Category: Post Visit

Sunday, Apr 1

We published last week’s blog tonight at 10:31 p.m.
We already covered stuff in the blog about our Easter Sunday.

I heard late about the closure of I-90 Snoqualmie Pass road because of amounts of snowfall dumped in winter storm, closed in both directions all night from Ellensburg to North Bend.
Bad accidents and one fatal.

Monday, Apr 2

We awoke to a snow covered ground day after Easter, but John checked the weather at the vineyard and left for pruning. The wind continues to blow.

I worked on a problem with March/April music, Beautiful Dreamer, and sent it off to members of our music group for Thursday’s playing of the KV F&F at Rehab, needing a count for chairs. I added an announcement about a performance this Saturday in Ellensburg for dancing and music. See the story below on Saturday this week.

Fixed myself a brunch of eggs, ham, toast, zucchini nut bread, and shared leftovers with Annie.

I went to SAIL exercise and at 2:30 by Seth Motors to pick up John from leaving the F-350 for a complicated 60,000 mile fix-up. It is not at that mileage yet, but some vehicles has a tendency to blow spark plugs and cause major damage. Time-wise it was ready for regular service.

Tuesday, Apr 3

John left for pruning at the Mariposa Vineyard, after 7:45.

I called Chad at Seth’s about estimated pick up time of the truck. We hatched a plan.

I had a huge bowl of two bran cereals for breakfast with a lot of peaches. Later I finished with sliced oranges and zucchini-pecan-pineapple bread.

John called and I waited for him to get to a stopping place off the state highway from Quincy to George, so I could give him a phone number at Seth Motors to check on when the truck would be ready for pickup.

I took off for Swing Dancing class at the AAC late but got there in time to sign in and visit with a few folks before the class started.

April 3, ’18 Swing Dancing’s Last Dance

This was the only video of the day. I spent the first part of the class dancing with Evelyn Heflen. We should have demoed our technique in the middle of the circle for the SAIL class the next day, although my muscles were still aching from the workout the day before.

John drove back to Ellensburg, did some other chores in town, before he went to get the truck to drive home. He left his car there so we could get it this afternoon when we drove the truck back to the Washington Tractor dealer to leave our riding lawnmower for maintenance and to pick up our new tiller. John has hauled silt, sand, and horse manure from our place into this older (sunken) garden plot. Then last year we got bags of leaves from a lady, and wood shavings from a stump removal at another place. It needs some high Nitrogen fertilizer and several tillings to make a garden of it. This year will be big Strawberries, Tomatoes, and Butternut Squash. That’s half the space. The rest is in “continuation mode” and all the material is beyond just a shovel and rake. Thus the tiller. See it below.

Here’s John with his Sales Rep, Janie, watching the tiller be loaded into the truck. It had to be tied in place and all we had was an old dog lead. Janie and John

Our trip went well, but we didn’t get home until after 5:00 p.m.

Wednesday, Apr 4

John left for pruning.

I called the staff at Cle Elum to complain about my refill requested from my pharmacy and request checking on the one for John’s that was supposed to have been ordered from Super 1 several days ago. Neither for John were in their system. An urgent refill on both is supposedly is on its way. Later, I checked at the doctor’s and it had been sent down. The pharmacy have the medicines on hand. Nice thing is that if the pills are about to run out, and a refill is required, the pharmacy will give you some to tide you over until it is filled. We didn’t have to test that case. When you are 15 miles away, planning ahead is a better idea.

I also learned that my Atorvastatin prescription had been rewritten for 90 tablets and sent in to Costco Pharmacy. Although I told them that it had to be written for 90 tablets, they sent it through as only 30 on 3-23-18, and I didn’t know until we were 50 miles away that all I could get was 30. I lost $6 on that deal, and obviously, I was not happy. NOW, it should be fixed for my next trip down to Union Gap, WA; however, I will check before I pay.

I went to Food Bank music, taking empty containers for food to bring back for my neighbors any leftovers from the excess food there (donated by the Ellensburg Pasta Co). There was enough for 3+ meals sent back with me, and I delivered it on my way home.

From there I went to SAIL exercise class and sadly, met the daughter of a fellow SAIL class member I have known since 2010, with the very sad news that she is nearing death. Several of us had visited her in the Rehab, where she remembered us and was happy to see us, and planning to be back. She had left there yesterday for home and hospice care. Her daughter was bringing a thank you card to the Senior Center class for all our kind thoughts and prayers, recognized me in the parking lot, and gave me the card for delivery. Her mom had stage 4 Cancer and only a short time to live. Mickey passed the next morning.

I sent Lise McGowan the video of Nick from his museum lecture I took, and I called Sadie at the Kittitas County Historical Museum, to see if I can get the one they taped put on a flash drive, or if they will put it on their museum page, which outsiders could get to. The answer is that it was a live broadcast during the talk, seen on Facebook, and they have no way of giving me the original.
I will give you the link below but it has some problems. The advantage is it is stationary and in the middle of the room in front of the screen. I was sitting behind, having to deal with the windows of the building, and the camera in the way. But, my video, while jumpy at times, follows Nick around the room and zoomed in on many of the slides. You already have that link to mine from last week’s blog on Thursday. Personally, I think it is the better video of the evening.

If, however, you wish to view the stationary one, via Facebook, you will need an account. Suggestion is to jump ahead to around the 7:15 p.m. mark because the museum started the video early and cannot edit out that section.

Facebook Link to Nick Zentner’s talk at the KC Historical Museum last week

Thursday, Apr 5

Morning I spent a lot of time on the phone about bills, and some time on music changes to hand out today. John spent a lot of time outside in the mist with Annie, and then came in and fixed a nice brunch (ham, cheese, mushroom omelet; orange slices; and toast).

John did not go pruning, so he was able to come along and help me get to music at the Rehab, for a huge turnout of players and audience. We started playing 15 minutes early and ended a few minutes after 3:00. Long hard day, and I was happy I had taken a pain pill to get me through. John made a trip to Super 1 picking up needed groceries on a special Thursday (mostly produce) sale, and he was able to get his prescriptions I managed to honcho yesterday.

I drove us to campus because my car has the CWU Emeritus Parking permit. We visited a lot with friends and enjoyed the talk very much. We got our normal front row seat so I could videotape the proceedings. There was a planetarium visit afterwards, but we skipped that.

Here is the program we enjoyed very much.

Intro to IAF future events, & tonight’s speaker, Andrew Fountain, Portland State University Geologist, 4-5-18

Andrew Fountain Ice Dam Failure of Glacial Lake Missoula, 4-5-18, IAF

Check out Andrew’s fantastic web site:

Questions & Answers 4-5-18 IAF Mtg CWU

Friday, Apr 6

John stayed home from pruning because Cameron will be in Seattle at Pike St Market working on plumbing in their new shared place with a couple other businesses.

I took my Nikon camera to attend the AAC’s first Friday of the month event, Spring Fling. Menu: Open face turkey sandwiches, gravy, mashed potatoes, gravy, and mixed veggies. I thought of taking a small salad in case the veggies weren’t appropriate for my need not to have stuff high in Vitamin K. I should have taken it and didn’t. The veggies were mostly green peas and broccoli. So I skipped them and gave them to my neighbor. Here is a link to the photos I took and put on Google photos so those without Facebook accounts could access them:

Spring Fling at the AAC

I took my lab orders for Dr. Lisa Stone (Endocrinologist in Wenatchee) and had those drawn between my lunch and SAIL. I found out the hospital is no longer charging for medical record printouts. I wish I had known that before paying $10 last year for some.
I returned to the AAC for SAIL exercise. Then home by way of Grocery Outlet for ice cream.

Saturday, Apr 7

You all have heard our stories about John pruning wine grapevines every spring for many weeks at Mariposa vineyard west of Quincy, WA on a hill overlooking the Columbia River, where the river makes a 90° turn south at West Bar & Crescent Bar.

We have known the owners Cameron & Phyllis Fries since 1998, where they started their winery in George, WA. Before we started taking field trips to the winery and paring it with food in their amphitheater, Cameron came to our classroom to share his information and provided a wine tasting in the classroom in Ellensburg. We were teaching a summer class, “Wine: A Geographical Appreciation,” at Central WA University. Part of our content was the wine production itself, in conjunction with all the cultural, regional, economic, agricultural, biological, regional, and physical geographic factors involved in the process world-wide. We combined lectures, videos, and local field trips to vineyards and wineries in the Columbia and Yakima River valleys. We taught the class for 10 years, until I was sick in 2009, and we had to cancel the Summer ’09 offering of the class. You have heard follow-up stories of our personal visits to events at the winery and of the field trips with two vans of students.

I want to share White Heron Cellar’s story of a “new” tasting room and distribution center in Seattle at Pike’s Place Market. They are located on the 5th floor. The photos below show part of the story, and the space is shared with two others: a meat market from Cle Elum and a chocolate company from Seattle. Two night photos and a sunny day from the 5th floor, Northwest Tastings

Pike’s Place Market Vendor

On this link above, look under Specialty Foods, and then Wine for Northwest Tastings to see other photos of the tasting room, and a description, which I revised to date: “We are a collaboration space between White Heron Cellars, Soulever Chocolates, Glondo’s Sausage Co., and soon local cheese mongers. Offering wines by the glass and bottle, dairy free and vegan truffles, and cured meats.  Glondo’s is now offering charcuterie boards. Stop by and enjoy the warm atmosphere and the great view!

Websites for those there now are:
White Heron Cellars
Glondo’s Sausage Company
Soulever Chocolates

It had rained all night, and much of the morning, but finally the sun came out, and John and Annie got to do some work before the rain started (sprinkling) again. John’s out for one last time, and then we will grab a bite to eat before driving to town for a performance we both want to experience.
Marte (caller) Sono, Vivian, and Jay

It’s an evening at Hal Holmes with Vivian Williams and her band “Not4Sissies” (Vivian, fiddle; Sono Hashisaki, fiddle; Jay Finkelstein, guitar) playing for a contra dance, 7:30 – 10:30 p.m. Our friend Marte Fallshore is the caller, and her husband, Dale Brubaker, we have known for a long time. Marte is a musician as well (Bass Fiddle) and Dale (Fiddler). We attended from 7:15 to 8:45. John and I visited with friends we knew there, watched the dancing, and listened to the music. With severe arthritis in my left shoulder, there is no way I can do the moves necessary with some of the steps, because I cannot raise my left arm up to my side, or over my shoulder in any direction. I took videos while we were there for your viewing pleasure. Several friends were there dancing, and I have their emails, so I will send them the coverage.

Contra Dance, First Circle Lesson with Additional Steps

2nd lesson with a few additional steps

3rd lesson with a couple more steps

The First Dance with Music

Intro Lesson to Second Dance

The Second Dance with Music

Last Short Lesson with Star & Dosido

The Third Dance with Music

Sunday, Apr 8

Morning start with outside feeding chores (all the cats checked in early for attention and vittles), and they arrived last night when we returned in the dark, from our trip to town. After feeding the horses, John has other required outside projects he has created for himself with his gardening efforts. Annie is his helper, but now back in the house with me, lying at my feet. She gets bored if not out moving around the pasture and yard; as well, it is chilly this morning, cloudy, and is expected to be windy. Rain may happen somewhere in the county, but John hopes not here.

I’m alternating clean-up work and transcribing videos from last night. I have some other chores to tackle today, after finishing the blog draft.

John will be back in for a brunch, late morning. I hope the sun peeks in on the proceedings. My hopes were answered.

We are not scheduled away from home today.
Tried out the tiller – Second Try Tilling Naneum Garden before Stalling

We found we had a stalling problem after a short while tilling.

John thinks he has found the reason.  He was raking the hay where the tiller was parked and found a bolt (new), like others on the tiller. He did not find the nut, but came in to check the user’s manual again. He’s going back to take a photograph. We thought of all sorts of maybes, but we may be on the trail of the cause. John took a picture of the hole that goes through the drive-train. The bolt fell out in the shed, so maybe the nut was never put on. We do not think damage was done, but don’t know. He’s writing a documentary to send to WA Tractor via email, because by the time they arrive tomorrow morning, he will be on his way to pruning vines.
More next week.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

It has been said: No news is good news.
Thus, there is, in fact, nothing new.
With that, I’m about to go to sleep — 10ish.
Saw this today: Be alert. The world needs more lerts.
Leaving the room now.
John

Nancy appears to be coming out of the diseasedness that has been disturbing her for the past month.Also, this was a marvelous fall day.
What’s not to like.

She is still working on her weekly update. It is 8:39 here on the Naneun Fan.

More on Monday.

John

We are late.
Nancy still has a nasty cold (?)

And speaking of cold, The Naneum Fan is expecting its first frost this week. Maybe even by Monday, early.
We’ll get her activities and thoughts out sometime Monday.

Nancy picked up a bug (apparently) at one of the recent outings and has felt ill since
Friday. Same with the inside/outside cat. He’s not talking. Nancy coughs when she does.
Maybe we’ll know more on Monday.
Until then, we are carrying on.
Will work on weekly blog in the morning.
John

Forest fires are the topic of this story:

Forest fires near us

The Jolly Mountain area is 30 miles to the northwest.
Norse Peak (45 mi.) is the name of the fire about 40 miles west of us.
Some days the wind brings smoke from both our way. Other days from one or the other or neither.
The Jolly Mountain area looks like this:Jolly is left of center.
Note much of the area is covered by bare rock and short grass/forbs. So the acres burned is a notion of some speculation.

Cheers,
John

Hungry Wildlife, & Technology Challenges

Monday, Jan 23

For Jan 22 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 0.29. Events: 1 H, 1 OA, 14 RERA. Time on 7 hrs 1 min with (max = 14 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 87, 1 event <88% with overall avg., 91.9%. Pulse avg. 58.0, low 48.

I managed to write the fiddlers and friends about our Hearthstone play date this week.

What a crazy day we had. Nothing happened as planned, but we did have an interesting sunset.Looking southwest

Tuesday, Jan 24

For Jan 23 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 0.97. Events: 4 H, 1 PP, 8 RERA. Time on 4 hrs 7 min with (max = 20 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 87, 2 events <88% with avg., 91.7%. Pulse avg. 58.4, low 50. I awoke at 4:00 a.m. because of my phone making a loud noise when its battery died. I had not turned it off the last time I used it on Saturday.

Ice fog pictures at our place. Very early morning shots: left our 3 favorite deer and birds in for morning treats; right, Myst’s silhouette in front of barns you cannot see, showing frost on the tree limbs within the haze.

Later in the morning, the sun appeared, and I took photos of frosty trees, before departing for town.Part of our backyard view in 3 shots.

Today on my way to the hospital lab for a blood draw, I took some Fuji apples to my neighbor Lorene. I drove from sunshine and blue skies fewer than two miles down the road into frozen fog. Elevation drop in 2 miles is just 200 feet. You’ve seen above the results of the overnight frozen fog deposited as “silver frost” on our trees. The sun only shined for a very short while I was in town. On my way home after 3:00 p.m., it was clear only for the first mile of my trip home. Then it was socked in almost all the way home (as on the trip in). John experienced nice weather all day.

After my blood draw, I went by the Auditor’s Office for the 2009 Subaru license tab, just 3 months late! Once done there, I still had a little time before getting to my Jazzercise class, so I went by the bread room at the food bank where we play music tomorrow. I was fortunate in finding two loaves of my favorite bread (English Muffin) for toast and two loaves of John’s favorite, Rosemary Olive Oil bread.

I made it to the senior center in time to sign in for my class. I mentioned to the AmeriCorps girls that I just had a lot of blood taken, so I hoped I had energy for the exercise. Megan kindly asked if I would like some Gatorade, and went to the fridge and gave me a choice of 3 flavors. I picked orange. I drank it during our 50-minute class, and got through it just fine. I thanked her again as I left. We had a new person in class. Two usual members were not there, but now our class consists of 7 people. It’s going to get crowed with the pool table to contend with next Tuesday. You will see the setup below, and I will move behind the pool table (where the folks are playing cards last Friday).

I came home by way of Bi-Mart to check my numbers for a prize, and found a half ounce bottle of Artificial Tears (Good Sense) for only $1.79, and two metal containers of Fisherman’s Friend cough drops marked down 70 cents. They are nearing their use by date, but I cannot imagine they won’t be all right. Considering the “tears” I was using have been discontinued by the manufacturer and replacements are over $10 for half an ounce, I think it makes “good sense” to uses those drops. (I’m writing this after trying them the rest of the week, and they clear my dry eyes just fine.)

I arrived home to a report on my INR (2.1) and my Potassium (now has to be checked because of the new heart medication tending to raise it). That figure was 4.3.Dinner was special tonight.
Copper River salmon on a bed of rice and yellow peppers. John’s creation.

Now to do both our blood pressures and get to bed. Late again.

Wednesday, Jan 25

For Jan 24 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 2.14. Events: 5 CSR, 1 PP, 18 H, 12 RERA. Time on 8 hrs 25 min with (max = 17 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 87, 1 event <88% with avg., 92.8%. Pulse avg. 53.9, low 50.

I picked up Gloria and took her along with me to the Food Bank Soup Kitchen for music. Our leader is still gone, but I took books she put together for the group. We sang, ate, went to SAIL exercise class, back by Grocery Outlet, for both of us to shop. I only bought a gallon of ice cream to take by and put in the freezer at the Geography Department to go with the cake I’m taking for the luncheon on Friday.

I worked more on music for Thursday.

We went to Nick Zentner’s talk on Giant Lavas of the PNW. An excellent presentation as usual. We got there about 6:15 to assure ourselves a seat on the front row. We left about 8:25 in a major snowstorm. Other places in the World have larger areas of such ancient lava flows. The Deccan Traps {step-like} in India and the Siberian Traps, east of the Ural Mountains in Russia.

Nick Z’s video on CRBs
Giant Lava Flows

Thursday, Jan 26

For Jan 25 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 1.01. Events: 1 0A, 1 PP, 6 H, 14 RERA. Time on 6 hrs 54 min with (max = 15 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 61 spurious at start, actual low, 90, on the graphic chart, 0 events <88% with avg., 92.9%. Pulse avg. 56.3, low 50.

Hearthstone was our Fiddlers and Friends venue today. We had a good number of folks there, including folks from Seattle (Sharon on bass guitar), Janet (fiddle) and Dave (bass fiddle) from Winlock, WA, and our folks from the Kittitas Valley, with two new players (banjo and harmonica). We had a tambourine, flute, 3 fiddles, 3 guitars, banjo, bass fiddle, and harmonica, plus our little 3.5 yr old mascot and dancer, Haley.I left with Gerald and we headed to the Palace Cafe, to meet John there, for his and John’s birthday dinners. Gerald’s birthday was today (86). John has to use his free coupon during the month, so this seemed appropriate. He was able to go to the feed store and get wild critter feed, and the senior-horse pellets. We hope the weather will change soon and we will stop feeding. The deer have started eating the seed-heads from the horses’ Timothy hay. Mostly only the Mama and her 2 babies from last spring have been getting pelleted supplements, but some of the others have figured out what’s going on. Altogether we think there are about 14, but just a few have an identifying mark. Mama has a hand-sized dark spot on the left side of her face. Another doe has a split right ear.

Back at the Palace Cafe: we had a nice dinner. John and Gerald had theirs free ($15.79) Chicken Fried Steak, roll, and a large serving of hot veggies. I had a Cobb Salad and then brought half home and have eaten it with 3 meals since.

I had to stop for gasoline on my way home, as my Forester was near empty.

Friday, Jan 27

For Jan 26 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 1.55. Events: 1 CSR, 1 PP, 6 H, 3 RERA. Time on 3 hrs 52 min with (max = 60 L/min).Total oximetry, 7 hr. 34 min. Oximetry: SpO2 low 77 spurious at start, actual low, 84, on the graphic chart, 21 events <88% (most off CPAP) with avg., 90.9%. Pulse avg. 61.8, low 53.

I gathered my stuff to take to the scholarship luncheon, and arrived early to set up my laptop computer to upload a 3-gig video over faster lines than we have at home. It started and got 46% completed when I left for home. That was a failure, for unknown reasons. However, when I got home it continued to 65% before our modem died (more on this below). When I logged back in Sunday, You tube had canceled the upload.

We had only 8 people make it to the lunch because of sickness or being out of town. My co-host (Monica, the Geography secretary) made a Chicken Caesar salad and used Olive Garden’s dressing for Caesar salads from a bottle she can buy at Fred Meyer grocery. She was exceptionally kind to make a bowl for me with iceberg lettuce and not Romaine, which I am supposed to limit, because of its high Vitamin K content. She also had bread and butter. I made 3 two-liter bottles of Crystal Light lemonade, two regular and one pink and provided a Red Velvet frosted cake with ice cream. I brought plates and cups, but we only used the cups, and her colorful blue plates matching the decor.

Here are two shots of our day.Serving table with Amy & Ruth coming through for dessert. Ruth Harrington has been setting up luncheons and dinners throughout the campus and town for 44 years. She has now collected just under $2 million all of which goes to scholarships for students at CWU. I have been a member of this 4th Friday group since 1988, when I arrived on campus. A couple of the members have been in this group since I started!
The picture on the right above shows left to right, Ruth Harrington, Kristina Paquette, Lola Gallagher, Tina Barrigan, my empty chair, Monica Bruya, Peggy Eaton, and Amy McCoy. Amy works in the Alumni Office, and was a Geography major, so she contributed Lemon Pound Cake to the table to add to the “geography” connection.

Today was another busy day and with a sore shoulder but without any exercise or fiddling to blame. I grabbed some cheap eggs (78 cents a dozen of AA large) at Safeway. I dropped off the remainder of the red velvet cake to the senior center, took some photos of a Bunco game in progress, some pool players, and of a woman for her to send her nephew. I drove by my pharmacy to pick up two of my meds, on my way giving her a ride home to Briarwood, went back to the University for my computer and my ice cream, and drove home in a snowstorm that we got none of out here. It mysteriously stopped 2 miles down the road. Bunco is a dice game I have never played. The three tables of folks were enjoying themselves, so I may have to join the next time they do this. Three participants received gifts. As with all events at the AAC, there is no cost. A lunch and presentation came before this with open-faced turkey with gravy sandwiches and hot vegetables. In exchange for the cake, I was offered a bowl of cooked turkey (from scratch there by Erica) and also given two pieces of chocolate cake made by volunteer Tina. John and I enjoyed it this weekend. She is in the pink blouse in the middle picture above. The winner on the right is Sandra Zech, who taught our SAIL exercise class for a couple of years. Dave on the left and Richard on the right address the cue ball. I grew up playing pool (and billiards), so I think the next time I’m there and they are too, I will ask to join. I had no time today. I have played on that table before with a woman member of the AAC, but sadly, she died. We were going to come in and challenge a team of guys there. Now I will just ask to play along. I have been on field trips from center with both of these guys, and Richard sings with our music group at the Food Bank (while his wife fixes and serves the salad) on Wednesday.

Finally, I took some photos of Connie (at her request), before giving her a ride home. I gave her the choice of 8 photos, but here are my 3 choices. Will be interesting to see which she chooses to send.Connie is a member of our Jazzercise class at the AAC and also lives at Briarwood and helps with the entertainment of our Fiddlers & Friends group when we perform and they feed us afterwards on the 3rd Saturday of each month.

I passed a fire engine and an EMT truck on the way home, and wondered what happened. I found out Saturday it was a house fire on Thomas Road just down from where we were going to get John’s hair cut.

Deer have found our cat’s hard food under the front open enclave. John’s placed a wood pallet to protect it. That mostly put a stop to it but one still tries. Around 7 pm the Internet went down. Couldn’t get it back.

Saturday, Jan 28

For Jan 27 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 0.40. Events: 3 H, 18 RERA. Time on 7 hrs 29 min with (max = 20 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 88, 0 events <88% with avg., 93.1%. Pulse avg. 56.6, low 50.

We went at 1:00 p.m. to Celia’s for John’s haircut, carrying some stuff along. I was able to activate my new cell phone when over there. It seems to work now in our house (but only twice in my chair, back to PA and to OH). I tried CA and it was unable to connect to let people know who might call me that our Internet was down with no blog coming out until fixed. The battery was also low, so that is unappealing, and maybe affected the calls, but now is plugged in, so I’ll check again later.

Without the modem, I cannot print either. If it is not fixed by Monday, I may have to drive to the University to print my letters for Elaine Glenn’s nomination for Distinguished Non-tenure track Teacher of the Year. At least I’m able to use the computer for writing text and processing pictures, and reading data from my CPAP and Oximeter. And, I can even make music on SongWriter, but I cannot print it, in order to make a pdf file to send to Evie for review. We surely depend on this Internet (and WIFI) connection for our daily activities.

We hope to buy a new modem router tomorrow when our computer guys at Complete Computer Services are open for new hours on Sunday. Then our only problem is establishing the connection with the Fairpoint provider. Ryan from CCSOE called Sunday. They don’t have one, but he concurred on the overheating comment (see below on Sunday), and offered to help in the future, if needed. He even offered to bring one he no longer needs from home to give us.

Meanwhile – weekend activities that did occur. John talking with Andy Mills visiting Celia & Bobby Winingham after his haircut by Celia at their house. Middle photo next day of one of many trips John made to give seed to the quail, little birds, and pheasant. I took that out the front door because I was out to photograph the pallet John leaned against the house to keep the deer from eating the ferals’ chow.

Sunday, Jan 29

For Jan 28 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 0.30. Events: 1 CSR, 2 H, 20 RERA. Time on 6 hrs 44 min with (max = 19 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 87, 1 events <88% with avg., 92.2%. Pulse avg. 57.2, low 51.

We hopefully, we can get a new modem / router, or find out what happened to this one. Latest thoughts by John are that it overheated. He turned it off last night and now has given it better ventilation, and when turned on this morning, it worked again. A month or so ago the thing quit, we spent an hour on the phone with tech-support and ended with a scheduled visit for the next morning. But then it worked and that visit was canceled. Thus, this time we just waited. Maybe overnight it cools down and then works. Our guess is that this is not the end.

With an alive DSL connection, John found a report on a new Earth observation satellite. It is recently up but not yet replacing the existing images you might see on TV. That might come in November. So, if you care: see some early images here (don’t miss the comparison between GOES-16 and GOES-13 Imagery on the same day this month, at the bottom of the page):
GOES-16 Advanced Baseline Imager

Here is one example: A cropped part of a serious storm of Jan. 15 crossing the USA. Great Lakes at the top; Chesapeake Bay on the right side. Very high resolution is available at the link, but not here.John also cooked us an excellent brunch of eggs with cheese, sausage patties, and home fries (Yukon Gold).

Finally, birds! We have Gold and Red (House) finches, which are now outnumbering the Juncos, our first to arrive. The Gold ones are still in drab colors, and just came yesterday. All share sunflower seeds with the quail, but fewer quail can fit in the feeder than the smaller ones. The quail and pheasant have been sharing seeds on the snow behind John’s car.Note the bottom left is a red finch landing. You can see mostly finches with an occasional Junco.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Sunday morning 8:37 Pacific Time

Our internet connection quit on Friday evening.
John turned it off and on, off and on, off and on ….
Saturday night he turned it off.
This morning, when he turned it on — it worked.
Why? Maybe overheating? No clue.
If it continues to work we may get a weekly blog posted.
Or not.

Cheers.

other normal activities

Monday, Jan 16

For Jan 15 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 2.00. Events: 1 CSR, 11 H, 1 OA, 16 RERA. Time on 6 hrs 0 min with (max = 18 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 88, 0 events <88% with overall avg., 93.3%. Pulse avg. 56.7, low 48. Actually a good night; several this week.

Started out with spitting snow, and low temperature, 16 (lower) at the airport, but now the sun is out and the snow stopped.

I worked more on phone number retrieval from my old cell phone, because tomorrow the new SIM card should arrive.

John made Crockpot Chocolate Candy yesterday. I put some together to take to Outpatient Services workers where John was Dec 1, and I had been for many weeks daily for IVs in 2009 and twice in 2010 to kill the bacteria in my blood.

We received a suspected fraud call from AMEX. Someone used John’s Simply Cash card on line, first to check with a $1.00 charge (to Survivor International), followed by a $29.99 purchase from Target. I’m not sure how he was supposed to receive it, perhaps pick up at a store? We had not left home or ordered anything on the card, have never used it at Target, and whatever – somehow the AMEX alert system caught this and, so they did not approve the purchase. We got a call but missed part of the message and called back. We talked some and they voided the card, and are sending John a new card with a different number. Mine was not affected. In fact, we have only 3 automatic pays on that card each month, such as insurance and cell phone, and have not used it for any purchase since last July, and never in Target. Good work on their part –

I’ll end today with a photo from Celia Winingham of a herd of Elk that have frequented her yard and a neighbor saw them across the street from her house. She took this photo looking east from Wilson Creek road, south of Thomas road; just over a mile from us as the Eagle flies. Photo by Celia Winingham

Tuesday, Jan 17

For Jan 16 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 1.38. Events: 2 CSR, 1 CA, 1 OB, 2 PP, 8 H, 17 RERA. Time on 7 hrs 15 min with (max = 12 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 68 spurious at start, actual low, 90, on the graphic chart, 0 events <88% with avg., 92.8%. Pulse avg. 55.9, low 50.

We’ll start today with a lovely sunrise taken by our geographer friends, Michelle & Bruce Seivertson from Eureka, CA. This is about 225 miles up the coast from San Jose. The Samoa Peninsula, a sandy place to play, is between the Pacific Ocean and Eureka. Photo by Bruce Seivertson

A morning telephone call from my Jazzercise teacher cancelled our class today because she sprained her ankle Sunday. Just as well I did not have to squeeze that into my otherwise extremely busy day of activities.

I went to the dentist for impressions for crowns to go over my two implants. I took my Amoxicillin at 11:30 just in case there was any chance of gums bleeding (as there was). The dentist had to remove the cover over the abutment with a screwdriver type wrench, put a higher one on that was taller than my teeth so I could not bite down. I imagine they needed to use that to capture the impression for the crown that will fit over the abutment of the implant. See the diagram below the X-ray of my implants today, showing the higher top holder.Left was the first taken but they needed to see the relationship to the adjacent tooth, so they retook the one on the right, and it didn’t matter that the pins are blurred. You can also see in these photos that the size of the screws differ because of the smaller size of my mouth. I’m pleased they emailed the images taken during my appointment.

I should have had all this work done on Monday, because the three people who worked on my mouth today, all have names beginning with the letter, M. Mandy was the first assistant with the first impressions taken. Then Molly entered to take some X-rays and help with the further impressions and manipulations done by my dentist, Margi. Dr. Margi Sullivan did the first removal of the cap over the abutment, and then installed the higher edged ones.

Here are some diagrams from the web to ponder:After insurance pays half, I will owe a total for the two, $1,614. At my next appointment, 2/6, I will pay the remaining 1K. Last year you were exposed to the cost for the two implants – a lot more costly than the crowns. It will be extremely nice not to have to only be able to chew on the right side of my mouth.

Finally, the last collage of photos planning for the color of the enamel on the composite for my crowns.On the right bottom of the left photo, you can see the cover of the abutment on the front implant.

I took candy to a crew in the hospital, walked in the Outpatient Services door to the front desk, and the receptionist said, “It’s Fancy Nancy!” She always called me that because of a book her little girl has. She was thrilled with the package. To be sure they got a piece of candy of thanks for their service, I mentioned as many of the names as I could remember who helped me in the past, and John recently for his surgery. She wrote names on top of the note, which ironically, I had signed with “Fancy” Nancy and John for the thank you.

I went by Super 1 for meds but they weren’t there yet. I was told to come tomorrow. It almost was a problem, as you will see.

On my way home, I stopped at Bi-Mart with my wrist-cuff Smart Heart BP monitor. I had called and asked for a brand other than that so I could buy a different one that got better ratings. As mentioned earlier, mine had been giving inconsistent readings, even after changing the batteries. They had an OMRON, series 3, which we looked up on line and found good reviews for. I carried my couple year old (past the warranty) with me in the box and told the manager it was no longer working and I thought they maybe should not carry that brand. It was on sale now for $19.95. The Omron was $39.99. I had it in my basket, but had not paid for it yet. The manager told me he would refund my money at the sale rate. I told him I did not expect that, but he said he would, and told me he recommended a cuff over a wrist one, and that he also has to take his BP daily. I thanked him and told him I realized they were more accurate, but that Omron cuff has good reviews, and I simply cannot handle the upper-arm cuff more than once or twice a year. We do use one on John and then check the wrist-cuff against that. With my return allowed, my new purchase was just over $21. I have been pleased with Bi-Mart’s return policy. If it is within a year and you keep your receipt you can get a full refund. Costco has a similar refund policy without a deadline. That’s how we got our current cuff, when another we’d had for 5 years stopped inflating. They GAVE us a completely new one.

Wednesday, Jan 18

For Jan 17 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 0.15. Events: 1 H, 12 RERA. Time on 6 hrs 44 min with (max = 12 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 86 spurious at restart oximeter found off finger, actual low, 88, on the graphic chart, 0 events <88% with avg., 92.3%. Pulse avg. 59.2, low 51.

The weather turned nasty and shut down the pass for 2 days. There were accidents, trees, rocks, and snow. Ice and snow caused multiple trees to lean or fall. The DOT crews were not up to that so a commercial firm was contracted for the really dangerous stunts.

Snoqualmie Pass Closed:
CONDITIONS:
Compact snow and ice on the roadway. I-90 is closed in both directions. East bound is closed at MP 34, near North Bend, due to falling trees and rocks, between MP 43 and MP 44. West Bound is closed at MP 106, near Ellensburg, MP 84 near Cle Elum and MP 70, near Easton. This is due to numerous snow slides by MP 50. Both directions will remain closed until DOT can assess the situations during daylight hours on Wednesday morning, January 18, 2017

Now back to my meds problem. With the Pass closed, I wrote an email to YHC and called my pharmacy because my meds probably won’t make it to the pharmacy today here, and I will run out after tonight’s pill. I was prepared to drive to Yakima for another sample of a week’s supply as they gave me Jan 10. After a 1.5 hour search by my pharmacy about their courier delivery person, they found it will be at my pharmacy today. I am waiting for a phone call, hoping to here they arrived before leaving for town.

Another pass report: 10:03 a.m. I-90 Snoqualmie Pass remains closed in both directions from mp 34 near North Bend to mp 106 near Ellensburg. Crews have assessed conditions and determined that the pass will not open today or tonight. Conditions are such that it is not safe in some areas for crews to do the work necessary to open the roadway. Crews are continuing to monitor conditions. Alternate routes are US-2 Stevens Pass and US-12 White Pass.

WEATHER:
Snow and freezing rain

We got a phone call from the pharmacy at 1:45 and went to town to pick up my Entresto meds. The courier brought them from Spokane. They would not have made it from Seattle, where they also purchase meds from a distribution warehouse. This was my free month’s supply from the Pharmaceutical company. I still do not know what the cost will be to me. My cardiologist’s nurse had to FAX 17 pages of information to qualify me for the medication reduction in price. I hope that my insurance will cover some of it, because Novartis (manuf.) is only covering $90/month of a several hundred $ monthly cost.

Thursday, Jan 19 National Popcorn Day

For Jan 18 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 0.50. Events: 1 CSR, 3 H, 13 RERA. Time on 7 hrs 58 min with (max = 16 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 74 spurious at start, actual low, 87, the only 1 event <88% with avg., 92.0%. Pulse avg. 58.9, low 48.

I called Rite Aid about the “moderate to severe” Gen Teal Gel drops, that Bi-Mart said they were out of stock and unable to get.
The Rite Aid representative checked the numbers and barcode from the box I still had, and found, sadly, they are no longer manufactured. I had John check on Amazon, and we have not been able to locate the item, anywhere. I have called to local pharmacies (still have two to do), and everyone I called is out. Downtown Pharmacy told me they were aware of its no longer being offered and had to find a replacement for their one shopper who used them. I asked her what brand they settled on. It was Refresh, which has been my second choice for awhile. The only thing I do not like is that while it comes with two larger containers (15 ml), also packaged with them are small containers which are difficult to use.
John was able to get my new SIM card loaded in my phone. Now when in town we will check and see if they can activate it. I still think it is the battery, or something wrong with the phone.

In honor of National Popcorn Day, John popped a quart or two. I enjoy popcorn, but not the little shells that get between my teeth. Then, on my last bite I got a piece on the roof of my mouth in the far back of my throat. It was nasty to get rid of.

The pass didn’t open until this afternoon between 5:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. A lot of unhappy truck drivers lost money while waiting for the WSDOT to clear the road of snow, trees, and rocks that slid onto the highway in several places. John saw a report on KOMONEWS, about a huge rock falling on Hwy 101 on the west side of our state, and showed me a photo (not very clear) of the rock covering one lane and across the centerline. Fortunately, no one was driving by at the time.

Friday, Jan 20

For Jan 19 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 0.64. Events: 5 H, 17 RERA. Time on 7 hrs 46 min with (max = 15 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 88, 0 events <88% with avg., 92.2%. Pulse avg. 64.1, low 51.

Using a CBS news feed, we watched only the inauguration and The National Anthem on a nice ACER monitor and with good speakers. John had been reading about and listening to songs by Jacky Evanco, from the Pittsburgh area. She is still in high school, and has been singing since she was 8. You can find some videos of her on the web, but here is a link to the Inauguration Day windy and wet one:
Jacky Evanco’s Star-Spangled Banner

I hope this link remains available on line. It was still there Sunday, but you have to watch an ad before it comes up.

John left for taking care of the horses, and I need to clear out the sink for filling buckets of water for him to take to the horse trough. Deer and horses are drinking from it, and the feeder pipe is still frozen. He did get the insulation needed yesterday to put with his heat tape. He has a list of 3 or 4 must-do things before next winter.

I experienced some interesting activity this afternoon with my blood pressure, and even called John in to take my BP with our cuff (I know it is more accurate, supposedly, but it hurts like heck, and I bought a new wrist unit this week to replace an old one that was giving inconsistent readings. The readings (3rd # is pulse) that alerted me were 66/44 72; 92/53 83; 86/51 85; 94/52 84, starting at 2:13 p.m. I took it again at 2:23 and it was 104/43 67. John took mine at 2:28 with the cuff and it was 103/81 71. I took it with the wrist one at 2:34 and it was 111/57 74; at 2:43, 93/51 70.

Because of the potential side effects of the new medication for my heart, I am supposed to take my BP and report if my systolic pressure (the top number of the ratio) goes below 100 (or above 140).

It has gone low at evening measurements, but today it did so in the afternoon. I have a call into the doctor’s nurse at the Yakima Heart Center (she checks with him), but no response yet.

I received the call from my Cardiologist’s nurse at 5:43 p.m.  She listened to and recorded all my BP measurements and figured that Dr. Kim would not make any drastic changes, especially as I was not feeling bad at all during the lowest measurements.  She told me he was “on call” all Saturday, so I could get to him, if needed.  Meanwhile, she called him and read him all the data.  He agreed that nothing should be done at this point, and to keep recording details as I had been.  He was not worried as long as I had no dizziness, shortness of breath, not feeling bad, and to continue, but to report in as I had done if there were other lows that occur.  He looks at overall averages and how the patient feels.  I am to continue doing my activities tomorrow as usual, and not change the dosage of the new drug I have been on now for 8 days.  She called me back at 6:03 with the messages from him.  All is well. We get the impression he really likes the reported results of this combo-med.

Saturday, Jan 21

For Jan 20 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 0.53. Events: 1 CSR, 4 H, 15 RERA. Time on 7 hrs 35 min with (max = 19 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 85 spurious at start, actual low, 89, on the graphic chart, 0 events <88% with avg., 92.7%. Pulse avg. 58.3, low 50.

John started early trying to divert water from our yard and overflow from our irrigation ditch which cannot get under the ice dam at the culvert under the neighbor’s driveway. Once out of the ditch, it isn’t where it should be to go under our driveway either.

As long as it doesn’t go under her garage door, all is good. John says he is learning. If we ever build a new place (not likely), there are many dos and many don’ts, such as do not have your driveway slope down to your garage door.

On my way out, I took a photo of the water (see below on the left of the composite), and I added the right on Sunday morning in the snow, which lasted most of the day and accumulated ~3″.Left photo shows the water standing around a fenced garden. I park my Forester farther to the left in a 3-sided shed. The right was taken the next morning to show my tire tracks and the closest black line across the driveway, which is the drain (with running water) that John dug through the snow, toward the downhill pasture that will drain to the low area to the south and back to the creek.

I drove to Briarwood for music today. The roads near us were covered with ice and snow for several miles toward town, then got better. We are 800 feet higher than the part of town I was headed to. We had a good group of players and a large responsive audience. Players included these instruments: a tambourine, banjo, two guitars, two fiddles, harmonica, flute and a singer, plus our audience “choir.” They had copies of the lyrics to 20 songs, and at the beginning, we did a couple of others they knew but were not in the book, before starting at 2:00 p.m. on the booklet. They sang along on You are my Sunshine and on Tennessee Waltz. Then we did a Happy Birthday song for one person, and I introduced the whole music group, for the primary reason of two new members they had not met. Also, a wife of one of the new folks, husband of another, and children of another were in the audience. I introduced them as well. Our little 3.5 yr old mascot Haley was also there with her parents and dancing occasionally.
After the music, they fed us a tasty bowl of chili with all sorts of toppings, 3 different salads (my favorite was a fruit salad with lemon Jello, marshmallows, & pineapple), thickly spread chicken-salad sandwiches in a nice roll, a choice of two desserts, and cookies, plus hot cider. Always available is iced water and coffee. I never have to eat supper afterwards.

I came home needing to put my BPs in a log journal, from the slips of paper sitting around my recliner chair during the last couple of weeks. John’s is neatly recorded in his own logbook, and I have one for me (starting in Jan 2017). I completed mine later this evening.

I stayed inside the warm building after our playing and eating with my cell phone and John’s to talk to our cell provider in Oregon to get my new SIM card activated (which supposedly had been activated Thursday, when we were in town). As it was, they had to verify the last four digits of the second line on the card and removing it and seeing it was troublesome. But I found the “2086” needed. I thought I was set to have a working cell phone again, and called John to tell him I would be leaving for home soon.
Once home, I had the same problem with reception as John has had for over a year with the same make phone. The ENVOY phone gets no reception in our vicinity, whereas my old Motorola did at least at the far end of the house or outside in the yard. It apparently “broke.” So I was correct that a new SIM card would not fix it.

Once home, I spent a very long time with Consumer Cellular complaining about my cell phone and trying for a solution.
The newly simmed phone will not get any reception in our house or in the yard. I called to see if they would replace the phone with one that works. They checked AT&T coverage and claim we are in the area served. They checked for T Mobile and it only serves 4 G phones, this is a 3 G. Finally, they sold me a new phone (no return ones at a lower price were available as we have gotten before to replace John’s lost phones), and it will cost $54.10. I will get it mid next week, and if it has reception here, I’ll keep it; if not, it gets returned to the company. I hate having a cell phone I cannot use at home. I forgot to ask if the new phone is a 3 or 4 G. I went on-line to read reviews of the DORO PhoneEasy 626 and about half of them (of the 20 pages I read) are not good. However, folks with problems do let them know, while those without problems are generally not going to engage.

Sunday, Jan 22

For Jan 21 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 0.88. Events: 7 H, 18 RERA. Time on 8 hrs 0 min with (max = 17 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 77 spurious at 6:30 a.m. turn off, actual low, 88, on the graphic chart, 0 events <88% with avg., 92.4%. Pulse avg. 59.8, low 42.

Today we did a few chores – John outside and me inside. I did schedule a haircut for John tomorrow with our neighbor who cuts my hair. My arthritic bone on bone shoulder has been bothering me so much that John made the suggestion and I took him up on his offer. His hair is as long as mine right now. Look above a week to last Sunday to see the herd of elk near her house, that she photographed and gave me permission to use the photo.

John just brought me a bowl of dried peaches and dried pears. I’m eating slices of each together and enjoying them very much. I did not dry any fruit this year because we have frozen bags from previous years. Maybe we will intake the calories over this winter, and be ready to dry more for the freezer come fall.

We just had Nachos for supper. John did a nice job. We only ate half and will have leftovers tomorrow night.

We are not the only ones to have ice from snowmelt runoff. Here is a photo of their vineyard from our friends Barbara and Paul, the winemakers and owners of Paradisos del Sol Winery in Zillah, WA. Photo by Barbara Sherman

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan