Moves and half-siblings

So -- all in all, it's been a pretty interesting week. Especially when you consider that day to day life around here is generally totally uninteresting.

First -- I moved. Already chronicled. Made quick work of it. Worth every back ache and ounce of fatigue it caused, too. I love the new place. Inside, it looks just like the other one, except for different color carpeting. Furniture is all in the same place, etc. Even the cat seemed to feel at  home when I brought her onto the premises after everything was moved. It smelled different, to a cat's sensitive nose, but it looked familiar. She had to sniff out every inch of the carpet and cabinets and whatever didn't hold her scent, but settled down quite quickly to the idea that this was home.

For me, it was more about quiet, and temperature. Even though this unit faces west, it's still cooler than the one that faced east. I think that's largely due to the westerly breeze that's almost always out there, as well as the fact that the sun doesn't hit my windows until around 4pm and then it's gone in a couple of hours and then the cool breeze cools it down quickly again. The breezes escaped the east-facing unit. I could see the leaves moving on the trees, but somehow none of it ever came in the windows. The sun always hit those windows early, too, and for several hours. All in all. A good move.

The other interesting thing is that I discovered that I have a half-brother I never knew existed. Only through the wonders of DNA and the internet! To make a long story short, my father apparently sowed some wild oats while he was in Taiwan in 1952, hence the half-brother. I don't have DNA testing, but some first cousins do have and this man's son submitted his own DNA on the off chance he'd find a match. He knew my father's name, but with a common name like John Smith, he had little chance of finding the right person.

And he's definitely found the right person. He sent a photo of his father (my half-brother) and the resemblance to my father is uncannily eerie. There's no doubt in my mind, certainly, even without the DNA evidence matching offspring of my father's brother. The whole family lives in the US now, and has for a long time. I'm not going to post photos because I want to be careful of their privacy. It's been pretty cool to know that I have a Taiwanese half-brother. I was a little shocked when I first read the 'comment' posted on my FamilySearch webpage. He said he didn't know how else to contact me.

So there's that. Correspondence at a minor standstill right now because the young man is in the USAF stationed in Australia and doesn't have much time to write during the week. But he will, I'm sure. There's lots more for both of us to discover.