Yesterday and today I received a deluge of information--Dale said he never expected to be married to someone who was excited about getting death certificates in the mail.
Thursday's news cleared up a mystery in the Sprong family. Grandpa (Aaron, Cynthia's dad) had a little brother who died at the age of 2. Grandpa never knew exactly why he died, and his mother wouldn't talk about it--every time he asked her, she would just cry and say that he ate too much watermelon. That wasn't very enlightening, so I finally got off my behind and wrote to the county for his death certificate; it arrived yesterday. The cause of death was "colitis", which Mom says is basically inflammation of the colon or intestines. It's usually accompanied by diarrhea, and since the death certificate says he was ill for 12 days prior to death, he probably got too dehydrated to survive. It was 1913 when he died, so the availability of IVs or other mechanisms to treat a 2-yr-old boy was nil or close to it. Mom and I found it interesting to finally know a little more about what happened to him. His name was Roy Cecil Sprong.
This afternoon's mail brought eight death certificates from Ohio for me to peruse. Some were a little sad, others confirmed information I'd gotten from other, less formal, sources. I did have one big coup in that I got some new information to follow up on regarding my great-great-grandfather Charles John McCullough (Kitty Lou's grandfather). For some reason (I haven't checked my sources yet), I'd had him as a Charles McCullough Jr. But his death certificate does not have a Jr. and furthermore lists his father's name as William McCullough--born in Ireland (both pcs of info about father new to me). It also gives Charles' birth place as West Virginia; I've seen it in census schedules as both W. Va. and Pennsylvania, so this is just another piece of info to add to the search. Finally, a great piece of information is Charles McCullough's mother's name--the only thing I "knew" about her was that she might have been born in Pennsylvania, but I had no name for her. This certificate gives her name as Elnora Cameron, birth place West Virginia. Those are some great leads to research.
Unfortunately, I also obtained official confirmation that Kitty Lou's mother, Sadie Kenefick McCullough, had "carcinoma of left breast", and Sadie's aunt Honora Dohoney also had "mammary carcinoma". So do those breast exams, ladies!
I did not realize it had been ten days since I last posted an entry. The days just go by so fast! It was quite busy last weekend with Kathleen & John here to help Matthew move into his dorm at UT. Kathleen just seems to bring a little bit of chaos with her everywhere she goes. Was she like that before she had twins?
This week has just shot by. I'm getting accustomed to Jonathan being at a new gymnastics program, at a different location, for FIVE hours on Mondays and Wednesdays. He loves it and I don't know what to do with myself for that long a period of time. Slowly I'll learn to make better use of the time--last Monday I just kind of knocked around the house for a while. I must drink less coffee too.
Today we had Jessica and little Eamon over for a while. I finally got Eamon to go to sleep in the sling by standing underneath the main air conditioning vent--the white noise just sent him off. Then we went & slept on the big bed for close to an hour. He is such a beautiful boy with a big smile. It's humbling to have him sleep on me--not only because he trusts me enough to do it but because his parents trust me enough to let me do it.
And the day started off very nicely today with Jonathan singing "Happy Birthday" to his Gram over the telephone. Happy Birthday, Mom!
Dale has set up a home page that contains links to three tracks (mp3 format) that he has written recently. Dale started building a home studio when our friend Andy was here in February (they met through the band Deep South that Dale used to play in), and it has grown into something pretty impressive. Much of it is possible because our main computer is now an iMac (we have the 15", not the 17" widescreen), and equipment just works seamlessly with it.
Today Jonathan attended his first day of CAPS, which is a preschool-type program offered by Capital Gymnastics (he's been going to one of their gyms since he was 18 months old) at a different location that we've been to before. (The reason why we're doing this is involved and boring, so I shall spare y'all a recitation of it.) This last year he's been going to Bal Pals on Mondays & Wednesdays, 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. CAPS, on the other hand, is 9 a.m. - 2 p.m. I was a little concerned that the longer time might be a problem, but he had a fantastic time. Barely gave me a second look when I said good-bye this morning, and while he gave me a big smile and sort of headed my direction when I arrived to pick him up, he wasn't overjoyed to see me. All the rest of the afternoon (partly occupied by getting some new Bob the Builder books and some Amy's Ice Cream), he talked about when he would get to go to CAPS again and how he now goes to school--CAPS is school, Mummy, he said. I think he wishes he could go every day. I am so pleased he had a great time--sob, sob.
While he was at CAPS, I went to spend the time with my friend Jessica and her baby Eamon, who will be six months on Friday. (I know Jessica through Jennifer--her husband Archie used to be Jfer's roommate). We had planned this on Saturday when Jessica, Archie, Eamon, Jfer, & Stepan were over for the afternoon & dinner, so that Jessica could try to finish up a contract job, and it turned out to be an even better thing this morning since she was ill all last night. I got to doze with Eamon on the bed, and before I left I took him outside in the sling, patted his bottom and sang to him, and he just put his little head against my hand and went to sleep. So it felt good to leave a hopefully more-relaxed mommy with a happily sleeping baby--and I do love to have little babies sleeping on me! I'd taken off his clothes so he had just a diaper on, and he seemed to like that. Not too many smiles from him today as he seems to be teething, but I did get a few and he woke up quite happy from his first nap.
I also confess that after all the cards we played last week at Kathleen's that I bought a Hoyle's computer card game program and played a new solitaire I hadn't played before (Spiderette), then some Hearts, then some Euchre. A very dangerous purchase.
Jonathan and I had a great time last week in Houston--Kathleen & John are always easy to stay with, and Jonathan was just thrilled to have Matthew and Courtney around so much. It is so nice to have such a fun family that lives reasonably close by! I know there are many families that might not even know that a niece had been in town, but our family flocks to where a visiting family member is. Felicia and Cat came for dinner on Wednesday, and when Jonathan & I went to Tim & Felicia's to spend a lazy afternoon in the swimming pool on Thursday, Felicia talked me into staying over there for dinner, and Kathleen, Courtney, and Margaret all came over. I love that!
Having made those nice statements, may I just say now that Houston is a cesspit. The weather, although unseasonably nice a few evenings, was just miserably humid, and it never smells fresh there--too many cars, too many people, too much concrete. It's an ugly city, except for small (expensive) areas like West U. And definitely still a difference in attitude between it and Austin, even if Austin has grown quite a bit the last ten years. I've been keeping an eye out for free wireless access sites for Matthew when he comes next week to UT; it hasn't been very hard since there's been a link to some on the home page of the Austin 360 site for a while now--there are about 15-20 listed. I myself have been to one and successfully gotten onto their network, browsed the Internet, downloaded my e-mail, etc. And in a city the size of Houston, wouldn't you think there would be comparably more? Nope. After about 20 minutes Googling, I found exactly ONE site with free wireless access--the Schlotzsky's on San Felipe, by the Galleria. I went there on Tuesday after visiting Central Market, and their network was down (many bad words). On Wednesday, after visiting the Cockrell Butterfly Center and the planetarium with Jonathan, Matthew, and Courtney, we went by again, and this time I was able to access my mail online--all 571 messages. (This was all necessary b/c Kathleen's computer won't allow anyone to access a site that begins with https, and no one can figure out how to fix it; and then my dial-up modem wouldn't recognize their phone line and kept telling me there was no dial tone--but it worked fine at Felicia's. Go figure.) Anyway, traffic in Houston is terrible--good thing Matthew advised me to go the wrong way on I-10 for two exits in order to get on the HOV lane to return to Katy, otherwise I might even now be still sitting on the highway. It's ugly. It's humid. It has bugs. And the radio sucks. Man, am I glad I don't live there anymore.
I did have a very nice lunch with Amanda (Mims) Campbell on Tuesday, sans Jonathan (he was getting Courtney all to himself and didn't even give me a hug when I returned 4-1/2 hours later). She is 24 weeks pregnant and looking lovely. I offered to stay with her when all the family depart, and she thought that was a great idea, so it looks like I'll be there in January sometime for a few days (she's due 5 Dec but will probably have a C-section earlier due to her back problems). It's her first child, and of course since I've known her since birth (her dad and mine were roommates at Rice University), I am very happy for her & James.
I also want to say what a nice time Jonathan and I had on Thursday at Tim & Felicia's. We spent about 2-1/2 hours in the pool--Jonathan wasn't keen on going down the slide or off the diving board himself, but he vicariously did it through me ("Mummy, do the slide! Mummy, jump on the diving board! Mummy, go down the slide again!"). I think I must have gone down the slide about 30 times and jumped off the diving board at least 15. It was fun! Cat was looking lovely and enjoying her first few days in junior high, and her new kitten Scarlett is as cute as can be--Jonathan thought she was great and giggled whenever he saw her. Jonathan also enjoyed getting in Tim's boat, although he didn't like the horn.
Finally, before we headed out on Friday, Jonathan and I had lunch at a Cracker Barrel with Kathleen, Courtney, and Matthew. Towards the end of the lunch, Jonathan put his hand up Matthew's T-shirt sleeve. Both Matthew & I thought he was trying to just wipe off his hand on Matthew's arm (wouldn't be too surprising), but we then realized that he just wanted to touch him--he does that all the time with Dale, me, Jenny. He did the same thing to Courtney after that.
Oops--that wasn't the real "finally", this is. We had some great evenings of playing cards while I was there this time. On Monday Courtney, Matthew, and I kept Kathleen up until 1 a.m. playing Nertz, which is basically a game of speed solitaire. Then on Wednesday the four of us stayed up until 1:30 a.m. playing euchre. Thursday Matthew was playing volleyball, so Courtney, Kathleen, and I had a go at playing Ugly, which was pretty fun and would have been more successful had Kathleen not been totally exhausted (hmm, wonder why?). We said all evenings that Grama's (Kitty Lou's) card spirit was there playing with us.
Jonathan and I leave Monday for a road trip to Houston. It will be our last trip there before Matthew & Courtney go off to college, which is why we are going. Jonathan is always so excited to go, and in the past of course M & C have been at school during the day, and Kathleen & John have been at work. So this little fella wakes up in the morning and wants to know who's in the house, and I have to tell him it's just the two of us. Then we have a good time during the day, but he's really just waiting for everyone else to come home.
So this trip is going to be a ball for him. On Tuesday I'm having lunch with Amanda (Mims) Campbell, and instead of having to tag along with Mummy, Jonathan is getting to stay and have Courtney all to himself, and Matthew too if he's around. I told him that as he was getting ready for bed this evening, and he thinks that is fantastic. On Wednesday, we are going to the Butterfly Center and the planetarium, and current status is that both Matthew & Courtney are coming with us. (I think my presence is actually kind of superfluous, as far as Jonathan's concerned!) Thursday we shall be going over to Tim & Felicia's to swim; I heard from Tim this evening that he busted his b*tt on the pool this weekend and it is clean as a whistle, so we are looking forward to that--a nice relaxing day without having to deal with any nasty Houston traffic. Friday we'll head back to Austin.
I have spent about six hours over the last two nights gathering information from the 1920 and 1930 federal censuses, and it has all been for free from the comfort of my own home, in the middle of the night. The Austin Public Library offers remote access to Heritage Quest Online--all you need is a library card. That is just too cool.
I located the census schedules that show my grandma Sprong's Aunt Lillie & her son in 1920, and then in 1930 it's Aunt Lillie with Grandma (just Elene Ensign then, of course) living with her. I also found Grandma Sprong living at home in the 1920 census, with her mother and 7 siblings; her father was living elsewhere, by himself, and I found him too. Also in 1920 I found Grandma's maternal grandfather, Lemuel Richards, who was living close by in a National Military Home; I would have never known to look for him there except that she mentioned it last summer when I did an oral history with her. In 1930 I located her mother, still living without her father, with only the two youngest children still at home. One, Elene's sister Ester, was an artist, and Eston is listed as a salesman at a fruit stand.
The reason it took so long to find this stuff is that HQ does not yet have the 1930 census, which was released last year, indexed. Once I found people in the 1920 census, I had a reasonable place to start for 1930--but it's a matter of browsing page by page. I guess not only thanks for the Austin Public Library, but thanks to Roadrunner for my broadband connection to the Internet.
Jonathan and I had the most wonderful day yesterday (Friday). I think it was the most relaxed I've been all year! We arranged over a month ago to have a picnic with Jessica, Archie, and little baby Eamon (nearly six months old) on 8 August at Emma Long Park on Lake Austin--Archie is a teacher and goes back to school next week, and he's going to miss his little guy (and his wife, of course!) after getting to spend the summer with him. So we thought a picnic would be a nice way to top off the summer. That was before this incredible heat, of course. We were a little concerned it would be too hot and unsafe for the little ones to be out, but we decided to go ahead and try it--if we had to bail and head home after only an hour, so be it.
I brought enough food for an army. What compels me to do this? I had about 5 different kinds of crackers, ciabattini from Whole Foods bakery, homemade chicken salad, devilled eggs, 4 different kinds of cheese, fresh veggies and dill dip. Also pretzels, cashews, grapes, and apples. Also four different kinds of spritzers (Jamaican lemonade, lemon/lime, strawberry, and tangerine). Also a beer each for Jessica & myself--which tasted spectacular--and a bottle of white wine if needed (it wasn't). Also cookies, Jello gelatin, and Jello pudding for dessert.
I also got to haul out all my picnic accoutrements. The picnic backpack (mine has service for 4, not 2), beverage bonnets, food tents, a mini butter crock, my new picnic-sized salt & pepper grinders, classic red plaid tablecloth and clips & weights to keep it from blowing away, mini whiskbroom & dustpan for brushing off the table and benches, Evian & Body Shop refresher sprays that we put in the cooler (and they came in *very* handy), etc. And the folding chair I got a couple of years ago for picnics--I needed something I could nurse Jonathan in comfortably--came in very handy for Jessica & Eamon.
Anyway, all that was nice, but the best part is that I was outside in 110 degree weather (more new heat records), and I wasn't even sweating. I was cool! How, you ask? The water of Lake Austin felt like it was about 70 degrees; it's released from the bottom of the Lake Travis dam. It was absolutely glorious. There was even a cool breeze sometimes, since the wind over the lake picked up the coolness of the water. We spent a lot of time standing in the water. I made it in only up to my knees--luckily Jennifer came along with Homer and took Jonathan out. He hadn't even wanted to stand in it b/c he thought it was too cold. But with his auntie Jenny, he went in up to his neck. Poor Jennifer had a small blond child (not that small--40 pounds) hanging onto her neck (piggyback), and Homer was so tired that he made Jen hold him. But she looked cute as ever, and Jonathan laughed and laughed.
We had a whale of a time, and Jonathan thanked me multiple times for taking him on a picnic, and on the way out of the park, he declared that he'd like to have his birthday party there next year (perhaps inspired by the large party with inflatable bouncy castles that we passed by). But I think that's a fantastic idea, so everyone mark that on your calendars!
Our air conditioner has been running constantly for at least 2-1/2 hours now. It is so HOT! It's now 7 o'clock in the evening, and it's cooled all the way down to a lovely brisk 98 degrees--that's 37 Celsius for those of you over the pond. I don't want to be hot anymore.
Who would have thought that reading the real estate advertising section of the Houston Chronicle each week would pay off like this? On 27 Jul 2003, I came across an article on cohousing by Katherine Salant. You should check out the entire article, but here are some pertinent bits to convince you this is the real thing: "Each cohousing unit has its own kitchen, and the residents also eat dinner in a common house several nights a week. Almost all the parking is on the periphery of the community . . . The 7,000-square-foot common house includes a wood-working shop, a mail room, a TV lounge, an exercise room and two guest rooms residents can use for visitors. . . . The 32 attached row houses and eight first- or second-story one-bedroom apartments are arranged along two narrow pedestrian lanes and around one courtyard. Each house has a very small front yard . . . " It's a neat article--apparently cohousing started in Denmark in the 1960s and came to America in the late 1980s. Isn't that about when we first came up with the Hub Home concept
I have been saving some things for my blog for a while, so I might as well get them in (I'm sitting up scanning in the University of Kansas transcripts for Grama and Grandpa Sprong and have played all the Freecell and Solitaire that I can stand).
Jim Hightower, a former Texas Agriculture Commissioner, writes a column that turns up in the local free weekly Austin Chronicle. The one that came out in the 25 Jul 2003 issue was astounding. This is something that I have not seen reported either in salon.com or in the Houston Chronicle. Everyone is aware of how Congress is supposed to be dealing with the prescription drug issue and coverage for seniors. Apparently, "these same leaders have since passed a specific drug-benefit bill for a select group of retirees that - lo and behold - happens to include members of Congress. Apparently, they felt no budget constraints when addressing the needs of senior Congress critters, for their benefits package is far more generous than what they had doled out so stingily for ordinary, everyday, run-of-the-mill seniors. For example, retired Congress members will pay no additional premium or deductible for their drug coverage . . . I've got a simple plan for reforming American health care: We'll take the same thing Congress is getting." And you know this has nothing to do with Republican vs. Democrat, as this happens regardless of which party holds the majority of seats. And commentators wonder why the public is disillusioned . . .
This site on walking looks like a pretty decent site on getting some basic exercise, and step 1 about halfway down even has a nice gentle touch of sarcasm. Daddy--who is our walker for the Cinco Ranch triathlon, yea Daddy!!!--should pay special attention so you can out-walk everyone. This site also seems good for those needing some motivation (Joy, throw that chocolate AWAY), and the US government site points out that walking burns about as many calories as running, can be more effective than running for both weight loss and conditioning, and it can help smokers cut down or quit altogether. Kathleen, Daddy, and Margaret, pay attention!
Health has finally returned to the Churchett household, although we were both beset by rather extreme bouts of flatulence this evening. Much hilarity resulted, so I guess it wasn't all bad, even if we had to stay in separate rooms for a while.
Many thanks to Jennifer for coming over to take Jonathan out for a break Saturday afternoon. I think he was getting pretty tired of his ill parents, and the sleep I got while he was gone put paid to the headache I'd had all day. What a relief to be well! As soon as Dale is satisfied his stomach is okay, we are going for fajitas and margaritas, damn the calories.