Weather As We Like It . . .

Now that is . . . all week it has been in the triple digits and our a/c has been working way past overtime. We debated about leaving it on 24 hours but opted out and thinking back maybe a couple of those nights would have been more comfortable with it on.

Yesterday, the weather people reported that the winds in our area would change direction and that would bring cooler temperatures -- they were right. But, in the evening the wind changes also brought a heavy smell of smoke -- so much so that I checked around the house for possible flames.

I actually thought we should be hearing sirens with that much smoke smell, and actually after about 10 -- 15 minutes we did hear sirens. Bur this morning it is very pleasantly cooler than other days this week.

Oh, well, we will look forward to the coming "fall" weather. The days are definitely getting shorter as when I go out in the evening (Tuesday & Friday) it has been progressively getting darker and last night it was all the way dark so I had to add some light to see as I was watering.

Speaking of dark -- or even light -- how did the custom of leaving one's porch light on when they leave for the day or a week or for however long begin. To me driving around the town and seeing a light on during the day sends a message . . .

The Searching This Week

In response to the nudging by a couple of cousins (you know who you are . . .) I did look into some of our more distant cousins and I thank you for that.

Hannah Hiles, on the right, is a 4th Great Aunt to me as she is the daughter of John & Mary Hiles and the sister to John Hiles Jr and Christopher Hiles.

I know very little about her and her family, but after re-looking at her branch I found myself delving into census records and old newspapers and other records like those.

To the left is a collage relating to Hannah & David Lemon's firstborn, Jacob A Lemon, who is a 4th cousin 4 times removed of mine, ours.

The plaque sums up his story -- he enlisted into the Union Army in October of 1862 and in November

of 1863,  he was shot and killed. The newspaper article that I found lists Jacob earlier in the year, July of 1863,  as having been slightly wounded at that time as well.

Such is war is so true and so sad to think that many of our relatives experienced what is described in the plaque and the newspaper.  I have a lot of searching to do about this family.

The second cousin-nudge came with respect to the John Hiles III family shown to the right.

John Hiles III married Margaret Ann Householder and so far I have found that they had ten children.

John Hiles III is a 3rd Great Uncle of mine, ours and sadly he too died as a result of the Civil War.

I have been lucky to find pictures of two of their children, one of Christina and one of Elizabeth. I look forward to finding pictures of the others.

So again, I have to thank my two cousins for pointing directions that I can take to delve deeper into the aspects of early family.

As I can take the time I hope to uncover more details of the above two families. One thing that may be of help is the newly released  "Wills & Probates" records in Ancestry.com.  This release is talked about as being as important as when the Censuses went online . . . that is great!


From the Photo Shoebox . . .

On the left is a picture of my mother, Ruth, taken apparently in 1914 (per the license plate).

She would be two years old and is perched happily on the back of a motorcycle pictured with -- I DO NOT KNOW WHOM . . .

Since the license plate is from Illinois, my guess is that the picture was taken probably in Chicago.

My mother never encouraged me to ride on a motorcycle so maybe she had some memories of her experience -- I never knew that she was a "motorcycle mama".

If anyone can shed some light on this picture that would be great.

The young man in the picture is also a cigar smoker, so there is another clue.




What Else Took Our Time this Week

Through the magic of the DVR, we record all the episodes of several shows, including the three network late night TV shows.

Through the week we pick and choose which of these shows to watch partly based on the guests that are appearing.

This week we watched the debut 4 episodes of Colbert just because of the fact that the show was brand new. Our assessment to come later . . .

In the case of the "late-night TV" we do not watch them during the late night, we watch them sometimes early morning and other times when we feel like it.

And of course:

The NFL (and MLB too), the first week of regular games
can be seen to the right.

The Patriots/Steelers game started the season and that was fun to watch.

There are numerous games on Sunday that we will pick and choose from and we may watch a couple or may not as the mood strikes.

But Monday night we hope to watch the Niners opening game with the Vikings.

Superbowl 50 this year will be held in the Niners Levi Stadium and it would be nice for the Niners to be present for that event . . . it could happen . . .


So that is a bit of our week, it is hotdogs for lunch
burgers for dinner.

See you all "in a few"!