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Saturday, September 2, 2017

DÉJÀ VU . . . ENCORE

Once again just when we think it can't get hotter, guess what -- it does and continues. Yesterday our town in Healdsburg, Sauna County, was 112° and today it is predicted to be about the same or even hotter as the day started out warmer than yesterday.

Our hope is that the a/c keeps working. Last night's sleeping environment was not pleasant. We kept the a/c running until about 10 pm and the house stayed at about 80° throughout the night.

This morning the air was warm early and will heat up as the day continues. We don't have the right really to complain about the weather when we see the horrible conditions in Texas and other states.


So the thermometer currently looks like the above and is expected to peak in two or three hours. We are staying "put" at the moment i.e. inside . . .

One of the things that we will do today is to work on our new puzzle. It is an "Illustrated Map of Chicago" puzzle. We finished our other puzzle earlier in the week and we felt that that one was a real challenge -- this one is 1 1/2 as big and looks even more challenging, but fun . . .

Having grown up in the Chicago area I recognize a lot of the map and look forward to getting into the details.


On the left, is the previous finished "masterpiece" and then Gail excitedly opening the new one.  We started working the puzzle in the traditional manner -- by trying to connect all the edge pieces first.

We've sorted a lot of the 600+ pieces into categories of some kind and now will take our time to work piece by piece. Recently we have had two "puzzle-lovers" stop by and they loved the look and feel of the Liberty Wooden puzzle and are planning on having a puzzle up to work on when they feel inclined.

Who would have thought that such a low-tech activity would generate so much interest these days.   
I remember that my mother loved working puzzles and we would work on them and for some reason, I remember usually having a bowl of raisins to snack on -- the things that stick in our minds . . .



Off to the right represents a major portion of my "search" work this week.

A "Hiles" person contacted me and wanted to compare notes on a "Hiles" line that he was a part of and I did recognize most of the names but because I never connected them to our line, I had not done much detail work.

These Hiles folks all lived in the same area as our known relatives in Ohio and so you'd think that they must all be related, but after tracing the details of some seven generations of folks -- I still can not connect them to us.

I suggested to my correspondent that maybe he should take a DNA test to compare with the ones that I have already taken to see if we ARE related.

I have not heard back as yet . . . One of the cloudy issues of all these folks are the huge numbers of "Johns" as is so often the case. And when you get back into the 1700s and 1800s, the records are not as precise and spelling is an issue as well.

It would be nice to connect this huge branch of Hiles folks -- in the meantime, I'll keep trying . . .


And who would have thought that the two brothers who started the huge Kellogg cereal corporation did not get along with each other for most of their lives?

We are reading this book and find it very fascinating. I had no idea that the history of a cereal company and the founders could be so different yet accomplish so much.

I did not realize that the Kellogg family were Seventh-Day Adventists and that they ate no meat -- but now that I think about it -- that makes sense.

We are just at the beginning of the book so we look forward to what's next in their story -- we are reading it on the iPad using Kindle . . .

Sports?  The wheels keep coming off for the Giants. Last night's game for example -- we had to go to bed at the bottom of the 8th inning and the Cardinals had just tied the game at 5 - 5.

When we got up this morning and read the paper -- the Cards had scored 6 runs in their part of the ninth inning . . .

So, while the Giants had led 5-2 at one point they lost 11-5 when it was all over -- and it is . . .

Football -- has not captured our interest yet and may not this year. We'll see. We have watched bits and pieces of several games but have not been able to enjoy it like the "days of old" . . .



And lastly, to the left are photos of two of the many folks who attended a celebration some 59 years ago this coming week.

They are as they looked at that time and I remember the event quite well myself.

Congrats to my sister, Marilee and her husband Bill on their unbelievable anniversary number 59! Wow!

And that is a bit of our week! See you all "in a few"!





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