2449 Days since retiring July 1, 2005!

"It was a dark and stormy night…"

Read on and fall sound asleep

I cannot believe it has been 29 days since I wrote the last entry into whatever this thing is. Twenty nine days! God could have created 4 universes in that time. So what have I been doing? Sleeping way too much but Rascal loves that since I am his headrest, pillow, comforter, and security guard.

Somehow I have moved to the dark side. I volunteered to index records: draft, marriage, birth, death, tax, and so-forth in preparation for the release of the 1940 census by the government. These documents are scanned images and are not searchable by any present technology other than the human mind and eye. The 1940 USA census will be released in the same format. We volunteers are translating information from the scanned images to electronic media. I volunteered so that I would get access to that 1940 census so I can discover where Mom and Dad were in 1940 to answer the big question. Was I made in Oklahoma, Texas or Oregon? I started just fine with draft registration records for WW1 but then shifted to birth records for Oklahoma. I could just barely read the Okie hen scratch and knew I was not ready for the hard stuff. I chose Texas death records from 1890 to 1956 for my next batch. I still have a difficult time with the old style handwriting. However the sparse bare facts on these simple documents of life shout stories to me as they pass in front of my eyes. Epidemic! Still born! Lost dream! Murder! Car wreak! Fire! All those, so fragile, lives snuffed after such a brief time on this glorious Earth. On could get quite depressed with all the death yet the humans just keep coming. Nothing stops us, not war, not disease, NOTHING!

Some of the most poignant are from early death record for Texas counties in 1905. Texas must have been a raw and wild place then populated by an unschooled mass of immigrants from the USA and the rest of the world. Others like the death certificates for Red River county surprise me with details of huge losses due to malaria. Who would have thought of Malaria 500 plus miles from the gulf coast?

I wish somehow I could find later documents of victory and recovery for the survivors barely mentioned in the death certificates.

Earlier this week a very dear friend from the webtv grannies group died after a rapid series of strokes. Sarah Reynolds will be missed. She and her daughter travelled the world. Sarah, even though we only met once in Gatlinburg TN, always found a souvenir from her travels. I shall always treasure the Egyptian snow pyramid from the national museum in Cairo, the Chinese snow globe of their great wall, and the snow globe of a polar bear from Iceland. Mostly I will miss her political presence. She had opinions and was not afraid to share them. I hope God is ready to answer the list of questions she has for him.

An 80-year-old Italian goes to the doctor for a check-up. The doctor is amazed at what good shape the guy is in and asks, "How do you stay in such great physical condition?"

"I'm Italian and I am a golfer," says the old guy. "And that's why I'm in such good shape. I'm up well before daylight and out golfing up and down the fairways. I have a glass of vino, and all is well."

'Well' says the doctor, "I'm sure that helps, but there's got to be more to it. How old was your Father when he died?"

"Who said my Father's dead?"

The doctor is amazed. "You mean you're 80 years old and your Father's still alive? How old is he?"

"He's 100 years old," says the Old Italian golfer. "In fact he golfed with me this morning, and then we went to the topless beach for a walk and had a little vino.

He's Italian and he's a golfer, too. And that's why he's still alive..."

"Well," the doctor says, "that's great, but I'm sure there's more to it than that.

How about your Father's Father? How old was he when he died?"

"Who said my Nono's dead?"

Stunned, the doctor asks, "You mean you're 80 years old and your grandfather's still living! That's incredible-how old is he?"

"He's 118 years old," says the Old Italian Golfer.

The doctor is getting frustrated at this point, "So, I guess he went golfing with you this morning too?"

"No, Nono couldn't go this morning because he's getting married today."

At this point the doctor is close to losing it. "Getting married!!!

Why would a 118 year-old guy want to get married?"

"Who said he wanted to?"