Hey there,
Quick blast today as this Thursday is Thanksgiving and there is a ton going on in anticipation of it. The Boy passed his covid tests and is in the air back to TW as I type. He goes to an apartment for two week quarantine and we have to get him set up with food and such tomorrow as we are headed out of town for the holiday.
The family and some friends have rented out a house near the southeastern city of Taitung for the long weekend. The house is in a little burgh a few miles north of Taitung called Dou Lan (Dulan). Betty and I stayed there in August during a week we spent driving around (that I've still yet to detail) and we loved it. It is a surf town in the style of old 70's California ones, where the shops and restaurants are all run by burnouts and the vibe is particularly mellow. We rented out the whole place with another family and are gonna prepare a proper T-day feast complete with NFL on the screen.
Gonna share three quicky local news items this week with the first being a concentrated government effort to clamp down on scooter and bicyclists that ride on the sidewalks. Always assumed that this was legal as you see it constantly, and hard to blame folks staying off the roads with the a-hole drivers that give half a shit about cutting off anything, but it is super dangerous and cannot stand it. Years ago when the Boy was still here and a scooter nearly clipped us on the sidewalk and I said that I fantasize about clotheslining these scofflaws, and he said he did too. I know it is abhorrent to him, but he has almost all of my bad traits. Anyhoo, potential progress in Taiwan's quest to become first worlders.
Another story about the roads (you know how much I love them) is one where Taiwan is way ahead of the world. In 2021, they will start using acoustic cameras using an array of 32 microphones, a host computer and camera to detect the license plate to catch vehicles exceeding a certain level of decibels.. Fines will be US252. Brilliant use of technology to curb these guys (always guys) that need people to notice them by making loud noises. We leave our windows open all the time and live on a major road where these damaged souls love to wind their souped up scouters and piece of shit Nissans in the middle of the night. Never bothers me cause I sleep the sleep of the just, but as one that is sensitive to light, appreciate those sensitive to sound and there is no good reason for that crap. Suspect this will never be allowed to cross the Pacific cause of Americans freedoms to be a loud piece of shit.
Finally, I totally missed this protest, but thousands marched last weekend against imports of US pork. If you know anything about the Asians, they love them some pork products. To cozy up to the US government, Taiwan chose to lift the ban on US beef and pork products recently. They don't seem too peeved at the beef imports, probably because they don't eat it as much and the lack of grazing land here prohibits a vibrant cattle industry. But they prize their pork and the problem they have with the American kind is that US producers allow the use of a hormone called ractopamine to make the pigs grow bigger and give leaner meat. Not much detail in that article about ractopamine, and I'm way too lazy to research, and have ingested all manner of pesticides and hormones in my 55 years to give a rat's at this point, but good on them for taking a stand. Maybe. The protest was organized by the opposition KMT party and this might just be a political ploy to rile up their base...yes they do that everywhere. The KMT can't criticize the party in power cause the crushed the virus, so this wreaks as a way to stay relevant. Still, as a card carrying member on Antifa, I love a good protest and absolutely would have gone down to lend my white ass to their cause.
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