This starts with where I left off last week, Saturday night.\u00a0 I played the violin and sang at an Easter Vigil at the Episcopal Church.\u00a0 There were 4 different clergy people from several churches (Lutheran, Methodist, 2 Episcopal) and 4 musicians (Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran and Methodist).\u00a0 Quite an ecumenical crowd.\u00a0 They even had Communion\/ Eucharist with either wine or grape juice.\u00a0\u00a0 Pretty cool, neat service.<\/p>\n
Easter Sunday found us at our neighbor\u2019s house with other neighbors, family and friends.\u00a0 We had a great meal\u2014ham, with scalloped potatoes covered in cheese, broccoli salad, a large bowl of Fruit (strawberries, 2 types of grapes, cantaloupe, blueberries, and bananas), creamed corn pudding, rolls, and for dessert, an apple-blueberry cobbler John made, and a Boston Cr\u00e8me Cake that one person brought.\u00a0 We had a little ice cream on the cobbler.\u00a0 We all were very full and had a nice visit.<\/p>\n
We learned from one of the people there about a camcorder focused on an Eagle\u2019s Nest in Decorah, IA, with 3 babies.\u00a0 How cool.\u00a0 I have watched it off and on for a couple of days.\u00a0 Check it out:\u00a0 http:\/\/www.ustream.tv\/decoraheagles<\/p>\n
Monday. Rainy morning all morning till I had to leave for SAIL exercise at 1:00.\u00a0 John was unable to work in the yard and had to feed the horses and run the dogs in the rain.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t till 2:30 it stopped and he could return outside.\u00a0 I made several stops in town, grocery store for dinner needs (yummy bread and spaghetti sauce fixings), a stop at one of the nursing homes we visit occasionally as they have not been answering their phone (turns out it is broken except in one room of the office and if no one is there, it doesn\u2019t get answered).\u00a0 While setting up for next week\u2019s non-normal performance she told me they were having a special party for our normal fifth Thursday (June 30th<\/sup>) play date there.\u00a0 It is a neighborhood party to welcome new residents, with refreshments, entertainment (our Fiddlers and Friends group), and door prizes.\u00a0 She handed me a flyer announcing the event.\u00a0 Then on to another friend\u2019s house to drop off a sweater vest that doesn\u2019t fit me, and on to another nursing home to visit a member of our group (the accordionist) who had hip replacement surgery.\u00a0 Finally I got home at 4:30.\u00a0 Supper is completed and all is well.\u00a0 The wind picked up to 24mph gusts, but seems to be slowing again.<\/p>\n Tuesday, light day, just household chores, email, and trying to fix up the medical bill charges with payments by Medicare and Group Health.\u00a0 Rather amazing how much they can wiggle out of paying and how much I\u2019m charged differently for the same item.\u00a0 Getting that fixed is a royal PITA.\u00a0 I will spend an hour of my time and theirs over a $17.43 item.\u00a0 It\u2019s the principle of the thing.\u00a0 Then how do you explain a Feb. statement where I supposedly owe 20.xx and then two months later it has increased to 159.60.\u00a0 Did get a phone call from a former student on her way to Florida, who stopped in Atlanta to call me and say she was in my home town.\u00a0 That was cool.\u00a0 She is on her way to see the last launch of the Endeavour.\u00a0 She won it in a contest on NASA\u2019s Twitter site.<\/p>\n Wednesday.\u00a0 Kind of a slow day.\u00a0 Worried with medical bill adjustments.\u00a0 Then, went to exercise class and afterward by the nursing home to visit, but got there when they were doing physical therapy exercises.\u00a0 That surely brought back uncomfortable memories.\u00a0 I was glad to visit for a short while and give encouragement and walk out on my own two feet.<\/p>\n Thursday.\u00a0 My questioning medical charges has paid off.\u00a0 Got a call this morning from the accountant at my family physician\u2019s office that we are being refunded $80 on the bill.\u00a0 Guess that was worth my time and effort.\u00a0 What makes us wonder is how many people just pay the bills without questioning, and how much money is involved.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Today we are going to play music at Hearthstone and John will go shopping and get gas in his car while I\u2019m there, and then we have an appointment at school at 4:00 to discuss the endowment for the Distinguished Service Award in our name for students.\u00a0 Turns out we don\u2019t have enough for an endowment\u00a0 (need $10,000).\u00a0 We have a fund with $2700 in it, and that will have to be moved into a Geography endowment as seed money.\u00a0 We have decided to sponsor a scholarship each year as long as we have the money, and put 100 toward the principal.\u00a0 Nothing else today.\u00a0 Well, yes there was.\u00a0 I just got on line to an old Blackboard presence of an Economic Geography class I taught in 2005 and pulled off some good pictures of hog raising in the U.S. to share with a gal teaching Natural Resource Conservation in Geography this spring quarter.<\/p>\n Friday.\u00a0 I had a couple of things to do midday–play music at the Food Bank Soup Kitchen, and go to my exercise class.\u00a0 I did stop at a yard sale (advertised as an estate sale), and I should have realized the prices when done by a commercial team, are quite high.\u00a0 I think the yard sale crowd from Ellensburg will not buy much. Perhaps they will get someone from the west side to come over. \u00a0John put the License plates on our old ’89 Ford truck, and moved the canopy off so we can retrieve some chain link panels we loaned to friends down west of Yakima. They invited us for a nice Salmon luncheon when we come down to pick them up.\u00a0 They are through using them because their puppy is now a 70 pound golden, and John wants to get them before refitting the canopy with new (easily removable) C-clamp style hardware.\u00a0 Also, one of the panels has a built in gate he wants to use as access to his new berry patch. Too windy to work outside today so John spent his time while I was away, cleaning up the kitchen. \u00a0Nice guy. \u00a0Nothing like the tornadoes in Alabama and Georgia, but we had 47 mph gusts and sustained winds averaging 37 mph all afternoon.\u00a0 John\u2019s heading out with the 4 dogs to feed the horses and retrieve the mail, and paper, which I did not do on my way in.\u00a0 I hope he doesn’t get blown away, nor the hay blown away.\u00a0 It is very “light” and takes flight in the wind, but is all we have left from a neighborhood purchase last summer.<\/p>\n Saturday. The 1980 truck has a new battery but a myriad of problems.\u00a0 The 1989 truck has seals around the doors, an air conditioner, power enough to pull a 3-horse trail up a mountain, other nice things, and an old and failing battery.\u00a0 After a Thursday trickle-charge the truck started. \u00a0Friday it would not. \u00a0After an all-night charge, Saturday morning it was still dead. http:\/\/media.photobucket.com\/image\/recent\/Cloud9Above\/mccoy.jpg<\/a><\/p>\n John went to town for a replacement and then we headed south \u2013 first to Costco for some sale items and $96 of gas, then for the chain link panels and lunch.<\/p>\n We had grilled salmon, grilled veggies (carrots, potatoes, onions), pea pods, and bread.\u00a0 We took a red velvet cake for dessert.\u00a0 Also had iced tea.\u00a0 Filled up amazingly and ate over a 2-hr period, I think.\u00a0 Visited and listened to music.\u00a0 Pretty cool.\u00a0 Home by 6 to a windy and cold evening on the Naneum Fan.<\/p>\n http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Alluvial_fan<\/a><\/p>\n Use Google Earth and look here:\u00a0 47.075719, -120.471724<\/p>\n Zoom out to see the green wedge, then the canyon and mountains (5,000 to 6,000 feet) to the north of us. There is still much snow up there and cold air drains our way.\u00a0 It still seems like late February.\u00a0 So, John took hay to a sheltered area at the far end of the pasture.\u00a0 Horses are skittish in wind (John\u2019s theory<\/em>) because trees and such move about and their sight and hearing keeps warning them of a stalking cougar or whatever. \u00a0Or see:<\/p>\n http:\/\/answers.yahoo.com\/question\/index?qid=20081217082129AAPXTDg<\/a><\/p>\n Our usual best regards to all.<\/p>\n Nancy and John<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This starts with where I left off last week, Saturday night.\u00a0 I played the violin and sang at an Easter Vigil at the Episcopal Church.\u00a0 There were 4 different clergy people from several churches (Lutheran, Methodist, 2 Episcopal) and 4 musicians (Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran and Methodist).\u00a0 Quite an ecumenical crowd.\u00a0 They even had Communion\/ Eucharist … Continue reading “SATURDAY — waiting for spring!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-random-issues"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p72iNf-cs","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=772"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":774,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772\/revisions\/774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![http:\/\/media.photobucket.com\/image\/recent\/Cloud9Above\/mccoy.jpg<\/a><\/p>\nJohn went to town for a replacement and then we headed south \u2013 first to Costco for some sale items and $96 of gas, then for the chain link panels and lunch.<\/p>\nWe had grilled salmon, grilled veggies (carrots, potatoes, onions), pea pods, and bread.\u00a0 We took a red velvet cake for dessert.\u00a0 Also had iced tea.\u00a0 Filled up amazingly and ate over a 2-hr period, I think.\u00a0 Visited and listened to music.\u00a0 Pretty cool.\u00a0 Home by 6 to a windy and cold evening on the Naneum Fan.<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Alluvial_fan<\/a><\/p>\nUse Google Earth and look here:\u00a0 47.075719, -120.471724<\/p>\nZoom out to see the green wedge, then the canyon and mountains (5,000 to 6,000 feet) to the north of us. There is still much snow up there and cold air drains our way.\u00a0 It still seems like late February.\u00a0 So, John took hay to a sheltered area at the far end of the pasture.\u00a0 Horses are skittish in wind (John\u2019s theory<\/em>) because trees and such move about and their sight and hearing keeps warning them of a stalking cougar or whatever. \u00a0Or see:<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/answers.yahoo.com\/question\/index?qid=20081217082129AAPXTDg<\/a><\/p>\nOur usual best regards to all.<\/p>\nNancy and John<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This starts with where I left off last week, Saturday night.\u00a0 I played the violin and sang at an Easter Vigil at the Episcopal Church.\u00a0 There were 4 different clergy people from several churches (Lutheran, Methodist, 2 Episcopal) and 4 musicians (Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran and Methodist).\u00a0 Quite an ecumenical crowd.\u00a0 They even had Communion\/ Eucharist … Continue reading “SATURDAY — waiting for spring!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-random-issues"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p72iNf-cs","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=772"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":774,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772\/revisions\/774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"http:\/\/media.photobucket.com\/image\/recent\/Cloud9Above\/mccoy.jpg\"){kind=link}