Weather, Whitey & Webinars

It is almost unheard of -- this much rain in June -- as the paper said today "let's get away from this Seattle-like weather" which is unfair to some extent. This morning while walking the dog it was almost impossible to keep the umbrella under control with the high gusty winds. Almost everyday this week it has rained -- and it is forecast at least through Monday . . .

This is how the skies looked just a short while ago -- but it has also sunshined for a bit as well. While it has been wintery this week it has remained sunny and bright in the home all week. We usually put on extra lights and try not to think of the contrast going on outside -- we both bury ourselves in our individual current work. Gail just finished a major project -- a Christmas gift -- for an unnamed recipient:

 

This represents months of needlepoint work and countless background TV shows that assist in especially the repetitive color sections. This will adorn the fireplace mantle at Christmastime hopefully for years to come.

While she was doing that I was involved in -- what else -- family tree work. As I have mentioned before these days there is sooo much happening on the web with respect to family history and genealogy that it is almost impossible to keep up. There are many new ways to meet other researchers and interact with them AND there are many new programs to manipulate genealogical data and to present and share family data.

This last week I had the fortune of exchanging emails with another researcher who happens to be the cousin of a person in my tree that I have not seen for 60+ years. The reason she is not MY cousin as well is that the person from my tree was there due to marriage. My father's half sister, Adeline Jane Hiles married Charles K "Whitey" Clark. I remember seeing Whitey the last time about 1950. I have been informed that Whitey lives in Macon, Illinois -- hopefully I will be able to connect with him in the near future:

Now, never in my wildest genealogy related work would I think that there was such a thing as an Avatar in my future . . . but guess again:

Here you can see me (my Avatar, Rootsmeister) attending a genealogy lecture/chat in Second Life (SL).
There are numerous opportunities within Second Life to interact with other genealogists by attending these sessions. I have to say that I was totally intimidated at first but with the assistance and guidance of many helpful folks within SL I am feeling more comfortable in my new identity and environs. I still have a ways to go but it is helpful that there are many other newbies in this virtual world as well.

I recommend this getting-out-of-the-box as I already have learned things about genealogy that I probably would not have learned otherwise -- and I am glad to meet so many new people this way.  Below is an announcement of an upcoming Webinar given to help learn more about Second Life:

So -- there you have a brief peek into my world this week and just a few minutes ago we had a rain squall that was probably more intense than I've seen (and heard) in a long while.

The other good news -- it's Slider Saturday Night!

See you in a few . . .