Over There - Forth Day

The first week or so was chilly and rainy, so Mark kept us warm with the stove.

We went shopping in nearby Nailsea.

Ada's Grandma Nanny gave her a very nice art kit for Christmas. One of the best parts were some Frozen ink stamps. She soon had Elsa stamps all over herself!

Over There - Third Day

We had good flights and arrived in reasonably good shape, vis-à-vis jetlag.
However, a good nap is always in order when Mimi arrives.

(Note: Days one and two were mostly rest and settle in days.)

At first, Arthur would only associate with Mimi. Pa had to wait a while...too scary looking in person.

Cardboard

I posted a description of our Google Cardboard experimentation on Azure Engineering blog.
We will take these with us when we go see M & J & A & A next week!

Suggested Reading - Where Technology Is Leading Us

This is an easy-to-read analysis of the effect our new technologies are having on us as individuals and on our culture. The impact is greater than most people imagine - we may be losing our ability to think about important things in the way that make humans unique.

Worth a read, IMHO. (Oops...there I go!)

Snow

Last week, we had an unusually pretty snowfall.

(note the Really Clear window  :)

Snowy berries.

Belated snow creature.

As usual, it lasted about a day.

Windows

Our 20 year-old double pane windows were mostly all deteriorated and fogged between the panes. So we finally ordered replacements.

Miguel and his two sons gently removed the old windows...

and installed new ones. It was a pleasure seeing a father and sons working together as a team.

Look, Mom - no dividers!

Office after.

Cloud

We saw this corkscrew-shaped cloud while looking out of Granddad's window.

Trolley

Christmas 014

Just a start...

There was so much more fun! We'll get more posted...pretty soon.

My Favorite Scene From Frozen

Selfie - Nexus 5

Cousins' Big Trip To Virginia

Four Cousins and three Cousin-In-Laws made a 10 day trip around Virginia. It was a combination of family reunion, genealogical research, and historical sight seeing.
We began by meeting at a bed and breakfast inn at Williamsburg.

We spent the first day at Jamestown Settlement, the site of the first permanent British colony. This was an archeological dig at the site of a home's foundation. When the Queen visited in 2007, she insisted on climbing down into the dig, in spite of the mud from recent rains.

We learned a lot from the docents that were on site.

Next was a day at Historical Williamsburg. This is a view looking up the main road, from William and Mary college's Wren building.

Our tour guide filled us in on many interesting details.

There were pretty fall colors, too.

Looking back toward Willliam and Mary.

Another day, we visited Dogham Farm, which bordered the Horn farm in the mid 1800's.

In Richmond, we visited St. John's church, where Patrick Henry gave his famous 'Give me liberty, or give me death' speech.

We had a nice dinner at the inn in Williamsburg where Thomas Jefferson stayed.

Later on, we toured Appomattox Courthouse, where General Lee surrendered his army to General Grant, effectively ending the secession of the South. This is the Courthouse at Appomattox Courthouse. We were shocked to learn the surrender ceremony was NOT at the courthouse. Appomattox Courthouse was the name of the town.

The ceremony was actually at the McLean house.

We moved on to a lovely lake house on Smith Mountain Lake, south of Bedford. This is Rusty.

David and Robin.

Cousins - Rusty, Gaylene and David.

David had set up several meetings with people to whom we are distantly related, to discuss their knowledge of our ancestry.

This is a 'bill of marriage' - similar to a marriage license - for John Horn and Sophia Sinar, in 1836.

We had s'mores on the deck one evening.

We moved on to Bedford, where we visited the National D-Day Memorial.

Oops, this is back in Williamsburg. That's Tom Jefferson with Gaylene and Robin.

We stayed in a modern log cabin outside of Bedford. It got cool enough to have a fire one evening.

All of us on the porch of the cabin ...

On the last day, as we headed to the Richmond airport to drop off Robin and David, we toured Jefferson's Poplar Forest home near Lynchburg, where he retired after serving as President.

Thank you David and Robin and Rusty and Phyllis and Gaylene. We had a really nice time!

Thanksgiving Wreath

Mimi's ladys' group had a wreath-making party a while back.
The result was a particularly nice one she made for Grandad's door.

Grandad has gotten Lots of compliments on his wreath!

Family Haircuts

Before we left for our trip, we made a quick visit to the hair shop.

This was probably Grandad's fanciest haircut in quite a while.
It came out quite good!

Trip East

We've started out on our long-planned tour of the Horn haunts of Old Virginia. First stop - Clemson, to stay with Christopher and John for a couple of days while Tony and Julie are off for a little get-away.
Here is Mimi enjoying the scenery along I-20.

We enjoyed getting to be with the boys for a couple of days.
John -

Christopher -

John and Christopher -

Tooth Fairy

Circa 1949 - for comparison with this good looking kid.

Key Story

When I was riding home from Garland Wednesday, it looked rainy ahead. So when I stopped at a traffic light, I pulled a plastic bag out of my back pocket to protect my cell phone in case I hit a shower  - forgetting that I had stuffed my set of keys in the same pocket. I didn't realize I had dropped them till I got back to McKinney. I went back that way on Friday, and looked around - but there was no sign of the keys at the intersection.
Then, Friday evening I received an email from the McKinney library:


Mr. Horn,
Someone found keys and your library card in the street.  We're holding them for you at the Hall library on Hunt St. in the lost and found.  We'll hold them for one month.  Please let us know if you want them.

This morning, I went by the library and received a small manila envelope containing the keys (somewhat battered and coated with tar), and a note:

This partially restored my hope for humanity...