ChanomiTalk

Back in the ’80s, when I was working as a bank teller, a customer I was helping asked me if I liked the “Pointer Sisters”(and I did), then would I like to see them in concert. Only thing, it was for tonight only, and I could bring a friend,too. I quickly said,” Yes, that would be wonderful! I would love to see them live.” And with that, I accepted the 2 tickets. I quickly called my girlfriend to join me after work, and off we went. To our surprise we were escorted to the first 10 rows from the stage. Wow, we could see everything, we were so close and what a wonderful performance. They had all these sequenced gowns and costumes. How synchronized they were in their routine.

Near the end, everyone got all excited and were standing instead of sitting, cheering, so I stood up and went into the aisle to have a better view. Suddenly, I saw all these security guards, 5 or 6 of them all around me. I looked around but didn’t see what all the ruckus was about. So I went back to my seat, and my girlfriend slapped me on my arm and said,“didn’t you see Tom Selleck!” And I said “where?” Then she pointed to him, but all I could see was his back, and all the security around him. He was headed to the backstage to join the Pointer Sisters. My girlfriend yelled above all the noise and cheering saying, “He was right in back of you for a moment, watching the performance finale.”

WOW!! Just to imagine, I was that close to him and didn’t even know it. Tom Selleck was such a popular TV idol especially with the women. I had a co-worker who loved him and would have just died to be so– close to him!

There is a lot to say about this man that I had known little about. He passed away when I was only 11 years old. His name was Larry Osorio, but it was originally Ladrigo. He changed it when he arrived in America to sound more American. In my mind, he was a true pioneer. He left his homeland, the Philippines at the age of 17 to explore the world. He met his wife, my grandmother in Brazil. Of all the things I have heard he accomplished, above all is a fond memory of the time he took me fishing. I had caught more than him. But he caught the Bigger ones. 🙂

例年の事ですが、気温が下降しだすと、夏の間屋外に出しておいた植物を屋内に運び込まなければなりません。さして面倒な仕事ではありませんが、今年は日中２７度と高かった次の日（つまり１０月４日と５日）には霜注意報が出るといった具合で、そうなると植物の葉っぱはまだまだ繁ったままで、屋内に直行するのははばかれます。そこで、夏の間植物を並べておいた棚を車庫の真ん中に運び入れ、植物の配置もだいたい同じにしておくことにしました。車庫は南向きで内部の温度は１７度内外、ドアーの一部はガラスで陽光も差し込みます。暑すぎた夏の間には見なかった赤とピンクのジェラニュームは１週間前に開花したばかりですが、ここはひとつ車庫でがんばってもらいましょう。

When I lived in Japan I was very fortunate in that my job was all in Japanese and that I rarely had to speak English. One of my wife’s friends worked as a professional translator and occasionally I would help her out with her translations or interpetation jobs. The first time that I helped her on a interpetation job was almost my last. My friend had a job as an interpeter at a television lighting show. It was a 3 day event and her job just consisted in helping customers with their questions. She found her self in some what of a jam as she suddenly had to take another job for her company and she asked me if I would do the job since I studied television production in college. The job paid 30,000 yen a day for 3 days and I immediately said yes when hearing about the pay.
On my first day I met the staff who all were very kind to me except the President of the company who gave me a gruff hello and that was it. I was so happy to be making such good money that I didn’t care. The show opened up at 8:00 in the morning and as soon as it started a very obese man came to our booth and gave me his name card. He was from France and from what I could tell from his name card, he was in charge of all the TV stations in France. He shook my hand and began asking a fairly long question. His English was extremely poor and he was breathing very heavily as he must have walked the entire floor area before coming to our booth. At this time the President came over and I introduced him to the customer. When I told the President that he was in charge of all the TV stations in France his eyes got very wide and all of a sudden I became his best friend. The next 20 minutes were agony! I couldn’t understand any of his english! I pretended to take notes and shook my head a few times and when he was done I made up my own question for the President of the company. Now the President was very excited and spoke much to fast for me to understand him! Now I had to make up another answer for the Frenchman! The next problem was that the Frenchman couldn’t understand me! This went on for about 20 minutes and after it was over I just wanted to go home and never work as a translator again!
The rest of the day was fairly uneventful except that the President of the company treated me like his long lost son and wouldn’t let me go out of the booth to eat and if I went to the bathroom I had to be very fast. The next day went by without any problems but on the last day the Frenchman came back and we went through the same process again!
About a week after the show I found out that the Frenchman had put in a huge order and that the company made so much money that the President of the company infited me to his house for a private party! I was also asked if I wanted to become his private translator but a little voice inside me said that this time I was lucky but next time I might not be so I declined the offer and that was the end of my professional translator career!

Last Sunday I went to Kaneohe and attended the air show. The star performers were of course the Blue Angels. The Blue Angels are a Navy flying demonstration team and they were amazing. It is hard to believe that the famous blue fighter planes can fly so fast and so close together. The performance was exhilarating and full of action and the loud roar of jet engines. It was a must see event and very exciting.

先日発表会が終わって…やっと 涼しくなってきました。
今 夕方…鈴虫 コオロギ カネタタキなど 鳴いていますよ…
風鈴の替わりに…カネタタの音 …
プリメリアも…葉っぱだけで終わりそうです！
あんなに 暑い夏だったのに…残念です！