Neil's Testimony

I invite you to turn off my personal playlist and hear Neil Y. Fugal speak. “Enhanced” unfortunately by the drone of a cassette tape in an ancient player. I imagine Norma must have requested he speak slowly and distinctly, as normally his speech clipped along quicker than this, even when reciting.

Neil's Testimony from Gail Adamson on Vimeo.

Tell me not, in mournful numbers, Life is but an empty dream! –

For the soul is dead that slumbers, And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest! And the grave is not its goal.

Dust thou art, to dust returnest, Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow, Is our destined end or way;

But to act, that each tomorrow Find us farther than today.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting, And our hearts, though stout and brave,

Still, like muffled drums, are beating Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world’s broad field of battle, In the bivouac of Life,

Be not like dumb, driven cattle! Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, howe’er pleasant! Let the dead Past bury its dead!

Act, – act in the living Present! Heart within, and God o’erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us, We can make our lives sublime,

And, departing, leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another, Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,

A forlorn and shipwrecked brother, Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing, With a heart for any fate;

Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labor and to wait.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Interesting that he says "Finds" in the third stanza above. And "lonesome" in the second from the end.

(Following this poem, you'll find his testimony a little harder to hear but upping the recording volume I'm unable to offset the distortion.)

Paraprosdokians

More laughter at work today, passing these around:

1. Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

2. Do not argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.

3. We never really grow up, we only learn how to act in public.

4. You're never too old to learn something stupid.

5. War does not determine who is right - only who is left.

6. Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.

7. Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.

8. Some people are like Slinkies ... not really good for anything, but you can't help smiling when you see one tumble down the stairs.

9. Some cause happiness wherever they go. Others whenever they go.

10. The last thing I want to do is hurt you. But it's still on the list.

11. To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism. To steal from many is research.

12. I want to die peacefully in my sleep, like my grandfather. Not screaming like the passengers in his car.

13. If I agreed with you we'd both be wrong.

14. I didn't say it was your fault, I said I was blaming you.

15. I asked God for a bike, but I know God doesn't work that way. So I stole a bike and asked for forgiveness.

16. I discovered I scream the same way whether I'm about to be devoured by a great white shark or if a piece of seaweed touches my foot.

17. Dolphins are so smart that within a few weeks of captivity, they can train people to stand on the very edge of the pool and throw them fish.

18. I used to be indecisive. Now I'm not sure.

19. I always take life with a grain of salt, plus a slice of lemon, and a shot of tequila.

20. The early bird might get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

21. Evening news is where they begin with 'Good evening', and then proceed to tell you why it isn't.

22. How is it one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?

23. Whenever I fill out an application, in the part that says "If an emergency, notify:" I put "DOCTOR".

24. Why does someone believe you when you say there are four billion stars, but check when you say the paint is wet?

25. Women will never be equal to men until they can walk down the street with a bald head and a beer gut, and still think they are sexy.

26. Why do Americans choose from just two people to run for president and 50 for Miss America?

27. Behind every successful man is his woman. Behind the fall of a successful man is usually another woman.

28. There's a fine line between cuddling and holding someone down so they can't get away.

29. A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.

30. If you are supposed to learn from your mistakes, why do some people have more than one child?

31. You do not need a parachute to skydive. You only need a parachute to skydive twice.

32. Some people hear voices. Some see invisible people. Others have no imagination whatsoever.

33. The voices in my head may not be real, but they have some good ideas!

34. A diplomat is someone who can tell you to go to hell in such a way that you look forward to the trip.

35. Hospitality: making your guests feel like they're at home, even if you wish they were.

36. A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk, I have a work station.

37. I thought I wanted a career, turns out I just wanted pay checks.

38. A bank is a place that will lend you money, if you can prove that you don't need it.

39. Money can't buy happiness, but it sure makes misery easier to live with.

40. Always borrow money from a pessimist. He won't expect it back.

41. When tempted to fight fire with fire, remember that the Fire Department usually uses water.

42. To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target.

43. Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.

44. A bus is a vehicle that runs twice as fast when you are after it as when you are in it.

45. Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.

Interesting, learning new things at my age. A good thing of course, but often unexpected. The old dog/new tricks theory. After six months of Sirius FoxNews I was NOT saddened nor surprised when it suddenly expired. Supposedly it was going to ce la vie at three months, and just before the supposed deadline I spent HOURS on hold waiting my turn for a sales rep to sign me up a la carte. No dice, a la carte. Apparently there's Sirius and then there's subSirius. No doubt coincides with the relative social ranking of the branded auto. With the three months long gone, I wondered if they figured I needed a double dose to get hooked enough to cough up more bucks for it. Now this FoxNews was class. The audio of the cable tv network. And since I'd watched it endlessly at Jewel's the weekend of Hayd' birthday, the faces matched the names. Loved it. But not enough to pay more than a la carte prices for it. Ditto the tv version. So now I'm totally enjoying 10 music and a couple of talk radio stations. I will miss The Factor. But that's about it. And Dave Ramsey's just as totally entertaining and educational. Maybe I'll live longer and enjoy it more for that matter – more music, less politics. Seriously.

Miscellanea Photomania

As you can tell, we're prime for fires, but it's cooled down enough we've probably dodged that bullet.


Not quite the color that is emblazoned in my memory September 26, 1986, and probably won't get there by that anniversary.

This year's promo, Wild Wild West Days, kicked off in August.

Wild Wild West Day (Turn off the personal playlist, above.)

We borrowed a life-size bull, and had fun snapping silly pictures (embedded above). Each school will host similar event using the same decorations, with the kids dancing and singing along to country music.

Yesterday we visited the first of 18 schools.

(In between events, I did take several phone pictures the short time I was at the reunion, but I was so out of it I didn't press "save" so I gather #2 took the place of #1, etc., and the last and only one was worthless.)

Life is hard but it helps to laugh or else you'll cry. Work has been draining but this morning we got so silly it was positively entertaining.

One of our school kitchen managers is in charge of the parties this year and she announced the details of our opening social and it sounded so fun and she has such a positive and bouncy personality, it made me think of "Dancing Queen." She also occasionally posts the beginning words of a song on FB with the implied suggestion that we try our hand at completing it.

So I sent an answer back to all of the managers in honor of the party mode, suggesting they give me the refrain to "Friday night and the lights are low, Looking out for the place to go ... You're in the mood for a dance, And when you get the chance...."

No doubt I was influenced by the fact that the boss was gone to SLC, Fridays are normally pretty quiet, and I was sick of the weeks of endless data entry with its equally endless array of rules and regulations. So this is what followed (and I ended up feeling kinda guilty at the end considering how long it went on, but it was worth it for all the laughter):

The other office secretary, Colleen:

You are the Dancing Queen

Young and sweet, only seventeen

Dancing Queen

Feel the beet from the tambourine

You can dance, you can dance [jive]

Having the time of your life

See that girl, watch that scene

Dig in [diggin'] the Dancing Queen

Me: Colleen wins!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(And she's playing it as we speak.)

Her answer: Although I have to admit I should proof read before cut and paste....

I promise I know the difference between beat and beet

ha ha ha

Me: Boss away and the mice will play....

Her answer: I know your fingers are still flying over the keyboard putting on apps! You can listen to music, it's allowed!

Manager A responds with another verse and I mistakenly congratulate her as WINNER NUMBER 2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Manager B responds with the same thing and I look closer and inform her: No prize for you, not the refrain, but hey! Love it too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Realize B's going to be annoyed re A, so "me" says: And yes, oopsie me, Colleenie is truly the one and only winner, refrain-wise. :) :) Hummm, I wonder where Jenny put that crown.....

[Once Colleen was feeling neglected and went on about it so much the boss made her sit in the front of our managers meeting and wear a crown.]

She [in the next room] responds by email: Bite me Gail!

Me: Nah, I'll save it for your party treat. Which I am absolutely positive will melt in my mouth and make the angels sing!

We get a sprinkling of other responses.

Then Colleen: Some may wonder why Gail and I aren't just having our own inter-office communication ( yelling across the room ) like we normally do... well...

WE AREN'T SPEAKING ;-)

Me: Yeah, we'd need [the boss] Jenny here to referee for that....

Manager A: OH MY!!! if you two don't stop it I will wet my pants.

Manager A, privately, asks me: What is a refrain? No wonder I didn't win. I have no clue what a refrain is?

Me, privately back: Sorry, as I am ROFLing, I should have called it a chorus....

Manager A: OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Well duh. LOL LOL

I then ask her if I can share this with everyone to keep the saga going. Meanwhile,

Colleen: Let's play "I'd rather be..."

There is a 4 inch stack of Nicholas Invoices and a month's worth of e~funds NSF's in front of me and I'd rather be...

...cruising Pacific Coast Highway 101 in a black jeep wrangler with the top off, and Beach Boys CD blaring! Gotta keep those Good Vibrations!

Where would you rather be?

Then I send Manager A's reply, which was: Send it, I love this whole thing, and I add: Thank you, not only do you do rocking parties, you have a great sense of humor....

Colleen says: oh sure don't play 'MY GAME' I know who the popular one is! [The attitude, which she knows full well, earned her the crown.]

Another manager answers where she'd rather be.

Me: I'm playing!!! I promise!! Keep your pants on....

Next email I answer where I'd rather be.

Two more managers chime in.

Manager A, answering Colleen's 'oh sure,' says: Ha! I played, neener neener, and I gave up my lunch break to respond [realizing she might get called on the carpet for participating so much].

Manager C says she'd rather be in a stinky cow pasture eating a bucket of nails.

We sympathize and find out she's cleaning out the feezer walk-in, which is v-e-r-y hard and icky work.

Manager A: Sounds like toture, who eats nails without a good sauce?

Me: Well maybe she has some left over from the pork.... [We have some wonderful new menus this year, included official Chicago dogs and pulled pork.]

By now Manager A has read what I said about promising to play Colleen's game and keeping her pants on.

Manager A: She has her pants off again?

Colleen and I are 'almost' literally rolling on the floor laughing and make lame attempts to top it.

Colleen: EWG (evil wicked grin), just remember, Jenny, GAIL was the one who started talk of the pants!

Me: CRBT (crying real big tears).

Manager A: Responding to EWG and CRBT: Mom, mom, mom.

We were a little puzzled on that one until she pointed out that we were acting like children, "Mommmmmm, SHE's looking at me," etc. On purpose of course.

Me: I just have to tell you, I don't think the two of us have ever laughed harder, and so far, we just can't top it. So you (Manager A) win after all.

Boss came back. Nary a laugh as she read through all these emails. But she didn't fire or ground us or anything. Later she admitted she stifled a few chuckles.

Feeling good, mostly because I stayed long enough to know I'll get the payroll finished on time, add to that listening to this song at top volume on the drive home, add to that thinking about what I'll spend my August extra 32 hours of time-and-half on (with another nine comp saved for a rainy day)...more thermal windows or new sheds? (Not that the o.t. will cover it of course....) ((Yet.))

P.S.

Not that I would ever expect you to look back, but on April 10th, I did a post about my weird sense of humor going back further than I care to admit, and I put what I could remember of a high school bus activity song I dreamed up. I'm reposting the words here because I was looking for an Irving Berlin number in my sheet music today and found THIS! (The Cub Scout song I years later dreamed up to the same tune.) ((I'd taped in in the back of a 1939 camp song booklet of Mom's.))

So it's more for "my record" than for anything else. J

Original version circa 1961:

(as best I can remember - a couple lines gone the way of my aged sloughed off brain cells)

I'm a villain, a dirty rotten villain,

I put poison in my mother's shredded wheat, her wheat.

I have gotten a rep for being rotten,

And I beat little kids on the head 'til they're dead.

I'm a slob and a member of the mob

and I eat (sucking through teeth noise) raw (s.n.) meat (s.n./s.n.).

Cub version circa late 1980's:

(probably past Grant's Wolf days, however)

We are Cub Scouts, such very helpful Cub Scouts,

We do our duty to our God and country, our country.

We're so fair and we'd never take a dare,

We give grandma hugs and will never take drugs!

We have never gotten a rep for being rotten

We will always remember to give good will, good will.

With the help of Akela and Baloo

We will always pursue what is right and true!

P.S., I'd x'd a few of the camp songs, but I can't remember if we ever used them in Cubs. Such as:

She'll Be Coming 'round the Mountain

Polly Wolly Doodle

O Susanna

Dinah ("Someone's in the kitchen...")

Hey, Ho!

Weather the Weather

We're Glad to See You Here (to Farmer in the Dell)

Three Fishermen

My Grandfather's Clock

Hiking Song ("Tramp, tramp, tramp...")

Hiking ("Over hill, over dale...")

There's a Church in the Wildwood

I have cherished memories of singing those songs as a kid. When we pass on, I'd think it very sweet to sit around a campfire and sing those songs again with my loved ones. Maybe we could reprise a few at the reunion.

Don't tell anybody but we have landed some doozies including Chad Hymas and Jalon Watts for our summer training meetings. Even though we pay our staff of about 110 to attend these trainings each August, we try to dress them up so that they benefit from some lingering enthusiasm. I'm thinking adding this

to our email signatures is giving us some valuable clout!

Chad Hymas is labeled by the Wall Street Journal as one of the 10 most inspirational people in the world. Last year he spoke at 160 different events and traveled over 180,000 miles. He's shared his personal message and entertained many audiences including Wells Fargo, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Coca Cola, and the Utah Jazz.

Jalon Watts you'll see on American Idol, mark my words! He's 12, and after you click off my music, here are two of his recent recordings:

"The National Anthem" (Jazz Game)

"Come Home" (from Kandahar)

I'm hoping you have time to listen to them - he's unbelievable and unforgettable! Hummmm. Oxymoron?

I also put his rendition of "I Will Always Love You" in the ReverbNation sidebar widget if you'd like to hear one more of significantly better quality than the version on youtube. (Open it, click on the arrow middle of the page on the top black bar.)

Looking forward to Father's Day coming up as there'll actually be one

to honor at my house this year ... namely, Johnny Powell Scarborough IV.

(And yes, the familiar is the formal given name.)

Another plus is BOTH grandchildren are coming!

And fitting, for many reasons including all the T-ball and baseball time

Johnny has devoted to Hayden. Jewel said Hayden

was suddenly and thoroughly bored

once the season ended.

Johnny was one of the coaches for a baseball team

and so besides T-ball, Hayden tagged to those games too

where he got a lot of extra support and attention.

Here's a picture of the two of them two summers ago.

I was kinda surprised that no one commented

on the Neil Fugal picture I recently posted,

as it seems to me I see some of his features in his posterity.

Scroll back down and tell me what you think!

And here's another one of interest.

I was so surprised to first see Lucy whom I thought

was the first baldy

to join the ranks (in my line, anyway).

Looking for the prior post picture of Neil, I found this [!!]:

Neil Y. Fugal (born 14 Feb 1913) with his then only sibling, Melba

Happy Fathers Day to all you family dads! Hope you have a great day!

Best of State Gala, Salt Palace Ballroom

It was a night to remember. The most expensive event I've ever been to. I think. Well, that effected my COLA instead of Daddy's. $75/plate. Probably top$ Neil Diamond, Loggins and Messina, John Denver and The Lettermen ... mostly because seeing them was in another less expensive era (or two). ((Or three.)) (((Not quite an eon ago, though.))) Well, I guess I should consider the food factor into the cost. And all the performers last night, of course, are Utahns. Though I suppose the food would be an upper and the Utahns could be a downer. Just considering cost factors of course. [I'm taking a big chance here, leaving out the happy face icons ... the few of you who would read this hopefully have figured out where this paragraph should be punctuated with laughter. Well a chuckle or two at least.]

The best part about it was I was home by 9:45 p.m. Plenty of time to put the final touches on subbing the music in Primary, the most fun church job in the entire universe.

I put all of last night's pictures on Facebook: "Click"

Yes!!!! I asked and was allowed to use Rock of Ages, No. 111, in Sacrament meeting today! I had the organist play it all the way through and the congregation did fine. I had been told to have it sung in Priesthood and R.S. today, so I responded that I'd leave Priesthood up to him (which he promptly forgot about) and I did ask the R.S. counselor, who used to be the ward music leader, what she thought and she said we'd be fine without it. It has not been sung in our ward in six years or more.

Double Yes!!!! I'd been turned down about five months ago on In Remembrance of Thy Suffering, No. 183, as being too hard for a Sacrament hymn, but it made it through inspection this time! It's full of triplets, and they did fine with it as well. I practiced/practiced/practiced so maybe my confidence would rub off.

Personally, I think Sacrament-meeting-goers are more interested if there's enough variety and challenge that they actually have to look at the score. True, those who can't read music have a problem, but they can still appreciate the momentarily unknown. I don't think it's that the powers that be "believe" in me now, after ten months, I think it's more that being patiently persistent has paid off. So I'll cross my toes and continue my prayers that it lasts....

P.S. - the choir director is old, like me. Well, older, actually, than me, and she picked "Let the lower lights be burning" for our next number. And I'm scratching my head, why are these soooo familiar to me! No, it's not that we sang them in the ward growing up, for Brightly Beams has always been a male chorus number and I can't imagine my being so impressed with such limited exposure that it became a lasting memory. Aha! It's all those LP records down there in the basement... Tennessee Ernie Ford.

Shhhh! (Don't tell the bishop!)

"When America was on it's knees, he brought us to our feet."

Well, Lois, I'm sure you're too busy to read this, but it's a "family matter." Wink/wink.

I don't know how Janeil and Lois felt, but as a kid it was such a surprise and incongruous to realize that Daddy loved the fights. He watched the signature fights on TV religiously. He did not cheer them on nor cuss them out, but he watched intently and was often observed by me to be on the edge of his seat! (Not the blow-by-blow so much as on edge as to the outcome.) Occasionally I would try to talk him into letting us watch something else (one TV), and was never successful though I must say he was always cheerful in his disinclination. To me it seemed like such an odd fit, but no doubt I'd have understood better had not the rest of the family been female.

(He actually watched very little TV. The only other thing I remember he watched on a regular basis was Bonanza. He more favored putting on some music, and we were thoroughly introduced to all varieties. He also took us to monthly entertainment at the Smith Fieldhouse on lower campus, the Utah Symphony, the Globetrotters. We saw numerous Broadway musicals, and Peter Pan in New York City.)

I just watched Cinderella Man, a 1995 movie about boxing, and chronicles James Braddock who won the heavyweight championship in 1935. Daddy would have been 22. He was 20 in 1933 and Braddock 28, the height of the Depression. Braddock turned pro in 1926 (Daddy 13) and fought nearly 100 bouts. I do not doubt that Daddy listened to many of his fights on the radio. (Keeping in mind that for the championship bout in New York City, he'd have been on his mission and then stationed in Quakertown, PA with five other elders. I have no idea if media rules were as strict then as they are now.) I do not doubt he felt the same as many did, that Braddock gave people hope during the Depression years. Braddock was forced to take the dole to keep his family intact in 1933-34, and when he won a come-back fight, he went to the welfare agency and gave back all he had been given.

It was a very insightful movie as to what it was like to live in that era. (PG-13 for language and "fighting" however.)

Watching a movie like this brings into sharper focus just how much I love and miss my Dad, who I must add possibly never gave a fig for boxing until the '50's! And how fortunate we are to have heros in our lives. He did what all good parents do, gave us hope and a good example, sans the fluff. We didn't often know his inner feelings. He didn't talk much about the Depression or boxing. He would have, had we cared to ask. I have fond memories of the latter years of things he told me when I was finally grown up enough to ask. I wish I'd started sooner. I do admire and respect and honor him for his reticence. He was larger than life in example, which always speaks louder than words. And best of all he lived his testimony. Even on fight nights. Wink/wink.

Neil Y. Fugal, BYU, June 1938, age 25

B.S. Accounting and Mathematics

(Just days before Janeil's birth)

The Friday before *last* Mothers Day, Jewel sent this box to my work.

Inside was the most perfect and delicious fruit!

It was like walking through the orchard when I lived in Phoenix,

smelling the oranges!

Yummy apples and pears as well.

I shared a few with my colleagues and

thoroughly enjoyed the rest over the following week.

The claim to fame was that they were

picked and shipped within two days.

Packed in straw with a foam insert underneath and on top.

This year she asked me if I wanted my M.D. gift

sent to my work Friday or to my home Saturday.

Yes, I am greedy, and I said send it home. J

So it was somewhat of a surprise to open the door

and there stood a young lady

in plainclothes instead of a delivery gal/guy,

who handed me this,

which I shall peel open for your viewing pleasure:

Note the expansion link on the ribbon.

She claims she budgets for M.D.

Even so, I'm sure she overspends,

but I sure am enjoying every bite!

(If there's any left on Monday I'll share them.)

((Highly unlikely.))

Colleen, my co-worker, got a magazine at work one day all about Best of State. She thought we ought to try our hand at winning in the category of Education: support personnel. She kept bringing it up until our boss said okay, go for it. So the day it was due we began, which was also the day before a state report is due and I'm also buried in deadline payroll data.

They asked me to start it out and flower it up as I have a "rep" for that, and I wrote a few paragraphs detailing the "fourfold" reasons why Provo School District Child Nutrition Department ought to win. Then the boss and Colleen went to work expounding on it and it ended up "sevenfold." These kind of write-ups require a "conclusion" – some sort of achievement as a result of all we'd done and I decided it would be that we'd upped our meal participation, but not yet knowing if we actually had.

Knowing we'd want to submit even if we had no "measured" success, I wrote it with the angle that we were in competition with "no one" and that it was worthwhile even if unmeasured. Then I went to work on the state report deadline, the result to be added to the prior four month's data. I didn't want it to be from the beginning of the school year - I hoped it proved to be an improvement over time. It would be another Ambrose Bierce writing marathon to cover the new promotions implemented this year, but suffice it to say, the success WAS measurable. It ended up 1,900 words, five pages long! Colleen and I were there late that night, dolling it up, and figuring out how to hyperlink stuff to the application.

Some of our "stuff."

CNP Website

Booklet [See if you can find Hayden!]

Above/Beyond Recognition

USOE Recognition

At any rate, as you've already figured out, we won! The individual, business and organization nominations were judged by over a hundred people, comparing three criteria: excel in endeavors, use innovative approaches or methods, contribute to a better quality of life in Utah. We pick up our medal at the black-tie Awards Gala at the Grand Ballroom of Salt Palace the end of the month, featuring, they claim, "a double entree dinner and fabulous entertainment." I'm not actually much looking forward to going, but it will definitely be a night to remember! And soon Colleen will be getting another Best of State magazine, and "we'll" be in it!

I’m told it’s now gauche to have a playlist on your blog. Well, as we all know, blogging is for “me,” not “you,” so mine stays. I love to listen to my music on occasion. If it bothers you, use one of your 20 digits to press the off button. It won’t offend me in the least. If you’re poised and quick, you can shut it down before it makes nary a peep (which is why I put it on the top). If you love me and want to recall my favorites after I’m gone (assuming blogging doesn’t go the way of the eight-track tape), it’ll still be there. Including my postings which explain why.