grrr

Tomorrow has arrived and it's the 13th, not Friday, but the 13th none the less. Oh why did I get out of bed this morning? OK, it isn't really that bad. Most everything is working out in the end. But the process is leaving me with indigestion.

The day started out with both Richard and I full of anticipation for his motorized wheel chair being delivered. Then the enemy jumped in and started stirring everything up. He just loves doing that.

• The husband of the lady I had arranged to stay with an older lady called to say she was ill. This was the 3rd one to cancel and today is when she was needed. No one else I called before I left for bible study was available and no one at bible study could fill in. When I got home I made a couple more calls and finally found someone willing and able to stay with our elderly lady so her daughter could attend a care givers support group meeting.

• The man with Richard's chair was already here when I got home. But the chair is not as anticipated. It is wider and does not recline at all. I called the VA to complain. They grudgingly said they would check into it. In the mean time the guy here tried to adjust the seat without any success. He also had problems adjusting nearly everything else. He even had to borrow some of our tools, because what he needed was not in his case. Just before he left, he got a call back from the VA, saying he should leave the chair and the VA will discuss how they can "fix"the reclining problem.
  
  



• I have asked several times via e-mail if I can deliver some meals to a family in our church who recently lost a family member in another town. I have not gotten an OK and I am not the kind of person who is presumptuous. I understand that the same request has been made by another church member. Neither of us has received an answer. I have provided information and assurance at the request of this same grieving family. But since the death was somewhere else, I don't even know when this family is going to be at home. Maybe I am being too sensitive, but it just didn't set right when that other church member said I should just take food and not ask first. I didn't need that sort of remark, especially not today. I will re-think my attitude. This person is probably frustrated too.

• I still haven't heard anything from the guy who is supposed to take the lead for the Crisis Support class I am co-teaching starting tomorrow night. He is out of town. Oh well, if I have to step in tomorrow I will. I don't have the study disc, but I do have notes, a teacher's guide, and books. Meanwhile I invited several ladies at the bible study who are in crisis to join the class.

I'd say today is a prime example of how we humans deal or don't deal with crisis and that if we will allow him, God will take control and work things out.

Tomorrow, Tomorrow

First thing this morning, we got a call from the equipment company who will be delivering Richard's power wheel chair - Tomorrow afternoon. Yeah! It is finally happening. None too soon either. Richard's legs are fast losing all feeling (except pain) due to progressive neuropathy, as part of the process of diabetes. He also has chronic gout in his feet and difficulty with balance due to abdominal surgery that destroyed his core muscles. 1, 2, 3 strikes and he's out. He really needs that chair. The VA wouldn't give him one 5 years ago, but they did come through this time. PTL for this provision.

Today I move furniture back in place after having painted the living room last week, eliminating one small piece, to better accommodate the movement of Richard's new vehicle. This is exciting. Hopefully no more falls that are such a struggle to get up from. PTL and hallelujah.

This & That

Boy is it hot. Not as hot nor as humid as it has been for so long in most of the country, but hot for here, at least. I don't do well in the heat. How on earth did I survive 19 years in Phoenix? When it is hot I lose all my energy, not that there is much of that commodity anymore. The heat quite literally gives me a headache. It must be the barometric pressure. I just can't seem to function. Where is our Oregon rain?

We called the VA on Tuesday, only to be told that Richard's power wheelchair order had been canceled on August 25. Long story short, because our vehicle will not accommodate a lift, the VA canceled the order for it. But the tech misunderstood and canceled both the lift and the chair. OOPS! We protested, the tech said she would check with her supervisor and call us back. She did, and actually praising God when the call came. Seems the chair manufacturer had not received the cancellation order and the chair had been delivered to the VA in Roseburg that same afternoon. Richard will get it some time next week. At least that is the plan. PTL. Now we need to figure out a way of hauling the chair around. I'm thinking a very small trailer, but we need dimensions before we can even start looking.

Chris and I have been painting in the living room for a couple weeks now. He painted the 2 feet of wall and trim around the ceiling and I painted the walls up as far as I could reach. I'm not supposed to climb on ladders any more. We both worked on the lower woodwork. Next week we will start working on the entryway. Then there is the bathroom and the master bedroom to do. It has been about 10 years since most of the inside of the house was painted. Much over due. I will post some photos when we get done (probably a month or six weeks from now).

On Thursday afternoon, when I went out to the car, I noticed cracked glass - the windshield was broken. It must have happened Wednesday night, because it was OK the afternoon prior. So the car has an appointment on Richard's birthday for a lot of cosmetic work where adjacent paint was deeply scratched as well as a new windshield. PTL for good insurance. Please pray this claim doesn't raise our premium.

I have been tracking my ancestors for several months. This process has been both frustrating and rewarding. Frustrating because some key people seem to appear out of nowhere and clue after clue have fallen short as to when and where they arrived on America's shores and who their parents were has petered out before those questions could be answered. Rewarding, because I have discovered so many awesome connections and incredible stories that accompany them.

The most frustrating of all, is the fact that I have not been able to find information on Richard's family beyond what I already had from his mom. BUT TODAY, I stumbled on a possible lead. Seems in order to file for social security you have to fill out a form that includes parental names, and to submit proof of age in the form of records (birth certificate, church records, etc). Under the Freedom of Information Act, the government is required to disclose this info. I need to submit a written request, enclose a check for $27.00, and wait several weeks/months, but "Papa, I may ID your mom & dad after all". Also, a couple weeks ago, I went on line and located an anthropological Spanish professor at the University of Arizona who was willing to translate my mother-in-law's grandmother's hand written journal (it is written in an obsolete Spanish dialect). We may get somewhere with that side of the family after all.

Enough "This & That" for now. Have a good week.

OK, my 6 month subscription (plus a 30 day free trial) to Ancestry.com has ended. For many, this would have been more than enough time to find, enter, catalogue and do anything else you wanted with all the names of your reletives from the past. Richard has less than 30 family names available using both this program and information we already had from his mom. But when I got into the search engine for my family, it just went on, and on, and on. I have accumulated over 15,000 names to date. Most from the first 16 generations. But I did vear off a few times, actually following a couple family lines as far back as BC. How can that be? Well, contrary to general thought, there are records out there. They consist of land transfers, wills, church records (births, christenings, marrages, deaths), etc., as well as historical records. This geneology program brings them all together in a powerful search engine.

It was fun to play around with this program. For the free trial period, I plugged in what I already knew and was able to sort of fill in some blanks. Then I started to do some real research, pulling up political, religious, and geographical info surrounding some of the periods of history and circumstances of these folks. There are some amazing personal stories available too. What's more, I discovered that my family, both sides of my family, were directly connected to an incredible number of historical events. For instance, between my mom and dad, there were passengers on the Mayflower numbering in the teens. Richard teases me about this and several other findings.

The past few weeks I have been systematically trying to complete the work on those first 16 generations. Of course not every line goes out that far, but certainly many do. When you consider that each tree has the potential for 30 new names (4 generations per tree) and that each of the 16 names in that 4th generation then has the potention for a whole new tree, well you get the picture. Bottom line is that I completed all 16 generations for my moms family and about half for my dad's. They are all catalogued by family (mom or dad), generation, branch, and number. Now to file them in order, ID info that ties to them, etc. By the way, I have run into many duplications, where more than one branch follows the same line. If I pick up on this, I generally make note of the fact and follow it from that point only once. This saves a whole lot of duplicity. An example of this is that several lines run through Charlemagne. So if I get to him (again), I just add *THIS LINE NOTED ELSEWEHRE and stop. I will fill in info later as to just where to look for continuation of that particular line.

There is enough family info here already to fill a library. But in a few months I will go at it again. I still have a lot of family to pull up and plug into their rightful slot. But for now I need a break. Next project, paint the living room.

overdue visit

It has been 22 years since Yau Tang and Judy Tsai have been in Corvallis. Can you believe it? It has been 9 years since we last saw them at their son's wedding in California. Time passes so quickly. Our visit was sweet, but oh too short. They arrived around noon on Monday and left just after lunch on Wednesday. We just did not have enough time together, but they promised to come back soon.

Judy really loved all the green around the house, took tons of pictures of our flowers, and spent time sitting on the deck looking at photos of our trips to Europe. She would like to float the Rhine and see all the castles on the hills, now that they are finally retired.

Even though Yau Tang and Judy had lived in Corvallis for many years, they had never visited the municipal rose garden in Avery Park. I took them there after dinner on Tuesday.

Judy loved our quiet hideaway, the deck on the northeast corner of the house. It is bathed in morning sun and is shady in the heat of the afternoon. Very nice for sipping morning coffee and for reading later in the day.

random thoughts

I was talking to my sister the other day. She is moving to Arizona because, among other things, she really needs to see blue sky. Many people have a problem with the cloud cover in the northwest. Fortunately, I am not one of them. To me it is like a warm comforter, cozy. Yesterday the sun was out all day. Yes, it was beautiful. But the air pressure changes when it is warm, really warm. I had problems with my sinus and just didn't feel well at all. Of course the pollen count was up too. But these two things often go together. Today I feel better because the sky is overcast. The pollen count and air pressure are down. I won't be moving any time soon.

We are getting ready for company. Some dear friends who live in Taiwan will be coming to visit next week. It will be so good to see them after many years. He just retired and is finally able to travel. Hopefully there will be many more visits in years to come. I have already done some deep cleaning and will give the floors a good polish just before they arrive. But these friends are not picky. They are coming to see us, not our home. I just hope I can get the weed eater going next week end to spruce up the lawn a little. Our mower is in the shop and won't be ready for about 2 weeks. These friends have always enjoyed our garden and it is extra incentive to work outside.

The squirrels have been driving me wild again. Last year they repeatedly knocked the glass top off an old crock I use as a table on the deck. I ended up putting a heavy pot on it, seemed to solve the problem. Turns out they are after the salt/brine that has seeped into the crock from when I used to make pickles in it. They still lick the sides of the crock. This year they have been digging in my potted plants. I have gone out several times to find plants nearly uprooted. I guess the soil is soft and easy to dig in. Anyway, I ended up placing shells and/or stones around the top of the bare soil. I don't think they will be digging in that, but we will see. These critters are amusing to watch, but they are a real pain as well.

My research into our family genealogy has been going on since the first of the year. To give credit where due, my cousin Mike has been doing research on my dad's side of the family for some 20 years now. He was gracious enough to share those results. I have spent way too much time in adding to his findings and delving into mom's line, first using only the Internet, then Ancestry.com. Amy purchased 6 months worth for me. Boy do we have a lot of identifiable ancestors. So far, I have identified no less that 12 individuals on the passenger list for the 1620 Mayflower, tied into the European nobility on both sides of the family, and pin pointed the dates and state of immigration for most of those who came over from the British Isles and Europe, some 19 pages of them, all but two prior to 1750. It is a mixed bag of folks. Some escaping political or religious persecution, some looking for land, still others just needing a way to make a living. These people all brought with them stories that could fill volumes, as attested by the printer ink I have gone through (I don't have that much space on my hard drive).

My intent is to use this vast amount of information as the basis for gifts. There is enough there to last for many years. In fact I have already given a small gift of the direct paternal family line as a graduation present to one family member. So if you are related to me, you can count on receiving at least a branch or two off this forest of a family tree. We are related to Lady Godiva, King Henry I, William the Conqueror, Charlemagne, Antony (as in Antony & Cleopatra), and so many, many more notables. But it is the stories of those who laid it all on the line to settle this country that intrigue me most. It reads something like our own family version of "How the West Was Won", a real study in American history. I will spend time this fall, after the 6 month subscription is over, putting material together for Christmas gifts. It should be fun.

53 years and counting

Time flies in more than one way. Not only has it been more than 2 months since my last post, but today marks 53 years since Richard and I vowed to love, honor, and cherish one another till the Lord took us home. Some of those years were pretty rocky. Some were exhausting. Yet it was those same hard times that have mellowed us like a fine wine. We are closer now than ever before. We depend on one another. We are each other's best friend.

Richard can no longer get out to shop. We don't have disposable cash anyway. So he drew a couple pictures of me as a gift. I like the less colored one best. Which one do you like?

I am fixing a steak dinner with all the trimmings as my gift to Richard. This is something he loves and doesn't often get. We will eat on the deck surrounded by roses. I will put on some quiet music. It will be secluded and intimate. What more could you ask for than to share a good meal in a lovely setting, with the one you love?