The New Year

I've been noticing that quite a few of the blogs I read regularly have not had any recent posts. Of course, neither has mine. Maybe I just lurk on a lot of slacker blogs (not Ginger, tho!), but more reasonably it's the holiday and new year ennui that leaves everyone saying,"Oh, the h*** with it".

I'm sitting in the living room with the MacBook while two hard-working guys lay ceramic tile in my kitchen. Having the entire kitchen pulled to pieces is way more disruptive than I had anticipated. We started demolition 5 days ago, and the house looks like Dorothy's house after she landed in Oz. There are narrow pathways to thread between cabinets, appliances, and boxes, and for cooking we have the microwave and the toaster. We nuked a casserole last night and then discovered we had packed all the serving spoons; all we have are plastic tableware. By the time it was served it was cold and had to be re-nuked. Tonight it's going to be a restaurant. The kitchen won't be useable until next week, probably Friday. I have a ton of stuff to throw out, I found stuff in the cupboards I didn't know we owned, like a presto hot dog cooker, and a belgian waffle maker, neither of which show any sign of ever being used. Goodwill will get whatever doesn't go in the trash, and maybe we'll be good for another 25 years here. Any future remodeling here will be done with a box of kitchen matches!

But other than this mess, I'm getting used to being retired. It is so cool to be able to work on a project without having to anticipate leaving it half finished until the weekend. I like being able to schedule appointments for the middle of the day instead of first thing or last thing a 5. I like running errands when I take my time instead of rushing in and out, and getting vexed if I forget something. But I never realized how far things have been let go, cleaning and organizing, yard work, and let's don't think about the attic, I'm sure I never sanctioned all the stuff up there, what is in all those boxes?

I've been able to work on the genealogy records, one of those jobs that you can't stop when you're working through, say, census records in a given area, not unless you plan on reviewing the same records more than once. So much more on-line sources, even actual images of the hand-written records. As a side note, never let anyone maunder on about the poor penmanship of the modern era, those census takers back in 1870 had atrocious handwriting! No wonder the transcribed records are unreliable. I never met my paternal grandfather, he and my grandmother were divorced back in 1922 when Dad was a baby. I discovered that he (my GF) was illegitimate, that the family name comes from his mother who was a servant at a neighbor's farm at the time he was conceived. And I discovered he lied about his age to get in the Army in WWI. And I found he is buried at Gettysburg National Cemetery. Interesting.

I once considered posting my genealogy files, but despite containing 1800+ relatives, it's still very much a work in progress. And probably will be, forever....I figure I'll use my knowledge to bore the socks off all the other little old ladies when I'm in my dotage. Meanwhile, I'll spare the rest of you!