Monday Minutiae, Ancestor Approved Award, Is Your Ancestor MIA? And - -

Copyright 2011, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

I would like to thank Lisa Swanson Ellam of The Faces of My Family for honoring me with the Ancestor Approved Award.

At this point, I am gonna fall back to my previous 10 things I have learned about my ancestors that have surprised, humbled or enlightened me - - -

And, to read them, please visit my post from December 6, 2010.

Thank you ever so much Lisa, it is ALWAYS an honor to be recognized by other Genea-Bloggers.

One of my genie-angels wrote last week during that horrific snow storm that paralyzed the east coast and suggested that natural disasters may be a VERY good reason you cannot find your ancestors where you thought they were living. If a natural disaster, such as a tornado, destroyed their home, did they rebuild there?  Or, did they move on?  Consider, how many were misplaced by Katrina, never to return to New Orleans again.  Thank you Anne Marie for a great reminder.

The last 10 to 14 days has been a trial for techy Carol.  I love my techy toys, UNTIL they don't work the way I think they should.  Most of the issues have been connectivity, something changed with the campground's Wifi and the air card has issues too.  I have snarled a lot, poor Man.  One thing we have done to try to enhance our online experience from here on out was to install Google Chrome. That has helped speed up things.  It also sent me looking at a number of other web sites I use and in doing so, I discovered, without a doubt, that our air card is connecting us to the Internet via towers and service in Macon Georgia.  Geesh, that is some distance from where we are right now, Las Cruces New Mexico.  This presents a bunch of new issues for us, and the story is too long and confusing to try to detail here.  Suffice it to say, we are looking at all possible solutions/alternatives. 

I also found I can run Chrome and IE at the same time.  This AM I could not get Blogger to load so I could write a new post while in Chrome, so, I opened IE.  Yep, I am using both right now.  New horizons for Reflections!  LOL

I have also been playing, again, with some minor changes to the blog's look.  Undecided for now, another new set of horizons?  Maybe, maybe not.

By the way, we had snow here in Las Cruces the other day.  The snow, a few drops of rain and a few 1/4 inch sized hail balls ended what was a 65-70 day dry spell.  The fur kids had to go out during the snow, but, of course.  They had white flakes all over them by the time they came back in.

We are contemplating our next month or so on the road.  Current plan, leave here around the 14th, possibly stop in Deming New Mexico for a couple of nights, then, westward ho to Quartzsite Arizona for a MOC Rally and camping in the desert with 50 to 60 other MOC couples.  I fully expect that I will NOT have ANY connectivity during that part of THE Trip.

And, that is today's issue of Monday Minutiae.




* Wireless tower graphic courtesy of Clker.com

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Monday Minutiae, Almost the Last Garbage Day

Copyright 2010, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

Say what?? Is Carol talking another new language??  Nahhhh, that is just how we refer to the last week we are in the stick built, we have one more garbage day pickup (current plan anyway) before we start out on THE Trip.  Once that last garbage pickup is done, we change modes of operations around here, first of course, with trash and garbage from the house.  If the garbage has food particles, it goes in one trash can, if it is paper, it goes in a second trash can.  (Disclaimer, we do NOT have ecologically wise trash removal here, everything goes in the same truck.  Nope, not modern at all, even if that is the name of our trash removal company.  None of those separate green bins for the totally rinsed out and clean food containers, one for cans, one for bottles, one for paper.)  See, we can leave paper and NON food trash in the garage all winter long, no fear of coming home to, mmmmm, fragrant, trash cans.  We take the food particles type trash with us, and dispose of it in a campground. Usually it is only one bag, maybe two.

SOOO, we are almost to the last garbage day.  That means we will pick up on the packing frenzy.  It will escalate to the highest level.  We are counting our blessings, as it looks like this year we will have rather warm days and nights for the final week of packing, which means, we can pack freezables and NOT run the heat in Tana.  A good thing!

We have a few more appointments and family gatherings.  A very busy week is ahead.   The multi-page to do list will be printed out and we will starting ticking off items, mail forwarding, blinds drawn, toaster in the oven (mmmmm, keeps mice outta my toaster, this storage choice is the result of a very ugly infestation a few years back, a really gross story, ewwwwwww). 

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This last week or so, I have been attempting to get rid of pieces of paper from my desk.  By doing so, I have written, in full or in part, a number of blog posts that I can use in the future, don't you just LOVE the draft mode of Blogger??  I do!  LOL  You see, I have no idea what the next several months will bring, I have been keeping up a rather intense posting schedule, on two blogs, and I just don't know how that is gonna play out. 

THE Trip, we think, will be much heavier in travel days and moving around the landscape than we have been doing for a number of years.  Usually our winter escapes have been travel TO a southern warm place, stay there 2 to 5 months, then, travel back to SE Michigan.  Yes, we have incorporated stops, visiting family and research libraries along the way when we travel.  One year we left the Rio Grande Valley in Texas and came home via Gulf Shores Alabama, Durham North Carolina, Richmond Virginia and Broadway Virginia.  Not exactly a direct route. 

However, THE Trip, will take us to new places, west of the I-35 corridor, and I am just not sure how much energy that will leave me for blogging.  Time will tell, and, you know, that Man and I are very excited to find out what is past I-35!

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Do you ever read the "other" columns on the blogs you read??  Lots of interesting things in those "other" columns.  For instance, in my "other" column you can see hints of what I posted on Reflection's Flora and Fauna.   You will find links to other great blogs I enjoy reading, links to a few of my favorite causes, a prayer list for those friends and family in need, a email addy so if you surf in and find a name you are researching you can contact me (please, please do!), some of my favorite sayings, some favorite photos including those of the 3 fur kids, and a bunch of other tidbits I tuck in here and there.  By the way, that "other" column tends to change a lot, so, mmmmm if you are not reading it, who knows what you missed.  I know I am not the only blogger that changes that "other" column(s).  So, what was in your "other" column today??

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I leave you today with a graphic I have been saving for some time, and today just seems like the right time to share it with you, found while doing some research at Ancestry.com way last winter - -

Click on it to enlarge and then I direct you to:

Mrs. Helen L. Andrews, 2306 Waverly st.

body contourist ???

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I believe I am hearing, faintly, getting louder, just a little louder, strains of "On the Road Again" - - -

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Monday Minutiae, Sand Hill Cranes and Thanks To

Copyright 2010, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

Before Man and I went off to Goshen for the MOC Rally, I spied these two sand hill cranes in a field near our home.  They were a long way off the road, so, I zoomed to 20 times with the Sony and tried to catch them.  Because of the zoom, they are not real clear, but, aren't they magnificent??

Over at Reflection's Flora and Fauna I am still posting some photos from the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo, there are several more photos/posts in the queue and several more I want to share with you.  The giraffe photos I think will be rather special.

Thank you to blogger friend, Barbara, from Life From The Roots,  who honored me along with some other terrific bloggers with the Genea-Angel Award.  Thank you so much Barbara.  You truly are a Genea-Angel to so many others, it is easy to see why you were honored in the first place!  Wahhooo!!!

Congratulations to her other choices, they so deserve the recognition.

Man and I are doing the re-enter process after the great MOC Rally, we have a number of appointments and family events scheduled the next few weeks, and of course, Halloween is just around the calendar.  Do you have your costume all picked out??

Boo!!

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Monday Minutiae, Digging Out and Thank You

Man and I have spent the last week or so digging out. (See The Aftermath, a Dream, or Maybe a Nightmare). It is bitter sweet, bringing laughter, ahhhhhhhh moments and of course a few tears.

She sure saved everything, some of the discoveries have been amazing, like some 9 cent airmail stamps found tucked into a ribbon wrapped collection of cards and other trivia from her wedding. There were several groups of wedding memorabilia, shower gift cards, wedding gift cards, wedding congratulation cards and some surprises that I will share with you in future posts.

She had tax forms back to at least 1971. Most of these have now been shredded. Cancelled checks from 1979 have been found, again, most have been shredded. We found a check stub for every pension check she received between 1979 to well past 2000. It is heartbreaking to have to make these kinds of decisions, but, let's be honest here, Man and I cannot keep EVERYTHING.

As a side note, she and Man’s father smoked in that house for years, and most everything paper or fabric has a distinct smell of smoke and age, to us, this is not a pleasant smell. The smell is permeating our home now, so, lots of this must go via the shredding and trash cans. All those lovely afghans, most never used, are being washed to remove the odors.

I have set some parameters of toss vs save. Toss, old envelopes, even the ones the wedding cards were in, that eliminates a lot of mass and smell. I did save a few, perhaps one with some handwriting or that was different and unusual.

Save, photos of family members.  Toss, photos of friends of Man’s parents, many of whom we cannot identify. Man did want to save the envelope containing photos of her old boyfriends. I may scan them at some point and put them on the blog, maybe some of their descendants will find them and claim them.

Cards and letters, Man and I review/read them, one by one. Basic save parameters, save the family ones, toss the others. Envelopes from cards, tossed. Envelopes from letters saved - - - so far - - - we will review and may consider trashing those at a later point, but with time and places indicated in the postmarks, we may save those. The letters have been a blast to review and read. Some of those may eventually find their way to this blog, or at least parts of some of them.

Our house looks like a tornado ripped through the parlor and tossed stuff in many other rooms, front room and the kitchen have mini piles everywhere. I have filled at least 6 large notebooks with the “saved” photos and documents, and there are uncounted boxes left in the parlor to deal with.

Man and I would like to thank you all again for your very kind messages and notes and support. We sent out thank you cards, but, many messages came via email, this blog, Facebook and the Montana Owners Club online forum. Many of our MOC friends are fulltimers and to send you thank you cards, would be difficult. So, I came up with an “out-of-the-box” solution which I hope you will feel is creative and NOT lazy or bad manners. So, to all of you who did not receive a thank you card, please accept this in the manner in which it is offered, humbly, and thankfully.

*And, now, I return to cleaning of the aftermath.  I am starting to ask, does it ever end??  Will I ever finish digging out??

Copyright 2010, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

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Monday Minutiae, Moaning and MMMMM Good

One moaning and several MMMMM good:

Moaning: Jump breaks.  OK, I understand using them, maybe.  Forces your readers to "open" your blog, really visit, not use Google Reader, drives up your visits counts, etc. etc. etc.  Personally, I find them mildly irritating on most days.  But, this weekend, they were down right infuriating.  Why? 

My Internet connection is an air card.  Most of the time, this choice fits our life style quite nicely.  And, it actually does a better job than our two previous choices for connection, land lines (can we spell S-L-O-W??) or Internet satellite (can we spell, A-L-M-O-S-T as S-L-O-W?)  The air card is faster than both, usually, and is our only other choice for connecting to the net - no cable telie out here in the country.  It fits our life style well, as we can pick up and run off and take it with us at a moments notice.  However, sometimes it is so slow it is akin to land lines.  Painful, very painful. You know you are in the slow lane when you can start a page loading and go feed the dogs and come back and the page is still loading. OK, maybe that is a stretch, but, I have made potty stops while pages load.

Then on the rare occasion we have, like, almost NO service.  Like this weekend.  Our service was so poor that there were times that web pages would not load, period.  More than painful.  Jump breaks this weekend made it worse, I had to load your blogs twice (if they loaded at all), once to get there, and one more time to read past the jump break.  I gave thoughts to dropping all blogs that use jump breaks off my reading list.  I would miss some great stuff, but, at that moment, the thought did cross my mind.  Nope, I am no fan of jump breaks.

MMMMM good:  Cousin Karen is up today for Relatively Speaking.  She talks a bit about our connection, and the really small world we live in, go have a visit.

MMMMM good:  Distant cousin to Man, Leah, over at "The Internet Genealogist", has a very interesting tidbit on their mutual ancestor on her post, An Awful Manner.  Thanks Leah, and can we say, MY MY MY!!

MMMMM good:  Man had a case of cabin fever this weekend and the cure was a trip to town to a small festival being held at the fairgrounds, one we had not been to before.  Lots of motor cycles and some racing, the ever present flea markets, and junk food.  Flea market did not get into my pocketbook, the junk food was OK, and the race track was dusty.  But, there were these, bed races??  I'll just show ya, how fun is this??

Above, check out that front tire (right one in photo),

yea, was really bent, made racing difficult, eh?

* It has been a animal kind of week over at Reflection's Flora and Fauna.  And, more coming, tomorrow, Mr. Squirrel and later this week, more white tail deer, ohhhh, I got a goodie photo this AM!  Can't wait to show you!

Copyright 2010, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

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