September
9/30/2026.
Finally, AFM 2026 story is up. Click here.
Entry#638. 9/28/2026. Extra story 1: Our 24 yo son
Our son has been a good sport, always (well, you know, he is sometimes stubborn very much to me (his mother). We, both my husband and myself are proud parents, yes, we are. (I’m smiling.)
When we were about to register for GPRR (63mi long distance cycling), I just casually asked our son if he was willing to join us. It was a very casual invitation. He had a moment to think and check his work schedule. Then he said “yes”. (Whoa, is it yes?)
However, it seemed he didn’t have time to “check and ride” his own bicycle ahead of time.
I was excited, of course. It was going to be “our FIRST family long distance cycling event” ever.
We drove separately to the event place. We set up our bikes separately. He looked he was ready.
Note: He had several experiences of long distance bike trips (including his solo trips) before. I can say he knows many stuffs about it. He has gears, knowledge and physical strength. We were not worried much, we thought he might have less stamina than we do. That was it.
We introduced him to our 2 cyclist friend ladies.
We went off. “Here we go!” I was pretty happy.
Then at the beginning portion, he realized he had do abort cycling because his neck hurt. It turned out that he had some light fall at rock climbing wall before. That might be the cause. Neck is a very important body part for cycling, especially a long distance pedaling. We were sad but we had to let him go…. Hopefully he will recover fully after 2-3 weeks. Fingers crossed.
But I can still say this. He is a good sport always. See?
Entry#637. 9/27/2026.
I made a separate page about GPRR. Here is the link. I am planning to write another extra story about myself, I try.
Then now, you can tell me "what does GPRR stand for?", can't you?
Picture 1. My husband made a new friend. See a cute puppy?
Picture 2. I always miss taking a photo of super cool Tandem couple in Oxford at this event. Next time, I will do it. See them in the photo?? Barely..
Entry#636. 9/26/2026.
"BREAKING NEWS!!"
My husband and I rode 100km=63mi with 2 fabulous cyclist ladies at GPRR in Brookville, Indiana! This was our longest ride ever in lifetime, yes.
I have tons of thoughts/ emotions/ feelings to share. I know I have another topic (AFM) to share as well. I'm behind on that. Well, "details are coming up soon ". For now, I can say that.
9/23/2026.
I LOVE this day, September 23rd. To my wonderful parents, happy anniversary! It's 54th. You need to show off your wedding pictures to your friends. I am a proud daughter. (You should know that, both of you. Mom. Dad.)
9/22/2026.
Some random notes:
1. Every year, I always wonder when fireflies stop blinking = when they are gone. It always stops before I know it. However this year was different. Did you notice something different? Because of odd temperature cycle around here, I guess fireflies’ circadian rhythm was messed up. In the end of August, I saw a few fireflies in my backyard started blinking!! What? I was shocked. Poor them. I now wonder what will happen to them for next their real season?
2. Hummingbirds! I believe they have to leave this town pretty soon, probably in this week. How are your hummingbirds doing?
3. I just read a meteorologist’s news about Hurricanes. Is this true? Wow. 112 years??!
“For the first time in 112 years, the Atlantic basin has reached September 21 without producing a single hurricane. We haven’t seen anything like this in our lifetimes.To put that into perspective, 430 hurricanes formed by September 21 across the previous 111 seasons, averaging nearly 4 hurricanes by this point each year.”
Entry#635. 9/19/2026.
This is such an EPIC photo. Don't you think? Because? Because these numbers of people all together didn't happen before (plus I'm in it).
Yes! Air Force Marathon (AFM) hadncycle division showed their strong performance to audiences pretty well. Details coming soon. Stay tuned.
9/17/2026.
Okay, now is your cue to laugh. Finally my house fence got decorated with autumn color. It made me feel "better". Then it made me think. Why don't I put my "fence collection" here to compare each month? Let's do it.
Here we go, September!! The color is more likely "almost Halloween-ish". But that's okay. Combination of purple and orange has taste of fall, doesn't it? How's your fence?
August 2026
July 2026
June 2026
May 2025(!). Somehow I don't have a photo of May 2026 fence....
April 2026
March 2025(!!)
9/16/2026.
I need to look back and compare the weathers on this week pasts and present. Because I wand to feel "end of summer" atmosphere right now. I'm really looking forward to having "cool crisp" weather next week. So that I can decorate my fence with autumn colors. (I still keep hanging summer colors.... lazy me.)
At least we enjoyed pedaling "right before the sunset". My husband's race day is right there.
9/14/2026.
Do you remember Mr. Johnson who helped me from yellow jackets nests? Re-read here Entry#617. 8/04/2026 “Yellow Jacket wasps’ nest”
Then I found him on social media. Have you heard about "Bee beard"??
You might laugh at me again. I've been loving to watch "honeybee stuffs" for a long time, I guess. Here is an example. I think honeybees are wonderful amazing creatures. Don't you think so?
9/14/2026.
You have to laugh seeing these photos.
1. Spiral coin vortex well
2. Pressed penny machine (elongated coin machine)
When we have guests from Japan (or Japanese friends), they would be very interested in these two things. Do you know why? Japan doesn't have these.
Japanese law strictly prohibits damaging, defacing, or melting down official currency (like the 1-yen or 10-yen coin), making the use of real circulating coins illegal. Interesting?
I always love to see "how pressed penny machine works", moving a handle by myself. How about you?
P.S. I noticed something new (at least to myself) at Air Force Museum. There are Braille boards with aircraft models(!). Did you know that? After I learned some Braille stuffs, this made me feel excited. Good to know.
Entry#634. 9/13/2026.
It’s been 5 years (and 2 months) since my husband’s SCI accident. I assume both of us, my husband and I have a nice rhythm of “everyday life” pretty much. It’s not easy, though, you know. But it’s been progressing better than the very beginning.
Everyday, every week, every month, every season, every year, I simply do hope his good-health and good-physical-condition = no-illness and no-additional-injuries.
(Plus, I need to add this one. Everyday I do hope his handcycle is ready to pedal with good condition.)
However sometimes it happens to anyone no matter how much you are careful. That’s true.
Remember about my husband’s very 1st Crit race in GR (8/01 and 8/02/2026)?
The first race day was raining. He (and other handcyclists) committed to pedal harder in the rain. I didn’t see any major problems at that time. After we came home, he felt something off and something wrong in his neck.
As always, I learned something new. We had a great time with our friends. That matters.
SCI (spinal cord injury) body system is surely tricky and isn’t simple at all. Plus, in general, athlete’s mindset is complicated (that I understand enough because of our son’s high school sports experience).
If there is a race, he must practice and do training as much as possible. This topic always reminds me of our son’s HS senior year. Right before Cross Country season started, he tore ACL. It ruined his CC season totally, his very last one. He surprised me though. He was not angry at all. He was more like “dry”. He just focused on his knee recovery after the surgery.
Anyway, my husband will be compete handcycle race in Dayton this coming Saturday. It is AFM (Air Force Marathon) and Full marathon 26.2 mile. There are at least 12 handcyclists to compete each other.
It is my favorite race, you know? However, thinking about all his body conditions and training stuffs, he might say “not 100% ready”. I would be grateful when he gets ready at the start line on Saturday.
The goal would be “finishing 26.2 safely” this time. Please send cheers to his way.
Entry#633. 9/11/2026.
Calling all my friends in Japan (especially in Tokyo area), here is a wonderful news for you.
In Cincinnati, we have a wonderful art museum “CAM” = Cincinnati Art Museum. Their collection will go on tour in Japan!! Whoa. It says “for the first time”. Is that right??
My husband and I got excited because we feel very proud of “our local art museum’s collection”. Right?
https://www.fujitv.com/event/cincinnati/
https://www.wvxu.org/arts/2026-08-10/cincinnati-art-museum-collection-on-tour
“Masterpieces by distinguished masters arrive in Japan for the first time!
Of these 84, 81 will be exhibited in Japan for the very first time.”
So if you can visit Tokyo, please check this special exhibition from Cincinnati. Let us know how you like them.
Period: Saturday, October 10, 2026 – Sunday, January 10, 2027
To friends in other countries. Check the video below.
9/10/2026.
Armadillo in Ohio! Did you watch the news? We know Professor Jezkova because her lab is at the same floor of my husband's. My eyes are wide open because that armadillo is in the freezer where we know very much. Interesting. Miami University is awesome and my husband's colleagues are great.
Entry#632. 9/09/2026.
A long long time ago, there was “the COVID-19 stay-at-home order” (It was March and April 2020.). Government rules required people to remain inside their homes except for essential trips like buying food or seeking medical care. Schools, public parks, and non-essential businesses closed or shifted to remote operations.
Do you remember that time? Many people (my friends as well) made handmade masks. A lot of people did Zoom meetings. Also many people had their own Covid-projects for fun for themselves. (It was simply for their mental health.) My husband and son were not exceptional. They had their project = built their own climbing-wall at home!!
It was before my husband’s accident. They were so proud of their accomplishment and creation. It is a quite a view, you know?
After my husband came home from hospital stays, he grabbed some holds from his wheelchair. (But we figured that it’s still tricky for wheelchair users for this activity.) A photo below was Sep 2021.
Every time we have guests in our house, we introduce our climbing wall (room) to them as well. This time wasn’t exceptional.
If you ever want to come and check our homemade climbing wall, you are welcome to come anytime.
Then I remembered about “my” Covid project. How about you? Did you have your own Covid project?
Mine was a little bit unique. I had 2 wooden boards, white paint, a paint brush, and black markers. My goal was “putting a sign/message board by my mailbox everyday during stay-at-home order time period”. So I did! See? Everyday, different messages, something fun, making us smile…. that was the idea/concept.
Can you guess how many message boards I made total? 90 was for sure, I was not sure it reached 100 or not.
The most tricky part of this project was “I had to erase whole message for the next one. = I had to paint over with white paint and wait for drying out completely for overnight or two.” See? Needed good amount of white paint, also required quite a good amount of time (!). Well, I did it anyway. Because I had a joyful time with this activity. It is now a good nice old memory.
For my record, here are most of them. As you can notice, first 9 messages looked simple, not fancy and thin letter designs. Last 9 looked bold vivid letters which were nicer looking for sign board.
I still wonder sometimes “how did my neighbors feel about these?”
How do you think about these creations??
P.S. The actual size of message board is like this. You can compare it with a mailbox size. Also with myself jumping.
Entry#631. 9/09/2026.
When you take your guests to Liberty Center and show them "that wings", you make them take photos anyway. Then you also have to do a good job there. Yes?
Well, how do you like it?
Also when you take your guests to Factory 52 and you all see "kids climbing sets" there, of course, you try to explain "how to do bouldering". You ended up bouldering in a dress. Yes, in a "dress"!
This is the way. Yes?
Entry#630. 9/08/2026.
Every time we have friends/guests in town from other cities/ countries, of course, we would get excited a lot. After my husband’s accident, after he became a paraplegic (SCI: Spinal Cord Injury), it feels a bit different than before.
We feel grateful more about their patience and understanding of our SCI life.
There are some things we cannot do. There are some things we need to adjust. There are some things we need to avoid.
Our son expressed his point of view saying “You two have gotten more flexible to have guests from other cities lately with your SCI lifestyle. That’s great.”
Sometimes it would be a bit hesitating to explain things we can’t do to our guests. But nowadays we try to explain many things openly.
(They might not be interested in our explanation. I am not sure. But we do explain anyway.)
This time, we had a cute sweet newlywed couple from Cambridge, MA (Harvard University). They are Japanese. They got married in Japan. The groom got a position as a postdoc at Harvard University. They moved and started US life. The bride found a job as well. They have lived in Cambridge for 2 years now.
We met for the first time this time. (My husband invited him as a guest speaker in a seminar at the Biology department.)
You know? They are young. We are closer to their parents’ ages, in fact. Our son is closer to their ages. They eagerly asked us questions, like “How was our US life (first 2-3 years) after we moved in?”
It was interesting.
We got married in Japan in 1999. My husband got a postdoc position at KSU (Kansas State University). We moved into the States in 2001. Do you see similarities between us? Yes, we were newlywed couple just like they are right now. However our case is “25 years ago”(!) It is kind of a huge difference.
No social media. It was a digital-camera era. No AI. No Google Maps.
It was fun to chat with them on many topics.
I felt their young power, big enthusiasm, endless energy and more. I can tell that they will become big names in future, both of them. They have that much potential indeed.
Additionally it was so much fun to watch interactions between the couple and our son.
Probably you already imagined? Our son showed them Chinese-yo-yo, juggling, his ceramics, and of course Lockpicking. He entertained them very well. I was grateful and pleased.
Also we were lucky enough to be able to show them our favorite places around Oxford area (Cincinnati and Dayton), pretty much most of them. Only one problem we had was “extreme heat weather”. One day was the hottest day in the history. We had to give up to walk around the Ohio riverside.
We had fun with them and they gave us extra energy. I will keep cheering them on their joyful journey in the States. Good luck!
If you visited us before, you must be chuckling right now, seeing photos of places we took our guests. Including these: Graters, Krispy Kreme, Air Force Museum, Findlay Market.
Since they are younger generations (than us) and they use Instagram more than Facebook, I was very pleased to get into selfie shots. You know? They are really good at it. (On the contrary, I always fail. I figured it's because of my arm length. It's too short.)
Here are the results. Fun! I learned something new from them.
Entry#629. 9/07/2026.
I got so excited when I watched this video because my husband and I know her very much. I think I can say that.
Please re-read Entry#568. 4/13/2026. Part 2. Meet 2026 Flying Pig Full marathon handcyclist. Carly Pearson from Knoxville, Tennessee.
I do admire her and what she has done and she still keeps doing. I am grateful that I can say “she is a friend of mine” proudly. I’m looking forward to seeing her again in person someday.
A photo below: my husband and Ms. Carly Pearson.
9/07/2026.
Here is a new movie which I am interested in. Will you watch it?
9/04/2026.
My family will know something different when they see these.
1. Middle seats in our minivan.
2. Green tea bottles in fridge.
Yes, we are having guests who are Japanese.
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