♪ 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"!