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Unrelated Matter
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 Is there such a thing as ... Unrelated Matter?
June 14,
I have been thinking of my approaching death lately. One of my high school friends just died of cancer at the age of 59, a close friend of Ulla and me was just diagnosed with breast cancer and she is in her mid fifties, then there are two other friends who have gotten cancer. One of these friends is 70 and the other is 58. And all these health news were within a 2 month time frame! ... so what of my approaching death? I am not in control of this question. At least not the when of it. Most of us live a life thinking we have control and free will over our lives. As I have gotten older and perhaps a bit wiser I come to disagree with my youthful thinking. We are allowed to believe we have free will but our destiny has already been determined. Since we are morons and cannot figure out our destiny it doesn't matter if we believe in free will or whether our lives are already set up. These things are beyond our grasp. Our past, present and future are all wrapped up in one and we do not have the capacity to understand life. No matter how smart we think we are!
May 20, I am getting behind on this page. I am writing too much on facebook. I would rather write here. I can't believe the last time I posted here was in February. Facebook takes up a lot of the slack. And more people will see what I write when I post on Facebook. I need fans of Eugene Picture Framing. All I can do is keep working at this ...
February 20,
I forgot one more thing. When you have a close relationship with a person the same problems arise. Most people will have some odd behaviors about them. But these behaviors can be bothersome to you but not to someone else. If your other partner's odd behavior was objectionable to other people in his or her life he or she would probably have work on this behavior to change for acceptance. So it is reasonable to think that this odd behavior is only objectionable to you ... this is what makes interpersonal relationship so interesting. Another person's objectionable behavior can show you your own predjudices. This is why I believe people who agree to get married should stay married. But you see I was divorced a long time ago. I might have stayed married to my first wife if she would have stopped staying at one of my (male) friend's house and came home to live with me!
February 20,
Ok, it is now approaching 2 month with Elfriede and here is what I have learned. Especially today! Elfriede's mind is somewhere near a child 3 to 5 years old. This part of her brain is the part that recognizes day to day events. Even hour to hour events. In other words her short term memory is bad. Her long term memory is good ... like her eyesight. Her short term memory is bad just like her hearing and close up eyesight. Her bad hearing causes the most stress in my interaction with her. Since she can't hear she is always repeating a question over and over. So I tell her over and over and louder and louder the answer to the question she is asking me. Of course she forgets what I have said after a few minutes to an hour . With her constant forgetting and not hearing she almost reduces me to a child. I want to yell at her so she will hear, I want to yell at her to wear her hearing aids, I want to leave the house and not deal with her ... so this is what I have learned ... her behavior almost reduces me to act like a child. And I will not let this happen. I am the adult and I will behave as one and she is the child and I will treat her as an adult. When I come to my senses it makes it easy to deal with grandma!
January 23,
My mother-in-law, Elfiede, is now living with us. She can hardly hear and has alzheimer's. Ulla spent $3,000.00 a couple of years ago on some hi-tech hearing aids but she refused to wear them. She denies her hearing problem and we have to talk very loud or write it down ... she still denies her bad hearing! She knows her memory is bad but she denies that too! Amazing!
There are several problems we have to deal with and those relate to her bad memory. She will feed our dog Henry just about anything and this is a huge problem. When she was living in her own home several years ago she had a dog named Hopper. This is before she had memory problems. She let the dog eat anything and evenually the dog got diabetes and died! During dinner it is not a problem watching her and making sure she does not feed our dog scraps from the table. It is when I am not watching her that presents a problem. She will raid the refrigerator or the pantry and find things to eat. Yesterday she got into the ice cream and ate about a quarter of a half-gallon. She loves ice cream. So what to do? I have been thinking of two solutions ... one, don't have ice cream or other foods that are bad for her and our dog in our frig. Or lock the refrigerator doors and the pantry. I already have the locks but I just want to make sure I am doing the right thing. As I am writing this she is in the kitchen - dining area and I am going to take a peek to make sure she is not getting into the frig or pantry ... she is not, thank God! Since I work in my shop and get busy sometimes I am not able to keep an eye on her all the time. When Spring and Summer come around I will also be a fishing guide and we will have to deal with that problem as it comes up ... So how can I keep everything out of the frig and pantry that is bad for her and my dog? I am leaning more toward locking the frig and pantry. If anyone out there has a better idea I am all for it ...
On the good side she only has to be given meds once in the morning and once at night. She can still bathe herself and take care of herself hygenically. She does leak a bit and we have to remind her to wear her pads. She will not go outside and get lost! Again thank God! She can even walk our dog Henry around the neighborhood without getting lost. I am researching senior care and Medicaid to get a better idea of what will be coming our way. And to all of you who are responsibly taking care of your elders ... I hope someone returns the favor when you get old!
Here is a picture of Elfreide ... she is 82
 January2, 2010
Who really cares about what I think? Will I even care about what I am thinking come tomorrow?
December 1,
Ulla and I drove down to Livermore (east of S.F.) to spend Thanksgiving with my sister Sally and her family. We had a great time! We also took Ulla's mother Elfreida with us and she enjoyed traveling with Ulla and me to California. Here are some pics ...
 Elfrieda, Ulla and Henry with Mt. Shasta in the background
 My sis Sally with Gus!
 Elfreida, Ulla, and Margaret
 Ferrying under the Bay Bridge to San Francisco
 Getting ready to hop on the cable car ... Ian, Margaret, Ulla and Elfreida
 Stopping in the Redwoods on our way home ...
November 5,
I went fishing with my oldest children Eli and Naomi. Eli will be 40 years old this week and Naomi will be 39. I have five children and they are all grown up and out of the house. We all love the outdoors and fishing. I get together with one or two of my children several times during the year to fish but this is the first time in many years that I was out with the two oldest. We fished for Silver Salmon on the Umpqua river and caught about 8 of them. Two of them were keepers (fin-clipped hatchery released fish) and Naomi and I cooked dinner after fishing trip. Let me see if I can link to Facebook. Click on my name ... Tom Harada I feel blessed to still be a part of my children's lives!
September 9,
No one replied to that last question ... Men learning to cook! But things can change and someday I might get some positive response on writing a cooking book for men. Until then I have a few thoughts ...
August 26,
What do you think? I would like to write a book about teaching men to cook.
August 19,
I have deleted some of the unrelated matter because after some review I found myself too far from center in many topics. And I need all the customers I can get! But today I started making some tacos for dinner and I have a pretty good garden this year. I planted several varieties of peppers. I have never planted the habeneros which are supposed to be the hottest peppers and some of them are now starting to ripen. I am making my own salsa so I decided to get out and pick some peppers to put in the salsa. I chopped up some halopenos and put them in the salsa and I didn't have to taste them before I put them in because I know how hot they are ... but when I got to the habeneros I decided to cut them up and taste them first. They are a small yellow pepper on my plant and they look harmless. When I put a small piece in my mouth the first flavor was a bit on the sweet side and I was thinking this pepper is not what it's reputation says. Until 15 seconds elaspsed... holy hell! I had to put ice cubes in my mouth to get the fire down. So now I am thinking ... what am I going to do with this pepper?
  May 30,
I just can't think of anything interesting to write about ...
April 10,
One of my favorite things to do is cook. My mother started teaching me basics when I was 6. She was Japanese and her influence continues to this day. I still have to have my rice and fish, tea and pickles once in awhile. I started fixing breakfast for my younger sisters when I was 12 and I continued to expand my cooking knowledge throughout my life. I didn't start baking until I was in my 40's since desert was not high on my list of priorities. I didn't develop a sweet tooth until later in my life. I enjoyed this facet of cooking until I started to gain too much weight and I stopped most of my baking until just recently. The reason I started up the oven again was this recipe I would like to share with you ...
 You can click on the article above to get a bigger picture ....
 You must try this recipe if you like to cook and entertain. Here is the website for this recipe that can give you much more information ... http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/
 My fingers still move...
All I want is peace of mind and body .... and lots of love for Ulla!
If you get the urge to go fishing ... come see me at www.tomwatersriverguide.com You can get out in nature and visit Tom in his "natural" environment.
I must put in a pitch for my good friend in Kona, Hawaii, Chuck Wigzell. If you're ever in Kona, Hawaii and want to go fishing visit Chuck at www.konacharterboat.com You will have a good time!
If anyone is looking for custom welding of metals I have a friend in Veneta, Oregon who can weld all metals. He is a aluminum drift boat manufacturer but he is a master welder with the best prices. See Doug Caminzind at Diamond Back Drift Boats. His website is www.mckenzieriverboats.com.
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