'tween Celebrations in Healdsburg

It is hotter today than it has been all week. We are "taking it easy" probably just like my cousin -- Elizabeth II, of course. She -- we haven't heard directly from her, has to be resting up for the next big events around her area -- the Olympics for example. We'll probably hear something as that time gets closer . . .
But the weather besides being windy all week has also been sunny all week with more of the same coming. The floral display in the neighborhood and in the yard is great:

We were not totally certain what all the flowers would be e.g. the Irises -- they started blooming earlier this week and it is good that I took the picture yesterday because today -- probably due to the heat -- they have closed up. The other flowers are just plain nice to see.
Our town is wrapping up the Jazz Festival today and as I wrote last week it has been fun. We will look forward to next year's festival and hopefully make plans early to attend the sessions that we would enjoy. The next event locally most likely is the "down home" 4th of July Celebration . . . this 'tween time is like the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas -- it moves fast.

Out of the Norm


We seem to have a regular habit when it comes to mealtime, especially breakfast. It is always easier to have "the same thing" every morning if it is agreeable to us. And so cereal is SO easy and practical and 99% of the time that is what we have -- but thank goodness for magazines and books and TV which provide ideas and possible changes in breakfast menus. Gail spotted a recipe (and a picture) of something that appealed to her and who am I to not agree . . . 
The pictures do not really do justice -- this was an exceptional taste treat. They are muffins made with corn meal and they have slices of bacon on top and eggs on the inside and topped off with a little butter and a little maple syrup . . . talk about a taste-treat -- wow! As you can see the muffin tin holds twelve and that
is what we made -- we each had two, so that leaves eight more for a couple of other days. I think it is probably  a little like the breakfasts that maybe some of our ancestors ate before going out to work on the farm . . . I made it as far as my desk and computer.

One Day This Week


We almost totally ignore political mail and political phone calls -- it is hard to ignore the front door though when they can see you . . . so we did engage just a tiny bit in current "political" things. What we do is to save up all the fliers and other things relating to ballot items and go over them the day before we go to vote.

So Tuesday of this week -- 5 June, we walked drove to our new voting location ( a couple hundred yards away as the crow flies). We rationalized the driving by combining several other errands with the voting trip. The new voting location for us is the school behind our house. The polls were "slow" in terms of the numbers of other voters -- but the probably eight poll workers all loved "meeting" Dino as he accompanied us to vote. Voting itself took all of a minute partly because we already knew how we were going to vote and the fact that there was little on the ballot.

Two propositions made the news and caused the most stir -- 28 and 29 -- one passed and the other was defeated mostly by the expenditures of large corporations likely to lose business if the measure passed. Many times in our household I have the feeling that on some things we cancel each other's vote . . .

The voting registrations of our ancestors can often be found and it is fascinating plus it clarifies time and location often. Sometimes the voting lists are the only record for a given person. So our action this week may be seen by those searching on our activities in the future . . .

Other News of the Week


So much happens every week that it is easy later to not even remember the events. I still am always "surprised" when during the Oscars e.g. the "in Memoriam" pictures are shown -- even though during the year I saw announcements of most of the folks it registers as a surprise many times.

This week there were a variety of things in the news that struck me -- for me because I do volunteer indexing for the 1940 Census (FamilySearch.org) the fact that over 50% of the census is now indexed is absolutely phenomenal. I worked on two states this week -- Illinois & Michigan. I was lucky to only have one page that was difficult to decipher -- it was the combination of poor penmanship and ethnic names that made it tedious. I only hope that folks researching "hard-to-spell" names try several spellings for their relatives to come up on any search.

The other news of the week was varied -- the loss of a well known, well respected author, Ray Bradbury.
And the disappointment of not being able to watch a possible "triple crown" winner . . . and to the lighter side of the news -- the "car talk" guys are scaling back their live show on Saturday mornings . . . there was a ton of other stuff going on but these stories stuck with me.

Summer Mode (for some of us)

We both have our "fun" things to do -- mine mostly stays the same throughout the year. Because Gail still works part of the year her summer activities take advantage of some of the activities she really enjoys. One such activity is puzzling -- that is working on a great challenging puzzle to block out such things as much of the news . . .

The above are a couple of the recent puzzles that Gail completed. They are NOT probably like the puzzles that our ancestors worked on because they are precision cut wooden puzzles employing some very interesting shapes. Dino can be seen just watching as she works tirelessly and with a determination to complete each one.

Click on the above and you can see some of the detail of the puzzles. The first one -- a gift on Valentine's day -- has to do with valentines. Since that day falls right at her busiest work time, now was the time that she could enjoy putting it together. The second puzzle -- one that was twice as big and had twice the number of pieces and came in two boxes, I thought would take her several weeks to complete and give her weeks of enjoyment  . . . she finished that in a few days -- but the puzzle will be left out so that every once in a while we can stop by and admire it.

If you'd like -- check out the website:    Liberty Puzzles   if you enjoy puzzles they have a beautiful product and are always coming out with new versions. Growing up my Mother often had a puzzle "going" some where in the house -- in my adult years I still love the challenge too!

The Last Two Days


Saturday and Sunday (right now) I would have loved attending Southern California's Genealogical Conference called Jamboree. Each year it is held usually in Burbank and offers a ton of classes and a ton of speakers -- all with one subject in mind -- guess . . .

But this year I was able to "stream" videos of several key speakers. And boy were they good. What a wonderful way to be able to enjoy and benefit from some very interesting (to me) people.

It felt just like being there when I tuned in. I have attended so many talks in hotel settings just like the above that I recognized all the physical features of the room and because I did not have the distractions of  "a lot of other folks" I got a lot out of the talks -- I can hardly wait to begin acting on many of the topics. My search for the tree dwellers can only be enhanced by what I learned during these sessions.

I thank SCGS for the opportunity to hear these speakers. One of these years maybe I can actually attend the live sessions. There are so many new and exciting things happening in the world of genealogy -- what a great way to spend my retirement days.  I look forward to what is coming next in genealogy. The digitization  of records and the innovative ways and means of accessing those records is unbelievable. It almost makes one want to get back into the work world . . .

Speaking of Innovative


Actually being retired, sometimes -- as I have mentioned before -- brings about a feeling of guilt over not having to go out to work and being productive and all. Of not having "goals and objectives"  being thrown at you and the prospect of the "evaluation" process. When I get that feeling I usually do one of two things -- I either go into the kitchen and bring a snack back to my desk, or I leave the desk and go take a brief nap. Sometimes I have done both  . . .I feel that I need to correct those solutions but probably not today.

Anyway, this week I stumbled upon a fun website. The site allows you to put pins into a map of the world. The pins represent events and/or people in your life. The pins can be as private as you like or they can spell out whatever you wish to share with the "world". The idea behind this is to foster possible connections with people from your past. For example, classmates maybe from grade school or co-workers from a long ago job. These folks just may stumble upon your pin and make a connection with you. There are some folks I think would be fun to connect briefly with and to see how life has treated them in the years gone by.

You can click on the above and maybe check out their website:  encounter me  I think it is fun for me so far to put some pins in relating to where I went to school, a couple of locations where my ancestors lived, a couple of places where I have lived, visited or worked . . . my map is on the lower left in the above.


So that is a peek at our week so far . . . coming up next week, project work hopefully will move forward and I can report "good" things about that. I guess we are never really through with things to do around a house but we think there comes a time when we will slow projects down . . .


We enjoyed burgers and fries last night, tonight it is ham steak Sunday night  . . .

See you all in a few . . .