Brenda, Research Detective Extraordinaire

I just noticed this new book out at Barnes and Noble.  I have a list of probably 13 books still to read this summer, but this one caught my eye.

Why? you ask.  Because I feel like a majorly important detective this summer.

I was given the task of taking all my Mother's bits of newspaper clippings and funeral programs and newspaper obituarys and letters and cards she kept for umpteen million years and see if I could find the story in them all.  Who were these people? 

Relatives?

Then they needs to be added to the families genealogy record or updated or whatever.

Friends? 

Well some of the stuff she kept like old letters and scrapbook memories and such I couldn't just throw away.  I tracked down (hopefully) a relative and mailed these artifacts back to their families.  Nobody seems to write letters any more and I can't frankly throw them away.  The person's handwriting is right there in front of you, they touched the paper that you are touching.  I must make the family decide if they are worth keeping, not me.

Business associates?

Humm, tough one here: I threw a lot of those momentos away.  Dad's work friends were just not close enough for me to keep memories of them and I think their families would have the same clippings and pictures, etc. Handled summarily!

But amongst all this I have wanted to call my Mom or Dad and ask them about stuff.  I'll bet 10 different times I've reached for the phone and duh... they are not talking calls any longer.

So I called my Aunt Lois, my Mom's sister.  She is the last remaining relative on my mother's side - of the previous generation.  "Aunt Lois, please tell me what your Grandma Fryer was like, what was her husband like?"  I never met any great grandparents except my great Grandma Potter - she died at 95 when I was about 5 - but I do remember her feeling my face (see couldn't see any longer)

and telling me, "Oh what a pretty girl".

Aunt Lois said my great grandma Fryer was a "neighborhood lady" meaning she liked to get with the other ladies in the neighborhood and talk and she knew all about the politics of the world.  Aunt Lois said,  "Grandma Fryer and Edward G Murrow were like one and the same person because Grandma Fryer never missed a program".  She said her Grandpa Fryer had more of a temper and was louder where Grandma Fryer was a lot calmer.

Aunt Lois said Grandma Potter was a sweetheart and Grandpa Potter was like a windup toy, anxious energy! so that he never walked slowly anywhere.  

I have found a chart my Mom had hidden away that was sent to her from relatives in England which gave the Potter ancestry clear back to 1500's.  So I've been verifying and adding all those.

I have found all the brothers and sisters and their birthdays from great Aunts and Uncles that I didn't even know I had.  I found the line of twins in the family.  I found names on old pictures and now can place them with the names on the family tree. 

I found out about relatives that died on the way to Utah as pioneers. I found sadly how many children used to die before reaching adulthood.

I am master detective with my trusty remarkable computer. 

My best find so far:  My grandmother's date book that was given to her as a gift just before she left England to come to America in 1913.  She wrote down the names and birth dates and death dates and marriage dates of everyone in her family for 98 years!  What a priceless treasure. 

And guess what?  On the date for the birth date of Mary Rosina Fryer, grandma wrote in parenthesis: "Aunt May".  I solved the mystery of who the heck Aunt May is!  (She was the unmarried 1st cousin of my Grandpa Clarence Fryer!) But everyone called her Aunt May.  I remember her quite well. 

 My Aunt Lois said Aunt May was fond of her "hot toddies".

So, do I need to read the new detective book out, that I copied above?  yeah, probably someday.  But for right now,

I am living the dream!

Here's a quiz: What's the difference between a baby and a puppy?

Answer? 

I don't know, I never had a baby (just a lot of babysitting) but I know the puppy is exhausting! 

Little Molly Merganthaler (yes, all dogs need official names, then you call them by nicknames like "Molly Lama" or "who's the little doggie" - yeah, real clever nicknames.  Then they say that dogs, like cats, have their own names they use just for each other.) 

Anyway Molly has to eat three times a day - 7am, 1pm and 8pm.  It took us 5 days to get that routine down.  Then very soon after eating she has to go out on a leash to do her peepee/poopoos.  Then you have to watch her intensely for the next three hours for any indication that she may have to go outside again.  She is a smart little pup, but really couldn't she just wave a paw or something when she needs to go out? 

Sometimes it is just a little whimpering, sometimes she just begins to wander off and sniff around.   But so far, no accidents in the house on the carpet.  Twice she peepeed in a $20.00 used plastic baby play pen and once on the plastic laid down around the cat box.  Way easy clean ups. 

 She absolutely is not allowed to step even quickly on the brand new carpet upstairs! no! no! no!

  In fact this is a DOWNSTAIRS dog!

    I need to upstairs to stay nice and besides, the cats rule the upstairs.

She pretty much crate trained herself - she sleeps in the crate every night and nap time. 

Terry is madly working to get a patio for the cats and dog finished ASAP.   A patio for cats has been nicknamed "Catios" for some time, I just added the dog part so now we are building a "Catiog" onto the back of the house.   The insulated doggy door has not yet arrived,

But the wired in area with the roof over it is nearly finished. 

We will have a cat door coming out of one of the windows and Terry will build high up cat runs for Timmy and Polly.  The the doggy door will come out near the bottom so the dog can go out to do his business but all pets can have grass to lay in if they want. It should be really neat.  It is attached to the south side of an enclosed patio we have downstairs so building a doggy door into the wall will not be a big deal at all.

Another Quiz:

   So what does old age do to you? 
ANSWER:  Makes you think you can handle puppies and build any damn thing on to your house that you want to, that's what it does.