Christmas Time, Blog Time, HO Ho ho

 

Before Christmas is Thanksgiving...before Thanksgiving is my Birthday (sometimes it falls on Thanksgiving).  So for Thanksgiving, we enjoyed a nice, boneless leg of Lamb dinner, complete with different veggies and a large sweet potato that we split in half.  The nice thing about the Lamb, it lasts for another 4-5 meals, so I put a third of the cooked lamb into the freezer.  And what about my birthday?  Pizza from Pizza Hut.  Not that the "Hut" is the best pizza, when you have not had it for nearly 5 years, it tastes darn good!  Now we have had various low carb pizzas over these past 4-5 years, but they just are not like a real pizza.  I "almost" had a Lou Malnati's legendary Chicago deep dish pizza shipped, but I just could not justify the cost...so Pizza Hut was it, and it was good.  And what about Turkey???  We got a bone in Turkey which I made Turkey Soup out of...that lasted four to five days!

Of course, with Thanksgiving being over, we now have to prepare for Winter in Florida.  That included getting rid of an ant farm which suddenly showed up outside our front door.  

Although I could have called the HOA and they eventually would come and take care of them, I hit them with TERRO ant bait, which took out the sugar ants real quick...but the majority of these ants were not sugar ants...more like Little Black Ants, and you need a different TERRO for that...but I did have Amdro and it did the job, except these little creeps kept moving to areas nearby.  It took about a week, but they are now under control.  The difference between these two type of ants is that the Sugar Ant seems to climb up and down walls, power cords, drapes...they just get into anything and everything if you don't control them.  The Little Black Ants seem to stay along the ground...which means poor Indy's food bowl was their favorite place to go.  Let's just say that we are prepared for Florida Winter now, no ants inside for well over a week now.

Since we arrived home from our California trip in late September, I knew it was time to put the HHR back into the shop again.  Once we got back home, it started right up...which lasted about 5 seconds then died.  I figured it might have had water in the gas due to the high humidity and the one tropical storm that it endured while we were gone.  After two shots of gas additive and a few hundred miles of driving, it became apparent this was not the issue.  The Camper Van needed an oil change, and I decided that would be first.  Then the first hurricane, Helene, hit the area, and although we did not have issues, others around us did, including massive power outages.  So I held off (procrastination) until two weeks later when Milton hit the area and caused even more damage.  Although I had an appointment to get the oil changed for the Camper Van, that had to be canceled as we headed north to get away from Milton.  By late October the community was getting back to normal, as close to normal as it could be with debris piled up along so many roadways due to the damage that Milton and Helene caused...so I did get the oil changed, and that was blogged about in late October.  By early November I got the HHR into the shop where it stayed for nearly a week.  $1,700 later, it is like we have a new engine...but the check engine light was still coming on due to a sensor in the Catalytic Converter. So I put an additive in and started driving it in 2nd gear as much as possible to get the RPMs up there as if it was on the highway.  220 miles later, before the second treatment, the light turned off.  I put the second treatment in and continued the high RPM driving for another 30 miles, filled up the tank and started driving it normally again.  It has been another 200 miles, and all is well.  The HHR has over 170,000 of driving miles, and another 120,000 miles being pulled behind three different motorhomes, included up to Alaska and back, so it has seen its days for sure.  But we love our HHR, which we purchased a month or so after we got married in 2011...it was originally bought by a rental car agency in 2009, so we are its second owner, but it has had multiple drivers.  Overall, it has run very nice for us until a couple of years ago.  This time I think we have it fixed.

Which brings up to up to Christmas.  Christmas Day we are going over to Marcia's brother Mike's house.  Christmas Eve I will cook a Texas Ribeye, with Baked Potato, Veggies, and our favorite seasonal dessert, Cranberry Orange Marmalade Sauce over Rebel Ice Cream.  (2 - 12 oz bags Cranberries, 1 cup Splenda Brown Sugar, 2 cups Sugar Free Orange Marmalade, 16 oz baked chopped Walnuts, 4 tbl Lemon Juice.  Cook Cranberries and Splenda Brown Sugar mixed well in a standard 2 Qt. 8″ x 11″ glass baking dish for an hour, covered, at 350 degrees, stirring once half way through.  Add Orange Marmalade, nuts and juice, stir well, cook uncovered for another 15 minutes.)  A half cup serving has 4 net carbs, the ice cream has 2-6 net carbs depending upon flavor (Rebel is our favorite brand).  We also put a couple tablespoons over our Hot Oatmeal in the morning.  It is YUMMY!

We hope all of YOU have a wonderful Christmas Holiday, and remember just what it is we are celebrating for. 

 

Headed Home to Florida - Thanksgiving Update - Mom has Another UTI

We left Florida in late March, arrived at my sister's house in Citrus Heights around April 10th.  After 7+ months, all but 6 weeks camping up in Cromberg to get away from the heat, it is time to head home to beat the cold weather.  Our motorhome is not set up for colder weather...living in the Tampa area means we don't have to weatherize it...but it also means we need to limit temps below 32...we faced that back in 2017 when we stayed for Christmas, drove home in late December and early January and faced frozen water and sewer lines crossing Western Texas.  

We were off just before 8 on Saturday morning.  Drove to Lodi where there was a Flying J because we were in need of a RV Wash (Blue Beacon next door), Propane (we were nearly out) and gasoline.  Very small line at Blue Beacon, no lines at Flying J, so we were back on the road. Above is cell phone picture of the Propane being put in.  

In Stockton we moved from I-5 over to US-99 in light traffic.  Made it through Merced, where my Blog Friend Nancy had told me to expect very bad construction issues...but we got through without even a slowdown.  However, just south of Tulare we hit a car wall...and for the next 90 minutes we moved maybe a few miles.  In Tipton I got off the freeway, headed east, south, then west getting back onto US-99 near Pixley passing all the stalled highway traffic.  We got into the Orange Grove RV Park around 4:15, and barely got things settled before darkness hit.

We again were up and on the road by 8 am, and saw a lot of Desert (pardon the cell phone photo...to tired to get the few pictures out of the camera.)  We arrived in Needles before 2 pm and we are staying at Fender's RV Park and Resort, Passport America park for around $20.  Indy was happy to find this Oasis of Grass that they have near were we always stay (been here I think six times now, maybe as much as eight, and all but once we have stayed in the same spot.)

Tomorrow we meet our friend Laurie at a Cracker Barrel in Phoenix, we will stay overnight at the Cracker Barrel, and off again.  If our luck holds up, we should be past Houston Thursday night...at which point the cold weather chances vanish for this time of the year.

For Thanksgiving Arny deep-fried the Turkey (one of his best fryings in our opinion) and we had Mom, Ed (a neighbor), Patti (sister), Sandy (sister), Arny (brother-in-law) and Marcia and I in attendance.  Since it was someone's B-Day, we decided to not follow our diet and eat some of everything, but keep it to the one meal with dessert.  It was all delicious, and everyone took home some leftovers except mom, she does not have her own refrigerator. 

Knowing that I would be busy Friday preparing to leave, I went by to visit mom at the Assisted Living Home on Wednesday before Thanksgiving.  For the most part she was happy, talking good with just a little bit of the dementia showing through like when she asked how my Thanksgiving Dinner went (without her).  Unfortunately, by the time she arrived for the real Thanksgiving Dinner the next day, she was entering a Delirium stage.  By Friday she was back in the hospital, which is not the easiest condition to leave...but I had already said my goodbyes, and we both (mom and us) know when we say goodbye, it could be the last goodbye.  Today Sandy said she is going to be in the hospital until at least Tuesday to finish up antibiotic treatment...and when they send her home she will have a antibiotic pill to take for who knows how long.  Overall the Delirium is fading fast, but it always takes its toll on her.

May not post every day of the trip...and we have taken this trip so many times we are running out of pictures to take. 

B-Day, Thanksgiving, Misc Stuff

 

Yep, enough said about that one....

Marcia and I had a nice Thanksgiving Dinner, just the two of us.  No, we did not have turkey, I made a Standing Rib Roast, and it was a perfect medium rare, and tasted real yummy.  Local grocery store had it on sale for $9.99 per pound, and we had five dinners out of it.  Next year I get to celebrate Thanksgiving and B-day on the same day!  Did not talk to my kids on Thanksgiving since we all talked the day before...all is well with all.  Mom and Patti went to Sandy and Arny's and they all had a great Turkey meal.

Our Hurricane Season comes to an end today.   

Projection for 2022 was: "The outlook from NOAA is for 14-20 named storms predicted this year, with 6 to 10 of those becoming hurricanes and 3 to 5 major hurricanes. That would be an above-average season if it happens as predicted."   

Actual for 2022 was: "The 2022 Atlantic hurricane season saw an average number of named storms, a slightly above-average number of hurricanes, a near-average number of major hurricanes and a slightly below-normal Accumulated cyclone energy (ACE) index. Despite this, it became one of the costliest Atlantic hurricane seasons on record.  14 named storms, eight hurricanes and two major hurricanes — Fiona and Ian"

So, the predictions were pretty much spot on, though the major hurricanes fell short.

Indy and I made another visit to Crystal Beach while Marcia attended her Woman's Bible Study, but I forgot my camera, and got this one with my cell phone.  A lady walked by with two smaller dogs, and Indy just had to watch them all the way until they got out of sight.  Marcia did skip one Bible Study the week before ... just one of those 'getting old' type of things.  Not sick, just not up to going out.  (That picture was taken Monday, today [Wednesday] I gave her another hair cut.)

Mom called Tuesday and said that a lady who lives at the Assisted/Independent Living facility had her car 'jacked' when she went out to drive away.  She did not get hurt, they got away with the car, and I could not find ANYTHING about it on the news.  Makes you wonder just how many of these type of things happen each day that 'we' don't know about.  Want to see some amazing stats from Chicago, visit here.  Below is just a sample of the information found at the site.

Chicago Year To Date
Shot & Killed: 610
Shot & Wounded: 2747
Total Shot: 3357
Total Homicides: 672
Carjackings: 1420  
Carjacking Arrests: 94

Wish they had a site like this for all major cities...

Interesting developments with our RV Storage site.  They cut that tree way back, they lined much of the parking lot, so they are getting ready to actively store more RVs, boats, utility trailers and vehicles.  So now we get a lot of shade, under an acorn tree (some type of oak tree), and as time goes on, more 'neighbors'.  I always wondered why they did not capitalize on this before.  At $125 per month (for my size), this will give them 40-50 more opportunities to rent more spaces...that's a bunch of money!  Over by our Walgreens Pharmacy they opened a lot up for storage two years ago, and now it is 70% full.  

Next week Marcia is seeing an eye doctor about a possible cataract that is really starting to affect her vision.  

On Monday Marcia asked "I know November 28th is a special date, do you remember why?"  Reminder her that it was the day that Dad passed three years ago.  When I dropped her off at Bible Study she said, "See you later."  I replied, "Okey Dookie", a term that I rarely use...but one that Dad used frequently.  I had used it earlier in the morning too...subliminal I reckon...

Birthday Boy

 

Sister Patti sent me this message, and luckily I was able to see it on my flip-phone.  Ever since I got the 4G Flip, I have been able to see 'most' images sent to me, but not all...some still show up as a RED X.  Yes, I recently had a birthday...my 65th.  Sandy (sister) and Arny were the first to call, talked to mom a day or two earlier so she sent her greeting on Facebook which sounded the alarm to many others who sent birthday wishes.

Signed up for medicare in August, got my supplement and drug plans in October with everything starting November 1st.  Now I will no longer 'have' to visit Arkansas to see a Doctor at a reasonable price.  For eight years since my retirement in 2012, the Library paid 50% of my insurance, but the catch was that it was the same insurance the Library/City has, and it is good if you are in Arkansas, you pay out the nose if you are outside of the Arkansas network.  Thank goodness I only had to face that once, and somehow the convinced the hospital in Wyoming to accept the terms of Arkansas Network, so it did not cost too much.  Now, I am set ANYWHERE in the USA.  

Also talked to each of my three kids, who called one after another after another that night.  Now you would think it was coordinated, but no...not 90 seconds after Steph called, Michael called.  My phone give option of sending a text to the caller, so I let him know I was talking to his sister.  Called him 30 minutes later and near the end of our talk, Ryan called.  So after nearly 2 hours, I had nice conversations with all three kids, each of whom are doing well.  

Indy is more and more infatuated with the TV, especially if there is a dog or a horse on the screen.  This was an episode of Gunsmoke (I think), and it was in Black and White...she still went over and stood up to watch it.  You can see her eyes are glued on the dog.  Sometimes when the dogs or horses move off screen (left or right) she will chase them just to find that they have disappeared.  She still watches the "other dog" in the mirror.  Caught her last night laying in front of one of the mirrors in our living room, just staring at the dog which was staring back at her.  Must have laid there for 3 or 4 minutes just staring.

She now knows the term "Dog Park", and just about every time I put my shoes on, she runs to the front door hoping that she gets to go with dad, and hoping that it is the dog park.  Poor girl is banned from the dog park for the next couple of weeks...yes, she is back in heat again.  So I have it down in my calendar to call the Vet in January and hopefully have her fixed in late January or early February.  

We are nearly done with Hurricane watch.  Some say the middle of November, some say the end of November.  This website above is active from June 1st to November 30th for Atlantic Hurricanes, and starts in Mid-May for Pacific.  The website remains active, but there are no updates until the season starts up again.  The "Disturbance" shown above moved from the Bahamas into the Atlantic over the past five days.  It probably is the last disturbance of this record breaking season which produced 30 named storms, of which 13 became hurricanes, and 6 major hurricanes developed out of those 13. Twelve of the 30 named storms made landfall in the United States, breaking the record of nine set in 1916.  Five Hurricanes impacted the US with Hanna hitting South Texas, Isaias hitting North Carolina, Laura hitting Louisiana (Cat-4), Sally hitting Alabama and the West Florida Panhandle, and Delta hitting Louisiana.  Louisiana took the brunt of the damage this year.  

Watching the weather forecast is like watching the COVID numbers. It is easy to get hooked on it.  Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving, and let's hope for Christmas that Santa brings a vaccine to start the process of ending the COVID headache we all have.

Turkey, Turkey and More Turkey

Home in Holiday / Tarpon Springs area, FL

We don’t always have turkey for Thanksgiving…but normally we do…and this was a ‘normal’ year.  Back in 2014 we did a Loin Roast, and that was YUM YUM YUMMY.

The picture above was from that meal…and boy, it was good…with potatoes, asparagus, yams and my favorite Marshmallow Salad (longtime followers have heard about that salad before). 

This year, though it was just the two of us, we did a turkey.  I got up at 6:30, by 7:00 I had the turkey in the oven at 400 degrees for an hour, then turned it down to 210 degrees for eight hours doing an occasional basting.  The picture above is not our turkey, but it is the closest one that I could find to what ours looked like.  Stuffed with onions, celery and whole mushrooms, spiced with pepper, lemon pepper and poultry seasoning, it turned out good…except that the thigh was not ready after the nine hours of cooking, and needed 45 minutes more at 325 degrees to reach the 165 degree mark.  The turkey was moist, tender, and real yummy.  With it we had our first baked potato in two years, and asparagus.  (Now I am not the biggest fan of asparagus, but Marcia does it just right...not mushy, spiced just right...)

We have a “Choose a Crock” Crock-Pot like the one above.  I cut off much of the turkey meat, crammed the turkey bones and remains along with some water and some chicken broth into the largest of the three crocks, and let it cook on low for an hour, then on warm all night long.  It is nice because when you set it for a given time limit, it automatically goes to warm when the time is up.  The next morning I strained the bones and meat pieces from the broth, then added the meat I got out of the strainer into the crock.  As the day progressed, I added veggies and more meat, and we had enough turkey soup for three meals.

I got a large baggie of miscellaneous turkey meat, and another large baggie with one of the breasts.  We had Turkey Salad twice, Turkey on Burgers once, and three omelettes…and there is still just a bit of meat left for another omelette, and one large container of soup in the freezer for a cold night later on.  By-the-way…10 1/2 pound turkey at 49 cents a pound.  Not bad for just over $5 and the cost of eggs, veggies and chicken broth.   And did I mention we had baked potatoes for the first time in two years?    Other than the potatoes, we stuck to our diet real well...and I love turkey so much, I am ready to cook another one. 

Yep, I had another one of those...never a big deal anymore.  As it falls near or on Thanksgiving a lot, I am used to people forgetting or overlooking it.  My kids remembered ok, though Stephanie did not call me until the next day just before she was getting on a plane headed back to Salt Lake City (she was in California with Michael)…but the boys both called.  Mom and dad called the next day, a brother sent me an email, talked with both my sisters within a day or two and even got a chance to talk to Arny on Monday.  Of course, when mom and dad called on the day ‘after’ my birthday, I answered the phone by saying, “Who is this?  Can’t be my parents because they would have talked to me on my birthday!”  We laughed….    I even got a blog comment from Cat Lady who must have seen it from past years and remembered, because as far as I know, I have never met Cat Lady, but at my age…you never know about these things.  (Ok, not that old…but Medicare is come up pretty soon).

       

Our dishwasher should be installed next week…along with a Power Lift Massage Recliner Heated Vibrating Chair that I ordered yesterday from Amazon.  Life is good…and soon life will be much more comfortable. 

Thanksgiving(s) of Old…Well, 50+ Years Ago

Sister’s House – Citrus Heights, CA

Thanksgiving, as I have written before, has always been a huge family gathering day even well before I discovered that my Dad has 3, or is it 4, ancestors who were on the Mayflower.  I cannot remember Thanksgivings where it was just mom, dad and my brothers and sister … it always seems that we got together with many relatives, and throw in a few church friends now and then too.  Not sure what the largest gathering was…it seems there was one at our house which mom forced me to walk to when I was not even eight yet (wrote about that a few blogs ago) that we had 25 people at it…give a person or two.  Of course, as a young kid, you think things are much bigger than they really were.

Thanksgiving has always meant FOOTBALL.  In Sacramento there was a Thanksgiving Day High School Football game between Sacramento High (where dad graduated from) and C.K. McClatchy High (where my oldest brother graduated from...and yes, as in McClatchy Publishing-Newspaper business.)  I don’t know why we went to one of these games, but we did, or at least some of us.  Not sure mom went, not sure sis went…but I know I was there.  But the REAL football games that I recall were the ones which we played about a half mile away from the house at the Sewage Treatment Plant…well, actually land which was adjacent to the Sewage Treatment Plant.

Above is a current Google Image of the sewage treatment plant (now called the City of Sacramento DOU – Department of Utilities).  The plant was about half the size it is now…perhaps even less than half, and is that large area to the right of the green circle in the picture.  The “green circle” is where the large lawn was located that we played football on Thanksgiving morning.  We would gather all the kids in the neighborhood, even calling up a few would lived outside of the neighborhood, and have a giant football game.  We also used the same property to play baseball sometimes.  One time while we were playing some kid, who was near the bottom of the circle while we were playing where that white building is located in the circle, yelled and asked if he could play.  Someone yelled back, “Sure, come on down.”  Back in those days there was a trench which transported the water from the plant to a lake down past our house.  We continued to play, and after a batter or two we wondered where this guy who wanted to play with us went to…until we see him climbing out of the trench.  He did not know about the trench, and was running to us watching the play continue and yep, he ran himself right into that sewage treatment water.  We told him that he could still play…but he had to play right field for both teams…which is where the wind was blowing out to.  Surprisingly, he said ok, and that is what he did.

   

And every once in awhile…someone’s Birthday falls on Thanksgiving.  That happened 50 years ago, and it happens again this year, and it has happened a few times in between.  Hope YOU ALL have a nice Thanksgiving…I know I will, even as I creep closer and closer to Medicare…

The Trip to Alaska Continues on Saturday

We came to the Sacramento area this particular time of the year to enjoy birthdays with my mom and dad.  Mom had her birthday on Monday, but we celebrated on Sunday…and although I had my camera out and even inside my sister’s house, I failed to take even one picture of the event.

I picked the above picture because it reminds me of my first dog, a family dog while the five of us grew up in Sacramento.  Her name was Snooper, but we also called her Snoopy.  A Terrier/Chihuahua mix, she was a smart dog.  Mom would send her down the hall to “wake up the kids” each school day, and she would run into each room barking, licking faces, and getting us up.  She hated people in uniforms…going after the mailman each day, the garbage men, the meter readers, and even my brother in his Army uniform until she realized who it was.  I don’t have a picture of her, but this picture to the right from the Internet gives you an idea of what she looked like.  So why the picture of the dog eating cake?  Because one Christmas Eve, mom had a freshly baked Pineapple Upside-Down Cake sitting on the dinner table, which was half gone when we got home.  Snoopy had jumped up into a chair, onto the table, and had eaten a good portion of the cake.

    

Of course, that was then…this is now.  Two dogs, Bubba and Skruffy.  They get their “Arny” treat in the morning around 7 am, and their “Sandy” treat in the afternoon around 4 pm (when she gets home). 

And of course, there is the “night night” treat each evening when normally Arny, but sometimes Sandy, gives them their nightly treat… 

…a small amount of Vanilla Ice Cream.  Then there are those family meals… where things mysteriously fall onto the floor, or a hand goes under the table.  Yep, they are spoiled little dogs when we visit Sacramento.  Took Bubba to the Vet today due to an ear infection, and the had gained 2-3 ounces...vet said he is the perfect weight.  Skruffy, well if we weighed her, she would still be over weight, but she has lost some of her back side due to the chasing of the squirrels.

The plan was for Marcia and I to take mom and dad out to lunch on her birthday on Monday, but unfortunately that “health bug” got to her, and we needed to postpone it.  Ever since she has been on her new medication for the Breast Cancer treatment, every so often she wakes up and just feels like Skata for a day or two.  Thank goodness it was only for a day this time, and since Arny had dinner planned for Tuesday for all of us (Fish Tacos by Arny, Lemon Shrimp by Marcia), we waited until today (Wednesday) to take mom out for her lunch.

   

Those who have been to one before know by the cell phone picture above just where she wanted to go for lunch…to the Spaghetti Factory, in Roseville.  The first Spaghetti Factory was opened in Portland Oregon in 1969.  Sacramento has had a Spaghetti Factory since the mid 1970’s, and I have been to Spaghetti Factory’s in at least three different states now.  Some are in old Railroad Stations, and I like these ones the best.  The one in Roseville is not an old station, but they still decorate it with a railroad motif.  Spaghetti all around excpet for me, I had Lasagna.  Marcia ordered a large order of Fresh Broccoli, which is lightly flavored with Mizithra Cheese, which she is “reaching for” in the above picture.  We came home with some of the Broccoli, a 5 oz container of the Cheese, and Marcia is so appreciative of Aunt Florence for turning her on to the Broccoli at Spaghetti Factory.

We leave on Saturday from Citrus Heights, headed to see my daughter Stephanie in Utah for a couple of days, then up to the Tetons, and over to Theodore Roosevelt National Park. By mid-May we hope to be in the Jasper / Banff area in Canada, and by June 1st, on the Alaska Highway headed north.

Thanksgiving Time and Turned 60

Ok, so it was I who turned the big 60.   Marcia and I went out to dinner at Claim Jumpers a few days before my birthday, mom and dad had everyone over for a birthday celebration the day before my birthday, and on my birthday I heard from all three of my kids, and pretty much just kicked back and enjoy my day.

As for thanksgiving, I am going to share my posting below from a few years ago….I hope you enjoy, and I hope you enjoy your Thanksgiving. We leave Friday morning, and will be back to posting nearly daily while we take 17 days to get back to our home in Florida.

Thanksgiving has always held a special place in my heart.  The reasons vary.  Football Games, I love turkey, family get-togethers, I really do love turkey, my birthday falls on Thanksgiving every now and then, and because in the late 1980’s, I found out something very special….

Although college games are on the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving, the NFL has had Thanksgiving games since the 1920’s.  In “modern” times of the NFL, Dallas, Detroit and then random teams each host a game on Thanksgiving, but back in the ‘20’s teams regularly played on Thanksgiving.  Most the of time that I lived in Arkansas the big game was always LSU -vs- Arkansas with every-other year being played in Little Rock.  Although I never attended one of these games, my kids each have, and they loved it.

And although I love turkey, having lots of family together, which happened many times when I was young through even this week, is always great.  And just how much do I like turkey?  When I was young, if we went out to a restaurant, if turkey was on the menu, it was a safe bet that is what I would order.  Go to a Chinese restaurant, and yes, if there was turkey, I would order it.  If we went to Sam’s Hof Brau, which for a time was a landmark in downtown Sacramento since it opened in 1959 and expanded from there, then contracted to just one restaurant left, other family members would have a large slice of their roast beef, while I would have turkey.  Before I turned 20, I cooked my first turkey dinner.  When my kids were young, I had a major part of cooking Thanksgiving dinner.  That’s how much I love turkey, although I rarely will order it in a restaurant because I know too much now about the dangers of turkey and lake of standards in some restaurants.  But that is all another story…

 

Since Thanksgiving falls on the fourth Thursday of each November, from time to time it lands on the 23rd.  When this happened when I was young this meant that many people would attend my Birthday dinner.  That was cool.  The last time my birthday was on Thanksgiving was 2006, the next will be in 2017.

In the late ‘80’s while taking a Christmas break from college we traveled from Utah to Sacramento to be with family.  I was a student worker in the Library at the time, in the genealogy area of the Library.  Working there led me to my career in the Public Library world.  Anyway,  I had made much progress on dad’s linage by this time.  I knew that my paternal great grandfather was born in Alameda County, California, and that his mother and father (2nd Great Grandparents), both were early settlers of California.  I knew they were buried in Irvington, Alameda County, California, now Freemont.  So one day during this Christmas break, I drove the 120 miles to the cemetery were they are buried at.  Though I knew his parentage, I knew nothing about hers.  Got to the cemetery and asked where they were buried.  Person looked it up, said there were no headstones, but showed me where they were.  I did know that her maiden name was Healey, spelled various ways, so I asked if there were any Healey’s.  “Oh yes,” they said, “a few large monument type headstones in this section and that section nearby where you will be.

I find my 2nd great-grandparents, and three large Healey headstones for which I wrote down the information I found.  What now?  Well to a local library, of course.  When I find the local branch library, I at first feel letdown….it is in a temporary building, like a large double-wide mobile home.  I decide to go in and look at their computer card catalog.  While I do, the Reference Librarian asks what I am looking for.  I respond with, “I doubt you have anything here due to your size, but ….”, and I tell her of my find.  She reaches back to a small bookcase at her desk and pulls out a couple of books.  “Why don’t you look at these?”  And in one of the books it confirmed that I had just seen the headstone of my 3rd great-grandparents, Ebenezer Haley and his wife Mary (Lee Scott). and two of their sons and their wives.  WOW!

So on my drive back to Sacramento I wonder what the likelihood is of getting one more genealogy day while visiting family….I really wanted to go to the California State Library where I could look up some obituaries for these newly found names, and see what else they have.  A day or two later I do this, find many more obituaries including my 3rd great grandfather who had a major 1/4 page write up in the Oakland Tribune.  And in looking up books about him, I find the big prize….it is a book titled, “The Haley and Healy family ancestry of Ebenezer Haley, California pioneer of 1850,: With an account of his descendants to the present day”  Amazingly, the State Library had this book, but it couldn’t be checked out, but I was able to look at it….and in it I see that the Haley line descends from the Mayflower, and it’s verified by the Mayflower Society.  And since I work in a library, I KNEW that I would be able to get a copy through Interlibrary Loan from which I could make a copy before it needs to be sent back.  WOW, all of my Thanksgivings from this point on would be filled with much more meaning.

I hope that all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving. May God bless you all, wherever you are, and may your travels be safe.

Note:  Confirmed Mayflower ancestors are William Brewster and his wife Mary, Stephen Hopkins and his wife Elizabeth,  John Howland. Edward Tilley and his wife Ann.  Many of the other passengers are distance relatives in that descendants married brothers/sisters of my ancestors.  When it comes down to it…we are all related one way or another.