Monday, January 21, 2008

No rest for the weary genealogist

I made it home on time today from Santa Cruz (flying out of San Jose). Linda picked me up and we went to pick up our nearly 3-year-old granddaughter Lolo at her best friend's house. We went out to dinner at Rubio's (Lolo loves fish tacos, refried beans, rice, almost everything!) and were home by 5:30. On the way home I thought to myself - "Great - I can get back in the swing of genealogy..."

Right... wrong! Linda told me that our home land line Panasonic phones aren't working - the base unit says "E1" on it and four lights are blinking. So far, the only way I can make them stop is by unplugging it. So I went online and downloaded the user's manual - sure enough it doesn't mention any error codes! The Panasonic web site does mention "E1" - in another user's complaint. To get "expert help" you need to pay them $9.95. Arrgggh.

Then I learned that we got new cell phones today, and Linda wanted hers to be working tomorrow. Hmmm. I read the manual and tested it out a bit - pretty nice (you have to realize that I've never had a cell phone and need to read a manual to figure things like this out). So hers is charging. Mine is still in the box.

I played with Lolo a bit, gave her a bath (about the most fun of all) and got her ready for bed - she went down about 7:30 after talking to her mom and dad (they send her on vacations here when they have major time problems - my daughter is in a concentrated PhD course that meets this week for 12 hours each day).

Then Linda got on the computer to do her email, and finally at 8:30 I was able to get on to edit my blog posts, write this one, and will read my email.

I had hoped to write my "Best of the Genea-blogs" tonight so that I kept that string going, but it's going to have to wait until Tuesday since the "Keep New" box on Bloglines didn't work (does it work for anyone?). Hmmm, I see that Donna Pointkouski has listed her Picks on the "What's Past is Prologue" blog - I think I'll just ride with those this week. Thanks, Donna!

If you want a rundown of the genealogy news of the last week or so, go visit Miriam Midkiff's Ancestories: Stories of my Ancestors post tiled "What I missed from Geneablogger Land." Thanks, Miriam!

Since I last checked in on Friday, I've had two nights of interrupted sleep (maybe 4-5 hours each night total) due to the boys being sick and/or overly tired. We went to the Roaring Camp trains on Saturday, but the steam engine didn't run until 12:30, which was too late. So we walked around the train cars, threw rocks in the duck pond, and watched them test the steam engine a bit. Then we went for Chinese food for lunch and home for naps. My daughter had a meeting that night, and the boys were really good for me eating, bathing and going to bed. Sunday was the Chargers game, and I was a subdued fan (actually trying to impress on the boys that "it's only a game"). Hmmpph. My Bolts had their chances and played the Patriots tough, but lost 21-12. Then I took a nap! I'm glad I did because Sunday night was rougher than Saturday night. Today we went to the mall in San Jose - we shopped a bit and had lunch before I was dropped off at the airport for my 1:50 PM flight home.

As you can see - family history was made again this weekend - I'm trying to remember all of it! I hope the grandsons do too. While trying to get the 2-year-old to sleep last night, I recited my genealogy backwards in time like on an ahnentafel list. I can get through the first 5 generations OK, but I have trouble remembering the order of the families in the 6th and later generations. And I couldn't remember Josiah Sawtell's first name - the only mistake I made in the first five generations. The recitation worked a bit - his sleepy eyes opened less frequently as time went on.

I am majorly bushed and will go to bed after a bit of reading email. I love going to see the grandkids, but it sure leaves this weary genealogist looking forward to my own bed and a good night's sleep. Then it's Lolo week...but I imagine that I'll be able to post on a nearly regular basis.

3 comments:

Bill West said...

Randy, your Bolts were a tough foe
for my Pats to play. I honestly was
more worried about playing them than if the Colts had been the opponent.
San Diego will be right back in the
playoffs again next year!

As for reciting ancestry backwards,
I found myself doing that last week
(silently)while waiting for a late train.

I wonder how many others of our genealogy blogger colleagues do it as well?

Thomas MacEntee said...

Just as many other genea-bloggers have said lately, things seem to be hopping. For those of us not on the balmy West Coast, January is a time to hunker down and do lots of research and writing, waiting for the Groundhog to appear on February 2nd and give us some hope.

I just have trouble staying focused with all the great posts lately - so many good things, that I wander off into cyberspace and turn around and it is five hours later!!

Elizabeth O'Neal said...

Kudos to you, Randy, for showing restraint and being a "subdued" fan! I wasn't able to show the same maturity for my daughter. Luckily, she's only 19-months old and probably won't be emotionally scarred for life by my bad behavior (I hope). It was a very unhappy day in our house.