Monday morning I discovered that my cold water was not flowing in the upstairs bathrooms. Obviously, a frozen water pipe! This has never happened before. Water was flowing in the kitchen and the pipes extend up from there in a shaft between the walls. The shaft is open to the basement and is large enough for a small skinny kid to climb up into it if necessary. That has never been necessary and we don't have any small skinny kids here anyway! During the construction of the house I discovered insulation at the bottom of the shaft and notified the builder that it was open to the attic. They tore out a bathroom wall, put in a ceiling and reinsulated the attic above it to my satisfaction. .I knew that being open to the basement, which is always warm, I should never have a problem. The only thing I can think of is that the very top of the shaft shares a wall with the attic area above the kitchen and it may not have been well insulated.

Be that as it may, a call was made to Anne Marie at work. Did she have any boys available? Joe had just finished a test and was here in 15 minutes or less. I had a plan. Joe crawled up into the crawl space below the kitchen and located the bottom of the shaft. An electric fan, not used in years, was positioned to blow air from the basement up the shaft. After Joe went back to school, just to help some other baseball players prepare for another test so they could remain eligible to play ... he didn't need to take the exam because he has an "A" in the course... , I remembered that there are unused telephone outlets in both bathrooms. I took the cover plates off which opened the wall a bit to allow added warm air between the walls. I left the cold water taps open and in about an hour the water was flowing normally. Thanks to the Albano team ... problem solved ... for now.  The fan will remain in place until I am sure it is not needed. I can turn it on and off by unplugging it from the outlet in the basement.

What better way is there to solve a mystery than to ask the world. I have set up a page to do just that. Peggy has been diligently trying to solve a couple mysteries in the Packard genealogy. She finds information, or should I say clues but little documentation and that is crucial in genealogy. So, I have created a page named "Packard Family Mysteries". Hopefully someone interested will do a search for "Packard Family" and be drawn to the page. Hopefully someone will know something that will help.

I let Mikey out on Tuesday and he came back in with Joe who had surprised him in the back yard. There had been a light snow Monday afternoon but the several inches predicted for the night did not materialize. As Joe cleared away the little that was there it started snowing again. Thanks for the efforts Joe, but I think it is a loosing battle.

Bob Lewis sent a gem! Old age - A gift  With a few, ... very few ... changes it fits me to a "T". I love it Those of you who have made it this far will love it too ... if you have the right attitude. Those of you who have a way to go can take heart in what awaits ... if you play your cards right.

I didn't know what got into him but Mikey had me up to let him out twice in the wee hours Wednesday. He then got me up at 7:30 and I fell into my usual routine until about 9:30 when I settled into my too comfortable living room. A few minutes later it was 11:30. You might say I was exercising the prerogatives of Old Age. That, however, kind of threw off my day and the job of sending out the weekly parish email newsletter was delayed a bit. In preparing the newsletter I noticed the item by our pastor thanking the parishioners. When the people are pleased with their church, they express, not only in prayer, as above, but also this way: "This year in response to the Annual Catholic Appeal, parishioners pledged over $102,581. That’s amazing!" Our target is $73,000 and the parish will be rebated all amounts received over the target.

I have finally registered this web site with Google Analytics and placed their tracking code on many of these pages. It is a time consuming task and I will be adding the code to more pages as time permits ... or rather, as I allot the time to do it. I keep forgetting that I am in control of my time ... except for Mikey's priorities ... and a few other things. It will tell me which pages you guys actually look at and even how much time you spend on each. No, it doesn't identify you, that would be invasive and I am not trying to spy on you. I am trying to determine how effective my efforts are with this web site. It will be interesting to know, for example, how many people visit the new "Packard Family Mysteries". page and if they find it through a search engine or by following my links through this web site. The search engines base their rankings of pages to a large extent on "key words" which the web builders identify for each page (hidden from view) and how relevant those words are to the actual content of the page. Especially in the case of my genealogy pages, I need to get visitors who find my pages using search engines.
 

Attention is the most basic form of love; through it we bless and are blessed. ~ John Tarrant

The Albano family has been frustrated with insurance procedures in scheduling a needed surgery to correct the shoulder damage done in Dom's fall a few weeks ago at work. At first, the companies' doctor started him on therapy for it without any x-rays or other scan. That added to the pain. A visit to an orthopedic specialist determined that he needed immediate surgery to prevent it from healing improperly and a stop to the therapy which could inflict more damage.. Workman's Comp insisted on a second opinion, delaying things another week. Wednesday the consulting doctor agreed with the surgeon and after a series of calls to Workman's Comp, the go-ahead was authorized. We don't have a date for the surgery yet but we can start praying that it will be a total success and recovery will not be too long. 

I received an email that said, "Someone Sent you a Valentines Day Card. Click on the link below to view your eCard". I did not click the link. I do not click on any link unless I know the sender and "Someone" isn't good enough. Surprises are nice but that one could very well be a surprise virus or worm. I hope I haven't offended anyone but I would rather be safe than sorry.

On Thursday I received the first report on visits to this web site. There were two visits to the Albano Family page. One was the result of a search for the words "marc dominick"  and the second was an email referral. Both visitors were from different cities on the East coast.  At this point your imagination can add to the story ... or not. What we do know is that the search engines can bring you to peculiar places.

Speaking of Strange ... Mikey usually, with a little help, gets into my bed and lays on the second pillow until I turn off the TV. Then, unless he gets too warm, he sleeps in his bed all night, a foam bed with a fleece cover. At about 4:30 AM Thursday I heard him moving around and making noises, not his usual, "get up and let me out" noises but I did anyway. He rather hesitantly followed me down stairs, unusual because he generally runs down ahead of me. After a brief time he came back to the door and ran up the stairs, looking for help to get on my bed. He took his place on the pillow and as I dozed off, I heard him get to the floor. But soon, he was asking to get up on the bed again. To keep peace, I helped him up and he repeated the same behavior. After the third time ... up - down, up - down, up - down ... I pulled him over to me and held him with his body under the covers and his head on the pillow. We both went to sleep. A little after 7:00 he was gently taping my bald dome with his paw and we both got up for our usual morning activities. Something had disturbed him during the night ... but what? Had he experienced another seizure?  I could find no evidence of it. All day I wondered as I went about my routine.

I took him to Touch of Class and he was a eager as ever to go for his bath and trim  and visit his friends. Sampson was there and I am sure they exchanged greetings. While he was there, I went to Bible Study. By the time I got home the message was waiting to tell me Mikey was ready to come home. I picked him up just after one of the Albano boys left with Sampson. Later in the afternoon when I took my annual Valentines Day shower, I happened to glance at Mikey's bed. There was the answer to the riddle. He had evidently experienced another seizure while in his bed. It was stained through the cover and into the foam. Of course he wouldn't sleep in it after that. I could have washed the cover but the foam was beyond saving so they went into the garbage. Mikey will get a new bed.
 

Pat Bennet sent the following:

Thanks Pat, And we will keep an eye out for Ed. He'll be the one who keeps looking behind to see if anyone is catching up with him.

 

The Thursday evening news here was all about the shootings at NIU. At that point there was a lot of incomplete information and conjecture. The identify of the shooter was mot reveled. All I could think is that he forgot the face of his father. He was a desperate person who felt wronged. Why these people think that taking other lives will do anything to provide relief to their problems is beyond my understanding. We can only pray for the victims and throes who love them. We can also pray that we will learn and respond to the factors that motivate this behavior in order to prevent more carnage.  We may also wish to pray for the family of the perpetrator as well as the man himself. His deeds are done and can not be undone. Revenge must be removed from our consideration and our society.

I am convinced that these senseless acts would be more difficult to implement if fire arms were not so readily available. When this nation was young, the "right" to bare arms was a necessity at many levels. These reasons are now gone. There are better ways to solve our problems or provide recreation.

I am convinced that the state's use of the death penalty sends the message that to kill solves a problem. You can not stop killing by killing. Does anyone have common sense? Legalized abortion sends a message that my life and my agenda are more important than another life and killing is justified. "Mercy" killing also cheapens the value of life itself, sending the message that there are valid reasons to take a life. In reality, our lives are a gift of God and it is blasphemy to throw away His gifts.

I am convinced that we have gone so far in "protecting the civil rights of individuals" that we are violating the rights of society in general which is in danger of being the victim of misguided or sick individuals who are a danger to themselves and those around them. We fear "Big Brother" intruding on our right to privacy in all matters. What are we hiding if we are living moral and law-abiding lives. But I pray to God that someone will be watching over me if I become sick or mentally unstable so that I will not harm myself or others. There is no shame in being helped for we are designed by God to grow and thrive by helping each other.

I am convinced that we have discarded the teaching of morality and social responsibility in our public schools in the fear that those concepts would be considered "religious" in nature. Students must be schooled in the fact that we compete to better ourselves, not to defeat and degrade others.

I am convinced that we have, in our advertising and entertainment industries, appeal to the lowest levels of morality and values, glorifying greed, self satisfaction and sensationalism above Christian values. They are foisting upon us a distorted picture of what the "real world" could be. The media squanders the opportunity to improve our society and instead desensitizes us to evil.  

I am convinced that if the person who committed these crimes would not of done so if he had a solid faith in God. ... or maybe even a little faith?  My favorite song once was "I did it My Way". At the time, I had a knowledge of religion but but no real faith, believing instead that my many accomplishments were due to my efforts alone. But when things went wrong that left me with a very lonely and hopeless feeling. My secrete depression was deep and morbid thoughts did enter my mind. I have since realized that I do nothing without the help of God and He is always there to pull me out of any trouble I get into.