Busy Saturday

Thank God for teenage grandsons is all I have to say!  Hunter is such a dear.  Mowed the front and back, weed eated, pulled curbside weeds and sprayed the area, moved my garbage cans and all my bird feeder stakes and bird bath, hooked up front and back hoses, and even put a screw back in my recliner.  Oh, and fixed the sliding glass door after it somehow came off its groove.

Maddie is coming over tomorrow to do some weeding for me. She's at a track meet today. Maggie has been here since noon yesterday. Kathy and Ed should be back tonight. They had long ferry line waits as she didn't know you needed reservations.

I watched a little golf but fell asleep in my recliner. I knew I was tired as I had woke up at 4:30 with a horrible calf cramp. Man, but I hate those things!  I came out to the recliner to put in two more hours but being outside working in the yard wore me out.  Even though Hunter did all the work, I tried to do a few things.  It's so annoying to not be able to do the level of yard work (and housework) that I used to.

Here's various pictures I took.  Neighbors are having a 6th birthday party for their son.  I don't really know them but I'll probably give them prints that I took from my deck. They're in the coast guard and are moving to Florida in June.

 Maggie hears an awful lot of kids on the other side of that fence

 the only side of the house that lets grass grow that looks like real grass. This is the before picture.

I sure like this puzzle. Am thinking I might mount it for the wall.  It's not real big. Just a 500-piece.

Talked to my step-sister, Shannon Timbers, yesterday. She lives in Sumner.  I wanted to know if her husband, Ed, is going to be working the big golf tournament that is scheduled to be held in Washington later this summer. She said yes.  I'll have to watch for him. Chambers Bay near Tacoma in the middle of June.

Let's move things around

For some reason I was really tired last night and I went to bed around 8:30. Now that I think about it, though, I had turned off the TV to finish a book I was reading, and reading always seems to put me to sleep.  The book was good too. (Empire Falls)

 Some days (more often than not) I try to get a nap during the day. I didn't take one yesterday and I suspect my body wanted one. Anyhow, I knew going to bed that early would mean waking up early today but I'm okay with that.  My schedule is my own, after all.  Wasn't real thrilled with 4:40 a.m. but I did manage to stay in bed until around 5 a.m. or so.

I slept in the front bedroom where my computer is now as I wanted to sleep on the foam mattress I'd moved from my double bed onto the single in here.  When my back was hurting so bad a few days ago, I thought maybe I needed to use a firmer mattress.  I found, however, that I didn't sleep as well. I woke up with very sore shoulders and so the first thing I did this morning was pack the mattress back to my regular bedroom.

By this time, I was in a rearranging mood so after showering and dressing, I decided to switch out my computer.  Meaning I'm still connected to my laptop, but my larger flat screen monitor is now hooked to it too, along with my regular keyboard.

Sometimes I prefer a larger screen and I wanted to change the way I'm sitting so I'm forced to look upwards more and hopefully, remember to sit up straight. I also changed out my chair to one without wheels.  At least for now.  Knowing me, I'll switch back again.  My desk work area needed to be made more user friendly so I pushed my little red desk into place.  That poor ole desk has traveled with me for years. I bought it at a yard sale in Bellingham in the mid 60's.  I need Hunter to replace the casters for me one of these days.

The sun is shining and while I didn't think I would get in the mood for any outdoor chores in the dirt this year, I am thinking that I might want to get some flowers planted in the pots on the deck one of these days.  I also might plant some green beans in my two raised beds in the back yard. Seems a shame not to put something in that dirt and I can always sit on a stool to work out there.

Yesterday (as usual) I worked on Blankenship genealogy files.  I decided I wanted to add as much data as I could to each file folder I've made for various relatives. Mainly my grandpa's siblings right now.  I worked on Lizzie's file and did find a little bit on her children.  She had two boys and a girl.
Also had a step-daughter (Lilly) who ended up marrying Lizzie's brother, John.

Anyhow, I did a little research on Lizzie's kids and grandkids. One of my genealogy connections is Carisa in Bend, Ore whose husband is a great grandson of Lizzie. Thankfully, Carisa has a family tree on ancestry.com so I was able to get a lot of data from that.  Lizzie's kids were Chester, Ora, and Ray.  Chester had a girl and two boys; Ora didn't have any kids, and Ray had a son and daughter. All have died except for one son of Chester's -- Clay.  I found his Eugene High School yearbook online and put 2 pictures of him in my "Lizzie file."

 He was president of the E club and is posing here with the emblem of  the Axemen.

I roasted a pan of vegetables for dinner last night.  It was so good.  And I love how easy it is to fix. I'll have it again tonight with two biscuits I made.   Tomorrow I'll have Maggie (the other grandma's dog) overnight so they can go to the Tulip Festival and visit a casino afterwards.

I've got to get Hunter over here this week to cut the grass and spray the weeds near the curb.  Also need to have him fix my recliner. A large screw dropped out of the bottom and needs to be replaced before I break the dang thing altogether.

Saw this on YouTube this morning and it just cracked me up....




And here's the latest from my email box...so cute...

Saw this on Facebook this morning....

The Middle of April

Was in bed before 8 pm last night.  I had woke up with a drippy nose and knew immediately it meant I was in a for an allergy day.  And that's what I had.  I'm still a tad stuffed up but I can deal with that. I'm just thankful it didn't turn into something worse. So many people are suffering with colds and coughs right now.

Not much on my calendar this week. Now that I actually glance at my calendar, I see there's not much on it for the next THREE weeks!  That's okay, though.  Leaves me free to occupy myself in whatever activity strikes my mood.

Guess what I'm going to do today?  Yep.  You're right -- genealogy research. I've cropped a lot of the "unknown" pictures from that album I received as I'm hoping I can figure out  which great aunt is who. Here's the older photos and I have them identified. Just want to match their younger photos. These are my grandpa's sisters and they're all older than he was.

                        Henrietta Patton from Pendleton (Etta or Ettie) married to a barber

 Georgia Stark (Georgie) from Independence and Eugene, OR  married a hotel owner.

                  Elizabeth Thomason (Lizzie) from Eugene married a farmer. Wrote poetry.

                                    Martha Steele (Mattie) from Suver, OR married a farmer.

                                          This is Mattie, Lilly (sis-in-law), and Etta

 Especially anxious to ID this photo as I'm curious about the badge the guy is wearing. The woman resembles my Aunt Elva Arey in her younger days.

 I can't decide who this lady with the hat is. Kind of looks like the same one with the guy wearing a badge.  I need somebody else to look these over. A new eye often helps clarify.

                                                          I'm guessing this might be Etta

                                     Pretty sure this is Lizzie & William Jacob Thomason

I need to work a little harder at locating descendants of each of these great aunts of mine as I'm sure they might have photos in their collection which could help me a lot.  I have connected with relatives of John, Georgie, Lizzie, Etta, and Mattie but it's hard not to make a pest of myself as I email them repeatedly with "one more question."  Ha!  They're probably all sick to death of me already.  These are all grandparents of theirs so the info they have is as limited as mine.

Well, let's see...what else can I talk about besides stuff you have absolutely no interest in anyhow.

I went to the casino yesterday and met up with the girls for lunch.  We ate in the restaurant and the food was excellent. Way better than the buffet.  My picture came out too grainy to suit me, though, so I've got to see about investing in a new one.  I certainly can do that since I got a nice income tax refund.

                          Mary Norton, Joanne Gilles, Linda Pedersen, me, Ruth Kvinsland

I managed to earn about .83 from gambling. Would have lost that too but I decided the slots were terribly boring and I had other fish to fry.  Stopped at Penneys to see if they had anything of interest and was really disappointed in their selection. I doubt I'll ever go back.  Went to Walmart and bought a few items and stopped at Sunny Farms to get veggies and fruit. Gonna cut everything up this afternoon and see if I can't get in the habit of snacking healthier.

Got a cute picture from Mary when her and Jake and Catie went to Target.

Mary has to go to Austin, TX this month for about three days and she's depressed at having to leave Jake.  Andy will do fine, though, as he already participates in every phase of his care from baths to meals to bedtime to daycare.  They managed to wean him off the bottle last week.  Growing up so fast.

I decided to move my laptop and all my paperwork back into this bedroom/office as it was just too easy for me to sit down at the kitchen table and not get up.  My goal is to cut down on my computer time and head to the sewing room for some activity requiring a bit more exercise.  And yes, you get more exercise sewing than you do on the computer.  A lot of up and down movement.

Gotta get a letter written now so I'll cut this short.  Ohhhhh....interesting. A police car just stopped out front.  Guess I'd better get my scanner out and see if I can pick up on the activity.  I looked outside and no one else is there. He appears to be just sitting.   How annoying!  Kind of sounds now like they're doing a stake-out.  Looking for somebody in the area.  Oh well, at least it gave me something to write about on my blog. Ha Ha  This is all I can see...

It's Friday

Weatherman says to expect rain this weekend so that's what I'm doing.  Am taking Maddie to track practice in 45 minutes.  She said she cleared 8' on the pole vault yesterday.  Not much new around here.  I'm still working on genealogy research, of course.  Of special interest is that picture of a boy named Perry Banks.  Since I found a Perry in the household of Oliver and Mary Banks, I decided to research those names further to see if Perry was actually related to the Pattons (my great aunt, Henrietta Patton, was the owner of the album I received), instead of the Blankenships.

One problem with research is that EVERY SINGLE PERSON you want to hunt for has other people out there with the exact same name and often close to the same date of birth.  Two girls living in that household were Annie and Daisy Patton, listed as step-children. I figured Mary Banks had to have been married before and brought two of her daughters to this household.  I started looking for Mary in her previous marriage with what clues I had about her so far. (born in 1839 in NY and her daughters born in Washington Territory.)

I did find Issac Patton and Mary in several Washington Territory census records.  I think it was Olympia in Thurston County.  Anyhow, they had a lot of kids so I started to research each kid to see if I could determine for sure if this Mary was the same Mary who married Banks.  The date and place of birth matched and there was an Annie in the family.  No Daisy but nicknames were often listed on census records and there was a girl named Armenia or America who could have been Daisy.  The dad (Issac) was a blacksmith but the last census I found him in listed him as "insane."  Hmmmmm....

As I researched each kid, one of them (Henry) was listed as a resident of a hospital in Steilcoom. This was at an early age so I'm assuming he might have been handicapped or retarded in some way.  In the old days, they sometimes put kids away like that.  Thankfully, we've moved on from such practices.
I'm pretty sure this Mary probably divorced Isaac and married Oliver.  I can't say for absolute sure yet, however, because there are plenty of other Mary Pattons out there.  I'll figure it out, though. One step at a time.

Because the picture I had of this little boy (Perry Banks) was taken at a studio in San Francisco, I'm guessing he's the same Perry Banks who was a silent screen actor along with his wife, Bessie.  I googled the photography studio and even emailed the place to see if I could get any more clues.

Another person I've been working on is Zadock Blankenship.  He was an older brother of my grandpa and all I could find on him was that he was a farm hand in one census and that he died in 1932 in Polk Co, OR.  I wrote the historical society down there and got an email yesterday telling me they found his obit.  Will cost me $10 to get a copy but I'm okay with that. Am just hoping it's a real obit and not just a death listing.  He was only about 57 but he was unmarried so I know there probably won't be much information, if any. I'm mailing off my check this morning.

On the home-front, I noticed those pesky pigeons have come around again.  They were gone so I started putting seed in the feeders in the backyard.  I'll be darned if I'm going to encourage them pigging out (they come in a flock and stay until all the seed is gone).  I moved the two feeders to the front yard as they never seem to find it there.  I think they're stupid.  And I guess I'm stupid too for continuing to play this bait and switch game. ha ha

I'm going to start my exercises today.  I don't think I'm up for getting down on the floor, however, so I'm using my bed with the firmer mattress.  I've got to do something to alleviate this dang back pain. The last couple of days and nights were absolutely miserable.  I don't know if it's a pinched nerve or just plain old body parts wearing out.  Maybe both.  I'm sure my continued sit-down in front of this computer is not helping any so I need to nip that in the bud.  Easier said than done when I start hunting for genealogy clues.

Here's an email I had in my hotmail box this morning:

I am Jimoh Ibrahim, Private attorney to Late Mr.Thomas Blankenship, a national of your country, who used to work as an Oil & Gas servicing and distribution company (SODAMEF SARL) Oil Company in Benin Republic West Africa,Here in after shall be Referred to as my Client. On the 23rd of March 2013, my Client, His wife and their three Children were involved in a car accident  near Cotonou-Lome express-road. All occupants of the vehicle Unfortunately lost their lives.Now I have made this  inquiries from your embassy to locate any of my clients extended relatives this is why i contact you. The Deceased had an account valued at about $8.5 million dollars The Bank has issued me a notice to provide the next of kin or any family members related to his last name or have the account confiscated. please it is very important that you reply for me to give you more details reply me with your full names, Age, and telephone number
I await your Call  Asap after replying.
Barrister Jimoh Ibrahim
Solicitor & Advocate.

I can't believe there would people out there dumb enough to believe such nonsense.  I guess they're out there, though, as one of these stupid letters shows up in my email every once in a while.

Had a visit from my pal, Mary Gaboury, a couple days ago. Was sure good to see her.

Well, that's about it for now.  Plan on hitting the casino on Monday to have lunch with the girls.

A productive day

Maddie came over after track practice to help me clean up the pots on my deck.  We scrubbed them with bleach water and while they're not "a wunnerful, a wunnerful" they are better looking. Here's before and after....

She swept off the porch and even helped me pull some weeds along the steps.  Then she carried the bin of weeds to the empty lot across the street.

In the front yard, she cut off some of the black plastic lining along the curb that has been blowing in the wind.

I refilled the hummingbird feeders with fresh nectar and got the bird baths scrubbed up too.

I enjoy puttering in the yard and pulling weeds, etc. but I found the tasks almost too much.  My shoulder doesn't like me to extend it out and yank on stuff.  My knees weren't all that fond of bending either.  It's hell to get old!

Tomorrow, Dave and Mary Gaboury are stopping in for a while.  Their car is being serviced here in PA and they'll have a loaner for a few hours. They intend to go visit Dave's son who also lives in the west end of PA.

Had a bowl of homemade chicken soup for supper.  It was yummy but sure took me a while to pick out all the tiny bones.  I thought I had got them all but nope!  Always kind of scary eating chicken soup with tiny bones hidden away.  I'd hate for that to be my cause of death --chocking on a chicken bone.

Guess I'll head to the recliner now and see what Netflix has to offer.

Tuesday morn

Just cleaned out the fridge and dumped most everything into a chicken stock for soup.  I bought a whole chicken a few days ago and was reminded of how long it's been since I actually cut up a chicken. My knives could have been sharper, I suppose, but the whole process took way more time and effort than I was wanting to spend on the project.  Oh well, it's done now.  Got half a dozen packages to freeze up and heaven knows, I saved money doing it that way.

Wish I knew what was going on with my low back.  This is day 3 of having to be darn careful how I bend, walk, and sit.  I even broke down and took an Aleve yesterday even though I've  been advised to lay off all pain pills until my kidney numbers look better.  Not sure what that means but I'll find out next month when I go in for another blood draw.  I long ago accepted the fact (against my will) that this ole body is going to remind me on a daily basis that it's old and this is what you get for carrying extra weight.   Like that wasn't something I already knew.

I set out fresh hummingbird nectar, washed up all the dishes, and I do believe that is the extent of my chores today.  Still have to drive Maddie to the high school in about 20 minutes and then pick her up at noon.  They're on spring break but the track team still works out.

Rented two movies from Red Box yesterday and rented one on pay-for-view the night before that. All three were academy award nominees but were only so so, in my opinion -- The Imitation Game, The Theory of Everything, and Interstellar.  Matthew McConaughey got good reviews on IMDB but I didn't think his acting was anything to write home about.  He kind of got on my nerves.  Also found the dialogue sound hard to follow on that movie. Couldn't understand what they were mumbling half the time.

Saw this photo on Facebook yesterday and thought it was TERRIFIC!  Katherine Baril took it so I had to look over some of her other shots.  Man!  Really good!

Spent a lot of yesterday researching genealogy clues.  I wanted to know more about Perry Banks in the old album who was listed as a half brother of my g. grandfather.  Naturally there are more than one Perry Banks out there so today I'm going to continue the search.  I did find one Perry in a household with two Patton girls (Daisy and Annie) who were listed as his step sisters.  May not be the right Perry but seeing the name Patton made me want to search it out more.  Having a heck of a time running down Daisy and Annie but I think I'm getting closer.

The Perry Banks in this household was a silent screen actor along with his wife, Bessie.  Found a few references to his work online.

Banks, Perry: b Victoria BC 1877; educated Pierce Christian College, CA

stage career, 15 yrs stock and rep., with Robert Downing in rep; vaud. and circus; did Griffith’s sketch,’In Washington’s Time: Screen career, American: Other side of the door, Overalls, The overcoat, Faith, Melissa of the Hills, The sea master, A sporting Chance, Six feet Four, Eve in exile, Slim Bang Jim, House of Toys.

from IMDB:

Perry Banks (1877–1934)

Actor | Writer

Perry Banks was born on April 24, 1877 in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. He was an actor and writer, known for The Gulf Between (1916), The Legend Beautiful (1915) and Overalls (1916). He died on October 10, 1934 in Santa Barbara, California, USA. See full bio »

Born: April 24, 1877 in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

Died: October 10, 1934 (age 57) in Santa Barbara, California, USA

I even found a website showing pictures of silent screen actors and while Perry was listed, his picture was an ad for George Bush.  Made me mad but I'm gonna' keep hunting.

Maddie has offered to help me clean the pots on the back deck so "maybe" I'll have her help me with those this afternoon.  Or not.  I really want to be out there working but my back has got to cooperate at least a little more than it's doing now.

Had one picture in my email this morning.  Made me smile...

And I'm off...

For Carisa...

                                                                    Chester & Ora

                                                               Jim and Jake Thomason