Keeping track

Monday, Dec 14

Starting Christmas a little over a week early, for our blog.
First stops are in Roslyn, WA in the north part of our county.Top pix is snow on the Roslyn Museum and the Roslyn Café.
The bottom are the street signs; photos by EvieMae Schuetz.
(This is the town where outside scenes of the TV program “Northern Exposure” {1990-1995} were filmed.)

Morning wake-up not for Nancy until 8:30 a.m. Then cup of coffee and chocolate Ensure with strawberry yogurt.

I sent thank you email messages to people who gave me permission to use their photo in our weekly blog last week. My note to them always starts with the specific location on the web where the photograph taken may be forever found.

The total number of robocaller connections for Dec 4=3.

Tuesday, Dec 15

Motorized Parade, Kittitas, WA – by, EvieMae Schuetz

Sorry, I intended to have the longer 18 wheeler & hay truck be the longer photos, but I failed in positioning, & ran out of time.

Get up early to take pill, and drink ½ hr. later, shake, coffee. We need to be at our first two stops before noon.
Set up my external storage back-up for its noon start. It did it in 26 minutes.

We left for the AAC for our Foot care appointments at 11:00, getting there 10 min early, and mine was first. John was to follow. We visited a little, were given too many bags of homemade cookies, and we gave the staff some SUN*MAID Raisins Boxes. With almost no visitors to the Center, the normal supply of cookies had trouble finding homes. We paid our donation fee, and Shyla started on my feet. I was done about 11:30 so I left for my blood draws at the KVH Medical Arts building, and while it took a little longer than usual, I was back by noon, John had only to wait 2 minutes.

This is our day for errands, (some already above & below) and we had many; review here. We’re using this symbol to indicate stops: ∞∫∞ On way to town, we stopped along Wilson Creek to hang a bag on an old Pickup Truck: Rustler Jeans (too long for John) ∞∫∞ John wants to take our insulated shopping bag by Winegar’s for quarts of their Ice Cream he and I like. We did, but he sat in the car while I went inside for it. ∞∫∞ Nancy went into Bi-Mart to check numbers, and to buy a large wall/desktop calendar for our kitchen. ∞∫∞ Delivered boxes of groceries we get from the free food place. We take to one place, and she distributes further.

Late afternoon check in call from Gerald; he’s fine.
The total number of robocaller connections: Dec 15=1.
Much fewer than in late November; prior to election.

Wednesday, Dec 16

Christmas lights – ’cause I won’t do this again until the 27th.

^^^This is actually a School District in Utah! Description of how they did it: Shot in one continuous take where all 5 busses are electronically connected together through DMX channel relay boards back to a central computer programmed to control the light show.
They wrote: Special thanks to our Transportation Department, Technology Department and Communications Department and the Utah Symphony Orchestra who made this video possible.

The next video is fixed in a loop, so only watch it for once through, 2:07.School Bus Christmas Light Show video below:

School Bus Christmas Light Show (in loop)

Another restless night, probably because of getting to bed so late, nearly midnight. After being awakened at 7:00 by a Contractor’s employee knocking on the front window to pick up some primer paint. It sat outside for months; John moved it inside when he expected below freezing temperature.

He passed along to expect two in the next morning be back tomorrow to finish the top and end of the stone walls. John and Walter (finally) figured out how they want this done. A 12 inch Cedar board is the solution. Photo next week. An original thought was to cap them with metal roofing-like material. There was a long interlude to develop a different solution.

A lot of wasted time today. I slept in until almost 9:00.
I had to fill in all my medications in my case for the week, and check about some other, also had to check all refills from which pharmacy, and be sure they were correct to give to our P-AC to send approvals for the coming year. We get 90 days at a time. I filled in a separate listing for John and for me, because we may go different directions. Two nurses, different rooms to start. Chelsea, our PA-C “doc”, visited with John and then they both came in for my evaluation (actually, these visits described today will happen tomorrow in Cle Elum, at our doctor’s office there).

John’s now taken care of cat cleanup, feeding, and visiting in the new room, and feeding the horses. I’ve been catching up on emails, and other computer activities.
Started raining today.

Supper: John fixed Pizza for both of us. For dessert, we shared a piece of carrot cake.
Number of robocaller connections for Dec 16=1.

Thursday, Dec 17

9:33 a.m. call from Gerald; foggy over there, otherwise all is well in Thorp, WA.

Ate a piece of fruitcake and fixed a salad for my lunch to eat; planning on a Zoom game. I cancelled that at the AAC with 5 others, and it is Scattergories. I enjoy that game, but I had too much paperwork to document about the problem with my diagnosis from a blood draw of Potassium (K) that indicated I have a seriously high level.

John and I investigated the K in my regular foods. Only the Ensure® seems high.
I’m dressed and ready to leave for Cle Elum at 1:00 p.m.

Once there, Chelsea decided to manage the K with medication changes first, and take me off of Ensure because of its 470 mg/serving), but that was the only food change. I’m also being taken off the drug Spironolactone. We didn’t get home until 6:04 p.m.

The total number of robocaller connections for Dec 17=2.

Friday, Dec 18

A week away from Christmas Day, our last Christmas photos to show again by our same photographer, EvieMae Schuetz.
These are all in her home:Our photographer EvieMae Schuetz is a musician. She created this Musical Christmas Tree. All the ornaments are musical notes, instruments, or something associated with a musical part of her life.

Today begins with a message back from our friend Cameron Fries’ photo of the newly installed roll bar on the backhoe/front end loader. John wanted to add a roll bar before we had it taken over, where sandy soil and frequent steep grades could be an issue. Local shop couldn’t find one. A Quincy area shop found one. Much more something found in that sort of farming region. More fruit and fewer cattle.

Our property is totally on an Alluvial Fan, full of heavy basalt rocks and little dirt. This implement is too lightweight to handle such, but will be perfect in moving the sands of the vineyard:Photo of roll bar taken by White Heron Cellars, Mariposa Vineyard owner, Cameron Fries. He’s taken the backhoe off and is using the front loader. We’ve got rocks. He’s got sand – courtesy of massive floods 15,000 years ago.

We left our house about 12:20 to go to the Kittitas Post Office to mail a large envelope to our sister Peggy, in OH. Stopped off at a friend’s house there to pick up a cat scratching post. A woman took it there for us, saving us the drive across the valley in a direction we rarely go.

Gifted post photographed & given by Rachael Brunson. THANK YOU!

The cats have it in their room, but we haven’t yet seen them use it. It’s 16 inches tall.

From Kittitas to EBRG to drop off now taboo Ensure and pick up a pillow and an egg-carton foam pad for a in a pillow case in the seat of my recliner, at Hospice Friends. Onto Safeway Pharmacy to buy my Coumadin pills. From there, for John to pick up his 2 medications from Fred Meyer Pharmacy. Using gasoline to save money on the meds.

At 5:52 my blood pressure is: 127 / 73 pulse 72. I’ve been soaking dishes and need to load the dishwasher. Done.

Supper: beef sirloin tip roast fried, French fried onion rings, pork & beans, canned pears. I had one Reese’s Peanut butter cup.

John finished his Friday weekly blog, Not so Nasty News.

The total number of robocaller connections for Dec 18=1.

Saturday, Dec 19

We both slept in long this morning, I longer than John. I didn’t get to sleep until after 2:00 am. after going to bed at 11:15 p.m. Not sure why my Friday nights are always becoming restless nights, that screw up my ability to get to sleep and make it imperative I always set up all the proper parts of my recording devices for my ICD measurements every time I’m out of bed and back in again. Guess I’ll also have to insert an afternoon nap into today’s schedule.

Brunch: John fixed bacon, blueberry pancake (high on the blueberries), a bowl of canned peaches, with PowerAde (strawberry – lemonade flavor).

John went out to shovel horse manure into the back of his pickup truck, to take another load over to deliver to Cameron at the Mariposa vineyard. He got in about an hour’s work before rain started. It has continued throughout the day and still is falling tonight at 8:00 p.m. It is noisy on the skylights.

Supper: John, again, made sliced and fried sirloin-tip beef roast, with hashed brown large potato patties, canned small beets, plus his own homegrown fried purple onions. Dessert we are eating now, ice cream. He is having Vanilla ice cream topped with melted Chocolate chips fixed so it doesn’t harden. I’m having Winegar’s special homemade ice cream from Ellensburg, flavor: Kookie Kayla – a Vanilla base with Peanut butter, sea salt cookie and fudge swirl. Kayla is part of the Winegar clan, and clerks at the ice cream counter, and explained “her flavor.”

History: Winegar Dairy Farm (with Holsteins) began a dairy in 1956. The kids suggested started the business of the coffee / creamery. Now, grandchildren are involved, with at least 4 generations. A lot more history with photos can be found on their website, along with their menu. It is expensive, but we were given a gift card.

The total number of robocaller connections for Dec 19=0.

Sunday, Dec 20

Thankfully, it stopped raining. It rained all night and into the morning hours. Not real hard, but rain nonetheless.

Awoke at 8:15, a.m. and John also and took care of things for him and the cats. My first cup of coffee and computer startup at 9:00 a.m. Various interruptions kept me from doing some of the things I wanted to do. Maybe Monday.

We called our cousin (age 103) in PA this afternoon at 2:30 p.m. to check-in how she’s doing at her young age; what a gift she’s given us to live so long with a clear memory to be able to share family members’ past. She’s quite the resource. We had a nice 35 min conversation, and she remembered another recent place, company and a sign from near Clarion. John wanted to know if his sister remembered a sign with a saying on a lumber company.
When John realized he quoted the wrong saying, and talked to Ethel about it, things got cleared up. The sign was:
“If you can’t stop, then smile, when you drive by.”
Ethel knew the name – Fulton Lumber – and the name of one of the workers. He moved into a new house – on the street John and Peggy lived on – and had kids that Peggy did sitting for. That’s 65 or so years ago.
John’s original and wrong saying:
“There is no place like this place, anywhere near this place,
so this must be the place.”
So says this building in Texola, OK – – John has never been there and can’t recall why he knows this catchy saying. Full wording is on the right – not readable in this view.

The total number of robocaller connections for Dec 20=0.

Supper: Roast chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy, and last of the beets.
Apple pie in the oven.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Item #1: Did you get whacked?

A sign with this list appeared:
. . I’m a – –
Wooden Spoon,
Lead Paint,
No car seat,
No bike helmet,
Bed of pickup riding,
Garden hose drinking,
. . SURVIVOR.

If I understand the first one – wooden spoon – to mean getting whacked by mother, I’d have to substitute something else; or maybe I just don’t remember.
Now this: The image is of a spoon. Is it a “wood” or a “wooden” spoon? If I write – silver spoon, or silvered spoon – there seems to be a difference. The “ed” on the end changes the meaning. But the “en” on the end of wood seems to make no difference. If you get whacked by one, you’ll not notice either.
“Wool” works the same way: A sweater might be called wool or woolen. If you have a cotton sweater, you don’t call it cottonen. Still you can call a silk garment silken. But does “silken” imply it is like silk, but really isn’t? Consider gold and golden.
More word stuff will follow.

Item #2: White in the air

I followed this link:
Skagit Valley winter home

It is interesting, but the article included this statement:
“A couple of great places to begin when searching for the birds are within the Skagit Wildlife Area, run by the Washington Trails Association. ”
So I wrote WTA’s HR & Finance Manager and friend Kara:
Makes me wonder what else WTA does that I’ve never heard about.
Her answer:
“haha. that is pretty funny. no wonder we are feeling so stretched thin around here.”

The ‘Seattle Refined’ contributors are short a brick or two of a full load.

Item #3: Rawl

An activity this week involved a couple of other of the pending home projects. One of these introduced a new word, namely ‘rawl’. I wanted a 2nd post in the front, an unnecessary addition where the new covered ramped walkway turns and comes to the front door. We had replaced the original 4×4 post with a 6×6; matching the big posts of the walkway. I thought a second post would add a decorative harmonious touch. I do have in mind some sort of functional use, but that is not relevant at the moment.
In any case, this post needed to be set on existing concrete, thus requiring a wood-to-concrete base. The metal base is anchored to the concrete with a bolt that goes through the base, into a hole, and has an in-hole part that expands. The apparatus is often called a throughbolt because the bolt part goes through the base or fixture.
As a man once intoned – Here’s the rest of the story:
{ from Wikipedia }
Rawlings Brothers, a small plumbing and electrical engineering company, was founded in 1887 in London. In 1910, the company was awarded a contract by the British Museum, which required them to unobtrusively fix electrical fittings to the museum walls. The contract led to the invention and patenting of the world’s first wall plug, which became a standard solution for attaching things to walls. John Joseph Rawlings, who is credited with invention of the wall plug, named his product Rawlplug, using the first syllable of his last name, and renamed his business to Rawlplug in 1919.
Walter, our contractor said to Nancy – We need a rawl. That wasn’t in her in-house dictionary, nor mine, nor in fact my computer’s.
Now fixed.

Item #4: more word usage

Sometimes it is just that the wrong word is used. For instance, in the image below, top left the word “common” seems to be better than ‘popular’. On the right, “slow down” would be better. Youngsters often are quick and change direction at random. Old farts are slow.
The bottom left one is cute; shows someone knows how to use words. The other 3 are just silly, and could have been corrected easily.

Item #5: Moving Woody inside Woody’s favorite place in her new home.

We made a deal with our neighborhood contractor regarding several projects of home repair and remodeling. The remodel – new room – of the double garage was priority #1. That’s long since been done and I’m using it daily; now with the addition of Sue and Woody (mother and daughter feral cats). Mother Sue shows signs of aging and her coat started to tangle, so not fluffy as needed for heat retention. About a month ago I carried her into the new space with all the necessary items. I had picked her up many times, then sat her back at the food bowl. Picking her up and carrying her inside was easy for her, and me.
Woody required a different procedure because she has never been picked up. I tacked and wired fence, with a door, leading to where we had been feeding the outside cats. When she came to eat, I closed the gate and opened the door to the room. Her instinct was to climb, but there was no where to go, so she jumped down and ran into the room where Sue (her mother) was.
She learned, almost immediately, how to push through the swinging door. Got her back from the utility room easily. This week, I went out the front door but didn’t have the swinging door blocked, and the door from the utility room (now called a walk-in pantry) to the kitchen was also open. Oops! She made it out and into the house, to a bedroom, and under the bed. It took us about 20 minutes to “move” her back. All’s well.
{The swinging door is full size, solid pine, but with swing hinges. That a small cat can push it open, implies, I guess, that it is well balanced. Surprised me, anyway.}

And that, for this week, is the not so nasty news.
John

Monday, Dec 7

Slept in until 7:30 a.m. after going to bed at 10:00 last night.
Need to get the photos thank you sent to people who gave me permission to use their photo in our weekly blog. That’s done.
Cut John’s hair. Took 35 mins, with set up /cleanup taking more. Our freezing fog is getting worse outside, so happy we do not have to be on the road with ½ mile visibility and treacherous roads.

Get in touch with Cle Elum Clinic to let them know about leaving a pkg. for a family in Ellensburg with the for us to pick up when we go for our Medicare Medical Wellness test this Thurs afternoon Nov 10 – go through Stephanie Walker (office manager there (via email to save the cost of a long distance call). We have no cell phone reception in our house; only our landline.

A little bit of dishwasher unloaded, and none yet reloaded.
Need to finish putting in my night pills for the week.
Supper: Sliced Beef roast, mashed potatoes and gravy with onions, a sliced half of a red apple, fried cauliflower, and diced beets. PowerAde.
The total number of robocaller connections for Dec 7=3.

Tuesday, Dec 8

Get up early to take pill, and drink ½ hr. later, drink coffee and milkshake. We need to be at our first two stops before noon.
Set up my external back-up for its noon backup. It completed the backup while we were gone.

This is our day for important errands, and we had many; review here. We’re using this symbol to indicate stops: ∞∫∞ First, was to Take the F-350 Ford to Seth Motors’ to be worked on at 11:00 a.m., to have its battery tender evaluated and the manual emergency brake ∞∫∞ John wants to take our insulated shopping bag by Winegar’s for quarts of their Ice Cream we like. We did, but he sat in the car while I went inside for it. ∞∫∞ Bi-Mart to check numbers ∞∫∞ No luck. ∞∫∞ Picked up 2 boxes (empty) from where we often drop things off. ∞∫∞ We stopped at Super 1 Grocery store for John to buy only a few things needed for supper, but he got carried away and bought lots more. The temp while spending time in town was 28° – so said the car.

Mid-afternoon snack: John had piece of peach pie and some small candy bars; I had 2 Reese’s peanut butter cups. Girl cats in new room had beef.
Late afternoon check in call from Gerald; he’s fine. Today his daughter took him to the skin specialist (dermatologist) to burn off spots on his back from walking in the sun without a shirt. They topped the Manastash Ridge and left the sunshine and clear blue skies.

Put all the dirty dishes in and ran them before supper.
Supper: John’s planning Beef Stroganoff, with peach pie and ice cream for dessert.
Started raining last night after supper, and sometime overnight switched to a little snow.
The total number of robocaller connections: Dec 8=3.

Wednesday, Dec 9

Up late to start the day. John’s now taken care of cat cleanup feeding, and visiting in the new room, and fed the horses. I’ve been catching up on emails, and Facebook activity. Finally, at 11:11 we left for town, stopped off to pick up a donation of Christmas Cards from my rural neighbor for me to deliver while I’m in town to a person who cannot drive. Then I took John to Seth Motors to pick up the pick up, and run more errands before he came home. Main thing were bags of pine pellets to use in the cats’ litter box. Clay sticks to their feet and ends on the floor. Also, John thinks the wood does a better job of handling the urine.

Supper: John had leftovers from last night; I had a special salad later, after my shower, and a serving of blueberry cheesecake ice cream.
The total number of robocaller connections for Dec 9=3.

Thursday, Dec 10
Mt. Rainier Sunrise from Puyallup by Cheryl Keisel White

I found research papers after looking up Siletzia on duck-duck-go. I loaded those up to a new Dropbox and made a link to send to study group for Friday’s Nick Zentner’s afternoon lecture.
Printed my medications to put it in my paperwork for my annual physical exam. –
Ate a piece of fruitcake and fixed a salad for my lunch to eat before the Game Play began. I need to play my Zoom Game Day at the AAC with 5 others; it is Yahtzee. I enjoy that game.

Get dressed to leave for Cle Elum at 1:00 p.m.
9:33 a.m. call from Gerald; foggy over there, otherwise all is well in Thorp, WA.
John’s outside at 10:00 at 21 deg. We got his meds in a bag to carry. We’re driving up leaving at 1:40; didn’t get home until 6:04 p.m. With the first doctor we had there, we were seen together. Since then there seems to be something new to the routine each visit. It seems way long, but the blood draws got done up there, saving a visit to the EBRG facility.
The total number of robocaller connections for Dec 10=1.

Friday, Dec 11

We had had a scattering of snow overnight. Overcast and cool today. Snow is sticking on the higher slopes north of us, above 4,000 feet. Over the next week we are expected to get just a little bit more. High temperatures are still expected above freezing.

We both slept in late, but I’m tired from a restless night with interruptions. I don’t have time to consider a nap until later, but maybe should because contractor Walter is due at our house at 6:00 p.m. tonight to discuss projects yet to be completed, so we are all on the same page. I’m falling asleep now. Maybe I should rush a short nap currently, before the lecture starts.

While I’m involved in managing the Nick Zentner lecture live comments, John leaves at 11:15 for town for the Community food distribution (plus local Cattleman’s beef). They are promising a variety of things – much from the big conglomerate, Conagra Brands. The local paper says beef, fresh fruits, vegetables, other perishables, and canned and packaged things. John arrived at 11:45 near staging by the Armory Bldg on 7thAvenue, near the north entrance to the Fairgrounds. They offered a lot more than they announced in the city Daily Record newspaper invitation. There is a 3-pound Beef roast, two bags of apples, one Pink Lady and one of Fuji apples; a small bag of baking potatoes; cans of pinto beans, two packages each of dried beans and dried fruit & nuts; a small carton of small curd cottage cheese; a large container of yogurt & a gallon of milk. There is a bag of yellow onions, and a bag of small oranges. There are “tater tots’ and flat potatoes of the same sort. Most of this stuff was in dreaded plastic bags, but there was one sealed cardboard box. We’ll dump about 2/3 of this stuff with the usual family next week, but she doesn’t want onions (and we have plenty). The gallon of milk needs a home too.

I began collecting comments at noon (with my computer), and ate my own lunch. I needed to set up the WordPress format to put the various descriptors in to fill it at the end of the lecture in the afternoon. This was supposedly all ready to go but somehow my document totally lost the links I submitted. I did not realize it Sunday night when processing the final copy that it was missing until after it was published at 12:30 a.m. Monday morning, and it was too late to fix it then.

I’m setting it up now at 9:30 am. Monday, Dec 14, 2020, as I previously.

#100 – Exotic Y: Siletzia

I e-mailed Carl Hurlburt’s research papers on Yellowstone Hot spot information to the study group along with some other links from him that are pertinent for Sunday’s last lecture by Nick.

Late afternoon photo at 4:22 p.m. taken from a drive around town by photographer, Lori Waters, and displayed on the Facebook page, Kittitas County Visual Delights.

I finished loading and running our dishwasher so we had clean dishes, bowls, and utensils for us and the animals.
The total number of robocaller connections for Dec 11=1.

Saturday, Dec 12

Had to be early morning to still have ice on the needles around this colorful Ponderosa pine cone:Christopher Cyrus Peterson took this early morning and published it on the Kittitas County Visual Delights site.

Not sure why my Friday nights are always becoming restless nights, that screw up my ability to get to sleep and make it imperative I always set up all the proper parts of my recording devices for my ICD measurements every time I’m out of bed and back in again. Guess I’ll also have to insert an afternoon nap into today’s schedule.

This morning was a mess and unfortunate situation with Woody in the new room.
John didn’t see Walter coming down the driveway and he got to the front porch window and knocked. John jumped up and went outside the front door and not back through the house, and so he’d not replaced to block to keep Woody from coming into the walk-in pantry/utility room. After he returned inside, he came in and we heard her meowing it the washroom, behind the gate, which she jumped over, and ran down the hallway hot on the tail of a cat she likes, Czar. I ran and closed the outside window on the doggy door so she couldn’t escape outside. I first found her in the back guest bedroom. After an hours relaxation time, we searched for her. John found her in the middle bedroom under the far corner of the bed. He had gotten a probing stick and flashlight. I stationed to watch where she went, and had blocked off some rooms of the parts of the house farther away from the kitchen access to the now opened gate.
Unfortunately, she came into the den, an okay thing, but ran over to the kitchen and not out through the washroom, and instead got up on a kitchen cabinet behind some dirty dishes. She stalled there and had to be encouraged off. She next ran under my recliner and then under the woodstove! He pulled the fencing from the stove and closed another spot in the den, and then he managed to get her out from under the stove, back through the washroom, and into the pantry. We got that door shut. Next, the swinging door to the new room – their room – could be propped open (Sue being still there) and with more encouragement she headed “home.” She hid in the back of her house bed (box), so we left her out there for quite a while. Finally, she came out and seems to have no hard feelings about her failed attempt to escape.

Walter is expected to come and work near the entrance in the morning, so John went out after lunch and took down the wire fencing he had used to capture her last week.
I have to get the dishwasher loaded and run before John wants to cook tonight’s supper. I completed that about 4:00 p.m.

We have to clean near the patio door in the den so the workers can come in and rebuild the edging and the frame around the wall. WE need a before photo. Will need to move the buffet out probably on the right hand side and a small wooden table that holds my ICD (Implanted Cardioverter Defibrillator) recorder (via a landline connnector–cell phones do now work with the unit, and it is read at 2:00 a.m., daily. Boxes, and other containers and other things piled on the floor under the table need to be moved out. I hope not my electric recliner. Now we’ve postponed that from Monday morning.

I wonder if I should send the late research papers that came in yesterday for Sunday morning lecture. I forgot this morning with all that happened. I decided to send them.
Brunch: John fixed bacon, eggs, fried Tater tots with purple onions he grew, and I had leftover instant coffee and PowerAde.

Supper: John started making Salmon Croquettes by a recipe I did not remember from my childhood. They had them at their family dinners too, but we have never had it since being together as a couple. He failed. It was strange. We had it with steamed rice and served with a bowl of canned peaches and lo-fat cottage cheese, small curd sort. That made the “quiche” more palatable. I don’t care to eat any of the leftovers. It started as canned Pink Salmon and ended more as a baked something, like quiche – no patties.

The total number of robocaller connections for Dec 12=0.

Sunday, Dec 13

I got up at 7:35, enjoyed a hot cup of coffee to warm up, plus a chocolate Ensure with French vanilla yogurt. Then on to readying my software and computer to collect information. I was ready to support and watch Nick Zentner’s 9:00 a.m. (this morning started at 8:40) for thank-yous.
Nick’s lecture at 9:00 a.m. (part two) ~ 10:00 when the first quit working. This still had the most viewers (ever I think), which were 1082 worldwide.
I began collecting comments at noon (with my computer), and ate my own lunch. I needed to set up the WordPress format to put the various descriptors in to fill it at the end of the lecture in the afternoon. This was supposedly all ready to go but somehow my document totally lost the links I submitted. I did not realize it Sunday night when processing the final copy that it was missing until after it was published at 12:30 a.m. Monday morning, and it was too late to fix it then.

#101 – Exotic Z: Putting It All Together!

#101 part 2 – Exotic Z: Putting It All Together!

Supper: Small pieces of chicken breast meat, fried, with crusty onion rings, large potato patties (nice & brown), almost like potato pancakes, & strawberries with cottage cheese in a little bowl. For dessert we’ll have Dutch Apple Pie.

The total number of robocaller connections for Dec 13=0.

Hope your week was fine.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Monday, Nov 30

I slept in until 8:30 a.m. It’s snowing but changing to rain and John went out to feed horses before the rain starts. I spent a fair amount of time doing beginning of the month maintenance on my computer accounts, and a lot more time soaking and cleaning dishes to put in the dishwasher.

The sun came out, snow & rain stopped, and John went out to work until coming in for a late brunch, but we didn’t finish until almost 2:00 p.m.
I sent my thank-you email messages for photos posted in our last week’s blog.

Whoopee! Dishwasher loaded and started at 3:06 p.m.

Supper: Steak stir-fry with carrots and onions and a sliced half yellow apple. PowerAde, hot peach pie with ice cream for dessert.

Lots of work on planning for tomorrow using the web, and on working on email from a number of friends about a number of different topics.
The total number of robocaller connections: Nov 30=1.

Nice way to end November, with a photograph of Mt. Rainier by a daughter of Lee Kiesel; a friend from Briarwood Commons. Some days “the Mountain is out”; some days it’s not. This view is what Cheryl Kiesel White sees from her Puyallup location. An amazing view of ‘The Mountain’. Puyallup {pew-AL-up} is 30 miles south of Seattle.

Tuesday, Dec 1

Get up early to take pill, and wait ½ hr. later, drink coffee milkshake. We need to be at our first two stops before noon.
Set up my external back-up for its noon backup. It completed the backup while we were gone.

This is our day for important errands, and we had many; review here. We’re using this symbol to indicate stops: ∞∫∞ Our first stop was to drop off several boxes of groceries to a family at their house, who cannot drive because of being seeing impaired. ∞∫∞ Then on 2nd Avenue close to our next stop. ∞∫∞ Safeway, for a Just4U special, 89 ₵ head, Iceberg lettuce. ∞∫∞ then on down to the AAC to hand in and pick up materials for Thursday’s Game Day via Zoom, and deliver something else there too from last week’s game day.

Mid-afternoon snack: John had piece of peach pie and some small candy bars; I had 2 Reese’s peanut butter cups. Girl cats in new room had a bite of beef – very old 6 oz. from the freezer and now cooked for them.
Afternoon check in call from Gerald; he’s fine.

Supper: Leftover sirloin beef stir-fry with carrots & onions, yellow apples; John had a sausage patty.

Need to send links to study group, after capturing them in a Dropbox. I had severe trouble with Edge and Opera browsers on my computer, finally had to restart completely.

The total number of robocaller connections: Dec 1=3.

Wednesday, Dec 2

We are expecting the pick up of the trash bin today. Time: 7 am to 3 pm. Quite a wide window of time. John was out to open the gate at 6:45, but now it’s 9:00 and he needs to go through freezers for frozen food trash for the landfill.

I was up a couple times during the night with the dog, so I slept in this morning till 9:00 a.m.!
This morning I’ve enjoyed my coffee and milkshake (chocolate Ensure with strawberry yogurt), and gone out briefly to visit the cats in the new room.

John saved all frozen food we’d had in our freezers until this morning to load into the dumpster. It’s 11:00, and I must take my Acetaminophen. John got up in the dumpster and stomped on re-positioned boxes that cannot be showing out of the top rim of the dumpster. A cover has to go on.

Now John’s out trying to get a picture of the loaded dumpster. This was a comedy of errors. First, he went out with his own camera, climbed atop the old Chevy PU truck to get a better view from above, went to take the photo, and realized his camera battery was dead. He came in to get mine, I told him which buttons to push, and set it up for him to look through the viewfinder because he detests looking at the screen, with reflections. He went back out, climbed up again, and got a couple of photographs.
Photographs on top are the setup, when John realized he had to come get my camera. The bottom is the filled 30 cubic yard dumpster.

Truck came about 1:30. The driver was pleased, loaded quickly and was off to the transfer station. Trash is weighed, and compacted in EBRG, then off to a landfill in East Wenatchee.

Gerald reporting in fine today, before 11:00. All’s well, just chilly for exercising outside, so he’ll walk around inside his house.

John brought a scratching log to the kitties. They weren’t impressed. Next, maybe is a carper covered post. Such are sold, but to cats use them? They are expensive. I plan to ask on the free-giving site for one from someone who may no longer need theirs. I’ve gotten so many great things free recently from those sites for moving the cats into the new room of our our house.

Brunch: John came in and fixed ham, scrambled eggs with cheese, and hash browns for our midday vittles. We gave a treat of white tuna (canned wild albacore) to the cats.

Our electrician, Todd, came by at 3:10 and worked 20 mins. and fixed our problem. The electrical power on the water heater in the horse’s water trough was not working. Two days ago it had over an inch of ice. He fixed it by replacing the old outlet with a new one. I’m supposed to look up ground fault interrupt (GFI); needed where water might be near.

I was very tired this afternoon, so I took an afternoon nap for well over an hour! Much needed.
Then, I worked on “duckduckgo” search tonight looking for research papers for Friday’s lecture on exotic terranes and the Baja/BC connection. Nick announced the topic for Friday’s lecture was going to be Plutons. So, I have gone back to finding additional research papers to share.

Supper: John fixed steamed rice, gravy with onions, fried ham slice cut-up, a serving of BBQ baked beans, and sliced apple. We each had a piece of heated peach pie with vanilla ice cream. Sun setting on Mt. Stuart from Manastash Ridge Summit, 45 miles away. [at 4:10 p.m., photographed by Andrew Caveness]

John went to bed early. to leave early in his Ford Truck for White Heron to deliver a pickup load of horse manure to be used in the Mariposa Vineyard.
I unloaded the dishwasher

Thursday, Dec 3

Mail isn’t being delivered until after dark. So, John retrieved the mail and my mail order meds, and opened the gate. Delivery was at 5:35 p.m.!
Early a.m. call from Gerald; cold over there, otherwise all is well.
John took care of the cats and horses.

He left (10:20) for White Heron with a full truck load of manure, his camera, and lunch. The very top of the vineyard was dug out for sand many years ago. When re-contoured, the replacement sand had very little organic matter. Most parts had about 100 years to grow a cover, and start a soil. The bottom image shows the location, with the Columbia River 600 feet lower. This is water impounded behind the Wanapum Dam, 25 miles away. Top are Cameron & John; bottom the excellent Tennessee Walking horse manure for the Mariposa Vineyard. The view overlooks the Middle Columbia Valley as it turns at West Bar and flows directly south. Top-dressing of organic matter isn’t the optimum solution, but it does help – seen by inspecting adjacent rows of treated versus untreated. This is the 3rd load; and we have more.

I’ve been working on study group Dropbox entries all morning, need to finish that. That allows me to create a set of research papers at a link to allow viewers to download directly onto their C drive, the PDFs, rather than sending individual ones through email that are 4 & 5 or more Mb large.
Attend Zoom Game day at noon. Get my prompts ready. It was a game called, Catchphrase. It was a fun game to play; I’m sure we will play it again before 2020 is over. Next week, we’re playing Yahtzee, another favorite.
Having my morning milkshake of chocolate Ensure with vanilla yogurt with game play and probably cup of coffee to warm up.

For lunch I had one of my famous salads, made with Iceberg lettuce, (only lettuce I’m allowed on Coumadin, smoked turkey cubes, pistachios, Cheez-its for croutons, and threw in some grape-size tomatoes that were awful. I took it out and visited with the cats in the new room, Sue and Woody (mother/daughter).

Supper: beef & onions, baked beans BBQ, steamed rice and gravy. Dessert: piece of fruitcake, Nick’s symbol or icon of exotic terranes.

Finished emailing all the research papers to new members of study group for Zentnerds. Only 3 more lectures to go after tomorrow at 2:00.

Need to call Panasonic support. My blocked call storage space has been filled. I think it allows 250 numbers. I hope I can delete the earliest ones in the system.
The total number of robocaller connections for Dec 3=2.
I loaded the dishwasher, but no time to run it until tomorrow morning. Taking my Acetaminophen and going to bed.

Friday, Nov Dec 4

I slept in until almost 8:00 a.m.; John was late getting up, after me! He says he’ll get up when Mr. Sun does.
I started trying to start the dishwasher, and it is not working to hold the soap in the dish when closed. It was raising my blood pressure so I made a cup of coffee and opened my computer. When John checked it, he found the same thing, so just closed and started it anyway. The dishes were fine when put in the washer and the hot water and soap in the bin will still produce clean dishes.

Our dog had us letting her out every two hours.
John is busy every morning cleaning the litter box and feeding, watering, and giving the girls some loving attention.

Coffee for me with chocolate Ensure milkshake with peach yogurt and I am enjoying it, while frustratingly filling in my Medical records for next week’s Medicare Wellness Exam.
I need to process my medical records from the portal at the hospital, in anticipation for next week’s visit for our annual physical and the background paperwork they need. Why they cannot access it from their portal is beyond me, but if I have to, and cannot locate something, I must call Medical Records at the hospital during weekday work hours. What do people without access to computers do? That was a PITA. Took me 17 mins to find out there are problems with their system. Wrong dates entered in the Medical Record, some procedures not entered at all. I was given a national support number to call, and they told me there was a 25 min. wait. I hung up. I called my pharmacy and got info on when we had our Shingles immunizations. I called radiology at the hospital; and found the CORRECT dates this year which were not entered in the system for my Bone Density test or mammogram. This is the portal for the same hospital for where they were performed. I knew it was this year, during COVID times. Those are now corrected on my form, but have not been corrected in the Portal records. How useless if they are updated incorrectly even within the same hospital where the test or surgery was performed.

Later, I’ll be getting ready for Nick Zentner’s Friday afternoon lecture at 2:00 p.m., when I start gathering pre-show comments at 1:00 p.m., actually, my computer is grabbing them now.
In between we have to have our lunch. I had a salad for my lunch, starting before 1:00 p.m.
Call from Gerald about 11:20; all’s well there.

We had some technical problems with YouTube today, and lost the first 18 mins of the start, so Nick had to restart a new livestream. The final outcome, made Take 2 require additional time (2 hrs 13 mins)

Nick Z, Take 2: #98 – Exotic W: Plutons

I worked on the blog.

Supper: Beef sirloin tip steak with onions, onion rings and apple slices. No dessert. I had fruitcake this afternoon for a snack.
The total number of robocaller connections for Dec 4=1.

Saturday, Dec 5

I had another restless night with many interruptions from animals and from my own inability to get to sleep. Maybe I’ll have to take an afternoon nap. I did nap for 45 mins quite late afternoon.

John took care of the cats in the new room, cleaned their litter box, and checked news via the computer there. Then he went out for the papers and the mail and to feed horses. I stayed behind working on cleaning up dirty dishes and loading the very full dishwasher. John’s out working for a couple hours in 26° temperatures; cool but nice, he says.

Late afternoon, I finally sent a note to the study group for Nick Zentner’s lecture tomorrow morning at 9:00 a.m. It has the link to the YouTube location and suggestions for a background study guide to previous research papers, and I remembered to add Nick’s recent audio Podcasts on Exotic Terranes.

John worked outside in the cold this morning and gathered the last of the needed rocks to fill the drip line trench at the edge of the carport. He raked leaves and pine needles and carried them to the garden. Then added a cart load of excellent TennesseeWalking horse manure. Actually, he has added 3 or 4 carts of each (leaves, needles, manure) this week, and may till it if the surface doesn’t freeze. Coming Wednesday looks promising.

In cleaning out the freezer on Wednesday morning he found an old 4+ pound roast. He put that in the oven about Noon.
Then we had a midday meal of bacon, eggs, canned peaches in a little bowl, and toast of English muffin bread.

Supper: Oven roasted Sliced Beef Roast, Steamed rice with onion gravy, and a bowl of canned pears.
The total number of robocaller connections for Dec 5=2.

Sunday, Dec 6

Up all night off and on unable to sleep, and being awakened by our dog to go out; why can’t she go out the doggie door she has used for over 13 yrs? {John: she is finding the ramps more difficult than when she was 4.} I am going to need an afternoon nap, but first have to finish the blog.

I got up at 7:35 to fix my software and computer to collect information. Enjoyed a hot cup of coffee to warm up, to start my computer set up to load the needed software so it was ready to support and watch Nick Zentner’s 9:00 a.m. (this morning started at 8:42).
Nick’s lecture at 9:00 a.m. went long at 2 hr. 22 mins.

#99 – Exotic Y: Baja-BC

John came in from outside yard work, and fixed us a brunch: each an egg over easy, bacon for me sausage patty for him, piece of toast, bowl of canned peaches, & home fries. I had a small PowerAde drink.

I need to put all my medications for a week in a carrier for dispensing daily.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Monday, Nov 23

I slept in until 8:00 a.m. Had a changed appointment call from Cardiopulmonary at KVH moving me from Wednesday to Friday, at 9:30 a.m.
Thanks Lise McGowan for sharing your photo. Much is going on there.

Paul Liebenberg, a viewer of Nick Zentner’s Live from Home series, sent this a reply to my public comment on the Sunday morning lecture (yesterday’s replay), asking for a link to the video.
Below is the link to the 7-minute video from the North Cascades National Park mentioned last week about the archaeological record of the use of Chert (flint stone) by Native Americans there in the hills of the North Cascades:

Hozomeen: A story about Chert, identity, and landscape

I wrote to Marlys about her mom’s birthday card and leaving it at KVH with Jill or Yvette to pick up. Need to call Jill and check if I can do that. I never heard back, so I didn’t ask Jill.
I sent my thank-you email messages for photos posted in our last week’s blog.

Tuesday, Nov 24

Get up early to take pill, and drink ½ hour later, drink coffee milkshake, drink water to get some hydrated with liquids in my system to make blood draw go easier. I needed to be at the lab before 9:30 a.m.

Set up my external drive for its noon backup. It completed the backup while we were in town.

We had to deal with serious fog today and that slowed down the driving time quite a bit. I was thrilled this was not a day I had to travel to Yakima for a test at the Heart Center. I-82, our major Interstate connecting Ellensburg, with Yakima was closed both directions for 26 miles coming into the Kittitas Valley. Fog was seriously affecting visibility. Closed from 10:50 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. I wish I had captured a view from the camera on Manastash Ridge.

We left at 9:00 a.m. to get to blood draw before 10:00 to make the centrifuge timing before pickup. Kim does the centrifuging now at 10:00 cause the pickup can be between 10 and 11. I remembered to request Cle Elum Family Clinic to send more orders, because the lab had to use the one for Jan 2021 to draw it, but did it anyway, realizing the immediate need.

This is our day for important errands. Reviewing those here. We’re using this symbol to indicate stops: ∞∫∞ Started with going for my blood draw a week later for the same standing order (INR). Last week’s reading was quite high (4.0); with no explanation of the reason. I had not had alcohol or an antibiotic nor changed my diet in any way from normal. Today’s was back in the proper range, (2.1). ∞∫∞ Next stop Bi-Mart Pharmacy, where I picked up my prescription of Amiodarone and bought more packs of Fisherman Friends cough drops. John walked up to get the sheet of numbers, but we did not win anything. ∞∫∞ From there I drove to the first exit for Ellensburg on I-90, coming from the west. There’s a large truck plaza with the best prices in Ellensburg, PILOT Flying J on Dolarway, at $2.399/gallon. We get 4% off our Costco CitiBank VISA card and it’s paid to us in the beginning of the new year in February. Sometimes we earn hundreds of $. With COVID however, this year will be a lot lower, because I’m not running forth and back to EBRG, and John has not been going on WTA Trail Maintenance trips, although WTA did carry on with masks and distancing. Our last stop before home was to drop off 3 boxes of groceries to a woman who cannot drive because of being seeing impaired.

Today’s photographs bring back memories of trains:Both photos by EvieMae Schuetz, south of EBRG not far from the Yakima River. The top is a current train; the bottom is an old depot on lower Canyon Road, before one reaches Thrall; unseen from the road.

This brought back old memories about trains from my life. I was not yet 2 years old when Franklin Delano Roosevelt died 4-12-45 in Warm Springs, GA at The Little White House.
When the funeral train came north on the Southern Railway lines near our house, my parents took me down the hill to watch the train come across the trestle bridge over the road we lived on. I still recall seeing the train rolling by, with one car draped in a US Flag, where the casket and honor guard were.

Mid-afternoon snack: I had a Nanaimo Bar; John had a piece of chocolate frosted golden yellow layered cake.
Supper: more of our white salmon (cats surely like it–well 3 of the 4; the girls in the new room, Sue & Woody, and Czar male inside/outside doggie door in main house; but Rascal does not like fish. Strange. With the salmon, John and I had breaded cauliflower fried with fried onion rings. For his dessert, John had a Nanaimo Bar. I didn’t have anything.
John went to bed early. I’m going to try to stay up another hour. I’m tired from getting up very early to leave this morning, and not taking an afternoon nap.

Wednesday, Nov 25

Up at 8:00 a.m. but with problems on the Internet.
I’ve been on the phone with CWU help desk, and checking on numerous other start up activities for a day. Everything is taking too much time.

We were up a couple times during the night with the dog. She is old and sleeps soundly, a sometimes weeps a pool of pee. Between the two of us, if we remember, we get her out about every 3 hours during her naps.

This morning I’ve enjoyed my coffee and milkshake (Chocolate Ensure with Vanilla yogurt), and gone out and visited with the cats in the new room. I need to unload the dishwasher and probably should wash clothes.

John’s out in 38° weather (but it is nice and sunny today), working on getting more garbage into the big green dumpster, and moving rocks around. He was up near the gate working on ideas for putting in a wooden sign to identify our place as Rock’n Ponderosa. I know he still needs to bury leftover food.

I need to check the A-head on yesterday’s WSJ and check my subscription with them. It is supposed to be reduced by my association with CWU, and the price I’m paying monthly doesn’t reflect it is. Talked to them, and cannot change either. Price has gone up to $12.99/month for educational usage, ($156/yr.), which is fine because the regular yearly cost is $600! We truly enjoy access to the articles in the print and the digital formats.

Lunch: John’s having cheese bits-filled sausage links with eggs and potatoes. I’m going to have the rest of my soup from yesterday, maybe or just wait and have an afternoon snack with turkey dinner coming for supper. And have the soup tomorrow for TG Day lunch.

Going to town – I’ll be there close to 3:00 p.m. for Community Thanksgiving Dinner for take-out turkey+ dinner, we’ll have on thanksgiving eve. This weekend is always meaningful for me to give thanks for my life being saved after the reaction to Heparin (blood thinner used in operations and in cleaning IV tubes) in an otherwise successful surgery to remove a blood clot in my heart from a heart attack the day after 2009 thanksgiving. I received a hit {Really, it is called Heparin induced thrombocytopenia (HIT).} from the blood thinner used in the surgery, and the next evening all my systems shut down, putting me on life-support for 8 days. Luckily, I stayed in ICU until the end of December of 2009 and they performed a risky open heart surgery to replace my Mitral valve and give me a 2-way bypass. I have plenty to be thankful for still being alive.

Left-flyer inviting people to Thanksgiving Dinner served take-out this year. Right: servers putting parts of the meal into containers: including turkey slices, dressing, mashed potatoes all 3 with gravy; corn, roll & butter; cranberry sauce; and a pumpkin pie piece. Delivery to cars by volunteers.

Gerald reporting in fine today, late afternoon. All’s well.
Late afternoon snack, a Nanaimo Bar and piece of pumpkin pie.
Supper: John had a rolls toasted into 4 pieces, with turkey, mashed potatoes, buttered corn, cut up a yellow apple and halved with me. Also, he had a piece of layered yellow cake frosted with all sorts of chocolate and twirls. Nancy had turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes all covered with gravy, a little bit of buttered corn.

Our only special Thanksgiving treat this week was a baked Cosmic Crisp apple, with Cinnamon crisp topping. Cosmic Crisp apple description:
This new apple on the market results from 20 years of research by the Washington State University tree of fruit breeding program. The apple is a cross between an Enterprise and a Honeycrisp.
Large, round, crisp and super juicy, these apples have a rich red that almost sparkles with starburst-like lenticels—which is where the name “Cosmic” comes from. The natural balance of acid and sugar in Cosmic Crisp® apples give them an unmatched sweetness, making them perfect for snacking, baking, and entertaining.
I worked on ‘duckduckgo dot com’ search tonight looking for research papers for Friday’s lecture on Nanaimo and Mélange Belts. Also requested help from a few folks and had a wonderful response from the Geologist Jerome at Vancouver Island University. He’s a huge contributor and supporter of our study group.
The total number of robocaller connections: Nov 25=1.

Thursday, Nov 26 Happy Thanksgiving!
Lovely sunrises: top by Keith Kleinfelder from south of town, and bottom from east of town, farther north, by Sid Peterson.

Slept in till 8:30 a.m., up a couple times during night with animal demands. Had my morning milkshake of chocolate Ensure with vanilla yogurt.
Coffee and starting to send papers for tomorrow’s lecture. Sent all the papers and images I needed to send for tomorrow’s lecture. Took me 3 sends to get all the materials to study group.

For brunch we had a pecan pancake with maple syrup, strawberries and cream atop, and bacon. I had coffee.
John spent most of his afternoon tossing boxes of trash from the hay barn into the landfill dumpster. He’s got more to do during the daylight, tomorrow. He was concerned about the large size of the dumpster, but says that’s no longer a concern. He knows he can fill it.

We had a bunch of Happy Thanksgiving wishes from friends in the states. We did them all on email, no telephoning.

Always a funny memory of Turkeys at Thanksgiving to share on this day. If you are old enough you will remember this TV Show. We viewed this original showing in 1978 while living in Troy, ID, and teaching at the University of Idaho, in Moscow, ID.

WKRP Turkey Drop

Telephone call from sister Peggy in Ohio, to wish us a Happy Thanksgiving. We had a nice visit for 25 minutes. I’m sure she was worn out. She’d had a couple hour phone call, plus another long one with someone else today.

Supper: Turkey, mashed potatoes, dressing, and gravy; the rest of baked Cosmic Crisp apple. For dessert, we had a Nanaimo Bar (our last in the package).

Sunset on Thanksgiving with thanks for his striking photography talent, Christopher Cyrus Peterson

I went for a late shower to be ready to leave for my PFT test tomorrow morning to get to the hospital at 9:15 a.m. I’m going to wear my N-95 mask to protect me. They are the chosen best MASK to protect against COVID-19 virus, so I will wear that mask from now on in grocery stores and in hospitals. And in other close proximity to many people places. I’ll use my cloth masks for the fewer folks I’m around. I suppose I’ll try to clean a few more dishes to load in the dishwasher before going to bed. Now I can’t. Rascal just got in my lap. He’ll stay here until I take my Acetaminophen and go to bed, so I can awake at 8:00 a.m. to get ready to leave.
The total number of robocaller connections for Nov 26=1.

Friday, Nov 27

1:00 a.m. early awake from dog wanting out. I went back to bed and John put her out at 3:00 a.m. I slept until 5:00 and awoke at the right time to take my Acetaminophen (every 6 hrs.).

John is busy every morning checking internet news, and cleaning the litter box and feeding, watering, and giving the girls some loving attention. They are both warming up to us (and will finally come to him), from across the room, when he calls them with special treat food. For a while, Sue would only come to me, but now they both will. Woody is still a bit tentative. It’s only been in the last couple of months that Woody would even let us touch her, (while she was eating). She was the longest coming around to be “domesticated.”

Appointment at Cardiopulmonary for PFT test for me at 9:30 a.m. Check in a few minutes before. I left at 8:45 a.m.
Checked in early with Yvette with my N-95 mask on, but couldn’t breathe so I went to the restroom and exchanged it for a cloth mask. Went back to get my paperwork to the front desk, and on down to Cardiopulmonary. Jim Allen, the head technician was the only one there, so he took me right in at 9:15 a.m. I was out in the car ready to come home at 10:03. I brought my report results with me, and it was shipped off to my cardiologist and to my PCP. I have written an email to my cardiologist’s nurse with my comments. I await hearing from him.

Now am getting ready for Nick Zentner’s Friday afternoon lecture at 2:00 p.m. I start gathering pre-show comments at 1:00 p.m., actually, my computer is grabbing them now.

John’s in the sun and chilly temps (39.7°) throwing more garbage into the dumpster. He usually only works at a single task for 1.5/2.0 hours. Changing tasks involves different muscle groups, or in different ways. He claims this to be a good strategy for old folks.

Call from Gerald about 11:20; all’s well there.
Fixed my chocolate Ensure milkshake with vanilla yogurt and I am enjoying it.

Nick began ~ 1:45 for 2:00 p.m. with his 2 hr. 7 min. lecture:

#96 – Exotic U: Nanaimo & Mélange Belts

I worked some on the blog.
I had a late afternoon snack (never really had lunch) of ripple potato chips and salsa, have been cleaning up dirty dishes in the kitchen, and packing them into the dishwasher. John’s napping. We got up really early and I had an interrupted night’s sleep, no afternoon nap, so I may really go to bed early tonight.

I tried to take my blood pressure and the batteries were dead. I finally found the AAA ones in a different part of the house from where the others batteries are stored (in the new utility room on shelves). There are a couple (flashlight and the AAAs in the living room on a shelf. Guess we need to combine them with those in the utility room. Those batteries are packaged too securely, in a tight wrapper that takes a knife to separate. I got it done without bothering John, while he napped. He just awoke at 6:12 p.m.

Saturday, Nov 28

What a difference a day makes.On the left (Saturday) there are high bright clouds over western WA and Oregon. On the right (Sunday) the clouds are gone but low grayish fog fills the Puget Sound, the Willamette Valley {Portland area and south}, and our own area of central WA.

I was up a couple times in the night to take care of cats and a dog. Last time was 4:00 a.m. and it took my 5:00 meds and went back to bed. Slept in until 8:45 a.m.

John took care of the cats in the new room, cleaned their litter box, and eventually went out for the papers and the mail and to feed horses. I stayed behind working on cleaning up dirty dishes and loading the very full dishwasher. Got it started at 10:00 a.m. while John’s out working for a couple hours in 48° temperatures, sunny, and windy, giving it a chilling factor.

Once on my computer this morning, I cleaned up the various things on our joint account and my personal email account. They’re always loaded overnight with unwanted mail. Have not looked at Facebook yet, because it is a huge time user I don’t have time for. If you want me to see something on Facebook, you’ll have to “tag” me so I am notified differently without being on board FB.

Oh, at 10:00 a.m., I finally sent a note to the study group for Nick Zentner’s lecture tomorrow morning at 9:00 a.m. It has the link to the YouTube location and suggestions for a background study guide to previous research papers, or roadside geology books. I should have added Nick’s recent audio Podcasts and forgot.

I fixed a chocolate Ensure milkshake for me with vanilla yogurt, to have before my hot soup for lunch.
At 11:15, I sent my note to the study group with suggestions about tomorrow morning’s background prep materials for lecture. I put all my medications for a week in a carrier for dispensing daily.

Before I had my own supper, I took a couple of tablespoons of drained tuna on a plate and broken up for the female cats on the new room. They scoffed it down.

Supper: I had a tuna melt (grilled cheese & tuna sandwich) fixed by John, with strawberry lemonade PowerAde. John had Panko breaded shrimp, baked and French fries, with cranberry sauce.

The total number of robocaller connections for Nov 28 = 1. It was from an Out of Area “number”, which was not displayed so I could not check on the type of scammer it was but they were alerting me to a security breach of an unspecified account to tell me if I pressed 1. I did not answer. Without a # I cannot block a future call.

Sunday, Nov 29

I was up at 7:25 to fix a hot cup of coffee to warm up and also to tide me over, a milkshake or chocolate Ensure with French vanilla yogurt. John reported that the cats made it through the night all right in their new bedroom and bathroom facilities. He’s going to give them a little treat of tuna fish this morning.

Nick’s lecture at 9:00 a.m. went long at 2 hr. 8 mins.
I started collecting pre-show comments about 7:40 a.m. but people are late coming on board this morning.
Temperature here is 30.9°. I’m sure Nick will be broadcasting from his porch this morning.

#97 – Exotic V: Restore the Fruitcake

John went back outside to work without brunch, I’m here too, inside the house working on the blog draft and on creating emails to 4 new study group additions. That got put off until after the blog is done.

I got myself an afternoon snack, first Ripple potato chips with salsa, followed by two Resee’s peanut butter cups.

John was out moving horse manure into the pickup, rocks into the under drip-line ditch, and more trash into the landfill dumpster. Now only have enough room for frozen food trash from the last 6 months to be added when we know the pick-up day. The horse manure is destined for the vineyard over at White Heron; some to our garden.

Supper: Bowl of Progresso wild rice and chicken soup, with chicken breast meat added. Another bowl of our leftover Acorn squash cooked with cut–up baked apple; the remaining half of the Cosmic Crisp.

Hope your week was fine.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan