The first week of 2022

The first week of 2022 has passed so quickly. We are in the midst of our fifth wave of COVID-19 with the Omicron variant although it seems just like the fourth wave that quieted down and then flared up again; will it be the last? I am hoping for that; that we would just progress forward onto that sunny uplifted plain where COVID-19 is something that we talk about and not live through. Life will be simpler after COVID but also more complex. Countries are very much in debt; taxes will go up and life will be a little harder for people but they will have survived. 

Yesterday I worked mostly on the Kip-Kipp Family Newsletter. As I get into it more and more I realize I am really only doing what Edward would have had me doing if he was still with us. The plan had been for him to direct from his hospital bed in our living room. This is really Plan B although never discussed. For me it was always going to be Plan A in my mind. Moving forward from that has been a nine month struggle but gradually I am getting organized into that and Plan B is coming to fruition. 

I was up early putting a box of broken glass out for garbage pickup. I forgot it last night and suddenly remembered around 6. Still dark with a fresh snowfall not yet dented by any cars. Still falling gently around me as I pulled out the box and then filled the green bin with compost packages from the freezer. We freeze our food preparation waste and then put it out in the morning so that the racoons do not throw our green bin to open it. They tend not to be about in the day fortunately. 

Today will also be a day to work on the Kip-Kipp Family Newsletter. I would like to finish the section of Hendrick Hendricksen Kip although it is likely another day or two on that. Edward had acquired a lot of information on this ancient ancestor from Amsterdam, The Netherlands. An earlier book had given this man a glamorous storyline back in his ancestry but Edward was not able to find any of that information including in a book of Heraldry on French lines. The yDNA points to this particular line as having been within 100 km of Amsterdam back thousands of years and includes the skeletal remains of individuals found in an ice cave in Liechtenstein and about 3000 years old. I still remember being on the R1b list when a comment came out who is N18407 on the FT DNA site. I mulled that around for a couple of seconds and realized it was Edward's kit number and he matched this ancient skeleton found in the ice cave. He was thrilled at that information and worked away on that new knowledge. Finding his Kipp line was important to him and the DNA testing gave him  his answer although he still wanted to discover Isaac's father and perhaps our daughter will find that information in the years to come. She has become more and more interested this past six months in what he was doing. I would not have said that either of our daughters would be interested in genealogy, and like me, they are not from the standpoint of making a family tree. But this deep ancestry knowledge found in our DNA is quite fascinating; it is a fascination that will last me as long as my brain functions I rather think. 

Seven now and on to the day; breakfast awaits.