Monday, Jan 30
For Jan 29 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 0.91. Events: 5 H, 14 RERA. Time on 5 hrs 28 min with (max = 15 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 82, 13 events <88% with overall avg., 91.7%. Pulse avg. 53.9, low 50.
I finished letters for Elaine Glenn for nomination of her for CWU’s Distinguished Non-tenure Track Teaching Award. She is quite deserving and I certainly hope the process works in her favor. I created one and provided a copy of one with updates for Morris Uebelacker from 2013.
Today, I spent a lot of time working on the jobs list, birthdays, and things we have not been able do without an Internet connection. We still are limping along hoping to get a new modem installed this week.
Front yard activity of the day. John saw our Rascal in the Mountain Ash tree above the bird feeder. No chance he’d be able to capture one, but to get him out, John went to the front door and called him in. He came and was rewarded with cheese bits.
Cruel Clever Cat:
Sally, having swallowed cheese,
Directs down holes the scented breeze,
Enticing thus with baited breath
Nice mice to an untimely death.
{Geoffrey Taylor}
He has not returned, so that’s a good thing. We keep the cats around and appreciate them for their mousing prowess.
Tuesday, Jan 31
For Jan 30 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI 3.16. Events: 1 CSR, 18 H, 2 OA, 2 PP, 12 RERA. Time on 6 hrs 20 min with (max = 23 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 81, 2 events <88% with overall avg., 91.8%. Pulse avg. 53.6, low 50.
I succeeded yesterday in charging my old smaller camera (Casio Exilim) so I could videotape with a lot less bandwidth. Today, I took all the old pictures from the 16 Gig SD card, so it is ready to use. I will be able to store movies in a small enough bandwidth to pass them through wetransfer.com as an emailed file, and even send them to YouTube, which I cannot do with 30 minutes recorded on my Nikon camera (those are almost 4 gigs). I took a movie of the bird feeder today, and a couple of pictures, just to be sure it was working properly. One photo caught one of the deer jumping the fence to eat sunflower seeds from beneath the bird feeder. Most animals, including the pheasant, just walk in the open front gate (during wintertime). 
Pheasant shares with the quail and deer inside and outside the fence. Right photo shows a doe jumping over the fence. The deer are also raiding our plate of feline hard food at the front door. John now has put 5-gallon buckets all around the entrances to keep the deer out, but allow the cats in. We have 4 feral cats eating our dry food.
Today I went by the bread room for things for friends, on my way to Jazzercise. I stopped off at Safeway for two more dozen eggs on the last day of the lower excellent price as last week. Five people showed up for exercise. On my way home, I picked up two meds for under $10. Nice. One is for my heart and for 3 months is only $5. Why does the other heart medication have to cost over $400 (yet I still do not know what my co-pay will be).
I expected to find out today what my cost was going to be, but Novartis left a message we received late afternoon, by sending a letter to say they had tried several times to reach me by phone, but it was too late to call them on EST. We never had a call from Boston or from Novartis registered on our Caller ID, or a message left last week at all.
I spent some time tonight helping report a stolen identity of a former student (on Facebook). A former student, now in Texas, had done the same favor for me when my ID was stolen several years ago. Knowledge comes from someone requesting you to be their “friend.” If you are already a friend, then you know it is bogus. The stealer will say hello, how are you, and proceed to tell you about how they came into a bunch of money, and saw your name on the list of awardees.
Wednesday, Feb 1
For Jan 31 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 0.93. Events: 2 CSR, 7 H, 7 RERA. Time on 7 hrs 33 min with (max = 20 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 87, 1 events <88% with overall avg., 91.8%. Pulse avg. 52.9, low 50.
I made an early call to Novartis in Boston. I will have to call again for a clarification because after calling the Pharmacy at Group Health with questions about my cost of the co-pay, I received conflicting comments.
I left to pick up Gloria, give her some chocolate chips from our Costco-bulk package, go to the food bank, and play music. Once there we checked the bread room and found something for her and I picked up 6 packages of hamburger rolls to take to the Senior Center for them to use with the hamburgers they are fixing for the Friday potluck. We went there after lunch to SAIL exercise class.
I heard that my heart surgeon, Dr. Sharma, also had to have open-heart surgery (and a double bypass). I called his office in Yakima and found out where to send cards. I am going to make a special card with pictures of three of us who had surgery on our hearts by him, and get it in the mail.
I called in my prescription refill request to my Pharmacy here in Ellensburg, for a month of Entresto, because I will run out of my free 30-day supply on Feb 12, and they have to order a supply ahead. I am the only person in Ellensburg going through that pharmacy for the new heart drug.
Tonight is Nick Zentner’s talk at the city library on Ancient Rivers of the Pacific Northwest. Actually the rivers are the same ones – they just keep moving around. They existed on an ancient landscape that continues to change.
I took my old camera and sadly, I did not have an extra battery, or my newer camera so I missed the last 15-20 minutes of an excellent talk. At least it was being recorded from the back of the room, and will be available in a couple of weeks on the CWU site via YouTube.
Ancient PNW Rivers – chalk board
I came home and ordered an additional SP50 battery while they are still available. I think I have had this camera since the turn of the century, or at least since 2004.
Thursday, Feb 2
For Feb 1 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 1.66. Events: 11 H, 20 RERA. Time on 6 hrs 39 min with (max = 16 L/min). Oximetry: None to report. I exhausted the oximeter’s battery, but charged it all night, so it is ready for tonight.
Rich Lange, Fairpoint technician brought and installed a new modem and fixed our reception and speed “in” (download) to 5K and “out” (upload) to 1K. We were previously half that. I hope this finally gives us the Internet service and WIFI we have been paying for and suffering through outages.
Today was a Fiddlers & Friends play date at the Rehab Center. We had a full room (too much so probably for fire safety rules), of audience mostly in wheelchairs, and a good number of our group there to entertain. Sadly, our lead fiddler was sick and had to stay home. We had our tambourine lady, banjo man, three guitar guys, a resident (previously our accordionist), harmonica fellow, fiddler, and flute playing gal with her daughter dancing and drawing a color crayon picture for a favorite resident who loves her and calls her by name (Haley), when she arrives. His name is Mac. He had a stroke and can no longer read, but he knows all the words, sings along, and applauds our songs. In fact, today, he met me at the front door and opened it to welcome me. His wife comes down for every one of our performances from Cle Elum and helps me by handing out and picking up the song sheets. People are in such bad shape there (it is an acute care center), that only 4 or 5 can sing along with the booklet of lyrics. We gave a good presentation. I was able to visit with my old roommate from there (in 2010). Her name is Mae, and she is 95. I also visited with a friend I knew through the Kittitas Valley Trail Riders club. She used to follow our group to events around town, and has continued, while now at the Rehab facility. She loved our Johnny Cash song, “I’ll Walk the Line,” because her husband sang it to her early in their relationship (he has since passed on).
On my way home I stopped by the bread room and picked up some angel food cake loaves to go with the pound of pound cake we are taking to the Super Bowl party at the senior center tomorrow (topped with our own strawberries from the freezer). They were also giving away small apples and I was asked to take some. I brought home 14# (they have to weigh for their records). We have eaten or given away all the Gala and HoneyCrisp apples we previously had from picking across the valley, and gave away most of the recent Fuji apples given to us.
I turned around and drove back to town with John to the Science II building on the CWU campus for an IAF lecture. I took my old camera with a newly charged battery, and managed to record all 1 hr and ten minutes !! Here it is below:
First People of the Americas (as revealed by their skeletal remains) by James Chatters [left most above – red shirt, with Nick Zentner, CWU Geologist.] [CWU Anthropology Prof. Steve Hackenberger, right, waiting to introduce Jim]
BONES
You can look up James Chatters on Wikipedia, if you do not recall knowing of him regarding his research on Kennewick man. This evening he used research from several places of North & Central America.
Friday, Feb 3
For Feb 2 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 3.53. Events: 4 CSR, 12 H, 2 OA, 7 RERA. Time on 3 hrs 58 min with (max = 16 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 79, 19 events <88% with overall avg., 92.7%. Pulse avg. 53.9, low 47.
I contacted the Kittitas County Public Health Department and am scheduled for Tuesday, 1/7, at 3:30 for a Shingles Shot for $23 to cover paper processing costs. Cash or check, or there’s an extra fee to use a credit card.
Here you can read the full press release about a free (considering the pharmacy price is over $200) shot that only costs $23:
Free Shingles Vaccine
John and I went to a Super Bowl party today at the Senior Center. It was just a normal first Friday of the month potluck, but people were supposed to wear sports-related clothes. I wore my Seattle Seahawks baseball cap, and the colors, white, blue, green, and yellow. John (seen later) wore his Phillies jacket, red, white, and blue. His was the only special thing insofar as others frequently wear hats or something with the Seattle teams logos. If Nancy had had anything with Atlanta on it, she would have worn it.
We took our potluck offering, a large platter of sliced pound cake and angel food cake with a pound and a half of our own homegrown (and frozen) strawberries. It was a success. 
The pound cake is around the bowl of strawberries, and the angel food cake surrounds the edges. We carried 4 bags of strawberries, in 8-ounce bags. We only brought 1 bag home, and perhaps only 1/4 of all the cake. 
I was the photographer, because the staff and volunteers were busy cooking and serving. Therefore, I did not get in any of the pictures, but if you want to see all the photos I took, check on Facebook next week for the page for “Ellensburg Adult Activity Center”. The AmeriCorps gals will post the pictures I took.
Saturday, Feb 4
For Feb 3 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 2.62. Events: 1 CSR, 1 CA, 15 H, 1 OA, 3 PP, 20 RERA. Time on 7 hrs 15 min with (max = 22 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 87, 1 event <88% with overall avg., 93.0%. Pulse avg. 54.8%, low 49.
I went to a neat birthday party at the Hoffman’s home for Noella Wyatt’s 64th. The theme was cats with a Crazy Cat Lady cake. We were served lasagna, salad, and bread with the culminating large piece of cake. The decoration chocolates went home with the birthday gal. Each of the participants took home some lasagna and a large piece of cake. Our servings were large because John was included.
Noella Wyatt with cake, photo left by Nancy Hoffman, and ones on right by me of the cake. Note from the back of the sofa, the litter of chocolate cats, and others all over, and under the cake. Notice the very clever scratching marks on the sofa’s right side, middle lower right photo. Even the sofa is edible.
Sunday, Feb 5
For Feb 4 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI=1.10. Events: 1 CSR, 9 H, 20 RERA. Time on 8 hrs 13 min with (max = 17 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 87, 2 events <88% with overall avg., 92.1%. Pulse avg. 55.5, low 51.
We awoke to snow, but only a little over an inch. It is still snowing, and John has finished the morning chores. About 2:00 p.m., he went back out to feed the horses, it started snowing harder, and now at almost 6:00 p.m., it is snowing hard with bigger flakes. At this rate, our total is going to be over the 1 to 3 inches that was forecast for today. During the night they first thought another 2 to 4 inches; now saying 3 to 5. Are we not blessed? I am glad my dental appointment was canceled, as I will be able to stay home.
I need to get this over to John for his editing and putting into WordPress for publishing. Then I need to get to work on finishing cropping all the photos I took Friday to email them to the AAC to have awaiting them when they arrive at 8:00 a.m. (or sooner).
I fixed cat food today for 3 cats, and await Sue to come to the front door for her dinner. She might stay at a neighbor’s barn and catch a mouse.
I must begin work on Johnny Cash’s “Forty Shades of Green” to add to the playlist for Irish songs for our group’s playlist for March and April.
Hope your week was fine.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan