AJ’s grandma is still hanging on … her breathing is even more shallow, but she is a strong woman even now.  This process called dying is different for each and every person, isn’t it?  We didn’t think she would be around more than a day or two when we were there last week … I really don’t know when she will finally go, but we said our goodbyes and do not plan on going back to Fort Worth.  His mom and sister would like us to do so, but there’s really no point and we are in quite a financial pinch after the expense of September’s evacuation, two trips to Fort Worth, and now the $600 repair bill for my truck.  The power steering went out a couple of days ago. 

On to more cheerful news — my cousin got married this past weekend, and my dad came in from New Orleans for the wedding.  It was very nice and yesterday afternoon we were able to spend some time with Dad and his girlfriend.  They have invited us to come spend Thanksgiving with them and I believe we are going to do it.  It will go over like a lead balloon with the rest of our family (especially Mom), but Dad is 73 years old.  We see him on average once every 12 – 18 months, and who knows how much longer any of us will be around …. (I sound so morbid, but it’s true).  So we are going to tempt the furies (literally, because hell hath no fury like my momma) and go see Dad.

While we were visiting he showed me some of the genealogy research that he’s been doing on Ancestry.com — there is a feature on the program called “One World Tree” that is linked in somehow with the research the Mormon church does (and is supposed to be very accurate) … there is a 0 – 5 star rating on how reliable the information is.  I am quite tickled to discover (keeping in mind that someone could have made a mistake, but the accuracy rating is still 4 stars out of 5) ….

Geoffrey Chaucer was my 19th great grandfather!  

How do you make an English major’s day?  Tell them they come by their love of words QUITE NATURALLY. 

(William Faulkner is also a distant cousin, but I would just as soon ignore that one, since I do not care for his writing AT ALL.  )