"Welcome to the Weekend Chat!" All Members Invited!! September 10th - 12th, 2021 [closed]

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CHANGE TO BEST ANSWER PROCESS:  After much discussion we have come to the conclusion that all answers in the Weekend Chat are of equal importance and weight.  So we are going to discontinue the Best Answer portion as it adds points and then takes them away from posters and is causing some hurt feelings.  So in the interest of everyone is equal and valued we will delete any best answers given which will deduct those points because it has been pointed out that to give everyone best answer is also not a viable option. 

Weekend Chat is for everyone. It's a place to catch up on what people are up to and to share what you've been doing.  New members can say hello, introduce themselves, ask questions, and meet each other.  Our seasoned members can share progress or successes from their projects, give tips and advice, or chime in on hot topics.

Post as many answers and comments as you wish. It doesn't hurt anyone to post a lot and enjoy the multitude of topics.

Enjoy yourselves and spread the love!

Comments

Hello William Henriques and welcome to Weekend Chat.

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I think in context for Americans, this is the remembrance of those who died in the terrorist attack of Sept 11th (2001); just as for many others some decades ago, there was a decades long memory of Dec 6th (1941). Very likely all nations have their own Memorial dates

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I was at work On 9/11 and when the news broke about the attack the plant manager put a TV in the lunch room tuned to the news. Not a lot of production was done after that but the company did not complain.

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That is one of those profound dates that I will remember every detail of the rest of my life. We were living in northern California; my husband woke me when the second plane went into the towers. His words were "Do you know where Michelle is?". She is our oldest child and was an American flight attendant at the time. I replied, she is taking off from one of the NYC airports this morning. He said you need to come in here now and my feet were on the floor immediately knowing something was very wrong. We watched in horror and dread for another hour and a half while fielding calls from family and hanging up within seconds hoping for a call from our daughter. She finally called and at that point I was reduced to tears in relief. Her flight had been ordered to land in Little Rock, Arkansas along with hundreds of others. They did not yet know what the emergency was so we told her what was happening while they were taxiing and waiting for a clear gate and she told the cockpit crew and they announced it to the passengers. She lost some friends that day but when the time came, she went back to work. We feel so sad for all those families who lost loved ones; at the same time we feel so humbly blessed that we still have our daughter and now our grandson.

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William, glad you joined us this weekend. I hope you’ll stop by each week. We love hearing what’s going on in the lives (and research) of our members.

Montana is one of the states I have not visited yet, and my daughter’s visit there last winter only made me want to see that big, beautiful state even more. One of these days!

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I was at work. We gathered in a conference room with a television and anxiously waited to hear from a coworker and her team who were working on site at the Pentagon. Our customer's office was destroyed; no one was injured.

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There were victims from many countries that day.  So we mourn for all families and nations who lost beloved family members.  372 from 90 countries besides the 2605 from the USA

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Yes, it was a world disaster, even if it happened on US soil.

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I also remember where I was on November 22, 1963, I was 9, my mum was putting the youngest to bed, it must have been about 7.30 pm maybe later in England and the news was on the radio.

I ran upstairs and said Mum 'who is President Kennedy, because he's dead'

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I was in school snd the principal turned on the ps system to the radio reports snd started us on the rosary.   It was a Catholic gradeschool

Answer 1

Good morning Pip and the weekend chatters!

Weather:

• rained only once this week (on Monday)
• but our area is being warned to prepare for catastrophic flooding starting Sunday evening (my area is predicted for up to 8 inches of rain)

Genealogy:

• been working on the WikiTree Challenge Suggestions

Computer update - started the reinstall process:

• erased macOS Catalina and installed macOS Big Sur
• re-downloaded a few programs from the Apple App Store and other websites
• reloaded my Apple mail (a ton of it)
• tried to reload my gmail accounts, but was blocked for lack of a source to receive a texted passcode
• created a Google Voice account in order to receive texts - now I was able to reload my gmail accounts
• Current Issue:  the Apple Mail program is not displaying the correct number of unread messages for one of the gmail accounts and the counts are not displaying correctly for the VIP and flagged items
• Tuesday - re-downloaded a few more Apple programs from the Apple App Store which were not part of the Big Sur install (i.e., Pages, Numbers, Keynote and iMovie)
• still needing to get with Apple Support to reload my backed up data that was backed up in a special format that I can’t readily access

Comments

Good morning, Tommy. How are things where you are?

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Currently, it’s sunny and cool (72°F), but then the forecast is for a lot of rain over the next 7 to 10 days for the coastal parishes and Texas coastal counties.

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 Nothing quite like spending your time immersed in electronic (cyber) warfare that rages between the hardware and the software, leaving the wetware wondering where to hide - and surrounded, no less, by a physical world that is a threat to safety - 

Hope the weekend is dry for you 

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More rain? Oh, my! Your area certainly does not need that much. I hope the weather forecasters are wrong and you get far less than they've predicted.

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Weather update … now I’m being told to prepare for the potential for the storm in the western gulf to possibly shift right and strengthen into a hurricane which would pass over southwest Louisiana.  It’s now been named Tropical Storm Nicholas.

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I begin to think you are living the wrong part of the country. At least when it is in ref to the weather.

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Weather update at 6 p.m. CDT ….

Two rain showers have passed over my area.

Calcasieu Parish schools will be closed on Monday.

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Tommy, as soon as I saw that weather alert, I thought of you. You be safe!

Answer 2

Today is....

  

NATIONAL TV DINNER DAY

National TV Dinner Day is observed annually on September 10th.  In 1953, C.A. Swanson & Sons changed the prepackaged meal business forever. Introducing the TV Dinner revolutionized frozen food.

In 1962, Swanson stopped using the name TV Dinner. However, in the United States, the term remains synonymous with any prepackaged dinner purchased frozen from a store and heated at home.

The first Swanson TV Dinner consisted of a Thanksgiving meal of turkey, cornbread dressing, peas, and sweet potatoes. Originally, Swansons made the tray of aluminum. They separated each food item into individual compartments, too. At home, the cook heated the dinner in the oven. The cooking time was usually 25 minutes. Today, nearly all frozen food trays can be cooked in the microwave or a conventional oven. 

When Swanson’s first sold TV dinners, they priced them at 98 cents. In the first year, production estimates reached 5,000 dinners. To their surprise, Swanson far exceeded that amount. In the first year, they sold more than 10 million of them.

TV Dinner Facts

• 1960 – Swanson added desserts to a new four-compartment tray.
• 1964 – Night Hawk name originated from the Night Hawk steak houses that operated in Austin, Texas, from 1939 through 1994. The original diners were open all night, catering to the late-night crowd. The restaurants produced the first frozen Night Hawk TV dinner in 1964.
• 1969 – The first TV breakfasts were marketed. Great Starts Breakfasts and breakfast sandwiches followed later.
• 1973 – Swanson markets the first Hungry-Man dinners. The meals included larger portions of its regular dinner products.
• 1986 – Microwave-oven safe trays debut on the market. 
• 1986 – The Smithsonian Institute inducted the original Swanson TV Dinner tray into the Museum of American History.

If your in a hurry, gab a TV dinner, they aren't that bad really.  I have a freezer full lol!!

Comments

I didn't see a TV dinner until I was about 15, they didn't exist In England when I lived there, or perhaps I just didn't know about them.

They or their current day equivalent still seem very little food with little taste for the price.

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@Candyce 

I'm not sure about the ins and outs on the meals being delivered, but it is for the disabled and seniors and house-bound, without a vehicle of their own and probably there's an income cap, I don't know for sure.  I suppose they could have asked for payment but we have not received an invoice since we began Mar 2020.  We're both seniors, disabled, and do not own a vehicle 

Expense for TV dinners would depend on which store you bought them at and whether you took advantage of sales and whether you had a freezer space .... we live in a large metro area, the est population here is 216K+ -- there's 2 HMO here (at least 2) and a VA Hospital.   we have both retail groceries and bulk sales and others styles in between in this area 

I think you would have to contact your county offices to find out if there is a meals on wheels program ... depends on where you live of course - 

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@Susan

What a coincidence!  I worked for Meals-On-Wheels for quite a few years, until my COPD got worse.  It's a marvelous tool for us seniors, I agree.  

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 MRoss, one might infer from your last sentence that you do not purchase TV dinners.  That alone would indicate you are in a position to be selective. That is good news.   

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@Candyce, Meals on Wheels is a very good provision for many who have too few options.  Most Meals on Wheels I have heard about rely on volunteers to deliver -- 

Don't think this is the case with the program we're in since the drivers are employed by and answerable to the company that boxes and supplies the meals and that company is based in GA -- refrig. vans blazoned with the logo of the company (in GA) and five meals per box, one box per person per week 

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No, never, not a one. I could never afford them given how little real food is involved. The kids would still have been hungry.

I often batch cook, it's cheaper, easier and more electricity wise to cook several dishes at a time that require similar cooking methods. Then they go in the freezer. in appropriate serving sizes.  

Often I have 3 or 4 types of homemade soup in the freezer, up to 5 or 6 containers of each. The same happens with casseroles or stews, tomato sauces, yellow and red.

Then all I need to do is thaw and heat, or microwave the main dinner items as required.

Plus it means I get the food I want to eat not someone else's choice.

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I cooked the same way, MRoss for 40 years plus I once held a job cooking in a boarding house for a dozen people, two meals a day 

Recall reading somewhere the phrase "Stick to your guns" was from the Spanish / English war, Hornblower era, and used to encourage the men operating the cannons aboard ship Feb 25, 2019 — Initially it was the command to sailors who handled or crewed the guns on military boats not to leave the posts even if the boats were captured ...

Ah, I recalled it well enough 

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I still crave a meatloaf or turkey & dressing TV dinner from time to time, as it's so much easier than making a whole meatloaf or turkey just to get a meal or maybe 2 out of it. It was one thing when the kids lived with us, but once we became empty nesters, it's often more practical to enjoy the food I want in a TV dinner. Plus my wife isn't a big turkey fan (I eat the majority of that) and won't touch a meatloaf, so I have to be a bit discriminating in how I approach making such things practically for myself.

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Right on, Scott !! When a person buys their own they have a lot of choice over which ones to buy.  

 If someone won't allow a TV dinner to cross the threshold of their house, that's okay, also 

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My. Husband delivers Mesl on wheels on Wednesday late morning.  Those mesold are prepared that morning in a local hospital cafeteria.    For many seniors it the only meal they eat each day.  Snd those on his route look forward to his delivery

Answer 3

Hello from Colorado. 97 degree forecast today for record high by 4 degrees.  Well, it is also apple and peach harvest.  Finally the apples turned red and the last peach tree turned. Looks like a harvesting weekend.

On the genealogy front, I am just pushing forward on that cemetery study which includes fixing Find A Grave errors and duplications.  I am glad to report that I have been challenged several time to provide sources for my updates on Find A Grave.

Comments

Gee, Gurney, it was 50 degrees when I got up this morning. Forecast for today: 74. This will be the coolest day we've had since spring.

You have a rather large cemetery to work on. Do you have a projected date when you might be finished?

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I am guessing three years assuming I do it by myself. I could go quicker but I want to put in the family and tie them to the big tree so 3400 graves is somewhere around 10000 new profiles. I will always accept help but didn’t get a lot of interest earlier. I plan to ask again after the snows start.

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Wow, Gurney. I'm impressed by your ambition to get 10,000 profiles created in three years. I've been on WikiTree almost three years and I don't even have 2000 profiles yet.

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I agree Nelda I have been here almost 2 years and have 1508 profiles, a lot of them added recently for my cemetery project with help from a cousin. She does most of the research I create the profiles here.

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Yeah that may be optimistic. That’s about 10 profiles a day. So maybe another year or two. It’s a long term project any way you want to look at it.

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No one can fault your aspiration to profile 10,000 people.  A massive ambitious project. I salute you.  Also throwing some kudos at you.

Answer 4

Hello from rainy London! After a bizarre little heatwave we had from Monday - Thursday, we're back to our usual September weather (I for one am very happy)!

On my matrilineal line I made it all the way back to my ninth great-grandmother Elizabeth Maskal. Unfortunately I have no clue who her parents were, she certainly wasn't recorded in the North Mymms parish registers (which are the some of the prettiest parish registers I've seen) before her marriage.

A lot of my ancestor's 'anniversaries' are coming up around now. On September 10th 1894, my great-great grandfather married his wife. On his first wedding anniversary his sister Nellie was born. After that the important dates for me will be the 18th and the 25th.

Comments

September seems to be a month of anniversaries for my family, too, David. Brother's birthday, daughter's birthday, late mother-in-law's birthday, my gg-grandfather's birthday. (The anniversary list only grows each week as I create new profiles!)

Nice work on making it back to Elizabeth!

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September was our anniversary month and I have my two youngest granddaughter's birthdays in this month.  I always loved going back to school, then teaching school for seven years, so it was a no brainer to pick my favorite month to get married in when I was including all of the family situations which existed at the time.

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Sept Birthdays -- My maternal aunt, a sister of my mother, (the only sister she liked in fact), a sister of mine, a dau in law, various other relatives ...  some Sept births probably have something to do with celebrating the New Year ...

According to a thingie online Jan 1+280 days (average pregnancy length) would drop you at October 8th ... hmm 

Answer 5

Good morning............thought I just said that, but that was last Friday......alright already......

Comments

You actually ATE the cup? Swallowed it? Huh. 

Man has a ore crusher in there instead of the usual intestines ... that's frightening 

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I ate it.....did you swallow it? 

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Goodbye, John

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Susan......Last night I told Kathy and one of our daughters, who is staying with us, a bedtime story about the dinosaurs who 'jawed' each other and how I got the munchies and ate the coffee cup......they were either horrified or laughing themselves silly......at least that's what it seems......

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Reminds me of the school yard game of talking about something gross, telling friend they have to count with you:
I 1 it, (next is friend) I 2 it, I 3 it, I 4 it, I 5 it, I 6 it, I 7 it, I 8 it.
Then you ask them "Did it taste good?"  That never got old in the first grade level of kids and was repeated over and over even when they knew the silly question would be asked of them.

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Thanks for the laugh, Beulah.  

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Horrified beyond doubt -- ore crusher for bowels -- male behaviors -- gah

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Very funny for kids, old woman here not laughing ... although old woman here have to admit that's very clever ... gah

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As I repeated the school yard game to Kathy, she nodded and completed the numbers.

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Thanks for a trip down memory lane.

Answer 6

Thank You for hosting the Chat Pip,

Weather, Actually mostly nice and comfortable this week.

Last weekend I tried to post a picture and it would not display correctly so here is a link to said picture, https://www.wikitree.com/photo/jpg/Byers-779-6 . On the left is a computer to replace the one I used to use at the Pumpkin Festival booth to play a loop of pictures about our club. On top of that is the power supply and radio that I plan to run in the booth as well. Because all of this is new since the last festival I need to program both the radio and computer to do what is needed. About in the center is a short stubby antenna that is my radio hotspot. If that goes it will need to be reprogrammed as well. On the far right there are 7 hand held radios, you can only see 6 but trust me the seventh is there. All of those have to be charged and checked in case someone would need to borrow one to use at the festival as well.

On the Home Front,

Monday when Diane was in the master bath I heard a crash from the other end of the house. It seems that a microphone I had hung up for one of my radios, see the picture linked to above, caused a magnetic wire basket to fall taking both the microphone, basket and a desk clock crashing to the floor in the office. I reattached the microphone with a more secure mounting to avoid another crash and possible heart attacks caused by sudden loud noise.

Tuesday, , We made a list and did some shopping. We found a lot of very good deals on things we needed but when we got home we checked the list and found that we had not bought anything we wrote on the list.

Wednesday, back out with the list, or so we thought, at least this time we got the important stuff on the list.

Thursday was a Webinar on Digital Voice Modes for Amateur radio. I was not the presenter and I actually enjoyed the presentation, I even learned a couple of things.

Genealogy, Nothing much, Unless you count checking all of the suggestions found on my list this week and removing some profiles from the unsourced list. Yes they were sourced before I removed the unsourced tag.

Comments

The great granddaughter is at our house for today so that limits my computer time. At least she now has a keyboard to use so little hands do not try to "help" me as much.

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Dale, I had to just laugh out loud at your shopping trip and the list. Enjoy your time with your g-granddaughter! I know you will.

Answer 7

On this day:

1721: The Treaty of Nystad ends the Great Northern War

1846: Elias Howe is awarded a patent for his sewing machine

1898: Empress Elisabeth of Austria dies

Comments

I remember reading about Elizabeth of Austria. What a tragic life.

I'm taking on the Treaty of Nystad today. Thanks, Professor!

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Hi Jelena, thanks for the history lesson. I checked on Elias Howe and he is a 6th cousin 4xR through MRCA John Stone. My guess is that there are a fair number of WikiTreers who are related in the U.S. and across the pond. And my family would thank him for the sewing machine. My grandmother (who did not allow TV dinners in her home) became quite a seamstress and made draperies for many a woman in Wisconsin who was 'redoing' her home. My grandmother turned her skills into a very lucrative business.

Hope you and your mum are doing well!

Answer 8

Hi! I'm a new member and just saying hello. :)

Comments

Hi cousin Courtney, welcome to The Chat......I hope you enjoy it here, I still feel like a new member after nearly a year and a half.

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Hello Courtney! Welcome to the chat! I know that our 'Chat Leader' Pip will be catching up with you soon. We all enjoy meeting new members and hearing about how your weekend is going.

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Hello. Welcome to Weekend Chat.

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Hi Courtney! Welcome! Please feel free to expound on whatever subject you want in Weekend Chat. Many of us look forward to this each week as a way to build camaraderie.

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Welcome to the Chat, Courtney. I hope you'll stop be and check in with us each week. It's always good to have new folks join us. Have a great weekend!

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Hi Courtney!  Welcome to the Chat.  This is a warm and comforting place to be during the weekend.  I'm glad you have joined us.

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Saying Hi to you Courtney! This is a great place to share stories whether Genealogy related or not.

Answer 9

Buenos dias a todos from the Old Pueblo. It’s 8am in Tucson and 83F (28.3C) with an expected high of 102F (38.9C) with a tentative 37% humidity (heading toward sauna territory). The weather her just does not seem to be cooling down even though we are 1/4 of the way into September! 

It’s been an interesting week nature-wise at my home. My Japanese garden is glorious given all of the rain we have had. The evenings are redolent with the smell of jasmine. During the day, before and after meditation, I enjoy the blossoms of the peach-hued hibiscus and enjoy watching the hummingbirds ‘suck the sweets of sweet sugars’ from the Mexican Fire Cracker shrub. I’ve reduced the amount of water to the underground drip system 1) because of the rain and 2) because I am capturing nearly ¼ of shower water each day until the water heats up enough to bathe. I’m working very hard to conserve water and energy. I also spent a few hours cleaning the patio, including sweeping up the bat guana near an exterior patio wall. I removed a metal decorative place and almost tinkled my knickers when I found a little bat snoozing behind the wall-mounted plaque. It was kind enough to ‘hold my lemonade’ while I went for my camera and sent photos of the little bat around to family and friends on FaceBook. Naturally, I got comments from family like, ‘Now I know why you drive me, bat-***** crazy,’ and ‘Fangtastic, but you drive me batty,’ and ‘Oh look, a baby bat for an old bat.’ Gotta love family (well, not always). I love bats because they eat irritating biting insects. The other highlight occurred on Thursday when I returned from a medical visit. I backed into the garage as quickly as possible and grabbed my phone camera to take snaps of a kaleidoscope of Monarch butterflies fluttering by a side yard tree! I sent photos of the Monarchs around to family on Face Book, and fortunately received nice comments rather than smart remarks.

 I got my free flu shot today and would encourage anyone to do so this fall, especially if you have health conditions or are older adults to promote a health fall and winter. We aren’t done with Covid by a long mile and I will be getting my ‘booster’ in a month. I do this not just to protect me, but to protect others.  

On the 14^th, I leave for Milwaukee to visit with family and see our mum at the memory center. We’re taking one of mum’s 78 RPMs of ‘swing music’ and see if we can get her to do a little bit of a ‘jitterbug’. My sister, Bonny, and I will leave for the Big Apple on Saturday morning for a few days. Had we know Ida’s outcome we likely would have waited.  We’ve been to New York City before; however, this time I want to tour Harlem, take a ferry to the Statue of Liberty (we just saw it from the harbor in the past) and see a musical, perhaps ‘Waitress’ or ‘Chicago’. Broadway is just opening up. We will not see Hamilton as we saw it in Chicago pre-pandemic and the Broadway tickets are well-above our means. We will also likely go again to the Twin Towers memorial and pay our respects following the 20^th anniversary.

 I did some of my daughter’s genealogy on Wikitree and mentioned that she is a Fife (Phyfe) descendant. Her several times great grandfather, William Middleton Phyfe, was the nephew of noted furniture maker Duncan Phyfe. William was no slouch in the talent department either. He was a noted silversmith and some of his work is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MMA). I will be dragging Bonny along to the MMA and to the Guggenheim. Bonny does not like museums or art galleries. I tried to shame her with the news that the Guggenheim’s architect was Wisconsin’s own Frank Lloyd Wright! Her response? ‘Who’s Frank Lloyd Wright?’ Now if I told her that Donny Osmond would be there, she would be sleeping overnight on the front steps!

Other genealogy news, I was back-tracking a Green line to a divorced wife. It turns out her father was a Governor of Minnesota. Naturally, his profile was complete, but his wife? Meh! It is tiring to find profiles of notable, political, or famous men,yet their wives are barely a mention. So, I did a profile for his wife, then found that her parents needed work and that she was the niece of General Winfield Scott Hancock! Then found that her maternal line not only descended from the Adams ancestors of the presidents, but also from John Alden and Priscilla Mullins. So, I have been connecting, adding parents, grandparents and providing bios with inline sources for them and all the children. Once I finish with this family, I need to finish with the last of the McIntires.

Pip, thank you so much for hosting the chat! Where would we be without you? And where would you be without your kilt/s? And on a much somber note, let’s please remember the 20^th anniversary this Saturday of 9/11 and the many who redefined courage, love of country and of our neighbor.

Comments

Carol.....Every time you mention Arizona, it reminds me of the time I spent in Kamloops B.C., with it's desert like dry climate......here on the West Coast the summer's high heat seamed dry, but yesterday's 80/90 F was muggy, as I cleaned up the end of the hay field.....by evening my well tanned forehead seemed to be glowing......today and for two weeks we're expecting 60/70 F.

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Carol, your family members are witty to come up with such smart remarks in response to your bat photos. I got my flu shot this week. I, too, will be getting my COVID-19 booster as soon as it is time.

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@John, you need to make sure you don't get sunstroke working in that muggy heat. It's great that it's cooling down in your neck of the woods!

@Nelda, my family can be a blast! Our grandparents were pretty quick with quips. Congrats on you flu shot and double congrats on planning for your booster. We can celebrate our boosters together!

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"City nicknamed the Old Pueblo"  New York Times Crossword Puzzle clue for 49 across.  Thanks for an easy answer.

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Hi Carol, The statue was a real thrill for us.  We didn't get off, there, but we passed very close and the sight of it was breathtaking.  Enjoy your trip!

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@Beulah Any time my Sinatra Sidekick!

@Mark Howdy, cousin! Thanks for the info. Did you take a ferry, or is there some sort of tourist water ferry that you used? I'm looking forward to seeing Lady Liberty up close and personal!

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You inspired me to go a-wandering this afternoon. I read the Wikipedia biography of Sinatra then I went over to YouTube and watched a couple of videos of him singing. One thing led to another until soon I was rolling through the top hits of the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Not very productive, but I enjoyed the sentimental journey.

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Hi Nelda, the sentimental journal had to be productive as a stress reliever for you for several hours!

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A bat? A BAT?!?!? Oh, Carol, you just made my day with that story!

My daughter and her hubby just got back from Chicago last Tuesday. She said it was her favorite city seine to New York. I know you’ll have a blast, and we are going to want to hear all about it when you get back.

Making plane reservations soon for October. I’ll let you know the exact dates when we’re all set.

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Hi Pipster, yes, a bat! their bat remarks are typically what I have to put up with. My daughter and sister are 7 years apart so they are more like sisters than aunt and niece and I have to put up with them! They drive me bats--t crazy, but I do love them. 

Bonny is making arrangements today for the tour of Harlem. I'm looking into the tour to Ellis Island. We will likely go to the Twin Towers memorial right after our trek to Ellis Island to pay our respects. It's within walking distance. She found some posh eating place at Central Park so we will go their for tea and cake, which sounds like all that I can afford. And, of course, I pay my respects to John Lennon's Imagine memorial. 

The cable man left about 5 hours ago and while everything isn't quite set up, I can actually access the telly. I subscribed to Netflix and have Season 1 Episode 1 of Highlander (or maybe it's Outlander), a Scottish series that my daughter highly recommended. I have it on for background sound while I work on profiles that some of our Wiki-people did not even have the decency to add a proper source, not to mention no biography. I should probably pay more attention because Jennifer said it's like two stories in one...maybe like The French Lieutenant's Woman? I just cannot just sit and watch telly though. 

I'm looking forward to your visit! Please do let me know asap your schedule to make sure I am in town.

Answer 10

Hi! Everett, Washington has had some foggy weather this week, including this morning. Rain, stay away, at least tomorrow. You know what tomorrow is. The parade and Lighthouse Festival. I will give a full report on that later in the weekend.

Just last night I found a 4th cousin twice removed who has recently upgraded to a family member account. I want to give him a chance to learn the ropes before I bombard him with questions about sources and relatives closer to him that I haven't been able to trace. But I told him that with one merge, that he can complete by himself, he will be connected to the main tree. We'll see where that goes.

Last night I presented a power point all by myself at the Historical Society Zoom meeting, while husband was busy drawing chalk lines at the lighthouse parking lot. The host of the Zoom meeting was also new to her role, and as it happened she had to scramble to allow me to screen share. I have another article due on the 15th. The presentation was about school pageants in the 1920s-1930s.

Daughter so much dislikes my cooking that she ordered Door Dash last night in secret. That's okay, I don't like my cooking either. I brought her dinner into the back yard and found her already eating there. The dog was an eager audience.

Have you ever been creating a profile from scratch and been surprised when, last of all, you find the death certificate and the ending is completely unexpected? That happened to me last night.

More to come, as we participate in the big annual community event.

Comments

Margaret, we ate at my stepdad’s tonight (Italian cooked by my stepsister), and boy of boy was it foggy in the way home. I bet it’s not near as much fog as you get.

Your story about you and your daughter and cooking had me laughing! I bet the dog was eager.

I have regularly find an unexpected ending when I read a death certificate. Sadly, some have been death by gunshot (and occasionally a suicide by that).

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Yesterday the family marched in the Lighthouse Festival parade. I did not get to ride in the 1906 Cadillac. I was needed to hold one end of the Mukilteo Historical Society banner and my son the other. There were only 8 people in our group, including the ones in the car. My husband found his booming voice again and also his adrenalin from the tours he used to give until 2 years ago. We were right in front of a youth bagpipe band in their kilts, sporrans and glengarries. We were behind the dogs from the Kiwanis cool dogs contest. I saw I few people I know from our Toastmasters club, from the Rite Aid pharmacy, the local quilt guild and local politics. I kept shouting: Come visit the lighthouse! and got a thumbs up from the LDS kids when I yelled: Do your family history and genealogy!

Our daughter chose to walk with the supporters of our favorite candidate in the upcoming mayoral election. She wore a campaign t-shirt and passed out yellow balloons.

I can feel the burn from all the walking. Not only in the parade, but from where we parked to the starting area. Walking in a crinoline hoop underskirt and striped long blouse with a big black hat and a veil. Spacing of groups in the parade is a big deal. Mukilteo Historical Society was able to stay fairly close to the Kiwanis group ahead of us, but we couldn't help it that an ever-increasing space opened behind. The youth pipe band marches at a slow and steady pace. They don't blow the bagpipes on the run as the army did at Culloden. With more space between us and the pipers, our voices were better heard.

We went back to the festival last night, where I met 5 people who came to say hi at the table where I was with my son. A former co-worker of my late father-in-law wanted to meet my husband and share some mementos from Boeing. I miss having good conversations with random people at local public events, from which I learn so much.

The best part of the weekend came Friday, when we had a group family hug, the four of us, as a way of loving each other and celebrating husband's achievement of another successful planning and preparation. I will remember this weekend for a long time. There will be tough days ahead but so much happened that shows the hand of God over our family.

You all be thankful and keep finding those relatives, and others.

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Oh, Margaret, how I wish I had been there to see it all. I’m really glad that you had such a wonderful time, even if the walking was a little wearing.

Answer 11

I have never in all my years on earth liked September.  

I remember all too well 9/11 happening. Sat on a city bus across from a teenage girl whose uncle had died in the Twin Towers the week before. She was grey faced and still shaking in her grief and shock. We all were.

Weather here is hot, dry

I've logged (as of this morning, the 10th) 439 Contributions for Sept. Not really active this month, so far.  

Hope the weekend goes well for everyone

Comments

My wife hates September, too, Susan, because he weather changes and she knows winter is on the way. She hates winter worse than September!

Sitting on 921, a bunch of that from Kongsvinger.

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AWK !!! -- PIP -- that last sentence -- the 5th time I read that it stopped being a non sequitur -- 

OK ... 921 Contributions (why am I not surprised nor astounded??) AND, next thought, you are still hanging around with all those Norwegians ... that's very fishy ... Kongsvinger (help·info) is a town and is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Glåmda  

Geographically off my radar, but well placed on yours

Answer 12

Hails and horns, Wikipeeps!

After last week of awesome not much to report on the genealogy front. I posted a blog about why it was important for Italian immigrants to work hard. The answer really shouldn't surprise you if you've been reading the blog long!

https://allroadhaverhill.blogspot.com/2021/09/52-ancestors-week-36-working.html

I also made some headway in cracking a case of where a 466 cM match for my great-aunt might go. He's either descended from my great-grandfather or one of his siblings. Here's the thing. Most of his siblings stayed in Europe or went to South America. But, one of their kids might have come to America. It's a mystery.

On the non genealogy front, it's late summer in NH and the trees are starting to turn color. It's pretty awesome out there. Not too hot. Not too cold. I like this time of year!

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Comments

Ciao Chris! I enjoyed the story of Giuseppe and Clementina. My great grandfather was a janitor and laborer making a living for better for his family as well!. His father, in addition to being a laborer, developed some kind of liniment for aches and pains. I have a copy of his passport from around 1923. He wanted to go to France and other parts of Europe to sell his liniment as he thought it would be 'a better market.' There is a note of support from a Milwaukee attorney attesting to the value of the liniment and to my great great grandfather's character. I don't think anything came of it. I do recall my grandmother and her sisters (the grandmother married to the grandson of the liniment maker) in the kitchen laughing about how grandpa wanting to sell his 'snake oil' and how the money would have been better used feeding the family. This was about 1965. I still remember my aunts talking about this and now wonder where the liniment recipe is and more about Antonio's 'American Entrepreneurship.'

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Yes, Chris.  The maples outside my bedroom window are beginning to show their brilliant colors!  Do you think the colors will be brighter this year due to all of the rain New Hampshire has received?

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@ Carol: Very cool story about your great-grandfather. Glad you liked the story in the blog. What I left out is that my nephews used to play on the table just like I did. No Transformers, though. Just Lego guys.

@Candyce: It's hard to say. Perhaps. I just hope it doesn't all fall at once as it tends to do.

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Really nice way to honor Giuseppe in your blog, Chris.

If you figure out that DNA match, be sure to let us know. You’re pretty good at that kind of detective work!

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Thanks, man. I definitely will! Now that I know how to use wato properly. :) Glad  you liked the blog.

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Finally googled "hails and horns" ...

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And…. (Don’t make me look it up, too, Susan!)

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 Pip, it would take you maybe 5 minutes to google it and get the gist of the materials cited online ... an interesting array 

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You guys never been to a Rolling Stones concert?

That and the devil horns \m/ is actually something Italians do to ward off evil.

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In view of the interesting array of commentary online, dear lovable Chris F., I'm pleased to find out you are not hand-fasted to something really strange ...

I now recall a similar gesture made by a long departed ex-b.i.l. at something his mama said ... bless them it was all in sicilian which of course was greek to me

my personal preference is the Vulcan live long and prosper gesture

Answer 13

Happy Friday, Wiki-friends! Here in north Georgia it was quite cool this morning. I'm loving the fall-ish weather but my husband is already complaining about being cold.

Pip, thank you so much for hosting!

The bathroom renovation is complete as far as the contractor's responsibility and I had to write him a check this week. The plumber said he needs to do a little more caulking and water-proofing but nothing which prevents me from using anything. The plumber gets paid separately.

I had to see my sleep specialist this week. Found out my CPAP is subject to a recall. I've registered online for a replacement from the company, but they say it could be months before they get a new one to me and all the other people using the recalled models. My insurance will allow me to get me a new machine if mine is older than five years (it is) AND it is defective. So, I have to take everything back to the doctor's office for them to check it out. I do not think they will find it is defective.

Genealogy, I'm just doing the usual, mostly, which for me is add more of my Hildreth relations and improving the profiles of those I've already added.

I will be in thought and prayer for those who were so deeply affected by the events of September 11, 2001. My memories of that day are so vivid even though it's been twenty years and I still have strong emotional reactions when I see or read about it even though my life was not personally affected severely. I cannot imagine what it is like for those who had loved ones who died that day.

Take care...

Comments

Well, glad to hear your bathroom is now usable, Nelda. You’ve waited a long time for that.

Typical of insurance companies to give you the run around. I really do hope you get that CPAP replaced. Keep us posted!

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Well, that is upbeat news, you NOW can use your bathroom -- that is very good news ... very good news indeed ..  I am happy for you

Answer 14

Hi from southern Ontario, Chez moi/at home: what's happening here? 

The weather has certainly felt like fall for the past few days. except for Tuesday when it felt like monsoon season, we had 4 inches of rain, between about 6.30 pm Tuesday and 6 am Wednesday. 

Newfoundland will get hit by hurricane Larry tonight with winds up to 160 kph, the provincial capital St John's will be in the direct path of Larry and very likely storm surge along their south coast. 

Even though the weather is cooler, I'm picking vegetables and blackberries, we have 2 squashes growing now, but they may not enough left of the growing season to get to a decent size. My leeks are okay not as big as they should be probably because they didn't get as much rain early on as they should have.

The kids are all back at school in person, French language schools started last week, Catholic public schools on Tuesday and everyone else yesterday. My special needs granddaughter was thrilled to see the people in her class for the first time since December 2020. 

I'm late today because I was at a meeting at the church where the horticultural society holds its meetings. We are trying to figure out how to hold an in-person meeting in October.  We usually have a big bulb sale in October, if we don't, we will be left with a lot of leftovers. 

Alton Cemetery, One Place Study, family history, I'm still up to my eyeballs in the Hunter family, I finally figured that 4 of the 5 local Hunter families are related, they are all descendants of David and Mary Hunter who arrived in 1836 from County Tyrone, Ireland. They had sons Robert, David, Joseph and John who came with their wives, and had at least 15 children between them all born in East Garafraxa Township, Ontario. The Museum of Dufferin has newspaper announcements from the mid 1860s to quite recently and has been an absolute gold mine for obituaries, marriages and social announcements. 

I actually found some of the later Hunter descendants already on WT, and orphaned so I have adopted them even if it is only temporary. I asked for advice on G2G about profiles for one branch's 3 unnamed infants, and got some very good answers. Thanks Pip. 

Some of the headstones at Alton have only 1 name on them, like James Hunter (no spouse listed, no kids listed) and so far, I haven't been able to find any definitive information that connects them to other people in the Alton area. So, they are unconnected on WT which I don't like. 

I spent far too much time fixing the Wright family on FS, they are my mother's ancestors, and someone had decided that there was only 1 John Wright alive in the English midlands in 1839, and that meant that all my mother's 8 great uncles and aunts were not born where they were born, and were not the children of her GGF. 

I think that Ethelbert Leopold Horatio Wright her youngest great uncle is a distinctive enough name that it shouldn't get mixed up with other people. 

Reading: I'm rereading A Creed for the Third Millennium by Colleen McCullough published 1985 (author of The Thornbirds and the Master of Rome series) it's about a new Ice Age in the 2050s maybe earlier and what happened in the US. I probably only read it once way back then and wasn't thrilled but perhaps now i have a different viewpoint. 

And that's all Folks, Virtual vacation will be coming up next!

Comments

Hi M, your garden of vegetables and berries sounds luscious! I read Thornbirds way back when when and will have to try A Creed...after i fhinish the three books I purchased from the independent bookstore (two on Churchill and one on the three Americans who lived in London during WWII). Your genealogical 'hunt' for the Hunter family is really commendable. I've done some similar taking on of orphans, but no to the extent of your work. I'm looking forward to my Virtual Vacay!

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Carol, commendable is a nice compliment. Thank You!

My DH the Robbie just refers to me as " my wife, the pitbull, she never lets go of anything' .

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Those Hunters were prolific, M. I wish you the best in untangling them. Sounds like a long haul project. And a worthwhile one, too!

Have the leaves started to change where your are? Our season for that will be in about a month, but leaves are already starting to drop from some of our trees. If it’s not too wet the next month, it’ll be a pretty sight.

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Pip, no leaf changes around here, usually it starts about the first week of October, and the leaves are almost all gone by Hallowe'en, further north about 2.5 hours from here, prime leaf peeping area, colours are at peak about the first week of October and leaves are gone by about Oct 20. This picture is on Oct 2 last year, photo borrowed from the Algonquin Provincial Park website. 

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That is just lovely. I hope our are the same this year. It’s been rather disappointing the past couple of years.

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Carol, now that I have read almost half of A Creed for the Third Millennium , I know why I was not overly impressed with it in the late 1980s. It didn't fit in my world of that time.

Now rereading it, it is very suited to today's world of global concern about many subjects and definitely fits the concerns that very many of us have about the changes that have taken place in our lives since the onset of Covid 20 months ago.

It is thought provoking!

Answer 15

Pip, I just returned from a 26 round trip jaunt to take my recyclables  to the center.  I make about four trips a year with
newspaper and magazines, plastic, aluminum and tin, glass and  plastic objects.  Living alone on 350 acres I just take my food garbage up the road and dump it in the ditch to compost itself.  I figure it is far enough away from my home so rats, coons, etc. will not be called to my home.  There is not enough to start a compost pile that will work
itself down and not stink all summer.  And I'm usually in Florida all winter where the garbage is just down the parking lot and picked up weekly.  My neighbor pays $15 biweekly for household pick up and fights coons all year round to keep from having to pick up trash all over her yard.  She does not have a garage to keep the cans in.  I was delighted to see several flags flying half staff in private yards to honor the day.

I always take a few minutes to check out the New York unsourced list while I am waiting for my coffee and Tylenol
to kick in every morning.  I try to add to at least four or five profiles a week.  This morning I did one and went to the husband's profile.  I discovered there are about 20+ profiles, all
connected, to source.  I promptly put down a name and now have a quick 20 points or more to start the souceathon with.  All of the profiles need formatting but I will do that during the thon.  It is too much work for me to make prelisted names.  I'm not out to collect highest honors.

I am enjoying the cooler weather and my favorite month of the year.  I loved school, then teaching, and was lucky enough to get married in that month considering all of the family situations that were going on at the time.  My future mother-in-law was discharged from the hospital on that day to attend the wedding.  She was recovering from a fractured hip but was finished therapy.  Her daughter had been here all summer but had to return to military duty and
missed our wedding.  We had a very short window to plan
it when we thought she would be able to attend, but other
commitments were required.  Thank heavens for small communities and friends that understood simple doings from a bride's small salary and a mother who had no resources for a big fancy wedding.

The quilt guild is hoping to start meeting again this month.
The hosting church requires all to wear masks regardless of shots.  I have twelve quilts to donate to the sharing and caring project for needy causes.  It will make my couch usable  again.

Comments

Hi Beulah! Will you be enjoying a little 'Sinatra' this Sunday???

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Absolutely.  I first discovered these programs on a trip going to my daughter's for Mothers Day breakfast.  She and her family and two  other ladies in the family met together at the local elks hall.  Mothers received free breakfasts and a carnation.   I almost drove off the road with the tears in my eyes remembering how much Herb also liked his music and the fond memories of always dancing to his music on New Years eve.  It has been enough years later so that I can drive ok now without memories totally choking me up, nine years!

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We never forget persons we cherish and the cherished memories. I just heard from my sister, Bonny. She's the one who adores Dean Martin and plays nothing but Dino during the Christmas holidays. Our mum lived with Bonny and her family for some eight years, the last two pained with dementia. I will be arriving in Milwaukee on the 14th and she and I leave for NYC on the 18th. Her husband, Jack, will collect me at the airport and we are on our own for dinner. Apparently, Bonny and Mum purchased tickets to see Michael Buble 2 years ago and his concert is this Tuesday evening, the 14th. Instead of going with mum, she will be attending with her youngest daughter, Elyse, who is a senior in nursing school. I know how hard it is for her...just two short, swift years ago she and Mum were happily making plans to see Mum's 'stand in' for Frank...Michael Buble.

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I was fortunate to have had Herb for 44 years before his Alzheimers,
two fair years and one hard after he broke his hip, was unable get around much and really lost his memories at 93.
I was lucky, he was so good natured in good health and never became violent.  I know your sister won't enjoy "Dino" as much but glad she has family to enjoy him with her.  I can always sympathize with these conditions and truly know how the loved ones feel.  I'm delighted your family also has the memories from your mother to sustain
you now that she is no longer able to be at home.  I had a
wonderful helper during Herb's last year and could keep him home.  He died with me holding his hand and telling him it was all right to go and that I loved him.  It was so peaceful an ending to his four day coma.  I would wish such a peaceful ending for every one when the time comes.

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Beulah, we had to just this week convince my stepdad NOT to throw food scrapes off the back deck. My stepsister saw a bear out there a couple of nights ago and said that was it. No more scrapes out the back!

Kudos to you for your quilt donations. How kind of you.

Thanks for sharing your wedding story. It touched my heart,

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@Beulah, thank you so much for the kind and touching story of the final days with Herb. I give you great credit for telling him that it was OK to go and that you were there with him holding hands. I am an old hospice nurse and wish everyone could have a 'final days' like you provided your Herb. What love and I cherish this story. Again, thank you!

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We had expected a day before.  My care taker help had told me we had to start turning him because his skin was breaking down.  He had slipped into a coma three days before after stopping eating and drinking.  I had turned him and shortly after his breathing had changed.  A friend told me this is the "death rails".  In his true life he never would want to exist like this.  Very unlike me, I did what I did, talking to him, and never regretted it.

Answer 16

Virtual Vacation!

The Big Island of Hawaii; Sept-Oct 2018

We arrived just after Kilauea stopped erupting, many areas were still closed due to hot lava and dangerous cracks in the road. Hawaii Volcanoes NP had just reopened some areas of the park. 

Maka'eo Walking Path is a free garden, looked after by volunteers and one of the most beautiful gardens I saw in Kailua-Kona. It was not on any map. This garden was created at the site of Old Kona Airport. It has paved and gravel paths. We went the day after we arrived, we couldn't figure out where parking was,  it turned out to be on the old runway, so we parked closer to the downtown area and wandered around on foot until we found the park. It turned what should have been about a 1.5 km walk into a 6km trip and it was very hot!

The park is very close to the beach. There are lots of different plants in a very well kept garden. When we were there the many bromeliads were really colourful. There are also lots of succulents and cactus that also grow well in the mostly dry area. The soil is lava. Bougainvillea grows well there but was not in flower when we were there. 

Mongoose- The mongoose found in Hawai’i are native to India and were originally introduced to Hawai’i Island in 1883 by the sugar industry to control rats in sugarcane fields. They also eat the eggs and hatchlings of native ground nesting birds and endangered sea turtles. What was wrong with the plan?  Mongoose are active mostly during the day, and rats are active at night, they did eat some rats, but had very little effect on the total rat population.

Punaluʻu Beach; The beach has black sand made of basalt and created by lava flowing into the ocean which explodes as it reaches the ocean and cools. Punaluʻu is often visited by endangered hawksbill and green turtles, they are often be seen basking in the sun on the black sand.

And as you can see here, white turkeys, no one knows where they came from, He did have a mate or a good friend with him, but I couldn't get a good picture of them together. They were behind palm trees. I thought him very elegant.

Comments

Hi M, and yet another wonderful Virtual Vacay! You have shown me parts of Hawai'i that I had not seen. I'm much more enlightened as well as to why the mongoose was imported to the islands. And yes, 'the white turkey' is indeed an 'elegant' fellow. Love the turtle snoozing on the beach. Right now, I wish I was there snoozing at his side (rather than waiting for the cable/internet person to show up)!

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Thank you for inviting me along on your trip to the Islands.

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Another great VV.  Thank you, M.

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Next time on Hawaiʻi Island please stop by. Your pictures are fantastic. Sorry to say the gardens at Kailua-Kona were not that lovely last time I was there. But when we venture over to that side we always picnic there.

Tourists donʻt spend much, or any, time here (this island). That is good for the roads and beaches, but really bad for hotels, resorts, restaurants, etc. (economy). I am glad you took the time to explore and hope you come back.

I am on green and lovely Hamakua Coast, (east coast) very rural, no resorts, lots of cattle. Have you any photos of this side?

Weather report for 4 pm, 77 degrees, 47% humidity outside and 74% inside. Soft trade winds.

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Wouldnʻt it be nice to be on the beach with that turtle!

We have to wait hours or days for the cable/internet guy here, too!

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@Kristina Yes, it would be lovely to be on the beach with that turtle. Let's do so and to heck with cable/internet people!

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Kristina, we were there from Sept 23 to Oct 4th, we started in the Captain Cook area, for 4 nights then spent 4 nights in the Sea Mountain area and then stayed in the Hilo area for 3 nights even though many people said stay on the Kona side of the island. I couldn't see why. We are very much the road less travelled. 

We did visit the Botanical gardens and Akaka falls . We didn't visit the Hamakua Coast, it was part of the original plan, but Mauna Kea got added to the itinerary. 

We drove the new Saddle rd highway and visited the Mauna Kea visitor centre and hiked in the area on our way back to the west side for our flight home, on the way we stopped in Waimea and Hawi. 

We had a wonderful holiday and we don't usually do resorts, and the options on the west coast were not at all attractive, unless they are the only option, no matter where we are. 

We went to Kaloko-Honokōhau National Historical Park.

We visited the Cloud Forest and had a private tour for 4 hours  http://www.paintedtreeshawaii.org/tours.html.

and Pu’uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park; it was a great holiday.

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Everything is so wild and lovely. What great shots you got, M. I’d love to have some of nose plants to beautify out planting areas.

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The usual stunning photography ...

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Pip, where you are bromeliads would have to be inside in the winter, they require climate zone 10 and 11 to survive outside.

Transylvania County, North Carolina is in USDA Hardiness Zones 5b, 6a, 6b, 7a and 7b. all of which are too cold for growing them outside. You could have them in pots and put them outside in the spring. It can be a lot of work looking after them inside unless you have a greenhouse.

Answer 17

Good evening from Germany,

the election campaign here heats up, in two weeks on Sunday is election day. The material to do mail-ballot-election arrived this week in this house here. I'm currently reading the last program of the parties. So in the last few weeks I read about 550 pages, although I hardly had a book in my hands.

Covid-wise, the pressure on people who don't get the vaccine although there is no reason for them not to get it increases significantly. In one month they will have to pay for the Antigene- or PCR-tests. Some regions allow employers to stop the continuation of salary-payment when they have to go in quarantine. (Yes, in Germany we have salary-payment also when we get sick.)

Personally, on Monday we went to Frankfurt to buy some stuff for my little relative who loves to paint. The rest of the stuff we bought on Wednesday in the next bigger city here. Until Tuesday the trains were on strike here, so we had to go by bus. The weather was nice at least this week, summerish, so it was no problem at all to have lunch outside, when we were in Frankfurt. Only this afternoon it started to get wet again.

Genealogy-wise, I didn't do that much. I only kicked out some profiles of my Watchlist that I created but that aren't connected to my family. And I sourced some profiles, this time from Germany. I'm still wondering which team to join for the Source-a-thon, but that is the reason why I still didn't register for it.

Stay safe, keep the distance and have a great weekend

Comments

Hi Jelena! Thanks for sharing your information on your voting process. I am surprised to learn about government sick-time. What a great way to get people to get the Covid vaccine. Here, we have used lotteries and money incentives. Maybe if money is withheld people would line up for the vaccine!

How is the Trier region doing after the floods? Is it cleaned up yet. Was Aachen affected by the floods?

Genealogy-wise you did a lot of great work on Marlon Brando. You take care!

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Hmmm, how to answer that question about the flood region?

First, Aachen was (as far as I know) not affected by the floods, although there were also floods in Belgium and the Netherlands which could have gone eastwards.

Second, in the affected regions, life is not yet what it was before the floods. The foundational stuff (water, phone, internet) works again, but for example only in the County Ahrweiler, there are destroyed more than 60 train bridges. To rebuild that again will need years. Here is a bit more about what had happened during those days.

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Jelena, our federal election (Canada) is 20 September, we are voting in the advance poll tomorrow, mostly to avoid any crowds on election day.

Answer 18

I  our Weekend Chats!!  Thank you, Pip, for hosting yet again.

Comments

@Candyce, I love the weekend chats, too. It keeps me from being isolated completely as I live alone and far away from family. I also don't see many neighbors because I still distance and mask. WikiTree has truly been my family particularly since the onset of the pandemic. And we couldn't ask for a better host than Pip!

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And we always love hearing from your, Candyce!

Answer 19

Happy weekend, everyone!  Though tomorrow will be more somber than happy, of course.  I live near a major local landmark with a NYC skyline view and memorial to local residents lost on that day, and I plan to stay far away from all the commotion.

On the home front:  cleanup of our flooded garage has been going quite well.  We got all the big stuff out to the curb last weekend, and it was collected on Thursday.  We've got someone lined up to repair/update the garage door hardware (probably unrelated to the flooding itself, but on that day one of the springs broke).  We've done a partial reorganization of the remaining stuff, and next I need to get some new plastic shelving and do a more thorough decluttering, again not directly related to the flooding.  It's the perfect weekend for it- not too hot, not too cold.

Classes are going fine so far; I have long teaching days but the students are engaged and asking good questions, so that's nice.  I'm trying to do what I can to minimize stress for them.

On the genealogy front, I've somehow ended up working on my much neglected Acosta-Higginbotham line from Florida.  Someone on Ancestry had posted what were clearly scans of Arcadio Acosta's 1813 baptism record, but didn't cite the actual source, darn it!  With a bit of digging I was able to discover that Vanderbilt University has a massive collection of scans of Catholic church records from St. Augustine during the Spanish era.  Not indexed, but there's going to be a lot here for me.  The baptism records list parents and grandparents and their birthplaces, and give me solid sources for what we already sort of knew.  Time to see how far back I can push these lines now.  I'm also building out sideways, but these families were huge and it's a bit of a slog.

Oh, and we saw Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings on Wednesday.  Really fun movie.  And we watched this week's What If?... what the heck was that?  (And how did Scott make it through that entire episode without making a David Byrne joke?)  This weekend I think we're finally going to finish Westworld season 2.

Comments

How sad to find out that you had flooding. Been there 3x myself.  Lot of shoveling and trashing.  Hard to believe a Gulf hurricane can flood streets etc in NY ...

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Ours actually wasn't bad at all compared to what happened around us.  We're near the top of a ridge, so we don't get river flooding like some of the places you saw on the news.  But the driveway slopes down toward the garage, and the sump pump went out when we lost power, so all that rain coming down the driveway was enough to put about 6" of water in the garage.  We had to toss some garage stuff that was probably heading for the trash eventually anyways.  So now I have space to get the rest of it better organized.  Silver linings, and all that.  Lots of other people had it much worse.  I just learned that one of the people who died was a new transfer student at my university.  Very sad.

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Sad about the student, his family is hurting no doubt, it is painful  ... this has been a miserable 2020, 2021 and does not look like 2022 will be an improvement ...

WHO used to warn about pandemics - Ah and there were articles about climate change and rough weather eras and ocean levels rising ...  might have another 20 yrs plus of this rough weather

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Nothing like a disaster (small as it was in your case, comparatively) to give one an opportunity to get rid of stuff. But it wasn’t water that caused us to take ten bags of garbage from our garage. The disaster was of our own making!

I ignored all of the 9/11 specials on TV today. I just could watch; too heart wrenching.

Sound alike you’ve got a good set of students! Of course, they got a pretty good teacher, too, huh? 

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Pip, it's a nice weekend for garage cleanouts.  Guess we both lucked out!  I spent part of the afternoon in there dealing with the other minor disaster... mice had gotten into everything last year and there was a lot of cleaning to do.  I had planned a hardware store run but decided to wait to see if I was going to need anything besides the shelves I need.  My list is growing... hoping to shop tomorrow.

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Yes, definitely shelves! We have six in our garage, plus a stand-up freezer, water heater, and small fridge. No room to park in there!

Answer 20

Greetings and Salutations, Fellow WikiTreers, from the Home of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing!

Wife and I just got back from a week away from home. We decided to go somewhere we'd never been, so we spun the wheel and picked... Davenport, Iowa! What's there? Well, while I can't say it's known for anything you can't see several other places, it had enough to entertain us for a week and we had a pretty good time. My wife wasn't feeling well to start with, and we had a rough day or two while there, but we made the best of it.

So Davenport is on the Mississippi River and part of the Quad Cities, which if I understand it correctly include Davenport and Bettendorf in Iowa and Rock Island, Moline and East Moline in Illinois (that's 5, but who's counting?). So we settled in with a small idea of what sorts of things we could do, and rather than exhaust ourselves, we picked 1-2 things to try to accomplish each morning and relax in the hotel as much as possible as well. We did travel an hour north to Galena, Illinois to visit the city and shop at the Galena Garlic Company (one of our favorite stores in Madison, Indiana, but this was supposed to be the home base). We also took a lunch on a Riverboat that cruised up and down the Mississippi for an hour or two. We visited the German-American museum. Ate at a couple of restaurants that were unique to the Davenport-Moline area (some were pretty good - some kind of average). And I went out and walked the river trail on the Iowa side, and took lots of photos of the bridges, the roller dam, the minor league baseball stadium, and even walked through the "skybridge". So it was a fun trip, and on the way home we diverted to the World's Largest Truck Stop on I-80 and bought a few souvenirs. So we can now check Iowa off our list of states to visit and work on the next one.

From a genealogical perspective, I am still continuing to work on the living Notables list, and am coming down to the last few hundred to complete before beginning the comprehensive review of them. I did start with a couple of the "A's" and was saddened to see so many that were just profiles generated with a Wikipedia link, no real biography, no family added, and no connection. I'm beginning to get a list together and hopefully we can find a way to get some of these cleaned up and connected to the global tree.

I also started work on a more distant relation (near my main Fulkerson line, but not directly), who married into the Fulkerson line way back. So that started an awesome email conversation with another researcher, and now I have a mini-project laid out for me to see if we can't get a good bit of her family added around her profile and expand that line. Not sure how quickly I'll get to it as I want to do a bit more research to make sure we get it right, but it looks like easily another 20-30 profiles to add pre-1700 to get things rolling and then another who knows how many post-1700 to fill out the tree. Exciting stuff to collaborate with a good researcher, and I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes.

Covid continues to be pretty serious stuff, so we wore our mask most places. I think the mandate is in place for Illinois, but not for Iowa, so we kept running into "you must wear" vs. "advised to wear" in different places at different times. And with Biden's announcement the other day, it does appear that we're in for a nasty fight between vaxxers and anti-vaxxers that will not end well. We'll see what happens. Hope everyone is trying to stay safe and healthy.

Comments

googled "greatest spectable in racing" ... well, 1st thot was the kentucky derby's trio of races but decided to double check and it's the Indy 500 ...

I like the horses

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Home of the Greatest Spectacle in in Racing? Scott, what in the dickens are you doing in Daytona? On vacation? 

You visit places kinda like I do. My wife isn’t too much into taking diversions, but what better way to see a place not far off the beaten path that you’ve never seen before.

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The only spectacle I know that happens in Daytona is spring break and a bunch of good old boys running around in muscle cars on a dirt track. Real precision racing happens in Indy... 

But I do have to sort of grudgingly acknowledge that thing they call the "Brickyard 400", but it's not part of the originally titled "Greatest Spectacle in Racing". Either way, these days I need ear plugs, noise cancelling headsets, and aspirin to go visit the track anymore.

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A chassis with a jet engine is no longer are car, thus, the 500 is not a car race. 

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@PIP, okay, jet engine+chassis is a "fly-by-day" 4-letter word. (I am assuming they don't send these engines out to test the Dark) 

And @SCOTT - ref the "Greatest Specticle in Racing"--  it SEEMS fairly obvious it is NOT the Daytona, NOT the Indy 500, probably NOT the Brickyard 400 and apparently not one of the 3 races for the Kentucky Derby crown ... 

Barrel racing down the rapids in the Wisconsin Dells? Flatboat punting in the swamps in Louisiana? Washboard Band & Slide down Verity Mountain, Virginia? 

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Hi Susan - Well - Pip and I were just poking a little fun with each other, but it technically is the Indianapolis 500. Someone gave it that name way back when they only went 50-60 miles per hour around the track and it took forever to go 500 miles. Nowadays, on a relatively accident light race, they can complete the race in maybe 3 hours or so.

And Daytona is the big "stock car" race where Indy is the big "Indy car" race. Although the terms "stock car" and "Indy car" are used pretty loosely, as there are only about another dozen terms used for each depending on how technical you get. There are some bitter rivalries between the sports, which is a bit amusing as they're both "racing sports", but sometimes people draw lines on what is a real "car" or what is considered "real racing". I'm not all that fixated on it. I've seen the race a couple of times, can take or leave it, but it's basically what I grew up with. Other than some fond memories, I really think those who travel here from elsewhere have a lot more fun watching it than I do these days.

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And Pip is correct - for the most part, an Indy car consists of a cockpit (for the driver) which is not much bigger than their body, 4 exposed wheels sticking out from the car, and a big engine. Almost a coffin on wheels. Where the cars they drive at Daytona actually look like cars - sort of boxy, a bit like a decent sized muscle car, with big, throaty sounding engines.

My biggest argument with that style of racing always comes out in the "bump" and "spin" activities, which nearly get someone killed. Usually when I point that out, I hear a lot of feedback of "that's part of the sport", or "only the bad boys do that on purpose", or "it doesn't happen as often as you think" - but every race I've ever seen seems to involve someone smacking someone else in the rear or on the side as they jostle for position, and in the end someone bounces off the wall and either their car is out of action or someone gets hurt. Growing up in Indy Car, I guess it was just considered very bad form to do that sort of racing, so I don't care much for it.

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 Ah, @Scott, having compounded my confusion for a time, you are a very kind man to sort it out for me ... Avē Imperātor, moritūrī tē salūtant ("Hail, Emperor, those who are about to die salute you") 

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I agree, jet engine+chassis is not a vehicle ...

Huh. Any sport that has conditions that could lead to blood shed is not really a sport .. it is a substitute for combat on the battlefield