title explained

Onward and upward! something that you say in order to encourage someone to forget an unpleasant experience or failure and to think about the future instead and move forward.

My e-mail: jjmiller6213@comcast.net

Sunday, July 17, 2016

You Are Only As Safe As You Think You Are

Ms. Sally, my blogging buddy, posed the question, "Is there any place safe to live nowadays?"

It sure doesn't seem like it.  We even have Road Rage incidents here in this upscale County.  The demographics here are 0.76% African American, 3.57% Asian and 0.51% Hispanic.  I know I sound racist, but I credit those stats with the peace and calm and relative non-crime in this area.

I thought, 8 years ago, that with a Black President, he would help unify the races.  Instead, it feels to me, that all he has done in that regard is make them feel empowered to misbehave.  Like they think they can get away with anything.  I heard him speak at the funerals in Dallas.  All he did was make a political statement.  I didn't hear many words of comfort for the families who were suffering!
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I still know of a much safer place to live then even here.  It is a little town of 1,200 people called Byron, Michigan.  The last crime committed there was a would be bank robber who rode up to the bank on his pedal bike, passed a note, got about $5,000.00 and was caught and arrested before he got five miles outta town.  A guy heard and saw him and called other men in town.  While one guy followed him, the other guys got the Constable, who was home eating lunch, and they all took off after him, keeping in contact on their cell phones.  He was headed back toward Pontiac!  (About 50 miles away.)

All around this little town are farms and residential areas--no sub-divisions, just homes--built on what used to be farms, mostly on still gravel roads.  

Out where I lived, the only time the County Sheriff is called is when someone hits a deer and they have to have the Deputy come out to make out a report so their car insurance company will pay to fix the damages.

Dar told me she'd be scared to live out there because, "Someone could break in, rape and kill you and no one would hear your screams."  I asked her, "Who do you think would break in?"  "Anyone!", she replied.

So I pondered, "Do you honestly think some bad guy is going to drive forty miles out here from Flint or Lansing, and just happen to pick your house to break into?  Think of all the houses he would have driven by and then...just happen to pick yours.  Nonsense!"  She's a City Girl, so she doesn't understand how much safer it is to live in the country.

There has only been one killing out there, where I used to live, as long as I can remember.  That was an old farmer neighbor who found out he had Stage 4 cancer, so he shot himself.  It was tragic, but we all kind of understood why he did it.

Honest!  The only people who would break into your house, would be another neighbor and......none of them would do that sort of thing.  If they did?  It wouldn't be too hard to follow his truck tracks right to his house.  LOL
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So--we have had a lovely cool weekend here.  Heat and humidity rolling in this evening, so I have the A/C running.  Supposed to get up to 97-99 by Friday.  We'll all be trapped in our homes when that happens.

The diarrhea has lessened.  I did hear there was a digestive bad buggie going around.  I was suppose to go up north to Karen's cottage with her, Madeleine, my sister and Chuck this weekend, but had to cancel because of the diarrhea.  I'd hate to be out on the Pontoon boat and need a bathroom!!!!!!

Now, it only occurs every couple of hours, when I go to pee.  I expel gas and out comes some small pieces of digested food.  YUCK!!  I know, too much information!!!
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My cat Buddy decided today to do something he hardly ever does.  Yak up a fur ball.  Right in the middle of the new carpeting.  Talk about yucky!!!!  I cleaned it up best I could, without gagging and luckily, I have special carpeting spot remover.  Worked like a charm, but I'm ticked off about it anyway.  DANG ANIMALS!!!!!!!!!
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Boy!  Did I have a time this weekend.  Put in about five hours on the climb up the family tree branches.  I found lots of background on my client's grandfather.  So interesting and going back generation after generation.  He had gone to a prestigious college, was in the Men's Glee Club and the Rowing Team--I even found a photo of the handsome man.

Something tickled at the back of my mind though.  His name was the same and his wife, but---every report said he was born in 1903 and she in 1915.  I wondered why he'd marry someone 12 years younger.  Of course that happens, but......something just didn't feel right.

I didn't have his birth date, so I e-mailed my client and she had it.  He was born in 1915!!!  Well, I knew he hadn't been in college in 1924!  So I had to go into my record area and "kill" him off and all his ancestor's.  I also deducted the 5 hours it took me to find the incorrect information.  It was MY fault, my client doesn't pay for mis-information on my part!

Somebody STUPID uploaded their Family information to Ancestry.com and it was incorrect!!  That's okay.  It was a reminder to pay attention to my intuitions and make sure I have the right people!
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Time to get off here, play a few Face Book games and hit the sack! 

Have a great week.  Be watchful.  Be careful.  Be safe.  You never know where the next crazy will strike!!! 

Friday, July 15, 2016

I May Fall, but I ALWAYS Get Back Up!!

Thursday:I have had diarrhea for 6 days!  Another reason to stay close to home.  I Googled and read and either I have Colon cancer, or not enough fiber and healthy bacteria in my diet.  Assuming, the way I eat, I opted for adding fiber and probiotics to my daily intake.  

Friday--today:  I think I may have IBS.  Taking the probiotics has helped actually.  Still--this is not normal for my usually constipated self--although, there have been times in the last year or so that I have had bouts of diarrhea.

YES!  I know!  I should go to the doc, but the first thing he suggest is a colonoscopy and those things scare me.  No--not the prep, I'm having that sort of thing right now.  No--not the thought of being put under--I LOVE Fentanyl or Versed.  I had a friend die from a colonoscopy.  "They" pierced his colon and didn't realize it, until a few days later when he was full of peritonitis infection and died.  My sister also had a problem.  So--what to do.  What to do?
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I fell again last night.  Had the same kind of episode I did a couple of months ago.  11:30 last night, I turned off my computer and my desk lamp, grabbed my Diet Pepsi and headed out to go to bed.  I took about 3 steps and I could feel it coming.  I tried to set the Pepsi down on my desk, but my eyes were all googley and the desk wasn't where it looked like it was, so I dropped the Pepsi and then, down I went.  I grabbed for the chair, which tipped over, which caused the box fan sitting on top of the chair to crash and quite a few other things came crashing.  I wondered to myself, "What is all that noise?"

It's like a 2 second black-out.  I don't faint--I just get disoriented and lose all feeling in my legs and down I go.  The chair fell on top of me and the box fan fell on my legs.  I hit my bad left shoulder and fell on my right hip--I don't know how I did that, but my left elbow was scraped and bleeding and my right hip felt really bad.

I laid there for a moment to make sure none of my parts were broken and then had the hard job of getting up off the floor.  I couldn't break a hip as they are both metal, but I thought perhaps I had dislodged the right one--but, nope I was okay.  

I ache all over today, but at least I didn't hit my head.  I wish I had waited until I got into the living room.  I would have had a nice soft cushion with that new carpeting.

NO!  I do not need to go to the doc for this!  I have been to a neurologist.  It is caused by my blood pressure dropping when I stand up too quick and move too fast.  Also there is a problem with my optic nerves. If I have been doing close work--computer or reading or knitting, when I stand up, my eyes don't adjust right away and I get very light headed.  I am supposed to take off my glasses, look at something far away to readjust my eyes, move my legs up and down to get my BP up and THEN I can stand up and walk.  

Other than that, I am working on genealogy--trying to restrict myself to 4 hours a day because, I tend to sit here and get so involved that hours pass and then I really do get googley eyed from the strain and concentration.

The hot weather and high humidity broke last night, so today was an all windows open and door open kind of day.  We will be like this until late Sunday and then the temps and humidity start to soar again and next weeks weather radar map shows a big red glob hanging over Michigan.  The "Dome of Hell" one forecaster called it.

I used .8 gas units last month so was told my the gas company, not to pay this month.  On the other hand, my electricity bill was up from last year and I owe more than my budget payment.  We never get ahead, do we?

I need to go buy food one of these days, if I think my intestinal system will allow me to be away from the bathroom for a couple of hours!  Right now, I am eating bananas, and cheese and crackers and drinking protein drinks.

It could be colon cancer, although no one in my near or distant family has ever had that, or any cancer in my ancestral tree, for that matter, but I suppose I could be the first.  If it keeps up, I will go and get checked--other tests first though, before a colonoscopy.  







Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Message From the Cave of the Clan Hunter

It has been hot and humid, so this person has not gone outside in 3 days!  When John stopped in last night, I hadn't yet unlocked the door from when I went to bed on Monday night!

I am the Clan Hunter, staying hidden in my air conditioned cave and spent nearly 6 hours today trying to figure out a "clan" who seemed to want to name all their descendants, William.

4 generations of  father's naming their sons, William.  I had that in my own family:  Conradt named his son Peter, who named his son Conrad, who named his son Peter.  You just want to scream!!

Searching for the youngest William and up pops all sorts of stuff about him.  I get all excited and copy it out and then realize, it isn't him, it's his grand father, or father, or even--Great grand father.  The only saving grace is they each had wives with different names.  :-)

Writing it down in the "book" can be a real trial.  When I head the page with, "Your 7th Great Grand Parents were,"  I gotta make sure it is THE 7th great grand parents--not the 8th or the 6th.  Which happened today.  Had the 5th great grand parents stats and photos of their grave markers and all, and then realized, all the info was really the 6th great grand parents.

"ARGGH"!  i said, right out loud, and then inserted a blank page, moved that info down, and back to enter the info for the 5th great grand parents.

While searching and messing around, I DID find a lot of interesting stuff about the 8th Great Grand Father of my clients surname.  He was the 1st immigrant to the new world and helped settle the area and make a new town.  

This is fascinating shit stuff, my friends!
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This morning, 10:30, just as I was immersed in William's and concentrating really hard, lost in history, I heard a knock and someone trying to open my locked front door.

Dar and Daddy.  ARGGH!  Well, Daddy was interesting to talk with--after Dar stopped trying to answer all the questions I asked HIM.  He and I reminisced about WWII, rationing, living, etc.  He may be 95, but Dar wasn't even born yet, so she had no clue, but a few years older than her, I remembered a lot.  I loved that!!!

Daddy has been running Dar ragged.  He insisted that "they" clean out her shed and found 15 cans of old paint.  She is all in a panic on how to get rid of it because her brother told her it was illegal to put it in the garbage for pick-up.

"That's just BS!" exclaimed Daddy.

"It sure is!"  I retorted.  "Put a couple of cans in each of your garbage pails each week and they will take it."

Daddy also insists they go out for breakfast, 8:00am every morning, lunch at 1:00, and then every evening, out for an ice cream sundae.  Every time I look out the window, I see them driving either in or out of the driveway.  HAH!

He has called to make an appointment to have her two decks power-washed and then "Her and I are going to paint them.  They look like crap!"

She thought it was stressful with her son and two grand kids living there, and they kept to themselves so she rarely saw them, Daddy is going to put her over the edge!

"Daddy!  You're going to kill me!"  she said.

"We gotta get this stuff done.  I don't have time to waste!"






Monday, July 11, 2016

Finally!




Saturday afternoon--cleared out 

Sunday, mid morning, Aaron
arrives to rip it up.


Sunday night


Monday morning- 10:00, 
Kevin arrives to put the new down


Putting down the padding


Best pad I could buy, if it feels this
soft, what is it going to feel like
when the carpet is down!


Carpet down and being stretched 
and trimmed.
None of that nasty metal strip
between rooms! 

I love a man that knows 
how to vacuum! 


WOW!  It IS the right color! 





Both cats walked around the whole perimeter
of the living room and then discussed it.
They acted kind of fearful of it.


Got my tree branch back up. 


Finally, after three weeks,
putting it back together. 

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I want to thank all of you--for your support and encouragement.  I was afraid I'd get scolded, "You can't afford to buy food and your getting new paint job and carpeting?"

Well, this didn't come out of my monthly budget.  This came from helping Chris with her knitting and crocheting designs, and from every time one of my kids, or sister gave me $$ for my birthday or Christmas.  From every pop bottle I returned. Some of my neighbors even gave me their pop bottles to return, because they knew I was saving up.

For my genealogy clients--you are looking at what I did with YOUR money. LOL  

All of that, I put away in a jar.  Sometimes I had to dip into that jar for car repairs, but I kept stashing.  

2.5 years later?  I feel like a real person, not some poor, old woman on welfare!

My house is so neat and clean--at least the living room is.  LOL  Inch by inch.

Now, I'm still stashing for my media center/electric fireplace and hopefully, next summer I can get this nasty room painted and new carpet put down--or at least, painted.

The good Lord willing, and I stay well and keep working--when I "kick", the kids will have a (nicer) place to sell!  






Thursday, July 7, 2016

A Big Surprise!!

So, how much did your Medical Medigap Supplemental insurance go up?  Here in Michigan, our Blue Cross insurance has had some sort of contract with the State not to raise prices.  That contract has now run out and mine went from $40.42 a month, up to $142.00 a month!  Dar's. John's and Merle and Pearl's went up also.

Thankfully, if I can prove that I have less than $17,000.00 a year, mine will stay at $40.42.  I will have no problem proving that!  I have $14,500.00 a year.  It seems nowadays, you gotta be well-off, or really poor to be able to live a decent life.  Those in the middle seem to get hit hard.  Remember when the middle class was a comfortable way of life?
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So, Attorney General,  Loretta Lynch and Bill Clinton just happened to meet in her private plane for a talk about Grandchildren, and yesterday she says the DOJ will bring no charges against Hillary?  Even though FBI Director Comey told of the many infractions Hillary made with her e-mails?  Then they showed clips of where she denied it all and clips of what Comey said.  It was sickening to see her look straight in the reporters face and lie like that.  How can she be President, and be privy to all sorts of classified information, and keep it secure, if she couldn't do it as Secretary of State?    

I forced myself to sit down and watch a half hour Live Trump rally in Ohio.  I didn't make it for the half hour.  I barely made it for 20 minutes.  He is by far one of the crudest, nauseating, man I have ever seen running for the Presidency!

What a sad state our Country is in to have these two as our choice for the highest office in this land!  The last 8 years have dragged us down near the edge of the pit, I fear the next 4 years will dump us into the bottom of the pit.  AND--we can do nothing about it!
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IT HAPPENED TODAY AT 4:26 pm.  Something I have always wondered if it might happen.

The genealogy I did for Awkward Widow and the one I am working on now for Dawn, I found a common Great Grand Father.  Awkward Widows 11th Great Grand Father and Dawn's 8th Great Grand Father.  Each one descended from a different child of Sea Captain GILES HAMLIN!!!!

The 1st Hamlin immigrant to American, settling down in Middletown, Connecticut!

I am telling you!  This absolutely freaked me out!!  When I saw his name pop up, I knew it sounded familiar and when I searched, there was his cemetery and the fact he had been born in England and all his children's names.  The same photos I had in Awkward Widow's genealogy book.  I just started shaking!!

So, there ya go, Awkward Widow/JB and Dawn, you are like 9th or 10th cousins or something.  LOL

How would it happen in a million years that I would just happen to do a genealogy for each of them--not knowing them, only from this blog?

SPOOKY!!!!!!!!!  

The old "Six Degrees of Separation" !

Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Wednesday? Already?

Where does the time go?

I ordered my carpeting on Friday--it will be here in 10 days to 2 weeks.

Meanwhile, I have been getting the house back in order--kinda.  I washed, ironed my kitchen curtains and got them back up and knick-knacks back up where they belong--all washed and shiny.  Scrubbed the stove and counter-tops and mopped the floor.





The living room is still in disorder--why put everything back when I will just have to move it out again when the carpet arrives?  Got my long table up, putting together a genealogy to mail out tomorrow.  

I put in a new furnace filter while I was at it and scrubbed the bathroom shower room.


and of course, this room remains the complete mess it always is
UNTIL, I can get the stuff back in the living room 
and tidy up in here--
which badly needs a paint job! 


In between times of cleaning, I rested by starting another genealogy.

Meanwhile--no rain here since June 16th!!!  My lawn is shaded, so it is still green, not that I care if it all burned up!  Less money spent to Don the Lawn Mowing Man.  HAH.

In the evening's I watch a little TV and knit on the baby sweater I am finished up for Friend Chris.

Yesterday, I got all my hairs cut.  It has been 5 weeks and my hair grows like a Wild Feed.  About every 4 weeks a trim is needed.

Still waiting for my sister and BIL to travel this way so he can swap out my fridge hinges/handles, level the fridge and install my GFI plug for the long awaited TV media center/electric fireplace.

I just happened to think.  This whole redecorating plan started 2 years ago when I decided to fulfill my life-long dream of having a fireplace in my home--albeit a fake one because---it is as it is.

Then I looked around and knew I had to get this place painted.  That led to the knowledge that I could put only so many scatter rugs down on the carpet to cover up the "worn to the jute" areas without the living room looking very strange, which led to, "My living couch and chair are worn and will look like junk with the new carpeting."

Always happens.  Doesn't it?  

Life is good!!


Friday, July 1, 2016

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like-----Home

This shows the color of my couch and chair.  It's blue!  Of course, it's blue. :-)


Not much of a difference in color from the old one, but different lines and fabric.

I've been putting my house back together.  I don't want to move everything back into place in the living room because if and when Lowe's calls me with my carpet order, then I'd have to move it all out again.




















He even painted my furnace door.                     


I did get the bathroom all done.


My sister found this way back in a corner of the kitchen cupboard, when she was taking things out for the estate sale.  It was my Daddy's and then mine when I was a little kid.  What a new found, old treasure!!  It has to be 100 years old, as my Daddy would be 100 in August.


I am one worn-out person!!  Tomorrow, ironing curtains and putting them back up.

Inch-by-Inch,  I'll get it all done.