Sunday, July 31, 2005

Reunion Trip

Just returned to Medford following my trip to North Bend/Coos Bay for my 40th High School reunion. The North Bend High class of 1965. The Class blog www.NBHS65.blogspot.com has a number of pictures of the reunion posted including mine. The reunion was a lot of fun and I got to meet a lot of classmates I haven't seen for a while. I was amazed at how much many of the class has aged in the last 5 years since our last reunion. Everyone was very friendly and relaxed. After 40 years most have given up on trying to impress everyone.

On Thursday night I was washing the car in preparation for the trip and a little schnauser dog ran into our driveway. The dog was very friendly and ran to John, Janie and me. The dog did not have a tag and started to hang around our yard. Janie and John put a leash on the dog and started to walk around the neighborhood to see where the dog belonged. By night fall they still had not found a home so they brought the dog home and put him in the house. John went to Albertson's to get some dry dog food. The dog ran around the house and traumatized our cat who is very afraid of dogs. John slept in the family room with the dog . The next morning he took the dog out and by following leads from several neighbors found the dog's home on Siskiyou across from the hopital. Apparently the dog is an "escape artist". The episode brought back how much we miss having a dog since Rosco passed on to "doggie Heaven." The Dog crisis having passed we took off for North Bend for the reunion. John had to work so he was left at home alone.

We stopped at Seven Feathers Casino in Canyonville for some lunch. From there we drove to North Bend to the Mill Casino where we had reservations at their Hotel. The reunion was also at the hotel. We drove by my parents old home in Coos Bay on the way in since we havn't seen it since it was sold. The main dinner of the reunion was at the Mill Casino. 40 years ago when we were all in high school the Mill Cassino was Weyerhaeuser. We would have never predicted we would have our 40th reunion there. Chris Hoyer our Foreign exchange student our senior year had flow into North Bend from Germany with his two teenage sons. Chris came for our 35th five years ago and he visited us in Medford. He will be coming back to Medford on the weekend of August 13 for another visit. Chris is an attorney in Germany. He works as an auditor for the German Defense Ministry. Chris and I were good friends in High School and we are looking forward to taking him to Jacksonville when he visits.

Saturday Janie and I went out to Sunset Beach and Shore Acres. We even went to Walmart but it felt funny not buying cat food.

Saturday night we had our final event at a pizza parlor. Sunday we got together with John, Lori, Dana,Linda and Harry (my High school buds) along with their wives for breakfast at a restaurant and headed home.

When we arrived home the house smelt smokey all over. Apparently John discoverd there was a bee hive in our fireplace and started a fire to get rid of them. However he was a little slow in opening the damper and smoke got all over the house. However he did get rid of the bees. He saw a big swarm fly out of the top of the fireplace and their were lots of dead ones in the fireplace when he was done. We have been noticing bees in the house for the last few weeks and now they are gone. I am not sure which is worse the smoke or the bees.

Again if you want to see picture sof the "old folks" at the reunion check out the link above. Someone suggested we have our 45 reunion at Saint Catherine's Nursing home as they have a nice dining room.

Wednesday, July 27, 2005

Favorite Web Sites

Some of my favorite web sites:
www.realclearpolitics.com (Real Clear Politics - links to current news articles and opinions from a conservative point of view)
www.freerepublic.com (Free Republic- Conservative web site - "Republic I like the sound of that word" John Wayne in the Alamo 1960)
www.drudgereport.com (Headline story's)
www.oregon.scout.com (educk - Oregon Duck fan web site)
www.goducks.com (Official Oregon Duck web site)
www.dvdtalk.com( All about DVD's)
www.thedigitalbits.com (More about DVD's)
www.dvdaficionado.com/dvds.html?id=james+wickre (My DVD collection)
www.imdb.com (Best movie site ever!)
www.jwaynefan.com (John Wayne fan site)

My DVD collection

Link to my DVD collection on DVD Aficionado: www.dvdaficionado.com/dvds.html?id+james+wickre
and on DVD Profiler: www.intervocative.com/dvdcollection.aspx/duck464

Hot day in Medford.

The high today was 104.

Oregon Football

Only 35 days till the first game against Houston there in Texas on ESPN! Go Ducks!

40th class reunion

This weekend I am going to North Bend, Oregon for my 40th High School class reunion. The Class of 1965, North Bend High School.