Hi Roland, It sounds like you are doing well for yourself. I was just thinking of Dr. Noble. Sorry she had a bad time and hope it is all gone. She was an interesting person, I never had her for class, but she was our home room teacher for a while. Not that you see them that often anymore. Yes, I heard from my girlfriend that they don't have that much snow at all and she is an avid skiier. I am more into the cross country and snowshoe type of thing. I am going home to do some trails around our house and mountain with my sister and a friend of hers from Burlington, maybe we will get mom on her skis. I was in the FL panhandle for 9 1/2 years when I was in the service and really missed the 4 seasons. It had been a long time since I had really been in NE for any great length of time. I live in Enfield, CT now and work in Hartford, which isn't a bad place, but the state is in debt BIG TIME..........they have laid off 2800 state employees so far and the governor says if he can't get any agreement with the union on concessions, he will start laying off more. I feel for those people, and I have a few friends that work EO for the state. I hope things start looking up for everyone..........I am still trying to get over the fact that it is 2003 already..........where does time go?

Richard, been meaning to tell you I enjoy reading your notes. You always had a great sense of humor and tried to get the rest of us to actually think. Was also great to see Bob in ther and hear his news. Mike G, does Paige live in the ATL area? I live about 20 mi east of ATL in Gwinnett / Walton county. Patti good to see you smirk. I have been in touch with Doc Noble, does anyone remember her. We have remained friend for years. She lives in Shelburne and just went to work for Goodrich or Goodyear in Vergennes. She has so many degrees I can't keep up. Her son (which was 2 when we were in school) has got his own successful computer consulting business and had a booth down here at the Olympics. Shes's been through alto healthwise. She had some kind of a big tumor growing in her for over 20years causing her to loose balance and all that good stuff. Ugh. One of her daughters lives in Germany, one in Japan and one still in VT I believe. Heard from Brian Davis and he appears to have done well, talk about skymiles, wow. He is now in Vt after receiving his doctorate and works in corporate psychology I think.

Hey all, I'm back from Vegas & Denver. No snow there, odd. Guess you are getting it all. We had a great time and very little of the time was business. They gave out hefty bonuses plus a cnot or two to "play" with. We stayed at the Luxor which is built like a pyramid and the halls are mazes. I don't gamble but got to see Blue Man and the Follies are still playing. Better than the monetary recogonition was the Pres taking time to tell myself personally that I'm in the top 10% of the top 20 employees. Quite humbling. Got to fly up the Harrisburg next week to pick up a new truck from our east coast plant. I hope to hit the Hershey plant for some of that chocolate stuff. Presently its about 67 degrees here but supposed to turn colder this w/e. Great to hear what you guys are up to. I'll try and post later again. Oh, they were filming Fear Factor right outside my hotel window. They wer climbing the pyramids glass walls.

smirk

So many dicks, so few Richards.

Good morning all! Richard the x-country skiing is "pretty good" . The southern part of the state is getting snow storms of 18 - 20 inches at a time while we are lucky to get 1 - 2. Once the snow is in the woods though it doesn't seem to "ski off" as easily as the open areas. It's a little too icy for my taste though. Dave goes out almost every day either downhill or x-c. We're surrounded by nightskiing possibilities. Couple more inches scheduled for dropping today so we're hopeful.

Dave was laughing about sending a card to his old friend Dicky from high school who just turned 50. Poor fellow can't seem to escape Dicky even though he continues to refer to himself as Richard!

I am just too amazed by simple things and always like a prairie dog, ready to report. It turns out that the strange Richard Whitcomb connection was my sister who had sent him a check and had him send me his book, with no word from her or him that helped me to understand why that had happened. The big new-news for me is that I found another man named Richard Loveless and we have started exchanging e-mails. So far, we both have revealed that this is our first John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt moment (his name is my name, too- everybody sing!) and we will get a chance to meet in a month when I am in Phoenix where he lives. He is really cool (wish I was as cool as he is). He works with avante garde artists that are using electronic media as their art form.

My nephew from Israel has been staying with us for a month, but today he left for Chile. He's planning to tour around South America for maybe 6 months and then come
back here for a while before returning to Israel. We got used to having him around, and I already miss him--even though it's a long time to have a guest. He got along well with my kids and their friends. He was an easy guest. Just went along with whatever we did. Now I'm waiting for my sister, Amy. She's coming Jan. 29 for a 2 week visit. My brother will come from Vermont for a long weekend while she's here. I'm looking forward to that.

Hey- Happy Birthday!!! What is the snow cover like in Presque Isle? X-country skiing is OK here, but downhill and snowboarding are like bouncing off the tops of icy VWs. The last big dump (Saturday- 2 feet) was good during the storm but not still wonderful. The VWs are back. Getting out in the mountain air is wonderful though.

Hope you had a happy one, Pat. I am not far behind you.....amazing to realize that I am going to be 49 soon.......and in another year, 50. I can't feel that old yet........guess you are as young as you feel. Hope we all are feeling young.

Happy Birthday, Patti! Best wishes always. Have fun!

On the occasion of my 49th birthday (and Eleanor Richardson's too) I say hello to everyone and wish you all a Happy New Year!