Driving to work this morning around 7 on the 5 freeway, I was in the commute mode doing about 70 mph in the fast lane with a VW in front of me and a black pickup to my right about two car lengths in front when from the third lane a SUV swerved in front of the truck. His move was like a backward question mark - a quick swerve into lane 2 an overcorrection immediately back towards lane 3, he did a 180. Now skidding backwards at 65 mph and tilting as if he might topple over, he hit the front quarter panel of some unlucky driver in lane 4, and both came to rest against the guardrail with the SUV still facing the wrong way.
Meanwhile, the rest of us who had slowed 5 or 10 mph continued our daily commute, glad that someone's inattention hadn't ruined our day. But it had given us a good feeling of what it must be like on the typical NASCAR track.
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Reunion
Saturday is when I really found out how old I am!
Carolyn accompanied me to my 40th high school reunion held in a VFW on the bay in Newport. Newport Harbor High and Corona del Mar joined together for the event which included a cash bar, buffet, dancing and a lot of trying to figure out who that guy or gal was, even with name tags which bore our senior class pictures.
As an overall impression, I was surprised by how grey/silver or thin (to bald) their hair had become, how much weight they had gained, and how personalities remained the same. For the women, gone were the days of flips, page boys, or beehives (thank goodness), now replaced by straight dos or very short cuts. For the guys, a few sported long grey pony tails, but the rest of us wore it shorter trying to cover as much scalp as possible. A number of my classmates were still trim and athletic, but more often, the female gymnast now weighed about 180 or the football player carried a pretty good gut.
The oddest thing though was the random connections that occurred during the evening. I found my old boss from Ponderosa Homes was in the same class at NHHS as I was at CdM. Perhaps, we had discussed that coincidence back in the 70s, but neither of us remembered it. Chris Babbitt showed up (another NHHS grad) who played in the band back in those days and whose bandmate played the sax (sometimes two at a time) throughout the night's dancing. I found another CdM grad who was involved in the project in Lake Elsinore I worked on when I worked for TMC.
We enjoyed dancing, conversing and our evening, but I'm glad a reunion only comes around every decade or so. I don't have a need to relive high school.
Carolyn accompanied me to my 40th high school reunion held in a VFW on the bay in Newport. Newport Harbor High and Corona del Mar joined together for the event which included a cash bar, buffet, dancing and a lot of trying to figure out who that guy or gal was, even with name tags which bore our senior class pictures.
As an overall impression, I was surprised by how grey/silver or thin (to bald) their hair had become, how much weight they had gained, and how personalities remained the same. For the women, gone were the days of flips, page boys, or beehives (thank goodness), now replaced by straight dos or very short cuts. For the guys, a few sported long grey pony tails, but the rest of us wore it shorter trying to cover as much scalp as possible. A number of my classmates were still trim and athletic, but more often, the female gymnast now weighed about 180 or the football player carried a pretty good gut.
The oddest thing though was the random connections that occurred during the evening. I found my old boss from Ponderosa Homes was in the same class at NHHS as I was at CdM. Perhaps, we had discussed that coincidence back in the 70s, but neither of us remembered it. Chris Babbitt showed up (another NHHS grad) who played in the band back in those days and whose bandmate played the sax (sometimes two at a time) throughout the night's dancing. I found another CdM grad who was involved in the project in Lake Elsinore I worked on when I worked for TMC.
We enjoyed dancing, conversing and our evening, but I'm glad a reunion only comes around every decade or so. I don't have a need to relive high school.
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