Sunday, July 20
After our wedding we stayed in Atlanta for a short time and then headed to visit John’s parents in Clarion, PA. We were there when the US team visited the Moon on July 20th. We sat on the sofa in the house he grew up in and watched the footage of the visit and listened to words said by Neil Armstrong and “Buzz” Aldrin. After a few days in PA we headed to Iowa City.
Happy 45th to that event.
We spent a large part of the day on our blog, and need to process more cherries, some still on branches. Thankfully, it has cooled from the past few days, but the winds are still whipping.
Shay left Sunday evening. Our almost 14 year old dog has been acting senile and strangely, lately, such that we figured she was nearing death. Her grandmother tried moving herself to the far corners of the house or yard when she was ready to die, but her kidneys failed, before she could escape into the woods. John has had to direct extra attention to her lately just to get her around part of the usual area she has known all her life. Late today when he opened the door she went out and he stepped back inside a few seconds to get Dan to go along. John, Dan, and Annie went out the driveway – expecting to catch up to Shay under the cherry trees or near the irrigation ditch. But no Shay.
Monday, July 21
I took John to his teeth cleaning earlier than planned (at their request). I was unable to go to my exercise today because of the time conflict occurring. Instead, while John was at the hygienist, I went to one store for Oatmeal and canned dog food and by the hospital for my routine blood draw. The hospital check-in and wait for the lab technician was 3 times longer than normal. Later a call from my doctor’s nurse confirmed my INR was 3.1, up a little from last month, but I have not had any alcohol or antibiotics, so I don’t know what caused it.
Tuesday, July 22
John visited with the neighbor that shared a mail-box location. A low chance meeting. He mentioned the missing Shay and asked her to call if she found a dead Brittany in her yard. After he came back with the other 2 dogs we had to leave. We were off to my visit at 9:20 with the Lung Specialist (new to me), in Yakima. He will evaluate my CT scan from May 20, and likely the Pulmonary Function Test taken the same day. It will be nice to hear what he believes is one of 5 potential causes of a thickening on my lower right lung lobe. The first medical report I got on the CT scan was alarming (to say the least), provided by a medical doctor at Yakima Memorial Hospital who “read” the images. My cardiologist recommended I go to the Yakima Chest Clinic for a thorough examination of the scan by a lung specialist (Dr. Phillip Menashe), who has been practicing for 30 years. I picked him after reading the medical training histories of the clinic doctors suggested for my needs.
TWO good things happened today.
I just returned from the lung specialist, and, THANK GOD, I do not have a tumor or other complications in my lower lobe seen on a CT scan 2 months ago. The first report suggested 5 possible things (mostly all bad, except for possible surgical scarring from my heart surgeries). I had a little calcification (one spot), possibly from a fungus or something in my past (pneumonia like, or something I didn’t know I had). In addition, the lungs looked healthy and the small thickening showing up in the lower part he does not believe is the result of the drug I have been on for 4 years for Atrial Fib (Amiodarone). I will report (in the blog) the final comments when I receive his report to my cardiologist and my family physician. At my request I, too, always receive a copy of my medical records. His verbal and visual evaluation today was quite positive and reassuring. He took John and me into a viewing area and went over the CT scan in detail. Basically, he was not disturbed by anything he saw, and explained it as “post inflammatory” — and he will follow-up with me in November, have me take another 6-minute walk around the office, measuring my oxygen saturation (with a pulse oximeter) — normal range 95 to 99. Today, mine at the end of the walk was 95, and my pulse went up only slightly. When I came in for my appointment, it was 96, with 77 pulse, and BP was 112/68. He says after the next visit, it will only be yearly, but he would like to see a CT scan and Pulmonary Function Test (PFT). My PFTs this year definitely were of concern, but he said this was not borne out in the CT scan. I will not need to go off the Amiodarone. I will not need to have a biopsy. That was fantastic news.
The second good thing was finding our missing dog: Our neighbor from the mail-box called to say she had seen a dog like ours in a hay field about a mile south on Naneum. There is only one true hay field there so John went and retrieved her. She has never wandered out of range of John’s voice and, recently, not out of sight. How she got there we haven’t a clue. [Follow-up 3 days later.] She was wet from being out during several hours of rain, hungry from no food since her big meal on Saturday night, access to dry food Sunday, and very tired. She got home and we put her under a blanket on a rug after we fed her and gave her thyroid medication (she gets twice a day). She slept for 2 days, but continued eating, drinking, and going out the doggie door to potty when needed.
. . . . . . . . . . Cedaridge Legacy of Shay
Above, she is asleep on the washroom floor Saturday a.m.. She has been getting up on the loveseat as well. I started a few days ago giving her a baby aspirin with her 1/2 thyroid pill twice a day. I think it is helping. We have not taken her on any walks off lead for fear of her getting disoriented and separated again from John. She is hard of hearing and her eyes are not as good as previously.
Wednesday, July 23
John left for the hills at 5:50 a.m.; across Stevens Pass to the Martin Creek Connector trail for WTA work. He has to go around one wildfire zone because Hwy 2 is still closed. Fires to the east and north of his route are in more populated areas and about 300 homes have gone in flame. A local company used a drone with a camera and provided a 4 ½ minute video. This area is a 2-hour drive north of us.
View video of WA fire. Be sure not to miss the follow-up video, Part 2 of the Carlton Complex Fire Devastation. It is 3 minutes long.
Part 2 link here.
The WTA crew is expecting rain; not nice to work in except to see where to put drainage ditches to protect the trail. It will be good for the fires, unless lightning is associated. (It started raining hard here at home about an hour ago.) They were working in a steep V-shaped valley in a little draw where several small streams were cascading across the new trail so the place was wet and muddy. They got a few ridge strikes of lightning and lots of rain. After everyone was totally wet – the rain stopped and the sun came. Two of the young Student Conservation folks did not hear and so there were 2 sign language types along that did not participate in the work. A fun and interesting day. Most of the State and wildfires got rain, so they settled some.
I am off to the dentist to deliver squash before their lunch break and when I need to be at the Food Bank at 11:30 for music. So, with 15 minutes to spare, I called my friend from Idaho to wish her a happy birthday. We had a nice conversation. Then on to SAIL with more squash for the Senior Center folks. Twenty-six folks for exercise today, and the rains started back hard while we were all inside the building and had left our raincoats in the car!
John got home, did the horse, dog, and cat chores. John chased a dog or two from the couch and went to sleep while I did chores and then fixed some dessert and he, then, went to bed. I’m on my way there. Rascal is back in my lap. Shay (the old dog) is up on the loveseat, all happy to be home.
I washed three loads of dirty clothes from John’s wet workday. I have one thing to go. It’s been through a soak session, his bright yellow & black rain jacket (covered with forest muck and mud), and his cotton hat he wears when not wearing his orange hardhat while working. They had a 1.5-mile walk in to work on trail rebuilding in a braided stream area. Interestingly, I hung the cleaned but wet yellow jacket on a red plastic heavy-duty hanger on the front porch for John to get Friday morning. More on that below.
Thursday, July 24
We wanted to get rid of the old refrigerator: Waste Management in Omaha, NB answered the 1-800 number for what I thought was our local service in the county. Run around, no answers, but I found out the Freon had to be drained and certified by a professional. Checked again with Kittitas County listings and John found a number for the local transfer station. Phew. I knew I had reached them previously. They will take them. John has to remove the doors, clean out all the food (we’ve already done the clean out), and we will be charged the weight plus a fee of $10.36 to process it (they take out the Freon, so we don’t have to pay a local heating & AC business to do it (that was the suggestion by the guy in Omaha!). We can also load up the truck with more waste at the same time because all we’re paying for is weight with the added fee.
Afternoon I went to Hearthstone for music, and John managed to get the frig in the back of his truck and load up all the throwaway food from 3 freezers (two on refrigerators; the other a chest freezer), let me off for music, and went to take care of the disposal ($25.). He got back in time to hear our last 3 songs and receive one of the delicacies (treats fixed by the Hearthstone cooks) to serve with tea and coffee to the residents while we play. They were chocolate covered delicacies with something like cheesecake on a graham cracker base. We were also happy to have my elder colleague, George Macinko, visit and participate with his son (from Alaska). He loved all our songs and told John he knew all the words. He used to sing in a barbershop quartet for years here in EBRG.
Friday, July 25
John left early morning (6:00 a.m.), for the Pass for another Summit Pancake House meeting of the crew. Trail work needs calories. They went north of I-90 on the Pacific Crest Trail, on the lower forested slopes that lead to the Kendall Katwalk 4+ miles from the trail head.
Views of the Katwalk section.
I went to a going-away party and ice cream social for Moiré Friday, from 11:30 to 1:00. I took some beautiful Dahlias from John’s garden. We put a large bouquet of two colors in a big vase they had at the center and on the check-in table so everyone was able to enjoy them. (I’ll put a picture in next week that the photographer took of us with the flowers). I took another smaller green scalloped top edged short vase and put one large salmon-colored Dahlia in it, for Moiré’s desk. She’s been our AmeriCorps helper for a year and endeared us all to her for her kindness, cooking abilities (particularly Irish), leadership of our SAIL exercise class, and innovative program planning. We will really miss her. It was a huge success and a testimony to how much she meant to so many people. The room was full, with over 50 folks present for the ice cream sundae social goodbye, thanks, and best wishes for her future. She is a very special person whom everyone loves. Many tears were shed including by her and some of the older gentlemen present. She knows every member of the Senior Center by name.
Saturday, July 26
Interesting day: warmer, no rain. I have been doing small chores and need to finish this blog to give to John. While looking out the kitchen window this morning, I saw hummingbirds checking out the bright-red plastic coat hanger still up on which the yellow rain jacket had been hanging. John picked it up on his way to the trail work yesterday morning. I believe they were hoping for sweet nectar. Sorry about that, little birdies. I gave away a feeder (still in the package) I bought a couple years ago at a yard sale. A lady from my exercise class at the Senior Center took it for her daughter, and it has a great new home. We are not sure feeding hummingbirds is a good idea with all the cats. A feeder needs to be close to see them. We don’t need a hard to get to task, either. It’s already 3:00 pm. and John has been watering various things – blueberries and the small plum trees and others. He picked a pound of raspberries this morning, ate some, and plans to have more tonight. I took a photo of those minus what he ate this morning and we have displayed them below with a Giant (or Garden) Tiger Moth (we named her Ginger) on raspberry plant leaves. The caterpillar for these is called a Woolley Bear, for good reason, but we are not sure which sort. You can search for woolly bear caterpillar (using images tab) and see the variation; mostly black on the ends and red/orange in the middle. This one is supposed to have long white hairs like a porcupine.
While picking the berries, John saw Ginger on the ground, thought she was dead, and tried to pick her up. She flew into the patch farther. Later he found her on the outer leaves in good light. When Ginger spreads her wings out, she looks like the third picture below.
Hope your week was fine.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan