Keeping track

Sunday, May 15

For May 14 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 4 hrs 54 min with AHI=6.13. Events: 7 CSR, 29 H, 9 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 18 L/min).
Oximetry: all over the chart. Weird. But I felt fine, so no repercussions, I guess.

John left at 6:00 a.m. on a cold rainy day, for his last day of WTA Crew Leader College, but found the weather on the “wet” side is actually drier and better! That’s good because today he was out in the woods working on the Advanced Crosscut Sawyer learning session. I’m a bit concerned about the fog he will have to drive through near the summit. {Counter-clockwise spinning storms are passing to our south. Westward moving moist air is moving up-slope on the east side (normally dry-side) of the Cascades.}

I cannot believe how tired I was. I slept in until almost 10:00 a.m., highly unusual for me. Maybe it was related to interrupted sleep of the high AHI reported above for last night by the CPAP machine’s SD card (I read every day and graph the data from the night before).

I worked today backing up my activity on the Buy Nothing Ellensburg site because that Facebook site is being closed soon, after being split (sprouted is the term) into 3 smaller groups: North Ellensburg/Thorp, South Ellensburg, and East Ellensburg/Kittitas/Vantage (the new group I’ll join because of our house location).

I also (at John’s request) cleaned the left side of the hallway of boxes of various things, plastic bags of clean clothes and linens, and uncovered a closet door, with horizontal shelves, which I cleaned up a couple of shelves on to make room for some organization of more things. One thing I found on the top shelf was a stack of jigsaw picture puzzles and a few board games. I took the time to offer the puzzles and one board game to the new BNEE group. I mention some results after the puzzle collage below.

The 3 puzzles on the left I managed to re-home with minimum effort with people meeting me at the places I was in town this week. The two on the right have the largest number of pieces, and I will leave those on the free table at the Senior Center to be done with them.

I also repackaged packages of stick-on ribbons we bought in an after Christmas sale years ago. I believe I need to offer them on the Buy Nothing site, or start sticking them on every give away. Bags of music for our group audiences I organized into a box and recycled some we have no longer any use for from previous play dates over the years. Finally, I organized the clothes too large for me now into bags to give away. I put some towels on one of the shelves I uncovered in the closet. That’s handy to the bathroom off that hallway.

Monday, May 16

For May 15 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 6 hrs 40 min with AHI=2.70. Events: 9 CSR, 18 H, 14 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 10 L/min).
Oximetry: looks good, except for an hour when the pulse decreased to the lower 30s a couple of times.

Awoke before 7:00, stayed up, washed dishes, and fed one cat before John got out of bed.

I finally got a note sent off to my friend Lynne whose photo exhibit I visiting last week in Ellensburg. She does gorgeous work and has traveled all over the world. One photo taken in Croatia grabbed my attention because of my grandmother’s area where she grew up in present-day Slovenia, near Croatia. I told Lynne and sent her my 2012 story of the Wilkins family, I had put into our annual greetings for that year, when I returned from our reunion in Guyton, GA. She was happy to hear my story, and mentioned they rode the train through that area of Slovenia, when they were there.

Now at 4:30, John went to Safeway, and I am going to take a short power nap.

We are extremely frustrated with our computer going off and on its Internet connection. There are too many fragile parts between the main “pipes” of the internet and our rural location. The signal goes away and then comes back on its own. This might happen a dozen times in a day, or it might not happen for 3 or 4 months. The provider thinks the issues are in our house. No surprise there.

Tuesday, May 17

For May 16 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 6 hrs 46 min with AHI=0.89. Events: 1 CSR, 5 H, 13 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 9 L/min).
Oximetry: chart was very smooth, with high SpO2 all night.

I worked on chores, and then left for Jazzercise.

Wednesday, May 18 Anniversary of Mount St. Helens Eruption in 1980.

For May 17 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 5 hrs 16 min with AHI=1.90. Events: 8 CSR, 9 H, 9 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 17 L/min).
Oximetry:

John invited me to put on my boots early morning and take a trip through the yard to see wildflowers and our domesticated iris. We have much wild iris (a nuisance) in the pasture that is difficult to get rid of. Neither the horses or the deer will touch it. Lots of water in the spring and then not much after is good for it and not for other things, such as grass.

First, are the pretty little bunched purple flowers, officially known as, Phacelia linearis.

These are next to our new driveway to access the back of our property with a turn-around for a fire truck in case of wildfire from the west of our property. Actually, it helps protect all our buidings because it acts as a loop fire-break. Someday it will get a gravel surface.

Also, from the old cottonwood trees, we have had the seed pods falling and blowing around the yard. I didn’t have my camera when John I returned from town recently and found it white all the way down the driveway on the dark gravel. It looked like it had snowed. The town streets were filled as well with yellow snow from the flowering trees around town (locust or maple ?)

Another interesting plant John tries to reduce is a “Fiddler” plant. Its head looks similar to the neck of a fiddle. [John says: That is why it is called “fiddleneck.”] Looking on line, I found Fiddlehead Fern, but I don’t think our shrub-steppe area is wet enough for ferns, and they are not closely related. Many web photos have linked the names “fern” and “fiddleneck” with this non-fern plant.
Like a curled lock of hair.

Above is a collage with three on the left from our walk. The second in is an enlargement of the 3rd from the left. The one on the right is from the web, where it is wrongly called a fern. However, it has a less hairy appearance than those here, but red dots in the throat of the flower, so I include it. There is an “intermedia” version, so there is more to this plant than we have time to figure out.

Next is a collage of our domesticated Iris we start from rhizomes provided by Celia Winingham, who has cut my hair since I arrived in Ellensburg in 1988.

Iris out near our old barn, on the way to our newer pole barn. Missing in this photo are the salmon (bronze) colored ones and the more recently blooming yellow ones.

I mentioned a board game I found in our hall closet, and I was able to meet Joanna while in town (at SAIL exercise) to transfer it. She introduced me to her cute 7.5 month old baby and later sent me a photo of her son playing the game. She wanted to teach him because she grew up playing the game, and no longer had it. It’s for ages 8 to Adult. Results seen below:

Thursday, May 19

For May 18 CPAP Reported figures. Time on 6 hrs 46 min with AHI=1.77. Events: 2 CSR, 12 H, 17 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 15 L/min).

Today, I rushed to town for a special event at Central Washington University (CWU), a presentation in S.O.U.R.C.E. by Trinity Turner. Here’s the history on this. She’s the daughter of a friend I have known since the early 1990s from the WOTFA workshop at Kittitas where we were in an Intermediate Fiddling class taught by Roberta (Bobbie) Pearce from Nampa, ID. Trinity came to Central and joined the Geography Department where I taught for so many years. Her talk was on using GIS for making “Story Maps” to represent spatial temporal information.

From there, I went to KVH for blood draw with my paperwork and get INR while there. It was low (probably from enjoying our fresh asparagus. They had taken my Dr.’s name off the list as retired (he doesn’t retire until the end of the year, and he was in that very hospital working all week). I called the main office in Cle Elum and talked to Laura (staff member I have known there the longest), and she was grateful to hear, agreed with all my observations, and will report it.

At 1:20 I showed at Brookdale, Senior Living Solutions, for our usual third Thursday of the month’s music. We had a good turn-out and got to meet our new fiddler, Evie Scheutz. She enjoyed meeting our crew, and playing with us. She is happy to be a member of the group. I knew she was practicing for a competition, so I asked if she would place her tunes for us. She did and got applause from us and the audience, and in addition, we “backed her up.” She was quite nervous, but I’m sure it was a positive experience to give her a little exposure to a strange group before the Saturday competition.

John and I went to town to hear Megan Walsh and Dusty Pilkington give a presentation on the importance of fire in our ecosystem at the local chapter of the Kittitas Audubon Society, of which we are members.

The Daily Record link for tonight’s talk is here: News Link

Here is one from back in December of 2015 about hers and Dusty’s work: News Link #2

Friday, May 20

For May 19 CPAP Reported figures. Time on 5 hrs 57 min with AHI=1.51. Events: 8 CSR, 9 H, 16 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 8 L/min).
Oximetry: very nice SpO2 and pulse graph, but only for 2.4 hrs, when it ran out of charged battery. My bad for not recharging it.

I carry a 3-ring binder along to all our KV Fiddlers & Friends performances at assisted living homes. Yesterday, I was in a hurry to leave, and left behind one of the binders that two guitarists share. While there, I took Lenna, a resident, a 650-piece jigsaw puzzle you saw in the photo above.

I went on to the AAC after buying a bunch of canned cat food at less than half price. That’s always a treat to the pocketbook and appreciated by the cats for sure. I caught the end of good talk on bicycles for the elderly: trikes and 4 wheelers. The free lunch was the best part. Baked potato with various toppings and salad.

I sent out the invite to the Emeriti for June 4 End Of Year Geography party, at which the Geography Club provides the burgers, hotdogs, and beverages, and participants bring potluck appetizers, salads, sides, or dessert.

John left early for a WTA day on the trail. John and 3 first-time volunteers cut a tree that came down on a trail-turn on a steep hillside. Once the tree was cut and the sections removed, they rebuilt the turn.

The whole crew, below, worked on 4 different projects. A different tree crashed into the railing so the left end had to be reconstructed. The still intact but crooked part is solid and serviceable.

Saturday, May 21

For May 20 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 5 hrs 31 min with AHI=2.17. Events: 2 CSR, 10 H, 11 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 9 L/min).
Oximetry:

John left at 6:00 a.m., to fill up with gasoline for a WTA trail maintenance work day being held at Goat Creek Trail, near Chinook Pass, WA (just east of Mt. Rainier National Park).

I got 1.5 hrs more sleep and have been tackling chores. John fed Lemon before he left, and I fed the two girls out front after he was gone. They both (mother and daughter, Woody) came onto the cable table in the front yard, and mom, Sue, jumped down and ran toward me to be fed on the concrete in front of the garage, inside the fence, where we have been feeding her to keep away the skunk. She more often eats out back up in the “cat’s mow.”

Here’s a photo of Woody, up her favorite tree, a Black Walnut.

Evie Scheutz (our new fiddler with the Kittitas Valley Fiddlers & Friends) has been only playing the fiddle for 2 years, taught by a CWU student. She is the epitome of what a fiddler should be doing. She puts in 4-6 hours practicing every day. She entered her first competition in Union Gap, WA today (Play the Gap), and won 4th place in the Old Time (music) Adult group. The link below happened today at the Union Gap .
EVIE AT PLAY THE GAP

This was her award.

Sunday, May 22

For May 21 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 6 hrs 50 min with AHI=0.59. Events: 5 CSR, 4 H, 17 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 9 L/min). Oximetry was good throughout.

I’ve been tackling chores all day, while John went to his WTA trip today (3rd day this weekend). Today and yesterday were to the Goat Creek Trail in the Mt. Rainier area off Highway 410. Today he put 182.6 miles on his Subaru, leaving at 6:38 a.m. and returning at 4:38, a nice 10 hr day. Yesterday’s trip was a little longer (185) because he detoured through Ellensburg for gasoline.

My chores included working on this blog (still need to put the finishing touches on so John can enter it), washing dishes and clothes, doing various types of paperwork, gathering information for my upcoming doctor and physical therapist appointments, feeding cats, and planning for future visitors.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Sunday, May 8 Happy Mother’s Day!

For May 7 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 5 hrs 35 min with AHI=0.00. Events: 2 CSR, 0 H, 11 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 13 L/min). Oximetry: very smooth, with high SpO2 all night.

John will go to the WTA trail as on Sat. last. He can leave a little later today than yesterday, because all the people except him are staying over in the campground, the tools are already up the hill, and there is no need for a discussion about the use and safe use of maintenance tools.

He was kind to help me slice some Jarlsberg cheese to take to lunch today at Swedbergs across the street, where I am going to celebrate Mother’s Day with our neighbors, two sons, daughter-in-law, granddaughter, and great grandson. I created a special card for the occasion, and am carrying along a few other sweet tummy treats.

I slept in another hour after John left. The wind is blowing hard. 45 mph gusts as John was leaving, and continued until the hour before 10:00 when it went to 48 mph. It was there for 2 hours, and then between 1:53 and 2:53 at the airport they measured 52 mph. WHOA. John made it home at 4:38 p.m.

I’m continuing to file and toss papers and restarted my Seagate weekly backup at 5:13 Sunday, but I do not know how to make it not copy everything. Something is not right.

Monday, May 9

For May 8 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 6 hrs 7 min with AHI=1.14. Events: 6 CSR, 7 H, 14 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 7 L/min). Oximetry: all good all night.

I spent a ton of time and still am not done with Dashboard back up on my Seagate Drive. I finally late afternoon made it through a process for technical support. I started early in the morning by re-registering my Seagate Disk Drive. Then for a couple hours, it refused to recognize my Serial Number, saying it was not in the system. Finally, I guess the 14th time is a charm, it let me on to write my questions and they will provide an email tomorrow to one of my gmail accounts. John is using our joint account to register his, and they would not let me use that address for mine.

Spent even more time worrying with arranging for the CWU retireds meeting in the morning. Now we have changed rooms, so there can be a PowerPoint shown. I fixed chocolate chip cookies from the frozen dough John pulled out of the freezer last night. I have 33 cookies for the meeting and we are expecting nine members, plus the speaker.

I sent out an organizational announcement for the Meadows Place, an assisted living home behind the Rehab where we play music on the second Thursday of the month. I need to request attendance of musicians, so I can give a count of how many arm-less chairs we need to have set up. It’s a weekly chore I have to manage.

Tuesday, May 10

For May 9 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 8 hrs 5 min with AHI=2.10. Events: 6 CSR, 17 H, 16 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 6 L/min). Oximetry was okay for the time it was on. Don’t know why it was off the rest of the night, after a 4:00 a.m. potty break. It stopped after 16 minutes, guess the charge died ??

We left at 8:00 a.m. so we had time to stop at Complete Computer Services to give them my laptop to figure out what happened. I guess the last thing I did last night was to shut it down through the system advanced options. The restart did not work, and I didn’t like any of the other options available. Ryan, the “windows” man, turned it on, had to wait awhile, but it came up fine. Now I think I should have tried before I left this morning. Oh well, he didn’t charge me for the service and that made me very happy.

In rushing out with that and the stuff we were taking along, I left the cookies behind at the front door. We realized it once we got there, and I was going to drive back home. Discussion ensued. Our main grocery store was just 1 mile away so I drove John to Super 1, where he went inside for the goodies, and I called and talked to the young man with whom I left my computer. John went in and found the cost of the amount of cookies I made for the group would have been over $18 – so instead, he bought apple and blueberry mini-strudels. It was fine and “only” $8.00. We were thanked today for 22 months of taking goodies with a $35 gift card from Jim & Lillian Brooks. Perkins is the place. We’ll use that for something special coming up this summer. I came home and froze the cookies I made for today to take next month.

Our meeting went well. The speaker explained his travels and research in Argentina. He was investigating oil drilling and production and why they are spending more money and getting less output. He spent time in an oil boom town, very small and remote. The place looked windblown and dusty, and long time residents were poor folks having a hard time coping. He received many compliments and questions from us old folks.

We managed to leave by 10:45 for our eye exams with Dr. Davis. We both had good reports, and neither of us paid the $44 for refraction. I don’t need the numbers as I have implanted lenses. John’s glasses are fine. So we just needed the medical exam that is covered by insurance. Our eyes, vision, and pressure are fine, and the back of the retina is all right too. The clinic uses

OptoMap ~~Have a look.

The cloudiness in John’s eyes is holding at 2+, that being less than the average for men his age. While I was there, I got a call from Ryan that I could come pick up my computer. On the way home, we did. Got home with not much time to spare, but I grabbed a bite for lunch, changed clothes and went on back in for Jazzercise class. On my way there I picked up some alpine boots, but when I got home, I found they would not fit, so I found another home to share them with, with someone less than 7 miles from our house on Naneum.

On my way home, I stopped by for mothballs at the Dollar Store (to attempt a send off of the skunk), and from there, I went around the block to view a friend’s photo exhibit in the Gard Vintners. Lynne Harrison is her name. Wonderful work.

I got home a little before 4, rested only a short while, and took off again for town, to play music with The Connections at Hearthstone, where I started the day!! We had a nice turn-out and participation from an appreciative audience. I was happy to get home for dinner.

Wednesday, May 11

For May 10 CPAP. Reported figures. Reported figures. Time on 6 hrs 20 min with AHI=1.26. Events: 5 CSR, 8 H, 15 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 8 L/min). Oximetry: excellent all night.

On my way from picking up Gloria, my Wednesday traveling buddy, we stopped a few blocks west of her and picked up an aluminum tripod and small commemorative creamer from the Spokane Expo ’74 (year we moved to Troy, Idaho) from a person on the BNE group. We went on to the food bank and met a woman there to give me a box of goodies – jars for the mothballs to reside, in order to out-skunk Pepé Le Pew.

Gloria was with me at the Food Bank, joining the singing and dining. Today, in addition to pasta, they served a lobster bisque. I had a large cup of it, rather than the pasta, because the large amount of garlic in it disrupts my tummy. I also took along a small helping of my own made tuna fish / egg salad to replace the pasta. They had a nice salad with the iceberg lettuce I can eat, and blue cheese dressing, with a brownie for dessert. We drove by the Kittitas Medical Supply place for my 3-month refills of CPAP supplies, on to SAIL exercise, and back afterwards to a nearby building to pick up my medical entry paperwork for my Physical Therapy evaluation. That’s to be in 2 weeks. On the way home we stopped by the bread room to partake of some things. We have always been encouraged to take things, but they have changed the hours, and the bread room is no longer open when we arrive for playing music. We both got a loaf of whole wheat bread, she some dinner rolls and I, an Olive Oil Loaf. The local grocery stores donate bread not sold by its best-by date, and the only place to store it is in a semi truck, so the food bank can’t keep it long – and why they encourage people to take the bread, even when they do not need to partake of normal food distribution. Better to use it than lose it to mold. There is always plenty and there’s a limit of five items.

Thursday, May 12

For May 11 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 5 hrs 45 min with AHI=0.52. Events: 0 CSR, 2 H, 17 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 11 L/min).

Finished up giving away (notifying at least) for the BNE seed packets. I have given away 2 of the 4, and those go next week.

Called Hospice Friends and will pick up an egg carton foam pillow for my chair. Got it and it was a better one than previously offered. I have worn that one out from sitting on it.

Our neighbor we honored on Mother’s Day was ill this morning, and once in ER, they decided she had to be transferred by ambulance to Swedish Hospital in Seattle for reaming out her esophagus that had constricted and kept her from swallowing anything. That doesn’t sound pleasant, but if it works, that’s fine.

John went with me to town, driving his car to fill with gas for this weekend’s trip. After letting me off at Meadows Place, he proceeded to get gas from the cheapest place in town on the north side, at $2.32. Then was able to find some cat food at Grocery Outlet on his way back to the grocery store we normally frequent, but where the price of the same can of cat food with a 10-cent off coupon is still 15 cents higher priced. He stopped off at Safeway for his cheaper (89¢/2 liter) colas. And eventually, he came back to pick me up, a few minutes before we ended. Twelve people contributed music, and we had a number of happy people in the audience, including some of the staff, singing.

Friday, May 13

For May 12 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 7 hrs 7 min with AHI=0.42. Events: 3 CSR, 3 H, 13 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 10 L/min). Oximetry: Interesting, between 5 and 6:00 a.m. my pulse dropped to 38 lowest, yet my SpO2 remained high except for dropping to 83, an hour after I went to sleep.

Early in the day we had a little excitement. I looked out the back window and saw our horses where they are not wanted. I found John in the front yard and asked him if they were supposed to be there, after he’d told me yesterday he did not want to let them in the backyard. He was surprised, because he had not put them in there. I looked again and saw two sections of the fence were down. He went around to open the easy gate for them to leave and to get the downed fence out of the way so they would not get tangled in it, leaving. Then he proceeded to fix it. Ancient boards and nails became loose in the high wind. At some point screws will have to replace nails in some of these things. Screws hold better and longer.
First view, left above is Myst with her nose in Raspberry plants, and behind her are the downed sections of fence. Right are the other horses, Cheyenne, Jazz, and Breeze behind the heat pump.
This shows the open gate (left edge) for them to use to leave, John walking toward the fence needing picked up and re-strung, and far right is Jazz munching on a mouthful of grass. Many years ago the boards came from an fence – old then – in EBRG from friends who were moving.

Backyard Horses / Downed Fence 5-13-16

Owen Orvald is 10 today. Need to find a special b.d. card special for him. I sent it between machine down time on Internet connection. What a PITA. Owen is the first child of a student from shortly after we arrived at CWU. Now the family is near Reno.

I have been trying to get some computer work done, but the Internet won’t stay up long enough to write a message.
I did manage to get this sent to a local contest.

I submitted this photo Jeri took of Daisy for Knudson’s Kooky Pooch contest to get 40# dog food / month for a year. Now people have to access Facebook and vote for her.

Go to Facebook – VOTE for Daisy

Saturday, May 14

For May 13 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 5 hrs 20 min with AHI=4.50. Events: 11 CSR, 24 H, 8 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 9 L/min). Bad report, which causes me to wonder why. I must have set myself up incorrectly last night for proper airflow. Oximetry: only on for a couple of hours, because I must have jarred it off my finger in the middle of the night. Not a good recording night on either device.

John leaves early, 5:30 a.m., for North Bend, for Crew Leader College. Unfortunately, he awoke much earlier and could not get back to sleep. I awoke at almost 4:00 and he decided to go ahead and get up. He did find all his gear, pack his lunch, and get out of the house. He had to go to check and put things in his car, so I warned him to be careful and not get sprayed by the skunk. Got a chuckle from him. He printed me the program for today. He will get there for the kickoff, hoping to get there soon enough for a seat in the room, and maybe a donut. His training session is Basic Crosscut Sawing, which he has experienced, so this is a refresher with 2 sawyers he has not worked with. The goals are to discuss and practice a successful log out, types of bind (tension/danger) encountered, dangers in logging out trails, and successful planning for cutting logs so that the trail is cleared with minimum effort.

I stayed and slept for another couple hours, but now have gone out to retrieve a potted hen and chicks plant for a gal to come pick up this morning. There was a pungent skunk odor around the front yard. While out, I fed one of the ferals, Woody. I’m keeping an eye out for the others in the afternoon. The clouds have moved in, threatening, and they were calling for rain where John will be outside working. He found a light rain jacket to carry in his backpack.

I only got 1.5 hrs in for cleaning up my presence and recording the information from the old BNE site, so I can leave and join the new subgroup, based on my Ellensburg location.. now BNK (Buy Nothing East Ellensburg-Kittitas-Vantage). Now the Internet has been down since 9:14 a.m., and it is down all over Kittitas & the whole valley, as well. I tried calling the 1-800 number, for Fairpoint Communications, but they no longer have a local presence and their national one is not being recognized. Yes, I’m royally ticked off. We cannot get anything else out this far from town, and we do not wish to subscribe to cable, even if it came this far out. Service returned about 2:45 p.m., and the phone number started working again, so it was broadly based as John found out looking at outages of Fairpoint across the U.S. today. We were fortunate our landline through them continued operating.

I’m getting by with doing dishes, eating, sorting, and working on the text of the blog. No way we can publish it without a connection. Continuing with cleanup & filing. Charged my phone and oximeter (uses the same charger – nice after the original with the Oximeter quit working a 3rd time. The service company I bought from on Amazon replaced the first two, but I didn’t want to ask again, and then tried my older cell phone one and it fits and works.

John’s saw group finished and was back at the USFS in North Bend by 4, but WTA brass wanted a group picture at 4:30. John called about the time expected, after 20-to-5, and I went right out to feed Lemon out back, and it started sprinkling. I went to the front door, saw Woody on the cable table and her mom Sue right behind. I ran back in to get a plate for Sue. I had only seen Woody, until I walked out. It was starting to sprinkle more, but not bad as it has gotten in the past hour. I managed to feed Woody on top of the table, and convinced Sue to come in the front gate onto the concrete. They both cleaned their plates. Now for John’s arrival it is raining much harder, and I didn’t put up the barrel or buckets to catch the roof water, but he’ll be home soon to rectify that.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy & John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Sunday, May 1 May Day brought many surprises

For Apr 30 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 5 hrs 44 min with AHI=00. Events: 1 CSR, 0 H, 10 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 17 L/min), but then got an additional 3 hrs sleep off the machines. Oximetry good all night.

John left at 6:38 a.m. (He arrived too early yesterday, and is going to the same place, with the same volunteer crew).

I’m staying home to tackle projects. We published the blog last night. I took my camera out to record some of our flowering trees and bushes.

Here’s a collage of the crabapple tree:

Our lilac tree is adjacent to the crabapple.

Here’s a video of Lilacs Blowing in the Wind May 1, 2016

Those are just across the fence from the Mountain Ash tree that you will hear more about later in the week.

I heard back by email from Natalie Joyce, Owner of Canyon View Physical Therapy to whom I had written my situation and whether or not she was willing to evaluate my shoulder problem, with lost range of motion and pain, to see if Physical Therapy would be a possibility. I am unwilling to go through shoulder surgery. I had tried 2 years of massage therapy and acupuncture that improved it but only to a point.

She got back to me via phone and email:
“Thank you for reaching out Nancy. As I stated in our (telephone) conversation, I will wait until after your consult with Dr. Schmitt and then touch base with you. I will give you a straightforward answer about whether or not PT is appropriate and/or if I think I can help once we have a chance to sit down together for an evaluation. I certainly am impressed by your grit! It is an amazing story and I am glad you are here to tell it. I’m looking forward to meeting you.”

All the best,
Natalie  

Today I spent working on a number of projects. I arranged the Kittitas Valley Fiddlers & Friends schedule for 2016 to share with a new singer who hopes to join our group. She will start next week. I contacted the director of the Issaquah Singers to have her approve my videos I took last week and share with her group, washed clothes and dishes, filed a few months worth, paid bills, and did my normal removal and display of data from CPAP and Oximeter.
Whoopee..I received an early call from John at Manastash Ridge, just before 4:00, on his way home, as they finished early. Nice.

Annie was surely happy to have him home to take her for a walk. I took her out with me when I went to take photos and that little jaunt made her happy, but she prefers going longer distances with John.

We have now had our dessert treat, and I’m returning to my chores.

Tonight, we had a visitor, who we suspected was living under our shed.

Monday, May 2

For May 1 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 6 hrs 57 min with AHI=0.72. Events: 1 CSR, 5 H, 9 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 8 L/min).
Oximetry good all night

Dealing with dishes, bills, and John with yard chores. Now he is resting.

A little after five, our new neighbor (purchased the place last fall) downhill from us, with whom we will share irrigation water, came to meet us, and to have John show her around the hydrologic neighborhood. He spent quite a bit of time, and took her up to show her the diversion control, but later with more time he will show her a structure farther upstream where there is a split of 1 into 3 (streams). Two miles on up, Naneum and Wilson Creeks are joined for (historical) permitting of a grist mill. Then they are split into Wilson (on the west), and west and east Naneum. Two miles down from us, the 2 Naneums come together again. Just down from the 1-to-3 split, the water spreads out, slows, and drops rocks, gravel, and sand. Over the last 100 years this has made a mess of the stream structure. John hopes to move before there is a serious decrease (or increase) of the water coming our way. We came 27 years ago.

Tuesday, May 3

For May 2 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 4 hrs 1 min with AHI=0.00. Events: 1 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 10 L/min). Good nights with little activity seem to follow being worn out during the day. Oximetry good for the time.

Heading for Cle Elum to see my family physician about my shoulder. We arrived at 11:30 and were taken back at 11:32. John went with me and we both met with our doctor. We are sad he is retiring – phased now, full in December. He’s been my doctor since 1988, John’s since 1989. We had a nice visit and he will have his staff set up a referral to the place in Ellensburg I wish to go for Physical Therapy on my left shoulder. We also discussed transferring me to a medical doctor in Ellensburg rather than having a PA there in Cle Elum. But he will be around part-time (is now), and they are hoping to hire an MD. Before we left, I made an appointment for 7 weeks out to check back on my progress with the PT.
I came home and called the Internal Medicine folks about getting in to be seen by Dr. Kelly Noyes, new in town. No more new patients have been considered since December. Further checking revealed that she doesn’t take Group Health insurance, which is a requirement in my case. Here’s hoping they will make a good hire up in Cle Elum and we get auto-transitioned to her/him.

We enjoyed our drive up Hwy 10 with all the yellow wildflowers on the south-facing slopes and the white ones on the north-facing.

Wednesday, May 4

For May 3 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 6 hrs 16 min with AHI=0.16 Events: 1 H, 3 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=10L/min). Oximeter ran out of charge before midnight.

Today’s activity on the Naneum Fan was noisy and fragrant. Our Mountain Ash tree in the front of our house is alive with the sound of bees pollinating. I attempted to catch the noise to share. Please, turn up your volume and visit the link below.

Busy Bees in Mountain Ash

I picked up Gloria and went to the Food Bank & SAIL class. I drove by a gal’s house on the way to exercise class to deliver a bag of clothes. Some of the clothes I was giving to her and her daughter, and a couple I was leaving with her to fix for me. She is a seamstress who does all her work by hand. After our class, I showed one of my friends how to put on a CPAP face mask properly, adjusted it to her head, and sent her on her own to try it overnight. Found out the next day, it worked very well for her and she got the first good night’s sleep in a long time, without leaks keeping her awake. For that I am very happy. I like the mask very much, except for the air pressure hose attachment to the top of my head, but her machine is set up at a different level. Perhaps after she gets her own, I will move mine lower and return to using my mask.

Doreen Harrington (Ruth is her mother-in-law) gave me a square scarf on the BNE site. I have to pick up from Barge (actually Kamola), next Tuesday, after Jazzercise. Ruth organizes the CWU lunches that raise money for scholarships.

Stacee P. gave me a Chef’s Mark knife set (well, of the original 20-piece cutlery set, she had 17 knives left, minus 2 and without the scissors).

Thursday, May 5

For May 4 CPAP Reported figures. Time on 6 hrs 34 min with AHI=0.15.
Events: 1 H, 15 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=6 L/min).

John drove me to town. We went by S. Willow and picked up four tank tops. 2 purple, green, and an orange & white striped. Those were given to me to use in my physical therapy classes so my shoulder joint can be seen and the tissue reached, if necessary. I had a black one given to me last week, and this one asked if I would like some colorful ones, so I thanked her and accepted them. Now I have one for every day of the work out week. John let me off at the back door of the Rehab and went on for other errands – to Bi-Mart, Super 1, and to AAC to deliver my Toppenish Murals book for people to view/read who are going on an upcoming trip (I’m not going). I gave the staff a copy of my photos of art in geography and geography as art, and the text of the paper I wrote and presented in 2005 at a Geography Conference in Denver, CO. That was a memorable stay, on my way home. We were snowed in at the airport and lived on the floor for 3 days. I was not a happy camper. The airport provided blankets, toiletries, and kept the food places open so we could buy food. I had just gotten my cell phone, and it made it possible to rearrange my trip back, once the snow was cleaned from the runway. Years ago, John left a Denver area meeting ½ day early just to miss an approaching storm. When that storm got to Iowa it shut the place down.

John also got gasoline for his weekend WTA work trip and picked up my medications at the pharmacy. We had 9 players there today with a full room of audience, plus Jeanne in her wheelchair in our circle.

We came home by way of North Water to pick up the set of knives given to me on the Buy Nothing site. They are probably not the best cutting knives, but we’ll try them awhile and see what happens. The Fingerhut web site for these Chef Mark ones, made in China, sold for $40, and published bad customer reviews, which are still out there to read. The company no longer stocks them. Most of the buyers stated that none of them cut well, and could not be sharpened. I have found a similar situation with a couple I have tried. The steak knife did not do a good job of cutting my pork, but pulled it all right. The bread knife worked on chocolate bunnies, but not well on bread. I plan to try some more of the specialty ones. Check Saturday, when I tried another. John says maybe they aren’t worth sharpening but he has been to busy to worry about them.

Through the week, we received photos from the WTA field trip folks, so I will put a few of those into a collage for today.

WTA Boulder Cave Trail work, done April 30 and May 1.

Intro photo: looking out of Boulder Cave, a wildflower, and two little hikers.

Crew Leader Lisa Black, John, and others at creek. Bottom right: cleaning an asphalt trail in a picnic area. Top right: John and crew closed a long cut-off going down hill shown by orange dots. Below: On the left is the decommissioned cut off (orange dots going up) filled with rocks, branches, and old logs.

Middle photo is water damage from the trail going down toward a board walk near the cave entrance. Right side is a reconditioned piece of tread that had many rocks and multiple threads. All the rocks are gone and out of view and the tread smoothed.

Friday, May 6

For May 5 CPAP Reported figures. Time on 7 hrs 29 min with AHI=0.80. Events: 1 CSR, 6 H, 9 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=10 L/min). Oximetry was off for 2 hours – I must have knocked it off my left hand finger.

I arranged for annual physicals with Dr. Schmitt in Cle Elum – not until November this year. Last September the front desk scheduled us for September again. That, somehow got lost in a computer software update. No one seems to know why or how that happened. I received a note with my recent prescription Thursday, which alerted me to my not having a doctor’s visit set up this year. I called to question it because I thought we were scheduled to be in, after Sept 21 (has to be a year after the last). We might have missed a last visit with Dr. Paul or showed up when they were not expecting us. So the prescription alert helped. +1 for that.

Worked on my replacement for my Oximeter, which appears to be dying (its battery), and I am not sure if it can be replaced or if I just have to get a completely new unit. It is not quite 2 years old, but I have used it every night to assess my percentage of oxygen content in my blood as I sleep, and also keep track of my pulse. Some meds I’m taking lower my pulse when I sleep, and the SpO2 is enhanced while I sleep, by the CPAP machine I have to use. It makes me happy to have an oximeter to record my data, because CPAPs do NOT report the very information I need and for which I am on it.

Saturday, May 7

For May 6 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 6 hrs 4 min with AHI=1.81. Events: 5 CSR, 11 H, 8 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=11 L/min).
Oximetry: normal all night.

John took off a little after 6:30 a.m. for his WTA work day near Naches, and will be returning to the top of Manastash Ridge and call me from the viewpoint, so I can call in an order for pizza he’ll pick up on his way through town.

Will be a 3-topping for $7.99 take out — Philly Steak, Pepperoni, Canadian Bacon. John used Discover for a 5% cash rebate, and the clerk gave us a $5.99 special coupon on 2 toppings through this week, adding a topping, and saved us 40 cents more. Nice.
The gasoline is still $2.23 at both 7-11s, so he will jog through Ellensburg, because the price in Naches is $2.29. John’s lunch Sunday will be a slice of pizza, part of an orange, pecans, and some junk food.

I have been busy doing mostly computer work, dishes, working on the blog, and feeding cats. I did boil eggs to put with some tuna fish for my lunch salad. I tried another skinny knife from the set that looked like a knife to cut tomatoes, but I used it to cut my hard-boiled eggs, and it worked fine. I wrote the retired geographers about John’s and my conflict with an eye exam that will conflict with the end of our meeting Tuesday morning. We will have to be pulling out of Hearthstone on our way to the doctor by 10:45 at the latest. It will work. My guess is our guest speaker, Elvin Delgado, will be completed by then.

When I went out to feed the cats early morning, I saw the petals from the mountain ash tree falling to the ground. What a difference three days make! Look back at the blossoms on May 3. I took a few photos today and put into 2 collages:

This is on the tree in two different places.

This contrasts the tree with the petals fallen on the wooden deck.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Spring time activities include John trimming many trees. Tamaracks this week (no photos), and Black Walnut tree last weekend.
Sunday, Apr 24

For Apr 23 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 5 hrs 24 min with AHI=3.14. Events: 5 CSR, 17 H, 10 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 21 L/min).

I did not have a good start to my morning. My laptop shut down on its own from a Sleep mode and messed up my morning trying to get it restarted. I hooked up my backup external drive and for some reason, it appears to be backing up everything again, not just adding ones since the last backup. It has sat at 8% for over 2 hours. I’m not sure what to do, so I have been going through filing cabinets recycling class materials back to 1991 !!! I am reorganizing the file folders in my most accessible filing cabinet to put all my monthly records. Some were there but not all. I have filled one wine box already this morning with office paper, and half another with magazine type paper (both to be recycled and out of our way). I thought I had tossed all the old (make that OLD) overhead transparencies but I found a few more this morning, brown with age. They and several CDs went to trash for the landfill. I found a few books still usable that I will carry to Dean Hall and donate to the students. I’d better hurry before they are gone for the summer. I suppose the best time is the start of a fall quarter.

John came in and fixed lunch for us, helped me correct some errors on the blog, and has gone back to unload all the Tamarack (aka Larch) trimmings he made this morning and put into his old truck. I’m still waiting for the backup drive to get above 8%. But now, I’m typing in my blood pressure readings for the past week, which my cardiologist wishes to see, each visit. When done, I’ll continue filing. I made good progress and accomplished much, but I still have a ton more sorting within months to do.

The most frustrating part of the day has been dealing with the new backup external drive. I thought it would backup only files that were new since the last time and not spend all day and night doing it. I think there is something I need to know that I do not.

I finally used my combo 4-USBs plug in component to run my oximetry data and mouse off the same USB port on the right side of my laptop, because the other external drive is still in use on the left. It’s only 10% done, so likely will run all night. That was a slick use of my new toy.

John picked asparagus and we had dinner with it as part, along with fried cauliflower, chicken, pears, and a neat toasted dipping bread with cheese atop. Such a gourmet supper.

Monday, Apr 18

For Apr 24 CPAP. CPAP off because of nose irritation. I wore an oximeter all night.

Up, dressed, and ready to go to Yakima. Took data and printed from Oximeter both SpO2 graph and results. Shows the need for the CPAP to keep the SpO2 up all night.

Crazy day. We left early to drive around the rural block to deliver extra asparagus John picked last night. Then on to Thrall Rd, via No. 6 road, only to be turned away at Tjossem, requiring us to make a detour to get on I-82 for Yakima.
This link below gives the story I wish we had known before leaving this morning. Interesting valley history in this little piece, primarily meant to explain the road closure.
No. 6 Road approach to Thrall Rd.

We made it back to Ellensburg, late afternoon and were strongly buffeted coming into the valley. The airport’s thermometer must have been destroyed in the winds yesterday. It did not start reporting temperatures until 12:53 p.m. today, after being out all night and morning. By then, we were in Yakima. The wind anemometer did fine the entire time. I just checked and found the highest gusts today were at 39 mph, exactly when we came into the valley.

My doctors’ visits were okay. I’m not happy with their consideration that I may have to have another CT scan on my lungs**, and possibly switch from a medication to one that requires 3 nights’ stay in the hospital to regulate the dosage.

[**John says: this is routine diagnostic stuff – some people develop scarring of lungs with the one drug she is on. This is to be done every 2 years. Last time the outcome was fine.]
Another concern was a kidney function test that I might have been dehydrated for after my exercise class. That was also the day they withdrew 5 vials of blood. I think that would dehydrate anyone.

From there we went to the tooth surgeon for him to remove all the sutures from a month ago. That procedure was more painful than expected. I must go back in a month to see how it is healing and if the bone is grafting properly in my jaw to support an implant.

Next Tuesday, I have an appointment with my family physician in Cle Elum to see if he will approve a referral to a massage therapist or a physical therapist. My left shoulder’s range of motion has deteriorated since the Dec 18, 2015 surgery on my changed defibrillator, and I have decided that a cortisone shot I first thought I would ask for, is not what I need. I’m confident my family physician will agree. I have spoken to a woman here in town who owns her own physical therapy business and comes highly recommended. The place is Canyon View Physical Therapy.

Tuesday, Apr 26

For Apr 25 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 6 hrs 36 min with AHI=0.76. Events: 0 CSR, 5 H, 8 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 9 L/min). Good night’s seem to follow being worn out during the day.

Spent all morning trying to sort out the donation of money John and I donate to a Distinguish Service Award Scholarship for an undergrad and a graduate student each spring. I found out one that was supposed to be distributed last year was withheld (not given as we and the Geog. Folks thought). I’m contacting the recipient to see if I can get her the money, but she has to fill out a FAFSA form on line through Student Financial Aid. Perhaps she did not want to. She has not responded to my inquiry via email.

Then I started working with another person in the University to change my donation from my bank account so that next May there will be enough saved up to take out $ for the two scholarships.

John went to town to have his tires rotated at Les Schwab. They were new 6,000 miles ago, and he needs to drive twice this weekend to WTA trail maintenance.

John worked on some old plastic pipe and valves he put in years ago in the high end of our irrigation ditch. He moved the garden spot years ago but not the pipe and valves. He killed and cut the many little trees that had grown there and now is digging it all up, smoothing and moving dirt. He bought 2 tomatoes and a package of Gladioli bulbs today and some sort of daisy seeds. The veggies got planted but not the flowers – yet.

We also dropped by the Ace Hardware store to spend our $20 to get $7 off. We bought two cans of paint, two plastic hose connectors, and a set of 3 of the N-95 face masks for me to wear when we are starting a fire, or adding to the fuel, in the wood stove.

Finally, our last stop of the day was the Kittitas Valley Hospital to visit our friend, Rosy Carvo, from Selah, who had a knee replacement early this morning. Both sons were able to come with her and stay until after lunch. We were there from about 3:30 to 5:00.

Wednesday, Apr 27

For Apr 26 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 4 hrs 16 min with AHI=0.23 Events: 1 H, 6 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 8 L/min). Oximeter ran out of charge before midnight.

I stopped to get Gloria and carried her Costco purchases, from Tuesday, into the house. Carried a hen & 3 chicks plant to a gal who met me at the parking lot of the Food Bank. I got there early because two of our instrumentalists were arriving late. We had played about 6 songs when they arrived. We had a huge crowd today. I did stop on the way from the Food Bank to SAIL exercise class and buy two bags of horse feed pellets. John did yard work all day, in the cold and wind. Winds hit 44 mph gusts today and were 41 for a couple hours.

Midweek beauty – pastel tulips and a special burgundy one, in our kitchen window:

Thursday, Apr 28

For Apr 27 CPAP Reported figures. Time on 6 hrs 46 min with AHI=0.15. Events: 1 CSR, 1 H, 16 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 7 L/min).
Oximetry on while CPAP was on, and off for 2 more hours, showing a lowering of the SpO2 during that time.

We had an 8:00 a.m. visit from a neighbor 1/2 mi away on Thomas Road, Kay Powers, who lost her bridge with the high creek waters. She saw our logs at the end of the driveway, and stopped to ask the source. She thought they were utility poles. John took her down and showed her our pile of wood from the Naneum fire and offered her two of them. Some fellow is going to come get them and carry them over to install a bridge for her moving her goats from one side of the stream to the other, and not having them going onto Thomas Road. Her place is less than ½ mile away, although by county roads it is 1.6 miles.

Now, John is back down in the pasture spraying weeds after feeding the horses and cats.

I played music today at Hearthstone and drove by the pharmacy beforehand to give them my new Amiodarone pills to quarter for me. They are from a different manufacturer, and they are too hard to break by hand. They have a 1/2 split mark, but it is not even easy. No way I can half the halves, even with a pill splitter.

We had 12 players there today, and a full house of audience.

Friday, Apr 29

For Apr 28 CPAP. No CPAP report. I apparently did not push the SD card in far enough. Dang. I hate wearing it all night and not getting results. My oximeter was on for the entire time, even after I got up at 5:00, so I have those results that show okay figures all night with a jump to 85% SpO2 before awaking, with CPAP off.

At 8:00 a.m. we had an unannounced visit by the woman from yesterday with her friend to check out the logs for her bridge he will build from our donated two Ponderosa pine logs. We were supposed to have a telephone call but did not receive advance notice.

Our Internet connection started bouncing on and off last night, and seems to be doing the same this morning. It has been several months since it last did this sort of thing.

John got a lot of yard work completed. I did some kitchen chores, but spent a lot of time (a couple hours) updating my medical records in my Medic Alert Data Base. Oh, well, if ever needed, my Medic Alert bracelet will notify medical providers of all my medical information. That is reassuring.

I need to get back to filing, or blog writing or both alternately.

John spent the rest of the afternoon and evening getting his stuff ready for his trail work trip tomorrow.

Saturday, Apr 30

For Apr 29 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 6 hrs 9 min with AHI=0.16. Events: 1 CSR, 1 H, 9 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 10 L/min).
I had my oximeter on. all night.

John goes to do WTA work at a place called Boulder Cave up the road from Naches, WA just past Cliffdell, WA.
Boulder Cave has Bats

I’m going to a lunch and concert by the Issaquah Singers Community Choir.

I picked up my quartered pills before the lunch at the Activity Center and also a new prescription refill for my Coumadin. I had gone by the Food Bank bread room to get 5 items of bread stuffs (loaf, two hotdog bun packages, bag of soft dinner rolls, and a package of some sort of dessert sweet bread. Several in the community are trying to help out a woman and her grandchildren from the shock of losing her grocery money. She lost a $50 bill in the Dollar store, yesterday, but when she checked back to see if one had been turned in, she was told a man claimed it, when he saw a woman turn it in, but it was not his. Rather sad.

The Adult Activity Center fixed a meal and hosted the Issaquah Singers:

Side by Side

High Hopes

Intro to Issaquah Singers Group

Third Sing-along – Happy Trails

More scenes around our place to end on. A couple of days ago you heard the story of the woman 1/2 mile away who drove by our place and saw the Ponderosa pine logs John pulled to the entrance of our driveway.
Here’s a view past the logs onto Naneum Road, into the hay field of our neighbors, and toward the hills beyond.

Walking back toward our house down the drive to the edge of the corral, I found a showy wildflower of the shrub-steppe the Indians favored along with Bitterroot.

Arrowleaf Balsamroot (Balsamorhiza sagittata)

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Sunday, Apr 17

For Apr 16 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 6 hrs 39 min with AHI=0.60. Events: 2 CSR, 4 H, 10 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 18 L/min).

Worked on the blog and other things this morning, and will be publishing just after Noon. John has been working outside in the sunny weather and picked 6 ounces of fresh asparagus for our neighbors a mile away. They will do a drive-by to pick it up from our paper tube below our mailbox. Good thing they got it. Our asparagus crop is quite “down” this year.

I backed up my camera’s SD card on my new back-up drive, and I cleared space on it to take on my Columbia River cruise tomorrow.

I have been considering what to carry along. I wanted to travel light, but I guess I will take a bag with a shoulder strap in which to carry my jacket, water bottle, wallet, camera, phone and car keys. Turns out I also used it to carry a white board for communication with a hearing impaired friend. We had quite a nice conversation on the bus ride down, with a little bit on the boat. He also had a smaller one he carried in his pocket when I left for a lower deck of the ship, to get out of the sun.

I went to bed early for me – to be able to leave early.

Monday, Apr 18

I did not put on the CPAP Sunday night.

I left about 7:05 for the Senior Center, and we pulled out at 8:05 for Kennewick, WA. The day was fantastic, and I will share a lot of it with you below. We returned at 5:00 p.m. Fourteen of us had a very nice day.

Not sure where to start. I think I will make some collages from the photos I took all day to cover the highlights. I will throw in a couple of videos for fun, starting with one my friend and former student (we figured I met him 12 years ago) took. He (Glenn Engels) and his mom, Anne, went along on the trip.

Glenn Engels Captured Stern Wheel

Glenn managed to capture a nice 11 seconds of the stern wheel on the back of our ship, the Columbia Gorge Stern Wheeler. The ship holds 500 passengers, was built in 1983, weighs 330 tons, and rides with a 5 ft. draft.

Stern Wheel from Bottom Deck taken by Nancy – 12 seconds
Note at the end, Olivia is in the middle of some of the people walking away from viewing the stern wheel.

Let me start the collages near the beginning of the trip. We left in the Ellensburg Adult Activity Center’s bus to drive to Clover Island in Kennewick, WA (Tri Cities area) on the Columbia River, to board the Columbia Gorge Stern Wheeler for a planned 2.5 hour ride that included a lovely luncheon.

The ship comes up-river from the Portland, OR area, and remains here for ~10 days each year. The right photo was taken by a crew member, sold for $11 at the end of our trip, and thanks to Dolores (behind me) for buying the picture to share with all of us. She wouldn’t let us contribute any money. The two on either end are our leaders for the day from the AAC’s staff. Left is Olivia Estill and right is Erica Batchelder (also our bus driver).

The above collage is of our trip down. I was sitting next to the window going but in the aisle seat returning. The map I created using Google Earth to show the area south of Vantage, from Beverly, by Mattawa, and Desert Aire, to the Vernita Bridge crossing of the Columbia River. This is a shrub-steppe (dry) environment, watered by the Columbia Basin Project, that powers center-pivot irrigation lines and other water purveyors to allow orchard and vineyard growth.

The top middle photo is of Priest Rapids Dam. While we passed Wanapum Dam, I did not take a photo. The middle photo below the dam is an orchard with wind machines to blow when a frost is possible from cold air drainage. Along our route were mostly pear and apple orchards on the right of the bus, and added to those on the left were many vineyards growing wine grapes for Milbrandt. The orchards and vineyards primarily use drip irrigation, rather than center-pivot, noticeable as circles on the landscape on the imagery map. The other fields may use wheel lines or gated pipe.

The top right photo is of the railroad bridge (now abandoned) over the Columbia, from the old Milwaukee Road, officially named the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad that operated from 1847 until 1980. Railroad lines went from Chicago, IL to Seattle, WA, through Central Washington University’s Campus. Beneath it, are two photos. One is of Sentinel Gap, where the hills (western part of the Saddle Mountains) have tectonically been pushed up to their height and the river has cut down through and formed the gap. It was a major passage for water from the Ice Age Floods through northern and eastern WA, when Glacial Lake Missoula drained, creating scabland topography.

We made it to our first stop across the river at Vernita Bridge. Anne and Glenn pose by the entrance sign, and a pigeon overlooked the information board, wishing for a handout no one provided. From there we drove to our destination with Hanford Site stretching out on our left. Not familiar with the Hanford Site? Look here. Once at Kennewick, we made our way to Clover Island and had almost 45 minutes until we were to board. Some folks took a walk.

The left photo above is one I took before we boarded, and the right one is the Captain talking with one of our group, Pat Carney.

The above collage is of our luncheon provided. We had a choice of coffee, soft drinks, with water, nice linen napkins and tablecloth, and 4 choices of entrees: Ravioli, Chicken Breast, Salisbury Steak, or Tilapia, with seasonal vegetables, rice pilaf, or potatoes. I chose the chicken breast, which was large and quite tender. Top row, Anne & Glenn, Nancy, Erica (table behind), Olivia, bunch of our bus load, our meals, and Erica. I missed getting Don and Dolores, at our table.

The Captain explained about the ship’s features and safety items, such as life vests, and had a crew member demonstrate putting one on. After we ate, many of us made it to the top deck, with the intent of visiting the captain at the ship’s wheel, in the Wheelhouse (top, left, below).

The above collage shows left to right Anne & Glenn in front of the wheelhouse, with two AAC folks looking past to the front of the ship. Next photo is inside with Anne asking the Captain questions, with Glenn in the background. Next shots are of Dolores, Olivia, and Helen.

This collage includes mostly pictures taken from the top deck – clockwise from the stern wheel (top left). The top two bridge photos middle were taken by Glenn Engels, and I took the rest. The one at the top right is of kayakers on the river. The very middle picture is of ducks, Mallards and domesticated Greylag geese (all white ones), along the shore of Goat Island. The bottom right Columbia Gorge map is on the side of the wheelhouse from where the captain guides the ship. Three of us went inside and talked with the captain and co-captain. I have a short video below the photos, where the captain is explaining the electric and diesel motors that run the stern wheel. Continuing around the collage above shows the sign on the openings of the ports on the lower deck, the lower level view of the stern wheel, and the two on the bottom left were where I spent the return trip downstream with a couple from Ritzville at their table next to the open window. It was a good view and in the shade.

In the Wheel House with Captain Tom, talking about the ship’s power, 49 seconds.
We were on the river for about 3 hours. We returned to EBRG at just before 5:00 p.m. – a happy bunch of people who shared a nice day together.

Tuesday, Apr 19

For Apr 18 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 8 hrs 2 min with AHI=0.00. Events: 0 CSR, 0 H, 7 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 6 L/min). Great night on CPAP. Guess the day of activity yesterday made me sleep well. Oximetry good all night.

I spent most of the morning (starting last night) with removing and organizing the photos I made of the trip. Before I left, I mailed them to the AAC for them to use to put on the Facebook site for the Ellensburg Adult Activity Center (AAC). If you have access to Facebook, you can view many of the pictures there, later. They are not there yet. There were 3 trips of 14 each this week from our center – M_W_F.

Today for lunch I had leftovers from our snacks yesterday, and then left for Jazzercise. We had 3 people there and the routine was doable. I went by Safeway for two dozen eggs at $ .99/ dozen. Hen’s get real busy in April as the daylight gets longer and the warmth increases.

Tonight I take off again for music in town at the Rehab center. This is the religious music at 6:30. I hope a woman from the BNE site meets me to pick up a dress I’m giving her. (She didn’t). I did run by and pick up 2 more dozen eggs, this being the last day it’s $2.00 off the regular price. I had gone by Super 1 before music to get a dozen marked-down donuts. They were nice fruit/filled ones, two chocolate, and others glazed, with one big rectangular one with chocolate on top that John had. I froze the rest, and we have not had any yet by the end of this week.

Wednesday, Apr 20

For Apr 19 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 7 hrs 19 min with AHI=1.23. Events: 2 CSR, 9 H, 12 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=9 L/min). Oximetry only for 4 hours and it ran out of charge.

I planned to go to the KVH hospital lab for a blood draw for tests my cardiologist ordered for next Monday’s visit. I went by Gloria’s to pick her up, we went for music, and we ate at the Food Bank. Today was chicken Alfredo with mushrooms, my favorite of the pastas served on Wednesdays, which we have not had in awhile. On from there by Rachael’s house to pick up my old can opener and deliver a new one (for which she paid me), and on to SAIL exercise class. On the way we stopped off at Quiznos to leave a dress for a BNE person at her work place.

I did a stupid thing at the hospital. I failed to take my lab papers, went in for a routine Coumadin check (INR), which I had just had on Apr 5. I was supposed to be taking my lab orders in for Dr. Kim’s (cardiology visit) next week. After the first draw, I was talking to a new phlebotomist there about the different sized vials and what they were used for. She showed me a very large one for serum, some smaller sizes, and pointed out what each one was used for. Something she said made me remember I was supposed to be there prior to next week’s visit for a good number of tests. However, the paper work was at home. She gave me the fax number and I went back to my car for my cell phone to call the Yakima Heart center to have them FAX my orders to the lab. It was a relatively quick procedure, but to get all the tests needed and have extra blood just in case, she had to draw four more vials.

She used the same vein as before, but hit it above my previous spot that was bruised a little.

I stopped to fill my car with gasoline on the way home. Price is up to $2.20.

This photo below was taken two days previously on Bar 14 road where it crosses our Naneum Creek (after another couple of streams have added their load).

Today, below, was the view from the West. After taking the video below, I turned around and left the site without crossing, and went a mile north to Thomas Road to come across to Naneum Road and back home.

Bar 14 Naneum Creek Bridge Flooding 4-20-16

Flowering trees to end the day.
The one on the left is visible from the parking lot of the AAC; and Gloria & I thought it was so pretty with the blue sky behind. I don’t know what tree it is and John can’t tell much from the photo. His guess was a Sunburst Locust just getting started. The middle is in our orchard and is the only pear tree. We got a bunch of very nice pears from it last year and hope for more this year. The one on the right is our pie tree, a Montmorency cherry.

Thursday, Apr 21

For Apr 20 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 4 hrs 40 min with AHI=0.86. Events: 0 CSR, 4 H, 7 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 21 L/min). Oximetry was good all night, 4 hours on CPAP and 3 off, but okay readings for blood oxygen saturation percentage levels too.

When I left for town, I had intended to go across Bar 14 but I met a herd of cattle on Naneum, so I turned around and drove back to Charlton and went across. That gave me a view of our creek above the diversion to our side, and an Oregon Grape.

I took videos of the creek.

From Charlton Bridge Naneum Cr. Downstream 4-21-16

From Charlton Bridge Naneum Upstream

We had a lot of people there today – 12, with a large and involved audience. Here’s the roll count: Minerva, Manord, Maury, Gerald, Charlie, Evelyn, Nancy Amy, Laura, Bob, & Anne (plus Amy’s daughter, our little mascot, Haley).

I spent time tonight writing up all the places people can donate clothing in Ellensburg (and Cle Elum) where it will be distributed freely to county families. I posted it on a Facebook group site, Community Connect Kittitas County. It was my compilation of places, locations, times open, for people to have to donate their clothing. I originally compiled it for people from the places to come pick up from the clothing share we had 3/22/16, and back on 9/1/15, so none of it ended up at Goodwill or the town dump (aka a landfill).

One of the coolest things from that share was a leftover item I brought home because no one of the clothing shares would have wanted it. It was a very nice red jacket with the name CAROLYN on the front. I put out a call on the BNE site calling all Carolyn’s. A woman caregiver had a friend who is DD and doesn’t read much other than her name, and she spoke for it. Then, today, she sent me the picture of a very happy new owner. I had met Becky at the AAC to deliver the jacket, as I was leaving Tuesday.

The right side photo shows the company name – you can check it out but it really isn’t interesting. The phone number, from the west side, isn’t important.
Finally, I’ll end with the signs now on Bar 14 road. It is closed to traffic from Naneum, because the bridge is impassable. Here’s the scene today.

The near water is at the intersection while in the distance barracades are near the bridge with a lot of gushing water and debris on the road.

Friday, Apr 22

For Apr 21 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 7 hrs 6 min with AHI=0.84. Events: 3 CSR, 6 H, 14 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 12 L/min). Oximetry was all right all night.

Thanks John for an early breakfast, and I just completed loading and starting the dishwasher for a couple days’ worth. John and Annie have been out taking care of chores. Yesterday, she brought him the foot and leg of a deer, complete with maggots. He threw it across the raging creek but there is still a lot of deer left out there somewhere, so she will likely come back with more parts. This seems to happen about every 3 years.

John is driving me to scholarship luncheon and to deliver hen & chicks and an external hard drive I had borrowed for a couple weeks. He has been busy loading the truck with a canopy with trash to take to the transfer station. He ended up transferring 230 lbs. and a bit less than $15. He let me off and I walked past a building to another on campus near where a new science building is being built that has taken out the main central parking area that used to service the building where we were meeting (the old music building, Hertz Hall).

I brought him back a BBQ chicken slider from Amy McCoy – former Geography student, now in our luncheon group. He decided to wait to eat it with a supper because when we got home it was already 2:30, and we had some other left-overs.

We didn’t make it to Ace Hardware as planned because we didn’t figure the truck would fit into the slanting parking spaces of the City’s streets. So, we dropped by Grocery Outlet for ice cream and a couple of other things for brunch, drove by two places to deliver the hen & chicks plants, and came on home.

John took a nap, and I stayed up answer the phone until I had to take a power nap myself. It lasted over an hour.

The batteries finally went out in my blood pressure measurer. I thought the past couple of days were giving strange readings. Maybe that was why? Now, however it was running fine all day, and just took it twice and found it lower than I think it should be. 99/62, but my heartbeat is 63. I’ll wait 10 minutes and retake. It was back up 30 minutes later.

Saturday, Apr 23

For Apr 22 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 4 hrs 55 min with AHI=3.25. Events: 2 CSR, 14 H, 2 OA, 5 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 22 L/min). Not very good. I slept on until morning without CPAP, but kept Oximeter on. all night. Nothing unusual.

I walked out the front door while John was out feeding the horses. Our wind has been wicked all night, staying above 29 mph since 3:00 p.m. yesterday afternoon and going all night. Now this morning, it has been 40 mph or above, up to 45 for a couple hours and 46 another. High temp is 63, and winds are still above 40 mph at 3:30 p.m. John is working in the lee of the house. He killed a section of grass and is digging it out, to be replaced with gravel. The dirt is headed for a flower bed.

My purpose for going out this morning to see what the temp was like because someone planned to drive in for my signature on some paperwork. When I walked out the door, I saw two heads over the wooden fence chewing on our crabapple tree. I went back for my camera and took two short videos of our morning visitors.

Above collage comes from the videos below. The two at the bottom middle are the same doe, who moved, keeping an eye on me.

First Deer Sighting, 24 secs

Second Deer Sighting, 50 secs

The second part is a little longer than the first and has some cute glimpses of the action of a deer when she spied me.
I met folks in the driveway to sign paperwork for community service for a young high school student who volunteered 2.5 hours work organizing at the community clothing share back in March, and I was chosen as the signer because I was involved as a helper and I live only 7 miles up Naneum from the family. I had planned to drop by on my way home or into town, but they didn’t get the paper until after I was home yesterday, and I had no plans to go back this weekend.

I have been working on the report of our trip on the stern wheeler on Monday.

I think I’m about ready to give this to John when he comes in at dark, so I can get back to worrying about doing filing, dishes and other cleanup and getting ready for my two doctor appointments on Monday in Yakima.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Sunday, Apr 10

For Apr 9 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 6 hrs 38 min with AHI=2.41. Events: 12 CSR, 16 H, 12 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 8 L/min). Oximeter not accepting charge; not used. Still cannot explain high AHI.

This will be the day we publish last week’s tome. Just posted after 11:00 a.m. and John is out back working next to our raging creek, but he is on the hill above. For more excitement, see Thursday below.

My goodness, I love it when a plan comes together. Wedding clothing for the mother and father of the groom is about to happen this week. Well, the mom’s dress happened, but not the groom’s slacks. His size required is smaller than what was offered.

I tackled filing planned for today, mixed in with putting together clothing to share with the woman planning to set the couple up with what they need. We both ended up taking a bunch of clothes to her shop.

John has been out working in back and side yards, and now is arranging for water set up for our southern neighbors, after the rise in water on the control gate yesterday to the “stream diversion through our pasture.” Spring snow melt is happening at the 3,000 to 5,000′ level in the Cascades.

He came in the front and looked out the back (I was doing dishes) and saw a Merriam turkey walking across the area west of the house John is clearing of brush and low limbs, as a fire preventative. I tried to get a picture and only got a couple of glimpses after he left the hill and return via the path (you will see this path from the creek on Thursday).
Then John came back in and went to his original garden to pick asparagus for the neighbors. Now, he’s headed up to pick rocks, where he can deliver the asparagus to our friend as he drives by. Never ending chore on the Naneum Alluvial Fan, where rocks “grow” – coming to the surface.

We had leftovers for dinner, but John added a nice bunch of fresh steamed asparagus from that he picked today. It was nice, and I enjoyed a little, even though it is quite high in Vitamin K and not much is suggested for my intake. Later this week we have had pieces in our omelets (or in quiche one night).

The County has has water over the road in many places south of us. I didn’t get any pictures when the surge was at its highest. This year nothing spectacular is happening – it is an every year occurrence. The county road crews get out and put up warning signs, saying, WATER OVER ROAD, anchoring them with sandbags.

Monday, Apr 11

For Apr 10 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 5 hrs 47 min with AHI=1.90 Events: 7 CSR, 11 H, 11 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 8 L/min). Oximeter not accepting charge; not used. Figured it out for tomorrow night, and will be returning with data on my SpO2.

The solution came when I decided to try my cable for my Motorola phone, plugged it in to charge the Oximeter, and it worked!!! So happy.

We prepared for our meetings of the day. The first was with the foot doctor to trim toenails on both our feet, and hear the results of the DNA analysis. The name of the toenail fungus I have on nails of my right foot starts with the letter “T” and I didn’t write it down. The cure is to apply topically a cream daily to the toenail and 1/4″ above the cuticle, for 3 months. That will be a troublesome application, but if it gets rid of it, I shall be glad. At least I no longer have to go through laser surgery in Yakima every month or so. THAT treatment was painful and unavailable in Ellensburg, requiring another trip to Yakima. For 10 minutes, the time involved was a couple hours, because of front-end waits in the office once there. The only advantage was a trip to Costco or other, Yakima only, thing to do.

We drove by the pharmacy and got one of my meds that lasts for 90 days, and then by the USPS to send my check to the IRS in a certified manner. We were near Safeway, so we went there for John’s 2-liter colas (best price in town at $ .89) and to take advantage of their Monday special of 8 pieces of chicken for $4.49. On to fill John’s car with gasoline and come home a different way. The Gas Buddy website says the Love’s station west of town is cheaper, $2.09/gal, but in town the lowest price is $2.12/gal. Now at the end of this week, when I need gas in my car, the price is much higher. Many roads had shallow water at intersections and other places where culverts are not large enough to handle the flow. Things do float out onto the road and remain after the water, so until the road crew sweeps (?), or the stuff is otherwise gone, road hazards need to be watched for.

We were buffeted by the wind while driving to town. Turns out the winds were high all day, above 30, but when we were out they were 38 mph, and once at 6:00 a.m. (maybe what woke me) were 39 mph gusts. For 11 hours, the gusts starting at 4:00 a.m. averaged 34.2 mph.

We got a lovely thank you card for B.D. cards sent to Ethel Reynolds in PA for her 98th birthday party. She enclosed a photo with at least 9 or 10 balloons and her, and mentioned her sister said she told Pat, her daughter, to buy her 98 balloons. I think they’d have burned down the house if they had made a cake with 98 candles.
Ethel Reynolds, John’s cousin in PA, at her 98th birthday party.

Tuesday, Apr 12

For Apr 11 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 5 hrs 38 min with AHI=6.22. Events: 13 CSR, 35 H, 7 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 11 L/min). Oximeter working again. SpO2 on CPAP reached to 85-88% a couple times.

This morning I left early to set up for the Emeriti geography meeting, because I took Costco’s Apple Strudel pieces again for all. We had 12 attending, and there were 4 pieces left which I could take to my planned lunch in Kittitas. I introduced Jennifer Hackett, our guest speaker. She had been my student in the past and took over teaching my Intermediate GIS (Winter Quarter, 2010) class when I was ill. I was back at the Rehab the beginning of January for learning to walk again and use all my muscles that had atrophied. She came, visited, and consulted with me about the course, and then when I was out toward the end of the quarter, using a walker, she invited me to come hear the final presentations and be a co-evaluator with her. I thought that was special, and she continued doing it for her subsequent offering of the course for several years. I had been the only geography professor previously teaching it, since 1988. My other graduate GIS seminar sadly was removed from the schedule when I retired. It was REM 515: GIS in Resource Management. It was a good class that natural and cultural resource management students took as well as students from biology masters programs.

Roads south of us still have water over the road. One is the runoff from Naneum (we are on one of the distributaries of the main Naneum, after it separates from Wilson Creek). Our creek is running high as well, as you will see below.

I made and took a lunch for our Kittitas, WA meeting at 11:00. A woman (Fran Rairdan) who is a member of the BNE site saw my plea for friends needing a mother of the groom dress for the wedding and a pair of black slacks for her hubby. Fran owns a shop called, A Tisket A Tasket, and she knew she had some dresses that might work, and hoped one of the suits or a pair of slacks would. A dress did, but the suits were too large. These were outright gifts (as no money is exchanged on the BNE site). I was very happy to be able to help set up the meeting.

After the retired geographers’ meeting was over, I drove to Kittitas with the lunch I had prepared for four people, with plastic plates, stainless steel forks, chips, tuna fish salad with lots of egg, sharp cheddar cheese sticks, and the leftover dessert from the morning meeting – enough for all of us.

It was still before 1:00 when I left Kittitas, so I drove home and decided to rest rather than go back in for Jazzercise. I was rather tired anyway from a restless night and all the morning activity.

John managed to fix the clogged buried pipe problem on our neighbor’s property, getting it unplugged and watering a small field with an apple tree near the center. The tree is pretty when it blooms and wild things get the apples. The fields here have to be watered at least once every 5 years to hold the water rights. (We think that’s correct.)

I worked on a few things and rested until 5:00 when John left for his 6:30 meeting in Quincy. I called Gloria to be sure she still wanted me to come by and take her to the music venue for the night. It is religious music by The Connections, at Hearthstone, same place I was earlier in the day. It was fun, as she knew almost all of the hymns without even looking at the music book, and was able to visit with several people from our SAIL exercise class we have known over the past 6 years, including Earl, Rudy, and Clare. Her husband, Paul, mentioned below was one of the few guys in our class, with the two there now at Hearthstone.

Wednesday, Apr 13

For Apr 12 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 6 hrs 55 min with AHI=0.72. Events: 2 CSR, 5 H, 13 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 14 L/min). Oximetry shows a much nicer night than recently, however my SpO2 dropped 57 times, and pulse changed 56 times. I am on increased meds that will lower my heart rate, so I guess that’s to be expected.

I picked up Gloria and went to the Food Bank and on to SAIL exercise at the Senior Center.

Afterwards, we picked up two cherry pies at the Daily Bread & Mercantile (run by German Baptists in our valley) for her to take to Paul to share celebration of their 66th wedding anniversary with the people living in the assisted living home, Belair House, in Cle Elum, where he is a resident. I apologize for the run-on sentence.

Thursday, Apr 14

For Apr 13 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 8 hrs 48 min with AHI=1.90. Events: 2 CSR, 9 H, 18 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 21 L/min). Oximetry on and even all night.

We started the morning with a walk out the back door of our house down to see the creek. It is higher than usual. I will have to take a picture in a few weeks when the flow has subsided. It’s already going down, but right now I don’t have any comparison to these videos below.

Our Flooding Creek April 14, 36 seconds

The Adventure Location for Brittany Annie April 14, 20 seconds of the route Annie took — starting at the beginning, and being pulled out at the location about 13 seconds into the video.

In normal conditions our Brittanys have easily crossed the creek to the other side, and we once had a large wooden plank that served as a bridge for us to cross to the other part of our property west on the opposite side of the creek.

However, this day was not a good day for Annie to get into the creek.
In the collage above of 5 pictures, I’ll try to explain the sequence. The left one was taken in 2015 during the construction of our driveway access across a culvert over the irrigation diversion through our pasture. This photo of Annie shows the height of the water in various places, and the only place it is deeper is behind a small dam John set up in the pasture. The middle photos above were taken today “behind” our house. The top one has the main stream in the back and the flooding toward the front. The middle bottom one shows the entrance where Annie walked into the normally easy flowing stream and was swooped out by the current. I saw what was happening, and yelled at her to come back. She managed to grab onto the roots on the bank John and I were standing on, and he reached over the fence to grab her collar and pull her out (top right photo above). I’m afraid to think what might have happened if she’d gone on downstream. The bottom right photo is the path leading up from the creek to our house (the same one the Turkey was walking on, earlier in the week). This is the closest photo I have of our “creek” in normal flow, taken Nov. 7, 2014. The land across the creek is part of our property we seldom use.

Friday, Apr 15

For Apr 14 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 5 hrs 26 min with AHI=0.55. Events: 0 CSR, 3 H, 4 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 18 L/min). Oximetry on and even all night.

Much of the day I spent messing with my new external drive disk, but finally now, it is working. The very first “backup” took half the day and all night. Now it only has to do files that are changed between backups.

I also finalized my giveaway of plastic pots of hen & chicks to distribute tomorrow. Who knew they would be so in demand!

I was able to get my data off my CPAP and Oximeter, and now I’m recharging the Oximeter with my cell phone charger so it doesn’t run down. Even with Tylenol, I’m having a lot of pain with my left shoulder, when I move it up certain ways.

Saturday, Apr 16

For Apr 15 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 6 hrs 22 min with AHI=0.63. Events: 1 CSR, 4 H, 6 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 16 L/min). Oximetry good all night.

Started the morning marking tags for the pots of hen & chicks for dispersal today at Briarwood. One person has already had a family emergency and won’t be able to be there today, and won’t be back in town until next week. Another cannot meet at the time needed, so I just dropped hers off on my way home.

Sirens at 10:30 a.m. alerted us to an EMT vehicle and a pumper truck going to a neighbor’s on Charlton Road. They probably took someone to the hospital, because John saw the returning vehicles and heard them turn on their sirens once down a mile or so on Naneum. They slowly navigated the two northern curves. No details. Later found out our neighbor was having chest pains, but we haven’t gotten an update yet. Now right before publishing time Sunday, we heard they had to shock his heart back into rhythm, because the medication for atrial fibrillation did not work.

My back-up external drive just finally finished 10 hours after I started it last night. I need to see how to change it to do a backup continuously, rather than weekly. I have 300 gigabytes backed up there. Luckily, that happened before I left for town.

I received a phone call from one of the music players that she cannot make it today, as she is in an emergency with her little doggy at the vet. We had five players there and a large audience. They presented us at the end with a lot of good food, rolled meat (turkey/ham), cheese, rolls, various salads, and some very large luscious strawberries. They treat us well.

On my way home, I came by the bridge over “our” creek, 1.5 miles downstream. It has gone down considerably over the past couple of days. It had covered the road with water, and brought up large limbs, and in addition, was splashing on the side of the bridge and causing a waterspout. Today, only the spray was visible, but the water is still moving fast beneath.
View from the bridge. The center curb is wet but in recent days, the water was up flowing over the curb, filling the road with water and debris. The right two are just more pictures of the bridge on Bar 14 Road, down from us.

Sunday, Apr 17

For Apr 16 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 6 hrs 39 min with AHI=0.60. Events: 2 CSR, 4 H, 10 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 18 L/min). Oximetry good all night.

Blog being published today.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Community Volunteering and Recognition Dinner (see Thursday)

Monday, Apr 4

For Apr 3 CPAP. I began using it again tonight. Reported figures. Time on 4 hrs 31 min with AHI=0.21. Events: 1 H, 3 CSR, 13 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=9 L/min); oximeter on entire time with SpO2 in the 90s all night, spiking to 85 at 4:30 a.m. and below at 4:45 (can happen when I switch fingers to a cold finger), but then returned to the 90s the rest of the time.

I got up thinking I would write the oral surgery team to tell them about my last night’s successful use of the CPAP machine, after a week off, but I wanted to take off the CPAP data and join it with the Oximetry data before reporting in.

Before I had retrieved the data from my CPAP’s SD card, I had a morning call from my sleep doctor, Dr. Kumar, about my question. He asked for the rundown of what happened and gave his opinion. He agreed that while he did not think the machine would have caused the bleeding, that he would have recommended NOT using it in my case until as much as 2 weeks after the surgery. He said that everyone is different, but the tissue needed to be healed prior to use. What he said likely caused the bleeding was the dryness of the air being forced in, just as people get nosebleeds from dryness. In addition, he mentioned I should use the CPAP with the humidity turned up. (I had figured that much when I put it on last night, and set the humidity higher. I normally do not turn it on, and the night (3 days after the surgery I did not increase the humidity). Last night, I set the humidity to 1, and probably tonight, I will set it higher, maybe 3. I was grateful for his call and concern and very sorry we did not seek his advice sooner.

David, the farrier, called and postponed a morning appointment from 9:30 to 11. Thus brunch was late because John holds Myst for her trimming. My part is writing the check, and otherwise I have been working on music for the Fiddlers. We’ll use this set for the next 2.5 months.

After lunch, John emptied the ashes from the wood stove and started a fire. The wind is wicked today and the temperature is cooler feeling than the 56° reported, because of up to 33 mph gusts but 50 mph predicted as being possible. (Never happened here).

Tuesday, Apr 5

For Apr 4 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 6 hrs 49 min with AHI=0.14. Events: 0 H, 2 CSR, 1 CA, 2 PP, 8 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=8 L/min). That’s a low AHI for all the activity occurring, but it is because of the calculation formula for it depending so highly on hypopnea, of which I had none.

I have an 11:30 a.m. meeting at The Tav (local bar and eatery) with the fabulous clothing sorting team from the BNE site for the 3/22 clothing share we successfully held.

I went by the hospital for my blood draw and it was rather fast (for a change), but they extracted too much for the first vial and had to draw another. Darn – vampires in white lab coats.

After picking up my meds at Super 1, I came home and filled the box for the week, realizing I was out of another. So now I have to go back to get it. Too bad I did not do this yesterday and could have saved myself a trip.

I stopped off at Jazzercise, but did not stay because I wasn’t feeling up to par and still had nearly an hour of work to finish in town because I needed to take my music masters in for making copies for our Kittitas Valley Fiddlers & Friends. That I managed to finish by 2:45 and so I came on home. On my way, I picked up a loaner external disk from CWU to use for a couple weeks, while I locate mine.

I came home to a totally unexpected finding. When I left, I did not hibernate or put my laptop to sleep. I looked at it to see if I had any responses to any of my emails I sent before leaving this morning, and there was a new screen, telling me I now had to configure Windows 10 that had been downloaded in my absence. I was extremely upset because I had not requested it and did not want it. However, it was done, so I spent the next hour + answering questions and setting it up. I was a very unhappy camper. I am over the initial shock now, and have pretty much figured out the usage. I restored a few software programs that were wiped out, and I think I have almost everything now that I need.

Wednesday, Apr 6

For Apr 5 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 5 hrs 14 min with AHI=0.00. Events: 0 H, 15 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 7 L/min). Oximeter not accepting charge; not used.

I worked on music separation of copies designating for players by name, and packing those along with the audience copies, for tomorrow’s distribution and use.

I picked up my friend Gloria on my way to Food Bank. We had a bunch of players there and were videotaped for advertising for the F.I.S.H. Food Bank. For lunch, after the singing, we had white sauce pasta with sausage, with too much garlic for my likes, as well as a tomato-based sauce (one I did not take), green salad, and carrot cake roll slice with cream cheese fill; in hindsight, I should have chosen two red velvet cookies with white chocolate, because the other was too dry. We packed foodstuffs in the back of our car to bring for our neighbors. Then dropped off at Grocery Outlet for food for Gloria, and while there, I checked the cat food. No pate, so will get some from Bi-Mart while it is on sale. From there on to SAIL class where we enjoyed with 12 people. I was too tired to go to Bi-Mart so I came on home, let Gloria off at her place, and helped take in her groceries. I spent a bunch of time on the computer with email, and searching the web about external disk drives.

John picked asparagus once I was home. I washed a load of dishes. We had a late dinner of leftovers.

A little after 9:00 p.m., we got a call from our neighbor Louaine that she smelled smoke in her bathroom. John got dressed and went down. I stayed on the phone talking as he was getting there. Things seemed all right and they thought a neighbor started a stove earlier and smoke had collected in her place via the soffit vents. John returned home. Still, a scary ordeal. John found nothing on a walk around the house, and so she was able to rest easier. Next morning she realized the furnace was not working and warming the house, so that was the source of the smell. The thermostat may have failed but a repairman, coming Friday, will have to determine the cause and the fix. With the temperatures we are having, that’s not a problem.

Thursday, Apr 7

For Apr 6 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 6 hrs 10 min with AHI=0.32. Events: 1 CSR, 2 H, 4 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 3 L/min). Oximeter not accepting charge; not used.

I received info about a community paper shredding opportunity so made a page for posting on Facebook, on a public group (Community Connect, Kittitas County) that reaches many people; you can get to this link to see my handiwork.

Come Shred with us

I went to town for music at the REHAB and saw people I had known there 6 years ago, residents as well as staff, including one staff member who does laundry and remembers me. Gave me a big hug. She’s worked there for 36 years. Then our group played music for an hour + including a request for ONE MORE by our little Haley, our mascot, all dressed in western garb for tonight. She requested, “I’ll Fly Away,” and so she did – dancing circles in front of us at the end. Sorry I don’t have a video of that and the residents’ reaction; it was priceless.

Tonight a little before 5 we left for the Volunteer Recognition Dinner. I know they will have a good evening planned for us. Serving starts at 5:30. It’s held at the local Moose. I am sorry I didn’t get a photo with John all duded up in a cowboy hat, jeans, western shirt, and leather vest. I got the leather vest at the recent BNE clothing share, 3/22. It appeared to be brand new and his size. Our older vests are a little too small on us – as they were when we got them at a yard sale years ago.
We have cowgirl, Haley Davison, not 3 until April 26, all dressed in western attire for the evening. She had on jeans and cowboy boots too.

Nancy in her funky cowgirl hat and Laura. The flower arrangement in front of us I won as a door prize. I subsequently gave it to Haley (above) because she loved the horse on the side of the vase (I didn’t get it in the picture above with Haley), and she loved smelling the pretty daisies. Laura plays the guitar and violin in our group, that just played this afternoon as mentioned above, and Haley danced around in her bare feet, kicking off her boots early in the hour of entertainment. This photo by Laura’s husband, Dale. Last November, Dale drove himself to the ER while having a heart attack. We talked heart-capades. John is the only one of the four that doesn’t have a seriously troubled heart. We visited over a high calorie dinner plate, with the main dish being pulled pork tenderly cooked in a good BBQ sauce. Sides were beans, potato salads, green mixed salad (with mandarins, the only part that I had). The dessert tables extended half the wall.

Friday, Apr 8

For Apr 7 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 6 hrs 11 min with AHI=0.32. Events: 2 CSR, 2 H, 12 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 6 L/min). Oximeter not accepting charge; not used.

Spent the morning with dishes, animal feeding, and ordering a 2-terabyte Seagate Backup Plus Slim External Hard Drive in pretty blue, with a bright red case I may not misplace. With “two day shipping” it will arrive in four days. Go figure. [Okay, Sat & Sun don’t count.]

John went up the creek (smile) to check the gate on the irrigation water. Our cattle-rancher neighbor (Sam; ~2 mi away), was, uncharacteristically, complaining about too much water. We don’t have a lot of water in our ditch, that comes off the same outlet. John did go check and shut his down as much as he could, shunting it to our side. Now John will have to spread it around our land and 2 others. There is a decrepit wood structure at the ‘Y’ that was designed to have slots for boards to adjust the flow. Now a plastic tarp has to do the job and doesn’t fit well.

I’m getting off my computer now to tackle more boxes of STUFF. I made fair progress today, getting receipts and related tax papers into months. Tomorrow, I shall worry with organizing by days of the month (never got it completed). Then I need to start entering into my Excel spreadsheet for ease in subtotaling. Guess both will wait until Sunday. Time to write IRS and go for an extension. (Actually, I did that and the letter is in my car waiting to take to the USPS to send certified).

I managed to change the filter in my CPAP and it was very dark – no doubt from all the smoke from our wood stove usage; certainly not from my not changing it every 2 weeks, as recommended in a clean house. Our is a very dusty house!

Today’s mail delivery brought a dozen rubber faced work gloves for John, and my present of a One Touch can opener. Very clever invention, as seen working below:

Literally, all you do is set it on top of a can (never the bottom), press the top switch for a couple of seconds, and it takes off on its own; step back and watch. It stops when done, and you can flip up the top with no rough edges anywhere, can or lid. I am thrilled. Not bad for $9. These things must be invented by the folks that make batteries – this takes 2 AA type.

Saturday, Apr 9

For Apr 8 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 6 hrs 39 min with AHI=3.16. Events: 8 CSR, 21 H, 5 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 9 L/min). Oximeter not accepting charge; not used. Don’t know the reason for the high number of hypopneas.

We awoke to sunshine and pretty young light green leaves, new grass showing, and fruit trees in the early stage of bloom. John looked at the backyard cam of a home 6 miles from his sister Peggy’s home, in Parma, OH, and here’s the view.

SNOW IN BACK YARD IN AVON, OH
We got on the phone and had a nice visit. She and John were reminiscing about places of business and people they knew in Clarion, PA, where they grew up.

Peggy finally remembered the name of the beer distributor that would bring their Mom a case of beer, or you could back your car into the place and they would load it. They can’t recall the name or exact place nearby where John (little then) would take glass beer and pop bottles for the refund. The proprietor once asked John if the bottles had holes in them. No, John said, looking at the bottoms. The fellow said if they didn’t have a hole, how could they refill them? Big joke on a little kid!

High of 79 today, and highest wind gust was 33 mph at the airport.

After a couple hours outside, John returned and we had lunch. I’ve managed to wash a load of dishes and now have the clothes ready once the water can warm again. Later: Clothes completed too.

We both worked on chores – John’s were mostly outside, except for a magnificent chicken soup casserole dinner, made with his homegrown asparagus, a butternut squash, pieces of chicken breast, mushrooms, in a creamy sauce, and topped with French fried onion bits. He doesn’t like me taking pictures of his creations, but this one was picturesque. It was also baked in a vintage brown Pyrex rectangular dish with high sides. You’ll just have to use your imagination. And, as well, it was quite tasty.

Sunday, Apr 10

For Apr 9 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 6 hrs 38 min with AHI=2.41. Events: 12 CSR, 16 H, 12 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 8 L/min). Oximeter not accepting charge; not used. Still cannot explain high AHI.

Started overcast and cold. Now sunny and pretty. Two outside cats fed, also Rascal, and John’s on his way to feed the horses, after reviewing this.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Sunday, Mar 20

For Mar 19 CPAP. Reported figures, 7 hrs 55 min with AHI=2.65. Events: 19 H, 16 CSR, 2 CA, 6 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=10 L/min); oximeter lost its battery power, and was only on from 11:23 to 2:37.

I received photos of our Brittany in California from an early morning training session. Seems folks are getting lots of 4-legged creatures running with all feet in the air. Here’s Daisy:

Daisy with all four feet off the ground running and hunting for birds; middle pointing; right Jeri searching for bird to flush. Dog must hold for the shot and be sent for the retrieve. (Terminology is a ‘broke’ dog.)

On point again; middle Jeri flushing the bird in front of her and Daisy standing to await the flush; Daisy going for the retrieve.

We went to a potluck and practice session to get ready for the April 2 celebration of the 40th Anniversary Dance of the Blue Agates Round and Square dance club. Prior to our practice session we eat. John fixed a pork loin roast and a side dish of sweet cherries and Honeycrisp apples. He came home and I stayed for 3 hours to practice the repertoire – same songs we have done for the past several years, with a couple of corrections to chords, notes, and size of lyrics for aging eyes.

Each year the square-dancers invite a dozen of us to provide dinner music, and afterwards, we too (with spouses) get to go through an awesome buffet for the dancers. This year our little mascot, Haley, who dances for and interacts with the residents, is invited.

Monday, Mar 21

For Mar 20 CPAP. Reported figures, 7 hrs 19 min with AHI=0.41. Events: 3 H, 2 CSR, 6 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=9 L/min); oximeter on entire time with high SpO2 and normal pulse.

I worked on photographing music pages of Maury’s book. I want to return the book Thursday. While I found The M.T.A. song, it is not the version & melody the Kingston Trio used. I will be able to listen to their video and do the tune by ear from the notes I have. Parts are right on, but other phrases are strangely different.

In addition, I worked on corrections to last night’s performance practice session for changes to send to people involved on 4/2 at the fairgrounds.

I heard from Carol Findley that John is welcomed at the Volunteer Recognition dinner, Apr 7. Some of the things people volunteer for did not fit the “wants” of the elites running the system. Many people’s views of the world got left off the diagram.

John does trail work and isn’t about to switch to doing meals on wheels or one of the other desired activities. So his hours on the trails no longer count and we wondered if he was also dis-invited to the annual celebratory community dinner.

I am able to use my external 4-socket USB port (can choose which ones); my camera and oximeter are hooked up now and I was working between them. YIPPEE. I suppose I can use it for my external disk back up too, and I need to do that soon, as I am overdue.

I called the Safeway Pharmacy today to check on why I had a prescription waiting for me when I haven’t ordered anything. Found out it was the drug dose increase I was supposed to have refilled at Super 1, not Safeway. Now that has been corrected. I only get one prescription filled at Safeway, because it is cheaper by paying cash.

Need still to load in my meds container for the week, but I realized I was low on my Furosemide last night, and called in to see about getting that prescription refilled. I found out it was outdated and needed reordered. That was done and it only cost me 42¢ co-pay for 45 pills. That’s a 3-month supply because I take only every other day. Amazing. For once (probably the last time), the cost of a medication decreased!

Tuesday, Mar 22

For Mar 21 CPAP. Reported figures 6 hrs 15 min with AHI=0.00. Events: 5 H, 9 CSR, 11 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=10 L/min); oximeter on entire time with high SpO2 and normal pulse.

I went by CWU music library for Whistling Gypsy Rover – from Mary Wise, an acquaintance of many years.

Delivered clothes for Joni Zehler at share; some a gift for her and her daughter, and the other bag for her to use her sewing prowess on. Later this week I have been able to use the rice bag she sewed for me to put on my swelled cheek (still) from the oral surgery. More below on this.

GOOD NEWS ABOUT DAISY Jeri called OFA to find out the results on her recent trip to the Newport Beach Veterinary Hospital for OFA X-rays with Dr. Debra Cohen and found that Cedaridge Kip’s Camelot Shay Tre’ JH has Excellent hips (this after she got a fair on her first X-ray from her local vet — probably from improper positioning). This is our co-owned Brittany you saw in training photos above. The two following dogs also belong to Jeri & Kurt Conklin: Camelot’s Coppers Rollin’ Four Dice JH – Excellent Hips (Good on his prelim X-rays) and CH Camelot’s Labyrinth N Illusions Magie JH – Excellent Hips (Good on her prelim X-rays). All elbows were normal!

Winds up to 46 mph gusts blew through the Kittitas valley today.

It was a long day. I went to CWU music library to retrieve a book of folk music that I can check out as an Emerita professor and also used my complimentary parking sticker I paid much annually for during the 22 years I was there.

Had to run by Super 1 for some meds and then went to the clothing share for an hour, and while there picked up an aluminum pan gift from a member to have to feed the rest of the grain to our horses that Ebony left behind. We were short one feeding pan, having just 3 of the black rubber type. I stayed and helped until I had to leave for our local hospital for my annual required Pulmonary Function Test. It is required to check for Amiodarone’s effect on my lungs, if any. The drug has successfully controlled my atrial fibrillation since 2010, but for some, a side effect is lung scaring and a poorer lung function.

Results of my PFT show an improvement in all items, so that was good.

After my test, I went back to clothing share until the end. I had been in charge of arranging for the county’s free clothing banks to send a representative or two to pick up leftovers. We managed to distribute everything out of the room, so that was a positive thing. Many people came throughout the day, finding clothing for their family, and other families throughout the county will benefit. It was a quite successful event. Our personal stash of unused clothing is diminished. Nice.

Photos of the collection process for our Buy Nothing Ellensburg Second Annual Clothing Share Event, under the guidance of Kathryn Carlson, wonder woman, who stored the majority of the buildup of sorted, organized clothing by size and type from newborn to plus adult clothing and wearable accessories, boxed and stored in her den, extra bedroom, and hallway. She hosted others in our BNE (Buy Nothing Ellensburg Facebook Group) to come into her home to sort. She was a drop off site for containers of donated clothing. She and her hubby, Jim, went to other collection homes and carted stuff into the event. A couple of us went to homes in town and in Kittitas to pick up clothes, delivering them to Kathryn’s house.

The above collage shows from top left to bottom right the tables of clothing set out the day before at the LDS church – kind folks to donate the space and volunteer helpers for the set up, distribution, and clean-up. The share was open freely with no limits to the community. Other photos show boxes stored at two members’ houses, top right the hallway at Kathryn’s, followed below left other shots of stored material there, bottom middle are a couple of the vehicles and a trailer used to transfer the “stuff” from the various places. Missing are a clothes hanger full of women’s clothing donated by a gal whose mom died. Also included were men’s clothes from another member’s dad who passed. Shoes and accessories are not displayed in these photos. I tried not to bring anything home.

Wednesday, Mar 16

For Mar 13 CPAP. Reported figures 6 hrs 50 min with AHI=1.46. Events: 9 H, 8 CSR, 15 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=10 L/min); oximeter on entire time with high SpO2 and normal pulse. An extra hour of oximeter without CPAP usage lowered the AHI to 1.41.

I picked up my friend Gloria and we went to the Food Bank & SAIL and delivered some clothes to a gal, and then I drove on home to my neighborhood to deliver food.

John sent me a photo from the Wall Street Journal that I shared with a few people.

Caitlin LaBar says, “It’s the Owl Butterfly, Caligo memnon, a common species often used in butterfly houses.”

Thursday, Mar 24

For Mar 23 CPAP. Reported figures 4 hrs 37 min with AHI=2.60. Events: 12 H, 6 CSR, 10 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=22 L/min); oximeter on for couple more hours. I have no explanation for the high numbers.
I was working on music much of the morning, and then went to play at Hearthstone. Was a small showing of players, but we did well and had a good involved audience. We did have one of our players have a hypoglycemic-type event so they got him a cookie and orange juice, and he rested awhile before going home. He was okay. John drove me in and went shopping while we were playing.

Our little Leprechaun, Haley, was there in her dress, for the last day of Irish music. In April, she will be 3 years old.

Note, the people directly behind the top of her head are our friends, Jim and Lillian Brooks. He was a geography professor in the department I joined in 1988, and was still teaching. For 17 years, he actually served as the President of Central Washington University, and when he left office, he returned to teach for several more years. The CWU library is named after him – and here is a photo below, as I have just mentioned going there earlier in the week.

This is the James E. Brooks Library at Central Washington University. The music library is on the 4th floor. [Note sign, white on black.]

During our playing at Hearthstone, Haley crashed, beneath the grand piano. {We don’t use a piano in our group.}

Previously to this, she had been running around the room making many residents smile. She is not bashful at all. All the residents love her.

Friday, Mar 25

For Mar 24 CPAP. Reported figures 6 hrs 57 min with AHI=1.29. Events: 9 H, 10 CSR, 9 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=8 L/min); oximeter on entire time with high SpO2 and normal pulse.

John fixed an early breakfast and we left at 11:25 in my car with John driving, for my oral surgery. We paused at 11:35 for me to take my Amoxicillin, for the 12:30 p.m. check in for two implants.

Afterwards, John will drive us by Big 5 for him to check out a good price on boots, and I will sit in the car; then to Costco to fill my car with gasoline, $2.09/gal only 2 cents/gal cheaper than Ellensburg. He did not find boots with the kind of “top” he wants. Many styles do not have sides that when laced come nearly together over the tongue. Waterproof trail boots are thus only WP a couple of inches higher than the sole. Not good.

From Costco, he brought me a frozen yogurt w/ strawberries and a 6-variety case (24) of yogurt cups.

On the way home, we had to go through Ellensburg to pick up my pain medication. I was lying pretty low the rest of the night, wishing for my pain to cease. The pain pills did not make a difference until I got a little relief at 2:30 in the morning. I have been faithfully taking it along with 3 Amoxicillin / day for the rest of a week following the procedure.
I have been taking two 500mg tablets of Acetaminophen every 6 hours. I called the pharmacist to see how much Acetaminophen was in the Percoset pill, after reading that it had a lot and one needed to be careful with supplements. The literature warned about not exceeding 4000 mg per day because of potential liver damage.
She told me each pill had 325mg of Acetaminophen, and that she usually told patients to stop their supplements with Tylenol or Acetaminophen but that she trusted me to watch the arithmetic. I started keeping my notes, and I usually take one Percoset with one 500 mg Acetaminophen until I reach a maximum, under the 4000.

Now for a report on my oral surgery. The preparation began with an attempt to get their CT scanner working, but it never did, so they had me walk around the corner to a another X-ray machine, which did not provide a 3D image. They will retake the next time I am in the office in a month for suture removal. Third time should be a charm. It wasn’t working right on my consultation appointment either, when they usually take them.
They drew blood to get my platelets to make a mixture to pump into my gums where there needs to be bone to be re-grown to support the implant posts.
Then the surgery began with a local antiseptic, without epinephrine. Getting the back root canal fillings out was a tough job. Then they inserted the platelets. The doctor had two assistants – one handing him the instruments and the other holding the drainage suction and keeping my cheek out of his way. The team was competent and I heard most of the commentary, plus was getting an explanation about what was happening along the way. I appreciated that. The surgical procedures lasted about an hour. After that, I was given post-operative instructions.

We made it home about 4:30. It seemed okay but I took a Percoset at 4:00, as we were driving home because the pain had started. It got worse through the evening and I could not take another pill until 8:00 p.m. Then I realized the places opened and covered at the end and sutured were oozing with some blood, I began pressuring the gum with a gauze roll in the place of the two missing teeth. Not sure that will help. The area was not losing blood right after the surgery, so they did not install a gauze pad. They said the platelet mixture often serves to clot the blood.
I would like to go to sleep, but I have to put ice on and off every 20 minutes – to prevent swelling. I just wish I had something to help the pain. Plus, I am quite tired.

This below came from the Earth Science Web (Weekly sends) I’m on from a Geographer friend in Michigan, Mark Francek. His commentary is interesting – so I will start with that, and then give you the link.

Eclipse as Viewed from a Plane
Mark’s comment: (WARNING: You will want to pummel the guy for his repeated OMG’s. Mute this and then enjoy.) “Passengers on a flight from Anchorage, AK to Honolulu, HI witnessed a solar eclipse high in the sky. They all cheered when they saw the moon cast a shadow over the land. They were also in awe when the sun shined like a diamond when the moon moved and helped create flares in the sky.”
Link: DEFINITELY MUTE THIS BEFORE WATCHING:

Saturday, Mar 26

For Mar 25 CPAP. I did not use my CPAP or my oximeter last night.

I spent the morning finding the details of what was expected from us at the Memorial service today, and getting music copies ready for our Fiddlers and Friends (6 of us) to play after the memorial service at the lunch for the attendees. We were requested to play only happy songs.

Our group has known Lois since 2001 and she always enjoyed our music. She sang every song without needing to look at the lyrics. A dear lady, she picked the songs for her celebration of life and wrote her obituary, including that she enjoyed our music very much. She also loved flowers and wanted everyone who came to remember the beauty of flowers. Her family arranged to give packets of flower seeds to all the folks attending. She was the mom of Barb Pettit, married to Jerry Pettit, the Auditor for Kittitas County. He and Barb also are members of the Blue Agate Square and Round Dance club for whom we will be playing next weekend, while they eat their dinner at their annual anniversary dance. They knew of her love for our music, so they invited us to play for an hour after the end of the service, at the luncheon, and then they fed us afterwards.

I am only supposed to be eating soft foods, and I was happy they had a lovely fresh fruit salad, potato salad, and BBQ sauce for very tender small shredded beef, pork, and turkey. That was my dinner.

Sunday, Mar 27 Happy Easter!

For Mar 26 CPAP. I did not wear my CPAP machine mask last night. Oximeter recorded all night, however, from 11:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m. Without the CPAP on, the chart below shows me that my Sp02 is improved with it on.

The day has been blustery with alternate sunshine and clouds, but consistent wind since 9:30 a.m., with gusts above 30, max 36. Finally, the temperature got to 52.

Weather report partial today:

John started by tackling building a fence around the top of a big planter-box out front. One of the cats thought it a litter box – just as tulip leaves began to show. The deer will nibble the leaves on the tulips or anything green but this year the cats disturbed it first.

I spent time on various inside projects including records, blog work, dishes, putting ice on my still swelled face, taking medicine for pain and antibiotic need, and scanning some stuff I needed to capture.

John just returned from all his outside chores, I have to proof and spellcheck this, put on a jump drive with the photos, and give it to him for his editing work.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Sunday, Mar 13

For Mar 12 CPAP. Reported figures, 6 hrs 24 min with AHI=0.94. Events: 6 H, 2 CSR, 15 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=4 L/min); oximeter on entire time with high SpO2 and normal pulse.

I finished my draft of the blog, and John went to town in the old truck to fill with gasoline. While in town, he shopped at Safeway and found a good markdown (50%) on beef stew meat, which he now is combining with beans, onions, and mushrooms into a big Crockpot of chili.

Still need to reset my watch for the day – waited for Daylight Saving Time change.

I have managed to get all my data uploaded from my CPAP and Oximeter. I worked on coordinating upcoming events for our music group, and am sitting watching a wintry mix with about 20% snow now.

Will need to load up my medicines for the week and work on several other projects too. They never end. Trying to set up end of March gigs and get to planning my oral surgery, as well as getting to tax stuff, now that I have the ability to load the Turbo Tax software on my computer where the previous year will carry over.

John saw the sole Ring-Neck Pheasant come in our yard and told me I could get his picture if I’d walk out the driveway some. I lucked out and got a couple minutes of him on video. The wind was wicked and I didn’t have my tripod. We have many quail around but he is the first pheasant I’ve seen in many years. They are pretty birds. Later in the week, Annie had an encounter with him.

This is the same bird in the collage as viewed from each side of his body. To see him in action, follow this link: pheasant video

Monday, Mar 14

For Mar 13 CPAP. Reported figures, 7 hrs 58 min with AHI=0.67. Events: 5 H, 3 CSR, 7 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=10 L/min); oximeter on entire time with high SpO2 and normal pulse.

I went by Karen’s for 2 bags of clothes, on the way to Kathryn’s for sorting clothes for the share, then to the AAC to meet Glenn to transfer some items, to SAIL class, and from there to Burger King for chicken strips and fries (coupon special, $3), a very much needed late lunch at 2:45, having only had a piece of toast early and working hard for a several hours. I only ate half and brought John the rest for his lunch on Wednesday when I’m gone.

I went by the $1 store, looking for St. Patrick’s Day hats. They were out. I drove by Fred Meyers’ parking lot to meet a woman in a Jeep to pick up nice large heavy duty bag with the Costco logo. This was listed free on the BNE site. I have used it much the rest of the week. It is quite large and has long enough strap handles, which I can swing over my back to carry on my right side, but move it to the middle rear for support to be able to carry my heavy violin case with my left arm and balance the bag with my right.

Found out today, where John’s 2 liter bottles went that we mentioned in last week’s blog.

Here is a message from the recipient, “Thank you Nancy. It is for a mini class at Lincoln Elementary where we are going to make recycled rockets with them. They are fun. We fill them with water, pump with air, and they fly up. “Mini science experiment!” [John says: Interesting. One of the possibilities being tried for storing energy is to do this on a really huge scale and then allow the compressed air to flow out and turn an electric generator.]

Tuesday, Mar 15

For Mar 14 CPAP. Reported figures 6 hrs 54 min with AHI=1.30. Events: 5 H, 9 CSR, 11 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=7 L/min); oximeter on entire time with high SpO2 and normal pulse.

Up early to leave before 10:00 a.m. for a 10:55 appointment at the cardiologist in Yakima. We got there and were admitted very close to 11:00 a.m. Justine took all my vitals and gave me an ECG. Dr. Kim came in quickly. He spent a lot of time with us (as usual), but is being cut back on his preferred time with patients by government-induced regulations. He had not seen me alone since last July 14. I had visited with two PAs in the heart center in the meantime after my surgery 12/18. We didn’t leave the building until about 12:45.
We and the staff of the Heart Center are members of Group Health Coop (GH) of Seattle. California’s Kaiser Permanente ($60B annual revenue) is acquiring GH ($3.5B annual revenue). This is supposed to be a great deal for GH but we don’t know if it will be a great deal for us.

From there we went to the Dollar Tree store on Nob Hill Blvd, not too far from the Yakima Heart Center. Needing a different St. Pat’s hat, I had called the $1 store in Yakima, this morning, and got the manager. She checked to see if there were any St. Patrick’s Day hats in stock. She found two and put them at her front register (#1) for me to come check out after my appt. Actually when I got there she had found 5. I picked two and took them. While there, John searched for a new spatula and got a similar silicone spoon as well, both bright red. An ancient spatula’s handle broke on the carrot cake he made earlier. I decided to buy 2 lighting shamrock necklaces too. I gave one of the hats that looks like her daughter’s hat to Amy and gave her the blinking green light shamrock necklace. Daughter Haley called it awesome. I haven’t yet gotten a photo of me in my new St. Patrick’s Day garb yet, but will try before next year, or maybe even put in next week’s blog. We are still doing Irish music, so it won’t hurt to wear it.

On to the foot doctor by way of Burger King. I bought $10 worth using coupons mostly. Got enough for our late lunch and then had leftovers for a late dinner. I got a free Whopper with the purchase of one; $3 worth of 10 chicken nuggets, with large fries, and a small cola. For lunch we halved the whopper (I had the smaller half) and some of the fries and nuggets. We brought home the rest, and added to the leftovers I brought from yesterday for supper. Rather funny as the cardiologist has just told me to lose weight, and he changed the dosage on two of my meds. One is for Uric acid in my kidneys, and John found on the Internet that mushrooms have some chemical that raises a person’s uric acid. Rather concerning as we intake a lot of cooked mushrooms. Bright green veggies are out, so mushrooms have been adding some variety.

Foot doctor. I was scheduled for Laser Treatment of the right foot’s toenails that have had a fungus for awhile. At our last toenail trim (I think we explained this in the blog at that time about DNA testing of toenail clippings), we expected to have a test set up. The goal is to find which other underlying fungi are present that the first treatment did not cure. A medication specific to what’s left to get rid of will be tried; probably a topical one, because I cannot take internal ones that mess with my liver and therefore conflict with my other heart medications. The lab is in Texas so a part of me is now there, or soon will be.

We stopped at Costco for gasoline (good price, $1.95) and picked up a few groceries, including some for our neighbor. We were late arriving back home, about 4:30 p.m. With daylight saving time, John still had light for feeding the animals.

I had to drive back to town shortly after arriving home, to play & sing at the REHAB with The Connections group. It was another long day.

Wednesday, Mar 16

For Mar 13 CPAP. Reported figures 5 hrs 22 min with AHI=0.93. Events: 5 H, 5 CSR, 13 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=5 L/min); oximeter on entire time with high SpO2 and normal pulse.

John took off for his pruning activities before 8:00 a.m.. I only had one cat wanting food – our long-haired small female (fixed) feral kitty, Woody, you have seen previously who comes to a food call to the cable-table 20 feet from the front door.

I started the morning with arranging for an appointment for my Pulmonary Function Test in Ellensburg at our hospital. I have to have it annually to check my lungs because of the Amiodarone I’m taking for atrial fibrillation. The images will show scaring, if any. Thus far, I have had none, being on since March 2010, and have had no reactions to the drug. Many people have problems and have to cease using it. This is good because the alternative requires an overnight or longer hospital stay to set and monitor the dosage.

After doing other paperwork stuff, I drove to pick up Gloria to run around town with me. Luckily, my access to her from the north is in line with the detour around a road I use to get to the northwest part of town the quickest. However, it is closed for water main construction until May 2. We started at the Food Bank, where I was dressed in my new Shamrock hat, but I didn’t get my photo taken either today or on Thursday. Neat that I had invited a BNE person to come by on her lunch hour to pick up a gift from me, and join us for lunch and our singing. She came, got it, and stayed for lunch while we played. We left there with food we transport each Wednesday to our neighbors and went to SAIL (exercise) class at the AAC. We were able to pick up Gloria’s Income Tax forms from the Accountant on our way by. On the return trip, we made a stop for her and us to pick up food items from Grocery Outlet. A few weeks ago we bought 2 cans of Pear halfs there. They were hard and part of the 2nd can got put in a glass jar and slowly found its way to the back of the shelf. Oops!

When John took Ebony her pelleted food and carrots to all the horses he returned with the caution that she was behaving oddly and not interested. A bad sign.

Thursday, Mar 17 Happy St. Patrick’s Day

For Mar 16 CPAP. Reported figures 5 hrs 46 min with AHI=1.21. Events: 10 H, 11 CSR, 13 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=8 L/min); oximeter off entire time, quit working, apparently. (or, perhaps it ran out of battery power).

John left early for a morning of pruning grapevines at White Heron, leaving me to feed the feral cats their morning vittles. Only two arrived in the morning, and the other came back for the evening meal. They have dry food available 24/7.

I started the morning with normal catch up duties, but was sure to pack a bunch of gallon jugs from my neighbor to give to a gal on the BNE site from Thorp. She also needed 18-count egg cartons, which I assembled as well. The plan was to take them by her workplace in Ellensburg on my way home from playing music at Dry Creek/Brookdale assisted living place. I also packed up music and clothes for others I would see there today, and I called in the need for 9 chairs for our play group. We were happy to have our friends from the west side (Winlock) join us to fill the group’s good sound. Dave plays a bass fiddle and his wife Janet plays violin. I’d carried my camera to get some photos of Haley, our mascot, in action as a Leprechaun. I took these pictures before all players arrived. I will describe below the photos.

Haley, daughter of our flute player & tin/penny whistle player, Amy, has on her mom’s made dress and is carrying a pot of gold covered coins (chocolates). Three of the guys are in the background in the second photo, and third shows Amy in her home sewn paneled skirt, with matching green shamrocks material to Haley’s dress. Haley’s hat Amy got at the $1 store in Ellensburg, and I bought the matching hat for Amy at the $1 store in Yakima, Tuesday. On the right is a resident with our sheets of Irish songs for the day. I don’t think she is of Irish heritage, but she has the spirit. Her hat says, “Kiss Me” – “I’m Irish.”

Here we have Haley bringing her pot of gold to share with the players. Left she is with Maury, and right she is handing to Charlie, with Manord and Gerald enjoying in the background, having been previously gifted with candy.

On a sad note, my horse Ebony died last night or while we were gone today, and I came home to find John in the pasture pulling her body with the truck up to the top of our property. He managed to pull her into the hole (previously dug 3 years ago by our friend Allen Aronica with his backhoe), where since then, Shay, Meghan and Dan are resting in peace. Also, there is one neutered feral cat, there. His name was Johnny Cashew (because of his color, and that early in life we called him Little Sue only to find out he was male), hence a man named Sue, a Johnny Cash song. Another neighbor, Ken Swedberg, with a skid-steer** loader, came over and pushed in the rocks and dirt. John is removing some top rocks and rejuvenating the surface.
Link: Explains the name and has a photo

She was near 30, or older – we were told she was 8 when we got here. She could have been older. She’d looked at the hole 3 years ago, and rallied and we’d been supplementing with grain, carrots and apples. She was a talker and would come up to meet us and declare she was ready for dinner. This photo below is the last one I took of her with her special vittles, November 15, 2015, but she seemed in good shape through the winter until just this week.

She was a friendly horse who visited with the neighbors. Last year we were astounded (alarmed and disturbed) to find out cousins of new neighbors’ kids had come through the woods into our pasture (without notifying us) and gotten on her to ride bareback. Happily, she was sweet to put up with it gently.

Ebony was my horse from the 1990s until into the 2000s when she bowed a tendon and could no longer be ridden. She was a cross between a Tennessee Walker and a Quarter horse and had a nice very smooth gait for riding. She carried me around many field trials and on many fun trail rides. I will happily keep those memories.

Friday, Mar 18

For Mar 17 CPAP. Reported figures 7 hrs 16 min with AHI=0.69. Events: 5 H, 2 CSR, 19 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=9 L/min); oximeter on entire time with high SpO2 and normal pulse.

I spoke with a former friend (who knew Ebony) from our old club, Kittitas Valley Trail Riders. Turns out in trying to get information from the Music Library at CWU, I found Mary Wise is now in charge there. She is the one we knew from our past. She led me through the system on line for searching for music, after spending much time searching herself for a song we need in our group, the score for Kingston Trio’s, “The M.T.A..” Access is through cwu.edu and I’m able to login with my “edu” account. I choose Services and then searched All One Search, if not there, then Summit, and finally later in the afternoon she made a document for me with special instructions and emailed them to allow me to search the World Catalog of Libraries (where she had found M.T.A., to get to such things as the Illiad data base, which I can access through the CWU Brooks Library to obtain books through Interlibrary loan on my Emeritus account at CWU. No gold watch, but I do have a CWU parking permit for life and access to the library. Nice benefits for years of hard work and teaching. She had researched and found that only two libraries had the book with the score: one in Texas and one in New York City. Whether they will part with the books for a week is questionable, but I hope they do. I went through the process to request it through CWU. I’m grateful to Mary for the instructions to use in future searches.

Saturday, Mar 19

For Mar 18 CPAP. Reported figures 6 hrs 29 min with AHI=0.31. Events: 2 H, 1 CSR, 11 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=5 L/min); oximeter on entire time with high SpO2 and normal pulse. The extra 1.2 hrs were consistent with higher SpO2 and normal pulse.

Besides working on a card for Ethel’s 98th birthday (John’s cousin in Pennsylvania) coming March 23, I spent all morning sorting clothes from as far back in our history to Iowa (and we came to the PNW in 1974, so that goes way back.) I’m sure there are more packed away. One piece today was a vest-like sweater we both liked, but now it won’t fit us. It was from the Amana Woolen Mill in the Amana Colonies, in Iowa.

Off to town by way of Kathryn’s to drop off 7 bags of sorted clothes: coats, sweaters, men’s Large, women’s L, some XL I don’t need, and 2X. We now have more clothing that we need. I still have 3 days left until the clothing share on Tuesday to sort out more to get to good homes and clean up our clutter.

While moving stuff from my car to John’s, so I could drive it and get him some gasoline and cased-sausage (summer or non-refrigeration type) for his last day of pruning, I realized I had left my Irish music in my tote bag container on a table in the dining room, at Dry Creek, on Thursday. It would have been nice if someone on the staff had notified me, but they didn’t. I called on my way into town and asked if it had been turned in. The only one woman at the front desk was busy and did not have keys to the business office, where it might have been left. I described the bright green bag it was in, and what it had written on the side. Luckily, she got back to me rather fast, and said she’d found it and would leave it on the front counter. That place was on my way from dropping off the clothes on my trip going to Briarwood where we needed the music for the audience.

This group prepares food for us at the end of our music. Today was a great soup with tortellini, carrots, ground beef, cabbage, and was very tasty. Everyone loved it. They had good homemade croutons to add, Ritz crackers with cheese, and a wonderful orange Jello salad with mandarin oranges that went well with the hot soup. Also, there were cookies and a special crusty sweet pastry concoction, without fruit.

From there I went to Super 1 for John’s sausage contribution. He and the pruners are celebrating at the end of their last morning of pruning, this Monday. with tasty morsels, no doubt with wine. They have worked from 9 to Noon but will finish the short remaining rows by 11 – or not.

On to buy some gasoline for John’s car. Price has risen to $2.04. Then from there I went to drop off a bag of skirts (mostly) to our flute player. I had them at Briarwood, but she left in a hurry because the grandparents were visiting. I remembered her house address from when I was giving her directions to another friend’s house, and so it was right on my way home, and I stopped off and handed them to her. While I will see her tomorrow night, the time will be busy and involved with other things. Food and practice.

John fixed us a fabulous beef stew meat in the Crockpot with potatoes and mushrooms. I need to find out if eating as many mushrooms as we do is detrimental to my health. John just learned that they may contribute to high Uric acid. I was started a couple months ago on a pill to lower it, and while it has, some, my dosage was doubled this week by my Cardiologist.

Boy, I have been busy and I haven’t scanned for malware in 10 days. I have 3 programs I use faithfully, usually a couple times a week. But things have been so busy, I did not until tonight. [John says – Time to upgrade the operating system.]

Sunday, Mar 20

For Mar 19 CPAP. Reported figures, 7 hrs 55 min with AHI=2.63. Events: 19 H, 16 CSR, 2CA, 6 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=10 L/min); I haven’t done my oximeter yet.

Going to a potluck jam session tonight in prep for an upcoming performance. I need to finish Mountain Dew with corrected lyrics and chords added, and add a larger copy of T for Texas lyrics. John has put on a pork loin roast (he will add cherries from our trees to make a sauce for the side and add some baked Honeycrisp apples). We’ll potluck and practice afterwards for our performance April 2 at the Blue Agates Round and Square Dance Anniversary Dance dinner; they feed us and our spouses after we provide the dinner music. A dozen of us have played for them for several years. It is always a fun event. I think when April comes around, we may want to switch to that music for April for the Fiddlers & Friends group. Only problem will be I won’t have copies of all of the songs for our audiences. We will be able to pull a few from the books after the Irish songs. I’ll decide later.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan