With new resolve and good intentions, I declare I’m singing a new tune in June. “Donate” and “discard” !! “Why put off until tomorrow what I can do today?”  I needed to drive into Livingston to pay a couple of bills and “resolved” to get those big, ugly, ceiling fans off my patio. Furthermore, I’d decided the tomato planter should have tomato plants so I browsed Lowe’s… and made garden flags “impulse purchase.” (I have about two dozen garden flags but especially like these.)

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The TV news is full of images of the devastation from a tornado that touched down in the Dayton, Ohio, area. Dayton, and Trotwood, are dear-to-my-heart. I lived in nearby Brookville, Ohio, for two years. I was volunteering at the Brethren Heritage Center (2004-2006). I suspect many of my Old German Baptist Brethren and Church of the Brethren “cousins” have been affected (by the tornado). Decades ago (1989), a novice at genealogy, at an Old German Baptist Brethren Annual Meeting, I was told: “You are related to most of these (4,000) people.”  I documented the Frantz family, and collateral lines, in Frantz Families–Kith & Kin (published in 1996). Now I document the families in Lorraine Frantz Family Tree on Ancestry.com. Didn’t mean to digress; my heartfelt concern is for family members suffering after the tornado.

The weather is fickle: Hurrican season has begun so next month Houston, Texas, (and Livingston, Texas) could be the target. I’m extremely grateful for my many God-given blessings!!

“Crude”  and “Rude”  is the title of this message written (below) in invisible ink. This is my “journal”  and I frequently look at earlier experiences. At “three quarters and counting”  (eighty-four), with poor eyesight and slipping memory, I need notable reminders.*

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*Hint: The day I “unfriended” two people.

Sentimental old lady likes to look back on pleasurable events of yesteryear. Here is a link to a blog message published on 29 May 2010. Why today? Because I’m reminiscing about the friendship that was born in Exeter, New Hamshire nine years ago.  To this very day, to this very hour, we exchange email messages. “Deb” has been such a dear friend and a good listener when I pour out grief and frustrations (via email). From afar, she helps me with solutions to RV problems. Without fail, thoughtful Christmas gifts arrive in the mail.

This old lady has little to offer in return. To my delight, yesterday Deb asked for information that might be available from Family Search  or Ancestry.com. I am ecstatically happy to oblige!! Unfortunately, today my detective skills have failed to provide the requested answers. I’ll keep searching.

When I say “old lady” it shows in my face. Look at a picture from nine years ago versus a few days ago.

(1) Make that first cup of coffee. (2) Water the thirsty plants. (3) “Deadhead” spent blooms. Today, only, finished filling the holes with damp soil. (4) Miscellaneous (as I see them). (5) Indoors (hot and sweaty) to make the second cup of coffee and prepare a blog message. Today, a Gardenia bloom was a sight and smell blessing!

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Question: What would my yard look like if I never “got a round tuit”?

The “arborist” spent the afternoon in an unfamiliar forest of trees. When I said “shirttail relatives”  it is less cumbersome than “great-grandfather of wife of fourth cousin one-time removed.” I was intrigued when I noted that “great-grandfather” was the father of a set of twins, and a set of triplets. My sympathy to the wife, and mother, who gave birth to five babies in less than three years. A total of thirteen children in twenty-three years. ~~ I get intricately involved with the individuals and aspire to accurately document details of their walk on this earth. ~~ Why did I digress from my surname and collateral lines? Because the surname was (**is**) a “collateral line” but I failed to connect with my Old German Baptist Brethren cousins.

I’m back!! My computer is my “pacifier”  and I’m content.

On Friday, I drove to my “computer guy” in Onalaska and I’m confident he is a magician!! My computer was fixed the minute I walked in the door. No more problems. It was embarrassing to sit at the table and attempt to display the troublesome features. Tim just sat there and grinned. I had been struggling with the laptop built-in mouse-pad but working fine in the “magic castle.” I was advised to stop at Walmart (on my way home) and get a mouse.

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Early this morning, I was in the yard watering the plants. Back indoors at 6:50 just as the TV “anchorman” asked the meteorologist “When does it get cool again?” The answer: “October 22nd.” Check my blog messages; I think I recently said hot and humid until Halloween.

Desperately weary sitting inside my trailer home (“climbing the family tree”  on the other computer); yearning for needed exercise, I tackled the strenuous task of filling two holes. The clay soil is “hard as a brick”  so I’d “wet it down”  and then scrape that damp dirt into the hole. “Wet it down”  again (and again) until too hot… and old lady forced indoors. ~~ Two-fifty PM as I publish this message. Next, some thoughts for blog messages (unpublished) while computer was not responding to my wishes (lol).

Decades ago (the 1960s), I had a girlfriend who told me how to measure my worth. “Make a fist, stick it in a bucket of water. When you pull it out you see no impression. That’s your worth.”  She was not being nasty; she was expressing the truth as she saw it. Likewise, recently I saw a measure of **my** worth.

Many months ago, I hired a man to take down, and repair, the ceiling fixture in the laundry room. The “Casablanca fan” came down but the repairman never returned to complete the task. My landlady accused me of stealing the fixture. In February, her son-in-law told me he would hang… if I bought another fan. I made the purchase a couple of days later but “Sonny” did not return until mid-May. My fixture and two ladders were adjacent to the laundry room door. After my cruise, I found a new fan in the laundry room and my fixture ignored. My item had fan and light; the new fixture is fan only. Due to my limited vision, even during daylight hours, I need a flashlight to read the dial on the washer and dryer.  ~~ **The measure of my worth?!**

After the father of my sons deserted us (in 1964), I raised the three boys alone. They’re grown now but I never receive a Mother’s Day card; never a birthday greeting; never a Christmas gift.  *The measure of my worth?**

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Only two responses (many weeks ago) to my ad. I won’t renew the advertisement in Foundation for Intentional Community. I’ll continue to enjoy my current excellent living arrangements and trust that “my intentional community”  will find me at the appropriate time. No response to my ad is “the measure of my worth”?

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On the cruise, several new acquaintances expressed interest in my blog messages, and my family tree. I gave away many cards with personal information. A week has lapsed and no email messages from those cruise acquaintances. **The measure of my worth?**