RAMBLINGS

Nan's Blog for October 2012

Most of the month seemed to be spent either working in the garden or going somewhere with Ray when he wanted a change of scene.  Somewhere exotic like Tirau or Matamata. This sounds like practically any given month, doesn't it? 

I also spent a lot of  money, reducing my savings account to zero.  Well, to $50 and 66 cents, which  won't get me on many holidays in the near future.  Guess I'll have to cut back on chocolate!  The first thing I bought was a new desk-top computer.  I bought it for doing “Indexing”, something I had promised myself for years to take up when one or more of the following things happened: a) I had finished my Recall; b) We got on Broadband; c) I had no Church calling.  All these things happened.  I wanted a new computer, so as not to contaminate this old faithful by going on-line.

You may think I finished Recall a few years ago. I decided to add a couple more chapters covering the OPL years.  So that was 20 more years to cover.  I did not offer a copy to anyone except Nathan, as all the information is in OPL, but I wanted it under one cover.  I printed a copy for Nathan so that there is a spare in existence should my records for some reason be destroyed.  If anyone else wants a copy I will print one out. Nathan is a keeper of records himself, so I chose him as repository.  I  also some years ago handed over the family genealogy to him.  When I was in Australia and with Nathan looked at some stuff on newfamilysearch we found a few errors in the records concerning our family, so I decided I should keep an eye on that too, and check up on any changes and additions to my own family line.

Ray says Indexing is for the dead.  Actually it is to help the living search out the dead.  So ultimately the dead will benefit.  Maybe.  How the names of dead people get to where living people can find them on FamilySearch is because someone has extracted them from photocopied records and typed them into the system.  That is what Indexing is.  Why it is called Indexing I do not know, but it sounds good.  In my first month I added 1000 names to the 'Index'.  Name and date  and place of birth and if possible family relationship is what is required. I like doing census records best, because I am familiar with the format.  I started off with doing a lot of the 1934 Puerto Rican census, and got to dust off my meagre Spanish.  Then I did a variety of documents with a variety of success.  The last thing I did was a page from the 1871 England and Wales census.  That was a bit nostalgic.  Actually the whole thing is rather sad.  I have done several American draft notices for 1915-17.  Men being called up to leave their families.  I thought how senseless all wars are.

The second thing I bought was a new television set.  Next year we go digital, and I wanted to be prepared.  We could have tried a 'black box' but I thought a new set was in order, larger so that Ray could see it without putting his chair right in front of the set.  I did not know the hassle we would have with reception.  Ray will have told you all about that.  A good by-product for me is that when the man came to cut down some of the tree we thought was interfering with reception, I asked him to take down a pittosporum that was shading my vegetable garden.  Much improvement there.

I had a rather sudden visit to the Medical Centre.  My left thumb 'died'.  The top went white and numb, while the blood pooled at the base looking like a great bruise. It eventually resuscitated itself, but died again each morning for a few days.  Doctor said what I suspected but did not want to hear, probably an embolus.  Nothing I can do but remember to take my aspirin dose each day, which I had been neglecting.  No harm being reminded of my mortality!  I know because of my heart impairment that I am a candidate for a stroke, but of course find that hard to accept.  I aim to continue to enjoy life while I have it in such abundance.  There was a good by-product of that incident too.  The doctor had me have blood and urine tests.  Of these the results came back good.

We were fortunate that Mark, Nicola and Jonathan came to visit when I got the computer, and set me up with the church website and newfamilysearch.  He also fixed things so that he can access my computer screen.  Not long afterwards the Indexing program corrupted.  I thought I had messed it up, but when I phoned Mark to look at it, he said it was a virus.  I had already emailed Salt Lake and was told to uninstall the indexing program and reinstall it.  Mark said he could do that.  So I sat back and watched him use my computer from Christchurch.  Unfortunately, he could not reinstall the program, and I had to make an 0800 phone call, which to my surprise was to Salt Lake City.  A man there had it fixed in about 5 minutes.  That was after much waiting on the phone to get through various stages to reach him.  Fingers crossed, it has being going all right since.  Not that I have not got into a mess a time or two, but has been through my ignorance in using the program.  Another time I phoned Mark to help sort out my email. And Ray had Nicola help him by remote control get his contributions into the Blog. 

We met Vernice and family at Temple View, as Ray has written, and had a good visit. The young people decided we would have lunch at the 'Base'.  Ray and I, with Vernice, were following one of the other cars and lost it. We had no idea where the 'Base' was.  Had Ray and I been alone, we would have given up and come home at that stage, but we had Vernice to deliver to her family.  What to do?  Fortunately I keep a cell phone in the car for emergencies.  Vern phoned her sister in Auckland, who knew Marion's cell phone number.  So Vern got that and phoned Marion, or it could have been Marion's boy friend Jordan.  Anyway, Jordan came back in Tony Abel's car to guide us.  The 'Base' was way out on the Te Rapa road. All ended well.  Even Ray found his way home afterwards without losing patience at driving through the heart of Hamilton by mistake.

On the last Sunday in October we sustained a new Bishopric.  Nooroa Manu had been Bishop for 5½ years, so we knew that a change was due, but it was a wrench to have him released.  We have a pakeha bishop, which seems so strange.  It has happened in Tokoroa before, several times, but not for many years.  Bishop Jeremy Hall will I think be a powerful bishop.  

That's it for October.  I'll get Ray to try to add one of his photos of my garden.   Love to all from Nan.