Keeping track

Item #1: Extra legs

The comb-crested Jacana

We know this is male because “Once the female lays the eggs she disappears and goes off partying with other males and leaves the male to incubate the eggs.”
That’s not nice.
However, the males seem to be quite smart. Having sensed his chicks were in danger, he tucked them under his wings and carried them around. The chick’s dangling legs are about all one can see of them. At one site, this is described as the male signals to the chicks and the chicks will disappear under his wings. That is, they tuck themselves.
How many chicks do they have at a time? How big can they be and still get under there? Do they push each other around in the process?
So many questions.

Item #2: RIP Ron Joyce

He was 88. The story begins in Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia where the French River meets the embayment of the Waugh River flowing into the Bay. Born in 1930, and leaving at age 15, Roy had a long and interesting life. His first food action was in owning a Dairy Queen.
He was the first franchisee of Tim Horton’s coffee shops, and when the baseball player was killed in a car crash, Ron eventually bought out the owners and began an expansion.
The story is here: Canadian above all else
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Item #3: Ice
Note: Sister Peggy lives near Cleveland.
This funny looking map has some things on it you can ignore.
The interesting part is the patch of blue between Erie and Buffalo. I almost missed Cleveland at the lower left.
Over the past few days, with intense cold in the region, that blue patch has been getting smaller. Today, February 1st, that bit of blue disappeared. Lake Erie surface water is more than 90% covered by ice, that’s the red. Likely now that the wind has dropped and changed direction, the roughness of the water has dropped and the broken ice will fill in to total. The wind change was at about 6 PM on Thursday. But temps are rising fast.
The significance of this for Cleveland and Erie is (a) Lake Effect snow will not be happening (until open water comes back), and (b) the water is not there to help moderate the temperature, so no help from that direction. That won’t matter much.
The wind – very little tonight – is more from the south, temperatures are rising, and will be in the low 50s by Monday.
Other places in the mid-West have had much colder temperature than Cleveland, and will have about a 70 degree change – Wednesday night (30th) to Sunday afternoon.

Here on the Naneum Fan, our weather is getting colder. After Monday, we won’t get above freezing for a week.
Seattle may get snow.
South Lake Tahoe may get 3 feet. Friends there.

Item #4: Not so nice

Washington’s Clark County – southwest near Portland OR – is the center of a measles outbreak. As of today, there are 42 confirmed cases and 7 more being investigated. So far it is known that 37 (with 31 under age 10) were not immunized.
Visitors to the area have now carried the disease back to Hawaii.
State law is permissive about vaccinations. Perhaps, that policy is going to change.
A bill was introduced to the WA House

Item #5: incongruity?
I’m not sure I’ve got the correct word, but close enough. Back in March of 2000, a British newspaper had an article with this in it:

However, the warming is so far manifesting itself more in winters which are less cold than in much hotter summers. According to Dr David Viner, a senior research scientist at the climatic research unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia,within a few years winter snowfall will become “a very rare and exciting event”.
“Children just aren’t going to know what snow is,” he said.

Since then there have been several UK winters with severe weather — with snow.
The latest is this week.
Snow to continue

So the question is, when David Viner said “within a few years”, what did he mean? What’s your definition of “a few”?

The video at the link shows a snowy road in Basingstoke. This is a town about 40 miles southwest of London.
Part of the problem is that, in fact, these areas do not get much snow, and do not prepare for it the way, say northern cities in the U. S., would do.

And that, for this week, is the not so nasty news.
John

Sunday, Jan 20 Total Lunar Eclipse

John’s working on editing my addition to the blog, after feeding and walking the cats and dog.

Brunch of eggs, sausage, oranges, strawberries, and toast.

I managed to publish the blog at 2:37 p.m. while John napped. He does the majority of tasks required to publish it. He edits my treatise, and then I proof his; he puts that text into WordPress commands, adds the photos, and I proof again, mainly for spacing and checking links.

We experienced an exciting night watching the solar eclipse when the clouds parted. We only had a 15% chance of seeing it, and we saw the whole show. We were on the phone with a friend and her son watching from their house window in Ellensburg. We had to step out on our porch. Other friends lower in the valley were not as fortunate and had a near ground fog.

Here is an awesome photograph by Lise McGowan from her vantage point in Badger Pocket, southeast of us, at an elevation of 1965’. We are at 2240’ on the opposite side of the valley.Permission granted to publish on our blog. More to come below.

Monday, Jan 21 MLK Day

This morning before I was up at sunrise, Lise McGowan, was watching the full moon set in the valley and captured this awesome photograph: (top) with my sunrise on the bottom tier.
Top photo by Lise McGowan; looking west toward Mt. Rainier
bottom by Nancy; looking southeast toward Denver

Staying home today to tend to projects. Filing first. Empty dishwasher. I paid the annual Long Term care insurance bill, Natural History bill with a new provider to save $10/yr.

John made a brunch of omelet (ham, cheese, red & yellow peppers, mushrooms), & home fries, with toast.

I sent out a message about Hearthstone, seeking count for chairs. Checked gas prices. Otherwise, a slow day.

Tuesday, Jan 22

We went by 7-11 to find the gasoline price for $2.57. We got it and saved money (3 ₵/gallon), over buying in Yakima at Costco, very unusual.

From there we went by the Church Community Clothing Bank to trade my size 6 men’s boots for the size I tried on that fit, size 8. They were no longer still there, so I’m hoping another pair will be donated later. I left the smaller ones there. See below, Saturday.

We headed to Yakima for the 6,000 mile service on the Crosstrek.
I went by Bi-Mart to check numbers and get some Tussin DM max. John’s “travel box” has knife and scissors so he got the plastic safety wrap off when we got to the Subaru dealer. I took a dose there. I’m getting better, but still have the lingering cough.

After the non-event car gig, we went to Costco for lunch, and to pick up a 10-pack of blue shop towels for a neighbor, and found Ziploc bags on sale, so got a box each of 2 types.

From the rest area on the hill, I called the lady who had some new underwear to give me. She lives a few miles south of Kittitas on Cleman Rd. She was ready at her front door to hand me the bags, and I met her for the first time and thanked her. There are nine pairs of panties: 4 cotton and 5 nylon ones. They are brand new—never been used I don’t know the rest of the story. We almost bought a house on that road, back in 1989.

Almost home through the snow, approaching our driveway, we saw a Bald Eagle in a tree. The first photo I made was from the car when John backed into the driveway. The snow on his back is obvious. Then we made a circle in a neighbor’s drive and slowly came back. I got a photo from the other direction. The snow was hitting my camera lens, and if we zoom in on the high resolution image, his right eye looks cloudy, or maybe I caught him blinking. We’ll never know.John altered the color on the left, trying to get his head to show against the cloudy sky.

It’s 8:00 and probably has snowed two inches. Hopefully, it won’t keep snowing until tomorrow morning. I have to leave at 10:50 for the Food Bank music.

Wednesday, Jan 23

Another EvieMae photo:North side of Craig’s Hill this morning by Evie Schuetz. This hill is a high point in Ellensburg, remaining from a 10 Million year old riverbed surface. It has interweaving silts, sands, and gravels.

John was up early shoveling and cleaning the snow from things.

Food bank & SAIL were on my agenda today.

We played our music and ate. Then on my way to exercise class, I stopped by a family’s house and picked up a large bag of bubble wrap I will give to a neighbor a few miles south and east of here. Also picked up my prescription at Super 1 and a head of lettuce. Then by the bank to deposit two checks. 25 years ago we were in the bank about twice a week. Now it’s twice a year.

I came home to work on a few projects, and at 5:00 p.m. I was so tired, I lay down for a power nap, and slept an hour.

John fixed leftover meatloaf, potatoes, and carrots, and added butternut squash to the mix for supper.
He went to bed before I did. I am ready to go now.

Charged up my Nikon and Exilim camera batteries for tomorrow.

Thursday, Jan 24

Checked the battery on the voice amplifier; it’s fine. Charlie will use it to lead the singing and call out the names of the songs.
This afternoon is Hearthstone music; 12 people are coming.

Tonight is Nick Zentner’s 3rd Premiere of “Nick on the Rocks”, his ~4/5 minute series describing landscapes of Washington. Our planning (feeding animals and ourselves) for the day had to include getting to CWU before a long line formed.
I stopped by on the way home for an Angus steak from the Palace that we shared for supper. It was the restaurant’s birthday gift to John; having to be claimed before next Thursday.

John just sent this link below to his sister in Ohio and a cousin in PA. This is about the cold approaching Chicago. I wonder how it will be when that air gets to Ohio & PA. Expected in the first week of February.

LINK: Cold coming

He’s been looking at cold temperatures predicted next week, and it will be very low and moving on to the east. We once knew a person with an outhouse for his bathroom in Fergus Falls, MN where it will be -36°F, next week.

Our major event this week is displayed below in full from my old Exilim camera on a tripod we carried to the viewing. The whole proceeding was over an hour. Below are shorter segments for each of the six “programs”, that have me trying to get better views.The entire evening: (pull the start back to the beginning)

Nick Zentner: Season 3, Premiere, Nick on the Rocks

We made it to the SURC to Nick Zentner’s 3rd Premiere, Nick on the Rocks.  I drove my car with my Emeritus Parking sticker, my retirement gift in place of a gold watch, and worth more and much more useful for going on the CWU campus for events. We got to the beginning of the line for the doors to open at 7:00 p.m.

I was planning on videotaping with two cameras, one on a tripod and one handheld.  It was with Nick’s permission and happiness, because he shares my stuff with his mom back in Wisconsin who otherwise would be in the audience. I spoke to him at the start before the proceedings began, and he told me how much his mom appreciated the gift. It also helps Nick and the producers to hear the audience feedback from each program segment.

We had set up the tripod in the back of the room, and I planned to sit on the back row of seats that is up on a riser with my other camera I would handhold to follow Nick around the room to speakers with questions and comments for him to answer as well as to capture each separate program.

I turned on the camera on the tripod at the start, and handheld my other for capturing the comments prior to the lights dimming and the previewing of the PBS TV short pieces, averaging ~5 minutes. My intent was to isolate the Q & A after each segment.

The first part was the longest as it included Linda Schactler’s nice introduction to the PBS series and to Nick. He then introduced the first program and both are on the first segment, which lasted for 12 minutes.

When I stepped back to sit in my chair (in the upstairs theater on the back right row). I missed the step up to my chair and fell on my left arm. I jammed it into my shoulder. The tripod camera kept filming, but thankfully there was no noise and I was not in the view.   My other camera was in my right hand and didn’t get hurt. I kept filming with my right hand only, because my left arm would no longer reach up. That meant I could not drive home, but John took over the duties.

Linda Intro & Nick–Ice Age Mystery of Lake Lewis

Q & A on Lake Lewis

Steamboat Rock & drone, Buddy

Q & A on Steamboat in the Desert

The Goldilocks Miracle of the Palouse

Q & A on Palouse w/ Chris Smart Again

Puget Sound Exotic Terranes

Q & A Exotic Terranes

Ghost Forest – Copalis River

Q & A Ghost Forest

More Q & A on Ghost Forest

Giant Ripples in the Scablands

I seriously doubt any of our blog readers want to get the full story of my LEFT shoulder diagnosis (severe arthritis), but if so here is the link back to September of 2016 when it was documented with photos discussing my situation and X-rays by Dr. Richard Roux with annotated pictures and all his discussion he allowed me to video and transcribe. I know I have a few new readers since this appeared.

“Bone-on-bone” by Orthopedic Surgeon”

I plan to request an appointment for a consultation this Monday, with Dr. Richard Roux, if I can get squeezed into his schedule. I am not better and need to have his opinion. Right now my arm is nearly useless, and painful. Maybe I need to go back to PT with Natalie Joyce for gentle stretching to regain my R-O-M.

Friday, Jan 25

Because of a miss-step last night, I’m staying home today with my injured shoulder. I cannot lift my left arm up to the front, and am unable to drive or do many normal living tasks.

So, today, I have cancelled all away from home activities. I’ll be missing the CWU Scholarship luncheon, the event at the AAC I was supposed to photograph, and was looking forward to joining in on the Wheel of Fortune game. The big wheel was constructed by the local high school shop class into a smaller version.

Here are photographs Roxanne sent me from the event, Wheel of Fortune; Game On! It was always my favorite game show and I wanted so much to be there.Another two of Evie Schuetz’s photos: Evie’s gorgeous colors of the twilight on the Stuart Range from Manastash Hill. It is 50 miles across to the mountains.The view an hour later.

Saturday, Jan 26

John did the morning livestock feeding and I took care of the cats.

I received an early email to come by the clothing center for a replacement pair of winter boots, that would replace the wrong size I returned this week. Luckily, my friend was going in to volunteer time this morning and picked them up for me.
Brunch was a pecan pancake with strawberries, egg, and sausage.

I continued working on video uploads, and other emails.

Gerald Gordon’s birthday today! And he has no email to receive an animated Jacquie Lawson card. So I called and sang,
♫♪♪♫♪♪ Happy Birthday, Gerald! ♪♪♫•**•..

Today’s Lise McGowan photo (Stuart Range behind)This is located on Umptanum Rd. Note there are white wind towers to the left of the barn, on the hillside behind.

For more information, check this link:

Over 100 Barn Quilts in Kittitas County

Lise’s description of her photo: I enjoyed my drive through the backroads of Kittitas Valley. Came across several of the Barn Quilts. The quilt pattern selected to be placed on the barn has a special family story telling of ranching and farming and the women who quilted. Lise presented the above link for her readers.

I knew the couple who started that project in our county. Jacky & Gary Fausett. I knew them through musical connections. Jacky played the Bass Fiddle and Gary a guitar. They honchoed a Bluegrass Jam Sunday afternoons at the Swauk-Teanaway Grange for two years, which I don’t believe I ever missed. John went along too, and we always donated cookies or fruit. The Grange provided the coffee and space. We also know some of the others who helped with the painting and hanging.

Sunday, Jan 27

Today has been a non-event day. John did some reading while I worked on this, and some other computer chores.
We have a piece of fancy carrot cake for desert, when we get this posted.

We are watching (on the computer) the cold air flow from the Arctic region, across Canada, and into the northern tier of States. Where sister Peggy lives, near Cleveland, the Wednesday night low is expected to be -11°F.
Ouch!

Hope your week was fine.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Sunday, Jan 13

We are staying home today. Finishing the blog late afternoon and left out writing about yesterday’s dinner, so I’ll tell you now. Last night we had a wonderful Crockpot Pot Roast that John started before 9:00 a.m. and we ate it (oh! So tender) 12 hours later. He put in tomatoes, a small white onion (his) for flavor, and carrots later in the afternoon. We had a broiled piece of sourdough roll with butter and Parmesan cheese and slices of Gravenstein apples we got from Bob & Suzy West in Yakima.

This morning I was doing several morning chores on the computer and found the link (below under the picture) to the quarterly program for the Ellensburg Adult Activity Center (AAC) – our “Senior Center” open to folks over 50, and younger for people in need of exercise, or wheelchair bound. $40 a year is the best deal in the country for such centers, and we have the best! Normally, the paper copy hangs on our refrigerator for reference, but this will be handy for my access on the computer.

Several of our music group made it into the Program for Jan – Apr, 2019. This was from our playing patriotic music at the Veterans’ Day Recognition program.A few members of the Fiddlers & Friends are in the lower photos on the program page.

Click on the link below, and Go to page 6 to reach the AAC program for January through April.

Quarterly Activities & Events-AAC

Monday, Jan 14

This cactus is one of three that Nancy Thompson Small has in Christmas, FL. We were school buddies from long ago. Her father owned the business next door to my home on Piedmont Rd. in Atlanta, GA. The office was Thompson & Street, Contractors, housed in a big old house where we had families living, previously. We enjoyed them. Their front yard became a parking lot, and the house was on an incline above ours. Memories.

I notified our music group about adding “That’s Amore” to the end of our playlist for Jan/Feb, and I sent out the request for a fast return of planned attendance. For once, I have responses before the last minute. Planning for armless chair count is getting more difficult with more players in the group. Some places we are quite limited on space.

I was not feeling well enough this morning to go to the Silver Sneaker’s exercise class, so stayed home and had lunch before we drove to town to the foot doctor. That’s on a 3-month schedule, only on Mondays, because that’s the only day of the week the staff of Cascade Foot & Ankle drives up from Yakima.

Tuesday, Jan 15

We drove to Yakima again this week to have my Subaru serviced for oil & lube, the first activity in a long day.

We left home at 9:15 for Stewart Subaru, and actually got there through the fog and frozen frost (providing pretty road scenes) by a little after 10. They took us in early and it was a good thing, because north of Brickmill Rd on our way in, a special I (for information) light came on the dash display in yellow in my 2014 Forester, saying “Hill Start Assist Light is on.” We were stopping at a stop sign on a flat surface, so had no clue what it was trying to tell us. John was driving my car. We left it running so they could see what the notice said. It turned out to be a “failed brake light switch” that manages several things on an automobile. Luckily, our warranty covered the replacement part, diagnosis, and technical support. Such work can cost over $100. Our oil change, lube, multi-point inspection, and tech services are covered on our contract every 6-7,000 miles. The only added cost we have had to pay is for replacing inside air filters, but none were needed this round.

We went on to Costco for shopping for only a few items, having been there last Tuesday. We had lunch and then came home by way of a stop at the rest stop on Manastash Hill, for a view of the beautiful hoar frost on the vegetation. We prefer calling it silver frost. You’ll see some of my photos and a video below. On the way into the rest area, I took the top photo through John’s window, and the bottom photo once he parked and I walked around for close-ups and also to capture the video below. A couple for memories with this as my favorite; don’t miss clicking on the video next.

Silver Frost – Manastash Hill Rest Area

This overlook provides viewing across Kittitas Valley and the Stuart Mountain range beyond, more than 50 miles. We went down the hill to Ellensburg for 3 stops. The stop with a present for us, was at Bi-Mart to check our membership card number. We didn’t win a big prize, but the last number of our membership is “1” and that gave us a bottle of apple/mango (100% fresh juice) non-alcoholic sparkling beverage for free, normally $2. Interestingly, while looking at the receipt I noticed I had gotten two more pair of socks in a different color from what I previously bought 3 days ago, and was charged full price for them. They were marked down to 50% off, and the sign was still there today, so I grabbed two colors I did not have. I was charged full price for them, and looked back at my old receipt to find the problem. I’ll take both socks (tomorrow) and a pair bought Jan 12 to show them to get my $2.99 refund. I should have been charged $1.50/pair.

It was a tiring day, but I’m finally home and sitting down with heat on my back and resting. I took some more of the cough syrup, Tussin DM Max, and we’ll see if it releases more phlegm. It’s still doing a good job, but I’m ready for it to be over and finished cleaning it out. John’s (sympathetic) cough has returned too, but his is not the same as mine. His is just a minor irritation at the top/back of his mouth cavity (aka, in Latin cavum oris. Who knew?

Now, John’s out to feed the horses, taking all the dog and cats along with him. They keep good track of him but stay away from the horses. He’ll probably go get the mail and paper, if it is there, and close the gate, to barely be back before dark.

Wednesday, Jan 16

I still need to finish the photos & AAC New Years Chinese videos and send to Google photos – needs an early morning send up before I leave at 12:45. It’s supposed to snow here 2 to 4”. We got at least 4”.

Today is music and lunch at the food bank. I arrived early in town to pick up a package of Oxygen Home Unit filters and cannulas donated by a friend in Thorp for a friend’s wife I was going to see today. I got a parking space in front of two of the staff cars, right at the front door. Took all my stuff in, checked in, and then went to retrieve the music stands and the chairs to set up. I had help from one of the staff there, because it was early enough that people weren’t yet checking in for lunch.

We started early so got in 40 minutes of music to an appreciative audience. We had several singers, two guitars, banjo, harmonica, and my fiddle, plus a client with drumsticks on a box. We are quite the group. Then afterwards we had lunch. I always take my own salad, but today, I had a cup of nice washed red grapes and a small piece of carrot cake, along with a cup of fruit punch. I passed on the pasta, bread, dark green salad, and packages of slivered almonds and cranberries. However, I delivered some of our candied Carpathian walnuts to two ladies (one is our banjo player), and the other had brought John a box full of almonds, still in their outer shells. The box was a Priority Mail box 6” on a side. She plans to bring more next Wednesday. John will probably shell them, and make Candied Roasted Almonds. That lady (Karen) was the winner at the AAC Christmas party of my gift for exchange, and you have previously seen her photo with the gift. She often comes to the FISH Food Bank to hear our music and eat lunch with us. She had told me several weeks ago how much she loved the candied walnuts and told Evelyn she wished she had some of hers left to share with her. So John had to make some more. He thinks there are about 3 pounds left from the 2017 crop in the freezer. The 2018 crop are in boxes, still. Shelling and freezing these is on the “to do” list.

He has been able to get outside some, and there is always something to do. He has taken some of the old Cottonwood pieces (fireplace size) up to the county road, piled it along the fence, and put a “Free Firewood” sign on a post. He has done this before – about 4 cart loads totaling about 16 cubic feet. Some local convenience stores sell small packages (<1 cu. ft.) for $5.99. Who buys that, and why is a mystery. Anyway, both times he has done this, the small pile is gone in about 3 days. He's got another batch to take.

Tonight we are alerted to possibly be receiving 2-4” of snow. I have to go play music tomorrow afternoon.

I left the Food Bank and went to the AAC for my SAIL class. I participated, including taking the test which will be retaken later to compare progress, on walking, standing from a sitting chair, doing a number of bicep curls with weights, and then filling in some paperwork, and responding to a survey on activities, and your habits related to balance and about things to prevent falling. We noticed there is a push in the medical community to raise awareness and counsel us old folks, so we don’t hurt ourselves.

From SAIL class, I went to the pharmacy and picked up my Entresto prescription, and turned in a new refill needed next week. Short stop by Bi-Mart to receive my over payment for socks yesterday. I was right; it was their mistake. I gave them two pennies and walked out with my $3.25.

Once home, I called Kittitas County public health for Tim Roth, about bacterial iron in our well. He was not in (sick), but they’re expecting him tomorrow. So, I’ll call in the morning and ask him the question about whether that is something we should worry about for our health. Our drinking water comes through a special filtering system under the sink. The gal that answered (I didn’t get her name), told me about coming by for a kit, to set up the test vial (from our faucet) for a lab in Yakima, and then we take it back to the health department before 11:00 daily for it to be sent by courier to the lab. It has a $25.00 charge. When we get the results, Holly in their office will review and tell us options we have. We know it is in the water system, so that’s not the question. The question is, is it a $6,000 problem – because that is what Culligan wants for an installed solution.

Thursday, Jan 17

We awoke to 4” of snow. John has shoveled pathways and the road should be plowed by the time I leave today for town. Birds in front and back are happily eating. Our wonderful neighbor, Allen, came down and plowed our 300’ driveway. What a gift! He backs in (twice) and drags the snow out. He was off to a neighbor’s place before we got out to thank him, so I did that on the internet. John has cleaned up the few spots the big tractor can’t get to.

Called my friend this morning, the nurse at the Kittitas County Health Department to ask about the bacterial iron in our well water. It is not detrimental to our health, and certainly not worth $6,000 to have Culligan set up a removal system to keep our toilet bowl from marking. John has been reading articles from several States about the problem.

Going in to Pacifica today. I plan to join the group only to play, not talk or sing which might start my coughing. Others in the group will handle the announcing and intros.
We had a large turnout of players: Nancy, Renee, Charlie, Evie, Amy, Kevin, Manord, Marilyn & Maury, Charlotte, Dean, Tim, and Minerva. Our audience was pleased to have us there and made many appreciative comments at the end.

Friday, Jan 18

I made an appointment for John’s Crosstrek 2016 for his regular oil change and lube, with a check over. That will happen next Tuesday. Brunch was a large pancake with blueberries and pecans, topped by strawberries, with sausage on the side.

I stayed home today to work on projects (getting license tabs, and paying bills), setting up Amazon purchase for a friend using our Prime card for free shipping, computer issues and resting to rid myself of this cough. The Tussin DM max still seems to be doing the job of getting the mucus from my lungs. John fed the horses, shoveled some snow off the roof over part of the patio to keep splashing onto the windows from happening.

I finished finally getting 3 videos and all pictures onto the Google Photos site today from the Jan 4th Chinese New Year’s Party. Here is the link.

Chinese New Year’s Party at the AAC, 1/4/19

Renewed Crosstrek license tabs. Emptied dishwasher.

Supper was a stew/soup with beef cooked for over 8 hours, carrots, lentils, onions, veggies, mushrooms, and Italian spices. I had Cheez-its on mine and he had Frito corn scoops on his. For dessert we had a piece of pecan pie.

Saturday, Jan 19

We plan to go to Briarwood, to drop me and all my stuff off, and then John will check out the CWU Surplus Sale and go get some groceries, while I’m playing music with 9 others from our crew. Then he’ll come back for a bowl of ham & bean soup, with salads and sides, cookies, fudge, lemon bars, and German-made Hazelnut Coconut Cream candies from the ladies to thank us for coming to play. I have no pictures of the food spread today, but it was substantial and colorful. We didn’t need any supper, but had to try the pie (see below) baked in the morning.

I have gotten a load of dishes finally started after several sink-fulls of soaking. Now working again on the blog and adding some touches to the music.
I just tried to do something with some music that went awry today, and found a problem with the key on a song we have been doing wrong for 3 weeks. I spent too much time tonight trying to figure it out so now I’m back, leaving it until after I finish my part of the blog.

We have a choice of two desserts tonight, one from yesterday (pecan pie) and a blueberry-apple pie John made this morning. I think we’ll have a sliver of each, and call it a night. And we will freeze the part of today’s left over after two pieces. John’s Blueberry- Apple creation:
Soft apples cut to the size of the blueberries, sugar and cinnamon glaze on top.

On our way to and back from town, and out in front of our neighbor’s house, we saw Bald Eagles in the trees. I did not have a camera along, so I’m ending with a photo collage from a friend south of town, Keith Kleinfelder of photos in his side yard.Photos by Keith Kleinfelder, south off Canyon Road.

Sunday, Jan 20

We awoke to a touch of snow overnight and now it’s coming down again. That’s about all, mostly it is just gray and slightly above freezing. Ground fog is around, but not here at home. We have no place to go today or tomorrow, so that’s a nice reprieve.

Hope your week was fine.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Today, I’ll start with a photo (the left one, below) sent to me by our bass guitar player, Sharon Jenson, from her husband, Jack — The view is of the Northeast Face of Mount Rainier and the White River Valley from 6,960 feet high Silver Queen Mountain (pictured above) near Crystal Ski Area. Jack likes to ski, and Crystal Mountain is the largest ski resort in the State and accessible from the Seattle area. Seattle is to the right from this line between the mountain tops.Silver Queen is 13.5 miles from the peak of Mount Rainier. A National Park road goes along the left of the river to about as far as it shows, then crosses and splits, going to 2 access points. The green hump in the middle with snow covering the top is called Goat Island Mountain. John has worked on trails within this area, including one coming up from the western base of the Ski Area. It reaches two small lakes, and is called Crystal Lakes Trail.
On the right (above), Rascal Cat is stalking Doug, the Douglas Squirrel having a breakfast of Black Oil Sunflower seeds. Doug is on the board, upper left. The squirrels are cute, small, noisy, and a pain. They store black walnuts in our insulation in the shed, and compete with John for his Carpathian walnuts, which we enjoy so much and don’t wish to share with him. Once they cleaned walnuts under the hood of one of our vehicles.

Monday, Jan 7

Awoke, still coughing. I will go to town today for a few errands, but our Silver Sneakers class doesn’t resume until Jan 14, so I will finish up the photos from the Chinese New Years’ party, put on a flash drive, and take by to the AAC for their records. I did that and captured the ones from their camera too. Found one with John in it that I missed. A bunch went outside to burn the paper on which they had written 2018/2019 notes. This seems to be a 3rd day event for the new year.

I drove by the Flying J to pick up boots and winter shoes Ann Draper gave me. I did need to go out the back patio door just before dark and my slippers have a hole in the bottom, so I used the black shoes. They were perfect, fit perfectly, and supported my foot in the yard and on the gravel. I’m anxious to try on the felt lined winter boots and the other green shoes. I’m sure they will be awesome, but I really don’t want to take all, or if so, I want her to let me know if she ever wants them returned. Upon follow-up contact, she told me to keep them all.
In return I gave her husband a pair of YakTrax I had so he could descend Manastash Trail when he was coming downhill on slippery slopes as a few days prior.

I see the new Dr. Kim, cardiologist, Tuesday. I have been working tonight to organize all my questions. I summarized values from a Basic Metabolic Panel. I don’t have records back to Nov 2017 to compare with the Uric Acid blood test from then. I have been working on medical record history from lab tests back to Mar 2018, at the local hospital KVH.

Tuesday, Jan 8

About an hour before heading out the door for Yakima, we got a call. The Heart Center had a cancellation – could we fill that slot? We said yes, and drove just a bit aggressively, as the roads were in good shape. We were lucky with the lights at 16th Avenue intersections. Got there 2 minutes early, rather than 2 minutes late. I had called to tell them how close we were and that we expected to get there just on time.

It was snowing here, and on the tops of the ridges, but slowed down for a small time, and then started back more. We got to Yakima with 2 inches of snow having fallen, and still snowing; Roads were wet. We made it in time, and while the travel both ways was unpleasant, the doctor’s visit was encouraging. I weighed the least I have weighed in a doctor’s office since June 2017. That was with my clothes on, but without shoes. I’m 5 pounds less than when we were married almost 50 years ago.

Below the photo will show why I am happy my doctors are not in Seattle, but instead in Yakima. Afternoon at the Pass. Often, when trucks skid and “jack-knife” like this one, other vehicles make contact. Then the road closes for a couple of hours while tow trucks clear the highway and police investigate.
This driver got off easy, and was soon on her/his way.
This is why we don’t schedule anything on the west side of the Cascade Crest from November to March.

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Wednesday, Jan 9

Mid-week we had fog, snow, and sleet. Some images resulted that are beautiful; here’s my favorite.Photo of Ellensburg CWU campus highlighted by Barge Hall; captured by EvieMae Scheutz from near her Auntie Gaye’s home on Craig’s Hill.

We left for the Old Geographer’s meeting at Hearthstone, this morning. Roads were pretty slick (worse near town because of last night’s sleet there). Just north of the Kittitas Hwy, a car was off the road (at Ferguson) from a failed turn. It was in a deeper ditch than we went in 4 years ago, and therefore at an acute angle. I wasn’t comfortable on the leaning side into the ditch (passenger side). At least the ditch didn’t have slimy water in it as it does this year, and we missed hitting a culvert by only a foot. That story was in a blog long ago, found here:

Click on the link and go to Tuesday to find the details of the ditch plunge.

2015 Ended in the Ditch

Today, we made it safely and so did several others (one walking, Mary Ann). Lillian, Ken, Carla, and Dee with daughter Cory. We call this the Emeritus Meeting, but two of the prior CWU professors have passed through the snowy gates, and we had 3 spouses and a daughter. [John thinks it funny that the term emeritus comes from Latin, and at the time of the Roman Legions, it meant a soldier too old or lame to be useful. In education, it means retired with distinguished service.]

Laurie at Hearthstone provided coffee and hot water for tea or Hot Chocolate. Thanks to Crystal, Activities Director, for setting it up. John and I brought cookies: chocolate chip and macaroons.

I cancelled all the rest of my normal Wednesday activities (going to Food Bank for music and SAIL exercise after), and we came home for me to rest and get well.

I washed some dishes and processed some photos, and have a few more yet to do. Talked to a couple of offices to set up and confirm future appointments. Set up a refill on a prescription for me and discussed halving pills and separating them, and not putting them all back in the same container. I hate that, even though I’m grateful for them to half pills for me that are not scored for easy breaking in half.

Am sending photos up to Google Photos for the White Heron Raclette event to get them all stored at one link for people to see.

I succeeded and you can click on this link:

Photos from Raclette at White Heron, 1-5-19

Thursday, Jan 10

Going in to Meadows Place today, probably just with the music and my camera. I won’t join the group but sit in the front row of the audience so as not to risk talking or singing; either starts me coughing. Others in the group will handle the announcing and song intros. We also may have too many people for the crescent circle.

Below on Friday is the description for this video of today’s music presentation for the folks in the Meadows Place Assisted Living Home. All there were pleased with the program.

It was interesting to have a couple of audience members, the gentleman from his walker, dancing in the rear of the audience.
Click the following link to see them dancing in the first song.

Video here starts near 8 minutes. Pull the button back to the left to start at the beginning.

Fiddlers & Friends at Meadows Place

Friday, Jan 11

I delivered some stuff with John’s help to Kittitas. Both deliveries were appreciated, but the results are found above, constructed by my friend EvieMae Scheutz, who transferred my 25 recordings yesterday into a complete video of our yesterday’s music. I was unable to do my usual “leading” so I carried in the music for 3 players, copies for the audience, and sat in the front row of the audience to take videos of the presentation. Evie manufactured them into one recording of the entire day, capturing the best 54 minutes of music.

I came home to recuperate and work on organization, and John did a few chores outside and inside. The cold and fog is not pleasant, and it is to last all week.

My organizing concentrated on records, and file folder copies of receipts. I made some progress, freeing up space in legal filing cabinets to house my data, and threw away (recycled) some educational materials left over from years of teaching. So much more yet to do. I boxed up some tapes with urban geography information to give to the prof now teaching the course. They have taken out the VCR players in the classrooms, and so I hope if some are usable historically, then they can be converted to DVDs. Projectors for color slides and overhead projectors for transparencies have also disappeared from academia.

Saturday, Jan 12

We got out of here before 9:00 to head to town for several errands. Most importantly, was looking for a pair of bedroom slippers for John and for me because both our soles have holes.

We began at the Methodist Church Community Clothing Store, but they had no slippers. However, I found a pair of men’s boots that fit me, John found an orange work shirt and a scarf, and then for me he found some more colorful (pink with purple) slippers with a higher back kind of like a boot, so when the cold air circulates on the floor in our house they may keep my legs a little warmer.
I have plenty of clothes, so I wasn’t looking at the clothes on the women’s side, but John was checking out things and found a small jacket with gorgeous embroidery on it.
I didn’t try it on, but I got it anyway, knowing I could give it to one of my friends. (Once home, I put it on. It is just a bit small, but I can wear it with a white blouse and not button.) Everything there is free. You are allowed 10 items (only two of the same thing) once a month for the family. We left with 7 items total and happily thanked everyone. I knew one of the volunteers there today, from the FISH food bank. When I walked in, (only my 2nd time there), I did not carry my Photo ID, but she recognized me and there was one other person in the “store” who knew me from playing music at Pacifica. John did have his, and that would have worked or I could have gone back to the car. My first time there was to obtain Christmas tops (you have seen through December blogs) to wear at music events and exercise classes.

This shows the long tops folded over, but such don’t seem helpful.
On to the Goodwill store, to check, but we found nothing that would work. Much of Goodwill is the same packaged products found at regular retail outlets, and at similar prices. Maybe ½ of the stuff is re-purposed donations.

From there we checked out the early morning sale at Super 1. We went primarily for sausage (in rolls). It was claimed to be $3/roll off regular price, but more like $1.25. We eat a lot with brunches. Also Navel oranges were on sale. I hope they are better than the last bunch. We ate one, cooked with one, and threw 2 out.

Last stop was the best, Bi-Mart, where we accidentally on the way out, found men’s slippers in John’s and my size for 50% off. We weren’t even planning to look there for them, but went instead to get stuff for my cough & congestion: Tussin DM and Fisherman’s Friend cough drops. John also buys his disposable razors there. With the 50% mark down I also bought some colorful socks with a loose top. Belts were 20% off and John found one he liked.

We came home to have brunch, using the sausage we just bought.

Now working on projects.

Ending with views in ArizonaThese were taken by Celia Slatta (AKA Missy Piecuch to us as our student a while ago at CWU)

She went with her family (hubby and children) over Christmas break and shared these with me, for us to put in our blog. I saw the sunset and asked for permission to use it. She sent me the other as one of her favorites.

Sunday, Jan 13

We will be posting the blog this afternoon, but not including any other activities of this day.

Hope your week was fine.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Monday, Dec 31

Today, I found that using Costco Pharmacy using Good RX (cash payment), will not be allowed if the medication is covered by a medical plan. If my insurance will cover it, I have to use it. That will not work. It’s better to stay local at Safeway, as long as they will offer the cash price as they have been doing.

I went to the lab at our hospital for all three doctors’ blood draws. Today, our AAC was closed, so I did not go for my 11:00 class, Silver Sneakers. Instead, I went by the food bank for the Senior Nutrition lunch and joined two people there today I know from the senior center. We had a very good pulled pork sandwich and gingerbread. I passed on the salad because of mostly spinach, but did have some cheese & macaroni with little smokies. I gave Mary Ann most of my smokies because I had a lot of the pulled pork.

Checked Goodwill to see if any Christmas tops are on sale. Found a vest and a sweatshirt for $1.49 each. Vest is red and white with snowy trees and snowmen. You’ll see it later on Wednesday.
Went to Rite Aid for the Magnesium BOGO for 3 bottles of Nature’s Bounty 500mg, with 200 tablets. I drove by and picked up boxes from a friend’s house along with a half dozen emptied egg cartons to give to a friend with 5 chickens.

Tuesday, Jan 1 HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The photo below greeted me this morning from my friend Evie, in Kittitas, from her photography composure, combining several firework displays her neighbors sent into the dark sky last night. Fireworks (composite of several exposures), 2019 by EvieMae Scheutz (not at her original resolution).

This morning I slept in longer than recently. True, we were up late with fireworks disturbing our dog. We were done field trialing and hunting when she was a puppy. We failed as puppy parents and she doesn’t like loud sharp noises.

I’m on a hunt for my winter boots. I think they are still in the house somewhere. I really need them before Saturday’s Raclette.

We each did chores around here today. John worked outside on feeding the horses and wildlife (birds, deer, and Douglas squirrel on both sides of the house, and John was out working with firewood. In getting wood to take to the Raclette, he sorted out some of the Cottonwood and carried it up to the county road. There is a sign: “Free fire wood” on a fence post and a passing neighbor will soon carry it away. We don’t need it, and hope someone does. There are about 2 wheel-barrow loads there, and another to go up.

I washed a load of clothes, am ready to wash dishes after I add the dirtied dishes from tonight, and I have started the process of printing an additional page and cover (got those printed). John has to remove staples from last year’s Jan/Feb audience music, and then I must add a last page and exchange for a new front cover list page. Then he will re-staple them for me. Finally, tonight I finished setting up the new music after he removed all the staples. They await his stapling tomorrow morning.

I worked on many other projects today as well, on the computer and with clothing, plus arranging my stops in town for tomorrow, while I’m there for two other events.

I can go to bed as soon as the dishwasher stops. I will cut the power and let it dry with the door partly open. John thinks dishwashers should be designed to stop, open the door six inches, and air dry.

Wednesday, Jan 2

I stopped at Kristen’s off Thomas Rd. to pick up stuff from her porch before 11:00 on my way to play music at the FISH Food Bank. We had quite a crowd of players and large audience too.FISH Food bank-Nancy and Evelyn taken by Kevin

Above has me in my newest winter vest, but it was a bit too small, so I gave it to my friend Sharon in the KV F&F group, whom it will fit better.

Using the GoodRX cash price, I picked up John’s Tamsulosin at Safeway (90 tablets), with two refills left, and I met Evie outside Fred Meyer to transfer my package to her.
Called Rachel at hospital lab. She sent out all the labs to all three doctors… Stone, Wood, and Kim.

Thursday, Jan 3

Culligan service tech came at 9:30 to replace four filters under our sink. The final filter is a reverse osmosis unit, then there is a small tank that stores a couple of gallons of pure water. We use 2 liter soda bottles to have some stored, and smaller bottles to carry as desired.

I compiled all the music for Jan-Feb 2019 for my book and for Charlie’s & Gerald’s book, and put audience copies in my carrier.

I left early to play at Rehab but called the hospital to see about my lab record reports. I had requested copies of my recent 12/31 medical records from Cle Elum this morning, but found they were flooded from a water pipe breakage, and not able to have patients in the building or to have certain staff members working in their offices (e.g., Ed in Medical Records), so I found out he had come down to Ellensburg to put in his work day. I was able to pick up the reports today.

Evaluated my boots picked up on loan from friend in Thorp, Kathie. Started the cleaning process. Mice had used the boots as a hiding place for their stolen dog food pellets. They’re thinsulate-lined, steel toed, and fairly lightweight.

Friday, Jan 4

Scheduled to go to AAC for Chinese New Year at the senior center. It’s the year of the pig. We were served a split-pea soup, more like a stew, with lots of ham, carrots, and potatoes as part of it. I’m sorry I did not take a photo of a bowl of the soup, except I did take a few pix with people eating. Those pictures are not processed yet, and will have to be in a future blog. But here we are.Good report by phone, received from my Wenatchee doctor on thyroid tests I had done 12/31.

I got John more chocolate brownies with frosting and eclairs for his birthday. He is fixing baked chicken, rice with chicken / mushroom /onion gravy, and just cut the next to last of the large Honey Crisp apples. We had sour cream/cheddar potato chips on the side. Pretty tasty.

Afternoon, grabbed boots from neighbor Joanie’s house.

Saturday, Jan 5

John had taken some Salmon from the freezer and baked it this morning. It is wrapped in heavy-duty aluminum foil, and in a metal pan. This will sit next to the fire at the Raclette.
Get ready to leave at 10:15 for White Heron. A couple of days ago John got the wood in the car.

Pictorial and video views with text on our 2019 (for 2018’s pruning efforts) Raclette, put on for the pruners and their family each year. Below are some of this year’s views (mostly different from the past), and links back to previous years for important information about a Raclette and the surrounding geology and viticulture of White Heron, owned by Phyllis and Cameron Fries.

Their winery web page is found here:

White Heron Cellars

For our White Heron histories with lots of explanation through the years, you’re invited to view other years, below.

So here is this year: Most of the photos I will store elsewhere and give the link to attendees (and to you next week).
The sausages go in a cast iron pan. First, cuttings from the vines line the bottom, then about ½ bottle of wine is added. The iron cookware sits on a rock next to the flame and coals. The fire was started about 10:30. Coals, but not the fire, will go under the cheese.
The bottom picture above has deserts and veggies with dip. Pruner Tom makes a birthday cake. It is a carrot cake loaded with walnuts. The veggies came from Margaret and Mark Amara she made a wonderful artichoke dip.

Histories:

2014 Raclette

2015 Raclette

2016 Raclette

2017 Raclette

And now January 5th, for the 2018 pruning – last spring:

Greeting from their Collie, Altesse to Eric

Only 8 seconds Lynne & John plates: potato & sausage

About the following: you won’t be able to reach it. I still can from my laptop but the video was created here, so it will affect others differently around the world, trying to use the You Tube version, that was blocked by copyright.
The music was playing on a player behind me, Hotel California – Eagles, and YouTube catch music copyrights. It’s rather amazing the technology they must have. And it is only a total of 13 seconds.
Hi Nancy & John Hultquist, Due to a copyright claim, your YouTube video has been blocked. This means that your video can no longer be played on YouTube.
Video title: 13 seconds Cameron serves Lynne 
Copyrighted content: Hotel California -Eagles
Claimed by: WMG
Here was the basic photo. The music was coming from my left.Note the hot coals between the fresh Cottonwood logs.
Cameron is directing (scrapping) melted cheese onto Lynne’s potatoes. They were cooked in the same manner as the sausages.
This next one shows the green cottonwood holders John cut and took over, and this is him being served by 2nd server, Phil.

8 seconds Phil serves John

Here are views of the circle pruners, spouses, and friends.One of the dogs is above, left. Other animals were involved but the chickens kept a greater distance.White Heron’s cat in Linda’s Lap and also later in Nancy’s.

Near the end, we had several flocks of geese fly over; viewed through apricot branches.Canada Geese (difficult to see on viewer)

At 4:00 pm we were the first to leave. It was dark when we got home at 5:15.

Sunday, Jan 6

I have spent most of my time today working on photos and videos from the Raclette yesterday, and need to finish this so I can also work on the photos and videos from the Chinese New Year Celebration on Friday at the AAC.

John’s been doing mostly outside chores in the sunny daylight. Parts of our county are fairly clear. Most of WA, especially the western part is stormy. This morning, over 300,000 were without power from a storm that came in from over the Pacific Ocean. Snowing from Canada to Mexico in the mountains. The same pattern is expected through the week; we will get cooler with snow.

Temps (5 mi south at the airport) went up to our high 42°, at 12:53 p.m. down to 41°, at 1:53 p.m., 41°, and down to 40 at 3:53 p.m. headed to 27° for a low. There was a 40% chance of rain or snow this afternoon and this evening, but we have seen none yet. Snoqualmie Summit is a mess of snow, slush, and ice. Chains are required except on all wheel drive vehicles. The road is still open both ways. Bet that won’t last all night.

John got the Stihl chainsaw started today and cut for 15 minutes out front, went around into the back yard, behind the fence, started again, and came in to tell me what was going on and help me with a satellite image question, and went back out to move and stack the cut pieces. He is working on trunks of Pines left over from the fire-wise work a couple years ago.

Hope your week was fine.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Item #1: Tater-tots narrowly escape
My favorite comic, again

The ‘dryer sheet’ image is unrelated to the comic.

Item #2:Donkey & Elephant
With U. S. politicians much in the news, I wondered why one party has a donkey and the other has an elephant as symbols.
A few years ago I read about how our image of Santa Claus developed and learned of the cartoonist Thomas Nast and the publication Harper’s Weekly.
I don’t recall reading that Mr. Nast was involved in setting the political and social views of the time, 1862-1886, but now I see that was also true. Thomas was born in Landau, Germany, as his father was a trombonist in the Bavarian 9th regiment band.
His Wikipedia entry is here. It has a photo of him and over a dozen of his cartoons. There is also an odd ending to his life and career.
Donkey & Elephant story link

Item #3: $675
The good news is we just saved $675 X 2 = $1,350. Plus other expenses.
Happy 2019 from Cathay Pacific

Further good news is that we won’t be traveling in the Equatorial region in August. Actually, it likely will be hotter here, but plants will need water. Anyway, you can decide whether for you, this would be good or bad.

Item #4: Flying plywood

This isn’t the first of “flying plywood.” In 1947 a very large plane flew a short distance. It was made mostly of Birch, although called the Spruce Goose.
Hughes H-4 Hercules, 1947

This week’s story is from Brampton Ont., near Toronto.
Plywood, meet windshield
“Just moments after watching a piece of plywood soar through the air and smash into her windshield, Jaspreet Sran stopped, stepped out of her car and assessed the damage.
Praise be to Ms. Sran!

This story brings memories. While in high school a friend had a Jeep and was pulling an old trailer loaded with top-soil. The entire wheel/axle structure under the trailer collapsed going around a bend.
#2: I was pulling a small trailer with wood in it, heading down a long hill toward Moscow, ID. The trailer started to sway but came out of that if I went a little faster. Then it started to sway again. So, a little faster. Short version: pieces of lumber started to lift out of the trailer and sail off the road and down an enbankment. No one got hurt, no damage, except a few scrapes on the wood. Neat! Don’t try this.
#3: Just a few months after Nancy got her new Forester we went to Moses Lake; 80 miles east of EBRG. I was driving in somewhat heavy traffic with many vehicles behind, including a big rig. I was in the center lane and from a Pick-up in the right lane, a large cardboard box lifted off, came our way and landed about 100 feet in front of the Forester. There were a couple of seconds to watch it, and look around and in the mirrors. At 70 mph one goes 102 feet in 1 second.
By the time the box hit the pavement I had decided it was empty, and of the several possibilities, it was the best thing to hit. It made a nice sound, but no damage.

Consider what a fully autonomous car should/could/would do in such a situation?

Item #5: If you see a derelict van

Note to friend Caitlin: Northwest Butterflies
Put a selection of your excess specimens in an old van, remove all personal info, park the van miles from anywhere, and walk away.

Story behind mysterious butterfly collection still baffling for Manitoba Museum, caught in California a century ago.

Item #6: Bloom time

Our plant in the living room has been blooming. It is near a south-facing window. I give it a quarter turn every few days and water on the weekend.

And that, for this week, is the not so nasty news.
John

Monday, Dec 24
We took care of things at home and left a little after noon to be at Cle Elum for a chest x-ray for John before 1:00 p.m. followed by a visit with Dr. Wood. We took a form to give to the lab regarding our getting a CD with the two x-rays from Nov 20 and Dec 24.

Also, we took John’s Red Blood Cell (RBC) graphs for questions. The results of that was that he’s fine for the condition he is in. He has had a low red blood cell count (RBC) for years and thus most of the numbers coming from a Blood-draw investigation are skewed. The Doctor had Nurse Diane pull medical records from the old NextMD database. (She knows the old system, he does not.) Doctor Wood thinks the Hemoglobin (Hgb) is more indicative of health than the RBC. Hgb is just a little low, while RBCs are way out on the tail of low. Anyway, not much has changed in 10 years and John keeps pumping out new red cells as fast as he destroys them.

Lunch for us in Cle Elum was at Burger King for two crispy chicken sandwiches.

I had planned to deliver Thomas the Train items to Miles in Roslyn, but some at home were sick and his dad heads the P.O. in S. Cle Elum, so we just delivered it there and got to see some of Miles old train art work.Miles’ dad Stefan in S. Cle Elum PO w/ gift and art workHere’s Miles opening his gift Christmas eve, and my original picture of the gift when I got it in September this year.

Here’s his mom Jen’s message that she sent on Christmas morning.

Merry Christmas, Nancy and John!! Miles opened his gift from you last night and loved it! He filled the cup up with milk and put cookies in the bowl and we watched a Christmas movie!

Our drive home from Cle Elum was filled with views of snowed on evergreens.These are selected views from our trip home to Ellensburg. Probably would have been more colorful on a sunny day. If the mountains don’t get more snow there will be news reports about the irrigation season’s lack of water. Snow “water equivalent” gets measured in many places, then converted to a basin-wide report. Seems it is either too much, or too little – never just right.

Also on the way home, I called our friend in Marquette, MI, Fred Joyal, whose birthday is today, and sang happy birthday to him. We had a nice conversation until we got to a stop where we had to leave the car. Fun times and memories. We have known them since the early seventies in Iowa, where we were in grad school together. We usually see them yearly when they make the trek to Spokane, WA to visit family. Last year was the first in a while we didn’t meet for lunch.

Nothing at all happening at the AAC all this week so no SAIL.

We went by Pacifica Senior Living and I picked up our music Terri ran off for me because copies keep disappearing with the residents, and I was running short. She was kind enough to offer to make copies. We will use these next year again. It’s our music every December.

Came home to find a video coming from my friend Allie from Persia, gift for my friends the Eberharts, four of whom are front & center in this video. Allie took this at the Veterans’ Day celebration back in November.

Now I have more videos to share, as she is out of CWU on winter break, and has had time to transcribe them. This was the last and she sent several more, which I need to add to the list to send those who will be interested in all the videos she took and the photos she, John, and others took.

That’s yet to come, but this is the culminating song, acapella:

Our National Anthem, Veterans’ Day Celebration (AAC), 11-9-18

I took care of the morning cat shenanigans of Czar and Rascal, and found the back old XP computer turned on, apparently by Czar when exploring the house last night. I turned it off and replenished the water and food on top of the bunk bed for whoever decides to visit (of the two male cats). John has fed horses, shoveled around the front and back, and cleaned snow off the car and truck that are not under a roof.

Sent off the count collection for Thursday @ Hearthstone for KV F&F, sending along the Jan/Feb playlist completed to attach with reminder to look for 2018’s January – February music.Annie (Brittany) shares bed with Czar (new to being in the house).

Tuesday, Dec 25 MERRY CHRISTMAS!This lovely home belongs to our cousin Susan Wilkins Sykes & John in Tampa, FL. It was built in 1910 and restored by them. This came on the front of their Christmas card.
Susan was in our wedding party when she was 13.
Thanks to all those who sent us postal cards and also electronic ones. We have enjoyed them all but not replied to everyone.

We slept in, except for my getting up to usher the cats out different doors at 5:00 a.m. – one out the front door and the other out the back patio door. They each return through the doggie door when ready.

John started the morning with an order to Amazon for a few things for each of us (including party mix for the cats). They will be delivered in our mailbox late Thursday afternoon.

We had a nice telephone conversation with cousin Pat Berlin in Brookville, PA where they have no snow. Today is her birthday. Yesterday, we spoke to her mom Ethel (100 yrs old), and she was over at Pat’s for Christmas dinner.

This afternoon about 12:50 p.m., we drove the ¼ mile to the neighbors. We had a large clear plastic domed cake pan with two half cakes enclosed: one a Boston Cream Pie and the other a carrot cake. I think most people had a sliver of each, but we were quite full (not needing any supper tonight) because of a full table of food, including tender ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, creamed peas, Jell-O with fruit, rolls, carrots, celery, and scalloped potatoes by Ron from his daughter Jessie’s recipe. We had 8 people around the dining room table. Beverages: Milk, Hawaiian punch, and Apple juice (we brought).Tony, Nancy, Louaine; Ken, Stacy, Bob, Nancy, John, Tony, Louaine

We left and came home to feed the awaiting animals.

Wednesday, Dec 26

Fixed my salad with John’s help to take for lunch.

I left a little early to get there in time to set up music stands and chairs. We played music at the Food Bank. I forgot to take my fork, croutons, and pills because I had them in my red bag I always carry there and on to the AAC, but today, I wasn’t going there afterwards, so didn’t pack it. I had my salad, and used their silverware, had a cup of fruit, fruit punch, and dessert. Fortunately, I had my music and my violin, voice, my tote bag of bells to hand out for people to play (including clients, servers, and players). So, it went all right. I wore a different shirt for the season’s end.

I came home because there was no SAIL exercise following today with the AAC closed and went to Celia’s for a 3:00 haircut. She has cut my hair since 1988 when I arrived in town.

Thursday, Dec 27

Changed our joint foot Dr. appointment on Jan 14 to 1:45 p.m. so I don’t have to miss the 11:00 a.m. Silver Sneakers exercise class, which didn’t exist 3 months ago when the appointment was made.

Called about a refill of Atorvastatin at Safeway. Normally at Costco, it’s too far to travel before Saturday, so I called Norman Wood’s nurse to send a prescription to Safeway in Ellensburg. We’ll pick it up today, when in town for music at Hearthstone.

John is going in with me to take care of shopping needs while I play music. I drove and he helped me load in my stuff: guitar stand for Sharon, music for 3 players and audience, violin, and camera. I needed to rearrange the chairs that were too closely spaced and put some in front of their large Christmas tree.

John went to Fred Meyer to get some PowerAde Zero (69 ₵ each) and 2-liter Pepsi colas for (88 ₵ each). Best prices in town. I do not like shopping at that store except for special prices on things we need. Walmart, Safeway, and now Winco are low on the scale for shopping experiences. Other named stores that others like are not in our area, so we have no experience at all.

Gas was $2.73/gal at Circle K. John also went shopping for Christmas markdowns. He found a gold mine at a couple of places (Bi-Mart, Goodwill). Bi-Mart had packages of chocolate kisses and large Christmas puppy tins with 3 bags of special popcorn. Those were marked at 50% off. He stopped at Goodwill, and found a set of 4 plates, saucers, and soup bowls with holly & berries around the edges, for 75% off, plus they gave him a free shopping bag to carry them away in, because they had no boxes. The total cost with tax was only $3.00. I need to go back and see if there are any Christmas tops in my size on sale.

We had a bunch of folks show up at Hearthstone, today: Nancy, Gerald, Charlie, Charlotte, Sharon, Evie, Dean, Manord, Anne, Kevin, Amy, Haley, Laura, Maury & Marilyn. We enjoyed a nice, involved and appreciative audience with a volunteer serving Key Lime pie and coffee/tea to the residents and some for us at the end. There was one piece left for John, when he returned.

The only thing about my video, which makes me want to include it, is that it starts before we start playing the December music while we are still practicing and we do Chinese Breakdown about three songs in: starts with Wedding Bells, Tennessee Waltz, and then goes to the regular program.

Kittitas Valley Fiddlers & Friends, 12-27-18, Hearthstone

Evie’s video of the same day is much better than mine taken from the grand piano top. She was concerned about facing the outside light, but I don’t think it is that bad, and having her tripod and editing abilities makes her work much more professional.

Christmas Fiddling at Hearthstone by EvieMae Schuetz

I drove by Safeway and picked up my Atorvastatin.

Friday, Dec 28

I began the morning at 5:00 a.m. dealing with the two inside cats and then laid back down until 8:30. After a cup of coffee, I turned on my computer and removed the old external Drive and hooked up my Christmas present to me, a 4 TB external Drive WD Elements to see if I can back up everything on my computer today, almost the end of the year 2018, so I can clean it up to load my new software to catch up on my taxes, store stuff for 2019, while trying to be more discriminatory about the stuff I keep on my C drive.

I used all but 3.5 TB of space, and got all documents, pictures, desktop, backups from June 5th reset off my Dell, still have some things that have not been moved from my old Toshiba, that are tax-related. I’ll move those with a flash drive to the new external disk.

I went by Kittitas and picked up from a fence a clock/radio from Jessica. It’s replacing the one we broke recently, and it was freely given through the Buy Nothing FB site. What’s so very neat, is that she’s the one who gave me the two Thomas the Train items in September to give to my little friend Miles, you have seen and heard about above. Now, I can thank her for both! And, share his pictures near a steam engine and train, and the video of his singing from last week’s blog.

We didn’t have any shelled walnuts to make some candied walnuts to take Cheryle, her mom, whom you heard about last week. It was snowing hard when I left. On my way, I visited in front of Megan, Kevan, and Lyndie’s house on Fairview with them and Clyde, their dog. They were wishing for more snow. I need to tell them to go to Cle Elum along the Teanaway River off Lambert Road. Yesterday, while Sharon was playing music with us, Jack Jenson stayed home at their house there, near Seaton Rd, and cross-country skied all around their property for a good time.

On my way home from Kittitas, I came No. 81 Rd, and turned onto Brickmill Rd. east of Fairview. It’s confined there and the fields on either side of the road are not within spacious viewing. As I came by a barn and corral, not going the speed limit, suddenly a doe jumped a fence, onto the road, and came across in front of me. I slammed on the brakes, and luckily there was no snow or ice on the road, and she made it across safely. I can assure you it gave me a burst of high blood pressure. I slowed down until I got to where I could see both sides of the road and landscape clearly. The snow stopped for my return trip, but now at 3:30, it has started again.

I have been catching up on various chores and John is napping once I’m home to answer the phone. I just got off the phone with a gal at CWU in the Foundation about our scholarship we donate each year to two student recipients (a grad and an undergrad) for their service recognition to CWU and the broader community.

I have unloaded the dishwasher and reloaded it, but it’s not ready to start yet.

Late afternoon, 4:15 p.m., I had a call from the scheduler at the Yakima Heart Center, that she was checking to find out if my blood was normally drawn at the KVH lab (hospital) in Ellensburg, because she had a message from Dr. Antony Kim I needed to have the lab tests (BMP & Uric Acid) sometime next week, before my January 8th appointment. She was going to FAX the request to the lab. I told her I was scheduled to go in Dec 31 for my standing order. She was going to fax it “right now.” I waited about 10 minutes and called the lab to see if it had arrived. It had not, so I talked with Michael in the lab, and he said, to call in the morning between 7:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. to see if it had made it in.

Several weeks ago, when I realized we were running out of time to prepare for my follow-up visit to Dr. Kim, I contacted the nurse (via email) of my previous cardiologist who retired, to find out the name or contact of the new doctor’s nurse so I could tell her the story, and get the recent information from my PCP and annual physical visit in November. After 9 years I had developed good communications with the 1st doctor Kim and his nurse. The new Dr. Kim and his nurse have not, and likely never will, develop a similar relationship with me. For team #1, I was a medical miracle. For the new team, I’m a patient that is functioning well.

As far as the new doctor knew, he had seen me a month or so ago, and I had been scheduled for an echocardiogram, which he was going to evaluate at a January appointment. A lot has happened since that visit with visits to other doctors and various blood tests taken, and I knew I should be due for some labs that were not ordered, as well as for some that were requested by my visit to an endocrinologist regarding medication interactions. I have those to be drawn Monday as well. I’m feeling fine, but I wanted to have all the cards on the table for him to evaluate before I walk in the door. Obviously, I’m anxious to learn about the echocardiogram. He was not expecting any problems because he thought I was doing well, but it is something that should be done on a regular basis.

This bit about watching out for yourself is essential when dealing with multiple doctors. My previous cardiologist used to applaud me for being involved in the process. I hope this one will also. John always attends all my visits as I do with him.

Saturday, Dec 29

We will not be picking up the barrels today from the house at the corner of Wilson Creek & Alford Road. She will call us when they have a chance to move them to the end of the drive and put on their flatbed truck.

I called the KVH lab at 10:15 and talked to Ephram about yesterday’s discussion with Michael about the FAX from Yakima. The good news is that the order is there. He told me to do the regular drill Monday at the lab to have my standing order fulfilled and request the FAXed orders from my cardiologist, which will be in the filing folder, not in the computer. I have to remember to have all labs sent to all three doctors.

I fetched an emailed document from my neighbor, then printed it. John was shoveling slush off the front concrete, so I handed the papers to him, to give to Kenny, heading down the driveway.

We had a nice omelet and home fried potatoes for brunch, and now John’s out cutting a fresh tree. We’ll take seasoned firewood to the White Heron Raclette next Saturday but the setup there also needs two short green logs placed a foot apart. In between these goes coals from the fire, and becomes the place of the melting of the cheese. Expect photos next week.
A side benefit of cutting a tree is that its buds, now at ground level, become browse for the deer. The entire tip is normal food for them that becomes scarce as winter putters on.

I’m working on multiple projects.

There were several things of interest in the mail. An informative envelope of pictures and explanation of members of John’s family, provided by sister Peggy, who went to a special family reunion recently. Photos mostly of the kids, grandkids, and great grandchildren of John & Peggy’s brother Ken, who died of heart and stroke problems before any of the great grandkids came along.

Also in the mail was a note from our secondary medical insurance provider for our 2019 monthly fee. Surprised me a lot to check and find out it will decrease by $16/month. Maybe I should wait a day and re-read that. Other mailings are from organizations wanting their yearly membership fees, and the normal credit card statement for another, which includes an insurance payment I have to sort out because of our change of emails last year that apparently didn’t get changed with the credit card from American Express.

Sunday, Dec 30

I moved some pix from the old external hard drive to the new, so I could finish the blog.

My morning blood pressure riser happened in the back “computer” room with an encounter between the male cats. Czar wanted access to the top bunk bed, where Rascal was resting. I found him there and yelled, but instead of coming down the way he went up, he jumped onto the desk with the old computer, and couldn’t get by the computer chair to get out of the room, so went back up toward the bed and Rascal was not happy. When I screamed, it brought John back to retrieve Czar and put him outside. My BP went to 144/79,; even that was probably down from my slow walk back to the den from the rear of our L-shaped house.

Sunny and windy here today. John, Annie, and Czar have walked around the pasture together and fed the horses, plus filled the heated horse trough.

We just fixed brunch, and I am sure no one in Kittitas County, or probably in the United States (World?) experienced the contents we did: Omelet (Roast beef, mushroom, yellow pepper, onion, eggs, and cheese), turkey sausage, and a piece of toasted English Muffin bread with apricot jam.

Things are not going right.
John took a can of sunflower seeds out back for the birds, and hit the support on the way up, dropping the whole can. In picking it up, lots of older shells got incorporated. The birds will have to sort it out.

He wanted to cut more wood. Annie is back in the house from being with him, so he planned to return her to the yard when he was ready to fire up the chainsaw. I haven’t heard it yet, but it may be because of our wind and distance he is from the house.
But, the reason I didn’t hear any noise is because he’s been unable to get the saw started. It started yesterday.

He had taken it last summer to Washington Tractor because it was difficult to start, and when it started right up, they did not examine it for problems.

He thinks it could be a too-wide spark plug gap, old fuel, or dirty fuel. If we get some nice weather (doesn’t look like it); he will work on the issue. We don’t need the wood, and he can find other ways to pass the time.

He is reading a book about very sad times. It is very depressing.
He just finished a fun one about the history of Seattle. He needs to crack the walnuts, a chore usually saved for mid-winter – and here we are.Final wish for the New 2019 Year to start this week:

Our New Year’s Wish for 2019 from John & Nancy

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan