Keeping track

Monday, Nov 19

Staying home today to prepare medical records and questions for taking to annual physical in Cle Elum tomorrow for John and me both. Accomplished and packed to go.

Tuesday, Nov 20

I drove my car to Cle Elum and we filled with gas after our long doctor’s appointments. We used our credit card for $3.06 / gal, 10 cents / gal higher than the cash price, but we get a 4% return for a cash rebate once a year from Costco/Citi card, so it’s perky to use the card and it saved us more / gal than buying at the cash price ($2.96 in Cle Elum). We were there, not Yakima, where the Costco price was $2.99 (and we’d have gotten a 4% return there). The Ellensburg price was even higher.

We left (12:20) for the Annual Wellness Visit, as Medicare calls it. at. I drove and we went via I-90, with no problems. There is a little snow visible on Mt. Stuart (9,415 feet), but in the next few days we are expecting it have a whiter top to last through winter. We arrived in time for our check-in, and had to fill in a bunch of paperwork. We both weighed in and started on our questions & answers.

The Wellness Visit seems to be designed to cut Medicare’s costs by discouraging tests that were often done in a “annual physical exam.” If, during the 1st visit, something suggests a medical issue, then going back a week later for that seems to fit this description: “Preventive vs. Diagnostic .

A service is considered preventive if you have no prior symptoms of the disease. In some cases, Medicare only covers preventive care services if you have certain risk factors. On the other hand, diagnostic services tend to address symptoms or conditions that you already have. The classification of services as preventive versus diagnosis is important because it affects what you owe for them. You typically need to pay a copay, coinsurance, and/or deductible for diagnostic services.

I don’t remember the order of the things done but the basics were vitals: blood pressure, temp, pulse, and an SpO2 reading. Checking medicines, asking if refills are needed, and a list of questions that included some we already had filled in on the sheets given at the start. Most of those are about smoking, alcohol intake, last exams (eyes, dental), immunizations, and questions about your outlook on life (I interpret as seeking to find depressed folks or serious threats to society, or possibly ones with cognition / memory / behavioral problems. As usual, John and I were turned off by the form’s “marking” placement, and presentation of options.

John objects to the phrase about “using alcohol.” Reader’s Digest has a post titled “12 Ways to Use Rubbing Alcohol” and that one doesn’t mention paint removal. The other form of alcohol, the one of the medical question, is considered by many to be an acceptable “food” that one drinks or adds during food preparation.

At least they had filled in our correct address, phone numbers, insurance details, new card numbers, but missing were any data from the old system (such as year of retirement, or year of starting coverage). Those had 2018 dates.

Here is a good information source of what to expect, and it explains much of the stuff behind several of my comments above.

Screening Tools for Medicare Wellness Annual Visit

This document includes the following table, which shows the 3 words possible to give at the start of the clock routine drawing, which will need to be recalled later in the “interview” (administered by the nurse).This year my words were those in Version 2. John’s were Version 4. She gave his first, and I put my fingers in my ears, because last year, mine were spoken first, with John listening, so he remembered one of my words and only 2 of his. This year she wrote my words down on a piece of paper to show me. We both remembered all three this year. Next year, I’m going to study this table before going for my test. Last year we were both surprised by the “draw a clock with specified time”, and I goofed on mine. Not this year. (Interesting thing to me was they did not change the actual time, which is published in the screening tests above, and was exactly the same as used last year (one would think…). They may need a new test soon, because many folks rarely see this type of clock. Most are digital.

Our time with the doctor was quite useful. We discussed all the things we wanted (except for one thing). I wanted him to review my chest X-rays from Feb 20 & Mar 20, this year which were interpreted by another medical person (P.A.) in this facility, because our usual doctor was not available. He had correctly determined I had Pneumonia, but on the second follow-up X-ray, a month later, he mentioned he saw a hiatal hernia (HH). John was not with me and I was unable to see what he was seeing on the X-ray. I wanted a second interpretation from my PCP, but the X-rays were part of the “old” record computerized databank reporting system and no longer available in the new. I have experienced none of the symptoms of a HH. We’ll just start from scratch and now have a chest X-ray each annual visit, or not, as the Doctor wants.

We both had ours today, after blood draws. Next week we will get the evaluations of the X-rays displayed to us and go over the blood test results (which I have already downloaded and printed from our hospital medical records reports). If I want, I can also go to the hospital and request CDs of our X-rays. It’s a free service. I need to find mine from February & March this year, which I received before the medical records were lost in the transfer to the new medical records system. Actually, ‘lost’ isn’t the correct term. A new records provider did not want the old material transferred to their new (clean) system. The local clinic can re-enter items as desired, but not use automated digital transfers. Or something like that.

We also talked about other issues, of refills, and concerns. As well, I was scheduled for yearly mammograms (rather than every 2 years) and for another colonoscopy. My last one was in 2010. John has another year to go before his next one. Our doctor is recommending 5 yrs especially if we have had polyps, because they can be precancerous. If a person doesn’t have polyps, they can go 10 years between. I am sure that recommended time span has changed in recent years. In previous colonoscopies I have always had a couple of polyps, but my timing had been 10 years until this year. Hopefully, I will have none and can return to the every 10 years check, as my Doctor just did.

John’s concern is red blood cells (RBCs), or rather lack thereof. His RBCs stick together.

Link to Rouleaux.

[picture how the coils of a Slinky seem to be connected; pull on one coil and the ones on either side move also]. This is not a new thing; he just wants an update and more information.

Wednesday, Nov 21

I play music at Hearthstone today; need to be there by 1:20.

This morning, I saw an announcement for a free pickup bed liner base, and sent John off to get it. It is for a Ford but might fit in our old Chev ’80 PU. If not, and if we cannot think of another use, we can pass it on. The new free liner given to us today.

Today, he’s taking the trash to the Transfer station (aka dump) using the Ford PU with the canopy. He managed to get rid of more than 500 pounds of stuff and paid just under $20 to dispose of it. Snow was falling on his way back. That trip will provide some space in all our freezers.

I left at 12:45 for Hearthstone to play music. We had a good player turnout. 12 people, plus our little yodeler singer, Haley. Had a fairly good audience, of the regulars, but some were missing probably because they were already on their way to their family Thanksgiving celebrations. A few of our players had similar travel issues.

The older ladies I was going to take are not feeling up to going, but two of them came to hear the music. We started early playing December winter songs and a couple of Thanksgiving songs. Evie played the piano, I the violin, and all the others played chords. Then at 1:55 we began one more song (Mission in the Air), as the whole group has music for it, with Evie staying on the piano. Then she moved back behind the group to play violin.

The audience consisted of residents and they were served coffee and gingerbread cookies with a white frosting. Family members came along from the musician group, and sang along as well. They were there to leave directly and go to the Community Thanksgiving Dinner which followed at 3:20 at the old Armory building near the Fairgrounds. Part of the story is here: Link: costly transition from Armory to County use Don’t miss watching the video, and near the end you’ll see the big meeting room which many of us have used since it was finished.

I was surprised at how many of our group went to dinner; we sat at the same table. In addition, my new found Persian friends, were there, two tables away, whom I saw as I was leaving. I sat down and visited with them on my way out the door. The young gal you have seen in last week’s blog because she videotaped our Veterans’ Day performance on Nov. 9. At that time, I had not known of or met her husband and his mom, or they would have been invited too. However, I did invite them via email earlier this week, and they came. They converse among themselves in Farsi, but speak English well. The younger two speak without any noticeable accent. We had a nice visit and I didn’t get home until dark. John had already fed the animals. I will likely see the family next Wednesday at the Food Bank. I will know them much better having met them today and visited.

In informing the people invited today, I had sent a copy of the flyer advertising the event and knew about the free taxi rides being offered by a community member, Steve, who owns the business. When I went out the door, he was there, so I stopped and thanked him. I came home and wrote the following note to the Facebook site for Community Connect Kittitas County. It has been well received with 68 likes, 17 loves, comments, and several shares. I hope the message gets back to Steve.

A big thank you to Steve at K.C. Cabs, 509-312-9315, who provided FREE rides to/from the Community Thanksgiving Dinner, at the Armory – from 3:15 to 6:45 p.m.
On my way out the building to my own car, I saw him sitting in his taxi. I knocked on his window, he rolled it down, and I thanked him for providing the service. That is an exceptional gift. The dinner was also free to the community and put on by the City of Ellensburg and FISH, with the help of many local volunteers. Thanks to all involved.

I knew many of the people eating and the volunteers serving. The staff and volunteers of the Senior Center are part of the City of Ellensburg, so right in the middle of the activity. I even got involved with delivering “dressing” for the turkey dinner from Hearthstone whose cooks made it, to the Armory. John and I also donated 6 turkeys to the event. Commercially approved kitchens around the city cooked the food as a donation too.

We had a tiny few flakes of snow today, but friends and relatives back east had snow in inches. This collage below comes from my friend Elise in New Jersey, of autumn leaves (and even ferns) with 8” of snow covering the ground. New Jersey: fall colors on 8” snow, by Elise Schlosser

Thursday, Nov 22 HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

We awoke at 6:30 to our cat Czar wanting fed. He has learned to come in the swinging door (in a window, via a ramp) and sleep overnight quietly in the living room under a chair and stay away from Rascal, also an in&out neutered male.

He meows and comes from the living room when he’s ready to be fed (outside on the front porch, or a bowl of Party Mix underneath his chair in the living room). Note: He can go out on his own, but would have to go around the house to a heated water bowl.

Now it’s after 9:00 a.m.; all 4 cats have been fed and John just left to feed the horses. There was snow on the pass, early a.m., now bare and dry, but no snow here. May rain this afternoon.

John returned and made a cookie sheet of candied Carpathian walnuts to take today as our contribution. With sugar and butter added, a pound of dry walnuts becomes a pound & a half of fancy food. He used walnuts he harvested from our several trees.Candied Carpathian Walnuts

I found a nice Christmas tin to carry them in, and so our friends, Suzy and Bob West, who invited us to their family Thanksgiving dinner can have some there and take some home, we will give them a Ziploc bag of their own to be sure they get some. They were the only “family” allowed in to the ICU at Yakima Regional Hospital to see me when I was so sick starting on the day after Thanksgiving in 2009. No one else was allowed to visit besides them and John for 55 days. A couple of my students sneaked in the first day before the nurses found out I was being visited.

Family was allowed in, but none are nearby, so the hospital approved Suzy and Bob West to be “family.” Suzy worked at the close-by college and came almost every day on her lunch hour (they live west of Yakima past Wiley City). Bob is closer to my age but was my student who was graduated in 1997 from Geography. Suzy’s family I have known since the early 1990s when I first met her parents coming to dance Friday afternoons at the Senior Center, and our group played music for them. I worked my class schedule on Thursdays and Fridays around going to play my fiddle with the group at assisted living homes and at the Ellensburg Senior Center.

There were 12 kids in Suzy’s family. Bob is into music and CDs, and fixed me up (allowed by the hospital) to have a CD player and music while there. They introduced me to the Mannheim Steamroller group, especially their Christmas Album because I was there from Thanksgiving through December and into January a week.

Here is a link to one of the CDs he gave me. The group is still performing in 2018. This album below is one I have that plays for 34 minutes.

Mannheim Steamroller Christmas

On a related musical note, here is an amazing Thanksgiving wish from the two musical mountaineers who hike with their ‘piano’ (keyboard, weighing 45#) and violin to heights to share their music.

Here is today’s entry on Thanksgiving.Find at this link (only for people with Facebook accounts):

The Musical Mountaineers: Anastasia & Rose

It’s worth it to make an account with a fake name or in your dog or cat’s name, so you can get access if you don’t want your own name displayed there.

With this video was posted poetry to go with a beautiful violinist (Anastasia), playing for her piano player/ice skating friend (Rose) to dance across the Alpine pond.At 3:15, we are leaving our home and driving SW about 20 miles to the Orcutt family’s Thanksgiving Dinner, with many people expected to be there to greet and dine. The festivities begin at 4:00 p.m. The home is a large open style log type with internal dividers in the common area.

I failed to get a photo of Suzy and Bob West. So many folks, good conversations, and a ton of food. I did not even capture pictures of all the counters of food. Missing is stuff around the kitchen counters: stuffed mushrooms, dressing, Suzy West’s yam casserole with brown sugar & pecans, mashed white potatoes, gravy, platters of turkey, numerous baked veggies such as green bean casserole and corn. Rolls and butter. Punch, cooled bottles water, and other beverage delicacies.Matriarch Burniece, Jennifer, John, Kristy and grandson Clayton.Some of the salad bar, with a view of my plate on the right. Top center of my plate is Suzy’s awesome sweet potato casserole with pecans.Parts of the dessert table. Left is a trifle (which sadly I did not get to taste). It was all gone by the time I got there. I’ll be sure next year to take a taste as an appetizer. John’s candied Carpathian walnuts are in the can beside it. The other picture has the edge of one of several pies, gum drops, lemon bars (also I missed out on), and another type of fudge.

We got home a little before 9:00 p.m. Rained on us going but not returning. We did drive slowly in a few places through thick fog, but home safely with four cats ready to eat.

Friday, Nov 23

I went to the Kittitas Neighborhood Pantry and to take clothing to the clothing bank, but had no way to contact them, so I drove over and back 21 miles to Kittitas to read the sign on the door they were not open the day after Thanksgiving. I had a small garbage bag full of clothes to donate, which I’ll just take back next week, the last day it’s open until spring.

Saturday, Nov 24
We are invited to the Swedbergs for a late Thanksgiving dinner, which will be my third this week. Dale Swedberg, Aalin, Luken, Kathy, Erica, red Xmas dress & hat Kathy made for her granddaughter.Nancy, roasted turkey, Erica, Adam, Julie, smoked turkey, John
No photos of all of the meal but finished with desserts, chocolate pear cake, pumpkin pie, rhubarb cake, and chocolate muffins. We shared a few of our candied walnuts with the folks and gave what was left to Ken. Laura gave away as much of the two turkeys as anyone wanted. I took a good amount of the smoked one, and Ken was kind enough to carve it for me into a large Ziploc bag. I use that in my Wednesday salads, each week, or in sandwiches or salads with John. We will make good use of it.
We left in time to get home just before dark to feed the outside animals.

Sunday, Nov 25

I slept in this morning, after watching Czar spend the night on Annie’s bed (blanket and comforter on the floor in the den). I let him out the front door at daybreak and moved his hard food on his “ledge.” He and Rascal are getting along better inside the house, almost ignoring each other. Rascal will hiss as he walks toward him, but Czar just quietly moves by, on his way to the water bowl in the kitchen.

I was supposed to go over to Swedberg’s to sit with the great grandfather (Bob Swedberg), so his son, Ken, can get some recreation time in Yakima with his friend at a movie. No one in the family was available to help, so I told him I would. Meanwhile, this morning, he called to say a friend Beth up the road close to the Naneum Canyon would come for the entire time and I did not need to. I was relieved, especially after John came in to tell me that our horses found a way out of the fence on the south end and were at two of our neighbors’ places. He has retrieved them and now is on his way to fix the fence.

I’m continuing to work on things in the house, and no longer charging the battery and packing up my laptop to take to the neighbor’s where I would not have had access to the Internet. Also means I can finish inside house chores needed completed and get my brunch.

We are getting this published early today and will be able to get into bed at a decent hour for a change.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

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