Keeping track

Saturday, June 23

We didn’t have this photo for last week’s blog, when you learned that John went to volunteer trail work at Granite Mountain Trail.
The first part of the trail is in forest and parts are rutted. It is a hikers-only trail, so we can do things that are not allowed on bike and horse trails. One thing is to install steps with “fill”, in the up-trail side.
Rocks or logs can be used for the step. On this small section of trail we needed 4 steps, and two of them would work with logs and two others with heavy flat rocks. If we can’t dig into the sides of the trail, logs won’t work.
Some trees will deteriorate rapidly, say 5 to 7 years. Others will last 25 or 30 years. Near our site was a Yellow Cedar that had been pushed over a few years before to nearly horizontal, but was very straight, with a base diameter of about 10 inches.
We trimmed limbs off part and stripped off the bark. This is easy in spring, almost impossible in fall. Bark allows water and insects to better damage the wood, so we take it off. It smells wonderful, and some say like raw potatoes. Maybe, but to me it smells like fresh Yellow Cedar.
In the photo (near to far), Mike, Mela, and Bill are peeling bark from about 12 feet of tree, for two steps.

A bit more information is found here: About peeling bark from Cedar

From experience, I can tell you that when the task is short, this can be fun. On the afternoon of the 3rd day, it just seems like work. {John}

Sunday, June 24

We were late getting the blog out by associated problems with computer, WordPress, and me. {Nancy}

Monday, June 25
I sent out the call for patriotic music this week on Thurs. & Fri. at an assisted living home and at the pre-July 4th event at the senior center. Planning is very involved for the audiences at both places, and a chair count is needed, plus directions for details.

Last Friday, I drove by Airport Storage during a high windy time to where I dropped off our already read Wall Street Journals for a CWU business student (who works there). A bag with office supplies (that had my sunglasses case in it) fell out of the back door of my car and things, including receipts starting blowing away into the sage and gravel. I picked up the heaviest items (boxes of file folders and hanging folders) and then chased the other store receipts down the block. The shopping bag itself was slammed up against a short bush. The receipts blew about 50’ down to a cross fence and stopped there. I didn’t miss the eyeglass case until I got home and took off my prescription sunglasses. So I called that gal and asked when she went to pick up her papers, to please look in the gravel close to their paper boxes and spot where I parked. She said she would, but she missed seeing it. HAPPILY, it was there today, not too far from where the car was stopped. It’s triangularly shaped and light, and had been rained on and pushed through the sand and gravel getting dirty, but was only 3 feet from the pavement, and easily seen in the gravel because I knew where to look. So I got it, and later cleaned it up to reuse. The lens cloth inside was not hurt and the dirt cleaned right off. I’m happy to have it back, because it is a Costco special carrier that folds up for pockets, which if I had done, I wouldn’t have lost it.

I called Safeway about Coumadin, but they needed a refill update from the doctor, so it is forthcoming.
On my way to SAIL exercise, I finally managed to get to the bank with my PATR checks from the local Co-op that are reported to the Internal Revenue Service and have to be added to the form for 2018. I’m not sure it’s worth the effort for a < $10 savings / year from purchases. With the new tax forms we may not have to do this. Another thing to check on.

Tuesday, June 26
Today I had to get to Dollar Tree between 1:00 – 1:30 and over to AAC to the last meeting of our “Just Dance” class. I was going to the $ store to pick up two helium-filled balloons and a weighted holder to give to our AmeriCorps teacher, Nicole, at the AAC, to thank her for her contributions this year.
A good number of folks showed up for the last class, and I got one of the other volunteer staff members to take our picture with Nicole holding her balloons. She was appreciative. We were appreciative for her 2 months of teaching us a bunch of special dances, in the last program of the year called, “Just Dance.” We had been through many dance teaching programs she assisted with – from Ballroom, Line, and Swing to this finale. Katrina (AAC Director), Jackie, Nancy, Victoria, Nicole, Connie, Bev, and Chuck. The heart shaped balloon says “You’re So Special” and the other one said, “It’s Your Day.”

We reviewed about 8 different dances we’d learned and I danced every dance. I was very tired at the end of the hour.
I went by Bi-Mart to check numbers and buy more Granny Goose potato chips, at a very good sale price ($2.99, for a huge bag).
I called Cle Elum to change my prescription for Coumadin refill to allow 180 pills at one time. I’m on it for life, and the price is cheaper.

Wednesday, June 27

This was a full day, and it’s only going to get worse tomorrow and Friday. Started by finalizing those plans for music for the next 2 days. Our group, I’m organizer for, the Kittitas Valley Fiddlers & Friends, is performing music (Pre-4th of July with patriotic and USA songs, and also our May/June fare tomorrow at Hearthstone, an assisted living home. Friday (more below) is a presentation over lunch at the Ellensburg Adult Activity Center (AAC), our local senior center.

The first thing of the morning was contacting all the music group for each day, with different instructions, as different people are coming both days with a few overlapping.

Then I made (with John’s help cutting chicken cubes) my salad to take for lunch today at the Food Bank Soup Kitchen. He also helped me carry my load of stuff to the car. I got a parking space near the front door, and even had two fellows offer to carry my instrument and bags. I followed behind with my pillow. Chairs there are shaped strangely, and it helps one’s back to have a pillow for support.

Activity today started with music at the FISH Food Bank, followed by SAIL exercise at the AAC. I was still tired and achy from yesterday’s hour of dancing at the AAC. But, I limped through.

I now need to organize and sort out the music for tomorrow (all the audience copies). Not surprisingly, residents are often having a cup of coffee or possibly finishing a meal late, and our music copies end up with food stains. I took white paper and used Scotch “magic” tape (not easily seen) to tape little pieces of paper over the stains. Using white-out would have taken more time and been expensive. That chore took me over an hour to process ~59 copies. Many were fine, but some had five pages needing cleaned up. Only two pages (seriously wet and crinkled) had to be replaced with a newly printed copy. Sadly, we will use these copies in the presence of coffee and cookies on Thursday, and a full lunch meal on Friday, so before next Thursday, I will have to restore a few more copies on twenty of the full copies (with all the songs for July in them). The majority to be used Friday only have the first 13 songs, so that cleanup can wait.

Thurs, June 28

The first thing to start off my crazy day was a change in the plans for tomorrow by the AAC. Our location within the building has been changed, so all my prior instructions had to be rewritten, and given out today to those who would be playing tomorrow. I got a sheet written, printed, and packed for the trip. Last minute changes are not appreciated to deal with when a dozen people are involved. Hearthstone – today, and I will have John’s help loading all the music stuff inside. His bottling wine trip was canceled – – until next Thursday (?).

John timed the playing for tomorrow, at about 26 minutes. He also helped me give out the first song sheets of only 13 songs, then retrieved them at the end, and replaced with others for May/June playing that we finished with.

While the switch was occurring, Evie moved to the Grand Piano, to accompany the group on a song we have started doing at places with a piano accessible. Of the 5 places we visit monthly, three assisted living homes get to enjoy a jazzy version of “Just a Little Talk with Jesus”. Some day, I need to record that.

After we switched music, we continued and invited Haley (5 yrs old) to join us for two songs that she sings along with us: Hey! Good Lookin’! (sings most of the verses and all the chorus). Ends with T for Texas (singing parts of verses, but entertains us all with her yodeling abilities throughout). Occasionally, mom Amy needs to promise ice cream to get her to stand in front, lower the music stand, so everyone can see her. She’s as fun to watch as to listen to, because of her enthusiasm and expressions. Below are pix of her popsicle reward today, and a glimpse this week at her first red/white/blue outfit she wore. Note the complete dressed-up to the toenails Miss Haley with her reward after she got home. I also had on my flag hat, pants, and jacket, but left my sequined flag vest for tomorrow’s performance.
Before coming home, there were various chores around town.

Friday, June 29

We left at 10:35 a.m. and got there about 11:00, in time to get a parking space in the lot and help with set up, putting out music for the 67 people expected today, minus all the players, who already have our music.

This was an event, ahead of time celebration for the 4th of July, because the AAC doesn’t want to compete with all the other activities the elders have to choose from. Also, the staff is free to do other things too with the center closed for the 4th.

We came straight home because in the rush to leave and take everything, John didn’t pick up his wallet, and he was driving because we were going to fill his gas tank. I had not taken my wallet so I didn’t have my credit cards. So, no gas and no shopping.

However, I was rather worn out, so just came home, worked on processing the video from today, and on the pictures John took, starting with the outdoor grilling of hamburgers and hot dogs, and also people inside, and of our group, Kittitas Valley Fiddlers and Friends performing from about 11:35 for an hour. We played instrumental music while lunch was being served, and did 14 other songs after everyone had been served. The audience had the music lyrics and there was good singing by the attendees. We played patriotic and USA songs. At the end we stood and saluted the flag, and everyone sang (acapella) no instruments – only the lead off 5 notes or so, Evie played, so we were all on the same key.

Here is the video’s location. AAC: 4th July celebration

If you read the description on the video, you can see the best place to start is actually 3 minutes, 13 seconds (3:13) on the tape. Each song sung has the best starting point listed if you want only to watch a few songs (e.g., “Red River Valley” begins at 22:00, “There’s a Star-Spangled Banner Flying Somewhere” begins at 24:50, with “Take me Out to the Ball Game” starting at 29:38, and the ending is the National Anthem, 30:55.

I cropped the best parts of the photos and will send to everyone I have emails for at the Senior Center, to all the musicians, and to the staff. Below is the link to the photos of the day:

Google Photos link to AAC event 6-29-18

Meanwhile, here is Haley in her second patriotic dress of the week that she wore to the AAC event.

Amy & Haley, Haley swirling, Haley & Connie after AAC 4th July Celebration

This afternoon, John picked a gallon Ice Cream bucket full of sweet red cherries to take tomorrow to the crew for after-work treats, with cookies and drinks provided by WTA. He had me clean them and pull out any bad ones (nibbled on by birds), and get rid of the chaff. He picks them nicely with their stems intact so they stay fresh longer. After I had a very large Pyrex circular bowl full, he put them out on paper towels to dry for packing in a bucket, which will be inside a box to which he can add bottles of ice.

Saturday, June 30

John was out of here at 5:40 a.m. for his WTA work trip to Snoqualmie Lake Trail. He first will stop off nearby from the trail where he lost a new garden knife in its sheath from placing it back in his backpack, but apparently missing the entry. It was nowhere to be found in his things in the car. It’s a $36 knife, which helped peel the bark from a downed cedar tree to saw into 6’ sections for use as stairs on the trail renovation (see above for last week’s Granite Mtn. trip). He will have about a 10-minute walk to the spot off the trail, where he had his stuff. Hopefully, no one has found it and taken it. Unfortunately, his trip was unsuccessful. Meanwhile, John found another replacement for less cost. I think I will suggest he put his name inside in case it is lost again and a good soul finds it and returns it (at least to the WTA in Seattle).

I got up long enough to feed 3 cats who were patiently waiting for their morning vittles.

Then I picked up the dry food when they were done because the Magpies come in and eat it, while making incredible noises arguing over it.

Then, I was still very tired so I went back to bed and slept in. I needed it after the past week that wore me out.

Here is a great post by Anthony Watts this morning on Facebook. Facebook is the only link I have to this..

Southern Granny Ain’t Never Missed the Weather Forecast

I got busy working on chores for the blog this morning and it’s finally time to stop for brunch at 12:30 p.m. I didn’t finish until 1:30 because I took out time to make it special and to take photos of the parts I put together. I decided to have eggs (but had to track some down in the outside garage refrigerator, sausage patty, already cooked that I had to warm, make my eggs over easy with grated cheese atop, slice my gifted oatmeal rolls (story below), and toasted two of them, adding strawberry preserves (also gifted). Then I added some of our Rainier cherries (not quite ripe enough yet, but still beautiful and tasty).

Here is the plate: Double Roll slices with strawberry preserves, both made by Roberta Buum, eggs, cut up sausage, and Rainier cherries from our tree.

The “rolls-preserves” story is that last week John picked strawberries, I sorted through and culled bad ones out for us to clean, cut, and sugar for desserts, and took 4+ pounds to Roberta Buum in my SAIL exercise class last week for her to make strawberry “jam” for her family (grandchildren and children) for Christmas presents. She made it over last weekend, and this Monday, brought me a jar of the delicacy along with a Rubbermaid container full of her homemade oatmeal rolls. Today, I put the jar in with the remaining rolls for my photo take. The close-up is one piece of two rolls I sliced, toasted, and covered with preserves for my brunch. Homemade strawberry preserves and oatmeal rolls

I continued working on details about the video I’ve already listed above in Friday’s description. Roberta was also there to enjoy.

Czar (cat) and Annie (dog) kept me entertained. Czar spent most of the day sleeping on the ledge above the cats’ ladder to the hard pellets, which also covers the bowl of their special treat, Friskies Party Mix. The next set of photos is of Czar, with a second set of the two of them, cat and dog, side by side. Czar’s favorite spot on front porch with access to the hard food bowl, right outside the den window, by John’s computer. Different positions and then a querying look bottom right, “Why do you care?”

Later in the afternoon, he was back there, but Annie wanted out. She went out and lay in the gravel past the Mtn. Ash tree to watch the quail. Czar joined her and they both watched:^^^^^^ Companions: Cat, Czar and Brittany, Annie

Still later, I put Annie out front to wait for John’s arrival. In the shade in front of the shed where John parks his car was the 3 yr. old buck, with antlers still in velvet. He often rests in that sheltered spot during late afternoons.

I took these photos from inside the front door. The black stripe is a pole support on our front porch. Right is zoomed in when he turned his head and is not in sharp focus.

John called as he was pulling out of the Truck Stop near Edgewick, on the way home, from his trail work, near North Bend. They started getting rained on at the end of the work day. He got back to dryside Ellensburg for gasoline, and called me, so I could give him the best place to buy. He got his gasoline for $3.23/gal, and went by Grocery Outlet on the way home, buying some huge strawberries for a good price that we can clean and sugar for our freezer. Our garden supply has dwindled to almost nothing. He also bought me a head of Iceberg lettuce, and some other stuff, and he carried away two empty chardonnay type (fat) wine boxes with the insides intact to share with a friend who will use them for storage of wine bottles. Then he came home to feed horses and give Annie her expected run around the pasture with Czar joining them for the journey.

Sunday, July 1

We started with morning computer chores, feeding the cats, and now he’s out for morning walk with Annie, moving hoses, and all the things he has to manage, with the wind still whipping until 10:00 p.m. tonight. High gust today has been 43 mph.

He’s returning for us to clean and cut ½ the strawberries he bought yesterday, and then will fix brunch, and after eating, we’ll do the rest of the strawberries later after John works on editing the blog and transferring it to WordPress and I put the pictures with the text on our shared jump drive.
I have to finish sending the photos taken Friday to a share link on Google Photos to add to this blog and send to the AAC members I have email addresses for, and the staff (for posting on Facebook on the Ellensburg Adult Activity Center’s page).

My next chore is to get the entire July music together to send to the music group for them to be ready for performing the additional songs to the first 13 we did last week, to round it out to 25 songs, last ones are instrumental; we do if there is time.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Journeys, Presentations, & Exercise

Saturday, Jun 16

Here is a bit of the Dingford Creek Trail work that John assisted on with an explanation by him:John advising a rock moving project.

At this place, the Dingford trail was a foot deep into the forest floor. Water could not get out, so we cut through the edge and began opening a drain. Ten feet from the trail, a large rock {about 400 pounds} blocked the intended path of the flow. Because the rock needed to be moved, and was of a blockish shape with a flat top, we decided to use it as a step in the trail. This took two lifts of about 20 feet each.
These photos don’t show the spot where the drain leaves the trail. That’s behind and to the left of the camera. Photo A (left) has the drain marked by orange dots – on the left. Photo A also shows 8 folks getting ready to lift. John, having explained what & how, stands down-trail from the action.
Poles have been placed through the straps of a fabric carrying-net (“a rock net”). One of the crew tied a strap (see where the red arrow points) across the top of the rock. This strap is also seen in Photo B.
The crew is from the local Google office with coordinator Brittany (lower right corner in A) designated as the “caller.” When everyone is in place she will ask “Is anyone not ready?” With no responses heard, she will say “Lift on 3.” Safety instruction have been previously given – such as “Don’t lift on 2.”
These folks spend their days looking at computer screens. Google encourages volunteer work and there are many opportunities in the Puget Sound region. These folks chose a physically hard one.

Monday, Jun 18

We published the blog at 10:30 p.m. after a lot of effort last night.

I need to send music plans out for the first count for this Thursday at Pacifica and NEXT Friday June 29 at the AAC (Senior Center Patriotic music and USA songs prior to July 4 that we do every year and have for decades).

John had managed yesterday afternoon to put on the tiny spare tire so he could go to town and the tire shop (but likely will get new tires). He combined trips and dropped me off at my SAIL exercise class.
I went in for my class, and he came back almost at the end of class to pick me up. He’d been to Les Schwab first, and he spent a bunch of money (> $ 800) on new tires for his Crosstrek. Old ones have been on for 35,000 miles, and probably were low quality at the start. So happy the new ones will last 70,000 miles. The flat tire had a piece of metal wedged in so badly it would not hold air at all. Picture below.
He had to change to the small ‘temporary’ spare tire to drive 12 miles to town. So very lucky that didn’t happen to him 15 miles at a trail head back in the wilderness. The service tech at the tire shop (Les Schwab) nor John recognized what the piece of metal was from. He drove to near North Bend yesterday and noticed the warning light come on about 4 miles from home.
Here is a photo of the culprit John took for me to show you all. It looks rather like a curved part of an Exacto knife, but I think they are straight bladed. Any ideas where this piece of metal might have originated?
Mysterious tire flattener
After he got the new tires, he went by Washington Tractor and spent more money on his Stihl chainsaw, getting a new filter, a chain, and spark plug. This was after working to help remove a tree at our neighbor’s the day before, needing to sharpen his chain saw, and remembering he had ordered a new air filter about a month ago, assuming the parts department would call him when it arrived.

He came back and retrieved me from SAIL exercise class, and we went together to Super 1 where I started in the pharmacy, picking up two prescriptions for John and one for me.
Coumadin/Warfarin cost me $26.78 For 90#, which is more expensive than at Safeway, but I goofed and didn’t order my refill from the correct place. It’s only $15.58 through GoodRx, and there I don’t even have to go through my insurance co-pay. I have now written all over the bottle so I don’t make that mistake again. Cost me $11.20 more. Too much going on in my life when I realized I had run out.
John mowed a lot of grass tonight and he picked over 2 lbs. of strawberries, which we cleaned and sugared and ate some for dessert.
We were gone from the house over 3 hrs. today.

Tuesday, Jun 19

Only thing on tap is going by Bi-Mart to check numbers (we won nothing but I found out the numbers are ONLY for this store not for the region). I went to dance class at the senior center, with only 2 others and our teacher and danced all the dances. It was a review of several of the many dances we have learned during the past couple of months. We only have one more class, next Tuesday. Then the dance day changes to Board Games (not a lot of exercise except for the mind, I guess). Today, we reviewed the Achy/Breaky Line Dance, the Bunny Hop, the Hokey Pokey, the Macarena, and the Chicken (& Duck) Dance. We got our exercise.

John left about 4:30 for the other side of the valley to volunteer with a couple of friends on clearing noxious weeds from the trails on Manastash Ridge. WTAer Bill Weir came, and about 7 others. They succeeded and found a little critter, which Jack Powell photographed… and posted on Facebook’s communication regarding the Ridge Trails with this quote: “Thanks to the hard working volunteers who help pull Knapweed along the eastern Manastash Ridge Trails this evening. While working up there I saw the first horned toads of the year on the Teachers Trail.“ Horned toad along Manastash Ridge trail, SW of EBRG.

John didn’t make it home until after 9:00 p.m.
Below, I will give a synopsis of the information I found out on this picture I took today: Ellensburg, WA west side of S. Pine St up from Mt. View Rd

I sent a question out to a few friends I thought might know what this grass plant was, and hit pay dirt. On my way home I had called John and told him I thought it was something that had Tom in the name. One of the names it is known by is Tritoma, but the one most people have heard is – Red Hot Poker, which it truly looks like.
John found the site that Caitlin offered, where this is written: Kniphofia uvaria is commonly known as a Red Hot Poker, Torch Lily, or sometimes a Tritoma.
Replies in order received: Thanks, Caitlin LaBar, Terri Towner, Megan Walsh-Ferrier, Suzy West, Bruce Seivertson, and Janis Reimers. If you want more details, I can send them, or you can visit the web.
It can be “invasive” if not handled properly. Interestingly, and ironically, John was across the valley working on trails to remove noxious weeds (mostly Knapweed).

Wednesday, Jun 20

I fixed my salad to take today, with John’s great help of cubing smoked turkey and cutting little pieces of Honeycrisp apple. I added the iceberg lettuce and Blue Cheese dressing, and packed Cheez-its for croutons, plus I took a stainless steel fork so I didn’t have to eat with a flimsy plastic one.

Today, Evelyn is back with music for our Food Bank Soup Kitchen play date. Afterwards I am off for SAIL exercise class.

Once home, I continued on projects relating to my computer and other paper work related to bringing back special software onto this computer. I still need to get my WIFI and Epson printer connected with a new driver. (Later I succeeded with that chore, but Sunday my Epson Scan failed after working for two scans.

Meanwhile, I was quite tired, so I lay down for a short power nap, but at 5:10, phone rang with a telemarketer, and I then settled down. I awoke at 7:20 p.m., and thought it was morning. I was totally confused, but rested.

When I got back to the real world, we ate a late supper.

Thurs, Jun 21 HAPPY SOLSTICE!

Up too early, but lay back down for another hour, as did John. Guess we needed the rest.

John fixed us brunch this morning.

Pacifica for music. We have a dozen people expected. Only 11 adults showed, but to finish the dozen was our little 5 yr. old who sings two songs with us – Hey Good Lookin’ and yodels with T for Texas. The audience loves her so much, and she is not bashful at all. She also dances (as you have seen in previous blogs), to Irish Washerwoman.

The next picture was posted on Facebook by her mom, and my comment (on Facebook) is beneath the picture.Haley in front of Jerrol’s with cup of Root Beer Float Ice Cream

My comment later on Facebook when her mom posted the pix:

I stopped by Jerrol’s on my way home – an Ellensburg store (Office supply and books) that was celebrating its 71st birthday today, and giving every person a large scoop of Winegar’s ice cream (another local business connected by a pass-through door). I brought home two containers for us. It was a soft serve. While there I used my $10 coupon for purchase with no strings attached, and bought a box of 100 new file folders, for which I had to pay only 80₵. Not bad. I am gearing up to put all my receipts in order in my filing cabinets. Tomorrow I shall return for a box of hanging folders to separate the months. I still have an anniversary coupon discount on any purchase of 19.47% (the year they started).

Maybe I will designate a filing cabinet to house some of my music for the group that I have to create and carry around every year, including audience copies of the lyrics.

I continue working on file structure for the computer problems. Just moved all my music files for SongWriter 2012 over this morning, but sadly they now all have the same creation date.

We fixed a nice salad for supper and I had enough left over to make mine to take to the AAC tomorrow for the event. They are serving English Muffin pizza with salad, but I cannot usually eat their salads because of all the dark greens. So, I take my own Iceberg lettuce doctored up with Honeycrisp apple and smoked turkey cubes and my favorite dressing.

John picked over 4# strawberries tonight to give to a gal in my SAIL class. She makes strawberry jam for all her grandchildren and families for Christmas. She will share some with us. He picked all and I culled a small bucket of the ones with bad parts. We now have wonderful cut strawberries sugared to have with cereal, meals, and desserts for the next couple of days.

Friday, Jun 22

This morning I finished testing my Epson Scanner. I was too tired last night after spending a bunch of time trying to download the software for the printer drivers, and then installing it. I was hung up on the registration process, until this morning, when I got it registered properly. I knew the print was working last night because I got a Test Print sheet printed. Then, this morning I got the Epson Scan to work, and made the following jpg to show my elation.John has since cleaned the printer heads. The Magenta print was sloppy – better now.

I headed out for the AAC for an event with lunch (where I first took photos and of the 4th of July decorations around the room they had put up yesterday.) I also took pictures of the folks in attendance for the talk today.

This was a presentation over lunch at the AAC (Ellensburg Adult Activity Center), otherwise known as our senior center. This seminar was titled: Health Futures Forum on Wildfires and Air Quality concerns for citizens.Nicole, Kasey, and Darren before the talk

I videotaped the presentation. Here are the videos and details:

Nicole’s Intro to the Day’s Presentation at the AAC

Wildfire and Air Quality Health Information

Presented jointly by Darren Higashiyama, Deputy Sheriff (Operations Commander) in Emergency Management for Kittitas County with Kasey Knutson, Health Promotion Supervisor from Kittitas County Public Health Department. Their topic was Wildfires & Air-Quality Preparedness at today’s Healthy Futures Forum.

Darren is going to share with me the PowerPoint Display, because I didn’t have my tripod and it was pretty dark in the room for my very old video camera.

After the presentation they handed out copies of the three things: a chart of the Air Quality Index shown on the web and in the PowerPoint presentation. The other two I’m not picturing here, but one was a page describing Wildfire Smoke & Your Health and the other was an Emergency Preparedness Guide, a 44-page manual. This is a State publication and gets updates and tweaks each year.
Here is the Google Photo link for today’s pictures of people there for the presentation:
Click on this Link to see all pictures taken today at AAC on Google Photos

I took my own salad and it was a good thing as they had two pieces of pizza, cooked on an English Muffin (Pepperoni/olive or chicken) with a mixed dark green salad. Everyone in the audience ate as I filmed the presentation and I ate afterwards.

I stayed for the SAIL exercise class and we had a good turnout. I requested that Katrina take a photo of the people there for class today. A couple more people arrived after the photo.Elaine, Judy, Teacher-Jessi (AmeriCorps), Ann, Joyce, Shirley, Murl, Sandy, Isabel, Madge, Nancy

After SAIL exercise I gave the bucket of strawberries (from an iced cooler) to Roberta, and then drove by Super 1 Pharmacy to pick up my Vicodin for emergency needs with pain in my severely arthritic shoulder, when I dance for an hour, or play fiddle music for over an hour.

From there I went by Grocery Outlet to get a head of lettuce for our salads (we used ours last night and in my salad I took today)—while there I checked the price of a Key Lime pie, and found a lower price than elsewhere in town, $5.99. That is the best pie to have with strawberries. It’s perfect for Christmas as well, with the red & green color contrast. We freeze our strawberries and have them through the year. Lots of bad ones this year, so fewer to freeze.

After that shopping, I pulled across University Way and went to Jerrol’s for the rest of my shopping needs left over from yesterday. I decided with the decent discount, I could buy a box of 25 regular hanging folders and 2 boxes of 25 legal size hanging folders. My entire order received a $7.98 discount. Nice.

On home by way of a place south of the airport, where we share our Wall Street Journals with a business student. She very much appreciates it, and I subscribe with a great educational discount, that got even better this year. I have used it for teaching for years, and continue by sharing with my colleagues. Much, but not all is the same as on the web.

We had a sausage patty and chili for supper, and now I’m uploading the movies I took today to YouTube. The pictures are on my computer now too, and I need to get them processed and moved to Google photos, so I can share with all the AAC members, and staff, who puts them on the Ellensburg Adult Activity Facebook site.

Saturday, Jun 23

We were up early to feed cats and bless John’s heart, he took time to put a roast into the Crockpot to cook.

John left at 6:30 a.m. for the WTA work party at Granite Peak Trail to get there early because of limited parking.

I was going to sleep in, but only managed an hour because of taking a diuretic early, and because we left the hard food out and the Magpies noisily came in to rob them and woke me.

I did wash a load of several days of dishes, and resume working on computer chores.

Fixed late brunch and enjoyed it a lot. It was heated leftover sausage patty, ham & cheese plus omelet, with piece of toast with Apricot jam made by my neighbor, and a bowl of a banana with our strawberries.

Now for shoes and a walk with the dog. I think I was gone for more than 45 minutes. The wind was blowing and it was cold, but I had on a sweatshirt and walked all the way to the irrigation ditch before I could get a connection to go through to Peggy our sister in Parma, OH. The winds were blowing so the 75° felt colder, making me stand in the sun. We had a nice 32 min. visit. She was as frustrated and tired as I from all the things that have happened to her. Earlier, as we did this week, she had a flat tire and replaced all 4 tires. Today, I got her after she found her kitchen floor covered with water and had just spent too much time and energy, fixing the leak under the counter, and then drying up all the things that got flooded. We compared notes and I thanked her for sharing her woes to me and listening to my complaints of the week. She said a great quote, “Sharing them makes them only half as bad.”

On my way back to the house, I turned around and saw our Rainier Cherry tree, which John had mentioned was getting redder cherries. I decided to take a movie to share with you. The winds have earlier caused many young cherries to fall out of the tree, so we were worried that this year would be much slimmer than last. The buck is getting better antlers this year. A fenced in Syringa.

Cherries in the wind

John called at 3:30 and was 80 minutes away. I set my alarm for 4:45 to let Annie out front. John walked in before I let her out! Guess he made better time than expected.

Still at our place, is an example of a part of the wildlife around:
Introducing Buck, 3 yrs + old, on the Naneum Fan

And more views in the wind close to the road with cottonwoods rustling to the left and pines around, as well as Blue Lupine.

Winds & Syringa (Mock Orange) on the Naneum Fan

Change in location to Magnificent Mt. Rainier:

I just found a most moving experience, which I was able to share with my Facebook friends, but am unable to share with others of you who read our blog but do not have access to Facebook. This is one of the major benefits to my staying on FB.

The Musical Mountaineers at Mt. Rainier
This is part of Anastasia Allison (violinist)’s version of their experience, with her description.

Last week, after a whirlwind trip to California for “The Musical Mountaineers,” we headed to Mt. Rainier with Nikki Frumkin (a mountain artist), and Mitch Pittman (a wilderness videographer).

We wanted to find a sunset, but what we found was something more – we found ourselves in the shadow of Mt. Rainier that night – each of us showing up for a beautiful moment to create something that was so much more than notes or watercolors or film… and as if the mountain could sense the creation that was taking place in her midst, she joined the hymn and painted the sky with her own melon-colored hues.

These moments in life, you can create them. You can take your heart and show it to the world and make the most beautiful things. You can be who you are, and have that be enough. You can change the world with a simple hymn or a swipe of the brush or a beautiful film. You can watch a sunset, with tears streaming down your face, and realize that the whole world is the most beautiful melody that you will ever find.

Videographer: Mitch Pittman (and a quick note: this video was shot ENTIRELY in ONE SHOT, because Mitch is a genius)
Watercolor Artist: Nikki Frumkin
Music: The Musical Mountaineers (Anastasia Allison and Rose Freeman)

I featured a story about these two musicians in this blog awhile back when they gave a concert on the Manastash Ridge (south side of our Kittitas Valley). This above is of Mt. Rainier, and was shot all at one shooting. The videographer is as talented as the musicians and the artist seen in this beautiful rendition.

Sunday, Jun 24

We ate breakfast of leftovers, and John is out to spray while the winds have subsided, but sadly that the temperature is rising.
He sprayed 6 gallons before coming inside. While he was out, I washed a load of clothes, and stacked some dishes for washing later, but I went back to finishing my part of the blog. I’m still working on uploading one last video, and then I’ll be ready for John when he awakes from an afternoon nap. He sprayed another 4 gallons.

When he came back in from the yard, he was holding a large Juice Can full of strawberries we’ll have to clean and sugar for tonight and tomorrow. I will be able to do that while he works on editing the blog and puts it into WordPress.

This video below arrived in email this morning from Nick Zentner along with the dates for the planned field trips starting in the fall, and for his downtown lectures, which will be in a new location this year – the auditorium of the now renovated Morgan Middle School. I’ll have to take a photo for future use of the newly planted trees and bushes around the parking lot at the west entrance to the school. I drove by on Ruby St. last week and wished I had my camera with me. They have done a nice landscaping project and the old building’s face is quite beautiful. It has been covered and out of view the whole time I have been in town, with an annex, which was demolished to concentrate on the main school restoration.

For old times’ sake, here is the building as it originated in 1929 as Ellensburg Junior High. Old building now renovated as Morgan Middle School, EllensburgNick Zentner – Sharing Geology

Here’s an interesting 18-minute visit with Nick Zentner reminiscing about his 30 years of sharing Geology with his students and with the community (around the world).

Nick Zentner – Sharing Geology

This was filmed in Yakima, WA (to our south) as a Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) presentation. You can learn more about the organization from their website:
TED

Considering all, we both had another busy week.

Hope yours was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

While I was home frustratingly dealing with a dying computer, of unbeknownst reasons, John drove, twice, the 3 hours to Longmire (at Mt. Rainier) for a WTA work party. His activities were much more interesting than mine were this week. I missed a couple of regular activities because of long stints on the phone and trips to Yakima. Photos by the WTA crew were posted and I’ve had John explain some of what was done. He went Friday and Sunday. My tribulations are below. John stepped in and explained this Mt. Rainier part.

June 1 & 3, 2018 on the Wonderland Trail along Paradise River
The WT is 93 miles long and encircles the Mountain. I’ve worked on short sections at various places over several years. This trip is very near the main SW entrance and gets a lot of traffic.Locations: left: Mt. Rainier from the footbridge across the Nisqually River.
Right: Carter Falls on Paradise River from the Wonderland TrailAcross the Nisqually River for the hike in to the work site. Note the crew is not carrying tools. They were cached after Friday’s work, then brought out after Sunday’s trip.
Conveniently, a large Yellow Cedar tree (great resistance to rot) had blown down with its top at the trail’s edge. With a bit of work, it gave needed material to the repair.Splitting Cedar rails for “Check Steps” for placement across the trail. Orange hat in the right photo is Aaron, of the National Park trail crew. Green hat is a WTA volunteer. Left photo – driving steel wedges into the end of the log. In the right photo both are using cant hooks (aka Peavey) (link) to get leverage to break the tree trunk apart.
The biggest single project for the weekend was to repair a seriously eroded 30 ft. section near a large tree.Left photo is an early photo with a test-placement of a step. See photo below for that with John (orange shirt) and a volunteer. Terry looks on. Over many years, the tree roots became uncovered and boots and water cut deep into the soil on the left side. On the right, the finished set of steps (7 total) are placed and filled with small rocks (first) and soil.A project requires planning and coordination. That’s the Blue Hat’s responsibility. In the photo below, our Blue Hat (Hannah) works with Terry (note straight rake handle and level) to determine the placement of the 2nd check-step.
Behind Hannah, a piece is being peeled and shaped to fit the space. Up the trail a reddish-brown mound of dirt is visible. A pit-digger and 4 bucket carriers provide the material from 50 feet off the trail. Another dozen folks are working farther up the trail, unseen. The Blue Hat carries a bag of snack-size candies (think little Snickers Bars) and goes to each group, giving candy, and advice.

The two photos below show a spot at the down-trail end of the “steps” project. As the steps project began to take shape, John jumped into the muddy project.There is a wet area where water seeps up into the trail from the surrounding forest. Years ago a drain was dug across the trail and a slanting log laid across – seen in the foreground, partly covered with muck. That filled in with forest litter, wet soil, and small stones.
The right photo shows Alan, Eric, and John building a stable step across the drain from the log. Unlike the good fortune of have a good tree to get steps from, this area is short of rocks. Bummer. We managed – somewhat like working a very difficult jigsaw puzzle.

Alan is the chief WTA trail guy and mostly operates as a “Blue Hat”, but on this day was operating with Eric and John as a team of equals – sort of.

Monday, June 4 Computer fixin’ day

Okay, back to Nancy’s problems:
Whole day dedicated to Nancy’s laptop Dell.

I drove to Yakima to follow-up on my phone call yesterday with Jared at Office Depot, where he has a 1 Terabyte external disk drive to sell me and also is willing to see if he can find the problem that 3 others have not been able to fix. He was unable to fix it although I think he made more progress than anyone to date, including the tech support at Dell Computers who connected to it and I watched her efforts, but they failed, and the conclusion was I would have to have them RESET my laptop to what it was when I bought it. That means I lose all my software, and have to back up all files on the old one which will be wiped clear with the “reset” after backing up.

We left my laptop at Office Depot and I will pick it up tomorrow afternoon.
After that we filled my car with gasoline at Costco for a decent price, only 6 ₵/gal cheaper than in Ellensburg, but hey, that’s 60₵.

Before leaving Yakima, we decided to check out WinCo Foods, a new grocery store adjacent to Costco in Union Gap. We only saw a few items that were obviously a better deal than what we could get in Ellensburg on sale at Super 1, or at Grocery Outlet. One was an excellent price on All Bran Buds and an okay price on Raisin Bran. While there we picked up something else, but only had $20 worth. We went through the checkout counter, and I saw the credit card machine, but the cashier said they wouldn’t take it, only cash or debit cards. What a surprise! We did have the money, but had we bought $200 of stuff, we would not have had cash. We don’t own a debit card. We believe they need to post a sign at the entrance warning people of the payment required. I also prefer to use my VISA credit card from Costco because we get 1% back in cash rewards for purchases made on it, anywhere, 2% on purchases in Costco, and 4% on gasoline purchased anywhere.
While WinCo has lots of stuff, we are not likely to go there often. Too many intervening opportunities, and the lack of credit card usage.

Tuesday, June 5

Started with our annual trip to the eye doctor. Nancy at 10:00 and John at 10:15, although John ended up finishing first with our beloved Dr. Davis at Valley Vision. We both had good sessions and each one of us got a newly changed refraction test, for new glasses. We can have them covered in part by our insurance. Story why comes later in the week. We thought we were not yet eligible because we are only eligible every 24 months, for $150 toward the costs. Check Friday for the rest of the story.
While WinCo has lots of stuff, we are not likely to go there often. Too many intervening opportunities, and lack of credit cards.

I had to make another trip to Yakima, this time by myself, to pick up my computer and check out my ability to use the computer with the new external disk. I knew I had to be there before my tech support person left for the day (at 4:00 p.m.). Everything took longer than planned on the backup installation, and I barely made it there in time to get it before 4:00. It completed just minutes before my drive down (took an hour).

Wednesday, Jun 6

I fixed my salad to take today, with John’s help of cubing smoked turkey and cutting little pieces of Honeycrisp apple. I added the iceberg lettuce and Blue Cheese dressing, and packed Cheez-its for croutons, plus took a stainless steel fork so I didn’t have to eat with a flimsy plastic one.

Food Bank as usual for music but I carried along all the music for today, because our normal leader was unable to be there. I went ahead of time because also another member who sets up chairs and music stands also was not going to be there. Afterwards I was off for SAIL exercise class.

After that class, I went by to care for the cat and clean up. They are due home mid-day tomorrow.

Once home, I continued on projects relating to my computer.
Expecting a call about 5:30 from the tech at Costco Concierge, whose help I will no longer need. Need to contact Dell for hopefully a refund. The call arrived just after I got home at 3:30, as they are on CST and I was supposed to be called at 5:30 in my time zone!

Thurs, Jun 7

Rehab for music. We had 11 people there and a good time.

I’ve been working on file structure for the computer problems.
Thursday afternoon call from Deepa in India. I asked her to please submit a request for a refund for failing to fix my problem. I no longer need her to reset the system. I don’t know when I will hear back.

Friday, Jun 8

John left about 6:40 a.m. for the WTA work party at Denny Creek. See Item #3 in his “Not so nasty news” – previous blog post.

I’m staying home to give attention to a number of things.

I contacted Craig at school and we have arranged for me to drop off my computer laptop for him to add some software, now that my old one got wiped clean. I also tried reaching the publisher of the Music writing software to no avail. I will search for my serial number on the music and try a telephone call on Monday. I copied it before leaving the computer to be backed up and reset.

I called my secondary insurance, Kaiser Permanente, to see if we both have eyeglasses available. Valley Vision apparently called and were told we both were eligible for our $150 toward a new pair. I didn’t think we’d gone 2 years since using the discount.

I now know why. We are NOT COVERED FOR OUT OF NETWORK PEBB service (and thus, Costco is not an optical approved provider and therefore not included). A person seeking the reimbursement must use an approved provider or a Kaiser Facility (closest one of those is Seattle): only ones in Ellensburg are Valley Vision and Dr. Sarah Storrs’ place: Family Eye Clinic, 707 N. Pearl Suite B, and we are both eligible. She would then be reimbursed by insurance for the $150. I figure her prices are most likely better than Valley Vision’s, and I would like to support her business, because I know her socially from other connections.

I did a load of John’s clothes today and my socks and underwear. I did a load of dishes. I have not hear back about the Dell Computer charge. I worked on computer re-organization.
John called on his way home, and I gave him the place to buy gasoline for his car, which we are taking on a field trip this Sunday.
It started raining tonight. Not good for the farmers with hay down, and there is a lot down and much baled, and still in the field.

Saturday, Jun 9

John fixed us brunch and then went out in cooler weather (hoping that continues through our field trip tomorrow) and returned with a flower bouquet he brought me (made from the last of the Iris):This now graces our kitchen window over the sink.

Now I’m removing a lot of stuff from my Nikon camera to use on the field trip tomorrow. I also need to clean up my movie camera so that I can capture the lectures at the 4 stops on our trip.

A notification came across my screen advertising a free wooden table for giveaway, about 9 mi (~ 15 minutes from us). We decided to drive in and get it, even though we don’t have room for it. It seems to have potential.

Here are some cropped pix of the announcement: It shows some wear, came without chairs, but did come with an insertable piece. John wants to know why those are called a “leaf.”

Once home, while moving files on my computer, I saw a notification go across the screen that my friend in CA had tagged me on a Facebook send – it was of a nest of ugly baby birds. She said the mom had a red-head, but the nest was in the crook of a tree, scented by her Brittany (she found him standing on his hind legs). I don’t know many red-headed (solely) birds except a red-headed woodpecker, but I would imagine they would prefer nesting in the hole of a tree. What do you think? I thought of a red finch and John thought of a redpoll. Baby birds of some species

Sunday, Jun 10

John and I are going to participate in Nick Zentner’s field trip on the Ringold Formation, an interesting geologic layer about 50 miles to our southeast, and near the Hanford Atomic Energy site. It starts in Ellensburg at 10:00 a.m. and ends at 6:00 p.m. We’ll go in John’s car, following the caravan. We first expected hot weather, but a reprieve may be in store. Surely hope so. Even a little drizzle after 11:00 a.m. could be possible. Suits me. I’m not a hot weather person.
Images below are part of the field trip guide. Report next week.
Above map, by Manastash Mapping, of Ringold Formation field trip 6-10-18. Handouts made possible by Ellensburg Chapter members of the Ice Age Floods Institute. This is from the color handouts of the field trip notes, which are on line (see link below). The Hanford site is across the Columbia River (west). We learned on the field trip, this is created by Google Maps (not Google Earth), and requesting 3D. We have not tried that yet. Has a lot of promise, as can be seen in the handout below. Take a peek at it. You’ll need it to help interpret the videos taken at each stop which will be reviewed in next week’s blog.

The title by Nick Zentner: Ringold Formation – June 2018

Ringold Formation Field Trip – June 10, 2018

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

but with good things too

Monday, May 28 Happy Memorial Day !

I finished the blog last night, because I had link problems after John had hit the hay. He’s the WordPress person in this family. Finally, I got them all fixed and published.

We were up early for John to take the new Flag to the road.

I’ve been working hard trying to complete the videos and a few photos to send to the Geography Department and to the winners of the scholarship awards. Need to finish and go take a photo of the flag flying with the sun behind me.

We learned our co-owned Brittany in California garnered 3 awards for 2017 Dog of the Year awards in the CA Brittany Club. Photo shows her 3 trophies (cheeseboards) and each came with 2 wine glasses with an etched Brittany head.

Jeri is going to send us the Gun Dog of the Year trophy and keep the wine glasses. We have too many wine glasses (by the carton) from our tastings in our summer class for 12 years: Wine: A Geographical Appreciation. We set up 3 glasses for each person during the final tasting, and we purchased all the wines for the event (usually 12 or 13).

Here are the placements

Field Dog – Cedaridge Kip’s Camelot Shay Tre’ SH – o Jeri K Conklin & Nancy Hultquist.

She (Daisy) & her Mom (Ginny) won 2017 awards:

SPECIAL RECOGNITION AWARDS
Gun Dog – Cedaridge Kip’s Camelot Shay Tre’ SH (Daisy) – o Jeri K Conklin & Nancy Hultquist

This next is Daisy’s mom:
Amateur Handled Field Dog – FC KWK Windswept Guinevere of Camelot SH – o Jeri K Conklin

PERFORMANCE
Senior Hunter – Cedaridge Kip’s Camelot Shay Tre’ SH – o Jeri K Conklin & Nancy B HultquistWe both went out to see the flag blow in 44 mph gusts. It’s still fluttering. The flag kit came with 3 small screws to attach the pole receptacle to a wall. It needed a much more substantial method. Two by sixes and large lax screws, plus braces, are in place – for now.

Adjusting the Flag Position 5-27-18 (getting ready yesterday for today)
Yesterday’s Flag Adjustment

High Winds on the Naneum Fan

Czar Went to the End of the Driveway with us to see the Flag
Czar is a Companion Cat

Then Czar Rolled in the Gravel
Czar’s Favorite Pastime

Our irrigation ditch is without water & John removed the dam.
Waterless Irrigation Ditch

Dinner was baked chicken, with succotash, and sourdough toast with butter and Parmesan cheese. It was very good.

Tuesday, May 29

This was totally a recuperating day for me. The winds blew hard all day, so John was unable to get any work done in the yard. A piece of tree trunk (dead) came down, and if anything had been under it when it fell, it would have gotten crushed. It is against and over part of our fence. Out of the way, so it can wait to get cleaned up – on a day with no wind.

Here’s what we did today. We went to town to pick up a Stihl brusher for work at our house fire-wising and work on trails (probably in the future in the Spokane area with a WTA crew John knows).
Washington Tractor’s sales rep (Janie) with John. The handle bar attachment is in travel mode, lowered and swiveled down. Note the size of the unit by comparing to the back of the pickup bed. His next chore will be to create a way to carry it on the luggage rack on top of his Crosstrek for the trip to Spokane or elsewhere.
It arrived with a string-trimmer head. We also bought a tri-blade head, shown at right.Once home, here is the end of the unit and the right shows John attaching the handle to a carrying harness.

Next we have a video once home of the demo of using it for weeds.
Goodby weeds!

Wednesday, May 30

Food Bank as usual for music and I carried along my salad for lunch. Afterwards I was off for SAIL exercise class.

I think, once home, I continued on projects relating to my computer.

Thurs, May 31

We have water in the irrigation ditch today. Seems the rocks and logs have found a new home.

This is a BYE day for our KV Fiddlers & Friends music (5th Thursday) – well deserved., so, John and I went to Costco for things for us and others.

We had a great evening at the Ice Age Floods (IAF) local chapter meeting at a presentation on local geology by an excellent speaker, Lydia Staisch from the USGS in Menlo Park, CA.As a guest lecturer for the local chapter of the Ice Age Floods Institute, we enjoyed Lydia Staisch’s presentation on the Ringold Formation, Sedimentology & Provenance: Implications for the ancestral Columbia & Snake Rivers.
Lydia Staisch, Ringold Formation
Lydia’s Questions & Answers
Nick’s Invitation to the audience for Lydia’s Noon Talk Tomorrow
Invite by Nick Zentner

Friday, Jun 1

John left about 4:40 a.m. for the WTA work party at Mt. Rainier. Likely earlier by ½ hour, but he wasn’t sure. By arriving early he gets to visit with the assistant crew leaders, and leaders for WTA (2 this time), and a National Park trails crew member. Introductions of everyone, and safety talks start at 8:30.

My laptop computer and I left for CWU to meet the systems analyst for help uninstalling the rest of Sophos, which is an antivirus software they wanted to sell me, and they managed to alter my system so I could not complete the uninstall, even though I had administrative capabilities.

This was the beginning of my end-of-week problems that actually began last week when I tried unsuccessfully to uninstall Sophos, the “free” antivirus software. It’s ended costing me dearly. Now I need to add administrative management to get into the user group to get rid of it. Thus far, I have not succeeded. The end of my meeting was to leave without the need being fulfilled of gaining administrative access to my Windows 10 Home addition. I somehow have lost that ability. I will be seeking options tonight. Subsequently, no one has been able to make the change. I will have to resort to a complete reset of my total computer (more to follow here).

From that meeting, I went to the Geology lecture Science II, Rm 206, at Noon, where I took a video of Lydia from an awkward angle in a small room.

Noon Talk on the “Yakima Folds” (these are E-W ridges folded in the area south of Ellensburg):

From Gravity Anomalies to Graded Streams, crustal structure and Quaternary acceleration of deformation rates in central Washington Presented by Lydia Staisch.

Yakima Folds Presentation

Lydia’s Q & A on the Yakima Folds talk

Ending Questions & Answers

I went to SAIL exercise at the senior center. Katrina instructed the class in her usual wonderful manner. She makes exercising fun. Afterwards, I went by a friend’s to check on her cat. She and her son went on a trip (plane) back to the East coast for ~ 10 days. I found a problem with the automatic waterer and made a temporary fix.

I spent more time researching my computer problem and trying to find a solution.

Saturday, Jun 2

I spent a lot of time on phone trying to fix my computer problems. I was on the phone with tech support through Costco where I purchased my computer, fall of 2016.

I went to town with John to get gasoline for his trip tomorrow, by Super 1 for groceries, and by Anne’s to check out the cat situation with the waterer malfunction. Cleaned up the wet papers from the day before, and decided to replace with a conventional bowl of water.

John moved water hoses, filled barrels, watered trees, some flowers, and picked strawberries for me to fix. Then we had them on Key Lime Pie for dessert. Just a few have ripened. Late next week there should be lots of ripe ones.

Updated my meds and called in the one I’m running out of. Monthly ones are a pain. I wish I could get for longer. I need 90 pills for the month. NEED TO CONTACT the Pharmaceutical Company for Entresto about the “break” on co-pay for insurance. Might have just been limited to one year without renewal possibility. I was getting it for $10/month. Now is $40. Buying it through GoodRx – without insurance – is not an option, because we are talking $469 (from the cheapest place, Costco).

The late afternoon and evening I spent on the phone with support in the U. S., and finally with a tech support person in India working for Dell. With just that one person, I spent 2 hrs and a fee (because my year’s warranty was over), but the fee was only going to apply if they could fix it. They could not without resetting the computer to what it was when I bought it. I could not do that before backing up the entire computer’s files and folders.

I decided I needed a new external drive disk to use to back up everything, because of lack of enough space on my current one.
John provided an initial search for one and found one I wanted at Office Depot. Later, I looked to follow through on purchase. I had questions and got into a Chat with an Office Depot staff member at some place away from here, and learned information I needed to make a phone call to the store on Sunday.

Sunday, Jun 3

John left at 5:00 a.m. for Mt. Rainier. (Longmire, via Steven’s Creek Canyon)

I moved the water hoses (am doing every 2.5 – 3 hrs.); one near pine trees and Forsythia bushes, and another on the Carpathian Walnuts.

Outside temperatures decreased over a strong start mid-morning. Now it’s windy and cloudy also. There was some very light rain on the western slopes of the Cascades, but not here.

I worried with computer issues much of the morning, and finally called the Office Depot in Yakima to see if I could come there for buying an external disk drive.
It took me two phone calls, but I finally located the technical support person, Jared, who heard my story, and made an agreement to help me tomorrow at the Yakima store at 10:00 a.m. As he doesn’t have the 2Tb Seagate I wanted, I will buy a Western Digital 1Tb drive from him for a very low price, use my American Express card that gives me another 5% discount, plus he will look at my computer, teach me how to set it up to backup all files and folders on the system. I will not have to pay him to reset my computer, and he knows how. My main concern is the software loaded there. I’m sure that will be gone with the reset, but it will restore my Windows 10 Home to allow me to have administrative privileges.

I am sure I will have problems with some of my added on software, mainly SongWriter 2012. I captured their contact for a future need. They will have to give me permission to reload on the same computer after the fix, and then I have to find where the disk got put. I may be without the use of the software for awhile.

I finally ate a late lunch at almost 2:00 p.m.

The weather is very strange today. It was 50° when John left this morning, by 1:00 p.m. heated up to 81° (at the airport). It was hot when I went to move hoses, but I didn’t look at the temperature till 3:00 here, and it was 70°. The winds started after 2:00 p.m. and have gusted to 46 mph (again, at the airport 5 miles south of us).

I’m waiting patiently to hear from John. He had problems reaching me on Friday coming home from Mt. Rainier, and now at 5:46 p.m., he’s still not been heard from, so I should be getting a call soon that he made it to Yakima. He called a few minutes later. He was coming through the Selah Gap. Now scheduled home in a few minutes, and Annie’s already outside waiting for him in the front yard. She’s been going out with me every few hours to move hoses, but she will be thrilled to see him and get to go for a real walk.

She will likely tell him she’s been ignored all day. He made it just now at 6:30 and I heard her yip in excitement. I noticed he got out of the car and then put on a heavy shirt and knitted cap. I checked the front porch temp and found it at 66° – it’s probably a bit cooler out in the yard and the wind, which is still blowing hard.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan