MM's - 4.29.2019 - Related, or not related. That is the question.

Several years ago I spit in a test tube and sent it off to Ancestry.com to run a DNA check and tell me who my ancestors were. Or, at least, where they came from. I did this before it became known that these DNA tests could identify you as the scoff-law who did not come to a complete stop at a stop sign on the corner of N10th and Willis, back in 1965. But what's done is done. I took the test.

And Ancestry.com said I was (surprise) descended from folks from England and Ireland, with a few other tribes mixed in, which were something of a surprise. Specifically, they said my Ethnicity was made up of the following estimates:

Great Britain 46%
Ireland/Scotland/Wales 21% 
Scandinavia 14% 
Europe West 12% 
Iberian Peninsula 3% 
Europe East 2%
Finland/Northwest Russia 1%

So, small as the percentages were, it was surprising to see Scandinavia, the Iberian Peninsula and Northwest Russia in the mix.

So, a few days ago I got an email from Ancestry.com saying that my "distribution was now more precise." They went on to say, "Your DNA doesn’t change, but the science behind it does. Using our latest research, Ancestry implements regular ethnicity updates to keep your results as precise as possible." I'm not exactly sure what that means, but I sort of think that it says "Earlier, we took a SWAG estimate, but we've sort of figured out what we are doing, so this one is a little closer to the Right Stuff.

And the new Ethnicity Estimate listing is:

England, Wales & Northwestern Europe: 59%

Ireland & Scotland: 38%

France: 2%

Germanic Europe: 1%

 

No more Scandinavians, Iberians, or Rooskies in the mix. I confess that with today's political climate, that does make me feel a little better - and it does seem to be a better fit for the actual ancestors that I know about.

 

Frankly, I'm still unsure what it all means, except Ancestry .com says there is a very high chance that I'm closely related to Steve Alfred, Jacob Gann and Chadric Head - along with about 2000 other 2nd, 3rd and 4th cousins,

And I'm pretty sure the statue of limitations has run out on that stop-sign thing, no matter what the DNA evidence says.

MMs - 2.22.2019 - A small mystery

Barb came across this ring the other day - tucked in the back of a drawer. And it is the small mystery that I refer to. Small, in that it won't fit on an adult's finger, and a mystery as to where it came from and what it was doing in her drawer.

I have, in my life, purchased 4 rings. The first was my high school senior ring. Hail to the Buckaroos.

The second was an engagement ring, purchased from Hugh Bowie, a jeweler in Abilene who became a wealthy man selling engagement rings to ACU, HSU and McMurray college swains, in 12 easy payments. I recall that I secreted that ring away inside a can of tennis balls until it was time to present it to the girl I was going to marry. Luckily, none of my roommates were into tennis at the time.

The next two rings were matched wedding bands that Barb and I picked out and purchased from a jewelry store in Port Lavaca. I don't remember the name of the store, or how we paid for them at the time. A quick look at old newspaper records from Calhoun County show only adds from Cantu's Jewelry and Pawn. I don't think that was the place, but hey! We were poor college students at the time.

So, that brings us to the mystery ring. We're pretty sure Barb didn't buy it. Apart from her wedding ring, she's not a ring-wearer. She has an assortment of necklaces that she has acquired; some of her choosing and more than a few as gifts from her Burmese Ladies, who make such as artisans, but no rings.

It has a "Made in China" tab on the bottom of the box, so I'm pretty sure it is not a long-lost ring of great value and will not be listed in the Estate - although, if you look very, very close (and that photo was taken with the assistance of a 10X magnifying glass) there are teeny, tiny bits of gem-like glittery things on this ring. Two in the setting and a number of smaller (if possible) ones on the sides. You never know.

So, if you are a small person who wants a ring with teeny, tiny bits of gem-like glittery things on it, that may, or may not, turn your finger green, come on by.

Monday Meanderings - 4.15.3019

We meandered this week!

Yep. The wildflowers are abundant this year, so we took our triennial trip into the Hill Country to frolic among the flora. Johnson City, Fredricksburg, Willow City Loop and Llano.

Some observations:

It takes a lot of wading through construction and highway congestion to get to the Hill Country these days. Not only the utter chaos of I-35 construction and the crawl through the Y at Oak Hill, the route is just an extension of Austin traffic congestion far into the countryside. Dripping Springs - once a little wide spot on down the road - is now nearly in the Austin city limits.

Fredricksburg continues to have the highest concentration of tourists per square inch than anywhere else in Texas. On a Wednesday. With schools still in session.

The Hill Country should be renamed the Wine Country. Forget Napa Valley - the wineries here are more numerous than tourists. And we lost count of the breweries and distilleries and brew pubs along the route. Producing adult beverages is driving the business boom in these parts.

The wildflowers were beautiful. The right-of-ways were continuously colorful along the entire route. We thought at first that the Willow City Loop was going to disappoint, but about half-way through the drive, swaths of White Prickly Poppy standing tall above fields of Bluebonnets and Paint Brush began to dominate, providing photo opportunities like the one above.

About the only disappointment of the trip was not being able to work out the timing for a stop at Cooper's in Llano, but we did have BBQ in Fredricksburg, so all was not lost.

Monday Meanderings - 4.18.2019

I'm pretty sure that it would be a good idea to go ahead and write my obituary and just leave a few blanks to fill in. And I should make sure that it's written into the will somehow.

Otherwise, that chore falls to the kids to handle, and based on some obits that have passed my way lately, that might not be the best idea, Here's an example of what I'm talking about.
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Tim Schrandt, age 63, of Spillville, IA died on Friday, March 29, 2019 after a short battle with cancer.  A funeral service will be held at 11:00 a.m., Thursday, April 4, 2019 at the St. Wenceslaus Catholic Church in Spillville with Deacon Pat Malanaphy presiding, burial will be in the church cemetery with full military rites.

Tim Schrandt (Lynyrd) made his last inappropriate comment on March 29, 2019. If you are wondering if you may have ever met him, you didn't - because you WOULD remember. For those of you that did meet him, we apologize, as we're sure he probably offended you. He was world renowned for not holding back and telling it like it is.

Tim was born to William (Bill) Schrandt and Mary (Schrandt) Manning on June 11,1955 - 100 years too late. Given Tim's demeanor he would have been the perfect weathered cowboy in the old west or rough and tough pioneer, or maybe he just should have been Amish.

He was a great orator, (not like Shakespeare, but more like Yogi Berra), as he always had something to say, and always had to get in the last word.

He was a challenge to the nuns at St. Wenceslaus school in Spillville, but may have met his match. We’re not saying the nuns won, but they put up a good fight, we mean literally - he got into a fist-a-cuff with a nun. In fairness, she probably started it. You didn't take a swing at Tim and not expect one back.

Tim worked at Camcar/Stanley Black and Decker in Decorah as a tool and die maker for 30 plus years. Tim worked with many friends and “a bunch of morons.” His words, not ours. Well not exactly his, words because that would have included a bunch of swear words.

Tim leaves behind a lot of stuff that his family doesn't know what to do with. So, if you are looking for a Virgin Mary in a bathtub shrine (you Catholics know what we’re talking about) you should wait the appropriate amount of time and get in touch with them.

Tomorrow would be fine.

In addition to his stuff he leaves behind two great boys who he was extremely proud of, Cody (Jenny) Schrandt and Josh (Lydia) Schrandt were the product of his marriage to Crystal Hilmer. He will be missed by his two granddaughters that he adored and taught to cuss, Peyton and MacKenna.
To his siblings amazement he was actually able to snag a good woman, Cheryl Murray, and hold on to her for the past 13 years, and as far as we know restraints were not used.

He will be having a reunion with  his brother Duke, his dad Bill Schrandt, many aunts and uncles and a handful of cousins that passed before him. Tim was in charge of getting the beer and ice for our family reunions, so they will be happy to see him.

Despite his crusty exterior, cutting remarks and stubbornness, there is actual evidence that he was a loving, giving and caring person. That evidence is the deep sorrow and pain in our hearts that his family feels from his passing.

Tim led a good life and had a peaceful death. For the record, he did not lose his battle with cancer - when he died, the cancer died, so technically it was a tie! He was ready to meet his Maker, we're just not sure "The Maker" is ready to meet Tim.

Good luck God!

We are considering establishing a Go-Fund-Me account for G. Heileman Brewing Co., the brewers of Old Style beer, as we anticipate they are about to experience significant hardship as a result of the loss of Tim’s business. Keep them in your thoughts.

Monday Meanderings - 4.1.2019

Here's a blog entry that will be of interest only to myself. Sorry about the rest of you.

I'm currently narrating 2 audiobooks; both are "behind the scenes" books. One is about the development of the the atomic bomb and the role it played in ending WWII. The other is about the Apollo 8 mission to circumnavigate the moon - the first manned spacecraft to leave the "earth-sphere."

 In the first book, I needed to find out how to pronounce the name of one of the physicists working on the Manhattan Project. After a good deal of searching, I found a YouTube program that mentioned him by name - but the reference had nothing to do with his earlier war-time project.

Instead, he was cited as the individual who came up with key evidence that there had been a cataclysmic meteor event eons ago - you know, the one that wiped out the dinosaurs. Okay. My work is done. I know know how to pronounce his name. But the video about the meteor was interesting, and I ended up staying up way past my bed time to watch the whole program.

In the video, after the physicist had posited that a thin, near world-wide layer of a rare element - Iridium - could only have been distributed by the effects of a colossal meteor strike (colossal, as in the size of Mt Everest), it became incumbent on researchers to find the crater that such a strike would leave.

They did locate the crater - which involved most of the Yucatan Peninsula - by looking at the read-outs of petroleum companies, which have scanned much of the globe using instruments on aircraft  that looked for geographic anomalies that suggest the presence of oil.

This instrumentation is a by-product of NASA moon orbits, first used on Apollo 8 (and described in detail in my second book) to measure "mascons" - mass concentrations of meteoric activity on the moon, which skewed NASA's gravitational maps and needed to be identified and measured for later lunar landings.

And to find the crater of the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs in an explosion that made the first atomic bomb seem like a fire cracker.