Sunday, Sept 23 Started off the morning with both of us sleeping in after a long week. Happily, as you probably know, we awoke to a clean fire picture north of us with no new fires in the past 12 hours. We had some breakfast and worked on getting this blog out late, but it’s now posted for you to read and we’ve gone back to our chores. I drove around the block to see if there were pictures to take, but nothing appealed to me. Came on back and began working on my part of the hay project again. Nothing much today now but that work.
Monday, Sept 24 Here’s a funny from the web: be sure to read carefully for a great misplaced modifier. Check it out.
Source: The Newport Plain Talk
NEWPORT-April Dawn Peters, 31, of 2194 Grandview Way, in Cosby, as arrested Sept. 19, at 10:30 p.m., and charged with aggravated assault after she allegedly hit a man on his head at least five times with a hammer that she was having sex with, Sgt. Steve Johnson reported.
William L. Wofford, 51, said he and Peters were in the living room of his residence where he was having sex with Peters. He stated that during sex, Peters picked up a hammer and struck him on the head, the report stated.
Neighbors allegedly saw Peters run from Wofford’s residence in a “French maid” outfit that had been purchased at Wal-Mart. They also said they saw her fall, scraping her knees.
For more details, please see the latest edition of the Newport Plain Talk.
Okay.. that’s a good way to start the day, rather than the way it did with thick smoke hanging all around the house. It got slightly better by the time I had to go to town to lead the SAIL exercise class. Then from there I went to acupuncture, and from there to deliver a heavy-duty mask to a friend who just had two stents put in last Thursday. On home and saw more smoke on the hills north and west of us. The fire today increased by 18% to 35,965 acres. Fortunately, when I called the line for Jury Duty tonight, tomorrow’s date had been cancelled. They thanked me for being willing to do my civic duty, and that this service period has been fulfilled. Phew, because I have an awful lot of things to do this week especially to get ready to leave next week.
Tuesday, Sept 25 didn’t update this yesterday–stayed up until midnight working on the presentation for next week. During the day, we went most of the day to Yakima to have John’s Subaru serviced, go to Costco, and come back by way of Super One.
Wednesday, Sept 26 Today, I left earlier than usual to drop off yellow squash (yes, we got a few more from the frozen plants), and traded for some tomatoes. We are getting a few of our own too. On to the Food Bank Soup Kitchen, but I got there early, and so the Food Bank dispersing food to the needy was still going on, and I could not yet set up for music. So, I visited and then helped the director load bags of salad and fruit into a cooler from boxes brought in by local grocery stores. Then I helped carry chairs from the warehouse for lunch set up. My friend who plays with me was late getting there, so I had plenty of time to volunteer my help. We played and sang for 1/2 hour and then ate. Lunch today was pasta (with spicy sausage) as usual donated by Ellensburg Pasta Co., with a nice mixed green salad, and corn-on-the-cob. For dessert they had a drink (smoothie) made from bananas, peaches, yogurt, and milk — one of the volunteers created this morning. I took away some excess bread and a package of rolls. Off to the Adult Activity Center where I picked up two blueberry scones and two pieces of chocolate cake with chocolate icing. Also, got a few dark purple plums (guess they call those Italian plums or prunes) from someone’s tree and a nice red tomato, plus several paperback books. The food is out on a free take it table. The books were on the counter and in a back room. They used to have a borrowing library, but have replaced the bookshelf with a sofa, so are giving away the books. On home a round about way to take some agricultural pictures. I was playing catch-up on email, when I got a phone call from our “estate” lawyer, checking up on getting us to settle legal documents, mainly a trust. We have kept putting it off until we can figure whom to put in charge if both of us die together. This all started in December of 2009 when we had to sign powers of attorney, and various health documents, living will, and so on, while I was in the ICU in Yakima. The lawyer and a friend (witness) came into my hospital room with John. Have a new meeting Oct 9th, but I’m sure we will not have all the things we need ready yet. Fun. I know it needs to be done. Working tonight on presentation for next week.
Thursday, Sept 27 Cut John’s hair this morning; will be my largest accomplishment of the day. Also went through the latest edition of our paper for next week’s presentation. Today is music at Hearthstone. Well, I guess the haircut won’t be the best. Still have to make a cobbler for the scholarship luncheon. That will happen tonight. Just had a great BLT that I made, with huge sesame covered hamburger rolls John picked up a couple days ago. We had tomatoes (yellow and red slices) from our own tomatoes.
While in town today, John went to the hardware store looking for special screws for the handle on our glass sliding patio door. The top one broke.
http://www.wgsonline.com/mm5/graphics/00000001/142230.jpg
He found some very close but not perfect on their circumference. Still he made them work, and we have a working door handle again, but just have to pull with emphasis on the bottom rather than the top end. Looking for an image, he found such handles come in colors other than black. Who knew? The style we have (black) get so hot in afternoon sun they almost smoke. John’s taped a piece of white cardboard to shade it on the outside. Maybe we could find a non-heat-conducting handle, or a white one!
Now I’m going to take off the pictures I took in town today. Okay.. done and sent many off to my co-author. Then John and I made the cobbler for tomorrow. Now all I have to do in the morning is pack all the stuff, and fix the lettuce, tomatoes, and pears. Maybe I will include some grapes and plums – and then pack the silverware, napkins, plates, and what did I miss?
Friday, Sept 28 Scholarship luncheon at noon, followed by meeting with my co-author at the University to fine-tune our presentation. All went well.
Saturday, Sept 29 Did not finish the blog today. I spent all day working on my part of the research project, and John spent his WTA time on a hillside of the Stevens Pass ski area. Here: (Google Earth)
47.742148, -121.086055
The Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) is the thin gray line. The ski folks cut the brush down so it doesn’t stick above the snow. The hill is slumping at this spot and even as dry as it has been this summer, the soil is oozing water and the trail is a mess. Zoom in a bit and note the white round spot to the left. That is a yurt—see the inside and outer-edge of it in the photos here:
http://www.cascadepowdercats.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=53&Itemid=59
As John’s team excavated rocks from the trail, rebuilt drainage, and installed an under-trail corrugated culvert – there was a need to suppress the desire by some to see if our biggest rock could be pushed down the hill and rolled to the yurt. It was only about 600 feet away.
On our way to the next event, we paused long enough for me to watch and photograph the interesting spread of smoke on the hills north of us. Once John was home, we did get to town to buy potatoes and carrots from a fellow and his wife who do this every year (go to the Columbia Basin and get the veggies to share with Ellensburg folks for the cost of transportation and a small fee. We got 40# potatoes and 18# carrots (big fat ones used by the frozen-foods processors, and amazingly sweet). Then we picked up fast food for dinner. Dessert was quite good: our own pie cherry / blueberry / walnut cobbler covered with ice cream and our own fresh blackberries (thorn less makes them even better). Very yummy.
I never found time to update the page you have been directed to for the past couple of weeks. I have mentioned some stuff in last 2 weeks’ blog, but the content is not yet there. If you log on and see a red notice toward the top about adding something by Sept 9, then nothing has been added yet. Please visit again soon. (I know it’s not worth the effort yet, because I have not had time to create the masterpiece.)
Saturday afternoon and evening wind cleared our air of smoke. It is back Sunday morning. The wind fanned up some flames but not seriously new fire. It is already burning over about a 60 square mile area. The borders are increasingly secure while inside that line burning continues.
Hope your week was a good one.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan