Keeping track

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

. . . end of week did not get the memo – snow level is about 1,500 ft

Sunday, Mar 6

For Mar 5 CPAP. Reported figures, 7 hrs 51 min with AHI=1.66 . Events: 13 H, 5 CSR, 12 RERA. All events were in the last hour — weird. No major mask leaks (max=6 L/min); oximeter on entire time, with high SpO2 and normal pulse.

Found a smaller bra in my clean-up activities, so I offered it on the BNE site. Finally, the end of this week, I found a taker. She will meet me next week at the Food Bank, where I play music, and join us for song and food (nice free reward for picking up and saving me the gasoline to deliver to her home). I wouldn’t want to go to her place anyway because of her residence being 10 miles east of EBRG and I have no reason to go there (Kittitas).

Still need to reset my watch for the day — now will just wait for Daylight Saving Time change, this coming Saturday night.

Worked on music for Thursday, and managed to do my medicines for the week, and had to laugh at Annie (a hunting dog) leaving the room because of the noise of my halving large Magnesium tablets. We wonder why she does not like loud noises; maybe it is genetic. Her mom competed in field trials with blank pistols and shotguns fired, but in her old age became gun shy and hated fireworks as well. We have to close her in a crate during fireworks times, as we did her mom. Our neighbor’s target shooting bugs her too. The teen son got a new pistol for Christmas, we think, and when the school bus drops him off (about 4 pm) he fires about 4 or 5 shots within a few minutes. Mom and dad must have placed a limit on the shells per day. We usually exchange info when we have things to trade. Her eggs. Us garden produce. Haven’t been in touch during the winter.

John has been editing the blog.
Sunny now, but supposed to be raining later, and he needs to empty the full buckets and 55 gallon barrel using a siphon and garden hose to get it to near-house trees.

We had leftovers from last night’s supper for lunch today, with added hash browns. We eat too well with John’s efforts.
Sun still shining, after wind started blowing and I thought rain was coming. John’s out giving horses carrots and starting his truck. I was doing the final proofing on the blog this week after he entered all the stuff into WordPress and the computer froze.
Published the blog after a ton of problems with a locked up computer. We even had to borrow a mouse from a neighbor that did not fix the problem. Shutting down the computer worked, after we had tried it once previously. Who knows what lurks in bits and bytes lost in cyberspace.

Monday, Mar 7

For Mar 6 CPAP. Reported figures 7 hrs 16 min with AHI=1.79. Events: 13 H, 9 CSR, 18 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=10 L/min); oximeter on entire time with high SpO2 and normal pulse.

I decided to stay home and take care of matters–did dishes, clothes, showered, worked on clothing pickup for March 22, worked on getting representatives to come to the end of the day pickup from the clothing share, who all provide a service in 5 locations (churches, university and Food Bank), to distribute free clothing to the community throughout Kittitas County. Also worked on the Jobs list (through Google Groups– NW Geography Jobs) and much paperwork, plus taking the medical data off two machines that monitor some heart-things all night.

John used a store-bought frozen concoction to bake 2 dozen choc/cherry cookies. Then, he went to the neighbors with the freshly sharpened Stihl chainsaw. Along the driveway, they had several Spruce trees. Other trees blocked light from all directions except south. Our prevailing wind is from the NW. Thus, tree growth and wind had shaped the trees and they lean over the driveway. For many years they had a motor home parked there. John and one of the sons kept urging that it be moved. It hadn’t been used in 15 years. So, it got moved about 5 years ago using a tractor to pull it. Last fall, with the ground wet and a few hefty gusts of wind, the east-most tree came down. There is a 1940s era garage and in the sense of horseshoes and hand grenades – the tree just missed the garage. Limbs rested on it but unlike a big Pine, there are no big limbs on the Spruce. John cut the limbs off that were not holding the tree up. Then he cut 6 feet sections from the top and bottom directions. He left one section standing like a multi-legged Pterosaur with one wing. That needs to be pulled away from the garage with a truck and a chain.
I arranged to give away a garden rake on the Buy Nothing Ellensburg site to a young family named Roundy. That’s to go on Tuesday.

A ‘Memory from Facebook’ – Maggie Rose to Nancy B. Hultquist, March 7, 2016 at 3:10 pm. The workshop mentioned was in April of ’09 and intended to introduce young ladies to science: called Expanding Your Horizons. One of the last really fun things I did before retiring from CWU.
Maggie Rose wrote: “La Ninas, who attended your workshop, really liked it, especially Google Earth. One 5th grader mentioned that she would like to learn geography in college.”

Tuesday, Mar 8

For Mar 7 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.

A busy, busy day started with having to re-cut Apple Strudel because we took the wrong one out of the freezer — not the one marked Emeritus Geog Faculty. So, after John took off for pruning activities, I cut them into 20 pieces for the meeting today. Then I went in, set up the table, and made some hot chocolate / coffee mixture, for my drink. We had 8 people there to listen to Jim Armstrong (ex-CWU Alumni Director), the Executive Director of the Kittitas County Chamber of Commerce since 2011. He gave a nice presentation. We stayed around visiting after he left, for another half hour. I drove north in town to deliver the rake we were giving. It is a small light-duty one bought a couple of years ago at an Ace Hardware sale. Having used it some, John found it uncomfortable because it is short. Photos below show the old one (green) and its replacement (black & blue).

From there I went to Jack in the Box for a fast lunch so I could go to a friend’s house to help with 3 others sort clean clothes for the clothing share coming March 22. I used a coupon for a free Jumbo Jack I got at the Parkinson’s fundraiser, but it required a purchase of a large drink ($1.99 +tax). [Note that a similar drink can be had for 89¢ at the Circle K Mart.] I also had coupons for things there, and one was for a free curly fries (worth $2.29 with the purchase of a meal item). I asked if the drink I was purchasing was a meal item, and it was, so I got all that for $2.15. I brought home most of the drink, most of the fries, and half the burger. We had fries with dinner. John finished off the drink and will eat the burger for lunch tomorrow, when I’m gone to the Food Bank for music and lunch.

Meanwhile, back to earlier in the day, I left the clothing organization after almost 2 hours, to get to Line Dancing (Boot Scootin’ Boogie, was the last one we worked up to doing). It was fun and taxing. We had about 15 people participating.
Here, from the Web, is You Tube line dancing to Brooks & Dunn’s Boot Scootin’ Boogie

In the evening I went back to town to play music at Hearthstone with The Connections, and on the way, I dropped off two bags of clothes for the Career Closet. At the playing time tonight, a couple brought me two bags of clothes to put in the share. From them I heard about the death of a fellow I have gotten to known during the past 2 years. I met him, along with his wife and dog, at Royal Vista nursing home, and then when they closed, he moved to the Rehab, where I rehabbed in 2010, and our KV Fiddlers and Friends also play. Additionally, I saw him once a month when another group I play in (The Connections) is there.

Wednesday, Mar 9

For Mar 8 CPAP. Reported figures 6 hrs 38 min with AHI=0.30. Events: 2 H, 2 CSR, 11 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=6 L/min); oximeter on entire time with high SpO2 and normal pulse.

Today is my neighbor Lorene’s 90th birthday. Her son was taking her to The Palace Restaurant to meet with a bunch of her similarly young friends. I went last year, but not this, and she knew I play music and eat at the food bank on Wednesdays. I did get a card fixed up for her and dropped it off once I was home today, after SAIL exercise class.

John stayed home from pruning today, because of rain. It rained here all day and still is raining tonight, but he claims it will stop tomorrow.

I was up quite early working on many chores and getting ready to leave for picking up my friend Gloria for the day. I picked her up at 11:20 and we went to the food bank. We were unable to get a close place to park.

We went inside and I had to return to the parking lot to pick up 6 bags of clothes for the share from one of our players. He and his wife donated a lot of clothes. It was pouring rain when we went for the transfer, but he pulled right next to my car, so that was convenient. I closed the back. We played (with all 7 singing, and 4 using instruments–guitar, ukulele, banjo, and violin). We started with a few Irish songs. Afterwards, we visited and ate a nice meal–pasta, salad, fruit, dessert (none for me), and pineapple/orange juice. When it was time to go it was still raining hard, and I needed to take a lot of food to my neighbors (2 dozen eggs, 2 milk jugs, large loaf of garlic bread, huge dish of pasta, and some frosted cupcakes for dessert. I went out and got the car pulled to the door, but then could not get the back hatch door to open, not with the key transponder, or from inside, or manually from outside. I was upset, but we piled the stuff into my back seat. I tried again and could not get it to work.
I need to empty it out tomorrow to pick up more clothes from people bringing them to the Thursday music playing time at Meadows Place.

From there we went to SAIL and at the end of exercising, we celebrated the 99th birthday of a woman who still is the most agile in our class, Faye Kollmeyer, whose husband, Louie, drives her in each week. (He is 101, retired from CWU Art Department). All the class was treated to a red frosted, heart-shaped frosted red velvet cake. Katrina sent a piece home to John so he was happy too.

Came home and worked on contacting more people representing the free clothing dispersal places for the clothing share, to come at the end to pick up clothes for their respective organizations. Places included must send a representative to the LDS church near the end of the day. These are the ones we have included this year:

1. CWU’s Career Clothing Closet (for any student to get professional clothing to attend a job interview).

2. Compassion Closet, newborn – size 12 clothing, near the Food Bank, behind Mercer Cr. Church, for Foster Families in the County.

3. Clothing Bank at the Church of Christ, open to anyone in the community, on Monday and Friday mornings.

4. APOYO — (food & clothing bank) located on CWU campus.

5. At United Methodist Church is the Ellensburg Community Clothing Center (ECCC), open for the community on Tuesdays and Saturdays from 9 a.m. – Noon.

I will continue contacting people in those organizations above to plan for sharing the leftovers.

Thursday, Mar 10

For Mar 9 CPAP. Reported figures 6 hrs 9 min with AHI=1.63. Events: 10 H, 11 CSR, 13 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=13 L/min); oximeter on entire time with high SpO2 and normal pulse.

John walked up to the back of my car, manually tried what I had, and it opened. No clue what happened. It has worked since. John claims there are Gremlins around that like to tinker mischievously with modern gadgets. It must be true – it’s on the Web. One just needs to know how to chase them away. Apparently he does.

Then he left for grapevine pruning. I cleaned and sorted clothes, and called in the number of chairs needed for people playing today: Maury, Manord, Charlie, Gerald, Nancy, Amy, Anne, Laura, and Minerva. Later before leaving, I washed a load of dishes.

I fixed myself a chicken/egg salad for lunch today. On my way to play, I went by Kathryn’s and dropped off a box of baby clothes and 7 bags of adult clothes.

I went to Meadows Place and made a stupid mistake. I put my camera and keys in a different purse, left it and the cell phone in the car, locked it, when I took out all the stuff I was carrying into the building. I was carrying music for several people, for the audience, my own, my Irish hat, and my violin case.

I looked for my camera and keys before we started playing and realized what I had done. I was unable to contact John because he was on the road, and he does not turn on his emergency phone unless he decides to call me. I left a message at home and then my friend Anne Engels (our Tambourine player), said, “Do you have AAA?” I did, but my wallet and card was in the car. She went out to get her number for me to call on her phone. We finally got through, and they sent a person to unlock it, but they could not get there for an hour. No problem, I had to play music for the next hour.

We had a small audience, maybe 10, but a board meeting of the staff with corporate reps was going on concurrently, and they kept having breaks and coming to the back of the room, listening, and enjoying watching Haley dance and run around the room entertaining the residents and their family.

When we stopped, I carted my stuff to the door, and waited for the locksmith to come rescue me. He pulled in shortly after I had moved my stuff to the front door. I had a bag of clothes in my hand (donated by the activities director there for the share), and I carried it out with me to leave beside my car. He opened it and set off the alarm in the process, but warned me that would happen so I was supposed to fast get inside, get the keys, and push the red button. All was done in a minute. I failed to learn what was done. I thanked him, gave him a hug, and proceeded back inside with my camera and keys.

Once back inside, I was offered a piece of chocolate cake which I enjoyed with Amy, Haley, and one of the residents (John) who had his Lieutenant’s hat from his time in the Kent, WA Fire Department. He had Haley put it on her head. It was a little big, but everyone got a kick out of that.

This collage has Haley in the fireman’s hat on the left with him, in the middle one she is smiling nicely, and on the right photo is her mom, Amy, and me with her in a living room off the dining area where we perform. Note she has green polish on her toenails. She also had white socks and black patent leather shoes she removed. In the USA, the inventor was Seth Boyden of Newark, NJ in 1818. That’s from this story:

Patent leather is old

Below is another collage from pictures taken on Amy’s camera. The two side photos Amy took earlier to show her handiwork. She made that dress without a pattern from scratch for Haley, and had her model it in their backyard. Haley will be 3 in April. What a cutie. She has quite the personality, and when she realized the camera was her mother’s phone, she gave a funny face to our friend taking the picture. Her hat came from the $1 store. Mine is falling apart with disintegrating foam, having been left over from a Senior Center party two years ago. I think I deserve a new green derby for the rest of our performances in March, especially with Haley in her Leprechaun dress.

Friday, Mar 11

For Mar 10 CPAP. Reported figures 7 hrs 59 min with AHI=0.13. Events: 1 H, 0 CSR, 14 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=5 L/min); oximeter on entire time with high SpO2 and normal pulse.

I spent much of my day on different telephone and email and Facebook conversations. I managed to finalize all the pickups of leftovers from the Mar 22 clothing share by community members that run places for distributing free clothing to those in need (discussed in detail above).

I sat through and did not answer several phone calls I knew were telemarketers. Thank goodness for caller ID. I never thought I would appreciate paying the fee so much. I do believe it has gotten worse over the past few years, after the unsuccessful arrival of the DON’T CALL list. Yeah, right!

John made it home before 2:00 and we had a late lunch. He had pizza (frozen; reheated) and I had chicken/egg salad, the rest from yesterday’s lunch. We shared a half of a very large Honeycrisp apple that weighed over a pound. When John went to Safeway, he saw some nice Honeycrisps, for $4/lb. Considering he brought home over 10 lbs last week for $10/box, we feel fortunate to have access to them near Quincy on his trips over and back for pruning.

Saturday, Mar 12

For Mar 11 CPAP. Reported figures 6 hrs 44 min with AHI=0.45. Events: 3 H, 1 CSR, 11 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=10 L/min); oximeter on entire time with high SpO2 and normal pulse.

I went to town to drop off two bags of clothing for the Career Closet, hand off a bag of clothes and pick up another from a different person, and on to the American Legion for a Memorial for a fellow who died at 87 from pneumonia (see the end of Tuesday’s write-up above). His name was Ken Broostrom. I just saw him two weeks before his death at the Rehab, when I showed up alone because of not receiving notification, and stayed for 50 minutes singing hymns and playing the violin for him to sing along with me and about 10 others.

I went by Hannah Rd on the way home to leave a garbage bag full of two-liter cola bottles a couple intends to use to make an exploration display for a class. I have no clue what that means, and have asked.

Once home, I rested and then returned to visit my neighbor Lorene, whose family came from around the state to celebrate her 90th birthday. She has given me a lot of clothing in the past, and she has lost weight, so I carried her some Medium tops – a light blue shirt jacket, purple frilly blouse, and a white lightweight sweater. I had a nice visit with her and with one of her grandchildren, and visited with one of her sons, Dale, and his wife, Kathy. The funniest thing we shared was Dale showing me and her some cat and cucumber videos on his smart-phone. I haven’t seen her laugh and enjoy herself so much in recent years. It was pretty cool.

Here are a couple..(but not the ones we were looking at yesterday afternoon):
Why do they do this?

Then, at the very end, why eat it?

This morning I got a link to a performance of the Junior Jammers – Katrina & Bobbie Pearce’s group in Nampa, ID. (Bobbie was my teacher for 22 years in WA Old Time Fiddlers Workshops). Her daughter Katrina is a a world champion LEFT HANDED violinist and is teaching and leading the group now. Bobbie still teaches.

Junior Jammers of Nampa, Idaho

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.

Supposed to storm in western WA and snow in the mountains. Scheduled for 11 a.m. so John headed to town with the old truck and two 5 gallon cans for gas. He almost made it to town before the rain started. Did leave before the snow began. Townies were posting photos and complaining because the storm was going to disrupt their travel plans. We got rain but no snow. We can see it on the hill to the north at about 3,000 feet. Ellensburg is about 1,500 feet. Figure that out. A Robin visited just now – so spring just sprung. The photo below (WA-DOT) is from 16 miles north of us:

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy & John

Still on the Naneum Fan

Hundreds of articles about changes in the way we keep track of dates. One explains why George Washington became a year younger during his life – and lots of others too.

Monday, Feb 29 LEAP YEAR (?) with another day in Feb

For Feb 28 CPAP. Reported figures 6 hrs 11 min with AHI=0.32. Events: 2 H, 1 CSR, 17 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=11 L/min); oximeter on entire time +45 m, AOK, AHI=.29.

The extra February day apparently screwed up my Armitron watch, as it thought there was no 29th day. I have to reset it. I’ve been screwed up all week – numbers being a day ahead of me. I normally only look at it when writing the date on our mileage in the car glove box book, if I don’t remember.

We left several small vases for Lisa R to pick up (at the gate), and when she picked those up she left a large glass vase in the box, another gift from the BNE site. It’s a very heavy vase. My photo ought to have included a batch of flowers, but we are short of flowers this week. Still, the vase is beautiful.

We grew Dahlias 2 years ago. There were 2 color patterns (orange-ish) in the package. John did not dig them up and store them, so they are gone. With the impressive vase to prod him, the next day at Costco, he bought another package (purple-ish). Dahlia starts are “tuberous roots”** .
**What are . . .

How to . . .Dahlia

Photos from web – our new ones are NOT the color of the pinkish one.

They will look very pretty in it. Actually, I asked him if he would have Dahlias in the garden this year. (Ans. = no) I figured they and colorful Iris would work beautifully in this vase. So we will have both. The Iris do winter but occasionally need dug up, separated and replanted. That did not get done but the dead leaves were replaced with semi-composted horse d’oeuvres, of which we have plenty.

This afternoon, I went to a the presentation by a candidate for a Geography instructor job at CWU, teaching almost the same set of courses I taught. After that I met with a few folks for a practice session for an upcoming music event. I carried a partially eaten can of Cashew Mocha Roca that I bought for John thinking it was chocolate covered (it was), but it had little pieces of coffee grounds in with the cashews. I’m still upset about picking up two cans of that and not realizing it wasn’t what I thought it was. If I still had the cash register receipt from Bi-Mart, I would return the one left, but I think I got all concerned with cleaning receipts not needed for taxes and threw everything away except medical things.

Tuesday, Mar 1

For Feb 29 CPAP. Reported figures 7 hrs 17 min with AHI=0.14. Events: 1 H, 2 CSR, 14 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=8 L/min); oximeter on entire time AOK.

John did not go pruning because of rain. However, he left for Yakima, primarily to have his car serviced and also to visit a hardware store and Costco. Pretty cool what he got at Lowe’s—new broom, a heavy duty rake, a couple of blades for a 7 ¼ inch circular saw, and a circular wire brush for the hand-held drill. He accumulated >$70 of stuff, and used a friend’s gift card of $50 to pay for most of it. He also bought a bunch of stuff from Costco, and got gas there for a good price.
I have been working on adding words and correcting chords on the song, “Who Threw the Overalls in Mrs. Murphy’s Chowder?” I did the best I could with the score without chords that Evelyn had downloaded from the web, and I just sent off the latest with chords to be viewed by her eagle musical eyes to add chords for a measure I couldn’t figure out and two other problem phrases.
I went to Jazzercise and owe $.50 for today — I left my $1 in the car. We only had 3 people there in class, but we had a nice routine mainly involving the torso and abdominals—a much needed exercise. The rest of the month will be 4 sessions of different dance types. Next week is Line Dancing, and I will participate. (That class is free with our annual membership). The next week I will be at the cardiologist’s, the foot doctor, and Costco.
John called just after I got home at 3:35 to tell me he was still at the Subaru dealer from a 2:30 appointment for a scheduled oil change/lube – about 800 miles late. The car is a 2009 and has regular oil with a recommended 3,000 mile interval. They found it needed alignment, so he had to stay and pay an additional $80. I don’t know yet if all 4 were aligned , but I checked with Les Schwab out of curiosity, and they charge $60.75 for the front and $90 for all four. (John had all 4 done and it only cost $80, so that was good and saved him an additional trip.)
I spent 1/2 hour probably on the phone with Joseph in Honduras to get my next 6 months of Sirius XM satellite radio to my Subaru, for a total of $28.08 because I made the effort to request and wait on the phone. I was armed with a code I could get it for $25. Now I have to do the same thing before September 1, 2016, when it expires and automatically reverts to $102.44. Thanks to my friend Bob West in Yakima for telling me this little secret to save money, and still enjoy my satellite radio music in my car. I enjoy listening primarily to 3 stations for all my road travel. It makes me happy, so well worth 15 cents/day.

See: Post-purchase rationalization

Today, a photo from last week at the Fundraiser for Parkinson’s Disease was published on Facebook from the Ellensburg Adult Activity Center (AAC). On my last blog-post I wrote about winning the long-sleeved tee-shirt, I wore it today to Jazzercise class, and stopped by Knudson’s to thank them for their donations to the AAC events. She remembered John wearing in his sweatshirt last year to thank them. This photo was at the very end, and probably only 1/3 of those attending were still there. It was a good turnout. I didn’t hear the final amount of money raised, but at a minimum of $5/head it was a nice piece of change.

Nancy with her prize in a white bag. Also, she wore the “colors” of Parkinson’s research, unless you go with the red tulip logo, or the original yellow ribbon.

Wednesday, Mar 2

For Mar 1 CPAP. Reported figures 7 hrs 29 min with AHI=0.27. Events: 2 H, 3 CSR, 10 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=8 L/min); oximeter on entire time AOK.

Pretty and sunny day for pruning. John left at 7:44 a.m.

I picked up Gloria at 11:15 and went by a BNE person’s house, Heather B-H on our way in to Food Bank to get two medicine bottles to sort some of my extra Vitamin supplements into from smaller containers (see collage below, on Friday).

Our Epson printer claims a thirst issue. John replaced the black ink cartridge and it now seems happy. Me too – I’ll be able to run music pages for my group. I corrected and printed the first page of Who Threw the Overalls in Mrs Murphy’s Chowder and made one page of lyrics only for the audience.

John and I went to the last of the 4 special new lectures this winter by Nick Zentner. This week was Snoqualmie Pass geology. Excellent as usual. I was the only video-taper tonight. John has worked on the trails that start at the Pass – boots on the ground sort of thing – so he enjoys hearing of the recent work Nick manages to find from publications and (geology) colleagues.

Here’s the results from LAST Wednesday’s lecture. Nick Zentner’s recent lecture “Bing Crosby, the Sunset Highway, & the Channeled Scablands” is now available on You Tube. This was done by CWU staff that sets up in the very back of the room. I sit in the front row, almost at Nick’s feet. Mine doesn’t have the professional look, but are a challenge following his antics during his presentations.

Click here to view the CWU version: Sunset Highway and more

In this unusual lecture, Bing Crosby’s first road trip across the state of Washington is used as a vehicle for learning about Glacial Lake Columbia and the Channeled Scablands. Crosby and Al Rinker drove the Sunset Highway on Thursday, October 15, 1925 from Spokane to Seattle – and then on to Hollywood, California.
Some 240 folks attended this lecture at the Hal Holmes Center in downtown Ellensburg, Washington. February 24, 2016. Nick claims that his university students have no idea about Bing Crosby [Harry Lillis “Bing” Crosby, Jr.]. Maybe their grandparents do. Do you remember the “Road to Series” of pictures with Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour?

Bing, Bob, and Dorothy

On the Road to Blewett Pass:

I have the links to all his downtown lectures over the past several years. We have listed them below at the end of this blog, by name only. If you want them emailed to you, you can request it, or you can copy and paste the ones you want to watch into your browser.

We were late leaving the talk for home, and dropped by Dominoes Pizza for a special $7.99 large pizza with 3 toppings (Philly Steak, Pepperoni, and Canadian bacon). That way we could eat as soon as we got home.

Finally, with John’s help, I got my transmitter for my heart set up tonight, so it will now be in contact with the doctor and technicians in the Yakima Heart Center. The monitoring and sending unit (needs a landline phone), named Latitude™ for a reason that eludes us. Why not, from mythology, Mercury, Zephyrus, or Iris?
Below are all my captures of the evening’s presentation put on You Tube.

Nick Zentner’s #4 Lecture 3-2-16
Snoqualmie Pass Geology

Link 1: 2.5 minutes

Link 2: 7 more minutes on the green/black boards

Link 3: Dueling Green & Blackboard Discussion, 28 min.

This one above has some interesting topography noted by the geologic timing the Yakima Glacier was retreating and created a bunch of moraines along the I-90 corridor. Dates for the moraines from the Yakima Glacier follow: near Thorp & Rocky Canyon, over 500,000 years ago, Indian John Hill, 130, 000, Suncadia, 80,000, Golf Course Road, 56,000, Keechelus Dam, 18,000, and Hyak, 11,000 years ago. It is expected that there were/are more but evidence of some get wiped out by more recent ice advances.

Link 4: Nick narrates Tom Foster’s Photography work 19 min

Link 5: I-90 Rocks video Tom Foster with Nick 15 min.

Thursday, Mar 3

For Mar 2 CPAP. Reported figures 7 hrs 28 min with AHI=0.13. Events: 1 H, 1 CSR, 13 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=6 L/min); oximeter on entire time AOK.

I finally figured out the count for today and called in 8 but they decided to set up 9 chairs. It worked because Haley had a seat next to her mom, when she wasn’t running around visiting.
I set up a few copies of the audience music. Not very many folks at the rehab are capable of following. I was limited by the faulty printer wifi connection and happy I had printed copies last night from my computer, because this morning I was unable to access the printer from my computer. I shall leave a note for John to fix when he gets home (he left for pruning before 8:00), and then I can finish later for next week’s group — who are right with it, and even able to eat and drink their favors presented by the activities director, Mo, who makes an event out of our visits.

I sent in the Boston Scientific Paperwork for my Latitude unit.

We both filled our cars with gas today in Ellensburg, at $1.87 / gallon.

Friday, Mar 4

For Mar 3 CPAP. Reported figures 7 hrs 5 min with AHI=1.27. Events: 9 H, 1 CSR, 13 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=13 L/min); oximeter on entire time AOK.

John stayed home from pruning so that Cameron Fries could go visit a Seattle area farmer’s market to sell his wine and fresh eggs. He has chickens to eat bugs in the vineyard. Another vendor was selling “free range organic eggs” for $9/dz. Cameron doesn’t claim “organic” and sells a few dozen each weekend for $6. Now, he is going to take along a bundle of vine canes because another vendor told him he could sell them to those interested in home crafts. On the web, we found this item list at $60.

John thinks he’ll make a couple with local items (Pine cones and river pebbles) for Cameron to take over. People can add a pretty bow to suit their artistic sense – that’s a selling point, not a flaw.

Minutes ticked away today as I worked on my computer and on chores – while sending up (slow process) the last of the videotaping I had done last Wednesday night of Nick Zentner’s last lecture this year for the community.

Just before 3:00 today, I rushed out the door to pick up my friend Gloria {lives next door to the speaker} to attend a 4:00 p.m. Science Colloquium with Elvin Delgado speaking on the subject of Natural Gas Fracking in the large field in the Patagonia region (Vaca Muerta) of Argentina—with all the associated socio-economic-political-environmental problems. One small town nearby went from 3000 people in 2011 to 15,000 in 2015. There are insufficient services or money to provide such things as sewage and water for all of the inhabitants. The cost of housing is quite high. For a little shack it’s $3,500/ month. Locals cannot afford to stay in the town because of the high prices and degradation of the environment.

For many years, natural gas deposits were tapped by single wells drilled vertically down (sometimes 1500′) to pockets of gas. Subsequent /recent technology came up with “fracking,” a combination method using water and chemicals to extract the natural gas (methane) trapped in shales. This process is toxic to human health and that of the environment. One fracking well uses ~2 to 8 million gallons of water and 10 to 40,000 gallons of chemicals. The water used is contaminated forever.

Vaca Muerta translates to Dead Cow in Spanish, and is a geologic formation of Jurassic and Cretaceous age at the red spot above on the map of Argentina. It holds major reserve deposits of shale oil and shale gas. This discovery occurred in 2010. Total expected reserves are over 920 million barrels. Production is close to 45,000 barrels per day. Issues of getting the reserves out of the ground and into the economy are complicated by many factors. The presentation was an eye opener to many there, I’m sure. Dr. Delgado returns this July to continue his research. There, in July, it is winter time.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
From John: Argentina is a basket case:
More wrong with Argentina than a little fracking
. . . and the real issue is lack of good government. But that’s a different story.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

While in town, I stopped by Dairy Queen to pick up a Peace Symbol necklace from a gal who offered it on the BNE site, and I was chosen to receive it. Her name is Tashia (pronounced, TASIA, Asia with a T). I was on Alder on my way to take Gloria home, so I stopped off to deposit my blue massage tool giveaway to a gal named Nung, using a hand-off at the apartment of her brother-in-law, to save us both a long trip to or from town (she lives in Badger Pocket).

Earlier this week, while searching for clothes to wash and put in the clothing share, I found a Nike biking shirt in our things. I cleaned it, and offered it to my friend, Glenn, and I passed it to his mom this week when we met in a Jazzercise class. He took his photo in it to thank me, and I got his permission to print it here. The collage below shows the items received or given this week, and you already saw the vase at the start. Actually, Gloria was with me when I picked up two medicine bottles Wednesday and gave me another from her stash (described below the photo).

Here’s an explanation of the collage of receives and gives above. On the left you will have to use your imagination. The top two containers I received from the BNE site, and you need to imagine the smaller one is actually larger and orange, and was given to me by Gloria, after she was with me to pick up the top two, and heard my story of wanting to combine my vitamin supplements from smaller bottles to larger ones. The second photo of the Peace Symbol necklace is described in the text above and below. This symbol was originally designed for the British nuclear disarmament movement, and thus carries a lot of protest baggage. A dove and an olive branch is a nicer peace symbol. Yes. No. Maybe.
Doves and Olives
The third photo is of a massage tool for sore muscles from exercise or stress, which I gave to the person also described above the photo, and the fourth is Glenn in his new cycling shirt.

Saturday, Mar 5

For Mar 4 CPAP. Reported figures 7 hrs 59 min with AHI=0.63. Events: 5 H, 7 CSR, 12 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=13 L/min); oximeter on entire time AOK.

A morning funny–As John was leaving late for morning chores, he reminded me he had asked for a haircut a couple weeks ago, and I hadn’t worked it into my schedule. I said, well, I can do it this weekend, because I am free. He laughed out loud, and said, “How many 72-year old women could make that statement?” Well, I am happy I can! However, even with nothing scheduled out of the house, I will stay busy until late trying to catch up on all the organization awaiting me for my social calendar. We were just talking yesterday on his day off from pruning at White Heron, that he no longer had time with his busy schedule of chores here ever to read paperbacks anymore. With that said, he went out to prune our plum trees, as I went off to town late afternoon.

Sunny today, so John is outside now doing chores, after loading the wood stove for my warmth and emptying the clean dishes from the dishwasher so I can add more to be cleaned. I am splitting house chores between working on the blog, sorting receipts, (just located the last of the AMEX cash rebate payments for Costco, which we have to pick up next week when there, for $89.00). It is now in my wallet!! The coupon arrives the end of February with our credit card statement and we must cash it in at the Union Gap (south of Yakima) store.

The last chore took me awhile, but I was finally successful. Packed my Latitude Boston Scientific transmitter that sends data from my defibrillator to my cardiologist’s office. It was replaced because it quit working, and I had to repack the old in the packing box to send via FedEx back to St. Paul, MN. (They sent me the proper address label so it doesn’t cost me). I had to speak to a representative in the Dominican Republic to arrange for the pick up on Monday morning at my front door. In the process of the transaction I got to know him and he invited me to his country where he would give me a tour. Now I’m curious to find a traveling friend to make the trip to an rci.com resort near where he lives. Looks as if the country is about 200 miles east west and ~ 70 miles (in the smallest section from Santa Domingo) north-south. Might be money well spent for a week away, even though it would be a lot of time on an airplane. I’m tempted. He gave me his email and his Facebook name and encourage me to write him. He is 24. He’s already been communicating since he got home from work tonight. We are earlier than they are by 4 hours.

I had the windows open today, and heard geese flying over and honking and also a frog croaking. John was out and says this flock had 7 – heading west. Earlier he saw 12 heading north but they were too far east of here and I did not hear them.

We now have rain and just finished a seafood dinner — coconut shrimp, beer-battered cod, and pears. We will have very berry pie for dessert.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Meanwhile, to end this week’s blog, here are the links to all the excellent Geology lectures put on by Nick Zentner since 2010.

This came in an email today from the source, CWU Geology professor, Nick Zentner. “Many have requested a complete list of the lectures. Please see below.”

Rather than take two hours to put these links in WordPress, just copy paste the links after the title, if you are interested in viewing. Those without links (except 2010) I may well have and put into the blog at the time, as with the first below, in this week’s blog.

Mar 3, 2016 25. Snoqualmie Pass Geology
Feb 24, 2016 24. Bing Crosby, the Sunset Highway, & the Channeled Scablands

Feb 17, 2016 23. Liberty Gold & the Yellowstone Hot Spot: Is there a Connection? https://youtu.be/MXEQeTg0Xww
Feb 10, 2016 22. Great Earthquakes of the Pacific Northwest: Are we really overdue? https://youtu.be/UJ7Qc3bsxjI

Mar 18, 2015 21. Earthquake Research in Washington
Mar 11, 2015 20. Gold Mining in Liberty https://youtu.be/QsBZfRJihdw
Mar 4, 2015 19. Columbia River Gorge Geology
Feb 25, 2015 18. Seattle to North Bend: I-90 Geology

June 12, 2013 17. Palouse Falls & Dry Falls https://youtu.be/F8zLwXfxS7w
June 5, 2013 16. Wenatchee Ice Age Floods https://youtu.be/8Sbxn94vLWM
May 29, 2013 15. Yakima River Canyon https://youtu.be/0o19BMrPmhs
May 22, 2013 14. Ginkgo Petrified Forest https://youtu.be/nfbMxrPnYcc
May 15, 2013 13. Ellensburg Blue Agates https://youtu.be/j8BFvKoabJ0

Nov 17, 2010 12. Geology of Kittitas Valley https://youtu.be/v6LtXsViDNI
Nov 10, 2010 11. Floods of Lava & Water https://youtu.be/ZgVmW_OAB0s
Nov 3, 2010 10. Mount Rainier https://youtu.be/YcSPrk9l22I
Oct 27, 2010 9. Slow Earthquakes https://youtu.be/r9recENBhiU
Oct 20, 2010 8. Tsunami in our Future https://youtu.be/QAtheBYU9Xs
Oct 13, 2010 7. Mount Stuart https://youtu.be/k70sjpHwJnU

June 9, 2010 6. Glaciers in Kittitas County
June 2, 2010 5. Cascade Volcanoes in Washington
May 26, 2010 4. Columbia River Basalts in Washington
May 19, 2010 3. Shallow Earthquakes in Washington
May 12, 2010 2. Magnitude 9.0 Earthquakes in Washington
May 5, 2010 1. Building Washington Piece by Piece

Sunday, Feb 21

Long weekend of frustration, but the blog was published 11:30 p.m. PST.

John reconfigured his computer, but still has not had time to try installing the downloads of the Epson printer drivers to give us printer access again. He wanted to wait until the blog was published, before risking a try.

Monday, Feb 22

For Feb 21 CPAP. Reported figures 7 hrs 2 min with AHI=1.71. Events: 12 H, 4 CSR, 10 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=22 L/min); oximeter on entire time AOK.

John removed ice from the horse water. Then he added a little warm water to keep it from icing over. The horses can break thin ice and drink but the idea is to make drinking easy. Sort of like the difference between drinking beer and whiskey over ice. He left just before 8:00 for pruning. We are out of dry cat food so he went by Wenatchee’s Costco on the way home from White Heron pruning, to get it, gasoline (unexpectedly priced much higher than in EBRG), and to check the new special prices that ended yesterday. He loaded up on quite a few things, including a large boneless pork loin roast that he will fix for an upcoming potluck.

I await a call today from CCSOE that my keyboard has arrived and they can install it. I lost two more keys over the weekend so this will be sweet. Call came and I left home, arriving about 1:45. I went away for over 1/2 hour and when I returned, they had cleaned my laptop, while replacing the keyboard. It was very dirty inside from all the dust in our house, and the fact it is 4 years old and never been cleaned. When I left it, I had the technician check my CD drive because I couldn’t open it and needed to burn some information on a disk. I last used it the start of October.

I did dishes, started working on March music, and wrote my reminder (organizing) email to the group about this week’s location, asking who might be expected. I have to call ahead with a chair count, and also this week, I must take along packets of music for those there to have before we start a new set next week.

I spent some time researching a 1979 picture of Brittanys with the 4th placement claimed to be our old dog, FC Simons Ruff-Shod O’Dee. I saw the picture and immediately knew it was our trainer, Dan Richmond, but it was not Ruffy. I notified the people who needed to check further for the correct dog (it was found in an old American Brittany magazine).

I worked on a new song for our group – the Ash Grove, a Welsh folk song to the tune of “Let All Things Now Living” (a hymn). My father’s family was from Wales, so that makes it special to me.

The director of the Adult Activity Center, Katrina, wrote me an email request for our group to play the July 4th music at the celebration this year on July 1. This is perhaps the 10th year we have provided the music. I have lost count. I responded right away and confirmed the timing. We will set up between 10:00 and 11:00 and they will start serving at 11:30, but we are fed first. They grill hamburgers, hot dogs, fix many salads, and people potluck desserts and sides.

John was able to get our printer running again and, after over 6 months of not being able to scan from across the room, that too is fixed. I’ve been putting songs onto a jump drive, then plugged that into the printer, and used the screen buttons. I then had to return to my computer to process it and get to interested folks. Now he has gotten all the parts talking politely to each other.

Tuesday, Feb 23

For Feb 22 CPAP. Reported figures 7 hrs 1 min with AHI=0.43. Events: 3 H, 2 CSR, 18 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=12 L/min); oximeter on entire time AOK.

John left 7:47 a.m. for pruning.

I took off just before noon for a haircut from my friend in her house about a mile away. She began cutting my hair in 1988 when I arrived in town. At that time, she had a shop in town, across the street from Lind Hall, the old science building, where my office was for the first 11 years. Over my employment there (22 years), I had 3 different office locations.

While there, she gave me some professional clothes to offer to CWU’s Career Closet. The department, Career Services, is setting up a clothing place for students to borrow items for going to a job interview. She gave me a blouse, jacket, and a complete women’s suit. The recipient, my friend, in charge of the program, was thrilled when I delivered them to her.

I dropped off my computer to have its CD drive checked at the place where my keyboard was installed yesterday, with the intent to go to my Jazzercise class and come back by afterwards to pick it up. The class only had three people, and it was a rather tough workout, but I made it through.

I dropped off more clothes for the share by the organizer’s house on my way to pick up my computer.

I was not surprised that it could not be restored. This morning, I called around to see if I could locate an external CD drive on campus – computer center, surplus, or geography. Nothing was available. I also searched the web to get an idea about prices and read reviews of different models.

Once I returned to the computer shop, they told me the news and showed me an LG model for $40. During the demo, LG installed its driver software on my computer.

I came home and had John’s help researching a cheaper one I found on line this morning. He did not like that one – not that it was the wrong thing, but that it was being sold by a company not noted for its tech-savvy. However, LG had one for just $23.94.
We ended up adding to his Amazon Cart from a couple of weeks ago when he ran out of Italian seasoning mix he once got at Costco (they no longer have). I added a Micro USB to USB Cable (for our cell phones with a camera), a portable hard travel storage case for the external CD drive, a 4-port USB 2.0 hub, to go along with my new LG Electronics 8x, USB 2.0 Super Multi Ultra Slim Portable DVD Rewriter, CD drive we ordered and received free 2-day shipping through UPS. It was interesting how it went from Amazon’s fulfillment center

Link: codename PHX6

Also: { Put ‘ Amazon Fulfillment Center ‘ in Google Earth to see. } Note, there are 3 large Amazon Fulfillment Centers in Phoenix, AZ.

… in southwest Phoenix, AZ to UPS Worldport Air Hub at Louisville International Airport, to SeaTac, to Redmond, to EBRG.
Just before I left for town, my Latitude transmitter (for my defibrillator data) came by FedEx.

Wednesday, Feb 24

For Feb 23 CPAP. Reported figures 6 hrs 40 min with AHI=0.75. Events: 5 H, 2 CSR, 14 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=19 L/min); oximeter on entire time AOK.

John left at 7:43 a.m. and will bring back clothes for the BNE share from the Snyders in Quincy. Tom is one of the pruners.

Got all data from CPAP, Oximeter, and clean a lot of dishes after unloading yesterday’s. I picked up Gloria at 11:15, and we went on to set up at the Food Bank. Our normal setter-upper was gone. He is taking a friend to Virginia Mason Hospital in Seattle for removal of two gallstones. These were not seen on an X-ray because of the liver getting in the way. Don’t know if they had been in previously and missed them? I thought gall bladders were just removed when a problem arose.

On our way home, we went by near the north end of campus to pick up clothes from a gal there at her apt. to deliver my next time by 3rd Avenue on my travel to town.

I was very tired when I got home, and lay down hoping for a 20-minute power nap (or longer). I lay there for an hour’s rest but never went to sleep.

We went back for a lecture from Nick Zentner on the old Sunset Hwy through WA. It was well done as usual. The Sunset Hwy was the first designated cross-State road and went between Spokane and Seattle. Bing Crosby used it as the first leg of his journey to stardom.

I have not yet received the professionally videoed one by CWU, and have not put up all the ones I took, but here is what I have thus far, of my own.

Nick Zentner’s #3 Lecture 2-24-16
Bing Crosby, the Sunset Highway, & the Channeled Scablands

Part 1, Nick’s Greenboard Intro – 25 min.

Part 2, Nick’s Sunset Start of Visuals.

Part 3, Nick’s Sunset Visuals.

Part 4 Bing Crosby 1.5 Minutes.

Thursday, Feb 25

For Feb 24 CPAP. Reported figures 7x hrs 16 min with AHI=0.28. Events: 2 H, 0 CSR, 12 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=14 L/min); oximeter on entire time AOK.

I got John’s help removing staples from some copies of music from last March and replaced the changed playlist, and removed some pages at the end, replacing with new songs. I was able to give copies out today to the people there, and keep some for others to give next week.

People who came today to Hearthstone included Amy, Maury, Charlie, Gerald, Dave, Bob, Liana, and me. We had a huge and appreciative audience, with good participation. Four of us actually stayed around until 3:30 working on one of our songs for next month you will hear about below. Some stayed and listened to us practice and thanked us for that. They really enjoy music and our coming to visit.

When I got home, I saw a report on Facebook (I was tagged so was notified on email). It was complete with photos from Jeri Conklin in Lancaster, CA about Daisy’s action in field training today. Below are some photos of our sweet little Cedaridge Kip’s Camelot Shay Tre’ JH in training for her SH (Senior Hunter) title:

Left, she leaps sagebrush with one bound. Middle shows her running (eyes closed), and the right is her on point. Anyone not familiar with Brittanys, note the pink nose and compare with the next non-Britt you see.

Above is Daisy again in the spa. Left is her happy smile, and the one on the right is described by Jeri as showing Poodle Berries (named by her grandma). I asked her for a definition, and this is her explanation, “Poodle berries are when you put your lips together and blow out. The air escapes out of both sides of your cheeks, so that your checks blow out. It makes the sound of a horse, so to speak.” (Eyes closed again from dunking her head in the water.)

Friday, Feb 26

For Feb 25 CPAP. Reported figures 6 hrs 28 min with AHI=0.31. Events: 2 H, 12 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=13 L/min); oximeter on entire time AOK.

Morning sunrise brightly greeted us.

The collage above shows Woody coming down the drive past a deer on her way to the pallet she climbs to the cable-table, where she prefers to eat. The middle bottom photo left is the orange sunrise that John mentioned to get me out with my camera (my first view — almost looked like a wildfire in the hills above the valley). Normally, our sunrises are shades of purple and pink pastels, so this was strikingly different. I almost waited too long to get the rich darker oranges. Far right Woody awaits her morning vittles.

Got some remote collar information for Daisy to Jeri that she needs to follow up on. During my clean-up of the wooden cabinet at the end off our hallway, I found this collar we had for training Cedaridge Duch’ss Dancer back in the 1990s. It is not a shock collar but a vibration one to discourage behavior and encourage what a dog is supposed to do on a retrieve (or other behaviors) associated with obedience.

I left for town about 11:10, stopped and took a photo of two Eagles (mature & juvenile), having missed capturing one last week, at the end of our driveway (no camera along).

Here we have an eagle and a younger one a half mile down Naneum from our driveway.

I will eventually initiate my new cell phone that has a camera on it, so opportunities are not lost. I now have the proper MicroUSB to USB that I can remove photos from John’s camera that is like mine. I’ll check his soon to be sure it works. Back when he got the phone to replace his lost one, I took a few pictures on it.

I arrived at Dean Hall (my old department office hangout), in time to help set the tables for 12 people to eat at the Ruth Harrington Scholarship Luncheon. Monica (the Geography secretary) is in our group and she and Carrie were the hostesses. It was a fantastic lunch — a Caesar salad with large pieces of grilled chicken, and an Olive Garden Italian dressing, creamy and quite nice. They had fresh rolls and soft real butter, with cookies and ice cream for dessert. I rushed through the food, brought home my chocolate frosted chocolate cookie to share with John, skipped ice cream, and took off for the AAC for the planned Bingo fundraiser for Parkinson’s disease. It was well attended and I was an hour late getting there. The staff knew I would be arriving late. I had previously decided to pay $10 for four cards, and had my check ready. I managed to win Bingo on 3 cards to get some coupons. At the end, we pick what we want from two tables of certificates and packages, and place one half of a ticket in an associated cup. I was fortunate and won a long-sleeved tee shirt with the Seahawk colors from Knudson’s, a local wood & hardware store. Oddly enough, I won one of their sweatshirts last year and gave it to John, who wore it into the store and thanked the manager for the donation. I suppose I should do it this year to thank them again. They also gave sweatshirts again this year. Other certificates for $10 purchases were given out, from Knudson’s and other places, as well as several $20-25 certificates at other stores (Bi-Mart) and several different restaurants, plus many free large pizzas, mostly from Pizza Hut. My being gone for an hour left me with fewer coupons than in the past, but I still walked away with a nice gift, and we had fun, for a good cause. Associated food on tables with red tulips (the international symbol for Parkinson’s research), and lemonade was served with sherbet, pretzels, fruit, and a raspberry layered cake. Below is my reward for winning Bingo games, the long-sleeved tee shirt, which I might wear to exercise, or John might wear to prune, if their temperatures warm before they finish.

On my way out, I walked by a table of take-away items with pamphlets and pens that had a penlight on one end. That will be handy for when I get home in the dark and need to write down my mileage and don’t wish to turn on the inside car light, which is easily forgotten and will run down the battery.

From there I went by two places — first, to Bi-Mart, for a special price on canned cat food. Only problem was they overcharged me, $2 / box, but I realized it, and they corrected it. I also found my GenTeal Gel on sale for $2 off, so $2 was the number of the day. I stopped another place to deliver a box and bags of clothes from several friends, and my own purging, to put in the organization sorting for the upcoming BNE clothing share. Finally, my last stop was at Bouillon Hall, on campus, where my office was from 1997 to 2008, to drop off a bag of professional clothes for the CWU Career Closet. {Mentioned Tuesday.}

I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening on one piece of music to try to coordinate it with Martina McBride’s version on the web, which did not match the score I had put into my computer to print for our group. The song is, “I’ll Be All Smiles Tonight.” Her big voice is in a 5′ 3″ body.

Here is the on-line link with Martina singing with the Chieftains.

Saturday, Feb 27

For Feb 26 CPAP. Reported figures 6 hrs 41 min with AHI=0.90. Events: 5 H, 5 CSR, 5 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=18 L/min); oximeter on entire time AOK.

I spent the entire day working on music, cleaning and sorting clothes, washing dishes, filing, and worrying about other things for the future, medical, musical, and tax related. John worked on several long-delayed outside projects, including cleaning and sharpening the chainsaw. He cut one 4″ piece of young Cottonwood and announced it stupendously superb. I think he meant the saw.

Sunday, Feb 28

For Feb 27 CPAP. Reported figures, 4 hrs 37 min with AHI=1.08. Events: 4 H, 3 CSR, 6 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=10 L/min); oximeter on entire time, with high SpO2 and normal pulse. Apparently, I removed the mask after a 1:03 a.m. H, and a CA @ 1:06 with a PP @ 1:15 a.m., and awoke at 4:00 a.m. realized it was off, and replaced it.

We have both been working, me on the blog and John on cleaning up Ponderosa pine limbs cut when cold and snow stressed the deer. As soon as about half the ground was snow free they lost interest in both trees and hay. They are still around but haven’t said what they are dining on.

We saw a pheasant today. John has seen it recently, and I seldom have seen one here, just lots of quail. I tried to get a picture of it, but did not succeed. Deer were coming over the fence into the driveway and checking him out, so he left.

I spent time with two people trying to match them with a timeshare for upcoming trips. If we do not use our timeshares expiring after two years, on May 31, 2016, we lose access to a lot of trading power and use of them goes away. This condo-by-the-week thing is something we got into when still in Idaho and a local place (new) had a sales pitch we could not refuse. In 1988, with the move to CWU, we went from a semester to a quarter system, couldn’t use the week as intended, and began trading it. Then found friends could go more often than we could. God laughs when humans make plans.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Sunday, Feb 14

You now know we got the blog published about 7:30 p.m. PST, tonight.

John has continued with a cold that started yesterday. Now he has to get up early, take care of the animals, and go prune wine grapevines. He enjoys that every year and they are starting about 2 weeks early. On the Naneum Fan our snow is melting and ground is soft where it is not rocky. There has been minor flooding closer to and in EBRG. None out here.

Monday, Feb 15 Presidents’ Day

For Feb 14 CPAP. Reported figures 6 hrs 51 min with AHI=2.92. Events: 20 H, 17 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=11 L/min); oximeter on entire time AOK.

We had incredible winds here last night. Sounded like the metal roof over the nearest firewood shelter and another small structure would leave for the Columbia Basin. The wood stove flue-cap and kitchen vent-cap were singing and bumping, things were blowing outside and knocking into other things, creating noises. A tree at the neighbors a half mile up the road lost its top on to the roadway, so Public Works had to come remove the debris. We had one of our horse interior pasture fences (a short section of nearly solid wood {pallets}) go down enough the horses could step around it. John fixed it at 1:30 when he got home from pruning.

Last year we had our own excitement on Presidents’ Day. If you don’t remember, check this out:
Logs in the front yard
Called Safeway Pharmacy, spoke with Larry, who is calling to increase prescription to 90 pills for Micardis (Telemisartan). I’ll get an automatic call when it’s filled. Again, the cost through them and GoodRx for cash saves me $141 on a 3-month supply over paying a co-pay through my Group Health medical insurance. Something is awry there, but I will play the game and be ahead, and still have the benefits of the prescribed medicine best for my heart, as desired by my cardiologist.

I thought I had finished The M.T.A. song, but now I plan to leave it off the February list, because our Kingston Trio master (Manord) had surgery on his finger, and cannot play the guitar for at least 3 weeks.

Today was dishes, diuretic, and sorting more clothes to get rid of for the upcoming BNE clothing share day in March. Also, I will work on music for the month of March. Today I’m working up The Banks of the Ohio and I need to work on Loch Lomond that’s done in draft stage.

With the winds and warmer temperatures, much flooding occurred in the valley. John saw a lot in the lower section of Naneum on his way to prune. I heard stories on line about the County Public Works offering sand bags to folks in west Ellensburg, and elsewhere to fight the encroaching waters from the north.

I went to town later (without my camera) and passed by ducks swimming in a pasture at the lower Naneum curves; see an explanation beneath the picture below:

This photo was taken a year ago (and is at the end of the web site mentioned above, to show the signs we wanted installed on the curves on our end of Naneum (they never did anything about our neighborhood request through proper channels). This photo shows a red truck and a horse in a pasture in front. As I drove around that curve today, the pasture was completely flooded on the east-west section of the curve north of the road, and no horses (usually more than 6 there) were in the pasture. It was flooded completely and a raft of Mallard ducks graced the temporary lake from the overnight runoff.

Today a friend posted a photo of some Darn Tough Vermont made Merino Wool socks with a LIFETIME guarantee. We both think that sounds almost impossible, but it appears on the packaging and descriptions on Amazon and other web sites. The socks my friend bought were from REI (in Seattle). Guess we will have to consider that. She will report back on how they work for her. She claims she goes through wool socks in six months.

Tuesday, Feb 16

For Feb 15 CPAP. Reported figures, 6 hrs 7 min with AHI=0.65. Events: 4 H, 6 CSR, 13 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=15 L/min); oximeter on entire time, 8 hr, 23 m, with an AHI=0.48. The extra 2.3 hrs were consistent with high SpO2 and normal pulse.

John left just before 8:00 for pruning.

This morning I contacted our young Windows guru at Complete Computer Services about our email access problem, for the nancyh@ellensburg.com account, and got it straightened out. Oddly, it was resolved by resetting our password to the exact same one it had been previously. They had upgraded their system and closed us out of our vintage email.

While I had him on the phone, I asked about my keyboard problem (key tops falling off). I long ago lost the letters painted on several keys. I took my computer into the CCSOE shop, left it, and Ryan checked for the best replacement. He found a cheaper one, but it would have had added problems, so he found one that directly was meant for my Toshiba Portege. Price will be $70, and they estimate it will only take 15 minutes to change to the new part. I carried him a large piece of our Cream-cheese frosted Red Velvet cake John & Betty C. made last night and I frosted (again, with Betty Crocker’s help from a container). It was thanks for his changing our password and getting us back on line for email.

I went to Jazzercise, and made it through a challenging routine. My arms and legs hurt for 2 days.

On the Buy Nothing Ellensburg (BNE) site, a woman asked for clip on earrings for her sister-in-law with Parkinson’s for 24 years, who can no longer install rings in her pierced ears.

I told her I would look in an old small suitcase that had stuff my mom last had in the nursing home, where she died. I never had an ear lobe large enough to wear, so I could not make use of them (would have been a nice addition, however, to my fifties costume recently). I found one pair and will take them to the woman tomorrow when I am close to her workplace.

There was a good sideline from my search of the suitcase. I found a very small shoehorn and a vintage ChapStick, along with perfume (Chanel #5), I bought for my mom in France in 1965. I don’t know if perfume ruins with age, but I never could wear perfume, so I need to find a home for it if it is still usable. I need to find a tester.

Hers was an American Tourister Train Case, now for a search on line, I added “vintage” and found the exact match.

The rest of the story continues. After finding the shoehorn, ChapStick, and an interesting array of other things, I made the follow request on the BNE site.
You’ll see below on Saturday, I succeeded in obtaining a gift for John.

I would love to surprise my hubby, but I need someone in BNE land’s help. He never asks for anything, but in putting on a pair of boots a couple days ago, he said, “I need to get a shoe horn that might make my life easier.” He has been using a legal size envelope, and can only get one from the office paper recycle for every time used. I looked on line because somewhere in my past I saw one with a long handle, which is what I think he needs. I made a photograph of three different ones from small to large. Then while looking for clip-on earrings to give in our group, I found a smaller shoehorn in my mother’s stuff (along with a vintage ChapStick, now added to the collage. (I hope someone has one they are not using. Prefer a larger one than the ChapStick). Thanks for searching, everyone.

The Connections were scheduled tonight at the Rehab. John let me off at 6:20, and left to go fill his car with gasoline for the pruning trip tomorrow, and to go grocery shopping. He didn’t return until 7:20, surprised to find me alone with a bunch of residents singing hymns. When I got there, I looked around for people I knew would want to come down to the end of the hallway. Time went on, and none of the players showed up, but I had set up with about 10 people in the room and was ready to go. Carol Langston (Activities Director) came in about 6:40 to thank me for staying and told me the group leader had canceled.
I never received any notice anywhere (email or by phone) of the cancellation of The Connections, because of sickness. I found out later, it was TEXTed to people’s cell phones. I DO NOT TEXT, nor will my phone accept it, or notify the sender of non-receipt. This is not the first time this has happened. I wish people were more cognizant that not everyone is into texting, tweeting, and tiddling as they are, even with having a cell phone number.
We had a few people “brought down” (no books for anyone, except me, with mine I carried with my music stand). Jeanne Gordon was there. Phil and Ken were there and sang a lot of the songs. Phil sang almost every word to every song. I found out later from his wife Vi, in my SAIL exercise class, that he grew up in a Pentecostal church with parents that traveled all over the world. I started at the start of the hymnal book and played songs I thought they would know or ones that had good sing-along choruses. Mylene Whittaker was there with her husband’s mom, Dorothy, who did a good job of singing on many songs, and I think surprised Mylene. About 7:00, Mylene moved up front with me to read the music and sing along. The Russian woman (mother of Maria from CWU’s music faculty) was there and smiling. A couple of others I didn’t know by name, but recognized, were wheeling themselves around in and out for the 50 minutes I played and sang with them. I stayed until 7:30. I was rather worn out. We grabbed a large 2-topping pizza on the way home — from Dominoes, at a special sale price of $5.99. I added mushrooms and sharp cheddar to mine once home.

Wednesday, Feb 17

For Feb 16 CPAP. Reported figures, 5 hrs 59 min with AHI=1.67. Events: 10 H, 2 CSR, 15 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=17 L/min); oximeter on entire time, with high SpO2 and normal pulse.

On my way to the hospital lab for an INR blood draw (was 2.0), I dropped off clothes at Kristina Paquette’s for the “career clothing cache” for CWU students wanting nice clothes for interviews. Since, I have located three more things to add to another bag for her–two blouses and a nice pullover sweater.

My stay at the hospital was not nice. I waited 30 minutes, and the first draw on my best vein, they botched. I prefer a vein draw rather than a pinprick, having to play the fiddle right after I left there, and tomorrow as well. She had to switch to a butterfly needle and to the other arm. It worked that time.

Food bank went all right with three player/singers and two extra singers. Good food today. On to SAIL and things went all right there too with Katrina leading 17 people.

Home for a short time, and then we were off to hear Nick Zentner’s 2nd in the new Geology Lecture series — this one titled, Yellowstone Hot Spot & Liberty Gold– Is There a Connection? This was one of his lectures that was professionally videotaped, and so you won’t be presented mine from off-center on the front row, because the former Dean of the Business School at CWU beat me to my preferred seat.

Nick Zentner’s recent lecture, Liberty Gold and the Yellowstone Hot Spot is now available on YouTube.
Click the following to view:
Hot Liberty Gold

An old oceanic terrane, Siletzia, is the key to the lecture. The Yellowstone Hot Spot created Siletzia offshore 55 million years ago, and its accretion to the Pacific Northwest set the stage for gold appearing in the hills (and streams) near Liberty, Washington. Well, there is lots more to the story, so watch the video if you care. Some 280 folks attended this lecture at the Hal Holmes Center in downtown, Ellensburg, Washington. February 17, 2016. Many (most?) of the folks are our age.

Thursday, Feb 18

For Feb 17 CPAP. Reported figures, 6 hrs 34 min with AHI=1.07 . Events: 6 H, 4 CSR, 1 OA, 1 PP, 21 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=15 L/min); oximeter on entire time, with high SpO2 and normal pulse.

I realized this morning that my Latitude Boston Scientific monitoring transmitter had stopped working overnight. I spent a long time on phone, and the results are that they are sending me a new unit. I wrote out the steps below to share with my device technician for future knowledge, when others call her. She was the first one I called, and her solution did not reinstate the unit.

Here are the steps to call the 1 866-484-3268 number on the back of the manual that gets you to the St. Paul, MN office of the manufacturer.
First, be prepared for a long wait and advise a person to dial that ON A CELL PHONE. They may need contact with your landline connected to the machine.
The procedure is essentially what we started this morning, but has an initial step my technician did not mention.

From St. Paul, the customer representative had me push the white button on the back of my monitor, and then this following was the final troubleshoot.

1- Unplug the power cord on the back of the monitor — it’s the little black plug in the middle of the backside of the unit.

2- Unplug from the main wall, and wait a few seconds. I waited a minute at least.

3- Plug back in the wall.

4- Plug back in the black one on the back of the monitor.

—– The little solid light of Call Doctor, lower right was still on.

She said they would send a new unit, and as a separate mailing, a label to package the old one to return.

My guess is I won’t be able to get any more information before my Mar 15 appt with Dr. Kim, so I’m happy I asked for and received the pacing as 18% yesterday. I think I need to be checked, perhaps, that day right before my appt. I’ll call tomorrow and see if I can set up a scan.

I intended to print off several things for people, but my printer is not working.

I call CCSOE to see when delivery is expected (for the keyboard part) with the hopes I could bring the computer in for repair, while I was off playing music. Ryan tracked it and found that while it first said it would be delivered Friday, it had now been changed to Monday.

We arrive today at 1:30 p.m. at Dry Creek/Brookdale. I called in early morning’s count for chairs, for 9 total, but with 8 armless chairs. Manord (wife, Joy, was in the audience singing as our groupie), Maury, Minerva, Amy, Laura, Charlie, Gerald, Bob, and I participated to a quite appreciative and also participating audience.

After we were done, I called Cari R, a new BNE acquaintance, to take by her coat I was offering her. She had another to give me. It’s a soft fleece jacket with mountain scenes – quite nice. It was a little too large for her and mine I was giving her was a little too small for me.

Tony Bynum (former CWU student of ours) wrote a note today with a link you all might find interesting.
Here is his message about his report:

“If anyone wants to know what it was like filming the Glacier Park segment of the new IMAX movie, “National Parks Adventure,” here’s my report:

Pictures above from Tony. Here is the link to his report:
Tony Bynum documents IMAX in Glacier

We will share our comments with you that we sent to Tony.
“Tony, Thanks for the IMAX report. That’s an interesting story. Will your name appear on screen?
For us, the nearest Imax is in Seattle. We almost never go to Seattle, or see movies, and so there is low probability we will see this one. We went to one at EXPO’74 in Spokane, 42 years ago. IMAX was just 4 years old!
We’ll spread the word, though.”

Meanwhile, we suggest you go to his web page of his photography work:

Go see what Tony Bynum does

He gets in the middle of things and way-too-close to dangerous animals.

We went back to the Kittitas Audubon meeting for a lecture on Wolverines in the Cascades. It was presented by Aja Woodrow, a former student of mine (in GIS) when he was working on his MS in Biology at CWU. Now he works for the USFS in Cle Elum, WA. I have some videos of his talk if anyone is interested in watching – just let me know and I will send the links, later when they are completed. Anyway, WA does not offer a lot of suitable habitat for Wolverines. They are built for traveling on snow and most of otherwise suitable area has the snow melting away too early in the year, say in Feb & March rather than late April.

Friday, Feb 19

For Feb 18 CPAP. Reported figures, 8 hrs 32 min with AHI=1.06. Events: 9 H, 8 CSR, 16 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=8 L/min); oximeter on entire time with high SpO2 and normal pulse.

Thankfully, we both had a good night’s sleep. We both stayed home. The pruners were not pruning today, because Cameron was leaving for a weekend of Farmer’s Markets on the west side. I did not need to make a trip into town.

John found a $300 tax credit we can take advantage of on the Blaze King web site, so I downloaded the document and printed before our printer stopped working. John will need to fill in the details of purchase, so that we can take our certificate by the store from where we bought the woodstove, to get their verification of purchase. It’s in Yakima, and we will be going for a cardiologist’s appointment for me March 15. I stored the certificate in the Taxes 2015 folder on my computer.

Here are the details: On December 16, 2015, the long-awaited year-end tax deal that was negotiated between the House and Senate leadership was unveiled. Included in this section is the $300 credit for residential biomass stoves. The bill reauthorizes the tax credit retroactively to January 1, 2015 and extended through December 31, 2016. So, assuming we get this, thanks taxpayers.

The credit applies to purchases made in 2015 and 2016 in the United States. Consumers who made residential biomass heating purchases need to retain for their records a manufacturer’s certificate that demonstrates the unit qualifies for Sec. 25C and a receipt (proof of purchase).

John just went out at 4:15 to feed, and the rain and a little hail came with a minor swoosh. He had already spent early morning emptying buckets of water coming off our roof with last night’s rainfall. I did not see hail or graupel or hear it here in the house. He was near the hay shed and the metal roof makes a sounding board. Woody – feral cat – was on an exposed perch and ran for the smaller red barn.

I have been switching chores all day, from washing dishes to washing clothes to sorting both. Besides those, I have worked on music and emails and the list goes on. Each day I have to download medical data from two machines, store, and today’s clothing wash includes sorting out things we don’t use, need, wear, or no longer fit for the BNE clothing share. I’ll get back to work on music while my dishes soak. I worked a little on the blog, but nothing as much as I should have.

Saturday, Feb 20

For Feb 19 CPAP. Reported figures, 6 hrs 44 min with AHI=0.45. Events: 3 H, 15 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=18 L/min); oximeter on entire time, with high SpO2 and normal pulse.

Only four of us made it to Briarwood for music today: Gerald, Charlie, Amy, and me. I expected three others but the weather must have been too nice. The women fixed us some awesome Tortellini soup, with toppings of tortilla chips, grated cheese, and sour cream. Then we had hot wheat or white rolls and butter, and ended with table full of desserts. Lee made her wonderful cookies and little peanut butter chocolate bars to die for. Another person made two different types of cookies, and another made a spice cake with cream cheese frosting.

I had tried to find the second hand store number where there was a going out of business sale and a person on the BNE site had seen a shoehorn with a handle. I drove by 3 times on Wednesday and the door was always locked. I started checking with neighboring businesses to see if they could tell me the owner’s name or phone number. The most help I got was from Kathy at a shop called Pink with Envy (young women’s gently used clothes), at 411 N Pine St, Ellensburg, WA, 509-933-3689. She decided to help me sleuth out the story. A woman only known by her first name, Linda, owns the store going out of business. Kathy heard my story and said she would check with a friend, Kim, at the insurance agency next door to the shop. She set me up with Kim, and Kim took me to the bottom of the stairs of Linda’s apartment. I climbed the steep two stories of stairs, knocked on the door, and got no answer. I went back to ask Kim for a piece of paper and tape, and went to my car and wrote a note to Linda with my phone number. She never called me.

While visiting with Kathy over the next two days, I told her about the BNE site, and how I had asked for a shoehorn, and one of the members sent me a personal message that he had seen one in that store. She told a friend, Mary, about the situation, and me and about the BNE site for asking for things, or gifting others. Mary told her she had what I needed, and she didn’t ever use it, so she would be happy to give it to me. Friday, she was leaving town but said Kathy’s husband could pick it up and take in to her store. Saturday, I went by Pink with Envy before going to Briarwood to meet my “new friend”, Kathy, to pick up a
telescoping shoe horn (Shoe DINI) —This was the result. Now it’s in John’s possession and he has already put it to use. Thanks, Mary (and Kathy, for all your connections.)

This is actually shortened, and taken in the nighttime so the overhead light globes are messing up the photo, but this is better than the one I copied from the web.

Once out of Briarwood, I drove by another BNE member’s house to pick up 3 bags of children’s clothes for the share, by Grocery Outlet for vanilla ice cream. They didn’t have any but had one cookies & cream, close enough, thankfully not a rainbow sherbet like the other 15 buckets, and back though town to drop off the bags of clothing to be sorted.

Sunday, Feb 21

For Feb 20 CPAP. Reported figures, 8 hrs 43 min with AHI=0.00 . Events: 0 H, 2 CSR, 18 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=12 L/min); oximeter on entire time, with high SpO2 and normal pulse.

Toast for Breakfast. Lunch was a blueberry loaded pancake – explains the dark color. Salsa and sour cream on an egg, for me. Orange pieces and bacon were nice additions. Pancake also had a bunch of pecans.

Earlier in the week John got the printer and scanner working. We had to scan to a plug in drive for the past year, but printing from my laptop failed. The lack of printing had to be fixed. New downloads and an install fixed both. A day later neither of us could make a wireless connection to the machine. John tried to completely uninstall all the printer stuff and then started in loops and circles with the Epson software. Something went wrong and the whole computer system went bye bye. Finally, he got to a page that allowed a removal and reinstall of Windows without destroying personal files. All the programs, such as Google Earth, Chrome, Office Writer – and all the settings – went away. Today he began recreating a usable machine. He says he won’t try doing the Epson printer stuff until the blog is published.

Mid-afternoon he replaced the canopy on the pickup and soon we will make runs to the transfer (dump) station in EBRG and to a metal, cans, and plastic recycle place in Yakima where there is a little payback. Thus, the need for the canopy.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Want your card first:
Scroll down to Valentine’s Day and press the link provided.

Sunday, Feb 7

For Feb 6 CPAP. Reported figures 5 hrs 31 min with AHI=0.54. Events: 3 H, 2 CSR, 12 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=20 L/min); oximeter on & AOK.

John started morning chores and I started eyelid/eye doctoring and sending emails to people about this blog. Some folks prefer to obtain an email notice and link, so if that appeals to you, let me know. As soon as it is published, I receive an email from WordPress that I can forward. Currently, I’m only forwarding to one person who requested it to keep from having to go to her computer (I guess from her iPhone or iPad). We have neither so cannot experience the issue.

I need to coordinate music for Anniversary Dance of the Blue Agates Round and Square Dance club, to be held at the Ellensburg Fairgrounds, April 2, at 6 p.m. and invite those from previous year’s playing, knowing we have limited space on the stage.

John came in from outside chores and fixed an omelet, hash browns, last of the zucchini bread from the 50s party, and ham. I am cleaning kitchen dishes that piled up after I cut my finger. John did a load yesterday, but there are still more. We go through many dishes when you include four cat dishes twice a day (some days). Occasionally, one of the orange cats will not show twice / day. And, very occasionally, one of the orange ones will not show for a couple of days.

Just received a call from Jeri Conklin still at a field trial. She called to say Daisy took a 4th place in Amateur Gun Dog with 15 starters. Great news. Pictures to follow. She only had one bird, it was about 4 baby quail, in a covey, running all around her and not getting up to fly. Finally, Jeri managed to stop chasing them and throwing rocks to make them fly, and crawled in the bush to flush one, blanked it (fired her blank pistol), and Daisy held through it all.

This was Jeri’s report on Facebook:

What a busy weekend this was. I have lots of pictures to post and it will take some time as I shot over 1600. But to start you off, the San Diego Brittany Club Field Trial at Camp H, California City, CA. Proud to announce the 4th place winner of the Amateur Gun Dog – drum roll please – Cedaridge Kip’s Camelot Shay Tre’ JH – Ms Daisy! Nancy Hultquist got the first telephone call and we couldn’t be prouder of our girl. She had pretty much shut down last year on birds and it has been a slow journey to get her fire lighted again [breaking a young dog at two can cause that — and Jeri has been working hard with her to get her through the situation–thanks, Jeri], but her spirit was running high today. The wind decided to blow gales at the start of our braces. Thank you Steve Crabb for scouting Daisy. At first I thought, no, Daisy doesn’t need a scout, then she topped one of the ridges and she was gone! I have never seen her run that far, that fast. Steve kept track of her as she ran a nice forward race. She did start to tire when we turned into the wind, but then she caught scent of the water tank about 3/4ths of the way through. She went “snorkeling,” as Steve said. She would have been diving had it been any deeper. She caught her second wind and was off. We were coming up the last ridge and she had been birdless till then. She quickly went on point. She was solid, her little tail as tall as it could be. It was a covey of 4-5 small quail. We did the chase from bush to bush. They ran back at her. I was throwing rocks at them trying to get them to flush as they just stayed packed tight together and moved as a mass. Finally, I just climbed in the bush and one flushed, so I blanked it off and then the other 4 ran! Daisy held through the whole process. I watered her, walked her off, whoa’d her so I could get on my trusty steed Westy ,who belongs to Linda McDonald, I whistled her off, she shot straight up the road and the judge called “Time.” I was never so happy to hear that! I let Daisy run in to the water tub. I couldn’t quit telling her how proud I was of her. She came a long way, she is definitely back. Thank you Judges Arlette Vogel Hennessey and Raul Pineda for recognizing Daisy today. Thank you Linda McDonald for loaning me Westy! Thank you Linda Ouellette for all your encouragement this past week; Craig & Leslie Troncale or all those cold mornings of training her. Photo credits to Kurt Conklin.

Collage above of breakaway, Daisy (Tre’) checking in from ridge, and on point of covey of baby quail.

Start to finish – Jeri & Daisy at stock tank, Daisy, Jeri, and Judge Arlette Hennessey holding 4th place ribbon from Amateur Gun Dog event in California.

Monday, Feb 8

For Feb 7 CPAP. Reported figures 6 hrs 44 min with AHI=0.00. Events: 0 H, 10 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=12 L/min); oximeter on entire time AOK.

John was out this morning with Dave Hazlett, come to keep horses hooves in proper form. Just trimming. They no longer need steel on because we are not riding.

Early, I sent the photographs I took at the AAC Fifties party last Friday, so the staff could put the chosen ones on their Facebook page. This morning they were posted (link below). You saw a few last week in the blog, but many more are on the public Facebook page. You do not have to have a Facebook account to access it:
AAC Fifties party

Scroll to the Soda Pop Shop: 1950’s Potluck page – – old folks at a green table, click on the big image and a photo gallery will load. Put your pointer near the top of the red jacket, on the right. Click the arrow (sidewise V) to see the next image. We are in those images – they don’t appear to be numbered, so just fast forward to see our stunning faces.

Nancy stayed home with paperwork and clothing sorting (to get rid of extras for our upcoming clothing share with BNE group, planned March 22). I have been helping coordinate pick-up of clothing and delivering to the sorting site at a woman’s home in Ellensburg. I’m only picking up things from people who are on my route to or from Ellensburg. Others are helping from different sections of town, or in Kittitas.

This news arrived today, from a couple of weeks ago.

Above is a picture of Ginny (my dog Daisy’s mom, whose pedigree goes back to our lines) with her first place Open All-Age win (16 starters) at the Greater Phoenix Brittany Club trial and her 3rd place win (60 starters) at the American Brittany Club’s Chukar Classic Grand Open Limited All Age. Ginny is owned by Jeri Conklin, in CA. The photo on the right is taken of Ginny on point at the field trial she won, Feb 2.

Tuesday, Feb 9

For Feb 8 CPAP. Reported figures 6 hrs 4 min with AHI=1.48. Events: 9 H, 1 CSR, 17 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=17 L/min); oximeter AOK entire time.

While John was out to open the gate to be ready to leave for pruning, at 7:11 PST, I received a call from this number 011-202-7666. A recorded message gave me a number to call (202) 766 7168, and stated, “This is your final call to inform you the IRS is filing a lawsuit.” I figured this was a scam and I did not call the number. The IRS does not contact people that way. (The caller ID said OUT OF AREA). Just in case it was Cameron calling with information before John left at 7:30, I answered. Normally, I do not answer calls with that caller ID.

Normally, we would go to the Emeriti Geographers meeting from 9:00 to 11:00, but this week our “leader” Jim Brooks is in the hospital from a fall. We decided to cancel until he is well and able to rejoin us. John wasn’t going to be able to attend anyway, because that is the starting date this year for 5-6 weeks of wine grapevine pruning at White Heron — 3 -4 days/week from 9:00 a.m. to noon. He drives 1 hr 20 min to get there. Another person has a one hour drive and another about 15 minutes.

I left a little early to pick up two bags of clothes for the share on my way to AAC today. I succeeded and then dropped them off at our “leader’s” house on the way to town. I had time so I took our voting ballots to the Courthouse, and to drive by to check Jerrol’s (a local office supply place) to spend my free $10 coupon. I freely got three 3-ring notebooks, two 1.0″ and one 1.5″. Some of my music books are falling apart and have been duct taped more than once.

I wore John’s Bronco shirt to get a photo to give to the AAC’s Director’s husband (Hawkman) from the Sportzapalooza party, where he was wanting us to root in the Super Bowl for the Broncos. Interestingly, back in 1970, John and I attended a pre-season Bronco game in Denver. A University of Iowa grad student, Dick Smith, was at Longs Peak (CO; 14,259 ft.) as a rescue climber.

Climbers fall and need carried off

So we started that trip from Iowa City. Denver, in a straight line, is 50 miles to the southeast. We drove to about 9,400 feet and that is as high as we got. Later, on that trip, we went a few places higher (Trail Ridge Road to 12,183 feet) and we walked a little up there to take photos in the tundra. I used those photos in geography classes for years following.

I posed in front of the wooden intarsia (search ‘images’ with the word) horse there in the Ellensburg Adult Activity Center, AAC, for Seniors. I put the artist’s information as a separate picture on the right in the collage. It is on the wall to the bottom right of the horse and rider, but I enlarged so you could read it. On the left is a wooden sculptured fish.

Jazzercise started at 2:00 at the AAC. Forty-five minutes of hard stretching work occurred today and I was rather sore from it.

I stopped by Grocery Outlet for ice cream on my way north to Rainier off Cora to pick up hangers and clothes for the BNE share. I met the woman giving things for another member I would see tomorrow, and I picked up my hangers (heavy-duty ones she had for me and a couple of tote bags for music). While I was there she gave me clothes for the share and offered me a wool coat, if I wanted it. It is beautiful. Below are some snapshots of various parts of the coat that John photographed. He loved it and tried following the label (La Mode Super; fait au Canada), meaning something like super style or fashion – made in Canada. He always tries to find what such things are – like maybe made in Asia with a Canadian tag, or what? He searched around the web and found nothing to identify its history – except a company that was “La Mode Apparel Group” and since 2002 known as “Golf Apparel Brands, Inc. (GABI).” The web site shows “La Mode” as a brand. Anyway, here is my gift. I wore it Wednesday and got many compliments.

If anyone has any idea of where this wool coat/jacket might have originated, please share your ideas. The person who gave it to me said it was gifted to her by a friend, who had bought it at Goodwill. The 2 bears decoration is 14 inches wide on the lower back.

On my way to town tonight, I dropped off the bags I picked up for the clothing share, to clear out my trunk. I was on my way to play music at Hearthstone with The Connections. I was sick for last month’s dates, but am all right from that (I thought, but we seem to be getting cold symptoms again), and my latest health concerns (with my eyelid and tooth) will not affect my participation. We had a nice appreciative audience, most able to sing along, but only three other leader singers were present, with a pianist and me on violin (I also sing). Another regular couple in the group was admiring spring flowers in Death Valley.

I ran by Super 1 for fried chicken for dinner and a dozen donuts at the reduced price. The chicken was good and made a couple of meals for each of us.

Wednesday, Feb 3

For Feb 2 CPAP. Reported figures 5 hrs 47 min with AHI=0.52. Events: 3 H, 1 CSR, 10 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=12 L/min); oximeter on, AOK.

John left at 7:40 a.m. to go pruning at White Heron.

So much for telephone connections with Dental Surgeon’s office supposed to come at 9:30. I called at 10 and she was not in today.

I picked up Gloria to take around town with me today, and returned her empty plate from last week’s cookies. John told me I should have filled it with something.

We made it to the Food Bank where I got her coffee and a blueberry tart. I wore my new coat given to me by a BNE member (described yesterday) when I picked up heavy duty coat hangers and another bag of hangers for someone else. Additionally, she had some items for the clothing share. We had many participants and an involved audience — woohooing, applauding, and singing. It was neat.

After eating some of the pasta lunch, and loading my car with food going to a family in my neighborhood, Gloria and I drove by a BNE member’s home to take coat hangers and leave large plastic bags. The husband had packed a bunch of stuff in a large box too big for me to handle. He’s going to repack in the bags for pickup after our class.

We had about 17 people in the SAIL exercise class. Left there and went back by to grab the clothes from where I left the garbage bags earlier. Two went into the backseat on top of my violin case and beside it. This was on our way to her home, which is on the way to mine.

I came home only a short time before we left for the Hal Holmes Center at the Ellensburg Public Library to attend the first lecture in the series of four new geology ones by Nick Zentner: John and I sat on the front row, which was exceptionally close to the stage, as can be seen in the videos below.

2016 Zentner Feb New Lectures

First, on 2/10/16, Are We Really Overdue for the Big One (Earthquake)?

Green Board, Parts I & II:
I: Introduction, 29 minutes

II: 15 minutes more of chalk talk

Nick’s Visuals, with slides and videos
First 29 minutes

Visuals continued; 2 minutes

In case you know anyone that is interested in this issue, these are being taped and will be spruced up professionally, at least for the first two, and we will provide links when available. For now, you can listen in from my lap in the front row. The rows began close to the stage, to allow for the large number of people expected. His lectures always fill a large auditorium.

Thursday, Feb 4

For Feb 3 CPAP. Reported figures 6 hrs 55 min with AHI=0.87. Events: 6 H, 1 CSR, 17 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=12 L/min); oximeter on AOK.

John left at 7:40 a.m. to go pruning at White Heron.

Our Kittitas Valley Fiddlers & Friends arrive today at 1:30 p.m. at the Meadows Place. I called in an early morning’s count for chairs, for 9 total, but with 7 armless chairs. They fixed chocolate chip oatmeal cookies, and a cute little young boy passed them out to the residents. I added Let me Call you Sweetheart to our February playlist for Valentine’s Day.

By the time I got to the end of the play set, my voice was completely hoarse, and my arms tired from fiddling.

In preparation for Valentine’s Day, our flute player made her daughter Haley’s hair into a braided heart. The residents were thrilled as she went around and backed up to them so they could get a proper view.

Friday, Feb 5

For Feb 4 CPAP. Reported figures 6 hrs 58 min with AHI=1.01. Events: 6 H, 1 CSR, 1 OA, 14 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=16 L/min); oximeter on AOK.

Weather did not permit John to go pruning today.

I wasn’t feeling up to par, so not much got done.
John took me in a heavy fog to pick up a large bag of clothes from a gal on the BNE site, who lives only a mile away.

I stumbled through the rest of the day, and finally at 3:00 laid down for a 20-min power nap, and awoke 1 hr 20 min later. I felt rested, but needed to doctor my eyes. They are not feeling well. I still have another week to go on the medications from last Friday, but I notice no change. I guess I will go back to my regular doctor next week for another opinion. He was out of town when I originally went for an evaluation.

I cancelled meeting friends (in EBRG for a daughter’s participation in the Spirit of the West fiddling contest) because I figured I needed the rest, but mostly not to expose them to any germs (more details below in Saturday’s write-up).

I searched some for a song the Kingston Trio did, but did not succeed; was looking for Charlie on the M.T.A., or The M.T.A. song. Dave (our Bass player) found some parts on line and sent to me, tonight after I was off the computer, and more on Saturday morning, but we are still missing the score for part of it. They often do that on line, requesting $5.50 to get the entire score. It’s not worth that to me when I can play it by ear, and print the lyrics and chords for the use of the other group members. Our flute player has a great singing voice, so if we don’t have notes for her, she just sings along.
I managed to load the dishwasher full, and succeeded in that chore.

Saturday, Feb 13

For Feb 12 CPAP. Reported figures 7 hrs 22 min with AHI=4.48. Events: 33 H, 15 CSR (w/6 & 7m one), 13 RERA. Significant period of major mask leakage; oximeter on entire time. But, I went back to sleep for over 2 hrs, without my oximeter. I am not at all sure what caused those extremely high bad numbers.

As mentioned yesterday, I cancelled going to the Fiddling Contest associated with the Spirit of the West to support the daughter of a friend (Muriel) from my WA Old Time Fiddling class summer workshop for 22 years, and her other daughter, Trinity, now a geography student at CWU. I was in bad shape yesterday, and I did not want to expose the mom (who just had stem cell replacement) to any germs with her compromised immune system.

I just heard Sunday morning that Noemi got a 3rd place in the competition in the Junior Division. She is 16. Her mom recorded this and put on her Facebook site.

Noemi plays fiddle

She’s playing three songs there in the first round Saturday morning — Cattle in the Cane, Nancy’s Waltz, and Texas Serenade.

I planned on working on The M.T. A. song from the Kingston Trio, as mentioned yesterday, Dave Perkins sent me some help, but I never got to it. As well, I need to work on the Banks of the Ohio, supposedly an Irish ballad, to add to our songs (with Loch Lomond) for our March Irish collection for the Kittitas Valley Fiddlers & Friends group.

I’m having trouble uploading my oximeter data from last night. I hope the third time is a charm. It wasn’t; more likely was the ninth.

Sunday, Feb 14 (click here) HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY

In case you haven’t read this at the beginning, then please click on the words above and read our Valentine Day’s Card to you.

PLEASE be sure to sign your name to your reply, or it will just come to me as being from me, and I won’t know who saw it.

It’s overcast with slight drizzles here today, with temperatures in the 40s. Certainly different from our friends and relatives back east. And they are not having the difficulties of some folks in Asia. Jeju Island—just south of the mainland of South Korea (Charleston, SC is similar) When you get zero snow in 32 years (wonder about the time before that), then any snow of a couple of inches can bring everything to a halt. The site linked below claims they got 4.7 inches and stranded about 86,000 travelers.
South Korea’s Jeju Island

There is a very nice photo from NASA’s Terra satellite.

For Feb 13 CPAP. Reported figures 7 hrs 25 min with AHI=0.54. Events: 3 H, 1 CSR, 10 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=11 L/min); oximeter on entire time with normal graphs of SpO2 and pulse. Certainly different from yesterday’s concerning readings (for unknown reasons).

John’s out working on yard chores, and I’m trying to complete this blog, so I can switch to other pressing paperwork chores I have not felt up to doing the past week. I just looked out the window and saw him carrying a large piece of frozen snow pieces dug out from between the garage and big shed. I’ll see if I can get a photo. He’s dumping it over the pile at the end of our driveway. The first time I saw him the piece was probably 4 feet long, but I didn’t have my camera. You’ll have to view a smaller piece in the collage below.

Lower left is one of the several deer resting on snow just east of the house. They are eating pine needles and hay at our place. We think a family ½ mile away have been throwing apples to them.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Sunday, Jan 31

For Jan 30 CPAP. Reported figures 5 hrs 3 min with AHI=0.99. Events: 5 H, 0 CSR, 6 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=15 L/min); oximeter on entire time and additional 3 hrs -24 min, with lower SpO2 off the machine and normal pulse.

Monday, Feb 1

For Jan 31 CPAP. Reported figures, 7 hrs 1 min with AHI=0.71. Events: 5 H, 1 CSR, 17 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=10 L/min); oximeter on entire time with fine stats.

John took care of the animals, I took a shower, and then we both soaked and washed our feet for the 10-week trimming via the doctor and helpers up from Yakima, saving us a long drive. Being still early in 2016 our Medicare deductible hasn’t been paid so this comes right out of the bank account. We got there and were taken right in together, although we are scheduled 15 minutes apart. We get to visit for 30 minutes about all sorts of things because the trimming doesn’t occupy much of his mind. He had been to meetings in Chicago. He learned about genetic/DNA variations and combinations of viruses and bacteria and how standard exams find the most prolific agent and miss many others. When the full range of biological agents are identified, better treatment is possible. I’ll see him on the Ides of March and follow up, for laser surgery, after we are down in Yakima to see my cardiologist. Nice when we can combine trips. We’ll hit Costco too.

I had worked in the morning setting up a pickup south of town on a freely given bar stool that matches one we got last year. We managed to pick it up today, after going by Safeway pharmacy and filling out the paperwork to get my Telmisartan medicine at 1/3 the price. I mentioned it in last week’s blog that we’ll pay $62.90 for 3 months, rather than $206.01. Then we went to Super 1 for some ground beef for dinner, and some cauliflower on sale for $.88/lb, after buying some last week, at Safeway for thrice the price. Seems folks are eating more cauliflower just as bad weather decreased the harvest. John plans making a casserole for dinner.
On home by Grocery Outlet where we get great prices on a couple of food items we use regularly, and then I stopped at Brooklyn’s Pizzeria and bought a nice pizza for John’s birthday (from a coupon sent to us on a reward program I joined on my birthday last year, but couldn’t use until 2016). While waiting for them to cook it, I took a $4 gift card into a neighboring business that I thought was ONLY selling a buffet of Frozen Yogurt with a variety of toppings. I was surprised to find out that the shop had sandwiches, drinks, and pastries. I checked them and found a large brownie (4″ square) and a very large peanut butter cookie. I bought them for our dessert for lunch and dinner, using my gift card plus $.23.

Once home, John had planned to clean out the Chinook wood stove, and I took a video of the process. It’s below. It lasts for 7 minutes and is a little longer because the ash-plug didn’t fall into its hole easily, possibly because of a piece of charred wood that had not dropped.

John Emptying Ashes from Wood Stove

Because some of the fragments were still hot, the whole lot got dumped in a foot of snow, above a pile of yard litter. Later the mixture will be widely dispersed in the garden. There won’t be a lot of ash, so this will not be a problem.
Wood Ash in the Garden

Tuesday, Feb 2

For Feb 1 CPAP. Reported figures, 5 hrs 44 min with AHI=0.70. Events: 4 H, 0 CSR, 2 PP, 12 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=15 L/min); oximeter on entire time, 8 hr, 5 m, with an AHI=0..49. The extra.3 hrs were okay with high SpO2 and normal pulse.

John got all the morning chores done, and came back in to heat up leftover pizza from yesterday’s lunch. I frosted the large peanut butter cookie for dessert. Our day was organized based on a 3 P.M. appointment in west Yakima.

Nice trip down, with John driving. We left about 12:30 and took an hour to get to Costco, where we filled up with gas (only 7 gals @ $1.699/gal) — WOW. Too bad we couldn’t fill up the Ford Truck at that price. For once, the parking lot was not full. John went ahead of me and I stopped off at the return merchandise desk to ask a question about an SD card (for my camera) I bought the last time. It was not as large as advertised, at 64 Gigabytes. One has to read the fine print, ’cause what’s on the front is not the whole truth. I should have known that (I sort of did), but the drop seemed excessive. When I got through, and caught up, John was talking with a sales person about new laptops currently on sale. They have a nice one for $150 off until March 3. John’s going to investigate. It seems one should spend time typing on the keyboard for suitability for the user (me). Most of the rest of the stuff inside is very similar (at like price), commoditized, and likely has more capability than I need.
We had a list of things we needed and also needed to get 3 items for a friend. For a change, everything we went for was in stock. We were happy to find strapping tape (we use a lot of) on sale for $7.00 off a package of 8 rolls. The automatic dishwasher gel we like was also on sale, so that was nice. Apple strudel was as well, so I bought a box of 16 for the Emeriti Geographers meeting I will attend alone this coming Tuesday. John will be starting his wine grapevine pruning that day at White Heron. Good we took and filled up his car.

From there we drove west to the Oral Surgeon’s office, west on Nob Hill Blvd. We spent 2.5 hours there in consultation for two dental implants for me, on the bottom back left, for the gold crown I lost Christmas eve, and the one missing in front for over a decade. I decided then not to have a bridge installed, and I’m not sure implant technology had reached the level it has today.

More about that later. I had previously completed a long medical history for them and the chief assistant had been in contact with Dr. Schmitt (personal Phy.) for his assessment. Basically, I have to wait 3 months from my defibrillator surgery to begin the tooth surgery. So we are looking at after March 18. It will take about an hour, and John has to drive me down, stay in the building during the procedure, and drive me home. Part of the procedure is to build new bone in my jaw by adding bone fragments and my blood platelets to promote growth of bone to seat the screw implants. Then it has to “grow & heal” for about 3 or 4 months. After the waiting time, and approval, my own dentist will construct a crown for it.
In the image below, the left side is natural, the right side is the reconstituted view.

From there home, taking some pretty sunset photos, (a bit different from the one at our house in last week’s blog).

These above are views from I-82 and on the right is descending into the Kittitas Valley, with the Mt Stuart range in view, and Mt. Stuart on the far right, with a peak elevation of 9,415 feet.

We were hoping to arrive before dark but barely made it. Ebony was in her station waiting for grain, apple, and carrots. John took care of them, fed the three outside cats, and hauled in all the groceries we had purchased.

Once home, we had a treat of a frosted brownie with two cashews on top. Then, for dinner, we had leftovers of beef casserole, with peaches, and a Honeycrisp apple. For our final dessert, we had some Dutch cherry pie to go with ice cream. No comments from anyone out there.

Wednesday, Feb 3

For Feb 2 CPAP. Reported figures, 7 hrs 52 min with AHI=0.64. Events: 5 H, 13 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=20 L/min); oximeter on entire time, AOK.

Started with John doing his normal feed the animals chores of the morning, and then he has to turn around and do it all again in the evening, but Ebony only gets her special vittles in the late afternoon. Deer are sharing hay with the horses and eating the needles as John trims the driveway pines. We should send a bill to the wildlife department. [Actually, providing feed is not advised. It causes problems.]

I took off before 11:00 to pick up my friend, Gloria, to take around town today.
Food Bank start. We had several extra singers there and a nice visit with friends and newly met folks. I was asked by food bank personnel (who know where I live) to carry away and deliver a large amount of food for neighbors. On our way to SAIL exercise, I dropped off 4 of John’s smaller shirts to a gal who gave us a bunch of cinder blocks last year. Then by the US Bank for Gloria to get some cash for paying for her bus rides to see her hubby in an assisted living facility in Cle Elum. On our way to SAIL exercise class, I dropped off an old Pyrex dish from the late ’70s to a gal who just had her 7th child. It was a special promotion by Parkay margarine, made by Pyrex with a spring pattern, in 1977.

SAIL was fine with about 17 people there. After that, I had to go by the hospital lab for a blood draw for my INR. A call later in the day noted the value was 1.9, a little lower than they would like. Too bad I didn’t have some wine with dinner last night (it raises the INR). Unfortunately, I have to go back in 2 weeks for a repeat draw. Then off to Bi-Mart. Gloria needed a couple of things, and my neighbor did too. By then it was snowing quite hard and I took her home. Earlier when I picked her up, I had given her things we brought for her at Costco. She had made nicely frosted chocolate cookies to send home with me.

Thursday, Feb 4

For Feb 3 CPAP. Reported figures, 6 hrs 31 min with AHI=0.61. Events: 4 H, 2 CSR, 11 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=6 L/min); oximeter on entire time.

While washing dishes this morning I sliced my right ring finger on a cat food can. I couldn’t stop the bleeding with pressure, but managed to slow it and John wrapped a Band-Aid on it. Glad it was not my violin fingering hand, but just the bowing hand.

I went to REHAB for Fiddlers & Friends music with eight players. We had a good bunch and a happy audience with about six people participating well. Little Haley entertained the crowd, dancing around the room visiting people, and showing them her coloring drawing book.

I delivered a Seahawk’s colors basket to a birthing room in our hospital. It was my first time in that hospital wing. It was for a someone on the Buy Nothing Ellensburg (BNE) group. On by another home to drop off two bags of clothes to be sorted for our BNE clothing share.

Home to a nice warm wood stove heated den that John started in my absence.

John fixed a nice pot roast for dinner with beef, carrots, cauliflower, potatoes, and mushrooms,with gravy. He toasted some slices of rye with sun-dried tomatoes and put butter and parmesan cheese on top. I took a photo as it was a very pretty dinner.

Friday, Feb 5

For Feb 4 CPAP. Reported figures, 7 hrs 42 min with AHI=0.78. Events: 6 H, 6 CSR, 18 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=14 L/min); oximeter on entire time, AOK.

I finally managed to talk to a person to get my WA Delta Dental login username and password fixed, so that I could see my benefits and claims history activities.

We found clothes to wear today for the ’50s party at the AAC (Senior Center. It was a potluck, so I put cut-up squares of zucchini bread with pineapple in a 1950s spring patterned Pyrex vintage dish. They served us Tuna Fish Casserole as the main dish.

This has both of us smiling in the top photo, but it is out of focus. You can see I have on a mink hat (was my mom’s she got in Canada), and a red wool jacket with black velvet collar I don’t know where I got, a fifties lapel pin and John’s in his black leather jacket with black pants and shirt. We both have on silver jewelry give to us by a former student and his wife — howling wolves motifs from the Wolf Preserve in Northern Idaho.

I added some other collages from the day:

Today I saw another doctor in my eye doctor’s office because my regular one wouldn’t return until 11:45 next Tuesday. I had a bump on my left eyelid that needed attention. Turns out I have Blepharitis, and an external hordeolum (feels like a stye but is a clogged oil gland), but not draining or big and red. I’m now set back $17.98 for an ointment to apply 3 times a day, and a $22 box of 30 scrub lid wipes to use twice/day. I have to put a hot compress on throughout the day. The ointment is Maxitrol. I applied it last night to the outside of my lid, because that was what I understood in the office. However, after reading the accompanying literature and checking on line, I found:

To apply the ointment:
Hold the tube in your hand for a few minutes to warm it up so that the ointment comes out easily. Tilt your head back slightly and pull down gently on your lower eyelid. Apply a thin film of the ointment into your lower eyelid. Close your eye and roll your eyeball around in all directions for 1 to 2 minutes. If you are applying another eye medication, allow at least 10 minutes before your next application.
Do not touch the dropper or tube opening to any surface, including your eyes or hands. The dropper or tube opening is sterile. If it becomes contaminated, it could cause an infection in your eye.

Maybe I will get competent with this procedure after a couple of days. I’m supposed to do it 3 x / day for 2 weeks.

Happily, I no longer have to go to Yakima for my CPAP supplies (every 3 months), because the company has opened an EBRG outlet. It is close to our preferred grocery store. Today, while I awaited my prescription, I went over for replenishment of supplies: new mask, tubing, and filters.

Saturday, Feb 6

For Feb 5 CPAP. Reported figures, 5 hrs 42 min with AHI=0.53. Events: 3 H, 13 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=14 L/min); oximeter on entire time, AOK.

We had a great brunch today of sausage, eggs, heated buttered zucchini bread with pineapple, left over from yesterday’s party, and some pears. The pears came from Grocery Outlet and were grown in China. Neither of us liked them – except the price.

Doctoring eyelids & eye, while John’s out taking care of yard chores.
I’m working on the blog and on photographs to include, while also entering my medical data for the day.

That last picture goes back to memories of high school sweethearts (in the center of the picture) from North Fulton High School in Atlanta, GA, from which I was graduated in 1961. Four years later, in 1965, I traveled to Europe on a Geography Field Trip for 9 weeks, and came back to enter graduate school in Cincinnati where I met John. That same year, the sweethearts from GA were married August 15, 1965. They are Camille (Clements) and Jimmy Sudderth. This past year, they celebrated their 50th Anniversary, and had the beautiful professional photograph taken with their family. Today was Jimmy’s birthday, and when I sent a birthday card, I realized I didn’t have their anniversary date, so I asked for it. Thus, the arrival of the picture in email. 🙂 We are 4 years behind them… well, closer to 3 years now.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Sunday, Jan 24

For Jan 23 CPAP. Reported figures, 5 hrs 41 min with AHI=0.35. Events: 2 H, 0 CSR, 6 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=13 L/min); oximeter on entire time with high SpO2 and normal pulse.

We published the blog at 11:24 a.m. today!

Rainbow on Kitchen Floor, 1-24-16
Rainbow in Motion

Speaking of rainbows, check this out. Late this week (Friday), as we were traveling home, we saw a rainbow, but it was rather washed out. I got home and the same day, my friend from Moscow, ID who hired John and me into one position at the University of Idaho in 1974, Sam M.W. Scripter, posted a photo taken in Moscow on June 15, 2011, from the back of his home. He put it on Facebook today. I asked if I could use it with credits in this blog and he agreed. This is one of the nicest rainbow photographs I have ever seen. I am sure you will agree. I wish I could have seen it in person.

Photo by Sam M.W. Scripter, with Paradise Ridge in the background; Moscow, ID taken 6/15/2011

Now I will start timing chores to keep me going and not spend the rest of the day on only one thing.

John fixed a brunch of sliced ham, mushroom & cheese omelet. We also had a cream-cheese-frosted cinnamon roll of which I cut off most of the roll’s yeasty non-cinnamoned bottom and shared with the dog, even though she doesn’t need any more weight gain.

The sun has shined all day and the temperature is up to 43°. John is outside doing various chores and, after loading the back, he just drove the old truck up the driveway to dump snow near a young pine tree. Now he’s headed to the old red barn to make kindling.

I managed to try on 3 sweaters and decided I would give them to a friend a mile away. Now I am loading dishes to soak and then put in the dishwasher.

Next chore is to read my data from my medical devices, store it, and make graphs, alternating with listening to a version of Four In the Morning that two of our guitar players sang for me to record to fit the music score to their voice version. We think we finally have the chord structure in place, and just needed the correct melody for the few of us playing it..

We had a really spectacular sunset tonight, that John called to my attention, as it was “behind” me, outside our back patio door:

God was truly the exquisite landscape painter tonight. It can’t be seen in this photo but the top of Mt Rainier is out there, 63 miles, on the horizon. [summit elevation of 14,417 ft (4,394 m)]

Monday, Jan 25

For Jan 24 CPAP. Reported figures, 6 hrs 36 min with AHI=0.00. Events: 0 H, 0 CSR, 16 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=12 L/min); oximeter on additional time, extra 3 hrs showing a lowered SpO2 to 85%, when CPAP off.

I called Dr. Schmitt’s office about my possible sinus infection, and my doctor recommended I take Amoxicillin 3 times/day for 10 days. I think not, because that is the only antibiotic I’m allowed and I have significant dental work coming up. I do not want to risk affecting the ability of it to protect my blood stream from bacteria entering as happened in 2009 and caused additional heart valve damage. I healed on my own by the end of this week.

Tuesday, Jan 26

For Jan 25 CPAP. Reported figures, 6 hrs 35 min with AHI=0.15. Events: 1 H, 0 CSR, 4 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=12 L/min); oximeter on entire time.

Many of you know that John volunteers work with WTA, and this announcement just appeared on their website today, with a photo he is in, at Crew Leader College in 2015.

Crew Leader College, Mt. Si in the background, photo by Kindra Ramos. John is in the lower right on the ground.

You have seen this photo before in the blog, but here is a link to the reason it appeared today: Boeing Grant to WTA

John has been an assistant crew leader (ACL) working with folks from Boeing a couple times in the past. This grant is for $40,000 for each of the next two years, for WA trail maintenance activities.

I attended Jazzercise today and it was a tough workout, especially considering I have not been since before my surgery, 12/18. I have been hurting for 4 days following. Afterwards, however, I met another gal from the BNE site to deliver three aluminum pans with plastic tops she plans to use with her kids to start seedlings, and act as little greenhouses. This will be a neat experiment. From there, I went by Super 1 for meds and got a real shock at an increase in my co-pay for one of my necessary heart drugs, Telmisartan. Story immediately below my candy-craving statement.

I soothed my sadness shock by stopping by Bi-Mart for Almond Roca on sale.

Here is my note I wrote to my cardiologist’s nurse, Colleen. It is very important for Dr. Kim to consider a switch from Telmisartan (Micardis). Because of a change in “formulary” at Group Health, my co-pay shot up in the “3rd Tier non-preferred drugs” from November ($11.55), to December ($16.45) to January ($68.67) yesterday, for a ONE month’s supply of the drug.
I HOPE there is another drug (doing what I need), in the first tier category that will be less costly for me for this year, please.
I need Dr. Kim’s advice on which other I could substitute, and I will have the pharmacist run the cost from Group Health. I know I need the medication, but $824 seems quite excessive if something else covers the need.
Please advise. I will continue with this month’s supply as I paid for it and cannot return it.

From the Mayo Clinic, I find examples of Angiotensin II receptor blockers include:
Azilsartan (Edarbi)
Candesartan (Atacand)
Eprosartan (Teveten)
Irbesartan (Avapro)
Losartan (Cozaar)
Olmesartan (Benicar)
Telmisartan (Micardis) — costs Nancy $68.67/month /Group Health
Valsartan (Diovan)

I wrote the above and sent as an email at 8:30 a.m., Wednesday morning.

This response arrived at noon, Wednesday, but I’m putting it here with the story.

Nancy, Dr. Kim asked me to look into other sources. There is a program called GoodRx. You pay cash for meds. In researching the site, it is estimated that your cost for Micardis (Telmisartan) 20 mg, # 90 would be $62.90 at Safeway in Ellensburg. I have a coupon for you that I could mail or try to email to you. You may want to look at site first, GOODRx and let me know how you wish to proceed.

See the rest of the story on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, I stopped to get two bags of baby clothes from a BNE gal for our clothing share coming up in March. While in town and so close to Dominoes Pizza, I picked up a free large two-meat pizza from a coupon I won at the New Year’s AAC event earlier in the year. I picked Philly Beef and Pepperoni, and John added sharp cheddar cheese and mushrooms. Here’s the starting and the final product.

Wednesday, Jan 27

For Jan 26 CPAP. Reported figures, 8 hrs 17 min with AHI=1.09. Events: 9 H, 3 CSR, 17 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=17 L/min); oximeter on entire time, with good SpO2 and normal pulse.

I had arranged to pick up my friend Gloria (who is 90), to drive around town with me and visit places I go on Wednesdays. We started by going for me to deliver and pick up some BNE items on our way to the Food Bank.
We arrived at the Food Bank and went inside to join only 3 others for music making (missing our banjo player from illness). Gloria sat at the table in front of us and had lyrics to the songs, so she sang along. First, we were there early to help setup, so I introduced her to people and the staff, and then got her a cup of coffee. She stayed at the table and several people joined her with their food, but I had told her she could sing along and wait to go though the line with us at 12:30, and we’d eat together. We did. Serving today was a choice of pasta (Chicken Alfredo or Tomato w/sausage, or a little of both). I just had the white. We had bread, salad, a piece of raspberry cheesecake, and lemonade. Our table was full of people with connections to West Seattle or Woodinville, and she really enjoyed reminiscing with them. Some of them had been graduated from the same high school, twenty years apart. She was graduated from high school the year I was born. Later the new director joined us (her name is Brooke), and she also had connections to share about West Seattle. I shared my grandmother’s & grandfather’s story about his carpentry on the Smith Tower, and his building a house at the corner of 44th Ave & SW 102nd St, uphill from the Fauntleroy Electric Trolley stop. It is still there and being kept in good condition by the owner’s son, who lives there, and who is a carpenter.

From there on to SAIL, where we had a nice visit with all in the class, and made it through all the exercises.

Continuing from there, I drove south of town to pick up a gift from the BNE site that I’m going to pass along to a friend when the weather is nicer for a photo op, and while on that end of town, I delivered another gift from the BNE site to a woman. It was a book on building a chicken coop that I “won” on the site by giving the best answer. The giver’s challenge was, “Freely given to the person who can give the best reason the chicken crossed the road.” My response was, “Because the chick wanted to be poultry in motion.”

I returned Gloria to her home on my way home. We enjoyed our time together. Her husband used to be in the SAIL exercise class, but now he is in an assisted-living home in a nearby city. He is 93.

Thursday, Jan 28

For Jan 27 CPAP. Reported figures, 8 hrs 58 min with AHI=1.02. Events: 7 H, 2 CSR, 1 CA, 2 PP, 15 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=13 L/min). The extra 1 hr was consistent with high SpO2 and normal pulse.

I took a packing box (my defibrillator’s transmitter arrived in) to Hearthstone today for a BNE person to come by and take away to use. I also took plastic coated hangers to a gal for a project she had in mind. She returned a photo two days later with her creation. Here is my collage of the before and after. She made a holder that also dispensed thread from a large spool.

Below is a photo John found on the web. There are many and some are simple, others fancy and commercial.
This one seems historic and authentic.

Another great gift from the BNE site we picked up today, in the previous house of an old colleague, on Anderson Street. Lauren gave me a brand new Honeywell HEPAClean Table Top Air Purifier that she bought for her husband, who never used it for his allergies. She decided to share it with me rather than let it go to waste. We are going to set it up next to my recliner to provide purified air. I am quite excited.

Friday, Jan 29

For Jan 28 CPAP. Reported figures, 4 hrs 55 min with AHI=2.64 . Events: 12 H, 3 CSR, 1OA, 1 PP, 11 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=18 L/min); oximeter on entire time with nothing out of the ordinary.

We called John’s sister Peggy for a happy birthday wish and found her dealing with a Raspberry insurrection. We think that is what she said, but it could have been a respiratory infection. It didn’t make any sense to us, either. So we hung up.

John and I dressed in our sports team colors and went to a Sportzpalooza at the Ellensburg Adult Activity Center, a special party they have each year with trivia games, a meal, and fun. I have become the designated photographer while the staff keeps all the food, fellowship, and organization happening. The organizers were hoping the Seattle team would be playing in Super Bowl 50, so there was some disappointment.

There are usually many Seahawk fans there, so I dressed in their team colors and wore my vintage Seattle Seahawks cap. John wore his Phillies jacket (although he was, in another life, really a Pirates fan), and with all the snow falling, I forgot to give him my Chicago Cubs hat to match. Next year. He also has a Broncos tee shirt, and he should have worn it. I got the jacket in a Goodwill “all that will fit in the bag for $5” sale.

I will add a few pictures I took or were taken on my camera (as below):

John & Nancy with David Douglas (Hawkman), the MC, and husband of Katrina the director. I ducked my head so you could see the Seattle Seahawks. This is one of the better photos of John. Cannot usually get him to smile in photos. Also, I have on exercise pants, with a bright green and white stripe on both sides of the navy blue pants, and my tops are team colors too. We are standing in front of a game board used after we ate to play, for points with answering sports trivia questions, in the categories of WHO, WHAT, WHERE.

Our table was picked first to go to the buffet – there was lots to eat, all prepared by the staff and volunteers in the small in-building kitchen.
See the video of that excitement, lead by Hawkman 12. [Seattle fans are referred to as the 12th man on the field. The team colored ’12’ signs are everywhere in town and throughout Washington.]

Our Sportzpalooza Table Picked to Start . . . Our Table

They fed us a baked potato buffet with chili, steamed broccoli, chives, cheese, real cooked bacon (not bits), and sour cream. The salad was made with the Seahawks colors: Green Jello, with mandarin oranges, blueberries, and bananas.

More fun from MC, David Douglas, as Hawkman

The rest of the story will be in collages below:

Olivia and David (Hawkman) and the rest of the staff serving lunch – Alice, Katrina, Carly, and Tina, at the Baked Potato Buffet Bar.

John’s serving – note Seahawk Salad colors.

A bunch of tables (not all), check out the video. Left are the staff and the Douglas family; middle are others there, including Sandra, Myrna, and Mary Ann; right are Pat & Richard, and three members of the Platz family.

Pat Carney (AAC Board Member) top left. Top right is the results of our table’s second place finishing (1100) after the Platz table’s win at 1600 points. The bottom tier is the MC entertaining the crowd, while the staff gets the food ready to serve.

Just as we started eating, Starla Lynn brought me a dozen green & brown eggs and picked up a bag of cartons I had for her. She’s the one I gifted the book, Building Chicken Coops, mentioned on Wednesday’s entry.

On our way home, we stopped near the hospital to pick up a Bionaire humidifier from Kristina, that her mom had given her. They used it a few days and then it has been sitting for a long time. It is a 2008 model and looks new.

Saturday, Jan 30

For Jan 29 CPAP. Reported figures, 3 hrs 52 min with AHI=0.52 . Events: 2 H, 1 CSR, 2 PP, 7 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=9 L/min); forgot to start my oximeter so no results.

Whenever John starts or adds to the wood stove there is a bit of smoke and gases let into the room. The main AC/furnace fan cleans it up rapidly but he tries to distract me with food. Just now he cooked brunch for us, of an omelet type fold over, special broiled toasted roll part, hash browns, and bacon. We need to read the directions and get both the air filter and humidifier operating.

Here are my captures of the fire through chimney smoke visualization:

Shadow Chimney Smoke – 1 Direction

Note the activity in the next one with two directions.
Watch and listen as a log shifts and bumps a burst of smoke out the chimney. When the stove is hot enough there is a handle that closes a vent and thus runs the smoke through a catalytic combustor. In that mode there is nothing to see coming out the flue, but there is some water vapor and it can play with the sunlight. If there is sunlight.

Shadow Chimney Smoke – 2 Directions

I’ve worked on getting rid of extra clothing via Buy Nothing Ellensburg. I found a recipient for a Filson wool hunting cap with flaps that did not fit me, and will go to a young man who got his first elk on the last day of hunting season last year. I hope to meet him tomorrow when his step father comes to retrieve it. John also brought in one of his and my favorites, a nice shirt that is too tight for him. It is a men’s Large, in excellent shape. I also got rid of a lined straw basket, and am working on some other containers, in addition to more shirts John presented me with this morning.

Sunday, Jan 31

For Jan 30 CPAP. Reported figures 5 x hrs 3 min with AHI=0.99. Events: 5H, 0 CSR, 6 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=15 L/min); oximeter on entire time and additional 3 hrs.with high SpO2 and normal pulse.

Plans today include a visit from a BNE recipient of my Filson hunting cap. I have probably had it over a decade. It was too small, even though marked large. To decide who gets things on BNE, we ask for a number, need, or story. I asked for a number, who would be wearing it, and a story of interest. This came back: # = 32. My stepson, Gus. I have been taking us hunting for a couple of years and this was the first year he was successful, got a cow elk on the last day. His hunting coat is a black and grey plaid double mackinaw cruiser (Filson) and he has grey Wilson hunting pants. All he needs is this hat and he will be set. Willing to repost on BNE if he does not like it.

This was the picture I posted with my search for a new owner:

I found today that the name of the hat I had and gave him is a Double Mackinaw one, so that really completes his outfit.

Here is Gus, the happy recipient. Nice kid, with red hair !! Like in John’s family on both sides. Maybe he is related.

Gus wore it home and on the way told his dad he thought it was “cool,” but it was too hot to wear in the truck. Once home, he packed it away with his hunting clothes for the fall. I found out his birthday is Feb. 13, so this will be a “double” nice gift.

Today is sunny, but chilly. Not as much as Antarctica, most likely… referring to news from Mérida, a former student here at CWU who became a long-distance friend. She was raised in southern Chile and after being here, she has been in Santiago for 2 decades. International students of CWU held a dinner of national foods and Mérida came out here and we made empanada de manzanas (apple turnovers) with her mother’s recipe.

Here is Mérida’s view of Antarctica:

John,  Nancy Hello!!!
I just had the trip of a life time….we went to the Antarctica! Really unique!

A duty trip (now in January summer time) where eight of us had to inspect the place for the projects we are working on. We spent 24 hours there (stayed over a night …by the way there was no night at this time of the year. At 11 pm, 3 am, etc., it was bright as the day…)
We stayed at one of our Chilean bases: Presidente Eduardo Frei Montalva, the only one which has a runway and from which every international base depends on. In other words the only runway in the South Pole!!

Here, sending you some pictures:

Me saying hello from with the Antarctica sign (to prove I was there and not in Alaska, ha, ha!!)
A tree, today a stone. When the continents got apart the forests did too. Later glaciers, eruptions, etc., made them disappear. I send you this picture because I thought you may find it interesting.
A panoramic view from the aircraft (C-130) arriving at King George Island where most of the international bases are, including ours with our runway.
Me in the area and the team.
Me and the penguins and a penguin which I forgot to ask if it was Emperor or other… sorry.

Hope you enjoy them.
Love,
Mérida

And, here are my collages of her photos after her panoramic entrance:

Mérida and the petrified wood.

Penquins, the team, and Mérida (smallest in height on the team).

Her jacket has a simple version of the Chilean Air Force coat of arms:

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan

Ways snow is like the government

Freedom of movement and assembly are restricted
Disrupts children’s education
Capable of complete government shutdown
Small inconveniences are hyped endlessly
Prevents Businesses From Operating Freely
Mighty and powerful
Sometimes a threat is just a threat …
. . . . Not this time. Sorry snow souls

But, look below at a beautiful collage of snow shots from our friends, Sonja and Kevin, snowshoeing 1-23-16 in South Lake Tahoe, with their Brittanys from our lines, Tug (granddog and brother to our Daisy you see so often in blogs), and Kip, their father, who is from our home, in 2005.

For a larger image of the following images throughout the blog, right click and “Open image in a new tab.” Descriptions follow the photos.

Left, Tug running toward camera, Kevin looking back; Tug; Kip (a Tri-colored Brittany), and Sonja, whom we have known since 1977, when she first got Tic, a Brittany puppy, from us in Idaho.

Monday, Jan 18

For Jan 17 CPAP. Reported figures, 6 hrs 20 min with AHI=0.31. Events: 2 H, 0 CSR, 20 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=18 L/min); oximeter on entire time with okay SpO2 and pulse.

We stayed home. John worked in the yard, and I washed dishes and clothes and worked on paperwork.

Tuesday, Jan 19

For Jan 18 CPAP. Reported figures, 7 hrs 10 min with AHI=0.14. Events: 1 H, 1 CSR (3m), 14 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=4 L/min); oximeter on entire time with high SpO2 and normal pulse.

I stayed home to recuperate. Feeling better, but won’t go with my cold tonight to the Rehab and The Connections, and I skipped Jazzercise. It has snowed all day, and I haven’t heard a plow, so it might be yucky road driving. I have to leave tomorrow a little before 11:00 so perhaps that will give them time to get the road plowed. I can always hope.

Over the last hour with breaks for the clippers to cool, I gave John a much-needed haircut. Now he can go out in public again without a hat covering his hair and ears.

Wednesday, Jan 20

For Jan 19 CPAP. Reported figures, 8 hrs 6 min with AHI=0.38. Events: 2 H, 1 CA, 16 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=11 L/min); oximeter on entire time with high SpO2 and normal pulse.

I was up early and saw a beautiful sunrise, even prettier colors of pink and blue with the white snow than the camera lens captured, but here are collages of some of my shots.

Doe in her favorite spot on our driveway (background is a shed almost 600 feet away across the county road), front gate with horseshoes holding in the luck, and our heat pump backed by neighbor’s Ponderosa pine.

Mountain Ash in front, Ponderosa pines in back, looking toward corral and hay shed where feral cats hang out and eat.

Left looking toward Naneum Rd, then over a wooden fence east toward the pole barn, and on the right, the edge of our house next to Tamarack (Larch) trees.

This documentary on penguins was on bing.com today and is worth watching.
Emperor Penguins – Nat. Geog

I took off early for the Food Bank, and it was a smart move. The roads were unplowed and awful. I drove very slowly, taking over 40 minutes to get to town.
I stopped on N. Iowa Street (on my way there) to drop off a large stainless steel dog food pan for a girl in town (from the BNE site) for her Pit Bull, “Tiny.”

Then I drove another block and met a former student at the Food Bank to exchange 6 drawers from his car to mine for which he wanted to find a new home. John will likely use them to make shelves, because we were not given a structure that held them – just the drawers (with white handles and a plastic covering on the front, separated in some places). The wood (Pine) of the 4 sides of the “box” looks unused, however. The drawer bottom is particle-board.

Food Bank was fun and we had a good appreciative audience, with a bunch of singing and dancing going on. One little 22-month old girl had her mom bring her to the table right in front of us because she loved the music.

From there I went to the AAC and my SAIL exercise class. I carried a box of sugar cookies for the group to have afterwards. Usually some folks stay around, have coffee and a treat and visit; Wednesdays is also a Yoga class at 2:45. I don’t stay for it, because the movements for my arms over my head and shoulders don’t work. I stayed in the parking lot until 2:45 to meet a gal from the BNE site who brought me 4 bags of clothes from another person for me to deliver Friday on my way home, to the coordinator of a clothing share we are having March 22. She also picked up some stuff from me that I was offering on the BNE site (a too small chamois shirt, a too large knitted hat, some plastic containers, and a large dog food pan for her Great Pyrenees and a smaller one as well, because he is only 5.5 months old now. A bit farther on, I delivered 4 more. The pans are from our “dog-period” while in Troy, Idaho. So, I’m downsizing on doggy things and accumulating music things.

I dropped by Bi-Mart to buy some calendar ledger books at 50% off to put in our cars to keep track of mileage. The one I got previously won’t fit in my rig’s glove compartment, and I bought a “camera” battery for my under-tongue digital thermometer I’ve had for over 5 years. I didn’t get home until 4:00.

John did the normal outside chores plus moved a little snow and split a few rounds of pine into kindling. Before 5, we made a phone call to the place in Mukilteo from where we purchased 100 Cedar Fire Starters that were supposed to arrive by UPS on 1/15/16; or so we thought. The business had a bunch of east-coast orders in front of us, but the label for ours was made and triggered an auto-email. Our box was still empty when the UPS pick-up occurred. But, his words were happy to hear. He said they got behind with orders. He knew for a fact our box had gone out this morning, because he remembered the shipment to Ellensburg. Neither he nor we knew the WA DOT was about to close I-90 for avalanche control. The pass was closed for an entire day, and we were still late receiving it from the expected delivery, on the 21st. At the pass there is 7.5 feet of snow and more on up. They trigger avalanches and then the DOT must clean the roads. That doesn’t 100% prevent serious road issues but removes most of the threat.

Thursday, Jan 21

For Jan 20 CPAP. Reported figures, 6 hrs 29 min with AHI=0.46. Events: 3 H, 2 CSR, 19 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=7 L/min); oximeter on entire time with high SpO2 and normal pulse.

When we heard our UPS package would be delayed, John drove me to town and shopped while I was playing music. The Safeway store had 2 L. colas on sale so he went there. It is not his preferred shopping experience. The store has numerous gimmicks regarding pricing and you have to have a “Club Card” and read the fine print of their paper ad so you don’t go on the wrong day. Also, some items are less if you use a smart phone in the store to scan a tag on the shelf. (We don’t own a smart phone so have to ask and say “pretty please.”)

We had an excellent turnout for players today on a nasty day for traveling. We had 11 people come to entertain at Dry Creek (now renamed Brookdale). We used 10 Coca Cola themed chairs and our bass fiddler (Dave) stood. Guitars: Minerva, Maury, Manord, Gerald, Charlie; Banjo: Evelyn; Fiddle: Nancy; Flute: Amy; Tambourine: Anne, and singer: Bob. Our audience was most appreciative and came up afterwards, or stopped us on the way out to say thank you, and remind us they really enjoy hearing the old music they grew up with.

John fed the animals before we left for town, and found a small deer in not so good condition lying beside the barn. It let him approach and cover it with old hay (for warmth), and put some newer hay under its head. Not a good sign.

We went back to town for the Ellensburg Blues lecture at the Audubon Society meeting at the Hal Holmes Center, part of Ellensburg’s City Library.

I videotaped it, from my lap, so the quality is not as if from a tripod, but following Nick around with a tripod, is not an easy task.

Nick’s INTRO Greenboard for Ellensburg Blue Agates (17.5 minutes)

Nick’s Visuals for Ellensburg Blue Agates (20 Minutes) 1-21-16

Nick’s Ending Message (24 seconds)

We had trouble getting back into our driveway with all the soft snow. We have had several snows of just a few inches. It has been regularly driven over and packed hard – until the temp got about 5 degrees above freezing. Now it is about 8 inches deep and in places the tires dig in until they hit gravel. Then a harder section lets you run on top. Repeat. It is time for removal.

Friday, Jan 22

For Jan 21 CPAP. Reported figures, 7 hrs 36 min with AHI=0.40. Events: 3 H, 1 CSR, 21 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=9 L/min); oximeter on entire time with high SpO2 and normal pulse.

John had to deal with the dead deer, which he found had died overnight (as expected). I spent awhile on the phone trying to find the way to get rid of it. There are 2 options for removal. Folks often just drag a deer (or whatever) to a far corner of the property and let nature take care of it. The downsides of that are it attracts coyotes or cougars, and vultures in the summer. For us, we have had dogs find the carcass and bring parts home – or roll in it if it is ripe enough. Not good. The second option is to get it to the road and have the county road crew pick it up. They dispose of it someplace – that, apparently, is a secret because others might use the same place if it is known. Problems happen.
The deer weighed about 50 pounds and looked okay. He looked for wounds or broken bones and found nothing. There was a nasal bot fly larvae in its nose. At first sight he thought a big seed or something had lodged there from the old hay he had used to cover it.

Deer; hoof pick for scale — Behind snow pile, at Naneum Road

After a half hour of talking to people, I finally found the answer. Take the deer to the side of a county road, call 962-7523, and report the location to Public Works. The lady there was very helpful. I took a photo as I left for town, and it was gone by the time I returned 4 hours later.

Now to find out what the larvae was. A friend from NJ, Elise, sent this link,
Hat Tip to Elise

And I found this: Fastest of all flying insects?

and this one, which indicates mule deer are included:
Ours are Mule Deer

This little dear deer must have had too much of a load and suffocated.

I wrote our neighbors’ son who is a Fish & Wildlife employee in northern WA. He sent back some more information, and a pdf file on them in mule deer. I can send via email if anyone is interested.

John stayed home to work with our neighbor removing more snow that slide off our shed roof into the small space between the house and the shed (you saw that in a previous blog, Jan 7). Ken cleared out the driveway just prior to my departure. We had a horrible time getting out and back in last night to go to town. John did a little “finish work” (and more the next day).

I drove a mile south and got into a thick still fog. Not the “pea soup” type found in Sherlock Holmes mysteries – swirling and greenish-yellow – but still disheartening, so I had to slow way down and put on my headlights to be seen. First place I stopped was south of the university to pick up 4 bags of clothes for the March 22 BNE clothing share.

I took a photo there of my cleaned right front tire to compare in the following collage that I did not have to share in last week’s blog.

Dec 31, Tire 2 Days after ditch — Jan 22, after cleaning on Jan 14

Then I drove a couple of blocks to the Ruth Harrington Scholarship Luncheon. I carried along a BNE gift to share, but the gal was called away to an off-campus meeting and didn’t attend. We’ll exchange on her porch next Wednesday when I drive by.

We had a nice group of people and were served Turkey Chili (tomato base), various toppings, a chopped Kale salad (I cannot eat being on Coumadin). It is at the top of the do-not-eat list for Vitamin K content. For dessert, we had brownies and sliced strawberries with Cool Whip.

I left there for a stop by a beauty salon to give away two stainless steel dog food pans to the mother of a gal that lives >7 miles from me in the wrong direction from my trips to town (she lives closer to Kittitas, WA). It was nice that her mom was willing to deliver. Then, I drove right down the same street to the courthouse to pick up shared beef (ground and steaks) from a friend who raises a special variety of cattle, British Whites. I have been personally introduced to her small herd and they are very cordial.

The day turned into a beautiful sunny day after starting as fog and cold. This photo I took of the Naneum Canyon a few miles down the road from home.

On from the Courthouse meeting to my SAIL exercise class at the Senior Center. Surprised to find 19 people made it to class today. I got there early enough to give some cookies and a package of 10 Seahawk color decorated muffins for their freezer to share at next Friday’s party, Sportzpalooza, where we are supposed to wear our favorite team’s colors and paraphernalia. I hope to get John to go along with me in his cool Phillies red/white/blue jacket. He was a Pirates fan but the jacket is nice and came to us recently for free or practically so. Folks at the Senior Center are planning a big shindig. I went last year, as well, and had a blast.

The UPS truck arrived at the end of the driveway at about 4:30. The fellow was carrying the package, not wanting to (likely a regulation) take a chance on the driveway snow. John was on the way to feed the horses and met the package halfway in. Saved the driver a few steps and a minute or two.

Saturday, Jan 23

For Jan 22 CPAP. Reported figures, 5 hrs 21 min with AHI=0.19. Events: 1 H, 0 CSR, 7 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=5 L/min); oximeter on entire time with high SpO2 and normal pulse.

I did some paperwork and moved my EBRG-Blues videos onto YouTube. It was a long process when our Internet connection decided to stop working twice today (and once yesterday). We have a couple of little glitches in the use of our computers. Dropping the internet link is the one I hate. John has 2 monitors and the 2nd one mostly restarts with the wrong aspect ratio (stretched across) and without the “wallpaper” image. It takes 5 mouse-clicks to resurrect the proper look. He’s looked and can’t find the answer.

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan