Author: admin

Saturday, Mar 31  Here the weather is lousy.  It started out snowing, then rain, then snow, and overcast and now is dripping again–just in time for John to do livestock chores.  The neighbor’s to-be-fed animals are in 3 different areas.  In past weeks he used the newer truck to drive to town for gasoline for the older truck – thereby keeping both functional.  Today he just drove the old one in and filled a 20 gallon tank and 5+ gal. in cans.  Total = $92.  Before he left, he brought two boxes and a huge old suitcase – dust covered — out of hiding for me to deal with.  A few boxes don’t have tops and things get thrown in, then dust.  One box was sorta amazing.  It had no top so was quite dirty.  I vacuumed everything.  Contents were mostly clean (not now) socks, several don’t have a mate.  Then I found a plastic (kid’s) carrier (over the shoulder and handle straps) that I must have gotten at a yard sale (I honestly do not remember), and inside are two long rolled up heavy duty extension cords with a double extender for connecting more than one item, and are brand new.  There’s a $3 circle tag, and I don’t know if it was for the whole thing or not; probably.  The box with a top had several really neat books, road maps from all over — Canada, Belgium, Hawaii, and Germany (nice ones with terrain on them).  You don’t see printed state road maps anymore in WA, so the ones I have are classic.  That box also had 3 packages of notes (discarded by a previous Prof.) on the Netherlands, Planning, and the Delta Project (which I took slides of in 1965) and used to talk about in some of my geography courses.  I also found some neat USGS publications, a couple very historical, and some newer Satellite imagery comparisons over time, around the world.  I have people at CWU I will entrust them too.  Oh, the maps I’m giving to the Map Library.  They have cabinets with them from all over the world, and people can check them out.

I have yet to look at the 30 boxes John packed out of my office when I was in the ICU.  They are out in the shed, and there are stacks of boxes piled around inside our house I have to sort through first.  This was a good start today, and I really should do this much every day.  Easier said than done.  I say that every time I do a couple and then I go for days before doing more.  We have some rooms (living and back bedrooms), that are totally full, except for paths to walk around sideways.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_iAD82Dlk9GA/TONY6O4QwxI/AAAAAAAAB4k/hXXLuEX-bgU/s1600/CLUTTER.gif

The other thing I have yet to go through is a large American Tourister hard luggage I used to always check through to AAG and NCGE meetings and then bring home lots of heavy books and materials.  There is a map tube (portable and extendable) inside.  If I really had significant posters or maps not to fold, I would bring them back as an extra checked “bag”.  Nowadays that wouldn’t be worth an extra fee.  I cleaned all the dust off the outside, and John just lifted it onto our bed, for me to cull through.  I did go through it and found a brand new carrier for my Dell laptop that the recently deceased Macbook replaced.  The Mac was 4 and the Dell lasted about that long so the never used carrier is about 8 years and counting.  With the new Toshiba, for an additional $50 we got a combination of accessories with the big-$ item being a carrier.  Oh well..

John went out to see the kitties and handled them all.  Big Sue growled at him, from above on the hay bales.  She came over and looked down but he told her to stay up there.  They don’t all have their eyes open yet.  Big Sue is a feral cat and mother of at least 3 litters, including this set of 5.  I hope we can catch her when she’s through raising these and get her spayed.

http://exquisitekitty.com/CAT-CHART.jpg

John left in the sprinkle of rain to feed, and then it poured, and now the sun is shining so brightly I might need to put on sunglasses to sit in my recliner and keep and eye on the birds coming to the feeder.  And with food in mind, for dinner we are having lima beans, mashed potatoes, and gravy with pieces of pork from yesterday.

Sunday, Apr 1  Well, lots of cleaning and kitchen work today by both of us.  I did the counters and loading the dishwasher (and unloaded it first), and then while I was working on that, John cleaned up the washroom.  That is our initial recycle-garbage collection area and gets crowded with boxes and bags of bottles, cans, and junk,  keeping us from accessing the clothes washer and dryer.  So at least for a few days I can get some washing done.  We also went out to check on the new kitties.  The mom still runs from us, and growls a little while we handle the babies, but now that we are feeding her canned cat food she is much more willing to let us handle them while she watches (and eats) from a’top the baled hay.  Mamma-Sue and the babies will be much better off with her having the canned food.  She also has water and dry food available at all times.  She’s getting canned food twice a day.  Their little eyes are still not all open, but we hope they will be soon.  They are about 3 weeks old.

http://www.kittenbaby.com/age.php

In the late afternoon, we went to work in the cleaned kitchen and John sliced and dipped several large Honeycrisp apples into lemon juice with cinnamon.  I moved the cut and soaked pieces into the dehydrators.  (These were neglected after their last use — not a good idea; got to make myself clean them this time before we pack them away.)  I placed all the pieces nicely on the racks.  We used and filled two dehydrators.

Here’s our story Nancy put out Saturday, April 07, 2012 before posting this.

http://elixant.com/~nancyh/HoneycrispApple.html

Monday, Apr 2  John left early for wine grape pruning.  The weather was nice today.  I spent most of the morning on the phone trying to find a new home for one of our pups from the 2010 litter, Rhu, who we raised till he was 4 months old. (more below)  I also got our application for the WA Old Time Fiddlers Workshop at end of July in Kittitas in the mail for required postmark today.  I’m taking my usual class (Intermediate and Advanced Fiddle) with Roberta Pearce, and John will be taking a week of half-day beginning guitar class.  Sadly, his costs as much as mine ($100) for the shorter period.

Tuesday, Apr 3  John went for his last day of pruning, and I stayed home to work on things.  I never went back to sleep in the morning after he left.  Paid bills, did emails, tried talking to pharmaceutical company about my Lipitor costs.  My health insurance has notified me it will no longer allow the brand name to be used, and I must switch to a generic as of June 1st.  My cost will go up, but I cannot any longer use the plan I was on the past several months, getting Lipitor for $4.00/month co-pay.  It is not possible to keep up with all the healthcare rigamarole.  I’m fairly good at this sort of thing but some things happen that seem not to be explainable.  How do some folks cope?  Like the elderly lady that calls several times each month.  She doesn’t recognize our voices and will say things, such as “Who are you?” – and then hang up.  We try to be alert to her calls and are trying to keep her on the line long enough to identify her.  Then maybe someone could contact her and help her.  She called 3 times in 5 minutes this week.  How would she handle health care hurdles?

Back to the puppy mentioned above:  Folks moved from EBRG to the Reno area for work and now he is gone a lot doing fieldwork and she is ‘expecting’ and 2 dogs and 2 kids (sometimes either a dog or a kid is sick) add up to a full plate.  I tried  to find a home for the Brittany they have from our 2010 litter.  No success yet.  Good news about the pup.  They have decided to keep him.

Got a note from a student on whose thesis committee I’m serving and need to review her latest rendition.  I spent tons of time editing it over a month, a month ago. I didn’t keep track of my time.  Because John and I have each been through this process we know she is under more stress about this than I am, but still, I do have other things to do.  We have some research grant proposals to evaluate from a Canadian institute

http://silverhillinstitute.com/

Click on “Board” and scroll through the list and note the “Homenucks.”  Last being Peter and a friend from our time at the University of Cincinnati.  Click on “Advisors & Reviewers” and you can find our somewhat out-dated bios.  We have been doing this for several years, but the time snuck up on us and the first set just arrived yesterday.  There seems to be a disconnect between our countries’ postal services.  They are due Apr 15, so we will send them back in digital form.

Wednesday, Apr 4  I awoke with a sore throat.  Hmmmm.  Had to get ready to go to town for two events and then come back and do more chores, before going to a talk on the Ice Age Ground Sloth . . .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megalonyx_jeffersonii

. . . found within 30 miles of us on a sediment-covered bench near the Columbia River, in 2003.  It was a nice talk and afterwards we grabbed some food from Jack in the Box.

Thursday, Apr 5   John read proposals in the morning, after feeding chores, and then went to town with me for me to play music.  He went shopping and came back and picked me up and we took some of my found-materials to school to donate to my colleagues.  We stopped by and visited with a fund raiser in the Dean’s office, and wrote our donation check for the student Distinguished Service Award Scholarship (currently in our name).  Coughed a lot once coming home and on through the night and was miserable.

Friday, Apr 6  Awoke not feeling well at all, so I canceled all three events for the day.  I have just been working on the computer, and evaluating my share of the research proposals.  Doing a little tax input in between times, and paying bills.  Well, the rest is helping, as my cold symptoms are decreasing from the morning mess.  Delivered by UPS today between snow flurries:  Asparagus (Jersey Supreme), Anne (Fall Yellow) Raspberries, Cavendish June strawberries, blueberry bushes (Bonus –supposedly the size of a quarter!, Bluecrop, Duke, Nelson, & Patriot) plus a booklet on growing blueberries.  Total cost $105.97.  All the way from Indiana!  Delivery as scheduled for spring planting — and tonight the temp is expected to dip to 20.  Go figure!  Tonight after supper I’m trying to stay awake by working on this blog, but the smell of skunk is making me miserable.  Shay was standing out on the window doggie door veranda, barking, till we both yelled at her, from different windows, to get in the house.  She must have seen a skunk outside the fence, and he must have sprayed.

Saturday, Apr 7  After early chores we loaded a dehydrator with sliced Honeycrisps .   John hopes to get this posted and then plant several baby pine trees.  The baby kittens need some attention too.  All eyes are open and they are starting to exhibit real catness.  They will soon need their nest-home enlarged.  The dilemma is that it is now small and cozy but nighttime temps have been low.  Perhaps a straw-bale play area connected to the nest is the way to go.  Otherwise, nothing special planned for the day.  Easter will have us over at the neighbors for festivities.  Easter is said to be a moveable feast — if you have some spare time and want to investigate this matter you can start here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter

A 2008 posting “Blame it on the Moon” (dates are not appropriate for 2012) on the subject is here:  (scroll down below the banner pictures, to the Moon)

http://www.hawaiicatholicherald.com/Home/tabid/256/newsid884/1227/Default.aspx

Hope your week was a good one.

Nancy and John

still on the Naneum Fan

Sunday, Mar 25.  Quiet day as we just had the usual chores and then off for a birthday (#89) dinner party for our neighbor.  We carried along some of John’s Red Rome applesauce, two different packages – smooth and chunky, then mixed.

Monday, Mar 26  I stayed up (after John left at 7:30)  working on emails, mostly, and then decided to take another hour’s sleep.  Once up I worked a little in the kitchen, with the animals, ate, and got back on my computer, doing more tax entries.  Found some more figures I needed from hospitals and medical insurance providers, and called for them.  Spent more time organizing and searching for receipts.  Found out I can deduct mileage for all the driving to volunteer music to nursing homes and other such events.  I also found I can deduct 14.5 cents/mile for all medical travel.  Boy, that adds up.  I skipped going to exercise class today because (and I have said this before), to drive to town at the 4 bucks and up price of gas, I want to have more to do than one 45 minute event.  Spent a little of the evening before dinner setting up a timeshare in Oct for our friends from Atlanta to use for their honeymoon.

John got home and brought me the mail.  Interestingly, there was a bill from Yakima Memorial Hospital from June 1, 2010.  It was the same bill I was told last Friday would be forgiven.  After more time on the phone, it was forgiven.  Then I had a call in for the local hospital accountant.  She called back late afternoon, and I asked my question.  I couldn’t figure out why I had $550 of payments (I supposedly paid) at the first of the year.  Turns out they were for physical therapy co-pays.  I remember paying $25 for 45 minutes and not being happy, but at $550, that means 22 sessions, and I really don’t recall going that many times. [John says: ‘memory loss’ – need to watch her more closely!]  I need to go back and look at my car log journals and calendars, and perhaps credit card accounting because I do not have checks written for them.  Meanwhile, I put it into my Turbo Tax program because I have in writing that they received the payments from me.  Once the last of the calls were in, I got the new long distance prepaid calling card and we called and talked to John’s sister.  She said we sounded like we both were shivering.  I called a friend in Atlanta and she had the same response.  So, perhaps it is the towers of the card ?  We used to use Verizon, but they are undergoing changes and come Apr. 17^th seem not to want our money, at least on the prepaid long distance cards.  I did call and complain and the company said perhaps it was the weather.  A call later this week showed that indeed it was clear.  John put in a blade-roast beef, with carrots, potatoes, and tomatoes, and we had a late dinner that was scrumptious. [That’s a technical term for edible.]

Tuesday, Mar 27.  Got up early again for John to do the chores, before we called over at 7:20 a.m. to see what the weather was at the vineyard.  We thought last night it would be all right because the incoming storm appeared to have broken up.  Sadly, John left but was in rain all the way and it was raining when he got there so he had to turn around and drive home.  Good way to waste 2 hours plus of time and no mention of the gasoline.  It is 66 miles (depending on the route) over and back.  We can go the Interstate or the old Vantage highway.  I tried to reach his cell phone 1/2 hr after he left when the vineyard owner called to say not to come.  Three tries but John did not answer. [Because he didn’t hear a ring.]  I worked on the computer and on taxes more, and he got home, and then we both left to take me to my afternoon massage and by a friend’s house for a microphone and stand he picked up for me at the CWU surplus sale, and then after my massage, we went to the bank, and I cashed a check so we’d have some cash on hand.  While I was in the massage, John went to the grocery for lemon juice to dry apples.  Today was the first day of classes for Spring Quarter, and I’m so happy I do not have to be preparing for new classes.  I’m really spoiled now that I’m retired.  I certainly would have to cut back on all the volunteer activities and medical visits (those are slowing down considerably).  Now it’s just a device check every 3 months (in Yakima), and annual exams by my cardiologist and by my family physician .. and lung function tests for the one med I’m on for atrial fibrillation.  An occasional (once a year now) echocardiogram, chest X-rays, and EKG.

Wednesday, Mar 28  Spent the morning searching rci.com for hook-ups with my friends in Michigan to use a timeshare.  Left to play music at the Soup Kitchen part of the Food Bank.  Boy, a good offering today again.  Baked chicken, garlic mashed potatoes with milk gravy, corn, tomatoes (fresh and cut up into wedges), with peaches for dessert.  Picked up some cereal, eggs. and bread for my neighbors and some bandages.  Then off to exercise class.  We had 23 there today.  I think that is the most in my two years of attending (I started going there after losing interest in paying physical therapy at the hospital $25 for 45 mins .. mentioned above).  Rushed home by way of the neighbors to drop off their goodies.  Back home to work with timeshare stuff; still no luck.  Then tonight two more people responded and are interested in a time share use in Cuzco, Peru.  I don’t know if that will work or not, but I’ll try a search in the morning.  I have another search going on for the Michigan/Indiana folks, and likely will have another start for Klamath Falls, OR–that one isn’t usable because it is not available for exchange but only by rental for the week ($800).  I think not.

Thursday, Mar 29  This morning I worked mostly on the computer but took time out to clean up the mess in the kitchen from days of neglect.  John got home 1/2 hr early because they got rain late in the morning.  We played at Mt. View Meadows today, where we only play when there is a 5th Thursday in a month (only happens 4 times/ year).  Relatives of two members of our group are there, and so it is special.  They’d like us to come more often, but there are not enough days in the month for all the Ellensburg facilities where we volunteer.   We both had eye appointments.. John at 3:00 and me at 3:30.  On my way there after playing, I dropped by Wendy’s for two coupon specials for our supper tonight.  Came on home and started back on the computer.  Now I have finished all that and need to enter more medical mileage receipts in my Excel spreadsheet.  I brought some more in from my 2004 Subaru, this afternoon.  I had been entering trips in the 2009 Subaru.  Now I’m set for tonight.  It is still raining and John had to go feed horses (ours and the neighbors’) in the rain.    I forgot to say that John found Big Sue in the back of the barn with 5 orange kittens, without their eyes open yet.  This set is the wrong color, but almost this age:

http://desicolours.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/09new-born-animals.jpg

He took her feed and water out there.  He figures we can go in and handle them so they won’t become wild, and hopefully she won’t move them on us as she did with Woody and Little Sioux, last year.  She knows him better now from feeding in the “cat house”, so she crawls up the bales of hay onto the rafters and looks down on him when he is looking at and handling the kittens.  We’d like to capture her somehow and get her spayed.

Friday, Mar 30  John got up early and it was raining but it stopped and he left.  It started again just as he left.  He got to Vantage (30 mins – once on I-90 at Kittitas there is not a legal place to turn around going down the hill) before he decided it wasn’t going to be nice.  He called from his cell phone and I gave him the phone of the vineyard owner, and they decided to cancel for today.  We had talked early in the morning and thought it was going to be all right over there.  I stayed and did more tax input (mileage for medical and volunteer trips).  Also petted Rascal several times in my lap, watched him and little Sioux (yellow cat) out the back door, when they climbed the ladder trying to get to the bird feeder.  Of course, when the birds see them coming, they fly away.  John and I went to town today, and he shopped while I went to exercise class.  He also picked up 5 Ponderosa pines and 5 grand fir trees (little ones) at the Conservation District.  Total price was $17.20.  Most of the trees along our driveway came from there, over the past decade or more.  They have grown to be big and beautiful specimens.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Fir

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponderosa_pine

The Ponderosa fits best in our location when starting with bare-root plants 18 inches or less.  They don’t do well in shade or against competition from grass but, once they become established they can grow 2 feet in a year.  Some like to double-crown as shown in this photo:

http://spot.colorado.edu/~mitton/images/Ponderosa%20Bear%20Lake%20CA.jpg

Grand Firs are found in our area but more to the west and higher in elevation.

When John and I got home, he took me to show me the new litter of kittens in the back of our barn, in the hay.  He reached down and pulled them all out.  A couple don’t have their eyes open yet, and another has only one really open, and a couple have opened eyes–slightly more than slits.  They are all orange but sexes unknown and unknowable.  We couldn’t tell with Rascal and he was much older (even our vet wasn’t sure).  At least one has a little white in special places, on the tummy and chin/neck, but not much.  Sunshine (last year’s now deceased kitty, had the same mom, who is also the mom of Woody and little Sioux.  Sunshine had white feet plus white elsewhere.  Different father?  John’s favorite pastry from our grocery bakery consists of old fashioned donuts with chocolate frosting and nuts on top.  They had their old fashions on sale today for $3.98/dozen.  Our friend in the bakery pulled a whole box of them for John.  She might have doctored them up because normally they don’t make more than 4 chocolate covered ones with nuts.  Normally donuts there cost $5.98/doz.

Then we had a nice long talk with John’s sister Peggy.  My right shoulder/upper arm is hurting — guess I need to take another couple of acetaminophen.  Probably exercised it too much today and it was used a lot the previous two days playing my fiddle.  Oh, I got a “thank you volunteer” award (certificate) today from the Adult Activity Center, and an invite to a Lasagna dinner, but I already had been invited from service to the community (nursing homes, etc.) for our music group, the Kittitas Valley Fiddlers & Friends.  As you have heard, I also play music once a week at the Soup Kitchen of the Food Bank, with only our banjo player and occasionally a lady who sings with us.  What’s cool is we have a fan club and they join in singing while eating their lunch and sometimes stay after they are done eating.  The servers also chime in, so it’s really cool.  We often get applause from a few people in the room (there were 40 there this week), and we even occasionally have requests.  Mostly, they like the fast tunes.

Saturday, Mar 31  We woke to an inch of wet snow, mist, and clouds.  And mud.  With 10 trees to plant we were hoping for a nice weekend.  But hope is a poor plan and this time it didn’t work.  We have NOTHING this weekend, so we will dry some of these huge honey crisp apples (they weigh a pound each).  John has done the morning chores (in the snow).  It has stopped now, but still overcast and drippy; after I wrote that, it started snowing again.  He will have to drive to town for gasoline for the old farm truck (he uses for feeding all the neighbors’ 10 horses and bull.

Hope your week was a good one.

Nancy and John

still on the Naneum Fan

Saturday, Mar 17.  Snowed 4 inches to wake up to, then another inch starting falling at 10:00 am.  We both took care of neighbor’s needs.  Then picked up a lady and took her with us to the music play time and eating at a retirement community we attend every third Saturday of the month.  But, we already told you about that in last week’s blog, because we were running late and didn’t get it out till Sunday morning.

Sunday, Mar 18.  Started off well, but deteriorated as I got a bug (24 hr intestinal one), about 3:15 in the afternoon, while playing in a bluegrass jam session.  I was sick all afternoon and night and really got sick about 7:30 p.m.  I stayed ill all night, and finally was slightly better about 6:35 a.m.,  but I went back to sleep and slept till 9:00 a.m.

Monday, Mar 19  I will start where I left off, on yesterday’s report.  I was getting better, but was weak, so I cancelled out going to town today, and cancelled my appointment tomorrow.  I will just work on taxes instead, which I should have been continuing the past few days, but was busy going to music events.  Just finished a download on updates for Turbo Tax 2010, and am installing 2011 Turbo Tax.  This is on my new laptop and releases me from having to sit at the home computer, and get a sore neck because the table is too high for me, even with a pillow in the chair.  [John says: See    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergonomics ]       Talked to my friend in GA who wants to use one of our expiring timeshares, and I helped her through the web page.  It is space-banked so can be used anywhere in the world where any opening occurs.  We looked in the Key West, Key Largo area, and nothing is available with our purchasing power in prime time and close.  However, there are others in Florida.  Maybe they can get within reaching distance and drive to Key West.  Of course it has been 56 years since I was there, and don’t have a clue how the area has changed.

Tuesday, Mar 20.  Have to get up early and John needs to do the chores, before we call over at 7:30 a.m. to see what the weather is there at the vineyard.  The weather forecast did NOT looking promising Monday night.  It turned out fine, and John made the trip all right.  I stayed and worked on the computer and on taxes.

Wednesday, Mar 21  What a neat day.  Started cloudy, then sunshine, and cooler and now snowing lightly.  I managed to work on my computer and coordinated with the Spokane Office of the bank where we have the mortgage on our house.  We had not received (or else it didn’t make it to the receipt box) the 1098 form we need for taxes for interest we paid.  Then off I went to play music at the Soup Kitchen part of the Food Bank.  Over 40 people (including the servers) ate today.  It was one of the best meals I have had there and they always have a well balanced offering.  Today– it was Cajun chicken (baked leg w/thigh) in a spicy sauce, and quite tender.  Along with it, we had a large dinner roll w/ butter, garlic mashed red potatoes, a mixed greens salad with squash, peppers, and tomatoes (choice of 4 dressings), and a bowl of apricots for dessert.  It was so good I cleaned my plate and will not need dinner tonight.  Seriously.Then off to exercise class, and by the hospital for a blood draw, after.  Got home and managed to hook up a couple (friends) for a Williamsburg, VA timeshare of ours that we don’t have time to use before May 31.  We couldn’t locate anything in Florida, so they switched their locaton choice, and found a really neat plantation, which would costs $149/night, yet it will just be $189 for the week.   Forgot to say, I picked up some bread (day old) they encourage us and everyone there to take from the Food Bank.  I got 3 packages for our neighbors and two for us.  Went over and visited with my neighbor lady while John fed their horses, and packed more hay into his truck for afternoon and morning feedings for the next couple days.  Returned home to work on email and get back onto the tax input.  I’m pretty tired so may hit the hay a little earlier than the past several nights.

Thursday, Mar 22  Most of the morning was spent calling accountants or customer service at hospitals (two in Yakima and one in EBRG, doctor offices (heart-cardiologist, surgeon), lung (infectious disease specialists), eye, family physician, and dentist, CWU payroll, and human resources.  I needed a copy of their records for how much I personally had to pay over and above what Medicare and Group Health covered.  The most interesting finding was at Yakima Memorial Hospital where I was for two times in 2010.  There was one payment of $139.90 that was never billed to me.  It was a remainder of something early in the year that wasn’t covered.  Because I never was notified, I never paid it.  When the accountant found it today, she said she would forgive it because that was too long ago to request a payment now.  Suits me just fine. Finally, I got out just minutes after John returned home from pruning, to drive to town to play music at Hearthstone.  We had a lot of conflicts today, and I essentially was the only fiddler.  We had 4 guitars, a mandolin, banjo, and clarinet.  My arm is quite sore from all the activity of playing.  I left and got home for a couple hours but had to take off for a dinner with two friends at a restaurant in town. It was a free steak dinner to listen to a talk on energy saving attic blankets to go over roof insulation, made from a NASA development for the space station.

Friday, Mar 23   John went pruning, and I slept in.  Skipped my exercise class this afternoon because I didn’t want to make that trip to town for only 50 minutes time, and round-trip it takes another 50 minutes.  Multipurpose trips are needed.  My Subaru wants the expensive fuel but runs fine on mid-grade.  And here’s a question:  Why do stations still call it “unleaded?” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasoline#Tetraethyl_lead

I spent almost all the day working on taxes or being on the phone requesting medical back up paperwork for expenses, including for medical insurance we paid out, some from my CWU payroll check.  I also worked on proofing a former student’s application for grad school and giving some suggestions on her resume and statement of purpose.  John went to bed early, after serving a simple dinner of pizza and apple slices, plus cut up chicken breast.  The other excitement was talking by phone with John’s cousin on her 94th birthday.  And, we had a nice conversation with her daughter in Brookville, PA, where John’s sister is spending the weekend after attending the funeral on Friday.  I think she said 18 people showed up at the graveside in Scotch Hill, PA.  That doubled the population count for the “town” for the day.  Peggy and John’s oldest brother and his wife are dead, but all their kids came along with other non-sorted (how does this differ from ‘assorted’?) relatives and friends, so it was like a family reunion.  There is a small community building at the cemetery and reunions have been held there.  The attraction is walking the rows of graves and reading the tombstones – paying respect to the ancients.  The service crew intended to wait-out the attendees before covering the vault but having been assured no one would be offended and that many would be “reading tombstones” for awhile, they then went about their business.

Saturday, Mar 24  After a slow start to the morning, we drove to Yakima to Costco for not much and to fill my car with gasoline.  It was running on empty, so we detoured through EBRG to get 2.4 gallons worth at $4.07/gal.  With coupons, we also bought a sandwich from Wendy’s to eat on the road.  I had a nice Cod sandwich and John had a cheeseburger, with one left to bring home.  (It was a special, two cheeseburgers for $4., and mine was free with the purchase of a small coke and fries ($3.18) which we could share just fine.  Got down to Costco and only had to pay, $3.71/gal., so we filled it there.  Got some good stuff in the store on several special sales, includng:

http://addictedtocostco.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/jarlsberg_cheese.jpg

Nice clean road trip (sunny weather) down to Yakima, a round trip total of 104 miles; including the EBRG side-trip.  I drove down and John drove back, so I was able to talk to his sister Peggy on the phone, before we descended into the canyons of basalt between Yakima and Ellensburg.  The reception is blacked out in some places along that segment.

Back home, it’s beautiful and sunny, and the birds are singing – waiting for a turn at the feeder.  Our dogs did not get their morning run because there were too many deer sleeping under the big Cottonwood tree.  So, they had to wait for their run till we got back from Yakima.  With that done, John has driven back to town primarily to run the old 1989 truck and to pick up 7 gallons of gasoline to put in the 1980 Chevy ‘farm’ truck.  And, he planned to buy some soft drinks on sale, some tuna fish for me, and ended up with a beef roast (first in many moons) and a dozen apple fritters for my sweet tooth.  Now we have plenty, because we got two containers of fruit/cream cheese pastries at Costco.  We just got invited for a birthday dinner for our neighbor tomorrow.  It’s his 90th.  On the menu is beef roast – we’ll have to freeze the one we just bought.  Otherwise, life is good.

If you have time for a break, watch this 8 minute video of slow motion things.

http://www.ted.com/talks/louie_schwartzberg_the_hidden_beauty_of_pollination.html

Hope your week was a good one.

Nancy and John

still on the Naneum Fan

Saturday, Mar 3.  Late tonight we had a call from John’s sister Peggy that Kathy had been moved to a nursing home, and had a stomach feeding tube inserted.  Hearing stories of the move, and all associated problems, brought back bad memories to John and me of my move in January, 2010.  Thankfully, I survived and I hope so will Kathy.  I wrote her a nice note today and it will get in the mail tomorrow, reminding her to keep her faith and that she will get back on the road, gain use of her muscles, and get out of bed.  It’s hard to believe right now, but I saw several people who had had strokes who managed to get back on their feet (from being paralyzed), and walk on a walker.  One gentleman was 87, so that was a good thought to tell her.  He is still doing all right, and living at home with his wife, who was my roommate for half the time I was there.  She was my inspiration; she kept telling me she was exactly where I was a few weeks ago (unable to walk, get in and out of bed, and potty on her own).  She was right, and I still tell her she was my savior telling me I could get back to normal again.  The sad thing is that she has had to return to relying on a walker because her Parkinson’s flared up after I was with her.

Sunday, Mar 4.  We departed the last blog comment with one that Saturday was overcast and we found it hard to believe this day would be sunny.  Well, it was and a beautiful day.  Mid-afternoon we took a trip in the ’89 Ford truck over 1.5 miles and up a mile to check out some new development that John had seen on his last trip to run the truck.  We need to keep it going because when it sits it is not good for it.  It sits a lot in the winter because it is 2WD and normally used to pull our horse trailer, which we don’t do in the winter.  Last Sunday John went by himself because I was too sick to move.  Today, however, I was able to climb up on the running board and get into the truck.  After seeing that, we went over and back East, once up on the hill, I used my cell phone to call my friend Morris over in Othello.  He is doing better.  I kept talking to him and we got back to our road, but John decided to turn left and go north on Naneum.  We saw two people on horses at Allen Aronica’s place, and so we stopped and drove up to his back porch, where he was cooking chicken on a propane grill.  I handed the phone to him to say hello to Morris.  Morris has known him (he’s a Yakama Indian) for years and visited with his mom, Ida Nason, doing cultural history type interviews, 25 and more years ago.  They live(d) about a mile north of our house.  He is also the one who helped us bury two departed horses.

While cleaning up today I came across the little yellow tablet of notes I took while interred in the nursing home.  Some things I had forgotten, but my detailed notes (not always legible) brought back good and mostly bad memories and gave me a laugh or two.  All my comments about the food was hilarious.  I remembered it was awful, but I have exactly the details in my log.  Cannot believe how many sausage patties, tough and gristle filled, and how many times I returned them and refused to eat.  I requested they not bring them, but I don’t think they did until the last week I was there.  I’m surely glad I survived the ordeal.  The good part was the physical therapy that got me back on my feet.  Both my favorites have left there and gone on to better (I hope) jobs.  The head guy PT had worked there for 14 years.  Tells you something about the administration, perhaps.  Now they just hired a new director, Mar 1.  Might have been the cause of my nightmares–finding and reading those notes.

Monday, Mar 5.  This morning John’s up early to do the animal chores and then leaving at 7:30 a.m. to prune grape vines at White Heron winery at Trinidad, on the Columbia River.  They only put in 3 hours/day so as to allow everyone to do the other things they need to.  And then there is that repetitive hand motion of pruning – 3 hours is plenty.  He returned about 2:00 p.m.  Here’s how it is done now: (except John uses gloves)

http://www.featurepics.com/FI/Thumb300/20070105/Grapevine-Pruning-182128.jpg

And here is the future:

http://www.technovelgy.com/graphics/content09/pruning-robot.jpg

I did not go to town today.  Only had one event (exercise) and decided not to go.  Spent much of my day working on plans for going to my mom’s family’s family reunion in Guyton, GA the end of June.  What is totally cool is that my cousin Susan and her husband John will donate their air miles to me for the trip from Yakima to Savannah.  That will save much time and beau coups of money, would have been almost $900 to pay for it myself.  The cheapest way for me to go was via Atlanta, (still almost $500), but then I would have to find someone there to pick me up and deliver me back to the Airport, and worse, I would have to rent a car and drive the distance to Guyton, GA (30 miles north of Savannah) down and back.  My stamina is really not up to that much, I don’t believe.  Part of the problem with flights is the rural locations near smaller sized cities on both ends that require either hours of driving or extra links from tiny airports.

Tuesday, Mar 6.  What a full day; my first out of the house to town, in over two weeks (except for one day a week ago).  I really enjoyed it, but was totally worn out.  I’m writing this at 8:30 p.m. and ready to hit the hay.  The day began, wishing John well as he left at 7:30 for pruning.  Then morning chores were on the computer and in the den and kitchen.  Finally got cleaned up and off to town without much to eat, at 1:44.  Saw and stopped and talked to John at the end of the driveway as he was returning.  Went on to the hospital for a blood draw and from there on to the Sr. Center for foot care.  Not bad for a 1/2 hour of attention for $10.

From there, on to Hospice to do all the paperwork and sign out a 4-wheel walker with a study seat for my 86 yr old neighbor, who broke her hip in 5 places over a month ago.  She is doing really well on her physical therapy.  I picked out a light but sturdy one, put it in my trunk, and went on to her room in the nursing home.  She was so happy to see it and me, and she got up and used it to walk down a short hall, on the north side of the building and then the entire length on the west side of the building.  That was a long haul and I was tiring, but she never stopped for a rest.  We spoke to the physical therapist and he measured it and it is perfect for her height (5’3″).  I had looked through 8 different ones, and decided it was the best fit.  Turns out I was right.  I’m so happy.  Then when she sat down (in PT), she realized how far down it was, and so to get back up was difficult, but she managed.  I went back down the long and short hall with her, and then walked out to my car to retrieve my favorite pillow I used with my walker way back in 2010.  I took it back in, and she was thrilled.  I know this will be perfect for her.  Just having the extra height above the seat will allow her to get up easier.  It did for me, so I remembered well and was happy to assist.  I received more yesterday and today on the Master’s thesis I’m reviewing.  I found some time to put on the new section on statistics (she did in response to my comments).  She visited with another prof who is much more up-to-date than I am, and he was most helpful.

Wednesday, Mar 7.   Up very early, both of us.  John had taken care of the neighbors animals before 7:00 a.m. and came home to do ours.  I was sitting by the back patio door and looked out to see a ring neck rooster pheasant walking along the backyard fence.  He was a dark colored (but with the red head).  That is the first time I have seen him, but John has seen him in the ditches out by the road.  We have lots of quail, but seldom see a pheasant.

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3537/3428347702_4094815106_z.jpg

For me, today starts at 11:30 on my way to the Soup Kitchen for playing music (and they feed us a nice lunch at the end).  Today was something called Goulash, but not my idea of that.  It was a nice mixture of meat, noodles, tomatoes, and beans.  With it we had garlic bread, and a nice green salad.  There was dessert, but I didn’t have any.   One was a blueberry yogurt type thing, but I decided to skip it with my milk protein “allergy.”   My voice has returned since I started leaving off chocolate milk, milk, cheese, and ice cream.  Interesting that my complaint to two medical doctors (family physician and my cardiologist) had no solution.  It took my acupuncturist / massage therapist to realize it.  I’m very grateful, and so is my music group.  Don’t know that my dogs appreciate my voice projection being back, however.  After that I went to my exercise class at the AAC, and it had been 2 weeks plus a day,  since I had participated.  They greeted me with hugs and happiness to have me back.  Very cool.  From there I went to the grocery store, and because I was pretty weak from doing so much so soon (I was careful and didn’t push it for exercise); but I still decided to get one of the little power carts at the grocery store.  Picked up a few things, particularly milk we needed to make the cherry/ blueberry/ walnut cobbler for dessert to take tomorrow to the music group potluck.  Then off to my massage therapist.  I had a nice one today, plus he gave me on his time at the end of my hour session another 15 minutes of “healing touch” which he had a class in this past weekend.  I was impressed and appreciated him working on me with it.  It’s rather fascinating and the hands never touch the body.  Apparently, it is slowly being accepted in some hospitals as an alternative to calm down and relax patients who are anxious for whatever reason.  It’s been 3 weeks since I was in there.  John and I made the cobbler and it is beautiful.

Thursday, Mar 8.   I continued working on computer correspondence and preparing my music for the order that we will play today, tonight, and Saturday night.  Had to take a couple of calls about issues for others and for me.  Finally I got ready and went the 2 miles around the block to my neighbor, who cut my hair.  It was getting really long and straggly.  Came back home and got a bite of tuna fish salad on multi-grain crackers.  Took off again for town to play music at the Rehab where I spent so much time in Jan/Feb 2010.  We had a smaller number of people than usual, but we were fine and practiced our music for playing in Yakima Saturday night.  There was one person there who won’t be there Saturday, but will be at our potluck tonight, along with two others who will be at the Yakima shindig.  To share with folks who have a slow connection and don’t like large emails, I took along CDs of some pictures John took at the Spirit of the West.  Another needed a printed map with directions on how to get to the place Saturday night in Yakima.  John made the map using internet sources with Google Earth “street view” captured images.  No one should get lost.  My Subaru made funny sounds on the way in to town tonight but nothing seemed wrong and it managed to get me home.  Tonight at the potluck was the following food:  Chicken Ratatouille, apples & cranberries, scalloped potatoes, apple muffins, green salad with blueberries!, chips and homemade salsa/bean dip, we took a jar of pears (canned by our neighbor), and the cherry, walnut (both ours) blueberry (from our valley) cobbler.  We bought some banana split ice cream to put on top, and we warmed the cobbler in their oven.  It was the only dessert and very well liked.  People couldn’t stop talking about it and eating it.  John left without dessert to get to our Kittitas Valley Trail Riders meeting.  There was a piece of cobbler left to bring home to him.  I stayed  and we had a jam session after a nice table discussion after dinner.

Friday, Mar  9.  I was awake enough to know John was leaving at 7:30 but I went back to sleep for a couple of hours ! I guess I wore myself out the past three days.  So, didn’t go in for my class today.  Frankly, I didn’t wish to drive the car when John was so far away, yet I will have to on Monday.  Still don’t know why it was acting up last night.  I transposed “This Land Is Your Land” for our clarinet player, and sorted and filed and 3-hole punched all the EOB (Explanation of Benefits) for all medical payments in 2010.  Now I have to sort the checks I paid for each one.  There are some discrepancies I need to check up on.  John’s home, had a nap, and we need to put together another cobbler for our neighbor’s birthday and welcome back from the nursing home party.  I will deliver it tomorrow morning when I go over to change dressings on her son’s foot.

Saturday will be a busy and late day, so tomorrow’s events will lead next week’s report. Hope your week was a good one.

Nancy and John

still on the Naneum Fan

Sunday, Feb 26.   Neither John nor I slept well so rolling out in the morning was delayed until the sun was shining.  But then we had a strange-weather day.  Started out nice and sunny and then everything went gray.  A snow squall turned everything white and now, mid-afternoon, it is brightly sunning again and dripping.  We managed to keep the morning going with a late breakfast and to return to computer things.  He also took a trip with the ’89 truck to give it a run to keep all things lubed, tuned, and moving.  A trip around the long block and up a dead-end side road revealed a lot of new buildings, houses, and a bird hunting facility.  The last one is a relocation of a place we sold a Brittany to many years ago.  The son of the original owner now lives in the Clarkston area with his wife and they got one of Annie’s puppies of 2 years ago.

Monday, Feb 27  Still unable to continue with activities in town.  Also canceled tomorrow’s.  However, I’ve gone through all my remedies and currently am sipping hot tea, with three slices of lemon, and some honey added.  Perhaps chicken soup is next; nope not till dinner with meatloaf.  Instead, for lunch I had tuna with low salt potato chips and a piece of Valentine Day chocolate candy infused with crisped rice.  I did walk to the end of the driveway, pick up the mail, and walk back.  That’s the most I have done in over a week.  I hope I’m getting better; I think a little.

Also my friend from grammar school days at Garden Hills, Ross Palmes, wrote an email today from back east and sent me a link I had seen before but not in awhile.  It is called the Time Machine and has pictures taken at different times around Atlanta, of buildings, street intersections, and such things.  It is quite fascinating.  Here’s the link: http://www.atlantatimemachine.com/

At least my high school and grammar school buddies will enjoy following that.  There are many pictures of our neighborhood (near Buckhead), and the old Buckhead Movie theatre where we spent many matinees and also went with our parents in the evening or weekends.  I remember the fantastic news reels, just as if it were yesterday.  For young folks reading this, that’s the way news was distributed.  http://movietonews.com/the_fox_movietone_newsreel.html

John thinks he remembers evening movies costing 65¢ and the Saturday afternoon showing was 25¢.  You got news and a movie.  The site suggested above is supposed to have a sample titled “Featured Newsreel of the Week” that on this Saturday lists ‘Blackstone Saws a Woman in Half’ – This isn’t opening (on Google Chrome), so, sadly, we don’t know if she got split head-to-feet or across.

I managed to put in L’il Liza Jane for our music group and transposed it for Ellen’s B-flat clarinet.  That song was written in the 1910s, but it has been picked up by bluegrass, folk, and rock n’ roll stars since.

Tuesday, Feb 28.   I’m worn out from my trip today; not much of a trip, but I’m out of shape already, and still a little weak from the sickness.  We went to town for a blood draw and on to grab some food which we ate in the car on the way to Yakima to Costco.  It was an all-right trip.  We needed big sized items:  dog food, cat food, toilet paper (that comes in 36 roll packages).  One of Costco’s strategies is to find some strange and useful (or delicious) item that isn’t normally stocked, so, one has to walk around and look to see if such a thing is there.  We didn’t find anything this time, and usually only take the same route and buy the same things.  Boring.  Well, Nancy gets a little electric cart to putt around in, and this time got the one that stalls.  John thinks a wire or connection overheats and then it stops.  Turned off for a few seconds and then given a push start, it goes another 2 or 3 aisles.  After a few of those, we made it to the end of the check-out line where it died.  A couple of staff-types tried to explain how to turn it off and then restart it a few seconds later.  She let them try, telling them she’d done it 4 times around the store.  They then pushed it back to the front door.

Wednesday, Feb 29  Leap day didn’t leap, it sort of slumped.  Nothing done today except computer stuff.  I cancelled out my events for today again.  And, I paid some bills and actually got out and walked to the mailbox again.  John has come down with my cold, but thankfully it has stayed out of his chest.  I expect him to recover faster than I have.  Still, the day got worse.  Peggy, John’s sister, reported that her friend for 50 years, Kathy, had a stroke Monday afternoon.  She is paralyzed on her left side, but her mind, brain, and communication are intact.

Thursday, Mar 1   Nothing accomplished today.  Woke up feeling lousy still.  Canceled going to play music.  Eight people showed up and pulled it off fine, without me.

Friday, Mar 2  Today was another morning I awoke early with a coughing and congestion problem, but as the morning went on, I got better.  I still stayed away from town and the AAC potluck (where they had corned beef cabbage–I cannot eat because of the salt, but my friends took chicken salad, which I could have had).  Origin of the term “corned”:

http://www.kitchenproject.com/history/CornedBeef.htm

Not going in for that meant I also did not go for afternoon exercise.  Had a call from a sweet lady in the class who has been out with pancreas problems for several months.  She is better enough now to start back in the exercise class.  She is actually my neighbor a mile around the block.  I should be fine by Monday and ready to restart living my life.  Nothing planned this weekend.  After a light lunch, I tackled the table in the middle of the room and counter next to me, with a vacuum cleaner to clean off dust that ends up on everything because of the dogs running in and out of the house with muddy feet.  I worked for a couple hours plus, and would sit down every so often to file receipts for the first 3 months of 2012.  Also came across some other things to sort and find a place for or discard.  We have a tendency to come in with stuff, and pile it up, leaving it for another day.

The other thing I had to honcho was the schedule for our music group.  We were going to have a potluck at one member’s place on Friday, 3/9/12, but she realized she had a conflict, so wants to change it to Thurs.  Now I am trying to gather comments by email (so I won’t have to get on the phone to everyone), to see if we want to have it Thursday night, or if we will just cancel this one.  In the afternoon I walked with John and the dogs up to the mailbox and picked up the mail.  Then I called our neighbor’s cell phone because she has been gone all week and her mail was piling up.  I found her in New York City for a conference that goes through Sunday.  Wow.  She told me she forgot to stop her mail.  John claims that by going to NYC she has raised the average IQ of both places.  Ouch!  (Nancy here; that’s not nice!).

Later this afternoon I went along in the truck while John did all the chores for the neighbors’ horses and bulls.  This involved a trip up the road 1/4 mile to feed two horses out in a pasture.  John had to climb over a gate (precariously perched on two weak and falling fence posts) – backing the truck so its bumper touches the gate rails makes a sturdy combo) and carry hay out to the horses.  These are friendlier than the others, but one had a big cocklebur between her eyes.  I thought John was just petting her, until he got back to the truck and told me.  Then we drove down the road to the bigger farm across the street.  There are 2 stallions in a corral and a bull in a corral to feed.  John had already carried water to the bull this morning.  John fed them their nightly rations.   He got out to open another gate to drive to the pasture with the 6 horses.  Before that he had to close the gate behind us so the cows wouldn’t leave.  John got out to open another gate to drive into the pasture.  Until today the horses got out of the way and did not bolt through the gate, but today two escaped through the open gate.  He drove on up and threw out a few flakes of hay, and then had to go back on foot to shoo the two horses back in the pasture.  Luckily they came, wanting fed.  John  drove on up to the end of the pasture and spread hay (from the back of the truck) to the six horses, spaced out so they wouldn’t fight over it and have some of the lower ones on the pecking order, go hungry.  While he was driving the truck around and stopping (plus when he went back for the two), a couple of horses were coming over and eating out of the back of the pickup.  Finally he got them all taken care of, and we drove back through the gate, which he had to get out and close, and then across the creek and around the back of their hay barn, where he could load more hay in our pickup.  Because of the rain and snow, he backs it into our 3-sided shed, where I normally park my Subaru.  That way it stays nice and dry for the morning and evening hay runs.  So he had to dodge cows, and open the gate to the barn, back in, and load some bales of hay for the horses, and one (fine grass, no oats) for the bull.  After that, he had to close that heavy gate and open another so we could pull back onto the road for home.  That whole process took almost an hour.  Then home to feed our horses and the outside cats.

Supper was to be cold chicken and canned “pork & beans” – and this means: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration stated in 1996 that “It has for years been recognized by consumers generally that the designation ‘beans with pork,’ or ‘pork and beans’ is the common or usual name for an article of commerce that contains very little pork.” To spruce up the meal we added corn bread made with creamed corn (no milk).  And about that “Sprucin’ Up,” see here:

http://www.word-detective.com/2008/03/24/spruce-up/

. . . and note therein the reference to “shorts” (under the name “Our Gang”) and released to movie theaters between 1922 and 1944.

I finished Friday with a good phone conversation with our broken-hip neighbor still in the nursing home (for a few more days).  It began raining a little during the night and at daybreak Saturday it is wet and gray.  We are to get gusts up to 30 mph so all the wet and blah stuff is to give way to a sunny Sunday.  Right!

Hope your week was a good one.

Nancy and John

on the Naneum Fan

Saturday,  Feb 18.  This morning started out snowing heavily, at 7:30 a.m., but has decreased.  John walked over to do the chores for the neighbors, and came back and completed those around our place.  The emails and phones started early.   Because of the weather, our Bluegrass Jam session tomorrow in the upper valley has been cancelled.  Two older members of our Fiddlers and Friends group have cancelled out our performance this afternoon at the Spirit of the West.  I’ll end up being the only singer, so we may have more audience participation or more instrumentals than usual.  John is going along to drop me off and find a parking space, and also will take along his camera.  We went and got there early but found out soon that we didn’t have 15 minutes (that we planned for, but instead, only seven.   We did three short ones (Home on the Range, You Are My Sunshine, and Snow Deer).  Then in the other smaller subset of the group, we did only two songs, including a medley of 3 (Rakes of Mallow, Cotton-eyed Joe, & Skip To My Lou) plus Faded Love.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rakes_of_Mallow

Even though we felt it wasn’t our best performance, many people I knew there and some I didn’t said we sounded fine and as if we enjoyed what we were doing.  Normally, we do.  We were just a bit on edge because of differences in our normal program, and also because of the setup on stage with unbalanced microphones.  We are not used to performing that way, at all.  We had 3 fiddlers standing out front and a row behind, sitting, (except for the bass player), two guitars, clarinet and another fiddler.  The bad part was unbalanced microphones.

Happily, John went and got a turkey wrap sandwich that we shared for lunch.  I ate it between the times we were on the stage.  They had lots of food at the grounds, but that was best, and most healthy, no doubt.  John took some pictures of our group performing, but it was difficult to capture all of us.  The front row blocked the 5 on the back row, and in addition the microphones got in the way.

Sunday, Feb 19.  Whoopie.. no trips away from home today.   There are plenty of things to keep us busy, without leaving the house.  I managed to do a lot of computer stuff and John did all the chores.  I cut his hair.  It was much needed. My cold started getting worse.

Monday, Feb 20.  Presidents’ Holiday, so no mail today and no SAIL class.  The  AAC is closed.  Started off with snow and my cold is worse.  Cancelled out things for tomorrow to get well.  John’s done all the chores, and I have been working on the computer and on upcoming event planning.  Always something.  I put some more music into SongWriter, and transposed it for our clarinet player.

Tuesday, Feb 21.  Sadly, I’m still ill.  I was in really bad shape all Sunday and Monday, most recently with coughing till my insides ache.  Last night I had a coughing session after going to bed that alarmed John.  I know he was ready to take me to the hospital and thought he’d have too.  I too was concerned, but finally it stopped.  I’m still sucking on cough suppressants and coughing up phlegm.  Talked to my doctor yesterday and he said I could not take any OTC cold remedies because of the meds I’m on.  I sorta figured that & had not.   I cancelled all events for today and for tomorrow too.  I’m surely glad I am not teaching.  There’s no way I could be in class in this condition.  Yes, we both had our flu shots.

Wednesday, Feb 22  Rained ALL night and then this morning it snowed, then the sun came out and then it snowed again, and now the sun is out and it rained some more.  Variable weather for sure.  Because I’m still sick, I did not do the 11:30 Mardi Gras party at AAC, chili / cornbread feed free or exercise class at 1:30.  John went to town today to get me some saline solution (a kit with a little applicator pot & 50 packets), Vick’s Vaporub, and Benadryl for my symptoms.  Last night I couldn’t breathe so I used an inhaler.  It helped a little.

Thanks to Tuesday Bosch (pharmacist and member of our music group) for making the suggestion of the saline spray and vaporub.  My family physician & nurse also recommended  that to me (the saline solution ), but only gave me the recipe and I didn’t try it because I didn’t know how and didn’t have a dispenser to put up my nostrils.  Just for the record, John found a deal:  He bought the Arm & Hammer Simply Saline plus Neti Pot Kit for $13.78, with a little green FREE announcement taped to the outside of the box.  So we get a complete refund if we go through all the hoops – we have to send in the original receipt and the BAR CODE from the package, and 3 petals each from 3 different colored roses. Just kidding about the roses.  Any flower will do. Okay, that’s not true either.  It has been a blessing to have that treatment added to deal with the bacteria in my system.

Thursday, Feb 23  There was 2:00 p.m. music at Hearthstone but I canceled.  7 people showed up to carry it off well.  I must get rid of this rattle when I exhale.  It’s driving me nuts.  Awoke this morning with gobs of green phlegm.  Emailed my Dr., and his nurse called to say he couldn’t put me on the Z-pack Antibiotic from Oct 2010, because it conflicts with Coumadin and especially Amiodarone. [long link – hope it works]:

http://www.webmd.com/drugs/drug-20602-Zithromax+Z-Pak+Oral.aspx?drugid=20602&drugname=Zithromax+Z-Pak+Oral&dmid=1365&dmtitle=QT%20PROLONGING%20AGENTS/AMIODARONE&intrtype=DRUG&pagenumber=9

I was not on that drug when it was last prescribed for the same condition.  He sent in a prescription instead for Amoxicillin.  Three/day for 10 days.  Nice and that saved John a trip to town today, because we have some of it on hand (from my having to use it before dental work).  John exercised the dogs and fed all sets of horses today 3 places across the road and ours here.  I have been working this afternoon on editing (second time through) a Master’s Thesis for our Resource Management graduate program.  The topic is identifying and prediction of gully erosion on the Yakima Training Center south of Ellensburg, and the major method used is LiDAR and GIS.  LiDAR is a very precise measurement of elevation from a technology that’s been around for awhile, but with new remote sensing technology and laser devices, it has gotten a little more affordable.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakima_Training_Center

[enter these coordinates in Google Earth: 46.6672, -120.4606 , then back out far enough to see Ellensburg. Average precipitation is about 7 inches. The green areas are irrigated.  Roads and associated military maneuver disturbances concentrate the flow on this dry landscape.]

Friday, Feb  24. canceled 11:00 appt, a scholarship luncheon and exercise today.  I’m still exhaling and getting a gurgle which is annoying, but happily I’m still getting rid of phlegm.  Worked on kitchen cleanup but need to finish it.  John’s been outside most of the afternoon working on yard or animal chores.  I also spent a lot of time on the phone with my medical insurance provider trying to figure out why my bills are so different from last year’s.  They have an accounting process all their own and clerks working for them who cannot explain properly what is happening.  It is so frustrating.

Saturday, Feb 25.  Nothing for the day.  Been sitting at the computer much of the day. Occasionally checking the road cameras for the snow storm in the Cascades.  We are dry but windy with cold following.  There were 4 deaths from avalanches this week and might have been double that except for a few feet and/or seconds difference for those that escaped.  Also, I’m helping a friend who plans to come from the west side (Olympic peninsula) to visit 4 year universities.  She’s teaching in a 2 year community college.  Now I must get back to the thesis editing.  John left over an hour ago to move some large green corral panels to extend the size of the pens two stallions are in and a bull.  A fast melt, wet snow, and a little rain and the mud expanded exponentially.  He managed to get the two stallions in a larger pen, and the bull too, by inserting new panels.  That’s nice.  Now all three animals have a space to move up out of the muck.  That is the best news of the day.  John had planned to make a meatloaf tonight but that operation on rebuilding the pens took too much time, so we just had some frozen leftovers of noodles and spaghetti sauce.

Hope your week was a good one.

Nancy and John

still on the Naneum Fan

Sunday evening, Feb 12.   John did the normal chores today for us and for our neighbors, and then after we posted the blog, we took off for Yakima for Costco to get gasoline, cat & dog food, and a couple of other small items.  We drove the older Subaru because the newly repaired one has an overpowering paint-smell slightly reminiscent of Pepé le Pew.

http://idigitalcitizen.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/pepe-le-pew.jpg?w=500

I’m not one that likes perfume or any pungent order.  When I was a kid I was actually allergic to paint fumes.  Maybe it is a hangover from my childhood.  Interestingly enough I cannot stand for a massage therapist or acupuncture therapist to rub any smelly ointment on me.  They have acknowledged my objection and used odorless ointments or body creams.  Once back home this afternoon, I began trying to sort through some of the many emails.  Two are to people associated with the group we heard last night.  I didn’t find this link until today, but it will give you an introduction to the group.  I do hope to be able to hear them in the future.  This link will take you to the announcement of the event we went to last night.

http://www.columbiabasinherald.com/crescent_bar_chronicle/news/article_177aceb0-541c-11e1-83b3-001871e3ce6c.html

Check this out: for some audio from their CD (which we bought) playing with Marc O’Connor.  Beneath their picture (third on the page), link to 5 minutes of the CD.

http://handshakeproductions.net/Bluegrass.php

I don’t think I mentioned what they had at the intermission of the music last night.

It was put on by the George Georgettes, young and old women of the community who beautify the town with flowers, or put on events such as feeding us last night.  They had a coffee can for donations, but did not charge anything.  There were baked cinnamon rolls, but we did not have any.  They had a platter with vegetables and a nice dip, but there were no forks, so it was hard to eat.  They had a cereal-chex-nut-pretzel thing, but the pieces were not large enough to grab the dip.  Needed tortilla chips or something.  They had several types of cookies, peanut butter, butter cookies with white frosting and little candy TINY hearts, also banana bread, and a few other things .. oh, grapes which I did have several of (green and purple, seedless).  We really did not eat a lot of the stuff but it all looked nice.  T’was coffee which neither of us drank.  I had water instead.

The Community Hall has a basement with long tables and a kitchen and lots of chairs.  Nicest thing is they had a elevator, so I didn’t have to climb the steps to get back to the concert. They needed a faster serving line pattern as we got clogged-up on the stairs and the full length of the building.  If you do something like this have a couple of tables and send folks down both sides – 4 rows, rather than 1.  This was a minor irritation to an otherwise evening of great entertainment.

Back to today, Sunday’s doings.  By the time we got the blog posted it was lunch time.  We decided to eat at Costco’s.  Probably a little saltier food than I need, but it was good.  We shared a  Polish Sausage (with Pepsi) and a Chicken Bake cut in half by them.  Plastic knives do NOT work on those baked sandwiches, as we found out in the past.  The drive down and back home was fine, and the traffic was light.  Being a Sunday, though, there were a lot of people in the Costco store.  At check-out, lines were mostly 2 or 3 carts.  We have said before we wouldn’t plan to go on a Sunday, but it is just before the mid-month pay-day.  We won’t go on a weekend following a pay period though.  Lines then average about 6 or 7.

I got chilled this afternoon, and was complaining of cold feet and hands.  John just fixed me up in my recliner with a plastic 2 liter bottle of hot water between my lower legs and under a heavy jacket and small blanket.  I hope that works.  I’m sure it will.

It’s better already, but my feet need to catch up with my calves.

Monday, Feb 13.  Our day was uneventful, and I worked most of the day on my new computer.  John did the chores for us and our two neighbors’ animals.  Both my shoulders were hurting all day.  One accomplishment was setting up my new computer with my back-up external drive and locating important information to transfer.  There’s plenty more to be moved, but I only got two of the most needed and important files.  Late afternoon John decided to try to start the ’89 Ford PU but it still wouldn’t start, so after trying to assist from inside the cab while he hammered on the starter, we called AAA (where we have Plus road coverage).  They will pick up in the morning and take to our repair shop.

Tuesday, Feb 14.  HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY.

http://www.history.com/topics/valentines-day

At 9:06 in drove the large truck to pull up our truck on the bed.  It’s on its way to be fixed.  The snow is falling and John’s out taking care of the animals, all 3 places.  Well, the truck made it to its destination and received a battery cable end transplant.

http://ww2.justanswer.com/uploads/hybridownertech/2011-02-19_014631_batt_cable_13.jpg

John told them to check the one to the negative terminal – it had a crack. That was the problem – a $4.25 part – and labor enough to pay for a daughter’s dancing shoes.  As to the composition of this soft gray metal, it is a mystery.  Mysteriously, also, is why my teeth are as cranky as the truck.  I was having a piece of cake with John at 3:00 p.m. and pulled off another gold crown, from long ago.  I was lucky to be worked in at 4:30 this afternoon.  They realized it was a clean break from the top of a tooth that already had had a root canal.  They simply cleaned it and re-cemented it back in place.  It will be fine with no chewing for 24 hours.   $103 later I’m doing fine.

Wednesday, Feb 15.  A busy day.  Trip to Food Bank to entertain the folks there, who really appreciate us.  It was a salty lunch, but I still had a little (ham, potato salad, beans, pineapple).  Off to exercise, but I was not in the best state of stamina & energy.  Home to many emails and concern for planning for music for our “group.”  That’s taking too much of my time.  None of the neighbors’ health situations have changed that we are aware of.  Hope to eat dessert and go to bed earlier than last night.  I was tired all day, having not had enough of a good night’s sleep.

Thursday, Feb 16.  I went to bed not feeling well just after 10:30 last night, slept pretty good till 4:00 and then another 4.5 hours.  I only woke up one time during the night about 2:00.  Guess I needed the rest.  Today is a blood draw for the INR and music at Dry Creek (retirement), and then an acupuncture afterward at 4:00 p.m.   So, I’m gonna be gone for several hours after I get out of here.

John just fixed me the nicest book to put my music in.  It has a big picture of 3 violins, front, side, and back, and music notes on a staff curling, and my N A N C Y in large purple letters on the spine.  It was an old 3- ring binder with things on it I didn’t want to advertise, so this was a nice gift for me.  Not only did he find it out in the garage, he cleaned it, and then labeled it.  What a guy!

John’s going to make me a fried potato pancake from our mashed potatoes last night with chicken, so we can eat a little lunch before I leave for this afternoon. He did and I left for a intensive afternoon.  First stopped for my INR test at the hospital. They must not have gotten the lab results (and I didn’t call to have them on the lookout), so won’t find out the number and if I need to change my dosage till tomorrow.  On to Dry Creek, where we played music for a little over an hour.  We used the first 15 minutes to play and time the songs the group is doing on Saturday at the Spirit of The West.

http://ellensburgcowboygathering.com/

Then 3 of us stayed after and decided we would go ahead and have a subset of the group and do 4 other songs 15 minutes later, on Saturday.    Those tunes are more fiddle tunes, but we will have guitar and bass backup.

Friday, Feb 17.  Heard from my doctor’s nurse my INR was low still, so the Dr. upped the dosage back to what it was for the months preceding the steroids taken for the tooth fixing, which apparently messed it up.  Visited with my neighbor back from Harborview Hospital this morning.  Then off to town for SAIL exercise class.  Afterwards drove by the Fairgrounds to see what the parking availability was for tomorrow’s performances and access close to the building for those who cannot walk great distances.  Now it is snowing big time.  Was just spitting a little snow earlier.  I decided I did not want to go back in for the night gospel performance.  I’m too tired and needed to look for my jeans, western vest, western shirt, and cowboy hat.  I won’t be particularly coordinated, but I’ll be western as I can get.  I have a squirrel tail on my black cowboy hat.  Ha ha.  That might be unique.

I’ll work on things here and get to bed early for tomorrow’s exciting performances.  We’ll post this late tonight.  Both Saturday and Sunday we are on the go.

Hope your week was a good one and that next week will be better.

Nancy and John

on the Naneum Fan

Sunday, Feb 5.   This was a quiet day as I remember because I was still recovering from a busy week, and having some fluid in my lower legs.  Finally, I gave myself a Bumex (diuretic) late this night.  It worked and I was doing better Monday morning. Monday, Feb 6.  Went to town today to pick up my old computer that died and the external drive with all the data files rescued from the hard drive.  They charged me $35 for the work, which I could not have accomplished myself.  This computer was a dual processor MacBook, and they had to go through the Mac side to get to the Windows side.  I had never used the Mac side at all.  I had intended to learn it for the graphics capability and the nicety of no viruses entering from the web through email or surfing, but sadly I never had time while teaching full time.  All the courses I taught in the past 20 years used only Windows.  Once I did teach a GIS course with Mac software, but that was LONG ago.

On to exercise class where I led the last 20 minutes because our teacher had to be at a doctor’s appointment; boy, do I understand that!  Then on to visit the hospital for a blood draw for checking my INR.  It was down lower than it should be (1.6) so my Coumadin dosage was adjusted.

Tuesday, Feb 7.  John went with me to town and shopped while I went for a massage.  He was able to get my meds and buy a lot of grocery stuff on sale.  Turns out we were both in town and could have easily picked up John’s Subaru, but the message was left on the home phone while we were in town.  We’ll get it tomorrow.  Tonight I had to go back in for music at Hearthstone.

Wednesday, Feb 8.  Food bank music and exercise and dropped off my new Toshiba at CWU for some software to be added that I need to be able to help students with their masters theses.  This new machine has enough memory not to bog down as the old one, but when one transfers files from a hard drive, the previously loaded software does not come along; nothing on the desk-top does.  That is a good reason not to keep folders or files on the desktop, plus your profile becomes very large that way, and it takes longer to start your machine.  I managed to work on music transcription off the computer while John used his tonight, because I was able to download a second copy of my Finale SongWriter software to the new laptop. I still have to move files using a jump drive to the home computer to print anything out, but what a pleasure.  This laptop is 2.1 pounds lighter than my last laptop; amazing!

Thursday, Feb 9.  Sadly, a morning message brought news that my 77 yr old third cousin once removed (on my dad’s side) in GA died of cancer.  I’m happy I got to visit her last May while in Atlanta for my high school reunion.  This morning I was up early to work on music to take to my group today.  I only succeeded in getting one song in, and the other was too simple and had a strange timing, for Sweet Betsy from Pike, which I got from a new campfire book I bought with 100 songs.  Another lady in the group brought me her copy of the music today, so I will check that out to replace what I gave out today.  I never had time, but will make it soon, I hope.  Also I tried to put in I’m An Old Cowhand, but I could not get the timing correct.  I need to work with it some more.

Today was otherwise fruitful.  Got to the Rehab (where I was in 2010 for 7 weeks), and we had a good bunch of musicians there–10 !  We enjoyed ourselves and the few people there to watch and sing along, did too.  After that, I went to the University to retrieve my new computer.  Then I stopped by our computer gurus place (who provide our link to WordPress for the blog) and who had copied my old stuff from the hard drive to the external drive, so they could help me pull in (import) my old email files from nancyh@ellensburg.com that go back to 2007 when I first transferred to that machine.  I use software for email handling on that account that is Thunderbird by Mozilla.  It took over an hour but Jason finally figured out how to change and transfer the old profiles for messages and address book to the new machine.  He did not charge me, so we need to pay them off with Choc/Nut Cookies made with our own walnuts.

Friday, Feb. 10.  I did not go to town today.  Figured it was not worth burning a gallon of gas for 45 minutes of SAIL exercise.  I helped lead the class both days this week (M & W) so I figured I would stay home and work on getting more software loaded on my new laptop.  It’s getting all fixed up nicely, but it all is so time-consuming and I need to get to tax preparation.  Talked to a bunch of people by phone about health problems of our two neighbors.

I finally finished I’m An Old Cowhand.  I just have to make some adjustments in the lyrics on the first line.  They are too close to the notes and obscure them.  Got that fixed, and then transposed for our clarinet player.  Oh, I don’t think I said, I also changed the key for the whole band to play in C because I could sing the melody better.  That’s easier to do with the software than the transposition from the band’s key to the one for a B-flat clarinet.  I still have to do that manually.

Saturday, Feb 11.  Normally we try to post this blog on Saturday, especially early when we are headed to an evening function.  We did not make it because we had two functions yesterday, and I’m just finishing this today on Sunday.  We went to town, and John went shopping, and then he came by for the last part of our music and the food.  They didn’t put on quite as much of a spread today as usual.  There were chips and French onion dip, salsa, guacamole, and deviled eggs, of which I had 3 halves.  The rest was desserts, muffins, cookies, and cake and breads.  I only had a peanut butter cookie and some other neat cookie also with peanuts–it’s good not to be allergic to nuts.  Three other spouses of band members came along and we had nice visits, plus with several of the newer members of the group in audience.  On the agenda in the evening was a trip to George, WA

http://www.ci.george.wa.us/

. . . to hear a 5-piece band called Custer’s Grass Band from 7 to 9:00 p.m.   We drove my Subaru because John’s car’s new paint job is too overpowering to my nose.  I knew I would be miserable for 45 minutes over and 45 minutes back.  I was in bad shape, even with the window open and the AC on, going 12 miles to town in the afternoon.

Okay, here is the neat recount of tonight’s show.  Nice cold and clear driving over to George, WA, out of the Kittitas Valley, over Ryegrass hill, and down across the Columbia River, and up to the Quincy Basin.

http://quincyvalleytourism.org/

We made it there fine (after missing the turn on the only boulevard in the small town),

Copy and past this :     “montmorency blvd, George, Wa”      . . . .

. . . . into Google Earth and zoom in (note names of streets and the tree lined Blvd.) and zoom out (note the surrounding irrigated agriculture).  We parked in front of the George Community Hall.  Paid our $3/each entry fee (to help with the utilities of the center).  We were entertained by a group that has been playing since the early 1970s, with members from the Spokane area, mostly.  A Dobro (or electric resonator) “guitar” player is from Montana.  All the players have day jobs.  We sat on the front row with the girlfriend of the mandolin player and she gave us some history.  She and he are from Cheney.   She said the band first started playing under the name of Custer’s Last Stand.  We bought their oldest CD, which was previously put out on a long-playing vinyl record, in 1972, and they are playing with a 17-yr old Marc O’Connor fiddle player.  They originally met him when he was 11.  Now of course, he is quite well known around the world.

http://markoconnor.com/

The group does not have a fiddler, but they are composed of a bass player, dobro, guitarist, mandolin, and banjo.  The banjo player also plays the mandolin, and the mandolin player plays the guitar, and the guitar player (lead singer) plays the banjo as well.  All members of the group join in singing along at certain places in the songs.

They did some Flatt & Scruggs songs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8wZ8U5wQi0

Dobro player at 43 seconds in the above;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_XAPku7SgE

They are really good and I hope to hear them again someday.  They do not do a lot of presentations now.   I plan to keep in touch with the gal I was visiting with, and I just found her connection through her job at Eastern WA Univ.  We made it back home by 10:00 p.m. leaving in fog, which cleared in just a few miles.  The total trip was 99 miles.  I will close now and send this to John to post.

Hope your week was great and this one will be even better.                                                                                   From Nancy & John

on the cool, sunny, with no snow,

Naneum Fan