Happenin' Now

It is one year since the fires in Sonoma County changed the lives of so many residents forever. Thousands of homes were lost, many people have chosen to rebuild and some have chosen to move and start over elsewhere -- who could blame them. There are just a small number of houses that have been rebuilt, it is hard to imagine coping.

And today's weather is eerily similar to one year ago and as a matter of fact, there are red flag warnings for the same areas as last year. It is mildly warm, somewhat windy and lower humidity -- all the wrong measures.

And -- just in -- the Senate vote is complete, 50-48, so we have a new Supreme Court Justice. No matter in favor of or not, it is good to be OVER with this process -- until the next one . . .

It will be interesting to see the reactions this week starting today. The vote could have gone either way as late as yesterday.

So, the least extreme activity going on just now are the post-season playoff games of the MLB. Unfortunately, a favorite team -- the Cubbies -- did not win their wild-card game so they will be looking to next season for another chance.

And if last night's RedSox/Yankees game is an indication there most likely will not be a classic Yankee/Dodger World Series . . . such is the sporting world.

Sadly, just after publishing last week's post, we received the startling news that Gail's younger sister, Jenifer,  had died.

Apparently, she developed pneumonia and could not overcome that. She had also been recently diagnosed with Alzheimer's.

Gail and her other sister Laurii are both in shock and Gail goes in and out of the realization that Jenifer is gone. She was 74 years old and had lived with Sandy, her mate, for over 30 years in Seattle.

We will all miss her "being there" even though we did not have the chance to see her that often. Whenever we did visit it was always a fun time.


One of the activities that we engaged in again this week especially was with puzzles:

The puzzle on the left is one that we just finished and enjoyed every bit of -- there were so many different objects and colors. It was also smaller than most of the puzzles that we have recently worked being "only" 500 pieces instead of the usual 1000.

The artist, Aimee Stewart, did a great job recreating "Brown's General Store and Emporium". Every conceivable type of snack, flowers and other food items were represented.

So, we started another Aimee Stewart Americana collection puzzle -- another general store relating to all the requirements needed for the family vacation for fishing, camping, surfing, and so many other activities -- this one though has 1000 pieces, so it will take a few extra days to complete.

The picture on the right is of the puzzle that we completed a few weeks ago and because it came out so nice and we did not want to dismantle it, we had it framed.

It is "The Dream Garden" by Maxfield Parrish and we love it and especially how it appears in the frame that we now have hung above the table where we work on puzzles so that we can enjoy it daily -- we're old . . .

Once again, I have to say how impressed I am with CeCe Moore who has solved another decade's old awful crime via the use of DNA matching.

The same year that Gail and I were married, 1992, a young woman, Christy Mirack in Pennsylvania was murdered. She was just 25 years old and was recently starting her dream job of being a school teacher.

The murder happened in her apartment before she could leave for work and has been a cold case for 26 years. The detectives on the case were still attempting to solve the case.

CeCe got involved with the case, and in just TWO days found a suspect through matching DNA left at the crime scene.

A well known 49-year-old "family" man and DJ active in the community was identified and arrested
and shocked the community that he had been living a "normal" life amidst them all these years.

I applaud the use of DNA and if I was a younger person I would love to be a part of the DNA team that could solve these types of crime. CeCe says that there are many more certain to be solved cold cases coming up . . . we can hardly wait to see that happen!

And lastly,

Luckily I found another "Pickles" comic related to DNA. I too love broccoli, but if offered "Cheetos" I'm not sure that I'd say "nope" . . . have that DNA checked.