Keeping track

included going to the Emergency Room

October 1, 2017 Sunday

Without access to my Toshiba, from the crash on Wednesday, this week, I cannot see info I had started for the blog this week, until I receive the new power supply (Laptop Charger) and can access the computer’s hard drive by charging the battery. Most likely, it will not arrive until late this Tuesday, at the earliest. I had not transferred the blog report to the newer DELL.
I’m fortunate to be getting pictures of the day (from accessing email to crew members) to use to report John’s snowy trip to Mt. Rainier for a WTA trail work party 10/1.

First 2 photos from Saturday, when John was not there:Previous to this weekend, the National Park trail crew cut Cedar trees and split rails. These and a dump truck of soil were then deposited at the beginning of the trail, just off the Sunrise parking lot. In the photos above, the WTA volunteers are bring the rails up the trail and installing them.

On Sunday, the weather was not so nice.Crew leader, Hannah; snow clouds over Rainier; Crew at work – John on left. A powered loader (aka: a totter) and an old fashioned wheel barrow helped get the soil up the trail:The front person (Eric), with a strap, helps “bump” the front wheel over the steps.
A second totter would not start (cold?) so the material for the tread (the soil) could not be brought as fast as the crew could spread it. There was a little down time and the crew needed to keep moving to counteract the cold.

They constructed a new volunteer – the little one in the pictures. She needed a hard hat, loaned by Gabby, tall gal in the green jacket. Nickname of the new one is “Two Tool.” (That’s John with empty buckets in the background.)

October 2, 2017 Monday

Missed SAIL because I’m still sick, and getting worse.

October 3, 2017 Tuesday

Missed Funercise, same reason as yesterday.

October 4, 2017 Wednesday

Missed Food Bank music; missed SAIL.

Went by Amy’s to drop off flowers & a black bag of music for tomorrow’s use at Rehab.Amy & Haley traded out our 5-gallon bucket for a nicer container; the vase’s location underneath a Sunflower painting by Amy.

John was driving, delivered the above things to her porch, and we went to the ER, arriving about noon. Once admitted, our time there was 2 hrs. 40 minutes with John staying with me. We lucked out and our doctor was Dr. Kenneth Lindsey, who is the Director of the ER unit. He is not there every day. Here’s the description of his diagnosis.

I went to ER for evaluation. I had 2 chest X-rays, (to assess for pneumonia), an influenza test (a swab way up each nostril), and a blood draw (several vials of blood)—one for a BMP (Blood Metabolic Profile), one for an INR (to assess my Coumadin blood thinner needs for dosage; done monthly, and I was 2 weeks overdue for the blood draw.) Diagnosis was it was not pneumonia, or the flu, but instead, it was a bacterial infection with common cold symptoms, which could be treated with an antibiotic. I was put on Amoxicillin, 3 times / day, for 10 days. He took me off MusinexDM®, because of the ineffectiveness of the drug for me, anyway. He said I would continue the coughing, mucous secretion, and would lessen the amount of water intake.

The BMP report came back while I was still there, showing my blood’s sodium was very low; so, the doctor recommended getting PowerAdeZERO, to replace the water I was drinking. I was flushing all the sodium from my blood. I have always heard when you are sick to drink a lot of fluids, and I was drinking a lot of water. I was on the 10th day of taking the only OTC cold remedy I am allowed to take because of heart issues, MusinexDM®, every 12 hours, and it required a full glass of water with each dose. I was using a 12-ounce glass of water, not just 8 ounces, but they also did not specify the amount of ounces in a glass of water. Seemed fine to me, and we have good tasting filtered well water by a Culligan unit. I use it for all my drinking water uses, and not the mineral well water.
BMP was the only one of the blood draws, whose report ER received while I was still there. My sodium was low at 122 mEq/L. The range is usually given as 133 – 146; so about 17% below the mid-point of that range.

Got home late (4:30), and found my Toshiba Laptop’s power supply had quit working, and so the battery was completely dead (I’d left it charging when we left the house), but as it is completely dead, there was no way to access it to send over the most important two things I needed sent to my other laptop, where I’m able to operate now with access to all my emails, and access to Google Earth, a calculator, and MS-Word. I need some software (SpO2) off that machine, and several Folders containing important information that had not yet been transferred over. Things such as information on Credit Cards we have and the usernames & passwords associated with accessing statements, postal mailing addresses, my medical records folder, health fitness folder, and lots more.

Before I got home from the ER, I had a telephone message from the nurse at ER, that my INR had come through, and it was very high, 7.7. It has never been higher than 4 as long as I have been taking Coumadin and being tested every month. The ER Dr. recommended the changed dosage on Coumadin, and requested a new one be drawn in 2 day on Friday with the BMP, he already recommended.

Luckily, with access to all my email accounts, I can keep up on communication, and it frees up some time to work on changing addresses of people, banks, cell service provider, and many other businesses, which send billing statements to that an old account we lose at the end of the year. Some of them I haven’t even thought of come in and I notify them right away, and wait for them to acknowledge; then take them off the nancyh@ellensburg.com address book. Please if this is the first you have heard that news and you have this account in your address book on your own email accounts, let me know (letting me know there is fine) and I will send you the account we are changing to immediately. It’s important you know the change as that will soon be our main address and the other will be gone with no forwarding possible. John has no interest in any of the rest of my multiple identities, such as the jobs list, music, nor the little I do on social media. So, we must change information meant for him, to that new joint Gmail account. Sadly, this is a huge chore, as our email address there is around the world in many places, having had that account since 1995.

October 5, 2017 Thursday

The Kittitas Valley Fiddlers & Friends, played the music fine and I was able to report to the activity director the number of chairs to have available today for them, all 9 players, who don’t stand.

October 6, 2017 Friday

Oximetry for Oct 5, unavailable, because I lost access to the SpO2 Review software that only was stored on the Toshiba laptop.

I went by Amy’s house to pick up the Black Music Bag and my 5-gallon bucket, to find a present and a Get Well Card down in the bucket. They weren’t home.
Amy left a gift of fruit (Italian Plums & two Red Bartlett pears) with a lovely Get Well card, handcrafted by Amy and Haley, with Calligraphy by Amy, and a painting by Haley. Collage of these will have to wait until next week.

I’m very late now trying to get these corrections to John to put into the WordPress blog version to send up (Monday afternoon, 10/9/17).

Friday, I went to the Lab at the hospital for my BMP retake, and my INR retake. I have only heard the results of the INR from today (4.3), late from the Cle Elum clinic’s Coumadin nurse, Cody. She went over my change in dosages for tonight, tomorrow, Sunday, and this coming Tuesday. Now I know the BMP value of the sodium in my blood. It increased to 127, from 122 on Wednesday, so next week Thursday I will go for another BMP to see if has reached the minimum desired, of 133.

While in town, I bought a new digital thermometer and when I got home, I measured it at 3:59 p.m.; it was elevated slightly, at 99.2°F.

On my way home, I saw a new fire plume in the valley at 3:00 p.m. that was not there on my trip in at 1:00 p.m. I called friends who live on Hayward Hill, west of town with a good view toward Cle Elum, and they told me they had seen it too, and drove on up 97 to the Swauk-Teanaway Grange to check it out. They could see it was closer to Yellow Mountain, called Yellow Hill on Google Earth Pro. It was caused by people setting brush fires that got out of control. Why in the world would anyone set a fire with the high winds we were experiencing that day (up to 46 mph gusts) is beyond me.
October 6 fire that started at 3:00 p.m. and they got a strike team (helicopters with buckets putting water on it) ordered right away to stop it. Beyond the fire, to the left, is a large campground. That is on the site of an historic “company town” reached by narrow gauge railroad, horse, or foot.

Found an email for EastShore-Amazon Marketplace, today on the nancyh@ellensburg.com address book. It is where I purchased my Oximeter, fall of 2014, so I emailed them about getting the software that was on a mini-CD delivered with the purchase. I no longer know where it is, because I knew I could find the files needed on the TOSHIBA. They have not responded to that email.

John home 4:30 p.m. from Talapus Lake WTA trail maintenance work. They had a nice sunny day, but the Cascades were expected to get rain on Saturday into Sunday. He picked the correct day. The green-hat volunteers were all from the local Apple office.

Our USPS mail today brought a gift from cousin Ethel Reynolds, in Brookville, PA for us, via her daughter Pat Berlin. We received a commemorative deck of Playing Cards bought with a donation to the Clarion Library. The deck is full of old images on every card of pictures of buildings in Clarion County and Clarion, PA (John’s hometown). Thanks so much to Ethel! We really appreciate having and enjoying memories looking at them.The 10 of Hearts is the H.S. John graduated from; middle card is called “The Stone House”; and the Ace is the Hospital in Clarion where John had his tonsils removed.

[Link: The Old Stone House
Here are the Google Earth coordinates: 41.19020, -79.361356

In John’s time, the property had a small swimming pool with a bottom lined with black roofing paper. This was close to the Greenville Avenue road. Intersecting roads are Stoney Lonesome Rd. and the Stone House Road. As an address, John thinks Stoney Lonesome is an awesome name. Oh, and the Greenville Ave. road is the way they went to visit Ethel and family those many years ago, another 1-2/3 miles.]

I took all my night pills on my way to bed at 12:25 a.m. (I’d stayed up to do a FULL dishwasher of dishes—so we and the cats had plates to eat from, and we had stainless steel “silverware” to use. Everything was dirty, including all the coffee cups).

Saturday, October 7
Oximetry for Oct 6, unavailable, because I lost access to the SpO2 Review software that only was stored on the Toshiba laptop.

[Link: Butterfly Swarm on Denver, CO Radar System

I do have pictures to include that to get your attention, but you will see them all and a video, by clicking on the link above.

My temperature at 4:20 p.m. was 99.1°F.

Sunday, October 8

Oximetry for Oct 7, unavailable, because I lost access to the SpO2 Review software that only was stored on the Toshiba laptop. Did sleep 9 hrs. last night.

Morning stats: My temperature at 8:10 a.m. was 97.8°. The average normal body temperature is generally accepted as 98.6°F. Some studies have shown the “normal” body temperature can have a wide range, from 97°F to 99°F. Mine is normally a little under 98.6. A temperature over 100.4°F most often means a fever caused by an infection or illness.
BP at 10:15 a.m. = 131/70 pulse 65, this infection has consistently raised my BP over the past week or more, but I can adjust my dosage of Entresto, to lower it twice/day, as seen below.

BP at 12:32 p.m. = 116/66 pulse 75.
BP at 2:22 p.m. = 108/58 pulse 67.
BP at 8:47 p.m. = 109/66 pulse 70.
BP at 10:49 p.m. = 130/66 pulse 69.

John also told me how he makes collages on his machine, and I will try that right away on the Dell: put images together on Word in with white space between, and SNIP it. I’ll try that now. My normal way with PPT and Snagit, was not working on the Dell. I succeeded, as in the first collage above. Tonight (since 6:32, now 8:17), I scanning on John’s computer and sent a jpg of Clarion Playing cards, to my computer. Seemed like forever.

I just updated the USPS tracking, and found it’s POSSIBLE my Laptop Charger may get here tomorrow night !! Latest info shows it leaving from Newark, CA, through Oakland, CA to Yakima this morning at 6:00 a.m., Yakima is our regional mail distribution center, left there at 9:09 a.m. today, and it is only 30 miles away. Should get there in time for our mail delivery person to sort it in his car, but he does not deliver our mail until very late some days. Friday’s mail was not there at 5:30, but John saw the Jeep going up the road. We didn’t get our mail or our paper (a different carrier), until Saturday a.m.
Now I know that delivery won’t happen until tomorrow night (Tuesday) because of the national holiday.

October 9, 2017 Monday—Holiday, Columbus Day

Just found out this is a holiday, when a call to our local bank did not go through.

BP at 9:10 a.m. = 138/76 pulse 68,
BP at 10:08 a.m. = 133/71 pulse 66
BP at 3:47 p.m. = 113/68 pulse 74

Should be publishing this blog soon, after John sends this information up to WordPress.

Hope your week was fine,

Nancy & John
Still on the Naneum Fan

… but the Naneum Fan still has Autumn

Sunday, Sept 24

Memories of Sunday’s trip John made to the Fremont Lookout Trail at 7,100′ today.

These photos came through after he returned all taken by Hannah Tennent and “Sam” Ortiz took the one of John and Eric on the trip in. John & Eric arriving at work site with nice view of Mt. Rainier, one of the main reasons he loves to go to work parties there; later John flipping a rock for the rock wall project.Left, the crew in two locations, John is in the one farther up trail; right, the crew minus a few, sitting on the finished wall.

Monday, Sept 25

No CPAP – Oximetry for Sept 24: SpO2 low 86, 3 events <88% with overall avg., 92.1%. Avg. low SpO2, 88.5%. Pulse avg. 56.8, low 53. Slept 8 hrs 57 min.

I stayed home today to recuperate from the bug I got.

No music preparation today. All day spent on blog and pix, and trying to get better.

Tuesday, Sept 26

No CPAP – Oximetry for Sept 25: SpO2 low 86, 3 events <88% with overall avg., 92.2%. Avg. low SpO2, 88.4%. Pulse avg. 56.3, low 53. Slept 9 hrs 25 min.

I’m staying home today to get well. Work on music for F&F for Oct/Nov to send to Evie, for review. Never got to the Dell laptop.

John took Jessica (Subaru Crosstrek) to Yakima to get the oil change, lubrication, and other standard service things done. All prepaid at purchase. Most of the mileage for 2017 is logged but the next service will be at nearly 30,000 miles – one of the major milestones for replacement and preventive maintenance. This will be a several hundred dollar hit in early 2018. Ouch.

We met WTA Alan tonight for dinner, before John and he went to the meeting about the Manastash Trails planning process of WA Fish & Wildlife and Dept. of Natural Resources (land managers). Dropped off the music for Thursday at Hearthstone with Kayvonne.

Wednesday, Sept 27

No CPAP – Oximetry for Sept 26: SpO2 low 85, 3 events <88% with overall avg., 92.0%. Avg. low SpO2, 89.6%. Pulse avg. 54.3, low 50. Slept ~7 hrs 30 min.

I missed music at the Food bank and SAIL, staying home today to recover.

Set up eye surgery for Oct 30 at 10:45 for Nancy to have Laser removal of the film occurring in post-operation Cataract surgery after 20 years. Only a small procedure, done in the office, not in the hospital. John will drive me there and back. I won’t have any pain, no sedation necessary, won’t hurt, and no patch to wear, just eye drops for 4 days. Should be covered 80% by Medicare, and the rest by Kaiser Permanente – they who ingested WA’s Group Health.

Found out my Wall Street Journal is paid ($49.00) through March of 2018. Nice at the educator’s rate. Changed our email address from the old to the new.

John’s been doing outside chores and I’ve been doing inside chores. Fruit and veggie season is 99% done but the Walnuts have started opening and dropping. Walnut husk fly, click is an issue. The larvae are in the husk, causing a mess, and turn it black. The hard shell of the nut gets stained but this does not endanger the nut itself. John’s is trying to get the nuts off the trees before the larvae can drop onto the ground. This reduces the following year’s fly population. Might need to get more aggressive. Chemicals!

I got the mail off to the Fiddlers & Friends group that the music is there for them, and I won’t be. I will collect numbers of people expected and report it to the Activities Director tomorrow morning at Hearthstone.

I spent a ton of time trying to change the email address on my VISA Costco Credit Card account. I think I was finally successful, after trying and failing on line, and then waiting for a person. It is fixed now.

John caught my cold, and is heading to bed early at 8:45 p.m. Poor guy. I did everything to keep from giving him germs, but I guess I failed. Usually colds affect him less than me, and that seems to be the case this time.

Thursday, Sept 28

No CPAP — Oximetry for Sept 27: SpO2 low 85, 5 events <88% with overall avg., 91.6%. Avg. low SpO2, 88.8%. Pulse avg. 53.9, low 50. Slept 9 hrs

John went to town in my car for several stops, to get sunflower seeds, his meds, go by Sears for a correct handle for the lawnmower that broke, and the nicest thing he is doing for me is going by Les Schwab for new tires for my car, which is sorely in need of them. I hope he is able to go by for my black music book at Hearthstone. Have heard from John, but not yet from Kayvonne, so maybe I will just have to pick it up tomorrow. Found out she went home very sick, and did not remember to leave out the music. But the group shared and the audience went without, and it all went well.

I stayed home to treat myself to more recuperation time, but thankfully, we had 9 musicians going to Hearthstone to play today.

Cold Remedies: What Works, What Doesn’t

Expectorants
Expectorants such as Mucinex thin the nasty mucous draining down the back of your throat, which helps you cough it up and out. These products can help, but the best expectorant may be as near as your kitchen sink. “All you need to do is drink more water,” says Dering Anderson. If you find water too bland for your tastes, try lemonade, tea, or even coffee, she says. You can also turn on the hot water in the shower and breathe it in or try a cool-mist humidifier.

Tonight spent a bunch of time on the new laptop working on music, and finished a medley of two new versions (corrected) of old songs, Tiny Bubbles & Pearly Shells.

Friday, Sept 29

No CPAP — Oximetry for Sept 28: SpO2 low 90, 0 events <88% with overall avg., 93.7%. Pulse avg. 55.5, low 52. Slept 7 hrs 30 min. – best ever night off the CPAP.

John went to Snow Lake WTA work at 7:00 a.m. He returned after a misty/sprinkles day of lifting/digging rocks and digging trenches.

I went to the Ruth Harrington Scholarship Luncheon in Bouillon (building I was housed in for my office from 1997 to 2008, by Safeway for my prescription and more Musinex®DM. I also went by Hearthstone to pickup music books and audience copies, which were not properly given to the group yesterday.

The lawn mower handle (see Sears above) has its own story. I picked it up today at “Washington Tractor” – a major central WA company that sells and services big farming equipment, Stihl chainsaws (+), and John Deere garden and lawn machines. Here at home and at Sears, the model number of the lawnmower entered into the Sears on-line data base returns parts for a rear engine riding mower. So, the handle could not be found. Two months ago John tried twice to order a handle via internet and phone. Twice the wrong handle was sent. Entered into the Washington Tractor data base, the correct mower and handle flashed onto the screen in an instant. John paid yesterday, and I brought it home today. One example of why Sears is a struggling retailer, and likely on the road to oblivion.

Today, Jeri Conklin posted a photo of our Daisy dog standing beautifully at the breakaway. She didn’t place today, but check tomorrow for her winning a placement in Open Gun Dog, picture. Cedaridge Kip’s Camelot Shay Tre’ JH

Saturday, Sept 30

No CPAP – Oximetry for Sept 29, SpO2 low 87, 1 event <88% (Avg. Low Sp02% was 87) with overall avg., 94.2%. Pulse avg. 58.7, low 51. Slept 9 hrs 20 min. Another great night.

Going to town for Musinex®DM because I bought the wrong thing yesterday. Amazing find on the way home on the Kittitas Hwy. of tons of music books from the old Dorothy McDonald Music store on 3rd and 5th in Ellensburg a long time ago. She has since died. (I need to look up the history of that store; I’m sure it was not here when I arrived in town.) I tried, but cannot find anything anywhere. I will put my reference librarian friend on it tomorrow and ask at the CWU Music Library as well. I got music books from the 30s -70s, with chords, notes, and lyrics. I’m never going to have to ask Dr. Dave, anyone else, or search on the web, or buy from Musicnotes’ scores again. I can toss a lot of paper music I have from the past I don’t have to transcribe from hand-scribbled copies to make it legible. And, use the space in filing cabinets I have from throwing or giving away all my class materials from over 40 years of teaching !! Nice! I haven’t even counted the number of books in the two boxes. I introduced myself to the person in charge and told her my use for them, to play music and give audiences the lyrics, in assisted living homes. She had said on my way in, that everything was 50% off, but when I went to pay, she said, I told you I’d give you a good deal, so $7.00. I told her I expected to pay a lot more, and would be happy to give her more, but she said, nope, you will make good use of them for a lot of happy people.

I came home to find John mowing with the newly “handled” Craftsman lawnmower. He was under the Carpathian Walnut trees, where he had picked several boxes. He’ll eventually crack, clean them, and finish with roasting.

Good news from Corning, CA tonight, by phone, pictures to come tomorrow. Our Brittany, Daisy, got a 3rd placement in a 25-dog stake, Open Gun Dog, at the Northern California Brittany Club field trial. Jeri Conklin called with the good news.

Sunday, Oct 1

No CPAP – Oximetry for Sept 30: SpO2 low 86, 2 events <88% with overall avg., 91.8%. Pulse avg. 61.4, low 56. Slept 6 hrs 12 min. Up at 4:45, need more sleep

John went to Mt Rainier Sunrise at 5:20 a.m. I stayed up. Fed cats. Tried to assess my condition after a rough night of coughing and difficulty sleeping.

Finished revising my medications list for October, in case I have to go to the doctor for this crud. I think I’m feeling a little better, so may not have to in the morning, but I will not go to SAIL again Monday.
Switching to work on music for Evie’s review.Daisy, with Scott Azevedo, Jeri, and Leo, his friend holding her 3rd Place ribbon. They were at the Northern CA Brittany Club Field trial in Corning, CA. Proud of them all! Photo by Deanna Beals-Azevedo. Leo is their son.

Here was what was put on Facebook with the picture:
“Daisy” placed in the Open Gun Dog, handled and trained by Scott Azevedo of Nelson Kennels, scouted by John Moynier, and owned by Jeri Tory Conklin and Nancy Hultquist, at the Northern California Brittany Club Field Trial — at Clear Creek Sports Club.

John got home early from Mt. Rainier. Winter arrived and they were freezing and it was snowing big time. They quit at 11:15, then ate and visited in the Ranger Station. Working in the snow and wind was doable but the condition of the road out was not known and several folks had 2-wheel drive vehicles. This link has a photo and description. Sunrise Road The photo was taken from the upper most switchback, looking back toward the Mountain (6,130 feet). The Park Service closed the “in” gate mid-morning.

John got home at 2:30, and it is cold and windy here, but sunny, no snow!

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Sunday, Sept 17

We put out last week’s blog tonight, without photos of the last trip to Mt. Rainier’s Fremont Lookout Trail. Here are pictures of the project John worked on with Meagan and Stephanie – aqua shirt spent her childhood in Ellensburg, WA! Small world.Left: Meagan tosses the last rock on the wall, and then climbed up to push rocks in behind and on top. John and Stephanie did some of the work, too.

Monday, Sept 18

No CPAP – Oximetry for Sept 17: SpO2 low 82 (spurious?), 10 events <88% with overall avg., 93.3%. Avg. low SpO2, 89.5%. Pulse avg. 55.9, low 50. Slept 7 hrs 27 min.

I went to town for my SAIL exercise class at 1:30.

John left early for Liberty Lake trail work southeast of Spokane.
[Years ago, before autos, the small Lake was a summer attraction for the folks of Spokane. An electric interurban train made it easy to get to Liberty Lake. Now there is a county park that is harder to get to because the area between Spokane and the lake has been metropolitanized – read expensive.]
John was late coming home because of I-90 being completely closed to remove electric wires from across both east and westbound lanes. A telephone pole caught fire and caused the stoppage about 3:00 p.m. Luckily, he drove to Idaho for inexpensive gasoline and picked up a Carl’s Jr. supper that he ate during the long traffic stoppage until the electric company hoisted the wires and the pole up with about an 80′ foot crane.John is in there somewhere. East bound lanes are on the right and the stoppage is behind the camera.

He was stopped for an hour, but got restarted on the road home about 5:00 p.m. Most of the vehicles are based in Spokane so once 5 miles west of the city, traffic became normal.

Here are the reports on line: SPOKANE, WA-Traffic on I-90 in both directions is now closed at the Hamilton Street exit. As of 3 p.m., Avista says the pole will be replaced in the next 45 minutes.
(3:20 p.m.): Avista has confirmed a power pole fire at 2nd and Helena. A crane is being brought in to help stabilize the damaged pole. An estimated 1,800 customers are currently without power.
(4:50 p.m.): All customers now have restored power. Both directions are now open. But lanes will need to be closed around 9 p.m. tonight for 30 to 45 minutes to continue to repair the damaged pole.

Not much else going on, except music preparation.

Tuesday, Sept 19

No CPAP — Oximetry for Sept 18: SpO2 low 82 (could be spurious), 5 events <88% with overall avg., 94.2%. Avg. low SpO2, 89.6%. Pulse avg. 56.5, low 50. Slept 8 hrs 18 min.

I went to Funercise while John checked the Bi-Mart prize number and went to the grocery store. Exercise was late starting, because of a board advisory meeting. John returned on time, at 2:35, but had to wait for us.

Afterwards, we did go to Big Five today, and then to Costco. We had the manager helping us, (I met her on the phone over the weekend, while trying to get an extension on a sale price on boots, that ended Sunday). She said she would extend to this week, when we were able to get down there. She did gave us special discounts on the boots we got for John, as well as the shoes I got for me (Dr. Scholl’s for exercise, at 1/5 the price and the same style with better support than the Brooks Addiction I have sworn by for years (which cost ~ $120/pr). I have pretty much worn them all out. The Dr. Scholl’s are men’s size, but fit me well. While I was trying on shoes, John found a nice rain hat (camouflage) with a wide brim, and the manager gave him a few dollars off that as well. I didn’t realize there was more than one there, or I would have gotten me one for only $6.00. I wore his on Wednesday when it was raining hard for my trip to the Food Bank.

Wednesday, Sept 20

No CPAP – Oximetry for Sept 19: SpO2 low 85, 8 events <88% with overall avg., 94.1%. Avg. low SpO2, 89.2%. Pulse avg. 57.7, low 50. Slept 7 hrs 49 min.

Food bank and SAIL exercise with no Gloria, Stan, or Shirley. They are in Leavenworth for 2 days and nights.

Trying to get some time in on the KV F&F music for Oct / Nov.

Thursday, Sept 21

No CPAP – Oximetry for Sept 20: SpO2 low 85, 7 events <88% with overall avg., 93.5%. Avg. low SpO2, 90.0%. Pulse avg. 53.9, low 50. Slept 8 hrs 32 min.

MUSIC AT Pacifica. John drove his car, and got gasoline for his trip tomorrow, plus went to Super 1 for stuff at a good sale price. We had several people there and a large audience of happy people, including my longtime friend in the balcony, Arlane Nesmith. Then on the main floor I was pleasantly surprised to see two new additions of people I know at the SAIL exercise class, and did not realize they were at Pacifica. One sad note was finding out a long-time acquaintance and president of our fan club there at Pacifica since the time it was called Dry Creek, had died. I didn’t ask about him last month, but we missed him then. Today I asked one of the people who always was by his side, and she told me the sad news. No one knew he was ill and near death, including her. That was a very sad moment so we were early enough to share our grief without anyone overhearing us. We both had happy memories of him. His first name was Floyd. He always used to tell me I could remember his name by saying, Pretty Boy Floyd.

The folks who contributed music today included Amy & Haley (singing and dancing), Minerva, Gerald, Nancy, Sharon, Dean, Amy & Haley, Tim, & Joanie.

Friday, Sept 22

No CPAP – Oximetry for Sept 21: SpO2 low 87, 2 events <88% with overall avg., 94.6%. Pulse avg. 54.5, low 50. Slept 8 hrs 15 min. – an excellent night off the CPAP.

John going to Snoqualmie Lake WTA work – left at 6:00 a.m. Unfortunately, he got there to find the access road closed for construction, so they had to relocate to Talapus Lake to finish dismantling the puncheon bridges. That put him 20 miles closer to home when he left.

I spent time on the phone with Diana and Laura at our Primary Physician’s Office in Cle Elum. We owe $78.98 for last visit (5/1/17) with Dr. Schmitt for John and I found out we were NOT scheduled for our annual physical in November with the new doctor (Wood), as was supposed to happen. Now we are, but well into November because of a screw-up with scheduling last year. Insurance won’t pay for another annual wellness physical until a year and a day from the last date.
Last year we managed to do this on one day, but rules changed and we have to see a nurse first and then go back a week later for the real deal. So trips on two Tuesdays and sadly, I’ll have to miss my Jazzercise (Funercise, it is called) class. It’s the vigorous exercise I truly need.

I went to AAC today for lunch/scrabble, taking John’s Nikon for pix. For lunch, I had a couple of the meatballs from the spaghetti casserole, and gave the rest to Joanie and Ken. I ate my own container of smoked turkey, tuna fish & egg salad, grape tomatoes, iceberg lettuce, with no dressing. Their salad served was very nice, but it had too much dark green stuff in it for my restrictions for Vitamin K (being on a blood thinner).Joanie and I (in shirt she gave me), our table playing Scrabble.Here is Nicole waiting for Tina to bring more tape; letters were not sticking to the wall, so they moved to the window.Last of the game, and final board on the right.

On the road home I came over Bar 14, which has a one lane bridge over Naneum Creek (which flows behind our house). The high volume of spring melt from the hills north brought down tons of rocks to block the creek bed and change various directions of flow. Damage to this bridge occurred, as well as filling the channel with rocks and cutting off water to a number of us upstream, in addition to eroding some folks creek banks 25′ taking away their property.Left shows the one lane bridge and right shows the view upstream, and the lowering of water by the inundation of rocks in the channel.

I came home and about later started with a sore throat and runny nose – I do not need a cold! I worked on dishes, while gargling hot saltwater, to relieve the sore throat. The sniffles and coughing continued, and my favorite Fisherman’s Friends lozenges are not working to soothe it. {John’s advice is to place a silver spoon in my mouth for a couple of minutes several times each day, but I don’t do a good job of always listening to him!}

John got home from the WTA trip and took a quick nap, and I handled re-re-gifting some plywood to a woman who gave us a bunch of 2x4s and particle board/plywood. We told her that if she need any back for her chicken coop, we’d bring it. So she wrote on a Facebook message she was almost ready to go the chicken route. The woman (Renee) will call when she knows what her chicken coop needs after the roof is on (for inside, a couple pieces of her new and using our old plywood as well).

Saturday, Sept 23

No CPAP – Oximetry for Sept 22, SpO2 low 84, 17 events <88% (Avg. Low Sp02% was 88.6) with overall avg., 94.5%. Pulse avg. 54.8, low 50. Slept 8 hrs, 8 min.

Awoke with the continuation of the sore throat and blahs, and outside temperature, 45° near the front door. We bundled up and went to town early to pick up the concrete sidewalk pieces, and bag up elm shavings from a large tree that was taken down. John had great help from the guys of the house, Johnny (dad), sons, Trip & Beck, and Beck’s neighbor friend, Carlos. Mom Laura, took pictures, but I don’t have them yet.

We left for Super 1’s 6-hr sale and John went in and bought some boneless bottom round beef, and some produce. We came on home by Naneum road and dropped off 10 bags of the chips at a house, where we knew the family, but I did not recognize the daughter by her married name. We had ridden horses with her and her parents years ago. We ended up giving them more that the 1/2 we originally intended to share (10 large black garbage bags full). Father, George, was there and helped unload. He is going to spread it in their large horse arena to soften up the base of sand with something organic. His daughter wasn’t there, but she had told him we’d be coming.

So tired of this cold, runaway nose, cough, and sore to dry throat.
Worked on changing emails from nancyh@ellensburg.com to NancyJohnHultquist@gmail.com What a huge chore. I keep trying to do a few / day.

Sunday, Sept 24

No CPAP – Oximetry for Sept 23: SpO2 low 85, 6 events <88% with overall avg., 92.2%. Pulse avg. 59.7, low 53. Slept 7 hrs 51 min. Coughed all night and nose ran.

John was off to Mt Rainier, Sunrise at 5:10 a.m. to stop in Naches, for gasoline. I said goodbye, and went back to sleep, awaking early to Magpies fighting over the hard cat food at the front door, put out for Sue, when John left in the dark. I went and grabbed it and scared them off. I did a few things on the computer changing our email address to a few people, as I wrote a new message to send out to everyone (slowly) on our old address list to the soon-to-be-gone account.

I came back to follow the webcam and capture photos at 7:43 a.m. and worked on it through 9:02. I have some captures with John in it, his car, and others gathering around the flag pole at Sunrise (in the morning sun) for the introductions, and overview of the day’s work. I got back on later when the sun is out of the photo, colors show on the cars, and the parking lot fills. I did, and the flag is flying, with John’s car** very visible, and nice blue skies. I hope they had such a nice day to work on the trail at 7,100′.
**Car has been named after the song: Jessica
Writer/performer in hat – Dickey Betts – is also the creator of this classic:
Ramblin’ Man From John’s arrival, gathering talk, and after the crew is on the trail, midday. John’s car is the light blue one on the right front.Crew returns 3:30, cookies & drinks, goodbyes, and John’s gone.

I enjoyed watching the proceedings from the webcam at Sunrise.
Now to get on with the day.

I remembered last night after I was in bed, and miserable still with my runny nose and cough that I had taken some Musinex the last time I was so sick (for 6 weeks). I cannot afford to go that long this time. John and I both searched the cabinet this morning and found none of it, but lots of other stuff that has been expired for years, so will toss it. I’ll check my past notes in the blog, and see what I was approved to use last time and drive to town for it. I’m totally miserable.

Thank God for writing it up in my blog (one of the major purposes of this blog). I found it in October 14, 2016 when I was approved by my cardiologist to take it without conflict to my heart medications. It helped me then, so I am going to find the best price in town and go in today for some. Musinex DM is the OTC I’m allowed to take. Last year, it had a $5.00 off coupon for mail in, and I hope this year as well. (nope, no coupon this year, but I did find the Maximum Strength, so I can take fewer tablets twice daily for a week. Details: Maximum Strength Muscinex®DM, only 1 tablet every 12 hours (in a 14 pack).

I found them at Super 1 – Sherry is putting at the front desk “for Nancy,” and I headed out with a bottle of water to take one there, at 11:06. Sherry was the cashier at the front desk, and had them ready for me. It was Maximum Strength, 1200 mg, 14 pack, $15.18. I will have to stay up late tonight to take my second one 12 hrs. later. I will be so grateful, if this works.

We need to get our new cordless system installed, but we have to stay home long enough to do that and a bunch of other things.

My cough is not gone yet. The mucous part is working with the use of the Muscinex®DM and the cough is manageable, if I don’t talk and keep pumping in Fisherman’s Friends.

Via the Sunrise webcam, see the process above, I just found the WTA team is back in the parking lot for drinks and cookies. WTA buys. Cookies are the Pepperidge Farm’s “places” series (small packages, get eaten, few stale cookies left) that is described here:
branding smarts

John finally got reception on his cell at Naches, and called me with his estimated time home, to be 7:00 p.m. Annie was ready for him!

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

I have decided to play catch-up this week; my decision, as principal editor. John is the final editor and not here today.

Talapus Lake Work – Sept 9, 2017

Last week we mentioned John was closed out of Mt. Rainier, and went instead to a work party on the I-90 corridor. Nancy’s opinion is that it was a strange work party. They spent the day removing a set of puncheon bridges on a trail that had been abandoned – after a new section of trail was completed. Before (the old puncheon) and during the removal process. Bob, Jim, and John on one section. Ladies are all up the trail.

John is still hopeful the National Park Service will open Sunrise access again before the season ends. They would still be able to make more progress on that trail. Turns out they got one more day, Sunday, but snows are called for, so it is unlikely they will return this year. If the forecast is correct there will be a foot+ of snow on the trail by Thursday evening. Still, after 10 or so years of neglect, 90% of it is a decent hike.

Sunday, Sept 10

We put out last week’s blog very late tonight, again without the following catch-up from week’s ago. These show John in his old orange faded shirt, we replaced with a nice new orange one you have been seeing in recent photos. Evonne has been good for years, taking photos of John for me on our camera, so I can see him out working on trail maintenance. Then last year she photographed us in our WTA shirts at the annual November WTA Appreciation dinner. This year it will occur again Nov. 3, and we intend to be there, unless there is last minute snow on Snoqualmie Pass. That’s I-90. Evonne took these early morning and afternoon to thank him for coming over again for the long trip to assist her on the trail crew. He’ll be just north of Snoqualmie Pass this coming Friday, to work on the Pacific Crest Trail, and the first 2 miles is also part of the Commonwealth Basin Trail. Then the PCT forks to the right and goes uphill to the Kendall Katwalk.
Picture here

Monday, Sept 11

No CPAP — Oximetry for Sept 10: SpO2 low 87, 1 events <88% with overall avg., 92.2%. Pulse avg. 56.7, low 52. Slept 7 hrs 46 min.

Received these great photos today, from Jeri Conklin, my co-owner, about our Brittany, Cedaridge Kip’s Camelot Shay Tre’ JH (Daisy), in CA in training. DAISY pointing and working a bird. “Daisy is steady as a rock. She just needs the Brittany major to be a Field Champion,” states Jeri. Photos by Deanna Beals-Azevedo, trainer, Scott Azevedo, Nelson Kennels, Los Banos, CA.

I went to town for my SAIL exercise class.

Tuesday, Sept 12

No CPAP — Oximetry for Sept 11: SpO2 low 86, 3 events <88% with overall avg., 92.2%. Pulse avg. 60.0, low 55. Slept 7 hrs 59 min.

I spent a bunch of time on the phone this morning trying to change our email address and notify customer service to send our bill for the connection service to our domain, and pay for our extension of our domain we used to send this blog (rocknponderosa.com) . We do not have an associated email with that new domain, and we are losing our email associated with the old ellensburg.com. Someone else owns the ellensburg.com domain, and is not willing to carry on with other people using it. I spend a little time every day notifying people about changes from that email to our new one on Gmail. You will likely be hearing from me, if you haven’t already. We lose access to that account at the end of the year. If you have been using nancyh@ellensburg.com and see this message, go ahead and send me an email message to that account, and I will send you the changed address and eliminate you from that address book. Near the end of the year, I will send an email to all the people left in my address book whom I haven’t yet notified. This is a major project that takes a ton of time I don’t have to spare, but it must be done.

I went to Celia’s for a haircut at noon, with a few yellow plums, and she gave me some tomatoes in return. I need to remember to check my schedule 7 weeks out for my next haircut and make a reservation.

Stopped at Bi-Mart for Fisherman’s Friends (but they didn’t have any of my favorite original hardy ones, that are on order), GUM Soft Picks, checked my numbers, and I found a special wide-brimmed orange summer hat for John. Pretty classy, for 50% off an already good price. We’ll include a photo of him in it with his new orange shirt on, in next week’s blog.

Funercise was at 2:00 p.m. I took a pan of yellow Shiro plums to share. People there really like them. That was the end of them; John picked the tree clean. We never had time to pull out the dehydrator to keep some for winter months. We had a good turnout: Connie, Evelyn, Lynn, Nicole, and me, orchestrated by Katrina. I had my FitBit on, as usual, and today my heart was at cardio range for 14 minutes of the 35-minute program.
I dropped by the Rehab to sing Happy Birthday to Jeanne Gordon, on her 88th. She showed me the pearl bracelet Gerald gave her today, and smiled her very big smile.

Then on the way home, I dropped by Joanie’s with some corn and yellow summer squash, and picked up five ! pair of pants. which will now fit me with new elastic she put in for me.
Hope to go to bed early. Sent out jobs on our Google Groups NW Geography Jobs (list serve).

Wednesday, Sept 13

No CPAP — Oximetry for Sept 12: SpO2 low 83, 6 events <88% with overall avg., 91.4%. Pulse avg. 58.8, low 50. Slept 8 hrs 27 min.

Took care of putting the Culligan auto payment billing on Discover instead of the old American Express it was still on that died. I thought it cancelled a year ago when Costco changed to Visa.

I dropped off egg cartons, and took in a 5-gallon bucket of flowers, for the food bank. Also fixed a supplemental lunch to take that I could eat in place of the free pasta choices on Wednesdays after we play music. The other container of flowers went to the AAC with Gloria and me when we went to SAIL exercise together. Everyone was grateful. We are at the end of our beautiful dahlias and glads.

I left a 2X navy blue dress jacket at Carole’s house on the way to the AAC.

Thursday, Sept 14

No CPAP — Oximetry for Sept 13: SpO2 low 86, 2 events <88% with overall avg., 95.9%. Pulse avg. 56.4, low 49. Slept 7 hrs, 9 min.

Our KV Fiddlers & Friends (5 of us) entertained at the Meadows, and then John and I went around town on errands, and to get gasoline in his car for tomorrow.

Friday, Sept 15

No CPAP — Oximetry for Sept 14: SpO2 low 86, 4 events <88% with overall avg., 93.5%. Pulse avg. 54.0, low 49. Slept 4 hrs, 59 min. (actually slept longer, but battery died)

Still need to send Audra my food intake report so she can review it.
I went to the Food Bank early for lunch at 11:30, just in case they needed servers. They didn’t, so I sat and visited with two friends there. I took salad to go with the pulled pork. It was very good, having been donated by one of the new BBQ restaurants in town.

Went by Super 1 for meds. By Bi-Mart for Tears and Fisherman’s Friends and by Safeway for refresh colas.

Saturday, Sept 16

No CPAP — Oximetry for Sept 15, SpO2 low 84, 4 events <88% with overall avg., 94.9%. Pulse avg. 56.7, low 49. Slept 8 h, 33 min.

John set up our new Cuisinart 4-slice toaster (from Costco). Our old one is “toast.” It has the best price and reviews on Amazon. It’s a pretty silver chrome color.

We are going to Briarwood for music and food today… and gasoline for John’s car, for the early morning trip to Mt Rainier tomorrow. We had 6 people there and a nice audience, who were very involved joking and singing with us. We all had a good time. We had a good meal they served us after the music … tacos, salad, cookies, brownies, and Pumpkin ice cream. John joined us and one other hubby, Ken.

I rested an hour and did go to the Bar 14 Ranch, for a one yr old little girl’s party, and carried a loaf of Zucchini/Pineapple bread cut to share. It was given to me by a friend at Briarwood, who today gave me a new one he just tried that has all ingredients I CAN eat. I cannot eat zucchini, although I cheated and have in the past. This was frozen, so had to thaw for tonight. The new one is made as apple/ banana/ nut bread with caramel/coconut frosting. Plus, he brought a loaf cut up for the Briarwood meal after we played. I had a piece there, and it was quite tasty. They served tacos (and I had all the ingredients on my plate, except the shell, plus put salsa on it). I even had one of Lee’s Ginger cookies. I had a good meal and did not have to eat anything at the later party. I was late getting there, but it meant I had a nice visit with two former students, and the Lundys and their year old granddaughter, Uma (and her mom, Raychel, who was my student). I took a few pictures and left and was happy I went. There was music, and one of the musicians is a new surgeon in town for 2 years (Tom Penoyer), general surgery, young talented man who plays the guitar and banjo, and his wife and 3 young children were there as well.  It was worth my trip, for sure. I brought a cupcake and piece of carrot cake home for John.Raychel with two images of Uma, one of the cakes they had, Uma with grandma, Linda, and the parting sunset.

Okay. back to work. I have a ton to accomplish today, and John won’t be back until late. This may be his last trip to his favorite workplace, because Mt. Rainier is scheduled to receive many inches of SNOW in the next few days, and while this work party is large, they may not have enough people to carry out all the tools that have accumulated for the summer’s work.

Sunday, Sept 17

No CPAP — Oximetry for Sept 16: SpO2 low 88 (only one event at 88), 0 events <88% with overall avg., 94.0%. Pulse avg. 54.7, low 50. Slept 7 hrs, 31 min. I'm sure that is my best ever, since starting with the CPAP usage in 2014. NOTE: I obtained my first CPAP machine on the Buy Nothing Ellensburg site because the girl who had it lost 50 lbs, and no longer needed it. It was more portable than mine, and I figured would work for traveling if I needed to take the CPAP along. I wonder if my weight loss recently (since 6/26) is related to this. I surely hope so, because I detest using it, especially because the only reason I'm on it, is to keep my % oxygen saturation level in my blood above 88% while I sleep (to keep oxygen circulating to my organs).

I just found a Mt. Rainier orange tee shirt in a back room wooded closet. I was looking for something else at the time, and I have no memory of where or when I got it. It has not been worn, so I expect John will wear it on his last trip to Mt. Rainier next weekend.

I’ll hear when he returns tonight, if they were able to cart out all the tools from the summer’s work. That is going to be a tough job.

Six of the lesser used tools were locked in the Lookout and, if snowed in, will be waiting there next June/July when the snow melts off the trail. Then, a dozen people carried out all (26) the rest. No more than one per hand, but some were strapped to or carried in backpacks.

Rain, predicted for 11 AM at Mt. Rainier, did not arrive until the WTA crew finished at the work site and started the hike back. However, the threat was such that the Park was going to start chasing people with cars out of the 6,400 ft. Sunrise parking area at 4 PM. WTA left at 3:05. Much rain and mist in the Cascades and a light rain at home. Fires are slowed, but still burning.

John got safely home, fed livestock, us, and we are ready to do the blog.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Well, it was a slow time for us, but others were busy.

Sept 1, 2017

On my birthday, I mentioned my activities, but we did not yet have the photos back from John’s trip that day. I will share a few with you.Pacific Lutheran University crew on the trail. The Cross Country and Track Team (“The Lutes”) – colors black & gold – in the bright shirts. Way back on the upper left – that’s John. [Bright yellow in front is named Aidan – means fire in Gaelic – but John did not get to visit with her or most of them – it was a big group and they kept busy.]Left image: Big rock, lots of people. Hannah had them pose when they got it to where it would be used. When where needed, they get tucked in bed – a trench on the inside of the trail. Right photo. John wasn’t part of the carry crew on this one, so he did the tucking.

Finally, the last photo of my birthday:This is the Norse Peak Fire smoke viewed to the east from the Fremont Lookout Tower at Mt. Rainier, at the end of the trail. All the photos above were taken by Hannah Tennent, the Blue Hat (WTA Crew Leader) at Mt. Rainier this summer.

Mid week following, the Park on the east side was closed as a precaution. Folks were advised to leave and Park Rangers were alerting hikers and climbers to exit on other trails, if they could. Trail work for WTA was scheduled through October 1. Park folks will reevaluate each week. 9 work trips remaining, or not!

Monday, Sept 4 (Labor Day)

No CPAP – Oximetry for Sept 3: SpO2 low 85, 7 events <88% with overall avg., 91.8%. Pulse avg. 56.7, low 50. Slept 8 hrs, 21 min

John started our morning appetizer with a bowl of pear pieces.
Brunch: Sausage, piece of omelet of little tomatoes and many mushrooms, served with strawberries.
Supper: steak, onions, corn-on-the-cob, dessert strawberries.

We put out last week’s blog (tonight about 7:00 p.m. PST).

Tuesday, Sept 5

No CPAP – Oximetry for Sept 4: SpO2 low 86, 6 events <88% with overall avg., 91.4%. Pulse avg. 56.5, low 50. 6 hrs, 46 min

Breakfast: 1/2 small tomato/mushroom omelet, 1/2 large pear, 1/2 banana, 1/2 small link sausage.

I stopped at Bi-Mart on the way to town for Moisture Tears, Brush picks, and to check my numbers.
Snack: 1/2 banana, mixed nuts.

Funercise class today with only 3 of us, the teacher and a new AmeriCorps staff member, Nicole Jones (from Shelton, WA), and my friend from S. Cle Elum, Evelyn Heflen, and me. We had a decent vigorous workout.

Wednesday, Sept 6

No CPAP – Oximetry for Sept 5: SpO2 low 86, 3 events <88% with overall avg., 92.1%. Pulse avg. 56.5, low 50. 9 hrs 6m sleep.

Breakfast: nothing much; coffee

Started by picking up Gloria, and going to Safeway Pharmacy with her to pick up her meds needed to take one pill after lunch.
On to the Food Bank, unloaded violin, Gloria, and music bag.
Visited and then played music for 1/2 hour.

Lunch: slices of yam, leftover steak, onions, mushrooms, bunch of cantaloupe pieces (I took), and had a little light green salad from the Food Bank lunch, while visiting with the singers/players after.

Then we left to drop off plums at Carole’s house on the way to the AAC, where I carried in a 5-gallon bucket of flowers and my violin to keep it out of the heat. We stayed for SAIL exercise class. Drove by a friend’s house to drop off a couple N-95 face masks for the smoke. On home, but first to fill up my car with gasoline, drop off Gloria, and then get my stuff in the house.

Snack: nuts and plums
Supper: steak, brown rice (a little), onions, mushroom, yams, cantaloupe, and strawberries.

Worked a little on music for Oct/Nov for the KV Fiddlers & Friends. Wanted to go to bed early, but it did not happen. Sent out 4 jobs on our Google Groups NW Geography Jobs (list serve). Checked out the stats on fires in OR and WA. Did get some protective N-95 masks today (free, thanks to the Public Health Dept.).

Sad to report this fire, started by teens with fireworks (seen and caught). This is being called Eagle Creek fire (Oregon). Below are before and after photos looking from Washington across the Columbia Gorge.This fire closed I-84 and is threatening Multnomah Falls Park, Lodge, and facilities. The rock in both photos is Sentinel Rock, or Phoca Rock, as originally named by Lewis & Clark. Follow this link for more details:
Phoca Rock

This afternoon John took some photos of 17 Merriam turkeys in our drive! That is the most we have seen this year. I’m glad he took the photos, because I wasn’t home to see them.

MERRIAM TURKEYS3-pix collage to show the 17 turkeys. Top shows all 17 and a flowerbed (dahlias & gladioli). Middle: can’t decide who is leading nor which way to go. Bottom shows them deciding on south, and away they went.

Supper: Bowl of John’s homemade chili, tomato, 1/2 piece toast.

Thursday, Sept 7

No CPAP – Oximetry for Sept 6: SpO2 low 88, 0 events <88% with overall avg., 91.7%. Pulse avg. 56.1, low 50. Slept 7 hrs, 46 min

I went for my weigh in and measurements taken by my friend at the gym. She calculated my weight is down another 4#, inches another 5″, and body fat is still 42%. Total wt. loss is 14# and measurements are down 22″! (since 6/26/17). My clothes are showing it.

On to Rehab, where we played music for a number of happy people.

Dinner: salad of Iceberg lettuce, with smoked turkey**, small grape like tomatoes John grew, cauliflower, orange pepper, and pistachios, with a bit of bleu cheese dressing.
**A local grocery does smoked meats. This was a leg that required a bit of fuss at home (thanks, John for your efforts), making small salad sized pieces and getting rid of all the non-usable parts.

Friday, Sept 8

No CPAP – Oximetry for Sept 7: SpO2 low 85 check, 11 events <88% with overall avg., 91.4%. Pulse avg. 58.6, low 50. Slept 9 hrs, 14 min

Still need to send my numbers and a couple questions to Audra and get her my food intake report so she can review it.

Sadly, our trip to the annual Chef’s Extravaganza, at White Heron, was cancelled just this afternoon (4:30 p.m.), because of the smoke from the Jolly Mt Fire. Cameron explained their cook of the evening cancelled after spending the weekend at Spokane in smoke, and not wanting a replay, especially after finding out the forecast was for the Cle Elum fire plume of smoke to be aimed right at the vineyard, and not wishing to subject the singer to the smoke either. I was truly looking forward to seeing in person a banjo/harmonica playing singer (whom you can see on line on his website):
Forest Beutel

Check out some of his videos there. We were going to meet friends from Seattle there, who are into Bluegrass and Rock music, and meet my banjo-playing friend from Ellensburg and his wife. We hope there will be a future opportunity, but probably not at the same location any time this year. That smoke is going to plague us for many more weeks.

Dinner: salad of Iceberg lettuce, with smoked turkey, small grape-like tomatoes John grew, cauliflower, pistachios, with a bit of bleu cheese dressing and a very few Cheez-it® for croutons.

Saturday, Sept 9

No CPAP – Oximetry for Sept 8: SpO2 low 86, 5 events <88% with overall avg., 91.7%. Pulse avg. 55.3, low 49. Slept 9 hrs.

John left at 6:30 a.m. for WTA work at Talapus Lake, on I-90, replacing (sadly) his Saturday trip to Mt. Rainier. Talapus is a much shorter drive, but work was in a forest with no views. Two miles up trail there are views but the crew only went ½ mile.
I slept in another ~2 hrs., fed two cats, and started on chores.

I changed Consumer Cellular emails for billing and info, from our one email we have had since 1995 to the new one. That’s turning into a tedious project.

Worked on processing the photos I took 8/12 at the Lundy’s 50th. She told me after receiving them it was a wonderful memory and they were the only ones she had seen taken there. I surely hope others send some to them. In mine I tried to capture members of their wedding party, some who had come from many states away (CA, MN, and I didn’t get them all, nor all the guests there).

Brunch: piece omelet, sausage, cantaloupe, small part of toast with Marionberry jam.

Afternoon snack: mixed nuts and yellow plums
Dinner: Petite sirloin steak cooked with our onions & tomatoes in a Crockpot all day. John put them in before leaving this morning.

Sunday, Sept 10

No CPAP – Oximetry for Sept 9: SpO2 low 87, 3 events <88% with overall avg., 92.0%. Pulse avg. 57.0, low 53. Slept 8 hrs, 3 min. (Best night, since I started recording this in 2014, with CPAP or not).

John’s been outside. Fed the horses, cut a few weeds, picked strawberries, grape-sized tomatoes, and 2 ears of corn. I’ve been inside watching the hurricane reports. John came, worked on his computer awhile, and we shared info of the expected hits to Florida. Irma was bad but not as serious as was expected a few days ago.

A British news service went bonkers, calling Irma the “most deadly storm in history,” that to the time of their story had killed 10 people. Because some storms have killed multiple thousands, the question became what the writers at ‘The Telegraph’ were drinking or smoking. The serious results in Florida are just now appearing, so will leave this sad story.

Afternoon snack: small salad of Iceberg lettuce, with smoked turkey, small tomatoes, cauliflower, with a bit of bleu cheese dressing and a few Cheez-it®.

Supper: enhanced Crockpot creation yesterday – black beans and corn added – and flavorings.

Might as well end with an air quality chart after being subjected for a couple of weeks to a smoke-filled valley, and having various of our normal activities cancelled. That’s why it as a slow week for us.Thank goodness for a/c in our house and cars and for protection masks while out when it’s the worst. Just having them on hand is a relief, even if we don’t have to use them.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Monday, Aug 28

No CPAP – Oximetry for Aug 27: SpO2 low 87, 2 events <88% with overall avg., 92.1%. (Avg. Low SpO2 <88% is 89.9, Avg. Low SpO2 is 87.0. Pulse avg. 57.0, low 50.

We put out last week’s blog (tonight about 8:30 p.m. PST).

Tuesday, Aug 29

No CPAP – Oximetry for Aug 28: SpO2 low 86, 8 events <88% with overall avg., 91.6%. (Avg. Low SpO2 <88% is 89.8, Avg. Low SpO2 is 86.9. Pulse avg. 53.5, low 49.

John picked about 4-5# of plums for me to take to the AAC today.

Breakfast: 1/2 small tomato/mushroom omelet, 1/2 large pear, 1/2 banana, 1/2 small link sausage.

In contact with Craig Scrivner and got access to the old FTP site where I used to store stuff for classes.

Must go for my INR reading and on to Funercise class at the AAC, to Bi-Mart, and other Tuesday stops. Made it to KVC but didn’t hear the results of anything. Strange. (Heard the next morning, everything A-OK, INR and Potassium).

Went by Super 1 for my Entresto, and need to pick up tomorrow, because Dawn offered to halve half of them.

Supper: Chicken breast pieces, some boiled shrimp and enough to take to lunch tomorrow at the food bank, fried yams and yellow squash with onions, half ear of corn, and then later, strawberries for dessert.

Wednesday, Aug 30

No CPAP – Oximetry for Aug 29: SpO2 low 87, 3 events <88% with overall avg., 91.6%. (Avg. Low SpO2 <88% is 86.7 (includes spurious readings), Avg. Low SpO2 is 89.6. Pulse avg. 54.0, low 50. 8 hrs sleep.

Breakfast: leftover piece of omelet, 1/4 piece Rosemary Olive toast, small piece of sausage.

Lunch (taking to food bank): boiled shrimp, slice of yam, BBQ skinless chicken breast, yellow plums, had cherry filling there.

While in town, I went to pick up Gloria, dropped off her Costco purchases, and we started at the Food Bank, for music, primarily. I signed in last as #55, and some folks missed signing in. Wow, big crowd today! I had help carrying in my “stuff,” and got a close parking space. I was presented a card and a walnut muffin with a candle and everyone in the building singing, Happy Birthday! Gloria and Dean also gave me a card.

John went to town to return rock specimens that John Lasher collected during a Tieton Andesite study. He went on to get his car filled with gasoline for his Friday trip to Mt. Rainier. We both made trips to the grocery store.

Thursday, Aug 31

No CPAP – Oximetry for Aug 30: SpO2 low 85, 2 events <88% with overall avg., 92.1%. (Avg. Low SpO2 <88% is 89.4, Avg. Low SpO2 is 86.8. Pulse avg. 55.1, low 50. Slept 8 hrs.

On my way to downtown Ellensburg, I stopped by Amy and Haley’s to pick up some awesome 100% cotton bandanas Amy bought for us in a craft store in Issaquah. They are perfect for what we need. John wanted one to match his bright orange work shirt and WTA hard hat – no good reason, just a fashion statement. Chuckle!

Met Jan Naragon at 11:45, for lunch at EBRG’s Thai restaurant. Marissa is the person who was so helpful prior to our arrival. I’m taking Jan and her some yellow Shiro plums.

My choice, Princess Cashew, a Chicken breast quick sautéed with cashews, baby corn, onion, mushrooms, carrots, broccoli, celery, bell pepper and special chili sauce (I chose a #1=Low on the sauce spiciness). Served with rice on the side. Marissa is an excellent waitress. I called in advance to discuss dietary restrictions, and she was more than helpful.

Dinner: Leftovers from lunch, plus shrimp (boiled), small tomatoes (John grew), and yellow plums. One big old plum (cling-less seed). I still have enough for another meal!

Latest on the fire NW of us, one of two sending smoke to our valley. It continues to grow, with some guidance by water and retardant drops. The fire agencies use the term “values”, as in, so far there has been only minimal loss of values within the perimeter. Still, it is close and of great concern for rural and small town residents. For a another story, follow this local link from our Ellensburg Daily Record News, 8-31-17 report (photo from the Swauk-Teanaway Grange included).
Link

Friday, Sept 1: (my Birthday !)

No CPAP – Oximetry for Aug 31: SpO2 low 87, 2 events <88% with overall avg., 92.4%. (Avg. Low SpO2 <88% is 89.9, Avg. Low SpO2 is 86.5. Pulse avg. 53.6, low 50.

John took off for his WTA trip to Mt. Rainier at 5:15 a.m., taking along some cooled plums in the cooler for sharing with the crew at the end of the day. They really enjoyed some last week. Now this will be a different crew leader (Hannah), and perhaps some of the same crew, with others added.

What a great birthday I’m having!
First phone call after 9:00 a.m. from my 91 yr. old friend, Gloria; and she sang the entire Happy Birthday song, even adding on the “and many more.” Then about 10:00, I left for town, for the food bank (see below). I got home about 1:15, and was home not too long, before I got a nice birthday wish from New Jersey, from my friend, Elise. Then ~4:00 p.m., I had a nice call from Peggy, my sister-in-law in Parma, OH. She was going to a neighbor’s party, and was going to have a glass of wine as a toast to me.

As I was talking with her, Annie my dog barked. She seldom barks except to announce someone’s arrival in our driveway. I didn’t know until later, it was a half dozen+ Merriam turkeys. I watched them and got John’s camera for a couple of pix. We have posted better pictures and videos in the past, but I still shot a few to show John. Toms did not gave me a pretty show, one just a small shot of the start of a fan. First, they left the front yard walking, and then came back and cackled some more, got my attention, so I looked out the window in time to see 4 take flight to leave. Earlier, a few had departed walking up the driveway, and I thought they were gone. This must have been the rest of the 12 recently visiting our place. John has seen more of them than I because of his greater outside time. Sometimes the horses will alert him to the turkeys whereabouts. Horses find turkeys very interesting. Go figure.

John sent Anna Roth (WTA Hiking Content Manager) a correction for the WTA Trips site, and in subsequent e-mails a warning about our local fires. She is headed to our south – Naches music weekend.
Then she wrote: “Of course, the band we want to see is playing Friday (9/8), so we definitely want to be there in time for that. This is the band we are going to go see at Naches Chinook Fest. They’re very talented musicians and songwriters.” 

The Lil’ Snokies “San Fran” (going to Naches Chinook Fest, Naches, WA) Link

I surely enjoyed the YouTube link she sent me. but I will have to be there in spirit with them. They are going for the weekend, (the write-up is at chinookfest.com ).

She also sent this link to Mark O’Connor’s , Appalachia Waltz. Mark O’Connor’s beautiful ‘Appalachia Waltz’ features, Yo-Yo Ma on cello and Edgar Meyer on bass. This is absolutely incredible, almost 7 minutes of the nicest music you will ever hear, and I thoroughly enjoyed it on my birthday! I’m sharing with the rest of my friends and relatives, via this blog. Nice b.d. present.

Mark O’Connor’s Appalachia Waltz Link

My other celebration today was at the Food Bank. I got there early to carry in a 5-gallon bucket with some water and a lone sunflower, several dahlias of 2 different colors (one a variegated red/orange and 2 different gladioli. My friend, Lori, there cut and arranged them, and then we had our picture taken.Lori Skov is in charge of all the food at the F.I.S.H. Food Bank; I went in on my birthday to help make sandwiches to put into bags for Saturday’s late afternoon Food Bank use. This picture we took before the noon lunch bunch came in, and before the sandwich making occurred. John says except for the wind trying to blow them over, it was a good year for blooms.The process of making peanut butter/jelly & egg salad sandwiches, and packing into paper bags with fruit, chips, & cupcakes. 35 bags in center. I wrapped sandwiches in plastic. Two others (Aloha & Ginger) made the sandwiches.

5:10 call from John at White Pass. He had to drive with lots of traffic; I was happy to hear from him that he took lots of water on the trail this time, and had no problem staying hydrated. He had more packed for the trip home. He’s going by Yakima for gasoline at Costco. I just checked on line. The price is $2.73/gal. Good move on his part, as our prices in Ellensburg are $2.85, possibly it increased here because of the long Rodeo weekend activities through Labor Day. We are staying away from town.

Here is another “trail” (Pacific Crest Trail) story in our Friday (9-1) paper, in which our friend, Jim Huckabay (formerly a Geography Prof with me at CWU), writes a Friday column about the Outdoors. Check this link:

Hams, Wildfire, 100-mi Runs
Link
Supper: leftovers from yesterday, added carrots & boiled shrimp, some small tomatoes, 5 Shiro plums, and strawberries for dessert.
6:51 p.m. Phone call from John coming through the Selah Gap, will be home in 45 minutes, probably. While on the WTA trail work, he saw a big plume of smoke from the Norse Peak fire but did not snap a photo. Says there is better stuff on the web.

This b.d. card just came from Dawn & Victor Link

Collage of two wishes, described below:Funniest left, prettiest right, Dave Covert’s, Indian Blanket Flower

I received quite a number of wishes (some very cute) on Facebook. Funniest is from Julie Lind Orvald, who just celebrated her own birthday 8/28.

Indian Blanket Flower photo from David Covert was the prettiest birthday wish I received on Facebook. David said later in an email, his identification for it: “Indian Blanket Flower, Gaillardia; butterflies love this flower.”

Gaillardia
This is an excerpt from that article (I removed most of the hyperlinks in the description on line): Gaillardia /ɡeɪˈlɑːrdiə/ (common name blanket flower) is a genus of flowering plants in the sunflower family, Asteraceae, native to North and South America. It was named after an M. Gaillard de Charentonneau, an 18th-century French magistrate who was a patron of botany. The common name may refer to the resemblance of the inflorescence to the brightly patterned blankets made by Native Americans. I had to look up some of the words used in the description.

John took this sunset on his way back from Mt. Rainier.With smoke in our valley from two major wildfires, our sunrises and sunsets have been dark orange (difficult to capture on our cameras without the proper filters, tripod, and remote release). We tried one of the moon at 1:45 a.m., 9-3-17, and did not succeed. It was a small bright orange circle on a black background.This is a collage of my attempt from our patio, 9-1-17, using John’s Nikon camera. Pix shot a minute apart.

Saturday, Sept 2

No CPAP – Oximetry: SpO2 low 86, 2 events <88% with overall avg., 92.3%. (Avg. Low SpO2 <88% is 90.1, Avg. Low SpO2 is 86.0. Pulse avg. 51.7, low 49.

Breakfast: 2 eggs, toast, sausage.

We went to the Beard’s Ranch down the road 2.3 miles to attend the beginning of their 70th wedding anniversary celebration. We took them a vase with two beautiful dahlias, a box of yellow Shiro plums, and a nice anniversary card. Frank took us on a tour of the memorabilia in their house. It is rodeo but mostly Native American art based. He grew up on the Yakama Reservation, so he knows a lot of the language and has known many of the people.

I took some videos of his explanation to share. It was a historical and cultural experience in a short time. I’m glad we got their early and had his time to cover things, while the Ellensburg Rodeo parade was going on in town. I’m sure a bunch of folks will inundate the home later today.

The next photo appeared in our local newspaper yesterday:My collage of John & Frank & Charlot Beard & Nancy in front of wood carvings of Indians, John’s and my favorite of all the displays.Collage of the wall with the wood carvings in Beards’ home, and a close-up of the one on the right.

I added some of my own videos, of John’s and my walk around with Frank, describing his memories. This was a wonderful step back to the past cultural history of our region. Frank grew up on the Yakama Reservation and learned many of their customs, language, and life, participating in many facets, but mostly centered on horses.

1- Frank Beard on Jackson Sundown & Wenatchi Link

2- Frank Beard on Ida Nason Link

Speaking of Ida Nason and her son, Allen Aronica, this appeared yesterday on Facebook, on the Community Connect Kittitas County group site; I will share with you: This photo was taken by the Nancy listed below, as she was walking with a cousin along the road on the east side of the fairgrounds. The path leads up Craig’s Hill, and the Yakamas ride horses down the hill to start formally the Ellensburg Rodeo & Fair events for the Labor Day Weekend.

My comment on line to the photographer: Allen Aronica is my neighbor, Ida Nason’s son, and is involved every year at the Fair. He is not a member of this FB group (Community Connect, Kittitas County), but I will capture the information and encourage him to see this link. Thank you, Nancy Kibler Bevilacqua-Madrigal, for sharing such an awesome photo.

Here’s a link to the official start of the Ellensburg Rodeo: (link spells the Yakama incorrectly), but it is correct inside:
Link

Back to our tour of the Beards’ home, by Frank.

One print is visible in their living room, behind the flowers we took them for their 70th, and others are on the walls. I put into a collage below and will tell you the story of the Indian artist below. Photo quality decreases from left to right in my collage. Left is from camera and right two are snagged from my videos.Left, our dahlias block the first, with 2 more to the left; middle is on the wall of their stairs to the loft; right is their front door with more George Flett work. I thought Frank was saying “Flint”, until I looked up the artist on the Internet.

Frank showed us and talked about several of the many prints done by George Flett (died in 2013, at 66), which he and Charlot have collected over the years. Flett was an Indian artist who was part of the Spokane tribe. He was diabetic. Here he is in 2007 tracing the outline of a Prairie Chicken Dancer on a strip of ledger paper fixed on canvas at his studio in Wellpinit, WA. (I found this in his death notice in an article reported online in the Spokesman-Review).More videos to share:

#3 Beard Tour: Bronze statues, Lampshade, & Desk Link

#4 Beard Tour: Billy Charlie, Reservation, & 1880s Saddle Link

#5- Beards’ Guest Room-Cowboys’ Theme Link

#6- Ellensburg Rodeo 50th Anniversary 1997 Guest Room Wall Hanging. Link

#7- George Stillwell, Hops Grower’s Saddle, Sunnyside, WA Link

#8- Frank Beard Four Seasons Part 1 Link

#9- Frank Beard Four Seasons Part 2 Link

I found this trip to the past intriguing and I hope you do as well.

Brunch: mixed nuts, plums, banana Supper: John and I went to the Cottage Cafe for a selection of 3 meals, eating some, and bringing home parts to have for dinner tomorrow night, when he gets back from Mt. Rainier. We had parts of a Cobb Salad, Black and Blue Steak Salad, and Steak & Eggs.

Content: Fresh greens (Romaine) with grilled chicken (strips), bacon, tomato, hard-boiled egg and Bleu Cheese crumbles with Bleu cheese dressing; Cajun spiced steak, fresh greens, roasted corn and black beans, tomatoes, bacon and blue cheese crumbles; Grilled 6 oz. Tri-tip steak with two XL eggs (over easy), sweet potato fries, & English Muffin toast.

Here was a link today about the fire: Link

I took a photo of the Jolly Mountain Fire cloud of smoke behind the Cottage Cafe. I won’t publish it because there are better photos on line. I wish I had taken a photo coming up Hwy 10 of the two fires affecting our valley. Norse Peak (the fire John has had to detour around for 15 minutes to get to Sunrise at Rainier for his WTA trail work) was shooting in smoke from the Southwest and Jolly Mountain was sending its plume of smoke toward Wenatchee and Cashmere. Coming across Bristol Flats (7 miles east of Cle Elum) offered an incredible view. In addition, there was no smoke above us except higher up. The air circulation was amazing. By the time we left, the fire had settled down (as they do in the evening). Strange phenomena.

Jen Lipton lives in Roslyn; she is on the CWU Geography faculty. I have known her since she was interviewed. She is our Remote Sensing & GIS expert. We’ve offered help if she needs anything. So far they are in the “Have your things in a vehicle and be ready to go” status.

Sunday, Sept 3

Oximetry for Sept 2: SpO2 low 86, 4 events <88% with overall avg., 91.4%. (Avg. Low SpO2 <88% is 89.0, Avg. Low SpO2 is 86.3. Pulse avg. 55.1, low 50. %artifacts 9.4, total events 40=4; total time: 7 hrs 57 min.

I got up to see John off at 5:15 a.m. for Mt. Rainier WTA work crew. 57°F. When dawn came it was very smoky and overcast with a red morning sun.
I found this link when logging on, and following a link on a photo. Talk about unusual! Link

Lunch: nuts and plums

Supper: leftovers from our dinner last night.

John called about 4:45 p.m., from White Pass and will call me in another hour.

Here is the latest on the Jolly Mountain Fire from KOMONEWS in Seattle. Check out the video and photo gallery. Link

Here is a collage I made from two shots, yesterday and today I got from Jen Lipton.Left, High Country Log Show & imagery of the fire at 375m/cell using VIIRS data (Thermal Infrared Heat signature). Back with the former wildfires in our area, I utilized MODIS data to keep people informed about the extent, but its resolution is 1km/cell.

Monday, Sept 4 (Labor Day)

No CPAP – Oximetry for Sept 3: SpO2 low 85, 7 events <88% with overall avg., 91.8%. (Avg. Low SpO2 <88% is 85.6, Avg. Low SpO2 is 87.8. Pulse avg. 56.7, low 50. %artifacts 6.7. Total time: 8 hrs 21 min.

John started our morning with an appetizer – a bowl of pear pieces.

Breakfast: Sausage, piece of Omelet with little tomatoes and lots of mushrooms, and with strawberries.

We’ve been in touch with friends in Roslyn who are on notice to evacuate. EVACUATION LEVEL 2 – GET READY – ISSUED FOR RONALD AND ROSLYN (9-1-17).

Last view of the fire from nighttime:Ronald and Roslyn are the soft yellow lights, Interstate-90 traffic headlights at bottom. Photo by Bill Crawford.

Here is a description from Jen Lipton: “Absolutely amazing night photo of the Fire. Lake Cle Elum is to the far left of image, Interstate 90 is the road along the bottom, the night lights of Roslyn are in the center, Cle Elum is to the right center, and Mount Stuart rises up above the smoke cloud.”

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan