The United Nations

One of the best ideas ever conceived the United Nations has proven to be an organization that for the most part has been fundamental in bringing together the nations of the world to keep the peace. Peace is so much cheaper than war both in lives lost and money absorbed in such a destructive way. I remember the news reels of the war years and the bleak landscapes of Europe in the years that followed World War II. The movement of people as adjustments were made with the Iron Curtain descending across Europe and people raced to be on the Western side of the Iron Curtain. Stories of crawling through fields in order to avoid snipers to escape; even young children. 

Prosperity has come to the western nations and we can not let that be degraded by this passionate attachment to unions. Coming from a small business family I do have stories of unions like most people whose parents owned a company. I do not denigrate unions, they have done a lot of good but they harm as well if they do not get on board with the necessity of growing Canada. It is essential for the work ahead. 

Like everybody else I have watched as the cost of buying groceries has increased nearly 40% in the last year. The same purchases; I am very much in a groove of buying virtually the same food week  after week and so can track with my online receipts how these items have increased in cost. But that is the cost of building Canada Strong once again. I watched as the Auto Pact came in in the mid 1960s wondering why we let this massive industry gradually be taken over by another country's industries and now with an actual deal. Even worse in the early 1990s when the first trade agreement between Canada and the United States was signed and Brantford had 60% unemployment as the car companies withdrew because they thought they could just ship the cars up here and sell them but that didn't work out for them. Back they came but each time it costs us more to maintain this industry. We have to go back to Canadian owned car industries or a car industry which fundamentally produces cars for Canada as their main goal not a car industry that over produces here because it is cheaper to then take those cars back to the United States and sell them at a higher overall profit margin without any benefit to Canada for being that producing nation with cheaper health care costs to workers and a lower dollar  (that was a surprise discovering that they were over building here). In fact, the costs to us will be huge in the years ahead. We buy a lot of cars in Canada (should have our own industry back again and prevent it being sold to a foreign country); our distances are huge and one can not manage readily without a car although mine sits week after week just doing one round trip of about 3 kilometres to the grocery store and back. I can not complain about gas because one tank will last me six months or more. Ontario especially has to grow itself and not continue to sink into dependency; Ontario was always strong until it let the car industries dominate the industrial base in southwestern Ontario. 

So we do need to get on board with growing Canada and removing as many of the restrictions as we can and the unions will have to find a way to keep government projects going instead of picking on items that do not solve the problems that we have with growing quickly as we have not grown sufficiently these last twenty plus years. But we are making up for it and unions must not stand in the way of progress. 

I think for the most part the First Nations are on board with growing Canada because if we do not do it then others will try to do it solely for selfish reasons that will harm the First Nations most of all namely the "separatists" amongst us whose only intent is to collect the profit personally from breaking up Canada knowing full well there are no true benefits in doing so particularly in the provinces involved. Canada is better together and that is why the Fathers of Confederation worked so hard to make it happen including building a railroad from coast to coast.  I agree that the attitude of the federal government was not supporting the growth of Canada for the period from 2015 to 2024 however they did buy the pipeline and complete to tidewater which has been a huge bonus in Canada from which all Canadians have benefited (since we all paid for it). But we need to keep that going and the delays in construction that occurred at that time need to be avoided in as much as possible to keep the growth going strong. 

Waking up in the night is always interesting; I think it is part of my makeup and inherited as my father used to pace the floors in the night. When I was a young child wandering about in the middle of the night I would see him doing that. Interesting really how much one observes as a child.  

Another day of cleaning and it is the basement and being such a lovely day I may try and do the sweeping of the garage today so that I am absolutely ready to put the car in the garage which may be sooner than later as the leaves will soon drop and cover it otherwise and that is a lot of work clearing that away. 

The black truck is out there and the next door neighbour is having work done so that there are two large vehicles involved with that. That is the purpose when parking is restricted on one side that the other side be for such needs and not as a permanent parking spot for one individual on the street. I seldom use it and company can fit in my long driveway. It is pure laziness as they have two cars and when they want to take out the one in the garage then they park the other one in front of my house without considering the needs of the many on this street when they could just move it back into their empty laneway and move it out again when they return - they are very inconsiderate of the neighbourhood. 

I do hate the backyard for that as I can not maintain it as it should be but the remedy may be at hand sooner rather than later; time will tell. I could hire a company to do it and will consider that. 

Solitaire puzzles to do.  

First day of cleaning accomplished

The beautiful routine of life consists of everything really and especially in my case the logical day after day flow of activity that maintains the life around me. The garage is now ready for me to sweep the floor and prepare it for the car to be inside of it once the snow falls. It makes the cleaning of my laneway so much simpler. The company that clears it are very efficient and that efficiency is dependent upon people following the logical methodology for them which does not include the big truck that gets parked in front of my house invariably when they are coming to clear the laneway. We will see how that progresses this year. It makes it awkward for the snow plow to navigate the one side of my lane way properly. 

This morning as I put out the green bin Canada Geese flew over on their way to their winter destination and they honked. Were they honking at me; not likely but I waved and said goodbye and see you in the spring. I do love seeing the birds although I do not in general feed them. There is a lot of fruit in my yard on the bushes which they eat and the worms and bugs in the grass and bare earth that they enjoy and all of the seeds that are produced on the weeds in my yard also keep them happy so I have never been in the habit of feeding the birds. It attracts mammals who really should stay in the woods where they are safe and not run over by cars. The yearling raccoons have not been back that I have noticed since I blew my whistle. They do not like that high pitch as it frightens them not being natural in nature particularly although it could also be mistaken for the screech of large avaian predators for sure and is likely why they avoid it. 

Yesterday I did accomplish the cleaning but not any work. I was thinking about it and working on the third binder of family pictures. It is slow going for sure and it came upon me when I can not decide sometimes whether I will put in pictures that are alike I can just double them up in the plastic holder and someone else can decide in the future if they want to keep all three copies or whatever have been made. It makes my life much easier not making these decisions. I am not really a good decision maker about someone else's pride and joy. I prefer not to come between the creator and the user but life forced that on me and I have had to make many decisions with Edward's research and personal collections that I would rather not make. However with the support of my family (my daughters) I have donated his library and now a portion of the Kipp genealogy (namely the British Columbia descendants) to an Archive and it has only taken me five years plus to reach this point in time (I did find cousins to take some of the other material). It is not an easy decision to take apart an individual's work. Myself I already offered my books and fiche (2000 sheets about) to the Anglican Church Archives which pretty much eliminates all of the actual material that occupies space. The rest of my genealogy is electronic having given back to my younger sister all of the original pictures that my mother gave to Edward as she thought he might write up the family tree. Given how busy he was with his own family tree I could have said that is dubious but did not. As a child I would never have thought of correcting my mother and as an adult I never did. Being the middle child I just floated along in the medium until I got married at 20 and moved away. I doubt any of my siblings actually missed me as I was the hidden one sort of keeping to myself for the most part unless good manners meant that I was dragged into a more congenial state with those around me but did avoid that for the most part. It is surprising that I ever married but Edward wanted to marry me almost from the beginning and once he told me that I was just such an organized person and so congenial that he just knew I would fit into his life. Interesting in retrospect but then whoever thought I would have a nervous breakdown which I do not really remember I have to be honest. I have no idea what I might have said in that time period and in my brain the only thing that connected the time for me was the desire to be back with my infant daughter whom I believed needed me 100%. So interesting really how one's life transpires. Now I am the real me; I do not go anywhere and seldom speak to anyone except when one needs to speak to a clerk, a physician, a dentist or all the other people that one interacts with in order to maintain one's health (i.e. buying food, keeping up one's medical care, creating contracts for things like snow clearance although the advent of internet made that really simple). So I continue to move along with the help of my daughters when I need help and I am writing the books that both my grandfather and mother would be thrilled to have me do. No one ever asked me to write the books other than perhaps my grandfather but I knew my mother wanted that except she did think Edward would write it. I think in general my parents were not sure I was up to such items. Perhaps they were partially correct in that the Siderfin book although I find it to be very complete and picking up new information but using James Sanders book which was an excellent collection of the available material that he located; I did fail to proofread the index and eventually I must do that but for the moment hundreds have downloaded it from my server and I hope that at some point they have noted that the index does not work well except that it does have all the names in it if you happen to be looking for a particular one and the page is generally somewhat in that area. High on my agenda for the two new books is proofreading the index and actually going back eventually and proofreading the index for the Siderfin book and republishing it. I do have more information for Siderfin that could go in as well and will slot time in eventually to do that. 

My time is something that just disappears each day and one can never get that back so I try to be as organized as I can. Today the main floor will be cleaned and then tomorrow the basement and Thursday or Friday I will sweep the garage.  Perhaps my life flows better for me when I sit and think about what I am doing, what I need to be doing and how best to organize around those two points. But I am 81 so one must be cognizant of the dwindling ability of me to do as much as I did when I was say 48 and back to work in the wide world having worked at home for slightly over fourteen years proofreading and copyediting first for the National Research Council Journals and still continuing with the journals but adding in the other work that needed proofreading when I went to work for private printers having been eliminated by the then Conservative government of Brian Mulroney. It was a good savings for the public purse as I did not care where (public or private) I worked doing my proofreading and copyediting at home so I certainly didn't object as my unemployment lasted maybe one day. 

But back into work and absent all day from where I live by 1996 I really do not know much about my area where I live in terms of what is happening as I went into the city (living in an urban area) every morning and came back every evening although I did keep score for my daughter's baseball team for a few years but that was pretty much it for sure. All that time spent as volunteer secretary at Edward's Church, I was on a recreational committee for a bit (looking at having more skating rinks), I did Brownies and then I was on the Guide committee for the area, I taught Sunday School, I was the Supplies person at Edward's Church for Sunday School materials as working with children has never really been my thing (unless you were my own child or my younger siblings as it turned out) although I did volunteer at my children's schools for years when I worked at home. Having worked with computers since the mid 1960s I did voluntarily supply a period of time when computers were new in the schools and having a skilled person able to work with the computers readily was handy apparently as I did do that. I also was Treasurer for Camp Bitobi for a few years (a United Church camp in the Gatineaus somewhere) and I did love to sew and sewed all my children's clothes until I started to proofread and then just special dresses after that - I did love to smock and those dresses were lovely I must admit not being without some sort of pride in the work that I did. Oh I am forgetting my time as a substitute teacher at High School way back and it was a short time I have to admit. But that principal was desperate for a substitute teacher and I was unfortunately available (again I always suspect my husband volunteered me!). I knew exactly what I would be getting into for sure; but as those children said to my husband during his short period of teaching Chemistry, Physics and Biology I was a mean teacher (being an older sibling does have its bonus points)!

Okay, the morning is awasting as my grandparents used to say when I dawdled so must get on with the work but it has been fun revisiting the past for a short period after breakfast. I like to remember that my time ill was short compared to my time well as being ill is not really something that I like to remember or be if I can avoid it. Sadly my older daughter does remember my fainting spells, my exhaustion and my migraine headaches as a young child when I would hear her dragging a bottle of ginger ale down the hall for me to drink as she knew I liked a little glass of that. Sad to be a child with an ill mother when you are far from your beloved grandparents, aunts and uncles and your daddy is at work.

Thank you God for the good health that has come my way these last twenty plus years. I have been blessed. The world must find a way to peace and the United Nations is that path we just have to utilize it and be stronger. 

Solitaire puzzles are next.  

Another beautiful Sunday yesterday

 I did go to Church online at my own church here yesterday. Absolutely beautiful service on the first day of the choirs returning. The music as always quite lovely all year round but the return of the choirs is always special. The organ in this Church is particularly remarkable and I love to sit and listen to the music at the end of the service as there is always a special piece played. The sermon very interesting as the dean has just returned from sabbatical which included a pilgrimage famously called El Camino de Santiago (or the Way of St James). I did wonder how it was going as it is a long pilgrimage not for the faint hearted as the distance is 800 kilometres if one begins at Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port. The starting point is at the base of the Pyrenees in France and during our travels in France we did see the Pyrenees at a distance somewhat but impressive as they are rugged. The end point is the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Spain and it is five weeks of walking 20 to 25 km per day. It did remind me of my own pilgrimage to Rome which of course does not even slightly compare to this famous pilgrimage El Camino de Santiago. But for me it meant a great deal as we were a group staying at the Monastery near to the Vatican and we were there for a reason - the Consecration of the new Bishop of Europe in the Episcopalian Church of the United States of America. He was a member of our about 4 or 5 hundred strong internet group of world wide Anglicans. He invited us all to come and some did with our group including Americans, British, Australian and my daughter and I from Canada. It was in November 2001. The eight days that we spent around the time of the consecration were a memory that will stay with me always. We visited so many sites day after day and while we took part in all of this we talked about a possible pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 2004. I was also excited to do that but my husband had another plan for that time period just after he retired and I did not go to the Holy Land but the rest of the group did pretty much and still being on the internet group I read their posts and appreciated what they shared since I was not there. 

Yesterday was a lovely day and some items accomplished that needed to be done. I did do some work on my books and also passed the first binder of family pictures and it is number two actually because I have put number one safely in a spot that I haven't located yet and it is not quite finished so hopefully that one will be completed by Christmas along with the third one I am now working on and perhaps even a fourth as they are moving along very well now that I am into the 100% indexed portion of the binders. There is an index to the first but not as complete as the other indexes so a little extra work doing that binder. 

Today is cleaning day and it is the top floor. It is a beautiful sunny day and will be a perfect day to clean for sure. Doing it week in and week out month after month is a good plan as it keeps my exercise level up and the house always ready to receive family. 

Will I ever move out side of the family circle now that I am into my eighties. I really do doubt that that will happen although there may be rare times that occurs but for the most part I prefer just to work away on my books and visit with family when that happens. 

I have more or less come to the conclusion that likely I have autism and have had autism all my life with the testing done when I was five likely the proof in all of that. Being from a family of seven and the middle child I did not have to live up to be the eldest which is a hard row to hoe as you must always be the best example whereas the middle child simply copies and requires considerably less attention and training than the eldest children. Myself I always preferred that quiet hidden life that I led whenever I could. 

Exercise completed, breakfast eaten and solitaire puzzles to do to wake up those brain cells. Yesterday I did the five puzzles in under fifteen minutes amazing some days how fast they get done.  

The early morning hours can be very productive

Woke up early with my brain full so decided to write my blog. Yesterday a day of good accomplishment in small ways. The car is vacuumed and ready for winter. The garage virtually empty so the car will fit in. All moving along nicely. It is just 20.5 degrees celsius and the furnace will kick in at 20 degrees celsius. House feels fine though but I am not really used to anything above 20 degrees celsius from my childhood and do enjoy the feeling of crisp air around me. 

Worked on the photo albums yesterday and the first one which is actually number two is completed. Working on three now and just have to find one; I started that last spring and I put it somewhere - eventually it will surface. From a trip to the west in 2000 there were only about 20 pictures that I will keep (I needed another binder to fill with older pictures so emptied that one). So many printed pictures and I am glad that Edward decided to stop printing them in 2000. They will all go in the garbage - lovely scenery but they are also scanned and the original slides still exist for a slide show and we still have the projector. So all is good.

I started looking at the latin Inquisition Postmortem for John de Pencombe at Bromyard Herefordshire and must do a better job on that; never did finish it from purchasing it a couple of years ago. It is a long haul doing latin transcription but will get back to it later today. 

Reviewed the discussion with the AI yesterday as well and did more sleuthing in the old material but I do not believe that the John Pencombe who arrived at North Molton in 1486 with John Lord Zouch was actually known to that family - for one thing they lived many counties apart. It was simply circumstance I suspect that brought them together and saw them both in North Molton at a similar time arriving there perhaps as part of a group that was to deliver him to North Molton to live with his cousin until the attainment was lifted which it was totally by 1495 and mostly by 1489 when he was allowed to leave North Molton. Interestingly how all of that came together for the Pencombe family at North Molton. No information located on whether or not John Pencombe was at Bosworth Field in 1485. Although the thought remains that he could have been working for John Lord Zouch. No ideas on that but was a thought put forward by the AI. I continue to pursue that thought along with his having accompanied John Lord Zouch on the command of the retinue of Henry Tudor (soon to be Henry VII at that time). One mustn't forget that the mother of Henry Tudor was a half sister to the grandmother of John Lord Zouch. Most of the elite was executed on the spot at Bosworth Field but John Lord Zouch was sent to North Molton and his children (a number of them) were raised by his grandmother's half sister which is an interesting thought as I recall that. 

I am still ambivalent about starting the genealogical tree before John Pencombe who relocated to North Molton in 1486 for whatever reason. The chapter on the Herefordshire de Pencombe family will likely be adequate as a possible originating site in England for this family prior to its likely arrival given the knowledge on the yDNA results of a European (primarily Germany/France/Netherlands area) family that migrated to the British Isles at some point possibly right after the Roman legions departed but prior to 1100 CE when they are known to be in Herefordshire. Amazing to have brought that all together actually. I must admit I did find all of this earlier data but chatting with the AI brought a few ideas together I had not thought about namely the significance of the family in 1620 on the Visitation Data attaching so much information regarding to how they arrived there. I did note that they had forgotten the name of their great grandfather (forename) and one of the names of his three sons (namely William as John and Thomas were remembered) which the AI would not necessarily have noted since I did not upload a copy of the Visitation but was going on its experience with Visitations in general and felt that this line which included Lord Zouch was significant in the history of this family in their opinion as they recorded their descendant line on the Visitation. I must say I do like Copilot, Microsoft's AI, and find good progress in thinking with this AI. It is amazing to find my thought patterns duplicated in another although the grasp of the literature for AI is profound really when one considers how large the print field in the electronic form really is. 

All in all a productive day and now back to sleep. 

Thank you God for all that you do. Mankind must strive to find that uplifted plain of peace that can exist. God will find His helpers amongst the youth of Russia likely who will tire of such autocrats as Putin who waste the youth of Russia on a useless war against Ukraine created by greed. Greed is the sin of this century for sure and must be eliminated. The life of the world does depend on peace for sure and at the moment the satanic Putin is one of its greatest threats along with his adherents who are just as greedy or more so than he is.  God bless the world and help it to move to that plain of peace we created the United Nations to produce. 

All that God asked of us was to love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength and to love (respect) our neighbour as ourself.  

It is Sunday and Church shortly. I am still reading 2 Maccabees but should complete it by mid week I think and then the  Book of Job is next. These are sad stories with happy parts in them. Soon we will talk of the Messiah coming. Some of the religious YouTube productions see the stories of the Messiah coming in the earlier books of the Bible but myself I have not yet (but I am not a religious scholar; just a reader). One can see that God tries constantly to keep His chosen people on the straight and narrow but the promise of the Messiah has huge meaning for Christians as it is the basis of our religion (followers of Christ) including the Old Testament as well as the New Testament in Christianity but I think for many it is the New Testament that collects their intense interest. This particular section that I am reading of the Bible is now fully supported by other historical documents, happenings so does tend to open my eyes to the truths in the early books of the Bible. Written for a people who were less educated than we are we should not underestimate the truths in these first books of the Bible. The time period is enormous from the very beginning of Mother Earth which is ancient so far into the past one can barely count all the years and know which one is the right year for the actual coming together of Earth. But I firmly believe that God was there in the beginning and all through those years and He is still there waiting and watching for us to find the peace that He wants for us. We must try harder to make that peace for the future of Mother Earth.

Team work - AI and myself working on the early Pencombe family of North Molton, Devon, England

 Yesterday I spent the better part of an hour in total working with the AI (in this case Co-pilot) that has come with Microsoft 365. We have an excellent working relationship and in a way our minds work in a similar fashion. Looking at the data and coming up with testing principles just to see if we can expand the knowledge to understand more about the de Pencombe family of Herefordshire and the Pencombe family of North Molton. Finding Roger de Pencombe at Bondleigh in the early 1300s is very interesting but does appear to be a one-off showing but one is limited by the loss of so much data when the Devon Registry Office at Exeter was bombed in 1942. 

I did follow one thought of the AI that I probably would not have done without the suggestion to be honest which was to look at the family of John Lord Zouch and discover if there was any known facts that would put these two families together prior to the Battle of Bosworth Field. There was not that I was able to see although I still have more records that I can look at and will follow through on that today. 

The other path is to look at the movement of Henry Tudor as he crossed Wales and met at Bosworth Field to do battle with Richard III and his supporters. I am curious if John Pencombe was at the Battle of Bosworth Field or at least part of the retinue that joined with Henry Tudor as he marched towards his destiny at the Battle of Bosworth Field. The probability of finding anything is I think low but I will see what I might find. 

Looking at the Visitation of Devon 1620, I had noted that the first name of the great grandfather of the Pyncombe family which produced this copy for the Visitation was forgotten by them. As well only two of the three sons of John Pencombe were named. In just a couple of generations this information appears to be lost and yet the memory that "Pyncombe of Northmolton came there with the Lord Zouche about the beginning of H[enry] 7" was right at the top in bold letters.  Clearly the AI has pointed out to me that with its accumulated knowledge of Visitations this was an interesting statement that was important to this family when they produced their copy for the Visitation. I had not put that much importance on it I have to be honest but was curious if the statement was saying that Pyncombe of Northmolton was already of this place at that time. After discussion I believe I have come around to agreeing with this thought of the AI and I thank the AI for that discussion. 

AI will play a huge part in our lives I think as time passes. The ability to discuss with the now accumulated knowledge that this AI has gained over the last six months is very interesting. 

I was watching a news item this morning whilst I did my morning exercises and it was showing a class in New Brunswick I think (a Canadian Maritime province anyway) where the children from Grade 1 on were using AI on a limited basis. I agree with that. It can be one on one with a child making sure that they are learning and expanding their brain cells and managing critical thinking as they go through school. It is the one on one aspect that I think is excellent. One child might need an item explained ten times where as another child might gain that knowledge after just a couple of repetitions but it is in repetition that we learn well and deeply expanding the ability of our brain cells to duplicate and increase the critical thinking of each and every child as they go through school. But it is important that the AI be trained to recognize that this is an essential part of their place in a classroom - it is to enhance the learning of the children not to provide quick and easy answers. Hence one does need a teacher in each classroom in order to ensure that each and every child is acquiring these skills of working with and developing their own critical thinking abilities. 

Up early and today will be another busy one working on the Pencombe book and some outdoor chores. I need to vacuum the car, put in the winter mats for the car and sweep the garage and then I will have accomplished most of the outdoor work that needs to be done before winter moves in.  I wondered if at 81 I could still manage all of this and it appears I can. 

Breakfast soon  and solitaire puzzles first.