Potatoes harvested

Yesterday, when I came home from a grocery store with a bagful foods, my wife gazed at me and started laughing loud. I had mud on the top of nose. I realized that when working in the garden farm and thought I should wash my face before going for shopping. But I totally forgot that when leaving for the store.

Anyway, that is how I am getting along in the farm. This is about 20 % of the crop of potatoes this year. 

Pretty good harvest. But not enough for us to feed ourselves for a year ahead even if the rest of potatoes is included. I am a kind of pessimist and a person of carefulness. I believe we might get into an era of food shortage someday, not sure when it comes but is surely looming on us due to the climate change/hyperinflation. 

I may try to plant some of them in the end of summer. Potatoes won't bud out for some time, as they say, in the irresponsive period. But if I could have them grow in fall, it means we could have them twice a year. It may help us to be free from starvation.

Tomatoes, pumpkins, okras, green beans and so forth are growing or are ready to grow. The harvest itself is a pleasure for us. However, being in the nature together with them growing is itself a pleasure. We belong to them as a part of nature, not governing them but being with them.

A spectacular social experiment

Our government seems to bull through holding the Olympic Games next month. They insist the measures against COVID19 will be strictly taken during the event. It is unlikely, though, 90K people coming from abroad could be controlled. If the JOC decides to let viewers come in the athletic venues, the number will be up to 3.1 million. It will be impossible to keep the social distancing. Now SARS CoV2 being believed to prevail through aerosol transmission, it won't be a practical goal to have them not infected at the event venues or at the transportation to and from them. Masking and keeping social distance of 5 ft are a kind of too optimistic maneuver  against the mutant strains. In such big crowds of people, the virus could mutate to more infectious and virulent one evading the immunity by vaccines.

The recent issue of JAMA has published an article regarding the break through infection. It says 0.8% of fully vaccinated would get infected with the mutant strains. It means more than 700 of the visitors to the games would bring various mutant strains from all over the world. It is quite plausible there will be some new strains emerging among the people during the coming 2 months in the Olympic games. There could be strains evading vaccine immunity and more infectious than others. They could cause another wave of the trajectory not only in Japan but also in the other parts of the world.

There could be an urgent crisis in emergency medical system in Tokyo and the adjacent areas. They would deploy dozens of ambulance cars and thousands of personnel of emergency medical service system. And it will be the season of heat intoxication in Japan. In last August, more than 4300 people were emergently transferred to hospitals. Even one hundred and ninety five were victimized with that acute illness. It will be a real mess if the same thing happens during the Olympic games. Not only the medical system will be being collapsed but also will the emergency transportation itself as the entrance to the system be.     

It will be a spectacular social experiment. The betting target is our lives. Is it worth making that bet only for IOC and the related businesses gaining a lot of profits?

Driving to a height nearby and the hazardous Olympic games

 A couple of days ago, fine weather unbelievable for this season in a year has lead me to driving to a height country. It is called Abukuma Height. As I have mentioned that place in another post in the past, it is a height laid between Miyagi to Ibaraki through Fukushima prefecture on the Pacific Ocean side. It used to be an old high mountains having been eroded to present fairly flat height. It always shows the old countryside which I am used to be familiar with. A calm and peaceful place for me to visit.

Another reason why I feel that way is that I used to drive there with family members some 30 or even 40 years ago. Some of them have already gone away. Recalling of them, I have ran through the coast from Ibaraki to Fukushima and then back to home through the Height. Winding roads, up and down, through habitant places and mostly mountain area. Listening to Beethoven's string quartets, Nr 1 through 8, performed by Alban Berg Quartet. The CDs were newly bought recently. The quartet had been active from 1970 through 2008 with real virtuosity. I still have fond memories of the music, which is a real monumental work in the genre of classical music. 

In the midst of the Height, I have ran along a small river named Sai River. In a valley, a lot of water has flown on the rocky waterbed. Very quiet place without much traffic. 

There were a lot of habitant places even deep at mountain skirts of countryside. But I also noticed some of them had been abandoned and had got all to pot. Some abandoned farming fields, narrow in stepwise on the slope of mountains, were also noted. No wonder such places must be increasing all over our country. Our country is going into the depopulating period since the mid '00s. We should consider how to land on such a harsh time without collapse of the society. It is not the time for such as Olympic games. In addition to the burden from the Corona Crisis, the demand for social security with aging and decreasing number of working people is increasing, which we have never experienced in the past. 

Even though such serious ideas and anxieties are coming in my mind one after another while driving. But it has calmed my mind and was relaxing me a lot. Even though it was, I again realized, a bit too adventurous for me to drive non stop for hundreds of miles in a day. I have come home safely before sun set.

It will be the day for the 1st shot of COVID19 vaccine tomorrow. I could choose any facility for inoculation here. Accidentally, it was a pediatric clinic nearby I chose. Looking up that facility and the president, it turned out to be a pediatrician who used to belong to the Dept of a med school nearby I used to work for. And the pediatrician must be a student those days and could remember me working as an assistant professor. Hopefully, he won't recognize me tomorrow or he would give me a special big one.

The inoculation rate even of the 1st shot is only around 10% in our country. They still go ahead for holding the Olympic games. It is only for the benefit of IOC and for the government. The top of IOC will be welcomed on a red carpet and will stay at 5 starred hotels. The politicians will be successful at the election ahead later this year if this trial for pan and circus would work. 

There could be another wave of prevalence from Tokyo with thousands of people are gathering from all over the world. Quite some of them won't get vaccinated prior to their visit. The pathogen undergoes mutation once in 2 weeks. There could be new mutations of the virus among the attendees during this stupid event, which evade immunity and get more infectious. 

The medical system in Tokyo is tightened badly already. The emergency medicine will be threatened to collapse during the event for cases of heat intoxication as well as COVID19. I don't think any readers would visit here to cover stories about it or even to play in it but would never recommend you to do so. 

Lorin WA1PGB is elected for a new member of Hall of Fame by US CQ

 Lorin WA1PGB has been elected for a new member of Hall of Fame by US CQ. He let me know that today.

Here.

He is a really proficient CW operator and has been quite active on the air. I have written about him and about how we have known each other elsewhere in this blog.

Here.

I have told him he won't be able to exchange his call sign since it is announced all over the world in this way. I knew he had wondered to get it renewed with a new call sign by vanity program.

Congratulations, Lorin! Keep up your activity as a pianist, even if you are publicly retired, and as an avid CW operator.

Allelopathy and dried weeds for multi sheet

 There are some plants secreting chemical substances which bother the other kinds of plants to grow, I have recently learned. The mechanism is called as allelopathy. It could ultimately disturb own growth. An interesting phenomenon. In a sense, it could compare to the human society, even though it is more complicated and is often driven with greed and evil will while plants just try to disturb the others in order to grow more by themselves without any intentional invasion etc.

They say that allelopathy works particularly in those grown with underground stem and Gramineae. Cogon grass and Gramineae both are annoying weeds in my property. I can't pull or dig out the stem of the former. But cutting the portion above the ground may weaken it. I have decided to cut them and dry under sunshine. expecting its allelopathy, I would use them in stead of multi sheet, which may help the soil humidified and may prevent the weeds from growing.

There is a faction called natural farming. They won't use any chemicals or even fertilizers except for a few "natural" material like rice husks. They won't pull the weeds in the farm but have the crops or vegetables live symbiotically with the weeds. Use of drieds weeds with allelopathy is their idea. I don't think natural farming skills won't provide much crops especially on commercial basis. But, their ideas seem to derive from recognition that farming should be a part of the ecological system on the globe. I believe we should stand on that viewpoint since the global warming and/or pandemic seem to be caused by excessive and violating development of nature.

Dried Gramineae weeds for multi sheet in the farm.

Pepper causing coughing

I am still cooking dinner almost every day. I am apt to cook pretty large amount once in 2 days. That means we should have the same menu for a couple of days. I hope my wife would put up with that since I have a lot of things to do other than cooking.

Yesterday, it was beef cooked with cabbage and egg plant seasoned with pepper. Maybe, I have put too much pepper. When my wife took it, she was almost coughing.

I have remembered about a fact that pepper could elicit coughing. Capsaicin abundantly contained in pepper could activate or trigger to synthesize substance P, a neurotransmitter, which causes coughing through non cholinergic non adrenergic pathway. It was a hot topic in '80s when I was doing with asthmatic patients at a med school hospital. It was not the main pathological pathway but sure turned out to aggravate coughing. That hot taste itself might elicit coughing, I don't know.

I don't know if this capsaicin mediated coughing occurs at once or after some time of reaction. But I felt a bit funny to see my wife coughing with the dish. Of course, I have given her a word of relief.   

This happening has reminded me that I used to be a pediatrician...not only a chef.

 

The 72nd...

Between drizzly days, typical for this rainy season in a year, it was a little fine for a few hours this morning. I have planted a few tomato plants and seeded okra in the farm. Accidentally, I found some green worms eating the leaves of broccoli. And also well grown huge broccoli there. 

For a garden farmer, it is an inevitable issue that vegetables are growing and ripened at the same time, more than we could consume for cooking. I am considering sending some of them to family members or friends. But, as our tradition indicates, some of them would respond to me with sending some gifts, which I never want. it is a negative aspect of our culture which deems courtesy, a bit too much of courtesy, as an important thing in social relationship. Anyway, before the vegetables die in the farm, I should harvest and mail them to my beloved ones.

I have omitted renewing this blog for a while. It was not only due to my laziness but to having some schedules I need to accomplish such as attending to an ophthalmologist, taking a class for senior drivers, renewing my driver's license at police office etc. As I felt my vision had been worsened for the past few years, I was anxious to have the vision test for renewal of the driver's license. It turned out pretty good even without having the glasses. But I and my wife have discussed if we needed to move to certain city area where we don't need to drive a car any longer. Searching for real estate in candidate cities, I knew it was not practical for us to move from here. Even if both of us lose the driver's license due to physical incompetence, we could go for errands, such as getting groceries, on a taxi. Hopefully, it won't be realized too soon.

It is a clear sign of senility for us to talk about only health issue or aging. But it is my 72nd birthday today. Time is surely flying away. This age is comparable to that our parents used to be with us here. I could not help thinking of them at my age. What have they thought about? What have they wanted me to be or to do? And so forth. I, maybe similar to others, was not wise to imagine of such a thing when my parents were with us. It is no use to regret of that. I still wonder what they have thought about their lives at my age.

From now on, the birthday should be the day when I remember of my parents. With heartfelt gratitude to them. As written before, they have raised three of us in poverty. Both of them have moved from this place to a suburb of Tokyo. Working hospitals as a blue worker and a nurse, father and mother, respectively, they have cared for us eagerly. My sister gave me a happy birthday mail telling that our father used to dress me in morning when I was a toddler or even an elementary school pupil. I had a vague memory of that. Again, my heart was full of thanks to him. My mother used to go for work at a salvation army hospital early in the morning and came back home to feed all of us for breakfast. I still remember of that. I still wonder if I have rewarded enough while they were with us. I am afraid it is not easy for me to replay yes to that question.

A psychiatrist, Mieko Kamiya, wrote an impressive book titled "A Journey of Mind", written in Japanese. I have repeatedly read it since my young days. I was attracted by the comparison of our life to a journey. And, possibly since she had been working as a psychiatrist, she distanced herself from any events in life in a sense. Not totally involved in them. In two last chapters, she mentioned of fall in life and end of journey, that is, death. They seem to tell me to get ready to transit from this real world into the eternal phase of time. Kamiya was writing this book a few years before her death being conscious of her own mortality due to her heart disease. It was written in a serene tone. Having distance from the real world as she encourages us to is a kind of relief to me. Getting ready for that moment is another goal for me to step into the 72nd year of age.

There have been a lot of greeting posts and e mails for my birthday. I won't deserve that but am still thankful for that.

And, returning to reality, I decided to prepare steamed vegetable salad featuring this fresh broccoli. I haven't forgot to tell my wife there could be mummified worms in the broccoli. It tasted fresh and good.