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![](\"https:\/\/www.decoboco.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/imp\/674393_59733508_0.jpg\")
Last night Decoboco fell asleep again\u2014totally passed out.
\nSo I didn’t get to bed until 4 a.m.
\nNot feeling sleepy, so I rode my bike around the Toyoko Line station area checking out shops until about 3 a.m.
\nNothing was open.
\nDaybreak comes early too.
\nToday we’re transporting a vehicle to an event, so I have the day off\u2014yay\u2605
\nGot woken up by the alarm, all groggy. They say drinking water in the morning is good, so lately I’ve been keeping up with two glasses.
\nUgh.
\nSo we’re on the second floor, and lately I’ve been creeping down the stairs real slow to head out.
\nWhy?
\nThe lathe shop next door keeps saying “Oh! Another bike!” and “That’s nice!”
\nIt’s a hassle first thing in the morning…
\nHeh\u2605 Today the old man seems to be inside too, so I’m creeping along.
\nWhoa! He was hiding in the shadow of the wall waiting for me\u2605
\nDecoboco: “Oh, good morning\u2605”
\nOld man: “W-w-well, how’s business been lately?”
\nDecoboco thinking: What’s up? He seems pretty nervous…
\nDecoboco: “Huh? We’re doing fine. We never had big jobs to begin with, and I work solo, so not much has changed.”
\nOld man: “Yeah, well, we used to make small parts for Nissan, so we’re down to less than half.”
\nOld man: “We’re scraping by with a few other jobs here and there, but it’s not working\u2014it’s hopeless.”
\nOld man: “These days we’re already closed Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, but we might as well stay closed even more.”
\nOld man: “And I’ve got employees to worry about\u2014it’s really tough…”
\nOld man: “Maybe I should just hang myself?”
\n\u3000
\nDecoboco: \u00b7\u00b7\u00b7\u00b7\u00b7\u00b7\u00b7\u00b7\u00b7\u00b7\u00b7\u00b7\u00b7\u00b7\u00b7\u00b7\u00b7\u00b7\u00b7\u00b7\u00b7\u00b7\u00b7
\nHard to know what to say first thing in the morning… I can’t really argue with that. It’s depressing.
\nA lathe shop that’s been running for decades.
\nBecause they can’t adapt, it’s sad to see fine precision machining shops like this fade away in times like these.
\nLast year he was happily saying he’d bought a new lathe\u2014that’s ancient history now.
\nThis isn’t an age for reinvention.
\nI wonder what’s going to happen…
\nIt’s truly a story of “dead money” distributed worldwide…
\nBetter get those inspection documents ready.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"