Sunday, May 20 John started the day with many chores (usual and different). His major different one was spraying two gallons of Weed-B-Gon around the yard. Of course, there was a sprinkle, but hopefully not enough to strip off the stuff. I spent about 20 minutes on the phone with a 52-year-old cousin from my GA days. He has worked many years for Shell Oil, most recently spending 5 years on Sakhalin Island, Russia, north of Japan. Now he and his wife (she doesn’t work for Shell) have been transferred to Kazakhstan since January to a little northern city above the Caspian Sea, below sea level! He is back visiting in Austin, TX with his two sons, 32 and 23. One is an electrical engineer and just finished college, and the other is a corporate attorney, with two children. John is my cousin’s name, and he is the youngest son of my mom’s youngest sister, Mary, who stayed with my parents the first 6 years of their marriage. My mom called me Mary most of my life, so I grew up answering to both names. Today we went to a birthday lunch at our neighbors. We had roast beef, salad, blueberry muffins, and carrots, with peanut butter pie for dessert. Boy it was good. Then came home and found the next chapter of our feral cat story. An orange male cat is recuperating from his neutering, still in our house. His mom (orange) and sister (dark brown & black) are back outside all spayed and healed. John is still putting food out for them. This afternoon I was talking on the phone, looked out, and saw 3 cats, two orange ones. What a surprise! They all three went happily into the hayloft and were eating and drinking together. We don’t know where that extra orange cat came from. Therefore, we will have to trap it and take it to the vet. We also don’t know if the one we captured actually was the yearling who has been around here; could be that it is the one we still need to capture. I suppose we are helping with the cat population increase in our neighborhood.
Monday, May 21 Started the morning with a big rainstorm while John was exercising the dogs. He had already fed the neighbors’ horses, and moved ours to the upper “pasture.” I called the vet to see if it would be all right to release the neutered cat, and we managed to do that chore. The rain had stopped before John carried him out in a dog crate to the hayshed. Just had finished, when his sister Peggy called about having a portable keyboard with 26 keys that you make play by blowing in it. That should be helpful for lungs. It is a Hohner Melodica (German made), in a case. She wondered if I would like to add it to our music collection. She’s going to check into the shipping costs via UPS.
We think we neutered another cat from our neighborhood, not one of Sue’s. He is a very noisy/vocal cat. Now we see the yearling back running around with our Woody who along with her mother was spayed. So, I paid $ to neuter a neighborhood cat ! At least he won’t father any more kittens. Now we have to catch the orange one we have fed all winter, Little Sioux.
Tuesday, May 22 Yikes, I was swamped today even after awaking early with a good night’s sleep not interrupted with howling cats. I went to town stopping at the old building where I last had an office before moving to the new building in 2008, and I got a mouse to replace the one that died on my computer. While there, I turned in my old Mac Book laptop that died in January for them to destroy. Gave the cords and power supply to my geography colleague who got her Mac Book the same time I did in 2007. Then met her and the candidate for a geography job for lunch at the Soup Bowl, across the street from my bank, where I parked in their lot. I had a half tuna/egg salad sandwich and a small bowl of tomato/roasted garlic soup. I was worried about the garlic, so they let me taste it and it was fine. From there I went to the music store to pick up my microphone (but they hadn’t been able to fix it). While there, however, the luthier and electronic expert explained what was wrong, and how if I found a working mic I could use the parts of mine. Also, I asked him a question about the tuner I bought for John a few days previously, and he showed me better how to use it. I had had trouble tuning two of the strings on John’s guitar. Meanwhile, my friend who bought the microphone and stand at the surplus sale called home and John answered. He told him where I was having lunch. It was about 3 blocks from his house, so he brought me the microphone he had donated to his church and they weren’t using. He walked into the restaurant and handed it to me! Wow. It was free, and he gave me the connector cord to hook to the amplifier he also gave me earlier. I will take it tomorrow to the Food Bank to help project our voices. Then I returned to the parking lot outside Dean Hall to wait for the talk at 2:00, but it was raining hard. I just sat in my car and made some calls on my cell phone. It stopped raining long enough for me to go in the building (I didn’t have an umbrella along or in the car).
John says the unfixed cat is sleeping in our old camper out in the yard behind the shed where I park. I had seen a yellow cat there (on the ground) yesterday. All 3 fixed cats were happily eating in the haymow this morning. We got the binoculars to check their clipped ears. All were clipped, so, I guess the new cat, Cashew, has decided to stick around. Perhaps he’s been around all the time, but we have never seen but two orange cats at one time.
The annular solar eclipse was not visible from here. The best views were from Utah, in a little small town with few services where 2000 photographers showed up. We had friends also on the edge of it in CA who went with their physicist friend to photograph the eclipse through a telescope, but they were off center there, and they only got crescent shaped images not a ring. Still, I suppose it would be neat to view, considering it won’t happen again till 2023.
Wednesday, May 23 Today was another really full day. Got my microphone, cord, extension cord and amplifier together and took it to the Food Bank to set up for the two of us to use. It was a lot of carting in and out stuff, but it worked well.
Then on to exercise, and to a thesis defense at 3:00 of a former graduate student assistant of mine, finally ending with a 4:00 talk by a candidate for the chair of geography.
Thursday, May 24 It has been another crazy day. John went with me to lunch in Kittitas (10 miles from our home). We met 7 riders from the trail riders club who made the trip on horseback, along the John Wayne Pioneer Trail, from Ellensburg, to Kittitas, and another 6 of us used car horsepower to get there. I had my favorite Taco Salad (minus olives, substituting tomatoes), and John had a Taco burger, but it was nothing like he expected. He should have had Tacos or a regular hamburger with fries. It was not a burger, but some of the meat sauce from a taco, spread on a hamburger bun with shredded lettuce and a little tomato! Then he dropped me off at the post office to mail my broken Toshiba mini mouse to CA for a replacement. This mornng I finally got the paperwork for the invoice I needed from Toshiba Direct after 45 minutes on the phone going from person to person. They would not accept the Order Status from their own web page, even though it had all the information on it. We tried using the post office in Kittitas, but it was still closed over the noon hour at 1:05. So drove to EBRG to the post office and got it sent off before John took me on to Hearthstone Cottages to entertain with our music group.
While I was playing music, he went shopping and got lots of good stuff for much marked down prices. Butter, frozen dinners, soft drinks, low salt potato chips, chicken, and something else. The receipt claims we saved $30.37, but that’s actually not true, because we wouldn’t buy them at the higher price! He came back as we were finishing and they gave us tea and cookies. I grabbed four cookies (3 peanut butter & one shortbread type) and brought them home. I ate most of them, but John had a part of one and also warmed a donut I brought home yesterday.
We needed to stop by the hospital for a blood draw for my INR test. That we did, and it shocked me to walk into the main front desk and be called by name. Hi Nancy=from one of the guys who has worked there a long while. That’s when you know you have been at that hospital TOO many times. One has to check in to be recognized and get a paper to take to whatever department you are going: Imaging, lab, outpatient services, or the pulmonary unit. They always need your birth date and to check your family physician or the doctor requesting the work, plus ask if anything has changed. I know all the questions so I just sit down and give the answers before they have to ask.
John has been considering driving 20 miles past Stevens Pass to do some trail work in the Foss Creek watershed, a place where he worked last year. In our 2011 greetings, there is a picture of him there on a bridge and also one of a huge fir tree, which they cleared trail around. He told me I should charge up my computer battery and drive along with him. I was seriously considering it. It is very pretty country up there, and the only reason for staying home is to clean stacks of boxes, and who wants to do that ? He came in awhile ago when it started raining (now the sun is out) and he is back out planting yellow bean seeds he got today. I cannot eat dark green veggies, but yellow should be all right, yes? I told him I was considering going along, but he said that really wasn’t a great idea, because it was 20 miles from the ranger station with restrooms. Okay.. I won’t go. Later, he decided they no longer needed Assistant Crew Leaders, so he wouldn’t make the trip this time. He’s got enough brush removal and fence building to do around our place.
Friday, May 25 This morning early, I got a call from my doctor’s office that my INR was 2.1. That’s a good thing. Maybe it has stabilized again. I hope so. It’s nice not to have a blood draw but once a month rather than 2-3 times. Only problem with the next one, will be that it will be while I’m in Georgia. I’ll wait until I return. Yesterday they wanted to prick my finger, but I prefer blood draws to that. It affects my playing the violin. Today was an interesting day. I called about dental insurance, after chewing off my enamel cusp from my upper tooth last night. I have been considering buying the insurance while it is still the month of May, so that it will pay for my work in June (cleaning is all that was planned, but now I have to have this tooth fixed). I headed out for lunch and exercise picking up my 87-yr-old friend, Lois. We went to the luncheon. It was neat with table clothes and cloth napkins. They fed us fried fish (first time in a LONG time I have had tartar sauce), Cole slaw, a large flat hushpuppy that looked like a pancake (strange with no butter or honey), potato wedge, and a chocolate mousse for dessert. They served ice water and coffee or tea.
From there we drove to exercise and had a hard workout. Then I drove Lois to Fred Meyer for her to pick up some necessities for the long weekend. She will have to fend for herself because the bus (Hope Source) to pick up people in town doesn’t operate on weekends or holidays, and the Senior Center where she eats Monday lunch will be closed for the holiday. She asked me to help her read her meter on the propane tank. I opened it and screamed because there was an active wasp nest with 3 wasps I saw, before slamming it shut. She will get her son to come over (he lives next door), and bring a spray to kill them and then read her meter.
Once home, I walked around the yard with John and the dogs, and petted ALL the horses (except Ebony who must have been somewhere else in the pasture). We didn’t succeed in capturing the orange cat last night. Now there is a holiday and we have an appt for next Tuesday. Cashew is sticking around and is good friends with Rascal, sharing canned food, and the cat house, as well as playing together in the yard. Woody has gone back to buddying up with Little Sioux around the camper in the front yard. They do come back to the hay loft to eat, but I think John will move the trap out to the area around the camper. Our weather today was in the high 60s and pretty nice, with a cooling wind. John also showed me around the garden(s): reviewing his blueberry plants, the yellow bean seeds he planted today, the asparagus coming up, the strawberries (blooming nicely), but all his squash and tomato seeds he planted into little boxes did not make it. Also, he showed me the yellow (Anne) raspberries he planted. We walked up to get the paper, and he showed me where our Rocky Mt. Maple trees and Rose of Sharons (Althea) had died. The latter were never strong and seemed to dessicate. Previous winter we covered them with snow but this past winter there was never enough snow to do that. A couple of the maples lost all their leaves to frost and another couple may make enough new leaves to survive. If they survive through next spring they might become established. They are common in other parts of the county – just not here.
Saturday, May 26 I started out early this morning (8:00 a.m.) logged into an online real-time streamed video from Ohio, by Christian Howes about techniques of playing the violin using different ways to improvise and complement group playing. I watched it for almost two hours. I learned a lot, but I did not have an easy way of showing it on a screen and also playing along on my violin. During the time, he talked about his website and a workshop he does each year in Columbus, OH, and about his Creative Strings Academy on line, for learning all sorts of string musical things. He mentioned at one point how a person could subscribe for 3 free days on the site that costs $30/month minimum to participate. Perhaps one day I will feel comfortable enough (I doubt it) to go to his summer workshop in Ohio, for a week in June. For adults it costs $750, so I think at my age and condition, I’d be better off to subscribe to the on line version that’s $29.95/month. I believe the workshop is mostly for kids, in fact, for kids it is only $159 for the week. There they study improvisation, composition, and non-classical styles in an experiential learning context through the week long workshop. The folks registered work with world class artists every day learning RnB, bluegrass, freely improvised music, and others. (description from his website, http://christianhowes.com/ ).
After watching the lesson this morning, I wrote Chris a thank you note and requested a copy of his Harmony Handbook which members of his Creative Strings Academy receive. He sent me the link to download a .pdf file, and I have done that. Now I have something to work on that will assist me in playing with the groups I do. Also, our Washington Old Time Fiddlers Association (WOTFA) week-long workshop 10 miles from home for $100/student seems a better summer alternative for me.
If you are interested in seeing his online US-streamed videos, follow this link, and look for “So you want to play fast?!.” There are 3 other videos there. He does one of these every month for the public.
https://www.facebook.com/christianhowesviolinist/app_196506863720166
All of the ferals (well, 3 of them) were with Rascal in the haymow this morning. After lunch, we had a little excitement when Rascal brought a small snake onto the back patio. So that it didn’t end up in our hallway, John put on a glove and retrieved it, throwing it over the back fence into more suitable habitat. If it wasn’t too injured, it will survive. Now we are resting again, and plan to talk to John’s sister tonight. We had a nice conversation with Peggy and caught up on all the happenings in her life, and we reported on ours. Then we walked up the drive for the mail and for John to show me the pollen cones or “flowers” on the different pines. This link has some examples but ours are not included:
http://www.growsonyou.com/bluespruce/blog/7837-conifer-cones-flowers-yes-flowers
We can take some pictures of the unusual purple and yellow colors and link to them for next week.
Hope your week was a good one.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan