Time flies, and all that crap. And yes, I should’ve thought of a more creative title for “Letters, pt. deux.” Get over it.

When we last spoke, I promised to share a bit of what my g-g-grandfather had to say about his cabin, and the traffic that passed by the front of it. The cabin, as you might’ve guessed, is the very one pictured here, taken from the original painting (done from memory) in 1899.

Ok, OK, so that’s not how it goes, but what you see in the picture is what I saw happening outside by back door this morning. It’s pouring rain. And there are DUCKS on my deck. I KNOW! In SEATTLE? We call them 7-11 ducks, because they’re not the least bit bashful about pecking on the back door to get our attention.

So what’s that got to do with family history? It reminded me of some of my Dad’s favorite expressions, grandad’s, too.

Know how to tell when a blogger’s running out of things to discuss? He/she starts rambling about his/her visitor logs.

That’s right, ladies and germs, I can SEE where you’re coming from, how often, and what you’re doing while you’re here. BTW, you might wanna close those blinds behind you….

Most days, the logs are pretty boring, but occasionally, things start showing up that make me scratch my head and go “Whuh?”…

One-hundred-fourteen years ago, on September 18th, 1895, Daniel David Palmer performed the first chiropractic adjustment… to make a deaf man hear. *Ahem.*

Mr. Palmer (not yet elevated to “Dr.” status), was an on-again/off-again beekeeper, school teacher, and grocer with what might have been an unhealthy interest in mysticism. Despite some serious skepticism that lingers to this very day, he did manage to create a field of medicine that touched (no pun intended) several of our family members, including yours truly.

I’ve never been very good at family interviews. Which is odd, considering I spent more than twenty years interviewing politicians, businessmen, and criminals for various TV news programs. There’s just something uncomfortable about asking your grandfather how much he embezzled from the public trust.

But I do have a some questions… above and beyond the obvious birth/death/marriage queries… that I wish someone had asked my dead ancestors. I mean, how much can they care, now that they’re dead? So here we go…