I almost can't believe that it's been a year and a half since my last post. Except for the tiny character flaw known as past journaling history, of course--I have gone my entire life without keeping a diary for more than a few months or a few years, whether by hand or by keyboard. This is why I never promised that I would be making regular entries in this blog. I said as much in my first blog post, because I know myself that well.
There have been changes since my last post. The most important one is that life event known as retirement. On February 27, 2017, I gave my company notice of my immediate retirement after my employer requested that I take some time off to resolve some medical issues that I have. I am slowly dealing with the health issues, but in the meantime I am enjoying the retired life. There is less stress now the I can relax more. I am able to do more for Meals on Wheels, which is good, because in recent years I have only been able to manage the daily administration of my volunteer work outside of my regular job hours. I hadn't been to a monthly meeting in over a year, so it was a pleasure to attend the March meeting earlier this month. I also attended my first meeting of the El Monte Historical Society, although I have as yet to officially join, due to not receiving the application yet. Hopefully that little detail will be taken care of by the April meeting. I still got to suggest a speaker idea for the "tea" that will be held at the El Monte Historical Museum next month, and I asked lots of questions at the meeting.
The nicest thing is that I am getting back into my family history research. I never totally stopped, but the past year or so had involved more webinar (thanks Legacy Family Tree!) and video (thanks Rootstech, Jamboree, YouTube and others) watching, and less actual genealogy research and data entry into my database software program. This month I have rediscovered the joys of finding out about my ancestors and other family members, both dead and alive. I've even made contact with another cousin I found while browsing findagrave. She has provided a wealth of information about my dad's Norwegian family across the pond--I'm still absorbed in her tree, and haven't yet entered any of her info into mine. Of course, the same could be said for most of the info I have acquired over the past year or so. At least I have more time to organize, verify and choose what to enter.
There have been other changes, some good, some not. On the sad side of the ledger of life have been the deaths of friends and family, most notably Dad's brothers Norman and Gene last year. On the other hand, 2016 saw the birth of Mom's first great grandchild, sweet little Jasmine Marie, aka Jazzy! Everything balances out in the end, and we continue on. God is good all the time.
Hmmmm, maybe I won't wait another year and a half for my next post...
