Skiing

Finally out skiing and it was not too bad. Getting old is actually great; it has its downsides I assume but having spent years as a child with aging grandparents I am prepared for the slow degrading of one's abilities especially physical. So I am not yet seeing the downside in that regard as it is just simply life moving onward. My brain still very active accompanies me on my trip through life. But the skiing was nice and I enjoyed it. We hope to ski most days and there is quite a bit of snow out there still. This is a warm week coming though and we might lose it all but on the other hand I will not wake up feeling like I ran a marathon yesterday if the snow is gone. So I am fine with that.

Today, I shall clean up after the dogs as the snow has softened and I can likely walk on it easily. The backyard is a mess and needs cleaning up. There are a couple of soft spots in the ground so I might be able to dig it all in where it will nourish the soil. We will see. 

Also I shall work on the matches which have suffered these past weeks with limited work done but at least I did some throughout the two weeks plus of dog sitting. Do I miss the furry little ones; no, it was fun at the time and I enjoyed it. They are such beautiful dogs; they are very big but they are very loving to their family. They had a good time playing with the dog two doors up. Running races to the back fence. Dogs are so sociable with each other when they are not worried about protecting. After all what danger in fenced in dogs two houses away!  Dogs are definitely not stupid. Plus the two dogs together outweigh me or close enough!

The books I shall likely return to next week unless I decide that another week of rest from intensive work is good for me in which case I will continue with the matches and moving towards that moment when I can start phasing my grandparents and great grandparents DNA once again. I like to start each time from scratch using what I know to frame the different lengths in each chromosome and then introduce the new lengths also known to me and finally look at some of the large interesting ones that I have more or less entered in and see how that goes - generally I can at least place them into one of my four grandparents' lines. Not always but most times just by the people they match. But I do still have my paternal grandmother whose father appears to be George Cotterill but no matches at the 2x cousin level there as far as I can tell but I do have some new 2nd cousin matches that could be interesting (the advantage of being able to actually phase my great grandparents). Why do I think it is George Cotterill? It was and is a small village, Kimpton, Hampshire and the priest when he baptized my grandmother has entered her name as Ada Bessie Cotterill Rawlings. There is only one Cotterill family in that area and it does seem logical but I refrain from making that decision until I have DNA proof. I think I owe that to her memory actually - I never knew her; she died when my oldest sister was just over a year old. She lived long enough to see two of her seven grandchildren actually (since my father, her son, was thirty three when he married she was already into her mid 60s when she became a grandmother having married at 27 years of age).  

I am into a new schedule now as my daughter is doing a research week with me (she does her research) and enjoying a bit of skiing on March break. These days it is so easy to keep in touch with one's students on the internet which is great. Plus she gets a change of pace which is also wonderful and like a refresh on the brain for sure - all that skiing! She skied as soon as she arrived. 

Perhaps today I shall be able to catch up on my email as the dogs did take up quite a bit of time although they very kindly let me work away for good lengths whilst they lay on my bed watching me type away. 

First exercises of the day completed, second group coming up and then breakfast. It is a sunny day and 1 degree celsius already. 

Still thinking about our new Prime Minister and whether his blind trust is an asset or a liability for him but even more importantly how does it play into our current trade situation. I need to keep hearing what the Conservative Party plans to do if they form the next government. For the most part the Liberals will likely carry on as they have; already they have eliminated the carbon tax for individuals as that was the one item that was most likely to harm them in the polls and election likely soon to come. Then I can make my decisions based on those discussions as to where I will place my enthusiasm and my vote. First and foremost we need to spend more on our military; I have been saying it for so long now that I am probably constantly repetitive in that regard. But it is important; the military serves its country in so many ways and we have not spent the monies that we need to to keep it 100% relevant. It has nothing to do with anything that is happening in the world; it is just simply a matter of self-sufficiency and is likely a product of my British heritage - the British are always keeping up their military in as much as their government lets them. But the sense I acquired as a child from the people that I knew was that military is important in the upkeep of a country both internally and externally. I did grow up in a city (London, Ontario) where the military was the largest employer. That has changed for sure but for practical reasons - a city can outgrow the military and they need space in which to train and operate. 

Hamas is finally getting the point perhaps; they are diminished. Their being diminished is good for the Middle East as Hamas are just butchers with no regard for human life unless it fits into what they want. They have sacrificed nearly 50,000 Palestinians over this time period since they attacked Israel on the 7 October 2023. Hamas deserves the same fate as they handed out to the mostly Jewish peoples that day - the weak, the young, the old and the hostages dragged back to Gaza dead and alive - Hamas are cowards. Personally I do not have any fat in the fire where Gaza is concerned. I think a people that spent three generations whining and using up the resources of the United Nations has had their help. Now they need to do something for the world; they owe the world as they have wasted all that money and time that was devoted to them by the United Nations. Time to pay it back by shunning Hamas and moving forward developing whatever in order to do the job that they were born to do - love God and take care of the earth and be useful people to the earth.