The New Dog
I saw the surgeon last week and can now drive. Have only been out once but have a busy day coming up. Have been occupied trying to clean up the back garden. Now that the lawn’s been cut I can tell the difference between lawn and weeds and have spent days trying to pull them out. Today I decided that pulling was no longer possible. Some were as thick as a pencil and all were squashed between the mower strip and the metal garden guard. They got cut as short as possible and then Zeroed. It took forever to do and I retreated to my heated chair during frequent breaks. It’s good to start feeling something approaching normal. The more I look around the garden the more I see requiring attention. Walking is still a variable exercise.
The family history research continues. Last night I was looking up the husband of a second cousin. He had the benefit of an unusual surname and two Christian names, the first being somewhat unusual. He shouldn’t have been confusing at all as I had indexes to his birth, marriage and death and didn’t find anyone else with the same name. However, I found a 1911 census record for a boy of his name and age along with several siblings in an orphanage. There was a probate record for a man who might have been his father who had died a couple of years before but it mentioned a widow who I was unable to find in the records. Examining records for some of the siblings didn’t clarify anything and allow me to feel confident that he was the one in the orphanage either. The second cousin, a stenographer sailed to Argentina in 1924 as an unmarried young woman. Eight years later they were both recorded as first class passengers on a boat from China. The husband’s occupation was recorded as “shipping”. No other shipping records were found for them. One of the siblings died in the 1960s and probate was granted to a man with the same name as the cousin’s husband. He was recorded as a publican. By the time I’d got that far my brain was fried from too many otherwise unconnected facts and it was time for bed. Suspect his parentage and early life will remain a mystery.
Indie, the new "dog"
Yesterday I got up from my chair for a moment and returned to find it occupied by Indie. There was no other covered chair so I put her on Phantom’s unoccupied double decker bed. He was busy monitoring the street. I didn’t expect her to remain and poor Phantom was left without a bed long after the streetscape had lost its appeal. Today she’d really decided she was a dog by taking over his favourite outside bed. Phantom was busy keeping a close eye on me so didn’t miss his bed.
