Author: admin

It’s Saturday and the wind is blowing. What’s new? It blew hard all day Friday. I missed the cues and opened the Truck door while parked in the direction that maximized the force on the door as I opened it. At least the hinges held. That was only about 20 mph. Today, Saturday, the maximum gust has been 44 mph at 2:20 – I was inside, so missed it – or it missed me.
I have a few daffodils blooming, and an obnoxious weed, Bur Buttercup.

https://extension.unr.edu/publication.aspx?PubID=3396

This is one of the earliest plants and it is small, usually 1.5 to 2 inches. I’ve been watching for it and hoping to spray before the seeds set. When young it is as soft as silk. Then it turns brown and the burrs are hard and stick like Velcro®. Ouch!
With the wind, if I were to spray, the droplets would likely end up in the mountains of northern Idaho. Sunday looks good for spraying. I’ve been cleaning up some of the small scraps of wood and bark from making chunks for the wood stove.

I went for the 2nd of the two health meetings. The first one amounts to not much except information collection [ Have you fallen recently, draw a clock, and remember 3 words. ] After the time with the doctor they draw blood for a Comprehensive Metabolic Panel (CMP), which measures proteins, enzymes, electrolytes, minerals, and other substances. I seem to be fine except for moderate levels on two tests measuring health of my liver. I have been operating on slightly lower blood pressure than Chelsea thinks is good. One needs to balance the worry of strokes versus that of feeling tired and/or passing out. Face plant! So, we agreed to drop the Hydrochlorothiazide, a diuretic that helps getting fluid out (peeing), thus keeping blood pressure lower.
I’ll go for another blood testing in June – fasting this time – and see what it does to all the other many numbers. Expected will be a lower glucose reading, but what else I have no idea. I do the pressure, sporadically, at home with a wrist cuff. My “finger oxygen monitor” needs charged and I haven’t found the cable that will do that. Thus, I just spent $10 on Amazon, with delivery Tuesday.

Way back in school-days we learned witty sayings [mnemonic rules] to help us to write and spell correctly. A picture of a coffee mug has the word “weird” on it that doesn’t follow the “i before e” rule. The saying is cute though.

The predicted low for Sunday morning is 32°F.
I’ll stay in until it warms by 11:00, and make chili.

Keeping Track
on the Naneum Fan

John

My mother was born on April 3rd in 1907.
Happy Birthday Mom!
Miracles happen.
I last used my Stihl chainsaw in October, an MS 250; the MS stands for “Motorsäge, German for chainsaw. That makes no sense to me.
Friday was sunny so I put the saw in the sun for an hour and then it started just as it is supposed to do. This might have been the easiest time in years.
I just cut some stuff laying in the shed – about ½ hour – but have several dead trees to drop and other odd & large pieces of things I need to work on. New wood needs to “season” (dry) for 18 months or longer.

I had the Heat Pump serviced. It is working fine but it was installed in 2002. The average use by date is about 15 years with 20 years considered excellent. So, what’s the problem?
Parts may not be available for old models and the refrigerant it uses is now banned, while it may or may not be available at a high cost. If it fails at an inappropriate time (what wouldn’t be?), getting it fixed or a new one installed could be a long wait. Why spend a lot to fix one past its usage date when new ones are more efficient. And like truck tires I bought last fall, the longer I wait the less use I will get out of the new model.
Additionally, there are discounts and maybe grants I might get from several sources. Possibilities include a couple levels of government, the utility district, and the manufacture. Sometime this next week I will go to EBRG and consult with the boss of the local company that does the service. I need to pay the recent bill, too. The current unit is a Trane but there is no longer an EBRG outlet. The folks I now deal with install Lennox. These are also sold through COSTCO. I spoke with the sales rep there on Saturday and learned Costco provides a perk of $15%.
Decision time: wait for the 23-year-old unit to fail or install a more efficient and subsidized one now.
Nights are still cool although the days are nice. From the EBRG area snow is still visible on the surrounding hills at about 5,000 feet. Mount Stuart (NW at 9,415 ft) and Rainier (SW at 14,410) are bright white and can be seen from my area. It is still cold at those altitudes.
And speaking of temperatures:
… an April Fool’s joke I saw had the President signing an executive order renaming the Fahrenheit scale as AmeriTemp.
Having learned about temperature scales in the 1960s, we used Fahrenheit and also learned Centigrade. At some point the latter got renamed as Celsius. There is also the Kelvin scale. AmeriTemp it is!
I find the image-making possibilities impressive as is the one shown here. [The original shows the president seated in the Oval Office.]

In honor of my mother’s birthday, I bought a fancy cake at COSTCO.
It’s cake time!

Keeping Track
on the Naneum Fan
John H.

Early this week a storm moved across Kittitas County. I went to sleep about 10 PM and missed the lightning and if there was thunder it did not wake me. I think the strikes were closer to the mountains. I’ve talked to folks that saw, but did not hear, the strikes. Others closer to the mountains reported heavy rain. I missed it all.
Having lived where serious storms are common – Iowa – I’ve never experienced anything similar. Okay, almost never. In 2006 I was with a group camped at about 5,000 feet, northwest of EBRG. A storm came by on the ridge tops so we saw and heard much, but only had rain at camp. The thunder bounced around the ridges 1,200 feet above camp and then exited to the north – down a valley. We never got that sort of thing in Iowa.

From the web:
[ https://www.medicare.gov/coverage/yearly-wellness-visits ]
An annual wellness visit is a yearly appointment with your primary care provider focused on preventive health care, where they assess your health risks and create a personalized prevention plan. It is different from a standard physical exam, as it does not include a hands-on examination but rather emphasizes health maintenance and disease prevention.

Medicare covers the cost. It seems to be optional, although the health care providers get paid just for talking to you. A person I know doesn’t do this because she is healthy and considers it a waste of time. I go and while I get quizzed, I also can ask questions. The time is more relaxed than in the “exam” that is held later, called a chronic conditions visit.
I’d like to compare my answers to the national sample but haven’t found that possible. There are other reports that come close.
At the end of the “wellness visit” I get blood drawn, with the results available for the second visit 10 days away. The results of the blood exam are referenced to ranges for the age and sex. These are interesting because we are all different. I have a couple of oddities, and some tests might point to developing issues that can be controlled, such as high blood pressure or cholesterol. I’m on a minimalist doze for each of those.
I go back on Friday the 11th for the physical exam. I changed insurance companies on January 1st so I don’t know what my co-pay will be this year.

The heavy rain early this week has brought muddy water down off the mountains. To get to my health visit I cross a stream [Teanaway River– Tea an a way] that runs into the Yakima River and I can see both.

The color was about like peanut butter. Stream velocity was fast but there wasn’t flooding. I didn’t stop to take a photo. Oh well.

We are not pruning this coming week so I should be able to do things here, like taking garbage and trash to the transfer station and clearing away some messes in the yard. Rain is iffy and cold mornings are likely. Tuplips and similar plants are popping up, although nothing is blooming.

Keeping Track
on the Naneum Fan
John

My hair has been looking like Bernie Sanders so I made an appointment and got a haircut on Tuesday. My “stylist” is a nice young lady named Bailey. Apparently, this became popular following the naming of a female TV character in 1978 in the show WKRP in Cincinnati. Jan Smithers played Bailey Quarters. The show played for 90 episodes and ended in April of 1982. Having lived in Cincy, this was one of our favorite TV shows and we did watch television back then.

Now to the other “cuts”.
I got a bill for a doctor’ office visit – my share = $139.22 of $226
The bill for the tooth crown came – my share = $690 of $1,439
The items for the crown do not add to that amount so either the billing is wrong or there is something I don’t understand.

We continued to prune this week with one of the crew missing two of the 3 days – one to watch a basketball game. Another missed Friday to visit the central WA Sand Hill Crane festival.

Saturday Noon, Garret came and picked out some lumber to make a bench. His place is where we go to play Pétanque.

Last week I bought a chunk of “corned beef” but didn’t get it cooked. That happened today, Saturday. I put it, cabbage and carrots in a slow-cooker. Sunday will be the first serving. Why?
Because in late afternoon I had “something”: First a short episode of sweating and as that subsided and ache in my stomach developed. As the evening passed, the ache continues dully.
I’ll try to sleep but, now at midnight, that is still questionable. My plan is to add wood to the stove and watch the flames and nod off.

Keeping Track
on the Naneum Fan
John

Below are images that summarize the week + Monday.
Snow in the Cascades brought traffic on Snoqualmie Pass to a halt. Several cars and trucks went off the road. The big trucks need big tow trucks to clean things up, so it takes a while.
Friday was the 14th of the 3rd month so we have 3.14, known as Pi Day.
Pi (symbol π) is an irrational number that goes on and on (3.14592653589…). Earth got between the Sun and the Moon causing optical phenomena that made the Moon look orange. Many of the colors in sunlight do not make it through Earth’s atmosphere {scattering is the culprit}, so the orange/red rays make it to the Moon and are reflected back at Earth.
On Pi Day one should have a pie. With St. Patrick’ Day in sight, a Key Lime pie seems appropriate.
Safeway Grocery has Corned Beef on sale, so that’s on the menu too. The term “corned” comes from the treatment of the meat with large-grained rock salt, also called “corns” of salt. I’ll have potatoes and onions and pass on the traditional cabbage.

On the home front all the new double-pane windows are in and trimmed on the inside. When weather improves, the outside trim will be painted. This makes the house more-or-less modern.

The weather remains cool and damp with occasional light snow here (2,240 ft). North of me the snow level is 1,000 feet higher. Next Sunday the temperature should be high enough and the Sun strong enough to clear the snow from the hills that I can see from home.
I went to lunch with Phyllis and Cameron of Friday. This coming week we will prune vines only on W/Th/F. Cameron will be in Seattle through Tuesday.

Keeping Track
on the Naneum Fan
John

Kittitas County ought to be boring. This week was an exception.
A man was arrested for barricading** himself and “girlfriend” in her house and proceeded to spray a fluid around, shouting he was going to set the place on fire, and they would die. He neglected to take her phone, so she called the cops. Essential pieces of the story were not in the paper.
**(I’ve never understood how a large couch against the front door is going to prevent police from entering. I’ve never seen a house with just one door and no windows.)
Item #2 involves a woman flying a plane into a mountain just 13 miles southeast of home. There are missing pieces to this story, too. The paper didn’t say she hit the mountain, but showed a picture of the site (near wind towers) just a half-mile past the top – in the direction she was headed. There was a rain/snow squall there at the time. If she was trying to fly around it, one hundred yards farther to the right would have been enough to miss the mountain.
As she approached Ellensburg – with an airport – she turned to the NE directly toward Whiskey Dick Mountain. It is 2,500 feet lower than the mountains she was headed over on her flight plan to the north. Likely, we will never know what was going on.
I was with four others pruning grapes, northeast of those ridges. One of the crew mentioned the storm that appeared to be snow. It was mostly sunny at the vineyard.

On a lighter note, Thursday morning my new “crown” was placed on a back tooth on my lower jaw, left side. It is not visible. A prior filling had been there for 27 years. A dentist 100 miles south of me is advertising a “single visit” crown replacement. My dentist isn’t as advanced. I had a 2-week wait between a temporary and the permanent crown. Years ago, I had a temporary one come off in a day. This time all went as intended.

Weather-wise the Cascades will be getting snow. Here there is a possibility for Thursday morning snow or rain. I don’t think I will get enough to notice. This afternoon, wind has ramped up to 30mph gusts.

I heard that someone complained about an electric bill. He claimed he was charged for the sunlight, the moonlight, the street light, the light of his life, the speed of light, and the light at the end of the tunnel.
Keeping Track
on the Naneum Fan
John

Free admission to the CWU basketball game on the 22nd (apparently) also got me exposed to a ‘cold’ virus. I went to the grocery store following the game, so an alternative source is possible. It doesn’t matter. I’ll call the County Health folks on Monday and see if they know what is going around.
Sunday evening my throat was getting sore. Usual cold symptoms followed. I didn’t feel seriously sick at any time. However, because I didn’t want to cook meals, I reverted to a large can of sliced peaches. The lack of food and liquids seemed to produce low blood pressure. Having realized that and countering it, the week went by without problems.
I did skip the CWU scholarship luncheon on Friday.
Earlier in Feb we measured for and ordered modern windows for those not previously replaced. They were delivered Friday morning. I had a 10-minute notice – just enough to get shoes on and move the pickup out of the way.

First snow at the house was on Nov 16 but it didn’t last. Mid-December it snowed 3 inches and then more in the following week. This week should be the end of all the snow except the pile on the north side of the shed. It is 5 feet deep and very solid after sliding off the roof. Totally shaded, it will last until April. 13 miles north of me there are 40 inches of packed snow with about 16 inches of water-equivalent, about average.
February has been colder than average here, and up at 5,000 feet that snow hasn’t begun to melt. The local cattle ranches should have lots of pasture and water this spring.
The wine grapes are due to be pruned. A couple of folks worked on Friday. I’ll likely go over Tuesday. We average 4 days a week for six or seven weeks, at 3 hours each day. The number of pruners is 4 to 6 and, rarely, another visitor.

Keeping Track
on the Naneum Fan

John

Plane fuselages on the way west to become Boeing airplanes. Cameron took the photo from the house in the middle of the vineyard.

I read that the holiday that started as Washington’s Birthday has never officially been changed to President’s Day. George was born on February 22nd and Abe Lincoln on Feb. 12th. What the calendar says is President’s Day and that’s how the week started. Not exactly exciting. It got better.

I’ve had a dental appointment scheduled for late March but someone dropped out and I got a call. That is the 2nd time. First one I couldn’t do. So, Wednesday morning I had a tooth ground down and a temporary cap put on. In a town 100 miles south a dentist is advertising a one-visit crown. Here I have to go back in 10 days. So far the temporary cap has stayed on and my jaw is almost back to feeling well.

Thursday evening the local Audubon group had two folks from CWU Biology present on animals in the forests of western Mexico. I know both of the folks and also know some of what they do. Many Audubon meetings use Zoom presentation and after sitting through several failures, I no longer go to those. So Dan is an expert on lizards and snakes and Kris specializes in other critters. She has been the biologist leading the studies of the animals that the I-90 critter crossings are meant to serve. Mostly they used color slides and a few video clips and Dan brought a large Boa Constrictor and a large lizard.

Saturday afternoon I went to a CWU basketball game. The Lady Wildcats’ game started at 4:00. They won. I left at the end, just as the men’s team can out. The Geography Department had tickets. They can get a bunch of tickets just for asking. Less than half the seats were occupied, so I guess it helps to build a crowd with free admission.
Back about 1990 one of my students was on the team and invited us to come watch. They lost that night to a much bigger and better team, Simon Fraser University of British Columbia. At the end of the game we went down to say hello and all the ladies were taller than my then 6 feet. Two athletic events since 1989 isn’t a record.
When I started in towards town there was a mist. As I parked it was sprinkling and it has been doing so since then. I went to the grocery store afterwards, and drove home in the rain.

This was the beginning of a so-called atmospheric river that will likely peak on Monday. There will be some flooding in the Puget Sound region but not here. Overnight Tuesday the atmosphere will clear and Wednesday will be partly sunny. Then our daytime temperatures will go into the low 50s.

Keeping Track
on the Naneum Fan
John

Last week I mentioned the yellow line on the computer monitor. It pops up now and then but goes away. Yesterday the small screen on the telephone answering machine went blank. The image on the upper right should be on the blank rectangle of the machine. The system still appears to work. I’ve called with my iPhone and it answered.
A couple of years ago I dropped and broke one of the cordless receivers. I ordered one but it failed to work. I sent it back. Then wondered if it’s base and charger went bad. I sent it back but didn’t bother to ask for a replacement and threw the base away. It could have been the base. The point is, I’m short one of the remote handsets.
I’ve ordered a new system with 5 handsets.
I’ll have to go through the existing stored numbers and key them into the new. This isn’t the tragedy that it sounds. A couple of years ago the telephone folks started requiring a ‘1’ in front of the numbers. That meant keying in all the numbers. I no longer had a manual to know if there might be a simple one-step process. 90% of the people stored there were ones I never would call, places I never called, or dead people. You have likely guessed that Nancy keyed this stuff in over several years. So in a couple of days I will start with a new machine that will have a much more limited and useful caller list.
Interestingly, the new system doesn’t have a screen like the blank one. It really didn’t serve much of a purpose.

Also, mentioned last week was that I carried all the 2024 tax forms into town. They are now done and I just need to go in and pick up all the papers – what I took in and what has been produced.
The office has started doing things electronically and I have created a digital signature. Before, I would have had to make a trip in just to sign my name. This year I don’t. It looks like a Segoe Script font. A refund will go to my bank in an electronic transfer, maybe by March 10th.

I got a Valentine card! It came from Jocelyn (Jos) Akins of the Cascades Carnivore Project. Other than student scholarships at CWU, this is one of my other minor donation destinations. Part of the text is in the blue box. By 6 weeks they have begun turning brown. By half grown, they are dark brown with some white remaining that varies from one individual to the next.

Baby Wolverines Start Out Cute

Weatherwise, western Washington has transitioned from winter to wet. Here we still have a week of winter. Our transition will begin next Friday with a week from Monday (thus, the 24th) feeling like a new season is beginning. In parts of the world March 1st is considered the beginning of Spring. Forecasts are about to start for the DC Cherry Blossoms. Stay tuned.

Keeping Track
on the Naneum Fan
John H.

The main accomplishment this week was to carry my 2024 tax papers to Jessica at the CPA office. Nancy had always done “the taxes”, but her illness caused a major delay. Left with a mess I did not understand, I got help. I continue because now I don’t have to do anything but put a dozen pieces of paper in a folder and take them into EBRG. In a few days, I’ll sign off and they get filed electronically. Then in three weeks a refund appears in the bank account.

Under the heading “There is always something”:
I turned on the computer this morning and have a yellow vertical line on one of the 2 identical monitors. These were introduced by ACER in 2012 but I think I got them about 2016/18.
The screen is about 17 inches wide and the line is 2.75 inches in on the left side. While this is a distraction, I don’t have to worry about it. Even if I “snag” part of an image with the yellow line on it, the line doesn’t appear in the copy. The copy is coming from the internal file, not the surface of the screen. So – I will wait and see if something else happens. Update: As I finish writing, the yellow line is gone. Go Figure.

Contractor Walter came by with the main topic being replacing 8 windows from the original 1980s build. The estimate for this is about $5,000.

The R-value of 1980s double pane windows is about 2+. New ones with Argon gas between panes and a Low-Emissivity {Low-E} coating might be three times better at stopping heat and cold transfer through the window. I’ll have to research this a bit more. New windows have to be made to fit the dimensions of the original construction, so they have to be ordered, with a delivery time of about 3-weeks. Maybe in 3 weeks the temperature will be better for the installation.

Here is the coming week’s forecast:

Beginning Thursday a weather change is supposed to happen so that we go from no clouds Tuesday to 90% clouds on Friday. The clouds stop heat radiation and cooling at the surface.
There is a major cold air mass in Canada but it appears to be heading into the USA’s mid-to-east regions. Washington State should start to warm in late February. Yea!

My area has gotten only light snow in the past 6 weeks but what we got in December is still here. It has gone through several softenings and re-freezing. So it has slumped to about 6 inches thick and has become hard enough to walk on.
Seeds for the birds and wood for the stove are stored in quantity, so all is good.

Keeping Track
on the Naneum Fan
John H.