Strawberry time

Strawberries
Monday, June 6

For June 5 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 5 hrs 30 min with AHI=1.64. Events: 1 CSR, 9 H, 18 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 18 L/min). Oximetry: excellent.

I started early (6:00 a.m.) finishing blog for John to edit and put on WordPress. He slept in until the Magpies made so much racket.

We did not finish it and publish until after Noon, and I had a 1:00 appt for a haircut at my neighbor’s 1/2 mile away. It was posted without the normal final proofing, once it’s entered into WordPress.

It is 97° outside. John has been going out every so often to water the strawberries. I’ve been slowly cleaning the ones he picked earlier and brought in.

Tonight John made a chicken/red pepper/mushroom/cashew/shell noodle creation for dinner.

Leftover from last Saturday’s Award Geography End of the Year party was this photo taken on the Bowen’s camera of me with the two winners of our distinguished service award.
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Tricia Snyder, Nancy, and Jessie Martin, both graduate students in the Resource Management program.

Tuesday, June 7

For June 6 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 5 hrs 56 min with AHI=1.01. Events: 0 CSR, 6 H, 11 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 15 L/min). Oximetry: okay all night.

My physical therapy exercises painfully completed. Today is hot and sunny again and, again John sprayed a mist on the strawberries – actually twice. He had watered the ground before the big heat so these sprayings are to lower the temperature and increase the humidity.

I went by Joanie’s and Ken’s to pick up my bag and blouses. Joanie had kindly removed an extra button from one shirt and sewed onto another for me. She plays mandolin or viola with our group, and has been sewing new elastic in my pants for some time. I surely appreciate her help. She has taken up clothes (vests) that were too big for me; no charge for anything. It’s nice having my own seamstress.
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Joanie’s hubby, Ken, kindly hand sewed a fix in the Costco grocery bag handle. It was given to me, and I don’t recall its being cut then, but I know I wouldn’t have cut it with anything I was carrying in it. Another of life’s mysteries. Left photo shows the cut strap. Ken put a “backing” piece on and did lots of cross stitching. Better than new.

From there, I went to AAC jazzercise, getting there ahead of time in order to write my check for my fee for an upcoming field trip to Tillicum Village on Blake Island, across the Puget Sound from Seattle. That doesn’t happen until July 20th, but all tickets have to be purchased in advance (this week). It’s a big planning effort, but happily, enough people signed up to take the trip to make it a go. It’s a little pricier than most of their day trips, but there are lots of associated costs of transportation, admittance fees, and the luncheon buffet (Salmon Bake Native American style, venison stew, and steamed clams appetizer) is included. We will be on a cruise ship to the island for 45 minutes from Seattle. More discussion to follow with pictures after I make the trip. The area is a national park honoring the British Columbian Kwakiutl tribe’s culture.

From there I went a long block south, parked in the shade of two old spruce trees, and went inside the 3-story building for a painful manipulation at PT. I returned home via Kittitas with paperbacks to deliver. They are destined for inmates of the King County Jail. They only are allowed paperbacks, and a gal that lives in Kittitas works over there three days a week as a psychiatrist counselor. She donates the paperbacks. Hard back books are not allowed. Three of the books I had picked up earlier and John filled another box with paperbacks, largely fiction, from our house. We will go through all our old magazines eventually too. If there are too many, we can take them to the donation stacks in the City Library, at the entrance to the building.

Wednesday, June 8

For June 7 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 6 hrs 21 min with AHI=0.94. Events: 1 CSR,6 H, 24 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 14 L/min). Oximetry: just fine throughout the night.

I was hurting too much to do more than 5 minutes of exercise, but managed to get a small workout on my shoulder, and then also play fiddle at the Food Bank and then afterwards in SAIL exercise class. I had picked up Gloria and we went to the food bank together, ate, and then drove back by the Creative Kids preschool to drop off my donation of a clown shirt for their upcoming circus event and parade. It is a cute short-sleeved sweatshirt.
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Gloria and I left SAIL 15 minutes early to take her to the hospital respiratory/cardio department, for her to be fitted with a 24-hour Holter heart monitor. That went well.

John was gone all day to take his 2009 Subaru outback for its 90,000-mile work. In this case, the service cycle begins to repeat and this is the same as 30,000. We expected multiple hundreds, but it was “only” $343.33. The 60,000 mi. one is more extensive and costly. Besides paying for all the checks on systems, we had three windshield wipers at $6 each to replace. Our oil change and lube and filter was prepaid, and worth about $100. It took a lot longer than planned as he got there at 1:00 but called me from Costco at 4:30 and made it home about 6:00. He thinks they had a couple of disruptions – a lady with a car just fixed came right back because they had missed something. John had a newspaper and 2 books to read, so he hardly noticed.

Thursday, June 9

For June 8 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 2 hrs 10 min with AHI=5.10. I am not sure why it recorded such a high AHI, and I do not know why I took the mask off. I awoke at 3:00 and the machine was turned off, mask off. Events: 1 CSR, 11 H, 5 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 13 L/min). Oximetry: actually very good all night. It ran, while the CPAP did not for 2 extra hours, but then I slept another 2 without either. The extra time compiled to 4 hr 3m and the AHI went down to 2.72, although still not representing the entire night for CPAP.

Worked on the July music.

John drove me to town in the truck (’cause it needs to run once in awhile) so he could get 3 bags of horse feed and go by a couple of places. He found a nice pair of slippers at Goodwill and a fantastic book on Prehospital Emergency Care, with many color pictures. Quite a large book (1268 pages). I looked it up on Amazon. We have the 8th edition. The 10th is available for $32, but that is to RENT. The 9th and 10th editions are available new for over $100. Washington Trails wants the leaders to have some first aid training.

Friday, June 10

For June 9 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 7 hrs 29 min with AHI=1.87. Events: 1 CSR, 14 H, 16 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 21 L/min). Oximetry: was fine all night.

This was another crazy day. I went to my 11:00 PT appointment, met someone in the parking lot early, to receive a nice pair of Nike sandals and a leather wallet. Nicest padded flip flops I have ever worn. Now to get my toenails cured and willing to be seen in public. I have an incentive now, as well as encouragement for the medication to dry after applying daily, before putting a sock on.
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Both of these were free from the Buy Nothing East Ellensburg /Kittitas site.

On to a heavy-duty exercise manipulation following a nice 10-minute moist heating pad application. I now have new exercises to add to my routine, including rolling the back of my shoulder muscle (not sure which muscle, have to ask) on a tennis ball. I know the location, and it hurts to show me I’m in the correct place.

The wonderful thing about my visit was it was a two-week check on measurement angles of my range of motion in four directions. I am happy to say all of them showed improvement, two more than the other two.

Below is a collage of the two new exercises along with my measurements indicating the GOOD increase in the angle of my rotation.
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Late afternoon, John raised the blinds on the patio door, and saw a little fawn. He called me from the kitchen and I grabbed my camera. As we watched, we saw his mom standing in the back, and he walked over to her. They left. All the photos are taken through the woven wire fence with 2″ x 4″ spacings. The middle photo gives a good perspective of visual size sense from the door.
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The left image has a purple line that is 5 spaces up, or 20 inches. The ears poke above that line about 2 inches. The antlers on the bucks are growing and still in velvet. The adults will stand on their hind legs to get leaves and cherries.

Saturday, June 11

For June 10 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 5 hrs 58 min with AHI=2.51 Events: 3 CSR, 15 H, 15 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 10 L/min). Oximetry: all night was fine.

This morning was busy dealing with neighborhood irrigation issues. As snow melt and/or spring rains decrease the available water is less and adjustments are needed. Our landscape trees were heavily watered so far and the Strawberries are fruiting and John is using well water on them. That’s because they could have been the source of the Giardia he suffered from last August. We are sure it came from the creek water, but it might not have been from the berries. Precaution seems a good strategy anyhow.

I left for town about 11:00 to run errands and get to the party in the park, Fun & Friends of the Buy Nothing Ellensburg site – this one combining all the subgroups we split into so it was nice to be able to meet up with people from the past, and now no longer in my group.
Below is a collage of all of us moved to a table in the sun because we were freezing inside the shelter, using that table. [Hot and sunny went away.] All the food remained on the table in the right of the photo. That one shows some of our shared menu items. One gal brought two foot long sub sandwiches cut up to share, I took 3 containers of the best strawberries in the west, picked fresh this morning by John, and cleaned by me. I had them packed in a cooler with ice and only put out one bowl at a time. It was interesting to hear people’s responses and amazement at the taste and even ripeness of the berries, almost as if they had never ever before eaten strawberries directly from the garden. They were all beautiful specimens. I didn’t make it home with any berries!! Probably took 3+ lbs. Also brought was a large container of very good homemade potato salad, packed in a bowl of ice. After the photo was taken, another person added a homemade bowl of Cole slaw to the shared table, and a package of Oreos with peanut butter/chocolate filling.
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This set of blouses had not been spoken for in my new Buy Nothing subgroup, when I offered them, so I managed to take them today and find a person (new to me) from another group, who wanted them.
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While there, I picked up from another person a black long sleeve soft spandex blouse. As well, a woman delivered 3 hats I had “won” on the current new buy nothing site from her. She lives way out in the pocket, probably a 1/2 hr from my house. I was happy not to have to drive out there. The flames one is for John, white one for me (a bucket hat, too big for me, but probably too feminine for him), and a happy face high funny hat again too big, but I will use a safety pin to make it fit, and use it to cheer residents when we play, “You are My Sunshine.” I may be able to talk Joanie into making a seam in it. Here is a collage of the hats:
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Sunday, June 12

For June 11 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 6 hrs 51 min with AHI=1.47. Events: 1 CSR, 10 H, 12 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 15 L/min). Oximetry: good all night.

Our temperature was cool at 45°. John left at 5:50 a.m. to make the trip to Mt Rainier’s work party on the Wonderland trail at White River. There was snow in the Cascades above 5,000 feet with more coming in the next 48 hours. John’s route via Chinook Pass (5,430′) had no snow but did have a little remaining cloudiness. The crew moved large rocks for a wall and many buckets of gravelly-sand from the White River (water free areas) for the tread. The White River area campgrounds are not yet open. Still there are hikers, climbers, and viewing from the road.

Two cats came to the cable table early (as he was leaving), so I fed them, and continued by following one (Lemon) to the back haymow where he prefers to eat. He was purring at me and came right down on the stacked hay beneath the mow to receive his vittles. He sadly has rhinotracheitis, or at least the symptoms, with bad conjunctivitis. There is nothing we can do to get an antibiotic into him to treat the condition. He is not one that we caught and had neutered and vaccinated.

Been working on projects trying to get energy to do exercises. I have done a few but they were quite painful (as expected). No pain, no gain.

I fixed a nice tuna melt for my lunch treat, and entered my new PT dates on the calendar. Once I finish the blog draft, I’ll fill my medicine dispenser for the week. Also, early morning I fed the cats and cleaned the kitchen counters and dishes. John called from near town to see if he needed to go into EBRG for any reason. Nope. When home he took care of the horses and picked a pound of Strawberries. Now we’ve eaten supper and await dessert.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan