Monday, July 27
Starting off with a compilation of pictures from friends afar:
Left 3 by Elise Schlosser in NJ-Turkey Vulture, Squirrel, & Smoke Signal Clouds; Right by Maude Buszek in MI-Gold Finch & Thistle.
Today, my PCP verified my dosage in my Atorvastatin and the prescription has been sent to Bi-Mart Pharmacy for the best price. Melanie is my tech there who took care of giving me all the financial information I needed to make my decisions. I transferred 4 scripts there to save many dollars.
Temperature supposed to go to 96° today.
Today at 3:00 p.m. I’m going around the rural block a mile for my haircut with Celia. Luckily, she has a/c as well as we and my car.
John moved a few buckets of rocks this morning for our yard landscaping project, watered plum trees and raspberries, and will be watering squash plants later. He returned to the house and went out and picked 10 ounces of raspberries. He’ll wait to pick more in the morning, when there’s no sun on them.
Need to work on Martijn report from the Netherlands on European geology, in a document to share with the study group. Also received a document from Kathy in Queensland, Australia, who wanted me to “proof” her script of the geology field trip tomorrow night on “The Building Stones of the Brisbane CBD.” Today is when she plans to record it. They are still in winter there. I need to review that and get comments back to her. It’s only 3:10 a.m. in OZ. Got my comments sent to her before she’d be out on the road.
None of the workers have come today. Possibly too hot for morning work in the sun and they have other projects. We are currently 6° higher than the airport 5 miles south of us (they posted 76° at 9:53 a.m. (but that would have been for the past hour). Our outside thermometer is not well located for morning readings. The siding on the house near where the unit hangs is dark brown and gets direct sun from sunrise to about 10 AM.
Another Robocaller blocked; been doing 1-2/day for weeks.
Just succeeded in renewing my 2-year free subscription to Aramco World, and sent the link to Elaine Glenn for her to initiate a subscription. Internet makes it so much easier than when we started years ago. It is on-line now, also – Aramco World . 
Cute owl photo there now. Photographer, Mohammad Khorshed, claims it is the best photo he has ever taken.
At 3:00 p.m. I went a mile around our rural block for my haircut from Celia. Dropped by Ken Swedberg’s truck to pick up from his visor a cloth mask he was given and gave me.
John went in the heat (but mostly on a shaded driveway) to pick up the mail today. Brought back a fabulous card from the Senior Center (Ellensburg Adult Activity Center), computer-made solely with pictures from prior years. So from them via USPS, to our scanner, and now to you:
Panic2020 closed the AAC, along with everything else in town, so I have missed a lot of the normal activities since the middle of March. Above I was a clown in A Fair to Remember, Christmas party, St. Patrick’s Day, A Classic Car Show, A Christmas Past with and old friend who passed this year, lower left sitting on Santa’s knee, John & I at AAC, on around to the Heart-shaped image of us, taken on our 50th Anniversary while at another party at the center, where we also celebrated the day, 7/12/19.
Supper: Meatloaf & beans, breaded shrimp, John’s homemade applesauce, French fried onion rings, and chocolate chip cookie dough pie for dessert.
Tuesday, July 28
Nice sunflower was blooming alone but now some neighbors are coming out of their buds. That will make all the birds happy eventually, and we’ll have a good view out the back patio door.
We had a much smaller few in the garden over a week or more ago.
John’s been up and out mowing dry grass up by the county road, graining the horses, and I slept in. Now up, took my weekly Alendronate and am getting something in my stomach, plus enjoying a cup of coffee.
I’m staying home with high expected of 92° today, less than yesterday’s 99°. A hot week.
Lunch: John fixed us a grilled cheese & bacon sandwich, bowl of fruit: banana and peaches, with a drink.
Much time spent with major problems getting cleaned-up on my laptop Dell computer, with willing help by my guru, David at ComputAbility in EBRG. His machine commands repaired the problems with bad files in my memory, that he thinks might have been caused by a power surge. That had made my computer unstable and it was crashing regularly. It lost its way. The system commands found and repaired many issues. Maybe my life will be easier now. It has been stressing me big time, as many of you have heard. Fingers crossed for a new lease on life with a working computer.
John left for town to buy an upright freezer for the new Utility Room. There are none available.
When Panic2020 started folks not only bought toilet paper but apparently to have something to store it in, they bought freezers. Two of the local stores claim they don’t expect any until October. We don’t need one, except for the convenience, so now are hoping for a Christmas sale or something. Jeez. The economy has been flattened and the virus/sickness goes on.
Temperature at the airport up at 2:00 p.m. to 95°. John’s out in the hottest part of the day splashing water on squash and tomatoes, and it’s likely to get hotter.
I loaded some dishes earlier and now need to do more. Just did and now they are soaking. Need to get out the announcement to the study group about tonight’s scheduled field trip about Geology, from Australia.
For tonight, Kathy has given members of the study group interested in geology, two options for viewing her field trip.
One went live at 5:30 p.m. on Facebook.
I prefer the YouTube version, which came on at 7 p.m. Not everyone has Facebook, so those people were there too. As you are watching, look at the different rock types used in the buildings. The Brisbane tuff is very colorful, and the swirls in the sandstone quarried is amazing.
The History and Building Stones of the Brisbane CBD
Supper: Cordon Bleu, applesauce, butternut squash with marshmallows & pecans.
Wednesday, July 29
Awakened by 8:00 call from RCI, the company that handled the condo-week banking and transfers we’ve used for years. We are done with those, but the dues were paid in advance. As few are traveling, they may not last. Up at 5:00 with cats. Sadly, also up at 3:00 a.m. with problems and inability to sleep with new replacement neck pillow. I even changed my incline level/angle, to adjust. It does not fit as my old one to give support at the back of my neck. Mostly for me, the new one presses high on my cheeks and ears, a cheek/ear pillow, not a neck pillow. It has a smaller and narrower inflated support at the nape of the pillow on the back of my neck. I tried my best and finally gave up and went back to my old one. Thankfully, I finally got some more hours of sleep. I’m going to see if I can remove the cover from the old one, and deflate the new one to put in the encasing. Will do in the daytime. It is now completed and is doing fine. It’s obviously covering a larger area at the back.
Another robocaller blocked at 10:15 from Roy, WA.
Just called Bi-Mart and talked with Brenda, about John purchase yesterday for which he was swiped charges for 5 bags of dry cat food, but only brought 4 out of the store. At 10.99 each. He gave me the receipt when home, and I saw it had 5 bags, but I didn’t say anything. Until it cooled down after 8:00 p.m. last night, he didn’t go back to his car to bring in the cat food bags, and the floor mats and door step mat he bought. He put them in our new room, and came and said, come out and see what I bought at Bi-Mart today. I went and admired the mats (especially the Mohawk rug, and he had leaned 4 bags of different flavored cat food against the wall. I said, where’s the other bag? He said, I only bought 4. I told him the receipt said he paid for 5! So, it was too late to report to Bi-Mart. Brenda told me to take photos of the barcodes on the bags I have. Done. We’ll just go pick up one we were charged for.
Been busy washing a load of clothes, and need to unload the dishwasher. Also figure out the Fred Meyer 5X coupon meaning. Got two digital 5x coupons for yogurt for Tuesday next week. Made a printout to take Tuesday.
3:53 p.m. temp at airport is 100°, on our front porch, it’s 94.5°. Seems at about mid-90s the automatic sensor (See: ASOS) at the airport losses contact with reality and gives a high reading. Atmospheric researcher, Mark Albright, at the Univ. of WA, thinks the fans in the sensor need replaced. The weather folks down in Pendleton OR are 3.5 hours away and don’t care.
A young fiddler friend and his brother are boy scouts and so this is of interest: Nick talks to the boy scouts:
Nick’s speech begins below in the YouTube version at 1hr 1min:
Nick Zentner, 1st Keynote Speaker at the Grand Columbia Council, Boy Scouts of America (20 minutes).
Our friends, an Ellensburg family, the Landons, have had two sons involved with BSA Troop #493. Son Beckett is still working on his Eagle Scout honor, and his main project is creating two neighborhood libraries in Ellensburg. His mom, Laura, with us at the YouTube version above, and mentioned in the notes below.
The majority of the people watching were on the main entry site for the BSA — not the YouTube version. The YouTube version was being hosted by an Eagle Scout. The main site was the center pivot. But the same material came across both. We did have an active Live Chat going the whole time, but they chose not to publish that. I’m sorry, as it would have showed a lot of the information we shared that Kathy has mentioned. I’m so sorry I was not capturing the live chat conversation. Had I realized it would not be recorded on the replay, I surely would have. I was there the entire time. Buffering a lot, but catching most of the entire presentation. We had many of our normal crew, there, e.g., Patrick and his mom. We even reminisced about the livestreams and about our history with some of the topics people were mentioning while we awaited Nick Zentner’s talk, which did not come until 1 hr 1 minute into the show. We have all seen in the livestream content he summarized some of in his 20 minutes. All the regulars missed his toast at the end. Laura was interacting with the rest of us. Her older son Trip is an Eagle Scout, and young Beckett is still working on his Eagle Scout honor.
Thursday, July 30
Interesting start of the morning. I needed to do some networking for helping out a friend having a yard sale this weekend to find homes for many musical instruments.
Phone from Roy, WA blocked yesterday just came through again and rang once, which happens when it’s blocked, and announces that on the caller ID. Great resource!
Wrote Katelyn to see what the analysis of the Zoom music decision was (request the tapes or her opinion). Sent at 1:15pm
Worked on Jobslist account, sending out job announcements to my Google Group (with >800 members searching or helping share job announcements with those who are – across MANY disciplines: Geography, Geology, Anthropology, Biology, Environmental Sciences, Conservation, GIS, Political Science, Resource Management, Urban Planning, and more.
Highest temperature at the airport today occurred between 4:00 and 5:00 and was 104
98.2° house at 1:53, and at airport is 100°
99.0° house at 2:53, and at airport is 104°
99.1° house at 3:53, and at airport is 103°
98.4° house at 4:53, and at airport is 102°
97.5° house at 5:53, and at airport is 102°
Other stations in the area show the 4 to 5 degree difference with the airport reading. One is only 9/10th of a mile from the ASOS, and at the same elevation.
Thanks to Carl Hurlburt, who sent 2 links to our Geology & Earth study group:
Snowball Earth ? A plunge in incoming sunlight may have triggered ‘Snowball Earths’ (7-28-20) by Jennifer Chu, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Mapping the bottom of the ocean Scientists are still learning about Earth’s last frontier, (7-28-20) by Suzanne O’Connell, The Conversation, about researcher Marie Tharp.
Friday, July 31
We didn’t start our trip to town until 10:00 a.m., in John’s Crosstrek. On the way in, John dialed sister Peggy, and we had a nice talk the rest of the way to a shady parking spot at Bi-Mart.
Bi-Mart: we went to buy a meat slicer John wanted and to pick up the bag of cat food he was charged for on Tuesday. We also bought some Shout Out for the stains on all John’s work shirts. It does a nice job. We’d used up the previous bottle the day before when washing clothes. On our way to other stops on our list, we went by Super 1, and I stayed in the shade of the building while John went in for some corn and bananas. I called a friend and reached her in Seattle, to put in my order for a med I get through her at her place of business. She will order me a dosage for a couple months and I won’t run out for at least another week.
From there we went by to drop our ballots at the drive-by box in the parking lot, outside the County Courthouse. Then, on to Safeway for a bunch of savings on Just 4 U (J4U) items, and reward points. One reward we used was for $7 for any item in the meat counter over $7.00. We found a piece of Wild Caught Salmon (surely it was Copper River Salmon), and got a filet of it. It totaled $13.26. We also bought two $2.99 loaves of English Muffin Bread, but turned in a reward for $2 off any bakery item and got another $1 off the other loaf (J4U coupon). Another J4U coupon gave us PowerAde for 49₵ each, if we bought 5. Then we had another reward for $5.00 off all our groceries, if over $5 purchased. We went out with all that for $3.26. Not bad for my efforts with the transaction creation and being sure we were given the expected breaks. John doesn’t want any part of such finagling, but I groove on playing the game. They set it up, we might as well take advantage of it, and accept the benefit. From there, off for Joanie’s to pick up pants she altered for me.
We finished in time to go by the Kittitas Pantry, after 1:00 p.m.
A few tables are in the shade of the church building, where one can pick or not. I took an orange, 2 small Roma tomatoes, a loaf of 3 cheese bread, and two peanut butter topped cookie mixed cake/frosting over a brownie. At the very end from a refrigerated truck, they offer various cuts of meat (such as chicken legs, various pork items (even pork loin roasts), the only thing I would normally get there they were out of (chicken breast filets).
Finally, with no choice, one gets a whole box of staples, such as cans of soup, beans, meat, pasta, dried peas, etc., nuts, trail mix, orange juice, dried fruit, and peanut butter. We took away a lot of food, and sorted out a few things for us. John took the rest to Amy, and she will distribute to other families. There is lots of food in the USA – getting it to those in need is not straightforward.
Kathy Williams-DeVries will be on at 5:30 p.m.PST with her musical background (plays clarinet and a variety of recorders. Tonight features the clarinet, and a guest songwriter and jazz clarinet player, Andy Firth (both of them are from Australia):
Kathy plays Kathy plays Andy Firth
John completed this Friday column and published it on our blog tonight.
We had a late supper that was very nice: 
Wild caught Sockeye salmon, corn, and potato
Saturday, Aug 1
Started this morning about 7:45 to get ready for watching a Nick on the Fly livestream, a pre-recorded field trip to Easton, WA yesterday for a hike with his wife, Liz. We didn’t know about it until late last night, so I notified the people I had emails for, hoping they would see mine or Kathy’s note on the Facebook site.
‘Nick on The Fly’ #7 – French Cabin Blueschist About 8 miles north of Easton, WA, 9:00 a.m. Aug 1, 2020 (18 mins).
After that we did our own things. John mostly was outside because the temperature was much cooler than it has been.
In the afternoon, he did go to town for pelleted food for Myst, who is eating again, and doing much better.
While there, he went to Fred Meyer to the Pharmacy to pick up a medication for Annie, our Brittany, and to get himself some Raisin Bran, as Safeway was out of 100% All Bran Buds, that is the highest fiber source, and goes well with a handful of mixed nuts. For me, he also picked up a special deal on yogurt, both Chobani and Tillamook.
Supper: Battered fried chicken breast filets, corn-on-the-cob, and bowl of pears.
Sunday, Aug 2
I received from Elise Schlosser in New Jersey, this morning – an excellent, scientific report interviewing a beekeeper about his honeybee hives, and an entomologist. This is a professionally excellent discussion. Watch the video included below. I have compared to 3 other “TV news” reports. This is superior.
Washington State Captures First “Murder Hornet” (6 mins)
Unloaded dishwasher, finally.
I finally put in all my meds for tonight and for the week.
I shall end this week with a spectacular sunrise photo taken this morning.
The photo above just came to me after John had started on an edit of this report. Sunrise this morning taken by my friend and former graduate student, on whose thesis committee I served.
Jen Evans Yenter is a great photographer, and we live in a picturesque valley.
Hope your week was fine.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan