Visiting Mom, who is ill (trip #1 of 4)

Time to start visiting my Mom.  (And to visit Dad - guess what, he's also affected by this.)  (But from here on I’ll use Grandma/Grandpa when referring to them (since our visits always involved next-gen types).)  

Here’s an overview of trip #1:

Thursday, May 7

Pleasant (if hurried) stop-off in downtown Albert Lea.  Who knew, it's a real town.

Easy, on-time flights; PJ, Chris and I meet Kerry at MSP airport and head south.  Slight detour through Albert Lea for CPG-located lunch stop – worked well.  Reached St. Joe around 9p local time.  We had been dismayed by a couple recent photos of Grandma – but they were misleading, we were relieved that she looked good.  Nice initial chatting – all felt fine/normal, even though.  And we watched Doc Martin – fun to do with G&G.  Tired after traveling, C&K to hotel in Algona, PJ and I stay at the house.

Friday, May 8

Hotel crew showed up for breakfast/coffee.  PJ and C headed to Algona for groceries etc.  K and I hung around, talked to Grandma and (to a lesser extent) Grandpa; K went through some of the Minnie Bormann handwritten “cookbook” materials with Grandma – thoroughly interesting.

K and her Grandma inspect Minnie Bormann recipe notebook.

Connie and Caroline were at the farm - nice to visit there.

CPG and Caroline.

Phase one of mixing up baked goods – cinnamon rolls, top hats, peanut blossom cookies.  (Later:  angel food cake, rhubarb dessert.)  After dinner, G&G head to palliative care appointment in Mason City (meeting Steve and Cecilia there).  The rest of us go over to Clarence Bormann farm – had the typically excellent visit with Caroline and Connie.   Liz had arrived in St. Joe and was planting out the flower bed when we returned - nice.  Then the folks from the MC appointment arrived back at St. Joe.  Chicken divan for supper!  Nice after-supper chatting.  Watched Bulls win on buzzer-beater.  Steve & Liz head out.

Gales-men.

As the evening wears on – Nicole arrives from London (via Chicago and Des Moines, then drive to St. Joe).  She made a great effort.  More chattering ensues, then they head to Algona.

Saturday, May 9

Hotel crew arrives; Mark & Therese arrive; cinnamon rolls, cookies, etc.

Peanut blossoms!

Chinese restaurant - quite serviceable I hear - Algona, Iowa.

Dallas Clark's Algona winery.  (V. fun even if some uncertainty about the wines, I hear.)

Sangria Saturday draws high-end crowd.

The crew took Grandma up to Algona to tour all the hot spots.  By all reports, they had a great time:  shared five entrees at Chinese restaurant among the group o’ eight; several treats at Chocolate Season (Grandma tried some Chai drink that she supposedly really liked); “Sangria Saturday” at Train Wreck (lovely day, they sat outside by the tracks); etc.  So this was a fine outing for all.

Grandpa had planned to go up to the hill farm and mow down the grass (made sense as it was a good weather day with rain in the forecast.  I considered it a good idea to tag along with him.  Chris tagged along for a while (we inspected the old stove that has sat for so many years in the now-burned-down granary), then joined Algona-bound crew.  I got to run the string-trimmer quite a bit.  Dad did really well on the 4020-mower combination.  Up and down from the tractor just fine, twisting and turning as he backed up the mower into various spots.  Fantastic weather, it was nice it was to be outside moving around.  The two of us I took a break for lunch (ok, dinner) around 1p, then back up the hill.  (Yes, there are plenty of resonant moments for me working with my dad on the same farm where we spent so much time in the 60s and 70s - a gift to be able to revisit this.)

Dad and me on hill farm.

EMG on 4020 (kind of obscured by shade), doing work.

Low-key happy hour on the deck – to enjoy the weather, and to give G&G a chance to rest.  With a little prodding (and beer) on the deck, Therese and Mark agreed to stay the night (instead of just heading back in the evening).  So that was good.  Leftovers for supper.  Traditional angel food cake and singing for N’s b’day.  Cecilia gave Mom the picture of the grandkids (12x18 print combining the 2002 and 2014 photos).  It was carefully inspected.  After supper celebrated Mother’s Day by going around the table for each in attendance to say something about Mom.  Everyone (including Grandpa) had thoughtful, unique things to say – I think she much enjoyed.  I know I did.

PJ and I had  fine traveling companions.

With Grandma.

Grandma's present for Mother's Day (good idea, Cecilia)
(grandchildren photos from 2002 and 2014)

Sunday, May 10

St. Joe Church.

Livermore Legion - breakfast, second Sunday of every month.  

All attend 10a Mass in St. Joe; “Father Peter” was pretty animated.  Chatting outside church, followed by breakfast at Livermore Legion hall.  Fr. Kollasch shows up at the house for a while.  Then Dolores, Clare, Tom, Kieran arrive – fun afternoon with that crew.  Lots o’ baking going on; Chris and Patricia making roast chicken supper; Clare making spring rolls; Bulls losing in background; a bit of euchre; some resting by Dad, less by Mom.  Dinner, clean-up, goodbyes to Cullens; then they return to St. Joe right away due to tornado warning; they eventually head out into the stormy night.  (Turns out there was some tornado stuff not too far off!)

Eager students learning about baking cinnamon rolls.

Grandma, Cecilia.

Mark, Therese

Monday, May 11

Patricia and I went with G&G to 8a Mass, followed by lots of pleasant talking in back of church.  Early flight, so after that, mostly we got organized and hit the road by 11a.  After getting loaded up with all sorts of wonderful baked goods (including plenty consumed on the road to MSP).

In sum:

Nonstop socializing, generally with fairly large groups.  Both Grandma and Grandpa had really good energy – remarkable, really.  I was exhausted; don’t know how they do it.  Grandma is handling the illness part great – matter of fact, but not morose at all.  Definitely tossed off the “I’m not an invalid yet” line numerous times.  Yet she unabashedly acknowledged some fear of what lies ahead in a couple conversations.  It’s fun to see (ok, hear about) her willingness to try stuff (sangria? chai tea?)  Things could change rapidly, but we didn’t feel any particular sense that we were running out of time.  It was a great visit.

With blanket from Kerry.  Grandma sitting among her treasures.  Thinking about things.  I like this photo.

April visitors; wedding

Enjoyed visits from Kerry and Patrick in April - fun (like always) to have them around.  Various shenanigans around Phoenix.

Nadia Reghabi wedding also was held during this time - beautiful ceremony up at the JW Marriott by Desert Ridge - we all were able to be there (including a hotel stay-over).

DeSoto Market - grand opening (April 11) - as name-tags reveal, we were observing CPG birthday.

OhSo Brewery opened a location at Tatum/Shea. (April 13)

Most of our crew . . . Nadia's wedding (April 18)

Me 'n PJ at Nadia/Andy reception

Lazy River on day-after-wedding.

Mom has cancer

Mom has been losing some weight (though otherwise feeling normal), and she's been concerned about it.  We all tended to worry less about this - after all, she had modified her diet quite a bit after being diagnosed with diabetes last year.  But it seemed worthwhile to pursue a checkup, if only for her peace of mind.

Her instincts were correct.  Widespread cancer; pancreatic, liver; probably not much to do in terms of treatment.

There is a lot for all of us to absorb.

Especially her.

She (and we) received the news on the day prior to her 87th birthday.

Tucson trip

Many years since PJ and I have been Tucson tourists (last overnight discussed here).  We keep hearing that development efforts in the past few years (subsequent to EPG's fine graduation ceremony) have resulted in a very nice downtown.  So we gave it a try - the idea being that we could do our usual park-the-car-and-walk (more attractive to us than just hanging out at the big resorts up in the hills, such as this).

Tumacacori

And it turned out great.  Another first for us:  downtown development activities not having included much in the way of hotel-building, we stayed at a bed-and-breakfast (for three nights).  Very fine, old-school building; within walking distance of everything downtown.  I wouldn't normally expect to feel like chatting with strangers at breakfast time, but even that aspect was enjoyable.

My fine traveling companion, alongside what remains of the church at Tumacacori.

We made the rounds:

• Drove down to Tubac as our first stop - enjoyed wandering the town; really enjoyed our lunch at Elvira's.  Highly recommended.  One of the first times I wasn't disappointed in a mole'.
• A couple dinners at Janos Wilder's downtown kitchen.  A couple lunches at Proper (affiliated with the Flagstaff restaurants we like so well).  Delightful. (Somewhat less happy with a dinner we were really anticipating - Cafe Poca Cosa).
• Visited one of my favorite places:  San Xavier del Bac.
• Visited one of my even-more-favorite places:  Tumacacori.  Even took the walking path down to the San Pedro River.
• Did plenty of wandering around downtown Tucson.
• Did a return visit to Tubac on a glorious Sunday morning.

We shall happily go back, sooner than later.

Wandered down to the San Pedro River . . . 

Bell tower on the church just looks great.

 

At Downtown Kitchen.

Ornate breakfast set-up.

It's fun to wander around Tubac.

Inside San Xavier del Bac.

Keyboard competition is one of my excuses

Having [tried to] maintain a diary pretty continuously from January 1, 1966 into the late 1970s, I learned pretty early on that "falling behind" is a fatal error.  I'm writing this on July 18, 2015 (though dating it as of the time of the "situation," i.e. February).  Embarrassingly, it is my first blog post for 2015.

Early this year I fell into a very pleasant habit of working at the piano keyboard.  But this came at the expense of time spent at the computer keyboard - which is my only avenue to posting things here.  (And yes, I was using our newish electronic piano - the Steinway is disabled pending major reno.  But it was still very pleasant, trust me.)

I'm encouraged, or delusional, or something, about continuing this piano-keyboard effort.  But it got me behind in terms of this online diary.

So I'll now start catching up, after a fashion.

Beer tasting

Just about ready to get started.

A holiday beer-tasting event was held at our place on December 27.  Lots of work by all involved in the planning and execution, with N taking the arranging-lead and PJ taking the hostessing-cooking lead.  And K coming through with some spiffy tasting glassware (complete with a few professional-looking taster “paddles”).

K-supplied tasting hardware.  ("Duck with boots" just eluded the photographer at far right.)

Results - click to enlarge.  Left column lists participants in order of finish.  CPG and me were the most
generous graders.  EPG was the toughest grader, becoming noticeably more discriminating as he went along.  

It all really turned out well.

Remarkably good logistics handled by three supposedly impartial non-beer-drinkers – this involved handling two beers per person for a dozen tasters, maintaining scoring, keeping things moving, preserving beer-secrecy, etc.  Not a simple process, though they made it feel that way.  Participants were tasked with bringing two beers and an appetizer – yes, this worked very well.  Folks clearly were diligent about their beer shopping, and also were thoughtful about app choices.

Instagram #1 (borrowed from N).  Medal stand honorees
in bottom right photo (gold-silver-bronze top to bottom).

Each participant ranked the beers, and the beer-submitter with highest aggregate score was declared the victor.  Our administrators reported on lots of interesting and occasionally on-target commentary as the participants worked through the list.

Pretty sure we’ll do this again in the future.  I’d be happy if we use pretty much the same approach again, though we likely will do some sort of beer-by-category ranking at least for scoring purposes – we noticed that lighter/cleaner tasting beers suffered in the comparisons, as did the porter/stout submissions.

N Instagram #2.

The path to victory in this first tasting:  focus your two beer submissions in the realm of fine-tasting IPAs or the like (this strategy worked for #1 winner: PJr, #2 runner-up: Mike Barbeau; #3: me (yes, on the medal stand, if barely!)).

N Instagram #3.

Christmas concert . . .

We started off the holidays right – a most enjoyable concert attended by PJ, just-arrived EPG, and me.  This was the Phoenix Chorale’s Christmas concert – at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in downtown Phoenix on Saturday evening, December 20.

Some reasons for attending:

• We've been big fans of the Phoenix Chorale for quite a while (see for example, this discussion of perhaps my most favorite concert).
• We know or have sung with several current and former members; also, director Charles Bruffy conducted portions of this Chanticleer event.
• The concert featured Christmas music arrangements by Ola Gjeilo – we like his stuff, he is a regular arranger-composer for the Phoenix Chorale, plus he married our former Choral Union conductor.
• EPG had identified Gjeilo’s music earlier this year via youtube or however (per his own instincts, no recommendation from us, a neat more-than-coincidence in terms of overlapping taste).
• This group is really good.  There's a reason they've already won two Grammy awards.  Entirely a cappella performance, constant completely exposed lines with nowhere to hide unless the singers are just nailing the notes.  Which they do.

Yakking with Ola, post-concert.

Gjeilo did a Q&A before the concert – quite interesting to hear him discuss the challenges of coming up with fresh arrangements for songs that have been arranged literally thousands of times.  (Occasionally we could remember snippets of his thought process as we listened to the concert.  But mostly we just listened.)

There’s something about sitting there with your wife and son – in a darkened church – every seat taken, everyone entirely focused on the performance – listening to Christmas music – especially the familiar-warm carols! – the music moves and floats above and around and through the church – in addition to appreciating the present one cannot help recalling other times and places and singers with these same lovely, reverent songs across the decades.

Who knew Christina Rosetti (of pre-Raphaelite eminence) wrote the lyrics for the so-lovely "In the Bleak Midwinter?"

The effect is pretty powerful, and builds as we go along.

By the time we get to the closing/climax of the concert – four Gjeilo arrangements of familiar Christmas carols – it's of course difficult to use words to describe this portion but EPG was kind enough to find the audio tracks for these songs  that very night (very nice online versions, very similar to what we heard at the concert).  So I’m going to post two of the songs here (I added a photo or two to support posting the audio tracks via youtube; this is a common method but new for me, and I should re-post later with more photos, or not).

First song:  “Away in a Manger” – all in all a pretty simple arrangement (if anything like this can be considered so).  But Gjeilo enhances the melody line immeasurably by adding some gorgeous/wistfulness-inducing movement beneath it (via beautiful mostly hummed chord progressions).  I think it’s just fantastic:



Next was my clear-cut favorite of the evening - The First Nowell.  Very similar technique via the use of the underlying chord progressions.  But the soprano soloist’s descant line (if I'm using that term correctly) at the very beginning foreshadows much to come.  Listen for it against the male soloist as he starts into the second phrase of verse two.  Verse three might be (OK it definitely is) my favorite – Gjeilo alters  the melody (sung by the sopranos) ever so slightly – the men hum below (a basso continuo effect I think), the alto line moves so-warmly against the soprano-melody, then the solo soprano descant lifts and floats as the verse proceeds. . . after the “chorus” section of this verse three I was actually pretty worried that the song might be ending - doesn't it sound like it might?  But to our relief Gjeilo gives us verse four - entrusting the melody to the soprano soloist (with plenty else going on in the other voice parts)!  Hard to describe the effect in the church that eve as all these song-elements float around and enchant us, the oft-ethereal female voices evoke the 1st Christmas angel-singers about which the carol is written after all, the concert is winding down, memories flicker, and at that point the audience, certainly me, was let’s say emotionally ready, or vulnerable, or something, for just this kind of Christmas-song-moment – well, see what you think:



[And note that the arrangement returns full circle to the solo soprano descant at the very end.]

Chorale Christmas concerts always end with a crowd sing-along of Silent Night - my little wife's favorite - everybody sings and this was very lovely and I think of many things including David Clark Isele's beautiful ND Glee Club arrangement and Veronica Dockendorf Gales earnestly singing this with her grandchildren on the St. Joe hill farm 50+ years ago (including original German Stille Nacht verses once Sister Doris had taught these to we then grade-schoolers).

After chatting a while with singers and composer, we three moved onto a fine and quite late dinner, with thorough concert-rehash, at the St. Francis on Camelback Road.  And EPG (our chauffeur for the evening) played these very tunes for us in the car, all the way home.  Which was important and good because the replay for this sort of thing is best commenced in the exact moment.

Twas yet another fine+ event.

Iowa trip (December 11-15, 2014)

I like this view up the lane at the farmsite where we grew up.  Various grasses - now undisturbed by the
former parade of vehicles - nearly blanket the formerly 100% gravel surface.  Fog was rolling in, pretty much
obscuring the grove across the road on the old Merkle place.  (Taken Saturday, December 13)

Enjoyed a really-fine trip to Iowa (via MSP). Very fortunate that my parents remain in such great shape as they push along in their mid-80s.  Something unusual about this trip:  PJ unable to accompany me due to work schedule - so my first time visiting Iowa on my own since 2000.

It was a fine time for lunch at Day Block Brewing!  (Yes, you can tell who still has to go back to work.)

December weather was great - mid-20s with some flurries upon arrival at the airport, but steadily rising into the low 50s by the end of my visit.  (Though I didn't see the sun at any point on the trip (let alone any patches of sky).)

Mom and Dad standing in the passageway between parlor and dining room.  

This time, they are standing in the parlor.  The old green wallpaper is working its way
to the surface, slowly and steadily.

Thursday:  Therese and Cecilia & Steve were able to meet me for lunch - so that was very fun.  Went to Day Block Brewing - pulled pork and their own brews - would happily return.  That went all too quickly and I hit the road for Iowa.  Swung by Steve/Liz house in Mason City - they were dealing with repair folks but Liz was kind enough to take over supervision of that process and Steve and I went out for a couple stops:  (1) a bar place where a group of his buddies meet to sip and do football predictions etc.; (2) dinner at Quarry restaurant.  Yup, they know some very nice folks in Mason City - much enjoyed the opportunity to spend some time.  Then drove on to St. Joe.  We milled around a while; had a nice chat with Carol & Jim up in Nome; finally went to bed around 1a.

Howard Barton's kitchen cabinets actually still look pretty good.

Friday:  Visited Caroline in Algona in mid-morning.  She seems to be doing really great, was fun to visit.  Timing overlapped with arrival of Brian, Corrine and Marita - so nice to catch up with them a bit.  Then what was intended to be a short visit at the Capesius seed corn shed . . . but we lingered for three-four hours as various folks kept wandering in and the conversations continued.  Sitting around and talking with these folks is hard to beat, and Bill-Bob-Chris are great hosts.  But we did get a little hungry so were ready for a snack upon return to St. Joe not much before 5p.  Chatted, sat around, worked a bit on Grandma's Christmas letter, late supper, nice day.

I always liked this light fixture in the parlor.

Saturday:  Finalized edits and formatting of Christmas letter in the morning - there wasn't that much to do, but it was nice to wrap up.  In the afternoon we went over to the farm house and checked things out.  Wow:  that place is really starting to fall apart in various areas.  Might not be that long before it fails to be entirely safe.  But we enjoyed going from room to room and discussing whatever came to mind.  While inside, fog started building outside.  So felt just a little weird when we first stepped outside:  time machine effect inside the house, change of weather to foggy-mystery outside.  Back to St. Joe for a pretty quiet evening.  Nice to have supper with my Mom & Dad (three times).

Reviewing the loot from the prior weekend's "Cookie Bake" hosted per usual by the Haag family
in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.  Yes, I took home samples to Arizona.

Watching a Lawrence Welk rerun with my Mom - took the picture because the performers here happen
to include "Ralna" - who later lived across the street from us in AZ.

Sunday:  10a Mass in St. Joe - very large crowd, nice.  Talked to some folks after but then headed over to Livermore for the Legion breakfast.  Sat with Alvin Bormann but talked to others including John Gales.  We were in a bit of a hurry because we were planning to head over to Storm Lake and wanted to be back before nightfall given foggy forecast.  Had a very nice visit over there - just had a chance to say hi for a few minutes with Joe before he went to work; chatted with Dolores, Art, Clare; much enjoyed.  Intense fog along the lake, otherwise weather was a non-issue.  Back in St. Joe we went through maybe 200 audio cassette tapes that have accumulated going back to 1971.  We tested a few - generally seemed to remain in very good shape.  And it was quite interesting to hear voices such as Rev. Leo C. Schumacher, John Kohlhaas, among others. We organized all tapes by category; a useful start but much additional checking remains.  This - and dinner - pretty much took up our fine evening together.

EMG theorizes at Sunday pancake breakfast, American Legion hall in Livermore.

Dad and Mom are listening to one of the old audio cassettes we had pulled out of deep storage.  
  For the two of them - who have spent 80+ years building nothing but the finest
memories - it must be quite a pleasure to revisit them every now and again.

Monday:  Mass in St. Joe; drove 'round the cemetery; breakfast; miscellaneous wrap-up; packed some Christmas cookies in my luggage along with a ham sandwich and cinnamon roll for the road; said goodbyes, and that was it for a really fine visit.  Consistently busy with interesting things - but not too busy, the pace was really quite excellent.

Easy trip back to AZ, where PJ got to hear all about it over a late supper.

Yup, I'm lucky.

A few more photos:

Dad and Mom in the southeast bedroom, upstairs.  I recall when this was their bedroom - before
mounting numbers resulted in turning it into the "girls' room".

The three of us, in the "boys room" - southwest bedroom, upstairs.
The green paint job certainly held up well (though ceiling-fail is underway).

I was standing in the "yellow room" (aka "box room") when
I noticed Mom checking through the boys room closet.

Fog rolling in as we prepare to head back to St. Joe.

This gentleman no longer mixes his beer with orange juice.  Now it's prune juice.  (While I don't
foresee adopting the habit, I'll admit that it tasted surprisingly good.)

Milling around at back of church after Monday morning Mass.