Saturday, Feb 18. This morning started out snowing heavily, at 7:30 a.m., but has decreased. John walked over to do the chores for the neighbors, and came back and completed those around our place. The emails and phones started early. Because of the weather, our Bluegrass Jam session tomorrow in the upper valley has been cancelled. Two older members of our Fiddlers and Friends group have cancelled out our performance this afternoon at the Spirit of the West. I’ll end up being the only singer, so we may have more audience participation or more instrumentals than usual. John is going along to drop me off and find a parking space, and also will take along his camera. We went and got there early but found out soon that we didn’t have 15 minutes (that we planned for, but instead, only seven. We did three short ones (Home on the Range, You Are My Sunshine, and Snow Deer). Then in the other smaller subset of the group, we did only two songs, including a medley of 3 (Rakes of Mallow, Cotton-eyed Joe, & Skip To My Lou) plus Faded Love.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rakes_of_Mallow
Even though we felt it wasn’t our best performance, many people I knew there and some I didn’t said we sounded fine and as if we enjoyed what we were doing. Normally, we do. We were just a bit on edge because of differences in our normal program, and also because of the setup on stage with unbalanced microphones. We are not used to performing that way, at all. We had 3 fiddlers standing out front and a row behind, sitting, (except for the bass player), two guitars, clarinet and another fiddler. The bad part was unbalanced microphones.
Happily, John went and got a turkey wrap sandwich that we shared for lunch. I ate it between the times we were on the stage. They had lots of food at the grounds, but that was best, and most healthy, no doubt. John took some pictures of our group performing, but it was difficult to capture all of us. The front row blocked the 5 on the back row, and in addition the microphones got in the way.
Sunday, Feb 19. Whoopie.. no trips away from home today. There are plenty of things to keep us busy, without leaving the house. I managed to do a lot of computer stuff and John did all the chores. I cut his hair. It was much needed. My cold started getting worse.
Monday, Feb 20. Presidents’ Holiday, so no mail today and no SAIL class. The AAC is closed. Started off with snow and my cold is worse. Cancelled out things for tomorrow to get well. John’s done all the chores, and I have been working on the computer and on upcoming event planning. Always something. I put some more music into SongWriter, and transposed it for our clarinet player.
Tuesday, Feb 21. Sadly, I’m still ill. I was in really bad shape all Sunday and Monday, most recently with coughing till my insides ache. Last night I had a coughing session after going to bed that alarmed John. I know he was ready to take me to the hospital and thought he’d have too. I too was concerned, but finally it stopped. I’m still sucking on cough suppressants and coughing up phlegm. Talked to my doctor yesterday and he said I could not take any OTC cold remedies because of the meds I’m on. I sorta figured that & had not. I cancelled all events for today and for tomorrow too. I’m surely glad I am not teaching. There’s no way I could be in class in this condition. Yes, we both had our flu shots.
Wednesday, Feb 22 Rained ALL night and then this morning it snowed, then the sun came out and then it snowed again, and now the sun is out and it rained some more. Variable weather for sure. Because I’m still sick, I did not do the 11:30 Mardi Gras party at AAC, chili / cornbread feed free or exercise class at 1:30. John went to town today to get me some saline solution (a kit with a little applicator pot & 50 packets), Vick’s Vaporub, and Benadryl for my symptoms. Last night I couldn’t breathe so I used an inhaler. It helped a little.
Thanks to Tuesday Bosch (pharmacist and member of our music group) for making the suggestion of the saline spray and vaporub. My family physician & nurse also recommended that to me (the saline solution ), but only gave me the recipe and I didn’t try it because I didn’t know how and didn’t have a dispenser to put up my nostrils. Just for the record, John found a deal: He bought the Arm & Hammer Simply Saline plus Neti Pot Kit for $13.78, with a little green FREE announcement taped to the outside of the box. So we get a complete refund if we go through all the hoops – we have to send in the original receipt and the BAR CODE from the package, and 3 petals each from 3 different colored roses. Just kidding about the roses. Any flower will do. Okay, that’s not true either. It has been a blessing to have that treatment added to deal with the bacteria in my system.
Thursday, Feb 23 There was 2:00 p.m. music at Hearthstone but I canceled. 7 people showed up to carry it off well. I must get rid of this rattle when I exhale. It’s driving me nuts. Awoke this morning with gobs of green phlegm. Emailed my Dr., and his nurse called to say he couldn’t put me on the Z-pack Antibiotic from Oct 2010, because it conflicts with Coumadin and especially Amiodarone. [long link – hope it works]:
I was not on that drug when it was last prescribed for the same condition. He sent in a prescription instead for Amoxicillin. Three/day for 10 days. Nice and that saved John a trip to town today, because we have some of it on hand (from my having to use it before dental work). John exercised the dogs and fed all sets of horses today 3 places across the road and ours here. I have been working this afternoon on editing (second time through) a Master’s Thesis for our Resource Management graduate program. The topic is identifying and prediction of gully erosion on the Yakima Training Center south of Ellensburg, and the major method used is LiDAR and GIS. LiDAR is a very precise measurement of elevation from a technology that’s been around for awhile, but with new remote sensing technology and laser devices, it has gotten a little more affordable.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakima_Training_Center
[enter these coordinates in Google Earth: 46.6672, -120.4606 , then back out far enough to see Ellensburg. Average precipitation is about 7 inches. The green areas are irrigated. Roads and associated military maneuver disturbances concentrate the flow on this dry landscape.]
Friday, Feb 24. canceled 11:00 appt, a scholarship luncheon and exercise today. I’m still exhaling and getting a gurgle which is annoying, but happily I’m still getting rid of phlegm. Worked on kitchen cleanup but need to finish it. John’s been outside most of the afternoon working on yard or animal chores. I also spent a lot of time on the phone with my medical insurance provider trying to figure out why my bills are so different from last year’s. They have an accounting process all their own and clerks working for them who cannot explain properly what is happening. It is so frustrating.
Saturday, Feb 25. Nothing for the day. Been sitting at the computer much of the day. Occasionally checking the road cameras for the snow storm in the Cascades. We are dry but windy with cold following. There were 4 deaths from avalanches this week and might have been double that except for a few feet and/or seconds difference for those that escaped. Also, I’m helping a friend who plans to come from the west side (Olympic peninsula) to visit 4 year universities. She’s teaching in a 2 year community college. Now I must get back to the thesis editing. John left over an hour ago to move some large green corral panels to extend the size of the pens two stallions are in and a bull. A fast melt, wet snow, and a little rain and the mud expanded exponentially. He managed to get the two stallions in a larger pen, and the bull too, by inserting new panels. That’s nice. Now all three animals have a space to move up out of the muck. That is the best news of the day. John had planned to make a meatloaf tonight but that operation on rebuilding the pens took too much time, so we just had some frozen leftovers of noodles and spaghetti sauce.
Hope your week was a good one.
Nancy and John
still on the Naneum Fan