Happenings

So much happening in our lives – – –
. . . but, that is a good thing! (Morris Uebelacker)

At 6:00 a.m. this morning, John went close to Bumping Lake to work as an Ass’t Crew Leader (ACL), with Lisa Black. He called me from Gleed, WA (west of Yakima), at 4:17 p.m., made good time, and was home by 5:00 p.m. I had worked all day on several projects.

Tomorrow morning, we need to go pick up Czar, the male outside cat, who made it back from his travels this afternoon just before 6:00 p.m.

We finished the blog tonight at 8:55 p.m., so I have to send a few emails, and get to bed earlier for a good night’s sleep.

Monday, May 14

I called Mike this morning at Habitat for Humanity. He had found a special mailbox for my neighbor. All I know is it is huge, square, made of heavy-duty steel, and will make it through the snowplow and the postman who wrenched her current small mailbox door off its hinges. She’s going to get this one put on a stout pole couched in concrete.

We picked up Czar about 9:30. He’s happy to be home.

I sent this note to the Valley Community Cats Facebook page:Meet Czar – our 4th feral to send through the system for spay/neuter. He showed up in the winter, and I notified Nancy at VCC that we’d be needing to borrow a trap. We first thought he was female and started calling him Sally. He would run in the other direction for the first couple months. He would come in and eat but not stay around if we tried to talk to him through the window. Eventually we realized he was a male, so changed his name to Salazar. Now he is simply, Czar. He tamed himself, coming in mornings and evenings for food, and sleeping around the premises. He loves being petted and is a companion cat with the others following John around doing chores. He rolls in the gravel drive, meowing loudly, to be petted. He allows us to pick him up and carry him 50’. He now has taken to spending days on the veranda of the cable table in our front yard, where we also feed the birds above and the quail come in the fence and eat off the ground. The cats (surprisingly) are ignoring the birds. He follows the shade around, and is there to say goodbye when we leave and hello when we return, or come to the ledge by the front door of our house, when he is hungry. We were able to pick him up and place him in a crate loaned to us by VCC. Nancy and Noella accepted him for their recent trip to Lynnwood, with a bunch of other cats in their car. They had him for a few days before their trip, last Sunday, and for overnight until we picked him up in the morning. We and he so much appreciated the care. Now you see his clipped left ear and he got all his shots and a dose of tapeworm medicine. We now have protected the unspayed females in the neighborhood. Please everyone, consider doing likewise. Nancy will come trap cats for you if you cannot. They are providing a wonderful service which we all need to support. Thanks again.

Here are some more photos of his antics:

Czar in shade on veranda of cable table (Sunflower seeds behind); in the sun wanting attention; sprawled on the concrete, yawning.

I went to SAIL (exercise at AAC) at 1:30.

Tuesday, May 15

Busy day, started with our cleaning out my Forester’s back and putting in the exercise thing, a Gazelle, for its trip to The Habitat Store.
Donation of Gazelle (I bought at a yard sale decades ago for $5) – They sell new for > $120.

We originally tried to give it away to a woman via the Free Givers of Kittitas County Facebook site, but she never managed to arrange to pick it up. This donation to Habitat for Humanity was a nice thanks for their finding a special rural mailbox in their incoming pickups for my neighbor. Both of us are pleased, and John is happy to get rid of one more thing out of the shed where he wants to park his car, named Jessica (after the song).

I picked up my meds at Super 1, rest of the Entresto, and a bunch of Metoprolol (considering I have to take 3/day that’s a lot for 3 months, and happily one of the cheapest heart meds I’m on, for $15. The Entresto is the most expensive at $40/month; thank goodness my Kaiser Permanente insurance covers it. I would have to pay cash $463/month at the Costco Pharmacy using GoodRX pricing (their price is better than any other GoodRx store in Ellensburg).

We did 3 dances to start with today, getting the lessons at the beginning, and then dancing for the rest of the hour, with time at the end for review and our choice. We did the Hokey Pokey, the Chicken Dance, and a line dance, Popcorn. Then others for review and by request, including the Macarena.

After the original videoing (see a few below), I danced along with the others. I pushed my pulse up pretty high a couple of times, and my Fit Bit recorded totals of

May 15 2018 11:41 p.m. pulse 68
5,020 steps
2.12 miles
1,781 calories burned
1 stairs
26 min. aerobic exercises
68/250 exercise man

(1) Hokey Pokey 5-15-18 AAC Lesson
Hokey Pokey

(2) Chicken Dance 5-15-18 AAC Lesson
Chicken Dance

(3) Popcorn Dance 5-15-18 AAC Lesson
Popcorn Dance

(4) Popcorn Line Dance with Music
Popcorn Line Dance w/ Achy Breaky Heart

Nicole sent the dances for next week:
– The Bunny Hop line dance
– Mambo No 5 line dance
– Down South Shuffle

I did get a tour of the Habitat for Humanity store, when I donated my old Gazelle, and then climbed two steep flights of stairs to the Maximum Gym to buy my Klaire Probiotic for 2 months. Then off to Bi-Mart to check numbers, and on to the AAC for Just Dance class. Afterwards, on the way home, I stopped off two places at yard sales and then on home to bring in all my acquisitions for the day. A good purchase was 5 pairs of blue jeans for John, some almost new, but the best was a giraffe costume I got for our little mascot for our music group, to give her as a Pre-School graduation gift. Here is the cute photo that resulted on Saturday, after I took it to our music date Saturday afternoon. Wednesday, May 16

Last night I got my salad setup to take to the noon lunch for after our music, but need to add bleu cheese dressing to the lettuce this morning, and add other ingredients, except croutons I’ll take along separately and add once I’m ready to eat.

SAIL will be taught by Evelyn (who is our banjo player at the Food Bank lunch music).

I played music and ate at the Food Bank today, and went on to SAIL exercise, by way of Hospice Friends to pick up some application materials for my friend who had a stroke.

We were invited for a spaghetti dinner to celebrate a birthday at our neighbors.

I’ve been away from home a lot this week and keep falling farther behind in keeping in contact with folks on email, including getting job announcements out on the Google Group jobs list, with almost 800 members now.

Thurs, May 17

I called in our chair count (all dozen) to Pacifica for this afternoon’s music.  

On my way to play music, I stopped by the lab at the hospital for my standing order monthly blood draw. I was happy to get there before my fav phlebotomist left for lunch, and I still had time to stop two other places before music time arrived.

I came home late and missed the phone call with my results but they came through the next morning, and all are fine: INR: 2.2, Potassium: 4.7, with my next month’s date being rechecked is 14 June.

We went to hear Brandon Rossi’s presentation, “Get Ready for Ravens” at the Kittitas Audubon local chapter monthly meeting. There I met up with several friends and met a new one, Arlene, a friend of Joanie who has a common friend, and has her new email address. She’s going to send it to me through my friend, Joanie. I’m happy I went; it was quite interesting, and we have some mutual friends at the US military’s Yakima Training Center, where Rossi works in the Environmental section.

Brandon Rossi – Common Raven Ecology

Common Raven Ecology

Brandon Rossi – Questions & Answers on Raven presentation

Questions & Answers on Raven presentation

Last video finishing up the Q & A for Rossi’s talk

ending Q&A & Comments after Battery died

We brought home a brownie each for dessert and were late getting home at 9:30 p.m.

Friday, May 18 Mt. St Helen’s 38 years later !

Starting off with an awesome memory of the Mt. St Helen’s Eruption, with photos that were kept quiet for 34 years. Here is a link to tell you the story:

Photographic Memories of the Mt. St Helen’s Eruption

Be patient with it, and read throughout. You will not be able to reach one of the videos, but you will see 19 pictures if you stay and go with the flow (no pun intended).

Busy day for me. I got ready to rush in for the first part of Ruth Harrington’s Scholarship lunch (the last one this year), held on the 3rd Friday instead of our normal 4th Friday’s meeting because of the conflict with Memorial Day Weekend. I picked up a piece of butternut squash/onion pastry, 3 pieces of fresh fruit, some salad & colorful cherry tomatoes, to put with my additional stuff I always put in salads. I was due at the Senior Center (AAC) for The Senior Prom for 2018, put on by the CWU Recreation students, starting with a luncheon (Chicken Fettucine with salad and apple pie), followed by dancing and photography, and awards.

They were still serving lunch by the time I got there after Noon, so I got a serving of Fettuccini with a good amount of chicken breast meat, not many noodles, and no broccoli. Elaine (the cook) fixed me up special. I added my salad to my plate and enjoyed being there. My plate with salad I brought; students left, AAC members right and end; then right, showing my bellbottoms, on outfit Katrina (AAC Director) asked me to wear to the Senior Prom, and she took the photograph. She likes that “suit.”

Another collage having fun with Marilyn Monroe & Elvis Presley:Lady in white, Corrine, student helper with Ernestine (I know from other places in town, who had her Prom Night 2018 Prop facing the wrong direction and was saying whoops! Middle photo: Carol in her Elvis T-shirt kisses him; Nancy w/Anne in her Chocolate Kisses T-shirt from the Hershey, PA tour, which is no longer as neat as when John and I took it a 1/3 century ago, and got to walk across metal stairs and walkways right over the vats of chocolate and to be down and see up close the kisses dropping and coming off the conveyor belt.

Here are a couple videos for your enjoyment. Don’t miss the dancing wheelchair gal (her name is Carolyn) and she is in my exercise class at the AAC (Senior Center), but it’s open to non-seniors needing the exercise.

(1) First dance – “YMCA” at the Senior Prom celebration

First dance – “YMCA” at the Senior Prom

(2) “I Did It My Way” Dance 5-18-18 SR Prom AAC

“I Did It My Way” Dance

The King and Queen (by audience vote) are in this video. She’s in a long blue dress (Judith) and her husband (Peter) is dancing with her. I have gotten to know them through dancing classes and they danced their way into our hearts with a very old fashioned dance at the AAC Talent Show a month ago. I videotaped their talent there (she sang as they danced), and she videoed (and sang) with my talent (playing the violin and leading the audience singing “You Are my Sunshine” and “Jambalaya.”)
King Peter & Queen Judith; Joanne; Connie; Joe with Poker Chip award.

Saturday, May 19

John left for WTA’s Crew Leader College at 5:30 a.m. to meet friend, Bill Weir to drive over for this day’s events.

John fed the first batch of cat food, I went back to bed, and slept in.

When I was up, and through the morning, I fed the rest of them again, and set up the attendance for today’s music at Briarwood.

I have been working on transferring videos I took to the web of the activities at the end of this week.

Now time for a late brunch before going to Briarwood where they feed us afterwards.

I showed up for music at Briarwood, and we had 7 people there to play music. One was a family, the mom is our violinist, husband played the guitar, and baby Neil slept on the floor in his carrier until almost the end of our music. Then we were fed an excellent BBQ meat, with salads, and desserts. I was quite filled up, but the ladies provided two plates of dessert to bring home for John.

Sunday, May 20

At 6:00 a.m., John takes off for N. Bend, for the second day of Crew Leader College. There were lots of folks {100 +} involved in a dozen or more learning activities – some very hands-on.
John participated in (a) a short session about Cultural Artifacts led by a King County geo-archaeologist and a Univ. of WA Burke Museum person with about 50 specimens from that collection; (b) practicing with gasoline powered tools [weed and brush cutter, drill, toter**]; and (c) an emergency response session with several parts, including radio communications. The work at Mt. Rainier last summer yielded about a half dozen “incidents” that made it onto the WTA-2017 Summary of Incidents Chart.
{ ** Go back to the previous part of the blog published Friday to see picture of toter. }

After John left, I was up for a tiny while, and went back to bed. I was able to finish dishes that had piled up over a couple days, and go retrieve my camera from my car to transfer the pix from it to my computer.

John called at 4:00 but immediately his battery died before I could find out where he was. He was just onto I-90 east of North Bend, with “Jessica” pointed to home. I assumed he’d be home in 1.5 hours and he was. [Odd thing about this is that the first rule of Emergency Response is to check batteries before heading up the trail!]
Annie was thrilled, because they immediately went for a 20-minute walk.

I’d fed and visited with the cats all day and worked on chores (mostly the blog and things needed for it).

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan