http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/thumblarge_357/123290483458gZMl.jpg
Saturday, Mar 10. This turned into a nice day. John had all his and the neighbor’s regular animal chores, but he got them all done in time for us to leave right before 4:00 to go to Yakima for playing music at a fundraiser auction (silent and real) for the Riverside Christian School in Yakima. We got in return a really nice spread of food for musicians and spouses. John and I had a really nice visit on the way down and back. Midday I went to my neighbor’s to deliver a birthday cake (cobbler from our cherries & walnuts, and blueberries ) that we made last night. And, while there I changed the dressing on my neighbor’s toe operation. I will do it once a day till it heals completely. He gave me instructions and we did a nice job. Medical types had wanted people to come to Harborview for instruction. Can you imagine? That’s in Seattle. Over a mountain. Sort of like going to New York City for picante sauce
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSxnieYctVM
I told him I was willing to go to Ellensburg to a doctor’s office or to the hospital, but I was not driving all the way to Harborview to learn how to do something I could probably easily be coached by him. That’s what happened, after his nephew, the caregiver for the past couple of weeks, had to leave to start a new job.
Sunday, Mar 11. I slept in late, was invited to lunch, changed the foot dressing, helped fix, ate lunch and cleaned up, and got home late. John had taken 4 pictures at the auction last night of our music group, so I worked on getting them emailed to the participants, with thank you notes for last night, and watched a late afternoon snow storm. Talked to John’s sister tonight. Sadly Kathy had to return to the hospital, and is a very sick lady.
Monday, Mar 12. It’s snowing here but John took off for grapevine pruning anyway.
The weather is better there: 23 miles to the NE, 1,400 feet lower, and a 6,000 ft. ridge in between. I stayed up to clean up the kitchen and get ready to leave for helping my friend with the dressing on his foot, before I have to take off for town. I do plan to take in some cherries, blueberries and walnuts for our friends to make one of John’s Kittitas Downsideup Cobblers for a special dinner of ethnic foods. She figures that such a dish is appropriate for where she has lived for 1/4 century. I must also pick up my meds that I ran out of, or will tomorrow, and drop by the bank for some cash. John has found a source for the largest Honey Crisp apples you can imagine. They are the size of grapefruits and weigh about 16 to 20 ounces each. The larger ones are packed 9 to a flat, the smaller ones have 12, with a plastic liner and individual cups for each apple. He’s getting the box for $10 over in Quincy, from Double Diamond Fruit – a local company “storing, packing, and marketing apples, apricots, and cherries.” There was a school bus accident (turn over) and 39 kids injured on the road south of Quincy near where John turns off to go to the vineyard. The roads were dry. Driver drove off the edge, over-corrected, went over a short but steep gravel incline, and tipped onto its side.
http://www.kimatv.com/news/Dozen-kids-injured-in-school-bus-rollover-near-Quincy-142336575.html
It snowed here hard all morning (started after John was 10 minutes down the road, and lasted until I left at 12:25 to drive to town to deliver the fruit to a friend, go to the bank for cash, and to my exercise class. It wasn’t till I got to EBRG that the snow stopped. I had to clean it off both the windshield and the back one. Oh, had to put in a nursing bandage/dressing change on my neighbor’s foot that took over a half hour before I left for town. And, I picked up my meds before coming home. I was so tired that I laid down at 4:15 and slept for 3 hours. Guess I needed it. Spent the rest of the night eating a late dinner and proofing job application statements for a friend.
Tuesday, Mar 13 Another long day. Did not have to do bandage and dressing today. My “patient” went to his Dr. for an examination and they did it. Thankfully. Today I had to go by the vet to get a 3-month supply of Thyroid pills for Shay. Then off to Cle Elum for seeing my family physician, just for a follow-up. I drove through a snow storm almost the whole way there, and when I came out 50 minutes later, it was sunny and bright. My Dr. was positive that I looked better than ever, and was “back” to 100%. I don’t feel I’m quite there yet, but it was nice being complimented. I know I’m so much better. He said I didn’t need to check back with him till annual physical time in July. Certainly suits me. [John says: I put the “–”s around ‘back’ because the meaning is “about as good as you can expect to be with the heart you’ve got.”] Tonight was a dinner in town and playing at Hearthstone, so I didn’t get home till 8:00. I spent an hour on writing a letter of recommendation for a student to go to grad school. I last had him in classes in 2008, but I remember him well. He was a very good student. It’s cold outside–down to 31.5 .
Wednesday, Mar 14 We both took care of chores, and John left for pruning. At 11:30 I left for playing music at the “Soup” Kitchen, and on to exercise at 1:30, then home to work on taxes.
Thursday, Mar 15 — a slow start but busy ending with a little excitement thrown in. I got up quite early (still dark) with John and he had to go do all chores in the dark (the daylight savings time thing) to be able to leave earlier than normal to pick up one of the pruners. I decided to go back to sleep in my recliner and 15 minutes later my cell phone rang. I do not get reception in that part of the house so I had to walk back the entire length of our L-shaped house. It was the vineyard/winery owner, Cameron, calling to say if it was raining in EBRG, perhaps John didn’t need to make the trip over. I told him he’d already left 15 minutes prior, so he thanked me and hung up. I went back to the recliner and settled down under a blanket. I managed to go to sleep for the next couple of hours ! Cool.. I needed it. I didn’t have to go do the bandages this morning because my neighbor had an early a.m. appointment in town with his doctor. They put a bandage on when done. I worked on several chores, and ate some lunch (following on a late breakfast). Didn’t leave till about 1:00 to drop off some stuff on my way to play music at Dry Creek. Amazingly, we had 13 people there today. Wow.. and we had a great audience and one of them got up, took off her shoes and socks, and cut a rug . . .
http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/39/messages/462.html
. . . to Five Foot Two & Yes Sir That’s My Baby. It was neat. I wish I had had my camera. She was the Geography Secretary for 27 years at CWU. Toward the end of our playing, we played 5 Irish tunes, and it sounded pretty good for only doing it once a year. I called John from town to be sure he made it home okay. The weather turned sunny from blustery, very windy, and rainy when we started. I finished loading the dishwasher and sat down with my computer. Just as I was ready to send off some pictures to one of the couples at the Yakima gig, last Saturday, and John was out feeding our horses, I heard a loud cat scream and looked out to see Rascal being attacked by Big Sue (the old yellow cat). She had him on the ground rolling around, and I ran out the back door, screaming at the top of my lungs. It broke them up and she went out around the back of Jay’s Folly, … [“folly”: a pond with almost no water and lots of brush; a relic of the prior owner hoping to store water for late season irrigation; bottom is cobbles and sand so for water storage it works about as well as a colander:]
http://www.hostalibrary.org/seed/indoors/colander.jpg
… and Rascal ran around the back of the fence and jumped up a fence post and ran in the open patio door. I followed him in, and he went back to the guest bedroom up by the window at the front of the house. I was talking with him and decided he was not hurt, when John walked in the back door, asking where we were. He had been at the barn and heard the cat fight screams and my yelling. Rascal is okay, but I’m not happy.
Friday, Mar 16 I stayed and slept in, but then had to go eat at a scholarship luncheon. It was a full table of food, and good because I never had breakfast, except a cup of coffee to warm up. Two ladies put it on and had large cookies from Vinmans Bakery,… [well regarded for miles around, pricey (not for the faint of wallet), minimal WEB site:] http://vinmansbakery.com/ … a loaf of bread, rolls, butter, a nice salad, and a Crock-pot of spaghetti in cheese sauce with red peppers. From there I went to the activity center to pick up my 86 yr old friend to give her a ride home. We did not have exercise today because a group was working on pine needle basket weaving. Here’s a photo of the unassembled product: http://www.needlebasket.com/images/longleaf_pine.jpg
I picked up a 5 grain bread loaf that was being given away – having been donated on its “use by date” by a well known grocery chain.
Saturday, Mar 17 Another crazy one, started at 2:15 a.m. with a cat fight outside. It woke me up and I jumped out and ran to the back door, yelling, but never saw the combatants. John walked out without trousers but with slippers and flashlight (aka a torch) and found nothing. (British) English Translated For Americans:
http://www.uta.fi/FAST/US1/REF/engtran.html
I went back to the guest bedroom, and Rascal was up on his perch, so I ran back outside to tell John I had found him. He stayed in the rest of the night. Normally he leaves about 4 or 5 but it started snowing at 2:30 and continued till 7:00 and measured up to 4 inches. It was wet snow. Then it was quiet and the sun shone a little, but at 10:00 a.m. it started snowing BIG huge flakes again and went on for 45 minutes. Very interesting. I went over and did my neighbor’s foot bandage at 10:45 and then came home to work on a letter of recommendation. Then John took a nap and got up & put on his awesome (yard sale) Irish Claddagh sweater with the pattern in green, gold, purple, and black on white . . .
http://www.carvinginnyc.com/claddagh.htm
It stays in a safe place and he only wears it occasionally. Everyone always loves it. Today was special, because he wore it to the celebration where we were playing music, and several Irish tunes. He got up and modeled it.. and everyone cheered. Then at the end we played Irish Washerwoman and he came to the front and did a little Irish jig. Everyone was impressed. A lady got up to dance too, but he went and sat down. They had a nice meal for us, so I didn’t need to eat any dinner. There were little corned beef sandwiches with a piece of lettuce, potato salad, slaw, and a fluffy green fruit salad. There were desserts too, but I only had one sugar cookie with green frosting. Tonight we had a piece of John’s “brownie” cake for dessert.
Sunday, Mar 18, will start with John doing horse feeding chores for us and for the neighbor’s 10 horses. Just after lunch we will drive to the Bluegrass Jam Session at the Swauk-Teanaway Grange about 30 minutes up the road (in good weather).
Hope your week was a good one.
Nancy and John
still on the Naneum Fan