Families....

 

So tired yesterday all I posted was this picture, then fell asleep!

Today I managed to reply to emails, quite quickly for me.  Including one from a woman on ancestry who is researching the family line.  Quite how she fits I fail to see however, family lines spread out and who knows how close a relative she might be?  I hope she is rich?  

There was a ship, the 'Lyon,' which sailed in 1640 to New England.  On board were a hundred or so seeking a new life, possibly for religious reasons, possibly for adventure.  One visitor from the USA informed me that from those who arrived all those years ago there were now 3 million descendants.   

This is worrying, as my fathers line tended to have several children each, they probably went off breeding happily around the world, and here may be 3 or more million of us lot being miserable old goats in all parts of the world!  

I was wondering if those long gone family were like us?  Did they have the same inherited attitudes?  Did they use the same terms we use today, or had their experiences, running or working on farms, created the attitudes and outlook that came down to us?  Grandfather was a drunk, my father went the opposite way because of this, but what were they like previous to that?  Great Grandfather took a pub in a period of agricultural downturn, though he kept 40 acres nearby.  You cannot run a pub and be a drunk, even if your daughters do most of the work.  Women have a nasty tendency to say what they think...

If we met our forefathers and mothers would we recognise ourselves in them by the way they spoke, the mannerisms, their looks?  I have mentioned previously the football team of 16 years old from 1896, I recognised three of them as young men following the Heart of Midlothian in the 60s.  Clearly they were the grandchildren, would we recognise out grandfathers in similar fashion, if indeed we had photographs of them?  

I am just imagining several generations of my family on my fathers side in one room, all complaining about something, all moaning and all being 'right!'  Maybe it would be good, maybe it would be tiring!

I give thanks that the massive Microsoft outage has missed this house, though I know not why.  The NHS, airports, airlines, and big business are grounded, while many individuals have the 'Blue screen of death!'  It is many years since I saw that, it was once common, and I am glad to have avoided this.

How can Microsoft have such an outage?  How can so many suffer this way at one time?  Surely there was some system to limit exposure to outages?  We all know their wonderful machines work well until they don't, and while accepting the complexity of the inner workings it remains clear that some 14 year old was not doing his job today.

I have said for a long time there is no need to fear bombs.  Putin makes a big mistake dropping bombs, all he has to do is close down the electricity power stations, block all the Microsoft workings and victory is assured.  Without electric nothing happens, without computers nothing happens.  And on top of that there is no backup on card to overcome this.  Rail travel systems are down, carboard tickets would still work mind.  I laugh when they say 'Buy tickets online,' but not if the system is down, not if the individuals laptop is dead, and not if the bank cannot pass the cash!  

More of this to come.