New Tire for the Bike after a Flat

3-16-14
I got a new rear tire for the bicycle yesterday; 850NT-$28us. I don’t remember it being so expensive last time I changed tires. I change tires twice a year. I’ve needed a new tire for a few months now. The end came when I was riding up the Han River bike path. Overnight some car driver missed a curve and plowed into a few little trees and a light pole on the path. No one bothered to clean up the debris and I foolishly rode through it. I had a flat within minutes! I stayed and did some work on the novel before walking back home listening to Steppenwolf’s Greatest Hits. It took seventy minutes to walk on the bike path from Tan-Zih to home in Beitun. 

A Trip to Lu-Gong's Temples

3-9-14 7:13am Sun. (1)

      Wayne picked us up at 4pm on the dot and drove with us to Lu-Gong. We got there in less than an hour. We went to the three Matsu temples and numerous other temples and special places that Wayne knew well. We stopped off at a food stand for little bowls of rice and pork, and then we continued to walk. We walked around a good four hours. Then, it started to rain. Luckily, the building overhangs in Lu-Gong weren’t choked with cycles and restaurants and we hardly got wet at all. Leona and I were, however, getting tired, and hungry. Wayne was too excited and took us to more places. The trouble was, by the time we got back to the main street, all the restaurants were closed. We walked back to his hybrid car and he still kept touring us driving to a            closed total glass temple in an empty industrial area and then to a restaurant in Chang-Hua that we had no desire to eat at; there was a waiting line, anyway. Going through the streets most of the way, he passed three signs to the freeway. We were too polite in not telling him we wanted home. It took him two and a half hours to bring us.

Messy Wen-Xin/Beitun Road Intersection

3-5-14 7:26am Wed. (1) 

I rode home through the mess on Wen-Xin Road near Beitun Road worsened by the demolition of an overpass up the road to make way for the elevated Taiwan railroad which hasn’t been commissioned yet. No alternative route was made. 

New Sliding Balcony/Patio Doors

In about three hours, workmen will come to remove the old sliding doors in or bedroom onto the patio and in our living room onto the balcony. They are drafty and, for good ears (not mine) not soundproof. I'm not sure if Leona agreed to change the window in the Japanese tea room, too. I agreed to do it if the cost was under $2000us and it was. If it were more expensive, I wouldn't have agreed; there is not that much cold weather in Taichung to warrant air-tight windows and we don't have the air-conditioner on that often in the summer to warrant it, either. 

The new sliding doors in the bedroom and living room are installed as is the new window in the tea room. It is much quieter in the condo; not that it was noisy before. I kind of liked the slight aural attachment to Taiwan from within the house; now I have to go out on the patio to feel like I'm in Taiwan at all!

Valentines Day at Le Mout

2-15-14

Leona and I had a beautiful but expensive lunch at Le Mout on the Westside yesterday for Valentine’s/Lantern Festival Day. At $350us, it was one of the most expensive dinners we have ever had anywhere in the world! I’m glad Leona agreed to go there with me. She had a wonderful time and it will live on in the descriptions she gives to friends and family. She chucked when she saw on Facebook her brother had taken his wife, at her suggestion, to Valentine’s Day dinner; he brought her to an inexpensive spaghetti place Leona and I go regularly. It’s the thought that counts.

      Leona and I had a bottle of wine and appetizers last evening (she made tang-yuan) as we watched the crazy firecracker jackasses from Yen-Shui, Tainan get pelted with bottle rockets, live on TV. 

Patio Trees Delivered

2-9-14 1:01am Sun. (1)

The patio trees are being delivered today. It’s about time. It took many months for Leona to agree to buy them. 

      

The palm tree, coconut tree, and two bushes (that I have to learn the names of) were air-lifted by crane onto our outdoor patio yesterday morning. Leona thought she heard ‘crane’ when they called the day before to confirm but wasn’t sure until she saw it pull up outside. No warning was given to the building manager or auto mechanic downstairs, which is just as well; most people wouldn’t even think of giving a warning in Taiwan. We took videos of the workmen moving the plants and potting them once they were up on the patio. The patio looks great, 

It is pouring outside now. It has been raining on and off since Saturday afternoon, a few hours after the trees were delivered. Now that we have a number of plants and trees to water on the patio, it becomes imperative to have a convenient watering source. The rain from the enclosed patio roof washes into a gutter and leads down to the floor drain in the corner of the outdoor patio. It would be an excellent source for a cistern. I have to figure out the best and most economical way of setting it up. I’ve been doing some research on-line. Without a cistern, we’ll have to carry a water can from inside.

The osmanthus bush on the patio will bloom in the warm weather and the kumquat plant is growing new fruit. The palm and coconut trees blow in the cool wind and don’t make me feel warm at all. There’s one more bush out there that I have to name and the pretty purple leaves that have been my friends forever though I don’t know their names, either. I will become friendly with them all as the weather improves. The basil, lavender, and other spices grow and add beauty to the window sill outside the Japanese tea room. One day there will be a barbeque outside and pina colada on occasion. All that’s missing is the Jerry.  
After considering different ways to have an outdoor cistern for the patio plants, I decided on the simplest way: a plastic trash can with a water can. I dislodged the leader glued to the patio ledge which carried rain water from the gutter over the enclosed patio roofed. I stuck it into the trash can. Last night, we had a shower and the can is a quarter filled. We only need to dip the water can in the trash can to fill it and water the plants without having to go in and out of the house to get water from the sink. There is a lid that I cut a round space into at the side for the leader to enter the trash can and let rain water in at the bottom.

Yann Ltn (sic) Chinese Herb Clinic

2-4-14 4:35pm Tues. (*2)

     This afternoon Leona will try to set up an appointment for me to see the acupuncturist a block away on Dong-Shan Road. I don’t think I have to get x-rays for my ankle at the China University Medical Center. My ankle feels better in the morning after it’s been rested all night and starts to hurt in the evening if I’ve walked on it during the day. Last evening, Leona and I walked to the Japanese noodle place a block away and to the hardware store next door to it and my foot felt bad on the walk back home. I took another pain killer and put on a patch before I went to sleep.

     

      Leona went with me to the Yann Ltn (sic) Chinese Herb Clinic up the block this morning. Yan Lin (as it should be spelled) is run by a female acupuncturist, Tsai Tzu- Ru, who shares two storefronts with a male masseuse/medicinal medicine man. We waited about one hour and we were called into an office for a consultation. Leona spoke Mandarin and told her my problem and its history. The acupuncturist took notes on a computer, looked at my foot, and decided that I deeded treatment for a blockage caused by gout crystals which made my ankle swelled and painful. We went into the next room where there was a cot with a hole for the heads down position which I took. She gave me fifteen minutes of electric acupuncture and moxibustion; I have to go back tomorrow for another treatment. I then went next door to have a plaster applied to my ankle and bandaged up.

      I’m glad we went to the Chinese Herb Clinic. I found out interesting ‘facts’ about myself. First, she said one of my legs is visibly shorter than the other. The gout left uric crystals in my ankle joint that blocked the flow of recovery when I twisted my ankle in Kenting Park. I twisted my ankle favoring my left calf which had been aching me for weeks. The acupuncture should break the ‘log jam’ or uric crystals and let the swelling go down. Like when I sprained my left wrist, it will take weeks longer for the sprain to go away because of the effects of the gout. 

Mr.Curry

While I was up the river marking the essay, I got a phone call from the waitress at Mr. Curry restaurant. Yusuf had made ras-milai dessert as he had promised and wanted us to come try it. I told her I would come for lunch after I told my wife. The lunch was delicious. The ras-milai was yummy! 

Tai-Yuan Road near the Taiwan Railroad Station

I want to buy a long bamboo flute from the flea market on Tai-Yuan Road even though I don’t know how to play it. I practiced a little on the thirteen piece bamboo ‘harmonica’ I got at Sun Moon Lake just to see if I could get some sound out of the tubes. We passed the flea market on the way back from the Taiwan Railroad this morning but I didn’t go over to buy it. Instead, Leona and I stopped into a pot factory near the badminton club which was having a clearance sale. We got a ceramic pineapple figurine that holds little butter knives, stirring spoons and fruit forks for 100NT ($3.33us.) I put it on the hutch dresser along with a giraffe kettle we’d bought for Amanda’s friend, Joanna, but Amanda had no space in her luggage or inclination to bring back to her. It matches the strawberry kettle we have up there that we bought for ourselves at the Hou-Feng Trail months ago. 

A Trip to the Dentist

1-2-14

We left at 11am, me on the bike and Leona and Amanda on the scooter and went to the Chung Yo Dept. Store area to see the dentist at Dr. Wells Clinic. Once again, before we went to Sitou, my cap fell out, then, because of the space it left between, the implant behind the cap got loose. After the dentist tightened the implant, he told Leona the reason the cap fell out was because the implant got loose but I think it was the other way around. ‘Saving face’ is very important. It is true however that my first trip to the dentist in Taiwan was because the implant came loose. Nothing was done to remedy the situation. Now, the dentist will ‘do research’ to find a longer stem for my obsolete short ten-year-old design implant that Dr. Benjamin installed five years ago.

Leona defended the dentist again when I questioned why he has to do ‘research’ about getting a longer screw for my implant; he blames the ‘too short screw’ for the loose cap he made on the tooth in front of it. I suggested he write directly to the company that makes the screws instead of, what Leona said he’d do, ask around other dentists in Taiwan to see if they have it. She said he was saving us money by doing so

Tibet Store "Three Stars"

Earlier in the day, I took a bike ride up the Han River path with Amanda and had a chat about her future in Syracuse

. On the way back, I led her to the Tibetan store on Beitun Road that I had spied a few months ago. The store was great with clothing, incense, religious items, and all kinds of wonderful things made in Nepal by Tibetan refugees. Amanda spent 1900NT ($63us) and got a 100% Kashmir wool sweater for her boyfriend, Christian, for 990NT ($33us) along with a hanging incense burner for her friend watching the cats in Syracuse. I got an “OM” flag for Leona’s friend, Hui-Ya, who likes Tibetan Buddhism. For myself, I only got a box of incense. I will go back there one day no doubt. Amanda loved the store seeing many felt items that she herself had made or would consider making in the future.