Bob and Debbie Conroy - Enjoying the Journey Together!

My mother, Merge Conroy, died October 20, 2011 in Phoenix, AZ. It was not an unexpected death and she had been preparing for it for several years. Merge transcended the sometimes stoic, and often painful, process of dying with a peaceful acceptance of the inevitable. Her powerful proof of personal courage was a final lesson and gracious gift to her children. Thanks Mom! Her passing was made easier for me by the company of my sister Deb and her husband Ray, my brother Dan and baby brother Bill. Deb and Ray spent many months in Arizona caring for Merge while we all were together most of the last five weeks. It was a special time that will always be fondly remembered and appreciated by us all. Dan, Bill and I also appreciate that our spouses, Bonnie, Toni and Debbie kept the home fires burning and a couple of businesses efficiently humming while we were away. Here is the obituary that was published in her hometown newspaper, The Daily Jeffersonian of Cambridge, OH.: ETHEL BASFORD CO...

I voted in the Iowa Straw Poll and have the blue ink on my index finger to prove it. It was not easy to be part of this event. I had to endure a three mile shuttle bus ride from the east side of Ames to the parking lot by Hilton Coliseum. Fortunately the bus was air conditioned or the ride would have been unbearable in the 70 degree heat. The wide cushioned seats were a nice touch too. Upon exiting the bus I was handed a $30 admission ticket, some leaflets and a t-shirt – all for free. After a short briefing I was free to visit the various venues set up by the candidates.  National media and international media were swarming the grounds so I played a game to get into the background of live camera shots.  (Hi Ma!) Then it took a bad turn. There was food everywhere! There was BBQ from Famous Dave’s, pizza from Godfathers and ice cream from Dairy Queen just to name a few of the options. Did I mention it was all free? How could I stay on my diet with so much free food availab...

I went to the Iowa State Fair today along with 104,621 other paid attendees plus fair workers and vendors. Between sightings of four presidential candidates I kept running into people I know.  I got to thinking I could pass for a native Iowan as well as I have the layout of the fairgrounds memorized.  When the National Weather Service reports Iowa counties under the threat of severe weather I no longer need a map to know where they are located.  I am going to The Iowa Straw Poll tomorrow in Ames. I have become an Iowan. I was born in Ravena, Ohio in 1953 and moved into 1980 Hanover St, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio before my first birthday. In 1963 we moved to Villa Park, Illinois followed by a move to Oak Park, Michigan in 1964. 1965 had a move to Mount Clemens MI, 1966 on to Royal Oak, MI and in 1967 to Beverly Hills, MI and then on to a second house in Beverly Hills in 1969. My last move during high school was to Hazel Park, MI in 1971. My first house on my own was also in Ha...

“Cloud computing” or “in the cloud” are phrases that I read almost every day now that many major technology companies have embraced this as their business model.  On the surface the concept is simple: all applications and data are hosted in secure data centers and user access is over a broadband Internet connection. When I hear about clouds I think about something I have first noticed decades ago: that most people already live in a cloud.  They go through the motions of living but it appears as if outside forces are pulling their strings. Commons symptoms include: following the crowd, keeping up with Joneses, believing that reality TV is real, lacking any substantial interest in current news unless it involves a celebrity, and a general lack of curiosity about the world around us.  Picture in your mind a football field with thousands of people standing, sitting, and moving about the field through a low fog bank that is spreading over the field.  Now notice a hand...

John Prine 2011 - photo by Bob Conroy Debbie and I went to the John Prine with Iris Dement Concert at the Des Moines Civic Center last night. It was a very enjoyable event.  Dement did a 40-minute set and Prine did a non-stop two hours.   Such talent!  Turns out that Dement is married to Iowa’s Greg Brown and he came on stage for the encore which, of course, was “Paradise”. We planned to go out to dinner before the concert but did not preset the location so it turned into “Where do you want to go eat ?” followed by the required rejoinder “I don’t care, where do you want to go eat?”  We exchanged this several times, trading roles each time but getting no closer to a final answer.  Finally, we talked ourselves into Jethro’s BBQ by Drake University on the theory that school is out so it would not be too crowded.  Epic fail!  As we pulled into the parking lot there were aging frat boys spilling out into the parking lot, beers in hand. (btw, just when...

No theme to this post, just a bit of stream of consciousness that has been carefully edited to protect the guilty. She did it… Our big news since my last post is that Debbie retired from her corporate job and is now working full-time at our agency!   Her last few months were hectic as she valiantly tried to transfer years of experience, judgment and wisdom unto half a dozen people, all of whom already had full plates.  Such is the state of the corporate world these days.  Being able to “retire” (defined here as getting retirement benefits) on her 55th birthday was a great reward for her years of planning, budgeting and faithful adherence to our long term goals.  She has jumped into our new agency and is already running quotes, learning our agency management system (AMS 360), and decompressing from the corporate “bends”. Legos and Waffles… We had a great, albeit hectic, week with the grandkids.  It was the same week Debbie retired and started working in the a...

Photo by Bob Conroy On one of my trips to Lincoln I caught a postal worker doing a shake down at Culvers in Council Bluffs.  It was after the lunch rush and the counter staff was getting a little break.  I ordered my Butter Burger with fries and a coffee to go and waited while the staff chatted.   The postal worker, a 50ish man with thin graying hair and an oversized belly, entered the restaurant and announces they had no mail today.  There was no immediate response from the staff so he asked if they had any outgoing mail and they did not.  He just stood there and finally one of the staff asked if he wanted to “try” the flavor of the day.  Two minutes later he was devouring a scoop of free custard.   No money was exchanged and it had the look of a regular event.