Taking Genealogy to the Hospital

On February 1st, I had knee replacement surgery. Finally! I am sure that by spring I'll be out chasing ancestors once again.

The surgery went well, except for my allergies to pain killing meds. It was quickly decided that I would just take a combination of tylenol and bite the bullet. The second day I asked for my old knee back and was told that it had been cremated. Maybe they thought I was going to bury it and place a marker on the grave!

The following three days were filled with physical therapy which I thought was grueling, but knew it was necessary. When I wasn't exercising or biting the bullet, I was using my iPod Touch in my hospital bed ... looking at genealogy files. Unfortunately the hospital does not have WIFI. Feeling rather punk one night, I received a phone call from Girl #2. At the end of our conversation she said, "I love you #1." I replied "I love you #2." Strange! Sister-in-laws who are so opposite and yet are joined at the hip in our love of genealogy.

Now it has been almost three weeks since my surgery. I am walking off and on without a cane and realizing it is a good thing they cremated my knee. This one is strong and I know it will take me to cemeteries, courthouses and libraries.

In the meantime I am navigating between my laptop computer in the living room by my recliner and the main computer in my genealogy room. It is a stand-off at times with the main computer as my granddaughter is often using it. The iPod Touch is still wonderful for the e-mails and browsing my genealogy files. At night when I am biting that bullet, it is great for soothing me with good music.

I have filled my time locating information on Internet, particularly digital images. What fun to settle back, watch it snow (yes, again!) and find genealogy information at my finger tips. That's when I stretch the knee and pretend I'm getting ready to visit a cemetery. Spring will eventually come and spring will be back in my step.

As you can see, genealogy goes with me anywhere, even to the hospital. I am never without it. Now I'm anxious for better weather, better walking so #2 and I can be back together to enjoy our companionship and love of genealogy.

The "i-Touch and Go" Genealogy Girls

Rain nor snow, broken knees nor dark of night will keep the You Go Genealogy Girls down for long. The cold and snowy winter set in to keep us couped up but it hasn't dampened the girls' love for shopping.

The YGGG have both purchased great little new toys just to lift our spirits and get us through the "cabin fever" days. The mighty little Apple iPod Touch has come to our rescue.

What an awesome little genealogy research tool the iTouch is. If you can imagine a use for this small handheld computer,there is probably an application for it. The iTouch works with both a Mac and a PC so anybody can use it. Genealogy software like Reunion and Family Viewer make it the ultimate portable research tool. In my case, I am a PC user so I will transfer all my family files from Legacy into Family Viewer but I also have installed Reunion so that I can now have the Reunion family files from Girl #1 who uses a Mac. When I visit her next week she will sync her files to my iTouch and for the first time I will have full access to all her files and especially the sources and pictures! For me it is a great and inexpensive way to access Mac/Reunion only files which do not fully transfer via the Gedcom. The You Go Genealogy Girls have been like kids in a candy store. Hours of shopping in the iTunes application store has been almost as fun as picking out all those tasty flavored jelly beans that we love so much. News, music, genealogy software, reference apps, book readers, Google Earth and many hundreds of other neat tools and apps are available to download. The genealogy apps cost a small fee but hundreds of others are totally free to download. Would you like a LED alarm clock, a flashlight, solitare game, soduku games? They offer that and much more. My personal favorite: a level. It is great, don't have clue what I will ever use it for but surely it will come in handy-sooner or later. Maybe we'll try it out on our Lit'l Red traveling car before we leave for Salt lake. After all, we wouldn't want her nose snooty and held too high in the air while dragging her rear due to all the books and "stuff" stored in her trunk. That handy little level might help to smooth out the load!

Even though we aren't ready to completely give up our travel laptops-just imagine the even greater possibilities that this little iTouch beauty offers. Quick pocket portability with full function internet. Best of all, it takes very little room in our research bag, thus it is worth it's weight in gold. Gold in the form of space so we can buy more genealogy and history books, souvenir t-shirts and pins, tree charts and jelly beans. Did I mention room for MORE books?

The girls are anxious to be on the road, now energized with our iTouch brain power. Life was already great but we can use all the help we can get!

Be on the lookout for our Lit'l Red car and us of course. We'll be the dangerous ones on the inside of Lit'l Red. A cell phone in one hand, the iTouch in the other, the seat filled with our laptops and visiting wildly with a mouthful of those sugary jelly beans. That just about leaves "one eye on the road", a spare finger for the wheel, and a foot for the gas pedal. Zoooooom and compute, that is us!

We invite you to join us for our ongoing saga....

What Is To Become Of Us?

The You Go Genealogy Girls are really in trouble. The research is waiting, the travel destinations are waiting, the reading is waiting and lots more- so much more that I can't even remember what they are any more! That is the troubling problem: remembering. Do you have those "moments" of brain lapse? The girls just have way too many of those these days.

I have lost one of my most important file folders and have been looking for it for 3 months. I am sure someone came in the night and spirited it away. Many hours have been wasted going through files and drawers looking for it. I have scanned copies, but I WANT those originals. My cell phone sprouts legs and just relocates itself, almost daily.Things I put away for safe keeping are never found again. The note I just made seems to fly away and end up in some unlikely place, a place I haven't been for months-I think.....I have to call YGGG#1 and ask the same question again because for some odd reason the first answer has eluded me. She calls me to ask how to work her camera because since she used it last week, she can't remember.

Last week the girls were visiting on the phone while #1 was diligently looking for her walking cane. Traveling all over the house in search of it, clinging to the walls and counters in search, but alas no cane! I suggested she get out the walker, after all it is large enough that it shouldn't get lost. A day later that pesky cane showed up in her sewing closet, surely it was hiding out long enough to get rested up! We girls have a relative and fellow genealogist who lives in Colorado. She wrote to girl one lamenting the fact that she also spent time looking for something that she put down. When it was found and very close, her husband said "it was so close that if it had been a tiger, he would have eaten you"! Leave it up to a hubby to get in the last word. My own Go Hubby suggests that I put a list on my computer room door and write down everything important that I put away, you know, kind of a "map" to it's location. That would possibly work but only if I can remember to write on the list. Oh my, well, you get the point! What is to become of us ?

Are all those ancestor names and dates just clogging up the brain cells? I think I will take leave for a couple days and do some reading, crafting, and maybe even some real cooking. I am, however, just sure that Great Great Grandpa Thomas must be the one who hides all my "stuff".

YGGG#1 has gotten a new knee this week, maybe they gave her a good drug for memory boost too. When she gets home, I will go for a visit to spur her recovery forward. As for me--maybe she can sneak me some memory boost drugs home in her hospital bag. We have our annual two week trip to Salt Lake to the FHL and are attending the Family History Expo in Loveland, Colorado along with several side trips planned to visit cemeteries and research centers. If we can just get all our body parts to work and some good brain food then we will be revitalized and good to go. After all, that IS the You Go Genealogy Girls...go, go, go!


p.s. YGGG#1 did have knee replacement surgery this week, I am requesting an email card shower for her. ruby465@gmail.com
I just hope she will remember how to access her email...he,he!