Keeping track

. . . brought welcomed change

Monday, Sept 21

I began the morning with a Zoom Game Day session of Scattergories. I won today but only 2 played and we had fun.
We made our own scoring cards, place for the Letter, and 10 slots for categories. Then the dice thrower called the letter, and we chose the category we wanted, alternately.This is only one category which the leader put on the screen all possible categories to choose from. This is just one example.

Rest of the day filled with computer work, cleaning dishes, and going shopping to drive John’s car which had not been moved in a while. We donated some onions, summer yellow squash, and about 15# of two kinds of dry cat food to the Kittitas Pantry. Side activities decreased both our work time. Mine needed more than anything is working on back taxes. But all these medical things also need done.

I made my appointment for a lung PFT test in November. Put all my meds in for the week, and arranged for some other stuff with respect to my Yakima Heart Center visit in October.
While on the road tonight we talked with our sister Peggy, and with John driving I could call several friends long distance to touch bases. So I called to wish a happy wedding to a former student and to another former student to check her health which had been getting better finally, after a year of pain and surgeries without much improvement. She’s finally feeling better.

Supper: Chicken pot pie, with macaroni & cheese, and pork pieces added by John, a French Cruller donut, and piece of Lemon Boston Cream pie for dessert. The latter was the best part of all.

Tuesday, Sept 22

Took my weekly medicine of the stand up & empty stomach type. I hooked up the Backup Plus drive for noon backup protection of all the files on my computer’s hard drive.

Made a call to Jeannie at Cardiopulmonary at our local hospital, about to where/whom the PFT results are sent– to attn. of Dr. Krueger, or to Yakima Heart Center only, or to my medical records file, so the Dr. or his nurse can watch for it after Dec 1. My PFT test is not until the day before Thanksgiving, Nov 24. The answer is they go through the same notification with the cardiologist doctor as for all his patients. So, that relieved my concerns.

Disk drive backed up and said so at 1:38 today. Due next Tuesday for another backup.
My lunch today was leftover chicken noodle soup with extra cooked chicken breast added.

Called about Atorvastatin. Kenna, Pharmacy Tech is taking care of it; unfortunately, there were no refills on the Safeway one, and they did not have Bi-Mart Pharmacy one sent on file (I’m sure I had requested that be sent to BM Pharmacy, through my PCP’s nurse).

We first went for our higher dose Flu shots we scheduled a couple of weeks ago. Got to our pharmacy, and they said they were out of serum. I was upset because I had made the appointment and they should have saved 2 for our appointment. We are now on another waiting list.

We took ~20# of John’s home grown onions by to friends Joanie & Ken. Last year they took them to Quartzite, AZ, and they lasted until Christmas.

Took a few things by Amy’s house in town, and added a special present for Haley (now 7 yrs old), and still planning to be a scientist.

Called in my refill prescription today for Alendronate to Kaiser Permanente Mail Order, and it was delivered 2 days later. The place is on the west side of our mountains.

Wednesday, Sept 23

Nancy called the CWU User Desk early morning, to use Quick Assist with Tech to resolve problems of Microsoft Account –most likely a password change, through shared experience setting. Request either Paris, or Casey, or Brian K. to share my screen to help with that primarily, and one other question I have.

At 9:00 a.m., Telena Hunter arrives to set up chlorination of our well water, and there’ll be no running water in our house allowed (except for flushing toilets) for 36 hours (which increased later in the week, details to come). She did not arrive until 9:50 a.m.
She and her assistant, Melissa, got everything completed and will be back tomorrow to flush it out of all the in house faucets and system.

Another Robocaller blocked by the Panasonic answering system on our land line—claimed a source of Longview, WA.
Lunch: I fixed a nutritious drink for me of blueberry yogurt with chocolate Ensure; but, I intend never to buy Chobani yogurt again. The blueberry is particularly awful. John made his lunch entirely from leftovers. Sent an alert for the next two Nick from Home lectures this week, 9/25 and 9/27 to the study group members’ emails.

Late today, I called ComputAbility and talked to Matt the owner about how they handled advising people who wanted to have a specific domain name of their own choosing. Need is to publish a blog on, as we do, with our rocknponderosa.com and host the space to store the whole blog from the start of it (ours started Dec 4, 2009). A report on this and his answer is in tomorrow’s posting.

Supper: Spaghetti with pork added to Arrabbiata sauce, or sugo all’arrabbiata in Italian, is a spicy sauce for pasta made from garlic, tomatoes, and dried red chili peppers cooked in olive oil. The sauce originates from the Lazio region, around Rome. It’s a little too spicy for my tastes, so what’s left of the jar, John is going to add tomatoes and use ground beef as the meat. We also had a bowl of peaches with dinner, and a cool drink (PowerAde for me). Dessert: Vanilla ice cream on top of heated apple fritter shared and ½ donut.

It’s been raining here much of the afternoon and evening and is going to be rainy all this week. That should clean up all the smoke and suppress fires.

Thursday, Sept 24

I’d received an invoice from our domain provider updating our membership for the next 3 years. It has increased in cost amazingly from what it was 3 years ago in 2017. So I decided I would shop around. That’s why I had called Matt last night, here in town to see what he could offer.

He’s worked with Network solutions since 1994. However, they do not provide the service through their business at ComputAbility here in town. He has to buy his own domain name, for their business’ web site, but he doesn’t require hosting capabilities, yet he understand the concept and the pricing schemes, of such companies.
He uses Hover.com only, which “sells” domain usage only, does not have hosting which we need. Matt (owner at ComputAbility) says $160 / year is not bad, because we need both hosting and domain name usage. We were unaware of the “blog” stuff when I was ill and our computer guru (at Complete Computer Services) set up a WordPress site for John to use to talk to friends and relatives about me, when he didn’t have time to spend on the phone talking individually with them. The business must have done the hosting locally, in EBRG. When that business closed we transferred (we don’t remember doing this) to a new hosting place. It is their billing renewal we have just received.

John needs to turn on the frost free faucet at 8:00 a.m. today, out by the horse tank. A gallon of chlorine bleach was dumped into the top of the well, and now all that has to come out. We have only a small submerged pump, and not a hefty aquifer, so slow removal is expected. So any animals won’t get into the chlorinated water, the drain hose is emptying into a rocky space.

John and I spent 31 minutes and $160 on the phone today to continue our domain name and hosting for another year. The e-mail indicated a 3 year renewal and the total cost, and what was happening, caught us unaware. Phone consultation finally got us on track.

Sent an alert to study group at 2 PM with a bunch of references from group members to share about geology.
Telena came by, but the chlorination of the well water still needs to continue. It’s going more slowly than planned. She’ll be gone a few hours and back to finish later.

It just started raining again at 4:00 p.m.
Another Robocaller previous blocked just rang once: (Longview, WA). They don’t quit. Glad it didn’t wake me from my nap.
I was tired and lay down for an hour nap.

I fixed a nutritious drink for lunch, peach yogurt with chocolate Ensure. John ate leftover meat loaf for his lunch.
Short phone call from Gerald at 4:30p.m. his grandson took him for a drive today up Taneum Canyon toward where their family hunting cabin. He enjoyed the ride and is feeling just fine. All’s well, so that’s excellent news.
Supper: Vegetable, Chicken soup, dessert, hot peach pie w/ vanilla ice cream atop.

Bad news: After dinner, I reviewed the order confirmation from the payment of the domain & hosting site from IML this morning before noon. I saw one (the one I was expecting) for $160.41, but I received four, totaling a lot more. The lady sent all previous invoices – but none were dated. [We got it straightened out on Friday, and now we’re in for 3 more years].

Friday, Sept 25

Water well “shocking” turned into >12 hours more + some, because of low well pressure, so our bathtub’s faucet ran hot water all night to cleanse the hot water tank (50 gallons) of chlorine. Kelly Hunter came back at 9:20 to finish flushing the chlorinated water from the inside faucets, changed the filter on the water softener; John changed the one on the hot water tank, and said we should give the pump a rest. That is, use minimal water for 3 hours or so.

We decided to call back to IML and pay the $ for 3 years / which would be ~$133/yr. instead of $160.41 we paid. We need hosting plus use of the domain name and protection for what we do.
They do not send receipts of the purchase on my credit card. I have to look for that on my statement from VISA Citi Bank. But it had been put on my card for the $160.41 for the one year. And Sunday’s email arrived with access to my statement through Sept 25th, so I checked and that was posted on there, from Thursday, but we’ll have to wait until the end of October’s statement to see what was charged exactly for the upgrade to 3 yrs., of the domain name, the hosting, the protection and the added tax.

Called PCP’s nurse and left voicemail message request to refill Atorvastatin, 40 mg for 45 tablets (because they will ½ them) for my 20mg dosage once a day for 3 months, and to “email FAX” it to Bi-Mart Pharmacy. The pharmacy has requested a couple of times since Tuesday this week with no response. Finally, LATE afternoon, right before 5:00 p.m., I received a call it was sent!

Peggy Eaton is honchoing the leadership of a scheduled Zoom meeting noon, 9/25, for our Ruth Harrington Scholarship meeting group, held on 4th Fridays, and not able to be held at CWU this year.
I joined the Zoom Meeting – Scholarship Luncheon Meeting—fun meeting with Ruth (who is looking good from her stroke 6 wks. ago, able to walk around the block, allowed to drive her car, and she’s done with her physical therapy sessions), Peggy from campus at the Dean of Students office, Monica from home working there, Christine from facilities Mgt on campus.

I have a 2:00 p.m. viewing of a Nick from Home today.

‘Nick from Home’ #80 – Exotic E: Paleogeography

Much work on different projects.
I spent a little time on Facebook messenger evaluating a LOGO for a Brittany. This person lives back east and has one of our Cedaridge Brittanys in her breeding program. She got her Brittany pup from us in the 1990s. Her name is Michelle Gamblin, and her breeding kennel name is N-Vee Brittanys.She had many responses, and I think #5 (my choice) was winning the battle. {John likes #7.} I haven’t checked to see her final decision. To me this logo shows more of the field and show (Dual) aspect of the Brittany, and is something that will look good on stationery, a business card, or a bumper sticker without using color.

Supper: beef, bean, mixed-cheese (good) grilled sandwich with canned peaches. Dessert, peach pie with vanilla ice cream.

Saturday, Sept 26

Weird wake-up procedure with sounds of everything magnified into a note. Even single bites of dog food being tossed into a pan, by John. Gerald called at 8:45 a.m. and I was having first cup of coffee. Talked to him for 12 mins about him and me. Will start my computer, and do the dishes first thing.
John unloaded most of the dishwasher except for the silverware. I need to wash a load leftover from Wednesday when our well water was chlorinated.

Friend Louaine gave us a dozen small pears from an orchard on the other side of the valley. Thanks, Louaine. They claim to be Cinnamon Pears. Trying to search for such brings numerous recipes using the spice. I found a photo of a dwarf Bosc Pear tree with Cinnamon colored fruit. Interesting, maybe we’ve been given Bosc pears. John will ask a few folks that might know, and report next week.

John made Blackberry cobbler in the slow-cooker (aka crock pot). He mentioned his intent in his Not so Nasty News, but failed to mention he was following a “Blueberry” recipe. {I used a plastic liner in the crock. Best idea since sliced bread. John}
Another Robocaller blocked on our land line. We don’t get cell service out here on the Naneum Fan, so wonder how that problem is on those mobile phones.

Brunch: Bacon, English Muffin Toasting bread, and eggs.
Supper: Bowl of Spaghetti with Ground beef, tomatoes, and sauce. Blackberry cobbler made by John with his homegrown blackberries in a Crockpot recipe!! with Vanilla ice cream for dessert.

Tonight’s night view from Cove Rd (SW of town):Lovely photo by Michelle Schock posted in Kittitas Valley Visual Delights; taken toward Manastash Ridge, about 8:00 p.m.

Sunday, Sept 27

Clear, sunny, no rain, and nice for Nick’s 9:00 a.m. program. Went with bicycle ride at the end, to 1 hr. 33 mins.From the GOES west satellite from UW Atmospheric Science

Started at 8:03 a.m. on line with comments on lecture by Nick.
This was a premiere showing this morning by Nick Zentner in ‘Nick from Home’ fall series on Exotic Terranes.

‘Nick from Home’ #81-Exotic F: Strike-Slip Faults

To appreciate what follows you MUST click on the video link and do the following movement to 1:38 (1 hr and 38 minutes to the start of the bicycle ride with the camera going in his Iphone. You’ll see the reason for Nick wishing to do it for his worldwide audience to show our agricultural valley so close to the city limits of Ellensburg. 872 viewers watched the ride from worldwide locations. The ride goes by fields and barns, once out of town.

The lecture went long today with the bicycle ride at the end; Go to 1:38 in the video to make the bicycle trip from Nick’s house on 3rd Ave south a bunch of blocks to Mt View Drive (extension of the Kittitas Hwy), into Rosewood neighborhood complex, where across the fence to the left we could hear the outside rock band in a congregational meeting outside in the sun, for a service at the Ellensburg Foursquare Church, on from there onto Umptanum Rd, and south down Bull Rd, to agricultural farm land there.

This photo two below looks very much like the view we got from the bicycle ride Nick took us on, to the southern part of our valley to see the snow cap on Mt. Stuart, which was not there on Thursday, so it received its snow Thursday night. Winter’s on its way. This first photo shows Mt. Stuart on the left with snow, but was not taken on today’s bike ride. Another photo of the valley near Ellensburg looks more like the close up agricultural land we were riding by. Our view from the bike ride of Mt. Stuart was very small because Nick couldn’t zoom his I-phone in as close as the view above.This photo was actually taken in a different direction from Mt. Stuart, and yesterday by Barb Bailey, on her way back from fighting Seattle traffic, and she was happy to be coming home to her agricultural Kittitas Valley.
This view is very similar to the views we got from the bike ride at the end.
(Check out the video’s ending above). Again, for the bicycle ride, start at 1:38 + a little.

I fixed a nutrition drink for midday, of strawberry Ensure with Chobani strawberry yogurt.
I just finished taking a bunch of time creating a problem notification email to the contractor with a photo John took of a Design Flaw in our construction project. It’s related to the rain we have been having not being directed properly to avoid hitting on the to-be-concrete wheelchair access ramp, so it doesn’t become a sheet of ice in rainy cold weather. Red line (arrow) shows where the rain went. It needs to fall 18″ to the right.The contractor received the description this evening, and knows how he will fix the problem. He’s coming over to consult with John tomorrow afternoon.

I’m currently working on my part of the blog. I need to get it to John, and then unload the dishwasher. One more load and I’ll be caught up.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Monday, Sept 14

Checked email from RN Chris Aman for Dr. Dave Krueger; we changed the date to Oct. 26 to be able to combine my visit to the Yakima Heart Center for my Device check with Toni to the same day as a visit with my Cardiologist. It’s a 50-mile trip one way for us.

Called Ethel today (our 102 yr. old cousin in PA) at 2:45 & talked 20 minutes. As usual, it was fun and informative visiting with her. She’s quite amazing.

Called the help desk with my questions ask about the Skype for Business which we supposedly shut out completely, and there are other things we may need to get rid of permanently, but I want help not to try anything myself that might screw up my computer. One thing I need help on is the Dell Support updates it keeps asking for.
The “out of memory” issues have not returned after all Brian K’s work and it’s sitting at 78% used right now. This morning Monday, it’s using only 63%!
Call back from BK (Brian K) at CWU 3:24 p.m. to 3:50 p.m. cleaning up system more and needs a RESTART, after saving my Word Docs, and closing other programs before restarting.

5:48 p.m., 21 mins on the landline with friend from childhood, Dot Smith, about things in Decatur, GA. She called with concerns about us and the fires, but called my cell phone, which gets no reception in our house. I only accidentally found her two voicemail messages when charging my cell phone to make ready to go to town tomorrow. When I turned it on to check the charge, it beeped, and I found the first message from Saturday.

I called Jeannie at the Cardiopulmonary (KVC) and found my PFT (stands for Pulmonary Function Test) last year was 11/22/2019. To qualify for medical insurance to pay for the test, this year’s test has to be scheduled a day later, which is a Monday, Nov. 23. I now need to have my cardiologist send a request referral to the department at our local Ellensburg hospital before I can be scheduled for the test. That process is underway.

This morning turned into a week of work piled into one-time slot.
Noon call from water system guru, Kelly Hunter, indicated he was on his way to meet us. Stayed 45 minutes and fixed some stuff and scheduled a future time for coming to install corrections and additions, to our well-water treatment setup. Meanwhile, his wife, a different type water person, will visit to “shock” our system – – meaning bleach poured into the well, a wait period, then flush all clean.

Tuesday, Sept 15

Call from Kelly Hunter. Our cost will be $2,300 to add an iron filtration system to our well water treatment machines. That will happen in several weeks when he has time to add to his schedule and get the equipment ordered and available to install.

We both spent a lot of time with reading and sending a note to Cameron Fries, about things at the winery, White Heron. A bottling session will occur in the future, Oct. 2. I won’t be able to go along as I must attend a meeting at 2:00 p.m. and I wouldn’t be home by then. John has to remember to take some small bottles over to give to Cameron.

Early, turned on heater in bathroom for taking shower.

Took my weekly pill at 8:50 a.m., planned to eat ½ hr. later, but our morning was interrupted and I didn’t actually get to eat until 10:00 a.m., when I had only a nutrition drink and coffee.

We left for town later than planned but got to my monthly INR blood draw before time for my favorite phlebotomist to go to lunch. After that, we ran a bunch more errands. Dropped off Apples to Apples decks of cards at the AAC used in a Zoom game. Went to Fred Meyer shopping for drinks, bread, drinks, red grapes, and then drove to a lady’s house who makes and gives cloth face masks she’s made. We each got 3, and very colorful they are. John needed one because all he’s been using is a paper mask, supposed to be for one-time use only. Today was about its 8th use. He carried one in his pocket for a time. Hay and dirt loved it, and it still worked – he lived. We said our thanks and left. Next stop in town was to The Palace to cash in my September free meal birthday dinner. We got it to go from Molly, our favorite waitress there. On our way home, we put egg cartons near Eva Frink’s front porch.

Supper: We had my Birthday dinner from The Palace. Cobb Salad and John had Chicken Fried Steak. {He says that’s a strange name for a beat up piece of cheap beef.}

Wednesday, Sept 16

Mid-week photo today, all the way from Chile, from a gal we knew when she was a student at CWU a long time ago, Mérida López Nualart. She looks as young as we remember her; no clue how old she is now. She was here as a language student, then returned to teach English to folks in the Chilean Air Force.

I called the dental receptionist and paid my $90.40 bill for John; talked to Edgar. He emailed me the receipt to joint account, and it’s now stored in my tax 2020 file. Also, printed it and filed in the hard copy paperwork filing cabinet.
My day has been filled with working on emails and switching between tax filing, and unloaded dishwasher, and needing to reload dishes and soon.
This morning I had a nutrition drink (Strawberry Ensure with Chobani dark cherry yogurt). Makes a nice “milkshake”.

Washed a new load of dishes tonight to get ready for our well to be filled with a lot of bleach, because no water can be run inside the house for 36 hours and we would not be able to turn on any faucets in the house. We can only flush our toilets.

Supper tonight: John had a steak fry; I had the rest of my birthday dinner Cobb Salad ½ from yesterday evening. I added pieces of our yellow summer squash sliced and raw, some red grapes, and had with a buttered hot roll I brought from The Palace Café.

Thursday, Sept 17

Washed clothes in the morning before Noon expecting our well’s water to be chlorinated or “shocked”. Now the first load is in the clothes dryer at 11:00 a.m. and the second load is my polyester stuff needing dried on a lower heat.

I’m currently finishing the necessary startup of my computer to check emails and then will switch chores to filing back taxes, my most urgent need right now. John’s out front working in the shade (actually the smoke cover is blocking the sun). The temps are below normal now (62°), and the visibility is only 1.5 miles, with the thick haze.

The person to chlorinate our well canceled and rescheduled for 9:00 a.m. next Wednesday. She was in the Teanaway (a long valley to our NW) where there’s no cell reception, and could not get a phone call to tell us until afternoon.

I fixed a nutritious drink for lunch, peach yogurt with chocolate Ensure.
Called Sadie Thayer this afternoon and see if she received my email about donating some stuff to the Kittitas County Historical Museum. She had NOT received it, because someone had hacked their website and she has been unable to access any email. More about this in tomorrow’s report.

You may need to enter the password Patrick917 to open it. Or you might not!
Go here, please to view responses for Patrick’s 7th birthday.

The link is necessary to see all the wishes from worldwide people who have met since St. Patrick’s Day on a Geology site for Nick from Home lectures. Just Sunday morning at 9:00 we had over 1000 viewers.

This link was set up to give viewers a place to record their birthday wish to Patrick on his 7th birthday. Patrick Swan has been the student at the head of the class, asking the best questions of Prof Nick Zentner through now 79 episodes of Nick from Home. I’m not giving this link to view what I said, and in fact, you should skip over mine and follow Greg the train conductor from East Tennessee, and Gerrit who shows his Countryside (The Netherlands), and others who have neat insights to their surroundings. Check out Yelli (from Japan). Frances from Germany. James from Australia, and also Kathy from Australia. Another from Japan is Denise. Spend your time on the others, not on my post, please.

Supper: Orange chicken, leftover lasagna, red grapes, fried slices of yellow summer squash. Ice cream for dessert.

Friday, Sept 18

Today needs to be completely spent on tax preparation, except for these next things at 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m.

Wrote an e-mail to Janet Perkins (violinist) about a note in WOTFA News, pg. 8. People we know are dying while this Panic2020 thing drags on. Her husband, Dave, our Double-Bass Fiddle player, did not die from the virus.

Friday Sept 18, was Game Day at 10:00 Heads up I’m only an observer, not playing the head piece & acting out. I did get involved some with providing sounds or words to describe the words for them on their headpiece.

I have a 2:00 p.m. viewing of a Nick from Home today.
‘Nick from Home’ #78 – Exotic C: Craton vs Terranes

I talked to Sadie Thayer at the KC Historical Museum about donation of our treadle Singer Sewing Machine and her not responding to my message about it last week. Their website was hacked and it included involving their email receipts. She had not gotten it. I also paid my dues this year through the website on PayPal, and that was never acknowledged. She will email me Monday to see if I get all the information I was supposed to. Meanwhile, she would like a photo of the sewing machine. They have 3 there, one in storage maybe 2 and one on display, but none of them work. I am sure ours should still be working and we have all the attachments for zippers and buttonhole maker. In talking to John, he says he thinks the drawers are packed separately in a box, and we do not know where the box of drawers is. So, this may be a future give once we find the box.

I spent quite a bit of time this afternoon, working on attaching a new external drive DVD/CD reader on my system, so I could load Turbo Tax software from a CD. Then I spent a bunch more time downloading updates to the software. Once that was done, I started the form filling in all the details for the beginning of the software, which will compare and transfer the information from the previous year’s tax return, so all the columns for deductions or income will be indicated on the form as organized in the past year.

Supper: Fried chicken breast with BBQ sauce, battered cod, John’s homemade applesauce, baked beans, canned peaches. Had Deluxe Caramel Crunch Frozen dessert (looks like ice cream, but we wonder why they call it that).

Saturday, Sept 19

Continue filing 2018 receipts, check on Excel eventually.

Another Robocaller blocked on my Panasonic land line. Did 2 or 3 yesterday.

Brunch: John had leftovers from last night’s supper; I had a bowl of Maruchan Ramen noodle soup with roast chicken flavor, but added a bunch of cooked chicken breast meat and Cheez-its crackers.

Supper: Pork roast oven-baked at 250° all day; bowl of canned pears and red grapes, fried yellow summer squash (John grew); dessert last of the caramel crunch frozen dessert with thawed strawberries on top.

Sunday, Sept 20

Good to go at 8:00 a.m. on the GOES west satellite imagery, sunshine, no smoke coverage, and blue skies in Ellensburg, At the blue star. The Cascades and the Bitterroots in Idaho’s panhandle have clouds.From the GOES west satellite via UW Atmospheric Science

Started at 8:03 a.m. on line with comments on lecture by Nick.

This was a premiere showing this morning by Nick Zentner in ‘Nick from Home’ fall series on Exotic Terranes.
#79 – Exotic D: Passive Margin

Brunch: John had leftovers from the freezer, and I went through this morning with a large glass of protein drink, Chocolate Ensure & Blueberry Yogurt. If I get hungry later (which I doubt), I have leftover lunch chicken soup to heat up.
John’s resting after lunch and planning to go out and work in the shade this afternoon.

Currently, working on the blog.

Supper: Pork, onion rings, fried yellow summer squash, red grapes, mashed potatoes with gravy.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Monday, Sept 7

ALERT to study group sent out at 9:30 a.m.

Spent the morning setting up to drain the hot water tank to try to get rid of the muck inside. Brunch: Bacon, blueberry pancake, and fruit cocktail. As it was nearing done, the smoke severity changed and smoke started flowing into through the patio door, where the hose draining the tank was. We had to close the door, and started researching the source of the smoke blocking the visibility to 2.5 miles or less. The temperature lowered with the smoke, from 81 at Noon to 71 at 5:00 p.m. We could not see the hills east of us. Late in the afternoon, the sun was a red disc.John worked some with the landscaping process, digging, sorting, and moving rocks and dirt. The loading ramp is filling with rocks, the garden soil is growing, and the front area is taking shape. All slowly. The smoke is not helpful.
Before the week was over, we had down to ½ mile visibility for several days. A week later, 9-13, it’s only at ¾ mile.

I called two neighbors to see if anyone knew the source of the smoke, and we got online to look for fires to the west of us.
Allen, our friend a mile up Naneum Rd. has relatives in Monse, WA near Brewster, and he knew there was a fire there. We found it on the MODIS Fire Mapping in our Google Earth Pro. I kept a watch on it, until it updated because all we had was the last 24 hours and the last 6 hrs.Less than 2 hrs. later it had increased in coverage. The orange in the bottom image is the red in the top images now, as orange. The top right image shows the measurement of the miles as over 20 miles to the south from the original start of the fire at the northern tip of the pattern.

I received burned photos from the area on 9/12 which are too depressing to publish, but here are a few. Heat was so hot it melted aluminum. The winds were clocked at 83 mph. People stayed behind to water down their house structures, and saved a few, while getting burned themselves.
Monse, WA after fire swept through:Burned trees-ground cover, heat melted aluminum, burned fieldsFORD Bronco & Allen Aronica helping family with cleanup efforts

Smoke coverage was severe by mid-afternoon, seen in this backyard video from our patio (only 19 seconds long). Using straight-line distance, we are 76 miles from Brewster and Monse is 6 miles farther away.

Smoky Atmosphere Ellensburg, WA 9-7-20

Tonight at 6:00 p.m. is the last of the Nick on the Fly (NOTF) series, with a new series beginning this Wednesday night, 9-9.

NOTF #26–North Cascades talk w/Ralph Haugerud

CWU’s Nick Zentner travels to Wenatchee to visit with longtime USGS geologist Ralph Haugerud. 52 mins. Recorded 9-4-20. Topics: North Cascades field mapping, Baja BC pros and cons, & future work in the North Cascades.

See you tonight, and then Wednesday night this week with Nick again with his start of the new Fall episodes of Nick from Home. That day of the week is being changed this coming week to Friday, and the time will be 2:00 p.m. This will mess up a few people from watching the live broadcast and they’ll have to watch the replay.

Supper: Beef Stew with Cheddar Bratwurst, Fried cauliflower, and Cheddar Biscuits, caramel praline crunch/vanilla ice cream for dessert.

Tuesday, Sept 8

I cannot keep up with all that’s happening around this place. Latest is that our water heater, water pump pressure gauge problems continue, and the filters on the water coming from our well are clogging with gunk faster than we wish.

John went to town and I stayed home. He picked up his own meds at Fred Meyer Pharmacy, and my med at Super 1 Pharmacy, buying groceries while there. He went to Mid-State Coop for a O-ring washer for the 10″ Big Blue filter that takes sediment out of our well water. The installed O-ring has stretched and thinned, and leaked with this removal and re-installation.
He went to Bi-Mart for some white petroleum (silicone grease is recommended) to put on the O-ring to secure the seal, and while there picked up a sheet of their membership card winning numbers (we won nothing). I checked other friends’ numbers when he brought it home. Above photo by EvieMae Schuetz. Particles in the smoke filter and scatter sunlight. When the atmosphere is too filled with smoke the sky goes dark.
I tried to take a photo but what we saw would not reproduce on my camera, nor on John’s. I asked Evie if she could get a photo. She said she’d try. The results are fantastic as seen above.
Sun photography is not easy; See here at B & H Photo
Scroll down there and you can see the sort of photo I took.

Supper: Pizza and our cherry tomatoes, with caramel praline crunch / vanilla ice cream for dessert.
Take pills, fluoride teeth, and go to bed.

Wednesday, Sept 9

Today’s local news, the Daily Record, printed the Obituary for Charles Larry Firkins, our friend whom we’ve known since my joining the Kittitas Valley Fiddlers & Friends music group.
I captured the digital version of the Obit to email to our music group and to the family.

We had many chores, mostly in the house because of the temperature outside, but about noon, John left for town to buy 4 desks at CWU surplus sale for $2 each and to fill his old 1980 Chev farm truck with gasoline. The price of gas was $2.55 at Pilot, 34₵/gal less than Circle K that’s often the least expensive in town! So, it was worth a little extra drive to the west side of town.

The desks he brought home are shown below. To have room and access to clean them up, he had to remove more junk from our big shed. We are going to get a large 20’ dumpster to empty most of this into to get it off our property, he has moved some of these things many times. Top shows the purple top of the desk barely as John demos the way the desk drawers work. Bottom: with the desks out, junk was moved to the truck and backed into the hay barn. Now he has to unload and stack it. About 8 of the boxes are, in fact, empty. Eventually, I will have my computer set up in the new room, using one of the desks, and the desk top will be enhanced with the lavender (came out pink) painted ceiling.

I stayed home to receive phone calls while he went to town. I contacted several people – searching for a plumber. Luckily, we later made contact on the weekend (Saturday) with plumber, Kelly.

The following video was on at 6:00 p.m. tonight as a premiere:

‘Nick from Home’ Livestream #76 – Exotic A: Geologic Time

Thursday, Sept 10

This morning at 9:00 a.m. I was on Zoom to play Yahtzee. I won today with 391 points and 3 Yahtzees! (that’s a record for me forever).
Gerald called at 11:20 and I told him about the Obituary. I need to send it to Jarred and to Connie and have them coordinate who will print it for him. I’m guessing Connie would be the best. But I wanted Jarred to see it too, because he once played with the group, and would have known Charlie.

I fixed a nutrition drink.
Brunch (Surf & Turf): Chipped beef, Boiled/Iced shrimp, breaded Cod fish.

I finished contacting four new study group members.
I wrote Sadie Thayer about making a donation of OLD Singer Treadle Sewing machine to the Kittitas County Historical museum. (Over 80 years old) – was my mom’s and what I learned to sew on.

Supper: Corn-on-the-cob, bowl of chili (with Cheez-its), and apple crisp with strawberry ice cream for dessert. The Rascal-Cat doesn’t like the strawberry ice cream. Dog is happy with any flavor ice cream.

Friday, Sept 11

This morning I had a nutrition drink (Strawberry Ensure with Chobani strawberry yogurt). Makes a nice “milkshake”).

Called the CWU Help Desk about out of memory problems on browsers, Edge and Opera. Had changed a month ago from Google Chrome because it was using so much memory space. Was told to change to Firefox, but it gave me severe problems too, so I switched to Opera. Now both it and Edge crash without much on either one, and right in the middle of things. It’s killing my production. I regularly have to RESTART and then rebuild my system to make it operate again. My question to them was, “Can you go through my task manager with me and help me see what I can end task on and maybe which I don’t need in my system at all! What they do is set up a shared screen entry, so I can watch what they’re doing but they have control of my computer.

50 minutes on the phone, reduced the memory usage to 75%, from 88%. I should be good to go!! Need to restart my machine before bed and after logging in, in the morning. Then things will be updated properly. I should have updated my Windows 10 this afternoon. It will take at least 30 minutes, which I didn’t have this afternoon. So, morning will have to work for that. The “rest of the story” is that everything was fine after time passed and I got all the stuff completed. So I have successfully been able to operate both browsers without problems throughout the weekend.

Also, unloaded the dishwasher from yesterday, and reloaded it and ran it this afternoon.
I spent a lot of time transferring videos from my Exilim camera because its memory was filled. I still have 2 years of work to backup, when the battery is recharged. I charged one today, but used it until it lost its charge. Have been recharging the 2nd battery, which will probably be charged in the middle of the night, so I can use it tomorrow. The second battery will need to be charged. Still have some more cleanup with that, but I’m making progress.

Supper: Fried sliced yellow summer squash, beans and pork, garden (to accompany our own summer squash). Dessert was apple crisp with strawberry ice cream.

Saturday, Sept 12

I actually slept in this morning. Lots to do.

We talked to a plumber who will come out to our place next week sometime to check out all that we need done, but he said he could handle it all, Kelly Hunter is his name.

I spent a lot of time finishing a long letter with photos to people we have known in Idaho for 40 years. We had 40 acres of farmland north of Southwick, ID, which we eventually sold them after they rented it for several years. It was to be our retirement home, but instead we left Troy, ID to move to Ellensburg, WA.
We kept our horses there and went riding in the hills while they were renters. They were originally from Iowa, and had a large family (5 kids).
Various snacks through the afternoon for each of us.

Supper: Beverage, orange juice, a cheeseburger with BBQ sauce, our homegrown onions fried, very hot oven baked scalloped potatoes, with strawberry ice cream for dessert. Orange juice.

Played cat rotation all day, and I just captured a mouse (dead) brought in as a gift for her dinner by Sue. Added it to the plastic bag in the freezer. She brought it in after John was already in bed, and wanted to exchange for a late dinner. I obliged her wishes and then went to bed myself.

We’ve run the fan of the air-handler all day and I stayed inside to stay out of the smoke. We have been socked in all day with only a ½ mile visibility with an orange tinge to the air. It may continue for a couple of days.
At 5:00 p.m. today, this was the extent of smoke in the PNW states: Not nice. Still, we are not threatened by fire, so we are lucky.From the GOES west satellite from UW Atmospheric Science

Sunday, Sept 13

Still socked in at 8:00 a.m. on the GOES west satellite imagery.

This will be a premiere video showing this morning by Nick Zentner in ‘Nick from Home’ fall series on Exotic Terranes.

#77 – Exotic B: Basement Glimpses

Brunch: Bacon, eggs scrambled with cheese, fried {from frozen} hash browns, bowl of our own frozen (thawed a little) Bing cherries. We had no cherries at all this year.

We are eating old stuff out of our very old and inefficient chest freezer we bought in Iowa at an auction, and brought here. That makes it well over 50 years old. We are trying to empty it to buy a newer standup freezer that is more efficient and accessible to put in our new utility room. We need to empty this old one and take it to the dump. There are not any freezers available in Ellensburg until late this fall, as they are all back-ordered at every store. People bought them out when Panic2020 arrived.

Since March of 2017 we’ve had a big pan of Costco Chicken Alfredo in a freezer: 3.89 pounds at $3.99 per pound. We cooked it for supper. Some will have to go back in the freezer, ’cause four or five days of leftovers does not make for happy times.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

We are the red dot north of the smoke. A map for Tuesday, below, is a zoomed image.
Mt. Rainier is the white place to the left.

Monday, Aug 31

At 2:30 p.m. today, a fire arsonist is suspected to have set a fire about 25 miles SW of us in the dry grass and trees near Wenas Lake north of Naches, WA. Official name is the Evans Canyon Fire. Many images are now on the web.

I spent a bunch of time talking with friend and former student, Kathryn Buckholz south of the fire on the other side of Cleman Mountain. She is currently in an area with an evacuation notice #2 (get ready to leave home). Spellings in the area are confusing. The fire came up Umtanum Ridge [The Road is spelled with a ‘p’, Umptanum; while most spelling of “tanum” are “taneum”], The first ridge south of EBRB is called Manastash Ridge, then Umtanum, then Cleman.

Kathryn sent a couple of photos of the smoke from her backyard, and Wayne Erickson took one from the north side of the fire:Top two photos from south with Umtanum Ridge in the background, left was 2.5 hrs prior to 2nd, by Kathryn Buckholz. Bottom taken from Cove Rd in the Kittitas Valley, the North view over Manastash Ridge, the next day, by Wayne Erickson. Story continues through the week.

A related new Nick YouTube video is scheduled at 6:00 p.m. tonight,
From WikiPedia: Manastash Ridge is a long anticline mountain ridge located in central Washington state in the United States. Manastash Ridge runs mostly west-to-east in Kittitas and Yakima counties, for approximately 50 miles. The ridge is part of the Yakima Fold Belt of east-tending long ridges formed by the folding of Miocene Columbia River basalt flows.
‘Nick on the Fly’ #20 – Manastash Ridge Field Trip, 8-31-20 (42 mins)

Supper: Pan fried chicken breast pieces with onions and lots of red grapes, strawberry ice cream for dessert.

Tuesday, Sept 1 – – Nancy’s Birthday! – –
A beautiful valley sunrise starts my special day:Sunrise over lovely “quilt-barn”, photo by EvieMae Schuetz

Today was our day to go to Ellensburg for the 10% off Senior Discount the first Tuesday of each month, to check our Bi-Mart numbers, plus pick up a bag for a Game Day this week at the Senior Center. While on the drive in, we saw significant smoke coming from the Evans Canyon Fire. Once home, we immediately added the Modis Satellite Imagery (Active Fire Mapping) to our Google Earth Pro to check out the fire’s hot spot history. An early image is below and the spots are all are bright red, meaning they started within the previous 6 hours.

Also, the fire is still not under control, and people have been evacuated. More than 100 dwellings threatened & high winds continue and fire acreage more than doubled. It has made it to MODIS satellite view. John just snipped this image for me to share, with the study group I was going to be sending a reminder for the video to be presented Wednesday night.I’m showing this here for you to compare in 4 days with what I will post below on 9/4 of the entire footprint of the fire, which has all the values (in the map legend) of the boxes and the colors and the spot in the center of the square, indicating the initial posting of a fire at that location. The dark red is 0-6 hrs since starting.

Supper: For dinner: spaghetti with meat sauce (93% fat free ground beef) we got on sale today, pears, and Rose’ wine. Rather than “birthday” cake, we are having peach pie and ice cream for dessert.

Wednesday, Sept 2

I haven’t figured the best way to thank everyone on so many platforms (Facebook, Email, Postal mail, phone calls) for all the birthday greetings I received. Do not have time to thank individually, with all this fire problem up to 13,000 acres now, major evacuations, extra firefighting crews called in, and high winds continuing. I’m sure this bunch is exhausted from fighting overnight. Not nice.

The Fire continues out of control to 15,000 acres, 0% contained, topped the ridge and now will be advancing down into the Umtanum Canyon which slopes eventually to the Yakima Canyon river road. Also, some rural areas nearby adjacent cities (Naches, Selah) are on immediate evacuation notice.

Right now our valley is not threatened, but the footprint is spreading rapidly. During the day they have airplane assistance and bombers with pink retardant spray. The jet resupplies at Moses Lake as it did when if flew over our house for the Snag Canyon Fire, 2014. Other planes and helicopters are involved.These I snipped from a video taken by a firefighter on the ground.

Unrelated: Not good 18 min waiting to renew our blog’s domain name, and never got my call back. I deleted the charge box and closed it. Will wait for Oct 2 automatic renewal and hope my change in credit card number worked and they renew for $16.99 for 2 years. That up significantly from the charge for two years in 2018, last time we renewed. Jason was supposed to return my call, but he did not.

For Nick fans, a short introduction to a new series started in a week on Sept 9th.
I know you have already been warned about this tonight, but want to add to the story, as you get on to watch:

‘Nick on the Fly’ #21 – Thorp Cliffs Field Trip

CWU’s Nick Zentner leads a virtual GEOL 101 LAB field trip from the Thorp Cliffs in central Washington. 30 minutes.

While you are waiting, watch the 2-min video below at the start, announcing a new series starting in a week on Sept 9th evening.

‘Nick from Home’ Livestreams return Wed, Sept 9th!

CWU’s Nick Zentner launches a new set of livestreams…this time with a theme. ‘Exotic Terranes from A to Z’ begins on September 9 and runs through early December of 2020. Wednesdays at 6:00 pm Pacific and Sundays at 9:00 am Pacific. Join us!

Thursday, Sept 3

Starting with a cute picture of a 16-year old girl in Idaho with her new puppy, a French Brittany. Back in the late 1990s we sold an orange and white Brittany to the family, we’d had for 3 months, and had named Brick. They actually picked him up from us in Ellensburg, but then they moved from WA to the Midwest (Iowa), and we lost track. They were moving back to Idaho, and decided to search for us. Found us still here. When I explained we were no longer breeders, they searched and found this puppy. He and she are so cute. Rebecca with her puppy Brooks, a French Brittany.

This is a video Nick put on for anyone to watch at any time. It was not published as a Premiere version with a livestream chat. He’s checking options to prevent buffering on his Premieres that have been happening.
This is well worth the watch for the two field trip stops 1 and 2, especially now that this lab will be viewed by the first meeting of his Geology 101 freshman class, next Wednesday, the first day of classes this fall quarter as a virtual field trip. Currently, it’s good he was practicing with us and filmed it in advance because now that road is closed and he could not even get there because of the current wildfire. Next is the field trip he was filming for them to take for their first Virtual Field trip of the quarter.

‘Nick on the Fly’ #22 Yakima River Field Trip (32 mins)

CWU’s Nick Zentner leads a virtual Geol 101 LAB field trip from the Yakima River in central Washington.
The Evans Canyon Fire increased to 52,000 acres and evacuation 3 notices (GET OUT NOW) posted to the Yakima Canyon Road. The road is closed at Thrall Rd (entrance to the canyon just south of EBRG), all the way to Selah. So any locals who planned to go to the two Field Trip stops Nick showed us last night, will have access only to the Ringer Loop Stop 1, and NOT to Stop 2, at the debris flows. (as of tomorrow, the fire jumped to Ringer Loop Rd, so Stop 1 is unavailable too).

Be sure to note to have read the Martin K. Kaatz publication before viewing yesterday’s Yakima River field trip. (Thanks again to Jessie Bunker-Maxwell for researching this for the study group).

July 3, 1998 Yakima River Debris Flows – Martin R. Kaatz

Marty was a CWU geographer, and hiking friend of John.
This was presented as a premier, and at a time when all could view it. (6:00 p.m.)

‘Nick on the Fly’ #23 – Snoqualmie Pass (26 mins)

CWU’s Nick Zentner improvises at Snoqualmie Pass in central Washington. The Yakima Valley Glacier and Guye Peak sandstone are discussed. Recorded on August 22, 2020

Friday, Sep 4

John and I had setup our Google Earth Pro with Active Fire Mapping Software to capture MODIS Satellite imagery of the hot spots of the fire, so we could be following its path. This is from 9-4-20 just to show the location of the fire jumping down near the entrance/exit we usually take at Thrall Rd, when returning north on I-82 {aka WA 97}.The fire has crossed the ridges and has come into our valley, and is at Ringer Road.

High winds overnight advanced the footprint of the fire from 2,500 acres to 52,000 acres; eventually growing to 64,000 acres. And changed evacuation orders at 9:00 p.m. last night to #3 (get out immediately), in several areas.

This is 3 miles from the south edge of Ellensburg. Not likely a threat to town because of being surrounded by irrigated agricultural farmland and roads. Everything north of there is on irrigated farmland, and will not be sagebrush and burnable cover (cheat grass) for many miles. Except our property is north of the highest canal, so we are in the semi-desert shrub-steppe.

However, I’ll add some fire photos made today to show the view during the late afternoon today, by EvieMae Schuetz.The hills are a’fire; taken from Alkali Rd (marker in prior map) by EvieMae Shuetz; The smoke picture she took from Clerf Rd east of Kittitas, WA.

This morning at 10:30 a.m. I joined a Zoom session at the Senior Center with 3 others for Game Day this week. I was playing a card game with two decks of special game cards, one Red and one Green. Neither of the players had ever played the game before. It is called Apples to Apples. A staff member was the leader and the judge, keeping the scores and explaining the game. The youngest gal there, was the winner with 16 pts. I had 9 pts. It lasted the full hour plus a few minutes. Next week the same folks will continue a game we played last week, Yahtzee. We all like that game and are happy to repeat it. It’s a short week because they have a Holiday on Labor Day. Our leader will actually be on vacation at the beach all week so the director will likely be our game leader. It will be at an earlier time on Thursday, next week.

Afterwards, we were scheduled to go to town for Flu shots with our pharmacist, but with the severe smoke in the atmosphere, I decided to stay home and inside with the a/c in our house to filter the smoke particulates. We rescheduled for a later date in Sept.

Today, we got 4 scammer calls, with two each coming from the same number, one from Missouri and the other from Issaquah, WA. I blocked them both for the future.

I’m not sure all of the outside chores John accomplished today, and I was worried for his being out in the smoky air. He says it was “not too bad.” We had worse smoke in our valley today than in recent days, because of the wind direction. The Evans Canyon Fire is still raging. The Yakima Canyon Road at Thrall Rd is now closed to any traffic (except evacuees and firefighters, until Tuesday, 9-8.) Firefighters are poised to prevent its crossing the Yakima River and burning upslope to reach Interstate 82.

Tonight at 5:00 I went on line on Facebook: to this site, the inciweb.nwcgov/incident/7132/ link to get the Facebook link to a meeting with the community about the Evans Canyon Fire. It was a bit disappointing and did not provide much information I didn’t already know from local social media. The only new information received was depressing, and that was that 6 structures (homes?) were totally lost in the fire along with several outbuildings. We have yet to hear if any of our friends who were evacuated lost anything.

Clarinet music from Kathy Williams-DeVries in Brisbane, Australia.

Kathy Plays Reger 9-4-20 (80 mins)

Supper: tonight we ate late, but had meatloaf & potatoes, and a piece of Key Lime pie for dessert.

Saturday, Sept 5

This morning at 9:00 a.m. is a premiere YouTube showing.

‘Nick on the Fly’ #24 Seattle Glacial Till, 9-5-20 (37 mins)

CWU’s Nick Zentner visits glacial deposits in Seattle, Washington. Recorded on September 1, 2020.

I was tired from a restless night, so decided to take an afternoon nap. Guess I needed it, as I slept for an hour. Might not have awakened if John hadn’t come in the front door.

Worked on the geology study group necessities planning for the future (the first, tomorrow a.m. at 9:00 a.m) and then adding a new member to the study group. Also, had to load the dishwasher.

Supper: Meatloaf, potatoes, and fried cauliflower; butter pecan crunch ice cream for dessert.

Sunday, Sept 6

‘Nick on the Fly’ #25 – Icicle Creek Exotic Bedrock 9-6-20 (49 mins)

Nick’s explanation of this video when introducing it:
“We started up canyon at the Chiwaukum Schist and viewed that, (coming on down the canyon, we realized that the Mt Stuart Batholith is younger and intruded into the Chiwaukum Schist, and at the same time also intruded up into some of the Ingalls Terrane which was all that Ultramafic Mantle material. This area is a key portion for the Baha-BC discussion and unraveling the exotic terrane history in the northern Cascades.”
It’s our lead into a new Nick from Home livestreaming on Exotic Terranes in WA, accreted on from Mexico when Mt. Stuart was moved from Mexico to British Columbia, but because of offset eastward rotation, Mt. Stuart stayed in WA. Geological history of our region, this theory is now well-followed by the science community. Those lectures officially start this coming Wednesday evening at 6:00 p.m. and continue for 26 episodes two days/week until December. The 2nd day is Sunday morning, at 9:00 a.m. to pull in the European community.

Brunch today: cheese bratwurst and Protein shake.

At 12:40 we received a disturbing call that there was a fire a mile west of us headed east, so I have been logged onto the police scanner listening. Sandy Meier called to warn us the fire was in our vicinity and 6 fire trucks had gone up Wilson Creek Rd by their house. John got in the car and found a deputy sheriff at the Corner of Naneum and Thomas Roads, who told him the firefighting crews knocked it down, and there was no longer any danger or need to evacuate. The cause was a backhoe hitting an electric utility pole on Frontier Rd, which fell, starting the fire within the Rustic Acres subdivision, in the “rural area” north of Ellensburg, with Wilson Creek Rd on the west, and an east-west road along the south side, Thomas Rd. This development is accessible about a mile west of our home. At the time, of the fire report, the winds were blowing from the west, at 21 mph across dry shrub-steppe vegetation and much cheat grass toward a forest of trees along a creek.

Another warning we had was from our neighbor a mile north on Naneum, who saw the smoke (we had not seen, and can’t because of the trees to the west). Allen and his son drove down to check it out and talked to a sheriff’s deputy at the closed road on the north side to get to Wilson Creek, Rd, closest to the start of the fire on the west side of Thomas Rd. So he had heard the same story as John did on the East side of Thomas.

As they drove up, I received a return call from a friend on Thomas Rd east of the start of the fire. They were receiving a lot of smoke in their location and realized how they might be evacuated, when hearing the fire engines arrive. They were packing their motor-home with all their important papers, to be ready to leave. They were notified by a deputy sheriff very quickly when the fire was contained. The Public Utility District crews are now replacing poles and wires.

At 3:00 p.m. today, temp at airport is 94°; temp on our front porch in the shade is down from 94° earlier to 90.5°.

John is preparing a major chore today for a Monday happening. We will be draining and flushing our water heater to get out the crud in the tank, and the hose has to come out of the back patio door, which is the west side of the house and our hottest outside part of the house. Power to the tank has been shut off and we have continued use of that water. Thus, it is now cooled. Those in the know suggest this flushing be done once a year. Don’t ask. Okay. Never. New tank 15 years ago.

John started his nap at 3:25 waiting for the temp to decrease before going outside, and slept for over an hour.
I need a nap too, but I need to finish this blog as well so we can go to bed earlier tonight. I’m enjoying a cool PoweradeZero drink of Strawberry/Lemonade while working on photo insert creations for the blog.
Today’s activities now include finishing the blog, unloading dishwasher, putting medicines in for the week. Enjoying Labor Day holiday. Ha! Retired. Every day is a holiday.

Supper: Cheezy biscuits and Beef Stew.

Wind is still blowing but John just opened the windows in the house and the temp is down to 79°.

Here’s one last view of the fire extent ending this morning and still okay. The fire is contained with a “footprint” of 75,800 acres. Not everything therein burned. Report by authorities will follow.Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Monday, Aug 24

Called Bi-Mart pharmacy about PreviDent 5000 ppm Booster Plus Prescription strength toothpaste. Spearmint. 3.4 fl oz Rx only.
There I can get 2 containers for $11.75, which is considerably less than $15.00 for one. Turns out the 2 containers are filled by a different pharmaceutical company (Cypress) into two tubes, that seem easier to dispense than from the Colgate one plastic bottle from the dentist, and in the process, I get two more ounces of the gel toothpaste. I only use it at night, when on my way to bed, because I cannot drink anything (even water) until ½ hour after using. So I take my nightly pills before brushing my teeth. I talked to Tiffany at my dentist office, and she’s calling in the prescription for me.

Of all things, at 9:15 a.m. I looked out the back patio door as I sat down with my 2nd coffee refill, and saw movement. It was a hummingbird in front of a red ribbon bow attached to the back glass door to warn birds not to crash into the window reflecting the sky. While watching and wishing I had access to a camera, a second hummingbird flew up seeking nectar neither found. That is not the first time we have seen that behavior, but it is the first time for twin hummers.

I spent a good amount of time cutting John’s hair today, but he looks a lot better.
John fixed a late lunch (a spicy grilled cheese & pepperoni sandwich, ending with a caramel/vanilla ice cream bar.
Now he’s taking a late afternoon nap.

Supper: John had hamburger & onions & Cod fish for meat; I had Fried Chicken Breast. We both had our garden tomatoes, beets, & fried onion rings, dessert: vanilla ice cream covered with hot chocolate fudge sauce.Tonight’s sunset, by Mike McCloskey, taken from J. Ronald Road 6 miles south of us. We’re surrounded by trees for our view west.

Tuesday, Aug 25

John to Dentist, for a filling, and we will be billed. I did not have to pay ½ up front. I went by Hospice Friends for a case of Chocolate Ensure, by the AAC to pick up my card and dice for a Zoom game Thursday of Yahtzee, and to Bi-Mart to pick-up 4 bottles of GoodSense Artificial tears Megan left for me at the front desk. On back to the Pharmacy to grab some Fisherman Friends, and to pick up my Prevident Fluoride toothpaste.

Here’s an interesting broadcast—Nick Zentner being interviewed on another guy’s podcast (audio):

#018 – Nick Zentner: Teaching in Creative Ways

But, tonight is another presentation from on the road from Nick’s field trip to Bellingham, WA.

‘Nick on the Fly’ #16 – Baja BC interview with Darrel Cowan, 8-25-20 (53 mins)

Supper: was more breakfast for me with left over ham & cheese omelet, red grapes, tomatoes, and then ice cream for dessert with hot fudge sauce.

Wednesday, Aug 26

We’ve a friend in Super 1’s pharmacy named Tuesday. I called her about flu shots, ’cause John read they are being distributed. Flu shots are in; she’s going to get hers early too, and will be working 3 days next week: Sept 3, 4, 5 and we are just to stop by.

Wrote check for our farrier David Hazlett, and John is now out waiting for his arrival coming at 11:00 to trim Myst. There was a delay in his arrival because of our living in a rural area. The road was full of cattle being moved from summer feeding grounds on the mountain to the ranch. Had he actually been on time himself, he’d have made it in the driveway before they came by.

At 11:00 a.m. the temperature outside is up to 76° at the airport, and on our front porch it’s 79°.
I’m working on in–house and on-computer chores. Currently, alternating between dishwasher loading and computer needs.

At 4:00 p.m., it’s up to 87° at airport; front porch: 82.4°.
5:00 p.m., 84° at airport; 81.3° on our front porch.Nick with Bijou in his backyard

‘Nick on the Fly’ #17 – A return to ‘Nick from Home’ Livestreams (20 mins)

Supper: Cross rib boneless steak sliced thin fried with onions, corn-on-the-cob, ice cream with chocolate hot sauce for dessert.

I sent an ALERT to our study group tonight in preparation for tomorrow night’s viewing of another field trip led by Nick Zentner.
Tonight, those watching the video from Nick’s backyard, with Bijou his cat buddy, heard he had posted another video for Thursday night’s showing at 6:00 p.m.

Thursday, Aug 27

More fun time with Yahtzee game this morning. It was held on Zoom at the AAC (Senior Center) at 10:00 a.m. We only had time for one game but enjoyed it. I did not win, but all of us except the winner had decent scores. She won because of getting an extra 100 points from having a two Yahtzees (all 5 dice the same). Pretty unusual, I imagine.
11:00 a.m. temp on front porch, 83.1°.

Another evening field trip from Nick Zentner for our education:

‘Nick on the Fly’ #18 – Quartz Mountain Exotic Bedrock, 8-27-20 (39 mins)

Quartz Mountain is about half-way between Ellensburg and Mt. Rainier. Shortly after we arrived here 31 years ago, we went exploring and visited. Great luck! We hit the peak of wild flowers and the large high meadows held jumbles of blossoms and many bumblebees. They didn’t mind our intrusion – just moved away and let us take photos. [About 6,300 feet; here: 47.073521, -121.078980 ]

Supper: Boiled shrimp, tomatoes, and pears, ice cream and hot fudge sauce for dessert.

Friday, Aug 28

Today, I paid on line, our support classification dues to the Kittitas County Historical Museum. I captured the payment details and filed in a folder in my 2020 Donations.

We sometime get two Scammer calls per day and I usually look up the number and block it for future calls to our landline. Then we know when we get one, because it only rings once and stops.

This is the first time for this (but we have heard of it before because we know the Social Security Administration never reaches anyone by phone, but only by postal mail.

SSA Scammer call at 2:01 p.m. today:John came in because of the heat and for a snack, Reece’s Peanut butter cup, followed later by a half of an ice cream sandwich for each of us. He finished digging onions this morning; now they are drying.

It’s now 84.2° outside at 2:30 p.m. The last reading at the airport was 85° before 2:00 p.m.
At 3:00 p.m. it’s 83.5° on our front porch & 85° at the airport

Our morning delivery load of 15.84 tons of gravel from Ellensburg Cement Products (ECP) was an hour early arriving, instead of the planned time of 11:00 a.m. We’ll be billed on our credit card Monday for $260.57 + 21.63= ~ $282.20.

I had a time conflict with being able to watch tonight’s music, but I’ll list it here for you to choose, if you wish to view and listen.
At 5:00 p.m. PST, Kathy Williams-DeVries presented her music livestream from Brisbane, Australia.

Kathy presents Sacro-profanus Concentus Musicas by Schmelzer 8-28-20

She also sent a “Geology Teaser” with a lot of slides of a tour, with many geologic specimens, in a museum setting and she added a musical background she is playing on a recorder:

Geology Department University of Queensland

About 6 PM tonight, Nick Zentner added a new Nick on the Fly video to his packet announcing it on Instagram (social media). You’ll need to follow his YouTube Channel to see when he plans to show it, so you can set your reminder for the time and date. It is going to cover Rimrock Lake (on White Pass-Hwy 12 west from Naches, WA), to discuss another exotic terrane which is called the Rimrock Inlier and has been studied by Bob Miller and other geologists.

Supper: thinly sliced pork fried with onion, corn-on the cob, red grapes, and crunchy butter pecan ice cream for dessert.
Now taking meds, and going to bed!

Saturday, Aug 29

The tops and roots of some of the onions were dry, so John trimmed those for storage. He’s wetting the landscaping activity to prevent dust, and alternating between onions, rocks, dirt, gravel, and fixing meals. Annie and he go for the papers and mail, and feeding the horses. The resident deer and cats are frequent companions. Woody is a stealthy watcher while Czar is like a familiar. Sue just lies around in the shade watching the activity.

I’ve been torn between computer chores, getting out information to the geology study group in preparation for tomorrow morning’s broadcast at 9:00 a.m. which has a worldwide audience.

The next “Photo” is to show the high wind speed (gusts) we experienced during the time we attended a gathering. At 4:20 this afternoon, we went 2.5 miles north to the end of Naneum Rd to a Celebration of Life party for two people–most recently, Beth Brunson, who died of a brain tumor. Damned cancer! Sad thing was she was only 58 and she had survived for 2.5 years the first time she had it by going through chemo and radiation. She was unwilling to through the treatment again, and made an understandable decision not to redo the ordeal.

The surviving family members put on a very nice BBQ gathering outside and invited many people in the valley. Everyone there visited during 43 mph wind gusts and 70 degree temps. I was dressed for it and still cold. I’m glad we went. Now I need to send a nice sympathy card to the family, via email to the couple’s daughter, even though I wrote in the guest book. Beth’s husband Randy died 3 years ago, also of cancer. Today’s activity was a joint Celebration of Life dedicated to the couple with several tables covered with books, photos, and photos on story posters of them in their younger days, being active in our community with their two children, especially in outdoor activities.

Supper: At the BBQ we had choices of several salads (including potato salad, Caesar salad), hamburger (I had ½), ½ bratwurst (excellent-should have had a whole one), chips, roast beef & turkey sliced meat), two items from a full table of many desserts, cookies, cakes and candies. We had one like a Nanaimo bar and another with Chex cereal, caramel, and chocolate.
Everyone at our table loved it. The photo here, from the web is close, but not quite what it looked like. Once home, we had some butter pecan crunch ice cream for dessert.
Take meds, fluoride teeth, post FitBit stats, and get some sleep!

Sunday, Aug 30

I had hot coffee to warm up this morning after a low outside temperature of 50° at 5:00 a.m.; inside, when the hallway got to 69°, John turned the heater on. Also, I made a strawberry protein shake to tide me through the morning before our brunch.

This was the geology of Washington excursion of the morning:

‘Nick on the Fly’ #19 – Rimrock Lake Exotic Bedrock, 8-30-20 (52 mins)

The YouTube description includes this: CWU’s Nick Zentner visits the Rimrock Lake Inlier in central Washington to continue learning about Mesozoic exotic terrane basement rocks.

This morning’s show added two more people to our study group.

Brunch today: Bacon, an egg, and a blueberry pancake, with coffee.

3:00 p.m. today, temp at airport is 77°; temp on our front porch is 75.6°. John’s napping.

Last week we were concerned about the hurricane threatening our friend Gina in Houston. With her broken leg and all her harbored rescue reptiles, there would be no way for her to evacuate. Happily, Hurricane Laura turned northeastward and did not threaten her. It did quite a job on Louisiana, however.

Supper: Spaghetti with sausage meat sauce.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan