On Monday, February 15, our beloved Esther the Escort, the first (and only) new car that Sherry and I ever purchased met her final demise. The Teenager was driving the vehicle in downtown Lima, OH. The roads were icy, and when she went around a turn, the car kept going somewhat straight. She ran right into a police cruiser.

No one was injured.

On Friday, we received the news that the insurance company declared the vehicle a total loss. Today, I drove out to Lima to retrieve our personal effects and snap these last photos of dear Esther.

Some interesting facts:

*The final odometer reading is 152911. Yes, the mileage ends in “911.”
*This is the fifth crash for the car. One in Chicago, one in Toccoa, one about 7 months ago in Bellvue, one about 2 months ago, and now this.
*Esther went out in style: new tires, one new wheel, and a full tank of gas. It’s possible that I had just refilled with windshield washer fluid.

Esther was a fine, dependable automobile. The only problem that we ever had with her was when we moved to GA and the horn stuck. Other than that, the only issues were created by people smashing into her.

R.I.P.

In her last years with us, Granny used talk about the Sweet By and By. Today, I was listening to a collection of old American gospel tunes when I caught the phrase. I looked up the whole song to see the context. Here are comforting words:

There’s a land that is fairer than day,
And by faith we can see it afar;
For the Father waits over the way
To prepare us a dwelling place there.

Refrain:
In the sweet by and by,
We shall meet on that beautiful shore;
In the sweet by and by,
We shall meet on that beautiful shore.

We shall sing on that beautiful shore
The melodious songs of the blessed;
And our spirits shall sorrow no more,
Not a sigh for the blessing of rest.

To our bountiful Father above,
We will offer our tribute of praise
For the glorious gift of His love
And the blessings that hallow our days.

Quite possibly a new series of creations to appear on truffin.com. Superheroes acting out song lyrics. Here’s the first attempt: Sam Phillips’s “Taking Pictures” from the Fan Dance album.

Enjoy.

Been awhile since I posted. Excuses? We don’t need no steenkin excuses.

At work I’ve taken to signing certain emails “TcT” instead of using my full email signature. (I think my dean knows who I am. As do people with whom I’m having a lengthy email conversation.) I thought today that folks unfamiliar with my employment and family history may not know what “TcT” means. It’s even possible that my family doesn’t really know how it got started.

It all got started in the yellow-walled backroom of The Good Book Shoppe in North Olmsted, Ohio. I was a youngin’, 14 maybe, when I started working for an actual wage doing actual work at the stores my family owned. Previously I had been handed a quarter to go dust books or straighten pencils, but I was now being trained in actual bookstore operations and being paid hourly. My grandfather was teaching me the shipping/receiving procedures. At some point, there was some confusion over a packing slip or something that I had initialled. I was supposed to initial the paper, but the problem was that my father and I have the same first/last initials: TT. Also, in typical son-copying-father tradition, I was even making my initials in the same fashion as he; I made something that looked like the Greek letter pi, or stonehenge. Obviously, having both of us making the same sign was going to get confusing, and equally obviously my dad was not going to be the one to change since he did have the very true claim of having “done it first.” So, I decided that I would continue making the TT like a “pi” but I would insert a “C” (my middle initial) between the uprights. I’ve continued to initial items this way ever since, even when one around could ever confuse who TT is.

When I handwrite the initials, the “C” sinks a bit, the “C” beginning half to all the way down the stem of the “T”. When it came time to start doing this electronically, I thought the lower-case “c” hinted at the stylishness of the handwritten version. Is that vain? Yes. Probably.

Now you know not only who TcT is, but why it’s TcT.

And knowing’s half the battle.

This past weekend I celebrated Fall Break by asking Ted to join me on a quick brewery/disc golf tour of southwest Michigan. We visited New Holland Brewing Company in Holland, MI as well as Founders Brewing in Grand Rapids. In between, we shot up to Silver Lake, a place I hadn’t been since high school. On the way back, we stopped in South Bend, IN to play some disc golf (and get IN off my to-do list), but, according to a local, all the baskets were taken down for the winter. Didn’t realize one couldn’t play DG in the winter. Guess those Hoosiers don’t believe in Ice Bowls or other manly things.

Below are two slideshows: one of New Holland Brewing and one of Little Sable Point Lighthouse.

In late August, on a visit to Tiffin University’s Toledo Academic Center, I swung by the Toledo Zoo to exercise my membership card. I was there for just an hour, but had lots of fun with the seals and taking pictures.

And now, Father, send us out to do the work you have given us to do, to love and serve you as faithful witnesses of Christ our Lord.

The last couple of weeks are a testament to how fast life can change. When I returned home from the Glen Workshop, my main concerns work-wise were teaching two classes and completing a project for the re-accreditation of Tiffin University. Silly me. About two weeks ago, while teaching my niece how to navigate the maneuverability portion of Ohio’s driving test, I got a call asking me to come in for a meeting with the VP of Academic Affairs. Within a week of that phone call, I’d been approached, interviewed for, offered, and negotiated a contract to be hired full-time at Tiffin University.

So, I am now officially a full-time Instructor in English and the Program Chair for the Ivy Bridge College of Tiffin University Associate of Arts in General Studies. LINK The main practical downside to the situation is that my office is in Toledo, 1:15 minutes away. (The upside to this is that it’s near various shopping alternatives we don’t have in Tiffin.)

One of the prayers we use in church after Communion includes the sentence above. It’s an idea that I, and some friends, have discussed quite a bit over the years. There’s something to the idea of not worrying about what one should be doing in some ill-defined cultural sense but rather focusing on the work that God has put in front of you. I’m not always very good at putting aside the human-centered shoulds. And there are many who would question the idea that God ever called anyone to work in an entrepreneurial education enterprise. However, for now, it seems that God has given me this work to do. So, I shall do it. Amen.

Fred, Ed, and Earl: The Cancer Trio

Originally uploaded by jawboneradio

College friend Len Peralta has a wonderful service called MonsterByMail. You give him the name of a monster, and he’ll create a 4×6 original piece of art for you. This summer’s theme is Super Villains.

Our friend Laura is battling cancer and named her three largest tumors Fred, Ed, Earl. I sent the names to Len, and here’s the art he created for Laura. She says she’ll use it in her visualization exercises which help her during chemo to focus on defeating the baddies.

Here are the before and after pics of our yard beds. Mucho Mucho Thanks to Mom and Dad for the amazing amount of work they contributed to the project.

There will probably be a set of AFTER AFTER pics once the transplanted bulbs grow and the sunflowers we planted blossom.