•   What's New
•   This month's Feature:  Brain Damage Revisited
•   Ramblings From the Editor
•   Newsletter Info

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WHAT'S NEW

     As if I needed it, my computer crashed.  Yeah, I know -- "Again?!?  I thought she fixed that last time."

     If you make something truly fool proof, someone else will make a better fool.

     As I said to a couple of you via private email, I was planning on
making the next couple issues pretty beefy.  I now have the time and gift of space that will allow me to stay on  top of my research, so I had thought to go through the backlog of email messages and heavily pepper the next couple of issues from those back emails.

     HA!

     So there she sits.

     The house is quiet.  The big herd of Harleys has just gone by for the evening out on Edmonds Street.  My housemate is asleep.  I have aaaaaaaaalllllll night to get my repaired and upgraded computer organized.

     I am amazed at the amount of data my housemate's son managed to salvage for me (she did a good job with boy, she did).  I'm  moving files about, creating folder nests to make storing and accessing my data easier for me; I imagine explaining my filing system would be like explaining alternate side of the street parking to a cranberry, but it works for me.

     I take a break, and trot myself out on the porch for a quiet late ni--
er, early morning smoke.  As I watch the exhaled smoke curl lazily up, I think about some of the really cool things I can do with this newsletter.  The whole time I'm out there, the only traffic noise I hear was the distant double whoop of some one getting pulled over by the local constabulary, way off down the hill and over yonder . . . that way.  Stubbing the cigarette out, I go back inside, reminding myself that even though I can now do some really spiffy things with my email, not everyone on the list would be able to see it.  And besides, I really need to save out those messages in Juno.

     I go back into my bedroom, to the Desk (yes, I have a really and for truly wood desk to work on), with the mouse, I "thumb" through the folder Richard (the wonderful son of my housemate Laurie) named Old Stuff, got to the Juno folder --

     A brief comment here.  Before Richard did anything, he took a snap shot of my hard drives.  What was REALLY cool is that the snapshot copy of Juno worked.  I had access to all the backlog of email AND my address book and EVERYthing; Richard had said that he wasn't sure if the snap-shotted programs would work, but the data was there, and I needn't bother with uninstalling anything in the Old Stuff folder, just delete it when I no longer want it.

     Anyway.

     I'm there at the desk, doing an almost subconscious sorting of you all, I'm at the Juno folder in the Old Stuff folder, thinking about how cool it is that I can sit up all night doing this and no one to bug me about it, and later I can go web surfing for new info.

     I left click on the Juno folder.  The 7 month old marmalade Manx we are kitty-sitting comes in for a bit of attention.  I let him chew on me a little, then I went back to the computer, asking myself out loud, "What was I doing?"

     In reply I said, "Deleting", and clicked on Delete.

     A screen comes up saying the item was too big for the recycle bin, "do you want to permanently delete this item?"

     As my finger clicked "Yes" I remembered what I had been doing.

     After muttering a few defamatory scatological invectives -- and
checking to be sure the folder was *really* gone -- I shut the computer down and went to bed.

     However, I did save the gedcoms and the Monster Data Base.

     It was brain damage pure and simple.

     And, if you are waiting for your question or comment to appear in COUSINS and it hasn't, please sent it again.  The loss of this email was not a computer problem, it was operator error.

     But then you probably understand this, you're family.

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THIS MONTH'S FEATURE: Brain Damage Revisited

     So, I go to the website to check the July COUSINS for where in the family I left off on in our Main Feature.

     At least I'm consistent.

     I hadn't gotten round to putting up June's or July's newsletter.  If
any of you still have a copy of either/both, I'd surely appreciate a copy of either/both.

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RAMBLINGS FROM THE EDITOR

     This month's newsletter is out late because I've been off playing in the mid-19th century.  What with my major faux paux with the Juno folder, it seemed the thing to do.

     And it is August.

     I spend the first weekend of August at the Fort Langley National
Historic Site of Canada, on the Fraser River, in British Columbia.
Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, I was in the fort's historical brigade
encampment, sleeping in a mid-19th century style tent, dressed in mid-19th century clothing, explaining to folks about what all went on at this second Hudson's Bay Company fur fort on the Pacific Slope.  I was also there as a Descendant of an HBC employee of the 19th century.  The Really Cool Surprise of the Year was a cousin who came in from Powell River with his wife, daughter, and grandchild.

     <Lisa grins>

     Did I write his name down . . . ?

     <Lisa laughs>

     No.

     So, Cousin, I hope you will read this on the web site.  Please email me at lisa@fortlangley.ca so I can get your email address back in my address book.  Thank you so very much.

     The second weekend of August is spent at Fort Nisqually, in Point Defiance Park, in Tacoma, Washington, USA, in their Historic Encampment Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.  Fort Nisqually was the first European Settlement on the Puget Sound; the year of re-enactment is 1855.

     Fort Nisqually is so much fun.  <Lisa grins>  First person
interpretation is encouraged as it apparently brings in repeat visitors.  And, as I understand it, my smiling face -- and my elk-bone club -- will be gracing advertising copy for the Fort Nisqually Historic Site.  Great bunch of people that re-enactment community, most especially the Columbia Detachment of the Royal Engineers, and Associates.  Great bunch of people. 

     So, I hear one re-enactor mention the name "Simon Gill", and well, my gr'gr'granddaddy Etienne Pepin's daughter Marie was the second wife of a fellow named Simon Gill, and the next thing I know, this tallish fellow dressed as a voyageur steps up, shakes my hand and we stood and talked about HBC's Simon Gill, whose second wife was Marie Pepin, who was the daughter of
Fort Langley blacksmith Etienne Pepin; Gill worked out of Fort Vancouver on the Columbia River, marrying Marie there on 2 January 1849.  Gill was out of Eastern Canada somewhere.

     Got at least one more event this month -- English Camp -- on San Juan Island at the end of the month, with the Royal Engineers.

     With the luck I've had running into relatives at historic
re-enactments, I think I'm going to have start doing the other events
throughout the year.

     'Sides, there's something cathartic about my chosen persona of  a 5-times-widowed, 40-ish, Métis (mixed-blood) woman named Mary Huston.  As time goes by you will, no doubt, learn more about Mary.

     But now I shall return you to your previously scheduled programming.

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NEWSLETTER INFORMATION

  If you have family you want to share this with but they don't have a computer, please feel free to print it out and share it with them.  If
you have family with a computer and/or internet access who you think might be interested in the newsletter, drop'em an e-mail and let'em know about it; feel free to pass along my e-mail address.

     Back issues of COUSINS can be found at:

http://www.fortlangley.ca/pepin/cousins.html

     Or, you can click on any of the red lions that appear on the Pepin pages and Site Directory.

   If for any reason you wish to change the way you receive the
newsletter -- or if you no longer wish to receive COUSINS -- drop me an e-mail at lisa@fortlangley.ca and tell me.

   If you just wanted to chat, my number is 604-524-0507

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COUSINS comes out once a month - more or less.
(Insert cheeky grin <HERE>)
This month's was finished 13 August 2002, 11:32pm PST
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