Keeping track

Monday, Aug 3

What a difference a week makes!On the patio behind our house, last week’s then single sunflower has added multiple surrounding blooms. But note at the very top the petals have started their demise.

Now, comparing changes within the new room where our attached 2-car garage was previously:Shelving moved from new room through swinging door to the new utility room. I’m standing where the chest freezer will be, and a new Upright Chest Freezer will be placed in the fall where purple bag of dry cat food is above. We’ll have to redo the plumbing connections eventually on the well water treatment.Not to scale, but shows the start of John’s computer desk setup, across the room (behind him) where he’s put up temporarily a Radio/CD player and two speakers. We will be putting the speakers on oak wood two-drawer filing cabinets, and the player in the center on something yet to be determined.

Call from Safeway this morning, to come by Customer Service desk to pick up 2 boxes of Kellogg’s 100% All Bran Buds at $5.99/each. We shall do it tomorrow when in town.
Two more Robocallers blocked today-at least one was political, the day before the election.
I know I worked on things throughout the day, but apparently too busy to make any notes.

Tuesday, Aug 4

Started the morning a little later than usual, but we’d been up till midnight and longer for me last night, trying to complete a document for proofing to send to a fellow Zentnerd in Europe.

This is my morning to have nothing to drink or eat, and to take a weekly pill followed by not lying down for ½ hour and then eating. Today I have to connect my backup external drive for an automatic backup of all new files on my computer at Noon. It can do it without me at home on the computer, but having it in sleep mode.

I loaded and started the dishwasher before we went to town.
We didn’t leave till afternoon, delayed by a visiting neighbor who came down with a gift. It was a salmon he caught where the Okanagan River joins the Columbia River. The Okanagan flows south (Map here) across an open and hot sunny landscape. Its water is warmer than the fish will enter, so they are bunching up in the cooler, larger, river. He took some onions; we had nothing else.

In EBRG, our first stop was to Carl’s Jr for a coupon special of two different sandwiches for each (BOGO—Buy One, Get One free), which we ate on for a couple more meals. From there, on to another place to get some groceries at 10% off, on the first Tues of the month (just on Kroger products—John’s cola drinks). Only bought a few mostly diet on the shelves. While there, we bought some yogurt on sale for the last day at the lower price.
Went by Safeway to the Customer Service desk to pick up 2 boxes of Kellogg’s 100% All Bran Buds. Carmen set this up last week, and checked me out this week.

Drove by Joanie’s taking my old and new neck pillow, an unwanted hot curry package, and some just harvested onions. She has a piece of white fleece she’ll make a pattern for to sew me a cover for my old pillow whose inflatable bellows will only hold one night. Now I have a backup.

We drove by a townhouse on N. Brook Court, to pick up a hairdryer I requested on a free Facebook site. I left a container for her of a few cherry tomatoes.
From Nick’s mudroom I picked up a large envelope with my Craters of the Moon on the Snake River Plain materials. I had loaned him for one of the 75 livestreams.

Wednesday, Aug 5

Midweek of a smoky time in our Kittitas Valley. Regional winds from a fire in northern California – 83,000 acres, called the July Complex – carried smoke into Washington. The fire, red dot, was just south of the OR/CA border. It is close to “contained”, but not fully even on Sunday evening.

The Yellowstone “Hot Spot”
This is a fellow we met and videotaped his lecture in a local Ellensburg IAF Chapter that meets monthly at the CWU Geology building. Those meetings are now canceled for the fall, along with Nick’s downtown lecture series.

Mike Poland: Yellowstone Volcano Observatory Monthly Update: August 1, 2020- (4 mins)

Supper: Sliced roast beef thanks to our new gadget, an electric slicer. So excited about watching him use the slicer, I have forgotten what we ate with it. John put a boneless round roast in the slow-cooker, then put that in the fridge over night. We liked the outcome.

Thursday, Aug 6

About 25 miles north of us:
Tonight at 6:00 p.m. is another ‘Nick on the Fly’ field trip, this to Camas Meadows, presented by his Native guest Randy Lewis. This was a beautiful trip down memory lane with his cultural heritage reflections of living and communicating with nature in the Wenatchee Mountains and meadows.He actually started this presentation in the high hills, rocks, and dirt, above the meadows with some powerful stories.

‘Nick on the Fly’ #9 – Camas Meadows with Randy Lewis

Below is some background information on the meadows with directions to the site, restrictions, and parking notes (one needs a state Discover Pass to enter):
Other interesting facts about the old wildflowers: Camas Meadows Natural Area Preserve
WTA Trail Guide– Camas Meadows
and here’s a comment from the locale newspaper in Wenatchee, regarding the place. Camas Meadows, where the checker-mallow is found, is a beautiful sweeping grassland amongst a ponderosa pine forest with a stand of alders in the middle. Camas Creek cuts through the center of the alder stand. It’s unique to have a meadow at about 3,000 feet of elevation (Wenatchee World News).
Supper: Spaghetti and beef round sliced with a bean/tomato chili mixture John made. Side of peaches and banana, and orange juice.

Friday, Aug 7

Up at 4:00 to 5:00 with cats, but back to sleep, still very tired from yesterday’s activities. I slept in until almost 9:00 p.m., but I was up later than desired last night.

John was up and around doing inside and outside chores. The temperatures are lower today, starting out in the 60s, only supposed to go to 70s today. We are staying home.

Called my PCP’s office to leave a message, for call back by Lizzy or Kaylein to transfer prescription from Kaiser Permanente (mail order) to Bi-Mart Pharmacy for John’s Hydrochlorothiazide (needs to be 25 mg tablet cut in half, which makes it the best price (yeah, I’ll play their games), and the pharmacy obliges by halving these for us. His dosage is 12.5 mg. I never received a response (which I had requested). Telephone communication with that office is next to impossible. I should have left a message with a triage nurse who knows me well, to honcho the request.

Our neighbors’ son must have gotten more ammunition as he is out shooting again. It’s right next to our pasture land, but the horses are not bothered by it, because they’re used to it.
Lunch: John fixed a grilled cheese, roast beef, & mushroom sandwich for lunch; it was scrumptious.

John harvested more onions today, and has written it up in his weekly blog column, Not So Nasty News. Check it out (has nice photo descriptors). Also has some nasty news included about Water Hemlock near our irrigation ditch.
John introduced a term I had not previously known of: (the Wisconsinan Glacier): interesting for the geologists reading this blog. We learned it simply as the Wisconsin Glacier. This mention is of an appearance in Ohio.

Check this link:
Wisconsinan Glacier

As well, he harvested some red cherry tomatoes, which we enjoyed with supper tonight.
His column is full of interesting material, go ahead below mine and go through his Not So Nasty News.

Today, I sent this message to the Geology study group, about two upcoming videos.
Next are the next TWO ‘Nick on the Fly’ programs, #10 & #11. Titles only, so please keep an eye on his YouTube channel for the expected time and date, and when I know the URLs, I’ll notify the study group.
Here is what I know about #10: Peoh Point. Nick will be south of Cle Elum, WA with his guest, Geologist, Jeff Tepper, University of Puget Sound.

Here is what I know about #11: Mission RidgeNick will be on Mission Ridge with his guest, Mike Eddy, Geologist & Geochronologist from Purdue University

Cancelled the music from Australia because our leader, Kathy, was not feeling well.
Supper: Beef crockpot chili, red cherry tomatoes, peaches & banana salad.

Next is something that arrived at 6:30 p.m. from Nick via his message on Instagram I just happened to refresh and see 9 mins after he posted, for his field trip series ‘Nick on the Fly’ – Cash Prairie and a hike into the William O Douglas Wilderness Area, near Rimrock Lake, in view of Mt. Rainier, Goats Rocks Wilderness and Mt. Adams. He will hike into Shellrock Peak, and look at deposits from Ghost Volcanoes. Check this out for #12 in the series.Map and Satellite image of area, between Yakima, WA & White Pass, Hwy 12 takes you along the north edge of Rimrock Lake.

Saturday, Aug 8

Started the morning with normal sleeping in for me, and John was up and working in the new room on his computer. Now he’s done his morning feeding chores, and I’ve been up working on my projects. The most interesting is a phone call request which was all though messages only with the nurse of my PCP about a prescription for John being transferred from one pharmacy to another. They received the phone request in the morning and were supposed to call me back in person to discuss the details. I thought I was clear about that, and the details, but I never received any call. This morning, however, I received a call from the pharmacy for pick-up today of the med. I called to check and found it was the right drug, but with the wrong number of months covered. It was filled for one month, not 3 which all of ours normally are. It’s now been corrected, and we will pick it up next Tuesday.

My main chore today is working on the weekly blog, and to load dirty dishes.
Brunch: Bacon, peaches, blueberry pecan pancake with maple syrup.
Nice temperatures for working outside today and tomorrow (in the 70s (currently 64°) with a 32 mph breeze. Tomorrow in the low 80s, Monday higher 80s, Tuesday back to lower 80s highs, Wednesday cools to 70s. At 3:00 p.m., wind gusts went to 38 mph. Next Sunday – 90°, maybe.

We did receive our mail earlier than usual today, and delivery of our newspaper. The front page had an interesting story which relates to several of the videos we have been recently getting from Nick to South Cle Elum Ridge and to Easton’s Cabin Creek. Unfortunately, the article started on the front page of the paper and moved 6 pages back to be completed, giving me a difficult time to get the text into a form that could be read in here, so I did the best I could. There is going to be a survey of county residents, and I know Darcy Batura who is involved in the planning in the upper county, so I wrote her, asking how to be sure to be included in the survey. She said she would keep me in the loop.
I’ll put the two parts below separately so they are readable. The map I put in the header serves the best information about the land use patterns of ownership.Finally, change of subject:
Here’s an important background for those who enjoyed Randy Lewis’ presentation Thursday night this week, to catch his presentation back during the Nick from Home Episode in June (#59), if you missed it then.
The link is way below (at the bottom) and other info you need to watch before the actual presentation of Native American Geology.
Nick will comment a few minutes through the storytelling by Randy Lewis, in a video which was filmed by students and merged later into the final video. The most amazing thing to me is that the students filmed Randy at a separate time from when they filmed Nick, and then, with their teachers help they merged the parts of the story so it looked as if it was give and take and shared throughout the time.

I’m going to start with that, so you are sure to watch that 24-minute Vimeo video (with password protection) before you watch Nick’s video with Randy, which is a field trip to Wenatchee along the Columbia River there, looking down from up on the hill on the way to Saddle Rock. In Ellensburg, we are not far (straight distance, without roads) from there over Colockum Ridge into the Kittitas Valley.

Okay, the password you will need is Spexman Uppercase on the S is required.
The link to the Vimeo, is: just click on this link below, and then type in the Spexman password by hand, unless you can copy/paste it.

The Winter’s Tale; Dragon Spexman; Narrated by Randy Lewis; comments interspersed with geology by Nick Zentner (23 mins)

Please watch this all above, before viewing the video below.
You may have a white bar covering the bottom of the screen that blocks the translation of the Indian language appearing in yellow. Click on the X to remove that obstacle.
Actually, on the bottom far right, click on the insignia with 4 dots, and moving your cursor over it, it says “enter full screen”. You truly want to do that to watch the whole program.
After you watch it, then go here for Nick’s field trip with Randy down from Saddle Rock but above the Columbia River.

‘Nick from Home’ Livestream #59 – Native American Geology (6-6-20)

At 5:00 p.m. our wind gusts are up to 43 mph
Supper: Shrimp, fried onion rings, bowl of homemade crockpot chili, blueberry pie and frozen strawberry yogurt for dessert.

Sunday, Aug 9

Early morning, there was a 5.1 Earthquake 2.5 miles from Sparta, NC just south of VA and just east of Tenn. First time since 1916.

Sparta, 5.1 Earthquake

John’s worked outside moving rocks, for over an hour and fed the horses. He’s back in the new room now working on his computer and will be returning to the kitchen to fix an omelet.

I’m working on the blog, and other household chores.
John put together a brunch; large so left-overs for Monday. Started with a cheese omelet with 3 colors of bell peppers, tomatoes, & mushrooms, and some of the thin sliced beef. Also, home fries with onion and mushrooms. Orange juice.

I’d started unloading the dishwasher, he did more, but still it needs finished.
I stopped to put in all my meds in the dispenser for the week. Okay, all in and back to the blog. Temperature went up to 81, and John came inside to the cooler house (73 without a/c turned on). The room intended as a “living room” has lots of glass on the west side and it warms up. That’s on the fix and improve list.

I just checked Instagram and found that this afternoon Nick posted another field trip (to Bellingham, WA) to a backyard interview with Myrl E. Beck, Emeritus Prof of Geology at Western Washington University. Add that to our list, as #13 more details to follow as I learn them.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Monday, July 27

Starting off with a compilation of pictures from friends afar:Left 3 by Elise Schlosser in NJ-Turkey Vulture, Squirrel, & Smoke Signal Clouds; Right by Maude Buszek in MI-Gold Finch & Thistle.

Today, my PCP verified my dosage in my Atorvastatin and the prescription has been sent to Bi-Mart Pharmacy for the best price. Melanie is my tech there who took care of giving me all the financial information I needed to make my decisions. I transferred 4 scripts there to save many dollars.

Temperature supposed to go to 96° today.
Today at 3:00 p.m. I’m going around the rural block a mile for my haircut with Celia. Luckily, she has a/c as well as we and my car.
John moved a few buckets of rocks this morning for our yard landscaping project, watered plum trees and raspberries, and will be watering squash plants later. He returned to the house and went out and picked 10 ounces of raspberries. He’ll wait to pick more in the morning, when there’s no sun on them.

Need to work on Martijn report from the Netherlands on European geology, in a document to share with the study group. Also received a document from Kathy in Queensland, Australia, who wanted me to “proof” her script of the geology field trip tomorrow night on “The Building Stones of the Brisbane CBD.” Today is when she plans to record it. They are still in winter there. I need to review that and get comments back to her. It’s only 3:10 a.m. in OZ. Got my comments sent to her before she’d be out on the road.

None of the workers have come today. Possibly too hot for morning work in the sun and they have other projects. We are currently 6° higher than the airport 5 miles south of us (they posted 76° at 9:53 a.m. (but that would have been for the past hour). Our outside thermometer is not well located for morning readings. The siding on the house near where the unit hangs is dark brown and gets direct sun from sunrise to about 10 AM.

Another Robocaller blocked; been doing 1-2/day for weeks.
Just succeeded in renewing my 2-year free subscription to Aramco World, and sent the link to Elaine Glenn for her to initiate a subscription. Internet makes it so much easier than when we started years ago. It is on-line now, also – Aramco World . Cute owl photo there now. Photographer, Mohammad Khorshed, claims it is the best photo he has ever taken.

At 3:00 p.m. I went a mile around our rural block for my haircut from Celia. Dropped by Ken Swedberg’s truck to pick up from his visor a cloth mask he was given and gave me.

John went in the heat (but mostly on a shaded driveway) to pick up the mail today. Brought back a fabulous card from the Senior Center (Ellensburg Adult Activity Center), computer-made solely with pictures from prior years. So from them via USPS, to our scanner, and now to you:
Panic2020 closed the AAC, along with everything else in town, so I have missed a lot of the normal activities since the middle of March. Above I was a clown in A Fair to Remember, Christmas party, St. Patrick’s Day, A Classic Car Show, A Christmas Past with and old friend who passed this year, lower left sitting on Santa’s knee, John & I at AAC, on around to the Heart-shaped image of us, taken on our 50th Anniversary while at another party at the center, where we also celebrated the day, 7/12/19.

Supper: Meatloaf & beans, breaded shrimp, John’s homemade applesauce, French fried onion rings, and chocolate chip cookie dough pie for dessert.

Tuesday, July 28

Nice sunflower was blooming alone but now some neighbors are coming out of their buds. That will make all the birds happy eventually, and we’ll have a good view out the back patio door.We had a much smaller few in the garden over a week or more ago.

John’s been up and out mowing dry grass up by the county road, graining the horses, and I slept in. Now up, took my weekly Alendronate and am getting something in my stomach, plus enjoying a cup of coffee.

I’m staying home with high expected of 92° today, less than yesterday’s 99°. A hot week.

Lunch: John fixed us a grilled cheese & bacon sandwich, bowl of fruit: banana and peaches, with a drink.
Much time spent with major problems getting cleaned-up on my laptop Dell computer, with willing help by my guru, David at ComputAbility in EBRG. His machine commands repaired the problems with bad files in my memory, that he thinks might have been caused by a power surge. That had made my computer unstable and it was crashing regularly. It lost its way. The system commands found and repaired many issues. Maybe my life will be easier now. It has been stressing me big time, as many of you have heard. Fingers crossed for a new lease on life with a working computer.

John left for town to buy an upright freezer for the new Utility Room. There are none available.
When Panic2020 started folks not only bought toilet paper but apparently to have something to store it in, they bought freezers. Two of the local stores claim they don’t expect any until October. We don’t need one, except for the convenience, so now are hoping for a Christmas sale or something. Jeez. The economy has been flattened and the virus/sickness goes on.

Temperature at the airport up at 2:00 p.m. to 95°. John’s out in the hottest part of the day splashing water on squash and tomatoes, and it’s likely to get hotter.

I loaded some dishes earlier and now need to do more. Just did and now they are soaking. Need to get out the announcement to the study group about tonight’s scheduled field trip about Geology, from Australia.
For tonight, Kathy has given members of the study group interested in geology, two options for viewing her field trip.
One went live at 5:30 p.m. on Facebook.
I prefer the YouTube version, which came on at 7 p.m. Not everyone has Facebook, so those people were there too. As you are watching, look at the different rock types used in the buildings. The Brisbane tuff is very colorful, and the swirls in the sandstone quarried is amazing.

The History and Building Stones of the Brisbane CBD

Supper: Cordon Bleu, applesauce, butternut squash with marshmallows & pecans.

Wednesday, July 29

Awakened by 8:00 call from RCI, the company that handled the condo-week banking and transfers we’ve used for years. We are done with those, but the dues were paid in advance. As few are traveling, they may not last. Up at 5:00 with cats. Sadly, also up at 3:00 a.m. with problems and inability to sleep with new replacement neck pillow. I even changed my incline level/angle, to adjust. It does not fit as my old one to give support at the back of my neck. Mostly for me, the new one presses high on my cheeks and ears, a cheek/ear pillow, not a neck pillow. It has a smaller and narrower inflated support at the nape of the pillow on the back of my neck. I tried my best and finally gave up and went back to my old one. Thankfully, I finally got some more hours of sleep. I’m going to see if I can remove the cover from the old one, and deflate the new one to put in the encasing. Will do in the daytime. It is now completed and is doing fine. It’s obviously covering a larger area at the back.

Another robocaller blocked at 10:15 from Roy, WA.
Just called Bi-Mart and talked with Brenda, about John purchase yesterday for which he was swiped charges for 5 bags of dry cat food, but only brought 4 out of the store. At 10.99 each. He gave me the receipt when home, and I saw it had 5 bags, but I didn’t say anything. Until it cooled down after 8:00 p.m. last night, he didn’t go back to his car to bring in the cat food bags, and the floor mats and door step mat he bought. He put them in our new room, and came and said, come out and see what I bought at Bi-Mart today. I went and admired the mats (especially the Mohawk rug, and he had leaned 4 bags of different flavored cat food against the wall. I said, where’s the other bag? He said, I only bought 4. I told him the receipt said he paid for 5! So, it was too late to report to Bi-Mart. Brenda told me to take photos of the barcodes on the bags I have. Done. We’ll just go pick up one we were charged for.

Been busy washing a load of clothes, and need to unload the dishwasher. Also figure out the Fred Meyer 5X coupon meaning. Got two digital 5x coupons for yogurt for Tuesday next week. Made a printout to take Tuesday.

3:53 p.m. temp at airport is 100°, on our front porch, it’s 94.5°. Seems at about mid-90s the automatic sensor (See: ASOS) at the airport losses contact with reality and gives a high reading. Atmospheric researcher, Mark Albright, at the Univ. of WA, thinks the fans in the sensor need replaced. The weather folks down in Pendleton OR are 3.5 hours away and don’t care.

A young fiddler friend and his brother are boy scouts and so this is of interest: Nick talks to the boy scouts:Nick’s speech begins below in the YouTube version at 1hr 1min:
Nick Zentner, 1st Keynote Speaker at the Grand Columbia Council, Boy Scouts of America (20 minutes).
Our friends, an Ellensburg family, the Landons, have had two sons involved with BSA Troop #493. Son Beckett is still working on his Eagle Scout honor, and his main project is creating two neighborhood libraries in Ellensburg. His mom, Laura, with us at the YouTube version above, and mentioned in the notes below.
The majority of the people watching were on the main entry site for the BSA — not the YouTube version. The YouTube version was being hosted by an Eagle Scout. The main site was the center pivot. But the same material came across both. We did have an active Live Chat going the whole time, but they chose not to publish that. I’m sorry, as it would have showed a lot of the information we shared that Kathy has mentioned. I’m so sorry I was not capturing the live chat conversation. Had I realized it would not be recorded on the replay, I surely would have. I was there the entire time. Buffering a lot, but catching most of the entire presentation. We had many of our normal crew, there, e.g., Patrick and his mom. We even reminisced about the livestreams and about our history with some of the topics people were mentioning while we awaited Nick Zentner’s talk, which did not come until 1 hr 1 minute into the show. We have all seen in the livestream content he summarized some of in his 20 minutes. All the regulars missed his toast at the end. Laura was interacting with the rest of us. Her older son Trip is an Eagle Scout, and young Beckett is still working on his Eagle Scout honor.

Thursday, July 30

Interesting start of the morning. I needed to do some networking for helping out a friend having a yard sale this weekend to find homes for many musical instruments.
Phone from Roy, WA blocked yesterday just came through again and rang once, which happens when it’s blocked, and announces that on the caller ID. Great resource!

Wrote Katelyn to see what the analysis of the Zoom music decision was (request the tapes or her opinion). Sent at 1:15pm
Worked on Jobslist account, sending out job announcements to my Google Group (with >800 members searching or helping share job announcements with those who are – across MANY disciplines: Geography, Geology, Anthropology, Biology, Environmental Sciences, Conservation, GIS, Political Science, Resource Management, Urban Planning, and more.

Highest temperature at the airport today occurred between 4:00 and 5:00 and was 104
98.2° house at 1:53, and at airport is 100°
99.0° house at 2:53, and at airport is 104°
99.1° house at 3:53, and at airport is 103°
98.4° house at 4:53, and at airport is 102°
97.5° house at 5:53, and at airport is 102°

Other stations in the area show the 4 to 5 degree difference with the airport reading. One is only 9/10th of a mile from the ASOS, and at the same elevation.

Thanks to Carl Hurlburt, who sent 2 links to our Geology & Earth study group:

Snowball Earth ? A plunge in incoming sunlight may have triggered ‘Snowball Earths’ (7-28-20) by Jennifer Chu, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Mapping the bottom of the ocean Scientists are still learning about Earth’s last frontier, (7-28-20) by Suzanne O’Connell, The Conversation, about researcher Marie Tharp.

Friday, July 31

We didn’t start our trip to town until 10:00 a.m., in John’s Crosstrek. On the way in, John dialed sister Peggy, and we had a nice talk the rest of the way to a shady parking spot at Bi-Mart.
Bi-Mart: we went to buy a meat slicer John wanted and to pick up the bag of cat food he was charged for on Tuesday. We also bought some Shout Out for the stains on all John’s work shirts. It does a nice job. We’d used up the previous bottle the day before when washing clothes. On our way to other stops on our list, we went by Super 1, and I stayed in the shade of the building while John went in for some corn and bananas. I called a friend and reached her in Seattle, to put in my order for a med I get through her at her place of business. She will order me a dosage for a couple months and I won’t run out for at least another week.

From there we went by to drop our ballots at the drive-by box in the parking lot, outside the County Courthouse. Then, on to Safeway for a bunch of savings on Just 4 U (J4U) items, and reward points. One reward we used was for $7 for any item in the meat counter over $7.00. We found a piece of Wild Caught Salmon (surely it was Copper River Salmon), and got a filet of it. It totaled $13.26. We also bought two $2.99 loaves of English Muffin Bread, but turned in a reward for $2 off any bakery item and got another $1 off the other loaf (J4U coupon). Another J4U coupon gave us PowerAde for 49₵ each, if we bought 5. Then we had another reward for $5.00 off all our groceries, if over $5 purchased. We went out with all that for $3.26. Not bad for my efforts with the transaction creation and being sure we were given the expected breaks. John doesn’t want any part of such finagling, but I groove on playing the game. They set it up, we might as well take advantage of it, and accept the benefit. From there, off for Joanie’s to pick up pants she altered for me.

We finished in time to go by the Kittitas Pantry, after 1:00 p.m.
A few tables are in the shade of the church building, where one can pick or not. I took an orange, 2 small Roma tomatoes, a loaf of 3 cheese bread, and two peanut butter topped cookie mixed cake/frosting over a brownie. At the very end from a refrigerated truck, they offer various cuts of meat (such as chicken legs, various pork items (even pork loin roasts), the only thing I would normally get there they were out of (chicken breast filets).

Finally, with no choice, one gets a whole box of staples, such as cans of soup, beans, meat, pasta, dried peas, etc., nuts, trail mix, orange juice, dried fruit, and peanut butter. We took away a lot of food, and sorted out a few things for us. John took the rest to Amy, and she will distribute to other families. There is lots of food in the USA – getting it to those in need is not straightforward.

Kathy Williams-DeVries will be on at 5:30 p.m.PST with her musical background (plays clarinet and a variety of recorders. Tonight features the clarinet, and a guest songwriter and jazz clarinet player, Andy Firth (both of them are from Australia):

Kathy plays Kathy plays Andy Firth

Playlist for tonight

John completed this Friday column and published it on our blog tonight.
We had a late supper that was very nice: Wild caught Sockeye salmon, corn, and potato

Saturday, Aug 1

Started this morning about 7:45 to get ready for watching a Nick on the Fly livestream, a pre-recorded field trip to Easton, WA yesterday for a hike with his wife, Liz. We didn’t know about it until late last night, so I notified the people I had emails for, hoping they would see mine or Kathy’s note on the Facebook site.‘Nick on The Fly’ #7 – French Cabin Blueschist About 8 miles north of Easton, WA, 9:00 a.m. Aug 1, 2020 (18 mins).

After that we did our own things. John mostly was outside because the temperature was much cooler than it has been.
In the afternoon, he did go to town for pelleted food for Myst, who is eating again, and doing much better.
While there, he went to Fred Meyer to the Pharmacy to pick up a medication for Annie, our Brittany, and to get himself some Raisin Bran, as Safeway was out of 100% All Bran Buds, that is the highest fiber source, and goes well with a handful of mixed nuts. For me, he also picked up a special deal on yogurt, both Chobani and Tillamook.
Supper: Battered fried chicken breast filets, corn-on-the-cob, and bowl of pears.

Sunday, Aug 2

I received from Elise Schlosser in New Jersey, this morning – an excellent, scientific report interviewing a beekeeper about his honeybee hives, and an entomologist. This is a professionally excellent discussion. Watch the video included below. I have compared to 3 other “TV news” reports. This is superior.

Washington State Captures First “Murder Hornet” (6 mins)
Unloaded dishwasher, finally.
I finally put in all my meds for tonight and for the week.

I shall end this week with a spectacular sunrise photo taken this morning.

The photo above just came to me after John had started on an edit of this report. Sunrise this morning taken by my friend and former graduate student, on whose thesis committee I served.
Jen Evans Yenter is a great photographer, and we live in a picturesque valley.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Monday, July 20

Going back a month to some bird photos from friends:Left 2 Pileated Woodpeckers, New Jersey, by Elise Schlosser; right, a Great Egret, SE Michigan, by Maude Buszek (longtime friend from Atlanta, GA since 6th grade).

I miss the bird feeders out our front door and back patio door, with the changes in our remodeling efforts. We still have lots of quail rummaging farther out for sunflower seeds, but miss seeing them and the little colorful birds up by the house.

I’m sure the morning was exciting, but I don’t know what we did, other than the ordinary. I had to take my pre-med (an antibiotic) for dental work with food, so I was probably getting dressed to go out in the real world and fixing something to eat before taking my pills.

I got to the Dentist by 2:00 for teeth cleaning with Tracy, and had taken my Amoxicillin at 1:00 p.m. Unfortunately, they found decay under a crown in the back top of my mouth. I was 4 months overdue. I’m approved for cleaning every 4 months, but with the COVID closing of dentists, they were off limits for 10 weeks, and then it was difficult to obtain an appointment because of all the catch-up required. Above X-rays were due to be taken in March, but were just taken. The left two are the right side of my mouth; the right two are the left side of my mouth. In number one, far left there is a dark spot above the top of the crown (second in on top). That is the decay that needed to be removed, along with the old crown, which had only been in since 2006. The other two on the right side show my two implants on the bottom which I truly detest. I will never ever have an implant again. The top has a bridge, which I also do not like at all.

My dentist figured it needed to be done as soon as possible as it was a candidate for a root canal otherwise. I was scheduled in for 2 days later for the build-up to occur.

After today’s cleaning, I went to Safeway for Just for U specials, getting fried chicken, a free dozen eggs for a “reward” point, and, 4 bottles of 2-liter cola for John at a lower price.

Came home and worked on several projects, and watched music from Australia (hosted by Kathy Williams-DeVries from Brisbane.
Kathy plays pieces dedicated to Benny Goodman (104 mins)
Kathy’s Playlist for Benny Goodman music

John went out at 5:15 p.m. to get our horse Myst who has been going downhill, not eating properly, and losing weight again. Dr. Dan Charlton, veterinarian from Ellensburg Animal Hospital, stopped on his way home (north of us about a mile), at our corral to examine and evaluate her health. He thought she looked somewhat dehydrated, and pumped a couple of gallons of water into her but didn’t find any other issues. A day later she went back to an established routine. Not sure we are done with this.
Saddle Rock (Wenatchee, WA; east and north of us) Neowise Comet and the Big Dipper, photographed by Motojw Photography, 11:30 p.m. 7-17-29; with 10 second time-lapse exposure, permission granted by the owner, photographer, Jason Wiegand. He’s quite talented. He also flies a drone and gets beautiful landscapes from above. I guess you have to have a Facebook or an Instagram account to find his Motojw Photography sites.

Next another Neowise Comet photo from EvieMae Schuetz from the west side of the mountains just north of us.
In the collage below the top photo is Neowise at Lion Rock near Ellensburg, WA. 10:45 pm July 24th, 2020 (6 sec, 24mm, f3.5, ISO1600); photographed by EvieMae Schuetz (both below).Last one of Mt. Stuart, by EvieMae Schuetz; 8:23pm, 7/24, settings 1/1000th of a second, 200mm, ISO 100, f6.3
[We are at 2,200 feet elevation; Evie was 4,000 feet higher.]

Posted by USGS — Mount Nyiragongo is a stratovolcano in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It’s one of the most active in the world, having exhibited volcanic activity at least once every 3 months since May 17, 2002.
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mount Nyiragongo Eruption Activity Captured by Terra ASTER (1 min 21secs) 7-20-20)

Tuesday, July 21

I tried sleeping in because of crazy interruptions during a couple hours of my attempted night’s sleep. First at 1:45 a.m. when dog wanted out and was up for 45 minutes, with her drinking, eating, and going out. Then at 5:00 a.m. I was up again with hungry outside cats, while dealing with inside cats as well. Again, awakened before 7:00 a.m. with noise through our open windows for cooling the house, from our electrician fixing 3 lights in the roof of the handicapped walkway to be concreted soon; and he was here to connect our coaxial cable in the new room, which he had to do from the attic, with a power saw and drill. I don’t know the procedure required, but for some reason, it had never been connected there in the original attic wiring work for lights and ceiling fan installation.

He finished work of the lights in the roof of the walkway:I thought the front light (which only turns on at dusk) is prettier in the top view. The bottom view I took with a flash to display the woodworking under the roof trusses.

John was out early working on yard projects moving rocks, water, and dirt, while the temperature was cool. The doe with her twins was around again this morning; they’re here almost every morning.

Took my alendronate, ate a ½ hr. later, plugged in the external back up drive, so it would be ready for its noon Tuesday backup for the previous week’s new files. It only took 28 minutes today.
John had slept in too, and not opened our gate. The fellow was due to come yesterday afternoon, but did not show. Possibly because of the heat being worse in the afternoon, and better this morning.

We had a snack of strawberries and bananas, mid-morning, and are planning to have bacon and something with it for brunch.
Been working on alternate projects, switching times between several.

I watched a geology field trip tonight at 7:00 p.m. on Kathy Williams-DeVries YouTube channel. She is presenting the Geology of Australia over the next several Tuesday nights. History and Geology of Kangaroo Point Cliffs in Brisbane

St. Mary’s Anglican Church – rock church made from Brisbane Tuff quarried in Queensland, years ago. Built in 1873. The volcanic rock is 200 million years old.

St. Mary’s on the Cliffs, Kangaroo Point, Brisbane

Reached Gerald at son’s Gene’s house where he spends some nights.

Supper: Fried chicken, and Pepperoni & cheese on crackers; pecan pie & ice cream for dessert.

Worked on corrections to the blog for John to make to last week’s blog because of technical difficulties with some of the viewing from Australia.

Wednesday, July 22

After talking with Bi-Mart Pharmacist, Melanie, I made a list of my meds for her to compare their prices there to the other pharmacies I deal with (for the lowest cost). It’s truly amazing the difference between cash or insurance prices at different places. They do honor GoodRx prices, but often undercut them. Bi-Mart has an outside window for the pharmacy that I used, and she had the list ready for me to pick up later in the day. While there she shared a nice cloth mask with lady bugs on it, a woman had donated to people who come in.

Dental appointment changed to 1:00, so I ate and took my Amoxicillin at noon, and left at 12:30.

Over 2 hours in the dental chair, painfully, more so with my neck than my mouth. Too bad they couldn’t numb my neck!
What happened:The work was completed for the build-up of the upper middle tooth, and the old crown removed. On the left, one can look on the left side of the tooth, and see a dark spot, which is the decay not yet removed. The right X-ray shows it removed. Now the tooth has a cemented-in temporary, hopefully to last until January, when my insurance kicks back in. I’d already used all of mine with this work and an upcoming paid-for cleaning in November. Medical stuff is driving people, including me, nuts.
Back to Safeway:
I only recently learned of their ‘Rewards Program.’

The enlightened City of Ellensburg refused Safeway’s request to have a gasoline plaza at the EBRG location. The nearest one is 30 miles away, in Cle Elum. John thinks this is the Company’s way of letting down-county shoppers share in rewards, long given to gasoline buyers. Likely there are many others places of similar constraint.Thus, the rewards option is open to club members (regular Safeway customers) by which one can save a lot of money. Got some stuff totally free (a dozen eggs), $7.00 off a 3-lb package of thick bacon, already marked down $4 from $15.97. I had a reward of $2.00 off any baked in store item (my favorite English Muffin Bread, which sells for $2.99). And, $5.00 off my whole grocery total (because it was over $5). I walked out only owing 99₵ for all those groceries. Safeway’s ads and cash register receipts are “busy” and all but indecipherable. This is compensatory, I guess.

Supper: late, the last pieces of fried chicken, onion rings, pears, curly fries. John had pecan pie and ice cream for dessert. I passed.

Just realized tonight after John went to bed, that in my absence today, he moved the refrigerator from the back porch of the patio, into the back door of the new room, into the utility room. I’m amazed he could do that on his own. His answer: it has wheels.

Thursday, July 23

Three friends in Cle Elum and the Senior Center are trying to do a music-Zoom for the Center’s clients. As an AAC regular and these are my music friends, I got involved this morning. Talked to Katrina and emailed both her and Katelyn.

I needed to leave for a blood draw at 9:30 and was back at noon. Got a nutrition drink, and had soup for lunch. As planned, I made the connection in time to get the blood centrifuged by Kim and sent by currier to the hospital lab to be analyzed.
The large dose of Amoxicillin I had to take for the cleaning Monday afternoon and yesterday afternoon for the crown build-up, will raise my INR, so we needed to get a reading in the morning to make the dosage decision for tonight.

I did a lot in a short period. Went by Safeway, hospice friends, Joanie’s, and by Briarwood to Karen’s front porch to drop off a bag of underclothes, too large for me. I thought I had found them all, but found more.

Supper: We decided to go the Palace Café for our Anniversary Dinner, with one free meal (Chicken Fried Steak, with brown gravy, baked potato with fixins, and cooked veggies-mostly broccoli and some carrots) for John, and I had a Cobb Salad made with Iceberg lettuce (the only lettuce I can eat with taking Coumadin), it’s a main-dish American garden salad made with chopped salad greens, tomato, crisp bacon, cooked chicken, hard-boiled eggs, avocado, Roquefort cheese crumbles, with Roquefort cheese dressing (I included what was in my salad tonight). It is always a generous serving. John had a Black Butte Dark Draft beer.

Then by Safeway for some reward specials, and on in both cars by Fred Meyer gasoline station to spend up all our June fuel savings. It was up to 30₵/gal off, so cost us $2.47/gal for ~24 gallons. My car took a couple gals more than John’s.
We are not much into Fred Meyer shopping except the pharmacy and colas on 1st Tuesday of each month when Company products have a 10% discount. And sometimes they have specials on products we do like. My dog’s pharmacy items are quite expensive, and they are run through Freddies. I will just wait to get hers in August to push up my fuel points.

Friday, July 24

Today at 2:30 is a trial Zoom run of the Cle Elum Trio music for the AAC, hosted by Katelyn. I’m to join as a guest—evaluation took almost an hour, but I think we made good progress. The trio was in Sharon’s house in Cle Elum; Katelyn was in the Senior Center, and I was home.

Kathy Williams-DeVries is reviving her musical programs on Friday nights, only. She had intended spending all her time on her Geology of Australia field trips (on Tuesdays), but then realized how much she missed her viewers and enjoyed doing them. She is continuing at 5:00 p.m. PST Fridays with the music, tonight, 7/24/20.
Kathy shares what she’s been doing since lockdown
That one above stopped unexpectedly at 34:38 minutes in, so Kathy had to start an entirely new stream; see below.
Second part of Kathy during lockdown
Several of us finally got back together on the new stream.
Next is the intended playlist for this evening, which we did not complete). We’ll resume next Friday, so stay tuned.
Kathy’s Playlist Intended for this Evening

One of the inclusions is very near and dear to our hearts: Dedicated to Washington Geology Professor Nick Zentner for his wonderful livestreams from his backyard keeping us sane, entertained and even learning something during Covid-19 shutdown. Everyone viewing this blog, will enjoy watching this.
Music is performed on 5 bass recorders and 1 great bass recorder by Kathy Williams-DeVries and the music is Alfonso Ferrabosco’s Di Sei Bassi, published by Arcadian Press AP 012.
Washington Geology Rocks!!!!!!!!! Apr 19, 2020 (3 mins)

A striking video came in this morning across my computer screen, regarding the July 19, 2020 Eruption of Stromboli Stratovolcano in Italy, which I grabbed the location of. In making this blog and adding it, and testing links, I found the original one I had was removed by the uploader, so I went searching. I had trouble with others until this from an Italian source.
I’ll substitute it below. It is shorter than the previous, but certainly gives you a perspective of the large explosion (I’m just sorry we don’t have the full thing.) Had I known I would have videotaped the original. That one was talking about the blobs being thrown out of the volcano as larger than a car or bus.
Stromboli Volcano (Italy): Sudden Large Explosion NEW FIND: Esplosione del Vulvcano Stromboli-Jul 19, 2020 (2 mins)
The original in English was titled (as above): Stromboli Volcano (Italy): Sudden Large Explosion 7-19-20 (4 mins)

Supper: Leftover cobb salad from last night, with a buttered warm roll.

I learned late tonight that Nick had a 41-second video posted on Instagram about his next planned livestream. I checked my new account there I had just opened and still haven’t learned how to navigate yet, and add him to my “following” list. He is now following me, so I will see his announcements there (the only place he actually announces the warning for those on his YouTube Geology channel to receive notification and set reminders for the time they will be aired).

Before going to bed, I sent an alert to all the people on my list from the study group, including bcc: sends, to keep an eye out for the announcement. Our next field trip will be glacial geology landscape features primarily drumlins in Wisconsin, from his family farm.

Saturday, July 25

I’ve been up since 8:00 a.m. trying to start the morning. I checked to be sure there was not a Nick on the Fly livestream, and found it probably won’t be aired until tomorrow morning at 9:00 a.m. from the farm where he grew up in Wisconsin, and his trip back to visit his mom.

Next thing John and I had planned for this morning was for me to film him dumping various sized rocks into the capturing point for runoff from the “roof-valley” at our front entrance. I’ll show that video below.

He’s continued working outside on projects such as getting sunflower seeds to the birds, exercising the dog, feeding the horses, and landscaping. Currently, the temperature is still manageable, at 64° in the last hour, but just now before 10:00 a.m. it is up to 70°. It’s headed for project high of 83° today, and hotter tomorrow, and way high in the 90s next week. Will not be nice. Worse, it will be 100° in Yakima, and we need to go there to have the left taillight on my Forester fixed. But, also want to go to COSTCO. We may put it off until next week and hope for lower temperatures. He also moved a computer desk into the new room for setting up his computer, and he had a couple of clear plastic mats ordered that arrived yesterday to put under chairs.

I’m working on several laptop projects, merging with filing tax receipts, doing kitchen cleanup, and uploading photos and videos from my camera (particularly of the remodeling effort underway).

This just came across my screen, from the USGS. It’s a well done geology and physical geography link of the river conditions during the last 3 months, around the U.S., with flooding and drought conditions. Definitely, before playing it, read the description of the animation beneath the video when you open.
U.S. River Conditions, April to June 2020 • 7-20-20 (1 minute)

Called Stewart Subaru to take in my 2014 Forester to fix the left rear brake light and get its oil change. We’ll schedule it next week some time, or maybe the week after (as mentioned above).
Okay, off to remove photography from my camera, and begin processing. John will be in shortly to fix brunch. (bacon & eggs).
Brunch: Bacon, scrambled eggs with cheese, cup of peaches & banana, with English Muffin toast (mine with Kenny’s homemade Apricot Preserves)

I took photos of the footer wall hole John is filling, right off our front porch, with companion cats, Czar & Woody, watching progress.Here is John’s description for what you’ll be seeing in the video:

Problem – an L-shaped house where an alcove with front door is near the roof valley that dumps water onto a wood platform.
Solution – remove the wood platform and drop the ground, and create a rock pit with drain to take the water away. Also build a short wall to help widen and protect the alcove. The top of the pit and drain will have a rocky landscape (xeric) appearance. In this segment, the trench next to the wall foundation is being filled with rocks rather than back-filling with the dirt excavated for space to build the footing and foundation. A rock-filled soak pit, the dry well, will be under filler’s feet, with a hidden drain going to the left.

John Doing Rock Dumping for a Dry Well

Just spent a long time in the kitchen cleaning dishes, pans, and counters, and now soaking more so had to rest. Figured my tummy needed a nutrition drink, so now I’m enjoyed it, while working on the blog. John’s outside in the shade on the carport side of the house moving dirt, rocks, and visiting with the cats who arrived for their supper.
Late afternoon, the temperature high for the day went to 85°, 2 above the high predicted.

Supper: Leftover chicken noodle soup, with extra chicken breast added, with a ½ leftover roll, from the Palace Café heated and buttered. John’s having beef stew, and ½ the roll, plus something else, I guess.

Sunday, Jul 26

We each worked on various projects today. John moved a Panasonic radio/CD player to the new room after removing several years of dust.
I managed to get the dishes I washed late last night out of the washer and into the cabinets. Now to load the newly dirtied ones. Took me quite a bunch of time, but I refilled all my meds for the week ahead. Fed the cats and visited with them.

Now to Wisconsin:Nick’s family farm barn, built 1940, foundation from glacial erratics from Canada, brought by the Continental Ice Sheet, the erratics were taken off the fields. You can get the whole interesting story by watching the video below for 18 mins. This aired with several hundred people watching from around the world, at 10:00 a.m. PST, after Nick had gone with his mom to church. He was wearing his dad’s overalls for the presentation.

Nick on the Fly #6 – Wisconsin Drumlins for 7/26/20 (18 mins)

One last video for today, on another geology topic from China; warning, this is a sad 10 minutes to end the day on:

China’s mighty Yangtze is heaving from Rain and the Three Gorges will be tested once again

Brunch: I had soup and crackers. John had artery clogging stuff.
Supper: Meatloaf and beans with chocolate chip cookie dough pie for dessert.
Late this evening the temperature hit the high of 92°. Highest in awhile.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Monday, July 13

Early morning arrival 7:15 a.m. of Walter Davenport, to dump off several pieces of heavy plywood to make boxes to hold the cement for the wall footers to be built at either end of the house.
Updates on our remodeling efforts are throughout this blog newsletter.

Nick’s nights off were Mondays and Fridays. Our friend in Nick’s audience presented during those evenings, starting at 5:00 p.m. Those musically-oriented livestreams are ending after the one planned for Monday, 7/20/20, which is a tribute to Benny Goodman. Look down to Sunday this week, where I’ll give you that link. The musical adventures are being replaced on a different day and time to be announced, for future geology of Australia field trips Kathy has started providing.

Meanwhile, here was today’s musical presentation, you can catch in replay.

Kathy presents Schumann’s Dicheterliebe

Her playlist for this evening

The next video John found and asked me to send to Nick. I also looked at it and it is quite well done, but John warned me to warn Nick (and others) not to read the comments, which are filled by a bunch of uneducated crackpots.

Alaskan volcano linked to mysterious period with extreme climate in ancient Rome

Tuesday, July 14

I slept in, and John got up early to work outside while cooler.
Today is my day to awake and keep an empty stomach, with no juice or coffee until I swallow a pill while standing up, and don’t eat or drink anything until ½ hr. later. I can sit down after but not lie down. On Tuesdays, I also have to connect my external backup drive for its Noon hour backup of all new files since last Tuesday, onto the drive. It takes about an hour, and I don’t have to be home. Just leave it turned on, and even if it goes to sleep mode, it will wake up and do its thing.

I invite you to enjoy some great views of the Neowise Comet from different sources as well as different locations within Washington State.

Right here in our Kittitas Valley are photos by Lia Simcox. The top one views it over the Stuart Range and the bottom ones view it spectacularly, fronted by the Northern Lights.
Here’s another unique one from the Puget Sound region:The comet between & behind the peaks of Mt. Rainier makes it look as if it is spewing steam.

Our contractor came today and made the forms with heavy duty plywood to pour concrete for a wall near the front entrance of our house and another on the other side of the house front.

I took 3 bags of clothing and accessories by the Community Clothing Center at the Methodist church before Noon. While there, I found two lower sized pants for me to try – a white pair and a purple pair. I have yet to try them on for size. They are size 12, which I think I may be down to, because my friend Joanie has been altering my 14s with an extra seam in the back to take up the slack.

I went to Safeway for my Coumadin prescription. While there I checked the Just for U specials and found I was entitled to a free pound of Lucerne butter, bananas at 59₵/lb., and 4 Refresh Colas for John at 79₵/each. While there I also got two pounds of nice-looking strawberries, for $1.75/lb. Flyer tonight came from Fred Meyer they have them for $1.25/lb. You’ll see later in the week, on Saturday, John went to Fred Meyer for them and bought 8 lbs. Lots of cleaning up to make ready for the freezer.

Went by Joanie’s house with some things for her, and picked up 3 pairs of pants she altered for me, plus she gave me a special red lace blouse to wear when we play music on Valentine’s Day or at Christmas (if we ever play at assisted homes again). John and I doubt we will be invited back. And the only room that would allow people not to be in such close contact with us would likely be Pacifica Senior Living. It will not be possible to play and sing with a face mask on, so I hope this COVID virus scare is over.
Unfortunately, 3 of our 4 assisted living homes have staff members and residents with confirmed cases. Thankfully, no deaths yet in Kittitas County.

I managed to contact our dentist to check regarding John’ s next appointment for a filling and the amount remaining on our dental insurance until the end of the year, if it has to be repaired before the end of the year with a crown. I’ve now changed it to definitely be a filling, because we have spent all but $150 for him toward a crown. We are hoping the filling will stay until after January, when we will have our allowance back for 2 crowns. We have spent most of our allowance with 2 crowns for me and one for him in 2020.

Called Gerald at the hospital. He’s doing better but still has a way to go before he can return home. He returned home later this week.

Tonight was a special replay, the 3rd in the series, on Tuesday, 5:45 p.m. – 8:45 p.m.
I cannot give you a link for it, because it was an Event for Fans of Nick Zentner hangout Facebook site, and the only access is through the event page with your own Facebook account. It was hosted by Kathy Williams-DeVries on the site she created.

Supper: BBQ pork chop, shrimp, cauliflower with cheese, fried onion rings.

The Renslow Trestle across I-90 at 8:40 p.m., photographed by my friend, Glenn Engels. (Old Milwaukee Railroad bridge, no longer accessible for hikers, bikers, or horseback riders). The trail is available on either side, and there is access on a rural road under the freeway to reach an east bound trailhead. There is parking at Kittitas (6 miles west) for horse trailers.

Renslow Trestle Restoration for recreation is planned and in 2018 received $1.23 million funding from the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Program. Since then – silence.

Wednesday, July 15

No idea what’s on tap today except have to put up strawberries and get to feeling better. Slept in until 8:30, and still tired. I was awakened by our dog at 2:00 a.m. wanting to be let out to pee. She has a doggie door to use; guess she’s getting senile. Awakened again at 5:00 a.m. with cats outside demanding food.

I’m not sure how/why this showed up in my feed, but it’s worth a one-minute watch, so am showing here.

Virtual Road Trip to National Parks from USGS (1 min)

This afternoon was the delivery of the ECP (Ellensburg Cement Products) truck with cement to fill the footer walls at two places in front of our house. One on the far right of the front entrance has walls positioned as the edges of a box; the one in front of the front door is straight and rectangular.
Photos of the process:Getting the huge cement truck into the small space was a tough job, but they managed. The top shows the beginning of the turnaround. It was a tight fit along the walkway and the house, and a small fir tree. The bottom photo shows the two walls (on top of footers) on either side of the front part of our L-shaped house that needed to be filled with concrete. Left is Willie finishing up the heavy plywood structure to hold the concrete, and the right picture is of the long narrow rectangular wall near the end of filling it with concrete, and troweling it down to set and fill the space. The one on the right is right by the front door entrance.

The video below, records the linear one. Access for the extended tube was challenging.

Video Filling Concrete Footer at Front Entrance

Called Gerald at the hospital tonight and had a nice talk. He’s feeling some better, but they are still treating him.

At 9:30 the circuit breaker for several lights in our house (washroom, den, backyard) went off, John switched the circuit breaker back on, and it stayed on for only a short while, and went off again. So, we left it off.

Our computers and some lights in the house are working fine. So strange. Refrigerator and freezer have power, so no issues. We were not overloading the power by doing anything unusual.
We’re just going to go to bed early. I need to sleep anyway.

Supper: BBQ Pork, Cauliflower with cheese, and fruit bowl with peaches and banana.

Thursday, July 16

Todd arrived at 8:30 a.m. to fix the electrical light problem and make some other adjustments. Will be back in the morning.
Rubin and Tristan are here working with Walter on the walls. They will have 2×6 studs, plywood, and faced with the same stone as the house.

Brunch: Blueberry/pecan pancake with bacon

Just spent a lot of time searching for missing Stimulus check for $1,200 and to no avail. Will likely have to wait to file 2020 taxes in 2021 and claim then that it never came (for one of us). Only half of that allowed was deposited in our joint checking account, with no clue of for which one of us it was meant.

Now going to photograph the putting on of wood ceiling over the walkway. It’s still underway and will be resumed next Monday. Two of the workers were putting a roof on a place 5 miles west of us but the wind got so strong they left, and came here.

I received a call from Dentist to verify my need to come for cleaning at 2:00 p.m. Monday with Tracy. They don’t work on Fridays.

Supper: Chicken, baked potato

Friday, July 17

Ask Todd when he’s back in the morning for finishing the electrical work, about calling him in the future for our electrical needs, or if I have to go through T & T Electricians’ business.
Todd the Electrician called at 9:00 a.m. to say he would not be returning this morning, and not until afternoon on Monday.

I called David at ComputAbility to review the procedure I’m supposed to do each month to empty my battery below 10% and recharge it. And then, I did it tonight before going to bed.

We stayed home today and John worked outside when the temperatures were lower, outside again when shade was provided, and inside on projects. Plus, he got his afternoon nap.

While he was napping, I made a long distance call to customer service at Eagle Creek, to report a problem with one of their neck pillows (normally used for airline usage). Another project is writing an email over this weekend to Eagle Creek in Wisconsin about a neck pillow product. Mine is no longer holding air. It’s a Sandman model that is no longer carried, but they are going to give me a one-time replacement of a new one to use, for no cost. I have to email them a picture (i.e., below), and give them my mailing address, and they will send it to me.
Pictured below is mine.
It’s inflated by removing the black tab on the lower right, blowing into it, inflating the bellows (probably not called that).

This afternoon at 5:00 p.m. is more music from Australia: John Foster, on Trumpet, joins Kathy Williams-DeVries. Program first below and link following is their playlist.

Kathy Chats with John Foster

Playlist for tonight: with John Foster

Saturday, July 18

Interesting email received this morning about a $1 bill that I registered at WheresGeorge.com . Apparently most people do not do this or the bill doesn’t get used very often. Sheffield Lake is 20 miles from sister Peggy, who sat on the bill for a long time, and only spent it ’cause George wasn’t moving. He’s on the road again. John did chores outside early morning — feeding, spraying weeds, moving rocks & dirt. Came in and fixed a late brunch of a cheddar cheese melt bacon sandwich (I helped with the bacon), and assisted making a bowl of peaches and bananas to have with it. Now he’s ready to go to town (just after 2:00 p.m.) for a few things, mainly sunflower seeds for the quail, and some stuff at Fred Meyer on sale (strawberries).

I have continued working on the laptop, mixed with sorting and filing tax receipts, reviewing photos and videos I took this week on our remodeling project I’m trying to document, and other duties involved with assisting with the study group member of the for the continued connections of students of Nick Zentner. He’s currently out of town, but occasionally goes on an impromptu field trip and publishes it for members to join in on his YouTube channel. I’m also sending some of my remodeling documentation to our YouTube channel to share with blog readers.

This afternoon, John called my attention to the twins around the garden with mom. I got a few photos & cool video of the twins leaving the garden (below the photographs).Twins with Mom (facing away)—Deer don’t eat onions.

Twin fawns leaving the scene along with two quail

Supper: Butternut squash, with pecans, brown sugar, and marshmallows roasted on top served with meatloaf and a bowl of canned pears.

Sunday, July 19

Did charge the battery and get the Exilim camera working again. Check the other battery and see if it is dead or needs replaced.
Cool early. John is outside. Our high today at the airport 5 miles south of us, was 94°.
We cleaned a few more pounds of strawberries, cut them, sugared, and got them in freezer.

Brunch: for me a nutrition drink, and a bowl of strawberries and banana.

Walter is here putting the rock face on the walls. It’s getting hotter but finally he’s back in the shade of the front entrance out of the sun where he’s been roasting for completing the last corner wall. I videoed his work over there midday today and will put that below. The stone panels have a metal strip at the top, holes therein, and screws hold it to the wood.

Walter finishing the rock wall facing around the concrete footer

John’s finally napping. Received a scam call from Promark Resort in TX, but I’ve now blocked that number in my phone.

Just started the dishwasher at 2:15. Now to transfer photos / video from camera.
I’m working on the photos and videos taken yesterday and today.

Supper: Beef Stew with carrots in the plans.

Final warning for tomorrow Monday and Wednesday, this week:
Those musically-oriented livestreams are ending after the one planned for Monday, 7/20/20, which is a tribute to Benny Goodman.

Kathy plays pieces dedicated to Benny Goodman

The musical adventures are being replaced on a different day and time to be announced, for future geology of Australia field trips. There is one coming next week via Facebook, as an Event – on
Tuesday, 7/21/20 at 5:30 a.m. (use the Nick Zentner Fan hangout site) on Facebook.
I cannot give you a link for that; you have to go to Events on your personal Facebook site and sign up as going. It’s going to be to Kangaroo Point Cliffs, and the Brisbane Tuffs.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Monday, July 6

Update on remodeling efforts:

This is the changed attached 2-car garage to livable room of our home. The outside front siding is blue painted HardiePlank above stone panels. Part One of the remodel is 99.44% finished.

Nick’s nights off were Mondays and Fridays. Our friend in Nick’s audience presented during those evenings, starting at 5:00 instead of 6:00 p.m. PST. She’s going to continuing musical interludes on the same days, in Nick’s absence (except for NEXT week the Friday will be scheduled to a Thursday, because of her guest’s schedule.

Kathy plays Favorite Funnies Past, as Spike Jones
She’s going to add a playlist of tonight. I kept losing my Internet and was only able to watch parts of it.

She has called for a Party on Saturday to re-watch one of Nick’s livestreams. It will be at the 9:00 a.m. hour, PST. You have to Join via the Nick Fans Facebook site.

Tuesday, July 7

Transferred money from my account to the lumber miller’s at my bank, Umpqua, and then notified the miller Jason and his wife Greta (also his office manager) and Clover Construction Company.

Started late from sleeping in after a late night bedtime and sleep interruptions from cats in the wee hours of this morning. One male cat, Czar, knocked on the window and meowed loudly to be let in, and neither one of us can figure why he didn’t go through the doggie door as he does all the time. The other awakening was from Sue, an outside feral cat, with loud meows and low growls, to let us know she brought us a mouse to the front door. Seems she wants to let us know she earns the store-bought food. She does not use the doggie door; only the two males do.

Finally got up and took my Alendronate on an empty stomach. Plugged in my 5Tb external backup drive for its Noon backup. Been taking care of things with LiveStreaming group.

We had to deal with making an appointment for John at the dentist. Long delayed but cancellations allowed him a next day slot. He had a small bit of tooth (protecting a filling) breakaway, confirmed during the cleaning, with the filling coming out.

Need to finish my note to planning team at CWU Foundation. (James, Charlotte, etc.). I did and the Zoom meeting still awaits a designated time.

Later today we went to town for errands. The first part of our trip was maneuvering a Chip Sealing Operation on the Kittitas Hwy.
Here is an example of the process:

Chip Sealing: The Basics (5 mins)

It was a slow 1.5 mile trip from Ferguson Rd to No. 6 Rd. to turn to access our first stop, 3430 Number 6 Rd to pick up our pots we gave Hens and Chicks to a lady and she planted them this spring.

We went by Bi-Mart to check numbers, picked up Metoprolol from Super 1 Pharmacy, and went on to Fred Meyer for John’s Colas and any Kroger stuff for using our first Tuesday of the month, 10% Senior Discount.

Then out of town by Amy’s to leave box of groceries and some summer squash from our garden. Not much of a crop this year, yet. Guess we’re too high in elevation and with so much wind.

Today we had 43 and 45 mph gusts, making driving difficult with the buffeting, and walking across parking lots even worse.

Wednesday, July 8

Walter Davenport (contractor) was here at 6:45 a.m. working in the new room. He’s got about 5 projects going in the area so the crew moves around as sequencing demands. These things slow completions, and “completion” is what triggers clients needing to pay the balance. Seems this will happen next Monday for the garage conversion.

At 9:00 a.m. there was an impromptu video by Nick Zentner, on a hike to Beverly Creek, where John had assisted Marty Kaatz (now dead) with his debris flow documentation. The storm was a small cell, but intense, thunder, lighting, and rain, above a ridge top at about 6,000 feet elevation. Nick hiked into that basin on a ridge top.

Beverly Creek Hike

John plans to do chores and then come in for his shower. Today he goes to Tracy for his teeth cleaning, which was postponed 10 weeks because of the COVID-19 business closures.

I spent time with the HELP DESK CWU and Paris to get my computer updated. Need to RESTART at least once/week. That will install needed updates, which are not done any other way.

Called and left a message for Lacey about an upcoming end of July of my teeth cleaning and need for antibiotics, and the problems with INR being raised. I need to know when to have it, before, or after. Later, we decided I needed to have my INR draw the next day, so we could adjust the dosage fast, as it was already a little higher than last month.

Watched a noon Lunch Bag Zoom from the AAC with Roxanne Laush talking today on Inspired Health & Wellness Coaching.
Walter came back just before 11:00 with some boards and to fix the screw in the door. He stayed, working on the outside siding.

I spent a lot of time searching for data to fill in the PDF for Form 4868 to apply for our extension notice for 2019 taxes to get it mailed before July 15. I have the pieces, but need to find a Post Card and tape information to the back so they can date and return the card as acknowledgment it was received. I will include a check to pay estimated tax amount owed.

Supper: John made a casserole dish with Lasagna in one side, and butternut squash, brown sugar, and pecans in the other. He had dessert of Cherry Pie and ice cream. I passed on that. I drank orange juice with my dinner.

Thursday, July 9

Shoes on and go out with camera. Back at 10:10. John showed me all around the front of the house and explained the plans and the progress I had not yet seen. He also took me to the garden for some more information and photos of the onions primarily. Then on to the red barn to show me the storage and stacking of the lumber and posts resulting from the milling team. While out there, we went into the hay barn (after shooing out Dawn). Didn’t see her bambi, but imagine it was close by. John wanted to show me a box he said had a photo packed in it with Fondue pots, meant for Sonja Willitts, on their next trip north from South Lake Tahoe. Before that handoff happens we have to locate the box of shot syringes meant for the Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care in South Lake Tahoe, where Kevin volunteers his veterinarian experience. Some photos of this walk to follow in next week’s blog.

New flight with Maria Langer (pilot), posted 7-5-20. Overall description by Maria: a tour of the Columbia River Valley downriver from Wenatchee, WA. This is the 7th part of our 2nd flight together and we start just downriver from Wanapum Dam and head upriver, making our way back to Wenatchee. Along the way, we make a detour up Rock Island Creek and over Badger Mountain before landing at the airport. The nosecam footage is stunning and Nick points out many geological features along the way. This is the last (and longest) part of a multi-part series.
Places mentioned in this video: – Wanapum Dam and Lake – Sunrise Highway – Frenchman’s Coulee – Gorge Amphitheater – Mouth of Lower Moses Coulee – Rock Island Dam – Rock Island Creek – Badger Mountain – Pangborn Bar

Helicopter Flight: Nick Over the Rocks Part 7 (33 mins)

Supper: baked chicken thighs and cheesy scalloped potatoes, and yellow squash from our garden.

Friday, July 10

Today is Dee Eberhart’s 96th birthday! We met in 1988 at CWU.
We went to Joanie Taylor and Ken Matney’s house for our invitation to a celebration lunch of Tuna Patty Melts. She served it with Cole slaw and beets, and two pies for dessert: Mincemeat and another new creation cream pie with strawberries and plums.

Go to Super 1 for eggs (special 98₵, only one allowed, for 18 eggs). John also bought ground beef at a good price, and other stuff I don’t yet know about, except I think potato chips and Frito Scoops.

Kathy Williams-DeVries is on tonight at 5:00 p.m.

Kathy speaks with early music specialist Shaun Wigley

Here is her playlist

Saturday, July 11

Guess we didn’t do much today other than the usual.

I’ll start today with a barn photograph:Barn is on S. Willow St, photo by Barb Bailey with permission. She posted this on Kittitas County Visual Delights.

I’ll end with this:

Comet Neowise over Denmark Pond, by Evie Mae Schuetz

Roy Spencer’s Comet Neowise Timelapse

Sunday, July 12 Happy Anniversary Us!
Taken at the Senior Center last year – explanation in link below.

Complete story to go with this photo of our 50th anniversary 2019

John’s back in the house fixing our brunch. He watered pine trees along the driveway. Brunch was an anniversary special.

Mine had a little too much maple syrup on the pancake, topped with cream and strawberries, and bacon on the side.

Supper: Meatloaf and fried cauliflower.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Item #1: The perfect birthday present

Or perhaps, an anniversary,I have lots to do, but still I may build a couple of these. Not fond of all white. Either red/white/blue or just natural wood.
Also, the white one seems too straight.
Actually, a covered rustic swing is more my thing. I’ll combine the two concepts. Maybe. Don’t hold your breath.

Item #2: Here’s your sign

Headline: Oregon man driving stolen Land Cruiser crashes into woman driving stolen Buick Regal
Two stupids

You wouldn’t think to make this sort of thing up.

Item #3: That was fast

The work crew, on Tuesday, finished placing stone siding on the lower half of the front wall. On Thursday I noticed the sandstone-like wall had been colonized.
The spot is near the front door so we pass by several times a day. I wonder what happens next. Babies?

Item #4: Critter 2

Wednesday there was a new visitor – – on the board under the front window where the cats like to eat, watch the goings on in the landscape, sleep, and sometimes get petted. At night the light from inside attracts moths. Inside/outside cat Czar will get on the board and swat at the bugs.
The moth moved to the door window, and I took the picture here.
Now gone.

Item #5: Give your dog some space

Prince Edward Island appears to have a problem because dog owners, being told to isolate at home, are pestering their pets.

in most cases the pets are biting members of the family they live with

I think if this is a real thing we will be
seeing more stories of it. There have been a few photos, such as the one used here, suggesting dogs are fed up with owners being isolated at home.
Anyhow, the article from Prince Edward Island seems to be of serious intent.

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