(Short-Lived) Attack of the Roof Rats

This is not so good. About five years ago, we first heard reports of "roof rats" appearing in the Arcadia area of Phoenix -- this is an older part of town that was developed from large citrus groves. Roof rats are fairly disgusting looking rodents with nice long tails that munch on fallen citrus (and appear to even climb citrus trees to get at the goods). These charmers do well during warm winters, and started appearing in other parts of the Valley in recent years.

You know where this story is going. We're having a very warm, extremely nice winter this year. And those RRs are taking advantage. It's also been extremely dry, which is why we found a rat corpse in our pool two times (a different corpse each time). And we've been seeing hollowed out citrus in our back yard.

What to do? After freaking out for awhile, we made sure to keep the fallen citrus cleaned up. And, as shown in the photo, we sent out a crew to clear the citrus from the trees (spy camera view was taken from my home office; it's amazing what you can achieve working from home). Since we had our worst crop ever this year, it's no big loss. Only the RRs seemed to appreciate the undersized fruit.

Note to those dealing with these citrus-sucking scum: they love oranges, barely tolerate grapefruit and tangerines, and hate lemons (just look at the sneering expression on the frustrated scavenger in the photo).

In the unlikely event that you'd like to learn more about these rodents, see http://phoenix.about.com/cs/desert/a/roofrat01.htm.

Curve Wreckers Head Back to Campus

No particular reason to blog about the return of our three students to campus for spring semester 2006 except I like to brag. Sort of like affixing the bumper sticker that says “my kid is an honor roll student at (whatever) middle school.” Anyway, I must note that Patrick (U of A ’08), Paul Jr. (ASU ’09) and Patricia (ASU ’07) (all graduation dates are estimated) are into Dean’s list territory based on their performance so far – especially based on terrific results for fall semester 2005. The last of these scholars will be back in class on January 17.

ND in Valley for Fiesta Bowl (But Loses (Again))

The good news for Notre Dame football is that it was invited to a BCS game this year (with attendant gazillion dollar payout). The bad news for Notre Dame was that it lost another BCS game (but no financial penalty for doing so). For those of you that are keeping score, that makes four straight losses in the Valley of the Sun (three Fiesta Bowls, one Insight Bowl). At least we watched the game in the comfort of our own home this time, with a fine group of party attendees.

And the best part of ND coming to Phoenix anyway is that random fans show up and we get to see them. Patricia and I (with Kerry and Chris) went to a restaurant called Jilly’s in north Scottsdale the night before the game; the place was a Notre Dame hangout during the Fiesta Bowl week. We caught up with Joe and Ruth Noack (from our Minneapolis days). And saw three excellent Glee Club alums – Joe Donovan, Brian Shappell and Steve Lillis – with families. Very nice.

Visitor from Wisconsin (or Minnesota)

We had a very fine visit from Ms. Angela House of Eau Claire, Wisconsin. She just graduated from college, which is a very good thing to do, and visited for a few days at the end of December (departed January 3) (early in the morning). She had fine experiences such as Phoenix Coyotes hockey, Tempe New Year's Eve Block Party, reading a book outside in 80 degree sunshine, playing with Kelly, hanging out at our Fiesta Bowl party, playing Balderdash, getting a spiffy haircut (or whatever girls call it), playing bump-out (see post below) and many other fabulous adventures.

Photos show an afternoon hike with Patricia, Angie and me.

Today is my Dad's 77th Birthday

Ernest Mathias Gales was born on this day back in 1929. He's been a cool dad throughout. A few quick thoughts:

1. My brothers and I were lucky to be able to work closely with Dad in his business (farming and custom corn shelling and trucking). This started from a very young age (and probably didn't even violate any child labor laws!) Among other things, I think I benefited greatly from observing his approach to problem solving -- always unruffled and analytical; think it through and get it right. And always on the lookout for a more efficient way to accomplish our tasks. Since Minneapolis-Moline wasn't investing many R&D dollars in corn shellers, this resulted in many custom modifications. I think back to the discussions that would precede setting up the corn sheller at any of our jobsites -- lay of the land, anticipated wind conditions, dealing with corncrib peculiarities, etc. I'm convinced that all this greatly assisted in developing whatever problem-solving skills I use in my business stuff.
2. The guy gave us a lot of confidence in our ability to handle situations. Need a tractor and corn sheller moved and there's nobody available to do it except some 13-year-old jackass? No problem, send him over to the customer's farm. Ditto with moving grain trucks around, even if the would-be driver didn't have the right license and wasn't necessarily an expert at distinguishing the clutch pedal from the brake. I do think this kind of thing develops confidence. And since it was coupled with endless analysis and theorizing (see #1 above), we didn't veer into recklessness (much).

Top photo shows EMG with a now-vintage Super M. Bottom shows him at the 50th wedding anniversary celebration, looking dapper in the suit in which he was married on February 19, 1952.

Happy #77!