A Dog's Life

“Dogs’ lives are too short, their only fault, really.” Agnes Sligh Turnbull, author of “Jed, the Shepherd’s Dog.”

Dave announced on Facebook the death of German shepherd Samantha Sosa Von Haus Lane.  Even though Sammy came from a long line of police dogs, she was a gentle soul and will be missed.  They got him in 2000 shortly after the home invasion at a time when Sammy Sosa was averaging 60 home runs a season for the Cubs.  The infirmities of old age finally took their toll. James was at our condo and Becca at dance class when Dave and Angie took Sammy for the final visit to the vet.  Sammy liked to lick my legs when I had shorts on during the summer while we were gaming and he was under the table.  Among the many condolences Dave received were these words from Robert Blaszkiewicz: “It’s incredibly tough to say goodbye to such a loyal friend.  I hope your memories bring you comfort in the days ahead.”

I recall Margaret Skurka telling me that she had an IUN committee meeting the afternoon after putting her dog down and having to leave because she was taking it so hard.  George Roberts, known to be a curmudgeon, asked if she’d like some tea and proceded to tell her she should not be ashamed to be mourning a beloved pet.  It was something she really needed to hear.

At Jewel for butter and bananas mainly, I parked beside a dog lover’s car that contained a bumper sticker claiming “Dog is My Co-pilot,” a take-off on the title of the Robert L. Scott autobiography “God Is My Co-Pilot.”  Clever, although zealots might think it sacrilegious.

With the temperature in single digits for the first time all winter I emailed Bruce Allen that I wished the AT Auto cap he gave me at the last high school reunion had ear flaps.  He replied from Florida that if I bought a car from him, he’d give me one with heated flaps.

Scott Fulk is excited that Bill Pelke has agreed to be February’s Soup and Substance speaker on the topic, “Journey of Hope . . . . From Violence to Healing.” 

Attorney Don Levinson, who represented our friend Sheila Hamanaka in a custody case years ago (she gave him a drawing of him in a Superman outfit), wants me to collaborate on a book with retired Hammond police officer Mike Solan about a murder that took place almost 33 years ago.  It sounds fascinating but daunting, so I’ll think about it.  Levinson thought of me after reading Roy Dominguez’s “Valor.”

In an email entitled “Hillary Conquers Senate” Ray Smock summarized Secretary of State Clinton’s appearance before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to testify about Benghazi thusly: “The Republicans, led by John McCain, were still trying to pretend that there was some cover-up, some conspiracy, some lies that were told. McCain started out as Good John and then quickly turned into Bad John. But all his invective and innuendo was no match for Hillary.”  Ray liked Illinois Democrat Dick Durbin’s suggestion that if the committee desired to carry out significant hearings, it ought to examine how the Bush administration snookered the country into the Iraq War by claiming Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.

I’m nearly finished laying out “Calumet Region Connections II, 2011-1012.”  It doesn’t include many family photos, but I squeezed in a shot Toni took of eight of us in Joe Boxer pajamas she had given out as presents.  

Six of Marty Bohn’s photos are on the inside back cover, and one of Corey Hagelberg’s art pieces, “In the Garden,” will be on the cover.  My interpretation is that the Northwest Indiana lakeshore is the garden, and right dab in the middle of it came steel mills as represented by a giant black structure that reaches up into the sky.

Librarian Tim Sutherland’s wife is friends with Judy Upton, who during the 1970s wrote an article for Steel Shavings about her Jewish grandmother Ida Bornstein, who had two sons and two son-in-laws fighting overseas during World War II.  When daughter Shirley and a baby boy moved into her home on Buchanan Street in Gary, things often became tense, especially in the kitchen.   Once Shirley dumped an entire pot of soup into the sink, thinking it was dishwater.  Judy wrote: “For several weeks a cold war ensued between mother and daughter.”

Henry Farag’s “The Signal” with my new introduction is officially available as an Amazon kindle eBook book for $9.95.  Potential readers can preview it by reading the first couple chapters for free.  Ryan tells me that Amazon has exclusive rights for three months and then the agreement can be renewed.

Tony Rose recalled working with Vivian Carter at WWCA after Bee—Jay Records went bankrupt.  He noted: “She was very pleasant, though not mentally stable. Every Saturday morning she would predict the end of the world and tell me that she would never see me again. She’d kiss me on the cheek and leave a big red pair of lips there. When I finally departed from WWCA, a young man named Dave Barancyk took my place. Dave had been my student when I taught. A lot of folks said Dave and I looked alike. Vivian never realized he wasn't me!  She was pretty much out of it, yet she never missed her show.”

I bowled great for two games and then started the third with two splits and twice “chopping wood” going for spares, leaving the ten-pin on a 6-10 and a five-pin on a 2-4-5.  Only four spares in the final five frames got my score up near 120.  On the way out I noticed the Bulls-Piston score tied with 29 seconds to go.  With seven seconds left Marco Belinelli forced up a bad shot. Joakim Noah somehow dove out of bounds and swatted the ball back to Belinelli, who laid the ball in, got fouled, and completed the three-point play for Chicago’s seventeenth straight win over Detroit.  On the way home it started snowing and blowing so bad it was difficult to see the road.

Letterman joked that the recently settled hockey lockout got so bad Disney On Ice started allowing fighting.  I stayed up to catch the latest young heartthrob, British pop singer Conor Maynard, who ably performed “Turn Around.”