Monday, Nov 16
This is a day late, because I missed seeing it yesterday! Lovely photo by Lise McGowan of the NE-facing hills south of EBRG.
My normal up at 4:00 a.m. for Woody (not raining) for morning vittles, let out Czar, and then back to bed, when it started raining, and rained much of the day.
Slept in long till after 9:00 a.m. because of lateness getting out the blog. We’ve been hearing the rain all night and morning, and continued with only the necessary outside chores John does in the morning, attention to computer emails, and I am still drying the clothes I washed last night. John fixed toast and went to visit Sue-cat, now housed inside. His computer and radio are also out in the new room.
We sneaked in a lunch and I unloaded the rest of the dishwasher John began on yesterday. I now need to soak the next batch of dirty dishes & utensils.
About 1:30 p.m., a sad news phone call from longtime friends that their dad had died this past week. We tried to call his wife at home, but we got a voicemail message. So, we left our landline# with condolences. She returned call, but John was outside with contractors, so the two of us talked. He was very ill, but this still was sudden.
John was with the workers hanging a gutter on the edge of the roof, and when it is not raining they’ll come back to add caulking.
I’m spending time planning stops for tomorrow on our day to run errands in town. I sent my thank-you email messages for photos posted in our last week’s blog.
This animal hide was designed for the Rodeo Hall of Fame by Pennie Hammer. It paid tribute to Ida Nason (image just left of center on lower edge) and the Yakama Nation. I know Pennie from our days playing music on the 3rd Saturday of the month at Briarwood Commons Retirement Village. She is quite the artist and a great singer as well.
She posted this on Facebook today to call people’s attention to the Daily Record article on the family in Saturday’s paper (you’ve already seen it in our last week’s blog).
Supper: leftover Spaghetti with meat sauce, red seedless grapes, and ripple chips with salsa.
Tuesday, Nov 17
Then up, took pill @ 8:40, no food or drink until ½ hr. later. Charge FitBit. Think about restarting maybe clean up some off the extra stuff on the download file. Set up backup external drive for noon backup and started the computer’s day. Going to get a cup of coffee and a chocolate Ensure with strawberry yogurt.
Set up my external back-up for its noon backup. Need to get dressed to leave.
This is our day for important errands. Reviewing those here. We’re using this symbol to indicate stops: ∞∫∞ Started with several boxes of donated groceries for a family. ∞∫∞ On to AAC to pick up my pieces for Game Day for Clue. ∞∫∞ From there I drove to the pickup window at the Super 1 Pharmacy for my Amoxicillin refill for Wednesday’s teeth cleaning. ∞∫∞ Next stop Bi-Mart our last day to buy Meow Mix cat food at the “raincheck” price of $8.99 and to get some boxes of Fisherman’s Friends (they only had 2). ∞∫∞ Penultimate stop behind high school to pick up a gifted large soft pillow I hope I can use on my recliner. ∞∫∞ Last stop at Amy/Haley’s house to deliver a favorite treat to the little one of the house, some little packets of raisins.
Brandee Coates, is the Care and Service Coordinator at Kittitas Valley Healthcare Hospital. I called and talked to Jill at the front entrance desk at the hospital and told her about calling the usual number I call (local) to my doctor’s office in Cle Elum, being disconnected. She checked into it, and found it was because they changed telephone system providers, and anything going to Cle Elum had to use the exchange 674- That’s long distance for us, and the hospital had no right (in my opinion) to allow that to happen. We have no cell reception at our home, only the landline, and it is not right that we must pay to dial a long distance call. (Our minute charge is exorbitant for long distance minutes.) We prefer to use our cell phone, but without reception we cannot. I was on the phone for another 13 minutes with Brandee explaining our problem, and she was going to look into it and get back to me. She has used the same number to contact people in Cle Elum as well, and was unaware of the stoppage of the number. I have not yet heard back from her, so will talk with her tomorrow.
My INR report did not make it in, in time to be analyzed and so it will appear on the portal tomorrow, I expect.
Mid-afternoon snack, a piece of fruitcake each of us.
Supper: Chicken added to Progresso Wild rice and chicken soup, served with cornbread by John, buttered and with syrup.
Wednesday, Nov 18
Our dog wanted out at 3:00 am. so I got up to let her (even though she could go on her own out the doggie door). Woody, had come in to the front porch feeding station wanting an early breakfast. So I took her some and let Czar out with her for company. Czar will go around outside and come in the doggie door. I went back to bed.
Slept until almost 9:00 a.m. and had a call from Coumadin clinic that my INR=4 yesterday (and that is way high for unknown reasons). I have not changed anything in my diet. I have to take Amoxicillin today at noon to prepare for a dental teeth cleaning appointment at 1:00 p.m. Amoxicillin raises my INR so this is a problem. So does alcohol, but I haven’t had any.
Lunch: bacon and eggs between 11:30 and noon and then at noon, I took my pre-med, Amoxicillin.
I left at 12:30 for Sullivan Dental, with Tracy doing the work. Asked if Tiffany (med-tech) had her baby and found out she had a little girl a month ago. They live 2 miles up Naneum from us.
Back from the Dentist and from Bi-Mart on the way home. John has installed a gate and fencing covering the entrance to the portico. When Woody-cat next shows up we can close the gate and open the house door. She will have to move to the new room, to be with her mama, Sue.
Our Friday 13th luck has continued to this week. Today, our new wall heater in the converted room stopped heating abruptly. Our electrician is out of town, but will be back to fix it Friday morning at 9:00 p.m. {Getting Woody inside won’t happen until after Todd has come and gone.} Yes, we checked all the breaker switches to no avail. I called and left a voicemail on his cell phone. John has set up two small space heaters in the room, so there is not a problem keeping the room warm (about 65°). He’s okay with that temperature for the short times he’s using the computer.
Just finally finished loading the dishwasher completely full and running at 5:30 p.m. ****Gerald reporting in fine today from Thorp. All’s well.
Late afternoon snack- Ensure chocolate shake with strawberry yogurt.
Supper: Fried chicken pieces, breast meat; scalloped potatoes from a box, with added purple onions; red seedless grapes. Tonight I took old barn cat Sue, a fairly large plate of leftovers of chicken breast meat fried that we had tonight and she ate every single piece.
The total number of robocaller connections: Nov 18=1. Many of the earlier calls must have been related to the election.
Thursday, Nov 19
2:00 a.m. Woody arrived for an even earlier breakfast; dog awoke me first wanting out. I went back to bed. Slept until 8:30 a.m.
Realized I had left my cell phone overnight in my car. I didn’t realize that very cold temperatures would completely run down the battery. It was turned off when left.
Chiwaukum Schist photo by study grouper Lindsay Malone
Her comments about this photo: Chiwaukum Schist – metallic silver on Nick’s map. The Chiwaukum Schist is metamorphic rock that began ~120 MA in the Pacific Ocean as deep ocean sediments consisting of mud and sands. The muds and sands became an accretionary wedge, the first of three metamophisms that lead to “hints of schist development.” The metamorphic events include: M1 = 130-110 MA; M2 = 95-90 MA; M3 91-86 MA – andolucites, biotites and garnets (Baker 2020). And here, I just think it’s sparkly rock that I could look at it all day… except when I’m running out of daylight and need to make camp on flatter, warmer, softer ground!
Hot coffee and chocolate Ensure shake with peach yogurt to have at NOON, during GAME DAY at the AAC with Katelyn our leader, via Zoom. I didn’t win but I was at a disadvantage because two people were having to share the clues given and so they had more clues to the info to pinpont the room in the house, the murderer person, and the weapon used to pick from than I did with only one of me. If we do this again, I’m going to suggest I get to see the answers to all 3 players and not just me. It’s rather hard to pay this game without being there in person, unlike Bingo, Yahtzee, and others.
Friday, Nov 20
My friend Evie from Kittitas, WA was out on an early morning walk. I’ve heard of frost on the pumpkin, but never this:
Top line: two of several photos by EvieMae Schuetz–Bottom line: my enlarged zoomed in parts of frost crystals on them.
2:00 a.m. early awake from dog wanting out. Of all things, Woody was on the front porch wanting attention and food. Temp was 26°. I went back to bed, and slept until 6:30 a.m., missing my 5:00 a.m. med, so took it and went back to sleep until 8:00.
Our electrician is due at 9:00 a.m. to fix our wall heater in the new room. We’ll have to coordinate the cat holding. That’s taken care of but we still have to coordinate the timing of his arrival, finally at 10:20, and he fixed it fast. Don’t know why it happens but he has seen it in the past with other units. He took the front cover off, turned off the unit, and flipped the fan with his fingers. Then he turned the temperature dial, and it came on. Not sure why this happened. Nothing we did. He claimed it was his electric personality.
This upset Sue, however, to be enclosed in a dog crate while this went on. She’s recovering by hiding in the corner. I’ll go out and commiserate with her in a bit and see if we can get her back in the mode to be inside that room. We’ll wait until she calms down before putting her daughter Woody in there too.
While moving stuff around, John found a set of Defiant 4 keys. We finally figured out they are the door keys to the new room. Now to find a good storage place for them.
Fixed my chocolate Ensure milkshake with strawberry yogurt, and am enjoying it. John is going to work outside for an hour.
Nick began ~ 1:45 for 2:00 p.m. with his 2 hr.4 min lecture:
#94 Exotic Q:Swakane Gneiss & Chelan Migmatite
Don’t know if I will have a candy bar during Nick’s lecture; I had one after because I’m too occupied capturing comments and watching the lecture to do anything else.
From the yard, John came to the front of the house and found Woody on the feeding station. He closed the gate even though it needed a latch. He held it and called me. With encouragement from the two of us, and only one small detour, Woody went inside. She has been living in the old motor home for several years, so a similar environment shouldn’t be too upsetting. She did complain the first few hours.
Sunset taken 4:30 p.m. by Mike McCloskey from NW Ellensburg
Supper: Cornbread made with creamed corn by John, onion rings, chicken, homemade applesauce, French fries.
At 11:00 tonight, take one large and one small acetaminophen because of timing. The 5:00 p.m. take is put off 1.5 hrs.
Saturday, Nov 21
Stayed resting, but not asleep until 8:30. Unfortunately, slept past my 5:00 time for taking Acetaminophen, so took it at 6:50. Was up with the dog at 2:00 a.m.
John has taken care of the cats in the new room, their litter box changed, and went outside to move rocks into a drainage ditch. I fixed an Ensure milkshake for me with strawberry yogurt, to have with a morning hot cup of coffee.
At 10:30, I sent a new scientific paper to the study group, which was sent to me by Jerome from BC, along with a drop-box link he’d previously sent and I had distributed. They all are good background materials for the topic tomorrow morning.
I loaded a bunch of dirty dishes to soak in the sink. John came in earlier than I expected to fix brunch.
Brunch: Bacon, one egg over, with a piece of buttered cornbread halved heated & with syrup, and coffee for me. John’s was slightly different.
Loaded the dishwasher full and ran late afternoon, will be putting in all my medications for a week in a carrier for dispensing daily.
Supper: Chicken stir fry, cornbread, frozen (almost thawed) peaches.
Sunday, Nov 22
I was up at 7:40 to fix a hot cup of coffee to warm up and also to tide me over, a milkshake or chocolate Ensure with French vanilla yogurt.
John reported that the cats made it through the night all right in their new home. Litter box being used as intended, but they tend not to sleep in the “boxes” John made for beds. He’s happy he didn’t spend $25 for “self-heating” fluffy ones. It may be they like the stone tile, rather than the cloth bedding in the boxes. Who knows?
Nick’s lecture at 9:00 a.m. went long at 1hr 56 mins.
I started collecting pre-show comments about 8:00 a.m. but the Internet was not allowing me entrance. John was having trouble with internet connections too. He logged off and I still had a very sketchy connection, buffering and not accepting my copy/paste requests to my document. We do not know the problem at all. Maybe solar activity! So, my capture is incomplete, but it got better for most of the lecture, so I continued.
We had about 850 worldwide viewers for most of the time. We were shown a great video of the Indian Culture exposed in the Archaeological record of the use of Chert rock (flint stone) in the hills of the North Cascades for making sharp projectile points. I currently do not have a link to that video, of which we viewed 5 minutes (in the video below). You can watch below and if I can get the link, I’ll put it in next week’s blog.
Meanwhile, this afternoon, one of our group found a marvelous story of the North Cascades National Park geology. See that link below Nick’s lecture. This is informative to the general public, but chocked full of geological terminology and photos in the field, with maps. It’s worth a look-see.
First is Nick’s Lecture this morning:
#95 – Exotic T: Hozomeen & Methow
Here is the North Cascades National Park Geology Mapping story: This is the only way to visit the park now, because you’ll see below in John’s Friday’s Not So Nasty News Column the North Cascades Highway is closed for this year because of avalanche danger. Check this out. It’s a well done presentation:
Mapping the North Cascades: An NPS Story Map
Check in from Gerald about 20 mins after the lecture ended. All’s well with him.
Brunch: I had bacon and cornbread, PowerAde and hot coffee; John orange juice, sausage, and cornbread.
John’s been outside on cleanup and other projects – switching projects is less strain on muscle groups. I have been working on the blog creation in house. John just came in before 4:00 p.m. and is having a late afternoon snack.
Rascal cat had just jumped in my lap, so I’ll have to move him. He’ll not be happy. I gave him a little more time there.
I just finished my snack, so I can go back to finalizing my blog draft to pass along to John. My snack was ripple potato chips with salsa.
Since yesterday, I have been in touch with Geography teachers from the region about keeping Geography in the curriculum at Shoreline Community College. The school administration wants to eliminate them. Meanwhile, many of us who are members of the Association of Washington Geographers, have been talking. One of the interesting maps was displayed that Brett Lucas constructed about COVID-19 Cases for 6 days in November in the USA by county. This depiction shows the change in cases/ 100,000 people. I thought I would share it here.
John says: Cases are misleading for three reasons: The nation has ramped-up from about 200,000 tests daily to 1,700,000 now. So, more testing shows more cases. Second, by design the test is very sensitive so there are many false positives, maybe 1% to 4%. At that 1% level, there are 17,000 false positives every day. Third, most people testing positive (‘cases’) have no or minor symptoms.
Still it is an interesting map.
Hope your week was fine.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan