吳大米と復興食堂で食べたい

吳大米という人は玉雪の会社員で、出勤の日には会社に来て朝食を食べ、その後私に背中を整骨してくれる。私は彼の背中に自分の背中を預けて、エビのような形になり、目を宙に向けて、背泳ぎの姿勢をとる。少しの間、1分から3分くらいすると、背骨のどこかで小さな音がガッと響く。その後、私は全身がリラックスしている感じがして、とても感謝している。だから、彼の休みの日に一緒に復興食堂で食事をしませんかと誘うと、彼は喜んでくれた。約束の日は5月15日、水曜日、午前11時に復興食堂で会うことになった。彼は娘とドライブして来る予定で、私は台中から自転車で、そこまで1時間半かけて漕ぐ旅程。お楽しみに。

当日、私は早めに9時に家を出た。その日の天気は晴れで、気温は24度、自転車を漕ぐには絶好の日だった。家から崇徳路を北へ進み、文心路と環中路を越えて、潭雅神自行車道を左折し、そこから40分ほど進むと、復興食堂に着ける。全体で約1時間半の道程だ。

昔、大雅に住んでいた友人の宋斉宮とこの潭雅神自行車道を何度も漕いだことがあった。あれは何年前のことだったか忘れてしまった。今、潭雅神自行車道沿いの木々は大きくなり、青空に聳え、枝を広げて太陽光を遮っていた。木陰の下を自転車で走ると、涼しい風が流れてきて、汗をかかずに済んだ。あちこちで、中高年の男女や夫婦のような人たちが散歩やジョギングをしているのに出会い、羨ましいと思った。ミーリが生きていたら、太陽光が大嫌いな彼女もこの木陰の下で一緒に自転車を漕ぐことができたかなと思いながら、漕ぎ続けて復興食堂に着いたのは午前10時半だった。

吳大米と彼の娘がまだ着いていなかったので、私は漕ぎ続けて、萊爾富便利商店に行き、ビールを一缶飲んでから、復興食堂に戻った。彼の娘を乗せた車が復興食堂に着いたのは午前10時50分だった。駐車した後、一緒に店の前に列を作り、11時の開店を待った。ところが、あれ、どうして列は三人しかいないのかと思い、目を上げると壁に貼ったチラシには今月の休業日は13日、14日、15日と書かれていた。しまった、帰るしかなかった。互いに「またね」と挨拶をして別れた。来週、ここで食事をする計画を立てることにした。

復興食堂からの家路

復興食堂を後にした私は、帰り道が二つある。一つは潭雅神自行車道を経て、東へ漕ぎ続け、崇徳路の交差点で南へ曲がって、まっすぐに下っている家路。もう一つは西へ向かって台中科学園区を通る道だ。

昔はどちらの道も選んだことがあるが、何年ぶりかに自転車運動を再開したのを機に、違う道を選んだ。復興食堂の前の新しい舗装道路を西へ漕ぎ進み、道中で台中科学園区への小道を探して進んだ。最近、この辺りには台積電（Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company）の新しい工場の建設のおかげで、あちこちで建設中の敷地が見られる。周りの風景が一変していた。探しに探して十分ほどかかり、東大路二段に出た。東大路を西へ漕ぎ続け、西屯路の交差点で南へ曲がった。ここの標高は少し高いため、ほぼ十分ぐらい漕ぎの下り坂になった。一路ブレーキをかけながら無事に平地に降りた。途中でどこかで昼食をとるか迷ったが、一旦止まったら再び漕げるか自信がなかったため、一気に家まで漕ぎ続けた。家に着いたのは午後1時だった。簡単なサンドイッチを作り、一缶のビールと一緒に食べた後、昼寝をした。

昼寝の後、オフィスに行き、ナンバープレート認識による駐車料金計算システムの問題を調べ続けた。現在わかっているのは、駐車料金を計算するために毎回464,600件のデータを検索しているため、システムの効率が低下し、ついにはシステムが停止してしまうことだ。その結果、駐車料金を計算できなくなってしまった。その時、会社の全社員が動員され、駐車料金の計算を自動ではなく手動で行い、ゲートの開閉も手動で対応することになった。土日や連休、祝日にはどれほど混乱するか想像できない。できるだけ早く解決策を練り続けている。

午後四時になると、オフィスを出て、ロレンスの家に歩いて向かった。毎週、御三家で晩餐を取るのが例会になっている。ちなみに今日は特別セールがあり、オリオン生ビールは一杯を買ったら、もう一杯が無料だった。ただし、店内飲用のみだ。しかし、私は長年の常連客なので、25杯分を買った。これで50杯となり、毎回ロレンスと4杯ずつ飲むと約10回分になる。

これはミーリのいない67日目の私の生活だった。

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Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

吳大米and I would like to eat at 復興食堂

A man named 吳大米, an office worker at 玉雪 comes to the office for breakfast on workdays and then gives me a back stretch. I rest my own back against his back and assume a shrimp-like shape, eyes in the air, in a backstroke position. After a few moments, maybe one to three minutes, I hear a small sound gurgling somewhere in my spine. After that, I feel my whole body relax and I am very grateful. So when I asked him if he would like to have lunch with me at the 復興食堂 on his day off, he was happy to oblige. The agreed day was May 15, a Wednesday, and we were to meet at the 復興食堂 at 11:00 AM. He will be driving there with his daughter, and I will be biking from Taichung, an hour and a half pedaling trip to get there. We are looking forward to it.

On the day, I left home early, at 9:00 a.m. The weather was sunny with the temperature at 24 degrees Celsius, a perfect day for cycling. From my house, I went north on Chongde Road, crossed Wenxin Road and Huanzhong Road, turned left on Tanya Shen Cycling Road, and from there it took about 40 minutes to reach 復興食堂. The entire journey takes about one and a half hours.

In the past, my friend Song Qigong, who used to live in Daya, and I paddled along the Tanya Shen Cycling Road many times. I don't remember how many years ago that was. Now, the trees along the Tanya Shen Cycling Road have grown bigger, towering into the blue sky, their branches spreading out to block the sunlight. As I cycled under the shade of the trees, a cool breeze flowed through the air and I did not sweat. Here and there, I encountered middle-aged men and women, or couples, strolling or jogging, and I envied them. I wondered if Milly were still alive, she who hates sunlight, could have cycled with me under the shade of these trees, but I kept pedaling and arrived at the 復興食堂 at 10:30 am.

吳大米 and his daughter had not arrived yet, so I continued pedaling to the 萊爾富便利商店 convenience store, drank a can of beer, and returned to 復興食堂. The car carrying 吳大米 and his daughter arrived at Fuxing Restaurant at 10:50 am. After parking the car, we formed a line in front of the restaurant and waited for the 11:00 a.m. opening. But then, wondering why there were only three people in line, I looked up and saw that the flyer on the wall said that the restaurant would be closed on the 13th, 14th, and 15th of this month. Oh no, I had no choice but to leave. We said "see you later" to each other and parted ways. We decided to make plans to eat here next week.

Heading home from the reconstruction restaurant

After leaving Fuxing Restaurant, I had two ways home. One is the road via the Tanya Shen Self-guided Vehicle Road, continuing rowing east, turning south at the intersection of Chongde Road, and going straight down. The other is the road that heads west and passes through the Taichung Science Park.

I used to take one when I liked at that time, but chose a different path as I just resumed my bicycle exercise after many years. I paddled west on the new paved road in front of Fuxing Restaurant, looking for a path to the Taichung Science Park along the way. Recently, thanks to the construction of a new plant by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSI), sites under construction could be seen all around this area. The surrounding landscape had changed completely. After searching for a long time, I came to the second section of Dongda Road. I continued paddling west on Dongda Road and turned south at the intersection of Xitun Road. The elevation here was a little higher, so I paddled downhill for about ten minutes. I made it down to level ground safely, braking all the way. I wondered whether I should have lunch somewhere along the way, but I was not sure if I would be able to paddle again once I stopped, so I continued paddling all the way home. It was 1:00 p.m. when I arrived home. I made a simple sandwich and ate it with a can of beer, then took a nap.

After my nap, I went to the office to continue researching the problems with the parking fee calculation system based on license plate recognition. What we now know is that the system searches 464,600 data items each time to calculate parking fees, which reduces the efficiency of the system and eventually causes the system to shut down. As a result, the system could no longer calculate parking fees. At that time, all company employees were mobilized to manually calculate parking fees instead of automatically, and to open and close gates manually. One cannot imagine how confusing this would be on weekends, consecutive holidays, and national holidays. We continue to work on a solution as quickly as possible.

At four o'clock in the afternoon, I left the office and walked to Lawrence's house. Wednesday is a weekly meeting at 御三家 for diner with Lawrence. Incidentally, there was a special sale today: buy one glass of Orion draft beer, get another one free. However, it was for in-store consumption only. However, since I have been a regular customer for many years, I bought 25 glassess. That makes 50 glasses, if wereconsuming 4 glasses each time we could meet here without buying for 10 more times.

This was my life on the 67th day without Milly.

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