Sunday, May 15
For May 14 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 4 hrs 54 min with AHI=6.13. Events: 7 CSR, 29 H, 9 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 18 L/min).
Oximetry: all over the chart. Weird. But I felt fine, so no repercussions, I guess.
John left at 6:00 a.m. on a cold rainy day, for his last day of WTA Crew Leader College, but found the weather on the “wet” side is actually drier and better! That’s good because today he was out in the woods working on the Advanced Crosscut Sawyer learning session. I’m a bit concerned about the fog he will have to drive through near the summit. {Counter-clockwise spinning storms are passing to our south. Westward moving moist air is moving up-slope on the east side (normally dry-side) of the Cascades.}
I cannot believe how tired I was. I slept in until almost 10:00 a.m., highly unusual for me. Maybe it was related to interrupted sleep of the high AHI reported above for last night by the CPAP machine’s SD card (I read every day and graph the data from the night before).
I worked today backing up my activity on the Buy Nothing Ellensburg site because that Facebook site is being closed soon, after being split (sprouted is the term) into 3 smaller groups: North Ellensburg/Thorp, South Ellensburg, and East Ellensburg/Kittitas/Vantage (the new group I’ll join because of our house location).
I also (at John’s request) cleaned the left side of the hallway of boxes of various things, plastic bags of clean clothes and linens, and uncovered a closet door, with horizontal shelves, which I cleaned up a couple of shelves on to make room for some organization of more things. One thing I found on the top shelf was a stack of jigsaw picture puzzles and a few board games. I took the time to offer the puzzles and one board game to the new BNEE group. I mention some results after the puzzle collage below.
The 3 puzzles on the left I managed to re-home with minimum effort with people meeting me at the places I was in town this week. The two on the right have the largest number of pieces, and I will leave those on the free table at the Senior Center to be done with them.
I also repackaged packages of stick-on ribbons we bought in an after Christmas sale years ago. I believe I need to offer them on the Buy Nothing site, or start sticking them on every give away. Bags of music for our group audiences I organized into a box and recycled some we have no longer any use for from previous play dates over the years. Finally, I organized the clothes too large for me now into bags to give away. I put some towels on one of the shelves I uncovered in the closet. That’s handy to the bathroom off that hallway.
Monday, May 16
For May 15 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 6 hrs 40 min with AHI=2.70. Events: 9 CSR, 18 H, 14 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 10 L/min).
Oximetry: looks good, except for an hour when the pulse decreased to the lower 30s a couple of times.
Awoke before 7:00, stayed up, washed dishes, and fed one cat before John got out of bed.
I finally got a note sent off to my friend Lynne whose photo exhibit I visiting last week in Ellensburg. She does gorgeous work and has traveled all over the world. One photo taken in Croatia grabbed my attention because of my grandmother’s area where she grew up in present-day Slovenia, near Croatia. I told Lynne and sent her my 2012 story of the Wilkins family, I had put into our annual greetings for that year, when I returned from our reunion in Guyton, GA. She was happy to hear my story, and mentioned they rode the train through that area of Slovenia, when they were there.
Now at 4:30, John went to Safeway, and I am going to take a short power nap.
We are extremely frustrated with our computer going off and on its Internet connection. There are too many fragile parts between the main “pipes” of the internet and our rural location. The signal goes away and then comes back on its own. This might happen a dozen times in a day, or it might not happen for 3 or 4 months. The provider thinks the issues are in our house. No surprise there.
Tuesday, May 17
For May 16 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 6 hrs 46 min with AHI=0.89. Events: 1 CSR, 5 H, 13 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 9 L/min).
Oximetry: chart was very smooth, with high SpO2 all night.
I worked on chores, and then left for Jazzercise.
Wednesday, May 18 Anniversary of Mount St. Helens Eruption in 1980.
For May 17 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 5 hrs 16 min with AHI=1.90. Events: 8 CSR, 9 H, 9 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 17 L/min).
Oximetry:
John invited me to put on my boots early morning and take a trip through the yard to see wildflowers and our domesticated iris. We have much wild iris (a nuisance) in the pasture that is difficult to get rid of. Neither the horses or the deer will touch it. Lots of water in the spring and then not much after is good for it and not for other things, such as grass.
First, are the pretty little bunched purple flowers, officially known as, Phacelia linearis.
These are next to our new driveway to access the back of our property with a turn-around for a fire truck in case of wildfire from the west of our property. Actually, it helps protect all our buidings because it acts as a loop fire-break. Someday it will get a gravel surface.
Also, from the old cottonwood trees, we have had the seed pods falling and blowing around the yard. I didn’t have my camera when John I returned from town recently and found it white all the way down the driveway on the dark gravel. It looked like it had snowed. The town streets were filled as well with yellow snow from the flowering trees around town (locust or maple ?)
Another interesting plant John tries to reduce is a “Fiddler” plant. Its head looks similar to the neck of a fiddle. [John says: That is why it is called “fiddleneck.”] Looking on line, I found Fiddlehead Fern, but I don’t think our shrub-steppe area is wet enough for ferns, and they are not closely related. Many web photos have linked the names “fern” and “fiddleneck” with this non-fern plant.
Like a curled lock of hair.
Above is a collage with three on the left from our walk. The second in is an enlargement of the 3rd from the left. The one on the right is from the web, where it is wrongly called a fern. However, it has a less hairy appearance than those here, but red dots in the throat of the flower, so I include it. There is an “intermedia” version, so there is more to this plant than we have time to figure out.
Next is a collage of our domesticated Iris we start from rhizomes provided by Celia Winingham, who has cut my hair since I arrived in Ellensburg in 1988.
Iris out near our old barn, on the way to our newer pole barn. Missing in this photo are the salmon (bronze) colored ones and the more recently blooming yellow ones.
I mentioned a board game I found in our hall closet, and I was able to meet Joanna while in town (at SAIL exercise) to transfer it. She introduced me to her cute 7.5 month old baby and later sent me a photo of her son playing the game. She wanted to teach him because she grew up playing the game, and no longer had it. It’s for ages 8 to Adult. Results seen below:
Thursday, May 19
For May 18 CPAP Reported figures. Time on 6 hrs 46 min with AHI=1.77. Events: 2 CSR, 12 H, 17 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 15 L/min).
Today, I rushed to town for a special event at Central Washington University (CWU), a presentation in S.O.U.R.C.E. by Trinity Turner. Here’s the history on this. She’s the daughter of a friend I have known since the early 1990s from the WOTFA workshop at Kittitas where we were in an Intermediate Fiddling class taught by Roberta (Bobbie) Pearce from Nampa, ID. Trinity came to Central and joined the Geography Department where I taught for so many years. Her talk was on using GIS for making “Story Maps” to represent spatial temporal information.
From there, I went to KVH for blood draw with my paperwork and get INR while there. It was low (probably from enjoying our fresh asparagus. They had taken my Dr.’s name off the list as retired (he doesn’t retire until the end of the year, and he was in that very hospital working all week). I called the main office in Cle Elum and talked to Laura (staff member I have known there the longest), and she was grateful to hear, agreed with all my observations, and will report it.
At 1:20 I showed at Brookdale, Senior Living Solutions, for our usual third Thursday of the month’s music. We had a good turn-out and got to meet our new fiddler, Evie Scheutz. She enjoyed meeting our crew, and playing with us. She is happy to be a member of the group. I knew she was practicing for a competition, so I asked if she would place her tunes for us. She did and got applause from us and the audience, and in addition, we “backed her up.” She was quite nervous, but I’m sure it was a positive experience to give her a little exposure to a strange group before the Saturday competition.
John and I went to town to hear Megan Walsh and Dusty Pilkington give a presentation on the importance of fire in our ecosystem at the local chapter of the Kittitas Audubon Society, of which we are members.
The Daily Record link for tonight’s talk is here: News Link
Here is one from back in December of 2015 about hers and Dusty’s work: News Link #2
Friday, May 20
For May 19 CPAP Reported figures. Time on 5 hrs 57 min with AHI=1.51. Events: 8 CSR, 9 H, 16 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 8 L/min).
Oximetry: very nice SpO2 and pulse graph, but only for 2.4 hrs, when it ran out of charged battery. My bad for not recharging it.
I carry a 3-ring binder along to all our KV Fiddlers & Friends performances at assisted living homes. Yesterday, I was in a hurry to leave, and left behind one of the binders that two guitarists share. While there, I took Lenna, a resident, a 650-piece jigsaw puzzle you saw in the photo above.
I went on to the AAC after buying a bunch of canned cat food at less than half price. That’s always a treat to the pocketbook and appreciated by the cats for sure. I caught the end of good talk on bicycles for the elderly: trikes and 4 wheelers. The free lunch was the best part. Baked potato with various toppings and salad.
I sent out the invite to the Emeriti for June 4 End Of Year Geography party, at which the Geography Club provides the burgers, hotdogs, and beverages, and participants bring potluck appetizers, salads, sides, or dessert.
John left early for a WTA day on the trail. John and 3 first-time volunteers cut a tree that came down on a trail-turn on a steep hillside. Once the tree was cut and the sections removed, they rebuilt the turn.
The whole crew, below, worked on 4 different projects. A different tree crashed into the railing so the left end had to be reconstructed. The still intact but crooked part is solid and serviceable.
Saturday, May 21
For May 20 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 5 hrs 31 min with AHI=2.17. Events: 2 CSR, 10 H, 11 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 9 L/min).
Oximetry:
John left at 6:00 a.m., to fill up with gasoline for a WTA trail maintenance work day being held at Goat Creek Trail, near Chinook Pass, WA (just east of Mt. Rainier National Park).
I got 1.5 hrs more sleep and have been tackling chores. John fed Lemon before he left, and I fed the two girls out front after he was gone. They both (mother and daughter, Woody) came onto the cable table in the front yard, and mom, Sue, jumped down and ran toward me to be fed on the concrete in front of the garage, inside the fence, where we have been feeding her to keep away the skunk. She more often eats out back up in the “cat’s mow.”
Here’s a photo of Woody, up her favorite tree, a Black Walnut.
Evie Scheutz (our new fiddler with the Kittitas Valley Fiddlers & Friends) has been only playing the fiddle for 2 years, taught by a CWU student. She is the epitome of what a fiddler should be doing. She puts in 4-6 hours practicing every day. She entered her first competition in Union Gap, WA today (Play the Gap), and won 4th place in the Old Time (music) Adult group. The link below happened today at the Union Gap .
EVIE AT PLAY THE GAP
This was her award.
Sunday, May 22
For May 21 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 6 hrs 50 min with AHI=0.59. Events: 5 CSR, 4 H, 17 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 9 L/min). Oximetry was good throughout.
I’ve been tackling chores all day, while John went to his WTA trip today (3rd day this weekend). Today and yesterday were to the Goat Creek Trail in the Mt. Rainier area off Highway 410. Today he put 182.6 miles on his Subaru, leaving at 6:38 a.m. and returning at 4:38, a nice 10 hr day. Yesterday’s trip was a little longer (185) because he detoured through Ellensburg for gasoline.
My chores included working on this blog (still need to put the finishing touches on so John can enter it), washing dishes and clothes, doing various types of paperwork, gathering information for my upcoming doctor and physical therapist appointments, feeding cats, and planning for future visitors.
Hope your week was fine.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan