A Joint Birthday Party

#2021-0826B

Our daughter-in-law took her two sons back from Taipei on Tuesday. They'll stay with us in Wufeng for four days, until Friday. This is the very first time that they have returned to central Taiwan since May (when the epidemic situation in Taiwan became more severe).

Now the epidemic has eased quite a bit, and people are beginning to see their relatives and friends in person. This afternoon our "gān-nüér" (similar to goddaughter in English) and her daughter came and visit us with a special birthday cake, which they shared with us for celebrating the three children' birthdays that are not too far apart. What an enjoyable joint birthday party! It was one of the happiest events we've ever experienced.

These photos were shared 

by Anita, my daughter-in-law.

書法 (初學模樣)

 #2021-0826A

I introduced to my grandson James a very good calligraphy book passed down by my mother's father -- that is, James' great-great-grandfather Mr. Zhiwen Zhuang. The book was entitled Shudao Dajian (which means "an all-inclusive, complete and comprehensive calligraphy collection") and published in 1928.

I myself had learned quite a lot from this old book, so I would like to teach my grandchildren about how to do the Chinese calligraphy with a writing brush.

小孫子的「曾曾曾祖父」莊智文先生身後留下一些很特別的書。我親眼見過的，就有《書道大鑑》、幾本漢醫「婦科」專書，以及一套共 12 冊編號為子、丑、寅、卯、辰、巳、午、未、申、酉、戌、亥的《康熙字典》。除了《書道大鑑》外，其餘的古書後來都不知去向了。或許是因為老厝拆除，無意間丟失的吧，好可惜！

我從前模仿《書道大鑑》寫毛筆字，受惠良多。唸師專時，曾經連續三年參加校內書法比賽得獎；那時參加作文比賽，也是以「小楷毛筆」書寫，字體工整好看的，通常能給評審老師比較好的第一印象，有一回我榮獲全年級作文第一名，若純粹就內容而論，可能還不如第二名的吳姓同學呢，因為他文筆好，投稿的作品時常見諸報章雜誌，令人稱羨。

這兩天，小孫子初學毛筆字，我心血來潮，採用《書道大鑑》裡「真、行、草」的真書（即楷書）部分為範例，教他基本筆法，並搭配觀察漢字的各樣結構（例如：品、晶、磊，形同正三角；下、可、雪，好像倒三角；月、自、司，高長形；四、臼，回，矮寬形；顯、轉，偏旁各半；議、總，偏小旁大；制、對，偏大旁小；衛、樹，屬於左中右三合體......等等）先仔細觀察字形，然後才臨摹（寫出）書中的例字。

你看！我小孫子初學書法，是不是有模有樣？ (See below)

= = =

相關文章 (See also)： A Precious Picture: 外公的照片     (2021)

運動片刻

#2021-0825

運動片刻 ......... When it rains, outdoor exercises become inconvenient for us. But, as you can see, we can do something like what the beautiful grandma and grandchild do in this short film. The film was made and is shared by me, Mookoo Liang. 那看似簡單的動作，若持之以恆，也很有運動效果，您說是不是？----- 哈哈！她原本不讓我分享的；我費盡了唇舌，才說服她讓我把這一小段（僅 55 秒）加入我的《Mookoo's Home / 木咕子的家》。

I Miss My Mom and Her Sisters and . . .

#2021-0818

I miss my mom, her sisters, and many more!

Yesterday my brother Jincan and I went to the funeral of our mother's eldest sister (See the photo on the right).

The funeral was held at 8:00 a.m. in Taipei, but as we live in central Taiwan, we left from home very early in the morning -- about 4:30 a.m. Jincan, who picked me up, said that if we set off late, we might get stuck in traffic during rush hours. He was right. Early in the morning, traffic on the freeway was fairly smooth, and we arrived at the funeral home as early as a quarter past seven.

Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, only a small number of people were allowed to be indoors when participating in the funeral. Even the bereaved family had to take turns to enter the ceremony hall; in reality, during the Family Service (jiā-jì, attended by members of the bereaved family), more than half of the family members (who were younger) kept standing in line right outside the door. My brother Jincan and I, as well as our cousin Ms. Xiuzhu and her husband, were then invited into the ceremony hall as close relatives, so we could join them in the Family Service.

(Due to the pandemic, there was no so-called Public Service, gōng-jì, for other people to attend, though some of their good friends came to comfort them in person.)

Near the end of the ceremony, we watched a memorial film which reminded us of many good times in the past. Well, you see, in the first picture below, the one in the middle is my mother's eldest sister, with her husband on the right and my grandmother (mother's mother) on the left! Now my grandmother and all her three daughters have passed away. I miss them very much. And my brother Jincan says he misses them so much, too.

= = =

相關文章 (See also)：

1)  母親的故事     (2016)

2)  別了，親愛的母親    (2020-12-16)

3)  妙香園的回憶     (2020)

豪雨 (Raining Heavily All Day!)

#2021-0807

落地窗外，傳來「嘩啦嘩啦 + 轟隆轟隆」的豪雨聲，千軍萬馬般呼嘯而來，不絕於耳，即使把厚厚的窗簾給關上，也隔絕不了那原已轉向離開（且弱化成ＸＸ氣流）的「盧碧」颱風即將（復活）來個「回馬槍」予人致命一擊的威懾。

風雨聲中，從床上翻身而起，是午休時間，原本打算小睡片刻的，怎睡得著？走進二樓靠中間位置的盥洗室（前後都有房間，使之與外界隔絕），竟然還聽得見「隆隆隆隆」的水流聲； 再仔細一聽，那不是窗外的雨聲，而是地板、牆壁裡的水管，此刻正急忙排水。原來，豪雨從屋瓦、屋簷、陽台各個角落，已鑽進屋內的排水管路，灌滿埋藏在牆壁和地板中的管道，再不大量排水，豈不是有水管爆裂（如同「腦溢血」般）的危險？

下樓來到客廳，電視還熱鬧地響著，妻子說：「看哪！中南部災情慘重！北部的雨勢也越來越強大了，真令人擔心！」我看了電視上的畫面，回應說：「果真有點慘！........」我想起五月底之前，全台（包括我們居住的地區）乾旱好久，什麼鯉魚潭、日月潭、曾文水庫、石門水庫等等，所有大大小小的蓄水區都乾涸，水位急降，幾乎就要見底了。那時妻子望著枯乾的草木枝條，總要擔心：「再不下雨，家中就要停水、斷電啦！」

那時，我總是這麼安慰彼此，說：「不要太擔心！沒多久就是雨水季，到時候，不但不缺水，還得祈禱不要水太多（做水災）呀！」如今看來，我的話應驗了，而我們也因為豪雨來襲，再次默默祈禱著 ----- 為家人、朋友，甚至不認識的人；簡言之，我們情願為海內外所有人的「平安」默默獻上最真誠的祈禱。

= = =

相關文章 (See also)：

1)  「落水咧！」（客語：下雨了）     (2021)

2)  音樂水車之雨景     (2020)

3)  雨思  語絲 (Yu-Si, Yu-Shi, Si-Yu, Shi-Yu)     (2019)

4)  雨後即景     (2019)

恭喜 ● 欽佩 ● 謝謝分享

#2021-0802

Congratulations! Li Yang and Wang Qilin won the gold medal of the badminton Men's Doubles!

Congratulations to ALL winners of the Olympic Games 2020, which is being held in Tokyo, Japan! ...

In fact, every participant (esp. competitor) in the Olympics is very admirable. I've always had the greatest admiration (adoration plus appreciation) for all who have tried their best to play their roles!

By the way, thanks to our daughter-in-law for sharing with us this memorable picture! (See below.) Do you notice how excited my two grandchildren were when watching the badminton games on TV? 

我國羽球最強男雙李洋／王齊麟於 7 月 31 日（週六）在金牌戰對決中國「雙塔」組合李俊慧／劉雨辰，最終麟洋配只用了 34 分鐘，就以直落二（21:18、21:12）強勢擊敗對手，搶下我國奧運羽球史上第一面金牌！ (From: ETtoday news)