Monday, Jan 13
Sunrise photos: 
Local photographers captured these views of the morning sunrise. We can only see the sky partially through our “hedge” of trees. Sandy Meier took the first one top left from her backyard (on Wilson Cr. Road). Next is by Vicki Lennox, from her perspective in Badger Pocket. Bottom is by Sid Peterson, who lives east of the intersection of the Kittitas Hwy & No 6 Rd (south extension of Wilson Cr. Rd.), looking toward Badger Pocket; permission by all granted to publish in our blog.
In seeking permission from Sid, I found out more information about a photography site I had just joined on Facebook, “Kittitas County Visual Delights,” where I found his photo posted. I would like to inform all my Kittitas County photographer friends about this excellent site, and to encourage your joining it. It meets the year-old age next month, and they are planning a special request to publish photographs of our county. Get on it now, so you can see the great assortment of photographs and get involved to share the beauty in our county.
Our main chore this morning was to get up early and be ready to leave at 9:00 a.m. for Dr. ‘Foot’ Cardon’s office and to the hospital for a blood draw to check my INR & potassium; INR=2.8 & K=4.6 (both within range).
Because of my bronchitis and inability to be in a dental chair with current chest congestion and coughing, I cancelled my dental appointment for a filling tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. It’s now rescheduled for 1/29 at 1:00 Wednesday, so I will have to leave the Food Bank lunch (music) in time to get down a couple of blocks, and remember to take my Amoxicillin at noon.
Checked my times on my imaging appointment on Jan 21, as they came in by phone conflicting with what I had on my calendar. Corrected ones are: check in 1:15 for 1:30 bone density test; stay for 2:15 mammogram.
I took an afternoon nap from 2:30 to 3:35 p.m.; much needed.
Supper was Beef Stew and Cheesy biscuits.
Tuesday, Jan 14
We are surely happy that our oldest cat, Sue, came back after 2 weeks’ (?) away. We wonder if she was trapped somewhere. She was very hungry and thirsty, but came walking down the driveway from Swedbergs, where she was born. She failed to show up here about the day ol’man Swedberg died. There were family and strangers around. John wonders if someone tried to catch her (or what?) and she headed for ‘the woods’.
Her daily ritual had been to go back there after eating, and come back mornings for breakfast and stay around for dinner. Now, however, she is not returning over there. She’s staying with daughter Woody in the old Pace Arrow. Woody was born under a brush pile by our driveway, and as far as we know, has never been across or even up to the county road.
Here are the two of them:
Sue and Woody on the chain link crossover John built for the cats to access their food and water (heated in winter) on our front porch. Unfortunately, raccoons will also use it. So at night, we bring in the food.
I had decided not to go to the AAC Senior Advisory Commission meeting today and stay home to recover. Then they officially canceled it by phone, because 4 people were sick and unable to meet (not enough for a quorum). Connie will check my Bi-Mart numbers. I’ll wait to get my Metoprolol from Super 1 (don’t need it until next week anyway. My weekly-meds box is all filled for the rest of the week and over the weekend through Tuesday. I set alarms for meds I have to take the rest of the day and to remind me to take my BP.
Weather here is sunny; however, the pass is not looking great, but both lanes are open. About 97% of Washington State has snow on the ground. In the mountains there is more than 10 feet. We decided not to count snowflakes, but here’s the photo for the week (and forever):
Snowflake creation by Evie Schuetz
Goodness, words cannot describe the beauty of this exceptional image: but these come to mind – Spectacular, Extraordinary, and a Brilliant use of Photoshop to adjust multiple images from a 4.5x magnification lens taken time-lapse. Remarkably, this was Evie’s first attempt to do so. She can only get better. It looks fine to me.
See below on Friday, where she found a better way to photograph individual snowflakes, and not have to use Photoshop.
We had the rest of our beef stew tonight and a small hamburger with Havarti cheese, followed by a piece of cookie dough pie.
John beat me to bed, but now I’m on my way.
Wednesday, Jan 15
Cancelled playing at Food Bank lunch today. Still need to recover more. They had a good turnout, so that’s nice.
We had brunch: eggs, summer sausage, and 3-cheese bread toast – yet my favorite is still English Muffin Bread toast with friend Ken’s homemade Apricot Jam.
John’s done all the chores, except afternoon horse feeding. It’s snowing now and Woody just came in for her evening meal.
I finished the package of plastic bags, rubber bands, and note to Mya, our WSJ delivery person. It’s ready to go in the paper shoot when it’s not snowing. The paper is printed west of the Cascades so when the Pass is closed we do not get a paper.
Update on my friend in Moxee, WA, Terri Towner, who had corrective hip surgery in Seattle today. It went well and they will be driving back across the pass tomorrow; thankfully, didn’t come back on the day the pass was closed in both directions because of snow. She cannot bear any weight on it for two weeks. That will be tough.
Thursday, Jan 16
I slept in after a rough night, and took my mucus relief pill early with the full glass of water. It’s still working late morning. So, that’s good.
I had a call from the Daily Record about fixing my access to the digital edition, but I asked Tony to stay on the line while I tried. It did not work. Turns out when they reset it, it went back to an email in their account that quit working in 2017, nancyh@ellensburg dot com. It is not the email I have been getting the Daily Record news and email announcements from. I had changed it back then, but they did not update their records on the login code. They do not know what caused my online account to no longer recognize me as a subscriber. So, we’re now waiting for a phone call that they have changed it to the one I have been using for 3 years (successfully) to reach the digital edition by logging in with the new email. So weird.
All sorts of things happening this morning on the web. I had responses from people I was dealing with yesterday, and they came through. I had phone calls and emails to 10:00 a.m. about 3 people canceling coming today to music at Pacifica.
I have had my brunch, and will be leaving for our music soon.
The sun is shining here, but the pass is still covered with snow.
I’ll go play my violin at Pacifica, but won’t sing and start my coughing. Dean will call the songs and number for the audience to follow in their copies.
I finished dressing while John brushed snow off the path to my car.
Update on my friend from southern California, Jeri Conklin’s surgery today. This is from Kurt, her husband, “She’s currently recovering in the ICU. Surgery took much longer than planned, but everything turned out fine. I saw the surgeon and he removed 40 cm of small bowel, the Appendix and a small portion of the colon. Surgeon said the “mass” was such that he was surprised that she was functioning at all and there was no doubt to the degree of pain she was experiencing. He said this should have been done months ago! She’s got 5-7 more days to recover. Anyway, thanks for your thoughts and prayers.”
Supper: Leftover casserole, with new apple cobbler type of side with main meal, French fries, and cookie dough cake for dessert.
We both are quite tired.
Friday, Jan 17
New individual snowflake magnification captures by Evie Schuetz:
Evie managed to capture these with her 4.5x super macro lens before they melted. She explains: These flakes I caught on a clear plastic filter which was parallel to the camera, so I was able to take them in one shot rather than stacking a bunch together in Photoshop. Next time, I’ll use a piece of glass from a photo frame. The plastic isn’t cold enough, and the flakes melt too fast even at 17 degrees. Also, I had issues with microscopic imperfections in the plastic, so live and learn.
A commenter on her personal FB site, where first published, offered this historical video link to our distant past! Please view the whole 8-1/2 minutes; it’s well worth your time to see the first photographs ever taken of a single snowflake. Sorry for the TWO ads you have to wade through before you can skip them and see the real video.
“The Snowflake Man”: Wilson A. Bentley (1865-1931)
You will appreciate following this link below, as well, for the science behind the formation of snowflakes, also provided by a commenter on Evie’s post.
Also been dealing with a friend in Seattle who wanted to drop off her car for the weekend while going on a trip to Winthrop, carpooling with a friend. We got things arranged but the forecast for the Pass caused a change in plans.
The Daily Record news finally got my access to my digital edition working again.
Supper was topped with John’s homemade spaghetti sauce, and a very simple baked apple crisp (no cream, whipped cream, or ice cream) to make the meal healthy.
Saturday, Jan 18
I need to go to Briarwood for music today. Only expecting 7 players, but at 11:52 a.m. learned to expect 2 more.
I worked on a load for the dishwasher, and drank my nutrition drink to supplement with what they feed us after we play.
I took the large-sized jeans to have to give to a large person after I saw him and was convinced they would fit him. The mom planned to bring him to our music, but arrived late, (I never saw them) and they left because we were eating. She speaks Spanish and must not have understood my complete directions. I told her I could do it after we quit playing and were eating, but she must not have understood. We’ll have to meet at a future date.
While at Briarwood, I dropped off a quilt denim patches and other material pieces with a crafter who lives in Briarwood. She’s planning to make a quilt. These were donated on the free site, but this woman cannot drive.
This morning I took a photo of the lamp to send to my friend Amy for her daughter’s bedroom table, so I would know whether to pack the box in the car to take for her to transfer to her car after we finished eating. She was interested.
John found this in our garage in a box, never used that was in my mom’s stuff from Atlanta, GA sent to Idaho in a moving van in 1977, when she was moving out of her apartment into a smaller unit. There are things we have never opened. The bigger furniture has been part of our household forever.
Another thing he found was my old tenor guitar (4 strings) I remember getting in high school for $4 at a pawn shop. Mother’s sister helped me packed the stuff, so she must have packed it. I had no clue I still owned that. Figured my mom had sold it in a yard sale, as she did a bunch of my stuff. I should have gotten a picture of that before it was repacked. We couldn’t tell the make of the guitar, and I didn’t look inside, just on the top of the neck. If something was written there at one time, it is no longer visible.
John thinks it is time to clean out the garage, fix the problems, and re-purpose the space. This will be an adventure, and costly.
Lise McGowan’s cat, Duchess (above) looks like a twin sister to our Woody. She posted hers perched on a fence (in a larger photo I cropped) to show the similarity of our long-haired cat, a mackerel tabby.
Sunday, Jan 19
Sadly, just when I was feeling less chest congestion and overall better, I awoke all congested and not feeling so well. I improved as the day progressed.
On to another day of medications, with my computer alarms set to remind me to take them at the appropriate intervals. The chest congestion pill is every 4 hours and the acetaminophen is every 6. It’s time to be over this.
We are just ready to eat supper of a piece of lean pork (crockpot, tomatoes, finished in a hot oven with BBQ sauce), carrot casserole with roasted marshmallows on top, and a bowl of peach slices. 8 hours in the crock pot seemed to make the meat tender enough for me, but it wasn’t as tasty are grilled ribs.
Hope your week was fine.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan