The autumn potatoes cropped and beef/potato stew

It is the time for cropping autumn potatoes. The plants are starting being withered. Their growth seemed to promise good harvest this year.

Yes, my guess was right. Pretty big potatoes were cropped out. 

Having freshly harvested potatoes, we always think of this dish. Beef and potato stew. A traditional home dish menu in our country. This was my wife's request as well. Several times of this amount are expected to be cropped in the coming few days. They will be stored in boxes and will be used for cooking throughout this winter. Some of them will be planted for spring potatoes in next March. 

The vegetables left in the garden farm are onions, leeks, chinese cabbages, brussel sprouts, radishes, garlics and beans. Boy, it sounds like a big farm. Each is in small amount, though. They will be quietly coming into the coldest season.   

 

The very last communication

 I have been keeping another blog in Japanese since 2006. Those days, the so called "malpractice issues" were in debate and doctors were often criticized or even sued to court. An obstetrician was even arrested for the misfortune case that a serious complication of delivery had killed a lady, which looked inevitable to us especially at a small hospital with one obstetrician ward. A lot of doctors have started publishing their thoughts through the internet in the style of blog those days. I was one of them. I have been keeping that blog which became like a political place for commentary and radical criticism! I may continue it for some more years until I get intellectually more deteriorated!

It is like a diary for me even though I seldom write about private things there. Ham radio friends have been one of the topics. In an article titled David N1EA written in 2008, I found an impressive story about him and our mutual friend Laci W1PL. David has been a commercial operator and used to go voyage as a radio operator for a long time. His fist was so excellent as those old timers of old commercial operators.     

The post said we had had a QSO on 20m the other day. David told me about his "very last" QSO with old Laci W1PL. Laci has been another proficient operator and was an immigrant from Hungary during WWII, I believe. He was like a beacon from the East Coast. How couldn't we meet each other since I was another beacon from Far East. David told me he had given a phone call to Laci a few days before his passing. On the phone, Laci seemed to talk in his mother tongue, which David could not understand at all. Having brought an oscillator and a key there, David sent the final message on CW. Laci seemed to understand it and sent back his message on CW. It must have been an impressive event for him and for me as well that ham friends could communicate on CW even if they couldn't in the ordinary way of verbal communication. It was the very last communication between them.

I have forgotten about this episode. Like fallen leaves, I am losing memories and intellectual abilities if I have any. Maybe, when I could not publish my idea or view through the internet, I would spend time reading back those stories interesting to me. I could picture that from now. I don't know if David could operate radio now. Hopefully, he is still advocating this old fashioned mode of communication to new comers.

The 44th anniversary tomorrow

 It will be the 44th anniversary of our marriage tomorrow. It is a too banal expression but time is flying so fast. It is like yesterday when we were settled down at the resident dorm at a med school hospital nearby. She wore an old greenish coat. I held her in arms and came into the house when we came back from the honey moon. Without knowing what would happen to us for the next decades...

Both of us were fans of classical music. It took 1 hour and a half for us to go on a train to Ueno Tokyo where we could attend concerts. Before having got married, we were talking of going for concerts at least once a few months. In the end of that year, we went to a concert of the 9th of Beethoven. And later, about 15 years ago, we had another chance to listen to a chamber music at Ueno. Only twice through this 44 years! Both of us have been responsible for the duties which could not be replaced by the others easily. That may be a reason. It has been tough for her to go out of home freely for her responsibility as a mother as well. 

One of the biggest changes in life to come on in the next year is that she is expecting finally to retire during the next year. She was looking for a psychiatrist who would take over her office. It is not successful yet so far. She is concerned about the patients and a staff whom she has worked for years for and together with. Without luck to find out a substitute, however, she may close it down. They may find their own ways by themselves even after her office closing. She has already worked as a psychiatrist for 45 years. Who could imagine she would go on working for such a long time? I would give her compliment and gratitude to her for her efforts. At our ages, it may not be easy for us to travel so much. I just hope she will enjoy leisurely days at the garden or in the kitchen.

I have posted this photo a few times. I still love it. It sure reminds me of our young days. It was taken at our honey moon in Izu. Happy and ambitious days for us.

It was the clarinet quintet of Brahms performed by Takacs that we listened in the concert at Ueno some 15 years ago. This is an excellent performance of an unknown quartet and clarinet player I recently found in Youtube.

 

 

Chinese cabbage harvested

Chinese cabbages are grown and ready to be harvested. They have grown to this size. The problem is that they are ripened at the very same time.

This will be a material for hot pot dish tonight.

Our mischievous boy was sniffing at it and knew it was not for him.

So hot pot dishes will continue for some time.

 

Taiwanese Lily

 For the past few years, there have been a couple of lily flowers grown at the entrance of our home. They are remarkable among other grasses and attract our eyes when they come out. Here is one of them.

Looking up the species of this lily, I found Taiwanese Lily was most likely. It also looks like Gun Lily but has red line on the lateral sides of periaths, which is peculiar to this species.

A botanological site says it was originally from Taiwan and is widely spread all around in our country. It is pretty stout and could grow anywhere. It may cluster at one place. It hates, however, continuous cropping and may disappear in a few years. The seed would flow in wind and may grow at another place.

It is also told to comeout in early summer. How have they bloomed in this season? Is it thanks to the global warming? In this cool season when other flowers are withering, they look very attractive. 

We have never planted these lilies. I am sure a couple of seeds were flown down here and have grown like this. A kind of mysterious and romantic story. I don't know how long they will live there. For the time being, they would please us until they finish living there. May they go on living at another place and make people happy there.

Getting into early winter

It is the season to plant baby plants of onion into farms. The plants grown with seedling are not well grown this year. I have purchased about 100 seedlings at a store and have finished planting them in a small farm. I wonder if they will grow in the coming cold season without vinyl mulching or sheet cover. Grass mulching was put among them. My wife was laughing at the number and asked me how to do with so many of them. This sort of onion could be preserved for several months, I answered.

Green pea and snow pea have already budded. Hopefully, they will bear a lot of beans for salad and dishes. Radishes are growing slowly. I wonder if they grow as they should by the time of frost. Lettuce is also slow in growth. I have used only compost for the fertilizer. Has it limited their growth? Natural farming is favorable but should require some years to have soil rich and fertile. Least amount of fertilizer of organic origin may be necessary. It is a question for farming next year.

The Japanes Judas tree at the small space to the west next to the neighbor is still growing. I asked a gardener to cut the trunk and the main branches a few years ago. It should have been planted at larger free space like a park. But it is its destiny to be planted naturally at this place. No matter what happens, it should live together with us there for some more years. Not so bright as ginko tree, it turns the leaves colorful for now. Leaves are starting to fall on the ground.

 

Ellen W1YL has passed away

Early yesterday morning, I knew Ellen W1YL had gone silent key the day before by a post of her relative in Facebook. It was expected but still was a sad news in fact. She has been undergone downhill for her health issue for the past weeks, I knew. Ned W1RAN, her old friend, has let me know how she has been doing from time to time. 

It was in late '80s when I got a personal acquaintance with her. She often got on 40m CW late at night in our time. But it seemed Bob, her OM, used to take the seat oftener than her. With the ideal set up with a beam there, their signals were always booming in here. 

It was the time when I joined FOC and had become a crazy DX chaser. After a DX pedition to XU as XU0JA, I was asked to write an article for a DX club by her when she was the editor of the club magazine. In early millenium years, she has lost her beloving son Jamie K4OJ and, in a couple of years, Bob. What losses they were for her! But she never told me the words of lingering attachment to them but was always proud of the days when she enjoyed the same hobby together with them. She moved to an apartment in a few years, I believe, where she had to give up oprating radio.

It was 2016 when she appeared before me all of sudden. With generosity of Tom K5RC and much help from her friends, she could start operating the big station of W7RN through remote control. This is the post in this blog which I made after that reunion after several years' absence.

 http://nuttycellist-unknown.blogspot.com/2016/02/w1yl7.html

Late in the afternoon, when I finished gardening/farming work and came in the shack with a can of cold lager, I often ran across with her on 40m CW. In several days interval. She has had insomnia problem and always got out of the bed very early in the morning there. Around 2 or 3 AM there. We have yakked on good old days, our cats or even the current issues in the world. I learned she had been a firm believer in democracy. She sounded like a real young girl when she was talking through CW. Very vivid and sensitive. I was not conscious that I was talking to a legendary ham in the US at that time. 

Through our friendship, I always felt and admired that she was a lady of independence. Her favorite phrase was that she had been lucky to be able to live independently by herself in the apartment even if she should use the walker or, later, the wheel chair. Whenever she has met hardship in life, which she won't mention about such a thing too often, I was inclined to offer any help to her. She always seemed unhappy at such a proposal or even at such an attitude of me. She has enjoyed social activities, whether it might be for ham radio or not. She always spent a few days when expecting friends or family members visiting her. I could picture how excited she was having them there. Her friends and family members were affectionately caring for her from time to time, I knew. In fact, for the last few days, her daughter in law, Teresa, and her children have cared for her at the apartment.

When I decided to quit radio this summer, she gave me a short note telling me to withdraw that decision. She said ham radio won't be the same for her without me. It was really touching words for me. But I have crossed the Rubicon at that time. It was an honor to me to be told that way, though. 

Our very last QSO was on May 8th this year. Again it was late in the afternoon. The remarks in the log says she could not sleep well, 20m was excellent reminding her of good old days and one good thing was that her good friend Nita was visiting the next week. The interval of QSOs was longer. I felt her health condition was going gradually downhill. But, as if we would meet again in a few days, we parted each other. Without realizing that it was the very last one.

It is a big loss for me to have her passing away. But now she is free from anxiety and pain on earth. I am pleased to imagine she is enjoying reunion her beloving son and husband. I would thank all of her friendship through ham radio and wish her RIP.   

The Most Unforgettable Patient

I still have a file of summaries of inpatients whom I have been in charge of in my resident days. Not all was recorded. But they were memorable and important patients to me as not only a pediatrician starting career but also a human being. 

In it, there is a record of a patient with acute leukemia I have cared for a year from 1978 to 1979. I was starting residency then. I was interested in hematology and was curious about this case at first. I have learned how to tap bone marrow with her and how to read the cytological findings. She was not given exact diagnosis of leukemia. Only categorized as undifferentiated acute leukemia of unknow origin. It was still the era when leukocyte/lymphocyte surface antigens were not discovered. T lymphocyte was identified only with sheep red blood cell rosette formation. Undifferentiated leucocyte/lymphocyte was impossible to be categorized. It was quite difficult for us to treat her. For the year, it has been impossible for us to lead her into remission even once.  

The summary says she has born at a town in the mountain area and has spent lively life as a small child as stated below. She has developed tiredness, bruising and pallor. Being diagnosed acute leukemia, she has undergone a various protocol for leukemia whch turned out ineffective. Without chemo., the violent leukemic cells have increased so badly that we could not stop giving chemo. 

She has been agonized with drip infusion and side effects of chemo. Whenever I went into her room, she was gremacing or weeping. Only once she was smiling when the chemo protocol was not severe with a single drug, which was believed to induce differentiation of leukemic cell. She was brightly smiling at me when I visited her. It won't last long, though. That treatment was not effective, either.

I was not in the position to determine the treatment plan. The more harsh unendurable the series of chemo became for her, the more often I wondered if there was any other choice than chemo for her. Even though I have never asked my boss about that. There were very few hospices in our country at that time. I have never heard of that for children. At present, those patients and their family members have the other choice of treatment. This girl could have spent happier and more meaningful days even if she won't be brought into remission. I am truely sorry for her and for our incapability to treat her. She has become more than a patient for me in the end. I have learned so many things from her. 

She was originally from a spa town in the mountain area I drove the other day and posted about it on Oct 21st. My short resume says she had attended a kindergarten until she became ill. She might spend happy days there. Too short life. Getting through that old town, I could not help recalling of her and her parents. Her mother has become mentally ill at last. I wondered if that couple was still living there. If they were still there and the girl was entombed somewhere there, I would visit her at the tomb. With what she has taught me as a pediatrician and a human, I could go through my life, I would tell her. It might not be possible, though.

She has died on Nov 21st in 1979.　　

A Skater is Retiring

An excellent speed skater, Nao Kodaira, has stated of her retirement from skating. She has won the gold medal in 500m speed skating at the Winter Olympic Games in Pyong Chang in 2018. In the press conference, being asked about involvement in hosting the Winter Olympic Games in Sapporo, she answered she would take a distance from it so far. She also stated she won't be utilized for such an event. 

Olympic Games have been corrupted by businesses, IOC or politicians. The Tokyo Olympic Games held last year was typical for that. A few businessmen and executive staff of JOC etc have been arrested for bribery. Tsunekazu Takeda, the former head of JOC, has been suspected of corruption to host the Tokyo Olympic Games. He was suspected to bribe IAAF executives for that. A few politicians, including a former PM, are suspects for corruptions as well. A big advertizing agent named Dentsu might play a central role in these corruption scheme. I have been wondering why athletes won't question about it. 

I believe sports people who achieved some records in such as the Olympic Games won't express their views like Kodaira did since they might be concerned about their career after retiring their sports. Kodaira says she would go on teaching at a university, her mother school in Shinshu. She wants to climbing mountains there,

which she could not enjoy for fear of accidents. 

In the 500m speed skate race she won the 1st place, another skater from Korea, who had been expected to win in it, got only the 2nd place and started weeping in the rink. Kodaira has gently embraced her with the Korean national flag. Whatever country they belonged to and whatever place they got, it was a moving scene in fact. It was most impressive scene in that Olympic Games.