The beautiful routine of life consists of everything really and especially in my case the logical day after day flow of activity that maintains the life around me. The garage is now ready for me to sweep the floor and prepare it for the car to be inside of it once the snow falls. It makes the cleaning of my laneway so much simpler. The company that clears it are very efficient and that efficiency is dependent upon people following the logical methodology for them which does not include the big truck that gets parked in front of my house invariably when they are coming to clear the laneway. We will see how that progresses this year. It makes it awkward for the snow plow to navigate the one side of my lane way properly.
This morning as I put out the green bin Canada Geese flew over on their way to their winter destination and they honked. Were they honking at me; not likely but I waved and said goodbye and see you in the spring. I do love seeing the birds although I do not in general feed them. There is a lot of fruit in my yard on the bushes which they eat and the worms and bugs in the grass and bare earth that they enjoy and all of the seeds that are produced on the weeds in my yard also keep them happy so I have never been in the habit of feeding the birds. It attracts mammals who really should stay in the woods where they are safe and not run over by cars. The yearling raccoons have not been back that I have noticed since I blew my whistle. They do not like that high pitch as it frightens them not being natural in nature particularly although it could also be mistaken for the screech of large avaian predators for sure and is likely why they avoid it.
Yesterday I did accomplish the cleaning but not any work. I was thinking about it and working on the third binder of family pictures. It is slow going for sure and it came upon me when I can not decide sometimes whether I will put in pictures that are alike I can just double them up in the plastic holder and someone else can decide in the future if they want to keep all three copies or whatever have been made. It makes my life much easier not making these decisions. I am not really a good decision maker about someone else's pride and joy. I prefer not to come between the creator and the user but life forced that on me and I have had to make many decisions with Edward's research and personal collections that I would rather not make. However with the support of my family (my daughters) I have donated his library and now a portion of the Kipp genealogy (namely the British Columbia descendants) to an Archive and it has only taken me five years plus to reach this point in time (I did find cousins to take some of the other material). It is not an easy decision to take apart an individual's work. Myself I already offered my books and fiche (2000 sheets about) to the Anglican Church Archives which pretty much eliminates all of the actual material that occupies space. The rest of my genealogy is electronic having given back to my younger sister all of the original pictures that my mother gave to Edward as she thought he might write up the family tree. Given how busy he was with his own family tree I could have said that is dubious but did not. As a child I would never have thought of correcting my mother and as an adult I never did. Being the middle child I just floated along in the medium until I got married at 20 and moved away. I doubt any of my siblings actually missed me as I was the hidden one sort of keeping to myself for the most part unless good manners meant that I was dragged into a more congenial state with those around me but did avoid that for the most part. It is surprising that I ever married but Edward wanted to marry me almost from the beginning and once he told me that I was just such an organized person and so congenial that he just knew I would fit into his life. Interesting in retrospect but then whoever thought I would have a nervous breakdown which I do not really remember I have to be honest. I have no idea what I might have said in that time period and in my brain the only thing that connected the time for me was the desire to be back with my infant daughter whom I believed needed me 100%. So interesting really how one's life transpires. Now I am the real me; I do not go anywhere and seldom speak to anyone except when one needs to speak to a clerk, a physician, a dentist or all the other people that one interacts with in order to maintain one's health (i.e. buying food, keeping up one's medical care, creating contracts for things like snow clearance although the advent of internet made that really simple). So I continue to move along with the help of my daughters when I need help and I am writing the books that both my grandfather and mother would be thrilled to have me do. No one ever asked me to write the books other than perhaps my grandfather but I knew my mother wanted that except she did think Edward would write it. I think in general my parents were not sure I was up to such items. Perhaps they were partially correct in that the Siderfin book although I find it to be very complete and picking up new information but using James Sanders book which was an excellent collection of the available material that he located; I did fail to proofread the index and eventually I must do that but for the moment hundreds have downloaded it from my server and I hope that at some point they have noted that the index does not work well except that it does have all the names in it if you happen to be looking for a particular one and the page is generally somewhat in that area. High on my agenda for the two new books is proofreading the index and actually going back eventually and proofreading the index for the Siderfin book and republishing it. I do have more information for Siderfin that could go in as well and will slot time in eventually to do that.
My time is something that just disappears each day and one can never get that back so I try to be as organized as I can. Today the main floor will be cleaned and then tomorrow the basement and Thursday or Friday I will sweep the garage. Perhaps my life flows better for me when I sit and think about what I am doing, what I need to be doing and how best to organize around those two points. But I am 81 so one must be cognizant of the dwindling ability of me to do as much as I did when I was say 48 and back to work in the wide world having worked at home for slightly over fourteen years proofreading and copyediting first for the National Research Council Journals and still continuing with the journals but adding in the other work that needed proofreading when I went to work for private printers having been eliminated by the then Conservative government of Brian Mulroney. It was a good savings for the public purse as I did not care where (public or private) I worked doing my proofreading and copyediting at home so I certainly didn't object as my unemployment lasted maybe one day.
But back into work and absent all day from where I live by 1996 I really do not know much about my area where I live in terms of what is happening as I went into the city (living in an urban area) every morning and came back every evening although I did keep score for my daughter's baseball team for a few years but that was pretty much it for sure. All that time spent as volunteer secretary at Edward's Church, I was on a recreational committee for a bit (looking at having more skating rinks), I did Brownies and then I was on the Guide committee for the area, I taught Sunday School, I was the Supplies person at Edward's Church for Sunday School materials as working with children has never really been my thing (unless you were my own child or my younger siblings as it turned out) although I did volunteer at my children's schools for years when I worked at home. Having worked with computers since the mid 1960s I did voluntarily supply a period of time when computers were new in the schools and having a skilled person able to work with the computers readily was handy apparently as I did do that. I also was Treasurer for Camp Bitobi for a few years (a United Church camp in the Gatineaus somewhere) and I did love to sew and sewed all my children's clothes until I started to proofread and then just special dresses after that - I did love to smock and those dresses were lovely I must admit not being without some sort of pride in the work that I did. Oh I am forgetting my time as a substitute teacher at High School way back and it was a short time I have to admit. But that principal was desperate for a substitute teacher and I was unfortunately available (again I always suspect my husband volunteered me!). I knew exactly what I would be getting into for sure; but as those children said to my husband during his short period of teaching Chemistry, Physics and Biology I was a mean teacher (being an older sibling does have its bonus points)!
Okay, the morning is awasting as my grandparents used to say when I dawdled so must get on with the work but it has been fun revisiting the past for a short period after breakfast. I like to remember that my time ill was short compared to my time well as being ill is not really something that I like to remember or be if I can avoid it. Sadly my older daughter does remember my fainting spells, my exhaustion and my migraine headaches as a young child when I would hear her dragging a bottle of ginger ale down the hall for me to drink as she knew I liked a little glass of that. Sad to be a child with an ill mother when you are far from your beloved grandparents, aunts and uncles and your daddy is at work.
Thank you God for the good health that has come my way these last twenty plus years. I have been blessed. The world must find a way to peace and the United Nations is that path we just have to utilize it and be stronger.
Solitaire puzzles are next.
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