Friday, January 6, 2017

Sorting Leads To New Treasures - My Dad is an Author

I had a different sort of day today. I wanted to get to the last bin I had of pictures in my garage and start typing up the history to scan with the picture but as with many high pressure storms that come my way, I got a headache. 

I have posted about my head being a barometer before and you can read about that here.

I haven't done much in the house in the past week due to focusing on the sorting so I did some laundry today and with that, I made a shorter video telling how I clean out the inside dryer vent as I have been wanting to make a shorter video for a long time. It was something I could do in a short time without much planning or work as I have had everything ready for weeks. 

I was able to upload it due to not being on the computer all day as it takes so long to upload anything on my internet. With that, I feel like I got something done today. 

The other thing I was able to do today was phone calls. I found a book my dad wrote but had never seen it before. I also had some other questions for my father. Princess One ordered two books he helped author on Amazon and I was shocked when she asked him to sign them as I didn't know he had even helped write them! 

Come to find out, he had a third that didn't credit him that he helped write and I knew of none of the three. I do know of some he wrote and have them but didn't know of the others as my father isn't a writer but an educator so it wasn't his primary focus. I was embarrassed that I didn't know but wonder how many of my siblings also didn't know as my father is a humble and private person. I found programs where he was being honored that I hadn't know about either.

I called my father today, sharing that in the 6 pallets of papers I sorted from my mothers house, I found one two page life history my mother wrote for him and one 3/4 page history he wrote for a program. I asked if I typed them up if he would edit them for me and he grumbled about how no one would read them etc but I think I got him to commit to sharing all the publications he has written in order and the book I found this week was his doctorate dissertation! 

I remember him writing it and I remember the stress of it and I remember going to his graduation for his doctorate when I was in jr. high but had never heard what his dissertation was about or seen it. He said he has several copies and I am going to scan the entire book so that all my siblings can have it digitized. 

I am planning on giving every sibling a back up drive eventually with all the scans of my mothers stuff and all the histories, documents and now my fathers writings on it. I know it will take me a few years to get it all done but how great it will be to get it off the "list" I have. 

My sister sent me some pictures of the bins in her basement and the labels I have on them so I was able to tell her which I need to consolidate the items I have sorted this week and then only scan it all once and finish sorting before scanning.

I also made a few other calls to family about contact numbers for my mothers friends so I can share the letters, cards and pictures my mother had of them as I don't think anyone in my family will want pictures that aren't of my mother. It will be so nice to get all this stuff gone and done. 

Good news is that I know more about my dad now and he has promised to help with his history so getting what I have typed up is a priority so he can work on that while I work on the other items. 

My sister still has about 15 bins in her basement and lots and lots of recordings that need listening to but in the end, (Here is a link to where I show lots of the tapes etc we have that need to be listened to and transferred) I now have some idea of the mountain I need to climb knowing there isn't a canyon of stuff at the top as everything is there and it makes me happy to know that there is an end eventually!  

The pictures here are some she emailed out of the bins and I don't have any of them here so I am excited to be able to combine all of it and scan everything! I LOVE the treasures I have been finding while sorting and am excited to share them with my family.

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