This is the current banner on our front porch, so it is not hard to figure out who we are rooting for, though if the Seahawks were playing anyone else we would be rooting for them. Having lived in the Seattle area for ten years (and at one point having Seahawks season tickets) it would be exciting to see the "Hawks" in the Superbowl.
The major obstacle around the house this week was trying to get the router extension working properly. I have to say that I have NEVER been able to work with a router and have it go well. Our situation was that when using our mobile devices (iPads, iPods, MotoX cells) in the family room we never got full responses from the WiFi and the desk top router in our office at the other end of the house.
The instructions, sales info and many of the rating messages online stated that this router extender was a top performer AND very easy to set up and to begin using. I did not find it that way and as one letter I later read stated: "what a work of Satan" it can be . . .
After a few days of trying many different scenarios and almost thinking of returning the product, I reluctantly called tech support which of course is routed to some of the most polite people in the world only to find it difficult to get over the language barrier. I am glad that I actually called because within an hour, though after struggling with interpreting technical acronyms and accents the router extender was up and running.
And it has made all the difference in performance . . . please may we never have to deal with the router issue ever again just as I say with respect to having an "MRI" ever again.
That Time of the Year
Well, it is "that time" for a lot of reasons, while all the router business was going on during the day in the cold of the evening the first lunar experience of the year was taking place:
From our front porch (and kitchen window) we have a clear view of the moon as it appears over the top of the neighbor's house across the street. And as a bonus in this picture I believe Jupiter is in view as well -- just to the left of the pine tree -- amazing.
So in the evening we see the moon from our kitchen, and when I get up to take Dino out in the morning the moon is appearing low in the horizon out in the back yard.
On the news we heard that this moon is the smallest of the full moons this year. It may be the smallest, but it sure was easily viewed.
Dates From the Tree
Again the upcoming week's birth dates and anniversaries are following the "January" trend -- that is -- not so many marriage anniversaries as other times during the year:
Two of the events coming up are close in relationship to me: on January 21, 225 years ago John Hiles (Jr) was born -- we think in Pennsylvania. And then some 66 years ago my dad's half-sister, Jane was married.
A Life-Changing Event
An event that changed the lives of Gail's family took place 64 years ago yesterday. It was a snowy day in the environs of Seattle (Everett to be more exact), and Gail's dad was behind the wheel of an oil tanker. Unfortunately, two trucks collided that day with Jim suffering major injuries including the loss of his right leg.
Fortunately though both drivers recovered. Meeting Gail's dad for the first time I had no idea he only had one leg, and he never let that fact "slow" him down.
Probably because Jim Bouldron was an athletic man, he kept being athletic by taking up the game of golf and played as much as he could -- sometimes every day. He played in "Handicapped" Tournaments around the country and could still "shoot his age" in his late 70s.
It is amazing how certain events flavor our lives and help define "who we are".
Webinar Wednesday
Again this week I was lucky to attend the Legacy webinar. This one had a theme that I have been struggling with -- and probably a lot of genealogists -- of "too many (same) names" e.g. John in our case.
The bar graph above was produced by Legacy Family Tree and points out the occurrences of some of the most popular names and most likely is the same for our tree. It has been problematic to deal with families in our tree that have the same given names over and over.
When researching a common name it is important to use many of the solutions as presented in this webinar. It still is a major chore to differentiate families who are all living in the same geographic area and have the same names -- I am hoping that I can go back and clarify some of these families.
Puzzle Projects
It is nice to have a "puzzle" be the main object of dealing with as opposed to the many work-place scenarios of our past lives. Most of the puzzle involvement is left up to Gail, but I always enjoyed working on jigsaw puzzles as well.
The puzzles of today have changed somewhat in that most of the ones that Gail works on are laser cut wooden puzzles with amazing intricate cut shapes.
The top four pics show the challenging puzzle from last week that happened to be two-sided in that there were in effect two complete puzzles -- actually of the same picture. The challenging aspect was that each piece could possibly go one way or the other . . .
After successfully finishing the two sided, Gail has now started on the Liberty puzzle pictured above of "Winter in the Country" -- not our part of the country . . .
What makes this puzzle a challenge is that included in the puzzle is a frame that is not bound by "straight" or normal "edge" type pieces . . . early on she is thinking about "giving up", but from past experience, that is not going to happen. I'm part of the puzzle as you can see the new fridge picture mustache . . .
Photography -- 175 Years
While doing family history searches, I really love it when I find pictures to go along with names and places. I love adding this element to the work.
According to an article at fold3 the history of photography is given. It was 175 years ago this month that some of the very first photos were displayed for the world to enjoy. Here is that article:
I feel so lucky when I find a picture of someone who was born in the early 1800s. There are many of our ancestors that I do not have photos for -- I feel that they are out there -- I just have not found them as yet.
A Year Ago this Week
I happen to remember it well -- from the bed I was occupying in the ICU in Santa Rosa. It still seems almost unreal that I actually spent 21 days in that and a couple of other beds, all alarmed to keep me from wandering off . . .
Ahh, Guillain-Barre, while not necessarily contagious, at one point "what I had" had not been determined as yet -- so I can relate to this "Herman" depiction.
Even a year later as I feel completely healed -- there are some remnants of the syndrome, mostly in my mobility. While I am free of canes, walkers and the like I do try to always have a wall or a rail to grab onto as needed within reach . . . needless to say, I don't walk long distances.
And Lastly this Weekend
It is always nice to have something to look forward to -- and this weekend it is Sunday's NFL games. Both of which should be very exciting.
The early game on Sunday will be the Broncos versus the Patriots which has to be a classic. We like both teams though maybe one a little more than the other . . .
The afternoon game also will be between two teams that we like though a little more right now for one over the other . . .
Since I was "out of it" last year for the Championship games it will be nice to see them this year. I arrived home last year on Superbowl Sunday just in time to see the Harbaugh brothers battle it out . . . maybe at least one Harbaugh brother will be involved this year -- we'll see.
And so that was a bit of our week. Burgers tonight, see you all in a few!
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