What a beautiful day today was!! Sadly it's over, LOL.
Got up a little earlier than normal. Showered, got ready to head out to Port Huron. Only, the cooler I asked Single Son to return was not returned, nor was the car he trashed cleaned out. So hunting down and cleaning out cooler, cleaning car, getting gas and having the air checked in the tires ended up putting me an hour behind schedule.
I decided today was going to be a good day, and refused to let the slow start bother me.
The drive up was nice. An hour and a half, and I took my time. Got to the library to do some research. Oh my!! One of the local historians in Port Huron went through every newspaper from 1876 until 1940 and indexed them, then put them on microfiche film. Then she put the indexes in 4-inch three-ring binders, dividers between each year. It's a fourteen volume set! Papers after that are not indexed, but are on microfiche. What a committed woman she was. Sadly, she died in 2001 according to the memorial page in each and every binder.
I found a wealth of information in those first few binders. The family I'm searching had been in the area way back when. I just spend four hours or so searching the indexes, I have yet to even get to see the microfiche on them!
Needless to say I'm going back next week. And probably the week after, for a few weeks at least.
I called my cousin afterwards, really excited at some of my finds. She was excited but told me not to "kill myself with all this hard work". Hard work? I'm enjoying the heck out of this! Although, sitting on wooden chairs for hours on end did numb my behind. I have to remember to take stretch breaks next week! LOL!!
After the library I went to my favorite park. Did some ship watching, fed the squirrels. They loved the oyster crackers I brought with me. But their favorite seemed to be the Combos I brought ... pizzeria pretzels. Yummy! I had not intended on sharing my Combos, but after dropping one on the ground and seeing how fast it was grabbed by a squirrel I couldn't help but share more with them.
Got some ship watching in, too. There sure was a lot of ship traffic today! I've got a nice Canon digital camera, one of those 5-in-one cameras, does just about everything. Then last night Married Son gave me a digital camera he found while on a salvage run yesterday. It works perfectly. Looks like a mini version of a hand-held camcorder. It's also a 5-in-one, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to access the other four features yet. Between the two cameras I managed to get a few digital movies and lots of digital pictures of ships and squirrels. Yup, the typical Port Huron pics, squirrels and ships. I'll document the ships I saw in my Freighter Watchers Guide later.
I wish I had had the video running when one young squirrel was playing ... actually there were about a dozen young squirrels, but this one in particular either wasn't too bright, or was the class clown. I'm not sure which. Two red squirrels, the rest black ... it was one of the reds who was silly. He'd come up to me, but not too close, and just beg for another pretzel. If he didn't get his way immediately he started chattering and running in tight circles at my feet. He got an itch at one point and as he's scratching he fell over. He laid there on his back, still scratching for a good minute or more, looking like he'd fully intended to fall over. Funny as heck.
As hot as it was at home (82*) in Port Huron it was a good ten degrees cooler. And when the sun was behind clouds, I actually had goose bumps! I love it!!
About seven hours after I'd gotten there, I decided it was time to head home. Nice leisurely drive. I get home after the sun had set. Barely in the door Single Son is asking me what I had for dinner (his hint he's hungry and wants me to get his dinner). I told him a deli sandwich and asked what he had. He sure hates when I don't take his hints. But dammit, he's 30, he can fix his own dinner. He ended up making omelets for himself and Married Son.
As I'm putting my things from today away, I see a toy truck that Grandson hadn't put away. "Oh, gee. You got me a fire truck to play with. Thanks" I say to him. "No Gramma L, that's my truck." "But it's on my shelf. If it's yours it needs to go in the toy box in your room." "That's okay Gramma L, it can stay there and we can share it."
So much for getting him to put his toys away.
It's now midnight. DIL is still at work. Grandson is in bed, but wouldn't go to sleep without Daddy laying down with him. Married Son fell asleep trying to get Grandson to sleep. Cute!! Single Son is in his room.
And Gramma L is enjoying a few minutes quiet before DIL comes home.
