Treasures, Traffic, Tolerance

One of the things I snagged from the estate sale, was a Castor Cruet set.  My sister had two.  One with colored glass--pink, light blue, green, red & cobalt blue cruets and this one, which is just pressed glass.  She didn't want this one, so I took it.

I remember this one sat on my great grandparents dining table every day.  The pretty one sat on the side bar/buffet purely for decoration.

Pewter frame with salt & pepper shakers, oil & vinegar cruets and mustard pot with little spoon.

I had good intentions to drain the water heater today, but it is still hot and humid outside and I didn't want to have the back door slightly open for the hose to go outside.  Instead, I stayed mostly inside, with the A/C and vacuumed and cleaned and worked on genealogy.

I spent a few hours, chasing ghosts!  My client had mentioned that she wondered if a certain ancestor had come from Scotland.  The surname certainly was the same, but absolutely no relationship to her family from Ireland.  Then I went on a deeper search and, amazingly, I found a "letter" written by one of the modern day kin, some 11th, fourth cousin, on her mothers side, who just happened to be searching for the same ancestor!!  He had actually been to Scotland, thinking he was hunting dead ancestor's and in  his quest, found they were not related in any way shape or form to the Ireland ancestor's.

How can this be?  Doesn't a surname start out in some ancient generation and remain the same with the spreading out of descendants after descendants?  

 I don't know.  It is another mystery.  I suppose if we hired a professional genealogist, which can run into the thousands and thousands of dollars for his traveling and searching, we might be able to find a record of the very first   man with our surname.  If records had been better kept and some of those files weren't marked "Private" like some I have run into.

It is exasperating.  I want to do the best I can for my clients.  Sometimes I CAN get back 25 or more generations.  Sometimes, there seem to be more Dead Ends after a few generations.

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I got a call from Walmart.  My prescription was ready.  I am all out of the pills, so I had to traverse up there and pick it up.  There was so much traffic on the road in front of my park that it took me a long time to get out, cross three lanes and get into the one headed West.

I wondered why there were semi-trucks on the road. Motor homes.  Fifth wheel campers,

I took me 30 minutes to travel 2.5 miles.  Apparently a semi had caught fire on the expressway that comes from Detroit and goes west across our state.  Two other accidents.  So bad, the Police detoured traffic from 3 miles east of Brighton, passed my park and on 2.6 miles to the next interchange, just past the Walmart store.

Coming home was a piece of cake, but at some places on the west bound side, traffic was backed up and sitting still for more than a mile.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend traffic!

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Dar stopped in this evening--at my supper time, of course.  She is rattled more than I've ever seen her.  Still not recovered from a simple fender-bender she had, so she can't work and has to stay in her house with her son and grand kids.  She signed up for Disability Insurance through her work, but it doesn't cover car accidents, so she is getting no money!  Her car Insurance just went up $80.00 even though she wasn't at fault in the accident.  They do that in a "No Fault" State.  She filed a claim to repair her car--thus HER insurance went up.

Her arms are numb from her neck down so she has to have an EMG.  She asked if I had ever had one and I said "yes."

"What's it like?" she asked.

"They put needles. connected with wires to a machine, in different parts of your arm and by your neck, then put electric pulses through the needles to see which of your nerves is causing the numbness."

"WHAT?"

"They have to see which nerves are damaged before they can treat that area."

"Doesn't it hurt?"

"You always tell me you have a high tolerance to pain....so...you should be okay."

I DID NOT tell her it was probably the most painful test I have ever had--short of a spinal tap, which I have never had!  I DID NOT tell her that when I had my EMG, the lady leaving the office just before me was crying from the pain.

You know how hysterical she gets--for any test?  She is just going to love an EMG.  June 2nd.  

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Have fun this weekend.  Be careful.  Be safe.  Remember our fallen Vets.