unusually fried at the moment, as saturday mornings are tough. i used to be able to sleep in on saturdays, but these days i get up at five and teach at six, and though that's going well, as i can practically teach in my sleep, it leaves me sleepless for the entire day. i do laundry and the kinds of things you can do in your sleep, like eating. the dog sits on my lap, knowing i'm frazzled.

last night i delved a bit into a family mystery. it seems someone on the other side of the family might have elaborated on the governor's history, and added "knight" to his name. now it's true that his grandson, a thomas like me, the so-called thomas the barber, named his son knight, for whatever reason. so it was said by these guys, who all seem to like to make more of things than they are, that this governor had been knighted, yet never made a big deal of it, never mentioned it in the colonies. well yes, it was true that he hated the king, hated the crown, and was one of the first to tell them, their directions about how to run the colony were of no relevance to him. so it seems, if someone had knighted him, and bestowed this enormous honor on him, without writing it down by the way, then he would be guilty, to say the least, of spitting on the hand that knighted him. but who are we to know? so much is buried in that seventeenth century, that it's entirely possible that all that happened.

it's a grim cold day on the mountain here, and i'm taking all the wood in the yard, every last stick, and burning it, because the cabin has a cold bitter wind at the cracks and i just can't bear being cold even another minute. also these sticks will hang around all summer if i don't, anyway, so might as well burn them up and turn some live heat into the place. eventually i will get out and take out the garbage, for example; it's too cold, at the moment, to even walk down the block. it's overflowing. my wife is trying to throw away an empty ice cream, and can't.

so it seems, there was a little side mystery, was he really a knight? and the historical, genealogical society had to do a study, and found no real evidence that he was. perhaps someone had referred to a 'knight' in a letter, or something had led this relative to conclude that he had been knighted, and had simply never mentioned it. he had, in fact, lived in england for six years. but during that six years he saw the restoration, the taking of oliver cromwell's body out of its grave so they could execute him, in short, it was nasty. i don't think the king was knighting him at that time.

on the other hand, the possibility that cromwell himself could have knighted him, well, that's actually possible. they were, after all, buddies. but did cromwell knight anybody? this is something i might have to look up.

going to cruces on tuesday. then el paso. traveling on the horizon. and, i'm looking forward to it. will report soon.