Keeping track

http://www.weihnachtsseite.de/christstollen.html

I think I must start with Sunday, where I ended last week before anything had happened in the afternoon.  I joined my music group and 9 of us played for the Rosewood Retirement Community’s Christmas Dinner.  That is all it was, and was it ever good!   They served us a full turkey dinner, buffet style.  It bothered me that I could not partake of the ham and the cranberry sauce (salt and meds won’t allow), but on the menu I could eat was turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, candied yams, corn, green beans, salad, and a fabulous choice of desserts.  I had cheese cake with berry sauce on top (I think it was boysenberry, raspberry, and blueberry mixed).  After an hour of eating and visiting, we set up to play for the folks that stayed.  We played a mixture of old time music and Christmas songs and carols.  This group of musicians is called the Kittitas Valley Fiddlers and Friends.  Thank goodness, the Taize’ music was canceled till next year, so I didn’t have to stay in town till 6:00 for that.

I came home to find that my neighbor had plowed my driveway.  Thank you, Ken. What a great gift that was.  The drive into town was awful because the roads had not be plowed, and the drive home was only slightly better on a road west of us, but I had to come back over to our road and it was in horrible shape for the last 2.5 miles.  Getting to the driveway and finding it open made me very happy.

Monday was an early morning departure in pea soup fog for Yakima for a morning appointment with my cardiologist.   That turned out to be a long day, but it was good news from the standpoint of my health.  The doctor was a little late getting to us, but spent a lot of time with us, as he always does.  In addition to reviewing my two recent procedures (lungs and heart), he also gave me an EKG and an examination.  He reviewed all my lab reports from a fasting blood draw a week previous, and he reported to us on all items.  He dictates his findings and recommendations and we will get a transcript of that, as will our family physician.   He also changed some of my medications, consistent with the lab report findings.  I always feel complete confidence after a visit with this doctor, because of his thoroughness and willingness to explain everything he is seeing and recommending.  We ate lunch in Yakima, and made it back in time for my exercise class at 1:30.  John shopped while I exercised.

Tuesday was spent almost all day working on the Christmas newsletter to put on the web for electronically reaching those with email access to the Internet.   Evening found Nancy going again to town, this time to Hearthstone to play Christmas carols with a group called The Connections.  There are only two violins, and a keyboard, everyone else sings.  Occasionally, one person plays the guitar but not for Christmas carols.

Wednesday.   Exercise class was followed by a musical trio of which I was part, with another violin, and a guitar, at the Rehab center where I spent 6 weeks earlier this year.  It was especially nice to be near the front entrance where lots of people walked by (my previous caregivers) and recognized me and stopped for a hug or just said hello in passing.  We played Christmas carols for about a half hour.  Several patients came down the halls (we were at the conjunction of three), to join us.  After we finished there, we packed up and walked back to the nursing home next door.  We were greeted happily by everyone on the staff and they went off to tell residents we were there.  We had a really good audience for just appearing without much warning.  Our larger group only visits this place on the 5^th Thursdays when months have them (only happens about 4 times a year).  December is one such month, so when they were asking us to come back again soon, we could tell them we’d see them in 2 weeks, the Thursday after Christmas.

Tonight I finished the web page with our Seasons Greetings on it.  I am in the process of sending the link to everyone in my email address book, who I think will be interested.  But, I have several accounts, so I hope I don’t hit people more than once.  Meanwhile, there are several of you reading this blog for whom we do not have email addresses.  There is part of our family back in PA we have heard read this regularly, but again, we do not have their email address.  If you are one of those folks and want to access our newsletter (with pictures), then please feel free to click on this link below, and also, please get back to us with your comments.  We would love to hear from you.

http://www.elixant.com/~nancyh/2010Greetings.html

Thursday was a neat afternoon.  Went to play music at Dry Creek Retirement center and our group was well received and appreciated.  They gave us a Christmas card with tons of signatures on it from residents there with thanks for coming to share with them.  Several came up for hugs at the end of our playing.  One of our members thought to take a whole bunch of bells and shakers, so they could join us on Jingle Bells, Jambalaya, and Silver Bells.  They and we had a great time.  We stopped by friends on the way home, and had a nice visit with tea, cookies and bread.  The bread had been given to us by a former student as we were leaving the music venue.  It is made locally in town and is a German Holiday Bread, they call Stollen:   (English, this time.)

http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/Cakes/Stollen.htm

It has raisins and citron dried fruit (orange) that has been soaked in rum.  In the middle is an almond paste filling.  The entire loaf is rolled or sprinkled with powdered sugar.  It is eaten sliced and dry.  We shared some with our friends, and we have had slices with two meals thus far.  The best was lunch on Saturday, with leftovers from the pork loin roast, cooked with orange slices, the day before.

Friday was a one in-town event day, my exercise class, but I went and was glad I did.  Our teacher brought us all a present (candy) and a thank you note (very personalized) for the baby shower we put on for her last week.  Our “new” teacher (leader) was there today.  He will take over for her for the next quarter while she has her baby.  He is a senior in Exercise Science and Physiology at CWU.  He went through the class with us today and will take over January 3^rd.

I came home to spend time on email a little and then to wrap gifts for our gift exchange tonight at the potluck with the musical group.  John cooked pork loin roast all day.  The gifts were difficult to wrap, but I managed.  One is a stick with a horse head on it, for children over 4.  It is really cute.  When you pinch his ear, he whinnies,  plays a tune and lifts his head up and down, nodding.   The other gift is a stuffed 18” Santa Claus with sleigh bells on his hand.   It’s really cute.  They probably each are worth more than $5, but we got them at yard sales and probably didn’t pay more than $3 each for them.  One of the people there will be able to give the pony to a grandchild, probably, and several of the people may want the Santa for their house decorations.  I thought we were going to play the gift exchange game that goes by many different names around the country.  Everyone picks a gift and then names or numbers are drawn and you can exchange your gift or keep what you have.  If you want to exchange, you simply go to the person and take their gift, saying, “Merry Christmas! May I please have your gift?”  They have to give it up.  As it turned out, there were few enough of us there that we could sit in a circle and listen to a story as described below that is full of rights and lefts.

Each time the word is said the gift is passed that direction. e.g., “Mr. and Mrs. Right left for the country right as it began to snow.  They left in a hurry and forgot the right directions, etc.”   At the end of the story, you keep the gift in your possession.   Some examples of the way it starts out follow:

Christmas was almost here, and Mother RIGHT was finishing the Christmas baking.  Father RIGHT, Sue RIGHT, and Billy RIGHT returned from their last-minute Christmas errands.  “There’s not much LEFT to be done,” said Father RIGHT as he came into the kitchen.  “Did you leave the basket of food at church?” asked Mother RIGHT, and the story proceeds.You can follow the link below to find the whole discussion:     http://www.santalady.com/xmasgame/leftright.html I didn’t get home till very late–after 10:00 p.m. because I stayed after dinner, and we had fun playing music.  John and I drive separate cars so he can come home and be with the animals and feed them.  Three of us played an hour longer than the rest last night.  We were enjoying ourselves, so why not?Our gifts were a big hit.  The horse head on a stick ended up as my gift at the end, but I was sitting next to the man of the house who sponsored the party, and they have horses, and grandkids and great grandchildren, so I just traded him my gift for what he had ended with (two boxes of candy—chocolate covered cherries and chocolate mints).   He and his wife were thrilled with the gift.  I was happy I had some control over the person to whom it went.  Of course, I had to demo pinching the ear to make the horse do his thing.

Today is Saturday, and it is has been a light day, and the next several will be likewise.  That’s good, we need a rest from all the activities, and the kitty needs attention.   It was snowing this morning but we only got a little over an inch accumulation before it stopped.

There is snow predicted for us (1-2 inches) each day this week, including Christmas.

Hope your week before Christmas goes well.  The next one of these will be on Dec. 26^th, because we will be sharing Christmas dinner with our neighbor’s family, where we have spent most holidays, since we arrived at this house, across the street from their hay field, in 1989.  They adopted us into their family and it has been a wonderful experience.

We remain grateful for the blessings of the year and Christmas.

Till next week,

Nancy & John

12/12/10

This week starts again with Sunday, but it was a pretty uneventful day (except for playing with kitty) till I left for the Taize’ service.  We had a new member join us to play the clarinet.  This was the person I had been transposing music for recently.    I couldn’t have anything but water after midnight because of having a fasting blood draw Monday morning.  That pretty much started the week, and I went to the grocery store while in town, and I went back in the afternoon for my exercise class.

Tuesday we had the farrier out to trim the older horses.  While John was out I spent time on my computer emails and should have been working with the music transposition on his computer.  Now it is late and I probably won’t do it before dessert and bed.

Wednesday.  John got up early today and left to take his Subaru to Yakima for servicing and, while there, went to Costco too.  Bought us a bunch of the fruit cakes we liked so well, and now we have to freeze for the year!  Per pound these Bundt-pan-shaped treats are only half the cost of those sold in the Ebrg stores.  Meanwhile,   I met a former student for a small lunch and then went to exercise class, by school, Bi-Mart to get a battery for my watch installed by them.  My trip by school today unexpectedly resulted in participating in a thesis defense for one of my former students.  I didn’t know about it till I got to the department.  The normal announcement was not sent out on email, but was just posted there.  Also, filled up my gas tank on the way home, and was not happy at the price/gallon ($3.359 for premium).  We are one of the highest in the nation. http://www.gasbuddy.com/gb_gastemperaturemap.aspx

Schedule for next 4 days:  music Thursday at 2:00, Friday, scholarship luncheon, followed by party for exercise teacher (baby shower), followed by potluck/ jam session in the evening; Saturday music at 2:00 , and Sunday music/dinner at 2:00 to 4:30 ? at the Rosewood Retirement Community’s Christmas party.  They are feeding us a complete turkey feast for playing music for them (mixed old time dance music with Christmas songs and carols).

We did make some headway on cleaning off the part of a table top so we moved the kitty’s crate into the den with us.  Might rename him BB or boots.  He has 4 white paws and a white bib and getting more playful with us.  He is no longer bony.  John sits him in his lap a lot.  John also bought him three toys and one, a little ball with beads inside, is the favorite.  Kitty loves it, and has been playing with it for a couple of hours.   He just changed and took that away and gave him a dumb-bell cloth one, which isn’t as much fun, but he does play with it.  At least it is quieter for night.

We just put together a blueberry and strawberry cobbler to take to tomorrow’s parties.  (midday).  John is making baked apples and heating Stouffer’s frozen lasagna for the dinner.

Now we are getting ready for supper and it is beef stew.

Friday was expected to be a busy day.  We made it to town (nice beautiful sunny day) to the first venue, noon at the new student recreation center, for a scholarship luncheon.   Our dessert was a hit, and we emptied only one dish.  A friend washed the dish and gave use her leftover pink Jell-O/cottage cheese, whipped cream salad.  It was great.  We took it to the next party at 1:30, with the other full pan of cobbler.  Not all was eaten so we have some cobbler for us, and we took the pink salad to our evening potluck/jam session, along with the Italiano Lasagna and baked Cameo apples John fixed.  It was a great meal.   There was twice as much food there as we needed. After dinner, John left for home to take care of the animals and I stayed for the music jam session.  Didn’t get home till after 9:00 p.m.

Saturday:  I plowed (pun intended) through a lot of snow to get to play music today at Briarwood, but the trip was worth it, as they made us a wonderful white bean and ham soup.  There were bread sticks to go with and also Fritos and rolls.  For dessert  was the old Nabisco chocolate pinwheels I remember from my childhood, and some other cookies I didn’t try, and the best homemade brownies, with chocolate frosting.  I brought home four of those for John to share.  We only had 3 people show to play and only a handful, about 8 or 10 show in the audience.  It snowed the whole time there, and the drive home was not pleasant.  John brushed me a path to get from the car to the front door.  He had done the same when I left, but I think it snowed another 4 or 5 inches while I was gone.  He had to do the same for me to get back to the house.  He was in the 3-cornered shed where I park, moving snow when I got home.  I paused, and then couldn’t get started again to get into the shed.  I backed up and took a running leap and made it through.  Wow, if this keeps on, I will have a tough time getting to the dinner and play time tomorrow.  I’m worried that the couple from Thorp with our microphone and amplifier won’t make it.  They chose not to come today and it was a good thing.  They also play two key instruments, an accordion and guitar.  We were pretty “light” without them today.  We are having leftover lasagna from the potluck for dinner tonight.

Sunday arrived and I’m almost ready to leave for the play date.  John has been shoveling snow and my neighbor drove in the driveway to punch it down.  My Subaru should make it out all right.  He may come back with a little loader to move some of the 15” out of the drive.

I’m going to send this to John to put on the blog, while I am gone in town to eat and perform at the Christmas Party.

We hope you have a nice week getting ready for the holidays that will be with us quite soon.

Nancy & John

This week starts with Sunday morning, Nov 28^th, and with wildlife in our front enclosed yard (4’ fence).  John looked out the kitchen window and a doe was nibbling on the bottom of our mountain ash tree.  He was concerned, because on the front porch under the roof was an open bag of black sunflower seeds he has been giving the birds.  Good thing she didn’t find it.  He took a couple of pictures of her and then tried to scare her away by “shooing” from the bathroom window.  She didn’t react.  I was standing at the kitchen window and saw she wasn’t leaving.  I slammed the window and she sailed over the fence right behind the white Subaru.  The ease with which they jump fences will never fail to amaze me.  She stuck around outside the fence and he went and threw her some apples.  I suggested that was not good, that she might interpret it as a reward.  I think she did, because she was still hanging around behind the back of the car after eating the apples.  So he went out and shooed her off to the neighbors and let Meghan out for the morning run.  He was coming back for the others, when she returned, or another came, and he had to run that one off too.  [Others come and go  — 14 is the most counted at one time. ] Finally, he got all 3 female Brittanys out the door and into the pasture, and came back for Dan, who has to be on a retractable leash.  John was going to feed the horses and exercise the dogs.

I fixed myself an apple fritter and was just sitting down beginning to eat it, when he came back in the front door.  That was too soon, and I said, “What’s wrong?”   He walked on in with a small kitten in his arms.  It is a yellow one about the same size as the one we had for 5 days several weeks ago.  This one has a very thick coat of hair but is boney.  He or she (we haven’t checked yet) was cornered in the barn by Annie, our youngest Brittany.  John rescued the kitty and brought it in to me.  It was scared and not wanting to be held.  John still had all the dogs outside and needed to get back to them.

He asked me to sit and hold the kitty till he returned.  Before John gave him to me, I put on gloves and a coat, and sat with it in my recliner.  He calmed down and actually started to close his eyes.  I was rocking him in the recliner but holding him tightly and then petting his head and talking to him.  The temperature is up to 31 now on our front porch.  He was beginning to accept my lap, but I didn’t want to let go of him.  When John got back from exercising the dogs, he looked for the little crate we had had the other kitty in, but couldn’t find it.  So, he got a bigger one from outside and wedged it into the space on top of the washing machine.  I put the kitty there, and “he” was happy to go.  Then I found some dishes for water and put some canned kitty food in with him.

Later in the day, he ate the food, and John gave him more.  He ate that.  I gave him more, and he ate that.  He’s now had about a ½ can of kitty food, small sized can.  When it’s gone we will switch to a larger can of cat food.

Don’t know if he has drunk yet, but he has water in a small bowl and a little litter box.  He can’t be more than 8 weeks, and has a VERY thick coat of hair (with being outside in sub zero weather, it’s a good thing.)   I hope we can housebreak him and get him to stay with us.  He is orange tabby, with white on all paws.  We still don’t know his gender.  Maybe it is a little girl.  Regardless she has a home with us if she / he wants.  We’re calling it Sunny for Sunshine, just like the other one who didn’t stay around.

This one’s eyes look better than the other one we had.  I think the other was starving and his eyes were large and out of proportion to the rest of his head.  This one is not so bug eyed.  It also doesn’t hiss at us when we approach the crate.  The other one never got over that, and also would lash out with his paw and claws.  We had to reach in with gloves on.  This one will rest in John’s lap or on the table in front of his keyboard on the computer.  They are quite a team.

My Sunday evening Taize’ music service was canceled tonight, so I didn’t have to change clothes and drive to town.  Suits me just fine.

Monday – day with kitty and trying to clean off space on a picnic table in the den/dining room to put the crate for kitty.  Not making very fast headway.  There is so much dust on everything and then it has to be sorted.  I can only work for so long and have to sit down and rest.  I did leave after lunch to go to my exercise class.  (Now at the end of the week, it is still not completed).  Too much other stuff going on.

Tuesday, home with intentions to clean off the table and counters some more, but never got to it till late.  John went alone to town (it snowed all day) for supplies for us and for the kitty.  I needed meds.  The kitty needed food.  I spent time on emails on the computer, and talking on the phone with friends.  John has sat with her in his lap twice today, and every day this week, as it turns out.

Wednesday, will be another exercise class and then in the evening we are going to CWU for a lecture by the new biogeographer.  The title of her talk is: “Vegetation Change and Fire History in the Pacific Northwest since the Missoula Floods.”

Thursday will be time to go play music again, and John will go along and we will leave early for the Geography Department afternoon lecture series, at 3:00 start.

We heard a nice talk from another geographer this afternoon entitled:  “Global Currents, Local Landscapes: Notes from the Americas and Europe,” but he said it is really, “What I did on my summer vacation.”

Friday was fun and full of parties.  I started at 11:30 a.m. at the Adult Activity Center in town.  I joined a bunch of people for a potluck, and the center provided lemon meringue pie (baked there by the staff), and a wonderful turkey soup.  I took some of John’s applesauce.  There were other yummy things people made such as salads, potato rolls, and cornbread.  At noon, I got out my violin and joined a lady on her accordion, to play and sing Christmas songs.   Before we played, Santa Claus arrived and we were given presents and a number.  No one could open gifts till after we played.  Then everyone did, and the staff started calling numbers.  A person could trade for another gift if they wanted.  I traded candy canes for a tine with chocolates and more candy canes in it.  Then they took pictures of anyone who wanted with Santa Claus.  My friend’s husband was there, and both of us had the same surgeon for a valve replacement (him two years ago and me last year).  We had our picture taken so we could take it as a Christmas Thank You card to our surgeon in Yakima.

Then we had our exercise class.

We went back in to the Anthropology/Geography Christmas party, Friday night, and then by the hospital to visit our neighbor who is back in for Pancreatitis and severe pain, to see if they can relieve it.

Saturday could have been a light day, except John had to put in a bunch of work to get the last newsletter of the year out before the Dec 12^th Christmas Party of the Kittitas Valley Trail Riders.  We won’t be going this year because I have to participate with my music group at the same exact time, at the Rosewood Community Christmas Party.  They are treating us to dinner with them, and then we will play for an hour or so, using a mixture of old time dance music and Christmas music.

John did complete the newsletter (48 of them printed, folded, stamped, and I helped him seal them with piece of tape on 3 sides).  By the time he finished, it was too late to have the postal person pick them up from our mailbox at the end of the driveway, so he had to drive to town to the P.O.  While in town he shopped for needed (and un-needed) groceries.

I suppose I should end this and have John place it out on the blog for this week.  Tomorrow is a slow day, except for my going to play music in town in the evening.

As to “Who Knew?” – – – today’s heading – – – that one year after John’s first entry on this site that the activity would still be going on?  Happy anniversary to Occasional Updates on Nancy.

Next week will again be full of events.   We hope you have a nice week getting ready for the holidays.

Nancy & John

Starting this week with Saturday, picking up from going to a Celtic music performance while John was sending a report to the blog last week.  I told you then it was planned, but I was writing it on Friday night.  I went with a couple from my music group to the Teanaway Grange to hear Prairie Spring’s concert.  This was my first time to hear the three of them play their own stuff.  As individuals, they are sometimes members of our fiddlers and friends group.  As a trio they perform Celtic music and it is superb.  One woman is on the fiddle, another is on the Auto Harp and Drum, and there is a fellow on the guitar.  They do instrumentals and some vocals.  There was one song where they had audience participation on the chorus.  The audience was incredible too.  They were stomping the floor and clapping and giving vocal appreciation calls. (Those have a name but I missed what it was called).  I took a Costco Fruit Cake all cut up in pieces to the potluck.  It was well received.  Later we found a fruit cake in our local grocery store, for 7.98/pound.  The Costco one was only 3.72/pound.  The quality of what we got was excellent.  It was so full of fruit and nuts it was difficult to cut.  It was not mostly cake and in fact we couldn’t find any cake even though the ingredients mentioned flour!  Next time we are at Costco we will be buying more and freezing them to use throughout the year.  They do freeze well, but you have to age them 4 weeks before storing them.  We found information on the web.

Sunday, John and I worked in the morning on chores, his being all outside in the cold.   He has put a tarp over the top of our old Motor Home, because last year it leaked from a vent on the roof.  After lunch we went to our friends southeast of town to get a couple of hearts from their beef that was butchered in the morning.  John wants to dissect them and see what they look like (after hearing and learning all about the valves in my heart over the past year and a half).   They have some extra “ tenderloin” their butcher called it, and he said it wouldn’t age well in the hanging process for aging, and that he would just toss it.  John determined from a web search that it is really called hanger steak.  Here is what Wikipedia describes it as: “   A hanger steak is a cut of beef steak prized for its flavor. Derived from the diaphragm of a steer, it typically weighs about 1 to 1.5 lbs (450 to 675g).   In the past it was sometimes known as “butcher’s steak” because butchers would often keep it for themselves rather than offer it for sale.”  John is cooking it for our dinner on Tuesday of this week.  Check below for our assessment.

The taize’ service Sunday night was different from previous times.  We had a snow storm, and the students cancelled their coming.  We only had two violins for the music.  The minister was not there because she went to the Philippines to be with her family for Thanksgiving.  One of our former musicians will lead the communion and another will read the scriptures.  Few people came to the service from the community.  It was, however, a nice one.  And, the supper was thick potato & leek soup – with the consistency of mashed potatoes.  There was Vanilla Diet Pepsi to drink, and many desserts left over from a previous service in the day.  Good tea cakes (which I always called shorties).  Mostly just butter and sugar and nuts, rolled in powdered sugar.  I drove home in a raging snow storm at 20 mph because I couldn’t see out the windshield and the road was not clearly visible for the center line nor the sides and where the berm existed or dropped off into a ditch.

Monday found us on the road to our family physician in Cle Elum (35 miles away) for working on the ear wax filling John’s right ear and keeping him from hearing, and for lab tests (and blood draw) for Nancy. The Doc claims that ear grunge almost always occurs in only one ear.  Why?   [The “over the counter” remedy didn’t work, thus the trip to the pro.]  On the way up, it was not snowing, but it started as we pulled into town, and continued, all the way home.

Tuesday was a slow day, except I used all morning to organize the play list for our upcoming performance of our music group.  We will try it out tomorrow at the Hearthstone facility in town.  After that is over, we will go to the Community Thanksgiving dinner.  It’s always fun.  One of the women in my exercise class is cooking one of the several turkeys they provided at the center for volunteers.

Winter has arrived.  We have about 8 inches of snow from the last two days of its snowing hard.  John has been doing lots of chores getting ready, and it’s a good thing.  Today he put black sunflower seeds in a bird feeder and hung it up in a walnut tree to keep it out of reach of the deer.  The quail found it amazingly fast.  There were juncos and starlings (we think), in our mountain ash tree eating berries.  The starlings were all puffed up and sitting on the branches.  We only saw one or two moving around eating.  Maybe the others were full and resting.  Later in the day, they were joined by Flickers.  Before long, ALL the berries were gone.

Report on Tuesday’s dinner.  John fixed that Hanger Steak mentioned above in Sunday’s report.  He cut it across the grain, and the flavor was great, but it was still tough.  We had it in a nice gravy with onions & mushrooms, served over mashed cheese potatoes.  We had green sugar snap peas with it.  We will follow tonight with Marion berry pie and ice cream.

Wednesday will be even colder than today. Tonight it is supposed to drop to single digits and possibly go below zero; they’re calling for minus 4.  Last night here it went to 15, but friends in town said it was down to 10 at their house.    It is 7 now at the airport at 7:00 p.m. Tuesday.

Okay, Wednesday . . . [Too cold, – 8 here.  Lower in the valley it was -12.] . . . is here and I went to town in John’s Subaru (his has gasoline and I didn’t want to have to stand in the cold filling mine).  We played music with a lot of Christmas songs added to some of our regular repertoire of old time music.  We were a hit and everyone enjoyed singing along and thanking us afterwards.  It makes it worthwhile.  I visited with a 92 year old lady who came up especially to tell me thank you and how much she enjoys us, but then she said, “You are looking so much better than before.”  I was happy to tell her I no longer have any infection.  She smiled and gave me a hug.  The residents there love us as family.  Before we started, I was talking with a woman in a wheel chair.  She looked up and saw the silver necklace I had on, on top of a black long sleeve “tee” shirt.  It is of a lone wolf, baying at the moon.  She said, “Is that a wolf around your neck ?”  I answered yes it was and told her where it came from in northern Idaho.  (given to me by friends, after they visited the wolf sanctuary there – 50 miles NE of Spokane, WA).

http://www.wolfpeopleofcocolalla.com/index.html

She said, “You need to come to my room and see all my wolf stuff.  I just love the creatures.  I once had a wolf from a “pup” in Alaska.”  So we visited a little longer and she told me all about him.  Then it was time for us to start playing music so I had to leave the conversation.

Then off to Rite Aid to buy some Alcohol Swabs for my neighbor.  Then on to the Community Thanksgiving Dinner.  My music group had already gotten there but I was able to join them at the table.  We were served a plate full:  Turkey, potatoes and dressing, with gravy, a veggie medley of cut up carrots, corn, and peas, a roll and butter, cranberry sauce on the table, but I cannot have that with the Coumadin I take, and it ended with a piece of pumpkin pie.  Now tomorrow I will have another meal with turkey.  [Coumadin and vitamin K intake have to be consistent.  Thus, foods with K, such as cranberries, can be eaten but overall the same quantity has to be eaten each day.  Keeping track of the details and then eating some everyday is so difficult that most folks just don’t eat any of the things on the list of high Vitamin K foods.]

Thursday, Happy Thanksgiving.  We were up early with a 7:30 a.m. phone call from a friend wishing us a Happy Thanksgiving.  We left the house at 12:30 to go to our neighbors.  I helped with peeling carrots and putting relishes into a serving dish: homemade pickles, prunes, and canned olives.  There was quite the feast.  One of the daughters-in-law baked and brought the turkey, dressing and gravy.  Her daughter made rolls and a Jell-O/pear salad.  John made Blueberry/grated apples pie and an apple pie.  We brought home enough of both to cut and fit half of each into a pan to freeze for me to take to a potluck Dec 3^rd at the senior center where I will play Christmas music with an accordionist (just the two of us).  The lady of the house today, made a large pumpkin pie that was superb.  Also, she made yams, mashed potatoes, and a cranberry/marshmallow dish.  Another neighbor brought a green bean casserole.  There was enough food for an army.  We enjoyed the company and stayed till almost dark, needing to get home for John to feed the horses.  Our dogs were good while we were away, and ready to go outside when we got home.  It is too cold to leave the window (doggy door) open now.  That limits the time we can stay away.

I came home and worked on transposing more music for our clarinet player.  I have done 12 small songs for the Taize’ service next week, Dec. 5^th.  I have about that many left.  I’m learning how to use the program, and getting better at it.  Remember, I have to do it with the computer, clicking note by note, one whole note above the one written on the music I’m transposing from.  The program knows how to change the key to one appropriate for a B flat clarinet.  This procedure was written up in last week’s blog.

Friday will be a slow day.  Maybe I will get some bills paid and tax receipts filed.  (I didn’t, but I did transpose some more Taize’ music for the clarinet.)  There is no exercise class because the senior center is closed for Thanksgiving.  We don’t really have any reason to go to town.  John needed to do the chores with horses, birds, and giving apples to the deer.  I can help with the dogs and sighting the deer… as they come to the back fence to beg.  The buck (4 points on each side) came to the back fence, and John threw him some apples.  He let John walk out and take pictures as he was eating them.  Sorry we cannot put pictures in this blog.  If you want to see him, let us know and we will send to your email address (be sure we have it).  Send your request to nancyh@ellensburg.com please.

John dissected a beef heart we got from our friends when they butchered their cows (mentioned above on Sunday).  I took pictures while he cut through and examined various portions and tried to match parts with drawings.   John looked for photos on the web but there are only drawings of not much use for his intent.  Also, the hearts we had were sliced off at the top and sliced into the chambers to let them drain.  Still, we could see quite a lot. The nerve fibers for electrical signaling inside the heart were all there.  This suggested link is a bit technical, but still useful:

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

The bands for closing the valves (chordae tendinae)

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

were mostly there but some damage had been done by the person removing the heart so that was disappointing.  The surface arteries were there but the major veins and arteries to and from the lungs and elsewhere were all nearly gone.  So if you want to try this, ask for a more complete specimen.

Saturday was a slow day, but we did go to town shopping and to deliver some apples.  I spent a lot of time in the afternoon transposing the rest of the Taize’ music for my friend who plays the clarinet.  John did all the normal chores with the animals, including feeding apples to the deer and sunflower seeds to the birds, who knock them out of the feeder (up in the walnut tree) on the ground and the deer eat them too.  He hangs it way up in the tree to keep the deer from raiding the bird feeder, as we have had happen in the past.  Somewhere we have a picture of a large buck standing on back legs eating from the feeder.

I guess I should stop this and get it to John to put on the blog tonight.   Sunday will be pretty much the same as last week.  Nothing special is planned.

We hope your Thanksgiving was as good as ours, and that next week will be a good one for you.

Ours will be full of events… and we’ll tell you next blog.  Till then, our best regards to you and thanks for reading our news.   We are so happy to be able to report good health news, instead of what’s been filling most of this blog since last Dec 4^th, when John began doing the reports.

Nancy

Starting again this week with Sunday,

This taize’ service was fewer in number of musicians.  We had a piano, two violins, a viola, and a flute.  Next week we are going to be without our pianist, and I hope they can find someone to step in.  Our viola player will be gone for 3 weeks.  We did have a good time and went downstairs for pizza, salad, and cookies.  We had a nice visit with the people who attended.

Monday morning John left at 10:15 to pick apples from across the valley at a friends’ orchard.  They donate to us and other trail rider club members each year.  They let us pick for ourselves and we also pick for the Food Bank and the Senior Center.  I have not participated in the picking, but I was at the senior center today, when 3 boxes were brought in by two members, who live down the road from us about 5 miles.  They said John had picked all those apples (and more), so I got bags for the people in my exercise class and told them they were Cameo apples and where they came from.  They were very happy and probably half of the class did not have access to apples and took a bag home.

John spent time sorting what he brought home and sharing with friends and neighbors.  When state and national numbers are compiled China is the largest producer followed by the European Union and then the USA.  Within the US about 55% of the marketed apples come from Washington State. Many tons of apples are picked by local folk and are not in the official statistics.  There is an amazing amount of wasted apples that end on the ground.  John brought a couple of 3 gallon buckets home for the deer and horses but because of a worm or bruise or a bird bite they don’t keep very well so there is no sense in trying to salvage very many.  Last year he picked a box from a road-side tree just a mile away from home.  This year the fruit trees on the north side of the valley (our side) took two hits of freezing temps during the first week of April. Our walnut trees (two types) lost all their leaves but still came back and produced a few nuts. Ours and the neighbors apples, cherries, and pears had no fruit. Ouch!

I spent much of Monday on the computer, and answering the phone, making doctor’s appointments and other things that go on in our lives.  I had to straighten out some things with my medications and get an order in for refills.  That is now a constant in life.

Tuesday’s  trip today to Yakima Memorial was LONG. This was the day Annie and Meghan decided to take a longer trip across the creek and through the swamp on the back and west side of our house.  John was pretty ticked at them, but they came back while he was changing clothes.  I kept going out and yelling and whistling out the back door–but with wind gusts to 35 they probably weren’t hearing me.
It was surely nice when we saw them coming around through the front pasture… and we got on the road by 9:05.  Got down there and was on time for my 10:00 a.m. check in.  Then there were several emergencies in the hospital including a “code blue”  ( http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=57667 ) as they were prepping me.  I’m so glad John stayed with me so he wasn’t out in the waiting room worrying why I had not reappeared on time.  First we waited 45 minutes for the IV Therapy person to come and put an IV in my arm.  She was in ER taking care of needs there.  Then we had to wait for our doctor who was to do the TEE (Transesophageal Echocardiogram) test.  It was scheduled for 11:00, but he too was busy in ER, with another CODE Blue.  We must have heard 5 code calls the first 1.5 hours there.  The doctor didn’t make it in till after 11:30, and then had to call the Yakima Heart Center for details of my last (August) TEE test results.   Eventually John was asked to leave the room and they started the procedure.  There was a sonographer helping, and the doctor was poking the probe down my esophagus.  Finally it was over about 12:10, and they buzzed John to come back to the room.  We waited another half hour while the doctor dictated his notes and then he came back in and reported to John and me what he had found.  That was really nice.  The results are that no infection was found and all the insides of my heart and valves are in good shape (for the shape they’re in), including the artificial one.  Great news.  I hope this is the last time I have to go in the hospital. He also suggested that the anemia, the cause of which seemed so elusive, could have come from the shut-down of red blood cell production with the infection.  Normal wear and tear and loss of red cells goes on but new ones are few and far between – thus a slowly developing anemia.  That sounds like a good assessment and, if it is the case, will mean I don’t have to swallow a camera any time soon. I soo… looked forward to that too.  Yeah, right!

Finally I could leave, but John had to park a couple of blocks away.  I walked it, and got my exercise today.  Then we went to Costco.  There were no power chairs available, so I walked around… and got more exercise.  That was good.  Finally we finished and as we were leaving I saw a very good friend sitting there eating with a friend of hers I had never met, but had heard lots about.  So, while John was checking out with $231 of groceries (included two bags of dog food at $25 each almost)– I talked to them and decided we would stay for lunch.. as I had not had anything since 7:00 last night.  We each had a Polish Sausage (YUM), and I bought a Berry Sundae, which is a large cup (16 ounce perhaps) of soft serve vanilla poured all around wonderful strawberries.  It was so yummy.  I shared it with John, but I think I ate more than half of it.  Thus ended Tuesday’s happenings.

It was a small exercise class turnout Wednesday and I had a little less stamina from the procedure hangovers of chemicals in my body and probes into my esophagus from the day before.  However, I made it through and got home to rest up for the last night meeting of the WA Geology lecture series.  It was on the Geology of the Kittitas Valley and was very interesting.

Thursday was a play-date for our Fiddlers and Friends at a retirement community called Dry Creek.  Our secretary from years ago is a resident there and was on the front row singing along and enjoying our performance.  She was the Geography Department secretary for 28 years!  We had quite a good interaction with the audience today, and they really enjoyed having us there.  We enjoy being there when we are so much appreciated by the folks attending.  The room was full.  Afterwards they come forward and thank us.  Today there was a lovely lady who decided that she would ask the facility to offer us rooms there so they could have music any time they wanted it.  I told her thanks for the offer, but my husband and 4 dogs and the horses, would not appreciate my leaving them.  She said, well, you could have your dogs here, but I don’t think there is room for the horses.

Friday was a day of eating.  Breakfast was not large, thank goodness, because lunch found me in with the scholarship luncheon group eating a pulled pork sandwich and salad (with all sorts of toppings), chocolate cheese cake for dessert, and for snacks, some pretzels dipped in white chocolate.  Then off to exercise class, which was hard on a full stomach.  We got more of a work-out than usual today.  Finally home to copy some music to take to the potluck, and try my hand at transposing violin music to another key for our clarinet player.  I have a 30-day usable software for testing program that is meant to do this and print out a score of sheet music.  The only problem is that each note has to be entered separately, and the note’s type must be chosen (such as whole, half, quarter, etc.).  Because I’m transposing to the key for the B flat Clarinet to play, I have to click in a note one whole note above the one on my music.  So, if there is an A on my sheet, I have to click in a B note on the computer.  I just used the program for the first time today and haven’t been through the tutorials that come with the software yet.  I was using the Graphical User Interface, and winging it.  There are more things I need to use, but now that I have done two lines of a song, the instructions will probably make more sense and be helpful.  I hope I will learn to write music relatively fast.  Certainly I will improve over what I was doing this afternoon. (John says: Am I the only one that reads the manual first?)

We ended the day with going to the potluck with the music group at the house of one of the members, and then having a jam session.  We practiced some Christmas music because we will need to do that in the next several outings.  While I was in town earlier, John had cooked our offering tonight, that turned out to be the only meat present.  It was a pork loin roast that he cooked with cherries, and spices, such as cloves.  He also cooked a large cast iron roaster with some apples with two types of cherries (cherry pie filling and some of the cherries frozen from our orchard a couple of years ago).

What food was at the potluck?  Let’s see if I can remember.  Beans, two types of potato salad, green salad with shrimp (guess there was another meat), purple corn chips with dip, and two types of cookies (chocolate chip and chocolate chocolate chip.  Yummy.   And drinks:  water, coffee, and hot apple cider.

Saturday will be a busy evening, and because John will likely put this blog out on Saturday night, I will end it now, with a description of what will happen that evening.  There is a potluck and music program at the Teanaway Grange (about 30 minutes away), and I’m driving up with the friends who hosted the potluck tonight.

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

The musicians playing are from Ellensburg, and often play with our group, but they have their own group, called Prairie Spring, and they do Celtic, folk, and other music as professional musicians.  Tomorrow night’s performance costs $5.00 / person.  I’m taking a Costco Fruit Cake for my entry to the potluck.  I hope there is some left for us to enjoy.

Okay — that’s about it for the short week.  I will close and send to John to put out on the blog.  We hope you had a nice week, and we wish you a fine next week.  We started getting some snow tonight and it likely will build over the weekend.  Good thing John has finished getting his yard, pasture, and barn work done.  Yesterday, he moved about a ton of hay to the interior of the barn, from the side, which he has opened up for the horses to get shelter if they wish.

Nancy

Starting again this week with Sunday, because the last blog date of publication was Saturday.  This taize’ service had two more musicians join.  We had a piano, two violins, a viola, a flute, and a recorder.

[from John:  I have to look things up, thus, learning a recorder is a type of medieval flute revived in the 20th century, partly in the pursuit of historically informed performance of early music, but also because of its suitability as a simple instrument for teaching . . .   The name comes from at least as far back as the mid-1300s when one meaning of the word “record” meant to practice a piece of music.]

Next week we are going to add even more music to the service.  It went for ½ hour and we went downstairs for homemade lasagna, like you have never had.  It was made by a gentleman in their church, and had these unusual ingredients, but it was awesome:  pumpkin, walnuts, pine nuts, cheese and whole wheat lasagna noodles.  There were at least two different types of really good cookies, and my favorite was peanut butter with peanuts.  Also there were chocolate chip ones.

Monday brought a trip to my family physician—just a 6-week check-up from the last visit.  It was a nice visit with no call for a follow-up in a month.  He listened to my heart and didn’t even hear a murmur.  My blood pressure and heart rate were right on, and I’m up on my weight to 150 (with clothes on).  All my lab work is good for red blood count, % iron, and other things.  He was so happy to see me back to good health.  Now I need to stay that way.

The mail brought my MedicAlert bracelet today.  I’m happy with it too.  It is a sports band with musical notes around it.   I’m in a database with all my medical information.   There is a 1-800 number on it to call in an emergency.  They had not listed my “allergy” to Heparin, so I called them and they will add it and make me a new bracelet. [remember HIT?]

I also went to my exercise class in town today, and by the grocery store on the way home.  So, while I was away, John worked on the barn, opening up a side of it for the horses to be able to have a place under shelter if they desire.  The deer (mamma and two small ones) hung around all day.  In the morning they were in the orchard, and in the afternoon they were in the pasture with the horses. (cont.  Sat.)

Also got a phone call this afternoon to fill a slot at Yakima Memorial hospital for a TEE.  I passed on this one because I already have two major things happening this Wed., and one of them was scheduled by the same organization, the Yakima Heart Center.  They should realize there is only so much time in one day, and a patient should not have to do two procedures in two different cities, in the same 7 hours (not to mention the travel time to Yakima).

I cannot drive myself and have to have a driver, so that means John has to be available all that time too.

Another frustration.  I received a bill from a lab in Sandy, UT but with the headquarters in Michigan.  This was from my last stay in ICU at Yakima in August.  It appears that Medicare paid part of a bill I had never seen, and they sent me the remainder I owed, with a nasty note that it was overdue and being the second notice.  I NEVER received the first, and they obviously have not billed my secondary provider of insurance, Group Health.  (John says “Get used to it.”) Tomorrow morning I will notify them to do so.

Finally–Tuesday morning came and I made several phone calls, not the least of which was about the bill mentioned previously.  I had a very nice person on the other end of the line, which was a pleasant surprise.  She checked my records and said she needed to contact Medicare again to pay more of the bill, and once she heard from them, she would bill Group Health for the remainder.  Meanwhile, she is removing the warnings so I will not get nasty notes about not paying my bills, automatically sent by their computer in the “snail” mail, USPS regular delivery.  She asked if I would like to switch to on-line payment, but I told her, while I was capable of such, I didn’t wish to because I wanted a paper trail of my bills and what was paid by whom.  (needed for tax purposes)

The other major accomplishment of the day was getting the Biotronix device checker set up next to where I sleep.  It has to be connected to a phone line of the old fashioned variety and also to a power source.  John ran a telephone extension cord connector line up around the room for access.  At 2:00 in the morning it automatically senses my ICD and reads the report therein, sends it across the land to a company computer for analysis, and sends that to my doctor’s office in Yakima, WA.

If there is a decided change in anything that should not be, bells ring at Biotronix headquarters and around the world, they will notify my doctor, and I get a call suggesting I get by butt into his office, pronto.

I must be within 2 meters of the device for this to work.  We did a connection test and the unit is functioning properly.  If I’m awake at 2:00 a.m. I will look at the lights on the unit to see if it is connecting and operating.  I’m not supposed to feel this transfer.  I suppose if I awake near 2:00 and need to potty, I will have to wait till the thing is through transmitting, because I would be farther than 2 meters from the base station.  Isn’t technology amazing?  What I am concerned about is when I travel, and have to take this unit along with me and all the wires to hook into a phone line.  That might be a challenge.

Today we got our first snow.  It probably left an inch or more on the ground but was followed by rain, so we have none on the ground.

This was the first day we didn’t have any reason to go to town.  Nice for a change, although I planned to cut John’s hair and we never got around to it.  (Please don’t send me any round TUITs).

I did write a few more thank you cards/letters, but that has also been a slow process.

The next paragraph talks about a Pulmonary Function Test, which is defined in the medical dictionary as:

PFT: Pulmonary function test, a test designed to measure how well the lungs are working. PFTs gauge how the lungs are doing their jobs — of expanding and contracting (when a person inhales and exhales) and of exchanging oxygen and carbon dioxide efficiently between the air (or other gases) within the lungs and the blood.

For example, one PFT calls for the patient to breathe into a machine called a spirometer. It is a mechanical device that records the changes in lung size as air is inhaled and exhaled and the time it takes for the patient to do this task.

Wednesday I went to the hospital early (10:00 a.m.) for a Pulmonary Function Test, ordered by my cardiologist at the last appointment in Yakima.   Interesting that the entire test was transferred electronically to my doctors, at the end of the test.  No waiting around for curriers and putting on a disk or print out to send.  The technician explained as much as he could to me about my results, but mentioned that my cardiologist has to read all the parameters and evaluate in light of my whole medical picture of everything since last November, 2009.  I was in the “low” range when compared to my reference group (age, sex, height, weight), but apparently improved when given an inhaled drug to relax the bronchial muscles that might have been stiffening my lungs.  It was an added test at the end of the normal set of things to measure my breathing.  On the report are those figures (mentioned below) and the numbers for Lung Volume, Diffusing Capacity and Resistance.  It was an interesting test.  I await the results.  The reason for it was that I’m taking a drug called Amiodarone to control my Atrial Fibrillations.  It has lots of side effects, the worst of which is damage to the lungs.

Here are some of the several items they tested on me:

FVC – Forced Vital Capacity, which is the volume of air that can forcibly be blow out after taking a deep full breath, measured in liters.  Mine was 71% when compared to a reference group.  They’d like it to be over 80%.

FEF – Forced Expiratory Flow, the flow or speed of air coming out of the lungs during the middle portion of a forced expiration.

TLC – Total Lung Capacity is the maximum volume of air present in the lungs.

There were many measurements and the last thing that happened was I was given 2.5 mg Albuterol/NS for a brochiodilator.  Almost all my parameters increased.  It is a mist inhaled that relaxes the bronchial muscles around the lungs, mentioned above.

Exercise class was in the afternoon, and I’m doing better each time.  We had the 5^th in the series of 6 Washington Geology lectures during the evening.  The topic was Lava Flows and Floods in the PNW.  Next week is on the Geology of the Kittitas Valley, where we live.  It is the last in this fall series of community lectures.

Thursday was play day at the Rehab center.  We had a good turnout and enjoyed our time together.

Friday we got ready for the potluck and jam session in the evening.  We both spent a fair amount of time on the computer in the morning, and I consulted with my cardiologist’s nurse in Yakima and the device technician as well.  Results:  the device technician reported that the device is sending information well, in the middle of the night, to describe what my heart is doing.

The nurse reported that my Cardiologist, had reviewed all the parameters from Wednesday’s PFT, and decided I was good to stay on Amiodarone and needed to have another PFT in 9 months.  That’s good news.

I cut John’s hair before we ate lunch.  It had been awhile–since a few days after my birthday in early September.

John put pork ribs (two large pieces—Baby back ribs) in the oven at 1:00 p.m. and went out and worked in the yard till 4:30 when he came in to open the top and put on BBQ sauce.

My exercise class had been cancelled so I spent much of the afternoon working on music for the jam session, and burning copies of a CD of Jimmie Rodgers – 24 blues songs, to give to the people in the music group.  We had a great meal and then a fantastic time afterwards playing music.

Saturday we played at Briarwood Retirement Community.  You have heard this before, but they always sing along and fix us a late lunch (or early dinner).  This will be no exception, EXCEPT, I need to print out some words for some of our songs, at the request of the audience, so they can sing along.  Gives me something else to keep me busy on the computer in the morning before going to play.  I got it done, and they treated us to homemade potato soup with bacon that is more like clam chowder.  They had a table full of crackers and cheese spreads, Fritos, and yummy cookies for dessert.  They copied the words I took along and passed them out among the group.  They were delighted and sang along really well, on such songs as Side by Side, Jambalaya, I’ve Been Working on the Railroad, 5-foot’2, and Yes Sir, That’s my Baby.

I will close and send to John to put out on the blog.

[from John: the CWU equestrian team hosted a riding show today and I went for a couple of hours as I was curious whether or not some of the young ladies could ride our horses – they get local horse owners to bring in horses so the out-of-town ones don’t have to bring their own.  I learned that, even when well trained, our horses won’t be a good fit as they are gaited horses and the show expects the traditional movements of walk, trot, lope, and canter.  Still, it was interesting.  In the afternoon, while Nancy was doing music, I directed my problem horse, Jazz, into the round-pen and set about rasping his hoofs. When the hoofs get too long the back hoofs will hit the front ones (forging) and the front ones don’t “break over” soon enough and his movement suffers.  All went well except when four deer (incl. one small buck) came out of the brush and walked up to the pen to see what was going on.  I wish they wouldn’t do that when I’ve got one leg of a thousand pound animal in my possession.  I tried to chase them away with little success.  Jazz and I got the job done despite the audience and they were still around when I turned him loose.]

We wish you a nice next week, and hope you are staying healthy. Okay — that’s about it for this week.

Nancy

Guess we will start with Halloween Sunday because we sent the last one out on Saturday night before the scary day.

Today we had a blast going to a friend’s house on the other side of the valley.  He and John talked wood, picked apples, and watched deer while I visited with his wife, inside the house.  We have never had a sit down talk for such a long time.  I found out all sorts of things I did not know about her, her family, and her job here at CWU.  She retired 1994.  Wow.. so long ago, and I did not realize that.  Before we left, they gave us a box of beautiful tomatoes, a bag of magnum-size onions, half of a huge squash, and about a hundred pounds of apples.
Then we went by Rhu’s house and enjoyed seeing the kids dressed up for Halloween.  We had chili and cornbread with them and left before they left to take the kids trick or treating.  We took Ritz crackers and grated cheddar cheese to put on the chili.  Yum.   Rhu greeted us as long lost buddies, but he is settling fine in his new home.  He has been going running with each of the parents separately, and going off lead, but staying around.  That is good.  I’m surprised because I would not trust his mom or dad to stick around.
Monday was exercise class for me, and cutting wood (while the sun shined) for John.  Then the rest of the day was miserable for outside work.

Tuesday, John got up early to get to the dentist’s office for a teeth cleaning, and then he went shopping and to get tires put on his Subaru.  The stock tires did not last long – about 27,000 miles – but the new ones are supposed to last 70K.  We’ll see.  Now he is out doing something with a chain saw and the sun is still shining.  I’m inside on the computer, but ready to stop and write some more thank you notes for the retirement celebration.

I had to change our Kittitas Valley Fiddlers & Friends performance at Hearthstone this month, because it would be on Thanksgiving Day.  We will go instead the day before, and then to the community dinner (free) at the Moose Lounge.  It used to be at the Adult Activity Center, but they have moved it and they run buses every half hour from there, if people want to get a ride over from the Senior Center.  There is also a potluck with hamburgers and hotdogs at the Sr. Ctr. this Friday to celebrate Veterans’ Day.

Wednesday – busy day.  John worked in the yard all day on various chores besides the normal ones.  I left and went to town mid-day to shop and go to my exercise class and the post office.  Then home and John was still out.  He came in and helped me with something on his computer & printer, and then took a very short nap.  We went back to town for the WA Geology lecture, tonight on Mt. Rainier, titled, ”Mt. Rainier: Past, Present, & Future.”  As usual, it was an excellent presentation.  If we owned property in Orting, Puyallup, Enumclaw, or some other places over near Puget Sound, built on ancient mud flows from Mt. Rainier, we would be selling our property before the mountain starts rumbling.  A mud flow would wipe out a lot of people and built-up area.  It will happen.

Thursday was a day of music and lecture in the afternoon.  Morning was rather short, because I slept in, after a restless night.  I did finish all my notes of thanks to my colleagues to take in to the lecture today.  John stayed home to move sections of tree trunk to under a large cottonwood (for shade) where he can cut it and split it later.  We have a free-standing wood stove but we prefer not to have the smoke, ash, and mess in the house.  But it is there if we need it.  Most of the trees come from the neighbor’s property and they get most of it.  They like having the fire.  We don’t.  John has a heavy splitting maul [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splitting_maul ] and gets lots of exercise in the making of fire wood.  He sometimes sells some of the dried wood to pay for the gas, oil, and wear and tear on saw and truck.

Before music, I stopped by an old gentleman’s house who is in the trail riders club, to pick up an article about poisonous plants he wanted John to have for the newsletter he is constructing to mail out this Saturday.  Then on to Royal Vista nursing home.  Seven of us showed up to play for the residents of the nursing home, but we had to compete with noise on the roof, from a re-roofing project.  That brought back memories of our own re-roofing “noise” this spring.  We are very happy with our new roof for the winter season and fall rains.

After that, we visited a bit with the residents and then I took off for the university to hear a visiting professor, who has moved into my old office, give a talk on Mt. Rainier, Perceptions of Climbers to the peak.  It was very interesting, and had beautiful photography, along with the report of his research findings.  He interviewed climbers on the top of the mountain, before and after their climb, about their perceptions of risks and hazards associated with the visit.  He classified them into groups of novice, intermediate, and advanced climbers.  His results and stories were enlightening.

Here we are already–Friday, and I’m not even working, but still have the “TGIF” feeling. Is that odd, or what?  Today was a cool day.  It started out slowly, but I was out of here headed to town at 11:00 a.m. for a music play session for a Veterans’ Day Picnic Potluck.  Actually the potluck, I joined before the music started.  The Senior Center provided the grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, and people brought side dishes.  The Veterans there (including one nurse, female) were given a nice card with a little HERO badge to wear.  It was quite nicely done and we applauded them all.  There were several ladies from my exercise class (which followed, at 1:30), and we sat together and visited and ate.  At noon a lady from the community came in with her accordion, and music & words for all the people there, and we sang patriotic songs.  I dressed up in my white blouse, white shoes, blue pants, and a neat red and blue vest.  I played my violin with the accordionist, and we sang the songs together, and all the audience sang along really well.  I did not know all of the songs, but most of them, and I played along a background on those I didn’t really know.

John spent the end of the week, and finally tonight, finishing his newsletter for the trail riders club.  It’s a nice one, although shorter than usual.  He has come down with another sneezy cold.  I don’t know where we are catching these bugs, but he says he read that you are more likely to get cold viruses from shaking hands with someone than being in their sneeze.  Interesting.  I hope I don’t catch it this time, as I did last.  My nose has been runny, but I don’t think I have a cold, yet.  I just got over the last one.

Saturday.. morning early I dressed and got to the music building on campus for a free workshop by Geoffrey Castle, an incredible musician and technician.  He gave a concert last night at the Univ., and sadly I did not go.  Next time he is in town I will be there.  He gave a two-hour workshop today to explain what it is he does, how he composes and improvises and how he plays an electric 6-string fiddle (violin).  He was trained as a classical musician, but he has immersed himself in all types of music including Celtic, country, blues, jazz, rock, pop, middle eastern music, and just about anything you can imagine.

You can find more about him on his web site: www.geoffreycastle.com Go visit it and be sure to listen to his rendition on video of Orange Blossom Special.

OH, one last message.  I received a phone call tonight from a fellow who farms and hunts here in the valley.  He has a pup (liver and white female) from our recent litter.  Quail season opened Oct 5^th, and before that he had started running her in his fields.  Now he has been hunting with her and he is thrilled to report that she is birdy, showed hunting instincts very early, and is pointing and retrieving to him.  He has shot 33 quail over her this season.  She is just 5 months old.  It was very nice to get his phone call tonight and hear about how happy he and she are.  He had had a dog from us 14 years ago, who died early this year.  So this makes it even more special.

I think I will end here this week, and pick up with Sunday in next week’s blog.  Have a nice week, and we’ll see you back soon.

Nancy

This weekend ought to bring out spirits of all types.  So get in your costume, don your mask, and hide from the bad guys.

Sunday night I participated again in the music for the Taizé service at the Episcopal church in town.  This week we had different musicians:  a pianist, two violins, and a flute to play the background instrumentals for people to sing along.  Afterwards we were served Lasagna and bread.

The past couple of days I have worked on the order for a “musical notes bracelet” with a Medic Alert on it for me.  It has a 1-800 number with contact to a data base with all my medical information.  It only costs $20 for the bracelet and $39.95 plus handling to get established in the data base.  The continuing cost will be $30/year.  That’s not bad for the purpose it serves, and I will be able to get rid of the red plastic band Allergy warning to Heparin that I have had on my wrist for the past 10 months.

Monday I went back to the dental hygienist for a teeth cleaning after 1.5 years.  I was concerned because that’s what started all this medical stuff April of 2009.  I took a high dose of antibiotics, and still was on the tail end of the 5-day antibiotic for my sinus infection.  The plaque build-up was not as bad as everyone feared.

I wrote a letter to my infectious disease specialist and my family physician to ask when I should go for a culture again after this to be sure no bacteria were introduced to my blood stream.  It seems I’m susceptible more so than others to endocarditis and we want to catch it sooner than the last two times.

While I was going to town, John helped more with chores around the farm of our neighbors across the street.  Today he is cutting wood again in the upper part of the neighbor’s land.

It’s a rest day for me to catch up more on thank you notes and emails, filing receipts, and paying bills.  John is going to a meeting tonight on the use of State lands. With a push from the Feds, the State fish and wildlife folks have to respond to any use that might directly or “incidentally” harm/take/kill plants or animals deemed threatened or endangered.  This meeting is intended to explain the process.  Being dog and horse owners and belonging to clubs that might be impacted, John and some others from the Trail Riders club are going as a team.

Wednesday was the start of a busy day to get us ready for an even busier day the next.   I took care of email and some stuff in the morning and then went to my SAIL (Stay Active and Independent for Life) exercise class again… this time paying my quarterly fee of 3 bucks.  Heck of a price for an hour’s exercise MWF each week, with a knowledgeable leader.  I wasn’t able to participate in the time several weeks after August’s event, but now I’m back to okay… and everyone was happy to see me back.  I’m not quite 100%, but really am better than I was the last time they saw me.  That evening John and I attended a Washington geology talk —  The topic was the potential for massive earthquakes just off of Washington’s coastline. It is well attended from the community and well done.

Thursday brought all sorts of activities.  I actually slept in a little more than usual, and then we got to Kittitas to Curley’s in time for Taco Thursday specials and to meet 8 people who rode their horses down the John Wayne Pioneer Trail from the Fairgrounds at Ellensburg.  It’s about 6 miles.  There were at least 8 others from the club who met there and had lunch.  From there John took me to Hearthstone Cottages, where we entertained a good group of people who appreciate our music and will sing along.  John and I left a few minutes early to go to a great lecture at CWU Geography, on field work in Mexico and Peru.  Then we picked up my Subaru we had left last night to be worked on today; just an oil change and lube.

There are no close yard sales Friday, so we will stay home in the morning and hope to install the unit to send my ICD readings up at 2:00 a.m. in the morning from beside my bed.  Perhaps I can make some more inroads into cleaning out spaces to hang the new clothes, and get down to more of the old to take to friends who can use them.  I am down enough on my weight that I can fit into some Medium shirts; however,  I’m still better with L.  Nowhere near the previous 2XL and some 22W sizes.  Not the way to lose weight, but it’s very nice to be able to exercise with less weight to move around.  I’m sure my horse will appreciate having me aboard once I get there too.

Noon Friday was a scholarship luncheon at CWU in the CWU Theatre department.  After that was my exercise class at the Senior Center (oops, more properly called the Adult Activity Center for political correctness).  There was a Halloween Bingo party there in the evening, and I went with my neighbor.  Neither one of us won a single game.  They had some good prizes too, so that was disappointing.

It rained most of the night and started again Saturday morning.  We thought about not going but decided to go to a garage sale 6 miles away from us.  It was a nice trip through the countryside, in the rain, but nothing grabbed our fancy there.  We have empty boxes in the back of the car for use tomorrow at our friend’s house who has offered us some garden vegetables and to pick some apples.  Could be Halloween evening I will go to town to visit the family with the puppy Rhu we kept for so long.  They are fixing chili and invited us in to share in the Halloween fun with their kids (2 and 4 yr old boys).

We’ll be back next week on the blog with any news.  It’s probably going to be a lighter week but who knows?
Nancy

Last Sunday night I did go to a music service at the Episcopal church — at the north of B Street.  Turns out it was much more than I realized and is the first of a Taizé for our town – an ecumenical service with scriptures, silence (meditation), music, prayers, communion, and more music mixed into the entire service.  There are several denominations involved:  (alphabetically, Catholic, Episcopal, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, and me, the one lone Baptist). We had a pianist, two violins, and a guitar to play the background instrumentals for people to sing along on 5 song-like chants.

That night I missed seeing flyers for a lost Brittany puppy, that turns out was “our” Rhu.  Little Rhu went out of his yard/garage door, on the south end of B Street and, luckily, was picked up by the police almost immediately and taken to the pound for two nights.  Making contact with the pound care-givers over the weekend wasn’t happening, so it wasn’t until Monday morning his owners found him and he is back home with the family.  The reason I mentioned the location of the church on B Street is that there were flyers for the lost puppy at places I was before getting to the church.   I was at the grocery and on all the roads where flyers were posted all around B and other streets. Had I seen one of the posters I might be back in the ICU.

Monday was a slow day.  I managed to get an order from my doctor to the hospital so I could have the PICC line removed.  I spent the rest of the day and the day before, getting the lyrics to songs we will sing and perform later this week.  More music.

Finally, Tuesday morning we succeeded and went to town for the removal of the PICC line.  I was so tired from dreaming all night and not sleeping well, that I rested / napped in the afternoon.  Then I went in to play more music at the Royal Vista Nursing home (with The Connections—a different religious group who sings to the audience and also sings along with them on old church anthems they know from their younger days.  It is simply amazing to watch even the Alzheimer patients sing along.  It’s really rather remarkable and enjoyable to view.

The rest of the week has been fun but mostly normal fare.  Wednesday I was still sick with a cold and stayed close to home until we went to Ellensburg for the Geology lecture on Tsunamis in WA & OR coasts from offshore underwater large (> 9) magnitude earthquakes.  Thursday, was play day for music at the Dry Creek facility and we practiced for our playing Friday night in a fundraising benefit dinner for the Cascade Land Conservancy, to get money to pay for protection, preservation, and enhancement within the 22-mile stretch of the Yakima River Canyon for a Scenic By-way.  This is along Hwy 821 from Ellensburg to Yakima, WA and is very picturesque, with all sorts of vegetation and cactus and river scenes, basalt cliffs, and this is a classic “catch & release” stream as well.  Fly fisherman come in from around the world.  Sightings of Big Horn Sheep, elk deer, Ospreys, and other wildlife are possible.

Friday and Saturday mornings, we went to several yard sales.  One was a rummage sale at a church and for $3 we got a bag with neat stuff in it: vest, jeans for John, sweaters, blouses, skirt, making the items cost less than 50 cents each.  They are all new-like condition.  Before stopping there, we went to a “guy’s” sale in the rural area and I found a CD of 24 songs of the blues, by Jimmie Rodgers.  We sing at least two of his songs in our music group – 1929, “Waitin’ for a Train”, and “T for Texas” so I was thrilled and picked up some other blues and guitar CDs and vocalists I didn’t know–but for a quarter each, it seemed like a fantastic deal.  I’m still happy with my newly found music.  Saturday morning we found some more good deals, again, blouses, shirts, and jackets for a quarter, with two at fifty cents, which are in excellent condition and probably originally were very expensive.  John found the fancy jackets that were marked $1, but I bargained and got them for less.  He has a good eye for such things, so it’s nice having him along but he hates asking for a price reduction when the stuff is almost free anyway.

Now I still need to spend time cleaning out closets to have a place to put this stuff.  And, I also need to sort out the large sized things I have not yet given away and get them to my friends or another appropriate destination.  At the sales, I found a couple of items that I can gift to some friends, who are collectors.  John found some straw placemats that he plans to use as window shades.  Clever guy.  The lady of the house was willing to give the 4 to us for a buck.  One of the neatest things about sales in a relatively small town, is you see people you know and can visit.  One wants to say “Small World” but it is just a small town.  This happens every time we go out and about, including to the grocery store, the bank, or whatever.  The hospital is a bit different in that I now know half the folks that work there.

Well, the week started with music and will end with music tomorrow, but we are going to try to get this on the blog on Saturday night.

We’ll be back next week.

Nancy

Nancy writing each day:

Sunday was a light day mainly used for resting from the week previous and all the exciting things that happened.

Monday found us going in for a blood culture draw and for other blood lab tests to check on the existence of bacteria or if they had all been eliminated by the two antibiotics.  We won’t know the culture results for a few days.

Tuesday found us on the road to Yakima for almost the whole day, leaving at 8:45 a.m. for a 10 a.m. appointment to have my ICD (device) checked.  That was over in 12 minutes, but we had to wait around to see the cardiologist at 11:15 a.m.   We were late getting in to see him and then he spent over an hour with us, reviewing all that had happened since the last visit (July 21st).  Lots surely had transpired.  He was very thorough as usual and dictated facts and all his opinions of which we will get a copy.  We didn’t get home (ate a lunch there), till 3:30 p.m.   Then I went by myself to play music at 6:30 p.m. at one of the nursing homes.  Came home to a dinner cooked by John for me.  I’m eating again, finally, so that’s made him very happy.

Wednesday – we decided to make some Chocolate Chip cookies, but only made one cookie sheet and put the dough in the frig to cool down for more during the evening.  Our main chore of the day was to figure out some of the TIAA-CREF paperwork that never got completed in April.  We needed to process the papers to get our money invested there transferred to Vanguard where we have an investment counselor to help us get some income into our checking account for our retirement.  There is no “pension” from the university*, but they matched part of our contributions to mutual

[* from John : Years ago we were given the opportunity to opt out of the WA State Public Employees’ Retirement System (PERS) and, instead, our retirement dollars were directed to retirement plans sponsored by TIAA-CREF, Vanguard, and Fidelity.  We were warned that once we signed out we would be stuck with our decision.  We signed out and never looked back.  Nation-wide many state and local plans are now under funded.  Can you say “Taxes will go up.”]

funds and stocks, over the years.

Even when John taught part-time, he was able to put a few thousand aside in a retirement fund.  We had an appointment in the afternoon with our helper at the CWU Human Resources department and we saw her to get the forms we had filled in, notarized*, and to check to see we had the correct ones.

[* from John : The State of WA assumes a 50-50 split of retirement funds between spouses so a paper has to be signed by the spouse giving consent to move money out of the CWU Plan and the signature has to be witnessed by the plan representative or a notary.]

On the way home we stopped at a nursery and bought 4 small bushes, Rose of Sharon (or Althea, as Nancy remembers it from her childhood in Atlanta). Two are good to 5 below and the others to 10 below.  John is going to put them out by the road because he has a vision of a different gate entrance in the future for our home.

In the evening we took off for town again, after a bite of dinner, and heard a geology lecture for the community by a CWU Instructor, titled: “The geology of Mt. Stuart: A closer look.” Washington is a jumble of parts that came from elsewhere. They arrived from who knows where and got plastered onto others and the edge of the old North American Plate.  Mt. Stuart is a 93 million year old granitic mountain of unknown origin.

Thursday will be the normal music at the Rehabilitation Center where I spent 6 weeks getting back on my feet–January and February.  It is good to go back now that I can walk again.  We sneaked out of the music early to get to the University by 3:05 to hear our newest faculty member, a biogeographer, talk on paleo-ecology found in cores (mud) of lake beds.  It was a fascinating lecture.  She has done work on lagoons and lakes in Belize and will be doing research here in Washington.  She also has cored many lakes in Oregon.  After her talk, I went to Out Patient Services at the hospital for a dressing change and flush on my PICC line, and we took some of the cookies to the group of nurses.  John and I both went to the Trail Riding club meeting tonight.  A busy day.

Friday. The fast-test for bacteria was negative and today, after extended culture time, none showed their ugly tell-tail presence.  Hurrah!  We’ll schedule a PICC removal celebration for early next week.

We have a potluck/jam session with the music group to practice for our “gig” next Friday night.  We’ve been asked to play music for a fund raiser in the Yakima Canyon for the Scenic By-Way.  That’s a 22-mile stretch of Nature’s beauty down the Yakima Canyon Road between Ellensburg, WA and Yakima, WA.  There are many basalt cliffs, a few Ponderosa pines, black cottonwood, cactus, and big horn sheep occasionally within view.  The Yakima River (catch & release) runs the entire stretch along side of the road.  It is a very scenic place.

John spent most of the day planting Rose of Sharon (Althea) trees (small) we bought a day or so ago.   He’s planting them near the road and the entrance to our driveway, with the hopes getting some pretty flowering trees up there for color.  He’s also been cooking pork ribs all afternoon for the potluck tonight.  It’s his specialty and everyone loves them.

Saturday brings more music.  The Kittitas Valley Fiddlers and Friends entertained at Briarwood, a retirement community.  This is the place where they provide us food after we play and sing.  It’s a nice group of people and they normally sing along and some get up and dance.  They had sandwich makings today and desserts.  There were several types of meat, tomatoes, lettuce, 4 different cheeses and two kinds of bread.

This morning we hit a couple of yard sales and the bank. There they counted our piggy-bank-change – actually a plastic gallon bear – and converted it into cash for us.  A few weeks ago John accidentally hit the bear in the nose and the thin plastic shattered and spilled coins onto the dresser and the floor.  The time had come to gather the coins and count them.  [Ecclesiastes 3]

Sunday; nothing is planned, except I will go to the Grace Episcopal Church for another music program, to play along with one of my friends.

Nancy