But it is a Dry Cold . . . That's Too Bad

Okay, so it is cold outside (for Healdsburg), especially in the mornings. This morning e.g. it was about 26° and that is cold anywhere, below freezing and all.  I could feel it as I wandered outside in my PJs (when the coast was clear) to retrieve the paper.

We have been having "sliver to half moons" in the evenings. And while this cold front apparently came from the Seattle area we did NOT get any of the snow that they did -- just the cold.  Not that we wanted snow, but precipitation of any kind would have been nice. There is already talk of the "d" word . . .

When I first moved to California (Southern) back in the early 60s people would mention how hot it got -- but that is was a "dry" heat and it was. Coming from the Midwest where it was a hot and humid heat -- there was a big difference. And so it is maybe for the dry cold as well -- but there seem to be some differences of opinions which makes no sense to me because it is cold.

So, on a cold night what could be better than some comfort food -- especially a comfort food that was well known from our childhood.

In a bit of coincidence, we chose to have "creamed tuna on toast" on the very day that would have been my Mother's 106th birthday, February 20th.

My mother taught me at least two "tuna" dishes: this one, creamed tuna on toast, perfect for cold weather and then tuna casserole salad, perfect for warmer weather. Both feature peas in a big way as well. I enjoy making both at the appropriate times of the year

Speaking of peas -- we also made a large pot of pea soup and along with some open face broiled cheese bread slices, we have been "comforted" most of the week. There is a lot to be said for cold, but dry weather.

One of the more interesting gifts that Gail received for Christmas this past year is pictured to the left (thanks, Lisa/Bob).

It is an ecologically self-contained sphere containing everything necessary to sustain life for the four tiny fish like creatures seen swimming around.

Surprisingly, we have managed to keep life continuously for these tiny creatures. There is no feeding required, just "light" management really.

We wake them up for about 4-6 hours per day by removing the hat that we place over the sphere to create the night for them.  We also make sure that there is NO direct beam of sunlight that enters their world. So far so good.

It is fun to watch these four (we think) zoom around their sphere if we turn it slightly. Then they just do their thing the rest of the time -- until we "tuck" them in for the night. Fascinating . . .


One place that is cold these days is PyeongChang, South Korea, site of the winter games 2018.

We have watched "some" of the events, but have found that after seeing a few examples of a given event, it gets tedious to watch them all -- so we power through until we find more that strike our fancy.

With the many hours that have already been shown on TV,  only about 30 minutes so far have featured "Curling". We watched that segment and enjoyed seeing the U.S. beat Canada to advance to be able to compete for possible gold.

The gold event happens (or already has happened) today sometime, and since we have recorded all the events, we'll look for that and enjoy it -- we just wish we knew the rules and strategy better. Maybe before the next four years, we'll read up on it . . . it could happen.

Growing up in the Chicago suburbs like we did, our family always attended church regularly. One of the churches that we attended for many years was Western Springs Baptist Church -- The Village Church.

Western Springs is midway between the two towns that we primarily lived in over the years -- La Grange & Hinsdale.

This church just happens to be the church that was the first preaching assignment that Billy Graham took after graduating from nearby Wheaton College.

It turns out that Billy had already moved on when we became regulars of the church -- but he did make several "surprise" visits back to the pulpit there. There were not many public announcements made as that would have inundated the church.

But, I can remember at least one such visit and actually paid attention as Billy had a way with words. The other aspect that I recall about those days was that another prominent member of the church was George Beverly Shea who was always the featured gospel singer at all Billy Graham appearances.

Another feature of the Graham/Shea union was that they conducted a radio broadcast "Songs in the Night" from our church. And as a way to legitimately stay out later on a Sunday night, we would attend the broadcast.

Sadly, Billy Graham died this week at the age of 99. He always projected such a positive image and is so well thought of throughout the world.  George Beverly Shea, who had a great bass voice lived to be 104 years of age and died in 2013. My parents enjoyed both of them immensely.

Lastly, I still receive almost daily, news of DNA matches. As I have mentioned before, so many of them I have no idea of how we match genealogically, or "in the tree".

But the match shown above, I can "relate" to and see how we match up "in the tree". It is for a 5th Cousin, Charles Baumgardner.

It used to be that I never considered Baumgardner names as related to us, only Bumgardners. But even prior to this DNA match, I've met other Baumgardners that we are related to.

It seems that for whatever reasons, even within the same family, some members have chosen to spell their surnames differently.

I have communicated with Charles Baumgardner a few times this week via Ancestry.com and we have shared some thoughts.  One question that he had for me was "where did the name Dayton come from?" 

And, you know what -- I could not give him an answer. I do not know how Dayton Bumgardner happened to be named Dayton -- and since my middle name is Dayton, I should know.

So, does anyone know how Dayton became named Dayton?  Please let me know if you know. It is times like this when I really wish our folks were alive.

Aside from all the above, we plan to watch the closing ceremonies tomorrow night, we will continue working on the puzzle -- which is about 50% completed and looking good, and maybe do a little more on the dreaded income tax and eat some more comfort food.

And Gail just received a couple more needlepoint projects and is happily coordinating them -- more on those later.

That is a bit of our week.  See you all "in a few" !  😋