HAPPY ANNIVERSARY CATHY!



It's amazing when I look at our wedding photo above how just a few years ago they had the technology available to make this photo look as if it was taken many years ago!


I was a chubby young guy, wasn't I? All 120 pounds of me. And you were and still are (see last part of this posting) drop dead good looking.


This was the first photo of tens of thousands of photos taken of our journey together. It is a story most would not believe, including us.


We have been truly blessed.


Five years ago, right after you were diagnosed with cancer, I put together a collage of photos of our lives together, mounted it in a frame (well, actually, I had it mounted in a frame) and wrote you a letter to go with it. The letter and photos hang on our wall in Atlanta.


Here is the letter I wrote you in 2003:


Dear Cathy,

September 24, 1965, an 18 year old named Cathy, so poor she could only afford to eat meals five days a week, caved in to the persistency of a fast talking, 120 pound pool hustler who occasionally sold used cars or served as a repo man on the side. Despite earlier rejections, she finally agreed to go with me on an “alone” date the following day.

Since I also was broke, I took her to see the ruins of Tuzigoot. Who knew then we would be married seven months later? To paraphrase Billy Joel, “You may be right, I may be crazy. But I’m just glad I was the lunatic you were looking for.”

37 years since the wedding have flown by and I want her to know how much her decision to say yes meant. This “Life Snapshot” was created for her as a remembrance of our wonderful journey through life together.

We have gone from no children to four wonderful kids. Grover and Andrea are our natural kids but we have two more, Cris and Gustavo, that fate brought into our lives. All four of them have been a true blessing, as has the closeness of our “Família Pallares” in Spain.

Of course, much has changed. We have gone from a one bedroom apartment in Tempe to beautiful homes in Lake Forest and Destin. We have cursed, loved and lost an assortment of pets, having discovered we seem to only attract ones with dysfunctional personalities.

We’ve gone from being two kids with no education to a collection of three college degrees. We’ve gone from feeling quite worldly as we explored all of Arizona by car to having left our country’s borders over 200 times to see the world and over 60 countries, much of it with our children in tow. We’ve gone from our first date in a 63 T-Bird to flying the Concorde. More than once we have flown for the weekend to a small town in the middle of the Province of Segovia just to eat the best lamb in the world at our friend Tinin’s humble Figón.

We’ve lived in Tempe, Phoenix, Tulsa, New Orleans, Hoffman Estates, Albany, Sioux City, Atlanta, Short Hills and Lake Forest. Each place has been a new adventure filled with much laughter and a few tears, but always enormous personal growth for both of us.

We’ve been in caves in New Zealand looking at glow-worms and spent Mayday in Hanoi. We got stoned on Kava drinking with the natives in Fiji (well, one of us did) and we had the best pizza of our life in Ecuador. We thought we were kidnapped in Morocco and we were arrested in Prague. You were locked in a bathroom at a guesthouse in Trinidad and I was thrown in jail in Tulsa for gambling on a pool game at a Go-Go bar. You were strip searched in Croatia and I hiked 8 miles across the Chilean Patagonian mountains at the end of the world to call you and you were not home. We’ve eaten a bowl of eels with blood sausage on the side at the home of friends on the Mediterranean Coast south of Barcelona and devoured creamed shredded reindeer in Norway. We’ve had fish head soup in China, boiling chocolate syrup in Heidelberg and those horrible smoked herrings at our friends home in Amsterdam. The list goes on and on with so many new experiences and changes in our lives, as we grew together, not apart like so many couples.

Yes, the one thing that has not changed is that we have done all of this, not separately, but together. We grew as a couple, becoming more knowledgeable and more aware of the world, but never forgetting that we are from humble beginnings. We are both as baffled and amazed by what we have accomplished as anyone is and we both are committed to always remembering that we are just a couple of kids from a small town in Arizona that made a few sacrifices and got very lucky.

And so, as we celebrate our 37th anniversary, I want to say thank you for such a wonderful life. I recognize that some day, this will all end and one of us will be gone. My goal, my desire, the most important thing in the world for me, is to know that when it is time for the other of us to be gone also, that we are put side by side, as nothing makes me smile more than the idea of knowing that we will be together, side by side, for all eternity.

Love,
Grover

Much has changed since I wrote that letter-Gustavo has married Dorte and Andrea has married Lee so we have two more children. Landon, Wes and Finn have come into this world as our grandchildren and we have two more joining us in August when Gustavo and Dorte bring their twins into this crazy world.

We no longer live in Lake Forest but instead we have moved back to Atlanta and I have "retired" so that I can work harder and be busier than I ever was when I ran a company. We've seen much more of the world that we had not seen before and through my role at Freedom from Hunger we have come to appreciate even more how fortunate we are to have the lives we live compared to others in this world and we are both committed to trying to help with that problem through Freedom from Hunger.

But the memories and experiences we have shared that I wrote about in that letter five years ago have not changed and so today, on our anniversary, I wanted to again share these wonderful memories with you (and several billion other people if they happen to stumble on to this site).


HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

DEAR MOM,

I decided that since you are my biggest Blog fan, and the only 92 year old reader of my Blog to my knowledge, I should write this Blog about things you might be interested in hearing. Of course, I also have to include some things the thousands (well, maybe hundreds) of other people reading my Blog either have interest in or nothing to better do with their time.

Obviously I have to start with the good news that Gustavo told us that he and Dorte are going to have a girl and a boy in August. We are so happy for them. One of each is a great way to start a family and I know you are as pleased as we are.



Having just been out to see you about two weeks ago, I thought I would share a couple of the photos I took while I was there.

Of course the first one has to be the great photo I took of you with your Sexy Lexie Lexus and the Hualapais in the background. My word you look good, even if the sun is blasting in your eyes.


The second one was when I went to the cemetery to visit Pop and I decided to take a picture of the view he has of the Hualapai mountains that meant so much (and still does) to our family. It is a nice view and I am sure he enjoys it.

My next photo is of one of my memories of you when I was an impressionable young lad and I showed it before on my Blog but I was too far away when I snapped it. So this time, after saying goodbye to you and heading back to Vegas I turned off at Temple Bar and went down and got a close-up shot of your other mountain-that's right, you guessed it:

TIT MOUNTAIN

(Click on the photo to see how close I really was)



You and I had fun on our driving adventures as we always do, but this was the first time we had driven down to the town of Yucca, Arizona, home of the Ford Proving Ground when I was a kid. That's where we saw this interesting motel-it was unique as it was an invisible motel as was its pool.




Then we saw a motel and cafe that had an interesting style of Arizona air-conditioning (no windows):

The photo above reminded me of when I was ten years old and my friend Kit Kuykendall and I were hired by an unusual character named "Pinkie Pinkerton" to work at her Pinkerton's Cafe up the street from our house. It looked about like the photo above and our job was to sit in the cafe and kill flies and we were paid a penny for every ten flies we killed. There must not have been a health department back then.

Next door to Pinkertons was one of our motel's arch rivals, the She-Kayah court. I took a photo of it now-it is had to believe that it was even a motel, let alone an arch rival!



We had a great time together and I love this photo I took of you outside of your apartment with the Dahlia you wanted me to buy so you would have some flowers outside when you went out to sit.



We also had a great lunch with your good friend Alice Mallory at the Rainbow Restaurant in Kingman. And today I found a photo that I am a little hesitant about sharing because all my readers think I am in my 30's and this will seem a little odd when they see the age of the cars in this photo. But since I know Alice Mallory reads my Blog, here is a photo from the late 50's at the Kingman Travelodge. You can see Alice in the front sitting on the pool edge and the two kids near the front are Steve and me. Of course, since I am now in my 30's I wasn't actually born back then but I think they used trick photography to put me in it.

(Click on the photo to see it up close)

After telling you goodbye and starting the two hour drive back to Vegas I found a couple of other interesting sites to take photos of. I stopped up on Coyote Pass and took this photo of our mountains which I thought was a great view.

Then in the middle of the desert I pulled off onto a dirt road to get a picture of this lovely hacienda. If you want an example of someone who is clearly hiding from someone, this is it. There is nothing around this "house" for miles and it appears they just drive cars until they stop running and then just leave them sitting there. All I could think of was all the snakes in those old cars.



A few miles down the road is the only business for 75 miles of desert. It is Rosie's Beer Garden and Smoking Den. I had to pee so I stopped in there and believe me, there are some rough looking characters hanging around there. I think some of them are from the outlaw compound in the photo above. I went out to the car and sat there just thinking about the fact that a few decades ago I used to drive up to this place every two weeks to hustle the owner out of his gasoline receipts on a pool table he owned. Pretty scary when I think about it now.



After crossing Hoover Dam I stopped at a Lake Mead lookout on the way back to Vegas and met Mike Chou and his colleagues. They are from Taiwan and were attending a laser video convention in Vegas and wanted me to take their picture (after all, they are Asians) and so I did and of course I wanted them to take my picture (after all, I am a ham):





The next morning when I arrived at the Las Vegas airport AT 5:05 AM this was the scene at the Delta kiosk counter that greeted me. And this was only about a fourth of the crowd-the rest were lined up for 1/4 mile waiting to get into this section. I was not pleased.







So it was a great trip to see you and I am so glad you are doing so well. When I was driving back I started thinking again about a question I have asked you before. Mom, what ever possessed you to dress me up like a Chinese kid? People ask me why I have international wanderlust. Do you think this may have played a role?



When I was rummaging around my computer trying to find the photo above I came across a photo of Grove and Landon at our home here in Destin 3 and a half years ago. I looked at it and realized that these photos, like the photo of me in the Chinese outfit, are of times gone by and lost forever except for the memories. I'm not sure where I want to go with that thought other than to just share it.



And so I will close with a surprise for you. I was going to tell you this when I was there but I thought it would be more fun to tell you on my Blog. It is sort of a test to see if you read this far.

On Sunday, June 15th (less than two months) Cathy, Cris, Landon, Wes and I will be sitting in your apartment late that evening. We are flying in to Vegas from Atlanta and will drive to Kingman and will spend Monday and part of Tuesday with you. It will be nice if Grove can join us but he has a new job and has been unable to decide if he can get away or not so I do not want you to count on him being there. Then if he comes it will just add to the surprise.

I will tell you more later when we talk, but I wanted to surprise you here. Two of your three great grandchildren will be there to see you. Finn wants to come but he doesn't have his US Passport yet but we will hook up the WebCam and you can visit with him over the internet!

With that surprise, I am going to bed

SOMETIMES THE WORLD IS VERY, VERY SMALL

THE BACKGROUND

About two years ago a neighbor of ours began complaining that our air-conditioner and furnace units were too loud and she couldn't sleep if she left her windows open (not unusual when you live in the middle of a major city).

We moved one of the units into our basement and offered to do some other things that she did not want us to do.

A little less than a year ago she sued us. In our entire life we have never been sued or even threatened to be sued. We have always had great relations with our neighbors.

Since then, many hours and a lot of money have been spent on inspectors, lawyers and what have you. The basic issue is that it is alleged that our units are outside of the parameters of the Atlanta city noise ordinance. A couple of different sound engineer experts that have been out have told us that because we live in a big house in a neighborhood of big houses it is unlikely that any of the homes are in compliance with the noise ordinance code.

Our lawyer and her lawyer have been negotiating back and forth and we hope to find a reasonable resolution some time soon. To date everything we have offered to do many things, including buying the most expensive, quietest units made by the manufacturer to replace ours.

As of now, this has not been a reasonable solution according to her lawyer.

LET'S MOVE FORWARD TO TODAY

We decided to go for a drive along the beach towns near our beach town of Destin. We went to Rosemary Beach, Seaside, WaterColor and Grayton Beach where I snapped this photo of a very unusual sign. Double click on it to see it clearly.



We had no idea what it meant (yes, I have Googled it) since it was at a 4-way stop in a sleepy neighborhood in what is an even sleepier town this time of year. But with a name like Traffic Table, it made me hungry so we drove back to Destin and stopped at a Mexican restaurant to eat. It is in a very new upscale shopping center called Grand Boulevard and has outdoor seating which we asked for.

The hostess walked us out on the patio where only about 10% of the tables were occupied since it was after 2pm. She walked us back to a corner and I heard Cathy say "Oh, Hi". I looked up and it was our next door neighbor, the plaintiff, sitting with the man that used to be the neighbor on the other side of her. He was there for a Rotary convention and she accompanied him.

We chatted amicably for a few minutes and they were finishing up so they left.

Now, we are in Destin, 350 miles from Atlanta. There are 6 billion people in the world and one of them is suing us. What are the odds?????

Yes, I know the answer-one in six billion.

MY BOMTICC REHAB

I said in my last Post I was going to do certain things to treat my BOMTICC illness. I was told by the Doctor I had to do these things (in yellow) so let's see how I am doing (in green):

1. Go to our home in Destin for a week. Still here after three days.

2. Answer the 173 emails,in my inbox. As of 4:40 pm, I am down to 93 in my inbox.


3. Do some cooking. Caprese Salad, Artichokes, Chicken Sandwiches, Profumo di Chianti, Bistecca Fiorentino, Ham Sandwiches, etc.

4. Swim in our pool. Set the temperature at 88 degrees and dove in two of the three days.

5. Catch up on my reading. Trying to finish Indian Summer which I love, but keep falling asleep-see Number 7 below.

6. Ride my bike a lot. Yes. See next part of bLOG.

7. RELAX. Sort of. See Number 5 above. I slept until 6am one day, late for me.


8. Write on my Blog before this Sunday. You are reading it. Best I could do.

MY MECHANICAL SKILLS

My friend Bill gave me a wonderful Trek bike that he wasn't going to use any more. It only had 150 miles on it so I wanted to bring it to Florida. Of course, any of you that read the Bike Crash section of my Posting on 9/25/2006 (which coincidentally has a photo of Bill in it at a Bangladeshi restaurant we were at), know that putting a bike on a bike rack even for a 15 mile journey exceeds my mechanical skills, let alone a trip of 350 miles.

So Cathy suggested I have Bill put it on the bike rack. I drove to his house and he made sure it was on properly and tight. We then drove to Destin, stopping only about 71 times to make sure it was still on the rack and was not about to fall off.

What I had not thought through was that if I could not figure out how to get it on the bike rack, it was likely that I would not be able to figure out how to get if off once we arrived in Destin. Sure enough, this was the outcome of my attempt to take the bike off of the car once we arrived at our home.



But then, this is not an abnormality. A few minutes ago as I was typing this I decided that it was a little chilly in the room. So I went to the little deal on the wall that has the temperature control and I saw it was 73 but felt colder. So I wanted to turn the temperature up a few degrees. I could not figure out where the button was so I decided that you must have to open the cover to find the button. I did that and felt so stupid I had to take a photo. I managed to rip the cover off of it when the button to push was on the front and I didn't see it.

I swear-I simply cannot do anything that is remotely mechanical.

Double click on photo below to see my handiwork clearly.



And finally, on our drive down we were passing through a small town in Alabama and suddenly saw this home with this explosion of Amaryllis plants. It was so spectacular I stopped to take a photo. Double click on it to see the flowers clearly.

DIAGNOSIS: BOMTICC DISEASE

I have been feeling out of sorts lately which is why I have not posted on my Blog in about 14 days or so.

I went to the Doctor and the conversation went like this:

Doc: What is bothering you?

Me: I am tired all the time and I feel disorganized and unable to catch up on life.

Doc: When did this start?

Me: About 30 years ago.

Doc: Have you had some recent traumatic event:

Me: Yes-about ten days ago I saw the worlds biggest SNAKE

Doc: Give me two examples of your symptoms

Me: I have 173 emails in my inbox I can't get answered and my friends are harrassing me for not posting on my Blog.

Doc: What have you been doing with your time the last two weeks?

Me: Flying to Chicago and back two different times, flying to Arizona and back, about 100 conference calls, trying to catch up on my snail mail, etc: etc.

Doc: Open your mouth and say Ahh while I put this tongue depressor in your mouth.

Me: Ahh

Doc: Okay-you have BOMTICC disease.

Me: Oh shit. Is it serious?

Doc: Yes, you have a serious case of it.

Me: What should I do?

Doc: I will give you two prescripitons. The first is that you go to your home in Destin for a week, answer all the emails, do some cooking, swim in the pool, catch up on your reading, ride your bike a lot and, as hard as this medicine is for you to swallow, RELAX.

Me: And what is the other prescription:

Doc: Write on your Blog as you feel miserable when you don't. Post something before this Sunday or we will check you into a hospital-one for people who are very sick-and I don't mean physically sick.

Me: I will do that. I have never heard of BOMTICC disease in all the years I've been in the health insurance business. What do the letters stand for?

Doc: "Bit off more than I can chew". That will be $375 for the visit after you pay your co-pay.

So, I arrived in Destin 3 hours ago. We will see if I can complete the rest of the treatment and therapy.

Until then.

THIS IS NOT A BUTTERFLY

So, for probably the first time in the three plus years I have been "retired", we did a retired sort of thing today. We actually drove some place in a car and I didn't need to have my passport with me (I miss it already). We first drove through Newnan, Georgia, home of ALICE. If you have not read her Blog, click on her name and check it out. She is a fabulous writer and will keep you bouncing between tears and laughter (mostly laughter) in her Posts.

Alice, after we passed the Newnan-Coweta airport sign I kicked myself for not stopping and taking a photo and putting it on here so you would know we had been there.

We then drove through Moreland, home of Lewis Grizzard and the Museum dedicated to him. He was a wonderfully funny southern author and for someone equally southern and equally funny, check out the Blog of CAL which I read every day just to get in a good mood.

We then drove on to Warm Springs, GA to see the Little White House where FDR died. Since I have a lot of people who read my Blog from other parts of the world, I should explain that FDR was Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who was President of the USA during the Depression and much of World War II. My experience though has been that people from countries outside of the USA usually know our history better than we do so I may not have needed to explain this.

THE LITTLE WHITE HOUSE

THE THERAPUETIC POOLS FILLED WITH WARM SPRINGS WATER FOR REHABILITATION



While we were at the famous therapeutic pool where FDR received his treatments, a large bus from Illinois pulled up. Out streamed 32 (I heard the driver tell a ranger how many-that is how I know) quite large and quite old tourists, with gold name tags pinned on their blouses and overalls. We concluded they were from a small farming community and I say that with great respect as my Mom, who reads this Blog, was born and raised on a farm. I am only pointing out where they were from so you can get visualize this very happy and very friendly group.

They ooohed and aaahed and ask very good questions of the Park Ranger because they lived through the FDR days. And they took lots of photos. And I watched them and studied them and saw how much fun they were having and I turned to my companion and said:

"If you are still alive some day when I suggest to you that we should go on a bus for 800 miles so that we can be with a group like that, please take a gun and kill me at once."

They were clearly having fun and I was happy for them but my brain can not get wrapped around the idea that we would ever be excited about doing something like that. But they were happy and that is what counts.

We then went into the little town of Warm Springs and I saw this scene on the side of the road and it broke my heart so I stopped and took a photo of it.

It was the location of a now torn down motel with only the blown out VACANCY sign still hanging there rusted and forlorn. It reminded me of my days at our ROPING COWBOY MOTEL in Kingman, Arizona where I grew up. I learned early on that if the Vacancy sign was lit, things were not good. On the few occasions when we could light up the No Vacancy sign, we did it with pride and almost with a celebration. Now, where the Roping Cowboy used to stand, there is not even an old sign to commemorate it. I felt very bad as I was taking that photo. I will be in Kingman next Wednesday to visit Mom and I am going to stop by the old Roping Cowboy site, as I do on every visit.

We then parked the car so we could have some lunch and I spotted this very funny sign:



We had decided to eat in this little town but most of the restaurants had gone bankrupt. There was only one open-the Paradise Grill. We walked in there and sat down. There was one woman who was the cook and the waitress. She gave us a menu and we sat there for a half hour. We were starving so to get our minds off of our tummies I snapped a photo across the table of my WOTH and it is, I think, one of the best photos I have taken of her.




We finally walked out and ate at a place in Pine Mounain and then drove to CALLAWAY GARDENS where we were going to spend the afternoon seeing Callaway’s beautiful Flowers and stay that night at their new Spa.

Now, to explain the title of this posting.

All of you who read this Blog regularly know I am very clear on what I love more than anything other than my family and what terrorizes me more than anything else.

What I love more than anything other than my family is to eat Jamón Jabugo from Spain.

What terrorizes me more than anything else are snakes. Big snakes, little snakes, poisonous snakes, non-poisonous snakes. If it slithers, I am petrified of it.

So, we are driving along looking at the gorgeous Azaleas








And we are talking about how wonderful nature is when we suddenly see these cute turtles all lined up on a log in a lake. I think they were coming back from school.


Then we saw more beautiful flowers and then as we were driving along we saw an explosion of Azaleas and we just had to stop and take photos of them. We turned on to the driveway of the parking lot and right in front of us, SLITHERING across the road in front of us was the biggest snake in the world. Now I know you think I am exaggerating but when you see it, you will agree. This was a very long-ass snake.

I wet myself, started shaking horribly and the WOTH was absolutely frozen in her seat. She had shrunk into herself so much (she is as afraid of them as I am) that I almost couldn't see her in the seat. I was concerned she had gone into a catatonic state but I was too worried about the snake to worry about her. Every woman for themself they say.

I know my animal loving PETA friends (and I do have some) are not going to like what I am going to say next, but keep in mind I was having a near death experience. I didn't have time to think about the snakes children at home or how he was all part of natures chain.

I decided to run over this monster.

Then I realized that if I did that it might be able to climb up into the engine and come through the heater vents and bite me in places I didn't want to think about.

So I got my camera out and took the two photos below. I was leaning out of the car window, convinced this was a Flying Snake and was about to jump through the window and go up my nose, so the photos are a little blurry as my entire body was shaking, trembling, undulating and sweating a little (actually, a lot).





This was not our first, but was definitely our last visit in this lifetime to Callaway Gardens.

EVERY DAMN ONE OF THEM!

I kid you not. They picked up every single BOX.

I couldn't believe it. I just regret two things:

* Doubting our wonderful Atlantal garbage collectors
* Not putting out all the boxes I had to get rid of

Tomorrow we are going to Warm Springs to see what is there that FDR loved so much. Then we are going to Callaway Gardens, one of the South's most beautiful places at this time of year.

I just hope we don't have to go into the Butterfly Gardens as they sort of creep me out-as does anything that flies (other than planes), crawls (other than Finn) or slithers. Especially things that slither.

THE BIRD NEST IN MY FLY

Last December I had my physical and the Doc suggested I should have a stress test to see if my heart is okay since I am as old as one of those Redwood trees in Northern California.

I couldn't find any time on my calendar between December and now when I could do it so I booked it for yesterday and went and had it done. I asked them what the goal is (I am way too competitive I realize) and they said they would like to see me get my heart rate up to my Target Training rate of 133 beats per minute and that if I was doing "ok" (I asked them what the hell they were insinuating by that) they would see if I could get it near my Maximum Heart Rate of 153.

I hit 166 and didn't want to quit as I knew I could get it higher but they made me get off the treadmill.

So I guess I passed although there was some minor weirdness on the print out at the high end so they want me to come back in and do it while they stick some kind of dye in me. Since I don't walk around with my heart beating at 166 I probably would have said no to the second test but I decided maybe it was a chance to get it up to 175 so I am going back. That time, no caffeine for 24 hours which may be an impossibility for me.

When I was done, and we had reviewed the results, she told me to change from my shorts back into my jeans and come out and see her. That is when the problem began.

For some reason, the lining in the zipper of my fly had shredded and when I started to pull my fly shut, all of the shredded lining got stuck. And it got stuck outside of my fly. So I looked like I had a white birds nest attached to the front of my fly AND I couldn't zip it shut. I messed with it for so long she came back to ask if there was a problem. I lied and said I had tied my shoe in a knot and would be right out.

So I had to leave the room with my fly open and this white bird nest attached to the front of it for everyone to see and stare at. As I walked thru the hospital complex I tried to cover it with my hand but am sure everyone noticed the old perverted guy with his fly open, holding his hand over it and the birds nest protruding out. Or maybe they thought it was cobwebs.

The biggest disappointment was I had planned on going to Waffle House to have breakfast and this won't mean anything to those of you who live up north or out of the country, but trust me, you do not walk into a Waffle House with your fly open and stuff sticking out of it.

THE TRASH RULES

We have the most absurd trash rules. In exchange for the obscene amount of money we pay annually to the city of Atlanta for our real estate tax, we receive in return a once a week pickup of our trash. It must all be in a certain big green can and the recycle in a little black can. They say the will not collect other things stacked up but I have noticed they will take a small cardboard box or two.

What are we supposed to do with the trash if we have more than will fit in the trash can? It makes no sense.

So last night I took the trash out, and still smarting from my humiliation with my fly, I decided to test the rules. I put out a little more than a couple of boxes as you can see in the photo I took of our trash below.

If you leave me a comment, let me know what you think. Do you think they will take it all today or leave it there so I have to haul it back into the garage?

PS-I don't know why I cant get the above in the right color-sorry for the yellow.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHN!

Today is my good friend John Harrison's big birthday. I talked to him this morning and wished him well but I wanted to memorialize this day on my Blog.

I have known John since 1973 when we I was transferred to New Orleans. We rented what was called a "shotgun" in the suburb of Metairie and within the first week we met John and his family who lived in the shotgun next door. His youngest son, Chris, was the same age as Grover and they became fast friends playing as all three year olds can do.

John and I became close friends-he introduced us to everything from a Crayfish Boil to Dixie Beer to Boones Farm Strawberry Hill wine. I think about all we did for the next year or so was drink and eat and work, which is what living in New Orleans is all about.

John traveled out of town during the week as did I but on weekends the fun would start. I remember during Mardi Gras we were all walking down Bourbon Street when a pickpocket saw a bulge in John's coat pocket and stuck his hand in there to steal it, only to be surprised that his hand was suddenly all wet because John was carrying a glass of Boones Farm in his pocket.

We held our kids up on our shoulders and screamed "Throw me something Mister" at all the parades and watched our crazy friend Mike (who was with us last night) practice his dancing moves as the parades marched by.

In late 74 John was transferred to Los Angeles and then in 1975 we were transferred to Chicago, where Andrea was born later that year. John and I would talk once in a while by phone to catch up but he had his career and life and I had mine.

I was then transferred to Albany, New York in late 1976 and in late 1977 I was recruited to Sioux City, Iowa for my first really senior role in a company. By now, John had moved to Wisconsin and then had taken a job in Peoria, Illinois.

One day around 1980 I was sitting in my office in Sioux City and the President of our Company walks in and said: "Grover, excuse me but I want to introduce you to one of our new Executives." I looked up and it was John. He had been recruited by my company and never told anyone he knew me because he didn't want to leverage our friendship to get the job.

At least that is what he told me-over the years I have wondered if perhaps he had decided that using my name might cause him to be rejected for the job!

For the next couple of years John and I worked side-by-side and he and Belinda bought a home about five minutes away from where we lived. We spent a lot of time together (there isn't a lot of other things to do in Sioux City) and we would have exciting Saturday nights driving up to LeMars, Iowa to a Mom and Pop Steak House for dinner or going to the only Mexican restaurant in town, Napolitos, for good Mexican food and Cerveza.

John was then recruited away to work for CNA in Chicago and it was a sad goodbye when we parted again, but soon I was recruited to Atlanta to work for Fortis and so when I would travel to Chicago we would always have lunch or dinner or just throw a party. A rare display of prudence on my part prohibits me from expanding further on this topic.

The next thing I knew, John was the President of a Direct Marketing Company in the Philadelphia area that was doing work for my Company. Again, he never used his relationship with me to get the business-I didn't know about it until after it was a done deal. I always admired him for that.

Then, when I became CEO of my first company in 1987, we began using John's firm to help us restructure our whole approach to our customer. We worked closely together and learned to drink some really good wine-we had finally moved past the Boones Farm Strawberry Hill days. Somewhere in the next few years we took John and Belinda to Spain to show them the country we love and they fell in love with it also. He also fell in love with traveling and John is a rather intense guy to say the least, so he talked Belinda into flying to Hong Kong one weekend-for the weekend. That was the last time he did anything quite that spontaneous.

Back when Al Gore first invented the internet I was with John for some reason or another in Phoenix at the Camelback Inn. I think it was a conference. I went to his room to meet Belinda and him and he was downloading his emails, which back then had to be done on a phone modem. We left for dinner and he forgot to unplug it. We had a lot of wine with dinner and he came back and went to bed and again forgot to unplug his PC. The bill was something like $450 for the phone call to get his emails.

Of course, several years later he was in Mexico and didn't know how expensive phone calls were from there and did the same thing-he used the phone to get his emails and had a bill of over $1,000. John has the most expensive emails of anyone I know.

Somewhere in this period of time I vaguely remember Cathy and I being at a restaurant in New York City with the two of them as we were attending the Wine Spectators Annual Wine Experience, an event where you sample the wines of over 300 wineries from around the world. I don't recall the details but there was something about me becoming lost in the basement of a restaurant when I was trying to find the bathroom and having to crawl up some stairs. Enough said. As Rachel says in her Blog, "Don't Judge".

In 1994 I was transferred to New York and we lived in New Jersey (ick) and were only an hour from John and Belinda so we were nearly neighbors again. Then they moved to Chicago as he was retiring from his Company.

Advance 6 years. I retired (this was the first time) and was in the process of moving back to Atlanta from New York. We had bought a home in Roswell (an Atlanta suburb) but had not moved into it yet. I had heard from John that they had bought this really neat house in Vernon Hills, IL and he really wanted me to come see it.

A headhunter called to ask me about taking over as CEO of a company. I told them emphatically no because I had retired and I wanted to do some other things with my life. Then he said it was in Chicago.

I jokingly told him that I wasn't interested but if he wanted to pay my way to fly me to Chicago I would meet with him at the airport as long as I could stay overnight to go see my friends (John and Belinda) new home. The recruiter said "Okay". So I called John, flew to Chicago, met the recruiter for three hours at the airport and he convinced me I should at least meet some of the Trustmark Board of Directors.

Then I went to John and Belinda's new home and took a bottle of Absinthe I had bought on the internet since it was still banned in the USA. This is the GREEN FAIRY I have written about in the past. We spent the night reminiscing about the good old days, drank the whole damn bottle of Absinthe and the next day I missed my plane back to New Jersey because my eyes would not open.

But, as a result, I went back the next week and started interviewing with the Board of Directors of Trustmark Insurance and the rest, as they say is history. We sold the home in Atlanta without ever spending a night in it, bought a home in Lake Forest, IL, ten minutes from John and Belinda and once again, we were almost neighbors.

So, when I talked to John this morning, he reminded me that if he had not bought a new home, I never would have taken the job at Trustmark and had the wonderful experience I had for the last 8 years.

So, John, on this your big day, I thank you for all the good and crazy times we have had together. We have supported each other in the difficult times we have both been through and we have celebrated together the good times. Any one reading this will surely be amazed at how so many coincidences kept bringing us back together.

I salute you my brother and I love you and I wish you a very Happy Birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JULIE!

This is my week for birthdays! Yesterday it was Kathy, today it is Julie and Saturday it is John.

I am sure she is in the islands since she and Terry like to go there and she always seems to disappear from the company on her birthday.

Of course, I know how old she is, but I am not telling. Besides, if you look at the photos below from our time in Singapore and India two months ago (is Warren really wearing an Easter Basket upside down on his head?) you realize that she is likely the only woman in the world who likes animals so much she tells people her age in dog years.

Happy Birthday Julie!





I DO NOT KNOW THESE PEOPLE IN THE PHOTO ABOVE-THEY MUST BE ACTORS.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATHY!



*** Addendum to original post

It is now late on Wednesday night of Kathy's birthday (see post below). We are now back in Atlanta and after spending most of the evening searching among in excess of 13,000 digital photo files (I never give up on anything), I found the photo below of Kathy Mull, taken at Tom Dodd's ranch a "few" years ago. Yes, that is me next to her. I was a "few" years younger also.

Fun at Tom's Ranch, 2005

Original Post from earlier today:

Today is Kathy Mull's birthday. I have known here since the end of 1987. I met her when I was made CEO of United Family Life Insurance Company in Atlanta, one of the Fortis companies. She was working as a manager in our IT department. I saw a passion in her that I felt meant she could do bigger and better things. Seven years later, when I was asked to move in 1994 to New York to become Chairman of several of the Fortis Companies she was already one of our senior leadership teams’ most valuable members and held the title of Senior Vice President of HR.

Since then she has continued to do well and now works for the holding company with major responsibility for some HR systems for all the Fortis (now Assurant) Companies in the US. She shares something with me that most people say they have but very few really do-that is the ability to keep a secret. That is so important in the Corporate World yet most people have "just one friend" they want to tell something to. I know that if it is confidential, you could not torture it out of either Kathy or me and I respect her for that.

During that time we were not only colleagues but became friends. I watched her kids grow up, saw her divorce her husband for a second time, held her and cried with her as she lost her parents, allowed her to talk me into dressing up in some of the stupidest costumes for the sake of the Company and do some of the dumbest things (such as dressing up as a can-can girl and dance through an entire train full of passengers).

I watched her go on her own journey with STOP AT NOTHINGan organization I am a big supporter of as they have also helped me on my journey.

Cathy and I went up and visited with her after she had fallen off some kind of an ATV cart while working in the garden while she was alone at her country home. She is lucky to be alive. She crawled for a couple of hours, bleeding, across a field to a phone and finally got help. She has had as many operations as my Cathy has had and she still has trouble with her knee. This setback never stopped her from moving forward in life.

Now she has a granddaughter named Elaina who she loves more than she loves her dogs, and that is saying a lot in Kathy's case.

She is as stubborn as I am, as sarcastic as Don Rickles used to be, as good at managing and developing people as anyone I have seen and while she is not always right, she is never in doubt. A good example of this occurred on this Blog last week when she left a comment after I told the story of what an idiot I am when it comes to doing life’s daily activities such as putting gas in a car.

She said, in part:

As for the gas pump incident- jeez, I wish I had been there. I would have been pointing AND laughing. For future reference, take a look at the little gas pump icon located somewhere close to your gas gauge. You will see a little arrow pointing in the direction of the gas tank - so if the little arrow is pointing toward the right, the gas tank is on the right, etc......

So, naturally, I thought (I should have known better) she was right and this was pretty interesting. I went and looked at the car I was driving here in DC (Grover and Cris' car) and it does not have any such arrow. I then had Cathy look as I know Mull will not believe me-so, Kathy-call Cathy and ask her. Or call Bill Robinson and ask him since he sold this car to Grover and Cris.

Like I said-not always right but never in doubt. And she knows me well enough (think green Kathy) to realize that I was going to check to see if she was full of crap or not about this. And of course, she was full of crap. There may be a car that has what she says, but not all cars.

But while not always right, she is a great person who will do anything for her family and friends, who has fabulous people instincts, a great sense of humor, will try anything if it is crazy enough and fun enough and who I am proud to call my friend.

I have a photo of her and Joe (Joe is another part of her story) I took in Spain this last summer at Cathy's big surprise party but we are in DC with the boys and I don't have it with me. I have a photo of her on this Blog from last year I could show you but she hated it so much I was concerned she would get even if I put it on here again.

So, Kathy-have a wonderful birthday. One of my gifts in life is your friendship and all the success you helped us create when we worked together.