Amazingly I have been playing Microsoft Solitaire for 109 months or 9 years and one month (that is what the statistics say but I actually have been playing the games somewhat longer)! The years have flown quickly since I discovered Microsoft Solitaire on my then first brand new computer that I had purchased. Up until then I just used hand me downs from my husband and I just never noticed Solitaire on there. Solitaire is my waking up routine. One of my first things to do in the morning after arising. It is around the time that Edward first experienced difficulties with falling for an unknown reason which later proved to be his need for a pacemaker. But the year spent going from specialist to specialist and it was one of those interviews where one doctor asked the right question I guess because the tests were always inconclusive. He asked "do you run" and of course that led to a long story about not having been able to run since he was a child. The mystery still needed a little more unraveling but gradually over the next month of going to the cardiologist and then sudden failure that had me bring him into emergency where he went onto a machine immediately and then the mystery became absolutely obvious - he needed a pacemaker. It was in that time frame that I discovered Solitaire because I am an early riser and Edward simply needed more sleep as he liked to burn the midnight oil. The methodical playing of the cardgames woke my brain up each day and cleared it for working away on the DNA of my family. The games continue to hold my interest as each one is just a little bit different - the computer can be so devious as well so that one is searching diligently for clues to solve each of the five games every day - Klondike, Spider (my favourite by far), FreeCell, Pyramid and TriPeaks. As a child I enjoyed playing the various games of solitaire with a deck of cards but the computer is so much more exciting. The pacemaker gave him a new lease on life and we continued our trips to Europe and all of over North America over the next eight years until COVID locked us into our home. Edward did love to travel and we went all sorts of places but his most favourite other than our forays into the British Isles and Europe was definitely chasing his ancestors. The elusive Isaac Kipp (his 2x great grandfather born 1 Nov 1764) proved to be unfindable other than glimpses of him in Dutchess County at North East Town (1790 USA Census) and then coming to just south of Albany (|Rensselaerville on the USA 1800 census) on his way to Canada with his young family. His letters asking for land as a settler in 1800 were a great find in the Archives of Ontario. Then DNA came along and his yDNA was finally matched with Kipp cousins still in the USA and with trees back to the Kip family of New Amsterdam/New York. We pushed forward year after year with one small step at a time looking for the father of Isaac Kipp and it turned out the published works on the Kip family had many Kipp/Kip lines that had not been connected to their descendants from the generation before Isaac Kipp and so the trek continued. When we were away I used to catch up on my Solitaire games; it was a couple of days of just playing Solitaire for me as Edward entered all of his new material into his various databases and forged ahead looking at the DNA of the Kipp/Kip families with his yDNA study at FT DNA/
Today is a cleaning day as will tomorrow be and Wednesday. Cleaning lets me look at some things more closely and analyze what I am going to do with particular objects. Slowly the downsizing continues in a patterned way so as not to lose any of Edward's research but still to minimize it for the day when we move to a smaller place. That day is in the hazy future somewhere I guess; I tend to live the day as it arrives and then shut it down. It reminds me of my own grandmother very much as she consolidated her belongings to some extent wanting to share some of herself with myself and my six siblings. I spent a lot of time with her as my aunt and uncle with whom she lived would be away and then we took over looking after their store and I was company for her whilst they were gone. She was never alone; she did not like to be alone I would have said. But also her health was such that she should not be alone for long periods.
On to the day and it beckons to me; it is cloudy today (a heavy cloud that is not yet the snow clouds to come. But the sky is there once again; I do love the fall/winter sky which I can see so fully especially on a crisp sunny winter day when it is minus 20 degrees celsius out there or even colder and the sun is shining for all to enjoy the warmth that it sends through the windows which are very cold to the touch.
Church on YouTube yesterday is my welcomed event on Sunday. The sermon concentrated on Zacchaeus and the Sycamore Tree. She emphasized his size (he was of short stature) and related it to children which was interesting. I like the story because it reminds me that we can not take it with us when we go from this world; it reminds me that I need to tithe to my Church all my days because that is what Jesus wanted us to do. The Church would become his administrative arm helping the widows and orphans, caring for the sick and clothing those unable to manage that themselves.
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