Grandkids, aunts,uncles, cousins, & me

My cousin, Bonnie Zeliff, stopped in yesterday with her husband and son, Tom and Taz. They're on their way to California in their motor home and spent the night on my street.  Was  fun to compare notes and pictures on our ancestry files.  They live in Pomeroy and Taz recently returned from Tenn. where he attended a conference on computers and Excel.  I took advantage of having a computer whiz teen in the house and he helped me with a few things.

Bonnie showed me how to scan pictures at a higher resolution.  Always nice to learn new things.  She showed me how I can zoom in better on picture details if I crop and scan at a setting like 1200 dpi.  I practiced on this picture I have of my aunt Velna (her grandma) that was taken at a Gig Harbor beach in the 60's.  I now see the paper bag is from Thriftway.  tee hee  Bonnie sold her print shop and is now retired.  She spends her days working on a very large garden. They can and freeze almost all their own food.  She doesn't eat dairy or wheat so and is very conscious of the chemicals and additives in our food these days.  They both are very up on political subjects. Was interesting talking to them.

I also scanned in some pictures of aunts and uncles.  Here's Jim and Lillian on their wedding day in Port Townsend.  Interesting fact on Jim and Lillian (well, interesting to me because I love looking up data like that)is that they were married in 1944 at a house on 49th St.  They lived their entire life 1 mile away on 19th & Haines and in 1994 they had their 50th wedding anniversary a mile up the street from their house.  Lillian died five years later, and Jim died nine years after that in Vancouver, WA where he was living with his son, Jimmy, and his wife, Holly. Jim died April 11, 2008, and Bonnie's dad, Claude Walker, died on April 11, 2005.

Another picture I came across was of my uncle Lyall, Aunt Velna, and Aunt Elva. This photo was taken at Velna's place but I'm not sure where she was living then. Maybe an apartment in Bellingham.

I posted a picture on FB of my grandkids when they went to Great Wolf Lodge recently.  It occurred to me that I probably have two whole pictures in my collection of me in a bathing suit.  One in 1951 in the backyard of our house on 22nd Streeet, and another in 1963 at a beach in Oregon. I was never comfortable posing in a bathing suit (for obvious reasons) and even in '63, I had to cover up with a blanket.  I do recall, however, that it was cold and windy that day.

I've spent the last few days browsing here and there online at free genealogy websites but wasn't having much luck finding anything.  I plan to get myself across town to the Morman Church library as soon as I feel a little better. Meanwhile, I signed back up for ancestry.com today.  Only for a month, though.

I got my hair trimmed this afternoon.  I was going to try (again) to let it grow out some and try to curl it, but it's been so hard to  get my arms over my head, I decided the hell with it.  After I left there, I stopped at the corner grocery to cash in a couple of Hit Five tickets that were winners. ($12)  Made me chuckle when I heard the new thing they have on the cash register now when they check your numbers to see if you've won anything.  The tune "We're in the money"  plays. (if you've won)

Guess I'll head over to my recliner now.  Bonnie's husband has had surgery on both his shoulders so he told me what to expect.  It's a tad more than I thought.  Have to wear a sling that holds your arm next to your body and physical therapy can take 3 months.  He says it is uncomfortable and painful at times but I've been putting up with so much discomfort for so long, I figure it can't be any worse than what I'm already experiencing.

He also said you don't have to spend the night, but you're pretty helpless on your own for a while. I'm glad I get to stay at Mary and Andy's.  Knowing me, I will miss my own home, though, so I'm hoping I won't have to intrude on them longer than two weeks or so.  Maybe even less.  Just have to play it by ear.  Tomorrow morning (like 5 a.m.) I'm heading over to  the ferry to walk on so Mary can pick me up downtown and take me to the clinic in Issaquah.  I plan on stopping in Silverdale on the way home to visit Ruth.  If I can find the place by myself, that is. Maybe I'll go look at google maps again to make sure.  I made her a small batch of brownies.  Hmmmm...maybe I should have put some pot in them. That would cheer her up.

My sister called all excited and happy this morning because Medicare approved her for a hovercraft or whatever you call those motorized wheel chairs that are so popular.  That will be good for her morale. She's pretty confined to her apartment 'cause it's so hard for her to get around.