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Four Minutes of Science, and Ten Minutes of Me Hurting Myself
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| | Tags: | geneology | | Time: | 11:00 am | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/niaha/kitty/ankangryg.gif) frustrated |
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| In my geneology project for my mothers side of the family, I've hit two road blocks. (Which is lucky for me, considering my grandfather hit many, many more. Although, I expect that if I ever get them cleared they will lead to more.)
The first is my grandfathers paternal grandfather. He seems to pop into being with a wife and a child, but with no parents anyone ever heard of. Looking further back in the census, I see a man with the same name, year of birth, place of birth, but living a few counties over with another woman and a small child. There is plenty of time for Grandpa Hale to have had a first wife, watch her and the baby die of something, and then move away to start a new, and get married to Grandma Hale and have their first son. However, My grandfather and his sisters say that their grandfather was only married once, so that can't possibly be him. End. Of. Story. Look somewhere else.
Hmm. Well, fine for now.
The second is my grandmothers paternal gradmother, Ms. Roda Pruitt Mabe, the Cherokee Indian. Oddly enough, her life is beyond debate. She married Lef Mabe, and when their first children were older, the family moved to Saltville, Virginia in a covered wagon, with Lef's brother Stephen.
I have seen Stephen's grave, met his family. They tell the same story, about how uncle Lef married a Cherokee and then everyone moved to Virginia from North Carolina. The documents state that Roda and Lef were buried in the same cemetery, indeed within 30 yards of him. The death dates on the certificate match the cemetaries records. There are no head stones, but the family was poor, and that was common.
Roda's birth is more perplexing. Unfortunately, she was born shortly after a major census (the 1880). The 1890 census was destroyed by a fire, and only three states have any records of that year. North Carolina is not one of them. Then, in 1900 we find her fully grown, about 17, living with the Upchurch family, listed as a cousin to head of household, along with a "Squire Pruitt" who is also listed as a cousin. Next census, she is married with children.
None of us had ever heard that she had a brother, but they could've been cousins as well. On a hunch, I follow him back to the 1880 census, and found him at two years old living with Joel and Elizabeth Pruitt, listed as a grandson. Ah! The Pruitts! Now, there was no question about Roda being their biological child, they were in their upper 60's when she was born, but, our reasoning went, they may have adopted her, and that's how she got the Pruitt name.
I had already checked with the rolls of the Eastern Cherokee, there are no Pruitts to speak of, so I knew we were dealing with her adopted family. So, just to be sure, we ordered her death certificate. She had died early, around 39, of a heart attack, while churning butter. (Actually, she's probably the one that introduced the genetic heart disease into my family.) Her husband, granpa Lef filled out the forms, but he did not know anything but her father's name: Joel Pruitt. He wasn't even sure of her exact birth year, and there was not a mother listed. *I* knew more about her early life than her own husband, and that was NOT a lot.
Well, it was time to bring in the big guns, so to speak. When we went to the Native American festival last year, we spoke with some people who gave us some tips about where to go from there. "Investigate the entire family. Adoptions were generally kept in the family, so look into all the sons and daughters, all of Joel and Elizabeths sisters and brothers. And remember that she didn't have to have %100 percent Cherokee blood to be considered a full Cherokee. As long as her mother was Cherokee, she would have that identity." So, off we go on our needle in the haystack searching.
First, since Squire was so helpful, I tried to figure which of the daughters or sons was his parent. After living with the Upchurch's, he got married, and later, his mother Margaret moved in. It looked like she'd gotten remarried and the second husband hadn't wanted him around, so he got sent to the same "Musical Relative" housing that Roda had.
Then, on to Joel and Elizabeth. And therein came the first real problem. They had a different group of children every ten years! Oh, wait. Francis, in 1870... I bet that's Frankie in 1880, the dates match up. Likewise Catherine and Kitty, and Mary and Mary Jane is obvioud. But still, backing all the way up to their first census together shows that Joel and Elizabeth had sixteen children in all! The last was born when they were in their late fifties. I bet these people were adopting children left and right! Kudos to them, but seriously! Which are theirs and which are not?
Even worse, one of their sons is Joel Pruitt Jr. Which Joel is Roda's father? Investigating him shows a wife and three kids, then the missing census, and then... nothing. Could they have all died, leaving Roda to Joel Sr.? It's possible he moved out of state, and in that case, then I need nothing more from him, this isn't the father I'm looking for.
I sent to North Carolina for Joel Sr.'s will. I thought that since they at least had Squire, they may have made provisions in their will for the little ones. Raleigh did not have any will for Joel Pruitt, any spelling, from 1665 to 1900. Not for Joel Sr, and not for Joel Jr.
So, I continue digging through the family. The problem is, that the girls just disappear, there are no records of their new surnames, same with Joel and Elizabeth's sisters. And none of the other sons show any indication of a Cherokee mistress, but I suppose you don't exactly list that in a census.
Back to Square Zero. | comments: Do you like me?   |
| Doug and I came back from watching Public Enemies tonight, it was good. Really, it was a typically gangster flick, and it would've sucked without Johnny Depp and Christopher Bale. Then, in the credits, I noticed a very familiar name.
I pointed to the screen and said "Stephen Lang! Oh my GOD! I love him! Mostly because I never recognize him." This time I think I can forgive myself. He had shaved his beard, and cleaned up quite a bit. But he played one of the FBI agents that Christian Bale brought up from Texas.
Holy Cow. And I had just written a letter to him in January telling him that I would be happy to see him in any historical film at all. (Not really. I made an LJ post about it. Much less likely he actually read it.)
Also, David Wenham (a.k.a Faramir) was there. He only had a few lines, but still. It's good to see him doing things, I always feel that he is very under used. | | comments: Do you like me? |
| | Time: | 04:33 pm | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/niaha/kitty/ankhappyg.gif) content |
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| I'm feeling really great right now. I car stopped leaking transmission fluid, so it's all cool now.
I got up, went to visit some local caves with my sister and some RL friends, so I got in a good hike.
I came home, got two loads of laundry completed, sat down to read and fell asleep. Woke up about 4, dozed some more with a cat on either side of my face, and then had a snack (left over hot dog weiners cut up in some chili and mustard with two slices of white bread).
I am so glad that I actually was able to get some REST this weekend. I'd felt like I was running around everywhere and getting nothing accomplished. It felt good to just stop.
Even that sense of foreboding I had last night is gone, whatever that was about. I'm ignoring the fact that I have to go back to work tomorrow, and it's actually working.
We may go out and see Public Enemies tonight.
I'm content. Haven't felt that in a while. | | comments: Do you like me? |
| I am seriously going to go insane and kill someone. My car is leaking transmission fluid, so I've got to get it back down to Knoxville to get it fixed. It is still under warranty, and it will be free. Oh, yes. It will be free. But still. The hassle, and the frustration. I wish we could just all go back to horses. The good news is I can still drive it, and so I'm leaving it sit until my next day off, which is Tuesday, and then Tuesday night a couple friends are following me down to the place.
And as usual, the car doesn't break down until after I fill it up with gas. | | comments: 1 Person really likes me! or Do you like me? |
| One of the side effects of my Internet fast is that I've forgotten what my friends know about me and what they don't. For example, I'm almost sure I haven't brought up my recent health issues, and my diagnosis of Acid Reflux. I get the nasty kind that makes you nauseas and gives you the taste of bile in the back of your throat. Then you vomit repeatedly for several hours.
I called in to the call center this morning because I was so nauseous I couldn't even roll over in bed. Now I'm feeling better, have managed to keep some hot dog wieners down, and I'm feeling good enough to be bored.
I need to do laundry. But, if I'm feeling that good, I can go to work, and finish up the day, and not loose an entire day. But I'm not feeling that good. Maybe I can just fold up the clothes in the dryer. But it's so hot. I guess I'll just sit up here in the bedroom with the AC.
I need to go visit the doc again. The antacids he gave me worked for about three months, and now they're not. I swear, between the IBS, Acid Reflux, and my newly discovered propensity for migraines, it seems like I carry a pharmacy everywhere I go.
Oh, yeah. The migraines. My mother had them when she was younger, and my baby sister Cait has them, but I never had my first one until this year. I'm only 27, why am I suddenly falling apart?? | | comments: 1 Person really likes me! or Do you like me? |
| So, I'm pretty sure everyone here knows I'm very big on Synchronicity. If a particular object pops up in my life multiple times in a very short space, I generally try to learn as much as I can, and it's only led me wrong once. (It was the summer that the Seneca were suddenly everywhere, and I found a really crappy romance called "Seneca Captive, or whatever.).
It's led me to research such wonderful and bizzare things such as Iceland, the Grand Canyon, and Italian Maggot Cheese.
I've been so stressed out because of changes at work, I've hardly known what to do with myself. I actually dreamed I started smoking last night. In my dream I thought "Wow. This is awesome. I should totally buy a pack when I wake up." I smoked like four.
Then I woke up and remembered I hated smoking, and had lung problems that would not benefit, besides. This is my second dream about smoking, the first being one about a nice Cherokee man giving me free tobacco and telling me it would heal my sore throat.
Then I open up LJ and find that one of my friends is on a smoking fast. Huh. I guess you sent those over to me, didn't you? LOL! | | comments: 1 Person really likes me! or Do you like me? |
| http://www.legacy.com/TriCities/Obituaries.asp?Page=Notice&PersonID=128608866
My sincere condolences to the family of Darrel "Shifty" Powers, who passed away on the 17th. His funeral was this morning. You can follow the link for the official obituary, but anyone who doesn't have to gets major cool points for remembering him. Here's a hint: I can hardly think it's a coincidence that the History Channel has a marathon of Band of Brothers going all day today.
His daughter lives in my town (Bristol, VA), and his funeral home is just a few miles up the road in Clintwood, VA. He was a local hero, as well as an American hero, and I truly grieve. I've never been this affected by the death of someone I've never met. But I hope everyone in his family knows how much he was appreciated. He was a Great Man.
Godspeed Shifty. Some of your Brothers are already waiting. | | comments: Do you like me? |
| PROMISES, PROMISES: Indian health care needs unmet
AP
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090614/ap_on_go_ot/us_health_care_s_forgotten
This July 2005 photo provided by the Little Light Family shows Ta'shon Rain AP – This July 2005 photo provided by the Little Light Family shows Ta'shon Rain Little Light in Crow Agency, …
* Girl with cancer misdiagnosed as depressed Slideshow:Girl with cancer misdiagnosed as depressed
BY MARY CLARE JALONICK, Associated Press Writer Mary Clare Jalonick, Associated Press Writer – Sun Jun 14, 7:39 pm ET
CROW AGENCY, Mont. – Ta'Shon Rain Little Light, a happy little girl who loved to dance and dress up in traditional American Indian clothes, had stopped eating and walking. She complained constantly to her mother that her stomach hurt.
When Stephanie Little Light took her daughter to the Indian Health Service clinic in this wind-swept and remote corner of Montana, they told her the 5-year-old was depressed.
Ta'Shon's pain rapidly worsened and she visited the clinic about 10 more times over several months before her lung collapsed and she was airlifted to a children's hospital in Denver. There she was diagnosed with terminal cancer, confirming the suspicions of family members.
A few weeks later, a charity sent the whole family to Disney World so Ta'Shon could see Cinderella's Castle, her biggest dream. She never got to see the castle, though. She died in her hotel bed soon after the family arrived in Florida.
"Maybe it would have been treatable," says her great-aunt, Ada White, as she stoically recounts the last few months of Ta'Shon's short life. Stephanie Little Light cries as she recalls how she once forced her daughter to walk when she was in pain because the doctors told her it was all in the little girl's head.
Ta'Shon's story is not unique in the Indian Health Service system, which serves almost 2 million American Indians in 35 states.
On some reservations, the oft-quoted refrain is "don't get sick after June," when the federal dollars run out. It's a sick joke, and a sad one, because it's sometimes true, especially on the poorest reservations where residents cannot afford health insurance. Officials say they have about half of what they need to operate, and patients know they must be dying or about to lose a limb to get serious care.
Wealthier tribes can supplement the federal health service budget with their own money. But poorer tribes, often those on the most remote reservations, far away from city hospitals, are stuck with grossly substandard care. The agency itself describes a "rationed health care system."
The sad fact is an old fact, too.
The U.S. has an obligation, based on a 1787 agreement between tribes and the government, to provide American Indians with free health care on reservations. But that promise has not been kept. About one-third more is spent per capita on health care for felons in federal prison, according to 2005 data from the health service.
In Washington, a few lawmakers have tried to bring attention to the broken system as Congress attempts to improve health care for millions of other Americans. But tightening budgets and the relatively small size of the American Indian population have worked against them.
"It is heartbreaking to imagine that our leaders in Washington do not care, so I must believe that they do not know," Joe Garcia, president of the National Congress of American Indians, said in his annual state of Indian nations' address in February.
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When it comes to health and disease in Indian country, the statistics are staggering.
American Indians have an infant death rate that is 40 percent higher than the rate for whites. They are twice as likely to die from diabetes, 60 percent more likely to have a stroke, 30 percent more likely to have high blood pressure and 20 percent more likely to have heart disease.
American Indians have disproportionately high death rates from unintentional injuries and suicide, and a high prevalence of risk factors for obesity, substance abuse, sudden infant death syndrome, teenage pregnancy, liver disease and hepatitis.
While campaigning on Indian reservations, presidential candidate Barack Obama cited this statistic: After Haiti, men on the impoverished Pine Ridge and Rosebud Reservations in South Dakota have the lowest life expectancy in the Western Hemisphere.
Those on reservations qualify for Medicare and Medicaid coverage. But a report by the Government Accountability Office last year found that many American Indians have not applied for those programs because of lack of access to the sign-up process; they often live far away or lack computers. The report said that some do not sign up because they believe the government already has a duty to provide them with health care.
The office of minority health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the Indian Health Service, notes on its Web site that American Indians "frequently contend with issues that prevent them from receiving quality medical care. These issues include cultural barriers, geographic isolation, inadequate sewage disposal and low income."
Indeed, Indian health clinics often are ill-equipped to deal with such high rates of disease, and poor clinics do not have enough money to focus on preventive care. The main problem is a lack of federal money. American Indian programs are not a priority for Congress, which provided the health service with $3.6 billion this budget year.
Officials at the health service say they can't legally comment on specific cases such as Ta'Shon's. But they say they are doing the best they can with the money they have — about 54 cents on the dollar they need.
One of the main problems is that many clinics must "buy" health care from larger medical facilities outside the health service because the clinics are not equipped to handle more serious medical conditions. The money that Congress provides for those contract health care services is rarely sufficient, forcing many clinics to make "life or limb" decisions that leave lower-priority patients out in the cold.
"The picture is much bigger than what the Indian Health Service can do," says Doni Wilder, an official at the agency's headquarters in Rockville, Md., and the former director of the agency's Northwestern region. "Doctors every day in our organization are making decisions about people not getting cataracts removed, gall bladders fixed."
On the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota, Indian Health Service staff say they are trying to improve conditions. They point out recent improvements to their clinic, including a new ambulance bay. But in interviews on the reservation, residents were eager to share stories about substandard care.
Rhonda Sandland says she couldn't get help for her advanced frostbite until she threatened to kill herself because of the pain — several months after her first appointment. She says she was exposed to temperatures at more than 50 below, and her hands turned purple. She eventually couldn't dress herself, she says, and she visited the clinic over and over again, sometimes in tears.
"They still wouldn't help with the pain so I just told them that I had a plan," she said. "I was going to sleep in my car in the garage."
She says the clinic then decided to remove five of her fingers, but a visiting doctor from Bismarck, N.D., intervened, giving her drugs instead. She says she eventually lost the tops of her fingers and the top layer of skin.
The same clinic failed to diagnose Victor Brave Thunder with congestive heart failure, giving him Tylenol and cough syrup when he told a doctor he was uncomfortable and had not slept for several days. He eventually went to a hospital in Bismarck, which immediately admitted him. But he had permanent damage to his heart, which he attributed to delays in treatment. Brave Thunder, 54, died in April while waiting for a heart transplant.
"You can talk to anyone on the reservation and they all have a story," says Tracey Castaway, whose sister, Marcella Buckley, said she was in $40,000 of debt because of treatment for stomach cancer.
Buckley says she visited the clinic for four years with stomach pains and was given a variety of diagnoses, including the possibility of a tapeworm and stress-related stomachaches. She was eventually told she had Stage 4 cancer that had spread throughout her body.
Ron His Horse is Thunder, chairman of the Standing Rock tribe, says his remote reservation on the border between North Dakota and South Dakota can't attract or maintain doctors who know what they are doing. Instead, he says, "We get old doctors that no one else wants or new doctors who need to be trained."
His Horse is Thunder often travels to Washington to lobby for more money and attention, but he acknowledges that improvements are tough to come by.
"We are not one congruent voting bloc in any one state or area," he said. "So we don't have the political clout."
___
On another reservation 200 miles north of Standing Rock, Ardel Baker, a member of North Dakota's Three Affiliated Tribes, knows all too well the truth behind the joke about money running out.
Baker went to her local clinic with severe chest pains and was sent by ambulance to a hospital more than an hour away. It wasn't until she got there that she noticed she had a note attached to her, written on U.S. Department of Health and Human Services letterhead.
"Understand that Priority 1 care cannot be paid for at this time due to funding issues," the letter read. "A formal denial letter has been issued."
She lived, but she says she later received a bill for more than $5,000.
"That really epitomizes the conflict that we have," says Robert McSwain, deputy director of the Indian Health Service. "We have to move the patient out, it's an emergency. We need to get them care."
It was too late for Harriet Archambault, according to the chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, Democratic Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, who has told her story more than once in the Senate.
Dorgan says Archambault died in 2007 after her medicine for hypertension ran out and she couldn't get an appointment to refill it at the nearest clinic, 18 miles away. She drove to the clinic five times and failed to get an appointment before she died.
Dorgan's swath of the country is the hardest hit in terms of Indian health care. Many reservations there are poor, isolated, devoid of economic development opportunities and subject to long, harsh winters — making it harder for the health service to recruit doctors to practice there.
While the agency overall has an 18 percent vacancy rate for doctors, that rate jumps to 38 percent for the region that includes the Dakotas. That region also has a 29 percent vacancy rate for dentists, and officials and patients report there is almost no preventive dental care. Routine procedures such as root canals are rarely seen here. If there's a problem with a tooth, it is simply pulled.
Dorgan has led efforts in Congress to bring attention to the issue. After many years of talking to frustrated patients at home in North Dakota, he says he believes the problems are systemic within the embattled agency: incompetent staffers are transferred instead of fired; there are few staff to handle complaints; and, in some cases, he says, there is a culture of intimidation within field offices charged with overseeing individual clinics.
The senator has also probed waste at the agency.
A 2008 GAO report, along with a follow-up report this year, accused the Indian Health Service of losing almost $20 million in equipment, including vehicles, X-ray and ultrasound equipment and numerous laptops. The agency says some of the items were later found.
Dorgan persuaded Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to consider an American Indian health improvement bill last year, and the bill passed in the Senate. It would have directed Congress to provide about $35 billion for health programs over the next 10 years, including better access to health care services, screening and mental health programs. A similar bill died in the House, though, after it became entangled in an abortion dispute.
The growing political clout of some remote reservations may bring some attention to health care woes. Last year's Democratic presidential primary played out in part in the Dakotas and Montana, where both Obama and Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton became the first presidential candidates to aggressively campaign on American Indian reservations there. Both politicians promised better health care.
Obama's budget for 2010 includes an increase of $454 million, or about 13 percent, over this year. Also, the stimulus bill he signed this year provided for construction and improvements to clinics.
___
Back in Montana, Ta'Shon's parents are doing what they can to bring awareness to the issue. They have prepared a slideshow with pictures of her brief life; she is seen dressed up in traditional regalia she wore for dance competitions with a bright smile on her face. Family members approached Dorgan at a Senate field hearing on American Indian health care after her death in 2006, hoping to get the little girl's story out.
"She was a gift, so bright and comforting," says Ada White of her niece, whom she calls her granddaughter according to Crow tradition. "I figure she was brought here for a reason."
Nearby, the clinic on the Crow reservation seems mostly empty, aside from the crowded waiting room. The hospital is down several doctors, a shortage that management attributes recruitment difficulties and the remote location.
Diane Wetsit, a clinical coordinator, said she finds it difficult to think about the congressional bailout for Wall Street.
"I have a hard time with that when I walk down the hallway and see what happens here," she says. | | comments: 3 People really like me! or Do you like me? |
| We've had some odd weather here lately. Every day this week there's been a thunder storm, with tornado warnings and hail.
At least I don't have to worry about whether my mom is remembering to water the vegetable garden. | | comments: 2 People really like me! or Do you like me? |
| Whoa. Look at this. Where am I? Oh! Right! Livejournal! Wow. Well. What am I supposed to do with this again? Hmmm.
Sorry I've been absent. I've just been very creatively and emotionally numb, what with the soul sucking job and all. There is a slim, very slim possibility that that might change, but it will take an act of Congress and a few thousand Hail Mary's. Almost literally. There is a job at the museum that I highly qualify for, and that is being vacated in the next few weeks, however ETSU in all it's budgetary wisdom has decided not to renew the position. Everyone at the museum knows that there is no way that they can function without this position, and so the Museum Director is going to apply again for the funds to hire for it. She's practically told me that I'll be the first to know if she's succssful, but that could be several weeks, or months, down the road.
The position is "Educational Coordinator." Essentially, this person runs all the Paleocamps, Scout camps, kids days, Holiday parties for the public, and school group tours. This is so totally up my alley it isn't even funny. So, I'm totally praying every night and day that Jeanne manages to talk some sense into the budge committee at the school.
In the meantime, here's what I've been reading to stave off boredom and high blood pressure while I'm at my crappy call center job:
34) Devil in the Mountain by Simon Lamb - 312 pages. The geology behind the Andes and the Altiplano, a huge plateau feature, more or less perfectly flat, in the middle of the mountains. Essentially, the Andes are the results of two "sister" mountain ranges being pushed up parallel to each other, and then running together, and the valley between them filling up with sediment running off of each one, creating a very high plain. B+
35) The Practical Paleontologist by Steve Parker - A. I was fully aware of everything touched on in this book, but it's a good little compilation of instructions and tips anyway. 153 pages.
36) The Secret Knowledge of Water - A+ Mostly about finding water in the dryest places of the desert, but very poetic. This man's whole life is water, and he writes that way. 217 pages
37) Buried treasures of the Appalachians by W.C. Jameson - A+ 205 pages. Some of those places weren't too far away, but I doubt anyone I know would be willing to go out on a camping trip with a metal detector on the basis of a folk tale.
38) Rising From the Plains by John McPhee - 214 pages. The story of the rising of the Wyoming Mountain Ranges, and also the story of David Love, Wyoming's state geologist. He grew up riding the ranges on his fathers ranch, and learned Geology from looking at the rocks and figuring out how and why for himself. Fascinating landscape, and a fascinating man. A+
39) Extreme Dinosaurs - 201 pages - Basically, a list of all the neat dinosaurs. The biggest, smallest, first, last, oldest, bizarre, etc. A.
40) Creative Decision Making by H.B and Carol Gelatt. - 110 pages - Actually, this was a "class" that I took at work, as part of our "Professional Development" but what it actually is is a reward for being good, and you get time off the phones. It was just alright. Honestly, I don't remember any of it because it was all managerial balloon juice.
41) Captured by the Indians: 15 First hand Accounts, 1750-1870. B. The title says it all, really. The stories run from "I was a prisoner of war after a battle, and escaped" to "I was kidnapped as a child and raised as a Shawnee." 369 pages.
42) Yellowstone to Yukon by Douglas Chadwick - B+ 193 pages, but about a third were just pictures. Beautiful, heart rending, soul searing pictures of landscapes I can only dream about visiting, but still.
43) Yellowstone Country: The Enduring Wonder by Seymour L. Fishbein - A. 195 pages. Plenty of beautiful pictures, and the book was divided into seasons, so you get a feeling of the cycle of nature and Park Serivce duties. God Damn. I so want to go see Yellowstone. I should try to plan a trip next summer.
44) Dakotas: Where the West Begins by John Thompson - 184 pages. A. A sort of overview of the Dakotas west of the Missouri, the parks, reservations, famous people, and geology.
45) Pirates, Ghosts, and Costal Lore: The Best of Judge Whedbee - B+ 157 pages
46) Elizabeth: The Struggle for the Throne - A+ 323 pages.
47) Hey Ranger! - A - A collection of stories from a 20 year career in the National Parks Service. Really, really funny, mostly. A lady calls in to try to arrange a free concert on the National Mall in Washington DC, and is asked if she has a place in mind. "Oh, anywhere between the food court and Macy's would be fine." 217 pages.
48) The Granny Curse - Local folklore from East Tennessee and South-west Virginia. A+ for being completely comprised of stories I had never read before. 146 pages
49) World Famous Mistresses by C. E. Maine - From Cleopatra to Eva Braun (who it seems to me was a few IQ points away from clinically retarded). B. 234 pages
50) Lake Hole Cave, Archaeology in Johnson County, TN. - the story of a looted site just a few miles away from here, in the Cherokee National Forest. Unfortunately, because it had been looted so thoroughly there was very little that could be told about the site, except that it was Pre-Cherokee, and probably dated to around 200 BC. 43 pages.
51) Overmountain Victory Trail, Then and Now - The story of the Overmountain Men's march set side by side with the story of the re-enactors as the walk it for the two weeks every year. A+ 169 pages. I had an ancestor who was an Overmountain Man, it's kind of a big thing in this area.
3458 for this batch, 11274 for the year. | | comments: Do you like me? |
| They brought back reading at work, so the public library has been my best friend.
19) Ancient Healing Secrets by Dian Dincin Buchman - 172 pages. This ranged from the probably helpful (herbs healthful foods) to the probably not so helpful (Have a headache? Massage your pinky! We swear!) B+
20) The Best Halloween Ever by Barbara Robinson - 117 pages. This book suffered from not being long enough. I totally wished it was longer. Although, it did make me sort of depressed afterward due to the fact that I 1) miss being a teacher and 2) really want kids. A.
21) Napoleon on the Art of War by Jay Luvaas - 169 pages. It was compiled by Mr. Luvaas from Napoleons letters and notes, and was basically his way of running his army. It was good, but was quite seventeenth century centric, which, I suppose, is to be expected. B.
Does my National Geographic Subscription count? No? Oh. Well...
22) Daily Life in the time of Homer by Emile Mireaux - 259 pages B+ It might have been better, but it felt, well... weird. I think it was the translator, as it was originally written in French. I almost didn't read it all the way thru due to sentences like this one: "The notion of space does not occur in Homer and his contemporaries, for whom extension was the only possible sort of being. Thus the world of Homer is no in space; what we call space today is identified with what Homer thought of as extension. For Homer there was no infinity, there was only the incomplete." I had to read that three times to understand it.
23) The Foxfire Book - the first one. 380 pages I already had it, from my great grandmother, but her copy was so worn out, it was held together with duct tape, so I just put it away safely, and didn't read it. I finally got a copy, and discovered why it was so loved: Quilting patterns. Mimi was an avid quilter, there's no telling how many she made, and I recognized some of the patterns as one's she used. I'm sure she used them all at least once.
There was also a great article on planting by the signs. I asked my mom's parents if they ever did that. Papaw said he never saw any benefit to it, but his mom did it religiously. And if Vergie Hale does it religiously, you better believe it!
24) The Melungeons by Bonnie Ball - B for it's time, but a C - now. It's about fifteen years out of date. Not really Ball's fault, but still. 99 pages.
25) All the Presidents Children by Doug Wead - A+ This is newer, all the way up to Barbara and Jenna Bush. It covers step children and adopted children and even some grand children, and also how being the child of a President affected their own careers. It's rather sad that no matter what some of them accomplished, they were considered failures because they didn't go as far as their father, some of them that were considered "ordinary" were far from it! 365 pages
26) The Bone Hunters by Harry Moore - A- I should've read this ages ago, since it's the story of how the Gray Fossil Site was found, I just never got around to it. It gave me a little more info, and a map I'd never seen showing the shape and extent of the fossil deposit. Other than that, it was kind of irritating to read because I knew more than he did. Again, not his fault. it was written in 2002, published in 2004. I'm reading it with 2009 information available. His flora and fauna list is tiny! 95 pages.
27) The Last Man - by Sawyer, et. al. - A textbook on human ancestors and fossil apes. It was very readable, and each fossil description was divided into sections for Climate, Morphology, Animals it lived alongside, and History of the fossil (It was found by so and so, etc). Bonus points for being new enough to include Homo Floresiensis! A+ 250 pages
28) Tyrannosaurus Sue by Steve Fiffer - B+ An excellent retelling of the finding of the fossil, and the law suits that followed, with a little too much information about history of fossil hunting in general. I'm not sure how the famous fossil hunters from the 1900's have anything to do with Sue. 236 pages.
29) Darkly Dreaming Dexter - A+ I liked the TV series on Showtime so much, I downloaded the books on eBook. Just a quick idea of what they're about: Dexter is a blood spatter analyst for the Miami Metro PD, but come night time, he's a serial killer who only kills other serial killers. Totally. Awesome. The first season was based on the first book. 229 pages
30) Dearly Devoted Dexter - A - Not the second season, like I expected. Still awesome. 246 pages
31) Dexter in the Dark - B+ This one was a little weird, and totally not the pattern I expected. It had some very dark elements (well, darker than the others). And a very odd theory on the psychology of serial killers. 310 pages
32) Art of War - A+, as always. I think that's like, the eighth time I've read it. 76 pages. (eBook, as well.)
33) Mammoth: The Resurrection of an Ice Age Giant by Richard Stone - it's about finding frozen mammoths and defrosting them, maybe cloning them, if possible, but it doesn't seem to be. A. 215 pages.
3119 pages for April, 7816 for the year. | | comments: 1 Person really likes me! or Do you like me? |
| When you walk into the main exhibit at the Museum, there is a short movie about the discovery of the site. Little did I know, it's on YouTube! Now, keep in mind, it's really out of date. The pit that everyone's digging in is three times that size now, and all the drawings are from the actual art on the museum wall.
The lab shown is on ETSU campus, the museum hadn't been built yet. At the five minute mark, the video ends, and one of the office ladies, Patricia starts talking. Actually, she's the curator. It has a very good view of the casts in the main exhibit. Also, the tapir count is up to 80-100.
The dig box is filled with tiny recycled tire pieces. The "fossil" the kid is putting together is a little puzzle, there is a Saber Tooth Cat leg bone, an Alligator Skull, and a Rhino foot. Honeybear can do all three, but the Rhino foot gives me trouble.
The guy in the pit is Brian. Test Pit II is also called the Rhino pit, or the Big Pit. It's the one that it's the beginning of the video. Danny is our Site Manager, his job description is "knowing where the dirt is." Meagan is one of our grad students/volunteers, and the guy sitting next to her is Shawn, her boyfriend. Brian and Shawn are our Preprators, also called "The lab guys."
And there is now enough evidence to say there's only once species of Panda, it was a young one they found with un-erupted molars. | | comments: Do you like me? |
| 15) Viking Age Iceland by Jesse Byock 353 pages. A. I had never realized that Iceland was the only European country to never have a king! They weren't quite democratic, but they definitely did not have one big man telling everyone else what to do. All the little local chiefs got together at a yearly meeting called the Althing, and legislated from there.
16) Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga by Fitzhugh, Ward, et al. 400 pages. B+ It was a good jumping off point.
17) The Horizon Concise History of Scandinavia by Ewan Butler. 215 pages. C It was too concise. So concise as to be useless. I mean really, 215 pages, for the history of four countries that spans back at least 2000 years?
18) Dark River by Erin Hunter A. Warrior Book. 200 pages at least, but I forgot to check.
1168 pages, plus 1132 from last post = 2300 pages for March.
4697 pages and 18 books for the year, going into April. | | comments: Do you like me? |
| Anna and I got to dig in the pit yesterday, which wasn't as much fun as you'd expect. We weren't down on our hands and knees with a trowel and a brush gently scraping away the soil from a lovely fossil. We were shoveling piles and piles of wet clay out of the way to get down to the point where one of the doctors could gently scrape away the soil from a lovely fossil.
When the site was first found, road crews ran across an elephant pelvis. The University of Tennessee paleontology chair was sent up to see what was going on, and under his direction, they dug two test pits. Those test pits ended up being pretty deep, almost six feet for one of them. Then, when the governor, Don Sundquist gave the land to ETSU, TDOT (the Tennessee Department of Transportation) refilled those pits, in the process filling it with multiple layers of soil and rock. For most of the site, the fossil layer is clear, the red oxidized clay on top, the black fossil layer on the bottom. In the elephant pit, everything is mixed up.
'
This means that we have to find what's left of the original fossil bed, and we have to dig up the mixed soil and cart it away. We thought we'd found it for about ten minutes yesterday, until we pulled up one last shovel full of black clay, showing more red underneath. It looked as if TDOT had flipped the soil, putting the red layer on the bottom. We only had another five feet before we hit the water table. In the end, there wasn't much more we could do until the pile of slag was moved, and we could start digging under it. The only other place to dig was up the hill, but because the pile was so big, there wouldn't have been a place to put the dirt that we'd moved out of the way.
What we're looking for is the elephant, species as yet unknown for sure, presumed to be Gomphothere due to time period and location. Possibly another, but most likely a Shovel Tusked elephant.
As Anna was digging last Tuesday, they came across some detritus left by TDOT, several big wooden sticks. Someone pulled them up the hill and stuck them in the ground, along with some very large stones. They had to be piled somewhat artistically so that they wouldn't roll down the hill and hit someone, and the sticks wee stuck in the ground beside them.
"Hey guys, look! We have a little shrine now."
"Who's it for?" Anna asked.
Some wiseacre, no one remembers who, said "The elephant god!" Yuk yuk yuk.
When Anna and I came back yesterday, I noticed some Mardi-Gras beads hung on the rocks. "What are the beads for?" I asked.
Wayne, one of the volunteers said "Oh. That's our shrine to the elephant god."
"Ganesh?" I asked.
"Whatever his name is."
Then Brian, one of the lab guys said. "Oh, yeah! I guess we need a picture." Then we all giggled.
When Anna and I took our lunch break, we went on down to the front desk, and I had an idea. "Anna! Let's print out a picture of Ganesh!" So we did. Then we went on out to the site, and found we had no way to attach it to the stones of the shrine. Plus, it had been threatening to rain all day.
Wayne laughed at us. "I think we can make a sacrifice of on of our gallon fossil bags!" So we put the picture into the bag, sealed it up, and when one of us went back in, we got a thumb tack from the office, and attached the bag to one of the sticks, laying another stick diagonally across to keep the wind from whipping the bag around. In the small shelter of the hillside, it didn't move all day, even though we had to put the beads back up a couple times.
Around three, I had to go back in and watch the desk, while the others kept digging. Brian liked the picture on the shrine. "Maybe we should sacrifice something?"
Sean, the preparator said "Ganesh wants blood?"
"No. He wants cupcakes!" This was a request for Anna, who, since she can't eat sugar anymore due to health reasons, has made cupcakes almost every week and left them in the break room for every one else. She didn't have time this week.
Meanwhile, I was down at the front desk thinking "I know absolutely nothing about Ganesh." So, a little research turned up that he is:
1)The Remover of Obstacles. Fitting, as we need to remove about four to five feet of overburden before we can even touch the elephant, and hopefully get to his front half.
2)The Patron of Wisdom and Education. Also fitting for a museum.
3)He does indeed like sweets more than anything.
I have to say, this is the biggest case of synchronicity I've EVER seen in my life. To take a week and go from some rocks piled in such a way so that they won't roll downhill, to a full fledged mini-shrine (albeit for a joke) with sacrifices of beads and a bag to a deity, accidentally tailor made for the needs of this project.
Later, after we'd stopped digging, Ronnie was able to take a tour group past the Elephant Pit. It was only one guy, but definitely noticed the shrine, even though it's nearly thirty feet from the path.
"What's that?"
Ronnie said he didn't know what to say. "Oh, that's just a little joke. It's a shrine to the elephant god, since this is the elephant pit." The guy laughed. And we all laughed when we thought about the first church group to wander by. "They're all HEATHENS down there!" (Although why church groups go to a fossil museum is beyond us all, they only try to tell us we're devil worshipers for believing in evolution.) | | comments: 7 People really like me! or Do you like me? |
| I went to see a play yesterday, ad the local community theater. It was directed by one of the guys at work, who is generally witty and sharp himself, so I was excited. The play itself, Trivial Pursuits, was just okay, not exactly Broadway material. It was about a community theater trying to choose it's next play. One of the actors was an old high school teacher of mine, also the girls basketball coach. He played a homosexual, er... Okay, a completely stereotypical flaming homosexual, but it was pretty funny.
Actually, as the play went on, it stopped being stereotypical and began to be JD, one of my high school friends who'd had this teacher for many classes, and who was flamboyantly gay. I don't know that it was on purpose, or if I just never noticed how much JD and the Coach had in common to begin with.
The play ended with the gay character being given the lead in Sweet Charity. Coach came out in drag; fishnets, a slinky black number, a curly wig, and a pink boa. Doug and I stared in shock. The only thing I could say was "Coach has nice legs." Then we totally began to giggle.
Another of the actors was the sister of one of my students during student teaching. She did pretty well, but it was a small part. It kinda made me want to get into the community theatre, but I don't know where I'd find the time. Maybe when I retire, and also get involved in DAR and spend more time at the museum! Well, maybe not.
Anyway, dig season started, and Anna got to spend all day out digging last Tuesday. All the older guys told her she handles a shovel really well.
"My Papaw taught me."
"Well, thanks Papaw! You can come out here any time!"
Save for the Brian and Sean, the two paid lab guys, the entire crew was Volunteer. This summer, with no student workers, they're going to try to depend more and more on volunteers.
The Doctors showed up, Dr. Wallace and Dr. Schubert. They jokingly asked what they were doing, digging up the yard like this? And when no one else had a snappy answer, Anna said "We're looking for the Gompthosaurus!" (They were looking for the elephant, which is a gomptohere.)
Dr. Schubert said "You do know that Saurus means lizard, right?"
Anna said "Oh. Right!" and giggled. "I guess the elephant and the t-rex had a baby." Dr. Schubert gave her an odd look and she said "This is why I'm not allowed to give tours." Everyone got a big giggle out of that one. | | comments: Do you like me? |
| 11) Sneakiest Uses for Everyday Things - B+ Again, sneaky it is, convenient it's not. I'm sure the prisoners in that German WWII prison were brilliantly planning and building that air plane to escape, but it's not like I'm going to NEED those plans. 159 pages.
12) Foxfire Six - Shoemaking, wooden locks, 100 toys and games, and a water powered sawmill. A+. 485 pages.
13) Noah's Flood by William ryan and Walter Pitman - About the catastrophic flooding of the Black Sea basin and the people's that it displaced. How it happened, why it happened, and who it probably happened too. Very fascinating. It was published in 1999, so I'm going to have to look into any new developments in the past decade. A+ 259 pages
14) Lost Cities and Forgotten Tribes - a collection of archaeological mysteries from the 60's. As such, many of them are not half as mysterious now-a-days. For example, we can read the Mayan writing now. Still, not a bad time waster while I'm sitting around bored at work. 229 pages.
1132 pages so far for March, 3529 for the year.
Work has been slow. My employer has laid off almost 8,000 employees this quarter, but luckily my department is considered "specialty trained" and so we're not affected.
Also, the dig season began yesterday at the museum, so that's exciting. More updates on that, plus an unrelated mega post that I'm planning when a certain current situation is over. It's a long, awful story. And I know it sounds bad, but I'm hoping it ends with someone losing their job over it, because the asshole deserves it, and not just on my account. As bad as I've had it, I bet there's been others. As soon as it's resolved, I'll explain the whole thing. | | comments: Do you like me? |
| 6) Two Lives of Charlemagne - A Penguin book, the two lives in question are those of Einhard and Notker the Stammerer. Notker is by far the more interesting story teller. B, 172 pages.
7)Sneaky Uses for Everyday Things - "Turn a penny into a radio! Make a flood alarm with an aspirin! Change milk into plastic!" Sneaky, yes. Convienient, no. B. 151 pages.
8)Sneakier Uses for Everyday Things - More of the same. B. 133 pages.
9) The Trojan War: A New History by Barry Strauss - An exploration of the myth in search of the realities, compared with other, better documented historical events from the same time period, mostly concerning Egyptians, Sumerians and Hittites. Compelling. A+ 189 pages.
10) I'm Just Here for the Food by Alton Brown - This is not a book you can sit down and read, like a novel. You have to take your time, appreciate the science, mull over the recipes. This is as much a How To Cook, as just a collection of recipes. It really does help to know the science behind cooking, I've learned to sear things to perfection. A+ 291 pages.
Five books for February.
936 pages for February, 2397 pages for 2009. | | comments: 1 Person really likes me! or Do you like me? |
| I really hate my job. especially since I appear to be in the early stages of carpal tunnel. Ouch. So that's why I've been quiet, I've been trying to avoid the keyboard when I'm not at work.
I miss you all! | | comments: Do you like me? |
| Reading was cut back at work for two reasons: One, there wasn't much time at work. The company I work for has recently laid off about 8,000 employees, and is apparently letting the rest of them go home an hour or two early every day. Luckily, I just get to go home early. Second, there's no reading at work anymore, i guess because they're hoping this will bring stock prices up and make us better employees. So, now we get to sit and stare at each other until they tell us there isn't anything for us to do and make us go home.
Anyway, this year, instead of only counting the books I read, I'm also going to count the pages. This allows me to include
1) The Atlantis Blueprint by Colin Wilson and Rand Flem-Ath - Jesus H. Christ on a pogo stick singing the Star Spangled Banner in Latin. What a couple of crack pots. I stopped reading a page 137, barely halfway through..
2) Haunted US Battlefields by Mary Beth Crain - Very enjoyable. It only increased my desire to see the fields of Little Bighorn/Greasy Grass, and Kings Mountain. 195 pages, A
3) Phantom Felines by Gerina Dunwich - Or, as my husband called it, "Things that go jingle in the night." Less emphasis on the ghost stories, and more of a dead pet love fest, everything from horses to hamsters. Let me paraphrase every story in this book: "I had this wonderful [pet] named [name], who lived with me for all of his/her life. Finally, she/he became very ill with [disease], and we had to make the painful decision to put him/her down. I cried for weeks. Shortly after he/she died, he/she began appearing in his favorite sleeping spot/on my pillow at night/right at the door waiting when I got home. This left me so glad that my beloved [pet] is happy on the other side." 175 pages, B.
4) People of the Weeping Eye by W. Michael and Kathleen O'Neal Gear - A+ as always. I'm eagerly awaiting the next one, as this is the first of their books that is actually continued in the next book! 587 pages.
5) Death in Grand Canyon by Michael P. Ghiglieri and Thomas. M. Myers - My sister brought this back for me when she went to Arizona, and saw the Grand Canyon, and oh, was I jealous. But she knows me, and I very much enjoyed this book, the story of everyone who's ever died, why, and how, in the Grand Canyon. You can fall from the rim, fall from inside the canyon, get lost and die of starvation/thirst/exposure, you can drown in the river, you can die in a plane crash while trying to get a good look of the canyon from the air, you can be murdered (though it's rare), and you can commit suicide (also more rare.) A+ 367 pages.
Five books, 1,461 pages. | | comments: 4 People really like me! or Do you like me? |
| | Tags: | sisters | | Time: | 01:07 pm | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/niaha/kitty/anksadg.gif) gloomy |
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| I had a memory this morning I could've done without.
When Anna and I were little, we decided to have an art contest, mixed media. Read: craysons, markers, colored pencils, stamps, stencils, water colors, chalk, and anything else that was laying around the house that a five and a seven year old could use. When it was done, we needed a judge, so we went to ask our mother. I had no illusions, Anna was always a better artist than I was. But Mama refused to judge. "They're both equally beautiful." What she was really saying was "I love you both equally." Which we knew, and which annoyed us, because we knew it, and it wasn't what we were asking. We were asking whose picture was better.
Fast forward until Caitlyn was ten, and just learning how to cook simple things. I had my first job, and so a lot of the meals that we cooked then were fast and simple so that I could eat and go. Even though my mom's a diabetic, we always have boxed brownies around even today, but then we ate those things every two days or so. Usually I baked them, but she did it that night while I was at work. I came home to nice hot brownies, which is always nice. Until she said "Mama, whose brownies are better, mine or Emily's?"
"You make very good brownies. I think they are better than Emily's."
I guess she must crack that egg, and lovingly stir in the vegetable oil. Fucked if I knew what made them better.
So, lesson learned: My mother loved Anna and I equally, but she loved Caitlyn more. | | comments: 1 Person really likes me! or Do you like me? |
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Four Minutes of Science, and Ten Minutes of Me Hurting Myself
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