Back to Cool . . . Week

Well, this is the first week in several that the thermostat inside our house read in the 60s early in the morning when I get up.  For the last few months even at 6:30 am the temperature inside was already in the 70s. Now, it isn't much of a change, but the early mornings and the late evenings are beginning to "feel" cooler.
And the daytime temperatures, while sometimes cooler, in the next few days it is forecast to be over 100° again -- it'll be nice to be over the hot weather.

And then there is "Harvey" which at this minute is hassling with Texas and potentially other states. They say what makes "Harvey" so troublesome is that it could likely hang around for awhile and even replenish itself by going back to sea and then returning. I can't imagine having to run from that storm and set up living at another location for (?) days.

So, we'll endure the heat without complaints . . .

Speaking of "big wind storms" it was at the house to the right that I remember when a tornado hit that area of the Chicago suburb of La Grange.

The roof from the gymnasium at a Catholic Girls school about two or three blocks away was blown off and carried some distance away. This must have happened in the early 1950s and it was memorable.

From time to time I recall heavy winds hitting the area, but I don't recall being all that concerned, though I know my mother was as were some of my siblings. I would be very concerned these days if those kinds of winds hit here.

Every region of the country has it's weather issues and here in our neck of the woods it is also a concern of the next earthquake. Living in California I have been in a couple and they are indeed memorable.

It is now "25 years and 1 day" since our big event that took place in Columbia, California.

To the left are a few of the times in those twenty-five years and a peek at the three houses that we have owned and lived in during that period.

Also are the pets that we have had the pleasure of having over the years.


The photo on the bottom right depicts the mini "Bouldron" family reunion that Gail organized and held at "Red Fish Lake Lodge in Stanley, Idaho". That has been several years ago now but still very fresh in our memories -- loads of fun.

And speaking of LaGange, to the right are a couple of pics of very recognizable locations in that town. The town where I spent my early childhood.

The "clock" was in downtown located on "LaGrange Road" and it is nice to see that it is still there.

The other pic is of the LaGrange Post Office and it is also very familiar as it looks like a lot of other post offices around the country.

I remember being in the lobby while my mother was waiting to mail a package or to buy stamps . . . I wonder how their lines are compared to our lines here in Healdsburg during the Christmas season.

And it is getting out of control . . . the nightstand book(s) pile. There are several books that are in the middle of being read but that have been resting while others are being read.

Eventually we catch up and tidy-up. One thing that we are doing is to read more books on the Kindle App on the iPad. This does accomplish a couple of things -- one, they are actually easier to hold because the books are always the same size, as they are on the iPad. And I don't have to remember the page I stop on because Kindle remembers for me.

Also, the App will define words and otherwise act as a dictionary right at the word which is very nice.

And also we have a library of assorted books on Audible.com that are read to us from the iPad and is refreshing for a change. Of course, there is no "old or new book smell" and that can be good or bad depending.

And lastly,

Our hearts go out to the poor woman who won the latest Powerball lotto.

She now has to deal with managing about $336 million dollars for the rest of her days.  She chose to take the lump sum which was about $480 million and then paid the taxes on that.

She could have taken the winnings over time which would have paid out about $758 million. Time will tell as to her decision.

We did have a "chance" as we had a ticket -- the winning numbers are shown on top -- ours are in red -- we did though have the correct powerball number and one additional number, amazing . . .

The odds were, 1 in 292 million of winning -- what if someone bought 292 million tickets . . . they would have to exclude all the other purchases I guess . . .

Oh well, we did not have jobs to quit if we had won . . .

That is a bit of our week, see you all "in a few"!

But Who Is Counting -- Anyway

If we are talking "family trees" we are counting . . . lately, as I work on the tree the numbers have been going up & down. Up, because I add new people that belong in the tree and down because I find duplicates that somehow got inserted.

It is always interesting as I get "to know" the family units as they go through their lives and I see them via censuses and other documents including newspaper articles.

And we seem to be always counting forward to how many days until Christmas for example or til when school starts (which is right about now around here) or to when our next vacation is coming (which for us is right about now . . .).

And currently, I look ahead 6 days to the 25th and know that a special occasion is nearing.

It was just 9,131 days ago that Gail and I stood under a small grape arbor in the town of Columbia, Calaveras County, California and repeated our wedding vows.

This was the first stage of an elaborate "sting" that Gail had planned to pull on friends and family.  The wedding was attended by two people -- the man who married us (my brother) and his wife, Nancy.

There were no announcements made as friends and family were invited to a surprise birthday party for me where Gail would "pop the question" and we would be joined together in matrimony at that moment . . .

It all went well -- except for a few disappointed folks who wanted to see my reaction to the "popping of the question". Instead,

it was Gail and me who got to see the reaction of those in attendance who discovered that they had been "had".

So, here we are 25 years later. I've actually been married for a little over 50 years and Gail for a little over 38 years -- figure that one out . . . Happy Anniversary Gail! You've made these past 10,000 days great!

And of course, we are counting the minutes until the big event -- that is the solar eclipse due on Monday.

We have not purchased the special glasses for the eclipse so we will have to be content to watch it on TV.

Now, if we lived in Makanda, Illinois, where the event is to last the longest (a little over two minutes) we would have definitely purchased the glasses.

It is interesting to note the huge crowds driving to witness this, in most areas, less than two minutes. We have seen entire families camping out ready to view all -- we can only hope that for those folks the weather cooperates.


In the "I remember" segment for this week, I do
remember this scene very much.

It is my father carefully detailing our 1956 Buick Special. Like all the cars we owned over the years -- he kept them spotless.

I haven't seen whitewalls that looked like that for years -- if they even make whitewalls anymore.

This picture was taken in the driveway of our house in Golfview Hills (Hinsdale) Illinois. Just parked behind the Buick I recognize the 1952 Pontiac that my mother mostly drove and at one point became  a car that I drove a lot.

In the foreground, the handlebars of a bicycle can be seen. It was either my bicycle or my younger brother's bike -- I'm not sure except that if this was the late 50's or even the early 60s, I would have been driving and that would not have been my bike.

Speaking of anniversaries . . . this week marks forty years after Elvis passed away at 42 years of age.

I do remember that day upon hearing that news -- I was just finishing a sales call at a Southern California Drug store.

Elvis played a big role in our growing up years and was a "secret" idol of my mother -- who took me to see a few of his movies.

And of course, my younger brother had a one line speaking role in an Elvis movie that was shot on his Navy ship in the 60s.

But, recently I just happened on Elvis' early growing up pictures and noticed how my own brother -- Marv -- who was born about the same time as Elvis, resembled him.

In the above collage, Marv's pics are the bottom three with early Elvis pics on top . . . even though he has never admitted it, I think that there was an influence in the way he appeared. Right now he is about double the age of Elvis and is going strong.

Last but not least is one more example of the incompetence of the USPS:

Last week I had finished up scanning a pile of documents from Sam Sigg regarding his family history. As I had promised to get them back to him promptly, I packaged them up in a heavy duty envelope and took them to the local Post Office on the 11th.

I asked for the safest and most secure way to send these documents and was told that "Certified Mail" was the best way. I was told that the recipient would have to sign for them.

I was also given the 14th as the most likely delivery date. On the 17th I received an email from the USPS stating that delivery was delayed . . . Finally on the 18th delivery was made in the condition shown above.

The envelope was wet, torn open and stuffed/dumped into Sam's mailbox and NO signature was requested . . .

Thank goodness we think everything was included -- but what horrible service. And even the follow up email from the USPS stated they had given the package to an individual (that did not happen).

Given the choice in the future -- I will avoid the USPS at every opportunity. I also will be following up at the Post Office, good luck with that . . .

That is a bit of our week, see you all "in a few"!

♪ And The Heat Goes On . . . ♫

And on and on, but not as bad as a couple of weeks ago. One day this week we were again fooled into thinking that the a/c was not needed and so we suffered through that day -- but we are determined to not let that happen again.

The backyard this morning offered a ton of things to look at and enjoy. There are beautiful apples all over the tree. We used to make applesauce and/or dry slices, but these days we will bag them and haul them to the local food bank to let others enjoy.

There are the first few Meyer lemons appearing and a beautiful vine or two of grapes. And of course, the many wild flowers that have been blooming for years now.

Dino too is basking in the sun by the edge of the pool. He loves it for a while and then comes inside and plops down in front of the air vent to cool off.

The back is quiet these days as youth baseball seems to be over for the season. There are sporadic exercises and informal events but this season has flown by and the school behind us is gearing up to reopen in just a few weeks.

These are just some of the many charts and graphs that I have worked on this week. It is always fun to use the information that has been collecting on a family or branch and display that info in an interesting and meaningful way.

I have several programs that offer a variety of ways to display. Each genealogical software program that I use has a variety to choose from and then there is "Charting Companion" which offers unique printable displays.

The caveat is that the info that I have collected in the programs needs to be up-to-date and correct as much as possible.

That can be a nightmare when I have to stop creating a chart in order to complete the information on individuals and then re-do the chart. Or finding out that I don't have everyone's photo available at the moment and have to go searching, sometimes through thousands of pics . . . it does keep me busy.

Then just this week I read about "GedTree" in Dick Eastman's Blog -- he always has the latest and greatest. This is a product or service that will professionally display your genealogical data (from a GEDCOM that you send in) which would be suitable for framing if you'd like.

Above you can see some of the variety available to make an attractive display of all the many hours of data input over years of work.  After cleaning up my data and fixing any and all errors I most likely will order a couple of the displays -- and have them framed.



I remember . . . it is almost as if I never was there . . . and I'm not in this photo. So maybe I took the photo, I'm not sure.

This was the last house that I lived in with our family. It was in the "Gulf View Hills" area of Hinsdale, Illinois.

Because these were prefab homes, the area became known as "Cardboard Heights". Today though, many of the prefabs have been replaced by really substantial homes -- including ours.

The last time that I made the trip to reminisce and view "524" it had magically changed to a large brick structure . . .

I remember the first few years living there and the building was still going on in sections. The earthmovers were flying around moving and shaping mounds of dirt. There was an abundance of kids my age in the neighborhood with whom I could share time and fun.

I have to think that it must have been about 1959 when the above photo was taken. Almost hidden is the ever present "Minx" who is in his favorite mode of begging with Jon encouraging him. It looks like it might have been a Sunday -- not sure though.

When I think about that house, I can't imagine living today in one that small, even with just the two of us. I'm not sure of the square footage, but my guess would be about 1200 -- 1400 sq ft. My father made it a bit larger by enclosing the carport and making a "jalousie windows" porch -- which we used extensively, but only in the warmer months. In the winter cold, the room was sealed off and unusable.

My father added a very nice two car garage including a work shop area (where I think he went to smoke once in a while), not sure about that though. When my father retired, he and mom sold or gave away everything and moved to Leisure World, Seal Beach, California.

This one photo triggered a lot. And for that reason, it is a shame that the house is not available to view. I believe all the other houses that I lived in growing up are still there and being lived-in.

I've been a subscriber to Audible for many years.

Now -- this week they are enhancing it to include DOGS -- wow . . .

Dino is already very very mellow, so what will Audible do for him?

We already have DogTV (channel 354 in our system) and he ignores that mostly. We use it for background music and mellowing out when we just want to "relax".

So, we'll have to consider the possibility of Audible for Dino . . . or maybe for us to relax by . . .

And lastly, before I forget:

 Since we have been retired for years (18 or so) we have not paid much attention to "senior" things.

We are coming to realize that there are features and benefits that could be enjoyed and useful to us and so we are starting to see "what is available" for us.

A problem is that sometimes hard choices have to be made -- like giving up "stuff". We have already downsized so-to-speak when we moved into our current home some six years ago.

It would be tough is some ways to downsize again in terms of creature comforts and privacy and the freedom that we enjoy today -- so we will try to carefully make the right choice and we plan to take our time doing that . . .

That is a bit of our week. See you all "in a few"!

Dog Days of Summer -- Just Saying . . .

No other way to describe the last week or so here in Healdsburg as to the weather . . . dog days. Currently, it has been hot and muggy. Muggy is not something we have a lot and it is reminiscent of the August days in the Midwest.

But the lavender is out in abundance and along with that the ever industrious bee population, which we love to see. I suppose we could harvest some and use some throughout the year, but we don't ever seem to get around to doing that.

 Speaking of the "Dog Days" here are a few photos of our parents holding their dogs of the day:

I seem to remember Beau-Beau (3rd pic) and maybe the pup my mother is holding, but the names of the dogs that Gail's folks are holding -- I'll have to check with her to see if she recalls them . . . it seems to me I have heard "Scrubby & Doc" but I am not sure.

I Remember . . . growing up, school usually got out around 3:20 or so and I would walk home in a hurry to maybe catch the last few innings of the "Cubs" game on Channel 9 (WGN) in Chicago.                                                                                                                   The Cubs in those days only played day games due to the fact that Wrigley Field had no lights. My mother usually had the game on and might have been ironing or preparing dinner. But we would watch the last inning or so and enjoy the game -- and if I was lucky the game would go into extra innings.

The Cubs are coming to San Francisco next week -- who should I root for ...? Not a hard choice -- I'll root for the team that plays the best and/or the team that still has a chance of getting into the playoffs.

If you are out and about (in the Ozarks area . . .) you can check out "bargains galore64" started by Linda & Frank Hiles -- not known if they are relatives -- but who doesn't love bargains.

So, it is next Thursday through Sunday along miles and miles of route 64. I can't imagine a "store" that big.  Leave it to those Hiles to create the world's almost longest shop.

And the big news in the genealogical world is that My Heritage purchased Legacy Family Tree this week. Legacy is the site that produces the many webinars that I watch almost every week.

Supposedly there will be enhanced features available for upcoming webinars and a host of other new things made available with the deeper pockets of My Heritage -- we'll look forward to that.

They did offer a promotion of "half-off" the yearly subscription price during this weekend -- so I did take advantage of that . . .

                                                                                                                                                                  

While watching "Jeopardy" the other night we heard a contestant mention that she was a volunteer for an organization that asks genealogists to aid in searching for the next of kin for folks that pass away with no known relatives.

Since I really enjoy the "search" part of genealogy I checked out the group and I chose to volunteer as well -- I'm just getting my feet wet with the process but hopefully, it will be a mutually beneficial endeavor -- I'll report about that in a future post.

And lastly, I have continued the search this week on a variety of branches from the tree and have made headway into cleaning up the files in both Family Tree Maker (2017) and in RootsMagic 7.

And we are happy that it is a "never ending search" . . .

That is a bit of our week, see you all "in a few"!