Just kidding, sort of —
Sunday, Oct 18
Rain all day kept John inside except for necessary feedings of animals. I worked on house chores and the blog. John’s computer and Internet connection worked long enough to publish it. Phew. We are back on track.
On the Buy Nothing Ebrg (BNE) site, I won some jewelry to share with two other friends. One was a Rhino gold necklace (even though it looks silver in the photo below, and the others were beaded bracelets I wanted to give to a friend who is into bead-making projects). The interesting small-world connection is the giver is someone from my past. She was an anthropologist at CWU and married a former student (also an anthro major) who took my Intro GIS class at the turn of the century. In addition, I put a request out for deodorizer aerosol sprays receiving two, and a request for old wooden mousetraps brought me five, to protect our produce (apples) in open boxes in our garage. The mice are ignoring onions and thus far the potatoes, but aggressively going after the Honeycrisp apples. [Local paper headlines a story of rats in EBRG – the brown type “Rattus norvegicus”, not the black type “Rattus rattus.”] {We have little mice and would not know a R. norvegicus from a R. rattus if either bit us on our patooties.} { norvegicus = of or from Norway}
The following collage is of the jewelry, more attractive than the other mentioned acquisitions. Later in the week, I picked it up.
Beaded bracelets on left, rhino gold necklace on right.
Monday, Oct 19
For Oct 18 CPAP. Reported figures. 8 hrs 4 min with AHI=1.99 Events: 16 H, 5 CSR, 13 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=16 L/min); no oximeter.
9:30 a.m. we expected the Culligan service (out of Yakima) for our under-sink water system annual service and filter replacement, and at the same time our farrier, who we had to cancel last week for the wood stove installation. Arrivals were such that the Culligan truck got in (John had a few questions), and then the horse shoe truck came (John had to fetch horses.). Both finished before 11. We had noticed the filtered water flow had decreased and it doubled after the new filters were in. One of the joys of living in the country is keeping clean water coming out of the faucets. There will be more about this because the iron removal (whole house tank) died last year and ought to be replaced. It significantly cuts down on the bacteria in the system as well.
After they left, I got ready to go for my haircut, just a mile from my home, at my neighbor’s, who has cut my hair since 1988 (when I started going to her beauty shop she retired from, after surviving breast cancer). We always visit about photographs she has taken on her trips to the hills, and this time we went to her yard to view a beautiful white Iris that is confused, and blooms in the spring and again in the fall. She has given us iris before that you have seen in the blog, planted near our barn, (and are nice because deer do not eat them), but we did not get one of these special twice/year blooming iris.
Below are collages of Celia Winingham’s photography.
We started talking about the top-left one, taken this morning from her front yard on Thomas Road. I saw her photo on Facebook this morning and had also seen the fog in the Kittitas Valley this morning, but we do not have a view as they do. The fog looks like a lake filling the valley. That made her remember another fog picture she took this month on a hunting reconnaissance trip. The bottom photo above of the sunset is taken from Cook Canyon over Coleman Canyon (east of us), and what looks like a lake in the foreground is actually the layer of fog in Coleman Canyon. The photo to the right is her fall iris, taken 10-24-15, with the fall colors and leaves on the ground to show it’s no longer springtime.
That sunset photo made us start talking about our love of sunsets, and she sent me a photo of a recent sunset with Mt. Rainier showing (from the hills above our home), and also others of Rainier from that perspective. The farther east one drives on I-90 toward the Columbia Basin, the better the view of Mt. Rainier. Rye Grass Summit is the high point before dropping into the River gorge.
These views are from our valley, the bottom one being a zoomed image. What a majestic mountain, 14,440′ in elevation.
Back home to lunch with John and to deal with issues over our scholarship donation that was supposed to be handled from our CWU Foundation scholarship account without our intervention in May. There was a mix-up and we didn’t find out until today the money was never dispersed from my scholarship fund to the two students.
Late afternoon I went out with John and picked a bunch of small golf-ball size tomatoes. The plants are mostly gone from shorter days and cold (a modest freeze). There are hundreds of cherry-size fruits and many of the golf-ball size ones. Two plants revitalized after the rain. Their vibrant green in the garden contrasts with all else there.
John found his recently bought wood treatment (one-step stain and polyurethane finish) for possible use on the frame of the screen part of the new patio door. He wants to try it on a pine board so we can see if we like it. The stain part is a color called “pecan” and is slightly reddish. The rest of the door frame has been done in a clear (pine) finish. Minwax has one and here is a photo.
We will be here in the morning, but leave before noon for Yakima for my echocardiogram appointment at 12:45.
I just heard tonight our music is cancelled tomorrow night at the Rehab center because half the building is on lock down (quarantined is a better word), and the piano we need is on that end of the building. This is the group named, The Connections, which sings church anthems with the residents, who have large print lyrics to join in the “choir.” Many of them remember the words to the old songs, including those folks with dementia and Alzheimer’s. This occurrence is always appreciated by us, but especially the staff who have to deal with them daily and realize they cannot remember a conversation five minutes ago.
Late this evening I put another request on the Buy Nothing site for a 60-minute timer. Ours quit working, and it had been a replacement for one we’d had for years that belonged to my mother. Finally on the major clean-up for the wood stove installation last week, I found and threw away the old one of my mom’s. I knew I had thrown it in a garbage bag in our kitchen, but it had gotten carried out with other boxes and furniture and gone into the pole barn in our stock trailer until further processing. A gentlemen on the list who was a CWU prof now retired saw it and said, “Bring me your mom’s timer, and I’ll take a stab at fixing it. I think I can.” Well, that was a great offer but I no longer knew where it was. I spent this week searching garbage bags, and just found it on the last possible bag (after we retrieved it from the stock trailer, and John poured it out in the back of our old pickup). EUREKA !! about 4:00 pm. 10/24/15.
Here is my photo I posted on the BNE site to let people know I will be meeting with the fellow to deliver the timer to see if he can fix it.
My mom and dad married October 13, 1937. I do not know when they bought this timer, but I remember using it all my life. The only Minute Minders I could find on line were no earlier than the 50s, and I never found a like image of any.
Tuesday, Oct 20
For Oct 19 CPAP. Reported figures. 7 hrs 28 min with AHI=1.34 Events: 10 H, 4 CSR, 15 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=20 L/min); no oximeter. Slept for another 2.5 hrs.
We worked on a few chores and then left for Yakima for Nancy’s Echocardiogram. Actually, we were 1/2 hr ahead of time for checking in, so John detoured toward Cowiche Canyon, but we actually went up around a basalt outcropping and found a multitude of orchards and nice views near Naches Heights. We came on around, down Schuller Grade Road, off the hill, back near the river and continued on, on Powerhouse Road back to 40th Street, to Tieton Road, and to the Yakima Heart Center, right on time. I was called in at 12:45 and my echo took a little over a half hour. It was on a new examination table that was the most uncomfortable I have even been on. Next year I will take a couple of pillows and a large comforter to make the experience bearable.
We left there for Costco, putting almost 6 gallons of gas in John’s Subaru, and paid the same price as I paid last week, $2.15/gal. We went in for a late lunch, and had something different with our Polish dog & drink. We had a BBQ beef/Cole slaw sandwich. I was not impressed and will never order that again. We had not planned to get much, but (they had special sale items) ended up spending over $100 – most frozen items. We drove back through Ellensburg to take care of my friend’s cat and plants, and then dropped by two Buy Nothing Ellensburg folk’s places to pick up items discussed and shown above.
We forgot to take the parts of the wood stove unused to return for credit, and we meant to take our bill along to pay as well. Guess John will now have to return with the truck and metal cans to recycle, return them, and go to Lowe’s and/or Home Depot to look for wood panel plywood and, possibly, a front door. {Never mind: That has been changed. Now, I have to return Nov 3 (see below), and we will worry about it then.}
I have been working on things such as my mailing list for notifying people of the change in our domain for our various presentations on the web. This time-consuming project has to be completed before Nov 1 when the web address no longer works.
I could not figure the name and password last week to put files onto the web page site on our new domain. Today, I spoke to our provider and he gave me the details of what he used. I was successful in loading two files to work with for our next annual send of greetings for 2015. They will be on the new site
I was happy not to have to go play music tonight.
While at Costco today, we received the cash reward of $63.24 for having a Premium membership at Costco. It costs $110 for the year, but it pays back 2% on all Costco purchases. In February, we also get cash back from using our AMEX card. That will change next March to a VISA card. Currently, with the Costco AMEX we get an additional 4% off all gasoline purchases anywhere. I wonder if that will continue with the Costco VISA. If not, we have another AMEX to use that will pay us 3% rebate. [John says: These cards with rewards and so on are massively fraudulent and immoral. They take your money and invest it until, months later, they give some of it back. Not much wrong with that – just marketing. But, less well off folks – without the fancy cards – pay the same initial price and never get anything back. It is an extra cost to them that helps support the entire system. Sort of a reverse Robin Hood thing. And that’s wrong.]
Wednesday, Oct 21
For Oct 20 CPAP. Reported figures. 9 hrs 9 min with AHI=0.98 Events: 9 H, 4 CSR, 20 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=17 L/min); no oximeter.
I carried a few apples to 3 friends in town, and a box to the AAC and another to the Food Bank. Also, deposited our $250 check received for the wood stove recycle, from the WA Dept. of Ecology. Thanks, taxpayers.
I spent much time on chores with much more time needed. John continues with outside chores, and we have made connections to get some strong young folks to come help move the patio door into place for installation. Only the time now needs to be determined. As mentioned earlier, my biggest chore now is checking through email addresses to be able to notify all our contacts about the new location of our web page annual greetings and this blog. Each in slightly different places on the web.
Thursday, Oct 22
For Oct 21 CPAP. Reported figures. 8 hrs 12 min with AHI=1.22 Events: 10 H, 1 CSR, 14 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=18 L/min); no oximeter.
My implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) called – Houston and said “Houston, we have a problem.” Actually I think it called Portland (at 2 a. m.) and left a message with the company saying, in effect, my battery needs swapped out for a new one. So Portland notified Yakima and the Yakima Heart Center called me at 10 a. m. to schedule pre-procedure appointments. Back on August 25, I had 4% left. Therefore, my first appointment is Nov 3 with the surgeon, and another on Nov 11 with my cardiologist, and we’ll likely do the surgery before the end of the year. Phew. Now for planning and arranging the scheduled procedure, and what will be done, as well as altering my Coumadin and other drug medications before the operation occurs.
I went by the home of a gal on the Buy Nothing Ellensburg site to pick up a tablecloth I can use for the upcoming scholarship luncheons and then re-gift it to someone on the list. It is for a 6′ table and we just moved ours out of the den/dining room to be replaced by a hexagonal rounder table & chairs we have had packed out in the shed for several years. I delivered a box of apples, and took a large box and bags to Hearthstone where we played music today, giving to many people there. After that, I went by the courthouse to pick up 4 mousetraps to protect the produce in our garage. [The apples seem to be not keeping as well this year, so we are rapidly giving them away. Ripening apples produce an odor, usually not noticeable. However, with several hundred pounds in the garage (and the temperature has not been very cold) a smell seeps into the kitchen when the door is opened. Ethylene is not supposed to smell, so there’s our mystery.]
Our music venue was delightful. We had 5 guitars, 2 fiddles, a bass fiddle, and a flute. The audience was filled with many good singers who seemed to enjoy themselves very much.
John and I went back to town to hear a talk on the removal of
the Elwha Dam.
It was interesting. On our way to a front row seat, we stopped for hamburgers and chicken nuggets to eat for our supper.
Friday, Oct 23
For Oct 22 CPAP. Reported figures.7 hrs 55 min with AHI=1.89 Events: 15 H, 4 CSR, 14 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=15 L/min); no oximeter.
On the phone with Group Health about the phone call yesterday at 2:31p.m., from 1-978-703-9231. Jeez. S C A M !!!! My insurance provider in Seattle called me back to tell me what they had found out and not to return a call if I got one again. The company, I since found out on line, is in Lowell, MS and is considered a telemarketer.
I went to a scholarship luncheon in Bouillon, near where my old office was. We had sandwiches and a choice of pies: plum or cherry. I had cherry. From there I went for my INR blood draw and on to SAIL exercise class afterwards. From there I visited Rosewood to check on the cat, mail, and plants. My friends are on their return leg but are currently in Arkansas, which I just found out from a picture they sent to Facebook, is The Natural State. That’s a strange moniker for a state nickname. It made me look up the history of nicknames for Arkansas because I guessed it was something else as I was growing up and looking at license plates in the south, and I would have been correct. Here’s the story: It has been nicknamed, The Natural State, since 1995. It had been the Land of Opportunity since 1947. Prior to that from 1923, it was The Wonder State. Other unofficial names have been the Razorback and the Bear state. I grew up in the Peach State (GA), John in the Keystone State (PA), and we live now in the Evergreen State (WA). We have lived in the Buckeye State, the Hawkeye State, and the Gem State. {And the state of confusion!}
Saturday, Oct 24
For Oct 23 CPAP. Reported figures.9 hrs 41 min with AHI=0.10 Events: 1 H, 1 CSR, 13 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=9 L/min); no oximeter. Wow.. What a quiet & long night of good sleep. I guess I needed it.
Cloudy today.
I am going to switch back to working on the blog. I have been spending recent time periods home working on the corrected email address list to send warnings to our friends of the change in the domain for this blog (which you already know about) and for the web pages for annual greetings, and other stories in our life (of WTA trail maintenance trips and log rolling off trucks in our front yard, on the curve we live on). It happened on President’s Day this year, so it will be a part of our 2015 greetings this year, and again, all past blog readers have had the opportunity to see it.
Hope your week was fine.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan