of Chinese Lions for keep the money inside and the bad people outside.

While they were here we heard a big crash and ran out front to see the first, for us, Songkron accident. A man was traveling east on our street and a bucket of water was thrown on him; he lost control of his motorbike which went down, crossed over the road hitting a girl on her motorbike traveling west.

She went down and was injured pretty bad as she did not have her helmet strapped on and when she went down her helmet came off and she hit her head on the pavement.

A rescue team came within 10 minutes and trucked her to a hospital.

After Jan and Charlie left we paid the electrician, 1,110 Baht for parts and 1,100 for labor, total 2,210 Baht ($69 USD) for a long days work.

We took a warm shower and dressed in a cool room. We then headed to Tesco/Lotus to buy bathroom tissue and a pillow. We had a little to eat and back home to sleep in a cool bedroom.

It was a good day, although not a typical day for Mae Sai.

I just wish Daeng felt better!

Air Conditioning Maintenance - Funny Thing

A funny thing happened while I was typing away at this Internet Cafe in Mae Sai, Thailand.  A couple of Thai men came in and started moving things around.  The owner of the Internet told me that yesterday, which was a hot day over 100F, the air conditioning would not keep it cool.  

The type of systems that are used mostly in Thailand are what is called "Ductless" systems.  What that means is on the inside is a unit that has a coil that is cold and the fan blows air through it to cool the air.  On the outside there is another part of the unit that air blows through that coil and

 cools the refrigerant that is circulated thought the piping system.

One of the reasons that these system are economical is each room that you what cooled has it's own system.  If you do not want that room cool right now you shut it off.  You only cool the room that you are in.  Pretty simple and saves a lot of money!  You don't cool the whole house, just the room you are using.

Now, after putting a ladder up and taking off the outside case, the air conditioning man showed the owner how dirty the system was because the air filter had not been cleaned regular.

He said the WHOLE inside coil had to be cleaned.  This is an Internet Cafe with a dozen computers, a few printers, terminals and lots of wires hooking them all up.  Also, don't forget that things run on 230 volts here. 

I thought to myself, how will he clean that evaporator coil that is eight (8) feet in the air over all this equipment?

To my amazement, they brought in this special plastic shield that looks like a funnel.  They set it up and power washed this coil on the wall without getting a drop on any equipment.  

Even at my old age I learned something about my trade today.

For you home owners remember KEEP YOUR AIR FILTERS IN YOUR SYSTEMS CLEAN!