HOOTIE, YOU RASCAL, YOU!

Hootie, you finally done it! Someone actually asked what you are.

I have published to all the boards and forums that I had been using, that Hootie is my pet owl. I have also mentioned numerous times that he does not exist, except as a figment of my imagination. It is much easier to get some points across if you use a co-conspirator or be the straight man for a comic, and I have played both parts with Hootie. And it has been wonderfully successful.

But the one forum where I made no big deal of it was the HD forums. I did not introduce Hootie into any discussions until a few months ago, and when I did I made sure I qualified him as a non-existent pet. So imagine my surprise today when I glance at that forum and someone said that they had skimmed my blog and wondered if Hootie was my pet owl. I have not answered the query and may not. The individual can always come back here and learn the truth.

Somewhere, back in the history of this blog, Hootie is introduced. I don't remember exactly where, but it is there if anyone is interested.



But for any of you skimmers or lurkers, leave a message and let me know you were here. If you have ideas for improvements or want particular topics to0 get the treatment, let me know. I'll turn Hootie loose and we'll see what hen-scratching he comes up with.

AN UN-HOOTIE UPDATE

Yesterday I decided to remove myself from active participation on the forums for the Herald-Dispatch. There were a number of reasons for this move, among which were the fact that I simply do not have time to keep up with all the different computer related forums, blogs, sites that I have been active on. I am going to restrict myself to only the WVbloggers board and the H-D blogs (primarily Jim Ross' blog). That should free up a couple hours daily for me to concentrate on the genealogy project. I imagine I'll keep an eye on all the rest but participation will be extremely limited.


As a sort of progress report on the genealogy project, we now have captured some 41,000 persons related directly or indirectly to our family, dates from current back as far as the twelfth century. While I continue to add individuals to the files, I am concentrating more on capturing dates of weddings, deaths, names of places and historical tidbits. Yeah, I mentioned dates of death and not births--it seems births were recorded in family Bibles, but deaths seldom were--probably because the Bible remained in the possession of one son or daughter and the others had migrated westward or whatever and did not keep in touch, due in part to the inability to read or write.

It is interesting to note that my family and my wife's family have common ancestors back three or four generations and then in alternating generations behind that. his appears to be a common thread with all genealogies. I read where a guy had said that if we all went back three or more generations, we would all have common ancestors. It sure seems to be true in our families.

WV Blogger Blackout

This section added 18 October 2007--I knew I shouldn't have let Hootie transcribe what follows below. His typing is the pits. And here I am, almost two weeks later, having to go in and edit his poor work. Shame, Hootie, shame. No extra mousie for you today. Ok, Ok, I know, it's a vole.




Well---

Life is good again.

Hootie just about had a conniption fit here a couple of days ago. See, he was into this blog site and was just getting ready to start springing his idiotic humor on them, and the damned site went down. No warning, no notice, just phssszzt, and gone. Well, you know Hootie, he wasn't going to take that sitting down. (Have you ever seen an owl sit? No, I mean sit, not perch. It is not a pretty sight, let me tell you.) So he boots up the box and makes an inquiry. And sure enough, the news comes back that it is kaput, frazzled, fried and just plain mush.

I'm not much of a sympathizer with owls, but he looked so damned pitiful--I told him he could go to the Huntington Blog site. No, she was too mean and would have him for breakfast one of these days. After all, a person who doesn't just adore Tom McCallister aint no kind of person to mess with. I may have looked askance at him a time or two over that outburst, but then I put him on the tristateforum. No, just too darned tame over there. Besides, no one posts anything much except what is semi-important to those in Kentucky and Ohio. As a hillbilly owl, he sure gets tempered up every now and then.

So I didn't really know what to do with him or for him for a few days, so I just kept him shut up in his cage with the towel down and threw him a mousie or two now and then. (Oh, he tells me they are voles, not mousies. He says since I catch them outside they are voles. If you catch them inside they are mousies. OK, Hootie, you are the expert on that, I guess.) But, today, man, it really got to stinking bad so I took the cage outside and made him clean it up. Ugh. I don't even want to talk about it.

While I was bringing it back inside, he flew away and hit the keyboard and in a flash flew back and told me his troubles were over. He had just gotten an e-mail (well, it was my e-mail, but he likes to have his little peccadillos), so I asked him what was up. He went into this loud fit of squawking, honking and spitting and I couldn't make heads or tails out of it. I threatened him with the fan again and he quieted right down and handed me the copy. Seems the site is back up under new management is how he explained it to me. I aint technical and neither is he, so we just bandy them words about like we actually know what is going on, and most of the time people don't even guess how really tragically iggorant we is.

Onywho--He wouldn't rest until I got us logged back into the board and made some entries.

Poor little feller, he's asleep over there now. Looks right purty, too. But he don't know theres a darned old mousie running his cage and picking up all the blood and guts he left from the last one. He'd probably do it right in his pants, if he wore any, ifn he knowed that.


Hey--HOOTIE--wake up! God that was funny. Heh heh heh. Here he thought he was still outside and tried to launch. Damned cage has gotten three broken wires and old Hootie is trapped until I straighten it out.

And I'm tired, so I'm going to bed. See you tomorrow, Hootie.

Heh heh heh heh heh heh

towhoo towhoo