Congratulations, Bob!

When I came home from my parttime work this evening, an email from Bob W6CYX had waited for me in the mail box. It told me he had a successful surgery for cataracts and he could see things "like a baby." It was a real pleasant news to me. Since he has had a vision problem on one eye, he might be concerned about the result. As soon as the procedure was finished, he knew he could see things clearly. What a pleasure it was for him!

I have known him since 1960s. We had not talked much on the radio until 1980s. I have visited him in San Jose for three times. In my 1st visit to him in mid 80s, he ans his wife have come to see us, me and Hide JH0FBH, at the SF Intnatl airport. I was impressed at his nice house on a foothill of Mt. Hamilton, where we could look over the bay area.  He was fond of a japanese actress named Yasuko Sawaguchi, whose big picture was put on the wall of his shack in the basement. In my 2nd visit htere, an old friend of mine, Steve, WA6IVN, and his wife came to see me at the party Bob and his wife held for me. Steve was seriously ill at that time and passed away not so long after that visit. I and my wife have visited him in the summer in 2012. I have written an article of this visit in this blog. He has taken us to a redwood park in the peninsula and a pier in Santa Cruz. I have enjoyed listening to his story at a concert in Monterey Bach Festival. Reflecting of this drive trip, I knew he had had vision problem at that time. I could not recall of this visit to him and his family without heartfelt gratitude.

He has been a conservative dialectician while I have rather liberal way of thinking. We often have opposing views about politics or economy. When he insists on his view and listen what I say about it, he always leave it as it is. No big debate. It may be his wisdom. I always enjoy, however, his propaganda against democrats or beaurocrats. My wife always smiles when we remember how he told about them in the dining room there. Both he and I are not so young any more. Hopefully, I would go on talking with him on the radio as well as in eye ball in the future.

We have had the 1219th QSO a couple of days ago.

Again, congratulations to you Bob!

Ume has come out for the first time this year

Ume flowers are coming out as if they knew it would get warmer from tomorrow. I was a bit touched to have found it early this evening. While it has been cruelly cold this winter, we have looked forward this flower coming out for the earliest sign of spring in our garden. The others will follow Ume. And there will be a lot of work in the garden ready for me. 

 

 

Codfish with cream sauce

Last week end, our daughter was coming home. I and my wife were wondering if we would take her to a French restaurant for dinner. Eventually, I decided to make something like French. Codfish with cream sauce. The outlook is not very fancy like the dish at a restaurant. Too much sauce. But it tasted fine. We might say it was a success. Our daughter has enjoyed it.

 

 

A recollection in a snowy day.

Looking at the snow covering everything around here, I was recalling of the day when my mother and the newborn brother came home. He was born at a gyn clinic in the city area several kilometers east of our home. Our home was in a sanatorium for tuberculosis patients in woods far away from the residential area. I have already written about the sanatorium managed by our aunt in the past post here. Our father and mother were working as a housekeeper and a nurse there, respectively. They were not rich enough to own a car those days. It was a cart for farming pulled by my father that my mother and brother were taken back home on.

                                         Our parents used to live in the right house. The left
                                         is a storage house. The tree in front of that house is
                                         a magnolia which may bloom in March.                                       

It was an overcast day. The sky was covered by lead colored cloud. It was a chilly and, in a sense, bleak day. The field was carpetted by snow all over. How could my father know where the road leading to home was? It looked like a lost road in the snow. He was pulling the cart quietly. I was only 4 years of age. Nevertheless, I was walking behind them with a hand on the cart, I believe. I felt proud of walking by myself even though I might ride on the cart on the way later. It was a merry and happy march back toward home for me in my young days.

My parents were in their thirties. It had been several years since the end of WWII when my father was compelled to serve in the army. He has spent hard time as a soldier in China for a few years. He has always regretted about what the japanese army including himself has done against the chinese people during the war. Coming back homeland, he has married with my mother. They have had a small cottage for the honey moon home in the sanatorium. They were working very hard, I know. They must be devoted to living itself as well as to raising their three children. It was the days when they had started raising own family.

I might idealize this memory too much. A very poor family. My parents were losing their work in a year or two from my borther's birth since our aunt was closing the facility. No way to raise kids at that time. Our parents have made an exodus to Tokyo soon. I should have asked them what they would do or what they could do at that time. Strangely, there was no mood of desparation or of helplessness in the family. They were positive and hopeful for the future. One reason was that they both firmly believed in Christianity and it has given them a belief that a road should be ready for us in the future wherever we might be. Our country was starting the rapid growth in economy and social system after the devastating years of WWII. That must has made the people including my parents hopeful for the future. Anyway, despite of the very poor circumstances with me, I have spent happy days under my parents. I could not forget a feeling that I was cared for affectionately.

I could not help remembering of those days with a yearning as well as a sense of bitterness. I feel as if I were asked if I have lived for my family in the same way as my parents used to. Three of us have been working in medical care as doctors and a nurse. It is not thanks to ourselves but to our parents. At my age much older than my parents those days, no use to reflect on myself about how I have lived. All I should do is only to thank my parents for their love to us.

Prior to the arrival of spring

At 3 PM in our local, almost 2 hours before sunset, I could hear both Eu and NA at the same time. Eu were pretty weak as if they were veiled with a thin textile curtain. The band was still very quiet. This path over the north pole might be closed very soon. It ushers the arrival of spring in the northern hemisphere.

I was smiling at myself to have found I had felt changing seasons with the condition on the air. The band conditions are inclined to change prior to the arrival of certain season. It may have geophysical reasons. Among ham operators, it could be a theme for Haiku expressing certain season.

The contesters are very active on every band so far as I hear. I only hope some of them will stay active after the contest is over. In the recent FOC mailing list, Gary ZL2IFB told, regarding an obituary for Vic N4XR, he would enjoy not 599 TU type but meaningful QSOs after Vic. I am glad to know there was another "Tell me your story" person over there. The problem is not how to convert someone's religion but how to attract someone to our way of "Tell me your story" type QSO.

The lower bands will stay inactive for such activity until next fall. The higher bands may be even more hot now. I would go on enjoying radio with this motto "Tell me your story".

Stuck in snow

                                   

 

 

We have had a record amount of snowfall since last night. Since my wife wanted to go for work this morning, I was trying to have my car get out of the parking place. But it was stuck in the yard. The snow seems not so much but is very heavy with rain. There seems a layer of ice beneath snow. The normal tires slipped badly so that the car won't go back or forward either at this place. I will keep the car parked there until it gets wet enough to enable the car move.  

 

 

It has been over 30 years since we moved here, my birth place, from a dorm of a med school hospital. We have never had this amount of snow here for this period. The local train or the other transportation seems to have been stopped. My wife has given it up to go for work.

This made me imagin what a big trouble they have had in the heavily snowy area in winter and how much they yearn for the arrival of spring there. Another news says there have been floods and hurricane in the UK and Ireland. I hope the damage won't be too serious over there as well.

Re the election of the governor of Tokyo

In the election for the governor of Tokyo held last week end, Masuzoe, a candidate approved by the LDP and Komei Party, the ruling parties at present, has won. He would do well with the ruling parties at the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly as well as the government in our country.

One of the issues in the election was if we should give up the nuclear power generation or not. It was brought up the candidates from the opposing parties. The government insisted that it should not have been a matter in such a regional election. I believed questioning the electrical energy source policy should be important for the people in Tokyo since they have been consuming massive electrical power there while they have been troubled much less due to the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant accident than those in Fukushima. It is a practical as well as ethical issue for the people.

Since Masuzoe won in the election, the government started announcing they would proceed use of nuclear power generation as the basic energy. They seem to regard the result of the election as an approval for their energy policy. But they never insisted that in the election at all. They rather hid or ignored this issue in the electioneering. It is a deception.

It seems the people in Tokyo has approved Masuzoe for his close relationship with the present government. The people must be concerned about the economy. Their 1st request for the new governor according to the public opinion poll was to improve the economy while  the energy issue came as the 2nd place. The people seem to have been cheated at the apparent rise in stock market etc. The government is pressing businesses to increast the salary to the emploees. It threatens, if they won't obey them, to publish the names of such companies. What a planned economy! Is it what a government whose motto is deregulation should do?

I still remember, even during the period of brisk business in '00s, the mean salary has been dropping while the retained earnings in companies has reached a record high. The people are still gradually becoming aware of the least beneficial effect by the present government on them at present. It won't take too long before the people know what is going on right now.

At present, the government should establish a new policy for sustainable natural energy, which would bring us a success to get out of the difficulty in economy as well as the energy issuea. It would stimulate the economy with new technology and creation of more employment. It would get rid of the possibility of catastrophe of further nuclear plant accidents in the future.