Sunday, Nov 5
No CPAP – Oximetry for Nov 4: SpO2 low 82, 9 events <88% with overall avg., 90.9%. Avg. low SpO2, 88.1%. Pulse avg. 54.3, low 50. Slept 8 hrs 21 min.
John started by moving snow, feeding the birds, and two outside cats. He also ordered more ink cartridges for our printer and a heated water bowl for the outside feral cats that now arrive morning, night, and throughout the day at our front porch, wanting canned food to supplement their hard pellets.
Busy all day with outside and inside chores for us.
Published the blog quite late .. just before midnight.
Monday, Nov 6
No CPAP – Oximetry for Nov 5: SpO2 low 82, 6 events <88% with overall avg., 90.8%. Avg. low SpO2, 88.2%. Pulse avg. 54.9, low 50. Slept 8 hrs 10 min.
This morning, I worked on the photos John took at the AAC on Friday’s Veterans’ Celebration, to send to the AAC.
Late afternoon, our heated water bowl for the outside feral cats arrived along with more printer ink cartridges. They came quickly from a place just 100 miles west. We just ordered them through Amazon and ETA was Tuesday. Frequently stuff comes from near Reno, NV so perhaps this is an expanding distribution center.
I need to work on photos I took in Seattle at the WTA Volunteer Appreciation Dinner. I only did a couple for last week’s blog. Still need to do that, and it is now the end of the week.
Tuesday, Nov 7
No CPAP – Oximetry for Nov 6: SpO2 low 84, 4 events <88% with overall avg., 92.7.1%. Avg. low SpO2, 89.7 %. Pulse avg. 53.8, low 50. Slept 7 hrs 5 min.
I managed to get to people about Emeriti Geographers’ Meeting next Tuesday morning, to KV F&F about this week, and last week’s pix, to visit with the Interim Dir. of F.I.S.H. food bank for donation to Thanksgiving clients there and to the community thanksgiving dinner.
John found things to do while I went to exercise, Bi-Mart, and two other stops. He brought to the front a non-used old heavy 
dog house from its lonely existence at the edge of the back fence. It rode on our wheel barrow replacement – a Gorilla Cart.
Where we acquired this “dog” house is a mystery. Picture below. It is double walled and insulated – without a front door. Now it is close to our home’s front door near an electrical outlet, on 12″ decorative concrete blocks.
The food and water will be high and dry and the cats will be happy – we think. South of the house, the old set-up was a pain for John and them, and slowly they all decided to stay out front.
Thus far, we have not seen any get into the house. One cat watched the whole procedure, so we know he knows it’s there, and he had been drinking from the water pan when it was on the nearby porch. They will find it quickly, I’m sure. This will beat balancing on the heated horse trough in the corral that they sometimes did in the winter.
Later: They all found it and are using it.
This is the old dog house John converted to the outside cat house to house the heated water bowl and hard food for the feral cats.
Buckets are under the drip line; water is used on trees and flowers, or just dumped on the grass. Otherwise, in very cold weather there would be a mound of ice built on the concrete.
Our place is designed so you get dripped on going out, as in the right photo below. Garages should be set-up as in the left photo. But note the “valley” over the door exit – when it rains hard water will pour into that area and even the gutters can’t handle it. Dormers can help but add complexity and cost to the roof and house.
Wednesday, November 8
No CPAP – Oximetry for Nov 7: SpO2 low 80, 6 events <88% with overall avg., 90.3%. Avg. low SpO2, 87.9%. Pulse avg. 56.7, low 48. Slept 7 hrs 50 min.
Going to FISH Food Bank with a salad for myself, so I don’t have to eat pasta and green mixed salad with things in it I cannot have (because of Vitamin D content).
Met with Peggy Morasche, the new Interim Executive Director, and found out she is 3 years younger than I am, and grew up in the same general (Atlanta) neighborhood as I did. Small world. I gave her a check to pay for turkeys for the Food Bank’s clients and another for a few turkeys at the Community Thanksgiving Dinner. I always go and John doesn’t. This year I’m taking my friend, Gloria, as we will be playing at Hearthstone, right before the event starts. It is the day before Thanksgiving this year, free, and a fun event. These places and events get much donated but need to buy some things, such as the turkeys. More people are coming, so this year we decided to help out. Seems like it is catalog season too, cheese, candy, meats, and we’ve thrown those all away.
So, I was at the Food Bank to play music. We had a big crowd. Most people I have ever seen in there – 80! Must be the cold weather bringing them in.
On to SAIL class and then to Valley Vision for my check up on the laser surgery.
I saw Dr. Davis (my normal eye doctor), not the surgeon, and assumed my eye surgery (laser) to take away the film on the lens had failed and would have to be redone. He checked and nothing is there, no film, but I also do not have the better vision in the left eye they said I would have. That’s sad. But, he gave me a prescription for glasses for times when it is dark to correct my night vision and get rid of the astigmatism. I have an old pair I still use at night when driving, and I use in big cities when I need to see small street signs; they were what I used to drive to Seattle last Friday. He says the new ones will be 4 times better for my left eye and one time better for my right. My left eye used to be my dominant eye. So much so, that I started early in life shooting my shotgun left-handed, because I could sight better. John is right handed and left-eyed (right eye works but his brain doesn’t use it – fusion horror). With a shotgun he points and shoots instinctively. That was the way our old Choc did with depth perception and only one eye, after losing sight in the other. He could still mark birds and retrieve them by instinct.
I will take my prescription to Costco and just ask for the nearsighted correction, as I don’t need bifocals. I have good close-up vision.
Thursday, Nov 9
No CPAP – Oximetry for Nov 8: SpO2 low 84, 3 events <88% with overall avg., 90.1%. Avg. low SpO2, 90.1%. Pulse avg. 53.9, low 49. Slept 7 hrs 4 min.
Started dishes and didn’t finish until just before supper tonight.
Called in 10 chair count to Meadows. We actually had 10 players with chairs, and another 2 standing or using their personal seat.
We both left for Meadows music at 1:10 p.m., with me driving.
Late going to bed; almost midnight.
Friday, Nov 10
No CPAP – Oximetry for Nov 9: SpO2 low 85, 3 events <88% with overall avg., 91.4%. Avg. low SpO2, 89.2%. Pulse avg. 54.4, low 50. Slept 5 hrs 43 min.
Early morning, I had called Tony Brooks at 925-1414 at our local newspaper. I needed to change our email on the electronic edition to our new joint gmail, nancyJohnHultquist@gmail.com with password and get rid of the old one.
I went to Food Bank, to see the twins (cooks) we have known since being members of the Kittitas Valley Trail Riders starting in the 1990s. Carolyn & Marilyn cooked breasts of chicken (the chicken tenderloin) for the meat. I took my own salad, lettuce, apples, pistachios, & Cheezits along and cut up and added the two chicken loins to it. They had apple crisp for dessert, but I passed. I sat with a friend from Briarwood and wished him a happy birthday (today). I’m only a couple months older.
From there I went to Amy & Haley’s to deliver some items, and then on to my favorite phlebotomist at the local hospital, arranging to arrive after she’d returned from lunch. She starts work at 6:00 a.m. I got to her about 1:20 and she took me right in, drew my blood, and sent me on my way.
I came home and called to see if they’d received my blood draw results yet. They checked and only one (INR) had come in. It was good at 2.6, but I have to be rechecked in 3 weeks. My BMP was not there, so I called the hospital lab and asked if it was sent to both doctors. The gal Faxed it up to Cle Elum, and I called to tell Cody (nurse) to expect it. She checked and it had come through just then. My readings were: 132 Sodium, up almost to the lower range of that, from 122 on Oct 4 in ER, and then 126, a couple days later. I’m scheduled for another with the next time I’m in, 12/1. The other things on the BMP test are potassium (4.3), and Creatinine (1.3). So, I’m perking along.
I signed up for the Nov 16 Knudson’s Lumber Ladies Night Out 6:00 – 7:30 – I’m taking some stuffed toys to donate to the community Christmas Basket. I didn’t realize I was double booking, because we are going to the local Audubon Chapter that night, in town from 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. I will go ahead, and then John will drive himself in to meet me there; I will leave the store early to make it to the meeting.
Saturday, Nov 11 Veterans Day
No CPAP – Oximetry for Nov 10: SpO2 low 84, 2 events <88% with overall avg., 92.7%. Avg. low SpO2, 90.4%. Pulse avg. 54.3, low 50. Slept 8 hrs 55 min.
We celebrated our Veterans Day twice, about a week apart. Here was the start, last week. Then a celebration yesterday when I went by Hearthstone to visit Gloria Swanson (my 92 year old friend today), and we heard about a veterans’ remembrance downstairs in the Garden Walk (right below her apt.). So we attended, visited with several, had popcorn, and apple cider.
Here’s the rest of the story from Nov. 3 Veterans Celebration: both articles written by Mike Johnston and printed in the local newspaper, the Daily Record, on Nov 11, 2017.
(1) This is one about Dee Eberhart:
Local WWII vet memories may go digital
(2) This one is the one with Dr. Meyer’s dad mentioned and Hal Mason’s dad:
Remembrances of War: Efforts ongoing to capture history
Centerpiece and Barb, Dee, and Katie Eberhart (their orchard’s apples we picked were served at the celebration luncheon, 11-3-17).
Veterans Celebration Nov 3, ’17 at AAC (Senior Center) – our neighbor and friend since 1989, Allen Aronica, in red vest.
Color guard * Nancy introduces music, 2017 * Nancy in 2013
This morning we got a notification from Kathleen Martin Dieguez that her family (hubby + 3 kids) and her brother’s girls (Becky & Liz) would be visiting Ellensburg today and wanted to meet and say hello. She gave me her phone number and we started making plans. Becky is already in town, a student at CWU, and a member of the CWU Equestrian team with her horse, “Snickers.”
We managed to make it happen, and it was a fun few hours.
We did not have our camera but Kathy gave her phone to one of the owners and he took our photo.
We started at Super 1 with part of the group, and four of the youngest went on two scavenger hunts around the store, with their smart phones to record a picture of the items. It was a clever game Kathy honchoed. Most of us had soft drinks or coffee. Three of us didn’t have anything to drink, and we saved eating any food to go to a special place in town, Boss Brazilian BBQ. When Becky was done at Orrion Farms, she came on down and met us at Super 1. We visited a bit, in the room with tables, chairs, and fireplace, but the fireplace was broken. Sadly, because it adds a nice ambiance to the setting.
The Boss Brazilian BBQ is owned and run by a family. Here’s a peek at the kind of food served. We ate at two picnic tables pulled together for our 9 people. 
All the meat is skewered and grilled, with a choice of chicken, Picanha (beef), top sirloin, (both beef cuts are from the top, the rump), and lamb. We ordered some of all. A few meals we had were round dinner plates, not the oval shown above. There was plenty of food on a round plate. Meat, with black beans, rice, salad, cassava, and a piece of bread. The place also serves sandwiches on Hoagies, but no one had one. I know everyone enjoyed themselves.
We have known this family since Nancy started at CWU in 1988, and the folks today are related to the first couple I met (as students) when I began my stay here in Ellensburg, Allison & Paul Martin. Paul’s sister Kathy was there with her hubby and three of their children and two of Alli & Paul’s 3 daughters were there. Kathy thinks we first met when she was 13. We had horses and she wanted to ride, and did get to on several occasions; at least once at a field trial when she stayed overnight with us.
We had a blast for the afternoon, and got home before it was completely dark, so John could feed the horses. Kathy got John to smile!
Sunday, Nov 12
No CPAP – Oximetry for Nov 11: SpO2 low 85, 3 events <88% with overall avg., 92.2%. Avg. low SpO2, 89.6%. Pulse avg. 56.2, low 50. Slept 7 hrs 24 min.
John and Annie went outside – no rain. I worked on dishes and computer email notifications, and other messages that needed written. I got very behind from yesterday’s afternoon and evening activities. We had a long phone conversation with a long time Brittany friend in Oregon. Her hubby had a heart transplant in the same year I had my heart operation. They live in even a worse location than we do for medical attention. He’s having complications so we talked medicine, dogs, and much more.
Hope your week was fine.
Nancy and John,
Still on the Naneum Fan