The worst vicious cycle brought by new variants of COVID

 A recent report on the latest epidemic of COVID19 by CNN tells us there could be a vicious cycle in outbreaks. 

BA.5 subvariant of Omicron is more transmissible and more immunity evasive than the previous strains. It causes a large number of infected people in the society. The larger virus load among people could bring more chances of mutation to this virus toward more infectivity/immunity evasiveness. Such a new strain may bring another peak of outbreak. And the same process goes on. It is the worst vicious cycle.  

In that vicious cycle, there could be increasing number of long COVID cases. The break through infection is known to augment the risk of long COVID. Another report in Fortune says there are 1 to 2 % of all workers unable to go on working due to long COVID. It is not only a problem of each individual suffering from long COVID but could be a serious burden to the society from the standpoint of social security. 

We seem to go on that vicious cycle at present. The number of infected cases hit 20K recently. If it goes after the situation in the US, it may rise to 40K or 50K in a day. Among them, there should be certain percentage of long COVID cases. The number of long COVID cases unable to work may reach several hundreds of thousand in the near future. Most people are ignorant of this problem. Even worse, the government seems reluctant to investigate on long COVID cases or to inform about it to them. The government even tries to manage COVID19 cases in the same manner as common cold or influenza. It sure will worsen the epidemic in the society.

I really hope this prospect for the worst vicious cycle won't come true. But something like antiviral med or new vaccine for universal antigen would be available not too long from now. However, I could not help being pessimistic for the foreseeable future. Especially the attitude of the government regarding this issue dismays me a lot.

RIP Glenn NN6T

 Glenn NN6T has passed away yesterday. Jim KF7E heard from his wife, who wanted him to tell that to me.

I have known Glenn since 1986. Ever since he joined FOC about 10 or more years ago, we had had a lot of QSOs. My PC log tells we have had a QSO almost every month. We have had mutual friends like ED W7GVE or Kemp K7UQH etc. He also grew water melon etc in the desert garden and reported how good harvest they had had. His wife, Susan, a hard worker, has served him as a loyal and affectionate family member, only member, I believe. 

He has fought against a few kinds of tumor, a benign and a few malignant. He also has had asthma and diabetes. I knew he had had a genetic background for tumorigenesis. I have been told about what he had for the exam or the treatments. For the last few years, he has attended to Mayo in Scottsdale. He and his wife have gone there once a month or so. They were going to buy a new house near the hospital for the treatment. Despite of those health issues, he was always hopeful for the future and for the better life.

Jim let me know he had passed around midnight yesterday. Owing to a reason not explained to most friends yet, I have been off the air for a month or so. Yesterday, a CW net being held in the morning which, I knew, a number of friends joined, I switched on the radio and had nice chats with such as Takeshi JA4IIJ, Atsu JS2AHG, Tak JS1QIZ and Manabu JE1RZR. I was delighted to see them after some interval. It was as if some 10 or 20 years ago.

 Early in the evening, I wondered if 40m still opened to the US. The band was so quiet that fall was as if already there. When I called CQ there, I remembered of Glenn, who used to give me a call around that time in a day, that is, at midnight or very early in the morning in AZ. We haven't met since this April when he told me he had had liver biopsy successful and it might let him have another treatment for the cancer. But, as Jim told me, he has passed away around that time. At 07Z. I thought it was beyond coincidence. 

Glenn he has lived, loved his wife and people around him and fought against his illnesses. Of course, he has loved this old mode of CW so much. He was too young to pass away. But I would say he has lived a good life. Thanks for your friendship for a long time. RIP, Glenn. 

Midsummer

This Indian Lilac is in full bloom. This tree was planted by my father almost 40 years ago when we moved here. Knowing this kind of tree could grow very high like a zelkova, we have asked gardeners to cut the branches in a few year interval.

It should have been planted in a large land like a park or a yard of big shrine. This might be complaining that. It still comes out in this season in a year. It is telling arrival of midsummer. 

 

Several weeks ago, I have sowed the seeds of Marie Gold at various corners of the garden, which I had cropped from its flowers last fall. Some of them have grown and their flowers are already coming out beautifully. There were, however, a lot of seeds which had not put out shoots. I almost gave up them thinking that there were seeds not good enough to bud. A kind of selection.

For the past few days, it has been raining on and off. I was so glad to find tiny buds with a couple of young leaves coming out. In this photo, those tiny buds are seen in the center. They may grow after their sibling plants and may please us with beautiful flowers until the end of this summer. This flower is told to reduce the growth of a kind of bacteria in soil which works harmful to vegetables. I may try to plant them in my farms .

Tomatoes are still ripened every day. I harvest some of them and serve fresh salad. Egg plants were not very successful. They have suffered from an illness. Some of them are recovering from it. They may hopefully bear some fruits later in this summer. Pumpkins are growing vividly. A few fruits are growing like this one in the photo below. I was not very patient to mature them after harvest for a few weeks. I will to keep them for the maturing period in cool place. Water melon plants are also growing and a few muskmelons are on their branches. The latter is my 1st experience.  

While getting older, I could not travel far away and am losing physical as well as intellectual capabilities. Maybe, caring for plants/vegetables might be the last thing I could do in my life. Working for things alive is always getting more attractive to me than anything. Aging may lead us to something essential in life, even though it might sound too exaggerated. It is a blessing I could do with them here. Of course, doing with family members and surrounding people is even more important to me. They are most valuable beings in the world. 

Father in law has passed away

Father in law has died at age 97 years this morning. Sister in law has given a phone call to my wife. My wife and daughter have just visited parents in law last week end. He could hardly converse with them due to disability in speech. It seemed he could recognize them. It was as if he had waited for my wife and his granddaughter before leaving for heaven. 

It was when I met him first that I visited them in Shikoku at our graduation from the med school to ask for permission of our marriage. He has put in airs saying he would consider of that for a while. He wanted to take me into his family since they did not have anyone to take it over. He has emphasized that there were a med school hospital near to their home without telling me to serve residency there. Later, we have known of his plot. He must have been half serious to have me there. At that time, I have already planed to work at a med school hospital here. Considering what he has thought of me then, I am still sorry for that.

So far as I heard of him in his young days from my wife and directly from him in a few occasions, he served army during WWII and became a prisoner of war in the SE Asia. It seemed he had spent hard time at a POW camp for a year or two, even though he scarcely told about it to my wife or the other family members. Returning to homeland, he has married to the lady, that is, mother in law. He has worked hard at the prefectural office as a public servant until his retirement at age 60 years.

Regretfully, I have not met him in person so many times especially while I was working. I still owe him a lot and have, in various occasions, known of his tender and affectionate personality toward family members. He has done well for our children when they visited him and grandmother in summer vacation. I still remember he has sent us a boxful sweet potatoes to the dormitory while we were serving residency. We have not cooked so often then and were a bit puzzled at how to consume them, honestly speaking. But, now growing such vegetables by myself, I could figure out what he had thought for us. 

For the past several years, he and mother in law have lived in a nursing facility. We have visited them there a couple of times. It was not a large spaced but neat and cozy place. My wife used to give him a phone call every evening. For the past year or two, it has been difficult for her to talk to him due to his hearing and speech difficulty. It might be tough for him to have gradually lost own capabilities. It was the time for us to get ready to say farewell to him.

I would say to him many thanks for his support to us and rest in real peace in the heaven.

This is a photo taken 6 years ago when we visited them at the nursing facility.  

  

Hibiscus syriacus and my father's 18th anniversary

Yesterday, I accidentally found the hibiscus syriacus blooming beneath the big Japanese Judas tree in the southwestern corner of the garden. Not self-assertive but elegantly beautiful. 

A few years ago, I have mentioned of this tree. My father used to bring a few of them from our garden to my clinic. There was a small back yard in the facility. He has planted them there. In this season, they have bloomed like this.

My brother wrote to me that it was my father's 18th anniversary of passing yesterday. I remembered this commemorative day had been sometime in July but did not have it exactly. 

What a coincidence! This flower has reminded me of him on the day of his anniversary.

Maybe, I have reiterated about it in this blog. He has lost his parents in his young days and has not had the chance for higher education than compulsory school. He has been conscripted and deployed to China, where he has experienced cruel war. He has been affectionate to his family and also has been concerned about the war responsibility throughout his life.

He has spent most of his life as a manager or a house keeper in various medical facilities. It might be his dream to work with me at my office sometime. It has unexpectedly come true in '90s when I quit a hospital and have decided to own private practice.

Without telling that to me, he must have been pleased to work at the office even with less responsibility than before. He was already in his mid 70s. He seemed to have visited the office place under construction.   

I have done too little for him as his son while he was alive. Working together at the clinic could be what I did for him. No, it might yet be his help to us like bringing that hibiscus tree to the clinic. 

It is our election for the House of Councilors today. It seems the politics is turning to the military dictatorship in this election. The modern history of our country is being falsified. It is returning to the day of imperialism before WWII, I am afraid. If my father lived until this time, what would he have said about it? 

Gardening and farming, the subject seemingly same but different every time

Bacon. tatsai, spinach bound together with egg. It is often cooked with spinach. Yesterday, it was too few and tatsai was added to it. Both vegetables were from our garden. Fresh and with good taste. In summer, there are few leaf vegetables grown. Water spinach will be taking over them until leaf vegetables are harvested. It sure means of the global warming that this kind of tropical vegetables is growing here in the summer.

It has been too hot these days. It hits above 35 degrees C in the daytime. Avoiding the heat, I am still diligently pulling or cutting weeds in the garden. It is a project to have lawn revive in the front garden, which has been replaced to weeds. Often wondering if lawn is not suitable for the garden in this hot weather and, more fundamentally, if it is ecological right to plant one kind of plants there. It might be quite tough for us to grow lawn without herbicide for lawn. It is a matter of concern here.

Another thought is that this place could become a jungle without my work in a few months when I could not do it. But it is beyond my capability to worry about it after I go away.

A few hydrangea flowers soothe me. It might bear more flowers next year since its buds won't be cut off this year.

Pumpkins are growing at various corner in the garden. It is a bit funny. They look like a part of garden plants. Sweet potatoes are also growing there.  

I get sweated a lot when working in the garden. But no complaint. Isn't it a blessed thing to be able to work this way? Only concern is my hip. I feel my back gets stiffened like a metal board after concentrating on the work for a couple of hours. I also got heat intoxicated without knowing of that. Now I take milk and cold tea from time to time, which is good supplement for minerals. 

An acre of property is still too much for this old man. If it was not from my mother's ancestors, I could have given it up by now. 

Heat and mugginess are waiting for me in the garden again...

 

A memory of a hall and a friend Cellistin

The other day, a news told me a hall named Mielparoque Hall in Tokyo would be closing in this August. It used to be called Postal Savings Hall before 2008. It was managed by Postal Service Bureau in the past and transferred to a private company when Postal Service was privatized. Anyway, possibly having been less needed for such a hall due to the pandemic, it might go financially wrong these years, which might have pushed it into closure this time.

It was the hall where we played the Beethoven 7th Symphony in the university orchestra in the mid 70s. It was the only concert when I took the premier position of cellists in the orchestra. A memorable concert for me.

In preparation for the concert, I asked a friend of mine, who had started cello at almost the same time as I did, to play the side position at the concert. Exactly, she joined the orchestra a year after me. It was the fall of the year, a year earlier than when she and other fresh members joined the orchestra.

We, beginners, have played simple pieces like Water Music by Hendel or the 2nd movement of the symphony Nr 94th "The Surprise" by Haydn at junior orchestra apart from the main orchestra. It was just for training. For us getting bored with solitary practice of instruments, it was a fun to be able to be in the harmony and chord in that orchestra for beginners, even if it was just musically primitive. At first, having started cello half a year earlier than the other fresh cellists, I have taught them how to tune the instrument. However, since most of them had experienced the other instrument like piano, it won't take too long for them to go ahead from me with cello performance.

This is a photo of the junior orchestra practicing at a summer camp. A few veteran players have joined it. The cellist mentioned later with the initial M is on the 2nd row of cello part.

After practicing in this junior orchestra at either university, our orchestra consisting of students from the universities collaborative each other, we often went for dinner at restaurants together. What a joy it was to have meal together! Half of them were young pretty girls and we shared the same interest in music in addition. Needless to say I was deeply indulged in this orchestral activity very soon. 

In that concert, an accident has happened to M. In the intermission, a bassist has had the end pin of his contrabass erroneously pierced the front board of M's cello. It was just an accident but a serious happening for her. She was almost crying. I checked if it won't cause any noise when being played. Seemingly no noise. Then I told the conductor what had occurred to her instrument. The conductor, almost 80 years old and a retired violinist of a professional orchestra, seemingly understood that. I was a bit suspicious that he had really understood it. 

When the 1st movement was finished, he turned to me and whisperingly asked if M's cello was OK. At first, I could hardly understand what he asked. In a moment, though, I grasped his question and answered it was OK. We have finished the symphony uneventfully.

He has shown signs of old age in the usual rehearsal but was surely a reliable leader at that moment. As a conductor, he might have had a lot of things to think about during the performance. But he has remembered of the trouble which had occurred immediately before the performance started. He has done a great job with conducting this great music.

I can't remember if this was taken at that concert or another chance. Anyway, this is the Cellistins in the cello part those days. M is the 3rd person from the left.  

   

M was majoring in music education and played piano very well. I have asked her to accompany me for the cello sonata e minor of Brahms. Her touch was warm hearted. Until I played that piece with her, I had not known piano sounded quite different according to the pianist. 

Though she was not a singer, I knew she sung in the part of mezzo soprano or alto. I used to ask her to sing the famous aria "Er barme dich, Mein Got" in the Matthew's Passion at a small concert visiting a hospital. We used to visit hospitals for such a concert from time to time. Her singing was not virtuose but was surely moving the audience. The solo violin was played by a girl student who would take the concert mistress seat later. Her violin was also moving us. Another memorable event.

Of course, nothing romantic with her even though I have sometimes come home on the same train in the same route chatting a lot after orchestral activities. After having graduated from the universities each other, however, we have never made any contact. Rumor has it that she has married to a pediatrician in the home area. 

In the beginning of this year, I decided to send a New Year's card to her. All after 40 plus years absence, she seemed to be surprised to hear from me. Between the lines, however, she seemed to be happy that I had written to her. Her husband was already retired and was doing gardening as I do now. She told that she would listen to Horszowski playing the Well Tempered Klavier by Bach, knowing that I admired his performance so much. And she would start playing piano again. Possibly her family duty has refrained her from playing it for some time.  

Again a trivial personal story...

I should visit the hall again before it is demolished.