Sunday, March 3 Making some slow progress on things. Very slow. I made more progress on the reunion page and on correcting addresses in the family file. No work on taxes, or receipts. Maybe tomorrow. I did a huge load of dishes, pans, and such. Also took some pictures of our newest project — digging 5 holes for plum trees inside the back fenced yard. The west-most of these is mostly rock and the next a bit less so from the ancient Naneum Creek streambed. So as to not have to cart the rocks very far John is reconfiguring a gate-panel such that the path to that will be about 2+ feet of rock with a little gravel on top.
Currently, the soil in that spot is very nice (no rocks) but stays grassless because of the daily foot traffic – John and 4 dogs. The first photo shows, at the near-right, the gate (to be flipped side-to-side) and the outside hole partially filled with rocks. The second photo shows the source of the rocks and the soon-to-be home of a little Plum tree.
We received confirmation they are on their way. Next week – the new walkway. Wow!
Monday, Mar 4 John leaves at 7:30 a.m. for White Heron. Boy, it was cold and he had to warm the car before leaving. I slept in for a little while longer, because I awoke at 6:30 but the real problem was going to bed too late (11:30 p.m.) and waking at 3:45. I could not get back to sleep for over an hour, at least when I last looked at the clock. Started off with emails and got all involved in too many projects before my toast. I had my first cup of coffee as soon as I was up. Made all sorts of arrangements for future medical tests, including a Pulmonary Function Test I’m supposed to have yearly because of taking Amiodarone, an antiarrhythmic drug for my heart. Note this ‘important warning’:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/meds/a687009.html
NOTE: The links may have to be copyed and pasted — they seem not to work as hot-links at this time.
But I have successfully been on it for almost 3 years and have not had an atrial fibrillation episode since. They were bad before getting on the medicine, so there is lots to be happy about this – so far.
Ordered John a pair of “dress shoes” because his of 25 years now show the wear and tear of being used about once a month. Yet, in the meantime he’s gone through boots, probably 15 pairs or more. These new ones are black and are half price of the regular price, with free shipping from Blair in PA. We hope they fit. Much of the day was working with a web page that doesn’t work at all when viewed in the Internet Explorer browser. It is fine with Google Chrome, Safari, and Firefox. Now another page is NOT okay with Opera. I’m getting stressed. The other pressing thing is our hay paper draft just returned for proofing prior to publishing in the APCG Yearbook. I need to make time to look through it before John Bowen (my co-author). There’s more but I’m quitting for bed.
Tuesday, Mar 5 John went to town for errands, including gasoline and ice cream – one of the 5 major food groups. Last year at pruning time gas in Quincy (town near to vineyard) was about 20¢/gal. less than in EBRG. This year it is a penny higher. Why is that? We should be closer to Clarkson, WA where it is only 3.02. Here it is up to 3.54, from a yesterday’s price of 3.49. So much for a couple of weeks ago in Yakima at Costco for 3.31. It is now back up there too.
Okay.. some progress on the proofing of the hay paper, and actually I have found 5 problems. (Eventually we found 22.) Wonder if they were in the original send. Will have to find it and see. Meanwhile, need to adjust clothes in the dryer I have washed this afternoon on one of my chores. It snowed here today but not real bad; just a touch of white on the ground. Tomorrow a.m. we’ll see what the weather is at 7:20 and whether John will go pruning.
Wednesday, Mar 6 Got behind on the blog because of all the things happening. I spent a lot of time on the paper draft review. John stayed home because it was snowing hard here and raining at the vineyard and too nasty to work at pruning. It was also too messy for him to do many chores here, except for feeding the animals that is daily, regardless of the weather. He spent time cleaning dishes, counters, and floors, while I went to town to play music at the food bank, and attend exercise class. In between the last two, I dropped a letter in the post office because I don’t trust our carrier to pick it up from our mailbox. I went to the hospital for my INR and was happy to learn the reading was within range again (2.1), yet they wish to be sure the changed dosage is working, needing checked in 2 weeks. I heard that St. Vincent’s had a special clear out of winter clothes, a plastic bag filled for $5.95. I decided it was on the way home and dropped by to see if I could find something for John. I got enough (including a large winter coat) and figured it was more than would fit in one plastic grocery bag, but the cashier found it challenging to keep stuffing stuff in. When I thought it was way full, she said, oh, no, I can get this in the bag, so she took the jacket and pushed it in on top, using the handles to pull the sleeves through to fill the bag to overflowing. I had to bundle it up and hold in my arms to make it to the car. I put it in the backseat and immediately all the stuff popped out. I called John and told him to bring a garbage bag to meet me because I knew we needed it to get all the stuff into the house. I still haven’t gone through to show John what all I got, but considering the one large outside winter coat/jacket had a 6.99 price tag on it, and I only paid 6.43 for all this stuff – was amazing. Everything I got was in good shape, no zippers that didn’t work, no holes, no wear on sleeves, spots, etc. The things included a 100% wool vest for John, the large coat, another nylon outside jacket, a sweatshirt for him, a sweater for me, a large striped shirt for him, a pair of Lee jeans in excellent condition for him. John works in clothes until they are falling apart so we wonder what goes on with others that things in new-like condition are sent to places like St. Vinneys. By the way, April 23 will be the 200th birthday of Antoine-Frédéric Ozanam.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric_Ozanam
We carried a large Honey Crisp apple and a Pizza Hut ‘Hawaiian” to friends (Kelly and Kent) in EBRG. They own the Roslyn Brewery.
http://roslynbrewery.com/links/products.html
The top two of the products (on web page) are sold in 22 oz. bottles. So we had beer and pizza (2 more of the major food groups) with apple slices, and brought home a stash of beer. Roslyn is the real town that sometimes was used in outdoor scenes for the TV program, Northern Exposure. Therein it was called Cicely, Alaska where a young Moose passed in front of “Roslyn’s” Café during the opening scene. The Brewery is just across the street from the café – without the apostrophe s.
http://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/photos/medium/2782246.jpg
Thursday, Mar 7 Most of the morning was spent working on challenges, and John left for pruning at 7:30 am. He had a good day, but got back after I left for town. I passed him on the highway and we waved. Play at Royal Vista and ended up with 10 there (only one without an instrument, but she sings). Visited with a few folks (residents), and then with members of the group, outside. My eye has been bothering me tonight and was today and yesterday, and if it is not better tomorrow I’m going to the eye doctor to have it checked.
Friday, Mar 8 Started early, by saying to John, “So long, drive carefully and have a nice day,” as he left for wine grapevine pruning at White Heron. Been on the phone with a bunch of issues all morning, and a few on email. Now tackling some other chores. Decided my eye was improved enough not to have to go to the doctor. Cannot believe my time on the phone about issues at the university (and I’m retired), but found out this morning my virtual office phone has been given to a temporary hire, and so he is not available except when in his office. If not there, a message says you have reached the virtual office of Nancy Hultquist in Geography — and leaves my home phone for contact. I still have people calling from old numbers given to people for job references for my students.
Also, am uploading a file to You tube.
http://youtu.be/wKnbdvKrImY
which I will see if it works. Had to get extra privileges to increase the upload time to over 15 minutes. I’d made the mistake of recording at a high quality. So, it’s a huge file. Normally I take at the lower level and do well. Well, it’s working. Also worked on several other projects to help friends. I won’t itemize them here.
About Saturday — I pick up my friend who is almost blind, and we go to Briarwood for me to play in our music group, and for us both to eat the potluck the group provides – at 3 pm. I have to be a light afternoon eater because at night John and I are going for a lasagna dinner birthday party for neighbor, Lorene. This one will be early (about 6 pm) and too close in time to the other.
So, we’ll post this Noon Saturday and hope the day goes as planned. In the coming week on Tuesday and Wednesday, look for the comet Pan-Starrs next to a crescent moon at dusk in the western sky.
http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/03/08/naked-eye-comet-pan-starrs-at-its-brightest-this-weekend/
This will be tough for most folks to see, so maybe watch for it on TV.
Hope your week was great.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan