End o' season

As previously noted, we've much enjoyed having POC, NOC and CPG living downtown (a mere block from Chase Field).  They were nice enough to invite us downtown for the final game of the Diamondbacks season on Sunday, September 29.

Top of 9th on last day of season (the record-breaking inning!)

After watching the last moments of a stirring come-from-behind win by the erstwhile hapless Cardinals at their townhouse, we wandered over to watch some baseball.  And saw another stirring come-from-behind win, one which allowed the Dbacks to finish the season 81-81 (for the second year in a row).

If it's in the newspaper, it must be true:  "Innings record."

Something interesting:  the team has had a ridiculous amount of extra-inning baseball this year, including an 18-inning marathon on August 24 in Philadelphia attended by Charlie and Mark Gales (who, not shockingly, stuck around for the whole game).  All those extra innings paid off:  the team set a world record for most innings played in a single season.

After the game:  walked back to the townhouse for bags, drinks/snacks, a fine dinner, plenty of yakking.  Involving various interesting folk associated with the team, all of whom seemed grateful that the daily grind was over for a few months.  Fun night.

Footnote:  our hero POC was somewhat featured on the TV broadcast from Philadelphia the day after the 18-inning marathon (August 25), per below (at beginning of clip we think he is looking down to send text message(s), not just managing sleep-deprivation (which would have been the rational thing to do)):

Oregon trip notes #1 - South Jetty (September 9, 2013)

Our September 2012 trip to Oregon (eight overnights spread across three cities:  Astoria, Welches (Mt. Hood) and Portland) was so delightful that we repeated it in September 2013.  We repeated many of the same activities, and added a few more.  Liked trip #2 even better, so this will stay in our travel rotation.

Showing South Jetty in relation to Astoria.  Man-made seawall (visible if click-photo-to enlarge) heads  straight west from South Jetty and divides the Columbia River from the Pacific (an effort to control, somewhat, the uncontrollable).

I gave quite a bit of description on our 2012 Oregon activities (three posts, available here) so won't repeat (much).  Will (mostly) point out a few new things we saw in random posts from time to time.

Looking straight west along the seawall (see above map, left side) out to the Pacific Ocean.  

Exhibit 1 is "South Jetty" - a few miles west/northwest of Astoria.  (Not to be confused with a similarly-named location much farther south along the Oregon coast (that one's near the town of Newport.  Never been there.)

Anyway:  last year we learned about the power and danger of the collision of the Pacific Ocean and the massive Columbia River - the fatal "Bar" littered with shipwrecks.  But in 2012 we didn't make it out to the South Jetty from Astoria.

Checking out the wreck of the Peter Iredale (sank in early 20th century, remnants
still on the Pacific beach, a few miles south of South Jetty).

This year:  we did.  And the place definitely captured our imagination, bigtime.  Until reading this book, I hadn't known that "Finisterre" had a deeper meaning than a tony Scottsdale neighborhood - though the Latin translation should have been obvious - this was the "end of the land" at western Portugal.  Until last year, I hadn't known that "Land's End" was anything other than a clothing company - then I learned that it is the western extremity of England.  So when one goes to the "South Jetty" - the western end of Oregon, where the Columbia crashes into the Pacific - all this resonates as you observe the wild seas and skies.  Not hard to imagine how the ancients conjured up a great unknown populated with nothing but monsters out there.

It was a sunny, placid day in Astoria (typical for September even if the area is rainy much of the year).  A few miles away at South Jetty:  rainy, windy, squally, menacing.

"Wreck of the Peter Iredale" - per photo above - is interesting and unusual.  Especially if you consider the back story (from which below photo is taken).

Wreck of the Peter Iredale, 107 years ago.

OK, you had to be there, but PJ's video (below) gives something of a feel for the setting (she starts out looking west along the seawall, then swings south, then back out along the seawall out to the Pacific (Columbia River is on the right side of the seawall).

Finisterre!

Clarence Bormann (1921 - 2013)

What is there to say about someone like Clarence?  These are the key guys that constituted my childhood world.  In those days, Clarence & Caroline were part of a core group of folks that gave a secure structure to everything.  Their very involvement left kids like me with an assurance and confidence that the foundational things in our lives (family, community, church, school, farm) were right and proper and enduring.

Of course we've always known - if only at an intellectual level - that these folks wouldn't live forever.  And we've lost plenty of so-important folks already.  But somehow the generational turnover is happening really fast now.  Our children are independent adults.  We're losing way too many of Clarence's generation. Especially in 2013.

Snack-time after what turned out to be our last card game with Clarence.  November 12, 2012.

I guess that's ok, too, and the idea is that - perhaps - we can represent to the next generation a shade of what Clarence and his ilk represented to us.  That's the noble idea, but the immediacy of all this right now is less comfortable.  I suppose maybe his generation also felt like this at certain points along the way?  It's a lot to live up to.

I'm not complaining, just a little shaken.  Especially in Clarence's case it's hard to imagine a better situation - he made it to 92 healthy as can be; we never missed visiting in these last years and he never missed playing 500 with us, baking the bread, sharing with me the Grandpa Bormann whiskey drink - and he and Caroline talking about stuff with us, current and old days.  You could learn something from these encounters, and I sure hope I did.

They were a great comfort to us as recently as February in dealing with Mary's death.

What a lot of life, and change, he saw over these decades.

Clarence was a great guy.  But unfortunately for we who remain:  it's still "was."

Clarence 08 18 13 by pgales56

September 2

Thinking a lot about Mary today (would have been her 49th birthday).  What a loss, she pretty clearly was something special.

This is one of my very-favorite photos: a so-young Mary is helping her Grandpa Bormann in the
potato patch in the garden at our home.  Those two really got along with each other.