FuzzyCo

As always with news shows, and double-especially with morning news shows, we won't actually know it's really happening until it airs, but the word is that Good Morning America will be doing a "Water Cooler" segment on Young Me, Now Me tomorrow morning (Thursday, 7/17) and that the Gerdes father/son duo may be included. Set your Tivos!

Update: Well, as I warned myself, it seems the segment didn't air this morning.

In 1994 Liz and I adopted two kittens from the Tippecanoe County Humane Society. They were from two different litters and I really don't remember why we picked them out -- just that they were bouncing around being kittens. We named the brown female one Latte because of her color and our fascination with coffee. The black-and-white male one had a dab of black on his chin that I thought looked like a goatee and so I named him Mustapha after the faux-Balkan band 3 Mustaphas 3.

I had never had pets before (aside from a fish that lasted for a few weeks when I was 10), and indeed was somewhat reluctant to get two cats, but they quickly became beloved companions. Mustapha was an incredibly affectionate cat and loved to sleep on laps or curled up in my arms at night. He was always quick to greet visitors and was rarely shy during parties or around strangers.

Mustapha had two breaks from living with me. In 2002 Kate O'Leary took him in for nine months. Kate has painted several portraits of Mustapha. In 2004, during the great freeze-out disaster, my friend Beth fostered both cats for several months -- initially so they wouldn't freeze to death in my heat-less apartment and then as I was in transition to a new place.

In 2005 Mustapha gained another adopted sister, Parker, when Erica and I moved in together. Parker was always somewhat wary of her new siblings, but she and Mustapha enjoyed sitting in the sunroom and napping in close proximity.

Mustapha didn't like to eat cat food directly out of a bowl -- he'd try and lift pieces out with his foot. This was only moderately successful, and so the kitchen was usually littered with dropped cat food. He also loved to bat at water bowls with his paws, leading to puddles everywhere, which he would then complain about. He also enjoyed cheese, peppers, and fruit. His favorite food was the milk left over from sugared cereal, so much so that I had to eat cereal standing up because he would try to claw his way into the bowl.

He was a good leaper and climber and would happily sit on top of doors and shower doors, given the chance. He never seemed to be very interested in cat toys, especially when people were watching.

When I carried Mustapha, I'd usually hold him upside down, like a baby. He seemed to like this just fine.

Mustapha had been gradually losing weight over the last year and began a rapid decline during the last three weeks. I made an appointment with a vet for this morning, but last night it was obvious that he was in very bad shape. He was not eating or drinking and could barely move. This morning the vet found a large tumor in his abdomen and, given his condition, recommended euthanasia. After careful (and tearful) discussion, Erica and I agreed.

He was my buddy, my Buddy-stapha. If he was a cow, he would have been Moo-stapha; if a chicken, BokBok-stapha. I will miss him very much.

Update: Kate has posted some lovely memories of Mustapha.

Samuel Cole Gollub was born yesterday, July 14, at 3:37pm. He was 8 pounds 12 ounces and 21 inches long.

* And Amelia, Jake, and Luke.

We had people over tonight to see Erica's mom while she's in town. When Dan came over and said something to the effect of "it's so nice to meet you since I've been reading your blog for so long" I realized that we weren't having people over to see Erica's mom but really (sorta) we were having a meetup for readers of Tricia Dishes to meet the author.

This last weekend was the first time all 12* of us have been together since Jeanne and Jeff's wedding a year and a half ago. Seeing all that family would be plenty for a long weekend, but we jammed it extra full: we saw some of Erica's old friends, caught up with Andrew for the second time in a month (bonus!), saw Prince Paul and Mike Doughty, and ate way too much good food.

(More photos, including non-silly family portraits.)

* Soon to be 14.

Did I mention that Xmas was ribs?. What's that even mean? I don't know. But I went down to Mississippi for Christmas and came back with my wife. That's awesome.

I got a new cheap pocket camera to replace my dead Sony W100 and I'm fighting with it a bit, but it's taking some interesting shots. I barely pulled out my old faithful F717 because I couldn't find a charger for it before I left. I own six Sony cameras that all use the same charger. Two are out on loan, but that means that there should be four chargers somewhere in this house. But I couldn't find a single one. Drove me crazy.

That's my darling brother in the red shirt (#40) smooth-dancing his way to second place in the Jack And Jill of Lhaif 2007.

Erica's uncle Don Antoine, who was one of the four carvers of the Remember Duane Allman tribute, gave me some slides last week to scan in. He's got shots of the carving work in progress, of the four friends posing with their work (above, and also for comparison), and the best picture I've seen yet of the carving itself.

Previously on FuzzyCo:
Remember when David Reid remembered Duane Allman?
Remember Duane Allman, followups
From back in 2005: Sometimes the Internet answers

Today's Vicksburg Post has an editorial by the executive editor, Charlie Mitchell, eulogizing David. In addition to running the Post, Charlie moonlights at Riles funeral home and he actually went home to get his own beard trimmer to trim David's mustache. He also drove the hearse from the funeral home to the cemetery.

Remember David Reid, who never lost the melody

We met in elementary school.

After those days our encounters were rare and brief. They came at predictable intervals as we aged, in grocery store aisles, at back-to-school nights for our own children, reunions.

Exchanges with David Reid always went past, "Hi, how are you? Fine and you? Fine." He always had something wry, something personal, something sincere to say.

David made an impression, a good impression. He was consistently upbeat.

It was good that the Post had David on the front page a few weeks ago, "outing" him to the world for what was probably the most outlandish deed of his life. David was one of four Hinds Community College commuters from Vicksburg who in 1973 carved, in giant letters, "Remember Duane Allman" into an earthen wall along the then-new Interstate 20 near Bovina. Prompting the news story was a performance in Vicksburg by Gregg Allman, brother of the legendary guitarist who had been killed in a 1971 motorcycle wreck.

The carved memorial lasted for years, becoming an icon to I-20 travelers. Gregg told David and his co-conspirators the family had seen photos and appreciated the gesture. That meant a lot.

Anybody who knows anything about music--and David knew a lot about music--will tell you that Duane Allman, though a rocker's rocker, always kept the melody, never lost it to the noise.

And so it was with David.

He was keenly intelligent, with an excellent memory, but he didn't care whether anyone knew it or not. Impressing others wasn't something he desired to do. David was as casual as the Hawaiian shirts and wide-brimmed hats that were his stock-in-trade.

He and his classmate, Tricia, equally smart and warm in her friendships, formed a marital partnership in which they derived pleasure from being considerate of one another. Money didn't matter. Having a posh house didn't matter. Having the newest car didn't matter. What other people thought, did, cared about or worried about didn't matter. People mattered. Relationships mattered.

Together, David and Tricia infused their ideals into their children, Erica and Christopher, talented and creative children who have become talented and creative adults. The Reids equipped their daughter and son with roots and wings the way great parents do--a grounding in values plus decency plus a yearning to explore, learn, serve.

Word that David had cancer came years ago. Tricia, an Internet blogger before that term was even invented, wrote about it the same as she had everything else. Both were realistic, prayerful, confident, scared, accepting the challenge. What choice did they have?

They won a hell of a lot of battles, but, as the cliche goes, not the war.

Just a few weeks ago, a backache sent David to the doctor. It wasn't a pulled muscle. It was another malignancy. The verdict: David would die in a matter of weeks.

They say hospice nurses are compassionate, which would be expected. But they're also pretty seasoned. After David's nurse had her first private meeting with him, telling him how things would go, I'm told she left the room in tears.

The end came last Sunday night just as forecast, family and friends all there. A free spirit became free.

Encounters with people like David Reid are brief and rare. When they happen, listen for the melody. They've learned to sustain it through the noise.

-- Charlie Mitchell is executive editor of The Vicksburg Post. Write to him at Box 821668, Vicksburg, MS 39182, or e-mail post@vicksburg.com.

At David's own wishes, the visitation tonight and service tomorrow are both going to be closed casket. Instead, we're going to have 8x10 photos scattered around the funeral home -- mostly enlargements of family photos that I've scanned over the last couple of days.

From today's Vicksburg Post:

G. David Reid died Sunday, Dec. 2, 2007, at his residence. He was 53.

Mr. Reid was born in Jackson and moved to Vicksburg when he was 1 month old. He was a 1972 graduate of Warren Central High School and attended Hinds Community College and Mississippi College. He was an electrical technician with various companies and, at the time of his death, was an employee of IGT. Mr. Reid loved his family, music, movies, animals and laughter. He was devoted to his faith.

He is survived by his wife, Patricia Bane Reid of Vicksburg; a daughter, Erica Reid Gerdes and her husband, Fuzzy, of Chicago; a son, Christopher Reid and his wife, Katie, of Columbia, S.C.; his mother, Norma Reid of Vicksburg; a sister, Susan Mahan of Vevay, Ind.; and two brothers, Carl Reid of Flowood and Kyle Reid of Hattiesburg.

He was preceded in death by his father, George L. Reid.

Services will be at 11 a.m. Thursday at Riles Funeral Home Chapel with the Rev. Jimmy Biedenharn, pastor of the Byhalia United Methodist Church in Byhalia, officiating. Burial will be at Green Acres Cemetery.

Visitation will be from 5 until 7 p.m. Wednesday at Riles Funeral Home.

Memorials may be made to the American Cancer Society, Box 1193, Vicksburg, MS 39181.

Visitation, Wednesday, December 5, 2007 from 5-7 pm at the Riles Funeral Home (5000 Indiana Ave, Vicksburg, MS 39180).

Service, Thursday, December 6, 2007 at 11 am at Riles Funeral Home. Burial to follow at Green Acres Cemetery (191 Highway 80, Vicksburg, MS 39180).

Tonight at 9:40, surrounded by his loving family, David Reid passed away. Memorial details when I have them.

It's been a long, long day. It's been a long 3 and a half years. Dammit.

I've got cuter pictures of David, but I picked this one because it's what I'm going to miss the most, I think. David loved music and an evening at the Reid house often went late because David always kept thinking of another song you really should hear.

No, that's a lie. (This is a few hours later.) There's tons I'm going to miss.

Tricia
Christopher
Erica
Katie

A couple of things to follow up on that Vicksburg Post article about when David and three of his friends carved "Remember Duane Allman" into the side of a Mississippi road cut.

A scan of the Vicksburg Post of October 15, 2007 (it's the article I had previously linked to, but I scanned it so you can see how big it was on the front page of the Post).

A detail from the photo the Post printed showing David Reid standing next to the 6 foot high carved letters.

Above, the Vicksburg Post of October 26, 2007 -- the four fellows got to meet Gregg Allman.

A scan of the Rolling Stone "Random Notes" item from April 11, 1974 that first brought the carving to national attention. This photo has appeared in several of the Rolling Stone's "best of" collections over the years. (And now, I suppose, it's in the new Rolling Stone Cover to Cover: The First 40 Years three DVD set.)

Update: Don Antoine loaned me some slides of the carving in progress to scan in and I did so.

I'm on a 3 hour layover in Houston Hobby Airport right now, headed back down to Mississippi to join Erica and her family. Just after I left earlier this week, David's health took another sharp nose-dive and the feeling is that he may not have long. Of course, the hospice nurses, who have seen these kinds of situations plenty of times before, say that he may also have months left. We don't want him to go, but I'd be less than honest if I didn't say that that uncertainty is part of the strain we're all feeling.

David Reid has been the best father-in-law I could imagine having. From the first time he met me, he welcomed me into the family with open arms. I'm sorry that we won't be talking about movies and music for years to come. Cancer sucks.

(And, as I post cute kitten pictures or book and movie reviews over the next few weeks, please don't take that as a sign that I'm not grieving or that I don't respect David -- a) it's part of how I cope and b) it's not the Reid way to be serious all the time. As much as there have been tears around the Reid house, there have also been gales of laughter at dumb, dumb jokes.)

I'm back in Chicago. Erica is still in Mississippi. Things are not good. I added a few "David and" duo shots to the set of photos from the last week.

When I was uploading those cat pictures this afternoon, Tricia asked if I had been taking pictures of David. Frankly, I hadn't been sure if everyone would want photos from these trying times, and so I had been holding back. "You'd better get on that," she told me. So tonight we took some all-pajama'd family portraits before we settled in to watch some TV. (More on Flickr)

I'm in Vicksburg until Tuesday. Notable non-David-related events so far include that tree losing two big limbs into the Reids' backyard (Jeremy, Katie, Don, and I all took turns with the chainsaw to turn this into this. And look what we found!) and Teddy, the handicapable kitten, getting shaved by the vet (this --> this). We love her, but she does now look like one of the Henson Creature Shop's creepier creations.

There's been a steady stream of visitors for David, which is great, but also tiring. I guess tomorrow is our last all-family day for a while, as Katie is leaving for Columbia. Erica's uncle Carl brought over tamales tonight (they were out of Boudin!). I don't think any of these sentences have anything to do with each other, but I am tired and it's just 7:30. Did I mention things were tiring? Erica and I "got out" today by taking a trip to Wal-mart. Sigh. It's going to be hard on both of us when I head back to Chicago, but I'm glad we have the flexibility in our lives that she can be here for so long.

Because we don't have enough going on, half a tree fell into the backyard of Erica's parents' place last night -- busting the fence and narrowing missing the dog yard. Jeremy and I got to play lumberjack this morning. Pics when I have a better connection, and time (which will be awhile -- if I have downtime, I try and find something to clean). Tricia wrote it up, more eloquently.

David's doctors have given him a prognosis of a few months. Dammit. I'm headed down to Mississippi tomorrow for at least a week. Erica will be there indefinitely.

I just dropped Erica off at the airport -- her dad's not doing that well and she's on her way back to Mississippi to help take care of both her sweet parents. I know Tricia appreciates it when folks leave encouraging comments on her blog. And if you're a friend of Erica, this would be a great week to check in on her by email or text.

So much cute in one place! Do I have the best niece and nephews? Why yes I do.

We spent the weekend in Mississippi, visiting Erica's folks, eating plenty of food (of course), and attending the Smith/Reid family reunion. As an extra treat, Sara and Erik and Faelyn came along for the ride. For a three-day trip with the stated goal of having as few goals as possible, we sure packed a lot in. And it was delightful to get to spend so much time with Faelyn, who is one of my favorite small people.

Of note in the food dept., the Reid family staple Goldie's Trail Bar-B-Que has moved. (2430 South Frontage Road, Vicksburg, MS is the new address -- the old one is still on a bunch of websites.) The old place had a quaint log cabin-y exterior and no decor to speak of inside. The new place has even less decor inside and a very bland outside. However, it's three times the size of the old place and the food is the same. Oh, except for the addition of an incredible sandwich -- the Becca's Special. Goldie's has always had great garlic bread and this sandwich lets you put barbequed beef, pork, or sausage on garlic bread. It's an excellent idea and I can't believe I never thought of it before.

There's a story behind this photo and I don't think I want to share it in public. Maybe I will at Sickest Stories. Yeah, it's that kind of story.

Did I take some other pictures while we were there? Uh, yeah.

Erica's dad was in the Vicksburg Post today for a piece of road art he did 34 years ago. You can go read the article there, or I've tucked it below the jump for posterity...

Update: some followups.

My sister and her family: what a bunch of cuties.

We're coming up on our 1st wedding anniversary. I'm not sure if you're aware that the 1st anniversary is traditionally matching clothing (s'true -- look it up). Fortunately, my sister is aware of this. Thanks, Heidi!

While we were in Vicksburg this last visit, I scanned in David and Tricia's wedding album. Dig it, man!

Dear Uncles,
I am playing with your Legos. They are very cool. Thank you.
Love
Jake

We had a bit of a scare there for a few days, but in the end it was good(ish) news for my father-in-law.

Happy Birthday to my sweet, sweet, dangerous love.

Tricia has the deets from my father-in-law's latest tests. The short version is: things are still bad, but not as terrible as we all thought they might be.

¡Mi hermano necesita desesperadamente un corte de pelo!

Ay, él es lindo otra vez.

For Christmas, Erica and I made the not-as-bad-as-we-expected-given-the-state-of-air-travel trip down to my folks' place in Austin, Texas. We had a few days with just my parents before Heidi and Marc and the kids returned from Canada. About as exciting as we got was visiting the Armadillo Christmas Bazaar and seeing Django's Mustache who are, as my brother correctly called it, much better guitar technicians than showmen.

The Gollubs had a much-worse-than-expected trip with their flight out of Winnepeg getting canceled and they ended up spending most of Christmas Day in the Minneapolis airport. But Boxing Day was fun and we did Christmas crackers. Heidi translated all of the French jokes for us.

Erica and I recorded a video holiday greeting and we've posted it on our joint site.

I usually get people their Christmas gifts in time for Epiphany (or Easter), but under the new Team Fuzzy & Erica regime, I mailed out nine packages today -- many people might get their presents by Boxing Day!

Christopher did a very complete update on the health of my awesome father-in-law.

Update: And Tricia posted some photos of David's not-so-great reaction to his latest treatment.

This past weekend Erica and I took a roadtrip to Cleveland, Ohio to attend the wedding of my sister Jeanne Clair to Jeff Schwarz. It was great to be together with the whole family, which won't happen again for a while, because Disco took off right after the wedding to go live in Buenos Aires for nine months.

Friday night the rehearsal dinner was at The Boneyard, where we learned that Amelia is great at DDR and Jake is quite the Arctic Thunder driver. After that broke up, Disco took us out to the Lakewood Masonic Temple to see the Boilermaker Jazz Band and do a little dancing.

Saturday the wedding and reception were held at the Western Reserve Historical Society and Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum, which explains all the airplanes and cars in the background of all the pictures. I'll admit I got a little teary-eyed when Jeanne came walking down the aisle. But to distract you from that, I'll talk about my bow tie.

Neither Disco nor I were standing up in the wedding, but he convinced me that we should wear our tuxedos (we have them, after all). I have plenty of ties, and even a clip-on bow tie that came with my $10 tux, but I decided that it was really important that I get a real bow tie for my tie. Erica picked one up for a reasonable price at Monitor down on Wilson and Clark. They gave her a photocopy of instructions on how to tie it, but we didn't bother to look at it until we were on the way to the wedding. Bow ties are impossible to tie! I tried, and failed, to tie the tie based on those directions. But Erica took the tie and figured out how to tie it based simply on "it needs to look like this, so this needs to go there". And then when we got to the wedding she managed to get it tied on me the same way. My wife is so awesome!

In they're-now-legally-my-family news, Tricia has the skinny on David's latest CAT scan.

My in-16-days-mother-in-law, and frequent commenter on this site, Tricia Reid has started a blog: Tricia Dishes.

Here's my nephew Jake out for Cowgirl Sue's Teddy Bear Picnic at Children's Day Art Park (photo by Kelly West for the Austin American-Statesman.) Heidi corrects the text: "And, just in case you think you missed something, no Luke is not 10 months old! I told the reporter 10 weeks, although that's not right either. [Luke is 11 weeks old.] At least I got Jake's age right! He's not 4 until Saturday."

Erica's brother Christopher and his wife Katie are in Africa for a month and they've left me the keys to their blogs so I can post their emails. There are two so far, from Wednesday and today.

This is my dad:

It's his birthday.

My dad got colluded with me in getting our family's first computer, an Apple //e. We built a joystick for it together from plans in a hobby magazine. We built a model railroad together and never quite got around to making it all super-realistic. He gave me a great camera and then gave me another one when I lost that one. He taught me that we should probably hang onto this because it might be useful someday. He taught me to shave.

I'm saying, it's his fault I turned out this way.

Happy birthday, dad.

Congratulations, again, to my soon-to-be-brother-in-law. Too bad that he had that giant sneeze just as he was shaking hands with that official dude.

Hooray for my learned soon-to-be-brother-in-law.