Passing another milestone.

It is my wife's 74th birthday. We have celebrated it with sushi. Otherwise, nothing special. She has had a bit of beer tonight. It is quite unusual. 

Both of us perceive our age from time to time. Forgetfulness and difficulty in remembering are looming to us. Proper nouns are escaping or won't come up in our mind. We smile bitterly each other whenever we experience such a situation.

Oh, no. That's not the message I should write here now.

We are growing old together. Hand in hand. Until the journey of life ends. Year by year, I feel the spirit of the poem by Browning more and more real.

She has worked hard as a wife, a mother and a psychiatrist. Her life should be admired. At least by me who know how she has lived. Right now, having been free from her clinical duties, she is absorbed in attending a sport gym where she enjoys sports as well as comaradie with a few friends. She cares for plants and flowers at home. Sometimes pulling the weeds together with me.

May she be blessed with good health. And this life will last long.

At the med school hospital campus where we served residency, with our son.

 

 

Struggle with weeds

The weeds in the yard/farm should be ecologically diverse. They used to be at least before this summer. However, this year, they have been only two kinds growing in our lot. Their growth rate and amount are beyond my experience in the past.

One is Himeshiba, that is, Digitaria Ciliaris in academic term. The other is Tsuyukusa, that is, Commelinales or Dayflower. 

The former is a kind of Poaceae. Its growth is so fast that it overgrows most vegetables. They bud in non homogenous way. If they are cut or pulled away, some of them tend to grow later. Growing one after another, they seem to ridicule us pulling them. They prolierate like nuts.

One of the mechanisms the former's vigorous growth, I have learned recently, is allelopathy, that is, producing substances to suppress neighbor plants growing normally. I knew some plants had proproduced allelo chemicals but never expected allelopathic plants close to me.  It may be why this kind of weeds grow in cluster or even cover the ground all around. THe withered or even dried ones still show allelopathy, as biologial researchers say, 

The latter are clusering in wet area on the land. They bear "self pollinating flowers" in the soil. They turn to be seeds beneath the ground. It is not enough for us to cut or pull them. But we should carefully dig out those seeds in the soil. Very troublesome. The plant itself is an annual grass but the seeds are told to survive for years or even for decades. The plant could grow roots even after being pulled out. When I find a cluster of this weed, I am almost withered before they are. 

I just wonder what has brought extuberance of these particular weeds. I am afraid it might be related with the global warming. Warming might be beneficial to those weeds which used to come from tropical area. If this guess is correct, this phenomenon may be carried on.

A friend of mine, a farmer, told me to use heribicides. He is spraying a glyphosate related herbicide in the garden. Or, as he told me, it is impossible to control those weeds. Some weeds are becoming resistent to glyphosate, as he said. I am not willing to use herbicides especially, glyhosate for the next generation, even though I am not sure who would take over this land.

It could be a problem for the next generation how to do with the proliferating weeds. 

I would go out with a sickle and struggle with the weeds. Destined to defeat? I have still already planted potatoes in the weeds flourishing farms.　

How to spend free time

When I decided to quit ham radio, I had no clear plan as for how to spend free time instead for the future. Not necessarily voluntarily, I have been kept busy caring for this property. Of course, now, I am not able to go out with own physical issues and family duties as I used to years ago. No complaints about it. Even though this anticipated situation came a bit earlier than I expected.

I thought I would have much more free time without ham radio. It was not the reality but I have been quite busy at housework. Concentrated on pulling the weeds growing like jungle for hours, I am not bored with it. Often forgetting how fast time lapses away. I often recall my aunt and my parents who have established and maintainted the small tuberculosis sanatorium at the very same place we are living in around WWII. I have mentioned about that in previous posts. This property belonged to my maternal ancestors before that. Even though not conscious awareness, my devotion to this land might be related with almost subconscious responsibility for those who lived in this property. In my aunt's bio, there are descriptions of a number of patients having spent their very last days in life here, together with a few personnel caring for them in poverty, including my parents. That sanatorium has never been remembered by othes but is almost totally forgotten. So far as I am allowed to live here, I would take care of this land by myself. 

I am trying to catch up with the vast repertoire in classical music I have never listened to. Lately, I focus on the keyboard music. It is the genre I have not been so enthusiastic for. Bach's famous works or Beethoven's sonata, not only the last few.  

A transcription of an organ work by Cesar Franck has attracted me. I have listened whole of or even played a part of his Piano Trio OP1-1 and Piano Quintet in f minor. I love both so much. Otherwise, the famous violin sonate in A major has been one of my favorites since school days. Franck was a non prolific composer even though his works are all masterpieces. Classy as well as emotional in modern sense. 

That transcription is here;

Mesmerizing. The will and emotion of modern times are stayed ahead in the form Bach used to establish.

So, being conscious of the time limited for me, I would go on working in the lot and listening to music. Weeds are waiting for me now.

Jack W8KR resigned FOC

 Jack W8KR gave me an e mail to let me know he would resign FOC several days ago. Having had his wife's and his own health issues, possibly with his inactivity on the air, the club transferred him to the associate member, which turned out to be temporary for only 6 months. At the time of my resignation, it was permanent. The club might intend to activate metabolism in membership in a sense. New and young members are not always making credit to the club more than old timers like Jack, if I am allowed to tell my view. 

I have never heard such a bug user like him sending perfectly beautiful code from the old fashioned key. In 2010s when we used to meet often on 20m, he was a real great ragchewer. Whenever he called me with that bug key, I was always felt enchanted by his beautifully flowing CW. He was talkative and had a lot of topics to talk about. It was a real pleasure for me to talk to him in our morning hours. Since I quit radio already, I won't have a chance to see him in that way any longer. I hope he would overcome the hand issue which has prevented him from operating CW in the way it used to be. I am sure his keying itself would be a great advocate of this art of communication to the beginners.  

It was very courteous for him to let his sponsors, including myself, know of his resignation. I felt it was just like him. Kind, loyal and courteous.

I wonder if I have done the same thing when I got out of the club. Maybe, no. I was occupied with own problem so much that I have not imagined of those who had kindly made sponsorship in 1988 would feel to hear about my resignation. By hat time, there were only few sponsors in the club, mostly SK. Rod K5BGB has sent me a mail expressing his embarrassment at the news. I was sorry for him.

I also told him, besides ham radio, he has a lot of things to do and to enjoy. If he won't be active on the air any longer, he could spend the time he used to do with ham radio for the other purposes. In my resignation from the club and quitting ham radio as well, I have experienced the 2nd retirement myself.

Good health and much happiness to him and his wife Eileen!

Again regarding the Art of Fugue and the meaning of polyphony

I have been concerned why a style of music, the fugue, attracts us so deeply. At least, it is one of my most favorite music styles. It is told to have been thoroughly completed by JS Bach. His unfinished work of "Die Kunst der Fuge" is regarded his real achievement in that composition mode. 

It is a question why the fugue or, in broader sense, the polyphony fascinates our mind. No definite answer yet. As I told in a previous post, the polyphony is identical to or, at least, comparable to the mechanism our consciousness works. Different ideas or thoughts are coming up in mind repeatedly. In case of polyphony, with different tune/tonality. They are compiled in a mass. The flow of compilated thoughts must be an aspect of our consciousness.

It's enough to soapbox on the relationship between our concsiousness and polyphony.

The performance of this work extends to various instruments/ensemble. I have been listening mainly to string quartet version. The performance by Juliard String Quartet has been the best choice for me. Very excellent combination of modern and authentic performance. For the past few days, however. I listen to a rendition by two harpsichords. The players are Ton Koopman and Tini Mathot.  

What I liked it is, in short, that they are keeping constant tempo among contrapuncti. Even in each contrapunctus. As a characteristic of harpsichord rendition, it is dynamically fairly flat, far from romanticism. These characteristics may keep our mind absorbed in the essence of the music. Not emotionally excited. It is another point which attracted me is that Bach might have composed this with a keyboard as well.

Whenever I listen to this piece, it inspires me a lot that the last contrapunctus in a 3 voice fugue ends abruptly with the motif of BACH. They say it was not intended but only a result of accidental abandonment. Bach was going to finish it later. Still this ending is symbolic from our perspective of life. Our life could be forcefully ended regardless what we may wish for the rest of our life. We should learn that from this ending.

The 1st contrapunctus of this renditon. You may listen to further with different videos uploaded by the same person.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKr89xxnMM8&list=PLWX0mJtyf2ceho-yYTx7K6dVyaWJk53TQ

Debt reduction by inflation

The US has the historical large amount of the debt now. Now, with the fault of invasion to Iran, the petrodollar recycling is going to shrink. The adminitration seems to cover the expenditure by causing more inflation. Of course, without testifying that.

It is even much worse in our country. The government debt is over 210$ of GDP. In addition to the consumption tax cut as well as more expenditure for the military expansion, the administration plans 370 trillion JPY investments by 2040. I could not help judging they are nullng the debt by hyperinflation.

 

Opposing to the sanctions on the ICC head et al by the Trump administration

The Trump administration has imposed sanctions on the head and another lawyer of International Criminal Court, ICC. They have previously done the same sanctions on other 11 personnel.

ICC has been established in 2002 pursuant to the ICC Rome Statute. It is to research and punish any serious war crimes in the international community. Now 125 countries have ratified the Rome statute with the USA, Russia and China excluded. The aim of ICC is to uphold the rule of law in the world. Its function is limited to the areas/countries in its jurisdiction. It is not intended to violate the sovereignty of the nations not ratifying the Rome statute. 

As told above, sanctions by the Trump administration is not justified. Since the beginning of this year, it is rather the US which has impinged the sovereignty of Venezuela and of Iran. Those countries have been attacked in preemptive manner and their political leaders have been kidnapped or even killed. These behaviours are definitely against the rule of law in the international community. 

The Trump administration is trying to defund and to dismantle ICC. What they insist seems to be ostensible reasoning. They must fear their military actions would be punished by any international organizations like ICC in the future. I could not help imagining this is their real reason.

I hate living in the world where military and economical power rules even if it is not accomplished at present. ICC is an important organization to go toward the goal. I absolutely approve ICC and the personnel working there in order to maintain and improve the rule of law in the world.    

 https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2026/08/19/world/politics/icc-us-sanctions-multilateralism/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_type=image&fbclid=iwy2xjawt2frdwzg9mawv4dg4dywvtajewagjyawqrmxz3s3fqzulqwggzoejevmpzcnrjbmfwcf9pzbaymjiwmzkxnzg4mjawodkyaaeek9ks1e1ym0j-wol_bv8npiavl4gncisog_jds8gnd64rybj2c7jmlgpwlm8_aem_ebq_1wghf68gulako4x2wa#Echobox=1787121649-1

Cherishing every moment

It is mid summer here. Pretty hot in the mid day but not so much in the morning/evening. I am still working hard at the garden/farm while it remains not very hot. Staying on a small chair pulling and cutting weeds. It passes 3 or even 4 hours without being conscious of that. 

Not so often as before, I still cook some dishes. Boiled chicken breast meat with yuzu pepper dressing. Too hot for my wife but pretty good for me insensitive to pepper.

Tomatoes are pretty successful this year. It is always difficult for me to grow large size tomatoes. They could rupture with much rain fall. I have chosen a strain which is resistent to such a problem this year and they have bored quite some fruits. Harvesting a large one with 4 inches in diameter, I have made a salad with it. Pretty sweet and juicy.

 

Peaceful and uneventful days are going on. Still feeling it won't last forever. I try to cherish every day or even every moment.   

Father's 107th heavenly birthday

It was my father's 107th heavenly birth day yesterday. As already reiterated it in this blog, he was born in 1919, the year of end of the WWI. Losing his parents early in his life, he has strived through the WWII era. Getting married to mother immediately after WWII, which had imposed him military duty and forced him to waste his precious time of youth, he finally built own family even in extreme poverty. 

Recently, I have discussed with my brother, a psychiatrist, how we were raised by parents. We were really poor but, strangely enough, not conscious of that in young days. Maybe, my parents were living in a kind of ethos that there were something more important than economical wealth in our lives. It might have made us free from the sense of poverty in life. I am not boasting this. They have not left us anything of richness but only that attitude of living. I owe it to them, especially my father.

 This photo has been posted before. The only family photo for possibly the golden wedding anniversary for my parents. Now all of us, their children, are as old as my parents at this time, 80, 77 and 72 resectively. May we go through the rest of our lives as they did.

For the past week or two, I have been working in the garden/farm. Sitting on a tiny chair and pulling the weeds, I often remember of my parents. I am keeping this propery as my parents used to decades ago. It is a small work but surely an honor to spend the last chapter of my life in this way. 

Until we might see again like at this wedding anniversary.   

A big earthquake in Kumamoto

 This afternoon, they have had a big earthquake with magnitude 7.1 in Kumamoto Pref, an area of southwest Japan. It has left extensive damages in the wide area. At a big shopping mall, the 2nd floor has collapsed and dozens of people, mainly the personnel, have been confined in the building. A high way was destroyed. Houses fell apart. No exact number of casualties is not reported yet. It is quite plausible that large number of people have been killed or injured.

I could not seismologically explain what has caused it. There is, however, the Median Tectonic Line, MTL, crossing Kumamoto Pref. MTL is recognized as a geological terminology but a fault, running from the central part to the southwestern part of our country. There have been a number of big earhquakes at various places along it in hundreds of years interval. It is really the largest fault. 

Around this earthquake epicenter, there are 3 nuclear power plants, NPPs, located. Actually, 3 of them are running at present. Ikata NPP is very close to MTL, only 6km away from it, in Ehime Pref. of Shikoku Island. It is an isolated place where they could hardly rescue or support the NPP once a serious accident should occur. In addition to the other 2 NPPs, it should be stopped as soon as possible. Actually, only 10 years ago, they have had a couple of big earthquakes comparable to this one. The faults directly cause earthquakes are not MTL itself but it is highly suspected the area along MTL is "activated" now. At least, in geological time span.  

Needless to say, the people affected by this disaster should be rescued soon. Without life line, it might be very tough for them to get through the situation in this hottest season of a year. 

Selling my private practice

Today, this old clinic is being sold. Since quitting work at this place 14 years ago, I am least concerned about this building. Yes, dreams and hopes were rammed into this house 31 years ago. My father used to dream with me at my own practice. He had helped us at the office for several years until he could not attend there by himself. It might be the last and biggest filial piety to my father. 

Honestly, I was not so much indulged in managing this practice. It was worth, however, working children for some years. I have given my cell phone number to patients and their parents when close observation was necessary or emergency could happen on them. Their phone numbers are still kept in my smartphone. I thought someday they should had needed my advice on phone even after closing my practice. Almost nothing! I am still their doctor while I am only a guy involved with in the past. Most of them might have grown up now. It is the time for me to delete those phone numbers.

The zelkova tree on the western side of the building has prevented from harsh sunray in the sunset. From my room on the 2nd floor, I used to see my father dragging his feet to his car after the lunch time duty as a clerk.
 

The reception room. My father used to be concerned about the books for the children in the book shelf. There used to be famous fairy tales or even books on peace. 

The examination room. It was not digitalized but was equipped with rhinoscope. 

The time as a pedicatrician is now completely over. I should step out now.

To make a sales contract, I would leave for a town nearby with my wife now.

Anonymized children

 Those children killed in Gaza and the West Bank are anomymized. They existed only as a number. UN commission has announced as below.

  https://www.instagram.com/reels/DaFtBswHZ6O/

This reminded me of Ivan telling Alyosha in The Brothers Karamazov that he would say no thanks to God for his savior so far as innocent children are shedding tears.

It is an absolute absurdity.  

A rainy season day

It won't stop raining. Drizzly rain. A typical rainy season day. The rainy season front is being stimulated by a typhoon passing by our area. So it will be a day off for me from working in the garden farm. 

This is the battle field for me to do with weeds. They are so vigorously growing that it is often tough for me to catch up with. Battling only with hands and a small sickle. No herbicide has been used. Without pulling/cutting them, they would grow like jungle in a few days.

Piled up weeds which were pulled/cut. Added rice bran on them, they will become good compost in a few months. Almost free and natural fertilizer.  

Turnip seeds left unused last season were sown on a corner. They were successfully sprouted. Lovely. 

As I have seriously expected poor harvest in our country or even world wide in the near uture, the food self sufficiency rate being only 38% in our country or even down to 10% if considering of the seeds and fertilizers dependent on the other countries, it has been a routine for me to plant sweet potatoes which could be substituted to rice. It is a serious question why the government would do nothing for the possible food crisis. They are concerned about only military expansion but not food security. Sweet potatoes are growing well without any fertilizer etc if the soil is kept dry. 

Tomatoes. It's a fight against bugs which eat them. No pesticides. If the situation is disadvantageous against the bugs, should I protect them wrapping with nets? 

Egg plants. Already harvested a few. Whenever picking them, I remember of a good old friend, Fred, K5FA, who used to plant a lot of them and told me they were ripened in our QSOs. He is already gone away.

Flowers of carrots. Beautiful. I will collect the seeds from them and plant them in fall. 

Another flower, almost wild at our garden. Marie gold. It is beneficial to prevent growth of a kind bacillus.

Rose. It is not my territory but my wifes. I am only cutting the weeds around it and pile them there.

 So many trivial photos. They may show you how I am getting along despite of the neuralgia on legs. The pain is well controlled with a med named Pregabalin. So far, only conservative treatment is good enough for me.

Again, whenever I sit on the weedy garden and pull them, I often ask myself how long I could do this work. The answer is always evident. So far as I could. As told before, I convince myself I am blessed to care for the property which has been cared for by my maternal ancestors. In a long term view, it might return to nature, which we could not worry or care for. 

So I am looking forward to coming back on the gound with a sickle soon.

The piano quartet played at the G7 summit party

Yo Yo Ma et al, renowned players, have played a piano quartet as the news says as below.

~~~

Classic FM

Classical stars perform for world leaders at the G7 summit in Evian, France. 

An international quartet comprising of American cellist Yo-Yo Ma, British violist Timothy Ridout, French violinist Renaud Capuçon, and Italian pianist Beatrice Rana took to the stage last night to perform the finale of Brahms’ Piano Quartet No.1.

They were introduced by French president Emmanuel Macron, to an audience that also included Keir Starmer, Donald Trump, and Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

 Alexandra Lebon
~~~
This piece is a sophisticated chamber music by Brahms composed in his young days. Conflicts in mind while yearning for something. It's hard to believe a young Brahms has composed such a serious work in his youth. 
It begins with the dialogue between cello and viola following the theme presented by piano. It seems to express inner conlicts and to govern the entire 1st movement. The 2nd theme given by cello sounds full of longing characteristic for youth. In my view, both themes won't be resolved and drive and develop the music.
The following movements are also dominated by the same mood. It is amazing young Brahms has put such conflicts and tension into this quartet. The last movement is pictured with bohemian melody, tranquil and sweet. It soon turns to be the vivid cadenza in forte and accelerando.  
It is amazing such a piece was chosen for rendition at the summit party. I suspect "the pretending boss" might have fallen asleep hearing the elegiac melody in bohemian style while startling awake at the end.  
The actual performance at the summit is not available. In stead, here is another excellent perormance;

Tomorrow will worry about itself

When I was young preparing for the entrance exam to a med school, I was attending to a bible class. I got an acquaintance with an elementary school teacher there. We were talking on the way from the class place to the station nearby after the class was over. I Pne time, she confessed to me that she had had a few patients with schizophernia at her family, her mother and a younger brother. Her family seemed to be heavily inherited with that psychiatric illness. Even though I have read a few books on psychiatry those days, like Minkovsky or Jaspers, particularly interested in that field of medicine, I have known little about the reality to be a family member of that illness. It took me years to understand what it had meant. When she told me about that, she never stopped introvertdly keeping smile on her face. In the end of that conversation, she mentioned about the Gospel in Matthew and told me she had been living in the way this sacred words indicated.

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.

Having lived half a century after that episode, this words still stay in my mind. More and more becoming a relief in the daily life. Even surrounded with serious issues, private or social, this could be a real consolation to me. In that situation, I always recall of the conversation with her on the way to the railway station. If she is doing well, she must be over eighty years of age. How has she lived the past half a century? 

Tomorrow will worry about itself. It is a real relief and tells us, not abondoning the reality, we should live the day as if the last day on earth, I believe.

Online abuse in politics

PM Takaichi has run not only the campaign of the LPDJ president last fall shown below but also the House of Representatives election in this February. With online abuse, she and LDPJ have made big wins in both elections.

LPDJ seems to have been contaminated with online abuse for past some time. It is highly suspected to have ordered a company to spread defamatory information against the opposite parties. An account named DAPPI has done it. The company has excused that an employee did it by himself. DAPPI did it in the daytime of week days. LDPJ has spent some money to the company in the name of the other projects than this DAPPI thing.  

It is politically a heinous conduct that the Takaichi administration has run massive volume of the defamation videos against the opposition party candidates in the House of the Representative election. It has occupied more than 2/3 of the seats in the House. They could do whatever they want now. However, it should be questioned if their conduct was legally and ethically right or not. 

Online abuse in politics should be regarded illegal and ethically impermissible. Because it would destroy the ground of democracy. We need to discuss about policy in detail and to make judgement based on right informations in voting behaviour. If online abuse is allowed in politics, politics would be deteriorated by those rich enough to run online abuse.  

PM Takaichi should resign.

Quote;

 Man admits creating videos critical of Japan PM rivals in LDP election　KYODO NEWS- Jun 08, 2026 - 10:05All,Japan

Ken Matsui, the head of an IT firm who says he created videos criticizing Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's political opponents for her campaign for the Liberal Democratic Party presidential race, speaks in an online interview in Tokyo with Kyodo News on June 1, 2026. (Photo not for sale)(For editorial use only)(Kyodo)

TOKYO - The head of an IT firm has said that he created videos criticizing rivals of Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi in last year's ruling Liberal Democratic Party presidential race, after being asked by one of her aides to help her win the election.

Ken Matsui, 33, told Kyodo News in a recent online interview that he was consulted by a secretary of Takaichi on how to "reverse" the lead of Shinjiro Koizumi, then a strong contender to win the LDP presidential election in October.

"I proposed that negative videos would be effective," he said.

Matsui was asked about his thoughts during an online meeting on Sept. 25 to discuss social media strategy during the LDP election campaign. The meeting included the secretary who was introduced to him by an acquaintance.

Takaichi won the LDP election on Oct. 4 and became the country's first female prime minister later that month. She appointed Koizumi as defense minister.

Speaking in parliament in May, Takaichi denied reports saying her camp spread videos online via anonymous accounts to smear opponents. "I have been told that my office and campaign team did not in any way disseminate negative information about other candidates or create and distribute such videos," she said.

The reports, which first appeared in the weekly magazine Shukan Bunshun in late April, claimed that Takaichi's publicly funded first secretary and others made and posted videos criticizing politicians including Koizumi, in which he was called "incapable" and a "puppet of hereditary politics."

In a written response to Kyodo News, Takaichi's office denied such allegations and said it has no plans to re-investigate the claims.

Matsui, who was also the developer of Sanae Token, a meme coin named after the prime minister, said the videos not only targeted Koizumi but another leadership rival, then Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi who was emerging as another leading contender.

Hayashi is now the internal affairs and communications minister in Takaichi's Cabinet.

Matsui said he used some original generative artificial intelligence software to create 1,000 to 1,500 short videos on Koizumi and Hayashi. Around 300 social media accounts were then created on which the videos were shared.

He added he instructed the AI not to use expressions that would be slanderous and produced the content free of charge. He also said he does not think his actions violated the law.

Takaichi's use of social media was regarded as a strong factor in her victory in the party race as well as the LDP's landslide lower house election victory in February this year.

It has previously been revealed that the Koizumi camp had also asked campaign staff to make posts smearing rivals during the LDP leadership race.

Ebola virus epidemic

 Ebola virus infection is a highly contagious as well as fatal illness. It is spreading in Eastern Congo now. There are already patients or suspected cases in Italy and India in addition to the neighboring countries to Congo. The doctors struggling in Congo says it is out of control.

Here.

As this ABC article says the other countries than the US should contribute to this crisis by some means. But the US is responsible for supporting this probable pandemic since it is the country with the biggest GDP in the world.  

The Trump administration has withdrawn from WHO this January. It has imposed burden to this organization which worked for public health in the world. Surprising enough, the White House restricted those with the expertise on this probable pandemic to collaborate with WHO. 

Here.

Quarantine only slows spreading of the infectious illnesses but won't stop epidemic itself. Whether this Ebola virus infection would become another pandemic or not depends partially on the international network like WHO. There is no vaccine for the Bundibugyo strain causing the present outbreak. It may take a month or two to achieve the vaccine against this strain. Its production process and distributing it to the areas needing it require the network.

Here.

We are getting into an era of deficits of resources which easily elicit war or conflict. In this situation, if a pandemic breaks out anywhere in the world, it could result in total devastation. It is not a question whether we help those needing it but whether we may survive. 

A page has been turned

I had a phone call from FTI , the antenna tower constructor, yesterday and was told they had planned to do the work today, which I ordered them before. 

They, 5 people, have arrived here from Tokyo late in the morning. They have done all the job in a couple of hours. So fast!

Having cold tea we prepared for them, they have left for home early in the afternoon. A too quick process to get sentimental to say farewell to the tower I have used for 40 years. Their boss JF1IST seems to have retired and have his business taken over by his son. He used to build this tower in '80s.   

With the big chestnut tree cut down recently, our garden at the south east corner has become vacant and quiet as it used to be. My father has planted various trees and vegetables there 40 years ago.

We had a couple of visitors, W6IJ Tommy, thosedays WJ6O, and his wife. He has taken some photos while JF1IST and the crew have built the tower, while I was at work. having come home, I found the tower and a tribander stacked with a 2 element beam for 40m set on it. For the next decade or two, I was mad at DX chasing and contesting. In 2000s, I have more absorbed in chatting on CW. This tower and antennas have brightened up my life. Through this hobby, I have known a lot of good friends. Besides old elmers whom I have known since '60s or early '80s, with this tower, I could easily talk to friends in the East Coast or in Europe. I won't name each of those whom I became friends with on tower/antenna but sure am reminded of them. 

I am only grateful to the tower/antenna and the constructors. There used to be a few friends like JP1DJV who helped me to change or modify antennas.  

 Maybe, in some interval, I would come back to it with a tiny set up like I used to when moved here in 1979. When a person of the constructor as leaving here, I have kidded him I would aske them to build a new crank up tower. He was smiling at me.

A page has been turned in my ham radio career. 

Another peaceful day

It is a quiet and a bit hot day today. Still crisp and comfortable. I have spent all day at the garden. A few azaleas were damaged by powderpost beetle and have been cut in the garden. There are more area which we could plant some flowers and trees. Before doing that, I have been eagerly pulling out rhizomatous weeds. It is almost imossible to eradicate them since some rhizom is so deep underground that we could not access to it. Reducing the size and amount of such weeds is important to plant other kinds of plants. i don't feel bored with that garden work.

As already written in previous posts, while sitting on the garden and concentrating the work, I often recall my parents. They were often doing the same thing in this property. Living with my family with grandchildren and without any worry about living, they might be in the most peaceful days in their lives, I believe, even if I am not sure I have done best for them. 

My parents have known each other during WWII at the sanatorium, that is, very same place as we live right now. I have reiterated about that story a few times in this blog. They have married after the war and built their family with 3 children. They got through the hardest time in their lives then. Threatened to death in the war and poverty beyond words for sometime after the war. However, they got it through.

Now we are getting into the hardship in life we have never experienced during our lives. Economically, our country hit the highest nominal GDP while the real GDP remains the same. And the long term national bond is charged with the highest interest rate. These mean our country will suffer from further inflation. Takaichi administration is heading to further military buildup changing the constitution to throw away its pacifism. The social security is being cut and more self pay is being introduced. The gas and food crisis due to the war in the Middle East messes it up further. 

Spending elderly days in this situation is surely a challenge for us. Privately, we have own problems for our age as well. It is equivalent to WWII and the post war era for my parents. i won't complain of that but would live with hope for the future as my parents used to do.

My wife has prepard a gorgeous sushi dinner for my 77th birthday. A rewarding day.

My mother, maybe in her 70s, and my wife. A photo taken about 35 years ago. At a park nearby.

 

A peaceful day

It is getting even 30 deg C in the mid day here. Quite unusual temperature for this time in a year. Weeds won't wait for us tu stop growing. Both I and my wife have been cutting/pulling the weeds in the garden. Half an acre lot is a bit too much for this old couple to care for. My wife is only a part time gardener as well. 

I still sit on a small chair and run  a small sickle with single-minded concentration. Sometimes, a question why I should do this comes up in mind. I tell myself this property has been inherited through ancestors for centuries or at least from my aunt and caring for it is an honorable duty for me. It always goes on without such a self dialogue. Only being absorbed in it. After working too long, I often have some lumbago but taking a nap for an hour or so always alleviates it. 

Another question sometimes occupies my mind. It may sound a ridiculous question. Isn't it correct to get rid of weeds or unwanted plants in order to have certain plant like lawn or a vegetable grow from the ecological point of view. Isn't it an egoism for human being? Natural farming tells us to grow vegetables together with weeds so far as the latter won't disturb the former. It is sometimes surprising the latter is helping the former. On the other hand, we want our garden to have only lawn grown. Our life is disturbing the nature, isn't it? 

Considering of such a thing, I know it gets lunch time.  

Some vegetables are ready to be harvestd soon. Onions are grown. I found their leaf could be cooked and taste good if it is fresh. Dosens of them will be dried and stored to be consumed in the coming months until next spring.

Potatoes are growing as well. There are two other beds with them. Seriously, they are for the possible poverty life in the coming months.

A couple of years ago, I have planted a tree of iyokan orange at a corner of the garden. Sadly, the tree seemed to have withered in the cold weather of winter. I still found "basal shoots" at its base. I told my wife of that. In her calmness, she answered to me that it had been grafted and the rootstock grew the basal shoots. Unluckily, her observation seemed right.

Chating such a thing while pulling the weeds with my wife may be the best part of life so far. If the invasion to Iran by the US and Israel would not be ceasefired, the world, especially Asian countries, may suffer from teribble stagflation. Our administration won't prepare for that catastophic condition. The government put subsidy to the gas, not telling the people to refrain from using it. And, having intervened in the exchange trade, they have wasted the important reserve. They aimed at stopping lowering of JPY. Without improvement in the fundamentals, cheap JPY won't be normalized. So I could not help being pessimistic for the future but may enjoy peaceful days like today.