Saturday, October 12, 2013

I've been bitten by the bug again!

I know I don't need an excuse to skip housework.  I do it easily.  I figure that here at 68, I have been doing housework for 60 years, and now it's someone else's turn (spell check is telling me there is no such work as "else's" - and we know I depend on spell check, but I am not changing it).  How do I figure this?  Easy.  I inherited it from my mother.  She didn't like housework either - so I would do it back then.  I am sick and tired of it.

But - if it's not going upstairs to that disaster area, so I can sew other little thingies for craft shows that I never get to do, it is now my old evil - genealogy. Just how did this happen.  It is all our vacation's fault!

Here's my reasoning - if we were still home, I would have never dropped my Dell.  If I hadn't dropped the Dell, I wouldn't have to re-load all the programs I could find.  That means I wouldn't have had to look high and low for the 2005 discs where all my genealogy files were safely saved.  That wouldn't have tempted me to gift myself the newest version of Family Tree maker.  And that little purchase wouldn't have tempted me to use the two week free trial to Ancestry which was my time waster supreme back a few years. 

I did this knowingly.  I knew I had to give a credit card.  I knew I would have to call to stop the free trial.  I knew they would use their best means to shame me into keeping the subscription.  Been there.  Done that.  Have the lack of funds.   But I did it anyway.

So I have been chained to this computer seeing what new information I can glean from using Family Tree Maker.  I could get much more information if I would just go onto Ancestry because they list the public forms.  They don't care if Cousin Sally's great-great-great grandchild is still living.  There's the birth, marriage and their children's forms right there in the forms area.  It's public record.  All this while FTM "respects their member's privacy."  Dash the privacy!  I want the information.

But, FTM and I are getting really friendly.  We meet every afternoon.  FTM lures me into wanting to blow off preparing dinner - even leaving the kitchen table where I am set up surrounded by notebooks, bills, and tablets.  And yes, bills - my week's mail is stacking up quite nicely on both ends of this larger table that we brought in a few weeks ago.  Good foresight!  I didn't know how much I would need it.

G and SIL are going to the SSB later.  I will have until Monday to myself.  I am beside myself.  All this time for ME.   What to do first.  Do I break this umbilical to the computer and spend the hours upstairs?  Do I just stay down here?  What mind numbing TV can I be watching?  So many decisions.

I could get some deep cleaning done.  Yes, I could.  But that's not fun.  If I just go ahead with the fun things - I will just continue to bar folks from entering my doors!

1 comment:

Marti said...

No, I hope you didn't break the umbilical cord! A whole weekend with no interruptions. You can chase a bunch of ancestors into rabbit holes in that amount of time.

I did the free trial, and then 6 months, and then another 6 months. I'm definitely cutting it off in December though. It's not worth it if you don't use it every day (at least that's what I tell dh).

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