Keeping track

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

. . . in California and my new computer could have been crushed.  But not!

Sunday, January 29.  This is John’s sister’s birthday.  We didn’t get to talk to her till Monday morning.  We spent Sunday recovering from yesterday’s activities after we posted the blog.  We went for a dinner at the Swauk Teanaway Grange, about 35 minutes from our house.  It was a scholarship dinner, and our friends were going to play the music, after dinner, at 7:00.  The dinner was excellent:  spaghetti, sauce, with meat and locally-made sausage, . . .

http://glondossausage.com/

. . . French bread, and a very nice salad served at our table before the buffet style dinner.  They served dessert cakes in a large muffin paper, with an awesome frosting complete with shaved almonds.  I had spent time cleaning off my old digital camera, charging the battery, and was prepared to film our friend’s music program.  They have never been filmed before.  I got over an hour of them entertaining and they will be able to share with their grandchildren in Washington, DC, who have never seen them perform.  The President of the Grange had her husband bring his tripod, so I didn’t have to hold the camera the entire time and that helped produce a more professional look.

Monday, Jan 30  It was sunny and 42 degrees.  I found out I missed a CWU surplus sale (walk thru bidding) that included a Dell Laptop and a MacBook.  Darn, just when I needed it.  Now I will have to wait 3 weeks till the next sale, and by then, we will likely have found a replacement.  A phone call to CWU earlier informed me that they did not have any laptops – so we have a combination of confusion and disappointment.

The folks at the computer shop on campus do not have any laptops to set me up with, but offered a regular tower-type one, but I think I will pass, and wait for John to investigate.  He maintains a general interest in “what’s out there” but hasn’t looked at detailed specifications and costs recently.  We were not in the market – until last week.  I really like the convenience of a laptop, and I don’ t like sharing.  [an attitude best not delved into – John says]  — okay, Nancy here.  John has been very willing to share the computer, it’s just that we both have a lot of time we spend on one, and having two allows us to work at the same time.

I need to get off here now and have him look up recommendations and reviews.  He was going to wait a few months till the new OS Windows 8. . .

http://www.windows8news.com/2012/02/03/start-menu-orb-hidden-latest-windows-8-builds/

. . . comes out but my computer fix-it man told me that was not a good idea, because it was WEIRD and didn’t have a START icon, as XP and Windows 7 does. [JFH – says maybe these two should get one of these:] http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/Abacus

I’m not into touch screens.  Also, I did work on a Mac in the past (way past), and even taught GIS on it in the early 1990s, but even though I have had a MacBook since 2008, it was a dual system and I only used the Windows side because of the software I was using and teaching in my classes was only written in Windows not in anything understandable to a Mac.

I visited my neighbor with the fractured hip (in 5 places) and managed to get to and through exercise class myself.  This afternoon I completed the last two chapters of the thesis I have been working on.  Now I will sit and wait to have the whole thing with corrections to read through again in its entirety.  Had a phone call from a former student who wants to be commissioned in the Army and be trained as a pilot in Flight School.  He needed a letter of recommendation.  I will be happy to write him a good one.  He was calling me from Arizona.  I didn’t recognize the number and didn’t hear the call arrive, so I redialed it and introduced myself and said I had a missed call from this number.  He said it was him and he didn’t leave a message because it was so involved and he wanted to speak to me in person.  I stayed up late working on the letter.  He got his Geography degree as well as one in Aviation Management.

Tuesday, Jan  31  Only thing today is noon acupuncture.  [JFH – says, see next link at the History – Antiquity heading.  Need I mention the irony of this and Windows 8?]

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

[Nancy responding:  I know that JFH is a disbeliever, but that’s okay.  It is helping me and my insurance is covering it and an alternate week’s massage (which John can accept), and also, my acupturists do combine it with massage.  In fact, 2 weeks ago, there were only 5 points inserted, and the majority of the hour was filled with massage, around my scar from the heart surgery, and my shoulder and neck whose nerves have been related.]

Before I left, I finished the letter of recommendation.   Nice that I can electronically ship it to the Geography secretary, and she can print on CWU letterhead (that I no longer am allowed access to), sign my name and ship off.  Turned out she could FAX this instead of postal mailing it.  Acupuncture was interesting today.  Surround the scar from my heart surgery [JFH  —Yeah, I don’t know what that means either] {NBH: it means that points (needles) were put into the scar tissue on either side of the central cut scar}, deal with slight edema in my lower legs, work on balancing my left and right pulses, and check out gall bladder channel to neck pain.  It seemed to help me.  I’m definitely uncomfortable at the home computer where I don’t “fit” as well as with the laptop in my recliner, or in a bar stool at the counter between the den and the kitchen, where I spent most of my time before getting ill and requiring the recliner.

John thinks a pricey, thin, and light Toshiba laptop is in my future.  It is . . .

http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/pdet.to?poid=2000023745

Scroll to see the basics.  If you are a visual type, click on the little grey rectangle for “Images”, and then click on Available Accessories and then look at the second carrying case under Value Bundles.  The computer photos show a black case but the “specs” claim a Blue Metallic case.  There are no Customer Reviews for this model because it has just been added – mainly the new Intel i5-2450M processor. Reviews of previous models on non-company sites are very positive (mostly).

Wednesday, Feb 1  Food bank day for music and lunch, went by to see my hospitalized neighbor, and to SAIL class, but not much else.  The computer is on its way via UPS.

Thursday, Feb 2    Announcement came today that our computer package was delayed because a train derailed.  Either that, or it was in a truck that was delayed while they got a crane in to lift the train cars back up on the tracks (Bakersfield, CA).

Then went to play music at the place where my neighbor is now housed to get physical therapy to get back on her fractured hip.  I drove home and picked up John and we went back to town for a opening ceremony of a CWU – Smithsonian Traveling Collection, and entertainment by the Mariachi band (from Wenatchee) while we ate Latin American food.  I will let John tell you about a photograph in the collection that relates back to his mother’s family in PA.  John remembers hearing that it was his grandfather but the historical context suggests it was the prior generation – thus, perhaps, a great-grandfather.

The image is shown here:

http://www.atchisonhistory.org/JourneyStories/Captions.html

The #2 image is the one we got on a postcard at the CWU function.  On this link it is indicated to be a “tif” file (Tagged Image File Format; also tiff) and ought to be a simple thing, but when we click on it at this site it wants to open and run a QuickTime movie.  That produces a blank white screen.  Go figure!  So to solve that problem we put it here for you to see the image.

http://www.elixant.com/~nancyh/EmigrantsOnOhioRiver.html

The drawing shows about a dozen folks, 2 horses, and a cow on a flat bottomed boat.  The image is in the Kentucky Historical Society and the claim is that it is of emigrants traveling down the Ohio River.

My mother’s family lived in a rural area of western Pennsylvania near a small town called Scotch Hill (named after James J., not the whisky) surrounded by forests.  Men would cut trees and drag the logs to dams they had made on the local creek.  When spring melt and run-off was peaking they would let-loose the logs and float them into the Clarion River, thence (riding the logs) into the Allegheny River just north of Parker.  At Pittsburgh (where the Ohio River is formed by the Allegheny and the Monongahela River {the Mon}) the Scotch Hill men would sell the logs and walk home, about 70 miles.  The logs were cut into rough lumber at Pittsburgh, flat-bottomed boats were built, and the long float-trip down the Ohio could begin.  A little history here and note the dates:

http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Brownsville,_Pennsylvania

Friday, Feb 3  This morning I was in downtown Ellensburg for the Board of Trustees meeting to watch (and film) my colleague Morris get an Emeritus Prof. award.  Then back home to take it off my camera and run the CD by his doctor’s office where he was going to be at noon.  Morris’ family is from the area and 5 generations have graduated from CWU and he spoke briefly about that.  Then on I went to a noon luncheon with the Women’s Auxiliary of the Grange we just joined.  The meal was gratis of the Swauk Teanaway Grange thanking us for all our contributions.  (I have been providing music (with our group) and going to events long before John and I joined this year).

Saturday, Feb 4  Our computer made it to Portland, OR Thursday night, but didn’t make it to Ellensburg until yesterday and apparently not in time to be delivered.  They don’t operate on Saturday.  Well, dang.  I just checked the UPS tracking and found this message:  Scheduled For Early Delivery On: Monday, 02/06/2012, By End of Day.  Not bad really, as it started in California south of L.A 1/31/12 Monday this week.  Nothing on tap today except household chores and receipt filing.  John will work on posting this blog.  He went over early to feed our neighbor’s horses.  He (not the horse) ended up in Harborview Medical Center in Seattle . . .

http://uwmedicine.washington.edu/Patient-Care/Locations/HMC/Campus/Documents/HMC_Map.pdf

. . . for 2 operations on his foot to clean out an infection.  It’s no fun to get old.  Thank God our health is all right.  I still have a little pain from my tooth work, but John says that’s to remind me to brush.   This month or early next, I have to arrange to see my Cardiologist.  It’s almost 6 months from my last good appointment.

Hope your week was happily eventful.

Nancy & John

on the Naneum Fan

We are having to reconstruct this text.  John started writing this morning and I kluged some comments from early in-the-week emails.   So now I will add in more and you will be able to tell the different styles of our writing.   He writes below with an obituary for my MacBook (dual system with Windows) that caused the necessary reconstruction of this week’s blog.  He also puts in some stuff about the horse-damaged car and about our Friday night potluck.  I have weaved his comments into this story for the past week.  So, going back to . . .

Sunday, 1/22/12

We ended up with almost 12 inches of snow the end of last week, but yesterday a lot melted.  We started with four inches of snow before we had to leave for Yakima to visit our friends and pick up my 6-string classical guitar, visit Costco to grab Turbo Tax 2011 at a $10 discount, gasoline, and a few other needed things.  We were on our way to have lunch with them.  The snow was falling hard and got worse as we drove west of Yakima, past Wiley City.  It is about 20 minutes in good weather — located west of the Yakima airport.  They live up on a hill in a “subdivision” and the roads were not plowed.  Lunch was a great “Yakima Salad” (Grilled chicken, lettuce, crumbled Roquefort cheese, Fuji apples cut up, bacon bits, sugared walnuts with sesame seeds, onions, with huckleberry or raspberry vinaigrette dressing, and French bread.  John and I took pears and a chocolate brownie-like cake with our own walnuts plus chocolate chips added and covered with chocolate frosting.  I didn’t need dinner tonight.

Our drive was a little touchy, but we made it all right.  I think we will have the all-weather radials checked because we were in my 2004 Subaru for the trip down, and after we returned home, we had to turn around and go back to Ellensburg, to take John’s Subaru to have its door and window replaced.  (At least 4 or 5 more inches had fallen since we left at 10:15 a.m.)   Happily, our neighbor came back with his little machine and cleared more out of our driveway and also out in the pasture on the way to the barn, where John feeds the horses.  He plowed a path so John does not have to make 3 trips to feed.  When the snow is like this, wheelbarrows do not wheel, although the “barrow” part still functions.  (find the part about Shapes of Thinks to Come at the end of this linked page:)

http://www.word-detective.com/061405.html

Still Sunday night:  I have to take my meds for the night, and we probably will have dessert and hit the hay.  I actually have snacked some on some Peanut Butter Filled Nuggets from H-K Anderson out of Lancaster, PA, that we bought today.  They are REALLY good.  I had bought a small bag (5 ounces) for a buck at the dollar store the other day, and John saw a 52 ounce big plastic container of them for $7.79 at Costco.  We bought them, and I checked the bag from the $1 store. At the price we got at Costco we were paying $ .74 for the dollar bag amount.

http://www.hk-anderson.com/enjoy/pdp/peanut_butter_filled_nugget/

Monday, 1/23/12

John has burned a few calories moving snow.  I have been working on in-house projects.  Here’s a slight run-down.

Missed my exercise SAIL class today.  No sense driving all that way in the snow on not all plowed roads, to spend 45 minutes and turn around and drive back home using a gallon of gasoline.  Started by sleeping in till after awaking at 7:30 a.m. and then going back to sleep.  Guess I was tired from yesterday’s activities and stress of driving in the snowstorm.  Have been reading a masters thesis, switching and doing some music transposing, eating lunch, and doing email.

A friend in the Southwest wrote to see if we were all right, because the Blog was not posted this weekend. They read it faithfully and were worried.  That was the first we knew.  John sent it out late Saturday night (thought so), but neither one of us checked it, and apparently he hit the wrong button.  It got out there about 2:30 p.m., Monday.  John went back out shoveling and did not cook the roast for dinner as planned so it’s frozen teriyaki chicken and rice bowls.  I’m stayed in the house doing various chores, interspersing with editing and still proofing that masters thesis.  Nope, I’m no longer paid, but I’m still serving on a couple of graduate committees with students I worked with in the past.

Tuesday, 1/24/12

I went to the hospital on the way to massage therapy and gave blood for my INR test.  Then to massage.  I was hurting some today; don’t know why.  Afterwards I was too, more so than usual.  Then my doctor called at 7:30 p.m. reporting in on my INR (he was really late working).  It was way high (4.3) and we don’t know why.  He told me not to take the Coumadin for a couple of nights and to retest it on Thursday.  It has been running at 2.0 since October when it went up to 3.2.  I have not had any alcohol nor Vitamin K veggies.  Oh, I mentioned to my family physician that I had had dental work last week and was on Predisone (4mg) for six days.  More the first two days and less till Sunday night before the blood draw.  I was given it for an anti-inflammatory.  He suggested my idea could be correct that the med could have caused it.  Spent the rest of the night feeling bad.

Wednesday,  1/25/12

Evelyn (banjo) and I played and sang at the food bank without music, and did really amazingly well.  I don’t need sheet music but she does on many of the songs.  There were 45 people there for a lunch of polish sausages, beans, chili, and a peach cobbler to-die-for.  I brought a piece home for John and I to share.  After lunch I wanted to take a nap rather than go to exercise class, but I went and we had 13 people there.  Driving in was a real mess on the roads, but the sun was shining.  In the 3 hours that passed, the road slush got cleaned off so the return trip was not nearly as bad (at least the north-south roads); E-W, less traveled ones were still in bad shape.  We thought we would pick up John’s Subaru tomorrow, but NOT.

Got a phone call at 4:00 that our car we hoped to have back tomorrow, and had taken in, Sunday night in all the snow, after our trip to Yakima, all in the snow, will not be ready because the “door” from Portland got lost on Greyhound, from last Thursday.  It showed today, and can be picked up at the bus station tomorrow morning at 10:00 a.m.  Who knows when we will get the car back and fixed.  Likely not till early or the middle of next week.  Oh fun.

About my INR blood test.  I’m taking Coumadin and have to have my INR checked once a month.  [The next few sentences are from a web site:  A laboratory test called an INR (International Normalized Ratio) measures the time it takes for blood to clot and compares it to an average.  Monitoring the INR can be an important step in managing health.  An INR is useful in monitoring the impact of anticoagulant (“blood thinning”) medicines, such as Warfarin (Coumadin).  Patients with atrial fibrillation often take anticoagulant medications to protect against clots that can cause strokes.  While taking Warfarin, patients have regular blood tests to monitor their INR.   Just as patients know their blood pressure numbers, they also should know their Warfarin (Coumadin) dosage and their INR.  In healthy people, the INR is about 1.0.  For patients on anticoagulants, the INR typically should be between 2.0 and 3.0 for patients with atrial fibrillation, or between 3.0 and 4.0 for patients with mechanical heart valves.  However, the ideal INR must be individualized for each patient.]  My cardiologist wants it closer to under 3.0.  An INR can be too high; a number greater than 4.0 may indicate that blood is clotting too slowly, creating a risk of uncontrolled bleeding.  An INR less than 2.0 may not provide adequate protection from clotting.

Thursday,  1/26/12

Let’s see —  today was music in the afternoon at the Hearthstone care facility and a retake on the INR.  Turns out it was 2.6, so don’t know if it was really the Predisone effect or if it could have been a faulty test.  We’ll never know, but I have to be retested in 12 days.

Our other “story” today, related by John:  Less serious news this week involved taking the horse-damaged Subaru to the shop for a new side door and re-painting.  The time-line slipped a bit on that.  The new door was shipped from Portland, OR (about a five hour drive away in bad weather) on a Greyhound Bus.  It got lost.  Well, not the bus.  So the door finally showed up but not in time to get the car back on Thursday.  However, still in that car was the University’s gift to Nancy (upon retirement) of a campus parking pass.  This she needed on Friday to go to a noon luncheon.  So we had to stop by the fix-it-up shop.  We learned there of the damage to vehicles caused by the snow and ice covered roads.  All regular stalls were filled with damaged cars.  Another was still in the outside parking lot, and ours was forlornly waiting for the wayward door.

Friday, January 27, 2012

Today I awoke to my laptop computer not showing anything on the screen.  Took it in to my fix-it guys, but it is toast, and would cost more to repair it than to buy a new one, with much more power and space.  Repair would be $400 at least.  This one was from 2008, and was my gold watch and chain when leaving the university.  Now it is gone.  I have been in the middle of reviewing a thesis and this will cause problems not being able to access it.  I also only had one copy of the blog I had started last Sunday, and so am having to recreate this week’s now.  Usually I keep it up daily, so it’s not such a chore.  I took the laptop in today on my way to a scholarship luncheon and they gave the verdict, but agreed to back it up on my external drive so we took it back in on our way to a potluck/jam session.  Here is John’s Obituary for her.  The laptop croaked! [Sept. 2008 – January 2012]  She* developed a “seeing” problem.  To be precise, she quit providing anything to see.  Without a functioning screen, it is quite impossible to make efficient use of the lady within.  She would be the one on which the digital-daily update is recorded.  Usually, then, on Saturday, the daily file is transferred to the dual-monitor tower-residing computer in the back corner bedroom, also known as (aka) the computer cave.

*She  —  We refer to our computers with the feminine gender in remembrance of a time when women were women, and computers were women.  Here are three links to explain:

http://www.witi.com/center/witimuseum/halloffame/1997/eniac.php

http://www.earlyofficemuseum.com/calculating_machines.htm

http://www.zib.de/zuse/Inhalt/Programme/eniac/history.html

The middle link has a description and photo of machines called Comptometers and Comptographs.  John’s dad brought one of those home that was being thrown out in the mid-1950s at his company’s purchasing department.  After his mom’s death (1980) his dad cleaned out the house and moved to Florida.  Things such as this ancient machine were given away or sent to the dump (now known as a landfill site).  And, Nancy’s recollection and use of a comptometer goes back to working over Christmas vacation (from High School) at Sears (& Roebuck), in the Mail Order Department.  I had to check all incoming mail orders from the southeast region, which converged on the Atlanta, GA store for processing.  They had to be verified for amount of items, quantity purchased, the totals on each line, and the added tax, for the final cost.  It was amazing how many errors there were.  Sometimes, it would be every second one.  I used a comptometer for that work.   [End of Obituary]                                                                                                            Earlier in the morning before I left for the luncheon, John and I made a large Pineapple Upside Down Cake in our huge 12” skillet left over from his Cincinnati days when he lived in a big old house with a bunch of guys.  Everyone at the party thought it was pretty special.  We added our own walnuts to it (many more than the recipe called for), and we also took a quart of pears our neighbor had canned for us.  John’s version of the skillet cake came out as:   Friday evening was a music-group pot-luck meal and jam-session.  We took our famous “Nancy’s Big Skillet Downside Up Cake” made with pineapple rings, red Maraschino Cherries [preserved and packed with a wondrous assortment of dyes and other chemicals**], walnuts (ours), butter, eggs, brown sugar, and a bit of flour.  http://www.nationalcherries.com/maraschino.html                                                                                                  After reading John’s found link above, I’m wondering if we should have thawed some of own cherries and used them !

That neighbor who canned the pears ended up falling this morning and shattering her hip, so an ambulance came and took her to the ER.  Another neighbor called to tell us.  John called me in town, and I called both her sons to let them know.  Then I came on home rather than going to SAIL class, because I had several things to do in the afternoon on John’s computer.  I worked on music and transposing some, while he napped.

We received some guitar and music books in today’s mail, which is cool.  Had a nice dinner and didn’t get home till 10:15.  Here was the menu:  Turkey, ham, 3 bean salad with peppers and onions, pecan/sugar covered sweet potatoes, rice and sausage, green Caesar type salad, Jell-O salad, calico beans, cookies, and our special cake.

Saturday, January 28, 2012  Mostly today I have been catching up on household chores, except when John was out feeding and exercising the animals.  While I was sleeping in, he started rewriting the blog.  Now I’m merging them.  He had come back to work on some guitar chord handouts.  We need to tune the 12-string and the classical, because last night we took the 12 string in to compare to that of one of the guys in our group, (size of mine is slightly smaller), and he played it a little and thinks it is tuned a little differently than his – Who’s to know but one or both need to be fixed.

I must finish this so John can post it before we leave for the Upper County for a special Grange function, where two of our friends are providing after dinner music.  They were at our jam session last night.  They said it was very relaxing, and something they needed before the big event tonight.

Hope you all had a good week with less drama.

That’s it from Nancy and John,

Still on the Naneum Fan

Sunday, January 15 started as a nice blue sky sunny day, and we were surprised as we were expecting snow.  However, north of us now are clouds that suggest snow is coming this way.  Managed to take some photos of our Casio keyboard (gotten last Saturday) in its new spot, but they are still on the camera.  I also managed to type up some Peanut Butter Pie recipes from the family and a friend of the family in PA.  Now we need to get the ingredients and try them.

We made the trip to the Bluegrass Jam session at the Swauk Teanaway Grange just fine, with no snow, except a tiny flurry (very light) on the last 15 minutes to home.  It might snow some tonight, but the holiday tomorrow means we do not have to get out on the roads.  We took a canister of dried apples and banana chips, and I put them on the counter (with brownies and cookies others brought), and took a banana chip to check out.  I was just sucking on it, and dammit, I pulled off the gold crown again.  I knew it was not in the banana (my dad used to say he loved bananas because they had no bones).  So, I captured it and put in a plastic Zip-Lock bag I had brought along with me.

A huge crowd was there.  There were 22 instrumentalists and another 15 people (at least) in the audience (as John was).  We stayed till 4:20, so it was getting dark by the time we hit our driveway, and John went and fed the horses without coming into the house.  I brought myself and violin stuff in.  The dogs just got to go in the front fenced yard and not to help feed.  It was too dark.

Monday, Jan 16 is the MLK holiday, but not for our resident doe who was in the front yard again this morning, wanting to be fed.  We have never fed her there, except for her getting berries off the Mountain Ash tree.  I had a call from my dentist this morning and they will work me in tomorrow for replacing the temporary gold crown.  Good because we can combine with John’s trip there for his tooth.  Most of the day was spent on paperwork.

Tuesday, Jan 17 we awoke to snow and it continued to a little over an inch.  We took off for the dentist at 10:15 and didn’t return till 1:25.  That was because someone cancelled her appointment and they were able to put me in after John’s appointment to complete the work on my tooth, the installation of a stainless steel crown.  That beat a temporary glue-in job and having to wait for a Jan 31 appointment.  Only problem was after the anesthetic wore off I was in serious pain–my jaw, my tooth, my gums, my head, you name it.  I was hurting big time, so after I had taken 4 Tylenol over the afternoon and nothing was improving, I called my dentist and left a message at 4:20.  They were in a “class” and didn’t get back to me till after 5:00 p.m.  They decided to put me on Percoset and a Prednisone packet drug to help me over the hump for the next 6 days.  We had to drive back to town (24 miles r.t.) to pick up the pills, but I was very relieved to get them in my system with dinner.  The pain has not all subsided, but it is tons better.  I will take another Percoset with a piece of pound cake and go to bed.  It snowed another couple of inches, but then the wind blew most of it off the trees.  Yet we are not getting the amount of snow that others around us are.

Wednesday, Jan 18  Turned out I didn’t get relief on the pain until 4:00 a.m.  By the time 8:00 a.m. came I decided I would take one more Percoset just for the heck of it, because I didn’t have to go to town till after lunch.  I was much better after my meds for pain & the anti-inflammatory for irritation of the gum and jaw.  Apparently the decay cleaning was quite close to the nerves of the root and caused the severe pain.  Got a call from the dentist office this morning checking on me, and asking if John could come in today for finishing up his tooth #31 behind the one from yesterday, $250 for this today—higher cost than either of ours yesterday.  I dropped John off at the dentist and went on to SAIL class, but I didn’t have to lead it after all because my friend (our teacher) got excused from Grand Jury duty because she is over 70 and cannot drive in this weather.  After that, I went to the Post Office to load up on Forever Stamps before the price goes up this Monday.

Later tonight John took some time to web-search for the style of my Dulcimer, because both of us read parts of the new book I got by Ritchie (published in 1973) on the history, tuning and playing of the Dulcimer.  He took out mine and looked for anything written on it to see the maker, and the only name he could find anywhere was on the pegs holding the strings.  They are named Kluson pegs and are high quality.  Mine, however, is a different shape from most of the dulcimers.  We are going to take some pictures of it and put on the forum we have found to see if anyone knows anything about its origin.  I was never able to find out from the woman I bought it from.

I went on to my acupuncture treatment and it was a wonderful full hour.  He tried some different things to try to clear the shoulder pain by working with the edges of scar tissue (fascia) adjacent to the scar from the opening of my sternum for heart surgery.  All those nerves were disrupted and jumbled.

He used a Pointer Plus instrument along with massage (which I actually can do myself), but he added the Pointer Plus electronic gadget to assist in connecting the collagen and tissues across the scar.  I’m a little concerned and need to discuss it further with the acupuncturist, from reading on line about the Pointer Plus made in Texas.

http://www.texas-medical.com/modalities/pointerplusfeatures.htm

Some contraindications (not to be used with) include, among other things that don’t apply to me, some that do:  If fitted with pacemakers or internal defibrillators (which I have), or if there is any heart disease or condition (which I suppose I still have, with my replaced porcine heart valve, and I am on medication for atrial fibrillation and on Coumadin for thinning my blood).

We did discuss this when I heard it was electronic.  He put it on a very low power and also stayed away from the ICD.  There was never any interaction.

The overall procedure is called:  Myofascial Craniosacral massage, and can be read about below as it was applied to my scar tissue from the open heart surgery.  I really find this fascinating and believable.  I want so much for this to get me back to normal on my left shoulder and adhesive capsulitis in my rotator cuff on the left side.  I have highlighted below (bold) the things I think apply to my condition.

http://transitionalhealing.wordpress.com/2007/03/13/craniosacral-therapy-for-reducing-scar-tissue-pain/

Craniosacral Therapy for reducing Scar Tissue Pain.

Posted by Michael on March 13, 2007

The body has the ability to heal itself after surgery.  The body produces connective tissue, adhesions and collagen, to replace the damaged compromised tissue from the result of an incision to the skin.  This natural phenomenon causes the formation of scar tissue.  Scar tissue replaces damaged cells at the site of the incision or injury.  Skin scar tissue is different from deep fascial scar tissue.  Skin scar tissue lacks in pigmentation and hair follicles.  Deep scar tissue in the fascial layers of the body develops adhesions or spider-like web threads to help the body heal and recover.

There can be a potential problem in the development of scar tissue.  The problem lies when scar tissue and adhesions go unchecked over the years.  The scar tissue and adhesions start attaching themselves to bones, arteries, veins, nerves, and organs.  This phenomenon alone can cause dysfunction in the homeostasis of the body and possibly manifest into further complications in our body’s internal health as we age.

In addition I have witnessed in my practice patient’s scar tissue developing over periods of time causing spinal curvature (scoliosis), rotated hips manifesting in sciatic pain and lower extremity discomfort, shoulder displacement causing rotator cuff problems, and cervical or neck problems manifesting in a variety of neck and headache pain.  Scar tissue can and will cause loss of range of motion making simple job and home activities difficult to perform.  In addition there have been preliminary studies showing that manual therapies such as craniosacral therapy can relieve the discomforts and problematic symptoms in the Ureogential region after “C” section deliveries.  One of the most profound areas of relief from scar tissue is a patient who has had open-heart surgery.  I myself have recovered from open-heart surgery.  I [have] received scar and adhesion therapy once a month for the last 10 years.  My primary care doctor concurs that the manual therapy I receive keeps my body anatomically correct, allows my body full range of motion without pain and discomfort in the soft tissue.

Over many years in my practice I have found that craniosacral therapy has had a profound positive effect on relieving the discomfort of scar tissue formed in the body. In addition Craniosacral therapy has afforded my patients/clients increased range of motion, the reduction of adhesions and pain in the sub acute stage after a surgical procedure.  (End of quote).

Thursday, Jan 19   We awoke to snow and it is still coming down.  Over the last couple of days, we have had a little over 6″ according to averaging John’s 6 different measurements around the place this morning.  He had to clean off the walkways to the cat house and hay shed, where all the cats were hanging out this morning.

My music group canceled our trip to play music today in town.  All the snow plows have been in Upper County removing 2 feet of snow, and left us to deal with our own. Our friends over in Winlock (south of Chehalis) got 17 inches to deal with yesterday. Puget Sound area had ice and winds that brought down power lines.  Internal house temperatures are dropping into the mid-50s.  Glad we don’t live there or in Alaska!  For every inch in WA, they are getting a foot.

John’s working on his music theory today and just found more about the Circle of Fifths, and the first line of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.  Then the friend in the music group who had the 17” snow told me that Five Foot Two is the classic song with a run through from C on the Circle of Fifths.

Friday, Jan 20.  Staying home today, neither our driveway nor the road in front of our house has been plowed.  John may shovel a path, but our cars are so low and our neighbor will likely come down and plow us out.

We have nice neighbors, and we have no reason to go to town, so we can wait.  Oh my, it is 12:20 and starting to snow big flakes again.  John went back to take the mail to the mailbox, and to shovel out the approach for the postal carrier.  Guess the timing might be right; hopefully, the plow has come back down our side of the road.  John saw it go north earlier.  It has, John came back to report.  He got our mail in for pickup, and the snow has also stopped.  John can always take off the middle part so it doesn’t hit under our car, and the tires will plow through the tracks on the side (that’s in case our neighbor doesn’t plow us out).

While John was out, I stayed inside and used his computer.  I managed to transpose 3 pages of music for our clarinet player, for Willie Nelson’s, “On the Road Again,” which our friend found while he was in the UK over Christmas.  I managed to learn how to put in “slurs” (symbols for holding a note, connecting to others), and first and second bracket endings.  I had previously been filling them in by hand, and that was rather messy.  This is very cool and can be done at the time the notes are entered.  I have never completely read the manual (John says I never do), but I did today to find out how, by reading the manual!  Meanwhile, I had taught myself how to enter tempos, keys, notes (full, half, quarter, eighth, …), without the manual.  I also had previously figured out how to put in “repeats” and also crescendos.  And more!

I am busy now playing with pictures from two different cameras, and trying to clean off my digital camera (ExiLim) which has a 4 Gig card and takes good movies.  My Casio fills up way too fast.  This one hasn’t been used since I was last teaching before my heart attack in fall of 2009.  I need to clean it off, with the hopes of recording the concert at the Grange next Saturday.

Currently, I’m copying large files from my camera to my computer and then to a CD so I can free a bunch of space on my camera (for movies) and my computer for storage. These were movies I took at the time of the last class REM 515 (GIS in Resource Management, a Graduate Seminar) I taught in the fall 2009.  There are some really good ones in there:  Kevin Vaughn, LiDar at Mt. Rainier, Dan Church, Bureau of Reclamation LiDar Work in Yakima, Michael Wandler, on WSDOT work he does and has done with GIS, and Steve Rush on the history of GIS at Hanford.  Then this afternoon I decided to put them on my FTP site at CWU so folks could download which ones they want and save me mailing CDs.  I have one talk that is larger than a CD (over 702 Mb), and I do not have a DVD burner on my laptop.  Theoretically, I can use John’s computer for that one.  I will keep the CDs and DVD for my “files” even though I am not likely to ever need them again now that I’m no longer teaching.  But somehow I cannot just delete them and I want to back them up somewhere and give the authors a copy as thanks for coming and presenting to my class, even if it is two years late coming!

John is continuing to work on his music theory learning.  He is really making good progress and making summaries from multiple web sites to teach himself the information.  Every once and awhile, he calls me to get an interpretation or to play something on the keyboard to clarify what the information/lessons are telling him.  He actually found an error on a web site today and wrote the author, but also told him what a fabulous job he had done to clarify the meaning of the terms.

A side note about this music thing is that there were almost no family and friends from John’s Clarion-era that had or played instruments.  One older woman (great aunt by marriage) had an upright piano that was played once in John’s presence.  One neighborhood family paid for #1 son to learn piano.  #s 2, 3, 4 got zip!  OH! One nephew got a guitar somewhere and played Waltzing Matilda endlessly.  Then he took up art – thankfully.  Music seems to be more a southern Appalachian thing and there were major migrations from those mountain regions to the Pacific Northwest.  You can’t throw a stick out here without hitting someone with a fiddle, banjo, guitar, harmonica (harp), accordion (squawk box), mandolin, dulcimer, and a few others.  Hundreds of folks from WA State go to Weiser, ID for the old time music festival first held in 1953 . . .

http://weiserfestival.com/

Saturday, Jan 21 was spent at home with John doing a lot of shoveling, even after our neighbor came in the dark last night and plowed us out some; there is much to be done.  We should be able to get out tomorrow to go to Yakima, and we hope for no snow.  Today it is sunny and nice here, but we are in a pocket of good weather, with clouds surrounding us on all sides.  Some of the snow is melting.  But, in cases where it has not been removed it is a foot deep and deeper where it was pushed by the “skid-steer loader” last night.  Many folks call these things “bobcats” (a well-known make) but the neighbors use theirs for cleaning up cow manure and John calls it their powered-pooper-scooper.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skid-steer_loader

John took a break and came in to make some brownies.  I have been working most of the day between computers.  I’m ready for a brownie, but John said they had to cool first :- )

He’s back in now reading the news on the computer after putting a meatloaf together and, with potatoes, sticking them in the oven.  Now we wait.  I need to get this blog to him so he can post it.

The other thing I have been doing is working with music for our group.  As mentioned, I learned how to put in “slurs” and double repeat ending brackets, and then today, how to add chord designations to the music.  I can even add fret board notation, if desired.  I had to read the manual for those manipulations.  Also, have been organizing food & the menu for the potluck.  I send out lists of what people are bringing so we don’t end up with all desserts or all salads.

Tomorrow, we’re headed to the Yakima area to Costco, to lunch with friends, and pick up my classical guitar I had loaned out last year.  John may be able to use it to learn on in conjuction with the 12-string.

Hope you had a nice week.

Nancy & John

on the Naneum Fan

Sunday, January 8, my Aunt Marise’s 81st birthday, on the old Wilkins home place in Guyton, GA.  I had a nice visit by phone this evening – her time.  Pretty much this day was spent on the computer, either transposing music or working on the 2011 newsletter and the links to my trip to Atlanta in May of 2011.

Monday, Jan 9  It’s a slow day today and we must do some paperwork and dehydrate the bananas we got last week.  Banana chips are really good, and good for you.  Dehydration concentrates the radioactive potassium – read about the BED:

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

Most of the day was spent on computer chores and organizing music.  Mostly I worked on trying to complete the details of the 2011 newsletter (never finished).

I got a nice surprise email from Complete Computer Services, our computer gurus, who also provide our service for our account we have had since 1995,   nancyh@ellensburg.com   .  The surprise is our cost is going down to $2.99/month, and our service is being enhanced with unlimited storage for mailing files.  That has been a drawback and caused me to turn many friends away from using that account, because of the storage limitations.  I still don’t wish to encourage people to send large files, but at least now we are not in danger of filling our account while away for a few hours.  John played cook today, and fixed a great pork loin roast for dinner and for meals for the next few days.

I tried searching the web for a guitar like one a friend has for sale, but I cannot locate much information, and neither could John, but he went and unpacked my old 12-string (1 string is broken, so it’s an 11 string), Gibson:

http://www.guitar-museum.com/guitar-8455-1967-Gibson-B-25-12N-Guitar-Vintage-12-string

He managed to find information about that on line and one for sale in a bidding process.  The price has been bid up to $798, but the owner says it is worth a lot more, and that one like it fetched $1200.  I paid $300 for mine in Iowa City, IA sometime around 1970, lightly used.  John found a serial number on the back and from the Gibson site learned it was made in 1967.

This new found interest in guitars is a result of John’s deciding he wants to learn to make music on something.  I suggested he not begin on a 12-string.  We also have a 6 string classical that I loaned out to a friend in Yakima but he hasn’t had a chance to start lessons yet with the teacher he wanted.  So we are going to go down and visit a future weekend and “borrow” it back, so that John has one to learn on.  I want him to get his own, however, and that’s why I’m trying to work with the friend in Montana, to find out what the one she has is worth, so we can give her a fair price for it.  I haven’t found out much yet, but intend to do some more looking.  All we know is that the sticker inside the guitar says “The Classic Guitar”– made by Kay Musical Instrument Company” and a stamped number says: L 4384.  I finally found one tonight on eBay, and they have a start bid of $145 but no one has bid.  It must be the same as the one she has .. especially considering looking at the pictures and relating to the description she has given me.  (I’m adding to this Saturday night Jan 14, before this is posted.  The owner lowered the starting bid to $115, but no one ever bid on it.  It had nice pictures and was described as an Acoustic Kay of the 40s & 50s.  Our friend followed the links and agreed it was very close to the one she has, which we hope to get.  We just have to settle on a price.  The ad was removed today from eBay without selling it.

Tuesday, Jan 10   Up earlier than wished and did some emailing and then burned some CDs to share with friends I was to see today.  I went for a tour of the CWU Archives at the CWU  Brooks Library, and got a 15-minute tour of the new parts of the library by the “new” Dean (hired in 2010).  I was invited by Jim Brooks, for whom the library is named.  He is 85 now and in really good shape.  He was CWU President for 17 years, and taught before and after that term in Geography.  He was still teaching a couple of courses when I arrived in 1988.

I squeezed in a trip to the Dollar Tree to trade in the clip-on watch that wasn’t working and to grab some canned cat food.  I made it with little time to spare to a 3:00 massage.  Also, I ran our tree order (Grand Fir and Ponderosa Pine by the Kittitas County Conservation District, where John has donated time (prior years) sorting plants in the spring for the community sale.  After many years, the scale of this sale requires more work than volunteers could provide so they now get an AmeriCorps crew.  Our driveway is lined with Ponderosa Pine and our property has a dozen types of trees not here when we arrived.  John went with me tonight (for me to play music at 6:30 with The Connections group) because we wanted to show my guru-music-friend who plays in the group the 12-string guitar and a newly acquired viola (free).  He really liked the guitar and recommended the owner of the music store here in town for installation of  new strings — having experience and a special stretcher-tool.  Otherwise, here is a description we would need to follow:  [Who knew you can get hurt doing this?]

http://www.mediawebsource.com/guitar/12-string-guitar.htm

The temps are going to 15 tonight, so I don’t know if John will want to work outside in the day as he did today.  We were quite late eating dinner tonight (9:00) — biscuits and beans to go with our leftover pork loin.  We are both really tired and may hit the hay earlier tonight.

Wednesday, Jan 11 was another busy day.  Played at the food bank, and they gave me some almond drink (not milk) to try.  Nice meal today.  Chicken Enchiladas but not with all the tortilla stuff like I don’t like.  MUCH chicken and very tender.  I took the 12-string in and the owner of the shop knew the model.  Good sign!  He respectfully oohed-and-awed —

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiTejNnV6UE

over it and looked it up in his book — finding it is valued at $1,150.  I left it to have new Extra Light strings put on it.  Then off to exercise class and our teacher was not there so I guided the class, and we went for 50 minutes.  It was probably more of a workout than I normally get, having to call out instructions and keep all on task.

John fixed a good dinner of leftovers: Chicken & pork Fettuccini with fried   cauliflower.   He’s been working on the computer on his guitar music theory learning and creating charts and symbols for when he has a guitar with which to practice.  I spent a lot of time tonight setting up music for members of our group.

Thursday, Jan 12  John went with me to run errands while I played music at the Rehab center where I was incarcerated so long back in 2010, and it was so great to see people who remember me and are very happy to see me back on my feet, and walking down the hall on my own.  I remember when it was a real struggle to push myself in a wheel chair, even pulling along the rail along the wall.  Then when I moved up to a walker and how much trouble it was to go down one very long hallway to another longer (I think) one to get to Physical Therapy.  So, now when I walk down the hall and a nurse says, “Nancy, it’s so good to see you,” I always reply, “Thanks, it’s good to be seen.”  From there we did Burger King for a rushed hamburger & fries, because we were going back to town for a bluegrass jam session with Julie Henigan, the Celtic Music presenter tomorrow night at CWU Music building recital hall.  15 people came including John who went along just to enjoy the music.  There were a couple of mandolins, an autoharp, 6 violins, 2 dulcimers, 3 banjoes, and the rest guitars.  The Dulcimers were second instruments of guitarists.  And one of the mandolin players also had a violin.  The people there were from around the valley.

Friday, Jan 13  Started off the day by talking to a friend about an old CTK 510 Casio Keyboard passed down by his wife’s father, and no one else has used.  John is interested in having a music keyboard adjacent to his computer while he is learning music on the guitar.  This is an old model (CTK 510) but there are still a few being offered on the Web.

Tonight’s Celtic Music Performance was interesting but not totally clear completely to me and John.  The lecture part started at 6:30. She explained some of the history, geography, conflict and character of the Irish people and how the poets and songs developed.  See here, sections “Music for Singing” and “Caoineadh Songs.”

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

John’s grandmother was from Ireland [http://www.ballinamore.ie/about/ ] and so he has some personal interest in the subject.

We got there early to have good seats which we got and we were hearing fine.  Sadly however, 120 people arrived at just before 7:00 for the concert and they moved us to the bigger auditorium, with those late arrival people getting first choice of seating.  That was a big bummer.

The microphones were not working well in the larger hall, and there was a buzz that was irritating through some of the performance.  John and I liked the lecture better. Then she sang and played for more than an hour.  She told stories about some of the songs, and they were audible.  However, some of her lyrics were not understandable by us, yet people closer to the stage would laugh occasionally, so one has to imagine they were hearing a bit of Irish humor that we missed.

She sang with and without instrumental accompaniment (called Sean-nós  (Irish for “old style”)–a highly ornamented style of unaccompanied traditional Irish singing.

http://juliehenigan.com/mp3/06-Adieu.mp3

She also sang while playing her guitar and used her violin between the verses of a couple of songs.  Mostly she just played instrumentals on the violin. That’s not the way I sing and play the violin, but I am clearly different from most.  I will sing and play the melody, or the harmony, and do one on the violin and sing the other.  My group gets a kick out of that and don’t know how I manage it.  I just tell them it’s because I was an only child and had cover both parts.

The lady who we took along with us, (who is hard of hearing), heard most of the concert, probably a little less than John and I did, but she heard enough to enjoy it, and that’s all that matters.  She has macular degeneration and can no longer drive, so she really appreciates being given an invitation and ride to events around town.  She’s a trooper, living alone.

Might snow here tomorrow and some or all days for a week, they say.  It is damned cold out there.  The temperature went to 11 last night.   When we came out of the music building just around 9:00 it was 28.  We were parked on the front row (staff parking), but it is still a few hundred feet walk up and down.  John said it felt as if it was minus 28.  It was chilly in the building, and I was glad I had on two jackets over a blouse, and still had an outer coat to put on outside plus a winter pull-down hat that covered my ears.

It was a not-so-all-right Friday the 13^th.  I lost my temporary gold crown again this morning (eating toast)–not even anything gooey, but got into the dentist and had it repaired (no cost).  Also got to my exercise class and, later, picked up the newly strung 12-string guitar.  They charged me $26.46, so must have either been expensive strings and no charge for putting them on, or $6.00 for the strings and $20 labor.  I only got the total charge, not an itemized bill.

Then off to Les Schwab (tire & battery place) to check the Ford Truck’s battery.  John charged it the past two days and put it in the truck but it wouldn’t start, so I took it to town and went by to have it checked.  Turns out it is fully charged and in good shape.  The switch on the steering column is flakey so we will have to try again and get it to town for a fix.  When it warms up some.

Saturday, Jan 14   Today was an interesting day, and it was too cold for John to check out the battery and truck ignition.  Most of our day was involved with music, and we are adding yet another instrument to our growing collection.  We spent morning on the computer and doing chores, and I put together a book order for Hamilton Books (which has a special NO shipping charges on orders through Feb 8).  They sell “remainder books” for about one-third the original price; sometimes better.  John found a kit that teaches the Harmonica, with a CD, DVD, instructional book, AND a basic Harmonica.  He also found a book, “How to Play the Guitar.”  I found 3 books with scores of music (notation w/ chords), for singing while you work, 100 sing–along favorites for around the Campfire, and some “Negro Spirituals” of the Jubilee Singers (originally published in 1892).  I dropped the order in the mail at the PO when we went to town on our way to Thorp to look at our friend’s Casio Keyboard.  We visited for a couple hours and came away with the instrument.  John has set it up back in our computer room.  As best we can figure it was made in the 1980s and except for a small “buzz” it does everything it is supposed to, and we even have the instruction manual.  While in town we bought 50# whole oats because our bird food has been depleted.  The little devils get hungry when it is this cold.  Arrived home and retrieved the mail, which had the book on the Dulcimer (written in 1974) and it arrived in perfect shape.  Not a mark on it, or bent page.

Hope you had a nice week.

Nancy & John

on the Naneum Fan

Sunday, January 01, We awoke to a doe INSIDE our front yard (4 ft fence) looking at the front door.  She stayed around awhile and ate some berries off the Mt. Ash tree.  We don’t really think they like them, but she tried, twice.  Finally I got out my camera and took a picture through the front door (has glass panels on the top).  I didn’t get her while she was nibbling the berries, but did get her looking straight at me, and then a going away picture of her leaving over the fence.  The tree is in the way, so all you see are feet and head.  Funny–life on the Naneum Fan.  While she was waiting to leave, about 2 dozen quail came in to under the feeder and were eating fallen seeds.  We got a nice look at them, but no pix.

We have no plans except to try to clean a path to under the sink in the kitchen for a Culligan repairman to check the water filter.  One guy was here back in Sept and replaced filters under the sink but did not have a “big blue” one to replace at the softener unit in the garage.  A month or so after he was he here, we quit having any fancy filtered water.  At my first complaint, they said it was past the warranty on the work and we would have to pay for a service call.  Considering we paid a couple thousand (I think) [incl. a replacement for a 22 year old unit and the new under-sink 4-filter pure water gizmo] for the unit in Aug 2010, that seems unreasonable.  I called to complain and the woman on the line in Spokane, said she would check with the service mgr., but it probably was not covered.  She was supposed to get back to me that afternoon and did not.  A week later I called again and asked for her by name.  She claimed she left a message on my phone the next day, but I failed to receive it.  So while I had her on the phone, I requested to have the Service Manager (Scott) call and talk to John about what he might do to trouble shoot it.  We didn’t get a call for 2 weeks, but then he did call and luckily while John was in the house, and he talked to us both.  He agreed to send a repairman at no cost to us.  John was ready to write the company a huge complaint.

Continuing with this morning.  John added some bird seed to the garbage can outside my window, and put apples on the other side of the fence (6’).  In not too long there was a visitor doe.  I got a picture of her behind the garbage can and there were some birds on the feeder.  One of them is reddish (purple finch).  Very pretty.

Monday, Jan 2 Nothing new at the Rock ‘N’ Ponderosa.  We had 4 deer back behind the fence in the backyard early, lots of birds at the feeder, and then the doe returned to the front yard.  John went out and shooed her over the fence and threw her three apples down the driveway.  I’m afraid that will be considered a reward and she might return for more later.  Nothing on tap today but cleaning up the den for entrance by the repairman tomorrow.  Many more deer around the back fence several times today.  We just counted 7 we were watching after eating a late lunch.  John’s gone out to move the horses to their other pasture and he turned off the heat in the cat house.  It is warm outside today.  I’ve been alternately working on a graduate reference letter for a former student to go on for her Ph.D. and on the 2011 greetings.  (Link to latter will be at the bottom of this newsletter, finally).

Well, we never cleaned up the den as planned, but while I was doing dishes, the doe came back to eat more Mt. Ash berries by standing on her hind legs.  She was doing such a neat dance that I decided to take a movie.  Now have to figure how to get it on my web site, somehow.  I’m not sure that I can, but I might try.  Figured the easiest way was to put it on You Tube, and then link to it from my web page.  Only problem was I was holding the camera vertical to get her all in the picture frame, so the movie is sideways.  At least I have it documented.  Pretty cool.

Tuesday, Jan 3 began early at 8:00 a.m. with a call from my bakery lady friend that the Apple Fritters were just like I like them today.  Then we worked on the computer and eventually did a little to get ready for the repairman coming.  I actually left the house at 11:00 and he called a few minutes later telling John he was south of town (about 20 minutes away).

Good news on the Culligan repair story.  The technician who came was the one who put in our original new system in 2010.  I missed all this so it is indirect from what John told me this afternoon.  The problem with no water was related to one of 4 filters, and one of them was clogged, and kept the water from coming through.  The tech had a special little tool for putting into the line to bypass filters one by one to see where the problem was.

He was kind enough to leave one with John so if it happens again, John can determine which one to replace. [It is just a piece of molded plastic – about 19¢ worth.]  It may have been a defective filter to clog so soon after replacement.  He also replaced a large filter on our big softener which was full of brown gunk, and left a replacement one for John to check and possibly replace in 6 months.  There was no charge, which has made us have a renewed faith in the local office (if Spokane can be considered local).  Culligan supplies the equipment but does not own or operate the local places.    We were ready to broadcast widely about the poor service and complain but the folks in Spokane must have sensed the frustration and irritation we were having, and decided to override the policy.  The Culligan “guide” that comes with the system is a totally useless piece of parrot barf (John’s injection).  Most of 60 pages is quite technical water quality stuff of no practical use.  Under “troubleshooting” one can find several totally blank pages.  The paper was worth something before they printed this nonsense on it.  Now it is bird cage liner.  Good Grief!

While John was home helping with the Culligan system, I was having an acupuncture.  It was one of the best I have had.  There is a definite progress from what I could do with my left arm and shoulder movement several months ago.  The combination of it with massage seems to be helping.

After that treatment I took the Subaru to the Collision Center for an evaluation and estimate of damage costs and to schedule it in for fixing.  While there the manager cleaned all the glass shards out of the back seat and floor, and also the front seat.  He replaced John’s cardboard insert with plastic but I do not like it at all.  It rattles loudly in the wind, and so much that inside the car one has to turn the radio volume to 22 to hear it.  John will replace the cardboard to cover the plastic, or else replace the card board and put the plastic over it to protect from rain and snow.  He ended up taping the cardboard over the plastic for fear once he removed the plastic he might not be able to reapply it.

On home to a call from my doctor’s nurse–the mammogram images appear to be all right when looking at the magnification ones, but I need to go back in six months to be sure all is well still.

Wednesday, Jan 4 (John’s Birthday).  Let’s see.  Wow, what a day.  It was filled up from early, fighting with a Ford Foundation Fellowship letter of referral I had to do for a student to enter a Ph.D. program with this request for funding.  It was not your normal letter.  It has taken me forever to write it.  I had to respond in a nontraditional way to 10 different paragraph questions with multiple parts, and I had to submit the results on the web.

My first attempt this morning went fine, but I reviewed it (at their suggestion) on line before submitting it.  When I found a mistake I corrected it and went through the process as defined, but it wouldn’t accept.  Rats.  I needed to leave the house at 11:15 and I was running out of time.  I went through tech support and finally at the last minute got it submitted.

Then I played music (and ate) at the Food Bank Soup Kitchen.  Always a very good meal.  We play from 12 to 12:30, eat, and then I go to exercise class at 1:30.   While there the guys that work there heard it was John’s birthday and offered me a Red Velvet Chocolate Cake to bring to his evening birthday party.  They know he has delivered apples there to donate in the past.  Also he went with me once and helped set up chairs for the Wednesday lunch.  I received a phone call from John that he had chipped off a part of a tooth while eating a cracker at lunch.  He was able to get an appt to have a temporary put on at 3:00.  I left the adult activity center and dropped a check by the dentist, and went on to pick up our pizza.

It really was a wild day today, filled with activities.  In the evening, we went to a birthday party dinner for him across the street at our neighbors.  We had the pizza that I picked it up on my way home (reheated at their place).  I had ordered special donuts (chocolate old fashioned with nuts), but when I went to pick them up the lady said they are not the usual ones John likes.  The cook made them with a lighter milk chocolate that almost looked like maple.  I told her I would pass.

Nice birthday party with our neighbors for John:  The lady of the house made lime gelatin salad with pears to go with the pizza.  She also gave John homemade chocolate-nut fudge.  We had a nice party, and she served the cake with ice cream.

Thursday, Jan 5  The wind is howling today.  Rained last night, but the day was nicely overcast with some sunshine.  We had only one trip to town, and John let me off to play my music at the nursing home on the hill (Royal Vista), where we had 10 musicians show.

The nicest part of the day was that our new guitar player, Minerva, gave me her Viola.  It was given to her 50 years ago, by her dad, and she took a few lessons but didn’t stick with it.  She now is learning the harmonica to play along with her guitar.  She says she has been carting this all over the country for all this time, and wanted to find it a good home.  She did not want to sell it.  Her dad is still alive at 84.  She has no one in her family to give it to, and she wanted to give it to a friend.  I’m very pleased to be the recipient.  It’s a beautiful instrument, made in Mittenwald, Germany, and distributed by William Lewis & Son, Chicago, Illinois.  I tuned it and played a couple scales on it.  It is similar to a violin, but has a different lower string (C), and the same strings as the lower 3 on a violin (G, D, A), but no high E string.  It’s pretty cool and I think I will start alternating with it.  I love playing the harmony on my violin with the group.  The Viola is recognized for being written into harmony parts in orchestras, and interestingly, many composers played the viola.  “Dvořák played the viola and apparently said that it was his favorite instrument:  his chamber music is rich in important parts for the viola.  Another Czech composer, Bedřich Smetana, included a significant viola part in his quartet, “From My Life”: the quartet begins with an impassioned statement by the viola.  It should also be noted that Bach, Mozart and Beethoven all occasionally played the viola part in chamber music.” (From Wikipedia)

While I was playing music, John delivered a package to our clarinet player who, with others, was in the atrium of our grocery store seeking donations for veterans.  He also visited the Dollar Tree.  There he got two $1.00 watches with clip-ons so he can connect them outside on his jackets.  He has lost the recent wrist band one he got for $1.  Turns out one is broken and can’t be set, so we will have to take it back for exchange.

Friday, Jan 6  I was off early to attend and perform at the Adult Activity Center free potluck.  Food is on at 11:30.  It was Baked Potato Soup with ham and made by the staff at the center.  All participants brought potluck items and it was really generous and varied today.  There were homemade muffins, cornbread, slaw with red peppers, deviled eggs (my favorite), various fruit salads, including a Waldorf one.  Tons of desserts and the center provides ice cream.  At 12:15, an accordionist and I sang and played old time songs from 1900.  I was on the fiddle.  Everyone in the audience has the words and sings along, enjoying themselves immensely.  We even had two requests near the end.  Visited with a few of the people, and then we had exercise class.

Then afterwards I took one of the ladies in my class to run some errands around town, and then dropped her off on my way home.  She has macular degeneration but lives alone and does amazingly well.  She normally rides the Hope Source bus, but today she needed some short stops to a couple of places which Hope Source does not prefer to do.  I was more than willing to help her out.

Then on home where John took me on a walk (with the dogs) through the pasture to see all the brushing work he has been doing over the past couple of months.  I had a feeling of what he was doing from his description, but seeing it first hand was quite enlightening.  He has extended the pasture by clearing out a bunch of overgrown bushes and trees.  He has created a couple of tall brush piles for quail cover, and he has cut some of the larger trees and “bushes” for use as firewood.  He is cleaning up a real overgrown mess which would be a fire hazard, should one get started.  He will be cutting through a path to the creek and to the other side, so it will serve as a fire break and be a nice training ground for us to ride our horses across a creek to train for trail riding.

Saturday, Jan 7  I had a much needed haircut by my neighbor (around the block, Celia), who has cut my hair since I moved to town in 1988.  John spent time brushing again, and I washed dishes and worked on the blog.  Also we talked to John’s cousin and sister, both in PA.  The neatest thing is that I finished (I think) the final draft of our 2011 newsletter, so you will be able to check it out before most people know about it.  We realize that only a few diehards still follow the blog, but those of you who do, thanks, and for letting us know you do.  It gives us incentive to keep it up.

A link is below to follow to the 2011 newsletter from us, and within it are a bunch more links to follow for enlightenment to our exciting lives.  There is even a You Tube link to a movie I made and put out there of the doe in our front yard on her back legs eating Mountain Ash red berries from the tree (inside a 4-foot fenced yard).  She is dancing and it is rather neat.  Only problem is I was holding the camera vertically to get all of her in the view finder, and so the movie comes out sideways.  Also, adjust your browser window to have proper placement of pictures and text.

http://www.elixant.com/~nancyh/2011Greetings.html

Hope you had a nice first week of the year.

Nancy & John

on the Naneum Fan.

Saturday, Dec 24   This was a relatively quiet day because my laptop computer was compromised, and I had none to use in the morning while John was using his (our home computer).  I spent the time well, however, going through months of receipts, organizing them, and filing.  I’m still very behind, but made an amazing dent.  Then after John’s running the dogs and feeding the horses and outside cats, we got a call from his sister in Ohio and talked for an hour.  An hour later, we called his brother in CA and talked to him and his wife for almost 3/4 hour.  Both were really nice visits.  The rest of the afternoon I spent on John’s computer creating the web greeting for 2011 from us, but cannot do anything with it till I get my computer back, which has all the software I need to create necessary files and then to get them on the web.

Sunday, Dec 25   Today is a day with our neighbors.  John is making a dish of Yams to share.  They are making a Turkey.  It is a smaller group than usual (only 5), as we had a huge Thanksgiving there with 19 people.  It is not a white Christmas, is beautiful, sunny, and around freezing temps.  Now at noonish, however, it is clouding over.  Actually we got to our neighbors at 12:45 and it started spitting snow and then snowing BIG flakes.  When we left at 4:45 the car was covered with a couple inches of snow.  Guess we ended up with a white Christmas after all.  We had a nice turkey dinner and a good visit.  They presented us with several jars of jam, and containers of frozen strawberry jam, and canned pears (I think the latter was because John helped pick them).  Their son gave us a boxed Amaryllis bulb.  Add water.  Wait.

Monday Dec 26   Cleaning kitchen counters, working on greetings newsletter, continuing to clean off disk of virus-infected laptop –all filled up my day.  Today was a day for lunch and dinner of leftovers, but all were quite good.  John went to bed early because of needing to get started early in the morning.  No reason to go to town, so we didn’t.  The Adult Activity Center is still closed for Christmas weekend, so no exercise.

Tuesday, Dec 27   The farrier is coming this morning.  John fed the birds, cats, and horses, and set them up for getting their feet trimmed.  I spent time on the phone with computer guys and have been doing more repairs on my computer laptop, trying to get it back to “normal”, whatever that is.  Later today, I must take off for acupuncture. — I’m back and I’m sort of beat from the acupuncture.  Today I got it on both sides.  Started on my back lying face down (hate the pressure with the weight of my head on my face); then turned over on my back with a pillow under my head.  My left top arm was still hurting at the end and I complained, so he rubbed on a very smelly oil (Woodlock).  I looked it up on the web, it has turpentine (hence the smell) in it. It’s supposed to be an external analgesic (for pain).  Well, it did minimize the pain, but not the pain of pungent smells I hate.  It rained a lot while I was in the office but not on me getting back to my car or driving home.  Late night success freeing space on my laptop.  However, still have two pop-up windows, apparently harmless.  At least the speed is dramatically increased and my software applications are all working again.

Wednesday, Dec 28  early to rise, but not enough time.  Cleaned up more on my computer, and got ready to roll for town for playing music at the EBRG Food Bank, where lunch was nicely baked BBQ chicken, a great cold slaw*, beans (several kinds), and apricots with cottage cheese.  Went around town doing errands, and then to exercise class.  Been doing computer stuff and we had a small dinner of leftovers tonight.

[*The term “coleslaw” arose in the 18th century as an Anglicisation of the Dutch term “koolsla”, a shortening of “koolsalade”, which means “cabbage salad”.  It is originally from Ireland and was made from leftovers.  So says http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coleslaw  ]

Thursday, Dec 29   Today began early because of needing to take Nancy to Yakima for a device check (routine every 3 months).  John let me off and a favorite tech took a wireless readout of my ICD, printed lots of charts for my file, and pronounced me most copacetic.  Meanwhile, John went down the hill to Costco to shop. It was good we did it this way, because we wouldn’t have had enough time to eat lunch in Yakima and get back in time for me to play fiddle with the group at 2:00 p.m.  We made it but only because I had driven my car to town and left it at a friend’s, so John could drop me off and continue home to unpack, run the dogs, and feed the horses.  I stayed in town after music, going to the post office and then to my massage therapist.  It was dark and raining hard as I exited.  Better than snow at this point.

Friday, Dec 30   We received a 7:30 a.m. phone call from our neighbor Kenny that 3 of our horses were out along the road.  John got them to come back.  They followed him down the 300’ driveway and through a gate he had opened.  A bit later he went to warm up the car for me – then came back to get keys for a different car.  The one I intended to take had a broken side window. (more below)

This morning is the follow-up mammogram to check out the micro-thingies mentioned last week.  Foggy and cool.  Icy roads going to town and in town and in the parking lot at the hospital.  My nine X-rays went all right.  I had a different person who is much more considerate, careful, slow, and with a gentle touch.  I complimented her at the end and told her it was much better than I had anticipated, based on my experience last week.  She thanked me for telling her, and also said, “I feel it is important to take time with each patient.”

Back to the horse story–Sometime overnight, they were running around our front yard and down/up the driveway.  There was a bit of low fence and my big Frosty will sometimes lean into such things and then carefully step over.  Others, if they are watching, may follow – less carefully, and in seconds the fence gets flattened.  Three were out.  In the dark and fog one horse turned in the narrow space between our recently repaired white car and the front fence.  Something, a knee, head, or rump, bumped into the back door passenger side and bent it in, and broke the window.

One of our friends, when he heard about the car injury, and that I hadn’t tried to reach my agent in Spokane, WA suggested I call the 24/7 number for the company.  I looked up and called the claim’s number for Safeco and told what happened.  He said “no problem” (even asked if the horses were okay), and gave me a claim number, and I will go by to get an estimate next Tuesday.  It will cost us $100 (the deductible for our comprehensive policy).  This follows the encounter with the deer back on September 12 – same car, same side.

On a brighter note, I am sitting here enjoying watching birds feeding on top of a garbage can turned upside down about 25 feet from where I sit.  John spreads seeds there.  There are Purple Finches (Cassini, I think), sparrows, black capped Chickadees and Oregon juncos.  The occasional Blue Jay will come.

Okay.. We are doing apples.  I just sat down for John to catch up.  He washes and slices, cleans out the seeds, dips in lemon juice, and then I take them and put them on the shelves of the dehydrator.  Two of the bottom ones are filled with “banana” apples, which are good “keepers”.  We will try to get more of them next year… because our time is limited getting to these chores.

Snowed tonight and now we have had very high winds for the past couple of hours.  The highest gust at the airport 5 miles southwest of us measured at 47 mph, and in the last hour it has gone down to 38 mph.

Saturday, December 31   Happy New Year’s Eve!

After a bunch of work over the past several weeks, and recently this week giving a lot of attention to putting it on a web page for inclusion as a link in our 2011 newsletter (still under construction), here is a story for you to check out at the end of the year about our construction of a Cat House.   What a run on sentence that last was!

http://www.elixant.com/~nancyh/2011cathouse.html

I spent most of the day writing letters and filling out forms for 3 of my prior students, and I’m only done with one of them.  I need to print out a letter for another, get it in an envelope and mail it next week, and the other I have an hour or so of work left on, but I talked to her on the phone today, and she is gone until tomorrow afternoon, so I have more time.

John went out to feed the horses.  I was working on the computer and got a phone call from Atlanta, GA from the 52-year old daughter of my 3rd cousin (77) who is dying of cancer.  Really very sad.  What a wicked disease.  Happily I visited her while in Atlanta in May.  A newly made friend in my exercise class since 2010 just died from the same disease.

Now John is working on slicing apples again (all Red Romes), and I will join him in a minute to place them on the shelves of the dehydrator.  Now I’m finishing this blog for  this week, and then I will have to work on our news and holiday (digital) newsletter.  It will not be done tomorrow, so I might as well just wish people a Happy New Year and leave out the Christmas stuff, or change it (from what I intended), to say instead, hope you HAD a Merry Christmas or Happy Chanukah.

Happy New Year’s from us on the eve thereof.

Nancy & John

On the Naneum Fan

prohibiting radio stations from playing any Christmas music before December 13^th .

Sunday, Dec 18  The Frost Spirit moved on.  Sun and wind took care of the white crystalline landscape.  Pine trees went from white to green, fence posts to brown, and the fence wires are again dull-metallic.  As close to magic as anything gets.  John took the dogs for two runs today and also filled and dumped a PU load of pasture stealing brush.  I traveled 15 minutes to a friend’s house in Ellensburg, then another 30 minutes from there to the Bluegrass Jam session at the Swauk-Teanaway Grange.  We took her car and next month I’ll drive one of our AWD Subarus.  We’ve had remarkably little ice and snow on the roads.  Can that last?

Monday, Dec 19   I’m not going to town today, but will tackle the mess (these messes) on the counter, after I load the dishwasher.  It is nice and sunny so John is outside.

Tuesday, Dec  20   It was a long day, but went all right; did make it to the dentist, and they fixed my pulled-off gold crown with some sort of cement which has to be redone after Jan 1, when they return to the office.  Meanwhile, it has some decay that will need to be fixed and built up.  Turns out that is NOT the tooth with a previous root canal, so I’m fortunate it is NOT hurting me.  I’m just hopeful that it does NOT have to have a root canal.  Too much money recently spent on teeth, and we go to Yakima (50 miles) for roots, as recommended by our regular dentist.  EBRG docs do root canals but this fellow is an ‘endodontics” specialist.

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

Regarding the temporary repair of my broken tooth, it is a relief that the  roughness on my tongue and inside cheek is GONE.  Phew.  Then the hygienist cleaned my teeth & polished them.  Nice feeling.  Had 5 minutes to get to acupuncture, and made it.

Had my session with the owner of the business, who is an acupuncturist and massage therapist.  He figures there is a link between my open heart surgery – the “cracked sternum” and all that, leaving me with a stainless steel suture-job and scar down the middle of my chest — from heart surgery and the tenseness and muscle pains in my side and shoulder.  I really liked what he did, and he went 15 minutes over; was okay with me, but surprised us both.  He found my spleen was indicating to him through his pulse evaluation, combined with my clearing my throat, and phlegm heard throughout my body – that I might try eliminating dairy products; could be I have an issue with milk proteins. The key phrase seems to be “milk protein intolerance” or MPI rather than lactose intolerance:

(Warning from Nancy; when proofing additions, such as this link below, that John made, I’m turned off by the spelling in the Answers [and this is from a medical “free” dictionary].  Maybe it is a “foreiner” writing.)

http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/_/discussion.aspx?topic=milk+intolerance

I am going to cut out ice cream, cheese, butter, yogurt (haven’t had any recently), cottage cheese, chocolate milk and cream, and see if it will help me, even with joint pains, I have been having.  John found a nice link on line that explains this better than I have above.

http://www.livestrong.com/article/292715-muscle-joint-pain-from-milk-protein

However, my personal doctor didn’t think the tests mentioned in this link would really tell much.  Thus, the plan is to cut out milk and milk products and watch for any improvement – or not.

Grabbed a roast beef sandwich in town to eat, ending up at a nursing home to sing Christmas carols, and play my violin.  Tonight there was another violinist to help and a piano player.

Wednesday, Dec 21 THE SOLSTICE, complete with a party tonight, with food, song, and drink (which I cannot have).  The morning started all right and I got to the fasting blood draw and to the mammogram.  It was a little tougher than the last time because of my shoulder, but mostly because of my defibrillator that is in the way.  The technician had to retake one of them, on the left.  Then I got home and had breakfast.  I was all ready to go play at the food bank and got a call that my friend could not play today because she is in court.  I will still go to the Adult Activity Center for exercise and foot care and to pay my bill at the dentist from yesterday. (We pay by check and get a 5% discount)– better than nothing, I guess.

Then tonight is the solstice party and the hostess just sent me a song called Drive the Cold Winter Away, which I have to listen to and learn the melody to play along tonight.  John just printed the words and I will play the tune from the web.  Now I will have chili with him for lunch.  We made it … long evening, good party, nice people, and good music.
We stayed quite late – for old folks.  Weren’t the last to leave, but nearly.  Everyone liked our offerings:  apple cider, dried apples, and John’s red Rome applesauce… all quite a hit.  Good meal. We took the applesauce because the hostess always provides latkes (from Yiddish, from either Russian or Ukrainian apparently), also known as grated potato pancakes.

http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/latkes_or_latkas_potato_pancakes/

As with most things with a long history, explanations often get a bit complex:

http://nancyfriedman.typepad.com/away_with_words/2008/12/word-of-the-week-latke.html  [read the comments]

Anyway, the fare included latkes, as well as scalloped potatoes with blue Hubbard squash and chicken, asparagus wrapped in cheese and ham, roasted garlic bread, really great beets, hot, and spicy, but not pickled, pumpkin pie, lemon tart in a large pie pan (my favorite).  Regarding Blue Hubbard squash, we wonder if this is fact or fiction:

http://www.thebigapplefarm.com/bluehubbard.htm

More here:

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

We are both really tired tonight, because this morning started out much earlier for me, having to be at the hospital early.

Thursday, Dec 22   John worked this morning in the yard, brushing on the edge of the pasture.  I cleaned off counters and washed dishes.  We  had an hour of music at Hearthstone, one of the neater places.  Today they gave our group a huge basket of goodies Mandarin oranges, candies, a gift of something, and probably some other stuff I missed.  One of the ladies in the group distributed some, and also was going to unwrap the included gift and portion it out for the rest of us.  We play next Thursday in town.  Today, we did almost all Christmas songs, and we have the lyrics typed out for them to sing along.  They sang and participated really well, and we had a good turnout also of players (ten!).  While we were playing, John visited the gasoline station (price has finally gone down some !) and the grocery store.  He came with me to attend another Christmas Open House at a couple in their eighties who are both in my exercise class.  It was especially nice because we have mutual friends who were there, and we had a nice visit.  There was also enough food to eat that we won’t need dinner.  We had ham and bread, little quiche like things, hot apple cider, many, many different kinds of cookies, and I did not try them all.  Also, some party mix of Corn Chex, Wheat Chex, pretzels, and more cookies (ha ha).  John and I carried a plate of fruitcake pieces and dried apples.  Today the fruitcake went better than the dried apples, (mostly Red Romes because they were so colorful), but our hostess took a few handfuls for them to have later and a couple pieces of fruitcake as well.  You just never know.

Came home to a call from my family physician’s nurse about my mammogram results yesterday.  It seems I have to go back in soon for a re-take with magnification views.  They assured me I was not to worry that it does not mean I have cancer, but they need to check further.  I am showing micro-calcifications in the upper and lower quadrant of my right breast, and in the upper quadrant of my left.  Here is what the Mayo Clinic says about this. On a mammogram, breast calcifications can appear as large white dots or dashes (macrocalcifications) or fine, white specks, similar to grains of salt (microcalcifications).  Microcalcifications are almost always noncancerous.  So, this will happen ASAP, and we’ll go from there.

One more comment from a different source:  Microcalcifications are quite tiny bits of calcium, and may show up in clusters, or in patterns (such as circles or lines) and are associated with extra cell activity in breast tissue.  Usually the extra cell growth is not cancerous, but sometimes tight clusters of microcalcifications can indicate early breast cancer.  Scattered microcalcifications are usually a sign of benign breast tissue.  Regardless, please say a prayer.

Friday, Dec 23   Awoke this morning to a call setting up a second mammogram with magnification.  This is scheduled for a week from today  at 8:45.  Yuk, an early start, BUT, it must be done and before the end of the year, so I should be thankful there was an opening and that the technician who has worked in “mammography” since the 1970s is not taking off.  She has been through much technology change over the years.  She said she started with “balloons” (must have been for support) in order to get the X-rays.  I need to look that up, or maybe just ask her!

In the news this morning:  A large metallic ball fell out of the sky on a remote grassland in Namibia (in Nov), and  NASA and the European space agency were contacted.  The hollow ball with a circumference of 1.1 metres (43 inches) was found near a village in the north of the country some 750 kilometres (480 miles) from the capital Windhoek.  With a diameter of 35 centimetres (14 inches), the ball has a rough surface and appears to consist of “two halves welded together”.  They have determined it is a helium (or other gas) container made of Titanium from a Russian Space satellite.  The tank is from a Salyut 7 – Kosmos 1686 spacecraft that failed in 1991.  So why did this interest John?  The geography secretary (Marilyn) and hubby (several years ago) were in that area on a hunting safari – Do you suppose they walked on this land where the space junk fell?  So, the connections are:  the USSR, space, Namibia, Marilyn, and us.

My laptop computer acquired (again) (how?) rogue anti-spyware program this morning while I was trying to download Auld Lang Syne.  This download entered and is keeping me from accessing the web unless I have it scan my pc.  So, this is being finished on the big computer in the back bedroom.  I was able to bring my text on a jump drive.

There is a “kill process” for this crap-program but it looks complicated:

http://www.2-spyware.com/remove-xp-home-security-2012.html

We are going to send this on Friday night this week.  Nothing is scheduled for Christmas Eve, and Christmas day we are going to our neighbors to celebrate.  It will not be a snowy Christmas here although late in the day there may be rain, with a change to snow on Monday.  Next week is shaping up to be a weather mess but not serious.

Hope your Christmas weekend is wonderful and your next week is a good one.

Nancy & John,

on the Naneum Fan

“Dentists are incapable of asking questions that require a simple yes or no answer.”

http://www.dentalindia.com/jokes.html#.Tu1LTLJFu7s

This link above does have some cute dental jokes, but the first one seems incomplete.

Sunday, Dec 11   Ice fog again, making pretty wintry scenes, so both John and I got out our cameras and took some pictures.  Maybe a couple will make it into our season’s greetings newsletter, if we ever make time to write it.  It’s been an otherwise lazy day, just entering phone numbers into our new cell phones, and cleaning up around the kitchen and counters in the den.  I’m so far behind, with many things to do, and no energy or desire to start.  John has decided it is time to inspect the apples stored in the dark and cold garage and make an apple pie or just slice enough to fill the dehydrator.   …   We never did anything with apples, but we did play with our new phones.  Now he’s back in the back bedroom/computer room talking to his sister on his new phone that I fixed with “speed dial” numbers. That’s cool.  She is number 3 so all he does is hit 3# — but it doesn’t work from our den, only from the southeast room of the house.  It operates from AT&T towers – the nearest is 10 miles away.  The phones are from the new Motorola and the provider is Consumer Cellular:

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

If you read at the above link you will learn that this company markets to seniors (that’s the p.c. term for old folks) and keeps things simple.  Our roofer (as in shingles on the house roof) friend suggested this company and he is not a “senior” so we didn’t know.  We don’t text, or tweet, or bleat – although we sometimes snore – we have nice cameras, and buying and listening to music while birds still sing seems silly.  So, a simple phone, a simple plan, and less cost than before.

Two more letters for Morris’ book tonight; one from Japan!

Monday, Dec 12   What a morning.  I was on the phone to Culligan and to Consumer Cellular (CC) about our malfunctioning equipment (they –Culligan– said they would check and call me back in the afternoon; they still have not called) and about my transfer of John’s phone number to the new CC service.  Then John came in and told me to get out in the next 3 minutes to see the silver frost in the sunshine before it melted.  I was more than 3 minutes getting off the phone with the cell provider, but I made it out in time to walk around the inside pasture and near the round pens to see the beauty with blue sky backing the glistening crystals on all the needles of the trees and everything else.  Gorgeous.  He took many photos of tree cones and branches around our yard and also of Woody in his (her?) favorite place in the hay shed to watch the pasture goings on.  Then John left for town to get his teeth cleaned.

I just got a call from the lady who we took heaters to saying she wanted to bring them back — their propane furnace igniter having been replaced this morning.

With John in town, we are going to attempt a meet-up there with her and him to transfer the heaters.  We’ve been playing phone tag.  He was having to wait in long lines for gasoline at a place in town where their regular is priced 5 or 6 cents cheaper.  He met her in Safeway parking lot and transferred the heaters.  Now mine is back in my bathroom, and turned on low because it is so cold back there in the back of the house.  This house is L shaped and LOUSY (is that what the L is for?), for pushing air to the back rooms.  [John says:  The problem is the far corners cool first while the temperature in the central hallway (not a spot where one lingers) spurs the heat pump into action.  Thus, the thermostat has to be set to about 73 to keep the far corners comfortable.]  The second oil heater had originally come from the unheated garage, where we have another, turned on next to the water system.  In not too long, we will have a little dessert and go to sleep.  It is 10:10 as I write this.

Tuesday, Dec 13   Today apples finally got put into the dehydrator, and I took off to drop off a check to cover John’s teeth cleaning yesterday.  We get a 5% discount for writing a check and not putting on a credit card.  Worth it, but John forgot and left his check at home.  I had to go to a 4:00 Massage Therapy (shoulder and neck) appt., so I dropped it off.  Then I grabbed my free 6” heated sandwich (not bad, but might not be worth the normal $4.59 price)– tuna, cheese, tomatoes & lettuce.  Then drove on down to the place where I was going to play music, and ate my sandwich, visiting with some of the residents, who were happy to see me.  We started about 6:35 and played and sang Christmas carols.  They love to sing along and do, and we had copies of music to give them, which made it nice.  There was an amazing participation.  I was the ONLY violin, along with a piano.  We did fine.  The rest of the group was just singers, and the piano player and I also sang.

Wednesday, Dec 14   John got up early and drove to Yakima to get his tooth looked at (possible root canal and ended up having one, to a tune of $1264, but that’s not the finish of it, just has a temporary filling in place now).

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

Also John took his Subaru in for servicing (free 3000-mile, as part of purchase contract), but another maintenance item that is required at 30,000 miles (costing $717, includes $54 sales tax).  He took a trip to Costco while there, and got off for a lot less money.

I played music at noon at the food bank soup kitchen and we were fed afterwards:  Chicken Teriyaki & veggies from scratch with Chinese noodles on top, salad, and a lovely dessert  — yellow cake with white frosting and a generous layer of raspberry jam/sauce.  Then off for exercise and after to deliver an envelope of letters for Morris’ book to his doctor’s office for him to pick up tomorrow when he’s in town.  Got to the door of the office and thought the envelope was rather “light” so I looked inside.  I had never put the papers in the envelope after addressing it and writing notes on the front for delivery to him.  So, came on back home to retrieve them.

I arrived shortly after John had gotten home and was unloading the car.  He left some cat chow in the car for me to take to my neighbor.  When I came to get the insides of the envelope, I also picked up a bag of paperback and hard books I had picked up at yard sales, which John either had read or was not interested in reading.  Packaged them up to donate to the Adult Activity Center and took them along with a CD for a lady who works there, and also I “loaned” them a stuffed reindeer with a bell and red/green tie around his neck and a red nose !! (I got it at a yard sale and they decorate the center really nice for every season, so he will have a special place somewhere (he’s on top of a tall bookcase in the main room, behind the “free table”).  He is over a foot tall, with big brown antlers.  I hope to get him back, but then would have to worry how to keep him for next year, so perhaps I should just donate him to the center.  Tonight John made a great dinner of roasted pork ribs, with a great piece of Rosemary bread toast, and seasonally-red Rome applesauce.

Thursday, Dec 15   Music in the afternoon, at Dry Creek, one of our favorite places, another assisted living place (serves meals), but the residents have their own apts and are quite with it (most of them).

John went with me to town today in my car, let me off to play music (almost all Christmas music), filled it with gasoline, and then he went to the store and to Goodwill where he found him a new wallet to replace his leather one that fell apart.  It cost him $5.  I guess that is not too bad, and it is brand new.  I only recently heard on the radio that they carried new gifts as well as recycled clothes.  My my.  [John: They have used books!]

We hadn’t seen a couple of the wild cats recently, but the food was being eaten.  Today John saw Woody playing with Rascal, and when he went tonight to add food and water at the cat house, out came Little Sue.  Later I saw Big Sue under the tamaracks outside the back computer room window.  I was back there getting his phone fixed to work with the ported number he has had for 2 years.  Few people have it and we already had 2  wrong calls on the temporary number he’d been using till this SIM card arrived.  Problem is there are limited phone numbers and they get recycled.

John is making a scalloped potato dish –extra large size — to have with our leftover pork ribs from last night.  The largeness is to convert raw stored potatoes into cooked frozen potatoes.

Tonight, we finalized the transfer of John’s number on his cell phone of the past two years, and when the reception seemed limited, the customer service rep on the other end in Portland, did something and sent a software request to the number, which allowed us much better coverage from our house (even to the den); we shall see if that continues.  Don’t know why it wouldn’t.  Maybe John will use his phone more, now that he doesn’t have to walk to the middle of the 7-acre pasture to dial out or receive calls.  [John: Wishful thinking on her part.  Why do I need to call anyone?  I’d have to stop what I want to be doing and bother someone that is doing what he or she wants to be doing.]

Friday, Dec 16   A lot to do today.  Scholarship luncheon at school, potluck.  I had a great meal and was eating a piece of candy for dessert that had chocolate over caramel and nuts, and sadly I pulled off the top of my gold crown (it is over my old root canal from Cincinnati back in the 1960s).  Now here we are – chose to go without dental insurance and both with a problem in the last month of the year,  but compared to John’s, mine shouldn’t be as expensive.  (I hope that too is not wishful thinking on my part !  Then I went to the Adult Activity Center where they threw a nice Christmas party for quite a few of the regulars.  I didn’t eat any food, but got to participate in choosing a gift and had my picture taken with Santa.  The gifts I got were butter cookies in 2 little canisters and a large number of small balls for decorating a Christmas tree (which I gave away this evening to our hostess for the potluck).  Then I did exercise class.  Came home and worked on a transposition of music (Shamus O’Brien:  here is a link to a less than professional effort)

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

for our clarinet player to be able to play with the rest of us.  Ours is in the key of D, and hers needs to be in the Key of E and each note pushed up a full note.

[Shamus O’Brien is a poem (1896) written by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu and the following gives a sense of one more sad Irish tale . . .]

http://www.oldandsold.com/opera/opera-86.shtml

While I’m at the work of making music, John worked on making Acorn squash.

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

http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/classic_baked_acorn_squash/

For large gatherings, such as pot-lucks, John cuts the squash into chunks about as wide as a Peace Silver Dollar (1.5 in or 38.1 mm)

http://coinauctionshelp.com/page47.html

Interesting history and controversy here:

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

The many small chunks cook easily and allow diners to select only what they want.

I returned from the cold computer back room and found Johni napping, and so I fixed the dessert we are also taking tonight.  It is another potluck with our music group at 6:00 p.m. and a jam session afterwards.  Nice to be busy.  Oh, today before I left, John looked out and saw a deer on top of a table (on top of two barrels where he has fed the birds).   He managed to come in and take out his camera and get the photo before she got down.  For sure, that will go in our 2011 greetings newsletter.

Saturday, Dec 17   Today at 2:00 is our playing Christmas songs at the Briarwood Commons Retirement facility.  This is definitely apartment living and they gather together only for special things, such as bridge, music, and soup dinners.  They always feed us afterwards, and it is quite a spread, so I won’t need dinner tonight.

It was an amazing fare:  two baked lasagna dishes, salad, rolls, and lots of different desserts:  cookies, candy, sweet cupcakes with cinnamon/brown sugar and nuts,  several different cakes (a popcorn cake I have never ever seen), check out the link below for the recipe, with pictures.

http://cookiesandcups.com/popcorn-cake/

This coming week brings the December Solstice:

http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/december-solstice.html

Be sure to celebrate – days start getting longer.  In the link above scroll down until you find ‘Solstice’s influence on cultures’ and in the second line there is an embedded link to ‘various traditions’ that is itself interesting and, if you have more time to waste, on to related topics.

Hope your next week is a good one.

Nancy & John

still on the Naneum Fan

Sunday, Dec 4 found us doing normal morning chores, and taking off at noon for the Swauk-Teanaway Grange 35 minutes away.  We drove around the Swauk Prairie loop road to view the Bison herd, . . .

http://www.spbison.com/

. . . on our way to a lovely Community Christmas dinner, with turkey, potatoes, dressing and gravy provided by the Grange.  All the rest of the food (and there was MUCH), came with individuals.  John and I took a beautiful glass platter with a  Christmas canister in the middle filled with our dried apples and a bunch of pieces of fruit cake surrounding it on the circular12”-diameter plate.  We met friends from Ellensburg there, and the program included the upper county choir doing “Broadway” Christmas songs and there were a few sing-alongs as well.  There were slightly over 100 people there.

Just as we returned over the hill and into the Kittitas Valley, the sun was setting about 4:00 p.m.  By the time we got to our road and headed north back to the hills, it was gone, and John was beginning to be concerned about exercising the dogs and feeding the horses before dark.  We got home about 4:13.  He made it out and back before it was completely dark, as it was by 5:00 p.m.  We ate so much food that we will not need any dinner tonight.  At least I did and won’t want more.

Monday, Dec 5  Awoke to another day with a lousy night’s rest.  Must have been from too much rich food.

Very sad news arrived.  Abdominal cancer finally claimed the only son (at 50 yrs) of my first geography teacher and his wife.  I had been a sitter for him way back when.

Today I’m dropping off more letters for Morris’ Memory Book at his doctor’s office for him to pick up tomorrow–9 more new ones and additions (pictures and text) to 5 others.  Then on to my exercise class and I will meet John at the car repair shop at the end for him to drop off the old truck.  This morning I packaged up the moccasins that didn’t fit John and we put in a return bag for the mailbox.  I’m happy to report the package was picked up and sent on its way.  Got a bill in the mail for $8.97 for a couple hundred dollars worth of pulmonary tests they have to run on me every year (because of being on Amiodarone).  I called to question it, and was told not to worry that Group Health had screwed up their records on several peoples’ charges and just to wait to see if it got straightened out.  If still there next month, I’m to call it to her attention.  She has already reported their “overpayment” to them, and in adjusting it something went awry.  Never pay a medical bill without questioning.

Tuesday, Dec 6  Morning as usual except added to it was a call to my first geography professor/mentor and his wife about the loss of their son.  Now getting ready to go to town for a doctors appointment.  Nothing much new but my discontent with Subway.  They advertised a sandwich for $2 for the month of December.  I stopped for a late lunch, but they wanted me to buy it with a drink and chips for an additional $3.37.  That total ($5.37) was not part of the advertisement.  When I complained they said they were not participating in the national campaign.  So, I left the store and will not go back again.  That is false advertising to me if they have a franchise.  Lost my business.  I lodged a complaint on the national web site.  (More below.)

Wednesday, Dec 7  It’s sad to remember this is Pearl Harbor Day.  I awoke at 5:00 a.m. to a horrible very realistic dream (not about the bombing), but I am happy it was a dream.  I managed to get up, get something to calm me down, walk down the hall, feed the cat, and go back to sleep.  Today is pick up the PU day.  I dropped John at the repair shop, when I went to play music and eat at the Food Bank Soup Kitchen.  He has lots of cooked stew so will not attend with me.  Then I have to lead my exercise class because our normal leader is not there today.

Too bad John decided against attending the food bank lunch with me.  We had BBQ pork that had been donated (20 pound shoulder) and cooked all night.  It came with slaw and applesauce.  So yummy.

Tonight I have been busy baking the last of the cookies …phew.  Must have done 6 or 7 dozen tonight all by myself.  John has been working on searching for filters for our Culligan unit, among other web surfing.  I’m ready to call him to come take out this last batch.  He came out a couple of batches back (I only do a dozen at a time cooking about 12 minutes).  John ate some when he came out.  I don’t eat till I’m done.

I’m a good one to shell crabs too (from the southern GA beaches).  I don’t eat as I shell, but everyone else in my family did.  I prefer to have a plate and quiet and maybe a nice view, and a bowl of butter to dunk it in. HA HA.  Boy that takes me WAY back to when I was a kid.  I spent summers in Savannah, GA with my cousins, and sometimes a month on Sullivan’s Island, SC with more cousins.  I learned to ski and surf board (board tied on the boat and pulled behind) on the Intracoastal Waterway  – in case you were thinking Savannah is near the Atlantic Ocean:

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

Got a phone call tonight from the Subway owner of 2 of the 3 stores here in town.  He apologized and told me they did not make as much as other franchises around the US and one of the reasons was because WA State has a higher minimum wage than any other state.  It is $8.67 here and $7.25 is the federal minimum.  I didn’t realize states set their own.  GA is below.  AL is the same (actually has none).  But then certain cities (Santa Cruz, CA) are even higher–$13 or $15 (without benefits).  CA State is $8.00.  Arkansas is really low at $6.25.

He also is going to send me 4 coupons for a free six inch sandwich.  I told him that was not necessary, but he said he did not want to lose my business.  He supposedly had told his employees if someone came in and asked specifically for that $2 sandwich they were supposed to fix it.  He said they have done it on several occasions, but he apologized they did not in my case.

Okay, it’s too early to go to bed, but both of us are really tired.  Oh, I have to tell you about dinner and biscuits made with a little chocolate milk.  John found some “old” Bisquick that had never been opened.  It was past the expiration date so we couldn’t give it to the food bank.  We had just bought a new package at Costco last week.  So, he decided to make some biscuits to go with our beef stew dinner that finally got cooked over two days.  The only milk we had in the house was chocolate (I use for taking my meds).  He split the liquid required into half choc milk and half water.  It made pinkish-brown biscuits but they were very tasty.

Thursday, Dec 8  We awoke to beautiful sunshine and blue skies, but the valley below us (just 6 miles away but 700 feet lower) was shrouded in heavy cold fog.  John had heard that on the radio, but we got a call from a fellow down the road saying he wasn’t going to be at music today.  He said it was socked in there at their house.

Today was music at the Rehab where I was for 7 weeks during early 2010.  Nice to go back on these terms, but sad to see people in there who are deteriorating.  For dinner John made meatloaf along with acorn squash.

Friday, Dec 9   Awoke to bright sunshine again today, but cold temps (18).  So it is reasonably cold and appears to be going to stay that way.  Ground’s frozen.  John started the mower and took the tops off the strawberry patch, then covered that and young aspargus with straw.  He tucked some into the base of the blackberries too. Our Indiania Berry booklet

https://indianaberry.com/index.php

arrived this week and our order is in.  Earlier this year we sampled some golden raspberries and Indiana Berry sells “bare root” plants for $3 each.  Compare that to this:

http://www.highcountrygardens.com/catalog/product/82807/

Last year he bought two types of strawberries and next spring he will add a third variety.  It is said that when men make plans, the gods laugh.  Anyway, John plans to plant another variety in 2013 and then start replacing any that start the expected decline:

http://strawberryplants.org/2010/05/growing-strawberries/

On this site, scroll down to the ‘renovation’ part.  (you will need to type in renovation in the upper right of the page that comes up)

Well, I had a neck ache yesterday after playing and shifting myself to get away from the sun glare coming through the blinds, and then awoke this morning again with a pain.  I found out that the other leader of the exercise class planned to be there today, so I stayed home.  Did manage to wash a load of dishes, and work on a lot of email chores.  I need to finish a letter for a student to go to graduate school.  Been working on more letters that came in for the Memory book too.  Oh my, I need to make arrangements for our music group potluck next week.  Always something.

Saturday, Dec 10  We got up and saw the lunar eclipse at 5:15 am, and then set a timer for 6:30; however, the expected orange moon

http://sharing.myfoxatlanta.com/sharewono/photo/2011/06/14/Lunar_Eclipse_20110614074800_320_240.JPG

was not real visible behind the pine trees.   When next up about 8:30 am, Moon was down and Fog was up — the area all was covered with fog and we have been all fogged all day – slowly freezing onto all surfaces.

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3283/3157394060_7cfa92fbd3_z.jpg?zz=1

Sometimes called a ‘silver frost’, the words are used for auto paints and other things that make a search difficult.  We have many photos but they are not on the web or in the cloud or whatever.  This stuff is technically called “hoar frost” [O.E. har — hoary, gray, venerable, old]

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

My morning was spent with two wireless providers, and a long wait for customer service both places.  Today our 2-yr contract with AT&T expired, and I was able to “port” the numbers from our old cell phones to our new plan with Consumer Cellular.  They have a much better deal and there is no contract required.  It can be raised or lowered at any time for no extra cost.  If you get to the end of your contract and wish to switch to this Portland-based firm, who uses AT&T towers, please tell me so I can recommend you.  That way we both get $10 credit to our accounts.

I also had to get instructions for how to load the SIM card in my phone, because I ordered (free) a new one for my new phone with my old number.  (Luckily, John was in the house and could assist; I could never have done it alone while talking on the phone with customer service.)  I also had to spend a bunch of time first with AT&T to be assured my contract indeed was able to have the number switched today, which terminates the contract, and that I wouldn’t be charged a penalty ($140).  I began the morning calls about 11:00 a.m. and was still on it when our neighbor, Kenny, brought us 10 bales of straw from his uncle’s farm.  They got it all loaded in the barn.  I stayed on the phone transferring (porting) his cell number to the new provider to set up another SIM card to be mailed to him.  Meanwhile, I will work on his new phone to make a voicemail message and store a few numbers.  He only occasionally used the phone once I got out of ‘rehab’, mostly to call me at home or on my cell, wherever I am.  I do need to put his sister’s number and a couple others in it for him to have.  Maybe he can be updated to the current century – but don’t bet on it.

We intended to do more apple dehydrating, but the other stuff got in the way.  Now John just fixed us a late lunch and decided to take a nap.  Then a friend’s heating system failed and so we are taking 2 oil heaters (ours bought at Bi-Mart, but not this exact one) . . .

http://www.bimart.com/skudetail.aspx?loc=k.605905_s.399A_c.93A_d.6&nm=Heating

. . . over for their use until they can get their propane furnace repaired.  With temps going to 15, some heat is necessary in a house.

Hope your next week is a good one.

Nancy & John

on the frost covered Naneum Fan