It's a Mystery

My wife and I went to terrific movie called "The Soloist".  It's a great and touching story of a extremely gifted musician troubled by mental illness, a film I highly recommend.

It brings to mind my admiration regarding those lucky people whe are able to play a musical instrument, any musical instrument at all.  The best music I can play is from my radio or iPod shuffle.

I played basketball in high school and then in college.  I kept playing for many year of my adult life.  I could fake right and go left, I could slow down and then speed up, I could fake a shot and drive around a defensive player.  But I couldn't go right and left at the same time.  I couldn't fake a shot and take a shot at the same time.  In other words I couldn't do two different things at the same time.

I play golf also.  I grip the club with 2 hands.  You supposed to swing back and through the ball in one great coordinated arc.  Hard to do but fun to try.  But all together.

On the other hand.....

Piano players play with both hands at the same time but each hand does something different. Organ players do the same thing with 4 or 5 rows of keys and also use their feet on the pedals at the same time.  Watching that cellist in the movie, one hand did one thing while the other hand did something different AT THE SAME TIME !  One hand at one speed, the other hand at another speed.  How do you move one hand slow while the other hand moves fast?

How does anyone do that?  I have no idea.  It's just like that other impossible feat I have never master, skating backwards.  That also seems impossible to me.

All the members of my family all play musical instruments, except me,  and are great at it. 

Like I say - I don't get it ......

It's a mystery to me.

Give Her a Big Hug

(click to enlarge view)

Isn't that a wonderful expression of love and remembrance! Wow!

I'm back. In Minnesota and on the blog. Big, big day tomorrow - Mother's Day.

A little sad though. My mom is not around anymore. She left us awhile back, leaving an empty hole in all our hearts. That empty feeling will never go away but she's not gone, certainly not forgotten. She lives on in our memories. I still think of her often.

Like all of us, I could say "I remember ......" and go on and on. I'm not going to do that but I do have my favorite photo, plus others to share with you.

First the photo. One of my oldest memories is when I was very little and also very short. My mom was only 5' 2" tall and I remember to just loving to wrap my arms around her and put my head against her tummy and squeeze, squeeze, squeeze. That must have happened around Dahlen time, in the early 50's.

For some reason I stopped hugging. I realized that was silly and decided to go back to the old ways and begin my favorite hug again. This is what it looked like:

(click on the photo to see some photos)

Of course I couldn't squeeze quite so much but it was wonderful.

I have a request for the rest of you - if you can, give your mother a big hug, today, tomorrow, and every day you can, take a picture of it and post it on your refrigerator! Remind yourself of that wonderful person that would do anything for you, no questions asked. That's how I remember my mom and I'm sure its the same for you.

In a Frenzy

I've recently gone and enjoyed 2 aeorbics classes. The music is great and its a great way to get exercise.

I'm so envious of people that can go through the routines and make it look so easy and effortless. They just seem to have just the right rhythm and know all the steps. They look so relaxed.

Me on the other hand, am always in a frenzy. I'm always in the back so I can watch others and try to copy them. While they are going, say like 1-2-3-4, left, right, left, right, etc. with arms moving gracefuly, hips moving every which way, doing full turns and quarter turns, all right in time with the music,

I on the hand hand am like this:

okay, watch them, okay I've got it, 1-2-oops-4 2-3-4, oh now go right, lets see left, right, move hips and arms, quarter turn coming up, oops, 1--4, oh now full turn coming up, they'll all see me, 1-2-3-4 (hey I've got it) forgot to turn, right, no left, right, 3-4-5 no 1 -2 etc. etc..


What I am describing takes place in about 20 seconds! My mind is trying desparately to keep up but I can't, it's impossible.

I'm in a frenzy.

Fat Man's Pass

Hiking is big in Arizona. We hiked at a huge city park just south of Phoenix and came to what is called the "Fat Man's Pass".

I made it through.

Could you?

Zumba

"Zumba: a fun cardio class utilizing Latin/international music and Latin/international dance moves to burn calories and tone".

I tried this class during my last visit to the Mesa Multigenerational Center ( a recreational center for all ages but mostly seniors). I have never done this and it was great! However my "dance moves" were more alien than Latin/international.

I have one question, how do you move your hips in one direction but move your arms in a different direction? I think its really an illusion.

Anyway it was fun no matter how nerdy I looked.

Zumba on!

Lunch of the Future

Yesterday my wife had the "neighbor" ladies over for lunch.  It was a great time for all.  I sat inside our home and listened a bit to the great conversation and realized how much fun these ladies were having.

My daughter loves to have friends over for lunch.  She blogs about it and just really enjoys the fellowship and comradery  of it all.  

Well kiddo - old folks do that too!  I heard one of the guests say..."this is a lot more fun than going to my fitness class!".

Isn't it great to know that such good times can be had by all and at any age.  Doesn't matter the age or location, what's fun at a young age is also fun at an older age!

Enjoy it all.

The Ankle Tan

I've been teased over the years on a variety of things but one special "tease" are my ankles. I have always worn crew socks, unlike the current generation and many others before them that wore sandals all the time. I just never got into that and stayed with my beloved crews.

I'm trying to change however. This video of my putting will demonstrate that. I'm trying. Thunder (Minnesota racquetball buddy) says I have a great tan line. My kids think it looks like I'm always wearing white socks.

Therefore I'm wearing anklets as much as I can to try to "tan down". My ankles do look pretty silly.

It's hard and it doesn't seem to be working.

What do you think?


Arizona Golf from Jim Lindberg on Vimeo.

Kristine also played golf. On this hole she hit a nice shot on the green, but missed her birdie putt and had this put for a par.

Kristine making a par from Jim Lindberg on Vimeo.

Arizona Racquetball

My racquetball buddies back in Mankato requested that I video tape my Arizona partners so they could get a look at who I play.  As requested I did and here it is.  Let me warn you back in Mankato that I have been lifting, have grown some facial hair, have worked a lot on my backhand, and have added diving to my arsenal.

(In case you wondering, I'm the guy with the sleeveless shirt on)

Enjoy!

Nicknames

Yes, I know it's been awhile.  I guess I've gotten too wrapped up in another new venture (to me anyway) Facebook.  However I'm ready to blog again.

Has anybody noticed my title is now "The Fog Blog"?  There is a reason for that which I will touch on later.  It's a nickname.  Most of us have had nicknames at one or another in our lives.  By good friend "Brick" (another nickname which I will also get to later) and and I have over our working lives together at Minnesota State University) have come up with many nicknames, enough so it might make for an interesting blog.  We shall see.

Most of the nicknames we came up with had to do with one aspect of work - noon basketball.  We both played at noon in a pickup game for over 20 years.  Since guys don't really get into formal introductions at these games, we had to talk about these guys some way - nicknames!  Here are some of them:

One time I was warming up, taking a few shots to get ready to play.  There's not much time so you have to make these shots count.  One time while shooting, out of nowhere a guy flies by and blocks my shot!  Both Brick and I thought this was crazy.  Well he did it again on another day so we approched him and asked why?  He just thought it was fun.  We chatted and found out he was on the track team so of course he was from that point on called "trackman".

Another guy was short and stout and always smiled and loved to do a spin move  to drive to the basket.  Didn't matter if anybody was in his way he just bowled them over.  He became "bowling ball".

This one fellow was a great player.  Cocky but fun.  We found out his father worked to the post office so he became "mailman".

Another co-worker was an awful player.  He loved to play but had no real coordination and just kind of bumped you all over the place.  He, of course, became known as "smooth".

Another co-worker always tried to direct everybody, was pretty bull-headed about it, he became "bull".

What about "Brick".  Brick loved to play but (sorry Brick) he did not really have  a good eye for the basket.  His shots generally were off and often threated the well-being of the backboard.  He shot "bricks" as they say in basketball lingo, thus the nickname "Brick".

Well what about "Fog Blog"?  There was a time when my voice was clear and loud.  I would call "Brick" on the phone and his cube neighbor would be able to hear my conversation so one day he said I must be as loud as a foghorn.  Well from this conversation I've became known as "Fog" for over 20 years.

Brick and I have had a good time with these nicknames over the years.  Any of you have any nicknames to share with us?

Lassie

Lassie was probably the smartest and bravest dog that has ever lived.  She starred in movies in the 40's and television all through the 50's and 60's.  Each tv show or movie had generally the same theme, somebody in Lassie's family would get in dire trouble (fall off a horse and break a leg, slip on a mountain side and fall to a ledge where certain death was soon to happen, or some such dire emergency) and the person would then look at Lassie and say something like: "Go get Timmy, Lassie!" or "Go get the doctor, Lassie", or  ..... and of course Lassie would turn on its heels and rush home or rush to town or wherever, bark at that person and of course the person would be eating or teaching or something but they would listen to the barking and somehow know that "Lassie is trying to tell us something, something's wrong" and then they would scurry after her and eventually save the person in peril.  It was amazing.  But we all loved it.

Now in my family, I have 2 granddogs, Judy and Max.  Judy's masters are my daughter Anne and her husband Jake, and Max's masters are my son Peter and his wife, Cassie.  Judy is a border collie, very smart, fast, playful, tireless.  Max is an adopted lhaso apso/shitzu mix that is a wonderful companion, great lapdog, full of energy and pep but just learning how to obey.  The whole gang was down for Christmas and Anne and Jake were out in the back yard playing with Judy and Max.  I decided to join them and as I opened the door to the garage I saw Max walking ahead of Anne (untethered) and I knew this wasn't good.

This wasn't good because the garage door was open and as soon as Max saw that he took off!  He ran directly down the driveway towards the street.  I feared of course a car would be coming at that exact second and he would get squashed for sure.  So I took off running after him to "save him".  Of course I couldn't catch him.  Anne saw the same thing and she took off and easily passed me up and now we are both running down the street after Max, who had taken a left turn when he got to the street. All the while I'm thinking, this is terrible, how are going to stop Max?

Of course I'm thinking the worst: Max will run for miles, we're never going to catch him.  I stopped, put my hands on my knees and had nothing left in my tank.  Jake by this time was also in the street and was yelling at Anne, "keep runing, you're catching up!". Wishful thinking, no way was she going to catch Max.  Max had a chance to run free and he was going for it.

Judy, while still in the backyard, when she realized that Jake had left the door to the back yard open and she saw Jake running down the driveway must have thought, "something's up, I've got to get into this, this looks like fun", so she must have took off after Jake running through the garage down the driveway.  

Remember me, I'm standing in the street not knowing what's going to happen. But then I looked back saw Judy come roaring off the driveway and turn down the street.  I saw the look on her face and I swear I heard the William Tell Overture (remember that would play at the beginning of the Lone Ranger tv show) playing in the background.  She, without stopping, saw what we were doing and raced down the street past Jake, me, and Anne at breakneck speed and caught up to Max in about 2 seconds and in one quick move turned and stopped in front of Max, barked once which froze Max instantly.  Anne then came over, picked up Max and the emergency was ended just like that.  I can only imagine what was going through Max's mind at that moment, freedom to run and then STOP now!  Judy had figured out what was happening and knew exactly what to do.  Max was safe Judy had done the whole thing in about 3 seconds!

Judy is Lassie.

Arizona Jay

In my later years of my athletic life I discovered a great sport where I still think I can get better at - racquetball!  Its great fun, kind of fits my skill levels and abilities and really keeps me in pretty good shape. I play 3 or 4 times a week at Mankato and have been lucky enough to hook up with a number of other players in Arizona.  I resumed playing at the Mesa YMCA just this past Monday. It was great fun.

First, a bit of background on my Mankato racquetball mates.  They mostly come from the University where I worked for 26 years.  Jay, probably the best of the bunch is an excellent player, somewhat unorthodox but highly skilled.  Bob, my partner at the State Racquetball tournament in doubles is a powerful player with terrific finesse skills also. Rod (also known as Thunder) almost knocks the air out of the ball because he hits it so hard.  Bryan  (also known as five-wall because he tries to hit it off as many walls as he can) has cat-like quickness and never gives up on getting to a ball.  Frankie (I call him the "rat") moves around court with rat-like speed and is very pesky.  Denis is smooth as silk and smart as a fox.  I try my hardest to stay up with those guys but each year it gets harder.  However its great fun to try.

Now Arizona is a different story.  The guys are great to play with but aren't nearly as skilled as the Mankato lot.  However I'm totally grateful to have them to play with and enjoy every minute playing with them.  But you know what? I'm kind of the "Arizona Jay".  I'm actually the skilled one of the lot.  Really! Who would have thought it?

I hit the corners, hit the ball low, serve lobs, all things that seem to elude my partners down here.  I just play along and enjoy it while I can because I know eventually I'll have to come back to Mankato and face the music once again.

I'm back at it next Thursday - should be fun!

Photos from the Insight Bowl

The Gopher marching band was the best part of bowl experience - they were terrific! They featured what they called a "Mound of Sound".  There must have been over 400 in the band and they started all spread out and slowly moved into a smaller and smaller "mound", and also kept playing as they edged together.  Really neat!

Cold in Arizona

It's only going to get up to 60 today in Mesa.  Winter is fast approaching.  

Don't feel too sorry for us.

Weather in Mesa

We have arrived in Mesa and have nothing but great weather so far.  High of over 7o yesterday (Thursday).  Great day to begin the year.  Additionally it was my wife's birthday and we had a little celebration at my sister's place which was fun.

We went to the Insight Bowl on Thursday.  My beloved Gophers got off to a 14-7 lead but wilted and eventually lost 35-21.  I guess it was fun to be there in person, over 49,999 joined us, mostly Kansas fans.  We took the the light rail (free of charge) and parked the car in a "park and ride" lot (free) so that was good.  Kris and my sister and brother-in-law each had a soda and an enormus hot dog, I passed on that.  

I've got some photos from the game but can't find the camera so when I do I'll post some.

Read online it has been below zero the past few days back in Minnesota.  Looks like an arctic winter to me.

My big activity today will be to work on shed organization.  

Racquetball on Monday - can hardly wait!