What has been keeping me busy for the past year

Would i change anything? Knowing how I put off decisions until I find something good for me and the other person, I doubt I would have done anything different. My W would have a very difficult time on her own, cancer or no cancer. Maybe I have too much responsibility going on in my head. I listened to the song "Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover" by Paul Simon. It sounds easy but wasn't for me.

I posted some of my medical issues to show people there are more choices than a) put up with a SM, b) leave a SM, c) outsource. I call other choices "life's curve balls."

One of my biggest concerns outside of the medical issues is how to get rid of 50+ years of accumulated stuff, from just living to things related to different careers. I started with clothes I don't wear.

I haven't been at it for the past year, but I have been pursuing it for a while now. I am doing an ancestry search of my family trees. I say trees because there is more than one side of a family. I have somewhere around 750 family members in my data base at present. I could have far more but sometimes the tree branches off in directions that hold no interest for me. Other times the information simply comes to an end, and I am stopped until I can find another source that is reliable. I have to admit that I have been very surprised about my lineage, it's not at all what I expected. I have some help on the part of a cousin and a younger brother who are as energetic about our ancestry as me. And I have even gotten some help from my fellow church parishners who come across information on my ancestors as they pursue their own family histories. Lots of people doing family research while the pandemic is keeping them inside and preventing other activities. This is something I have wanted to do for a long time. Probably the most surprising aspects so far is just how much royalty I have in my dna. Lots of kings and queens in kingdoms that no longer exist, along with numerous lords and ladies with interesting suffixes. I won't be competing with European royal families, though it's interesting to know that they are there. But don't worry, all that blue blood isn't crowding my otherwise humble demeaner.

Lots of ancestors in Europe. But most surprising is how many are from Wales and Northern Ireland. I originally thought most of my predecessors would be Germanic and many are, but it turns out I am really a mixed bag of genes. I even found one family branch that had traced their lineage all the way back to 1062 BC. That's right BC. Now some of the people in the tree are questionable due to the lack of impeccable evidence of who they were. Really interesting to find Druids as part of the mix. Might be why I like my steak rare.

I signed up at www.familysearch.org/en/ a long time ago and forgot I had an account there. I looked at a few census records and added several people.

The cursive writing on some census records is difficult to read. Other years it is easy to read.

I suggest if you are serious that you invest in a Treemaker program. There must be a dozen of them on Amazon and ebay . Many for less than $30. The Legacy program sounds reasonable. I also suggest you try roots web for your research. 

I use Family Tree Maker formally owned by Ancestry.com and now re-owned by its original creator. I like that when one enters or creates a new person the software automatically updates and defines the relationship that individual has with you(me) and other closely related members in the tree. For instance, 2nd great aunt or 3rd great grandmother, even 4th cousin twice removed if that's the case. It also asks for birth/death dates and locations. It's one shortfall is there isn't a really convenient location to enter interesting events or milestones in that person's life. It would also be nice if it had a burial location, but it doesn't.

I didn't get too much accomplished on my family history work. Going to the Emergency Department and subsequent hospital stays took several days.

The good bad news is the hospital support can't do much for me in the future. I enrolled in hospice and am back at home. Right now I am working on getting the correct balance of morphine, drink and a little bit of food so regurgitate less (throw up). My weight is down by 60 pounds US and I don't do stones. I am living on "Pop-icicle" apple and grape juice with a little bit of baby food rice cereal. I have 2 kidney drains out of my back and a recent stomach drain to replace the nasal/gastric tube I was getting when I went to the hospital for excessive vomiting.

I had appointments with a lawyer to facilitate who gets what and have those questions worked out. The funeral is pre-paid. What I do not have is where to dispose of 60+ years of stuff. I am OK with my terminal status and have worked most of the mental stuff out. I will miss not finishing several projects that I wanted to accomplish but got side tracked and never started or finished the tasks.

I mostly wanted to say HI to everyone while I can and wish everyone to have the best workable outcomes in their life.

Best wishes to you all!