 |
| Bill Wills, Norm's chair, and Dave O'Leary (also missing from picture but in attendance: Jo-Ann Smith) |
NOVEMBER 10 GATHERING GROUND REPORT:
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:
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. |
