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Wonderous New Records
Last week on the 18th of June, there was an unexpected heat in the skies of San Jose. It was unusually hot at 104°F. They said that this was a new record since the heat-wave in 1945. I think not only was San Jose in the heat, other places around the world was suffering as well. Since we are human, we complain when it’s too hot, cold, too much rain, no rain, etc. It was still hot, but not as hot as last week.
Nowadays, I walk with my wife I notice strange things happening around us. This year, all the acorn trees, walnut trees, plum and apple trees along with a nameless small yellow fruit had almost no fruits. I thought because of the heavy rainfall, I expected to have a lot of fruit but the result was the opposite. I expected the tree to grow strongly after receiving so much water to bloom and grow many more branches – probably a feast of harvest. Sure, the trees this year on the acorn tree had bloomed and all the fruiting trees were blossoming greatly. But when I walk with my wife, I noticed the fruiting ratio is far much less. I remember last year I had harvested around 30 good fruiting apples (from my daughter’s place), but this year, only 5 – even smaller and barely hanging on the branches. The reason was during the spring time when it was supposed to be blossoming, it was raining. Surely, as it rained during June the spring weather was much too cool, the bees didn’t show up as much, and the tree was affected also by the wind. Another was to preserve its remaining nutrient to grow much more branches so there would be much more bearing in fruit – so instead of fruit this years, the trees sprouted much more in branches.

The weather around Northern California was dry for many years. So the amount of water allotted for gardening was severely restricted. My son in law’s grasses were all slowly yellowing out and dying. The amazing thing was, many of the grass plants had born many seedlings from a single stalk and died off. I think some of the plants don’t want its seeds to die out. It is an amazement watching the plants use last of its strength to leave its seeds behind. When we moved to our current residence, the drought had already taken its toll and, all fruits of many varieties had fallen because the trees had born too many fruits, along with squirrels eating the fruits leaving the ground littered with shells and making the streets dirty. Surely, there should be some fresh plum to be falling from the ground, but none had dropped so far!

My wife likes to garden and pruning the place. Whenever we visit our daughter’s place once or twice a week, there is a variety of fruits and vegetables growing from the small plot our daughter had made for us as it is a wonderment watching them grow! About the same time as last year, I went to OHS to buy some seedlings and planted them. There was automatic water dispensing, but the weather was so hot, that we gave the plants additional water. Last year during harvest, there was about a full brown bag worth of tomatoes harvested. This year, we only got 4. Even with less harvest, I noticed the squirrels and the birds doing something they usually did not do due to the lack of food. Whenever we visit again, I noticed something had either gnawed or pecked at the plants so it would be useless for harvest. I know my wife’s expression was not pleasant when she saw these. But we decided to change our thoughts and let the animals eat them as we ‘share’ with them.

I know many Northern Californians love the Golden State Warriors. The reason was in 2015 they won the national championship. This was after 40 years of drought in wins. Not only that, during 2016 season, with a record of 73 wins – a new record they had set, unfortunately, they lost in the finals 3-4. This year, they once again faced against Cleveland. But this time, it was a 4-1 win. The reason of win was from the talents of many of the players, and extremely tightly knit teamwork and the leadership of the coaches and the staff. Stephen Curry, the MVP is about 184cm tall. He looks quite smaller compared to other players who look large. But his brilliance in playing is unprecedented. He had led a victory in one game where he shot 13 3point shots! It is his skills, the adventurous and amazing team work made the team look so great. The American East and the West have divided teams – each to the final 8 teams. Then they eliminate one team at a time till there are only the final 2. Out of the 7 final games, winning 4 would mean certain victory. The Warriors on the first 3 teams won with 4 clean victories – basically, 12 wins straight. The winning streak ended at 15 when they lost at the ‘Away’ game in Cleveland, but the victory was ours when it was back at ‘Home’ game. Therefore the championship was given to Warriors with a 4-1 win over Cleveland. Newspaper broadcasted that the only team to ever have a 16-1 record was the Warriors only and that in the future, and furthermore the record is unlikely to be broken anytime soon.

Since there are so many new “record breaking” happening, I should write down a few more.

There is the famous Disneyland in Southern California. There was a man in his 60s who had set a new world record for attending that theme park for 2,000 days (about 5 and half years) without ever missing a day and set a new record. The response of how he was able to achieve this, he simply replied, “After work, I come here to walk around and have fun so that is why I came here daily.” So not only for health reasons, the man had come here to play around with various rides. He didn’t realize that he had set a new record in attendance but from the records of Disneyland admission, it appears so.

There is a TV program called “Forever Young”. Many of the attendees of the show are elderly. But many of them show strength like a young man in their green-old age! Many of them have lived in a life that makes us show respect regardless. Many of them are plain featured. One time, an elderly lady came out. She was in the circus for a long time and her current age was 83. Just an elderly lady, with no features and what not – but! She went up and climbed to the very top of an 85 feet pole and started to act. Many of the viewers and the show preside were shocked at the feat of talent.

To actually see her skill, she would require a very long pole. Since the podium could not hold such large object, she went outside in the field instead and installed the pole using cranes. Many concerned viewers and the show preside watched. She started to climb. Many paramedics were stationed in case something wrong happened.

She just smiled and climbed up without safety gears and climbed up steadily to the top. On the midway point, she waved her hand at the viewers below and climbed up to the top in leisure. Once she was on the top (which was already amazing), she got a rope and went around in circles. Despite the pole wavering from her body moving, she was still showing off many of her skills. Then suddenly, the viewers’ expression changed as she slowly went and did a hand stand on the pole! Many people who were watching shouted in awe and amazement. I was also very amazed. I have no clue if her record is on the Guinness, but I think she should be. One thing is certain, she is able to perform still at this age not because it was her job, but because she wanted to stay healthy and have fun at the same time as well. She said she has 7 great-grand children and continues to practice to keep her healthy and entertained.

There was also one final amazing news: on the 4th of July this year, there is going to be an open season for skiers. Ski in the middle of summer? It showed people going down slopes and having fun in the snow – which was very new and almost unheard of the first time I had moved to the United States. The TV announcer said that there was about twice as much snowfall from the previous year and that even in the middle of June there was snowfall. I think this is a new record considering to the news and the weather of the morning.
 
(June 29th, 2017)
Number Title Reference
67 Wonderous New Records
66 ​Pentecost Sunday
65 ​Vain Attempt
64 Share a “Scorched Rice!”
63 10,001
62 140 Cacti Flowers
61 Experiencing the End.
60 I’m fine!
59 Overgrown Cactus Flower
58 Rain or not
57 ​In 120 years.
56 Lightless Window
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