. . . brought welcomed change
Monday, Sept 21
I began the morning with a Zoom Game Day session of Scattergories. I won today but only 2 played and we had fun.
We made our own scoring cards, place for the Letter, and 10 slots for categories. Then the dice thrower called the letter, and we chose the category we wanted, alternately.
This is only one category which the leader put on the screen all possible categories to choose from. This is just one example.
Rest of the day filled with computer work, cleaning dishes, and going shopping to drive John’s car which had not been moved in a while. We donated some onions, summer yellow squash, and about 15# of two kinds of dry cat food to the Kittitas Pantry. Side activities decreased both our work time. Mine needed more than anything is working on back taxes. But all these medical things also need done.
I made my appointment for a lung PFT test in November. Put all my meds in for the week, and arranged for some other stuff with respect to my Yakima Heart Center visit in October.
While on the road tonight we talked with our sister Peggy, and with John driving I could call several friends long distance to touch bases. So I called to wish a happy wedding to a former student and to another former student to check her health which had been getting better finally, after a year of pain and surgeries without much improvement. She’s finally feeling better.
Supper: Chicken pot pie, with macaroni & cheese, and pork pieces added by John, a French Cruller donut, and piece of Lemon Boston Cream pie for dessert. The latter was the best part of all.
Tuesday, Sept 22
Took my weekly medicine of the stand up & empty stomach type. I hooked up the Backup Plus drive for noon backup protection of all the files on my computer’s hard drive.
Made a call to Jeannie at Cardiopulmonary at our local hospital, about to where/whom the PFT results are sent– to attn. of Dr. Krueger, or to Yakima Heart Center only, or to my medical records file, so the Dr. or his nurse can watch for it after Dec 1. My PFT test is not until the day before Thanksgiving, Nov 24. The answer is they go through the same notification with the cardiologist doctor as for all his patients. So, that relieved my concerns.
Disk drive backed up and said so at 1:38 today. Due next Tuesday for another backup.
My lunch today was leftover chicken noodle soup with extra cooked chicken breast added.
Called about Atorvastatin. Kenna, Pharmacy Tech is taking care of it; unfortunately, there were no refills on the Safeway one, and they did not have Bi-Mart Pharmacy one sent on file (I’m sure I had requested that be sent to BM Pharmacy, through my PCP’s nurse).
We first went for our higher dose Flu shots we scheduled a couple of weeks ago. Got to our pharmacy, and they said they were out of serum. I was upset because I had made the appointment and they should have saved 2 for our appointment. We are now on another waiting list.
We took ~20# of John’s home grown onions by to friends Joanie & Ken. Last year they took them to Quartzite, AZ, and they lasted until Christmas.
Took a few things by Amy’s house in town, and added a special present for Haley (now 7 yrs old), and still planning to be a scientist.
Called in my refill prescription today for Alendronate to Kaiser Permanente Mail Order, and it was delivered 2 days later. The place is on the west side of our mountains.
Wednesday, Sept 23
Nancy called the CWU User Desk early morning, to use Quick Assist with Tech to resolve problems of Microsoft Account –most likely a password change, through shared experience setting. Request either Paris, or Casey, or Brian K. to share my screen to help with that primarily, and one other question I have.
At 9:00 a.m., Telena Hunter arrives to set up chlorination of our well water, and there’ll be no running water in our house allowed (except for flushing toilets) for 36 hours (which increased later in the week, details to come). She did not arrive until 9:50 a.m.
She and her assistant, Melissa, got everything completed and will be back tomorrow to flush it out of all the in house faucets and system.
Another Robocaller blocked by the Panasonic answering system on our land line—claimed a source of Longview, WA.
Lunch: I fixed a nutritious drink for me of blueberry yogurt with chocolate Ensure; but, I intend never to buy Chobani yogurt again. The blueberry is particularly awful. John made his lunch entirely from leftovers. Sent an alert for the next two Nick from Home lectures this week, 9/25 and 9/27 to the study group members’ emails.
Late today, I called ComputAbility and talked to Matt the owner about how they handled advising people who wanted to have a specific domain name of their own choosing. Need is to publish a blog on, as we do, with our rocknponderosa.com and host the space to store the whole blog from the start of it (ours started Dec 4, 2009). A report on this and his answer is in tomorrow’s posting.
Supper: Spaghetti with pork added to Arrabbiata sauce, or sugo all’arrabbiata in Italian, is a spicy sauce for pasta made from garlic, tomatoes, and dried red chili peppers cooked in olive oil. The sauce originates from the Lazio region, around Rome. It’s a little too spicy for my tastes, so what’s left of the jar, John is going to add tomatoes and use ground beef as the meat. We also had a bowl of peaches with dinner, and a cool drink (PowerAde for me). Dessert: Vanilla ice cream on top of heated apple fritter shared and ½ donut.
It’s been raining here much of the afternoon and evening and is going to be rainy all this week. That should clean up all the smoke and suppress fires.
Thursday, Sept 24
I’d received an invoice from our domain provider updating our membership for the next 3 years. It has increased in cost amazingly from what it was 3 years ago in 2017. So I decided I would shop around. That’s why I had called Matt last night, here in town to see what he could offer.
He’s worked with Network solutions since 1994. However, they do not provide the service through their business at ComputAbility here in town. He has to buy his own domain name, for their business’ web site, but he doesn’t require hosting capabilities, yet he understand the concept and the pricing schemes, of such companies.
He uses Hover.com only, which “sells” domain usage only, does not have hosting which we need. Matt (owner at ComputAbility) says $160 / year is not bad, because we need both hosting and domain name usage. We were unaware of the “blog” stuff when I was ill and our computer guru (at Complete Computer Services) set up a WordPress site for John to use to talk to friends and relatives about me, when he didn’t have time to spend on the phone talking individually with them. The business must have done the hosting locally, in EBRG. When that business closed we transferred (we don’t remember doing this) to a new hosting place. It is their billing renewal we have just received.
John needs to turn on the frost free faucet at 8:00 a.m. today, out by the horse tank. A gallon of chlorine bleach was dumped into the top of the well, and now all that has to come out. We have only a small submerged pump, and not a hefty aquifer, so slow removal is expected. So any animals won’t get into the chlorinated water, the drain hose is emptying into a rocky space.
John and I spent 31 minutes and $160 on the phone today to continue our domain name and hosting for another year. The e-mail indicated a 3 year renewal and the total cost, and what was happening, caught us unaware. Phone consultation finally got us on track.
Sent an alert to study group at 2 PM with a bunch of references from group members to share about geology.
Telena came by, but the chlorination of the well water still needs to continue. It’s going more slowly than planned. She’ll be gone a few hours and back to finish later.
It just started raining again at 4:00 p.m.
Another Robocaller previous blocked just rang once: (Longview, WA). They don’t quit. Glad it didn’t wake me from my nap.
I was tired and lay down for an hour nap.
I fixed a nutritious drink for lunch, peach yogurt with chocolate Ensure. John ate leftover meat loaf for his lunch.
Short phone call from Gerald at 4:30p.m. his grandson took him for a drive today up Taneum Canyon toward where their family hunting cabin. He enjoyed the ride and is feeling just fine. All’s well, so that’s excellent news.
Supper: Vegetable, Chicken soup, dessert, hot peach pie w/ vanilla ice cream atop.
Bad news: After dinner, I reviewed the order confirmation from the payment of the domain & hosting site from IML this morning before noon. I saw one (the one I was expecting) for $160.41, but I received four, totaling a lot more. The lady sent all previous invoices – but none were dated. [We got it straightened out on Friday, and now we’re in for 3 more years].
Friday, Sept 25
Water well “shocking” turned into >12 hours more + some, because of low well pressure, so our bathtub’s faucet ran hot water all night to cleanse the hot water tank (50 gallons) of chlorine. Kelly Hunter came back at 9:20 to finish flushing the chlorinated water from the inside faucets, changed the filter on the water softener; John changed the one on the hot water tank, and said we should give the pump a rest. That is, use minimal water for 3 hours or so.
We decided to call back to IML and pay the $ for 3 years / which would be ~$133/yr. instead of $160.41 we paid. We need hosting plus use of the domain name and protection for what we do.
They do not send receipts of the purchase on my credit card. I have to look for that on my statement from VISA Citi Bank. But it had been put on my card for the $160.41 for the one year. And Sunday’s email arrived with access to my statement through Sept 25th, so I checked and that was posted on there, from Thursday, but we’ll have to wait until the end of October’s statement to see what was charged exactly for the upgrade to 3 yrs., of the domain name, the hosting, the protection and the added tax.
Called PCP’s nurse and left voicemail message request to refill Atorvastatin, 40 mg for 45 tablets (because they will ½ them) for my 20mg dosage once a day for 3 months, and to “email FAX” it to Bi-Mart Pharmacy. The pharmacy has requested a couple of times since Tuesday this week with no response. Finally, LATE afternoon, right before 5:00 p.m., I received a call it was sent!
Peggy Eaton is honchoing the leadership of a scheduled Zoom meeting noon, 9/25, for our Ruth Harrington Scholarship meeting group, held on 4th Fridays, and not able to be held at CWU this year.
I joined the Zoom Meeting – Scholarship Luncheon Meeting—fun meeting with Ruth (who is looking good from her stroke 6 wks. ago, able to walk around the block, allowed to drive her car, and she’s done with her physical therapy sessions), Peggy from campus at the Dean of Students office, Monica from home working there, Christine from facilities Mgt on campus.
I have a 2:00 p.m. viewing of a Nick from Home today.
‘Nick from Home’ #80 – Exotic E: Paleogeography
Much work on different projects.
I spent a little time on Facebook messenger evaluating a LOGO for a Brittany. This person lives back east and has one of our Cedaridge Brittanys in her breeding program. She got her Brittany pup from us in the 1990s. Her name is Michelle Gamblin, and her breeding kennel name is N-Vee Brittanys.
She had many responses, and I think #5 (my choice) was winning the battle. {John likes #7.} I haven’t checked to see her final decision. To me this logo shows more of the field and show (Dual) aspect of the Brittany, and is something that will look good on stationery, a business card, or a bumper sticker without using color.
Supper: beef, bean, mixed-cheese (good) grilled sandwich with canned peaches. Dessert, peach pie with vanilla ice cream.
Saturday, Sept 26
Weird wake-up procedure with sounds of everything magnified into a note. Even single bites of dog food being tossed into a pan, by John. Gerald called at 8:45 a.m. and I was having first cup of coffee. Talked to him for 12 mins about him and me. Will start my computer, and do the dishes first thing.
John unloaded most of the dishwasher except for the silverware. I need to wash a load leftover from Wednesday when our well water was chlorinated.
Friend Louaine gave us a dozen small pears from an orchard on the other side of the valley. Thanks, Louaine. They claim to be Cinnamon Pears. Trying to search for such brings numerous recipes using the spice. I found a photo of a dwarf Bosc Pear tree with Cinnamon colored fruit. Interesting, maybe we’ve been given Bosc pears. John will ask a few folks that might know, and report next week.
John made Blackberry cobbler in the slow-cooker (aka crock pot). He mentioned his intent in his Not so Nasty News, but failed to mention he was following a “Blueberry” recipe. {I used a plastic liner in the crock. Best idea since sliced bread. John}
Another Robocaller blocked on our land line. We don’t get cell service out here on the Naneum Fan, so wonder how that problem is on those mobile phones.
Brunch: Bacon, English Muffin Toasting bread, and eggs.
Supper: Bowl of Spaghetti with Ground beef, tomatoes, and sauce. Blackberry cobbler made by John with his homegrown blackberries in a Crockpot recipe!! with Vanilla ice cream for dessert.
Tonight’s night view from Cove Rd (SW of town):
Lovely photo by Michelle Schock posted in Kittitas Valley Visual Delights; taken toward Manastash Ridge, about 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, Sept 27
Clear, sunny, no rain, and nice for Nick’s 9:00 a.m. program. Went with bicycle ride at the end, to 1 hr. 33 mins.
From the GOES west satellite from UW Atmospheric Science
Started at 8:03 a.m. on line with comments on lecture by Nick.
This was a premiere showing this morning by Nick Zentner in ‘Nick from Home’ fall series on Exotic Terranes.
‘Nick from Home’ #81-Exotic F: Strike-Slip Faults
To appreciate what follows you MUST click on the video link and do the following movement to 1:38 (1 hr and 38 minutes to the start of the bicycle ride with the camera going in his Iphone. You’ll see the reason for Nick wishing to do it for his worldwide audience to show our agricultural valley so close to the city limits of Ellensburg. 872 viewers watched the ride from worldwide locations. The ride goes by fields and barns, once out of town.
The lecture went long today with the bicycle ride at the end; Go to 1:38 in the video to make the bicycle trip from Nick’s house on 3rd Ave south a bunch of blocks to Mt View Drive (extension of the Kittitas Hwy), into Rosewood neighborhood complex, where across the fence to the left we could hear the outside rock band in a congregational meeting outside in the sun, for a service at the Ellensburg Foursquare Church, on from there onto Umptanum Rd, and south down Bull Rd, to agricultural farm land there.
This photo two below looks very much like the view we got from the bicycle ride Nick took us on, to the southern part of our valley to see the snow cap on Mt. Stuart, which was not there on Thursday, so it received its snow Thursday night. Winter’s on its way. This first photo shows Mt. Stuart on the left with snow, but was not taken on today’s bike ride.
Another photo of the valley near Ellensburg looks more like the close up agricultural land we were riding by. Our view from the bike ride of Mt. Stuart was very small because Nick couldn’t zoom his I-phone in as close as the view above.
This photo was actually taken in a different direction from Mt. Stuart, and yesterday by Barb Bailey, on her way back from fighting Seattle traffic, and she was happy to be coming home to her agricultural Kittitas Valley.
This view is very similar to the views we got from the bike ride at the end.
(Check out the video’s ending above). Again, for the bicycle ride, start at 1:38 + a little.
I fixed a nutrition drink for midday, of strawberry Ensure with Chobani strawberry yogurt.
I just finished taking a bunch of time creating a problem notification email to the contractor with a photo John took of a Design Flaw in our construction project. It’s related to the rain we have been having not being directed properly to avoid hitting on the to-be-concrete wheelchair access ramp, so it doesn’t become a sheet of ice in rainy cold weather. Red line (arrow) shows where the rain went. It needs to fall 18″ to the right.
The contractor received the description this evening, and knows how he will fix the problem. He’s coming over to consult with John tomorrow afternoon.
I’m currently working on my part of the blog. I need to get it to John, and then unload the dishwasher. One more load and I’ll be caught up.
Hope your week was fine.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan