I's Here!

Here I am.  Honest it's me and not Judy's secretary, but she could use one!  And a house keeper, laundress, gardener, chauffeur.

It snowed here on Sunday morning.  May 15th and it snowed.

Night time temps in the low 30's.  I know this is Michigan, but this weather is just weird, even for us/.  I checked my journal and every year I've lived here (13), I have ALWAYS had my porch pots filled with annuals and seeds in the ground on May15th or the week after.  This year it will be Memorial Day.  Plus--this kind of weather does not even inspire me to "work up" my raised bed garden for the Zinnia seeds, or stop in at the garden center to even look at annuals.  I haven't even opened the file folder I make each fall, with what I want to plant the next spring.  So depressing!

Because of our large snow falls in April, only the very tops of my Lilac bushes have blooms.  They still smell as sweet, but.......................................and yet, the grass keeps growing and Don the Lawn Mowing Man keeps coming every Monday, at $20.00 a time.

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I have been so busy with the genealogies I am doing.  Finishing up one and knee-deep in another.  Last night at 9:00, I discovered a "thread" up from like a 6th great grand father, that took me to 106 AD.  106!  That's like a mere 100 years after Jesus died!  I actually got chills.  Back then the names of the people were things like, "Woden, King of the Saxons." One guys name is Bodacious, but they called him Bodik. I finally stopped with the "climbing up the generational ladder" at midnight and have taken a rest this morning, but I hear Bodik calling me.

I gotta get a good look at those 45 generations and make sure they really are connected to the 6th great grand father.  

I have subscribed to International Records, so that is why I am finding records from Germany and Norway and England and................it is truly amazing what good records they kept of baptisms and marriages and deaths--if you can read their writing, which is sometimes near impossible.

Oh yes.  There was a Farfeal too.  His title was "Farfeal the Arguer."  What would your old world title be?  "Judith The Tall.  Princess of the Germanic Women Warriors!"

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This guy has a perfectly beautiful Oriole feeding station, filled with nectar, grape jelly and half an orange.  Why does he instead want to sip from the Humming Bird feeder and scare my Hummers away

Bird brain!!!

?

Can you see the Hummer up on the right?

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My phone was out for 4 days and I didn't even know it.  HAH!  The Comcast guy came out yesterday and the problem is not the Modem, although he gave me a brand new, up to date one.  It is the telephone lines that run under the house.  I asked him lots of questions, while I sat near him to watch what he was doing.  He explained everything!

I didn't know that because I have phone service through Comcast, I don't need to plug the phones into the wall phone jack.  I just need to plug the base phone into the Modem and all the extensions run off that.

I also didn't know I didn't need the router that is hooked up.  The minute he unhooked it, the light green light on the Modem turned a bright green and my Internet connection ran faster.

At one time, there were two computers in this room.  Thus the need for the router--I guess.  When Freddie died, I disconnected his stuff and gave it to his son.  Then I moved his desk over here and just reconnected everything that way it was.

So--needing two new phone extension because mine are really, really old--I ran into Brighton to Best Buy and got a 3-phone pack.  Did you know, you can get packs of up to 10 phones?

One is the base and sits in here plugged into the Modem, the other two are to replace my living room and bedroom phones.  I let them charge for 16 hours, then plugged in the base to the Modem this morning.  Voila!!!  Really no static, which I had been experiencing.  Wonderful!

I had 11 voice mails since Friday.  3 from Walmart Pharmacy suggesting it would nice if I came in and picked up my prescription that had been ready since Friday morning.  HAH!

I am also finishing up a Toddler knit sweater for Chris and starting on the very cool crocheted vest she has created.

Plus, I expect a call from the painter any day now, so I gotta climb up and wash down the ceiling fan blades.  

Ya know.  When you are climbing tree branches up into the very tippy top of a family tree--all things seem to pale in comparison and other work is completely forgotten.  LOL

Taking Risks on Friday the 13th.

Today, between genealogy searches, I decided to wash my front windows and curtains.  A need a bit of brightening up in this room I spend so much time in.

Last year, when I tried to wash that middle window, I walked along the window ledge, lost my balance and fell back onto the desk.  This year, I figured out how to do it with a bit more caution.

So, while the curtains were washing, I cleaned off the windows.

https://youtu.be/CkXfDoNdKQk


...and put the clean curtains back up.  Now I am ready to get back to work.

https://youtu.be/3HbfBWYzeq0

Enjoy your weekend.

Fixes and Fakes

The repair guy was here at 11:30 to fix the leak in the back of my refrigerator.  It was a loose connection where the water line goes into the fridge and feeds up into the ice maker.  I have the incoming water turned off, so why was it leaking?

"So much lime and rust that you can't get the intake handle turned all the way off!"

So, if and when I get my new FREE fridge, I will let the installers worry about shutting off the water completely.  My new fridge will not have an ice maker, which is okay with me.  Our water here is so bad that I prefer making ice cubes out of bottled water anyway.
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So--there I was, climbing my way up another family tree.  Doing really well, branch after branch, with all data looking correct.  Up around the 10th branch, I was hunting for Matthew's parents names and I thought I had them.

To make sure, I clicked on another website, the one from the Mormon Church in Utah, which is supposed to have the best records and this is what I found:


"When Matthew XXXXX was born August 29, 1576, his father John was 6 and his mother Mary Alice was 5."

WHOA!  We have a miracle birth here!  His father was 6 and his mother 5?  YOWZA!
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I run into this kind of thing all the time!  Once, I had written down six children, filled in all their data, only to discover that four of them were born after their "supposed" father had died!

How does this happen?

People doing their own genealogical searching see a person designated as anothers' father or child and throw in the dates and "assume" all is well.  Most of the time they don't check the data deeply enough to see the errors.  Then they upload it to the Internet genealogy search sites and................it becomes "carved in stone."
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Our weather here is still in the 30's at night.  I am not even considering spending money and planting my planter pots with annuals until Memorial Day.  I have always planted on May 15th, but not this year.  The soil is still too cold to plant seeds.  The soil is still too wet to even get out and work up the garden.  It's weird and maddening!!!

But life is very good--so I don't worry about insignificant things like planting on May 15th or May 30th. :-)

YOWZA!

I don't know what's going on, but for some reason, blessings are raining down on me the last couple of weeks. like today--I stopped st Staples to buy a box of real expensive paper. I use in to print out the genealogy books I create for people. They had one box--it was open and roughed up, no plastic wrap on the paper, but the pages weren't bent. I took it up to the counter and the clerk thought that I was bringing it back for a return because it looked so rough. smile emoticon I asked if they had more in the storeroom, nope. I laughed, "I hope there are 150 sheets in there like it says." "Do you want to count them?" I said, "No. I'll just trust there are." He said, "Let me give you $10.00 off." Okey Dokey!

Then, I went to Cartridge World to get some black inkjet refills, but I didn't have any empty cartridges to turn. The clerk knows that I keep them in business, so she said, "I won't charge you for the empty cartridge fee because I know, you've come in before needing one refill and given us three empty cartirdges." WOW! $3.00 off, not much, but.......................

Then I stopped at the garage where I always take my car, because I have finally saved up enough ($700) to get the last major repair done on it--rear suspension. I asked my guy if they do the kit to take off the etching on the headlight covers. He said "No, we never have, but that guy right over there is trying to sell us kits to do that." I said, ":Well, I know it is pretty expensive." The sales guy says,to me, "How old is your car?" I said, "It has less than 50,000 on it, but....it's 18 years old." He goes outside, looks at my car, comes back in and says to my service guy, "You know--that would be the perfect car to use as a demo for the kit." So--I am getting an $89.95 fix for my headlights for---free!

I called to have a local painter come in and give me an estimate on painting my living room/kitchen/hallway walls and ceiling. I could do the walls, but the popcorn ceiling--well let's just say, I don't wanna. My ceilings haven't been done in 18 years and anyone who has visited me, knows--they are a fright! I had a figure in mind for labor and he came in right at it. Plus, I had a gallon and a half left of the wall paint I used last time, which he is going to match and buy another gallon and use mine too! Plus? He said he'd do my bathroom ceiling as a bonus, because it would take him less than an hour. !!

Plus--and here is the icing on the cake. A woman from OLSHA called me last week and said that for low income families, like myself, they are coordinating with DTE to help lower electricity bills and if my refrigerator is older than 2005, they will put in a new refrigerator and recycle mine. SAY WHAT!!?

I refused and told her that my refrigerator was fine and to give mine to a needy family with kids. She replied, "We have lots of new refrigerators and plenty to give to all our Livingston County low income families."

I again said, "No thanks. I'm fine." and she said, "I'm going to send you the form to fill out anyway. You look it over and please take advantage of this. Okay?"

It will be the same size as mine, but more energy efficient. Mine is 18 years old and does make a strange sound, soooo---maybe I should take them up on this? I don't quite know yet if I'm going to. It doesn't feel right--like I'm an old, poor woman on food stamps, or something (which I am, but--that's beside the point)!

Anyway--so many blessings after 4 1/2 tough, long years. I don't want to get too excited, but maybe, just maybe...2016 IS going to be a better year?

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and then.............grandson Stephen graduated from Michigan State.

Helene, Susanna, Karen, Stephen, Mark, Marcus, Madeleine

and then...............

Grand daughter Helene got engaged..

and then.................Mother's Day.  Out for brunch with Pam, Karen and Madeleine.

 Such lovely daughters

Pammie is chocking me, Karen is pretending she doesn't see and Maddie is yelling, "Elder abuse!  Elder abuse!"

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and then:

Had a bit of excitement around here. My girls pulled out my refrigerator to clean behind and under it. There was no way I was going to let someone come in here to bring in a new refrigerator and see all the dust behind mine. They got it all cleaned up and the fridge pushed back into place. Two hours later, I went into the kitchen to make supper and walked onto a flooded floor! YIKES!

I pulled and yanked and got that big, heavy thing out of its place, then panicked and called my neighbor. She came over with her daughter and grand girls and we figured out where the water shut off valve was--two of them no less. One grand girl crawled back under the sink to shut one off, I WD40'd the rusty one behind the fridge and finally got that turned off.

The fridge still stands in the middle of the kitchen while the floor dries out. I think when they cleaned behind the fridge, my girls took TOO much of the dirt & dust off the tube so the water could leak out. HAH

Yes, OLSHA and DTE, I WILL take one of your new refrigerators after all!

and then...............

I took my car in for her last major repair--rear suspension.  NOW--everything on the under neath part of my car is new and she still doesn't have 50,000 miles on her engine, but 18 years old. :-)

and today.

So--the refrigerator repair guy is coming out to disconnect the ice maker tubing, so it will quit leaking. No charge to me because I have the DTE Service Plan! YAY!

WOW! Called Comcast to downgrade from my newest line-up, that I upgraded to in January, as I didn't watch many of the channels and it was costing $10.00 more a month than what I paid before. The CS lady gave me a $20.00 a month discount and kept me at the same Preferred package. So I still have all the ESPN channels. WOW!

(and, I even got a Mother's Day card from Jennifer!)

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