But first, most everyone around here is tuned in to the status of the wildfires burning in so many locations around California and other states as well.
The "Carr" fire burning up in Shasta County now around 150,000 acres consumed is one of the worst fires in California's history.
While the fire is a couple of hours driving time to the north of us -- it still is of concern for a couple of reasons -- the conditions here are hot, dry and windy AND a fire like that could easily start here the way that it did by Redding -- i.e. by a flat tire or some other accidental means.
The sun seemed smoke diffused yesterday in the early morning though we have not detected a smoke smell -- yet. We check throughout the day and it is always in the back of our minds. The TV news is predominantly about the fires (the good news is that it cuts back on some of the other disastrous news that we have to deal with on a daily basis).
Our local newspaper -- the Press Democrat -- contains a large percentage of space devoted to the fire results of last October's disaster and now the new constantly featured fires this year.
The stories of the evacuations both mandatory and voluntary remind us that after just recently having "unpacked" our bags from last year that we might have to repack again this year . . .
The naming of the huge "Carr" fire was curious to me since we have a large number of Carr folks in our tree but it turns out that the "Carr" reference is to one of the highways on which the fire originated with the flat tire -- they surmise.
Speaking of fires -- the 1973 fire in St Louis that burned about 90% of the military records of Army personnel including many members of our family tree (my father's as well) still frustrates the search in that area.
There is always some hope that alternative documents will be found that could recreate some of the millions of important files lost. In my father's case, it is frustrating to not be able to put together his military history from the 1920s and into the 1930s.
This is that time of the year that there are no holidays to celebrate -- but that doesn't mean we can't honor some of the lesser known "national" days.
For example -- today is supposedly "National Chocolate-Chip Cookie Day" and I think we can figure out how to celebrate that fairly easily . . .
Next week -- Wednesday -- is "National Sneak Zucchini Onto a Neighbor's Porch" day. We actually used to do this before we knew about the holiday and had a garden full of the stuff . . .
So there are ways to make each day special -- and that is what we try to do.
Our day might have been really more special if only we had seen the "light" a few years back and bought Apple stock . . .
Apple became the first officially recognized $1 Trillion sized U.S. corporation. Who would have ever thought that that would happen?
I do love Apple products and have used them for many years mostly via their iPad products -- I love to use that every day as does Gail. I would have used an Apple desktop if the software that I wanted was available to run on Apple -- today it is, but I'm entrenched in Windows too.
DNA still is capturing the headlines these days. To me, it is a welcome addition to the tools we use in genealogy -- but -- it is also fast becoming huge news to the crime-solving world. A few months ago we saw the start of many cold-cases being solved.
This week, we learned that even recently committed crimes are being solved via the use of DNA. One particularly satisfying result came in with the capture of a criminal who had taunted police and feeling secure with getting away with his crime -- until DNA use.
As I have mentioned in previous posts -- I receive a large number of DNA matches every week. The unfortunate detail is that it is hard to connect those matches "in the tree". To date, I have received over a couple of thousand matches with only a handful that can be tied to the tree -- hopefully, that will change.
Besides, "Zucchini Day", coming up this next week is the return of the NFL games. I will wait to see how enthusiastic I'll be watching this season if a couple of things happen -- especially if there are political "statements" happening during the games . . .
And then there are the "49ers" -- they finished last season very strongly and have given most fans some real reason to look forward to the start of this season -- except for the addition of at least one player who in my mind is a total distraction and could be the reason that I won't want to watch the Niners. We'll see about the above events . . .
That is a peek into our week. See you all "in a few"! 👨👩
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