Today's a big day. This morning - instead of on Monday - movers come to my Mother's old house to get whatever items are left (that weren't already stolen) to take to my sister and brother-in-law's in Virginia. This afternoon a staff meeting at Stephanie's school will reveal a host of changes there (including no doubt some staff changes) in connection with the school district's $6 million in budget cuts. I will continue to try to finish a draft of a report that was due on Monday. No definite plans yet for a Vincent transfer this weekend. My speech Wednesday did OK, and I got a lot of work done and checked in with my Organizing for America colleagues Wednesday also. Dog had an accident.
-- Perry
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Bumpy week
Lots going on this week:
- My manager reminded me that I had missed a (somewhat abstract) deadline Monday, which is bad in all kinds of ways, all the more so with May 14 looming. I’m continuing to figure out how to focus more at work (and at this point at home) and scale back anything else I might be doing.
- Stephanie’s principal and her peers around the school district were at a meeting this afternoon after which they were to hear the budget bad news. Stephanie opted not to call her at home to hear whether she’s still got her job.
- Mom is now waiting until Monday for the movers to come to take whatever is left of the tools, furniture, and boxes of stuff that are going to my sister’s. Someone broke in and stole some of the tools last month.
- Stephanie’s mother and stepfather are working and watching as they have their upstairs renovated and figuring out how to cope with a cold downstairs.
- Vincent – slated to come here probably this weekend for a Tuesday doctor’s appointment – called about belatedly trying to get Internet access at home and an extension for his classes (one of which he was almost finished with), which I believe timed out Monday (ironically, same day I missed my work deadline).
- Stephanie’s father and she are making some plans.
- Mom and I are talking about Stephanie and my upcoming Tallahassee visit and what we will do to help her.
- Wednesday I give my fifth and final speech for the Toastmasters “Speaking to Inform” series. It’s a blast from the past – about sociological theorist Max Weber – but we’ll see if it’s also a precursor of things to come.
-- Perry
- My manager reminded me that I had missed a (somewhat abstract) deadline Monday, which is bad in all kinds of ways, all the more so with May 14 looming. I’m continuing to figure out how to focus more at work (and at this point at home) and scale back anything else I might be doing.
- Stephanie’s principal and her peers around the school district were at a meeting this afternoon after which they were to hear the budget bad news. Stephanie opted not to call her at home to hear whether she’s still got her job.
- Mom is now waiting until Monday for the movers to come to take whatever is left of the tools, furniture, and boxes of stuff that are going to my sister’s. Someone broke in and stole some of the tools last month.
- Stephanie’s mother and stepfather are working and watching as they have their upstairs renovated and figuring out how to cope with a cold downstairs.
- Vincent – slated to come here probably this weekend for a Tuesday doctor’s appointment – called about belatedly trying to get Internet access at home and an extension for his classes (one of which he was almost finished with), which I believe timed out Monday (ironically, same day I missed my work deadline).
- Stephanie’s father and she are making some plans.
- Mom and I are talking about Stephanie and my upcoming Tallahassee visit and what we will do to help her.
- Wednesday I give my fifth and final speech for the Toastmasters “Speaking to Inform” series. It’s a blast from the past – about sociological theorist Max Weber – but we’ll see if it’s also a precursor of things to come.
-- Perry
Car accident
A little more than a week after being at Bobby’s service, we’ve been to a couple of visitations in the past weekend. More harrowing, even, was visiting one of Stephanie’s English as a new language colleagues at the same downtown hospital rehab center where I visited another church member a month after he’d had a stroke. Stephanie has been to several conferences around Indiana with her colleagues – mainly from other schools – and then last July she and one of the middle school ENL teachers, Laura, went to the READ 180 conference in Nashville together, roomed together, and went on the ghost tour together. Practically the same month, Laura had gotten married to a man she’d known less than year and moved with him and her kids out to the country. During one of the snowstorms in February, she drove off the road and suffered a head injury (also in the car was her won, who turned out to be OK). It took four hours to get her to the hospital in Louisville and she was in coma or unconscious for a couple of weeks.
We visited her Sunday afternoon. Her brother and nephew had just flown in, but her new husband – who’s been there a lot – told us most what was going on. When we got there, Laura was taking her first shower. After she came out and sat in a wheel chair, she mainly stared into space or interacted with her husband. But she did smile at a joke Stephanie made and looked over at her (although I never heard her speak). I had never met her before. (I’ve visited one other person in the hospital after she suffered a head injury, but Laura’s injury seemed even more severe . . . ) She’s obviously made a lot of progress, but Stephanie said it’s hard to imagine she’d be ready to go back in the classroom. She and her husband are obviously very religious – in an upbeat way – but – even with the progress – it’s hard not to be sad too. Laura is probably going to come out a different person, for better or worse. Laura’s husband talked about some logistical issues too – like car registration, bank accounts, power of attorney. It makes you think – puts current challenges in perspective, make you wonder how things would go if we were in their shoes.
Say a prayer for Laura and her family.
We visited her Sunday afternoon. Her brother and nephew had just flown in, but her new husband – who’s been there a lot – told us most what was going on. When we got there, Laura was taking her first shower. After she came out and sat in a wheel chair, she mainly stared into space or interacted with her husband. But she did smile at a joke Stephanie made and looked over at her (although I never heard her speak). I had never met her before. (I’ve visited one other person in the hospital after she suffered a head injury, but Laura’s injury seemed even more severe . . . ) She’s obviously made a lot of progress, but Stephanie said it’s hard to imagine she’d be ready to go back in the classroom. She and her husband are obviously very religious – in an upbeat way – but – even with the progress – it’s hard not to be sad too. Laura is probably going to come out a different person, for better or worse. Laura’s husband talked about some logistical issues too – like car registration, bank accounts, power of attorney. It makes you think – puts current challenges in perspective, make you wonder how things would go if we were in their shoes.
Say a prayer for Laura and her family.
-- Perry
Saturday, February 27, 2010
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
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