Badge of Browness

Well, it says:  "We've done our part"! And that is so true. We've only watered on the two days specified by our city AND only after 8 pm in the evening. The drought has certainly impacted the way our neighborhood appears.

It is sad to see flowers and shrubs wilting from the sun and heat. The lawns are spotted with a patchwork of brown and look like something out of the desert. Yet there are exceptions and how they "made it" is curious.

The neighborhood does in fact still have some lush green appearing lawns -- but some of those are converted to imitation lawns. Others, I am not sure how they have remained so green.

Some of our hopes rest on El Nino and the water that that will bring. But the cycle is here and to expect to keep large expanses of green lawn is probably folly.

We will have to rethink the lawn issues in the coming months.

Weekly News

Two events come to mind as News of the Week:

They are as seemingly unrelated to one another as I can imagine -- except that the one ought to be what should be happening instead of what is taking place.

The foremost event this week is the ever obvious human migration taking place and the unbelievable circumstances that millions of people find themselves taking part in . . .

Instead of these folks busying themselves in sporting events they are having to concentrate on just being able to survive. Maybe one day they and their families will be able to focus on a sporting event as we in our country are doing.

The MLB postseason games have started and unbelievably the Cubs, Chicago Cubs, are a part of the games -- so far.  We'll see if "the curse" of years ago will continue or be dissolved.

Webinars This Week

This week's Legacy Family Tree Webinar was delivered by Thomas MacEntee and was excellent.

The topic was "out there" to be sure, but a topic that will become more and more important as time goes on.

The future of "wearable" technology as it pertains to family history is mind-boggling.

There are and will be things like smart watches, smart clothing, advanced smart eye-wear and all day cameras that could record most everyday happenings 24/7.  The data from all these devices would certainly "speak" about  someone's life and be a record for future genealogists to put detail into the lives of their ancestors.  Privacy issues are being worked on . . .

The Search This Week

This week -- thanks to a cousin giving me a "heads-up" about another distant cousin, I dug into the story a bit and am still currently trying to determine the exact relationship but it ranges from 4th cousin to 18th cousin.

No matter though, it is a peek into the lives of a Hiles related cousin.

Percy Lee Lemon and his wife Stella, nee Anderson.

Percy and Stella lived in Ohio and it probably is a good thing that Percy was not around when his wife died in 1987.

Percy had passed away in 1980 and was spared the unbelievable news concerning his wife.

I vaguely remember reading the following story back in the late 1980s and you might too:

I had no idea that one of the "Angel of Death's" victims was related to me. In 1987 I did a bit of traveling for business and I happened to be in Ohio a few times around that time. That probably is where I first read about the story.

In any case, I was sickened by the story and still am to this day even though the story and events thankfully get pushed into my subconsciousness but will probably come out again if I am ever again hospitalized . . .

There are a couple of more newspaper articles and I will be putting them into the HILES website in the coming weeks.

Lastly This Week

I spotted this Real Estate listing from Trulia up in Hiles, Wisconsin.

Can you imagine -- a home on 30 acres for sale for $39, 900 . . .

That is way below the price of the new Tesla which I believe is being offered at about twice that amount, base price . . .

Okay so it is a bit of a "fixer" but there probably is a lot of "charm" potential.

30 Acres . . . that sounds so amazing in itself.

And coupled with the news in "The Forest Republican" yesterday, we can see that the
community is "thinking ahead".

It almost begs at least a "look-see" which would entail a trip to Hiles, Wisconsin.

I might have a difficult time convincing those around me to make that trip, just saying.

So that is a bit of our week. We will continue to watch as many of the post-season baseball games as
reasonably possible.

We will also include a few NFL games on our agenda as well.

It is Saturday, so it most likely is "dogs and burgers" for the remaining two meals today . . .

See you all "in a few"!