Diary of My Country Life-July 17th, 2026

The original source of this blog: https://www.lotusandmichael.com/blogs/diary-of-my-country-life

07/17/2026 Friday 67-89F Mostly Cloudy

Due to the wildfire that took place in Canada near the US border, the air has become smoky since late afternoon Wednesday. This morning the air quality index is 225, unhealthy.  

We decided to stay indoors today; we even cancelled our regular porch coffee time and moved it to the living room. It is supposed to rain tomorrow; hopefully the rain can improve the air and the final match of the World Cup scheduled on Sunday in NJ won't be affected. 

Argentina vs Spain, two great teams. Though I am an Argentina fan, I also like Yamal and especially Cucurella from Spain. Messi had played in the FC Barcelona club for seventeen years (plus another four years junior); and many Spanish players whom he is going to face in the final are from Barcelona, including Yamal. In addition, the head coach of Spain national football team, De la Fuente, served as an instructor for Argentina's head coach Lionel Scaloni when the latter was studying for his coaching license in Spain.

With all these bonds among the players and coaches, this should be an interesting, and exciting match. 

So far, I have watched four Argentina matches during this World Cup, starting with the one fought against Cabo Verde, which was a nameless team in the past but very soon earned a high reputation after their World Cup journey. This was a great match! I felt sorry to see Cabo Verde go, though they have fulfilled all the grassroot teams' dream by advancing to top thirty-two and made themselves shine when facing other strong teams (like the two in the final).

I enjoyed all the four matches which I watched; other than them, the matches between Croatia and Ghana, South Africa vs Canada, Brazil vs Japan, Netherlands vs Morocco, USA vs Bosnia and Herzegovina, Portugal vs Croatia, Australia vs Egypt, Canada vs Morocco, Mexico vs England (I still keep this match in my TV record and plan to watch it again). I respect tough teams like Argentina, Croatia, Morocco, England, Netherlands and Cabo Verde. They never gave up on fighting until the referee blew the final whistle; there were always leaders in their team who set an example to influence the team by keeping trying, finding ways to make a goal regardless how short the time left was or how big the deficit. That's why they came back over and over again; that's why even though only one team could win this match, the other one could also lose with dignity.

A Chinese sage wrote to his son-"Only competence and virtue can make others submit." A  great leader should lead the team not by power, not by seniority, not by word, but by showing, or inspiring people what to do and how to do. A Chinese saying also says "If you can't, or don't want to do something, then you shouldn't press others to do it." Lead by example. Without such a leader, a team can't spiritually bond together, therefore everybody won't work toward the same goal. 

Only two matches are left. After the World Cup, somehow summer will look a little lonesome. But in fact summer will end in twenty days according to the solar term even though the weather can still be hot. I can see the days are getting shorter. Last month when I watered the vegetables around 5:30 pm, the sun covered most of the lawn; while now at the same time, more than half of the lawn is in the shade. The tree in my neighbor's front yard is already sprinkled with some yellow leaves, the number of which is growing every day--when wind rises, I can see them shedding off the tree. 

A groundhog visited my vegetable bed regularly--to eat the cherry tomatoes since nothing else there can bring its interest. I don't think my cherry tomatoes are its favored food (compared to the peaches we had before which it ate to the core); in fact it wasted more tomatoes than it actually consumed because every day I can find several damaged tomatoes on the ground, most of which only got small bites or the whole piece is left with a hole in it. Why can't the groundhog finish a whole fruit and if not enough then eat another one? Alas, the wasted ones have to be dumped. 

Some of my ten tomato plants have outgrown the 6-feet high supporting bamboo poles. I suppose I can top them but it seems a little too early to me since they can continue to grow for at least two months. I want plenty of tomatoes for sauce. Perhaps it's time for me to buy eight feet high bamboo poles, then how can I reach the top part to pick the fruit?

Let me think about it.