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Intermezzo: A Fortnight of Appointments

 We arrived back in Cincinnati—College Hill to be specific—and Mike backed the Scamp into the driveway where we were staying with great aplomb. I was impressed. We had a lovely stay with Bob and Rhonda, although almost every day we had an appointment of some kind to keep; usually doctor’s appointments but also haircuts and what not. We shared the house with a lovely golden retriever named Frida, and a crochety little dog named Lucy, who was also a temporary boarder. Lucy didn’t like me, but Frida did. And I am told that Lucy doesn’t like anyone, so that made me feel a little better.

We don’t like to outstay our welcome, so after a week we moved on to stay with our friends Ray and Donna. More doctor appointments, but mostly good reviews from all the medical types, so we’re pretty sure we’re going to get out of here in the time we’d planned and head back out on the open road. Which is great news.

At Ray and Donna’s house, Frankie the dog rules the roost. He is a quite nice little dog of easy temperament, and he takes his role as head of security seriously. He has a perch in both rooms that face the street so he can keep an eye on his domain, and he also makes sure the cats, raccoons, and other furry creatures in the neighborhood don’t get too close to his personal kingdom.

Besides appointments, we did make it down to Fernbank Park on the Ohio River, had a nice ramble, and saw the requisite sunset over the Kentucky hills. Mike went down to Fernbank another time by himself and got knocked down by a overly rambunctious dog he didn’t know, but there do not seem to be any long-term consequences for the attack of doggish exuberance that bowled him over.


Sunset at Fernbank Park in Sayler Park, Cincinnati

We met friends, I went to do some work and see co-worker friends (plus eat lunch) at the ladies’ club a couple of times, and I met the new golf pro at the Western Hills Country Club on a rainy morning. For the time being, I’m still doing newsletters every month for both clubs, finding some kind of wi-fi connection here and there across the west.

We were in Cincinnati on the Reds’ baseball Opening Day and went down that evening to see our son-in-law Rory in a play at Gabriel’s Corner in Over the Rhine. To our surprise, we wound up on the edge of a near-riot, or at least an unruly crowd, after the game—but we made it to the theatre  without too much trouble and enjoyed a rousing production of The Pyromaniacs.

One rainy afternoon, I headed downtown to the Mercantile Library to return a book, but I had my days mixed up and it was not the day they are open late. I left the book (an honor book, not one that actually needed to be checked out) on the window ledge by the door to the library, on the eleventh floor, not out in the rain. Then I had a very disappointing dinner downtown and headed back to Bridgetown, where we were staying at the time.

When we decided we needed to stay another week (it had gotten cold again, a bit too cold overnight to camp) we imposed upon our nephew Erich and stayed with him for a few days. That’s when we discovered, from a friend who lives near him, that our container of furniture, bikes, miscellanea, and one long canoe, was in some peril. Apparently the owner of the 130-year-old moving company where our things were being stored has not made succession planning for the company to continue. So the business is rather chaotic at the moment, and a lot of people who worked there (including our friend) have quit. We didn’t want to take the chance that our stuff could be in limbo. So we suddenly found ourselves trying to make plans to get the container of goods transferred to a more stable storage facility so we could actually access it when we finally stop wandering and buy another house. Yikes.


Mike resting among our rescued furniture

Of course we had Skyline chili and Graeter’s ice cream while we were in town; it was good to find that the quality of both remains high. Just to be sure, we went to second locations of both and are happy to report that the products both serve are still delicious across the board.


Mmmmm, dinner!

Comments

  1. AmyApril 21, 2026 at 8:04 AM

    Never look at a photo of Skyline's when you are hungry. Never.

    ReplyDelete

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