Today our weather was a thunderstorm. We had lots of rain and thunders all day long. It was rare in this time of the year on this area.

The recent weather report news predicted my area (South West region) would have a mild temperature with lots of rain in this winter.

This prediction was made based on the recent situation of the solar cycles along with the zero sunspot activity.

In a timely manner, my macrobiotic instructor shared her own perspective about the current situation in her recent online course. She suggests us to follow and be flexible to our intuition.

I agree with her perspective. Our body knows what we need to eat to adjust to our local environment. We all have great intuition just like other animals and all the other living creatures.

I want to keep being alert and listening to my intuition.

I believe everything is supposed to go well.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

I had a dental cleaning appointment. During my visit, I usually deal with three different people; a hygienist, an assistant nurse, and a dentist.

I like the hygienist. I have been making a dental clearing appointment with her for these past years. She is a young Latina in her early 30s. She is nice and polite, and good at cleaning. I am always satisfied with her work.

She praised my daily work. She said my teeth and gum were healthy and doing great. I was happy to hear that. I have started using a water floss every day, and it was working well for me.

Then, the assistant nurse came and gave my teeth a final polish and a flossing. She also praised my daily work, saying I have beautiful and healthy teeth and gum. I appreciate for her compliment.

Lastly the dentist came for an overall checkup. He mentioned about one small cavity needs to be fixed. He pointed out my right bottom canine teeth.

He strongly suggested me to make an appointment to fix the cavity as soon as possible. He said cavities cannot be healed by themselves. I didn’t talk back to him, but I have my own perspective regarding a cavity.

I do believe a cavity can be healed. I am saying that, based on my actual experiences.

Right before I moved to America in 2008, I visited the dental clinic. The dentist told me I had three cavities needed to be fixed. Because I didn’t have any pain at all, I didn’t trust him. I followed my intuition and decided not to fix them.

After I came to America, for the first four years, we didn’t have a dental insurance. Vision insurance and dental insurance are optional and not mandatory. So, I did not go see a dentist until four years later.

When I finally had a dental checkup accompanied with a full X-ray in 2012, the dentist did not find any cavities in my mouth.

It can be considered as in two ways. It is either the previous dentist diagnosed wrongly or my cavities were healed by themselves.

In any cases, in my opinion, when you are diagnosed as having a cavity, you should get a second opinion. Or, you should change your diet and lifestyle to a healthier one, and that might heal your cavity by themselves. I believe our body has a self-healing ability.     

***

One good news that I want to update.

As I mentioned in my previous article, I had a severe pain in my jar since the beginning of this month. The doctor checked the gum and the teeth around the area and did not find any issues.

They told me the pain was probably due to some reactions of changing season or sinus allergy. I got relieved to hear that. In fact the pain has been relieving day by day.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

My dad is 80 years old. He often tells me he wants to live long. He says it is very interesting for him to witness all the changes in society, lifestyle, and technology. He wants to keep witnessing them.

Indeed he has gone through a lot. He was born before the World War II. He has lived during and after the war. He has witnessed how the government has changed. He has experienced how the technology was built and has been improved. I agree with him; witnessing all the changes is interesting.

As one of the interesting changes, I read somebody’s article about funerals. He mentioned about a drive-through service of funerals. It has already been launched in some rural areas. I think this is a great idea for the people who is hard to walk. I personally want to see the traditional funeral system will be drastically changed into much more simple ones.

Another example of the interesting changes is about the online service of Buddhism monk in Japan. Nowadays there are many companies who offer the various services of monks. Their prices are open and clear, and reasonable. I am supportive with these types of services. Previously the monks’ services used to be complicated. There are many hidden things that we have to consider.

Two more examples come from my personal experiences.

Back in 1995 I got married to my first husband (who is now my ex-husband). Those days it was common for couples to have a super expensive wedding ceremony. We paid $30,000 (about 3 million yen) just for the ceremony. We invited about 100 people to the party. I changed my outfit three times during the two hours ceremony, with different hair styles and different make-ups, done by a professional. Unfortunately, one year later from the huge wedding ceremony, we ended up getting divorced.

This wedding ceremony is one of my regrets in my life. It was a huge waste of money. I should have insisted to go without the luxurious wedding ceremony so that we could have saved the money for the future life.

I am glad to see the current change. Nowadays people are much smarter than those days, so that they have their wedding ceremony in a reasonable price.

Right after the wedding ceremony, my in-law-at-that-time proudly announced me that they bought a small piece of land for their graveyard. They told me I was more than welcomed to be buried with them in the same graveyard. I was stunned. I was 25 years old, just got married. I was too young to think about my dead body in the future. My in-law-at-that-time insisted how important to prepare their graveyard in advance. Preparing a graveyard in advance was common at that time.

Speaking of my afterlife plan, I have a specific desire. My personal desire is not to be buried in a graveyard. I want my dead body to be cremated and the ashes to be scattered to my favorite land. I don’t want to be buried in a graveyard so that I won’t leave any responsibility or guild feeling to my decedents.

Nowadays I’ve heard more people who agree with my desire. My friends agree with me. My mom says the same thing as I do. I think it a good change.

These are just a few examples out of many changes. I hope my dad will live healthy as long as he wants, so that he can enjoy witnessing many more interesting changes to come. I believe his curiosity is the one that keeps motivating him to live. I think it a great thing for him.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

Yesterday I received a phone call from one of my acquaintances. It was a shocking news.

This family has many dogs; more than ten dogs. Their favorite one dog stays inside the house, but the remainder dogs stay outside.

The shocking news was about their favorite house dog. While the house dog was outside for doing her business (bathroom), the outside dogs attacked the house dog. The attacking was really bad, to the point where the house dog was almost killed.

The family quickly took the house dog to the local veterinary clinic. The injury was so severe that the local small clinic could not operate the surgery. They needed to bring the dog to the veterinary clinic in the big city.

There, they operated a surgery on the dog. The surgery went well so that the dog would live. The dog had some stitches and a drainage tube. The dog will need to be hospitalized being monitored for three nights.

I felt so relieved that the dog survived for this severe injury and surgery.

This incident made me think of the danger of jealously. Dogs are smart animals. They know what is going on. The outside dogs were so jealous of the house dog to the point where they all hate the house dog.

This is not their first experience for this family. One year ago they had the exactly same situation. They had only one house dog. While the house dog was outside for her business, the outside dogs attacked the dog and killed it. Right after the incident, this family adopted a puppy, which was the house dog being attacked this time.

I feel sorry for the outside dogs. It is understandable for them to feel jealous to the house dog.

I also feel sorry for the two house dogs. One was killed one year ago, and the new one was almost killed this time. It was not their decisions to be the only house dog. They might want to make friends with their own kind. They might want to stay and run around outside with their friends, rather than staying with humans inside of the house all the time.

***

I have been witnessing a similar situation in my neighborhood.

This family used to have a dog and they keep the dog at their backyard. Recently (about three month ago), they brought back a new puppy. It was obvious that all the family members love the new puppy. This puppy stays inside the house. I have seen this puppy wearing a brand new outfit (a pretty sweater or a cute collar). This puppy even has her body hair shampooed and get her nails clipped and polished.

In this three months, I have witnessed their outside dog escaped several times. I have seen this outside dog running away from their house at a crazy high speed. This outside dog probably feels lonely and being abandoned. It is understandable for this dog to desire to run away from this family.

Until they had a new puppy, I never saw this outside dog trying to run away from its family.  

***

I sincerely hope this kind of tragedy will never happen again. It is my humble wish that all the pet masters will treat their pets with equal love so that they won’t need to fight one another. I hope they won’t treat their pets based on their ego and convenience.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

At my daughter’s school, there are two classes in her grade. She used to be one class for the past three years. This year however, my daughter was assigned to another class. It was the principal’s kind offer from some reasons.

Thus, all the classmates in the current class are new to my daughter.

Today my daughter brought back a birthday party invitation from her classmate. This is the fifth one in this school year.

I was a little surprised from these reasons. It has been only 2.5 months passed in this new school year. Also, five birthday invitations out of the total number of 24 classmates is at the high rate.

The weird thing for me is these five classmates are not my daughter’s close friends.

According to some of my American acquaintances, it is common for parents to invite all the classmates for their child’s birthday party. Also it is common to spread the invitation to 30 children and only 5 or 6 children will show up to the party.

This is a new custom from what I have experienced. In my younger days, some of my classmates had a birthday party and invited only a small number of close friends. Once I was invited, I was supposed to attend the party. It was very hard for me to decline the invitation unless I had a reasonable reason.

Both customs have merits and demerits.

Here, it is easy for us to decline the invitation. In most cases the child cannot walk to the party and they need to ask a ride from their parents. That can be a reasonable reason for them to turn down the invitation.

In Japan, they can celebrate their real friends’ birthday party with only a small number of friends, and that will strengthen their friendship.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

I hate the hot weather. I love the cold weather. I have kept on saying that to people.

This morning I received a phone call from the maintenance company guy. He remembers about my preference.

The first thing he mentioned made me laugh.

He said “I know you don’t want to switch from the cooler to the heater, right?”

I said “oh yeah, you got that right.”

But the guy continued saying that he could not allow me to keep the cooler all year around. Since it has been cold already, they have to switch it as soon as possible. Otherwise, the water in the pipes on the roof will get frozen. That can damage the cooler. 

Thus, I needed to accept to switch and scheduled the work day for that. Reluctantly.

Here on this land, the temperature swings. It gets very hot even in winter from time to time. In such days I will miss the cooler. I don’t think I will use the heater during winter.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

One week ago my husband had a lab test. His lab test result was all fine. We were so glad for his good result.

Today my husband had a doctor’s appointment regarding to the lab result.

The doctor was not at the clinic. Actually the doctor was 200 miles (three-hour drive) away from the clinic. My husband talked with the doctor through the monitor screen. The nurse started checking my husband’s vital signs and input the data into the computer. Then the nurse hooked up some cables to my husband’s body. The doctor could see all the data online through the monitor. After a couple of minutes’ chatting, the health checkup was done.

It was his very first experience of the online doctor’s checkup at the clinic. According to the nurse, this online doctor’s checkup has just started this year. My husband was their eighth patient who accepted the online checkup.

***

An interesting coincidence happened this evening. I happened to see the online program where the presenter talked about the online doctor’s checkup in Japan. So, it has been spreading around the world.

I think it is a great system for some patients who have a hard time to actually go to the clinic. It is also good for somebody like me who is a people-phobia, so that they won’t need to deal with a whole bunch of people in a clinic or a hospital.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

My in-low informed me of the kids’ drawing contest. It is Soft Toy Drawing Competition sponsored by IKEA.

This is a drawing contest for kids. The qualified little artists are 0-12 years old. After little artists submit their drawings by the deadline, they proceed to the next step, voting.

There will be six winners in this contest. The winners’ drawings will transform into real soft toys and the toys will be sold in their stores.

My daughter enjoys some creative activities every day. She didn’t have any difficulty to select one drawing to submit.

I submitted her drawing online.

We really hope her drawing will be one of the lucky winners and see the soft toy will be enjoyed by many kids around the world. It will be cool.  

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

Today I took out a new bottle of my first homemade miso. It is a miso made from black beans. This bottle was the one I didn’t put a layer of salt.

On the black surface I saw two small white dots. Due to my old aged vision, it got blurred in a close look with my grasses. I took off my grasses and stared at the white dots.

It was shocking to know the dot was a mold.

That being said, I remember that I have read some information about a mold in homemade miso. They suggested we can simply get rid of the mold part, and the remainder of miso should be fine. 

I followed their suggestion and removed the mold part.

On my second homemade miso that I recently made, I didn’t add a layer of salt on the surface. The reasons are I wanted to reduce the amount of salt. Besides, I thought our dry air environment would make a mold free condition.

This was a good lesson for me to learn “Overconfidence can be dangerous”. I am going to add a layer of salt on my second homemade miso.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

Today there was Gem And Mineral Event held at the local community college.

I was not planning to go there, but I had a strong feeling that my family spirits wanted me to go there. Whenever I need a confirmation from them, I ask them to show me some signs.

First I asked them to show me through my pendulum. I asked them to move it to the yes direction (my yes direction is the clockwise), if they want me to go there. My pendulum swang clockwise strongly and widely.

I also asked them to gather to my left shoulder if they want me to go there. Soon, my left shoulder got super warm.  

You might wonder why I am so reluctant to go there. The reason is simple. It is because I am a severe people-phobia. I want to avoid going to any places where many people gather.

Anyway, I followed my family spirits’ advice. I gathered up all my courage and went there.

I wanted to buy a massage wand for my Thai massage, which I recently learned through the online course.

Right after I entered the event room, at the very first booth, I saw several massage wands. One of them exactly matched with my vision that I wanted to buy. I asked the vendor about the price. The price was pretty reasonable. So, I bought the massage wand.

After my first purchase, I was just browsing around every booth. On my fifth or sixth booth, I found one rock.

It was shining to me. I asked the vendor if she could give me some discount. She cheerfully offered me some discount. I was surprised at the final price, because it was much lower than I thought.

The vendor told me they paid more than the price they offered me. I happily accepted their discount offer and purchased the rock.

It is a heart shaped rose quarts. The size is about 4 inch x 4 inch (10 cm x 10 cm).

I am very happy this rock has come to my family. Maybe this rock was the main reason why my family spirits wanted me to go the event.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪