Sunday—early. I am calming down from a rude animal awakening. Sunny, the cat, sailed across the room and onto the table beside my recliner, knocking everything off.
John claims Sunny was playing zoom-zoom. She had just run into the back room where he was at the computer, used him to launch herself up to the window sill, growled, turned and again using his lap, charged back down the hall for her visit with me.
I was napping after an early morning potty stop and letting the dogs out. I hadn’t even gotten on my computer yet, nor eaten breakfast. Luckily I didn’t have a cup of coffee on the table. So, while I was picking up the stuff, John came into the den and let Dan (male Brit) out into the backyard. I didn’t know that and when Annie and Shay came running into the room, I opened the back door to let them out–only to realize Dan was out there. I screamed and stepped outside with my down booties (leather bottoms) on the snow on the patio–not a good idea, but I didn’t fall. I yelled and yelled at Annie to come in, while Dan was interested in her. She isn’t far enough into her cycle for a breeding or we would have had one. Scary, exciting, and I’m sure raised my blood pressure.
I have rested for a couple hours now and put on a CD of Greg Brown with Iowa Waltz and a number of other great songs, that I picked up for a quarter at a yard sale. He has blues and western stuff on it. Very good. I have two other albums that I listened to during the afternoon. This one doesn’t have a date, but the next one is 1992, published by Red House Records in Minnesota, his own recording company he, oddly enough named after a Red House he lived in, in Iowa City, IA. We were in Iowa City from the late 1960s till we left in 1974 for Idaho. I looked him up on the web, and found he is still performing and doing gigs. He was born in 1949 and writes all his own songs. What a talented person. He began performing when 18. I’m now listening to a song called, “The train that carried Jimmie Rodgers home”, with yodeling in Jimmie Rodgers style. Pretty cool. At the same yard sale, I picked up a copy of Jimmie Rodgers singing 24 of his songs. I already wrote about that in an earlier blog.
John cleaned off all the new 4 inches or so of snow that fell. Now it is sun shining, with blue sky. Only got to 25 last night and now is up to 37. A veritable heat wave… ha ha.
Back to last night’s concert. We went with two friends who enjoy guitar music. It was fabulous, and we had pretty good seats near the front. I wish I had taken my camera to get a few video shots of this guy with his incredible talent. He really is a one—man band, and is able to record himself on different tracks with “drum” sounds on his guitar, and picking, and building on his own work right in front of your eyes. He also did a cute “reverse” trick with the electronic tracker. He displayed it first by saying Ellensburg, Washington correctly, and then showing what it sounded like when “reversed”. Then he listened to the reverse sounds 4 times and repeated them into the mike, and recorded that. Then reversed to hear the town name come out again in reverse, from the reversed sounds. Amazing. Then he asked if it was anyone’s birthday in the audience. He played a birthday song that no one recognized (which turned out to be Happy Birthday, backwards). Then he played that reverse track, and it was amazing. This guy is GOOD and very talented. We will go back to another concert of his when he is in the region. We recommend him to you if you ever see him coming to a place near you. Last week’s blog mentioned his name, Trace Bundy, and website.
Monday. My goodness; more snow. John says we will be having a few inches at a time off and on all week. Started at 6:00 a.m. with nothing, let the dogs out and in and about 6:30 it was snowing hard with big flakes. Then it slowed, and now is back at it again. We must have had 4 inches in the past 3 hours. Good it’s a slow day…well, I thought so, but just heard I have a lecture to attend at 4:00, and there is my SAIL exercise at 1:30. I decided to let it snow and canceled my trip to town today. I’m not involved in the decision of my replacement anyhow. Our mail today brought a cool freebie from my signing John and me onto myclassichits.com , the local Classic Hits from the sixties and seventies radio station. It is a CD of the Doobie Brothers called World Gone Crazy. I’m playing it now and it has a great beat on all the songs. Looked it up on the web and found a critique that says it is the best of their past several records.
Tuesday: I was “snowed under” with snow, trips to town over unplowed roads, to the store, through email and web applications for my colleagues, cleaning and looking for materials from my old Intermediate GIS course, and cleaning again for a couple of hours. I’m making progress, very slowly.
My early trip to town was to have my feet “done”. First time in my life I have ever had a pedicure. Truly. First they soaked them in very hot water, and then determined my dry skin was a fungus so recommended I get an anti-fungal cream and apply it. Then she (a nurse) cleaned the nails, cuticles, etc., and even used a Dremel tool for sanding off my nails on my right foot. That made the edges bleed (not good for a Coumadin patient whose blood is slow to clot), and then trimmed the toenails. Switched to the left foot and that one didn’t require the Dremel tool. Then she rubbed my legs and feet down with some sort of body cream. Boy, did I get the treatment. This is a service (for a $10 donation) of the Senior Center in town. Guess I will do it monthly from here on out. I still am flexible enough to reach my feet but it is nice to have it done by a professional with all the right tools and creams.
Wednesday: just SAIL exercise today and a stop by the hospital lab for my monthly INR blood draw (turned out to be on the high side ~ 3.2; last month 2.9; and should be ~ 2.5), and on home by way of the house being lifted from the flood plain. It was a gorgeous sunny day with blue skies and the house has now had the lower concrete base put down with the wooden frames up for the walls. (John claims what I saw are called “footers”, and says look here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_akSziGAH4
There are additional parts, so look for them.)
Spent the rest of the afternoon working on cleaning off the counter between the kitchen and den. It still needs more work. This is a several year accumulation. I did find a copy of a picture of our dog Cedaridge Vintage Cork winning a BOW (Best of Winners) in a show in April 2009. We had lost this and just now turned it up! It had not even been opened, and the bill was not paid till later when I was in the hospital and they sent an overdue notice. John had paid it but we didn’t know it had actually been delivered. John scanned the photo and brightened the colors so the digital version is much nicer. He also brightened up my copies of the pictures I took of the house lifting.
Thursday: Worked this morning on adding music, “Beautiful, Beautiful, Brown Eyes” for piano and transposed to a B flat clarinet. Turned out it was all wrong, so I have to go back to the “drawing table” – times change; I’m using a keyboard and a mouse. I don’t know what I did and haven’t had time to figure it out yet. We realized when we started playing that it didn’t fit together correctly.
I was gone all afternoon, playing violin two places, first at a nursing home, and then we drove a little over a mile to a couple’s house to entertain a “shut in”, and then I left early to go to a lecture on “Armchair travel to the Two Berlins.” It was very interesting and presented to the CWU Retirement Association. There was food and wine afterward but we went grocery shopping instead and to pick up my meds. Tried to get home for John to feed animals before dark, but failed. We also had to get gas in his car, and the regular price is up to $3.429/gal for regular, the cheapest in town (surprise at the 76 station with a car wash where we never go). My Subaru takes only the higher test and it is 20 cents/gallon higher. John had driven my car to town and I was able to park on campus in front of the place, arrived slightly late (couple of minutes), but then I dropped him off at “my” car on the way home in the parking lot of the old Albertson’s store, which just closed in our town. It was rather strange how we pulled that off. We cannot park on campus (but with one car), and the streets around the campus all are No Parking. For dinner, it was late, but is a pork loin roast we got at the store on sale. It was so good, we picked up two more on Saturday’s trip.
Friday: Today another busy one — but TGIF. Even not working I can still feel the relief it is the end of the week. Tomorrow we actually don’t have anything scheduled. I drove by the “being lifted” house on the way home and the wood was off the concrete, so the walls are standing. Placing the forms and getting ready for concrete is a part I missed, so here’s a look:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlBZA80gLw8
I did not have my camera today. Darn. I guess they are just going to lower it down to the new wall. This is rather fun watching it evolve and not knowing what the plans are.
The busy day started with going to the Senior Center potluck (was supposed to be ham and rolls, but was spaghetti and meat sauce instead). There were several salads and garlic bread and cookies & chocolate pie for dessert. An insurance agency called Sterling Health was there with free ice cream sundaes with all sorts of trimmings, but I didn’t have one. I took their bag of goodies, however. Clip for potato chips or cereal bags, strong magnetic clip for hanging something on the stove or refrigerator, pens, and note pads. Why not? I already have medical insurance and don’t need any supplements. Then a little after Noon, my friend (on the accordion) and I (on the fiddle) started singing and playing with and for the 31 people there for lunch. She brings Xeroxed copies of the words to the songs, and so the audience can sing. For this month it was all Irish songs. I dressed in green for the occasion. Sat down and visited with several who were at the lunch who also are in my exercise class, and then we had class for an hour.
After that I went grocery shopping and came back home, stopped at the end of the driveway, got out of the car to get the mail, and when I opened the mailbox and reached in, and closed it, it had a sort of squeaky sound. Suddenly I heard another loud squeaking sound like an old metal wheel. I looked to see what might have been on the road, but when I heard it again, I realized it was from above my head, from a bald eagle up in the top of a cottonwood tree. I “talked” to it (don’t know if a he or she), and it quit making the noise. My friend in Idaho said I just don’t know how to speak very good eagle. I got back in my car and called John on my cell phone and told him to bring his camera up to the mailbox to take a picture. Luckily, he got there and took two pictures before the bird left. John never heard the sound. It was quite weird and something I have never heard in my life. That is the closest to an eagle I have ever been, too. Pretty neat.
I haven’t found the exact sound I heard, but this comes very close:
http://pelotes.jea.com/AnimalFact/Birds/eagle.au
Saturday: Woke to an inch of new snow – all is white, again. Nothing planned today, but the unplanned happened. John had to finish publishing, stamping and folding the KVTR newsletter that needed to be in today’s mail. We didn’t make it in time for pickup at the end of the driveway, so needed to go to town to the post office. That was okay, because we also went shopping and to take more pictures of the house lifting from the floodplain. Nice sunny day. I stayed in the car at the store and talked to my friend (since grammar school) who lives in West Virginia. She’s retired now and has found some pictures of us when we were in the 3rd or 4th grade. She scanned them and sent to me. It was cool. The most recent one she sent was of our Brownie Troop #327 Band, in which I was playing a ukulele.
Okay, I will end this now and get it to John to put on the blog. We are at the end of the week, and Annie is very attractive to Dan, but we will not let them breed. No puppies this year.
Hope you all have a good week. Best regards from Nancy & John and all the critters.