I went back and looked at last year's post relative to this time (and that's a nice thing to be able to do) and what I said then applies to this year as well except that I want to increase what I said about the "buffer". The buffer that I mentioned had to do with the two days following Thanksgiving and how special that is -- but now I would like to say that the whole Thanksgiving week is like a buffer -- a division between the regular year and the "pre-season Christmas" year . . .The dinner items pictured here were some of the best dishes I have ever experienced for a Thanksgiving dinner. Everything was perfect including the trimmings.
Even though we were at a friends house for the Thanksgiving celebration, Gail and I cooked a full turkey dinner for us as well so that we could have leftovers and turkey sandwiches for several more feedings -- and boy are we ever having those . . . the bird we cooked had been in our freezer for more than a year -- in fact it had been at our old house which seems strange now. I am guessing that we have at least two more nights for dinner and several more lunches -- what a deal. It is almost the only time of the year that we eat from a whole turkey -- the only thing that was different this year was that the giblets and assorted odd-pieces which for the past twelve years were given to Auggie were not.
This week the weather included rain, fog, cold and a lot of gray days -- except today was bright and sunny which the paper did not call for. We avoided the "Black Friday" retail events and did manage to hit a few retail stores today mostly for small needed items -- we even spotted my brother and Nancy out and about , we hurried home though to avoid the "Occupy Healdsburg" event scheduled for around 2 pm . . .
Part of what makes Thanksgiving so much of a nice Holiday is the opportunity to visit with friends -- and that we got the chance to do at the home of Gay & Jim in Sonoma. We met and dined with friends who we knew in the City and all but two have homes in the North Bay now. It was a most pleasant visit and the food of course was part of the celebration. There were many stories told and retold and promises to meet again in the near future. I of course had the opportunity to snap a few photos and here is a collage from our day:
We spent four or so hours visiting, eating and renewing friendships -- one person even thought that maybe I was still working . . . wow, that was twelve years ago -- hard to believe.
News on the progress of Family Research
Every week I find things or hear of things or receive things about some branch of the family research, and this week was no exception. I heard from one of my cousins regarding a question that I had posed to him some time ago -- he answered me partly this week in the same message that he expressed " A Happy Thanksgiving" to all -- my Mother's brother who was a favorite Uncle and had served in the military at the end of WWII, but I never have found or seen any evidence of his service other than to read a line in his obituary that he had served.
Well Stewart's son (Jeff) wrote and confirmed that Stew had been in the Navy and had been deployed to Pearl Harbor, South Pacific, San Francisco & San Diego (Jeff says he was there the same time another favorite Uncle, Bern, was in San Diego) I sure hope that I can confirm all of that. Jeff says that his dad was in the Navy Medical Corp and was a "ships pharmacist's mate" . . . these facts are all pieces of the puzzle.
Now, speaking of puzzles -- just this week I found two other puzzling pieces of "evidence" to add to the family tree. For a long time I have been trying to put some dates on the times that my father was in the Army -- I always knew that he had been in the Army for two different periods of time. I was elated when I found a new data base in Ancestry.com that gave his service dates -- I am not sure how the database had the dates since I was told that all of my father's military records had burned (along with millions of others too).
The BIRLS database said my father was in the Army for his first enlistment from 10 Aug 1926 to 20 Sep 1927 -- okay so far. Then for his second enlistment he was in from 12 May 1931 to 16 Jun 1933, great information I thought -- until I remembered that the 1930 Federal Census ( a year that does not correspond to the BIRLS) shows my father as a soldier at Fort Sheridan near Chicago -- so now I have to figure out -- "What gives?"
To make matters more questionable about the BIRLS database I found a record showing my younger brother's death due to natural causes in the year 2000, with his service dates in the Navy during Viet Nam as 26 Oct 1964 (the day after Jon's 17th birthday) through 28 Nov 1966 -- the major problem with that information is that Jon is STILL ALIVE . . . I have more researching to do:
If you click on the above you'll be able to examine these records -- the two BIRLS records and the excerpt
of the 1930 Federal Census . . .
Another Highlight of this Week
As you all know by now, Gail and I have been involved with Guide Dogs for the Blind -- what an impressive organization. We started about two months ago and are going through weekly training sessions where the puppies and people like us are trained. Part of the training involves puppy-sitting. We puppy sat for 10 days with Janie and that was fun, this week we are puppy sitting for Julep -- a 7 month old yellow lab -- and the experience has been great. Tomorrow her real puppy-raising family will pick her her up.
Here are some of the highlights of our week with Julep:
Besides enjoying Julep in our home we took her on many "retail" visits. When she puts on the "uniform" she gets right into the role of "guide dog". We have learned so much about dogs and for that matter people as well -- every where we go with one of these puppies the "ice" is broken almost immediately and we talk with people that we never would have been "allowed to" before.
We are sad to see Julep return to her "home" but look forward to getting another puppy soon.
More Good News
It is a commonly accepted fact that we as people have a "six degrees of separation" status. The fun game of six degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon has been around for some time -- but it really applies to each of us as we make the connections.
I know from my days of volunteering at the "Crisis Center" that holidays and Sundays often bring huge feelings of loneliness to many. But the good news revealed just this week is that we may be closer to one another than we ever knew -- considering that we have 7 Billion people now on the planet that is an interesting thought.
The web site -- gimundo.com is a fun place to receive "good news" and it does so daily:
Well, so goes another week and this like so many is a special week. Normally I would be saying that in a few minutes we will be enjoying our customary "Slider Saturday Night", but due to circumstances -- mostly a refrigerator filled with turkey and trimmings, we are going to enjoy yet another turkey dinner -- we just can't get enough of it . . .
Have a good week, see you in a few!
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