March
Entry#376. 3/08/2025.
Today was an Epic day for my husband and me indeed. Do you remember about Mr. Joe Motz? He is doing something extraordinary and something very hard right now for a great purpose.
https://www.cincinnatigives.org/story/Paddle-For-A-Purpose
I wrote about it in July 2024 (scroll down to Entry #276 and #280).
He started a long paddle journey with his beautiful canoe (his own handmade) total 3000(!) mile! He started in June 29th 2024. My husband joined paddling with him for first several miles on Ohio river. Yes, Mr. Motz still keeps paddling (right now).
Here is a photo of my husband with Mr. Motz in June 29th 2024, and a photo of current donation data.
My husband told me “He will be paddling by our favorite bike trail in Hamilton today.” in this morning. So we tried to catch him on our sight (at least from the bike trail). Guess what?
We made it!!! Thanks to my husband’s awesome calculation/estimation/guess, he pinpointed Mr. Motz’s “portage” point. And we found him.
See how much this reunion is epic and wonderful. We were beyond thrilled and joyful. I was grateful when he paddled to the other side of the river to see us, he was off from his canoe to walk up the riverbank to meet my husband (since he had stay on the bike trail because of his wheelchair). It all happened so quickly. He showed us his “sail” open on his canoe when he took off to continue his canoe journey. We were happy for him that he got perfect sunshine and nice tail breeze to push him faster. He is a legend and a hero to me. He gave us more energy indeed. Yes, my husband has to get back on handcycle race training right away.
Entry#375. 3/07/2025.
I’m overwhelmed by tons of social media videos sometimes. If that happens, I just stop looking at. On the other hand, I’m astonished at video editing skill of young generations. I just need to pick what I like and I am interested in. That’s a survival skill in our world with countless information in these days, I assume.
Sometimes I encounter several useful videos (especially) related to full time wheelchair users. I am grateful to know these info/ideas. Their explanation and presentation are very professional and very informative. They are inspiration indeed.
I want to share one video here. It’s about the cost of manual wheelchair. I am still learning about it because purchasing process itself is not that easy plus it’s not cheap at all.
If you are curious about her, here is her official website.
https://www.annasarol.com/
As my understanding, wheelchair users could buy a wheelchair every 5 years if necessary, claiming through an insurance company. However this process is very complicated and time consuming. I need to write more another time. One thing here. My husband is 51 years old. He is active and a handcyclist. However an insurance company says "Over 50 years old wheelchair users don't need to use lightest and very active-use wheelchairs because of their ages." Something like that. It is frustrating very much.
Just because my husband's current wheelchair didn't fit perfectly (the fitting process was not right), I keep hoping that his next wheelchair would be better. Until then I need to keep learning.
3/06/2025.
When I wrote about Julia Child on Entry#356 2/02/2025, I was thinking of several "baker"-friends. Imagining they would go visit to the exhibition of Julia Child. I had not seen anyone's posts about it for a while. I was wondering. Then one of my sweet friends visited the exhibition with her daughter! That news made me so happy and joyful.
That made me borrow 3 books from the local public library.
These three books make me curious and wonder so much. I'm loving them already. I'm going to dig them in. This is gonna be very interesting and fun reading. I found one quote by her.
Entry#374. 3/04/2025.
One news jumped into my eyes. The RiseUp production will perform “Something Rotten!” the Musical in June. Guess where the show location is gonna be?? Miami University Hamilton Parrish Auditorium. Are you guessing what I am thinking?
I could drive there by myself without a problem, yes, I could. (Now you might roll your eyes.) Driving range is always an issue for myself. That’s me.
Anyway I cannot miss this opportunity. I’ll think about it. I am smiling.
Then this show “Something Rotten!” sounds so familiar with me really. I did think hard and I remembered. I know this show, I attended once to watch this title. It was Union County High School (UCHS) Musical show in 2023 (!) I attended alone by myself.
https://whitewaterpub.com/news/2023/mar/01/uchs-musical-something-rotten/
I knew several singers in the show. One of them was a tall stylish daughter of my veterinary assistant friend. I didn’t know her daughter much directly, but I know my friend. She is an artist, too.
Then many great memories of UCHS Musical shows came back to me all the sudden.
Because of my forever “boss” librarian. Her three children were in UCHS, two of them were in several musical shows.
My professor friend and her wife. Their four children were in UCHS, I watched two of them performed leading parts!! Their performance and singing levels are super high! Outstanding. I can keep taking about them forever.
So my another new project started. Remember? I’m studying on the Musical “The Little Shop of Horrors” of Talawanda High School drama club production.
By the way, the very first show of “Something Rotten!” was in 2015. Is this show popular? Do you know about it? The last note. It’s gonna be a bit difficult to understand a whole show to me because of the setting time period of Shakespeare era. Hmmm.
As you can see, I am a Musical-show lover.
I gotta add these here. It's full blooming, see?
Entry#373. 3/04/2025.
In Japan, March 3rd is a seasonal festival day called Hinamatsuri (Hi na ma tsu ri ひなまつり、雛祭り).
The very first top tier is the only tier set up for many families, おひなさま and おだいりさま, but there can be up to 7 tiers. My mother has the 7 tiers set(!)
This photo was from my mother this year. As you can see, she did a great job to decorate all stuffs. It has to be a certain specific order and it cannot be changed a tiny bit.
According to Japanese tradition, leaving the dolls up for too long will hurt a daughter’s chances of getting married(!). This is why many families rush to take down their display in a week after March 3rd which can be a tedious and time-consuming process. See? That's why I admire my mother a lot.
I thought about something similar, about taking down a huge set. It's a bit similar to a huge fancy expensive Christmas tree decorations. Don't you think?
This photo (below) made me happier. My mother on the Hinamatsuri day 2025. See the dolls-set behind her?? The photographer is my father, of course. Every time I ask them "Take photos and send them to me.", they are not so up to it because they don't know much about camera app nor selfie. But I'm grateful that they still share some with me.
Entry#372. 3/02/2025.
My phone weather app notified me of “abundant sunshine” for today’s Oxford forecast. It made me happier. My husband took me to the Cincinnati downtown area, our favorite area = Washington Park area to go to his favorite cafe. As usual, we didn’t know much about events that were happening through the weekend.
However coincidentally I read about Cincinnati ballet last night. My eyes were drawn to the news about their ballet show “The Wizard of Oz”!
It got my attention quickly and firmly because I love the musical show of The Wizard of Oz and the movie as well. Plus we used to live in Manhattan, KS. We love hearing about Kansas stuffs always. I’ve not heard about the ballet show of Oz before, not at all.
According to the website, the very first original ballet show of Oz happened in 2018 by Kansas City ballet(!). This 2025 Oz show is their (Cincinnati ballet) 2nd time ever. Sounds wonderful. You got curious, yes?
Then here we were in front of the Cincinnati Music Hall not knowing the show time at all.
Today was their LAST show day (starting at 1:00pm). We walked by at 1:10pm. Guess what we saw??
Ta-da!
You can guess how much I got excited. My husband teased me saying “but we are not here for the show, aren’t we?”
I was simply happy though. Why not? (This was a kind of epic coincidence, I assume.)
3/01/2025.
My Christmas cactus updates on the first day of March. Well, they still have extra energy to bloom in this month, maybe celebrating our son's birthday month or St. Patrick's Day.
Did you know today was "International Wheelchair Day"??? Did you?
Entry#371. 3/01/2025.,
Our son graciously gave me a ride when I needed to return a brand new handcycle to the Bridge Adaptive sports (at their headquarter place). My husband borrowed this new machine to try it out. Since it was one hour drive down to Cincinnati area, I offered him to be my driver.
It was a smooth process thanks to his help. On the way home, we usually drive by our wonderful friend’s house. They are very close friends of us, they are both veterinarians. We know their awesome 2 children (both grown up already).
I told my son “I’m going to yell HELLO from a window this time to them even though I don’t know if they are home or not. Maybe not.”
In a next moment, he drove into their driveway and parked. “Why don’t you go and knock on the door?”
What a sweet gesture. So I did. Unfortunately they were at work. I missed them. But we greeted their dog by the door. And this was an awesome bonus! We finally greeted their HORSES!!
Annie and Mackey! I admire my friends a lot for taking care of horses (besides their professional work = taking care of tons of animals, all kinds).
I cannot imagine that I would have a horse as a family member. They did.
It was a pure joy to meet their sweet ladies on a sunny day. I thanked my son, of course. There isn’t much occasion like this (he drives me to somewhere), it was a good day.
YAY.
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