Of the many projects I’ve hoped to tackle and complete since moving here was to refinish our Adirondack chairs. Now I can set a spell cuz they’re done.
While they were functional in their past state their ‘presence’ was less than desired. They had seen many days outdoors in Castlegar, and while they were sitting gracefully under a maple tree they were also sitting on the grass. Moisture and wood chairs do not mix.
I affectionately called that space “my Holy Place”. I loved to spend time there, writing, reading, computing, visiting, whatever came to mind. It was quiet, cool, and meditative. I described that in “I Am Home, Again”
I have a new Holy Place. While it doesn’t hold quite the same special place in my heart it is a close second, and in fact it has some features that were missing in it’s predecessor. But I digress. Chairs, I was talking about chairs.
As I said the Adirondacks were showing their age. It has been a number of years since they were refinished and they were overdue. Not to over-describe but I used my many woodworking skills and brought them back to their original glory, maybe better. That process was not without challenges mind you, but I accepted those moments and came out feeling better, about myself and my skills.
So now I can set a spell, enjoy a cold beverage (or 2) and relax knowing another task is accomplished. It feels good!
There is progress to be made, and progress has been achieved. I am methodically going through my photos and slowly updating the TNG Family Tree here on this site. It is a process, let me tell you.
To explain, as much for my benefit as others, my primary tree is online and held by Ancestry.ca. Ancestry, while a powerful and ubiquitous genealogy site, is also privacy oriented (perhaps rightly so) and does not like to share any info. More than a few times I have tried to share the tree with others, and generally speaking most/many don’t want to sign up for an Ancestry membership in order to view the tree. They seem to find the process intimidating and onerous. As a result there are very few who have visited my tree to see what’s what.
Page forward to my research in finding another solution. That solution was to obtain a program that will integrate with my website. All I had to do, after installing it of course, was to upload all my photos and family data to it and make it all work nicely together. That is where I’m at right now.
The Family tree software I found is called “TNG – The Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding”. With it I’ve created a duplicate Family Tree of the one on Ancestry, well almost. I say almost because there are some wrinkles in the process of transferring the data and photos. It’s not foolproof, and sometimes I make foolish moves. I am working through all of it.
The TNG family tree is live and while not accessible to the general public it can be made available by registering for a User Account. There is no charge for access, the registration only allows me to monitor, or control, who can view the tree information. At one time the tree was made public and I received some rude emails from individuals who saw some of their data shared. After that I made further changes to privacy and locked down the site.
So, have a look. If you want to join let me know. I’d be happy to hook you up.
Things are coming around for me. Despite COVID, with it’s concerns and restrictions, I feel better about things in general. My health has picked up, perhaps more my mood than health in general. I was running low on iron for a while there and was borderline anemic. That is behind me I hope.
This site is not presenting the challenges it once was, see some of the last few posts, Man the Turrets, We’re Under Attack. That issues seems to have been resolved and I plan to post more.
The Family Tree page (https://sklapsky.ca/tng11/) is functioning better again too and was in some jeopardy. That is not to say it is ‘good’, but it is functioning. Now to get it updated, along with sklapsky.ca, and get the show on the road.
Ever have one of those days where you seem to be just a little out of phase with the rest of humanity, where the best laid plans seem to go astray? A day where after breakfast you put the milk in the cupboard and the cereal in the fridge. I’m experiencing that today. It’s seems as if everything I touch, anything I do, falls just short of being ‘right’.
Morning pages
Today is a Dad’s day, a day where I take him out and we go to the doctor, optometrist, or in this case to the lab for blood work, and then we go out for lunch. I had planned to leave home a little early so that before I picked him up I could go to Walmart or one of the many electronics type stores to look for a phone case for my new iPhone 5 (and that’s a whole ‘nuther story).
Prior to leaving I was doing my morning pages, you know, that’s ‘writing’ in a book with paper pages and using a pen or pencil. These days I’m not sure how many people still do that…, but I was and before I completed one of my sentences part way through the exercise I became distracted. Well, not distracted at that time really, I put the journal down to check on something I was writing about and that’s when I got distracted. My wife had a question about her ‘new’ iPhone 4s (my hand-me down). There I went, off task, and so far today I’ve not made it back to the journal.
Well that put me behind schedule, not only did I not get to finish the sentence or entry in my journal I never made it away in time to go look at iPhone covers before picking Dad up.
So off on my way I went. I picked up Dad on time (amazingly) and we went to the lab. Fortunately the handicapped parking right in front of the lab was available so we slipped right in, and interestingly enough the lab wasn’t too busy so we waited no more than 5 – 10 minutes to get called. Seems like my day wasn’t a right-off after all, so far things were going well. Lunch was next.
Now that I’m recounting the days events it’s seems like maybe things weren’t so bad after all, lunch went well and Dad paid so life is good and things were looking up. We had a nice visit, he was feeling pretty good and I got him back to his home without further ado. It didn’t stay that way however, or didn’t feel like it anyway.
After dropping Dad off I hit the stores to look for my case, and if I learned anything during that exercise it’s that nothing is cheap, particularly quality iPhone cases. To get the case I wanted, an Otter Commuter, was going to cost between $44 – $50 bucks depending on the store. That’s in addition to any screen protector I bought. My stress was in a holding pattern. A quick look at Amazon (on my phone of course) made me realize that online is where I’ll get them, way cheaper.
As I think about that experience it dawns on me perhaps one of the reasons I feel so stressed and out of sorts is that I am so worried about dropping my phone, and have been ever since I picked it up. Perhaps that is the underlying cause, the reason for my ‘out of sorts’. Whatever the cause….. I feel how I feel and it continued through the day, that ‘skin don’t fit’ kinda feeling.
After arriving back at my home I had to turn around and go back out to run a couple more errands, one of which was to pick up quilt batting for my wife at the local fabric store. I’m afraid I scared the lady in the store, I feel like I went in there with a chip on my shoulder and although I don’t think it’s true I felt like I was surly and abrupt. Damn underwear starting to crawl again.
Next stop was an auto parts store to try and replace one of my malfunctioning wiper blades, that I paid $40 bucks for no less. I went in through the door and must’ve looked like I was ready for bear as the attendant approached my apprehensively and quickly passed me off the reps at the service counter. I suspect he wanted nothing to do with me, if he could see how I felt he was probably wise to defer me. The counterman listened somewhat sympathetically to my plight. I explained the driver’s side wiper leaves a streak in front of my eyes and when I just paid $40 bucks for 1 blade I had hoped it would last longer than 3 months. He murmured back “Well, I guess I could replace it”. Well, thank you very much. Perhaps he could see I was itching for a fight too.
So that sounds like another win doesn’t it? Hang on, not so soon.
Unfortunately when I went outside to swap the bad blade for the good I must’ve touched the fender of the car with my jacket. As I pulled back after installing the blade I noticed a nice brown smudge of dirt/mud on my nice clean black jacket. Argggh, %$”*”&#*, use your imagination to translate. Now I’m fussed and I’m dirty, and if you know me you know I don’t like to get dirty. Especially on tight underwear day.
All I can do is wipe the mud off my jacket and try to wipe my mood clean at the same time. I was relatively successful, nothing damaged and nobody hurt in the process, and proceeded to the next stop. Fill up with gas.
Things went relatively smoothly after that, although getting out of the car prior to filling I noticed yet another blotch of mud, this time on my pant leg. Will it never end I thought (how about wash the car dummy). I exited the car and holding it together somehow inserted my credit card into the gas pump. Perhaps I was too fast, perhaps too forceful, the pump would not accept my card. Another ARGGGH.
Take a deep breath, try again, success this time. The gassing up exercise completed with few casualties, only my spirit.
Two Slurpees in a car cupholder. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Home I went. But wait, I had to get my wife a Slurpee (Slushy). I don’t understand her penchant for ice cold ice based drinks on a cold winter day but hey, who am I to argue with the light of my life. She wants a Slurpee, a Slurpee she shall have.
Knowing that this stop would be part of my day I came prepared, I had her refillable Slurpee cup at hand. The Slurpee machine operated flawlessly and I proceeded to check out. It was when I went to pay that I was met with a surprise.
Now it’s not like I’ve never used the plastic refillable cup before but when I paid and found the tab higher than expected I gasped.
“Are you sure”, I asked? “How can it be that a Slurpy with a re-usable cup can be more expensive than if I’d used one of the disposable cups?”
“Well”, she said. You never told me it was YOU’RE cup”.
I guess she had me there. And mentioning to her that I ‘assumed’ she knew it was my cup did NOT help the situation. She only replied “when you assume you make an ass out of you and an ass out of me.” She sighed heavily, refunded my money and then charged me a more appropriate, smaller, amount. Personally I think her underwear didn’t fit either, or maybe it’s the moon.
With my chores pretty much completed I forged home, stewing all the while about how I was out of phase, how my skin didn’t fit, how my knickers were too tight, and in my mind plotting what I would write here. It’s a good thing an animal didn’t bolt or a car pull out in front of me, my attention was not all there. I was too busy thinking of what I’d say here.
I did arrive at my home safely though, I don’t think I maimed anyone in transit, at least as far as I know.
After backing into my driveway I did notice a couple beer cans laying on the snowbank in front of my hedge (not mine, I have enough decency to toss mine in the neighbours yard). Here I go again, I feel that familiar tugging sensation near my private parts.
Knowing it’d be futile to pick up the beer cans and carry all my acquisitions (quilt batting, Slurpy) and Dads’ medical history file (that I try to take every time I see him), along with my camera bag and sweater etc., I choose the smart avenue. Pick up the cans, drop them in the recycle, and make not 1 but 2 trips back and forth to the car for the rest of the stuff. That way I can be sure not to f*** up and either drop half the stuff or wipe my clothes OR the new quilt batting on the side of the muddy car. Mission accomplished, all goods arrived in the house unscathed.
Once inside I dropped everything (not literally) and quickly logged on to my WordPress account to quickly disgorge my thoughts into a post, to try and enlighten you to my day and what made it ‘special’. I hope I didn’t bore you too badly and you arrived, like I did at the end of my afternoon, with underclothes that fit. I know the constricting feelings were all just fleeting experiences, tomorrow will be another day and hopefully one where I am in alignment with the universe. Until that time, if your underwear doesn’t fit go without.
While “The End May be Near” can be seen as a somewhat inflammatory title it might also be closer to the truth than I care to think, for the purposes of this website I mean. I feel as if someone nefarious is looking over my shoulder.
I continue to work on troubleshooting and problem solving this website, sklapsky.ca. I frequently receive dire warnings from my domain host about the problems my site is causing to others on the host, much like a bully in a schoolyard. Except I am not the bully, and the problems are not of my making (I don’t think).
The problems, whatever they are, have been putting excessive load on my domain host. They, the host, are the folks allowing you to see sklapsky.ca on the internet. The short answer is that if I cannot fix “the problem” I may have to delete this site, so it will no longer be on the ‘net. From that point I can quit and fold my hand, or I can find a way to rebuild and continue on. Please, wish me/us luck.
Other Stuff
On another note, I believe I mentioned I was helping another family member research her history. I talked a bit about it in Better Late than Never!. Tanya, the cousin somewhat removed, is looking for a connection to the Sluchinski family for her Father. He was adopted at a young age but his Mom was a ‘Sluckinski’, or ‘Sluchinski’, and Tanya would like to make sure he has the opportunity to know his kin. I want to help her in that regard as well.
She has found some potential cousins using the DNA feature of Ancestry (a genealogical program and website). I have attempted to assist by taking her information and using it to search for other possible connections, a tie-in to her Sluckinski/Sluchinski heritage.
So far we have a link to Roman Sluchinski but that’s where the trail runs cold from my perspective. I can’t find a connection to the other Sluchinski clan from there, and I’m sure there is one. In fact a booklet I received on a Sluchinski Family reunion mentions Roman and implies he is another son of Nicholas (Nickolas) Sluchinski but for the life of me I can’t find a genealogical connection. It will come, trust me.
Cole’s Notes
I will continue to attempt to resolve this website issue. The alternatives aren’t really palatable to me. Working with Tanya will continue as well and I’m optimistic we’ll find the “ties that bind us”. In the meantime take heart, when I say “The End May be Near” I may only mean the end of this post. Take care and we’ll chat soon.
As with all things our lives are a series of ups and downs. In this case, in the life of this website, we have seen extreme ‘ups’, that of a very high number of ‘hits‘, or people/things visiting sklapsky.ca. It’s tantamount to Internet abuse.
I mentioned this in the last post, the hits are not necessarily visits by people. They are in fact ‘hits’ by other computers or software that searches the internet called ‘bots‘ or web crawlers. It has come to my attention that this is an issue I need to resolve. I’m told this by my internet host, the company that allows me to show sklapsky.ca to you. The ‘hits’ have reached the point where they are impacting the operation of the host, causing a disproportionate use of resources by sklapsky.ca over that of other users.
This is something I’ve been working on for a while, the internet host (HostPapa) called me about 2-3 weeks ago with offers to sell me additional products to allegedly help me with this problem. This/that is not something that’s in the cards for me. I’d prefer to spend some of my (limited) time in resolving it rather than the cash I don’t have.
I tell you this for two reasons. One, if this website goes down (disappears) that may be the reason why. Two, I don’t post enough here and to maintain any presence at all the frequency of writing needs to significantly improve. This may happen as a matter of course, the summer is apparently over and there will likely be more genealogical ‘stuff’ taking place and with it an increase in an internet presence. Let’s see what time holds for us, shall we.
Bottom line I’m still here, I hope you are too. Take care, and as Spock said “Live long and prosper”.
Well, it may not be a conscious attack but we appear to be under attack nonetheless.
I received a phone call from my hosting provider a few days ago. That in itself was a surprise but when he told me that my site (sklapsky.ca) was experiencing high levels of traffic, and that there may be a problem, he got my attention. In the worst case it may mean deleting the site and beginning again. Best case I may be able to do something relatively simple and mitigate the problem. It could be a virus, another problem within the site (software), or ????
Now, I appreciate you may not have, or want to have, any knowledge of website workings. Perhaps the ‘behind the scenes’ stuff is best left there, behind the scenes. But suffice it to say the site (sklapsky.ca) was seeing an inordinate number of “hits”, which is internet speak for the number of individual visits to the site. Those visits can be by human or computer, or a combination of both. Each hit uses computer power of the host, the company that provides the website ‘home’. Too many hits means that too many of the host’s resources are being used just to service the needs of one client. The host may have many thousands of clients, each demanding enough horsepower to service their needs.
In my/our case there were about 274,000 hits/visits in Aug.. That is very high, and much higher than normal for a site the size of this one. As a result the percentage of the host’s resources devoted to us were disproportionately high. It appeared we were under attack, from within or without. Unlikely they were visits by long-lost cousins, much as I’d wish. Time to put on my Sherlock hat.
Some research has led me to believe the assault is external, not a virus or anything internal to the site. That, at least, is good news. I suspect it is ‘spiders’ or ‘bots’, electronic visitors that map out your site for content. There can be thousands of spiders visit daily.
I’ve since put some things in place to hopefully reduce the effects of the attack. It’s my hope and plan that any additional, more significant, changes will not be required. Again the worst case is that the whole site will have to be taken down (erased) and built again. That’s a task I don’t relish, as you might imagine.
If I’ve manned the turrets appropriately the problem may go away. Let’s just hope we have enough ammo.
As time passes I am once again reminded that this site is waiting patiently for an update, something from me to ensure its life continues as a viable organism, a blog with some potential and purpose.
The title “Better Late than Never” just seemed to fit, but what’s that quote’s origin? This from a quick Google search…..
Geoffery Chaucer appears to have been the first person to have put the proverb into print, in The Yeoman’s Prologue and Tale, Canterbury Tales, circa 1386:
For bet than never is late. [Better than never is late.]
Now that said and out-of-the-way we can move on……
I have been persisting in the genealogy realm, almost every day and/or night I’ve been doing something in this regard. Often it’s collecting old photos of family near and far. It’s my passion (the photos) and while I can’t explain it I’ve fallen to its lure and succumbed to its pull.
Of course the other research is being done as well, but I will admit here in front of God and country I’m one of the laziest genealogists in that I’ve yet to leave my chair in search of a real story, the real deal of family history. It is my failing, or one of them, and I’ll own it.
In addition to the ongoing Sklapsky research I’ve been drawn into a quest for information on a line possibly connected to the Sluchinski family. Two of my Great/Grand Uncles married Sluchinski girls, thus my interest, and I love a great mystery.
To that end I was contacted by a lady who knows of that connection, and she is in search of information on her Father’s family. Her Dad was adopted and given the name ‘Sluckinski’ (close to Sluchinski). She is on a mission to find his real family before too much time passes. I’ve caught her inquisitive bug and now also want to find whatever connection there might be. Being that I have Sluchinski in my line I feel drawn to help.
On my own home front we have survived our move to Kelowna and have settled quite nicely. We both love it here and feel quite content in our new digs. We see the g-kids almost daily and have found ourselves going back to work, out of retirement, at the daycare the g-kids go to. Maureen teaches pre-k (pre-kindergarten) and I do the after school pickup of kids who come to the daycare after school. Not quite the life of leisure but a good life nonetheless.
So, here’s snapshot of Madden on his 5th birthday, I apologize for the ‘no edit’ status. Had to be done.
The next one’s of Ivy, hamming it up. Refusing to eat her hotdog and instead using it for a moustache.
To wrap this up I’ll say I truly enjoy the hunt, the look for info and any connections that might be made. Sometimes I just wish it was a bit more fruitful.
Take care, and I’ll (hopefully) talk to you within the year.
Hello all, sorry for my tardiness in maintaining active posts. You know, life gets in the way.
My focus over the last couple weeks has been Murphy/Gibeault and related families. These are all on my wife’s side. Primarily I’m just trying to fill in blanks using a book called “Gibeault/Beaudry Family History”.
My sister-in-law Fran(ces) was kind enough to share a number of photos she acquired after my Mother-in-laws passing and I scanned them all to maintain a record. If you know me you know I love photos, particularly old ones.
So in addition to the family history info incorporated in the book there were additional photos. All are photocopies, and not very good either if truth be known, but at least I have access to them. I would really like to share them and my dilemma is how best to do that. I am more than willing to purchase another domain, or happy to use one of mine, but how will I get the best bang for my buck when/if I do that? Facebook is always an option, and I may take advantage of that, but I feel some reservation there. Unfortunately it’s probably the media most likely to attract the most viewers.
I’ve also made contact with the Federspiel/Symons side, the Reeve (wife’s side) and the Reeves side, in addition to a connection to the Gale/Diebert. I hope I haven’t left anyone out. What this means is a rapid infusion of names and family tree member.
I will now have to update the Family tree associated with this site (Family Tree), as it is sadly much out of date. I would like to improve this situation however until I can determine the best way to secure the info of living members I will have to postpone attention. Then there is of course my ADD tendencies which complicate my life when it comes to completing projects started with good intentions, the Family tree being one.
I’m still happy to share the Ancestry tree (Ancestry – Sklapsky Family tree). Unfortunately I think the hoops created by Ancestry when viewers attempt to access the tree are onerous for most. I think joining Ancestry, even though it’s free, prevent casual viewers from taking advantage of the site. That’s the primary purpose of my creating the Family tree attached to this site. The downside is that it creates additional load on me from a maintenance point of view.
Whatever all this means to you is personal. My goal is to provide, yours to access if you choose.
I’ve been progressing steadily in the family tree and have frequently shot off on tangents into the unknown. I’ve been into all facets of the family but most recently into the Federspiels, It’s just that I’ve come across a few family trees on Ancestry that have a wealth of info, and some of it pertains to the Sklapsky history. Specifically they had some photos of Lillie Mae Sklapsky Federspiel, most I’ve never seen. Thanks to Michael R. Federspiel for his contribution to our cause.
