Taking Care of Business

Often lately our business has had to do with the health care system with respect to us -- this week we attended to the needs of our faithful pooch Dino. He never complains (nor ever barks) but we did notice that he had a little redness in the corner of one eye.

We waited a couple of days to see if it got better, but it did not. We made the appointment and took him into see his favorite vet place. The first event -- just like with us -- they weighed him. Oops, it looks like age is catching up with his metabolism so a "slight" reduction in feed is called for.

In addition, after a thorough examination Dino got medication for the eye infection, medication for an ear infection AND medication for the rash on his belly . . .he is a lab.

The hood he is wearing is a hassle and he isn't totally smooth on his navigation through the house, not unlike others I know. But the pill pockets that we put the antibiotic pills in are a huge hit -- he loves hickory . . .

His prognosis is good and he looks better already. He is so patient though with that hood -- we take it off for him to eat his reduced rations.

Dates Next Week

Lots of birthdays, few wedding anniversaries. There are a lot of familiar names on the upcoming birthday list. For those names that you do not recognize, if you'd like check them out at www.danhiles.com.

Who Do You Think You Are -- This Week

It was another week highlighting the amazing things that we can learn about our ancestors, or in this case the ancestors of the McAdams sisters, Kayleen & Rachel.

A few generations back on their maternal side the sisters uncovered a gr gr gr grandfather who happened to make his living as a "footman" in the service of others. First they learned what that occupation entailed and then they actually visited the house in-which he was employed.

Unfortunately there often was a high risk in that profession and their ancestor died at an early age of that related risk factor. If they had only just seen the dates and geographical references they would never have found out the circumstances surrounding this part of their heritage.

Things Found in My Search -- This Week

I found a ton of small details for a variety of folks in our tree -- but I'll mention really just one for now. I have talked about a favorite cousin of my Mother's before, Charles Keith Bumgardner. I had only ever heard of him as "Keith Bumgardner" from my Mother, I never met him.

This week I stumbled across a form that he filled out in 1950 when he was applying to receive some military pay due to him pertaining to WWII:

Above you can see both his relationship to me and the form that he filled out. It looked like he was applying to receive $415 due him for his service. The amount is interesting but what I found more interesting was on the second page he listed the name of his current wife -- a name that I had not seen before -- Dorothy Bumgardner with her address in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania..

I will have to do more research with respect to that "new" name, which is often the case when finding new documents . . .

The other piece of information that I found this week for Keith was his final resting place. I knew that after WWII he had returned to Japan, married a Japanese lady and had at least one more daughter, Mariko. But I did not expect to see his gravestone -- that comes courtesy of Find-A-Grave:

Apparently this cemetery is primarily for those from other countries who have died while living in Japan. The grounds look very well attended.

Sporting Choices This Week

As soon as Thursday came about this week, baseball quickly took a backseat to football. Preseason football began for real and we watched (most of) the game between the 49ers and the Ravens, a battle between the brother coaches named Harbaugh.

Above you can see this week's preseason NFL action some of which is taking place tonight. We did watch a bit of the game between the Vikings and "that other team" just enough to convince us though that we had better things to do.

Preseason NFL, while fun to watch, probably will not take us away from watching the SF Giants play until the real season gets started in September -- then there are only so many sporting entertainment hours available for us . . . we are also anxiously awaiting (a week from Sunday) for the first game that the 49ers will play in their brand-new Levi Stadium.

Lastly -- A Sad Farewell

Sadly Gail and I lost a friend of many years this week and may she R.I.P. !

The above photo was taken on February 28, 2014 . . .


That was a bit of our week. See you all in a few.