The repeal of Prohibition in the United States was accomplished with the passage of the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution on December 5, 1933.
Sunday, Nov 30
CPAP report. Reported figures: 6 hrs 15 min with AHI = 0.80
Might have figured something better with importing the oximetry directly to SleepyHead (SH), but the option I thought I had a few days ago to take it from the SPO2-Review file is not working.
As yesterday, today I also spent most of my time working on a thesis to help a student from 7 or 8 years ago (in our REM program here at CWU). I am not on her committee, and I got involved to try to find her someone who could help edit her thesis; the other two people could only do so much because of their own challenges with time. I’m not doing well either on time. The deadline for submission is tomorrow. I think this last minute effort should have begun a month ago (at least).
We found out that we had a couple of photos of the firefighter EMT who is related to our friends we have known since 1974 from the Brittany world. Stayed home today, and tried to get something done, but the weather is rather cold outside. We updated the blog about our friend, Sarah.
Monday, Dec 1
CPAP report. Reported figures: 8 hrs 31 min with AHI = 0.00
I experienced an alarming beginning to the day with my computer not starting Windows properly. It had a white frozen arrow and black screen. I tried everything, but finally turned it off, and figured I could bring it back up the usual slow way. However, once I finally got something, it said my System 32\config\sys profile\Desktop was moved to another location unavailable. Great–I tried with the basic one, but could not access anything I needed. I turned off again, left it for a few minutes, thought positive thoughts, probably said a little prayer, please let it work, and it came up. I started backing up some of my recent stuff that I need for visiting with two doctors in the next two weeks. I am trying to study my medical data and present it graphically and legibly to show my own parameters I have been measuring nightly, since Oct 4, but especially, more recently, with the added oximetry, starting Nov 24.
I started the day in town, in the afternoon, after lunch, at the senior center, meeting my friend from Montana, who now has moved to EBRG. The exercise group, SAIL, starts at 1:30 so I planned to meet her early to introduce her and get her signed up as an AAC member. She met many people and went through the class, doing very well, her first time. She plans to return Wednesday. Besides this class, there are many more activities through the year, and she can meet more people her age. As well, she has found a church in town she likes.
I took my new oximeter to class today, and recorded my vitals (pulse and oxygen saturation level) for the entire time. You can view the record below:
The beginning is a little bumpy while I was attempting to set it to record, and at the end, in turning it off record. The procedure is more than one click– (many at the start and several at the ending too). The top green line is the blood Oxygen Saturation level (%), which was fine for several times around the room before I set it to record (while it’s recording I cannot view it until I get home and download to my computer). During the class, the O2 level was in the high nineties, where it is supposed to be. The pulse is the blue line and it is fine too, except for my bumps on the setup and ending, it was averaging around 75 bpm.
I was late getting home from town (almost dark) because I stopped by the KVC hospital lab (a blood draw for an INR check)–my doctor’s nurse called at 6:21 p.m. to report my results. The INR was 3.0 with no need to change the dosage. On my way from the hospital, I stopped at BiMart where I needed to get a new watch to replace my Timex I have had for a very long time. Its alarms have not worked since the battery was replaced in July. John saw they were having a 20% sale through this Saturday on all watches. Amazing how long it took me, but I found one I think will work. I had help from the head of the department who spent an hour with me. I left with a new Casio, waterproof, with chronometer, timer, and alarms, for the sale price of $19.95. She took time to show me 3 or 4 different models, after showing me the Timex and I didn’t like the huge size.
Then, she was patient with me while I looked for the one I wanted. I decided on a small one with a name that started with an O, because the side control buttons for setting things were smoother, but I asked her to help me set the watch, date, time. She worked at it and never really did figure it out. We both decided that was not the watch for either of us. I had been fooling all along with the Casio (with harder, more piercing knobs), and without following the instructions, I had made good progress. I left with it on my wrist (without the timer and chronometer access figured out yet). She moved the band from my old watch onto this one. I brought all the pieces home, including the instructions, but I have not yet made time today to figure the rest of the settings.
Tuesday, Dec 2
CPAP report. Reported figures: 6 hrs 31 min with AHI = 0.46
I was able to get my Christmas music moved to flash drive but not printed out, and I moved my folder with Sleep Apnea (from CPAP machine & oximeter), as well. I need to back up more from my hard drive.
Played more with Oximetry input today after forgetting how I did it last week. Think I am on target now, and back to not having to upload twice from the oximeter.
Lunch — a gourmet delicacy treat by John, thanks to our friend Anne Engels, the one from MT who just moved to town. She cooked a Hutterite prepared turkey (brought from Montana), for hers and her son Glenn’s Thanksgiving dinner. Yesterday she brought us a generous serving of turkey to the SAIL exercise class she will be joining. John created brown, blue & yellow sandwiches for our lunch. The yellow was grated cheddar cheese, also used on last night’s chili. Chopped turkey and the cheese was held together with blue cheese salad dressing. We had plain brown bread and grilled them in the non-stick pan. It was super good.
I have spent most of the day working on Christmas music and on bills, and graphics of the combo graphs of my CPAP machine results with my oximeter ones. I entered the wrong image in last week’s blog to show the comparison and addition of the oximetry I’m so proud to have accomplished. I found another item in the process that I thought I did last week, and then couldn’t repeat until today. Now, I’m on a roll. Below is my addition of my Oximetry data synced to the CPAP data. I’m quite excited to have this additional option and display capabilities. There is one glitch in the Sp02 (blue) about 1:35am I cannot explain. If you look at the red line Pulse Rate at about 5:35am, you’ll see the place where I turned off the CPAP machine and left the Oximeter running, so the pulse goes up as I walk to the bathroom, feed the cat, and then lie back down for a few more hours sleep, without the CPAP blowing compressed air into my nostrils.
I didn’t have to do any more proofing of the master’s thesis, because the deadline was yesterday at 5:00. I hope she made it. My weekend was consumed with that.
I’m still putting in a lot of time today on music that we can check out tomorrow when Evelyn and I meet to play for the Food Bank Soup Kitchen lunch. We use the time to practice beforehand and fix any chord problems so I can come home and enter them in the computer software to make copies (pdf) files to send to those not coming tomorrow, and print copies for those who are coming and don’t have computers. She had found some problems over the weekend.
You will remember the fire reported in last week’s blog of the loss of our local F.I.S.H. Food Bank building. For this week, the noon meals are being served at the First Lutheran Church. Next week it will change to another church, the Mercer Creek Church. The latter has also been housing all the donations and providing warehouse space for storage and distribution to needy families in the community.
I never got to John’s haircut as planned. He prefers to wait now until after the two events we go to Friday and Sunday. I know not why. My haircuts are not butcher jobs. He now has cowlicks and we wonder where that terminology originated. They don’t bother him as much as they bother me. Okay, I found the description on Wikipedia:
The term “cowlick” originates from the domestic bovine’s habit of licking its young, which results in a swirling pattern in the hair. The most common site of a human cowlick is in the crown, but they can show up anywhere. They also sometimes appear in the front and back of the head.[”
The term cowlick dates from the late 16th century, when Richard Haydocke used it in his translation of Lomazzo: “The lockes or plaine feakes of haire called cow-lickes, are made turning upwards.”
It was cold here but John manage to start the inserting of 36 wood screws into his truck rack, but he’s having to do it with a manual screwdriver (negating the intended purpose of Phillips slotted heads, because the cheap Phillips head piece that fits in the power drill is of insufficient quality metal to do the job properly. He also got more brushing done down in the woods, afterward, making a dessert with apples and blackberries. It smells grand and is coming out of the oven in 5 minutes.
We had a good dinner of sliced turkey, baked potato, and pears. The dessert was scrumptious, except I detest the blackberry seeds. I suppose that’s why I prefer blueberries. Perhaps I would like blackberry jelly or use the juice in my desserts, but that takes more time we don’t have. I enjoy helping (John does most of the work) pick the thorn-less blackberries because they are so pretty, and I don’t mind cleaning them and putting them up in little bags for the freezer. However, for all the berries we raise, I like the blackberries and raspberries least of all (seeds), and prefer strawberries and blueberries.
I finally completed my volunteer hours for November. All the WTA trail work is now on the lowland of Puget Sound, so John doesn’t go now. Short month! Sent in the Excel spreadsheet for their records.
Wednesday, Dec 3
CPAP report. Reported figures: 9 hrs 30 min with AHI =0.51
This morning I got an email at 8:00 a.m. from a former student about her and 3 student researchers coming from Pullman, WA to the Yakima Canyon this Saturday. They are going to survey bighorn sheep for a disease, and they need housing for Saturday night. I sent out an email request to several people at the university (or who had been). I worded it to contact her directly because I knew I would be gone for 4 hrs. She received 3 offers, and they are set to go to a geographer friend’s house. He was here when I arrived, served as department head and so on, but retired a number of years ago.
I went to the Lutheran church for Food Bank music. They were thrilled to have us show up (as if we ever thought about not going?). It’s our normal Wednesday venue (Evelyn on banjo & me on fiddle), and we both sing. We did all Christmas music while sitting next to a decorated Christmas tree. After playing for a little over 1/2 hour, we were treated to lunch too. The main dish was fried chicken. They gave me a big serving of breast-meat (that I shared with Evelyn who had been served a smaller thigh), and included I had a few potato wedges, also know as Jojos in some regions. The salad was nice, but it had too many dark greens (too high in Vitamin K for my allowance), so I skipped it, and I had a nice chocolate-frosted muffin for dessert. Right after that was over and I made my way back around the block to my car, I went to the courthouse to deliver some nice boxed stationery for a friend to use with her granddaughters to encourage them to be pen pals.
On to SAIL exercise class I went, where, from the free table, I picked up a small sized calendar to carry in my purse to keep up with my busy schedule (:-)), a pretty colorful unused gift bag to hold a larger calendar for the grandmother, a little address book (for her granddaughters). I also picked up a Dreamcatcher someone put on the table. After class, I drove a few blocks north to a gal’s house who gave me a bag of long sleeved tee shirts for John to use as work shirts. I gave her the Dreamcatcher as a thank you. Turns out she was thrilled and has two larger ones in her house.
For many views search using Dreamcatcher and then click on the images tab. In some Native American cultures, a dreamcatcher includes the notion of a spider’s web and has the meaning of a “dream snare.” They are a handmade object based on a willow hoop, on which is woven a loose net or web. The item is then decorated with feathers, beads, or other special items. As I scrolled down on my “images” search, I was surprised to see all the tattoos. So, I added tattoos to my search and – well, I guess we don’t get out and about much. Who woulda thunk?
I stayed up way to late (almost 1:00 a.m.) working on music. I had to completely redo Frosty the Snowman because it wasn’t correct. I had entered the other chord corrections to two songs.
Thursday, Dec 4
CPAP report. Reported figures: 7 hrs 19 min with AHI = 0.00
My morning was filled with finishing the new song, printing copies of all the changes, and then running printouts for a couple of folks without computers, and finally, printing off some of the Bb clarinet music for our new addition (trumpeter) to use to play with us (now that he has a mute). It still is a little louder than I wish, but that wish is mainly for one of our players with tinnitus.
My afternoon was spent at Royal Vista, playing music, with a relatively large bunch of musicians…mandolin, several guitars, trumpet, fiddle, banjo, and 2 singers without instruments. Afterwards, I visited with some of the residents, and got home nearly at dark.
Friday, Dec 5 “Repeal Day”
CPAP report. Reported figures: 8 hrs 16 min with AHI = 0.12
One hypopnea (shallow breathing) before 1:00 a.m., then awake around 1 to 2, unable to get comfortable and back to sleep (unusual).
We partied this evening at Dean Hall for the annual Anthropology/ Geography party. It has occurred since before I came on campus, and I have attended every year since 1988, except for 2009 when I was in the ICU in Yakima Regional, awaiting my heart valve operation. Actually, this week marks the week I was on life support for 8 days, the Saturday following Thanksgiving.
We carried two platters of dried fruit (peaches and apples). They were tasty, but there was so much food, we brought much of ours home.
It was a potluck, and a long buffet table had so many offerings of meats, veggies, salads, and specialty items that I won’t even try to list them. Another separate table had an incredible array of desserts. For drinks, we were served lime sherbet / fruit punch either leaded or not. After and while eating, we had many conversations. It was a nice beginning of the season.
Saturday, Dec 6
CPAP report. Reported figures: 6 hrs 25 min with AHI = 0.00
A tiny bit of snow early morning changed to rain, and then stopped later in the afternoon. The forecast was for a sunny afternoon, but we think not (and it wasn’t).
John started his day by starting bread. Then he took the dogs for their morning exercise and came back to work inside. He made us a nice brunch of blueberry pancakes with strawberries (frozen from CA in April), bacon, and eggs from outdoor around the yard chickens from our former secretary, Marilyn. You can see the results below; notice the beautiful rich gold color of the yokes.
I first checked email, and found a few that needed immediate attention. The most important was a flyer I had picked up last night at the party for a final poster presentation I’m invited to on Monday. The date on the flyer was set using a Nov calendar and not December, so I alerted the Prof. and started the process to pick up the wrongly dated flyers from mailboxes. I was happy to be in the right place at the right time last night, and once home, reading the flyer to put the date on my calendar (when I realized the error). I knew we were told it was Monday, when I have an appointment at 11:45 so I will only get to view the first 4 projects. It continues until noon.
Finally, while John was fixing lunch, I managed to take off my data from the CPAP machine and create my graphs. I must upload it first to SleepyHead (SH) before I upload the oximetry data. Then I go back to SH to import the oximetry and synchronize it with the CPAP data for the night before. I then capture a few more graphs. At some point before my sleep doctor’s appointment, Dec 16, I plan to write a summary of the investigation I have been doing since Nov 24. In order to give the doctor time to review it before I arrive for my appt (assuming he will), I need to mail it down, probably the 10th. It should get there the 11th, and the next day (Friday), they only work until noon. I will check next week to see what days he is in the office and plan accordingly. John is afraid if I do not get it to him in advance, it might not be effective to try to do it in the office visit on the 16th, without his previously viewing it. This morning, I just found another bit of information on the SleepyHead details, so I will have to check into what I can use from there.
The bread is almost ready to come from the oven. What an awesome aroma! John claims he knows how to make better looking loaves – more time and more work. He also claims it doesn’t taste any better. (The large one is 26 ounces.)
Hope your week was fine.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan