Monday This and That

Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened.

Anatole France

 Not much to report this morning.  It was a quiet weekend, to be sure.  Hubby went to visit his son, and Miss Minga and I kept each other company. I swear, she is so spoiled, but she deserves it.  She has been loyal to me for 21 years, and I love her so dearly.  Age is really beginning to creep up on her now, and I have become fearful, but, she is still eating well and getting about, so that is a good sign. As I sit here at the computer, she is at my feet.  'My shadow' I often call her. No one could ever be more loyal.

I was watching the news on Friday morning, and the newscaster said that she enjoyed leisurely perusing the Sunday paper while sipping on her coffee.  There was a time that I, too, used to enjoy my Sunday mornings with the news. I remember going through each section, page by page, ending with the weekly crossword.  Now, I can't remember the last time I bought a newspaper.  Heck, sometimes they'd be offering them for free at the subway station as I headed to work, and still I would refuse them.  The news is just too depressing.  I watch my half hour on television in the morning so I can keep up on things and hear the weather, but that is as far as it goes.

These computers are something else. My son was always big on taking and downloading photos so, when he lived with us, I asked him to please not download his photos onto my photo album so he installed something called 'Drop box' for himself.  So, on Saturday I am doing some work on my family tree, and I see this little box come up on the lower right hand corner informing me of items being downloaded.  But, I am not downloading.  Is it a virus?  Then I see that it is my son downloading photos.  But, he lives all the way up at the last subway stop in the Bronx, and I am here in Brooklyn.  Turns out he was downloading into 'Drop Box' on his computer and they were downloading onto mine as well.  Amazing.  I ended up uninstalling the program before all those photos before they ate up what little memory I had left.

Don't you just hate it when someone makes an appointment to come to your home and then not only doesn't show up, but doesn't bother to call?  That happened to me Friday afternoon.  I'd been calling around for information on insurance plans to offset my Medicare, and Emblem said they would do better than just send some information, they would send someone to my home to explain the different plans.  I had Emblem while I was working and was fairly satisfied with them, and this was great, or it would have been great if they had shown up.  By 4:45 I knew no one was coming so I called and lodged a complaint. I also advised that I 'probably' would have signed had the rep shown up. Things happen, I understand, but when you can't even take the time to make a quick phone call to tell the person not to wait, well, in my book, what you are saying is that they don't matter.

To forget one's ancestors is to be a brook without a source, a tree without a root. 

Chinese proverb 

I  purchased a very interesting book this weekend and was unable to put it down--'Research Your Surname and Your Family Tree" by Graeme Davis and learned some very interesting things about the surnames in my tree.  For example, my maiden name was 'Holmes' which turns out to have either Norse-Viking or pre-7th century Olde English origins.  It is what they call a 'locational surname' meaning it describes someone who lived in one of the places named 'Holm(e) which are found in counties in the East Anglian region or  someone who lived near a 'Holm' oak. In Viking terms it means 'island' or a fen. Oh, I cannot wait for my DNA results.  Why do they have to take so long?

Also on Saturday, I watched a marathon of "The Vikings", and this time around found it more fascinating than the first.  I love learning about ancient civilizations, and knowing I may have Viking ancestors made it all the more interesting.  Love learning about how they worshipped their gods...although their form of worship was a bit violent and bloody in my book.  But we know the ancients believed in sacrifice.   We still sacrifice to our gods and goddesses, as evidenced in our Christian Lent when we deprive ourselves of something we love as a sacrifice to god.  But, we no longer shed blood in sacrifices. And, we no longer call them sacrifices.  Today they are 'offerings'.

Whew, was I ever long-winded today.  For someone who had nothing to say, I sure said a lot.  Sorry about that.  I'll leave you now with the following genealogist's poem....

Lord, help me dig into the past
And sift the sands of time
That I might find the roots that made
This family tree of mine.

Lord, help me trace the ancient roads
On which my fathers trod,
And led them through so many lands
To find our present sod.

Lord, help me find an ancient book
Or dusty manuscript,
That's safely hidden now away
In some forgotten crypt.

Lord, let it bridge the gap that haunts
My soul when I can't find,
The missing link between some name
That ends the same as mine.


Author Anonymous