¡Buenos días a todos from the Old Pueblo! It is 7am and 30F (-1.1C) with an expected high of 61F (16.1C) in Tucson. We have had several nights of severe frost this past week, and my plants have been covered to keep them warm. I woke up to a bit of snow on Wednesday!
I met with the new health insurance broker yesterday and am signing up for UnitedHealth AARP POS beginning March 1. I can only hope this works out much better than Cigna. Meanwhile, I am writing Cigna about their lousy plan. I heard on Wednesday that our landscaper’s wife has Cigna. She has serious MS and sees the same neurologist as I. She, too, was denied an MRI to assess her MS and it has been two years since her last MRI. I have a business card for them with my current agent. I also saw my primary care provider on Wednesday, and he now has me on high blood pressure medication. I’m feeling some side effects (numbness and tingling) and do not know if it is drugs or health conditions. I will contact the office after I write this missive, which is keeping my mind occupied and fear under control.
“Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.” I know for sure that Chris F will recognize this line. In order to reduce my stress levels, I have been avoiding the news and watching old movies. Earlier this week, I watched The Godfather and was reminded how marvelous Marlon Brando was in that role. I absolutely cannot picture that film with another actor! I read somewhere years ago that the opening scene where he is holding the cat and granting people’s wishes was spontaneous (all wishes are granted on the Godfather’s daughter’s wedding day)! Apparently, that stray cat wandered onto the set and moseyed over to Brando. The cat either jumped into his lap or Brando picked the cat up and stroked it without missing a beat as he delivered his lines. Coppola kept that scene, and it was a stunning opener. I also watched an old segment of Who Do You Think You Are? The actor Allison Janney was featured, and she is a descendant of Jamestown and Plymouth pilgrim Stephen Hopkins. I did my sister’s-in-law ancestry and she, too, is descended from Hopkins. I read somewhere that it was his voyage to Jamestown that was waylaid by a hurricane and crashed on the shores of Bermuda that became the basis for Shakespeare’s Tempest! I can truthfully say that I am jealous of that ancestry.
In other news, my daughter, Jennifer, and her hubby, Curtis are arriving at 9:30pm tonight! It is a very short 2-day visit as they will return to Wisconsin in the early hours of Monday morning. We will spend tomorrow just wandering around Tucson and ending our day at El Cisne (thanks Eileen). On Sunday, we will be touring Tombstone. It is a town that Curtis has been longing to visit. I think all the men (in particular) who have seen Tombstone the movie with Kurt Russell ends up with a yen to see The Town Too Tough to Die and make believe they are walking in Wyatt Earp’s boots. We will see Wyatt Earp’s home adjacent to Boot Hill, an interesting as well as historical cemetery when we return.
Speaking of genealogy, in addition to adding to Huntley and Draper ancestors (not mine, but they need some TLC), I have really thrown myself into the 16th century Baldwins of Buckinghamshire in a serious way. What a crap-tangle! There are several of my direct ancestors incorrectly mixed in with Sir John’s brood. His children alone and their spouses are a mess. Sir John’s ancestry is a mess (now we are pre-1500). He descends from a large family of Dormers, who were very wealthy, and some titled, ‘mercers of London.’ These Dormer children are incomplete, and their father had two wives and I am trying to figure out who belongs to whom in the Dormers as well as these early Baldwins. I must thank M Ross for the links she sent regarding the London Mercers, which are VERY helpful. I managed to find some very old wills for Sir John, who names his living children, and the will of his son, Sir William, who did not survive his father. One of Sir John’s daughters (with three possible names: Agnes, Anne and Katherine) was married to Sir John Pakington, a mercer and Member of Parliament. He was shot dead in Cheapside on his way to church in 1536 and it is considered the first murder by gun in London history. Apparently, Sir John Pakington, a pal of Thomas Cromwell’s, had early Anglican leanings and the Catholics were not happy about this. Once again, I am reminded of Voltaire’s adage, “History never repeats itself, man always does.”
Pip, I still miss you, as does Tucson. I bet Mike misses you, too. As always, thank you so much for coordinating the chat. I hope you and all my fellow Chatterers had a Happy Valentine’s Day. I wish everyone a most excellent third weekend in February 2023.
