Saturday, Nov 2
Got the blog out very late again. We had high wind gusts in our area, but nothing like those ~70mph in Seattle .. that created a lot of damage. We did what we had to today and not much more.
Sunday, Nov 3
Another day to sleep in and then move the clocks back that we missed last night. I went out with John with his new jacket on (not the pants) to take photos.. with hood up and down, and a nice background, for him to attach with a thank you for the award from the WTA. We chose the one with the rock below in the collage describing the award and picturing him in our front yard. We thought it was appropriate with the rock in view considering all the rocks he has moved on trails.
We learned today that we got out of Seattle in time to miss a Saturday morning windstorm that felled trees on cars, power lines, and a guy in his convertible Mustang was injured severely, but the ambulance couldn’t make it to the main hospital, so drove him to more distant Everett. The incident happened in the Magnolia district only 2.5 miles from where we were Friday afternoon/early evening. We left about 8:15 and by mid-day Saturday there were over 200,000 without power but most were back on in a few hours.
Another item on the agenda was finishing some WTA web pages and one promised to our blog readers last week, on the WTA work crew at Park Pointe Park, Issaquah, WA. It’s still not completed. John is going back the end of this week, and there should be more photos I will combine with the Oct 27th trip. Check back next week. We won’t likely see those photos until Monday next week, Veterans Day, (if then).
Monday, Nov 4
Today will include projects in house, yard, and computer. We took time to fill in our ballots for tomorrow’s election, and we will drive to town after dark tonight to deposit it in the outside drive-by Ballot Box (WA no longer has polling places – so last century). We can mail them but we need to go to town and right past the court house. The aim is to get to the grocery store for several things including cat food. The other thing I spent an unappreciated amount of time (1/2 hour) on, was talking again to 4 people in Sears repair scheduling to get the repairman to return to replace a part on the range door handle which had to be ordered and was delivered today. Originally, we thought the handle could just have the end pieces added, but now a few years after we got it in 2011, they have started welding the end pieces on, and now one has to buy the entire handle. Do you suppose so many of these little plastic end-inserts got lost they changed the design? Now, instead of sending a 10¢ plastic do-hickey they send an entire handle and a technician to remove and dismantle the door, remove 3 screws and the handle – replace a fully functioning handle with one having 2 end caps and rebuild and reinstall the door. Have you heard Sears is a declining American retailing icon? Now it seems the buildings and the land the stores are on are the only things of value the company has. The scheduler for the repair has given us a window of time this coming Tuesday, but this time it is afternoon, 1 to 5 because we are tied up with another morning meeting.
I also called the Issaquah department of planning to request a 2012 document which no longer exists on their website. I need it to “research” the background of the Park Pointe Trail Plan approved in July of 2012 to Transfer Development Rights for building north of town in the Issaquah Highlands, in trade for developing land on Tiger Mountain adjacent to Issaquah High School. As mentioned above, I’m creating a web page for the WTA work being done there that John contributed to. Eventually, I’ll post the link in this blog.
Tuesday, Nov 5
Woke up to a little dusting of snow this morning. Got the Excel summary sheet off to RSVP for our community volunteer hours for October. I donated 36 hrs of music and John donated 62.5 hrs of trail work. With retirement I thought these paperwork duties would cease but our retirement is more like a full-time job, but that’s good we have our health to participate. Some groups get funding based on the number of hours contributed by us old folks so they want us to send confirmation of our hours. I can’t refuse. The local lady in-charge is the daughter of my geography colleague Jim Brooks (also he’s an ex-president of CWU).
Contacted 4 different medical facilities today. (1) Nurse at my family physician’s office about my INR due tomorrow, (2) Yakima Heart Center through two people trying to coordinate an appointment with my ICD check (takes only 15 min.) and my cardiologist visit due in December. I wasn’t able to combine the last two. Darn. (3) Next stop; question to the local hospital.
Now, I must work on copies of music for our Friday celebration of Veterans Day early. John fixed a great beef stew he simmered in a covered iron skillet. He covered the meat with stewed tomatoes, our potatoes, our purple onion. After starting it on the stove top he put it in a slow oven for several hours so the pieces of stuff hold together and end up very tender, juicy, and tasty. Otherwise, John was busy today moving walnuts and their leaves, rocks, and horse manure – fall cleaning, I guess.
Just this evening I touched bases with a former student from the late 1990s. She was in both our classes and a dear friend. She is from Japan and a local EBRG business man helped with her acculturation into our society. He recently died – I sent her the news. She has been in Texas for many years.
Wednesday, Nov 6
All set for a Dec 16 appointment with my cardiologist in Yakima; now we hope for no snow. At least it is not across the Cascades pass.
Will be heading out to play music at the food bank, go to SAIL class, and for an INR check at the hospital lab. INR was back up to 3.1. No clue why the unstable fluctuation. I have not changed my diet and I have not had any alcohol (one of the things that raises it).
Thursday, Nov 7
Water problems returned with awful air in the pipes and little flow. John is out with the repairman that recently replaced the storage tank and pressure valve (not the Culligan units technician) now talking through the possibilities. We currently have water, but I don’t know what yet they did. -later- I know they have by-passed the Culligan units (softener and iron removing tank), to see if the air is coming from the well. Right now the well water looks fine and clear. The in-house hot water is still very dirty. But we seem not to have the same air-in-pipes problem. More below.
Today we entertain with our music group, at Royal Vista Nursing Home, and John will go along with a book, so afterward we can go shopping, to the vet for pills, and for gasoline for John’s car for his WTA trip tomorrow, get several baking things on sale on the 12 hr sale (they were out of light brown sugar that we don’t need anyway). We got some thin-sliced ham for our sandwiches tomorrow, on sale for $2/lb. off. We did find some of the brownie mix we like for just a little over half normal price, some cake mixes for only $.88, and 4 pounds of butter at a very good price.
Friday, Nov 8
John plans to go to Issaquah, to Park Pointe trail. The chance of showers is 50% and the temps will top out at a high of 50°. This morning, he awoke very early, 5:00 a.m., to get ready to leave for Issaquah at 6:15. His trip (201 miles) went all right, as well as his day on the trail. They dug out as much as a foot of forest litter (duff) and filled the spaces with rocks and covered with mineral soil. The latter is usually dull orange/yellow and sand-like or large grit and gets moved (sometimes in plastic pails – the case today). During the safety talk someone always points out the warning on the buckets – shown here.
The weather improved throughout the work and ended as a beautiful fall day. John had taken apples and Crew Leader Jen had cookies and drinks so everyone was happy to stay and visit upon the return to the trailhead. There was some rain in the Cascades on the return but not enough to be a problem and even it ended after the descent of the big Easton hill.
Today is an early Veterans Day celebration at the Adult Activity Center and a number of us are performing Patriotic songs to be followed by pie/ice cream. I managed to get ready and leave by 10:30 so I could get chairs set for the musicians. Over 50 people attended, and thirteen veterans, including one woman, were honored and introduced. At the end of the celebration, I found two of my closest older veteran friends and got them in a photo with me. Below is the photo, taken by my fellow musician and friend, Joanie, and now I realize I should have taken her picture with her husband. They are closer to our age. In this picture on the left is Jim Cummings, who is a harmonica player who often joins our group at the Food Bank or at Briarwood. The fellow on the right is Paul Swanson (now 90, with the same birth date as John). He was a former teacher in the Los Angeles area (and went through the 1965 Watts riots). All 3 of us have one thing in common — we are heart surgery survivors. So is our guitar player (also a veteran who played and was honored that day; he and I had the same heart surgeon). The nice patriotic vest came from our viola player, who found it at Value Village (resale of second hand stuff) in Yakima and bought it for me as a gift. She figured I could wear it several times a year. I have already worn it twice this week for two different patriotic music presentations. I will put it up until 2014 for Memorial Day, for Flag Day 6/14/14, for July 4, and then Veterans Day again. She was also kind enough to offer to take our picture on my camera.
On my way home, I stopped by the University Help Desk and from a former student, I received a new Microsoft mouse to replace mine that died on my laptop. Nice to still have support as a retired prof.
Saturday, Nov 9
This morning we both slept in, after a very busy and tiring week. The day will be used to stay home and work on chores, inside and outside. Nice that nothing is planned this weekend. Here is a good resource that came to me this morning from a list serve for FEMA I am on. You may find it useful if you need to replace important papers.
I managed to make a dent in the kitchen clean-up. John did a 2 hour duty on dog poop control removal and disposal before the snow covers it. Now he is out doing a couple of other minor things. The weather is cooling — only a high of 44° today on a very dreary day and is cooling rapidly. Chef John came in and fixed a super brunch of one large pancake (halved) with strawberries (ours from the freezer), and a half a plate each of an omelet with onions, 3-colors of peppers, cheese, and ham. I tried to take a photo, but wasn’t sure it was focused. I deleted it while still on the camera (so it was not retrievable when I realized the other shots still on the camera were also showing up blurred in the preview. Oh well. You’ll have to imagine from my description. Very tasty and colorful for the dull day. Now, I’m off again to run a load of clothes. I believe we said earlier this week that we had air again in our pipes and very dirty water. We bypassed the Culligan units, and have been getting our water directly from our well. Knock on wood, it is going well. The water is almost 100% cured of air in the pipes. I am going to see if the clothes washing will be all right. (It was.) As well, I used water for a load of dishes, and it worked fine. The cold water is now clear and with each use of the water from the heater, it gets better also. Our hypothesis now is that the iron removal unit has failed except for the part that pumps air into the water. The iron in our water is not the orange/rust type. It is what chemists call “reduced” iron and can’t be seen but when left in pipes for awhile it will oxidize and appear as rust in the water. The unit is supposed to do that by forcing air through water in a tank with special material that causes oxidation and retention of the “rust” with the cleaned water passing on to the storage / pressure tank. Then the unit flushes itself or recharges and the cycle goes on. The air isn’t supposed to enter the storage tank. We don’t know much about how this works so John’s been looking for information. This unit is 30-year-old technology and an explanation has, so far, eluded us. Anyway, tomorrow we will cease by-passing the “softener” unit and see how that works. The future path is unknown.
Hope your week was fine.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan