Time away, less at home

Photo below was posted by WTA on the web, from Crew Leader College last weekend:John is standing up at the end of the group with his orange hat and his plaid blue/white shirt, in a class at “Million $ Viewpoint” where trees need to be trimmed so people can enjoy the view better. I wonder what the speaker was talking about and looking at on the grass.
{John: We are one group of about 20 doing “learning” type things at WTA’s Crew Leader College. Kaci Darsow is looking at notes regarding issues that we as crew leaders might encounter. Things happened in 2018 on trail work events – what to do, what might work best?
The view is from Cougar Mountain, underlain with old coal mine tunnels (now a park), looking north toward Canada and across the eastern Puget Sound Lowland. Lake Sammamish is just down the hill behind the low brush. I’ve written to the land manager and suggested they cut it down.
}

Monday, May 20

Last night, we published the blog at 11:40 p.m. and went to bed.

I notified my Silver Sneakers teacher I would not be able to be in class today because John and I have to both visit a doctor to hear the results of a Vascular Test done two weeks ago. It is a test for checking circulation to a person’s legs, ankle, feet, and toes. Seriously poor circulation can result in amputation. Web entries can be found under Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD).
We had a good discussion, and found out we both passed the test, and we will not have to retake it next year.

From there to Super 1, where they kindly gave me the rest of my Entresto prescription that was incorrectly sent by the PCP’s office for a refill. The dosage has not changed since I began taking it. I also called and spoke with the Kaiser Permanente customer service rep about all my meds they cover, and asked about co-pays on each. Except for Entresto, the rest are “One Tier” drugs and the co-pays are all $20 per month, but if you buy 2 months, you will receive a 3-month supply. I shall change the Entresto to come from there, after I am sure Super 1 has another person to buy it. Otherwise, I will get one more month for $40, so as not to leave them with a very expensive drug on their shelf they cannot sell. It is a “Two Tier” drug at twice the cost/month of a “One Tier” drug. However, if you look at the cash only price, you’ll see why: to get 90 pills (for a month), I would have to pay a cash price (no insurance) of $798.73. I just talked with my pharmacist and found I am the only one in town using the drug, and they have a bottle of 30 (left over from the 30 they added for the last prescription refill). So, they will order 60 more, and June 10 I will pick up 90 tablets on my insurance co-pay.

I did check on a recent purchase for my Amiodarone, for 90 pills, from Super 1, and the price was $17.85, actually better than mail order’s $20/mo. So I will check all the others before switching, and I will keep this one at Super 1. However, I do need to leave a message for Lacey about the change to 100 mg and then halving them to get the 50 dosage, twice a day. The quartering of a 200mg was no fun.

I found out that all WA residents on Kaiser Permanente get the 3-month (one free) benefit on all drugs bought through their Renton mail order facility. I’ll just have to watch which ones are a better monetary expenditure and save us money. Thankfully, I’m not on a lot of expensive drugs as many folks I know.

We walked around Super 1 but only bought a few carrots and some lotto tickets (for those that flunked statistics). Oh, Mega Millions, and we have to buy one before this coming Tuesday night! That won’t be hard as I have to be in town at Noon Tuesday to have my new crown installed (set on its base). We came on home via dropping off a piece of clothing for Amy on her front porch.

Tonight’s supper: leftover chicken, butternut casserole, baked beans, panko shrimp, with chocolate tuxedo cake for dessert, under ice cream.

Tuesday, May 21

Took my shower and called the Kaiser Permanente Mail Order Prescription line after receiving a call from nurse regarding PCP Chelsea’s sending in the Entresto prescription for a 3-month supply.

I have been working on arranging an appointment for my PCP May 31 and it has just been made; we arrive at 3:30 check-in for 3:45 that will lengthen the time at KVH. They should have everything on hand and not need me sitting there for 15 minutes. We are combining trips to Cle Elum with a friend, Kristin, to celebrate birthdays at the Cottage Café. Monday I need to call and see if we can push it up earlier on Friday. Then we can get our friend back to town in time to go to a special event at 6:00 p.m.

Scholarship awards at end-of-year Geography party followed by our own CWURA award and banquet:

Presentation of the Geography, and Cultural, Environmental and Resource Management (CERM; graduate degree) awards:
Matt, Nancy, McKenzie before award – Megan Walsh & John Bowen

Monica E-O-Y & Hultquist Distinguished Service Award 2019
Awardees: Matthew Johnston-GEOG; Mackenzie Hughes-CERM

Explanation of the next photos. John and I got to the celebration early because we had to leave shortly after the presentations. Heather found me to introduce herself and put a name with my face, because she had joined the Jobslist I run. I just mailed out an internship possibility in the City of Camas for the summer. She lives in Vancouver, WA (12 miles west) so this was perfect for her. She has applied, and we have our fingers crossed she will get the job. While we were talking she said she was getting a scholarship but wasn’t sure which one. I told her to go ask Megan, because I could introduce her to the donor if they were there. At that point, we had two other women donors, with another coming. I pointed out Lillian Brooks and Carla Kaatz, stopped to talk with someone else, and when I returned to my seat, Heather was visiting with Lillian Brooks.

Nancy & Heather ^. ^. ^. Heather Stewart & Lillian Brooks

Brooks-Shaw Award
Awardees: Meng Yang Chen, Andrew McDonald, Heather Stewart,
Joshua Warwick (absent)

Stoltman Award
Awardees: Jennifer Smith, Demetria Martinez, Amanda Moody

Kaatz Award
Awardee: Ryan Waldbillig (absent)

Macinko Award
Awardee: Andrew (AJ) Fangman

We didn’t stay around for the GIS certificate presentations, because we needed to be at Lombard Hall for the Central Washington University Retirement Association (CWURA) annual meeting, preceded by a banquet, and we needed to be there before 5:30 p.m.

A buffet dinner was served first, consisting of Caesar Salad, baked chicken breast, mashed red potatoes with skins, baked beans, roll. Wine.

After dinner Marilyn Mason (outgoing President) started the program with welcoming remarks, special thanks and appreciation to the CWURA Board of Directors, and election of the officers for 2019-2020.

Next was the presentation of the 2019 awards: the CWURA Graduate Scholarship and CWURA Distinguished Retiree Award.

I took the only video we have of the awards:

Weston Morrow, CWURA Graduate Award & Thanks

Outgoing President Marilyn Mason, Weston Morrow, Nancy with glass plaque for us, Marilyn, and John.

John captured a unique photo of our joint retiree award, which we’ll have to explain below: The engraved glass plaque describes the honor well; the one on the right shows the difficulty of capturing an image because of the mirroring effect the glass presents. That one has the colorful reflection of John in his orange winter cap, holding his camera to make the photograph. Of multiple photos taken, with various problems, clouds in the sky, and himself, I thought this one was so neat I wanted to include it.

The main speaker for the evening was Dennis Francois, Director of Athletics. At CWU since 2013, he has accomplished much. (Link) He was raised in Iowa about the time we were in Iowa City, so John and he talked after his remarks.

I’m sorry no one videotaped our acceptance speeches of thanks. I should have given my camera to someone to film our several minutes of comments relating to things not presented on the full page of the program, but which pointed to our past connections with CWURA members that affected our lives positively.

Below is a full page about us in the 4-page program for the evening, and in addition to the plaque, we were treated to the banquet meal. Many nice congratulatory remarks before the program and afterward made it especially enjoyable for us. Wednesday, May 22

I slept in this morning, but still am tired.

Thanks to John for cutting the smoked turkey, apple, and Jarlsberg cheese cubes for my salad. I used the last of the iceberg lettuce to make a nice salad for lunch. I set up my usual red bag with things in it I needed, but then forgot to take it, so I had no croutons for my salad or pills to take. Luckily, I did pack my salad. They have salad there, but it is full of dark greens I cannot have, while on a blood thinner. Once there Lyndsey checked me in for volunteering music hours and for the Senior Nutrition lunch program, where I had yogurt with multiple fruits, a piece of cake, and apple juice with my salad.

When I arrived, I had to arrange to set up the chairs and move our music stands down to the other end of the building where we play. We had 9 or 10 people there today. I did not go to SAIL today, because I had to come home and get my cameras ready to take to Yakima.

Today John was home when the Brad & Burke heat pump man returned with the circuit board needed to allow us to have A/C. Ours is a Trane, manufactured in March of 2002, and this is the first thing to go wrong. Now, being ready for warm weather, we are running the heater instead.

We left early to be able to fill John’s car with gasoline at Costco (where the price was 20₵/gal cheaper than in Ellensburg.

That put us at the venue for the concert early, so we could visit with people there we knew and get a front row seat. One of my former students, Amy Kurant Matthews is now on the board of the Cowiche Canyon Conservancy and she was there and came over when she recognized me. What a nice surprise. I think she said she was my student in 1998-2000. She now has two children, the oldest being 16. We still keep in touch on email. We also met the “new” executive director, Celisa Hopkins, of the Cowiche Canyon Conservancy. John and I know her predecessor, Betsy Bloomfield, also there this evening, and she was my student at CWU in the graduate program. She and John teamed up on a WTA trail maintenance work party there a few years ago.

Tonight was the Ken Bevis concert at the Seasons Performance Hall, Yakima. POLLINATORS – A HERO’S LIFE {Hear Nature Sing: The Voices of Bees, Bears, & Butterflies}

This was a fundraiser (but with free admission) for the Cowiche Canyon Conservancy, with assistance from Yakima Symphony Orchestra members (Denise Dillenbeck, violin; Mika Hood, cello).The photo above shows the stained glass windows on the west and east of the old church now used for the Seasons Performance Hall; the top photo is from the Flight of the Bumblebee and the bottom from the combined group with Ken Bevis.

As an intro to the evening, we heard from our Symphony members, Denise & Mika playing, “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Rimsky-Korsakov.

Flight of the Bumblebee

They were followed by the opening singing duo of Sally Rose & Julie Conley with several songs. I was truly impressed with their fantastic harmonies imparted to their music. Videos to follow of their combination with the whole group, but here is a short one just with them, a story about The Mountain – wildlife environment.

Duo Singers with Violinist – The Mountain Song

Ken Bevis’s interpretative program revolved around his personal connections with wildlife in our shrub-steppe environment.

Some of the evening’s entertainment are below. Note, please, all the links given in this document are “unlisted” (not public) on YouTube, so please share the links sparingly with your friends.
I received Ken’s okay to film the evening to put in our weekly blog. These below are about the “talking” animals Ken met on his journey.

The Woodpecker Song and the Bear Song

The Coyote Song

The Raven Song

The Beetle & Hummingbirds songs

The Salmon Song (I made it home)

Field of Flowers Song

We didn’t make it home until after 9:00 p.m. The cats and our dog were very happy to greet us.

While checking emails, late in the week, I thought I’d best open Facebook as I haven’t been on it in the past couple of days, and I found this published on Friday. I have been waiting to see the final product, as I knew she was planning to do a special slideshow. I have decided to put it at the end of the Ken Bevis show Wednesday night, because of the wildlife from Louisiana that’s in it. Don’t miss the first part with the swamp wildlife, and get some other beautiful urban scenery in New Orleans, LA and Houston, TX as well. Flowers and birds are included with reptiles, insects, food, history, scenery, and street life of the culture.
It’s from Evie Schuetz about her trip south, which some of you heard about in last week’s blog. Hers and Pete’s 20th anniversary was last Wednesday. They spent it in New Orleans and Houston. She has combined a few of her favorite photos from the trip, using the software PowerDirector to put it on YouTube.

Evie & Pete Schuetz’s Anniversary Trip Slideshow

Thursday, May 23

Today is the Kittitas Valley Fiddlers & Friends time to play at an assisted-living home, for the enjoyment of residents. I got there early and visited with residents Gloria, Shirli, Clare, Lillian, and Tom at Hearthstone. We had a crowd of players there: Anne, Charlotte, Sharon, Amy, Dean, me, Charlie, Evie, Gerald, Maury, and Marilyn. Then, I went by Fred Meyer afterward and bought some items on a special sale.

I spent lots of time transferring videos from camera to external drive and then to YouTube as “unlisted” (to view, a person must have the link).
Tonight’s sunset was full of pastels surrounded by stormy-looking clouds. This is just part of the view from our patio. Friday, May 24

John left at 7:35 a.m. for White Heron Cellars for a morning bottling effort – Rose’ of Syrah, 2018. It’s one of my favorite wines from White Heron Cellars, after Arvine and Roussanne.

Good they are inside, because the winds here are very high. It did not affect his driving over, but the wine and snacks after had to be inside.
Our gust of 30mph didn’t occur here until he should have been inside the winery. At 9:53 we experienced 35mph. John had no wind on his trip. It all remained in our valley and blew over much; empty garbage cans/lids are always subject to moving.

A little after 8:00 a.m. I had a call from my neighbor Louaine about one of our Tobiano horses that looked distressed in our lower pasture. Her handy man walked to the fence to check on him, as he had seen the horse swaying back and forth a few steps as if he was about to fall over. The horse moved over away from the fence and seemed okay. I called John and when he gets home, he will check on him. All seems to be well now and continued through the weekend. We are appreciative for extra eyes on our animals in the lower pasture out of our immediate view. They particularly hang out down there during windy days.

I have had 3 robocalls this morning, and after nothing was left on the message recorder, I blocked them. Nice feature of our new telephone system.

I’m spending time sending videos to YouTube (unlisted) for this week’s activities.

While I work, I have added putting dirty dishes into the dishwasher, so we have some utensils to use for this weekend. Also, need to make some phone calls about recurring charges needing changed. My day is full. I made the call to Office Depot technical support to cease our $15/month computer contract. It is going to take them until next week to sort out the problem as I’m not listed in the proper place in their system, even though I have an account number and have been paying since June 4, 2018. I finally found a manager named Christian, who will take care of finalizing my request.

Saturday, May 25

We went to the Ellensburg Community Clothing Center (ECCC) – and it was worth the time and effort. We primarily went to donate a large bag of clothes and decided to look around while there. I had no intention of bringing any more clothes home, because I don’t have time or places to hang what I have, and I’m still sorting through older larger clothes to get rid of.

The big find of the day was on the men’s side. There I found a pair of Brooks Addiction Walker shoes (black), which were in new condition. Size 8 (fits me because I wear women’s size 9.5). On the web or in a retail store, these cost $120. Also, saw a pair of size 16 dark purple jeans, and decided to get them because my size 18 lighter purple ones now need a belt to hold them up. These are Jordache and claim to be “super skinny.”
They fit but are so skinny at the ankle that I probably cannot turn them up to make a cuff, and so will get dog/cat hair off the rugs in our house, after dressing and making my way to the car.
I found out another problem when trying to take them off. I will need to have John handy to pull them down from the bottom at my ankle, while I hold my feet up. I’m still happy with my two free finds today at the clothing store. John found cute shoes for a baby, but the helper said ‘No could take’, because we don’t have a baby. I’ll alert someone.
Thrilled with my shoes and skinny jeans.

While in town, we went by Fred Meyer to take advantage of their lowered prices on pies and 2 liter colas. It was a mad house, because they had stacked the lanes with food that was to be put on shelves. We found a 6 ft. stack of ice cream that was going soft. Someone lost focus. I went and told a manager. We found what we needed and came on home. Maybe we should have offered to put it in the freezers for them.

Brunch was good, with eggs, home fries, cantaloupe, and sausage patties. I have been working on the blog and other pesky chores. Stopped to fix eggs.

John is out trying to photograph our CWURA award. It’s a difficult challenge, with the glass mirroring clouds, trees, and sky, and as you saw above, his own image while photographing.

Dinner was good tonight, including Lentil/vegetable soup, meat loaf, yellow & orange bell pepper slices, and one of John’s good “dessert-like” butternut squash with miniature marshmallows on top, roasted. The squash was from our garden. Pecan pie with vanilla ice cream ended our evening.

Sunday, May 26

It’s quite overcast today. Rained a little early on, but never as much as predicted. That seems to be the case across the entire State. 58°F seems to be the high for today. Wednesday we are expecting 20 degrees warmer. Hmmm?

John took the dog and cat out for a walk, and he weeded onions. He came back in and got things together for our brunch .

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan