Leonard Avalos:  

09/01/20 . I'm married to a wonderful woman (Barbara) who graduated from North High (1970) in Phoenix, attended ASU & was a very successful Sales Sr. Account Exec for TW Telecom prior to her retirement 12 yrs ago. She now takes care of me, her family & all of our animals. Barbara also has a wonderful relationship with my Son & treats him like he is her Son which makes her even more special. She is also my very best friend & confidant & has so much wisdom...I'm blessed to have her in my life. My Son Jarrod (all 6'5" of him ) is all grown up & now married & is living here in the Valley. The last 25 yrs have been the best of my life.I'm semi retired for now for the 2nd time. Initially retired 20 yrs ago from USWest/Comcast. Most recent job was Director of Network Planning & Implementation for the Southeast Region of North America with Century Link Communications. This entailed the planning & implementation of Dense Wave Division Multiplex transport &layer 2 metro ethernet networks in Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Kentucky & the Carolinas. This was with the National side of Century Link & my team members were physically based all across America. My 40 yr career with Century Link went full circle. It began with Mountain Bell, US West, Time Warner Cable, Level 3 & back to Century Link. The best companies I ever worked for were Time Warner & Level 3. So many good things happened to me at Time Warner & I see it as a blessing from the Good Lord. Graduated from Arizona State University with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering Degree Graduated from Mesa Community College with an Associates of General Studies Degree Graduated from the University of Phoenix with a Master of Business Administration Degree For the last 25 years or so have been employed with Time Warner, Level 3 Communications & Century Link. Served as a Transport Engineer, Sr. Transport Engineer, Sr. Manager & Engineering Director at our Time Warner corp offices in Denver, CO from 1994 -2007. The division I was in at Time Warner was a start up & was very entrepreneurial. The spirit & theme of that company at the time was all of the Warner Brothers Cartoons. Everywhere I went within company facilities the wall murals were visuals of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Wiley Coyote, The Roadrunner & the rest of the gang. Proud to say I worked for Warner Brothers during my career & that was really a fun place. The dress code of the time was clothing that had the Warner Bros Cartoon Logos. They were totally acceptable & encouraged. That culture was fun & what was really cool as I thought I was reliving the Wallace & Ladmo show all over again with all of those cartoons all over Time Warner Facilities nationwide. Came back to Phoenix in 2007 as a Sr. Transport Manager/Engineer as I really missed AZ & the beautiful desert. Now reside with my Soulmate Barbara in Gold Canyon, AZ. near the base of the Superstition Mountains. Barb & I are Die-Hard ASU Sun Devils. We both always have been & always will be. We've had season Football tix forever & tailgate with friends in the Valley. My son Jarrod is a talented musician who is self taught in lead & base guitar, drums & the piano. Barb is also a very good piano player...even Jarrod taught me to play the guitar but I'm only an amateur by comparison. I've had really a great life the last 25 years-the best I could ever hope for as I really didn't enjoy my early years overall growing up in Globe. When I was 16 I remember asking myself "Is this it? Is this as good as life gets?" Thank God it wasn't. I remember my Dad telling me at that time "when you get out of high school you need to get the hell out of here & go get your Engineering Degree. There's nothing for you here." At the time I thought that was a bit harsh but it turned out in my particular situation he was correct. He still reminds me once in a while about that to this day, LOL. Working for Time Warner has allowed me to work and temporarily live all over the US during the mid 90s to early 2000s. For 7 months in the mid 90s I lived temporarily in New York City working for Time Warner & found that to be the most fascinating place I have ever been. It was true culture shock coming from Globe-Miami. Once during that time I remember walking the streets of Manhattan with 12 million other people & 8 hrs later having a beer with my Dad & my Son at my Dad's house on the hills of Miami, AZ. While in NYC I lived on West 57th Street just south of Central Park (at the Parker Meridian Hotel) & on 47th & Broadway (at the Marriott Marquis Hotel) near Times Square. I spent a lot time in Lower Manhattan, China Town, Little Italy, Times Square & Jersey City (taking the PATH train from the twin towers before 911). I also spent some time in Brooklyn, Coney Island & the Bronx. NYC is very fast paced & a couple of tough Italian American guys I worked for showed me the ways of the city & how to become a New Yorker. Everyone there has a nickname & I was called the f'n Mexican. They like to use the f word a lot there for some reason. It's kind of an in your face & very direct culture in the city. They made me feel like family there so that was cool. They even took the time to make sure & coach me that when I was on the streets of NYC I was to walk with purpose & to not look up & stare at all the tall buildings. One of the guys I worked for at the time bluntly told me "if you take our advice when you are out on the streets nobody will f**k with you. Got that?" I quickly learned that I had to quickly adapt if I was going to survive there. I took every bit of their advice & it served me well. I actually became one of them. One Christmas the VP & GM of Time Warner of NYC sent me a Christmas card & all of his employees there signed it & on the card he mentioned "You are now an honorary native New Yorker." I still have that card to this day. He was a great guy to work for. I got to experience so much excitement and saw so many wild & bizarre things it made it really unreal. One bizarre thing I distinctly remember was my Boss driving me around the city as he wanted to show me where he played stickball as a kid. Stickball is a game that kids in NYC play on the streets with a broom handle & a rubber high bouncing ball & it resembles baseball. Where we went he ended up parking in the middle of the street as there were no parking spaces & there were hundreds of people walking around in that area. That area was kind of a hood. The strange thing was he left his car running & we took off on foot for about 100 yards from where he left his car running unlocked in the middle of the street. In South Phoenix that car would have been gone in a NY minute. I kept looking back constantly to make sure it was still there until he finally & very matter of factly told me "Lens, relax. This is XYZ's (Syndicate Boss) neighborhood. Nobody's gonna f**k with my car. Capiche?" Wow.That day I realized I was involved in something much larger than Time Warner. When we returned to his running car 15 minutes later there it was safe & sound idling away untouched. Then he calmly said, "lets go get some pizza." I'll never forget that. People were extra nice to me then & years later I was told why. It was who I was perceived to be associated with LOL. My bosses in NYC treated me great so I could care less what people thought. That is just one example of many that I experienced while living & working in NYC. Another strange thing there is when there is a thunderstorm in the city, the thunder ricochets off of the tall buildings all around you & you don't know where it is coming from other than hearing loud blasts coming at you in succession from all different directions. Imagine 12 million people on the island of Manhattan which is roughly similar to the size of land area of Globe Miami, AZ. During high school I remember looking at the twin towers on TV thinking that I would never see NYC in person. Little did I realize that I would be blessed enough to not only see it but live it 20 yrs later. That was really a wonderful experience that I'll never forget. The other place that I just fell in love with was Honolulu, Hawaii. I've spent about 3 months living & working there. There is something about that place that is magical. Barbara & I got married & honeymooned at Secret Cove at Kapolei next to the Disney resort there & Sammy & Eva Villegas were our best man & maid of honor. Little did I know, Sammy, who I first met at Holy Angels Elementary School some 50 years ago would be the best man in my wedding many years later. This took place in late 2013. A former Honolulu television anchor, Angela Keen, married us. She did a great job & we partied that night at the Disney Kapolei Resort and honeymooned at Turtle Bay on the North Shore before coming back home to Gold Canyon. A few other cool highlights in my life- one was actually getting to meet, party & hang with Daryl Hall & John Oates at a Lucent Party prior to a hotel gig they did in Atlanta. That gig was a fun time. Hall seemed like the cooler of the two by far. Another was getting to work briefly with one of Evel Knievel's family members. I learned some interesting things from his nephew about the dare devil. Another was getting stage pass tix (via Time Warner) for the Garth Brooks concert at Central Park. Another was getting to meet & party with ASU Coach Frank Kush. What a great time that was! One other was attending the ASU Ohio State Rose Bowl game & hanging with my Brother, Coach Castellanos(what a great teacher he was), his Sons & the Fresquez's prior to that game. One other was having Barry Goldwater's grand daughter over with one of our sons during Christmas & she actually set up & decorated the tree for us that Christmas. She was so cool. When I was introduced to her I go "are you related to Barry Goldwater?" I was in awe when ...Expand for more