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.

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.

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.

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