End of the line

For you NBA fans, the Phoenix Suns' season finally ended tonight. The NBA has been my favorite sports league since watching the Baltimore Bullets in the 1960s (Gus Johnson, Earl Monroe), but this Suns team was particularly enjoyable, at least for those of us here in Arizona. Not only were they forced to deal with the absence of critical players due to injury, it turned out that the injuries were concentrated among all of their bigger players: Amare Stoudemire, Kurt Thomas and Brian Grant. So they were forced into playing even smaller and faster than planned (which already was pretty small and fast). It's ridiculous that these guys got within two wins of the NBA finals.

Their success was so striking -- and fan-friendly -- that it clearly is influencing the style of play across the entire league. Just watch the personnel moves this off-season and the playing tactics next year. Actual skill will be important, rather than large men simply grabbing and beating on each other. So I thought it was worth a post.

Memorial Day 2006

Memorial Day makes one think about departed soldiers. A week or so ago, Wikipedia (an online encyclopedia) had an article on the 62nd anniversary of the Allied World War II victory at Monte Cassino.

So on this Memorial Day weekend, I’m thinking about my uncle, Irvin Bormann. Irvin died at Monte Cassino. Which means that my uncle made an incredible sacrifice during an incredible battle during an incredible war. Not that my own reaction has any relevance to the story, but as I think back I am surprised at how little I have appreciated Irvin and the battle over the years. When I was a kid, he was pretty much just a guy in a picture on the shelf in our parlor back on the farm. Everybody knew he had died in the war and that was pretty much it.

Wikipedia has great information about the battle and the abbey itself. Read the articles (links provided below) if you have a moment. Who knew that Monte Cassino was in a strategic location that made it the subject of raids throughout centuries, including by the Lombards (584), the Saracens (883) and Napoleon (1799)? Or that Charles Martel’s son was a monk at Monte Cassino (he would have been Charlemagne’s uncle)?

And what about the World War II battle? I had no idea that Polish troops played a major (and successful) role. I didn’t know that the Allies went to Pius XII for permission to bomb the monastery. I don’t know which aspect of the battle (or its various separate assaults) took Irvin from us, though it must have been one of the first assaults. I had no idea the battle was so difficult. I wish I could talk to Irvin about this. I wish I had talked to my grandparents about this.

The Monte Cassino photos (click to enlarge, as always) are from Wikipedia and speak for themselves. How about the Nazi propaganda poster designed to demoralize the Poles? It scares me. The view of the restored abbey from the Polish cemetery is quite beautiful. I would like to visit here. First I will read some of the items in the bibliography in the wikipedia article. And get back into Irvin’s diary. Irvin’s photo is from the St. Joe history book.

By the way, if you are not a wikipedia user, I cannot recommend it highly enough. The main page for the encyclopedia is at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page) The article about the battle for Monte Cassino is at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Monte_Cassino. A separate article about the abbey itself is at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monte_Cassino.

ASU School of Nursing - outstanding graduate!

The big day finally arrived – as of May 12, Patricia is officially a graduate of the ASU School of Nursing! Some highlights:

• She received the “Outstanding Graduate Award” for all three campuses (ASU Tempe, West and East)


• She delivered a fine speech at the graduation ceremony (held at Gammage Auditorium), very well received


• Cecilia House visited from Minnesota for the weekend and was an excellent guest, very well behaved.


• Nicole and Kerry visited for the weekend and were generally well behaved.


• Big graduation party held Saturday evening with many folks in attendance and good times all around


• Also lots of fun just sitting in the sun or on the back patio in the afternoons, some went in the pool, some played marathon Hearts games. Etc.

She did a great job in nursing school. Amazingly, they kept the graduating class filled with busy work right up to the very end. Next step: a hard-to-obtain job in the Emergency Department at Mayo Hospital, starting June 2.

Office photos

We had some photos taken for our law firm. Here are a few looks at the office - located at 101 and Bell Road up in northeast Scottsdale. The interior shot shows our conference room, which has a great view to the south looking over one of the tee boxes at the TPC desert course. Click on any photo to enlarge, per usual.

Durufle's Requiem

The ASU Choral Union performed a Requiem by Maurice Durufle on Saturday evening, April 1, 2006. I’ve been a huge fan of the music from our two previous concerts, but I liked this music best of all. (Who knows, maybe I’m too easy to please or just like whatever is current.)

Requiems have been written by many composers, and performed many times. Which is why I think the words tend to get lost – at one level we’ve heard the words “too many” times; at another level, the words are in Latin and many are not decipherable. But when you think about it – the words couldn’t be more dramatic. These words were written in a world where life spans were short, and where death was all around, often happening mysteriously and suddenly. This also was a world where everyone believed that God was judgmental, that they were sinners, and that they literally suffered physical pain eternally – whether by fire or whatever – if one was not among those graced by mercy at the Last Judgment.

That gives a different ring to the words of the Requiem. How about one selection: Libera me, Domine, de morte æeterna, in die illa tremenda, in die illa: Quando cœli movendi sunt et terra dum veneris judicare sæculum per ignem Tremens factus sum ego et timeo,dum discussio venerit, atque ventura ira. Dies illa, dies iræ, calamitatis et miseriæ, dies illa, dies magna et amara valde. (Deliver me, Lord, from everlasting death in that dread day, that day when heaven and earth will be moved, and you shall come to judge the world by fire. I tremble and am full of fear, as I await the day of reckoning and the wrath to come. That day, the day of wrath, calamity, and sorrow, that great day of exceeding bitterness.) Pretty scary stuff.

The work lets up at the end with In Paradisum – a palpable difference in tone. After all the fear and impassioned pleading, the work concludes with a beautiful expression of confidence in mercy. That last piece opens with sopranos and altos, like a chorus of angels. Very nice.

An organization named the “Colorado Choir” has two of the Requiem pieces on its website: http://www.coloradochoir.com/. Hit the link for “Recordings” and scroll down.

Anyway, I was a huge fan. The composer (Maurice Durufle) wrote the work with two different accompaniments – one for orchestra, one for organ. We did it with organ. The CD with orchestra sounded more compelling. Oh well. Durufle built the work on a foundation of Gregorian Chant, which is part of the reason it works so well. You can read about Durufle at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durufle.

Next up: Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 (the “Resurrection Symphony”) on April 28 at Gammage Auditorium. The baritones have to hit a G over middle C at one point in this piece, which could be funny.

Today my Mom turned 78

Happy Birthday to a fellow AARP member.

What do I like about my mom? Quite a bit, actually. One of the best things was that somehow she made us (i.e., her children) believe that it just wasn't possible that we wouldn't do our tasks well and behave well -- it was just something she knew would happen, and that somehow made us know it also. Didn't involve cajoling, reminders, threats (if you don't do or behave well, this consequence will happen) or bribes (if you do this, I'll give you this). No matter how well disguised, those techniques generally don't work so well. Her approach leaves a kid free to go out and be herself or himself with great confidence in success, knowing that the support would always be there.

Of course she also worked like a dog for us without ever talking about how hard she was working. As adults I think we now have some perspective on that workload - but not really. Nine kids is a lot. No fast food or other takeout restaurant nearby. None of the other conveniences that we all rely on now whenever we think we "need a break." This was an excellent model for a kid. Do your work, don't talk about how much you work.

All that made us feel mighty secure. Even if that concept has been trivialized by the pop psychology industry, it's a mighty good thing for a kid always to feel that way, even into the adult years.

Thanks from your 50-year-old kid.

Unexpected 50th Fun; HoHoKam Park

Patricia and I enjoyed a total surprise when our five sneaky children pulled off a 50th birthday weekend for us. (My birthday is already old news, while Patricia’s is coming up on April 6.) The conspiracy was only revealed Thursday evening when I heard the unmistakable giggling of my two daughters sneaking around the back patio around 11:30p in the company of their chauffeur, Chris, after flying in from Chicago and Washington DC. So they woke up their mother right away and the weekend was launched.

Fun things:

• Going to Z Tejas for lunch on Friday and watching our tourist daughters get a sunburn over lunch hour on the patio


• Sitting around and talking and watching NCAA tournament upsets and/or ridiculously close finishes (including Washington’s version of Jon Blaha scrapping his way to defeat)


• Dinner with just the seven of us around the table on Friday evening (my favorite part of the weekend)


• Waking up Saturday morning to intense 50th decorations in the family room


• Spring training baseball on an 86-degree Saturday afternoon at HoHokam Park in Mesa (Cubs 1, Athletics 0 in 10 innings) (photos show our somewhat distant vantage point plus enthusiastic 7th inning stretch vocalizing)
  


• Waiting for Mary Beth Stern to come by for dinner on Saturday only to have about 30 people show up for a great birthday celebration


• Watching our sneaky kids handle shopping, decorating, food prep, cleanup etc. while they also paid for it all. Each one of them was integral to the event.
  

This was a ridiculously nice thing for them to do. It won’t be forgotten.

A gift for my 50th birthday . . .

Among the other fine cards, gifts, phone calls and emails for my 50th birthday, one gift just stands out. Here I am modeling a T-shirt from Patrick. With both state universities represented in our household both by esteemed graduates and current students, we do have some fun with the U of A-ASU thing. (Except when U of A collapsed against Illinois in last year’s NCAA basketball tournament and the ASU fans were not completely sympathetic. Which they should be considering the sympathy constantly required in following ASU’s basketball team.) Anyway, it’s a fine shirt and will resolve the game-day wardrobe dilemma when the schools play each other next November.

143 Days Without Rain (but not 144)

Yes, Phoenix’s record streak of 143 days without rain was broken today. The previous record was only in the 105 range. This has been a strange year – very little snow (and no skiing at all) in the high country, fire restrictions already starting to be put into place, etc. The early part of 2005 was just the opposite.

Weather was a big topic back on the farm in my youthful days, which is understandable given the economic impact. (It’s still a common conversation topic even here in Phoenix where the weather forecasters have the easiest job around, I guess because weather is the ultimate common conversation topic.) Anyway, a guy named Pete Kirsch drove truck for us in the corn-shelling business. He specialized in unusual responses to standardized questions (among other witticisms). When asked the standard question, “Do you think it’s going to rain?”, he would say “It will be a long dry spell if it doesn’t.” Now I know what he meant.

A Christmas Gift That Keeps on Giving

As we leave February behind, the good news is that we have a couple weeks more of a fine Christmas gift to enjoy. For the second year in a row, Patricia has requested that her gift from Grandpa & Grandma be peanut blossom cookies. This year’s edition arrived a week or so after Christmas. They were meticulously packaged – two cookies back-to-back in plastic wrap, then carefully laid out in rows in a packing box. There was an unverified report that the fine hand of EMG contributed to the packing. The entire batch went right into the freezer as soon as it hit Arizona (arriving in mint condition).

The two-cookie packing method matches our consumption pattern perfectly – we each have a cookie every weekday morning with coffee at breakfast. And fortunately these feature chocolate stars instead of Hershey’s kisses; much better.

Since the boys won’t be back home until spring break, I really do think we are safe to finish the stash at our current leisurely pace. Paul Jr. did cut off about a week of our supply on his last trip home.

If you’re wondering what to request from Grandma next year, keep this in mind.

Las Vegas, Nevada

Well, here I am on day three of my Las Vegas trip. I'm here for a client convention, and am staying at the not-so-fabulous Las Vegas Hilton (you can learn all about this property at www.lvhilton.com). Tonight I had a ticket with my group for a Barry Manilow concert. Yes, he's still alive. But I ditched the concert anyway.

As far as Las Vegas, I miss Phoenix. Flying back tomorrow evening.

Saying Goodbye to a Fine Friend . . .

We had Kelly put to sleep at 3:30 pm today. Chris, Paul Jr. and Patrick (traveling up from Tucson) stopped by to give her a sad pet-pet earlier in the day, and Patrick and Paul Jr. came to the animal hospital with us (along with Pat and Nedda). Nicole and Kerry were making plans to fly in next weekend, but it wasn’t clear that the little dog could make it that long; and it definitely would have been a miserable, painful week for her if she had. Patricia and I thought it was very dear how all five were willing to make the effort.

Kelly had been slowing down pretty dramatically over the last few months, but was done in by her diet (and no, I don’t mean Nicole’s ProPlan): for some reason, she had started ingesting the little rocks in the back yard landscaping. The X-rays showed over 100 rocks in her stomach and nearly a dozen in her small intestine. Apparently it’s not terribly uncommon for dogs to ingest strange things, including rocks. Anyway, this circumstance was causing all of the bad consequences that you might imagine. At a slowed-down age 14, there really was no decision to make.

But enough on that. I mostly wanted to write that we feel very fortunate to have had such an excellent dog for the family during the years that the kids were growing up. Funny, we never planned on owning a dog. We got the idea because some of the kids in their early years were afraid of dogs, and we thought they might get over the fear by living with a dog. We got that benefit, and much much more.

Patricia had lived with an Airedale terrier in her childhood, and came up with the idea that a Welsh terrier might have the same positive characteristics in a much smaller package. She was right. Clean, quiet, no shedding, great car traveler. Warm, lively personality; easy temperament. Cute; mostly looked and acted like a puppy until the last few months. Excellent health, easy to take care of. Always up for walks, rides, biscuits, the biscuit game, having her nuggets thrown to her, being tennis doggy, chasing “the cat,” wearing the wizard bandana, hiking Lockett’s Meadow, jumping into an impossibly small space and curling up right next to (or on top of) you on the couch or chair, taking her doggie treats and enjoying them in the privacy of the piano area of the living room. Never up for bath, haircut, vacuum cleaner. Couch, chair, beanbag chair, mattress, whatever human furniture: yes; dog bedding: an insult, no way. Nurse Kelly sat by whichever kid had a cut or bruise or just felt down; the musical doggy sat by the piano bench whenever anyone played; the study buddy sat for hours with Patricia as she did her nursing program homework.

And Kelly loved nothing better than to curl up with the five members of her pack (and however many friends were around) for a Kelly sleepover in the back room.

No replacement plans whatever.

Goodbye, Kelly.

Finis

We think the install crew did a great job. Weather today was gorgeous again, low 70s and sunny. Photos show views of the final product, plus a snap of a dog that toured down to the park to check things out. As always, you can click on the photo to enlarge (then you can actually see things). More to come about Kelly, who had a bad visit to the vet today.

Phase Two . . .

Today was mostly irrigation work plus putting in the mounding and doing an initial plant layout. A few tweaks needed, but they should be able to finish tomorrow on schedule.

Front Yard: Phase One

For whatever reason, here at 11419 N. 43rd Street we have made deferred maintenance into a lifestyle; maybe even an art form. With one exception (the “back room” aka dormitory space), we haven’t undertaken any significant project during our 10+ years here unless it was required by water damage. (Now that I think about it, that reminds me of my childhood home – the living room carpet, draperies and related work resulted from water damage from freezing pipes when we were stranded at Grandpa & Grandma Bormann’s house in Algona in a blizzard in March 1965. Not much else happened. Maybe it’s a historical repeat. But I digress.)

Anyway, we have retained a contractor named Hawkeye Landscaping to remove what little pathetic sprigs of grass remained of our front lawn, convert to desert landscaping, put in a walkway, and all of the related tasks. Yes, the owner is from Cedar Rapids, and yes, he brazenly uses the U of I logo on his trucks, website, and everything else (no doubt without a license from, or royalty payments to, the University). (Take a look at www.Hawkeyelnd.com.) But that’s not why we hired him. We hired him because we were sick of the project and just wanted to get it over with.

Top two photos show the sad pre-project situation; bottom three show today’s accomplishments. The work is supposed to be done by Friday. More to come.

(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!