A cleaning day

A cleaning day and I do enjoy cleaning. Not sure why. It is a repetitive task that frees the mind for a while and is a complete rest of the mind. I feel sometimes that I am too preoccupied with the war in Russia and Ukraine. During the past ten years I have had emails on my H11 study from people in Russia and in Ukraine. Keen interested people and you wonder why these people can not continue to have their nice lives where all they wonder about is the origin of their mtDNA. Like me they tend to be older and were born in the shadow of World War II so that all we have are the memories (for me the newsreels) of a bombed out Europe including both Ukraine and Russia. They actually lived through all of the reconstruction and the turmoil that followed the wars as people settled once again into their countries, their jobs and their families. But cleaning takes my mind off of all of that. The routine of running the vacuum cleaner back and forth; the dusting of the woodwork and the scrubbing of kitchen, bathrooms and floors. Shaking out rugs and couch covers. It is all part of the process of clearing away the last week's dust and in my case dog hair and cat hair. 

Thinking about the Kipp Newsletter and I am more than three quarters of the way through part II of the story for Hendrick Hendricksen Kip. I can remember our trips to New York City so very well. We spent every second month there (usually two weeks) from August 2007 to July 2009. We saw so very much and it is a wonderful city to visit. We have not been back since mostly because we moved on to other repositories. Edward did a very diligent effort in all of the repositories in New York City but there were still some things he discovered later that he wanted to view but decided to just write and obtain copies. That also works very well but I would not have liked to have missed seeing so much of New York City. Visiting the United Nations was very meaningful to me. I still believe this organization could do so much more than it has the ability to do at the moment. For one thing they could tax all the people who do not pay taxes at a reasonable percentage in their home countries because they evade taxes. This money could do so much good for the world. Getting agreement on such a tax should not be difficult but enforcing it could be a problem. Too many small countries make huge profits by permitting people to keep their money there and pay a lower tax. Wall Street is amazing actually and the streets of New York City are very clean all around that area. They are well maintained and one feels very comfortable there. The subways are very clean and tidy and again you feel very safe traveling about on the subway. There are so many museums to visit. Of course I feel the same way about London, England; Paris, France and Rome, Italy which I have spent time in as well although less than New York, Brussels, Belgium is another beautiful city. As we wandered about Europe I remembered the newsreels of these countries when I was a child but now the cities are beautiful. We did not get to Berlin, Germany as we had to cancel our German trip which was a big disappointment to Edward. He had planned that trip for a while.  There are many other capital cities in Europe but Edward does not have ancestors from them so perhaps was not a drawing card for him. Although he did talk about taking a tour of Eastern Europe including Russia. How sad that such times will not happen for quite a while. 

But I do get to enjoy my home city of Ottawa, the capital of Canada. I love Ottawa with its beautiful churches and open green areas. Our Parliament Building is my most favourite. It may not be as big but it is beautiful.