Author: admin

Monday, Feb 10

I stayed up very late last night, but John was up early taking care of things and then worked inside on sorting until it warmed up in the garage. Continuing to take photos of stuff to pass along to others. He came in about 1:30 for lunch. We’re hard at it again. Nice sunny day outside.

He will take a break to go to town and I will go along to fill both cars with gasoline at Fred Meyer where we will get fuel points to lower the per gallon cost by 30₵. That will be about 4:00 p.m.
I have my alarm to get dressed set at 3:30 p.m.

Fred Meyer gas cost us $2.50/gallon. Not bad filling both cars for $67, and they were close to empty; mine emptier than John’s but still down from our trips over the weekend in his Crosstrek. We had a nice visit at the pumps with Mike and Sarah Sandman about his grandparents Bob & Karen Oppie. Bob’s restarted on chemotherapy for his cancer and feeling some better. Sarah is a local EMT and Mike is also, but in Yakima. John quizzed Sarah about the new fire station. He has noticed 3 unidentified “things” on the east side of the building. Heat exchangers Sarah says, but the setup was designed from the Puget Sound (warmer) area, and there are issues.

John fixed boiled shrimp for supper, I had cocktail sauce on mine, and the rest of the cornbread filled with corn (buttered with maple syrup)—John had honey, and we both had leftovers from yesterday’s Raclette, broiled pineapple slices (with cinnamon and brown sugar).

We finished up the blog from last week tonight, but it’s yet to be published. John’s putting it into WordPress now and I will need to correct the spacing and check the videos to be sure the links are correct. Then off to sleep for the night.

Tomorrow, John will be continuing work on cleaning out the garage and I will go to town for an AAC meeting Senior Advisory Commission meeting at 1:00 p.m. and to have an INR blood draw, plus check our numbers at Bi-Mart for prizes. Then come home and tackle the dishes, chores, and other sending pictures of giveaway items. We are trying to get rid of a few items as we go. Much dump-bound and much of the rest we don’t need, don’t use, and never will.

I did put out the call for both music days this week, wanting to know who plans to come Thursday and Saturday.

Published Memories, 2nd Week Feb blog at 12:15 a.m. Tuesday.

Tuesday, Feb 11
Photo-shopped creation of The Bull of Ellensburg, the Kittitas Valley, and Mt. Rainier in the night sky – – by Evie.

Here’s an article from the Daily Record News about the bull statue:
The Bull

Wicked wind today. Some places would have given this a name. Just before 10:00 a.m. gusting to 49 mph and it got worse when I was out and about in town, getting blown away (during the hour of the 51 mph gusts). It was difficult opening the car doors and worse walking from the car into buildings and back out into the parking lots. During that time, I visited the Senior Center, the hospital, Bi-Mart, and another place near the airport (probably the worst of the afternoon). When I was at Bi-Mart, the cashiers in front of the exit door were wearing winter coats because the door was acting as a wind tunnel. On my way in my car was buffeted to an extent not seen for 3 days. (Joke) Similarly, on the way home headed north, with winds coming from the West.

Interesting statistics below from KELN; airport to our SW. 12 hours of our day was windy.Went to AAC for 1– 2:00 meeting (longer than usual, but we missed last month because of sickness of 4 members, donated brown bags, flower arrangement, and antique ping pong balls.
Drank water during meeting, preparing for blood draw afterward. Went for INR blood draw, and it only took ½ hour or so.

I went by Bi-Mart with raincheck for neighbor Louaine and also to check numbers. Got her stuff and delivered to her shop.

John, starting with a low-priced Red Baron, fixed us a loaded pizza for supper.

I’ve been packing stuff for tomorrow morning, and need to hit the hay much earlier tonight than usual. We both are very tired after all the activity today. Tomorrow, John expects will be a better work day without the wind that was going on today. We are free of snow until Thursday. He has moved some furniture today. All the drawers in chests of drawers have to be emptied before moving. Same with glass-doored kitchen cabinets. I haven’t looked to see what else is out there. He is carrying some boxes from the living room, that too is filled mostly with old class/teaching things.

Wednesday, Feb 12

Morning sunrise at Ryegrass Summit, overlooking our valley.Sunrise from Ryegrass Rest Area I-90, photographed by Cindi Ackerlund.

We are 100 miles from SeaTac airport and the condensation trials (contrails) are from planes going in or out.

I have to get ready to leave by 8:20 a.m., for Hearthstone, with macaroons, plates, paper towels for place settings for 10 people (7 came). That bag is packed and ready to go; take inside with my violin to get it out of the cold. All went fine and we had a great meeting with Ken & Jo Hammond, Lillian Brooks, Carla Kaatz, Jim Huckabay, Michael Pease {current Geography Head}, and me. Crystal at Hearthstone provided the coffee and tea.
Packed clothes and music books to take to Evelyn and Karen, at Food Bank, and my red bag with the Senior Nutrition card, pills, water, and nutrition drink, to accompany my goulash serving (small amount). Visited after music, and left about 1:00 p.m. for home.

I needed to call the Help desk to learn how to access email to forward something I sent to myself, from my CWU account, via CWU-Outlook, and new message, to a person on the cwu.edu site. My email from outside was being blocked (for unknown reasons). I never did hear from the woman, even after supposedly reaching her proper email account, from my direct cwu.edu account.

Pat Jenkins (bulldozer & backhoe; excavating) just showed up at the door and John is showing him the work we need completed to accompany the construction on remodeling the room we’re making from the old attached 2-car garage). Pat lives about 3 miles from us.

I talked to the WIRED people and found we will get the paper magazine until Oct 2020, paid for, and I removed the automatic renewal. The woman agent sent 3 notices to our joint email, NancyJohnHultquist@gmail.com and they never appeared. She was in Iowa. I’m to call back if it doesn’t appear and neither has. I’ll do that Monday morning before leaving for Costco and Lowe’s with Glenn. The March edition just came.

I put my medications in the organizer box for the week ahead.
Entered 2-12 for entrees sweepstakes at www.krogerfeedback.com . It’s the Fred Meyer sweepstakes for one of gift cards and a 50pt fuel bonus.
Was sick tonight after eating what seemed to be a great supper. No explanation.

Thursday, Feb 13

Started with sleeping in a little and then loading the dishwasher to capacity. Too tired (and sick with an upset stomach) last night to finish.

Called in the count for Meadows, and sent photos to Amy of things I’m bringing to her.
We did fine today at Meadows with these people playing: Gerald, Nancy, Charlotte, Manord, Dean, Minerva, Marilyn (on bass uke), Maury, Kevin, Evie, Amy, & Sandy.

Sent the videos to Nick Zentner / IAF site. Got it off at 10:38 p.m.

Friday, 2 14 Happy Valentine’s Day

Singing Hills Barbershop Chorus showed up after all the festivities were mostly over, but we had a good audience to enjoy their songs. I am friends with the guy in the top middle below (a Physics prof at CWU), Andy Piacsek. When they arrived he saw me and presented me with a single beautiful red rose. I thanked him, and later gave it to Katrina Douglas, the director of our Senior Center. She also received a nice card and a box of chocolates, which she shared.

This photo was in the Daily Record on 2/12/20, so I grabbed it from there (for the top), and put my own from Valentine’s Day at the AAC below. Top photo was taken by the Daily Record for a story in our local newspaper on 2-12, and bottom I cropped from their singing at the AAC (our senior center); the Singing Hills Barbershop Chorus.

A couple of my favorite songs via videos and photos I took are below.

Let Me Call You Sweetheart

If the Good Lord’s Willing and the Creek Don’t Rise

Here’s a Link to a bunch of photos I took at the Valentine’s Day lunch and party today.

LINK to AAC Photos:

Still Photos AAC 2-14-20

Funny, Sue brought us a dead mouse today – brought it up to the window ledge and put it into her food bowl. I had John come take it away while I “thanked” her.

Another mouse in the house brought in by Rascal cat through doggie door, but he left with it and took it back outside after growling at me when I tried to get it from him. It was dead. John had to clean up a few spots.

Saturday, Feb 15

Evie’s two morning sunrises on top; Sid’s on bottom:Top photos: The colorful sky is as awesome as are the electrical lines bringing Columbia River power generation through our Kittitas Valley’s Paradise: Evie’s are taken on the “John Wayne” Trail.” Photographed by Evie Schuetz. Bottom capture by Sid Peterson. The trail in now officially called the “Palouse to Cascades State Park Trail.” That will take about 40 years to be accepted.

My first chore of the morning was finishing loading a sink full of soaking dirty dishes into the dishwasher and cleaning. John was out feeding the horses and exercising the cats and dogs. Now he’s back in cutting the pork in our last night’s supper. Four bags of chili and 2 bags with just finely cut pork, now in need of a plan.

On my way to Briarwood, I went down Naneum Road and stopped to take photos of the Kid’s Pond and Sign for Evie. Used her photo last week taken there of the Snow Moon.

Our group is going to Briarwood today to share music, and eating with the group. I took a large Black Forest Cream Cake shared with Briarwood by the Kittitas Pantry. After the music, they served us goulash, rolls & butter, tossed salad, & desserts. We’ll have ~ 9 players providing the music, and the audience sings along with us as a wonderful chorus. We love going there once a month; these folks are our age, but generally in good health. Thanks to Manord, Maury, Marilyn, Gerald, Charlie, Dean, Nancy, Amy, and Sandy. Haley stayed partying at the birthday party, when Amy left to come play music with us.

Photos of the food:Main table, Goulash, large tossed salad with many components several dressings, wonderful rolls with lots of butter, & pretty Valentine napkins and tablecloths. Middle was dessert table with cake cut (missing a Vanilla pudding cake), cookies, two kinds of chocolate chips, peanut butter, blueberry muffins, and oatmeal raisin. The big cake (being cut on the right) was the one donated from Kittitas.

Sunday, Feb 16

Diuretic day for Nancy with blog writing; John hauling boxes of junk from the living room to the garage to sort for a couple hours after brunch of scrambled eggs and ham with toast, and canned peach slices. Getting late and we both are hungry – going to be ~ 1:15 p.m. to eat.

John switched to the living room today, and is sorting in the garage. I took a few photos and tried to identify things to offer.

I found a home for the new bicycle helmet with a retired woman, and will deliver it to her apartment Tuesday, when I’m in the vicinity.

I decided to include video clips and photos from last week’s Raclette; knowing I have included such before in past years. You will feel as if you are there trying to escape the smoke-filled windy bursts.

The still photos are altogether at the end in one link, and you probably should view them before watching the videos to see some of the details of what’s included. I chose not to mix them in with the appropriate video.

Videos: These are mostly very short, but interesting.

People and Wine Arriving

Margaret Describes Tony’s Special Chocolate (Chocolonely)

Around the Bonfire

Altesse Greets Erik

Tom Making Bed of Coals

Cameron Seating Raclette Cheese on Rack

Creating the Raclette Experience, 2-9-2020

Cameron Scrapes Cheese onto Margaret’s Plate

Link to Photos:

Raclette Photos

Supper tonight: John is having a toasted ham & cheese sandwich, and I’m having a Marie Callender frozen TV dinner with chicken, mashed potatoes, and corn. John gets some of that too.

From the weather folks: Chance of precipitation is 50%. Total nighttime snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible.
About 7:30 we started to see flakes of snow. At 9:00 there are close to 5 inches. The NWS is off by a factor of 10, and it is still snowing.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Monday, Feb 3

Starting this morning at 8:15 having been up first at 5:15, again at 6:15, after a late night’s start to sleep. Have a nice sunny day, but need to get ready to go to a 1:30 p.m. meeting. The purpose: meeting with Jim Huckabay, writer and colleague (geographer) we have known since 1993, who is the author of a book about another colleague who was hired at CWU the same year as Nancy, 1988. [Jim has a small publishing business.]

John and I offered to proofread the draft manuscript of an 8-chapter book he has worked on for 4 years transcribing notes from audio interviews.

The story: A small girl opened the street side door of a car and jumped out. Our ex-colleague, in order to not slam into her on his bike, tipped the bike and slammed into the pavement. This about ripped his ear off, and he was warned about possible brain injury. Such did not appear right away, but stress a few years later caused him to start having seizures. He went from a distinguished teaching career, through a long and difficult time just coping, but now does so but in an extremely different persona.

The editor/publisher, Jim, doesn’t have a deadline for the book, and could be that there is never one. But we offered our thoughts and corrections.

From there we had to make a trip to the CO-OP for grain for our senior horses.

We were 4 hours away from home this afternoon with all our stops. We bought some groceries, and then went to the CO-OP to get Senior Equine grain and rolled corn. On home for John to feed the horses before dark.

I started playing catch-up on email that came today, with 3 folks reporting in their schedules for coming to the February meetings of the Fiddlers & Friends music group. Need a response from a lot more members to be able to plan for the number of chairs required for this Thursday (and hopefully for more dates through February).
Now my next challenge is to “advertise some off my giveaway items to the “freely given Facebook lists.”

Tuesday, Feb 4 day my Dad died, 1958

Grave marker in historic Oakland Cemetery, Atlanta, GA, photo by my childhood friend, Dorothy Wright Smith

My father died when I was only 14. He influenced so many wonderful traits in my life—particularly music, because he was a musician and also in those few years taught me how to fish, shoot skeet, throw a baseball & football, play Mumbley-peg & other knife-throwing games (probably not allowed these days), work on cars (back when you could), and many other talents. He was my traveling buddy. Also, I inherited his brown eyes.

Video of playing Mumbley peg with another cool Daniel Boone story added

Beautiful sunrise photograph in Kittitas by Evie Schuetz

We live 10 miles NW of the town’s water tank; I awoke early enough to see the sunrise, but from our perspective the composition is only the bottom fire-like lower layer interrupted by tree branches and our hay barn top. Combining below with Sid Peterson’s morning sunrise.My sunrise Naneum Fan; Sid Peterson’s via Visual Delights site.

I remade my appointment at KVH Imaging with Donna for Bone Density and for Mammogram, way out in March. We ate brunch here. Froze English Muffin bread from Super 1.

We left for town and Bi-Mart: check #s, get cat food, Fishermen’s Friends, & Artificial Tears. In town for 5 chores (one a blood draw at the hospital, routine every month for my blood thinner; that stop took more time than any other, because of a wait even to be checked in the hospital, after 8 folks), and then had to wait at the lab for 4-5 to go ahead of me. Other chores needing done just took a lot of driving around town and less time doing them. John was driving, and I went in a few places, such as Bi-Mart, (for my supplies & to check numbers), with John to pick up cat and dog food, and look for a step type stool to get to high cabinets in our washroom), to Fred Meyer for checking out meat on sale, buy John’s cola drinks and check their price on a step stool–$20 more than Bi-Mart and much worse in construction, by the Gym to have John climb two very steep flights of stairs to pick up scarves I’d loaned to a friend who had a scar on her neck she wanted to cover-up until it healed, and finally by the bread room to check for my favorite, from Super 1, English Muffin Bread (for my toast). We left late thinking we would be getting to the hospital lab at a good time, 1:30, but not so. We didn’t get home until 4:30.

Still snowing. Got several emails sent out. Getting to bed late, almost midnight.

Wednesday, Feb 5

Put meds in their little plastic tray – a once a week chore.
Took Acetaminophen, at 6:00 a.m., let animals out and went back to bed until 8:30 a.m. Set alarms.

Hopefully will get a call from Insurance company with vehicles. Came too late in the morning and they never called back.
Get ready to go with Red bag and nutrition drink to Food bank. Go to Food Bank Music, leaving at 10:50 a.m. Pack meds. Take containers to Lori.

Thursday, Feb 6

9:30 a.m. appointment with Margie the Dentist for chipped front tooth. Unfortunately, the piece she adhered back on that came off, only stayed a couple of hours, and I lost it again while eating a blueberry pancake for brunch.

X-ray front teeth & photos of tooth, smile chipped & fixed.Chip fixed did not last much over an hour. Both teeth had crowns for 40 years (lost in a rafting rapids trip in Idaho) and both need replaced. We await the insurance company decision.

The dentist will not try again to replace the chip, but will wait until 3 weeks when the insurance report comes back about whether they will cover having both crowns replaced. X-rays and pictures of my teeth were taken and submitted. If the insurance covers ½ the cost, these two will be crowned (prepped and seated) within March. Dental insurance will pay $1,000 of the $2000 charge. I will pay the other $1000. The original teeth got crowns in 1978, after I was at the front of a WWII rubber landing craft on rapids on the last stretch of the Lower Salmon River, a tributary to the north-flowing Snake River, 50 miles south of Lewiston, Idaho. I hit a metal bar that was across the front.

I went to the Rehab for music leaving at 12:50. We had an excellent turnout. Kevin, Gerald, Charlie, Jeanne in her wheelchair, me, Dean, Amy, Sharon, Charlotte, Minerva, Reta (Jeanne’s sister), and Sandy.

On the way home, I dropped off about 6 empty egg cartons to Eva Frink’s house, with her daughter Shannon. Eva is in Orlando, with her son for him to attend a conference.

I had a call from the dentist right before 5:00 p.m. setting up my appointments in March.

For supper, John fixed meat loaf (his homemade) and Honeycrisp apple cubes cooked.

Off to Geology lecture in a rainstorm.

Nick’s intro to EBRG Chapter IAF Activities & of Karl’s to speaker

Joel Gombiner, Mysteries of the Moses Coulee

Joel is a graduate student at the UW, and this is his Ph.D. dissertation research:

Questions & Answers ~ Moses Coulee by Joel Gombiner

Supper. Casserole with chicken breast filet pieces, in green beans with mushroom soup and white onion, with “crisp fried onions” baked on top, served with baked (heated) cubes of Honeycrisp apples as a side, with Cheez-it crackers.

Annie out at 11:35 to pee, Czar, and fed Sue out front. Rascal is in the chair behind John’s computer chair. I’m going to be ASAP, dead tired.

Saturday, Feb 8

Snow Moon setting 7 a.m. Puget Sound, by Sharon Jenson

I went to Lou and Velma Fournier’s wedding, 11:00 a.m., St. Andrew’s Church, with a gift of wo bottles of White Heron wine from us and the Kittitas Valley Fiddlers & Friends group, with which he sings tenor.

They are an older couple, both of whom lost their spouses to death. They had a long Catholic wedding followed by a very nice reception downtown at Gard Vintners. Amazing amount of finger food: Boiled shrimp with cocktail sauce, veggies with dip, 3 meats (ham, roast beef, and turkey slices), 3 cheeses (cheddar, Swiss, maybe Havarti), sandwich wraps (I skipped), and a large piece of Costco wedding cake with pink roses on white frosting. Took 4 hours from my day. John stayed home to pack stuff from the garage. Some stuff definitely going to the landfill. Much still to be looked at, so off to the barn.

Loaded & ran dishwasher, and now have some counter space. Went to bed, late.

Sunday, Feb 9

The first snow moon shot of this morning was by EvieMae Schuetz:

This above is taken at the Naneum Pond by Evie Schuetz.

Photos by Cindi Ackerlund at Ryegrass summit starting 5 a.m.
Setting snow moon above, sunrises below

This one by Evie Schuetz and this one by Peggy Coble.

John fixed baked/broiled pineapple with cinnamon & brown sugar to take to the Raclette.

We went and had a wonderful day. 7 hours away, so the blog has been delayed. John put out a delayed announcement.

Made it back by 5:30, and just in time before dark for John to get grain and hay to the horses.

Visiting around Raclette bonfire White Heron’s Mariposa Vineyard

Description on the video above stored on YouTube: This is a 24-minute glance at the conversations ensuing after we had enjoyed eating the food prepared and brought in by the pruners and their families. Along with wine, Phyllis & Cameron provided an authentic Raclette cheese round. Often these are squarish.

Some of the other videos are much shorter, but will be there later for your pleasure if you want to see the raclette (means scraping) at work (using a knife to put the melted cheese over potatoes or other). They are not in this week’s blog. We also had a number of side dishes to add to our plates. We consumed a lot of food. A typical pruner’s lunch was melted cheese over potatoes, using the wood just clipped from the vines.

Ours is an extravagant reenactment.

A few more photos will be in a link to come later, as well as a few short videos.
Here’s the sunset when we got home late this afternoon. We watched it in living pastels with nice views all the way home, but had my camera out of reach in the back of my car, and we were rushing home to feed horses before dark.

Pastels in tonight’s sunset from the Naneum Fan

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

John thinks we should consider this week as the start of fixing up the place. He has been in the garage looking, sorting, and moving things around. There have been some interesting finds.
Fix and remodel will begin this month.

{Photos this week start and end with Mt. Rainier views.}
Monday, Jan 27 This lovely sunrise was taken by Cheryl White, in Puyallup, WA, with permission given to publish.
Cheryl is my friend, Lee Kiesel’s, daughter. I saw it on Lee’s Facebook site. I asked her if she would ask Cheryl if I could use it on our blog, and gave her a link to the blog to show Cheryl.

Today was a full day. We started at 9:00 with a visit from contractor, Jared, about our plans for remodeling our house. He was here for a couple hours. We were able to exchange ideas on plans and timings. There are many things to be done to make the first thing happen, to convert our 2-car attached garage to a livable room in our house, with garage-doors removed, new walls, insulation all around, and above a repaired ceiling. Right now the whole space needs to be cleaned out so the fallen ceiling can be repaired.

We also had to go to town for several reasons. First stop was to deliver a dryer insert for drying shoes, gloves, or hats in an electric dryer. We have no desire to do only that, but prefer to wash our shoes or gloves, and put them out in the sun to dry. In cleaning out the garage of stuff that’s been there and unopened since we moved here in 1989, we found this white plastic thing we had no clue where it came from or what it was used for. I put a request on Facebook sites, and found out what it was meant to do. Then found a person that wanted it. {saved from the dump}This is part of the story of the dryer to explain its insertion into the dryer, sent to us by a reader when she saw the two photos on the right we posted to ask what it was. It would also fit in our dryer with a big rectangular door.

The person that wanted it lives close to another person for whom I had some stuff also found yesterday while cleaning up and we did not need (carrying bags). I took photos to show her, and because she wanted them, we dropped them off on her porch.On to our next stop to pick up Duct Tape we’d loaned out for a short piece they needed to repair something, and while there picked up some very large boxes which had been collapsed and they were giving away. John will use them for holding cans (standard food type, and aluminum) for a trip to a recycling facility.

On from there to Super 1 Pharmacy to get our first of two Zoster shots of the new (& better) Shingles vaccine. We will be called back in 2 months for the 2nd. It’s not hurting now, but is supposed to hurt for the next 3 days. We’ll see how my violin playing goes on Wednesday. (It hurt).

From there to the Senior Center to have John sign the paperwork (liability reasons?). I could not sign for him when I paid our yearly dues last week. We visited a little and then drove by Cohoe Rd (about 9 mi from home) to pick up Jessica (John’s Crosstrek) which was parked there by Evelyn when she picked up the license plate and tabs from the courthouse for her new (old Subaru) purchase. She’s had John’s Subaru for driving around in the snow from S. Cle Elum for about 3 weeks, while she searched for another used car to replace the one that cannot be repaired. She had to go to Grandview (100 miles from her) to find one, but got it for the right price. It had been used as a loaner car by a dealer, and was old, but not with that many miles, and one would assume had always been kept up on its work.

Finally, we got home just as it was beginning to sprinkle, and before dark so John could grain the horses. It started raining harder while he was out there, and got harder through the evening until about 6:30 when it changed to snow. That snow lasted awhile, but quickly changed back to rain, so John had already set up the buckets under the roof line.

I came home to catch up on emails, but mostly to craft a note to a lot of people who follow Nick Zentner. Friday night at the SURC Theater at CWU, I videotaped an hour, 13 min. of the Nick on the Rocks, 6 episodes for this year (the 4th), of the series that streams from a PBS station in Seattle, KCTS-9. I had one video on a tripod focused on the screen throughout the evening, and I took separate videos of the Q&A after the 1st five. I combined them to send to my list of followers of Nick Zentner, and finally got that sent out tonight. Already had a couple of commenters with thanks for my efforts.

Now off to bed. John beat me to bed, but now I’m going – 11:23.
My shoulder from the shingles shot is just beginning to hurt. Great, hope I can fall asleep first, and not lie there in pain. It only really hurts when you lean on it, or touch it, except mine is red and inflamed around it. Does not itch. Also, one of the side effects is a headache. Normally, Acetaminophen cures that but not this one. It doesn’t touch it.

Tuesday, Jan 28

Did not have a good rested sleep all night, because of various interruptions, from cats and dogs wanting outside (without the doggie door open), and for good reason, with John’s finding raccoon tracks in the snow. Now it is raining again this morning.

Glad I don’t have to go to town for anything today.
I have requested a friend, Connie Bright, who is in town anyway to lead a Line Dancing class at the senior center today, to check our numbers when she goes after her class to check her own at Bi-Mart. If we should win a gift, she’ll call me and tell me what it is (and if it is worth driving to town, John or I will make the trip).

I contacted the CWU help desk for computer help asking about access to VPN campus network to update my Word off campus (it’s a CWU copy on my laptop, needing activated). I have to do this at the beginning of every new year. A VPN (Virtual Private Network), allows you to create a secure connection to another network over the Internet. Just by accessing and opening a MS Office Suite application (such as Word, ExCel, or PowerPoint) it activates the license for a year.

Today, we had two scammer calls from my own HOME 925-3304 Caller ID, and I am not dialing myself. The first call left no message, second one at 1:50 p.m. on 1/28 Tuesday, left this message: xxxxx — the first part was not recorded in the message left, which starts: “However, we will be disconnecting your license within 48 hrs. as your IP address has been compromised from several countries. So, we need to change your IP Address and license key. So, please press 1 to get connected to the technician.”

No clue, and certainly no intention to press 1. But I searched for some of the words on line, and found reports with almost the same words and that people were getting calls from themselves (on the Caller ID), this has been going on for a couple of years, starting in the UK. I did not leave any comments anywhere. John is getting a pop-up scam when he visits a certain site on the internet – always the same place. He closes and goes again, but the 2nd (immediate) attempt doesn’t trigger the pop-up. The next day will be a repeat.

I’m still hurting (my Shingles shot arm and my head aches, even after 2 acetaminophen). I hope it’s better by tomorrow when I have to play the fiddle and also go to a dental appointment for a filling.

The most common side effects of either shingles vaccine are redness, pain, tenderness, swelling and itching at the injection site, and headaches.

I stayed up for my shower and John went to bed very early. In the mirror, when I was toweling off after my shower, I saw my sore arm from the shingles shot lower down from where the Band-Aid was put, and a red spot (probably from the needle) surrounded by red-inflamed skin. I hope it’s not infected somehow. (it was not) John is less troubled, but his arm near the spot does hurt.

Now I’m finishing up a few things, and heading to bed.
Never put the dirty dishes in the dishwasher, and never completed a lot of chores I started today.
Went to bed at 11:30.

Wednesday, Jan 29 Happy BD Peggy!

I called and talked to my pharmacist friend Tuesday; her name. We discussed reactions to the Shingles shot. Our experiences are not out of the ordinary.

Made my nutrition drink and set up my red bag. Don’t forget to pack the drink and my pills. Took my Acetaminophen as I walked out the door.

Need to go by Celia’s for a haircut, after I’m done at the dentist’s office. Call her when I leave the bread room. Then I’m only 8 miles away.

Need to look at the digital version of yesterday’s Daily Record for the healing power of music front page story.
I got home after 3:30, and John showed me a lot of what he uncovered in the garage today, and we went outside and inside for a few photos so I can display and get rid of stuff on the free sites. Most things are being stored in a covered shed, so we will do more of the giving away when he is not in a rush. Too, photos will be easier when the weather is nicer.

John came in after sorting and moving things. He had almost filled the truck with trashed things for the dump (transfer station). He napped for a good little while.
While he was napping, I sent him 2 photos of some pictures of a quite old Stanley wood router we were considering buying [did not] from friend Glenn Engels, in the tools of his father, stored at his mom’s house.

We called Peggy our sister tonight to wish her a Happy Birthday and had a nice hour-long conversation. We had not yet had supper, so John fixed us spaghetti sauce on ‘shells’ [Allegra brand] pasta, imported from Mexico. The package leads with “Shells – No. 22.” Is that just a number meaning nothing, or do they sell dozens of different shapes?
I filled in the Fred Meyer sweepstakes for one of gift cards and a grand prize. For filling it in you can get a 50 fuel pt bonus every 7 days.

Thursday, Jan 30

Still need to send note for February’s music schedule to KV F&F.

I sent the note to KV F&F about the Bye Day today, never play music on a 5th Thursday at an assisted-living home.

We froze 6 loaves of English Muffin Bread we got $1 off each on a raincheck. Still have 4 more to pick up by Feb 8, and while we are in town, we should take clothes and accessories by the Ellensburg Clothing Center.

I still need to contact the Geog Faculty members about the jobs list entry application change. It has not made it to the web site for CWU Geography Department yet. Needs changed from a PDF to the required Word document. That has been done.

I’ve been soaking and packing dishes in the dishwasher this morning, and taking photos of the things John’s finding in our garage, which we don’t want. I’m slowly working on those “ads” and then will have to coordinate getting the items to their new owners and out of our sight forever. That distribution is at my convenience, having the person meet me in Ellensburg or Kittitas when I will be available there. Alternative is to pick up at our house.

John continues carting things for further sorting to the hay shed from the garage. It’s slowly beginning to improve, but it’s wearing John out with all the sorting and work. He just found a box of magazines we have no clue why we kept. They should have been recycled long ago.

Today about 3:30 p.m. we will leave to drive to campus for a special program followed by refreshments (a buffet, which will substitute for our supper). The lecture is by a retired faculty member, Rosco Tolman, who came to CWU Foreign Languages department in 1970 to teach Spanish. The title today is, “Winter Travelogue – Way of Saint James, Camino de Santiago, a 500-mile pilgrimage route in France and Spain.

We are eating a late brunch at 2:00 p.m.

We left for the lecture at 3:30 p.m. After it was over, we had refreshments: some sort of cream puff pastry – don’t know what was inside, meatballs in red sauce with grated Parmesan (I guess) cheese, crackers and 3 kinds of cheese cubes – I only had cheddar & Swiss, and we shared a small cup of Hogue’s Chardonnay and another of Cabernet Sauvignon. I did not like the ice water with cucumbers cut up inside. (I’m not a cucumber fan).

We need to call Kit Hultquist to wish her a happy birthday on our trip to town. In the car, the call goes through the audio system and speakers. Works great for 2 of us talking and listening.

Friday, Jan 31

Interesting video from the Kittitas Visual Delights Facebook site, for your pleasure of the morning sunrise today: (Sorry those of you without a Facebook presence who won’t be able to enjoy this moving skyscape sunrise).

I captured a photo at the start of the blue skies (top) and the ending sunrise (bottom) below for you without access to enjoy.Started with a blue sky morning with pretty clouds! Ended with the sunrise. Video captured by Amanda Ross from Ellensburg,WA.

Morning Sunrise Video 1-31-20 Ellensburg, WA

I filled out a thank you note, with a check for our WSJ deliverer, Mya, attached to a bag with rubber bands, plastic bags, and a thank you card for her, and John put it in our WSJ paper tube (delivery container under our mailbox).

We were invited to the Huckabays for Elk Roast dinner tomorrow (Saturday) at 5:30 p.m. their house. I was lucky to be standing on the back 40 to make a call to my neighbor’s long distance cell phone (no charge on the cell, but 15₵/minute on the landline, and received the message that I had a voicemail waiting. I would never have gotten it otherwise because of its being turned off while at home (with no cell reception here). I can access my voicemail on it through my land line, and I suppose I should start doing that on a regular basis, just in case.

Transferred several photos of garage found items (back 30+ years) to give away and put into the BUY NOTHING Folder into the Garage Giveaway Things folder. I still need to crop and snip for smaller size to put in the photos for storage to use on FB or in the blog. I succeeded in getting them off my camera before leaving but have not cropped and snipped them yet.
We went to the Palace tonight with Dale & Kathy Swedberg, who showed up at our front gate a little before 5:30 p.m., and drove us to town. We had a very nice visit. John had time to grain the horses before leaving. We got the dog and cats out to potty before we left, so we could close the doggie door to prevent the raccoon from entering our den for dog food. What we had to eat will be discussed tomorrow with our leftovers described for our lunch, Saturday.

When John left to feed horses, I got dressed. Never finished the dishes. I need to do that.

Saturday, Feb 1

We finally ate a late lunch (after 2:00 p.m.) with leftovers we shared of a tuna melt sandwich (nice and large), sweet potato fries (also a huge helping left), and a very small piece of carrot cake. There was plenty for both of us to have for lunch today, and last night for dinner, John also had a free birthday coupon for his meal, a country-fried steak with brown gravy, green bean & carrots, baked potato with chives and butter. Friends along with us split a Halibut steak (4 pieces) basket, with regular potato fries, a garden salad, and a piece of carrot cake.

I did complete loading the dishwasher and washing all the build-up over the past few days. We were down to no coffee cups this morning, and had to hand wash 2 to use for morning coffee.

Our neighbor from a mile away on Thomas Rd, just drove over to pick up a small box of onions that are beginning to announce spring is on the way. John culls any that show outward signs of change – softening & sprouting. There are more than we have time to cook and freeze, so, we’re sharing with two friends.

We were invited to Diane and Jim Huckabay’s home for an Elk Roast dinner tonight. We carried along 3 bottles of White Heron wine: Roussanne, Rose’ of Syrah, and Red (Bordeaux blend). For dinner we had the roast, green beans (from their garden) & almonds, baked potato, mixed salad, and a peach cobbler made with their homegrown peaches served with Vanilla bean ice cream, and coffee, if wanted. Lovely meal and visit.

Sunday, Feb 2

Morning sunshine on newly snowed-on Mt. Rainier; 73 miles distant.
This photo was taken this morning by Cindi Ackerman, from Ryegrass Summit, east of us on I-90 (at the rest stop). She’s given me permission to publish any of her pictures.

I slept in this morning till after 9:00 after the original ups and down interruptions from cats and dog, and work keeping me from going to bed until midnight.

Too cold to work in the garage so John is cleaning out the wash room high shelves over the sink and clothes washer, totally high and inaccessible packed with containers and cans of things that are very dated by the use by date. He needs the space to move food from the shelves in the garage to be able to proceed with cleaning out the room for remodeling. He’s finding the most unusual things. Just found a large cut glass vase for long-stemmed flowers that is covered with >10 years dust accumulation. He’s uncovered brand new ceramic containers from our past that have never been used, and we will be able to clean and repackage to give as gifts. The variety of things we’re finding is mind-boggling and frustrating how we ever allowed it to happen.

Just finished brunch (eggs, sausage, English muffin toast with apricot preserves) at 12:50 p.m. Back to work for John going through stuff in the garage, and bringing me things to photograph that I can give away on the free sites, or give as gifts to friends. He’s back in the garage now that the temperature has gone up outside and the sun is shining; I’m mainly working on finishing the blog.

John just brought in a couple of photos of me as a baby, my mom and I, our wedding, and I have to go through the box he’s brought into the warmth of the kitchen. Many of the photos are framed. Some I absolutely have no recollection of.

I just spent an hour sorting, looking at, and writing a note on the top of the sturdy apple box, I’m packing into, with protection for the glass framed ones. Not all are framed, some are smaller and in envelopes or in albums, such as our wedding photos. Others are of me as a baby, as a youngster growing up as an only child, of my high school graduation photo, of John’s and my trips various places before and after we were married, color and black and white, of the Wilkins Family (grandmother, grand aunts, aunts & uncles, of my mom’s History Study Club’s 30th anniversary, of some of my cousin’s children as babies, and of the Eiseman-Brannen cemetery plots and headstones where my father is buried in Oakland cemetery in Atlanta, GA. Some of the photos I remember seeing; some I do not, so I was not the one who packed this when in Atlanta. I also thought I went down to pack my mom’s belongings in 1977, but the date on the papers used for wrapping is 1979, the Atlanta Journal and Constitution. Going through all this stuff now for the first time since then is eye-opening. It’s been packed for 40 years!
Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Monday, Jan 20

Cancelled my bone density and mammogram appointments for tomorrow. Need to call back and talk with Donna when I’m better to reschedule and request Rose for my mammogram technician.

Need to update calendar, file 2019 receipts. I don’t know what else happened today, except I was probably alternating medicines every 4 hours to control mucus reliever for getting rid of fluid in my lungs as phlegm and cough suppression tablets. I learned how to set computer alarms to alert me when it was time to take them, and every 6 hrs. my Acetaminophen.

Tuesday, Jan 21

In the cloudy overcast weather, we left before lunch, having decided to go to Costco this afternoon for some specials. We only had to drive up over Manastash Ridge on I-82 to get out of the clouds and into bright sunshine and blue skies. It was a great trip the whole way there and back to the Kittitas Valley. First, to their gasoline station (best price in the region), where we get 4% additional off gasoline purchases (anywhere) using our CITI Bank Visa (Costco) card. We had decided to go to Costco to get their good price on TurboTax Premier, which was only good until 1/26 on this flyer, and to pick up a few other things on special sale there: instant coffee and Kleenex, both over $4 off the regular price. From there back through Ellensburg, where we had a bunch of stops.

First stop, Bi-Mart to check our numbers. Didn’t win anything. On to pick up my medications at Super 1 Pharmacy, and over to Fred Meyer pharmacy to pick up meds for Annie (our Brittany). She’s on a pain pill related to Ibuprofen. It’s fairly expensive but I get 120 at a time, and she takes a ½ pill twice daily. It seems to help her arthritis. I also get a 50 pt fuel-point reward for the $58 purchase. However, today I got an additional 100 points because my phone number (alternate ID was not entered), and I was apologized to for the mistake, by being given the extra award. Luckily, I checked it before leaving the store. Now I can fill out an evaluation form for my feedback to the Kroger company and gain another 50 points. That will give me (right now) 206, with 50 to come, to apply toward the price of gas at their station. For every 100 points you get 10 ₵/gal off their price, so right now I would get it for $2.69/gal. Today at Costco I was well below any station in Ellensburg, and paid $2.74. I can use this through the first week of February. Consider my car is the only one we are driving right now, I should have to fill it again before I lose these points.

From there we went to Mid-State Coop for Senior Equine grain for the 4 horses. We filled up with an extra free bag you get after purchasing 10 bags.

From there I called about a man who wears the 54” waist pants. His mom was at the local community health office waiting for her sister to pick her up and give her a ride home (no car). She said she could contact her son and have him meet me downstairs. I knew the Apt.#. The son wasn’t there to meet me, so I climbed up the very steep set of stairs, and I left them with his father, and told him I needed to know if they didn’t fit him. I have another large person waiting to see if they work for the first one. My Fit Bit recognize my effort today by giving me 1 staircase reading on the dial.

On the way home, we dropped by the bread room and got one loaf of Rosemary Olive bread. As musicians for the Wednesday Food bank lunch we are allowed 3 loaves or packages, Mon-Thurs. I mainly go for English Muffin Bread (EMB), yet they rarely get it.
From there on home, just in time for John to grain the horses before dark.

Costco had a box of 12 single-pizzas. We tried them for supper; wasn’t the best pizza we’ve had. The crust was tough, but we’ll cook differently as we go through the remaining ones. Probably not a repeat buy.

Now we are having a treat of Dark Chocolate morsels with mixed nuts, in a little bowl.

One day this week, John made some Crockpot Chocolate Candy.
Is it ever good !!

Getting ready to hit the hay.

Wednesday, Jan 22

Planning to go to the Food Bank lunch today. Make my nutrition drink and set up my red bag. Don’t forget to pack the drink and my pills. Take my diuretic at my last stop today.

I left at 10:50 a.m. and immediately got into light rain and saw a fog bank ahead. It continued raining on me all day, and never changed to snow as predicted. I did not have on my raincoat with a hood. I did have a winter coat in the car, but the top is not waterproof. The jacket coat is.

Got there by 11:20 and helped set up the chairs. The staff at the church where we eat in their annex and play our music for the audiences, moved the table we used for putting our instrument cases on, and bags for distributing music items for the group. We had a fine turnout of singers, Bob, Peggy, Reta, Richard, harmonica Dean, drummer Richard, banjo Evelyn, & violin Nancy. We played for 40 minutes, and then took everything down (music stands & chairs), and ate. I had my nutrition drink along, and also had some spaghetti. Visited afterwards until after 1:00 p.m.

I went by the AAC to pay our yearly dues and pick up box of music lyrics books most in 3-ring binders, someone donated to them and Katrina asked if we wanted. I need to transfer those to Evelyn, and keep one copy for me. I hope they are all the same. Some look smaller than others. I went into the computer room and checked email for messages, visited some more with a member outside my car, and got to say thanks to Katrina as she came back at 2:00 from a meeting. It was still raining. I dropped off some duct tape and black electrician tape for the Landons to use what they needed, and will go pick up the rest, one of these days when I’m by their house. From there I went a few blocks north to a gal for whom I collect Christmas cards, to give her about 14 I had picked up at the AAC at the Christmas party. She was grateful and walked out in her raincoat to the car to get them.

On by the bread room to give a message to a musical friend who volunteers in food distribution about the timing of a performance this Friday of a Ukulele group his friend may wish to attend. I did not have her name or email, and he was not working today (so when I got home, I emailed him the details and email contact for Evelyn Heflen who played her banjo today at the Food Bank. She also plays Ukulele with the Ukulele group. I sent it to him to send to her. He got back to me with the name and that he would give her the emails for contact.

We had meat loaf, mashed potatoes, gravy, and carrots for supper. We’ll have a piece of chocolate cake for dessert.
Did the dishes. Done after 10 tonight.

Good friends since we were babies, Dorothy Wright Smith, and I are mourning the death of her husband Bill today after a fall a week ago, where he hit his head and was injured beyond the ability for surgery to save his life. He was existing on a respirator, with family around. He could no longer communicate. John and I have sent our sympathies, and I will publish a link to his obituary when I locate it. The funeral is next week on 1/29.

Thursday, Jan 23

Culligan man came at 9:30 a.m. and stayed about an hour to change the under-the-sink filters (once a year I think) for our filtered water system.

Contacted Glenn, Katie, and Amy about my timing tomorrow.
Need to contact Karen Roth about dropping off 3 glass frames, tomorrow at her Briarwood apt. I succeeded.

I’ve an upcoming photo thing. Charge my batteries in video camera for tomorrow, and be sure I have enough room to record. Also, need to get my Panasonic camera set up, cleaned off, and charged, as well as my Nikon.

Renewed my MedicAlert account for 3 yrs, at $42.49/year until 1/20/2023. Need to update my medical records. Just recently updated my emergency contacts.

We ate supper of leftovers and will have dessert from the freezer.

Friday, Jan 24

Today was my first day, not to be needing my bronchitis medications. Four weeks exactly since I started with this chest congestion and cough. I made all my connections for stops, town, starting by leaving home for town at 10:25. I made it to my first stop early, and dropped the 3 glass frames by Karen Roth’s house along with some underpants she can wear that currently swallow me. Next stop was only 100’ away to behind Glenn Engels carport space at Briarwood, where he was going to meet me at 11:00 a.m. to give me a borrowed music stand I’d loaned his mom. It was still lost in her things and he found it in the house in two different locations (it’s a metal fold-up stand, with a bottom and a music rack that fits on top of the bottom). I sent pictures of the stand, and he found the two parts. So, now I have that back.

From there I drove around to the office area of their clubhouse, where we play music on the 3rd Saturdays of the month. Purpose is to visit Katie Patterson there during their crafters meeting to watch her repair (her offer), the crocheting black thread on the sleeve of my Christmas sweater I got (already damaged) from the clothing bank to dress up in Christmas clothing when playing music the month of December. When January got here, Katie told me to bring the sweater and she’d fix it. It was a tedious process, but she did it while I watched today, and I took it away. She also could not fix the holes in John’s Christmas sweater, because she is not a knitter. I will find a knitter friend I should see within the month to give it to her, to see if she can repair it. She has done things (such as wool winter hats) for me in the past.

I stayed and visited with everyone at the crafters until 11:45, when I left for the north end of campus to arrive by 11:50, at Michaelson Hall. I have an Emeritus parking sticker so I can park in the staff/faculty lots, across the street. That trip was to the 4th Friday group of Ruth Harrington’s Scholarship Fund lunch. Today was hot chicken tacos and with cheese, guacamole, and salsa. I cannot recall ever having a chicken taco before. Also there was a salad I did not eat (dark greens), and a dessert plate, from which I bought mine home to John. It looks like a piece of fudge. I had to leave early to be at my next stop by 12:30.

I drove back south again to Meadows Place to go to an Aloha Party, where my friends were playing a Ukulele concert to go along with the Hula Dancers (two, including Carol Cummings I know from the Senior Center). She’s amazing. She is 80 yrs old and teaches children the grass skirt dances, and she also has taught ballroom dancing to adults at the Senior Center. The two ladies, alternating with the Ukulele group entertained for over an hour. I was given a piece of pie by a lady at my table, because she didn’t want it. And, I had a glass of water there. Alternately watching the uke group play (and sing) while the two ladies were changing dresses and outfits for different performances. I didn’t have my camera along to video tape any of the dances, or the ukulele group playing. I did offer to take their photograph on Evelyn Heflen’s smart phone. I expected her to send me a copy of that. I hope some in their group also took a photo of the dancers all decked out (no one did). I truly wish I had a video of the dancers doing a dance with maracas, bamboo stick, gourds and holding two smooth dark granite-looking rocks, in each hand, clicking them together. I would like to know how they manage to get that sound. It was a fantastic performance. I sat at a table with residents whom I know from Ellensburg. We had a nice visit, sitting right in front of the Ukulele Group, photo below.

Joey, friend Evelyn, J’aime, Betty, & friend Candace

Tonight we are leaving for Nick Zentner’s 4th Season Premier of his Nick on the Rocks series. I will videotape it again this year and also tape the discussions following each with questions from the audience and answers from Nick, and sometimes others on the team (Chris Smart & Linda Schactler).

John had to go to town to Les Schwab and bought a $200.33 battery for his Ford truck, because it was not keeping its charge and is 6 yrs old. From there to the dump (transfer station), and it cost him $47 because of the weight. Prices on products and services keep going up. We guess it’s because the hourly wages keep increasing. A lot of the weight was old manuscripts and heavy paper boxes filled with outdated books. Much of this is old university stuff, mine or of others. We are making an effort to clean out the garage first to have a contractor come in and repair the roof (ceiling), put in insulation in the attic above, remodel it into a usable room. Remove the garage doors that never have worked well. But it is full of junk which needs thrown away. In 30 years there has only been one car in it; a friend’s old antique car.

Slow going in and out to the Nick on the Rocks, with the frozen fog. I was driving blindly with low beam lights and defroster on. Took us 24 minutes each trip to drive in and back only 9 miles!

We got there early to get our good seats for filming and should have gone to the bathroom before going in or taken a break during one of the 5-minute episodes I was filming because I could have seen it later on my video. So we ended being there from 6:50 to 9:00.

We shall have dessert (chocolate cake) with ice cream.

Saturday, Jan 25

Get to working on my camera charge and removal videos and send to You Tube. YouTube’s currently processing my first, the longest, 1 hr. 14 min.

Nick introducing the evening’s premiere showing of 6 episodes of Nick on the Rocks, a PBS series on a Seattle station, KTCS-9.

NICK on the ROCKS –January 24, 2020

The next videos (questions and answers after each segment) were videoed on different cameras, to follow Nick around the room. Unfortunately, they did not turn up the lights on the audience, so my camera did not have much light to work with. My apologies for that.

Q&A Smith Rock Caldera

Q&A Saddle Mountains Buried in Ash

Q&A Teanaway Tropics

Q&A Scraping Together Mt. Olympus

Q&A Ape Cave

There will be no link to Q&A on the last episode, MT. ST. HELENS CRATER, because the evening ended at the end of the Helicopter views of the volcano.

I’m alternating chores with dish washing and sending videos to the web, via YouTube.

Sunday, Jan 26

About the rain, and the “rain shadow” title for this week. Our winds and rain usually come from the west, and so have to cross the Cascade Mountains. They are high enough (3 to 5 thousand feet just west of us) to force most of the moisture out, so we are drier, or in the rain shadow.

Washington also has the Olympic Mountains and there the elevation goes to almost 8,000 feet. The map below shows rainfall during this past Wed/Thur, with air moving from the southwest to the northeast.

Underlined by a red line, Seattle is low on the right edge. Up from Seattle there are a bunch of low rainfall totals (0.01 to 0.15). The lower left red underline is 9.45. That’s inches in 48 hours (ending 7 PM Thursday). That’s the total precipitation for Ellensburg for an average year. Nine to nothing sounds more like a score of a bad baseball game. Okay back to our mundane life.

Up at 3:30 a.m. with dog wanting out to potty. We are still keeping the “doggy-kitty door” closed most of the time. No more raccoons if we can control it.

Back to bed until 4:30 when cats wanted out.

Then set an alarm for taking my Acetaminophen at 5:30 a.m., and back to sleep again. Wake up for pills, and back to bed until 9:00 a.m. I was tired.

Finally, got all Friday night videos uploaded to YouTube at 12:40 pm. Now need to process those and finish the blog and fix myself brunch. 1:38 brunch.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Monday, Jan 13

Sunrise photos: Local photographers captured these views of the morning sunrise. We can only see the sky partially through our “hedge” of trees. Sandy Meier took the first one top left from her backyard (on Wilson Cr. Road). Next is by Vicki Lennox, from her perspective in Badger Pocket. Bottom is by Sid Peterson, who lives east of the intersection of the Kittitas Hwy & No 6 Rd (south extension of Wilson Cr. Rd.), looking toward Badger Pocket; permission by all granted to publish in our blog.

In seeking permission from Sid, I found out more information about a photography site I had just joined on Facebook, “Kittitas County Visual Delights,” where I found his photo posted. I would like to inform all my Kittitas County photographer friends about this excellent site, and to encourage your joining it. It meets the year-old age next month, and they are planning a special request to publish photographs of our county. Get on it now, so you can see the great assortment of photographs and get involved to share the beauty in our county.

Our main chore this morning was to get up early and be ready to leave at 9:00 a.m. for Dr. ‘Foot’ Cardon’s office and to the hospital for a blood draw to check my INR & potassium; INR=2.8 & K=4.6 (both within range).

Because of my bronchitis and inability to be in a dental chair with current chest congestion and coughing, I cancelled my dental appointment for a filling tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. It’s now rescheduled for 1/29 at 1:00 Wednesday, so I will have to leave the Food Bank lunch (music) in time to get down a couple of blocks, and remember to take my Amoxicillin at noon.

Checked my times on my imaging appointment on Jan 21, as they came in by phone conflicting with what I had on my calendar. Corrected ones are: check in 1:15 for 1:30 bone density test; stay for 2:15 mammogram.

I took an afternoon nap from 2:30 to 3:35 p.m.; much needed.
Supper was Beef Stew and Cheesy biscuits.

Tuesday, Jan 14

We are surely happy that our oldest cat, Sue, came back after 2 weeks’ (?) away. We wonder if she was trapped somewhere. She was very hungry and thirsty, but came walking down the driveway from Swedbergs, where she was born. She failed to show up here about the day ol’man Swedberg died. There were family and strangers around. John wonders if someone tried to catch her (or what?) and she headed for ‘the woods’.
Her daily ritual had been to go back there after eating, and come back mornings for breakfast and stay around for dinner. Now, however, she is not returning over there. She’s staying with daughter Woody in the old Pace Arrow. Woody was born under a brush pile by our driveway, and as far as we know, has never been across or even up to the county road.
Here are the two of them:Sue and Woody on the chain link crossover John built for the cats to access their food and water (heated in winter) on our front porch. Unfortunately, raccoons will also use it. So at night, we bring in the food.

I had decided not to go to the AAC Senior Advisory Commission meeting today and stay home to recover. Then they officially canceled it by phone, because 4 people were sick and unable to meet (not enough for a quorum). Connie will check my Bi-Mart numbers. I’ll wait to get my Metoprolol from Super 1 (don’t need it until next week anyway. My weekly-meds box is all filled for the rest of the week and over the weekend through Tuesday. I set alarms for meds I have to take the rest of the day and to remind me to take my BP.

Weather here is sunny; however, the pass is not looking great, but both lanes are open. About 97% of Washington State has snow on the ground. In the mountains there is more than 10 feet. We decided not to count snowflakes, but here’s the photo for the week (and forever):Snowflake creation by Evie Schuetz

Goodness, words cannot describe the beauty of this exceptional image: but these come to mind – Spectacular, Extraordinary, and a Brilliant use of Photoshop to adjust multiple images from a 4.5x magnification lens taken time-lapse. Remarkably, this was Evie’s first attempt to do so. She can only get better. It looks fine to me.

See below on Friday, where she found a better way to photograph individual snowflakes, and not have to use Photoshop.

We had the rest of our beef stew tonight and a small hamburger with Havarti cheese, followed by a piece of cookie dough pie.
John beat me to bed, but now I’m on my way.

Wednesday, Jan 15

Cancelled playing at Food Bank lunch today. Still need to recover more. They had a good turnout, so that’s nice.

We had brunch: eggs, summer sausage, and 3-cheese bread toast – yet my favorite is still English Muffin Bread toast with friend Ken’s homemade Apricot Jam.

John’s done all the chores, except afternoon horse feeding. It’s snowing now and Woody just came in for her evening meal.

I finished the package of plastic bags, rubber bands, and note to Mya, our WSJ delivery person. It’s ready to go in the paper shoot when it’s not snowing. The paper is printed west of the Cascades so when the Pass is closed we do not get a paper.

Update on my friend in Moxee, WA, Terri Towner, who had corrective hip surgery in Seattle today. It went well and they will be driving back across the pass tomorrow; thankfully, didn’t come back on the day the pass was closed in both directions because of snow. She cannot bear any weight on it for two weeks. That will be tough.

Thursday, Jan 16

I slept in after a rough night, and took my mucus relief pill early with the full glass of water. It’s still working late morning. So, that’s good.

I had a call from the Daily Record about fixing my access to the digital edition, but I asked Tony to stay on the line while I tried. It did not work. Turns out when they reset it, it went back to an email in their account that quit working in 2017, nancyh@ellensburg dot com. It is not the email I have been getting the Daily Record news and email announcements from. I had changed it back then, but they did not update their records on the login code. They do not know what caused my online account to no longer recognize me as a subscriber. So, we’re now waiting for a phone call that they have changed it to the one I have been using for 3 years (successfully) to reach the digital edition by logging in with the new email. So weird.

All sorts of things happening this morning on the web. I had responses from people I was dealing with yesterday, and they came through. I had phone calls and emails to 10:00 a.m. about 3 people canceling coming today to music at Pacifica.

I have had my brunch, and will be leaving for our music soon.
The sun is shining here, but the pass is still covered with snow.
I’ll go play my violin at Pacifica, but won’t sing and start my coughing. Dean will call the songs and number for the audience to follow in their copies.
I finished dressing while John brushed snow off the path to my car.

Update on my friend from southern California, Jeri Conklin’s surgery today. This is from Kurt, her husband, “She’s currently recovering in the ICU. Surgery took much longer than planned, but everything turned out fine. I saw the surgeon and he removed 40 cm of small bowel, the Appendix and a small portion of the colon. Surgeon said the “mass” was such that he was surprised that she was functioning at all and there was no doubt to the degree of pain she was experiencing. He said this should have been done months ago! She’s got 5-7 more days to recover. Anyway, thanks for your thoughts and prayers.”

Supper: Leftover casserole, with new apple cobbler type of side with main meal, French fries, and cookie dough cake for dessert.
We both are quite tired.

Friday, Jan 17

New individual snowflake magnification captures by Evie Schuetz:Evie managed to capture these with her 4.5x super macro lens before they melted. She explains: These flakes I caught on a clear plastic filter which was parallel to the camera, so I was able to take them in one shot rather than stacking a bunch together in Photoshop. Next time, I’ll use a piece of glass from a photo frame. The plastic isn’t cold enough, and the flakes melt too fast even at 17 degrees. Also, I had issues with microscopic imperfections in the plastic, so live and learn.

A commenter on her personal FB site, where first published, offered this historical video link to our distant past! Please view the whole 8-1/2 minutes; it’s well worth your time to see the first photographs ever taken of a single snowflake. Sorry for the TWO ads you have to wade through before you can skip them and see the real video.

“The Snowflake Man”: Wilson A. Bentley (1865-1931)

You will appreciate following this link below, as well, for the science behind the formation of snowflakes, also provided by a commenter on Evie’s post.

How Do Snowflakes Form

Also been dealing with a friend in Seattle who wanted to drop off her car for the weekend while going on a trip to Winthrop, carpooling with a friend. We got things arranged but the forecast for the Pass caused a change in plans.

The Daily Record news finally got my access to my digital edition working again.

Supper was topped with John’s homemade spaghetti sauce, and a very simple baked apple crisp (no cream, whipped cream, or ice cream) to make the meal healthy.

Saturday, Jan 18

I need to go to Briarwood for music today. Only expecting 7 players, but at 11:52 a.m. learned to expect 2 more.

I worked on a load for the dishwasher, and drank my nutrition drink to supplement with what they feed us after we play.

I took the large-sized jeans to have to give to a large person after I saw him and was convinced they would fit him. The mom planned to bring him to our music, but arrived late, (I never saw them) and they left because we were eating. She speaks Spanish and must not have understood my complete directions. I told her I could do it after we quit playing and were eating, but she must not have understood. We’ll have to meet at a future date.

While at Briarwood, I dropped off a quilt denim patches and other material pieces with a crafter who lives in Briarwood. She’s planning to make a quilt. These were donated on the free site, but this woman cannot drive.

This morning I took a photo of the lamp to send to my friend Amy for her daughter’s bedroom table, so I would know whether to pack the box in the car to take for her to transfer to her car after we finished eating. She was interested.John found this in our garage in a box, never used that was in my mom’s stuff from Atlanta, GA sent to Idaho in a moving van in 1977, when she was moving out of her apartment into a smaller unit. There are things we have never opened. The bigger furniture has been part of our household forever.

Another thing he found was my old tenor guitar (4 strings) I remember getting in high school for $4 at a pawn shop. Mother’s sister helped me packed the stuff, so she must have packed it. I had no clue I still owned that. Figured my mom had sold it in a yard sale, as she did a bunch of my stuff. I should have gotten a picture of that before it was repacked. We couldn’t tell the make of the guitar, and I didn’t look inside, just on the top of the neck. If something was written there at one time, it is no longer visible.

John thinks it is time to clean out the garage, fix the problems, and re-purpose the space. This will be an adventure, and costly.

Lise McGowan’s cat, Duchess (above) looks like a twin sister to our Woody. She posted hers perched on a fence (in a larger photo I cropped) to show the similarity of our long-haired cat, a mackerel tabby.

Sunday, Jan 19

Sadly, just when I was feeling less chest congestion and overall better, I awoke all congested and not feeling so well. I improved as the day progressed.

On to another day of medications, with my computer alarms set to remind me to take them at the appropriate intervals. The chest congestion pill is every 4 hours and the acetaminophen is every 6. It’s time to be over this.

We are just ready to eat supper of a piece of lean pork (crockpot, tomatoes, finished in a hot oven with BBQ sauce), carrot casserole with roasted marshmallows on top, and a bowl of peach slices. 8 hours in the crock pot seemed to make the meat tender enough for me, but it wasn’t as tasty are grilled ribs.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan