Monday, Feb 13
For Feb 12 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 4.42. Events: 7 CSR, 1 CA, 33 H, 14 RERA. Time on 7 hrs 42 min with (max = 23 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 87, 2 events <88% with overall avg., 93,2%. Pulse avg. 51.8, low 50.
I need to fix the card to send to Dr. Sharma. I’m going to put Charlie’s picture playing guitar in our group, mine with violin at Veteran’s Day by flag at AAC, and mine with Ted Leber and Santa Claus at the AAC, with a thank you for performing our open heart surgeries and wishing him well on recovery from his own.
I went by the Food Bank to register for a PIN to put in my hours volunteering and then to SAIL exercise. I stopped off for ice cream at Grocery Outlet and back by Gloria Swanson’s house to pick up some chocolate chip cookies she made for us from the chocolate chips we gave her. I was excited because we can take them tomorrow to the Emeriti Geographers’ meeting. It meant she saved us the effort of making cookies tonight, to be ready to leave at 8:20 in the morning.
Wow, again, another license tab due for the Ford 2003 truck, and it will cost $106. Whatever happened to the state legislature’s decision to keep it at $45 (after our statewide vote)? At least we don’t live in South Puget Sound where people are being shell (sticker)-shocked by the tab prices in a county where they place the cost on the value of the car. One man with a Tesla paid $500 last year and $1500 this. This was voted in to support a transit system.
Tuesday, Feb 14
For Feb 13 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 3.65. Events: 4 CSR, 27 H, 18 RERA. Time on 7 hrs 24 min with (max = 18 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 89, 0 events <88% with overall avg., 93.2%. Pulse avg. 52.0, low 50.
EMERITI Geography prof’s meeting. We had a nice group with several folks there. We filled the two hours without a speaker. Lots of information to share. John and I drove in separate cars, so he could return home to deal with all the snow and ice problems. The temperature when we left was 19 and when we got to town, it was 9. That’s the problem of living “down in the valley” where the cold air drains. The area was in fog and the frozen fog on the trees was actually quite pretty on the drive in, but my camera was not in the front seat, or I would have taken a photo at the stop sign, where I entered the Kittitas highway. The sun was barely peeking through the fog, and the ice on the trees was striking. Farther down the road, the willows were spectacular. At least the roadways were mostly cleared of ice and compact snow.
After the meeting at Hearthstone (where two of our Geographers live with their wives), I stopped by Bi-Mart to check our number, but we didn’t win anything.
I continued to the AAC for a special lunch (turkey meatloaf, veggies, mashed potatoes, peaches, and milk). A lovely large Valentine’s Day cake was brought in for us by a representative of Pacifica Senior Living, Lise McGowan. We actually had a piece of cake prior to the meal. That’s a great way to start dinner with dessert. After dinner, we had a presentation by the Barbershop Quartet choir.
Here is the best song of their performance of several songs:
On the Community Connect Kittitas County Facebook site, I put a help request for volunteer help with ice removal for a woman I met at the Senior Center today (at my lunch table) who walks a couple of blocks there daily, using her walker, because she has no car. She could not open her gate all the way to get through with her walker and has had to disassemble it to put through in pieces. The gate is blocked by ice from opening far enough to let her push through. Her walkway is snow-covered and icy too, but she is more concerned about getting the gate opened wide enough. I tried calling CWU’s Center for Leadership and Community Engagement, after reading (in the Daily Record newspaper) about the snow and ice removal project they did last Saturday. It was the only one this year. See below for the awesome response to my request and the final results.
I carried my laptop with me to the AAC because I needed to stay there until 2:00 for Jazzercise. It worked well, and I got a lot accomplished on our music for the next 2 months, using space in the computer room at the center. There is one counter edge where there is no desktop computer setup. They have WIFI available so I could use my own computer to check email as well. The music software is on my laptop and I cannot access it from the public computers at the center – hence my need to take it.
We only had 3 people at Jazzercise, but we got a good workout.
Wednesday, Feb 15
For Feb 14 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 1.84. Events: 1 CSR, 10 H, 2 OA, 18 RERA. Time on x hrs 32 min with (max = 22 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 85, 8 events <88% with overall avg., 92.2%. Pulse avg. 52.5, low 47.
Below is the culmination collage of the photos I took over 3 days of the icy & snow-covered walkway to the house, and the frozen partially-open gate. The people who helped were Laci Harrison, who went by a little after the first photos were taken and put down a lot of rock salt. The rock salt was donated by Grace Mackenzie. Meanwhile, Eric Jackson, my former student, went by with a shovel. He managed to remove some ice and get the gate opened a little more so that she could get through. He went back a day later to complete the walkway and put in drain in to get rid of the melted ice and opened the gate even farther. 
Upper left shows gate & walkway before and after, on 2/15 and 2/16. Lower left shows the gate entrance only, on the same 2 days. Right photo shows the whole picture on Friday, 2/17 with cleared walkway, cleared stairs, opened gate, and drain to the street.
We went to town for the last in the series of Nick Zentner’s downtown lectures, this one was on Mt. Rainier issues from past and future prospects.
Nick Zentner Mt Rainier’s Osceola Mudflow Intro
Nick Zentner Mt Rainier’s Osceola Mudflow-Visuals
My videos were taken from the very close-to-the-stage front row, and the follow-up professional one from the back of the room will appear in a couple of weeks. When all four are out there, I will provide the links. They will be put on CWU’s website via YouTube, and accessible there.
Thursday, Feb 16
For Feb 15 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 4.79. Events: 4 CSR, 23 H, 12 RERA. Time on 4 hrs 48 min with (max = 19 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 84 (off CPAP), 5 events <88% with overall avg., 91.6%. Pulse avg. 53.5, low 50.
John left a little before 8:00 a.m. for White Heron Cellars and his first day of wine grapevine pruning in their Mariposa vineyard. Their work was in overcast, at first, and then the sun came out. Three fellows (Tom, Mark, & John) volunteered help pruning for 3 hours alongside the Vigneron, Cameron Fries. First time for pruning in snow. John thinks they are 3 to 4 weeks early.
I finalized the videos I took last night and sent to a few folks.
Mostly, I worked a lot more on music and plans for the number of chairs today. Three people originally planning to come are unable, so I had to recall in the number of chairs we need brought to the dining room at Pacifica Senior Living home.
It has started raining again. I hope the driveway is not too sloppy for me to maneuver out. I left a little earlier than normal, to be sure I got out the drive, and also to get to Pacifica to meet the new activities director, Terri, to explain what we need for our group. We ended up with 4 guitars, 1 harmonica, 1 violin, 1 flute, 1 singer, 1 tambourine, and 1 dancer (the ~4 year old).
I also need to write a letter of recommendation for a Masters program in Geography at a school in Taiwan. He has learned Mandarin Chinese, married a gal from S. Korea, and wants to continue his love of geography. He is my former student at CWU, Brian Scanlon, who also received a B.S. in Economics, and a B.A. in Public Policy.
John made it home before 2:00 and cleaned the ice off our back patio. I wish I had a before and after photo of that. He is moving snow from several places, as it softens, so places dry out instead of getting muddy. Some snow blew in, and some water ran into where I park the Forester. That is now cleaned out and starting to dry out. The drive slopes down into that space – another design feature failure. When spring has sprung, John wants to clean the entire place out and spread a ton or several tons of gravel there and bring it up a few inches. Then he will park his car on the other side of the 3-sided building.
Friday, Feb 17
For Feb 16 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 1.14 Events: 4H, 10 RERA. Time on 4 hrs 24 min with (max = 23 L/min). I neglected to run Oximetry on my report of SpO2 Review, and once it is recorded, the previous night’s erased.
I called about my Delta Dental Insurance issues with getting on their site for checking my payments and their coverage. Next week, I’m going to have the crowns put on the implants, so I’ll be able to chew on the left side of my mouth. I haven’t been able to use it for over six months. Unfortunately, my dental reimbursement costs are limited to $1,750/yr and I will almost have reached that in the first 2 months of this year. That means we will have to pay for our cleanings or any other things that may happen this year. Oh, well, I based my decision upon the desire to have the whole job completed so I could continue life with a full set of teeth.
We left for town to drop off some party bread by Briarwood for use there tomorrow to feed us little sandwiches, to eat with soup, or to give away. They made a plate of open chicken salad sandwiches you can see below in the collage. John and I were on our way to the Health Forum at the Ellensburg Adult Activity Center, with speaker, Tim Roth, nurse from the Kittitas County Public Health Department. I have known Tim for at least 15 years through music in the community with The Connections. His talk was very well presented, and I took a video of his presentation on my old camera. He was the one who administered my Shingles shot a couple of weeks ago.
Tim Roth talks to us old folks – 24 minutes
He was the speaker during a healthy lunch (Vegetable Enchiladas with sour cream and guacamole, Spanish rice, cilantro on the side, salad with iceberg lettuce and red cabbage) served to us by Lauren, and fixed there by Erica, Megan, Alice, and Lauren.
Below is a collage of some of the pictures I took. You can see the remainder of them next week, after the holiday Monday, by looking at facebook.com for “Ellensburg Adult Activity Center.”
Here we are at the forum. Tim Roth, is at the lower right with Pat married to Richard, who is in another picture I took, middle bottom photo is Kathy Grapes, Ada Perry (mom of one of my students from long ago, whose 90th birthday party Gloria & I attended with Sandra), Sandra Zech, and Dee Grapes, top middle is the meal we were served, and top right is John with Carla Kaatz. I taught for years with her husband Marty. He has passed across the rainbow bridge. We are planning to celebrate her 90th birthday in an April party that her family is holding in her honor.
On our way home, I took the 3rd day photo of all the work on the lady’s walkway and gate that was iced up. It’s explained and shown in a collage above on Wednesday.
I had a request from Evelyn to lower the keys on a few of the songs we do at the Food Bank. I’m working on that, along with the music for March and April for the Fiddlers & Friends.
Saturday, Feb 18
For Feb 17 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 2.76. Events: 6 CSR, 20 H, 17 RERA. Time on 7 hrs 15 min with (max = 17 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 82, 19 events <88% with overall avg., 92.4%. Pulse avg. 52.6, low 50.
Today at Briarwood was our monthly play date. I picked up Gloria and took her along. She gave me a dozen+ of her great chocolate chip cookies for John and me to enjoy. We had a lovely time with many folks in attendance from Briarwood, and much great food we enjoyed – soup, salads, sandwiches, and desserts.
We had 3 guitars, a violin, a harmonica, a tambourine, and a singer, plus a “choir” of many in the audience singing along on the 22 songs of the day.
Here’s a collage of the offerings and cooks below:
Deidra & Lee (Lee is the main organizer of our events each month, and usually makes the soup, salads, and desserts). This month she had help on making the soup from Jo Ellen (middle). The right shot is the main buffet, and the desserts were on the counter with the soup in front of the gals on the left. Several different things are prepared and donated by the residents who come to enjoy our music and the meal. The timing of this interferes with both lunch and supper of a normal schedule. John comes along about twice each year, but the rest of the times he has to adjust meals at home to accommodate my eating at Briarwood at 3 PM.
Sunday, Feb 19
For Feb 18 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 1.66. Events: 1 CSR, 1 CA, 11 H, 12 RERA. Time on 7 hrs 14 min with (max = 23 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 85 (may have been spurious when battery charge quit working), the only 1 event <88% with overall avg., 93.3%. Pulse avg. 53.5, low 50.
John is checking the snow between the house and the shed, which fills up the space between the two buildings, when it slides off the metal roof (another poor planning issue of our home).
Deer now know where the dry cat food has been on the front entrance, so to keep them away we had a wooden pallet leaned there. That worked for a day or two. They learned to move the pallet – shown on left, below. 
Left is from > a week ago. Then missing are the 5-gallon bucket filled with gravel on this side and snow shovel and push broom to keep the deer from reaching under and eating the cat food. Right is the new framed structure, but still needs another piece or two, on the sides. With the bucket of gravel and shovel gone, they still could reach in and mess with the container. Not as much food was missing as previously has been. We want only the four cats and not the deer or the dog to be able to get in there. John is waiting for a nice day to hunt for a board, cut it, and nail pieces in place.
John has been moving ice and snow a little each day, feeding livestock, birds, and starting trucks. The newer truck has more gizmos that drain the battery, so he has it on a trickle charger now. The sun has come out and it quit snowing. Interesting weather. Sort of normal for here. Other places are getting less-normal stuff. Some you know about, but look what the National Weather Services reported today for our friends in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
Actual temperature was about 40°F.
Hope your week was fine.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan