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Starting with our Christmas cactus (by John)

Sunday, Dec 17

No CPAP – Oximetry for Dec 16: SpO2 low 84, 6 events <88% with overall avg., 92.8%. Avg. low SpO2, 90.5%. Pulse avg. 56.6, low 46. Slept 7 hrs 46 min.

I stayed busy today on the computer. I spent a lot of time last night on the blog, and John edited what I wrote, but I still had stuff to finish this morning and he had stuff to do before putting it into WordPress.
Brunch was squeezed into the schedule. John finished with Word Press input just before 2:00. While waiting, I spent about 45 minutes helping a former student by proofing her resume and letter of application for a job. Still have connections to CWU after being retired for 7 years.

Late afternoon, I put my new computer aside and got on my old laptop to look for the story about my mother’s family reunion I wrote up a very involved web page for in 2012 after attending the family reunion that year. A woman (another Susan in the Wilkins family—my mom’s side) came out of the woodwork just in time, getting to me on the old email address, nancyh@ellensburg.com account we are soon losing (and which I still have to finish sending please change announcements to).
. . . . Telling the Susan Pate story:

My name is Susan Pate.  I am trying to research my 3x Great Grandfather John Wilkins.  I stumbled upon your reunion page on the internet from several years ago and am hoping that this email address is still a good one.  My connection to John Wilkins is as follows: His daughter Susan Mariah Wilkins (my 2x Great Grandmother) her daughter Minnie Tullulah Robbins is my Great Grandmother and her daughter Susan Mariah Mines is my grandmother.  I have a cousin in Patterson, Georgia that tries to help me with research but he is ill and cannot make the trips like he use to.   I do know there is a museum in Ebenezer, Georgia that has some of the furniture he made and also some of his tools.  That was where my cousin was going to go and take pictures for me, but I do not think he can make it now. I found an article on his furniture and a bit about his history but I cannot find anything on his parents.  The article mentioned he was married to a Rebecca Lavender before he was married the Mary Catherine Gnann.  Do you have any information that would help me to find his parents?   I appreciated any info you can give me. 
 Thank you,
Susan Taylor Pate

I’m grateful she sent the email before the end of the month. We have been communicating since, from the new joint account.
Here is the changed location for the story about the family reunion in 2012 — no longer accessed at ellensburg.com but instead at rocknponderosa.com at the following URL:
Wilkins Family History

PLEASE, if you get there, and want to follow any links to web pages, you will have to substitute rocknponderosa.com for any references to ellensburg.com

You can go there and see the picture of John Wilkins, whom Susan Pate is writing about above. Also, she mentioned the museum with “Big John’s” furniture in Ebenezer, GA. In the late 1990s, we had a Wilkins’ family reunion there that I attended. I did not have a digital camera then, or one with a flash, so I do not have any pictures of the inside. Hopefully, someone in the family will go take photos, so we can get them to all of us, and to Susan (in Texas). Both Susan Sykes and I have her email address.

Now we have had supper, and I have to finish processing the pictures I took Friday at the Let It Snow! event at the senior center. I know I won’t have a lot of time in the morning.

John is shelling walnuts again. He does enough each time to make 1 pound of halves and pieces. Then they go in the freezer. Our local grocery store sells such for $10, but they are available elsewhere for ~$6/$7. We’ve eaten some and gave some unshelled ones away. He thinks we’ll have 10 bags, when he is done. He plans to make some candied walnuts.

I have been working for a lot of time on the photos to send to the AAC via Google upload. I’m up to 48 of 64, and it is taking awhile. I left some in from John’s camera, without changing to ½ size, and it is taking a little longer, probably, but I didn’t have the time to crop them all and they didn’t need it. I only cropped the ones that had extra lighted windows on the side to concentrate on the center of the photo. After this upload, I will need to share and hope I come up with a link to send to the folks involved at the AAC for them to put on Facebook in the morning. (Jessi, did. She’s an AmeriCorps staff person, from Ellensburg.) I take photos at AAC events because the staff are busy serving and honchoing the games or crafts.

Here’s the link, if you might be interested. You will see a photo of Jessi with me and with her grandma, and others, in the pictures (she has on a huge Black Snowman hat, and I have on a Merry Christmas hat I received from my 6th grade friend (who is featured below in this blog with her photograph of an Eagle). I added the antlers to go with my Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer shirt.
Snow Party, Seniors – Dec. 2017

Monday, Dec 18

No CPAP – Oximetry for Dec 17: SpO2 low 84, 12 events <88% with overall avg., 91.5 %. Avg. low SpO2, 88.9%. Pulse avg. 56.8, low 52. Slept 7 hrs 51 min.

I called in John’s refill to Super 1 Pharmacy Levothyroxin and was able to pick up today, along with some groceries.

I called my PCP’s office to remind the doctor’s nurse, Diane, to put in the order for some blood tests for me to have to take to the doctor in Wenatchee tomorrow. The tests requested are Ferritin, Free T4, Free T3, Reverse T3 and a TPO. She called about 10 to say the labs were sent in earlier this morning, and I called the lab to confirm and got the best time to see my favorite phlebotomist. I showed up at noon.

I went to my SAIL exercise class today at the AAC, and came home via a couple of places and the last was to drop off a large bag of WSJs we share with a business student.

Home to work on my paperwork of medical history to take to my appointment tomorrow with Dr. Lisa Stone in Wenatchee. Thankfully, our weather will be good for travel.

Nice telephone call from my friend since 1977 who just had surgery on her ACL in her knee, and who is doing well. She’s had Brittanys from us since 1977 and lived in Moscow, ID at the time, so we traveled all over the PNW to shows and field trials with our dogs.

I sent a note to the music group {KV F&F} people to check on intended attendance. I need the count, because I have to report in Thursday morning to the facility where we are playing, so that they can haul arm-less chairs to the dining area for us.

Tuesday, Dec 19

No CPAP – Oximetry for Dec 18 SpO2 low 82, 10 events <88% with overall avg., 91.2%. Avg. low SpO2, 89.8%. Pulse avg. 54.2, low 50. Slept 8 hrs 9 min.

Our farrier is coming to trim Myst, at 9:30. I hope he is on time and it goes rapidly, because we have to drive to Wenatchee and be there by 1:05. He called to say he would be late, and we postponed it until another day.

Called Cle Elum for a Diane to tell me the value of the Ferritin and the range. Found out that and also that the FT3 had come in since yesterday afternoon’s phone conversation. The others were sent to Quest Diagnostics in Seattle, WA for analysis. One may take 3 weeks, says Dr. Lisa Stone today in our meeting, but I have already requested all the lab results be shared with her and my PCP.

We had left home, going through Quincy, WA. That’s the low elevation route. The Quincy area has major fruit and other crops. There is a large potato processor (fries, and the like), and fruit packers. We get the large Honeycrisp at Double Diamond. In 2012 the Amway Corp. started construction of a facility to produce Nutrilite Botanical Concentrate (such as blueberry, Echinacea purpurea, Echinacea angustifolia, oregano, peppermint and nettle). There is a long existing place that processes diatomaceous earth (locally available). Quincy’s new claim to fame, however, is that of internet data centers, known as server farms (cheap electricity).
As we approached Quincy it was cold and the sky above was dark with thick clouds less than 1,000 up. The many facilities were expressing pillars of bright white steam above the town. After Quincy the road goes down into the Columbia River canyon with steep basalt cliffs on the east side. The road has orchards on both sides.
This view is looking south. Note a stack of fruit bins on the right side, and the green of the trees. For us, the landscape was dusted with a thin coating of fresh snow that highlighted the physical features. I was particularly interested in the snow on the talus slopes, but unable to take a photograph of what I was seeing.

The Wenatchee River, from the Cascades to the west, enters the Columbia River about 15 miles north of the location of the photo. This coming together of major valleys has been a focal point of animal and human activities for centuries. We were headed toward the confluence.

And so we arrived at Confluence Health at 12:55 p.m. We were not seen until almost 2:00, but all went well. I never complain about waiting because I figure when the doctor stays with me, it is important and appreciated, and I realize someone is waiting to see her after me, so I hope they are patient & understanding too.

Our meeting.
The drive to Wenatchee to see a specialist (Endocrinologist),was a follow-up on my annual physical in Nov, and the finding by my new PCP doctor of a potential conflict with a heart med, Amiodarone, I have been taking for 7 years to prevent atrial fibrillations.  The medication is a large chemical that includes Iodine in its structure, shown in purple in the diagram. The Iodine gets cleaved from the rest and has to be processed by the thyroid.
Doctor Wood was concerned about my blood test results for the thyroid. The tests indicated an issue. The endocrinologist, Dr. Lisa Stone, looked at the test results, questioned me, and did a brief examination. The diagnosis was that I am fine, and we will just keep an eye on the blood tests in two months and then annually.
She also figures the labs on Nov 17th, were close to my sickness of 5 weeks, and likely affected the readings for T3 and T4. She also noted that the labs drawn yesterday about a month later were improved. My PCP had to request the referral, which he did, after I found from several friends and word-of-mouth that she was the preferred Endocrinologist in the area.

We were both pleased with the thoroughness and concern for my case and her detailed explanations. I captured about 10 minutes on video of her explaining my thyroid’s reaction to the Amiodarone, with a little hand-drawn diagram (below). The thin line on the left is indicating the link between the Pituitary gland up top and the Thyroid glands under my cute smile.Here is the location of the video:

Dr. Lisa Stone Diagrams What’s Going on with My Thyroid

Wednesday, Dec 20

No CPAP – Oximetry for Dec 19 SpO2 low 81, 9 events <88% with overall avg., 92.8 %. Avg. low SpO2, 89.7%. Pulse avg. 57.3, low 52. Slept 7 hrs 27 min.

Need to carry the unsalted cashews I got at Costco for Louaine, down to her.

Dark clouds east of us on my way home, and no camera. Got home and grabbed John’s Nikon to capture the western view from our back patio. These do not show the movement and color changes. Four photos this evening from our back patio (by Nancy). Mt. Rainier is 63.5 miles over there.

Thursday, Dec 21

No CPAP – Oximetry for Dec 20 SpO2 low 83, 10 events <88% with overall avg., 92.2 %. Avg. low SpO2, 89.9%. Pulse avg. 53.2, low 50. Slept 8 hrs 28 min.

Talked with Laura at Cle Elum and found out the NextMd.com system for communicating with my PCP is being replaced in 2018. I accessed it Tuesday night to report back to my PCP, Dr. Wood, about his referral to Dr. Stone in Wenatchee, and realized the email was keyed to our old email account; therefore, it was not posted properly to my doctor, and there is no way to change it now. I had already changed the system to my new account. So, I requested them tell his nurse my message about the meeting. Then I called Wenatchee and requested the doctor to copy me on the transcription of the notes to my PCP which she is sending him. I hope I will get it from one or the other, maybe both.

Now going through messages on old account to be sure I have all I need. 127 pages left to go. This is uncovering more lost info to recover before Dec 31. Phew.

Today, John went with me to help load all the music weight into the Pacifica Senior Living home. Here are the details:

Kittitas Valley Fiddlers & Friends Pacifica Senior Living 12-21-17
Christmas music with 16 people, plus an audience member on a set of bells.
LINK

The last song played is Steciak’s. I have not been able to find out much about the song, but it has been attributed to Larry Ungar.

The only You Tube I can find for sound of the music is by the Little Big String Band and was just published Nov 17, 2017. Here:
Steciak’s (Live)

Today, I was sharing information on Facebook with my friend since the 6th grade. We played guitars and sung folk songs together at events in Atlanta, and we also played our violins through high school in the orchestra. She rode and jumped horses, and we both were into photography. She has surpassed me with her photography. She sent me this picture of her large wall photograph in a Physical Therapist’s office in Michigan, where she now lives. Maude Buszek’s Bald Eagle in Physical Therapy Waiting RoomI grabbed these off her Facebook site for my collage. Sorry the eagle is not better focused in my collage. Later, I will get some of her bird photos (and her permission) to share here.

Friday, Dec 22

No CPAP – Oximetry for Dec 21 SpO2 low 85, 4 events <88% with overall avg., 92.8%. Avg. low SpO2, 90.0%. Pulse avg. 58.3, low 51. Slept 8 hrs 6 min.

Today, I went to town for meds at the Pharmacy, stopped off for some colas for John, and drove myself across town to the eye doctor. I had the technician, Diane, compare the prescription in my new glasses to the original, and they supposedly are ground properly. However, I’m not seeing the same clarity in my right eye as in my left. I have an appointment next Friday with my normal eye doctor, Dr. Bob Davis to evaluate what might be changed in the Rx to make my eyesight more balanced.

Finally, getting more into the Christmas spirit, locally and from far away.

Our neighbors raise pigs, and I dropped John off earlier in the week when I was going to town by myself, and he took several photos, but combined two into this one. This pink flying pig they found on Ebay and have put him up in their barn adjacent to the pigs and strung lights around him. The one on the right is a live big mamma. The babies are sold to local kids for 4-H animals that are then shown at the County Fair and other sorts of events. My uncle Henry had a big pork raising operation in rural Georgia. He had hundreds. Neighbors have several. Not even close to the same scale. And, in the south, mama and babies were inside, feeding was under a roof, and there was a large adjacent area that was fenced. Anyone going closer that 100 yards had to have their boots disinfected by standing in a shallow pan.

Saturday, Dec 23

No CPAP – Oximetry for Dec 22 SpO2 low 84, 15 events <88% with overall avg., 91.8 %. Avg. low SpO2, 89.6%. Pulse avg. 57.5, low 50. Slept 8 hrs 13 min.

Staying in the animals and Christmas spirit, here are two Brittanys.This is 2017: Alice Benoit’s Rose Marie ^^ 2015: my Daisy in CA

Interesting Facebook post from Debby Connors, who gave me a beautiful blouse (size L) made in France I am wearing again after my weight loss and am receiving many compliments on.

This photo below is Debby’s latest endeavor, where she is taking used feed bags and turning them into shopping bags. “Passed the cat test.” I asked her what feed, because our feed bags for birds & horses are not nearly as cool.Her answer to my question above: “This is from scratch for the chickens. I’ve read that many years ago folks would use flour sacks (yes from when flour was sold in sacks) and turn them into dishcloths, aprons, even clothing, that the manufacturers got word of this and began to purposely design their flour sacks with more attractive designs for their second use.”

I told her that I’m ancient enough to remember flour sacks, and I have a tie-around I use on John to cut his hair, made by my friend from a Thorp Mill Flour Bag material (purpose made, never used as a flour bag). I need to take a photo of it for our blog, next time I cut his hair. [ John says: I’m rural enough to remember cloth flour sacks. Type the phrase – flour sack art – into a search box (use Images tag) and have a look.]

We took pictures of the quail and the deer. Just the little buck and his mom came up to beg for treats, and the little girl, stopped off to eat some horses’ hay. The deer are not interested in the leafy parts but will pick the seed-heads out when they can. Sometimes folks will harvest Oats as hay, with all the seed-heads included. That has to be enclosed or the deer will tear bales apart and make a mess.
A pair of quail got our attention:Quail inside new enclosure; still inside with Junco outside.

This was John’s creation to keep the Asian Collared doves away from the little birds’ food dish. The quail are not stopped by the 2×4 inch openings. That’s nice. They will also share with the little birds, but the doves won’t.

Some more of the quail in this morning in for sunflower seeds.Nancy’s attempt to capture deer with John’s camera.Buck in his second year. The misshapen tip of the left ear is a family thing. We first saw this in an old doe about 10 years ago.

Sunday, Dec 24

No CPAP – Oximetry for Dec 23 SpO2 low 86, 8 events <88% with overall avg., 93.1 %. Avg. low SpO2, 90.5%. Pulse avg. 57.0, low 51. Slept 8 hrs 36 min.

Two calls last night to Ethel and Pat in PA, and one this morning to Marise in GA.

We’ve been working on feeding animals, accepting baked goods from our neighbor (a raw apple cake), and the blog. I’ve sneaked in a few good wishes to folks on email.
Now John finished editing my blog draft, and I’m proofing and adding comments left out before. He now has to enter the data into WordPress, and then I have to proof that, before we can publish it. Meanwhile, he fixed us an afternoon snack of popcorn and fruitcake. All we need is a fire to curl up in front of.

Hope you week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

By “easy December” I mean here on the Naneum Fan – weatherwise. John

Sunday, Dec 10

No CPAP – Oximetry for Dec 9: SpO2 low 82, 9 events <88% with overall avg., 90.7%. Avg. low SpO2, 88 .5%. Pulse avg. 57.8, low 52. Slept 7 hrs 21 min. slept more

We have been working on many projects. John outside re-positioning the water trough and building an enclosure to protect to-be-installed heating tape on the metal pipe. He has moved multiple bales of hay to feeding spots for the winter. We feed in about 3 different places, especially during nasty cold weather, to keep the horses moving about. It is good for them, and they move less if mounds of hay are always in the same spot. One of the trucks had ‘stuff’ in it – that’s out and other ‘stuff’ is in, awaiting a trip to the transfer station (aka ‘dump’).

I have been on kitchen cleanup control, Collared Dove control, and email address change control, not to mention processing of the photos from last Friday at the AAC, and transferring them to interested persons at the AAC. Seems everything spins out of control and has to be re-spun.

John made a red velvet cake tonight and I just frosted it. He has cut up walnuts and put them on top. We’ll be having that with a little ice cream for dessert. The boxed cake was bought on sale sometime ago. Its “best by” date was a year ago September. Keeping stored food moving/rotated (some folks have a lot) must be an art form.

I’m still working on email changes. Making progress.
Let’s start the week with a Merry Christmas greeting from Karen Barrows & 5 of her 6 Brittanys. The sixth is still in training with Scott Azevedo, in Los Banos, CA. Karen is in SW Oregon. North Umpqua Brittanys – most of her dogs and puppies go back to our bloodlines, so this is a family greeting!! We have been friends for many years. She lives in Glide, OR. She has a nice web page with videos and pictures, if you want to be entertained and get a Brittany fix. Paste “North Umpqua Brittanys” into a search box if you care to have a cheer-up look from a wonderful Brittany breeder.

Monday, Dec 11

No CPAP – Oximetry for Dec 10 SpO2 low 85, 7 events <88% with overall avg., 92.2 %. Avg. low SpO2, 90.2%. Pulse avg. 56.0, low 50. Slept 9 hrs 19 min.

I called in to Super 1 Pharmacy for John’s refill of Tamsulosin and will pick up tomorrow. It is supposed to make him handsome. (LOL, recall John edits my first draft version of this every week). We both stayed home today.

I’ll switch pictures from dogs to cats, because John finished the pass-over structure – seen being used in these photos.Sue coming off the platform, and Woody and Sue resting and watching from there. The top is about 6 ft. X 4 ft. with metal roofing, so in light rain or snow the platform is suitable for occupancy. It makes a good lookout.

The left of the collage above shows the in-progress fence walkover into the front yard where they have a dog house (you’ve seen in previous blogs) holding a water heater and box of dry food up and out of reach of skunks. The “feral” cats eat near the front door twice a day, with a treat of canned food (pate & bits). The birds have feeders within the same enclosure, and we get quail and small birds (finches, juncos, and chickadees mostly now) eating the black oil sunflower seeds.

Here are the quail sitting on the newly railed fence around the front yard, hopefully to keep the deer out. Thanks to John for capturing this and the cats above on his camera. We have a lot of quail visiting us each day in the front yard, feeders, and driveway.

I got a call from my new endocrinologist’s office scheduler and we set up the closest appointment for Jan 30th at 9:05 a.m. in Wenatchee. John made a map with directions, to the place. We will wait until closer then to see what the weather is like. There’s always a possibility we could go up the afternoon before and get a motel room so we wouldn’t have to leave so early from Ellensburg in bad weather. (Now below, you will see this has been moved way forward to this coming Tuesday, Dec 19.) Now there is only rain in the forecast for us and Wenatchee, but we have to go over a slightly higher (~300 feet) elevation to get there. The Pass to Seattle is higher and the forecast is for it to be a mess of snow and rain on Tuesday. That’s why we never plan on going that way between early November and March.

I managed to set up the schedule for Thursday’s music. We are likely to have more people than chairs available without arms. Some will stand and a few don’t mind using chairs with arms.

Tuesday, Dec 12

No CPAP – Oximetry for Dec 11: SpO2 low 84, 9 events <88% with overall avg., 92.7%. Avg. low SpO2, 89.8%. Pulse avg. 58.3, low 50. Slept 6 hrs 32 min.+ 1.5 hr off oximeter

John (with newspaper in hand) is going to town with me while I exercise and then go along on shopping stops. John suggested I take a video of the Jazzy Funercise class to prove I was exercising, so here is 31 minutes to show I did. I should have moved the chair to my right, which blocks much of what I was doing. I always alternate legs on the movements, rather than do the lifts all on one side. That way, I remain balanced (no comments, please) and some feel more like dancing so I can keep time to the music. This was a new teacher with a new program, so it was a little rusty on the edges, but she did a very nice job. Only two of the normal class members were there. We received a good workout, without walking around the back of the chairs, as we often do, doing the different aerobic exercises. My FitBit wrist band recorded 20 minutes of vigorous aerobic exercise.

Class today at the AAC:
Jazzy Funercise

We went to Bi-Mart, where I checked our number on the list of winners, and we won nothing. I found a desk calendar for us to hang on the wall (30% off). I had been waiting for that since the end of Nov. when in previous years they have had the price reduction. Now, I can begin using it (starting with the new doctor’s visit appointment made for Jan 30 yesterday)! (now changed to 12/19). Then we drove to Super 1, and John took care of going in for groceries and to pick up his meds, Tamsulosin, .4mg capsules. It cost us $15.20 for a month’s supply. I just looked it up on GoodRX and found it for $10.85 at Safeway, but only $8.73 at Costco! I will have to check our next time in, to be sure our Costco honors the coupon in the Pharmacy. I know they do not honor any food coupons. Too many little details about medications and medical things.
While I was sitting in the parking lot, I called Joanie Taylor (in Quartzite, AZ and heard all about her recent surgery. We miss her on violin in our group, but she and hubby Ken, go for 6 months every year. Temperature was 70° when we were talking. She’ll not be back until April.

From there, we went to PetSense for $5.00 off a $40.00 purchase of canned cat food bits. With the $ off, it brings the price down to the same as the pate we get at Costco, and we cannot get the bits there.

Morning was been filled with getting notes off about our email change, downloading data, eating, feeding cats, and making telephone calls about music.

I just worked a little over an hour, with a short phone call included and sent out 8 jobs via the Jobslist I have not done anything with that chore since the weekend. It is, however, much appreciated by the almost 800 members on the google group list, NW Geography Jobs (including many more disciplines).

John fixed supper. It was good, and different. We had store bought beef stew (from a can; John wanted a can that size), but John added our beef, cauliflower, made a pan of cornbread [with corn niblets], and he cut up an apple.

Had a sad call from a friend in Oregon whose husband passed away, after a very long illness with his heart, a heart transplant 7 yrs ago, and then a couple of strokes. The last one took him. He was in the hospital Rehab in Salt Lake where the transplant was done. We have known them through Brittanys for over 40 years.

Tomorrow I have to finish getting the Thursday Christmas music ready to take to Meadows Place.

Wednesday, Dec 13

No CPAP – Oximetry for Dec 12: SpO2 low 82, 9 events <88% with overall avg., 91.9%. Avg. low SpO2, 89.8%. Pulse avg. 56.9, low 51. Slept 7 hrs 59 min.

I fixed my salad to take to Food Bank and worked some on the Christmas music. I took some bells along. Two of our fans at the front table played them with us.

Thursday our music group goes to Meadows Place and I have to notify people who are coming and call in the number of arm-less chairs required. Hard to get at assisted living homes where they need to have arms on the chairs for safety reasons with the residents. We perform in the dining rooms of the homes.

I went to my SAIL class. There I took a 51 min video, until battery ran out. I should have started with a new one. Oh, well, we got most of it. We went overtime today. Interestingly, I met a woman there from the university (teacher of visual arts) that I knew over 8 years ago in a campus wide committee we both participated in, regarding Service Learning Activities for university students. I actually knew her father and his cat, “Crackers,” from visiting him when our music group went to play at Mt. View Meadows. That’s where our group is playing tomorrow, but they have changed the name to Meadows Place, with new ownership.

12-13-17 Ellensburg Adult Activity Center
SAIL class

Came home and washed dishes.
I have to finish getting the Thursday Christmas music ready.
I continue working on email address changes.
I took a break to do a few birthday cards and check email.

Slight change of subject to a link sent to me today about an article, which I found to be truly meaningful to me after being involved with using and teaching GIS pronounced as the three letters and standing for “Geographical Information Systems.” My first class in graduate school was in 1971 (Iowa). My first class taught was in 1977 (Idaho). Before that in Cincinnati, OH, I learned about computer cartography, and taught my first class in that, in 1967 (Georgia).
Here is the article of interest about GIS:
Will the Real GIS Please Stand Up! It’s really quite amusing, so you should give it a read.

Stand Up

I especially hope Gina, our Iguana loving friend and rescuer in Texas will read this article above. Read the article and you’ll understand my comment.

Thursday, Dec 14

No CPAP – Oximetry for Dec 13: SpO2 low 85, 6 events <88% with overall avg., 92.2%. Avg. low SpO2, 90.1%. Pulse avg. 57.7, low 52. Slept 8 hrs 52 min.

Whoo hoo !!! I’m so happy!! An appointment opened up with Dr. Stone for Dec 26th at 9:05 a.m. in Wenatchee (now changed again; glad I requested to be on the cancellation call list). Pray for no snow. John just told me last night we were not going to have a white Christmas, so I hope he’s right for Wenatchee as well.

We both worked on projects until leaving at 1:00 p.m. for Meadows Place with all the stuff we needed. John helped set up chairs and we did not have to bring in my folding chair from the car. Was certainly a cloudy gray day today.

I took my camera and couldn’t find my tripod so was going to use the piano, but John spied a highboy cabinet, and helped me put it on top and he started and stopped the camera recording. We got the whole hour in (staring a little before 2:00 with two songs for a warm-up, and then launched into the booklet we had given the audience, with the lyrics on colored pages, so I had to give directions throughout the playing. The pages were not numbered, so I had to say the title and the color of the page. We have used this handout for years, and only have 14 copies left, so I have to be very sure to have someone watching the music so it does not disappear. It would be a pain to replace now. Occasionally, our audiences are larger than 14, so this month they will have to share. The December music is the only one with this setup. All other months are numbered.

Here is the recording of today’s music – 59 minutes worth. Go through a few but don’t miss going to the end for a couple of our group songs, and the next to last song with Manord leading us on the Peter, Paul & Mary song, A ‘Soalin, and don’t miss the very last song by Evie and Laina, twin fiddlers, “This Christmas Night.” ~ ~ below, a screen capture from video ~ ~. . . . . Kittitas Valley Fiddlers & Friends,
. . . . . . . . . . Meadows Place, 12-14-17
Christmas Music

Friday, Dec 15

No CPAP – Oximetry for Dec 14: SpO2 low 82, 18 events <88% with overall avg., 91.8%. Avg. low SpO2, 88.9%. Pulse avg. 56.x, low 51. Slept 8 hrs 41 min.

I went to the Let It Snow! event at the AAC. I took lots of photos because the staff are always too busy to take photographs while serving us lunch (turkey casserole), and leading the events. Nicole helped with the snowman making below, pictured at the foreground left below at the craft table. Many of the leaders and servers are volunteer members. It’s a nice joint effort for the benefit of all there. The AmeriCorps gals (Nicole and Jessi) then post the photos on Facebook, at Ellensburg Adult Activity Center. The nicest thing done with the photos helps people who come to events and do not have a computer or smart phone for access to the web. They order 4×7″ photos and then give them to the people. I have had some folks request a particular picture location with them standing adjacent so they can send to their grandchildren. The AAC always decorates the entire room with nice décor for the month or season.

We started the program with a song fest (6 songs) from the acapella group of singers named Black and Silver (directed by Sara Pope). I will put a video below of their 3rd song (with drum accompaniment by Mark Manning on an African drum, a Djembe. This drum originated in West Africa. According to the Bambara people of Mali, the name of the djembe comes from the saying, “Anke djé, anke bé” which translates to “everyone gather together in peace,” thus defining the drum’s purpose. In their language, “djé” is the verb for “gather” and “bé” translates as “peace.” (information from Wikipedia)

Black & Silver Song with Djembe drum
Peace

The last song was a sing-a-long, with audience participation: “We Wish You a Merry Christmas!”

Black & Silver Song 6
link

After their performance, we were served lunch.

Here are some of the table centerpiece decorations.They were different on each of several tables of three rows.

Part of the event was hand-crafting one’s own to take home. (left) Instructions for making the base; craft table participants. Connie Bright (2nd from the right above) helped with the snowmen making materials, and with a game of pin the lips on the snowman toward the end. It was interesting (see below).

During the end of lunch and after our piano player (Trip Landon) finished his lunch, he and his brother Beck played a short duet, and then Trip continued with a bunch of Christmas songs. We started and ended with music. The music continued through the game described below (pin the lips on the snowman).

Some information about the contribution of the Landon family.Part of the Landon family are here; from the right, Laura, Beckett (who incidentally has borrowed my ¾ size violin I had in the 4th grade, turned it into a viola [with a different string setup]), Trip Landon (who played the piano for us today, but the day before, played Christmas music with our Kittitas Valley Fiddlers & Friends. The gentleman across from Beck is his grandfather, Gary Brown, a US Navy Submariner. Dad Johnny joined them later for the meal, but Beck had to leave to go back to school. Both Gary and Johnny are veterans, and both boys played patriotic music with our music group back in November for the AAC’s early Veterans’ Day celebration. Look back in the blog to Nov 3.

Here’s a very short video of the brothers’ piano duet. I haven’t had time to upload all the videos yet.

A piano duet (just a warm-up)
Trip & Beck

Then Trip continued alone on a bunch of songs for the season.Here he is playing for the rest of the party, and an AAC member, Jackie, thanking him at the end. Jackie is in my SAIL class there.

Here was the game (Pin the Lips on the Snowman):Start with blindfold, placing a kiss on the snowman, and the one getting the sticker closet to his lips won a package of chocolate kisses. You can see the errant ones, and others were even farther off the snowman.

Here’s a video of the process, very short:

Connie leading blindfolded lady toward the wall.
Placing lips

Finally, a few parting shots Posing with our hats and friends, Nancy, Jessi, Marilyn, Curtis. Long ago, Curtis was my student in Geography classes at CWU.

I have been wishing to get a photo of me, in my Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer sweatshirt, with a stuffed Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer I bought at a yard sale ~5 years ago and donated to the senior center, where I get to see him every year. Left are two shots of Rudolph at the AAC, and him with me, 2017

I came home, called Dr. Stone’s nurse, and now I have an appointment Dec 19, at 1:05 p.m. in Wenatchee. That means I have to miss Jazzy Funercise at the AAC, but this is extremely important to my health, so I have to go. It’s especially nice the scheduled time is later in the day, as well. And, the weather forecast is for light rain, only.

Meanwhile, I need to get some blood tests drawn this Monday, so that the endocrinologist will have the whole picture. I have to get them ordered through my PCP who made the referral. The tests requested are Ferritin, Free T4, Free T3, Reverse T3 and a TPO.

We stayed up way too late working on chores.

Saturday, Dec 16

No CPAP – Oximetry for Dec 15: SpO2 low 82, 10 events <88% with overall avg., 91.9%. Avg. low SpO2, 89.8%. Pulse avg. 55.8, low 52. Slept 7 hrs 24 min +.

Today has been filled with accomplishing chores in the house and outside. John’s biggest one was removing a tree that fell across a fence at the south end of our pasture, and our neighbor’s horses came over for a visit to graze out of our sight in the woods by the creek. At one point recently, they apparently were followed out by our horse, Myst, whom John found one morning on the opposite side of our fence, in our neighbor’s pasture. He was lucky even to see her, because the morning freezing fog was so dense. He thinks he has put an end to the problem, and has taken out the tree, and put up the fence. He also loaded some rounds of wood he cut several years ago into his Gorilla Cart and brought them out.

I continued working on the blog, processing photos and videos, working on email address changes, working on sending announcements to the “jobs list” I moderate, and putting away dishes.

Sunday, Dec 17

No CPAP – Oximetry for Dec 16: SpO2 low 84, 6 events <88% with overall avg., 92.8%. Avg. low SpO2, 90.5%. Pulse avg. 56.6, low 50. Slept 7 hrs 46 min.

John titled this post as “An Easy December” because long range weather forecasts – out to January 1 – indicate we will not have seriously cold temperature, nor lots of snow. Last year we had cold temperatures that lasted so long people and animals suffered. Even our frost-free faucet froze. We managed to keep the horses watered. Many folks in the Valley had more issues than we did. Wildlife suffered, but the upside is that such cold also kills pests that survive (overwinter) during a season like we are having now.
We know folks in the eastern and central parts of the country are having cold weather, and there are still fires in California, but we are, relatively speaking, having an easy December. We wish you well, stay warm, and safe.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy & John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Monday, Dec 4

No CPAP – Oximetry for Dec 3: SpO2 low 84 9 events <88% with overall avg., 92.1%. Avg. low SpO2, 89.8%. Pulse avg. 54.5, low 50. Slept 8 hrs 3 min.

I’m going to start this week with a sunset from last night and a number of views that people in Ellensburg shared on a local Facebook site: Community Connect, Kittitas County.By Mikka Jameson, Carrie Hall, & Keri Armstrong, Ellensburg, WABy Padi Pierce, Carrie Patrick McKamey, Alisa Lundy Peterson

Called Marci at Culligan in Spokane to replace our filters under the sink. Set for this Friday, call coming Thursday for a window of time. It happened.

This morning, I spent time reviewing my comments and research on my latest medical finding and need for an endocrinologist to consider my case of an atrial fib medication that has been fine for 7 years keeping me from any fibrillations but has been making my thyroid dysfunctional. I called the head of Medical Records in Cle Elum and asked him if he could search the records by test and not by just the date of a blood draw. He said he could and he would print copies to leave for me at the check-in desk when we go to see our new doctor tomorrow morning.

Afternoon, I went to town for SAIL exercise class and to run some errands. I got some on sale items at Safeway, when I went in to spend lots of money on a prescription for my Brittany. I’m not sure she even needs it, and I halved her dosage six months ago. At least I’m getting it for ½ price there through GoodRX.

During the afternoon, I worked on checking out things I wanted to talk to my doctor about and heated up the back guest bathroom in the house (the coldest part of our house), to take my shower because we have to leave about 9:00 a.m.

Also, I washed a big load of dishes.
John spent the day on another project to build a covered entrance for the 3 outside feral cats to come over the front fence, near where the old cable table was moved from, to get over the fence to get to their heated water, dry food, and the front door to eat their vittles of canned food each morning and night.

Tuesday, Dec 5

No CPAP – Oximetry for Dec 4: SpO2 low 85, 4 events <88% with overall avg., 93.9%. Avg. low SpO2, 90.8%. Pulse avg. 57.4, low 50. Slept 7 hrs 15 min.

We got up, fed the animals, and got ready to leave. It was great we had good weather, cold, but no freezing fog, as had been forecast.

Great visit with our new doctor. He started with reviewing the printed copies of previous tests waiting for me there before my appointment. I had talked with the head of Medical Records at Cle Elum (Ed), and asked him Monday afternoon about checking my records. He found I had four previous labs tests during the last 8 years, before my recent ones in 2017. He printed them and left copies for me to pick up when I arrived for our joint follow-up appointment.

I explained to Dr. Wood what I had done, and he was anxious to see them. He reviewed them with us, and pointed out the meaning of the values (which I had already seen, and suspected). The 2009 was fine. The atrial fib medication was started in 2010 and the 2010 test showed a change, with the change continuing for the next 4 years, in 2012 and 2014. No one ever told us about the potential conflict. Now we know from our recent research, that this can show up as soon as 3 weeks after going on the drug. Other than the hair loss, I have had no other indications of a problem. My energy level has not been affected. [John says: Hair loss could be from some other issue.]

I’m being referred to another doctor (endocrinologist) to assess my information regarding the conflict of the atrial fibrillation med with my thyroid. I’m quite excited I will be seeing Dr. Lisa Stone, in Wenatchee, for her evaluation. She comes with excellent recommendations and reports from a number of people I know. My blood tests and my loss of hair on the top of my head alerted my new PCP to research further, and he found the potential conflict.

We didn’t get home from Cle Elum until noon and had not eaten, so John cooked up a nice brunch, and I left for town for my vigorous exercise class. Only two of us were there today, and we had a good workout, with 25 minutes of vigorous exercise (according to my FitBit wrist monitor).

I brought home a plate of various Christmas cookies in a gift-wrapped bag, with a hand painted card by the kids. I’ll show you the card, and inside were printed Merry Christmas greetings. I also got a plate for my 92 yr old friend, Gloria, who has been a member of our exercise class since 2010 at the center. She is not coming anymore because the assisted living place she moved to has two SAIL classes she can attend.

The gifts were assembled by the Bits and Buckles, kids group, of cowboys and cowgirls, and they made the cookies, candy, and packages, to deliver to the senior center. What a nice gesture.
Bobbi Broderius, their leader will send me a description tomorrow and a picture of the back of her car with all the plates for delivery. She’s the mom of one of our new AmeriCorps staff helping with exercises and events at the senior center (AAC). Her name is Jessi. I have known Bobbi through CWU for many years in our scholarship luncheon group.

Here are the photos she sent of the back of the car and also some of the kids. More were involved, as you will see in the story below the pix.
Bits and Buckles Club with a nice Community Christmas offering.

Here’s the story (at my request) from the leader:

Bits & Buckles is a 4-H club that has boys and girls ages 8-18. Up until this year we only had horse 4-H members in our club. This year we added rabbit 4-H so that is a new adventure for us. Most of the kids in the club have at least one horse.

The members have to give a demonstration in each of the projects they are involved in, attend horse judging contests (where they judge the horses), keep a record book, complete a showmanship class, and participate in club meetings. They also show their horse in different events throughout the year. There are pre-shows for both rabbit and horse and then horse has their big fair in August (2 weeks before Labor Day Fair) and the rabbit kids will show their rabbits at Fair. The horse program only takes a few horses back to Labor Day Fair as there is just not room for us.

We have a club business meeting once a month and offer club rides at Bloom pavilion to help the kids with their horses. We host a couple of horse shows a year and do various community service activities.

Jessi started when she was 9 and I just stayed after she aged out. I have been involved for 15 years. I have a bunch of great kids! I love working with the kids and horses. I could talk about horses forever!

Wednesday, Dec 6

No CPAP – Oximetry for Dec 5: SpO2 low 85, 3 events <88% with overall avg., 92.6%. Avg. low SpO2, 90.9%. Pulse avg. 55.4, low 50. Slept 7 hrs 45 min.

Today’s wonderful wake up picture was from my friend since 1974, when he hired John and me to teach at the Univ. of Idaho. He lives in two places now and was traveling when he saw this view and returned to photograph it.By Sam Scripter: “Willamette Falls, @ Oregon City, with Mt. Hood gracing the horizon,” 12-5-17. [Copy and paste Willamette Falls into Google Earth to see the location.]

I worked again on email address changes, and left earlier than usual for music at the food bank. I was able to help set up chairs, music stands, and visit with people. I also delivered a bunch of containers to the kitchen for their use (plastic containers such as sour cream & cottage cheese come in). They use them and appreciate receiving them. Two grocery bags of them were donated by two of my neighbors and left on our gate post at the road. A week ago, the same neighbor brought two much larger bags of egg cartons, and those I took to the food distribution center. John and I are still amazed they can reuse those cartons. We toss any that look messy.

I attended SAIL exercise class, and we had another vigorous workout, led by Jessi Broderius.

From there I went by the pharmacy to pay for and pick up two medications.

I came home and heard about John’s chore filled day and saw his newly created bird feeder. Its got thin plywood on the top and bottom and a 2″x 4″ wire enclosure. The little birds come and go as though it isn’t here. A few Quail go through, but the Collared Doves are too large. As ordered. The fence cross-over for the cats is covered and has a platform. The fence now has a 2 x 4 rail across the top that may keep the deer from coming over. We’ll see. Cats have a ladder like approach to the platform just above the higher fence.
Our local skunks are the striped type (Mephitis mephitis) and not good climbers. They are able to squeeze through an opening near ground level and they are good at digging. There is also a spotted skunk, sometimes called a ‘polecat’, not seen around here but a better climber. Just some of the issues when living in a rural setting.

Thursday, Dec 7

No CPAP – Oximetry for Dec 6: SpO2 low 84, 3 events <88% with overall avg., 93.6%. Avg. low SpO2, 91.5%. Pulse avg. 54.4, low 49. Slept 8 hrs 9 min.

Today our Fiddlers and Friends group is not playing. The nursing home is “locked down” because of a flu-like viral gastroenteritis (in England called the winter vomiting bug) with over ½ the residents ill. One would think they would give the residents a flu vaccine (I don’t know, just a comment – but apparently nothing yet works well). Residents are confined to their rooms and served their meals there. This being one of the “51 specific evidence-based recommendations” to lessen the impact.

It gives me time to stay home and work on my changes of email addresses required by the end of the month.

I didn’t get as much done as I needed, but made more progress. Still have many hours to go on this project.

Friday, Dec 8

No CPAP – Oximetry for Dec 7: SpO2 low 85, 9 events <88% with overall avg., 91.4%. Avg. low SpO2, 89.4%. Pulse avg. 55.6, low 48. Slept 5 hrs 16 min. & got more off the oximeter.

This morning we await the Culligan man to visit to check our Aqua-Cleer® Advanced Drinking Water Filter System, make tests, and replace the 4 filters. We pay something every month to cover the cost near the end of the year. This works very well. The water could not be any better or safer – we think.
When we go to the Yakima Costco we see area folks buying bottled water by the cart load. We have no idea what that costs per year. You pay either way, but under the sink filters seems simpler.

Today for lunch, I am going to the senior center for the annual Christmas party, and wearing my old (now too large) “ugly” Christmas sweater to be in the contest, with a gift for the winner. Mine is probably not ugly enough to win, but it will be fun to wear it. I got lots of compliments as I was going around taking pictures of the crowd. John wore it last Sunday to the Grange Christmas dinner. We didn’t take any pictures there. Some of you have seen it in past Decembers in the blog, normally on him.

I carried John’s Nikon, but the memory filled up partway through the event. Here are a few photos I took early on, or had help from someone with my camera. I had taken another camera with me, and switched to it later.

The AAC activities started with the sweater contest. Left is the contest at the start of the party. The two winners are 2nd and 3rd from the left. Right is my friend Mildred with me.

After the contest, they served us lunch. Here’s a food collage:Sides of apples, eggnog bread, banana/choc chip, pumpkin bread, and a plate: ham, green beans, & potatoes w/ gravy. I had water, and most all had cranberry punch (I cannot w/meds).

Santa joined the crowd while we were eating.
LINK: Santa

A gift exchange (a fun game in itself) for those that wanted to play, came after we finished eating. Last year’s gift I had to throw away after it blew up in my microwave cooking eggs and made a terrible mess.

Here I am with part of my gift that came in a big sack with some smaller items. This is supposedly a fantastic game for up to 8 people, called Mexican Trains Dominoes:Nancy with the heavy metal box with game parts. I’ll have to take it to Hearthstone or Briarwood to set up to play with some of the residents (next year in my spare time; what’s that?)
Nancy on Santa’s knee, Mrs. Claus, Connie, & just the 3 of us.

I took a lot of photos of the day, which I will share with the staff so they can post what they want on the Ellensburg Adult Activity Center’s Facebook page, to go along with all the photos they took. I try to take photos while they are busy fixing our lunch, or serving, when they cannot take pix.

We were done by 1:10 p.m. and I went by the hospital in my outfit to wish Merry Christmas to 3 people on the hospital staff.

I did not stay around town for a 3:00 party at the Food Bank for all volunteers & family, because I had things to do at home, and I was already full of food and carrying home gifts.

I did go by my pharmacy to pick up two prescriptions, and completed another chore of putting in my pills to a week long’s supply of morning and night pills.

We stayed up late working on computer chores.

Saturday, Dec 9

No CPAP – Oximetry for Dec 8: SpO2 low 84, 6 events <88% with overall avg., 92.1%. Avg. low SpO2, 89.9%. Pulse avg. 56.3, low 51. Slept 8 hrs 16 min.

I screwed up on picking up my Coumadin from Super 1 pharmacy. I should have been alerted when I heard the price that I owed (with Insurance paying part). It was more than double what I get it for at Safeway, through GoodRX for cash, not using insurance), at the price for 90 tablets (2.5mg) of $15.58. I won’t make that mistake again. By federal regulations, it cannot be returned to the pharmacy after it is dispensed.

All day I’m home to take care of things. Progress is going slowly. We have been shooing off the collared doves from the feeders, so the smaller birds can have their share. They do not mind sharing with the quail, but the doves are not liked by anyone, apparently including the hawk in a tree near the road. John chased them up that way but the hawk didn’t move.

I have had bunches of emails I needed to respond to. Much time has been spent since last night, moving and sorting pictures from the event at the senior center yesterday that I captured on two different cameras. John’s takes the nicer photos, but when his memory filled up part way through, I switched to the other older camera. I tried deleting a few that I knew were deletable, but after filling it again, I waited for John to review them when I got home. There were photos back to 2010 on the SD card. John has started deleting old photos. He often takes 5 or 6 of the “shot” and so will be clearing about half or more of the space. It has taken him 7 years to fill up the memory card.

I’ll end the week with a picture joke – someone should have seen this not so merry sight coming.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Left over from last week:
Pictures of our musical group entertaining the day before Thanksgiving… taken of our Kittitas Valley Fiddlers & Friends group by Chuck. He’s the husband of our guest for the day from Bend, OR, playing the accordion, Katie Eberhart.Here we all were at the end, only holding our instruments, not playing. Left to right, foreground is Gloria, my 92 yr old friend, who just moved into Hearthstone. She’d come down to listen and sing along. We had a nice audience behind the cameraman. Players from the left: Laura, Maury, Manord, Evie, Charlie, Dean, Nancy, visitor Katie, Anne. Some of our regulars were out of town on Thanksgiving trips.

Here’s some collages of close-ups during the performance.Laura, Manord, Dean, and NancyNancy and Katie happy to see Evie arriving. Right photo Evie is in the middle with Manord and Charlie.

Sunday, Nov 26

No CPAP – Oximetry for Nov 25: SpO2 low 86, XX events <88% with overall avg., 89.9%. Avg. low SpO2, 87.4%. Pulse avg. 56.8, low 50. Slept 8 hrs 9 min.

I spent time on the blog, and John entertained himself with a cable-table move. I captured some of the moving of the heavy utility wire spool to a position where we can see and enjoy the birds coming in for black-oil sunflower seeds.
When compared to striped sunflower seeds, black oil seeds are meatier and have a higher oil content, giving birds more nutrition and calories in every bite. Black oil seeds also have thinner shells, making them easier for small birds to crack.Most seed eating birds are attracted to black oil sunflower seeds. The black in the name describes the all black hull. The oil in the name refers to the higher oil content per gram in this smaller sunflower seed. Cardinals, chickadees, finches, sparrows, nuthatches, and other small birds prefer black oil sunflower over any other seed because of its high fat content and thinner shell.
Striped sunflower is larger and has a tougher shell. Jays, titmice, cardinals, grosbeaks and woodpeckers love striped sunflower and can handle the tougher, larger shells.
We also have California quail and collared doves, a native of subtropical Asia. We wanted to have the feeding take place closer to the windows so we can watch the interactions – and occasionally chase the doves away. They are the largest of the many birds feeding, there are a lot, and they get pushy.
Back to the action.The “before” location was on pieces of wood over gravel. The “after” location would be up in the air, using concrete blocks for support.Here is the ramp and lever process photo, with the video below.

John Moving the Cable Table

Final resting place for cable table:Final resting place for cable table, with John and companion critters (Brittany & cat) following him up the driveway to feed the horses. Note the bird on the top of the table and on the veranda.
Currently, our little birds are mostly Finches and Juncos.

Little Birds

Monday, Nov 27

No CPAP – Oximetry for Nov 26: SpO2 low 82, 9 events <88% with overall avg., 90.3%. Avg. low SpO2, 86.4%. Pulse avg. 57.5, low 49. Slept 5 hrs 35 min.

I got a call from my PCP’s nurse Diane that our new PCP, Dr. Wood wanted to see me today to discuss my Thyroid blood draw results last Tuesday. It was a long trip up and back to a 1:45 appt, that took <15 mins. We suppose that is required for government regulations. We found out that one of my medications for atrial fib is conflicting with my thyroid (making it dysfunctional), so I am being referred to an endocrinologist for a thorough examination and determination of how to counteract it. These were the results of my Thyroid tests a few days apart:Comments: I really don’t know enough to talk about the values above. I only know that my doctor requested the T3 be done after the FT4 results were in, with the elevated TSH test. I do not know the meaning of T3 uptake and total, or the significance of the values. We return for a visit this coming Tuesday morning, and I will learn more before then, and more still then.

The concern is that one of my heart medications (Amiodarone) is conflicting and making my Thyroid “dysfunctional.” I have successfully been on the medication for 7 years with no occurrence of any atrial fibrillation. I do not wish to go back to the prior feeling. Then, I could see my chest moving and feel the palpitations. My hopes are there is some counterbalance medication I can begin slowly with supervision by my PCP to make this work. I am not aware of any effects this condition is making on my life style or energy level.

I thought I fixed the online banking with Umpqua, but the end of the week, an announcement for my statement being ready came to the old account I supposedly changed from. Maybe (I hope) it was already in the system and will be changed next month, when I no longer have the email account working.
The Balinese are going on with life normally, apparently with no concern for the volcano. If I were nearby, I would be concerned.
Bali Mt. Agung “Erupting”

On the way home from the doctor’s office in Cle Elum, I saw some pretty clouds over the ridge behind our house and asked John to stop for me to photograph them for the preschool studies on clouds. My friend from New Jersey has been sharing some neat photos of clouds from back east.

Here was my contribution this afternoon.Looking across Naneum Fan to the ridge (tops ~5,500 feet) where the Wilson Creek and Naneum Creek drainages combine and flow into our valley. West is to the left, toward the higher Cascades.
Here is my (short) video of clouds over Wilson Naneum Drainages, 11-27-17.
Clouds

Tuesday, Nov 28

No CPAP – Oximetry for Nov 27: SpO2 low 86, XX events <88% with overall avg., 90.2%. Avg. low SpO2, 86.3%. Pulse avg. 56.2, low 50. Slept 8 hrs 4 min.

Let’s start with a sunrise we missed, but a friend saw and photographed 10 minutes south of us: Photos by Myrna Antonich from her backyard (that pole is her clothes line – the old conventional kind many of us grew up with).

I called Cle Elum to Susan in referrals and give her Gary Treece MD’s contact information: NOVA Health, phone: 509-573-3530. It is located at 6101 Summitview Ave., Ste. 200, Yakima, WA 98908. He is an endocrinologist in Yakima recommended by my cardiologist, Anatole Kim, MD. [He is about 71, and tried to retire. Then was convinced to return. This info puts a damper on the referral – may look elsewhere.]

I called Shaku Amin at College Subscription Service and found out our Discover and Smithsonian are not yet expired. We keep getting requests to renew. I have put her direct line into my notes on magazines in that folder. I also have her email in our new joint account. We also have gotten 4 or 5 solicitations from Forbes Magazine with a gift of Wall-Street Bull/Bear cuff links following our payment. The last time John wore cuff links was likely our wedding in 1969. Someone needs to get out of NYC more often.

I left home to get to the KVH hospital to check in for my mammography appointment at 1:00 p.m. The mammography “machine” is brand new in our hospital, and scans in 3D, not 2D, which allows for better interpretations. While there, I requested copies of my recent thyroid tests that were drawn and submitted to Quest Diagnostics in Seattle. I need to scan these and send to my (now retired) cardiologist’s nurse, for her to share with him, if she sees him this week, as planned. In the process of finding out things about my referral to an endocrinologist, I learned that my cardiologist since 2009 retired Oct 31, 2017 from the Yakima Heart Center. He found the “new health care” environment unattractive. We had discussed this notion with him over the past 2 or 3 years. I am hugely disappointed but not surprised.

I went to my normal stops on Tuesday, and ended up at the AAC for exercise. That jazzy funercise is going to change for a month to dancing with a weekly change in the type of dance (line, swing, ballroom, ?) My friend of many years from the horseback riding club (KV Trailriders), Pat Thomas, was there for her first time, and we were the only two who showed up. Pat also lives on Naneum Rd (our road, 4 miles south). We visited and walked while our leader had to attend to AAC business, but then Nicole (AmeriCorps staff person), joined us and lead us through SAIL exercises for our arms and legs. I was hurting from my mammography, particularly my left shoulder, but the new mammography was an interesting experience to have and watch the machine and see the results on a screen. The main problem was my range of motion to get the edge of the plate under my arm pit and leaning forward. The release was instant and not as painful as in the past. My left side is also a challenge for the technician, because of my implanted (metal) defibrillator getting in the way.

More time spent on changing emails.

Wednesday, November 29

No CPAP – Oximetry for Nov 28: SpO2 low 87, xx events <88% with overall avg., 91.2%. Avg. low SpO2, 88.1%. Pulse avg. 56.2, low 49. Slept 8 hrs 25 min.

Today, I worked on various things in the morning. I sorted apples to get a box to give away, then worked on music, but primarily email changes.

I left for the Food Bank, early, and dropped off Wall St. Journals, and then got stuff done setting up at the Food Bank for music, giving containers to the cook, who gave me some return lunch to give to my neighbor. We played Christmas music and the whole audience enjoyed it and sang along, then we ate, visited, and I left to take some Christmas cards to a young woman who asked for them (I picked them up at the Senior Center on the free take table.) Then delivered some music and the box of apples to a family who helped with the veterans’ celebration.

On to SAIL class. We had a good workout today with 24 min of vigorous exercise. I left there for a Hospice Friends stop, and then two other stops, before home.

I also put in a call to my PCP about a prescription that never got sent to my pharmacy. It fell through the cracks somehow, but I believe it will be resolved now.

We both worked some today (John on outside: fence, feeding, and other odd chores), and me on the email address saga and other records I’m taking care of changing.

Thursday, Nov 30 Happy Thanksgiving!

No CPAP – Oximetry for Nov 29: SpO2 low 87, XX events <88% with overall avg., 91.5%. Avg. low SpO2, 89.2%. Pulse avg. 54.6, low 49. Slept 7 hrs 11 min.

Long ago Jeff Watson was my student at CWU in GIS classes. He is still in WA doing GIS work for the Muckleshoot Tribe.

This is his awesome post via Facebook, which I seldom visit. This is worth the trip.

Jeff Watson’s 3D pro (ArcGIS) compilation: Need to view in Facebook …his facebook account is Jeffrey A. Watson.
Historic River changes in western WA

Here are his comments:

The Tribe’s Planning Commission expressed interest in gaining a sense of historical flows of the White and Green Rivers so I put this animation together at work to demonstrate where they used to be connected. In 1906 a flood on the White river deposited so much debris along the rise of the southwest side of the Muckleshoot prairie that the river was diverted completely into the Stuck River which became the Duwamish which, in turn empties into Commencement Bay. A long history of flooding in the area drove residents to fortify the natural dam, and the rivers have been disconnected ever since. Needless to say downtown Auburn would be a very different place right now. As the video indicates I geo-referenced the image of a 1906 map into the GIS then digitized the path of the river into a vector polygon data set. The fly-over effect is achieved with not a lot of work via the ArcGIS Pro 3D software. It actually came out pretty cool.

Here’s a previous one he did:

Commentary: May as well toss this one out there too. I made this a while back to highlight the Reservation and some key Tribal features along the Auburn-Enumclaw Highway (SR 164). It starts at the bottom of the hill in Auburn; heads up past the Casino, then southwest through the Reservation. Just south of the Amphitheater we hang a u-turn and wind up through the White River Gorge back to Auburn. Then up to Emerald Downs race track (an MIT holding); then back along Auburn way to the Casino…

Another look at the Res

We went to an Ice Age Floods Geology lecture tonight at CWU.

Introduction to the evening by Nick Zentner, and to the speaker by Karl Lillquist. LINK
Talk by Canadian on water-caused landscape features in front and underneath glaciers
LINK

Speaker’s responses to questions
LINK

Friday, Dec 1

No CPAP – Oximetry for Nov 30: SpO2 low 86, XX events <88% with overall avg., 91.3%, Avg. low SpO2, 88.6%. Pulse avg. 59.4, low 54. Slept 7 hrs 52 min.

I started the video uploads to You Tube from last night’s talk.

Today is the day of the Weekly Web Sites send from my geographer friend in Michigan.

My favorite today is “These Beautiful, Swirling Images Are Maps of Washington’s Geology.” Follow this link for some excellent LiDAR imagery “pictures.”
LINK
This listing of Web Sites comes from a set of “Earth Science Sites of the Week,” which I receive from Mark Francek, and send off to 74 people on my distribution list who enjoyed sharing the information.

I’m still writing to Colleen Meyer about my labs and thoughts on Dr. Treece and the referral. Did not share the Thyroid test numbers yet, or the connection to the thyroid by taking Amiodarone, but I scanned the test results and will attach to the email and hope she will be able to show them and share with my cardiologist now retired. I asked if I could get a last appt, but she said no, yet she would ask him any question I wanted to ask him.

Arranged for the bread rolls for dinner, Sunday, at the Grange.
Washed a load of dishes. Worried with a number of email things.

Never got time to work on the blog until late this evening after supper, and I still am multi-tasking.
John has been shelling a pound or so of walnuts for the past several nights.

Saturday, Dec 2

No CPAP – Oximetry for Dec 1: SpO2 low 83, 12 events <88% with overall avg., 90.8%. Avg. low SpO2, 87.7%. Pulse avg. 59.6, low 53. Slept 6 hrs 30 min.

I did get some good news from Jeri Conklin in CA that our Daisy (and her mother Ginny) both had good field hunting test runs and got another “leg” on their Senior Hunter (SH) test. Tomorrow, Daisy is going for two more legs (hopefully), and when she gets them, she will have the title SH added to the end of her name, after JH (Jr. Hunter).
Good news – pictures came through tonight…Jeri Conklin with Ginny (left) & Linda Azevedo with Daisy (right). They were braced together (luck of the draw), (Ginny is Daisy’s mom), and they both had excellent bird work and retrieves to hand. Ginny is a little “overweight” from her recent spaying surgery. Here we have Daisy held by Jeri Conklin, with Linda Azevedo (her handler in the Senior Hunt test) and Kurt Conklin behind. This all happened today, December 2, 2017. The Hunt Test was held southeast (Claymine Road) of California City, just north of Edwards Air Force Base.

I spent much time this morning thawing and separating 144 rolls and repackaging for us to take to the Community Christmas Dinner at the Grange, tomorrow at 1:00 p.m.

It snowed lightly, and is supposed to snow through 10:00 a.m. tomorrow. However, considering we are almost an hour from the Grange, and it is closer to the Cascades, we may have to deal with snow on our way there and back. (We did not; it was sunny and beautiful on the way up).

We had a late lunch, so imagine our supper will be as well. It was and was very good, thanks to John’s efforts.

He is now cracking and picking walnut parts from the Carpathians. We have had them (roasted) on our desserts the past few days.

I spent more time on changing emails, after evaluating my thyroid issues, trying to make sense of medical reports on line. I’m not sure I’m able to comprehend all I need to, in order to discuss it with any doctor. John read some of the stuff, and is less worried than I am.

Sunday, Dec 4

No CPAP – Oximetry for Dec 3: SpO2 low 84, 8 events <88% with overall avg., 92.6%. Avg. low SpO2, 89.8%. Pulse avg. 57.4, low 50. Slept 8 hrs 32 min.

We did morning chores and got ready to leave, leaving about 11:44 a.m. We made good time, and got there for a parking spot right by the door. We took our rolls in and found us a place to sit. Visited some with several people, offered my help in the kitchen, but there were plenty of people already helping, and I was not needed.

We dressed in our Christmas sweaters, sweatshirt, and hats. No pictures were taken this year.

I did take videos of the musicians who sang Christmas songs to us for a half hour. They did a lovely job. I doubt I have time to include them all here, but here is one (their last).

Mountain Voices Christmas Choir – Jingle Bells (Sorta)
LINK

The meal was huge. I will not need any supper. I had lots of turkey, yams, a little mashed potatoes, a small amount of sausage dressing, gravy over all, some green beans, cherry Jello-O salad, a deviled egg, and dessert (pecan pie and a small bit of cherry covered cheesecake).

Came home to many emails and feeding chores. John shelled some more walnuts.

Heard from Jeri Conklin, that Daisy successfully got her 3rd leg of Master Hunter test this morning. She’ll have to wait until next year (February) to get her 4th and title.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy & John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Some stuff gets in the way of other stuff, so some stuff is ignored, some is started but not finished, and wonder of wonders, occasionally one of the stuffs gets done.

Monday, Nov 20

No CPAP – Oximetry for Nov 19: SpO2 low 82, 10 events <88% with overall avg., 90.2%. Avg. low SpO2, 86.7%. Pulse avg. 54.0, low 50. Slept 6 hrs 40 min.

Changed email addresses several places. Kaiser Permanente was the toughest. Also tried to get through to MedicAlert, but failed. Got to Pend Oreille Shores.

I’m spending incredible hours and not seeing much get accomplished as quickly as needed.

Tuesday, Nov 21

No CPAP – Oximetry for Nov 21: SpO2 low 82, 9 events <88% with overall avg., 91.1%. Avg. low SpO2, 89.3%. Pulse avg. 55.4, low 50. Slept 8 hrs 27 min.

We left for Cle Elum at 9:40 a.m. We took some White Heron wine along with us for our friends there. We decided to take the freeway up and Hwy 10 back. Our trip both ways was fine, with rain and intermittent fog (mostly on the tops of hills, not in our driving path). We arrived on time, but were not admitted until 11:00. We handed over our stool samples. We had our vitals taken by the nurse, and she handed us a copy of our labs. We compared notes and formed questions for our doctor, who soon arrived.

We revisited and heard about our lab findings. Considering we were born during the 2nd World War, overall, everything is fine, and we are healthy. John was put on a thyroid pill, Levothyroxine, because the tests indicated a slight thyroid hormone deficiency (age related?). For a similar issue, I’m being rechecked because the standard test is for FT4 and the Doc is curious about FT3. These are hormones and one gets converted, or not, into the other in the body. So, more blood drawn from Nancy and in two weeks we’ll go back. John’s prescription was sent to the pharmacy in EBRG. Mine did not make it. I’ll call first thing Monday morning and try to figure what’s up.

Our med-tech phlebotomist there in Cle Elum is a friend of many years (we took her a bottle of Syrah Rosé; learned she really likes Malbec; so in 2 weeks we’ll carry one of those).

Wednesday, November 22

No CPAP – Oximetry for Nov 20: SpO2 low 82, 11 events <88% with overall avg., 91.3%. Avg. low SpO2, 88.7%. Pulse avg. 56.7, low 51. Slept 8 hrs 4 min. (done)

Called nurse Diane about the prescription for me from Dr. Wood for Hydrocodone (aka Vicodin). That’s his suggested substitute for Oxycodone. I’ve still got some, but almost never use, Oxycodone but WA State is pushing hard to restrict it, and the clinics are where the State enforcement starts. Shoulder pain is a pain that requires it when playing fiddle for over an hour or for extreme exertion during exercising such as Jazzercise.

I was going to ask about my Thyroid prescription, but nurse Diane never returned the call. So, I will try again Monday, early. Never good to be needing medical attention on weekends or before or during a holiday.

We played music (last time for Oct/Nov), at Hearthstone today (a day early, because of Thanksgiving. Thanks to Charlie, Laura, Manord, Maury, Dean, Anne, Evie, and our guest Katie from Bend, OR for entertaining the residents, and guests. Thanks to Katie’s hubby, Chuck for coming along to sing, and her mom Barb, who enjoyed and sang the music too.

After the music, Gloria and I went to Community Thanksgiving Dinner. We had a nice time, greeting folks and eating. The plate was full of food: tender sliced turkey meat (dark and white), mashed potatoes, dressing, corn & green beans, grandma roll, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, & lemonade (or hot drink).

I came home and have been working some on dishes, but mostly on changing email addresses. This is turning into a monumental task.

Thursday, Nov 23 Happy Thanksgiving!

No CPAP – Oximetry for Nov 22: SpO2 low 80, 17 events <88% with overall avg., 91.9%. Avg. low SpO2, 88.5%. Pulse avg. 55.0, low 50. Slept 7 hrs 47 min.

John now has a runny nose and is sneezing, so we are happy we don’t have any Thanksgiving commitments. We can’t think of an obvious source, perhaps an unfriendly spirit. We are spending time in the house because it’s still raining. A slight opening in the weather allowed John to go feed this morning and now we can just stay put. We’ve only fed one of the outside cats, Salazar, who must sleep nearby in our car shed. He’s ready early and back during the day to be a companion cat with John on his chores around the property. Czar’s the first in for dinner too. Woody sleeps farther away in a hay shed. Her momma, Sue, goes back across Naneum Road – to someplace on Swedberg’s old dairy buildings, where she originated.

We have to be careful not to expose me to germs, although I probably have built up immunity with my recent infection, or not. Because of the music and Senior Center activities, I’m around more folks than John. Maybe I brought germs home to him.

I’m multi-tasking. I spent a lot of time last night working on the changes in email, and unleashed a ton more changes required I need to tackle today and this weekend. I had primarily been concentrating on email address notification, but I realized there is a ton of information in the ‘messages-received’ from places all over, contacting us about something. So, I have to follow through changing those too, because the sender is identified in the message but not entered into our address book.
I am trying to switch tasks every so often, because that way, everything gets a little attention. Yet still today I haven’t made it back to email changes yet.

We just finished a non-conventional Thanksgiving brunch, with John’s special efforts. We had home fries with his onions, 2 eggs over easy, bacon, and a piece of English Muffin toast with Marionberry jam for me and a wheat English Muffin for him. It was all quite good. We’ve been adding smoked turkey to salads, so not having lots of left-overs from a big roast is not an issue.

Now back to putting the music for Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow! into my SongWriter 2012 software. I need to share it with a piano player (19 yrs old) for a special performance Dec 15 at our senior center. He played fiddle with our group for the Veterans Day music this year, and his brother played Home on the Range on his viola (my switched over ¾ size violin from 4th grade days). I plan to add it to the end of our December music, but may decide not to. And might carry it through to the Jan-February music, if I decide against putting it with the December stuff (cause I don’t have time to make copies for the audiences). They may know the song so I don’t have to worry. It was written in 1945, and many singers have sung it through the years.

To any Facebook friends, check this video, from Bobbie (Roberta) Pearce, my violin teacher from Nampa, ID. Bobbie came up to WA for 22 years – the WOTFA summer workshops.

LINK

She is playing the piano, her daughter Katrina Nicolayeff is a left-handed violinist (a National Grand Champion) is on the microphone and the others are the Junior Jammers, presenting a hoedown performance. Katrina is their teacher/conductor. We think the mother of Libby Rogers (next to Katrina) took the video.

Wow, it’s 2:35 p.m. and the sun just arrived, after the wind, and this morning with rain, fog, and low visibility. Weird weather. Maybe John will get to do some outside chores! It gets dark about 4:30. Sunset is at 4:18 this weekend – on the Naneum Fan.

Tonight we had a nice supper of mushrooms, onions, and open-faced cheeseburger with a Rome apple cut up, and for dessert, John baked a chocolate cake, I frosted with cream cheese frosting, and he covered with his own Carpathian walnuts. The boxed cake and the tub of frosting are well past their best-by dates. That’s why we are making cakes and trying to watch our calories at the same time.

I have been capturing information from credit card statement messages on the old account and had to look for usernames and passwords that I seldom use. I had to get into these to change the preferred email for receiving announcements about monthly statements that come. Switching laptop computers mid-year is also causing access problems. John’s view is “losing this old e-mail account is a curse.” I totally agree.

I made more good progress today on some music needed for Dec 15, Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Cannot believe that song was written so long ago, but it is younger than I am.

Friday, Nov 24

No CPAP – Oximetry for Nov 23: SpO2 low 83, 7 events <88% with overall avg., 91.7%. Avg. low SpO2, 88.3%. Pulse avg. 57.8, low 49. Slept 8 hrs 18 min.

We went to WalMart and found the All Bran in three types we wanted to try and got 2 boxes of the Original. Prices there are the best around, including on line. Costco doesn’t carry original All Bran, nor do any of the groceries in EBRG. Two places carry the buds.

Our trip to Costco was primarily for my glasses and to pick up a few things for our neighbor. Missing was unsalted roasted cashews we faithfully have gotten for her (and us) for years. They no longer carry them, so I have to find a local source, or check at WalMart the next time we are in Yakima.

Saturday, Nov 25

No CPAP – Oximetry for Nov 24: SpO2 low 80, 8 events <88% with overall avg., 90.7%. Avg. low SpO2, 87.8%. Pulse avg. 55.7, low 49. Slept 5 hrs 31 min - 2.5 hrs more off Oximeter.

John put out the placeholder this morning about 9:30 a.m. Don’t miss it. Fun stories. Click the bold letters in the block below:

{ TW’NSNN }

And, I will add another special effects video, from my friend Keith Kleinfelder of his daughter – only for those who have Facebook access. This is no doubt worth getting on Facebook!
His explanation: “This is our daughter (Kiana) on her first “burn.” They’re called fire poi. They are porous ceramic cubes on chains with a strap to hold on to, dipped in Lantern fuel. These were special-ordered from New Zealand by her brother.”
It’s more than just a food of Hawaii and Samoa; this definition is from the web: A small ball made of leaves and fibres, attached to a string; also, a traditional dance performed by Maori women involving the rhythmic swinging of such a ball. [from 19th c.] ( https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/poi ) Kiana’s Poi Debut – 11-24-17
Poise with Pois

In the morning, we both worked on kitchen chores. John repackaged 5 lbs. of link sausage he bought yesterday, into bags of 4 for the freezer. He got 14 packages, and kept one for lunch. So they are about 25¢ per link.

I spent time on and off all morning loading the dishwasher. Now, I have the chore of putting 5 dozen eggs into individual cartons from the big bunch we got at Costco. My neighbor Ken brought me a ton of them, because I only had one left, from giving mine to the Food Bank for distribution. They give ½ dozen at a time to their clients, and now the egg production has cut back.

We had a great late brunch, two sausage links each, two eggs over easy, a piece of English Muffin toast with Marionberry jam, and a large fresh pear cut into many slices. It was all quite good.

John worked before the rains came on outside chores in the front yard. It started raining about 4:00 and continues.

Now it is Sunday morning and the first outside cat has been fed.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy & John
Still on the Naneum Fan