March

It's now very interesting to myself because I started this blog in March 2022. We can go back and compare "three" March. Click March 2022 March 2023

3/31/2024.  
Happy Easter!! Seeing yellow carpets alongside a bike trail made us smile a lot. Spring is always good. Have you tried a Cardamom donut?? Looks so springy and lovely. It tasted so good. You should try it.

3/30/2024.  
During the visit of my husband's parents and his niece from Japan, we didn't have much "hot" days. Their last day was warm enough to feel "the spring". My yards got more colors of daffodils after they left. It feels like that they left me a special treat behind. Thinking of them a lot. I put middle seats back in the minivan (Siena 2019) for them. And now I took them out again for a handcycle and a bicycle. Yes, it's the time for handcycle training!! (Well, we need to "play" with the weather-god, you know? April shower is surely coming, isn't it?) 

3/29/2024.  
Do you still listen to music with CD? We can use a CD only in our Siena minivan. So we did. We re-watched the movie "A Perfect World" (starring Kevin Cosner and Clint Eastwood and directed by Clint Eastwood.) Then my husband remembered he had a soundtrack CD of this movie!! It's a treasure indeed for listening to these musics in our van. Fun.

Entry#224. 3/28/2024.   
I love a coincidence anytime anywhere. It happened during my husband’s parents’ visit, too. We went to the Air Force Museum in Dayton (National Museum of the United States Air Force, to be exact). 

https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/

Did you know that 2023 marked the museum’s 100th anniversary! Did you know that? Whoa.  
We brought my husband’s parents and his niece there just because it was one of our favorite places. My husband’s father wore a Miami University cap on this day since he purchased it at Miami shop the day before. It says “M parent” on it. (Isn’t that sweet? I loved that he picked it.).
Then guess what happened in the middle section of the Museum??  The gentleman who wore the Museum worker shirt walked toward us, actually he walked to my father in law to greet him. He said “Are you a Miami parent?” My eyes and ears were wide open. He was a Miami parent as well and that cap’s logo caught his eyes quickly. He was excited and pleased to have us in his museum with Miami University connections. How awesome it was. He kept talking and talking and talking about his MU-senior-daughter. I can tell he was so proud of her deeply and purely. It was so nice to meet him there.  
This happened because my father in law wore a MU cap! It was so wonderful.  
Oh the big bonus was “his wife is Japanese!!!” See? The double coincidences!  He proudly talked about his anniversary that he and his wife celebrate twice a year for their wedding anniversary, both American way and Japanese way. He said he celebrated his 51st anniversary last week and he was age 50 now. He asked us “Do you guess how it can be?”  He entertained us a lot.  
Yes, that’s why I love a coincidence anytime. A picture here. See the proud Miami parent next to my husband? (So as two more Miami parents?) 

3/28/2024.  
My Christmas cactus update: they are blooming now to celebrate Easter! Funny?

3/27/2024. 
Our son looked so satisfied when we tried to use his handmade ceramic "pour-over coffee dripper" to make a coffee. It worked pretty well and it entertained our "eyes" very much. I love it. Do you?

3/26/2024.  
My heart is still full of love even though my husband's parents and niece went back to Japan.

Son and Mother bond

Son and Father bond

Grandma and Grandson bond

Cousin bond

The wonderful three generations!!

Uncle and Niece bond

3/25/2024.  
I'm proud of our son for how he became such a caring "funny" guy in many ways. Just saying. I realized it when he spent the time with his grandparents and his cousin.

3/24/2024.  
I do hope they (our son and my husband's niece) will remember today's experience together forever, I mean forever. And so as my husband's parents. 
Personally I loved watching how they did indoor skydiving. It looks like "an art of air movement". FYI: There is only ONE indoor skydiving facility in Japan. Only one.

3/24/2024.  
And you know? You have to show off "how to ring a bell" at your favorite park. 

Entry#223. 9/24/2024.    
My husband’s parents and niece are in town to visit us from Japan. They requested him to give them a college tour since his niece is in 9th grade in high school in Japan. That request made him happy because he was always willing to show off his work/research environment to anyone who was interested in. It’s a good stuff. This time, we added two different buildings just because he loves a “fossil” museum and a pendulum. (Miami University Kreger Hall and Limper geology museum.) This was our first visit to these buildings since the accident. We did visit there before his injury just we walked in. That means we needed to find out the way inside the building. Accessible ways. No matter how long it takes to find an entrance, I was grateful for finding a way to get inside the building for a wheelchair user. It was nice to visit these two places AGAIN with his parents and niece indeed. How do you often go to visit them?

3/23/2024.
Our son came and showed me something. He said proudly “I was right! This chemical structural formula is wrong.”  He found his old stuffs from Organic Chemistry classes. He built one formula that I put on a wall as a wall decor. It was supposed to look like a bicycle. I hoped so when I purchased it. Well, I kind of noticed the inaccuracy, but I just let it be.  
However it seemed my son couldn’t stand that inaccuracy. The wheels are supposed to look like benzene!!
Yes, he is right about it. After he showed the proof to me, he seemed to be satisfied.  
Anyhow I just leave the wall decor “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep riding.” to be. You like it?  
My son made me smile, though.

3/20/2024.  
This is the most precious moment. Son meets his mother, father and niece. (Son=my husband.) It was a privilege to witness this special moment to me, really. Yes, they are in town. 
Reunion for the first time since the accident. A big milestone!

Entry#222. 3/20/2024.
In honor of my husband’s parents’ long journey from Japan to our town, Oxford, here is an interesting fact about “what if my husband flies to Japan as a paraplegic wheelchair user?”  
For an air travel to Japan from the US, it usually takes 13-14 hours on an airplane. (Depends on the route. For example Chicago to Tokyo) I always remember that the door-to-door travel-time would be about 24 hours. Once you get used to the length of traveling time, this is not too bad as long as it is one stop flight for one way. (One transition).
As an able-bodied person, you would go to bathroom as much as you want, whenever you want in an airplane. Additionally you would do walk around on an aisle for your body blood stream especially for a long 13 hours flight.
For my husband as a paraplegic wheelchair user, as you can imagine, it is hard to do the same thing as we ‘able-bodied people’ do in an airplane. Well, we will figure it out eventually because there are many paraplegic travelers in the world. That means it is possible.
One topic I write this time is “a timing of a bowel movement”. The other term is “emptying your bowel”.   
Each paraplegic person has a different way of a bowel movement. Basically my husband needs to empty his bowel at the same time/hour each day, every day. He’s been doing it since he became a paraplegic. He doesn’t have any control of bowel movement (muscle), he wants to keep this “schedule” as same as possible.
So going back to the topic of 13 hours flight to Japan, we need to think about what time he needs to empty before he leaves home and after he arrives the destination. Taking about 24 hours (door-to-door) means it would be very tricky. It might be not so easy because he has many processes to empty his bowel. I wish it would be just simple as able-bodied people do.
For now, we haven’t said “Okay, let’s go to Japan!” casually, yet. Not yet. Well, we will think about it, we will.
So it means a lot to us that his parents and niece are visiting us from Japan. We are grateful.  
photo: throwback to Summer 2023. Our son's solo trip to Mongolia and Japan. 

3/20/2024.  
Have you watched FX series “Shogun” 将軍 yet? It’s now my husband’s and my favorite. The director is doing a fantastic job to show “World of old Japan”. We love everything of this show so far.
In our household, my husband and I are totally fine with “old Japanese” (Samurai language or Bushi-language). That old Japanese is very different from Japanese language now. So you cannot learn Japanese watching/listening this TV show. Our son has a bit problem to watch this Shogun. Because he speaks Japanese to us at home. When he tries to watch this show, his brains tries to understand “Japanese” (he cannot focus on English caption at all). However he cannot understand old Japanese, his brain picks several “words” which he knows. This makes his whole brain work messed up unfortunately. He gave up watching this show.   
Would you like to try to watch it? You might like it. 

Entry#221. 3/19/2024.  
An accessible auditorium “stage” on campus update.  
My husband went to check inside a big lecture room (it says “auditorium”) again to see an accessibility especially for getting on a stage. I felt very comfortable this time. It looked very nice and spacious from the backside at the entrance. I found a sign “access to stage” with a wheelchair logo. It’s a good sign indeed. There was a long slope to the other side. Then I reached to the “stage” area without any steps or bumps. I was surprised and pleased noticing the very different “stage” structure. It was actually “no stage”, it was a continuous flooring which was really nice.  
It was really good to know about this setting in the big lecture room for my husband. It is accessible for both sides, audiences (students) and speakers (professors). 

There is still one thing which bothers me though. On the slope, there were boxes (empty or not) sitting and blocking on the way. I guess my husband needs to expect these situations and somehow solve the problem by himself if he cannot wheel through. You would call it “violation” or “hazard”? Hmmm. You know? In these days, I am being careful more than before about spacing and clearance everywhere in my house, for his wheelchair mobility. 

3/18/2024. 
I was thinking about the difference between Japanese pie and American pie the other day. Several internet articles say that pie crust is the main difference. It’s interesting now because there are many Japanese baking-recipe sites showing “how to bake AMERICAN pies”. It seems there are Japanese people who are interested in making/eating American pies in these days.
I think a lot of people in Japan are familiar with McDonald’s apple pie. It might sound weird. But it’s popular in Japan as long as I remember (even though I left Japan a long ago).
I found two videos about McDonald’s special pies. The name of them are a little bit odd, though. It says “exclusive pie” “pie for adults”. Well, it is a special pie anyway for Japanese people.
Then I came up the conclusion about Japanese pie. I would say that a PIE means more like a “handpie” to most of people in Japan. I think that’s more like a truth. Japan is a great country to visit especially for foods, I could say that. It is certainly an interesting country as well. Can you tell whether this Japanese McDonald's pie is a fried pie or baked pie? I am not sure. 
photo: Sep 2023. I had a nice handpie at a cafe. It's in the US, not Japan.

3/16/2024.  
Our son is now 22 years old. I was lucky enough that I spent today with him and my husband together. It was about 19 mile cycling. It's been a while to do this family ride since our son has been busier for his college days. That means two bicycles and one handcycle have to be in our van nicely. And don't forget about a wheelchair! There has to be an enough space for it, always. So all fitted. 

It was a perfect joyful ride all of us together. I was too excited and too happy because I was exhausted more than I thought when I was home. I'm not sure if we could do this family ride again for next his birthday. I just cherished our together time very much. 

Entry#220. 3/15/2024.  
I followed my husband when he went to a different building on campus to check inside a lecture room. It was for his new class of the next semester. He had to check out an accessibility inside a room. I did a quick thinking before I entered the room, making a check-list. An entrance. A steepness. A room size. Including an entrance of the building and an elevator location. Well, then I realized that I missed one. When my husband reached to the "stage" from the backside of the room, he said "hmmm, there is no way to get up on the stage for me." That's because there is no ramps. There are just steps to the stage. If you need to teach for over 200 students and use a big lecture room with a stage, you are supposed to be on a stage. Yes. Then in this case, my husband needs to find a different room in a different department building to use. 
Like I said, I missed this part adding to my check-list. Now I remember this. 
As you can see, he always needs to think about these stuffs for any situation. That's his life now. 
He explained to me something. It says "accessible room", yes, it's accessible to students. The point of view from audiences' side. However sometimes it is not accessible to a person who gives a lecture on a stage. The point of view from speakers' side. It still says "accessible" though. That's why he needs to go there physically to check and see it with his own eyes, as a professor. I learned a new thing again.  
Now, you see things that you didn't see before. Yes, I do, too.

Entry#219. 3/15/2024.  
How was your "Pi day" yesterday 3.14? I love the concept all about Pi day which gets more popular recently around here. I love (basic) math. Did you eat some pie? I baked a pumpkin pie because I wanted to eat it. Funny. I simply love a pumpkin pie after becoming a resident in the USA. Do you know there is a big difference between American pie and Japanese pie?? Especially "pumpkin pie". I was shocked when I discover American pumpkin pie at the very first time when I moved in the States. I remember I didn't love the taste at that time. However it's my very favorite pie now. Well, my favorite pie ranking would be: 1.Pumpkin pie. 2.Strawberry-rhubarb pie. 3.Apple pie. 4.Peach Cobbler. (Cobbler is a kind of pie??) 5.Pecan pie. and more. I'm kind of a "cheater" pie-baker because I haven't mastered making pie crust from a scratch by myself yet. It's my forever project, I assume. 
I baked mini chicken pot pie "cups", too. It was a fun experiment using both biscuit doughs and crescent roll doughs to see which ones worked better. The crescent roll did. After all, we enjoyed consuming both a pumpkin pie and a chicken pot pie cup delightfully for a Pi day!! Hope you enjoyed your own pi day, too. 
photos: the day before Pi day. The temperature was 70s and perfect for cycling.

3/13/2024.  
I love visiting any "auditoriums", Hall Auditorim, Millet Hall, high school auditoriums, theatre auditoriums, the Music Hall and more. If there is any chance, I'd definitely love to visit. Last night was one of the wonderful opportunities to me thanks to my sweet writer-friend who has a singer-son in Miami Glee Club. My heart was so up high. I was loving it very much. Plus, it was a gorgeous sunshiny day. I tried to dress up nicely with green color. Fun.  
P.S. It's even a nicer view from inside our house, more daffodil-yellow!!

3/11/2024.  
Every time I see some awesome people somewhere on news, articles, videos and social media, I will be eager to "mimic" their style or poses. It's my bad habit. For example, I saw some photos of "bike over your head". Like these. 

Since I'm loving to cycle/bike in these days, I thought I wanted to try THIS! See? It looks like a "triumph pose" to me in the cycling would. So I tried.  
Well, it was obviously a failure. It made me think "How did they do it???" It's still a lot of fun. I will keep seeking the secret of this trick. 

3/10/2024.  
It seems my daffodils bloomed more on the same week last year. Hmmm Let's hope more blooms happen in the Spring break when my husband's parents will be here. 

Entry#218. 3/10/2024. 
Let me tell you a story about our son. He will be 22 years old this coming Saturday and is planning to graduate from Miami University in May 2024. He speaks Japanese at home, but he would say his first language is English, of course.
I can say that our son has been enjoying his college life. You know, sometimes he brings something unexpected to home. And you have to accept it as it was a part of his college life after all?
One time in the summer 2023, he purchased a used motorcycle. It was a really great deal, so he said. However it stopped working after some riding. He started searching YouTube videos on how to fix a motorcycle. He took parts off, cleaned it up, tuned it up, replaced parts and placed everything back in place all by himself. 
To me, it looked so complicated. I did roll my eyes all the time because it seemed it was impossible to fix it.  
During this process, several moments made me smile though. My husband was a motorcycle rider in Japan. He had me on his back seat at our college time. It was fun time, at our young era.  I had no knowledge about motorcycles at all, I didn’t have any curiosity about it. (I wish I could have had, I feel that way right now at age 50. Funny.)   
Our son knew about it and talked about all his fixing processes to my husband. They shared their knowledge and discussed together. Even after being a paraplegic, it seemed it was still fun to talk about motorcycle with his son, to my husband. And I cherished that moment I watched them.   
Well, there is another story, but anyway, our son went to motorcycle school, took classes and got a motorcycle license. They provided a motorcycle to him for lessons. He tried out to ride on several types of motorcycle as well, which was the highlight for him, he reported to us. This was a while ago.  
Now you might wonder whether his motorcycle was fixed or not. It repeated on and off, on and off and on and off. Recently our son told us it worked constantly, with big smile. He sounded so proud of himself, of course.  
Sometimes his way of process for something is not similar with mine and it makes me very uncomfortable. But I need to accept it calmly. That’s what a boy’s mother does, isn’t it?  
I just need to remind myself that he will bring more unexpected things to us in future. 

photo 1: a long long ago, my husband in Sapporo, Japan. Rental motorcycle for a road trip.  
Other photos: there were some good discussion between dad and son. Nice.

Entry#217. 3/09/2024.  
I had to go to check both parking spots and an accessible entrance at the Oxford Community Art Center (OCAC) the other day. Just because my husband and I would love to take his parents and niece there to show the exhibition "Changing Climate, Changing Communities", especially a sculpture of one of the artists. That's our son.  
https://miamioh.edu/cca/news-events/2024/03/students-faculty-staff-and-community-members-to-hold-art-exhibition-at-the-oxford-community-arts-center.html

I'm sure they would like it. 
I've known well enough about OCAC, however I have never thought about an accessibility before. There are two parking spots. So as long as we pick the right timing, not-crowded time, we should be okay. We will see how it goes. 

Entry#216. 3/06/2024.  
Our son keeps taking a ceramic class in Miami University. I can tell that his brain is fulfilled with many ideas and many glaze recipes most of the time. I had no idea when I heard his comment "I found a nice unique recipe this time!" What? What recipe? Cooking? It was all about ceramic glaze. I'm happy for him about this level of his ceramic skills and knowledge. If he had lived in Japan and had gone to a Japanese college, he wouldn't have had this opportunity at all. Well, the best part of his interests of ceramic is "the view of my kitchen cabinet"! Look!! 
I have a great collection of his creation and I'm so excited that I could use them for my husband's parents and niece during their visit from Japan!

3/04/2024. 
Breaking news!!  (The great exciting news!)
My husband’s parents (both of them) and his niece (age 15) are coming to town from Japan in this month!
Finally their long wait comes to an end to see their own son with their own eyes since the accident in July 2021.  It was all complicated including Covid situation and our new-normal lifestyle. I am super excited for them. 4 nights staying in town.   
Photos: When our son visited them in June 2023 after his Mongolia trip. 

3/03/2024.  
Sometimes you need to focus on solving a very simple peg-game, using your brain as much as possible. Then your face would brighten up the most when you did it. Yes, I'm smiling now because I did it! 
In case you wonder about the object of this game. Here: Place 4 red pegs in the 4left most holes and 4 blue pegs in the 4right most holes, leaving the center hole vacant (2 holes).  Object is to switch the colors from one end to the other. Possible moves are moving one space or jumping over a peg (one peg). Always forward never backward. 
"You are a genius if you succeed in 4 attempts or less.  
Can you solve this peg-game?

3/02/2024.  
Once in a while, I get eager to listen to an energetic music video to cheer me up with no reason. Just makes me happy and smile. Here is the song of the day. You might like it, too. (I love them very much. Especially that tiny boy's POWERFUL ENERGY!)

Entry#215. 3/02/2024.
My husband’s mono-ski (sit-ski/ adaptive ski) season ended with total count #5 sessions. It was more productive and fun since he had only 3 sessions last season. Great!! In future, he will be independent entirely which means he will drive up to the ski slope, prepare himself to mono-ski, ride on a chairlift, ski down (repeat), cleanup himself and drive home. That’s his future plan. There are still many obstacles to overcome for sure. I can tell that he is liking to have those kinds of challenges. That’s good. He needs to be creative with his limitations because nobody but himself knows that limits exactly, even other paraplegic mono-skiers.   
Here is my overview.
I’m loving skiing along him very much. However I’ve not tried to learn “how to pull him up from lying down position after a fall”. I assume I should.
Can you imagine how to?  It’s not so easy. I know how to help out a kid who needs to get up from snow ground holding kid’s ski with certain angles because I experienced it myself when I was small. I just don’t know how to “ride” mono-ski, that makes my helping-process a bit harder. My son tells us several times “I wish I could learn mono-ski”. Me, too. It would be a bit tricky because we need “our size” mono-ski to borrow to try-it. It’s not so easy.
I don’t use ski poles anymore. I used them last season because I used to use them before. However I noticed that poles interfere quick actions of helping him on slopes. Empty hands are more helpful most of the time. I’m okay to ski without poles, I’m grateful for that. Imagine if you were not so comfortable to ski, his instructors would tell you “don’t come because you bother his lesson”.   
I carry a backpack on my back “just in case” during my skiing. I have a water bottle, extra gloves, and tools for outriggers. Those are must items for now.
I’m still learning about outriggers. The mechanism and adjustment. I need to master how to adjust them just like handcycles and wheelchairs. For now, his outriggers are very important to “turn” for him.   
We need to get his own mono-ski set and set up for his body. That would be the best way to improve his skill, so the mono-skier instructor told us. Well, that would be not so easy but we will think about it.  
After all, I enjoyed mono-ski season #2 with him. 

3/01/2024.  
You know? You can smile whenever you see colorful eggs on wooden fences during your walk. So I would.