Keeping track

Monday, Dec 23

Started planning for the play-date at Hearthstone. It got better populated by players as the week progressed.

While cleaning in the garage, John found a bag with 4 long dresses of very large sizes. No clue where they came from, how they got there, or why. I have taken photos and will post on the free sites to get rid of them. I never wore long dresses at any weight. These are sizes 18, 20, 20, and 24.

We are having prime rib roast at the party we go to Christmas day at 4:00 p.m. Going to another before 2:00 just to visit friends (and their family) for an hour starting before their buffet potluck Christmas dinner. They will call us from Manastash Ridge as they are coming into the valley from west of Yakima, and we’ll drive over SE of our house ~11 miles. We’ll come back to feed our horses, and get down to our other Christmas dinner invite with our neighbor ½ mile away.

Today’s mail arrived from Sadie Thayer, with the paperwork for a deed for us to sign to give an old sign to the Kittitas County Historical Museum. This is their proof of what was given, who by, and a description. They already have it in their possession, but are finalizing the paperwork and also finishing the historical research on this local business (the sign dates back to 1917). Their description: It’s a metal sign with hand-painted design stating “1 mile to Ellensburg”, two motorcycles stopped on a dirt road waiting for a third, with trees lining the path and houses on the right side only, Harley-Davidson, and the advertisement for Mitchell’s Machine Shop, – Dealer -, and David L. Tittsworth. The sign measures 27-inches in width by 46 13/16-inches in height.”

This is not yet a good representative picture, because it has not been installed as planned in the museum on a wall with the documentation attached somehow, but when it is, we’ll go get a better straight-on photo and share the rest of the history of this place with you. We printed the paperwork, signed it, scanned it, and sent back to Sadie.

Tuesday, Dec 24

Started dishes, emptied dishwasher and refilled.
Trying to plan for Thursday’s music, and will be delivering the pair of very large jeans (I hope) after the music. That did not happen, but will in the future. If not, I have a backup person who is interested and wears the large size.

We talked to Kit, in CA, (John’s brother’s wife). She called us. Sounds as if she is doing well, and will turn 89 next year end of January.

I worked up a Christmas card to send. I’ll email out from our joint account. Been working on it off and on all afternoon and evening.

I started sending out Christmas wishes tonight via email, with a copy of the video of music we published in last week’s blog of our Thursday concert at an assisted living home, Meadows Place. This week I’m publishing the same music with different people but with the addition of antique sleigh bells. That performance was at another assisted living home, Prestige Senior Living at Hearthstone.

With the Christmas wish music video, I attached a photo of us on our 50th anniversary of July 12, 1969. We had no celebration this year, but we went to an event at the local senior center, with our newly acquired camera we gave ourselves for our gift, and had our photo taken with a gift we received from our cousins in Pennsylvania, Ethel, Pat, & Ken. I’ll repost it here:John & Nancy on July 12, 2019 at our local senior center
One of my former graduate students, a Native American, replied to my send, with a beautiful Christmas card: We talked with our sister Peggy tonight (in Ohio) after she returned from going to midnight mass at 10:00 p.m.! We found that timing interesting.

Tonight, our friend Evie Schuetz crafted gingerbread houses with her family; this one is Evie’s creation:Evie Schuetz’s Gingerbread House
The whole family participates in these creations every Christmas eve.

Wednesday, Dec 25

We hope everyone received a Christmas Wish on email from us. If you did not, please let Nancy know. It started with It is described above in yesterday’s write-up, and was in last week’s blog on Thursday.

We made an earlier call to Pennsylvania to talk with John’s 101 yr. old cousin, Ethel, who was visiting her daughter, Pat, for Christmas. It is Pat’s birthday today (they celebrated hers last weekend). Today is a green Christmas for them, with temperatures in the 50s; we are 20° lower. We have snow on the ground but it is not snowing.

John just sent me this email this morning, with the subject line, “Commas.” On this day, many, many moons ago Adam said to Eve: “It’s Christmas Eve”.

We are getting ready to celebrate two Christmas dinners, after our early morning getting up, and having breakfast.
We need to go to the first before 2:00 p.m. to visit (did not eat) at the Orcutt’s family farm, meeting a few of the family there. Suzy West is one of the many children of the Orcutts, both of whom have passed over the rainbow bridge. I knew them before meeting the rest of the family. They came to dance at the senior center on Fridays, where I played with a few others for the old time dance music starting in 1990.

Bob & Suzy will call us from Manastash Ridge and we will meet them at Jen’s house on Fox Road, about 11 miles SE of our house. Bob was my student in 1997, in Geography, and he was married to Suzy. So our connection to the family has continued. We joined them for Christmas dinner every year and for other family celebrations. We will visit an hour and come home to feed the horses while there is still daylight, and we can shut the doggie door (window) and keep the raccoon out of the den.

We are invited for prime rib dinner at our neighbor, Joanie Lee, down Naneum Road (a mile, round trip), 4:00 p.m. Boy what a huge amount of really good food. I’ll see if I can remember it all: started with a table full of hors d’oeuvres (including more than crackers, cheese, meat, seafood, and dips). John and I drank Pepsi. With the prime rib (au jus, if you wanted), they served twice baked potatoes, with cheese, green bean casserole, green salad, water chestnuts wrapped in bacon, deviled eggs, rolls, and a baked ham. 3 different pies for dessert: apple, pumpkin, huckleberry/raspberry with ice cream.

Thursday, Dec 26

Playing at Hearthstone today, the same music that was in our Christmas card we sent out starting yesterday via email, except we added sleigh bells, so you may wish to check the link below for the added wintertime historical effect.

I visited Bi-Mart for Christmas candy, and on by for a short visit with neighbor Ken, who’s temporarily at the rehab.

Posted to UKC Photographers one of silver frost on barbed wire and on chain link fence – one each. Had nice comments on the photos. You have already seen them in the photo collection Dec 17 published as a link in the blog.
Today, another UKC Photographer member posted a wonderful photo of one of my favorite things in the skyscape, a sun dog:Photo by Scott Seymour, with his permission to print

I went early to Hearthstone to set up the chairs, and to and set up video for filming the December music including sleigh bells, we played our last time this year, minus our last song, A’Soalin’.
Thanks so much to Reta Hutchinson for bringing her grandfather’s sleigh bells that date back to the early 1900s. We had quite a crowd, even with so many missing players and audience members. Having Barb Riley join us was absolutely wonderful. We had an appreciative audience, and probably the best cake dessert many of us have eaten. It was a piece sized ~2″ x 2″ of two rich chocolate layers (almost the consistency of a brownie, with a white filing, and a peppermint type frosting. We stood around at the end visiting, eating, and talking about it.

NOTE on this video below, you might want to pull the start to 4:20 minutes in to get to the December music with sleigh bells.

Music with Sleigh Bells, 12-26-19

One more after Christmas creation by my photographer friend, of whom I have shared her photos in the blog on many occasions, Evie Schuetz, taken the day after Christmas before taking down all her Christmas decorations:Evie’s kitchen counter, tree, & decorations through a crystal ball lens. What a wondrous creation! Her photographic captures never cease to amaze me. Photo by Evie Schuetz, Kittitas, WA

Friday, Dec 27

We woke to an inch of fresh fluffy snow.

Seems checks are still needed. Knowing they were very high priced, I called Umpqua Bank, to ask the price of checks ordering through them. It would be 80 checks for $55, even higher than the last time I asked, and when I decided to stop using them. But, there are times one needs to write a check, so I needed to get some ordered. The recommendation from the banker was, “Go through Costco, if you have a membership there. Costco uses the same check printing company.”

Here is the meat of this story that took more than 1-1/2 hours of my time today, spaced out over the day, starting at 10:00 a.m. on the phone with my local bank (twice) and with a call to the Harland Clarke® Check Printing company in New Braunfels, TX, Costco’s exclusive provider of checks and forms, also twice. The first call was supposed to result in a returned call from the company, but it never came. I got on line again to their website and followed the instructions to order checks based on my Premium membership through Costco, which is supposed to save me 50% on charges. The percentage savings is much more than that. I haven’t calculated, but need to figure the difference of going through my bank or going through the same company using my Costco membership number.

Here is the most important part of this story. Get online through Costco to order checks and see the information you need to input, but do NOT order through there. Do it in person via the phone number below. You need to figure out such things as these: the Item # of the check style you choose, the lines of information you want printed on the checks, and the decisions about single or duplicate (I recommend duplicates for filing purposes later). Go ahead and type it into the web order form to see the actual spacing on the check: Bank routing #, your checking account #, what you want written on the top of the check (allowed two lines for names), then address, and I added one phone number (our landline) because it’s the only one with reception, e.g., I put our Phone number on the last line after the address.

Below is the toll-free phone number to give your check printing order in person to a live person (and in my case the amount was a few cents less than on the web). I could have my computer in my lap and receive the shipping notice and the confirmation report through my email account, and make changes, if needed. There was one change on my shipping label (which had been written correctly on the checks).
(Toll free) -> 1-(855) 556-5283, for ordering checks with a live person in TX

(Some of the information is repeated here, but this is a good summary): Here are my results: We have a premium membership with Costco, which allowed us to get two boxes of checks (total 382) for $14.44 (plain blue, my choice). My bank (Umpqua) wants $55 from the same company for only 80 checks, so they actually recommend to their customers to go through Costco for their checks, if they have a membership. However, do NOT go through the Internet to complete the order, but ONLY to know what information they will need (see above).

On an unrelated item: coffee in the Costco warehouse January brochure – Nescafe’s Taster’s Choice House Bend Coffee for 14 oz. bottle. I called Costco and found the price is $13.99, that’s $4.20 off starting after the first of the year. I buy a TurboTax package there, also. We will be going that way soon because the little blue Subaru is due for service.

Outside: John finally cut up a tree limb that had fallen in September.With some older pieces, also, he carried a heaping Gorilla Cart load of firewood to put at the end of our driveway with a FREE WOOD sign. After someone takes that he has another load ready to go.

I’ve been working on music for Jan/Feb, and on several other needs for cleaning stacks of materials, clothing, dishes, file folders, emails, dealing with problems with getting new checks purchased. Sending Jacquie Lawson cards and fixing up problems.

Saturday, Dec 28

Started with an early rising to let in cats at 4:30 a.m. who had gone out at 1:10 a.m. but did not return, and couldn’t because of the doggie “window” door being closed to keep out the raccoon. Back to sleep until 8:00 a.m. and John stayed up; I slept another hour because I had stayed up until midnight last night.

I realized when going for my first medicine of the day, that my medicine dispenser for the week was empty. The first pills I put in for mornings are for Entresto which is taken twice daily as 1 -1/2 pills. We need to break the pill in half, which John is able to do by hand and not use a pill splitter. He does a few of my pills I cannot get done at the pharmacy, and split me enough for a couple weeks. He also broke my Magnesium pills for the evening when only a half is taken, but whole is in the morning. I have one more med to use my pill splitter on for the rest of a bottle that now has been lowered in dosage.

So, I began other things on the computer. One was searching for the ID of a hawk my friends saw in the south part of our valley. We seldom see hawks, except for Red-Tailed ones. I talked to her Thursday, and suggested checking the Cornell Ornithology site. Their identification web site is exceptional, especially the chance to compare like species and to see maps of their location for breeding and non-breeding areas.

While searching, I somehow adjusted the brightness down on my screen so had to go into settings to make the change to where I could see what I was typing. I searched the web and found this advice; “Windows 10: Select Start, choose Settings, and then select System > Display. Under Brightness and color, move the Change brightness slider to adjust the brightness.”
I don’t know what I did to lose it, but I have it back now.

John’s now out feeding the horses. Our temperature is above freezing, but there is no sun yet. I spent time emptying the dishwasher and soaking dirty dishes to pack into the washer. Time spent on email, and switching soon, back to this blog. It may be shorter this week than usual, which will please John. His nasty news put out Friday contains a lot of information, particularly about the construction (repairing) process in our attached garage (which not used for cars).

John just returned from feeding to get his camera for a photo of the free wood sign and wood at the driveway entrance. Will be interesting to see how fast it disappears.Lunch: scrambled eggs combo (with ham, onions, red peppers, & cheese) with toast for brunch, when I uncovered some of his pants full of hay pieces that needed shook out, before washing. When he stepped outside the back door, he saw a nicely antlered buck, so grabbed his camera and got a couple photos before the guy jumped the fence. I got to see him too straight on, but we have no photos that way. He looks young and we cannot really tell if he has 4 points on both sides or not, but suspect he does. We have not had any large bucks around here this year, as in the past.Continuing with my chores. I’m alternating with them and writing the draft of the blog. We are not going anywhere today.

I finished putting my medicines in the container for this next week. Also managed to order refills from the new Kaiser Permanente Mail Order Pharmacy. My most expensive medication is Entresto but through them I get a 90-day supply for the price of two months ($80). Also ordered 90 days of Spironolactone for only $10 total.

I added cell & land line phone numbers to my cell phone for Katie at Briarwood. She is going to help repair our Christmas sweaters during their crafters workshop on Fridays from 10 to noon. I need to go to the senior center this coming Friday (1-3), for a party, so I will combine trips with lunch and games (including a game of Jeopardy).

Searching for some information, I found this old link to my past in the 1950s and 1960s. It was in the 2011 web page sent for annual greetings, which we have quit doing, with our weekly blog’s existence. Look below and see me playing a Ukulele in a Brownie band, singing at 3 yrs old in the Cherub Choir, and some other unique things back to high school days (as reminisced with classmates at our 50th High School Reunion in 2011).

Nancy’s past, Garden Hills Elementary & North Fulton High School, Atlanta, GA

I succeeded tonight in sending the November KAS (Bird) meeting report on Fungus among us, out to the Kittitas Audubon Society mailing list. Also sent the photos from the Dec 20 AAC Christmas Party to a list of folks I know as members of the Ellensburg Adult Activity Center (our senior center).

Sunday, Dec 29

We’re not sure what today will bring, but we are staying home.
Completed dishes, finished blog draft, setup the announcement for playing KVF&F schedule, trying to get a look at all January dates, but this Thursday is most important. Need to setup going to Geography tomorrow with ream of paper, etc., and master of Jan-Feb music with the additional couple of changes I need to print out and add to the end. Better get going on that chore.

John went to the swamp with his gorilla cart to bring up some previously cut firewood. He just returned and has fed horses and quail – if they come.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Monday, Dec 16 This beautiful Wintry Scene creation was done by Evie Schuetz.

Here is her explanation of the creation (starting from a photo of her favorite tree in the Kittitas High School Parking Lot):

I enjoyed making this one quite a bit. I took the photo of the tree a few days ago when we got all that nice new snow, and then I mashed it up with a photo I took last winter of the Columbia river. Kinda fun looking at the Columbia River bank running through the school parking lot…

I started this morning before John for a change. I was up feeding an outside cat (Woody, which is a little late for her normal arrival) and letting an inside cat (Czar) out. Right about 6:30, I could see a pretty purple and blue pastel sunrise through the trees. Later, when I got up to stay, the fog had rolled in and nothing was visible.

I began my detective work today talking with my PCP’s office referral coordinator, Susan, about an imaging referral for my Mammogram to the local hospital. I called to question the date on mine Dec 11, 2019 that was not in the time frame for Medicare to pay for it (supposed to be at least one day and a year after for the next image).

She had sent electronically saying on the paperwork, “is due for Mammo after 12-11-19.”

It was scheduled wrongly by an Imaging department’s scheduler and caught by my technician, Rose, on December 11, 2019, when I went in for my appointed time.

I called the hospital, and asked Donna, the main scheduler, how many others work there, because she knew she had not scheduled my appointment. She answered three. I asked her to notify the others when scheduling, because it should not have happened when the paperwork came from my PCP’s office with the correct date I’d had it last year. She is going to bring it up in a meeting (they have one every morning) to be sure the date is scheduled for one day AFTER the previous year’s mammogram. I asked her to thank Rose (the technician) and to put my next planned (Jan 21) a request for her to be the technician to do my mammogram. I guess as John says, it’s the patient’s responsibility to follow up on all this. I had Donna check the referral records, and the previous year’s date WAS written in the box at the bottom of the referral. In my opinion, it should not be my responsibility to check on such things. It should be flagged in the computer system, when they make the appointment. They have complete medical records there in their system, and I have always had it done there.

I have been working on photos for 3 links I put in the blog without proper completion. I started with the AAC Christmas decorations, and finished those (58 photos). If you didn’t get the links, I’ll put them here in this blog, but they have been corrected in last week’s blog. Here’s the first:

Christmas at AAC 2019 photos by Nancy

The second was at the Community Christmas Dinner at the Grange in Cle Elum

Swauk-Teanaway Grange Christmas, 12-8-19 pix by Nancy

I have now finished the third, my trip to Kittitas to deliver the jump drive with the videos on it to Evie Schuetz to put on her YouTube site. That was a success.
I took photos on my way there and back, now in this blog.

Below is one link to Google Photos for 30 photos I stored:

Trip to Kittitas 12-14-19

Tuesday, Dec 17

I got up and turned on a bathroom heater, showered and am eating cheesy biscuit made last night by John, and I’m about ready to go for haircut at 11:30 a.m. to Celia’s, around our rural block.

I had a morning call from Kaiser Permanente Pharmacy mail order. My Rx for Metoprolol is in and on profile, so having just filled it, I will call when it runs out in 3 mos.

John got a last minute dental appointment for consideration of a root canal today at 2:00 p.m. in Yakima with Eric Fillmore (where he has been before in 2011).

On my way to and from town, I took photos of the hoar frost (or silver frost).
Here are some captures on the Naneum Fan:Frost on Naneum Road and at our entrance

Silver frost on barbed wire and on chain link fence on our place

Below is one link to Google Photos for 17 photos I stored:

Silver Frost on Naneum Fan, 12-17-19

After my haircut and late lunch I did errands in town. I didn’t get home until after dark, which is NOT good with a raccoon that checks in regularly and I had left the doggie door window open for the two cats and dog. Luckily, nothing happened, in my absence.

John called and reached me still in town, via my cell phone. He was just leaving the dental office at 4:15 p.m. with his new root canal, and was heading to Costco to buy my request of Fruitcakes and also he got two jars of Nescafe coffee. They quit selling the one we preferred (Folgers Instant Coffee). He got home about 6:00 p.m. Maybe we won’t have to visit Yakima again in 2019.

I’m finally able to sit down after immersing dirty dishes to soak in hot soapy water before putting in the dishwasher first thing in the morning.

Wednesday, Dec 18

We had 5 singers using sleigh bells brought by Reta from her grandfather’s collection, a harmonica player (Dean), me on the violin, singing and announcing, and a drummer (on a cardboard box). I had copies of the music for the audience and several joined in. On songs they knew, others added their voices. Many compliments at the end, and we played a total of 18 songs in about 44 minutes.

NANCY at beginning, in front of their tree.Came home to much work; and was ready to go to town for a party at the Kittitas County Historical Museum, but just before 4:30, when it was already dark and John went up to get the mail and close the gates, our hay delivery truck came down the driveway with 2 tons of hay. A floodlight on a nearby shed shines onto the place where the hay is unloaded.

I was feeling tired so I canceled our trip to town. Talked with Sadie the director, and she’s going to meet with us later about a sign we donated to the museum. I need to get a photograph of it. She has been doing research and found out some very interesting information about the sign, an original painting on metal.

She will be typing the documentation and give us a copy of it. They are going to give us paperwork for a tax deduction consistent with other signs of businesses in their collection. Some of the neon business signs are worth money in 5 digits. Amazingly, she said ours was in the 4 digits category, and another one was in a collection of an Ellensburg family that was sold to the Red Horse Dinner but that one (in 4 digits) was not nearly in as good a condition as ours. This is all surprising to us because we have never made this type of donation. Maybe we can get rid of more stuff.

Supper: Frozen lasagna, with added summer sausage and Havarti cheese, plus cheddar, a cubed baked Honeycrisp apple in cinnamon & brown sugar.

Thursday, Dec 19

Did a bunch of stuff before leaving, had a small brunch, dressed in more Christmas clothes, and took off for town a few minutes early; good thing, ran into snow down the road 3 miles. It was snowing harder as I went south.

I went into Pacifica at 1:15 to unload music and violin at the door, and then parked my car. It was beginning to snow big snowflakes and coming down fast. I returned to the building, met up with another player, and we went into the dining room. Terri was setting up our chairs.

Maury and Marilyn were already there. We have a bunch of things to be done for setup. Everyone was there in plenty of time, but we were short on any audience members, so at 2:45, I went out to find Terri to request her knocking on doors to invite people down. She had already asked two aides to do that, but I told her no one was there yet, and we were ready to start. We visited a bit more, and then started our program at 10 minutes to 2:00 p.m. More people started arriving but we had plenty of audience music copies.

Before the day was over, Terri returned with a bag of presents for those expected to be there today. Here’s 2 photos of the gift:Activities director Terri had left the room by the time we ended, so I distributed the gifts she’d brought.

We went out to find our cars adorned in 4” of snow. I did not have a broom or brush so had to get creative to be able to see out of the windows to drive home (and give my friend Sandy a ride home). She used her cane handle and I used my gloves and my small blade for removing ice and snow on the windows, and top of the doors and car. Still a lot of snow came inside the car.

Roads home were white and treacherous. Some road sections were unplowed.

Friday, Dec 20

We moved a bit faster this morning in anticipation of going to the Christmas party at the senior center (Ellensburg Adult Activity Center). We got there just after 11:00 p.m. and found a place by the back door, and I took some photos of people and decorations while waiting for our South Lake Tahoe friends.

I have left room for one link to all photos I took today at the party, but for now, here is John with Sonja, his plate of food, and his Merry Christmas sweater. The food is turkey casserole w/ veggies and mixed green salad. We think the turkey is left from Thanksgiving (frozen).Sonja and John shortly after they arrived, earlier, John eating.

Kevin and Sonja at AAC; Nancy at home after because we forgot to take one together with them.

Kevin is a serious bike rider, Sonja is a horses and dogs person. Good thing he is a veterinarian.
When the program started, the four of us went to the empty computer room.

Our friends (Sonja & Kevin Willitts from S. Lake Tahoe) stopped on their way east from Issaquah (15 mi. east of Seattle), where they spent the night with friends, had breakfast, just a couple hours before they got to us. They called from about 15 minutes away (according to her smart iPhone).
We were served lunch about 11:30: John had finished eating when they arrived, but I was busy taking photos and taking bites of lunch.

There was a gift exchange (we took two gifts, but John didn’t participate). I left them visiting, stayed through the gift exchange, to take a few pictures, and then I rejoined them. The gift I won was a platter of cookies, which I took to share at the Briarwood party on Saturday. Also, at the AAC while they were there, was an Ugly Sweater contest and a friend won it. I had taken a photo of her earlier in the day. Once the program was over, there were photos with Santa. This was the first year since 2010 that I did not have my photo taken, sitting on Santa’s knee, with Mrs. Claus present. She wasn’t there with him today.

Here is Jacquie (left) who won the ugly sweater contest with friend Erin.

Below is one link to Google Photos for 53 photos I stored:

AAC Christmas Party, 12-20-19

On our way home, we stopped to deliver a gift to my friend, Vicki Lennox, and this is our Christmas photo.I guess you’re going to get tired of seeing me in this outfit. I cannot find my Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Sweatshirt, an alternate thing I often wear.

Saturday, Dec 21

Busy morning getting ready to leave.
Went to Briarwood and we had a good turnout of players and audience.Dessert table and what was on the back of the table for us to have with coffee or ice water. From silly face, crossed eyes to crossed feet with a smirk; right smiling (on her way in) with her bowl of peppermint candies and candy canes for the residents (who love her).

I also presented some gifts to Haley and her mom, Amy after we played music:Haley with her “I Believe in Santa” cup and Amy with matching cup to her sweater with unicorn and rainbow. Note, Haley took the photo on the right.

Supper: Turkey breast, gravy, baked Honeycrisp apple cubes. We lost a butternut squash casserole with pecans and marshmallows. That in a Corning Ware dish missed the oven rack and crashed into the floor. The not yet browned marshmallows were easier to clean up than had they been crisp and gooey inside. So sad. We had a small piece of red velvet cake and vanilla ice cream for dessert.

Sunday, Dec 22

This was sent to me on Facebook, by my friend Amy Davison. For those of you with Facebook access, you will appreciate this link:

Ice Tsunami in Dudinka, Russia

The town is along a river that flows north, via the Yenisei Gulf ( Yeniseyskiy Zaliv), into the Kara Sea – Arctic Ocean.

John fixed us a nice lunch: chunks of turkey breast and pieces of button mushroom with Havarti cheese melted on it; side French fries.

John’s got an unanticipated project. The garage ceiling failed, again, with plasterboard falling onto the garage door rails. He will report on this and the fix next Friday.

Because the garage is used as a place to store “stuff” – we’ve never used it as a place to park our cars – he has been moving things around and out. A space 12 ft. by 6 ft. has to be cleared so he can work from a stepladder.
This is forcing us to sort through and get rid of some things. Once he finds something we don’t need, I’ll take photos and pass them along via the Free Facebook distribution sites.

Supper: Creamy four cheese Rice-a-Roni w/ turkey breast chunks, butternut squash w/roasted marshmallows, baked Honeycrisp apple cubes. The turkey breast weighed over 4 pounds. Some will have to be packaged as frozen dinners.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Monday, Dec 9

Prices of our medications at different pharmacies: I called Kaiser Permanente (KP) pharmacy and asked prices on all John’s prescriptions. Then I compared to GoodRx prices for his from Fred Meyer, versus KP’s and Safeway, where they had been sent by our PCP.

All for both of us is a 90-day supply. (Lacey changed all these on the records for us on Dec 11, 2019).

Need to change to Fred Meyer for Tamsulosin 0.4mg ($13.91) – but, will wait for the evaluation of a change in dosage before filing this one. John’s now on an interlude with this one.

Changed to KP MailOrder for Hydrochlorothiazide 12.5 mg ($10), and already received our first mail order.

Changed to Fred Meyer for Levothyroxine 88mcg ($20.13) and Lisinopril 30 mg ($11.96), and picked it up late this week.

Changed Nancy’s Metoprolol to KP. It will save me $20/yr below the cost at Super 1.

Call from Cle Elum, Paige in referrals, to Dr. Roux, NW Orthopedics, (EBRG), for appointment for my left shoulder. I think it was for a shot of cortisone? although I think he told me that would not cure my situation. Well, they are to call me about scheduling an appointment. The call came through from Yakima, and the scheduler said she would have to schedule me with Dr. Wong, because Dr. Roux did not want to be involved. I know he is mainly doing knees now, not shoulders, but I also know he told me shots would not help my condition, and he gave me a very complete analysis of the X-rays and my left shoulder condition. He said it was bone on bone, bone spurs, and bone cysts, and showed us on the X-ray. He also said I was not a candidate for a complete shoulder replacement, because of the chance of death from the operation. I can only have operations with a local. So I declined the requested referral and did not make an appointment.

Midday, I received an email on one of my accounts from a GIS person in Spokane, WA, Tim Leach. It came from the Central Puget Sound GIS User Group list, and is from the Spokesman-Review Newspaper there. We lived in Idaho for 15 years, and the closest big city was Spokane, so we were quite familiar with the paper and subscribed to it.

Check the link below for an interesting article, and that is preceded with a very old map of the world:A copy image of a more than 500-year-old map that was the first to use the name “America.” It also was the first to depict a separate Western Hemisphere and a separate Pacific Ocean. (Associated Press)

How do people name continents or places on Earth?

Supper: soup, fish, and a strange Café Steamers® Beef Merlot (Tender Beef Strips [not tender and not strips, but chunks] with Russet Potatoes & a Vegetable Medley [tough carrots and green beans] in Rich Merlot Wine Sauce). I got on sale at Fred Meyer. It was awful. The wine sauce was cooked in a plastic bowl beneath the other stuff, which was steamed through holes in the plastic container placed over the sauce. Literally, the weirdest frozen dinner either of us have ever experienced, and do not wish to again in our lifetime. I hope I didn’t buy two of them. It was a purchase of 5 different dinners (mix & match) to get $1 off each dinner.

Tuesday, Dec 10

We pulled out the roll of Pillsbury Chocolate Chip cookie dough, needing a snack for tomorrow morning’s meeting. When that thawed, I formed and cooked them on parchment paper.

I fixed a bag of undergarments with 3 new packages of nylon knee highs, to take to the Ellensburg Community Clothing Center to arrive about a little before 11:00 a.m. to look for a Christmas Sweater for John (did not find one), and other Christmas tops for me. I found more for me than he did, so he helped me carry it. I got two very nice Christmas sweaters, two Christmas tops, a pair of Christmas gloves, a cool pair of (I think) pajama bottoms, black with red/white candy canes, which I probably will wear with my not so ugly Christmas sweater and top to the party Dec 20 at the AAC (Senior Center).

We then went for lunch at the Food Bank Senior Nutrition dinner (had beef stew, bowl of fruit, rolls, and piece of frosted chocolate cake), with juice. The chunks of beef were tough, so we took most home and will re-cook another day. I went to Safeway for my meds which were not properly halved yet (so we had to return later), and then on to the hospital for a blood draw, which they screwed up by not drawing enough blood for analyzing it and will have to redraw in the morning (on a day that’s an even fuller day than today).

We had several stops to make today. Packed my pills and red bag to go to Food Bank and AAC, because the red bag has my entry swipe to the AAC. They keep track of attendance daily.

We went by Bi-mart with coupons and to check numbers. We found some thermal socks for me, and I don’t remember what else we got we went for. Not all the coupons were pertinent to our needs. Oh, we got some clothes and dishwashing liquid on sale. John found a flannel blue shirt on sale, but it did not show that price at the register. Meghan came up front to fix that glitch.

Wednesday, Dec 11

Today was the busiest day of the week – starting at Hearthstone at 8:45 a.m., with set up for the retired geographer’s meeting, on to the hospital for the redraw and then over to Imaging for a mammogram, which didn’t occur (see below), to Liberty Theater to play music for the Food Bank Lunch, take my antibiotics at the end of playing so I can be at the dentist at 1:00 for teeth cleaning (hour) followed by two teeth cracked needing repaired.

What a day this was! Started with both of us driving separately to Hearthstone, leaving after 4” of snow, on unplowed roads at 8:25 a.m. 2 miles from our house we had a wide load coming toward us taking up most of the narrow rood (Naneum). I move over as far as possible and it barely went by. Rather scary. We made it to town with only one slick spot on a right turn onto the Kittitas highway, from the north. I unloaded my stuff, and went back to park my car on the street.

We had several people make it in through the snow: Ken, Carla, Lillian (who lives there), Mary Ann, and the two of us. We set up the tables and put our Santa Claus platter full of chocolate chip cookies out, with little plates. Hearthstone provided the hot chocolate, coffee, and hot water. The cookies recipe was requested by a couple of ladies there, and for your information, they were made from a roll of Pillsbury Chocolate Chip cookie dough.

Lillian’s Family and her painting on the right

Top Lil holds her family members photo

Lillian Brooks tells her Family Reunion Story

Lillian Brooks continues her Christmas story

Mary Ann

Mary Ann Macinko’s Thanksgiving Story

I left at 10:20 for my trip to the hospital; having difficulty finding a parking spot (had to drive over the snow packed in the last available spot on a corner. Then I had to leave the spot and back in, because I couldn’t get out into the snowbank, but could next to a truck (which was parked too close). I walked around the back of the car, to pick up my violin, and not leave it in the cold car. Good thing, because our side mirrors were too close, so I couldn’t have gotten by the front of my car and the truck. From the back, there was a sidewalk I could use to get back to the front entrance of the hospital.

Checked in for two appointments: the repeat blood draw and a mammogram. They took me right in for the blood draw, and had to go through 3 vials before realizing the problem was the vials somehow shutting off the blood flow too soon. It is a problem that sometimes happens when they are roughly handled in the shipping process. Finally, my phlebotomist, Paige, told me the problem and got around it by using a different method of filling a different vial. Also, she said that the problem yesterday was the same; not enough blood was drawn for the test. That was not the first story I received by phone when asked to return for another draw. She was going to get rid of the box of vials before others had to suffer as I did.

Walked across the hall to Imaging for my mammogram, which they had scheduled. Luckily, Rose, my technician, knew enough to look at the last date I had one, and it was the same day, Dec 11, 2018. My test should not have been scheduled until one day later than last year’s. She showed me the Medicare form I was going to have to sign to have the test paid for. #3 on the form was the ability to say I refused to take the test and would reschedule. Otherwise, it would have cost me $400. I thanked her profusely and I will be writing an evaluation thanking her for her attention to detail. I’ll also suggest they arrange for all schedulers to have access to the date of the last one so that won’t happen in the future to anyone else. An alert by the system should be presented at the time of scheduling by the computer.

From there I made it to the Food Bank earlier than originally planned, so I was there in time to help with setup. We had a good turnout: 5 singers: Richard, Reta, Peggy, Robert, Bob and instrumentalists: Dean, Evelyn, Richard, & Nancy. We are still doing Christmas music. Soon as we were done, I had to take my Amoxicillin in preparation for my 2 hours of dental work.

For lunch, I had bought my protein drink (Ensure & Yogurt), and I went to the buffet line, but only took a bowl of fruit in yogurt, and a piece of spice cake with chocolate chips and a dab of chocolate frosting.

I left and made it to the dentist in time, and took my violin in with me. My cleaning started on time and it was successful. I was moved to another chair for my dentist to examine two teeth #10 and #7, which had been chipped. She decided that today we would do #7, to put in a composite filling. But, we’ll wait for the other until January. I bought a container of Prevident prescription fluoride toothpaste ($15), which lasts a long time, even using it every night. Checked out and tentatively made appointments for my next two visits: the January one, and the next cleaning, in April. I need to get them on the 2020 calendar.

From there, I went by with my camera and stopped at the AAC to use their computers for a quick glance at email in case anything important had come in. My main reason was to take photos of all the Christmas decorations around the senior center. They have done a beautiful job. I took a lot of photos I’m going to put in a Google photo album to share with one link. Here are two:Ellensburg Adult Activity Center (Senior Center)

Christmas at AAC 2019 photos by Nancy

From there off to Elmview for a glance at the bread room. Today I found some spicy baguette slices and a loaf of 3 cheese Semolina bread. John gave me an ultimatum of no more bread. No room in the freezers. However, if I find English Muffin Toasting Bread loaf, I will get it and separate into small packages and stick in small spaces in the freezers. He can take out a couple of ice packages (2 liter bottles).

For supper, we had pizza, compliments of the AAC, with roasted salmon from Costco. Fruitcake for dessert.
Got my photos and videos off the camera. I sent off the chair count for tomorrow at Meadows. We only had one last minute change.

Thursday, Dec 12
Cold Moon in Roslyn, WA 12-12-19 by Jennifer Lipton

This is a fantastic capture which she took when she arrived home safely from dangerously slippery surfaces on I-90 with multiple car spin-outs. I plan to use this photo to invite Jen into a Facebook photography group I just joined. It is UKC Photographers. You folks saw Jen in our last week’s blog taking their son on the search for a Christmas tree.

John stayed home today and push-broomed snow to clear driveways and area around our hay barn to get a load of hay delivered tomorrow. We tried to get it before the snow fell and requested it a month ago, but that didn’t happen.

I spent the morning on medical appointment planning, and getting the videos and photographs taken yesterday into shape. Still a lot of upload time required.

I left before 1:00 p.m. for town (in the fog), to get there for setup and took along my new camera to see if Evie could help me adjust the white balance because inside photos had too much orange. She succeeded and I took some photos, and set up my tripod to take a video of our performance. We had a good audience who enjoyed the music very much. They always are happy to see us each month on the 2nd Thurs.

This was particularly a great day because many of the players were dressed in their Christmas clothes.

Evie Schuetz & Nancy HultquistKittitas Valley Fiddlers & Friends: Manord, Evie, Gerald, Charlie, Dean, Nancy, Sharon, Amy, Charlotte, Sandy at Meadows Place, December 12, 2019

Here is the 51-minute video, of a longer musical performance:

Fiddlers & Friends at Meadows Place

I want to start this description with a humongous thanks to EvieMae Schuetz for taking my two very large video files recorded of us and using her talents and equipment to edit them and put together as a smooth flowing presentation and then upload to her YouTube site to send me the link to share with my friends. I am totally unable to do this with this camera because of the resolution, and my Internet speed would not allow me to ever upload the video to YouTube. We all owe Evie an amazing thanks and a big hug.

I’m looking into the possibility of getting this Internet speed at my house, but no one is open to inquire until Monday. I also do not have the software she has for editing, so I need to determine if that is a possibility for me to add to my computer.

This afternoon after music at Meadows Place, I gave my friend Sandy a ride home, but had to drop by two pharmacies for meds for me and for John, and grab another item from Fred Meyer while in the pharmacy, which Sandy was able to help me get, because she has some and knew where they were in the store. She went for it as I was waiting in line at the Pharmacy. I was not successful at the Pharmacy because I left the GoodRx coupons home on the counter. It will save me over $20 to get them and go back tomorrow. Turned out to save me $42! This difference in pricing is just wrong, but I’ll play the game and find the pharmacy with the best price.

Tonight I’ve been working more on emails, and more planning for things to be completed for the retired geographers and for the music group.

Friday, Dec 13

We do not know when the hay delivery will occur. I need to drive to town midday. We’ll see how that goes. It happened while I was away, and two tons were delivered to our hay barn. Good, because we would have run out on Monday.

My photo for the day came from a brief trip to Meadows to deliver some donated cakes from the Kittitas Pantry, and to share the contact for a woman from Kittitas, who wants to take her grandchildren to visit residents without family members. The activity director and caregiver present were thrilled at the prospect and pleased to accept the Christmas cakes.

As I was leaving Meadows, I saw a photo opportunity, and had my camera along, so I took it. Look below on Saturday to see where I published it.

From there, with my GoodRx coupons, I went to Fred Meyer Pharmacy for John’s medications. I saved $42. That was certainly worth the second trip to town.

Also, the purchase generated a bunch of fuel points, so I used them to fill my tank that was only ½ down, but the price with fuel points was 30 cents off each gallon, making the charge/gal only $2.69. Worth the trip to town. As I walked in the front door of Fred Meyer, a Salvation Army “ringer” was at the donation pot with his banjo, singing Christmas songs. I stopped and joined him singing, “Deck the Halls.” His photo was in the paper tonight, from the day before:A singing musician surely beats ringing a bell in a closed room at the store’s entrance.

I still need to read postal mail from the past two days. Finally, did. Thanks for all the beautiful Christmas cards. We are not getting any mailed out this year, and haven’t even thought about a wrap-up of this year’s activities for the blog. We’ll probably come up with a short one to have on our weekly blog, around Christmas.

I called Discover card after receiving a strange email. All is well, we have a new card since a fraudulent return was refunded 9-15-19, and all changes are made. If I get another email message about my old 3137 number, I have a “fraud report” email to forward it to at Discover, if I get another. Scams are on the upturn, especially this time of year. Now I need to be sure there are no auto-pays using that number. I’m looking at every transaction on the statement when it arrives each month.

Supper: Broccoli-Cauliflower-Havarti cheese in mushroom soup, with a little piece of John’s homemade meatloaf and a half of a Cordon Bleu on the side.

Saturday, Dec 14

Another sleep-in morning for me after a late night, and early 5:45 awakening by companion cat, Czar. Because of the errant raccoon, we have to close our doggie/kitty door at darkness. He went out the front door but did not wish to go farther, so after sitting awhile, I invited him back in, sat down and petted his head and under his chin (which he dearly loves), and he went back to bed on his blankie. So, I went back to bed too.

I’ve been nibbling on things, and need to dress and take a thumb drive over to my friend Evie Schuetz in Kittitas to help me get some overly large videos taken Thursday of our music up to YouTube. My transfer rate is too low to process, and she has a very good setup for transferring at high speed through Charter. She has offered to do them for me. I need to check on their offering and if it is even available in our location. Last time we checked, nothing except DSL was available, and it is not fast enough. Our local land-line company is now called Consolidated Communications.

John is out. A once-a-year thing is to cut live poplar trees and take two 3 foot sections to the raclette. The green wood resists catching fire when we dump glowing coals between the pieces. This provides the semi-controlled heat for melting an overhanging block of cheese. He got back in time for me to make the trip to Kittitas, and I took along my camera just in case I saw something worth photographing. Our Kittitas Valley was filled with fog again, and Kittitas itself was fog ridden. As I left, I drove back through areas of fog that weren’t there on my trip down. I’ll put some of my photos of that trip in a link below.Top: Fog in the valley, bottom a lone Bald Eagle

Follow this link to get to 30 photos of my round trip to Kittitas, WA:

Trip to Kittitas 12-14-19

I put my two videos from Thursday on a Thumb drive and drove them to Evie in Kittitas, to put on her porch for her to find when she got back home. I gave her accolades up on Thursday, when we performed it and I posted it.

I’d better finish the dishes after finding a bird photo to share with the photographers’ FB site: UKC Photographers. I found it and shared it, with this comment:

Birds on a Bush photo follow-up to Scott Seymour’s “A Gathering of Goslings” photograph: This I captured yesterday while visiting Meadows Place, an assisted living home in Ellensburg. I thought this was a great commentary pictured. {John says, birds can’t read.}Birds on a Bush, near the entry to Meadows Place.

John brought a bucket with ice water into the kitchen and we soon had water on the rug and composite flooring. A make-work project.

We had a piece of chocolate cake before hitting the hay. It had a lot of frosting so we left off the ice cream.
John managed to get to bed before I did.

Sunday, Dec 15

A week late on getting the photos from the Grange Christmas dinner, but here it is:

Swauk-Teanaway Grange Christmas, 12-8-19 pix by Nancy

Near the start, I met a photographer from Roslyn, Ginger Stogdell, and she told me of the UKC Photographers group on Facebook. She invited me to join, when she saw me taking photographs.

Busy all day with projects, still have to finish blog draft and get all the photos handled, blog text first. During the sunniest part of the afternoon John cut a little firewood that he will place up at the end of the driveway, with an “exotic” wood/free sign. Someone takes it within 3 days.

I just emailed the Emeriti group the stuff from last Wednesday’s meeting. I also called and had a nice phone conversation with my friend Morris Uebelacker. His birthday was yesterday.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Monday, Dec 2

We started early this morning, John before me, with him feeding and taking care of the horses. I started by unloading the dishwasher, and reloading it. I had things to complete on email associated with this week’s activities and planning for them and am still in the process. At least the planning for the music for the month of December has been sent. Now I await responses from the group, so I can arrange for the correct number of chairs to be set up for our arrival, Thursday at 1:30 p.m. This effort is much like herding cats, but is necessary.

Now John is out and the sun is shining, with the temperature finally above freezing, at 33.8° just before noon. He had to repair (soften the handle) on the push broom, and now is out pushing snow off the porch and driveway.
Below I caught photos of the new “lined” shirt (Merry Christmas, John!) when he was on the porch fixing the handle, and then doing a little push-brooming with Annie tagging along as his companion. John fixing handle, and then using it with Annie following.

He’s out of sight now, so I assume he’s down in the pasture loading manure into the pickup truck. He figured yesterday he had about 1/3 filled. After it is loaded he will have to fix a time to go to the vineyard.

I’m working on my report from the wellness visit with our PCP Chelsea Newman, to take to our appointment tomorrow morning.
John will be in later to make a list of his medications, such as I have, and we have to remember to have her write a prescription to refill two of his.

Email message just before Noon from our sister, Peggy, in Parma, OH, that her cataract surgery went well. We had forgotten to put her date on our calendar, so emailed her a note back, and then I queued up a Jacquie Lawson thinking of you card to send, with an autumn flower/fruit arrangement: Consisting of flowers, berries, leaves, pine cones, wheat, fruits (pomegranates), and one opened at the end of the animation to display reddish purple seeds. To my knowledge I have never eaten a pomegranate, nor tried to de-seed one). I wonder what use people make of them? This was part of the card which got me off on this track.I guessed the fruit that started in the animated card, whole, was a pomegranate, after seeing this at the end. I honestly didn’t know. So I looked them up and found this video:

The BEST Way to Open & Eat a Pomegranate

After watching that, I knew I had never held one before, and certainly never eaten the seeds. I now wonder what they taste like. Every day provides a new learning experience. Isn’t that cool?

John got back to the house at 12:30, having loaded only a little more manure into the pickup. We were both hungry, so he fixed some brunch: Leftover “stew” from freezer, warmed in iron skillet. The contents are: Chicken, carrots, lima beans, potatoes (home fries), onions, and red peppers. I had fewer of the potatoes with mine and two different pieces of toast (English Muffin bread & 3-cheese Semolina).

John went back outside while the sun is shining and the temperature is still above freezing.
I need to set up things to take tomorrow on our way back through Ellensburg to a young woman for her and her daughter, and get the stuff into the car we will be driving, probably John’s Crosstrek. We loaded some bins for organizing the 3 yr. old’s toys, and added some Christmas cards I had to others I’d picked up for her from a friend south of Ellensburg. This gal is visually impaired and cannot drive, so I (and others in town) try to pick up stuff and get it to her.

I wrote Katrina (senior center) about a suggested addition to the Agenda for the 10th Dec Senior Advisory Commission meeting.
I am finishing sorting the cleaned clothes, loading the dishwasher, and working on the schedule for our music group for this Thursday (and for the other 4 days we play in December).

Supper: Split Green Pea soup (given to us in a can), with John’s additions of crinkled sweet potatoes, mushrooms, and sausage link pieces. He made some awesome cheesy biscuits to accompany the soup.
Resting before taking my shower.

Tuesday, Dec 3

Sunrise by Lise McGowan, described by her on Facebook as “Rise and shine” say our pasture friends!!! 20°F and holding. Beautiful blessed morning to start the day!

We got up early to get to our Cle Elum PCP by check-in at 9:45, leaving our house at 9:00. John had to feed the horses and start his car to warm it up for the trip. Most of our trip was fine, but the last few miles were in dense fog. We got there in time and checked in. We didn’t have too much paperwork, and I went around to the lab to give a urine sample.

My doctor’s nurse was waiting outside the bathroom door and took me to be weighed and go through my vitals. That didn’t take long and she helped me with the gown for my examination.
My doctor came in and we went over a few things, reviewed my paperwork and the PFT report I brought. She looked on her computer and it had been sent to my file there, so that was nice. She ordered my refills for the year, and then gave me a thorough going over including different things I’d never had done before, and some I had.

Once done, I went back to the waiting room to wait for John. We were out and drove to the S. Cle Elum post office to mail a large envelope to friends on the west side we’d been with the Saturday before for an early family Thanksgiving (our neighbors across the road, the Swedberg’s). We wanted to visit our friend at the P.O. because it’s been awhile since we saw the family. I wanted to tell him how much we enjoyed viewing on Facebook their recent trip to Cooper Lake to cut their Christmas tree with their young son, Miles. I was a teaching colleague with his mom, Jen Lipton, at CWU Geography.Miles ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ Stefan, Postmaster ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ Miles & Jen

From there we went to the Cle Elum Bakery for more treats for lunch and later. Got two plates of day old bakery goods, Bearclaws and Danish pastries, and fresh, 2 Apple Fritters for me.
We called sister Peggy for her report of the follow-up to her eye surgery this morning. Talked all the way to Ellensburg. All is well.

Once in town, we stopped at several places: grocery shopping, checking numbers at Bi-Mart and buying cough drops, and then went by the Dollar Tree to return two purchases that wouldn’t work for my needs, after opening one and realizing it was the wrong item. On to climb stairs to the Maximus Gym for my Probiotic that will last 4 months. My FitBit gave me 3 flights of stairs credit for the two steeply stepped parts of the staircase I climbed.

From there by a gal’s house to deliver two plastic bins for organizing her daughter’s toys, a bunch of new Christmas cards, and on to the community bread room for some rolls. We are given the opportunity to get day old bread for volunteering music on Wednesdays at the FISH food bank. The rolls are for a Sunday dinner.

Wednesday, Dec 4

Called Genworth Financial, and we are set for our Long Term Care Payment increase in premium March 2, 2020. Talked to a gal in the Philippines, where it is currently 1:14 a.m. [Genworth was hatched by General Electric Capital in 2004.]

Finally got the chair count completed and sent off to request 10 chairs tomorrow for our playing at the Rehab. Now I have to organize the December music to use for 3 players and for the audiences. I managed to locate all of it this afternoon, at the end of our hallway, where I keep music to use through the year, and John was kind to bring in my music carrier with the stuff from October & November in it, so I can replace with December’s.

Finally, I think I have all the music together for tomorrow… for 3 players and audience. (too much paper used, but 20 copies).

Thursday, Dec 5

After an unintelligible email from Kaiser Permanente (KP) mail order pharmacy about an upcoming delivery, I called to verify what had been sent. I found out it was my 2.5 mg tablets of Coumadin (Warfarin). My prescription refills had been sent Tuesday from the PCP’s office visit, to the KP pharmacy for both strengths I take weekly. However, the 5 mg tablets refill should have been sent to Safeway pharmacy in Ellensburg, where they will halve the pills for me (and save lots of money on the purchase). KP will not provide that service.

Played December (winter and Christmas) music at the Rehab for a large audience. Those there: Gerald, Jeanne in wheelchair, Dean, Nancy, Amy, Sharon, Charlotte, Amy, Sandy. The group, with Dean’s leadership, crafted a beautiful Christmas card from the Kittitas Valley Fiddlers & Friends. I’m honored and appreciative. It’s worth displaying, so meaningful. I’ve put the front of the card at the top, and here is the rest.

On the way home, I picked up fast-food sandwiches (Johns fixing fries), my meds, signed a card at AAC, went by the bread room, and then came home and finished packing cameras and stuff for the IAF meeting at CWU. We ate supper, and I drove us in to campus, because of the special CWU parking sticker on my car. We enjoyed a good lecture, and got home a little after 9:00 p.m. It’s now after 11:00, and John has gone to bed. I’m following as soon as I shut down my computer. I did manage to take all the photos and videos off my cameras.

Tonight for the local chapter of the Ice-Age Floods Institute, we had an exciting lecture by Marli Miller, Senior Instructor II, in the Dept. of Earth Sciences, Univ. of Oregon, Eugene, OR, about two books she’s written on the geology of both states.

First, an Introduction video by Nick Zentner to the evening:

Nick Zentner Intro to Marli Miller

Video’s title slide–presentation at Ice Age Floods Institute, Dec 5

Marli Miller: Assembling the Northwest–A Roadside View of Oregon & Washington Geology

During Marli’s presentation she shared a fascinating comment of the Ice Age Floods height as being higher than the Vista House on the Columbia River.

Following the lecture, Marli orchestrated an engaging discussion session with our audience’s insightful questions.

The video link follows with the content:

Marli Miller: Questions & Answers Discussion

Top – during the Q&A discussion; lower – her incredible web site of hundreds of her photographs of geology around Earth, and her generosity in making them accessible to anyone (with credits to her). Definitely check out this educational site.

With its spectacular mountain ranges, lush valleys and tumbling rivers, the Northwest landscape attracts nature lovers and travelers from around the world. But the rain-soaked coast ranges, snow-covered volcanoes and expansive high desert didn’t appear overnight. They formed through a variety of geologic processes over millions of years.

Geologist and Photographer Marli Miller will outline the geology of Oregon and Washington as seen along our federal and state highways.

Beginning with our plate tectonic setting, she will describe the process of continental growth that forms the underlying but diverse ‘basement’ of the region. The basement is readily apparent in the Coast Range, North Cascades, Okanogan, Klamath, and Blue Mountains. Following that, a photographic “roadtrip” along I-84 and Washington State Highway 14 in the Columbia River Gorge will illustrate many of the younger features that make our landscape so unique.

Miller is the author of Roadside Geology of Oregon, 2nd Edition, and most recently, Roadside Geology of Washington, 2nd Edition, which she wrote with UW’s Darrel Cowan, her major Ph.D. adviser.

She is a Senior Instructor in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Oregon.

Copies of her books will available at the event.

Tonight after I was in bed, I heard a loud bump at our front door and had to take time to run off a raccoon that jumped up on the feeding ledge at our front door. Woody had come back for a night snack and we forgot to bring it in when she left. Those raccoon critters are NOT welcome around our home.

Friday, Dec 6

Early morning call from Linda Lundy, with a surprise gift from our musical past. I need to get back in touch with her and arrange a time to go over for a visit and receive it. More when that happens.

John’s leaving to arrive at White Heron Cellars’ Mariposa Vineyard with a pick-up truck load of horse manure for the vines. There is a section high on the slope where deer will come and eat the pomace (left over skins and seeds) that Cameron can use closer to the winery and house. Deer are not fond of horse poo so it will add organic material, and not get eaten.

Cameron sent a photo of the load of manure unloaded. The rear of the truck was completely full, and we have lots more. This was the second load of 1st Class Tennessee Walking Horse manure.

Cameron was kind enough to send me back 3 bottles of wine–Rose’ of Syrah and Roussanne).

I took a box of magazines from our place to Kittitas to give to a gal who is making Dream and Vision Boards (by working with people to cut meaningful words to their dreams or vision and pictures to display on the poster board. She was thrilled with the variety of the magazines we gave her.

Kayleen called about pharmacies at 1:44. I was bringing in groceries and heard the phone ring, so got it. I need to check the Good Rx price at Safeway for levothyroxine and at Super 1. Let her know if going to Safeway is preferred. Or to change to Super 1. Ending decision, change to Fred Meyer Pharmacy, it’s cheaper yet. Now I have to check the others at Safeway to see if they are also cheaper at Fred Meyer or at Kaiser Permanente mail order. This difference in cost is mind boggling and unnecessary. We wish all the medical expenses stuff was a lot simpler.

John got home a little after 2:30. He’d stopped for donuts for the trip home, and also got us a box of Honeycrisp apples. Big babies! (only nine in the box).. if smaller, they pack 12 in.

I had a long talk with Terri Towner and caught up on her health, and told her I would send her some materials about my losing weight in a healthy way, which was not dieting.

Saturday, Dec 7

I slept in incredibly long this morning, because I was quite late getting to bed with cat-related issues, and was up before dawn with cat-related activities. Woody gets up early.

I started by continuing with getting things into the dishwasher, but still need to finish that chore. And, then went to work on the blog, mainly working on the follow-ups to the photos and videos from Thursday night’s presentation. I have a lot of email things to catch up on that will have to wait until later.

We were late eating brunch at just before 2:00 p.m. (consisting of an egg with English Muffin toasting bread slices with Apricot Jam for me, sausage, & home fries). Now at almost 3:00 p.m., he’s taking off for town to buy horse feed at the Co-Op, drop off something for a friend,get some cat food from Bi-Mart, go by Super 1 for some eggs for us and some Sweet’N Low sugar substitute (bulk) for me.

John made it home at 4:05, and is out feeding the horses in the fast approaching cold and darkness.

This just arrived from my Brittany family in Lancaster, CA where Daisy (our co-owned Brittany) I have mentioned before resides.

This was published on Facebook this afternoon, with the following description by Jeri Conklin.

Congratulations to Emily Montoya of Team Stephen Cabral and to GCH Camelot’s Coppers Rollin Four Dice JH on their BOB and Sporting Group 3rd placement today under breed and group judge, Mr. Terry Stacy, over a nice ring of specials.

Jeez, a raccoon was in our house at 6:30 p.m.! It came in through the doggie door, and left that way. In the middle of the night, I guess he was in last night, and I walked down the hall to go to the bathroom, and heard the doggie door close, but when I got to where Annie normally sleeps she was there, asleep. The cats do not make a loud noise when they come through the door, but this was loud. I now know it must have been the raccoon. We have the window closed, but unsure what we will do for nights, other than close the window and let the animals use our doors (patio and front). During daylight we think we can have the animal in-out setup function as they need.

I forgot to put in this link to a Christmas In Kittitas celebration that occurred tonight.

Here is a link to my friend Evie Schuetz’s photos taken that evening. Only 15 but very nice. Kittitas, WA is the town we almost moved to in 1989. We had a house picked out, but the deal fell through. I have enjoyed being only 10 miles away, especially when the WOTFA (Washington Old Time Fiddler’s Association) had summer workshop camp there for 22 years. I was able to live at home and drive over for daily classes for a week, and participate in night events.

The town has all sorts of celebrations, and we only recently heard of this one (a day late).

Christmas in Kittitas, Dec 7, ’19 – Photos by EvieMae Schuetz

Sunday, Dec 8

This is a Grange community dinner day. I did not sleep in this morning. I cleaned up two platters and put my name on them. Packed rolls in 4 plastic bags. We loaded non-perishable goods in a box to donate for the food baskets in Upper County. We came up with 15 items; mostly cans. It was heavy and filled a box that had dog bones packed in it.

I sent a call for chair count out this morning for this Thursday’s playing at the Meadows Place. We may have a good turn-out.

Got ready to go to the Grange and left at 11:30. The valley closer to the Yakima River and I-90 [800 feet lower than our place] was hidden by a low cloud of fog. We were in full sun and the top of the cloud was brilliantly white. We took a back road detour and did not have to get into it.

We took a bunch of Whole Wheat rolls (24) and Multi-Grain rolls (24) to be our side offering for the Community Christmas Dinner at the Swauk-Teanaway Grange, on Ballard Hill, in Cle Elum. We go every year. John wears my old Merry Christmas sweater, and I had on a Cardinal vest today that is very Christmassy with a white blouse and dark green pants. You’ll see some photos in the collection we took today. We sat across the table with old-time friends from Thorp, Ellen & Roger Fischer.

The Grange furnished the turkey (they cooked one full turkey and 7 turkey breasts), mashed potatoes (they pared 90 lbs.). I wonder how many people were there. I asked and Bev got back to me their best estimate was 150. I estimated >100 and the servers ate after others had left.

Coming home we saw the fog bank again, still in the Kittitas Valley, but we had been above it in the sun all day.
View from 2,500 feet on Highway 97, looking south.

Wind Turbines Hwy 97 Fog Bank Kittitas Valley

And we came back through the fog for a little part of our return trip. We were soon out of the fog and then could see a new blinking STOP sign a mile ahead. It is at the ‘T’ where Hungry Junction meets Look Road. It, and several others around, are powered by the Sun. You will see a video of it now, short but sweet. We are approaching a solar-driven stop sign with lights around the edge. It really shows up nicely in the dark, from way away.

Special Solar-Lighted Stop Sign

I hope to have some photos to show tonight, from today’s Christmas dinner, but they may not get finished until tomorrow morning. So, if there is not anything here, check back tomorrow.

LINK TO COME to photos of the Swauk Teanaway Community Christmas Dinner.

Meanwhile, here are a couple of teasers: our garb & meals.Nancy’s meal and John’s meal. {We need to work on the in-door color settings for this camera.}

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Monday, Nov 25

John made corrections to blog on spelling of Evie Schuetz’s name. Remember U before E as in my friend, M. Uebelacker.
Unloaded dishwasher and loaded it again. Constant chore at our home. John’s the cook; I’m the bottle washer.

Sent out count for KVF&Fs last night. Follow-up today. Charlotte, Evie, Charlie, Dean, Sandy, & me are coming Wednesday.

Called Hospital Imaging Dept. to follow up on Susan’s call from Cle Elum that Chelsea’s referral was sent for my Mammogram and Bone Density Scan to KV hospital. Dates determined today were: Dec 11 – Mammogram, Wed. 10:30 check in, 10:45 supposedly takes 15 minutes, because I have to be at Food Bank for music at 11:15 a.m. I have an okay from Evelyn, if I’m running late. Then I must take my Amoxicillin at noon (while we are still playing), and be at the Dentist at 1:00 p.m. for a cleaning, but staying afterward for 2 teeth to be looked at that are cracked off. I checked with Tiffany that my antibiotic will last long enough for the 2 hours of work.
The Bone Density scan has to wait until January, and that’s scheduled on the new 2020 calendar for Jan 21.

I arranged clothes to take to the Discovery Shop tomorrow and John put a box of 10 cartons of shoes, some with more than 2 pair/box, in the back of our car for the first stop in Yakima.

John is out raking horse manure into piles for eventual use in the Mariposa Vineyard where he prunes wine grapevines. While outside, he plans to go drill some holes into a posts at the front gate entrance he’s been working on. Below is the start of this: Left setting new pole at Rd.; right; the new gate has red, white, and blue stiffeners to alert drivers, or the wayward cow, that it is there. Left at the end of drive; right the set-off of new gate allows trucks with trailers to get completely off of Naneum before encountering a gate. The 2 vertical posts (right image) were set 15 years ago with this in mind. Procrastination?!
The horizontal logs were placed the year after the logging truck tipped over – Feb. 16, 2015. They are about 40 feet long.

Talked with Mario about hay delivery. I have sent him the explanation of bill pay and the check will be delivered to his postal box a week after we have the delivery and know the cost for the 15 tons he’s bringing us. I have shared the setup of his company, High Valley Hay, on the bill pay system.

Supper: Smoked turkey, Cheez-its, butternut squash with toasted marshmallows top, and PowerAde. Dessert cherry pie with our pie cherries made by Ken Swedberg, and a small point of a chocolate cake piece. John shared some of the cherry pie too.

Tuesday, Nov 26

Today, we left at 8:45 for the Discovery Shop and Costco.
American Cancer Society Discovery Shops
EBRG does not have a Discovery Shop. The Yakima one is just 5 blocks from the main corner, and seems to have lots of visitors. John talked to one of the workers, and looked at the awards, plaques, and all the goods. They had sold a lot of Halloween and Thanksgiving things and were finishing putting out Christmas goods. The room for all the glass and plastic stuff (example in photo; from web) is separate from the clothing. There was a shirt that said something like “I’m saving Santa a stop. I’ve been very naughty.”

So that was our first stop. We dropped off a bag of clothes and accessories, picked up some blank donor receipts for future bags to get down there. Found out some more information, including they do not want any underclothes, except for excellent condition bras, no panties out of the package, but they would take camisoles. While there, we delivered a large box with women’s shoes in 10 boxes.

We bought $404.69 worth at Costco; that’s a record, I believe. And, as we were leaving, we had lunch there for $9.87, so total charged, $414.56 on our VISA Costco card will reward us 2% rewards in February ($8.29). Our lunch was a large piece of combo pizza, hot dog & Pepsi, and a Turkey Provolone Sandwich, most of which we brought home to add to other meals. While there we had dessert—a frozen Yogurt sundae, with a very large amount of strawberries swirled in. By the time we got home, it was finished.
Well, what an assortment of gifts for ourselves. John got a nice padded shirt jacket in a 2XL size. It was the only XX-large one of all the ones on the shelf (we both liked the Blue Plaid better, but all the other colors were available only in S, M, and L. No XL, except that one, in a green / gray color plaid. My chosen gift was an external disk storage drive of 5 TB for $30 off. My smaller one has been going on the fritz, and I need to back up everything on it, and the stuff currently on my computer, in addition to another smaller external drive. 5 TB should handle the need, with space left over for continuing. Also received $3.00 off on packages of AAA and AA batteries of which we seem to go through many.
Besides all sorts of food (many different kinds of seafood), we got a fruitcake only one because I thought we had another in the freezer, but John says we don’t. Once home we had a nice big piece. I wish I had bought two, although the space in our freezer is dwindling. We’re not planning to go back before next year, so will lose out on getting another this year.
Took care of the dog’s needs and our paper needs (towels & TP), plus some $3 off containers of Multi-Vitamins. I try hard to get our OTC meds when they are significantly marked down on price. To us the place was very busy, but we found an “end” lane that was not aligned with the main aisles so we saved time by not waiting in a long line. Luckily, we went through the pharmacy/pills section and that led to the (hidden) end lane.

We came back through EBRG to fill my car with gasoline from Fred Meyer and to check our Bi-Mart numbers. We didn’t win anything today, and only got 3₵/gal reduction in the gasoline. I thought we were entitled to a lot more. Oh well, live and learn. At least last week, John received 20₵/gal. off when he filled his truck.

Wednesday, Nov 27

We awoke to several inches of snow and by the time I left it was 4”, blowing and drifting.
I got some photos of the quail and John’s Crosstrek still covered with snow. He had put sunflower seeds out for the birds. Little birds will come and go all day, quail morning and evening. The invaders – European Collared Doves – have to be chased away except from a cage-like affair that they can’t fit into.These images show undisturbed snow on the car, and what we call the ‘cable table’ with the lower part covered with snow. Wind blew that in there. We call that part the veranda, and the cats like to lay there.

John push-broomed a lot of snow, fed the horses, and went to town for a fasting blood draw. The plows were scraping the road, and putting grit at the intersections, and we didn’t have any trouble except watching for slick spots along the way. Ellensburg did not have nearly as much snow. North of us Blewett Pass (4,100 ft.) had 14” and was closed for a couple hours because of spin-outs and collisions. The I-90 road from Ellensburg to Vantage was closed as well because of ice and blowing snow.

John brought me stuff from the back seat of my car from the Discovery Shop, I brought back home from yesterday’s visit they did not want. I need to summarize and change the content of the donation slips itemization. Still awaits being done.

I finished loading and running the dishwasher in the morning. Called Gloria, her sister Shirli, and Clare about coming today to the Garden Room to hear our music. I put music together for Charlie’s and my books and for Lou and Sandy’s. I wrote a note to the Emeriti group about meeting there on December 11 (2nd Wednesday).
Needed to get to Hearthstone before 1:30 to meet Glenn; I did and gave him his two loaves of bread from Costco. I went by Pam Brown’s house on the way from Hearthstone with Gloria on our way to the Community Thanksgiving Dinner, and picked up a gifted Xmas serving platter.

Gloria’s and my trip to the Armory was rewarded by a good meal: lots of turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, not so much gravy as I would have preferred, mixed vegetables of carrots, peas, green beans, and corn, a large roll w/ butter, and cranberries (which I love but cannot have with one of my medications. Dessert: pumpkin pie. We had nice visits with people at our table, and with folks walking by that knew Gloria from church, or from the SAIL class at the Senior Center. She enjoyed the trip very much.

Today while I was gone for music at Hearthstone, and then with my friend Gloria, to the Community Thanksgiving Dinner (CTD), John stayed home to work on projects. One of the most important projects he did was to remove and install lift supports on the truck’s canopy that keep the back window propped up, while loading or unloading the bed of the pickup. See the picture on the left below for those. On the right is of a gift I picked up after our music at Hearthstone, on my way to the CTD with Gloria. I had donated money to cover purchasing 10 turkeys for the dinner, so I thought I ought to eat. I know each year they plan food for 300 people, and this year they baked 34 turkeys for the event.

Through the weekend, this is free for a download of the music arrangement.
Christian Howe – Jazz Violin Solo Arrangement, Somewhere Over the Rainbow
I think the video will remain, but the free arrangement seems to be a limited time thing. I learned of this in an early morning email, but didn’t open it until this evening.

I’ll never have the ability with my range of motion in my left shoulder (with severe arthritis and bone-on-bone, spurs, & cysts) to ever play this, but he sent this video, and a free download of the score for the piece, and a special “Black Friday gifts” worth over $125 which I will download for review. It’s a set of lessons which will last for 30 days, and I will try to make time to go through them.
John and I went to his last concert here at the CWU Music Building in Ellensburg, and I went to a free afternoon workshop for community members and music students to learn various techniques for playing stringed instruments. He’s a great person and teacher. I don’t remember how long I have known him, but I follow him regularly and am on his email notification list for his planned concerts and teaching opportunities.

Thursday, Nov 28 Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving Day – – But we have snow.
If you did not get a Happy Thanksgiving Card from us, below is a link to take you there. I did not mail to everyone in my Jacquie Lawson animated card database. So, if you didn’t see it, please visit here to see the reason the card is so personal to us:

Happy Thanksgiving Card 2019 from Hultquists

I slept in this morning until almost 9:00 a.m. I’m sure I needed it. John went out to feed Myst and the horses, and gave the others some of the pellets and corn Myst has been getting to increase her weight. They were delighted to be included. It has been quite cold.

I called my friend Gloria’s sister, Shirli, to wish them a Happy Thanksgiving. They were having a magnificent Thanksgiving dinner today at Hearthstone: turkey and all sorts of side dishes, plus a choice of two desserts (pumpkin and pecan pie).
This morning was my diuretic pill day and I finished putting in the rest of my meds for this week’s mornings. Glad we stayed home.
It’s very cold here, 9° one morning, but days are low 20s, no sun, but no snow. We’ll be home for the next 5 days, so should be able to catch up a little on all the many projects.

We are giving thanks, however, for all the blessings in our lives.

I sent a few cards out (Happy Thanksgiving) and got some interesting responses: This from Donna Bates, in Condon, OR: “A very snowy thanksgiving here. About 10 inches but with the wind that came with it, we have waist high drifts. Had 18 people for dinner and 19 that couldn’t come!”
(John said we were fortunate that the storm was mostly south of us.)

Our friend, Jeri Conklin, sent a photo of her Brittanys playing in the snow in Lancaster, CA; 50 miles north of Los Angeles.Before the snow was over they received 2 more inches. Left to right, liver & white–Xena, orange & white—Daisy, my co-owned dog, registered as “Cedaridge Kip’s Camelot Shay Tre’ JH SH”, O&W Stormy, in front of Kurt Conklin standing, then O&W Chip, and L&W Ginny (Daisy’s mom). The letters at the end of the name stand for Junior Hunter (JH) and Senior Hunter (SH), awarded in Hunt Tests, different from field trials. She will be working on her Master Hunter title next year, with Jeri Conklin as her handler.

Long conversation tonight with a friend about her three recent surgeries, starting this September. Amazing what some folks are having to go through.

Friday, Nov 29

I called our medical insurance provider, Kaiser Permanente, and found out recommended shingles shots SHINGRIX (2 boosters 2 months apart) will be covered on our policy under the preventative care portion of our plan. That will save us several hundred $ and is good news (I checked the price and best estimate is $151/shot, but it varies widely according to the source.).

Brunch: Large blueberry/pecan pancake, with maple syrup, eggs, and sausage patties.
John worked outside a little, but it was only after the temperature went up to slightly over freezing. If it is windy he will wear a full coverall. Zip-up legs allows getting this off without removing boots.
Afternoon snack: piece of fruitcake from Costco.
Supper: Soup, Cordon Bleu, home fries, and buttered Parmesan topped toast. Dessert, brownie with dried tart cherries & nuts.

Saturday, Nov 30

Elise of NJ called. Lasted 45 minutes after we got rid of the echo; we had a lot of catching-up to do.
Carla Kaatz (wife of deceased colleague) called during my long distance call, and it just rings without allowing a message to be left. I called the number after my conversation ended, and her cell phone is now in my landline, and I need to put in my cell. Previously, I did not have it; only her landline.

Sunny and cold, still under freezing (30.2°) at 2:00 p.m. John left to go shovel manure into the back of his pickup truck where he placed a large tarp into the bed yesterday. He needs to fill it to take over to the Mariposa Vineyard at White Heron Cellars. He did that last year, and Cameron has spread the last of the pile, 11/11/19. He hopes to have better weather with no wind (which last year was intense) for the delivery.From the Naneum Fan, Tennessee Walker manure nourishes White Heron’s Mariposa vineyard.

Before he left he shoveled the snow off the concrete slab in front of our garage, which is part of the front yard where we feed cats and birds. During icy weather we carefully step through to the front gate and our vehicles and, if necessary, John spreads salt.

I’m working on projects: dishwasher loading & running, and about to start on the reference procedure for a student who started with me in 2005, has a job, but wants to become a substitute teacher on his days off. His oldest child is in the school, and he has been volunteering for two years.
Letters of reference as in the past are no longer used in many places. I have to go through a computer to fill in the information for his recommendation that goes to a folder on their computer.
I’ve only done the first step, and now must proceed with the rest. OK, I’m starting this procedure @ 3:41 p.m. & I lost my connection at 4:51; so glad I had snipped backups every so often through the process. I had to start completely over and re-enter all the responses. What a PITA! I finally finished, submitted, and logged out at 5:55 p.m.

Also, I’m editing a long message John wrote to our best man, Bill, in Cincinnati. He sent a link to an article about teaching large numbers of students and how times have changed. This is about a professor (from Australia) with 500 people in his class. In case you’re interested, here is a link below to the original article, which is so different from the teaching John and I experienced doing through the years.

High Tech for Higher Ed: An Australian engineering professor revamps student learning with teams

Sunday, Dec 1

It was snowing slightly this morning at 6:00, when I first awoke and put out food for Woody, but through the morning the rate of snow has varied – never a lot. John has fed the horses, and all the cats have been in for their morning vittles. The temps are warmer than they have been, so he intends to go out after lunch. Plans include cutting some brush and a small tree, moving snow, and getting more horse poo into the truck.

This morning we were taking care of filing our survey for the first Wellness visit to the PCP on Nov 22, and we are getting ready for the Tuesday follow-up Chronic visit this coming Tuesday, Dec. 3.
I also am following up on the correspondence started in previous days with friends around the world.

Brunch today: CheeseWurst sausage links, eggs, toast, & home fries.

I’m finishing up a few projects needing done yesterday, and then going to finish my part of the blog, so we can finish it before midnight.
I do have another list of things needing done – planning events next week.

I contacted Terri Towner about her health issues and her hubby Kevin’s right wrist/hand in a cast. They both have appointments with specialists this week, Tuesday & Wednesday. She’ll get back to my landline line with the results. We had an informative conversation this afternoon. They are down in Moxee, WA, east of Yakima.

Another afternoon snack: piece of fruitcake.
We’re planning leftovers for supper.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan