Sunday, August 19, 2012

One More Cup of Coffee

It was bound to happen.  I never followed the recommended instructions, always thinking they were unnecessary and didn't apply to me.  Things went along just fine, and I began to take for granted there would never be an issue.  And then it happened.  At first it was just a minor inconvenience, something to clean up and not talk about.  It became chronic but it was too late to do anything about it and I chose to ignore it just the same.  When it failed completely, I stood there, empty cup in hand, with a mess to clean up.

The Brewstation is dead. Long live the Brewstation.

It happened many years ago when our coffee pot gave up the ghost.  I was going to Costco that day, and there I found the most magnificent coffee maker I had ever seen.  It had no glass pot to break, using a thermal-lined insulated coffee tank instead...you depressed the trigger with a mug for one-hand dispensing.  Completely perfect for the geek that I am, I put it in the cart and took it home.

Guests would stare at it, trying to figure out how to get coffee.  It was, as Cindy said for years to come, what happens when you send me out to buy a coffee pot.  After a few years and a move it began to leak, so we replaced it with yet another version that would make iced coffee as well.  Eventually that one began to leak as well, so we moved to our most recent version, one that was tall enough to fit a travel mug into the dispensing area.  And now it has failed, leaking all over the counter, leaving me wanting one more cup of coffee.

Much like Ahab, I continue to be obsessed with finding my infamous white whale, a pot-less coffeemaker that does not leak.  Perhaps this time, I will go with the Krups or the Cuisinart.  Paraphrasing Melville, the pot-less coffeemaker does not seeks me; rather, it is me that madly seeks it.


Saturday, August 4, 2012

The Things We've Handed Down

It is easy to float in and out of tracing your family history.  There have been times where it sat on the sidelines for me, waiting to be revived.  There have also been times (such as now) where it seems to consume most waking moments and spins me up and down rabbit holes, chasing after data that may or may not be helpful.

Each person has eight great grandparents, 16 2nd great-grandparents, 32 3rd great grandparents, 64 4th great grandparents, 128 5th great grandparents, etc.  I currently know of approximately 40 ancestors that I share blood with, so there are still plenty of people to find.

Chasing them down has lead me to over 700 shirttail relatives, such as "father of sister-in-law of 3rd cousin to..." or "great-grandfather's second cousin once removed".  They must have shared common experiences in Italy, Brazil, the United States or wherever they lived.  Some of them show up on ship manifests, others on microfilmed records; many have numerous references or points of certainty, while others appear at the right time to fit into existing trees.  They all had hopes and dreams.

Most of these have no direct relation to my family tree, but finding them means other records may exist and the hope of journeying farther back in time prevails.