Turned on the TV this afternoon to discover a huge 8.9 magnitude earthquake had struck in the oceans of southeast Asia, devastating areas of Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Indonesia and three other countries. Checked things out at an online Thai newspaper and saw some of the calamity for myself. How horrible! It seems that Thailand’s Andaman coast was hit by huge tidal waves, decimating Phuket, Phang Nga and Krabi, which is exactly where we spent the last few days of our trip to that country in September. Thousands are dead all across the region. Since it was right on the beach, even the very resort we stayed at may be severely damaged or destroyed!

My wife’s family lives near Thailand’s other coast, so they are probably doing fine, but I hope to hear for sure soon. If any of my family members may be reading this—I know my sister-in-law Mary visits here once in a while—let us know how you are doing! We hope everything is okay at your home. Especially after getting hit hard by severe flooding a couple years ago—I know no one wants to see that repeated.

What did I tell y’all about 2004? It’s almost over, but still determined to screw with everyone on earth! Bring on 2005!