Day Late . . . $ $ $' s Short

Okay, so I'm a day later than usual, but I have good excuses reasons . . . first of all, this has been an unusual week in that almost all of our appliances and electronic devices (it feels like) have acted up in one way or the other.  On the other hand, it is still "harvest time around our town":

Apparently, the high heat that we experienced has caused a huge reaction in the wine industry and their efforts to pick the fruit before it becomes like raisins.

And certainly, a few glasses of vino would have helped us to better deal with the equipment malfunctions except that we are precluded from wine and spirits replaced with other medications -- what a dilemma . . .

First -- as you recall from a mention last week, our wash machine was screaming like a jet engine. Then the ice maker in the freezer compartment stopped producing ice which is critical to the happiness of Dino and then the filter went out and needed replacing. To complete the kitchen woes, the dishwasher needed attention after once depositing water in the cabinet next to it . . .

Further frustration came when the plug-in charger for our Dyson portable vacuum bent and would no longer produce a charge . . . we have other vacuum options but the portable is so nice when needing a quick sweep . . .

Then, for no known reason the plug-in "chime" for our "Ring" doorbell quit after we moved it to another location requiring (after a couple of tech calls) a replacement to be sent.

But the clincher of the week was what did us "in" . . . the router needed a firmware update and in the middle of doing that our cable modem malfunctioned -- which effectively disconnected us from the outside world -- no telephones, no Wi-Fi service, and no tech until "sometime" Saturday.

And, we have out-of-town visitors again this week -- Lisa & Bob are here from Arlington, Washington for the week. It is really nice to see them after almost two years when they visited last.

But, back to our tech mess. After I canceled our service repair appointment with Sears (and I am so glad that I did) I had made an appointment with a small business appliance repair from our town that had really high ratings on the Yelp website (including mine now too).

Ron, the appliance repair genius came late Thursday and in less than an hour, fixed the washer, the ice maker, the fridge and the dishwasher -- absolutely astonishing. He even scouted around to see if there were other appliances that he could tend to . . . his contact info is vital now.

On Saturday, mid-morning, Xfinity came by and after a couple of hours and replacing the malfunctioning modem we think that we are back in business for now. I never felt so "out-of-it" when we had the service disruption and it points out how horrible it must be for the folks in the hurricane-ravaged areas. We at least have electricity and some of our appliances working -- those folks have nothing working including the basics like water and heat or a/c.

So, back to some of the "regular" things that happened this week:

In one of my searches in old newspapers, I spotted the above story and it was of interest for a variety of reasons. 1) it was about HILES people  2) it takes place in a town very near where we lived in Illinois & 3) just because.

I am sure that there are countless stories that are similar due to war times and conditions. I do not know yet if our branch of Hiles is related, but I'm checking into that. The above article was published in the Decatur, Illinois newspaper in 1990. It sounds like movie material to me . . .

And then it is always fascinating to me when I spot something in a newspaper about one of our relatives that is "news" to me.

Stewart Nelson Bumgardner is my Uncle, my mother's brother.  I knew of many of his career changes over the years but this one mentioned here -- "Diabolt", they must have meant "Diebold", is one that I do not recall ever hearing about -- maybe it was short-term.  (Chicago Trib, 1962)

And speaking of Stewart . . . and "Jimmy" Bouldron:

There is a new museum being created in honor of WWII veterans and to remember the huge impact of that war.

Millard Calhoun "Jimmy" Bouldron, Gail's father along with Stewart will have recognition displayed in that museum for their service during the war.

The interesting thing for me is that while I know of Jim's service and have some photos of him in the military during the war, I never really knew of Uncle Stew's service, nor do I have any photos of him at that time. But there are several records mentioning Stewart's service.

In 1945 Jim Bouldron was 31 years old and he served in Japan. That same year Stewart was 19 and while he served in the Navy, I do not know where he was serving.

And lastly,

On the Nightstand Actually on the iPad in the Audible app, we have listened to this book being read by the author -- and have enjoyed it very much.

It is an amazing story of someone rising way above their initial place in life and how all of that took place.

It was a combination of just plain hard work, the support of many others and some good old-fashioned luck.

We look forward to reading possible future writings by this author.
He is still a young man and has such a great potential to enthrall us more in his captivating way of describing his life.

One interesting thing about the success of this person is that he was born and raised in this country when so often we read about the success of someone "coming" to this country and taking advantage of the "American" dream.


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