The Double-Ten Weekend That Wasn't

10-8-15
     It would be nice to go to Sun Link Sea tomorrow for a night. There is the annual meteor shower that we witnessed last year that I would love to see again from the cool, fresh, clear, dry mountain air of Sun Link Sea. I will mention it to Leona but she won't want to go. I wish I had a friend who would join me for some celestial observation. No one I know in Taiwan (and perhaps only a few friends in America) would go with me and I won't go alone. Maybe I'll contact a friend I met here two years ago, on a whim, just to see what he says. I just sent him an e-mail. There may not be any rooms there, anyway, because of the holiday. It would be a change from staying home for three days, though I like riding up the river.

10-10-15

      My flirtation with my first friend in Taiwan was starry-eyed but brief. He slinks back into his  existence with a reminder that he does come into Taichung once a week, without suggesting a plan, just to cover his karmic tracks. The vague invitation he gave to the Tibetan restaurant he'd forgotten we'd gone to was his parting shot. Too bad the Taiwan holiday crowds and weather ruined what could have been fine meteor shower gazing. I don't regret contacting him though; he's the closest thing I have to a friend in Taiwan. 

     Because of the three-day weekend, and weekends in general in Taiwan, there is nowhere to go that won't be overrun with families out of their workplaces to lend meager purpose to their otherwise bland existences. There are dark blue clouds to the west that might mean rain is heading this way.

      It has been pouring in Taipei up north with President Ma and his entourage donning cheap cellophane-wrap rain ponchos to make speeches for the 104 birthday of the Kuomintang. The Chinese across the Strait have been celebrating the 70th anniversary of the end of WW II and the birthday of the People's Republic. Their holiday is longer. Leona says there is a rumor China will curtail tourist trips to Taiwan until after the January election, as they did four years ago, to highlight the dependency Taiwan has on their economic stimulus. To us, it means we can travel more comfortably without buses of rude Chinese tourists mucking things up, especially if we go on a week day in which case even Taiwanese tourists will be held at bay by their jobs and schools.