November 10, 2021 Gathering Ground

Bill Wills, Norm's chair, and Dave O'Leary
(also missing from picture but in attendance: Jo-Ann Smith)

NOVEMBER 10 GATHERING GROUND REPORT: 

(With Jerry Kimble vacationing in Utah, Bill Wills stepped in to scribe at November's GG)

Hi everyone,

Norm LaPointe, Dave O’leary, Jo-Ann Smith and Bill Wills were this months attendees.

Jo-Ann was just back from hiking the Appalachian Trail.  She has completed 700  of the 2100 miles of the trail.  She and her husband Jim, had to stop at this point due to a knee problem Jo-Ann developed. (Overuse!) They are both OK now and are hiking the trail piece by piece two days a week. Last week they did some of the trail in Connecticut heading northward to Massachusetts. The AT rules allow you to take breaks like this as long as you do the whole thing. They plan to return to the trail full time soon and hope to complete the whole thing within a year of starting.   Good Luck  Jo and Jim.

Somehow the conversation morphed over to bee keeping. Jo-Ann gave all of us a lesson on the subject. It turns out Jo-Ann and her husband Jim are bee keepers in Granby. Did you know that the female bees kick the male bees out of the hive at some point, and the just die!  Another group of bees are assigned the task of fluttering their wings next to the Queen, to keep her cool and healthy. That’s their job! (nature is strange)

We also found out that there is help from the state if you want to be a bee keeper. 

The conversation soon switched to mice.  Everyone had a story. We also discussed how to eliminate them. Call Jerry Kimble was the consensus. My cats do a good job of capturing them but I try to get them to drop it, and if they do, I set it free. It’s a 50/50 chance that they drop it. 

We talked about replacement parts (Shoulders, hips and knees) and how easy it is to get new parts these days.

I’ve been talking with Bart Nixon in Florida. He’s having a new knee installed this month and his goal it to play golf this spring.  If all goes well, he’ll get the other one too.

I mentioned that a play golf with a Pratt engineer who has two new knees, two new hips and a shoulder replacement. The bionic man. (I’m looking for a brain replacement.)

While we were there, eight men came into the restaurant wearing Roles Royce shirts and hats. They were part of the ‘RR on wing service group’.  I told them we knew they were coming, we would have worn our Pratt and Whitney hats.

Finally, this was not discussed at the breakfast, since I only found out after. Elaine Menthe celebrated her 85th birthday by riding a 15 mile UPHILL bicycle tour with her husband Bob. The event was a “George Hincapie Gran Fondo “  (?)  Lance Armstrong also participated but I don’t know who won.  I’ll attempt to attach a photo of the event. (Ed.note: see picture below)

Till next month - your temporary scribe - Bill Wills

ALUMNI NEWS:

(Folks, we're trying out a new feature here, and look forward to hearing from you - what's new in your lives?)

Elaine Menthe

Elaine Menthe
at the Gran Fondo in Greenville, putting the rest of us to shame!
For more about the race, CLICK HERE   Go, Elaine!  

 

Larry Quillen

Larry Quillen's latest novel   
More about the The Lost People at Larry's website HERE.  
Congrats to Larry for finding a creative outlet and the determination to see it through.

October 13, 2021 Gathering Ground

 GATHERING GROUND: 

Dave O'Leary, Bill Wills, Norm Lapointe, and Chet Biernat, 
deep in thought about how to solve the world's great mysteries
(also present, but missing from this month's pictures: Jerry Kimble)

When Chet and I entered the restaurant space, Bill was sitting at the table.   Not like Bill to be the first at Breakfast.   Norm followed shortly and then Dave O joined us for a 1/2 cup and Blueberry muffin.    Next to us in our somewhat private room, the Engineers formed for their weekly breakfast.  They soon numbered a similar five (5) at their table.

Since I was on the cusp of taking off for the wild west with my RV situation, Norm and I shared some RVing stories.   Not about destinations and the scenic National Parks that are Nature's Wonders but of all of the things that can go wrong with a mobile house traveling around the states over bumpy roads.   Norms story after story of things not going well quickly justified his dumping of his RV when he only had his Class A a short time.  His list of issues abounded on almost every trip.

Chet brought up deer strikes on the highway. Both he and I have had the misfortune of hitting a deer or a deer hitting us while driving.  I did trump the story of strikes when remembering my early years growing up in Pennsylvania(home of the whitetail deer), when my brother hit a deer and before he was able to make the auto repair appointment to fix that strike, hit another deer.   Lots of deer in the state of Pa.

JoAnn and Jim's trip on the AT was mixed with the other stories about the AT hikes including Bill Bryson's "A Walk in the Woods".  I don't remember Bryson's walk being nearly as wet as Jo and Jim's hike.  They are still at it and it can't be real fun some days with the constant wet.   BEST from the B'fast crew!!! 

I'll relay one story of hiking that Bill Wills had taken.   Back in the Vietnam era, Bill was in the bush during monsoon season, so it never stopped raining for days.  Many inches of rainfuall to the point of it was either walking in water or mud up to your ankles as you were hiking through the jungle.  Most GI's wanted to get back to the states to enjoy a night out or a hot home cooked meal, Bill was dreaming about dry socks on dry feet!!

Norm remembered a train ride from Florida to his home in Massachusetts.   Of course provisioning for the multi day trip was a priority so Norm procured a full case of beer and some chips.   That first day Norm was sitting next to one of the Florida Magistrates of the court(and an alcoholic) so the provisioning didn't last as long as expected.  Good news, the train added a club car about the same time the beer ran out so the rest of the trip was as good as the first.

Some talk of skiing this winter, Covid did change who and when people would hit the slopes.  One of the more significant changes  in downhill skiing was the concept of Skinning.   This is something that Gil had done his last few years on skiis and many of our younger skiers are taking up this technique of skiing.   Here is a link to show the concept   HERE.

See all next month

Your Scribe

Jerry

Dave, Bill, Norm, Chet, now smiling: 
nothing like a hearty breakfast with friends to solve all of those world's great mysteries!