On the morning after the all night party I didn't go home and go to bed and wake up and wash the car and feed the cat (ed. note - only Mark Stephens did that). I went to CSM and took the college entrance exam. I don't remember too much about that except it being very warm in the cafeteria and really not wanting to be there.

I spent the next two and a half years going to school at CSM in the winters and working summers at my stepfathers logging camp in S.E Alaska. That's where I had lived until I came to Pacifica to live with my father. I remember riding on the bus to CSM with Paul Barhart, Lani Leonard, Jeff Boyden and no doubt others. I also ran into Ed Hart during this time. I was hitching a ride to San Luis Obispo to pick up my MGA which had broken down there. He picked me up in San Bruno and took me all the way. I remember he had a brand new Camaro. It was a good trip after he got the engine points changed in the dealership in some little town along 101. He was still in the Marines, recently back from Viet Nam.

After finishing at CSM, I went to the University of Alaska in Fairbanks. I had always wanted to return to Alaska to live. I spent three and a half years there, working in the woods in SE Alaska in the summers and goofing off at school during the winters. I finally graduated in the winter of 1972, with a BS in biology. More realistically, I was an unskilled worker with six years spent in college.

Then, college degree in hand, I went out into the world, made millions and got the Nobel Prize in biology. Do I detect a note of skepticism? Well, yes. And rightly so. My first post graduate position was as a janitor for the university. Fairbanks in January is a cold dark place, and I wanted to stay in Alaska. You took any job at all then in the winter. That's where I ran into Howie Burton (TN '66). He was traveling and wound up there.

Come springtime, I went back to SE Alaska and worked a last season in the woods. I left there in the fall and went to Pacifica to visit family. I bought a used Ford pickup at Serramonte Ford, built a canopy on it, and traveled around the country. That trip was the first time I realized the size of America. Like a lot of people on the west coast, I figured the east coast was just past the Sierras.

On returning home, I goofed off until the next fall, when I started working for a housing contractor in Anchorage. Not as a carpenter. Not yet. I was a nail pounder and laborer. After a year or so with them I got a job with another contractor. In retrospect, this was one of the best breaks of my life. He was what I would now consider a master carpenter. More importantly, he saw it as his responsibility to teach me the trade. This he did, so that I was able, with not too much extra studying, to take and pass the journeyman's exam at the local union. His name was Jack Bardon, originally from Nova Scotia. He was an uncouth alcoholic, but he did mighty well by me. During this time I had a conversation I've never forgotten. I was shlumphing around in mud or wet sand, looking for a pipe or a wire or something. One of the plumbers, after watching me a minute or so, said "Is it true you've had six years of college?". Me: "Yep". He just shook his head and walked away. I don't imagine he tried too hard to talk his kids into going to college.

I started work that August (1975) on the pipeline in Valdez. I stayed there until December, when I quit. I flew to New Zealand and traveled the country on a motorcycle, something I had always wanted to do. After returning I worked in Valdez again for the next thirteen months, leaving at the end of the job when the pipeline was done. I had lots of money in the bank, as well as ten acres I had bought at the mouth of the Kasilof River, on the Kenai. I wanted somewhere to call my own. Up until then, everything I owned could fit in the back of my truck, with room left for me to sleep.

I lived there the next several years, in the barn the previous owners of the land had built. After I plumbed and wired and insulated it and put in windows it was my house. Somewhere in there was a trip to the Philippines and Borneo.

The summer after the aforementioned trip, I had one of those life's turning points, or epiphanies, or jolts of self realization. It was on a trip into the Brooks Range with my best friend Dave. It involved flying into the fairly remote eastern corner of Alaska and hiking west for about 20 days to Arctic Village and flying out. Here I was with my best friend in the best place in the world, and I could barely get two words in a row out. I had always stuttered; sometimes badly, other times not. This was about the worst ever. I realized that what I was willing to do with my life was being increasingly limited by my stuttering, and I had to do something about it. That something involved, after a couple of years, a one month course of quite intensive speech therapy in San Francisco, probably one of the hardest things I've ever done. So ended the aimless meandering part of my life.

I got married in the spring of 1982, a few months before that speech course. Mary my bride is Canadian. We met in LA. The wedding was in Victoria, BC, on one of the prettiest weekends ever in one of the prettiest cities there is.

We returned to Alaska, where I continued to work construction in the summers, attending nursing school in the winters at the university in Anchorage, finishing in the spring of 1985. I by then had ten years in the carpenters union, so was vested when I got out. Since then I have been working at Providence Hospital in Anchorage, except for just under a year spent in Victoria. Most of that time was spent at a step-down unit. I just recently changed jobs, moving to the endoscopy unit.

Mary kept her last name when we married. It is Zacharias. She is also an RN. We have two children. Jeffrey is seventeen. He will be a senior this fall. He is an excellent student, unlike me in high school. He is also about two inches taller than I am (I am six feet tall). Katherine is fourteen. She will be a freshman. She also is a good student. She isn't two inches taller than I am. She wrestled in junior high. She is strong and aggressive as Hell when she wrestles.

In passing, I'll mention the house, the lawn, the dog, the cats, the ferret and the gerbils. I arrived here by kind of a roundabout way, later than some. In a lot of your stories are mentions of grandchildren. None here yet. I don't think I would change a thing in my life. I might have made better choices sooner, but things really couldn't have turned out better. Oh, I suppose I could have put my pipeline money into Microsoft, but who knew?

I'm a little liberal in my politics, a little conservative in the things I do and have. I still have the suit I graduated from Terra Nova in. I can still wear it. If I choose not to breathe, I even can button the pants. I still have the same truck I bought used in 1972. I commute to and from work on a bike. It is a road bike. I have no desire for a mountain bike. I generally put a little over a thousand miles a year on it; usually more. Sometimes a lot more, depending on when the last and first snow comes.

Having kids helps me understand my parents better. I am bugged by my kids waste, as I see it, of time on the computer and in front of the TV. As my parents were by my time spent with comics and the TV. When my kids sleep until well after noon, I realize how right it was that my father would leave the loud, mufferless lawn mower idling under my open bedroom window on Saturday morning at the ungodly hour of one in the afternoon. When my kids balk at riding their bikes, I remember how I stopped riding after the one time I rode to school on the first day of our freshman year.

I still hunt and fish, although not as much as I used to. My eighty year old stepfather sees it as his life's work to see that we have all the fish we could ever eat. He uses my land and cabin in Kasilof a lot more than I do. I won't hunt this year. No time, and I still have a lot of meat from a moose I got last fall. I won't miss the meat, but I certainly miss the canoeing down the river. There are few things nicer than a fall canoe trip down a river, or watching the sun rise over a lake you have to yourself.

Lastly, I'm going to tell you who my favorite teachers were at Terra Nova. They were all the English teachers; Mr. Olson, Mr. Walsh and Mr. Campbell. There was a pretty young woman in our junior year whose name I am ashamed to say I have forgotten. If any of you remember it, I'd be thankful if you'd let me know. I never made a dime off of anything any of them taught me, but the appreciation of literature I learned from them has given me more pleasure in my life than anything else.

I never said much in high school. I have a little more to say now.

Here you go, Jean. Brevity is not one of my virtues. (NOTE: Happily, for us!)

Speaking of which, I did visit last spring. I came down alone to visit family in Sacramento and Clear Lake and drove down to Pacifica for the day with my brother. We drove by the house we lived in there. A three bedroom rancher on Toledo Court for sale now for half a million dollars. Amazing. We walked through Terra Nova. It hasn't changed much. The trees are a lot bigger and the kids seemed a little smaller. Also not all so white. Even had lunch at Nick's, the first time I'd ever been in the place. Pacifica really is in a very pretty place. Then we got caught in a terrible traffic jam getting out of San Francisco. I keep getting these little reminders of why I'm glad I don't live there. One bonus was that I missed the coldest day of the winter here while I was gone.

During the summer we took a trip to the east coast. Our son was invited to a conference in DC, so we took the opportunity to check out colleges there. Unlike me, he could likely get accepted at some big name schools. Interesting place. I can't say that I enjoyed the flight much. I did make a clean sweep, in that every airport I passed through was under construction. Also, I got my year's ration of humid heat. Of course to us 75 is killing heat. Interesting schools, though.

Last, I'll share the unlikely thing I do that might surprise you. We (my wife and I) have gotten into tango. Of the Argentine variety. Like a lot of things, it's something I wish I had started twenty years ago. There is a small but dedicated tango community in Anchorage, and we get together a couple of times a month. I can confidently report that I have progressed to the point that I can tango with a dedicated tanguera without too much ruining her dance. No bungee jumping yet, nor any intention to. Ever.

I was very interested to read in the last three newsletters what you are all doing. It is at the same time a little strange to me. Having seen none of you for over thirty years, my memories of you are a little out of date. The high school kids you still are in my mind's eye cannot be the same people with stories of children, grandchildren, and imminent retirement. Can you?

(October, 2001) It sure was quiet around here the few days after the eleventh. One doesn't realize how much air traffic there is around here until it's gone.

We live pretty close to the airport, and there are a few lakes in this part of town where people keep their float planes. All grounded. There was the military traffic from Elmendorf, but an F15 sounds a lot different from a 747. Lots of uncertainty in the world these days. That is to say, we are more aware of what I guess was always there. I've pretty well given up on awakening to find it's all a bad dream.

We made the transition into winter pretty quickly. From riding my bike to work every day to having a light snowfall that partially melted and refroze into just enough patches of ice to keep me in a car for the rest of the winter. Not enough to ski yet, but I have hopes. There really isn't much of interest going on in my life at the moment. Which is okay, considering that old Chinese curse, "May you live in  interesting times". I turned fifty-four this month, but then we're all getting older.

Does anyone else remember the Ventures? My daughter, who is in the ninth grade, asked me what my favorite band was when I was her age. I didn't really have one, but launched into a description of them for her; the pegged pants and tight suits, the drummer named Mel, "Walk, Don't Run" etc. You remember, don't you? Those of you who have (or have had) fourteen year old daughters will surely know what I mean when I say "polite disinterest".

Her favorite band is Green Day. They aren't too bad. Could be a LOT worse. One of the great joys of parenthood is bugging your kids about their crummy  and/or loud music. She made the cut to get onto the riflery team at her high school. They use air rifles on an indoor range. I was a little surprised. Unlike me at her age, she hasn't been around guns a lot. I think she shot my old .22 at our cabin in Kasilof but that's about it. Although I really don't care that much about sports, I am pleased. They sure helped break a lot of ice for me in school.

My son, who is a senior, was on the tennis team, of all things. But that's over with now. He is a National Merit Scholar Semifinalist. Where do my kids get this stuff? He is on the search for a college. He was offered a full scholarship at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks (my alma mater) but has his eye on bigger name schools, many of which he could likely be accepted to. We weren't too eager to have him go east before the 11th. You can imagine how we feel about it now.

Well, for someone who had little to say, I've said it at great length.

(March, 2002) It has been a quiet winter for us here. Not too cold for too long, and some cross country skiing, although not as much as I'd like. Probably as much as we had time for though. My daughter is on her high school wrestling team. My, how the world has changed since we were in high school. She and Mary (my wife) are going with the team to Kodiak over the weekend for a tournament. She is only a fair student, capable of a lot more. Like I was, only quite a bit better better. My son's college quest continues. He was accepted to the U. of Washington right off. He called that his back-up school; the one he'll go to if he can't get in to any of the others he applied to. Such self confidence. Both kids very unlike me at that age.

Congratulations to the newlyweds (Ed and Sally (Wellman) Hart. Thoughts of chances missed the first time around only to be grabbed with both hands when they, against the odds, come around again leap to mind.

All for now. I sort of wrote this on the spur of the moment, and I should get to bed.

(July, 2002) Lord it's hot today, as it has been for several days. It's seventy-six inside the house and seventy-two outside in the shade. Terrible! As I said, killing heat. Hah! I can hear your eyes rolling from here.

I can't remember when the last time I wrote was, but I know it has been a while. My son Jeffrey graduated from high school in June. He just got his driving license last month. Now I can appreciate how my parents must have felt when I would disappear for hours on recreational driving trips. He will be going away to college in less than a month, to Yale. Yeah, yeah, okay, I'm proud. They had the best financial aid package of all the schools to which he was accepted. He wants to study physics and/or mathematics. As I never tire of saying, very unlike me at that age. Katherine, my daughter, is fifteen and will be a sophomore this fall. She is having a proper summer; goofing off and lazing around, interspersed with occasional trips. She just got back from a canoe trip with a bunch of other kids out on the Kenai. She wants a motorcycle. So did I. So did you. So does everyone at that age.

Disappointment builds character. I've not done too much of interest. Jeff and I reshingled my folk's roof here in town last month. They got a new roof cheap, Jeff got a couple thousand dollars and I... well, I got very sore. If there is a more unpleasant job than tearing old shingles off a roof and carting them away, I don't know what it could be. Jeff says he doesn't want to be a roofer. Every kid needs a job like that just before he goes away to college. Keep him motivated. I also spent a few days last week at my cabin in Kasilof (on the Kenai) doing some maintenance I've deferred for fifteen years. Also cut down a bunch of dead trees. As well as dipnetted some salmon in the Kenai River. The soreness is gradually going away. It takes longer every year. I don't understand it.  Mary, my wife, is the gardener in the family. I just turn the soil in the garden every spring, do the compost, and the lawn and mow it when I can't make the kids do it. Her father was the BC provincial agriculturist, so I guess it's in her blood. It sure isn't in mine, although I do enjoy our garden a lot.

Mary and I had a preview of what things will be like when the kids are out of the house. Jeff working a lot and Katherine out of town with friends. Kind of nice for a change, although I expect to miss them when they are really gone.

I'll be in California next month. I'm traveling east to take Jeff to college and will stop there on the way home to visit family. Had you had the picnic in Sept rather than July, I could have gone. Too bad. I expect I'll make it out to Pacifica to admire the ocean.

Jeanie (Barnhart) asks about movies seen. (NOTE from Jean: Wow, someone actually answered my question!) The latest Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings come to mind. Who cares about the former? It was okay, I guess. I enjoyed the Lord of the Rings, although I found Aragorn a bit too much like an Arnold Schwartznegger (sp) character. No way everyone could ever have been pleased with any movie rendition of those books. As I said, who cares? Books read? I went through O'Brien's Aubrey Maturine books last winter for the second time. Great stuff. I plowed through Thucidides' The Pelopenesian War (sp) also last winter. A few gems among a great deal of chaff. I had read somewhere that, after 9/11, there were lessons there for the US. There were, but it was not a flowing read. I read a biography of Mohammed, as well as a history of Islam. Both interesting, if a little dry. Anyone out there ever read any Conrad these days? You should. We all had to read Heart of Darkness, and likely hated it. I don't any more. I love his dialogue. I generally have a book going, but not at the moment. Too busy. I'll slow down come fall. I was reading The Last Angry Man, which I picked up from a box of discarded books at work. I'll get back to it, or not, when things slow down. I should mention that I'll read anything.

Jeanie, you mention retirement. Not me. Not for a while. Kids in college and (I hope) heading there. I think not.

I guess this is all I have to write at the moment.

(December, 2002) Under threat from Jeanie of noninclusion in the newsletter, I guess I'd better get this written, or at least started.

I believe the last time I wrote was in the summer. Although it is now winter here, it hasn't really started yet. It has been very warm with a lot of rain and just enough frost to keep the streets a little icy. We finally got our first snow last night; a whopping half inch. No skiing yet. While we have not really had the cold yet, we still have lots of dark. I finally broke down and got some studded tires for my bike. If I don't ride or ski this winter, I'll weigh 300 lbs. by spring. Having borrowed my son's mountain bike for the winter, I'm finding they are quite a lot of fun. Lots more effort to peddle it, though.

I've been to the east coast twice since I last wrote. Once to take my son back to his college, and again sort of on the spur of the moment to visit him for parents' weekend. He's going to Yale, as I cannot have failed to mentioned before. He likes it there. The second time, in early October, it rained nearly the whole time. I had my first experience using an umbrella. I finally got over feeling silly using it by the time I left. I still prefer rain gear. Stopped in California on the way back on the first trip to visit family and friends. I had an interesting experience visiting my old friend Dave from Alaska in Quincy. He has land out of town there.

Walking back into the woods, we saw a black bear. Hadn't seen one of them for a while. An oddly vulnerable feeling, even though he took off when he saw us. As I guess bears there are conditioned to do. Dave has land for sale on the Quincy- Portola Road. Close to Quincy, wooded, forty acres, south facing property, water and electric in. Ready to build. Anyone interested email me and I'll forward it to him.

Also got out to the Pt. Reyes National Seashore and took a hike. A beautiful place which I highly recommend. When Dave and I were going to school at the university in Fairbanks we'd hike out there when we were down for Christmas. Always nice to see some green plants and liquid water in the winter.

Also got out to Pacifica and went down to have lunch at Moss Beach. Always a nice trip. Lots of traffic, of course. Not the great sports car area it was 35 (?!!!) years ago.

My daughter Katherine is fifteen and a sophomore. Her hair is no longer blue, she having progressed to red. Oh well. She could do worse, I guess. She also had a boy friend for a while. Her first. I was not comfortable with that. That's an understatement. I remember how I looked at some of you girls (as you then were) when we were that age. I hope I don't offend. She just came over to ask what I was writing. I told her. She informs me we are all boring old people. You ladies weren't like that at that age. Were you? She is also on the riflry team again this year. Along with her best friend. Who has purple hair. It's the next evening. My daughter now has purple hair. Ain't modernity grand? She tells me I should dye my hair purple too. I dunno. I think not.

My son will be coming home for Christmas. It will be great to see him, as well as interesting. Will he have a beard and long hair? Will he think his parents are idiots? Likely. Did yours'?

Mary (my wife) and I are about the same. I guess we are boring. But that's okay.

(July, 2003) ...recently, I've been taking it easy. My son Jeff returned from his first year away at school (I won't bore you with where). I look up at him, as I have for several years. He finally got a job for the summer, about which we (my wife Mary and I) were quite happy. Better yet, he has to be at work at five AM. This gives me a certain amount of parently, smug, sinful satisfaction. Katherine, my daughter who is sixteen, has been having a real vacation, doing a lot of sleeping in as well as a lot of backpacking with friends. They are trying to get in shape for a trip over the Chilkoot Pass later this summer. Mary, who will be going along as a driver (It's about eight hundred miles from here), has been hiking with her too. Good for them.

I've been doing more mundane stuff, replacing a deck on our house and doing a bunch of deferred maintenance on our cabin in Kasilof. I"m a little on the stiff side. As you all no doubt know, or will, it is terrible to be getting old. Speaking of the deck, while you were relaxing in the balmy breezes in San Pedro park, likely quaffing cooling beverages, playing bocci ball or badminton or volley ball, I was working in the killing heat here (sixty-five degrees!) putting the finishing touches on the deck.

It is now the next day. It rained overnight and has been cloudy today. Which means, I suppose, we've had our two days of summer. Mary and I took a climb up the local popular mountain last night, Flat Top. Think North Peak in Linda Mar only higher. It was a beautiful evening so there were a lot of other climbers on the trail. People we met there, adults, old people, were calling me "sir". What gives? Do any of you notice this disturbing misplaced deference?

This about all I've got to say. Not really an interesting or exiting life here, but that's really okay with me.

(January, 2004) It is a new year; certainly very different from last year here weatherwise. We have lots of snow. A big contrast from last year, when I rode bike all winter. Have been doing some cross country skiing. At least I was, until last week. Do you know what a stem christie is? It is a kind of a turn similar to a snowplow, but a little more advanced. Not much used in downhill skiing after the basic lessons, but very useful in cross country skiing to get one's skies parallel and sideways on the slope to use one's edges to come to a rapid stop. Of course, with skis only attached at the toes, you have to know what you're doing and have practiced some. Not wise to try it on your third time out. Otherwise, if you catch your uphill ski, you might fall in such a way as to put a lot of stress on your downhill knee. The MRI had bad news, and I see the orthopedist next week. I walk just fine on smooth nonslippery surfaces (see above about lots of snow). I'm off work until then and am going a little stir crazy. I wish I had done this in the summer. But then, the skiing's poor here in the summer.

We had a good Christmas break. I had a lot of time off and our son Jeff was home from college on the East Coast. He just flew back a couple days ago. Always glad when we get the phone call from him that he has arrived safely. He likes where he's at and is doing well.

Katherine, our daughter, is a junior in high school and is doing okay. Barely. I remember having had trouble with advanced algebra (and motivation) too. What was that old guy's name who taught that.? (MR. ERNST) He was ancient then. Our age now at least.

We got a new car last fall. It's an Accord with a five speed and a clutch. I sort of miss our twenty-two year old Subaru you could see the ground through the holes in the floorboards. Do you remember riding with your children, clenching your teeth while they mastered (or not) the intricacies of using the throttle, clutch and gearshift all at once so as to produce (or not) smooth effortless acceleration? Yep. Me too. Gives me a lot more appreciation for my father. Don't think he yelled at me once.

I am typing this up on our old computer which we just got out of the shop. I know better now than to use compressed air to blow the dust out of the inside. The static electricity from that plays havoc with the components. But then I'm sure you all already knew better than to do such a foolish thing, unlike me.

I described our computer as old, and so it is. If it was a car it would be nearly new, but five years is nearly Neolithic for a computer. The thing works fine, but we will likely yield to the seduction of more power and speed of another Dell to play solitaire and send email with.

Remember the deck? The one I was finishing up while you all were quaffing cooling beverages while playing bocce ball at the picnic? When I was suffering under the killing heat of 75 degrees? Well, it isn't 75 now. I now spend very little time sitting out there in a lounge chair drinking beer. Hardly any at all, actually. And there is no longer a five foot drop off the edge either. When I push the snow off the deck now it no longer has anywhere to fall. I'm tempted to jump off the railing into the snow and see how far in I go. More to the point, how long it would take me to dig my way out.

Well. All for now.

(April, 2004) I guess it is summer where you all are, but here it's spring. We have a few crocuses by our house and I saw a daffodil at my mother's today. Most of the snow is gone in the open, but there is still a lot in the woods or the shade. There is still a four foot pile on the north side of my deck. Is the snow in the East Bay all gone yet?

Those of you with kids still at home know about spring break, right? Our son Jeff was home for a few days and then flew to Denver and drove with friends to Puerto Penasco. I've never heard of it either. It's a resort area on the Gulf of Mexico, east of the mouth of the Colorado River. Over a thousand miles to drive each way. Mostly interstates, but even so... We were very glad to hear from him when he got back to New Haven unarrested and unsunburned. He had a great time. Our daughter Katherine went sea kayaking with Ventures in the Florida Keys. Ventures is affiliated with Boy Scouting. She also had a great time. She especially enjoyed the rescue when the canoes they were taking over to the island they were going to camp on swamped in the rough water. This left Mary and I at home alone. We had a great time too. She is an RN with the school district here so had the time off, and I took some time off work too. We did a lot of nothing, but we did it together. A few movies, a few nights out, a trip to our cabin (with no TV or computer, the kids don't willingly go there). A lot of relaxing. We even tangoed for the first time in well over a year.

Did I mention my daughter's mohawk haircut? No? It's sort of a blue purple and actually looks not too bad. I can't imagine myself ten years ago saying my daughter's mohawk looks "not too bad".

Well I hope others are sending in lots of interesting stories about their present lives and (are put in a) newsletter. Maybe I'll see you. Good clam tides the same weekend as the picnic though. Fresh razor clams. They're never as good after they're frozen.

(November, 2005)  I believe the last time I wrote I mentioned the coming of winter; geese flying, truck parked for the winter etc. Well it is now here. We have had and are having colder weather, and have had two whopping snowfalls, of a half inch each, at least. It at least looks winter like, if you squint your eyes. I finally broke down and bought a snow blower a few months ago, the smallest two stage I could find. As I told Mary at the time, I never really enjoyed the shoveling of the stuff that much. And now that the kids are out of the house, we no longer have their free labor. Not that it was ever that dependable. I’m sure you parents know of what I speak.

We are going through a process I’m sure many of you have, or will soon. Mary’s parents, who live in a big house with a big yard in Victoria are getting to the point where they are unable to keep it up, and are planning to move into a retirement facility. Mary has brothers who live in the vicinity and can help, but she wants to go down and do something too. We’ll go down over Thanksgiving for a week or so.

I’m coming along too, although I won’t be much help. My arm is still in a sling. I think I mentioned some shoulder problem I was going to have fixed. Well I did, and am off work a month, with a month and a half of rehab after that. I am looking forward to going, not having been there or seen them for several years. Also, it will be nice to see some milder weather and green plants. Also, Mary wants to keep an eye on me. She’s afraid I’ll try to do too much too soon. Don’t know where she gets her ideas.

You all no doubt have gotten and viewed your reunion DVD. I expect you’re as impressed and appreciative as I am. I think we all owe Webmistress Hand a big vote of thanks. Personally, I also am also very thankful that her name is now something I can spell. (Note from Alice - how do you think I felt, having to spell that monster for 24 years?)  Thanks twice, Alice. Actually, three times, counting the great website you keep.

I mentioned kids being out of the house. Jeff has been away to college. He’ll finish this spring. Katherine, who finished high school last spring, moved out a few months ago. She and her boyfriend and a few others are jungled up together. They took a trip south a couple months ago and visited family down the coast. We got reports of pleasant, courteous, well mannered behavior. You have perhaps had this experience. You felt like responding “What?! My kids?!” Always nice to get confirmation that one’s kids aren’t the barbarians one sometimes thinks. We have come to like Katherine’s boyfriend, we having gotten used to each other. He has also managed to charm my mother and stepfather. And us, I should say. Anyone who is pleasant, articulate, works, doesn’t do alcohol, drugs or tobacco and spends time with his own family could be done a lot worse than.

(May, 2006)  As above; the geese again, the trees budding out, the lawns greening up (a little), the goddam moose eating our tulips before they flower (again), the first warm weekend (again). You get the picture. Happy Mothers' Day too. Mary and I are going to Little Italy tonight, a fairly nice eatery here in town. Katherine' our daughter, is in Fairbanks visiting a friend at school there so she won't be here. Jeff is in Myrtle Beach in South Carolina on a last fling with his schoolmates before graduation. My mother didn't feel like coming, so it is just the two of us.

My mother's life, and ours, have changed some recently. My eighty-four year old stepfather of almost fifty years died suddenly. Very suddenly. He went from packing planting tubs up to the deck and planning his summer gardening and fishing on a Tuesday morning to being dead on Thursday morning. He, luckily, was unconscious from the cath lab to the end. As my stepbrother Bob (the one in the picture with all the fish) said, "full bore right to the end and then gone". Best for him but a little hard on the rest of us who had no time to get used to his dying. He sure had no inkling. If having thirty two foot tomato plants in tubs in your daylight basement doesn't indicate an expectation of being around a while, I don't know what does. We could only wish he had gone in the fall after another fishing season, which he dearly loved. Of course, people rarely are allowed to chose the time of their passing. The attached picture is of him with the fifty-six lb king salmon he caught to win the 1951 Juneau salmon derby. He won a 1951 Oldsmobile 88, a hot car in those days.

Mary, Katherine and I are flying back east to attend Jeff's graduation this week. It should be interesting. We will also take the train from NYC to Toronto to visit some of Mary's relatives. Jeff does not know what he wants to do, so will come with us there and on home to Anchorage. I expect it will be our absolute last trip as together as a family. He plans graduate school at Yale, but likely not until next year.

Mary and I are planning a trip south this summer. I expect we will be in the Bay Area the third week end of June. We'll see.

All for now. I am supposed to be studying ACLS. We need to recertify every two years and this is my time. This will be my twentieth year, so it is no longer really difficult. I've never been called upon to be the only one to resuscitate anyone, so I suppose one could say I've wasted my time, but it is good to know why things are done.

Anyway, happy spring and happy Moms' Day. Paul

(Above) This is Paul (red shirt) and his step-brother Bob looking over their fine catch of salmon from July, 2004 at the Kenai River

(Below) This is where Paul used to live before he was married.  Now it's his getaway - located at the mouth of the Kasilof River.  It has all the comforts of home:  a telephone, shower, toilet and kitchen.