Keeping track

If you have never heard of the “January Thaw” you can either look it up on the Internet, or note the forecast high in Pittsburgh, PA for Monday, Jan. 22 is 62°F. It was 31 degrees cooler on Friday – just below freezing.

Monday, Jan 15

No CPAP – Oximetry for Jan 7: SpO2 low 86, 2 events <88% with overall avg., 93.5%. Avg. low SpO2, 90.9%. Pulse avg. 53.0, low 50. Slept 7 hrs 6 min.

We uncovered a bunch of magazines with pictures of people (looking for different cultures) for a teacher’s pre-preschool children’s classroom (2-3 yr olds). We’ll drop them off tomorrow when we are in town running errands. {John says, I remember zero from when I was 2, and near zero from 3. I think the big learning experience was how to spit.}

I received an early morning medical message from the Yakima Memorial Physician’s Portal telling me to login for an important message. Figuring it was a response about my change in cardiologists, I tried to gain access. I spent an hour trying to access the system, because I had my username, but not my password.
Once I finally got on, it was unnecessary information about washing hands to keep away flu bug germs, and other obvious things. I requested to be off that part of the portal information, and only to receive notifications for important appointments or decisions.

I received a SCAM call about my computer sending messages, and Microsoft “tech support” would help. I hung up, and looked up the number and found that it was a Fake call – mine came from John Regehr (showed on Caller ID) from number 587-775-0448. I normally do not answer when the caller ID displays a number or name I do not recognize. However, I was awaiting a phone call from the Yakima Memorial Physician’s Portal staff at that time, so I just picked up the phone without looking at the caller ID and answered, “Hello there.” There was a slight delay, robot call, which should have alerted me it was not the Yakima office person I just talked with at Memorial Hospital. First, the caller asked a question which required a YES answer, but I know not to do that, so I said no.

I’m invited to a baby shower this coming Saturday. I received a request on email from the hostess asking me to bring a photo of me as a baby, preferably one under 6 months of age. I have no idea where my baby book is packed away, and is probably in stuff moved back from my mother’s apartment in 1977 to Idaho, some still packed in boxes never opened and stored in our garage here. Most of the furniture made it into this house, but it is too small for all, so some is still out there. It was a moving van full that ended up in our basement in Troy, ID.

However, in 2011, I went to my high school 50th reunion, and remembered that I made a web page of my grade school days to add a photograph one of my high school buddies brought to the reunion, to show those of us she’d known in the Cherub Choir when we were photographed. Our ages were 2.5 – 5. We found five from our high school graduating class, and I identified them, in addition to all the others we knew. Here is the photo. See if you can find me.I was likely 3-4 yrs old in this picture, of the Cherub Choir at First Baptist Church in Atlanta, GA (downtown). Ages were from 2.5 to 5 yrs. Interestingly, all 5 people who were graduated from the same high school (North Fulton High) are in the same row, of the five rows. One of the 5 brought the photo for us to see. When I got home I asked her to scan and send to me, so I could put in the write-up web page I was making on our 50th high school reunion. That’s the last one I will make it to. I have stopped flying.

Many moons ago John bought a large can of peaches, in case the bridge went out, or something. He looked at the label and August of this year was its best-by date. Still he decide to open and start using them. Late this evening, he made a peach cobbler, actually he filled two aluminum pans we get pasta meals in at Costco. Base of the cobbler was a lemon cake, with cinnamon on top. He cut one into pieces and froze them. The other we ate – it was very good.

That afternoon, I went to SAIL exercise class for a good workout.

Tuesday, Jan 16

No CPAP – Oximetry for Jan 15: SpO2 low 84, 7 events <88% with overall avg., 91.6%. Avg. low SpO2, 89.4 %. Pulse avg. 55.7, low 51. Slept 8 hrs 3 min.

I talked directly to the County Auditor this morning (I know him), and found that the fee I mentioned last week is not out of line. His office has to charge $73 for the first page and something for each additional page to ‘reconvey’ [we never had it so why the “re”?] the deed into our name from the lien put on by the bank 30 yrs ago. He also told me to contact the Treasurer’s Office the end of February to set up the property tax bill coming to us in April and October. So ends one monthly payment, after 30 years. Another follows.

I spent time on phone with arranging to pay for our long term care policy. However, it is going to work and they are sending me the paperwork to allow them to have it taken out of our checking account, automatically. That will be a lot of time saved on doing it by phone (going through a robot with security questions and non-responsiveness of the system), and will circumvent writing a check and mailing it. This company is losing money on this aspect of insurance, but it is gaining on the issue. Some other companies are out of business. This one is teaming up with a company from China that wants to introduce the business there. Thus there is an infusion of capital that should carry our provider through these tough years.

I had to spend a bunch of time with online banking to re-enable my account. I have been on wait forever. Stayed there, but finally got help and now am back on board. It allowed me to check my bank balance to be sure nothing would bounce of the withdrawals I made on-line today. Somehow my account I have easily checked regularly was disabled by the system from incorrect passwords submitted.

We plan to leave our house about 12:30 to make it to all the stops in town. The first stop was near the airport to leave a package of our already read Wall St. Journals, for the business student. We run this errand about 3 times a month. Repurpose them for her education — what’s not to like. We delivered bread to a visually impaired woman who cannot drive to the Food Bank bread room. She gave me a large flower vase (I donated to the senior center so that we and others can take in flowers and they’ll have receptacles for them), and a blouse with zebra stripes I may wear to a special event there that is wildlife safari-related, or something zoo-like. This week is an event about “under the sea”. The center keeps coming up with interesting topics for events.

We stopped at the bank, but the person I intended to talk with was still busy with another person, so we left and returned. Went by Safeway to get our refund of $ improperly charged for items we bought last week. (I had called it in, and had the ad and receipt.) Their receipts are so confusing, it makes it difficult to check and I wonder how many times no one looks, and they keep the money. This is the 3rd time it has happened to us, on sale items, and on different products. We don’t frequent that store often, mainly for marked down items. We picked up a few things while there, and went by to drop off the magazines with people pictures before returning to the bank about our house mortgage payoff.

Once at the bank, we sat again for a few minutes waiting for the person to finish with another customer. I was approached by a woman who asked if I was Nancy. She is the new manager of this local branch, and had heard my story from her employee with whom I had made our original appointment. She invited us to her desk so that she could take care of the transaction. There is no one there now that worked there when we started. One early clerk has become, 20 years later, our dental hygienist. So Jamie, the manager, is our new contact at our bank.

That was a good experience. She processed the paperwork, and obtained a Certified Check for the ending amount necessary to finalize the mortgage. I signed the papers (one signature was all right). She made copies for us, and I requested an envelope, so I could put it in, and asked that she put in their mail to the Umpqua office in Spokane, where the mortgage stuff resides. She said they did not have a courier service, and it would just go by the U. S. postal service. So, I asked for a stamp to have her put in their outgoing mail tomorrow. She obliged, we said thanks, and left.

Our next trip was by my dental office to pick up the special fluoride treatment toothpaste (prescription required). It’s called Prevident 5000. It cost $15. I asked for a receipt for potential future reimbursement by my medical insurance (Kaiser Permanente), but to have them pay for it, I first have to make an appointment regarding a new prescription, to visit my PCP, and if he finds it medically necessary, he can send the referral for it to Kaiser that will cover it through the dental office in the future. A teeth cleaning in 2009 is what began my experience with endocarditis and a 1st visit with cardiologist Kim, and then on to my heart valve replacement. Therefore, the fewer times I have to go in for dental work, the better are my odds of safety. I believe I can make a good argument for the medical need in my case history. I bought this container, and plan to use it for the next 4 months until my next cleaning, to see if an obvious improvement has occurred. Then I will make my appointment with my PCP for a visit. He is in Cle Elum, so the visit is time-consuming to us and snowfall makes it worse for travel. Perhaps I should get the appointment now for better weather to have the process begun, in April.

We went by Bi-Mart to check our number, but did not win anything. On the way home, we stopped at Knudson’s to spend $11 in coupons, including $6 from my trip to the Ladies Night Out promotion back in December, where I obtained $5 for a gift donation to the Community Christmas Gift program, and a $ for my purchase of nails for John, while I was there. I came out ahead with a nice pink Knudson’s shopping bag. Five $ of the coupon was sent to John for his birthday! We bought an additional $16 worth of common nails in sizes we did not have.

Wednesday, Jan 17

No CPAP – Oximetry for Jan 16: SpO2 low 86, 1 events <88% with overall avg., 93.0%. Avg. low SpO2, 91.0%. Pulse avg. 53.2, low 49. Slept 8 hrs 14 min.

I got my salad ready to go to town for music at the food bank soup kitchen. While there, I learned of a way to hard-cook eggs, so I have to find our muffin baking pan to give it a try. Folks write “hard boil” but that’s now what you do to them. You bake them until they are hard. Perhaps I should have tried before printing the recipe below, but I’ll try it at the lower temp & minutes with only a couple of eggs.

“Hard boil” eggs easily and the shells come off easier too
(from Peggy Coble and recommended by Kevin)

Preheat oven to 350°.
Put eggs in muffin pan.
In oven for ½ hour.
Remove to ice water.
(I checked on the Pinterest site and they say 325° for 25 min.)

This picture is cool and came over Facebook to my account there. It’s from Audra Levine-Fuller who is my friend and professional nutritionist helper that volunteered for my weight loss (& inches) advice and weigh-ins/measurings. She also gave John the sweatpants he needed a couple years ago for his operation (to have loose fitting clothes, requested by the surgeon). Her dad died and her family inherited Penny. She posted this of them doing cardio together. I thought this was a neat photo I would share. It looks as if her dad is also using a smart phone.

After the Food Bank music and meal, I went to my SAIL exercise class. There I recorded 23 minutes of cardio exercise minutes on my FitBit. For this day, I walked 2.02 miles and burned 1,860 calories.

From there, I rushed home to drop off my violin and drove a mile over to my neighbor for a much needed haircut. I had cancelled the last one the end of December because it conflicted with the only available appointment with the Endocrinologist in Wenatchee.

Thursday, Jan 18

No CPAP – Oximetry for Jan 17: SpO2 low 84, 8 events <88% with overall avg., 91.1%. Avg. low SpO2, 89.6%. Pulse avg. 53.2, low 50. Slept 8 hrs 28 min.

I managed to do a load of dishes before leaving for music at Pacifica. The weather was nice, so John stayed home to work outside. We needed all 12 chairs, but they have done away with the Coca-Cola room and put all the stuff in storage with the chairs. They replaced them with very short and extremely uncomfortable metal chairs with no cushioning. I’m going to have to add carrying a pillow in with my violin, music for me and two other players, and for the audience.

Went to Audubon meeting for a talk on Forest Health from a WA Fish & Game forester. Animals are the main concern of this agency, not trees, so it was interesting to hear their “take” on the issues. We have been in some of the areas on horses, and John has hiked some.

I took 2 duck prints (borders suitable for framing) I got from the senior center’s free/discard table and my guess is they were sent to someone that gave a donation to Ducks Unlimited. John thought it might make a nice gift to give to one of the volunteers. So, we gave them to the President. She thought it was a super idea.

We picked up Burger King meals on our way home, and got enough food for two days for the both of us, for the price of one. One was a complete meal that was free, so we just bought two additional sandwiches (different type, crispy chicken) at a half price special.

Friday, Jan 19

No CPAP – Oximetry for Jan 18: SpO2 low 86, 2 events <88% with overall avg., 92.8%. Avg. low SpO2, 89.8%. Pulse avg. 55.8, low 51. Slept 7 hrs 55 min.

Awakened at 8:00 a.m. by a phone call from the hospital about a message I left on voice mail during working hours yesterday. I think no one was taught as I, by my mom, not to call anyone before 9:00 a.m. or after 9:00 p.m. I can understand robot calls (which we got earlier this week), but not personal ones. Maybe I’m showing my Southern Upbringing, or my age.

We are scheduled to go at 5:00 to The Palace Café, where they have John’s birthday card notification at the desk front. We met our friends Linda and Bill Weir there, had a leisurely dinner and visit (hadn’t seen them in several months), and then we left for the CWU campus. We made it to CWU by check-in time, met our neighbors (to whom we had printed and previously given free tickets required to get in), and we checked in together (the tickets were all in my name at the desk at the entry).

We were there to attend Nick Zentner’s premiere showing of the Second Series of videos titled, Nick on the Rocks at the Student Union Recreation Center Theater, which has a capacity of 324. They offered free admission, but one had to print out their tickets or reserve them to be picked up that evening. First showing of these is on two local PBS stations but they are not exclusively there.

If you follow this link: Nick Premiere — you’ll see the animation that precedes each video, and the list of the PBS episodes in the “Nick on the Rocks” for Season II, and also the opportunity we had to reserve & print the tickets.
Link below, but first . . .
I got an “unsafe error” once for this, so just shut it down. Yesterday, I was able to access it fine, but I need to shut down my Chrome and restart to see if that will eliminate the problem.
Just beware, that might happen to you. I’m not willing to shut down until I preserve all the stuff I have on my Google Chrome.
Here is a link which will take you to the videos described above:
Nick on KCTS9
John was able to reach it today without any issues.
Regardless, you have all the content for them below in my videography from the evening, in addition to the comments from the audience that night. Nick Zentner (Geological Sciences) introduced the episodes and hosted a dialogue after each with comments and questions from the audience.

If you are on the PBS site, (they are supposedly available on YouTube as well, but I have not checked), go separately to each one. They all have the same intro, but each tells a different story. At the Premiere, a few of them had the intro removed (for time). The order is also different on their site than it was during the CWU Premiere.Photo from the Premiere evening at CWU, Nick Zentner

Videos – below are mine from the Premiere evening in Ellensburg. I tried for the most part to record the Q&A and comments at the end of each episode on each video, along with Nick’s introduction to the next video.

1-Intro to the Evening & PBS: Lake Chelan — Battle of the Ice Sheets (with Chris Mattinson)
Tongues of ice dig trenches

2-The Seattle Fault (with Sandi Doughton)
The Seattle Fault, discovered in the 1990s, runs directly beneath downtown and out to Bainbridge Island.
Look out Seattle

3-Chasing Ancient Rivers (with Steve Reidel)
The Columbia River had many different paths throughout its history, as did other major rivers in the state (particularly, the Yakima and Salmon Rivers).
Really old rivers; older than the hills

4-Ancient Cascade Volcanoes (with Daryl Gusey)
Ancient volcanoes have been identified where Mt. Rainier-like volcanoes once stood, but now are eroded and gone caused by glacial action.
Long gone volcanoes

5-Bridge of the Gods [Bonneville Landslide] (with Jim O’Connor)
When did a mountain in WA state split and slide to Oregon in the Columbia River Gorge? Why, and will it happen again?
Jim O’Connor is a research Geologist with the US Geological Survey based in Portland, with the Geology, Minerals, Energy, & Geophysics Science Center.
Bridge of the Gods landslide

6-Columns of Basalt Lava
Spectacular rock columns are on display throughout the deserts of Eastern Washington. How do these stone pillars form? How old are they?
Basalt columns

Saturday, Jan 20

No CPAP – Oximetry for Jan 19: SpO2 low 83, 4 events <88% with overall avg., 92.6%. Avg. low SpO2, 90.3%. Pulse avg. 53.1, low 49. Slept 7 hrs 40 min.

I attended a morning (10:30) baby shower, and it was fun. We started with a counter-top of fruit (grapes, cut oranges), caramel popcorn, poppy seed muffins, the best pear cobbler, and hot beverages. Then we played a game with the photographs people brought of themselves at a much younger age. I picked one in a cute bunny suit, with big eyes. I knew 3 others there, and ironically, the cute pink bunny was my friend Amy. I matched her correctly. The next part was Laina’s unwrapping the gifts. That was a learning experience, because there are so many more baby things on the market than were available when I was babysitting years ago. A friend there with a 4 year old, said many were new to her as well. The picture of me I took to the shower was snipped from the photo above of the Cherub Choir.
So, did you find me in the photo above?

From there I stayed in town, because John wrapped my violin in two coats to slow any temperature change while I went to the party. We weren’t expected to play music at Briarwood until 1:30. I had an hour to kill, so I ran errands, and filled my car with gasoline. Our local price is just under $3. This was the nicest day for the next week, so I’m truly glad I did. I spent a bunch of time in my car reading the manual and trying to reset the clock on my dash. Problem occurred a few days ago, when we came home in the dark, and apparently, I turned on the inside light and did not turn it off. John found the dead battery and recharged before we had to use the car. When the battery dies, all the settings go with it. I still have not figured how to do it.

At Briarwood, we had 10 people show up to provide music, and a full house (audience). They always feed us, and yesterday on the menu was potato soup, hot apple cider, cornbread, oyster crackers, Jell-O with fruit salad, chicken salad sandwiches, which I didn’t have because of the large size of the bun. I made up for it by having one whole piece of dessert and ½ of another. I brought half of the apple cobbler home to John, and a full piece of the other that I had had one of. I don’t know what it is called, but it had a crust, with strawberries, bananas, pineapple, whipped cream, and chocolate sauced dribbled on it. I told John it could be called a Sundae Cake, but it didn’t have any ice cream with it (as in an ice cream sundae). CHANGE THAT THOUGHT… rename the actual name: Banana Split Cake. I found recipes on line and this was the closest pix yet not exactly the same. Rather than pudding, ours had Cool Whip, over the graham cracker crust, and no cherries or nuts on top. It is a no bake cake.The left looks as if it is pudding on the bottom layer, but ours looked more like the one on the right, without the nuts and cherry, but instead, the fresh fruit throughout (+ crushed pineapple).

By the time I got home, I had been away from home for 7 hours, so I was bushed.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Sunday, Jan 7

No CPAP – Oximetry for Jan 7: SpO2 low 83, 9 events <88% with overall avg., 91.3%. Avg. low SpO2, 88.7%. Pulse avg. 53.8, low 47. Slept 8 hrs 24 min.

This morning, I got the photos to Google to send to the AAC about the event on 1-5-18, Jeopardy & Scrabble games day with lunch. I started working on dishes, and it took me until very late afternoon to be able to start the dishwasher.

I printed 19 copies of a back to back page for the last two songs of our Jan-Feb music to add to the audience copies. Now just need to get John to staple them onto the current booklet. Then I have to arrange the music for my book, and for Charlie & Gerald’s book, and reach Maury by phone to check his music (and the 3 changes from 2017 Jan). Neither Gerald or Maury have a computer or access to email.

We posted the blog at 3:44 p.m.

We celebrated with a piece of chocolate cake, following our lunch (sausage, eggs, peaches, and cheese toast).

Late afternoon, Jeri Conklin on Facebook posted a set of photos of our co-owned Brittany, Cedaridge Kip’s Camelot Shay Tre’ JH (call name, Daisy). She is only one “leg” away from an AKC Senior Hunter (SH), with SH title to add to her name. The photos were taken during a training session this morning, which included two honors, a stop-to-flush, a point, and a retrieve to hand (pigeon). Jeri was the handler, and hubby Kurt, the photographer.Daisy – all 4 feet off the ground running; & Finn (brace mate) too.Daisy on her 1st honor on the point of her Weimaraner brace mate, and her 2nd honor with Jeri. Jeri’s just kneeling with her hand on her hip, watching. The handler cannot talk to or touch the dog stopped on an honor. Daisy on point brought a comment on Facebook (“very nice photo!”) from David A. Simons, from La Puente, CA, who connects to her through his dog he raised as a teenager, FC Simons Ruff-Shod O’dee. He asked after seeing this photo if he was in her pedigree. Yes, he definitely is (on the sire and dam).

Ruff was born 8-28-74 (which coincides with our move from Iowa to Idaho). He achieved his Derby points in the field with David handling (Derby dog competition goes to 2 years of age). That trial was held at Las Flores Ranch in southern California. David and his son, Jurgen, with Cody, his retriever from the Simons breedings.

Ours and Daisy’s connections to David is via Ruffy (the name we called him). We moved from Iowa to Idaho with 2 cats and a Brittany, Lovely Wistful Lady (Wisty, named for her wistful eyes). That year, we joined the Inland Empire Brittany Club (newly forming regional club with AKC) based in Spokane, WA, 90 miles from Troy, ID, where we lived. Through the IEBC, we met a field trainer, Dan Richmond. On Dan’s string was Ruff. John ran him in Amateur events, and we bred to him starting in the 1980s. When he was 9 yrs old, we bought him from another owner (after David).
I showed him because his conformation was excellent and he should have been a Dual Ch (field and show). I went on the Montana circuit with Carol Pochardt with Ruffy and others of our dogs and managed to get a bunch of reserves (2nd place, no points) because his teeth were quite worn (nothing wrong with the position of his bite). Judges didn’t like it, however. While he had show placements (and points) in his younger days, he never finished the Ch. But, he produced many Duals when bred to our Dual Ch. Sirius Sashay (born in 1978). Their breedings created Brittanys with excellent temperament, conformation, and hunting abilities. One owner of more Duals in that family than any other, is Michele Pelle. She still has semen stored from her DC/AFC MC’s Brett Jared O’dee from Shay & Ruffy. Simons dog is on both sides of Daisy’s pedigree.

Carol Pochardt, mentioned above, lived in Moscow, ID (13 miles from Troy) at the time, and she took Ruffy through Shoot-to-Retrieve trials, for many wins, and he competed in the Western Regionals in Oregon, with a friend from WA who handled GSPs. Ruffy had a nice long life and made it to Ellensburg, WA with us. He lived for 2 more years to almost 17, and was in good health and still hunting (and seeing and hearing), whereas Shay lost her hearing, but not her scenting abilities.

By the way, the Tre’ at the end of Daisy’s name is because she was the third Shay named thusly in our Cedaridge lines. Daisy-Stop to flush before another bird found (from her point above) with a retrieve to hand (pigeon).

Monday, Jan 8

No CPAP – Oximetry for Jan 7: SpO2 low 83, 8 events <88% with overall avg., 92.9%. Avg. low SpO2, 90.4%. Pulse avg. 53.5, low 50. Slept 8 hrs 35 min.

I called Larry at Safeway Pharmacy about Stephen’s selling me two bottles of 100 mg Allopurinal, for $26.54 each. I put the one for 90 tablets on the counter, but I had the 180 in my pocketbook from my last purchase there. I just looked it up again, and found for 180, the GoodRX price is $24.30. That was approved by Larry 3 months ago when a clerk did not want to honor the Discount Drug Card. So, theoretically I was affected twice this time, and accepted the extra bottle (I had only ordered ONE), but both were there. I have not opened them, and realize I cannot bring them back. I asked him if I could have difference returned in cash or credited to my credit card. He agreed, and a few days later, I received cash for this calculation: $26.54 – 24. 30 * 2 = $4.24. It pays to stay on top of all medical charges (including doctor visits), and whether the insurance was billed properly.

I went to SAIL today, and did some other things. It was supposed to snow today, but didn’t. I hope it doesn’t decide to, tomorrow.

I contacted Umpqua about ending the mortgage payments in Feb., but got nowhere, except probably it will just happen in February and quit being taken out of our checking account. We’ll later have to arrange with the Assessor’s Office how to pay the taxes, or just get them and pay them when the bill comes. It has been going into escrow and taken care of. End of story happened later with a postal notification from the bank, about the reconveyance fee of $106.61 to reconvey the ownership to our name, when the mortgage is paid. We have 30 days to get a certified check to the Spokane office to finish the procedure.

I checked on line and found this: The reconveyance fees will vary according to the state that you are in, but they are currently in the range of $50 to $65. They do receive upgrades every once in a while, but there is no defined schedule as to when these fees are assessed or changed. Your lender or lawyer may charge a slight premium for the convenience of paying the county registrar on your behalf. You can check with your local municipality to see what the state charges if you think that you are being overcharged by your liaison.

Also, Obtaining a Reconveyance When a Mortgage is Paid Off
In the state of Washington, when you pay off a mortgage, the lender must issue a deed of full reconveyance on the trust deed that secured the mortgage. The reconveyance deed is a recorded document that eliminates the lien that was recorded on the property. After the reconveyance is recorded by the lender, the property does not have any deeds of trust and is considered “free and clear.” The county recorder sends you the reconveyance after it has been recorded. After you pay off a mortgage in the state of Washington, your lender is required to issue a deed of reconveyance within 30 days of receiving the payoff. This shows that your property is free of encumbrances.

I plan to call the Assessor’s office to see what the charge for a reconveyance fee is for our county.

Check all medications to see what Costco will charge for them after finding out we can use the GoodRx price there.

I started tonight with John’s Tamsulin which is ready to run out and found that for the past 3 months we’ve paid $15.20/30 capsules. At Costco, we can get 90 capsules for $20.18. WOW!
His HydrocholoroThiazide 12.5 tab for 90 is actually cheaper at Super 1, so I will just keep a watch on all our meds. My Allopurinol 100 for 180 tabs at Safeway is $24.30 & at Costco $22.81, but at Costco, the added value is we get 2% back on all purchases there!

Here’s a happy note to add to our blog; check out the video below: Dog sledding reminds me of our old dog, Tailwind Talisman (Brittany), carrying a tennis ball up a flight of stairs, dropping it, and retrieving over and over again (in our Troy, Idaho house).

Fun on the snow [~80 seconds ]

Tuesday, Jan 9

No CPAP – Oximetry for Jan 8: SpO2 low 84, 7 events <88% with overall avg., 90.3%. Avg. low SpO2, 88.1%. Pulse avg. 54.0, low 50. Slept 8 hrs 23 min.

I dropped by the Historical Museum and paid our membership, and received this quarter’s Newsletter. On it is the list of talks, and we will go to several of them: Nick Zentner (geology), Allen Aronica (native Kittitas Indians), and Kelsey Doncaster (local history). I have put those on the desktop calendar hung on our kitchen wall. Nick’s is first, March 29. Allen lives near us, and plows our drive as needed, and we share things. Kelsey was my student.

Today was the first day of ballroom dancing instruction at the senior center (Ellensburg Adult Activity Center). You can see the rest of the people participating in the videos below, except for me, the videographer. I did practice some of the steps with the teacher (from CWU, Adam Meyers) and with my friend Evelyn (not in the pix above), but in the videos.

Video Jan 9 Ballroom Dancing Part 1

Jan 9 Ballroom Dancing – Fox Trot & Music Part 2

Wednesday, Jan 10

No CPAP – Oximetry for Jan 9: SpO2 low 85, 4 events <88% with overall avg., 91.6%. Avg. low SpO2, 89.6%. Pulse avg. 54.6, low 50. Slept 7 hrs 41 min.

Food bank, SAIL, and go by the Gym for Klaire (a probiotic).

I took my Amoxicillin at 2:00 p.m. during the middle of my exercise class in preparation for going at 3:00 for dental cleaning by Tracy. I received a nice report. Now to get insurance to pay for special prescription for fluride added toothpaste.

I paid my dues on line for the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers (APCG) retired rate, but it showed me my extra donation I normally make, but did not tally it into my total paid, so I was only charged $15. I guess it’s okay, as I won’t be attending the conference and luncheon I used to attend in past years to honor the women’s recipients of scholarships. Others in the profession still teaching and receiving part of the costs for attending conferences can pick up the slack. This year’s meeting is farther away than I want to drive, in Chico, CA. I did attend a meeting once when it was held in Olympia, WA a couple years ago.

Thursday, Jan 11

No CPAP – Oximetry for Jan 10: SpO2 low 85, 5 events <88% with overall avg., 93.2%. Avg. low SpO2, 90.7%. Pulse avg. 52.9, low 47. Slept 7 hrs 45 min.

We awoke to 5” of snow!

I called Cle Elum KVH office to request a refill for John’s Tamsulosin 0.4mg capsule for 90 to go to a different place (Costco Pharmacy in Union Gap). Costco’s price is $6.73/mo.

I completed washing dishes this morning. Weather is nasty. John went along with me to EBRG to help with the set-up and take down of chairs, and music. He reads in an adjacent room, but can still hear our wonderful music.

We had an amazing amount of people there today, 14 (Nancy, Gerald, Charlie, Minerva, Tim & Roberta, Maury, Kevin, Dean, Anne, Manord, Laina, Amy & Haley). We sounded pretty good today and had a very appreciative audience (as usual). Haley (our 4 yr. old mascot) charmed them at the end, with singing, Hey! Good Lookin’.

I got so busy with the snow and John and going to Safeway for some good sale prices that I forgot to go by my dentist’s office to pick up my prescription toothpaste they recommended to me. Now I have to wait until Tuesday after Monday’s MLK day. Oddly, CWU takes Monday as a holiday, and so has activities on Thursday the week before. Many, if not most, of the students here are from Puget Sound area and go home on weekends and, especially, for 3-day weekends.  

We went to Bi-Mart after playing, because John saw in their newspaper flyer they had sunflower seeds for $6.00 off. With all the birds coming in daily and depending on us, we loaded up. I got some gel for my eyes (severe dryness prevention), some Fisherman Friends cough lozenges, plus many wire holders for Christmas ornaments (for a dime). I hope to use them to add extra silver bells to my bell wreath, which we use for keeping time to the music during December. Picture was in previous blog.

I wore my boots with a big flat sole and rubber bottoms, and really needed then in the parking lots where we stopped. I also needed them to get to and from my vehicle, at home, even with all John’s shoveling this morning.

Friday, Jan 12

No CPAP – Oximetry for Jan 11: SpO2 low 85, 4 events <88% with overall avg., 92.7%. Avg. low SpO2, 89.8%. Pulse avg. 53.7, low 49. Slept 8 hrs 40 min.

I called Cle Elum to see if the prescription for John made it to Costco. We were going in either case, but yes, it’s there.

We went to Costco to pick up my glasses and get some meds for John, at an incredible savings over Super 1 pharmacy. $15.20 there for 30 days supply and at Costco, where it’s $20.18 for 90 tablets!!! (through a GoodRX coupon). The only place in Ellensburg, honoring that is Safeway, and it is higher priced there.

We’re back from Costco, with good news. I have my new replacement glasses, the right eye still is not corrected to the same strength as the left, but it is a little better than it was. It may well be that that right eye will have to have its film removed with a laser, but thus far, it is not blurring yet, as the left eye did, and had to be lasered Oct 30. So, I will wait, patiently. I was given new eyeglass holders that can be folded up (easy to put in a shirt pocket), and, when one is done using them, one can return the glasses into the protective case. I guess you could call them a collapsible eyeglass case. I’ll have made a collage to show the concept, in case you are a reader who has never experienced such cases for eyeglasses. I had never seen one. Mine are black, but I chose to find some colorful images on the web to use for a demo picture. Also my eyeglass frames are much nicer and daintier than the one pictured. My lenses do not have a frame completely around them but sit on my nose piece with only the top and sides as part of the frame.

John’s year old glasses are covered with fine scratches, so while there, we also checked on the cost of lens only, if John wished to replace his. The Mt. Rainier trail was especially rocky and dusty (workers made more dust) and John was there over a dozen times last summer. The standard “wipe on your shirt tail” procedure is a poor choice in all the grit. Even lenses-only are a little pricey at $160, and the clerk said the company might reject the frame too, and you’d have to buy another. We were hoping they could remove the protective film from the glasses, but apparently that is not an option there. Ten years ago our local provider did this, but we don’t know if the current glasses are made in a different manner. They are from Costco Optical.

Saturday, Jan 13

No CPAP – Oximetry for Jan 12: SpO2 low 84, 8 events <88% with overall avg., 92.9%. Avg. low SpO2, 90.6%. Pulse avg. 52.8, low 50. Slept 8 hrs 23 min.

I’m trying to figure how to attend a wedding Mar 10, in Vancouver, WA, that requires at least a one night stay.
We spent an hour before brunch taking all the meat off the rotisserie chicken we brought home yesterday. We packaged up enough chunks of white meat to add to salads for a month or so of Wednesday lunches that I carry to the Food Bank, every Wednesday. The rest we nibbled on while working, and some will go into a pan to cook to remove the fat, use the broth, and have some base for casseroles.

Sunday, Jan 14

No CPAP – Oximetry for Jan 13: SpO2 low 86, 2 events <88% with overall avg., 92.8%. Avg. low SpO2, 90.1%. Pulse avg. 54.2, low 50. Slept 8 hrs 43 min.

Morning started with dishes cleanup, animal feedings, email review, overnight news and oximetry review and capture, checking weather (we had a bright spot of sun on the hill behind us, but no longer). It’s going to be another dreary overcast drippy roof snow-melting day and week. Some of the ice on the back patio concrete melted a little and John was able to remove. Temperature is 37°, misty, with only 1.5 mile visibility. When we awoke it was 4° in the town where John was born, Brookville, PA, and where his cousin almost 100 yrs and her daughter live (in separate houses).

Phew. After making lunch, John’s been working on outside chores and me inside, plus trying to finish this week’s blog to get out tonight. I just finished loading the dishwasher I had started yesterday.

Finishing up the blog and ready to turn it over to John, for editing and putting onto WordPress, but he is also busy fixing baked chicken thighs for supper.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Monday, Jan 1 Happy NEW YEAR! & Super Moon Seattle’s view of the super moon with the Smith Tower in the center. That is the > 100 year old building my grandfather, John Benjamin Wilkins worked as a carpenter, lived in West Seattle, and began raising 3 children there. My mom was the youngest born in 1914. Then they returned to GA and raised 5 more children.

No CPAP – Oximetry for Dec 31: SpO2 low 82, 3 events <88% with overall avg., 92.5%. Avg. low SpO2 90.7%. Pulse avg. 57.4, low 50. Slept 8 hrs 18 min.

We spent the day on chores and the blog. Late getting it published, but we did… after 10 o’clock PM.

Tuesday, Jan 2

No CPAP – Oximetry for Jan 1: SpO2 low 85, 5 events <88% with overall avg., 93.5%. Avg. low SpO2, 90.7%. Pulse avg. 57.4, low 52. Slept 8 hrs 38 min.

My exercise class was cancelled today, so I did not go to town, for pharmacy items. I have much catching up to do on our Jan/Feb music for our Fiddlers & Friends group. I succeeded in finalizing the playlist, but will need only to run 19 copies, back to back of two pages, and attach to the audience copies from last year. Saves a trip to town and just costs a little for printing and only a few pages of paper.

I called Fairpoint customer service and they changed our email address to the new joint one, so we will receive our bill monthly via the G-mail account. It had been going to the old one that has faded into the Aether. While the neighbors were making noise late Dec. 31st, we lost contact with that old friend. So sad.(John says: “Since the heads up way last summer, Nancy has notified hundreds of people and sites to make the change. 3 cheers for her.”

I wrote an email to my previous cardiologist’s nurse, Colleen Meyer, about a Cardiologist replacement for me. I await her call or email notification. John says she may be off this week. She’s usually very prompt in communication.

Wednesday, Jan 3

No CPAP – Oximetry for Jan 2: SpO2 low 85, 2 events <88% with overall avg., 92.9%. Avg. low SpO2, 91.8%. Pulse avg. 56.3, low 51. Slept 8 hrs 53 min.

I worked more on Jan/Feb F&F music. I took out time to make my lunch to take to the food bank, so I wouldn’t have to eat the pasta and dark green salad. It was tuna fish/egg salad & lettuce.

I met Kristin and Casey at the Food Bank. She brought back John’s WTA green hat she’d borrowed last spring, and stayed for our music and lunch. We had a nice visit.

I left and dropped off a loaf of bread to a gal who is visually impaired and doesn’t drive. I need to see if I can find her some white rolls and buns. She is a few blocks west of my trip from the Food Bank to SAIL exercise class.

Went on to SAIL class and we had a full house. My FitBit recorded 25 minutes of vigorous exercise. Good after the layoff for New Years. I picked up groceries and pharmacy items for John at Super 1, for me at Safeway, and took a box, with cut-out handles, for my groceries. A decree by the EBRG city communists council requires stores to charge 5¢ for 1-time use plastic and brown paper bags. Super-1 gives a 5¢ discount to those with their own box or bags, and that also saved the 5¢ tax. That is a dime in my pocket.
We use the paper bags for kitchen waste that composts. So, at Costco we bought 500 for <$8; or 1.6¢ per bag. These actually fit the kitchen space better than the large ones from the grocery store. Three cheers again! An aside, by John: The City of Seattle started a fee of 1.75¢ per ounce on soft-drinks. That's $1.18 on a 2 liter bottle. The item price for house brands is 90¢ to $1.20 before tax. The bean counters of Seattle expect to raise $15,000,000 this year to spend on their trendy projects. The Seattle Costco put a sign up telling members where to go to nearby Costco stores just outside the city limits. No extra fee there. We can see that $15 M not materializing. Link to story

On my way home I traveled the route near the airport and dropped off the WSJs we read and give to a business student, and a block away, I picked up a bunch of coffee cans. A gal was collecting these in her pump house, and her husband runs a business in Ellensburg, near where I travel to and from the Food Bank, so he is the transfer point. He met me to transfer these to boxes in the back of my car. The ice was treacherous in their parking lot on the north side of the building and made me consider carrying along my trax during weather like this. (I did later in the week).
Here is a photo from The Free Box Facebook site that grabbed my attention and I asked John if he wanted them. He has a unique use for them.
{Begin John} The use involves strawberries. In the photo, the two upper berries are called Cabot. The other one, with the top of a Quarter showing, is a different variety — very nice. These are from 2014. Cabot berries, being large and heavy, tend to lay on the ground. This makes for contact with organisms, both fungus and crawly things. I want to experiment with 3 or 4 ways to keep them off the ground, and keep irrigation water off the berries. [Remember giardia? I do.] Among other ideas, I want to cut the end of the cans out, sink them into the soil with extra fill, and have a single-plant raised bed. I’ve ordered new plants for delivery after March 26th. {End John}

Now I’m back to working on music. Worked much of the evening, with a break for a great chicken casserole dinner from John (brown rice, green beans, mushrooms, & with help from a can of chicken soup).

Thursday, Jan 4 Happy Birthday John !!

No CPAP – Oximetry for Jan 3: SpO2 low 87, 3 events <88% with overall avg., 93.8%. Avg. low SpO2, 91.9%. Pulse avg. 56.4, low 50. Slept 8 hrs 34 min. Wow, yesterday was good, but this is the best ever!

Go to Rehab. John went along to help carry things, and to read his WSJs.
We took cashews by to Louaine.
John made brownies from a box. A cup of chopped cashews made them special. We served some warm with a dollop of ice cream. Happy birthday! (photo snagged from web)

More time with music creation.

Friday, Jan 5

No CPAP – Oximetry for Jan 4: SpO2 low 84, 4 events <88% with overall avg., 91.9%. Avg. low SpO2, 89.8%. Pulse avg. 56.8, low 50. Slept 8 hrs 31 min.

I had to put trax on my shoes to walk to John’s car today. Mine had very little gas, and we are driving it to Costco tomorrow to get my new prescription glasses ordered and we’ll buy gas while there at a much lower price.

My sole purpose for going to town was to be the photographer for the AAC event today, Game Day, with a luncheon of Elaine Bleggi’s multiple cheese & macaroni casserole. It is so good.They served it with a wonderful looking spinach salad, but I cannot have spinach because of its vitamin K content & my being on Coumadin, so I took my own Iceberg lettuce/tuna fish/egg/ pistachios/Bleu cheese salad. John told me I should have had a few bites, and upon reflection I agree.

Because of the ice, many people cancelled. They had fixed food for 50, so I brought some home for John, in my container I took in for my salad. He had stayed home to, among other chores, put gravel down on the walkway to our cars, others: re-positioning a solar light, working on a broken fence, and providing water for the horses, feeding deer, cats, and exercising Annie.

Here are more collages of our AAC event. We had two tables and after lunch played Jeopardy that table 2 won, and Scrabble, which table 1 (my table) won. Everyone enjoyed the food and fun, and the temperature had gone above freezing for leaving. Each table started with the same number of letters, and we replaced them as we used them to put on the board. They were face down on a table so one couldn’t see the letter or the points worth. Also, it helps to have Scrabble players at your table to know all the rules for doubling up, and having successful words.
We got clever with our positioning of the letters off the board.

Happiness expressed by the winning team !! (minus one man). Sandra, Curtis, Marilyn, Catherine, Debbie, and Nancy. I do not remember what was so funny at the time, but maybe it was Katrina, balancing on two folding chairs using John’s camera.

The link below will go to all the pictures (some more than once) taken that day on John’s camera. I’m adding this link here, because otherwise people not on Facebook will not be able to see them. The above collages are pretty small, maybe even in this blog.
ALL THE PICTURES

I have a lot more photos of the event (see above link), but I will send them to the AmeriCorps gals and they will put them on Facebook on the Ellensburg Adult Activity Center’s site. If you are on Facebook, search for it and review the photos and activities there. It’s a wonderful resource for people 55 and older, and in some cases, of need for exercise, people who are younger are allowed to participate in activities for their health. Every first Friday of the month is a lunch with some neat activity. We have people on walkers and in wheelchairs that come to the center. The local HopeSource bus delivers people with their wheelchairs or walkers (free of charge). They will come out as far as needed. A friend of mine rode the bus for 2 years 30 miles from Ellensburg to Cle Elum to visit her husband in an assisted living home there. They pick a person up at their home, and deliver them to doctors, to the grocery store, or other special needs.

I intended to stay for the SAIL exercise, but it would have been over an hour wait, so I ran one other errand in town, and left. I drove back through Kittitas and picked up some wool knitted hats — not that we really need more hats. Still they made a late birthday present. They were free, from the clothing bank and food pantry, there. They’re only open Fridays, at 1:00 for 2 hrs. I walked in and said I wasn’t there for food but just looking for the winter pullover hats for my hubby. The lady in charge said she had a box and would bring them out. (Clothing is in the unheated back of the building and too cold in this weather to allow people to visit). She left the box by the entrance in case others needed one.

I drove by a house off No. 81 Road. We haven’t learned why it is called that. There is also a No. 6 road, but not others. I picked up a
Seattle dressed teddy bear from a Buy Nothing East Ellensburg/ Kittitas Facebook site member, Shannon. I’ll give to Katrina (AAC Director & Seattle Seahawk fan, for their special decorated truck).

I finished the songs (PDFs) for our KV F&F group, and emailed them last night. I worked on them much of the afternoon and evening.

John took the Mac ‘N Cheese I brought home, added more cheese, and pieces of cauliflower to go along with slices of a breast of chicken we bought yesterday, and he fried it with a special sauce with spices. Nice meal to end a busy day.

Saturday, Jan 6

No CPAP – Oximetry for Jan 5: SpO2 low 85, 4 events <88% with overall avg., 92.1%. Avg. low SpO2, 89.8%. Pulse avg. 57.8, low 49. Slept 8 hrs 37 min.

Working on pictures from yesterday, the blog, and getting ready to drive to Union Gap, to Costco. The weather is beautiful (cold) but sunny. John has already fed the cats, deer, and now went out to take care of the horses. We’ll have sausage, eggs, toast, and peaches for brunch and leave. Driving my car to fill up with $2.65/gal gasoline. Cheaper by 22¢/gal 50 miles away, and take off 4% of that too as a returned reward by the VISA/Costco card.

More deer (the twins and mom) arrived for treats, and Sue made it in for her morning cat food. The other two outside cats, Woody & Czar ate earlier.

We ran out of sun at the Military exit and I pulled off I-82 to grab my camera for the view of fog in all valleys ahead of us. We ended up driving more slowly through thick fog in several places.
In the photo, under the near fog is Selah, and after the gap is Yakima. The next ridge is 7 miles south of the gap, and we could not see any of it.

We made it to Costco and was it ever crowded! Checkout lines went down the aisles for a long way. Perhaps the first Saturday of a new year and after Christmas is not the best time to go.

I started my trip through Costco at the Optical department and had to wait until five people went ahead of me, but I occupied myself by coordinating people as they arrived, and told them who they would be following. They need a pick a number system for times like today. The two clerks were very appreciative of my efforts. I was appreciative when Daniel got to me (he was my original helper when I got them in November), listened to the story, took my new prescription for my right eye, and the glasses and said they would do it at no cost. I’m still surprised at that service, but pleased to accept it. They will regrind my right lens in my regular glasses and my sunglasses (identical frames). We will return in about a week to pick them up.

John and I went around the store picking up the few things we needed.
Nice they have wide aisles, because of the crowd. We went past a Sears store on the way to Costco. The large lot had, at most, a dozen cars. This may be the last year for Sears and K-Mart (same owner). Say good bye. We made a quick stop at Walmart just before leaving the metro-Yakima area. Walmart is working hard to adjust to the changing retail scene. Very busy, today.

We eventually made it to the medical supplies part of Costco. I asked the pharmacists about my GoodRX coupon to check if they accept them. I was happy to find out they do, if I print it out and bring with me. I am used to doing that already, in Ellensburg. On one recent drug John just refilled for $15.20, we can get it there for $8.73, so I need to transfer several prescriptions there, after I check them out on line, and as John said to me tonight, I need to spread the word. I’ll start here. If you need to know more, just email me. Or, you can go to GoodRX.com and check it out yourself. I learned about it from my cardiologist’s nurse several years ago. It has saved us many dollars. You don’t have to go through your insurance and can use a credit card (such as I have), the VISA/Amazon/Chase Bank, and get an additional 2% discount on medicines. I cannot use that at Super 1 Pharmacy, because their charges report as a grocery store, not a pharmacy.
These medical things are convoluted, complicated, and tiresome.

I left John in the checkout aisle through the medicines and walked down through all the aisles to the farthest one (near the entry, and went back to tell him to come there. I’m sure we saved time but by being so far away from the office, we paid for our TurboTax program, and the “runner” never made it down before we were packed and gone. We got home and realized we didn’t have it. It will be our word only, so I tried to call to report it, because we were charged for it, but it is an empty box they replace after you have paid for it. According to the web presence, the office was supposed to be open until 6:00 tonight, and I called at 4:45. No answer, so I searched for some way of writing customer service an email. I did that, and hope someone responds and believes me. Otherwise, we’re out $54. + tax.

We came home to many chores and finally had our supper. It was a salad, with iceberg lettuce fixed by Nancy with Bleu Cheese dressing and pistachios, with smoked turkey leg chunks, apples, cauliflower, bread croutons on his and Cheezits bits on mine.

We continued working separately on our computers until dessert (a brownie with cashews, and vanilla ice cream). Now it’s bed time.

Sunday, Jan 7

No CPAP – Oximetry for Jan 7: SpO2 low 83, 9 events <88% with overall avg., 91.3%. Avg. low SpO2, 88.7%. Pulse avg. 53.8, low 49. Slept 8 hrs 24 min.

We have been doing chores and now getting ready for brunch, and to finish publishing this tome.

We checked the weather in Ohio and Pennsylvania where John has relatives. The serious cold just ended and the temperature is rising from mid-20s to low 30s. Freezing rain, sleet, and wind are on the way. That is through Wednesday Noon. There is an old joke about people living in such situations:
Q: What’s is the difference between people living in XYZ-town and a U.S. Penitentiary?
A: Folks in the prison know they are being punished.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Sunday, Dec 24

No CPAP – Oximetry for Dec 23 SpO2 low 86, 8 events <88% with overall avg., 93.1%. Avg. low SpO2, 90.5%. Pulse avg. 57.0, low 51. Slept 8 hrs 36 min.

Blog finally published late afternoon. Nice phone call with Seivertsons in Eureka, CA

Nice phone conversation with John’s brother Richard in San Jose with Kit waiting for several of the family to join them. Their Christmas is all week, with some family in Florida and not back until later, so they will have several Christmas celebrations; another later this week.

Monday, Dec 25 Merry Christmas!

No CPAP – Oximetry for Dec 24: SpO2 low 85, 10 events <88% with overall avg., 92.0%. Avg. low SpO2, 89.5%. Pulse avg. 56.7, low 50. Slept 7 hrs 29 min.

Here are some Christmas bells in a wreath we have been using for accompaniment with our music group for Christmas songs, when bells fit in.
We didn’t do much today.

Tuesday, Dec 26

No CPAP – Oximetry for Dec 25: SpO2 low 85, 8 events <88% with overall avg., 91.9%. Avg. low SpO2, 90.6%. Pulse avg. 58.2, low 53. Slept 8 hrs 35 min.

Tonight about 5:00 we drove a few miles south on snow-covered roads with ice beneath to view some incredible lights.The house and buildings are 240 yards from the road and lights begin there. Some of the lights make animals and there are real ones also. John was driving — blame the bumpy ride on him.

Entrance on Brickmill Road

The Driveway

Wednesday, Dec 27

No CPAP – Oximetry for Dec 26: SpO2 low 87, 4 events <88% with overall avg., 93.5%. Avg. low SpO2, 91.1%. Pulse avg. 57.0, low 50. Slept 8 hrs 36 min.

I went to the Food Bank for music, took my salad, and we played for 1/2 hour. From there to SAIL, and then home.

Thursday, Dec 28

No CPAP – Oximetry for Dec 27: SpO2 low 83, 2 events <88% with overall avg., 93.3%. Avg. low SpO2, 91.4%. Pulse avg. 90.5, low 50. Slept 7 hrs 32 min.

Musically, we were locked out of Hearthstone because of the bad flu bug that quarantined all residents to their rooms, so we did not perform.

John drove to town for his new 6 yr driver’s license [$54], and went shopping at two stores. The State claims the license costs $9 per year, but if you die (or quit driving) before the 6 years is over, we don’t think you get any money back. John will be 80 if he gets to use all of this one. He thinks people over 80 ought not to drive.

Friday, Dec 29

No CPAP – Oximetry for Dec 28: SpO2 low 84, 6 events <88% with overall avg., 92.0%. Avg. low SpO2, 89.8%. Pulse avg. 57.7, low 50. Slept 8 hrs 35 min.

The first morning chore was for Lic: BEF4009, John’s Crosstrek 2016, I called parking at CWU, added it to my Emeritus parking sticker, and changed our email address to the new one.

During the night and now, we’ve had light rain coming down on cold air and snow. Nasty mix.

Iced in, postponed Dr. Davis until afternoon, and to KVH blood draw for standing order INR & for BMP. I heard late afternoon my readings are where they are supposed to be. Fine.

Looking through old e-mails and wondering who some of these folks are, and why we were in contact. Toss some. Send to others. Progress.

John is making dinner, and will be making Roasted Candied Pineapple to take with Candied Walnuts to tomorrow’s Raclette. I’ll put warmers in my boots when I leave. They are supposed to last for 9 hours. (they did). We will leave @ 10:30 to get there by noon, with our firewood, food, and ourselves. I’ll have my camera to document the experience. We may luck out on the weather. Today looks great. Yesterday would have been not so nice, and certainly getting to Interstate 90 would have been difficult.
Straight over the mountain and river to the vineyard is just 24 miles, and by road about 65.

Saturday, Dec 30

No CPAP – Oximetry for Dec 29: SpO2 low 82, 7 events <88% with overall avg., 92.5%. Avg. low SpO2, 90.7%. Pulse avg. 55.9, low 50. Slept 7 hrs 33 min.

I called into Super 1 Pharmacy, HydrothoroThiazide for John and have to pick up Tuesday with my Allopurinal at Safeway (better price using GoodRX coupon, without insurance).

Be at White Heron at NOON for the annual Raclette for the volunteer wine grapevine pruning crew, and their families.

We traveled the hour and 20 minutes to our favorite winery and landscape, above the Columbia River, between Quincy & Wenatchee, uphill from Crescent Bar (and West Bar with the Ice Age Floods caused ripples in the sand.  Cameron & Phyllis Fries are the owners of this winery and vineyard.  The event was held to honor and give appreciation to the volunteer wine grapevine pruners from last spring (along with their families).  As in previous years, this year’s lunch was a very Swiss, Raclette. This is a Swiss event consisting of cheese melted and served on boiled potatoes or bread. Pickles and pickled onions were common. Maybe a sausage. We have all of these and more.
Raclette is pronounced [rah-klet’]. Raclette(French, from racler, to rake, or scrape), [Nancy says, racler is pronounced, ra-clay with a rolled r] originated in Valais but is made elsewhere in Switzerland and France.  Cameron Fries reasons that Raclette was made before the current political borders were made, such that Valais would have been part of the House of Savoy, and thus of the Holy Roman Empire.  The House of Savoy extended considerably into what is now called France.
This was traditionally a pruner’s lunch in the vineyard with potatoes and cheese over a grape-wood fire. Now this is done by most folks indoors with an electric heater and various gizmos. The vineyard and real fire ambiance is missed, perhaps unknowingly by many.

Here is a brief video description from Cameron, from 4 years ago:

Cameron Fries Describes Raclette

We arrived just before noon and unloaded firewood that John had packed Thursday, before our ice storm. Good thing he did. It was tough getting into his car to start it today because of 1/2 inch of ice.John unloads Jessica; Cameron picks up and stacks; John throws pieces up. [Jessica, the Crosstrek, is named after a song.]

unloading the firewood – 33 sec

I watched the unloading process for a short while, and went to the house to visit with Phyllis, and offer help. She didn’t need any, so we just visited. First, I had to re-meet Altessa, their collie, and give her treats (cashews) to have her go through her sit, down, and stays. She’s a cutie. Phyllis showed me her large Jade plant, and I did not think to pull my camera out for a photograph. I need to remember that the next time I’m over there. It is certainly more of a tree than our guest bedroom’s crawling jade plants. John keeps them alive, but they suffer from no care. She gave me a Jazz Christmas music book they were looking to re-home. I’ll add a song to our next December’s music for our Kittitas County Fiddlers & Friends group. We added Jingle Bell Rock this year and Let It Snow!

People didn’t start arriving until 12:30 p.m. and we were already back outside setting up around the bonfire. Cameron took a van down to the winery and brought that up, and loaded other things from the house. At this point there was bright sun and a 48° temperature. Neither lasted, but the fire and wine helped.
John did take our photo. He hates my camera, but it was the only one I had because his does not take video. I didn’t take too many videos or pictures this year, as in the past. It wasn’t long after getting back outside, I had to retrieve one of the 2 coats I brought along. Once a breeze started, and the sun went behind a cloud, I had to change coats to a much larger, heavier one I also had thrown into the car.

From 2014 Raclette write-up: “The cheese used on their device over the coals is a French cheese purchased in Auburn.  This type is especially needed for cooking over coals. “Raclette” ovens are sold, which utilize a squarer “Swiss Raclette” cheese, which has no crust and is specifically made for the oven use.” I think one of the pruners has such an oven, maybe we could switch to that next year? We had trouble with the smaller square this year over the bonfire with the unique holder at White Heron, for holding over the fire’s coals.

COMPARISON OF ROUND AND SQUARE RACLETTE CheesesLeft is the round version – Right, the square, note the splitting, because the rind is not as thick to hold (or as good to eat)

This video above, with Cameron explaining “Raclette” is from the Raclette held for 2013 (but on John’s birthday 1/4/14) with the round cheese, which I think does a much better job over the fire than the square ones meant for raclette ovens. And, this video below shows a nicer version of scraping the cheese over the potatoes; see farther below for 2017.

Nicely Filled Plate: Raclette on Potatoes

These following videos are from this year, Dec 30, 2017 and pictures are farther down the page:

Altesse Talks to Erik

Cameron Set up Coals for the Raclette and Connected Cheese
Set Up

Cameron serves
Margaret

Tom serves
Erik

Next is a short video around
the crowd, eating

Tom Serves Cameron

55 more seconds of eating to end the party, Dec 30, 2017
More eating

Here’s a collection of photos, in collages: Phyllis, Cameron, Nancy ^ & ^ Nancy, John, Phyllis (2015)
After it got colder, I retrieved my heavy coat from car, see above.
John greets Lynne arriving & Phyllis joins with a bottle of wine.Altesse greets Linda & Bob from Newman Lake (north of Spokane) – and we have the wine ready – Roussanne. Fire making the required coals! That’s my blue pot on the rocks with Pineapple and Walnuts, warming. Cameron visits with Linda, and Bob with Tom. Top: Around the fire: steamed sausage pot (top right), cheese on the right, and potatoes. The blue pot has the pineapple.
Bottom: Goat cheese covered in cranberries, Brie, candied walnuts, Bleu cheese, salmon, peanut butter fudge, chocolates; not pictured, onion & garlic breads, red cabbage salad, and apple/spice frosted cake.

Regarding the pot-cooked sausages, my preference would be to roast them over the fire, as Phyllis demonstrates below, in a previous year. She needed a longer roasting fork. See below photo.
John’s found this on the web, and is thinking about next year.John visits with Erik; . . .Phil with Phyllis.

Bob, Lynne, Mark, Cameron, Audrey, and Raclette cheese holder
Activity around bonfire (below)Cameron, Bob, Margaret, Linda, John, wine, woodFrom set up to eat up. Left, in house (with wasabi peas, pickles, sesame crackers, cranberry wrapped goat cheese, Brei, cutlery in napkins, and plates stacked; rt, finished product, by the bonfire.

Sunday, Dec 31

No CPAP – Oximetry for Dec 30: SpO2 low 85, 1 events <88% with overall avg., 92.5%. Avg. low SpO2, 90.4%. Pulse avg. 58.6, low 52. Slept 9 hrs w/ > 3 hrs off oximeter

I was miserable last night after returning home at 5:00 p.m. and I seem to be having a reaction to being around the bonfire and smoke for 4 hrs yesterday. I have been allergic to smoke since childhood. It must have been accentuated from being sick for 5 weeks with bronchitis from a bacterial infection. We had problems with the cheese for the raclette being the square kind with a thinner rind than the old thick round ones we used for years. Maybe we should lobby for a raclette machine if the rounds are no longer available. Might change the ambience, but could give us fewer problems, and we could sit and visit around a big dining room table.

Cat is in my lap.

Winding up the year and pulling old stuff from messages on the account we lose today. This is just one of those things:

The Banana Dance

Found this with the story of Evonne Ellis, WTA crew leader we’ve known for 5 years. She used this to warm up muscles for people on WTA work parties. A couple of years ago, John was getting an award and I had this big stuffed banana – a bowling prize.
We arranged for a slot at the WTA Volunteer banquet. It was my old Banana I won at the Banana Belt bowling tournament in Lewiston, ID, and had in my Geography office the entire time at CWU since 1988.John with his WTA Carhartt Award jacket, Evonne with our Banana Award, from my past. Me with my prize for her. She’s on the right leading stretching exercises at the start of a WTA work party, and John’s setting up the tools in the background, to present the safety talk. A volunteer made the costume for her to wear.

Daisy, Cedaridge Kip’s Shay Tre’ JH and mom, FC KWK Windswept Guinevere of Camelot JH both received an AKC award today, the Achiever Dog award. A Facebook friend of Jeri’s looked it up and said, “The AKC Achiever Dog certificate program is designed to recognize those exhibitors and dogs who participate in multiple sports. A dog will receive an AKC Achiever Dog certificate when they have been awarded a placement or earned a qualifying score in three different sports.” Jeri and I figured it is for field, hunting, and show. (The JH after her name is for Junior Hunter, in an AKC Hunt test, and she is currently almost finished with her Senior Hunter title, and will proceed to her Master Hunter title. New Year’s Eve phone call catch-up with John’s sister, where the temperature is very cold. What’d she say? 5 degrees ? Ouch!
We are 31°F. here.

I quit my cleanup of the old email account tonight, at 7:30 pm. Tonight we lose any contact through there.

We have had to sit and pet our dog with isolated fireworks being set in the neighborhood. Not bad yet. I hope they stop before midnight, so we can get to bed. Hopefully, it is too cold.

We had a nice visit with our sister, Peggy, in Ohio by phone, and caught up on the week since Christmas, and on the cold weather and snow stories (55 years ago) from their memory of lake effect snow.
We are having tenderloin steaks tonight to start off the New Year right. They were given to us by a friend and are from her White British cattle.

We stayed up until 12:30 because our neighbor, in the woods across the creek, shot off fireworks. John found a 2+ hour web music set. We had the volume turned up on the “Best of the Kingston Trio”, and that helped. Further, there were songs we had not heard and John looked for info on the web while the music played. Annie was upset but did not freak out, and we didn’t have to put her in a crate. She was so tired she slept hard all night, not moving when we stepped over her.

Monday, Jan 1 HAPPY NEW YEAR!

No CPAP – Oximetry for Dec 31: SpO2 low 82, 3 events <88% with overall avg., 92.5%. Avg. low SpO2 90.7%. Pulse avg. 57.4, low 50. Slept 8 hrs 18 min.

Working on the blog today, finally, after a final week of notifying people of our changed email address. Not fun.
We sent very few Christmas or New Years’ greetings, but did get some via the US Postal Service. Thank you for yours.

Czar (Salazar) cat gone all yesterday returned this morning for his vittles. He must have been traveling. Rarely has he not shown up for food or water (twice/day) for 6 months, since arriving in the neighborhood. Makes us wonder.

Charging FitBit (1/2 down). 9:38 a.m. John’s going out to feed horses, and to announce to Woody that it is time to eat. She, too, seems to go places, but often is in the big hay shed or a smaller little building we call the Red Barn. It is not very red, if it ever was, after 35 years of being there. And it is not really very barn like. Oh well.

Now, as John went out, he had to break up a cat fight between the two male cats. Never a dull moment. Woody arrived, however, and I just fed her. Maybe the males had a tussle while we were at the raclette and the one cat stayed away yesterday. This morning they were at the front door meowing and I let Rascal (yes he is named properly) in and then fed two of the outdoor cats.

11:20 a.m. – Just loaded several days of dishes and await the cleaned results before we have our brunch. I’m hungry and ready. We’re having link sausage & eggs, and peaches. The temperature hasn’t risen to freezing/thaw yet, and won’t today. Still, it is better than back east and most of Canada.

John fixed a nice brunch and I continued working on this blog, mostly creating photos and collages to add from the Raclette.

Hope you week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Starting with our Christmas cactus (by John)

Sunday, Dec 17

No CPAP – Oximetry for Dec 16: SpO2 low 84, 6 events <88% with overall avg., 92.8%. Avg. low SpO2, 90.5%. Pulse avg. 56.6, low 46. Slept 7 hrs 46 min.

I stayed busy today on the computer. I spent a lot of time last night on the blog, and John edited what I wrote, but I still had stuff to finish this morning and he had stuff to do before putting it into WordPress.
Brunch was squeezed into the schedule. John finished with Word Press input just before 2:00. While waiting, I spent about 45 minutes helping a former student by proofing her resume and letter of application for a job. Still have connections to CWU after being retired for 7 years.

Late afternoon, I put my new computer aside and got on my old laptop to look for the story about my mother’s family reunion I wrote up a very involved web page for in 2012 after attending the family reunion that year. A woman (another Susan in the Wilkins family—my mom’s side) came out of the woodwork just in time, getting to me on the old email address, nancyh@ellensburg.com account we are soon losing (and which I still have to finish sending please change announcements to).
. . . . Telling the Susan Pate story:

My name is Susan Pate.  I am trying to research my 3x Great Grandfather John Wilkins.  I stumbled upon your reunion page on the internet from several years ago and am hoping that this email address is still a good one.  My connection to John Wilkins is as follows: His daughter Susan Mariah Wilkins (my 2x Great Grandmother) her daughter Minnie Tullulah Robbins is my Great Grandmother and her daughter Susan Mariah Mines is my grandmother.  I have a cousin in Patterson, Georgia that tries to help me with research but he is ill and cannot make the trips like he use to.   I do know there is a museum in Ebenezer, Georgia that has some of the furniture he made and also some of his tools.  That was where my cousin was going to go and take pictures for me, but I do not think he can make it now. I found an article on his furniture and a bit about his history but I cannot find anything on his parents.  The article mentioned he was married to a Rebecca Lavender before he was married the Mary Catherine Gnann.  Do you have any information that would help me to find his parents?   I appreciated any info you can give me. 
 Thank you,
Susan Taylor Pate

I’m grateful she sent the email before the end of the month. We have been communicating since, from the new joint account.
Here is the changed location for the story about the family reunion in 2012 — no longer accessed at ellensburg.com but instead at rocknponderosa.com at the following URL:
Wilkins Family History

PLEASE, if you get there, and want to follow any links to web pages, you will have to substitute rocknponderosa.com for any references to ellensburg.com

You can go there and see the picture of John Wilkins, whom Susan Pate is writing about above. Also, she mentioned the museum with “Big John’s” furniture in Ebenezer, GA. In the late 1990s, we had a Wilkins’ family reunion there that I attended. I did not have a digital camera then, or one with a flash, so I do not have any pictures of the inside. Hopefully, someone in the family will go take photos, so we can get them to all of us, and to Susan (in Texas). Both Susan Sykes and I have her email address.

Now we have had supper, and I have to finish processing the pictures I took Friday at the Let It Snow! event at the senior center. I know I won’t have a lot of time in the morning.

John is shelling walnuts again. He does enough each time to make 1 pound of halves and pieces. Then they go in the freezer. Our local grocery store sells such for $10, but they are available elsewhere for ~$6/$7. We’ve eaten some and gave some unshelled ones away. He thinks we’ll have 10 bags, when he is done. He plans to make some candied walnuts.

I have been working for a lot of time on the photos to send to the AAC via Google upload. I’m up to 48 of 64, and it is taking awhile. I left some in from John’s camera, without changing to ½ size, and it is taking a little longer, probably, but I didn’t have the time to crop them all and they didn’t need it. I only cropped the ones that had extra lighted windows on the side to concentrate on the center of the photo. After this upload, I will need to share and hope I come up with a link to send to the folks involved at the AAC for them to put on Facebook in the morning. (Jessi, did. She’s an AmeriCorps staff person, from Ellensburg.) I take photos at AAC events because the staff are busy serving and honchoing the games or crafts.

Here’s the link, if you might be interested. You will see a photo of Jessi with me and with her grandma, and others, in the pictures (she has on a huge Black Snowman hat, and I have on a Merry Christmas hat I received from my 6th grade friend (who is featured below in this blog with her photograph of an Eagle). I added the antlers to go with my Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer shirt.
Snow Party, Seniors – Dec. 2017

Monday, Dec 18

No CPAP – Oximetry for Dec 17: SpO2 low 84, 12 events <88% with overall avg., 91.5 %. Avg. low SpO2, 88.9%. Pulse avg. 56.8, low 52. Slept 7 hrs 51 min.

I called in John’s refill to Super 1 Pharmacy Levothyroxin and was able to pick up today, along with some groceries.

I called my PCP’s office to remind the doctor’s nurse, Diane, to put in the order for some blood tests for me to have to take to the doctor in Wenatchee tomorrow. The tests requested are Ferritin, Free T4, Free T3, Reverse T3 and a TPO. She called about 10 to say the labs were sent in earlier this morning, and I called the lab to confirm and got the best time to see my favorite phlebotomist. I showed up at noon.

I went to my SAIL exercise class today at the AAC, and came home via a couple of places and the last was to drop off a large bag of WSJs we share with a business student.

Home to work on my paperwork of medical history to take to my appointment tomorrow with Dr. Lisa Stone in Wenatchee. Thankfully, our weather will be good for travel.

Nice telephone call from my friend since 1977 who just had surgery on her ACL in her knee, and who is doing well. She’s had Brittanys from us since 1977 and lived in Moscow, ID at the time, so we traveled all over the PNW to shows and field trials with our dogs.

I sent a note to the music group {KV F&F} people to check on intended attendance. I need the count, because I have to report in Thursday morning to the facility where we are playing, so that they can haul arm-less chairs to the dining area for us.

Tuesday, Dec 19

No CPAP – Oximetry for Dec 18 SpO2 low 82, 10 events <88% with overall avg., 91.2%. Avg. low SpO2, 89.8%. Pulse avg. 54.2, low 50. Slept 8 hrs 9 min.

Our farrier is coming to trim Myst, at 9:30. I hope he is on time and it goes rapidly, because we have to drive to Wenatchee and be there by 1:05. He called to say he would be late, and we postponed it until another day.

Called Cle Elum for a Diane to tell me the value of the Ferritin and the range. Found out that and also that the FT3 had come in since yesterday afternoon’s phone conversation. The others were sent to Quest Diagnostics in Seattle, WA for analysis. One may take 3 weeks, says Dr. Lisa Stone today in our meeting, but I have already requested all the lab results be shared with her and my PCP.

We had left home, going through Quincy, WA. That’s the low elevation route. The Quincy area has major fruit and other crops. There is a large potato processor (fries, and the like), and fruit packers. We get the large Honeycrisp at Double Diamond. In 2012 the Amway Corp. started construction of a facility to produce Nutrilite Botanical Concentrate (such as blueberry, Echinacea purpurea, Echinacea angustifolia, oregano, peppermint and nettle). There is a long existing place that processes diatomaceous earth (locally available). Quincy’s new claim to fame, however, is that of internet data centers, known as server farms (cheap electricity).
As we approached Quincy it was cold and the sky above was dark with thick clouds less than 1,000 up. The many facilities were expressing pillars of bright white steam above the town. After Quincy the road goes down into the Columbia River canyon with steep basalt cliffs on the east side. The road has orchards on both sides.
This view is looking south. Note a stack of fruit bins on the right side, and the green of the trees. For us, the landscape was dusted with a thin coating of fresh snow that highlighted the physical features. I was particularly interested in the snow on the talus slopes, but unable to take a photograph of what I was seeing.

The Wenatchee River, from the Cascades to the west, enters the Columbia River about 15 miles north of the location of the photo. This coming together of major valleys has been a focal point of animal and human activities for centuries. We were headed toward the confluence.

And so we arrived at Confluence Health at 12:55 p.m. We were not seen until almost 2:00, but all went well. I never complain about waiting because I figure when the doctor stays with me, it is important and appreciated, and I realize someone is waiting to see her after me, so I hope they are patient & understanding too.

Our meeting.
The drive to Wenatchee to see a specialist (Endocrinologist),was a follow-up on my annual physical in Nov, and the finding by my new PCP doctor of a potential conflict with a heart med, Amiodarone, I have been taking for 7 years to prevent atrial fibrillations.  The medication is a large chemical that includes Iodine in its structure, shown in purple in the diagram. The Iodine gets cleaved from the rest and has to be processed by the thyroid.
Doctor Wood was concerned about my blood test results for the thyroid. The tests indicated an issue. The endocrinologist, Dr. Lisa Stone, looked at the test results, questioned me, and did a brief examination. The diagnosis was that I am fine, and we will just keep an eye on the blood tests in two months and then annually.
She also figures the labs on Nov 17th, were close to my sickness of 5 weeks, and likely affected the readings for T3 and T4. She also noted that the labs drawn yesterday about a month later were improved. My PCP had to request the referral, which he did, after I found from several friends and word-of-mouth that she was the preferred Endocrinologist in the area.

We were both pleased with the thoroughness and concern for my case and her detailed explanations. I captured about 10 minutes on video of her explaining my thyroid’s reaction to the Amiodarone, with a little hand-drawn diagram (below). The thin line on the left is indicating the link between the Pituitary gland up top and the Thyroid glands under my cute smile.Here is the location of the video:

Dr. Lisa Stone Diagrams What’s Going on with My Thyroid

Wednesday, Dec 20

No CPAP – Oximetry for Dec 19 SpO2 low 81, 9 events <88% with overall avg., 92.8 %. Avg. low SpO2, 89.7%. Pulse avg. 57.3, low 52. Slept 7 hrs 27 min.

Need to carry the unsalted cashews I got at Costco for Louaine, down to her.

Dark clouds east of us on my way home, and no camera. Got home and grabbed John’s Nikon to capture the western view from our back patio. These do not show the movement and color changes. Four photos this evening from our back patio (by Nancy). Mt. Rainier is 63.5 miles over there.

Thursday, Dec 21

No CPAP – Oximetry for Dec 20 SpO2 low 83, 10 events <88% with overall avg., 92.2 %. Avg. low SpO2, 89.9%. Pulse avg. 53.2, low 50. Slept 8 hrs 28 min.

Talked with Laura at Cle Elum and found out the NextMd.com system for communicating with my PCP is being replaced in 2018. I accessed it Tuesday night to report back to my PCP, Dr. Wood, about his referral to Dr. Stone in Wenatchee, and realized the email was keyed to our old email account; therefore, it was not posted properly to my doctor, and there is no way to change it now. I had already changed the system to my new account. So, I requested them tell his nurse my message about the meeting. Then I called Wenatchee and requested the doctor to copy me on the transcription of the notes to my PCP which she is sending him. I hope I will get it from one or the other, maybe both.

Now going through messages on old account to be sure I have all I need. 127 pages left to go. This is uncovering more lost info to recover before Dec 31. Phew.

Today, John went with me to help load all the music weight into the Pacifica Senior Living home. Here are the details:

Kittitas Valley Fiddlers & Friends Pacifica Senior Living 12-21-17
Christmas music with 16 people, plus an audience member on a set of bells.
LINK

The last song played is Steciak’s. I have not been able to find out much about the song, but it has been attributed to Larry Ungar.

The only You Tube I can find for sound of the music is by the Little Big String Band and was just published Nov 17, 2017. Here:
Steciak’s (Live)

Today, I was sharing information on Facebook with my friend since the 6th grade. We played guitars and sung folk songs together at events in Atlanta, and we also played our violins through high school in the orchestra. She rode and jumped horses, and we both were into photography. She has surpassed me with her photography. She sent me this picture of her large wall photograph in a Physical Therapist’s office in Michigan, where she now lives. Maude Buszek’s Bald Eagle in Physical Therapy Waiting RoomI grabbed these off her Facebook site for my collage. Sorry the eagle is not better focused in my collage. Later, I will get some of her bird photos (and her permission) to share here.

Friday, Dec 22

No CPAP – Oximetry for Dec 21 SpO2 low 85, 4 events <88% with overall avg., 92.8%. Avg. low SpO2, 90.0%. Pulse avg. 58.3, low 51. Slept 8 hrs 6 min.

Today, I went to town for meds at the Pharmacy, stopped off for some colas for John, and drove myself across town to the eye doctor. I had the technician, Diane, compare the prescription in my new glasses to the original, and they supposedly are ground properly. However, I’m not seeing the same clarity in my right eye as in my left. I have an appointment next Friday with my normal eye doctor, Dr. Bob Davis to evaluate what might be changed in the Rx to make my eyesight more balanced.

Finally, getting more into the Christmas spirit, locally and from far away.

Our neighbors raise pigs, and I dropped John off earlier in the week when I was going to town by myself, and he took several photos, but combined two into this one. This pink flying pig they found on Ebay and have put him up in their barn adjacent to the pigs and strung lights around him. The one on the right is a live big mamma. The babies are sold to local kids for 4-H animals that are then shown at the County Fair and other sorts of events. My uncle Henry had a big pork raising operation in rural Georgia. He had hundreds. Neighbors have several. Not even close to the same scale. And, in the south, mama and babies were inside, feeding was under a roof, and there was a large adjacent area that was fenced. Anyone going closer that 100 yards had to have their boots disinfected by standing in a shallow pan.

Saturday, Dec 23

No CPAP – Oximetry for Dec 22 SpO2 low 84, 15 events <88% with overall avg., 91.8 %. Avg. low SpO2, 89.6%. Pulse avg. 57.5, low 50. Slept 8 hrs 13 min.

Staying in the animals and Christmas spirit, here are two Brittanys.This is 2017: Alice Benoit’s Rose Marie ^^ 2015: my Daisy in CA

Interesting Facebook post from Debby Connors, who gave me a beautiful blouse (size L) made in France I am wearing again after my weight loss and am receiving many compliments on.

This photo below is Debby’s latest endeavor, where she is taking used feed bags and turning them into shopping bags. “Passed the cat test.” I asked her what feed, because our feed bags for birds & horses are not nearly as cool.Her answer to my question above: “This is from scratch for the chickens. I’ve read that many years ago folks would use flour sacks (yes from when flour was sold in sacks) and turn them into dishcloths, aprons, even clothing, that the manufacturers got word of this and began to purposely design their flour sacks with more attractive designs for their second use.”

I told her that I’m ancient enough to remember flour sacks, and I have a tie-around I use on John to cut his hair, made by my friend from a Thorp Mill Flour Bag material (purpose made, never used as a flour bag). I need to take a photo of it for our blog, next time I cut his hair. [ John says: I’m rural enough to remember cloth flour sacks. Type the phrase – flour sack art – into a search box (use Images tag) and have a look.]

We took pictures of the quail and the deer. Just the little buck and his mom came up to beg for treats, and the little girl, stopped off to eat some horses’ hay. The deer are not interested in the leafy parts but will pick the seed-heads out when they can. Sometimes folks will harvest Oats as hay, with all the seed-heads included. That has to be enclosed or the deer will tear bales apart and make a mess.
A pair of quail got our attention:Quail inside new enclosure; still inside with Junco outside.

This was John’s creation to keep the Asian Collared doves away from the little birds’ food dish. The quail are not stopped by the 2×4 inch openings. That’s nice. They will also share with the little birds, but the doves won’t.

Some more of the quail in this morning in for sunflower seeds.Nancy’s attempt to capture deer with John’s camera.Buck in his second year. The misshapen tip of the left ear is a family thing. We first saw this in an old doe about 10 years ago.

Sunday, Dec 24

No CPAP – Oximetry for Dec 23 SpO2 low 86, 8 events <88% with overall avg., 93.1 %. Avg. low SpO2, 90.5%. Pulse avg. 57.0, low 51. Slept 8 hrs 36 min.

Two calls last night to Ethel and Pat in PA, and one this morning to Marise in GA.

We’ve been working on feeding animals, accepting baked goods from our neighbor (a raw apple cake), and the blog. I’ve sneaked in a few good wishes to folks on email.
Now John finished editing my blog draft, and I’m proofing and adding comments left out before. He now has to enter the data into WordPress, and then I have to proof that, before we can publish it. Meanwhile, he fixed us an afternoon snack of popcorn and fruitcake. All we need is a fire to curl up in front of.

Hope you week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan