Saturday night and Sunday morning brought more rain, and there is flooding on WA’s west side, as predicted by John with help from the National Weather Service folks in Seattle. The day was overcast and foggy till about an hour ago, when the sun broke through the clouds and displayed nice blue sky. No trips to town today, so we have just been doing chores, mostly on the computer. I have taken a break to transpose one last piece of music and also to send some pictures to a couple of people. I will soon shift back to organizing tax receipts. John is taking a nap. I don’t think he slept well last night, but I did, for a change.
We really need to get an early start in the morning on MLK day to get to Yakima for a 9:40 a.m. appointment for me to have my 3-month read-out from my defibrillator device. While down in Yakima, we will eat and go to Costco. Because of the holiday, I won’t have to be back for 1:30 p.m. SAIL class at the SR Center.
I suppose I do need to get back to the office to read the rest of the files for my “replacement” position, but it won’t be on the holiday.
Today, MLK Day, is a holiday for many places, but I had to get to the doctor’s office for my device check. We made it down fine, but had to dodge water on the road intersections down south of us, and I heard there was water over other roads downhill. Most of the reason is that culverts beneath the road for creeks and ditches are not big enough for melting runoff of rain on snow. Last night the wind blew (and is again this afternoon, gusting to 45 mph or higher I suspect, and the temperature was up to 44 when I looked at 2:00 a.m.
Yikes—they just recorded 52 mph gusts at the airport (5 miles south of us). I think I agree, and we might have had some higher ones; we are also protected somewhat to our NW by trees, so out on the “plains” in the valley it is likely worse.
No more rain last night and today, but it is overcast. Tuesday will find me going to school late afternoon and staying in town for a 6:30 music performance. I am quite tired after awaking and not being able to get back to sleep last night for 1.5 hours. Then I didn’t sleep in well this morning either (when I could). Tonight I went to play music at a nursing home/rehab center up on the hill (nice that it was out of the flooding in town). There are no such retirement or rehab facilities in West Ellensburg, where the flooding has been bad for homeowners. The city carried in 90 tons of sand and neighbors are filling sandbags to help each other protect their structures.
We are fine where we are significantly uphill from EBRG. We are at 2240′ and the south end of campus is at 1500′. West Ellensburg is a bit lower, closer to the Yakima River. The KOA campground along the Yakima River was flooded yesterday and today, and Irene Rinehart Park, along the river, as well. No surprises there.
Decided today not to go to town for exercise, but to stay home and work on taxes and relax. I have been run ragged for the past two days, and needed to spend time on that work. Also, I’ve been working on getting materials together for colleagues at the university. Although retired, I’m still involved. Bless John’s heart, he just spent a bunch of time in the kitchen fixing lunch and cleaning up the mess we have piled up over the past few days.
Thursday came and went and is almost over. I spent a ton of time on the tax receipts, some on email, some on checking the web for travel plans, some on cleaning the kitchen, and now we have 2 minutes till the spaghetti is done for dinner. I have also been proofing labs and lectures for another colleague. John went with me to town to the store while I was playing music at Dry Creek. It was fun as usual.
Thursday, late afternoon, our kitty came up missing. It’s now Friday night, and he is still missing. John and I both thought we heard him meow tonight, but we have searched and searched all cubby holes and we can find nothing. This is so frustrating. I cannot believe we both heard a ghost at the same time. His meow is a faint one when he is right in front of you.
Saturday, we heard sounds again. Looked. Found nothing. We both heard sounds so we could not call the other one on a “senior moment” or any more inflammatory name. John knew there were birds outside – mostly black-capped Chickadees and a vocalizing Steller’s Jay. The Jay was at the seed feeder and doing an imitation of a Red-tailed Hawk. Explanation and photos here:
http://www.seattleaudubon.org/birdweb/bird_details.aspx?id=310
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steller’s_Jay#Vocalizations
Sounds, search, nothing. Turn off the heater, so no fans making noise. Walk around. Listen. Nothing. Walk around, listen. Meow. Where? Move. Listen. Going nuts!
Finally, we found Sunny kitty in the garage. The door to the garage is via the wash room and into the kitchen. John goes out via there and the garage when getting the dogs out of the house for their exercise or when searching in the chest freezer for something to cook. John’s been watching for the cat at those times – tricky kitty made it out anyhow.
Now back after about 40 hours, Kitty-Sunny is talking more and louder than he ever has in his life with us. He’s running all over the house and counters. I think he’s trying to tell us about his last 2 days alone with no food or water.
He was always in hiding when John was in the garage — numerous times — looking for him… till today when I found him. John had to lure him out with a string where he could grab him. Funny kitty. Not so funny all the concern he has caused us over the past couple of days. We have moved many boxes in several rooms of the already cluttered house, looked under beds, behind furniture, crawled up over the oven for a view, looked behind the frig, and on and on.
John has gone to take a power nap, and Sunny is still roaming around meowing. I’m also glad he never left the garage as John was moving dogs out to go for the morning and evening runs. John opens the door from the back yard to the front and one dog runs out through the garage, right by the place where we eventually found Sunny.
He has to do it strategically in a certain way and order or the chaos at the front door elevates beyond an acceptable level.
Okay, John’s back up and around and I will finish this now to send to him to put out on the web for this week’s report. I never got my afternoon nap, so I will just go to bed early tonight.
Some folks we know are in places that will be very cold this weekend. We checked with one family in northern Vermont. They expect -25 degrees Sunday night. Ouch! They have lots of good firewood up there (Maple) and assure us they are prepared. In International Falls, MN it was -46 yesterday. Double ouch!
We wish you a warm and healthy week.
Nancy & John and all the critters