April
4/24/2025.
My hummingbird feeders are set in the middle of yard. If I want to take pictures of hummingbirds, I probably need to stay near the feeders for a long time.
My husband got a good idea using a doorbell camera. So I put it in front of the feeder.
Both my husband and son didn't expect that the camera could capture a hummingbird. Because probably his/her size is too small for the camera sensor.
Guess what? The camera captured a hummingbird! My hummingbird. I was so excited.
Here is the video. I love it.
Entry#396. 4/23/2025.
It’s been crazy busy for my husband in this semester with teaching, researching, taking care of his lab crews, advising, two invited talks, handcycling and more.
Even with this much craziness, he has a great spirit that he wants to be helpful for anyone, especially for disability communities in these days. I’m proud of him on his leadership and eagerness to do that.
The other day, we did a group ride at Miami whitewater forest park in Harrison. 3 disabled handcyclists with 2 cyclists + 2 E-cyclists together. (One is the director of the Bridge adaptive sports and recs.).
This bike trail is one of our favorite trails. My husband wanted to have them there and try a whole loop to pedal handcycle. Two other handcyclists are still beginners for 10K or more. (One was done for Flying Pig 10K last year for the first time. The other one will do Pig 10K this year for the very first time. This is my husbands 3rd Pig 10K this year.)
My husband shared any info with them related to handcycle races, mechanism of handcycle and strategy of handcycle races, so on.
It was a super fun group ride. I was proud of all of them. I will keep cheering them with my full energy.
P.S. You might wonder "Oh, your husband rides on a different type of handcycle. I wonder why?"
Just because he scratched his right arm the day before. His racer hahdcycle was in the bike shop to repair break cable. That is why. This handcycle worked better this time to cruise with others. He is lucky that he was able to find it as a used machine. It's the latest purchase one.
Entry#395. 4/23/2025.
I always bike right behind my husband (handcycle). Especially when he rides on a racer type, a lower seating handcycle. In cycling world (or in general), Safety first is safety always. And we bike carefully to walkers on any bike trails, as well. We try to do that as much as possible.
Handcyclists’ positions are lower than bicycle/cyclists. On the roads, car drivers don’t see handcycle most of the time. It’s scary to both sides (cars and handcycles).
(I know, in general, cyclists also would feel uncomfortable/scary on the roads with too many traffic.)
Sometimes I feel “I should ride in front of him”. So sometimes I do. It depends though. I don’t want to block his own pace. I don’t see how he is doing when I’m in front.
I cannot warn him about holes/ ditches on the roads ahead of time when I’m behind him, though.
For now, we are comfortable when he is leading me. It works pretty well.
In these positioning, I always have to watch everything IF something happens to my husband and his handcycle.
For example. The rear tire (tubeless) got a hole and sealant inside leaked badly. I saw it.
A flag at the back of handcycle blew off by gusty wind. I caught it. It’s all good.
On the other hand, when he misses turns or gets slipped or gets off balance then his handcycle(body) itself flips sideways, I have to watch it, too. (These things won’t happen so often. That’s the theory because handcycles have 3 wheels.) I cannot prevent these incidents no matter how much I am careful. Things happen.
We can learn more from these things, too.
The other day, we were pedaling on the bike trail. One of our favorite trails. We know well about the trail (conditions and length/distance).
Our plan was “The long ride day” = about 25 mile total (one way is 12.5 mile. And turning around).
It was sunny, comfy, speedy riding and we were happy.
We turned around and on the way back, remaining distance 10 mile to finish.
His right side rear tire crossed the edge of pavement, drifted off and flipped sideways before I knew it. I was, yes, right behind him.
When he stopped, I was off the bike and pulled him (his machine) to normal position. This time, no dislocation, he got scratched his right arm. (It was still big scratch.) photo here.
It was a little bit over the half way point. That means we still had to pedal back to the van about 10 mile…. Very fortunately, his machine was working. However the breaking system was a bit damaged (looked like it). He couldn’t pedal with 100%, tried to move slower and tried to use the breaking system minimally. Well, we made it to go back to the van and we came home.
One thing for sure. My husband did winter training indoor at home which was successful more than ever. That showed his speed was increased more (than past spring times before). Once he gets outside and pedals outside, he needs to adjust the feeling of speed from indoor-mode to outside-pedal. His handcycling condition has been well prepared. Just no more flipping and scratch, that’s our hope.
Wish him luck on 5/3 & 5/10.
See photos below? Check his right side rear tire. (It has to keep on the pavement, especially with fast speed.)
P.S. Something would happen always on long ride days. Strange. The last time, I got punctuated (front tire) and I didn't have an extra tube with me. Bad me.
4/22/2025.
IT'S HERE!!! My hummingbird is here today. Hurray! Cannot capture him/her in a photo, but I'm super happy. Bonus: My wonderful friend in Olsburg, KS (near Manhattan, KS) just texted me this morning "I just saw a hummingbird at one of my feeders! YEAH."
I was jealous because she (her hummingbirds) did beat me (mine) every year before. This year, we have them on the same day! It must be a great spring season for both of us.
How about yours??
P.S. Amazingly she kept recoding "the first dates" when she saw her hummingbird arrived for the first day of the season each year. She is that good!
4/20/2025.
Happy Easter! (It's a bit later than usual in this year, isn't it? Feels a bit strange.)
I have several different types of daffodils. I love them all. Lily of the Valley is growing quickly.
My Irises are growing taller but they look like "no-buds". Hmmm, let's see how they grow. Maybe no-blooming this year. Always we have next year, yes?
Entry#394. 4/17/2025.
We have a paraplegic friend in Hamilton. He is the one who lives in the nearest town of ours we know. We met for the first time at the Drake rehab hospital. It was our outpatient PT time. My husband was learning how to do wheelie at that time. He demonstrated "floor transfer' for us then. He was so kind. That was our first interaction.
Now we are bonding with handcycles. Stories about him are here. As usual, please scroll down to find the date/entry. It won't jump there automatically.
My husband visited him again to help him out to set up "Wahoo KICKR" = indoor bicycle trainer.
They talked about it on the phone (texting). My husband introduced it to him. He purchased it right away. (We were impressed with his speedy purchase.) He lives by himself with his dog. He does everything by himself literally. It’s amazing. Even MOWING! Can you imagine?
This time, my husband was willing to help to set it up because KICKR itself was very heavy to anyone, especially to paraplegic person to carry it around.
It was a successful visit. He got the idea, how to operate it, how it works, and how he manages it by himself.
I was glad that I was able to help a little bit for setting it up as well.
Like I wrote before, each paraplegic body system is so different. Muscle spasm, legs/hips mobility, knees mobility range, pain level and more.
Every time I encounter paraplegic people, I learn something new more and more.
It was a good visit. It was fun. I’m glad that my husband made it to do what he wanted. Their smiles were precious.
Note: The setting outside garage was just one-time only, temporally. It was a testing it out.
4/16/2025.
How was your daffodils this season? Mines were cute, a bit smaller than past seasons. Lily of the valley is coming up.
Entry#393. 4/15/2025.
Do you remember about “handcycle tubeless rear tires + how tricky/awful to handle sealant injecting into a tube”?
Here are 2 stories related to the sealant that I wrote.
Entry#181 (11/18/2023)
Entry#306 (9/29/2024)find the section of “6 days before AFM”.
I guess I am clumsy for bicycle tools or I am afraid of using special tools. Either way, I’m still not fond of using this sealant for tubeless tires. However it has to be done when it’s needed. And it was the time to do it. (Big sigh and big deep breath.)
Long story short. I did it for the right rear tire. It worked pretty smoothly, more than I expected. So I was relieved very much.
So I went on to the left tire. However, however, unfortunately, something unexpected happened (again??). I was (kind of) panicking. Several struggling times passed. I drove to the local fabulous bike shop to ask for a help.
The terrible clog. The tiny hole was clogged badly with old-sealant (or something) that caused a blockage for any air ways. I couldn’t pump at all, not at all(!)
As you can guess, I was so scared thinking “What if the tire is never pumped? The handcycle never be ready for my husband.”
This problem never happened before.
After all, the wonderful bike shop mechanics (the owner and his apprentice) solved the problem and cleaned up clogged hole.
Did I get a confidence to use sealant this time? Well, no. Not yet. But I need to practice more to get used to it for sure. It is a hard journey to myself. I will try to do my best anyway.
Keep fingers crossed for good rear tires condition on his two races coming up in May.
4/15/2025.
I do believe my hummingbirds are coming here pretty soon. (However it's cold today. Brrrr)
2 seasons ago, my sweet gardener friend (she is a biologist just like my husband.) gave me some of her plants from her fabulous garden. One of them is Virginia bluebells! It's slowly frowning in my garden. I love them. Deer won't much them. That's a important factor to me.
Wait, why it's called "Virginia"? I need to find out.
Entry#392. 4/13/2025.
Visiting a new city is fun. Our new-normal life with SCI (Spinal Cord Injury) makes POV (point of view) different a bit.
For example, how we feel when we walk around a town/downtown, a college campus and inside hotel room.
This time: Blacksburg, Virginia.
The campus had more steep parts (=hilly roads) than our campus. It made me think “We are lucky that we live in Oxford, OH.”
The hotel was good. The accessible room with a roll-in shower. A bathroom sink had a clearance underneath for my husband’s knees on wheelchair.
I was impressed about another sink in a main room specifically(!). When I opened the cabinet door underneath, there was no board like this photo. So my husband can use this sink as well because he can roll in there. This made me think “Awwww, this would be our future kitchen sink definitely!”
Do you see the concept??
Visiting a new city is fun. Discovering new ideas and new ways/things is wonderful as well.
We enjoyed Blacksburg, Virginia.
I have to add this one, too. About the hotel pool(!) They have a lift for wheelchair users. I was very impressed. Unfortunately we couldn't see the actual lift (it was covered). But it was good to know of it really. Have you seen this??
Entry#391. 4/12/2025.
Do you remember the first time Flying Pig marathon event in Cincinnati had 10K handcycle division?? It was in 2023.
I still remember my husband’s first 10K race. In case you want to re-read it, here is the link.
I want to tell you about the Bridge Adaptive, about their handcycle training program for 10K race. From the very beginning, this nonprofit organization offers handcycle training to beginners. To people with disabilities (any kinds), whoever wants to try to ride on a handcycle and wants to try finishing 10K, the Bridge Adaptive would take care of them, even the very first timers. They set up practices 2 hours a day, twice a week. They provide hahdcycles (machines) to them. They just purchased over 10 brand new handcycles (2 different styles!) with the grants (they applied + they were chosen) also with donation money. As I said before, brand new hahdcycles are very expensive. I was impressed seeing what they did and they are doing. Now they need to maintain those machines’ good condition. I know that part is also important and time consuming.
My husband is a member of the Bridge Adaptive. Unfortunately he won’t be able to attend the training/practice program since his college class time conflicts (plus it’s always 1 hour driving to attend). He has his own machine and he is training by himself.
Each year, he joined other Bridge athletes at the one session during his spring break. It’s always one time only, but it’s fun to interact with others and staffs.
Here are photos from the training session. Now you can see how it looks like.
The last photo is from Bridge website. Now they own those machines. So awesome.
I just found this today. He is the director of the Bridge Adaptive sports and rec. He is our awesome leader!
4/11/2025.
I have several questions to ask to someone who knows this kind of issues like these photos.
I'm very embarrassed to show these photos but this is my reality anyway.
My big question is "Do I need to take an action to fix these issues right away, immediately?" Or "Can I leave it and keep it this way for a while? Is that okay?"
4/10/2025.
It's raining today, but I can find my happy place no matter what. University library is fun, too.
4/09/2025.
Guess where we are now?? Are you familiar with this university mascot??
4/07/2025.
I was so happy that I was able to deliver a "diaper-cake" to my friend's daughter. They are wonderful sweet humans.
Entry#390. 4/07/2025.
How have I been becoming a cyclist from a casual step-through bike rider? I could say “I am a cyclist” when I started riding a road bike. A very beginner cyclist. My husband was seeking a used small size road bike for me at that time. As you can imagine, it was way harder to find my size bike as a used bike. He was able to reach out to the local bike repair man and found a red bike.
I tried it on in front of his house.
I never imagined that I could ride on a road bike. To me, personally, a road bike = very thin tires = I would fall = cannot hold balance. That was my image of road bikes. Funny?
At my first try on a red bike, I asked a simple question. “How do I stop??” Everyone laughed, you know? But I was serious just because I wasn’t familiar with road bike break system = road bike handlebar at all.
It was surprisingly smooth and speedy. I awed and laughed at the same time with pure happiness.
The repair man (he is our wonderful friend!) adjusted a red bike (neck part and height of handlebar) to my body size as much as possible.
I was amazed and impressed. Then I learned about traditional vintage shifter. This my first red bike was a vintage one.
Once I started riding a road bike, I was able to catch up with my husband’s handcycle speed. It was great.
Then at some point, my husband told me “It’s time to get you a new road bike!” What?
At that time, I’ve learned from my husband about handcycles. Did you know that handcycles were so expensive? Way too expensive. I believe my husband would love to get a brand new machine for himself, of course. It’s just way too much. So our option would be always “finding a used machine”.
In this logic, I never thought we would purchase a new road bike for me. But he told me we would.
Then what happened next? We went to the awesome local bike shop (BikeWise) to discuss about it. What the bike shop owner did to me was “bike fitting process(!!)” Did you know you had to be measured for a bicycle? There is a certain position on a bike. A bicycle has to be fitted with your body size. (arms/legs length and more)
So we did fitting and ordered a new blue machine for me.
Then I learned about the latest(!) shifter mechanism. I’m still learning about disc-break system.
I’m still in the middle of transforming = becoming a road cyclist. It’s been a fun journey and experience. I can say “I am a cyclist for 2 years”. (We bought a red machine in April 2023.)
Here is a photo-history of my bicycle. It’s pretty much similar to “running shoes”, don’t you think? (Once we were into discovering latest model of running shoes.)
Look at first two photos. That helmet!!! We gotta laugh.
The first photo. That bike is a step-through bike.
https://www.brooklynbicycleco.com/blogs/resource-center/step-through-bike-buying-guide
In case you don't know this term, here (above) is a link about it.
Here. It's a step-through bike. Your bike is like this?
4/04/2025.
Would you like some "Strawberry Chocolate cake with lavender cream on top"? Anyone?
Wait. Are you curious about the main ingredient of this cake??
It has been quite a while since I made this kind of cake. I was smiling the whole making-time. (Yes, a baby is wonderful always, always.)
Entry#389. 4/03/2025.
Sometimes my friends ask me “So how are you doing in these days? What do you do?”
Sometimes friends of my husband ask me “Do you work?” “Did you go back to school work?”
My answer would be “I still follow my husband.” “I do cycling often nowadays.” “Cycling is fun. But it’s challenging.”
Are you smiling?
“Following him” means, I go to conferences, to his invited-talks, to his races, to his hahdcycle-shoppings and so on. It is my privilege to witness his work/talk plus to have adventures around the new places/cities. It is, really.
I should make a list of visiting places with him after SCI. I was not be with him all the time before his injury. (Especially for invited-talks at college biology departments. He traveled alone, of course. I’ve never watched his seminar-talks.)
Last week during the spring break, he was invited to talk about his research at Earlham College in Richmond, IN. It was only 40 minutes driving there. I was feeling pretty much comfortable about the trip. It was our first visit to this college even though we visit Richmond often. (to the coffee shop. There is only one in this city.)
After his talk, I was able to wander around by myself. Stopped by Joseph Moore museum (JMM) and Richmond Art Museum (RAM).
https://jmm.earlham.edu/
https://richmondartmuseum.org/
I liked both. I found my favorite painting there. Fun. I discovered that there were several interesting research projects happening there. One professor takes students to Iceland. One professor takes students to Namibia. Very nice discovery to me.
I can tell that my husband had a good enjoyable time with new people and he was satisfied with his speech.
As you can see, my life in these days is just like that. And as you can imagine, I’d love to keep following him until he says “no more”. Are you chuckling?
Entry#388. 4/02/2025.
I have many friends who give me new ideas and teach me something new + exciting. Every time that happens to me, I feel lucky.
For example: my new phrase “Match Day”.
I have a veterinarian friend who has a veterinarian husband, 1 daughter and 1 son. Her daughter will graduate from a Medical school this May. We’ve been a long time friends (all of us) since our son did play ice hockey with her son when he was a tiny boy. Her kids and our son were in the high school cross country team, too. We built up our strong connection through running.
It’s been wonderful to witness her kids’ success journey. Especially her daughter. She invited us to her wedding. She and her mom have shared her several important events with us sending photos.
The latest event was “Match Day” “I Matched! moment”. Do you know about this?
I had to do google search for “Match Day”. I was so curious and I wanted to know what happened to her and her family.
See? This process is always fun and I’m thankful that they gave me this chance to learn.
According to internet, there is “National resident matching program = NRMP.”
“The NRMP uses a computerized mathematical algorithm, the “matching algorithm,” to place applicants into the most preferred residency”
You know? Japan has a different system for medical doctors. It is different.
So leaning about USA MD system is quite interesting to me.
And it looks “Match Day” is a really meaningful exciting event to all medical school students (I can see it).
Here are videos I enjoyed the most on social media. Now I imagine how much my friend and her daughter did happy dance together when they figured out her resident hospital.
Congratulations to my dear friends (both of you) on your new chapter as a real medical doctor. So exciting. I’m pretty sure that they continue to teach me something new more in future. And I look forward to it.
I want to add one photo here. It's one from a long ago. When I was still a new jogger and a curious cheerleader for cross country runners. My dear MD friend and her husband are in this photo. Sweet memory. All of them were CC runners.
Entry#387. 4/02/2025.
Tornado season has come again. Our town has tornado warning siren system. Every time the sirens go off in the middle of night, I get afraid and hope it doesn’t touch down here deeply.
I wrote about storm shelters for wheelchair users before. Here Entry#279 (7/09/2024).
This shelter is my kind of impossible-dream. but it’s an ideal idea for any wheelchair users.
Here are news about the wheelchair user activist, a 23-year-old travel blogger and disability/ mental health advocate.
Please watch videos. (I wasn’t able to link them here.)
Title: Strangers surprise OK woman with wheelchair accessible storm shelter
Title: Preparing for severe weather with disabilities
She received the storm shelter on a ground level (next to her shed) from a stranger(!)
Photo from a news site.
In our case, we don’t have a basement. Basically we don’t have a safe spot/ space in our house. We cannot ask neighbors to share their basement with us “casually”. You know, because it’s gonna be very challenging to carry my husband to go down to a basement with stairs. (However if it has to be done in a dangerous situation with real tornados, we have to do it! I know.)
So the tornado season makes me nervous anyway. Everyone out there, please stay safe. We try to do our best, too.
Entry#386. 4/01/2025.
Have you seen the prescribed burn (fire) with your eyes in front of you? I have not. In fact, we lived in Manhattan, KS for 7 years and we knew Konza prairie had been doing it every year. https://themercury.com/news/fire-as-a-tool-konza-prairie-researchers-maintain-ancient-grassland-with-modern-techniques/article_115f2105-35b6-599d-b59e-66956c1662a0.html
https://www.cjonline.com/picture-gallery/news/local/2023/04/26/photos-konza-prairie-prescribed-burns-fire-manhattan-kansas/11732997002/
So “prescribed fire” is a familiar phrase to me. Additionally our son informed us about his “prescribed fire” experience last August through October. However I didn’t think about prescribed fire in our area here before. I didn’t think about it somehow. Then all the sudden when my husband and I pedaled together in Miami White water park, we encountered the real prescribed burn!! How cool is that?
In a few moments, I was thinking “Can we go through? Is it really okay to go through?” Then we found the notice board there.
Here are photos of Konza from websites. I have to add this. One of great photographers at Konza is our friend!! Her photos are amazing!
The second photo (the right) above is, in fact, her photo! The caption here "Barb Van Slyke snaps a photo of the wall of smoke and fire burning through watershed 1D at the Konza Prairie last Monday. The avid photographer says she enjoys the opportunity to capture the fleeting moments of the burning prairie grasses." See? So great!
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