the end of february, and i'm sitting here exhausted. i've started swimming; i went for the second time today (went yesterday as well) and that leaves me sore but happy. happy in an exhausted way. i know i'll sleep well. i haven't worked out the details - where to put my hearing aids when i swim, etc. - but i've found my place. the water is nice, people are good.

i finished reading a rough set of stories and handed up a review. then i turned to some other reading on my plate, and it was rough too. i was having trouble following. one problem is i'm spending a lot of time on cotton mather. he was an interesting guy but people who quote him and talk about him have problems being understood; at any rate, by now, i'm drained. the craziness of it has gotten to me.

an explosion of information on the web explores not only his mind, but also that of the girls, and even the others involved in the witch trials. people are still looking for answers, how it could have happened. i don't have answers. i am looking for lost relatives. they seem to have been in and out of wenham, near salem, in that era.

specifically one woman who we thought we'd lost, appeared in wenham in 1713 marrying a guy from a prominent family. he'd been married to the sheriff's daughter, i believe (a sheriff who was involved in the witch trial, sheriff herrick of wenham) and she'd died, leaving him three small children. our ancestor stepped right in there and married him. how did she get to wenham in 1713? perhaps she was already there, or in nearby ipswich? or she went up to visit someone?

a village of only about 500 people had to pull itself together after the witch trials, and patch up relations that had gone sour. the state paid a few people compensation for being wrongly accused, and forced to pay jail fees for crimes they hadn't committed. it was wild, but it was in 1692. our relative didn't get on the books until 1713. anything could have happened in that 21 years.

the growing up of a certain kid, is one thing that could have happened.