Tuesday report

Today, Emma came at about 8:00a.m., and did everything that's needed in the morning: helping Betsey get dressed, fixing breakfast and taking Betsey to work. We stepped out of our bedroom to say hello, but mainly laid low until everyone had left. I was feeling just tired enough to welcome a quiet morning. I fixed my breakfast and came back to bed, and worked on my "Olga and  Barney" project.

I'm creating a photo album with narrative about my parents' lives. I'm at the stage of collecting photographs of mom and dad from the huge archive I have in iPhoto on my computer. I'm amazed how many I have - about 100 or more - but they are scattered through a total of about 12,000 photos I have on my hard drive. So I'm doing a lot of seeking and dragging. It's so easy to create a hardcover book, though -  you just put the photos into a file, arrange them in the order you want (basically chronologically in this case), click "create" and bingo! You've got a book on your computer. You can then add text, design each page and rearrange the pictures as you wish. When everything is to your liking, you click "buy" and a few days later the actual book shows up in your mailbox (that's the one on your house, not your computer). I've done this twice so far - about Ellen's father and Shirley's parents. It's quite satisfying. And of course, I'm still working on Ellen's father's manuscript project and the 1955 era letters to Katie project. Plenty to keep me occupied. 

Here are a couple of photos that will be in the album:

 

The house my mother was born in, at 36 Steinstrasse, Kaiserslautern, Germany.

Her family lived on the second floor in the back.

Amazingly, the Assel family, who owned the building, were still living there in 

1945 when my father (who was a chaplain in WW 2) visited here right after 

Kaiserslautern was occupied by the Allied armies, and they welcomed him warmly.  

My mother as a teenager in Canton, OH, where her family settled after emigrating to the U.S. in 1910

While I rested and "worked" in bed, Ellen went shopping for dinner. When she got back, I made myself lunch and then drove to Louisville  - about 20 miles - to pick up a repaired folding shade for Rob. The ropes that adjust the shade on the window over our bed had broken and been repaired. After that I went to Rite Aid to get a prescription refill and came home. Rob and Betsey interviewed a possible PCA late this afternoon, and then we ate the lovely dinner Ellen had prepared - a recipe requested by Betsey - corn chile over baked sweet potato. After supper and cleanup, Rob and i re-attached the shade, and then Ellen and I took a stroll. 

                                         The repaired shade. 

Tomorrow, the morning schedule will be the same as today, but we'll be picking Betsey up at work and bringing her home. And Ellen will cook again.