Sometimes it's good to be clueless!

Tuesday morning I did an early morning seminary pick up for two of our young men. Normally my husband would do this, but he was going on an early flight to San Antonio. They live near Fair Park, about half a block from the DART station where a young man was killed by a pack of aggressive 12-14 year-olds just last week. So not the best of neighborhoods. They live on a quiet side street. I stopped in the middle of the street and one boy got into the car. As we were chatting, waiting for his brother, 2 black men came up to the car and asked me to move over to the curb. I did, thinking I was blocking something and continued chatting. They hung around and said something about "your lights out." I thought they were telling me one of my lights was out so I just looked up and said "OK, thanks", and continued chatting. They said something about the lights again and the boy said, "I think they want you to turn your lights out." So I cracked the window and said to the closest guy, "I'm not going to turn the lights out because I'm about to leave." ...and continued chatting! By then the other brother came out, got into the car and we left. It was only later, when I thought about it that I realized I should have been scared. My car was not blocking anything and why would they want my lights off? It kind of freaked me out in retrospect!

BPPV

Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo - I had this condition about 5 years ago. Simply put, there are tiny crystals in the inner ear that affect your balance. When they migrate to the wrong part of the ear, the brain gets confused and you experience vertigo. When I researched this 5 years ago, I found a simple treatment, The Epley Maneuver, which Sarah helped me with and it worked. For the past 3 weeks or so I have been feeling dizzy again and the symptoms are consistent with BPPV. I realized I could do the maneuver on my own and tried it a week ago. It helped; The vertigo went from major to minor. Then this morning, I was sitting at the table reading and started feeling dizzy just sitting there. Weird sensation. And my first reaction was to get up and start doing things that I might not be able to do if it gets worse. Kind of counter intuitive to go lurching about the house just to wash dishes, do laundry and make the bed. But I had to make the bed so that I could lie down on it and do the maneuver. Anyhow, here's hoping the Epley works. It's no fun to bump into walls and risk being mistaken for a drunk!

Genealogy Stuff

3/16/11 - The genealogical information that can be gleaned from some of these 19th Century or early 20th Century local histories is wonderful. Here are two articles I found from the "Commemorative Biographical Record of Prominent and Representative Men of Kenosha and Racine Counties" by J.H. Beers and Co. Clarence Snyder was the second husband of my 2nd G Grandmother, Isabel Scribner Elkins. Hiram Joseph Smith is not a direct ancestor either, but what a great name! He married Nancy Elkins, who was sister to Isabel Scribner's 1st husband, Edmond Elkins, my 2nd G Grandfather.

And this: