Sunday, Nov 17
Today was a fun afternoon. We were invited to a couple’s house (from my exercise class); he is almost 91 (birthday the same day as John’s), and she is 88. They go to a small church in small Kittitas and have befriended a bunch of young college students at CWU. One of them had a birthday, they invited her to their house with some of her friends for dinner, and we were invited to join them. It was a nice afternoon.
We saw the end of the rainbow in a field near our house. We wanted that pot of gold and so started toward it, but it moved. More cautiously we trailed it and were about to catch up when it moved again. The gold belongs to Leprechauns and one has to treat them with respect and caution. John claims he’s related, but distantly, and they won’t share with him but have promised not to turn him into a frog.
Monday, Nov 18
Left very early (7:30 a.m.) for Yakima, with a stop first at Luft’s Trailers where we left John’s truck for installing a new (used, higher quality, working pickup bed, with a working tailgate, nice drains and sprayed in plastic liner, with good attachments for tie downs. From there by Carl’s JR for two nice sausage, Canadian bacon, cheese, egg, large biscuits (their specialty). From there I drove to Yakima to our Subaru dealer to get help on resetting the clock that I had not been able to figure out. It is not in the Car’s Owner Manual (or what is there doesn’t apply to the model I have). It is not within the navigation system either (and the navigation system resets its clock with the GPS satellite link, so it is correct). I went through 3 guys there, and no one knew how. My favorite salesman was gone today. They were going to get back to me but apparently, no one in the know is there (and no one got back to me).
From there on to Home Depot, for a new light fixture for the washroom. The old one died. It was an ancient-style fluorescent 2-tube-type (20 in.) with two starters such as shown here:
John thinks the person that designed these should spend an eternity taking them out and putting them in while standing on a stool with arms overhead in dimly lit and otherwise uncomfortable places. The new light is of the LED type as seen at this link. It is supposed to last as long as the monolith in “2001: A Space Odyssey” or 50,000 hours. Whichever comes first. While at Home Depot we found a broom to replace the one we broke killing the mouse. John still intends to glue that one back together – maybe get another mouse with it. Still time left before needing to be at the doctor’s office, so being near Costco, bought gas. It was only $2.97/gallon; cheaper by a lot than EBRG’s prices. Not enough time to go in to the store. Still too early for the Dr.’s so stopped by Goodwill, but nothing appealed to us. Finally, we got there 5 minutes early, but then had a hugely long wait. I was not happy, except I found someone to visit with (oddly enough from EBRG). We were there for an hour, for an appointment that takes less than 15 minutes for a read-out of my ICD (implantable cardioverter-defibrillator). Returned to Costco to shop for us and 2 others, and had to deliver those goods and pick up our newly bedded truck once back in town over 8 hrs. later. No phone calls recorded today, so we must not have gotten any of our CWU-Surplus bids. Too bad, so sad.
Tuesday, Nov 19
Nothing in town for me until tonight when I play religious music with The Connections at a nursing home. The winds have been blowing extremely hard for hours, with recent 41-47 mph gusts, and all are over the mid-30s for the past several hours. John has been working out in it and took the horses to the south end of the pasture to feed them where the trees on our west along the creek protect them from the wind. Horses really do not like wind. Folklore suggests that’s because all sorts of things move that usually don’t and there are lots of noises from all directions. When your survival depends on knowing when a predator is stalking you, those conditions are troubling.
I’ve been putting in more time trying to figure how to set the clock on my new car. I have already spent too much time on line, following questions posed and answers not given. There is one video on You-Tube, through ask.com, but they want me to download special software for viewing it. I will not do that, because it usually downloads a bunch of crap and toolbars I have to take an hour to rid my system of, and never wanted anyway. Ones I can watch without that hassle do not have the correct information. One would think Subaru would have a valid manual on line (as the one in the 2014 owner’s manual is incorrect, and describes the 2013 version, which is very different.) So, I will try again through the guy at the dealer who was trying to be most helpful (only worked there 17 days). He was going to figure it out and email me — but hasn’t yet.
My salesman is my next try. I have sat and worked with it many times, and showed 2 guys yesterday where I got to, but then couldn’t set it because it returned to the previous unset mode. One of them walked over to the Service Department and brought back the message from the 3rd guy, it’s in the owner’s manual. NOT. Frustration plus. All their suggestions ended in the same result. Actually, I found another video that doesn’t tell me exactly, but gave me some hints about the various screen settings, so I will go see if that works. Eventually I will know more about it than anyone : -).
Off awhile to load the dishwasher. I need to take a photo of the new bed on the pickup, but it is not in the sun, so might not be as picturesque. I don’t want to take the time to move it to a better location, however. Succeeded in filling and starting the dishwasher, and went out for pix and then to try my “hand” at setting the clock. Failed on the latter, but I got good and cold. I managed to figure how to change the hour but not the minutes. So, my clock on the dash is 5-6 minutes behind the one on the GPS Navigation display, which is set by satellite. It is “only” 42° but feels much colder. Hope the trip to town tonight will not be totally miserable. At least the heater in my car works, even if the clock setting doesn’t. Below are the photos of the “new” used truck bed.
The color is nice even if it doesn’t match the cab. The other striking difference is the chrome trim around the wheel cut-out. John thinks a colorful decal on the tailgate would be nice – maybe an elk or large eagle.
Wednesday, Nov 20
Food bank music and food was pizza (made there), oriental salad, and hot apples on ice cream, melted by the time I got to it. Then to a box transfer in AAC parking lot (we loaned a bunch of nice boxes to a former student for his move from one apt. to another); he brought them in his pickup, and it was a squeeze to get them all into my Subaru, but we did. It has more room than the 2004 one. SAIL class had 21 people there today, took away a few cookies, and then off to the lab at the hospital for my INR checkup. Call later from nurse – it is still up at 3.1 (with no alcohol consumption). Not sure why it’s up. Guess I should eat more Vitamin K to lower it. For me, apparently, the goal is about 2.5. Wikipedia has a page.
Thursday, Nov 21
New problems. Dry cough, sore throat started yesterday morning. Continued coughing, worse last night, and through the night. Then at 5:00 I got up and searched the medicine cabinet for a cough syrup with Codeine prescribed February, 2013. It still is within date of usability, and I have over a 1/2 bottle of the red liquid (a long name: Guaifenesin; also sold as Robitussin A-C). My family physician’s nurse called with the proposed Coumadin dosage change, and I told her about this cough and my response. After a few questions, dry cough or phlegm, fever or not; she said it was going around and she had had it herself, and was still on the tail end of hers. She was going to check with my Dr. about my continuing with what I started, but she figured it would be fine. I can take it every 4 hrs as needed, and the next one I did was at 9:09. That will fit fine with my rest of the day’s events.
John spent the morning loading the old pickup with a cord of wood to take around the rural block a little over a mile away. He calls it trash wood (cottonwood, willow, plus bits of others—Nancy thinks alder), and folks around here like tamarack until they find what they have to pay for a cord of that versus the $100 we get for a cord. I spent a lot of time coughing and sending pictures from the Veterans Day celebration to several folks. This afternoon we play music at Dry Creek. Before I left the parking lot and while the car was warming up, I played more with the clock setting. Finally, I figured it out. It is only dimly related to the discussions on line and the manual does not clearly state what a person needs to know. I finally figured that usually, the SET button in the middle of the 3 on the 7:00 position on an analog phone face, must be held for awhile in some cases, and only briefly tapped (touched, (pulled up)), in another. Nowhere is that mentioned in any video or verbal instructions, or in the correct manual (in .pdf format) I downloaded from the Subaru site.
I need to take something to take notes on, and go through it manually to put together an instruction sheet. Then maybe I will offer to sell it to Subaru (or to the dealer). Meanwhile, my friend who works in an automobile garage told me this afternoon that I should demand the dealership getting me a printed manual updated properly to my car to have in the glove compartment. As I have mentioned earlier, the one it in, new, has 2014 written on the front cover, but inside the instructions are for a 2013 model Forester.
I went by the bank and cashed the 2 checks from our friends we bought stuff for at Costco on Monday. Tonight is the Hal Holmes lecture by the Cottrells on Canoeing the Mackenzie River. I ended up too concerned that I would have a coughing fit as I have several times tonight, and this afternoon, and that I didn’t want to interrupt the proceedings. I’m still taking the Codeine cough syrup every 4 hours, but it doesn’t completely erase the problem. When I arrived home the lawn mower was beside the driveway – running. John, had mowed the strawberries, made mulch out of some leaves, and was expecting to run out of gas before he finished. He tied the “kill switch” to the handle and then took the dogs for a run. The mower quit about the time he got back. He broke open a bale of straw to cover the strawberries, blueberries, and thorn-less blackberries, but did not get it placed. But, slowly we are getting ready for winter.
Friday, Nov 22
John loaded another truck load (cord) of wood to take around the block, and will do one more load tomorrow morning. We expect (?) to get $100 / load from this over time.
Scholarship Noon Luncheon was in Bouillon Hall. Two members entertained us with a great white (chicken and white beans) chili, excellently prepared. That is the building where I had an office for 11 years. I took my checkbook for a P.E.O. donation for Christmas nuts. I just got on line and read all about how long the organization has been in existence and that it started in Mt. Pleasant, IA. I need to get more details from my friend Suzanne in Idaho who has been a member for many years. I have some questions, and wonder if a couple of gals here working on Masters and needing money can be funded by the local chapter. I bought two pounds of walnuts and paid $20 (will just consider the price – 2X – over Costco’s price as a donation to the PEO scholarship fund).
I made it to the meeting place and realized my disability parking sticker expired 3 months ago. I have been using it since without realizing it. I had even changed the license plate number to the correct one, in May, for my new Subaru. I was in the right building to order a revised one. I parked in a regular spot, but went over the 30 minutes I’m allowed with my Emeritus parking sticker in that time-limited lot, and luckily I got by without a ticket. The handicapped spaces do not have a time limit.
From there, off to Grocery Outlet for a huge amount of cat food (mostly for the wild ones). I had to spend at least $20 before taxes to use a $3.00 off coupon.
Wow –these links below are worth the time to experience the sad view of the Philippines Typhoon damage (aerial photo before and after swipes). And an interesting video on the ground of the storm surge leveling a house.
Saturday, Nov 23
A big 5-point buck just went across the space beyond the dog yard and over the fence into the horse pasture. He wasn’t happy about having his picture taken. Last week two small deer were out there, with others, and all seemed not to mind us having a look.
Briarwood was this afternoon. Only a few musicians showed up, but we did well and had a large audience with good participation. They sang along well on quite a few songs that we took lyrics for. Then they fed us an amazing dinner.. chicken sandwiches, teriyaki chicken pieces, deviled eggs a wonderful Waldorf Jello mold, cheese, sausage, pretzels, fancy crackers, and a bowl of wonderful soup (white navy beans, ham, carrots, and more). Then there were desserts: 5 or 6 pies, a great angel food cake full of pineapple, cranberry/nut cookies, zucchini bread w/pineapple, and other goodies.
Hope your week was fine.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan