Update 1-13-04


Hi,

A friend of mine said it was -8 degrees last night in central Pennsylvania. My mind doesn't even understand less than 55 anymore.

On a warmer note, from Jerry Bittman: Things here are normal. The temperature in Nebraska has been in the low 90s, with very little humidity. The other day, I went scuba diving in the Platte River. Tomorrow, I might try para-sailing. The sun here is really strong, so you must use # 30 sun block. And if you believe any of this, I'll tell you that our next President will be from Nebraska.

More truthfully, Jerry added: Right now, at 5:45 AM, the temperature is a freakin' minus 11. It's so cold that the snowman I built asked if he could come inside or could I, at least, give him some hot coffee? Can you do me a favor, Rich? Send me some California beach sand and a picture of the sun?

[Rich -- If I could include it here, Jerry, it would be on the way.]

Another perspective, from Marc Fishman: I recently reviewed a medical record that included a detailed social security disability benefit analysis. At the conclusion, it said, "Prior to September 1, 2003, the claimant was a person approaching advanced age, but as of September 1, 2003, he may be deemed an individual of advanced age." The claimant was born in 1949.

Speaking of Disaster Preparedness, Zelda White Nichols' complete article on that subject: Last year, when war with Iraq was imminent, and there was great concern about bio-terrorism, San Diego County's public libraries (including the one in my hometown, Alpine) offered a free book on how to prepare for any natural and man-made disasters. Are You Ready?, written and published by FEMA, was a godsend when the fires occurred in October, and, since then, I have heard many people say they were taken by surprise when told to evacuate and had no idea what to take or what to do. If I hadn’t picked up this book, I would have been in the same bewildering position as so many others, so that's why I'm writing. The book can be found at: http://www.fema.gov/areyouready/ or you can download it at: http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/weekly/aa122702a.htm.
     My husband and I moved to Alpine five years ago from Massachusetts. At that time, we were told that we should have emergency evacuations kits on hand in case of an earthquake. Since the East Coast doesn’t have major brush fires or earthquakes, we didn’t take this advice seriously, but once the war with Iraq started, and there was so much discussion in the news about bio-terrorism, we decided to rethink our survival strategies. We gathered almost everything the book recommended and had four good-sized bins loaded with emergency foods, camping gear, and pet supplies always in a handy area for grab-and-run. My husband was in Washington, D.C. when the fire hit on October 26th, but I didn’t have to think about what to take because it was already packed. Fortunately, I also knew about the fire early in the day so had time to load up my car with additional items that were important to us as well.
     For evacuation purposes, Are You Ready? gives some advice that saved me untold stress. It said to figure out where you would evacuate to ahead of time and to consider destinations in several directions. Also, to have a plan, should the need arise, of how to contact each other should you be separated during the evacuation. You also need to plan what you will take if you have time to pack extras. Consider what's most important to you of a personal nature, and what are your priorities? For many people, the choice is photo albums, though for me, it was certain silver family heirlooms, as I will always have photos in my memory.
     You should also have at least several bottles of water per person, as well as non-perishable foods and snack bars, a manual can and bottle opener, decontamination water tablets, and a first aid kit. This book tells you specifically what you'll need in that. Most importantly, you should keep a certain amount of cash in your wallet or handbag that you can forget about in normal times and only use in an emergency situation. When Alpine was without power for six days, and ATMs were not accessible, I fell back on this emergency cash. It also helps to always keep your gas tank at least half full. When it came time to evacuate, I wanted to take my husband's SUV, as it could hold more, but he had less than a quarter tank of gas, so I ended up taking my car. Heading into less populated areas, you certainly don’t want to be without gas. Further, stockpile candles and batteries in various sizes and keep a battery-operated radio on hand, as well as battery operated lamps.
     If you have pets, have an emergency bin for them that includes water and food bowls, a can opener, food, their leashes (that was the one thing I forgot), a small cat pan, and a bag of litter. A brush to scoop up litter off the hotel room floor and toys or blanket that your pets are familiar with are handy extras. Hotels that don’t normally allow pets will make an exception at critical times such as the fire, so out of respect for their good will, and in the hope that they will continue to do this in the future, the brush for clean-ups is a good way of saying "thank you." Having something from home also makes pets feel a little more secure, and it's also a good idea to have bottled water from your home tap for them. Water from a strange area, even though safe to drink, can still cause stomach distress in your pets.

Zelda further adds: To decide ahead of time where to evacuate to, my husband and I got on Google. Once we chose three towns that we might head for, I looked up websites for each town that listed hotels. I made two copies of our destinations, one for Dave's truck and one for my car. When I was evacuating and stopped at a resort 30 miles east of our home, I was told their motels were already full, and so was every other hotel until the town of El Centro. Since that happened to be one of the towns we had chosen as a destination, I whipped out my list and called a hotel from my car. I was able to get a room when I was still 90 minutes away, which was a great idea, because, by the time I got to the hotel, there were no vacancies, and people were being told to go even further east, to Yuma, Arizona. With three cats and a dog in the car, I would have freaked if I had been one of those people. The additional driving would have been just too much stress.
On more ordinary business, Stu Borman notes: I'd like to get Emily Kleinman Schreiber's e-mail address, which doesn't seem to be accessible on the reunion web site. Is there some other way I'm supposed to retrieve such information, other than bothering you for it?

[Rich -- Good point. There are several people outside our class who regularly contribute to the updates. I hadn't thought to add their e-mail addresses to our home page, but I'll ask their permission. I also need to update the home page with address changes made in the past few months. Meanwhile, if you need someone's e-mail address and can't find it listed, or if it doesn't work, please write and see if I have more recent information. It's no bother.]

Other business, Booker Gibson inquires about the Vince Tampio Award. What's happening with it?

[Rich -- We now have 400 dollars pledged annually for the next 10 years and are hoping to make that 500. If you want to pledge 10 or 20 bucks each year or just make a one-time donation, please let me know. Also, Steve Cohen, from the Class of '64, asked if some kind of plaque couldn't be placed on the wall near South Hall. Since I know there are a lot of plaques and trophies from athletic events in the gym lobby, the school might allow one more plaque, for Vince, but I'll have to ask. Too many plaques, and the place might start looking like the Hollywood Forever memorial.]

Barbara Blitfield Pech forwarded an e-mail warning that, "At New York's Kennedy airport, an individual later discovered to be a public school teacher was arrested trying to board a flight while in possession of a ruler, a protractor, a triangle, and a calculator. At a morning press conference, Attorney General John Ashcroft said he believes the man is a member of the notorious Al-Gebra movement."

[Rich -- I'd go on, but I promised Robert Fiveson, "No more Math jokes."]

Also, concerning the song from Avenue Q, Mr. Fiveson wrote: Is that what the computer geeks are referring to when they use the phrase "multi task?" I always wondered. Thank you for changing my life.

Finally, totally unrelated to our class, a flash from AOL Irrelevant News: A 7-year-old boy had to be rescued with the help of a locksmith after crawling into a supermarket's stuffed animal game machine. "He was sitting right there with the toys," said Shift Commander Mark Zittel of the Sheboygan Fire Department, adding that the boy had crawled through an 8-by-10-inch chute where the toys come out. "His dad was three feet away at a pay phone."
     Zittel also said the boy stayed calm and didn't panic as firefighters responded to the Piggly Wiggly store and got a locksmith to open the main toy loading door. "The process took about an hour, but there was no panic. We could have broke the glass if there was an emergency."
     The boy was not injured or traumatized, but desperately needed to go to the bathroom.

The home page: http://hometown.aol.com/falcons1965a

Rich