Keeping track

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

Starting off this week with the Harvest Moon.Harvest Moon over Kittitas Valley by Lise McGowan. (Mt. Rainier)

Monday, Oct 14

Today’s display is another Sandhill Crane photo from my friend, (see last week’s pair fly over):Nice take-off, Sandhill Crane from a lake in a local park in Michigan, captured by Maude Buzcek, my friend since 6th grade.

We are scheduled to be at the foot doctor in Ellensburg at 8:30 a.m. for a scheduled toenail cut. We picked the early time so we wouldn’t have to wait a long while. Hope it’s is worth the effort. It only took 15 minutes, once the doctor arrived, but we were accepted as we walked in, and placed in a very cold room.

Once home I received a call from Yakima Heart Center’s, Medical Assistant, Kim that Dr. Krueger wants labs drawn prior to my Nov. 5 appointment. They’ll be in the mail. All scheduled for 10/29, with my other standing order, so one blood draw will satisfy all.

On the phone with Vanguard getting help on Date acquired, form 1099-B on the Turbotax form. It’s missing on my form. Turns out it was because the dates acquired were split in several places, and impossible to divide. I just used the skip over and accept anyway, without.

I delivered messages about the passing of my friend to the people in the community who were involved with her, after receiving the okay from her son. I called Brad & Burke with my credit card # to pay my invoice for the recent winterizing checkup. The receipt is being mailed to add to my records.

Crazy busy with tax form and getting help from John. He is not good at writing down the volunteer trips, although they go on the hard drive as he schedules them. Log book in the car is another matter. He says, next week he will explain the term “log” as used in this sense.

Tuesday, Oct 15

Here is a beautiful way to start your day, with this autumn leaves photo of a lake in our town. I love the water’s reflection.A winning photo of Carey Lake by my friend, Evie Schuetz.

I’m staying home all day to work on taxes, so I need something beautiful to view.

Got through to Brandy at Umpqua bank and she’s ordered what I need for Mortgage Interest that was not properly sent on a 1098 Form. It should have come by Wednesday, but it didn’t. Maybe Thursday. Still wasn’t back by Friday, but they checked another source in their bank records, and found the information I needed.

Also, I contacted Vanguard, and know how to digitally transfer funds from our checking account to investments portfolio, securely, at no cost. I need to show the procedure to John. We have been too busy to sit down and go through it.

I’m working on taxes, but took a break to follow a noise outside and saw John mowing, or actually going or coming to where he did now. He came in & fixed us a brunch: Ham, eggs, and a blueberry-pecan pancake.

I soaked and loaded dishes. Dishes we dirty and dishes we clean. Continuing process.

Called Gerald Gordon and remembered to wish him a happy 70th anniversary. Quite an accomplishment.

Supper tonight was roast beef, mashed potatoes and gravy, with corn-on-the-cob.

Wednesday, Oct 16

Speaking of Big Horn Sheep – This will put a smile on your face to see the smile on this face. A beautiful animal “captured” by Tony Bynum

My day started too early, and I never got a nap this afternoon.

Wrote ladies at ECCC about clothing removal & my friend. Haven’t heard back yet. Have contacted another church group, and I hope this may work out.

I fixed a protein drink for lunch and got ready for Food Bank music.

Afterward, I went for my INR at KVH. The INR was 2.4. I shall go for recheck in 2 weeks, when I can combine with the labs for my Nov 5th visit with my Cardiologist.

I was having trouble with my TurboTax Premier software, being unable to get the tax form to insert correctly in the step-by-step procedure. I finally got through to an agent who was very helpful. The first 15 minutes of frustration had to be spent with a robot spelling out our long email account, and be understood. I was speaking clearly and slowly. God, I hate those front end answering machines when the end is a person I could have started with originally.

I’m very tired of tax preparation. I realize now I should be picking a day every month for putting receipts into an Excel spreadsheet so the tallying is easy by keeping every month up-to-date, throughout the year.

Supper was leftover roast beef, potatoes, gravy, and adding asparagus+cheese, and pears.

It’s raining again (and has most of the day).

I worked a lot on mileage for medical and volunteer service tonight. Need to add John’s WTA mileage, and that will push it up higher on our volunteer service donations. Mine is mostly music, occasionally 3 days/week, on the 3rd week of the month.

Thursday, Oct 17

All normal morning inside and outside activities.

I’m going to Pacifica this afternoon for music, and this evening, we’re going to the Kittitas Audubon meeting to hear a talk on Habitat Restoration, by Scott Niccolai. I’ll film it.

I picked up 2 crispy chicken sandwiches from Burger King on the way home for our early supper.

For the KAS Meeting, I took my dues and camera with tripod. We got there early to set up.

The meeting was late starting as the expected talk was preceded by a half-hour club meeting.Scott Niccolai-KAS, 10-17-19, Habitat Restoration

The presentation was Habitat Restoration by Scott Niccolai, who has been a Habitat Biologist with the Yakama Nations for 28 years, spoke about the Kittitas Valley/Yakima River watershed. He has had projects most recently in the Teanaway, the Yakima, and other smaller streams. The emphasis will be on fisheries, but he’ll have lots of other information (and pictures) on birds and wildlife to share as well. After all, we are all interconnected! Scott is a Central Washington University graduate, with a Masters in Environmental Management from Evergreen State.

Scott Niccolai-KAS, 10-17-19, Discussion

Ending this with reminders of our wealth of knowledge acquired this evening:The Swift Story (you’ll have to view the video to learn of), and the connection to our town.
A few riparian restoration issues (left), with Gloria Baldi greeting Kenneth Hammond. Ken was a professor when Scott was in college here.

Friday, Oct 18

We spent the day working on taxes, mostly on mileage for medical-related services and for WTA volunteer activities.

We had a brunch of ham & scrambled eggs with cheese, toast.

John completed his normal outside activities. I worked inside on mine.

Supper was left over (from the freezer) pizza. Dessert will be cookie dough frozen pie, (now thawed).

Saturday, Oct 19

This morning, I’m uploading a video to YouTube from Thursday night. That ruins the web connection for other activities, so John worked outside packing his truck with garbage bags to take to the transfer station (aka the dump). He paid $22 to dispose of 400#. Also went by Knudson’s to buy some concrete blocks for his loading dock he’s building – for uses to be determined. Maybe load the big lawn mower for travel. Otherwise, the volume behind the front will be a depository for busted concrete and some of our over abundance of rocks. As well, he bought more Senior Equine pellets and some crushed corn, Black Oil Sunflower seeds, and a 50# salt block with Selenium {a necessary trace element; toxic in excess}.

I went to Briarwood to play music and we were served a fantastic food fare: Lee made chicken soup with carrots, celery, huge pieces of white chicken, with noodles; salads (fruit salad, orange Jell-O chiffon, and a green pea and ham salad. Jo Ellen gathered the items on the dessert table, contributing several kinds of cookies she made (ginger, peanut butter, sugar, and someone else made chocolate chip, another made little white fancy pinwheel sugar cookies with orange and black sprinkles (for Halloween)—the whole room was decorated for the last day of the month, and Lee added some homemade pumpkin bread and banana bread to the dessert table.

On my way home, I went by Fred Meyer for a special 3-day sale on Red Baron (Supreme) pizza, Jimmy Dean (Regular) sausage rolls, and Progresso Chicken & Wild Rice soup. I bought the limit of 5 each of the pizza and the sausage for $1.99 each, and got the soup for 99₵/can by buying 8 (otherwise, $1.49/can). Our survival pantry is good for a major earthquake or snowstorm. I also bought a gallon of vanilla ice cream because we are almost out. It rained on me coming and going all the way home, where it had not yet rained, but did later!

Been working some on job announcements after ignoring that process need for 2 days.

Sunday, Oct 20

John drove to the Kittitas Highway to load 6 wood pallets, being given away. Not that we need them. Projects?Search images for wood pallet projects and see multi-possibilities.

Returned to fix us a brunch of a blueberry/pecan pancake, peaches, maple syrup, and shaved (thinly sliced) ham, from a rugby ball-shaped mass inside a plastic package. How do they do that?

Now he’s out picking up Annie-poo and cutting back raspberries; and the rain has resumed.

We thought Izzy might be stopping by for the bucket of pine cones today, but that is looking less likely at mid-afternoon.

Supper crafted by John was a chicken & veggie casserole with elbow macaroni, mushroom soup, and French’s-like crispy fried onions. Dessert after the cookie dough pie is eaten, will be a fruitcake from Christmas past John found while cleaning out the chest freezer.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Monday, Oct 7

I was in the house for the most part, but did take a trip up to the end of the driveway, with my camera, to record John’s latest landscaping project to plant a new tulip garden around a pine tree. He will have to encircle with a fence, however, because deer love to eat tulips.

He’s having to dig through bunches of rocks of various sizes because of our location on an alluvial fan. I took photos of the process and will only put a couple here, but will store the whole tour in one link on Google Photos to share with you. John put a photo in last week’s blog to show you the pretty peach color they will be.

Above left to right: Spot at the end of the driveway, tulip bed to be around the middle tree. Rocks are removed and sifted, with dirt retained and added to mixture with sand and manure to use as the soil. The mixture is growing to the left, in the left-most photo. Our truck load of sand is slowly diminishing as projects like this, or the garden, need a gritty addition. As for leaves, pine needles, and horse manure – we have a limitless supply. The rocks go for other projects.

Our feral cats and dog come along as companions. You’ll see their photos in the set below.

I encourage you to take the Google Photos tour of the northeast edge of our property, below. Be sure to have the Info set and look at each photo with the information to the right of the photograph. Click on the link below to be transported to the photos:

Google Photos Tour of Rock’nPonderosa

We went to town and picked up a package from a friend, and then went on to Super 1 pharmacy to our favorite pharmacist for a flu shot for each of us. That went well and while there, we also picked up a prescription for me.

On to the bank to deposit 3 checks. Two were refunds from the doctor because they had billed both of us for work because our deductible was not yet paid. I knew it had been, but they wanted it, so I wrote the check. We were refunded over $50. Crazy! The other was a tax refund check, which paid for my time and effort itemizing all my medical deductions to get more money off than taking the standard deduction allows.

From there to Safeway for another prescription for John (through GoodRx), and to get some Progresso soup on sale at a good price, 99₵/can if we purchased 8. We like one type more than any other, so that’s all we got. Wild rice with chicken & veggies. Then we always add something more to it, such as mushrooms.

Tuesday, Oct 8

I first went to the Ellensburg Adult Activity Center (Senior Center) for a Senior Advisory Commission meeting.

When it was over, I went to the hospital lab for a recheck on my INR for my blood thinner. It was lower than expected so we will be rechecking it again next Tuesday.

Checked our numbers at Bi-Mart and we won nothing. I went by Safeway for my $3.00 refund.

John stayed home to meet a technician from Brad & Burke to winterize our Heat Pump. He opened the unit and found the connection to the power supply with a serious issue. Connections are made using a plastic wire-nut – red, yellow, and orange, in the photo. The photo is from the web. John didn’t think to take a photo.

In this photo, only the red wire-nut is still intact. A connection once covered by the orange nut got hot and burned that connection. That damaged the yellow one, also. Although not this far along, our main power wire was close to burning through its connection to the heat-pump. Off went the circuit breaker; repairs needed but the service tech is not an electrician so for the next 24 hours our house had to be heated in another way. John immediately set up a couple of oil-filled electric heaters of the style shown here. These kept the house warm, not toasty, overnight.

When I got home I set about making contact with our electrician friend Jennifer, but had to call her sister first.

I worked on some surplus clothes. They are in a bag to take to Karen tomorrow for the Cancer Thrift Store.

The leather jacket is in a bag to take to WTA event at 6:00 at Iron Horse Brewery. We have another solution to get the coat back to Seattle’s main WTA office to our friend Kara there.

WTA staff from Seattle decided against coming across the snow-covered pass, and Beth Macinko stepped in, coming down from Leavenworth to lead the proceedings and introduce our two speakers Oct 8, in Ellensburg, WA:

• Michelle Capp, Cle Elum District Ranger for the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest
• Ethan Lockwood, Public Engagement Coordinator for the
Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust

Michelle Capp with Ethan Lockwood-9 min. of his talk

Below is a link to the still photos taken that evening, by Beth Macinko and me:
Google Photos WTA Meeting, Iron Horse Brewery, 10-8-19

Ethan and Michelle shared their in-depth knowledge of recreation in the Upper Yakima Basin – a region that stretches from the Stuart Range to the North, the Yakama Reservation to the South, the Cascade Crest to the West, and the communities of Yakima and Ellensburg to the East. This landscape corresponds with the eastern portions of Kittitas & Yakima Counties.

We were invited to the meeting at the Iron Horse Brewery & Pub, to eat, raise a glass with friends and chat about the places where we all love to play outside. Our feedback will help shape the future of sustainable recreation in the entire Upper Yakima Basin.
Another two such planning meetings are scheduled for Nov 1 and 2 in Ellensburg and Cle Elum.

Wednesday, Oct 9

We were awakened this morning by 4 raccoons climbing and making noises out front. Oops! We forgot to bring a bowl of cat food in last night. John thinks this was a mama with offspring. We had not seen any since last year.

Good we were awakened, because we had to leave for Hearthstone at 8:20 for a retired geographers meeting. I had to stay in town, and John had to get home before 11:30 to meet Jennifer to have her fix the electrical connection.
We left with utensils, plates, for Jo’s homemade apple cake. I took my violin in out of the cold, to take for music at Food Bank.

John started with feeding pressed pellets, flaked corn, and apples to Myst. She appears to be gaining weight. They are all getting hay.

When I got home, I checked my computer and found this photo posted by my friend since 6th grade, “Nancy J” (Maude Buscek). She changed her name later in life, from Nancy to Maude. I knew her as Nancy Johnson and I was “Nancy B” (Nancy Brannen). We sang around town at events as a pair, using guitars.

Sand hill Cranes in Michigan in a local park, by Maude Buszek

There is a migration south through Washington, centered near Othello, an hour east of us. The 23rd annual festival will be next March, with 35,000 cranes expected. This sunset was tonight in the Kittitas Valley by Lise McGowan.

Thursday, Oct 10

John stayed home hoping to get a couple of projects completed before snow falls. Freezing temperatures have already occurred, but most days have been nice.

Brunch was created by John: a blueberry/pecan pancake, one egg over easy, and thin ham.

I arranged for the chairs for this afternoon’s music at Meadows Place, and was surprised that 4 more people showed up than originally planned. We had enough chairs and space to accommodate them. Had expected 8, and ended up with a dozen. It went well, and the audience was happy to add voices to the music.

Supper was different for each of us. John had pork steak, fries, and peaches, I had a pre-frozen dinner, Roasted Turkey, potatoes, dressing, gravy, green beans & carrots; and peaches.

I spent time on computer projects, and email. We are going to bed early.

Friday, Oct 11

We are staying home today, except for my taking one short trip a little over an hour, to go fill my gas tank. Price of gas is very high now. I drove to Exxon, and found it for $3.15/gal. I also went by the feed store to buy more Senior Equine for Myst. John’s feeding about 10#/day.

Came home and found things to do I wasn’t planning on. Heard about the unexpected death of a friend. Her son doesn’t hear well so we communicate via e-mail. He was a student at CWU, and from that we met her, then living in Montana. She moved here, but was traveling (NYC) when she died. That’s all we know, now.

I added some photos from Tuesday night taken by Beth Macinko to the photos I had put out on Google Photos.

With the power outages in CA, we wondered how friends in Eureka were coping. We spent 48 minutes with Michelle & Bruce Seivertson. They had just one day with no grid power, but had a generator. Mostly we just caught up with visiting.

Saturday, Oct 12

We had our lunch: blueberry pecan pancake (BPP) and peaches for me; BPP and the remainder of the pork steak for John. A couple of years ago one of the grocery stores had a sale on 3 pound bags of frozen blueberries. They should have been used by now, so we are catching up with that.

The event of the day: a 2-year old’s birthday and Family Reunion of folks we have known since 1975. We’re invited. Natalie and her family, Mike, Nora, Natalie, and Sarah
Sarah and Mike Sandman are the parents, living 6 miles from us. Mike’s mother (Christina) thinks we first met her when she was 14.

The party started mid-afternoon with us getting home a little before 8:00 p.m. This was their oldest girl, Natalie’s 2nd birthday party. Younger sister is Eleanor (Nora), 6 months.

The party included supper with several kinds of pizza and salads, dips, chips, and with cake and cherry ice cream for dessert. At the dinner table, with John, Bob & Karen Oppie (great grandparents), Nancy reminiscing about our entry into the family in 1975 through field trials and Brittanys.

Opening gifts Saturday @ party & Sunday AM Natalie with Ponies

Our gift (a set of colorful plastic ponies) for Natalie had 3 bows on it with a nice card with pink on it in a pink envelope. We carried it in a gift bag with a horse on each side, which Natalie noticed as we arrived. All is reminiscent of our meeting the great grandparents of the little girl in 1975 field trialing our Brittanys (with horses). We have been part of the family since then; gone to most of the Oppies’s children’s weddings, and to many family celebration parties near Issaquah and Maple Valley. This was a combined family party with kids and adults, from as far away as Redmond, OR, for two great grandparents.

Myst did not get her extra Senior Equine grain and apples tonight because it was dark when we got home.

I managed to get dental deductions added to a tax form tonight via an Excel spreadsheet.

Sunday, Oct 13

Up early when awakened by the rain at 4:30 a.m., and back to bed.

John, Annie, and Czar have been out to feed Myst, get the mail from yesterday.

John returned Annie & Czar and then finished mowing part of the backyard that is fenced. I stayed in to take care of bill paying, organizing the mail, and other needs with the computer system.

I spent a bunch of time getting our Chase VISA account for Amazon.com fixed to get monthly statements for the medical records needed for taxes. Now tomorrow I have to call the phone number for Chase to see if I can request changing the pharmacy bills to be recognized as medical prescription payments and not as groceries. Reason is because Chase provides a 2% rebate, but only if it says Pharmacy, which my actual receipt does, but that is not reflected on the account.
This month’s statement had $119.06 for three different pharmacies – Kaiser Permanente Mail Order Pharmacy (filed under Health & Wellness (need to check to see if the discount was applied), Super 1 and Safeway (filed under groceries). If all are considered as they should be, this payment would be decreased by $ 2.38.

Well, on Sunday afternoon, I called Customer service and got through to an agent who clarified I was getting the 2% from Kaiser Permanente but only 1% from the Grocery Stores (Safeway and Super 1 Pharmacies) because of the set up the merchants have with Chase. I’ll call both managers of the grocery stores to see if they can separate the Pharmacy from the Grocery store, but my guess is it won’t happen. I’ll continue to use my Amazon.com Prime card to pay for all my medications.
At least I will have them all on the same account listing.

I received photos taken yesterday at the birthday party, and downloaded them to put in the blog above. Thanks to Jeff Sandman (father of Mike) for sending them to me this morning.

I’ve been working on finishing the blog, and organizing other things, loading dishes, and washing them so we have stuff to eat from and with.

I’m also processing the photos I took on Monday of John making a new tulip garden, by moving a lot of rocks from our Naneum Alluvial Fan! You’ve had a chance to see that story through Google Photos above, and if you missed it, go back up for a tour.

Next thing is to put in all my medications for the week – a normal Sunday chore.

We had our brunch and are back at work. John came in and fixed a can of Progresso Soup with chicken wild rice & veggies, adding a bunch of mixed vegetables from a frozen package. In addition, on the side, we had chicken nuggets and French fries. That will tide us over until supper.

Wind gusted to 30 mph today, and with recent freezing, leaves and walnuts are falling. We have two Black Walnuts along the driveway, so John cleans those off before they get smashed under the car tires. This was a low-yield year, so it isn’t going to be a big issue – just a nuisance.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan