Tag: family

Cool, Daily Life

Weekend Random Thoughts

It’s the weekend people, whoop, whoop! Actually, everyday is a weekend for me. No I take that back – I sort of have the opposite schedule. Monday through Friday is when I prefer to do things. Weekends I hibernate in the house to avoid the weekend crowds. Although with Covid and the ensuing work-from-home onslaught, weekdays are getting just as crowded as weekends. All you people need to go back to the office! Anyway, I haven’t done this in a while so here’s some random thoughts for you:

  • We went to an in-person movie last night for the first time in… four years probably. We slowly stopped going because every movie being made is/was superhero, Marvel, or remakes of something. We’d go through the listings and not be able to find anything that wasn’t going to subtract brain cells. Then Covid hit and, well, we never went back. So last night was my first experience in one of the fancy theaters with the reclining (and shaking/vibrating) seats. Pretty cool. Unfortunately every single trailer was a hard no. Why can’t Hollywood get back to original scripts?
  • The movie we chose to go see was Dune, Part 2. Since we hadn’t seen Part 1 we had to binge that at home beforehand. Both were interesting. A little hard to follow if you know nothing about Dune. long, but never dragged.
  • The ski season went from piss-poor to never ending. Our local resort got another foot overnight. Crazy for early April.
  • Speaking of snow, my new flip flops just arrived yesterday. Ready for Spring.
  • I have a probable neuroma on the bottom of my foot. It’s a little ball of scar tissue that presses on the nerve in-between the toes. Imagine a scalding hot nail pressing up through your foot. I’ve been dealing with it for several years now. I’ve tried everything – natural toe box shoes, barefoot time, toe spacers, neuroma pads, toe stretching bands. Maybe a tiny bit of relief, but not much. I finally broke down and scheduled an appointment with a doc. Unfortunately, if this is really what it is, there’s not much you can do. Cortisone shots are a first attempt. Last option is surgery to cut the nerve. Sigh. Maybe there’s a new miracle treatment out there now.
  • Going on my first overnight motorcycle camping trip of the year in two weeks. I’m actually a little nervous. A few weeks ago, I rode for the first time since winter started and it was like I’d never seen a motorcycle before. The weather needs to improve quickly so I can get some practice time in.
  • I went down a rabbit hole watching how-to videos on making videos look more cinematic. I then went back and rewatched a bunch of the videos I’ve made and realized they all look like an eighth grader got a hold of a camcorder for the first time. It’s hard to explain. You watch a well done YouTube video and it looks simple and effortless. In my head that’s what I’m doing but it never actually comes out that way. I need to practice and figure this out.
  • I’ve grown tired of my music playlist. As I’m blasting it the garage gym, I find myself skipping four or five songs for every one I let play. I probably just need to sit down and spend a day curating my music, but that seems like work. I wonder if you can pay someone to do that for you?
  • The new status symbol is to have a podcast. At this point, who doesn’t have a podcast? I’d have a podcast expect for that whole, you know, talking to people thing.
  • Is it just me, or has the quality of meat just plummeted? We subscribed for quite a few years to a meat delivery service (Butcher Box). Finally got rid of it because the quality got so bad. We just bought a quarter cow and even that is just meh. The price per pound of prime beef, even at Costco, has gotten crazy. Thanks Bidenomics. At this rate we will have to eat the WEF bugs soon.
  • I’ve gotten old enough that my first nephew is graduating college. I don’t envy him trying to enter the job market now.
  • I went on the first mountain bike ride of the season the other day with my crazy fit neighbor. My legs still hurt. He took pity on me and went running for a few hours before we rode because he knew we’d be going slower (ouch, that stung the ego a bit).
  • In running, cycling, and hiking there’s something called a Fuck You break. The stronger fastest people get to the top first and get a nice long break. As soon as the slowest person gets to the top, everyone takes off again. Those who need the break the least, get the most. I was always the one at the top first. Now, I’m the recipient of the FU break. This pisses me off. This injustice will not stand.
  • We head to Mexico in three weeks. I was planning on being in speedo shape, but oddly enough that didn’t happen. Oh well, taco and tequila tasting tours it is.

Ok, that’s enough for now. Any longer and I’ll bust into discussions of politics or religion. I’m staring out at the snow and puddles of mud wondering what to do today. Maybe I’ll go experiment with video. Or a picture walkabout. Hmm. Maybe today will be the music playlist day. Or maybe a nap. Anything to avoid cleaning out the basement.

Peace out, and go practice your Contrarianism (TM).

Cool

I Might Be An Earl

Genealogy has never been my thing. I vaguely knew that my fathers side was Swedish, and that my mothers side had something to do with Arizona in the early days. That’s it. I didn’t grow up in an environment with lots of relatives swapping stories so I never had an opportunity, or desire, to pay attention to my lineage. I was a mutt from California with no strong ethnic or heritage history to be proud of.

And then of all things, a Hollywood type got me interested in my history. The actor James Woods is a big history buff and is constantly posting details of events and battles of the American Revolution on X/twitter. He posted something the other day about a group called the “Sons of the American Revolution”. Its members are people who can trace their lineage back to someone who fought in, or materially supported the Revolutionary War. It triggered a memory of my grandmother and some of the genealogy research she had done when I was a kid.

I knew she had spent years compiling family records, all via letter writing and phone calls. This was the 1970’s and there was no internet or Ancestry.com to reference. She had to get copies of letters and notes from family bibles to piece together the history. When she was done, she put together a book documenting the family tree and gave a copy to all the immediate family. I might not even have been a teenager when I got my copy. I probably glanced at it and put it in the closet.

Fortunately I managed to hold on to it all these years. James Woods’ X/twitter post prompted me to rummage through boxes to find that book. Wow. The level of detail my grandmother put together is impressive. I spent hours pouring through it, reading accounts of gun fights in the old west, relatives that moved west via ox cart, attending early universities, and business success. It really is a picture of America.

On my grandmothers maternal side, the family left England and sailed to Providence Rode Island in 1645. Two family members then served during the Revolutionary War with the Orange County Militia, Fourth Regiment from 1777 to 1779.

On her paternal side, that family left Scotland for America in about 1790. Her great grandfather was a colonel for the Union Calvary during the Civil war. He went on to start the First National Bank in Phoenix Arizona. His son was Mayor of Phoenix in 1909.

My paternal, Swedish, side of the family came to the US in the 1880’s. Interestingly, they changed their last name when they got here because the original Swedish name (Erikson) was too common. So all in all – we’ve been here for a while.

Now that I have all this data, I’m in the process of applying for membership to the Sons of the American Revolution. I don’t know what I’ll do with it when all done… but I do think it’s pretty cool to know that your ancestors had something to do with the founding of this country. It makes me question what I’ve done for my country? But that’s a topic for another day.

Oh, and the Earl comment in the title? My grandmother was able to trace lineage back to the year 1050. One of the branches shows that someone’s daughter married the Earl of Northumberland somewhere around 1100.

So basically I’m royalty. And I expect to be treated as such. I wonder if I’m allowed to carry a sword around now?