April 2008

Things are busy, as usual... But these last few weeks are filled with my efforts in trying to save photos and papers that were in a house that completely was destroyed by fire. I've learned a lot about preservation, and know that it is an important and time consuming project. The photo on the right was in a plastic enclosed album and the fire hose water just dissolved the whole top half of this 1920's photograph. Luckily most of the wet photos are more recent and came out fine, unless mold started. These particular old photos must have undergone a little different processing and were not quite so stable.

In the meantime I've had to make new airline reservations to replace the ones on ATA Airlines that just went bankrupt. I'll get credit from the credit card company, and there was time to make new reservations, although at a $200 increase in the choice of flights available. I'm going to Southern California, then to Central American on an Overseas Adventure Tour. I've also been busy making reservations for flights on my upcoming trips to Canada and Arizona for this year.

I enjoy using my "Gizmo5" software (similar to Skype) that I can use to telephone from my computer to "land line" telephones around the world. I call my cousins in England/Wales, and friend in Canada and am charged just 2 cents per minute. So we talk for an hour at a time.

In the United States I use my cell phone and the Verizon plan to call anywhere in America. I gathered the courage to keep trying to contact my mother's cousin at Lake Elsinore, California, and tried her phone number, but it wasn't a valid number. Finally after searching the internet, I thought I'd try a different area code that seemed to be popping up, and lo and behold, Joyce answered the phone on the first try with the new area code. It was great! I have been wanting to visit her and compare old Akins family photographs. As luck would have it, Joyce was having a gathering of some of her family, and I got to talk to them and get their e-mail addresses, etc. Now, when I go to Southern California for a week, I know I'll be able to find the Akins family. I've been emailing her nephew, Gary, and he tells me that Joyce is a good story teller, so I must get my iPod recording attachment ready for the visit. Addie & Edith Akins in photo above. They were sisters. Edith Akins Blanding was my great-grandmother. Addie Akins Stucky was Joyce's grandmother... from Skyberg, Goodhue Co., Minnesota.