Keeping track

Monday, Nov 18

Beginning with two sunrise photos from my photographer friends in the Kittitas Valley, Lise and Evie.Barn Raising by Lise McGowan
This is a reconstruction in process of their barn destroyed by high winds that collapsed the barn onto their pickup totaling it, and flew a large piece of the roof into the window of their 2-story house. No animals or people were injured, thankfully.

Railroad house in Kittitas, WA by Evie Schuetz

Evie says: “That railroad house is right at the end of my street. There’s no story to it, it’s just been the neighborhood beacon as long as I’ve been alive. Pete said it was the water filling station for steam engines, but I don’t know how he would know that.”
[John guesses: this is a building that held a small wind-mill as shown in the (left) photo below. The bottom of the tank holding water need not be but a little bit higher than the storage tank on the train. Because water is heavy, the structure holding water (waiting for a train) has to be strong. Both tank holding structures have large “legs” that are vertical. The structures holding the blades to catch the wind (& pump water) are angled out as they come down. These have to deal with vibrations, but not a lot of weight.]

[Evie’s photo looks at the west end of the two buildings – the door faces north. The tracks would have been to the right, about 40 feet from the center. Sufficient room for a tank.]Called Bi-Mart, talked to Jordan, about GoodSense Artificial Tears problem, and will take mine in tomorrow to demo. Hopefully, he will take my warning today, for Megan (the buyer, who had already left the store), to remove them from the shelf.

Tuesday, Nov 19

I started at the Community Clothing Center to take by a donation of underclothes from friend that were too large for me; while there, I checked for some work shirts and stuff for John, and found several things for him (which I haven’t yet had time to show him), and two pair of socks and a knitted bucket hat for me made of St. Patrick’s Day colors. The neatest thing that happened was a chance meeting with the two women from Montana who are over to help Glenn sort out the craft things for weaving (looms, etc.) and knitting yarn from Anne’s estate to return to her friends in Montana. I thanked them and told them I would see them later at the house.

As I was coming out of the ECCC, I got a phone call from friend who wanted to deliver a document to me, so I told him where I would be in a few minutes (and he met me there—at the Liberty Theater annex). I was going there to eat a lunch (Homemade meatloaf, mashed potatoes, veggies, pears, and a piece of cake) before going by the AAC for a few shopping bags, and to take the rural electric utility’s magazine, RURALITE, to Gabe with stories of the history or their family’s Leather Shop (Don Bacon’s) on Thomas Road. They were the crafters of John’s western saddle, a beautiful piece of artwork he used for many years.

I went from there by Bi-Mart with eye drops, Artificial Tears, needed for the dry eye problem I have. I demoed the problem I was having opening the tops, and Megan realized that the company (GoodSense) had changed the top to a child safety lock opening one that kids could not open (so, it worked for me, this kid couldn’t open it). She showed me the trick, of squeezing the bottom of the cap to release it (still not easy), but she also showed me that the one I had from a previous bottle, could be exchanged. I will keep that and change it with each new bottle.

While there, I also bought a desktop calendar for 30% off and we will hang it on the wall in our kitchen to keep track of our scheduled appointments.

And, I checked our membership numbers. Ours matched the last digit, so I brought home a package of snacks (Almonds & Blueberries with sea salt). It will last until next spring’s trail work, unless we eat it first. From there I went to Fred Meyer. They and Safeway go crazy with special offerings on certain days but only if you buy a bunch – blah blah blah. With enough “points” you get some cents off a gallon of gas at their 2-blocks-away station. We don’t buy much at either store, but both are convenient, so sometimes we go.

When I got home, I called Rhonda (the manager) at Dollar Tree to see if she could order the mesh bags (3 zippered mesh bags in one bag). I can return the two I have not opened, when I find the receipt). Meanwhile, she will check to order the smaller ones I need (3 to a bag), and when they come in, she will call me. She has my number and home Ph.# home.

I sent Peggy Beals the information about Glenn, his email, and his address, and I sent his phone # for texting. I can’t text on my flip phone, so I did not have it, but I asked him on email. She is in charge of the Methodist Church’s Community Clothing Center, where Anne volunteered time, and all her clothes were being taken there.

Finally, this week we found that our attempt to use the bill pay system working directly from our checking account, worked when the check was cashed. Then the money is deducted and an image of the check is produced for our records on our monthly statement. Nice to have for charitable donations claimed on our tax form, and we don’t have to buy checks. I have run out of checks on one of my accounts that has a significant balance, so this was a way around it, a service offered by the bank. I guess we pay for it by them having some of our money in the checking account (with no interest). Currently, there is no direct cost having them do this.

Wednesday, Nov 20

A piece of Ellensburg’s History of downtown businesses.

Evie Schuetz alongside the sign displayed in the Kittitas County Historical Museum’s newly finished (almost) display of business history. This photo taken by Sadie Thayer, Museum Director. You have seen many special photos in this of Kittitas Valley scenes Evie has captured, and now you get to see her in the photo above.

This is the old Button Jewelers neon sign from a business that was in her family for many years, and she grew up from a little kid in her play area there, and working there later (see her memories inset below). The business closed the end of the year 2005; all family members always returned to work during the Christmas season.

The story of the business appeared in our local newspaper, the Daily Record (see link below).
The above photo preserves Ellensburg’s history through signs that have been restored and now able to be visited at the museum. The museum provides a treasure trove of artifacts from the region.

Check out their website, KCHM.ORG, and go in for an educational tour any time to view their displays. If you want to see them before the end of the year, the best time to mark on your calendar is Dec 18, from 6:00 to 8:00 for an open house, with refreshments. The special collections will be on display.

John and I are members of the museum. Recently, we donated a sign (metal, not neon) we were given. The sign was for a machine shop a mile from EBRG; and maybe the staff can find out more. I plan to take a photo of it when I’m there at the open house.

Here’s my introduction of some history I found on the web:

“End of an era: Button Jewelers closing at year’s end” by Paul Schmidt, Oct 12, 2005

1950s the store on the NW corner of 4th and Pine. Note the parking meters and traffic light. Today they’re gone.
Today, it houses Central Party & Costumes, owned by Eva Frink.

I am also friends with Eva and so this whole story interests me. I have been discussing the store with Evie and asked her for her memories of growing up there, of which she had shared pieces, previously. I think her story is worth repeating, so I asked for more and received these details 11/24/19 to include. I find this a fascinating piece of our local history.
Evie’s memories of Button Jewelers inset below:

As far as memories go…  My earliest memories are of putting together a rabbit puzzle in the giant playpen that mom had created for me out of the diamond cases.  She always arranged the cases in a way that would suit as a makeshift cage for me because I refused to be left with a babysitter.  I was well behaved, so I would sit in my playpen and do the same rabbit puzzle over and over all day long while she worked alongside me.  I didn’t like the puzzle much, but I thought the pink box it came in was exquisite.  I had other toys, obviously, but I spent most of my time with that puzzle. 

Once I started school, I was only down there on weekends, afternoons, or holidays.  I loved the holidays most because the store was always busy and everyone that came in seemed unusually happy.  At Christmas all the family members were there working, even the ones that were usually away at college.  We all got to wrap a lot of presents.  I was relegated to the bow making machine because making bows was considered a little kid’s job, but we all fast became excellent gift wrappers.  Aunt Gaye wasn’t having anything go out that was less than perfect.  She is a wonderful Aunt and I’m glad she taught us to be attentive to details.  That has served me well in life.

As I got older, I started working at the store, selling jewelry, engraving everything under the sun (a task I loathed–way too much pressure), cleaning (Lord, there was a lot of crystal to dust and silver to polish…), creating displays in the windows and throughout the store, and changing watch batteries and watch bands.  I preferred working in the repair department with my dad because it was tedious work that could be done in solitude – much the same as the rabbit puzzle from my early years.  Both Dad and I valued silence, so we worked well together. 

Lunchtime was also a family favorite.  Dad and I would get whatever sounded good that day, and we’d enjoy it in the repair department when business was slow.  The Destroyer from the old Sub Shop that used to be behind the Liberty theater…  What I wouldn’t give for another one of those!  When I moved back to town after having Little Peter, I started working at the store again, and the cycle repeated.  Only this time, during lunch, Dad would hold my little guy and feed him french dip sandwiches at the shipping counter.  Too many good memories to list…  Although I should mention the afternoon crossword puzzle we all worked on together once the paper had been delivered.  After that was complete, one of us was sent off to the ice cream shop down the block to bring back waffle cones for the crew.  Dad always had their licorice ice cream.  I alternated between that and blue bubblegum.  Delish!  In hindsight, we didn’t work all that hard.  Mom and I would go shopping downtown on our 15-minute breaks that more often than not lasted at least an hour.  We’d be shopping for decorations at Wood’s Hardware to use for the store windows etc., so was it really a break or was it work?  I learned how to justify things from my mom.  She was a riot, and confidently unapologetic.  Working with the family is where my best memories were created.  We were all so blessed to have the store and the opportunity to be together for so many years.
 
The downtown was so different back then and there’s a lot about it that I miss. The warm popcorn that Sprouse-Reitz always had at the front of their store. The chocolates and Coffee Nips that kept Ostrander’s high on my list of favorite places. Getting cheeseburgers, fries, and milkshakes at Carlisle’s, or a new pair of shoes at Mundy’s. Helping my dad freshen up his wardrobe with new clothes from Moser’s – a lot of dress shirts and ties, the occasional suit. Finding just the right top at JC Penney’s for a special date at The Liberty Theater. Ah… the 80s and 90s. Unforgettable.

In his Not So Nasty News (just prior) John explained we are reviewing a draft manuscript of 123 pages.
John read 50 pages of the manuscript the first evening we had it. By Sunday evening he has read the whole manuscript and is on his second time through with pencil. I have the digital version to use and need to get started.

Thursday, Nov 21

Our Kittitas Valley Fiddlers & Friends played music at Pacifica Senior Living. Players/singers were Manord, Kevin, Charlie, Nancy, Dean, Amy, Charlotte, Sharon, Minerva, Lou, & Sandy, and our mascot Haley (she’s in the 1st grade) was able to be there because it was a ½ day at school because of parent-teacher consultation day.After our music, Haley was showing her crocheting project to an appreciative resident.

Part of my emailing our group for planning chair count set up today included sending a photo of the card received from the Ellensburg Adult Activity Center thanking us for providing the music at the pre-Veterans’ Day celebration. The top part is the front and back of the card; the bottom is the inside of the card. This I preferred to passing the card around and also gave me the opportunity to email to everyone in the group.

After playing, I went by Burger King for supper to bring home, because we had to be back in Hal Holmes center by 6:30 to set up for the Kittitas Audubon monthly meeting were I was going to videotape my former student giving tonight’s lecture. Helen Lau is a Botanist with the USFS office in Cle Elum, WA and her specialty is Fungal Ecology. The lecture tonight was about Fungi.

Here was the write up in our monthly newsletter:
November Hooter of Kittitas Audubon

If you want to get to all the Hooters for this and previous years back to 2005, go here:
Kittitas Audubon Hooter: Current & Back Issues

From the Hooter: 7:00pm • November 21st • General Program

There’s a Fungus Among Us!

What lurks beneath us on earth’s carpet? Can I safely eat that? What purpose does that organism serve?
Helen Lau will introduce the audience to the secret life of fungi and discuss some of their ecological functions. She will share images of some of our most common local fungi and common edible fungi as well as their look-a-likes.
Helen Lau is a botanist for the USFS on the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest. She manages the rare botanical species (plants, lichens, bryophytes and fungi), native plant restoration and invasive plant program on the Cle Elum Ranger District.

Helen’s research interests are in fungi biodiversity and she received an undergraduate degree at Evergreen State College and her master’s degree on mycorrhizae ecology in the Biological Sciences Department at Central Washington University.

Tonight’s presentation:
Top Setup of dried fungi, computer, and visiting with John; bottom are the audience observers of all the books, prints, and specimens Helen brought.

The main talk is the next link:

Helen Lau, USFS Botanist: Intro to Mushrooms & Fungal Ecology

Helen & Judy during Questions and Answers, see video below.

Questions and answers at the end

Friday, Nov 22

We checked in at Cle Elum for our wellness visit and Kaylene, our nurse, invited us back for height and weight measurements. First we had to remove our shoes. She measured Nancy’s height at 5’4”. Boy did that make me happy! It was less last year by an inch, and now I’m still shorter than before when I was almost 5’ 7”. Weighed in at 137.9#. Wellness agenda appointment includes blood pressure, SpO2, pulse (with an oximeter), giving memory tests and telling time on a clock with hands, the patient has to draw from scratch (to show 11:10). Go over medications list, need for prescriptions, and several other subjects.

That’s followed by a visit with our PCP, Chelsea Newman. She reviewed expected test we need to schedule (such as for me, a mammogram, a bone density test, the need for the new 2-shot Shingles vaccine, a review of the vaccines we have had (such as a Flu vaccine, and in my case the blood test for Potassium in January 2020. I just recently had blood draws and tests performed for a Nov 5 appointment with my cardiologist, so I do not need to schedule any blood draws, but John will have to make time to go by the hospital lab here for his tests (the paperwork for the orders has already been sent into the system).

I don’t remember the other things we discussed. Some have to wait for the Chronic appointment which we have in 2 weeks, because our follow-up was supposed to be on Friday after Thanksgiving, but the office will be closed then, so we were scheduled for the following week.

We stopped at Cle Elum Bakery for 2 Apple Fritters for me and a Bear Claw for John. I ate one on the way home, and he had ½ his bear claw. This picture was the next morning, when I had my 2nd. Their bakery goods are excellent, but very pricey. Each item bought was $2. For special occasions such as today, returning from a successful visit to the doctor for both of us, we splurged. Also, we had to be out so early for our appointment check in that there wasn’t time for fixing a good breakfast. This tided us over until getting home for lunch.

Top is from the carry-out bag; bottom my Apple Fritter

After a small brunch for me, I was off to the hospital for my Pulmonary Function Test (PFT) [showing improvement on all from last year’s]. I have already mentioned that previously in the blog, when my original appointment was canceled, and rescheduled for today. I have to have this PFT annually to be sure I’m okay and free of side effects (lung scarring) of the Amiodarone medication.

Our supper was beef stew, baked potato, sliced huge plum. The plum was purple on the outside with a no-color inside, and about the size of a baseball.

Saturday, Nov 23

John’s going to be driving the truck to town this morning to buy 4 more bags of Senior Equine for Myst, also Rolled Corn for her needs, and we are pleased she is gaining weight nicely no longer seeing any ribs. He also will be getting another bag of Black-oil sunflower seeds for the birds. While in town with the truck, he’ll fill the tank at a reduced price/gallon with rewards we have accumulated from Fred Meyer (we normally do not have enough purchases there to get fuel rewards, but for November, we currently have 200 points and we are entitled to 20₵/gal reduction, which translates today to $2.879/gal. He also went by the pharmacy to pick up my prescription for Amiodarone.

I called the Pharmacy and we’re on a waiting list for both John and me for the new double (better and more expensive!) Shingles shots [Shingrix] at Super 1. Chelsea recommended that yesterday for our attention. The double dose is given 2 months apart. Need to call Kaiser to see if it’s covered and what the copay is. We heard they are expensive; perhaps $300.

I cleaned and cut clusters of red grapes to take with Grandma rolls & Whole wheat rolls to an early Thanksgiving family dinner at our neighbors, the Swedbergs, scheduled for 1:00 p.m.

John’s out to feed Myst and do morning things and the temperature just went above freezing at 9:30 a.m. At least the sun is out and the skies are beautifully blue.

I talked to my neighbor and found out our early thanksgiving dinner is not beginning until 2:00 p.m. (actually 3) today. That will mean John will have to eat and not stay around visiting because of early darkness, and needing to feed Myst her evening special feed.

Our early thanksgiving dinner was an amazing array of food. We had smoked and non-smoked turkey, dressing, gravy, mashed and scalloped potatoes, salad with all sorts of things in it, two kinds of greens, cut apples, cherry tomatoes, pieces of yams, cranberries, sweet potatoes with marshmallows atop, sparkling wine, special orange juice, rolls, red grapes, olives, cherry pie & pumpkin pie, with kids, dogs, adults.

Sunday, Nov 24

I made an early morning call to my friend Janet Perkins in Winlock, WA to have her wish her hubby David a happy birthday.

John was busy today, getting ready for cold weather expected late this week. He cut a tree off one of the paths through our “swamp”, worked on the front gate, repackaged the horse feed into liftable portions and got it out of the truck. He will load horse poo to take to the vineyard now that the truck is empty. He finished with cutting most of the water diversion off. A few years ago he did not do this and a very cold spell prevented getting it closed. The neighbor’s driveway and ours, and parts of the pasture, flooded, froze and made life miserable. That same cold spell managed to freeze the frost-free faucet for the horse trough. [That’s now enclosed and covered with a heat tape.]

We had a late brunch: eggs, sausage links, home fries, and English Muffin toasting bread for me with Apricot jam.

I continued working on the blog and on emails, plus planning for the next two day’s work load. We decided against going to Costco tomorrow, putting it off until Tuesday because the weather will be warmer tomorrow with less of a chance of snow. We are not expecting snow here. It is just that Monday will be a better day to get a few more things done outside.

Dinner tonight was smoked turkey (from yesterday) – John had a leg and I had breast meat. With it we had butternut squash with marshmallows atop, broiled. Also had some commercial lasagna from the freezer.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

First catching up with patriotic photos from Friday’s AAC with adding the photos to John’s of the Senior center celebration to include photos taken by the staff at the center. They are attached at the end of the 45 photos in this link below:

AAC early Veterans’ Day Celebration photos

Monday, Nov 11 Happy Veterans’ Day

The sunrise was lovely this morning, as viewed from the south side of our valley.

Sunrise from the viewpoint I-82, by EvieMae Scheutz
And another, The Mt. Stuart range overlooking our valley by Evie Scheutz

Below are photographs of the flags I saw flying this morning on my trip down Naneum Rd to Ellensburg. Because I had no camera with me, I called John and asked him to please go take some photos. We have admired them before on Flag Day and July 4th and never gotten a photo. He drove his Crosstrek down, and this is what he got. It was a good thing, because I didn’t come back by until it was almost dark. Also, interesting that the address on the mailbox out front, does not belong to the house in the photo, but to the house down the driveway that John’s car is parked in, in the first overall photo. Top: East side of Naneum road, looking north.
Lower: Looking out over Naneum toward the SW and Manastash Ridge. The display has USA flags on either side with the POW*MIA flag in the center. Wind and position did not allow for a photo, so we took an image from the web.

Thanks to the owners for displaying these several times a year. The place is about 5 miles south of us, on our main route to town. We and the nearest neighbor each had a single flag flying.

My first stop in Ellensburg was at the AAC with my flash drive and to pick up the package of minutes, agenda, etc. for a meeting there tomorrow and the left-behind copies of patriotic audience music from the event there, Friday, 11/8.
I was at Glenn’s to pick him up at 11:00 a.m., getting there a few minutes early and visited with neighbors I know, with their dogs.

Glenn came out and we loaded my car with two huge boxes and a smaller longer box bound for Yakima for returns of unopened merchandise his mom had purchased before her death. We have one larger box yet to take which will fit in my car, but not along with the other three we took today. We were successful in our endeavors.

After returning the boxes, and with help from Glenn’s Smart Phone’s GPS, we went to the American Cancer Society’s thrift store, called the Discovery Shop, at 513 W Yakima Ave, Ph#: 575-1236 open @ 9:30-4:30, to donate a bag of clothing, find out the details for bringing more, and the kinds of items they would accept. I believe I mentioned previously in the blog that this store exists in larger towns, is a registered non-profit, with all the proceeds from items sold in the thrift store going toward cancer research and other needed programs in town. The clothes and accessories that do not sell in the Shop are given to the Mission in Yakima.

I returned my friend home, and went next door to Hearthstone (assisted living home) seeking my friend on her 94th birthday. She was not in her room to answer her phone, and doesn’t have a cell phone. So I searched to find Gloria Swanson in the very large building, even traveling to the front (I’d gone in the rear closer to her room) to the Chandelier room and the (now only) dining room used for the entire facility. She is still a fast walker, and wanders all over the place for her exercise. I finally located her in her sister Shirli’s room, visiting with their niece by phone. I had a birthday card to give her in person, along with several hugs before I left. We had a nice visit and then we walked downstairs to the Garden Room, for a social celebrating Veterans there in residence, and their families. Gloria’s husband Paul was a veteran. That I knew, so I encouraged her to go to that social and I went with her and her sister. My car was parked right outside.

Once out of there, I went back to the AAC (Senior Center) to pick up my flash drive with the photos from Friday. They had not yet had time to remove mine John took, or to add the ones they took on their camera. Now I have all theirs to crop and add to my collection that was in last week’s blog. I have done that now, and placed a link at the top of this page.

Tuesday, Nov 12

Round and round we go, still with problems on the Umpqua Bank account’s Bill Pay system. It took all day for them to sort it out, and now we are back on track, supposedly, but I won’t really know until the check is deposited and reflected on my account.

I got my red bag ready to take to Food Bank senior lunch and the AAC meeting. Both places have something in my red bag in a wallet I have to use. Food Bank has a dinner pass to click into the system for counting attendance; AAC has another code for registering when I check into there.

I left the house about 10:50 a.m. and had to undo the front gate at the end of the driveway. My meeting at the AAC wasn’t until 1:00 p.m., so I stopped off at the Dollar Tree for some essentials.

I stopped off at the Food Bank for the Senior Nutrition lunch on my way to the AAC. They served Shepard’s Pie, very good and more than I could eat, a cup of applesauce, and great dessert.

At the end of our AAC meeting, we were given a shopping bag gotten on a grant for a special Fall-Prevention Program given by the AAC AmeriCorps staff at the Farmers Market), but the bags did not arrive in time for it. I took some for the Fiddlers & Friends who played at the Veterans’ Day thing and are not AAC members.

I went by Bi-Mart, to check numbers (didn’t win), but got some Artificial Tears and some more Alcon ointment for dry eyes at night. Oddly enough, later this week (Sunday a.m. I needed to open a new bottle of artificial tears, and did (using one of the 4 new ones), but it was from a lot that has a top that won’t come off. I tried two, and gave up to take them and the other two I bought back for a refund and alert to get them off the shelf.
I had one from a previous purchase, so I used it, and oddly it had a clear top, so at least I will be able to tell Megan the Bi-Mart employee who manages that aisle how to find the bad ones with the WHITE tops. The box can be opened without disturbing the container to see the color of the top screw cap. So, this Tuesday I’ll take them by, and Monday, I will call to warn them of the problem.

Wednesday, Nov 13

The massive amount of clothing I got several weeks ago is in black garbage bags in the “crew-seat” of the Ford truck. John split the over stuffed original bags into two, so now there are 8 or 9. Some stuff is in a shed. I got one bag and sorted through to list stuff for taking to Discovery Shop. Karen will take this one. I made a copy of the content list for her to carry along.
Busy day. I went to the Food Bank. Then took my red bag & new blue one to show AAC members. Put a carry along bag with Jeans & pants for Sandy in the Music Books box delivered today.

Picked up Christmas cards and small containers from Ann Draper for Stephanie & Sophie. When close to their house next week, I’ll deliver those.

Thursday, Nov 14

Went to Meadows Place for music by the Kittitas Valley Fiddlers & Friends. We had a good turnout of 10 and a good responsive and appreciative audience.

Friday, Nov 15

This morning we went for free railroad ties 11 miles away south on Tjossem Rd.Thanks to Cayla for giving us some of these. Previous owner had them on/in the ground. Many are in poor shape but still have a useful end-of-life period. Cayla and John loaded and I advised. There are 15, with 3 shorter than the standard 8 ft. 6 inches. Other folks were coming to get half-length ones (for flower boxes?), so we only made the one trip. The smaller ones had originally been used for a staircase on the property.

On the way home, we drove by a house in Ellensburg to pick up a free toaster replacement for our broken one. I asked for it on a free site and received this – a very nice 2-slice model. Supper was baked chicken, mashed potatoes, apples, and chicken gravy with mushrooms—another John specialty. Nice end to a day when we had little for brunch.

Saturday, Nov 16

Tired from a long day yesterday, and late bedtime (midnight), I slept in till almost 9:00 this morning.
John’s been up a lot longer and is now taking off to feed Myst. Weather is good so he will work until 11, then we’ll have brunch.

Briarwood today. 8 players came and we had a good audience turnout as well. Great meal they served us at the end: White bean with ham soup by JoEllen, salads – two Jell-O ones (red and orange), Caesar, and Macaroni, plus a table of desserts (with great cookies by Lee), and spiced hot cider, by Lee.

Must get jobs sent out to the jobs list. Did get the Earth Science Weekly send out from the jobsnancy account because the nancyb.hultquist account is too filled and won’t send to a lot of people. Another chore.

Sunday, Nov 17

I only answer telephone calls if I know the number on the caller ID, but now that is no longer dependable. They can now ghost numbers from our personal cell phones. I got a call on my landline yesterday that was from MY cell phone which was not even on because of no reception here. I did not answer and no message was left. I warned John that when I’m away, not to answer a HOME 925-3304 number, because it was ghosted from my cell phone, or his. Scammers are getting more invasive.

Today I did in-house chores, and John bounced from project to project outside, alternating from more physical stuff to lighter duty things. He says we’ll soon have a new stopgap/makeshift gate out near the road. This will be easier for me to open, when he forgets to. There will also be a much longer stretch between the closed gate and the road.

At noon there was “calm” and shortly after there were gusts in the mid-20s. Between 6 & 7 o’clock there was a gust of 38 mph. John found a task away from trees. However, horses dislike windy conditions (movement and sounds come from all directions). They get skittish. Late afternoon is a special feeding for Myst, but she did not want to move into the wind, and the others horses didn’t help with their erratic dancing around. They all went to a spot in the lee of trees. Myst has has a couple hundred dollars of pelleted food and rolled corn, and it hasn’t gotten seriously cold here. She has gained weight. Looks much healthier than 10 weeks ago. That reminds me that I have to call our hay broker, Mario, and set up a hay delivery.

Tonight was left overs with added flake-made mashed potatoes and veggies. The baked chicken was from yesterday, also.
Tomorrow about 10 AM we expect light rain, worsening by evening, and mostly gone by dawn Tuesday. The rest of the week will be clear and cool. We have medical appointments Tues, Thur, and Friday. At 37° our Subarus chirp a “freezing road surface” warning. Funny thing is, if you are not looking at the little screen at the right moment – you miss it. Maybe a “next” car will have a better system.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Monday, Nov 4

I’m beginning our week with a black and white of the photo published in color in last week’s blog, from Montana, and Tony Bynum’s creative photography.I love the detail in this, which better displays the mountain topography’s geology so well, plus highlighting the kayaker very nicely too. It’s a masterpiece.

Tony wrote me: Hi Nancy, that is a photo of Two Medicine lake in Glacier National Park. The lake is just up the road from my house in East Glacier. It was taken in 2016. It’s actually a two-shot panorama stitched together. I ran across the images the other day while I was searching for some other photographs for a client of mine. It is not unusual when I go digging in my archives to find something I shot but never processed or published, and this scene I was just lucky enough to be at the lake when there was a kayaker heading up the lake. [At the resolution we use the kayaker only shows as a small thing on the bright water.]

John and I are going to Cottage Café at noon meet Sharon & Jack for lunch, and to go by our PCP’s office to pick up some paperwork that I need tomorrow. Jack had a birthday the end of October, and I had one the beginning of September, so we get $10 off our meal with a mailed coupon.

I called the Umpqua Bank again about problems using their bill pay system on line, to pay from our checking account without writing a check. This has been a long on-going process, which should have been resolved last week.

We were gone from 11:00 to 4:05 p.m. today and tired of doctors. John went to the dentist early morning to reset the temporary crown, we went to Cle Elum to meet our friends at noon, and then to the doctor’s office after 1:00, back to the eye doctor in Ellensburg at 2:25 p.m., where my severely dry eye problem was diagnosed and treated.

We went on by the Coop for special horse feed for Myst, and then to Super 1 pharmacy for my eye medications ($40 later) and home for John to do chores before dark.
The day on the road meant postponing things at home.
Came home to messages everywhere – on email and phone.

One landline message was that my PFT test had been postponed a week, but unfortunately, that will also have to be rescheduled because it conflicts with our wellness visit to our PCP on Nov 22. It now has been rescheduled for 10:15 a.m. check-in on Nov 19th .

Tuesday, Nov 5

John’s out holding Myst for David to trim her feet, and then we are going to the Food Bank for a Senior Nutrition lunch before our appointment with my cardiologist. Our lunch was great (but we were late making it there, past normal serving time). Lori was kind enough to load our plates and microwave them for us. We had a slice of roasted chicken, with stuffing, and mixed vegetables (green peas, green beans, white pearl onions, peppers, and carrots), and a cookie for dessert. We’d stayed longer than we should having a nice conversation with a friend.

From there we drove directly to my cardiologist’s office, arriving with two minutes to spare.
I had printed my meds list and loaded a manila envelope with other records to show and ask Dr. Krueger about. He met with us for over an hour, and responded to all questions, comments, and reviewed all lab test results (including an echocardiogram) done since we saw him 4 months ago. He dictated his evaluation and discussion with us, in our presence (and accepts corrections) and it will be retyped for a printed version to be sent to my PCP and to me. He also listed 6 issues for me to take away and handle soon.

One was a reduction in a medication I’m taking, Atorvastatin, to only 20 mg. Sadly, I just refilled it recently for 45 tablets. Oh well. The prescription was for 80mg and I was taking ½ a pill, but to half the remaining halves would not be possible because of the shape of the pill, to get ¼ of a pill. So will order a 40 and then cut in half. (Oddly enough the price on the 80 is better than on the 40, and why I was using it). I need to check the 20mg vs. the 40mg. Maybe we won’t have to cut it at all! I think I’m better to quarter the 80 – For $5.10 vs. $9.34 =$4.24. I just worked a long time halving the ½ tablets I had, and with a pill splitter they pulverize into non-appropriate sizes, so I’ll pay the extra. His reasoning for the dosage reduction was actually good, as my cholesterol levels in the cardiologist’s words were “beautiful” – (HDL= 89 & LDL = 41).

I took a copy of the list of vaccines (to update my records), recent blood tests, and medications. I told him about my need for moderate use of opiates for when I am going to be playing music for over an hour, or dancing. I try not to raise my left arm over my shoulder, ever. He told me about a pain clinic in Yakima at the Aspen medical complex on 16th street, to which I could have my PCP make a referral – so I have to remember to do that at our annual physical coming up end of November.

Our farrier is coming to trim Myst’s feet tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. and we are scheduled to go to my cardiologist at 1:10 (but in Ellensburg, not in Yakima, so that’s helpful).

We also need to go by Fred Meyer for John’s colas, and I need to refill my dog’s prescription for Rimadyl there, if it has been delivered. They had to order it.
We bought a lot of Colas for him at a discount (their senior discount works on the first Tuesday of the month at 10%, but only on Kroger products). Although, I have to return to the store with my receipt to get the 10% discount. I should have asked for it at the end of the cashier’s check out. I did not; they require knowledge at the end, not the beginning because they might forget. This time I forgot. I got that knowledge late tonight from a customer service rep named Kira. They will give me the discount, which in this case applied to 2 buys at 1.69 each and 12 at .77 each. (all Kroger brands. That will mean a refund of $1.60).

Wednesday, Nov 6

Today starts with getting ready for going to the Food Bank. I leave about 10:45 to get there to set up chairs and music stands. We start playing as soon as possible after 11:30 a.m. We stop at 12:10 and are eating by 12:15.
We had 10 people today, did patriotic and USA songs, very well received. I had a big plate of spaghetti, cup of fruit, and juice, with a tiny bit of salad (most was dark green I couldn’t eat), and a small roll.

I then stopped off at the AAC to deliver a shirt to a gal for her daughter (a 2X), and then I made my way to my meeting with Glenn at his mom’s house at 1:15 p.m. to pick up some of my stuff that I had loaned to her.

I had filled out paperwork and so I dropped by for a temporary state parking sticker for special occasions on campus, where only handicap spaces are available. I’ll need to use it to get to the IAFI lecture where all 10 spaces near the building in the middle of campus have been changed. The university quit issuing their disabled parking space (campus only) coupon for the mirror. Now one has to get a PCP’s referral to obtain a state permit, even a temporary one.

Fred Meyer Pharmacy did not yet have Annie’s meds, so I got my $1.60 refund from yesterday’s mistake.
John fixed meatloaf, beets, and baked potato tonight.

Thursday, Nov 7

Normal morning, and getting ready to eat brunch and go to play music at the Rehab. We will be going tonight to the Historical Museum for a lecture, and I have my camera and tripod packed to take in ahead of the 6:00 p.m. starting time. We loaded an old metal sign for a machine shop. The sign featured Harley Davidson and had “1 mile from Ellensburg.” The museum director, Sadie, is going to include this in the collection, and try to find out about the business. We’ve had this for 15 years – given to us by a since deceased neighbor.

Tomorrow is our Veterans’ Day playing. I got the audience music ready 43 copies – need to pick up the remainder and my paperwork for the Nov 12 meeting at the AAC Advisory Board at 1:00, on Monday.
We had meatloaf and carrots for supper.

We left after 5:15 p.m. to drive to town for a lecture at the Kittitas County Historical Museum. The Wanapum people live (now) 30 miles to our southeast, near Wanapum Dam, a major structure on the Columbia River. I sat beside the presenter and his wife. Below are the videos I took with permission from Rex and his wife Andrea. During the first one below (Sadie Thayer’s introduction, is a song that Rex wanted to sing. It is part of the Washoni religion and they did not want that recorded because of the special spirituality.

Rex Buck, Jr. Intro to the Washoni Song (not recorded)

Rex Buck, Jr.’s Story of the Wanapum People, KCHM: 11/7/19

Answer to Sun Light Message in Song Lyrics

Now below, I’m adding after the talk by Rex, my finds on the web of Links to history about the Wanapum (River) peoples

Civilian Displacement: Hanford, WA

Wanapum People After Smohalla

Friday, Nov 8

Sunrise: we missed getting a good picture because of trees, buildings, and a hill. The sky was ablaze with reds & oranges.

I looked at my normal photographer friends in the Kittitas Valley, but didn’t find any, so I checked on line and found these from Ferndale, WA, northwest of Bellingham, and close to Canada.Church Rd, Anita Goecke; Unick Rd, Allison Trimble; Lummi Island, Colby Chambers. All are taken 11-8-19, shown in Ferndale News. Mt. Baker is 35 miles east; one of the snowiest places of North America.

Normal morning but heading for an early Veterans’ Day Memorial celebration at the Senior Center.
We arrived before 11:00 to setup things, for our music group, and to find out last minute changes in plans for the day. I brought the audience music to be distributed after we started playing as the dishes were being cleaned from the tables. John took photos. Our group was setup to play on the other side of the pool table, and I’m standing in front probably setting up my music stand. A singer (Lou) is standing behind me and he is one of 3 veterans associated with our group who were honored today. And the two tables with red tablecloths in the back of this picture, behind the tables with white tablecloths were reserved for the musicians and family. You see the red, white, and blue colored tables.

Each Military Branch was brought forward and Karen Eslinger, our accordionist, played the theme songs as they stood as a group. The official program began a little after 11:30 p.m.
It began with a 12 slide PowerPoint Presentation created by one of the AmeriCorps staff, Deborah Boudreau. She did an awesome job on the presentation. David Douglas, in his Army uniform, acted as MC and explained the slides – a timeline of the various services.

Next is a Link to the PowerPoint slide content: (I have no clue why the slides are shuffled in reverse order, with #2 at end)

Thank You For Your Service

When the branches walked forward to be honored, their branch’s history was presented (you’ll see on the slides above, if you weren’t there to hear, and the MC interviewed a couple of them asking the years served, where, what their specialization was, and what memory they took away from the experience. Each veteran was given a postcard for today (left below), and I shall place a photo of our day’s cake dessert beside it.

Here is a link to the photos of the day John took, and we’ll add others that the AAC staff took, when available.

Celebration photos

On the way home we stopped off to show my patriotic garb to some military friends, and Cheryl Winston took this nice photo of me to send to a lady who loves seeing me in the patriotic clothing because of her son’s being in the military.Supper with shrimp, carrots, French fried potatoes, and Honeycrisp apple. Piece of chocolate silk pie with pecans made a nice dessert.

Saturday, Nov 9

Started the morning with sleeping in, and then began with Facebook messages, about morning sunrises. I have two to share for today from our Kittitas Valley.This capture from Lise McGowan, commenting “Game Day Sunrise! Keith (her hubby) could only see Purple and Gold!!! Get your Gumbo on!!! Geaux Tigers!!!”

Another photographer in our midst is Evie Scheutz, who posted her morning pre-sunrise shot of our agricultural valley, for this 11/9 morning, with her comment, “Always a beautiful morning in paradise…” Evie’s photo was taken from Cleman Rd, south of Kittitas, WA

John’s in from chores and fixing brunch. This was diuretic day for me, so I’m traveling up and down the long hallway to the back bathroom of this L-shaped house. At least I get my exercise.
Sent the Nov 9 Earth Science Weekly PDF out, among other emails needing attention, and chores around the house.

John fixed fried smoked turkey to supplement a low calorie Marie Callender Roasted Turkey dinner with gravy, mashed potatoes, & carrots/broccoli.

Sunday, Nov 10

Finally getting started at almost 9:00 a.m. I am not rested yet. John’s been up since 7:00 (not his normal 6:00).
Okay. Time for me to load dishes to soak and finish blog that awaits. Been another busy week, with another coming on, even tomorrow on the holiday we have already celebrated early.
Okay, the first sink-full of dishes is soaking awaiting for me to load into the dishwasher. I’ve set our new timer John got for me to remind me of my next chore. It’s so cool, a metal one with a magnet that attaches to our metal kitchen refrigerator very securely, and has a loud and predictable ring. Our old timer was getting to the end of the timing and quitting before ringing (cause unknown).
The old one (right) was a Taylor (on a stand) for which we never easily had space available in the kitchen. Left one is by Myle, smaller and conveniently out of the way on the fridge door held on by a magnet. John came in and fixed us a late brunch, egg/cheese/mushroom/ham omelet, with toast. Now he’s outside working on a gate project. I will go out and review his work and grab a bag of clothes out of the back of our pickup to take to Yakima tomorrow for donation at the Discovery Shop (American Cancer non-profit for research). All the shoes, clothing, and hangers are either in the Ford truck or in a shed. This stuff needs to go – and make someone happy.

The new gate is a 4 ft. and a 10 ft. combination. These replace a makeshift pole and rope that has been in place for years. In fact, the new panels have been in the hay shed for about 3 years. It was time! New gate opened and closed; see explanation below in video:

John’s New Access Gate to the pasture and sheds
Supper was fried breast of chicken, large cheese biscuit with butter, and some chicken/bean chili.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Tony sent me a photo of Two Medicine Lake, Glacier National Park. Google Earth will show you the Lake’s location if you search.

Monday, Oct 28

We stayed home today. Nancy, computer chores, calling PCP for missing paperwork with call for Wellness Check and Annual Physical, now called Chronic Conditions Visit.
The Wellness Check is paid for by Medicare and is a useless waste of our time and mileage, to demonstrate we can tell time on a clock with hands. It’s mostly with the physician’s nurse and we might get to speak with our doctor for a few minutes. Labs will be ordered (most likely) to be drawn during the following week. Ours bumps into the day after Thanksgiving, so we have to wait until the first week of December. That upsets me because we keep being pushed farther in the year for our next year’s physical, all because of their mistake in scheduling our appointment when it was supposed to be (blamed on a change in computer medical records software change).

John took me out to view his progress and plans for his loading dock. Hopes it will add value, and it gets rid of lots of rocks from our alluvial fan, concrete sidewalk pieces (scavenged), mangled iron fence posts**, purchased railroad ties, and 10″ iron spikes remaining from a previous fence project. [**remember the load of logs that rolled over our front fence?]

I took a few photos, see this link below and click on each of the 8 photos included to get a tour and small explanation; be sure you have click the Info button (an ‘ I ‘ with a circle around it). It will provide details on the right side of the photo you’re viewing.

John’s Loading Ramp Construction

Came back in and loaded more dishes.
Tonight is showering time because tomorrow morning I have a haircut appointment around the rural block, at 11:30, followed by a trip to town for several reasons, with the last stop, probably being at 2:30 at Bi-Mart to check numbers and to transfer 3 boxes of pine cones to Izzy. She plans to bring some slippers for John that her hubby doesn’t wear. I guess that’s to thank him for all his efforts in getting pine cones to give her for her crafting projects. They fit him, and she brought me a pair of Bearpaw boots with sheep fleece lining and trim that also fit me. Nice.

Tuesday, Oct 29

I had a quite full day, and John was mostly outside, but some inside (cleaning out the refrigerator and old food for one). It was very cold today. I never saw the temp go over 30°. I couldn’t take my shower last night because of the high winds and the threat of losing our electricity again with a tree over the wires, so waited until this morning. All went well and I dressed in many layers but should have worn pants that were not polyester, but a thicker weave. The wind blew right through them. My first stop was my neighbor’s a mile away for my haircut. I needed it. She and her hubby lost chunks of their roof (of their porch, not the house roof) in the high winds last night.

From there I drove to town in time to get a lunch at the Food Bank and visit with two friends, Karen & Don. We had an interesting conversation and a great meal: Sloppy Joes, green beans, Hubbard squash, apple juice, and a piece of cheese cake with a pumpkin swirl.

I was running later than planned, and so went directly to the hospital for my blood draw. I checked in under my cardiologist’s name, and then requested at the lab, that everything be shared with my PCP. That worked well. I trust all the paperwork got to him, but I need to check the portal and print it so I can take it with me Tuesday, Nov 5, just in case.

Now, I went back to Safeway to pick up my Warfarin – 5mg tablets that I expected to be halved, thus 90 from 45. They had not halved them, so I waited for Charles to do the job. He suggested it, and we had talked when I ordered it about putting the instructions on to have it done, but when I asked him to check, he exclaimed that they had not read the instructions and it was not done. So, he did it. He said the other pharmacists would hear about his feelings on it.
Meanwhile, I took my month’s supply happily for $12.44 and left by way of the counter with marked down meat, which John usually checks when he’s in the store. Nothing worth bringing home today, however.

Next stop was Super 1 to pick up a few bulk carrots. I succeeded, and left for Bi-Mart for my meeting with Izzy, for the pine cones and slippers exchange.

Wednesday, Oct 30

Early this morning I found out my PFT (Pulmonary Function Test) is scheduled for 11:00 a.m. with the director, Jim, administering it at Cardiopulmonary Services at our local Kittitas Valley hospital. I have to have that annually because of one of the medications I’m on for my heart (Amiodarone), that potentially can scar the lungs. Happily, I have successfully been on it since 2010, and I want that to continue. It controls atrial fibrillation perfectly for me (NEVER had any since going on it 9 years ago). I don’t like the alternative medication, which requires 3 nights in the hospital to adjust the dosage.

Here’s what to expect for the upcoming PFT (which I have had for 8 previous years):
• Approximately one hour for testing.
• Albuterol, a bronchodilator, is used as part of this treatment to relax muscles in the airways and increase air flow to the lungs.
• The PFT measures how air flow, using a variety of breathing maneuvers.
• All PFTs completed at the hospital are over-read by a board-certified pulmonary physician.

Those expectations above are from their website. I also know that my cardiologist and I can obtain the analysis results on a CD sent after the test, and it comes with a comparison report to the previous year’s. My cardiologist wants to review all the records each year as well, and he has previous years in my file for a comparison. I have them too.

I spent the next part of my morning cleaning up and loading the rest of the dishes and washing them, and dealing with emails afterwards, before leaving the house for my stops in town today.

John left at 9:30 with the larger (Ford 350) truck loaded with stuff for the transfer station (aka, the dump). Then he will get bags of horse feed and Sunflower seeds. Next groceries, looking for sales. The F-350 uses lots of gas, so multi-purpose drive to town is appreciated. I used the Forester, as our timing didn’t let us go in one vehicle.

Photo back in the day by my friend EvieMae Schuetz, who grew up in Ellensburg and went to movies there as a child. She posted this photo from her past, this week on Facebook (You Know You’re from Ellensburg), and she received an incredible number of memories from others with their own memories of the old theater. It made for interesting reading. I’m sorry it was no longer in operation when I arrived in town.

John and I did go to the Roslyn, WA theater. I wonder if it still operates; looked it up, and it does! The general admission is $9 but being over 65 we can get in for $7.00. I also remember their being a drive-in theater in town, but it was no longer operational either. It was leveled eventually and replaced with more modern buildings.

This photo grabbed my attention because now it is where I go every Wednesday to the annex of the Liberty Theater for the Food Bank lunch. It is now the place where the downtown Calvary Baptist Church meets. The annex is their recreation/dining room.
My first stop was there today to set up for music. I took along a protein drink in case there was too much on the buffet I couldn’t eat, but it was fine. We played music for 40 minutes to an appreciative audience. There were a lot of people there today eating, and we had 4 singers and 4 instrumentalists. The building is in the center of town, so is very accessible.

After that, we had our food, once we’d packed up the music stands and chairs. Food today for me was spaghetti, a piece of sausage from a ravioli dish, mixed green salad/ranch dressing, fresh sliced apples and oranges, and a cake I took a bite of and brought the rest home to John. He got home about the same time as I did, helped me unload, and then he had leftover beef stew for his late lunch.

His day was worse than mine. (Item #4 of His Not so Nasty News, just prior comments on this.) He spent 2 hours in the dental chair for two fillings, and paid half of the bill ($500), plus scheduled another appointment for a crown for later in November.

I see the writing on the wall for medical (including dental) expenses for this year’s taxes. Three days later (Saturday) the temporary (plastic) crown came off. He cannot keep temporaries in his mouth for some reason. He’ll have to go in Monday to have another go at it. He is set for the real crown on the 21st!

I also went to Bi-Mart for some Fisherman’s Friends cough drops, Artificial Tears, and dry cat food. I got all but the Artificial Tears (none in stock), and also picked up a large bottle of Hydrogen Peroxide because I used the rest of what we had with doctoring the dog bite I received several weeks ago.

I went to the Senior Center to discuss plans for our Veterans’ Day celebration there on Nov 8. Our music group will be providing the music after lunch, of patriotic songs, and U.S. songs. Some program changes happened from last year we needed to plan for, so I was checking on that. I think we have it figured out now.

Boy is this a lovely colorful painting in the sky for the Halloween Eve’s sunset in the Kittitas Valley.
Halloween Eve Sunset by Lise McGowan, described later by Lise as, God did provide a masterpiece that night.

Thursday, Oct 31

John started the morning before I did and did all the outside chores. I have my work cut out for me, but had to take care of emails I was not expecting.

He’s back in at 11:40 a.m. to take care of brunch, for which I’m most grateful.

Worked on the Genworth Long Term Care Transfer Funds need. I eventually finished it and got into email. They received it but have not responded yet that it is completed. I await.

Called about Umpqua Bank problem. It took more than a day to resolve, and still is not apparently fixed. Calling Monday morning.

Started at 3:15 with Umpqua bank to remove cookies and straighten account problems so I can do a BILL PAY on line. This is really a PITA. I had a 9-minute wait for Tech Support after going through the first person Alysa in Roseburg, OR.
Another agent, named Chase, changed one thing, re-activated it and I’m set to go in 15 minutes from now (it’s 3:44). I talked to his supervisor to thank Chase for his service. However, I waited all weekend and the bill pay I submitted did not go through, so have to wait until Monday morning to call Umpqua to notify them.
What a helluva afternoon.

Received this morning from Cameron Fries (White Heron Cellars & Mariposa Vineyard), this note, “In case you didn’t see it” he sent a link to the Spokane NWS blog “Coldest October”, and he went on to say that this was their latest harvest ever. John will get the scoop on the ripeness, sugar levels, and so on – next time he goes over.
John does check this blog, but they don’t publish regularly, so he had not seen this specific one.

Coldest October in the Inland NW in a long time

We have certainly noticed the cold weather in October, but we also had not seen this blog report.

Day continued to get worse. Fixing the problem with the Umpqua bank online and deleting cookies DID affect more than just my bank transactions. It affected all my Gmail account passwords, and Facebook access, and Jacquie Lawson access, and probably more I haven’t yet found. It’ll be a cold day in hell before I ever do that again. I also have updated my list for John in case I’m not around when he has to access something. He doesn’t use Google Chrome as his browser. I could not switch to Edge because the bank does not support that browser. So, I had no choice. Now that I know the final reason it could not be accessed, I realize I did not have to delete all my cookies. Too late.
I THINK after a lot of wasted time, I have retrieved all my logins.
We still haven’t had supper.

Friday, Nov 1

Normal morning chores for each of us.
Get ready for going to Seattle. John has the directions there and it’s about a 2-hr drive. The event will start at 2:00 at the Mountaineers’ place. He has printed our instructions. We will wear our WTA labeled shirts to be dressed appropriately for the Volunteer Recognition Event. We navigate around the University of Washington, they have a football game with Utah.
Checked Motor Trend; and PayPal deductions we didn’t intend to make on a credit card account.

John dealt with Vanguard and we have spent incredible time on line with these two issues all morning. Vanguard is changing from mutual funds only to a more full service brokerage system. Their term is “transition”, and it just makes work for us.

One is allowed only to dispute CITI BANK VISA charges within 90 days, so read and check everything immediately when a statement arrives, especially on John’s account. But obviously on mine as well.

Motor Trend “on demand digital site” refunded 6 months’ worth of the last year’s incorrect charges ($29.94), because of niceness of an agent. It was part of the free 14-day subscription notice on line, so let’s not do that again for any magazine. Go through College Subscription Services, as we do with all other magazines. It was included in the online thing John did for the paper copy (at a good price, $18 for two years), but we will not renew that in the future. It cost us ~ $45 for this mistake.

Now John is out removing a tree off the fence that fell from Brashler’s property east of us. He mentioned it in his Friday column (‘Strays’, Not So Nasty News, so please refer there, and for other interesting comments, if you haven’t read them.

Saturday, Nov 2

Long day, for which we left later than we should have for Seattle. Most of the distance was in I-90, but it ends south of the City, junctioning with I-5, the Mexico to Canada, west coast major highway. The traffic was awful on I-5. Stop and crawl for miles. We finally made it to the Mountaineers’ place on Sand Point Way.
The Sand Point neighborhood of Seattle is northeast of the City’s center. The peninsula is the location of former Naval Station Puget Sound.

History, here.

Sand Point is the peninsula, Lake Washington to the east, with Pontiac and Wolf bays, north and south, respectively.We wanted to miss the UW area, so stayed on I-5 to about the level of Pontiac Bay. Then we cut across through an interesting old neighborhood using NE 95th Street. A quick search suggests that 95th Street is a boundary between a couple of “known” neighborhoods. Something to look into.John drove I-90 to North Bend, WA and I drove the rest of the way with him navigating. Back the same, and I drove to Issaquah for a Costco gas fill-up, and he drove the rest of the way home. We didn’t make it until 7:30 p.m.

WTA Volunteer Recognition Event, 11-2-2019

Sunday, Nov 3

John reset all the clocks, did morning chores outside, and visited with a neighbor at the road. I worked in the house: taking pictures off from yesterday. Worked on editing them some. Sent emails needing attention.

We fixed brunch and finished it. I cooked us 3 eggs over easy (1 for John), he cooked sausage patties, and fixed our toast, and opened a can of peaches. I had my neighbor’s Apricot homemade preserves on mine. Now alternating between the blog and other chores.

Okay, John just closed his computer and went outside. Now I can do things on line using the Internet and it won’t mess up his searching.

We decided yesterday not to take the Geology Field trip field trip by Nick Zentner to Drumheller Channels. We had gone on a trip over 10 years ago behind closed / locked gates with a summer intern I had there. He took John and me to some sites (say of the start of the irrigation system for the Columbia Basin), which few in the public are privy too. It was an interesting experience.
We do love Nick’s field trips and lectures, but this one was not timed well for us with other activities this weekend and coming week with two doctors, dentist, and events for Veterans’ Day (in advance).

A final photo by Lise McGowen. The little bump on the horizon is Mt. Rainier. Thanks, Lise.Lise’s comment about her photograph: I walked out to our back pasture to capture yet another amazing sunset! Of course, I was surrounded by our beautiful horses! They were very curious as to what all the excitement was about! Lots of nudges, photo bombs, sniffing my camera, etc …and then they went back to grazing! It was fun to hang with them this evening!!! Tonight was an “Evening of Solitude!” Blessings to you all!!

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Flash back to Scott Niccolai’s talk in last week’s blog about Stream Restoration. John found this reference accidentally while searching for photos of a helicopter moving logs. Caption: People watch helicopter lift logs to be placed in stream for habitat restoration.
Helicoptering in Logs for the Northwest’s Largest River Restoration

Monday, Oct 21

I’ll start off the week, with more awesome photos from my friend in Michigan of her friends, the Sandhill Cranes. Hope you like these as much as I do.Autumn leaves flight and fluttering of wings Early morning stroll and foraging

John’s out feeding Myst her concentrated food. She is putting on some weight. Our vet, Dr. Dan, stopped by the other evening on his way home (he lives a mile NE of us on Charlton Rd, and took a look at her. She has gained weight, but we’d like another month of good weather. Instead it feels like winter. Report is that winter just hit Boulder, CO. Here is what the NWS thinks the remainder of the week will be like there:If the high of 18°F, on Wednesday, happens it will set several cold records for the date and the season. Holy Cow!

Here on the Naneum Fan, a gal came for the pine cones we put into a 5-gallon bucket for her, and brought me a blouse and a hand-knit scarf she made. I had never seen one like it before. It’s close to an infinity scarf, if you look up images on google. I will likely wear it for the Raclette at White Heron, coming near the new year.

This afternoon, I drove to the Kittitas P.O. and submitted an extension tax form. Best place to go where I was the only one at the counter and handled rapidly. The best 10 mile trip I can make for such needs. The wait at the Ellensburg USPS is often met with a long line out the door, with only two agents (if you’re lucky).

Tuesday, Oct 22

We stayed home today. John’s done his outside chores in high wind gusts, but he was wearing his full coveralls.

I have been working on scheduling, emails, medications, updating my Medic Alert information (on line, changing providers and medications list), helping give Glenn Engels some information about donating food to the FISH food bank. He is starting to empty the house where his mom lived. I never mentioned about our friend, his Mom, Anne Engels. She died a couple of weeks ago at Fire Island, her favorite place on Earth, while vacationing there for September and October. She has made that trip as long as Glenn can remember.

Soon, we will be having brunch: egg, pancake, & peaches.

Working on my addition to Medic Alert meds at the moment. Just updated doctors (only PCP & Cardiologist). And ready to change emergency back up to Geography secretary, and add another friend as 3rd contact. Spent a lot of time updating my medications list, with dosages and frequency.

Called two places to update my vaccination history. Flu shot this year (10/7), and am up-to-date on pneumonia shots. Cle Elum mailed me that record, which didn’t arrive until Saturday.

Changes in schedule this week; add Scholarship luncheon group, this Friday, at the Tower Theatre lobby on campus.

High winds blew all night, and continued early here this morning, but the airport didn’t start registering them until 9:00 a.m.— then hourly, it has reported: Gusts: 32, 41, 45, 49, 44, 47, 47, 39, 38, 30, 31, 29. Gets worse later this week.

Afternoon snack, fruit cake; later, Cheez-its. I worked alternately on the computer, emails, filing, planning music attendance for this week and looking forward to the Veterans’ Day presentation at the Senior Center on Nov. 8.

Sustained wind speed has been consistently in the 30s, & dropped to the 20s at 4:00 p.m.

Supper: Cauliflower, ham with elbow macaroni, and a great apple creation baked by John using Red Delicious apples from high up in a 37-year old tree. [via 1st owners of our house] He cut and sprinkled cinnamon on those, added cashews, and a batter made from pancake mix.

We have been busy getting our voting ballots done tonight. I can put them in the ballot box when I go by the Courthouse to the Food Bank Lunch tomorrow at Liberty Theater annex on 5th. Our ballot has a dozen ‘advisory’ items – we get to express our feelings about these, but the legislators get to ignore them.

Too much time spent on projects; not going to bed until too late.

Wednesday, Oct 23

Get ready for Food Bank lunch and music. Fixed a protein drink just in case the pasta is not okay. I brought it home. Had spaghetti and one piece of chicken from a pesto pasta (but didn’t take any pasta), fruit (including mango, papaya, pineapple, & pear on cottage cheese, and a little of the mixed salad, mostly ate halved cherry tomatoes.

As planned, I went by the ballot box and deposited our ballots. Stopped by Dollar Tree and searched for nylon bags (in with laundry bags) but none were available. Shipment arrived today and needs to be processed. A clerk took my name and phone # and will call me when / if it comes in (they never did). Needed to get John some tooth picks too, but they also did not have the kind I was looking for in the dental section.

I’m dealing with music for future Veterans’ Day celebration at the Senior Center, Nov 8, doing our patriotic and USA songs (13 of them).

Supper: Lasagna, chicken nuggets, and fried shrimp. Dessert: best part was the apple creation from last night, heated, and topped with vanilla ice cream.

Thursday, Oct 24

This morning, after an hour outside, John came in and we set up to give him a much-needed haircut. I managed to do a nice job in just over a half hour. We are both very pleased.

I started the morning by soaking dishes, which need to be loaded into the dishwasher. Called in the count for chairs for music today. I also responded to a horribly constructed telephone evaluation of my yesterday’s quite positive experience dealing with a customer service representative at Genworth Life about our Long Term Care Insurance Policy. The prices keep increasing yearly (as expected). We hope never to need it, but it is important to have. This year’s amount is going up from last year’s by $1,093.97 to a total of $4,740.95. Official notification will not arrive in our mail until Nov.20th, but I received the amount, when inquiring, as I was setting up an automatic electronic funds transfer to go from our checking account directly to the company, without having to write and send a check.

I’m going to Hearthstone today. We had a huge turnout (a baker’s dozen) and a large audience who enjoyed singing along with us.

This evening we are attending a talk at the Kittitas County Historical Museum presented by Harriet Baskas, “Washington on Wheels: Odd and Innovative Transportation Ideas from the Pacific Northwest.”Here’s my discreetly obtained from my lap, video of the lecture, put “unlisted” on YouTube. Please be careful how you distribute this. Just watch it for your own pleasure and education.
Washington on Wheels: PNW Unusual Travel Modes

Friday, Oct 25

John completed his normal early morning outside activities. I worked inside on mine but only made a slight dent.

RSVP’d “no” to David Bederman’s “legacy” lunch/lecture in Atlanta, GA at Emory University. David was the son of Sandy, my main geography professor at Georgia State. David was a specialist in Law of the Sea activities.

I went to the scholarship luncheon meeting on campus. Met our new member, Sarah Feeney and mom Bonnie, (missed meeting her baby). She was sleeping and I forgot to look in the carriage on my way out. I was there early, so I could leave for all my appointments in town.

Today’s offerings were good, especially with a second story view of falling yellow leaves. We had turkey chili with beans, topped with shredded cheddar cheese, Mini-Fritos and a small chunk of cornbread, there was a salad, but I didn’t have any because of the greens included, and a sugar cookie for dessert.

From there I went to Safeway, to get colas for John on a special 4 for 69₵ each (2-liter bottles). Then on to the $ Tree to look for wooden tooth picks for him. Our dental hygienist gave him fancy mint flavored things. Nothing at all was there, so still looking.

Left there for the bank to pick up my 4 copies of duplicates of our checking account checks so I can VOID one, which has all the routing numbers and account number on it to send to Genworth Life Insurance with our request for an Electronic Funds Transfer in 2020. That went smoothly and because I was there on a Friday, that is the bank’s day to put out donut holes next to the coffee pots for people to have. Today, it had more things on the food tray, so I took two large M&M cookies to bring home.

On my way home, I stopped at Bi-Mart and first looked in the dental section, finding no such wooden toothpicks, so I sought regular toothpicks in the grocery section and hit the jackpot. I had the choice of two boxes, only 99₵ each, one with 750 picks in it, and the other with only 250. Checking the difference, I found that the 750 were FLAT and the 250 were ROUND. The flat was definitely what I needed, and I was pleased. We figure the price difference (by type & number), is that there is a lot more wood wasted in the production of the round ones. Interesting. Flat is superior in this case, anyway. There wasn’t more than a dozen of the picks, if that, in the little sample container given to John by the hygienist, so this is a much better solution.

Once home, I was in the kitchen reaching for something in the refrigerator, the electrical power shut down without warning, right before 3:00, at 2:54 p.m.

I called two neighbors to be sure it was not just our isolated problem. Then I called the Kittitas PUD (Public Utility District) at 933-7200, shortly after 3:00 p.m., to report the outage. At that time, I was only the second person calling in, and no details were yet known. The woman I spoke with (Mary-Dawn) was only working until 4:00 in the office, and told me I could call back the same number and press “zero,” for updates. She registered our reported outage, also took my phone number for a call back when power was restored. I told her I would know when it was restored, because the lights would come on, but thanked her and accepted the offer.

Obviously, with no electricity, we had no connection to the Internet. Our landline was working until the battery needed recharged. I actually had other phones I could have used, but didn’t need to. I’ll present a photograph taken from a report on the web on Community Connect Kittitas County Facebook site, I received after the fact from a friend in upper county who had seen it, and saved it. Red oval shows where top of tree snapped off. Below right of that is the remainder of the pole, with the top upright on the yellow road lines. Cross arms are left hanging in the middle of the road, held up by the wires. Pieces of the tree are in the road, in shadow, around the pole. Hard to see – this was a copy from a ‘Facebook’ post by a PUD worker.Tree across the road that sheared the pole (orangeish thing on left) on its way down from the high winds. Spot is at a small bridge.

Obviously, we would have no access to the web or to lights when it gets dark about 5:30 p.m. Phones are working and that’s about it. My laptop is operating on its battery, so I can proceed with a few things, just not email, where I imagine there are several messages waiting for me from my several hours away today, 10:30 to 2:20 p.m. At the time I wrote that, I wasn’t even thinking that my batteries were not being charged without the electricity on. By the time I looked at my computer, it only had 1 hr. + a little left, so I turned it off.

We still have leftover frosted brownies made by Karen Eslinger from last night’s KCHM lecture. I wish I had a way of heating water to make coffee to have with the brownie. Perhaps I’ll just have cold coffee or a PowerAdeZero drink. These sorts of outages are usually fixed in under 4 hours, so we haven’t gone to “survival” mode, yet.

The wind is severely blowing. John checked when I got home and I think he said it was a high of 47. I think it was much higher on my drive home, and now outside everything is being picked up and thrown around. I hope he stays out from under trees with limbs that might fall on him. He is outside working now.

Here are the winds of the day: Don’t miss the 60 mph gust before 4:00 p.m. Broken pole is 3 miles from the airport weather station.

Whoopee! Just off the phone with Laura at the Cle Elum Clinic requesting mailing of a handicapped sticker okay for the state. CWU has eliminated the sticker for on campus only parking which I use about 9 times a year to access the Discovery Building in the middle of campus for IAF & geology science lectures, the first Thursday of each month (except summers). The only access close to the building, now is only handicapped parking, previously, there were 8. They recently switched all 10 parking spaces to only handicapped. I have the CWU Parking permit that is also required with the CWU h/c sticker, but it expires Dec 1, this year, and after that I am only allowed there with a state one, which it has to have a doctor’s approval, before I can get one from the vehicle licensing department. My CWU Emeritus Parking Sticker Permit does not expire until December 31, 2020.

Still no electricity. This is not as serious as people in CA are experiencing, so no complaints here.
We finally got our power back at 5:54 p.m., 3 hours after it went off.

However, friends on Game Farm Road, ¼ mile from the downed telephone pole still do not have power this evening. They must have re-routed ours, but those closest to the break will be the last restored. Many folks in the Kittitas, WA area (some on PSE, another utility district) were also without power. There are similar events, with road closures from dust, over a large area.

Saturday, Oct 26

Home today trying to pick up the pieces from yesterday’s power outage that affected so many people’s lives. I had other needs but those got put on the back burner while the power was off. Maybe it is time to clean up the wood stove, before winter does come.

I need to update my vaccine record at Medic Alert, and this morning’s mail brought my history, but I need to add to it, a flu shot I had Oct 7, 2019. Also, we both had notices for our upcoming wellness and chronic ailment appointments, but I have to call Monday to find out why the supposedly “attached” paperwork to fill out in advance was not included. That happened last year as well, and we had to fill it out in the waiting room (not the best place to do such stuff – having to rely on memory only). Feels like we already saw this movie. [Déjà vu, some would say.]

I had washed a load of dishes this morning, which were meant to be done yesterday afternoon. John has been out taking care of several projects, he is working on alternately. He says he is using different muscle groups so as to not stress any, and getting cramps later. I’m doing the same thing inside the house.

He took time to come in and fix brunch: Sausage patty, with blueberry/pecan pancakes, and bowl of cut canned peaches.

We both worked on afternoon projects, John’s mostly outside, except when a strong wind whipped up, and blew him in the door, because it got dark, and threatening, as if a hurricane was impending. Amazingly, it only sprinkled here, but others in town and in Thorp got a short but heavy rainstorm. After a while, the sun came out, the wind stopped, and John returned outside. Feels like the weather spirits went crazy.

I used the time he was out for the next couple of hours to upload the video I took Thursday evening.

Supper: Fried chicken thighs from the freezer (actually from Safeway’s cheap chicken Monday), with French fries, and beets. Dessert of a brownie and M&M cookies.

John’s in bed, and I’m on my way. Will continue in the morning working on this blog.

Sunday, Oct 27

Home today working on the blog and many other projects. John’s already come in and eaten leftovers for lunch, and I am having a late one.

I finished lunch and was cleaning up preparing to get back on the blog, and to set up washing clothes, when John came in and I asked him to allow time tomorrow to deal with some of the shoes we got a few weeks ago. Instead, he brought a large cardboard box to the front porch. There are 10 boxes of nice shoes and a black lawn-bag filled with casual shoes and belts. I recorded shoes and sizes to share with someone on Tuesday. Now I will just process these and return to it later after the blog is completed. I took the pix from the camera. Hope to complete this shoe and clothing home-finding process real soon now.

Completed the communication between a Thorp friend and a Naneum Fan friend; I was the intermediary.
Managed to start the clothes washer, finally, at 3:20 p.m. Now most is dried, but I need to empty the dryer and put in the socks and panties on a lower heat.

John came in and heated beef stew (from the freezer) for dinner. This was from a couple of months ago, but he hadn’t dated it.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan