Category: Cranky old guy stuff

Nuts!

We seem to have hit some sort of “Twilight Zone.” Over the weekend, there was a report from a school in Florida where the Principal retired because of a parent’s complaint that children were exposed to photographs of the statue of David as part of an art class. It seems that the “parent” was aghast that their children would be exposed to a statue of a naked man with his hangy-down parts showing. It’s just nuts!

The wags have been having a bit of fun about this outrage, dressing the statue in dresses (uh-oh… Drag!) or covering the offending parts in (among other things) a map of Florida and an AK-40. There was even a drawing of God handing Adam a pair of underwear in the painting of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (Tighty-Whities. Boxers are out because you might be able to see Adam’s hangy-down parts through a gap which “lets your business breathe”)!

Apparently, the state of Florida allows even a single parent to have something removed from the classroom if they object to it. Lessons about the struggle for Civil Rights? Gone. Books about the hardships of Slavery – “Who says it was that bad?” The list is endless as it keeps growing by the day. And it’s likely to get worse before it gets better, especially since anyone with any objection will be taken seriously.

Had this nonsense been in place when I was in elementary school, my sixth-grade teacher, Mrs. Gillahan, would have been fired on several different occasions. Like, when she talked about milking a cow and pulling on the cow’s teats (pronouncing it “Tits.”) When the inevitable laughs came from the boys in the room, she went into her “Don’t fool around on me, I’m serious” mode, staring us down and smacking a ruler across her desk as a warning as to what may happen if we continued. Or, there was the time when she excused the girls while the boys in the room were given a clinical description of what was involved in circumcision.

You could have heard a pin drop.

To her credit, Mrs. Gillahan was the product of a different age. She was likely older then than, say, Willie Nelson is today. She may still be around. I wouldn’t put it past her. But she couldn’t teach school in Florida.

Back to Florida – I read an essay recently about a trend where opinion becomes the truth. The gist of the article was that there are certain groups of people who listen to opinions that are taught as truth. Anything not aligning with what is being taught as truth is automatically condemned as part of some sort of “Culture War” being waged against what is (inaccurately called) the Silent Majority.

It’s more like a vocal minority that the state of Florida (among others) is allowing to run things. It’s one thing for a parent to object to what his or her child is exposed to – It’s quite another for a parent to be able to keep all children from being exposed to something that one parent objects to.

Nuff Said

Thirty-Nine and Holding

Thirty-Nine and Holding

This week I will be celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of my thirty-ninth birthday. As with most people I know, I wonder how I ever got this old. The other big question I have is if I want to go to a fancy restaurant on my birthday, where would I go? Reservations for Valentine’s Day are usually filled or at are odd times when people are not generally available.

There’s always McDonald’s – or in our case, Whataburger.

As to the question about how I got this old – well – considering the number of doctor visits I’ve had in the past two years, I’m pretty darn lucky to be here. On the other hand, the visits to the doctor have been a Godsend. Without them, the little bit of cancer in my bowel might have gone undetected and I might have been writing this essay from my deathbed. Now, there’s still the possibility of going outside and being hit by a beer truck – but that applies to just about anybody.

When I take stock of myself in the mirror, I’ve noted that I am far from the ideal specimen of a male human being. I could stand to lose another 40 pounds, need to pad out my skinny butt, slim down my pot belly and I wouldn’t mind having a little more heft to what I tell my wife are my “Hangy Down Parts.” I count at least three visible scars from having one surgeon or another remove or correct something. There are two others, not quite as visible – one on the front side and the other on the inside as the result of a surgeon guiding a robot nicknamed “Karen”.

On the plus side, I still have most of the hair on my head, making me look young for my age. Yeah, some grey is creeping in and there is unwanted hair in my ears (and on my back), but overall, my appearance isn’t that shabby.

Something which I find hard to understand is why so many people obsess over their appearance. A lot of it has to do with the idea that there is an ideal we need to strive for… even if it’s manufactured. For instance, I read a post on Facebook the other morning about a female runner who was depicted in an ad for a certain shoe company. The photo of the runner was taken when she was pregnant. Her belly was photoshopped out of the picture, while her breasts were kept as they were at the time of the photo shoot – larger because of her pregnancy. Flat bellies and large breasts sell shoes, I suppose. The shoemaker has been chastised for the photoshop.

The unfortunate part about photoshopping the way the shoe company did is that young women are now encouraged to have those flat (and untarnished by stretch marks) bellies and large, enticing breasts. Same for us guys. Six-pack abs, muscular arms and legs. Gotta have ’em. Shave in places not normally seen in public and have plenty of hair on top of your head. Unrealistic expectations are hard to achieve. Knowing something of yourself and tweaking what you have is the best thing you can do for yourself.

Yeah, I’m far from the ideal, but lately I’ve been to the gym a time or two a week. Sometimes more. Do I expect to lose gobs of weight? Not really. But I am doing what I need to do to keep myself healthy for at least another decade. If I don’t measure up to an unrealistic expectation, I don’t really care as long as I am happy with myself.

By the way, we made it to a decent restaurant Sunday afternoon before some football game or another. Two days before the birthday, but it was nice to spoil myself now and again.

Now… off to the Gym!

Be Seeing You!

Panic of the Week

Panic of the Week

Last week it was gas stoves – this week it looks like we need to be aware of the rainbows connected to the 50th anniversary of the release of Dark Side of the Moon, a recording by some rock group which incidentally stayed on Billboard’s Top 100 album chart for as long as anyone can remember. More on the record here in a bit.

But gas stoves. Seriously? The first I heard about some government agency warning about gas stoves came with the headline: “Biden Wants to Take Away Your Gas Stove!!” Yep, Joe Biden, President of the United States, to some the root of all evil (something about stealing an election by getting more votes), is set to send thousands of IRS agents to your house to confiscate your gas range! Just like Obama was poised to set government gun confiscation vans minutes after he was sworn in as President back in 2009.

Oh! The humanity!

It seems that we are bombarded by headlines from certain news sources telling us that we are on the brink of disaster on an almost weekly basis. I recall being told back sometime in October that we would run completely out of diesel fuel by Thanksgiving and that the economy would come to a standstill.

We’re still waiting on that to come to pass. Never mind that the 60-day supply of diesel fuel some portions of the media are trying to get you to panic about is what is usually on-hand and that the supply is being supplemented daily. Note, too, that the panic mysteriously went away shortly after election day.

Imagine that!

Every day there’s something trying to grab our attention – attempting to scare us into action or inaction, usually to the benefit of some group or another wanting power to… well, to twit whatever opponent they care to choose. It’s like the headline back there in the second paragraph of this little essay. There are people who dislike Joe Biden, and they love it whenever he gets even a small measure of comeuppance.

Can you say, “Classified Documents”? I knew you could!

It was pointed out the other day that time was that you had only three sources of national television news. These days, you have a multitude of sources to choose from – and people tend to choose whatever source they feel is closest to what they believe are their own views. Any source other than the chosen source is nothing but “Fake News!” Any opportunity to twit an opponent is good news – pure and wholesome, and 100% true!

Back to gas stoves.

There are risks involved in any sort of cooking as there are risks in every aspect of life. No need to panic. No one is going to come knocking at your door, wanting to confiscate your gas range.

As far as Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, fifty years is a landmark. Even more amazing is the fact that the album remained on the Billboard Top 100 album chart quite literally for decades. (Bruce Springsteen’s first album, Greetings From Asbury Park New Jersey, also hit the 50-year mark this month. Hardly anyone noticed.) The graphic artist who created the 50-year logo included a rainbow – something seen on the album cover. All of a sudden, there was an outcry from some quarters about the rainbow, and how there was an alignment with the Gay community! Think what you will about Pink Floyd’s Magnum Opus, I really don’t think that the musicians involved in making that album were signaling the Gay community. Yet, there you go. Someone with too much time on their hands and/or a chip on their shoulder is out there making something that isn’t about a 50-year-old record album.

It’s time to light up the gas stove, make some home-made soup, and take another listen to Pink Floyd!

Be Seeing You!

Old Age

Old Age

“Don’t be afraid of old age – it’s a privelege denied to many” – Paraphrasing something I keep reading. I’m old and can’t rightly remember who came up with the quote or where I found it.

While organizing my thoughts this afternoon, I ran across a post on Facebook from an old colleague telling of the death of another colleague and friend from back in the day. And I really mean back in the day.

The recently departed was, in many ways, one of the smartest people I have ever worked with. He had a way with electronics (got him a scholarship to become and electrical engineer), and he had his own little way of making observations no one else could possibly make. For instance, the chief engineer at the radio station where my friend and I worked back in 1974, would purchase a bottle of Pepsi from the station’s vending machine when he began to work on something. My friend noted that the engineer would purchase more Pepsis from the vending machine as the job progressed. Within a month or so of watching that engineer, my friend would estimate how complicated a job would be by the number of bottles of Pepsi the engineer would consume. I can still hear him say that thus and such a job looks like it would be a “Three Bottle Job.”

Anyhoo, my friend is no longer among the living – no longer able to judge how many bottles of Pepsi would be needed to finish a particular job.

Interestingly enough, that friend’s name came up in conversation with a mutual friend less than two weeks ago. The mutual (and still living friend) wondered about the man and what he was up to these days. I told the mutual friend that our friend had “left the building.”

I am to the age when losing old friends is becoming more frequent. I was reminded of the death of one of my best friends to early-onset Alzheimer’s when his widow reminded me of his birthday – and that had he lived, he would be somewhere in his seventies. He barely missed being in his mid-sixties.

The girl living up the street from us when we were in high school was another Alzheimer’s victim. She was a doctor. What a waste.

There was Tim, with whom I shared an enthusiasm for all things automotive. Cancer. Early sixties.

We have all lost someone, a friend, an acquaintance, a family member – and we all mourn those passings to one degree or another. Some we will mourn for years. Others, a month or two tops. Depends a lot on the burden someone’s death places on us. I have friends who have lost children who likely will never recover. Other deaths create barely a ripple in some of our lives.

My friend who passed with Alzheimer’s will be with me for quite some time, I suppose. We were somewhat close. Interestingly enough, it was the man who “left the building” earlier this week who introduced me to the Alzheimer’s victim. I have survived them both and will continue to celebrate being an old fart.

Not many of us have that privelege, you know!

Be Seeing You!

By Air

By Air

McKinney – the city next door to us – is putting proposal in front of voters next spring to put a commercial air terminal at what is known as McKinney National Airport. It’s an interesting proposal with definite benefits, but for my little corner of the DFW Metromess, it may be problematic.

Don’t get me wrong. I love aviation. I even went so far as to purchase a study guide so I could perhaps pursue becoming a pilot. I’ve even had the opportunity to take the controls of a small airplane owned by a friend of mine in an incident I call “Thirty Seconds Over Beaver Ohio.” I’ve hung out at small airports – can tell you where to find several landing fields you never thought were there and can probably tell anyone who would care to listen more about aviation in general much more than they would like to know.

But proposing an addition to the local airport to support commercial traffic? Well, I would like to think that calmer heads will prevail when it’s time to vote on the proposal… a vote which I will not participate in because I don’t live in McKinney Texas. No vote on a proposal which may affect me if the proposal is accepted. The skies are already a bit crowded around here.

To begin with, the Federal Aviation Administration issues maps showing airports, air lanes, and traffic control zones (that’s how I know where the airports are). There are three air lanes coming almost directly over my corner of the Metromess from airports to the northeast. I’ve flown from Columbus to both Dallas area commercial airports (DFW and Love Field) and know that when I spot McKinney National I’m almost home. Almost all day, I can spot airplanes coming into the local commercial airports. Nights, and early mornings, I can see the landing lights of approaching inbound airliners. The airport in McKinney is a touchstone of a sort. It’s fun, really, to see those planes headed to the major airports – and to a certain degree, it’s fun to see some of the smaller aircraft in the pattern to take off and land at McKinney National.

For the most part it’s fun watching aircraft headed to or from McKinney National. There are days, however, when a pilot or two forgets that they need to be at least 500 feet above the ground while zooming over a residential area. The smaller prop jobs can be forgiven – the occasional business jet flying low to the ground is cause for concern. A 737 flying as low as some of the business jets fly would be super scary.

Still, it’s fun to watch the variety of aircraft plying the general neighborhood. South of town there’s a patch used by people with motorized parachutes. There are the occasional hot-air balloons, like the one which followed the dog Filbrix and me on Sunday – landing in a field next to the Tractor Supply store just around the corner. And there are the occasional sightings of older aircraft. A regular visitor is a DC-3/C-47 which is a frequent visitor to McKinney National. Monday, there was an overflight by a B-29! I was seriously surprised.

The prospect of having regular passenger service so close to the homestead is just a wee little bit frightening – however, as has been pointed out time and again, one is more likely to be involved in an accident on the way to the airport than when flying a plane.

I’ll take that into consideration when it comes time for the proposal is put to a vote next spring. As if the people here in my little corner of the DFW Metromess would be allowed to vote on a proposal which could have a major impact on us.

Be Seeing You!

Elections and Politics in General

Elections and Politics in General

“Trump Declares Himself King of England! (Claims Charles rigged the succession.)” – Seen on the internet September 8, 2022

It has been an interesting couple of months, leading up to an interesting week and a couple of days. What with Queen Elizabeth II crossing the rainbow bridge (so to speak), leading to the ascent of her son, Charles to the throne – with England and English Parlaiment in economic disarray to the point that the Prime Minister quits after 44 days, it can be confusing to an amateur Anglophile like me to make sense of it all. Add the confusion, much of it deliberate, of the election season ramping up here, and it has become enough for me to stop and wonder if keeping away from television news has been the best thing I could have done for my sanity.

Here in my little corner of the DFW Metromess, we are electing School Board members (2), a County Judge (AKA a County Commissioner in some places), the “Big Three” State officials (Governor, Lietennant Governor, Attorney General), and a Congressman. Since “All politics are local,” I will stick with the local politicians before heading out of state.

I’ve actually had the opportunity to meet some of the local candidates. One of the hopefuls for the School Board is a nice young woman (in relation to me) I met at a community event last week. She was focused, sharp, and her name alliterated. That’s important to me, to have an alliterative name. One of the other hopefuls has an alliterative name, so, I’ll vote for him, too!

The fellow challenging the incumbent for County Judge was at another gathering held a few weeks ago. He appeared to have a good grasp of what the county needed to facilitate growth, something which has eluded the current Judge. This corner of the Metromess appears to be growing much faster than the amenities (things like water and electricity) can handle. Forward thinking and hang the politics if something needs to be done.

One other consideration not mentioned before is a Yes/No vote on a new city charter – a “Home Rule” charter. The city sent a packet explaining the Charter and what would be involved. My first reading of the document was favorable, in that it allowed for the city to be divided into Wards, with representation being a little more accessible. As it stands, Council people are considered to be “At Large,” meaning that there is the possibility of all council members being from the same neighborhood, or all belonging to the same social group (something I suspect is the case now). While it seems like a good idea to go to a “Ward” system, the catch is that the lines won’t be drawn for another 8 years after the approval of the new Charter. The other catch is that the proposed Charter was not properly developed – that members of the Charter Commission were hand-picked instead of being elected. It will be interesting to see how the question will wash out.

Running for Member of Congress are a former Judge and a newbie. I’ve met the newbie. He has the right attitude as far as I am concerned – keeping in mind my experiences with members of congress when I was living in Ohio. The former Judge lucked into his candidacy due to the philandering of the current lame duck revealed the day before the primary election. What really irks me about the guy is that he is running ads on the internet claiming that “Biden’s 10,000 new IRS agents are poised to go after the little guy.” What he neglected to say was that the 10,000 agents would be phased in over a ten year period, with most of them replacing agents who would quit or retire over that time period. A disingenuous tactic to say the least. My vote goes to the newbie.

And then there are the incumbents at the top of the state ticket.

Several hundred people “Crossed the Rainbow Bridge” due to an inadequate power grid a year ago this past February. Mass shootings due to lax gun laws have also caused people to “Cross the Rainbow Bridge.”

The top of the state ticket has had more than enough time and enough resources to take care of a number of problems facing the state – instead, they are spending an inordinate amount of time and resources suing the federal government while ignoring the needs of the people – women in particular. I am irked at the finger-pointing. As I have said on other occasions, I would rather fix a problem instead of fixing the blame.

New blood in the statehouse may not fix everything, but at least it will go a long way to at least getting a running start on fixing what ails us.

Again, I am happier than the proverbial pig in mud that I have fallen out of the habit of watching television news.

On to the bigger picture.

It’s much the same as the local picture. Politicians saying anything to get a leg up on their opponents. Truth gets squashed; lies get spun. Doesn’t matter which side you’re on, the other side is evil.

Period.

No wonder many of us have become jaded in the past, say, twenty years. Maybe forty.

In the bigger view, as in the smaller view, there’s a lot which needs to be fixed – something which ain’t gonna happen until politics becomes more about helping and less about power.

Maybe voters will express their disgust this time around.

But I ain’t holding my breath.

Be Seeing You!

Things Politicians Say

Things Politicians Say

A few years back, I worked at the circulation department of a small daily newspaper, The Chillicothe Gazette. Part of my job was to help carriers within my “Zone” collect money from subscribers. In the system we used, subscribers would pay up-front – usually for a month’s worth of papers. No problem for most of our customers, but there were the occasional sticks in the mud who argued that they had a problem with the system. “After all,” they reasoned, “I don’t pay ahead when I go eat at a restaurant.”

Obviously, they either hadn’t been to one of a number of fast food emporiums, or decided to conveniently forget about paying for one’s meal and then waiting for it.

Those folks should be livid about a stated Republican plan to eliminate Social Security and Medicare – programs most of us have been paying into for most of our lives, waiting to collect on what we paid into the plans when we become eligible. In other words, I paid for my newspaper, now someone wants to steal my paper from my porch!

What’s worse is that there are solid Republicans of my acquaintance who are quite happy with taking advantage of both Social Security and Medicare while using whatever tricks they can think of to maximize those benefits. “We paid into the system, we should get a payout from the system,” they’ll tell us. And that’s fine. What irks me is that at the same time, they are supporting politicians who would bring the government to a halt in order to get their way and eliminate the very programs from which they benefit.

And if you don’t believe me about bringing the government to a halt, watch what happens in the next couple of months if Republicans gain back their majority in the House and Senate in November.

That’s why Republicans are stopping at nothing to get voters voting for them. At least, so it seems.

In the past two years, we’ve seen Republican-majority state governments come up with all sorts of new rules and regulations intended to stifle the vote, or, “prevent voter fraud.” Interesting that of the very few voter fraud cases found and prosecuted from the 2020 election, most of the incidents (if not all of the incidents) were caused by Republicans.

Then there’s the misinformation. The local fellow running for Congress in our area has been running ads on the internet to the effect that the current administration’s hiring of tens of thousands of new IRS agents will be used to wring more taxes out of the middle class. It has been publicly stated that most of the agents in question would be hired to replace” overworked agents who would be retiring over the next ten years. Less than 10% would be “new adds,” allowing the IRS to go after higher-income taxpayers who find ways to game the system to their advantage. There are billions of dollars which can be collected from taxpayers in the upper brackets without touching the middle class.

Other misinformation seen here in Texas centers on “hot button” issues known to trigger ultra conservatives; claiming that Democrats are for things like “On Demand Abortions,” “Open borders,” and against preachers saying what they want when they are in the pulpit.

Putting the hot button issues aside, Republicans don’t have many talking points about what they hope to accomplish if elected other than to decimate social programs or put the kibosh on the economy if they don’t get their way. Given what they’ve already said about what they plan to do, they’re better off attacking the other side to hide their true intent.

Three weeks. Let’s hope that we elect politicians willing to allow us to keep what we’ve already paid for.

Be Seeing You!

Whose Birthday?

Whose Birthday?

Yesterday, I was struggling to recall exactly who was having a birthday today. The reminder from Facebook said it was Joni Hobbs. I know a Joni Hough from long ago, but I was unsure of Joni Hobbs. When my memory of Ms. Hobbs came back, it was because I remembered that the woman died at a very young age (in her forties – she was young to me) several years ago. She was one of two people I knew from my Geocaching hobby who died within a few months of each other. The other cacher was a fellow named Will Neinke. He and I shared an enthusiasm for The Prisoner, a 1960’s series starring Patrick McGoohan as a former secret agent being held in a remote village in an unknown location.

My Geocaching moniker as well as my sign-off phrase at the end of my blogs come from that show.

To continue.

I am at an age where, “Death has more definable features…” to paraphrase William Holden’s character in the movie Network. I’ve lost several good friends to the grim reaper… too many in my humble opinion. But one must keep in mind that one does not live forever. Eventually everyone passes from being a living being to being a story. Something we need to be aware of when we meet with other people is to listen to their stories while they are living. Appreciate what they have to offer. Listen. Remind yourself that no one walks the same walk. Even if a walk appears to be on the same path, it is, somehow different.

Ms. Hobbs and I met briefly in person on several occasions. We would occasionally cross paths on the internet. It wasn’t until the last month or so of her life that she opened up to let the Geocaching community know of her impending demise and of her life to that point.

And she will miss another birthday.

As will Norm Shor.

Norm and I had a mutual admiration society based on the fact that we both worked in radio. For the most part, he was a gypsy, working radio stations primarily in western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio. He met and married Karen, a woman who, when Norm worked at a radio station in Erie, called him up to ask him who in the hell he was and what happened to the person who usually worked the shift he was working. They hit it off that first night they called and the rest, as they say, is history.

My first wife and I became good friends with Norm and Karen. When my first wife and I split, Karen quipped that she was glad that she got custody of me in the divorce. By the time of the split, Norm was already on his final voyage – early onset Alzheimer’s. Karen and I are still friends – she says that she has been friends with me longer than anyone else she’s known. I take that as a compliment.

I drove solo from Dallas to Pittsburgh to speak at Norm’s memorial. I had to.

The inevitability of death is always present, but at the same time, never really expected. Death of a friend can be soul crushing if we let it. I prefer thinking of death as a passage, from the living world to becoming a good story which can be told with a smile or a fond rememberance. That’s what funerals are for.

When my mother died nearly seven years ago, I made the trip to Ohio not knowing what to expect. I assisted my sibling (very little as it turned out – she did the heavy lifting) with a couple of little details about the memorial service, and for the most part hung out until the viewing and the service. It was at the viewing that I began to hear the stories. Over the few hours the funeral home was open for visitors, I came to realize just how important she was to the people outside of our family. Those stories continued before and after the service the next day. And I’ll be darned if I didn’t get more stories about my mother when I visited the home town a fortnight ago.

Good stories have a long shelf life as do memories of people we know and love.

At some point, we are all going to leave this planet behind, leaving but a memory to live on with others. It’s up to us to decide what we will leave behind – good memories, good stories, or will it be a bad taste in someone else’s mouth.

I prefer good stories.

Be Seeing You!

Getting Together Several Final Times

Getting Together Several Final Times

My recent trip to Ohio had one primary purpose, the 50th anniversary of my matriculation from Chillicothe High School. The reunion featured several events between Thursday and Sunday – my interest focused on the two big events on Friday and Saturday nights.

With 50 years behind us, us being about 18 at the time, we are in Medicare/Social Security territory – having existed longer than we expect to exist. Indeed, many of us have ceased to be between 1972 and 2022. It’s just a fact of life. Getting together on that 50th anniversary will, for many, be the last time some of us will see each other.

The first “Party” was just that. A party, held at the Elk’s Hall in downtown Chillicothe. The good news is that the Elks can accommodate a large crowd. Very good, considering the number of people who actually showed up. The bad news is that the acoustics were terrible, as would be expected in a large room. Add to that, everyone talking with each other at once, and an alumni band, and you have a cacaphony which may get noise complaints from the local airport.

A month or two before the first party, I was asked to speak for a few minutes to the assembled throng. I had spent a few years as a radio announcer and had a way with words. When we got to the point where I was supposed to perform, I decided it better to tell anyone listening to go ahead and keep doing what they were doing. Which they did.

At one point in my life, my ego would have been crushed. But, not this time. I was happier just getting together with friends and going with the flow than I would have been with making a dull and boring speech. After all, it had been fifty years. Some of us had a lot to catch up on.

After the Friday party, there were a couple of events I was going to make on Saturday, the first being on Saturday morning when a few classmates would gather to take a walk on the city’s flood wall. It wasn’t until after the better half and I did our walk did we learn the reason no one else showed up was that the organized walk didn’t happen until half an hour later than we started.

The other event was the “Formal” dinner at the Chillicothe Country Club. Again, a large room, but with better acoustics. I was more than happy just to attend and not have to worry about making speeches or offering entertainment. The company at our table was amicable, and we had a good time chatting about this, that and the other before and after dinner.

Both evenings were enjoyable, despite the din. I got to see a few of my favorite people, got to meet some people I don’t remember ever meeting, and heard bunches of interesting stories from classmates from every walk of life. It wasn’t until after I got home that I discovered that there were a few other people there I didn’t get to at least speak with, despite being in the same room. I’m sorry to have missed them, although maybe some of them were deliberately avoiding me. Nah… wouldn’t happen!

The only regret I had was that some of the classmates living in Florida didn’t make it, due to the recent passing of the hurricane Ian. It was a darn shame, really. Oh, and there was at least one who didn’t make the reunion because she had been going through Cancer treatment.

Other than that, I had a really good time. Hope to be able to do it again in another five years!

Be Seeing You!