Sunday, Feb 14
You now know we got the blog published about 7:30 p.m. PST, tonight.
John has continued with a cold that started yesterday. Now he has to get up early, take care of the animals, and go prune wine grapevines. He enjoys that every year and they are starting about 2 weeks early. On the Naneum Fan our snow is melting and ground is soft where it is not rocky. There has been minor flooding closer to and in EBRG. None out here.
Monday, Feb 15 Presidents’ Day
For Feb 14 CPAP. Reported figures 6 hrs 51 min with AHI=2.92. Events: 20 H, 17 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=11 L/min); oximeter on entire time AOK.
We had incredible winds here last night. Sounded like the metal roof over the nearest firewood shelter and another small structure would leave for the Columbia Basin. The wood stove flue-cap and kitchen vent-cap were singing and bumping, things were blowing outside and knocking into other things, creating noises. A tree at the neighbors a half mile up the road lost its top on to the roadway, so Public Works had to come remove the debris. We had one of our horse interior pasture fences (a short section of nearly solid wood {pallets}) go down enough the horses could step around it. John fixed it at 1:30 when he got home from pruning.
Last year we had our own excitement on Presidents’ Day. If you don’t remember, check this out:
Logs in the front yard
Called Safeway Pharmacy, spoke with Larry, who is calling to increase prescription to 90 pills for Micardis (Telemisartan). I’ll get an automatic call when it’s filled. Again, the cost through them and GoodRx for cash saves me $141 on a 3-month supply over paying a co-pay through my Group Health medical insurance. Something is awry there, but I will play the game and be ahead, and still have the benefits of the prescribed medicine best for my heart, as desired by my cardiologist.
I thought I had finished The M.T.A. song, but now I plan to leave it off the February list, because our Kingston Trio master (Manord) had surgery on his finger, and cannot play the guitar for at least 3 weeks.
Today was dishes, diuretic, and sorting more clothes to get rid of for the upcoming BNE clothing share day in March. Also, I will work on music for the month of March. Today I’m working up The Banks of the Ohio and I need to work on Loch Lomond that’s done in draft stage.
With the winds and warmer temperatures, much flooding occurred in the valley. John saw a lot in the lower section of Naneum on his way to prune. I heard stories on line about the County Public Works offering sand bags to folks in west Ellensburg, and elsewhere to fight the encroaching waters from the north.
I went to town later (without my camera) and passed by ducks swimming in a pasture at the lower Naneum curves; see an explanation beneath the picture below:
This photo was taken a year ago (and is at the end of the web site mentioned above, to show the signs we wanted installed on the curves on our end of Naneum (they never did anything about our neighborhood request through proper channels). This photo shows a red truck and a horse in a pasture in front. As I drove around that curve today, the pasture was completely flooded on the east-west section of the curve north of the road, and no horses (usually more than 6 there) were in the pasture. It was flooded completely and a raft of Mallard ducks graced the temporary lake from the overnight runoff.
Today a friend posted a photo of some Darn Tough Vermont made Merino Wool socks with a LIFETIME guarantee. We both think that sounds almost impossible, but it appears on the packaging and descriptions on Amazon and other web sites. The socks my friend bought were from REI (in Seattle). Guess we will have to consider that. She will report back on how they work for her. She claims she goes through wool socks in six months.
Tuesday, Feb 16
For Feb 15 CPAP. Reported figures, 6 hrs 7 min with AHI=0.65. Events: 4 H, 6 CSR, 13 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=15 L/min); oximeter on entire time, 8 hr, 23 m, with an AHI=0.48. The extra 2.3 hrs were consistent with high SpO2 and normal pulse.
John left just before 8:00 for pruning.
This morning I contacted our young Windows guru at Complete Computer Services about our email access problem, for the nancyh@ellensburg.com account, and got it straightened out. Oddly, it was resolved by resetting our password to the exact same one it had been previously. They had upgraded their system and closed us out of our vintage email.
While I had him on the phone, I asked about my keyboard problem (key tops falling off). I long ago lost the letters painted on several keys. I took my computer into the CCSOE shop, left it, and Ryan checked for the best replacement. He found a cheaper one, but it would have had added problems, so he found one that directly was meant for my Toshiba Portege. Price will be $70, and they estimate it will only take 15 minutes to change to the new part. I carried him a large piece of our Cream-cheese frosted Red Velvet cake John & Betty C. made last night and I frosted (again, with Betty Crocker’s help from a container). It was thanks for his changing our password and getting us back on line for email.
I went to Jazzercise, and made it through a challenging routine. My arms and legs hurt for 2 days.
On the Buy Nothing Ellensburg (BNE) site, a woman asked for clip on earrings for her sister-in-law with Parkinson’s for 24 years, who can no longer install rings in her pierced ears.
I told her I would look in an old small suitcase that had stuff my mom last had in the nursing home, where she died. I never had an ear lobe large enough to wear, so I could not make use of them (would have been a nice addition, however, to my fifties costume recently). I found one pair and will take them to the woman tomorrow when I am close to her workplace.
There was a good sideline from my search of the suitcase. I found a very small shoehorn and a vintage ChapStick, along with perfume (Chanel #5), I bought for my mom in France in 1965. I don’t know if perfume ruins with age, but I never could wear perfume, so I need to find a home for it if it is still usable. I need to find a tester.
Hers was an American Tourister Train Case, now for a search on line, I added “vintage” and found the exact match.
The rest of the story continues. After finding the shoehorn, ChapStick, and an interesting array of other things, I made the follow request on the BNE site.
You’ll see below on Saturday, I succeeded in obtaining a gift for John.
I would love to surprise my hubby, but I need someone in BNE land’s help. He never asks for anything, but in putting on a pair of boots a couple days ago, he said, “I need to get a shoe horn that might make my life easier.” He has been using a legal size envelope, and can only get one from the office paper recycle for every time used. I looked on line because somewhere in my past I saw one with a long handle, which is what I think he needs. I made a photograph of three different ones from small to large. Then while looking for clip-on earrings to give in our group, I found a smaller shoehorn in my mother’s stuff (along with a vintage ChapStick, now added to the collage. (I hope someone has one they are not using. Prefer a larger one than the ChapStick). Thanks for searching, everyone.
The Connections were scheduled tonight at the Rehab. John let me off at 6:20, and left to go fill his car with gasoline for the pruning trip tomorrow, and to go grocery shopping. He didn’t return until 7:20, surprised to find me alone with a bunch of residents singing hymns. When I got there, I looked around for people I knew would want to come down to the end of the hallway. Time went on, and none of the players showed up, but I had set up with about 10 people in the room and was ready to go. Carol Langston (Activities Director) came in about 6:40 to thank me for staying and told me the group leader had canceled.
I never received any notice anywhere (email or by phone) of the cancellation of The Connections, because of sickness. I found out later, it was TEXTed to people’s cell phones. I DO NOT TEXT, nor will my phone accept it, or notify the sender of non-receipt. This is not the first time this has happened. I wish people were more cognizant that not everyone is into texting, tweeting, and tiddling as they are, even with having a cell phone number.
We had a few people “brought down” (no books for anyone, except me, with mine I carried with my music stand). Jeanne Gordon was there. Phil and Ken were there and sang a lot of the songs. Phil sang almost every word to every song. I found out later from his wife Vi, in my SAIL exercise class, that he grew up in a Pentecostal church with parents that traveled all over the world. I started at the start of the hymnal book and played songs I thought they would know or ones that had good sing-along choruses. Mylene Whittaker was there with her husband’s mom, Dorothy, who did a good job of singing on many songs, and I think surprised Mylene. About 7:00, Mylene moved up front with me to read the music and sing along. The Russian woman (mother of Maria from CWU’s music faculty) was there and smiling. A couple of others I didn’t know by name, but recognized, were wheeling themselves around in and out for the 50 minutes I played and sang with them. I stayed until 7:30. I was rather worn out. We grabbed a large 2-topping pizza on the way home — from Dominoes, at a special sale price of $5.99. I added mushrooms and sharp cheddar to mine once home.
Wednesday, Feb 17
For Feb 16 CPAP. Reported figures, 5 hrs 59 min with AHI=1.67. Events: 10 H, 2 CSR, 15 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=17 L/min); oximeter on entire time, with high SpO2 and normal pulse.
On my way to the hospital lab for an INR blood draw (was 2.0), I dropped off clothes at Kristina Paquette’s for the “career clothing cache” for CWU students wanting nice clothes for interviews. Since, I have located three more things to add to another bag for her–two blouses and a nice pullover sweater.
My stay at the hospital was not nice. I waited 30 minutes, and the first draw on my best vein, they botched. I prefer a vein draw rather than a pinprick, having to play the fiddle right after I left there, and tomorrow as well. She had to switch to a butterfly needle and to the other arm. It worked that time.
Food bank went all right with three player/singers and two extra singers. Good food today. On to SAIL and things went all right there too with Katrina leading 17 people.
Home for a short time, and then we were off to hear Nick Zentner’s 2nd in the new Geology Lecture series — this one titled, Yellowstone Hot Spot & Liberty Gold– Is There a Connection? This was one of his lectures that was professionally videotaped, and so you won’t be presented mine from off-center on the front row, because the former Dean of the Business School at CWU beat me to my preferred seat.
Nick Zentner’s recent lecture, Liberty Gold and the Yellowstone Hot Spot is now available on YouTube.
Click the following to view:
Hot Liberty Gold
An old oceanic terrane, Siletzia, is the key to the lecture. The Yellowstone Hot Spot created Siletzia offshore 55 million years ago, and its accretion to the Pacific Northwest set the stage for gold appearing in the hills (and streams) near Liberty, Washington. Well, there is lots more to the story, so watch the video if you care. Some 280 folks attended this lecture at the Hal Holmes Center in downtown, Ellensburg, Washington. February 17, 2016. Many (most?) of the folks are our age.
Thursday, Feb 18
For Feb 17 CPAP. Reported figures, 6 hrs 34 min with AHI=1.07 . Events: 6 H, 4 CSR, 1 OA, 1 PP, 21 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=15 L/min); oximeter on entire time, with high SpO2 and normal pulse.
I realized this morning that my Latitude Boston Scientific monitoring transmitter had stopped working overnight. I spent a long time on phone, and the results are that they are sending me a new unit. I wrote out the steps below to share with my device technician for future knowledge, when others call her. She was the first one I called, and her solution did not reinstate the unit.
Here are the steps to call the 1 866-484-3268 number on the back of the manual that gets you to the St. Paul, MN office of the manufacturer.
First, be prepared for a long wait and advise a person to dial that ON A CELL PHONE. They may need contact with your landline connected to the machine.
The procedure is essentially what we started this morning, but has an initial step my technician did not mention.
From St. Paul, the customer representative had me push the white button on the back of my monitor, and then this following was the final troubleshoot.
1- Unplug the power cord on the back of the monitor — it’s the little black plug in the middle of the backside of the unit.
2- Unplug from the main wall, and wait a few seconds. I waited a minute at least.
3- Plug back in the wall.
4- Plug back in the black one on the back of the monitor.
—– The little solid light of Call Doctor, lower right was still on.
She said they would send a new unit, and as a separate mailing, a label to package the old one to return.
My guess is I won’t be able to get any more information before my Mar 15 appt with Dr. Kim, so I’m happy I asked for and received the pacing as 18% yesterday. I think I need to be checked, perhaps, that day right before my appt. I’ll call tomorrow and see if I can set up a scan.
I intended to print off several things for people, but my printer is not working.
I call CCSOE to see when delivery is expected (for the keyboard part) with the hopes I could bring the computer in for repair, while I was off playing music. Ryan tracked it and found that while it first said it would be delivered Friday, it had now been changed to Monday.
We arrive today at 1:30 p.m. at Dry Creek/Brookdale. I called in early morning’s count for chairs, for 9 total, but with 8 armless chairs. Manord (wife, Joy, was in the audience singing as our groupie), Maury, Minerva, Amy, Laura, Charlie, Gerald, Bob, and I participated to a quite appreciative and also participating audience.
After we were done, I called Cari R, a new BNE acquaintance, to take by her coat I was offering her. She had another to give me. It’s a soft fleece jacket with mountain scenes – quite nice. It was a little too large for her and mine I was giving her was a little too small for me.
Tony Bynum (former CWU student of ours) wrote a note today with a link you all might find interesting.
Here is his message about his report:
“If anyone wants to know what it was like filming the Glacier Park segment of the new IMAX movie, “National Parks Adventure,” here’s my report:
Pictures above from Tony. Here is the link to his report:
Tony Bynum documents IMAX in Glacier
We will share our comments with you that we sent to Tony.
“Tony, Thanks for the IMAX report. That’s an interesting story. Will your name appear on screen?
For us, the nearest Imax is in Seattle. We almost never go to Seattle, or see movies, and so there is low probability we will see this one. We went to one at EXPO’74 in Spokane, 42 years ago. IMAX was just 4 years old!
We’ll spread the word, though.”
Meanwhile, we suggest you go to his web page of his photography work:
He gets in the middle of things and way-too-close to dangerous animals.
We went back to the Kittitas Audubon meeting for a lecture on Wolverines in the Cascades. It was presented by Aja Woodrow, a former student of mine (in GIS) when he was working on his MS in Biology at CWU. Now he works for the USFS in Cle Elum, WA. I have some videos of his talk if anyone is interested in watching – just let me know and I will send the links, later when they are completed. Anyway, WA does not offer a lot of suitable habitat for Wolverines. They are built for traveling on snow and most of otherwise suitable area has the snow melting away too early in the year, say in Feb & March rather than late April.
Friday, Feb 19
For Feb 18 CPAP. Reported figures, 8 hrs 32 min with AHI=1.06. Events: 9 H, 8 CSR, 16 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=8 L/min); oximeter on entire time with high SpO2 and normal pulse.
Thankfully, we both had a good night’s sleep. We both stayed home. The pruners were not pruning today, because Cameron was leaving for a weekend of Farmer’s Markets on the west side. I did not need to make a trip into town.
John found a $300 tax credit we can take advantage of on the Blaze King web site, so I downloaded the document and printed before our printer stopped working. John will need to fill in the details of purchase, so that we can take our certificate by the store from where we bought the woodstove, to get their verification of purchase. It’s in Yakima, and we will be going for a cardiologist’s appointment for me March 15. I stored the certificate in the Taxes 2015 folder on my computer.
Here are the details: On December 16, 2015, the long-awaited year-end tax deal that was negotiated between the House and Senate leadership was unveiled. Included in this section is the $300 credit for residential biomass stoves. The bill reauthorizes the tax credit retroactively to January 1, 2015 and extended through December 31, 2016. So, assuming we get this, thanks taxpayers.
The credit applies to purchases made in 2015 and 2016 in the United States. Consumers who made residential biomass heating purchases need to retain for their records a manufacturer’s certificate that demonstrates the unit qualifies for Sec. 25C and a receipt (proof of purchase).
John just went out at 4:15 to feed, and the rain and a little hail came with a minor swoosh. He had already spent early morning emptying buckets of water coming off our roof with last night’s rainfall. I did not see hail or graupel or hear it here in the house. He was near the hay shed and the metal roof makes a sounding board. Woody – feral cat – was on an exposed perch and ran for the smaller red barn.
I have been switching chores all day, from washing dishes to washing clothes to sorting both. Besides those, I have worked on music and emails and the list goes on. Each day I have to download medical data from two machines, store, and today’s clothing wash includes sorting out things we don’t use, need, wear, or no longer fit for the BNE clothing share. I’ll get back to work on music while my dishes soak. I worked a little on the blog, but nothing as much as I should have.
Saturday, Feb 20
For Feb 19 CPAP. Reported figures, 6 hrs 44 min with AHI=0.45. Events: 3 H, 15 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=18 L/min); oximeter on entire time, with high SpO2 and normal pulse.
Only four of us made it to Briarwood for music today: Gerald, Charlie, Amy, and me. I expected three others but the weather must have been too nice. The women fixed us some awesome Tortellini soup, with toppings of tortilla chips, grated cheese, and sour cream. Then we had hot wheat or white rolls and butter, and ended with table full of desserts. Lee made her wonderful cookies and little peanut butter chocolate bars to die for. Another person made two different types of cookies, and another made a spice cake with cream cheese frosting.
I had tried to find the second hand store number where there was a going out of business sale and a person on the BNE site had seen a shoehorn with a handle. I drove by 3 times on Wednesday and the door was always locked. I started checking with neighboring businesses to see if they could tell me the owner’s name or phone number. The most help I got was from Kathy at a shop called Pink with Envy (young women’s gently used clothes), at 411 N Pine St, Ellensburg, WA, 509-933-3689. She decided to help me sleuth out the story. A woman only known by her first name, Linda, owns the store going out of business. Kathy heard my story and said she would check with a friend, Kim, at the insurance agency next door to the shop. She set me up with Kim, and Kim took me to the bottom of the stairs of Linda’s apartment. I climbed the steep two stories of stairs, knocked on the door, and got no answer. I went back to ask Kim for a piece of paper and tape, and went to my car and wrote a note to Linda with my phone number. She never called me.
While visiting with Kathy over the next two days, I told her about the BNE site, and how I had asked for a shoehorn, and one of the members sent me a personal message that he had seen one in that store. She told a friend, Mary, about the situation, and me and about the BNE site for asking for things, or gifting others. Mary told her she had what I needed, and she didn’t ever use it, so she would be happy to give it to me. Friday, she was leaving town but said Kathy’s husband could pick it up and take in to her store. Saturday, I went by Pink with Envy before going to Briarwood to meet my “new friend”, Kathy, to pick up a
telescoping shoe horn (Shoe DINI) —This was the result. Now it’s in John’s possession and he has already put it to use. Thanks, Mary (and Kathy, for all your connections.)
This is actually shortened, and taken in the nighttime so the overhead light globes are messing up the photo, but this is better than the one I copied from the web.
Once out of Briarwood, I drove by another BNE member’s house to pick up 3 bags of children’s clothes for the share, by Grocery Outlet for vanilla ice cream. They didn’t have any but had one cookies & cream, close enough, thankfully not a rainbow sherbet like the other 15 buckets, and back though town to drop off the bags of clothing to be sorted.
Sunday, Feb 21
For Feb 20 CPAP. Reported figures, 8 hrs 43 min with AHI=0.00 . Events: 0 H, 2 CSR, 18 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=12 L/min); oximeter on entire time, with high SpO2 and normal pulse.
Toast for Breakfast. Lunch was a blueberry loaded pancake – explains the dark color. Salsa and sour cream on an egg, for me. Orange pieces and bacon were nice additions. Pancake also had a bunch of pecans.
Earlier in the week John got the printer and scanner working. We had to scan to a plug in drive for the past year, but printing from my laptop failed. The lack of printing had to be fixed. New downloads and an install fixed both. A day later neither of us could make a wireless connection to the machine. John tried to completely uninstall all the printer stuff and then started in loops and circles with the Epson software. Something went wrong and the whole computer system went bye bye. Finally, he got to a page that allowed a removal and reinstall of Windows without destroying personal files. All the programs, such as Google Earth, Chrome, Office Writer – and all the settings – went away. Today he began recreating a usable machine. He says he won’t try doing the Epson printer stuff until the blog is published.
Mid-afternoon he replaced the canopy on the pickup and soon we will make runs to the transfer (dump) station in EBRG and to a metal, cans, and plastic recycle place in Yakima where there is a little payback. Thus, the need for the canopy.
Hope your week was fine.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan