D.C.’s Cherry Blossoms – Oh no!

Monday, Mar 6

For Mar 5 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 2.66. Events: 1 CSR, 18 H, 23 RERA. Time on 6 hrs 46 min with (max = 18 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 74 (spurious, when stopped CPAP), actual low was 87, 3 events <88% with overall avg., 91.7%. Pulse avg. 56.9, low 50.

John and I got the blog published yesterday at 5 minutes to Noon. Won’t happen this week.

I wrote the to the music group, KV F&F, about Thursday’s performance at the Meadows Place to get a final chair count by Wednesday night.

I called Pend Oreille {Pond O-ray} Shores about our timeshare payment there. The maintenance fees have increased again. We need to find a buyer for it because we no longer can use it. I used to use it when traveling to conferences and went to some interesting places – Honolulu, San Francisco, San Antonio, Salt Lake City, South Lake Tahoe, Whistler, and Denver, among others.

The first two links below are the last of the presentations Nick Zentner presented this year for the community, and have not been reported here in this blog yet. I am listing all of them here.

Mount Rainier’s Osceola Mudflow
Nick 1

Lake Chelan Geology
Nick 2

Flood Basalts of the Pacific Northwest
Nick 3

Ancient Rivers of the Pacific Northwest
Nick 4

I attended a presentation by a candidate for a new job in the Geography department at CWU. I drove in my own car with John, in his truck, by a home where a woman gave us a bunch of lumber … and we have been waiting for better weather to get his truck out for pickup.This was taken later in the week. The pieces were used in her girls’ bedrooms to make sleeping lofts with storage space. Perhaps something similar to those at this Link, ←click. We did not see the setup, just the pieces on the garage floor.

Tuesday, Mar 7

For Mar 6 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 0.41. Events: 3 H, 19 RERA. Time on 7 hrs 23 min with (max = 18 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 89, 0 events <88% with overall avg., 91.6%. Pulse avg. 55.0, low 50.

I paid several bills today (by phone). All our medical bills early in the year have to be paid “out-of-pocket” until we reach the deductible set by the contract.

I received several corrected “.mus” files from Evie. I am storing the .mus files from her for future use, when I install 2012 version of SongWriter on my new Dell laptop. Meanwhile, she has sent me pdf files to send to the group for our April play dates.

I renewed my account with the MedicAlert Foundation for 3 years at a significant savings over the yearly fee. I wear a bracelet with access to all my medical information in their data base. I printed my receipt and stored in Medical Info as well as digitally.

I went for my haircut today, and it snowed a ton. Went on to the Jazzercise meeting and only two of us were there. I paid my required money for the month ($2.00).

On my way home, I stopped at the pharmacy for John’s upped dosage (40mg) of Lisinopril and by Bi-Mart where I check my number on Tuesday. I won a box of Cheese Nips for the last digit of my number (a 1). Those look the same as Cheez-It (manufactured by Sunshine), but maybe a tiny bit smaller and manufactured by Nabisco.

Much of the evening was taken working on music.

John fixed a small pork roast with potatoes and veggies, and we had a pear.

Wednesday, Mar 8

For Mar 7 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 0.98. Events: 1 CSR, 7 H, 22 RERA. Time on 7 hrs 10 min with (max = 19 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 76 (spurious, stopped CPAP), actual low was 88, 0 events <88% with overall avg., 91.4%. Pulse avg. 53.0, low 50.

I carried my Irish music in to the Food Bank and handed out copies to the audience. We had probably 7 or 8 people singing through (or before) their dinner. We play from noon to 12:30, and serving begins at noon. Some of our followers come sing with us before eating. We had the normal pasta (I skipped) and a rice dish with sweet & sour chicken, salad, and a chocolate / cherry cake. From there on to the AAC with Gloria, where we participated in SAIL exercise.

I came home and worked more on music for April, after finding Dr. Dave’s arrival (USPS) of a piece of music we needed to complete our files, “Mountain Dew.” Unfortunately, the notes were not at all like the version we had been playing for years, but are more like Willie Nelson’s version and that of Little Jimmy Dickens. Evie spent 3 hours merging our notes with those that Jimmy was singing. We’re not even going to try to make them agree with the notes we sing, but those of us playing the melody will just have to listen and play certain parts by ear. At least all the timing and chords are there, with the lyrics matched. I have been fiddling it by ear for 25 years.

I still need to add the lyrics to the version of Songwriter 2012 Evie created, after I record Charlie’s version tomorrow. Then I will match the corrections to what we have been singing. It’s only a few word differences and additions, and we only have room for 3 verses to keep the score on one page, so we’ll eliminate the one about the preacher with his wife home sick from the flu.

Thursday, Mar 9

For Mar 8 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI=3.00. Events: 4 CSR, 17 H, 19 RERA. Time on 5 hrs 40 min with (max = 20 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2, actual low while off CPAP was 85, 1 event <88% with overall avg., 93.2%. Pulse avg. 54.0, low 50.

I canceled next Tuesday’s meeting of the retired geographers because of illness and weather.

Meadows Place was our location today for the second time we’ve been through our playlist of mostly Irish music. We had 10 folks there and a happily involved audience. We also have a new request from a resident there for the song, “Laura’s Theme.”

I went to a 4:00 p.m. lecture in Dean for the third and final candidate for the new position hire.

Friday, Mar 10

For Mar 9 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 1.77. Events: 1 CSR, 1 CA, 1 OA, 11 H, 22 RERA. Time on 6 hrs 46 min with (max = 18 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 90, 0 events <88% with overall avg., 93.4%. Pulse avg. 53.3, low 50.

I received an early phone call from Katrina Douglas, the Coordinating Director of our senior center, Ellensburg Adult Activity Center (AAC) that Olivia Estill would be there today from 10:00 to 1:00. Olivia was our AmeriCorps volunteer leader for two years at the AAC. I did not want to miss seeing her. I called my friend, Gloria Swanson, and asked if she’d like me to stop and pick her up to go along for a visit.

Olivia is on spring break from the University of Louisville (Kentucky), where she is doing graduate work toward a Master of Science degree in Exercise Physiology.Olivia with Gloria . . . . . . . . . Olivia with Nancy

We had a nice visit before others arrived and so we hugged again and went on our way for some grocery shopping, and I came back home to work on my planned endeavor today to get my new laptop working.

While in town, we shopped at Super 1, and then went to fill my car with gas. It was down toward empty.

John left early for a pruning day, expected back about 1:30. As I was leaving the house, I called Cameron Fries (the winemaker / owner), whom I knew carried his phone and would be close to John during pruning, and told him I was going to town and why. I actually made it home before he did, but at least he would have been aware of my location, if I wasn’t home.

Saturday, Mar 11

For Mar 10 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 2.37. Events: 1 CSR, 1 OA, 16 H, 18 RERA. Time on 7 hrs 10 min with (max = 19 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 79 (spurious, finger change of oximeter), actual low was 88, 0 events <88% with overall avg., 93.2%. Pulse avg. 54.5, low 47.

I stayed home today, installed SongWriter (SW) 2012 on my new laptop, and the goal was to finish the music for April. It didn’t quite happen as planned.

John did not go for his North Bend First Aid Class this weekend. Travel over the pass was risky because of the potential for freezing on the road surface and/or avalanches. {Seems not to have developed, but it did rain much of the 2 days. That would not have been fun.} Crews did do some avalanche work during the late hours.

This was a wild and frustrating day. I decided I had to begin using my new laptop (now 3 months old), but I needed to install some software I needed and did not have on the laptop I am using to create the blog.

The first thing to do was find space to set up it beside the old so I could access the web for instructions about the new Dell Inspiron-13-5378 setup and view the user manual. That meant setting up another power extension cord. The new laptop does not have a CD/DVD drive, and I had bought an external one, now residing in the new laptop’s carrier. Not all my software to install on the new one is on a CD, so I have to get creative with passing information on a USB drive. I have 3 USB slots on the new one. One is taken with the wireless mouse I have. The next most important thing was figuring out where the “on” switch was on the new machine. I had used it previously but it was not in my mind and is not obvious.

I first tried to access the Internet from my new computer, and found I no longer had a connection since we had changed modems a month ago. I have been on it before, so at first I didn’t understand what happened, except it was before we changed the modem for a different one. I called Fairpoint.

It took us a very long time on the phone with Fairpoint technical support in Ohio to get the modem working with the new computer to access the Internet. The password I was using was old and we did not have the correct new one. John was home and searched all his notes on the change. We tried many things with the fellow to no avail. Finally, John asked him if he could give him instructions to go through his computer to access the information. Lo, yes. We tried 3 codes that did not work, from various addresses printed on the back of the modem. Then he tried having John log in directly to the modem to locate the security key password. FINALLY, we found a combination that worked. Now I was able to access the Internet from the Dell, once I used that PW. I think we had gone through a total of 5 others before getting the winner. I was entering them on the new one.

The next thing I did was install SongWriter 2012 from a CD (after I figured out how to connect my external CD / DVD reader via a USB port).

Unfortunately, I had also not turned on WIFI during the change of password to get to the Internet. We need it to communicate with our printer through the Aether. Later in the afternoon, I managed to figure that out and how to turn it on. I wanted/expected to be able to print from the Dell. However, not yet.

When I tried, I realized I did not have the EPSON printer driver on the Dell. Duh! It’s new. That took another hour of our time and effort. I am so happy John was home. He located the proper package of software for our WF-3540 printer on the Epson site, then I had to download it and installed it. I could not have known how to find all needed info. We do have the original CD that came with the printer – but no CD drive on the Dell (I’d already removed it). Besides, had I used that 2012/2013 version I still would have had to download any updates from the intervening years.

I needed to print a PDF file but also had to download Adobe Acrobat and install. Did that. Progress! Okay. Now I’m set for the immediate music preparation need for the group in April. I am not able to run Word on the new machine, however, because apparently the Microsoft Office Suite had not properly been activated when installed. I will work on that as the next major project, but first I have to complete this set of music to be able to share with the work my friend Evie is doing with our SongWriter songs, to get them out to the group.

I transferred all my songwriter 2010 stuff with SW 2012 stuff to a USB drive, opened it, and edited the text on Ashokan Farewell, a recent one that Evie sent me to match notes with the lyrics. She transcribed it from a video on line. Here is a link:

Ashokan Farewell ~ Sean and Scott Holshouser

I am still a long way from making the Toshiba to Dell laptops transition, but I did have a good start today. Serious frustration is now subsiding.

In between all the excitement, I washed a load of dishes.
And, we went outside to take photographs and have John show me what he intended to do with the shed where I have been parking my car. He says a garage is the place where you store several hundred dollars worth of stuff/junk, while you park the multi-thousand dollar car in the driveway.

He worked on outside projects – including starting to clear out the other side of the 3-sided shed where I park my car, so that he can get his 2016 Crosstrek under cover. This is requiring a lot of sorting, tossing, and giveaway. Here’s one thing to go, so he demoed it so that I might put a note on line to give it away, or contact first a friend who owns and runs a gym to see if she wants it or wants to share with a client or friend. She is the one who gave John his sweatpants for loosely dressing after his Dec 1 surgery.John demoing the Tony Little Gazelle in front of the 3-sided shed.
John on the Gazelle

The video is only a few seconds. Many years ago, I bought this at a yard sale for $5, without the monitor. They now sell new for over $100 and higher, depending on the model. I have no clue which model this this is.

While outside, he also showed me boxes of old stuff (some back to 1995) of academic materials. Most of it can be recycled or some passed along to colleagues or students. John figures if I do a box a day, we might finish in a couple of years. He brought in two boxes for me to begin with that were behind the Gazelle. I’m sure I will be seeing more soon, as he tries to make room for his car. He also plans to build shelves between our two cars.

John made a pizza for lunch and froze the half we did not eat. Later, the individual pieces will make a quick lunch. Dinner was a cheeseburger, with home fries, no bun.

Sunday, Mar 12

For Mar 11 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 0.97. Events: x CSR, 8 H, 16 RERA. Time on 8 hrs 16 min with (max = 17 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 41 (spurious, stopped CPAP), actual low was 89, 0 events <88% with overall avg., 93.3%. Pulse avg. 54.9, low 42 (spurious), actual 51.

Daylight Saving Time sprung forward last night, but we actually still got an extra hour sleep over our normal. We were both quite tired. I was exhausted from “interfacing” with my new laptop, now calling her “Raisin Dell.” I have been too busy using the old to move, download software, and install. I still have a lot of work to transfer or reinstall the stuff I need (such as the software to record my daily parameters from the CPAP machine and coordinate it with the data from my Oximeter I wear all night. The only reason I’m on the CPAP crap is to control my SpO2 – the oxygen percentage in my blood to organs while I sleep. It needs to remain above 88, preferably 90%. Organs deteriorate without a good oxygen supply. It is a real threat if it goes below 80.

Several definitions of the acronym SpO2 exist, but this is a good combined one that satisfies my use of it: “Saturation of arterial blood with Oxygen, expressed as a percentage, as measured by Pulse Oximetry.” Further clarification, “Hemoglobin is the protein molecule in red blood cells that carries oxygen from the lungs to the body’s tissues and returns carbon dioxide from the tissues back to the lungs.” Concern for the higher percentage of oxygen in the blood is to help the heart function more efficiently. Blood oxygen levels below 80 percent may affect organ function.

The sun has been in and out today. Temperatures stayed above freezing during the night, melting snow and ice, but no problems here on the Fan. In town, the usual places have water where it ought not to be; seems not to be serious – and will continue not to be if the weather forecast is correct for the rest of the week.
Significant cold has moved to the east coast. Washington D.C.’s famous Cherry blossoms may take a hit. Some were blooming this past week. Ouch!

As I was putting the final touches before publishing the blog, we had a phone call from Jeri Conklin that our Daisy took a 2nd place, in the Open Limited Gun Dog stake for the Irish Setter Club of the Pacific’s field trial in California. There were 13 starters and only one other Brittany in the stake. She ran a wonderful forward race and had a nice clean find. The grass was 3’ high so no pictures in this blog. Her new trainer is going to finish her Master Hunter title, and the next Hunt Test is coming up, with him handling.

While I was still proofing the first entry to WordPress, John made all the ingredients for Nachos. I put mine together while he finished, and then came to check the text and check all the links while he ate his supper.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

New music and new mobility

Monday, Feb 27

For Feb 26 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 1.25. Events: 1 CSR, 7 H, 10 RERA. Time on 5 hrs 35 min with (max = 18 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 82 (spurious, when CPAP stopped), actual low while off CPAP was 84, 14 events <88% with overall avg., 90.5%. Pulse avg. 57.1, low 53.

Last night was a big rush to replace 5-6 songs I sent to the group. I had revised them, but then sent the old versions. Evie found the mistake, so I worked on them last night, made new pdf files, and sent to Evie for a recheck. We’re exceptionally fortunate to have Evie’s help with the scores on music we play.

John fixed supper last night: slow-oven beef roast, baked potato, succotash, and a sliced apple. The photo below shows one of the fruit packing facilities in Quincy WA. Apples are being brought out of Controlled Atmosphere (CA) storage, sorted, boxed, and sent around the US and the World. This is on the way to the vineyard, where John goes.To the left of Starr Ranch is Double Diamond – they have one layer boxes of Honey Crisp apples at 10 pounds for $10. For the largest apples, you get only 9, and some of those weigh about 20 ounces.

We need to get ready to go and leave here by 10:45 this morning, first to Ellensburg for 2 appointments, and then to Yakima for 3 more (2 are at the Yakima Heart Center, one is Costco).

I spent most of my time at home working on the songs to be sent to the music group. We had 6 to correct.

Now tonight I started making the master to take for copying tomorrow, when I go to town for Jazzercise. I’ve made relatively good progress on printing all, but need to organize and write numbers on them.

Tuesday, Feb 28

For Feb 27 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 0.96. Events: 1 CSR, 6 H, 11 RERA. Time on 7 hrs 18 min with (max = 18 L/min). Oximetry: I overrode it before collecting. Nothing to report.

Last minute changes to the masters and I figured out the count of copies I needed to make. I made time to go to Bi-Mart, then off to copy sheet music for the March/April program for Kittitas Valley Fiddlers & Friends, get to Jazzercise, and other Tuesday things.

I kind of lost this day from a headache all day and night.

I did manage to get the copies done for the music group and to go to Jazzercise class. We only had three people there today.

Wednesday, Mar 1

For Feb 28 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 2.22. Events: 2 CSR, 1 OA, 16 H, 18 RERA. Time on 7 hrs 40 min with (max = 20 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 88, 0 events <88% with overall avg., 92.8%. Pulse avg. 54.7, low 50.

I picked up Gloria and we attended music and lunch at the F.I.S.H. Food Bank & SAIL exercise at the AAC. Whenever we (John & Nancy) visit the Food Bank (I’m playing during lunch so am there once each week), there are goods going or coming, with mostly volunteers doing the work. This week was a “Food Bank” awareness time – big article in the local paper. They had more apples today than they could use for the registered clients so I came home with about 15 pounds of mixed varieties.

Afterwards we came home via Grocery Outlet for things both of us needed. Gloria gave me 2 dozen chocolate chip cookies she made. First thing we did when I got home was snack on a few direct from the microwave oven – warm is best. I was only home a short while, when I went back to the music building for a presentation I had heard about from Gerard Hogan (long time acquaintance from CWU Library).

I took my old camera and made some videos for the evening. The most intriguing was a trombone solo backing up a riveting video.

TROMBONE .. played by John S. Neurohr

The music is a composition, “I Was Like Wow” written in 2006 by Jacob TV, born in 1951, as Jacob Ter Veldhuis, the composer. This contains comments about the Iraqi war from more than one person in a background video during the trombone solo.

Thursday, Mar 2

For Mar 1 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 3.23. Events: 3 CSR, 18 H, 12 RERA. Time on 5 hrs 34 min with (max = 19 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 89, 0 events <88% with overall avg., 94.3%. Pulse avg. 53.9, low 50.

I got up early and stayed up because this is “music day” and I had many things to do.
My afternoon started in town at the Rehab, where I visited 2 residents and then went to give out music to those needing it and to help set up. We had a good bunch of players and did fairly well on our first time through the much-changed old music and several brand new ones for our group. Because March includes St. Patrick’s Day, we have Irish tunes included that we only play in spring.

I left there for a talk at CWU – a lecture by a candidate to fill a geography position, mostly Urban and Regional/primarily Rural Planning (Jackson County Oregon) topics in the talk, with some introduction to Agri-Business in Wisconsin. I didn’t get home until dark. Another candidate speaks this coming Monday and Thursday at 4:00 in the afternoon. I know I’m retired, but I’m still interested in the department and wish for its success.

Friday, Mar 3

For Mar 2 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 1.82. Events: 5 CSR, 1 CA, 15 H, 26 RERA. Time on 8 hrs 42 min with (max = 19 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 89, 0 events <88% with overall avg., 93.5.x%. Pulse avg. 55.2, low 50.

We delivered two filing cabinets – bottom/left corner of image –including a boxed one (from a Bi-Mart sale about 15 years ago) and the green one the box is leaning against.

Cari sent the “Thank you” (other photos) with 2 of her children, Kimber and Kiegen, who helped her assemble the 2-drawer Oak filing cabinet. It is behind the children and, also, to the far right of the collage. The grayish plastic filing cabinets (under orange arrow, center) will be brought here when empty. We, or someone, may think of a new use for them. Part of an old 4-drawer (in disrepair) green wood cabinet shows in the photo. Neither of us remembers where that one came from. Hope she can rehabilitate it and make it feel its got a new life. She has a friend with whom to share it.

John went with me to the National Anthem Day Party and I dressed in my flag jacket and red/white/blue pants. Those pants are navy blue with a white and red stripe down the side of each leg.

We had a carbohydrate meal (southern style macaroni & cheese with several cheeses), salads and bread. (It was a potluck; and I took 3 garlic bread loaves and another open-face pizza loaf which they heated there to save me the effort and to have it hot). Two tables of food donated by the attendees. This I took before more food arrived and before the main dish and salad were on the end of the left table. You can see that below.Erica serves Mac & Cheese, Alice serves salad, John grabs a brownie & cookie for dessert, with one of 3 tables showing behind him; some individual pizzas arrived on the main table as well as more cookies with the desserts. The plate on the right is colorful.

After lunch, we had a fun trivia game with facts and questions about the Flag, about the National Anthem, and about America. As a group, we flunked. Remedial learning was suggested.

I also took photos to share on Facebook on the Ellensburg Adult Activity Center site, and we paid the yearly dues for John because I keep dragging him to more of the events.

From there, John and I went to the Dollar Tree in Yakima for two Irish green hats for us, and from there to Stewart Subaru to pick up John’s new (used) 2016 Crosstrek Subaru, with 11067 miles, one of the dealership’s “loaners” or Customer Courtesy Cars. This one had been used by CWU administrators or coaches for much of its mileage, as part of Subaru’s “Love Promise” program. The non-working radio had been replaced with a new one, and we paid for an engine block heater. We like to have one vehicle with a block heater and the 2009 Outback (traded in) was that car. On the way home, we realized the heater was not blowing hot air, and the steering had a slight cant to the right. The probable heater failure cause is a valve that is not releasing the hot water to the right place after the engine warms up. Last Monday (Presidents’ Day), we chose the Crosstrek over the Impreza because of the higher clearance, for our snowy driveway and occasionally the roads. We test drove both, but decided the “ride” was also nicer on the Crosstrek.

About 6:00 p.m., I asked John to take my photo while I still had on my flag “costume.”I’m holding a celebratory bottle of White Heron Roussanne [<-- link, click] wine in both photos. Our Brittany is named Cedaridge Vintage Roussanne (call name Annie). The one on the right shows the resident deer watching the goings on.

Saturday, Mar 4

For Mar 3 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 1.32. Events: 1 CSR, 10 H, 24 RERA. Time on 7 hrs 36 min with (max = 18 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 74 spurious changing fingers on oximeter, actual low, 87, 1 events <88% with overall avg., 92.5%. Pulse avg. 55.9, low 50.

I used the sunny weather to take photos of John with his new car.John’s celebration of bringing home a 2016 Subaru Crosstrek. Subaru calls ones with a hatch for the cargo space a “5-door.” The Crosstrek is smaller than the Outback and Forester, gets slightly better mpg of gasoline, and is less pricey. The “sky blue” color is officially named Hyper Blue Pearl. Their Impreza comes in a similar color called Island Blue Pearl, but we think you would have to park them side-by-side to see the difference. I wanted to take this photo to show the snow (March 4th) and blue sky that matches the car’s fancily named color. The bucket hat’s color is similar and the jeans are – as usual – dirty.

We checked out the heater’s hot air again, and it is not working. John is leaving this afternoon to take the Crosstrek for an evaluation by the mechanics at Stewart Subaru. And, they will also look at the steering pulling to the right problem we noticed on our return trip on level roads. The Sales Manager (also a John F.) confirmed the heater was not functioning, so gave John a 2017 Impreza, with lots of fancy gizmos, to drive home. The steering issue could be one or more of many things.
If you care, click here.

For supper, we will have crock-pot (tender) pork and rice and sliced apple. Key Lime pie with strawberries is on the menu for dessert.

Sunday, Mar 5

For Mar 5 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 0.52. Events: 4 H, 11 RERA. Time on 7 hrs 43 min with (max = 14 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 76 (spurious, turning off CPAP), actual low was 88, 0 events <88% with overall avg., 92.4%. Pulse avg. 55.6, low 50.

During the night we got about 3 inches of snow. It is melting from the concrete, wood posts, trees, and such things, but generally just incorporating itself into the 18 inches on the ground.
Nothing on tap today, except to put out the blog, and continue with projects.

This morning I sent a sympathy letter to friends in Yakima. Father & husband (Steven Brazeau) passed across the rainbow bridge Tuesday this week at a young age, 64. Daughter Sara was one of John’s favorite students many years ago (and Nancy’s too). The family grew various fruits in Naches, Steve made wine, and we got to know them all.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Music, birds, snow

Monday, Feb 20 President’s Day

For Feb 19 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 2.96. Events: 3 CSR, 1 OA, 17 H, 20 RERA. Time on 7 hrs 19 min with (max = 19 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 88, 0 events <88% with overall avg., 93.0%. Pulse avg. 53.5 , low 50.

We are going to Yakima today to visit Costco and the Subaru dealer.

I’m in the process of trying to get through electronic submission of a letter of recommendation (LOR) to the National Taiwan University through their computer application process. It is not working well. Says it accepts it, but then doesn’t record that it has. The potential student cannot submit his application until all the LORs are in the system.

We were gone a long time today, leaving in snow this morning, experiencing rain, then sun, and arriving home after the sunset (which we enjoyed on the way home – through the car window).
John was driving and I took this looking southwest, across in front of him.

Tuesday, Feb 21

For Feb 20 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 1.97. Events: 1 CSR, 13 H, 16 RERA. Time on 6 hrs 37 min with (max = 13 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 88, 0 events <88% with overall avg., 93.0%. Pulse avg. 52.9, low 50.

I got up in time to take my Amoxicillin at 8:30 for the dentist visit. John is such a sweetie, not only feeding the outside animals, but me too, so I didn’t have to take the antibiotics on an empty stomach. My trip to the dentist was not pleasant today.

I carried my laptop computer to town with me because of sections of time existing between events, when I could work on projects.

From the dental office, I called the AAC about lunch, made a reservation, and went after the dental appointment for tuna casserole, with fruit. I stayed there working on music in the computer room, but with my own laptop, so I had access to the Internet to check email. About 1:00, I left for the F.I.S.H. food bank to pick up some paperwork, and then made a couple other stops before returning to the AAC for Jazzercise. I nearly got hit by a guy running a stop sign from Pearl across Manitoba, on which I was traveling east. Good thing my reflexes are rapid. I did not have a stop sign, and a person across from the guy had stopped at his stop sign. Perhaps the guy thought I had a stop sign, but I didn’t. I slammed on my brakes as he pulled out in front of me. After Jazzercise I drove home, and then was suffering from pain from my dental trip. I expected my gums to ache, having not been used for many years on the left side bottom where the implant closest to the front of my mouth was covered with a crown over the abutment. No one planned for the back tooth’s crown not to fit. They are going to send it back to the lab to see if it can be reformed to fit. So, that meant another round of impressions for the bite. I will be getting a copy of the X-ray so I can show John what went wrong and why it didn’t fit.

Now I just have to hope this solution works, because the alternative is to go back to the oral surgeon and have him remove some of the bone graft in the back of my mouth. I’m certainly praying that doesn’t happen. I don’t really have any desire to go through dental gum / jaw surgery (as required for implants) ever again in my life. I’ll go without a tooth before that happens. (Yet, I doubt I will have the option to leave the abutment from the implant there, without a top). Don’t know why not. That’s what I have now. Finally my pain stopped. I haven’t had a tooth in there in awhile so I’m occasionally biting my tongue, (maybe it is my cheek), if not careful. The second-worst pain from the 2 hours at the dentist was my neck. I think it was because of tensing up, and the way I was sitting in the chair. I had some Percoset on hand, so I took one before bedtime. I still awoke during the night and in the morning with a pain in my neck. I took more Oxycodone to make it through Wednesday’s activities.

I’ll end with the good news of the day. My co-owned Brittany (with Jeri Conklin), in California, Cedaridge Kip’s Camelot Shay Tre’ JH (Daisy), has been in Los Banos, with a new trainer, Scott. She had quit retrieving, but Jeri got her over that, to be retrieving to hand, before taking her for an evaluation. She has continued retrieving to Scott and running well for him in the field. Last week, she had a good run, without birds. This week is a picture from training of her on point, with a followed retrieve to hand. We are happy she is back with the program.

Wednesday, Feb 22

For Feb 21 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI=1.74. Events: 12 H, 16 RERA. Time on 6 hrs 54 min with (max = 21 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 88, 0 events <88% with overall avg., 92.3%. Pulse avg. 54.1, low 49.

I am hurting from my dental experience yesterday.

Spent most of the morning finalizing the downloaded form to accompany the letter of recommendation for Brian Scanlon to a Master’s Program in Geography at the National Taiwan University.

I also picked up my friend Gloria, took her along with me to the Food Bank, played music, she sang with us, we ate, visited folks at our table, and then we went to our SAIL exercise class. Afterwards, I stopped for canned beef bits cat food for our one furry fussy feral cat, Woody.

Thursday, Feb 23

For Feb 22 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 2.85. Events: 2 CSR, 18 H, 16 RERA. Time on 6 hrs 19 min with (max = 19 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 86, 2 events <88% with overall avg., 92.6%. Pulse avg. 53.9, low 50.

I had to redo and reissue electronically my letter to Taiwan and work on bill payments.

Our music group played at Hearthstone today to a large and happy group.

John and I went to the annual meeting and dinner for the Kittitas County Conservation District. We enjoyed a nice evening with an excellent meal of tri tip, chicken, salad, veggies, roll, and dessert to celebrate the 75th year of the Kittitas County Conservation District. Anna Lael presented an historical PowerPoint. John worked there as a volunteer for the Plant Sale and handled thousands of native trees and shrubs and I supervised interns there for years from the late 1990s. We enjoyed visiting with employees and with a “retired to farming” one John and I both worked a lot with during her sojourn there. We also visited with others (new and old acquaintances).

Friday, Feb 24

For Feb 23 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 2.85. Events: 4 CSR, 20 H, 30 RERA. Time on 7 hrs 0 min with (max = 16 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 86, 5 events <88% with overall avg., 91.9%. Pulse avg. 54.8, low 50.

I contacted the hospital and my primary care physician’s office to see if the data from my blood draw yesterday had been reported. I received my INR (1.7, a little low). My joke with the nurse, when it’s low, is that I can have a glass of wine with dinner. Alcohol raises it. I went by the hospital and filled out a form to allow me to get all my results for now and through the next year. I will have the lab results from yesterday to take with me Monday morning to the cardiologist, in case they did not make it, or for me to check myself in advance of my appointment, particularly my potassium, which can be affected by the new medication. I did not realize until alerted this morning (phone call), that I am scheduled for a device check (on my defibrillator) before seeing my cardiologist.

I went to the Scholarship luncheon for a short time and on to the AAC for Bingo. I won a pink shopping bag from Knudson’s Lumber, my 4th gift they donated that I have won. Now I will go by and thank them for it. My normal procedure is to wear the clothing (or carry the bag in this case), go by the store, and thank them for their donation to community events.

Then I left for the gym across from my bank to pick up boxes for a gal I know to use for her sister for moving. I loaded the back of my car and then dropped them off on my way home. The family is visually impaired without transportation for such needs.

I came home to work more on music.

Saturday, Feb 25

For Feb 24 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 2.55. Events: 2 CSR, 19 H, 18 RERA. Time on 8 hrs 31 min with (max = 19 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 45 spurious (stopped 3:15 a.m.), actual low, 87, 3 events <88% with overall avg., 92.9%. Pulse avg. 53.6, low 48.

This morning we saw our first red-winged blackbirds of the season in our tree and feeder (two males). Our neighbor Ken saw them over a week ago. He claims to have heard the arrival of Redwings means spring is near. We missed that tale. This is not one of my best photos, but it gives you the idea. There is both red and yellow on the male’s wings. The female doesn’t have those markings at all – and is a brown one. I should add a photo from my friend Elise in N. Jersey, who captured a picture of a pair (not usually seen together). Because we are in the final throes of this publication, I’ll just refer you to the web [Link; scroll down to Adult Female – click] to see how a female is marked.Today, I went to the senior violin recital for Laina Brown at noon. She has been playing with our group at assisted-living homes. She is a student at CWU and the teacher of our other latest joining violinist, Evie Scheutz. Below is the invitation she handed everyone in the group when we played two weeks ago at the Meadows Place here in town. At the end of our group’s playing, she performed a solo of a complicated piece of music that will be in part of her recital (it is the second song below, captured on video). Listen for the “harmonics” (a very high pitched octave above the string it’s played on by barely touching the string). The residents and we were excited by her sharing her talents.Laina’s invitation and her performance program today. Dr. Duane Funderburk was her pianist. I’m in the process of contacting him to find out if he is kin to the Geography professor at Central almost 50 years ago, Dr. Robert S. Funderburk.

Feb 25, 2017 Senior Recital CWU, These links are to two songs she played from memory (rather than reading the music on a stand), and this occurred in the middle of her performance.

Laina Brown #1

Laina’s 2nd Song

At the end of her senior recital, here she is with her hubby, Matt.Matt and Laina Brown, 2-25-17

I came home to a note from Jeri about Daisy’s run today: “ Was doing great, nice forward run and then she ran up a hill to a pile of rocks, jumped on the rocks, a covey flushed in her face, and the temptation got to her 🙂 – she chased off the rocks, Scott called “Whoa”, she skidded to a stop, and watched the rest fly away. So oh well, it was fun to watch while it lasted. She is really looking good.
She has two more trials this season, one a Brittany trial and the other a GWP one. She will be competing in Open Gun Dog and Open Limited Gun Dog. We have our fingers crossed.

We enjoyed an hour-long conversation with John’s sister, Peggy Hultquist, in Parma. She called us on her cell phone.

Sunday, Feb 26

For Feb 25 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 5.10. Events: 1 CSR, 24 H, 6 RERA. Time on 4 hrs 42 min with (max = 16 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 74 spurious, actual low, 88, 3 events <88% with overall avg., 92.3%. Pulse avg. 54.5, low 47. Awoke to snow and birds at the feeder, and the Ringneck Rooster has appeared, too. Birds are mostly Finches, with a Junco occasionally. A few weeks ago the Juncos came (first), but seemed to have moved on.

Little birds in the snow

Whoopee! I finished emailing the music for March and April out to the group, so that those who can print their own will, and save me the Xeroxing costs. Now, however, I have to organize the master copy to take Tuesday for copying. We are adding 7 songs that have to be added to the existing copies of the music from last year. If anyone wants scores of our songs that I have produced, and you are not already on my distribution list, just let me know, and I will forward on email to you. Much of this playlist is Irish.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Activities Mixed with Snow and Ice

Monday, Feb 13

For Feb 12 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 4.42. Events: 7 CSR, 1 CA, 33 H, 14 RERA. Time on 7 hrs 42 min with (max = 23 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 87, 2 events <88% with overall avg., 93,2%. Pulse avg. 51.8, low 50.

I need to fix the card to send to Dr. Sharma. I’m going to put Charlie’s picture playing guitar in our group, mine with violin at Veteran’s Day by flag at AAC, and mine with Ted Leber and Santa Claus at the AAC, with a thank you for performing our open heart surgeries and wishing him well on recovery from his own.

I went by the Food Bank to register for a PIN to put in my hours volunteering and then to SAIL exercise. I stopped off for ice cream at Grocery Outlet and back by Gloria Swanson’s house to pick up some chocolate chip cookies she made for us from the chocolate chips we gave her. I was excited because we can take them tomorrow to the Emeriti Geographers’ meeting. It meant she saved us the effort of making cookies tonight, to be ready to leave at 8:20 in the morning.

Wow, again, another license tab due for the Ford 2003 truck, and it will cost $106. Whatever happened to the state legislature’s decision to keep it at $45 (after our statewide vote)? At least we don’t live in South Puget Sound where people are being shell (sticker)-shocked by the tab prices in a county where they place the cost on the value of the car. One man with a Tesla paid $500 last year and $1500 this. This was voted in to support a transit system.

Tuesday, Feb 14

For Feb 13 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 3.65. Events: 4 CSR, 27 H, 18 RERA. Time on 7 hrs 24 min with (max = 18 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 89, 0 events <88% with overall avg., 93.2%. Pulse avg. 52.0, low 50.

EMERITI Geography prof’s meeting. We had a nice group with several folks there. We filled the two hours without a speaker. Lots of information to share. John and I drove in separate cars, so he could return home to deal with all the snow and ice problems. The temperature when we left was 19 and when we got to town, it was 9. That’s the problem of living “down in the valley” where the cold air drains. The area was in fog and the frozen fog on the trees was actually quite pretty on the drive in, but my camera was not in the front seat, or I would have taken a photo at the stop sign, where I entered the Kittitas highway. The sun was barely peeking through the fog, and the ice on the trees was striking. Farther down the road, the willows were spectacular. At least the roadways were mostly cleared of ice and compact snow.

After the meeting at Hearthstone (where two of our Geographers live with their wives), I stopped by Bi-Mart to check our number, but we didn’t win anything.

I continued to the AAC for a special lunch (turkey meatloaf, veggies, mashed potatoes, peaches, and milk). A lovely large Valentine’s Day cake was brought in for us by a representative of Pacifica Senior Living, Lise McGowan. We actually had a piece of cake prior to the meal. That’s a great way to start dinner with dessert. After dinner, we had a presentation by the Barbershop Quartet choir.

Here is the best song of their performance of several songs:

Let Me Call You Sweetheart

On the Community Connect Kittitas County Facebook site, I put a help request for volunteer help with ice removal for a woman I met at the Senior Center today (at my lunch table) who walks a couple of blocks there daily, using her walker, because she has no car. She could not open her gate all the way to get through with her walker and has had to disassemble it to put through in pieces. The gate is blocked by ice from opening far enough to let her push through. Her walkway is snow-covered and icy too, but she is more concerned about getting the gate opened wide enough. I tried calling CWU’s Center for Leadership and Community Engagement, after reading (in the Daily Record newspaper) about the snow and ice removal project they did last Saturday. It was the only one this year. See below for the awesome response to my request and the final results.

I carried my laptop with me to the AAC because I needed to stay there until 2:00 for Jazzercise. It worked well, and I got a lot accomplished on our music for the next 2 months, using space in the computer room at the center. There is one counter edge where there is no desktop computer setup. They have WIFI available so I could use my own computer to check email as well. The music software is on my laptop and I cannot access it from the public computers at the center – hence my need to take it.

We only had 3 people at Jazzercise, but we got a good workout.

Wednesday, Feb 15

For Feb 14 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 1.84. Events: 1 CSR, 10 H, 2 OA, 18 RERA. Time on x hrs 32 min with (max = 22 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 85, 8 events <88% with overall avg., 92.2%. Pulse avg. 52.5, low 47.

Below is the culmination collage of the photos I took over 3 days of the icy & snow-covered walkway to the house, and the frozen partially-open gate. The people who helped were Laci Harrison, who went by a little after the first photos were taken and put down a lot of rock salt. The rock salt was donated by Grace Mackenzie. Meanwhile, Eric Jackson, my former student, went by with a shovel. He managed to remove some ice and get the gate opened a little more so that she could get through. He went back a day later to complete the walkway and put in drain in to get rid of the melted ice and opened the gate even farther. Upper left shows gate & walkway before and after, on 2/15 and 2/16. Lower left shows the gate entrance only, on the same 2 days. Right photo shows the whole picture on Friday, 2/17 with cleared walkway, cleared stairs, opened gate, and drain to the street.

We went to town for the last in the series of Nick Zentner’s downtown lectures, this one was on Mt. Rainier issues from past and future prospects.

Nick Zentner Mt Rainier’s Osceola Mudflow Intro

Nick Zentner Mt Rainier’s Osceola Mudflow-Visuals

My videos were taken from the very close-to-the-stage front row, and the follow-up professional one from the back of the room will appear in a couple of weeks. When all four are out there, I will provide the links. They will be put on CWU’s website via YouTube, and accessible there.

Thursday, Feb 16

For Feb 15 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 4.79. Events: 4 CSR, 23 H, 12 RERA. Time on 4 hrs 48 min with (max = 19 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 84 (off CPAP), 5 events <88% with overall avg., 91.6%. Pulse avg. 53.5, low 50.

John left a little before 8:00 a.m. for White Heron Cellars and his first day of wine grapevine pruning in their Mariposa vineyard. Their work was in overcast, at first, and then the sun came out. Three fellows (Tom, Mark, & John) volunteered help pruning for 3 hours alongside the Vigneron, Cameron Fries. First time for pruning in snow. John thinks they are 3 to 4 weeks early.

I finalized the videos I took last night and sent to a few folks.

Mostly, I worked a lot more on music and plans for the number of chairs today. Three people originally planning to come are unable, so I had to recall in the number of chairs we need brought to the dining room at Pacifica Senior Living home.

It has started raining again. I hope the driveway is not too sloppy for me to maneuver out. I left a little earlier than normal, to be sure I got out the drive, and also to get to Pacifica to meet the new activities director, Terri, to explain what we need for our group. We ended up with 4 guitars, 1 harmonica, 1 violin, 1 flute, 1 singer, 1 tambourine, and 1 dancer (the ~4 year old).

I also need to write a letter of recommendation for a Masters program in Geography at a school in Taiwan. He has learned Mandarin Chinese, married a gal from S. Korea, and wants to continue his love of geography. He is my former student at CWU, Brian Scanlon, who also received a B.S. in Economics, and a B.A. in Public Policy.

John made it home before 2:00 and cleaned the ice off our back patio. I wish I had a before and after photo of that. He is moving snow from several places, as it softens, so places dry out instead of getting muddy. Some snow blew in, and some water ran into where I park the Forester. That is now cleaned out and starting to dry out. The drive slopes down into that space – another design feature failure. When spring has sprung, John wants to clean the entire place out and spread a ton or several tons of gravel there and bring it up a few inches. Then he will park his car on the other side of the 3-sided building.

Friday, Feb 17

For Feb 16 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 1.14 Events: 4H, 10 RERA. Time on 4 hrs 24 min with (max = 23 L/min). I neglected to run Oximetry on my report of SpO2 Review, and once it is recorded, the previous night’s erased.

I called about my Delta Dental Insurance issues with getting on their site for checking my payments and their coverage. Next week, I’m going to have the crowns put on the implants, so I’ll be able to chew on the left side of my mouth. I haven’t been able to use it for over six months. Unfortunately, my dental reimbursement costs are limited to $1,750/yr and I will almost have reached that in the first 2 months of this year. That means we will have to pay for our cleanings or any other things that may happen this year. Oh, well, I based my decision upon the desire to have the whole job completed so I could continue life with a full set of teeth.

We left for town to drop off some party bread by Briarwood for use there tomorrow to feed us little sandwiches, to eat with soup, or to give away. They made a plate of open chicken salad sandwiches you can see below in the collage. John and I were on our way to the Health Forum at the Ellensburg Adult Activity Center, with speaker, Tim Roth, nurse from the Kittitas County Public Health Department. I have known Tim for at least 15 years through music in the community with The Connections. His talk was very well presented, and I took a video of his presentation on my old camera. He was the one who administered my Shingles shot a couple of weeks ago.

Tim Roth talks to us old folks – 24 minutes

He was the speaker during a healthy lunch (Vegetable Enchiladas with sour cream and guacamole, Spanish rice, cilantro on the side, salad with iceberg lettuce and red cabbage) served to us by Lauren, and fixed there by Erica, Megan, Alice, and Lauren.

Below is a collage of some of the pictures I took. You can see the remainder of them next week, after the holiday Monday, by looking at facebook.com for “Ellensburg Adult Activity Center.”Here we are at the forum. Tim Roth, is at the lower right with Pat married to Richard, who is in another picture I took, middle bottom photo is Kathy Grapes, Ada Perry (mom of one of my students from long ago, whose 90th birthday party Gloria & I attended with Sandra), Sandra Zech, and Dee Grapes, top middle is the meal we were served, and top right is John with Carla Kaatz. I taught for years with her husband Marty. He has passed across the rainbow bridge. We are planning to celebrate her 90th birthday in an April party that her family is holding in her honor.

On our way home, I took the 3rd day photo of all the work on the lady’s walkway and gate that was iced up. It’s explained and shown in a collage above on Wednesday.

I had a request from Evelyn to lower the keys on a few of the songs we do at the Food Bank. I’m working on that, along with the music for March and April for the Fiddlers & Friends.

Saturday, Feb 18

For Feb 17 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 2.76. Events: 6 CSR, 20 H, 17 RERA. Time on 7 hrs 15 min with (max = 17 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 82, 19 events <88% with overall avg., 92.4%. Pulse avg. 52.6, low 50.

Today at Briarwood was our monthly play date. I picked up Gloria and took her along. She gave me a dozen+ of her great chocolate chip cookies for John and me to enjoy. We had a lovely time with many folks in attendance from Briarwood, and much great food we enjoyed – soup, salads, sandwiches, and desserts.
We had 3 guitars, a violin, a harmonica, a tambourine, and a singer, plus a “choir” of many in the audience singing along on the 22 songs of the day.

Here’s a collage of the offerings and cooks below:Deidra & Lee (Lee is the main organizer of our events each month, and usually makes the soup, salads, and desserts). This month she had help on making the soup from Jo Ellen (middle). The right shot is the main buffet, and the desserts were on the counter with the soup in front of the gals on the left. Several different things are prepared and donated by the residents who come to enjoy our music and the meal. The timing of this interferes with both lunch and supper of a normal schedule. John comes along about twice each year, but the rest of the times he has to adjust meals at home to accommodate my eating at Briarwood at 3 PM.

Sunday, Feb 19

For Feb 18 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 1.66. Events: 1 CSR, 1 CA, 11 H, 12 RERA. Time on 7 hrs 14 min with (max = 23 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 85 (may have been spurious when battery charge quit working), the only 1 event <88% with overall avg., 93.3%. Pulse avg. 53.5, low 50.

John is checking the snow between the house and the shed, which fills up the space between the two buildings, when it slides off the metal roof (another poor planning issue of our home).

Deer now know where the dry cat food has been on the front entrance, so to keep them away we had a wooden pallet leaned there. That worked for a day or two. They learned to move the pallet – shown on left, below. Left is from > a week ago. Then missing are the 5-gallon bucket filled with gravel on this side and snow shovel and push broom to keep the deer from reaching under and eating the cat food. Right is the new framed structure, but still needs another piece or two, on the sides. With the bucket of gravel and shovel gone, they still could reach in and mess with the container. Not as much food was missing as previously has been. We want only the four cats and not the deer or the dog to be able to get in there. John is waiting for a nice day to hunt for a board, cut it, and nail pieces in place.

John has been moving ice and snow a little each day, feeding livestock, birds, and starting trucks. The newer truck has more gizmos that drain the battery, so he has it on a trickle charger now. The sun has come out and it quit snowing. Interesting weather. Sort of normal for here. Other places are getting less-normal stuff. Some you know about, but look what the National Weather Services reported today for our friends in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.Actual temperature was about 40°F.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Our weather is “normal”

Monday, Feb 6

For Feb 5 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 2.02. Events: 2 CSR, 4 H, 15 RERA. Time on 6 hrs 57 min with (max = 19 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 87, 2 events <88% with overall avg., 92.1%. Pulse avg. 55.5, low 51.

Last night late, I sent the photos to AAC from Friday. John sent me a note to Nick Zentner about the fossil bowl in Clarkia that I need to coordinate with Bill Rember, a geologist and friend from Idaho. He now lives near Fernwood, ID and Emerald Creek on a fossil site of his own. He gives educational tours.

We received at least 8″ of snow overnight, and John started shoveling before 8:00 a.m. on the paths front and back. He worked for 2 hours, came back in for breakfast, and went back outside. Our wonderful neighbor, Allen Aronica, arrived to clear our driveway. I am sure we would not have been able to get out (either of the trucks would), but the cars are lower. We were fortunate nothing was planned and calling us out. At a cousin’s, Allen got his tractor bogged in an off-road hole and had to bring a tracked backhoe to get himself out. He then did a few more driveways and packed for a trip to Arizona.

My car was parked out of the shed because of all the melted snow in my parking space. We did not want the ice to freeze on my tires, but that meant with all the snow overnight, John had a big cleaning job.John early cleaning snow from my rig, about 9:00 a.m.

Forester being de-snowed

This below is my rig being moved back at 11:45, and Allen leaving with the second swipe of cleaning the driveway.

Back to its lair

GOOD NEWS. I had a robot call from Super 1 pharmacy that my prescription was in. I called the pharmacy and asked if it was the Entresto and it was. So, I asked the co-pay cost – if it was the $40 Group Health was going to charge me. I asked if they had run my co-pay from Novartis and they said they did not have the card, but only the one for the free 30-day supply they had sent in. I had given them all numbers for both the free month and the continuing, over a month ago, but I guess it was not loaded in the system, so I called Boston for the proper numbers needed to obtain it.
The pharmacy assistant was going to call me back either way. She ran it and my co-pay is only $10/month for a very expensive drug. I am so happy I went through all the paperwork to apply, got help from my cardiologist’s office (who had to FAX 17 pages of medical information on me to qualify). It is almost a month since I was put on this new drug (Jan 12) and the paperwork trail started. What an awesome feeling. I am writing my cardiologist’s nurse, Colleen, right now to give her the good news and encourage others who might need the drug to go through the process to save the $400-500 / month cost. The only condition is that a person must have a supplemental “commercial” insurance provider (such as I do, with Group Health). Medicare is my primary, and that will not work, nor will it work for people on Medicaid. The pharmaceutical company making the drug is the one offering the co-pay reduction. Did I say – I am quite happy. The previous drug I was on was a generic and still cost me over $70 in cash through GoodRx. It was more than double the cost by going through my regular pharmacy with the formulary used for the co-pay (that was for Telemisartan/ Micardis). Doctors, nurses, and technology = good. System = nuts.

I worked more on our music and finished a draft copy of Johnny Cash’s “Forty Shades of Green” to send to Evie for review. It’s to add to the playlist of Irish songs for March and April.

John’s got a lot of snow moved but is looking for a snowblower sale at the end of this season. We at leftovers for lunch and put a chunk of beef in the Crockpot.

Medical news: Dr. Paul M. Schmitt has been our doctor since 1988. He’s been wanting to retire but the rural community clinic is not high priority for many doctors. Now a new doctor is coming and Paul hopes to stop seeing patients early in May. John will have one last visit on May 1.
The new guy:Our new primary care physician, Dr. Norman Wood, D.O. That is a different form of a Medical Doctor, which appears on the web to be similar, but without specialization, rather being concerned with the whole body’s skeleton and relationships to organs, nerves, muscles, the whole picture merged with attitude and activities of the person (my translation). If you search on Doctor of Osteopathy, you can find a lot of information. Here is part of the introduction we received from the Clinic (now a unit of the local hospital).

Dr Wood has an interesting and varied background. He received a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and worked in law enforcement for over ten years, including six years as a special agent for the U.S. Customs Service. He then returned to school to study Medicine at Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine, he became the 15th member of his family to become a physician. His oldest son, Matthew, is the 16th.

We are confident that Dr Wood will be a wonderful addition to our team. He has practiced primary care medicine since 1995 and enjoys taking care of entire families. He owned four medical clinics in Maryland and West Virginia before moving to Washington in 2013. Since moving to Washington, he has worked with the Veteran’s Administration and in urgent care.

Outside of his medical career, Dr Wood is an avid bow hunter and enjoys fishing for trout.

In early 2017, Dr Wood will work closely with Dr Schmitt as Dr Schmitt transitions into retirement after 40 years of practicing medicine!

Tuesday, Feb 7

For Feb 6 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 1.74. Events: 1 CA, 14 H, 3 PP, 25 RERA. Time on 8 hrs 37 min with (max = 21 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low was 89, no events <88% with overall avg., 93.2%. Pulse avg. 53.8.x, low 47.

Jazzercise went well today, with 5 of us there.

I went to my 3:30 appointment for a Shingles shot at 507 Nanum St at the Kittitas County Public Health Dept.

Report on the Shingles Shot, $23 for administrative costs. I was seen by Tim Roth (who will be the speaker next Friday 2/17, at the Ellensburg Adult Activity Center (AAC) at the Health Forum). He has been my friend for a long time, through music at assisted living homes and later when he was a nurse at Royal Vista. It was neat that he was the nurse (the only one to do injections there) to administer my shot. I started with filling in the form asking for my name, location, phone numbers, primary care doctor, and I answered some questions about my medical records. I asked what the $23 administrative costs charge covered. The gals at the front check-in desk said it was for processing the papers with the state, and to cover the time of the medical nurse to interview and administer the shot. He spent 15 minutes with me going over the meaning of the shot, the cause of Shingles, the expectations of the shot, and went through questions of medications I should not be taking to have the shot. He asked my allergies or reactions to any injections, or meds, and a number of other questions about my medical history. He mentioned about its being a Herpes-related virus, about possible reactions to the shot, and what to expect and what not to do and what to do to exercise the arm after the shot. It is not given in the muscle and it is a live vaccine, so that is why the allergy questions are asked. One with a weakened immune system, say from chemo or radiation, should not have the injection. Or, not if a person has been on a prolonged use of steroids, or is allergic to gelatin, or to the antibiotic, Neomycin. The latter two are included in the injection.

Wednesday, Feb 8

For Feb 7 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 1.17. Events: 2 CSR, 9 H, 12 RERA. Time on 7 hrs 41 min with (max = 20 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 86, 2 events <88% with overall avg., 92.5%. Pulse avg. 57.8, low 49.

I braved the snow and drove to pick up Gloria, and we went to the Food Bank for music and the SAIL exercise class.

I came home tonight, and decided not to go back for tonight’s Nick Zentner lecture. The weather forecast was for nasty stuff – but wrong in the real world. People were in the ditch on my way home. I traveled 20 mph and was stressed (normally, I am okay driving in snow). This all over town was scary, with ice beneath the snow pack and no visibility. I could not get my defrosters to keep up on the front or back windshields.
We are supposed to get a foot of snow (that changed to 2-3″) tonight, and it is coming down hard at 4:00 p.m. I hope I can get out of my driveway tomorrow.

Tonight before we ate dinner (just about 7:00 p.m.), got a call from our neighbor that she had high-centered her car on the deep snow trying to get into her garage. John worked on it for about an hour, but will wait until morning to see about it. She doesn’t have to be to school until 2:00 p.m. so we have a little bit of time.

Thursday, Feb 9

For Feb 8 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 1.27. Events: 8H, 17 RERA. Time on 6 hrs 19 min with (max = 19 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 87, 2 events <88% with overall avg., 92.6%. Pulse avg. 55.0, low 50.

John and another neighbor got the next-door neighbor’s car out. Neighbor Ron brought an old tractor-like thing with a rear blade and got the snow out of the driveway. The car, a newer Honda, has nothing to hook on to for pulling – apparently Hondas are not supposed to be used in snow country. By turning the front tires to the side, they got in behind the tire and found a rod or brace made of steel. The rest of the car seemed to be plastic. As the car moved out of the ice holes (she had spun the tires, all 4, hard) John filled those with gravel. Problem solved.

I’m going to town for music at the Meadows Place. I made it there and cleaned the ice off my wipers. The trip in was still a little sketchy with no pavement showing until I reached the Kittitas Highway. All the roads had been shoveled but the view of the edge was not visible, so one had to slow way down when approaching coming traffic.

On my way out, my trip through the ditches across our driveway hit on the ice in the dead cat space and knocked out a chunk of ice. When I got to town, I kicked out the rest I could. On my return trip, I saw what had come out and veered some to the right, but too much, and did not come far enough forward to miss a pile of snow. Sadly, I stopped and added more work to John’s activities to clean up to allow the car to go forward into the parking shed. I am so sorry after all the shoveling he had done for the neighbor last night and this morning.

Friday, Feb 10

For Feb 9 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 0.93. Events: 2 CSR, 7 H, 17 RERA. Time on 7 hrs 31 min with (max = 19 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 85 10 events <88% with overall avg., 91.1%. Pulse avg. 55.1, low 50.

I left this morning about 9:15 to drive to the Early Childhood Learning Center, on the CWU campus (in Brooklane Village) to meet two others (Evelyn and Bob, friends from the Food Bank group) to present for 15 minutes to the preschool class of her 5-year old granddaughter. There were 8 children there, a teacher and two assistants. Classes are limited to 15, throughout the day, and they have 50 total students. I got there ahead of the others and asked the receptionist a bunch of questions.

Once we were in the classroom, we each described our musical instruments. Evelyn plays a banjo, I the violin, and Bob had his traveling (smaller) guitar and his harmonica. We visited and met each of the kids and learned their first name. We sang two songs at the start. The first one, several of the kids knew and sang along with us, “You are My Sunshine.” The second one they didn’t know, but we played it, as Bob likes to play the harmonica for it. He starts off and we only play our instruments until the second time through, when we sing the words. Then we did the “Alphabet Song” with all the letters to the tune of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” and then we did the actual song (Twinkle, Twinkle). The kids knew that one. After that, Evelyn handed a bag of “shakers” to the teacher, who distributed them to the children. We wanted them to keep time to the music, and they did a good job.

The first song we did sang with them (and they did the gestures as well), was

If you’re happy and you know it 
Clap your hands. Clap, Clap. 
If you’re happy and you know it 
Clap your hands. Clap, Clap.
If you’re happy and you know it 
and you really want to show it 
If you’re happy and you know it 
Clap your hands. Clap, Clap.

Other verses include stomp your feet and shout Hooray! Finally, the last verse has all included. They had much fun with that one.

Finally, we sang, “Old McDonald Had a Farm” and had them keep time to the music again. They did well. We tried to have all the kids pick an animal, and managed to get a few different ones, Cow, Horse, Chicken, Kitty, Pig, Sheep, even a Fox for one little girl named Audrey. I asked her what sound a Fox made, and she sniffed – so that’s what we all did. We had 3 wanting Pig, but we only did it twice. Finally, we ended with Dog.

They all stood up to say thank you and goodbye, and we went on our way. We all had a good time.

Ocean’s dad was there and took a video, but had my old camera in his hand and snapped a few pictures. I forgot to set the focus for him, so they are not in good focus, but you can get the idea.Evelyn and I listening to the children introducing themselves.

Bob, Evelyn, and I playing Oh! Susanna. I was wearing my Washington Old Time fiddlers hat.

It was sleeting when we came out, but the fog had cleared. When I left home the skies were blue, sun was shining, and everything was melting. I drove a little over 4 miles and ran into thick fog, so much that I had to turn on my headlights. I was in thick fog for the rest of my trip.

After we left the school, I needed gasoline and stopped. It was still sleeting. I remembered to use my Discover card, which is giving a 5% rebate on gasoline purchases for Jan-Mar. Our CITI Visa card gives 4% year-round. So my per gallon reduction was $.12/gal, making my cost $2.30/gal. We had only paid $2.29 I think the last time at Costco, where we get 4% off.

I left there for the feed store, where I got 50# of Critter 14 for the deer. They seem to be in need of food with all the ice and snow covering everything. We have given them two deer blocks they are also working on, when they are not checking the horse hay for seed heads.

From there I went to the Food Bank. Neither of the other two musicians could go, but I have friends from the horse club we were members of for 20 years, who always cook on Fridays there, so I went alone. I saw the director, Brooke, on my way in, and she was so appreciative I had come by. I set myself up and played for 20 minutes, until one of the regulars (Michael) came in for his meal, said to me, but it is not Wednesday, and I said I know, but I was in town with my fiddle, so I thought I would come by. He came over and stood behind me and sang with me the last song, “Your Cheating Heart.” We had fun. I put my violin away and went to be served. It was a great casserole with sausage, noodles, toasted breadcrumbs, all in a neat cream sauce, a serving of buttery corn niblets, a nice mixed green salad with red & yellow peppers, a sugarcoated cherry-filled piece of cake, and milk for a drink.

While there, I got a couple of donuts for us and some cake. Starbucks donates their day old stuff. The Food Bank encourages people to come in any time during the day for coffee and treats.

I came home to work on music for our group for the next two months. It has to be ready to go in 2 weeks.

Saturday, Feb 11

For Feb 10 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 3.17. Events: 5 CSR, 28 H, 1 OA, 17 RERA. Time on 9 hrs 9 min with (max = 19 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 87, 1 event <88% with overall avg., 92.7%. Pulse avg. 54.4, low 50.

For music lovers:
From my friend and flute player, Amy Davison, in our music group, if you have access to Facebook, check this out. The Devil Went down to Georgia, a guy, a guitar, and a washing machine.

Devil went down

For dog lovers: one more video of from my friend and dog lover, Rich Kim, of a blind dog whose “seeing eyes” companion is another dog. This will cheer you up, if you have access to Facebook.

Seeing Dogs

I worked more on meds and bills, and music. John started the trucks, let them warm and charge some, and worked more in the yard with snow and ice and icicle removal. This is the first year in about 5 that we’ve had big icicles. Like Goldilock’s porridge, the weather cannot be too hot nor too cold.

He had to feed the horses and cats before we left for the Grange for a Scholarship Fundraiser dinner. Every cent for the ticket entry ($15 each) and any extra donations once there, go to fund the student scholarships. One faithful long-time Grange member covers the cost of all the food. Three students received awards last year, and they sent greetings by video from their respective universities.

We were supposed to be at the Swauk Teanaway Grange, (on Ballard Road, Cle Elum) for the doors to open at 5:30. We got there at 5:15, and the parking lot was already filled, so we had to park on the Ballard Hill Road below. It was an uphill walking trip, but John was kind enough to go get the car and come up to pick me up at the end. I was extremely grateful. While I had on my boots, I did not want to risk falling on the ice.

The meal — a big effort by Jim & Patti Gylling — offered colored pasta, hot veggies (Carrots, Broccoli, and Cauliflower), ravioli, spaghetti sauce, sausage purchased at the local Owens Meats, a quality shop in Cle Elum, garlic bread with cheese, a salad with greens (spinach & beet greens, olives, tomatoes, carrots), and pie for dessert w/ whipped cream. The moon was full and bright on the drive home. We had good roads for much of the trip, except the last 5 miles or so off Hwy 97. John drove us up and back. It is about a 45-minute trip and a little over 25 miles one-way.
All people connected with education in any way were asked to fill out a pink index card with the years, location, and what they did (taught, assisted, drove bus). After dinner each was asked to stand to be honored for their service to education, and the descriptions on the pink cards were read by Claire Lucke, the leader of our Grange. I was the one with the longest record of teaching, 41 years: 22 at CWU, 15 at U of Idaho, 2 at U Iowa, 2 at Georgia State U. I left out my teaching at the Univ. of Cincinnati, where I taught computer programming. I also taught math and English in a downtown Atlanta Business School in my first year of college, where I was taking Gregg shorthand. The courses I mostly taught in 4 states were geography and GIS. John was recognized for his teaching as well in PA, ID, GA, and WA. He started teaching high school math and earth science in 1964/65.Claire’s introduction (pink cards in her hand for later). Part of the crowd being served. John and I are at the far end of the middle table. After dinner, we watched a very nice presentation on the big screen, made by Jim Gylling – including videos of and by each of the three specifically to be shown at the fundraiser dinner. He and his wife, Patti, had put on the dinner and program again this year. Last year, their son was one of three recipients of a $1,000 scholarship. Travis reported about his studies in the Department of Aviation at the Univ. of North Dakota, even taking us up in a Cessna and a Piper (I think).  Going through all his books and equipment was instructive. They reported via video from their respective universities – Holly at the Univ. of Idaho studying civil engineering (and enjoying mathematics classes, such as Differential Equations), and Kimberly at Creighton University, a private school in Omaha, NB, majoring in English and related topics (philosophy, ethics, ?). They all did a fantastic job of thanking the Grange members.  

Here we are after dinner:Many people had left and we were visiting and waiting for the parking lot to clear so John could retrieve the car and pick me up. We visited with Joy Rucker and her mom, Babs Ballard.This was the scene at 5:15 p.m. when we arrived from the east on Ballard Hill. People were coming out of the parking lot to park on the road. We stopped uphill from the driveway. I got out and John parked the car close to the edge. Then we walked down the snow-covered road, up the driveway, and to the front door (right of the steeple, back ~ 3/4 of the building. There is a parking lot in front and behind the building, with a smaller one at the entrance (left above).

Below you can see the setting in good weather.Note the car on the far right – that is about where we parked in the snow and walked.

Sunday, Feb 12

For Feb 11 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI=2.83. Events: 2 CSR, 1 CA, 1 OA, 16 H, 16 RERA. Time on 6 hrs 57 min with (max = 19 L/min). Ended 5:00 a.m., back without anything (Oximeter either) until 9:00. Oximetry: SpO2 low 88, 0 events <88% with overall avg., 92.7%. Pulse avg. 52.4, low 47.

John has done the morning feedings and is cooking brunch now.
Ham, fried potatoes, and a cheese/mushroom omelet. I need to fix the card to send to Dr. Sharma. I am going to put Charlie’s picture playing guitar in our group, mine with violin at Veteran’s Day by flag at AAC, and mine with Ted Leber and Santa Claus at the AAC, with a thank you for performing our open-heart surgeries and wish him well on his recovery (from open-heart surgery). I have been alternating with blog work and washing dishes. John’s been outside some today, feeding animals and moving (not much) snow.

The grape vine pruners are e-mailing back and forth about that, but the nasty weather is not giving up. John thinks it will be another week before he starts. Others may try to get a few hours in, but even that seems unlikely.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Winter will not go away

Monday, Jan 30

For Jan 29 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 0.91. Events: 5 H, 14 RERA. Time on 5 hrs 28 min with (max = 15 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 82, 13 events <88% with overall avg., 91.7%. Pulse avg. 53.9, low 50.

I finished letters for Elaine Glenn for nomination of her for CWU’s Distinguished Non-tenure Track Teaching Award. She is quite deserving and I certainly hope the process works in her favor. I created one and provided a copy of one with updates for Morris Uebelacker from 2013.

Today, I spent a lot of time working on the jobs list, birthdays, and things we have not been able do without an Internet connection. We still are limping along hoping to get a new modem installed this week.

Front yard activity of the day. John saw our Rascal in the Mountain Ash tree above the bird feeder. No chance he’d be able to capture one, but to get him out, John went to the front door and called him in. He came and was rewarded with cheese bits.

Cruel Clever Cat:

Sally, having swallowed cheese,
Directs down holes the scented breeze,
Enticing thus with baited breath
Nice mice to an untimely death.

{Geoffrey Taylor}

He has not returned, so that’s a good thing. We keep the cats around and appreciate them for their mousing prowess.

Tuesday, Jan 31

For Jan 30 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI 3.16. Events: 1 CSR, 18 H, 2 OA, 2 PP, 12 RERA. Time on 6 hrs 20 min with (max = 23 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 81, 2 events <88% with overall avg., 91.8%. Pulse avg. 53.6, low 50.

I succeeded yesterday in charging my old smaller camera (Casio Exilim) so I could videotape with a lot less bandwidth. Today, I took all the old pictures from the 16 Gig SD card, so it is ready to use. I will be able to store movies in a small enough bandwidth to pass them through wetransfer.com as an emailed file, and even send them to YouTube, which I cannot do with 30 minutes recorded on my Nikon camera (those are almost 4 gigs). I took a movie of the bird feeder today, and a couple of pictures, just to be sure it was working properly. One photo caught one of the deer jumping the fence to eat sunflower seeds from beneath the bird feeder. Most animals, including the pheasant, just walk in the open front gate (during wintertime). Pheasant shares with the quail and deer inside and outside the fence. Right photo shows a doe jumping over the fence. The deer are also raiding our plate of feline hard food at the front door. John now has put 5-gallon buckets all around the entrances to keep the deer out, but allow the cats in. We have 4 feral cats eating our dry food.

Today I went by the bread room for things for friends, on my way to Jazzercise. I stopped off at Safeway for two more dozen eggs on the last day of the lower excellent price as last week. Five people showed up for exercise. On my way home, I picked up two meds for under $10. Nice. One is for my heart and for 3 months is only $5. Why does the other heart medication have to cost over $400 (yet I still do not know what my co-pay will be).

I expected to find out today what my cost was going to be, but Novartis left a message we received late afternoon, by sending a letter to say they had tried several times to reach me by phone, but it was too late to call them on EST. We never had a call from Boston or from Novartis registered on our Caller ID, or a message left last week at all.

I spent some time tonight helping report a stolen identity of a former student (on Facebook). A former student, now in Texas, had done the same favor for me when my ID was stolen several years ago. Knowledge comes from someone requesting you to be their “friend.” If you are already a friend, then you know it is bogus. The stealer will say hello, how are you, and proceed to tell you about how they came into a bunch of money, and saw your name on the list of awardees.

Wednesday, Feb 1

For Jan 31 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 0.93. Events: 2 CSR, 7 H, 7 RERA. Time on 7 hrs 33 min with (max = 20 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 87, 1 events <88% with overall avg., 91.8%. Pulse avg. 52.9, low 50.

I made an early call to Novartis in Boston. I will have to call again for a clarification because after calling the Pharmacy at Group Health with questions about my cost of the co-pay, I received conflicting comments.

I left to pick up Gloria, give her some chocolate chips from our Costco-bulk package, go to the food bank, and play music. Once there we checked the bread room and found something for her and I picked up 6 packages of hamburger rolls to take to the Senior Center for them to use with the hamburgers they are fixing for the Friday potluck. We went there after lunch to SAIL exercise class.

I heard that my heart surgeon, Dr. Sharma, also had to have open-heart surgery (and a double bypass). I called his office in Yakima and found out where to send cards. I am going to make a special card with pictures of three of us who had surgery on our hearts by him, and get it in the mail.

I called in my prescription refill request to my Pharmacy here in Ellensburg, for a month of Entresto, because I will run out of my free 30-day supply on Feb 12, and they have to order a supply ahead. I am the only person in Ellensburg going through that pharmacy for the new heart drug.

Tonight is Nick Zentner’s talk at the city library on Ancient Rivers of the Pacific Northwest. Actually the rivers are the same ones – they just keep moving around. They existed on an ancient landscape that continues to change.

I took my old camera and sadly, I did not have an extra battery, or my newer camera so I missed the last 15-20 minutes of an excellent talk. At least it was being recorded from the back of the room, and will be available in a couple of weeks on the CWU site via YouTube.

Ancient PNW Rivers – chalk board

Part 2: 12 min. of visuals

I came home and ordered an additional SP50 battery while they are still available. I think I have had this camera since the turn of the century, or at least since 2004.

Thursday, Feb 2

For Feb 1 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 1.66. Events: 11 H, 20 RERA. Time on 6 hrs 39 min with (max = 16 L/min). Oximetry: None to report. I exhausted the oximeter’s battery, but charged it all night, so it is ready for tonight.

Rich Lange, Fairpoint technician brought and installed a new modem and fixed our reception and speed “in” (download) to 5K and “out” (upload) to 1K. We were previously half that. I hope this finally gives us the Internet service and WIFI we have been paying for and suffering through outages.

Today was a Fiddlers & Friends play date at the Rehab Center. We had a full room (too much so probably for fire safety rules), of audience mostly in wheelchairs, and a good number of our group there to entertain. Sadly, our lead fiddler was sick and had to stay home. We had our tambourine lady, banjo man, three guitar guys, a resident (previously our accordionist), harmonica fellow, fiddler, and flute playing gal with her daughter dancing and drawing a color crayon picture for a favorite resident who loves her and calls her by name (Haley), when she arrives. His name is Mac. He had a stroke and can no longer read, but he knows all the words, sings along, and applauds our songs. In fact, today, he met me at the front door and opened it to welcome me. His wife comes down for every one of our performances from Cle Elum and helps me by handing out and picking up the song sheets. People are in such bad shape there (it is an acute care center), that only 4 or 5 can sing along with the booklet of lyrics. We gave a good presentation. I was able to visit with my old roommate from there (in 2010). Her name is Mae, and she is 95. I also visited with a friend I knew through the Kittitas Valley Trail Riders club. She used to follow our group to events around town, and has continued, while now at the Rehab facility. She loved our Johnny Cash song, “I’ll Walk the Line,” because her husband sang it to her early in their relationship (he has since passed on).

On my way home I stopped by the bread room and picked up some angel food cake loaves to go with the pound of pound cake we are taking to the Super Bowl party at the senior center tomorrow (topped with our own strawberries from the freezer). They were also giving away small apples and I was asked to take some. I brought home 14# (they have to weigh for their records). We have eaten or given away all the Gala and HoneyCrisp apples we previously had from picking across the valley, and gave away most of the recent Fuji apples given to us.

I turned around and drove back to town with John to the Science II building on the CWU campus for an IAF lecture. I took my old camera with a newly charged battery, and managed to record all 1 hr and ten minutes !! Here it is below:First People of the Americas (as revealed by their skeletal remains) by James Chatters [left most above – red shirt, with Nick Zentner, CWU Geologist.] [CWU Anthropology Prof. Steve Hackenberger, right, waiting to introduce Jim]

BONES

You can look up James Chatters on Wikipedia, if you do not recall knowing of him regarding his research on Kennewick man. This evening he used research from several places of North & Central America.

Friday, Feb 3

For Feb 2 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 3.53. Events: 4 CSR, 12 H, 2 OA, 7 RERA. Time on 3 hrs 58 min with (max = 16 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 79, 19 events <88% with overall avg., 92.7%. Pulse avg. 53.9, low 47.

I contacted the Kittitas County Public Health Department and am scheduled for Tuesday, 1/7, at 3:30 for a Shingles Shot for $23 to cover paper processing costs. Cash or check, or there’s an extra fee to use a credit card.
Here you can read the full press release about a free (considering the pharmacy price is over $200) shot that only costs $23:
Free Shingles Vaccine

John and I went to a Super Bowl party today at the Senior Center. It was just a normal first Friday of the month potluck, but people were supposed to wear sports-related clothes. I wore my Seattle Seahawks baseball cap, and the colors, white, blue, green, and yellow. John (seen later) wore his Phillies jacket, red, white, and blue. His was the only special thing insofar as others frequently wear hats or something with the Seattle teams logos. If Nancy had had anything with Atlanta on it, she would have worn it.

We took our potluck offering, a large platter of sliced pound cake and angel food cake with a pound and a half of our own homegrown (and frozen) strawberries. It was a success. The pound cake is around the bowl of strawberries, and the angel food cake surrounds the edges. We carried 4 bags of strawberries, in 8-ounce bags. We only brought 1 bag home, and perhaps only 1/4 of all the cake. I was the photographer, because the staff and volunteers were busy cooking and serving. Therefore, I did not get in any of the pictures, but if you want to see all the photos I took, check on Facebook next week for the page for “Ellensburg Adult Activity Center”. The AmeriCorps gals will post the pictures I took.

Saturday, Feb 4

For Feb 3 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 2.62. Events: 1 CSR, 1 CA, 15 H, 1 OA, 3 PP, 20 RERA. Time on 7 hrs 15 min with (max = 22 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 87, 1 event <88% with overall avg., 93.0%. Pulse avg. 54.8%, low 49.

I went to a neat birthday party at the Hoffman’s home for Noella Wyatt’s 64th. The theme was cats with a Crazy Cat Lady cake. We were served lasagna, salad, and bread with the culminating large piece of cake. The decoration chocolates went home with the birthday gal. Each of the participants took home some lasagna and a large piece of cake. Our servings were large because John was included.Noella Wyatt with cake, photo left by Nancy Hoffman, and ones on right by me of the cake. Note from the back of the sofa, the litter of chocolate cats, and others all over, and under the cake. Notice the very clever scratching marks on the sofa’s right side, middle lower right photo. Even the sofa is edible.

Sunday, Feb 5

For Feb 4 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI=1.10. Events: 1 CSR, 9 H, 20 RERA. Time on 8 hrs 13 min with (max = 17 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 87, 2 events <88% with overall avg., 92.1%. Pulse avg. 55.5, low 51.

We awoke to snow, but only a little over an inch. It is still snowing, and John has finished the morning chores. About 2:00 p.m., he went back out to feed the horses, it started snowing harder, and now at almost 6:00 p.m., it is snowing hard with bigger flakes. At this rate, our total is going to be over the 1 to 3 inches that was forecast for today. During the night they first thought another 2 to 4 inches; now saying 3 to 5. Are we not blessed? I am glad my dental appointment was canceled, as I will be able to stay home.

I need to get this over to John for his editing and putting into WordPress for publishing. Then I need to get to work on finishing cropping all the photos I took Friday to email them to the AAC to have awaiting them when they arrive at 8:00 a.m. (or sooner).
I fixed cat food today for 3 cats, and await Sue to come to the front door for her dinner. She might stay at a neighbor’s barn and catch a mouse.
I must begin work on Johnny Cash’s “Forty Shades of Green” to add to the playlist for Irish songs for our group’s playlist for March and April.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Frozen Fog, …

Hungry Wildlife, & Technology Challenges

Monday, Jan 23

For Jan 22 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 0.29. Events: 1 H, 1 OA, 14 RERA. Time on 7 hrs 1 min with (max = 14 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 87, 1 event <88% with overall avg., 91.9%. Pulse avg. 58.0, low 48.

I managed to write the fiddlers and friends about our Hearthstone play date this week.

What a crazy day we had. Nothing happened as planned, but we did have an interesting sunset.Looking southwest

Tuesday, Jan 24

For Jan 23 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 0.97. Events: 4 H, 1 PP, 8 RERA. Time on 4 hrs 7 min with (max = 20 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 87, 2 events <88% with avg., 91.7%. Pulse avg. 58.4, low 50. I awoke at 4:00 a.m. because of my phone making a loud noise when its battery died. I had not turned it off the last time I used it on Saturday.

Ice fog pictures at our place. Very early morning shots: left our 3 favorite deer and birds in for morning treats; right, Myst’s silhouette in front of barns you cannot see, showing frost on the tree limbs within the haze.

Later in the morning, the sun appeared, and I took photos of frosty trees, before departing for town.Part of our backyard view in 3 shots.

Today on my way to the hospital lab for a blood draw, I took some Fuji apples to my neighbor Lorene. I drove from sunshine and blue skies fewer than two miles down the road into frozen fog. Elevation drop in 2 miles is just 200 feet. You’ve seen above the results of the overnight frozen fog deposited as “silver frost” on our trees. The sun only shined for a very short while I was in town. On my way home after 3:00 p.m., it was clear only for the first mile of my trip home. Then it was socked in almost all the way home (as on the trip in). John experienced nice weather all day.

After my blood draw, I went by the Auditor’s Office for the 2009 Subaru license tab, just 3 months late! Once done there, I still had a little time before getting to my Jazzercise class, so I went by the bread room at the food bank where we play music tomorrow. I was fortunate in finding two loaves of my favorite bread (English Muffin) for toast and two loaves of John’s favorite, Rosemary Olive Oil bread.

I made it to the senior center in time to sign in for my class. I mentioned to the AmeriCorps girls that I just had a lot of blood taken, so I hoped I had energy for the exercise. Megan kindly asked if I would like some Gatorade, and went to the fridge and gave me a choice of 3 flavors. I picked orange. I drank it during our 50-minute class, and got through it just fine. I thanked her again as I left. We had a new person in class. Two usual members were not there, but now our class consists of 7 people. It’s going to get crowed with the pool table to contend with next Tuesday. You will see the setup below, and I will move behind the pool table (where the folks are playing cards last Friday).

I came home by way of Bi-Mart to check my numbers for a prize, and found a half ounce bottle of Artificial Tears (Good Sense) for only $1.79, and two metal containers of Fisherman’s Friend cough drops marked down 70 cents. They are nearing their use by date, but I cannot imagine they won’t be all right. Considering the “tears” I was using have been discontinued by the manufacturer and replacements are over $10 for half an ounce, I think it makes “good sense” to uses those drops. (I’m writing this after trying them the rest of the week, and they clear my dry eyes just fine.)

I arrived home to a report on my INR (2.1) and my Potassium (now has to be checked because of the new heart medication tending to raise it). That figure was 4.3.Dinner was special tonight.
Copper River salmon on a bed of rice and yellow peppers. John’s creation.

Now to do both our blood pressures and get to bed. Late again.

Wednesday, Jan 25

For Jan 24 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 2.14. Events: 5 CSR, 1 PP, 18 H, 12 RERA. Time on 8 hrs 25 min with (max = 17 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 87, 1 event <88% with avg., 92.8%. Pulse avg. 53.9, low 50.

I picked up Gloria and took her along with me to the Food Bank Soup Kitchen for music. Our leader is still gone, but I took books she put together for the group. We sang, ate, went to SAIL exercise class, back by Grocery Outlet, for both of us to shop. I only bought a gallon of ice cream to take by and put in the freezer at the Geography Department to go with the cake I’m taking for the luncheon on Friday.

I worked more on music for Thursday.

We went to Nick Zentner’s talk on Giant Lavas of the PNW. An excellent presentation as usual. We got there about 6:15 to assure ourselves a seat on the front row. We left about 8:25 in a major snowstorm. Other places in the World have larger areas of such ancient lava flows. The Deccan Traps {step-like} in India and the Siberian Traps, east of the Ural Mountains in Russia.

Nick Z’s video on CRBs
Giant Lava Flows

Thursday, Jan 26

For Jan 25 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 1.01. Events: 1 0A, 1 PP, 6 H, 14 RERA. Time on 6 hrs 54 min with (max = 15 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 61 spurious at start, actual low, 90, on the graphic chart, 0 events <88% with avg., 92.9%. Pulse avg. 56.3, low 50.

Hearthstone was our Fiddlers and Friends venue today. We had a good number of folks there, including folks from Seattle (Sharon on bass guitar), Janet (fiddle) and Dave (bass fiddle) from Winlock, WA, and our folks from the Kittitas Valley, with two new players (banjo and harmonica). We had a tambourine, flute, 3 fiddles, 3 guitars, banjo, bass fiddle, and harmonica, plus our little 3.5 yr old mascot and dancer, Haley.I left with Gerald and we headed to the Palace Cafe, to meet John there, for his and John’s birthday dinners. Gerald’s birthday was today (86). John has to use his free coupon during the month, so this seemed appropriate. He was able to go to the feed store and get wild critter feed, and the senior-horse pellets. We hope the weather will change soon and we will stop feeding. The deer have started eating the seed-heads from the horses’ Timothy hay. Mostly only the Mama and her 2 babies from last spring have been getting pelleted supplements, but some of the others have figured out what’s going on. Altogether we think there are about 14, but just a few have an identifying mark. Mama has a hand-sized dark spot on the left side of her face. Another doe has a split right ear.

Back at the Palace Cafe: we had a nice dinner. John and Gerald had theirs free ($15.79) Chicken Fried Steak, roll, and a large serving of hot veggies. I had a Cobb Salad and then brought half home and have eaten it with 3 meals since.

I had to stop for gasoline on my way home, as my Forester was near empty.

Friday, Jan 27

For Jan 26 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 1.55. Events: 1 CSR, 1 PP, 6 H, 3 RERA. Time on 3 hrs 52 min with (max = 60 L/min).Total oximetry, 7 hr. 34 min. Oximetry: SpO2 low 77 spurious at start, actual low, 84, on the graphic chart, 21 events <88% (most off CPAP) with avg., 90.9%. Pulse avg. 61.8, low 53.

I gathered my stuff to take to the scholarship luncheon, and arrived early to set up my laptop computer to upload a 3-gig video over faster lines than we have at home. It started and got 46% completed when I left for home. That was a failure, for unknown reasons. However, when I got home it continued to 65% before our modem died (more on this below). When I logged back in Sunday, You tube had canceled the upload.

We had only 8 people make it to the lunch because of sickness or being out of town. My co-host (Monica, the Geography secretary) made a Chicken Caesar salad and used Olive Garden’s dressing for Caesar salads from a bottle she can buy at Fred Meyer grocery. She was exceptionally kind to make a bowl for me with iceberg lettuce and not Romaine, which I am supposed to limit, because of its high Vitamin K content. She also had bread and butter. I made 3 two-liter bottles of Crystal Light lemonade, two regular and one pink and provided a Red Velvet frosted cake with ice cream. I brought plates and cups, but we only used the cups, and her colorful blue plates matching the decor.

Here are two shots of our day.Serving table with Amy & Ruth coming through for dessert. Ruth Harrington has been setting up luncheons and dinners throughout the campus and town for 44 years. She has now collected just under $2 million all of which goes to scholarships for students at CWU. I have been a member of this 4th Friday group since 1988, when I arrived on campus. A couple of the members have been in this group since I started!
The picture on the right above shows left to right, Ruth Harrington, Kristina Paquette, Lola Gallagher, Tina Barrigan, my empty chair, Monica Bruya, Peggy Eaton, and Amy McCoy. Amy works in the Alumni Office, and was a Geography major, so she contributed Lemon Pound Cake to the table to add to the “geography” connection.

Today was another busy day and with a sore shoulder but without any exercise or fiddling to blame. I grabbed some cheap eggs (78 cents a dozen of AA large) at Safeway. I dropped off the remainder of the red velvet cake to the senior center, took some photos of a Bunco game in progress, some pool players, and of a woman for her to send her nephew. I drove by my pharmacy to pick up two of my meds, on my way giving her a ride home to Briarwood, went back to the University for my computer and my ice cream, and drove home in a snowstorm that we got none of out here. It mysteriously stopped 2 miles down the road. Bunco is a dice game I have never played. The three tables of folks were enjoying themselves, so I may have to join the next time they do this. Three participants received gifts. As with all events at the AAC, there is no cost. A lunch and presentation came before this with open-faced turkey with gravy sandwiches and hot vegetables. In exchange for the cake, I was offered a bowl of cooked turkey (from scratch there by Erica) and also given two pieces of chocolate cake made by volunteer Tina. John and I enjoyed it this weekend. She is in the pink blouse in the middle picture above. The winner on the right is Sandra Zech, who taught our SAIL exercise class for a couple of years. Dave on the left and Richard on the right address the cue ball. I grew up playing pool (and billiards), so I think the next time I’m there and they are too, I will ask to join. I had no time today. I have played on that table before with a woman member of the AAC, but sadly, she died. We were going to come in and challenge a team of guys there. Now I will just ask to play along. I have been on field trips from center with both of these guys, and Richard sings with our music group at the Food Bank (while his wife fixes and serves the salad) on Wednesday.

Finally, I took some photos of Connie (at her request), before giving her a ride home. I gave her the choice of 8 photos, but here are my 3 choices. Will be interesting to see which she chooses to send.Connie is a member of our Jazzercise class at the AAC and also lives at Briarwood and helps with the entertainment of our Fiddlers & Friends group when we perform and they feed us afterwards on the 3rd Saturday of each month.

I passed a fire engine and an EMT truck on the way home, and wondered what happened. I found out Saturday it was a house fire on Thomas Road just down from where we were going to get John’s hair cut.

Deer have found our cat’s hard food under the front open enclave. John’s placed a wood pallet to protect it. That mostly put a stop to it but one still tries. Around 7 pm the Internet went down. Couldn’t get it back.

Saturday, Jan 28

For Jan 27 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 0.40. Events: 3 H, 18 RERA. Time on 7 hrs 29 min with (max = 20 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 88, 0 events <88% with avg., 93.1%. Pulse avg. 56.6, low 50.

We went at 1:00 p.m. to Celia’s for John’s haircut, carrying some stuff along. I was able to activate my new cell phone when over there. It seems to work now in our house (but only twice in my chair, back to PA and to OH). I tried CA and it was unable to connect to let people know who might call me that our Internet was down with no blog coming out until fixed. The battery was also low, so that is unappealing, and maybe affected the calls, but now is plugged in, so I’ll check again later.

Without the modem, I cannot print either. If it is not fixed by Monday, I may have to drive to the University to print my letters for Elaine Glenn’s nomination for Distinguished Non-tenure track Teacher of the Year. At least I’m able to use the computer for writing text and processing pictures, and reading data from my CPAP and Oximeter. And, I can even make music on SongWriter, but I cannot print it, in order to make a pdf file to send to Evie for review. We surely depend on this Internet (and WIFI) connection for our daily activities.

We hope to buy a new modem router tomorrow when our computer guys at Complete Computer Services are open for new hours on Sunday. Then our only problem is establishing the connection with the Fairpoint provider. Ryan from CCSOE called Sunday. They don’t have one, but he concurred on the overheating comment (see below on Sunday), and offered to help in the future, if needed. He even offered to bring one he no longer needs from home to give us.

Meanwhile – weekend activities that did occur. John talking with Andy Mills visiting Celia & Bobby Winingham after his haircut by Celia at their house. Middle photo next day of one of many trips John made to give seed to the quail, little birds, and pheasant. I took that out the front door because I was out to photograph the pallet John leaned against the house to keep the deer from eating the ferals’ chow.

Sunday, Jan 29

For Jan 28 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 0.30. Events: 1 CSR, 2 H, 20 RERA. Time on 6 hrs 44 min with (max = 19 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 87, 1 events <88% with avg., 92.2%. Pulse avg. 57.2, low 51.

We hopefully, we can get a new modem / router, or find out what happened to this one. Latest thoughts by John are that it overheated. He turned it off last night and now has given it better ventilation, and when turned on this morning, it worked again. A month or so ago the thing quit, we spent an hour on the phone with tech-support and ended with a scheduled visit for the next morning. But then it worked and that visit was canceled. Thus, this time we just waited. Maybe overnight it cools down and then works. Our guess is that this is not the end.

With an alive DSL connection, John found a report on a new Earth observation satellite. It is recently up but not yet replacing the existing images you might see on TV. That might come in November. So, if you care: see some early images here (don’t miss the comparison between GOES-16 and GOES-13 Imagery on the same day this month, at the bottom of the page):
GOES-16 Advanced Baseline Imager

Here is one example: A cropped part of a serious storm of Jan. 15 crossing the USA. Great Lakes at the top; Chesapeake Bay on the right side. Very high resolution is available at the link, but not here.John also cooked us an excellent brunch of eggs with cheese, sausage patties, and home fries (Yukon Gold).

Finally, birds! We have Gold and Red (House) finches, which are now outnumbering the Juncos, our first to arrive. The Gold ones are still in drab colors, and just came yesterday. All share sunflower seeds with the quail, but fewer quail can fit in the feeder than the smaller ones. The quail and pheasant have been sharing seeds on the snow behind John’s car.Note the bottom left is a red finch landing. You can see mostly finches with an occasional Junco.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Computer issue

Sunday morning 8:37 Pacific Time

Our internet connection quit on Friday evening.
John turned it off and on, off and on, off and on ….
Saturday night he turned it off.
This morning, when he turned it on — it worked.
Why? Maybe overheating? No clue.
If it continues to work we may get a weekly blog posted.
Or not.

Cheers.

Blood Pressure and

other normal activities

Monday, Jan 16

For Jan 15 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 2.00. Events: 1 CSR, 11 H, 1 OA, 16 RERA. Time on 6 hrs 0 min with (max = 18 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 88, 0 events <88% with overall avg., 93.3%. Pulse avg. 56.7, low 48. Actually a good night; several this week.

Started out with spitting snow, and low temperature, 16 (lower) at the airport, but now the sun is out and the snow stopped.

I worked more on phone number retrieval from my old cell phone, because tomorrow the new SIM card should arrive.

John made Crockpot Chocolate Candy yesterday. I put some together to take to Outpatient Services workers where John was Dec 1, and I had been for many weeks daily for IVs in 2009 and twice in 2010 to kill the bacteria in my blood.

We received a suspected fraud call from AMEX. Someone used John’s Simply Cash card on line, first to check with a $1.00 charge (to Survivor International), followed by a $29.99 purchase from Target. I’m not sure how he was supposed to receive it, perhaps pick up at a store? We had not left home or ordered anything on the card, have never used it at Target, and whatever – somehow the AMEX alert system caught this and, so they did not approve the purchase. We got a call but missed part of the message and called back. We talked some and they voided the card, and are sending John a new card with a different number. Mine was not affected. In fact, we have only 3 automatic pays on that card each month, such as insurance and cell phone, and have not used it for any purchase since last July, and never in Target. Good work on their part –

I’ll end today with a photo from Celia Winingham of a herd of Elk that have frequented her yard and a neighbor saw them across the street from her house. She took this photo looking east from Wilson Creek road, south of Thomas road; just over a mile from us as the Eagle flies. Photo by Celia Winingham

Tuesday, Jan 17

For Jan 16 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 1.38. Events: 2 CSR, 1 CA, 1 OB, 2 PP, 8 H, 17 RERA. Time on 7 hrs 15 min with (max = 12 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 68 spurious at start, actual low, 90, on the graphic chart, 0 events <88% with avg., 92.8%. Pulse avg. 55.9, low 50.

We’ll start today with a lovely sunrise taken by our geographer friends, Michelle & Bruce Seivertson from Eureka, CA. This is about 225 miles up the coast from San Jose. The Samoa Peninsula, a sandy place to play, is between the Pacific Ocean and Eureka. Photo by Bruce Seivertson

A morning telephone call from my Jazzercise teacher cancelled our class today because she sprained her ankle Sunday. Just as well I did not have to squeeze that into my otherwise extremely busy day of activities.

I went to the dentist for impressions for crowns to go over my two implants. I took my Amoxicillin at 11:30 just in case there was any chance of gums bleeding (as there was). The dentist had to remove the cover over the abutment with a screwdriver type wrench, put a higher one on that was taller than my teeth so I could not bite down. I imagine they needed to use that to capture the impression for the crown that will fit over the abutment of the implant. See the diagram below the X-ray of my implants today, showing the higher top holder.Left was the first taken but they needed to see the relationship to the adjacent tooth, so they retook the one on the right, and it didn’t matter that the pins are blurred. You can also see in these photos that the size of the screws differ because of the smaller size of my mouth. I’m pleased they emailed the images taken during my appointment.

I should have had all this work done on Monday, because the three people who worked on my mouth today, all have names beginning with the letter, M. Mandy was the first assistant with the first impressions taken. Then Molly entered to take some X-rays and help with the further impressions and manipulations done by my dentist, Margi. Dr. Margi Sullivan did the first removal of the cap over the abutment, and then installed the higher edged ones.

Here are some diagrams from the web to ponder:After insurance pays half, I will owe a total for the two, $1,614. At my next appointment, 2/6, I will pay the remaining 1K. Last year you were exposed to the cost for the two implants – a lot more costly than the crowns. It will be extremely nice not to have to only be able to chew on the right side of my mouth.

Finally, the last collage of photos planning for the color of the enamel on the composite for my crowns.On the right bottom of the left photo, you can see the cover of the abutment on the front implant.

I took candy to a crew in the hospital, walked in the Outpatient Services door to the front desk, and the receptionist said, “It’s Fancy Nancy!” She always called me that because of a book her little girl has. She was thrilled with the package. To be sure they got a piece of candy of thanks for their service, I mentioned as many of the names as I could remember who helped me in the past, and John recently for his surgery. She wrote names on top of the note, which ironically, I had signed with “Fancy” Nancy and John for the thank you.

I went by Super 1 for meds but they weren’t there yet. I was told to come tomorrow. It almost was a problem, as you will see.

On my way home, I stopped at Bi-Mart with my wrist-cuff Smart Heart BP monitor. I had called and asked for a brand other than that so I could buy a different one that got better ratings. As mentioned earlier, mine had been giving inconsistent readings, even after changing the batteries. They had an OMRON, series 3, which we looked up on line and found good reviews for. I carried my couple year old (past the warranty) with me in the box and told the manager it was no longer working and I thought they maybe should not carry that brand. It was on sale now for $19.95. The Omron was $39.99. I had it in my basket, but had not paid for it yet. The manager told me he would refund my money at the sale rate. I told him I did not expect that, but he said he would, and told me he recommended a cuff over a wrist one, and that he also has to take his BP daily. I thanked him and told him I realized they were more accurate, but that Omron cuff has good reviews, and I simply cannot handle the upper-arm cuff more than once or twice a year. We do use one on John and then check the wrist-cuff against that. With my return allowed, my new purchase was just over $21. I have been pleased with Bi-Mart’s return policy. If it is within a year and you keep your receipt you can get a full refund. Costco has a similar refund policy without a deadline. That’s how we got our current cuff, when another we’d had for 5 years stopped inflating. They GAVE us a completely new one.

Wednesday, Jan 18

For Jan 17 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 0.15. Events: 1 H, 12 RERA. Time on 6 hrs 44 min with (max = 12 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 86 spurious at restart oximeter found off finger, actual low, 88, on the graphic chart, 0 events <88% with avg., 92.3%. Pulse avg. 59.2, low 51.

The weather turned nasty and shut down the pass for 2 days. There were accidents, trees, rocks, and snow. Ice and snow caused multiple trees to lean or fall. The DOT crews were not up to that so a commercial firm was contracted for the really dangerous stunts.

Snoqualmie Pass Closed:
CONDITIONS:
Compact snow and ice on the roadway. I-90 is closed in both directions. East bound is closed at MP 34, near North Bend, due to falling trees and rocks, between MP 43 and MP 44. West Bound is closed at MP 106, near Ellensburg, MP 84 near Cle Elum and MP 70, near Easton. This is due to numerous snow slides by MP 50. Both directions will remain closed until DOT can assess the situations during daylight hours on Wednesday morning, January 18, 2017

Now back to my meds problem. With the Pass closed, I wrote an email to YHC and called my pharmacy because my meds probably won’t make it to the pharmacy today here, and I will run out after tonight’s pill. I was prepared to drive to Yakima for another sample of a week’s supply as they gave me Jan 10. After a 1.5 hour search by my pharmacy about their courier delivery person, they found it will be at my pharmacy today. I am waiting for a phone call, hoping to here they arrived before leaving for town.

Another pass report: 10:03 a.m. I-90 Snoqualmie Pass remains closed in both directions from mp 34 near North Bend to mp 106 near Ellensburg. Crews have assessed conditions and determined that the pass will not open today or tonight. Conditions are such that it is not safe in some areas for crews to do the work necessary to open the roadway. Crews are continuing to monitor conditions. Alternate routes are US-2 Stevens Pass and US-12 White Pass.

WEATHER:
Snow and freezing rain

We got a phone call from the pharmacy at 1:45 and went to town to pick up my Entresto meds. The courier brought them from Spokane. They would not have made it from Seattle, where they also purchase meds from a distribution warehouse. This was my free month’s supply from the Pharmaceutical company. I still do not know what the cost will be to me. My cardiologist’s nurse had to FAX 17 pages of information to qualify me for the medication reduction in price. I hope that my insurance will cover some of it, because Novartis (manuf.) is only covering $90/month of a several hundred $ monthly cost.

Thursday, Jan 19 National Popcorn Day

For Jan 18 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 0.50. Events: 1 CSR, 3 H, 13 RERA. Time on 7 hrs 58 min with (max = 16 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 74 spurious at start, actual low, 87, the only 1 event <88% with avg., 92.0%. Pulse avg. 58.9, low 48.

I called Rite Aid about the “moderate to severe” Gen Teal Gel drops, that Bi-Mart said they were out of stock and unable to get.
The Rite Aid representative checked the numbers and barcode from the box I still had, and found, sadly, they are no longer manufactured. I had John check on Amazon, and we have not been able to locate the item, anywhere. I have called to local pharmacies (still have two to do), and everyone I called is out. Downtown Pharmacy told me they were aware of its no longer being offered and had to find a replacement for their one shopper who used them. I asked her what brand they settled on. It was Refresh, which has been my second choice for awhile. The only thing I do not like is that while it comes with two larger containers (15 ml), also packaged with them are small containers which are difficult to use.
John was able to get my new SIM card loaded in my phone. Now when in town we will check and see if they can activate it. I still think it is the battery, or something wrong with the phone.

In honor of National Popcorn Day, John popped a quart or two. I enjoy popcorn, but not the little shells that get between my teeth. Then, on my last bite I got a piece on the roof of my mouth in the far back of my throat. It was nasty to get rid of.

The pass didn’t open until this afternoon between 5:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. A lot of unhappy truck drivers lost money while waiting for the WSDOT to clear the road of snow, trees, and rocks that slid onto the highway in several places. John saw a report on KOMONEWS, about a huge rock falling on Hwy 101 on the west side of our state, and showed me a photo (not very clear) of the rock covering one lane and across the centerline. Fortunately, no one was driving by at the time.

Friday, Jan 20

For Jan 19 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 0.64. Events: 5 H, 17 RERA. Time on 7 hrs 46 min with (max = 15 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 88, 0 events <88% with avg., 92.2%. Pulse avg. 64.1, low 51.

Using a CBS news feed, we watched only the inauguration and The National Anthem on a nice ACER monitor and with good speakers. John had been reading about and listening to songs by Jacky Evanco, from the Pittsburgh area. She is still in high school, and has been singing since she was 8. You can find some videos of her on the web, but here is a link to the Inauguration Day windy and wet one:
Jacky Evanco’s Star-Spangled Banner

I hope this link remains available on line. It was still there Sunday, but you have to watch an ad before it comes up.

John left for taking care of the horses, and I need to clear out the sink for filling buckets of water for him to take to the horse trough. Deer and horses are drinking from it, and the feeder pipe is still frozen. He did get the insulation needed yesterday to put with his heat tape. He has a list of 3 or 4 must-do things before next winter.

I experienced some interesting activity this afternoon with my blood pressure, and even called John in to take my BP with our cuff (I know it is more accurate, supposedly, but it hurts like heck, and I bought a new wrist unit this week to replace an old one that was giving inconsistent readings. The readings (3rd # is pulse) that alerted me were 66/44 72; 92/53 83; 86/51 85; 94/52 84, starting at 2:13 p.m. I took it again at 2:23 and it was 104/43 67. John took mine at 2:28 with the cuff and it was 103/81 71. I took it with the wrist one at 2:34 and it was 111/57 74; at 2:43, 93/51 70.

Because of the potential side effects of the new medication for my heart, I am supposed to take my BP and report if my systolic pressure (the top number of the ratio) goes below 100 (or above 140).

It has gone low at evening measurements, but today it did so in the afternoon. I have a call into the doctor’s nurse at the Yakima Heart Center (she checks with him), but no response yet.

I received the call from my Cardiologist’s nurse at 5:43 p.m.  She listened to and recorded all my BP measurements and figured that Dr. Kim would not make any drastic changes, especially as I was not feeling bad at all during the lowest measurements.  She told me he was “on call” all Saturday, so I could get to him, if needed.  Meanwhile, she called him and read him all the data.  He agreed that nothing should be done at this point, and to keep recording details as I had been.  He was not worried as long as I had no dizziness, shortness of breath, not feeling bad, and to continue, but to report in as I had done if there were other lows that occur.  He looks at overall averages and how the patient feels.  I am to continue doing my activities tomorrow as usual, and not change the dosage of the new drug I have been on now for 8 days.  She called me back at 6:03 with the messages from him.  All is well. We get the impression he really likes the reported results of this combo-med.

Saturday, Jan 21

For Jan 20 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 0.53. Events: 1 CSR, 4 H, 15 RERA. Time on 7 hrs 35 min with (max = 19 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 85 spurious at start, actual low, 89, on the graphic chart, 0 events <88% with avg., 92.7%. Pulse avg. 58.3, low 50.

John started early trying to divert water from our yard and overflow from our irrigation ditch which cannot get under the ice dam at the culvert under the neighbor’s driveway. Once out of the ditch, it isn’t where it should be to go under our driveway either.

As long as it doesn’t go under her garage door, all is good. John says he is learning. If we ever build a new place (not likely), there are many dos and many don’ts, such as do not have your driveway slope down to your garage door.

On my way out, I took a photo of the water (see below on the left of the composite), and I added the right on Sunday morning in the snow, which lasted most of the day and accumulated ~3″.Left photo shows the water standing around a fenced garden. I park my Forester farther to the left in a 3-sided shed. The right was taken the next morning to show my tire tracks and the closest black line across the driveway, which is the drain (with running water) that John dug through the snow, toward the downhill pasture that will drain to the low area to the south and back to the creek.

I drove to Briarwood for music today. The roads near us were covered with ice and snow for several miles toward town, then got better. We are 800 feet higher than the part of town I was headed to. We had a good group of players and a large responsive audience. Players included these instruments: a tambourine, banjo, two guitars, two fiddles, harmonica, flute and a singer, plus our audience “choir.” They had copies of the lyrics to 20 songs, and at the beginning, we did a couple of others they knew but were not in the book, before starting at 2:00 p.m. on the booklet. They sang along on You are my Sunshine and on Tennessee Waltz. Then we did a Happy Birthday song for one person, and I introduced the whole music group, for the primary reason of two new members they had not met. Also, a wife of one of the new folks, husband of another, and children of another were in the audience. I introduced them as well. Our little 3.5 yr old mascot Haley was also there with her parents and dancing occasionally.
After the music, they fed us a tasty bowl of chili with all sorts of toppings, 3 different salads (my favorite was a fruit salad with lemon Jello, marshmallows, & pineapple), thickly spread chicken-salad sandwiches in a nice roll, a choice of two desserts, and cookies, plus hot cider. Always available is iced water and coffee. I never have to eat supper afterwards.

I came home needing to put my BPs in a log journal, from the slips of paper sitting around my recliner chair during the last couple of weeks. John’s is neatly recorded in his own logbook, and I have one for me (starting in Jan 2017). I completed mine later this evening.

I stayed inside the warm building after our playing and eating with my cell phone and John’s to talk to our cell provider in Oregon to get my new SIM card activated (which supposedly had been activated Thursday, when we were in town). As it was, they had to verify the last four digits of the second line on the card and removing it and seeing it was troublesome. But I found the “2086” needed. I thought I was set to have a working cell phone again, and called John to tell him I would be leaving for home soon.
Once home, I had the same problem with reception as John has had for over a year with the same make phone. The ENVOY phone gets no reception in our vicinity, whereas my old Motorola did at least at the far end of the house or outside in the yard. It apparently “broke.” So I was correct that a new SIM card would not fix it.

Once home, I spent a very long time with Consumer Cellular complaining about my cell phone and trying for a solution.
The newly simmed phone will not get any reception in our house or in the yard. I called to see if they would replace the phone with one that works. They checked AT&T coverage and claim we are in the area served. They checked for T Mobile and it only serves 4 G phones, this is a 3 G. Finally, they sold me a new phone (no return ones at a lower price were available as we have gotten before to replace John’s lost phones), and it will cost $54.10. I will get it mid next week, and if it has reception here, I’ll keep it; if not, it gets returned to the company. I hate having a cell phone I cannot use at home. I forgot to ask if the new phone is a 3 or 4 G. I went on-line to read reviews of the DORO PhoneEasy 626 and about half of them (of the 20 pages I read) are not good. However, folks with problems do let them know, while those without problems are generally not going to engage.

Sunday, Jan 22

For Jan 21 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 0.88. Events: 7 H, 18 RERA. Time on 8 hrs 0 min with (max = 17 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 77 spurious at 6:30 a.m. turn off, actual low, 88, on the graphic chart, 0 events <88% with avg., 92.4%. Pulse avg. 59.8, low 42.

Today we did a few chores – John outside and me inside. I did schedule a haircut for John tomorrow with our neighbor who cuts my hair. My arthritic bone on bone shoulder has been bothering me so much that John made the suggestion and I took him up on his offer. His hair is as long as mine right now. Look above a week to last Sunday to see the herd of elk near her house, that she photographed and gave me permission to use the photo.

John just brought me a bowl of dried peaches and dried pears. I’m eating slices of each together and enjoying them very much. I did not dry any fruit this year because we have frozen bags from previous years. Maybe we will intake the calories over this winter, and be ready to dry more for the freezer come fall.

We just had Nachos for supper. John did a nice job. We only ate half and will have leftovers tomorrow night.

We are not the only ones to have ice from snowmelt runoff. Here is a photo of their vineyard from our friends Barbara and Paul, the winemakers and owners of Paradisos del Sol Winery in Zillah, WA. Photo by Barbara Sherman

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Medical and weather events

Monday, Jan 9

For Jan 8 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 0.59. Events: 2 CSR, 4 H, 8 RERA. Time on 6 hrs 44 min with (max = 21 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 71 spurious at start, actual low, 87, on the graphic chart, 3 events <88% with avg., 91.5%. Pulse avg. 55.0, low 50.

We called David H. last night to cancel Myst’s hoof trimming because of the cold and snow. Need to reschedule when the weather is better.

What a great New Year’s Gift! Our neighbor, Allen Aronica, appeared in our driveway with this tractor and blade and made 4-5 swipes to clean out a lot of snow. We always appreciate his help, but this timing was perfect so we can get out to go to the cardiologist tomorrow. This is the second time this winter he has plowed our 300′ driveway and the area near our parked cars. Later this week he made a third run, and plowed out three, or more) other neighbors. John cleans up a bit (1%) after Allen does the 99%.
On the left he has backed up to my blue Forester (John has provided a 4 ft. space for Allen to set the blade into). Check out the video below of his third swipe.John Deere Green in the Drive

I also talked with our leader of the retired geographers and we canceled tomorrow morning’s meeting. I sent emails but then called people in case they did not see their email. This was part weather related and part some folks not able to come.

I think I have corrected all the music for Thursday.

Tuesday, Jan 10

For Jan 9 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 0.42. Events: 3 H, 9 RERA. Time on 7 hrs 13 min with mask leakage at start. Oximetry: SpO2 low 54 spurious, actual low, 84, was off CPAP; 25 events <88% with avg., 91.3%. Pulse avg. 57.8, low 50.

I rewrote my blood pressure readings for the previous week for Kim’s (heart doc) requested history.

Talked with our Northwestern Mutual representative at the main office in Spokane, because our old rep and friend retired in Idaho. We want to have her send us annual reports at the first of the year, as we were used to receiving.

We were scheduled to leave about Noon to get 50 miles to Costco and lunch before arriving at the Yakima Heart Center (YHC) for a 2:40 check-in.

At 10:27, John was still out doing chores, in the snow, and I received a call from the YHC scheduler, asking if I could arrive earlier because of a cancellation of a 12:40 p.m. appt because of snow. I still had to shower, but I told her we were over an hour away and we would do our best to make it. We did. I drove both ways. It snowed nicely until we were almost there. We got in the examination room before noon, and the nurse gave me an ECG, took my vitals, and other info. My blood pressure was okay (130/80), considering I had driven through some bad patches of snow on the Interstate, and found a main thoroughfare (16th Avenue) closed that we had to detour around in Yakima without the benefit of any detour signs. It is not a nice even grid system in that part of town. John read later there was a water line break.

My doctor arrived about 1:00 and we started through all his concerns by reviewing my Pulmonary Function Test (PFT), my labs, and my fasting lab in Nov. Not all reports had arrived to my file, but I had copies of several (the PFT and the fasting one from my primary care physician). We were interrupted for about 25 minutes, while he had to consult with a PA about a patient that needed his observation and diagnosis, and several more issues. We continued when he returned, and he examined me. Everything was fine. He has been concerned about the medications I’m on for my heart’s health. The reason for the PFT test is to measure my lung diffusion ratio, and mine could use some improvement. We have decided that I should have the test at an interval less than a year as it has been. I felt the last one in December ’16 was too close to my getting over a cough that lasted 4 weeks and kept me home to get well. He agreed and I will be having another test in April. I am on Amiodarone therapy, which can scar my lungs, but I have successfully been on it since 2010, and I am not a good candidate for the replacement drug.

We also discussed the heart medication I have been on for a couple of years, Telemisartan (generic) for Micardis. He has been following the literature on a new drug, Entresto, which is a combination of two drugs, Sacubitril (24 mg) and Valsartan (26 mg). [That’s actually half-n-half, going by the number of molecules.] Dr. Kim is convinced that while it is an expensive drug, he recommends it for me because it will make me feel better now for my activities (not that I have any complaints), and it will prolong my life. How can one say no to that statement? The frustration is, I am being taken off a heart medication that was previously thought to be superior for my case, and we were slowly increasing the dosage to reach the amount shown in cases to prolong life. That medication (mentioned above) was very expensive and my insurance was not covering it sufficiently. I could get it less expensively at a different pharmacy by paying cash and not going through my insurance company (Group Health). The other frustration was that I did not know of this possibility of change, and I had just last week bought 135 tablets of the Micardis. Oh, well. My Dr. said, “Just keep it, in case your body will not tolerate this new one.” I have to watch out for a blood pressure over 140 (systolic) and not less than 100. I need to be aware of my potassium level, and if I experience shortness of breath or flu-like symptoms, I am to go to the ER. Well, that is a bit scary. I am to leave off the Micardis for 2 days, and start taking the Entresto Thursday morning. The cardiologist’s nurse gave me a week’s supply.

We had another interruption while visiting with the doctor. He was paged from the hospital’s Critical Care unit about one of his patients there. He managed that with us in the room. It was a fascinating dialogue. He returned to dictating our discussion of the day, and answering my questions. He is always very patient with all our discussions and John and I both are involved. I always receive a copy of his comments, mailed to me by the transcriptionist.

He finally called in the nurse to go over the new medication with us, and said his adieus, but not before saying he wants me to come back in a month to see how I’m doing on the new drug. I looked at my watch and realized he was with us (including the interruptions) for 2 hours. That is a record. Previously, he has spent normally an hour every visit, and at the most I think we were with him previously was for 1.5 hrs.

When we left, we still had to go to Costco, and we never had eaten lunch. John had packed along two large chocolate chip/nut cookies, a Snickers bar, and Pepsis, so we nibbled on the way home. The snow started hard while we were in with the doctor. Our car was covered when we went out. I drove for the return trip too. First stop was Costco to fill my car, and it was $2.49/gal., which is 9¢/gal cheaper than Ellensburg. Then we went inside and bought over $200 worth of long-term products and some groceries. The ‘Tax’ software was the biggest single item.

I returned a $9 pair of slippers (good) and we forgot a $9 pizza (bad) that got put on the bottom rack under the basket. We came upon slowing traffic and could see it stopped way out in front. I managed to get to the off ramp for the downtown exit and we went around (whatever it was) via city streets and back to I-82 at the Selah Gap. We thought we might have to drive through Selah to enter the freeway farther north, but we were able to re-enter where Hwy 12 comes in from the west. The trip home was complicated by snow blowing across the road making some icy spots. I slowed down considerably. We were getting snow/icy rain all the way home for the last 25 miles. Finally, we made it safely home at 6:00 p.m. in the dark. A couple of cats were waiting to be fed, and our dog was happy to greet us. The horses had been preemptively fed – hay left for them in several places so John only had to unload some of the items from the car.

My cell phone stopped working today. It will not hold a charge, and when it is charged, it will not dial a number, even where I am close to a tower. The Consumer Cellular folks think it is the SIM card, and I think it is the battery.

Wednesday, Jan 11

For Jan 10 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 0.35. Events: 2 H, 9 RERA. Time on 5 hrs 47 min with (max = 20 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 % low on a 54 spurious start; actual low, 84, avg. low was 89.1, 25 events <88% with overall avg., 91.3%. Pulse avg. 57.8, low 50.

Today was another cold day. I picked up Gloria and her sister and we went to the Food Bank to sing and eat, and on to the SAIL exercise class at the Ellensburg Adult Activity Center. We stopped at Grocery Outlet on the way home, and they got some stuff they needed. Gloria brought me some of her homemade peanut butter cookies.

John checked the web and gave me some links to the Novartis Pharmaceutical Corporation site about my new medication. The company is in Boston, MA, so getting through to the Eastern Time Zone could not happen until tomorrow. Meanwhile, I studied their website and found some programs I am interested in, and for which I will apply. One is a free 30-day supply (one time only) of the new medication. Second is an application for a cash rebate on the price for a month’s supply (60 tablets), when paid for through my insurance. It costs me $10 to use the system to apply $100 off the price. In order to qualify for both I have to download and fill out an Enrollment Form for the ENTRESTO Central Patient Support Program. To speed up the process, I could FAX it to Boston. I cannot FAX, so I filled in the form, printed it, along with both sides of my Group Health insurance card, and took it to my pharmacist on Thursday afternoon to send in with the prescription.

We do not yet know the cost to me, but the normal cost ranges from $400 to $500 per month. I hope to know by Tuesday with a telephone call from Boston, MA.

I am happy John found this support. The folks at the Yakima Heart Center were not aware of it, so I sent all the details via email to my cardiologist’s nurse so that they can give that information to anyone else put on the drug. There is one other opportunity for help with the cost of the drug for people in financial need. We do not qualify for that, but it is nice the company provides the option.

I did not have time today to worry about the cell phone problems.

Thursday, Jan 12

For Jan 11 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 0.34. Events: 2 CSR, 2 H, 13 RERA. Time on 5 hrs 51 min with (max = 16 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 87, 5 events <88% with avg., 91.3%. Pulse avg. 56.5, low 51.

This morning, I dealt with the drug cost reduction request and my cell phone.

I called the pharmaceutical company in Boston and learned that they had received my application this morning that was FAXed yesterday afternoon. At least the process has begun, and they will call me Tuesday with the determination of in network pharmacy vs. out of network pharmacy costs to me.

I also called Oregon about my cell phone problems. We went through several “shocks” to the system but it failed to kick in. They suggested I move to a place in Ellensburg and they would try again. I carried it and John’s cell phone with me to check this afternoon after we finish our music.

Before I change the SIM card in my phone I have to record all the numbers in my cell phone onto hard copy. I have started that process, but have many to go. I have over 500 numbers in my phone! Thankfully, it will keep a charge long enough for me to work on the number retrieval.

We play at the Meadows today, and John is coming along with me to buy groceries and animal feed while I am inside playing music. I handed out the new music for Jan/Feb. We had a turnout of 10 with two new players, one on the harmonica and the other on guitar. We only had two fiddlers there today. The rest of the group was playing guitars. One of our guitar players will be gone for at least 3 weeks for knee surgery.

I attempted calling the cell phone place, and it did not work. The alternative was to go to a Target store to buy a new SIM card. The closest Target store is 50 miles away. She then asked if we had a Sears store. They will reimburse me for the changed SIM card cost ($10). We went by our small local Sears on the way home, and I bought one, but as of yet, I have not been able to put it in my phone, because the new one will not fit. She said they would send me a new one (but if I cannot make the Sears one get into the slot, I will not get a credit). The other one coming is free, in the mail. I plan to continue recording numbers, try to fit the Sears one in the phone, and if it does not fit into my old flip phone, I will wait for the new one to arrive in the mail after Monday’s holiday.

Friday, Jan 13

For Jan 12 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 0.12. Events: 1 H, 12 RERA. Time on 8 hrs 20 min with (max = 12 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 89, 0 events <88% with avg., 92.1%. Pulse avg. 59.2, low 52. This was a good night, probably the best in months.

Our temperature was -7°F here last night and it was -12 at the airport (located 5 miles down valley).Our full moon has been lovely, and this morning’s sunrise skies were beautiful with pastel colors, but I did not get my picture of the moon before it went behind the trees, so I will show you, but you best get the wonderful views from the Seattle area.
People in Seattle have cameras

Here are my shots this morning, only of the sunrise:Left is our backyard view where the moon is setting behind the trees, and right is out the front door.
See tomorrow’s blog below for the full moon a day later.

John just came in and said the water to the horse trough was not functioning. It is almost full, but he took some water out to add, and the heater is still keeping the water in it from freezing. The heater has to stay submerged. I guess that is what many hours of “minus” temperatures causes. But more below.

I called and found that my paperwork to Novartis had made it, but they will not have a decision until next Tuesday or Wednesday about the cost of my prescription using my insurance.

I called the Cardiopulmonary Services at KVH Hospital to check on an appointment for me in April. I need to have a work order sent to them by my cardiologist. I wrote an email to my cardiologist’s nurse requesting she do that.

We stayed home today.

Saturday, Jan 14

For Jan 12 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 0.50. Events: 1 CSR, 4 H, 19 RERA. Time on 8 hrs 2 min with (max = 22 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 44 spurious, actual low, 89, 0 events <88% with avg., 92.6%. Pulse avg. 56.4, low 50.

These were my views of the morning’s slightly less than full moon viewed out the back patio door, where I missed photographing it the past couple of days.Compare to the link given above for yesterday from KOMONEWS (in Seattle) of the beautiful full moon.

Travel to town was scheduled – despite the cold. It was only 4° when we got to Ellensburg. It was warmer at our elevation.

The first visit was to a friend from my past and present, Trinity Turner. I have known her mother for 25 years (through fiddling). She is now a student at CWU (in the Geography Dept.), and when classes do not conflict, she plays fiddle with our group visiting nursing homes. Small world. She was giving this desk away on the Free Box site on Facebook, and I asked John if he could use it for his computer and our moved router. He figured he could, so I asked for it, and she was happy to give to a friend. It had been given to her. We got the measurements and John figured we could fit it into the back of my Subaru with the back seats pushed down. It is 56.5″ high, about 3′ wide, and about 17″ deep.It is still in the back of my car, along with 80 pounds of Black Oil Sunflower seeds in 20# bags that were on sale (through the end of January) at Ace Hardware. Buy one at $15.99 and get one free. John has now removed the sunflower seeds.
Maybe on Monday, the cart.

I picked up my one med (cheaper, $5.00) at Super 1 Pharmacy. I wish all my pills were that price. This is for 3 months of Spironolact, one pill daily.

Today we bought a heat tape for our horse trough pipe and the temps went up enough that John got a pencil trickle, left it open, went to feed the horses, and when he returned, the pencil-thin stream had rid the stand-pipe of the ice and it was in full gush. He has wrapped the pipe with a plastic tarp, then mounded wood chips and snow to keep the minus air off. Later he will install the heat tape in proper fashion. We are, in fact, a bit warmer now but a major change will not occur until Tuesday.

We also picked up a package for a gal in town who lives near us, delivered it, and in return she is giving me a sheet I can spread over my recliner. The flannel sheet I have had has worn threadbare, with holes in the part over the right arm of the chair. I cannot pick up the sheet until next week when I drive by her house from town on my way home.

Sunday, Jan 15

For Jan 14 CPAP. Reported figures. AHI= 0.96. Events: 1 CSR, 8 H, 19 RERA. Time on 8 hrs 21 min with (max = 21 L/min). Oximetry: SpO2 low 82 spurious at start, actual low, 87, the 1 event <88% with overall avg., 92.6%. Pulse avg. 58.1, low 52.

We just spent a lovely 20 minutes on the phone with John’s cousin Ethel and her daughter Pat in Brookville, PA. Ethel is 98, still living by herself, but goes for Sunday lunch to her daughter’s, when the weather is not too icy for walking. They had temperatures in the thirties today and not much snow. We are at 18.5° now with a little snow occurring.

John made Crockpot candy (Chocolate, Almond Bark, and dry roasted peanuts) today. The ingredients were left from many months ago – and it was time for them to be used.

Late afternoon, we had a call from Jeri Conklin reporting on our co-owned dog, Daisy, in CA. She and her husband were returning from a Vizsla field trial, where her new trainer had run her in an Open Limited Gun Dog stake. Jeri was able to ride along on one of her trainer’s horses.

Here is the story in her own words when she sent the pictures below (and more) on Facebook:
Today was one of those days when you get to go out and see your child who has been at a trainers for three weeks! Daisy ran in the OLGD this morning at the Vizsla trial – and it was so good to see her so happy! She was confident on her point and the flush was above and beyond as she stood still as a rock. She and Scott have come a long way in a short time and I can only think their relationship will get better and better. The old Daisy was gone and the Daisy Bug that I knew was in there came out in full bloom today. Perhaps her time away from the field made all the difference, she was definitely “hungry” to be out there again and that was very evident. She didn’t place, but she had a gorgeous forward run, sharp/clean bird work – couldn’t ask for more. Thank you Scott for a great job, well done. Here are a few pictures to share with Nancy B. Hultquist and others.
My choice of photos Jeri took today. First, our Happy DAYSeee gal has returned: (the sparkle is back in her eyes at the end of the run today).Now for a peek at today’s action in California at the Vizsla field trial for Cedaridge Kip’s Camelot Shay Tre’ JH (call name Daisy), co-owned by Nancy with Jeri Conklin in Lancaster, CA. The timing for the trial was good. CA is getting hit with rain and/or snow in great amounts, but today was between storms. Friend Sonja with horses and dogs, in South Lake Tahoe, is up to her keister in snow. The Tahoe area has power outages and washed out roads. At the line, wetting down and ready for the breakaway.Daisy on point, with judge’s boot blocking her face. Holding and turning to watch the flush, made her head visible.
{John says: The judge rode in too close to a dog on point. Unless that’s a camera effect.}Scott Azevedo wetting her down after the find before finishing the stake, and on the right, in the “spa” at the end of her run. Look at the water droplets in each photo.

Thank you Jeri for such wonderful coverage of such a happy day in the field. Placements will return. She is back with us. Thanks for all your hard work bringing back her spirit.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan