Monday, Apr 6
I called the dentist office (they are not operating except for emergencies) and requested 2019 Out of pocket costs be sent via email to me. John has been out for morning livestock feeding chores and work on the fence & road near the garden. For a late breakfast we had a fat pancake, thawed peaches to top it, and we had some maple syrup too; sausage links on the side.
I found the magazine agent for Natural History and my confirmation of our paid subscription they are not acknowledging. It was a royal PITA and I never got through to a person. Kept being offering a Medic Alert bracelet and other special deals. I hung up 3 times and gave up. Will have to figure it out if we do not receive a magazine after the current send would have expired, April 2020. I have a new number to call from the last issue just delivered: 1-800-234-5252 (it’s in Harlan, IA). Ph 1:06 -1:19. Changed our email address from “nancyh at Ellensburg dot com” to our correct joint one. That one they had hasn’t worked at all since 2017. Also she checked, and our account is paid through April of 2021. So I guess I’m happy to have stayed waiting on line for 10 minutes before getting to an agent. I hate these follow-ups. We probably will not renew next year as the content of their magazine has deteriorated.
John came back in and is resting through all this conversation above. Now it is quiet finally, and maybe he can truly rest.
I reached the Valley Vision folks who are closed for business, but staff members are taking days answering phones. I left a message for Christy who will be in Thursday. She can mail me what I need – the out of pocket costs not covered by insurance, for our eyes, for the tax year 2019.
Walked up the drive to take some photos and to see John’s current project with rocks and all four horses came over for a pet. It was cool. My camera was not focusing well (or so I thought), and I only took a couple photos, but enjoyed my trip out very much. I want to have John show me another time how Jazz will bow. That I’ll get on video to show you all.
John with Jazz, with Breeze watching me. Right: John and Myst’s backends. Jazz & Cheyenne leading away, Breeze far right.
Supper was spaghetti and pecan pie for dessert.
Tuesday, Apr 7
Full moon & message photo by Lise McGowan
We were up early today. Go first to Super 1 before 9:00 for senior shopping. John did the shopping, and I sat outside on a bench. They have taken away all the chairs near the front of the store, and closed the deli dining room.
Then I went to have my blood draw, but John stayed in the car. They are sending all the hospital lab folks to the place I was going, so I had to wait through 3 others. From there to Bi-Mart to have John check numbers, and he only bought 2 things. On to pick up a package from a gal visually impaired who cannot drive, to deliver to a mutual friend. From there we called our sister Peggy and had a nice long catch-up phone call all the way home and into the parking spot.
Today’s morning blood draw was analyzed and reported by phone. Both potassium (K=5) and INR (2.9) –are good results, and I don’t have to return for a month.
Still working on getting rid of a 32 year old Time Share. Called Pend Oreille Shores today, processed paperwork request with John’s help, and emailed today at 1:45 p.m.
John fixed us a pancake with blueberries and pecans and cooked bacon from a package he bought this morning.
Coming from the agricultural valley where we are situated are two nice photos today from Evie Schuetz:
Today’s pix by Evie Schuetz: Top, Setting Full Moon & Mt. Rainier behind Sioux Grain Bins; Bottom: Field Gated Pipe Irrigation. Parallel to the pipe is an old (1950s era?) concrete lined ditch.
Then along came plastic. There is a site with lots of old photos of the lining process – but we had to click on each photo to see them.
Link: Last century irrigation canals
REPEATING this again, in case you missed it in past weeks:
In order to receive the ‘Nick from Home’ Livestreaming Geology lectures, follow this link:
Way to Receive Livestreaming Geology Lectures from Nick Zentner
You need to Subscribe to his YouTube Channel to be involved. Once you hit SUBSCRIBE, also to the right of that, click on the BELL icon and choose ALL for all notifications to Nick’s videos.
You’ll have access to previous lectures and to the live one when it is scheduled (Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, & Sundays).
Background on tonight’s lecture:
Lake Chelan — Battle of the Ice Sheets | Nick on the Rocks, Dec 28, 2017
Ice Age Lakes between Seattle and the Cascade Range (with nice subtitles), May 11, 2015
Nick’s livestreaming geology tonight ~
‘Nick from Home’ Livestream #16 – Lake Chelan starts 12:44 minutes in
Tonight’s supper was a hamburger, curly fries, and pears. Pecan pie for dessert.
Wednesday, Apr 8
A trio of full moon shots by Evie Schuetz; the-moon moves fast. The one on the top is likely the most detailed of all she has taken.
I started this morning early with a hacked Facebook account. What a PITA! It’s now cleared up after over an hour of trying –thanks to a FB friend (from Australia) who reported it early, because of her time zone, and it’s now fixed.
Got a phone call from Pend Oreille Shores that our paperwork for transferring the deed is underway and we’ll be receiving the paperwork this week to be notarized and returned. We now have to make an appointment to get in our Umpqua Bank, but not a problem. At least they are open for appointments. It would be cumbersome to do a notarization through a drive-thru window. If that is legal – don’t know.
Made an appointment for Tuesday, 4/14/20 at Umpqua for notary usage at 2:00. They’re doing by appointment only and only two customers are allowed inside the lobby. Doing it on the hour, from 9:00 to 4:00 (close at 5:00). We received the first appointment that had been scheduled for that day.
John came in for pizza (from the freezer and I’m going to make hot chicken soup). Now without the wind blowing, for a change, John’s heading out to spray Glyphosate on weeds.
I’m back to do a few emails, and then I’ll be off working on filing tax receipts that haven’t been touched for a couple of days. Oh, I also have to put some checks in the mail for things that cannot be paid by credit card.
Background on tonight’s geology lecture by Nick Zentner:
This one is pretty incredible, even though in draft, preparing for the real thing on stage, 53 minutes long:
Nick Zentner, 11-13-19. “Draft” – Who was J Harlen Bretz?
In the future (this fall 2020), we will have the real full downtown lecture he was practicing for last year. It was canceled this April 2020 because of the coronavirus.
‘Nick from Home’ Livestream #17 – J Harlen Bretz starts 12:54 minutes in
Two more “pink” moon photos by friends:
Top: In Cle Elum by Sharon Jenson. Bottom from the EBRG Water tower on Craig’s Hill by the combined effort of Johnny Larson (dad) while son Trip provides his high shoulders to get the elevation. Thanks for your efforts.
Thursday, Apr 9
John was up earlier than I and has fed the horses.
I finally got up and cleaned the kitchen.
Meeting with neighbor and “builder” Walter Davenport this morning at 10:00 here. Recent neighbor, actually. Lynn wanted a single story house so they are now as far south of town as they once were as our around-the-corner neighbors.
Had to restart my Chrome and all the things I open in a morning. That takes a while.
First thing I saw was a wonderful full moon shot by my friend Evie Schuetz. This is so impressive. Check it out, and also see her delightful comment below about her trip to view it:
An orange moon for the “pink” full moon 4/8/20 in Kittitas Valley by Evie Schuetz. Her explanation follows:
I got a phone call from my cousin last night. He told me the moon looked even better than it had the night before, and that I needed to check it out with my camera. So even though I was ‘in for the night’, dressed in my enormous gray Comfy, I grabbed my gear and went looking for the moon. If you’ve seen The Comfy on Shark Tank or in your local Fred Meyer, you know how ridiculous I felt. No time to change, though–with celestial bodies, time is of the essence. I kept walking and walking, praying my neighbors weren’t watching the world from their porches like the husband and I had been all evening.
As I reached the edge of town, I started to wonder if my sweet little cousin, Danny, had been clowning me. There was no moon in sight. I have faith in him, though, so I continued out into the blackness of the countryside.
After I had reminded myself for the third time that fear of the dark is irrational and statistically my odds of being hit by a brodozer were much higher, I saw it. The barbed wired prison fence in my cover photo had been blocking the most gorgeous orange moon I may have ever seen. I’m so glad I left the cave for this one! Thanks, Dan.
We ate our brunch and John went back out to separate rocks & dirt in the garden. He’s going later to town with our old farm truck to fill it with gasoline. He ended up going to Thorp and to it for $1.49/gal. The lowest price (non-cash) is $2.17 in EBRG. It’s crazy.
I just got off the phone with my pharmacy ordering Annie (our Brittany) her canine Ibuprofen for pain. We’ll pick up her refill next Tuesday when we are in town. Interestingly, I asked the pharmacist if the same comment applied to dogs that taking Ibuprofen would enhance the coronavirus if exposed. She said that whole theory has since been debunked. It was wrong for people. Also, there have been no indications that animals can spread it or contract it from humans. Yet, apparently a Tiger in the Bronx zoo got it from his keeper.
Sent to my Facebook Friends:
4/9/20 Interesting information about fake news that taking Ibuprofen will enhance the severity of coronavirus if you are infected. NOT true! That news has been debunked (according to my pharmacist). I was asking before buying a canine version (Truprofen) for our Brittany.
Photo from the web is of a liver/white Brittany pup being hugged.
Amazing the responses I’m receiving from my above post on FB.
Another interesting finding from the pharmacy is they are sending prescriptions to your home, no charge for shipping, via 2-day delivery via FedEx. One pays for the medication over the phone by credit card.
Background viewing for tonight’s geology lecture:
Intro to Coulees in Nick’s 2-Minute Geology series (subtitles)
Dry Falls | Nick on the Rocks 5-26-17
Nick’s livestreaming geology tonight ~
‘Nick from Home’ Livestream #18 – Grand Coulee starts 13:24 minutes in
Friday, Apr 10
John and I both were up earlier than usual for me, and later for John. I stayed in working on cleaning up a dirty kitchen. Mid-afternoon, the washer is taking care of things. John went out to feed the horses, and stayed out working on a sequence project – dig here, move part to there, another part elsewhere, preparing for a load of driveway gravel.
We put in a call to the County’s Water Resource Office to answer her questions about our plans for fixing water-splash damage and converting the attached 2-car garage to livable house space. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has produced a ridiculous map of floodplains in the State. Among other problems the “map” shows much of our house and building in the “100 year floodplain.” The “map” is generated without regard to elevations and water volume, but one cannot disregard the map without a consultation and paying a $500 indulgence. Still, it has been about 7 million years since the house location has had water running across it. [John’s estimate.]
We went to town to get groceries and returned to have lunch. Local telephone towers are south of us, so we get great connections once we’ve traveled about 4 miles. Talked to friends in Eureka, CA on the way home.
No livestreaming video lecture from Nick Zentner tonight; his day off (along with Monday). I’m looking at some things on the web to prepare for Nick’s 9:00 am. Saturday presentation.
Supper: John fixed chicken breast stir fry and peaches. I took some of the stir fry to neighbor Kenny.
Saturday, Apr 11
This morning at 9:00 a.m. is a video lecture from Nick Zentner via Facebook site ‘Learning Geology’. The topic is titled Washington is Disneyland for Geologists. This is a worldwide site I have been subscribed to since hearing about it from Nick. New time to keep people from around the world from having to arise in the middle of their night to watch, and earlier than last week, hoping the streaming load is better and people are sleeping in late.
No good background for this morning’s lecture, yet; it will come this fall, we hope, with a downtown lecture that will be recorded.
Sunday, Apr 12 Happy Easter
Nick Zentner’s morning lecture on Easter Sunday had a visiting bunny rabbit that delivered a plastic egg with a piece of chocolate candy.
Background to this morning’s lecture:
I suggest you go to the visuals, at 29:04 to see the beginning of the visuals at 29:40, a good follow-up of today’s blackboard delivery in Nick from Home #20 (below)
Supervolcanoes in the Pacific Northwest -4-17-2019
Almost one year later, is this morning’s livestream, 4-12-20:
‘Nick From Home’ Livestream #20 – Supervolcanoes starts 13:24 minutes in
Needed to put in all my meds for today and the rest of the week, because I did not do it last night when I should have.
Easter sunset over the Stuarts by Mandy Weed, with permission
Supper tonight: chili & cornbread;
sharing some with Kenny S.
whose brother Ron sent this cute image:
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Hope your week was fine.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan