Sunday, March 10, 2024

Look out A to Z, I'll be back.



 A to Z theme reveal. Well this theme is pretty weak. It is Dogs I have loved, fairy tales, myths, cats birds and what grows in my yard... 


I have not blogged in awhile. Some of it is due to I have had to make choices in how I use my time. I contemplated to give up my desire to write. I look at the prolific work of Emily Bronte. She has a prodigious amount of writing and was gone from this world at 29. 

I am soon to be 68. I've had a career and retired. At 29, my writing was piss poor. I've always been a big reader and was quite a snobby reader at that age. I read a lot of classics. I'm one who has always felt comfortable in 19th century England. At that time in my life I read all of Charles Dickens and Robert Heinlein. I felt so bad when Heinlein passed. There would be no more of his stories. I read all of Galsworthy and most of Kurt Vonnegut. And you know, except for Dickens and Galworthy, I remember very little of what I read.

One thing about the internet is that I do a lot of "trash reading". You can't help but read one short article after another. The most exciting parts are the end of the unfinished title that gets you to click the link. I don't consider my blog reading as trash reading. This year I have focused on reading novels and not so much on the computer. 

I look forward to reading new blogs. I read one today of a Scottish woman. Apparently this woman has a large grey van. I've never been to Scotland. I have wanted to go and take a good walkabout in the country. 

When my mother was alive, I did a lot of genealogy. It was something I could tease apart as I spent a great deal of time sitting with my mother. I enjoy the puzzle. I had an old boss who had a first family that was not mentioned in his obituary. It took me a bit. But I found the first wife and her daughter in Oklahoma. Apparently, he was not mentioned in their family histories either. 

The point of the geneology is my DNA indicates I am half Scottish, a fourth English and the other fourth is a mixture of Welsh, Irish, German, Swedish and Norwegian. We did the DNA to find our Native American. No Native American is in the DNA but I found the links to Native Americans. 

In North America we don't always appreciate how close some of the colonial settlers lived and interacted with the Native Americans. 

I'm sure my Scottish ancestors were encouraged to leave in the first highland clearances. But I still would like to walk the hills of my ancestors. I see myself sitting on a bus resisting the urge to tell the locals of my Scottish roots. I'll just be there thinking it real, real loud. It is my understanding they are offended by American's discussing their ancestral roots. That is OK with me. I don't plan to eat any of their foods except for fish and chips and will drink plenty of hot tea with cream.. I'm sure haggis is good. But I am not about to eat the disgusting stuff. 

As you can tell, my A to Z will ramble this year. It will be what it will be. I'll try to comment more. I have stopped commenting as much. I enjoy visiting blogs but I have been a bit withdrawn and not commenting like I did at one time.



Xanadu

 I can hear Olivia Newton-John with the Electric Light Orchestra singing Xanadu as I read the word. It turns out there was a movie that was ...