Hi Debby,
After all the time and hard work you have put into this FM Blog, the least I can do is respond to your plea for a little news from the home front....
It's been a tough year from many of us with the down turn in the economy and all the repercussions associated with that. I have to say I won't be sad to see the last 12 months fade into the history books. We're fast approaching the date of the loss of our home in the San Diego wildfires on Oct 21, 2007. I would have been hard to have imagined just how disruptive losing everything would be to our lives. However, in the end, it doesn't pay to dwell on it and frankly, now, except for the personal art work, photographic library and a few other odds and ends, it is almost "freeing" in a way to have so little baggage all of a sudden. In addition, whenever I do get a little down I think of Dick Shanahan and what he and his family are facing. Give me a wildfire any day! Sue, my wife and co-worker has just headed off to Antarctica for the next two months. At the moment, she's paying the price of having an exciting job in one of the world's great natural laboratories, as she's bed ridden on a ship in Drake's Passage. Another two days of hell and she'll be dropped ashore on King George Island where she'll set up our penguin research study that will continue until March. I hope to attach a few photos of the "office" to the end of this email and with luck, others of you can see where I've spent 2-6 months a year for the last 33 years. While Sue's away, I'm single-parenting our two daughters, Sara 16 and Amy 11. Luckily they are basically great kids and need little parental nagging, but still it is a crazy two months for me trying to coordinate all of their activities and still get my own work done.
Life would be far easier if it weren't for the fact that we are also about to begin construction of our new home. The plans are finally finished and we are awaiting permits, with luck we will be breaking ground in November. It's been a while since we all gathered for our 40th and I'm looking forward to the 45th. Since then, I have visited with several old friends from our class. We all spent a long weekend as guests of Jim Myers and his wife Marsha in Phoenix, AZ We got in some good hiking a great food and drink while staying in their beautiful home. Gary and Pamela Revercomb finally made it to CA last fall and we had a nice visit. In fact they were the last guests to stay in our old guest house before the fires swept through two weeks later. I also got together with Tom Weller and Sandy Jackson (Epoch) for drinks this past summer at a bar in San Diego owned by her brother, Ted (class of 65, I think). There aren't many of us all the way out west, but we're trying to keep in touch.Well enough for now. Thanks again Debby for all your work on this great blog and for giving us all a place to keep in touch. I'm looking forward to getting our home rebuilt and THEN will extend an open invite to any and all of you to please come on out west for a visit.
Cheers,
Wayne
