August 11th, 2017

Hey there.

Some of us made it back to Taipei this week.  Babydoll started her Freshman year of High School on Thursday and I brought her back.  The Boy and Betty stayed in the States as she is gonna take him back to move into his dorm in a week or so.

This is the start of our 6th year in Taiwan.  Funny that no one asks us about it anymore on our visits, and have nothing much new to say about it anyway.  Most of the conversations when meeting up with friends took the same track; before we delved into whatever happened in the past year, there would be a feeling out about how fucked up the current administration is.  Realized this was so we could determine if anyone was an (insert your term here), and once it was found to be safe harbor, we could move on to playing 'do you remember?" and hear about the status of our lives.

After 5 years of posting in this space, felt that I have exhausted every euphemism and description as to how miserably hot it is.  Nothing can prepare one for stepping into this shit in August after being away for a couple months.  The heat followed us unrelentingly on our trip to the States. Will go into some events in later posts, but we (literally) burnt our asses at a baseball game in Oakland, cursed my father-in-law for not having a tree near his plot for shade as we visited his grave site in LA, hid as best we could from triple digit temps for a week straight in the DMV (DC/Maryland/Virginia), and Seattle experienced some of their highest temps on record along with air quality that prevented us from seeing Rainer even once.  Some massive brush fires in British Colombia made the air a choking soup.  Still, at no point did  any of the heat we felt this summer compare to what is going on here.  Two days before we got here, they recorded the highest temperature ever, and it has barely lowered since.  Official temps in the low hundreds, but the "real feel" each day has hit 115 for the better part of the afternoon.  And the nights "feel" never goes below 90.  Looking ahead, the same is predicted as far as the forecast allows.  Miserable and painful.  

Add the inevitable brain scramble a complete flip of the clock has on circadian rhythms, and am simply not capable of rational thought, so am anticipating this space will be a bit disjointed for the next few weeks.  Enjoy the train wreck that ensues.

Will try to disseminate the funny things that happened last couple of months later on, and next week will be all about Midnight Oil, who I am going to see in Singapore next Wednesday, but want to share one thing today.

This trip, we spent most of it in SF watching my mom, and the dog that I mentioned last time, so we had limited Seattle time.  We were able to see (almost) everyone precisely one time, usually for some fabulous food.  Since our time with folks was limited to a few hours, got to tell my stories over and over in almost performance art style.  Near the end of our time, I went to Portland for a couple of days/nights of rock and roll at a festival there called Pickathon (where they naturally had searing temps).  The Boy has a "special" friend living down there and he took the opportunity to go see her by driving down with me.  The family he visited  just moved back to the States from Taiwan and we arranged to all have brunch on Sunday before I headed out to the shows.  We had a great meal (at the Screen Door...if you're in PDX, check it out).  But at the end of the meal, realized that I was not gonna see Paul again before he starts university and wouldn't get together again until Christmas.

We hugged it out and said 'smell you later'.  If you know me at all, am not an overly emotional character.  But as I was driving away, felt kinda weird.  Not sad or weepy, but more confused.  When we reconvened with friends in Seattle and I was telling my tales, tried to add the 'saying goodbye to your eldest' into the routine.  I couldn't get a sentence out before getting choked up and bailing on the premise.  As I write this, am getting that same feeling in the back of my throat.  Am totally jealous of him...he seems smart, has an attitude towards life that I envy, and is embarking on an experience where the world is open to him.  I do not say this cause he is my boy, nor do I take any credit for his character, but he is simply a good guy.