Weather and Waiting

The weather has not cooperated with us this week, so we have made little progress on the fascia work.  We have had rain predicted for most of the week, and moisture has  followed those predictions for most days.  Strangely, yesterday the skies were threatening all day long, but we did not receive a drop in Dunedin.  Communities to the north, south, and west all got soaked, but we did not.  Today dawned grey, but as I opened the blinds this morning, I was greeted by bright sunshine... and pouring rain! Go figure.  The weathermen (who are correct down here about as often as they are correct in Wisconsin) say that we are already getting into "a Florida summer pattern" of sunshine each morning and rain about 3:00 p.m. We'll see.

If the roof and grass dries yet this morning, we would like to get out and to at least finish the south side fascias on the house.  Late yesterday Rick finished scraping and filling in the fascia on the south side of the Florida room.  I hope to get that sanded and primed today while he works on actually painting the south fascia of the house.  That fascia is a bit more tricky since he has to use the taller ladder, but we bought a small roller, so we are hoping that the final coat will go much more quickly than previous coats.

While we have been stuck indoors, I have been working more on the family genealogy.  Doing so, even with the Internet, is not as user-friendly as it used to be.  When I started on this venture years ago, almost every record online was free.  Now Ancestry.com has purchased the rights to many records, and, naturally, people can only have access to those files for a fee.  Even the British records are not accessible unless I go through Ancestry.com.uk, again, for a fee!  The only records that I have found that are still accessible without charge are through the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints -- the Mormons -- in Salt Lake, City.  Their FamilySearch.org is invaluable.

I have been able to trace my family back to my great-great-great grandparents (thus, add another "great" on for my children) to the late 1700s/ early 1800s.  Once the trail goes back to Germany (Prussia), records get a bit dicey since most are in the original German or Polish.  I made some recent discoveries that are rather fun.  My mother, who will be 90 this May, said that she had vague memories of her great grandfather George, but that she did not know and could not even name her great grandmother.  I learned that her great grandmother's name was Susan Woodworth.  My sister's name also is Susan.  I wonder if, as a child, my mother heard that name and it stayed in the recesses of her memory as a good name even though she could not make a connection later on to an actual person from the past.

I also have taken Rick's family back a bit, although again, the Anderson side gives me trouble because of the way the Norwegians used to change surnames by adding "son" or "datter" (daughter) to the first name of the father. I lose them once the line goes back to Norway, but the English side is a bit easier.  Our one regret is that we did not stay longer in Cornwall when we were in England.  I wanted to visit some cemeteries and churches, but the Cornish roads are notoriously narrow and bordered by hedges, and our camper van was rather wide.  We lived in fear of meeting another vehicle while we were driving through the area, so we did not stay.

I must admit, also, that the English are not overly creative. Many times John X will marry Mary Y, and they will have a son named John X and a daughter named Mary X.  Those children, in turn, will each have a son and a daughter whom they will name John and Mary.  Ugh!  Get creative, even! I must admit that neither Richard nor Steven is very unique when it comes to English names. However, I have been able to take their family back to the late 1700s, so that it rather cool. At least the parish records of England are in a language I can read, although I have to admit that spelling leaves much to be desired.

We are still waiting for Rob to come back and finish our floor.  We talked to him today, and he promised to come between 2 and 3 p.m.  Since it is now 4:00 p.m., I am not holding my breath that he will come.

We are to the point where we are starting to pile up everything that we want to take back to Wisconsin. Somehow, I do not think that our truck will be large enough. I hope that with this next trip North, we will be taking most of what we need back to Wisconsin.  We are only making one more trip with the truck, so we soon have to figure out what belongs where in our two-house life.