During my blog hiatus I acquired a 1996 Yamaha Alfa motorbike, an old two-stroke motorcycle from Thailand that is no longer produced.

🛬 A Peace Corps Friend Returns 🛺

I should mention once again as I did in my previous post, I have been unable to blog for over 4 months because life overwhelmed me. I did, however, continue snapping a few pics here and there, so I will try to merge the past with the present until my photos catch up to present day because I do want to share everything that has happened. I used to restore and tune classic Vespas in the USA, and I still miss having a two-stroke bike of some kind.

Vespas can be found here in Cambodia, but are overpriced, in bad shape, spare parts hard to find, and the roads here are suitable for ten-inch tires. I made a compromise and score a 1996 Yamaha Alfa from Thailand to restore and tune. It's a 4-speed 110cc two-stroke with 4 gears and auto-clutch, so it looks and rides like a standard Cambodian moto, except it's way more fun. Also, a 'Merican friend I know from Kampot, Cambodia, came to visit us from the USA.

She was a Peace Corps volunteer several years ago when I was a translator and dispute mediator, so we both share a love for Cambodia, the people, and the language. She was only with us a few days, but the local Khmers loved her because she can speak Khmer and knows how to sit and talk, an ancient art form lost to most modern humans. After our guest hit the road I took the time to get on a ladder and sweep all the cobwebs from the rafters of our entryway, now looking very fresh and clean due to my house-husbanding.

🤰 Chairwoman Meow Is Preggo 🐈‍⬛

She's not preggo in this picture, just a cute skinny kitty keeping me company while I work. I think cats take around two months total from pregnancy to birth, so she probably got knocked up around a month and a half after this picture. My little kitty is already gonna be a mother, such a shame because we don't have space or time take on additional animals and getting a pet spade or neutered is only possible in towns with foreign resident populations.

I look at these photos of her and it seems like ages ago, but in the span of a few months my innocent little killer kitty is going to be a momma. Cat life is too fast, but I trust my Chairwoman Meow will be a good momma cat. Even though she is a self-feeding feral hunter, I decided to buy her a bag of cat food while on a visa run to Thailand. During the last weeks of her pregnancy and the nursing period of her kitties, she won't have to hunt and can survive on this strange new lifeless crunchy food.

Meow seems like my ~~new~~ old Yamaha Alfa, must be the coolness of the long leather seat. The corner of the house where I keep this bike parked is also where she likes to devour her prey, so I guess this is kind of her territory in some sense. Once her kitties are born and she's done nursing we're definitely making a vacation trip just to get spade so we don't have another kitty experience. It's not gonna be easy to find good homes for them, and we'll have to super careful about Meow's kitties ending up as human food also.

👩‍💻 My 15-Year-Old 👧

It often takes a great effort to provoke smiles from Srey-Yuu, but I managed to land a decent dad joke while also holding the camera ready for action. You can see a little of her disappointment that I documented her happiness because teenagers are strange creatures from another galaxy. During my break from blogging, she went from 14 to 15, and now has monster feet and legs big enough to steal and borrow any of her mom's clothes that she chooses.

Sorry I don't have any scenic pics or trips to write about, it's likely my future content will contain a lot of housecleaning, parenting, cooking, and domestic stuff as I now take on a house-husbanding role while working full-time. I'm gonna have to let a lot of goals and projects die, probably even my project moto because I'll never have 30-40 minutes of free time each day to wrench on it. Life is dynamic and challenging, so I'll do my best to adapt and move forward. I just hope my new mostly house-husbanding blog won't bore you all.