JSL has tended these plants for a couple of years. Here are the results.
Our Backyard
Thanks, D!
Monday, August 25, 2008
Poignant Realization
Back in about 1979 or so, when we lived in Massachusetts, I had a poignant realization. We had waited for years and years for our cousins to return from overseas duty to the US so our kids could get to know them. We were really looking forward to renewing acquaintances and raising our kids together. But when they came back, they decided to move to Colorado, nearly the whole width of the country away. I was so sad! Even though we did what we could to go see them, it was years between visits and the kids ended up barely knowing each other.
Now we are having a parallel experience, and the poignancy is far more intense, because we realize that many of our grandchildren are going to grow up with knowing us only as very occasional visitors.
I am very dedicated to putting family together. I spend hours and hours trying to find and understand my ancestors just for that reason. We have driven many hours every month to visit a couple of our grandchildren who had to move away. We have driven hours and hours at other times to be sure we see grandchildren.
A lot of the separation was inevitable when we were locked into being in Tucson for most of the year. That's the way things are in our culture right now, with families thinking little of separation if it's because of a career. When our grown kids started setting up their work locations far away, we took it with a grain of salt because it didn't seem permanent.
Now it seems devastating. Of course we have moved away from everyone ourselves. But we picked a place where we felt the family would most likely gather sooner or later.
But it's not going to happen. Maybe in 20 years or so we will stop living our dream and try to go where everyone is, but by then every one of our grandchildren now living will be out of their homes, and many - most - will have homes of their own.
We could stay in Tucson instead of Anacortes. We love Tucson. But the values we can live in Anacortes are closer to ours. We like the climate, we like eating for free out of the garden, we love a place where we can be outside every month of the year, every day of the year. We love the water and the wildness and the easy access to all sorts of biomes and ecosystems and opportunities for adventure.
So it's a challenging tug of war, our desire to be part of the lives of our grandchildren traded off against our desire to live in a life-supporting setting where we could even live self-sufficently if we had to or wanted to.
Our most fervent hopes are that every family member would live in a place that we could reach for a weekend visit - say within 6 hours maximum. That would take a miracle. But even if some lived in ONE remote location that we could visit quarterly, it would be a help.
Otherwise the few memories they have of us will fade away.
I saw a photo of my grandmother a couple of months ago and didn't recognize her at all. She has a big smile on her face and all I remember of her is that she was grouchy. HOW HORRIBLE!
I don't want to be forgotten!
Sigh. I can only pray.
Now we are having a parallel experience, and the poignancy is far more intense, because we realize that many of our grandchildren are going to grow up with knowing us only as very occasional visitors.
I am very dedicated to putting family together. I spend hours and hours trying to find and understand my ancestors just for that reason. We have driven many hours every month to visit a couple of our grandchildren who had to move away. We have driven hours and hours at other times to be sure we see grandchildren.
A lot of the separation was inevitable when we were locked into being in Tucson for most of the year. That's the way things are in our culture right now, with families thinking little of separation if it's because of a career. When our grown kids started setting up their work locations far away, we took it with a grain of salt because it didn't seem permanent.
Now it seems devastating. Of course we have moved away from everyone ourselves. But we picked a place where we felt the family would most likely gather sooner or later.
But it's not going to happen. Maybe in 20 years or so we will stop living our dream and try to go where everyone is, but by then every one of our grandchildren now living will be out of their homes, and many - most - will have homes of their own.
We could stay in Tucson instead of Anacortes. We love Tucson. But the values we can live in Anacortes are closer to ours. We like the climate, we like eating for free out of the garden, we love a place where we can be outside every month of the year, every day of the year. We love the water and the wildness and the easy access to all sorts of biomes and ecosystems and opportunities for adventure.
So it's a challenging tug of war, our desire to be part of the lives of our grandchildren traded off against our desire to live in a life-supporting setting where we could even live self-sufficently if we had to or wanted to.
Our most fervent hopes are that every family member would live in a place that we could reach for a weekend visit - say within 6 hours maximum. That would take a miracle. But even if some lived in ONE remote location that we could visit quarterly, it would be a help.
Otherwise the few memories they have of us will fade away.
I saw a photo of my grandmother a couple of months ago and didn't recognize her at all. She has a big smile on her face and all I remember of her is that she was grouchy. HOW HORRIBLE!
I don't want to be forgotten!
Sigh. I can only pray.
Still Moving
I am still doing my sprint-walking 6 mornings a week. But now I have added on the time for warm-ups and cool-offs, which are 3 minutes each.
We may end up walking a lot on our missions but it won't be from our apt to our worksite. That might add up to a tenth of a mile in a stretch. But we're ready for more...just don't know how we'll get it.
PL
We may end up walking a lot on our missions but it won't be from our apt to our worksite. That might add up to a tenth of a mile in a stretch. But we're ready for more...just don't know how we'll get it.
PL
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Walking Intervals Day 6
I have been walking intervals now for a week. Very wonderful! I think I'm getting something like 25% more exercise in the same amount of time, based on distance. Cool!
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Our SLC Apartment
We just received our housing assignment for our mission. Our address will be: 131 W 200 N #5. It is in the Garden Apartments complex, half a block due west of the Conference Center.
Our ward is the Salt Lake City Stake 2nd Branch. It meets directly across 200 N from our apartment. Our church meetings are from 1:30 to 4:30.
Our apartment is available beginning Nov 6. We have an appointment to pick up the keys at 10 am that day.
Our first mission meeting is a luncheon on Friday Nov 7. We start training on Monday Nov 10. Training lasts 2 weeks, at the end of which we will receive our assignment.
I need to find my winter boots.
Our ward is the Salt Lake City Stake 2nd Branch. It meets directly across 200 N from our apartment. Our church meetings are from 1:30 to 4:30.
Our apartment is available beginning Nov 6. We have an appointment to pick up the keys at 10 am that day.
Our first mission meeting is a luncheon on Friday Nov 7. We start training on Monday Nov 10. Training lasts 2 weeks, at the end of which we will receive our assignment.
I need to find my winter boots.
Friday, August 15, 2008
Trouble With Isabelle
For those who have been following my efforts to find the elusive Isabelle Tanner. I've posted on how I found her, and have written about it in detail on Helium.com as an instructional piece for anyone wanting to know how to do family history.
HOWEVER!
Just recently I met a new relative, Fran D'Alessio of Norwalk CT, on a genealogy site. Without going into the details of how I connected with her, I ended up talking with her for quite some time, and discovered that she had had access to a Tanner family Bible at one time. She had copied out all the information and given it back to a family member - and has no idea where it is now.
Many of the 'facts' in the Bible were not correct, and in fact were the cause of much wasted time in my search for the origins of the Tanner family, because my cousin Bennie Tanner, whom I found in 1981 and talked with on the phone, was using that Bible for the information he passed to me about the family, information that was not true.
The bad information could easily be refuted by census records, which I sent to Fran.
A few entries in the Bible concerned Isabelle. Someone had recorded the name of her husband (John Gilbert) and at least one daughter, just the facts I had independently discovered this past Spring. But one fact was entirely different: she was listed as the daughter of Frederick Tanner, not Charles Tanner.
Charles Tanner was my great grandfather, the youngest child of Charles Wilcox Tanner and Elizabeth, formerly married to George Bailey, dec. Frederick was the second son.
Charles W and Elizabeth had brought their family to the US when Charles was 3 years old. They settled in Bristol RI. By adulthood, Charles had made it to Norwalk for some unknown reason, Frederick had disappeared, and so had the oldest son.
The Tanner Bible has Frederick and his wife in Norwalk around 1880, though. Isabelle was born in 1888 there. She is listed in the 1900 census as the daughter of Mary Jane Tanner, Charles's wife.
So either the Bible is wrong again, or Mary Jane had simplified the facts for the census taker! Of course it is possible that Mary Jane and Charles had adopted her, but what I am really interested in is her actual parentage. Well, that and the whole story!
It would be easy to conclude that the Bible was wrong about this as about so many other facts. But the person who probably recorded a great deal that was in the Tanner Bible was Charles Ernest Tanner, son of Charles and Mary Jane. He was my grandmother Ida May's older brother, and supposedly Isabelle's older brother, too. If he recorded that she was the child of Frederick, she could easily have been. It would be an odd thing to make up!
So I am perplexed, and have a great deal more to learn.
We have sealed Isabelle to Charles and Mary Jane Tanner. Mary Jane claimed her as a daughter, and that's what we went by. Time - or Eternity - will tell.
If anyone can shed light on this mystery, or would like to help uncover new facts, please feel free! PL
HOWEVER!
Just recently I met a new relative, Fran D'Alessio of Norwalk CT, on a genealogy site. Without going into the details of how I connected with her, I ended up talking with her for quite some time, and discovered that she had had access to a Tanner family Bible at one time. She had copied out all the information and given it back to a family member - and has no idea where it is now.
Many of the 'facts' in the Bible were not correct, and in fact were the cause of much wasted time in my search for the origins of the Tanner family, because my cousin Bennie Tanner, whom I found in 1981 and talked with on the phone, was using that Bible for the information he passed to me about the family, information that was not true.
The bad information could easily be refuted by census records, which I sent to Fran.
A few entries in the Bible concerned Isabelle. Someone had recorded the name of her husband (John Gilbert) and at least one daughter, just the facts I had independently discovered this past Spring. But one fact was entirely different: she was listed as the daughter of Frederick Tanner, not Charles Tanner.
Charles Tanner was my great grandfather, the youngest child of Charles Wilcox Tanner and Elizabeth, formerly married to George Bailey, dec. Frederick was the second son.
Charles W and Elizabeth had brought their family to the US when Charles was 3 years old. They settled in Bristol RI. By adulthood, Charles had made it to Norwalk for some unknown reason, Frederick had disappeared, and so had the oldest son.
The Tanner Bible has Frederick and his wife in Norwalk around 1880, though. Isabelle was born in 1888 there. She is listed in the 1900 census as the daughter of Mary Jane Tanner, Charles's wife.
So either the Bible is wrong again, or Mary Jane had simplified the facts for the census taker! Of course it is possible that Mary Jane and Charles had adopted her, but what I am really interested in is her actual parentage. Well, that and the whole story!
It would be easy to conclude that the Bible was wrong about this as about so many other facts. But the person who probably recorded a great deal that was in the Tanner Bible was Charles Ernest Tanner, son of Charles and Mary Jane. He was my grandmother Ida May's older brother, and supposedly Isabelle's older brother, too. If he recorded that she was the child of Frederick, she could easily have been. It would be an odd thing to make up!
So I am perplexed, and have a great deal more to learn.
We have sealed Isabelle to Charles and Mary Jane Tanner. Mary Jane claimed her as a daughter, and that's what we went by. Time - or Eternity - will tell.
If anyone can shed light on this mystery, or would like to help uncover new facts, please feel free! PL
Walking Intervals
Now that it's easier to walk (I'm no longer anemic, the days are cool), I have been doing a half hour walk each morning, and then occasionally another one in the evening. After having built up using mailboxes (q.v.) while still in Tucson, I decided that just walking would do here in Anacortes.
Until today. Yesterday I heard a Canadian doctor describe a technique for improving the exercise value of walking, and I decided to try what he suggested.
The suggestion: After a warm-up period of 5 minutes, alternate a 30 second walking sprint with a 30 second comfortable stride for the remainder of the time. Then cool down for 5 minutes.
I began the program this morning. Keeping an eye on my timer, I sprinted and strode for 33 minutes, and finished my usual course 4 minutes faster than usual - which meant adding distance till fill out the time.
The area of our neighborhood consists of hills and more hills. I decided to sprint according to the timer and not heed the change in terrain. The uphill sprints were particularly intense.
I had thought I was walking fast on all my walks. I want to use the time well. But the sprints were definitely faster than what I had been doing.
Today my lower legs felt the extra exercise. The whole program was satisfactory for me, and I'm happy that my walks are doing more now. I'm definitely sticking with this program!
Until today. Yesterday I heard a Canadian doctor describe a technique for improving the exercise value of walking, and I decided to try what he suggested.
The suggestion: After a warm-up period of 5 minutes, alternate a 30 second walking sprint with a 30 second comfortable stride for the remainder of the time. Then cool down for 5 minutes.
I began the program this morning. Keeping an eye on my timer, I sprinted and strode for 33 minutes, and finished my usual course 4 minutes faster than usual - which meant adding distance till fill out the time.
The area of our neighborhood consists of hills and more hills. I decided to sprint according to the timer and not heed the change in terrain. The uphill sprints were particularly intense.
I had thought I was walking fast on all my walks. I want to use the time well. But the sprints were definitely faster than what I had been doing.
Today my lower legs felt the extra exercise. The whole program was satisfactory for me, and I'm happy that my walks are doing more now. I'm definitely sticking with this program!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
