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From Mowing Leaves to Life Lessons: Embracing Consistency After a Stroke

Written November 19, 2024

Hello Dear Readers,

Today, I’ve elected to forego leaf collection. Due to the warm rainy days last week, I decided to mow the lawn. As I mowed the lawn for the last time, I mulched the remaining leaves in our yard to the point I could skip leaving vacuuming chores for the day. Compared to the previous week, we are having some cold days. My body was somewhat used to the warmer days; I am having difficulty adjusting to this chilly weather again. 

We usually don’t have to mow around this time. I was somewhat disappointed at needing to mow again, as I had thought I’d finished that chore for the year. Somehow, the weather had its own plans. The erratic weather resulted in some late extra growth to create a little spring to the point that promoted grass and trees to create some new greens. Hopefully, I’ve now reached the end of mowing for the year. 

The mower mulched the relatively few leaves on our lawn, leaving it reasonably clear. So, skipping the leaves will be a pleasant break for me. I noticed some of my neighbors started to put Christmas decorations outside. Once Thanksgiving is over, there will be a lot more decorations. 

Ever since my brain stroke, I have learned to be consistent. I can’t imagine how I changed. I was more impulsive and liked to procrastinate. When I had to re-learn even basic actions, such as how to eat or walk, it taught me to be more patient. I learned that the best way to avoid forgetting to do something is to plan well and create a checklist. My wife is big on planning and making checklists. She jokes she does not trust herself to be consistent otherwise. 

I realized that consistency has excellent benefits. For one, I was able to run 10 km without problems. I even started doing my muscle training, and I gained a lot more muscle. I always had toned muscles because I used to do gymnastics. When I was in bed for almost two months after the stroke, I lost a lot of muscles. I sleep and wake up at the intended time, so my biological clock works. I had difficulties reading books due to my eyes, so my wife got me audiobooks. I listened to my audiobooks all the time. I also learned how to cook and Japanese. Now, I pick up on writing. 

Chores, like vacuuming leaves or even mowing, need consistency. I get tired much faster than before, especially when the weather is extreme. I will do as much as possible within my capacity, but I do them consistently. I get them done all the time. If I think like that, I lost a lot from my brain stroke, but I also gained good habits from it.

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From Cold Mornings to Warm Reflections: Navigating Life After a Brain Stroke

Written November 16, 2024

Hello Dear Readers,

It was one of the days that I felt like I just wanted to stay in bed. Ever since I got my brain stroke, I cannot stand cold at all. Before I had my brain stroke, I had a much higher heartbeat and blood pressure, and I always felt hot. We used to live in Canada; my wife complained because I would open our bedroom window while sleeping. Ever since I can remember, my wife has kept her temperature around 65F or 18C during the winter. So our house would always be cool in the winter. I was hot all the time. Now, I feel cold.

I had difficulty forcing myself from bed this morning. I initially woke 45 minutes before my alarm. During the summer months, I would start my run early. But it’s so chilly. I hesitated. I crawled back to bed after using the restroom and fell back asleep. When my alarm sounded, I turned it off and snuggled back under the warm covers, staying awake but in bed and warm for a half hour. Despite the early morning, my wife was already out of bed a few hours before me. She wakes up much earlier every day.

Eventually, I forced myself to throw back the blankets and start my day. When I woke up, my wife was already done running, studying Geman, and writing something in the notebook in the dining room. She has more things to do in her morning routine, as she will create the menu for the upcoming week and create a grocery list. Somehow, we bought four limes that became bad after ten days, which she was upset about. She does not like wasting food ingredients since we should be able to control that with proper planning. Also, she thinks it is sinful to waste food. I know she lists why we wasted the food on the lists.  Then, she would write about how to avoid such an event again. The year is almost over, but we don’t have one page of wasted food. 

Observing my wife also made me question whether I had wasted time today. I’ve been delaying my run in my office, allowing it to warm up further, but I think I’ve wasted enough time now and will start my run shortly. I still need to do weekly house vacuuming chores and clean leaves outside. 

Later, I talked to my wife about this morning, and she said she would put on the space heater before she goes running going forward. She also understands that my body condition is different. I hope it will work better. 

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Chilly Days, Leaves, and Adjusting to Nature’s Rhythm

Written November 12, 2024

Hello Dear Readers,

It’s so darn chilly today, but I must push myself to clean the leaves. The windy and rainy days made our front yard cluttered with leaves. This is what happens when I skip working on collecting leaves.

The hurricane gave Nashville a couple of chilly days. It has been so cold today that I almost wanted to stay inside the house. I waited a bit longer, hoping the temperature would be more tolerable. After I had a brain stroke, I lost control of my inner thermoregulation system. My skin feels the heat or chills more profoundly than before my brain stroke. I will adjust my schedule for outside chores since external conditions impact me more. If I didn’t have to finish the task today, I would instead want to complete the task in a better condition. 

Just like I hoped, a few hours improved the temperature. It seemed much warmer after a few hours. The lovely sunlight dried up the leaves enough to vacuum easily when I got outside. The wet leaves could be nasty sometimes; they get clogged in our leaf vacuum cleaner in the middle of the cleaning. 

On a day like this, I tweaked my schedule. I can still do the other chores in the house before doing any outside chores. I still have several tasks I need to complete besides the leaf vacuuming today. 

The several consecutive warm and humid rainy days confused our lawn with the season. They seemed much longer than a few weeks ago. It needs to be longer to mow the lawn, but I need to see how long it gets. 

I plan to do one more round of leave vacuuming this Thursday. I’ve checked the weather forecast. It will likely be another chilling morning. Luckily, no rain is predicted between now and then. The trees in front of our house lost a substantial amount of trees, hinting that my leaf vacuuming task will end soon.

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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.