I'm 55 today!

Yeah, ok, so its my day....
double nickels.....
yee haw

Not that I'm bothered - its just another day for the most part.  I went to work, did my own thing, and came home to have a salad and a chicken breast.

My son gave me a screen tool, and a set of brackets for my broken front window screen.  As long as he's volunteering to actually USE these parts and FIX my broken screen, I'm happy!

Family History.....

So here it is, all my thoughts regarding finding my paternal great grandmother. 

The story goes that my grandfather was born in 1900, and came to the US in 1903 from Sweden, as his mother had gotten pregnant and apparently decided to split for greener pastures.  (there's a story that says she was knocked up by one of the Royalty, but he couldn't marry her because she was a peasant girl.... ok.)  So I'm obsessed with finding the truth, because my grandmother was very sketchy about details.  Checking all the incoming records accessible for 1903 and the years surrounding it, I cannot locate Christine Hendrickson.  Only one who fits the time frame arrived in 1897- alone.  But her birth year doesn't match up. 

According to "facts" - my great grandmother Christine is listed as born in 1865.  That means she was 35 when Harold was born.  And if she's unmarried, why did she give him the last name "Danielson" ?  Because he was Daniel's son - which is how they came about the name?  And if so, did she lie and say she was a widow or something so she wouldn't be looked down upon by the townfolk?    Oddities.

Searching the US Census records for 1900, 1910, 1920,  I show my grandfather in the 1910 Census as a 9 yr old boy.  However, his mother isn't listed in that census at all.  Hmmm.  Was he living with another family at the time, for the time being, because she was off looking for work elsewhere?  There is a Christine Hendrickson listed in another county where the data seems to match up better.  Oddities.

The only Christine Hendrickson that appears to match up logically with grandpa shows her birthdate in 1877, making her only 23 when she had grandpa.  All these crazy facts that don't line up, and no one left to confirm or deny.   I know my grandmother and grandpa lived with her during her last years ... perhaps this was in another county?  More investigations need to be done.   *sigh*  in some ways, I wonder why i even care... it doesn't matter now, most of them aren't here any longer.    But I just know in my heart there's something more to the story, because of how sketchy Grandma always was when I wanted to ask questions.  

OK... time to shower, then maybe a little more time researching on the internet. 

Happy Monday! 

Sunday

Good morning!  It was a helluva ride here yesterday!  Friday as well. I had been out shopping at Hobby Lobby and another Home Garden when my phone beeped - I get weather alerts, and a dust storm was about to arrive, so it was dash through the checkout and dash to the car then speed my way home.  Made it before disaster, thank goodness.  

Yesterday's heat brought a buildup of thunderstorms that broke out, thundered til nearly 1am, lighting lighting up the windows as if someone on the outside was watching some crazy television show.  We had 60mph winds and hail the size of quarters in some parts.  luckily, we were only on the edges of the hail, so no damages to stuff.  But things sure were blown around!   Summer monsoons mean being ready to dash out and secure things - no matter what time of day or night!  Thank goodness it only lasts until Sept :)

Tried a few photos of the storm in the dark, but no luck there.  After being hit in the face with  debris just after midnight (lol yes, i was out there in it!) I called it quits and watched through the window.  It made me think of summer thunderstorms in the midwest - the kind where you open up all the windows and let the breezes blow the rain scented air indoors. 

 

This morning, Sadie and I headed out to see how things looked after the storm, but nothing much here in our part of town beside the usual debris of leaves and such.  Even though it was only 80, there was  humidity and Sadie was huffin' 'and puffin' after half mile, so we cut our walk short.  

But I've been feeling kinda .... don't know if its the blues or what. Shouldn't be, this is the month I typically take vacation days.  Not that I've done much of anything with my days off.  I have plenty of household projects to keep me busy. Although, my latest project is getting some of my photos in to frames and onto the walls.  I created some black frames to house my old black and white photos from days gone by, and I think they look great. :) There are a few photos of family that I like having on the walls.  There's one of my great-great grandfather, holding a cow by a leash -- I mean, who does that anymore???  lol  

My latest obsession, however, has me going bonkers.  

It's digging into family history and trying to find my great grandmother..... 

More in the next post.

Pee Ohhh'd

Ok. that topic is short for Pissed Off.  I have a PayPal account, have never ever used it, have never set it up for anything, I haven't even logged in since the last time I had issues with it.

Today, I check my email at lunch and it tells me that a payment of $25 or so dollars was taken from my PayPal account to pay some Facebook fee.

I'm at work, not playing computer games.  I don't play computer games from my Facebook page at all, so I know this is false.  Then I thought it might be a fake email, so I logged into my PayPal account and yep, someone took the $ from me.  I called them, but waited on the phone for 30+ minutes and then it was time to return to work.  *sigh*

I cannot tell you how much I dislike the fact that so many people can figure out all the in's and out's of internet scams and get $$ from folks.  Ok. its more than dislike, but I'm trying to be nice.

When I got home from work, I logged in again, and changed all my security passwords, security questions and deleted any information I could without compromising my account until its all settled.   And then, bam, I'm deleting my PayPal account, as this is the third time I've had issues with my account.

Folks, please be wary, be careful, be cautious and don't put yourself out there so much.
Update your passwords on a regular basis.
Make them long and difficult to guess.
and if any website offers to notify you when there's activity
on your account of any kind, say YES! Notify me.

That way you can catch these little things before they become big problems.

Be aware, be secure!

Wednesdays!

I just love Wednesdays! I work all week to prep things to ship out, and this is my truck day.  Driver Jim shows up and takes out everything.  Today it was fifteen pallets full.  After, my area is clean of all the things that crowd it up by the time Tuesdays roll around.

i've got some added responsibilities at work, and while its OK, it means there is a little more stress.  Mostly in ways that are harder for me to deal with.  I'm supposed to delegate, and I'm a "do-er".  I can do something faster myself than telling someone else to do the same thing.  While that can be a good thing, when it comes to being a supervisor, it's not so good.

For example, one of the areas I supervise is a messy area, and they're supposed to mop that area at the end of their shift.  Today, one of the gals didn't.  So I did in the last few minutes of my day.  Seems like they didn't mop in a few days, as I got a pretty dirty mop bucket.  When you walk around in tennis shoes, and your feet stick to the floor, its time to mop.  I'll have to reinforce that again tomorrow.  I'm sure it will go over like a lead balloon.  But.  I'm not a friend, I'm a co-worker and supervisor.  Like me, or not, there is still a responsibility to get the job done correctly in a timely manner.   (sounds fancy, huh?  lol)

All this added stuff means that my time to do things for me isn't there.  I'm sure I'll adjust, in time.  Until then, we shall just plod along.   Meanwhile, its almost the weekend... Hope you have great plans!

Time, More Time!

The last couple of days, I have felt so overwhelmed.... there are so many projects I want to do, to begin, to work on, to finish, and over the weekend... blah.  I barely got anything done. :/   That's the problem with the hot time of year here.  It can be difficult to get outdoors for any length of time to work on anything.  And having a dog means I need to spend time with her, as well.  So carving out three or four hours of computer time to work on pictures -- mostly getting them organized -- well, it just doesn't happen.  So I'm attempting to do these little things one step every day.  And some days ... I just can't seem to do it

.

Work has been an issue as well.  Where to begin, because there isn't ever a real starting place.  About a year ago, I was doing the data entry for schedules for us key five people in an area.  For some reason, someone decided that because I'm not management, I shouldn't be doing them, and took away the option.  Back then, I just laughed it off, because I knew that it would come back to me.  There's not a person in our BigBox store who gets paid enough to keep track of all 300+ employees' schedules on a weekly basis.  It needs to be divvied up between areas, and be better managed.  A week ago, there came a day when there were only two of the five people at work on a given day.  And you just can't run well when you're that skinny on employees.  So...  "Here, Gal, we need you to start doing the schedules again so this doesn't happen."  **laughing all the way to the bank**  The added an "oh by the way...." thing on the end, however.  They want me in charge of both areas, acting as "lead" for these other four employees.  It'll be interesting, because they will try and utilize some of the folks in other areas, and now, I have the ~power~ to tell them no!  lol

That being said, I spent too much time in meetings today, and helping in other areas, because there was a need.  Or maybe there were issues with how management saw things operating.  Which meant trying to find a workable solution --- we will get there eventually.

Eventually, there will be enough hours in a day... won't there???

Road Trip!

What a day!  Two different road trips... three if you count a trip to Walmart!  *laughs*(this is from last weekend!!  and I forgot to post it)

Ok, so the first trip to Walmart was to get the ordinary shopping errand done.   I needed some shelf hooks, envelopes, and .... I can't remember what else.  Which is what happened in the store, so I forgot the frames I was wanting. lol  Oh well, next trip.

The second trip was different.  Using Google Maps, I found myself wandering through the town of Alvarado. I haven't been there for ... hmmm, 20 years?  something like that.  Wow. Has it been that long?  Summer 1999.  OK, so it's been 15 years.  And things have definitely changed!

I remember one summer being there, and having to do laundry in the laundromat .. which is no longer where or how I remember it.  Funny, but the population hasn't changed much ... currently, its 362 or so.   :)

After I realized I wasn't finding things in the right place, I "backed the truck up" , got on the 220 Hiway, and sailed past my Uncle's farm, then the Pape homestead farm, through the "S" curve and down the road toward Alvarado.  I caught the cemetery on the edge of town, and found my way in.  I was in a search for the house my dad grew up in.

And ended up finding the Junior Year picture of my Aunt Margie, and a pic of my dad on the school's B Basketball team, so he was all of 15 or so?

Ahhhhh.  Its not the things we have, but the memories we make with them.  Good stuff, good times, enjoyed the views!

If my guess is correct,
this is the house my dad grew up in.
It's been taken care of, or restored as best it could be, the trees sure are big!

I called to ask what street he lived on, but "back then"  the streets didn't have names, houses didn't have numbers.  If you wrote to someone in town, you addressed it to Alvarado, MN and every one in town knew who you were!

Never Too Old!

I was standing in the shower, and for some reason, that is one of THE places where thoughts come to me.  I found myself wondering about the fact that I haven't blogged lately, and then on to why do I blog?  Well, I have always written in a journal, and for me, blogging is the same kind of thing.  I can write thoughts and dreams here, along with fears and the usual life events - both big and small.

Today was day 4 in a row at the gym!  and I'm feeling pretty good about that.  Its time I got off my arse and get busy again.  The problem is that if I'm going to the gym, I lose an hour of time at home to do the things that I enjoy!

Photography, being one of the main ones.  But I'm also working on a few projects with old pictures, and genealogy that goes with it.  I seem to be the family caretaker of old photos -- and that's OK with me!  as I love them.  Sadly, they've just been sitting in storage, and there are some wonderful pictures in there, so I'm scanning them, making them digital and have begun acquiring different photo frames to begin displaying the ones that are most important to me.  My plan is to have a collage of all different sizes and shapes, mostly black frames, and posting the b/w photos in them.  Then there will be a similar wall of photos for my own recent pictures that have become favs over time.   But that all takes time.

As for the genealogy, since the internet has come such a long way in the past 10 years, I'm looking up names on my grandmother's old photos to see if I can gain any insight to family history that way.  You'd be surprised what data is out there.  I've been using FindAGrave.com and if you're willing to be patient with spelling(s) and time frames, you can really narrow down family members.  And if you're even more lucky, someone will have posted an obit or data with the headstone info.

Whether its a new exercise, a new job, a new hobby,
or just re-doing an old project, just remember this:

"You are not too old or too tired or too broke or too disadvantaged. 

You are uniquely qualified to add substance to life." 

If I can.... SO. . . CAN . . . YOU!!

Scrabble

In the "olden days", families used to gather around the kitchen table and play board games:  Monopoly, Life, Candyland (if there were little ones) come to mind.  But the best was Scrabble.  My dad loved scrabble, and he was very good at it, too!





But take that into the current century, and its all about social media.  Now there's a game called Words with Friends -- he plays on his iPad and I play on my phone.  We usually have 3 games going at a time -- wowsa!  And yes, he beats me about 4 out of 5 games.   hahaha  but I love playing it with him.  Its special :)  And who knows how much longer we will be able to play together.

While technology may have changed,

some things still stay the same!

oops, there's my ring tone... time to make a move!