Monday, April 1 April Fool’s Day
Peggy Coble photographed these and sent out on Facebook with this quote: “God is painting with brilliant colors this morning.”
Two photos merged together by Nancy. Both by Peggy Coble.
John left for White Heron Cellars and wine grape pruning in the Mariposa Vineyard this morning, will do one more day tomorrow, but not again the rest of this week. Cameron needs to be in Seattle.
I checked and cleaned out the top of my violin case so that I could meet this afternoon with Bryce Van Parys (from Hammond Ashley Violins in Issaquah) to obtain a new set of PreLude strings and have him install them at the CWU Music Building. They are fantastic, mellow, and warm sounding, and I have enjoyed playing with them two days this week. They have stayed in tune as well.
I took care of bill paying with our insurance company in Idaho, to save money by having our vehicle insurance come due in a lump sum and taken from our checking account. We save lots of payment charges by switching from a monthly credit card fee of $5 each, plus we will get a discount for paying all at once.
I also worked with a member of the CWU Foundation: Catherine Scarlett, Director, Compliance and Liaison to CWU Retirement Association, (cool interesting title), to get our donation for two scholarships (Hultquist Distinguished Service Award) straightened out to have enough money in the account by September payout time. We fund this via monthly credit card withdrawals to cover two awards: one for a graduate student in the Cultural and Environmental Resource Management program and one for an undergraduate in the geography program (although it can be service to geography from another major). We have the two again this year. We had to play catch up because of new “rules” of dispersal to have $1,000 available at the first part of Fall Quarter (in September) for payout and not spread out over the year by 3 quarters (fall, winter, spring). The award is made in May, 2019 at an outside ceremony, where I videotape the proceedings every year at the End-Of-Year Geography potluck.
Tuesday, April 2
Peggy’s out again for today’s morning sunrise that I’ll display with her three photographs:
Captures of a beautiful sunrise by Peggy Coble, 4/2/19
At bottom-right, above the ridge line is a row of wind turbine towers.
Awoke to say goodbye to John, who left for White Heron. I wanted to lie back down for some more rest, but stayed up instead to take care of things that have been ignored the past couple months.
I called in our reservations for next Tuesday’s Volunteer Recognition Dinner at the Presbyterian Church. Then, I spent much of the day calling musicians about the volunteer recognition dinner sign-up deadline being today.
I worked on a bunch of emails. Need to do more work on paperwork. It just keeps piling up. I arranged for payment of our membership in Kittitas County Historical Museum on-line so as not to have to go by the museum and write a check.
My lack of sleep caught up with me, and I finally took a nap for about an hour around noon with two calls interrupting.
I managed to pay our Pend Oreille Shores bill on line. Boy, the yearly maintenance cost has really increased over the years. We have to get some of our friends to use up those credits we have space-banked. We are not in a position to travel ourselves with all the animals we must care for daily. We need to get rid of these weeks at the resorts, but we are just kicking this can down the road.
Late afternoon, I took care of the payments for our house insurance with Blue Ridge Insurance here in town (through Lana), and we have the payments coming out twice a year, paid by our VISA from Costco (only $2 service charge) twice a year. The alternative I’m using with the other Safeco policy on the vehicles (in Idaho) costs more here on the house, going through our checking account. Why such a difference between two adjacent states is beyond comprehension!
John and I both need to respond to more questions about our service activities in the region, in preparation for the May 21st CWURA {old folks} banquet award presentation we are receiving.
This afternoon my new battery for my Dell computer arrived in the USPS mail from Amazon. 
John got out a wrist-style grounding strap and a teeny screwdriver and did the replacement while I was away from home. It works wonderfully. This one is flat (3.5 x 7 x 0.3 in). Because he was using the web to find and buy the correct battery, companies are now “pushing” ads to his computer. None are the correct size and shape for my laptop, and – of course – I no longer need one. This is a glitch in their business model.
I worked tonight getting ready for the music for May & June, to check with Evie to be sure it was fine to stay with what we did for 2018. Makes my job incredibly easier providing the music scores for the Kittitas Valley Fiddlers & Friends group. We worked tonight on our biographies for the old folks award, as requested by the President of the CWU Retirement Association. Before the weekend is over, I need to finish these and get them sent. The award is for service to the community and university since retirement.
Wednesday, April 3
John is home from pruning the rest of the week. I’m going to the Food Bank for lunch music and then coming on home. I don’t think I’m quite ready yet for SAIL exercise class, with my left shoulder’s range of motion. Next Monday, however, I believe I will retry the Silver Sneakers exercise class.
Tonight we are going to one of Nick Zentner’s lectures, the first at the newly remodeled Morgan Middle School Performing Arts Center. Doors open at 6:30 for the 7:00 p.m. start. We got there and sat on the front row. 
Nick Zentner at Morgan – photo by Joyce Swart, and Lake McDonald in Glacier National Park photo by Perri Schelat. Colored rocks; why so?
When you listen to Nick’s lecture, you’ll understand the connection of the photos. Nick traveled from Wisconsin to the mountains of Montana as a young man for his first summer job, and the experience changed his life – – drifting into the study of geology.
Supercontinents of the PNW (Part 1: Chalk boards)
Supercontinents of the PNW (Part 2: Visuals)
Please move back to the start of the video to view. It starts 3 minutes into the video.
Thursday, April 4
While I was out running around town, my friend Evie Schuetz was hiking to Umptanum Falls to celebrate her birthday a day early. Here is her time exposure using a 10 Stop Neutral Density Filter for Long Exposure Photography:
Umptanum Falls by EvieMae Schuetz, 4/4/19. 8 miles south of EBRG.
Today John was busy with onion starts and other garden things.
I went to town for music at the Rehab center and we had 11 people playing, plus our old accordion player, Jeanne Gordon, sitting in the circle in her wheelchair, as a permanent resident there. She always enjoys our music. Today, I put a shamrock necklace on her with blinking green lights.
After that I came home to make ready to leave again for town with John. We went by Burger King for their two specials for $3.00 each (John had a Whopper and I had a Crispy Chicken). I also used a coupon for a large fries combined with Chicken Fries, which we ended up sharing with friend Angela who did not have any supper, but did have a 90-mile drive to home afterward. John and I carried our own bottle of Coca-Cola to share. I brought home some of the French fries and half my sandwich because I was too busy talking to finish eating it. It was part of my lunch the next day.
We arrived at the Science II building on campus prior to 6:30 to be sure we got the seats up front we use for me to videotape the proceedings. We met a bunch of new people there and some from our past. It’s always a fun place to go, each month. It is for the Ice Age Floods Institute local chapter meeting.
Nick Zentner introduces speaker Michael Poland from USGS, Cascades Volcano Observatory who also wears another hat as a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey and is the scientist-in-charge of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. He has some interesting comments at the end of his Questions and Answers section after his talk.
First, the introduction to our speaker: Move your start below to 3:30 for Michael’s background info.
Nick Zentner about Michael Poland {starts @ 3:30}
Then, the presentation:
Michael Poland, Deformation of Cascade Range Volcanoes
And, finally we ended with the Questions & Answers:
Michael Poland Fields Audience Questions
Friday, April 5
I slept in till 8:15 and John was up earlier. We had rain early and then a lot more later in the afternoon.
I started uploading the talk from last night, and something is really slowing it down. It has taken too many hours. I guess the next time I do this, I’ll need to carry my laptop to the university to upload on a faster connection. I’m even using my old Exilim camera which records in a much smaller bandwidth than my Nikon.
Today John finished the onion sets just before a major downpour. The next few days will be cool and/or wet so the little plants should do well. It is late to be planting them, but it couldn’t be helped. I have been working on numerous projects today, including washing a load of dishes, so now we have some utensils and plates to use.
We had rain for a couple of hours, then it cleared.
Lise McGowan photographed another beautiful landscape mostly a “skyscape” of this evening’s sunset.
Lovely photograph by Lise McGowan, of the skies after the storm.
Saturday, April 6
We awoke to rain, but if you were up earlier as our friend Peggy Coble was, you would have experienced a striking scene. Sunrise by Peggy (& God) continue.
April 6 morning in the Kittitas Valley, by Peggy Coble.
I was up a little before 5:00 while it was still dark, and two of the outside cats had arrived for some food. I provided it and petted the one who would let me (Sue). Then I went back to bed.
I slept in longer than John. It rained a lot this morning, but now in the afternoon it has dried out and the sun is shining.
I managed a few things on email. One was the weekly Earth Science Web sites “reader” that comes from my Geographer friend, Mark Francek, in Michigan. He usually sends it the end of each week. I then check it out and send along to over 100 people on my forwarding list.
While following the Earth Science Weekly entry today, IRIS How Will 3 Buildings, Engineered Equally, on Different Bedrock React to an Earthquake, I found this that followed: (this is the corrected version from the one that appeared first).
Great Alaska Earthquake, 3-27-64, Mag 9.2
I have sent this to Mark for a possible future send. It is an important follow-up to the lecture we heard Thursday night by Michael Poland; details above.
I guess I should give you the link that got me to the one on the 1964 Anchorage earthquake. John and I visited Anchorage in 1987 and saw much of the aftermath (23 years after) of the earthquake and tsunami’s destruction.
How will buildings, engineered the same, but on different bedrock react to an earthquake?
During the development of western Washington there was an assumption that the area did not get strong earthquakes. 
Enlightenment came in 2001 with the Nisqually event of February 28. Among many other things, the State Capitol building was damaged.
Previous large quakes (1949 & 1965) happened before the rapid expansion of Seattle, but earthquake-resistance work
was not very high priority. A really big quake is in the region’s future.
Today arrived a box of large lemons from CA from John and Diana Ressler (he was the Geographer here who introduced me to the job possibility at CWU). I was hired in 1988. I saw him at a geography conference and he told me about the opening. I applied and the rest is history. I have never regretted my decision.
We sent 3 bottles of wine to them from White Heron – well, we paid shipping but the wine came from John’s pruning stash. The Ressler’s Lemon tree is returning fresh fruit northward. The largest, a Eureka, weighs 1 pound 3 ounces.
Sunday, April 7
A light mist of rain began about Midnight. At 2 AM to 5 AM there was actual rain. We have had mist+ since then. In the mountains, west of us, the snow pack is below average. Light rain adds to the water content, heavy rain melts snow and 
causes flooding.
John says: Our governor, Jay Inslee, who is running for President, has declared a drought emergency for our basin and two others to the north of us.
So far, the only plank in Jay’s political platform is global warming. The odd thing is that every other western state has snow pack depths above average. It seems Gaia directed the winter storm tracks to bypass Washington State just to give Jay a shouting point.
Hope your week was fine.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan