January 2003, week 3

Monday  January 13 , 2003

Since a man has to live with himself, he should see to it that he always is good company.

Treadmill went OK, the technician said I did fine... that's a relief, now all I have to worry about is getting skinny, being 40 pounds overweight sucks.

Christy called when I got out and said the County inspector was on her way out and would be at the house at 1600... crap... Christy and I cleaned for 5 straight hours... lots of aerobics, I was really tired when we finally quit. When the kids came home I loaded them into the van to get them out of the house and we went to get hotdogs and play at the park so Christy could be alone with the inspector... she looked in our bedroom... ick.

I guess we passed the inspection.

Big Tobacco Sues Non-Smokers for Not Smoking

[Winston-Salem, NC] - Under a little-known section of NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement), major cigarette manufacturers have initiated a class action against every non-smoker in Canada, the United States and Mexico.

In addition, the suit will seek unspecified damages from every Federal, State and local government which has a non-smoking ordinance.

A lawyer on retainer from both NAFTA and the Tobacco Industry declared, "The NAFTA agreement specifically forbids any action which 'might expropriate a corporation's ability to profit.' By not smoking, these people have caused cigarette makers to lose trillions in sales, and it is simply not good for business."

This refers to the same quirky rule, known as "Chapter 11", which last year allowed waste-dump manager Metalclad to successfully sue Mexico for not being polluted enough.

After agreeing to arbitrate the tobacco case, the NAFTA judiciary tribunal agreed to hear a North Dakota bank robber suing BancCanadienne for "hindering international commerce" by pressing the alarm button.

After their closed-door meeting, the NAFTA circle-jerk of lawyers adjourned, all took a half turn, jumped up each other's ass, and disappeared until the next meeting scheduled for March.

Tuesday  January 14 , 2003

What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.

...I dropped the car off at "Honest Auto Repair"... they said it would be ready by 1400... it wasn't.... Christy and I picked it up after Christy got back from picking up the kids in Lancaster. Mike took off as soon as he got home and went do Nick or Donny's.

Calie and Monica got their Nickelodeon Magazine... they are so adorable. Avril Lavigne (The new Brittany Spears) is their current idol,  they took the magazine to the kitchen and read the article aloud, word for word, they examined each picture microscopically to see if there is hint of a new fashion trend, some tiny thing they could emulate. Calie said "Look Monica, I told you she did it, see!!! Just like I do it." I glanced over her shoulder and she was pointing at a 1/2 inch of underwear folded over the top of her jeans. We had told her not to do that last week, now at least we know where the idea came from.

Wednesday  January 15 , 2003

Be patient towards all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves....Do not seek the answers, which cannot be given you, because you would not be able to live them....Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.
Ranier Maria Rilke

Took the Van into T&J, with all the warning lights lit the dashboard looked like a Christmas tree. ABS, Brake's and Maintenance lights... the brake light is in because the fluid is down (I hope), we filled it yesterday but the light didn't go out... I hope the warning light just needs to be reset.  T & J called about 1300, they fixed it, there is apparently a developing problem with the Brake Master Cylinder nothing dangerous yet but it will need to be replaced pretty soon... I need to wait till my finances catch up to my Merry Christmas.

I want to start gathering some more information for my genealogy... I have primarily focused on Daggett's and I have thousands of names in my database but I want to know more... I want to see how they migrated west and try to learn why. The Civil War was the biggest motivator for change, Gold, Land, opportunity were the big motivators generically then the two World Wars really spread people out but what prompted the individual is what intrigues me. Americans are Americans because they pulled up their roots and moved West whether from Europe, Asia (Yeah, I know, they moved East) or where ever. There were only indigenous peoples here 400 years ago, in 1690  in 1790 there were just over 2 million of us, in 1890 64 million and in 1990 248 million and we have people from everywhere. To over simplify, there are those that stay behind and struggle to maintain the status quo and there are those that pack up, move out and start over again. Each of us European Americans has a forefather or mother who woke up one day and said, in effect, "Screw this I'm going to America."  So there is something in our genes, some common thread. The African American and Native American populations are different in that respect for obvious reasons but still for the most part once they gained the freedom to do so some stayed put  and some moved on. It's the ones who moved on that intrigue me.

I wish I had a story to tell for everyone in my database but I only have stories for a few. The sad thing is that almost everything that is known about a person even just two generations back is gleaned from legal records, Birth, Marriage, Death certificates, lawsuits, property transfers, criminal records, Census, enlistment records, passenger lists, Probate... unfortunately, rarely does anything remain that tells you anything about the who the person really was. I have a Journal written by Governor Mayhew in the 1600's that's fascinating to read, even though the conventions of the times prohibited him form getting too personal his personality shows through. I have a journal my father kept while he was in North Africa in 1942 and 1943, I have a long letter written by my father's father in 1942 attempting to bring everyone up to date on all of his sons and daughters, that is a real treasure. Another written by my Mother's father... for the first a sense of compassion and hope, in the second a sense of humor and insight... My kids will have this journal I am writing, whether they care or not is unimportant. Everyone should write something down about themselves so that their descendents can get a glimpse of who they were and where they came from. Ultimately it is insignificant in the great scheme of things, a virtually meaningless gesture to all but one or two folks. For example, When I opened my grandfathers family Bible I was astonished to read on the opening page and see,

Olive A. Mooers

Canaan (Maine) July 16th, 1845

 I had no idea the bible even existed until I saw it at my sisters home in 1999. To see the names written for me to see by my Great Great Grandmother Olive Ann Warren (Mooers) in 1845, 154 years ago, is a real gift, I wish there was more, I wonder what she was like... This page records the birth of Mary Eva Mooers, she was my grandfather's mother. A beautiful girl, she went insane (Post Partum Depression?) two years after the birth of her third child and the death of her husband

Thursday  January 16 , 2003

Belief like any other moving body follows the path of least resistance.

I read last night that there is a new virus out that forces the infected user to go to Avril Lavigne's website, I just found out who she is and now she is a virus... funny.

I stayed up past midnight last night and I have been dragging myself around all day... don't like it... it's 2330 now and I need to get to bed... been doing genealogy all day... found another link to the Mayflower, this time through the Mooers line... this goes back to John Alden...