Optometrist today

Finally the optometrist; the suggestion was to wait at least four weeks after the last surgery and I decided that six weeks would be better to give lots of time for healing. So today is the day. The optometrist who originally referred me for cataract surgery has moved office to a plaza further away and I preferred to stay with my local plaza and returned to the business that I had gone to for years before the last set of optometrists. I think that this one had lost its optometrist and my two year appointment came up and so I went to a new one about twelve maybe fourteen years ago.  Although I have all the prescriptions given to me so could readily check but probably not do that bit of research. Anyway today is the day. Gradually my eyes have adjusted to the bright light once again although I am careful to wear sunglasses in full sunlight. I was finding that the lights in the stores were too strong so started to go outside in the shade without sunglasses and that seemed to help my eyes to get used to all that brightness again. It was surprising to see how yellow everything was after the first eye was operated on actually. My parents had cataract surgery but we were far away and I never chatted to them about their surgeries so knowledge on that was limited. 

My distance vision is definitely good as I can spot a female goldfinch feeding at the feeder amongst other interesting birds. I can actually read the road signs which is a treat in my old age having planned my trips anywhere on my own with the aid of a map and counting the number of streets although GPS certainly improved that process. I have not driven since before the first surgery but look forward to doing that once again although I have moved the car about in the laneway as needed. 

Worked a little on the Kipp Newsletter and must complete it today or tomorrow to publish it on the 1st of August. I must admit to not really having done any Kipp research other than bits and snatches which Edward asked me to work on hence I do not know a lot about the modern day family. I was involved with researching back into the past on the family mostly prior to 1800 but anything past that is all in Edward's trees and I will get them up on the website sooner hopefully rather than later. World Connect having disappeared has made all of those links useless. 

Cleaning all accomplished and we reorganized the pantry and closet on the main floor. Another trip to Salvation Army with some items that I suppose I was hanging onto but there are others who could well use that warm clothing this winter and so I have finally let all of that go. A number of items as well that just do not fit into our reduced view that once again could be useful to others and it seems a pity for me to just let them collect dust which I must then clean. 

We bought a rowing machine which I am learning to use and I did an introductory video yesterday on YouTube to clarify the correct way to actually use a rowing machine. I think I will like this and will add it into my weightlifting routine as an upper body strengthener along with the weights. I eliminated the weight lifting that had me bring the weights behind the back of my neck as that is apparently a strain on the upper spine and with my having osteoporosis sounds like a good plan. I am thinking of doing physio once again but I am waiting on my osteoporosis test. I sent in the new requisition myself. It is over two years now since I was supposed to do the followup on the baseline! But there was a problem with the requisition apparently hopefully all solved now.

The month of August will be catchup once I get my new reading glasses. I am still not sure if I will need distance glasses. Sometimes I think I still have astigmatism but it is not affecting letters as much as it did when I had strabismus. It is amazing to cure something like that when you are 78 as it gives you sharper vision, eliminates double vision when you are tired and I now have depth of vision which I have lacked all of my life. Probably the last couple of months I have put a lot of time into just looking at items particularly pictures. Did I miss anything all of my life? not really as I memorized how everything looked that I needed to know no doubt enhancing my ability to store huge amounts of information in my brain through the years. It is mostly a treat the last couple of months and certainly entertained me whilst my eyes were healing. However, it is time to get back to work writing my books in September. August though will be catchup for sure as there are so many items that I put aside for this time period which I will now accomplish before I get back into the much harder work of extracting the material that I need from the parish registers and other documents that are in Latin. I did maintain my Latin studies throughout this time period and will continue with that. It is amazing how much Latin I can read now. 

The mind is definitely made for learning for our entire life. My grandfather used to say that a day you did not learn something new was a wasted day. I believe my grandmother had the same opinion. Our ancestors certainly put learning high on their agenda of items to work at through their lives. 

The Olympics continues and congratulations to all the winners. There is something beautiful about this bringing together of the athletes of the world and giving them this opportunity to prove their mettle. 

Somehow the chaos that Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis (Iran sponsors all of those terrorists) bring to the world disappears for a while when such an event as the Olympics captures the world's interest. Terrorism is akin to Satanism and should not be a part of our world. It is time to move past such barbarism as we have seen committed by Hamas and the Russians. Fence the Russians in; put Hamas,  Hezbollah, the Houthis on a desert island where they can do no harm. What we really need to invent is an invisible electronic fence that prevents a country from firing drones etc against another country and takes out any airplanes that illegally cross into a neighbour's territory without their permission. There are lots of safety abilities with round the clock surveillance in case of mishap to prevent accidental error on the part of airplanes straying onto a neighbour's property.  Certainly the Iron Dome over Israel is a good start. 

On to the day. Latin is next with breakfast already eaten. 

A golden day at the Olympics

 Congratulations to two of our athletes on achieving the epitome of success at the Olympics. I have no idea of the mindset that goes with training to do these events to be honest; I have never been interested. But I do love exercise especially cardio; there is something beautiful in the feel of the wind as it streams through your hair when you run. You achieve a sort of union with nature when you become part of it; because that is what the rest of the species do is move through the environment of our world. Mind you I no longer run outside as I approach 80 but still I will just be 79. But running on the streets is not something I do any longer; all my running is at home. Congratulations to their courage and strength to train and exceed all those around them in their quest to be the best both for themselves and for Canada. It is a tribute to their country to do so but also to themselves.

Congratulations to our neighbour the United States with 20 medals in total (the most of any country). Japan has the most golds with France second and China third. 

Cleaning all accomplished yesterday; two floors done. The basement is on tap for today and will work on that this morning. The iRobot does the rugs which is nice for sure but mostly I run it down there to keep it regularly used as I vacuum the rest of the house. The iRobot is great but I do not want it running around whilst I dust and so I vacuum with the machine myself and probably always will so long as that is possible. Exercise is the most important thing we do every day although eating comes in there as well but I am not a foodie and then there is brain work and my Latin helps to fulfill that at the moment although gradually I am getting back to work but more defined now as I have plans on how to work through those 35 boxes of Edward's research to have everything available to other researchers and his work all on line. 

We bought a rowing machine and it is just a simple one but I rather like it. I need more exercise for my arms and upper torso and it will do the trick I rather think. I do lift weights but this feels like a more thorough upper body workout. I do do some pushups with my calisthenics/yoga routine and continue to work on that (full pushups rather than knee pushups) as it follows my plank for 1.5 minutes per day. 

The house still looks so full but gradually we are downsizing - there is actually one empty room except for a bookcase and a television. We have two chairs that move between the scanning setup and this room where we are calling it the viewing room as we will review all of the electronic material that we have by way of music tapes, DVDs, video tapes that Edward made and there are hundreds of them actually. We setup a YouTube Channel for items that carried his voice and will add to it as we work our way through all of this material. 

On to breakfast and the cleaning and in between whilst the iRobot does its job I will do Latin. The Kipp Newsletter is almost complete and should be on time for the 1st of August. 

The Olympics and the Bulletin Board

Watched the Olympics after going to Church on You Tube. The Church service was excellent and the music, as always, very well done. 

One of our items to do was to create a picture of Edward's Bulletin Board. After he retired in 2004 he set up his Bulletin Board over his desk. Always a calendar in the middle at the bottom for the month where he put all of his activities. He was always very busy. I didn't retire when he did but kept working until 2007 so he took over some of the cleaning and continued with the grocery shopping although would quite often wait until I was home to do that. But his Bulletin Board took on a sort of memory for him of important items in his life. We have kept it as it was but now I decided I wanted to photograph it, have a poster made and laminated because there are some original images on it that need to go to different people principally one Allen image. 

Perhaps the most meaningful picture for him was one that he found in the bottom of his Mother's Hope Chest. It was upside down and on the bottom and he had not noticed it earlier. It is located next to the calendar on the left and is a picture of his parents, older brother and himself as a young child. Although he spent pretty much 24 hours a day with his father he had no memory of him but yet he was the person that gave him ideas on how to live his life simply by the way that he had lived his life. I always thought it was quite remarkable that he did that. I had both parents and two grandparents that I knew very well as well as my six siblings and one maternal uncle and his wife in my life. But for Edward this shadowy person of whom he had no real memory contributed greatly to his life and gave him ideas by the way he had lived his life on how to live his own. Beautiful really (Edward was just two when his father tragically had a fall in the barn). We discovered that the Bulletin Board was not quite exact being slightly shorter on one side than the other which of course really shows up when you square the image and put it into the system for creating a poster. However, we are working around that. 

He had several pictures of me on the bulletin board; to the right above the bottom set is myself at 18 years around the time that we met (Edward took that picture when we were out walking and there is a bridge behind me (I removed my glasses as he thought they might create a light flash); bottom left was after our daughter's graduation from High School and bottom right perhaps a couple of years later I think in 2008 when I needed a picture for something; forgotten what now. It is a picture into the past with a sailing ship such as his ancestors came to the American colonies in the 1600s (there is family lore within the Kip family that Rulof de Kype sailed on this particular ship although Edward did discover a lot of information on the Kip family of New York/New Amsterdam which is in his blog (on his website)), his love of birds showed up clearly. A mat that one of his grandsons made for him a few years ago also. But his calendar was always exactly in the middle showing his activities for the year clearly at a glance (and it was generally a rather busy calendar until COVID). The picture of Hannah Catherine (Parlee) Allen his mother's grandmother on the right half way down. He loved his University and the Western Alumni flag was from one of the every five years reunion that he organized (along with others the last few years). Then a stack of pictures with a red pin through them - the main street of the village of Princeton, Ontario, Canada where he grew up. The rest were pictures that meant a lot to him over the years. 

I think it is more or less ready now for us to have it made into a poster and laminated. Gradually we are getting everything organized so that no original images are lost and having to take down the one image changes it and so we move forward slowly trying to make sure we do not lose anything on the way. 

A lovely evening walk on the beach whilst my daughter kayaked completed a beautiful Sunday in God's world. We are so lucky to have a beautiful world; we must take care of it. It should be front and center in our minds instead of greed, jealousy, envy and actual aggression against people. Whether or not you can defend yourself shouldn't be the question - if you invade another country then you are in the wrong. It is just sad to see the losses that occur because of terrorism being committed against a country. 

Today is cleaning day once again and another beautiful day although here is a weather alert possibly a heat warning I have not yet really looked at the forecast. Keep safe peoples of the world and follow the dream of those who first created the Olympics to bring together the world in sport where fairmindedness is the most important aspect. 

 

Silver for Canada in Women's swimming

 Silver in swimming for Canada in the Olympics. Congratulations to our athletes. Sports is the number one important part of life aside from learning. I do enjoy the Olympics. Thank you again to Celine Dion for her wonderful finale at the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics in Paris. Watching the opening was like going back once again to Paris - we were there twice. A beautiful city with beautiful people and the walks in the parks there were unforgettable. 

Cleaned the garage yesterday as I start to head towards fall cleanup. It is a huge task doing all of that work but the results are always pleasing. The children's wagon and some spare wood is going out to the garbage this week. Initially I put the wagon out for anyone to take but looking at it; I think it has maybe had its life and it is time for it to go to landfill. It is wood so will soon deteriorate. The girls had so much fun with that wagon. Packing it up with their toys and then back into the end of the yard where they had picnics under the trees. It made them feel so independent to manage their own day when just little people. 

Today is Sunday in Ordinary Time (Trinity)  and I will go to Church on YouTube and this week, the Ninth Sunday after Trinity, the service is from Dunstable Priory in Bedfordshire. 

Slowly working myself through the accumulated material that results from reorganizing my closet. The pile on my desk now reduced to a small holder full of CDs that I need to review and decide whether to keep them or not. They are all created by either Edward or myself for various purposes. Trimming it down now is my purpose; it brings to mind Shakespeares's seven stages of man from infant to old age actually. 

Breakfast next and then latin. The day follows its own patterns which gives a certain amount of stability to one's life.  

God's World and how do we fit into it

 Watching all the chaos does make we wonder how do we fit into God's world? Are we doing it very well? Some are actually but too many people are greedy, selfish and opportunistic not protecting the world from our apparent inability to take the best care of it. Some of the people in the world are very interested in it and want to work with Mother Nature rather than in their own self interests. It is an interesting thought to begin the day. I plan to do more cleaning out of doors today and as I pull more and more weeds I am left with the thought is this the answer? For me, no not really which is why I have decided to move to a smaller place (there is too much land with this house). But that is a feature of my nearly 79 years; I can only do so much. I used to handle the garden after Edward became ill in 2012 quite readily although it did take quite a bit of time and effort I could do that. 

That process has begun but will be a slow one I am very sure of that. Finding a place is not going to be easy; no lilies is a big part of that and probably not overly doable. Being still close to a place to kayak would be nice and is doable since Ottawa lies along the Ottawa River. Those appear to be the main items that cross my mind in my acquisition of a new place. Plus it needs to be at the other end of the city for practicality. 

I have been having an exchange of mail on the My Heritage server with a cousin of Edwards. He appears to be related on the Kipp side but has a story to tell in the modern era which I know nothing about. I have told him that I can not help him except with going back into the past and looking at Jonathan Kipp. Edward figured that out; just who Jonathan Kipp was and how he fitted in with the rest of Isaac Kipp's and Hannah Mead Kipp's children. He was the second born with his older brother being Isaac and then three younger brothers James, John and David when they lived at Northeast Town, Dutchess County. They appear to have moved towards the Canadian border around 1798-99 as they are found on the 1800 Census of the United States (Isaac, Hannah, and four children) at Renssaerville near Albany New York. By October of that year they are in Oxford County, Upper Canada and a sixth child is born to them namely Elizabeth. All of that information is in the records. I will leave all of that to others to sort through. I am only dealing with the yDNA now in the Kipp Newsletter. 

Another sunny day in God's world so a good day for cleanup once again. I have started a bit early perhaps but want to have it cleaned up as much as possible by the fall before snow. I am certainly being optimistic. We had very little snow last year but I expect we will have more this year. 

I am now doing my full slate of exercises since I added calisthenics/yoga yesterday. It is just two months since the first surgery so not too bad to be back where I was when I began the surgery except I now see without glasses although will need them for close work but these glasses that I use are too strong. My appointment with the optometrist is next Wednesday and we will see. It is still strange to get up and not put my glasses on so that I can read the time on the clock. 

Time for breakfast. On to the day with Latin following breakfast. 

Normally I would be glued to the Olympics and probably I will a little later. It was somewhat disconcerting to discover that we have coaches who think spying is legitimate. I felt sorry for Celine Dion who sang her heart out for the finale of the opening ceremonies and being a sensitive person was probably heart sick that a Canadian team had been spying on, hard to believe, a New Zealand team. She did very well though and was a wonderful ambassador for Canada as always. We are all part of the British Commonwealth too bad that that in itself was not enough to deter the spying episode against the New Zealanders! Goodness is hard to find for sure. 

I have moved ahead

 Moving has become a more concrete subject in my mind now as I have now started looking at possible places to move to and the quest begins. I sort of know what I want and where I want to live. Smaller for sure and although my carriage home is small relatively speaking it is spacious for a family of five with four bedrooms. The main floor can be a little cramped if all are adults but three children would be no problem at all - lots of room. The basement is partially finished and we have used it successfully all these years for playtime and TV watching although our TV is now in the living room. But that also means there is a lot of cleaning to do with three floors in use all the time. I would like to find either a single (does not appear to be in my price range) or a semi-detached. It must have a smaller yard although would like some yard. It needs to be in the Western end of Ottawa to be practical as I reach towards 79 years in the Fall. 

But I have made the first significant step in that regard. Funny that it was the birds that really started to turn my mind towards that. One really misses the birds when they are not coming to the feeders and that is a part of my day I am not willing to truly give up. The sight of the birds feeding at 6 a.m. is truly a delight as they go about their day. Teaching their little ones to feed at the feeder is a joy to behold. Managing their little ones around chipmunks truly an art in success. I did not actually know that a chipmunk will eat a small bird; too much knowledge sometimes can be alarming! But the joy of watching the birds progress along their path to migration back to the south in the late summer is incredible. The loss of that joy for even a couple of weeks while the rats/mice were tracked down and eliminated was just sad. So on to the future and I am organized now to move as it turns out; just have to find a place that works. 

I discovered I can only find one of Ed's talks thus far. There is some other material I can put up and probably will but I know I filmed more than one talk; I just can not find them. But I do have going through his files in my agenda. It was interesting though learning how to create a You-Tube channel and then add a film to it. My there is a lot of material out there; amazing really. We tend to watch a You-Tube presentation most evenings on wildlife - last night we viewed another in the series on Wildlife in the British Isles. Our eight trips to the British Isles over a period of sixteen years permitted glimpses of this wildlife although not to the degree that it is being enjoyed now. There is so much to see and the trip to the Orkney Islands was just a small part of that. Seeing the architectural wonders of the ancient world have been a treat not to be missed. But then all of my ancestry is from the British Isles and primarily five/six areas of England - I have expanded that to Herefordshire because of the Pencombe family although proving that is still in process but does seem to be a logical premise. My Scot connection to the Highlands with the Routledge family does appear to be well grounded and proven now by my cousin Thomas Routledge. The Irish connection is still tenuous and may never truly be proven although the book on the Charley/Churley/Chorley family does indicate an Irish heritage. 

Yesterday I gave thought to the Kipp Newsletter due on the 1st of August. It will likely be on time. My eyes are stronger in the morning now as I sit and type my blog. Gradually I am extending the time on the computer as I would like to be able to get back to doing my eight hours a day in the Fall but will build that gradually; there isn't a rush. Being one's own employer with regard to writing the books is a treat as I can mull away as much as needed during my work time. 

Hungry as always and breakfast will be next and then Latin. I am pleased with my progress in Latin. Concentrating solely on that during these two months of recovery from the cataract surgery was a really good idea as I could just sit and listen whilst my daughter typed away and not look at the screen in the beginning. The bright light is really a challenge at the start of the recovery period especially in the weaker eye surprisingly although the surgeon did mention to me I would notice the brightness. It would have been nice over these two months to have had more council but that is perhaps just an after thought and not of primary importance. A checkup by the surgeon at six weeks after the second surgery should be worked into the protocol I think but I will soon have my optometrist appointment. 

On to the day and may there be peace on earth. War is dreadful; attacking a country such as Hamas representing Gaza did when they attacked Israel was a sin beyond compare and the same for Russia attacking Ukraine also a sin beyond compare. No one has the right to attack free countries; we could all have a better life if that stops for ever and both of these groups Hamas/Hezbollah/the Houthis satanic agents of Iran and Russia would halt their aggression and troublemaking. Hamas/Hezbollah/the Houthis could remove themselves from the countries that they have infiltrated and Russia remove itself from Ukraine and the world could be a peaceful place at least in those two areas. Internal conflicts in countries may be with us a while longer until greed and envy disappear from our world.

Rain, beautiful rain

 We really got a wonderful rainfall yesterday. Everything is beautifully green. Thank you God for the bountiful harvest this year in our garden and for the wonderful rains. 

Still working on downsizing. I have a couple of parcels to make up and send off of items that I am sure Edward would want us to send. He talked a lot about his possessions and how he wanted us to handle everything well except for the things he didn't mention. One thing we did do though was start a YouTube Channel for his talks. One is up and we will work on getting the other nearly a dozen up. Edward had a perfect speaking voice and he shared his research and our travels a number of times to different groups. Edward and I spent many many days returning to the areas where his ancestors had lived in the north eastern United States. Most came from 1800 on to settle in southwestern Ontario where the very fertile land there was available and his lines lived in the Woodstock/Brantford area. He shared that farming heritage with Gordon Riddle along with an interest in the families of that area and my knowledge of that is about nil as I did not sit in on their conversations. Gordon had invited Edward to come with him in the early 1980s to the meeting of the Ontario Genealogical Society/Ontario Ancestors as it is now known, not sure exactly when but perhaps 1981 and Edward loved the group and spent the next fourty years supporting and being very involved in the group. Years later I did start to attend meetings (around 2003 actually) although Edward volunteered me to work on computers and genealogy at the annual Gene-O-Rama (my editing and proofreading of material did give me new skills in scanning and image manipulation that he wanted me to share with people). The pursuit of genealogy was not something that interested me until around 2003 when my cousin George DeKay asked me to write a profile of my Pincombe family for the Westminster Township book he was editing. A bit of arm twisting and I did agree and did produce the Pincombe Profile back in 2005. For me it was always Surname Research and I am still a member of the Guild of One Name Studies for nearly twenty years now. The time has passed quickly. Last year I completed the revision (it was actually a two year project in total) of James Sanders "History of the Siderfin Family of West Somerset" under the title "The Siderfin Family of West Somerset" which is still freely available on my website for download:

http://www.kipp-blake-families.ca/The Siderfin Family of West Somerset - Elizabeth Kipp 4600.pdf

During some of my working career I was involved in the production of material for both books and articles so feel comfortable writing and James (we share several greats grandparents) who produced the book in 1912 would be pleased to have it revised 112 years later I am sure. His intent was to share the information he collected (and it was extensive) on the Siderfin family and we can be forever grateful to him because so much material was lost when the Record Office in Devon was bombed during World War II. 

Another month and I plan to be back at working on the Blake and Pincombe books with suggested completion in early 2026 although that is beginning to sound closer than it did in January 2026 but is a good date to aim for even if I miss it and continue working on the two books for a longer time. Does genealogy actually interest me? I think the story of families is interesting but I tend to see it as surname research and do not follow all the lines so I suppose genealogy is not really what I am doing although perhaps belongs to that overall category. I do not include the descent of female lines (standard in surname research) except in the case of the Siderfin book where my mother's Siderfin ancestor was her 2x great grandmother hence following a Rew-Siderfin marriage to a Pincombe-Rew marriage which then came down in the Pincombe line to my mother. 

The recitation of the generations of family that preceded Jesus in the Bible always fascinated me and the surname line in this case was also through a female line, Mary the mother of Jesus was descendant of the line of David (as was Joseph the earthly father of Jesus). Hence my seeing this type of study as Surname Study rather than genealogy. 

Time for breakfast and then Latin. Yesterday I missed doing Latin as I worked on the Blake Newsletter right after breakfast but did remember by evening fortunately and so have not missed a lesson in Latin for nearly 200 days now. It has been an excellent mainstay whilst I recovered from cataract surgery. 

Thank you God for another beautiful day in your world. May peace come to our world for everyone to live a happy life. 

Another downsizing trip to Salvation Army

 Yesterday saw another storage rack go to the street and amazingly it was picked up whilst we took a load to Salvation Army. I thought if it goes great; if not then contact the Tool Library and see if they needed another metal rack but all done - great day. The basement is finally at a point where I know I can move easily now to another house or perhaps a condo as what is left would easily be eliminated. A lot stays - the washer and dryer are just a couple of years old and they would stay. The freezer might stay as well if wanted as too big for a condo but could go to a new house with a basement. Everything else is just basic family stuff like skis, suitcases, items that I just haven't yet decided to take to Salvation Army as I still use them but could go as they are all in good shape. A big table which I would leave if the person wanted it. A good solid working table but much too large for me to use as a desk. The rest would just go. 

The house seems so empty now and it is pretty basic. I like simple actually - easier to look after but yet the keepsakes are still there - the children's books just in case they want them. It has taken over three years to donate or put to the curb items that are still useful but I just do not need them. Just before COVID began Edward and I visited a retirement apartment building just to have a look as we both knew that the time was coming quickly but Edward was resistant to moving and I wondered what we would do with everything. Edward was downsizing and had actually donated quite a bit of material himself to various groups. I wonder now where it all was placed. Were there any empty walls or all covered by bookcases? It amazes me sometimes but the last fourteen years that I worked (and I went back to work outside of the home in 1994 as I mostly proofread and copyedited at home for over a decade) I really did just that - it was a long way across the city and I tended to be off by 6:30 to 6:45 to catch the bus and then not home much before 6:00 in the evening (off to bed at 9:00 and the day was done!). It was really all that I did as my health will just let me do so much. Now with my cataracts removed my eyesight is clear as I look at birds at the feeder without my glasses - still amazes me along with my shrunk back yard. Strabismus is certainly an interesting condition and now that it is gone my eyes are like most other people's eyes having depth of vision. The world does look different but also the same just has more angles!

Today will be a full exercise day as the cleaning is all accomplished. I will also try to put in a couple of hours on the computer over the day's span. Looking forward to my new glasses as these are just a little too strong (my distance glasses). 

I have a couple of piles that I need to review and place into their appropriate location in the now rearranged areas. I need a collection area for journals that I will send to the OGS/BIFHSGO Library that I receive. I also want to work on my DNA collection of matches. Back at the beginning I had a binder but pretty much all digital now. I need to review that material and shred it. Then no more piles on my desk. I like it to be pretty much clear of material - mostly my computer and whatever I am working on if needed. Primarily my work is all electronic. 

The new You-Tube channel for Ed Kipp's Talks is now prepared and will open it up soon. I think there are perhaps ten or twelve talks that I filmed whilst he delivered them. So it will be the sound on YouTube but also I did image the slides but the slides will be available by hypertext link as they did not reproduce as well as the sound. It is fascinating and quite lovely listening to Edward speak once again. He had a marvelous speaking voice and loved his subjects whether they were science or history. He could easily have done a PhD in history but he thought his greatest love was science in those youthful days. But his love for history was hiding in his search for information on his Kipp family which was just beginning when I first knew him. Once we had a car (about eight months after we married) the history part had a chance to flourish as you need to be able to go to the sites to really appreciate history.

Breakfast beckons and I am hungry as usual. First exercises of the day completed and I am back to touching my toes twenty times as I was not supposed to do that right after the cataract surgery. It is nice to be back to full exercising once again. I will also complete the Blake Newsletter today and post it. Perhaps I will get started on the Kipp Newsletter due on the 1st of August. 

Second cleaning day and I wonder will it eventually be one day

What a wonderful cheerful thought first thing in the morning. Just one cleaning day a week would be wonderful. 

I also was contemplating the results of my blood work. Whilst Edward was still alive he had a very sweet tooth and would want to buy goodies each shopping day. He had this canny trick that he used which was that he wanted to buy pastries or cakes or something like that but I needed to help him eat that. Because I knew he had a sweet tooth I would always say that I would eat a little but buy the smallest one! I didn't bake because he would eat it all so buying just one treat a week worked better. But I always had a total cholesterol reading about 0.6 to 0.8 above normal after menopause. But I was noting that the final result for me this time was the sum of HDL plus LDL plus 40% triglycerides instead of 20% glycerides which means I was actually normal because I do not have a sweet tooth nor do I eat a lot of red meat or prepared foods. I prefer to make most of what I eat. Interesting really in retrospect. Plus I did not fast for the normal time that one would which would likely mean an even lower cholesterol than 5.05! Amazing in my old age but it is really a matter of life style as the doctors say. Occasionally I might eat a piece of cake or a pastry but pretty rare; I just do not have a sweet tooth. I prefer cheese, (not too much) or freshly prepared lemon or lime juice for a refresher or a bowl of yoghurt. 

Cleaning all accomplished yesterday and today the basement. More downsizing and more material brought together into the one room where I can work on it when I am not writing the Blake or Pincombe books. Pretty much everything has now been looked at and placed where it can be downsized to cousins or used to put together the Kipp Newsletter or the new YouTube channel of Ed Kipp's Talks. Still in process as I need to have clickable links for the slides. Hopefully up and running next week. He gave quite a number of talks which I filmed on our old Video Camera. 

Hard to believe we are reaching towards the end of July. This month has passed very quickly. 

Breakfast next and then Latin and the basement cleaning to follow.

 

The circle is complete as it is Cleaning Day once again

Top and main floors of my little house to clean today. I have been downsizing once again and today the closet that has housed so many things will be emptied, washed and reloaded but with considerably less in it. When Edward had filled all the closets in the other three bedrooms he started to fill the last one and I have never been through all of that but today will see that happen and rearrangement occur so that everything is in one room where I can easily work on various items to see that no original documents are lost and gradual downsizing of the remainder that will be kept for a while anyways. 

I am trying to get back into my usual work routine with my research but will not begin the books before September. However, there is lots to do otherwise to get ready for the book writing spree once again. Two big bags of weeds are ready for this week's garbage collection on Friday and that has eliminated a little of the weeds here and there. Still a lot to do but will get done through the Fall as I write - a nice distraction. 

I have enjoyed all of our lovely meals through the summer with the fresh produce from the garden but definitely looking forward to my chicken stew once again which tends to be my staple in the fall and winter. Lovely hot stew is nice on cold days for sure. Gradually we are coming to the dog days of August; just nine days left in July now and it has been an unusual one for us here. The last couple of Julys have been very very hot but this year a lot of rain and not so much heat with the nights below 20 celsius most times. However, it is apparently very humid today but just 12 degrees celsius at 5:30 a.m.  The weeds have definitely flourished!

On to the day, breakfast first and then Latin. 

Sunday in God's World

A beautiful day today in God's World and it is too bad that the evil Satanic Nazis are still busy trying to create chaos in our world. The Russians continue to attack Ukraine and commit genocide against the Ukrainian people. Why, one might ask? Are they just jealous because the Ukrainians are the most ancient population in that area? Jealousy is disgusting. It destroys more lives than anything. Then there are Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis servants of the Evil Satanic Iran trying to wipe out first the Jews and then the Christians are in their sights I do believe. Why the ICJ declared that Israel was occupying Gaza illegally is beyond me for sure; hostages (alive and dead) continue to be held there by Hamas and their allies and Israel has every right to take them home in whatever way they can. The ICJ demanded the unconditional release of the hostages back in January - seven months ago and why is that not mentioned? Hamas needs to get out of Gaza so that the Palestinians can have a chance at life; it is Hamas that robs the Palestinians of food and their very lives by using them to try to create bad press for Israel. The United Nations should not be in a war zone. They go in and clean up after the ceasefire. I would like to see the Palestinians have a better life and it is interesting that many of them have received medical treatment in Israeli hospitals. Who cares most about the Palestinians becoming a resourceful and efficient people; Israel I would say - it is certainly not Hamas.

I do agree with General Eyre that we need to reach and surpass the 2% of GDP for our military (4% sounds like a good number to aim for). Neither government (Liberal or Conservative) has done well with that since the days of Mulroney. They need decent salaries, decent equipment and more of it. We have three oceans that we maintain and the second largest country in the world. Personal needs of people are important but need to be handled the most efficient way possible and that I believe is to give the money to the provinces. Use the Income Tax declared/paid to determine if a person is eligible. The provinces already deliver medical care to each of their respective provinces and adding in regular teeth checkups and cleanings should be possible just by adding dentists into the system. I am not a believer in creating new systems on a national basis and all the necessary bureaucracy for provincial needs where there is already a ministry handling health care or any other item that is predominantly maintained by the provinces.  

Church on line on YouTube  and the service today is at Trinity Church, Maisons-Laffitte, Paris. I shall join that presently. The 2024 Olympic Games begin on Friday July 26 and end August 11. I will be glued to the TV set during that time period. I do so love watching the Olympics. 

More downsizing yesterday as items no longer of use to me will make their way to the Salvation Army. I gave them my punch bowl and small cups  to match in the last trip there. I have had that punch bowl for over fifty years and enjoyed using it. But I no longer have a purpose for it and perhaps another will enjoy it.  Games too went with that load and bedding no longer used by us. My uncle Edwin Pincombe was a great supporter of the Salvation Army throughout his years in London, Ontario and perhaps in Toronto as well I do not know that as I lived here. My uncle and I corresponded the last seven or eight years of his life (he died at 89) so I have his letters as a treasure as well as twenty five years of my mother's letters (Edwin was her brother). 

Lots of garden work yesterday and two full bags of weeds to go out this Friday for garbage collection. I am only breaking the surface though; the good rain also bring many many weeds. But the lawns are all cut and I am satisfied with the result although Edward would certainly cringe looking at those lawns but I was always in favour of dandelions and clover; just kept it to myself. 

The day flew by yesterday for sure. Not a lot accomplished but spent a little more time on the computer working on the Blake Newsletter. It is nearly complete and then I must do the Kipp Newsletter. Never a dull moment for sure. The Blake was due 1st of July and the Kipp is due the 1st of August. Usually there would be an H11 Newsletter but I am just doing that once a year at the moment. 

Breakfast completed and will do Latin after going to Church. 

Saturday the 20th of July

Wow, the second last weekend in July. This summer has marched along quickly. Yesterday I cut all the lawns once again. Lilies everywhere and it is just easier for my daughter to not be exposed to them so much. Mostly she can avoid them but when they are in the neighbours' yards on both sides that is hard to avoid. Also weeded along with pulling out the plants that are coming through the fence. Not being a gardener type person; it is not really an enjoyed time except the exercise is good. One benefit anyway. 

Went through my Inbox quite quickly actually and that is all stowed away until it fills up again and that is usually Income Tax time so a few months away. Today I will work on my memory box and I bought two plastic bins for that so that I could make it a neater task. I have all the cards I ever received (except if I lost them) in scrap books to be something to do if I am ever bed ridden for a short period. I can just sit there and enjoy my cards. Hard to imagine myself doing that but it seemed like a good plan when it crossed my mind a dozen years or more ago. I had injured my knee and had to go carefully and it came to mind that I could do something with the stacks and stacks of cards that I had collected up through the years. Amazingly I did collect something as I am not prone to retain items very much. 

Less than two weeks now until I go to the Optometrist and looking forward to that as these lenses of my Distance glasses are just a little too strong. I only use them for short periods of time. Blood test results arrived in my account and only one slightly over. Not sure when the Lipid Profile was added as I asked when I arrived to do blood work if I had to have fasted to do the blood test (I had forgotten to take my glasses and the print was small!) and the person taking in my blood order said no but they were busy perhaps. Anyway my cholesterol was  up 0.12 over the reference so very very close to normal. Other than that completely normal which is nice. I have been lucky in my old age to not have any particular problems with those types of tests. As it turned out I had eaten breakfast at 5:00 a.m. and the blood test was done around 1:30 p.m. so 8.5 hours since food and the rule of thumb is 9 to 12 hours as I recall. But I neither drink alcohol or smoke the two problem items for older people I suspect. I get lots of exercise and actually eat just as the food guide says not having a sweet tooth at all. Interesting as that was pretty much like my grandparents and my parents. Time will tell of course but life is such that one never knows when the time will come as my father used to say. His favourite expression was "There I go but for the grace of God." I always remember my last day with my father as we had gone to London on my whim after my mother said he had had a bout of pneumonia. I just felt I should go as he was over 94 then so off we went in a wicked snowstorm and when we arrived after that dreadful drive in London I went over to the Nursing Home the next morning and I could see that he was not strong. The only strong part was his eyes as he recognized me and I could see again the glint in his eyes that was always there. Life was still there but the glow was dimming. I spent about eight hours with him that day; he slept during part of it and when it was time to head home (the snow had abated somewhat but the drive back was also something else) my husband and daughters came in to say goodbye to Grandpa and I had told them they would not likely see him again alive. But they were older 16 and 24 and knew he was no longer the strong Grandpa they had known as young children. 

Time for breakfast and then Latin. Perhaps I will actually bring out the power washer and clean up the steps, patio and porch today. 

New Ideas

Yesterday great accomplishment with downsizing and clearing up the various drawers in my desk and night tables. All organized once again as they had become filled when we did some emptying of the three large storage bookcases moving them to their new location and reorganizing them. 

We also worked on a Memorial Item for Edward. Initially we set it up on his Google YouTube channel but we will instead move it to mine (although still as "Edward Kipp" as it is easier to obtain verification and permit clickable links. Yesterday we put up his talk on "Who were the Palatines" to the UEL Convention earlier which I filmed at a meeting of the Bay of Quinte genealogists way back in 2002! The actual slides are not that good in the filming on our large video camera at that time but the voice is good. It was nice to sit there and listen to Edward lecture once again. He had a very good speaking voice. Both my daughter and I enjoyed listening to his talk. I did actually film all of his talks and will put them up on a YouTube Channel over time in memory of him. I think all of these items take a lot of time to work through and make decisions on. 

My yearly visit with the doctor was yesterday and this time I had a student which is always quite interesting as they ask a lot of questions. I did share my success with cataract surgery and no more strabismus and now depth of vision is mine. Amazing really. Just waiting on my optometrist appointment as my current distance glasses are too strong (I am actually using them for close work for limited time periods as they are too strong). One of my last jobs working in the hospital I was the Administrative Assistant for the Hematopathology Residency Training Program and did find it quite interesting listening to the students as they learned their discipline and helped them when they asked. We had a lovely chat and finished off with a series of three blood pressure readings. Mine is generally higher in a doctor's office although a good normal value in actual fact as 120/80 is a good result but my usual is 100 to 110/60 to 70 having lower blood pressure like my father. Will I live to be  in my 95th year like he did; no ideas on that actually. I just live the days as they arrive and go to sleep each night thanking God for the goodness of life that He has provided. 

Just need to get the recyclables out to the street for weekly pickup and will do that now. 

Today I shall work on my Inbox from the last year organizing it into its various categories. Usually I sit with my daughter and do that so that she is aware of everything that has come in through the year. 

Other than that this is another beautiful day in God's world and we are blessed to have it.

 

Another downsizing day

 One of my worst habits perhaps is my tendency to put items into my "holding" places until I can or will make decisions on them. Today is the day that I go through the four different drawers and make decision and actually all drawers are now complete and just the contents of the fourth drawer to review. It went very quickly but I am rather like that when a decision has to be made. Gradually we are coming up with unique ideas on what to do with some items. It takes a while to downsize and not regret I think. I just could not do that quickly. 

I am still overwhelmed by all the paperwork that Edward created in his more than 55 years of genealogical collecting. I know he hoped one of his daughters would become interested and to a certain extent they are interested in their family tree. But everything is pretty much scanned and now I just have to make sure the rest of it is and then the originals can get put into a permanent location where there is a research group with descendancy plans. It is really vital for important documents to have such a plan. Not that they are "world" important but more they tell the story of a family and as the years pass another interested person will likely emerge and everything will be available unless of course we lose the ability to use modern equipment like computers and the like. In which case that would be sad but can not really be prepared for on a family level other than recording everything on accessible material that would need to be updated into the future. But we do our best for sure. 

The garden is desperate now for weeding and I will get to that this week as well. Eye drops are now complete and just a couple of weeks and my optometrist appointment for new glasses. These that I am using are just a bit too strong so I only use them for short periods as I had planned to take a couple of months off except for basic items. 

Another beautiful day in God's world; sun is shinning brightly and we should be a peaceful world. Too many died in the last two World Wars for us to let peace slip away. Strange really that a country that fought very hard during the Second World War to eliminate the Nazis should become Nazis themselves invading an independent country and committing atrocities. Their intent appears to be genocide against the Ukrainian people (as it has been this past one hundred years at various times). Why is that? The deep ancestry of the Ukrainian people is much older than Russia - Russians are descendants of the Ukrainian people and is that their problem. One might say that is pretty childish! Trouble is they are using deadly weapons. 

The wind is blowing in the trees as God looks down on us wondering when we will be the adults he needs us to be to care for his world. 

Breakfast completed and Latin in a bit; just getting the last drawer organized. 

Wow, the 17th of July already

 Last day for the last eye drop and it is completed. Eye drops have never been my favourite thing for sure but they have served their purpose and my eyes continue to surprise me by what they can see actually. Wearing glasses since I was one year of age it continues to be strange to wander about without glasses although I do need glasses; I can tell that but the ones that I have are too strong. It will be nice to have new ones. Looking forward to that in a couple of weeks. First off to the optometrist and I do find it strange that there isn't a followup by the ophthalmologist but also realize they are very very busy with so many seniors needing cataract surgery. Possibly I am falling through the cracks; no idea on that really. The whole episode was a sort of drama filled thing that finally resulted in my having cataract surgery with after support by my daughter since I actually did really need that support especially after the second eye was operated on. I could not have managed on my own until at least a week after but I had no idea how long I would need such close support. I hadn't done it before!

Cleaning day accomplished yesterday and the dust did bother my eyes somewhat but they are fine again today. Not sure of the solution other than having a pair of glasses that fit my eyes and that is forthcoming. I have tried a couple of different ways but nothing really works properly. Just carry on one might say and I did. Cleaning all done. 

Today I am organizing my two bookcases of books (small bookcases (three shelf)) since I vacuumed all of them and moved them to the scanning/research room. That gets me up from the computer on a regular basis to check details as I write. Good exercise. 

We found a couple of VHS tapes on one of the families that Edward researched (Rathbun) and I shall contact the cousin who has all the material I had found previously to see if he would like them. I can just mail them. Before it was boxes and then one box and now just two tapes but all in his hands. They are half first cousins sharing their maternal grandfather who married twice. 

On to the day, breakfast and then Latin.

Church Service in Cornwall, England once again

 The Sunday Service was lovely and the hymns were of the Sea so quite beautiful. The English are a sea-faring people from time immemorial having navigated the globe and sailed all the oceans in the early days. I do not come from sea-faring families but rather farmers for the most part from five different areas of England. The Church of England is ancient to that land stretching back far into the past and my grandfather/father used to say that the English were descended from one of the lost tribes of Israel. That always fascinated me as a child. When I discovered that the yDNA that my brothers carried tells of an ancient line it became so much more meaningful all of those stories of my youth.

The working room for Edward's material is nearly complete. I just need to move in my fiche reader and small desk it sits on and one bookcase. Then I think I will make a list of work to do and then adhere to it rigorously so that I do accomplish all that I intend to do. I do have a list but it includes everything but I want it to be specific to Edward's material that we still have to work through and publish on the website. 

The garden is growing luxuriously; more rain yesterday; a good heavy rain actually. Lawn needs cutting once again and I will do that until the lilies die down. The trip to the cottage was a trip through green fields and pastures. With all this rain green is the colour of the world around me instead of the harsh brown of dried up grass. It is pleasant; thank you God for all that you do for us. 

The birds are in the feeder and high up above the trees I can see the Hawks watching patiently for a mouse or even a baby rabbit to appear and down they will swoop although with so much tree cover I do not see the as low as they used to be; hard for them with their wide wing span. 

Cleaning day two and I will begin with the top floor of this little house. Starting to look at ads for houses as we will move one of these days. We have lived in this house for more than 46 years now. Hard to believe although it does seem like a very very long time. The longest I ever lived anywhere was the house that I lived in before we were married and I lived there for almost eighteen years. 

Breakfast and then Latin and then cleaning.

Last three days of eye drops

One eye drop at 6 am today, tomorrow and Wednesday and I am finished with eye drops. It is still easy for me to strain my last operated eye so do take it rather easy with my work and will for another six weeks just to give it lots of time to rest and relax. Still no work on the Blake Newsletter but will try to do that this week. Then I have the Kipp Newsletter for the first of August and hopefully by September really back on track including writing my two books - one on Blake of Andover, Hampshire, England and one on the Pencombe family of North Molton, Devon. I am into family charting coming down from the earliest records in both of these books now and that is pretty intensive work so will only do a couple of hours a day in the beginning. 

Today I shall watch Church on YouTube since I missed yesterday. It is also cleaning day and the basement is up first. Yesterday after we got home we cleared out one bookcase and will now try to find it a good home as it is in good shape. The items on that bookcase have already found a new home or are being given away to Salvation Army. The downsizing continues but at a pace that is doable and allows me to really be kind to the many items that represent our past - Edward and I. This time it will be the punch bowl that we used at the Off to Western Social that we started in the mid 80s. The girls loved being there and helping out and it was an opportunity for local students going to Western University to see who was going and whether or not they knew anyone. It worked well although it is now many years since we have done that; I think we may have done about ten years now as I look back. 

Other than that it is a cleaning day and the basement is so much easier to clean now as it is emptier and emptier. If I am able to find a small house in the next year or two I need to have a lot less stuff both for my own ability to maintain it and to make it easier for my children when I am no longer able to maintain a home around me to downsize me entirely!

Beautiful weekend at the cottage and greatly enjoyed. I was tempted to play soccer but did not do that either. Must protect that eye for a while yet but it will always be tempting to play soccer and go swimming and all of those exciting fun things that I can still manage to do easily!

Garden doing wonderfully and we are enjoying the lettuces, tiny tomatoes and lots of herbs at the moment; one cucumber as well now off the vine. Plus all the raspberries and I should have picked some currants and gooseberries but left them for the birds who have eagerly eaten them. Birds back at the swinging feeder and the other feeder now out of commission and will be taken down soon. 

Out of touch on the world news for the moment and must catch back up. Bravo to Poland considering shooting down bombs directed at Ukraine. Russia is a very sinful country; so greedy and that has been the case for as long as I can remember as they attack Ukraine in so many different ways through the past century. Hopefully the war in Gaza soon over; Hamas is a terrorist group and must be eliminated from our world so that we can have peace. 

Sad that gun violence has once again happened in the country of our neighbour the United States of America. That gun violence may disappear from the country of our neighbour. 

Breakfast next and on to the day. 

At the cottage

At the cottage for the weekend. Forgot my glasses. Very quiet in the mornings. Plus I sent that on my mobile phone hence all the errors now corrected. A lovely weekend in the sun and fresh air standing on the dock, going boating, walking a lot but no swimming because I am not supposed to for six weeks after surgery. That is pretty much the middle of August as I think two months is a reasonable sum to pay for the good eyesight that I have now obtained. The boat ride was great through and I quite enjoyed it. I loved boating as a child when we got to do that. Canoeing is nice too and kayaking but sitting back in a speed boat and whipping along is a whole other experience for sure. One of the dogs was also with us with her own life jacket on with a handle on the back to lift her out of the water if she happened to jump in which she did not. That was rather nice as she has a thick mat of curly hair and you can imagine how much water she would have shook off on us if she had!

The excitement though was before hand. The warning tire pressure light came on in our car not long before we were due to head to the cottage so I called CAA (I have a membership which is very much worth the cost I must say) to come and fill the tire that was down and had set off the light. Yes I know I can take it to the garage and do that myself but at 79 nearly I am happy to call CAA to do that for me. It happened early in February as well and is a fairly rare occurrence those being the first two times that I have ever called them since I was behind a truck that dropped sheet metal and did in the tires of most of the cars behind it (I escaped with just one tire being slashed that time) which was perhaps 35 years ago now. So the young man with the tow truck came and pumped up my tire so I said thank you and assumed he would go on his way but he decided to tell  me that it was probably my battery that was the problem and asked to test the battery. Since it wasn't costing me anything I let him test the battery which he then said was at 80%. I explained I had accidentally left my GPS on for two hours whilst the car was shut off two days earlier but he wanted to replace my battery (no labour cost he said) right then so I decided to pass on that. I called the dealership where I take my car for servicing and asked if they could replace my battery - knowing I am an old woman they asked why so I repeated the story to them and told them we were off to the cottage which was about 1.5 hours to drive on the highways. He said (having checked out my visit there to have the snow tires removed and radial tires put back on) just drive it and it will recharge and the light will go out and you will be fine. So I said great and see you in the Fall. He was right, drove there and the light went off. The car started when we returned home and here we are. I appreciate having CAA very much and did not mind the suggestion but likely I am going to check with my dealer as I want to have the battery they approve. Interesting story and the happy ending always appreciated. 

Discovered that an individual with a similar name (Bill Kipp) had died in Paris Ontario (my daughter mentioned it to me), the person who died was actually the father of the individual (100 years old) who wrote to me telling me he had information on the link between the two Kipp families - one in Paris and one in Princeton. I did not do any of that research and will not actually do any paper research and did let him know that. I do continue to manage the yDNA study since it links Edward's Kipp line with the Kip family of New Amsterdam/New York City. I mentioned that to the son and will pass on via the Kipp Newsletter his comment so that people could get in touch with him. Since one of the members of the Tillsonburg Kipp family tested as well (they descend from the Quaker John Kipp who was in Niagara and New York State before that) but I do not know for sure exactly how the Kipp family in Paris fits in. The ancient line from which they all descend has a fascinating story to go with it right back to the Ice Man of Lichenstein 3000 years old burial! 

Continuing with our downsizing as another bookcase will go out the door this week plus a big box to Salvation Army of breakable knick knacks that they can sell likely. I just have so much stuff that Edward bought when we visited the various place here in Canada, in the United States, the British Isles and Europe. None of it worth much money but all fun things and perhaps I will consider adding in details on where it was purchased just for interest. Will think about that. It does make items more interesting for sure. I do not have to identify myself; I can just say where it was purchased. 

I missed Church today. I do do that when we are with family; my family does comes first and I think God wants us to love our families and do the best we can to keep them in the faith. I have my way which may be different from how other people include God in their lives. 

A beautiful weekend in God's world with lots of sights and sounds of nature. 

Four weeks since the last cataract surgery

Today is the beginning of the weaning off period for the steroid drops and the anti-inflammatory drops. Today I am down to 3 drops - 2 at 6am and 1 at 6pm. That lasts until Sunday night and then Monday to Wednesday just 1 inflammatory drop for the three days and I am finished with drops. A whole new experience putting drops in my eyes. I never put anything in my eyes including makeup all of my life so it will be nice to be free of that although one can never know the future for sure. 

 Soon I will return to not having to deal with things. I would love to be able to just write an email; ask for a quote and get the job done and then pay for it. No discussion needed other than determining that what I think I need and what can be supplied are the same thing! As I continue to age I realize how much of a real loner I am. I always thought I was but politeness did on occasion drag me out of that wondrous state where I did not have to deal with people other than employers. And of course Edward did drag me out of that loner state but we did have so very much in common. 

We have our new to us day bed partially set up now in the front bedroom and I will use that for sorting papers and things. It is nice to have a good length to work with and it was either a table which serves no other practical purpose or this day bed which my son in law and daughter offered to me as it makes up into a King sized bed for visitors if I ever have any which is dubious for the most part!

I do find the news somewhat fascinating today as my mind is now comparing the American system of government which is a republic to the Westminster System of government which we inherited from our British Colonial days. The American system has stood them well for over two centuries; they have had many admirable Presidents at the helm with my favourite being President Eisenhower whom I remember well from my childhood days. The hero of World War II absolutely with his cool careful approach to reducing Hitler's Fortress Europe so that the people of Europe could be free once again. There have been many presidents since but he does stand out as the perfect example of President in my mind. Here in Canada the Prime Minister shares the top position with the hereditary Head of State namely now King Charles III of the United Kingdom and those countries within the Commonwealth who still have the King as their Head of State. One elected and one by right of birth and for us it has been a good combination during my life. Interesting really. 

Today is a busy one with picking vegetables and fruit as we are to have sun/cloud but no rain. The rain has been great and the land is thoroughly soaked quite unusual to have so much rain in July but it will save all the plants perhaps to produce very well through now to the end of August or even into September. Our lettuce has been simply wonderful. 

I am slowly getting organized so that one more bookcase in the basement can be eliminated. Downsizing is proceeding apace and I am about where I thought I might be a year ago as I did not think I would accomplish very much last year other than publishing the revised Siderfin book and start to plan the next book. I actually have more written than I thought I would by now as I thought the cataract surgery would probably take up to six months before I was really functional again but in reality it is just under two months since the first surgery on the 27th of May. I still will not begin work on the books again until early September. But all of this lovely time (and once I have my new glasses) to organize Edward's material for publication on the website and give it to the Family History Library and the Guild of one name studies library for the use of the one-namers around the world. His work on the Kip/Kipp family of New York is phenomenal in my humble opinion and I will try to get that organized through August. But I also want to work on the studies that we did in our early marriage days on wild flowers of Ontario and get that published in his name. Also his thesis scanned and published. I had planned to do the scanning during my recovery period but would have found it difficult. With my new glasses I think I will find that easier. 

The day commences, exercise complete except for my yoga and jumping jacks for the morning before breakfast.

What is protest

 Protest should be in writing, signed with your signature and should not interfere with the regular business of people living their lives including work and recreation. Protest behind a scarf to protect your privacy should be illegal since you are invading everyone's else's privacy. Protest should not be during the hours that have been designated as "usual sleep time." No one should have to put up with the noise that exists in these groups during the night. That is my take on it. We took a stand on anti-semitism and crafted laws that would punish for such hate crimes; they have not been used against these protesters wearing scarves so that they can still go and work for people that they condemn so that is just wrong. A hate crime is a hate crime and should be punished; marching in favour of barbaric terrorists is a hate crime and should carry a punishment. Undermining the governmental basis of a government starts with such leniency - no protests that do not fit into the above criteria - no displacement of people's rights to work and recreation; no hiding behind a scarf or other item; no protesting in the night, no habitation at protests. That works for me and probably works for most Canadians who are tired of people thinking they can just demonstrate where and how they want. None of us wanted the children of Gaza to die, None. This set of protests prolonged the war in my humble opinion; there can never be support for terrorists - they chose that life. One is left with the impression that the news reels were more important to them (except for the ones showing the barbaric actions of their heroes against the Israeli people) then the safeguarding of nature's gifts - the children. Thank you University of Waterloo for suing the protesters - all the universities should do that for the damage, the vandalism and the need to employ a private security company to clear the campus. 

Great having new storm doors although they are pretty cheaply made considering the price tag (about half or a quarter of the weight of the doors they replaced!). You can see industry slowly eroding products; shrinking products to increase their profits which some try to hide so that they do not pay appropriate taxes. If we want to have a free world then we all need to contribute; hiding wealth in island nations thinking you can escape taxes and force people to work for less and less in a rapidly more expensive world will be your downfall. Support the country that made you what you are. We need more military equipment; 4% of GDP is really the more realistic number but we need to get to at least 2%. Donate a ship; an expensive piece of land equipment; an airplane. 

Soon time for my optometrist appointment for new glasses. I do need new glasses for sure and have for nearly two years but getting cataract surgery did prove to be a hurdle to that. I was not going to pay for a set of glasses that would need to be replaced after surgery but I never dreamed it would take 1.5 years to finally be at a point where I could get my new glasses. These plastic lenses have their advantages but really are only good for two years in my personal opinion (perhaps it is acid rain that deteriorates their quality no ideas on that). I look forward to new glasses so that I can get back to driving once again. Plus I do not like bugs in my eyes and do miss wearing my glasses and my normal glasses are too strong to use except for close work such as this blog!

On to the day, lots of exercise planned as I am getting back up to my normal level. The end of the eye drops is coming and I am down to only three per day starting tomorrow and then on Monday down to one per day and all gone by next Wednesday. The most eye drops when treating both eyes per day was 18 drops per day and it has declined from that down to six per day today. That is really the item that you need help with in those early days after surgery. I could actually see adequately right after surgery although somewhat blurry but I just had to be a little bit tired for my eyesight to be blurry anyway. But now I appear to have crisp sight actually and can recognize birds way out in the garden without my glasses. Somewhat amazing actually along with having real depth of vision and not just that implied by my brain. It is surprising the effect it has on people's faces as they are different actually. The detail is much more noticeable to me now.

 

Lovely rain and new storm doors

 The new storm doors are on and it is nice to see doors closing themselves once again and not having to force them open to get out of the house! Both doors had been on for a while, one for 45 years and the other perhaps 20 years. A few more small items to get done and then winter will arrive and I will hibernate. I do keep in touch with neighbours and family though (daily with family) which is important I think. 

The next items are fencing, new back step and fixing the front porch which is pulling away from the wall. There are other items like the laneway but will work at that next spring perhaps. We will see. Life always seems so busy actually. 

My setup to memoralize all of Edward's work is getting into place as we organize the cabinets to make it easy for me to locate material. The scanners, camera setup are all old now so only really useful to me and will likely get donated/given away on completion of this next set of tasks which will probably take a couple of years since I will work that into my writing schedule which is also a couple of years long. Must take time to buy a few new clothes as mine are getting shabby for sure. But it will be so very nice to have this working space organized to do the management of the material. I do not have to do any setup and can just go in and do whatever I have scheduled as a distraction to my writing and to keep me from sitting all day long at my computer which is also old but does the job. As I approach 80 I am noticing that what I thought would occur has and that is my mind is starting to consider how to tie up loose ends with respect to my research. I continue with my membership in the Guild of one name studies as I will deposit all of my electronic files there as they are prepared. I have so many counties now completed for the Blake wills and will deposit that material as well as the Buller wills and a couple of other sets. 

Thank you God for the lovely rain yesterday which has freshened up the garden very nicely. I will need to cut the front lawn soon once again as the lilies are still blooming. But soon that will also be past - amazing how quickly time passes actually. As the forces of evil try to rally in the world one can see the forces for good lining up as my mother said just prior to World War II. One does hope and pray that we do not have global conflict once again but not surprising that Russia is at the head of all of this evil along with Iran. Winston Churchill predicted that Russia would always be a problem under its current leadership because these people at the helm in Russia are so greedy for money, land and power. The people of Russia have risen before though and thrown off the cloak of evil; I can not think that they are in agreement with bombing a children's hospital in Ukraine - how disgusting the Nazi psychopathic Putin and his adherents really are. The same goes for Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis whose only aim in life is to commit genocide against the Jewish people. 

On to breakfast and Latin to follow. Another beautiful day in God's world with rain to come. The rain is always needed in July; it can be a very dry month here. Must also work on the Blake Newsletter!

An interesting thing

 I actually have two brothers and one son in law who could easily install those two storm doors for me and would cost me half as much but the brothers live far away (two of my four brothers are deceased) and my son in law has two children to manage. They would have always been my preferred choice but for the sake of the economy and my lack of desire to try my own skills at installing a door I did use the Home Depot website and hire someone to do the task. He responded the same day as the names were given to me by Home Depot which was certainly great. He was around to measure up the doors for me very quickly which I also appreciated. And I do understand when people are busy; it is summer everyone is getting things done for sure. Not sure when it will be but I never go anywhere particularly so it doesn't really matter; I just wait!

I have a couple more tasks to do. I did ask him about my front porch which is pulling away from the brickwork (stone porch) and I will save any comments on that for personal consumption. Edward hired a company shortly after he retired to do the front porch so one can see how long that porch has stood the test of time and it has been pulling away from the house for a bit. Anyway I did not do a good job of managing the hardening sand and need to use our high pressure hose to clean them off (although the rain is doing not too bad a job!) and will get that done eventually but I need the porch fixed and want to build a new porch at the side entrance which I mentioned as that is one of the items on the list of this company. I also have a fence to extend and revise somewhat and did mention that as well. Yes I could do that but I do not mind hiring someone else to do it. 

The porch having taken apart the intricate patio and redone the bed of it and then reconstructed it I could do as well but will not do that either again but it doesn't actually need to be repaired. The laneway and stonework needs to be upgraded as well. So lots of work, none of it interconnected, to do and I need a handy man type of construction company to do all of these things but they will all need to be fitted into a timetable and could take a while but given the work I need to do on Ed's material I have lots of time to have these companies/this company take their time to get my stuff done. The porch is still useable!

On to Latin; I am enjoying the latin and it does give my eyes a workout every day without straining them particularly.

My Storm Doors

Sad to report the contractor that I hired was unable to put my storm doors on yesterday but hopefully today. I did know that he had another project in the morning as he had informed me when he received my payment for the doors that he did have this project to go to first. I am the daughter of a trades owner and do know that smaller projects do sometimes have to wait for an opening. I will just continue to wait and see but do look forward to having new screen doors even if they are not the same excellent quality that the ones they are replacing were but times change and the quality of merchandise has certainly diminished since my childhood. Another human excess; the throw away generations. Just take a load to the dump and you will see that our generation is the most negligent there has ever been on the planet! I do not exclude myself from the blame although at least in my favour is my tendency to not buy very much! But eventually even I have to buy things. 

However, we firmed up our new fences so that will happen this fall at some point. The fence on one side will be replaced by an extension of the present chain link to the back of the house. The other will be a lovely wooden fence replacing the aging wooden fence that is there attached to chain link further down. Why not wood on the other side? It blocks the sun and we are rapidly losing our sun view with the tree cover so a little more open will be very nice. We have a back patio that is secluded so happy with that. 

Owning a house is really the pits to be honest; I have no need for it and eventually it will go the way of the Dodo bird (sad to say; God must look down on us and wonder when we will realize that we are responsible for how the world goes). 

I was excited to read that Palestinian groups are trying to form cells in Gaza that are Hamas free. Terrorists are archaic; barbaric and just plain ridiculous in a modern world (the only aim of these terrorists (Hamas, Hezbollah and Houthis) is to annihilate everyone who isn't Muslim starting with the Jews - really ignorant one might say and I would pray to God that he strike them all dead but not likely to happen unfortunately). And one must note they (the terrorists) do not care how many Muslims die in their rampages! 

At nearly 79 my desire for home ownership is pretty much gone. But I do need to respectfully continue to downsize Edward's work and get it published and the original material either given to family, donated or shredded if it does not have a home to go to. It still takes up a lot of space - the entire master bedroom is now committed to this task with all possible tools at my disposal. Scanners, Printers, Camera setup, large table type areas to work on and almost 25 boxes still to go. Now all concentrated in one room I will work away at that as I write my books this next winter. It was still too scattered for me to work on it and the task was always so daunting and he had published some of his work on World Connect and discovering World Connect was defunct meant that I had to do something with it myself. Probably I was never really into home ownership although we have owned one for most of our marriage (I was 20 when we were married and living in my parent's home). Edward's zest for gardening drove the home ownership mostly and a place to raise our children for sure. But one does need a roof over one's head and walls here in Canada (the winters are cold for sure) and home ownership continues to be the best way!

The birds are busy today cleaning up the last seeds in the feeder before it is filled again for the day. Not much left; mostly bird level of eating as the squirrels will not return until the new feed is put out nor the chipmunks and we haven't seen the rats/mice for weeks now it sees. I would need to reread my blog to check on that. I do not really have any animal that I am opposed to but some have diseases that cross to human and so must be avoided if there are children around and we do have children on our street. The racoons are just too big to be in a yard and mostly they do not come into this yard especially now that we are not using the large feeder. It would actually get up there and eat! Although that was a rare sighting for sure. Usually early spring for that and then they find better pickings elsewhere. 

The second cleaning day and it is the basement. I will soon start up the robot to clean the rug. 

On to breakfast. The day commences. Perhaps some work on the Blake Newsletter as I would like to get it published sooner rather than later (was due 1st of July).

 

Human excess

I believe I have watched play out this past few days the result of human excess.  Certainly climate change is the result of human excess but that is a large macro effect on our earth. On a small scale it is perhaps largely ignored and particularly by me as I am a sort of one event person. In my case when I returned to work outside the home I simply ignored all but the items that were of most interest to me namely supporting my family in their endeavours when it was possible and working. 

Although I place all the blame for the presence of rats/mice on the individual who dumped their pets out or perhaps just to be fair they escaped; none the less the ability of these two cabin-mates as they appeared to be when I saw them sneaking through foliage from beneath the purple lilac bush where they appear to have a "nest" next door and through the wooden fence between us into my yard and then up into my bird feeder was enabled by not adhering to what my husband said were the principles of maintaining a relatively rat/mouse free existence namely cutting down plant life around and close to the house (and he did say that to the neighbours for many years and probably they disliked him for it but he was like that my Edward!). We had already ten or more years ago seen the result of that excessive plant growth close to the house next door when a big black swamp rat walked up the chain link one day and into the yard next door but it was quickly eliminated by cutting down the excess plant life and I must say the family that lived there certainly saw to that very quickly (but they did have two young children) practically the next day and the vegetation was literally stripped half way back down the yard (perhaps a bit excessive) and it got the job done very quickly. The rat disappeared and was never seen again - a large black swamp rat. But these two cabin-mates as they looked to be were intimidated and frightened off by a single grey squirrel. Two feral rats would have had that squirrel for lunch and he/she knew it. But the squirrel was quietly eating on the flat feeder and the feeder is a good size actually and the two rats/mice arrived and moved to the far side. The grey squirrel quickly moved off - wild animals are very quick to protect themselves. I watched from my work window out of curiosity mostly. The grey squirrel sat on the fence contemplating (animals are really very clever) and then surprised me by returning to the feeder where he/she raised the tail as a threat. The two did not respond initially until he/she leapt at them and they ran away. Interesting I thought and conveyed it to my blog and mentioned that to the neighbours. That was when I learned why their feeders had suddenly disappeared. I was somewhat dismayed to hear that there was poisoned feed now in their yard as other rodent mammals run around the yards (rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks totally harmless rodents) but they had an exterminator I learned and so the days passed. I only briefly saw the pair and a/the grey squirrel again intimidated them and they never appeared in my yard again. 

There is a Black walnut tree in that yard close to our feeder actually and the squirrels will vigorously defend that I am sure. 

Since we did not see anything for a couple of weeks we did return to putting out our small amount of feed each day but did learn after a couple of days that at least one was still present so ceased using our large flat feeder (but we are stingy with the food which was my husband's way as he grew up in the country and knew all about rats and mice! I believed everything he said as he was always right!) although never did see the cabin mates again and my daughter was thrilled momentarily to have her birds, chipmunks and squirrels back to observe through the window. Having asthma is a downer for sure as this time of year with so many lilies in bloom she has to stay inside most of the time although kayaking along the Ottawa River also works as the lilies are not hardy enough to survive there. But we stopped feeding them again on the large feeder and we wait for the exterminator to come and pronounce the little cabin mates dead. 

But it was excess that brought them in - too much cover of plant life near the house and too much food available (their feeders were chock full often night and day and they were large feeders). We are stingy with the food so that there is not anything much first thing in the morning and gone mostly by night so not attractive to rats/mice who adore those times to eat it would appear - I am not an expert and we have only had two sightings of rats/mice in a built up area - 10 years or more ago and now!

Humans do need to learn to live with the planet and not try to control it - that is their excess and the children of the future will pay the price for that. Our First Nations peoples are well aware of all of these things and we do need to listen to their expertise on the subject. My husband was just a poor boy (his father died when he was two) raised by his mother who worked hard clerking in a store and perhaps one learns a lot when one is poor. No ideas on that but Edward did well going off to University (having an uncle who was a doctor was helpful for sure) and completing his PhD as well as his MLS which gave him a good job in his working life. Plus he enjoyed his retirement of 17+ years gardening, doing genealogy and entering back into science once again with his DNA work and genealogy.

Breakfast all done and this is the large cleaning day and the installation of the new storm doors. No more fighting to get out the door! Not that I go out often actually being pretty much a hermit although my daughter does drag me out just like my husband did to go shopping etc etc.

Another glorious Sunday

Sunday again thanks be to God and we are in the ordinary season of the Church Year with this being the 6th Sunday after Trinity and will be celebrated in my time at the Church House Chapel, London, England. The theme "When I am weak, I am strong." I will attend a little later this morning although the service has already been online for one hour due to the time difference. 

Discovered yesterday that the rats/mice may not yet be dead as the neighbour related the news when I mentioned that we were starting to enjoy the return of the wildlife to our feeders. Apparently they are poisoning the rats (quite understandable as they do have disease and one does not want them around young children and there are some children on their other side which concerns me I must admit). One does not like to see children injured. So no feed yesterday in the large open feeder. A disappointment to the squirrels and large birds that came to check out the food later in the day. We hadn't seen the rats/mice for such a long time (a couple of weeks) that we thought they were deceased or gone. I am seldom out in the yard mostly looking out my working room window. I did go out into the back portion of our yard and collect up the fallen branches. They need to be broken up or tied up in short bundles so that the garbage collectors will take them away. That will let me cut that portion shorter as well. Since there is a mice/rat problem in the area it is really necessary to keep all of that foliage very short as it does attract the rats/mice - that and excess bird feed and eating outside. All of those things are fun to do for sure but if you do not want rats or mice you have to be very proactive. Actually it is amazing to now see the birds so clearly and the squirrels.

I went out and cut the lawn to prevent anything hiding in any long grass. We keep the bushes around the house free of weeds but must clean up the fence line again as there are a lot of wild flowers next door that creep through the fence. I am noting that more comes through the wooden fence than the chain link because of the gaps in the wood. I am thinking that just replacing the wood fence with chain link would be better. The heavy foliage does rather invite rats and mice as they like to hide in them and wait for opportunities to grab food especially if people eat outside. So the need to keep a good clear area around the house is very important. But I acquired that knowledge from my husband who shared it with both neighbours as he watched the foliage grow up in both yards that adjoin us. Myself, I do not care what the neighbours grow as long as it stays out of my yard and then I do not actually say anything I just pull it out! Not a particularly confrontational person normally.

But I was surprised to see this nearly 79 year old cut that huge lawn on such a hot day! I guess I am recovering from my surgeries as I am still hale and hearty today. My daughter would cut it but the lilies are in full bloom on both sides and one of her stronger allergies for her asthma. So a few times during the summer I do cut the lawns. Good exercise! Perhaps I will do it next year again when I am nearly 80 although to be honest I hope to have moved by then. We need to start looking around for a more suitable house and property for this old woman. I would have a condo but my daughter likes to stay with me during her research term and garden. Breakfast and on to the day. 

 

On April 26th last

 April 26, 1978 was the day that we moved into the house in which I am currently living. At that time there was just this first set of carriage homes built and all but the one next door to me was occupied. It was not occupied until early July when the family of two parents and seven children moved in. Sort of funny in a way as I was the middle child of seven children. My husband did find it overwhelming to have so many children next door and would come in from the yard to get away from all that but gradually he did get used to it somewhat as they did not actually spend a lot of time out of doors as the years passed. Sometimes I think that was behind his looking at other houses (single family) up on the hill as they were built but he did love this house. The rooms were large enough to suit him and the yard was always the selling point for him. Nothing he looked at had such a huge yard and he did love to garden when he wasn't working. Spring would find him out there shoveling away the snow from his flower beds year after year. He waited breathlessly for the first snowdrops, the crocuses and then all the rest to come up. He did so love them. So this year April 26, 2024 we have lived in this house for 46 years and there isn't anyone left now that was living here before us. It has been an interesting run. The first year I was busy with my little one at school (a tuition student at the local 4 year old kindergarten) in the fall and helping out one day a week at her school. I was also volunteer secretary at the local Anglican Church (my parents always went to Church when they came and I always went with them. The priest needed secretarial type help and so I volunteered). There wasn't a United Church nearby at that time and Edward really wanted a United Church. That did actually happen through that year but I had committed myself to my Anglican Church that year and wanted to wait until the next Fall which we did. In the meantime I had become involved in some volunteer proofreading/copy editing work which kept me busy whilst my daughter was in school. It was a special time in some ways as I now had some time to work through my ideas of where to move to next in my personal life. I was interested in doing my masters and did pursue that idea. I had had a second miscarriage when my eldest was two so was taking it easy in terms of excessive exercise (I am prone to excessive exercise!) just in case but as my daughter got older the desire to have more children was disappearing to some extent on my part as I approached 35 I must admit although when I did become pregnant I was very content but cautious to ensure that I did not miscarry again and I was very excited about the upcoming addition to the family although also busy as I was Brown Owl for my daughter's brownie pack at the local Roman Catholic School,  I was volunteer secretary at Edward's United Church (he became treasurer so spent time in lines doing the banking that he needed done) plus I was teaching him to do that bookkeeping since I had taken a bookkeeper course in my high school days, I helped one day a week at my daughter's school working with 12 French Immersion students at a time improving their reading in English, and I ran five kilometres most days so I stopped running as that seemed like a good idea. Although it turned my world upside down once again I decided not to pursue my masters not long after she was born and instead started proofreading journals for the National Research Council having spent the year when my second daughter was an infant marking papers for the professor with whom I had planned to do my masters. It was a good fit; I preferred to be with my daughter and I enjoyed proofreading/copyediting. So the years passed during which I continued to help with the various organizations that my daughters attended and helping at their schools and doing some work for which I was volunteered (my husband did have that tendency to volunteer me to help here and there including his United Church (he just thought it was something that I would enjoy because I had been volunteer secretary at the Anglican Church!). Then I suddenly went back to work outside the home after proofreading/copyediting for private printers for ten years and I stopped doing anything here (except for keeping score at my daughter's baseball games!). From that point onward I seldom talked to neighbours or even knowing who they were and it pretty much remains that way. Surprisingly when I do walk about people say hello as if they know me which is very kind. But now as I contemplate selling and moving on I will leave behind being the longest living person on the street (I do not think I am the eldest; at nearly 79 I suspect there are people older than me)! Sort of funny actually. 

 Yesterday seven items left and I was just a little nostalgic for the trunk as it went out the door. But it all went except I changed my husband's old overstuffed rocking chair for my blue stuffed chair since I wanted to get rid of one of them and my daughter wanted to keep the other one. It didn't really matter which one. The wooden fireplace was a brute to move; Edward and I carried that one in and down the stairs so do know how heavy it is. The bed took a while to take apart but was glad to see it go without damage to the walls. The rest of the things were easy to move out and it was done in 1 hour and ten minutes (three hours had been allotted). They actually came early around 10:30 in the morning because they were already finished with another project I gathered. I would say they did a good job although did leave their tool kit behind and I had to send a message in to their office to let them know that. I just left it between the doors for them to pick up (always handy to have a front entrance like that and I did watch to make sure they got it as did my daughter!). So now I have a huge empty room and we can begin the process of bringing all of Edward's material that still needs to be sorted into one room where I have a scanning station and can also take pictures if items that are too big to scan. It will also become the book room and I will move my two bookcases into there. The closet is huge and I will be able to put all the boxes in there with a schedule to show placement making this task a little easier. Who would have ever dreamed that I would still be sorting original pictures and material three years later. All of my originals are with my sister and it is an incentive to ensure that there is a place for everything as I near the end of life. I will try to get that all organized so that my daughters do not have anything to do except bury me. But Edward's decline although over a period of a decade was very slow and it always seemed that there was lots of time until there wasn't. He had done a good deal of organizing and giving away boxes himself already. But now the room can be set up and the downsizing of all of that material can commence going to cousins who are into the genealogical history of their shared families and it will not be lost. 

Still a little swelling in my eye although coming down nicely. Sometimes a little headache if I do too much on the computer so avoid that. Concentrating mostly on my Latin still as I will not do any heavy research until early September. 

I think that looking at the pro-Palestinian encampments the worst part of all of this was the protests helped to prolong the war and the deaths/injuries by supporting the terrorists Hamas. They gave Hamas an impression that there was hope for success in their desire to commit genocide against the Jewish people and for that I do condemn these protests in our streets and universities. They started with a lie - the Palestinians have never had a right to any Israeli land once the decision was made in the United Nations in 1948!  Obviously we can not have Palestinians (even Palestinian-Canadians if such a people exist; myself I think we are Canadians with no hyphenation and my English roots are just as complete as any Palestinian roots!) teaching in our schools or working in any way with our children. We can not have adherents to the philosophy that is spouted by Pro-Palestinians involved in our schools including universities. It is false what they say. We need to ensure that the social media is corrected when claims are made supporting Hamas. I do not see that Hamas, Hezbollah or the Houthis have done anything for the peoples in the countries where they have taken over from the legitimate governments there. None of these countries are self supporting or efficient and remain on the verge of collapse at any change in their status. They should not be so generously supported by the United Nations when other peoples like the Rohyingas have so little support but lots of enthusiasm to become good corporate citizens if they ever get the chance. Having terrorists to fight their cause (genocide of the Jewish people) should be eliminated and not supported. It will always be a mistake to support terrorists.

Breakfast and then Latin; on to the day.