Annette, Linda, Nancy, Beth, Nicole

Friday, Saturday, July 6-7 Annette Lake

John went to two WTA work parties over the weekend, both at Annette Lake with crew leader LeeAnne, but we didn’t have pictures until later in the week, so here are a few.

First was a project John headed: Ardeth preps trail, removing roots. Side-log, peeled and placed, and partly done with adding rock base, then covered with soil. Done.

Another two projects John was involved with are below. The second one in the 4th photo, he was only advising on about a drainage question.The first 3 photos are of the same project with leader, Darrel;
Rocks are brought and placed, then the tread is placed.
4th is a different project by Clare.

Sunday, July 8

Blog out at 9:44 p.m. PST – you already heard about the rest of the day in last week’s blog.

Monday, July 9

We got to Dr. Cardon’s office at 11:07 a.m. for toenail clipping and were seen at 11:15, both of us out of there (surprisingly) by 11:37, even with visiting about WTA trail backcountry week longs. I also talked with him about my index toe on my right foot. It is in the early stages of becoming a trigger toe, so he described the surgery and suggested it needed to be done sooner than later because it would only get worse and harder to manage. It will be covered by insurance and can be done here in his one visit / week to Ellensburg in the office, and I will be able to walk on it right after, just be careful. He explained what is done in the operation and it is done with a local. I will wait until fall for that, and our next visit is in October (3 months away), so he can evaluate it then and we can schedule the surgery.

We went to Safeway for a few things including the special Monday fried chicken and some other coupon savings on drinks for John and me, PowerAdeZero.

I went to SAIL at 1:30 p.m. and took along the Rubbermaid container to return to Roberta. She gave me a pan of oatmeal rolls in it.

Tuesday, July 10

We went by and picked up bag of clothes from Joanie’s front porch on our way in Ellensburg to stop for my regular blood draw at the hospital before driving to Costco, primarily for two purchases at over half price of the drugs less than in Ellensburg pharmacies. That pricing part is very strange to me, and we pay cash without having to use our insurance. Also, we receive a 2% cash rebate once a year from our membership at Costco for any purchases in the store (including pharmacy and eyeglasses).
We ate our lunch there too and filled John’s car with gasoline (at $3.19/gal, lower than EBRG’s.

Between noon & 1:30 I was to call Dee Eberhart to wish him a happy 94th birthday! We needed a quieter place in the store, so found it near the pharmacy after turning in a prescription I had requested be sent down by our doctor’s office in Cle Elum this morning for John. We had no refills, and didn’t realize it until the last minute. Normally they require 3 days to process a refill, but I called the triage nurse and she ran it through because we were on our way to Costco today.

On the way home, we stopped across the street at the WinCo store, and picked up four boxes of 100% All Bran Buds for only $3.68/box. The price in town here at Safeway is $5.49, and all stores do not carry the “buds”, but only the other squiggly cereal pieces. John likes the buds because they can be used as a snack as well. I moistened mine with Almond “milk” beverage, a non-dairy product for my coffee. I also use Raisin bran flakes with my cereal, and we have with peaches or bananas (if any in the house), and I even had strawberries, recently. Getting all the fiber is good for our digestive systems.

Wednesday, July 11

Food bank soup kitchen music, and skipping SAIL to get ready to go back to town to a 6:00 p.m. dinner date with Linda and Bill Weir at The Palace. It’s a local long-time restaurant that offers a free dinner (Chicken Fettuccine or a Chicken Fried Angus Steak choice), on one’s birthday or one for a couple on their anniversary. We get that price during the month it falls, so we were a day early for our anniversary celebration. John always has the steak (normally $15.76), and I have my favorite, Cobb Salad made only with Iceberg lettuce at my request, which is described on their menu as: The king of salads. crisp greens topped with bacon, turkey, blue cheese crumbles, avocado slices, egg, and tomato. It is definitely the best Cobb salad I have ever had.
Here are some photos of our celebration dinner tonight:Bill & Linda with John & Nancy at our table (with John’s eyes closed); right is just us with his eyes open.

The left picture above shows the raised booth we were in, and the window in the middle behind, shows an opening to another room for dining. The significance of that is that at the table next to John sat a mutual friend, who is a crew leader with WTA, and also a granddaughter of friends in town that go back to the year I moved to Ellensburg. She is Beth Macinko, and her grandparents are Mary Ann and George Macinko. I lived in the Macinko’s house the first year I was here alone before John moved over to Ellensburg from our home in Troy, ID. They were gone on sabbatical and needed a house sitter and someone to take care of their cat. I had the use of their house for the whole year. George has since died, but his wife Mary Ann is still in Ellensburg, and we had just talked to her that afternoon, asking a question about the owner of the land east of their house that has about 20 horses grazing on it. We were trying to figure out the owner, and she told us.

Our conversations could be heard through that open window, and late in our dinner, we were discussing some brusher work John is planning to do in the Spokane area with his new brusher. Beth heard the “brusher” discussion, and came around to say hello. She had been at WTA Crew Leader collage recently where they were instructed in its use. Our meals: Nancy’s Cobb salad; John’s Chicken-fried Steak.

We had taken a box of cherries to the Weirs, but they walked to the restaurant from their home, so we delivered the box of cherries back to the house and left it on the stairs.

Thurs, July 12 ° ° ° ° Happy 49th Anniversary to us

John started his day picking raspberries (about 3 pounds). Most went to the freezer. I cannot eat them because the seeds annoy me – sticking in my teeth.

Then he finished picking cherries from branches he sawed out of one of our trees yesterday. I caught them and pulled them out of the way. The second one downed was too heavy for me to lift and carry. He cut down about 4 and then came down and picked from the grounded branches.

I packed up my music and went to play at The Meadows. We had a nice turnout and played beautiful music.

Friday, July 13

John left for again at 6:40 a.m. this morning for Ira Springs Trail. It was warm by noon, but in the shade. He did a lot of brushing work today, and got home at 4:30. His first call was at 4:13 and I had only been home for a few minutes.

I slept in this morning after he left for almost another 2 hrs. I had several chores to do before leaving, and knew I needed to be at the senior center close to 11:00 a.m. I’m the volunteer designated photographer for special events, because the staff is busy setting up and serving food.

Before I left home, I needed to do a few things John would appreciate being done before he arrived home. These included interesting and unrelated things, such as finishing loading the dirty dishes and starting the dishwasher. I also had to frost a large cake he made last night, on our anniversary – a lemon cake filled with blueberries I bought frozen. I used a white frosting.

I also had to respond to a few things on the computer, and to plug in my camera to recharge the battery. I was up first at 5:30 a.m. and took care of that. Then I had to pack Rainier cherries to take along for me and some to share with the people at my table, because I knew I could not eat the mixed green salad. The senior center party was a going away party for Nicole Jones, who has working there as an AmeriCorps member for the past 10 months.

Finally, I made it to my car and drove in. Except for one long rural block (at 35 mph) and one double curve slow down to 30 mph, my trip in is at 50 mph and mostly a gentle down slope drive.

I made it a few minutes later than desired but still managed to get one parking spot away from my desired one, under the trees in shade. Mine was in shade later but not when I pulled in. I needed to be in view from the front door of the center, so I could go to the door at 12:15 to open the hatch-back of my Subaru, to allow a woman to put emptied cattle food and dog food bags in the back of my car. She accomplished that, and closed it.

The first entry is the video introduction Katrina Douglas (Director of the AAC) gave (after a phone rang and messed up the beginning of her presentation). This is most of it, minus 15 seconds:

Nicole Jones’ Going Away Party Celebrating her Last Day

Here are a couple of collages of the day for my memories:Judy admires memory photography book that Jessi Broderious, the other AmeriCorps representative this past year, created for Nicole; a page with two of me with her, and the bottom one on Valentine’s Day, has me between Nicole and Jessi; on the right, two appreciative statements, which were made. Marilyn & Curtis Rost like her Sense of Humor, and I thank her for her Funny Faces (facial expressions) and her Tech Helps (with my camera resetting date and time and teaching me how to make links to high resolution photos to send with one link (via Google Photos), to get the pictures I take at events back to a lot of folks in an easy manner.Ada and Nicole; and Nancy with Nicole fooling around at the end.

I called Nicole over to get in the picture with Ada, who is the mom of one of my students back in the 1990s, Michael Buchanan. The last photo was taken at the end of the day with as many people as we could get to stand in front of the Olympic Gold Sign with Nicole for her memories of today’s party. There were over 50 people there to celebrate and honor her. The other thing I did not record was all the comments (into a portable microphone) telling stories about what we would remember about Nicole’s entry into our lives. Included were some very funny stories, some of which Nicole didn’t even remember but many she did and enjoyed.

Almost everyone had their photo taken with Nicole in the position above, flexing muscles. Many of them were on the camera belonging to the AAC, but I have several on my camera to add to the others I took before our lunch, and during the microphone storytelling time. Those will be published on Facebook (on the Ellensburg Adult Activity page), and also I will send to the emails of the 42 AAC members for which I have addresses.

I continued the afternoon at the center, and then before our SAIL exercise class was to start, I went into the computer room to check a couple of my email accounts, and to send a note on Facebook to the gal who delivered the feed bags. I had tried to call her from the parking lot to tell her which door I parked near, but the number I normally reach her on was answered as if I was a FAX machine, with a high-pitched tone. She figured it out, when I went out before 12:15 and opening the hatch on the back of my car and she put them inside and closed the door.

After SAIL exercise class, I went to Super 1 for Chapstick, smoked turkey breast, and a head of Iceberg lettuce.

I worked a lot tonight on photos from the party today at the senior center.

I’m so far behind. Just sent out 7 jobs to my Google Groups NW Geography Jobs list and still went to bed late.

Saturday, July 15

John’s picking cherries while the temps are lower, but they are rising…up to 74 by 9:00 a.m. It got much hotter as the day progressed. John picked a bunch of Rainier cherries to take to tomorrow’s WTA trail work party with Hannah (crew leader) at Longmire, Mt. Rainier. John will be leaving quite early in the morning, no later than 4:30 a.m.

We are publishing this tonight.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan