It has been too long since I have written a blog post. I do have a good excuse, at least I think I do. Since March I have been busy working on my Zacharias family research project and am very happy to announce that it went live during the July 1st long weekend.  After a few glitches, and these are expected, it is exactly as I had imagined it would be. Funny how when something captures your imagination and keeps your brain busy, chronic pain is not as hard to deal with.  As of this week, I have entered the names and details of 2,278 descendants of Wilhelm Zacharias who was born in the year 1700.  The site also includes 219 family histories and documents, 14 videos, and 13 albums of pictures. This week I continued the task of translating just over 150 letters written by the descendants of Wilhelm Zacharias who lived in the former Soviet Union and survived Hitler’s camps and Stalin’s gulags. The letters are dated from the early 1920s to the late 1970s.  Reading this material gives me a different perspective on my pain issues. I suffer pain, yes, but I suffer it in the comfort of my own home without having to worry about what horrific events my family might have to endure in the coming days.   Since I still have 21 big binders of research material my project will keep me busy for quite some time.

We finally had some old fashioned thunderstorms and rain this past week. In fact, one night it rained so hard that the back yard turned into a lake. We had a bit of water come into the basement but it was quickly cleaned up with a few towels. The problems that caused the flooding are the wretched window wells that house builders here in Manitoba insist on using with basement windows. This time the drainage pipe in the window well was clogged by silt. Thankfully, after a bit of elbow grease on the part of my husband and grandson the water could drain again. Whoever thought up the concept of these window wells was a few sandwiches short of a picnic.  As you can see by the video below our puppies enjoyed the fresh rainwater in the ditches.

Last month I received the results of the last MRI of my liver and lab work. Thankfully there has been no change.  It is always such a relief to hear those words, “no change.”  I have an MRI and lab work done every six months.  Alcohol was something I never enjoyed because of the migraine headaches it gave me so you can imagine my horror and surprise when I was told that I had cirrhosis of the liver.  Autoimmune diseases are nasty.

My hydrangeas started blooming this week and my gladiolas are eight inches high.  Because I no longer can take care of flower beds we put out the minimum amount of plants every spring.  The two urns on either side of the garage door each get a basket of petunias.  The hydrangeas, hostas, and roses are perennials.  We added the gladiolas, one of my favourite flowers, this spring.

A dear friend of mine lost her husband a week ago Monday. He was recuperating from knee surgery and had gone to the kitchen to make coffee that Monday morning.  My friend heard this terrible crash and when she got to the kitchen he was gone.  I cannot imagine how lonely she must feel.  They were a couple that just belonged together.  This past week Monday another friend lost her husband after he had battled cancer for two years.  He had been doing quite well so his sudden death was not expected.  She too will feel an incredible void in her life.

It is 4:30 AM and I have yet to get even a few minutes of sleep.  I hate nights like this when sleep eludes me.  It takes forever to catch up after just one sleepless night which might be due to old age.  Like my mom always said, whoever coined the phrase the “Golden years” did not have a clue.

In case any of you need a good laugh check out the video below.  I laughed so hard I had tears running down my face.

Here is a picture of my own Mrs. Brown.  My husband took this picture and emailed it to me a while ago while I was in the hospital.   It certainly kept the staff amused.  Well, I think I will crawl back into bed and see if sleep will finally decide to visit me tonight.  Hope you all have a great weekend.