Still 200,000 without hydro in Ontario.

 A warmer day in Ottawa today but the nights are still pretty chilly. Hopefully not too much longer before the hydro is back up again for the about 200,000 customers which could mean half a million people or more. Ontario is a large province (the largest population in a province/territory in Canada  of approximately 16 million people). But that is actually good news because there are more people going to the other provinces now since the population of Canada is 41.5 million. Everyone coming here just wanted to go to Toronto and it is just too big now.

My eyesight has taken another small leap as the ceiling has become so much deeper (i.e. it just looked flat before although I knew that it was a "popcorn" ceiling) to the eye, the little blobs of plaster are so much more distinct than they were right after my poor eye cleared from the first surgery. The really big item I noticed before surgery was the sun in March; I used to hate going out in March the last maybe ten years even with sunglasses because the sun was so strong. But that has disappeared amazing really what cataract surgery does for a person. No migraines either which is a treat. I always get this period of maybe four or five days when my eyes feel strained and then suddenly I am seeing even better. Perhaps that is how an infant's eyes develop who knows; they cannot tell us. 

Good progress on the matches and I am into sorting them into my various files, painting the matches in DNA Painter and preparing my "known" matches for re-phasing my grandparents and then working on my great grandparents. It will take a while to work through these more than 300 new matches that I have acquired since 2020. I have not collected the matches in FT DNA for a while, never collected them in Living DNA until yesterday I had a look (extracted one) and of course we no longer can collect that data in 23 and Me. There isn't any data in Ancestry either but I do use Ancestry differently with a lovely flat excel file of the matches for the five siblings side by side and it includes the information on the known matches. They are colour coded by grandparent line as well as a line of text stating the most recent common ancestor. I have  extracted just over 1000 matches from my kit and the kits of three of my siblings. Now that there are so many I may separate out the four grandparent lines into sub-files as the information is useful - many people test at more than one site and the trees on ancestry are quite interesting. All of this looking at phasing/re-phasing does play a role in my book writing as I reached the point where I would begin the generations although I am back in both books writing early history as I read the documents that I have acquired through the years in Latin. My Latin really has come a long way although it is still difficult to read the old text. I did do a small chapter on autosomal DNA in the Siderfin Book just to link all the families together coming down from Robert Siderfin and Elizabeth (Question) Siderfin. I have not looked at the female lines coming down from the cousins of this Robert Siderfin. I will leave that to another - that was a lot of concentration on a 3x great grandmother (Elizabeth (Betty) Siderfin who married John Rew 30 Jan 1792 at Selworthy, Somerset and their daughter Elizabeth (a twin) married John Pincombe 9 Jan 1834 at Bishops Nympton, Devon.

So today more matches to assign. I  must get out the paper recycling as this is the day.

Blake Newsletter published and working on the last sibling

 The Blake Newsletter was published yesterday and it was fairly brief. No new testers for yDNA Blake and really that is what is needed in order to really narrow in on the older yDNA Blake groups in the British Isles. That is up to time for sure and there are more pressing matters at the  moment for everyone. Still publishing the BMBs for Andover but I have only transcribed into the mid 1700s (although I have the fiche) so it will soon come to an end perhaps by the end of this year not sure - would need to check that out. 

Worked on the matches and completed the next sibling overview and working on the last sibling - perhaps 1/3 through. Should finish it today and then need to assign the matches to my databases and there are four places in which these matches get organized into the chromosome they match, painted in DNA Painter (very much my go to place to put matches as the visual is great), then also into a file for known matches to prepare that for the re-phasing of my grandparents and phasing of my great grandparents and the last is my list of matches by grandparents and the unknowns. The unknowns are actually quite a small group. So a huge task to now assign these 314 matches to date and it will take me a little while to do that. But the calming effect on my brain has been great actually. My mind has been very busy these past few months. 

Yesterday the exercise was a workout first thing, then yoga before breakfast, followed by rowing mid morning and then a run followed by a walk around lunch time and finally calisthenics about an hour before dinner - Cardio Load was 304 and steps 13,190. I only ran for 25 minutes and walked for ten minutes and that reduced it from the usual 16,000. A good day though and today will be workout already done, yoga next, then weightlifting, run and walk, biking or yoga not sure yet in the latter part of the afternoon. Exceeding the suggested cardio load but it is pretty hard to stay at 71-176 if you run. Just a run is half of that. 

Behind on my email and must catch up with that although anything that needs to be done is done. Generally people write to thank me for a will/wills they found on my blog or something like that and I do not think that a reply adds anything to that so generally do not. I do need to get the Siderfin Charting book up online on the sites that I put the Siderfin Book on and will think about that. Publishing Blake and Pencombe will be different; it is more of a family thing (close family) but time will tell. Probably I can blog the chapters that are more universal to the Pencombe/Blake families. I can embargo the material as well and have it available that way for family members. Lots of items to consider there. 

Up early and I may just have my breakfast sooner rather than later. I  have this tendency to get started working and then it is 8 or 9 before I get my breakfast - hunger generally drives that. 

My mind is still up in the air about the election - I do think that the needs of youth should drive the election more than the baby boomers. Both of the major parties appear to be into this idea of a national energy corridor so will have to continue examining what else they are saying. Both parties are going to increase the militarization of Canada and that is really important; has been for about fourty years! I think we continue with the purchase of all F-35s but we should be also thinking about the next defensive aircraft (I am sure the military already are!).  It actually was much easier when I just always voted Conservative but I also think we need to look at the issues and how people will handle them and so my commitment to party has been replaced by a careful examination of what they are saying. Then the consideration of whether or not they will follow through on their commitments. I think the greater importance needs to be placed on the energy corridor and not letting current legislation slow that down. If the First Nations are onboard with these pipelines as well then we should get it going as soon as the ground is ready especially the Eastern Pipeline. Certainly we are getting a clear picture of the aims of the Conservative Party in this regard. However, the ground is still frozen here in Ottawa!

Prayers continuing for the people trapped followed the earthquake in Myanmar and Thailand. The deaths in Myanmar are now over 3000 and still people are trapped. Prayers for the souls of those who died.

Well the cleaning got completed at least

Yesterday was a busy day but I did not complete the Blake Newsletter - my mind just didn't want to settle to it but will do it today. I did work on matches and I am complete now once again although I only found a couple for me that got missed by using the wrong sort. Just two siblings left and will work on them today. I am seeing that my own work is taking over from my dedication to my newsletters. I did wonder how long they would last and likely they will last for a while longer but the search and retrieval of information that bore interest to all of the members of the groups is weakening. Is it because I am heading for 80 or at this moment in time doing the phasing/re-phasing is top of my mind?  It is a heavy duty task collecting up these matches for five siblings and one that you could contemplate using AI but it needs that human touch looking at with the knowledge that is in my brain of the various families. It can not just be readily assigned and examined in a fruitful way. I do see the limitations in AI but I also see the assets and they are huge I do have to say that. Office work, regular, would be accomplished in a very routinized fashion that would strip out any human interaction that just complicates it sometimes.

My cardio yesterday was way over target; cleaning is hard work! The recommendation was to take it a bit easy today but I rather think I will do my yoga soon as I have not yet had my breakfast and then a bit of work and then rowing. I am up to 600 rowing motions back and forth so 1200 in total which amazes me but I just decided to see what I could do in 15 minutes although this takes me closer to 16 minutes but it is a nice round number and that works for me. It is just a simple rowing machine good for an old person. One quickly loses one's muscularity in just a couple of days you see a decline. Then later I will run my 30 minutes and walk for 10 to 15. In the afternoon I will do calisthenics. That pretty much completes my day but will likely put me over in cardio once again. Sometimes I am in suggested range. I think it goes by age and I have always been an active person especially I enjoyed my 1.2 km walk home from the bus - although I bought a more expensive bus pass that would drop me practically at my door I only did that so that I could take any bus at Hurdman on my way home and always walked to and from the highway. Coming over the bridge in the various seasons was delightful actually. I still enjoy the views that one gets just looking into the sky - it is marvelous. 

However, I must get some work done and especially it is breakfast time! Prayers for those still trapped in Myanmar and for the souls of those who died. The numbers have increased steadily over the days.

The Lenten Message today

Prayers for the people of Myanmar and Thailand still trapped and hopefully more will be found alive.

 I always enjoy my daily Lenten Messages from PWRDF now Alongside Hope and todays was exceptional written by Jonathan Rowe who is an Anglican priest in Newfoundland and Labrador. One line particularly stood out for me:

"We should seek to build systems that reflect divine generosity, creating opportunities for everyone to flourish, not just for a few to profit."

Perhaps it is because I am female that I see the world from a mother's point of view and particularly I look at Canada from that mother's point of view. As I have often mentioned my father and his family were all born in England coming to Canada in 1913 where my grandfather, a blacksmith was employed by the Grand Trunk Railway at Stratford and then London and this became the Canadian National Railway. He worked for them until he retired in 1940. My mother's family is my Canadian line with just three individuals - herself, her father and her other - all born in Canada.  Each in their own time married an emigrant from England (one must remember in that time frame that coming to Canada from England was like moving from one county to another). My first ancestors to Canada (although my 3x great grandfather George Lywood served with the 23rd Regiment of Foot in Halifax in 1806-7 he returned to Europe with his unit to fight in the Napoleonic Wars including Waterloo!) came in 1818 (in the late summer or early fall I suspect just from the records) to London Township, Middlesex County, Upper Canada and they were the Routledge family from Bewcastle, Cumberland. Their daughter, Mary Ann, was fourteen years of age at that time. She married Robert Gray in 1834 and he was a new arrival (located at Etton, East Riding of Yorkshire in 1831/2) setting up a farm in London Township. Their third child, Grace Gray, was my first born ancestor in Canada (1839) and she married William Robert Pincombe (his family including his father John, mother Elizabeth (Rew), and four siblings arrived in early March 1850 purchasing a farm in Westminster Township, Middlesex County, Upper Canada. William Robert was 13 years of age when he arrived at the Port of New York 7 Jan 1850 traveling to stay with his uncle Robert Pincombe who had emigrated to the United States in 1835. Why they chose Canada over the United States I have no idea; no one ever said but they did. The only child to live to adulthood in the family of William Robert Pincombe and Grace (Gray) Pincombe was John Routledge Pincombe (my grandfather) born in 1872. So for me, I am sort of a recent arrival (1st generation Canadian on my father's side and fourth generation on my mother's side). My Anglican Church roots are deep mostly fostered by my grandfather who lived with us when I was a child. The ancient history of the Celtic Church of England was deeply ingrained in him going back thousands of years as it existed prior to our Lord Jesus Christ but according to legend in that first century became Christian. At the Council of Arles three Christian Celtic British bishops participated in this council established by the Roman Church (Eborius of York, Restitutus of London and Adelphius of Lincoln/Colchester in 314 CE. But definitely the Christian Celtic Church increased steadily throughout England during the Roman occupation. 

So these words today rather rang a bell in my mind as to how I would love to see Canada continue to prosper; all of us. Like most people in Canada, I did see the United States of America and Canada "walking together" so to speak and perhaps in the future that will happen again but at the moment the interest by the President is in a closed shop around the United States of America looking inward rather than outward. As a result we must move ahead and the debate during this present election time is whether we go with the Baby Boomers who have driven this economy in Canada from childhood to the present or do we go with youth which will rebuild our country devastated by free trade which eliminated our  much smaller industries as we gradually merged with the economy of the United States over my lifetime. Fighting tariffs is a losing battle in my thought (we just avoid them); we need to move beyond this close relationship maintaining what works (and what does not cost us a lot of money; the auto industry has cost us a lot of money through the years and will continue to do so into the future no matter what happens) and letting go of what does not. Creating our "National Energy Corridor" is an excellent idea and I like it. Building more homes is a luxury; staying with parents means babysitters and not having to put all of one's money into a house which can be done later (children love grandparents). All we do is enlarge our cities; increase the debt burden as new schools have to be built with the existing being closed. But the energy corridor is so very very important. It means employment that corridor, it means a bringing together of the provinces/territories in a way that was gradually being eroded by our shipping everything south rather than east and west. The profits will belong to the people of Canada and we will pay off our national debt rather than saddling our youth with even more debt to build them homes. It is a time to grab hold of the future and bring it into the present with a national energy corridor. As usual the Liberals and the NDP only think of increasing that national debt on our youth by building housing which can wait as the energy corridor should be our first concern at this time as it has the greatest return to support our economy (it will include far more than the transfer of oil east and west but also railways; mineral extraction etc.). 

Cleaning day two as yesterday saw the basement and the main floor completed. The top floor will be today's task along with working on the matches. I am reviewing my matches now with just two other siblings to review and then on to the task of re-phasing my grandparents and working on my great-grandparents. It is a mind calming process for me at this time like my sudoku except I am getting work done! I am also thinking about painting once again but will not over task myself as I approach 80. 

The Blake Newsletter is due today and I will also be working on that. Again it will be short because the book is my primary work now on Blake. But I will review the yDNA results once again but they are now starting to emerge as cut in stone so to speak. They have proven that there are a number of founding Blake lines in the British Isles first off and secondly that number increased steadily from the first notations of Blake in the records. With the greatest increase being in the 1200s to the 1400s. As surnames were acquired my own line at some point probably around the beginning of the 1300s took on the surname Blake which makes sense given the Hunter-Gatherer yDNA results of my brothers. 

Tea is drank and time for breakfast; first yoga whilst the oats soak in the milk. I do love my breakfast and it is by far my favourite meal of the day. It has a long history as I used to arise early when my father and grandfather were off to work at 6:30 and before they left they would leave this little one of four and five years of age a big bowl of steaming oatmeal. I just ate it like that as a child - no sugar, no fruit and definitely no chocolate. I can remember the warm cereal in my stomach at that young age. Their words as they left to go to work of "be careful it is hot" stay with me even now.