I Think, Spring is Here.

I don't want to admit and I am almost embarrassed to admit I am hiring someone to paint!!  Yes--the ceilings, but I am perfectly capable to paint the walls.  It might take me a few weeks, but I COULD do it.  But hiring that done too.

Hank stopped in yesterday evening.  Such a nice man.  I fell instantly in love because he looks so much like my BIL Chuck, who I adore.  Hank is a bit taller--around 6'6"!  Skinny as a rail and no wedding ring, but--I think too young for me.  He is friendly without being overly chatty--kind of quiet AND he doesn't ever use tape around the edges.  He just cuts it in using his very steady hand.  That proves to me he is a professional painter because I know, those guys NEVER use blue tape to cover the window edges, doorways, etc.

One coat of primer and two coats of paint on the ceilings, and only need one coat on the walls  With that much paint on the ceilings, they will be easier to clean because those little plaster thingies that hang down, won't catch the dust anymore.  YAY.

He will buy the paint because he has a 10% discount at Home Depot.  I will need about 3 gallons--at $30.00 a gallon.  

I had an estimate figure in mind.  Had decided if he came in on that figure or under, it was a go.  If not?  Sorry.

He came in exactly on the labor figure I had in mind, PLUS I am also getting the bathroom ceiling done--kind of as a bonus because he figures it will take him way less than an hour.

He is backed up because of the weather and apologized that he can't get to me for a couple of weeks and I told him--whenever you have time.

I adore him!  His personality, his mannerisms, the calm, quiet way he talks.  A local painter with great reviews.  

Maybe next year I can get this over crowded room done as well.
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Speaking of John.  Huh?  Lol. 

Last spring, John and Maizey would stop in if he saw me outside.  We'd sit on the porch and chat.  Then during this past winter, he'd occasionally call and want to know if they could stop in on the way back from their walk, to get warm.  Then it got to be every single day--usually in the morning.

Now--John and Maizey stop in TWICE a day!  Once in the am and around 8:00 at night--just when I am sitting down to watch my programs.

He tells me that Maizey won't walk by my house--she won't walk up the service drive either.  She gets to the corner and sits down and refuses to move until he starts walking this way.  At the end of my driveway, she sits down and won't move.

Really?  Who is the leader of this dog walking stuff? Apparently Maizey?

John is a nice man.  He does like to be helpful.  He is DRIVEN to help others.  He helps even when people don't want him to help!

Possibly being the 7th child in a family of 13, gives him a need to be recognized?  He wants to be liked by everyone?  He goes over and above board to be helpful.

Like when he snow plowed 16 driveways in early March and injured his foot/ankle and now has to wear an air cast.  He didn't need to plow that many driveways--some places have husbands that plow their own drives.  He seemed a bit obsessed and crazed that day.

He's a nice man, but sometimes his "company" comes in to visit at an inopportune time for me.  Shall I say anything to him about it?  Of course not!  Because, he is a nice man.
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This guy is not only hungry, he is very loud!  Sharp, shrill chirp, surprised me and startled me and made me jump.

Poohey Phooey On This Weather

As I was drifting off to sleep last night, God whispered in my ear, "Remember?  You've wanted to paint the ceiling in your living room for years?"

No, actually I had forgotten.  Which is so stupid because I have wanted to paint the popcorn ceiling in my living room, kitchen and hallway for about 7 years!!!  At the time when I painted all the walls in this place.  But I didn't have a tall enough ladder and I was told, that kind of finish is difficult to paint.  Get it too wet and it starts falling off in sheets!

The minute I woke up this morning, I knew.  "Carpeting is off the table right now.  Get this place painted!"  Seeing as how I can no longer (comfortably) do it myself, I am going to hire it done!!
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I had an odd experience this afternoon.  On my way to Walmart to get groceries, I stopped in at the local carpet place to return the samples from Monday.  The owner was there.  I asked, "Do you carry Stain Master flooring?"

He said, "It's in a lot of carpets. I 'd have to know which brand."

"Stain Master carpet."

"Well, they use that in Shaw, Mohawk.  What color do you want."

No.  Stain Master is a stand alone carpet brand."

"I've never heard of it," he said.

I retreated to my car and thought, "Either I am going nuts or that guy mis-understood and thinks I was talking about a stain resistant product they put on carpets!"

Considering the fact that he has owned that business since 1974, I figured it was me.

So, I went back to Lowe's, which is next door to Walmart and talked to the guy I talked to yesterday.

"Is Stain Master a carpet brand?"

"Yes.  We have four rows of samples.  That's what you looked at yesterday."  and he looked at me like I had lost my mind.  So I had to explain my encounter with the carpet store owner.

"Oh.  That business only carries the very top brands of flooring.  He probably doesn't even know Stain Master exists."

That also explains why, on Monday when I was at the carpet store, when I told the guy what I wanted, he showed me two "perfect" colors, one beige and one gray, and these are only $6.95 a square foot.
With padding and installation, we can get you set up for around thirteen hundred dollars."

I think he was trying to push his beige and/or gray carpeting!!!  I don't like either color.
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So--then I drove on over to the Walmart parking lot and found a handicap parking spot right in front of the "Home" door.  Hung my tag on the mirror and off I went.  The sun wasn't shining, but it was a nice day.

I started down at the cat food end of the store and worked my way, across the back of the store to the grocery section.

There I was just a walking down the aisles, singing Doo Wah Diddy, Diddy Dum, Diddy Dee, snapping my fingers and shuffling my feet and having a great time.  I checked out, over full cart, walked back down to the exit and stepped out into a torrential, cold rain!!  By the time I got my "seventy-eleven" bags loaded in the trunk and back seat, I was chilled to the bone!

I got home and it was still pouring so I backed my car in, near the porch, came inside and got warmed up and just sat, watched TV and waited for the rain to stop.  Time?  3:41

At 5:00, I went out to unload.  After seventy-eleven trips in and out, I was just about to shut my trunk when John drove by, stopped, backed up and asked, "Would you like help?"

"Oh heck no!  I so enjoy carrying in 10 bags of Diet Pepsi liters, 15# of cat litter and all sorts of heavy stuff in the dang cold rain!"

Instead I said, "No.  I got it.  Thanks.

I got everything put away in the next few hours...except...10 bags of heavy Diet Pepsi liters that are still sitting by the front door.

Fiddle Dee Dee.  I'll worry about it tomorrow!

I Found Martha!

I am using fake last names.

William John McDuff (Mc= Irish, Mac = Scot) was born in County Down, Northern Ireland, except it wasn't Northern Ireland at the time. Martha McClurg was also born in the same County, same year-1826.

William's father's name was William, so sometimes, William John used the name John McDuff as his signature.  So, when I put in William John McDuff, up popped Martha as his wife.  WRONG INFO put in by someone as confused as me, but didn't follow it through to the end.

To make matters more confusing, Martha McClurg married John McDuff, in the same County.

I had to go back to Martha's parents. to see where they lived and there I found her name.

There was information in an Ancestry.com member referring to Martha and John.  YAY.  I clicked on that family tree and---it was marked Private.  No way to access it.

Back then, Ireland was pretty much divided between Catholic and Protestant.  The McDuff's were Presbyterians.  Many genealogists don't want others to know if, way back then, their family was Catholic or Protestant.  Perhaps one of the members of the McClurg family had fought with the IRA and they wouldn't want that known to the public.

Anyway, sure enough, after a few years of marriage, Martha and John McDuff DID come to America, landing at the Boston, MA harbor.  That is why she and her husband are shown dying in MA and she being buried in Pine Grove cemetery in Whitinsville, MA.

The mystery of Martha solved.  She ain't my girl!

Okay then.  Who did William John McDuff really marry?  I found a hint of sorts.  A woman named Annie McClean.  Off on my hunt for her and her family.  I found her!  They lived in England.  Not impossible for William John McDuff and Annie to find each other and marry in Ireland.  I searched and searched and finally found an Irish census, just about the right time and there she was!  Married to a John William McDuff, and none of their children were in the tree I am researching.  Wrong guy.

So--poor William John McDuff.  I can find no wife for him, but I do know he had at least one child, because she is the direct ancestor to the people on the rest of the list.

"Only the facts, Ma'am".
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 My SS hit the checking account yesterday and I was going to go grocery shopping.  

I was not in the mood to go grocery shopping.  I was however, in the mood to go to Lowe's and look at more carpeting.  AHA.

Found a Stain Master that I really like with a sort of sale on and if I order it by May 11th, I get an upgrade to the best pad they sell.  This would be so comfortable under my feet that I probably will never wear anything but bare feet for the rest of my life.

Not only that, but--they will mail me, 4 foot square samples, free of charge, to give me a better (bigger) sense of the color.  I only requested 3 samples.  I think I like the one that is sort of grayish/greenish/bluish.  I will show them to you when I get the samples.

THEN--we can all decide together!!! :-)
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A kid from my hometown drew this picture.  It made me laugh out loud!  Some guy went into the Chase bank in Byron, (population 800), and passed a note demanding money.  Then he ran outside, got on a bike and rode away.  The County sheriff arrived an hour later, because that's how long it takes to get any law enforcement to Byron.  The kid drew the pix showing a John Deere tractor with police car lights ablaze chasing the robber.  

The reason this is so hysterical to me, it is so true of our little town.  The bank manager should have called the nearest farmer and they would have caught him just up the road.  He was found the next day in a town 30 miles east of Byron.

4-27-16.  "Never Forget"  The first bank robbery in Byron's history. LOL
  

HELP!!!

I am not a home decorator by any means!  I have a sort of Emerald Green carpeting in my living room, den and bedroom.  It look(ed) great, but at 18 years old, the carpeting in the living room is awful now.  

There are many places where it is worn through to the jute!  It feels crunchy under foot.  The last time I had it shampooed, the carpet cleaner guy said, "This really isn't going to help too much."

I only need a 14 x 14' piece, 196 square feet.so I am hoping to get a remnant or end of roll, or whatever they call it.  Yesterday, I went looking, just for the heck of it.  YOWZA!

I certainly can't afford a new couch and chair, so the blue has to stay, with the cranberry accents.

I have NO idea what color to get!

I brought home a hanger of small samples.  How I am suppose to tell how those small pieces will look on the larger area, is beyond me!

Remember when Berber was so popular?  Well, now it isn't and it is dirt cheap!  There was a sample of the Berber, kind of a light off white/beige, with a teeny fleck of cranberry and blue in it.  But ya know, that would be so impractical, because my outside door opens right into the living room.  Plus, Berber doesn't feel exactly soft and comfy under bare feet, which it my mode of foot covering while in the house.

I know I am not suppose to buy carpeting to match furniture, but I have no choice.  So--if any of you still have carpeting in your home, help me out here?

Gray?  Beige?  Try and match what is already there?

Who Are You? Who. Who. Who. Who.

I have been immersed in a genealogy conundrum for the last two days!!

I found Martha, who was married to William John.  Yippee!  Back another generation.

As I pursued my search, there are three accounts of Martha and William John.  One search reveals they had four children.  One search reveals they had only one child--a daughter.  One search reveals HER parents.  YAY.

Which search is correct?  I go digging for Martha, because I already know all I need to know about William.

What's this?  Martha, born in the same town as her husband in Ireland, dies and is buried in Massachusetts?  That's odd.

I find her MA death certificate and even a photo of her tombstone.  Her death certificate has her maiden name and those of her parents.  Correct.  It states her husband's name as John.  Hm-mm.  Maybe William John called himself John, to distinguish between him and his father who was also William John?

So I copy the photo of the D.C. and the tombstone and store them in the appropriate picture file for the genealogy I am working on.  Cool!

Wait a minute!  Here is another search that shows Martha, married to William John, died and is buried in the same cemetery as her husband in IRELAND!!!

I do believe my exact words were, "What the hell?"

So--back to the beginning.  Instead of just looking at each search on my computer screen, I print them out--the better to see my dear.

They both make sense.

The one from MA shows her buried in Pine Grove Cemetery--along with a son, named John.  This is the account that shows she had four children: one being John, but not showing the daughter that I knew thought she had--with William John.

The other account shows her buried in the cemetery in Ireland, with her husband WILLIAM John.

But...how can this be?  The same first name, the same parents listed!  "What the hell?"

Questions:  Okay--why would this woman, leave Ireland at the age of 60 something and go off to MA?  Perhaps to live with her son, John?  Why wouldn't she stay in Ireland with her daughter?

Check out immigrations.  She is not listed.
Check out census reports for MA.  She IS listed, but she is in MA BEFORE her husband died?  I think not!

AHA!  Maybe I have the wrong person!  Maybe she is not the wife of William John?

Start another search on William John.  Three searches tell me she IS the wife of William John from Ireland!  There is proof of her birth and his.  Proof of their marriage.  She has the same maiden name as the women in MA!

Egads and little fish hooks!
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When doing a genealogy, the facts MUST be correct.  I can not interject my thoughts or ideas in a person's life.  I did that once and I was so incorrect it was embarrassing!  I HAVE to take the facts from my searches to add to the person's "life story" or I am assuming things that may not be true.  

These searches on ancestry come from information put in their family trees and uploaded to ancestry.  Human people=mistakes!

Census are correct.  Wedding registrations are correct--although sometimes the person preparing the registration will spell the names of the couple incorrectly!  Death certificates are correct!  These are all government documents and they have to be correct.

What do do?  What to do!
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I cannot put any definitive facts about Martha into the genealogy report until I know for sure.

It doesn't make any sense to me that Martha ended up in MA.  But there is that DC!  It makes all the sense in the world that Martha stayed in the same town in Ireland as her hubs and died there and is buried next to him.  Her daughter, that I know for sure (?) is her daughter, stayed in that town all her life too.

BUT...there is that Death Certificate from MA.

It can't be possible for Martha, with the same maiden name, and parents and married to William John or John, with the same last name, the same marriage date and date of birth and death, to be buried in two different places!

I do believe that I need to do more searching on Martha.  Perhaps she ISN'T the correct wife?  Then why is her husband and her married last name the same?

ARGGH!!!!!!

Calm Day

Another lovely day.  Gray, rainy, cold weather which makes for a perfect day to stay inside and do my thing, --didn't even open my eyes until 10:00am,  AND--I don't feel a bit guilty about that.

I spent about 3 hours on the genealogy and found a lot more stuff about my friends ancestors.  Then, I spent a couple of hours working on a cute Toddler sweater that Chris is designing and I am test knitting.

John stopped in tonight and we had a nice chat, while Maizey his dog and Maggie my cat, eyed each other and then took a snooze, nose to nose.  So cute.

I can hardly wait until Sunday and May 1st.  My favorite day of the year.  Of course, May 1st would be much more lovely if the weather would just warm up.  We are still below normal  highs and below normal lows.  48 during the day, 36 at night.

My porch side garden looks a bit spotty this year, but the wild flowers are coming on strong.  May Apples, Trillium, Violets.  Jack-In-The-Pulpit will come along around mid-May.

I like this one of Maggie hanging out in the computer room window the other day.  I like how she has her arm up on the window sill.  If her little legs were crossed, she'd almost look like a human.  LOL

I saw this posted on FB and I had to share.  You ALL know what this means and why it's true in my case.

and this one, entitled The Weight of Grief.

Sure describes it well, doesn't it.  My sister said she felt the rocks in her stomach.  I felt the rocks filling my head, after Fred died.  I couldn't think straight for weeks.  It's really difficult to try and get back up, when you are bowed low with this amount of weight.

Rainy, Gray, but I'm Feeling Content.

The weeks are going much too fast!  Friday tomorrow--again.  It seems like it was just Friday a couple of days ago.

The weather has been so stinking cold all day and tomorrow too, so I am just staying inside and doing what I do best.  Knitting and genealogy.  At 5:00 this evening, I realized I hadn't brought up my trash can--that was emptied at 7:00 this morning.

I got my hair cut yesterday, and the girl that did it charged me what Tracy would have, which is about $15.00 less than the salon usually charges.  I don't get why women would pay $45-50.00 to get a hair cut.  Anyway, with that price staying the same, I will continue to go back there AND she cut my hair nice and short, just like I like it.  Tracey always wanted to leave it a bit longish.  I like it an inch or less all over.

I told Julia, the girl who cut my hair that the last time I was in, when I went to check-out, the reception asked me if I wanted to make another appointment and Tracy said, "Oh.  She doesn't need to do that. She'll call when she's ready."  That seemed odd at the time because I usually always make an appointment 6 weeks out.  

"T think Tracy knew then that she was sick," I told Julia.

"Yes.  She's known for a couple of months that something was wrong, but only when the pain in her right side became unbearable, she decided to get it checked out."

The Cancer started in her left upper lung and then metastasized to her liver (which is on the right side). She was very tired and lost over 20 pounds very quickly.  Both signs of cancer, plus the pain.  She now weighs 86 pounds.  She doesn't have enough weight or strength to fight this, I don't think.  She was to see the oncologist today.  

I will wait to send her an e-mail this weekend.  I don't know what to say, so I won't say much, but apparently it won't be a bother to her as she left cards with her address and e-mail, at the receptionist's desk to give to her customers.

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I stopped in to see Pearl and let her know about Tracy, as she went there too.  Pearl is really getting confused.  She is at that stage of senility, when she says  nonsensical things or the wrong thing and if I correct her, she gets mad and tells me I didn't hear her right because I'm deaf.

I was working on her computer--again--she claimed she had been hacked.  She had somehow installed a registry cleaner, she claims she didn't click on anything, but...................There was a picture of two of her great grand children on FB.

I said, "Oh look.  There's Kathy's two grand babies. What's the youngest ones name?"

She replied, "The oldest one is Colon."

(His name is Colton.)

I turned so I could see and hear her better.  "Colon?", I enunciated very clearly. 

"Yes, that's what I said.  Colon."

"What is the youngest ones name."

"Oh--that's Naomi."

"It looks like a boy."

"Oh,  Yes.  Easton."

"I thought the oldest ones name was Colton."

"It is.  That's what I said."

"No...you said his name was Colon.  You repeated Colon twice."

"I did not.  You better get a hearing aide.  You can't hear a thing I say!"

I forgot the 1st cardinal rule of senility--don't argue with them.  ARGGH!  It's sad!

Got the Turbo Cleaner uninstalled and uninstalled a couple of other programs that have appeared since the last time I worked on her computer.  All is well--until the next time.

BTW--Merle is working at the golf course again this summer.  He is doing so well!!!  His kids don't think he should work. Pearl wants him out of the house.   Merle loves to have something to do every day to feel useful.

Whatever...none of my business.