I recently signed up for Ancestry.com. I really haven't made any startling discoveries yet, or traced beyond my grandparents' parents, information I already had, but it's still a thrill to verify certain information and see your great grandparents' signature on census rolls when your grandmother was just a little girl.
My grandmother was a bit of a storyteller, so when I interviewed her for a mini family tree project when I was in college, I wasn't sure how much of what she told me was true. Her parents were from Austria and supposedly my great grandfather on my mother's side made clocks and music boxes for this guy, Franz Josef I.
So I've known all along I'm a bit of a mutt, with Polish, Austrian and Russian on mom's side and German and Irish on dad's side. But hopefully I'll learn more. I really haven't had time to learn my way around Ancestry.com or dig for something new, I just reviewed their "hints."
After work today I had an EMG test done on my right leg/foot. It's a nerve conduction test and I wanted to see if I have any nerve damage that's causing my toes to be numb since last year.
It was kind of an unpleasant test where he was sticking little needles in my leg and sending electrical impulses that made my leg or foot jerk. Of course, compared to the 2 or 3 spinal taps, I've had, this was nothing.
The tests showed that everything is normal, which is sort of good news cus no permanent damage. Doc said i could have a pinched nerve or sciatica, which "could" be helped by physical therapy. But he said if it doesn't improve in a few weeks, it probably won't ever, and I'll just have to live with it. He said usually they figure out what area to focus on by whether the pain you're feeling is relieved, but in my case there's no pain at all, just numb toes that came on shortly after I pulled my hamstring in that leg last year. I began physical therapy then but could not continue it beyond a few visits because things were getting worse with my mother and I had to focus on that.
Thursday I have to drive into New Haven with 2 colleagues to hear our company chairman talk. Blah.
Today we met for a pizza lunch as a send-off for a woman who worked for us as a contractor for about 3 years, then was let go, and after about a year of being unemployed, finally found a job in Columbus Ohio. She is driving out there next week to find an apartment to lease in about 3 days and starts the job end of May! Not much time to get ready! I did that when I entered law school in my 20s and had to find an apartment in the Boston area in a single weekend. Needless to say, the place I found was kind of a dump, but the price was very cheap. I just didn't have time to look longer.
So I have this gorgeous new driveway that everyone compliments me on. However, there's been a problem with the asphalt portion. Down in one corner near the road, the GRASS is GROWING through the asphalt.
My feeling is that the asphalt is too thin. He wrote on the invoice that they'd lay 2 and 3/4" of compressed asphalt and this is maybe a quarter inch tops in that area (and looks on the thin side everywhere else, though maybe not quite so bad as this spot). So no wonder.
Luckily, the guy hasn't left me high and dry. He sent his man up 2 weeks ago and to my surprise the guy used a blow torch to melt the asphalt and presumably kill the grass.
But now the grass is back so I called the contractor again and to his credit he immediately called me back. His son is graduating this weekend but he promised to come up and see what's going on next weekend, so I'm satisfied with that.
This weekend I have a fun little excursion to a little town in PA, about a 2-hour drive, where I am meeting a fellow blogger from here! I don't know yet if she wants me to say who it is, so I won't. It's just a fun little trip that is just one overnight becus we both have pets that prevent us from going on a longer trip. I'm looking forward to a change of scenery, some good conversation and maybe a hike...weather looking cooperative.
Dad and I saw The Revenant last weekend. It had a rather gruesome bear mauling scene, but otherwise, not a bad movie. Leonardo was pretty good.
I met a nice woman at the Mindfulness lecture I went to who was a book club member,so it's motivated me to start attending that group and reading their books, which I'm doing now.
There are so many groups I want to get involved with in my hometown. It sort of reminds me of college, where you could join any club you wanted! It is kind of a liberating feeling.
Making good progress spending toward my target bonus on my new TD Bank card. I've already spent $952 on my way to spending $1500 and haven't even gotten the 1st statement yet, so I'm in good shape.
I hope to plant onion sets in my garden this weekend.
All kinds of stuff
May 18th, 2016 at 01:22 am
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And no problem with being "outted" as the blogger you will meet up with in PA! It's also about a 2-hour drive for me, so a good meeting place on the PA/NY border, sitting right on the Delaware River. (http://www.roeblinginn.com/viewgalleryimage.php?imageid=1) I took a trip by myself there last fall and am looking forward to returning. It will be good to see you F2F again--we've known each other 10 years online from this site (I believe we both started blogging here in 2006), and met in person for an afternoon in 2011 when I was driving back home to SE PA from attending a cousin's wedding in MA.
I'm looking forward to the weekend trip and will be interested to hear about your mindfulness lecture and what you are reading--that has been a long-standing interest of mine.
May 20th, 2016 at 10:12 am 1463735545