Once upon a very nice Zinfadel. I decided I should write this stuff down before I forgot it, even though I'm like falling over tired and exhausted, with a sail and a concert to go to tomorrow.

My deceased grandfather's long lost relatives came into town from Ottawa yesterday. It happens that only my grandfather and his immediate family came over to Canada (before confederation), but something occurred that his mother (Kate) got so seperated from her four other brothers and sisters, that the children of her siblings (eg: my grandfather's cousins) didn't even know that my grandfather existed until their children were grown up. Apparently the spelling of my last name is so unusual, it was a rule with all the kids to check the phonebook of any new town they went to. And so check they did, and they found my grandfather's name once in Edmonton, and discovered that their family histories of course collaberated, and filled in missing peices for each other, great grandmother Kate of course being the missing link. Interestingly enough, there seems to be a trend of old maid temptresses in the family (read: strong willed beautiful women with bad tempers), as well as one black sheep, every second generation or so, that no one likes to talk about. My great grandmother kate had a brother named James that no one knows anything about, which I think is a pity.

The folks that I had a very fine dinner with tonight (like, fucking expensive) are the children of one of the brother's or sister's of Kate. During world war two, C was sent to Canada, but B was kept behind because he was older (slightly), and thus they were split up until it was over. I'd read Ben Wicks account of this a while ago, and always wondered about it affecting the british side of the family, so now I know. B still lives in Devonshire though, by Exeter, and not only did I get an invitation to stay there sometime in "the passageway that consists of my spare bedroom", but I got an invite from C and his wife J to stay in their cabin outside of Ottawa. So spoiled am I. I really felt like a snob tonight actually, because this place was pretty swank, and I was all dressed up, and we were all talking about the old family, and I guess there was a lot of money there (still is I guess). It's interesting, but it's also a little overwhelming. I always hoped for humble peasant origins. I really liked meeting these people though, it was neat.
  ¶ 12:51 AM