Category: Weekly report by day

Sunday, Feb 15

CPAP report. Reported figures. 6 hrs 26 min with AHI = 0.62
Events: 4 H No major mask leaks (max=20 L/min)

We got the blog out late last night, so John could get up at 5:00 a.m. to head for a WTA work crew day across the pass at Tiger Mt. near Issaquah. He won’t return until 5:30 p.m. I did give the morning food to Woody on her pallet perch. She was waiting and came right when called, at 9:00 a.m. Now I’m sure she is missing John, as he works around the yard and feeds the horses.

I actually had a weird non-restful night with the CPAP mask, so as John was pulling out the driveway, I took some meds, removed the mask, left my Oximeter running, and went back for a restful sleep for 3 hours. I did not report that above in the figures.

I spent the day on various types of paperwork. I had Internet connection problems.

Monday, Feb 16 President’s Day

CPAP report. Reported figures. 6 hrs 36 min with AHI = 0.15
Events: 1 CSR, 1 H No major mask leaks (max =21 L/min)

Day began quite early (5:15 a.m.) with noises (back-up beeps from heavy equipment) from the road that turned out to be the before-dawn cleanup of a load of logs that rolled off a logging truck at 2:30 a.m., in front of our house. More of the story below with links to videos and a report on the web. Photo below is from our driveway’s end, over 350′ from our house. The building in the background (corner of roof) is our shed. It’s 1.5 stories high, and our house only one. Our house is left of that shed (and out of the picture). This just shows the logs that rolled off the truck, from the road, across our neighbor’s driveway, over and through our fence, onto a little ridge. This photo was taken at 9:00 a.m. after the truck and rig had been removed and the logs rearranged to open the neighbor’s driveway. The truck was not damaged in the process and was driven away before we became aware of the activity at the end of our driveway.


The red line is our north-fence and to the right of that – our neighbor’s driveway. There is an open area and then Naneum Road. North is to the right and the truck was coming from that direction as shown by the blue line. The gray area was the spill zone. Right-center is an electric utility pole – missed it by about 8 feet. Below, seen in Oregon (from the web), is a photo of the sort of trucks seen on Naneum Road.

Later in the morning, I heard from Ken, my neighbor up the road, that he heard the noise of a truck setting its brakes, followed by a loud noise he thought was an explosion. He looked out and saw lights on the curve and called 911. The sheriff arrived at 3:30 a.m. We did not hear the initial activity, but did hear and then noticed the activity about 8:30.
John walked up to see what the noise was, but the workers had left, after removing logs from our neighbor’s driveway. He came back and told me to put on my warm clothes and bring my camera. Once the sun was up enough to see, we made some trips around the scene to see what we could determine must have happened. I took photos and some videos. Later at 11:00 when the sun was higher in the sky, we went out and I took more photos.

Here are two of the videos and more explanation will be on a web page I’m creating, with more of the complete story, or, “the rest of the story,” as we know it now over two days, Monday and Tuesday:

Logging Truck Delivery

If you go there and it is incomplete, please return later. Meanwhile, these are out on You Tube to give you the overall setting.

Logging Truck’s Loss, 2-16-15, President’s Day

View from Rock Crib Address Corner Driveway, Naneum

Dang.. my Internet was down again for several hours. I had to reset the network adapter, once I got up and checked John’s computer and found it was working. Why mine wasn’t and that disconnecting the power allowed mine to come back up is beyond me. I was on the phone with a computer support technician for Fairpoint (phone line & DSL provider). In the house the old XP and wired router is in a back room. We do most computer stuff in a front room via wireless connections for mine and John’s newer computer. Glitches are unexplained but easily fixed, but they do take time from other things.

Received call from Jerry Anderson – neighbor we’ve mentioned before. He had an Aortic valve replaced in Arizona (well, in his heart), but through the groin. That’s a very new procedure not done very many places in the U.S. It was 4 weeks ago and he is doing fine. This is not yet done in Yakima and they basically told him it needed done but could wait but to see about it in Arizona where he goes for winter. There they said it can’t wait – go to the hospital. He sounded good.
I completed a memorandum to the Provost at CWU about a Task Force for Running Start (RS) students, based on my experiences in the early 2000s with two home-schooled students in the RS program who were in my Geog 203 Maps class, and very successful graduates of our program a few years later.

Tuesday, Feb 17

CPAP report. Reported figures. 8 hrs 42 min with AHI = 0.23
Events: 2 H No major mask leaks (max=8 L/min)
after the SpO2 added, it was 9hrs 54 min AHI= 0.20

Off at 9:15 for Yakima for a foot doctor meeting. I was there on time, but was not seen for 35 minutes, for a procedure that only took 12 minutes. Then off to Costco where gasoline was $1.99/gal. Cost in Ellensburg is $2.05 at the lowest but $2.11 or higher most places. Price changes daily so you can only guess until you see the big signs.

Took a few more photos today after the clean-up of the logs, and of the beginning of the re-loading process that we missed by having to leave town. I toddled off into the woods to take a picture of bird nests. We think they are from a Bullocks Oriole – now wintering in Mexico. From my walk I took the photo below. Guide books claim the birds will use horsehair, if available, and we think there is some in those nests. We use an orange plastic woven tarp for dams in the irrigation ditch and think there is some of that in the nests. There is a closeness in the colors of the horses and the orange tarp, so we’ll try for a closeup using an extension ladder.
We don’t think there is a rush to do that as the birds don’t come back for at least 2 months.

Night-time, I went back to Royal Vista for playing music with The Connections. I have 3 friends in the place for assisted care and physical therapy. I saw that all three of them got down and seated in their wheelchairs on the front row. My friends are Lorene, Collette, and Jeanne.

Two days in a row, we have had router problems and lost our internet. The message is: Wireless Network Connection doesn’t have a valid IP configuration. We have to pull the power cord on the router to get our Internet access back. Monday, I was off for 3 hours before I tried calling the service provider for DSL. I think our router’s parts are wearing out. Hopefully, it will stay working long enough to post this blog and follow-up web page about the log delivery incident.

Wednesday, Feb 18

CPAP report. Reported figures. 7 hrs 28 min with AHI = 0.13
Events, 1H. No major mask leaks (max=9 L/min)

I did not have a good night’s sleep last night, awaking every hour except 4:00 am. I do not think it was related to the earthquake 20 miles to the north of us, near Liberty, a 4.4 one down 5 miles, at 1:04 a.m. I did not feel it, nor did John, and the dogs didn’t awake us. The layers under us are not the same as up that way.

On my way to FOOD BANK, I stopped at Kristen’s place near me, picking up a bag of clothes, some returned that I gave her that did not work, and she put in more for me to try or to pass along to others. Went on into Ellensburg and picked up some wool gloves, from Heather.
Food bank was fun today, and we had 4 of us entertaining. Also ate with a former student, who has offered his volunteer services, and met some more new people in town. Their daughter was with them, and plays the violin. The people at the table tried to talk her into joining us next week because she can read music. Problem may be that she has never heard all these old songs.

From there off to SAIL exercise, and back home by way of Royal Vista to play and sing with Karen (she on the accordion). That’s every 3rd Wednesday of the month.

I still have photos and videos to get from my camera, data from both my machines (CPAP and Oximeter), dishes to clean up, and blog stories to write.

Additional crap this morning was an OUT OF AREA phone call saying they had been calling me several times, and I needed to return a call to a 202 area code number, because the IRS had a lawsuit against me. We checked the web later and found, as suspected, it was a scam. I know the IRS only contacts people by postal mail, not emails or phone. The call was from IMAX communications in Wash., D.C., and has been going on since 2012. Any call coming through on my caller ID with OUT OF AREA, I pick up and do not say anything to activate the robot with a voice. Usually there’s a hang-up, or occasionally, a message, as today. If any of you ever call me and have that happen, say, Hello, this is “xxxxx” , because I have gotten card-minutes calls occasionally from people (John’s sister, for one), that also come through that way. Please identify yourself. We get Internet scam about every other day and I tag those so they don’t get through again from the same address.

Thursday, Feb 19 Happy Chinese New Year – the year of the Ram

CPAP report. Reported figures. 7 hrs 40 min with AHI = 0.13
Events: 1 H No major mask leaks (max=13 L/min) — no SpO2 data available

Craziness continues. At least I had a decent night’s sleep, but my computer is not responding on many fronts. I did manage to create and produce a legible copy of lyrics and chords (only) for the guitarists on Green, Green Grass of Home. I also ran off I’ll Fly Away in G with all the lyrics I did not have on last week’s copy.

My Oximeter battery lost its charge, so I received no SpO2 (blood Oxygen saturation % level) data last night to coordinate with my CPAP data.

Another morning scam on our computer, this time on the email account we have shared since 1995. The subject title was Bureau of Federal Investigation. The email of the send was from Canada (.ca at the end of the address), and the message was full of misspellings, so we know it’s a scam, just like all the Nigeria et al. ones about people dying and leaving money to us.

Here’s a wish for you from a friend of mine, for this special day:

Friday, Feb 20

CPAP report. Reported figures. 7 hrs 12 min with AHI = 0.28
Events: 2 h No major mask leaks (max=7 L/min)
After the SpO2 added, AHI = 0.21 for 9 hrs 36 min.

Walked to the “front” of our property to view more of the logs-gone situation, and to checkout some other stuff John’s doing on removing brush near our east property line to try to make visible for a surveyor to mark our boundaries, which appear to be confused over time. We will rebuild a nice fence out front and want to be sure it is where it is supposed to be. The old fences were internal to a larger holding – some lines are not very straight. There is also a hard-to-trace set of barbed wires that seem not to relate to anything else. They have been there many years.

I went to town for my exercise SAIL class, which has been cut to only two days a week because of too many people in the class to be safe for all. I can only attend on Wednesday & Friday.
Home by way of Grocery Outlet for a few cans of cat food and a large bucket of Vanilla ice cream. On my way out, I saw a marked down ($5) pair of jeans in John’s size. He has to try them on to be sure they fit, and then if not, I have a month to return them for a refund. Seems an odd item in a discount grocery, but last month I bought some work socks. Earlier they were also selling snow boots.

Saturday, Feb 21

CPAP report. Reported figures. 7 hrs 42 min with AHI = 0.39
Events: 3H, 1CSR,1.5m No major mask leaks (max=5 L/min)

I have been working on the blog and on the supplemental web page to describe the logging accident. We are going to make the fence replacement an opportunity to reconfigure the entire front approach to our property. Sort of a “first impression” upgrade. About 2:30 our couple-miles-away neighbor (with earth moving equipment) is coming over to review the ideas John has for moving dirt around out front to replace the fence and the gate to our property. It will require bulldozing to contour the land and move the piles of rock and uneven terrain. We’ll split the driveway about 100 feet from Naneum Road and take a nearly straight shot to the new hay barn and old shed. Photos later.

We left at 4:00 p.m. for the Grange scholarship fundraiser spaghetti dinner, going by way of Circle K in town for $2.059/gal gasoline for John’s car, as he leaves early tomorrow for WTA trail work at Poo Poo Point, on Tiger Mountain, close to where he worked last Sunday, but likely they’ll be higher up and may have a view into the Puget Sound.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Sunday, Feb 8

CPAP report. Reported figures. 8 hrs 45 min with AHI = 0.11
Events: 1 CSR, 1m; same time as 1 H No major mask leaks (max=20 L/min)

Finally, we got the blog out at 1:00 a.m. today, for the first week of February. I got up at 8:00 a.m., took some Acetaminophen, and went back to bed until 10:00 a.m. I am sure I needed the rest.
Been trying to catch up on emails, washing clothes, paying bills (get a license tab renewal for the 2003 truck –at least I can do that over the computer and it is mailed to us). Wow, the cost is up to $73. Alternately, I worked on my jobs list. Now have 675 people on the list, a Google Group, named Northwest Geography Jobs, but it is full of much more information for other disciplines.

Rain was called for all week, but this morning’s forecast throws in a couple of sunny days. Today we have overcast, and it rained in the middle of the night about 3:00. John has done all the morning feeding and exercising dogs, and in addition, fed Woody, the young female feral kitty. John put a wood pallet on top of the Marigold planter box. When John and the dogs go out in the morning she will show up. We’ve fed her there a few times and she is getting used to the dogs and John going buy. In the mornings she is the only cat around, but towards dusk her mother, Sue, usually shows up, and some days Lemon, too. Evening feeding is on the other side of the house and afterward the 2 older cats leave. Woody stays and will follow John around as he works in the yard and feeds hay from the barn. She does disappear at times but can usually be called to her new pallet perch out front.
John came in from his raspberry pruning to fix a great lunch. He chopped up some of the pot-roasted beef, shredded cheddar cheese, fried mushrooms, and put them in a heated whole-wheat croissant roll. What a nice sandwich. With it, we had pears and pecans. Too bad you cannot taste it so here’s a photo for you.

A bunch of time spent on the computer and also gathering dishes and clothes, washing clothes, then putting both away.

Took me all day to finally get to taking my data from the CPAP & Oximeter, and I’m half done with time to eat a late dinner. I am not sure what we’re having tonight, probably leftover beef stew.

Monday, Feb 9

CPAP report. Reported figures. 6 hrs 43 min with AHI = 0.00
Events: none No major mask leaks (max =13 L/min)

Today I went for my INR and by Lorene’s hospital room, to find she was on her way to Royal Vista. On to SAIL, where I took my antibiotic an hour ahead of my teeth cleaning. From there to Super 1 to buy a Powerball ticket (it’s up to $450 million). I’m sure we could figure a few things to do with that much money. Went to have teeth cleaned and it was fine, except for a hole needing replaced in a gold crown in the far back top of my mouth, left side (now scheduled for 2/24). Dropped off our school bond voting ballots at the Courthouse and on the way home I went by Royal Vista to see Collette M, and deliver knitted finger-less gloves for her. These were tailor-made especially for her by Carol H, with measurements I took for her right arm, larger than normal, because of suffering from Lymphedema. They fit, and I forgot to carry my camera, so will have to return and document it for the knitter to see. (Look below at the end of Thursday’s report.) Also visited my neighbor, Lorene, and 3 others there: Donna, Stan, and Jeanne.

Home to play catch-up on being away all day. John fixed a late dinner of baked chicken, fried mushrooms, butternut squash, and peaches.

Tuesday, Feb 10

CPAP report. Reported figures. 7 hrs 39 min with AHI = 0.13
Events: 1H waking up No major mask leaks (max=16 L/min)

I guess I was wiped out again. Slept in until 9:30 after awaking at 7:00 a.m. Darn, my Internet was down this morning, but John was outside and had not opened his computer yet. He was working until coming back in to fix some brunch, and I told him it had been down for a couple hours. He checked and his was up and going. Mine was not, could not be ‘troubleshot”, and other things were going whacko on my computer. I messed with it for hours, before I finally (at John’s suggestion) took it to the backroom of the house to be just a few feet from the router. I really no longer know which of the many things I did actually allowed me back on.

Speaking of brunch, what got me through the rest of the day was John’s specially-made frittata (I think that’s the best description), large biscuit, and bacon.

INR from yesterday was 2.3 and I don’t have to go back for a month. Talked to nurse Cathie this morning. Karen was the one who left the message yesterday with John, and did not tell him the value, but that I had to go back in 2 weeks, because it was protocol even though it was all right. I realized that was the reason for going back again for the redraw, and this should have been fine for a monthly schedule again. I was correct. Considering the content of our menus, it’s nice the INR is only affecting adversely by alcohol and dark green vegetables (with much Vitamin K).

Wow, is this cool, link sent to me by my native American neighbor, Allen.

An Owl swims — why?

I packed up some more clothes that no longer fit me, to give away (some small and some very large). I thought I had given most of the very large away, but not. I’m sure I have more in garbage bags or boxes yet around to uncover and re-home. This cleaning of past things is a pain and so very time-consuming. Back to tax receipt work until I leave in a couple hours for a music event.

I dropped off some clothes to a neighbor a mile away and went to Super 1 for donuts ($3.00 off dozen mixed), on my way to Hearthstone to play religious music, with the group, The Connections. I was the only stringed instrument to go with the piano (also a stringed instrument), with 3 other singers. We had a large and appreciative audience who were singing every song. They get to choose 3 songs during the program, and it was delightful as usual what they pick. I knew all of them from my childhood. Occasionally, the audience comes up with a song pick some of the group members do not know. Usually the pianist knows the song from his background.

I have talked previously about the Buy Nothing Ellensburg site, and that I donated a basket to the group. Today, a thank you came out for the fundraising efforts and the basket’s use for the Ellensburg Homeschool Community Co-Op. This is our basket and its contents.

Wednesday, Feb 11

CPAP report. Reported figures. 9 hrs 9 min with AHI = 0.00
Events, none. No major mask leaks (max=16 L/min)

Interesting day. Slept in until 9:00!! Had a donut for breakfast. Worked on a few things but took off for town at 11:00 a.m., and got there to speak to one of the Food Bank clients. I met one of my former students there, who wants to volunteer. He was my student in in 1992 for an early GIS class (with G.R.A.S.S.) [That stands for Geographic Resources Analysis Support System. It is still open-source, meaning it is free, and can be used on Macs, Windows, and Linux operating systems. It just celebrated its 30th birthday.].
Back to Alex M. We have stayed friends and kept in touch all these years. He brought a CWU student from Saudi Arabia (he’s here taking English). Once his English is good enough (it’s quite good now), he will move to Florida or Kentucky to go into Hospital Management. We played for 1/2 hour, and had two singers today (F.I.S.H. staff members), in addition. One of them ran copies of Have I Told you Lately that I Love You, for the audience to use. They enjoyed singing along and on many others they knew the words to (This Land is Your Land, I’ve Been Working on the Railroad, and I’ll Fly Away).
Ate lunch at a table with Alex M and a couple of others. I learned that he had the same surgeon as I did (Dr. Sharma) January last year for a 6-way bypass!! He thinks of the surgeon the same way I do. From there I went by the bread room and got a couple of loaves of bread (French), and some nice hamburger buns, called Telera. On to SAIL class, almost arriving late. Our class had 20 today. I stayed and participated in the Yoga class for the first time, from 2:45 to 3:30. It was relaxing, but there were several over-the-head arm movements I could not do. I did all right on most of the others. Home without making any other stops, except required by law behind school buses. I turned east on a side road to escape one headed north but then ran into another (luckily at the end of that road), where I turned on to my Naneum road; the bus went straight. Home to take care of dirty dishes, lots of emails, and needing to fix food for 4 cats, 3 outside ones tonight.

Tonight was a good dinner. Baked Cod, fried onion rings by John, and Honeycrisp apples.

Thursday, Feb 12

CPAP report. Reported figures. 5 hrs 3 min with AHI = 0.00
Events: none No major mask leaks (max=8 L/min)

I was awakened at 8:30 a.m. by a gentleman calling from Port Townsend, about his wife’s interest in playing guitar while she is in Cle Elum taking care of her sick daughter. The president of the WA Old Time Fiddlers Association, Rita, gave him my number as a contact. I managed to contact her (Renee) and a fellow (Maury) in our group who is in the Cle Elum area, for him to pick her up to join us today.

Did morning corrections on Blue Skirt Waltz notes I found yesterday while playing at the Food Bank while actually reading the notes. I printed the music for Renee (mentioned above), who joined us, today.

Pretty good turnout of players–Dr. Dave made it from the West side with his Bass Fiddle. We haven’t seen him since last year. We had several guitarists (5), banjo, fiddle, tambourine, and a singer.

My Rehab experience was fun today. We had our faithful few there we know by name. Helen always gets up and dances waltzes using her walker, and stopping to flirt with the guys. Another fellow (Ted) we call thumbs up because he loves fast or hoedown music, and he gives us the thumbs up, often at the end of songs he likes. As I was walking out there was a nurse standing next to Ted. I thanked him and told her he was our thumbs-up man. The nurse and I looked at each other and realized we knew faces, but didn’t know from where, but she knew it wasn’t the fiddling. Turns out she was an aide there when I was in for 7 weeks in 2010. I remembered that she was a super helper, and I said, I was right in this room here (we were standing in front of it). She asked the year, and I asked if she was a nurse now. Yes, she became one in 2013. So, I thanked her again for the wonderful care she gave me while there. Her name is Melanie. Only a few of the staff are still there, who were there when I was.

After Rehab I planned to meet a fellow from the Buy Nothing Ellensburg group at 4:00 at Safeway for a plunger he was freely giving. I saw it on-line and put in a request, figuring it would be perfect for our sink that got clogged last week. I was the only one interested, so I received it. No drawing necessary. We agreed to meet at the door of Safeway, closest to the wind gauge. I decided to show you that gauge and a picture of the plunger he shared (I grabbed it from the site, and made the combo below.)

Finally, one more stop on my way home, at another nursing home to visit two people. The first is Collette Matheson, who is the one who had emergency surgery a couple of weeks ago to remove cancer in her spine. They believe they got it all. I went by Monday to deliver her knitted finger-less gloves that I described on Monday’s blog entry this week. I carried my camera and got her photo (below), which I made into a Valentine/Get Well Soon wish for all at the Briarwood potluck/music session to sign this Saturday.

I will copy it and take it to her. Normally, she would be there, enjoying, singing, and helping serve us the meal after we entertain for an hour.

While there, I also checked in on my neighbor, Lorene, but she was sleeping, so I didn’t wake her. I will see Lorene again next Tuesday night when our other music group goes there in the evening.

Friday, Feb 13

CPAP report. Reported figures. 9 hrs 3 min with AHI = 0.22
Events: 1 Cheyne Stokes Resp (2 min), 2 h No major mask leaks (max=9 L/min)

I spent a ton of time this week on the Home-school Running Start issue at CWU. I’m writing a note to my former Dean, Department Head, and the Provost about a message she sent to the entire faculty about a new Task Force to deal with the high school on Running Start programs. Two of my students in the early 2000s first were in my Maps class as Running Start students and were homeschooled. I am recommending CWU get a representative from the Ellensburg Homeschool Community Co-Op, because right now they only plan on involving the public high schools. Although I wanted to finish it this afternoon and get it mailed, I did not succeed. Now, with President’s Day Monday, it won’t be seen until Tuesday, and I’ll be gone to Yakima to another doctor’s appointment.

Temperature was up to 59 at 2:53 (high of the day), and John went to the transfer station (dump) with a truckload of regular house garbage and food remnants we’ve frozen (chicken bones and such things), and some things from outside – used baling twine, for one. The worst thing he had to deal with was a large wooden spool acquired from the electric utility. After 20 years of being on the ground, parts had rotted. There are many nails, bent-over ones, and other fasteners. The view below (from the web) is what they look like new.

He paid a fee of $22, but that’s cheaper than paying for weekly pickup. We often have more “stuff” than would fit in a regular garbage can. On the way home, he stopped at Safeway for the special-priced items on sale just today. Loaded up on Pepsi products at a very reduced rate. He (as I was yesterday) was amazed at the offering of Valentine flower bouquets at a high price ($25 and up), for Valentine’s Day. We wonder if they sold all of them?

Tonight was spaghetti on little shells pasta. We skipped lunch.

Saturday, Feb 14

CPAP report. Reported figures. 6 hrs 23 min with AHI = 0.31
Events: 2 H No major mask leaks (max=14 L/min)

I received an exciting phone call from my friend in CA (Jeri Conklin) with whom I’m the co-owner of the little female Brittany you have been hearing about for the past year, plus: Cedaridge Kip’s Camelot Shay Tre’, JH. She was calling to tell me about an announcement from the American Brittany’s website of the standings for ABC Juvenile Dog of the Year. I am not sure when this is cut off and finalized. She will now be competing in Adult Gun-Dog events. Juvenile stakes are Open Puppy & Open Derby, and I assume Amateur Derby. I have not heard of their being an Amateur Puppy. This is based on the number of dogs defeated for the placements obtained. It went further, but I have only copied the first five.
https://www.facebook.com/americanbrittanyclub?fref=photo

Current standings as of January 28, 2015 for

ABC Juvenile Dog of the Year

1 Wind Mtn Shadywoods To The Point S Palmer 
2 Gunn Slingin’ Annie D Floyd
3 Jazz Kerr’s Jazzy Lady R Kerr
4 Sniksoh Therapist J Hoskins 
5 Cedaridge Kip’s Camelot Shay Tre’ JH J Conklin/N Hultquist 
5 Tack’s Joker P Dangerfield 

On another topic: John Ebenal called and will meet John and me at Briarwood today to exchange a fence post driver we originally bought from him at his yard sale several years ago. He needs it for fence making in Sequim. He and John visited mostly about WA trails, while I played music for the residents. He didn’t stay for food, and John only ate a lemon (frosted) cookie, so he will have some leftovers for dinner tonight. I do not need anything except perhaps dessert later. I had some of the Italian Sausage, tomato, tortellini soup, a chicken salad sandwich, couple of chunks of cheese, deviled eggs, and a serving of Trifle. Boy, was it excellent (everything was); punch was raspberry sherbet. I should have taken a picture, but too much was going on. Here is a photo of a Trifle from the web, that looks the same except ours had fresh strawberries on top and throughout, with bananas, peaches, pudding more fruit, and cake.

Finally, my last photo for the day, came from a Captcha request when I was adding a new person to the Jobs list on Google Groups, and normally to prove you are not a robot, you need to look at a visual of 3 to 4 black numbers on a gray background, and type them into the phrase box. Imagine the smile on my face, when this came up instead:

We should mention it is very cold in the Eastern USA and we have many friends and relatives there. Stay warm and safe, y’all! {Click image below to see detail.}

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Sunday, Feb 1

Finally, we got the blog out at 1:00 a.m. today, for the 5th and last week of January.

I got up at 6:00 a.m., took some meds, one a diuretic, and went back to bed until 9:30. Guess I was wiped out from the past couple day’s activities.
No CPAP report today; only oximetry, as yesterday.
Oximetry showed I am benefiting from the SpO2 control, with dips into the 80s, more often than with the machine (but it still happens occasionally with it on). This may just be sensor thing as I move, as it doesn’t last.

Weather today started with spitting snow that has changed to drizzle. John managed all the feeding and exercising dogs.

Lunch today is leftovers for each of us. John is having meatloaf, and I’m having the rest of my chicken salad I fixed yesterday. I had a late breakfast of an apple fritter covered with plum preserves (made by my friend, Gloria, from our plums we shared), so my lunch will be later than usual.

I’ve been working on the last (I think) edits of the report for my friend, and now am trying to organize receipts for taxes, and medical records to prepare for my Tuesday appointment. I have to report on my medical data from CPAP and Oximetry for my cardiologist. I completed our volunteer hours for the month of January. I found the missing TurboTax receipt for my refund at Costco.
Tomorrow, I will stay home again to complete projects.
Listened to some of the Super Bowl. Not a nice ending for Seahawk fans. John read there was less than 13 minutes of play and just over one hour of commercials. The rest of the remaining 33 hours was just stuff. Friday night high school football should be more entertaining, especially considering the cost.

Monday, Feb 2

CPAP report. Reported figures. 8 hrs 46 min with AHI = 0.11
EVENTS: 1 H, No major mask leaks (max=19 L/min)

I managed to take off the pictures from last Friday’s celebration at the senior center and send to the folks who put it on.
I worked a lot on my report and questions to give to my cardiologist.
Our dinner was 5-ounce filet of Copper River Salmon (source of Vit D), nicely seasoned, butternut squash with pecans & brown sugar, and a 1/2 of an orange. Photo below was taken after some of the food was consumed.

Tuesday, Feb 3

CPAP report. Reported figures. 7 hrs 54 min with AHI = 0.13
EVENTS: 1 H No major mask leaks (max=13 L/min)

I never got around to describing my Tuesday visits to the Yakima Heart Center (YHC). I will try to do it now, four days later.

Our very long day started, leaving the house at 9:25 a.m., and going to the first visit at the Imaging section of the YHC. The purpose was to get my implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) checked. I have been on a program of regular checking (a company study) every 3 months, since it was installed June 1, 2010. I’m at the end of that research, so the only need for reading now is to look for irregularities and test its battery life. Every night, the vitals of the device are checked over my landline. It actually can be read by the YHC via their website for the imaging, monthly, and I don’t have to make a trip down except every 4 months. My battery has 15% usable life (about 10 months) before I have to be set up for a replacement surgery to implant a new one. It will be a surgery lasting from start to finish, about 3 hours. Mine may require a little more prep time because of my severe allergy to Heparin (usual blood thinner used in operations and also used to clean IVs). As well, some of my heart medications will have to be stopped or changed before the surgery. The only one I know for sure is Coumadin, but I will have to go in for a complete physical and “work up” once my battery gets low enough to send the alert for replacement. The nice thing is that I can continue to be monitored every night and the technician can check my device through the web, monthly, to alert them to start the planning phase for the operation.
It will occur in Yakima Memorial Hospital, and I know my surgeon, Dr. Pham, whom I have seen previously for other decisions about my ICD. The nice thing is that the technology has improved in the 5 years since, the size is smaller, and the weight lighter than mine now.
{click image to see detail}

Above is a schematic of a single-wired ICD, as I now have.

One of the things that will be considered is making the single wire (lead into the heart), now in the right ventricle, considered a single chamber ICD, into a dual chamber ICD, with two leads, (one as before, and additionally one into the right atrium). The weakness of my heart and my low ejection fraction has prompted my primary cardiologist (Dr. Kim), to request consideration of the second wire. Last year Dr. Pham determined I was not a candidate for the surgery. However, my guess is that I will be now, because the unit is going to be replaced this year and Dr. Kim believes the dual lead will be good for my heart. The second wire will be pushed through a vein to the other part of my heart. My appointment with him is March 10, to make this determination. He is a nuclear cardiologist and performs all the ICD and pacemaker operations. My surgeon, for the current ICD, retired.
From that first appointment, we went to the waiting room for my appointment with Dr. Kim, at 11:15. I was called in fairly rapidly, but his assistant took care of many initial things while we awaited my doctor (with another patient). He is so generous with his time and attention that I never complain about waiting. First, she took care of my meds reporting, took my blood pressure and pulse, and then performed an ECG for the doctor to view when he arrived. That’s always his procedure, even if there is a previous ECG just 2 weeks old. I also had had a fasting blood draw a week previously, and that was to be reviewed this visit. I requested a copy from the assistant, and it was provided as I checked out.
Dr. Kim arrived about 12:30 p.m. and reviewed his notes, the lab results from last week, the ECG earlier today, and fielded my questions, from the last visit. Concerns for this visit were with my changes in medications, and the results, since the changes occurred at my last visit, Nov 14, 2014. Here are a few highlights.
My BNP (one of the most sensitive ways to assess how well a damaged heart is doing on treatment) was 178 last week, better than previously at 188. Read about BNP here.
That’s a change in the right direction but still not great. We’ll check back in a month to see my progress overall. My potassium was high, so while I had started it with the diuretic, he stopped me on it for now. My Creatinine (measuring kidney function) was a little high up to 1.62 from 1.29, but he said it could have been a slight dehydration from the fasting blood draw, and we’d look in a month. He reviewed my progress on Telmisartan (Micardis, generic), and upped my dosage to 20mg from 10mg. We also discussed my change in Magnesium dosage. In the lab test previously, the reading was 1.8, and now is 2.0 (Range desired is 2.2-2.5). No change, okay to stay on 750mg.
I don’t think the Vitamin D test was in this lab, because I’m continuing until April on the large dose of D2, once a week. I asked the difference between D2 and D3, which I had been on and will go back to at the end of the 25 weeks of the high dosage. I found on the web that D2 was obtained from plants, and D3 was from the body’s interaction with the sun. However, his explanation was that it was pharmaceutical; they could “squeeze” more of D2 into the capsule, so you have fewer to take. Web articles suggest this used to be the case but now D3 is available in greater strengths. It won’t matter much because by the time I get it figured out I will be off of the high weekly dose. At the moment this remains one of medicine’s little mysteries.

We went over my twice-daily readings of my blood pressure the week preceding the appointment. I wore my oximeter and added those SpO2 percentages to the chart. He was pleased with the systolic being higher than in November, but not very clear if the new medicine was possibly responsible. Guess we will review in a month, when he wants me to return. He would like a higher blood pressure and faster beat to provide “reserve” in case something bad should start to happen. There are no symptoms at the level I am not at now. He then examined me on the table, and continued dictating his findings and conclusions into the tape recorder about our visit. He also took time to answer more of our questions about the requirements of the reports on medical condition to the government and for insurance purposes (Medicare & Group Health Insurance). Forms appear on his computer screen as he works and he has to type in his assessment from a list. This is why, sometimes, the report I finally get seems a bit odd, and perhaps even contradictory.

From there we went (at 2:05) to my Medical Supply place for the CPAP equipment to check out my recently acquired face mask, which I thought was not fitting me properly, and causing nose chafing from the tight fit of the nasal pillow. I had my mask with me to show them. We fiddled with it some, and realized there were no adjustments able to be made to the headgear that I hadn’t tried, and there was only one size fits all so I couldn’t replace with a different-sized headgear. They did offer and I tried a medium nasal piece, but it was too big. Then they suggested looking at another mask. I did, and the other one had more chances for resizing, and also it had larger more comfortable nasal pieces. However, once we actually got it all assembled, I decided it was too confining for my likes. Phillips Respironics, the maker of my CPAP machine, made that last tried mask, but I decided to stay with the AirFit 10 by ResMed (for her), I had, and just work with getting it correctly fitted. Don’t I look wonderful? This one seems to put pressure on my nose and pushes it up more than I’d prefer.

On to Costco. It was getting late, 2:40 I think and we had not had breakfast or lunch. I stood in line to return my Turbo Tax software, while John went to get our food. I requested a Chicken Salad (Grilled chicken slices, grape tomatoes, grated parmesan, lettuce, croutons, and a ranch/Caesar type dressing). John had a full polish sausage with the limited fixings he likes – onions and relish and mustard. We shared a frozen yogurt very berry sundae (strawberries).

We stopped by a friend’s in Ellensburg to deliver some low dose aspirin we purchased for them, and she returned 2 dozen eggs. Nice. We were very late getting home. It was going on 6:00 p.m., long day. John had all the evening chores with horses, dogs, and cats, and I fixed the food for the inside (and outside) cats.
I brought home a good half of the chicken chef salad and added some good stuff to it to cover both our dinners. Because we had eaten such a late lunch, it worked fine, and then we added a dessert.

Wednesday, Feb 4

CPAP report. Reported figures. 8 hrs 1 min with AHI = 0.00
EVENTS: none, No major mask leaks (max=6 L/min)

Another busy day. I had many email chores to do before I left at 11:00 a.m. for the Food Bank Soup Kitchen music. I started by visiting with one of the patrons I had not seen since the other building burned down. I was so happy to see her because I had been concerned she was sick.
Today, we had a full contingent of three instruments (& we all sing), plus two extra singers from the staff. Next week we will have 3 staff singing. It’s getting to be quite a presentation on Wednesdays. The servers still get in on the action keeping time to the music, or singing. Lunch served today was a pasta dish and salad, and a great peach/plum dessert. On my way out, I got some bread – whole-wheat crescent rolls (we have never had) and a loaf of French bread in a large cannister shape. Here is a link with the shape but not the French part. Bread from a can.
SAIL (exercise) class had a very high number of people today. I did not even count, but there were people in rows behind the pool table and the central circle. I met the lady who knits stuff for us, and gave her a big hug. She’s recently gotten the news that her cancer surgery was successful in getting it all out.
After loading some boxes in the back of my car from Gloria, I went by to get some ice cream to replenish the bucket we finished 3 days ago. The dogs and cat get nightly treats (tablespoon size) and they have been very demanding since we ran out Sunday.

We left early tonight for a lecture at CWU, first going by Pizza Hut for a pizza and carrying our own Pepsi. We took a container along to put in 3 pieces, 2 for John, and got our places on the front row, getting there 1/2 hr early. We enjoyed our dinner. The lecture started at 7:00, and went until 8:30 (longer than usual, but no one left early). It was presented by Wendy Bohrson (we’ve known her for the past 20 years, as a member of the Geology faculty). She was presenting at the Ice Age Floods monthly meeting, and while her topic was not on IAF material, it was very well received. It was on the Mt. Mazama eruption (that formed the Crater Lake caldera) and also she covered the Cascade Volcanoes. The presentation was very interesting, complete with a volcano demonstration from H2O2 (two different strengths, largest was 35%), yeast, food color, and water, in two differently shaped vessels. The demonstration was directly in front of us and performed by two of her students. When they were setting up, John asked if we needed safety glasses.

Thursday, Feb 5

CPAP report. Reported figures. 7 hrs 12 min with AHI = 0.00
EVENTS: none, very quiet. No major mask leaks (max=6 L/min)

Today we went on separate trips to town, with John going to Super 1 to take advantage of a really good sale (case pricing) on several types of canned beans, and tomatoes. We can make chili without so much salt, as well as using them in other dishes. They all have ‘best by’ dates of 2017. It does not claim the stuff is irradiated but it seems to keep forever.

I went for our music at a nursing home, but got confused, and first went to the wrong one (where I had spent so much time in 2010). When I got there and didn’t see a familiar truck of one of our guitar players who ALWAYS arrives early, I rethought it, and realized I was supposed to be at Royal Vista this week, instead. If this were a big city I might have been 20 miles off track. In EBRG, not so much. So, I fast retraced 2.5 miles NE and made it in time to help organize. We had a nice turnout with Gerald, Charlie, Jeanne, Maury, Bob, Nancy, Ellen, Manord, and Minerva.

I rushed out to get to a meeting starting at 3:00 p.m. at CWU I was invited to, happening in the old class (Intermediate GIS), I taught from 1988 until 2009, for a presentation by two former students. It went until after 5:00, when we went upstairs for pizza and pop (a total surprise for me). After we ate, we shared stories about students’ career plans. It was very interesting, and I believe helpful for everyone participating. The department head even joined us. One of my former students did most of the classroom presentation, but the other did a nice job leading the discussion about the students’ future plans. I did not get to my car to come home until 6:43, but I had taken my violin inside with me so it did not get too cold. Stringed instruments are temperamental things in temperature changing situations.

Friday, Feb 6

CPAP report. Reported figures. 7 hrs 50 min with AHI = 0.51
Events: 4 h No major mask leaks (max=8 L/min)

I had to go to my neighbor’s with my oximeter to check her pulse and O2 blood saturation level. Her son went too, and we helped for an hour taking blood pressure with two different units and the oximeter, and manually. We were concerned with her high pulse rate. Finally, we left when we found she had not taken her Digoxin (that lowers it), but later in the afternoon, he checked on her, and she was not in good shape, so he took her to ER, where they found pneumonia and dehydration. She’s doing better on Saturday.

John fixed a chef’s delight today. He made a special grilled sandwich of bacon, egg, cheese, and mushrooms. Really tasty, and different.

In mid-morning John started a beef-roast with tomatoes, red onions and several spices. Then late in the afternoon he added carrots, celery, and mushrooms. This was done in the oven. We had some of the whole-wheat crescent rolls, sprinkled with grated Parmesan, and then broiled. It was probably the best beef “stew” I have had in my life.

The west side of WA has had lots of rain with some flooding and related problems. Soil gets saturated with water, winds come up, trees and power lines go down. The flooded houses this week are on a low spot next to the Duckabush River. Here is the spot using Google Earth if you want to see where: 47.652493, -122.937434
Who couldn’t see that coming?

Saturday, Feb 7

CPAP report. Reported figures. 7 hrs 21 min with AHI = 0.41
EVENTS: 3H No major mask leaks (max=7 L/min)

Today was filled with watching the weather change from sunshine to rain and back again several times. John would go out during the sunshine to prune the very long-thorned blackberry plants he’s been working on, off and on. Today he finished. Now he has a small patch of yellow raspberries to do.

I spent the day mostly on the blog, but also on some paperwork I’ve skipped over the past week. John brought me the mail today with more to do, and I haven’t even gone through mail arriving earlier this week.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

… places where we could hang out after school

Where we could hang

A little history

January 25 is supposed to be the date for the first patent. Others were doing similar things, so who knows?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sunday, Jan 18

CPAP report. Reported figures. 7 hrs 21 min with AHI = 0.00
No events. No major leaks, max was 5 L/min

We awoke to ice on everything but a sunny day and as you all know I took photos to add to the blog we finally got published today (so look below if you missed last week). We both have been working on projects, tax records, other things, and now getting ready for John’s haircut to keep him from looking like Einstein. We had a nice brunch.

We telephoned friends in CA for his birthday and found they were watching the Seahawk/Green Bay game. Meanwhile, I heard about the way to watch the end of the game on-line. I learned on Facebook about its availability from a former student now on the North Cheyenne Reservation. Our TV is not accessible, so this was a treat, especially in the final moments of the game and not having to watch the horrible beginning.
I finished cutting John’s hair and helping a friend with an on-going project.
I went through all the audience songbooks, looking for the one with the missing page but all were fine. Pages near end are low-weight (cheap from the dollar store) paper and probably stuck together. Now I added a flower stamp to the front cover of all. Several of the people there at Briarwood loved the little polar bear stamps.

Now I can get back to my own stuff (non-music) that has been waiting awhile.

Monday, Jan 19

CPAP report. Reported figures. 9 hrs 11 min with AHI = 0.00
No events. No major mask leaks (max=14 L/min)

David Hazlett, our farrier, came this morning for trims on two of our horses. It’s the MLK holiday, so we’re staying home today. David was expected at 10 but went elsewhere – his screw-up. At 11 John had just turned the horses out into the pasture – the old one stayed to get pelleted feed – when we got a call that David was 10 minutes away. Ebony got tied to a post while Myst had to be retrieved from 100 yards away. Oh well.

Finished my charting of CPAP and Oximetry and shared with my friend in ID.
Washed some dishes. After lunch, John cut brush along where there once was a fence. Some posts still show but the wire is on the ground. When the things with thorns (wild roses and Hawthorns) are gone he can clear the downed trees, remove the wire and posts, and start over.

Tuesday, Jan 20

CPAP report. Reported figures. 7 hrs 29 min with AHI = 0.40, but the CPAP reported after SpO2 was AHI =.33, 8 hrs 59 min, 48 sec, so I guess the added time makes a difference in the calculation of AHI. No major leaks, max 15 L/min., 3 H, one awoke me, 12:30 a.m. with maybe another at 7:00 a.m. I am getting leaks by trying to loosen my headgear to prevent nose chafing.

A late cancellation at the dentist had them calling to see if John was available to come in at 10:00 a.m. for teeth cleaning. He was scheduled for next week and they’ll have more time to fill that slot. Us retired folk can be accommodating quite often. I spent time on tax records, bank statements (checks), and paying bills. I got both the Cedaridge Brittanys and regular checking accounts done and printed and now have to sort in the cancelled stubs for 2014. Then, it’s a major task tackling filing and tallying in my computer. Medical payments keep changing along with some other stuff and a quick estimation for tax prep seems impossible. I hope it pays off this year. Last year I spent all the time itemizing deductions only to find it better to take the standard deduction. A lot of wasted time.

I will be going to town to play music tonight, and then home to dinner that John’s fixing – baked chicken, baked battered apples, and acorn squash.

Wednesday, Jan 21

CPAP report. Reported figures. 6 hrs 7 min with AHI = 0.16. No major leaks, max 9 L/min. One H. Then, the figures after SpO2 was uploaded showed results: 9 hrs 9 min with AHI=0.11
WHY THE DIFFERENCE? I just noticed that yesterday for the first time.

We were awakened, very unhappily, at 5:45 a.m., with a call from India about a security risk on my computer. I was unhappy about the time (the middle of my night), and told him so, but he kept pushing about the urgency of the message and I hung up, royally ticked off. Do they not know about time zones? It took me awhile to get back to sleep, without my CPAP on, but continued with the oximeter.

Worked some on my data from the CPAP and the oximeter, but still have to finish it, as I did not this morning. Instead, I left about 11:00 for town because I had to stop on the north side of town to share a large heavy (handled straw) basket requested on the Buy Nothing site by a gal who wants to load it up for a gift basket for her kid’s school fundraiser. I do not even recall where I got it (we picked a few up one year for 25₵ each), probably at a garage sale, but it was easy to empty and get one more thing out of the house clutter. I need to do that every day. Then I went to the Food Bank, in time to visit and set up before people all arrived. The food delivery was running late, so we entertained the folks there before they were served. We had good participation today, singing off the cuff, I’ll Fly Away, Do Lord, I’ve Been Working on the Railroad, You Are my Sunshine, and then others once they started eating, but several still sang along and applauded. We even had one of the servers dancing in the aisles; always cool to watch. Our fan club grouped at the front table.

On my way in, I peeked in the bread room they encourage us to visit, and saw a couple of loaves of my favorite English Muffin Bread for toasting. I should have gotten it then, because by the time I returned, it was gone. I was able to get John some rosemary olive oil bread he likes, some French bread with sesame seeds on top, and some cheese rolls. For food today, they fed us lamb! The first piece I had was very tender and good, but the second piece could not be cut or chewed. With it they had nicely cooked (according to people at my table), kale, but that is totally off my diet with Coumadin medication. It is at the top of the no-no Vitamin K list for green veggies. They had a combo of fried mushrooms and zucchini, and I enjoyed the mushrooms, some green salad, of which I had only a little (mostly the carrots and tomatoes) and, for dessert, we had a piece of a decorated Seahawks (colors) sheet cake.

I left there for the hospital lab for my blood draw for the INR for Coumadin test that had been too low 2 weeks ago. Today it was fine (2.4), but they want me to go back again in two weeks before going back to once a month. I’m not happy about that, especially because it costs me $37.26. Yuk. Well, it is early in the year so I’ve maybe not reached the deduction part. I’m tempted just to wait another couple of weeks to make it a month between readings. Went on from there to the Senior Center for my exercise class, with 33 people in it! That is a huge bunch for all the walking around the room and making movements in close proximity. From there to Super One Pharmacy to pick up my Coumadin.

Came back headed north (toward home), dropped by to pay a bill at my computer place — used for our email connections and web page presence, and continued to another music date at Royal Vista from 3 to 4:00. Once a month, I join an accordion player and we sing and play songs with the residents. We had a few active and happily involved folks today. At the end, Karen (accordionist) had promised one of the residents she would play a polka for her. She ended up playing two songs, and while I was going around the room, picking up music booklets from people, I gathered energy from somewhere and was dancing polka steps around the room. We were singing beer-barrel polka as I danced and she played. People were singing and applauding and it was very neat. A sweet lady I saw down the hall when I came in and invited her to come in, said, “Thank you for coming; I enjoyed it very much.” She is 88 and confused. Every time I’m there (3 times/month), she asks where she is, and I tell her. Then she asks me if she lives there and how she got there. I tell her, yes, you live here, I don’t know for how long, but I see you every time I come, “Remember last night?” She said she did but she says she has trouble with her memory. I told her she didn’t look her age, and that her memory was fine with the words of the songs. She was happy and bubbling. I wished her well, and that I would see her in two weeks when I’ll come back there with a different group. Except for seeing people deteriorating, it is rewarding to interact with them and see them enjoying it. Music does wonders.

Thursday, Jan 22

CPAP report. Reported figures. 8 hrs 25 min with AHI = 0.00
No major leaks, max 15 L/min.

Managed a lot of stuff this morning about medical appointments and accomplished more bill paying. It is tough to write a check for $3,646, but we figure the cost is worth it for Long Term Care Insurance for the both of us. Another medical issue. With my Coumadin yesterday I had 6 pages of singled spaced small font warnings to read; so I did. I didn’t learn anything I didn’t already know, but it was a new item, so I went through it. Also, took my 1/2 hour to record the CPAP and oximeter results from last night, with various screen captures for my files. And, I re-read my cardiologist’s last report, to give me heads-up before my next appointment. Monday, I must begin my daily recording of my blood pressure for his interests in my records.
I spent some time arranging for hats to wear today to play music at Hearthstone, at their request, for National Hat Week. All but two of our players wore one.
I spent some time arranging for hats to wear today to play music at Hearthstone, at their request, for National Hat Week. All but two of our players wore one.

I wore my mink hat (it was my mom’s she bought in Canada, at Simpsons) and took my cowboy hat, but changed to it very soon, because my head got too hot wearing the fur hat. We sang 21 songs and had a good audience who joined in. Lots of players there: Dale on the washtub bass, Laura his wife on Guitar, but she plans to switch to fiddle next week to help me, Ellen on Clarinet, Keith on Trumpet, Anne on Tambourine, me on fiddle, Evelyn on Banjo, Manord, Maury, Charlie, Gerald, & Minerva on guitar, and Bob singing. Bob joins Evelyn and me the day before at the food bank where he also plays his guitar and sings along. We have enough guitars in the other group, so we just enjoy his voice.

This link below is not a very good rendition of part of I’ll Fly Away, taken by a resident’s daughter on her phone: and posted on Facebook, but everyone at her table was happily enjoying themselves, so I’m including it. It’s a few seconds under a minute.

I’ll Fly Away

Here’s another movie on my camera, taken by a volunteer server there today: (I uploaded it to You Tube). This was her first ever using my camera and taking a video, so considering that, I think she did very well. She walked around and captured the entire song. This was early in our performance and another bunch of people came in later, including a couple I have known since arriving in town in 1988. I spent my first year at their house while they were away on a sabbatical. He is also a geographer. He’s a good singer too, singing in the Ellensburg Barbershop Quartet and the Barbershop Choir in town. {Click on image to enlarge.}

Part of our group is shown with our hats; in the foreground are three ladies (residents) with their special hats. The black hat in the middle has pins all over it from her travels and stops at Hard Rock Cafes around the United States. We had fun visiting about it afterwards. Some showing in this picture include Maury and Manord, guitarists from Cle Elum, Evelyn, banjoist from S. Cle Elum, Nancy, fiddler, Anne, tambourine player, and Keith, trumpeter, from Ellensburg. Out of sight to the left are Charlie, Gerald, & Minerva on guitar, Bob singing, and out of sight to the right, are Ellen on clarinet, Laura on guitar, and Dale on washtub bass. You can see us all in the video.

Here’s a link to the video “Karn” took of us, doing “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad.”

KV Fiddlers & Friends, Jan 22, 2015 Hearthstone for Nat’l Hat Week

I’ve Been Working on the Railroad

Friday, Jan 23

CPAP report. Reported figures. 7 hrs 51 min with AHI = 0.00
No major leaks, max 13 L/min, oximeter on for 8 hrs 32 min.

Off to CWU Dean Hall (my old stomping grounds) for a scholarship luncheon today. While there I visited with a former colleague, Jen, and left a package on the door for another colleague in Geography, an image reader for an older computer he still has, and I no longer can use. I threw in a large shirt for him that had a neck opening John does not prefer. He wants shirts to button down all the way.

While there, in addition to eating an Italian pasta salad (made by Monica) for lunch, with pound cake and a plum sauce (made by Ruth) from our plums, I gathered some rolls of toilet paper from two restrooms (see story below).

Then off to SAIL exercise class, where I delivered some more gifts, and picked up some left for me by a lady who volunteers knitting of hats, scarves, slippers, and finger-less gloves, for free (with only a request of a donation to the coffee fund for the center). I had arranged with Carol (the knitter) to make a special pair of gloves for a lady at Briarwood who has Lymphedema in her arm. I took her arm measurements last week when we were there, and passed along to the knitter. She already had made them and left them for me at the AAC. I called and did not reach her, and so I thought she might be at the clubhouse playing cards or bingo. I drove over and walked in, with the gloves and a knitted hat, and the group was playing bingo. I apologized for interrupting and said I was looking for the gal (by name). Normally, she would be there, but wasn’t, because she had to be taken for an emergency operation on her back to Harborview Hospital in Seattle. I haven’t called to talk with her yet to see how she’s doing. One of the ladies said her cancer had returned. I know that the condition can be caused by medicines such as tamoxifen (Nolvadex) or radiation therapy. So sad; I hope they can get a handle on it and bring her back to health. What a sweet wonderful lady she is, always cheerful and positive.

Left there and went by Super One for summary statements of our medical expenses for 2014 and to buy some goodies we needed.

On the way home, I went by Wilson Creek Rd to pick up a freely given iron (Buy Nothing site) so John can use iron-on patches to repair work clothes. Need to remember to offer them some garden produce next summer. (I did and found out they have their own garden with most stuff, except they would like garlic, if we had any.) We grow lots of onions, but no garlic, as neither one of us likes it. I did learn from her they like to go to the mountains for picking elderberries, currants, and chokecherries for making jam. We have those on our property, so they plan to come share in the bounty, next year.

The next story goes with the following image:

I wrote the following to the Buy Nothing Ellensburg list on Facebook.

ASK -ing for help in finding small toilet paper rolls, as are taken from the big roll dispensers around town. Today I was on campus and found 6 still very usable rolls. I know that’s the policy to take them out and replace. I never thought until I saw the (attached) piece in a magazine, the end of December. I contacted our FISH Food Bank to ask if they would take such an item to distribute to the needy. They were very happy and said, yes. So, next Wednesday I will take my offering. I hope anyone with an opportunity might do something like this. The unused paper rolls are left on the counters in restrooms in all buildings.

I was happy to back up my full computer this afternoon on a backup external drive. The automatic process that happens on John’s every Sunday night, failed on mine several months ago, so I have to initiate it myself, and usually do it when I’m away from home and it can sit and churn on its own.

We had a late dinner tonight, chili.

Saturday, Jan 24

CPAP report. Reported figures. 5 hrs 47 min with AHI = 0.00
No major leaks, max 11 L/min

I went by a gal’s porch on Rustic Road (just west of us but 5 miles round trip by road) to drop off clothes for her (two vests & a blouse) and to pick up two pairs of nice men’s trousers. One of them still has the price tag on it. I hope they fit John, as he occasionally needs something for dressing up – out of his scruffy denims.
We only had toast for breakfast and then fixed a brunch of well-cooked bacon and pancake with chopped pecans with strawberries on top. It sprinkled early morning, was gray, and overcast much of the day, but at 3:00, the sun came out, and so John cut barbed wire from the old fence, with more left to do. A few trees have grown around wire and other places trunks of trees are laying across the wires. Many moons have come and gone since these fences (more recent) were put up. A fence along the creek is almost completely buried – it has likely been there 100 years. Now, it’s all clouded over again. One of our feral cats, Johnny, was not around at feeding time. I hope nothing happened to him.

John read today that two cougars had been shot and killed (one ate a dog), on Thomas Road (1/2 mile south of us), and another on Charlton Road, 1/2 mile north of us. In our local paper, the front page story was all about the big cats. Their numbers have increased in the last 18 years, partly as a response to not being hunted. Up to about 1997 hunting with hounds was allowed. The wildlife officials now say the State’s habitat for cougars has been filled and young animals are having a difficult time finding a territory to call their own. Maybe it is time to move.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

The post before this one was put there by John while waiting for the one below. If you like a bit of history go read “Tin Can Drive Day.”

Sunday, Jan 11

CPAP report. Reported figures. 9 hrs 22 min with AHI = 0.11
One ‘clear airway’ at 5:45 a.m.

We have been trying since last night and into the morning to fix the 2014 greetings link in the blog. It is not working as it should. Weird. John finally got it done, although it is not the preferred method, which is used elsewhere in the same document. No clue why. We had two sets of eyes, but it did not help.

I finally finished the music for, “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad.” It was the last of the music for January & February dates for the Kittitas Valley Fiddlers and Friends group. Whoa – took a long time but I managed to squeeze into one page (my goal).
I have the lyrics ready to run for the books for the audience… but they need to be completed (disassembled, reassembled, enhanced, and stapled). We have until Thursday of this week to finish that chore. Thank you to John for all his hard work. Here it is a week later and someone found a missing page today Jan 17 at Briarwood, so I have to check them all to find the one to repair.

I still need to notify friends and relatives of our 2014 greetings message. Over the past 2 days and some today, I have been checking my files of email addresses that I can send all at once, a reminder to people to check when they have time. Many people have changed email addresses since I built the lists in 2012, so I must put in some time proofing. I have spent some time, but there are many more to check. Last week, we attempted to give blog readers the link, but could only come up with a copy/paste method, not a right click to the link in a new tab or new window.

Monday, Jan 12

CPAP report. Reported figures. 6 hrs 37 min with AHI = 0.00

We were busy today on yard and some house chores, email, and mostly working with music stuff. John removed staples from 27 file folders, with about 7 staples in each one, so that I can combine them and add more pages to a bigger one for this week. We will use them for the next two months, for twice a week performances, plus 2 weekend stints.

I called and cancelled our Copper Kettle group meeting for the Emeritus Geography faculty members, because of conflicts with sickness or being out of town, of all but one of the usual participants.

While we were working, and John had returned from his morning feeding session, one of our feral cats, Woody, decided to position herself on the newly placed pallet for her purview of the yard. She had been balancing on a small piece of wood until John provided this for her. She’s smaller than she looks, but has a lot of soft long hair. She uses this perch a lot. During summers it is planted with flowers.

Tuesday, Jan 13

CPAP report. Reported figures. 7 hrs 01 min with AHI = 0.00

We went to Yakima today for my first appointment 10:30 arrival, and left an hour later for Costco. Price of gas was a lot cheaper than Ellensburg. We paid $1.96, but we also get almost 8 cents/gallon return cash by using our AMEX card. For 12+ gallons, we saved a bit of money, from buying it in Ellensburg, where the lowest price is $2.09.

After our trip through Costco, we went to Howard’s Medical supply for my 3-month CPAP equipment check up and replacement to be certain I have “complied” with the amount of time spent on the machine. Medicare pays for a new mask, new heated tubing, new fine white filters, and they read my SD card for compliance. I am right on for it. I’m also able to do that, keep track on my computer, plus add the information gathered simultaneously on my oximeter.
While there, I asked about the proper installation of the white filter. I need to remember the trick, to put the soft side of white fine filter to gray outside sponge filter, and therefore, the hard side goes toward the inside of the machine to block the dust being pulled in from outside air. Our house is particularly dusty with the dogs, with them bringing in mud on their feet and John bringing in mud on his boots.

I requested replacing my old ResMed mask, Swift LT (For Her), with a new one also made by ResMed, an AirFit™ P10 For Her Nasal Pillow CPAP Mask with Headgear. Studying it on line suggests it is supposedly 50% lighter and 50% quieter than the Swift FX, and considering I was using one even older, I’m sure the difference is even more pronounced. I had the earlier model Swift LT and it is very noisy, much of the time, and blew air out from around the nose piece. It had thick hard straps, such that I had to wrap the top one in a Velcro covering to keep it from poking into my scalp. The other bottom strap was more than twice as wide as the one on this one. The two head straps are much nicer, smaller, softer, and stretchy. It’s too bad I wasn’t started 3 months ago with this mask, and I would not have had all the time since Oct 4 with poor sleep, uncomfortable mask problems, noise, air leakage, etc., and I might even have gotten my much-needed rest.
The cost for all the stuff charged to Medicare was $342.72. Most folks on medicare, including me, pay $104.90 each month (for 2015). Medicare is our primary health care payer, with Group Health secondary. There are deductibles and co-pays, eye care has special rules, and dental is another layer. Best not to get old, and certainly, don’t get sick.
On the way home we made a quick stop for a dozen eggs, fresh, from Marilyn’s free-roam chickens. We didn’t get home until about 4:15 p.m., and John managed to exercise the dogs, feed the horses, and the outside cats before it got dark. When colors are no longer recognizable, it is too dark – so he says. I went back to town for music at Hearthstone (with The Connections). I am the one fiddler, with a guitarist, a piano player, and four singers of church anthem music. Most of the audience knows the old hymns and don’t even need to look at the large print lyrics provided. It went well, and on my way home, I picked up a dinner (Chicken Alfredo Fettuccine) from The Palace restaurant (since 1892 in our town). It was free, (for John’s birthday month), but considering it is a $19.00 item, I gave the waiter/waitresses a $5.00 tip. I know they prefer a person to come in, order another dinner, drinks, and dessert, rather than just taking out the main course. It has cubes of chicken, slivered zucchini, little sautéed mushrooms, a little garlic, and we added bigger fried mushrooms, acorn squash, and turkey leftovers. It also came with a piece of Garlic French Bread. The fettuccine was very good, and we still have another meal left (we’ll add cashews and something else) for the two of us for tomorrow night.

Wednesday, Jan 14

CPAP report. Reported figures. 9 hrs 1 min with AHI = 0.57

I went to the Food Bank, presented some music, and our singer Bob has started bringing his brother’s guitar. He plays along with us and it really helps. So now we are a trio there, guitar, banjo, and fiddle, and all three of us sing too. They fed us roasted veggies (including nicely-sized pieces made from two donated Butternut squash I took in last week that John grew), veggies were mixed with a tiny bit of meat (sausage), and we had sides of green salad, potato salad, and dessert. On to SAIL class where we had a good turnout. It’s becoming popular and we are tightly squeezed in. The Activity Center even added an additional class to try to spread folks out more, but the early time is not appealing to many of us (me included).

We also had a flash from the past with a photo from 2003 posted on the KVTR (Kittitas Valley Trail Riders) Facebook site. John volunteered time with others to construct mounting blocks on either end of bridges along the John Wayne Trail just west of EBRG.

That’s John with the red shirt, 4th from the left, with Drifter to his left – a very large horse. We acquired Drifter from birddog trainer, Dan Richmond. A trainer gets on and off dozens of times in a few hours. Dan was tall but Drifter was more than he wanted – height wise. John used Drifter for trails and only had to get on a few times each ride. Logs and stumps are often available during the ride.

Thursday, Jan 15

CPAP report. Reported figures. 7 hrs 29 min with AHI = 0.40

Finished music for today. John stapled audience copies and I finished individual ones for the musicians. It was a much longer process than I had planned for over a month ago. At least for the next two months, I think I am set to go except for a few new players. Fortunately, I have made .pdf files of the music, so for those who have access to a computer and printer, I can send copies for them to print out and save me the effort, ink, and paper. (If anyone reading this wants the scores, I’m happy to share. The music has notes, lyrics, and a little history, where known, or found on the Internet). I have the song list done for March/April that we used last year (including Irish songs), so that will be a lot less trouble than starting from scratch.
Today we got a flyer from the Kittitas County Conservation District about its plant sale. John got on the web to place his order for 10 Ponderosa pines and 5 Blue Spruce trees and found his picture from a previous year of his donating time to sort and serve the plants to the community. Here he is:

I drove to town for music at Dry Creek, and it started snowing big flakes while we were in there. We had a very appreciative audience and quite a nice contingent of players: two singers (one with a tambourine), trumpet, fiddle, five guitars, mandolin, and banjo. The audience was served hot buttered popcorn. It smelled so good, but we could not perform and also enjoy popcorn.

While I was gone, John prepared a vegetable/meat soup. It had turkey, ham, asparagus, tomatoes, mushrooms, red peppers, and onions, spiced with Italian Seasoning. Very tasty and without all the salt of many canned soups. He managed to prune the red raspberries along the west side of the house. Snow started as he finished. A few hours later there was 4 inches.

Friday, Jan 16

CPAP report. Reported figures. 7 hrs 36 min with AHI = 0.13

John had his chores added to, in order to remove the snow from walkways, patio, and the turnaround on the driveway. He used a wide push-broom. The removal of the snow allows the area to dry off without getting soft and muddy. The AWD Subarus don’t care. However, it was a sunny day (warming up to 48) and all the roof snow melted. The house doesn’t have gutters along the edge so that we have to dodge the drips if we go out. This is a design defect to be lived with, or a remodel project to be contemplated.

I left late afternoon to meet a gal in town at the Fred Meyer lobby to pick up two nice long-sleeve blouses – one of the ‘buy-nothing’ activities. Normally I’d get something like this without making a special trip but her free time and mine just would not jell. While there I ran into a couple of people we know and haven’t seen in awhile. Nice treat. I turned around and rushed back home, hoping to make it before dark and dropped off some food at a neighbors I had picked up from Costco.

Saturday, Jan 17

CPAP report. Reported figures. 4 hrs 27 min with AHI = 0.22
Occasionally, I sleep fewer hours on the CPAP and finish the rest of the night with only the Oximeter reviewing my pulse and blood oxygen saturation percentage (SpO2). I like to see the comparison for on and off the machine, and it gives me a break from the mask. However, I’m thrilled with the new mask. It is truly quieter and lighter and allows me to sleep well and relatively comfortably.

I spent time on a couple of different reports to help a friend in NJ and another in Idaho.

Before I left, a neighbor was kind enough to deliver us some beef (an exchange for John’s labor) for our freezer. While I was gone, John loaded the dishwasher and started that. He also had a few other things soaking. I was happy to find that task completed.
I went to Briarwood today with several others to perform music with the residents. It snowed some, but was mostly a wintry mix of icy rain. The roads were not a problem, but may well be tonight. There today was our trumpet player, I as fiddler, our singer with a tambourine, and 4 guitars. We had a great participatory audience, who also served us some great vittles. I didn’t need to eat supper, because I filled up on Corn Chowder (with ham), homemade oyster crackers seasoned and baked by a 94-year old lady, to whom I took a nice western light blue shirt with roses on it. I also took 2 pairs of pants that were too “short” for me that my neighbor gave me. The residents are always pleased to receive clothes or garden/orchard produce. In return, one of the residents to whom I give zucchini, made and brought me a frozen loaf of his zucchini bread made with pineapple. It is quite good; I’m normally not a fan of any zucchini.
Other stuff on the menu today was pot stickers, egg rolls, large rolls to go with the soup, and desserts including a pineapple/angel food Bundt cake, corn flake cookies, another frosted cake, and an apple/nut cobbler.

That covers our week, with fewer pictures than recently, which will make John very happy and make his job of posting this to Word Press a lot easier. Unfortunately, after typing that last night, this morning’s ice brought the need to add more photos of the sparking wintry stuff.

Saturday, Jan 18 (birth date of several geographer friends)

We knew we would awake to ice on trees, fences, and all exposed objects. Happy we do not have to drive today. The sun is shining and started melting the picturesque landscape early. I captured a few pictures without heading into the slick surfaces outside, from where I might have gotten even nicer photos. {These will enlarge.}

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

We are late getting things together for the blog this week. However, if you arrive before Nancy gets the week written up and I get it into WordPress – maybe you will find the following interesting.

The blog is being put together on January 17th. This is known as “tin can” day. This has to do with efforts, during World War II, to recycle so that households were not helping Hitler. Dayton, OH has some of this story.
Collecting tin cans in Dayton, Ohio
Rather than food can, beer can, soda can or whatever the contents, the general term now used is the beverage can. The phrase tin can is common — and the game ‘kick the can’ usually required a tin coated steel can. Maybe kids don’t play games like kick the can now — too busy talking on their cell phones?
When we were quite young, cans did not have pull-tops and this led to the need for something to pierce the top. The solution was known as a Church Key that may, or maybe not, have had something to do with church. When we were kids, beer came in cans with solid tops and church keys were in great demand.

So, relax, have a drink, stay warm — this may take another day.
Tonight our weather is what is called a wintry mix — unpleasant to say the least.

John

Sunday, Jan 4 John’s birthday, you already heard about in last week’s blog.

CPAP report. Reported figures. 7 hrs 56 min with AHI = 0.00

We finished the blog finally tonight just before dinner. I had intended to put some other stuff in on New Year’s eve, but guess I will just add to the end of the year 2014 greetings thing, when it finally does get published. It’s a nice little story about the meaning of the song Auld Lang Syne presented by Roberta Clark, one of the members of our group; in the second link we play it, accompanying her. I forgot to add to our 2014 greetings, so will add the links here:

Roberta Clark explains Auld Lang Syne

If you do not like the song, do not go to the next link.

A Few Playing Auld Lang Syne 12-31-14

We had a couple of telephone and email contacts for John’s birthday. Thanks for the good wishes, and for the postal cards as well.

Today, we received a call mid-day from Jeri Conklin that Daisy took a 4th of 22 in the Open Derby, at the Sahuaro Brittany Club field trial in Sonoita, AZ. That’s nice. Tomorrow is the show for the futurity, and Jeri broke a bone in her wrist, so Robin Tomasi will be showing her instead.

Tonight John made a feast of all leftovers (except for the eggs). He made a thing in the oven, with cheese, potatoes, onions, pork, chicken, tomatoes, cheddar cheese, and I added Salsa to mine. Roasted cheese always seems special.

Monday, Jan 5

CPAP report. Reported figures. 7 hrs 39 min with AHI = 0.39

I stayed home today to work on contacting people about bills, computer problems other concerns, such as music for Thursday’s group, making an appointment in Yakima with medical supply place about my CPAP 3-month changes and additions, and for adding John to the toenail trim visit in a couple of months; it’s here in town and covered by Medicare at a foot doctor’s office and he does it, not an assistant (so that’s nice, and good that Medicare covers it).

I wrote a letter of evaluation for a former student for entrance to law school. Time-consuming but happy I’m still around to be able to help.

I worked on finishing the music plans for KV Fiddlers & Friends, and sent a reminder message about playing at Rehab this week (which later was cancelled by them because of illness concerns with the upper respiratory germs in the valley).

I’m working to finish the music repertoire additions for January, February play dates at assisted living and retirement homes: The Quilting Party, Green, Green Grass of Home, Angel Band, Heart of my Heart and Smile Awhile. I must print a master of the lyrics so I can print out copies to get John’s help in adding to the end of a combination of two packets used last year. These booklets, we give to the residents for them to follow along singing.

We had a call from Jeri that Daisy did not place in the show ring at the Futurity. Sad, as she surely looks nice to me. Thank you, Robin Tomasi (from Idaho), for showing her when Jeri’s wrist was not well with a broken bone.

Tuesday, Jan 6

CPAP report. Reported figures. 5 hrs 39 min with AHI = 0.18

Still was working on the law school evaluation letter(s). Late today, I succeeded in getting the letter through the electronic system with my signature and fake letterhead for CWU on it, submitted, and acknowledged. Phew. That was a lot of work. Nice thing is that the main Law School Admission Council in PA will take this one letter for the one applicant and provide it to the four schools where he is applying, relieving me from putting four letters into the mail, and re-writing text and addresses for each one.

I reached my service provider (Jason LaLanne at Complete Computer Services of Ellensburg & Wenatchee), and he’s helping me fix the html coding problem I am having. He will change it on their server, and it should be on line tomorrow, so I can start telling people it is there.

I spent a couple hours redoing paths on images, tidying up the text, uploaded it, and wrote him to remove the code span after around 18351 line to the end to remove the repeating garbage. He will rename the file as 2014Greetings.html, consistent with our convention in the past (see below for link).

Our temps were a heat wave yesterday 55 I think or maybe a little higher. Not so much today, but nice enough John could work outside and feeding horses and letting the dogs run seemed like summer.

The final news is the best of the day, week, month, and year!

Daisy (officially, Cedaridge Kip’s Camelot Shay Tre’ JH), my little dog down in CA won a 2nd place in a field trial that is important to Brittany breeders– the Western Futurity. She probably would have had first if she’d had one more bird. Her brace mate won it but they were neck and neck and both handled, ran, and hunted great. It was a Gun Dog event – judged as if the judges would like to have the dog for their own or use it for breeding because of the evaluation criteria of conformation and hunting abilities. Daisy, at the front at breakaway, started with what looks like all 4 feet off the ground.

Those were the top placing dogs, who just happened to be braced together.

Judge Ron Yospur, Peggy & Paul Doiron, Jeri Conklin, Judge Gil Hopper

American Brittany Club Western Futurity 2015

2- Cedaridge Kip’s Camelot Shay Tre’ JH
AKC: SR77249701, DOB: 4/13/2013
Breeder(s): Jeri Conklin
Sire: Cedaridge Tri-Tip Kip
Dam: KWK Windswept Guinevere Of Camelot JH
Owner(s): Jeri Conklin and Nancy Hultquist

Wednesday, Jan 7

CPAP report. Reported figures. 6 hrs 48 min with AHI = 0.15

Food bank and INR (1.4), SAIL exercise, and pay yearly AAC fee, $35.
A couple hours of time I spent after finding out at 5:30 p.m., the nursing home for tomorrow’s performance is closed because of illness. I was on the phone and on email notifying people.

That’s a low number for my INR that’s supposed to be between 2.0 and 3.0. The nurse asked all the normal questions, but I have not done anything differently – my dosage of Coumadin (blood thinner) was not changed and has correctly been taken for the past month. I have not changed my diet. I have not been on an antibiotic. I don’t know why the number went down, but I do know that if I had known that, I would have had more wine last weekend at the Raclette! Alcohol raises the INR. Hummmmph. I was not a happy person to hear that, nor that I have to go back in 2 weeks to recheck it. It’s bad enough once a month for the rest of my life. I would have loved having more tastes of my favorite White Heron wines… and the new one that is so unique (Amigne) – and tasty with citric overtones. Such is life.

We heard from a long ago friend and neighbor of John’s family in Clarion, PA whom we haven’t seen in 45 years since the reception after our wedding in 1969. She was just 7 or 8 at the time but remembers the reception and that the same week TV reports were airing of the first men on the moon, from Apollo 11. They raise smart kids in Clarion.

Our 2014 greetings finally got stored correctly, and are out there for anyone wishing to catch up. Much was already in the blog but there are some new additions. I have not notified many people yet that it’s there.

Copy and paste this next line into your browser; it should work:

www.ellensburg.com/nancyh/2014Greetings.html

Thursday, Jan 8

CPAP report. Reported figures.6 hrs 25 min with AHI = 0.00

We just spent an enjoyable 55-minute visit on the phone with Peggy, John’s sister, in Ohio, where it went to minus 3 and is continuing cold.

I’m not going to town today. Our play date was cancelled as I mentioned last night. I’m sorry people are ill, but I’m relieved I don’t have to go today. Besides the valleys of WA are thoroughly fogged in – up to about 2,500 feet. We are at 2,240 feet. The imagery from satellite is very interesting, revealing the shape of the valleys at the top of the fog layer. Where there are traffic cameras at the passes, they show sunny weather. Snoqualmie Pass is about 3,000 feet.

I have many projects to complete. One actually happened during our phone call when a call from my Dr.’s office in Yakima came in on my cell phone.

Time needed today on scheduling other things:
set up emeritus meeting (CANCELED) because only two could come.
hope to hear from Howard’s Medical supply about a trip down; heard it will be Jan 13 after my other appointment in Yakima. GOOD! Only took me 2 weeks to reach them to make arrangements.

Needing and obtaining health care isn’t for sissies.

Worked more on music for next week. Realized the version I had published of I’ll Fly Away has the wrong cadence, so I’m recreating that. Darn. I thought I was simply entering it to change one chord, and found it was not in there as printed previously, and I need it in the same timing as the trumpet and flute players – or it will not work. Always something.

This is a cool contact, from Budapest, Hungary —

Gary Lukatch on the left is my friend from high school in Atlanta, GA. He’s been a teacher there for years, now retired. On the right is my friend, Sonja Willitts, I’ve known since 1977, when we were in Idaho and she was 18. They are toasting a Pálinka, one of the national drinks of Hungary, a fruit brandy. I put Sonja and hubby Kevin (remember the burned bear cub’s Vet?) in touch with Gary when they were planning their trip to meet their daughter Casey and a friend to visit several different countries in Europe. Gary was extremely helpful to them on their plans, and then entertained them when they got to Budapest.

Friday, Jan 9

CPAP report. Reported figures. 6 hrs 44 min with AHI = 0.00

Friday was an uneventful day – at home, normal projects. We were going to drive to town for some grocery shopping, but that trip got put off. Thus, I did get the dishes and some of the kitchen cleaned.

Some more photos came in today from Jeri Conklin– I’ll share.

This goes back to Jan 4, and the one on the left back to June 2013, of her at 8 weeks of age. I thought you’d enjoy seeing Tre’ (Daisy) as a young puppy with ears flying on the run, and still showing the same trait, coming in on her finish of the run at the Sahuaro trial where she got a 4th placement. The thing around her neck with an antenna is a tracking collar that is allowed in AKC field trials now. {Click on image for a larger view.}

Saturday, Jan 10

CPAP report. Reported figures. 4 hrs 28 min with AHI = 0.90

Our fog has thinned near ground level and the temp is above freezing, and so the roads are good to go. John went to town for a few things. An Edwards Key Lime pie was on sale so we are having baked ham and potatoes for supper with strawberries on the pie. We tried this Christmas day at the neighbors and everyone liked it.
John is keeping track of temperatures in places where friends and relatives live. Cold is not good. In addition, he watches the live view from a camera on Cleveland’s water intake (crib) – about 3 miles out and looking back to the city. That part of the lake just froze this week but can break up and move around. At night about all you can see is the lit up city. Have a look here:

Cleveland from Lake Erie

By this time next week that part of the country should be experiencing
The January Thaw

Our friends in Marquette, Michigan haven’t had temps much above zero in recent days. It was minus 9 for most of last night, got to +12 today, and is down to 3 (at 8:45 pm – their time). Way down at the south tip of Texas the low tonight is going to be near 38. Here we expect about 28. John wants to move a dozen bales of hay from the shed to an old horse trailer down in the pasture. The ground has been soft but in the morning it will be hard enough to stand up to the tires moving over it. He says he’ll do that and then, like the cat Rascal, sleep the rest of the day.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Sunday, Dec 28

CPAP report. Reported figures. 7 hrs 24 min with AHI = 0.41

Not much happened today. John took care of animals and fed us, plus he brushed and cut wood enough to claim having worked in the woods. The 2014 greetings newsletter and some music related action – that preparation for Wednesday – interrupted my day of not doing much.

Monday, Dec 29

CPAP report. Reported figures. 8 hrs 44 min with AHI = 0.46

I sent some emails to the music group about the events this week, and the cancellation of our play date at Royal Vista on New Year’s Day. They are on “lock-down” and quarantining residents in their rooms because of a bad respiratory ailment some have, hoping it doesn’t spread throughout the facility.
I worked more on my music for January & February to use with our traveling music group to assisted living homes and other venues. I added Blue Skirt Waltz, Bouquet of Roses, and The Quilting Party into my SongWriter software.
I have been working on a lot of projects today and John made 3 loaves of bread. Bless his heart. I’ve had 3 pieces. One while warm (and buttered), and two unbuttered, with beef/pork/chicken stew.
One unusual one is a round loaf baked in a Pyrex bowl. Pretty cool. Before we cut into it Saturday morning, I took this photo, using the large coffee mug for scale — otherwise it looks like a big hamburger roll {click image}:

I finished the draft of our 2014 newsletter season’s greetings, and John is currently proofing it. Well, we got it finished, but when I viewed it on line the end of the presentation for December is duplicated, and I haven’t been able to change the code to remove it. If I cannot rebuild it, I will just send with the ending glitch.
I have worked off and on – dishes, music, computer, and walked up the driveway for the mail. It was COLD, but above freezing. Didn’t go to single digits as predicted. We had a little dusting of snow this morning, and the sun shone all day.

Tuesday, Dec 30

CPAP report. Reported figures. 2 hrs 16 min with AHI = 0.00

Not a good night’s CPAP session for time. Got to bed very late, almost 1:00 a.m. and the mask was seriously leaking. I awoke at 3:17 and thought it was much later -– guess I read the clock wrong, should’ve looked at my watch, but instead I turned off my machine, removing the mask. Went back to sleep without it for 5.5 hrs.
Terrible day today with my web page creating software called SeaMonkey not obeying my wishes. John doesn’t think seamonkies exist and suggests I look for something else. I guess my friend uses Bluefish and those do exist, so perhaps I’ll consider it.
I need to finish some of the music for noon tomorrow at the food bank, which is a pre-cursor to the notebooks for January/February.
I did hear about a neat story of a bear cub in Cle Elum, WA, about 20 miles west of us. This little guy below, named Snowy, orphaned, appeared at the USFS headquarters. He’d been hanging around for several days. They tranquilized him and took him to a rehab facility in Idaho.

Wednesday, Dec 31 New Year’s Eve

CPAP report. Reported figures. 8 hrs 21 min with AHI = 0.24

I finished up music for our Jan / Feb repertoire and took it to the food bank to play today. We had nice end of year treats and a small but appreciative crowd. They served chicken-filled soup, rice with Mexican type topping, green salad, and lemon cake for dessert. As we were leaving the parking lot, we passed the bread “room” container and were encouraged to take away anything we wanted, because they would not be open until next Monday. The bread will not spoil because it will be as if it is in a freezer, but I accepted the offer anyway. I found a couple of loaves of Rosemary Olive bread and some Croissant rolls, and some large hamburger ones. Neat stop at Rite Aid with a coupon for packages of Pepsi and Diet Pepsi at a very reduced price (25¢/can) and got some other stuff marked down.

On my way home, I made several stops for meds, for a gift for someone else, for cat and dog food, and more stuff for tonight. Came home and finished putting together music for the party. John had cooked 2 meats for the dinner: pork roast with cherry sauce and chicken thighs baked with pineapple and Italian spices. We had 17 people there, and lots of good food. We usually take something substantial, usually roasted fresh pork or chicken, ’cause we never host these things. The folks where we go prefer to have the crowd and, thus, they don’t have to travel. We are just 5 miles away and so can take a roast out of our oven and have it on their counter in less time than cooks suggest letting it “rest” before carving.

Thursday, Jan 1 Happy New Year

CPAP report. Reported figures. 7 hrs 45 min with AHI = 0.00

From Jeri and Kurt Conklin’s traveling adventures, we received this photo of Daisy at the Sahuaro Brittany Club field trial ahead of the Western Futurity in Sonoita, AZ.

Continued working on 2014 greetings problem.

Friday, Jan 2

CPAP report. Reported figures. 6 hrs 36 min with AHI = 0.00

My battery must have run out on the oximeter because it only recorded for 3 hrs.
I worked a lot on the web page greetings — pulling in more photos. I will stop until Monday when I hear back from our web space provider if there is a time out on the upload that I’m not reaching, and therefore am sending an incomplete file. We made a Cashew/Lemon cake-like thing for tomorrow; not with a soft filling like most lemon bars. When it was out of the oven and up and cooling, we went to bed.

Saturday, Jan 3

CPAP report. Reported figures. 8 hrs 10 min with AHI = 0.37

We ate sparingly this AM, took care of the horses, and turned the heating thing down a couple of degrees. About 10:30 we closed the front gate and drove the 1 hr-20 minutes over to White Heron & the Mariposa Vineyard. It’s 64.2 miles by road but only about 30 miles as the crow flies. The day was overcast and stayed around 27°. A few miles down the road and close to cell phone towers, I called John’s sister in Parma, OH. Peggy said it was raining hard and a neighbor was taking her garbage container from the curb to her garage, so she didn’t have to get wet. His short interruption and one dropped signal (basalt cliffs do that) were hardly noticed during the conversation for the whole trip. We stopped talking when we got within sight of the vineyard.
So, here is the story from there:
John, Nancy, and Cameron Fries, the owner of the vineyard and winery, are pictured below – John had food in his mouth and we were trying to make him laugh; I was not yet looking at the camera, but the one where I was, was not as good as this one.

We got to the vineyard and John and others unloaded the firewood he had packed. We came home smelling like smoke. The bonfire is the center of the day, because it is to produce coals, for melting the large piece of cheese. This year the cheese was square-shaped. For previous years it has been circular.

It was another wonderful Raclette with the pruners and their family (wives or sister). The food and fellowship was really fine and provided a lot of fun and laughter. One of the pruners (Tom) brought a birthday cake (carrot with pecans grown by this sister – he grows walnuts and they trade), and he also brought us two boxes of Honeycrisp apples from controlled-atmosphere (CA) storage at Double Diamond Packers in Quincy, WA. They are huge apples, but probably not as large as some we have had in the past. Each box has 12. The boxes sell for $10. These weigh almost a pound each (two checked at 14 ounces, so we likely have 10.5# in each box. The place is not open on Saturdays, and Tom was kind enough to offer to go by and get them for us. I took the following picture on Sunday morning.

We were down the road from Quincy at Trinidad, and you can hear part of the story for the naming of the “town” in the following You Tube capture I made at the Raclette.

Great Northern names TRINIDAD

The amount and variety of food is always amazing and enjoyable. I will try to recall all we had. We had some tiny purple potatoes I believe are Purple Majesty, smaller than a golf ball, with dark purple skin and vibrant royal purple insides. They are native to the Lake Titicaca region of high plains and mountain slopes of Peru and Bolivia. They have been cultivated for 8000 years. We also had some small yellow ones called Yellow Finns. That is a cultivar sourced to Europe. We had sausage (turkey/apple), steamed over new red wine. Short cuttings lined the bottom of a cast iron pot to keep the sausage up out of the liquid. That pot and others with potatoes were placed on rocks by the fire. Some people roasted theirs over the open fire after the steaming. I wish I had, but I was busy filming the filling of plates for a few folks. John just cut his open and scraped hot cheese on to it. We had deviled eggs with two different garnishes, Carpathian walnuts with sesame seeds and roasted in olive oil, a bowl of olives with orange rind and garlic, another dish of garlic stuff to spread on two types of Spelt flour homemade bread (by Tom) that was excellent. A dish of cranberry mixture also was on that table. Another table had little pickled onions, pickles, pickled asparagus, an awesome Waldorf salad, and a bean salad; later the desserts were added to that table, with hot coffee/tea brought out too. Desserts included two kinds of lemon bars and a carrot cake.
Tom made an extra carrot cake with a candle to present to John a day early. {click for larger image}

Watch the presentation: Happy Birthday, John 2015

We will officially celebrate John’s b.d. tomorrow with the cake, apples, and a couple of the lemon bars of ours we brought back that were not eaten or taken home with folks. I now wish I had brought home one of the other lemon bars, as I really liked them.

While we were racletting, I received 2 phone calls from Jeri Conklin who is in the Southwestern desert near Sonoita, AZ. She is there for the Western Futurity with all her dogs (including our co-owned female Brittany, Cedaridge Kip’s Camelot Shay Tre’ JH (Daisy). Today was the preceding Sahuaro Brittany Club field trial. In Jeri’s words on Facebook, “Daisy laid down one helluva run to include a pond swim! Two nice finds too!” That made me smile to realize her great great great grandma, DC/AFC/CC Sirius Sashay was written up in the ABC (American Brittany Club) magazine about running in the Nationals and swimming across a lake when called back on course from afar. (From Jeri’s phone message, she said she had a classy point on her first bird, and held). We hear results Sunday afternoon.

Sunday, Jan 4 HAPPY BIRTHDAY, John

Heard from the field in Arizona, John’s birthday present was Daisy getting a 4th placement in the Open Derby, with 22 dogs running. That was a nice thing to happen before the futurity show starts tomorrow and the field portion starts on Tuesday. This picture came in from Jeri on Facebook in time to make it to this blog today, on the day of the award.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan
(with an inch of snow today)

Sunday, Dec 21 (Solstice)

CPAP report. Reported figures. 8 hrs 13 min with AHI = 0.12
SpO2 all in the nineties.

First, pictures of the initial use of the converted-from-pallets truck racks.

Right, shows some pieces unloaded and the driver’s side panel removed. Left, the uprights by the tailgate are removed and 3 unloaders (see John’s arm) are tossing wood from the truck into a shed. Delivered 5 miles away. Megan, in the green jacket, is a geographer at CWU, and an expert on pre-history fires and environments by the study of ash and debris in lake sediments. Where will the ash from the burning of this wood be in a thousand years?
What a great dinner John put together. We had marinated Copper River Salmon, probably 6 ounces each, baked to perfection, with fried mushrooms, sliced butternut squash, and pineapple slices.

Monday, Dec 22

CPAP report. Reported figures. 8 hrs 5 min with AHI = 0.00
Good night’s sleep, no events whatsoever. SpO2 in nineties, pulse fine.

We had an interesting brunch today. Baked potato with cheese, mushrooms, and pepperoni. We’ve been using a few things that have been in the freezer since ol’ Shep was a pup.

I went to the SAIL exercise class and while there, I delivered a box of Bingo cards I received free from the Buy Nothing site and knew the activity center would use them. They were thrilled.

I’ve even played a few times at the center, and the photo below was my winning card for the first game. This was a fundraiser for Alzheimer’s research — with prizes for people dressed in purple, the color associated with it, as pink is for breast cancer:

From the class I came home with a half dozen eggs, a little summer sausage, a large potato, Science Diet carrier bag, with Science Diet doggie treats, provided by one of the members for everyone there. I went by the house of a friend to take some other things, and she returned a whole bag full of dessert items for Christmas. That was a huge surprise. Lovely sunny day – no White Christmas here, except in song.

Tuesday, Dec 23

CPAP report. Reported figures. 8 hrs 5 min with AHI = 0.00.

I found my tripod to clean and set up for photographing tomorrow at two music events. I’ve been working on a newsletter to get out before St. Patrick’s day as we did in 2013 for 2012. We skipped 2013 last year.

Wednesday, Dec 24 Christmas Eve

CPAP report. Reported figures. 5 hrs 17 min with AHI = 0.00.

At the Noon F.I.S.H. Food Bank lunch in the temporary facility, we had a good turnout; three of us played Christmas songs for the crowd, and then joined them for lunch afterwards. We had nice thinly cut roast beef, corn, potatoes (gone by the time I went through), salad, and a choice of two cakes. One was shaped as a Christmas tree. I wish I had taken a picture of it. I had my camera there too, on the tripod from where I filmed a few songs. John found a tiered cake on the web, but it’s not the same.

First, below, is a medley ending with Jingle Bells. The 17-minute video is on You Tube but you may wish to flip through to the last song, Jingle Bells that starts 14:15 minutes. Our group is missing our male singer who makes us sound fuller on the melody.

Christmas Medley

Winter Wonderland is taken at Food Bank 12-24-14. If you really want only one song, try this one:

Winter Wonderland

From there on to Hearthstone to set up my tripod and camera again; I should have changed the battery, because the battery ran down before we finished. The best song of the day was Jingle Bells with all the audience on bells, and one of our players on tambourine, but it did not get recorded.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

The five links below are there for your choice. Click on the name of the song to take you to You Tube for our group, Kittitas Valley Fiddlers & Friends.

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Have a Holly, Jolly Christmas

White Christmas

Deck the Halls

Came home to a lot of stuff to do on the web, and still need to work on my 2014 seasons’ greetings letter. Tomorrow is Christmas and we are going two places to different old-timer families in the valley.

Thursday, Dec 25 Merry Christmas

CPAP report. Reported figures. 7 hrs 9 min with AHI = 0.14.

Went to Swedbergs (200 yards east) for ham, biscuits, mashed potatoes, green beans, salad, and we took a Key Lime pie with our strawberries. Only a handful of people were there because of sickness. We left there directly for Orcutts (SE; 8 mi. by crow; 11.5 by road) and joined their large family for a dinner of turkey, dressing, gravy, many different casseroles, sweet potato soufflé, stuffed mushrooms, a lot more than I can list, and desserts. We ate some cookies and specialty items, and skipped the pie to come home at dark to feed the horses and kitties. John likes to get the patriarch to tell stories of early times, especially about working on the big dams – such as the Kerr Dam at Polson, Montana.

Above shows a major release of water following a big snow melt event.

John thought my music group might like to play, and the old timers listen to, a song that he knew a few words of from 60 years ago. When, how, or why he learned these lines is a complete mystery, but nevertheless he knew enough. John was searching on the web and found the real deal. Meanwhile, nephew Rod answered immediately with a performance by a dude with a guitar – and that family didn’t know about the song, but they did know it. Anyway, here you are: The Homecoming Waltz,

Rod supplied this one, title based on a grandfather:

Now I’ve contacted some old fiddlers to see if they have the music (notes & chords), and thus far the search has proved futile. Favorite Waltzes for Fiddle by Mel Bay supposedly has Homecoming Waltz, but it is the wrong one. This one below is the correct one played by the Wendinger Band:

My musical abilities are not good enough to listen and write out the score, so I shall keep searching my favorite people with large music collections.

John says if the weather gets really crappy or very cold (he has dropped a few trees and is cutting firewood lengths for stacking), he can go to the City or University library and have a look in old song books.

Friday, Dec 26

CPAP report. Reported figures. 7 hrs 40 min with AHI = 0.26.

We went to LaBar’s home this afternoon, 4:00 p.m. for a visit with Rebekah, who was here the past two weeks from Wellington, NZ, where she is a meteorologist. Her sister Caitlin came over from Longview, WA, to spend time with the family. Rebekah invited Tony Abbott and his wife, Barbara Bredis. They were in town visiting her daughter and grandchildren. Tony taught in CWU Geography for a few years, before leaving for a job in Florida. He was also her professor as I was. We traded many stories and had a lovely visit.

Mom, Robin, made a great stew/soup from the beef father, John, raised, Barb brought a great dish of roasted veggies (carrots, parsnips, with walnuts), and a plate of Muenster cheese. There were two types of bread on the table. We took sweets: fruitcake, chocolate truffles, and some of Santa’s candy (made from cereal, cake mix, crushed peppermint pieces, and almond bark).

Saturday, Dec 27

CPAP report. Reported figures. 5 hrs 50 min with AHI = 0.51.

Up late until 12:40 a.m., awoke at 6:30 a.m. and went back to sleep without CPAP until 9:00 a.m., but kept oximetry recording, as I always do while sleeping.

John chased deer out of the way and then took the dogs around. The oldest one neither hears nor sees well but still wants to go. Dan, the male we brought up from our Oregon friends, is starting to have both his vision and hearing deteriorate, and if he fails to follow around a turn can swing through the “swamp” where there are dozens of smells – each requiring extensive investigation. During the afternoon (John outside), the sky had a tiny bit of rain and a tinier bit of snow. Between 8 and 9 tonight the ground got dusted and is 98% white. The Cascades are getting about a foot of snow tonight – not serious unless one intends to travel over them. We intend to stay home. The local weather folks are looking for single digit cold this coming week, and as far east as the Ohio River Valley some below zero. Stay warm.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan