Saturday, May 11. After we posted the blog, we took off for town to pick up some colas (2 liter) for John at Safeway, for only $.89 each (significantly better than any other price in town). While there, we decided to buy a roast beef, cheese, and tomato sandwich for the road. It was only a regular 6″ size meant for one person. I decided it was enough for us, but then when we checked out, the cashier said, “Next time you buy a sandwich you get one free.” I said we’ll I hope we don’t wait as long as from the last ones. She said, you don’t have to buy a $5.49 one, but can get a breakfast sandwich for $1.99, and they are quite good. Therefore, I decided to get one tonight to go with our other 1/2 sandwich. It was egg, cheese, and ham heated on some type of square bread John says is Italian–I looked it up; it’s focaccia (related to being cooked on a stone and like pizza dough), but was cut rectangularly not in circles. I had her cut it in half. By the time I got back to the car, John had eaten his 1/2 of the other one, so I did too. The breakfast sandwich was hot in an aluminum foil cover. By the time I finished, John was driving down the canyon, but was able to eat his half. That made a nice supper. Got down there and visited a bit and then played a bit and came home, getting here after 10:15. The ferals were happy to be fed, and the one John calls “Johnny” (Cash-ew), came up, and rubbed against him. He is the only one who lets us get close. Wonder what time will do. He comes and talks to John while he’s working in the garden, but only lets him touch him when at the feeding station in the hay loft.
Sunday, May 12 Happy Mother’s Day.
We went down the canyon again this morning and didn’t get home till after 5:00 pm. We visited a little and then drove on a few more miles to Yakima and to Costco for gas and a few items. Playing catch up with a few phone calls to my aunt back east who entertained me last summer for the Wilkins reunion. Called a few moms in EBRG, and just got off the phone with a mom of two of my best students ever. They had gone on a 4 day butterfly photo and collecting trip at the Sinlahekin Wilderness, staying in the bunkhouse (where I used to stay to visit them while they were interning there). I will try to write up some of the story for the blog and add photos of their trip, which no doubt will be on Caitlin’s blog (we’ll give a link to that). There are 300 bats in the attic of the bunkhouse. Her daughter thinks she got a few good photos. (The work has not yet been posted, because she has a full-time job, but here is the link you can check.
The temperatures have gone down considerably so that’s very nice, but the wind is still blowing. Oh, — John fixed the nicest Mother’s Day dinner. It was colorful and tasty.
John’s first asparagus harvest but the rest sourced from the grocery store — chicken, peppers, mushrooms, pecans.
Monday, May 13 Interesting link to a story about an ice “tsunami” blowing into and over houses on a lake in Michigan and Canada. I emailed to a lot of friends the You Tube video that John found through his internet blog reading, but that one is now gone. It’s been removed from there because apparently Darla Johnson sold the rights to ABC, (so you can see part of hers in the above link). It is nowhere near as amusing stemming from her amazing lack of understanding of nature. I had no way of capturing it, unless I had taken a video of the video, but I didn’t think to do that. OKAY — I found another site where someone managed to capture it. The first on the link above is the original Darla capture from her vertically-held cell phone. The second is the link from ABC above, called Sam Champion explains what’s happening.
Everything was okay at my Dr.’s visit. My blood pressure was good at 110/60 and pulse 60. It took longer than anticipated, good meal after, bought for a $20 discount at a Cle Elum restaurant for each of our last birthdays. We are fixing chocolate turtle brownies for dessert with ice cream and heading to bed—have to leave the house in the morning about 8:30.
The picture below made my day. A former student (Tanya) who gave us Rascal (orchard born Mackerel tabby, our inside/outside cat) took two of our orange feral kitties last summer. Of course, we had them all tamed and handled. She just sent this photo today. Amazing how much our Johnny Cash-ew (their older brother) resembles Soda; though he only has a white spot on his face between his eyes and his chin. No white feet. Well, the same tail. Johnny also comes and talks to him (and me) when we are in the yard. John is out in his gardens much more than I am out, so he has more conversations.
Photo on the left is from May 13, 2013 (now); . . . April 30, 2012 was when eyes opened.
Tuesday, May 14 John and I left early at 8:30 for a monster biscuit (Canadian bacon, sausage, egg on a huge good biscuit) at Carl’s Jr., on our way to the Copper Kettle for the 2nd Tuesday morning meeting of the Emeriti Geography faculty. I took along copies of an obituary for Joel Andress (dead of a brain tumor), with a color photo, because he was a Geog Prof here for many years, from 1966, I think. I’m notifying some of those folks the family doesn’t have contact with.
Today, I did a load of dishes (have been keeping up with that), but two loads of clothes. I HAD to; I was out of underwear :- ). Now I’m working on my jobs list and getting handouts ready and distributed to the Emeriti for attending the potluck and awards ceremony for the end-of-the-year Geography party, June 1. I got my dental insurance change paperwork done and mailed from Cle Elum yesterday, but have stacks of things to go through still. I must order license tabs for two vehicles, and the list goes on.
I picked up my tube of cream Nystatin for my rash (Dr. Schmitt decided it was a yeast infection), and the damned thing cost $20. My Coumadin for 90 days was only $13. Jeez.
The rash is not what’s on my foot. He took a sample cut from my toenail which has to be cultured to determine what fungus it is. He says there is a drug that takes 3 months, but is not 100% effective. Have to wait 6 weeks for results from the culture. Kind of surprised me the length of time required. It is only on the toenails of one foot. Meanwhile, he will approve a referral for a trip to a podiatrist to see if I qualify for foot care on my insurance, or if I just have to find a local practitioner (seems to be a bigger deal in the UK than it is here).
Wednesday, May 15 Our friends the Seivertsons, now from Eureka, CA are scheduled to arrive today/tonight. We are heading to town for a lecture on Ellensburg Blue Agates. It was a great lecture. They were filming it, so I hope it gets put on the web as his 3 years ago did when downtown at Raw Space. Then, we will notify you of the URL.
I missed going to town today for playing music at the Food Bank, because my banjo playing-singing friend was sick. Therefore, I just stayed and worked on many different chores needing done. Our friends from CA made it to town and to our mutual friends’ house.
Thursday, May 16 At 1:20 I must leave for Dry Creek, taking John’s car because mine is short on gasoline, and I want to save it to drive to Yakima Friday. Several phone calls this morning and we will be going to dinner tonight at the friends’ house where they are staying, to visit with our CA friends. John is making a cherry pie and pecan pie to take with us. It was a long evening but loads of fun. We had pork loin roast our friends got from Costco, with raspberry sauce made by Jo Hammond (it was at their house and where our friends were spending the nights), potato salad, veggie salad (broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots), garlic bread, and a several bean salad. And wine with crackers and two fancy cheeses. We had ice cream with John’s pies for dessert.
Friday, May 17 Have to be in Yakima for an 11:15 appointment at the Subaru dealer. So tired after a late night, and sleeping in some this morning. Yesterday and this morning we spent a lot of time cleaning out things from the ’04, and some on cleaning the floor mats from much gravel. I had a six-CD player, which SADLY no Subaru any longer has. Even John’s 2009 has only the one. We didn’t get home until 7:00 p.m., after leaving just after 10:00 a.m. (I was so tired I slept in till almost 9:00 a.m.). Now we are the owners of a new blue Subaru (2014 Forester). The 2004 was an L. L. Bean model with 58,000 miles, 6 cylinders, and wanting premium gas. We have hardly driven it since getting the 2009 4 cylinder one. That one now has 60,000 on it. The sales team (led by Mat, whom we met last year and “talked trucks,” but they only sell used ones and had no full sized 8’-ft. beds) are a gregarious bunch and insisted they were giving me a really good deal on my 10 year old trade-in, plus knocked off money on the one we liked best. We wouldn’t have ordered all the accessory packages (such as TomTom Navigation, the backup-TV camera, and the fancy transmission) but they seem to have traded something they had to a Spokane dealer and got this one in return—and wanted to sell it. That’s the “story.” Outbacks are longer and heavier and more fancy with 1 mpg less fuel rating. So the new-blue one, while quite fancy, is actually lower priced than the similar driven Outback. Also has some other cool features and gadgets the Outback didn’t have. The 2014 (really!) Forester has been streamlined and it takes a careful look to tell one from the other. It’s no longer boxy, but is lighter than the Outback for better gas mileage. Yes, I’m excited. However, very tired.
Some day we will replace with our car’s photo, rather than one driving down the road.
We talked and bought the car and then went to Costco for a polish dog and large piece of pizza (We had never had lunch) at about 4 P. M. Then home by way of Ellensburg to pick up Almond Breeze milk for me and Pepsi for John (really a good price in cans), so he bought 1/2 diet Pepsi (he mixes them).
He took the Brittanys for a run, and then is packing in the stuff we bought at Costco (more frozen chicken (ginger & teriyaki) on sale. We had checked it out earlier on our last trip to Costco, and liked the teriyaki. The ginger is actually 4 ounces larger and made by a different company, but we figure it will be fine. John got himself 8 solar lights (walkway path type).
Saturday, May 18 Mt St Helens in 1980 — we remember this eruption day; then living in Troy, Idaho. Today we have winds again to 37 mph gusts. This morning we saw a bunch of Evening Grosbeaks (our first this season and here). I think this photo shows 4 pair and two red wing blackbirds.
I am going to go into town for music at Briarwood Commons Retirement Center, where they feed us after we play and sing. Only 4 of us are going today, 3 instruments: fiddle, guitar, & tambourine and an extra singer, who also hands out and picks up the books of lyrics for the audience participation. Today we used 2 books and they all enjoyed singing along. The food was particularly good today; we had a homemade Enchilada soup from a dry mix prepared by a lady in the town of Thorp, near the old Thorp (grain) mill, and former owner of the store there that burned a few years ago. She produces them for commercial distribution, and they can be bought locally at Super One and Fred Meyer groceries. The lady who made it added tomato sauce and generous pieces of chicken. I wonder if the beans came with it; they were like chick peas or white beans. She served it with grated cheddar cheese on top. It was scrumptious. We had several types of sandwiches: turkey, roast beef, and ham, with tomato slices in them, a nice oriental chicken salad, a green salad, and several desserts (brownies, two kinds of cookies and a spice cake frosted with what looked like maple frosting). From there I went to Fred Meyer with my friend for her to get a few things, and while there I checked out their sale on dining room stool type chairs. I was looking for a nice sturdy one that I can use on uneven ground to play music outside (as at the Yakima Canyon last week). I found a nice heavy duty, stable one, which has a seat back and rotates. (That will be especially good for my neck for me to be able to turn my head to look to the right or the left at people in the horseshoe-shaped group, and not bend my neck, which usually hurts after an hour’s session. The chair was on sale through today — a free dining chair with the purchase of one at regular price. They only had one of what I wanted, and it was a damaged demonstrator. I talked the floor manager down to a little less than half the cost, and tried for more and a vinyl patch kit to be thrown in; he didn’t go for that extra request, but gave me 10% off the 1/2 price of the original chair. I’ll just use duct tape or a vinyl patch to fix it. It has a slice about 2 inches long along one side of the seat pad. I think it will be perfect. It’s not light but I need it to be a little heavier for the outdoor usage. We had taken my mom’s old fifties kitchen stool to many outdoor events, but it is really not sturdy, unless on a flat hard surface. John stayed home today and worked with putting up a temporary fence so the horses could go behind the house to “mow” down the grass there and wrapping around the old shed, and the 3-cornered building where I park my Subaru. With some strategic brush removal and the horses help with the grass there is slightly less danger of fire reaching the buildings along the ground – if fire should come. Please not – last year’s close call was scary enough to last me a lifetime!
Happy Sunday.
Hope your week was great.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan