{"id":378,"date":"2009-11-13T14:56:31","date_gmt":"2009-11-13T21:56:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/?p=378"},"modified":"2009-11-13T14:58:31","modified_gmt":"2009-11-13T21:58:31","slug":"13-vicissitudes-in-the-life-of-a-professional-genealogist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/2009\/11\/13\/13-vicissitudes-in-the-life-of-a-professional-genealogist\/","title":{"rendered":"13 Vicissitudes in the Life of a Professional Genealogist"},"content":{"rendered":"

The months of October 2009 and thus far into November 2009–its Frida<\/strong>y the 13th November <\/strong>today–have been a strange and in some cases difficult time for me personally.\u00a0 And I have been laughing a lot–better than crying a lot.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. My entire online digital service went down–and we could not determine what was wrong.\u00a0 No phone, no internet, no FAX, no television.\u00a0 I always knew I would regret having everything on the same system.<\/li>\n
  2. My sewer clogged and try as I could, no amount of plunging or power fluids worked. I met the plumber at his shop as he opened on Monday morning early–and he spent 5 and 1\/2 hours snaking my sewer line.\u00a0 There was a knot of tree roots in the line almost 4 feet long.\u00a0 Then I left town as soon as the carpet was dry.<\/li>\n
  3. I spoke at the Seaside Highland Games<\/em> in Ventura CA.\u00a0 Over 80 clans were there with their kilts and bagpipes and dancing.\u00a0 What a wonderful experience.\u00a0 And much genealogy interest–my classes were full both days.<\/li>\n
  4. Over the next few days, I met with and gave reports to some 11 clients in Southern California.\u00a0 Several that I have not met before.\u00a0 And we had such a good time together.<\/li>\n
  5. The Redding CA Family History Expo was a resounding success.\u00a0 I was able to re–connect with Bob Higgins, a Redding house and deck painter par excellence, whom I have known for several years.\u00a0 My genealogy classes were full.\u00a0 Kathryn Bassett, my web-master, and I had a chance to talk with many genealogists–several who were new to me (and I assume I was new to them).\u00a0 We sold a lot of books and took a lot of requests for information.\u00a0 What a wonderful time we had.<\/li>\n
  6. Then Kathryn went to Salt Lake to research at the Family History Library<\/em> and I went back to Southern California to spend a week researching The Robert A. Brock Virginia Collection at the <\/em>Huntington Library<\/em> in San Marino CA.\u00a0 One afternoon, after I had filled a notebook with notes and ordered many photocopies of documents, the fire alarms went off and the Pasadena Fire Department and Paramedics came roaring in.\u00a0 I have already shared my cold chills that those priceless and irreplaceable materials might be lost\u00a0 (see my previous blog).\u00a0 My research time was awesome.\u00a0 And I will go back again in March and in April to get more original Virginia data.<\/li>\n
  7. As I was driving home on Saturday morning, on the first Baker CA hill, my front differential melted and exploded.\u00a0 My truck slowed to a crawl and I limped into the only mechanic on duty in Baker.\u00a0 He has a real thing going:\u00a0 He charges $94.50, upfront<\/span>, to diagnose the problem.\u00a0 (He will apply the money to any repairs he does.)\u00a0 So I paid fee.<\/li>\n
  8. And then I called Triple AAA to tow me to Las Vegas.\u00a0 Seems the mechanic does not have a car rental too.\u00a0 And I had to be in Salt Lake City by Monday to consult for the Family History Expos -Semi-Annual Research Retreat at the Family History Library conducted by Holly Hansen.\u00a0 [If I lived in Baker, I would operate a full-service automotive program including rental cars–and retire a rich woman.\u00a0 Have you read the book, Smart Women <\/strong>Retire Rich?<\/strong><\/em>]<\/li>\n
  9. My truck was in the Triple AAA Las Vegas garage, Car Works<\/em>, for 11 days.\u00a0 And I rented a fire-engine red (don’t you love it?) Dodge to carry me and my inventory to Salt Lake City–where I arrived just in time to attend Stake Conference Sunday morning and get ready for the Retreat.\u00a0 I speak every day at 5:30 pm at the Retreat and take attendees by the hand and lead them to their ancestors from 9:00 am to 5:00pm. [ If you are interested in that priceless experience, see below.]<\/li>\n
  10. When I got home from the Retreat, my whole digital online\u00a0 system was still down–so Holly Hansen gave me a cell phone.<\/li>\n
  11. With the cell phone I rode herd on Comcast–I was at last home long enough to be called back!\u00a0 Well, it took a new modem and a re-run line to fix the system.\u00a0 And half a day.<\/li>\n
  12. Then my water heater burst, sending water all over the floor.\u00a0 And requiring another visit from the plumber on Monday morning to replace it.<\/li>\n
  13. In the meantime, my Merchant Services company cancelled my credit card merchant account and it has taken me more than three hours to get it restored.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    13 Vicissitudes–<\/strong><\/p>\n

    After the fact, I can laugh and joke. You see, after over three weeks on the road, I still had enough money on my credit card to pay for the car repairs and the rental car, and if I’m lucky,\u00a0 pay the plumber.\u00a0 That is the miracle<\/strong> of October!\u00a0 For which I am truly blessed and truly thankful!\u00a0 Your favorite genealogist, Arlene Eakle http:\/\/arleneeakle.com<\/p>\n

    PS Now I just have to find the funds to pay my taxes and my truck insurance.\u00a0 That is another month worth.\u00a0 And if I can receive the same blessings in November that I received in October, I will really celebrate Thanksgiving this year!<\/p>\n

    PPS\u00a0 And those of you awaiting books and research helps and email answers– over 500 were waiting for me (and Kathryn deleted all the spam and non-genealogy solicitations while I was gone)–and requests for information:\u00a0 Please be Patient.\u00a0 I am working as fast as I can to get it all done.\u00a0 Harvesting the leaves that fall late in November all over my 1\/4 acre green yard not counting.\u00a0 I will be ever so grateful for the time to complete my commitments to you.\u00a0 With appropriate bribes included free with each letter and package I send out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The months of October 2009 and thus far into November 2009–its Friday the 13th November today–have been a strange and in some cases difficult time for me personally.\u00a0 And I have been laughing a lot–better than crying a lot. My … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":380,"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378\/revisions\/380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}