a memorable week

Back to Friday, 10-27-17 AAC Knighthood Medieval Party
(Apologies for the unfocused left of my camera – no clue why. Maybe I need a new one.)
Dancers, Women Joined by Men

King Curtis & Queen Marilyn Enter

Early Jousting

Final Jousting with Winner

Pictures on Facebook site of Ellensburg Adult Activity Center are the best, so I made a collage from a few of them.The medieval cast, dancers, and one of two tables for lunch.

Back to yesterday, Sunday, October 29

This next link goes way back to Oct 13, when John went to work on a trail at Candy Point trail, near Grand Coulee Dam, WA. The local newspaper sent a fellow, and he interviewed Alan of WTA.
News of Candy Point Trail

Monday, October 30

We published last week’s blog at 9:30 a.m. Whoopee!
We left at 10:15 for Valley Vision. Ran into all sorts of morning issues with road construction, bridge out on Bar 14, slow moving tractor with a front end loader carrying a dead cow, beauty of living in a rural area. On through bicyclists, a runner on a too narrow street, and more traffic, on our way to the eye doctor. Nancy drove in, and John drove home.

My appt was for 10:45 a.m. I got checked in and right away was back for 15 minutes of eye testing, pressure readings 17 & 18, and prep for the surgery. My eyes were dilated, with drops, and I waited 15 minutes for Dr. Li and his assistant to enter the room. He explained the procedure, and had me sign a Medicare form, and date that the eye surgery was happening on my left eye. His assistant explained the eye drops I will be using 4 times a day for 4 days. Prednisolene Acetate, which we picked up at Super 1 pharmacy. John went in for it, as well as getting me some English muffin toasting bread and some hamburger to cook for our lunch (with Swiss cheese).

Tuesday, October 31 HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Started early with loading the dishwasher and running it. I doctored my left eye, and sent last Friday’s videos to the AAC. Now to finish the photos – took me a couple hours, but I sent off 30 to AAC. They’re not up to my usual quality. Maybe a few will be of interest to someone.
My temperature at 9:00 a.m. on 10-31-17 is 96.5° F.

Went at 12:30 p.m. to my rural mile-away neighbor, Celia, for a haircut. She has cut my hair since I arrived in town, in 1988! Now she continues out of her house. I took her a bunch of jelly and salsa jars all wrapped up in paper, for the trip. Someone gave them to me long ago and I just uncovered them in the shed where I park the Forester.

John’s driving me in the truck to drop me off at AAC while he picks up a large barrel composter, bricks, and concrete, and he also brought home bags of leaves. Those from a neighbor 3 doors east of where he picked up the other stuff.

I consulted with Katrina and Tina about the plans for Friday’s Veterans’ Celebration. Then the 3 of us did 22 minutes of vigorous exercise.

On to get gasoline for $2.82/gallon and we put a lot in the Ford 350, and also into two containers for lawn mower, chain saw, and emergency refill of any of the autos getting home on fumes.

I found out my “floater” is normal with the laser surgery procedure used to break up the film on my lens. It will go away in a couple weeks. Let’s hope. John has had Weiss Ring Floaters since December of 2009, so he is not impressed.

Supper was salad with iceberg lettuce, Bleu cheese dressing, cut up Gala apple, cut up smoked chicken breast, and I had Cheezits for croutons. John fixed a casserole he had some of, but I waited for a later night. It had chicken, celery, soup, green beans, and walnuts. And a tiny amount of Lentils – end of bag.

Need to take my meds and get some sleep. Might be difficult with 47 mph gusts banging things around outside and sending noises into the house.

Wednesday, November 1

Winds last night were awful — keeping me awake most of the night, less so for John.
My temperature at 8:38 a.m. 11-1 was 96.7° F.

I had a good breakfast with John before I left for town: Sausage, 2 eggs over easy, and a piece of toast. Late morning I headed for the Food Bank. I got a parking space right by the door, carted my stuff in, checked in, and went back to the bread room, then talked to the new Volunteer coordinator (named Elise). After music and lunch, I was back in the car.

I went on to SAIL class at the activity center. There was a meeting this afternoon from 3:30 to 5:00, which I came back to attend, after filling my car with gasoline, and going by Bi-Mart for supplies. I stayed almost the entire time at the meeting, visiting with all sorts of people I knew and did not know.

Supper: A good salad, apples, lettuce, smoked turkey, pistachios, hard-boiled egg, Bleu cheese dressing and Cheezits. John had some of his casserole, but I didn’t have any tonight.

Thursday, Nov 2

Breakfast: sausage, 2 eggs over easy, toast, and fresh pears.

John had a bunch of outside chores, mainly to repair a fence and get water to the horses, as the irrigation ditch is drying up as water in the creek drops below the outtake. I primarily worked on music to take some today to give to a couple people needing it for tomorrow’s shindig at the AAC for Veterans’ Day celebration (early).

We left for Rehab music at 1:10 p.m. John helped me carry stuff in, and sat in the TV/visiting room to catch up on his WSJ reading. He then came down for the ending and carried my stuff back out to the car.

We left there for the AAC to deliver music for the audience tomorrow, so they have it. While there, I received news of the change in plans for the content order of the program for tomorrow. Our music has been moved to the end, and then we will eat after that.

I worked on music tonight for tomorrow. Changed the key for singing the National Anthem, because I need to start (with the help of our accordion player), the first 3 notes of the song so that everyone is in the same key.

We have to get to bed earlier tonight, to get our rest for the long day tomorrow.
Casserole for dinner. Very good.

Friday, Nov 3

I had forgotten to take off my Oximetry, so did it at 12:32 am. Saturday, before settling in for the night.

Today, John and I left home at 10:30 a.m. with the music and stands I needed for the crew. We had 14 musicians there, and we were last on the program. Our group is the Kittitas Valley Fiddlers & Friends. I played the fiddle with 2 others, one was on a viola, an accordion, guitars, bass mandolin, bass guitar, 12- and 6-string guitars, banjo, and (flute, penny whistle, mini washboard), and harmonica).

Then, the different branches of the military were asked to stand and be recognized. While they were standing, Karen Eslinger (accordion) played each branch’s theme song, and the audience sang along and clapped in time to the music.

Then the staff began serving lunch: meatloaf, baked potato, mixed green salad, apple slices, and a nice celebration piece of cake at the end.

After about ½ the people had been served, and talking dwindled, we started playing our 13 songs (patriotic and USA songs), with the audience having copies of the lyrics to sing along if they wished. Many did. And we received many compliments afterwards. We do this every year at the Senior Center.

Here are some pictures John took and I’ve made into collages.

Apples, plates, and cake for lunch.

Honors for veterans and double MCs leading the ceremony.

Dean was in the Navy. * * * * * Charlie was in the Air Force.

Nancy introducing the musicians & the music, and the band.

They served the musicians our meals at the end of our music.

We left as soon as we could to get home, change clothes, get our boxes of apples ready to take to the WTA office crew, get the directions for getting there loaded, and packed for our trip over. I drove over with John giving me pacenotes along I-90, and leading me through the maze of streets in Seattle. The whole trip was a little over 2 hours. We had 30° temperatures on the pass, with just a bit of snow showers. There was light rain at lower elevations. At the Pass it is 3,000 feet.

We got there in time to visit with a bunch of people we know, and some we did not know quite as well. We ate a nice catered dinner, and began the Volunteer Recognition program. John was recognized for his Work Bench award received after 250 work days on the trails. He started with WTA about 2003 on a week-long trip and now has 265. Full Bench(250) Crosscut Saw (500 days on trail), Greg Friend

Here are two videos I took during the ceremony.

White Hat presented at WTA Volunteer Recognition 11/3/17 Tim Van Beek & Andrea Imler present thanks to Greg Paull
White Hat WTA award

Reya Fore speaks of her involvement in trail work & hiking
Youth Ambassador

Our trip back was fine, and John drove. We got almost to the Pass, and saw a miles long parking lot on the other side of the valley (the westbound lanes of I-90 from about MP 50). Stoppages occurred at Easton and just west of the pass, because of “spin outs” on ice or slush. People go too fast and follow too closely, so when one loses traction there usually are several cars involved.

Saturday, Nov 4

While looking for information on the I-90 closure at the pass after we passed through last night heading west, and then seeing the long stoppage of traffic, after 8:00 p.m. on our way home (we were Eastbound, and saw it on the westbound), looking like a linear parking lot.

I found this from Oct 19 on the Tumwater Canyon (Leavenworth), fall colors, in a “Hyperlapse” video of fall colors. Warning is from Trooper Brian Moore (who is the WA State Patrol District 6 Information Officer for Chelan, Douglas, Grant, Kittitas, and Okanogan Counties). Several weeks ago, we posted his photos of the turnover of a semi trailer rig on Hwy 97, Blewett/Swauk Pass, north of us, on the way to Wenatchee and Leavenworth. His comment with this video – Use pullouts for photos. Do not park on narrow shoulders. (Nancy’s comments from reading the comments following the story): The following video is 31 seconds long, taken from a stationary camera in a patrol car, at 9:03 am., 19 Oct 2017; safety turned on and off parked off the side of the road, and edited afterwards.

John made a barricade by the old red barn from old 2 x 4s we got from our friend Evie’s dismantling of a deck/porch. It was to keep the horses out of where they shouldn’t be, but allow them to get to their horse trough (heated) of water for the winter. John took part of a fence down for our recent hay delivery but did not get it pulled back into place. Today, he moved two 12-foot panels to prevent Breeze from pushing under a temporary rope fence. He’s good at escaping, and stepping through places you would not expect. If none of the other 3 follow him he will soon go back.

Lunch: egg/Swiss cheese omelet (1/4 piece), bacon, fried baked potato, with the last of the Alisha Craig white sweet onions. They are not keepers so over the past 3 weeks or so we’ve been using them. The sales info says they keep just a month. True for some, but these were harvested about 11 weeks ago.

I worked on email chores, photography stuff, medical records (Oximetry), and notes to people about various things. Sent birthday cards (I am very behind), sent out the Earth Science Weekly list, sent to me by a fellow geographer in Michigan I have known many years, put away cleaned dishes, and all the normal chores around the house we’d ignored the end of this week. I need to spend a bunch of time on the photographs John took yesterday at the Veteran’s Celebration, and I took last night at the WTA Volunteer Recognition Event at REI.

Finally finished the letter to Alan Carter Mortimer at WTA. Alan had been north of Seattle during the day, and got snowed on. He thought maybe we would not try to come. John knew the storm was going to arrive later at the Pass, and we zipped up and down into Puget Sound without incident.

Worked on music tidying up for next July 4, using the stuff from yesterday’s Veterans’ day, so I’m set to go then. We use the same music. I need to change the stuff I’m carrying back to the Oct-Nov music through the end of this month. Then we change to December and Christmas music, with a couple lead-ins of Thanksgiving songs.

Supper: shared two chicken TV dinners, both chicken different types.

John beat me to bed, but now I’m collapsing there. Supposed to snow tomorrow, and the field trip he was planning to go on was cancelled. Glad we made it over to Seattle and back last night. The Seattle weather forecasts are good for 2 or 3 days out. Systems develop on the Ocean and how they come into the Puget Lowland is well understood.

Sunday, Nov 5

John started by broom pushing snow, feeding the birds, and two outside cats. He also ordered more ink cartridges for our printer and a new heated water bowl for the outside feral cats that now arrive morning and night and throughout the day at our front porch.

I’ve worked a lot on email changes from the old account, and on emails about last week’s activities. I need to get to work on the blog and all the Veterans and WTA photos.

We are about ready to have breakfast: omelet, bacon, toast and a few fried potatoes – mostly left from yesterday.
Supper was a nice salad, and then baked chicken, a half of a baked potato, with baked apples on the side.

Great news from Jeri Conklin, right before I ate:
Daisy had a nice weekend of runs as well with a 4th place win out of 18 dogs in the Open Gun Dog yesterday. Today, she had another nice run with great bird work and didn’t place, but I’m so proud of her. She handles so nicely for me. Thank you Nelson Kennels, Scott and Deanna Beals-Azevedo and Linda Azevedo. Nancy B. Hultquist – I couldn’t have asked for more from her. 7 birds on Saturday, 3 birds today. No pictures as it was so late yesterday. Thank you judges Greg Knight and Warren Eizman for yesterday’s recognition. Judge Jeff Rhine, it was a pleasure to present her to you today.

Hope Your Week Was Fine
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

SNOW

The mountains of Washington got snow Saturday and Sunday. Most of the State got some except for the very south and southeast. The highest totals are about 2 feet, but only Pikas live there.
Pikas do not hibernate, so they must spend the short alpine summers gathering food for the winter ahead. This frenzied activity consists of gathering large quantities of plants in their mouths and scurrying back to designated storage areas called “haystacks” to let the plants dry.
Link to NPS site

This morning we woke to about 2 to 3 inches. I cleaned some spaces off and placed Sunflower seeds for the birds. The Collared Doves came right away. Then came California Quail. Smaller birds include Finches and Dark-eyed Juncos. Around here the latter are called Oregon Juncos.
Junco with photo

We have just had brunch, I’m watching birds, and Nancy is working on her weekly report. We think it will get done today.

Cheers to all,
John

On The Go Again, Continued

… so see previous post

Back to yesterday, Sunday, October 22

Report from Jeri Conklin about our dog, Daisy’s running in the Southern San Joaquin Brittany Trial, in CA. Here’s a collage of the day.Daisy on one of her best runs this year; Scott handling her away from the covey of quail find (she had two), at the end with Jeri Conklin. Sadly, with the good run, and 2 covey finds handled well, she was not included in the placements.

Monday, October 23

No CPAP – Oximetry for Oct 22: SpO2 low 84, 15 events <88% with overall avg., 92.2%. Avg. low SpO2, 90.2%. Pulse avg. 55.1, low 50. Slept 7 hrs 1 min. At 9:39 a.m. BP 127/69 pulse 63

Found out Gloria is moving to Hearthstone, to a 2-bedroom apartment upstairs.

Things we delivered yesterday included a 5-gallon bucket of Black walnuts still in their husks and a box of Carpathian walnuts out of their husks, we left on their front porch.

A collage of Amy’s Haley photos, she posted on Facebook. Haley, excited find; cracked with cool nutcracker; picked half.

The next collage is of the preschool science activities Amy set up for this week, with the walnuts:Black walnuts in husks, tree leaf comparison, the husked black walnuts from our yard. The Carpathians (English) we gave them that John already husked, many of them fall to the ground with the husk open already, unlike the Black Walnuts.Only the title page with 4 pages of a cool “primer” book Amy Davison made for teaching about nuts in their Preschoolers’ class. They also examined the different nuts and tasted them.

At 10:05pm BP 113/63 pulse 64

Late afternoon, we went to the Eberhart orchard and picked mostly HoneyCrisp apples, with a few Galas, and a very few Romes.Probably Galas on tree; boxed after picked, HoneyCrisp, perhaps.

Tuesday, October 24

No CPAP – Oximetry for Oct 23: SpO2 low 84, 11 events <88% with overall avg., 92.1%. Avg. low SpO2, 90.3%. Pulse avg. 55.6, low 50. Slept 8 hrs 15 min

John left at 5:55 a.m. for Grand Ridge, in Issaquah Hts., WTA trail work, supposedly in good weather today. Low at airport overnight was 32° when John was leaving this morning (airport is 5 miles south of us).

My temperature at 10:44 a.m. on 10-24-17 is 96.8°F.
I slept in late! Frost on the ground still from last night.
Wrote Katrina about the Nov 3 plans, copied Karen E.
Unloaded dishwasher; started soaking & loading again, all day, working on it. Finally, I started it late.

By Bi-Mart for checking numbers (didn’t win), checked but they are out of anymore Fisherman’s Friends. I have lived on them the past 5 weeks and am continuing this week.

I fed the outside cats, and let Annie out to meet John. He called from just down the road. Except for the Appreciation Event on Friday, Nov. 3, this is his last WTA trip for 2017.

John got home at 5:25 p.m., before dark! He took Annie for her evening run and to check on and feed the horses.

My temperature at 10:12 p.m. on 10-24-17 is 97.2° F.

Wednesday, October 25

No CPAP – Oximetry for Oct 24: SpO2 low 85, 4 events <88% with overall avg., 91.5%. Avg. low SpO2, 89.2%. Pulse avg. 57.1, low 50. Slept 9 hrs 15 min. Long haul; guess I needed it. My temperature at 9:52 a.m. today was 97.7° F.

I had a good breakfast with John before I left: omelet with onions & mushrooms, piece of farm bread toast. I arrived late, had help carting my violin and music into the FISH Food Bank, went on in to visit with people, and played music from noon to 12:30. I didn’t stay for lunch because of my big breakfast.

I ran some errands around town, talked to Gloria, and found her at the Millstone Loop house, dropped off some rolls and the prunes and she’ll pay me the $9 later (for the prunes from Costco). We visited and I left. She will come down to the Garden Room tomorrow for music at Hearthstone, from her new apt.

I went on to SAIL class at the activity center (seniors). Got home after SAIL was over, about 3:00 p.m. and started on things around here.

John showed me the flue cap for our wood stove. It was so cold last December and January we burned wood for about 7 weeks straight. Not good. Not advised. The burning ember screen at the top had completely closed up with “First Degree Creosote Buildup” – look it up. That caused the stove to quit. With howling wind and minus temperature, he did not clean it then. Today was the day to have a look. He climbed up and took the cap off and brought it down to clean. He has taken photos to send to the Fosseems place in Yakima, where we bought it. They might be interested, or not.

Here is a photo:Lower right, for scale, are 3 Black Walnuts in their husks.

One on-line site claims these things should be removed and cleaned every two weeks. The smallish screen size is the standard to prevent embers from escaping. As the wood stove is meant for emergencies, maybe we will stick to that plan.

Supper: John fixed a nice bowl of Chili and beans, onions, for our dinner. It was scrumptious, and also he cut up a Rome apple for me to eat with it. I love Romes as eating apples. I don’t think we picked very many.

Thursday, October 26

No CPAP – Oximetry for Oct 25: SpO2 low 85, 8 events <88% with overall avg., 91.3%. Avg. low SpO2, 89.8%. Pulse avg. 56.1, low 50. Slept 8 hrs 20 min.

Breakfast: sausage, piece of omelet with mushrooms & onions, white toast w/ strawberry jam, fruit cocktail.

My temperature was 97.1° F at 10:35 a.m.

David arrived at 10:45 to trim Myst. I carried him the check and John got Myst. Annie got to visit with Dave and be petted.

We’re leaving (1:10 P.M.) for Hearthstone music at 2 P.M. and John will help me carry stuff in, and also will sit in the activities room and catch up on his reading of the WSJ.

We visited with a few folks before leaving, and Amy took a photo of me with Haley in our Halloween outfits. I’ll merge it with one of Haley in the Japanese Gardens at CWU. The fall of the year is a beautiful time to visit there. The resulting collage is below:Haley w/ Spider Web, Nancy w/ Pumpkins in Love, John in back, portrait of Haley in CWU’s Japanese Gardens, by mom, Amy.

Afterwards, we will run by 3 places before coming home. We went first to Super 1 for their sales, and never made it to the CWU surplus sale before 4:00 closing, but went by 110 10th, in the alley behind, to check on a composter’s size a woman is giving away. We could not find it. I found it later in the week.

Late lunch about 5:25 bowl of chili, beans, onions, tomatoes, John made yesterday.

Supper at 8:00 p.m., was salad with iceberg lettuce, bleu cheese dressing, pistachios, cut up Gala apple, cut up smoked turkey breast from Super 1 we got today, we each had a large AA hard-boiled egg, and I had Cheezits for croutons.

A mouse has been coming in at night, behind my recliner and bothering me. John set a trap. Just before 10:00 p.m. the mouse went to meet her/his maker. Three days later the reset trap with peanut butter and a Cheezit was untouched. No more mice in the den, so it is reset in the garage, where no cats can enter.

My temperature at 10:16 p.m. on 10-26-17 is 97.5° F.

We are enjoying a dessert of chocolate cake with roasted walnuts on top of chocolate frosting and a bit of ice cream.

Friday, October 27

No CPAP – Oximetry for Oct 26: SpO2 low 85, 16 events <88% with overall avg., 91.9%. Avg. low SpO2, 87.4%. Pulse avg. 59.1, low 55. Slept 4 hrs 59 min. (on Oximeter), & went another 4 hrs. off; battery died. My temperature at 10:06 a.m. on 10-27-17 is 97.4° F.

I went for my INR and BMP today. Got there about 1:00 p.m.; received my results at home at 4:00 p.m. INR=3.0 (better); BMP had the Sodium up to 134 (yea); Potassium was a little high at 5.0, creatinine was elevated at 1.5, but at the moment I do not have my personal reference. Being high means I’m dehydrated, or something, so to be watched. Not sure how with all I have been drinking, and the PowerAdeZero. Today was a diuretic (Lasix) day, but I didn’t take it until after I was home from the blood draw. ??? My PCP will be asked Monday, if I should have it checked Nov. 10 with the others.

I went to the AAC, with two cameras, John’s and mine, but only used mine. I should have used John’s for the portraits, because mine wasn’t focusing well on the left side of the lens. I did get some good videos, however, that I couldn’t have gotten with John’s camera. Oh well, live and learn.

I haven’t processed those photos yet, so they will have to wait for a small collage and at least 2 videos.

Went by Suzanne Blakeney’s and found the composter she is willing to give us, but John needs to unload the truck and go back next week for it. I have known her many years at CWU, where she was a student, and took at least one of my classes.

Upon arriving home, found a message that took me back to EBRG. Potatoes had arrived from Moses Lake and the folks did not want to chance a freezing temperature. I had 3 boxes of 50# of clean baking Russet potatoes. Help was there to load as I can’t lift 50 pounds. Dropped one box off at Celia’s (my neighbor a mile away). I’ll take the other in on Tuesday or Wednesday to my friend from S. Cle Elum, who I’ll see at an exercise class and the Food Bank.

My temperature at 10:51 p.m. on 10-27-17 is 97.2° F.

Saturday, October 28

No CPAP – Oximetry for Oct 27: SpO2 low 83, 17 events <88% with overall avg., 91.5%. Avg. low SpO2, 87.3%. Pulse avg. 58.7, low 52. Slept 8 hrs 4 min.

Called in our Rx – John’s Lisinopril 30 and my Amiordarone 200 (cut into ¼ parts). They will have them ready today !

My temperature at 9:30 a.m. on 10-28-17 is 97.4° F.

I spent over an hour cleaning and loading the dishwasher and tossing food cans and tops. Phew. Wore me out. John’s been doing outside chores.

We went to pick apples this afternoon at Eberhart’s. We picked for a couple hours, mostly Galas, we think. Came away with about 10 boxes, and we both picked the entire time. The main purpose is to take boxes on Monday (after my eye surgery) to the AAC (Senior Center) for them to wash and use at two events this week, if they wish. Wednesday, Nov 1 is a special event there to have Aging and Long Term Care, Pacifica Senior Living, Hospice Friends, RSVP, and KVH Advanced Care Planning to have an open house to provide information to the community from 3:30 p.m. to 5:00 about issues important to seniors. There will be raffle door prizes, refreshments, live music, and information provided.

Next is a Veterans Day event planned for Nov 3, Friday, at the AAC. [ Photo from last year ]Nov 3 this Friday’s lunch (and people have to sign up by Wednesday, 11/1), (knowing the names of the veterans to be there is important for planning the program honoring of each branch of the military, after the lunch. A count is needed for the people there to eat lunch, as well as the veterans who will be in attendance. This is an annual event in honor of Veterans in our community. Be there by 11:30 and seated for lunch (and for our playing, Fiddlers & Friends). A color guard starts the ceremony. Vets are encouraged to wear their uniforms or insignia of their military service branch. A meal will be served of Meatloaf, Baked Potato, and sides, with beverages, cold and hot. Our music group, Kittitas Valley Fiddlers & Friends will play 13 songs about America and the U.S A., starting after everyone is served. The audience will have the lyrics to the songs, to sing along. After the 13 songs, everyone will stand, face the flag, salute, and sing the National Anthem: The Star-Spangled Banner (acapella) – no instruments, although I will start the song (in the key of F – so the notes are not too high to sing).

We had to go to town first to drop off 2 flat tires from John’s Gorilla Cart, to have repaired. They told us they would have them ready in the afternoon, and gave us a number to call to check before we drove the 20 minutes back to town.

We also had to stop at Super 1 for a prescription for John and one for me, and while I was getting them, he went and bought some produce for us. We had beautiful sunny weather and lovely autumn leaves to view on our trips around the county.

We probably picked 10 boxes of apples, (mostly donated wine boxes, from Grocery Outlet). We gave one box to the people at Les Schwab. The only cost we incurred was for one tube. They were thrilled with the apples and while we were there, several were eaten – unwashed – oh well. On our way home, we dropped a box off with Carole Pritchett. We stopped and shared a box of apples with the Farrars, checked with Charlie but someone already gave them some, called another family, but they were out of town, until Sunday, so we decided not to risk freezing temps. We carried a box to our neighbor a mile up Naneum from us, Allen Aronica. We still have apples we picked last week at the same place. I had my camera with me today, but didn’t take it with me to the trees. Could have had some lovely pictures of red apples surrounded by yellow leaves, with rays of sunshine. Instead, it will just have to be in our memories. We truly enjoyed the red colors around very vivid this year. Red maples and shorter thorny shrubs in peoples’ yards gave us nice colors.

Sunday, October 29

No CPAP – Oximetry for Oct 28: SpO2 low 85, 7 events <88% with overall avg., 91.1%. Avg. low SpO2, 89.1%. Pulse avg. 55.9, low 50. Slept 7 hrs 31min.

I gave John a long awaited haircut, and then he fixed us a late brunch.

We had smoked turkey on a large egg with Parmesan cheese, and a piece of toast. The turkey was the last of a pre-packaged thinly sliced bag – not really tasty. The store was out of their own smoked pieces that are great, so this was the substitute. Now gone.

I just went out and admired John’s cleaning up of the garage. He’s frustrated with all the stuff that needs thrown away or moved from there. He had me look at 2 boxes that had not been opened since I shipped them from my mother’s house in Atlanta many years ago. One box I recognized. One I don’t remember having seen it. We park expensive autos outside and store junk in the garage. I’m helping by staying inside and working on chores in the house, on the computer, and need to work on the blog.

My temperature at 3:15 p.m. on 10-29 was 96.7° F.

Dinner was a part of a baked potato with roast beef over the top, with onions, tomatoes, gravy, mushrooms, celery, and cauliflower raw on the side with Bleu Cheese dressing.

Nice dessert – small piece of Pecan Pie with a little ice cream. I deserve it after weighing without clothes, and my weight is down. I need to go in for my weigh in, and measurements I have missed for over a month. At least I won’t have to take a shower in the cold morning, in the far reaches of our house.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

On the go again …

Likely we’ll do the weekly news Monday night.
John
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
We’ve had a busy week.
Both the weather and Nancy were in good form.
Monday: We did a multi-purpose trip to EBRG, came home, and went across the valley to pick apples. Pictures at 11.
Nancy played and sang with the music group on Thursday.
And, she spent time getting things set for next week when the Senior Center hosts a Veterans Day event on Friday – yes, early, but the 1st Friday of a month is the day for special events.

Saturday we went again for apples and delivered 4 boxes to friends as we came home.
Much of this coming week looks good, weather wise. Then a change is due, and more winter-like will replace fall. We are supposed to go to Seattle Friday afternoon and return between 8 – 10 P.M. Snow is expected on the Pass on Saturday. Weather forecasts beyond 3 days are not too reliable, so we will be reading about the weather all week.

And speaking of reading:
The local paper began printing a new cartoon in spring. It is called “Breaking Cat News.” It is one of the better current comics.
For about a week the story line has been about Halloween and the cats have seen strange beings coming and knocking on the door demanding things. This week the cats are dressed up in costumes and they are not happy. Have a look.

Breaking Cat News

I spent 15 minutes this week on the web site learning about the artist/creator, about the cats, and the neighbors.
You can go back a week or so and then follow along.

Cheers,
John

Life Goes On, Activities Resumed

Tuesday, October 17

No CPAP – Oximetry for Oct 16: SpO2 low 86, 5 events <88% with overall avg., 93.3%. Avg. low SpO2, 91.3%. Pulse avg. 56.5, low 50. Slept 6 hrs 42 min.

Awoke to high BP and sunny cold weather. John is performing the final editing on last week’s blog, and I’m working on music for our group, to send PDFs today to emails and schedule Thursday’s and Saturday’s play dates, at Pacifica and Briarwood. I’m behind as usual.

My temperature at 10:48 a.m. on 10-17-17 is 97.2°F.
I checked the price of gasoline vs. Love’s lowest in Ellensburg and Union Gap at Costco, on gasbuddy.com). Holy Mackerel! Costco’s price is $2.69/gallon; that’s 16 cents less /gallon than Ellensburg!
We’ll go to Costco tomorrow, while I’m not able to do my normal Wednesday activities.

Morning, I finished the PDFs for music and numbered them for the audience and players, playlist and songs 1-23. Some toward the end (19-22) were 2 pages so those had to be fixed as a “centerfold”, with p.1 on the left and p2 on the right. Copying back to back requires some concentration in setting up correctly.

I made it in and with my ream of paper, cash for copies, and master for audience copies and same for 7 players copies (those who cannot print their own because of no computer/printer set up). I ran into problems on 6 of the 7 copies, when the machine skipped a page toward the end of the #19, and screwed up the last 4 pages. I did not realize it until I got home. I had to recreate them on my printer, so they would be readable for the players, 2 pages at a time. That took me 2 hrs. to straighten out. I was not happy. I had also forgotten to have the 3 holes punched in the players’ copies (I don’t put them in the audience copies, and run those with 2 staples along the side of the binder). That error explained why I didn’t use the whole ream of paper, as expected.

I picked up Music bag from Amy (after calling to have her set it out on the porch), and came on home. I needed to sort the music into the proper stacks to carry in.

John doesn’t want me to add this to my blog, but I want to, because I have been in this area, and was happy he went to work on the Candy Point trail there, near Grand Coulee Dam, on a WTA project, Friday, Oct 13, 2017, on what would have been my parents 80th anniversary.Alan & John dig root ball, John & Mike rock barring, and the rocky trail.USGS topo Location, Dam; John preparing to leave on Friday; right side – Sunday’s rattlesnake.

Wednesday, October 18

No CPAP – Oximetry for Oct 17: SpO2 low 86, 3 events <88% with overall avg., 93.6.1%. Avg. low SpO2, 92.0%. Pulse avg. 56.1, low 50. Slept 9 hrs 5 min.

I had canceled out of Food Bank music and SAIL exercise today.

I spent my morning (after sleeping in), on finishing most of the PDF making (of 24 sheets of paper). Each took 3 minutes of scanning to get what I could send to those who would print their own music. I have only sent one person the stuff because she was in Seattle and with her printer there, and wouldn’t have one when she got to Cle Elum. I sent to her, but waited to send to the others until I got home and had run the copies of the music, so I could tell them what was going to happen with it, tomorrow, when I went by to deliver the bag to the front desk at Pacifica.
She found I had missed sending one of the PDF files, got back to me, and I sent it later in the day, and added to what I was going to send to the others the next day.

John worked outside and then came in and fixed a nice brunch for us to eat before leaving for town. He fixed 2 eggs over easy, bacon, and a piece of toast.

We left finally at 1:17, stopping first by Airport Rd, to drop off our WSJ’s to a gal (Jana) who is a business student and enjoys reading them. We went to school and I took about 25 minutes running music for audience and for players for Oct–Nov starting tomorrow at Pacifica. John sat in the lobby waiting for me, and reading today’s Wall St. Journal.

From there, we went over to the bread room for supplies. I got a lemon pudding cake to have with our strawberries and a loaf of multi-grain bread for Amy. Picked up music bag from Amy’s and gave her the bread.

We had another, last stop, to make before heading to Yakima. We went by Barney Erickson’s in southeast EBRG with $19.50 cash for russet potato orders (3 boxes). He was mowing his lawn and so we found him outside. Unfortunately, I assumed he was to get the money but I was wrong. He had taken his money to the Richmond’s on Gail Road, near where we had just been when delivering the Wall St. Journals. Darn, we had to go back to the northwest to drop it off because this was the deadline. That really threw us behind on time, and we decided not to go to Costco until tomorrow.

We came home and got everything out of the car by 3:50 p.m.
I realized after getting a Patient Experience Survey about my visit to KV Hospital, to give my review of my Oct 4 visit to the ER. It came to our old account so I managed to call Connie at the front desk and she changed the records to list only the new gmail address. Each day, something happens that I hadn’t thought of and another address change gets made. I’m running out of time.

Thursday, October 19

No CPAP – Oximetry for Oct 18: SpO2 low 85, 6 events <88% with overall avg., 92.9%. Avg. low SpO2, 90.1.%. Pulse avg. 57.2, low 49. Slept 8 hrs 15 min with 3 hrs. 53 min. off Oximeter. No clue why, except for the potty stop of 16 min.

Just after 11:00 a.m., we took the black music bag by Pacifica, on our way out of town to go to Costco, stopping by Super 1 for my prescription payment, and buy a dozen eggs each for $.68/dozen. The sale price was for a “Fall Stock Up” promotion. They had a limit of 1 dozen. Donuts we also on the flyer and a couple of other things usually preferred fresh. The sale made no sense, but we left with a dozen eggs each. John bought a lotto ticket just to show his lack of acumen of probability.

I drove us to Costco for lunch, and supplies for the house, and gasoline for my car. Nothing new or exciting found. It was a nice haul of regular things to go on the shelf. We bought all sorts of things: Canola oil. We were totally out. We have some older boxed cake mixes and frosting. It is time to use them, and baked late in the evening this provides warmth to the house. John intends to start with a chocolate, with roasted walnuts (our Carpathians) in a chocolate frosting. Also needed toilet paper, dog and cat food, dry and canned Pate’ [some sort of minced animal stuff] for the cats. Also got me some of my almond beverage for my morning coffee, Costco beer (from California, and a non-cola liquid for John), some paper towels, and some size C batteries to put in the outside motion lights he bought the last time we were there. We always buy mushrooms there.

I traded in my Costco rewards for purchases there over the past year (2%), and got $79.37 cash returned.

For lunch, I had a bowl of chili, a small piece of John’s Polish sausage, and we shared a coke.

Supper: salad, lettuce, cooked salmon into small pieces, plums, tomatoes, pistachios, Cheez-Its®.

Friday, October 20

No CPAP – Oximetry for Oct 19: SpO2 low 85, 5 events <88% with overall avg., 92.3%. Avg. low SpO2, 90.8%. Pulse avg. 55.7, low 50 Check. Slept 7 hrs 51 min.

My temperature at 11:22 a.m. on 10-20-17 is 97.6°F.
John fixed us a brunch, and then I left for errands about town.

I went by Safeway to return my Musinex I bought wrongly, not the DM I needed), and knew I could get from Super 1, as before. I was late returning this, but got my cash back.
I went to Super 1 and got 8 quarts of orange PowerAdeZero and picked up my container of halved Entresto pills.
I carried Christmas cards by for Stephanie Bair. I took the base clef music by the Landons, to leave for Beck & Trip.
I went by Pacifica today to pick up my music bag from yesterday, to have tomorrow to take with me to Briarwood.

This was a beautiful sunny day in the county, and our friend Dave Covert went for a hike up the canyon, 2.5 miles from our house. He sent some gorgeous fall photos, which I wish to share with you. We have seen these sights in our past from horseback. He’s quite the photographer. We have known him for well over 20 years, starting at the university in Lind Hall.The beautiful Naneum Canyon, just north of our home.

Saturday, October 21

No CPAP – Oximetry for Oct 20: SpO2 low 85, 7 events <88% with overall avg., 92.0%. Avg. low SpO2, 90.8%. Pulse avg. 55.2, low 50. Slept 9 hrs 50 min.

Breakfast: 3 eggs over medium, bacon, small garlic bread toast, pear pieces, ½ banana.

I took a photo of our smaller than 9.5″ black plastic spatulas, so I can show my friend what we are searching for, and will also put a request on the Free Givers FB site to see if anyone has any to share. I checked at the $ Tree, but they were all way too big.

It’s still raining outside, and rained all night until 5:05 a.m. this morning.

I dressed in my Pumpkins-in-Love Halloween sweatshirt. Everyone liked it. I should have had my picture taken with Haley. The residents do a nice job of hosting us and feeding us after we play music, and sing with them, for an hour. They had pumpkin napkins, Halloween plates, and fall fixings.

I didn’t get home until after 4:00, because I stayed and visited and ate a ton of good food, so I needed no supper here. Hot apple cider, bowl of hot vegetable soup (onions, tomato, carrots, celery), small chicken salad sandwich, some chips, some caramel crisps, a choc chip cookie Betty made – brought some to John, who frosted them with the chocolate frosting he put on his cake.

We ended up with a ton more people than expected: Maury, Gerald, Kevin, Dean, Me, Amy, Haley, Rita, and Laura. Everyone stayed to eat, and we had a huge audience. It rained on people arriving, departing, and while we played. Maury brought his old duplicates of music, and I gave them to Pennie Hammer to take what she wanted and to share the rest with her friends. She has given us much music to add to our repertoire over the years. She appreciates us as much as we appreciate her and her artistic work.

Took pills, a.m., and I took my BP this morning twice.
I left at 1:00 p.m., and pulled in just before 1:30, in the rain. Gerald and Maury beat me there.

John stayed home emptying 5-gallon buckets and a 30-gal garbage can at the end of the V valley of our roof by the front door. He and Annie went up the drive to open the front gate for me. We also get 2 newspapers on Saturday morning, so he made it a multi-purpose hike.

John went for the mail after I got home after 4:00 p.m. and found a nice get well card from the Kittitas Valley Fiddlers & Friends, I had just been with. They were so happy to have me returning, and I was even happier.

Here is the lovely card below:The card was so well chosen, because music is the biggest healer!I had missed 4 play dates with the group; a month. Sharon put it together and had it signed. Thanks, all!
My temperature at 11:30pm on 10-21 was 97.2°F.

Sunday, October 22

No CPAP – Oximetry for Oct 21: SpO2 low 86, 6 events <88% with overall avg., 93.1%. Avg. low SpO2, 90.4%. Pulse avg. 56.0, low 50. Slept 8 hrs 3 min.

My temperature at 8:37 a.m. on 10-22 was 97.2°F.

For morning river basin education, check this out for a colorful expose’ of all the U.S. river basins.Colorful Map U.S. River Basins

Video of the Mississippi River Drainage Basins from around the U.S. to the Gulf Coast. If it works, great. If it doesn’t, or goes very very slowly, too bad. We can’t figure out what happens when it does that.
Try this link

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Saturday evening

Just a short note.
Nancy felt well enough to go play music and consume warm soup at a retirement community center. From 2 to 4, today.

Rain began here on the Naneum Fan in the middle of the night but neither of us know the time. A 30 gallon garbage can under the ‘V’ or valley at the front of the house was filled when we first looked. It has been drained, along with numerous 5 gallon buckets under the drip line.
Rain is supposed to continue, tapering off by 10 AM Sunday.

When I went to the road/mailbox about 4:30 I could see Naneum Ridge, to our north. Back a few miles it goes to 6,000 feet; closer more like 4,000.
There was snow at about 3,000 feet, just 650 feet higher than our house. Traffic cameras and the camera at the Mt. Rainier Visitor Center show snow both south and north of us in the Cascades (to our west).

Local weather lure is that snow will be on us 2 weeks after first appearing on Naneum Ridge. Monday and all of next week are likely to be warmer and dryer. Each day, the forecast will look another day ahead.

We are scheduled to go to Seattle on November 3rd to a WTA event.
Snow is supposed to arrive on November 4th.
The anticipation builds. Stay tuned.

John

Oh! Nancy is now working on her weekly update. No news, there.

Consuming My Time

Monday, October 9

Oximetry for Oct 8, unavailable, because I lost access to the SpO2 Review software that only was stored on the Toshiba laptop.

I cannot see this info until I receive the new Laptop Charger, power supply (scheduled for delivery late tomorrow afternoon, at almost dark) and hopefully I can access the computer’s hard drive by charging the battery.
Today is a holiday, so the USPS is closed. It is now (sadly) in the Ellensburg office, which is not open today, having come all the way from CA.

My first call was to nurse Cody in Cle Elum for the lab report on a BMP—which showed that the potassium calculated last Friday in the Ellensburg hospital lab was 4.5 and the Sodium was up to 126 mEq/L on its way to the low end of the range—133). The range is usually given as 133 – 146.

My first excitement this morning was from morning calls about my CITI Bank Costco card.
The first call I had was an 8:58 a.m. re: CITI BANK fraudulent activity expected on my card. This is not unusual because we had recently had a similar call from American Express for activities that were charged from two different cities in WA on the same day. This call today, however, was not from the credit card security team, but from an Out Of Area number in the 607 area code. I let the automatic answering voice mail machine record the message. It was obviously a scammer, giving me a 1-800 number to call to report my card details to justify fixing the fraud alert. I knew this was not the procedure security used, so I did not call. Instead, I got the number off the back of my VISA card, in question, and called that number for Customer Service, to report the fraudulent activity possibility.

It was immediately answered by the Fraud personnel at VISA, who already had my information (as I suspected), and told me the origin of the 3 suspected charges. The most recent was from Sugarland, TX for my Laptop Charger purchase. I verified that was correctly done and should be paid. The previous two were for $5.00 and $49.95 from a computer service (remotely sent to VISA), which I never heard of or had requested. I told them to cancel those two and not pay them. They did, and then said they would have to issue me a completely new number on a new card, and they would inactivate the existing one. It was only in my name (not John’s card, which has a different number). They were Fed-Ex’ing me a new card overnight, I would get the next day. That happened. I do not know the cost, but the delivery was Overnight, from O’Fallon, MO, for a tiny credit card in a big cardboard envelope. I’m happy they got it to me so rapidly and took care of the fraudulent charges.

When I was in town for my blood draw, last Thursday, and went by Amy’s to retrieve my music bag from her porch and the 5-gallon bucket, I mentioned in the blog last week I would include a photo of the gifts she left in the bottom of the bucket. Just this week, I made a scan of the card parts and then I took a photo of the almost empty box of fruit she left with the Get Well Card. I reported on this last week in the blog and promised to put a picture in this week. Above the top is the envelope’s front calligraphy and back hand-drawn dahlia (by Amy); the bottom is the get well card designed and painted on by Haley (her 4 yr old daughter) with text by Amy. The fruit box pix was too out of focus and you already know what Italian plums and Red Bartlett pears look like.

BP @ 9:10 a.m. was 138/76 pulse 68
BP @ 10:08 a.m. was 133/71 pulse 66 (1-½ Entresto)
BP @ 3:47 p.m. was 113/68 pulse 74 lowered by ”
BP @ 8:27 p.m. was 128/71 pulse 72
BP @ 9:51 p.m. was 118/71 pulse 84
BP @ 11:31 p.m. was 110/55 pulse 67 (1-½ Entresto)

My temperature was 98.7°F at 10:16 p.m.

Tuesday, October 10

Oximetry for Oct 9, still unavailable.

My temperature at 12:57 was 99.0°F (up from the past two days).

Sent a note to Emeriti Geographers about our email change and about the meeting I never scheduled for this morning. I’m sending at 1:05 p.m.

Very late tonight, I sent an email message to KV F&F about the need for this Thursday’s count and about music to bring in place of the new music, I have not yet completed that for Oct/Nov. I’m so far behind on everything needing done, with still feeling poorly, and canceling activities in town, this week.

Last week, when John returned from his work trip, Oct 6, 2017 to Talapus Lake, we never posted any photos from then, because we did not have them yet. Here are three with John in two from that day’s work.John, Rick & green hats, pushing large rock. On the right, the crew is spread along the trail, building and fixing tread.

BP 122/70 pulse 84 8:55 a.m.
BP 123/71 pulse 73 10:00 a.m.
BP 125/71 pulse 89 1:37 p.m. (1-½ Entresto)
BP 118/65 pulse 76 5:51 p.m. lowered by ”
BP 115/64 pulse 71 10:42 p.m. (1-½ Entresto)

Wednesday, October 10

Oximetry for Oct 9, still unavailable.

The laptop charger was not in the mailbox by 6:00 p.m. or 7:00 p.m. last night when John checked for the mail. It arrived late last night (according to tracking system) to our mailbox at 8:49 p.m., last night. It was too late for my ability to try installing the new Laptop Charger to make my Toshiba work.

John went for the overnight mail and the newspapers this morning, and found the package with the laptop charger. That did not solve my access problem as you will see below. First, I need to tell you of my attempt to talk to the postmistress in charge about how the very late delivery affected my health needs.

Problem with late delivery of an important package. I called the local post office for the 3rd time today, where I had left my land line number for a call back from the Postmistress. First, she was out to lunch and I left a message with Sean for her to call my land line, because my cell phone doesn’t always get reception here. Then I called again, and got another clerk, Patti, who told me April was with another customer, so she took all my info again I had given to Sean (#, address, and need to speak with April). I finally called again at 4:07 p.m. and April answered the phone. I told her I had left two messages for her to call me earlier, and she asked my name (again). I told her and my number and that she should have received two requests from me to call. She must have looked then, and said, “Oh you are the next on the stack I was ready to call.” Yeah, like I believe that?

She launched into a defensive answer about why it was late, and how she was at the PO yesterday from early until 10:00 last night, dealing with all the problems that occurred yesterday, and how she finally got to take her lunch break today.

She wanted me to know the reason it was so late (with no apology), that was because of our carrier not showing for work, all carriers were off on their routes, and they were only able to send a substitute out after they returned to the PO. I already learned that from the initial clerk I spoke with.

She further explained, the reason my tracking said it was out for delivery, is they scan every package in the facility going out the “morning” of the delivery. (It wasn’t scanned in until 12:06 p.m. Wednesday, so it would never have been there for our regular carrier to bring to us by his normal late delivery). She claimed they had a very large number of packages to scan yesterday morning after a holiday. Well, I cannot believe all carriers waited until that late to leave for all their deliveries, when some people in town get their mail in early afternoon, and we have in the distant past also gotten our mail delivered earlier in the afternoon (by a different carrier we’d had for years).

Okay … so now I know the reason it really did not leave for delivery to us at 12:06 p.m. and supposedly why it appeared to be delivered so late. My tracking said it was put in the mailbox at 8:49 p.m., Tuesday night.

There is a fallacy in the system, I’d say, if there is not a substitute carrier available in the morning when all the other carriers sort their mail and leave. (Just my honest opinion, while still upset). Her reasoning still does not explain the late time of the scanned out for delivery statement and if it was for our normal carrier’s route, why it was scanned so late, and it took them all the actual delivery time to get the substitute on the route.

Our carrier’s route is only one road, about 9 miles long (Naneum Road), proceeding north and then south. He has no E-W side roads to deliver mail. Even adding his to another carrier’s normal route wouldn’t delay it that long. End of rant.

We still need to leave and it’s 3:52 p.m., with the temperature down to 49°F on our front porch. I had planned to stay home the rest of the day, except for the need to deliver my big black music bag to the flute player’s porch, with the old August/September music books and audience copies, to be distributed tomorrow at the play location. John is going and will carry the bag to the porch, then go to Super 1 for bananas. I called from my cell, once delivered.

BP 139/73 pulse 76 @ 8:14 a.m.
BP 148/76 pulse 73 @ 9:44 a.m. (1-½ Entresto)
BP 118/64 pulse 68 @ 10:42 a.m. lowered by ”
BP 128/69 pulse 79 @ 2:41 p.m.
BP 126/64 pulse 75 @ 3:50 p.m.
BP 115/59 pulse 76 @ 3:56 p.m.
BP 94/47 pulse 71 @ 9:42 p.m.
BP 116/61 pulse 68 @ 11:37 p.m. (1-½ Entresto)

Temperature @ 10:30 a.m. Wed = 97.7°F (down from Tues).
Temperature @ 9:50 p.m. Wed = 98.2°F up a little not > avg.

Very late to bed tonight working on the Toshiba (now accessible) to obtain the information about the SpO2 Review software I needed to download from the site Sam Scripter sent me. The issue was time-consuming at best, but welcomed, and I thank Sam for his assistance in making my Toshiba’s new power supply work to see what was on the old computer’s hard drive. He also told me how to remove the battery and bypass it, to open the Toshiba. We decided it was not the power supply charger that had quit, but that the battery had died. It was only 2 years old, and cost over $100, but without using it, I can still transfer the information on there to my Dell. The power charger has never been replaced, so I am happy keeping it to transfer all my files, folders, and the software I can retrieve, and save the cost of a new battery. The SpO2 Review I most needed was not available in an .exe file on the Toshiba. So, that’s why we had to work around that.

Thursday, October 12

No CPAP – Calculated from Dell, after transferring the same SpO2 Review software version from the Toshiba. It had to be SpO2 Review, ver.1-2 rel. Now, it’s up on my Dell, but it reports the minimum values as <90%, so I have to translate the parameters to events below 88% SpO2, to be consistent with my past reports (since 2014) to my cardiologist and sleep doctor. Oximetry for Oct 11: SpO2 low 84, 17 events <88% with overall avg., 94.1%. Avg. low SpO2, 86.5%. Pulse avg. 59.9, low 53. Slept 5 hrs. 18 min.

10:05, I called Roberta Vorhees with a count today at Meadows of a max of 8 armless chairs for players coming.

I left at 12:35, going for to the Lab at the hospital for blood draws, INR and BMP. After the blood draw, I went back to the front desk for my medical records to date.

On my way from KVCH, I went to Bi-Mart for both kinds of Fisherman’s Friend cough drops. I came home to work on a ton of projects.

BP @ 8:14 a.m. was 139/73 pulse 76
BP @ 9:44 a.m. was 148/76 pulse 73 (1-½ Entresto)
BP @ 10:42 a.m. was 118/64 pulse 68 lowered by ”
BP @ 2:41 p.m. was 128/69 pulse 64
BP @ 3:50 p.m. was 126/64 pulse 75
BP @ 3:56 p.m. was 115/59 pulse 76
BP @ 9:42 p.m. was 94/47 pulse 71
BP @ 11:37 p.m. was 116/61 pulse 68 (took 1-½ Entresto)

Friday, October 13

No CPAP – Oximetry for Oct 12: SpO2 low 84, 17 events <88% with overall avg., 94.1%. Avg. low SpO2, 90.0.x%. Pulse avg. 58.5, low 52. Slept 5 hrs 8 min.

John left at 5:40 for Candy Point Trail near Grand Coulee dam.
The start of the trail (T.H.; lower left) is in the parking lot of City Hall and just 2/3 mile from the Grand Coulee Dam. The blue dots and whitish line indicate an old wooden water line, once used to supply irrigation. The red dots show the approximate location of the trail as it goes uphill, along, and crossing the small stream. Then it goes uphill steeply with sharp turns to the top of Cherry Point. Trail corridor includes Poison Ivy and (on Sunday), a Rattlesnake.

John was only there on Friday, but it was a F/S/Sun affair. He took firewood for the overnight campers.
Me? I’m either staying home or finishing music Thursday and Friday.

I got up long enough to help feed the outside cats, say bye-bye to John, and go back to bed. I was up until almost 2:00 a.m. and very much needed my sleep. I guess I got it, sleeping in until 10:38 a.m.

I must now get on the music prep I have been too sick to do for weeks, and need to set up PDFs, and then create a master to copy. I am sure that won’t happen until next week.

We are receiving some bad scenes from web news of the fires in California. We do pay attention because family and friends live in the region, but south of the Bay.

Been working on music but need to eat a late lunch. I just haven’t felt up to it yet and wasn’t hungry after sleeping so late and having a banana with my coffee. At 2:30, I had (leftover) Omelet, sausage, fruit cocktail & banana.

John called at 3:43 while passing through Electric City (3 miles south of the Dam). Steamboat Rock was in view when we finished talking; about to lose reception. He will call from George, WA with a new ETA. He may not be home until 7:00 or 7:15 p.m. I looked at the outside temperature and it was 48.9°F.

On the front porch, Sue and Salazar were waiting beside an empty bowl (for dry cat food). I filled it, and then they were still demanding food so I fixed a bowl they could share of canned food. I also saw “our” 3 deer at the front gate and fence, so I fed them a package of stale Party Mix little bread pieces (meant for dipping in olive oil). The young ones are now 17 months old. They were finishing that and 2 others arrived (a doe with this year’s fawn, small).

About 4:30 p.m., Cody, nurse at Cle Elum called. I learned that my INR= 3.1 (which is better than the INR calculated 10/4/17, and while okay on its own, it’s probably influenced by the Amoxicillin). Tonight is my last pill of that. So, she wants me to have a redraw in 2 weeks and 1 day, because Fridays are better for me than Thursdays. The two things of importance to me on the BMP came back fine as well. Sodium = 128 mEq/L (up from the previous, 122, 126, so that’s good and I’m on my way to the low end of the normal range, 133 mEq/L. We will redo the BMP next time, with the INR.

I finally finished the dishes loading just as John called on his last leg at No. 81 road, about 6 miles away from home, so I was able to put Annie out to wait for him.
He arrived home at 6:00 p.m., found there was no mail yet delivered for the day. He let Annie out to inspect her domain while he fed the horses. We have both Black and Carpathian Walnuts dropping, so he picked up the day’s offerings before coming inside.

I’m back to working on music now, getting rested before my part in making our supper dinner salad.

Time has passed, we ate, and I downloaded the SpO2 Review data from last night (Oct 12) – took longer than normal because I had to download twice, but still got it in 6 minutes, so I can go to bed and record tonight’s over last night’s.

BP @ 9:06 a.m. was 127/70 pulse 71
BP @ 10:37 a.m. was 122/69 pulse 72
BP @ 10:44 a.m. was 132/74 pulse 80
BP @ 2:58 p.m. was 125/70 pulse 80 (took 1-½ Entresto)
BP @ 10:29 p.m. was 110/60 pulse 72 lowered by ”
BP @ 10:37 p.m. was 122/69 pulse 72 (took 1-½ Entresto)

Saturday, October 14

No CPAP – Oximetry for Oct 13: SpO2 low 79, 12 events <88% with overall avg., 93.8%. Avg. low SpO2, 90.7%. Pulse avg. 58.5, low 53. Slept 7 hrs 35 min.

We were intrigued by the overnight’s cold temperatures (25°F) that was causing our Black Walnut tree to be “raining” many leaves to the ground, at a rapid rate. At John’s suggestion, I took my old digital camera with video capabilities, outside in the cold, and left it videoing for 12 minutes. I put the camera atop a box on the cable table and that’s the reason the fence is at the bottom of the image view. The falling rate had decreased since our initial viewing, but you can see all the leaves on the ground in the yard and driveway.
For the view of the most falling, move ahead to 8-½ minutes into the video, and view only the next 3 minutes.
View at this link:

Black Walnut tree leaves fall

We took care of other morning chores (email, etc.) and finally ate brunch at 11:30 a.m.
John didn’t leave for the mail (from last night) and papers, until 1:00 p.m. today.
He is back from getting the mail and last night’s paper, (meaning both were again delivered late)! And this morning’s papers normally here in the morning (WSJ & local weekend one) are not yet here. Jennifer, our paper carrier, must be having issues of some sort.

My temperature was 97.5°F at 9:45 a.m.
Amoxicillin, no longer taking, finished my 10 days, yesterday.
Will take pills the rest of the day, with PowerAdeZERO, while still trying to increase my sodium % in blood for next week’s BMP Friday (also with INR to check if it lowered more).
Worked on dishes, and music for Oct & Nov.

Welcomed John home at 6:00 p.m.

BP @ 9:50 a.m. was 129/72 pulse 70 (took 1-½ Entresto)
BP @ 1:07 p.m. was 102/59 pulse 67 lowered by ”
BP @ 11:46 p.m. was 100/59 pulse 62 (took 1-½ Entresto)

Sunday, October 15

No CPAP – Oximetry for Oct 14: SpO2 low 85, 3 events <88% with overall avg., 93.7%. Avg. low SpO2, 92.4%. Pulse avg. 58.2, low 52. Slept 8 hrs 30 min.

John went to the road, and found the Saturday paper had been delivered after 6:00 p.m. last night, as it was in the paper box this morning. It was supposed to come yesterday morning. We had NO mail delivery at all on Saturday. At least we usually get some mail we don’t want.

John took off for town to do a few things, driving his old truck to stop by Safeway and Grocery Outlet for some needed things, and to load 30 gallons or so in his truck for winter activities around the property (carrying bales of hay, etc.). He intends to buy gate panels (10 ft. and 4 ft.) for a 14 ft. span across the driveway. These will replace a make-shift pole and rope barrier.

He just called to say he didn’t have his Costco Visa card in his wallet. He used another card, but it was the only card that saves him 4% on all gasoline prices. He will go by Grocery Outlet and Safeway, but the Coop is closed, so he went to Arnold’s Ranch & Home for a gate, and ended up buying two to go across the end of our driveway (entrance), because they had wire mesh on the bottom, and are better suited up by the road. The entrance to the pasture, 300 feet from the road, needs to be strong but not fancy.The place came with aluminum slat gates. They do not stand up to either horses nor wind. Why they are still made is a mystery.
I’m continuing to alternate working on the blog, on dishes (unloading clean and loading soaked dirty ones from & to the dishwasher), and interspersing music prep.

John returned and found the missing Visa card in a shirt pocket with several WTA business cards of the same size. So that’s good. I will not have to order a replacement.

I fixed food for one cat, but he followed John and Annie to the pasture. The three of them went to feed the horses.

I took my temperature at 4:50 p.m. and it is 97.7°F.

John is fixing supper and will put out a place holder afterwards. We won’t publish it until tomorrow.

My BP @ 9:13 a.m. was 117/70 pulse 61
My BP @ 11:26 a.m. was 136/83 pulse 69
My BP @ 11:34 a.m. was 132/73 pulse 68
My BP @ 12:23 p.m. was 127/68 pulse 71 (1-½ Entresto)
My BP @ 4:46 p.m. was 119/67 pulse 72 lowered by ”
My BP @ 9:08 p.m. was 108/57 pulse 65
My BP @ 11:25 p.m. was 112/64 pulse 61 (1-½ Entresto)

October 16, 2017 Monday

No CPAP – Oximetry for Oct 15: SpO2 low 85, 5 events < 88%, <88% with overall avg., 94.4%. Avg. low SpO2, 90.7%. Pulse avg. 57.7, low 50. Slept 8 hrs 17 min.

John—out currently in the flower plot, planting Tulips (orange) & double Daffodils (red on yellow). The 25°F morning put an end to our flowers. He has removed the Dahlia tubers and Gladioli bulbs, which, here, will not winter in the soil. They are now in the house, to be coddled in something so they don’t dry out as last year’s, sadly, did. They were just in a box in the garage.

BP @ 9:07 a.m. was 132/71 pulse 65
BP @ 10:10 a.m. was 128/45 pulse 67 (1-½ Entresto)
BP @ 3:43 p.m. was 106/58 pulse 62 lowered by ”
BP @ 10:23 p.m. was 121/69 pulse 62
BP @ 11:29 p.m. was 117/62 pulse 64 (1-½ Entresto)

Today was a fairly good outside work day for him.
Not so good on Blewett Pass, Hwy 97, north of us, on the way to Highway #2, that John sometimes uses to travel to WTA trips.

Today on Blewett Pass a Semi Rig with trailer overturned and dumped 56,000 pounds of apples on the roadside and in the ditch. The rig and trailer have now been up-righted w/ WSDOT, alternating traffic around. They expected delays as crews worked to clean up apples. They won’t leave them there for more people to cause accidents by gleaning from the side of the road spill. Deer and Elk might decide to visit, also.Photos from Trooper Brian Moore, WA State Patrol, at MP 170, about noon. This spot is 22 miles north of us.

I have worked on getting this blog completed for John’s review and edits for several days, including today, still. He’s on his way to bed, but I’m on the last proof of the text and photos, will put it on a flash drive with the photos to enter, and leave it for him to find, when he awakes in the morning. He can then start on the edits, while is it still cold outside. The morning temperature is expected to be no higher than 35°F, with possible rain, clouds, and high afternoon winds. I have canceled going to my exercise class.

At 2:30: For 2 hours, wind gusts above 54 miles per hour have been recorded. Under the walnut trees, the ground is covered with yellowish nuts, and the leaves are on their way to the Columbia River, and then the Pacific Ocean. That’s a long trip, so some of them might not make it that far. Still, there are a few leaves and nuts hanging in the trees. Amazing.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Update/Monday: Ides of October – Oh Joy

It has been said: No news is good news.
Thus, there is, in fact, nothing new.
With that, I’m about to go to sleep — 10ish.
Saw this today: Be alert. The world needs more lerts.
Leaving the room now.
John

Nancy appears to be coming out of the diseasedness that has been disturbing her for the past month.Also, this was a marvelous fall day.
What’s not to like.

She is still working on her weekly update. It is 8:39 here on the Naneun Fan.

More on Monday.

John

An Exciting trip to town

included going to the Emergency Room

October 1, 2017 Sunday

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

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

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

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

October 2, 2017 Monday

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

October 3, 2017 Tuesday

Missed Funercise, same reason as yesterday.

October 4, 2017 Wednesday

Missed Food Bank music; missed SAIL.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

October 5, 2017 Thursday

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

October 6, 2017 Friday

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Link: Butterfly Swarm on Denver, CO Radar System

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

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

Sunday, October 8

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

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

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

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

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

October 9, 2017 Monday—Holiday, Columbus Day

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

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

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

Hope your week was fine,

Nancy & John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Place holder

We are late.
Nancy still has a nasty cold (?)

And speaking of cold, The Naneum Fan is expecting its first frost this week. Maybe even by Monday, early.
We’ll get her activities and thoughts out sometime Monday.