Monday February 9, 2015

Monday February 9, 2015 Monday morning is still the start of the week even if retired. I was up several minutes before the alarm, 0630. This is a good sign that my body is getting in a Spring mode. I did the at home routine including rowing 12 minutes. No swim today. I decided to only swim on T/TH/SU. I walked to Starbucks. It was cold, 18, but I was dressed for it. The Ukraine and Greece have pushed the Middle East off the front page. I feel uncomfortable with the lack of respect Congress shows for the President and vice versa. Be nice folks! The Powerball lottery is up to $460M so I walked to Meijer’s and bought a ticket. Since I don’t think I will win I stopped at Macatawa Bank to get some walking around money. My fitbit said I walked 5 miles. Nancy had a doctor’s appointment this morning. Everything is ok. I had a quick lunch and then a short nap. We burned out a flood type light in the kitchen so I drove to ACE and got a new one. The new super duper lights are really expensive. I hope they last as long as they claim. Finally, I am looking out the downstairs slider and see we have birds at the feeder. I took about 4 weeks to find it. I also put a mineral block near the bird feeder for the deer. No luck so far. My Apple laptop located downstairs is very slow downloading an app with a lot of graphics like USA Today. On my iPhone it is almost instantaneous. I just checked my iPad and it was much faster than the laptop. I know an Apple computer guru, I will ask him take a look. Family History time; I just found a Christmas letter written by Robert Rayburn around 1979. My GGM Scott was a Rayburn. Robert was my Dad’s second cousin. He graduated from Alpena High in 1925 and graduated from West Point in the early 30s. He was a career Army officer. In 1968 he moved to Ferns, Ireland. He raised jumping horses. He stated he exercised two horses daily. During hunting season he is out with the island hounds two or three times a week. My Dad and Sister spent a month with Robert in Ireland. Missy also visited Robert. Robert provided this piece of information on the Rayburn/Scott family. Dad and Robert’s Great grandfather was born in Edinburgh in 1783. Their GGF was also named Robert. He fought with Wellington. GGF’s name was not Raeburn but Scott. He and the author Sir Walter Scott shared a GGF. My Mother’s family, Hughes, were mercenaries with Wellington in Ireland. The family history said the Hughes were Welsh and after the Wellington caper they stayed in Ireland. They moved to Canada when the Catholics made life difficult for Methodists.