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Celebrating My Wife’s Journey to U.S. Citizenship

Written November 13, 2024

Hello Dear Readers,

Today is a very exciting day.  It is the culmination of my wife’s journey to become a US citizen.  In less than an hour, we’ll depart for the federal building in downtown Nashville, and eventually, she’ll go through the citizenship oath swearing ceremony. She’s been excited about this final step for quite a while now. 

My wife is uneasy about losing her immigration cards, both current and expired, which must be surrendered after being awarded citizenship. She told me that it is pretty expensive to get a new card. 

Since coming to the United States, she planned to get citizenship. She made sure not to leave the Country, as she said she would add more documents to submit to the immigration office. She wanted to make sure she could apply for citizenship without any sponsorship to satisfy all the requirements.

A few years after we moved to the United States, I got a brain stroke. We talked about many things, and we decided to move to Tennessee. She wanted the same job and exact address for 5 years to make the process easier. So she delayed the process. She thought it would be ideal to wait for 3 years and did not see any big problems. She decided to get another professional designation and a graduate degree while working full-time. She wanted to ensure she could contribute something of value to the United States.

Everything she does is part of a long-term plan. While her goals may span several decades, she reevaluates them weekly. I initially thought she acted quickly and impulsively when I didn’t know her well. Then, I realized many unscheduled items were on her list, and she inserted them into the schedule like a puzzle piece whenever the opportunity presented itself. 

I know she has been preparing for a long time. Our entire citizenship process was much shorter than we thought. She already had an interview a few days over six months ago and received a letter for the ceremony less than seven days after the interview. Unfortunately, it was scheduled in the middle of her interim audit. She had to work around her schedule to make time for the ceremony. She looked swamped, trying to get things done in time.

She looks delighted. She has been dutifully carrying her immigration documents as instructed for several years. It will take some time for her to grow accustomed to being unencumbered by documentation, as she soon will be. She’ll need to acquire a US passport and then have travel rights again.

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Running Through the Seasons: A Humid Morning in Tennessee

Written November 6, 2024

Hello Dear Readers,

It felt almost like the early morning of early summer in Tennessee when I woke up. When I woke, it was raining a little, and that, combined with the unseasonably warm weather, led to an uncomfortably humid run. After my post-run shower, I checked my weather app and learned it was near 80% relative humidity. We have had hurricane after hurricane the last couple of weeks. We don’t get direct hurricanes like the southern coastal states of the United States, but we still get some secondary hurricane effects such as excess rain and wind.

We thought the temperature had been getting chilly in October, but it started warming up again. Compared to the dry August this year, we have had a lot of rain these days. It’s been pretty warm and humid. My wife told me that it felt like early summer morning when she ran this morning. 

It feels like there are more rainy days than last year. Rain can make leaves gain weight. I am planning to clear some of my leaves tomorrow. Hopefully, the rain will stop, making it easier for me to clean them. However, I am afraid we will have rain tomorrow. I hear there will be another hurricane approaching Texas. It is nothing new. The hurricane season usually lasts until the end of November. We will use up all the alphabet for hurricane names. Unlike the weather in Oregon, we do not have many rainy days in the winter. 

I love running in this season, though. The holiday season is approaching. We have Thanksgiving at the end of November. Some houses still have Halloween decorations. Some houses have autumn decorations for Thanksgiving Day. Thanksgiving Day is a big holiday for Americans. My wife said she felt odd because Canadian Thanksgiving Day is on Columbus Day. It makes sense since Canada is much colder than the United States. Once Thanksgiving Day is over, we will have Christmas and New Year. However by the time Christmas is near, the temperature will have dropped significantly. I wonder if I would enjoy any decorations while I was running.

It is beautiful outside despite the rain. One downside of a day like this is that it is inconvenient to collect leaves. However, it’s not as bad as it sounds. The leaves around our house still change color and look beautiful, and I enjoy the comfortable temperature. It’s more humid than I like, but at least with this humidity level, my skin is unlikely to feel dry while running. I should cherish the temperature and enjoy my running.

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Fall Maintenance Chronicles: Tackling Leaves, Hurricanes, and a Leaf-Vacation in Nashville

Written November 7, 2024

Hello Dear Readers,

Near Thanksgiving day, our trees start to lose their dry clothing. They dropped so many leaves that there were so many to vacuum today. There were more leaves this year. A recent Hurricane brought a few windy days, and the wind carried the leaves from our neighbors. Due to our garbage bin being full of leaves from Tuesday’s collection session, I elected to skip today’s session as there’s nowhere to put them.  

Since October, we have had hurricane after hurricane. Hurricanes don’t hit Nashville directly, but our weather seems to sing along with them. We get the rain and wind. There is rain forecasted for this weekend, which may make leaf collection next week a bit more difficult, but I’ll do what I can.

In the future, we may want to get an extra garbage bin to hold a bag to dump leaves into.  We have some bags I could use, but throwing the leaves into an unsupported bag would be a lot of trouble.  So, today will be my vacation from leaf gathering, and I may have to pay for it next week.  Maybe I’ll be lucky, and the wind will magically blow all our leaves away without blowing new ones in to replace them.

Leaf vacuuming is one necessary maintenance task. When old leaves turn into soil, it creates unwanted deposits between concrete. Despite my work, there were weeds on the driveway. We had to weed them and clear them out with a power washer before damaging our driveway further. Besides, these dry trees make our front yard messy, so I want to keep them as neat as possible. 

Fortunately, leaf vacuuming is not as hard as lawn mowing, and the weather is more tolerable now than in summer. The days have gotten shooter, and winter will show up quickly. The trees in the backyard have lost most of their tree already. There will be 2-3 weeks of leaf vacuuming. Of course, we may get a rare snowstorm, which hit us every year for all 6 years we lived in Nashville. For now, I will enjoy this leaf vacation.

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A Day of Health Priorities: Balancing Life with Kidney Care

Written November 4, 2024

Hello Dear Readers,

Today was one of those irregular days. I had an appointment with my nephrologist later this morning. On such days, I adjust my morning routine around the doctor’s appointment. The doctor’s appointment was an absolute priority for me as I have a kidney issue. So, I had to cram my morning routine elements into a smaller amount of time than usual. 

I create a mental list of to-do tasks each morning. This is the time I had to tweak my schedule for a day like this.  I wanted to get my run still before I went, so I didn’t have extra time to spare. 

My schedule was packed, but I managed to finish my run and shower before getting ready to go. I even got there a little earlier than the requested 15 minutes before the scheduled appointment and had to wait nearly an hour before I saw my doctor. 

He reported that the labs run on the blood I submitted last week revealed an uptick in kidney function, so I have more than fully recovered from the summer’s kidney lab report. We calculate our food intake carefully every day. My wife selects many and sorts out all the ingredients for the week we eat every week so we don’t accidentally overeat something wrong for my kidney. I’ve also been drinking enough water not to overstress my kidneys. 

Being healthy means we have to commit. Our eating habits are much more restricted because I have many food restrictions. I wish I had been mindful of my lifestyle way before I had the health problems. However, what happened has already happened. I want to make my future right. Being healthy is a life-long journey. Of course, I have my day when I get the temptation of slacking with my routines. On a day like that, I try to remember the time I had a lot of problems recovering from a brain stroke. 

I know I was fortunate. I had family who took care of me when I was in trouble. I managed to recover my kidney conditions from stage 5 to stage 3. So, I will keep my commitment to retaining my kidney function.

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How to Overcome My Procrastination

Written November 2, 2024

Hello Dear Readers,

I’m finding it hard to motivate myself to start my run today. The house was much chilly than the last couple of weeks, and all I wanted to do was stay in the house. In addition, I was sleepy all day. Yep, it’s my procrastination problem again. The weather gives me an excuse to delay starting my run; the longer I delay, the warmer it becomes. 

Despite how I feel, I have an important task to accomplish. It’s a new month, so I want to achieve my November 10k challenge. My wife and I use a running app from Asics. We use the free version of the app, which has running or working challenges. I would love to complete the 10K challenge. The challenge will go away once I complete it, but it still gives me a sense of accomplishment. 

My wife has been complaining about the dark mornings, and she feels much more sleepy during the day. She told me that she needed to hibernate for the winter one day. In general, we have our biological clock, which adjusts our energy level according to the season. Winter is not a good time to hunt or farm. It would have been much more difficult for people to acquire food. We developed a biological clock to adjust our energy level with the season to survive. Of course, the biological clock does not work for the modern day.

I remember my wife telling me that she had a hard time losing weight from fall to winter. She adjusted her exercise program to gain more muscles around the season. 

I look at the temperature. It is not warm enough to run in shorts yet, and I am curious how warm it will be. I have been making excuses not to do 10km. No matter how much I value running, a 10km run is still more work. So, I stood up, and I made a decision. I think I’ve delayed long enough to run in shorts but a long-sleeved shirt. So, now is the time.  Avoiding procrastination is a lot harder when there are additional benefits to waiting.

It is much easier to overcome my procrastination problem if I consider the satisfaction or benefits I gain from it. I completed my 10km run, checked off the monthly challenge, and gained so much satisfaction from it.

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Organizing Your Tasks is the Key to Creating Flow

Written October 31, 2024

Hello Dear Readers,

I have been organizing my schedule. My routine has been disrupted this week due to a blood lab appointment. In addition to the appointment, I also wanted to make apple pies and pumpkin muffins for my wife. For weeks, I have noticed that some schedule changes could impact my daily routine. I want to keep my schedule so that I have accomplished something for the day.  

The best way to increase your satisfaction in your daily routine is to keep it organized and prioritize your tasks. Not all tasks provide me with an equal amount of satisfaction. However, it is still essential to do the tasks, such as going to the lab or my doctor,  that have a due date or must be done. My wife created the task list and put the rate on each task, which she learned in her teens and customized to fit her needs. I would not do the same way she does, but I adjusted my schedule to accomplish something I care about, such as exercise.

I created my tasks around the exercise because that gave me the most satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment for the day. Aside from finishing this blog entry, which I’m working on now.  I’ve completed most of my Friday chores a couple of hours early. After my exercise, I seem to gain more energy.

Procrastination is my biggest problem. Even after my exercise, I have much less energy than my wife. I’ve worked to eliminate the problem but still suffer from the temptation, even with the extra energy I seem to have. Today, I was tempted to pause my progress or put aside the tasks. I noticed those tasks accumulated so quickly in the later days, so I decided to complete everything before relaxing. It was a good decision I made. I created momentum to complete my tasks more quickly. Every time I complete my checklist, I gain more energy. As a result, I will likely have another hour or two until my friends become available to play our regularly scheduled games. 

Organizing and prioritizing my tasks help me sustain adequate energy to complete them. When I complete the tasks that mean a lot to me, I gain much more energy. When you get momentum, you will gain a flow. I could be better. I still struggle with the temptation of procrastination, but I am working toward it.

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A Happy Pumpkin Muffin Days!

Written October 29, 2024

Hello Dear Readers,

I want to make muffins today. My wife has an important company meeting on Thursday and has asked me to prepare some food for it. We had the Pumpkin puree from last year. Initially, I was to put nuts onto muffins; however, my wife said there were people with nut allergies. So, I thought I could use some pumpkin seeds instead. We bought the seeds to go with them because none were left from the pumpkin. 

My wife sometimes asks me to bake for her. I like baking, but despite how much I want to, I don’t bake as much as I would like to. My wife does not have a taste for sweets as much. Besides, she is watching her weight vigorously, so any baking will disrupt her calorie restriction. She asked me to bake them for other people whenever she could. 

My wife thinks that baking will have a therapeutic effect on my brain. Baking would bring smiles to other people and give me something I can do for others, which would make me happier. I usually get a recipe online. I love the part where I plan how to reproduce the bakery from the recipes. 

This time, we settled on pumpkin muffins and apple pie, which would be a great choice. My wife’s company has some Japanese people unfamiliar with American Bakery. It is almost Thanksgiving day. Pumpkin and Apple are things I will think of around this time. Both of them represent the taste of autumn. Since I cannot bake pumpkin and apple pie, I decided to bake muffins today and apple pie tomorrow. I like this period. The weather is much better than that in summer. I love watching the colors on leave. It is so lovely outside now since all the leaves are turning yellow. I have a lot of good memories of this time.

Speaking of autumn and leaves, we have so many to vacuum. I had to vacuum more leaves today, but I think I got enough off our yard that I likely won’t have to do another round on Thursday. However, I’ll need to reevaluate the yard tomorrow since I don’t know when precisely the trees drop their leaves.  

This week, we went to Extra Grocery to get some ingredients, such as apples, for the bakery. I am already very excited. Hopefully, they will turn out well and be enjoyed by her and her coworkers.

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Waffles, Vaccines, and Apple Sauce: A Cozy Weekend Tradition

Written October 27, 2024

Hello Dear Readers,

Last night, my wife requested waffles for breakfast, so today, instead of cereal, I made a couple of waffles for us to enjoy. 

Shortly after moving to Tennessee, I made waffles every Sunday for a while, but it resulted in my wife and I gaining more weight than we wanted. So, we stopped eating waffles every Sunday but still enjoyed it occasionally.  

My wife and I awoke today to soreness centered on our vaccination points. Yesterday, we got two vaccines: a COVID booster and this year’s flu shot. The soreness seems to be impacting my ability to mix waffles.

We usually eat our waffles with blueberries. I love blueberries, and I eat them every day. Blueberries are one of the foods recommended for people like me with a kidney condition, so I eat a little portion of them every day. Blueberries go with waffles very well. We sometimes eat applesauce with our waffles. Unfortunately, we have no more applesauce left from last year. The applesauce we made yesterday is too new to consume. We have maple syrup, so our waffle will still be good. 

Speaking of our applesauce, the applesauce marathon was successful; we peeled, cut, and cooked 3 bushels of apples and made around 7 gallons of applesauce. We canned it into several quart and pint jars and divided them between us, but it’s less applesauce than we’ve made in previous years, so we might make another batch after Christmas. 

While my wife and I don’t eat that much applesauce, my sister’s household eats much more and might want more after a few months.  Perhaps dividing the year’s applesauce into two batches will become our new preferred strategy, as we were all tired by the end of the day, and processing another bushel of apples would have added at least another hour or two. 

One concern is that apples may be hard to find or too expensive to buy in large enough quantities that late in the year. We’ll have to see how the later batch goes to determine whether this strategy is viable. 

I enjoy making waffles and applesauce despite the work we need to put into them. I love seeing my family happy with what I or we produce, which makes me happy.

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Balancing Health, Family, and Home Projects In A Busy Weekend

Written October 26, 2024

Hello Dear Readers,

Today starts with a hectic morning. My wife and I took the regular annual flu vaccination and COVID shot. We would have liked to have done it earlier, but we were too busy with deck repair this year. Besides, it is much better than missing the flu vaccination at all. 

My medical doctors recommend I take vaccinations with extra caution. Because of my health condition, even the COVID vaccination was earlier than that of any adult my age. They tell me I am high-risk. I cannot see why I should be at high risk. Doctors, however, have my biological data that I cannot see and feel visually. With their expertise, I assume that I am a high risk. So, no matter what I think about the vaccination, we make the annual appointment. 

We usually get the vaccination earlier in October. This month, we had to do the deck painting earlier in October. Since the deck painting has a shorter due date as winter approaches, we decided to push out our vaccination. 

My wife prefers vaccinations on weekends because weekday appointments disrupt her schedule. She could take 30-45 minutes to go to the doctor on a weekday but chooses not to. She meticulously plans her daily schedule. She is always doing something. 

We usually go to a nearby pharmacy to receive our seasonal vaccination, which takes approximately 15 minutes from our house. Our appointment was at 9:30 a.m., which left me in a somewhat awkward schedule position. My wife starts her day at 5:30 a.m. every day. 9:30 a.m. was her best time since she usually completes creating menus and groceries for the week. However, I started running later now, and the appointment was in the middle of my morning routine. 

If only this vaccination disrupted my day, I could still tweak my schedule. I forgot about this vaccination schedule and planned to go to my mother’s to help her and my sister make apple sauce. My wife already planned her schedule. This was a few days’ notice for us, so she could not make it to the apple sauce. My wife will drop me off at my mother’s house for our planned applesauce marathon.  It’s also my brother-in-law’s birthday so we can see him and give him a gift. 

I would skip running and enjoy a few cups of coffee. I am ok with it.

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How to Build A Sustainable Workout Routine

Written August 23, 2024

Hello Dear Readers,

My wife suggested that I create my new exercise schedule. She told me it was not a good idea to train my muscles on the same part daily since I already have problems repairing my muscles. So, I came up with a new exercise routine last night.  

Split up the muscle training routines on different days. For now, I do once a week per section, but I want to include multiple types of exercise for each session. One of my biggest problems was that I got tired so quickly. I could manage to break my muscle fibers, but they don’t seem to repair as soon as they used to. Due to the restriction, I cannot eat enough protein to accommodate my exercise.

M – Pullups

T – Dips/Leg lifts

W – Pushups

R – Arms

F – Pullovers

It is not so bad, though. With arm exercises, for example, I can target several muscles. I could work on the Biceps, Triceps, and Brachialis muscles. I could also add the Coracobrachialis, Brachioradialis, and forearm muscles. 

I tried the exercise today and discovered that I could spend more time on muscle training. I think I’ve designed it to continue even after the lawn mowing starts. Since I don’t train daily, my muscles have enough time to repair. For now, I will do each section only once a week. I may change around when I have more muscles, but I think I am all right with this schedule. 

I keep my regular 5km or 10km running. Running gives me more energy, and I gain a lot more endurance from it. My wife was surprised at how much I gained endurance when we hiked in the ground canyon. Our house is on the hill, so mowing on our lawn can be challenging. I have enough endurance to complete the whole lawn because I have enough endurance to do so. That’s a solid 3 hours of mowing on the hill, which is not easy. 

I am excited about my new exercise routine. So far, I can train more muscles per section. I plan to add more exercise types to improve my muscles.