Keeping track

This is a ‘sad’ day, August 1, 2019 as I write this. I brought up my copy of the information meant for this week’s blog, with notes written throughout the week, and it had been replaced (without a backup) by information of only one contact I needed, and it apparently stored it in the wrong place, in place of my blog complete draft and reminders. I have no idea how that happened, and so now I will have very brief entries for the first part of this week. That will make John, my co-editor, happy.

One thing promised from last week, goes back to February, so I will finish that to start off this week. It was the presentation from the Ice Age Floods Institute on February 7, 2019, which happened at a time in my medical life, when I was not up to submitting weekly blogs. Here is the story everyone missed, and I will also send late to my email list for the IAF–Geology Lectures that I have collected there from folks in the audiences at CWU and from the downtown Nick Zentner lectures.

Our speaker for the evening was John Stimberis. He is the Avalanche Forecaster Supervisor, for the WA State Dept. of Transportation, in charge of avalanche projects on Interstate 90 and Chinook Pass. Here he is in the field:His lecture subject title was: Avalanches and the Annual Snowpack in a Maritime Snow Climate.

Karl Lillquist, CWU Geographer, introduced him in the first video. John’s talk, with PowerPoint illustration combined with videos is next. As a surprise, there are separate videos in the field of three different examples of avalanche control, turn up your volume so you can hear his commentary. It is a powerful display you won’t want to miss.
The ending video wrap-up of his talk is his Question and Answer (Q&A) session.

Video links for John Stimberis, Feb 7, 2019, IAF talk

Karl Lillquist Introduces John Stimberis, 2-7-19

John Stimberis, 2-7-19, Avalanche Control – PowerPoint

Before you open the next one, realize you need to click pause (two parallel bars) right away, and first read the description about timing. Until I correct it, it will say start at 17 second at the end of the blue screen. That should be 15 seconds or you’ll miss seeing the firing (in yellow). For the ending, when you get to 1:10 you will see a blue screen. Just stop there and go to the next video.

Bike Tram Release Device for Avalanche Control

The next one you need to do the same way… starting with a pause, turn the volume up on to be sure to hear John’s commentary, and also it you will have to move to 23 seconds to start viewing.

Stimberis-Chinook Pass Avalanche Control

Stimberis-Chinook Pass CA View Different Season

Questions & Answers after John Stimberis’ Presentation, 2-7-19

Sunday, July 28

We published the blog at 10:13 p.m.

Monday, July 29

I stayed home today because I’m still nursing my injured foot from 7/17, when the heavy metal folding chair was accidentally dropped on my right foot right above the toes. I had on fabric shoes and not my usual leather walkers which might have cushioned the impact some. Being on a blood thinner does not help with such hits. It immediately swelled and bruised and will be difficult to walk on for a couple more weeks.

John used the day to drive to Costco for items we needed badly, and I did not feel up to going along. I stayed home to alternately ice it for the swelling, and stay off it as much as possible, while elevating it as well.

Tuesday, July 30

Another day home for me in the morning, but we planned to go early evening for our reduced fare anniversary dinner at The Palace, because it has to used only during the month of July. John drove because driving a car actually aggravates my foot pain. On our way there, John went into Bi-Mart and checked our numbers and we won nothing. From there by the AAC to pick up two feed bags full of more feed bags. A local gal with much livestock recycles them to us for use as garbage bags to load and take to the transfer station (aka, dump). From there, to our dinner.

We had a nice meal. We took the option with our one allowed free entre, not to take the Chicken-fried Angus Steak platter John usually gets. I encouraged him to find something special he wanted to deduct the allowed $10 from.
He chose a special steak: Flat Iron Steak, with baked potato, and steamed vegetables. It’s a piece of very tender shoulder. I had a Santa Fe Salad with Bleu Cheese dressing, made with Iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, black beans, corn, avocado, nice slices of green and red bell peppers, marinated chicken breast, and corn tortilla strips. Might have been something else I don’t remember and now I cannot find it listed on their on-line menu anywhere. I had with it a bowl of Taco Soup. The soup came with extra sour cream, more olive pieces than I preferred, so I picked them out and shared some with John. The soup was quite tasty. I brought home ½ of each of my choices, along with a roll. We each had a roll with dinner there. Only drank water.

I made 2 more meals with the left overs, lunch of Taco Soup and supper of the salad with added lettuce, pistachio nuts, smoked turkey cubes, and blue cheese dressing.

Wednesday, July 31

I’ll begin today with a fantastic photograph taken by my star-gazing friend.Evie Schuetz captured this on the Thorp Highway at a friend’s house. The image is a time exposure to get the best rendition of the stars. The foreground illumination of the gazebo is the result of a light painting technique which involves a flashlight and a bit of trial and error. Meanwhile, we viewers get to enjoy a piece of artwork.

Today was another day I stayed home to rest my foot and did not go to the food bank music, or to the SAIL exercise class after. I still await the foot’s healing before I return to exercise.

Thursday, August 1

Well, this morning I started by sleeping in, and then getting up and washing a load of dishes. I intended to pay some bills and put them in the mailbox for pickup, but too much other stuff kept stealing my time. I managed to get all the music ready for playing today. And tried responding to the necessary emails on several accounts, not to mention private messages on Facebook.

One thing I saw early in the morning was a post of a photo taken of a favorite historic building of mine in Ellensburg, the Old Boise Cascade Lumber Company. I have driven by it many times, wishing I had my camera with me at the right time of day. This morning, Ken Lewis took this photo on his early morning walk, and it’s great, so I thought I would share.Old Boise Cascade Lumber Mill in Ellensburg, WA by Ken Lewis.
{Boise Cascade Corporation was formed in 1957 through the merger of Cascade Lumber Company of Yakima, Washington, and Boise Payette Lumber Company of Boise.}

I got dressed and went in earlier than usual, but the time disappeared fast. I had spent a lot of time this morning with ice on my sore foot.
I drove to the shadiest place in the west parking lot I could find, and had a little more of a walk than I wished on my sore foot, and carrying a lot of weight.

We had a good turnout of 9 folks, and played our new set of music very well. Some of it we had not done in a year. I was gone for 4 hours, and when I returned, my foot was very ready for rest and ice. It was pretty hot today; I was happy for the partial shade to park in at Rehab, and a/c for my trip in, around town, and home.

John surprised me and walked in at 4:30 p.m.

We had Cordon Bleu for supper with fries, our own cherry tomatoes (first this year) that John picked when he got home, and peaches from the freezer.

Tonight we’re heading to bed early.

Friday, August 2

The middle of the night was not good for me. Pain in my foot awakened me at 1:00 a.m. after 2+ hours sleep. I tried elevating my feet in a recliner with them on a large foam wedge, but it was stretching my quads too much and not helping. That lasted 1-½ hours before I ditched the wedge and returned to my normal heavy large sofa-type pillow beneath my legs. It does not elevate my feet above my heart, so I will have to use an alternate way my friend told me from a PT friend of hers to massage the leg while raised lying down to move the fluid out of the injured area. I did get back to sleep and get some rest, but it got my attention, so I decided to check on whether it might be a bone fracture on the top of my foot.

WARNING: this next section report on my time in ER is lengthy – Aug 2, 2019, Ellensburg, WA: Kittitas Valley Healthcare facility (Hospital)

I wrote this to share with concerned folks in our music group, but decided to put it in our weekly blog. John started this blog originally on Dec 4, 2009, when I was in ICU and he was juggling home issues and coming twice a day to Yakima Regional Hospital checking with the doctors on my deteriorating condition. He did not have time to talk with friends and relatives about me, so posted it all here on the then daily (not weekly) blog.

Several of you saw the photograph of my foot’s continued bruised and swelled condition in the past couple days. I finally took that photo on Tuesday, 7/30 almost 2 weeks after the original impact on the top of my right foot, by a heavy metal folding chair (date occurred: 7/17). It was totally an accidental drop that I didn’t see coming to be able to jump out of the way. Being on a blood thinner complicates and lengthens the healing time. Normally, our helpers (from the audience) bring the folded chairs from the opposite end of the room, down front where we play, and open them and set them on the rock floor. I then move them into the desired formation for the organization of instrumental players next to singers. That is in an adjacent carpeted area. I go to the opposite end of the room, behind the chairs, to pull down a rolling cart with small folding music stands and my music book.

I will not post the graphic photo here, however. I did share with a few folks, and many of them have been concerned that I had not been more proactive and gone in for an X-Ray. I had talked with my cardiologist’s nurse, this week, when he called about lab results taken 6/9, while my doctor was in the hospital himself with a torn muscle repair job. I also planned to visit my foot doctor this coming Monday, when he would be in Ellensburg from Yakima. He and I had had a conversation about another injury I had involving both feet June 1 (from wearing ill-fitting hiking boots) for two hours. He explained what happened, and because of the circulation in my feet and the connection with my heart issues, it would take longer to heal. Then, I quit going to exercise classes in any format. Those injuries took 5 weeks to heal. I was allowing this right foot more time.

At least one former nurse told me Thursday at Rehab I needed to have the imaging done. I certainly was ready after the overnight problems with the continued pain keeping me from sleeping. So, this morning, I first called my PCP’s nurse, who turned me over to the Triage nurse whom I know better from my many years of Coumadin clinic involvement. I had looked on line and found the location of the upper foot bones and their names, especially over the area the metal hit and from where the pain is still coming. Also, I learned that X-Rays don’t always “reveal” a fracture until a couple weeks into the injury, and for immediate detection a CT Scan is required. So, perhaps this timing was okay. Nurse John in the ER confirmed that is the case, and had just recently happened here when they didn’t see the fracture immediately but it showed up 2 weeks later. (Why they didn’t do a CT for the patient, I don’t know).

I knew my PCP’s office had X-Ray equipment, but not CT scanning. So, as I discussed this with the Triage nurse, and I suggested it would be better for me to visit the ER in EBRG. She agreed. I left this morning for KVH. The doctor in charge was Andrew Peet, a concerned and kind older gentleman, who examined the foot and listened to my story. He called a radiology technician (Wally), who wheeled me down to imaging. He took 3 views of the foot: Frontal, lateral, and oblique checking to be sure they were properly placed and imaged. He submitted them to the radiology analyst, while I was still in the filming room, resting on a “gurney.” It might take ½ hour or more to be reviewed here. After it is reviewed and analyzed within the hospital, it is sent to Yakima for a re-evaluation. I will have both reports returned to me, as well as to my PCP. I forgot to request its being sent to my cardiologist. I’ll do that after I see all the results have been posted on the KVH portal. They are now there 8/4. I’m seriously thinking about sending the description of the analyst with respect to the bones in my foot, to my foot doctor to interpret.

After I was approved for discharge, Dr. Peet came back and talked with me. He said he had reviewed the internal review, saw the X-Rays, and I did not have a fracture. He was comfortable with discharging me. He encouraged me to continue with heat for better healing now that the swelling is down. I thanked him again for his evaluation of my situation. Nurse John took me out (I was walking), and we stopped off at the front desk for my Medical Cards (Medicare and Kaiser Permanente). I had to sign a couple of the normal forms, when any procedure is done (even a blood draw requires signatures any more). The paperwork for medical care seems to be increasing. I guess the purpose is to prevent fraud. I’m very happy I went into ER for the examination.

John called about 3:00 but is in a traffic jam. Now closer home and should be here after getting gasoline at the lowest place in town where I stopped with my car this morning. He didn’t walk in the door until 5:00 p.m. Long day for him.

John started the FORD Pickup when he got home, and drove it up to the house to plug into the tender. The battery needs replacing.

Saturday, August 3

This morning’s Daily Record finally posted John’s Thumbs Down comment:We were headed this afternoon to a surprise 60th birthday party for Joy Rucker, put on by her husband, Manord, at his neighbor’s house on Hidden Valley Road in Cle Elum across Hwy 970 from the Swauk-Teanaway Grange (which is on Ballard Hill to the north). He had it catered by Smokey’s BBQ of S. Cle Elum. They have a restaurant in the Old Milwaukee Road Depot. We have experienced a smoked pig they roasted for a Scholarship Event at the Grange earlier this year. Smokey’s BBQ restaurant, in old Cle Elum Depot

We took chairs in the car, but they expect they will have enough. We can pull right up to the house and they plan to have a canopy for shade. This will be set up next door for an outside BD surprise party. We got there right at 1:00.

The honoree was off in the mountains hiking with her daughter, and they were scheduled back at 1:30 p.m. They did not return until almost 3:00 p.m. All the folks there visited. I met several people I knew from the Grange; others I knew from the Geology lectures in Ellensburg (this party was held in Cle Elum). Relatives were there from Moses Lake, the Tri Cities, and farther. Joy’s mom Babs was there and we visited briefly. I had a nice visit with her husband’s parents. Several of our music group were there. We had access to water and cold drinks, and a fair amount of increasingly available shade. I stayed in the shade the entire time. The meal was catered by Smokey’s BBQ. It was incredible with several courses: appetizers, grilled chicken, potatoes, salads, dips, and sides. The second course was smoked brisket, served with macaroni & cheese, and something else hot. At that point, we only had a small piece of the brisket, and brought home the rest of the piece. Lastly, we had various desserts, including a high-layered strawberry birthday cake. I’m not sure I have ever had such a cake before. We finally left ~ 4:30 pm.

Coming home by the airport at 5:15 p.m., the temperature was 83° directly north and 82° at the corner of Hungry Junction & Look roads, but the airport sensor said 87°. We know the sensors at the airport have been reporting elevated temperatures.

Sunday, August 4

Brunch today of a pancake with pecans, topped by strawberries, and 2 eggs for me.

Finally, we arranged our scheduled to go at 1:30 p.m. to pick up free planks of wood in town. Some of it is cedar, with other stuff thrown in.

I sat in the shade while John loaded the pickup. Here’s a photograph I took once we arrived home. That trip took about 2-½ hours out of our day.At 4:30 p.m., our home outside temperature is 77.2°; at KELN (airport), its sensor registered 92 at 3:53
Checking at 4:56 home it is 77.5 at KELN still 92 at 4:53

John made some soup for supper, and tonight we filled in our ballots for the Aug 6 election box I can deliver tomorrow when in town.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

About the title: Several ‘electric’ items this week, and lightning caused a few fires.

Google Photo Collections from past dates are now entered on the correct day in the blog, for week names bolded below:

Independence Day Week

Two links from July 5 of the Kittitas Valley Fiddlers & Friends playing patriotic music and associated lunch.

From AAC camera 7-5-19 celebration of July 4

AAC July 5, 2019 on Nancy’s camera

Here was our Kittitas Valley Fiddler’s & Friends Thank you note with other photos taken 7/5/19. We had 11 players there.Thank you card beginning, Katrina (AAC Coordinator) with Haley (our 6 yr. old mascot) who sat in the empty front row chair and led the group with Take Me Out to the Ball Game.

I’m working on the addition of 4 videos from February this year about Avalanche Control on John Stimberis’ presentation at the local chapter of the Ice Age Floods Institute, entitled, “Avalanches and the Seasonal Snowpack in a Maritime Snow Climate.” (February 7, 2019).
Sidetrip: this past winter, one of the explosives used for starting an avalanche did not go BOOM! A crew went and set it off on the day of John’s hike to Snow Lake. Hikers were warned at the trailhead.

I never published them at the time because it came at a bad time in my life with a serious infection of a tooth, which threatened my implanted heart valve until removed, 10 days later. My body reacted wrongly to the oral surgery and pain pills given afterward (? we really do not know the cause of my reaction), but the surgery team did extract the infected tooth and keep me alive, from acquiring endocarditis. I was out of commission and not completing blogs for a long period of time. I never caught up on the February Avalanche lecture, which was presented by one of my former students.

It was only this week that I realized his presentation had never been posted. It may make it into the blog by next week. I found the videos I sent to YouTube back then, with their links, but need to weave them into a small story about that evening so long ago.

Sunday, July 21

Published last week’s blog just after midnight.

Monday, July 22

I was up at 4:30 a.m. to feed Czar and put him out, put out the food for the other cats, take my Acetaminophen, and get more sleep.

John left at 7:30 a.m. for a hike to Snow Lake. I slept in another hour.

Don’t miss this link below this post to see a wonderful reflection of the mountains in Snow Lake which John photographed and published at the top of his Friday weekly column:

Not so Nasty News July 26

Meanwhile, here, I will pick my favorites from his set, taken on his Nikon camera.

My favorites are at the goal of his hike, Snow Lake, as far as he went, about ½-way around the lake to the log bridge over the out-flow.Top is a selfie (camera timer) of John on the log; bottom are the hikers ahead of him – a man and boy going over the log bridge.

I’ll pick a few earlier in his hike. Total distance was 8.6 miles. You’ll have a chance at the end to go to one link for all 35 of his photographs. I’m sorry I cannot videotape his explanation he gives me when he comes home and shows me.Top is part of the trail in through rocks and views of forests and crags, on the way to the lake and some beautiful images. On the way (when you look at the photos below), you will see interesting views along the trail of vegetation, a day-flying moth, wildlife area trail signs, scenic roots, unique trees, and wildflowers.

Here are all of his photos, in one link, below. Be sure to click on the (small i) in a circle to read the info about each photo. Particularly, look at the little black and white moth on a green leaf, and the description at the top of the INFO column about what it is and why he was out and about. Caitlin LaBar, my former student is a renowned Lepidopterist (since a very young age), and she provided the information when we couldn’t find a B&W butterfly to ID.

Link to John’s Snow Lake Trail photos

Tuesday, July 23

We were awakened in the early morning before dawn by thunder and lightning.Left photo was captured by Evie Schuetz on a walk around Kittitas, WA @ 5:49 a.m. at the New Life Assembly Church; right photo, clouds taken @ 5:40 a.m. at the Kittitas Community Church – amazing how fast the sky changes in stormy weather. Permission granted to use Evie’s photographs.

From 7:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. we had 46 mph gusts, and thunder.
We had an exciting audible evening, but morning and evening episodes were totally out of our view, because of trees and hills.Morning sunrise captures by Evie Schuetz; permission granted.

Late afternoon and evening we had more thunderstorms. Those were captured by Lia Simcox, a professional photographer from Ellensburg. Only this week did I learn of her work from a post on “You’re Probably from Ellensburg”, a Facebook site with extraordinary information about our town.

Lia’s Photography Facebook site is listed under the name: Inside Out Photo Artistry. Check there for her photography description.

She gave me permission to post her photographs below:Sunset before the 7-23-19 Thunderstorm activity, by Lia Simcox.

I’ll use this photograph to describe the clouds. [Mammatus,
meaning “mammary cloud”, is a cellular pattern of pouches hanging underneath the base of a cloud, typically cumulonimbus rainclouds, although they may be attached to other classes of parent clouds. The name mammatus is derived from the Latin mamma (meaning “udder” or “breast”).] Wikipedia, click below.

Wikipedia – Mammatus Cloud Report

Two more of Lia’s strikingly awesome photographs follow. The last is an “epic” photo (in the words of my friend, Evie Schuetz).
Words cannot describe these images. Thanks, Lia for sharing.

We had planned to go to the far end of Badger Pocket to a potluck to meet a friend we knew from the 1990s who moved to Arizona 5 years ago. She was back for a visit. I was not feeling well enough to weather 90° temperatures, and limited shade.

Wednesday, July 24

I decided to spend another day at home, recuperating from not feeling well. I skipped music at the Food Bank Soup Kitchen, first time in many moons and also, I did not participate in the SAIL exercise class at the AAC.

Thursday, July 25

I went to Hearthstone today, with John driving, to let me off at the door. He proceeded on several errands, before coming back to pick me and my stuff up.

We had a nice set of players today at Hearthstone and a large and appreciative audience. Charlotte, Sharon, Manord, Gerald, Dean, Nancy​​, Tim, Minerva, ​Anne​. ​Sandy was in the audience happily singing and helping with the music.

New (to me; thanks to Evie Schuetz’s introduction) is a cool website on Facebook: YOU’RE PROBABLY FROM ELLENSBURG. You’ve heard about that above on Tuesday’s post above.

Friday, July 26

We left about 9:30 a.m. and went through Ellensburg, for gasoline, finding it for $2.959 at Circle K, but when John got out to pump gas, he realized he did not have his wallet (and so therefore not his driver’s license). I had to take the wheel and drive us over. It was his car, and I was planning on resting and relaxing on the way over, but had no option, because we didn’t have time to travel back home to retrieve it. My sore foot got a workout it didn’t deserve. Top is John’s Crosstrek beside their sign, Michael’s On the Lake (nice restaurant on the shore of Moses Lake). Bottom is a view of our table (left of center) beyond a short set of stairs.

We had a reservation for 11:30, and got there a few minutes early. They don’t open until 11:00, so we had the pick of the parking lot. I took a few photos once there. We haven’t been there in a few years, and in the lobby is a unique (unused) wine rack. It’s made of White Onyx – a huge slab. I wonder its origin & cost.Top: Both sides of Onyx wine rack, Michael’s entrance vestibule “waiting room” for seating with cushioned benches. Bottom:
Ann & I both had the walkway view, from different directions, but the same across the lake. Much activity on the walkway – even a covey of quail strutting down tracks; boats and ducks on the lake.

Great lunch and nice visit, catching up after missing last summer.Top: John had the Blackened Salmon Caesar Salad, & displays the cool lemon cozy. It kept the seeds off the food. Center: Ann and Fred both had Soup and Salad with Clam Chowder, and I had a BLT Lettuce wedge with blue crumbles, cherry tomatoes, and bacon. We all had ground pepper on our meals. Bottom: our share desserts. {Who knew? Lemon Wraps }

We shared desserts. John got his own plate with ½ the cheesecake piece and I had the other. Ann shared her Crème Brûlée with Fred.Parting shot: Nancy & John Hultquist, Ann & Fred Joyal (all the way from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, in Marquette).

The end of a nice day with friends, for a long time, since we met in graduate school in Iowa so long ago. John and Fred went on hunting trips, built duck boats (aka, pram), and the four of us walked around many places, with our dogs, ours a Brittany and theirs a Black Lab. We have many fun memories, especially memorable was their help moving us from North Liberty, IA to Troy, ID. John and Fred were in the U-Haul truck, pulling a vehicle full of stuff; Ann and I were in a station wagon, pulling another car loaded. Inside our car were two dogs and two cats. That move was in 1974.

Saturday, July 27

We were rather tired from yesterday and the days before—and slept in a little longer than usual, awakened by a cat tussle in our living room.

We arose and I began cleaning up days of dirty dishes. John’s responding to a variety of emails, and I’m doing the same. He’s considering going to Costco today, but I’m not up to the walking on my foot. It’s still aching from yesterday’s usage. I have plenty to do here. My first has been the blog. John’s first has been a discussion with atmospheric folks about the problem with the local airport’s (KELN) elevated temperatures reported. It is an automated system that seems to have a sensor issue.

He’s also researching (with the help of old timers in the region) a photograph and the history of early electric power in the City almost 80 years ago. He’s working on writing it up with location photos included from Google Earth Pro. We’ll wait for another blog to post a shortened explanation in the blog to explain one of the photographs our friend Evie Schuetz took last week, which also will be posted later. The best thing might to be to give it its own web presence for others to enjoy and learn from. Currently, the local Kittitas County Historical Museum director, Sadie Thayer, is searching for some photos of the building when it was operational.

Sunday, July 21

John left at 7:00 a.m. for a hike to Annette Lake. This is a small lake called a tarn (20 acres) in a rocky hollow called a cirque, carved by a glacier. John has worked on the first 2 miles of the trail, but the lake is nearly 4 miles from the trailhead.Two views of Annette Lake, 7-28-19 He took a few dozen photos (the lake is not as impressive as Snow Lake was). I will put them on one link for you to enjoy.

John called me about 2:30 p.m., and just got home about 4:00 p.m. Folks going toward Seattle had to deal with a blocking accident and much traffic. Estimated delay was 2 hours or more.

The WA DOT camera in the area shows traffic at 8:02 pm. Left side is heading west, still 67.4 miles from Seattle. John was at this spot about 3 pm, but heading east.

Here is the link to John’s photos:

Link to John’s Annette Lake Trail photos

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Sunday, July 14
Finally, published right after midnight.

Monday, July 15

I was up at 4:30 a.m. to feed Czar and put him out, take my Acetaminophen and crash again for a little while. Not enough sleep still when I got up to get ready to leave.

We went for our early 8:30 a.m. appointment at the foot doctor and they had moved locations closer to the hospital but we had not received the notice. Saw the sign on the door, and went to the correct building (Suite C in the Medical Complex south of the KVH hospital). Once there, we checked in, and paid our $9.19 owed from a previous appointment in April. I made a comment that we should have been forewarned about the move, and they said we were, but the phone call we received hung up before leaving a message. I figured it was just calling to remind me, so I did not call back, but when I answered I answered as, “Hi there – we will be there Monday morning!” But no one was on the other end. Strange mystery we will never know what happened. Now we know the rest of the story. Good we got to the old office early and they had an instructive note on the door.

We did a few more errands in town—by the AAC to deliver a form for Katrina and give her some Dahlias and Raspberries John picked this morning. On to Anne Engels to get some Chocolate Morsel chips from her (via Costco) we needed to make our Crockpot candy. It turned out to be perfect. We made 7 dozen pieces to carry in our cooler. It’s made with almond bark, chocolate chips, baking chocolate bars, and peanuts. About 50 people are expected, so everyone will have at least one piece.

We picked up some drinks for us both from Fred Meyer on sale, and then went by the Law office to pick up a large bucket of apricots from Jen to give to Kenny for making Apricot preserves. I need to keep a few for our enjoyment and then get these to him. Also I need to return some of his canning jars.

Going to bed after 10, before 10:30, and getting up at 5:30 to finish getting dressed and out of the house.
I’m taking my computer, cell phone, charger, and trying to dress in layers.

Tuesday, July 16

WTA Pete Dewell’s Celebration of 2000 + work days

For the location of the celebration (on the other side of Snoqualmie Pass), check this out:

Asahel Curtis Trail

We left home about 6:10 a.m. John driving, and got to trailhead at 7:30 a.m. We met and talked to people. John also took 3 sets of folks to the first part of the trail in view of the foot bridge over the bubbling creek, and we went on the old trail to view close-up from along side, a rock wall which supports the new trail higher on the hill. This was done 5 years ago with many folks over 18 days total. Tons of rock and gravel were moved.

I videotaped the introduction of Pete’s work party in honor of his 2000 + days on the trail for WTA. It includes a unique presentation of the tool safety talk.

July 16, 2019, Intro Pete Dewell’s 2000+ Party

The crew didn’t start the trail work until 9:40 a.m. and were due back by noon to have their picture taken with their hardhats and work clothes on.

Trail Work Crew off to the Work party with Pete Dewell

I planned to stay back at the parking lot with my computer and work on editing photos I’d taken the Friday before and never finished. I was also there to monitor any activity in the parking lot at the trail head. And, I kept the car keys for friends parked next to us whose alarm (honking horn) started on its own, before they left. The only way to stop it was to open the car and put the key in the ignition. Simply pushing the button that usually starts and stops it wasn’t working. So, if it should have happened while they were up on the trail, I couldn’t have done anything but be irritated and not able to concentrate.

Two WTA folks Janée and Zach also stayed back, to set up the canopies and tables, food, coolers for beverages and other, set up the composting, recycling, and garbage containers. They invited me to join them but I had my own set of needs to do at the other end of the parking lot, and I was also sitting at a card table with my computer and camera next to a porta potty with no toilet paper. We always carry a roll or two with us. So as hikers came over when the Forest Service outhouse was in use and wanted to use the porta potty, I could give them a roll of TP to use.

When the crew returned, we first took photographs of all with orange and green hard hats. There were 3 folks that should have had Blue hats but refused. Questions were directed to them, in any case.I then filmed the awards to Pete and thanks at the end.
Pete reached his 1000 days with WTA in 2011 when he was 81. He retired from being a Litigation Attorney for a Law Firm in Everett, WA in 2000.

ZachMcBride has Karen Daubert start Pete Dewell’s Honors

Zach Gives Pete his 2000+ Sticker Award for his WTA Orange Hat

Pete Dewell’s Party Potluck Food Buffet (only 29 secs)

You can see a lot more of the food and people in the Google Photos link (which I won’t have done in time for this to be published), or I may have to put in next week’s edition. I took a lot of photos. I hope I can add the videos to that as well. I suspect I will revise it here as well as post in next week’s blog.

We had a nice potluck lunch, and I photographed as much and many folks enjoying as I could, and still ate a little myself.

I plan to put all the photos and the videos on Google Photos to share with Zach McBride at WTA for them to combine with all other photos taken today. It was a special celebration. I have a few email addresses to send information to, about this blog.

Details of links to my photography. I make YouTubes of the Exilim camera videos (old technology back to 2001), with lower resolution. The slides were taken on our new camera and are larger than necessary.

We enjoyed our time with WTA folks today; good for me to make new friends, and see others I haven’t seen since last November’s WTA Volunteer Recognition dinner in Seattle.

Wednesday, July 17

This morning I finished putting the 43 photos I took on 7-12-19 at the Senior Center at the party saying goodbye to the AmeriCorps gals, and stored on a jump drive to take with me to transfer to their hard drive. I was the only one taking pictures that day. They will filter through and some put on their Facebook page. I still need to send them out to Google Photos to send to the AAC members for which I have email address. I will just send the link to YouTube for the one video I took for them.

I packed two white garbage bags with 2-liter bottles, 32 oz. ones, and two kinds of ice cream containers to give to a fellow I met on Facebook. He came to eat and hear our music, and to visit with us as we ate, and we had a fascinating conversation among 7 of us about geology, rocks, and a number of other topics. After I was done eating and our visiting was over, he and I walked to my car to unload the bags. He had a gift for me – tiny containers of Ellensburg Blues he has found within Section 18 off Reecer Creek Rd, on BLM-owned land. That’s my first to have of the agates found that originated in the Teanaway formation. I have seen the huge one at the Kittitas County Historical Museum that they have in their safe. Only are a few places in our valley where they can be found.Ellensburg Blues Agates from web; with the top middle being a faceted 8.6 ct blue. The bottom pix of a woman’s hand holding a blue, and rings, she brought to Wenatchee to show Nick Zentner when he presented his lecture there.

Below is my favorite lecturer, Nick Zentner’s presentation in 2013, on Ellensburg Blues. This was part of his annual downtown lecture series, that started at Raw Space in 2010, and John and I attended every lecture. Then the venue moved to the Hal Holmes Center (beside the City of Ellensburg Library), and now this year over to Morgan Middle School Performing Arts Theater (always the 4 weeks of April).

When you open this link below, move the button back to the left to start at the beginning.

Ellensburg Blue Agates Lecture by Nick Zentner, CWU Geologist

From there I went to SAIL exercise class at the AAC. First, I had to set up taking my Amoxicillin at 2:00 p.m. so Deborah helped me by setting an alarm on her computer. I participated in SAIL.
Deborah asked me to take the evaluation assessment test for SAIL, but I have missed several weeks of classes with all the stuff affecting my feet after June 1 hiking boots disaster. I went ahead and took it, and I did reasonably well, but wore myself out on the effort and being back in class. My right foot was hurting badly after a heavy metal chair with a large cloth seat, fell on it this morning about 11:30 during setup for lunch music at the FISH Food Bank. This afternoon when I got home I looked at the right foot, right above my toes, and it was badly bruised.

Also had to clean my teeth after lunch and prior to going to the dentist for cleaning by Tracy, the dental hygienist.

Notify Anne about Thursdays; bring Costco stuff to trade for $ to cover it, and to give her a bag of clothes to take to the ECCC.
Then rush home for a haircut a mile from my house, at Celia’s.

Thursday, July 18

Work on the Sirius XM – don’t take the automatic renewal for $232.94.

We had a good bunch at Pacifica this afternoon in the audience and players for music: Gerald, Nancy​​ & Charlie (mics), Dean, Sharon, Charlotte, ​Evie​,​ Manord, ​Minerva, ​Anne​. ​Sandy was in the audience happily singing.

I picked a day for my next haircut as Sept 6 Friday (nothing I need to attend the first Friday at the AAC, just a welcome back).

Today, my email brought an interesting report from the New York Times, which I thought I would share here, about the fire at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, France.

Interesting Follow-up Report on the Fire at Notre-Dame Cathedral

Friday, July 19

John left for Iron Goat trail head WTA work party at 6:00 a.m.

You need to go to John’s Not So Nasty News (Friday column) below this to get the interesting history of this trail, and that will explain his photo there, and mine here from the set sent from Nate Schmidt, their Blue Hat Crew Leader today.
Iron Goat Trail beside wall of old snow shed – left is in the distance of the right photo.
Gas powered brushers with a steel blade wrought the green chaos on the left. After the noisy beast moved on, others cleaned up. The tri-blade cutter works great on green vegetation.

My morning and afternoon was spent at the Ellensburg Adult Activity Center (our Senior Center). Below are the videos I filmed.

Intro to Katrina’s Surprise 10th anniv & HopeSource Talk

Katrina Kell Douglas Arrives Surprised ! by the Welcoming Crowd

More Accolades of Praise & Thanks to Katrina

Here is the link to the stills from today

Saturday, July 20

We didn’t sleep in very late, and I started with setting up the dishwasher and cleaning up days of dishes to put into it. I won’t get it started until I return this afternoon.

John stayed home to water onions and do all sorts of other chores around the place (and rest), especially while the temperatures are not sky high, as predicted over the next few days.

I had to run extra copies of a song for the audience and players that is not in our current music book for July – “I’ll Fly Away” because we decided to start the program today with a tribute to two residents who passed over the rainbow bridge this week. They were always present and participating (bringing food) to our 3rd Saturday music program each month, at Briarwood.

I was out of here by 12:50 to set up because I wanted to set up a tripod and camera to videotape the program. Sadly, I missed getting in Amy on the far right, but it was as far back in the room as I could get. Kelly, a resident, was kind enough to start and stop the camera recording the video. The video is below.

This may not yet be ready at publishing time because I got this message Sunday afternoon – This is taking longer than expected. Your video has been queued and will be processed as soon as possible. That never came, so I resent it and it went up this evening, in short order.

Briarwood Tribute and Patriotic Music

Here are a few photos taken on my other camera for the day.Joe saluting my Flag vest, and Haley enjoying it.

Top with residents & two of fiddlers plus a few more fiddlers below enjoying the pies and patriotic sugar cookies. One had to leave to see his mother-in-law in the hospital with 3 screws repairing her broken hip, and another couple joined us at this table for more pie.

Thanks to Pennie Hammer for today’s donation of two more books to add music to our repertoire. She has given us much music in the past, including a huge hardback book from Reader’s Digest – Treasury of Best Loved Songs – 114 All-time Family Favorites. Below are those she brought today. Pennie is an artist who participates in the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame project to paint special rodeo art on various items. I have featured her work in our blog before, and you’ll see more this year. She has painted on a drum (skin), a cow hide, lampshade, and this year for the theme Boxes of Fame, hers will be an antique family metal lunch basket. The paintings are auctioned off at a fundraiser for the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame.

Here are two of her past projects, in 2015 and 2017. “It’s an all-rodeo theme and the artists donate their time. This particular fundraiser has been raising $20,000 to $35,000 a year. We’re now part of an alliance with the Western Culture Arts Center and are doing displays in their building throughout the year.”

Sunday, July 21

We slept in until 8:00 or longer in my case. I stayed up later than John, working on photographs. I was up to take care of the cats early.
I began working on transferring images of yesterday’s activities at Briarwood Commons with our Kittitas Valley Fiddlers & Friends.

John went out with the dog. Thinking he might hike to a mountain lake on Monday, he watered some things today. The airport temp went to 90 degrees for a few minutes today, but our front porch barely reached 87° with full sun. For the non-growers – that is excellent weather for most garden crops.
By 5 PM the house was a bit stuffy and 77 to 80 degrees in places. We turned the AC on for about ½ an hour, then shut it down and opened windows as the outside cooled. Monday and Tuesday will be equally hot.

Breakfast, late: We had sausage patties, eggs, peaches, and toast. Now we are inside where it is cool, both working on projects. It’s taking a while to upload the videos and to crop and organize pictures from two different cameras last week, in preparation for this blog.

Costco provided Cordon Bleu for supper. Butternut squash (with pecans, brown sugar, and toasted marshmallow top) from the 2018 garden accompanied.
Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Sunday, July 7

You have heard about this day’s activities in last week’s blog, but when we finally did publish the blog for the first week of July at 11:00 p.m. We were awaiting completion of photos and videos for July 4. Now we can add both of those links, as promised, because permission was granted! Amy with Weston ^^^^^ Brothers – Weston & Owen

Amy’s Face-painting July 4, 2019 in Kittitas, WA

The fellow having his face painted above is the younger brother. Amy (the painter) got my video and pictures to the family, as she knows them, and asked for permission to publish here.
Next is the longest video, below the progress pictures:

Amy Face-painting Ellie (Butterfly Mask)

Monday, July 8

I was up at 4:30 a.m. to feed Woody and put the male cats out—Rascal out the back patio door & Czar out front with Woody. Never saw Sue. I went back to bed and slept in until 8:15 a.m. John was up earlier to check out the details on a camera we are buying to replace my old one that quit after a couple minutes recording Friday.

At 9:00 a.m. he left for Yakima to get the ignition switch on his Crosstrek fixed. I’m staying home today to work on paying bills, processing photos from 7/4 and 7/5, for addition to this week’s blog.

Reached John by phone a couple times when he left. His car is fixed, and he was coming home through Ellensburg to pick up our medications from two different pharmacies and also to get some fried chicken for lunch, picking up Robada apricots from the Selah orchard of Jen, legal assistant at our estate lawyer’s office in EBRG.

I have been trying to pay bills this morning: (one Cascade F&A) I cannot reach until tomorrow; talked to the Yakima Memorial Heart Center about an invoice to John for an Extremity Study back on 4-30-19, just now coming through, with no explanation of why it’s coming from there or for what it involves, except it was for him. My guess is his deductible on Medicare was not yet paid when that was sent, but the woman I spoke with (named Nancy) said it was done incorrectly and so she is “billing it up.” I guess that means rebilling Medicare. NO CLUE, but while she said for me to toss the receipt, I wrote all my notes on it for the next billing statement, in case I need to know what I was told.

Another necessity was to pay a balance on both our mouths’ dental work in May. Total charges for both of us were $1105.40 after insurance payments in June. I had already paid $500 toward the bill. Best not to have dental work done, so brush, clean, fluoride, and stay away from the need to manage cavities.

Continued working on photos from AAC. I also tried on more clothes today for sorting ones to keep, share, or donate tomorrow morning to the Ellensburg Community Clothing Center.

I also sent an updated reminder to the retired geographers about plans for our monthly Emeritus meeting that will celebrate the eldest’s birthday. Mary Ann is bringing a cake and we have a bottle of fizzy fruit drink, Apple/Mango.

Tuesday, July 9

I contacted Cascade Foot and Ankle via the local number which rings through to their Yakima office where the accountant is housed. It was about my recent bill for $9.19 for John. Found out we must pay it next Monday. John’s deductible was not yet paid up. Now it is. I had to call Kaiser Permanente (secondary medical insurance) to verify that was what happened.

I went for my fasting blood draw and for other things in town. I got there a little after 9:00 and went inside for a long wait until my time to check in. Checked in, and went back to the lab, for another long wait. While waiting, I walked down to the Cardio Pulmonary office where I asked some questions about my upcoming PFT test (to learn the details of having my new cardiologist send the required referral).

I asked for the last date I had one done at the end of 2018. It was November. So, when I see Dr. Dave Krueger in October, I can have him send the referral then. I need to call Medical Records to see if they will ship the PFT from 2018 to him now. Today I had the blood draws he requested, to be done 2 weeks after I saw him. I had them send the results to him and also to my PCP. I have to call his nurse for the results I think he said, but I have access to the results on the Portal for our local KVH hospital, and my PCP triage nurse will be sending me the results printed by postal mail. Their printouts are more instructively organized than the ones I have access to.

So, I will just call his nurse, (think her name is Alma) to see if he had any comments that I do something differently. I may ask the nurse I know from my original cardiologist there, because I have her email address, and I know she will find out the email for me of Dr. Krueger’s nurse. Otherwise, it is an expensive landline long distance call.

I went by the Law Office for picking up apricots from the legal assistant, Jen, and while there, she gave me some Van Cherries (from a pollinator tree). John fixed me a cooler to carry.

From there by Exxon for gasoline. It was almost empty, taking 13.8 gallons at $2.97/gal. I thought that was the best price in town, only to drive by a 7-11 on my way home to see it was $2.96 there!! Happens too often. You cannot depend on Gasbuddy.com to have updated information.

I wrote a check for David Hazlett, our farrier, to trim Myst’s feet. He was coming after I had left.

I took out the macaroons to take along to go with the carrot cake being brought tomorrow, and realized too late tonight that I should have cut up some of the large Robada apricots and passed them around the table. Hindsight is always 20/20.

Fixed our birthday card for Dee Eberhart for his 95th tomorrow; I added two photos from the Nov, 2018, Veterans’ Day memorial celebration at the Senior Center, with 4 of their family members pictured.

Wednesday, July 10

Up early to leave at 8:25 a.m. for Hearthstone to set up the table for the meeting. When John and I arrived we had to rearrange the furniture that was set up for Bingo at 1:00 p.m. today. Scheduled to leave about 10:30 a.m., we promised to change our arrangement back to what they wanted. They provided coffee, hot water, and tea. I set up all the place-mats, plates, utensils, cups, and napkins. It was very festive. We had a great turnout: Jo & Ken Hammond, Dee Eberhart and his daughter Katie (from Bend, OR, with hubby Chuck), Mary Ann Macinko, with her homemade carrot cake, Lillian Brooks, Carla Kaatz, John & Nancy Hultquist, Jim & Diane Huckabay, with her Summer Intern Derek Craig (History major) working with the Kittitas County Genealogy Society, on the KCGS’s Obituary Report. Derek is going through old newspapers, gathering info from obituaries and death notices. He’s been through 1911-12, creating a database for putting on their web site, so that people can access such information. The website is https://kcgswa.org

Derek, John, Carla, Lillian, Chuck, Katie, Dee, Ken, Jo, Mary Ann, Jim, and Diane.Chuck, Katie, and Dee Eberhart on his 95th birthday! You can see the Carrot Cake on Chuck’s and Dee’s plate, the remainder of the cake in front of him and the stack of BD cards people brought, on his right.

I took one very short (9 seconds) video of our singing Happy Birthday, because I didn’t hit the start button soon enough. Be sure to read the description with the video – and then click on the link to hear the short Happy Birthday song ending.

This was a birthday party at Hearthstone, where one of our retired members lives, and we meet monthly on the 2nd Wednesday of the month. This happened to fall on Dee’s birthday, and his daughter Katie and husband Chuck were up from Bend, OR. Mary Ann Macinko made Dee’s favorite cake. Everyone enjoyed it very much. We had a nice visit and heard about Carla Kaatz’s trip to 3 places in 3 different European countries: Vienna, Prague, and Budapest. Mary Ann Macinko mentioned her travels to Italy last year, briefly, and told us about her trip this year to Kodiak, Alaska. We had many other interesting conversations, as well.

Dee Eberhart 7-10-19 Happy Birthday Song – 95 yrs. young

We went to the Emeriti meeting in separate cars because I had to leave to go to the Food Bank Lunch music. We had a large turnout of players and singers and it was cool having one caregiver (Cathy) dancing around singing while pushing two different women who are wheelchair bound. They were smiling and singing along too. The last song we did today was I’ll Fly Away, and one of the wheelchair gals requests that all the time. The whole table where she sits was singing along.

I had too much to do today so did not make my normal salad to take for my lunch. So today, I had spaghetti and meat with a helping of a mixed green salad (complete with Spinach) that I’m supposed to avoid because of its high Vitamin K effect on my blood thinner Coumadin, a bowl of fruit, and piece of peanut chocolate cake, with fruit punch.

Cut John’s hair this afternoon starting after 4:00. It looks pretty good, although he has a slight wing on the left. The haircut needed to be done sooner.

We had leftovers of Meatloaf from John’s homemade supper last night, ½ ear of corn, and a tomato (he bought some today), and we shared 3 apricots. Then for dessert, brownies and ice cream.

Thursday, July 11

Washington Trails will start a summer fund raiser, called Hike-A-Thon (in August). The idea is to support a friend, and for each mile the person hikes, you give money. I checked for Kara Chin’s email with details of her Hike-A-Thon plans. I found it and donated. We think John first met Kara in 2003.
Kara sets up a page using the name Unicorn Banana Slug: Kara’s cute campaign
See Kara and read about her (10th down) here: WTA Staff
[ Search via images for ‘banana slug washington’ to see the variety of this famous critter. It is also a very strange beast and you may, or not, want to follow up on this creature. ]

We had a good bunch at Meadows Place this afternoon for music. Folks playing included: Katie Eberhart (from Bend, OR, accordionist), Nancy, Charlie, Gerald, Marilyn & Maury, Evie, Dean, Amy, Anne, Minerva, Laura (bringing friend Karen for the audience).
We did not have a large audience, but they were coming and going and those who stayed were very grateful. The acoustics in the building and with the wooden floors in the dining room, it carries the sound down the hallways, and residents can hear our music from their rooms.

Needed to work on the new camera to charge its battery. That took a long while. I finally read through the buttons and description and have a pretty good idea of where everything is, but I do not have a complete understanding of the finer points of taking videos and stills. Apparently, I can take one type of video (not the Creative Video type), and as I’m recording the video, I can make still photos. That is really going to be neat for PowerPoint videos, to capture the speaker’s voice as well as taking individual photos on the fly. My first goal this afternoon was to install the lens cover with the prevent-loss strap connected to the camera. Battery has to be charged, also.

When I began disassembling the box of stuff that came today only a half hour before I arrived home about 4:15, I got out the camera, instruction manual, battery, 64 Gig storage card, and looked at the tripod and saw a mini tripod I did not expect to be in the mix. We ordered extra batteries with a charger, which we are scheduled to receive tomorrow in our regular postal mail. Finally, I realized after reading the manual that I could charge it through my external AC plug in electrical outlet or use the end of the adapter’s USB to plug into my laptop computer for charging. That’s a very nice option, and one I may well have had with my old Nikon, but never realized. So my new camera is sitting next to me on a table charging its battery. Once it is charged, and only then, can I experiment with taking photos and videos.

Friday, July 12 Our 50th anniversary!

We went today to a program with lunch at the AAC (Senior Center) for the going away party for our two AmeriCorps representatives for 10 months, and to celebrate our own anniversary, by trying out my new camera. Took photos and one video on the new camera, and will use the rest of the afternoon and evening to figure out how to transfer them to my laptop. It didn’t get figured out until tomorrow afternoon, as we were leaving for dinner at the Cottage Café.Deborah Boudreau, Roxanne Laush, Katrina Douglas

Katrina Thanks AmeriCorps Reps 7-12-2019

Here is the link to the stills from today

We will include in this blog a photo of us on our anniversary day, taken at the Ellensburg Adult Activity Center (our Senior Center), with the first anniversary gift we received from our cousins in PA, Ethel, her daughter Pat, and husband Ken, who were married 7/8/67.

July 12, 2019. Foreground is the gold plated hanging heart, engraved with our names and July 12, 1969 on the back. Dahlias John grew. Background Aloha banner for upcoming Luau event. Thanks to David Douglas for taking this photo of us on our new camera.

Roxanne took the flowers so John has promised Katrina a new batch next week.

We came home to find flowers and two boxes of chocolates at our front door in a paper bag.Left was what we found. Right John opened & photographed. The flowers are Flowering Kalanchoe, Dracaena, and some sort of miniature ivy. Attached to the Flowering Potted Plants was a special card to two lovebirds, with a nice note, signed, Caitlin & Rebekah. We also received some special cards from back in PA and OH, and are grateful for them. I received one on Facebook from a member of our musical group. I did not announce it on FB, but might a few days late. We received a bunch of emails. Thanks to all!

Saturday, July 13

Celebration continued for dinner tonight.John, Nancy, Jack, Sharon at the Cottage Café, Cle Elum, WA

Slept in till 9:00 a.m. and spent the morning trying to figure out getting the images from the new camera to my laptop. I wasted tons of time yesterday trying, and finally found a Panasonic site late last night with access to register my camera and need to fill out the paperwork on the 3-year Warranty request. John helped me get the necessary paperwork for that. I needed the purchase receipt and the bar code/serial number on the box it arrived in. I had to upload images of those last two, along with filling in another bunch of information about the owner, address, email contact, and phone.

We both had a lot of computer correspondence to do before brunch, but then had a nice one of eggs, sausage, orange slices, and toast.

The Carpathian walnut trees got water today from the ditch. John moved it (the water) about every 7-10 minutes. There are 7 trees just east of the house. I worried with getting the photos and video off the camera. We were to leave for Cle Elum for dinner with Sharon and Jack Jenson. Finally, an hour before out-the-door time, I succeeded. While we were gone I left the computer running to send up a huge file (over a gigabyte) to YouTube, for the one video taken Friday. I must learn the best way to lower the megapixels and decrease the size of the videos, or I will never be able to record an hour lecture as I’m used to doing for music or for Geology lectures. I also must find a source in Ellensburg, where I can take my external drive and preferably connect through my laptop to use Fiber Optic cable instead of DSL. DSL is way too slow.

We made it to Cle Elum to the Cottage Café for dinner 20 minutes ahead of our meeting time of 6:00 p.m. and pulled in at the same time as Sharon and Jack. So, we walked in together. We had a nice visit and then ordered. We shared a bottle of Pinot Grigio, a white wine from the Veneto region of NE Italy. Dinner and wine, and a small potted rose bush, were compliments of the Jensens. We assumed this is to be appreciated now, as a house plant, and not likely to be winter hardy.

So, here you will see the meals close-up, and the flowers.Top, Sharon’s salad & wine, John’s Black & Blue**, Middle, Nancy’s chicken mushroom soup, Sharon and Nancy both had Turkey platters, and bottom, Jack had Meatloaf platter.
**Salad with steak, black beans, and blue cheese dressing.

Enough food we brought half home.

Finally, the plant gifts.Tiny, pretty roses and I didn’t get sharp focus. Tripod? (Nancy’s comment: I was reach up over my head and unable to focus or even see the view I was taking from above). I should have put it down on the ground to take the photo. Also, this shot of the pot of flowers from Caitlin and Rebekah was taken by John outside, and doesn’t show the Dracaena and Ivy very well, so look above to the day it arrived.

Sunday, July 14

We both slept in this morning, I relaxed a little longer than John because he beat me to bed last night.
We both started with a morning of correspondence and then he and Annie and the cats went out to walk. He watered onions. Some of the tops are starting to fall, but most are still growing. When 85-90% have fallen it will be harvest time.

We had a nice brunch, our usual, but with some apricots.
Each of us continued on our projects. I’ve interspersed telephone calls and emailing in with the blog creation.

Now John is back out feeding horses, and exercising the dog (& cat, who goes along, and sometimes with two other of the outside cats). He cut some brush along our north fence line.

Now breaking to spend time on the photos from this weekend, because I didn’t have enough time before needing to publish this.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Sunday, Jun 30
You already heard about this day’s activities in last week’s blog, but we finally did publish the blog for the last week of June at 11:19 p.m.

Monday, July 1

We left before 9:00 for our first stop with my laptop at the ComputAbility place in Ellensburg. Savannah was going to install the power bar to make the on-off switch work. It worked and she called us at 12:10 to come pick it up. We ate first. I checked it, and it worked perfectly! Thank goodness. Paid my bill in cash (saving 3%, and also got a senior discount of 10%). The total was $75.43. I had already paid last week for the ordered part, ~ $32, so it’s now repaired and I’m very happy.

From there we went in John’s Crosstrek to Les Schwab to have the tires rotated. That took only a few minutes and was free. I grabbed a bag of popcorn in the waiting room, and barely got my laptop running before they called us. Then we left for Super 1, for John to get a head of cauliflower, bacon, and sausage. I sat in the shade and called people to check if they would play at the Senior Center on July 5; count needed for the food preparers.

Also talked with a friend on the road, and she will be calling to estimate her arrival time in Ellensburg. We will meet her in town for supper and a visit. She called sooner than I expected, so we drove to town and met her at 5:00 p.m. Just got home at 7:00. Tired of all the driving to town today (three times)! But it was a worthwhile trip and a great visit.

We have at least two trips to town tomorrow as well. Wishing that gasoline prices were lower.

Tuesday, July 2

We have to be at the eye doctor at 9:15 this morning. I must take my list of medications along with me, because one of the heart medications I take can mess with the surface of the cornea. So far, no problem and I’ve been on it since 2010. We both had good reports with no problems with our eyes and no need for new glasses. We drove two cars so John could drive his Crosstrek to Yakima’s Stewart Subaru to have its 7,000 mile service (cabin air filters were quite dirty) and cost a lot to replace; also had them check out the problem with his telephone not connecting to his Bluetooth, after it has done it successfully for over a year.

John received help with his phone connection which worked there, and then stopped working for a few days, wouldn’t work Friday when he was on the road to WTA trip, but then started working on Sunday, when he was on the same WTA trail. He made a call to home using voice commands, and I am able to call him. Stored numbers in “outgoing calls” appear to have disappeared. Back to the manual.

On my way home I went by the Ellensburg Community Clothing Center (ECCC) with a huge bag of clothing and a box of shoes from another EBRG resident; while there, I traded a shirt from last Saturday’s gifting for one the right size. It was hung on a hanger over an M but was very small needing to be on the small rack. I returned the M sleeveless blouse because it was such a perfect match. I also traded for two pairs of socks for me, because the ones I brought home for John, he did not want. Drove by another house to deliver clothes and picked up some for donation to the Ellensburg Community Clothing Center (ECCC). One more place I picked up 3 bags of clothing, and have gone through one of the 3 to sort out what goes to other friends, to me, or to the ECCC as a donation. Still have two large garbage bags unopened in my car. There is a lot of excess stuff in people’s homes. The ECCC keeps some of it from going, early, to a landfill.

I came home and worked on various computer projects (sending jobs out to the jobs list I manage), and creating an emailing group list to send to folks who attended the End-Of-Year Geography awards ceremony, back on May 21. That’s been way too long in getting to them, and still has not been completed.

We are going back to town to The Palace to meet with our friend from Olympia for supper. She and I will both have Cobb Salads (my favorite meal there). I requested Iceberg lettuce for mine), and John will have a Country Fried Angus steak dinner. It came with a generous portion of butternut squash, gravy, baked potato, and hot rolls. The Cobb salad had a large amount of Blue Cheese crumbles, with bacon, avocado, turkey, tomatoes, hard boiled eggs, cucumbers I gave to Jen, and we both chose Blue Cheese dressing. I brought almost half home, and put the toppings left into fresh Iceberg lettuce, some new blue cheese dressing, and added cubed smoked turkey and cubes of apples. I had drained out all the liquid left and removed the soggy lettuce. It made a very nice salad start for my lunch at the food bank on Wednesday.Friend Jennifer with Nancy by historic photos; John, Jen, & me near the old gasoline pump in the Palace Café in Ellensburg. Old implements (e.g., logging) and photos provide the visuals of “The Palace.”

Wednesday, July 3

We played our normal “Lunch Bunch” music for the FISH Food Bank, from 11:45 to 12:15, and then we eat so they can start clearing off the tables and washing dishes before 1:00. Most of the crowd is done eating and out by 12:30. I fixed my salad with John’s help to take to the food bank. Took two bags of clothing there for Evelyn and for Joanie to evaluate.

I managed to come home and wash clothes mostly for John. His black Carhartt pants needed cleaned so he could iron on a patch to cover a frayed area – front thigh.

I got out the email announcement for next week’s July 10th meeting of the retired geographers group. News out, and we have a special cake being baked (carrot) by another member of the group (Mary Ann) for our oldest geographer’s 95th birthday that day. Carrot cake is Dee’s favorite cake.

Finished work on music for Thursday and got Katrina’s help with Friday’s – needed 25 copies (I printed and numbered and sent PDFs for her to make copies). What a relief. It took me 2 hours to get that done, and would have been a ton of extra work to run 13 pages back to back, staple, and have for Friday with all the other stuff going on.

Stacy received my requests and nothing changed on needing 7 chairs for Thursday. I also notified folks and we were able to get elderly friends Bernice Orcutt and Arlane Nesmith there in the audience.

John fixed beef stew with meat from our neighbor (in our freezer for probably 5 years). Although old, it was very well wrapped and in good shape. He added all sorts of veggies, and with it, we had the 3 leftover rolls from The Palace last night. I cut them into toast size widths and toasted them in the toaster, & buttered with whipped butter the restaurant sent along.

Thursday, July 4 Happy Independence Day!

John, Czar, and Annie walked to the end of the driveway to hang our flag. Wind is blowing today, so that will be nice. I stayed behind and just finished loading all the dishes I started this morning, cleaning off the counter, and making ready for frying our bacon for brunch.

Our brunch was nice: John made a large pancake with pecans and we had syrup and strawberries on top, I had two eggs, and we both had bacon. John started it in an iron pan, and I crisped it between paper towels in the microwave.

I also tried on my patriotic pants for today and tomorrow with my vest, and they fit just fine. Joanie altered my vest last year to match my smaller size. She originally found the vest in a thrift store and bought it for me quite a few years ago. I wear it for all patriotic music events, including Veterans’ Day at the senior center. Today, I’ll be dressing in my sequined flag vest and garb to play music at the Rehab center where I “rehabbed” in 2010 for 7 weeks.

Today, we had 7 players there to play our July music which is full of patriotic songs.

I stopped by Briarwood to use their restroom, and show off my July 4th outfit to the folks there in the recreation center. Only two were there: Kelly and Connie. We had a nice visit and I read the flyer on their door about the party on Main St. in Kittitas, WA for the 4th celebration, where friend Amy Davison is doing face painting for the day. Normally, she would be playing music with us. Tomorrow, she and Haley will be with us at the AAC (senior center) celebration.

I went in the back way by the Kiva in the park and found a parking space a half block away from the closed part of Main St. I checked in, and was lucky to find the face-painting the second table into the bunch. I took some videos and pictures of her stand and work, and visited with some of the kids and parents I videotaped, to get their email to send them my captures. I was able to talk briefly with Haley and Dustin, and Amy (but she was pretty busy painting without time to visit). Dustin brought some tacos and I know she was happy to see food arriving. I left before she paused from her painting. She probably had to take bites between painting. Wow, she is so talented.

Video and photos:

Permission granted by parents for youngsters posted here.Fire-breathing Dragon (Davonte is recipient) – Amy painter

Click on underlined title below for watching the video:

Fire-Breathing DragonPhotos of Davonte’s appreciation.

Photos only of Deshawne’s Shark on his face below. I knew the woman there with the boys, so I asked permission to publish the video (of Davonte) and the photos for Deshawne. My friend, Jeanie, contacted their mom for permission; it was granted. This is Deshawne with his beginning shark and ending shark.
I am sorry I don’t have a video of his face painting by Amy.

More photos of Kittitas 7/4 celebration:Preplanning Painting-Haley & Dad, Dustin-then at the event

Ending the Kittitas, WA Fourth of July celebration were fireworks in the city park. Where Evie Schuetz took this “windy” funny picture of fireworks.Taken at Palmeiro Park in Kittitas on a very windy night in the valley.

From there I came on home to attend to things to do before tomorrow.

One thing was to get John to meet me at the end of the driveway to take my photo with our flag, with me in my patriotic garb. Flag not still much in the winds. Couldn’t decide my favorite. Left shows the whole flag, but the right’s nice with wraparound.

Reading up for tomorrow at the Senior Center 4th BBQ Day Late Celebration.

Charged batteries in old camera for video, intending to film the whole ½ hour performance. Charged battery and deleted much on the Nikon, for still pictures.

Wrote the group for tomorrow; wrote the Emeriti group, vacuumed the horse purse, hoping for no fireworks close by to upset Annie. We lucked out. John’s in bed to leave early in the morning.

Friday, July 5

John left at 6:40 a.m. for a WTA work party today at the Granite Mountain trail just west of Snoqualmie Pass. ( Link ) He will go back on Sunday. They are cleaning old drainage ditches and digging a few new ones. Rocks and roots that seem to be the worst tripping hazards are removed and the tread resurfaced.

I was concerned that it was going to be hot outside for our playing music at the late BBQ lunch celebrating the 4th, but we did not have it outside. Found out once we arrived, that it was changed. We ended up with 11 players, and went inside the building because it was too hot on the asphalt and in the sun for the audience. The canopy was also small, and I doubt we would all have fit under it. Inside the Adult Activity Center was nicely air-conditioned comfort. They had a grill outside for the hamburgers, and we went inside to put our instruments and music stands up, and then took a seat at the serving tables. Our music group was fed first. A good meal – cheeseburger (grilled by David Douglas), on bun with lettuce, large slice of tomato, condiments, chips, homemade baked beans mixture garbanzo, white, & other w/ham & bacon (made by Katrina Douglas), cut watermelon, and an ice cream sandwich.

We didn’t start the music until 12:15 p.m. and a large audience sang along with 13 songs. The 13th was “Take Me out to the Ball Game” and our little 6 yr. old mascot, Haley, joined the group on the front row to belt out the song, 3 times (once for every strike). The audience and players were delighted with her entry and performance. The last song is always the most moving part of the patriotic celebration – when everyone stands and salutes the flag, while singing the National Anthem—acapella.

From AAC camera 7-5-19 celebration of July 4

AAC July 5, 2019 on Nancy’s camera

I left there for a stop at Briarwood to ask about Betty (who sends home to John cookies she makes for our music at Briarwood on the 3rd Saturday every month). She actually finally got to meet him in person last month. She is in the hospital, but I have to contact a neighbor to find out. The woman in charge couldn’t give out the information, and hadn’t even heard that Betty was in the hospital. There are 4 Bettys living there. I think if she’d give me the last names, I would have been able to identify the right one, when I heard the names. I know one other of the women.
 
I had to put in all my medications for the week. While doing that I realized 3 needed refilled after this week’s container is emptied. Took care of 3 of my prescriptions this evening at Super 1: Spironolactone & Lasix; Safeway: Warfarin (5 mg halved) for 45 (3 month’s supply) and I also ordered from Safeway, John’s Tamsulosin hci 0.4 mg cap. This is the last refill via Dr. Wood, so we need to request a new one from Chelsea Newman.

Leftovers for supper: meatloaf, mashed potatoes, cauliflower with cheese, and pears.

Saturday, July 6

Message from Super 1 our meds are ready for pickup… will get Monday or Tuesday.

I slept in and have been working on a letter of reference to get out today. This for a student that left here many years ago. I literally spent most of the day on it, but it is done and all is well. Now to get to the other deadlines waiting.

John is home today, but leaves tomorrow for more WTA work at Granite Mountain, where he was yesterday. This is a day of rest for both of us, but he’s currently out doing morning chores, including some watering. He mowed the strip between the road and our fence. The grasses are turning brown and dry – now there is a bit of fire resistant “moat” next to the public road.

I tried working on the blog until late, and went to bed very late.

Sunday, July 7

John left ~ 6:35 a.m. for the WTA work crew at Granite Mountain (same as Friday’s trip). I had him try his cell phone to get back to me this morning on his way out of the valley. He actually got it to work in a strange manner through voice commands. I called him back and so we agreed I would call him after 3:30 p.m. to see where he was on the trip home. Now that he’s home, I realize I should have had him try to call me through his normal way of dialing. He leaves tomorrow morning for Yakima to have his ignition switch repaired, so I will remind him to try again without voice recognition but just the normal switch he uses to see my name Nancy-Home or Nancy-Cell.

After our morning conversation, it was still early, so I decided to lie back down and get some more rest after staying up until almost 12:30 a.m. I did, but woke up about 8:30 a.m. with a horrible nightmare, raging headache, including a way too high blood pressure figure. So, I took a heart medication, put a cold compress on my head, drank cool Gatorade, and laid back down to rest and hopefully feel better. I went back to sleep until 10:00 a.m. Thankfully, my headache was gone, and blood pressure down a little (still relatively high), so I slowly began my day. I didn’t feel like eating until almost 1:00 p.m. I got better as the day went on and my BP stabilized.

John’s trip home (I-90 east) was fine, but the folks heading west toward Puget Sound were in a stop-n-go situation, adding more than an hour of travel time. The choke-point begins just east of Cle Elum when the road from Wenatchee joins the interstate.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan