So, yesterday afternoon, I made myself a cup of coffee, and drank it the way I usually drink coffee....all afternoon. No wonder at 2 a.m. when I finally went to bed, all I could do was lie there and think of all the things I wanted to get done.
It does no good to stay in bed when you are wide awake, so I got up and worked on typing up the information from markers and posters we saw on our Civil War trip in April. I'm making copies of the pertinent photos for a cousin who does family research, and who has been instrumental in getting me records and information that I can use in my family tree. You see, his great-grandfather is the brother of my great-grandfather, so we have a common interest in the two Cooper brothers who joined the army to fight during that great, sad war. Even though this cousin's great-grandfather was unsuccessful in joining his brothers in the fight with the Confederates, he did become a soldier - against his mother's wishes. He lied about his age in order to serve. The family has a copy of a letter written by Great-grandmother Rebecca to the government, asking to have her 'under-age' son returned home to help with the farm, and for the sake of his health, as she told them he was not a strong young man. As it turned out, he did serve eventually, but in the so-called 'Indian' wars, not in the great battles of the Civil War.
Even so, this cousin is a genealogy buff and loves any bit of information he can get about our ancestors, their lives, and their various military experiences.
So, I took lots of photos of the battle sites where my great-grandfather and great-grand uncle fought, and as mentioned above, I'm making copies of those photos to send to him for his files (both brothers would be his great-grand uncles). Since many of the pictures are of markers and posters that explain various battles and strategies, and since the photos of the text on those markers and posters make the words small and hard to read, I decided to magnify each of those photos on my computer screen, and type out what they say so my cousin can easily read about them. You see, unfortunately, for him to simply enlarge each photo after scanning them into his computer doesn't work well, since once they are printed out, they become digitized and blurred when you magnify them. Also, now I will have a written copy of the text on those photos that I can myself refer to when needed.
There I was from about 2:30 a.m. until about 5:00 a.m., typing away, bringing up photo after photo and copying the information into a Word document that I can print out and send to this cousin, along with the photos I am copying for him.
Needless to say, at 5:00 a.m. my eyes gave out on me and I crawled back into my bed, hoping to get at least a few hours of sleep before my day began.
I did sleep about 4 hours at that time, and a few more after I had eaten some breakfast, but tonight I can feel the need for better sleep creeping up on me. So, I will say a few words about the day, and try to retire earlier than usual. I'm hoping that the storms that keep popping up west of us calm down, or my sleep will again be disturbed tonight.
This morning I got an email from our daughter in the Dallas area. Apparently, her suburb was hit with a tornado, but her apartment was not affected. Her email was much appreciated, as I do tend to be a worrier. She also wished me a 'happy Mother's day, and said a card is on its way...
Then, David brought in the bookcases he has been refinishing in the garage, and it was time to move out the plastic crates I've been using for the books and other materials in our library. We do have some nice cabinets with shelves, but I seem to have accumulated quite a few family dishes and keepsakes that I have not yet been able to part with, along with my art books and other materials, so those cabinets are full.
Putting the new bookcases in place required me to unplug all the myriad cords going into my computer, and move the desk down the wall a bit to make room for the new bookcase on that side of the room. Moving the desk necessitated moving a framed photo that was on the wall behind the desk, because with the computer monitor in a new position, that photo was hidden behind it, and I enjoy looking at the picture of my folks' former cabin that once stood on a pretty lake in northern Minnesota. So, out came the tools. After I got the desk and picture where I wanted them, and my computer tower moved to a different spot, I tried to plug in each of the many cables, back into their proper spots on the tower back. I was a bit frustrated because the monitor did not seem to be hooked up properly, and would not turn on.
But, I was in luck, because just about then, my son Dave and his wife Carol came and brought me a Mother's day gift - a beautiful 'Endless Summer' blue hydrangea! Dave is good with computers, so after showing them the baby ducks and geese, I brought him in to see if he could make the monitor work. Well, I don't know how, but when I turned on the computer, the monitor came right on...guess I had it all plugged in the right spots, in spite of myself!
After they left, I returned to the job of getting my books put onto the new shelves. I still have one entire bookcase left to fill, but things look so much better. Eventually, this room we call 'the library' will look quite smart and orderly, I'm sure.
For supper we had some delicious corn tortillas I bought from a Mexican 'tienda' in Waterloo. They were wonderful, and I fried some fish fillets, and cut up an avocado and some red onion slices to serve with them. David brought in some fresh leaf lettuce from the garden, too. We had homemade salsa and fresh lime juice with the tacos. For beverages, we enjoyed some very good beer.
I made 'hush puppies' with the leftover Panko crumbs/flour mixture and the excess beaten eggs. Our dog, Suny, liked his 'hush puppy,' and now we expect him to be a very quiet dog tonight.
Our usual Sunday evening is spent watching some favorite dramas on PBS, and reading the Sunday paper.
There will not be any computer work tonight. I need to go to bed!
I am also grateful for the nice greetings on my Facebook page from my kids/spouses in Arizona and Nevada. How lucky I am... family is so very important...
Good night, all...
No comments:
Post a Comment