Birthday Palooza

Back in Boston. And in the middle of birthday-palooza. Happy greetings go out to Paula and Tina for September birthdays, and then to Auden and Johanna for next weekbirthdays and onward to Janet, Billy and Kathleen. I'm sure I'm missing someone but it's hard to keep track. And a couple of anniversaries, including one memorable one in Lisbon with an equally memorable side-trip afterwards. That's a super fun memory.

It's also hard to keep track of family movements. Melodie and Jeff went back to Minnesota, and judging from the Facebook photos, I'm assuming it was for a wedding. Annie and Sankar are in a place called Gurukula Sanctuary in Kerala that looks very idyllic. They're taking another class, this time on conservation. Andrew Siddons was in the Big Apple for a bachelor party, I believe.  Everett and Tina went to the Buffalo zoo. Mary went to Rhode Island for a quick visit with Marj and Lew who then came up to Pittsfield for the weekend. Doesn't anyone stay home?

I managed the week here by myself. It was easy but a little boring. Over the weekend, though, the side effects of the radiation kicked in, and I find myself in a new space. While the last two weeks here have been full of activities exploring Boston, it looks like the next few months will be more of the staying close to home variety. In fact, today, we had arranged with Sooz Pratt to do a day trip to the Vineyard to see her, Fernando and Janie. I had to call it off though.

I got projects though to get me through this homebody stretch. One involves John Shields. Our great grandfather from Oklahoma, or should I say Iowa, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Kansas. One little tidbit to share: Mom/Grandma used to talk about his being involved with the capture of Dalton gang. Our cousin Jay Dean even told me that he believes he was a Pinkerton agent at some point. I've found no evidence of that yet, in all my reading and scouring of obituaries and other Ancestry.com hints. Just last week I came upon the Oklahoma Historical Society, and I emailed them with a query. After a couple of days, I assumed my message went into the folder labeled "I'm not going to do his work."  But guess what? I opened my email today and found a response which read in part, "We do have a 4 vol set of books with bios of Marshals and Deputies in Indian Terr. I looked for John Shields and he was not in there…. Also looked in the Gateway to Oklahoma History (their database) for him. Got 72 hits in Logan County.  It looked like he was in real estate, so he was in the paper a lot." I started going through them, and they're not all him, but I did find one newspaper item from 1900 connected to the deed that hangs on my wall, and maybe yours too. So, I'm on a trail, this time not of Herman Melville, but of John Shields, "in real estate."

The news from London appears to be Lake Woebegone good stuff. The young ones are settling in to their new schools, which appear to be enjoying little Yanks in their ranks. Here's one – Thomas, all of 8 years old, has started playing rugby. That was a turn-around- and-run-away kind of sport for me. But he's enjoying it, or maybe he's enjoying the post-practice meal afterwards (see the photo).  By the way, have I written that Chicago Daniel will be London Daniel for several months for a class? He's getting excited and his cousins are too. He's leaving in October and will be there over Christmas and into the new year.

I close on a sad note. I didn't mention one other anniversary above. It was John and Marilyn's 63^rd wedding anniversary.

Love from home away from home.