As this is written (April Fools Day), Susie's next chemo treatment is tomorrow. We've stuck pretty close to the apartment these last two weeks, but with some extracurricular activity.
Sweet 16. Last Friday night I went to the Sweet 16 March Madness basketball games (the South Regional) held in the NRG Stadium where I had attended RodeoHouston the week before. The maintenance team did manage to clear the dirt and droppings out of the arena, then install a basketball court and bleachers, as seen here.
This picture was taken from the seat for which I had a ticket. When you put a basketball court in a humongous football stadium, the permanent seats, as you can see, are a long way from the court. The temporary seats on the floor slant upward from the floor at a fairly low angle, so even at that level you can be far from the action and your view obstructed by the fans in front of you. But, you can sell a lot of tickets. (YEARS AGO, the Easterling family went to New Orleans for a Final Four played in the Superdome. Same situation there.)
This stadium is the site of next year's Final Four. There has been some grumbling online that lighting and layout are difficult for the players. Statistically, this regional had the lowest shooting percentage of the four regionals. Albuquerque's own Bryce Alford, playing for UCLA, who had hit either 8 or 9 three-pointers in 11 shots (depending on what your definition of goal-tending is) the previous weekend in a basketball arena, was roughly 1 for 10 here. Gonzaga's defense, though, probably had something to do with it, though. Analyzing data is difficult.
This section didn't fill up, so I moved closer to its bottom rows when the games started. Didn't have to move until the second game when a late-arriving Duke fan showed up, and then it was just across the aisle. Here's my enhanced view.
Oh, the games. Gonzaga beat UCLA in the first; Duke beat Utah in the second. I was rooting for the two underdogs, UCLA and Utah, but it was not to be. Both the favorites built a solid lead in the first half and maintained it for the rest of the game, though Utah made a late run, by which time I was home in the apartment. Glad I went to the games, though. The way I looked it, I had zero travel and parking expenses, since I was already in town and could walk to the stadium, so if you subtract what those costs might have been from the ticket cost, it was a good deal. The authorities seem to keep the stadium property cleared of scalpers, so I didn't have a chance to test the market (the games were far from a sellout). Also, by buying my ticket at the stadium, rather than online, I avoided all those convenience fees the brokers like to charge. This weekend I'm pulling for Wisconsin.
Tire Replacement.
When I was home, the tire sensor in the Lexus indicated a problem. I found that the left rear tire was soft. Took the car to my tire guys in Cedar Crest. They could find no problem, so I drove to Houston, with no indication of a problem en route. (The tire pressure sensor in our pick-up goes off on almost every trip to town, due to the change in elevation, so I'm inclined to ignore the sensor alerts as "false positives." Also, from my years of experience in an engineering lab, I know instrumentation error can be blamed for a lot of things.)
A few days after I got here, though, the sensor lit up again. I checked and the LR tire was down to about 20 psi, vs. 36 or so on the other three tires. I used my air compressor to air the softy up and then monitored it daily. It lost about 1 psi per day for several days. Definitely a problem. I called AAA. They would take the bad tire off and put the spare on, which I could do, but was hoping to avoid, but they didn't fix tires. They did have a couple of authorized tire shops, though, that they recommended to me.
I went to the closer one, Montrose Automotive, and they found and fixed the problem. There was a nail embedded in the inside side of the tire. Not easily findable. Not fixable, either. I first thought of a cheap solution. Put the spare on and keep the punctured, very slow-leaker as a spare and monitor it closely. That doesn't work for a modern spare. It's skinnier than a regular tire and you can't put a wheel cover on it, so it's uglier. Also, the regular tire doesn't fit in the trunk spare tire compartment. So, I bought a new tire. The folks at Montrose were very helpful and prompt, so if you ever need car service when you're in Houston, look 'em up.
Palm Sunday. First United Methodist Church.
We picked another downtown church to visit on this special day: First UMC. Short history and description from the church's website:
First Methodist ... is in the heart of the city at 1320 Main St. ... . This historic facility, built in 1910 on the “outskirts” of Houston, contains a beautiful Sanctuary with ornate stained glass windows that are complemented by an Aeolian-Skinner pipe organ, built in Boston, which contains over 7,000 pipes.
I didn't take and couldn't find online any interior pictures, but it all has a nice last-century feel to it. The windows and the organ are beautiful.
Friendly lady sitting next to me said that this is the oldest (Methodist?) church in Houston and the pipe organ is the original. The organ, plus orchestra and choir, got a good workout. Today's program was an oratorio by Dubois, titled, The Seven Last Words of Christ. Dramatic music and text; three outstanding soloists, and a powerful choir. I'd go so far as to say, "breathtaking!" Susie reminded me that the St. John's choir in Albuquerque has done this oratorio before. Oh, I said. Thought I recognized it. I haven't selected any links, but you can go to youtube.com to hear various portions of this oratorio.
What are those seven words? I asked myself (before I read the program). They're actually seven statements of Jesus when he was crucified, as recorded in various scriptures. These statements are (in no particular order, according to the website on which I found them):
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do”
“I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise"
“Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit”
“Dear Woman, here is your son!”
“I am thirsty”
"It is finished"
I once heard a memorable sermon built on the theme, Today's Friday, but Sunday's Coming! Can I hear an Amen. That's the Easter message. That's the way we're trying to view this pancreatic situation. The future is brighter than the present unpleasantness.
On a lighter note, Charlie Price, the late and always entertaining, assistant pastor at St. John's in Albq, had a way of explaining the difference between a hymn, an anthem, and an oratorio. I don't recall the details, but the main idea was that an oratorio was a hymn with lots of repetition. For example (mine), Jesus Loves Me, oratorio style would be: Jesus loves me, Jesus loves me, Jesus loves me, ... This I know, This I know, .... . The "Seven Words" got some of that treatment, but it wasn't distracting.
Nolan Ryan Center.
Nolan Ryan has long been one of my heroes. He pitched in the major leagues for 27 years and threw his 7th no-hitter at age 44(!). He was raised in Alvin, TX, about 40 miles south of here. He attended Alvin Community College, briefly, and the college has honored him by building a Nolan Ryan Center (museum) on campus. So, on Tuesday I drove to Alvin (not the way Susie wanted to spend a half day). She had a pain in her neck, but that's not why I left the building.
(source. Alvin Community College website)
The Center has several videos and displays and lots of pictures describing Nolan's life and career. It started with his family who instilled hard work, honesty, education, and other virtues into his character. Here's a HS teacher getting and giving some credit.
Then there were videos pertaining to his years with each of the four teams for which he played.
Because of injuries and wildness (throwing the ball, not extracurricular) he was very nearly out of baseball a couple of times in his early years. At one point he enrolled in Alvin CC with plans to pursue a veterinarian degree. According to the videos, his trade from the Mets to the Angels was an important turning point. With the Angels, he got coaching that he hadn't gotten from the Mets. He improved his control and his conditioning. Throughout his career he put a lot of effort and science into his conditioning (once science got interested in baseball mechanics). The trademark high kick shown here had a purpose.
Alvin, his family, and ranching, led to him winding down his career first with the Houston Astros, then with the Texas Rangers, where he could be close to his ranch and family. His two sons became college pitchers. The ranching continues. He now lives in Georgetown, TX, near Austin. Down here you can buy Nolan Ryan beef and hamburger in the grocery store, straight from the ranch, I reckon.
I greatly enjoyed my time in the Nolan Ryan Center. Had the place to myself - the lady in charge had to unlock the exhibit hall and turn on the lights when I got there.
For more Nolan Ryan details, here's the Wikipedia link. Ryan was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999, his first year of eligibility, nearly unanimously (some baseball writers - grouches - think he lost too many games, but he played for teams that lost a lot of games no matter who was pitching). I went to Cooperstown the summer of 1999 for the induction ceremony. I probably have this souvenir somewhere, but I bought one here: it's the imprint on an envelope that real enthusiasts mailed to themselves from the Cooperstown post office on July 25, 1999, to establish their presence.
The other three inductees that special year were George Brett, Robin Yount, and Orlando Cepeda. It was a very good year.
As I left the Center, I asked the lady in charge for a recommended place for lunch in Alvin. Joe's Barbecue, she immediately replied and gave me directions. I went and had a fine barbecue meal. A banner in Joe's proclaimed that it had been selected the best barbecue joint in the greater Houston area. I haven't found one better, yet.
Bridge May Ice in Cold Weather
Regular readers may recall that in our previous travels in Texas I've been captivated by these signs on the approach to every bridge. The signs are hinged, so that after cold weather is over, someone , I conjectured, comes along and flips the bottom half up so that it reads something inspirational like, Don't Mess With Texas. I speculated that a DOT employee starts in Brownsville, Texas each spring or late winter and zig-sags his way back and forth across the state, up to the top of the panhandle, following the last-freeze line, flipping the signs up as he or she goes. Then, in a few months, as Fall threatens to bring frost and icy bridges up North, he zig zags his way back to Brownsville, flipping the signs down. Sounded like a good job to me.
On my drive to Alvin I saw that the bridge warning was still showing, which meant the guy he hadn't gotten this far north by now, so I thought I'd pick a sign and stake it out and watch for him to come a-flippin.' Then, I realized the signs I've seen here, so far, are not hinged. Poor guy must have got laid off.
So, that pretty well covers the last couple of weeks.
We'll be in touch.
Rob and Susie
p.s. We were blown away today when this bouquet arrived from daughter Mandi and the Southwest Airlines employees at LaGuardia airport. Thanks much to them and to all of Susie's support team. Sunday's coming!
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