Class of 69--Reuniting with old Friends

Boy, where do I start. Last weekend, I went to my 40th High School class reunion. It was an absolutely blast and had such a good time. I had not been to a class reunion since the 25th, so it had been many years since I had seen a lot of the people. This one turned out to be one of the biggest turn outs and many people who had not been to a class reunion in a long time came. Saw many people whom I had not seen in a lot of years. About 15 of us have recently reconnected through facebook and so glad we have.

Yes, we are a little older but as I have said in a previous posting, it is like we were all together just the other night hanging out at Tick Tocks, Garrette's, The Dug Out, Castle Lanes or trying to sneak into the Geneva Drive Inn. If you are familiar with these names then you know I grew up and went to school in the City (San Francisco), Balboa High. We all talked about how those times were and what were some of the different things we experienced, Winterland, Avalaon Ballroom, the "Y" dances and all the stuff we used to do.

The most interesting part is that many of us have not moved that far away from the city. And if we have, we still enjoy going back for visits.

All of us have varied careers, some are still married to their high school sweetheart, some of us are retired and others are hoping to retire in the next couple of years.

I am sharing a couple of pictures of the gang and hope you enjoy. I sure as hell did and can't wait for the next one to be here.

The next day about 8 of us met and went out to breakfast.

Fun evening and fun time. For those who didn't go, they really missed a good time!!!!

30 Minutes to Decide

About 2 weeks ago, after spending a beautiful day of kayaking we were faced with having to make some decisions when upon arriving at home we had 30 minutes to evacuate our home. Up here in the Sierra foothill town of Auburn, CA, where we live there was a fire within about 2.8 miles from our home. This was a very quick moving fire because of the winds that day. Needless to say, we were moving around pretty fast trying to decide what to pack. Pictures, important documents, clothing for a couple of days and some other items were loaded into our RV as we hooked up one of our vehicles to leave.

We were very fornuate as the winds changed direction and went to a more northernly direction, we found out we could stay. However, we did stay packed up and ready to go if things could change.

This fire destroyed 63 homes, about 5 businesses completely and a couple of other structures were damaged. So us not having to evacuate was a very minor inconvenience. There is no way I can comprehend what these families are going through. I knew someone personally who lost her home completely, but as she says, at least her family was not hurt. That is the one most fortunate thing out all of this, no lives were lost.

Since that day as I look out from our deck, admire the trees and other natural scenery, I realize how quick things can change for you of which you have no control over. I've also decided that I am going to get those old photo's scanned, loaded onto my computer and then put some of those little family memento's in one place so if we need too leave they are all where I can find them. However, I also realize that it is more important that noone gets hurt during times like this. You know, stuff can be replaced.

I am also very proud of the citizen's and businesses in this town. So many people have donated clothing, food, money and other assistance to help out the families who lost their homes.