Thank you Lori, I feel better now.

Sorry Patti!!!!!

OK Roland now I am sticking out my tongue at you too! Even though the date and time on our two last mesages say 2-6-03 it's not true. Its a little after 8 PM on the 5th. funny how little oddities like that happen

Karen, don't blame em.... at least not in the winter. I've gotten to used to this temperate stuff myself. Lori, you're lucky. Your climate stays pretty much tempered year round. I have friends living in Imperial Be and I love to visit there anytime of the year. Awful quiet up there Patti, are you frozen in?? ha ha.

I'm not sure that you can see from where you are sitting Lori so let me tell you, I'm sticking out my tongue at you! Jeezum we're freezing up here! They've had to cancel school two days now because of the terrible white outs. Accidents all over the place. Not safe to drive hardly anywhere. It's very frustrating. Colin was saying that last week when it was 32 degrees he thought it so warm he had his car window down! When 32 feels warm we know it's been too cold for too long.

Hi, In Grand Rapids it is about 25 right now and we are getting some big puffy snow falling. Seems like it changes every minute here because we get lake effect snow off Lake Michigan. One thing that doesn't change is sunless days..........they told me when I was moving here that there is a high rate of depression and suicide due to so few sunny days, I tend to believe it. Lori, enjoy your family time. I got some family to come to KY when I was living there but I am not sure anyone will come to MI........at least not in the winter.

I feel cold just reading about how cold you all are! We're having perfect weather. My sister's still here and we've been doing a lot of nature things--hiking, walking by the beach, etc. My brother's coming on Thursday from Vermont, so at least he'll have a change from all that cold weather.

Pat, I remember snows and temps like that growing up. We had a place over on Lake Winne in NH and would go over in the winter for the dog races and the snow banks were WAY over the cars and yes, you pull out and hope no one was coming. I also remember two weeks out of the year when the temp never went above a minus number!! Guess it goes in cycles. Least its a bit more temperate here. Well, gearing up for the Daytona race. 4 of us buds usually do the circuit. If you like racing this is the area to be in as you can drive to most all the biggies and original tracks. Getting older has its privies though. We now fly down and take a box rather than camp on the field. 4 days of that party on the field is too much anymore!!

So much for the heat wave. It was short lived. Blizzard conditionsyesterday and 2 feet of new snow! A couple more inches today and now the freezing rain is scheduled to begin. The embankments are so high that by the time you pull out into the road far enough to see an on-coming car it's too late to do much about it. These are treacherous times here in P.I.

Nancy, what a small world! It is espically sad for me as I had just visited Huntsville and some friends associated with the program there on my way home, only a few hours earlier. They ARE the true heroes as they are the ones giving their lives or willing to for science!!

Hi gang, I just want to remember those that passed on yesterday in the Columbia tragedy............I know they were doing what they loved to do, and that is what keeps me positive in all this. Hopefully, NASA,FEMA and DHS can find what went wrong and get all the evidence to piece it all together to find a fix and continue............we have made such strides in space...........My grandmother told me years ago, she would never have believed in her life time she would ever see a man walk on the moon............she was born in 1900 and passed away in 1986, but she had such wonder at all the inventions that were made during that time. I guess we forget from time to time.............but things happen to make us reflect and remember..........Bless all the families of those that died and may they be at peace.............

This week FL was cold. I stayed at a favourite place in Savannah first but by the time I got accross the panhandle and into Bilouxi it was balmy and in the 70's. I like that town. Then I had to head for the cold again in Memphsis but for most of you thats sounds warsm I guess (+32degrees F). Yup, John an almost Dell. We'll see. I'm not puter savy and stsarted on a Mac that I won at work while I was still in VT but quickly changed to other PCs for the cost and when windows was perfected I was happy. I can read all those formulas but I just like to click n go. Richard, sound like NOT fun that room. Sound like old says in the frat house maybe, interesting. Going land hunting this w'e with my neighbours. We want to get a 100 or so acre tract somewhere outside metro and do something with it later in the future. Use it for hunting now I guess. Ciao for now....

I guess it is good to have a break in the weather once in a while.............I was thinking about hot weather in summer yesterday............hard to imagine we will get to that again. Have a good weekend.........

You guys travelling to the kind of weather that Lori has every day sounds so nice. I think that cabin fever has come to Burlington about 1 month early because of all the cold weather. Remember to have fun. I hope you hit deep relaxation on the very first day.

We are planning on going to FL, drive down the east coast and see people along the way, may be able to get out to LA, TX, and MO as well..........have to see how the time goes. I like to drive, so that is a good thing and really like having the flexibility of changing plans and doing something else. Have been wall papering the bathroom and it is finally done........looks pretty good, if I must say. Hope everyone is thawing out now with the "warmer" weather. I had friends in FL complaining about the cold as well. Bet they thought they never would see that happen.

We're having a heat wave........A tropical heat wave.......... High of 20 today, first time out of single digits since December. Yummy!! Dave is going to Miami in early March and I am going to go with him. I'll beach it while he is in air conditioned meeting rooms. We're flying down together but couldn't get matching flights back so we're part way together, separating in Phili and meeting back up in Boston for the flight back to P.I. I'm really looking forward to being too darn hot! My dad lives in Plant City, FL. He told me this evening it's 70's there. Very pleasant.

Sounds like my days--dry cleaner, grocery store, etc.etc. But tonight my sister Amy is arriving from Israel, so I'm excited about that! She'll be here for 2 weeks.

George W was in town today but didn't get to see him. He breezed in and out, two stops and the tickets went fast. I guess there were some protesters and small traffic tie-ups. My day was much more mundane.........dry cleaners, doctor's, grocery store, post office, etc. Temps in the mid twenties today, clear and sunny.

Should I rub it in your noses again how warm I am in sunny California?!! Nice to see you surfaced again, Karen. I was about to ask where you had disappeared to.

Hi Everyone! Not much to report from Michigan..........cold, cold and cold. Haven't had nearly the snow or cold of Vermont though. Still, I am ready for spring. Rich is headed for FL for a long weekend to see his parents. I have to stay with my teen boys because being new to the area, we don't have other people to check on things. Patty, hope things are going better for you. Bring on February.....one month closer to warm weather!

I just spent the weekend on Galveston Island locked in a room with sales people. Alcohol unlocks some stuff that just never should have gotten into the cage to begin with, if you know what I mean. Sure is good to get back into the controlled playful atmosphere of engineers who play pin the mechanical pencil on the pocket protector when things get really wild. Tame? Yes, but I'll take it.

Dude your getting a almost like Dell>>>>>

Couldn't resist that one. Nothing new on my side of the river. Roland good to hear from you. It took me awhile to figure out who you were.
But like you said with internet access, it's a small world. Lori you must be the only one right now that is warm. Well just thought I would
touch base and say hi to all.

finally getting a new laptop next month and will be able to Blog or email from wherever. Its a generic but with DELL guts. Going to be doing some newsletter stuff for my company so I get to fool around with MS Publisher. I 'm also having excel loaded in to save me time verses using ACT and I can do more with it. It was 8 degreed her this am!! All of no GA was iced in yesterday and its funny to see them try and drive. Its a horrible mess. Luckily it dosent say that way long though. Hope you got my message Pay asa they changed my email formats and its doing funny stuff. Yes, Nancy with all this www stuff the worls is smaller and things move faster but hopefully it'll also lead to a better informed and thus educated public. I used to read the WS Journal to keep up before all this.

fI guess I'm the only one who's warm! Still sunny in L.A.

Hi all, Glad you have been getting messages, Pat. I guess everyone is trying to stay warm.............looks like it is hitting everyone!! I am finding out how small a world it really is. I just had a phone call from a friend that I was stationed with in England. He is in OK now and has family not far from me. So I guess we are going to have a mini reunion. It was great talking to him. Brought back alot of memories.........take care everyone and keep warm!!

mst be too cold for ya'll to Blog....ha ha. Well, fri am its suppose dot be 10 degrees here, ugh! Heading out to FL that am then accross the panhandle to Mobile and up to colder Memphsis then back home. Not much else happening. Hope to see more posts when I arrive home. Also hope to replace my laptop next mo and then I can Blog and email while on the road. ciao for now.

Hi folks hearing from lots of you - thanks to Nancy! I'm even getting notes from people who do not blog!!! Please keep up the good work. And thanks

Well, I'm back from flying around the frigid mid west. Mike, Paige lives in Dacula? Thats not very far from me. I used to live in Lawrenceville (which had the distinction of having Larry Flint shot on the court house steps) but now live in Loganville and keep an office studio in Lilburn. Funny Richard, you can tell the out of towners as they all pronounce Da Ku La as Dak U La. Georgia sure does have some odd names. Just came down from our plant up in Penn Dutch country. Great food and cheap prices! Brought back a little GMC Sonoma. It did alright but I can't really call it a truck its so small compared to my full size Ford.

I sent you three e-mails this morning that my "system administrator" electronic friend reported to me were undeliverable. I'll try to e-mail you now from home. I had a wonderful Indian dinner last night with 5 other couples (one of the best we've ever done together).

thanks for the notes I've been receiving. Once I get a note from you I can add your address to my address book with the touch of a button and then easily add that to the mailing list I'm re-creating. So please keep those cards and letters coming in!

I hear all the Vermontel addresses are returning as undeliverable. anybody know what that's all about?

I have the list Pat, I'll send a message to everyone on it and relay the info. I'm sorry the happened to you I had something like that happen to me once but I could still get into my address book. I hope this works for you.

Well inspite of Norton anti-virus and zone alarm's firewall, we managed apparently to get some computer virus which wiped out all of our outlook express program. It was completely gone. I had to go on-line and download ie6 to get it back and our identities were there but not our address book. We even had our friendly local computer technician come over and he could not recover it. Said he 'd never seen it happen before. He'd always been able to recover the information. so now I have to add back all the e-mail addresses which number over a hundred with the class list and other groups we e-mail not even counting individual addresses. I'm simply not up to the task quite frankly. So here's where you can all help me out. Get everyone you know who was on the list or wants to be on the list and have them send me a message . That way although I still have to re-create the individual addresses in a group I'll have them in my address book and can just chose them to add to the group instead of typing them all in.That means a note to everyone on the list needs to go from someone to the list. Surely someone besides me created a mailing list from the message I sent out last time. Ask everyone to drop me a line please. thanks for the help.

You know Mike, I'm sure that Paige hears it all the time- Dacula is awfully close to Dracula. Probably doesn't mean much- but I'd still go with turtlenecks, especially at clubs. You never know what is going to come out at night!

Thanks Mike that's good to know.

Evenin' everyone. Busy blogging I see. Nice to see you herer Mike. Has anyone heard how Ron is doing healthwise? I never really heard after the reunion. Dave is off to DC tomorrow so I'm alone here in the frozen tundra. Wish we'd get a little more snow so the x-country conditions would improve. I'm not sure enough of my skills to go when it's icy the way it has been. They have more on the cost thatn we do up here. The world is turning upside down. Climatically speaking.

Roland, It is great that you have connected. As you can see, I continue to be one that God never expected would be easy on the world around me and still hear comments like "Only a mother could love it" a little too often for my taste- but hey, if you can't laugh at yourself . . .

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!

Hi y'all

Got a note from Roland today, he's off the site for about a week so may not know that his posts made it. Life many of us he got an error messge so he said he'd check back later.

thanks for all the support. I appreciate it. Going out x-country skiing in a little bit so I need to go find my long johns!!

Pat, I am so sorry about your son. I can only guess what you are feeling, I have had friends, boy friends, and family members go through this, but it's been a long time, and when it's your child, you can't imagine what it's like, unless you have been there. You and your family are in my prayers. You have had a lot dumped on you in a short period of time, I admire your strength.

Welcome Roland, glad you found us, nice to see you.

Heu Patti, I too was sorry to hear about your son. I lost a brother to drugs and alcohol. It does terrible things. In moderation its ok but each individual needs to find their own path and it is usually most difficult for those around them as they are literally rendered helpless. Luckily I've seen too much and have a respect for those things. He must actually be quite bright. Most people that use drugs or alcohol use them to slow their brains down as they usually won't shut down. The best medicine is to keep busy physically and mentally. Most true atrists or inventors had problems but back then life was slower and fewer obstacles to endanger them physically. My prayers are with you and your family. Please remember, you can lead the horses to water but they will not drink until they are ready.

Lori, thanks for the welcome. Its nice to be back if only in cyberapace. Yes those viruses are certainly annoying but there are more and more antivirus software arriving on the scene. I try to review as much as I can and install only the best. I'm not a great cyber techno but use it mainly for communications and use the excell programs for company plots etc. Happy New Year to you and yours. Roland

Hi Nancy, great to see you still communicating.

Hi Roland, Happy New Year all...............sorry to hear about your son, Pat, hope he is doing better. I admire all of you raising children in this day in age...........there is so much out there and you only want the best for them and for them to be safe and happy. I guess that is the same our parents went through with us.....I know mine did with us.........my sister was the oldest and the trail blazer for our family. Hope you can get the help with Alanon, there are so many more organizations that are available now, not sure what is up your way. Hang in there!!

Welcome to the blog, Roland!

Patti, I admire your courage. I do think a lot of kids go through a drinking phase, and then, hopefully, most of them grow up and find other interests. My son, Omer, had to do 10 weeks of a drug/alcohol course after he got picked up for driving under the influence of marijuana. I'm glad he had to do that course. I think he learned a lot there, and it seems like it helped. We also went for some family therapy at that time, which also helped a lot. Not everyone likes that kind of thing, but if you do, it's worth it.

Hey everyone. Patti sent me this invite. I found the site via Classmates.Com. Its great to get back in touch. I travel alot and live in the Metro Atlanta area. I love the climate and the thing about southern hospitality really is true. After my parents divorce I decided to take my moms name and also get rid of my first name (which I always detested) and use my middle name of Roland, thus I've been Roland McCarthy for some time. (formerly Bill Guertin) Dad lives in AZ and mom moved back to CT and travels back and forth to see my cousins in Ireland. I currently work as a public relations liaison for a growing company combining my lifes experiences into one useful and productive act. This is a new opportunity I took on in the later part of 02 and love it. We're having our company convention next week in Vegas. I'm not much of a gambler but like the food and shows. I have a cousin that lives there also. My laptops down so I only get on when home on the big ol Compac. All for now. Good to see everyones doing well and such a varied bunch we still are!! Happy New Year!! Roland "Bill"

I am a great believer in a mother's love. I have one boy that would be the last to admit it and two boys that would be lost without it.

I don't really like the saxaphone Richard but I like piano. :) Colin isn't living at home with us these days and so taking on a family challenge while sounds like wonderful idea isn't very do-able. I have discovered that my husband doesn't want to talk about it and thinks this sort of thing while certainly over the top is common place and boys will be boys. He drank a lot when he was this age and like most others Colin will grow out of it. So Alanon may be an outlet for my frustrations and concerns just now. As both his parents are alcoholics I think the fear that this is where our son is simply overwhelms him.

We'll get through this with time and patience and love. Thanks for caring, friends.

Patti, I would have been very scared throughout this and I'm sure it scared your son, but I also get why you say, "fat chance". The challenge with ending an alcohol problem was once described to me as having to find a new area of competence; that in effect drinking is an area of competence where a person gets very good at it. Escaping it as an area of personal excellence requires developing a new area of competence. There are people that become spiritual or connected with social groups that support each other, and I think this works for some- it's what they have chosen to get good at. However, I think underlying success in overcoming personal destruction comes from finding a new or renewed area of personal growth where energy can really be devoted. Maybe that is something your whole family could embrace with Colin, setting expectations for each other to take the time to learn and get better at something you love. Have you ever considered learning the saxophone or rock climbing together (I'm serious- something that would be fun, but also requires the long-term commitment to developing competence). I'm also sure your love is the right place to start and that he's very lucky to have you. He probably knows that too, now.

Patti, sorry to hear about your son. Thank God he's okay now, but it must have been really scary to go through that. Maybe it will be enough to scare him from drinking or at least to cut down on the amount of alcohol. Good luck with your other son if he does need surgery. Avi and I stayed home on New Year's, but our kids all went out, and we're always kind of glad when it's over and everyone's home safe. My 2 oldest ones both had gigs--my son's band played in Santa Monica, and my daughter's band played in West Hollywood. The youngest went with friends to celebrate in Las Vegas. We had a quiet drink at home!

Happy New Year everyone! It's bee a tough few days and we're not out of the woods yet. Colin, our youngest (20 in a couple months), that number means nothing to me in the scheme of momness; drank himself into a coma a couple of nights ago. I spent 10 hours watching and waiting, talking with his friends telling them to smarten up and take better care of each other and themselves. When he woke up enough to be taken off life support he was still so incredibly drunk. He has started out with 6x the legal limit of alcohol in his 131 pound body. 486 was the number they gave me at 5:30 in the morning in the ER. Even in my heavy drinking days I never put away that much. I don't think I know anyone who has. I was told 4 different ways he should be dead. He did aspirate some of his vomit at the hospital and has pnumonia because of it. He was still hung over yesterday morning here at the house. They say he'll be fine but he should never drink again. Fat chance. Then last night Kevin our other son called to say he'd been to the ER in Belfast and has a hernia which may require surgery. The fact that he is 4 1/2 hours away will make it tough to sit by his bedside if he does have the surgery. I'll need to take time off from school. So anyway, what are my New Years' Resolutions? Don't be so critical of others, stay away from gossip, Love the hell out of my boys while I still have them around to love.