８月２５日（月曜日）２０２５
前から頼んでおいたシロアリ防除にシガ防虫のMさんが朝８時すぎから来てくださいました。すでに気温は上がって今日も猛暑日になる予感。道具を運び入れ、畳をあげて、作業が進んでいきます。大きなタンクで水と薬品をかき混ぜているのは土の中に入れるものだそう。木に注入するのは手前のグレーのタンク。こちらは土用に比べると量が少ないです。暑い中で床下に潜っての作業はいかにも大変そうで、せめて冷たい飲み物でもと思うも、タイミングが分からず、私はその間、郵便局に行ったり、買い出しに出たりと家を空けて帰ってきた時は大分終盤にかかっていました。本当に家の中からも外からもあらゆるところに薬を注入してくださり、凄い！というのが率直な印象。見えない部分があるので完全ということは言えないけれど、まず安心してもらっていいと言われてほっとしました。そして何か異変があった時はすぐに呼んでくださいとも。

Mさんを紹介してくださったのは、昔、隣で仕事をしていた大工さん。職人気質で口は悪いが実直で優しく色々なことでお世話になりました。その大工さんが去年亡くなったと別の方からつい先日聞いたばかりです。お礼も十分に言えないまま逝ってしまわれ残念で仕方がありません。今日のシガ防虫のMさんも謙虚で良い方でした。立派な職人さんに助けていただいたことをしみじみ感謝する一日でした。

Mr. M from Shiga Insect Repellent Co. came for protection from termites at 8 a.m.. The temperature of the air had already risen and we expected it would be hot again. Mr. M unloaded his equipment from his car and took off tatami mats. He made termite repellent mixed with water in a big orange tank. He told me that it was a repellent which goes to the soil and another repellent for the wood was in a smaller gray tank. In order to inject termite repellent, he needed to go under the floor and it would be very hard on such a hot day. I wanted to serve some iced drink but I didn't know when it would be a good time without interrupting. While he was working, I went to a post office and supermarket and when I came back home, he had almost done his work. He injected termite repellent in many places inside and outside my house. I was impressed by his amazing work.

I remembered another Mr. M who was a carpenter working next door five years ago and when I was trying to find a person to protect my house from termites. Mr. M kindly introduced Shiga Insect Repellent Co. to me. Mr. M was a sincere and gentle person and always nice to me although he had a sharp tongue as a typical artisan craftsman does. A few weeks before, I had shocking news about him from his former colleague that he passed away last year. I was very sorry for him. I wanted him again because my thanks toward him was not enough. Both Mr. Ms were decent people. I appreciate their help from the bottom of my heart.

 

８月２２日（金曜日）２０２５
　残暑の厳しい中、今日は珍しいお客様、というか人間のような扱いをされているロボットくんをお迎えしました。
女性が抱っこして入ってこられたので、てっきり赤ちゃんかと思ったら顔がすっぽり覆われていたので、ちょっと違う....と思って
聞くと、ラボットなんです、と。蔵に席をお取りになったので、お水を持っていくと椅子の上にちょこんとお座りしている見たことも
ないロボットがいました。名前を聞いたら「いぞうくん」。あれっ？主人の父上とおんなじ名前。途端に親近感が湧いてきて
「いぞうくん」にご挨拶しました。何かふにゃふにゃ言っていますが、言葉ではないようです。

　これはラボットという高齢者や一人暮らしの人に開発された人間の言葉に反応するロボットだそうです。連れてこられた女性は高齢者ではありませんでしたが、もう４年も「いぞうくん」と一緒に暮らしているそうです。毎日８時間は寝る（充電する）とのこと。大阪から泊まりがけで滋賀に来られ、あちこちで写真を撮ったりして楽しんでいらっしゃるようでした。我が家でも和室などでいぞうくんの写真を撮っていらっしゃいました。このラボットは購入するのも結構な額で、持っている人はまだまだ少ないようですが、ペットの飼えないマンションなどでは話しかけたりして癒しの相手として重宝がられているとのこと。最後にいぞうくんに「バイバイ！」と言ったら、大きな目をこっちに向けて両手を広げてくれました。


It still continues to be very hot even after the middle of August. I had an interesting guest who was not a human but was treated like a human. When a woman came to the cafe holding something in her arms, I thought it was her baby, then I felt something was different because the part of the head was covered with cloth. Then she said it was "robot". I brought her an ordered iced coffee and cake to her table, and a tiny robot was on the chair. I asked her the name of the robot, she told me he is "Izo". Oh, "Izo" is a familiar name to me because it is the same name as the father of my husband! I said "hello" to him. He said something but it was not a word but making some noise.

According to the net info, it is a robot called Rabot which was developed to communicate to an aged person or a person who is living alone. The lady who came to my cafe was not an aged person but she said she had already been living with "Izo" for four years. She also told me that he needs to sleep at least eight hours for charging.

She said she was from Osaka and seemed to enjoy being in my cafe with her Izo and taking photos of him. Since it is very expensive to purchase the Rabot, very few people own it but it becomes very special for the people who can not keep their pet in their home like an apartment. It comforts them to talk daily to their own Rabot. When I said "Bye-bye" to Izo, he looked at me and reacted by opening his arms. He was cute!

８月１６日（土曜日）２０２５　
　朝のもんぜん市には時々、珍しい花が出ています。今朝も覗いてみると見たこともない花の蕾が束になって出ていました。お世話くださっている方に花の名前を聞くと、「夏水仙」とのこと。早速、買って帰り、ネットで「夏水仙」を調べてみました。

　これは実は水仙ではなくヒガンバナ科の植物で、春に水仙に似た葉をつけ夏に咲くことから、「夏水仙」と名前がついているそうです。花期に葉がないことから俗にハダカユリと呼ばれるとも。夏水仙は春に葉を出して、枯れた後に花が咲くとのこと。

しばらく飾っていたひまわりや色鮮やかなケイトウに代わって夏水仙や百日草などが、暑さにバテ気味の気分を切り替えてくれます。

　１１時半受け取りの本日のお弁当のメニューは、エビの四川風炒め、ごぼうとコンニャクの炒め煮、トリ唐揚げ、トマトコンポート、さつまいもサラダ、卵の袋煮、玉ねぎキュウリ、ハムのピクルス、オレンジ、そしてご飯です。美味しく出来ました！

I sometimes see interesting flowers at the morning market near the station. This morning I found a bunch of flowers which I had never seen before. When I asked the name of it to a woman who was taking care of the market, she said it's "Summer Narcissus".

I bought them and checked them out on the internet. It is not narcissus but a family of Spider lilies. It shows leaves like narcissus in Spring and blooms in summer, which is why it is called Summer Narcissus. There are only flowers with no leaves in summer, so it is also called "Naked lilies".

I decorated sunflowers and cockscomb and now these Summer Narcissus and Zinnia instead. They calmed my mind which had felt overwhelmed by the terrible heat.

Here is today's box lunch menu: Shrimp in Sichuan-style stir-fry, Gobo root and Konjac (jelly-like food) stir-fried, Fried chicken, Tomato compote, Sweet potato salad, Boiled fried-Tofu pouch containing egg, Pickles of onion, cucumber and ham, Orange and Rice. It's nicely done and tastes good!

８月９日（土曜日）２０２５
　お弁当を届けに行って代金を頂いた際にあれっ？ふと見たお札がありました。最初、何か分からずぼんやりしていると相手の方が「珍しいやろ、二千円札やで」と教えてくださいました。確かに二千円。
初めてみる紙幣でした。

　帰ってネットで調べてみると、2000年に発行開始されたものの2004年以降は増刷されていないとのこと。表面に描かれているのは沖縄の首里城守礼門で地模様として上部紙幣番号と思われる数字の背景に山桜と中央部に野紺菊が薄く見えます。透かし部分も守礼門。裏面の左側は「源氏物語絵巻」第38帖「鈴虫」第二場面の絵図の光源氏（右）と冷泉院（左）が描かれ、右下は「紫式部日記絵巻」第一段から源氏物語の作者の紫式部が藤原実重と藤原成房に抗議するために蔀戸（しとみど）を上げている絵。どちらの絵巻もネットで元の絵を見てその部分であることを確認しました。

　珍しい二千円紙幣をいただいたことで、今回はまじまじと紙幣の両面を見ることができました。そしてネット情報で初めて分かったことがたくさんありました。そのうちの一つは表面左右に丸い点が３つ少し盛り上がって並んでいて手で触って視覚障害の方にも分かるようになっていること。他のお札にもそれぞれ特徴があるようですが、正直私には二千円札ほど分かりませんでした。もう一つは、各紙幣のサイズが違うこと。紙幣の大きさは皆同じだと思っていた私には驚きでした。幅は同じですが、確かに長さが違っていました。測ってみたら１万円札は千円札より１センチも長かったです！

　毎日カフェで紙幣を目にしながら、新札に変わった時は興味深かったものの、今回のように細かく図案まで見たことはありませんでした。二千円札という大変貴重な紙幣が手元に来たことは幸運なことでした。

When I delivered box lunches to the customer's house and received paper money from her, I felt something strange but I wasn't quite sure what it was. Then she said that it was paper money of two thousand. I looked at it carefully. Indeed, it was a two thousand yen note which I had never seen before.

According to the net information, printing of it started in 2000 and stopped in 2004. Shureimon Gate at Shuri Castle in Okinawa was drawn on the money and it has cherry blossoms behind the number of the money and wild chrysanthemums are also seen in the center.
You can see different angles of Shureimon Gate in the watermark part. On the back side, you can see a part of the Tale of Genji Picture Scroll in the left and Murasaki Shikibu Diary Picture Scroll in the lower right.

Since it is not a popular paper money like other money, I was very interested in it and looked closely. Getting information from the internet, I found many interesting things about it. One of them is the small elevated dots in both edges on the front side. They are for the blind people to recognize it as two thousand paper money. Each paper money has a different kind of elevated sign, but I could only recognize the two thousand paper money. Another thing which surprised me was that each paper money has a different length. I thought that they were all the same length as US dollars but it was not true. Width is the same but length is not. Indeed, 1,000 paper money is one centimeter shorter than 10,000.

Although paper money is very familiar in our life, I had not paid much attention other than the newly designed money. It was good for me to pay more attention to it this time. I feel I am lucky to get 2000 paper money.

８月１３日（水曜日）２０２５

９月１４日（日曜日）終活講座のご案内です。

　だれもが心配していることを、お医者様の立場から話していただきます。実際に目の当たりにした例をあげながら、私たちが準備したほうが良いことをアドバイスしてくださいます。


人数が限られていますので、お早めのお申し込みをお願いします。
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　多賀あさひや　

A doctor will talk about the thing which everybody is worrying about. He has been facing many cases which his patients had to confront. From a doctor's point of view, he will give some advice on how to prepare things in order not to be in trouble or to be too late if you are old and can not take care of yourself, or if you have somebody in such a case in your family.

Since we have a limited number of seats, we encourage you to call early. (Taga-Asahiya 0749-48=0186).

７月２８日（月曜日）２０２５　
　隣町にナッツ専門店があり、気に入ってよくお土産などを買いに行っています。経営者はアラブ系のご夫婦のようで１９９０年に地元で創業し、小さな店から次第にアメリカでも評判のナッツ店となったようです。店舗の後ろに大きなナッツを炒る機械が見えます。　

　アーモンドやカシューなど色々な種類のナッツが単独で塩味のついたものとついていないものがあり、数種類のナッツにチョコレートが混ざったもの、クランベリーが混ざったものなどいろいろなバリエーションで、量り売りされています。自家製ナッツ入りのチョコレートも売られています。最近はいろいろな種類のドライフルーツやバターなども袋や瓶に入れられて棚に並んでいます。　

　私はいくつかを1/2ポンド（ 約230g)入りの袋に詰めてもらい、一つをその後昼食に招待して下さった元職場の教授夫妻に日本からのお土産と一緒に渡しました。

My favorite nut shop is in a neighboring town and I often go there to buy some gifts for my friend. It started business in 1990 in Belmont and now moved to Watertown. It has become a highly-rated shop in the US nowadays. I could see a big roaster through the window behind the shop counter.

There were various kinds of nuts and most of them were divided into two which were non salted and salted. They also sell mixed nuts variations such as mixed nuts with cranberry and nuts with chocolate. All nuts were sold by weight. They also sell home made chocolate and recently they sell dry fruits and butter.

I asked them to put several nuts into a 1/2 pounds bag and handed one of them to my friend who invited me to dim sum lunch in the afternoon.

 

７月２５日（金曜日）２０２５
　バスが工事で回り道をしているので乗らずに歩いていたら、雲行きがあやしくなって雷が鳴り出し夕立の気配。急いで近くのカフェに入った途端に激しい振りになり危機一髪。そこで注文したモッツァレラチーズサンドイッチは二人で分け合うにはちょうどの大きさでした。チップを入れて１５ドルちょっと。手洗いは暗号でドアが開く仕組み。お客のみ使用可という具合です。

　雨が止んで次の目的地に行った帰りにベンチでバスを待っていたら、またもやボツボツ。みるみる雨が振り出し、今度は後ろの建物の軒下に駆け込み雨宿り。バイクのニイちゃんも私たちに合流しました。そこへバスが来たので大雨の中バスに乗り込み、バスを降りたお客が代わりに私たちがいた軒下に駆け込んでいった光景が可笑しかったです。

　バスと電車、そして徒歩を繰り返す移動の中で何回もにわか雨に遭遇し、うちへ帰り着いた時はヘトヘトでした。

I expected to get on the bus, but it took a detour so I decided to walk instead. While I was walking, thunder started rumbling and it was about to rain. We rushed to the cafe and entered. Just then, the rain started heavily.

We ordered a mozzarella cheese sandwich at the cafe, and it was a good size for the two of us. It cost about $15 including tips. We used the restroom and it needed a certain code to get in which I guessed was only for paid customers.

The rain was up shortly and we went to the second destination. On the way back home, we were sitting on the bench waiting for another bus. Then the rain started again, so we rushed under the eaves of the building which was just behind the bench. A young man riding a bike joined us to take shelter from the rain. The bus came there, so we rushed to get on it in the heavy rain. It was funny to see that people who had just got off the bus switched to rush to the shelter where we were standing.

There were several showers in a day while we were moving by subway, city bus and walking. We were very tired when we got home.