Life’s Curveballs

We lost one of our dogs last week due to old age and a tumor. She didn’t have any letters after her name and she was just a dog but she was with us for over 17 years. Her name was Chelsea and she was a good little girl. We never really intended to get a dog the day that we found her but a friend had just lost a dog and my wife thought that this little puppy would be the perfect replacement. As it turned out, the friend didn’t want another dog so we named the puppy Chelsea and kept her as our own.

She was a little Dachshund mixed with another breed probably a beagle. She was a funny looking little dog with weird feet but we loved her, cared for her, and made her part of our family. I can still remember her little scampering feet as she raced to greet me when arriving home from work. They were some of the better days.

Rest in peace little Chelsea. Your pain is over but we all will miss you.

Larry

As you can tell, I’ve taken an extended break from blogging since my last post was on February 6th. I have thought seriously about taking all of my blogs down and off the net.  My Flyball blog also sits idle as my interest in the sport wanes.  It’s the way life is, at least for me it is.  My interests are changing all the time and I have a very hard time focusing on any one thing for an extended period of time.

Back in the mid 90s, I found an interest in genealogy and jumped in with both feet but after several years of intense interest, I lost interest.  I have since rekindled my interest in genealogy and now almost everything else has taken a back seat.  Therefore, with that said, I thought that I would use this forum to talk about genealogical topics, some general topics, and others more specific to my family.  When I first started studying my family in the mid 90s, there was very little information that could be found on the Internet but now the amount on the web has rocketed.  There is still a long way to go because there are gaps that need filling but the web has come a long way since then.

Ancestry.com

Ancestry.com is by far the Internet leader in the field of genealogy on the web.  They surely have the most databases of any genealogical web site on the Internet and I use this one site the most.  All of the U. S. Census records can be found along with many other countries.  At the latest count, there are almost 26,000 databases that can be accessed and this number is growing.  Everything from Census records, birth, marriage, and death records, military records, to newspaper and periodical records can be found on this one site.  Additionally, if you use the software program, Family Tree Maker, you can access the Ancestry.com web site and merge records right into you home database.  The software is probably not the best on the market for genealogy, but they are making improvements and service pack 3 has just been released with much need improvements.  I was one of the beta testers for service pack 3 and I would love to hear about any further improvements that you think are necessary.   All of the beta testers for service pack 3 were given an email address for suggestions or bugs that we find.

Future post on this site will mostly be about genealogy and my family.  Some of the surnames that I am researching are Buniff, Boudreaux, Dickinson, Ewing, Fromental, Harvey, Kaufmann, Littlewood, Slevin, Weir, Welsh, Worrilow, Wolverson, and Zopf (Copf) to name a few.

Larry

This is the day that the Lord has made; let us
rejoice and be glad in it. ~ Psalm 118:24

Today is Wednesday, hump day to some, and officially the middle of the week, but are we wishing our lives away? I’m guilty of it too and I hear it all the time from co-workers and one guy in particular. He has something to say about every day of the week and lives for the weekend. I try to avoid this trap but fall into it too like most people I know.

Why do we spend so much time wishing to be some place else? While at work, we watch the clock tic by and anguish the minutes away waiting for lunchtime or waiting to go home in the afternoon. We count down the days to the next holiday or vacation. Do we realize we are wishing our precious time away? I’d say we don’t think about this often enough.

Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. Traditionally, it’s a time to take something on or to give something up. It’s a time for self-examination and penitence, demonstrated by self-denial, in preparation for Easter. I have a better idea for this Lent; let’s stop wishing our time away. Every time we catch ourselves looking at the clock wishing for the minutes to pass by, stop and think about our precious minutes. Every time we catch ourselves waiting for the weekend, stop and think about today, the minute we are in right this very minute and enjoy it.

As a reminder of how precious our time is, whenever we catch ourselves wishing our time away, stop and think about this simple phase: This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

I love mankind; its people I can’t stand.
~ Charles M. Schultz

I was tagged by my wife today from her blog, Country Livin’ Blog, and I’m supposed to reveal seven things about myself I haven’t blogged about previously. I was trying to think about something when I saw this quote on my own blog. I love mankind; its people I can’t stand. I know someone that has a similar quote. I’m not going to embarrass him by revealing his name here, but it’s something that I believe too, and here it is. People are just no damn good. I believe this quote to be true. Here’s my list:

1. I’m not a people person, never have been, never will be. Dogs are much easier to deal with.

2. I hate my job. I like to move around and have never liked staying in one place too long and this is what happens.

3. For some strange reason out of many cousins, uncles, and aunts, I was born in Wilmington Delaware. Everyone I know was born and raised in and around Chester Pennsylvania, even my wife was born in Chester. I have no idea why my parents drove down to Wilmington. Not that there is anything wrong with Wilmington.

4. I like to cook and can make some of the best Italian sauce you will find. My daughter jokes and says that they are going to “Worrileo’s for dinner.”

5. I accidentally set fire to the forest behind our house when I was about 12 years old. The fire company had to come out and put the fire out. No one knew that I did it except for the girl that was with me, and we never told a soul. It’s too long of a story to go into here. I would like to apologize to everyone that was effect by my laps in judgment.

6. The Assistant Principle at my High School had it in for me; he knew my class schedule better than I did.

7. I didn’t do that well in High School.

Here is the hard part of this post, tagging seven other bloggers. I don’t think there has been seven bloggers that have posted comments to my blog. I’ll have to wing it.

1. Tomas at the Captains Bridge.

2. Tania at Whole Living Today.

3. Techfun

4. Moonshadow at KS Born.

5. Cynthia Blue at Tiptail.

6. Hans at Lucy’s the Great Dane

7. Maggie and Mitch the Airedales

Now for the rules:

1. Once you are tagged, link back to the person who tagged you.

2. Post the rules on your blog.

3. Post 7 random or weird facts about yourself on your blog.

4. Tag 7 people and link to them.

5. Comment on their blog to let them know they have been tagged.