randomness

In Case You Were Wondering

Aaron accosted me as I arrived home this evening—quite late, due to a traffic backup on Reynolds Road—and made me promise not to get all depressed and funky this evening. It wasn’t so much the verbal demand as it was the incessant tickling and throttling and schnuthberries on my neck that made me agree to this arrangement.

So, I ate dinner, watched the news, checked my e-mail, read my blogs, tried to find some of Sheryl’s family on those genealogy sites I mentioned earlier (no luck yet), cleared a couple things off the stack on my desk, and played Civ III for a couple hours. Perfectly content. I was just contemplating staying up for a while longer, just because I don’t have to get up early tomorrow, but my body is rebelling.

At this moment in particular, the cat has decided that I’ve ignored her long enough, and is curled up in my lap, purring and kneading my right arm. At least she doesn’t slide off like she did when she was a teensy kitten.

Yeah, I think it’s time for bed. Do not read Harry Potter, do not collect $200. Come on, kitty. Let’s go upstairs.

genealogy 1 Comment

Questions From The Peanut Gallery

My God, I am in such a pissy mood. I don’t want to be. What the hell is my problem? This is getting stupid. Can’t I even have one evening where I don’t get all depressed at some point or another?

It’s just little things, too. I finally decide to think about using the video capture card, and now I have no idea where my camcorder source tapes went. Something I’d been planning for Aaron’s birthday is threatening to go awry. I had three bratwursts for dinner because nothing sounded good. I want to clean my desk and have no idea how or where to start. That sort of thing. Little shit is getting me down, and it’s stupid. Then I get pissed at myself for letting a bunch of little shit get me down, and the cycle continues. Gyarr.

Gotta shake this funk.

In the interests of shaking the funk, I will now take questions from my good readership. Sheryl asks:

how did you get into geneology? how much would you say you spend on it?

i’m curious to know waaay back. i need to ask my grandfather what his parents’ names were and what their parents’ names were as far back as he can remember – he’s my oldest living relative, methinks. Wish i’d asked my aunt ginny while she was still alive :/

Well, Sheryl, that’s a good question, and Grandpa is a very good place for you to start.

As for me, I got into genealogy through the Mormon church. (‘Here we go,’ I can hear you groan…) See, the Mormon church has this idea that, in order to get to the absolute highest level of heaven, you have to be a Mormon. (Imagine that.) So, if your ancestors didn’t have the opportunity to be baptised during their lifetime, you baptise them posthumously, acting as proxy—that is, you go to the temple and do Baptism For The Dead.

Yes, I have done this. Yes, I now find it strange.

So, your goal as a good Mormon is to get the rest of your Eternal Family baptised and sealed to you For Time And All Eternity. Hence, genealogy.

When I was in Junior High, Mom got into genealogy, and took me with her to the genealogy workshops and the Western Reserve library and the Cleveland Library and various LDS genealogy centers, and we dug through spools of microfilm and sheets of microfiche looking at census records. That was mainly all we did, and the only cost was our time and whatever donation we opted to give to the place where we were researching.

See, Mom had pretty good info from her father (my Grandpa Cook) about the family—his parents, and their parents. He was a stickler for saving those In Memoriam cards and obituaries and programs and such, so he had a decent amount of info… we just had to find good old Grandpa Sharits in the 1880 Census.

I didn’t get into genealogy on my own until years after Mom had started to slack. In college, with the advent of the internet, I began doing some research on my own. I found sites like Ancestry.com, Genealogy.com, FamilySearch.org (an LDS search site), RootsWeb, and others. Years ago, when I first started using these sites, the vast majority of them were completely free; now, some of them have fees associated with searching certain databases. I actually do subscribe to the Census Records on Ancestry.com, and I pay $12.95 a month for that access. (So, if any of my friends ever need any census records looked up, just ask me!)

Another site I found that was infinitely helpful was United States Vital Records Information. This is a listing of every state in the U.S., every county in those states, and every place to write for birth and death records. These records usually only cost maybe five or eight bucks, including postage, which means I’ve spent about… *counting vital records in my binder* …a smidge over $100 on vital records in the past several years combined.

Luckily, once you reach a certain point in your lineage, you’re bound to find someone with information that links up with yours. Unluckily, you still have to research it yourself, and can’t necessarily take one person’s word for it. I’ve hit snags like this with my Sharits research, finding different people with different opinions of who fathered John Sharrits back in the 1700’s.

For another flip of the lucky/unlucky coin, you have the fact that there is quite a bit on genealogical info online: census records, cemetery plotting, genealogy communities with biographical information, deeds and titles, things like that. The disappointing side of this is twofold: 1.) how do you know those records are accurate, especially if they were transcribed by a single person? 2.) at some point, the online info runs out and you have to either go to your couthouse of origin or do some mail-order genealogy.

So… how to start? For you, Sheryl, depending on how far back Grandpa can get you, I’d say 1.) order some birth and death certificates. Death certificates tell great stories, but since the person they’re about is dead, they’re not always completely accurate. Birth records are more accurate, but much more boring, IMO. 2.) If Grandpa gets you back to 1920 or further, look at the U.S. Census. (I’ll hook you up with my Ancestry.com info if you want.) The U.S. Census is released 70-some-odd years after the fact, to protect the privacy of the people named therein. Meaning, most everybody named in the 1920 Census is dead (but not my Grandpa Cook!)

Those are my two main sources for the vast majority of my genealogical research. There are other possibilities, like church baptismal records, marriage certificates, land deeds, social security applications, obituaries, etc., but I find that most of the info I need is in either vital records or census records. It’s easiest to find there, anyway.

*whew* I just jabbered my depression away. How about that?

If you want any help with the Lineage Of Sheryl Stoller, just holla. Genealogy is fun… it’s like a logic problem that’s never over, or a mystery that’s never completely solved, or a book that you’ll never finish writing.

At least, I think it’s pretty keen.

drumcorps 1 Comment

A Measure of How You’ll Be Missed

Last Sunday was the 2004 LakeShoremen Banquet. You may recall that I didn’t attend for a couple of reasons, not the least of which was the two-hour drive. Anyway, I had assumed—or, perhaps, just hoped—that someone would miss me. That I’d catch some flak from someone for not being there. That someone would tell me that I’d won some award or other, and that they’d have it for me at the first 2005 rehearsal.

But alas. Nothing.

My egotistic assumption that someone would miss me at the banquet reminded me of a poem my Mom taught me long ago, that I’d nearly forgotten (and Google managed to remind me):

Sometime when you’re feeling important,
Sometime when your ego’s in bloom,
Sometime when you take it for granted
You’re the best qualified in the room,

Sometime when you feel that your going
Would leave an unfillable hole,
Just follow this simple instruction
And see how it humbles the soul.

Take a bucket and fill it with water.
Put your hand in up to the wrist.
Pull it out and the hole that’s remaining
Is the measure of how you’ll be missed.

You may splash all you like as you enter,
You may stir up the waters galore,
But stop, and you’ll find in a minute
It looks just the same as before.

The moral of this quaint example
Is to do just the best that you can.
Be proud of yourself, but remember,
There is no indispensible man.

                —Anonymous

anecdotes, health & fitness 4 Comments

A Visit To The Optometrist

I practically had to take out a loan to order my new glasses today.

Is six months at 0% financing on credit close enough?

I took the afternoon off of work today so I could go to my 2:30pm appointment at Lifetime Vision Care in Maumee (formerly the office of Eugene Levey Philip Levy, Aaron’s optometrist since 1980—now a partnership between Dr. Levey and Dr. Henry). The exam was no sweat; typical questions (any problems? headaches? changes in vision?), typical tests (which is clearer: 1 or 2? A or B?), and to my joy, I got to forego the jet-puff-in-the-eyeball glaucoma test in favor of the yellow eyedrops. Yay!

Now, the bad news. My headaches may be caused by eyestrain from working at the computer all day (ya think?). The solution? Two pairs of glasses: one for computer-work, one for everyday use.

Oh, my God… It’s like having reading glasses. I’m getting old.

But the humiliation of having two sets of eyeglasses isn’t the end of it. Don’t forget the price of said eyeglasses.

$693.71—and that’s after insurance and discounts.

After I’d picked my jaw up off the office floor, Dr. Henry’s wife gave me a credit application good for 0% interest and no fees, as long as I get my seven hundred bucks paid off within six months. That I can do, so I gratefully and willingly signed on the dotted line. I’ll soon be receiving a card that I can only use at Lifetime Vision Care, that’s mainly just a reminder that I still owe them a crapload of money.

Granted, I’m looking forward to being able to see properly again, and to not having headaches anymore… and I’m highly grateful to Dr. Henry for the 25% discount on the second pair (since Aetna only covers the exam, $15 toward lenses and $30 toward frames)… but still. My God.

randomness

Being A New Urbanist

Not that I don’t like our new house or anything… but I do kind of miss having a downtown area to walk around. Tonight, I could have seen myself braving the cold chilly wind and traipsing down to Grounds with a notebook and pen. Maybe bringing a packet of Splenda and pocketing the miniature bottle of caramel sugar-free syrup from our fridge and ordering a decaf.

Sure, there are places in Toledo I could have driven to, but there’s something different about having the walk to clear your head. When you’re driving, you (or at least, I) have to pay attention and don’t have much brainpower left for properly zoning out.

I like being closer to more things we can drive to, but not being able to walk to real shops and stores and restaurants takes some getting used to.

Maybe this is just a manifestation of the weird depression I seem to have been in lately. Can’t seem to shake it. Don’t want to sleep, don’t want to do crap. I’ve been terminally bored for nearly a week now. It’s a little early in the chilly season to be going through this—this was once what I expected to go through every February. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not nearly as depressed as I once was, and it’s been quite a while—years—since I’ve been even recognizably depressed… and this isn’t nearly as bad as I’ve been in the past. I can handle a general lethargy. It’s just pushing through it, when I know that it has no reasonable cause and no foreseeable cure, that’s the trouble.