Keeping track

I promised in last week’s blog on Friday to send a link to photos taken that day, at the AAC Veterans’ Day early celebration.

AAC Veterans’ Day early celebration, Nov. 9, 2018

I will wait until next week to send more video links of our music. Those are still not all processed. We now have through 15, and I left off at 3. Below, you’ll see the corrections to #2 and #3, which were labeled incorrectly with wrong links.

Go back to Nov 9th for corrected 2nd and 3rd links
Now for the current week:

Sunday, Nov 11 Colorful blueberry-pecan Pancakes & Egg made to look like a flower.

Photo of our holiday brunch, above a photo of some of the Quail having their own lunch of Black Oil Sunflower seeds. They are on a 5 foot high “table” just out from our kitchen window.

One can see the brush pile at the end of the driveway, a good hiding place for the quail.

Monday, Nov 12

I went to SAIL exercise class today and by a gal’s “farm” to take some egg cartons and drop off a pot of Hens and Chicks. She introduced me to her hens, only 5 months old who are all named and friendly, and gave me a dozen small eggs.

Tuesday, Nov 13

I had a call at 8:30 a.m. from Lacey at Cle Elum that my referral had been sent. I called at 9:20 to report that to the KVC hospital Cardiopulmonary unit where I have to take my Pulmonary Function Test, and they worked me in today. It took awhile to get it processed, because of protocol and referral complications electronically, but thanks to Vanessa here at the hospital and Lacey at the other end working together, it was accomplished and she called me to tell me I could come in today at 2:30. I did, and had Jim Allen (man in charge of the department) for my technician. He’s been in this part of the medical profession for over 30 years.

On my way to check in, I checked my numbers at Bi-Mart, dropped off a donation check for six turkeys at the Community Thanksgiving Dinner, to Katrina, the director of the Ellensburg AAC (Senior Center), one of the major groups putting on the annual celebration for our town. Several of us will go directly from playing music at Hearthstone, Wednesday, next week, to participate in the dinner, starting at 3:30.

Then I went to the hospital and home by one more stop, not getting home until almost 4:00.

I continued working on finishing up the Google Photo link to all the photos taken last Friday, Nov. 9 at the AAC.

We have eaten, I have showered, and now am uploading the photos.

But I have to get to bed soon, because we must leave by 8:30 a.m. for our first meeting in town tomorrow at 9:00.

Wednesday, Nov 14

Today was a long day. Started early to be ready to be out for town in two separate cars. Because of the icy rain we left about 8:20 and drove a little slower than usual. We needed to be there in time to set the table and be ready to roll.

I had started assembling my lunch salad with John’s help last night cubing smoked turkey breast and an apple, and I put the lettuce into a bowl, but waited until this morning to add Blue Cheese dressing and mixed it all up. I neglected to put in my bag of Cheez-its for my croutons, so went without.

Our first meeting was at Hearthstone, with a bunch of retired Geography professors and I invited two guests who I knew would be interested in the main topic of discussion. They are sisters who are residents there: Gloria Swanson and Shirley Strong. Geographers and sidekicks who came included Ken Hammond (Jo), Dee Eberhart (daughter Cory), Jim Huckabay (Diane), Lillian Brooks – now a resident there, and John and me. The management (Laurie) provided coffee and tea bags, and I retrieved hot water and Hot Chocolate mix from the adjacent room. Lillian brought her nice creamer in a bottle, not powder.

I brought some crispy cookies (probably harder than they should have been, so I won’t choose them again). Guess we should have made Chocolate Chip cookies, or brownies, or something different. I had pretty plates with balloons on them and napkins with colored balloons to cheer people.

From there I intended to go to the Food Bank, but it was 11:10, and I saw as I was 4 blocks from Hearthstone, that my tire pressure warning light was on, so I called John and told him I was going to Les Schwab to have them checked. He said he would meet me there. They found all four tires were each 5 lbs. low. Supposed to be 29 in the front and 30 in the back. They added air pressure and off I went (I knew the warning light would take a few blocks to turn off, and it did).

John left me and went by the hardware store for a special deal on a few bags of Black Oil Sunflower Seeds. Even our small birds like them, but John also got some other seeds for them.

Once I got to the Food Bank, I had to park a small walk from the building where I usually park, but I did stop and leave my violin and bags of stuff inside the building and then went back to move my car. As I was entering the building it started raining again. It rained hard while we were inside. But, thankfully, it stopped by the time I left.

From there on to the AAC for SAIL exercise. I used the facilities to check my email and got all checked in for class. We went the entire hour, and I came home.

John was receiving hay and helping unload bales when I got here. He got 90 bales today, and will get more tomorrow.

I worked on some music I needed to fix for the audience tomorrow, and continued working on computer needs. Also washed a load of dishes. I guess I’m going to have to do a load of clothes soon.

Tomorrow is another full day. I have to play music at Pacifica, and meet John in town (I don’t have time to carry my violin home), to be back by 4:00 for a lecture by two geographer friends, Elaine Glenn and Sterling Quinn (on Israel and Brasilia trips they took this summer), given for Geography Awareness Week. Then we’ll go by BK for a couple of Crispy Chicken sandwiches and fries, on our way to the Kittitas Audubon monthly meeting. I’m going to video the speaker so I need to be there early. Helps to be there by 6:30 to assure a front row seat.

Thursday, Nov 15

We ended up having the largest number of players ever, come to Pacifica today, fifteen.

We had 90 more bales of hay delivered at 11:00 a.m. today. I left before 1:00 for town.

John drove in to meet me at 3:30 at Grocery Outlet because I have the parking sticker to park behind Dean Hall on campus; otherwise, it costs $5.00 to park. We are attending a lecture by Elaine Glenn and Sterling Quinn on Israel and Brasilia at 4:00 p.m.

This was a family affair. Elaine Glenn presented first on Israel and Palestine with her husband there for support.

Elaine Glenn_Israel & Palestine

Sterling Quinn presented next on Brasilia with three of his children on the front row.

Sterling Quinn_Brasilia, A History & a Visit

With a team ending, Quinn & Glenn, fielded questions for discussion.

Sterling and Elaine respond as a Geographic Team

From there, we moved my car down to the Ellensburg Library, to leave it while John and I went in his for our supper. I had wrapped my violin in two coats to help it make it through the long cold stay in the car. I should have just brought it inside to the last stop, especially because that went so long from 3:10 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.

We made it back to the Kittitas Audubon meeting way early, so I went into the library and used their computers. I learned that having a library card is now free. Previously for 20+ years, one was not available to us, because we are not in the city limits, even though our mailing address is Ellensburg, WA. Nice to know that’s no longer the case. I wonder if that also applies to the City Swimming Pool entry. We still cannot vote in City Council or other city elections, but we do pay taxes to the schools because, while in town, the districts are not the same as the EBRG boundary.

Our next meeting was the Kittitas Audubon Chapter’s General meeting with the normal stuff (passing around dead birds), and various announcements, and finally, a presentation by Joe Buchanan on a study of Short-eared Owls in the Western states.

They are seen widely, but not much is known about how many there are, nor if the numbers are up, down, or steady.Photos from The Cornell Lab of Ornithology: All About Birds

Joe Buchanan, Volunteer Survey Short-eared Owls in U.S. Western Region

Ending Commentary

Friday, Nov 16

I don’t know what happened to the time today, but it evaporated.
I did spend time with paying bills, and working on email, and calling a couple of people, considered going to town, but decided I had too much to finish at home than to take several hours away. I was able to get some paperwork ready for next week’s medical visit (annual physical), and to arrange a note to our paper deliverer and make a comment to the regional manager of circulation for the Wall Street Journal.

Meanwhile, I got the cost for the hay we were buying and I had to write a check today because this, the 3rd delivery with 95 bales, is the last for this year. Previously, in the past 2 days, we had 90 bales, and then yesterday, 95. John had to help unload it because Mario could not get a helper. I wrote the check, and we should be good through next October. After helping with the hay, John stayed out to get some things ready for winter – arriving this coming Wed or Thur, as rain or ice. He intends to cover the strawberries with mulched leaves, by Monday.

I left cat food out tonight, and a raccoon just visited. John heard it crunching next to the window he sits near, thought it was our cat, Czar, but looked out and saw a black nose, and then shooed her/him off. The blinds were down so the raccoon didn’t see him sitting there by the window. It was only 8:30 p.m., but mostly we have all the food brought in by then. Need to improve our timing.

Saturday, Nov 17

I was up early to feed the cat and went back to bed and slept in. I should have put my computer on sending up a video, taken Thursday, which is going to take much of the day. I still have more to send. The one going now is on my Nikon camera, which is much higher resolution, and requires much more bandwidth. I prefer using my old camera, Exilim, which goes up faster. Still it is not as fast as people using their Smartphones on a T mobile carrier.

I must get ready and go to Briarwood today. We expect to have 10 players, a big bunch!

John fixed a nice brunch: Raisin/sunflower bread toast, over easy eggs, sausage patty, and canned peaches.

I went to Briarwood, and was surprised by the large last minute turnout. We had 12 folks present: Roberta, Tim, Charlotte, Amy, Dean, Nancy, Charlie, Gerald, Kevin, Marilyn, Maury, and Haley. We had a nice large audience as well, and they fed us well. We had a great hot soup (two bean types & ground beef), with a roll & butter or saltine crackers. A table full of desserts (cookies – several varieties: peanut butter, corn flakes sugar, frosted sugar cookies with green & orange frosting in the shape of a pumpkin), some other crispy cookies (almond, caramel, gingerbread), Raspberry Jell-O with cut grapes and apples, a pumpkin cake, cheesecake with cherry pie topping and whipped cream on top, if wanted. I think that’s all.

Here is Lee Kiesel, our awesome organizer, taking the tops off the delicacies to be served. Out of sight is the hot apple cider and the hot soup, rolls, butter, and saltines over on the counter and another table. It was quite the spread, and I needed no supper tonight. Our harmonica & singer, Dean is standing behind. She is planning for December 15, a Christmas Buffet. That will be something special.

I don’t know all the things John did today in my absence, but one of them involves our old Pace Arrow motorhome, which no longer runs. He made wood boxes to fit over the busted vents in the roof, and is considering creating an entrance through the side front window to allow the feral cats (Woody especially, and maybe her mom Sue, and also Czar) access to inside from the weather and to have food, water, and a closed space above freezing.

I did bring home some cookies to share from Briarwood today. We’ll have them for dessert and go to bed. I stayed up until late to finish sending a video from Thursday afternoon to YouTube. I still have two 10-minute ones to send up, but thankfully from a different camera, so it should not take over 2 hours. This went until midnight.

Sunday, Nov 18

Nothing on the schedule today except finish the blog and get to the record-keeping. In order to complete the blog, I had to upload two more videos to YouTube, and that took much of the morning, slowly down the response time of our computers.

We did sneak in a brunch with eggs, sausage, toast, and pears.

I do need to go over my paperwork (labs, PFT test, questions about refill directions). I have my meds printed out as a table because I don’t wish to package all of them in their little bottles, as requested. Get Dr. Wood to write me a referral for a PFT this time next year, now. I just had one this week. Talk to him about increasing the dosage to 10 mg hydrocodone + 325 Acetaminophen. Ask for an interpretation of Hiatal Hernia in my Chest x-rays in March 2018, after the first for Pneumonia, by Rob Merkel, and more follow-up on Thyroid tests annually from a medication I’m on (and the reason for the Pulmonary Fctn test.

Our sister Peggy called from Ohio and we had a nice conversation for 45 min., but both our phones were almost out of battery, when we hung up. When her phone call originally came, John was walking out the door with the dog, but luckily he heard the ring and came back. The dog stayed out on her own, for most of the time. We covered many topics of conversation about her life and about upcoming plans for the weekend after Thanksgiving with some of their older brother Ken’s family.

I did complete the send for organization for 3 upcoming days of our music group events and I telephoned the ones without an email connection.

Now John’s fixing supper, and I’m finalizing the blog for him to edit and get into WordPress. I found 2 errors in last week’s blog on Nov. 9, which I noted above at the very beginning of this blog. If you followed the 2nd and 3rd videos for patriotic things, they were not correctly notated. That all has now been fixed.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

As we work on this tonight reports from around the country are claiming snow, and some serious winter weather. Locally, the snow is 50 miles northwest and 2,000 feet higher. There is none in our week-out forecast. The rest of you, take care.

Monday, Nov 5

I reported into the AAC that I could not make it to my SAIL exercise class today. Meanwhile, this morning, the director called me to update me on all the plans for this Friday’s Veterans’ Day celebration (early) when our Kittitas Valley Fiddlers & Friends is playing patriotic music as part of the program.

We needed to be down in imaging at the Yakima Heart Center for me to have an Echocardiogram administered by Angie. My appointment was 11:00 a.m. I had to have an IV administered with DEFINITY®. “It is an injectable cardiovascular ultrasound contrast agent comprised of lipid-coated echogenic microbubbles filled with octafluoropropane gas that enhances clinicians’ view of the left ventricle of the heart during an echocardiogram to aid with diagnosis.” I had it last time as well, with no side effects, but to be safe, John drove us home. We stopped at Jack in the Box, just two blocks from the Center, for a small lunch, on our way home. Shared a burger with other stuff on it, fries, and a drink.

Needed to get home to for my haircut appointment. John went to Costco while I was having the Echocardiogram performed. He also filled my car with gasoline, inexpensive (relative to Ellensburg prices), at $3.19/gallon.

Once home, I drove a mile to my neighbor’s house on Thomas, who has cut my hair since I arrived in Ellensburg in 1988. Then she was working at the Band Box Salon across the street from Lind Hall where my office was located initially. When we bought our house we bought close to hers in 1989.

Late afternoon (3:20) I finished assembling all my meds for the week. You guessed it, I had to order two more I was running out of. I only have one week of another (now ordered and received).

Finally, after supper, we published the blog for last week, almost 10:00 p.m.

Tuesday, Nov 6

Spoke with Vanessa at Respiratory Services about my pulmonary function test (PFT), before the end of the year. She will check the system for my last visit and get back to me, at home.

Pulmonary Function Test details. Jim found on the machine that I had one in Dec 2016, and then on 4-14-17. (I think that’s strange, but I am okay to be done the end of this year).

I put a call in for a referral from Dr. Wood to get one before the end of this year. A triage nurse will get back to me today about that. Once the referral makes it into the system Vanessa will contact me about time and date. This is to check my lungs to be sure they are not being scarred by the Amiodarone medication (taken successfully for atrial fibrillation, since 2010).

We went in today, and accomplished many things, including dropping off WSJ papers to a person who works near the airport. By the courthouse to drop off our Election ballets in the deposit box, on to Safeway to load up on savings: Country style sausage rolls, John’s colas (regular & zero), Nancy’s PowerAde Zero – with a coupon at a reduced price already 69₵ each that brought it down to 49₵ each. I should have calculated that savings in the store and I’d have bought some more. Heck of a savings! However, checking the receipt, I see they missed giving me $1.00 off for the second five. Also, we bought several sausage rolls, and were charged the incorrect price. I have a copy of J4U digital coupon and the receipt, so I will have to make another trip in to get my refund. They will give it to me, but sadly, that will take more of my time and gasoline. I’ll just have to keep it until my next need to go to Safeway. It is not our preferred grocery shopping destination. The pricing, discounts, coupons, and digital stuff is a pain. From there we dropped by the Senior Center and dropped off my Apple Corer/Slicer for them to use on the apples for this Friday’s lunch and program. While there I picked up the proposed program itinerary, and am adjusting our group to that.

We dropped off at Super 1, where John went for Iceberg lettuce for me, and to look for smoked turkey, and I picked up 3 of my meds. Another problem ensued when I got home and unpacked the meds to find they had not quartered my Amiodarone tablets. One more trip back in tomorrow. Phew.

From there to Bi-Mart to check our numbers (nothing won), and return for replacement my wrist Omron blood pressure measurer that quit working. Amazing their return policy. While there, John bought some tulips, 3 (18 pack) cases of cheap beer at half price, and I found 75% off on packages of 74 small wrapped candies (from Halloween). We paid $2.50/bag for a bag originally sold for $9.99. We left to come home by Grocery Outlet on our last stop because of buying Ice Cream. I also bought some syrup for pancakes. I went for the cheapest in town of Golden Griddle syrup, only to find the same thing from Best Western for $1 cheaper.

Wednesday, Nov 7

I fixed my lunch salad (with John’s help cubing smoked turkey breast and cubing an apple), and took care of some other telephoning regarding a referral for a PFT, and some needed quartering of the pills I picked up yesterday that weren’t done.

I went to the Food Bank for music, then for my blood draw, and on to SAIL exercise. Afterwards, I went by Bi-Mart to pick up the instructions for my BP monitor, which were in the box they put my broken one in to send back. It has the place to put the serial # and register it on line. Now I need to do that.
I came home to transfer the videos John took Sunday, over to our external hard drive so I can send to YouTube from there and not use space on my C drive. I need to do similarly with the stuff on my Nikon, from Saturday night. It all takes time.

While that goes up, I need to work on the intros for the 13 songs we will do Friday at the Veterans’ Day luncheon and celebration.

The next videos all go back to Sunday, Nov 4, 2018

Mattawa Ash Fall Tuff Field Trip Videos with Nick Zentner

Stop 1 Selah Creek Rest Area
Stop 2 Hwy #24 near Cold Creek
Stop 3.a Mattawa Pumicite Quarry
Stop 3.b – only 1 min; worth it Cougar Mtn Basalt
Stop 3.c In wind and dust

Thursday, Nov 8

John left after 7:30 a.m., for bottling Roussanne at White Heron, taking along some roasted and candied cashews and almonds (from Mixed Nuts at Costco), and a bag of Cheddar cheese & Caramel Popcorn.

I left a message with Roberta at Meadows Place for 12 chairs today. One player stands, so we have a Baker’s Dozen.

The temps got very cold here last night, and Czar was in early for some attention and food. I slept in and then did a few chores. He was still around when I removed the hard pellets from the front porch because of the Magpies screaming and streaming in. I was able to take him some canned food and he cleaned the plate. I wish we had a heated place for him to sleep.

John got caught a traffic accident and made him an hour late arriving home, after dark. He has written about it in his column Not So Nasty News (below). Please check that.

I have been working tonight on music for tomorrow at the AAC.
I only have 36 audience copies left to distribute. We started a couple years ago with 50.

Anne wrote tonight she will be there tomorrow. Just got back at 3:30 p.m. today from a long car trip back East to New York.

Friday, Nov 9

Early celebration of Veterans’ Day at the Senior Center, which is officially named, Ellensburg Adult Activity Center, and that is the name of their Facebook page, if you are inclined to visit.

Off at 10:30 for AAC. It all went fine with several surprises, but nothing bad, and we had probably the best (early) Veterans’ Day celebration there ever. My estimate is over 60. We have many photos. John took pictures, I took a few, and a new friend (from Persia) came and videotaped much of the AAC program. I think among the 3 of us we will have many nice ones, and the videos Allie_Adi took that I have received are awesome. I have only seen the first 6, and I’m sharing five below. As she sends me more links, I will post them in order, as taken. We thank her from the bottom of our hearts for helping document the event.This is our new friend, from Persia, Allie-Adi, who shared the day with us and her talents of videotaping from her Smartphone. We have 5 to share now, with more to come in the future, when she has time. She is a Freshman at CWU in the Department of Construction Management. I met her at the FISH Food Bank where I will see her every Wednesday.

A few photos from Friday are up there already, but mine have not yet been sent in. I’m still working on them Sunday night. They may get posted Monday when the staff returns, and after I get them the link.

The 1st: Early arrivals, and John

Presentation of Colors and Pledge Allegiance to USA Flag and at end, everyone singing, “God Bless America”, with Karen Eslinger on accordion, leading us.

The 2nd: Presentation of Colors and Pledge Allegiance

The 3rd: MC David Douglas invites the Navy personnel to step forward

These are the only videos I took on Friday: (beneath the photo taken by the AAC)Dean Allen (our harmonica player; flag behind head) & other Navy, Nov 9, 2018.
David, on the very left is the master of ceremonies, and an army guy. On the very right in the audience above in the picture is the “apple family” — our friend Dee with family. He about got his feet frozen in France during WWII.

The next video (taken by Nancy) has more of the interviewing of the Navy veterans.

Navy veterans

Below is the Army contingent, with Dee Eberhart, the orchardist, mentioned above in the Navy vets’ picture (in the audience far right) bottom. Below he is second from the left in the Army veterans, and MC David is on the right.This video is ONLY of David Douglas. The interview with the others may be on our friend’s tape I don’t yet have.

David Douglas (Army), Nov 9, 2018 at AAC Veterans’ Day Early
Army vets

We also watched this song/video, but here is a web link:
John Conlee – They Also Serve

Then we had the Retiring of the Flags, and I was asked to play taps (with a battery operated very loud trumpet) I had to hold toward the ceiling so as not to blast into anyone’s ear drums. After that we ate, and then we eventually played music for a singalong. Here we are.

This was our first singalong song:

America by Fiddlers and Friends

Nine of our group, Kittitas Valley Fiddlers & FriendsI’ll share a Google Photo link with all the photos on it, in next week’s blog.

I went by the Kittitas Neighborhood Pantry on the way home to show my patriotic outfit to the ladies there. Ida, said that her two sons served our country in the war. She gave me a hug and thanked me for being part of the early celebration today and for coming by to share my flag vest and red/white/blue pants.

Saturday, Nov 10

We stayed busy with John outside and me inside. He dug a hole for a gate post. I’ve worked on the photos and links you have encountered, so far.

Sunday, Nov 11 Happy Armistice Day!

I grew up calling it that, and here is a wonderful quote from Kurt Vonnegut about that name change.

Sent to me by my former student, Casey Stedman, now a Training Officer with the Association of Spaceflight Professionals. He sent this quote today via Facebook.

“I will come to a time in my backwards trip when November eleventh, accidentally my birthday, was a sacred day called Armistice Day. When I was a boy, and when Dwayne Hoover was a boy, all the people of all the nations which had fought in the First World War were silent during the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of Armistice Day, which was the eleventh day of the eleventh month.

It was during that minute in nineteen hundred and eighteen, that millions upon millions of human beings stopped butchering one another. I have talked to old men who were on battlefields during that minute. They have told me in one way or another that the sudden silence was the Voice of God. So we still have among us some men who can remember when God spoke clearly to mankind.

Armistice Day has become Veterans’ Day. Armistice Day was sacred. Veterans’ Day is not.

So I will throw Veterans’ Day over my shoulder. Armistice Day I will keep. I don’t want to throw away any sacred things.”

Kurt Vonnegut (PFC, US Army)

John started his day by setting up our flag at the end of the drive. No wind to blow it today, however. Sun was well up, so he was a little late. He took it down just at sunset.

I started my day by calling Gloria to wish her a Happy Birthday on her 93rd year of existence. She’s amazing. Still walking around on her own, and not taking any prescription drugs (only an aspirin/day). She always complains that she can never receive mailed birthday cards (not because it is Sunday this year), but because in other years USPS claims a holiday. This year there will be no mail on Monday. Twice bad.

I called Dee Eberhart tonight to catch up on Friday and thanking them for coming, and also to coordinate with him about his schedule, letting him know we would be meeting at Hearthstone with the retired geography group and who were coming.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Nancy’s title was: “Never a dull moment in our lives”, but that doesn’t fit on the WordPress title line – so I shortened it.

Monday, Oct 29

I am not sure why people don’t follow my mom’s suggestion of never calling someone before 9:00 a.m. or after 9:00 p.m. We were rudely called at 7:28 a.m. It always scares me receiving a call so early from someone I know well, but upsets me, especially when it is not necessary at all and later this evening would have been okay. On that upset note, I’m up for the day.

We need to sort apples to take to town today for the upcoming Veterans’ Day celebration at the Senior Center (AAC). While sorting, we boxed two small boxes of apples for another friend in town, and John packed a small box of English walnuts for another friend, which we delivered along with some other items for her daughter and friends with young children. When John and I delivered the apples to the AAC, we stayed for my SAIL exercise class.

I called for either of the triage nurses, Cody or Lacey, at my PCP’s office, about having my chest x-rays from Feb 2018 available for review regarding a Pneumonia diagnosis, but a PA’s noting I had a hiatal hernia (HH). He pegged the Pneumonia, but I’m concerned about the HH seen (that I couldn’t see), and happy I’m not having any symptoms; yet, I am requesting a re-evaluation of the X-rays by my regular physician at our upcoming annual physical wellness tests (Nov 20 & 27). Lacey returned my call and assured me she would approach it with my MD and get back to me with the verdict. She did a couple days later. It will be possible. I’m grateful for her help outside of her normal calls to me to report my INR results, from monthly blood draws checking my Coumadin dosage.
I have my lab records in order to request a follow-up on my Thyroid annual blood test as requested by Dr. Lisa Stone, the Endocrinologist in Wenatchee whom I saw originally the end of 2017. In April this year, I had a follow-up set of blood tests, which she reviewed, and suggested having another done the end of this year. I also have to set up my annual PFT (Pulmonary Function Test) to check my lungs to be sure they are not being scarred by the Amiodarone medication (taken successfully, for atrial fibrillation, since 2010.).

Finished assembling all my meds for the week.

Tuesday, Oct 30

Staying home today to tend to details for this week, the past, future.
It is cool, with sunshine and a slight wind that calmed down as the day proceeded.
I did take some photos of the fall colors of our Mountain Ash tree out front, with many of the yellow leaves having been blown away.Top photos were taken today, Oct 30, but the bottom photo was on 10-24-18 without blue skies.
→ [John says: If I cut the berry bunches off and throw them over the fence, the deer will eat them. At this time of year birds ignore them. They know (How?) the pretty fruit is sour (has an acid, Sorbic, I think). The fruit will hang on the tree during the winter and becomes more to their liking. I am trying to find out what happens. During spring, birds will find the fruit and over about 4 days, it will all be eaten.]

Nancy, again: Wonderful brunch John made with an omelet creation loaded with protein and veggies. Here is a shot of the pan minus today’s portions. With my smaller piece, I had toast with Apricot jam.Day-before-Halloween omelet: chocked full with cubed smoked turkey, colorful peppers, tomatoes, purple onion, cheese, 6 eggs.

John and Annie left for yard and barn and fence work, and I stayed behind to sort the plates, cups, and other things left over from Friday’s luncheon, and to wash another load of dishes. I’m working on various other chores. I need to combine some photos to send to Audubon folks, and create a Google Photos link to send, from last meeting Oct 18, with the video you have already seen in blog, with another short clip of the speaker’s humor.

Here are the “set-up” photos of the Kittitas Audubon talk of Ken Bevis, Oct 18, which was in last week’s blog (see there for the video of his presentation); meanwhile, check the link below.

Photos during setup, talk by Ken Bevis, Kittitas Audubon

I needed to cut John’s hair, eat dinner, and finish the link sending to the Ice Age Floods (IAF) group. John came in at dark and took a nap. We ate a late dinner, and put off his haircut until later. We had chicken, cauliflower, seasoned fries, and shared a baked Honeycrisp apple.
Used some of our new honey from Kauai, HI that was brought back by a friend.

Wednesday, Oct 31
HAPPY HALLOWEEN !

Halloween Card from the Naneum Fan (non-animated)
(See link below to the Jacquie Lawson real thing (with animation) I sent to a few people and then captured the one I sent to John, but I wanted to share the link to a neat card and story from Jacquie Lawson, to our blog readers who might not have been on the original list delivered Oct 30th.
The link is below, please follow: but, PLEASE BE SURE to IDENTIFY yourself on the reply, because it will only come as if from us to us at our joint account, where we are notified a person saw it and replied. Thanks! It is culturally and artistically very interesting. Yes, I realize this is now LATE in coming.
Spooky Halloween Card – 2018

I fixed my lunch salad and sent off the note of planning for tomorrow’s retirement/rehab music.
The Food Bank was special today on Halloween when many dressed up in “costumes”. We had pumpkins (me, sorta), a witch, a cute little hat (Evelyn) the banjo player, and other things on different people serving the Senior Nutrition program folks.
The tables and centerpieces were decorated, and one can be seen below in the second set of photos.Here I am in my Pumpkins in Love sweatshirt. Note my hat (actually John’s rain hat I gave him), and Evelyn’s cute little hat atop her head. My necklace has a few lights that turn on. I removed the blinking option (gotten on the first 2 switch clicks).
We had a special request from the Senior Nutrition Lunch table for I’ll Fly Away, and then at the end for Amazing Grace. In between we did all sorts of different songs in our normal weekly folder.
I took my salad and added to it a cup of fruit cocktail mixed with yogurt, given to the Sr. Nutrition table. I also brought home a big pumpkin cookie to share with John for our dessert tonight. They had tables all decorated and we had great fun with the folks there.

Afterwards, I went to the Activity Center (Senior Center) for our SAIL exercise class. These were on my camera, the others above were taken on a “client’s” Smartphone and emailed to me. Left is at Food Bank, taken with a flash (behind the table centerpiece), and right is at the AAC (Sr. Center) after my SAIL exercise class. The pumpkin weighed 127#. Members could guess the weight to win it.

I came home to cut John’s hair. It didn’t take me as long this time because we didn’t wait as long between haircuts; I think I did it in 24 minutes, and without leaving cowlicks.

I’ll end the day with my friend’s Halloween costumes, which truly supersede mine. First, the 5-yr olds, Ladybug Haley with her butterfly friend, Carly, and then a night costume for downtown, Ghost Haley. Their kindergarten allowed no masks, (hence the left photo costumes).

Following are two other friends – Sonja Willitts (known since 1977 in Idaho) now in S. Lake Tahoe, CA and the Ghoulish hand art on Amy Davison’s face (the mom of our friendly ghost, Haley). Amy is our band’s flute player, fiddler, penny whistle, and miniature washboard contributor. Quite the talented gal and also an artist, & baker, who does weddings, parties, and other special events.Sonja Willitts and Amy Davison in Halloween dress.

Thursday, Nov 1

John was up early in the rain to feed the animals, open the gate, and drive to White Heron for bottling (Red Blend: Cabernet Sauvignon & Merlot). He carried along some Jarlsberg cheese to share with at the tasting after the bottling crew finished their work for the morning. Others brought apple-chunk infused sausage for the grill, salad, soft cheese, and crackers. They drink a bit of the wine they worked with, and John brought 3 bottles home. He and I got home about the same time ~ 4:00 p.m.

I worked on cleaning dishes we keep dirtying, and shooing away the Collared Doves and Magpies. Once in the kitchen I slammed the window (I often do) to scare them, and ended up starting John’s “sleeping” computer. On my way to the front door to slam it to get rid of them, I “slept” his computer again.

I’m getting ready to leave in an hour to go in to the Rehab to play music with 9 others. Ended up being only 8, because one had a migraine and didn’t make it. My early morning call-in for the chair count was met with a strange response. I finally called again after leaving a message on voicemail for the Activity Director, to ask for the Assistant Activity Director I have known since I was a patient there. She told me the Activity Director was not there today; why the original operator put me through to voice mail is unknown. Carol took care of setting us up and having the dining tables removed and enough chairs available. I arrived early to help.

I rushed home to turn around and go back to town with John for a 6:00 p.m. meeting at the Kittitas County Historical Museum, and a presentation from our neighbor, Allen Aronica, about his Native American family background in our valley. Here is the flyer for tonight.I videotaped his presentation. I videoed it but my first battery ran out of power at the end of a little over an hour. I replaced it and lost a couple minutes of interesting follow-up on one of the family cemetery stories.

Allen Aronica, November 1, 2018 The Kittitas People (main talk)

Allen Aronica, when battery was dying, just 2 mins

Allen Aronica, Comments and Questions after his Presentation

Here is a link to the Schedule and home page of the Kittitas County Historical Museum, so you can check for next year’s 10 planned lectures.

Kittitas County Historical Museum Description

I am currently working on an email list to send to Kittitas County Historical Museum folks that I know were there that night, or might be interested in seeing Allen’s presentation. I have not yet sent anything.

After his talk, we picked up two crispy chicken sandwiches at Burger King, not getting home to eat until after 8:00. Actually, I didn’t look at the time.
John went to bed at 10:35 and I’m not far behind.

Friday, Nov 2

We plan to sort apples in the morning to take to the Kittitas Neighborhood Pantry at by 1:00 p.m. We did and went. We did not weigh them in, but we figured it was > 50 pounds.
They had us go through for a few things – some mushrooms, a yellow pepper, a couple of pears, two desserts (brownies frosted with cream cheese frosting & 4 eclairs), two little packages of cat treats, and two cans of peaches. From there we went around to the clothing bank to deliver some Honeycrisp apples to the volunteer workers. While there, I picked out a pair of white corduroy slacks for me I’m wearing tomorrow night with my black WTA emblem shirt, and a pair of brown corduroy slacks size 8 for my banjo playing friend (see her photo above on Wednesday).

Saturday, Nov 3

We need to make an early trip to town to Super 1 for a special sale {8 am to 8 pm} of baking items. Because of limits, we’ll take two carts. We made quite a haul. Four dozen eggs at 88₵/carton; 4 cake mixes and 4 Fudge brownie mixes at 68₵ each, 4 brown sugar (light & dark) packages at 88₵ each, 3 White Bleached Floor at $2.38 each, 4 Butter package @ $2.48 each, and 3 Boneless Bottom Round Roasts for $2.98/lb.

Early afternoon we will take off for the annual WA Trails Assoc. (WTA) Volunteer appreciation event & awards for various trail maintenance workers. It is being held in a different location, north of the city, at the Mountaineers Program Center. We still had to deal with Seattle traffic, a bit more than most Saturday afternoons because of a university football game.

We had an unpleasant rainy trip over the pass (better than snow, however, which would have kept us home). We left just before 3:00 p.m. and arrived about 5:30 p.m. John drove my Subaru to North Bend, WA, where we paused and changed drivers. I drove the rest of the way with John as my navigator co-pilot. We make a good driving team, from 53 years together, beginning with driving my ’35 Ford that I drove to Cincinnati, OH, where we met in graduate school.

On the trip home, I drove the entire way, in about 2 hours, 10 minutes. It was tough driving and wore my arms out holding the steering wheel tightly because of standing water on I-90. I was very tired and sore before getting home, but we made it safely about 10:30 p.m. We were able to enjoy some butter pecan ice cream on a cream cheese frosted brownie. We did not stay for a piece of cake at the WTA dinner.

I spent a lot of time backing up on an external disk drive all the movies I have taken over the last year on my little Exilim camera, and charged both batteries, so John can put it on his belt to hike on the field trip tomorrow.

At the WTA party, I had my Nikon camera along and videotaped many of the award presentations and a few other tidbits. The disadvantage to using it, is the bandwidth increases dramatically to upload the video to YouTube. So, 4 minutes of movie costs 2.5 hours of upload time. Such is life.

Even though I was very tired, I still stayed up until after 1:00 a.m. (non-daylight saving time).

Sunday, I will work on uploading the videos, but will cover some of them here, because they occurred tonight. I still haven’t downloaded all I took from my camera because I need to free up some space on my computer. It’s reaching its capacity.

WTA Preliminary Statistics for 2018 Trail Volunteer work, presented by Jen Gradisher.

Title slide (only estimates through October, more figures arriving) showed ~150,000 volunteer hours of work on 254 trails, by ~4,500 Volunteers.Trail Programs Director, Jen Gradisher

WTA Trail Volunteer Statistics

I’m using John as my model for when all of the ACLs were asked to stand. We were on the front row, so John is turning to face his many “Orange Hat” colleagues.

Hats off to ACLs 2018
presented by Zach McBride, Puget Sound Field Manager

Crosscut Saw Award, presented by Tim Van Beek, Volunteer Vacation manager (‘week longs’) to the only one present tonight, Jim Langdon. This is WTA’s best award [a 2″ slab of Ponderosa Pine with an engraved segment of a crosscut saw], for reaching >500 days working with WTA trail crews. John will likely never reach that, but he did make it to >300 this year and will get a label to put on his orange hard hat. He has completed all the previous milestones receiving nice award gifts, in addition to making good friends along the way.

Top WTA Volunteer Award – Crosscut Saw Award

Sunday, Nov 4

John left for Nick Zentner’s Field Trip to the Mattawa Ash Fall Tuff, to be there soon after 10:00 a.m. to get a seat in the lead CWU Van with Nick and Karl. He succeeded. The trip visited 3 sites where volcanic ash fell about 11.8 Million years ago. The source was southwestern now-Idaho, where the Yellowstone hot spot was then located.Left was taken on the field trip; John in brown jacket walking up the one mile trek with others; Right was taken on Nick’s spring reconnaissance trip, better than with the blowing dust of Sunday.

I stayed home because of the 30-minute plus uphill hike I am not able to do. We both realize that. I cleaned off my camera memory for John to make videos of Nick’s talks, and he took his own camera for still photos along the trip.

It’s getting dark at 4:33 p.m. John had called from Mattawa, at 4:14 that they’re on their way home. I imagine it will be very dark before he arrives. He was standing in an orchard waiting for the leaders to return to the van. He got home about 5:30 p.m.

I don’t have enough space left on my C drive to transcribe the videos I took last night, let alone what John took today, so all those will have to wait.

We first have to leave in the morning for me to get an Echocardiogram. And, John will go to Costco, fill my car with gasoline, and buy a few groceries and anything else that looks interesting.

This won’t be published until late on Monday. I’ll save Monday to start week 2 with for November.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Monday, Oct 22

We had a lot on our plate today. We’d finished the blog last night at 11:00 p.m., but then added a link after it had been published.

This morning we had to get ready to leave for the day, but first, John had to meet our farrier in the driveway to hold our horse, Myst, for her feet trimming. They were done in time for us to take off for town after 11:00 a.m. to pick up a friend (Kristin Ashley) in Ellensburg, and drive to Cle Elum. The haze was really bad because of a high pressure system hanging over our region until Tuesday, and no winds predicted to carry it away.
Kristin works at the nearby Wild Horse Wind energy site, and gives tours. She says when there is no wind, people ask more questions.
The drive to Cle Elum on I-90 usually is picturesque, featuring Mt. Stuart (as I have shown previously in this blog), but today, it was totally grayed out in the haze.

We got to town, picked up Kristin, and our first stop was at the KVH Clinic for John’s and my Pneumonia (PPV-23) vaccines. There was a slight delay in signing in and getting a nurse to provide the shots, but it allowed us a little time to visit before leaving Kristin in the waiting room. We were happy to be met by Triage nurse, Lacey, who often calls me with my blood test reports every month. I had never met her in person. We left and drove to the other end of the small town to go to the Cottage Café. We had $20 off our meals there from our Anniv. in July and my birthday in Sept. We had already used John’s January coupon. Nice thing about that restaurant is you can use your birthday or anniv gift anytime during the year, not just in the month your birthday or anniv falls, as is the case with The Palace in Ellensburg.

Our trip home we took by way of Lambert Rd, the Teanaway River, Taylor Bridge Rd, Hwy 10, with views of the Yakima River and geological features.

My Photos Link to our Fall Colors Trip

Tuesday, Oct 23

I decided to get up early and begin planning for this week and the next two, that I have put off. I also decided against going to town today. I hope I don’t win a big (or little) prize at Bi-Mart. You have to be present to win on Tuesdays.

I have accomplished several things for Friday’s luncheon, but still have a bunch to do (wash and dry apples to take for eating and for giveaway). John took me out to sort what I wanted. He and Annie are back out tending to other things in the yard and barn, while there is still daylight.

We had a good brunch to tide us over. I managed to order some meds for John, make some phone calls, and do a bunch of organizing emails, charge my FitBit, count out some of the utensils and plates needed for Friday’s luncheon. I got some more stuff from the car to add to the mix (cups and decorated plates), but still have to make Crystal Light Lemonade to serve as the beverage. John fixed the labels on the 2-liter cola bottles to indicate the contents.

I’m now taking a break to write the AAC people in charge about the upcoming Nov 9 Veterans’ Day celebration planning.

Continued working the rest of the afternoon and evening in the house, and John outside on numerous projects. One thing he did was cart old dried cottonwood cut to fireplace size to the road with a big FREE sign. Someone stopped and took some, so he replenished the stack a couple days later. We have plenty of Ponderosa pine, if we need to fuel our wood stove.

Wednesday, Oct 24

Today was a normal Wednesday: get my salad ready for taking to the Food Bank, where I play music with others, and stay after for the meal. While there I greet the Senior Nutrition table (mostly filled with people I know by name at the Senior Center). They love our music and always sing along (from the opposite end of the building). A couple of them also follow from there to participate at the AAC in the SAIL exercise class. Several of the musicians also have joined the Senior Nutrition program and we have to sign in with our electronic card for ID. The gov’t provides this service, helping cover some of the costs of nutritious food, and oddly enough, age or income is not a factor. Ironically, the original pot of money funding this was provided by the Tobacco companies. I also carried in several pair of slacks to give to Evelyn to try on, from the smallest ones given to me (down to size 8).
From there on to SAIL exercise class and then home to tackle things needed completed for Thursday and Friday. I did run by a couple of places with deliveries and to pick up my medications.

Thursday, Oct 25

Slept in until 8:00 a.m. Awoke to a message my dessert baker is ill and cannot make dessert for tomorrow’s luncheon. I called and talked to my friend Pennie at the Super 1 Bakery, and she has set aside in their cooler, a cheesecake sliced into 16 pieces with toppings of plain, caramel, chocolate, strawberry, and orange. I’ll stop by to retrieve today after I finish our music at Hearthstone, and while there, I’ll pick up two medications for John. Then John and I will turn around and go back to town for an Ice Age Floods chapter lecture about the Manastash Anticline (rock layers bend up). This one is in Juniata County, Pennsylvania; Route 322.I will videotape it. My camera is all charged up and ready to roll.

First, my report of our music at Hearthstone. We were short a couple who were sick, but had a good bunch there and did a fine job.
Dean Allen (our harmonica player & singer) brought his little brown jug and told the story behind it, right before we sang the song, “Little Brown Jug.” It’s a quite old bottle (maybe to the 1850s), originally with “stomach bitters” in it. The old label is still almost intact. Dean has written up his story on how he acquired it, but I will save that for next week, and just add a teaser of photo of parts, now.Top of label is on left and middle of label is on right.Raised letters on the glass bottle and a handwritten note about Dean Allen’s first haircut, 75 yrs ago, taped to the bottom of the bottle. More of his story to be continued …

We went by Burger King for a special offer on two Crispy chicken sandwiches, and I got nervous waiting forever for them to deep fry the chicken. I returned to the car and told John I wondered if they had to go out back and butcher the chicken before fixing. I had waited ~ 15 minutes! Hence, we were late getting to our normal front row seats, but kindly the people there ahead of us all shifted over to allow us to be on the end in front of the screen to which the speaker planned to point. The 6 folks only had to move one seat to their left.

The speaker was Harvey Kelsey, Research Associate in Geology at Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA. His topic was the Manastash Anticline (which forms the south side of our Kittitas Valley).

The full title of his talk is: The story of a Yakima fold — the Manastash anticline — and how it informs backarc deformation in the Cascadia subduction zone over the past 15 million years

His abstract goes into more detail, and more detail in the video:

The Yakima folds of central Washington are prominent anticlines that are the primary tectonic features of the backarc of the northern Cascadia subduction zone. What accounts for their topographic expression and how much strain do they accommodate and over what time period? We investigate Manastash anticline, a north-vergent fault propagation fold typical of structures in the fold province. From analysis of cross sections, the crust has horizontally shortened by 11% (0.8-0.9 km). The fold, and by inference all other folds in the fold province, formed no earlier than 15.6 million years ago as they developed on a landscape that was reset to negligible relief following voluminous outpouring of Grande Ronde Basalt. Deformation is accommodated on two fault sets including west-northwest-striking frontal thrust faults and shorter north- to northeast-striking faults. The frontal thrust fault system is active with late Quaternary scarps at the base of the range front. The fault-cored Manastash anticline terminates to the east at the Naneum anticline and fault; activity on the north-trending Naneum structures predates emplacement of the Grande Ronde Basalt. The west-trending Yakima folds and west-striking thrust faults, the shorter north to northeast striking faults, and the Naneum fault together define the deformational framework in the backarc of the Cascadia Subduction Zone.

My video follows – please, realize it is “unlisted” and not publicly shared on YouTube. You must have the link to reach it.

IAF Ellensburg Chapter-Harvey Kelsey, Manastash Anticline

The Apple Corer-Slicer arrived in our mailbox and John brought it to the house. Our mail mostly comes between 3 and 5 PM – this was near the end of that. Talk about cutting it short. We cleaned it and took it along to the luncheon on Friday.

Friday, Oct 26

I worked on packing the stuff I need to take tomorrow to the luncheon. John fixed the apples to carry along. He’ll help me in with all my stuff: two boxes of apples, brown lunch bags to take away 3+ apples each (Honeycrisp & Gala), a box with cheesecake, two 2-liter bottles of Crystal Light, plates, utensils, apple corer/slicer, plastic ware, container of Cheez-its, serving things, and more. I carried a bag full of the lighter of stuff. Luckily, we did it in one trip with my trusty old pull luggage carrier to stack upon, and having the parking lot just behind Bouillon. The elevator dumped us out just one door away from where we were headed.

Here are pictures, including of a gift we received from Bobbi Broderius’ family. They used one of our timeshares to exchange from our PNW ownership to one in Kauai, HI. Bobbi, Nancy, Amy – Table setup for Scholarship Luncheon “from both sides now!”

Hand-carved wooden turtle from Kauai, served as guard for Ruth Harrington’s scholarship fund and is seen above at far end of our table.

Amy McCoy’s daughter, Madelyn made us her special corn muffins to complete our dinner. She is a senior in high school. Mom Amy added honey butter, and made the crockpot of chili with all the sides. Thanks to Monica Bruya for bringing the veggies (carrots, celery, orange pepper) – not pictured below, to add to our festive table.Madelyn’s corn muffins, Amy’s chili, onions, sour cream, cheese, missing veggies, Cheez-its®; my corn muffin with honey butter. Desserts/sides: Hot Apple Cider & festive straws (Amy), cored & sliced apples by John, Caramel apple dip (Amy), varied Cheesecake (Nancy & Super 1), Halloween candy corn & decorations (Amy). We found the apple slicer worked best on the smaller apples. With the big ones, seeds and endocarp (?) have to be cut away.

Do you know the history of candy corn?

Candy corn – stacked thusly, it does look like an ear of corn!

Photos from Luncheon Today

John and I had picked the apples from the Eberhart’s Orchard, on 4th Parallel Rd, after the commercial pickers left. We doled out 3+ apples to those there in the little brown paper bags, and we sent the remaining sliced apples with Ruth to her 1:00 p.m. group today. John returned in time for a bowl of the wonderful chili and corn muffin, and then helped me clean up and carry home our stuff. Thanks to Amy for all she did for the day.

Before coming home, we also made an unusual stop (for us) at Fred Meyer to check out their good price (88₵) for a 2-liter bottle of Pepsi if you bought at least 4 or more. We bought 6 of each (Pepsi & Pepsi Zero). While there we bought 8 PowerAdeZero for me at the best price currently in town, 69₵/32 oz. John had seen an ad in the paper for Fred Meyer having Red Baron pizza for $1.99 limit 5. That’s a great price, but it required a digital coupon. Not having a smartphone, we could use (John’s was home), and we were traveling in my car with my cell (not smart), so I asked if we could work out the price somehow. They figured it out and we went away saving $10 on 5 pizzas.

Saturday, Oct 27

I was very tired from this week’s activities. John got up before I did, but I slept in late to recoup.

We had an incredible brunch put on by Chef John. We shared a totally blue-throughout pancake filled with blueberries. It was topped with peaches, and served with two sausage patties; no room on the plate for eggs. This should get us through the day.

I’ve been busy washing dishes, many left over from yesterday’s luncheon fixing and serving.
John and Annie come and go – doing things. The weather is threatening to rain as it gets darker. Soon the cats will be arriving for their evening vittles.

I have spent much time on the computer as well. I have finalized the send of the Earth Science Weekly to 100 people of what Mark Francek (Geographer extraordinaire) sends every week. This week’s version came at 5:04 a.m. this morning. I was asleep.

Much of my time today was spent finalizing two recently taken videos to distribute to those interested.

I just looked out and saw two cats, so I added some hard food to their bowls. When I went out, I heard John mowing at the end of the driveway. Now as I was adjusting the drying of the dishes, I heard him coming down the drive on the riding lawnmower. He says he ran out earlier and had walked back for gasoline, but while here, he raked walnut tree leaves. He’s tired of that. Some years the wind blows them away, but once wet, they make a ground cover that doesn’t move much. They will end up in the garden as fresh organic matter.

I’m now finalizing another video to send out for review. Just got it sent.

Soon, we have to feed the cats their canned food. John is still out tying up loose ends, as the cold and dark season approaches. Sue (yellow cat) just came in the rain, and had some hard food and a few bites of pâté (paste ?) and bits.

I did take some photos today of the wooden turtle from Kauai, HI. We still have yet to find out the type of wood – probably is Monkey Pod wood or maybe Koa. Actually to my eyes, it looks like Myrtle wood, but I don’t know of that being grown in Hawaii. However, there are over 800 varieties of trees grown in Hawaii! Turtle’s underside – flash vs. no flash – to better see, Kauai 2018

Note: if any of our friends wish to utilize one of our RCI timeshares, we space-bank them ahead for 2 years (and they have to be used or are lost). We cannot travel together any more, and stay away for a week. But, we are happy to share a week anywhere in the world for the cost of the exchange fees. Right now that is $400/week for anywhere in the world that one is available and the sooner the better you make the reservation, the better your chances. Please contact us well in advance for exotic places. If you pick a place with a few hours’ drive, I can save you the guest certificate fee by driving along with you and checking in, spend a night, or two, and return home. Please do not hesitate to ask. I used to use them to go to Geography conferences and would stay the week in neat places, sharing with friends. Once we had 6 people in a unit in South Lake Tahoe. Other places I went included St. Augustine, FL, Honolulu, HI, San Francisco, CA, and Whistler BC, Canada.

Sunday, Oct 28

I was still tired from the past couple of week’s activities, so after going to bed late and listening to the rain all night, I slept in. Started working on the blog and photos to get ready.

John went out for morning chores before it started raining, and returned to fix an incredible mix of things for our noon brunch. I’m calling this the Naneum Fan Special, and I had to take a photo of my plate to share:Naneum Fan Special by John: Two eggs over easy topped with white cheddar, hash browns, sausage patty, our own strawberries are hiding half a pancake, stuffed with chopped pecans.

Before the rain today, John got rid of the rain from yesterday and last night, by starting the siphoning of water from barrels on our front porch. House is not designed well. There is a roof-valley that dumps right at the front door. There are no rain gutters, and if there were, they would likely ice over in winter. Heating tape up there and in gutters might work. Might?

Sun came out and John thought he could go out for activities, but at 2:00 it is raining again, but the sun is still shining, so somewhere in the valley there is a rainbow. We can’t see much from the house.

Minus a rainbow, I will tell you a nice saving a reptile story from my friend, Elise, in New Jersey. She’s always sending me wonderful close-up photos of wildlife, flowers, insects, and landscapes from her trips to a nearby park. This just came through ½ hour ago.

I saved a copperhead today!  He was on the side of the road, leaving the park, but this road is narrow, so when 2 cars pass, you have to move all the way over, which would have killed him.
 
He was big, about 2.5 feet +/-.  Someone pulled over, got out (I guess to see if I needed help) and told me, “Ya know that’s a copperhead right?  He’s a big one”.  I said yeah, I know, but he still does not deserve to die; I am just trying to get him off the road…with a really long stick!  He was so sluggish because it was 49 degrees.  He tried to strike but in more of a leave me alone kind of thing. 
 
So I found a really long, like 6-7′ stick and left some branches on it to block him.  I got him on the stick and in the brush (it was about a foot embankment for him so he probably would not have made it).  I do hope he gets to a warm place.  It’s not that I like venomous snakes, but still…I do like reptiles, though.

For supper: Onions from the garden as beer-battered rings, baked chicken, and Butternut squash.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan