elainegrey

Today would have been Ollie M Roberson Webley Whedbee's 97th birthday. I know about her because gurdonark discovered the court battles of her parents in 1915 while searching for autoharp citations in a legal database. Gurdonark tells the story of Ollie (her father) and Lucy, starting with a passage from a letter:

"Strike the chords of Life's great autoharp whenever you may, and there comes forth the wails of misery and woe commingling with those of laughter and song"
[letter of Lucy Roberson to Ollie Roberson, from the Nevada Supreme Court case of Roberson v. Roberson, 41 Nev. 276, 169 P. 333(1917)]

As Gurdonark was able to find out a bit more about Ollie the father, i did what i could to find out a bit about Lucy and the child from the genealogical databases.

So pleasurable i've forgotten to call for a doctor's appointment!

Doctor visit this morning defined it as a head cold triggering the other symptoms. "It's taking over a week, up to two weeks, for people to get over their colds from what I'm seeing," said the doctor. I'll just keep having a go at the aspirin.

I decided not to lie low today, though. Waiting for Christine i managed a tidy trim in the garden. i was delighted to see the squirrels did NOT dig up all my crocus bulbs: they're sprouting. The amaryllis and the narcissus seem still fairly dormant.

Then we were ready to address my errand list. With Yuletide money and with thoughts of the Xootr, i bought a pair of Vibram FiveFingers KSOTreks. Basically, i bought black leather gloves for my feet. The Treks are designed for running on trails, so there's shielding while at the same time allowing a great deal more experience of being barefoot. I love them! I felt so much more comfortable on the Xootr, and i didn't want to force the shoes off immediately when i got home.

My feet are extremely happy.

After that stop, we continued our shopping spree with a visit to the store where Christine bought the Xootrs and a gift certificate. I got a new helmet and wrist splints there.

I have never felt so ... sporty! in my life. New scooter, new shoes to move in, new protective gear, all to make moving around better.

We ran a few more errands: a return on video cables we thankfully did not need (so expensive!), Office Wildcard for a few things Christine wanted, sushi, and the comic book store. At home, i wanted to ride before it rained again, so we scooted the loop we walked often this summer. I was much more efficient on the xooter with the fancy shoes: i felt more balanced especially when switching the pushing foot, and i found myself pushing much more with my toes. I think the previous expedition i was hitting the ground hard with my foot in order to shove off with the whole thing. With the barefoot-shoes i found myself just pushing myself along with my toes.

I've spent some time reading one of the books from the comic store: a compendium of the color Sunday panels of Krazy Kat. The other is a fantastic collection of Abstract Comics.

I've been wondering, as i look at my physical-book buying habits, if the graphic novel will outlast the literary novel on tree pulp. While i certainly enjoy web comics, there is a pleasure in the ease of comparing pages without the server delivery time.

Another wild splurge for the day was a discovery that i still had some money at the iTunes store. I rarely buy there. I had enough cash to "complete" an album, and so i completed Johnny Cash's live album at San Quentin. (Sadly, the songs i already had are protected, while the new ones do not have DRM. So i can listen to the new ones on my phone, but not the ones i picked out some time back.)

We are having a late dinner, and i don't know how we might observe the new year other than going to sleep when we're tired.