Suggested title: Covered bridges, failed bridges, tornadoes, bear in kitchen, covered wagon trail history
Sunday, May 19
I forgot to add the neat journey yesterday morning when we phoned Michelle and Bruce Seivertson. They were leaving the motel in Cottage Grove, OR and taking themselves on a covered bridge tour. They really wished to visit a railroad covered bridge, which all in the breakfast room were raving about. There is no brochure available so they tried directions from people at the motel. It wasn’t working. When they returned our call, we followed them along their route on Google Earth and found the first one east of town, but it was not the RR covered one. We found the one they wanted, SW of town so they drove back to find it. We were calling out road intersections. They made it there, but couldn’t access it so they drove around through a residential area on the east side. What’s strange is that while it is a renovated covered railroad bridge, it has been reconstructed in a different spot away from the original rail lines. We all find that rather strange. At one time it looked like this.
You have to go here to see what they did and why.
Slept in until 9:00 a.m., still tired from the past two days. Been trying to play catch-up on emails and jobs list and just finished cutting John’s hair. Has been needing done for weeks. We used my new chair, and it was nice with the rotation so I didn’t have to climb around him. Also used my new clipper guards on the blade. Our neighbor came over with both an old and a new irrigation (small) pump. The idea was to remove the connections or fittings from the old one and attach those to the new one. He needing a pipe wrench bigger than our largest, so he will have to go to town and buy new fittings to go with his new pump. Bummer!
We took time for leftovers for lunch: salmon, cheesy asparagus, red fresh pepper, and Cheetos. Colorful. While eating we talked about planning for me to drive to Oregon in June to visit my email friend from New Jersey, who will be back to Oregon to receiving her Masters in Geography. I think we will be able to pull this off, but have to keep working on it to mesh our schedules. I also have a friend from Florida who will be in the Portland area during May and June.
We went across the valley to get some tomato plants from our friend where we were at dinner the other night. They have more than they need and are 2 ft tall, maybe the ones we got are a little shorter, but hardened and already have blossoms. We got two varieties: Early Girl and Early Pick, plus a small pot of hens and chicks.
Cold is always an issue here with our elevation but while most tree fruit has already been lost, the tomatoes were not yet in the garden. Late spring cold and early fall frosts are too common. We always have trouble with ripening tomatoes and end the season with lots of green ones. So, that explains getting the larger started/hardened ones. A couple of years ago a warm fall allowed us to harvest tomatoes and yellow squash to mid-October. So, with trying to grow things – Hope is the Plan. Therefore, we bought 4 more at a local store – all different varieties. Also, we got a pot with 3 plants of yellow squash. You’re thinking “Why not start your own?” Well, all was in place to do so but the bag has hidden itself and refuses to be found. So, little pots and little seeds, if found, will go into storage for next year. Now, two types of corn and 2 types of winter squash are waiting their turn to go into the soil.
Monday, May 20
I think I started out on the phone with our car insurance company and need to print off my insurance card before I drive the new car on the road again. The company we deal with in Moscow, ID sent me a .pdf file via computer email. Nice. Faster and cheaper than a stamped envelope. John moved horses around to the back yard behind the fence to eat grass. They were happy. Never did go to town today. I stayed inside working on emails and calling about various bills and reports and insurance claims. Had some interesting notes from a friend (Sonja) in South Lake Tahoe, who returned home after two days away to find the front door broken on the stained glass window by a bear, entering to eat chocolate chips from a kitchen cabinet. Animals in the house were not hurt. A couple of years ago a bear broke into her SUV and got food from under the passenger-side front seat. That story was superseded by the occurrence of deadly tornadoes in the mid-South, where we know people. And there is Bekah! She being an ex-student, friend, and storm chaser. A team of 3 guys and she started last week in Northern Texas and Oklahoma chasing. They were south of the bad one today in Moore, but not too far last week from Granbury, Texas.
John put the two tomato plants in the garden and watered the potatoes. Sadly, the winds have been so high they snapped newly emerged asparagus spears. He put some ammonium sulfate in water today to use tomorrow on the blueberries. In addition, he put the Hen and Chicks two different places. The ones outside the fenced garden, he had to place in a private jail – aka a ‘chicken wire’ protector from the deer.
Tuesday, May 21
Everything took longer than planned today. Early morning long distance call. Then I tried to answer emails built up from yesterday’s absence, but I didn’t succeed with much before having to leave. I did get my insurance coverage printed out to put in the new car. Then we left for town for my lab work blood draws a week in advance of my appointment with my Cardiologist in Yakima, and while there, I had an INR check. From there we went for a bite of lunch and then on to the Rehab center where I was for 7 weeks in 2010; today we visited the wife of an Emeritus Geog. Prof., who was in for physical therapy following a complete knee replacement. On to Fred Meyer where I went to the JP Morgan Chase bank where my loan on my new Subaru is being financed. I wanted to set up an automatic pay monthly from my regular bank’s checking account. The interest rate is rather appealing (1.9 %), with no prepayment penalty. Finally, we were able to get home (later than planned). After John picked up the mail, I followed through on a note from my health insurance for dental that I’m changing effective June 1. I had sent in the forms supposedly required, but they wanted a different form from the previous insurance company verifying on letterhead the specific date my policy would end. It kind of put me in a shaky position. I was unwilling to cancel it until the other went into effect, but the one I was changing to wouldn’t initiate the new policy until they have written evidence of the termination. Well, I think I have all the information now after talking for an hour to two different companies; one in Wisconsin and the other here in Washington. Oh my, it’s late again, and we need to get to bed.
Wednesday, May 22
Another crazy day and night. Spent the morning on working on the dental insurance again and got it sent off (email), received a reply they had received it, but no action was taken, yet. Then off to the Food Bank to play music. Terrible Pasta today. It was supposed to be chicken Alfredo, but all I got was pasta and a little cheese. Shouted “Where’s the chicken?” Do you remember?
. . . but no one paid a bit of attention. Maybe they weren’t around a TV in the ‘80s.
They had lots of green veggies I cannot eat, but decided to try the asparagus, red pepper, celery. I am spoiled on our fresh nice asparagus and this was stringy, tough, and small. Guess one should not look a gift horse in the mouth, but we had played and sung for 1/2 hour for our “lunch.” There was an apple/plum cobbler like thing with oatmeal. It had a couple of spices I could recognize and at least one I couldn’t, so I asked (they create most of parts of the meal there except for the pasta, donated by a local restaurant). I think I know cinnamon, ginger, and another, but I did not know the taste of Cardamom. I really did not like the spice, and it permeated the “cake” between the plums and apples. I just ate the fruit and left the rest. I sat in my new car at the Adult Activity Center yesterday before going in and figured how to change the date and clock. Also, how to move the screens, so now I can see from the beginning of EACH trip (car turn on until turn off), the time in minutes, miles, and average miles/gallon for just that trip. Today’s trip to Hearthstone is mostly downhill all the way, with flat sections. For that segment I was getting 36.7 mpg !! Wow… huh? Luckily, I went into the Adult Activity Center for SAIL exercise class and found some cherry pie (turned out to be rhubarb in a cherry sauce) that they put out for us. I picked up two pieces to bring home for our dessert tonight. On my way home, I stopped at my hairdresser’s house (she’s a mile around the block from us) and gave her money for some Nioxin shampoo, conditioner and treatment for thinning hair. As a former beauty shop owner, she still gets a 50% discount on materials (which she passed along to me). I learned about it from a friend (another Nancy) who knew a friend in NM who used it after her Chemo, and it worked.
We were LATE eating dinner, not getting home from the lecture tonight until almost 9:00 p.m. John fixed some clam chowder (canned) and added red peppers, pasta shells, and warmed some ginger chicken nuggets. I threw mine in the chowder and it was very good.
Our trip to town was for another of Nick Zentner’s geology lectures, this tonight was on the local petrified forests found in layers of basalt across our region of central WA. Locally, most folks are aware of the Gingko Petrified Forest (near Vantage), but there are at least two other layers that have familiar names: Saddle Mountains and Umtanum. It was a very interesting presentation. Next week’s talk is on the Yakima Canyon’s geology. Tonight was very interesting about the petrified forest layers and their location in between the pillow basalts mixed in with the occurrence of layers 15.5 million years old, 15.7, and younger.
Thursday, May 23
Our State’s transportation agency is making a hire and I had a morning wake-up call for a giving a student job reference for a job in Yakima. {Email Friday a.m. announced SHE GOT THE JOB!! whoopee.} Lots of rain, but sunny in the afternoon. Never got above 58°. Finished paperwork to mail for the WA Health Care Authority’s dental insurance. Then there’s the continuing story of the Tahoe Cinnamon Black Bear. The bear returned to Sonja’s in South Lake Tahoe, CA and she and her barking dog chased it off. Seems locals have been seeing this bear for 3 years. Maybe the Game Dept. should move it. Cinnamon bears are beautiful. When I was in the ICU in the hospital in Ellensburg (June 11, 2009) John was hiking a couple of miles NE of home and came face to face with one. Asked “How close?” he said what part of face to face are you having trouble with? He has pictures. Yikes, tonight right before 7:00 p.m. on the west side of the state the I-5 bridge over the Skagit River, near Mt. Vernon, WA collapsed, taking a couple of cars and 3 people into the river along with the broken structure. No fatalities, except for a guy in the traffic jam that ensued, who got out to look and was hit and killed by a semi. The name of the River and many other things in the area is pronounced ‘ska-jit’ – think of the ‘ca’ of the word cat with an ‘S’ in front. Then, note the ‘j’ sound, rather than the ‘g’ sound. Think that’s odd – try the home of the WA State Fair – Puyallup. Said I would post the Sinlahekin butterfly story when it was on Caitlin LaBar’s blog. Now it is, so click here.
Friday, May 24
Rained this morning, but has cleared up, got overcast, then sunny, and temps went to 53°, eventually at 5:00 p.m. getting to 62°. I stayed home to tackle all the stuff needing tackled, and have been busy with more pressing things. One is with an REM graduate student who needs some support to get through her thesis project after a bunch of snafus here. She is very qualified and a sharp cookie. I recommended her once for a $1,000 GTU (Gamma Theta Upsilon) scholarship, and she won it at the national level. I will support her and contact other people who can help describe her situation. It’s going to take some time (so what’s new)?
John fixed us a wonderful bowl of chili for lunch. I tried to get off here at 2:00 p.m. to hit the other chores off-line. Staying on-line just creates more needs for feedback. (I wrote that 4.5 hrs ago). Also did research this morning on The National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center for my friend from NJ who is coming out in mid-June to Oregon and wants to walk on the Oregon Trail. Talked to my Subaru salesman this morning too. He will show me how to download music from my laptop to my car (and supposedly from a CD of music) to a jump drive which I can plug into the USB port on my car and play through the audio system. I’m pretty excited about that. (Next Tuesday when I’m down to see my Cardiologist, we will do it then.) Also, will check with Costco about a new executive membership we signed up for, but they didn’t give us the code with packet to get a free American express card, which gives us 3% or something back on the gasoline we purchase there or at any U.S. gas station. 2% on restaurant purchases, and 1% on all Costco purchases, plus provides at the end of February each year a one-time $55 coupon for cash or products from Costco for $250 of purchases. We spend >10 times that each year.
John just made a pecan/walnut pie and used the excess dough to make a cinnamon/sugar crust in a pan for “snacking.” I have been in charge of checking the oven to see when it’s ready. Just took both out. Now I have been on the phone and computer about our Costco Membership. What a PITA. I’ll be able to straighten it out next Tuesday when we go back for my doctor’s appt. Tonight, we are getting music from across the creek and through the woods, coming through the patio doors (not opened). I think it would be eardrum-breaking to be at the party (to which we weren’t invited). The music is not really bad from afar (1/4 mile). Ten more minutes and we can set the thermostat and go to bed. We need to re-program the thing but it seems never to get done. John dug the booklet out with instructions and it is now laying on my weekly pill box, having just been unearthed again a day ago.
Saturday, May 25
Sunny for a nice change and not too windy. John’s been out with his garden chores, and I managed to get some bills and letters in the mail to a few places. Walked them up the driveway and beat the postman to the mailbox. I realize they will not make it to people any earlier than by Tuesday for the Ellensburg one, maybe. Later for the Portland one, and maybe another day to California. I took a break to check in on John’s progress with the new garden. He took me on a tour. Started with his cutting “stakes” to put in to hold the “logs” from moving in his stair-stepped plots. We admired the potato plants he started from potatoes we forgot in the house and they sprouted. Looked at his strawberries, squash, and tomato plants (the two large ones mentioned earlier in this blog on last Sunday), and places for four more small plants he picked up 4/$5.00 from Bi-Mart. Some corn (Early Sunglow) is planted but not up, and others will be planted over the next day or so. I didn’t have my camera along for any pix. Our neighbor (whose apple tree we photographed and John watered this year), gave him a 75 gallon water tank, large heavy-duty plastic. He has it set up in his garden, downhill from the irrigation ditch so he fills it to give an at-hand water source for use while planting. Now back to tackle a few in-house chores. We have eaten dinner and I was busy all day on things and never got to the 3′ high stacks on the table. But, I did talk to a friend, who recently lost her husband, a wonderful friend from the 1980s, I met when I arrived in Geography to teach, in 1988. She made the trip across the country, to Oregon, from Vermont where they had retired to and lived for 23 years. It was good to hear she was safely there with her 16 yr. old cat and their belongings in an apartment closer to hers and his family. More stuff happened, but I will spare you the details. You will not see this until Sunday, the day before Memorial Day. Hope your long weekend was/is enjoyable. We are staying home.
Hope your week was great.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan