What we need is

 What we need is a doorbell that can be shut off whenever you want it shut off. Now a days who buys anything at the door? Who wants to have people shopping their wares at the door? I suspect pretty much no one. You just go on line discover where the product is you want and go and buy it. You can always drop brochures in the mailbox. I sort them out and put the junk in the recycling pretty much immediately. Unless I want something I am not going to read all of that literature but then I am old and really how much input do I have into society other than my surname studies which still generate 100 emails a day mostly thanking me for what I have put up on line. So far no one disagrees with my thoughts which in some ways is a disappointment as it means they have not looked at more documents than I have. However, the future lies ahead for others to do exactly what I did, revise the existing information if it needs it; I suspect it will always need updating over time. 

Of course the other input is that I do vote; I pay taxes and I am vocal on my blog if anyone reads it (and I do know some do as I receive emails from them but mostly this is for my family one day if they want to read it). I watched as the Fire Department had to break into a house a few doors away in order to make sure the firewall had held against the fire next door to it. So I did the obvious thing and made sure that at least one neighbour knew if I was away and they have my contact phone number which works. I can do the same when they are away.

My latest realization about Edward was that he wanted to be remembered into the future and we are trying to do that with our memorial donations for him. For me it is a sort of vague thing as slipping into anonymity has always been my aim in life and I continue to pursue that. But Edward liked to be known for what he could do and perhaps the reason was the loss of his father at the age of two and no one really talking about him as he grew up. It was something that he felt a bit sad about that this man who had cared for him; loved him was completely and totally gone in his memory and so he took on all sorts of things to let him feel what his father felt in life which is a good aim I think in one's life. Because I grew up with both parents and many siblings I never had those kinds of feelings of loss although two of my grandparents were deceased long before I was born but the two remaining grandparents talked about their spouses to me a great deal in my young childhood and in the case of my grandmother way into my teenage years so I had a concrete picture of these people although having it I never really thought about it until my cousin wanted this profile of the Pincombe family. And so I set my mind to the task of remembering all those things from childhood and it worked; sometimes I still dream about my grandparents and talking to me which is sort of funny but shows the strength of the subconscious mind I think. That is the strength of civilization; this remembering from one generation to the next particularly the goodness of that generation.

My newest venture is putting all those images (thousands and thousands of them) into powerpoint presentations instead of having  all those family binders from the mid 1960s (when we married) until Edward stopped making binders of printed family pictures in the early 2000s. That is a lot of binders and the indexes are absolutely superb and complete. Who would of thought one might get rid of the binders; probably not me I am a bit reluctant in that area as it was something that still lives and breathes Edward and when I took my vows all those years ago at our marriage it included taking care of him the rest of my days and somehow his items that he cherished have taken on that sort of a vow. So it is hard to pry them out of my hands in actuality. But I have begun that task and will regretfully let them go in order to make it possible for me to move sometime in the future. I can see now that I have the same reaction every time when my health is somewhat affected like by cataract surgery. Really it was a simple surgery but there is always a recovery time and like the recovery time after Edward passed, my first thought was I need to downsize and move to a smaller place. I do need to do that eventually but next summer not likely more likely the summer after or perhaps the summer after that. More grass  will help; grass is definitely easier to manage.

Some work on the Siderfin book yesterday and will continue that venture and I am on Page 32 which is a good sign and the book remains at 123 pages but the indexes will need to be added to that eventually and some of the charts may extend to two in order to improve their legibility. 

I am also working on the album from the mid 1983s to early 1984. I have found all the pictures and just setting up the template to put these pictures into a powerpoint presentation so that they can be viewed and a decision made on whether that is the way to go. The binder weighs perhaps 2 kilos give or take whereas the file that I create has pretty much zero weight and occupies a spot on the hard drive. It does mean over time eventually it could disappear but on the other hand the files that were created will eventually decay and if one enjoys these powerpoint presentations than the tendency to upgrade them regularly to newer systems does exist and somewhere down the line if indeed my line extends into the future there will be descendants who could enjoy looking at their ancient relatives. I have pictures as far back as my 2x great grandparents and Edward managed to find pictures for his going back to the third great grandparents level as well as paintings of some of them in colonial times. I do not think any paintings exist of any of my ancestors; they were basically small farmers  way back in time and any pictures back in time have disappeared from view plus I tend to be descendant of younger sons in most lines (the spares and I think it significant that it is in this past fifty years or so that all families haven't thought of their younger children as spares in reality). But smaller families have that result now a days and it is only in royal lines that a "spare" really becomes apparent and noticeable. That in itself is an interesting thought. 

On to the day it is nearly 7:00 a.m. and I have been up since about 6:10 a.m. as I overslept (usually I am awake just before six.