February portraits

Dog day

Friday was a big day for Frisco. First, on the way to pick up Vincent to go to the memorial service, we took Frisco to the Petsmart near our motel for a haircut (and de facto dog-sitting), and he bit the hair stylist. They declined to cut his hair, and then we had to hope that the Petsmart on the way to Vincent's, at Easton, would take him for dogsitting. The questionnaire we got (never before) even asked if he had bit anyone. But they figured how to get him back there without much more misbehaving. Otherwise, we might have had to leave Frisco in the car during the memorial service. After we picked Frisco up on the way to drop Vincent off at his father's - almost eight hours later - we drove to an old art-house movie theater we had frequented when we lived in Columbus and its adjoining cafe (the Drexel Radio Cafe - we even have T-shirts for it) (I'm not sure I've been back there since we lived there). To my complete shock, they let us bring Frisco into the cafe while we ate dessert/drank tea (we were just going to carry out and walk some more with him) and then let us take him into the 10:00 "Single Man" movie, where he slept mostly but occasionally looked up and watched the movie (we sat in the back). Only one other patron noticed him. The manager had said it was so slow that as long as no big crowd showed up and Frisco behaved he could stay. They did not ask us to pay for Frisco. Frisco did steal some popcorn from me. It had been a big day for us - and our dog. We've dreamed of going back to the Drexel and mused about sneaking Frisco into one of the Kentuckiana discount theaters. On this day we got to do both!

-- Perry

Mixed weekend

Thursday night we drove to Columbus for the memorial service and en-urnment of Stephanie's stepbrother Bobby, who had died Saturday the weekend before. Vincent's friend Jessi had helped talk Vincent into going with us. We picked him up, drove by my old Victorian Village apartment, and parked under the Statehouse. We walked clear around the Statehouse to get to the old downtown Trinity Episcopal Church, site of the service. It was sunny but cold. We were carrying a box with some pictures of Bobby and a wooden candleholder he had made for us. I think I have been in Trinity before, in connection with my dissertation research (and in fact my parents worshiped there the morning after their wedding in 1957), but I had never parked under the Statehouse. Many of the buildings around us figured in Chapter 2 of my dissertation.

The sanctuary of the church I don't think I'd seen before.

Vincent, Stephanie, and I sat in the second pew, behind Nancy, Papa Bob, Grandma Mary, Stephanie's stepsister Vickki, and her friend Loren. There was de facto a "groom"'s side and "bride"'s side, and we sat on the groom's side.

Below are Vickki and Loren.

The priest who had met Bobby and wife Terree a week before did a good job with a service. There was a time for several friends and family members to speak about Bobby, who was remembered as a friendly, loyal, can-do person. The first to speak was a long-time friend.

Last to speak was Tom, Bobby's older brother, who also officiated some in the service. Some relatives had apparently slated Tom to be a priest at some point. He's now a retired schoolteacher, back in the classroom sometimes.

The picture below did not turn out well, but it shows Bob and Nancy looking on during the en-urnment, when the urn with Bobby's cremated remains was placed in little locker-like box along a short wall of the sanctuary. We mostly got up and stood. Bob had had surgery just a couple of weeks before and began feeling weak and had to sit down.

After an hour-long reception in the church basement, after the service, with some pictures and refreshments, we drove to Stephanie's mom's to pick up some meatballs (Nancy and Bob stayed home), and drove to Bobby and Terree's relatively new house in Gahanna, which we'd only visited a couple of times after he got sick (most recently on the King birthday holiday weekend - by that time, Bobby - who died of brain cancer - had been on hospice for several months). Pickerington, where Nancy and Bob live, and much of the rest of Central Ohio, was shrouded in snow.

Tom, Vickki, and Loren were at the house for a while, but mainly Stephanie, Vincent, and I got to meet some of Bobby's very nice friends and in-laws - folks listed in the obituary whom we had never met. Terree has several siblings and they had lots of friends, a couple of whom recalled helping Bobby and Terree pick out presents for Stephanie when she was a pre-teen.

On the left below is Terree.

Vincent liked the food and conversation for a while, but then said he wasn't feeling well. On the way to take him home, we picked up Frisco at the Petsmart PetsHotel at Easton, and they got to hang out for a little while in the car. As always, Vincent asked if Frisco could stay with him and his father for a little while.

We dropped Vincent off at his and his father's moments later. A little more about Frisco and Petsmart and the rest of the evening later. On Saturday Stephanie and I went over to Stephanie's mom's, but I also drove 20 minutes over to my aunt's in Canal Winchester. I hadn't been there for some time.

Aunt Barb (below) has been living with Aunt June for a couple of years, since she moved back from Las Vegas. Barb was on her way to work at WalMart.

June's son, my cousin Dustin, who was staying with his mother for the weekend, lives in Lancaster - as of about a month ago, with his father, whom he first met back around Thanksgiving. Dustin and I had an interesting conversation, including about what would happen if I lost my job - but I didn't get a picture of him. June came home after a while - after shopping at Barb's WalMart - and we talked. June, Barb, and Dustin all have challenging health problems. I later talked on the phone with June's daughter, my cousin Diana (who introduced Stephanie and me), and Grandpa Beck, in Marysville. I didn't reach Aunt Sandy.

I stopped back by Bob and Nancy's. They recently had their downstairs redone and refurnished and the second floor gets redone over the next couple of months. Like the rest of us (although we didn't get Vincent to go with us for this), Frisco likes visiting.

-- Perry

Critical time

A season of budget cuts reaches landmarks this week. This coming week the administration and board for Stephanie’s school district superintendent pictured to the right) will make decisions about how to cut $6.6 million from he school district budget. The cuts will no doubt affect Stephanie’s school and Stephanie and her colleagues. The details will likely be fleshed out over time. Stephanie and some of her colleagues talked more about this late last week. Also last week the board for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s largest national agency – the one I work for – met to establish “guidelines” for its budget cutting. Income to the PC(USA) General Assembly Mission Council is slated to drop up to 15-20 percent over the next two years. Four years ago 75 people (including nearly me) were laid off in my organization, but the agency has managed to avoid big layoffs since then. May 14 is the day no doubt more of us will go.

Stephanie and I have had to speculate what we would do if we BOTH lost our Kentuckiana jobs as we think about opportunities here and elsewhere and our parents, child, and companion animals. Already this month, Humana has laid off 750 Kentuckiana employees.

For more on the New Albany-Floyd County schools corporation cuts upcoming, see: http://www.newsandtribune.com/schools/local_story_012221729.html

For more on the PC(USA) budget problems, see: http://www.pcusa.org/pcnews/2010/10176.htm

P.S. Another odd twist: A majority of Stephanie’s current English as a new language students speak Spanish, but, among those who do not, the largest are Japanese: kids of fathers who work for a Japanese firm whose New Albany plant makes parts for Toyota. With all of Toyota’s problems, it’s possible that fewer of these Japanese families may be coming to New Albany in the near future.

-- Perry