The Haasienda on Shroyer…

Colonel Deeds, Chief, and Haaskins watching me get ready to depart for Schuster Center. No, Colonel Deeds is not bigger than Chief… he’s just closer to the camera.

Chief with The Sisters, Bailey and Harrigan, Evelyn years ago.

SIX is a different musical but such a fun production. it’s terribly witty and entertaining. 

I’ve read a ton of stories or social media comments about drivers suffering through snow removal issues.

Walking with a cane in this mess is difficult. Getting on or off the bus is hell. The snow plow created walls are impossible to step on or get through. In fact, at The Greene, the plowed snow banks bar most incoming pedestrian traffic. If you drive into The Greene and park, you’re set; however, you cannot get to the traffic poles to push the buttons for crossing. Last night, I simply made my way across Stroop Road at the light.

All the bus stops, even the ones heavily used, are impossible to maneuver.

I have fallen a total of nine times in the snow, and once, last night on the ice near The Greene. The snow has always cushioned the falls but the ice-fall did not. I’m a bit stiff today.

Beloved actress Helen Mirren once said, “One of the great gifts of growing older is to discover the exquisite art of being alone. What used to be an uncomfortable silence, is now a luxury. The house is peaceful, and I can dance in the kitchen without being judged or just doing nothing. My best company is myself, with a coffee, a good movie and the freedom to be, because solitude is not absence, it is fullness and peace of mind. “

I’ve always loved my “alone time” as I am by nature a loner. I’m not lonely, I’m a loner and there is a distinct difference. The past six or seven months, I’ve needed my alone time even more. The vast majority of my family and friends understand this, but there are several who believe they are the ones who can help me get past the grief. I’ve aimed them in a different fire tent direction.

I’ve no design on this current journey. I’m on it.

Tuesday, January 14, 1025, the national tour of SIX, THE MUSICAL rolls out its royal carpet at Schuster Center, and will be joined by Muse Machine’s annual production, CATS, at The Victoria Theatre.

When the Schuster Center for the Performing Arts was designed and built for its March 2003 opening, a unique, marvelous feature was installed.

In the dome of the auditorium, there is a constellation that keeps heads turned upward. The starfield is identical to what the sky looked like on Wednesday, December 16, 1903, the night before the hometown boys, Wilbur and Orville Wright, flew their first plane at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

I’ve always felt this was a brilliant, touching tip-of-the-hat to our community’s history.

I’ve been to Kroger twice this week and I am overwhelmed with the thoughtlessness, lack of courtesy, and laziness of fellow shoppers who cannot push their emptied shopping carts a few feet or inches more to keep them orderly and from blocking passageways.

While waiting on the bus, I often use a “still charging” shopping chair, directly across from the full and half-sized carts. Numerous shoppers retrieve their purchased items and leave the cart in the aisle ways or just barely behind the stacked carts.

One female shopper not only left her cart in the walkway, she also pulled a Kleenex from her purse, wiped her hands, and promptly dropped the Kleenex and another purse item into the cart!

When the employee returning a stack of carts entered the foyer from the parking lot, they could not get them inside due to the collective mess of carts.

Later, one senior gentlemen stacked another collection of stupidity before exiting with his items.

One younger gal returned from outside with her cart to return it inside. I thanked her for her thoughtfulness. She smiled as though “it’s no big deal.” (Kudos to whomever raised her!)

Yes, it is a big deal for fellow shoppers and for employees.

It seems like it was only yesterday, while at the same time it feels like years ago.

I think I could loose Mother one thousand… ten thousand times over, and it still would not come close to this agony.

He was the best son…

Eleven years ago, this was three-year-old Chief and the ten-week-old sisters, Bailey (2013-2023) and Harrigan. Bailey was always next to Chief and adored him.

I don’t know whether it was a great year or a horrible year. It was a year.

I will enter this new year without one person with whom I thought I’d have many more years. I thought I’d leave this world before my son. It’s a horrid pain to acknowledge each morning upon waking and in the evening when I close my eyes to sleep… and every moment in between.

Always know you are, and will always be loved, Joshua…

I have always believed that the fallout of Vietnam, the upheaval of the 1960s, the economy, and Watergate collectively took a nosedive right into President Carter’s lap.

President Ford’s term in office was the buffer period that allowed us to get past all the shock and the “what the hell was that?” phases before everything finally crumbled into the Carter administration.

President Carter was the perfect steady individual to handle the fallout. Perhaps it is not important that he was a great president, but he did keep us on course despite the stormy waters his administrative ship faced.

In the end, President Carter beautifully demonstrated how to be a caring, helping, and loving citizen.

The medical specialists, based on my medical history, believe I’ve dealt with Multiple Sclerosis, MS, since I was about eight years old but somehow managed to deal with it.

These past four years, following my diagnosis with RRMS, I’ve been keenly interested in seeing how past and current issues fit neatly into my MS puzzle.

From the chart…

Muscle weakness

– Kind of

Bladder problems 

– Kind of

Speech difficulties 

– Yes; spasmodic dysphonia 

Pain

– Always, especially in legs 

Vision troubles

– Sometimes my vision is blurry 

Fatigue

– Always

Walking difficulties

– I use a cane for unfamiliar areas or outdoors 

Spasticity

– Ugh…

Numbness

– Legs and feet; a bit in the hands

Dizziness and vertigo

– Hmmm, not really

Cognitive difficulties

– Thank God, no. I’ve never been good with names or titles but it doesn’t count for this

Swallowing problems

– Yes; I always have a liquid handy to assist; sometimes, the soft palate doesn’t rise when I drink and water goes up into my sinuses 

Heat and cold intolerance

– Maybe

Emotional changes

– Only since November 6th

Itching

– Not really

Tremors

– Nope

Breathing problems

– Nope

Hearing loss

– At age 3 following my bout with rheumatic fever, I became completely deaf in my right ear. Mother insisted we not discuss my “bad ear” in public because she suspected I would go into music and didn’t want my “bad ear” to become an issue.

Headaches and seizures

– Nope; sinus headaches but I’ve had those since I was a toddler

“Bailey, smile.”

Bailey would throw back her head and show her teeth.

“Bailey, wiggle.”

Bailey would remain still, except for the butt wiggle which earned her name of “Miss Wigglesbottom.”

Baby Girl had a signature black heart when she curled up.

She adored her big brother, Chief.

Bailey and her sister and littermate, Harrigan, snuggled one minute and growled at one another the next. And as predicted by a veterinarian when they were a few months old, one sister nearly grieved herself to her own death. It was touch and go with Harrigan’s own survival for nearly two months; Harrigan deeply grieved Bailey’s passing.

At 2:40 PM, Thursday, December 28, 2023, Bailey passed away following a brief battle with esophageal cancer, and nearly four months after giving birth to four babies. Haaskins was the only one to survive.

Somehow, Haaskins rescued some of her mother’s novel characteristics of smuggling beneath my chin to sleep, grunting when I adjust my sleeping positions, and tilting back her head when she sits.

I do miss my Miss Wigglesbottom and my Baby Girl, a title inherited by Haaskins,

Continue to rest in peace, sweet Bailey. Know you are still missed and still very loved…

I arrived at my favorite Mexican restaurant for an early dinner. After stepping inside the door, I removed my jacket and an older, hefty gentleman and his wife walked past me. The gentleman looked down at my shoes and at my belt.

“Young man,“ he said, “you should know by now that your belt and shoes should always match.”

I looked down at my dark gray shoes and brown belt. Then I visually sized him up.

“And by your age, Sir, and with the cross on your lapel, you should know that gluttony is a sin.”

He puffed all up and became agitated. “Gluttony is not one of The Ten Commandments.”

“It may not be one of The Ten Commandments, but it is most certainly noted in Proverbs.”

He became even more angry and said, “I was only trying to point out…”

“And I am pointing out that you need to mind your own goddamn business. You need to learn the difference between Proverbs and a buffet.”

Really?

Eleven years ago on Christmas night, after what seemed like a comedy of errors or events, I returned from Mason, Ohio with two sisters, Bailey and Harrigan, born October 25th.

Harrigan, 25 Oct 2013

Bailey, 25 Oct 2013 – 28 Dec 2023

11 years ago today, Chief and I took several long walks on Christmas Day, each of us dealing with the grief of his sister’s tragic accident on the 21st.

Later that night, the world changed as Bailey and Harrigan joined us.

When I first moved to Dayton in August 1990, the first person I met was Sarah Koogler. A few years later, I met her husband, Bob, when I began directing music and theatre at Normandy United Methodist Church. Later, Bob, and a bevy of Normandy retirees worked at Grieve Hardware and I got to see him quite often.

These past 30+ years of knowing Bob Koogler were awesome.

Last night, I learned that Bob passed away last October. I will really miss Bob Koogler, aka Elvis and President Lincoln.

Today, Rick would have turned 61. We were nine months apart on age and from September to December did we share the same age. He’s been gone almost 35 years…

21 December 1963 – 10 April 1990

This photograph was taken in the snack bar at Smith-Wallbridge Drum-Major Camp, Syracuse, Indiana, in July 1979.

May angels continue to sing thee to thy rest, my sweet prince…

Know you are still loved…

Eleven years ago, tonight, my son, Joshua and I drove three year old Navi to the emergency vet after she was struck by a van in front of our house. Although she appeared physically fine, her internal injuries were too great for her to survive.

I still miss my spunky little gal who kept Chief in his place.

Born on this date in 1897 was my maternal great-grandmother, Mary “Belle” Iones Clary.

Belle was the daughter of Joel, Monroe Jones and Anna Greenlee Jones of Boone Township, Madison County, Indiana.

She married John William “Garrett” Clary of nearby Elwood, Indiana. They had three children: Ronald Monroe, Clary. (1921-1937), my grandmother, Donna Mae Clary Barmes. (1924-1992), and Joyce Ann Clary Riser (1933-2020).

Mary Belle Clary: 20 Dec 1897 – 28 Jan 1969.