Diagnosed as spinal canal stenosis

 Having had neuralgia on lower legs and lumbago for the past few years, I had worset neuralgia this winter. A local doctor recommended me to take an MRI. The result was spinal canal stenosis of high severity. Since I have only neuralgia and backache, no bladder rectal symptom nor palsy/intermittent caudication, I would go on with conservative treatments. Luckily, Pregabalin medication, a drug specific for neuralgia, turns out to be pretty effective to me. In addition to this med. I would try to strengthen the paravertbral muscles and those supporting the vertebrae.

My father used to suffer from ossification of posterior longitudinal ligament in his late years of life. I might have inherited with the same disease or trait. At this age with the ame kind of issue, I could fully understand what he has thought about. I should have n more thoughtful and compassionate for him. He used to come to help receptionists at my office during the lunch time. After a couple of hours of lunch break working at the reception, he came back to his car and headed home. From my own room upstairs, I often saw him walking slowly with a cane across the parking lot toward his car as if dragging his legs. Time has passed. It would be my turn to spend time as he did now.

I am not sure how fast this pathological condition progresses or if it remains stable for me. It won't be fatal to me. However, it seems to be the right time or me to prepare for end of my life now. I should get things ready for my wife and the other family members after I am gone. I would prepare a farewell message or something like that. A lot of things to think about and to determine where items like my important cello etc should go. 

I should spend everyday in even more and careful way than ever.

The 3rd movement of Brahms' 3rd symphony

Brahms is a remarkable melody maker in addition to renovating classical composition technique.

One of his melodies most impressive for me is this 3rd movement of his No 3 ymphony.

It was featured as the main theme of the movie, "Say Goodby Again", after the novel, "Aimez-vous Brahms?" by Francoise Sagan. Building up a simple audio system. 6BM8 single stereo amplifier with a pair of coaxial speakers in homebrew speaker box, I have started listening a lot of music. Yes, I was mostly indulged in movie music at first those days. It has not taken me a long time to start journey into classical music, though. I had not known this music from that movement of Brahms' symphony. I have never seen the movie itself, either. I was in the low teen days.

The university orchestra I joined as a cellist was practising this symphony. At the summer camp I was pratising cello outside as a beginner, I often listened to this music. The melody is started by celli followed by 1st violins. Cello part sings the counter melody to the 1st violin, which is even more impressively beautiful than the front melody. Listners are totally fallen in love with this melody when it is reproduced by Horn and then by strings. 

At the summer camp, the melody was coming on a breeze blown down from the mountain nearby. It has ushered in the early fall.

An unforgettable melody for me. 

A pianist Luke Faulkner has arranged it to solo piano. This rendition is also a memorable one. I am sure Faulkner has been fascinated with this music himself. This must be composed by Brahms with piano in this way.

 

The meaning of death and aging from a biological point of view

I have listened to a lecture on line regarding the meaning of death and aging from the standpoint of biology by Prof. Takehiko Kobayashi of Tokyo University. To be short, death is a result of destruction of DNA. It will work for variation and evolution. We should die for the generation ahead.

It was more interesting to me on the meaning of aging. 

Old age, defined by post reproductive age, is unique to human being. Most mammalians except for human being and few exceptions would die as soon as they finish reproducng the next generation. For human being, old age lasts long or decades. The reason of existence of old age is as follows; human being gets born without "fur" on the surface and babies won't live by themselves for the first 3 years. The new borns require "grandma" caring for them. And when we get old, we could be free from egotism and could behave in altruitism. It is a widsome of "grandpa". Whether male or female, we could live for the next generation. Proessor Kobayashi says the meaning of old age resides in that altruitism. 

Some old people, expecially those in political power, behave the opposite to this nature of the elderly. They pursue endlessly own power and fortune. Some of them behave like a saviour in the world as if a religious icon. They seem to believe they were immortal. They are often backed up by some kind of cult. People in the cult support enthusiastically such a dictating politician as if he was a saviour to the world. The supporters could not understand  what their behaviour leads them as well as the other people. Such dictating leaders lead to collapse and perish of the world. It may be due to loss of "grandma" as well as "grandpa" characteristics in humankind.

A kind of garden tree has been perished at our home possibly as a facet of the global warming

Japanese ekianthus is a popular garden tree in our country. We have had them for hedge and also solitary garden trees since we moved here about 40 years ago. They always bloomed with tiny light pink flowers at the same time of budding. In fall, they were beautifully colored like the photo below. This photo of them hedging the street was taken almost 20 years ago. 

For the past 2 or 3 years, all of them have been eated by longhorn beetles. It has ruined most of them for now, even though we have given pesticide for this pest. This pest is originally in the tropical area. Even without any scientific evidence, I suspect it might be settled down here due to the global warming. It coincides with occurrence of extreme heat in the summer here. 

The larva of this pest invades and damages the trunk of such as Japanese ekianthus or other hardwoods. It lasts for 10 months in a year. It could also damege the wood of building materials. This pest has not attracted much public attention yet. But who knows?

   

I might have taken photos of them blooming in spring. So beautiful. I am sure I have taken but they have been lost in the vast collection of photos in HDD. Too sad. I should make it sure that every photo has been stored in an external HDD. 

 I have also read about the deranged circulation of seawater in the Atlantic Ocean. In the global warming, the ice in the north pole has been thawed and poured into the Atlantic Ocean. The seawater has been lowered in density and prevens its normal circulation between the surface and the depth. It could cause the abnormal weather and the reduced production of fisheries industry. We are quietly and secrety going through a tepping point in this manner. 

This is a tiny and possibly definite experience of the same global warming at our home.

Kleptocracy?

Isn't this a kleptocracy?

Victimizing thousands of people, including a lot of children, this war is being conducted. An unacceptable crime against the international law. Without naphtha, we are being deficient of medical equipments and stuff. It is directly related with loss of lives in medical services. If those responsible for ceasefire are economically corrupted in this way, it is even more criminally inhumanistic. 

Trump always announces the news through his SNS on Friday. Immediately before that, there are a lot of trades in futures trading. They say it is highly suspicious of insider trading as follows.

From a post by The Other 98% in Facebook;

 The BBC just dropped a damning investigation that should be plastered across every front page in America, and yet here we are. The BBC examined trade volume data across major financial markets and matched it to trump's most significant market-moving statements, finding a consistent pattern of trading spikes occurring just minutes before a social media post or media interview went public. On April 9, 2025, someone piled over $2 million into S&P 500 long positions right before trump announced a 90-day pause on tariffs. The S&P jumped 9.5%, and that bet returned nearly $20 million. Some analysts told the BBC the pattern bears all the hallmarks of illegal insider trading, where bets are made on information the general public simply does not have.

And the family connections make it all even harder to ignore. Donald Trump Jr. sits on the advisory board of Polymarket and acts as a strategic advisor to Kalshi, the two biggest prediction market platforms where this suspiciously well-timed speculation keeps showing up. Meanwhile, the broader trump family has been cashing in through World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture where Barron, Don Jr., and Eric Trump are all listed as cofounders. Reuters reported the family pulled in over $800 million from crypto asset sales in just the first half of 2025. This is a sitting president whose entire family is financially embedded in the markets he moves with his mouth every single day.

And here's what should make every American genuinely angry: we found out about most of this from the BBC. Not the New York Times. Not CNN. Not any of the massive, well-funded American newsrooms that are supposedly the guardians of democracy. It is a profound embarrassment that in 2026, citizens of the United States have to depend on a British public broadcaster to investigate what their own government is doing with their markets. American corporate media, addicted to access and terrified of losing advertiser dollars, has largely looked away while the pillaging happens in plain sight. The SEC declined to comment, the White House went silent, and a financial expert told the BBC there is a low likelihood anyone will ever be prosecuted. That last part might be the most honest thing anyone has said about how power actually works in this country.

A cartoon sarcasing the present situation.

Dame Judi Dench in her own words

I am not a big fan for any actress/actor. These words by Dench, however, sure belong to the wisdom of people properly grown old. I praise her in this context. To the post of this series of proverb, a portrait of recent Dench was added. Possibly in her eighties. It was what she really looked. No cosmetics nor vestige of cosmetic surgery. Her line of sight was so straight as if looking at essence of things.

I have seen her in a Shakespear movie in my young days. A vivid and beautiful actress those days. She has grown old in an ideal way. Could I live after these proverbs? "Choose your battles" sounds one of the things I need to practise in my life. Too late? Still only try to.

Quote;

 Dame Judi Dench in her own words:

"Don’t prioritise your looks my friend, as they won’t last the journey.

Your sense of humor though, will only get better with age.

Your intuition will grow and expand like a majestic cloak of wisdom.

Your ability to choose your battles, will be fine-tuned to perfection.

Your capacity for stillness, for living in the moment, will blossom.

Your desire to live each and every moment will transcend all other wants.

Your instinct for knowing what (and who) is worth your time, will grow and flourish like ivy on a castle wall.

Don’t prioritise your looks my friend,

they will change forevermore, that pursuit is one of much sadness and disappointment.

Prioritise the uniqueness that make you you, and the invisible magnet that draws in other like-minded souls to dance in your orbit.

These are the things which will only get better."

Cognitive lifetime enrichment lowers or delays the risk of Alzheimer's disease related dementia

In elderly, becoming demented or not is of primary concern of health. Dementia in elderly has been believed to ba a kind of physiological process. Recenetly, there have been more knowledges on its etiology. Aging, genetics, way of living environment and so forth. Accumulation of beta amyloid protein in the CNS seems to be a result of the process. The earlier process of degeneration is targeted now. 

It is not only a private issue but also a public probelm especially in the developed countries like Japan where aging is in fast progress in the society. Certain percentage of elderly should suffer from dementia of Alzheimer's disease and the others. It could be a big burden for the social security.

The following article says high cognitive lifetime enrichment would lower or delay deveoping Alzheimer's disease related dementia. Being able to access only this abstract of the original paper, I am not sure how lifetime enrichment has been determined and even quatified and what pathological findings in the brain have been associated with the result. Still this article in this renowned journal of neurology may consolidate our preconception that cultural and intellectual activities may lower the risk of dementia in elderly days.

What do you think I have thought of reading this article? I really have had lifetime enrichment. It is difficult for me to objectively decide what experience has enriched my life. It should be ham radio and music in my case. I won't boast of these but believe, without them, my life has been far from being rich.

Through ham radio, I have had acquaintances with people abroad and had shared the same time for decades. Subjectively, it has been the lifetime enrichment for me for sure. Through conversation with them, I have stimulated on a lot of things and have learned a lot from them. It has never been waste of time in my life, I believe. 

Secondly, music has attracted me so much since young days. Either playing an instrument or just listening to it, it is an emotional as well as intellectual stimulus for me. It has never bored me a bit. Whenever listening to Bach, I still feel as if I were present at the creation of the universe. 

Even if they haven't enriched my life as this paper says and would not help preventing me from Alzheimer's disease, I am still grateful to these elements in life and those who have shared them with me. In the upcoming several years, it becomes evident if these were the enrichment in life or not. Even if I get demented, I still owe much to them.     

Here.