Bear Family News

2012 New Years Resolutions

2012-01-02T09:28:00.000-08:00

The first portion is my resolutions for 2012. Below that is a recap of how I did in 2011.

Clean Garage.

Tear out gazebo and build new deck in the back yard.

Improve disaster preparedness.

Get an AARP card.

Play in the COHS alumni waterpolo game.

Seeing more COHS friends.

Get more active: Hiking or swimming.

Improve our financial situation (reduce debt)

Canning: Trade with more people that can; make: speghetti sauce, soup. Add to methods of canning such as freezing and using wax

Be More Green:

Plant more ginger, herbs, lettuce ...

Increase the number of LED lights in use.

Better composting

So, here is how I did in 2011:

2011

Get an AARP card and use it. I did not do this. I guess getting an AARP card would make me feel really old!

Read a book that is not related to work. Done. Cobra by Frederick Forsyth, my favorite living author.

Play in the COHS alumni waterpolo game. Done So glad that I did! This year, I got the coaches phone number and registered my email address when I was at the game, so I hope finding out when it is for 2012 will not be a problem like it has been in the past.

Seeing more COHS friends. Done. This continues to be one of the most rewarding things I do.

Get more active: Hiking or swimming. Nope. I better do a better job in 2012.

Improve our financial situation (reduce debt). Yes, but still have a long way to go.

Canning: Trade with more people that can; make: speghetti sauce, soup. Add to methods of canning such as freezing and using wax. Yes and no. Pam McKovich is big into canning and food storage. We are doing a lot together. I did no make spaghetti sauce, but traded with a friend that made some. I did not make soup and did not pursue freezing (in jars) or using wax.

Be More Green: Yes, but there is always room for improvement. This year, we bought another Hybrid car and increased the number lights in use.

Plant more ginger, herbs and lettuce. No, but I did plant two banana trees and a blueberry bush.

Increase the number of LED lights in use. Yes. Very pleased with our progress.

Better composting. Not really.

Let fruit we grow not go to waste. Did better. Will never be perfect.

Merry Christmas 2011

2011-12-24T17:40:00.000-08:00

Christmas time is here once again. I want to let you, my friends and family know, just how much I appreciate and love you.

A special note of appreciation to my nephews Carlos and Kike, who are serving in the Air Force of the United States of America. Carlos is in Okinawa and Kike is going through basic training near San Antonio Texas. Carlos is now a citizen of the US and Kike is on the fast track to becoming a citizen. There is something to be said for someone who chooses to be an American. Carlos and Kike, we are very proud of you.

Lila finished her first year at the University and hopes to graduate in about a year. Ceci finished her certification as a medical assistant and will return to school so that she may become a nurse.

My brother Bob and got married to his girl friend Reva of 20 years. This year our extended family did a much better job of spending time together.

I got to visit many long time friends, especially from school and Boy Scouts.

I want to wish all of you, a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New year!

Apple versus Android

2011-11-21T19:45:00.000-08:00

I often get asked, especially by my family, what phone they should get, or what computer. I am waiting for someone to ask me what tablet to get. I wrote this blog entry to try and get ahead of curve for just once.

When selecting a smartphone, one of the most important questions is what network will you be using. Where you are makes a big difference in the coverage you will experience. We live in East Bay portion of the San Francisco Bay Area. In this area the major choices are:

AT&T - I hear a lot of complaints from people on this network.

Metro PCS - Cheap, but we had lots of trouble with coverage.

Nextel - Great technology, but not being kept up.

T-Mobile - Lots of complaints

Sprint - Great coverage

Verizon - Great coverage

I have the EVO 4G. About a year and a half after it was released, it is still one of the most powerful phones out there. It uses the Sprint network, which means that my data plan is truly unlimited. This phone uses the Android operating system and is made by HTC. I would have preferred an American company like Motorola, but one was not available without changing networks, which can be a real pain. The Evo 4g is a great phone. Verizon has an equvilant phones such as the Thunderbolt or Droid Incredible 2.

The android phones are high powered, but not nearly as intuitive as the iphone. If you are a novice, but want a cool phone, pick the iphone via Sprint or Verizon. All the people that work for me and have iphones with At&t do nothing but complain about their service.

Here are things reasons I like my Evo 4G over the iphone:

I have had 4G right from the start and the slowest my phone goes is 3G.

I can replace my battery and buy an after market battery to increase the amount of time between charges.

I don't have to use itunes.

I can run flash.
I can upgrade the amount of storage space I have anytime I like.

Lately I have been thinking a lot about tablets. I use an ASUS netbook. Asus is the company credited with inventing the concept of a netbook. It is basically a small laptop, with no DVD/CD drive. The Asus has a solid state hard drive, which makes it more durable and uses less power. Because it is so small it will run on battery power for over five hours and it fits easily, in my backpack and is easy to operate in tight spots like the middle seat of an airplane.

Small size and long battery life are qualities that tablets are known for. I find that wow my Evo 4G has one of the largest screens on the market (4.3 inches), I am 50 years old and find it is often still too small.

I want something larger, but I want it to be my phone too. I want it to fit into a shoulder harness so that it is out of the way, but easily accessible. A belt holster just won't do with a tablet.

There are two camps when it comes to tablets: the Ipad and Android tablets such as the Motorola Xoom and the Samsung Galaxy.

Currently the ipad has over 70% percent of the market. They must be doing something really right and it is difficult to overlook this. The battery life is amazing compared to the Android tablets. The ipad is one beautiful machine. Still, the ipad has many of the limitations that the iphone does such as having to use itunes, it can't run Flash and you can't upgrade the amount of storage ...etc.

Tablets come in two flavors: Wireless only and wireless plus a cell account such as Verizon running 3G. The difference means additional cost upfront, plus an ongoing cost just for using the tablet. Wireless only means it will only work when you are somewhere with wireless access unless you have what you want loaded on the tablet and that gets back to storage.

Some people say the ipad is too big and too heavy, but I'm not so sure. The older I get, the worse my eyes are, I start to think that it can never be too big.

Still it is a pain that when you want to type that you loose half of the screen. If I carry a tablet, do I still need to carry around my netbook? If so, what is the point and why do I still want one? I want one that I can make phone calls with. I want to replace my smartphone and my laptop with one device.

I should mention that the HP Web OS (Palm) is really great software, but I have the feeling that it is too little, too late.

Microsoft gets a lot of praise for their Windows Phone 7, but they just don't have market share. Windows 7 is available on some tablets, in fact I have an ASUS tablet running Windows 7. I use it only for work. It doesn't need a wireless or 3G (4G) connection. Again Windows does not have a significant share of the tablet market, but you can never count Microsoft out.

The above are just my opinions.

Wedding for a Special Friend

2011-10-29T19:32:00.001-07:00

Today Jaime married Autumn and became Mr & Mrs Smith. We were invited to their wedding. I really don't know much about Autumn. The few times I have seen her, she has stayed close to Jamie and taken great care of him. It doesn't matter, because if Jamie has chosen her, then she must be pretty special.

I have known Jaime since he was a small boy. Jamie, his brother Pedro (aka Shuman) and sister Mariemilia are the celebration of two great families, the Smith and Manrique families. When I first met Jaime, he was called Jaimeto. His brother Shuman was still breastfeeding and his sister would not be born for years to come. Jaimeto's father was called Jaime. Jaime was a very generous man. He helped many of family members (both on his side and his wife's) to have a place to live and find a job. Jaime was one of the most generous people I have ever known. He never had a lot, but what he had was yours. Jaime was always the life of the party. He loved to laugh and share that laughter with others. Sadly Jaime left us too early.

Even though Jaime and his wife Rebecca were divorced, Rebecca made sure that all of Jaime's friends and family where with him in his final hours. One thing about this amazing family is that when one falls or needs help, there is always one or more to step forward to offer support, or step in their place to move forward. Rebecca was never the life of the party, but she was always strong and loving. She kept her family moving forward and provided the love and support her children needed, but it didn't stop there. She is one amazing woman. This family is very big and very close. It is made up with many aunts, uncles, cousins, nephews and nieces.

So back to the wedding... Jaime and Autumn got married and there was not one dry eye anywhere. Jaimeto has cancer. He has been battling cancer for some time now. He has been in a wheel chair for years. This is a marriage made of the purest love.

When it came time to speak about the newlyweds, and propose a toast. One family member stepped up to the plate, each to be overwhelmed by the emotion of the moment. First was Jamie's younger brother Shuman. He mention that his brother has had a rough time. He broke down, but immediately, his sister came to him to support him. She expressed her love to the couple. She mentioned how after her father passed away, that it was Jaimeto that stepped into that role for her, but it was too much for her as well and she broke down. Jaimeto took the mic to express his gratitude and love for his friends and family too, but the emotion overwhelmed him as well. Their mother Rebecca took the mic, followed by their grandmother. "This is not a time for tears ...". This family does not know the meaning of defeat, but they do know the meaning of the word "family".

Over thirty years ago, I was first invited to this family's house for Christmas eve. Only two people in this huge family knew me and they did not know me that well but we worked together at a hotel. They brought out a huge bag with one present in for each person, including me. I was shocked. This family took me in to their home and treated me like one of their own. To this day, I feel a special connection with them. They are part of my family. Jaimeto, I am grateful to you and your family in ways you can never know. I love you very much and am grateful that you included us in our wedding. You are a shining example of what family means.

May God bless each and every one of you.

COHS Water Polo Alumni Match 2011

2011-10-15T16:06:00.001-07:00

I had to come down to Southern California for work, so I extended my stay by a day so that I could get together with my classmates at our Pizza Night, which was great. For some reason my wife insisted that I stay an extra day and not worry about coming home until Sunday morning. She said that I don't get to visit my friends from school very often.

Friday morning Diana (Cobos) Campbell gives me a ride from Anaheim and we go directly to Charter Oak. I want to know when the alumni match will be. In the office, the lady says that they have not set the date yet, but gives me the phone number to one of the coaches. I call and leave a message on his voice mail. About 10 minutes later, he calls back and explains that the match tomorrow (Saturday) at 10:00am. What a lucky break.

With less than 24hours notice, I get my phone and start calling friends. Cobos calls her brother. I post a notice on Facebook and we put the word out.

Craig "Gumby" Schaeffer and myself are the only ones this year that can play. Eric Schubel makes it, but it recovering from an injury, so he and his son are there for moral support as well as Inez Schaeffer, Diana (Cobos) Campbell, Pam McKovich and her son Hunter, Steve Brady and others.

This year things are a bit different. They are charing $10 for alumni to play, which is fine. The money goes to help the water polo team. Craig and I are smarter than we were two years ago. Then, we warmed up rather well. Too well. By the time the game started we were already tired. We had spent too much energy warming up.

Another difference is that instead of one huge alumni team with about 25 substitutes, we are split between those that graduated in this millennium and those of us that graduated in the last millennium. This is a serious concern for us older folks. We are going to have to play a lot more as our team is much smaller.

Both Craig and I started. We like to think that we did no harm. We substituted in and out throughout the game. During one play, I passed the ball to Craig and he scored. Chalk up one for the geezers! At the end of the fourth quarter, it was tied. We played one more period and managed to win the game 21 to 20. That is the same score we won by last time we played, two years ago.

It was a great game. We were all puffing and wheezing, but we pulled it off. Hats off to COHS varsity water polo, especially number 9. We may have won, but they played a full game before they even played us.

See you all next year and hopefully we will have more time to prepare and more Lancers from the 1970's. Maybe coach McNeil will show up, who knows?

COHS Water Polo Alumni Match 2011

2011-10-15T16:06:00.000-07:00

I had to come down to Southern California for work, so I extended my stay by a day so that I could get together my classmates at our Pizza Night, which was great. For some reason my wife insisted that I stay an extra day and not worry about coming home until Sunday morning. She said that I don't get to visit my friends from school very often.

Friday morning Diana (Cobos) Campbell gives me a ride from Anaheim and we go directly to Charter Oak. I want to know when the alumni match will be. In the office, the lady says that they have not set the date yet, but gives me the phone number to one of the coaches. I call and leave a message on his voice mail. About 10 minutes, he calls back and explains that it is tomorrow (Saturday) at 10:00am. What a lucky break.

With less than 24hours notice, I get my phone and start calling friends. Cobos calls her brother. I post a notice on Facebook and we put the word out.

Craig Schaeffer and myself are the only ones that make it to play. Eric Schubel makes it, but it recovering from an injury, so he and his son are there for moral support as well as others such as Inez Schaeffer, Diana (Cobos) Campbell, Pam McKovich and her son Hunter, Steve Brady and others.

Both Craig and I started. We like to think that we did no harm. We substituted in and our throughout the game. During one play, I passed the ball to Craig and he scored. Chalk up one for the geezers! At the end of the fourth quarter, it was tied. We played one more period and managed to win the game 21 to 20. That is the same score we won by last time we played, two years ago.

See you all next year and hopefully we will have more time to prepare and more Lancers from the 1970's. Maybe coach McNeil will show up, who knows?

COHS Pizza Night

2011-10-14T23:05:00.000-07:00

Before I get started about the Pizza Night, our hearts go out to Deann (Call) Lent, her family, friends and neighbors. She lives in Seal Beach. On Wednesday a crazed gunman entered a beauty salon and murdered eight people. Deann's son goes to school with the boy, whose father did the killing and the mother who was one of the murder victims. Deann, our thoughts and prayers are with you and yours.

We have been doing COHS Pizza Nights for a few years now, but this was absolutely one of the best. We had a great turn out including two of our teachers:

Mr. King was our music teacher in 8th grade at Sunflower Jr. High. He was so cool. He was into racing cars. He dressed more like us than your normal teacher. He introduced many of us to the Beatles for the first time. We explored what kind of music we liked. We did not sit in rows, instead we sat in a circle where everyone could see everyone else. It was so great to talk about music, cars and our times in school with Mr King and he could not have been more gracious.

Mr. Hall was my German teacher for all four years at Charter Oak. I was born in Frankfurt Germany. I immigrated to the US when I was only a year old. No one wanted to learn German more than I, yet I had a tough time. On my first vocabulary test I got a "D". This was devastating. I did not give up and Mr. Hall never gave up on me. After high school, I would continue to study German for 3 more years in college. Mr. Hall is actually Dr. Hall. He received his PHD during my senior year. A special thanks to Pam McKovich, who arranged Mr and Mrs Hall to attend our pizza night. It was very special to be able to spend time again with him after so many years.

We had a larger than normal turn out. Not everyone who thought they could make it did, but quite a few did show up who didn't think they could. My brother Dave was able to attend our gathering and it is always nice to see him. We had a number of first timers. I hope they felt welcome as we all share a special bond.

Eric Schubel is normally part of our group of regulars. He was recently in an accident, but after four days, his injuries have not improved. He decided to go to Urgent Care. We wish him a swift and full recovery. Eric says he will be at the alumni water polo match tomorrow. He won't play, but he will be there to cheer us on.

Thank you to everyone who made this such a special evening.

Bob and Reva's Wedding

2011-08-12T21:59:00.000-07:00

My brother Bob has had the same girlfriend for twenty years. They have been living together for most of this time. After these years, they decided to get married. They honored me by letting me officiate their wedding ceremony. I'm not a minister or anything, but in California, a couple can petition for a one time license allowing a friend of family member to perform the wedding.

The paperwork was not moving fast enough. I received a call from the San Luis Obipso court. They informed me that there would not be enough time to finish everything, but I could go into the court and get sworn in immediately. They said they were open the Friday before the wedding, but I decided to drive down the day before with my wife Carmen. We left early in the morning and drove straight to the court house. I figured it didn't make any sense to tell Bob and Reva. It would just stress them out. I would take care of it.

Carmen stayed with the car and I went in. I raised my right hand and swore to protect and defend the constitution of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic. It was very exciting, I thought that any moment they would give me a helmet and a rifle. Then I had to swear to protect and defend the constitution of the state of California as well. I was ready. If anyone tried to overturn Prop. 13, I would whack them over the head. It is interesting that the swearing in ceremony really had nothing to do with marriage.

We checked into our beautiful hotel, the Best Western Royal Oak. Our room was great. That evening we enjoyed the San Luis Obispo (SLO) Farmer's Market. The best Farmer's Market that I know of. It takes place in the evening. They shut off several blocks in the downtown. It is much more than a Farmer's Market. It is a huge party, complete with Barbecue, Live Music and more. We bought lots of fruits and vegetables. More than would fit in my backpack. Our eldest daughter asked us to get some Kettle Corn, so we got a big bag of it. For dinner, Carmen enjoyed a Tri-tip sandwich and I had 2 beef ribs. We both shared an ear of grilled corn and a dessert to die for. It was a chocolate brownie, with strawberries, whipped cream and chocolate sauce. We were stuffed!

The next morning, Friday, we woke up to beautiful weather. We had breakfast in downtown SLO at McClintocks. This place is an institution. We were joined by our very good friend of many years, Susie Norris. We chatted catching up and before you knew it, it was time for her to go.

We headed back to our hotel and enjoyed the hot tub. Next was lunch time, which meant that we were going visit our friend Jennifer in Templeton. We brought the fixins for strawberry short cake. Jennifer was ready with a delicious lunch of homemade tomato soup and garlic cheese bread that was to die for. I should mention that she has two of the cutest 6 year old twins you could imagine and they kept us entertained the entire time.

As we approached early evening, it was time to get ready for the wedding rehearsal and dinner. While Bob and Reva live in a lovely house in Morro Bay, they have rented a beautiful ranch for the wedding located in Los Osos. This is fitting, since our last name is Bear and Los Osos is Spanish for the Bears.

Our eldest daughter has rode down with my youngest sister Becky and my Dad. Lila is in charge of the music. Our youngest daughter Ceci had to stay home because she has classes all day Saturday, and she took care of Carmen's Parents who are 91 and 83.

Reva is working so hard to pull off the perfect wedding. Our two families come together for dinner after the rehearsal for the first time We get along perfect. Reva's best friend, Katie has hire a wonderful Mariachi Band, and we all enjoy the music thought the evening. We have a fantastic time. The families have become one.

Next morning we get up bright and early to help prepare for the wedding. Reva is like a little tornado working so hard. It is time for Carmen and I to get ready for the wedding, so we head back to our hotel room to shower and change.

As I am getting dressed, my cell phone rings. It is my cousin Mary. She asks if I am around the family. I tell her no, the only person here is Carmen. She pleads with me not to tell the family, that she does not want them to worry. I assure her I won't and she tells me that they have been in a car accident. The car is totaled. I ask where is she, she tells me the name of the hospital, but does not know the name of the town. I look up on my phone and sure enough the hospital is in Templeton, same exit that we used to visit our friend Jennifer.

I drop off Carmen at the ranch, and head up to Templeton. I have Carmen tell everyone that their car has broken down and that I have gone to pick them up. The wedding is supposed to be at 4pm, it is now after 3pm.

At the hospital, I find the only person that is unhurt is my aunt Joyce. She was sitting in the back of the VW Van with her seat belt on. My uncle Puzz was the first to be release. He has cracked ribs and a knot on his forehead the size of a baseball. Both of his elbows are bandaged. I check on my two cousins, Mary and Christine. The doctors are still working on them, so my aunt suggests that we go to the vehicle and get their belongings.

Fortunately, the VW Van is only about five minutes away, but you never realize how much stuff you have in a vehicle until you have to take it all out. We head back to the hospital. The doctors finish sewing up the forehead of Mary. Christine looks like she is in rough shape. She is laying in bed in the fetal position. She has cracked ribs as well. The doctors give her a shot of some sort of pain killer. It must be some amazing stuff, because before I know it, she is walking and later that night would be dancing!

We head back to the wedding. They have a room booked in Morro Bay. We get to the junction. Left is the wedding, right is their hotel. They are all in a lot of pain. The slightest bump in the road causes my uncle to moan. He is 85 years old. They choose the wedding. To me this is the greatest complement that anyone could pay to Bob and Reva.

The wedding starts 2 hours late, but then again it could not start without me, could it? It is a beautiful wedding. Katie's daughter sings so beautifully. It could not have been more perfect. Everyone has a great time and it is all over way too soon.

My cousin Hank was not traveling with his family. He came down by himself. He gets his family back to Sacramento.

Bob and Reva, we love you very much and wish you a long and prosperous marriage.

Preparedness Reminder

2011-07-01T22:57:00.000-07:00

A couple of months ago, we sold our RV. We had not taken a trip in a few years. To be exact, we had not taken a trip since the price of gasoline had shot past $2.00 per gallon. Years later, gas is between $3.00 and $4.00 per gallon and there is no reason to believe that it will ever go below $2.00 a gallon ever again. The RV got between 7 and 8 miles a gallon. That means that if we get 8 miles per gallon and gas is $4.00 per gallon that it costs us $.50 per mile to travel. That is a very expensive rate of travel. Many times it would be cheaper to drive and rent a hotel room.

There was another reason for selling the RV. The economy sucks and like a lot of people, we needed the money.

Besides recreation, there was another use of the RV, that I had appreciated, but not as much as I do today. That RV was also our preparedness kit. The entire family could live in that RV if we needed to. It had drinkable water, a shower, toilet, 2 sinks, clothes, back packs, food ...etc. The RV even had a generator. So why do I appreciate the value of the RV as a preparedness kit more today than any other day prior?

Earlier this week, it rained. Here we are in California, famous for our great weather and yet it is raining in June, almost July. I can't remember when this last happened. The good part of the rain, is that all of my rain barrels are full, and that will come in handy later as you will see. The bad part is that at work we lost power at about 3pm in the afternoon. This is not good for a technology company, that prides itself on providing the best customer service in the business. We rely on a phone system that requires power, computers that require power, servers and support databases ...etc. that all require power and we have none. Did we have battery backups? Yes, but they don't allow you to operate for very long.

I was thinking about when the power goes out at our house. We no longer have the RV and it's generator, but that is no problem. We have a standalone gasoline generator. I thought about what other ways I have to produce electricity. I have an inverter that plugs into a cigarette lighter that has two outlets. In addition, we have oil lamps, LED flashlights, radios that operate on batters, solar power and cranks. At home we are in pretty good shape when the power goes out.

That brings us to today and our subject today is water. This morning just after we had all finished our showers, some idiot ran over a fire hydrant. The water flowing out was threatening to flood some local businesses, so the cut the water off. The area affect was pretty big. So we have had no running water from 9am until about 9pm this evening.

The first thing to do in any crisis is to evaluate your situation. In our case, we started by checking what we had in the way of water. At our house we have two types of water stored. First, we have rain barrels. They are all full, but this water is not good to drink, but it can be used to flush the toilets. Toilets are important! We have two toilets and seven people live here, so we have plenty of water for our toilets, in fact we offered to provide rain water to our neighbors for their toilets as well. The second type of water we have stored is drinking water. We keep old plastic milk jugs full of water.

Recently I was reading that plastic milk jugs are not ideal for storing water. A much better option is plastic soda bottles. The second thing I read recently is that you should store one gallon for each person, per day for two weeks. We did not have that much water stored, but there is the ice in the freezer and the water in the hot water heater. This is a big advantage over the hot water on demand systems.

Next, task was to see where we could get more water. My sister-in-law lives about ½ a mile away, so we went to her house and she had water. We filled up every water container we could quickly find. Outside, we have two water containers filled with rain water. When someone wants to use the toilet, they take one of the containers of rainwater to refill the toilet tank after it is flushed. Our toilets are low flush toilets. One uses 1.7 gallons the other 1.5 gallons a flush. As a guy it is pretty easy to take a leak outside. We have lots of bushes. Enough said.

During the day, we found more water containers and set up a system of providing water where it was needed throughout the house. As we discovered more water containers, we collected them together and were prepared to make a second water run at the end of the day. The assumption was that we would not have water when we woke up in the morning.

We do have other backups, for example we have two different water filters designed to filter water when camping.

Both the power outage and the water outage, were a blessing in disguise. It made us think about our preparedness status. We thought about what changes we should make so that we are more prepared for the next time we have to deal with a crisis. In California, we all assume that some day, we will have a huge earth quake, called “The Big One”. We need to be ready for the Big One! So in the case of water, we are going to collect and fill 2 liter plastic soda bottles with drinking water until we have enough for one gallon per person for two weeks.

Water is just one of many things we must be prepared to provide in a crisis, so we won't stop there, we are analyzing our food supplies, camping supplies, clothing, transportation and alternate places we can go in a disaster, such as relatives houses. We no longer have our RV preparedness kit and we need to fill that void.

Let's be realistic, Democrat or Republican we can not afford to trust in our government in the time of crisis. Katrina taught us that lesson.

Vacation 2011 with Dad

2011-05-22T22:27:00.000-07:00

My dad (that is Grandpa to a lot of you) and I had been talking about going to the Grand Canyon for years now. The original plan was to ride mules to the bottom, but that plan really never worked out. My dad called me earlier in the year to ask "When are we going?" I decided at that moment this was the year to go, so I made all of the arrangements.

I started by driving down to Southern California, and spending the weekend with my friends from school. We had a fantastic time. We did not normal Pizza gathering. This is nice, because the group is small enough that we can all talk to each other. I enjoy the regulars such as Gumby, Eric Schubel and Cobos and others, yet each time there are people who have never come before. In this case, Steve Brady was one of the people I grew up with, play little league baseball, swam and played water polo. I had not seen him since high school. We also had a couple of others that had not attended before including some from the class of 1975 (Debora Coffey) and even someone from Royal Oak!

Beside the pizza gathering I managed to visit the Renaissance Faire and even a birthday party for someone I did not know. There Gary Dahle's wife, Judy was performing. How cool was that? Did you know that Cobos could juggle? Now you do!

Monday, I drove up to Las Vegas and Checked into the Golden Nugget. It is the longest running four diamond casino resort in Las Vegas. It is in the older downtown section, but what a beautiful place and what a great value. I love the pool with a slide that goes through a shark tank!

I picked my dad up from the airport and we enjoyed a nice dinner and went to bed. The next morning, we were off on a helicopter trip to the Grand Canyon. My dad knew about this, but what he did not know was that we would be picked up in a stretch limo. First Class all the way!

The Helicopter tour of the Grand Canyon is pricey, but worth it. These memories are ones that we will cherish forever. I had never been on a helicopter before and my dad was only on one in the military. He said this was a much nicer ride. We flew over Hoover Dam, and saw where the Colorado River emptied into Lake Mead. The water from the river is very muddy and the lake is blue. Where the two come together is beautiful.

The tour covers the West Rim and while I have been to the Grand Canyon before, it has always been at the South Rim. I was not expecting too much. I knew that the Grand Canyon was a national park and therefore protected. What I did not realize was that parts were owned by Native American tribes and that the tour company had business arrangements that allowed us to fly over, into and land in the Grand Canyon.

It was amazing. We landed and they served us a Champagne Brunch. I was not expecting more than a snack and my dad had no idea at all. The brunch was served in individual picnic baskets. I wish I had taken a picture. Imagine two Bears and they give them picnic baskets! LOL

I knew we would land, but I figured it would not really be in the Canyon. It would be on some private property close by, but no, we were inside looking up at the canyon walls and the river was not far below us.

Before too long, it was time to return, we took a different, but equally stunning route back to the airport that included flying over the length of the Las Vegas strip. On way back in the limo, we say Batman!

Back at the resort, we went swimming and yes, my 72 year old dad went down the three story slide though the shark tank. What a fun place!

My dad treated me to dinner "The Steak House" in Circus Circus. Who knew that something that elegant and delicious would be hidden in Circus Circus? Well, my dad did. Best steak dinner ever!

We finished off the evening with the Penn & Teller show. Next to the Beatles Love show at the Mirage, this is my absolute favorite show in Las Vegas.

The next morning, we drove from Las Vegas, across the new bridge over Hoover Dam, around the West Rim of the Grand Canyon to Flagstaff Arizona. We stayed a nice enough hotel, it was a 2.5 star property. After we checked in, we checked out the meteor crater. That evening we went to Black Bart's for dinner. That was my surprise to my dad for dinner, that night. What is so special about this place is that besides having great food, the waiters and waitresses get up and sing and dance like in the old western movies!

The next morning after breakfast, we made our way up to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon for a different experience, a different view of a different part of the Grand Canyon. The South Rim is deeper and wider than the West Rim. It is the part of the canyon that is most often visited. It was beautiful and we enjoyed a picnic in the shade of the canyon.

While at the South Rim, we enjoyed a number of different vistas, and had a couple of close up encounters with Mule Deer. They did not seem to be afraid of us at all. This perhaps because they have rangers armed with guns protecting them. These animals are truly beautiful and the South Rim is Magnificent.

We finished the day by driving back to California and spending the night of Cinco de Mayo at the Americas Best Value Inn of Blythe California. I was very pleased at our accommodations and found their website for booking reservations to be very easy to use and helpful. I chose Blythe because we did not want to drive too far on any one day.

Friday morning we are up bright and early. After breakfast we head off to Indio, California. Date capital the USA and stopped at Shields to enjoy some dates, pick up a Mothers Day present for my mom and get some dates to bring to the friends we were about to visit.

The Millers live in Palm Springs. My dad had not seen them in close to 35 years, yet when we lived in Southern California we saw them all the time, were in each other houses. We were in Boy Scouts together, along with the Browers who made the drive to Palm Springs. All of these people are like family to us and it is a shame that we allowed so many years to pass without seeing each other. We did however try to make up for lost time. The Miller's are such great hosts. That soup was delicious. We enjoyed our afternoon with them and the Browers talking about old times.

From there, we managed to cross the LA basin without too much traffic to have dinner with my brother David in Sherman Oaks. It was good to see Dave. Dave works in the film industry. Since he lives so far, we don't get to see him as often as we would like. We need to take a picture next time we visit him. After dinner, we drove through the Grape Vine and spent the night in Buttonwillow.

The next morning, we got up bright and early. Had a McDonalds breakfast in the car while we drove home. It was the only time we stopped at McDonalds. We got home, by noon the day before Mothers Day.

I enjoy spending time with my dad and this trip will provide fond memories for many years.

2011 New Years Resolutions

2010-12-30T20:38:00.001-08:00

First let's start off with how I did with last years resolutions:

Resolutions for 2010:

Play in the COHS alumni waterpolo game. Failed. We did not know when it was. Need to set up communication with the coach.

Seeing more COHS friends. Yes, and it was wonderful!

Keep another 5-10 pounds off. Nope, I think I am the same.

Get more active: Hiking or swimming. Nope.

Get more active: Helping other people. About the same.

Improve our financial situation (reduce debt). Significant improvements, but still have a ways to go.

Canning: Trade with more people that can; add to what I make: salsa, speghetti sauce, soup. Add to methods of canning such as freezing and using wax. Did salsa, relish and Chinese pickles and two types of pickled peppers in addition the the normal canning of pears and jams. Did not do spaghetti sauce, soup or anything like that. Also did not freeze or can using wax.

Be More Green - this is way to general so I want to accomplish some of the following: Did a few more things, such as hook up a 205 gallon water cistern to collect rain water.

Plant a tree - No

Plant more vegetables: tomatoes, onions and garlic, ginger, herbs - Did tomatoes, onions, garlic, but ginger. Herbs did not work out well.

Increase the number of LED lights in use. Yes, several.

Better composting. Yes

Let fruit we grow not go to waste. About the same.

Resolutions for 2011

Get an AARP card and use it.

Read a book that is not related to work.

Play in the COHS alumni waterpolo game.

Seeing more COHS friends.

Get more active: Hiking or swimming.

Improve our financial situation (reduce debt)

Canning: Trade with more people that can; make: speghetti sauce, soup. Add to methods of canning such as freezing and using wax

Be More Green:

Plant more ginger, herbs and lettuce.

Increase the number of LED lights in use.

Better composting

Let fruit we grow not go to waste.

Bucket List

2010-12-27T10:20:00.000-08:00

December 28, 2010 I turn 50 years old. Inspired by the movie with Jack Nicholson, I have decided to write my "Bucket List".

Eat lunch with Laura (Tamura) Harris and Kim (Charles) Byrnes.

Travel - Take the trans-Siberian railway. Visit Australia and Africa. In Africa visit Egypt and Kenya and go on Safari (shoot animals with camera).

Take a train to Chicago and back.

Go to the Grand Canyon with my dad.

Get my picture taken crossing Abby Lane.

Take a cruise to Alaska

Swim with dolphins

Travel the Amazon

Live off of the electrical grid.

Have my own well in the back yard.

Have an electric car.

Have a waterless urinal installed at my house.

Have a composting toilet in the Back Yard.

Pay off my house and owe no money.

Be an extra in a film.

Harvest a bison.

Grow Bananas at home.

Write a book, that is not a manual.

Perform with a band (not just singing)

Perform Standup in a Comedy Club

Buy nothing for one week and eat from the food that is stored at home.

Buy nothing for one month and eat from the food that is stored at home.

Make a significant difference in the life of a total stranger.

But I'm Not 50 Yet!

2010-12-13T19:17:00.000-08:00

After attending a a biker wedding, I got back just in time to get cleaned up and go to the Roundtable in Ontario, California. I was in Las Vegas the prior week and instead of flying home, I decided to visit my high school friends in Southern California.

The idea is that I post that I am going to be at some pizza place and about 15 people show up and we eat pizza and have a good time going down memory lane. Each time there is some sort of surprise. This time would be no exception.

Debbie Watanabe is someone I never knew. Debbie is David Watanabe's little sister. I never knew he had a sister. Turns out that my little brother David and her were very good friends. In fact they found each other via me on Facebook. So, Debbie says that she is going to come to have pizza with us and that she is going to bring Donald Hoffman!

The Hoffman family lived 4 doors down on the corner. Each of the kids names started with the letter "D". There was Deann, Dell, Duane, Donald and Danielle. Donald, now Don and I did everything. We played, fought, laughed, cried, built forts, flew kites, rode bikes and got into trouble whenever possible.

Donald did now know that I knew that we was going to be joining us. I had also looked at his picture on Facebook, so when he popped in, smiled at me and extended his hand for a handshake, I looked in his eyes and said ""Donald Hoffman". He could not believe that I recognized him. I could see "Donald Hoffman" in his eyes, but I confessed that I had been tipped off.

One of the coolest things I remember about Donald, Duane and Dell is that one day, their dad bought Navy surplus bunk beds, that were bolted to the wall. They were three high. When you are a boy, there is nothing cooler!

Back to Debbie, she is as wonderful as she is beautiful. It is hard to imagine her brother David sitting on her so she would not change the channel on the TV. In fact, if we had known how pretty she was, David would have been treated like a king in high school.

Deann Call Lent arrived with her two youngest sons, her husband Tom and her mom! Her mom was so cool, I really enjoy meeting the parents after all these years. It is always special when Deann can attend. She lives so far away and has such a large family, it is amazing that she can fit us in. We are all grateful to the reunions that she does so much work on. Deann has been married three times, but I must say that the in her case, the third time was the charm. Tom is great, and really should be an honorary Lancer. Tom does not get just the customary handshake, Tom gets a great big bear hug.

My brother Dave, who had not responded to my message asking if he would be able to attend showed up about 30 minutes later. That was a great surprise and he and Debbie and Don had a lot to chat about.

Two of my closest friends are Cobos and Judy Zeiter. They were both there. In fact, I can't remember a pizza event they have not attended. Cobos brought Logan, her grandson. I have known him since he was a bulge in his mommy's tummy. He is such a good kid and always manages to steal all the attention.

This evening, Cobos and Judy were up to no good! To my surprise, they came ready to celebrate my birthday. What a surprise that was. Gifts, Cake, Cards and all. I keep thinking about Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The old man kept exclaiming "...but I'm not dead yet!". John Cleese would respond, "You aren't fooling anyone!". I wasn't 50 yet, but apparently I wasn't fooling anyone, especially my friends...

Biker Wedding

2010-12-11T22:55:00.000-08:00

David Miller was in the same boy scout troop that I was in. Troop 477, the "Eagle Machine". All of our families were close. Dave was several years younger than I was. Our family moved away the day after I graduated high school. At that time, Dave was shorter than I and was a clean cut kid just like his parents.

When we had the Boy Scout reunion, the Miller's were on the road and were unable to attend. It was a case of next time you are down here, let us know. So I did, only to find out that David was getting married on that day. I had dinner plans and had started some lunch plans, so I thought perhaps we could get together for breakfast, but honestly, the day of a wedding is so hectic.

I just let the lunch thing die, but I didn't tell anyone. I decided it would be a surprise. I could not get anyone to go to the wedding with me, but a good friend (Cyndi Riggle) loaned me her car. The wedding was scheduled to start at 1pm, but they were going to wait for David's nephew who had to take the SAT test that morning, so I decided to show up just before 1pm.

As much as I did surprise them, attending a biker wedding was an even bigger surprise to me. You see, David had become a biker. He was now taller than I, with long hair and a long beard. He had taken the nick name of "Bear", which I thought was an excellent choice!

I was old not to wear a suit, so I wore a dark blue polo shirt and blue jeans. The wedding party was dressed in black shirts with their biker club emblems and patches. They wore jeans, chaps, leather vests and knives in some cases. There were a lot of tattoos and some piercings. Despite the picture you might paint in your mind, everyone was happy, polite and respectful.

I was there for the wedding ceremony, photos, dinner and the cutting of the cake. Like all weddings it started late.

I really enjoyed seeing my friends from childhood. David and his parents Eleanor and Charlie. When it was time to go, there were hugs and kisses just like any other wedding, but the most important part .... David is truly in love and is a very happy man.

I wish him and his bride a long and happy life.

Bill & Elaine Van Horn

2010-11-20T10:22:00.000-08:00

Some of my earliest memories are of Bill and Elaine. When I first knew them, they were not married. Bill was my dad's childhood friend. He had known him since 3rd grade. Both Bill and Elaine lived in the apartment complex that my folks managed. Elaine shared an apartment with Ellie, who often baby sat me. I had a habit of throwing their cigarettes in the trash can.

Bill and Elaine would eventually get married and were always very special friends of our family. They bought a house in Daly City and later in San Francisco. They raised two children Noel and Tish. My mom and Elaine would become very close. I know they miss each other.

Bill is a cartoon artist and Elaine is a retired nurse. Noel is also a cartoon artist. They did work on Duck Tales and Mickey Mouse. Today they write and draw comic books of Donald Duck under the Disney label for a company based in Denmark.

Sometime in the 1980's, they moved to North Vancouver in British Columbia Canada. I recently was in BC while attending the annual Best Western conference. I took the time to visit Bill and Elaine. They really look the same except for a bit of gray hair, but who am I to talk? It was really wonderful and they could not have been nicer. I got to hear some great stories. It would be great if they and my folks could hook up, but Bill does not fly. The border between the USA and Canada has become a real pain, but still you never know.

I am really glad that I got to visit them. It had been over 25 years since I last saw them. I hope I don't wait that long next time.

Green Festival November 2011 - San Francisco

2010-11-08T00:45:00.000-08:00

I don't know how man Green Festivals I have attended, but I have been going to them for quite some years and I always enjoy them. This year was no exception. This year I took my wife, my mom and Cindy Riggle President of Sunshine Hospitality. This was my mom and Cyndi's first time attending the Green Festival. The Green Festival is family friendly.

(Family Friendly most of the time)

Starting 2010, the Green Festival takes place twice a year in San Francisco. Once in Spring and once in Fall. Each time the Festival is the same yet different. I keep telling myself that I want to attend some of the educational seminars and each time, I don't. I just don't have enough time and I get so tired. There are so many booths and that is often times where the real education takes place.

The Festival offers a number of ways to get passes. You can pay for them, you can get a membership with Green America, you can donate canned foood. This time you could also recycle a cell phone or get passes from your local Nissan dealer.

The Nissan Leaf was on display. We are currently in the market for a new car and the Nissan Leaf is one of the cars we are considering. We are also looking Ford Fusion Hybrid and the Chevy Volt. The problem with the Leaf and the Volt is that even the dealerships don't yet have them on display. They had one on display at the Green Festival. We got to see it, touch it, smell it and sit in it. I am impressed. Apparently the Federal Government is offering $7.500.00 tax rebates and California is offering a $5,000.00 tax rebate. That makes a total of $12,500.00 which is a lot of money.

One Company makes paper products, including business cards out of Elephant Poop. This is by far one of my favorite booths. It is hard not to smile when you look at it. Recycling Elephant Poop is a wonderful idea, but as Cynidi Riggle points out, shipping it all the way from Africa to the USA is not green. Think local! They should be using these products in Africa and we should be recycling horse and donkey manure. Still, I have a soft spot in my heart for these folks. The idea of giving someone my business card and knowing that I am handing them a pile of Elephant Poop is enough to make anyone smile.

Cyndi was looking over products and services that she could add to her company's line of environmentally friendly products and services. She came across one in particular. A Water Bottle designed for those of use who travel on airplanes. The water bottle has a filter fitted to the top of the bottle and filters water faster than any filter I have ever seen. When you go through security, you are not allowed to bring liquids, including water; The TSA confiscates them, but once you are through security, there are plenty of shops willing to sell you a small bottle of water for $4.00 or higher. With these filter included bottles, you can go through security with an empty water bottle, then fill it up at the water fountain or the sink in the bath room and enough clean filtered water with the taste of that nasty chlorine. This will be a great addition to the Sunshine Hospitality product line.

There was an interesting Hands Free Faucet. As Cyndi pointed out, the problem is you are trading water savings for electricity. That is often a difficult decision. Which is the lesser of two evils. Wasting water or wasting electricity? Is there another option? Sill, with water becoming scarcer and scarcer, we must consider all options.

One thing about Green Festival, is that it is more than just business setup with booths selling there wares. It is a true festival, and the arts and music portion is not to be ignored. One of my favorites was this hand made Alphorn, native to Switzerland.

Most importantly, the festival helps us to stay focused, get back to basics and use our imaginations. I look forward to the next one.

Church re-Dedication

2010-10-24T13:53:00.000-07:00

I tend not to be very public about my religious feelings. I'm catholic and we tend to be quite like that. One of my favorite Bible passages is Mathew 6:6.

We belong to St. Callistus. The church had fallen into bad repair, and it was becoming out right dangerous. Our Pastor Jimmy rallied the parishioners. During a time when many people are trying to keep from loosing their homes, they came up with the all the money needed. That meant that we did not need go get a loan from the Diocese of Oakland.

Today was the re-dedication of our church. While we have had more than our fair share of issues; one area that Catholics excel is tradition and ceremony. Today was truly inspirational. When I entered the church, it had that "New Church" smell. This would soon be cured by a lot of incense.

The ceremony started with a procession of flags. There was a flag from 38 different countries, including Peru (my wife's family) and Germany (the place of my birth). After the flag procession completely left the church, the was a knock on the door at the rear of the church. The door was opened, and in entered a procession of alter servers, priests from all over and our bishop.

There was not an empty seat in the church. The church is large. There are four masses every Sunday weekend. A Saturday evening mass, and three on Sunday. We always have a very good turnout. One thing I have always been very proud of is how diverse we are. At one point in the mass a small prayer was said in a number of different languages including: English, Chinese, Tagalog, German, Spanish, Nigerian and more.

Lila sings in the choir. They did a fantastic job. The church looks beautiful. I remember talking to a priest one time when I was working at the Marriott hotel. He was there on a conference about church designs. He told me that it is important that a church is inspiring. Well, ours certainly is and this mass was amazing. I said a prayer about someone very special to me.

At the very end of the mass they recognized the "Pioneer" parishioners that were part of the parish when the original church was built back in the 1950's They were each presented with a special present by the bishop. Some special recognition was given to those who had gone above and beyond to make this happen. One very special thanks was to Father Larry Burns. He had said mass at our church for over 30 years. Today he is retired and in a rest home, but Father Nick was good enough to bring him. Our parish gave him a standing ovation that lasted quite a while. Afterwards there was a long line of parishioners to wait their turn to thank him, and wish him well. Both Lila and Ceci had served as alter servers for Father Larry.

Thank you Father Jimmy, you really hit a home run. A Grand Slam Home Run!

Volkswagen

2010-10-19T20:44:00.000-07:00

My first memories of being in a car were when I was 2 years old. My parents had a Volkswagen bug from the late 50's. I am assuming that it ran on 6 volts. What I remember most is that it had a reserve gas tank, so that when you were out of gas in one tank, you could turn a lever and it would switch over to the reserve tank. I thought that was so cool. The other thing I remember is that it was a rag top. My dad loved to drive with the top down. I was not so fond of it. You see we lived in an apartment off of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, California. When they drove around, I was often in the back seat freezing. Having the rag top down, was probably very comfortable in the front seat, but a blast of cold air was hitting this little kid who frequently wore short pants in those days.

My brother Dave was born in San Francisco. My folks saved up and bought a home in Hayward, where my sister Susan was born. By this time, we had a second car. I believe it was a Ford Galaxy 500 provided by the company my dad worked for. My dad was transfered to Glendora, California, where my brother Bob was born.

My mom drove the VW and we all piled in. No seat belts, no laws. By this time the heater was permanently stuck in the on position. Mom would go shopping with all of us. There were kids and groceries everywhere. Sometimes I would sit on the floor in front of the front passenger seat. Was I really ever that small?

Our family grew, and my grandmother bought us a brand new 1970 VW van. It was fire engine red. The VW Bug went to my cousin Nancy. Our family went all over in that VW van. One summer we went all the way across country and visited family in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New York and Oklahoma. I will never forget that trip.

My sister Becky was born. She never knew the original VW bug, but she sure new the VW bus. I graduated high school and the day after we moved to Pleasant Hill, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It was my 18th birthday and my present was a 1966 VW bug. This one used to be my cousin Nancy's, but it was not our original bug. I was so excited to have my own car. It was six volts and it was mine.

It was time to retire the VW bus. Our family bought a new blue VW Vanogon. I moved out on my own. I saved my money and bought a 1974 light blue Super Beetle. I loved that car. I got married and bought a white 1968 VW Bus. Carmen camped in that VW Bus in Reno and Las Vegas. With the arrival of our first born Lila, we decided that we wanted a new car. A car that we would not have to worry about breaking down, so we bought a brand new white VW Jetta.

The 1968 VW bus was at it's end. My mom wanted a new car and sold us her Vanogon. We got a lot of mileage out of that Vanogon before it was retired for a Van Conversion. The Jetta was replaced by another Jetta with air conditioning.

I have this friend named Josh. He drove around a blue VW bug that he bought from his dad. Josh's dad had bought the car new. When my sister Susan needed a car, I arranged for her to buy his 1968 blue VW Bug. My sister drove it for years. Eventually, she was ready for a new car and I bought the 1968 VW Bug. Ceci was born. My mother-in-law drove it the Bug. She took the kids to school, went shopping, but eventually it became time to buy a new car, a Saturn. The deal was, I would pay for the car as long as we could keep the Bug.

In the meantime, had a sever sprained ankle. I was in a brace for months. It was not able to drive a manual transmission, which the Jetta was. I traded it in for a Ford Taurus, which we still drive to this day.

The VW Bug sat in the garage for years. One day when Lila was in high school, she decided to take an Auto-body class. She asked if she could use the VW Bug for school and I agreed. School was over and it was time to pick up the Bug. They had done a lot of work on it, but there was a lot of work still to do. It only had primer on it. Almost no breaks, the back window was out, no signals. It was dangerous!

At this point, Ceci was now driving and I needed another car, so instead of buying another one, we decided to restore this one. I drove it to Miracle Paint and then to La Vere's. La Vere's restored VW's. First was safety, breaks, lights ...etc. Then was the engine, upholstery, windows, bumper, a new stereo. It was nice. The front license plate had rusted and broken into pieces. It was the old Black and Gold License plates. I found a place on the Internet that made fake plates and had a replacement made. I drove that bug to and from work for years.

Like many we have fallen on difficult economic times. Money is tight. After we returned from vacation, I went to take the Bug in for a valve adjustment, tune up, oil change ...etc. When I went to drive the car, the only brakes that worked was the hand brake. It was a dangerous journey to La Vere's. With the brakes, I knew the bill would be a lot, but when they called me, the estimate was very high. Too high. There was much more than brakes that needed replacing. Most of the car was over 40 years old.

Sadly, I called my wife and we accepted that we could no longer afford this car. I sold it to the mechanic for much less that I care to admit to. We are not replacing this car. We are simply learning to live without and work with each others schedules. Times are not what they once were, but we all miss that Bug. That car had only known two families.

A friend told me I would regret it. I did immediately, but I had not choice.

So long Buggie...

Venezuela Vacation 2010

2010-10-11T18:24:00.000-07:00

Back in 1981, I was working at the Hotel Durant as a front desk clerk. Two ladies from Venezuela checked in. Olga, was in 40's and her daughter Otibel was 21, same age as I was. In fact they had checked in on my birthday.

Olga had come to Berkeley to study at the University. Otibel was sent by her father to keep company and take care of her mother, as well as study English at the University. Eventually they moved into an apartment. During their one year stay, we all became very close.

After they returned to Venezuela, I visited them two years in a row. Once for one month, the second time for two weeks. Otibel's family was very nice to me. They treated me as a part of their family. On the last trip it was clear to me that things between Otibel and me were not to be.

After a time I met Carmen. We got married. I thought the right thing to do was to stop all communication between myself, Otibel and her family. After 26 years past, I got a request from Otibel to be her friend on Facebook. WOW, after so many years.

I accepted her as my Facebook friend. Months pass, and Otibel announces that she is getting married. She invited Carmen and myself to the wedding and even asked me to perform their wedding ceremony.

So off to Venezuela we went. Carmen admitted afterwards that she was very nervous, but as soon as we arrived Carmen and Otibel became fast friends. We spent much of the time preparing for the wedding. It was really a lot of fun. We stayed with Otibel and her fiancée in their apartment. Even though they were so busy, they always managed to do something for us. Whether it was to visit Hatillo, an old colonial town or visit their beach house. They took such good care of us.

One of the first things they did was take us to the house of Otibel's parents. I regretted not having staying in touch all these years. Earlier in the year, Olga almost left us. She is now permanently on oxygen. The hugs were long and intense. Her husband Paco had suffered a stroke some years ago and he was very emotional at seeing me after so many years.

As I said earlier, they had always treated me as family. I always thought it was because we were friends and that they were just kind because I was so young, but Paco explained it to me. His wife and only daughter were away in a foreign country thousands of miles away. I had taken care of them, protected them. I had never thought of it like that. His eyes were full of tears as he hugged me. For the first time, I understood really why I was part of their family. It took 26 years for me to understand this. Now it was all clear. I will filled with a wave of emotion. It was all I could do to keep control.

That day at Olga and Paco's house was fantastic. I had so many wonderful memories in that house. Otibel's brother Felix, his wife and two daughters were there. It was great to see Felix after all these years. He is like a brother. I feel sorry for Felix, because his daughters are too pretty! I think he needs a shot gun.

Felix was the master chef that evening and he prepared a wonderful dinner.

All the days we were in Venezuela were a lot of fun. We tried different foods such as the tropical fruits Lachosa (papaya), nispero, guava, guanabana, guayaba, rinon (chirimoya), parchita (maracuya) and even a banana native to Venezuela. We tried different foods from Venezuela such as arepas, cachapas and hallacas.

I was to perform the wedding ceremony in Spanish. I had done this once, years ago. It is not easy. It you studied Spanish in school, take a lot at the text below:

Familiares y amigos

Les doy la bienvenida hoy a presenciar el matrimonio de Guillermo y Olga.

Han compartido y han contribuido con sus vidas en el pasado, y al presenciar la ceremonia de su matrimonio hoy , Guillermo y Olga Otibel piden que compartan su futuro.

El matrimonio es una promesa que han hecho en los corazones de dos personas que se aman y que lleva a toda una vida de compromiso. Dentro del círculo de su amor, el matrimonio abarca todas las relaciones más importantes de la vida. La esposa y el marido son amantes, maestros, oyentes, críticos, y los mejores amigos.

En la cuidad (see eww dad) de Caracas, en el cual Guillermo y Olga Otibel desean contraer matrimonio.

Si alguno de los presentes puede mostrar alguna causa (cow saw) justa de por qué esta pareja no puede estar legalmente unidos, ahora debería declararlo, o en el futuro, guardar silencio. (Pause)

Guillermo y Olga Otibel por favor, frente a frente se dan la mano y se miran mutuamente:

Guillermo aceptas a Olga Otibel como tu esposa para amarla, honrarla, y cuidarla, en las buenas y en las malas, y serle fiel hasta que la muerte los separe?

Guillermo repeta conmigo por favor:

Yo Guillermo acepto a Olga Otibel como esposa * y prometo amarla, honrarla, y cuidarla * en las buenas y en las malas * y serle fiel (Fee El) hasta que la muerte nos separe.

Olga Otibel aceptas a Guillermo como tu esposo para amarlo, honrarlo, y cuidarlo, en las buenas y en las malas, y serle fiel hasta que la muerte los separe?

Olga Otibel repeta conmigo por favor:

Yo Olga Otibel acepto a Guillermo como esposo * y prometo amarlo, honrarlo, y cuidarlo * en las buenas y en las malas * y serle fiel hasta que la muerte nos separe.

Guillermo y Olga Otibel se han prometido el uno al otro ser buenos amigos y socios en el matrimonio. Para hablar y escuchar, confiar y cuidarse unos a los otros, y apoyarse en la comodidad, y la pobreza , que se refuerzan mutuamente a través de alegrías y tristezas de la vida. Que la promesa de compartir sus vidas juntas con esperanzas, pensamientos y sueños esten siempre entrelazadas entre el amor que los mantendra juntos. Este Nuevo hogar que se construye este lleno de respeto y honor, paz, felicidad y amor.

(RINGS)

El anillo es un símbolo de la unidad en la que sus dos vidas están ahora unidos en un círculo intacto; en la que, donde quiera que vaya, va a volver el uno al otro.

Guillermo repeta conmigo por favor:

Olga Otibel, te ofrezco este anillo como símbolo de mi amor y devoción

Olga Otibel repeta conmigo por favor:

Guillermo, te ofrezco este anillo como símbolo de mi amor y devoción.

[SONG]

Y ahora, que han hecho sus votos, cada uno con el otro, y han declarado los mismos por dar y recibir sus anillos

By the power invested in me by your friends from the state of California; and your friends and family here, I now pronounce you man and wife.

Yo los declaro marido y mujer.

Guillermo y Olga Otibel, se han besado una y mil veces, Pero hoy la sensación es nueva. se han convertido en marido y mujer, y hoy sus besos son una promesa.

Ahora pueden sellar su acuerdo con un beso.

Presentación:

Permítanme ahora presentar a ustedes la feliz pareja. La nueva familia Raven Ojeda

I studied night and day. Anytime we went somewhere, I took the print out with me and practiced the pronunciation.

We got to meet Guillermo's family. They could not have been nicer. We all became friends right away.

The day of the wedding arrives. The wedding was perfect. Otibel had worked so hard to make sure everything was just right. Otibel was a beautiful bride. Carmen was helping right down to the last minute. Otibel told Carmen that she had never had a sister... it was very emotional for both of them.

Otibel's aunt and uncle where there. I had fond memories of them and remembered their baby girl. Guillermo asked if I wanted to see the baby. I said sure and he introduced me to a beautiful 29 year old lady. It was so good to see them.

The reception was amazing. I have never heard of anything called the "Crazy Hour", but what an experience. I have never been to such a wonderful party. It was finally time to say goodbye. Otibel broke down in tears as she hugged Carmen. Carmen was fighting off her own tears and said "Don't do this to me".

Everyone was so wonderful to us, we can not thank them enough. I have to admit that I regret not having stayed in touch. Carmen and I have our Venezuelan family. We hope they can visit us sometime.

After the wedding we checked into a hotel. After all they were now honeymooners. The next day we all got together at Olga and Paco's. The last day in Venezuela, Felix picked us up at the hotel and took us to an amazing restaurant for lunch. It included four cocktails and a lot of meat, cheese and arepas. I get full just thinking about it.

The flight home was long. The memories will last a lifetime. I got back the family I had lost and Carmen gained a family. Both Carmen and I hope that the Raven Ojeda family will visit us in the USA and we look forward to seeing them again soon. Thank you so much. We love you!

Jimmy Vanessa - Hero!

2010-08-09T00:03:00.000-07:00

That is right! I'm talking about Jimmy Vanessa, Class Clown of Charter Oak High School class of 1978. I went to school with Jimmy Vanessa from first grade all the way through high school. There are times when I think the reason we graduated was because they needed our desk for someone else.

Jimmy and I were in Little League Baseball together. His dad was our coach. The first year was the Delaplane Truckers. Worst team ever. The following year was as Savage Mazada where somehow be became a much better team. Jimmy would go on to eventually play AAA ball.

So how does any of this make Jimmy a Super Hero? It doesn't. Fast forward 30 plus years. My wife and I are having breakfast with Jimmy and his dad. Interesting that Jimmy doesn't have to work on a Wednesday morning. Why? Because he is on Holiday. Turns out that Jimmy has been suspended by his employer "Stater Brothers". Why? No official word has been given.

On the day that Jimmy was suspended he was driving his rig when there was a terrible accident. He used his rig to keep people from driving into the accident and as requested by the Highway Patrol he helped direct traffic.

I'm thinking to myself, Stater Brothers would naturally want to take pride in their employee of 18 years. They would want to brag about him, give him a plaque, donate $50,000.00 to his favorite charity, but no. As the old saying goes "No Good Deed Will Go Unpunished". Jimmy made the newspapers, CNN, ABC ...etc. Instead of good press for Stater Brothers, they are getting just the opposite. Jimmy has been suspended and as a loyal friend, you won't see my shopping at Stater Brothers while Jimmy is suspended. How about you?

News Paper Article One PDF

News Paper Article Two PDF

A Week on the Road

2010-08-02T19:55:00.000-07:00

I travel a lot for my work. Some travel more than I do, but most don't. When you travel as much as I do you miss your family and your home. That is why it is always so much nicer when a member of my family is able to accompany me. This past week, my wife Carmen took vacation time off from her work so that she could be with me.

Monday night. I'm back from work and spend the rest of the evening packing. Carmen has packed her own suitcase, a bag of food and our plug in cooler. I have packed my suitcase, computer bag, the company booth, brochure rack and spare laptop.

Tuesday morning comes way too early. We get up, shower, dress and hit the road by 6:00am. We will be traveling down to Anaheim. It will take us 13 hours to reach our destination for dinner. We travel down 101 South and stop at eleven of our customers hotels. We eat both breakfast and lunch in the car as I am driving. We make good time until we head to the last hotel of the day in Hermosa Beach. Traffic comes to a crawl. Turns out there was an accident. Once we get clear It of it, we get to the hotel minutes after the GM left for the day. That means I will be returning to Hermosa beach tomorrow.

We arrive just before 7pm at the house of my childhood friend from school, Dean (Call) Lent. This is one amazing woman. Not only is she instrumental in putting on our high school reunions, but she has a family (village) of 8. That's right, her and her wonderful husband Tom have six children and they all live at home. They have a beautiful family and being a mom is more than a full time job. We enjoy a delicious dinner and great conversation, but now it is time to head to the hotel. We have had a long day.

We pull into the hotel where I made our reservations only to find that they oversold the hotel and have walked us to a hotel all the way in Long Beach. Did I mention that my meetings and conference are in Anaheim? We get there and even though the General Manager had assured us that the first night would be complimentary because of his mistake, the hotel in Long Beach knows nothing about this. Doesn't matter, I give them my credit card and we finally get into our room. When you travel as much as I do, you learn to roll with the punches. It is 10pm and we pass out.

Next morning waits for no one. It is bright and early. I get a call from another childhood classmate. It is Jimmy Vanessa. He thought it he could not get to the restaurant in Anaheim for breakfast until perhaps as late as 8:30, but he was wrong. There was no traffic and it is 7:30am and he is waiting for us. We quickly get ready, hop into the card and meet him at Marie Calendars. I never really had many if any classes with Jimmy in school. What we had in common was little league baseball. I was in little league for the first two years. Later I would discover that swimming was my sport. What was special about this breakfast was that Jimmy brought his dad. His name is Coach. I'm pretty sure this last name is Vanessa, but I don't think I actually ever knew his first name.

The first year we were on a team named Delaplane Truckers. Worst team in the history of Little League. We didn't win even one game. Besides Jimmy and myself, there was Craig Schaeffer, Danny Hancock. Richard Mendez was our catcher. Side note about Richard, he had the coolest hair cut ever. It was short on the top and long on the sides, just like the guy that rode the motor cycle in the movie Animal House. I can't remember the other members of the team. My best memory is of the last game. Coach took the worst players on the team, like me and asked us what position would we like to play. I got to play 3rd base. Usually I played center field where I would drop ever ball hit to me while I tried to use the basket catch cause I wanted to be like Willie Mays. So, I'm playing 3rd base and a line drive is hit right too me. I have never seen a ball travel this fast. I raise my glove and to my amazement, I actually catch it and try to run down the runner from 2nd base, but the short stop and 2nd basemen forgot to cover 2nd. I get back to my position and the 3rd base coach from the other team looks at me and says "Nice catch son". It is the best play I will ever do in baseball, and I will never forget it.

Following year, we will be on a team called Savage Mazda. We were not that bad. Jimmy was starting to become a real pitcher. He would eventually play AAA ball. There will be more on Jimmy in another blog entry. Did you know that Jimmy is a hero? It is true!

So we are all having breakfast, and it was so good seeing coach. He used to be taller. I learn for the first time that he was in the Marines. He arrived in Korea the day the war ended. We chat like there is no tomorrow and next thing you know, it is time to go. I have to visit the hotel in Hermosa Beach and then get to a board meeting in Anaheim.

There is a reason they are called "Board Meetings", but it should be spelled differently. We wrap up the meeting late and get over to the "Women in Hotels" reception. It is a small gathering. It is our first time doing this. We will improve it over time. Recognizing women in the Hotel Industry is very important to me.

Carmen and I go out to dinner with a friend of ours, then it is back to the hotel and to bed. The next day is the conference with educational seminars a lunch, trade-show, meeting, followed by a town-hall meeting and dinner. The town-hall and dinner was put on by AAHOA. Asian American Hotel Owners Association. The Indian hotel community. They have hired a comedian from their region (Gujarati) of India. He sat next to me until it was time for him to perform.

Tired and exhausted, we return to our hotel. Tomorrow we checkout and drive north to San Luis Obispo. On the way, just before Santa Maria, we stop and pick blue berries. They give us a small bucket. After we start picking, we realize just how huge that bucket really is. It takes a long time to pick blue berries, but we really enjoyed picking them.

We arrive in San Luis Obispo and checkin to the La Cuesta Inn. We are meeting the owner and a good friend, Cynthia Woods for lunch along with her husband and her long time friend Terri Raey. Lunch was fantastic. Not only was the food good, but I had not seen Cynthia and Terri for about 10 years. It was so good to see them again.

We get back to the hotel and enjoy the Jacuzzi. I want Carmen to relax. That is the point of her coming with me. We head back to the room and both of us fall asleep, but just for an hour. It is time to head up to Jennifer and Miles house. Jennifer used to work for me and I consider her a dear friend. She showed us her toes.

She is married and has 5 year old twin girls. They are so cute. They also have a son 12 and a daughter who is a teenager. Enough said. We enjoyed their house, garden, food, wine and conversation. Miles is a techie like me and so we got to chat about our Google phones. We are such nerds. It is 10:00pm. Where did the time go. We get back to our room and fall asleep.

Why does morning start so early? We race to shower, get dressed and over to McClintocks in San Luis Obispo. We are having breakfast with one of my long time great friends, Susie Norris and her family. Susie amazes me. She is such a fine human being. She started being a foster parent while she was still single. She takes children who have parents with serious drug addictions and has the patients of an angel. She takes such great care of those kids and so loving. She has adopted two of these children and today she and her husband are fostering a little girl. I love this woman dearly and consider myself lucky to have her as a friend. Time to take the kids to dance class and Carmen and I head back to the hotel to enjoy the jacuzzi and take a nap.

Next thing we know, it is time to head to my brother Bob's house. He lives with his long time girl friend and the house really looks wonderful. I wish we could visit more often. We should have brought our swim suites has they have installed a hot tub. They take us to dinner. The time flies by so quickly and it is time to return to the hotel. By the way, they are camera shy.

It is Sunday. We hit the road by 8:30 and drive home. We eat in the car. While we enjoyed spending time with our friends and family, it is so good to be back home with the rest of our family. Now you know what a week on the road is like for me. I will be at work the next day at 9am.

Boy Scout Reunion

2010-07-12T22:46:00.000-07:00

For my dad's birthday, I gave him a trip to Southern California to attend a Boy Scout reunion. I was in Las Vegas for a conference committee meeting. I drove down to Ontario and met with my friend Cyndi Riggle who is starting a Company called Sunshine Hospitality. Did I mention that I hate country music?

I was scheduled to pick up Cobos at 3:15, but her son Ben called to offer to pick her up. Next thing you know, Ben is in a meeting, so I went to pick up Cobos, her daughter and grandson. To my surprise, I picked up a Hillbilly!

Yes, that is right she lost her front tooth. This is the second time I have had a close friend lose their tooth. Cobos insisted I mention this.

My dad flew in at 6:30 and we headed over to Pinnacle Peaks to have dinner with a few friends.

Imagine the shock and surprise when the evil Judy Dahle came over and cut off the brand new ties that my dad and I were wearing and then hung them up on the wall for all to see our shame!

The next day we headed over to the Fisher's house for a reunion of the families that were in Boy Scout Troop 477. Our troop was called the "Eagle Machine". It isn't that us kids were anything special, it was that we had so many parents that cared and got involved. It really made a great difference in our lives.

The Fishers are such wonderful hosts. Besides the Fishers, there was their son Gerry and his kids, Mrs Johnson and her friend, the Browers, Tom Sargent, Tom Creasy my dad and myself. It had been over 33 years since we had been together. These are some pretty special people.

Later that night, some of us from COHS got together at the Black Watch Pub in Upland. It was great until the music started. Next time we meet at the pizza parlor! I don't actually have any pictures of this event, so consider the following a reenactment. Oh look, there is Melinda and Gary! You see a reenactment is just like the real thing.

The next morning we drove out to have breakfast with my brother Dave at Jerry's in Studio City. Breakfast was great, but my brother's radiator hose wore out and my dad lost his credit card. Other than that it was perfect!

It was a great trip, but I am really glad to be home!

The Chicago Bears

2010-06-25T21:34:00.000-07:00

June has been a month of travel. Ceci went on a road trip with her friend to Disneyland. She got a very good deal where she could stay for five days at the cost of three. I told her to go ahead. I remember how special Disneyland is when you are young. Unfortunately this meant that she would arrive home in the evening on the same day that I flew out for Chicago and then Orlando. It is the first time that I have been away from Ceci for that long (three weeks).

Carmen and I headed to Chicago via Southwest airlines. I think it is the first direct flight I have had this year and I was glad to have it. We flew out with Scott and Erika Williford. Our flight left very early, but it arrived early in Chicago, so after we checked in, we all headed over to Hot Doug's for Chicago's best hot dogs. Bon Appetite magazine rated Hot Doug's as one of the top 50 restaurants on the planet. Anthony Bourdain admitted that it was better than any hot dog he had eaten in New York.

We were lucky, when we arrived there was no line. They played only Beatles music while there and we had the classic Chicago Red Hot for less than $2.00 each. Scott had the polish sausage and o one went for the rattle snake sausage. These hot dogs are amazing.

Later that evening, Scott and I attended a reception for AAHOA. After all, we were there to work and our families were there to vacation. The next morning was work for us, but Lila flew out on her own to join us. She had to stay one more day for school. That evening we visited a Chicago Classic, Gino's East. The line went around the building, but it was worth it. Chicago deep dish pizza was so filling we could only eat one piece each. We did save room for the cannelloni which we shared. Such great food!

That day was Scott and Erika's anniversary, and they took off to the Hancock building and a romantic dinner and from all accounts it was a perfect evening for them.

The ladies enjoyed Chicago, and the men worked. There was a terrible storm and when we all arrived at the Silver Palm, another Anthony Bourdain suggestion, we found they had no electricity.

Next day after work, we went to the Silver Palm where I had a Schlitz Beer and Carmen and I split the "Three Little Pigs" sandwich, this sandwich contains bacon, egg, ham and a deep fried pork loin. The dining room was a converted 1941 railroad dining car.

We all hooked up with some friends at the Second City Comedy Club, which has been open for over fifty years and has an amazing list of alumni including the original Saturday Night Live - Not Ready for Prime Time Players. Scott had been good enough to book the reservations and it was probably the highlight of the trip.

The final day before departure, Lila and I went to see the Chicago Cubs play the Anaheim (ok Los Angeles) Angels. This is true living history. It is very cool that some of the buildings next to the stadium have their own stands.

Since Lila had arrived after Hot Dougs, we went and got some hot dogs from here as well as their famous french fries, fried in duck fat which are only served on Friday and Saturday.

The next day, we all headed to the airport. Lila got up extra early to make her flight. Carmen, Scott and Erika headed back to Oakland while I headed to Orlando for the Hitec show. I am very happy to be home.

Fathers Day

2010-06-13T21:31:00.001-07:00

Today is Sunday, June 13th and for most everyone Fathers Day this year is Sunday June 20th. The problem is that Carmen, Lila and myself will be in Chicago catching a plane on the 20th. Carmen and Lila will be flying home and I will be continuing on to Orlando for the Hitec conference, so we decided to hold Fathers Day today.

The entire family was not able to attend. First Ceci had already made plans for a girls trip to Disneyland and it would have been fair to ask her to cancel it. My brother David and my sister Susan and her family could not make it. Still Mom and Dad (or Grandpa and Grandma depending on who you are) were here as well as Becky and even Bob drove up from Morro Bay.

I BBQ'd a classic. Hamburgers and Hot Dogs. We had home made relish, salsa and plum sauce. The plum sauce is excellent on vanilla ice cream.

It was a very hot day today, but we managed to stay cool. I sent an air conditioner with Bob to install at moms house. She still has bees. She may have to call the bee guy out again. Stay tuned for further developments.

Mom Has Bees

2010-05-21T23:11:00.001-07:00

I'm at work yesterday and just after 4:00pm dad calls. He said that the police called him because the alarm at my mom's home went off. He called and there was no answer.

I collect my things and get in my 1968 VW Bug and drove to her house. Two thoughts kept going through my mind. One was I hope she is okay and the second was I hope this more than 40 year old car makes it!

I arrive at mom's house. She is inside with a friend of hers. She explains that the bees were all around her, she panicked and went out the back sliding glass door without turning off the alarm, so it naturally it went off. After she was able to collect herself, she called the police to let them know and so they never actually showed up at the house.

Sure enough there are bees all over the kitchen and living room. Turns out they went down the chimney. Apparently this has happened before and they had the chimney blocked off. That means we can not start a fire to get rid of them.

I'm wondering why my mom is still in the house with all of the bees. While I'm looking through the yellow pages for "Bee Removal", she decides to get a drink of water. The bees decided they wanted the water and she got stung. At this point I insisted that she get out of the house.

Her friend takes her to In N Out for hamburgers and I call the Bee Remove guy. He shows up, checks out the inside, then goes up on the roof and confirms that they are getting into the chimney. Turns out that while it was blocked off, the chimney is old and there are gaps in the mortar and the bees are getting in through the gaps.

He vacuums most of the bees out of the house and we do our best to block the fireplace with some screening. You can actually hear the bees buzzing pretty loudly. If the bees don't leave on there own in a couple of days, then we will bring the Bee guy back. It won't be cheap.

Oso Visits Magnolia

2010-04-29T18:23:00.000-07:00

I was on a flight from Oakland to Baltimore for work. I had to switch planes in Albuquerque New Mexico. Some long time friends of ours Katy (Magnolia) Sheridan and her husband Marlin live in Albuquerque, so I decided to call them when I landed. Magnolia answered the phone and was she surprised! Then she said "I am only 10 minutes from the airport. Can I come over and visit". My flight was scheduled to leave in exactly 1 hour. In the old days this would not have been a problem. They could have come over and we could sit in the lounge, enjoy a drink and enjoy each others company. The problem is that you can no longer enter through security unless you have a boarding pass. That meant in order for us to visit, I would have to exit the secure area and go through security again. I asked if 10 minutes meant 10 to 20 minutes. She assured me it meant 10, so I agreed to meet them.

I was sitting waiting for them to arrive when Magnolia comes running through the door. I think she did a "tuck and roll" as Marlin slowed the car down. Anyway, Magnolia and I greeted each other with a great big *osohug*. A few minutes later, after parking the car Marlin joined us.

We caught up on what each of our families are doing. It is always a great thing when everyone is doing well. I must say that I really admire their son Edward, who helps farm workers without receiving any salary at all!

In no time at all 20 minutes had passed, we took a couple of pictures and said our goodbyes.

I went through security. Seems like I always warrant extra searching. This time it was my backpack. I was pretty sure there was nothing bad inside. I do have lots of gadgets such as cables, power supplies, cameras and other computer junk and I often get searched.

They did a manual search and took everything out and could not find anything wrong. They then put the contents into one bin and the backpack into another bin and scanned them both. This time they searched the backpack again and down at the bottom of the black bag was a small knife, fork and spoon set in a black nylon sheath. I couldn't believe it. Wonder how many security scans it went through before anyone discovered it. I said I would have to throw it out as I did not have enough time to mail it. The security person said I could have the fork and spoon after she confirmed they are safe. I asked if I could have the sheath and she gave that to me as well. I love that knife, fork and spoon set. What a bummer. Perhaps someone has lost the fork, spoon and sheath and would like to make a deal?

Turns out I just made my plane and yes I was the very last person on board, but it was worth it. I have not seen these wonderful friends in many years and really missed them. I hope they will come visit soon.

Greenfest San Francisco Spring 2010

2010-04-10T23:22:00.000-07:00

I have been going to the Greenfest in San Francisco for several years now. In past years it was in Fall. This year it will be in November again, but they added a Spring Show close to Earth Day.

The Greenfest is held in San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago and Washington, DC. I find it curious that it is not held in Los Angeles, which going really use some greening. How about Dallas, Denver and Miami or Orlando?

I enjoy Greenfest. It is close enough to where I live. It is the largest collection of Green minded vendors that I have come across. That and a combination of educational seminars makes it a wonderful event. There is a certain spirit, enthusiasm that is invigorating.

There were several things I noticed right away. The festival was for only two days (Saturday and Sunday) where in the past it had been three (Friday, Saturday and Sunday). It was also clear that there were significantly fewer vendors. This space was taken up by more seminars, which could be a very good thing. Finally, there weren't quite as much give-aways as there had been in the past. Cliff bar still had a huge booth, but there were giving out pieces of bars, which they do every year, but this year they were not handing out sample bars.

Funds are tough this year, but I really want to continue down the green path. I would very much like to do something solar at my house. I am considering either solar water heating or solar electricity. While I would love to be solar and off the grid, that just isn't going to happen in the near future. What is most likely is solar with no upfront cost. I basically pay what I am paying for electricity now, but pay it to the people that put in the solar panels. That would be a green step in the right direction and it would guarantee that my power costs would not increase for the duration of the contract.

I did not attend any seminars. I was not interested in most of the topics and the ones I was interested were not at times that worked for me.

Most of my education tends to come from the vendors themselves. Seeing the new creative products and services. This year some of my favorites were bowls and plates made from fallen palm leaves by leaf-ware.com and silverware made from birch by birchware. The toilet with sink that uses the water before it enters the toilet to wash your hands is always a favorite. There is a company that has a store in Richmond, near where I live that has some serious rain barrels, that piqued my interest, but I think my all time favorite this year was the paper made from elephant crap. Fortunately, they were not making paper plates!

There is one booth that provided me with information that I plan to use right away. 1 800-EXHAUST (1-800-394-2878). I have loaded this into the speed dial on my cell phone. When I see a car spewing out all sorts of smoke, I will turn them in. Not only can you call in, but you can email them at exhaust@baaqmd.gov and they have a website www.1800exhaust.org

Not all of the vendors provided me with an education. I found this one very entertaining.

There is an element of friendliness and fun that I just don't see at a lot of other festivals or conferences. Live music was often being performed. There is nothing quite like live music.

Some of the vendors really got your attention. This one did not have a booth. I really frown on vendors not renting a booth yet working a show. I have to admit, she was pretty clever. She was promoting a machine that created water. It is basically a huge dehumidifier. I'm not sure how green this is. It uses a lot of electricity. I guess if you have enough solar power and water is scarce.

There is so much more I want to write, but I will end with two of my own Green Tips:

1) Next time you buy a computer, consider a netbook. I use one by Asus. Today it got over 6 hours on the batter. They use so much less power. Just make sure that you get one that supports a screen resolution of 1024 x 768 or greater.

2) Get an inverter for your car. When you drive, charge your laptop. I am assuming that you already charge your cell phone when you drive.

Easter 2010

2010-04-04T21:08:00.000-07:00

This year four generations met for Easter at my cousin Nancy's house in Sutter Creek, California. Her and her husband Mark did such a great job. The food was wonderful and they made everyone feel at home. I have to admit that I felt bad. I'm not sure Nancy got to relax for even one minute.

We started off with an Easter Egg Hunt. Jake, Anthony, Angel and Terra with baskets in hand left no stone unturned.

Jennifer and her son Anthony were there.

We managed to get a group picture, but not until after Terra, her father and step mother had left.

We finally got to meet Hank's girlfriend Sue. She was nice enough to take the group pictures.

Condeleezza Rice

2010-04-04T20:57:00.000-07:00

Monday, Carmen and I got tickets to see and interview of of Condeleezza Rice followed by a recital with Condi playing piano and Denise Young singing.

I hate George Bush, but did not know how I felt about Condeleezza Rice. I went in with an open mind. This was a fund raiser for "Friends of Faith". Condi talked about her childhood in Selma Alabama, her life in Denver Colorado and a bit about her time in the Bush Administration; but the focus was on her mothers battle with breast cancer. She read an excerpt from her book which will be coming out this year.

Condi has no desire to be in politics. She works with the Boys and Girls Club of America.

She then played piano while Denise Young sang. Condi will be touring with Aretha Franklin. I think that is pretty cool.

I still don't know much about her political views, but I do admire what I heard.

RSA Data Security Conference at the Moscone Convention Center

2010-03-05T13:09:00.000-08:00

I have spent most of this week March 2-5 at the RSA Data Security Conference.

Wow what an eye opener. I am sure of one thing, even in this economy, there is a lot of money in data security. Either being a good guy or a bad guy. Seems that even if you are not skilled in technology you can hire people to do this.

It is no longer the case the people hack into large systems just to cause trouble. Now the target companies, governments and now individuals. That is right, so make sure you don't piss off the wrong person.

I've been told that the Russians are really good at breaking in and the Chinese are very good at identifying the valuable data, and the list goes on.

In understanding the problem, one has to understand how these hackers break in, so now I'm on the list of people you should not piss off! LOL

The highlight of the conference was the booth that had hired a world champion sumo wrestler.

Yes, that is me wrestling the champion sumo wrestler, no I'm not wearing the traditional garb and no I did not win. My shoulder is still sore!

Adventures in Southern California

2010-01-30T15:45:00.000-08:00

On the way in, we stopped by Gary Dahle's house. His wife Judy will not be able to make the dinner tonight and we wanted to see her while we were down here. They had never met Carmen. We chatted, Judy played the mandolin, we traded some jam for some plum sauce and they gave us an extra pressure caner that they had. Thank you Judy and Gary. The time passed so quickly and before you knew it, it was time to leave.

We stayed at the house of Melinda Race. She is a dear sweet woman, who embraces the meaning of hospitality. Her generosity knows no bounds. I have known since grammar school. This time we got to met her other daughter. Melinda has a beautiful family.

Saturday morning, we got up way to early. We headed over to Yoyo's. Yoyo is a friend from Peru. She made us a delicious breakfast and we enjoyed chatting with her.

Carmen and I both got off early so that we could drive down to southern California. We left at 11:15 and got in just after 7:00pm. We made really good time until we were on the I210 East and got to the tunnels in Pasadena, then we crawled the rest of the way. If is funny how the diamond lane is often not as fast as the regular lanes.

(This picture was stolen from Grant Jones)

Next we headed over to Lee and Judy Fisher's house. Waiting there was another friend Cecil Brower. The Fishers and Browers are families that we were very close to. I went to school with their kids, we were in Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts together. Our families spent a lot of time together. Both Lee and Cecil were very active in Scouts and attribute many good lessons that I learned to their efforts. There should be more people in this world like them.

We chatted about old times and where everyone was now and how they are doing. Next time I visit, I need to bring my dad. One of Lee Fisher's favorite quotes by my dad is "It isn't easy being a Webelo”..

While Mr. Brower still lives in his house in Glendora with is wife, Lee and Judy no longer live in their 5 bedroom house in Glendora. They now live in a beautiful 3 bedroom house in Rancho Cucamunga near one of their sons.

Next we visited COBOS (Diana Campbell), her daughter Zoe and her grandson Logan. What a cutie. He is a babe magnet and we took some short videos which are posted on Facebook. Can we say Facebook here?

That evening Melinda, Cobos, Carmen and I headed over to Honolulu Harry's for a mini reunion. The reunion was planned by Grant Jones of 1979 and open to all years, which has become the tradition. I think it was the best one so far. There was live music, yet everyone could hear. The prices were very reasonable, the food was pretty good and the seating worked very well.

(This picture was stolen from Pearl Sittrop)

I thought I was going to a COHS mini reunion and I was. I saw many friends that I always enjoy seeing such as Melinda Race, Judy Zeiter, Bill Hicks, Sonya Conn, Gary Dahle, Craig Schaeffer and many others, but my family was very active in Boy Scouts (BSA). Earlier this morning I spent time with some wonderful people from Boy Scouts, but imagine my sheer delight when two Eagle Scouts, Tom Sargent and Albert Funfstuck where there. Tom's dad was another one of those parents that were very involved. Until that day, I had not seen anyone from Boy Scouts in 30 years these two made for a total of five in one day. WOW.

(This picture was also stolen from Pearl Sittrop)

There were quite a number of people that showed up that have not made other reunions and so again it had been over 30 years since I had seen them. One such person was Jim Vanessa. Jim and I had played Little League Baseball together. Our very first team was the Delephane Truckers. Worst team ever! The following year we did quite a bit better as Savage Mazda. Naturally we had no idea what a Mazda was at the time or how to pronounce it. Jim's dad was our coach. He was one of those great parents that really make a difference. It was so good to see Jim after so many years. In case you don't know Jim, Jim was funny. He still is! We had a riot!

Carmen and I are very grateful for Melinda putting us up at her place and I am grateful to Grant Jones for putting this mini-reunion together. It was First Class!

Avatar

2010-01-10T20:57:00.000-08:00

Today Carmen, Lila, Kike and myself went to see Avatar. Normally I wouldn't write about seeing a movie in our blog, but there were some special circumstances that made this memorable. We had just laid to rest Uncle Don only the day before yesterday and it was good for us to do something to take our minds off of this loss and start to get back to normal.

I had a lot of doubts about this movie. I had heard mixed reviews from friends. I am not an incredible fan of James Cameron. I have found his movies, such as Titanic, to go on way too long. One friend compared it to Lord of the Rings, which I found totally boring despite many attempts to like this series of films.

I had decided that if we were going to see Avatar, we would see it on the Imax in 3D. I looked up the times on Fandango, but did not book the tickets. That was a mistake. The theater is in Dublin, California, which is a good 45 minutes from our house. Once we got there, we found out that they were sold out for the 3D Imax until 10pm, so we decided to watch the movie in 3D, but not on Imax. Next time I want to see something in Imax, I'm going to book my tickets in advance.

We had some time, so we decided to get something to eat at Fuddruckers. Besides beff, they have hamburgers made out of Bison, Ostrich and now Venison. I had to have it. I can now say that I have eaten Bambi.

The theater is the Regal Hacienda Crossings 21 & Imax. The theater was fantastic, the screen was very big, but the most impressive part was that the men's room has waterless urinals. Win one for the Green side!

3D can be annoying, this wasn't. Seems 3D technology has come a long way. There were none of the gimmicks in this movie of having things fly right at the audience. This was just a movie that happened to be in 3D and it enhanced the viewing experience. I was worried that Carmen who wears glasses would have difficulties, but that was not the case. How soon before 3D TV's hit the market.

This movie was amazing. I not only enjoyed the visuals, but thought it was a great story. The only movie I have ever enjoyed more was Star Wars when it first came out back in 1977. We all enjoyed this movie, so four thumbs up from the Bears.

Donald Robert Bear Laid to Rest

2010-01-08T19:30:00.001-08:00

Today started at 11:30 with a viewing of my Uncle Don. He passed away earlier in the week at home at the age of 80. Today was a day filled with sorrow and pain, but also joy and unity.

There were bouquets and wreaths of flowers everywhere. The Bear Family is a very large and close family. Bears poured in from all over the west coast; but it wasn't just family. Friends were everywhere. Don was loved by all that knew him. He lived his life the way most of us wish they could. He did not drink, smoke, curse or brag and he was the most honest person I have ever known.

By the time the service started, the chapel was filled and there were people standing long the wall. His son Don, gave the eulogy. He did a wonderful job and there was not a dry eye anywhere. It was time for members of the family to speak, both his older bother Charles, nicknamed Puzz and his younger brother Jim spoke eloquently. I spoke for our family. There was no shortage of family members to wanting to express their love for our dearly departed Uncle Don. There were stories about fishing, cars, and wonderful woman named Marion, his wife. One theme that continued throughout was Don's amazing selflessness.

The service ran long because of all the people who wanted to speak in praise of Uncle Don. We proceeded from the memorial service to the funeral. My brothers and I were privileged with being pallbearers. After the body was lowered, the funeral portion was over.

We all headed to First Church of the Nazarene, were Don had been an active member for almost 50 years. There we looked at pictures of Don during his life, we ate, we told storied. We promised to stay in touch and we said our goodbyes. I am lucky to be part of such a large and wonderful family. I really got to know Don's wife, Kathy for the first time. I had not seen his children since they were both in strollers and now they are young adults. I had not seen Ralph in almost 35 years. We lost one of the strongest links in our family, but we pulled together and supported each other. We are stronger than ever.

It was a beautiful celebration of the life of a dear man.

Donald Robert Bear

2010-01-04T15:04:00.000-08:00

Click on Images to Enlarge

Donald Robert Bear passed away, Sunday January 3, 2010 around 4:00pm at home. The cause of death is Leukemia. He is survived by his wife, 2 daughters, 1 son and three grandchildren.

On Friday, January 8, 2010 there will be a viewing starting at 11:00am and a memorial service at 1:30pm at the Chapel of the Chimes located at 32992 Mission Blvd, Hayward, CA 94544-8257
(510) 538-3131

Don and Grandma Grimm

Puzz, Grandma Bear and Don

The Bear Family is Complete

Family on Vacation

Don and Marion

His Own Family

The Kids Start their Families

Don, Marion, Louise and Ted

Puzz, Don, Mary and Jim

Family Reunion 2009 at Nancy and Mark's House/Winery

A Hike

2009-12-27T16:54:00.000-08:00

Some months ago, a very dear friend and famous COHS personality (COBOS) stopped by to visit while on her book signing tour. I took her for one of my favorite hikes in the hills above where I live. I figured this would be a quick hike and I would not bring a back pack therefore I would not need hiking boots. During the descent on the Eagles Nest Trail it was pretty steep and I gave Cobos tips on how to handle the steep grade.

We are about 3/4's the way down and the phone rings. I stop to answer it. The grade is very steep, and the ground is covered with Eucalyptus leaves and bark making it very slippery. I'm holding the phone and the water bottle and decide to switch hands. Keep in mind that I am standing still, I'm not hiking. All of a sudden, my left foot takes off sliding down the hill. Unfortunately, the right foot tried to stay behind, but ended up twisting over itself and getting crushed as I feel down full force on top of myself. The snapping and popping that I heard was not all bark and branches. I know call this infamous site "Bears Landing".

I ended up with a severely sprained ankle and a very sore Achilles heel. See the picture?

I was on crutches for months. Today I decided it was time to take back the trail. This time I wore proper hiking boots (smart), but went hiking alone (not smart) and used a walking stick (smart). It was just me, the fog and the cows. It was a great hike.

I finished the hike, my wife Carmen picked me up. We went over the Lakeridge Athletic Club for a shower (needed), and soak in the Jacuzzi and another shower. It was very relaxing, the trail is mine!

New Year's Resolution 2010

2009-12-26T23:32:00.000-08:00

Here are my resolutions for 2010:

Play in the COHS alumni waterpolo game.

Seeing more COHS friends.

Keep another 5-10 pounds off.

Get more active: Hiking or swimming.

Get more active: Helping other people.

Improve our financial situation (reduce debt)

Canning: Trade with more people that can; add to what I make: salsa, speghetti sauce, soup. Add to methods of canning such as freezing and using wax

Be More Green - this is way to general so I want to accomplish some of the following:

Plant a tree

Plant more vegetables: tomatoes, onions and garlic, ginger, herbs

Increase the number of LED lights in use.

Better composting

Let fruit we grow go to waste.

Merry Christmas Everyone

2009-12-21T21:09:00.001-08:00

This year has had its up and down moments. We lost Tia (aunt) Leone just after she landed here to visit us from Peru. She worked hard all her life and was a very special member of our family.

The economy has been very tough for many and we are no exception, but my sister Becky bought a house in Hayward near Castro Valley. It even has a view of the bay.

Carmen got to accompany me on a business trip to Washington DC and had a wonderful time. We got to visit Amelia and her folks Sally and David Ames. Back home Lila broke her foot.

June arrived and Lila got her AA. It was a very proud moment for all of us. At this stage in her life, it seems like she has been in school forever.

The West Coast Bears had a family renuion at Nancy and Marks House/Winery in Sutter Creek. It was really nice. They produce a great wine. The weather was California beautiful and we got to spend time with family that we had not seen in quite some time.

I ended up going to Niagra Falls for work. The falls are spectacular, but I also enjoyed going to the Anchor bar, where Buffalo Wings were invented.

Carmen and I enjoyed a number of concerts: Van Morrison, Rod Stewart, Creedance Clearwater Revisited. Love that classic rock. During my work, I also got to see Kool & the Gang.

I went to Las Vegas to attend the opening of World Series of Poker. I got to spend time with our nephew Carlos who happened to be there with the airforce. Lila flew in the next day and we got to meet many of the famous poker players that we enjoy watching on TV. We also saw the Beatles Love show at the Mirage. What an amazing experience.

Ceci has been with the same boyfriend for over 4 years now. She is attending college studying to be a nurse. She is working at an animal care clinic and now we have four dogs. Four dogs. I never imagined that we would have four dogs. Did I mention that I have four dogs. We love Ceci despite having four dogs.

I had the privileged of officiating at the weddings of two dear couples: Gabriel and Melanie and Carl and Laurenne. It was a great honor and I wish them all many happy years.

I have always considered myself a swimmer and this year I experienced one of the great swimming experiences of my life. My friend Susie Norris invited me to go swimming at Hearst Castle. It is an amazing pool. No chlorine, perfect temperature not to mention how beautiful it is. Her husband and I were the only ones to be able to swim the length of the pool under water without coming up for air.

I had gone 25 years or more not seeing any of the people I went to school with, but this year I ended up in Southern California more than usual and held a series of lunches where I got to spend time with the people I grew up with. These events were very special to me. The highlight was the Chater Oak High School Alumni Waterpolo Match; something I will never forget.

There were two major visits of family from Peru. The first was very sad with the passing of Tia Leone. The second was in December and revolved around Edgardo's 90th birthday. Edgardo is Carmen's dad, and he doesn't look anywhere near 90. We are very fortunate that our children have grown up with their grandparents.

Our nephew Carlos Left for Korea where he will be stationed for one year, followed by three years in Okinowa. We hope to be able to visit him at least once. He will visit us once a year.

While the economy really sucked this year, our family has never been closer. We are grateful for all of our friends and family that have touched our lives. We wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

The Bears

P.S. We choose this method of sending Christmas Cards as what will likely be our last "Green" act of the year.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

2009-12-21T20:52:00.001-08:00

We usually set up the Christmas Tree and put up the Christmas lights in early December. This year we had family from Peru and while we (Ceci and her boy friend) put up the lights outside, there was not enough room to put up the tree.

About a week ago, everyone returned to Peru, but now both girls are working and school and it is almost to find a time when everyone was home together, so I finally decorated the tree. I used the Red and White LED lights as shown in the picture above.

Ceci got home and let it be known that she did not think very much of the Red and White lights. I get in the car and head on over to the Home Depot, but they only had White LED lights. As I was starting to leave the parking lot, I noticed Big Lots and decided to give it a try. I got their last four boxes of colored LED lights and you can see the difference in the picture of the tree below.

One thing I really like about the tree is that I did not use our standard ornaments. Instead most are one of a kind, or hand made ornaments. One of my favorites is the Bear ornaments made by hand by COBOS. There is one for each of the four Bears: Carmen, Lila, Ceci and me.

Ed's Christmas/Birthday List

2009-12-17T21:32:00.000-08:00

Here is my second annual Christmas/Birthday Wish List:

A Big Hug
Solar Garden Lights
Hat with built in solar powered fan
Kit that converts the top of the toilet into a sink
Rain barrel
2 Varieties of Blueberry Shrubs
Tesla Electric Car
World Peace

A New Tree for the Bears

2009-11-29T18:04:00.000-08:00

I spent a lot of time working on the tree I cut down and still have a lot more work to do. I have decided that we must plant another tree, but am having a difficult time deciding what kind of tree to plant. Here are the ones that I have put on the final list:

Cherry - So far this is in first place. I have some bush cherries, but I need a tree to produce enough cherries to make a good jam and maybe even cherry pie. I need one that is self polinating so they will be smaller cherries. The larger variety need two trees for polination. I made cherry jam once, and it was delicious. One of my favorites.

Olive - Most everything I do gets made into Jam. It would be nice to have something that would be different. Canned black or green olives. Dare I try to make Olive Oil? That could be awesome. Some of the best bread I have ever had was at a restaurant called Roti. It was a whole wheat sourdough bred with black olives and walnuts.

Apricot - During the first 5 years of my life, my grandmother lived in a house with her husband. She had a huge apricot tree. She made apricot jam and it was delicious. I love pastry with apricots. They sell the fruit in stores, but it is not as good as they pick them too early.

Walnut - I love walnuts. They are my favorite kind of nut and covered with chocolate, wow! I also use them in scones, cakes ...etc. But I have a friend that is giving me a lot of walnuts so I guess I don't really need that either.

Avocado - A good friend of mine has one of these trees, and will give me all the avocados I want, so I don't really need this.

Banana - I would love a banana tree, but it gets too cold and the frost kills them. I think we would have to grow it in a pot and bring it inside during winter.

It would be nice if I could plant two trees, but that would really eliminate a lot of space in the back yard. I still want to add blue berries and grow all the vegitables that we grow each year such as tomatoes, potatoes, onions, garlic, chili peppers ...etc

Did I mention that we raise chickens and have our own supply of fresh eggs? They taste really good. We have also raised Turkeys in the past, and I would like to do it again next year.

Church Appreciation Dinner

2009-11-15T16:58:00.001-08:00

My mom called me and asked if I would like to go to the church's service appreciation dinner. I said "I would not LIKE to go, but I will". LOL I go to so many banquets for work, but I love my mom, so I guess I'm going.

Mom is a Eucharistic Minister and is a member of a ministry. I think it has to do with Father Serra, which I really don't know anything about. So I'm off to the dinner, which my daughter Lila would really have liked to have gone to, instead of me. I felt the same way. She just joined a couple of ministries, the choir being one of them. I think the choir is a ministry.

Anyway, my mom meets me at the church. I think she was probably an hour early and wants to be the last to leave. After all, there will be dancing tonight. My mom warns me that it is a semi formal event, so I have my suit and tie on.

When I arrive, I notice that there are two key people that seemed to be responsible for putting on the dinner. Both are members of the Knights of Columbus and are in their mid to early twenties. One is a friend of Lila's, his name is Ugoeze Ofoegbu. He is not African American, he is actually African. His dad is a tribal chief in Nigeria.

I am right on time, yet my mom has been there for a while. I give her a hug and sit down. Naturally being the proud mom she is, she has to introduce me to all of her friends. It is at this point that I notice that even though I am going to be 50 next year, I'm one of the youngest people at the dinner.

There are a number of speeches, singing and prayers followed by dinner. Dinner was actually pretty good. After dinner there are awards, followed by more speeches, prayers ...etc. After they get everyone that received an award, they announce that they are to be honored with their spouses to have the first dance. I'm thinking it will be a waltz or something. After all, the average age looks to be about 75. I was wrong.

The music starts and the first dance is to be "Celebration" by "Kool & the Gang". Now this is definitely not a "Disco Era" gang by any stretch of the imagination. Ugoeze is the one that gave instructions about the music. He was born in the mid 80's so to him, the 70's is old music. After all it was before he was even born. To him that is old, but these people were already old in the 1970's.

The old folks don't shy away. Maybe they should have, but they didn't. It was not a pretty sight and even Father Jimmy, Sister Angela and Father Nick got up and danced together. I managed to get a video of this if they ever give me any problems. Seeing these people dance like this will require some therapy on my part, but I am sure I will recover. I will say that they should probably think twice about serving wine next time.

I danced a number of times with my mom and she danced with a number of old guys. I don't know them, but they are old guys. She said I was a good sport, so I guess I did my duty.

I almost forgot to mention. Everyone got to keep their wine glass. On one side was an etching of the church, the other side had the date of the event. My mom had to snag a second glass. I knew she would.

Green Festival

2009-11-13T21:36:00.000-08:00

Today I went to the Green Festival in San Francisco. My daughter, Lila, took me to the El Cerrito del Norte station in our Ford Escape Hybrid. I got off at the Civic Center Bart Station and walked to 8th and Brannon. It is just under a mile each way and I was working my hiking boots. This is important cause this is the longest walk I have done since I sprained my ankle. I really felt it on the way back.

It seems over the last year, that there are less conferences, expos ... etc. that focus on being green. There is the local Earth Day event in Richmond, but there were a lot more a year or so ago. I think they are important. It is a great way to get educated and inspired. I learn a lot every time and it makes me want to do better.

This year you could bring five cans of food instead of paying the $15 entry fee. I would have done that, but they did not post it on their web site. Last year it was three cans. You don't save any money, but it sure does some people a lot of good. Paying by donating canned food is my favorite method of payment. I still didn't have to pay $15, I got a five dollar discount for taking BART.

There were Circus Soleil performers out front while we waited in line to buy our tickets. That was a special treat. I wanted to get a short video, but I didn't want to loose my place in line.

One of the booths calculate how much impact your trip to the festival is and how much it would cost to offset using carbon credits. Since most of my trip was via BART, they calculated heavy rail. It came out to 3o cents. Just for fun, they calcualated what it would have been if I had driven. Funny enough, it was actually worse for me to take BART than drive. So then they decided to try and recalculate using the commuter train setting. It still would have been better to have driven the Ford Escape Hyrbid. Strange when you take into consideration that they gave me a $5 dollar discount for taking BART instead of driving. I don't know if the program was right, but it makes one think.

It was a full festival. Many drawings for prizes and I entered all of them. Hope I win. The samples were plentiful, wonderful food (chocolate is a food, right), fruits, drinks and more.

Here is one of the new technologies and space savers is this toilet/sink combination. I want one!

One of my favorite things was a lady wearing bags, to show how much goes into landfill for every person that shops every year. I thought it illustrated the point very well.

Some of my favorite companies are Green Zebra and Zip Car. They were there in force and I made a point of stopping by.

Saw my friends at 3prong. They have moved from their location on San Pablo Road inside the Green Motors facility. They are now on fourth street.

One thing that I noticed was just how nice and polite everyone was. It really makes a different and helps to put a smile on your face.

After I had made the rounds to each booth, I stopped to have lunch. In the ultimate green, I brought my own lunch in a thermos. I used a bandanna for a napkin, a spoon from home and a bottle of water and I was set. I did not stay for the live music. No one from my family was able to go with me and regardless of how nice it was, it is not the same when you are alone. Maybe next year!

Waterpolo

2009-11-09T20:20:00.000-08:00

This weekend was an amazing weekend. I had been down last weekend, visiting Dave Talley and having lunch with a lot of my Charter Oak High School (COHS) classmates. This weekend, Carmen came with me. We drove down this time and Melinda Race was kind enough to put us up at her place. That helped us to keep the expenses down.

Melinda is an amazing woman. Her house is immaculate and her family is so wonderful. We especially enjoyed our time with her Grand Daughter Makala.

Saturday after breakfast, we visited Cobos. We had to, her cell phone doesn't work and her voice mail is full, so we stopped by and had a great visit with her daughter and new grandson Logan.

Next we were off to Glendora and visit Craig "Gumby" Schaeffer and his family in the house his father built. It is such a cool house and I apologize to his lovely wife for just dropping in. It was truly unfair, but I had not been to that house in over 30 years.

Next we hopped on over to Melinda's mom's house. What a beautiful house and Melinda's mom is such a sweetie. She even remembered me and I have to admit she looked familiar.

Now it was time for the COHS Alumni Waterpolo match. This was the major reason for the visit this weekend. My wife Carmen wore my letterman's jacket and it got a lot of looks. It was the only Lancer jacket there. I hope next year others will bring theirs and show that Lancer pride.

There were four of us over 40: Craig "Gumby" Schaeffer, Eric and Craig Schubel and myself. The turnout for the alumni was great and the stands were full of COHS 1978 alumni. Diana Cobos and Lisa Kagerise both came to watch as well.

We all played and Craig even scored. The game went into double overtime and sudden death. In the end, we won 20 to 19. I have to hand it to the COHS seniors. They only had 3 substitutes. We had about 18. We wish them luck when they go to CIF.

After we washed up, we headed over to the Black Watch Pub in Upland. Little Debbie Knott, is all grown up now and organized a mult-year COHS reunion.

Debbie is now Debbie Ross and she has a fantastic band that rocked us all night long.

It was so good to see so many classmates and I have to say that the class of 1978 had the best showing at the reunion. That is because 78 is great! LOL

That evening passed way too fast. We returned to Melinda's house. The next morning, we chatted with Melinda and Carla Anderson. Terry (1977) snuck out of the house before the rest of us could get up.

Carmen and I headed back home at 11:30am and it took use 7.5 hours with no traffic to get back home. The plane was a lot quicker.

2009-10-31T22:15:00.000-07:00

Visiting My Friends from Charter Oak High School

I’m back home safe and sound. I had a fantastic time visiting my classmates from COHS. It is amazing how strong those childhood bonds are. These people go beyond friends, they are an extension of my family. When we get together, everyone has so much to contribute.

Judy was amazing sacrificing so much of her weekend and doing all that driving. Visiting Gary Dahle and his wife in their house was really special. It was great to see how much we have in common. I am not the only one that has rain barrels, or grows fruits and vegetables, makes jam and does canning.

It is hard to think about visiting people from COHS without seeing Deann (Call) Lent. She has done so much for our class that Judy and I think she should be declared COHS, class mom of 1978. She was so kind to make time for us out of her busy schedule. We really enjoyed visiting her and her husband.

Then it was off to attend Tom Lindquist’s party. I had not seen Tom in over 31 years. That alone made the trip worth while. We had a great time chatting and meeting Tom’s sisters, who thank God, do not look like him. They are pretty!

The next morning I spent with Dave Talley, and all I will say is that I was honored that he included me. He continues to inspire others by living his life in a way that provides a proper example. He talks the talk, but he also walks the walk.

When we returned, Dave was kind enough to bring me to into his house. He has an amazing house, which he built. His family is great and makes one feel so welcome. All I can say is that may God bless Dave Talley and his family.

We had a glitch in our lunch plans. The restaurant that we had selected did something that many restaurants are now doing because of the tough economic times. They stopped serving lunch. Our lunch was scheduled to start at 12:30pm and I arrived a bit early to make sure everything went well and sure enough the sign said “New Business House 4-10pm”. We were out of luck.

Judy went and found a round table about a block away with plenty of tables. We called everyone we had cell phone numbers for, put a message on my board on Facebook and put a sign up on the door, explaining where we were and giving my cell phone number.

We had a great turnout. Judy Zeiter, Craig Schaeffer, his wife and daughter, Dave Talley, his wife, son and daughter, Melinda Race, Eric Schubel, Gary Dahle, Diana “Cobos” Campbell and myself. These are some of the people that I grew up with. Together we became the people that we would become. Our ties are very strong and they are an extension of my family. I love all these guys.

I am back home, safe and sound. I am happy to be in my own house and with family. I look forward to next Friday when my wife and I will drive back down to southern California so that I can participate in the COHS alumni water polo event. Sometimes I wished I lived down there so I could be with these wonderful people more often.

From Tia Leony to Buzz Aldrin

2009-08-11T22:40:00.000-07:00

A few weeks back Tia Leony came to visit us from Peru along with Kike, Carolina and Enrique. During the final hour of the flight Tia Leony had a headache, it became more and more severe. Once at the airport, they whisked her to the hospital. Turns out she had experienced a aneurysm. By the time the doctor got to her, she had slipped into a coma. She had suffered sever brain damage.

Leony's eldest son, Juan was the only son or daughter with a visa issued by the USA, so he flew up and went directly to the hospital from the airport to be with his and authorzie taking her off of life support. His family should be proud of him.

Over the next few days, the family stayed with her. Lina, age 81 spent two nights with her sister. At that age, sleeping in a chair is very rough. Carmen stayed with Leony every night and Lila spent the last night with her and was holding her hand as she slipped from this world to the next.

The same day Leony passed away, I had planned to go to the USS Hornet in Alameda. They were having a special cerimony celibrating the 40th anniverisary of Apollo 11. After speaking, he was going to sign books. The moon mission was very special to me. As a young boy, I had watched each televised Apollo blast off with my dad. Listening to Walter Cronkite and like most little boys, I wanted to be an astronaut when I grew up. Some things are bigger than going to the moon. Tia Leony was one of them. Despite being urged by Carmen to go to the book signing, I could not out of respect for a great lady, who had touched all of our lives in such a wonderful way.

The following weekend, we had the memorial service at St Calistic. Both Lila and Carmen got up to do a reading. Immediately, Lila started to break down and cry. Carmen urged me to go up and comfort her, but as I watched, I could see that she was struggling to get control and so I waited. She did get control and finished the reading. At the end of the mass, Lila got up to speak about Tia Leony in English. Carmen went up after her and spoke in Spanish. They could not have done a more perfect job. The entire family was very proud of them and I am very proud of everyone in my family.

As for Tia Leony, she was 79. She spent her last concious day with plesaant thoughts anticipating her visit. She endured pain for a very short time. She was surrounded by family and never left alone. Her passing was painless and very quick. We should all be so lucky. At the memorial service, that over 30 people attended to pay respect to a little old lady, thousands of miles from her home, who had only visited here once. She brought a lot of joy to a lot of people, may she rest in peace.

Last week, I was looking at Twitter reading postings from Buzz Aldrin. I decided to visit his website again. Turns out he added some additional book signings. Two in California, one last Saturday in Torrance at 2pm and the other next Thursday in Santa Barbara. Apparently they were recently added. I told Carmen about it and she encouraged me to go. I asked Lila if she was interested in going and she said yes, so on Friday evening we decided to go. I made hotel arrangements for Saturday night and we left at 6:00am the next morning.

We ran into traffic, and instead of arriving 2 hours early, we were only one hour early. We bought our books, and got our wrist bands that put us in the second signing group. We went to where seats had been set up for the event and got the last two seats that were still together.

Buzz, got a wonderful standing ovation. At 79, he looks great, is sharp as a tack and a very good speaker. After his talk, we got in line, got our books signed and our pictures taken with Buzz. I wondered if I were to step on the foot of the man that stepped on the moon, would that mean that I had stepped on the moon too?

That evening, Lila and I had dinner at Diana Cobo's house and got to meet her family. Diana had been on the swim team with me at Charter Oak High School and was the first woman to letter varsity in mens swimming. I thought she would be a good role model for Lila. Lila was initially very leary of meeting people from my school, but after she admited that Diana was very cool.

Diana's daughter Zoe, was pregnant. In fact she was due that exact day. The baby (Logan) was good enough to not be born so that we could visit Diana. Logan was born on Monday. Mom and son are doing very well and all are healthy.

Sunday we drove back and stopped to have lunch with my brother Dave. It is the first time we have been with Dave anywhere near his birthday in quite some years. We gave Dave his present. An authographed book by Buzz Aldrin. I think he really liked it. Lila and I took turns driving back. We stuck to a very strict budget on this trip and we both really enjoyed it.

2009-07-09T20:12:00.000-07:00

Lunch With Nate Thurmond

Today, I'm still on vacation. I decided to have lunch with Nate Thurmond. That's right, NBA Hall of Famer, Nate "The Great" Thurmond. One of the greatest basketball players ever.

I should explain, that while I had lunch with Nate, Nate did not have lunch with me. You see, Nate is the owner and operator of "Big Nate's". A great BBQ joint in San Francisco. I had ribs and man were they tender. Nate took my order, my money and gave me my change.

San Francisco is not known for great BBQ, but at least we have Nate's. One special thing you should know is that Big Nate's deliver.

2009-07-07T20:37:00.000-07:00

Vegas Vacation

Immediately after work on Tuesday, June 30th, I drove to Fresno and spent the night with my sister Susan, visiting her, her husband Willie and my nephew Jake. Everyone is doing well. Even Susan is in school these days. She and Jake had to leave by 7:00am, so I was on the road by 8:00am the next morning.

Wednesday July 1st, I pulled into Las Vegas and checked into the Casino Royale. I touched bases with my friend Chuck, who is the GM there and we agreed to get together for breakfast the next morning. I called my nephew Carlos, who is in the air force. He had to study for a test Thursday afternoon, so we agreed to hookup after his test.

Thursday July 2nd, is the first day of Pooker Palooza. It opened at 11:00am, but I was there shortly before 10:00am, immediately after my breakfast with Chuck. I was one of the first people inside. I collected pictures of myself with famous poker players, t-shirts, decks of cards, beef jerky and other trinkets. Greg Raymer gave a very good seminar on tournament strategies.

That afternoon, Carlos called me to let me know that he was done with his test. I drove over and picked him up from the air base. We stopped at the half price tickets place and picked up two tickets to see Gordie Brown at the Golden Nugget. Gordie put on a great show and Carlos really enjoyed it. Afterwards we went to the Mermaid also located downtown on Fremont street. There Carlos had Island Tea, in a very big (plastic) glass that was about three feet tall. It even came with a neck strap. Carlos never did quite finish the drink and from time to time, we would step out of the Casino to enjoy the "Fremont Experience", which is a wonderful combination of images and music. The Queen tribute was especially good. Back inside the casino, we decided to try a deep fried Twinkie and Oreo. Amazingly while they sound disgusting, they are actually very good. I brought Carlos back to the base at around 11:oopm. He had to get up to catch his flight back early the next morning.

Friday July 3rd, is the 2nd day of Pooker Palooza and the first day of the World Series of Poker Main Event. This day started off with an incredible educational seminar by Annie Duke. I spent the day collecting more loot. That evening, I picked Lila up from the airport. We headed directly over to the Pooker Palooza, where Lila met legendary poker player Sussie Isaacs, where she got her picture taken and an autographed copy of her book. We headed over the Fremont street for dinner, a very large strawberry daiquiri with a neck strap and a deep fried Twinkie and Oreo.

Saturday July 4th, Lila and I headed over to the Pooker Palooza. We enjoyed an excellent lecture by Mark Sief. We got lots of pictures of Lila with famous poker players and Lila even got to see the legendary Doyle Brunson. We collected as much loot as possible before calling it a day.

We headed over to the Sarah, had a prime rib buffet dinner and finished it off with a Zombie mini shot, that costed a whole dollar and we still got to keep the glass. We returned to our hotel room to wash up and get changed for what would prove to be the highlight of the trip.

The Mirage has a Circus du Solei called "Love". Usually these shows are all about the amazing performances and the performances at this show were out standing, but what was really amazing was the music. It was the Beatles. George Martin had been hired to put together the music for the show and he had complete access to all of the original Beatles recordings. Dolby 5.1, is the latest technology in sound was used. Lastly, the theater seemed to be built specifically to allow the customer to enjoy the most amazing sound. This show was an amazing experience.

Sunday July 5th was supposed to be the day that Lila flew back home. Her flight was free and the only time available was at 7:00am. It was decided that I would cut my trip a bit short and she would ride back with me. That allowed us to sleep another 3 1/2 hours. Instead of driving straight back via Tehachipi, we drove to Studio City to have lunch at Jerry's Famous Deli with my brother Dave. The food was amazing. It really reminded me of NY deli food. From there we drove back home and pulled in at about 9:30pm.

It was an awesome trip.

Fathers Day 2009

2009-06-21T17:10:00.000-07:00

Fathers Day 2009

Today is June 21st, or as my late grandmother would remind us, the longest day of the year and my dad's (Grandpa) birthday. This year is also happens to be Father's Day. Everyone but Bob, was able to make it. Say Bob, what is your excuse? LOL

My nephew Jake showed up with a new haircut to reflect his Punk Rock lifestyle.

Being that my sister-in-law Martha was in the hospital yesterday, everyone brought some food. Lila did the BBQ, mom brought fruit, Dave and Charlie brought potato salad and Beckey brought a delicious cake.

Dad is getting a gas BBQ for his birthday and will pick it out with Becky later this week. He actually had enough strength to blow out the candles as you can see in the movie below:

Lila gets her AA

2009-05-22T22:18:00.000-07:00

Lila Mary Bear became a college graduate tonight. She got her AA from the Contra Costa Community College. We are all very proud of here. Sunday at 2:00pm we are holding a party at our house. Tonight she is out with her buddies celebrating.

Latino Grad Night

2009-05-21T18:54:00.000-07:00

"La mejor manera de predecir tu futuro es creandolo tu mismo" - Anonimo

"The best way to predict your future is to create it" -Anonymous

Wednesday May 20, 2009

Contra Costa College Latino Association For Student Opportunity had a Latino Graduation & Transfer Ceremony where I received recognition for my A.A. in Liberal Studies

Sunday - Lina's 81st Birtday

2009-05-18T11:12:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Lina turned 81. We had a quiet day with family and neighbors at our house. Surprisingly, there was no pinata.

Jake's Birthday - Saturday

2009-05-18T11:11:00.000-07:00

Saturday, we had a birthday party for Jake at Becky's new house. We had a great time. One big surprise was Christine came all the way from Sacramento on public transportation just for the party.

Reunion at Nancy's

2009-05-16T12:15:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, we had a small family reunion of the West Coast Bears at Mark and Nancy's vineyard in Sutter Creek, CA.

It was a lot of fun, and besides spending time with each other, we got to taste some very good wine.

Niagra Falls

2009-05-16T11:15:00.000-07:00

Last week, my work took me to Niagra Falls, Ontario, Canada. I flew into Buffalo, NY and drove over the border to Niagra Falls, Ont and stayed at the Sheraton on the Falls. Before traveling, I emailed my 2nd cousin, Dr. Bob Bear. He and his family had grown up in Buffalo, and I asked for some suggestions.

The next day, after I arrived, I had a bit of time in the afternoon, so I went to the Anchor Bar. This is where Buffalo Wings were invented. My minimum order or 10 wings, took longer than I had expected, but when I tasted them, I could tell why. They make each batch fresh from scratch. They are easily the best Wings I have ever had.

When I got to the Tavern that Bob had recommended to me, they had stopped serving lunch, so I was not able to have the local favorite sandwich called Beef on Weck. Which is sort of a french dip on a roll that has pretzel salt. They had already stopped serving lunch for the day when.

Wednesday, I got up to attend a breakfast and general session at the conference I was attending. It was 3:00am here on the west coast and it sure felt like it. After the conference was over, I packed my stuff and took 15 minutes to look at the falls and take a coupe of pictures.

I drove to the Buffalo airport only to find a restaurant serving Beef on Weck. I caught my plane, which had a stopover in Chicago. There we experienced a delay of about 30 minutes. Once in the air, we were plauged by bad weather. We were all strapped in for over 2 hours because of turblance. After we landed and drove home, it was after mid-night here on the west coast. That made for a very long day.

Carem, Ed and Van Morrison

2009-05-04T14:41:00.000-07:00

Carmen and Ed won two tickets to see Van Morrison perform at the Greek Theater at the UC Berkeley Campus.

I got a call on my cell phone last week. The lady told me I just won two tickets to see Van Morrison, but I couldn't tell what radio station she had said she was with. I am sure glad we were not live on the air and that she didn't ask me what my favorite radio station was.

The concert was Sunday evening. We had never been to the Greek Theater before. I got their early enough to avoid paying $20.00 for parking. Much of the seating is on concrete. Luckily Visa was handing out foam pads for anyone with a Visa Signature card, which I just happened to have. Turns out, we had real seats, but the cushions were a plus. In fact, we were in the third row and no one was in the second row in front of us.

There really are no bad seats at the Greek Theater. The concert was wonderful. After all, it was free, we were in the third row and Carmen enjoyed it, which is what is most important!

The Bears go to Washington DC

2009-04-27T17:52:00.001-07:00

My company, AutoClerk, participates in the Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA) annual conference each year. This year it was in Washington DC, actually a place called National Harbor which is close enough.

Carmen decided to take some time off from work to so she could go with me. We recorded the Washington DC edition of Anthony Bourdain's "No Reservations" and watched it several times.

The AAHOA conference was held at the Gaylord. I think it is one of the best conference centers we have shown at. Everything was close and the access was very easy. The only event I had to attend the first day was a reception in the evening, so we decided to visit the International Spy Museum and try Ben's Chile Bowl, a historic landmark of a restaurant that we saw on "No Reservations" and had a "Half Smoke" with mustard and onions. It was delicious. They have a sign that says "Who eats here for free". It listed Bill Cosby and the Obama family. Under Obama, it said "and he paid anyway".

I recalled that my 3rd cousin Amelia Ames lives there, so left her a message and she was good enough to meet with us for breakfast. She drove from her place to the Best Western Pentagon, in Arlington, VA. When she arrived, I asked if she had ever heard of "Busboys and Poets". It is a breakfast place I saw on "No Reservations". She laughed and said "That's where I live". Sure enough, she actually lives on that block. So we all piled into her car and had a wonderful breakfast. During our chat, Amelia mentioned that her parents (my second cousins once removed), we arriving that evening. They were driving all the way down from Cambridge. I told her to call me if they wanted to get together.

After the first evening of the conference, we found that El Polio Rico was just 2.8 miles from our hotel. Not only was this on Anthony Bourdain's list of restaurants in DC, but it is a Peruvian restaurant that specializes in broasted chicken. One surprise is that they served Diet Inca Kola. For those of you that don't know this, my wife Carmen is from Peru. Peru is the only country in the Americas where Coke or Pepsi is not the number one soft drink and while we have been able to find it in hispanic super markets near our house, this is the first time we have been able to find the diet version of this beverage, which happens to be my choice of soft drinks. I can't wait to see if our local market can get Diet Inca Kola.

After the second day of the AAHOA conference, a friend of mine, Frank Melville of Phone Suites
invited us to dinner at a place called G&M just outside of Baltimore near the airport. The place was a "Hole in the Wall", but when we arrived not only was the parking lot full, but cars were parked along the street. There was a very good reason for this. They serve the best crab cakes I have ever heard. Each crab cake contains a full 8 ounces of crab meat and very little in the way of binder. My God they were good!

Carmen took a day to explore DC on her own. I booked a tour for us, Scott my Director of Sales, and some good friends from Americas Best Value Inn, an economy hotel chain. That evening we decided to go Chadwicks, again a restaurant that was on "No Reservations". It isn't known for its cuisine, but because it was a popular locations for spys. The show indicated that they served a decent burger, but I saw they had Fish and Chips as one of their specials. I asked our waitress, wich one I should go with and she said "The Fish and Chips for sure". All I can say is in the words of the Comic Book Guy... "Worst Fish and Chips Ever".

We had most of the day off and it was time to take a tour of DC. We all piled on the tour bus and had a fantastic day. We stopped at the Jefferson memorial, the Capitol building, Lincoln and the World War II memorial where I had the good fortune to meet and shake the hand of Bob Dole.

We then proceeded to the Washington, FDR, Korean and Vietnam Memorial. It was my first time to the Vietnam Wall and I must say it was very moving. We continued on to the Marines memorial next to Arlington National Cemetery, the Airforce Memorial and finished the day at the White House. I think I could see Obama peeking out of the window to see us. During the trip, our tour guide tested us with historical trivia. I am very proud to say that he did not stump me even once!

During the tour, I got a call from my 3rd cousin Amelia asking if we could meet her and her parents for dinner. While we were exhausted, I'm glad we did. Somehow we got a second wind and met them at Clyde's of Gallery Place. Amelia presented Carmen with a shawl that her husband Andy had sent from Afghanistan. He is an engineer in the Navy and we thank him for his service. All three ladies, Amelia, Sally and Carmen wore their shawls. We had a lovely time. They are such wonderful people.

The next morning we caught our plane back to the bay area and while we had a great time, it was nice to get back home.

broken foot

2009-04-26T18:06:00.000-07:00

so tuesday april 21, 2009 i dropped my parents (carmen & ed) off at the airport for washington d.c. wednesday april 22,2009 at 5pm i broke my foot. here are the pics of the cast, it's hot pink with bright green hearts on it. i got to use the go cart in the super market which was cool. i did a few laps around frozen foods while my friend jackie looked for some items. people are really great and i thank god for sending me my angels. the cast should be coming off after four weeks which will be one day before my graduation. by the way, i won't have tickets for everyone to attend so i do apologize if i don't have enough. i'm working on putting together a little party or something to celebrate so that every one can attend. i'll keep you all posted. hope everyone is well. take care and god bless. =)

love, lila

The Mc Griff's

2009-03-25T22:53:00.000-07:00

Sara Mc Griff was a very special part of our family. Recently, Jack Mc Griff, a relative contacted us. Check out his website at www.mcgrifffamily.com

Carmen falls through the Ceiling

2009-03-20T23:03:00.001-07:00

While having insulation installed, Carmen was curious to look into the attic and asked the workers if she could. They thought she was only going to peek into the attic, but she went inside and stepped right through the ceiling.

She is ok and we have a new entrance to the attic in our living room

Becky Buys a House!

2009-03-20T23:01:00.000-07:00

Becky has purchased a house on the border of Hayward and Castro Valley. The family showed up to move her and Grandpa, Willie did an especially great job. The house is nice and big and has a view of the Bay.

A Bear'y Merry Christmas

2008-12-25T20:33:00.001-08:00

Lunch with Al Scalise

2008-12-23T17:22:00.000-08:00

Al and his twin brother Tony went to the same Jr High and the first two years of High School at the same schools I did. This year we discovered that we lived about an hour from each other. Since I am on vacation, Al and I decided to hook up for lunch.

We had a great time talking about the "Good Ole Days". Al told me his favorite "Ed Bear" story. It wasn't as bad as I feared. Seems that back in the day, I was willing to take off my shoe and sock and stick my foot up on the glass door so they could sketch my foot. Al told the story much better than I did.

I hope we don't wait another 30 years to hook up again.

Ed and Dad go to Las Vegas

2008-12-19T19:32:00.000-08:00

Each December, I attend the Americas Best Value Inn conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. Now that my dad is fully retired, he was able to get away and come with me.

While I was busy during most of the time we were there, we did manage to go out on the first nigth and see Penn and Teller. They were great.

Bears Visit Hawaii

2008-10-28T22:14:00.000-07:00

I had to go to Honolulu for a Best Western (BW) conference. Naturally the entire family had to come along to help me. The had accompanied me eight years ago when the BW was last held there. The last time I only had a day and a half to enjoy the island of Oahu, this time I schedule three and a half days.

Upon arriving, we made sure that we had lunch at the word famous Puka Dogs (www.pukadog.com). I could not believe it. My two daughters and Ceci's boyfriend had mustard or mustard and ketchup. Sheesh.
The Wialana restaurant was next to our hotel, the Aqua Palms situated across the street from the Hilton Hawaiian Village. The restaurant was a great value and had wonderful Mai Tai's for only $3.25. There, Lila had her first Mai Tai, I had one too. I tried a dish called Siamin there. It is a Hawaiian version of chow mein and it had Spam in it. I liked it a lot.

While Lila and I were working, Carmen took Ceci and her boyfriend Jay to swim with the dolphins. They had a great time and I am jealous.

Day after the conference ended we rented a car and drove to Hanauma Bay. Snorkeling there is amazing. All the tropical fish, coral, wildlife. At one point I managed to stay with a sea turtle for about an hour and a half. They are really amazing. After lunch we drove up the east side of Oahu. We finished the day off by visiting our friends in downtown Honolulu. They have a penthouse apartment with a fantastic view of the city. They were such wonderful hosts.

Friday was the Polynesian Cultural Center. They picked us up at 10:15am, and returned us at about 10:30pm. What a place. They have villages to let people learn about the cultures of seven different Polynesian cultures. We chucked spears, fished, made toys, ate coconut bread, learned how to open a coconut, make fire with two sticks, ate fresh poi. Lila took a hula lesson and I tried to learn how to play the Ukulele. Did you know that Ukulele, means jumping fleas? We ended the night with a wonderful Luau and a wonderful show. It was quite a day.

Our final day of fun, started by renting a car again. We went to Pearl Harbor and visited the Arizona memorial. It is a very moving experience. Across the street is the flee market to end all flea markets at the Aloha Stadium. It is all geared toward tourists, which we were.

After that we drove to the North Shore and stopped for shaved ice at Matsumoto's, Shrimp Scampi at the Giovanni shrimp truck and ended the day at the Dole pineapple plantation.

We had a wonderful time, but it sure was good to be home.

lila's 21st birthday part 2

2008-10-18T23:07:00.000-07:00

as you all know her majesty queen lila finally turned 21 this year and had a small quiet little get together at her palace! hahaha! yeah right i partied like it was 1987 i did NOT get drunk okay well maybe a little drunk but i did not get sick.

lila's 21st birthday!

2008-10-18T23:04:00.001-07:00

Lila Meets Chip Connely of Joie de Vivre

2008-10-07T23:26:00.001-07:00

CLIA Industry Awards and Gala Dinner

Chip Connely poses for a picture of his most prized employee, Lila Mary Bear.

Octoberfest 2008 San Francisco

2008-10-07T22:22:00.000-07:00

Carmen and I decided to attend the Octoberfest at Fort Mason in San Francisco. It was great. I thought about bringing one of my beer steins. I have a small, but nice collection that I purchased when Carmen and I went to Germany about 15 years ago. While we were in Bavaria, where Munich is, we did not make it to Munich and since we were there in January, Octoberfest was not going on. The good part of that is that it was not crowded. That is probably the closest we have come to a real Octoberfest.

In 1978, my family moved from Southern California to Pleasant Hill. That October, my dad brought us to an Octoberfest celebration that was held in Marin county. It was great, but I was not old enough to enjoy the beer.

In 1977 while in High School, a bunch of us including Eric Schubel went to an Octoberfest celebration in Anaheim. While we could not enjoy the beer, that was where I first learned to enjoy German food.

This Octoberfest 2008 in San Francisco was wonderful. People were allowed to bring their steins and you can bet that I will bring one of mine next year. We got their early and got the second to last free parking spots. Always a nice feeling. We enjoyed beer sold by the leiter, knockwurst, roll (brochen), potato salad (kartafel salad) and apple strudel.

It is the 60th anniversay of the Berlin Airlift. For almost one year, East Germany (with Soviet backing), closed all land routes from West Germany to Berlin. The Untied States, in one of the great humantarian efforts of all time, flew supplies around the clock until East Germany gave in and opened the land routes.

We enjoyed the booths, food, beer, costumes and especially the live music. We got their early enough to have great seats. I can't wait until next year.

Smith Family Re-unites

2008-07-27T20:22:00.001-07:00

There was about a five year period where bearfamily.com was down. The ISP had been sold, and the new one wanted to charge too much money. Then for about five years, I just kept putting it off. From time to time, I was offered money for the domain by a German music company.

Today, something occurred that was very special. Dr. Bob Bear and Carol Bear contacted me about a relative on my moms side. I should be more specific, she isn't related to my mom by blood, but they grew up together and had even lived with her for a period of time as a foster child. I grew up with her as my Aunt Lee.

A member of her family happened to see some pictures on bearfamily.com and emailed Bob and Carol, who forwarded the emails to me. I was not able to follow up on this until this morning when I called my Aunt Lee. Her number had been changed, I called the new number, but she was not in. I left a message and decided to call her son Eddie. I read him the information and he took it from there. Later in the day, Aunt Lee called, to let me know they had contacted this person and they back in touch with each other.

What a feeling of accomplishment. Thanks so much to Bob and Carol.

Happy Birthday Carmen

2008-07-27T20:04:00.000-07:00

Carmen turns 27 for the second time. Lila treated us see Gabriel Iglesias at the Punchline in Sacramento. Last time we went, Gabriel was sick, so we were very glad to see him healthy.

Lila had checked on Gabriel's myspace and found out that he had been given so much chocolate cake, that he really doesn't like it anymore and that now he is into cheese cake, so we stopped at Raleys and picked one up on the way and kept it in a little 12 volt fridge that we have.

The show started at 8:30, the doors opened at 7:30 so we got there about 6:45 and were third in line, we managed to get the seats right in the center and against the stage. The seats were amazing. Carmen laughed so hard during the entire show. I placed the cheese cake in front of Lila and during the entire show Gabriel kept looking down at the cheese case and back up at Lila. At the end of the show, Lila handed Gabriel the cheese cake. Gabriel, took the cheese cake, bent down, looked right into Lila's eyes, and said "Thank you".

After the show, we stayed to get a T-Shirt, and autograph and got our picture taken. It was quite a night.

The next day, both Ceci and Lila had to work, so Carmen, her parents and I went up to Marshall. Marshall is a little town, if you can call it that, on Highway 1, about 90 minutes north of where we live. Tony's Seafood is a little restaurant on the side of the road overlooking Tamales Bay. We got there about 20 minutes before it opened so we got the best table overlooking the bay. We had bbq'd oysters, chowder and fish & chips. While I drove back, everyone had a nice nap.

Happy Birthday Carmen1

Ceci Goes to Disneyland

2008-07-20T15:00:00.001-07:00

Ceci and her boyfriend Jay flew down to Southern California to visit Disneyland for two days. This is Ceci's first major trip without her parents. Ceci was changing jobs so this was going to be the only weekend they could get away for quite some time. Her original idea was to drive down to Anaheim after Jay got off work at 1:00am. She was convinced to fly down and they stayed at the Hilton. They both had a great time, and no they did not go on the Submarines, the lines were too long.

Carmen Decides Against Surgery

2008-07-20T14:48:00.000-07:00

Carmen has been suffering great pain in her feet for some years now. Her doctor had suggested surgery as a possibly remedy. After emailing Dr. Bob Bear the details, Bob suggested that it might take a very long time to recover and the results might not be as good as one would like. Bob said her kind of problem is usually addressed with physical therapy.

Carmen noticed that when she is off from work, that her feet don't hurt nearly as much, but when she does that she can barely get up and down the half flight of stairs from our living room to our bed room. After speaking with the Doctor, he wrote a note that restricted Carmen from spending all day on her feet at work on a cement floor. She has taken a different position at Home Depot and has started physical therapy.

Carmen already feels a difference and we are very grateful to Dr. Bob Bear.

Charter Oak Class of 1978 30th Reunion

2008-07-16T21:58:00.000-07:00

(Eric Schubel, Ed Bear and Bill Ralls)

Things have been very busy at work. I have been working on a project to bring our software in compliance with the new credit card regulations. I have had very little time for myself and my family, not to mention that in the month of June, I was home for only one week out of the month.

While I would have liked to have left for the reunion on Thursday and drive to San Luis Obispo in time for the Farmers Market that evening, I had to stay and work a half day on Friday. When I finished working, I picked up Carmen, said goodbye to the kids. We took our time driving down south. We stopped by a roadside fruit stand to buy some fresh cherries.

We continued on to Morro Bay where my brother Bob and his girl friend Reva live. We all went out to dinner at a little restaurant on the water. We dined outside and the weather was perfect. It is amazing how much wild life is out there. Bob says when he goes out in the kayak, he often sees dolphins. We were not quite that lucky, but we did see sea lions, pelicans and the like. The sea food was delicious. After dinner, we went back to their house, where we enjoyed the cherries. After a wonderful visit, we drove a bit further south to Santa Maria and checked into our hotel.

After breakfast the next morning, we continued on our journey. I should mention that we took our Ford Escape hybrid and averaged between 34 and 35 miles per gallon, which is really good considering we have the all wheel drive version of this car which is only rated for 32 miles per gallon. My brother David lives in Van Nuys, so we met him on the way in Woodland Hills. The place Dave choose, was Jerry's Famous Deli. Apparently lots of producers...etc like to eat there. They serve fantastic deli food. Dave is in the movie and tv business and is doing okay. He will be appearing in an episode of Monk, where there is a boxing match. We enjoyed listening to Dave's stories. All too soon, it was time to hit the road again. We still had to drive down to Orange County for the reunion.

We pulled in to the Double Tree near John Wayne Airport and got checked in. The reunion would begin in about two hours. We got settled in, and went to the pool to swim and relaxed a bit. We went back to the room and got ready. Finally it was time to go down stairs. I was having some second thoughts, there were so many people that weren't going to be there such as Mark Mayamura, Carol Grafe, Hal Ryerson, Laura Tamura, Don Marshall, Kim Charles and more.

We went downstairs and I saw Donna Ezecheles. I had gone to school with her all the way from Washington Elementary though Charter Oak. She is such a lovely person. She had recently gotten married and shared her pictures with us. She was proud and we were all very happy for her. I started to relax. We saw Deann Call, who works so hard on putting on our reunions and is always so modest about her efforts. She has a way of making everyone feel so comfortable.

Judy Zieter is a girl that I had gone to school with since first grade. I remembered her because she could run faster than anyone else, including the boys. We had started emailing each other recently and she had decided to attend her first high school reunion ever. There she was, still blond and in great shape. It reminded me that I needed to drop some weight. I will be watching what I eat, writing it down, swimming and going to weight watchers. I introduced her to Carmen and we started chatting about old times. We really enjoyed her company.

Judy and I had been chatting for a while, when Danny Gelespie showed up. Like Judy, Danny had gone to the same elementary school. In fact we had been in cub scouts together and his mother had been our first den mother. He, I, Bill Ralls and others had our meetings in their garage. I retold the story about how his mom had us do a game where we were blindfolded. Then a pair of dish washing rubber gloves where put on us. In this condition we had to put on a nylon stocking. I remember thinking how easy it was going to be, but how hard I found it. It was a great lesson in senses. Danny said that is mom was doing great and had just retired. He promised to pass on our good wishes. One of the things that was so special about Danny showing up is that he did not graduate from Charter Oak. His family had moved to Oklahoma when he was in 9th grade, but he had to come. He grew up with us. He was one of us. It was very special that he came to the reunion.

At this point we were still out on the patio. The reunion had not officially started, but it had started anyway. Across on the other side was a new arrival, he was tall, he looked exactly the same as he had in School, except his hair had a touch of gray. It was Bill Ralls. Bill and I had been close over the years. We had gone to school together from Washington, Sunflower and Charter Oak. His younger brother Mike and my younger brother David had been at school together as well. We had been in Cub Scouts together. Bill always had the best looking car at the Pinewood Derby. We had spent time in each others houses, our parents knew each other. Bill remember how my dad had been Cub Master and my mother had been a den mother. Bill's mom is also retired and both her and his dad are doing well. I should mention that Bill had also been with me on the swim team and water polo team. We had spent a lot of time together. Bill is like a brother.

We moved from the patio into banquet room, but most of us had a hard time sitting down and eating. I looked over and there was Lisa Alberti. I had to say hello. That poor girl had to sit with me so many times over the years. You see, often times the teachers would have us sit in alphabetical order. With names like Alberti and Bear, we often where paired together. I felt sorry. After all, I was a bit of a handful as a kid, but she was kind and said she did not remember it being that bad. She is either kind of forgetful. Either way works for me. Lisa is stunning, tall blond and has a precious little girl. It was great catching up with her.

I finally got to sitting down at the table to eat. Other than Bill Ralls and my wife Carmen, I didn't recognize anyone else. Randy Carpenter introduced himself and his lovely wife. I knew the name, but really didn't know him. He explained that he had been a stoner. I said, so you spent your time across the street at the ... and we both said it at the same time. The "park" and we laughed. Randy had done a lot of booze and drugs, but had cleaned up his life and discovered God. Randy was such a delight. Not pushy about his religion at all, just kind and good natured. I am so glad he sat with us.

Tim Schultz and his wife were also sitting at our table. We had not known each other at Charter Oak, but the connection of being in the same graduating class brought us together, plus he and his wife live in Sacramento; only an hour from where we live. Really the first person we met that lived anywhere near us.

The gentleman sitting next to me said "Hi Ed". I did not know who he was. I did not have my glasses on so I could not read his name badge. I said "and you are....". He answered "Eric Schubel". Oh my gawd, he looked so different. Not bad at all, just different. Eric and I had been close. He moved into our area our freshman year. He was not only on the water polo and swim team with Bill Ralls and myself, but he and I also took four years of German together. You have to understand that during school we would start early in the morning, stretching, running, lifting weights and swimming. Then coach McNeil would give us some day old donuts that were donated by a local donut shop, which we though tasted delicious. First period five days a week was German. We had math together, alegbra, geometry, trig...etc. After school, it was swim workout or water polo. Even during the summer when school was not in, we played in AAU water polo tournaments. After a water polo or swim match our team often would eat together at a restaurant. We had spent a lot of time together. Eric is also like a brother to me and it was so good to see him and Bill Ralls.

There were so many other great people and conversations, Melinda Race, Angela Smith, Carla Anderson who lives about 30 minutes from us in Alameda. Scott Bramlett was another one that had moved and attended high school elsewhere but since he bad been with us since first grade through junior high, he was one of us and he and his new bride were there. Kim Charles and Randy Baumgardner were not able to attend but made entries into our reunion books.

Sony Conn, Louann Debolt, Susie Fliescher where there. Turns out Susie lives in Grants Pass, Oregon. I spent a lot of time there about 10 years ago. It is a small, but very wonderful town and we had a great time chatting about it. Dannette Holland had been a cheerleader. I never knew her, but she had noticed me in high school and was so kind to pass on some very touching words to me. Everyone was so kind, everyone went out of there way to be nice. We all had a special bond, we grew up together.

There were so many others and I can't cover them all. My wife retired to the room at about 11pm. She had chatted the night away with some of the other spouses. The event ended at mid-night, but that did not stop us. We continued outside back on the patio. I went upstairs and brought down the bottle of Cuban rum I had brought with me. We were all like a bunch of high school kids sneaking liquor.

As the evening was winding down, we noticed a couple on the other side of the patio, but none of us knew who they were. Deann Call happened to come over and she knows everyone. I asked her who that guy was. She spun around like a ballerina and said "That is Gary Dahle". She really is the perfect hostess. Oh my God! Gary, was with us from first grade at Washington. It was amazing how many people from Washington where there. It is too bad we forgot to get together to take a group picture. Immediately we headed over to chat with Gary.

Gary was a special guy and he and his wife could not be more charming. In school, Gary had been a bit of a wild kid. Never mean, just wild. Gary was also mentally gifted, which at the time did not make sense to me, except at Washington, they would take him out of class with the other gifted children for special classes. Gary and I both had Mr. Thompson in 6th grade at Sunflower. I remember when someone said that there was no such word as fishes, he corrected them and explained that fishes referred to multiple species of fish. It was the first time I realized this guy really is smart. We enjoyed chatting, joking and laughing. He and his lovely wife are so friendly and interesting. They make a perfect couple.

Just when you thought the evening could not get any better, some of the people had made a run to In and Out, and brought back Double Doubles with Grilled Onions, Fries, Shakes, the works. They would not take any money for it, but brought enough for everyone. What a way to finish of the evening. In and Out started in Southern California. We had all grown up eating our share. It brought back a flood of memories.

Before we knew it, the night was over. It was after 2am and time to go to bed. Even with all that time, there were still people I wanted to chat with, but had not had the chance. Someone had suggested that all of us staying at the hotel get together in the morning for breakfast between 8:00am and 8:30am. It sounded like a good idea and it was, but morning sure did come early.

Just before going to bed, I checked my email. There was a note from Diana Cobos. She had lived for years in New Mexico and moved two years ago to Upland, near where we grew up. The note indicated that her boyfriend had just inherited a house in New Mexico and they were moving back in two weeks. During the two years she had lived in Upland, my schedule never worked out to where I could visit despite all my travel. The one time she had been in the bay area, I had stopped reading my personal email and did not get her email until after she was back home. I sighed and went to bed.

The next morning we all made our way downstairs to the restaurant to have our final meal together. Judy, Susie, Danny .... so many where there. We finished, said our goodbyes. Carmen and I got into the car and headed on out. I placed a phone call to Diana Cobos, but got her voice mail. I told her that by chance I was down in Orange County for the reunion and that if she got the message in the next hour and was free that perhaps we could hook up for lunch. We drove north. Just as we were approaching the point of no return, I called one more time. I got the voice mail. I didn't leave a message, I just hung up determined to finish our trip, knowing that I had missed the opportunity to see her after so many years.

Seconds later, my cell phone rang. It was Diana. We agreed to meet halfway in Glendora where I had grown up. We met at Dennys, had a dessert and chatted for what was way too brief of a time. Carmen and her boyfriend were so great to allow us this time. They must have been bored to death.

I should explain that Diana was a senior when I was a freshman. She was so kind to us boys on the water polo and swim team. She was a lady, a woman no a girl. To us she was like a movie star and yet she liked to hang out with us. She was also so special. She was the first female to letter varsity on the mens swim team. Most important to me, is that she had been a dear friend.

We finished our dessert and it was time to leave way too soon. Carmen and I made our way back to Interstate 5 and drove through the Grape Vine. As soon as we got on the other side, we saw a warning that indicated that I5 was closed in 60 miles. That was not good news. We still don't know why. We guessed that it was because of the fires. We pulled over at the Petro Truck Stop. Got some food and supplies and took 99 N all the way back home. It was a long drive home. Carmen drove for a couple of hours. Once home, it was good to be home. I had to work the next day, but my mind was swimming with all the memories of the reunion and the past.

My first reunion was the 25th. I thought it was fantastic, but it doesn't hold a candle to the 30th. In every way, I felt truly blessed.

Fathers Day

2008-06-15T11:53:00.002-07:00

This year both my mom and dad turned 70. I think 70 officially makes you old. I decided to do something special for both of them. For my mom, a trip back to Mass in fall for the turning of the leaves. She is originally from Mass and has family back there, but this is about Fathers Day.

For my dad, his present was a trip to Gettysburg. I was back in Norfolk, VA for a Best Western conference. My company AutoClerk, is endorsed and certified by Best Western to provide Property Management systems for Best Western properties.

I flew out to the Baltimore Airport (BWI) from Norfolk and my dad flew out to Baltimore from Oakland. On the flight to BWI, another passenger noticed my shirt and asked if I was in the hospitality business. I explained what I did and he asked me to contact him. We got to talking about the trip my dad and I were taking and he suggested that we not miss Fort McHenry in Baltimore harbor.

I arrive at Baltimore couple of hours before him, so I got the rental car and checked out the route to Fort McHenry. It wasn't very far at all. My dad arrived, I got back to the airport just in time to meet him just about the time he got to the curb. We drove directly to Gettysburg. It was still light when we arrived. We stayed at the Best Western (Big surprise eh?) that was right at the circle in the center of town. The hotel was built in the late 1700's, but was in beautiful condition. After checkin in, we went across the street and ate at the Lincoln diner. My wife Carmen, my daugther Ceci and I had visted Gettysburg a couple of years back. We had dined at the Lincoln diner with Yuri, his wife CG and daughter Liliana. The food is home cooked, honey dipped fried chicken, blue berry pie and more.

The next morning, we ate at the Lincoln Diner again. Breakfast was fantastic. We walked by the railstation that Lincoln arrived, stopped by the souvenir shop, got some T-shirts. I got a mug for my dad for Fathers day, which is usually the same day as his birthday or very close. Must have separate presents for each. We headed up to the Gettysburg Battlefield, hired a private tour guide. He drove our car, answered all our questions. The tour was tailored just for us. It was so interesting. Seeing all those monuments, seeing the terrain and realizing how those Americans on both sides died right there.

After we finished our tour, we watched a film at the visitor center on Gettysburg, had lunch again at the Lincoln diner and hit the road to Paradise, which is just outside of Lancaster. Home of the Amish. We checked into the hotel, another Best Western (see a pattern forming?). The hotel was really nice. We checked with the front desk and headed for a restaurant with Amish cooking, where they make things from scratch. I don't think we say even one chain restaurant in that small town. About a mile way was just what we were looking for. It was in a town called "Bird in Hand". You got to love these names. We ate a wonderful dinner and tried Shoofly-pie. It wasn't great, maybe it they didn't do a great job on that, but at least we can say we have tried it.

The next morning we got in the car, after an incredible breakfast at the same restaurant from the nigth before and made our way for Philadelphia. After parking, we got our tickets for Independence Hall. There is no cost, but you need to have tickets. We got more T-shirts. Dad got one that I picked out, a tie-dye for Becky. We headed on over to the Liberty Bell. We were able to get right next to it. See all its imperfections, miss-spellings and all. It is still inspiring.

We still had plenty of time before our tour of Independence Hall, so we headed over to the City Tavern. This is where the founding fathers retired after a long day of debating at Independence Hall. Turns out that the place is pretty much the same as it was back them. Dad had a Cider and I had an Ale made from Thomas Jefferson's recipe. It was very cool. You could imagine them hanging out there, chatting, joking, drinking and debating. We wondered how much of the real work got done here.

One the way back, we stopped at the City Hall. What is so special is that it was the original court for the US Supreme Court. The history was fascinating and the tour guide provided the tour for free.

Finally, we get to Independence Hall. The tour guide was fantastic. Besides the Declaration of Independence, he asked what other famous document was signed there. My dad and I both knew it was the Articles of Confederation. A little boy asked dad how he knew that? Dad answered, "Cause I was there". The boy asked "Really?". It was so funny.

Now it was time for the most important part of our Philadelphia trip. We went to the birthplace of the Philly Cheese steak, Pats King of Steaks. It has been open for over 70 years and right across the street is Gino's. There is a big competition over who is better, so we split a sandwich from each. We could not decide. They were both great. I did make a mistake. At Gino's, I ordered the sandwich with Provolone, instead of cheese whiz. I know, you are thinking cheese whiz? Yep, and it is better for a Philly cheese steak than provolone. So I guess we will have to go back and try it again until we get it right.

We made our way back to Paradise. Had dinner at the same great restaurant. The next morning, we got up and ate at a different Amish restaurant. We had scrapple, fried mush and other great things that we had never had before. The food was amazing. We hired an Amish gentleman to take us for a tour of the Amish country in one of their buggies. We was 81 years old and had to retire from being a farmer. He still wished he was a farmer. He was in amazing shape. We rode by more than one farm owned by a Bear (spelled in all sorts of ways). Once we were done, we were treated to a home made cookie. Oh my.

We checked out of the hotel, and headed towards the airport, but not via the freeway. We drove all the way across Pennsylvania and Maryland on small roads. It was a great way to explore and see these states. Once in Baltimore, we went to Fort McHenry. We explored the gun emplacements, the bomb shelters, everything. We went into the visitors center. They had a film that told the story of the War of 1812 from the point of view of the prisoner that Francis Scott Key was negotiating the release of. It really wasn't a matter of us surviving the night. Keep in mind that we did not do all that well in the War of 1812. We lost part of Maine to Canada. The British sacked Washington and burned the White House to the ground, but in Baltimore it was different.

At that time, the British navy was the most powerful navy in the world. The citizens of Baltimore had pooled there money together to hire a military engineer to design and build Fort McHenry. The British navy tried to get past the Fort, but we blew them out of the water and yes we did have a few losses. Very few compared to the losses we imposed on the British. They were forced to pull back. Since their guns were more powerful than ours, they were able to pull back far enough that our cannons could not reach them, but they could shell the fort, but our fort was bomb proof. That is right, it was bomb proof. Sure, today you can't make anything bomb proof, but in those days you could. So in the morning, when Francis Scott Key saw that the flag was still waving over Fort McHenry, it wasn't by the skin of our teeth. The British gave up, cause they had no chance.

When the presentation was over, the drapes on our right side opened up. The view was the hill in the center of Fort McHenry and the Star Spangled Banner waving in the breeze. It was a stirring moment.

We got back in the car, and in fifteen minutes we were at the airport. We had returned the rental car and were past security in the airport. We hadn't eaten in a while and they had a famous name restaurant that just happed to serve crab cakes. Maryland crab cakes. It is really a must to each crab cakes when in Maryland. They were huge and they were delicious.

At 5:00pm, we got on the plane for a direct flight back to Oakland. We did all of that in two and a half days and we both lost weight that week.

Ceci Graduates from High School

2008-06-15T11:53:00.001-07:00

In January, Ceci turned 18. In June, Ceci graduated from De Anza High School located in El Sobrante, California. The entire family was there, and Ceci wore a lei that we got for her. After the cerimony, we all headed over to Red Lobster in Vallejo. Grandma and Grandpa both had lobster and had to have the server crack it for them. They are old you know!

Dr. Robert Bear and Cindy Visit the West Coast Bears

2008-06-15T11:52:00.000-07:00

While out on the west coast, Bob and Cindy Bear of Rye Beach, New Hampshire visited us here in El Sobrante on Friday in May for brunch.

Ed baked some home made scones and smoked a Boston Butt (Pork Shoulder) for about 12 hours, using Hickory, so that we could have pulled pork, Carmen did the rest of the cooking. Despite the fact that Ed did some of cooking, no one got sick. We decided it was okay to take a chance since both Bob and Cindy are doctors.

All of the west coast cousins attended, Puzz and Joyce, Don and Marion, Jim and Laura. It was so good to see them and have them in our house. The time flew by way too quickly and before you knew it, it was time for them to go. We hope that other Bears will visit us in the future. We sure have fond memories of their visit and hope they did too.

and part 3 of fiel baptism

2008-04-20T21:15:00.000-07:00

part 2 of fiel baptism

2008-04-20T21:12:00.000-07:00

Jase Fiel's Baptism

2008-04-20T21:08:00.000-07:00

One of my very best friends has a baby boy Jase. He was baptized today and here are some pics!

Our House Gets Re-piped

2008-04-10T17:49:00.000-07:00

Our house was built in the 1940's and I believe we that until today, we had the original pipes and they were galvanized. We have had problems with the shower heads and faucets getting clogged with chunks of rust. The water pressure was so bad in the house the ice maker in the refrigerator would not work properly. We also had the problem with being scalded in the shower when someone ran the water or started the washer.

Today we had the house re-piped with copper. We had a shut off valve installed right at the front of the house that way we don't have to go to the street to shut off the water. We installed a brand new 50 gallon water heater. It comes fully insulated and expected to save us more than $350.00 per year in energy. Our old water heater only held 40 gallons and was rusted out. I got a larger one, cause there are times where we would run out of hot water. With six people, including two daughters ages 18 and 20, running out of hot water wasn't a hard thing to do. Another improvement is that the water heater is strapped to the house in case of earthquake.

We now have shut off valves all over the house. We installed non-scalding technology and brand new shower heads in both bathrooms.

Tomorrow the inspector is coming to approve the work and on Tuesday, they will patch the holes needed to replace the piping.

I am so happy, I could spit!

Ceci has the Chicken Pox

2008-04-07T16:52:00.000-07:00

Ceci at age 18 has the Chicken Pox. While not happy about, she is toughing it out. She is expected to be out of school and work for another week.

Ceci did have Chicken Pox as a child, but apparently her case was not sever enough to avoid getting them again. Seems like about this time last year, Lila had them.

Easter

2008-04-07T16:47:00.000-07:00

Easter on the West Coast was at Uncle Puzz's place in Sacramento. It was the first time in some years, that all three brothers (Puzz, Don and Jim) all got together. From Uncle Puzz and Aunt Joyce, all four kids were there (Christine, Hank, Mary and Carol), Puzz's granddaughter Jennifer was there as well as her son Anthony. From Uncle Don and Aunt Marion we had Bonnie, Nancy her husband Mark and their beautiful German Sheppard. From Jim and Laura, Ed, Carmen, Ceci, Susan, Jake, Bob, and Becky were all there.

We all had a very nice time.

Great Aunt Ruth Passes Away

2008-02-11T20:05:00.000-08:00

Great Aunt Ruth, passed away at the age of 98.5 in Rye Beach New Hampshire. She fell asleep and passed away. I flew back east. Someone had to represent the family from the West Coast. Her nephews Charles (Puzz), Donald and Jim all wanted to attend, but could not. Aunt Ruth was a special lady, she was one of our last links to the past.

When I arrived in Manchester, Andrew Bear picked me up and drove me to Dr. Bob Bear's house. I was thinking we would go straight to the hotel, that Bob had been so generous to arrange. I was sure that it would be too late and everyone would be asleep, but no. They were all at Bob and Cyndi's house. It was great to see so much family. We spent the evening looking through photo albums and swapping stories. We all looked at a picture of Aunt Ruth and Uncle Bob's wedding. There was a young boy in the picture. We speculated that it might be my Uncle Puzz, but we weren't sure.

The next morning we all met for breakfast. A number of us went to the funeral home for a viewing and say goodbye to Aunt Ruth. Next we all proceeded to the church for the memorial service. There were flowers. One bouquet was from my Uncle Puzz. There was a note attached. "...from a grateful nephew that was at your wedding". It was him in the picture.

Three of the grand children read passages from the Bible. Gus gave a wonderful eulogy. Next we took turns sharing a favorite moment. Here is mine:

My daughters Lila, Ceci and myself were visiting Nancy at her house. Aunt Ruth was staying with her. Nancy brought out a recipe for orange cookies written by the hand of her grandmother Sarah Bear. Nancy, Lila and Ceci proceeded to make those cookies. It was the coming together of five generations. Sarah with her recipe, Ruth, Nancy, myself and Lila and Ceci. It was very special. The girls even squeezed oranges by hand to make the cookies.

It was a beautiful day. We enjoyed the cookies outside. Nancy asked her mom "Well mom, what do you think? Are they like Grandma Sarah used to make?". Aunt Ruth thought for a moment. She nodded and said "They are good. Very good. Just like hers, .... but hers were better."

I fished by reminding the family that when George Burns passed away, the headlines said "Burns and Allen back together again" and now it was "Bob and Ruth" back together again.

I learned more about Aunt Ruth during her memorial service than I knew in my 47 years on this earth. In 98.5 years, you can touch a lot of people in many special ways. She surely did that.

At the burial, six of her grandchildren were her pallbearers. We said our final goodbyes as a lady sang "Somewhere My Love", the song that Uncle Bob always hummed to Aunt Ruth.

After we returned to Bob's house. There he made roast beef sandwiches on these special rolls and cream beer from Buffalo NY. We looked at pictures and now we knew that was Uncle Puzz in the wedding picture. We told stories till it was time to call it a night. We said out goodbyes and retired back to the hotel.

I'm so grateful that I could attend and Aunt Ruth had an important part to play in that. She along with my Grandmother Mary Bear and Great Aunt Louise kept in touch over the years. They would pass news back and forth about how the family was doing. They visited each other over the years. We were always hearing about Aunt Ruth, Uncle Bob and their families. If it wasn't for her, we wouldn't have had a reunion a few years ago. Our families would have drifted apart and become two. It did not.

Bob was amazing. He took such good care of everyone. He made all the arrangements. His family opened their home and their hearts. Thank you Bob, Cyndi and Andrew.

Ceci Turns 18

2008-02-11T20:04:00.000-08:00

Sunday January 27th, a day that will live in infamy, Ceci Bear turned 18. I suddenly realized that all of our children were adults. I felt 70.

It was a quiet day. Ceci didn't want a party. In the morning the family went to Dim Sum with her boy friend Jay. That evening Carmen and myself took Ceci and Jay to Ceci's favorite Vietnamese restaurant.

My daughter grew up so fast.

Grandmas Birthday

2008-02-06T13:43:00.000-08:00

Saturday January 26th, we celebrated Grandma's (Laura) 70th birthday, which was (January 23rd). Bob had to work the weekend, so he came up during the week and spent the day with Grandma on her actual birthday, which was nice.

Dave was not able to attend due to a new film he is working on with Ultimate fighters.

Charlie and Teresa were not able to attend as they had caught the flu that had been going around. Despite all that, there were plenty of people including six friends of grandma that we met for the first time. There would have been a seventh, but one was also out sick with the flu.

Ed proposed a toast and mentioned that now grandma is 70, she is officially old. It was pointed out that grandma has been using the "I'm old excuse" since she was in her 30's, grandpa confirmed that she had used this excuse in her 20's and there are rumors in Mass, were she grew up that this excuse was first use when she was in the third grade.

Everyone had a great time. There were a number of presents including a trip back east to see the leaves turn and visit friends and family. It was grandma's day. Happy birthday! I can't wait till we do this again in 70 years.

Christmas 2007

2007-12-25T19:56:00.000-08:00

Carmen's family traditionally celebrates Christmas on Christmas eve, while the Bears generally celebrate Christmas, Christmas morning. This normally works out just fine, and this year was no exception.

The evening started off with our entire family: Lila, Ceci, her boy friend Jay, Lina, Edgardo, Carmen and myself. With both daughters it is a rare occasion when even the four of us are able to get together, so we decided to take a picture.

Martha joined us along with her son Kike, and her boyfriend's family, including his mother. Our neighbor Jackie join us as well. We had a lot of great food and plenty to drink. Some of the presents that stood out where 16 x 20 framed photos of Jay and Ceci that were presented to Jay and Ceci, my cloth napkins and a copy of the movie "Writers Day".

If you are a regular reader of our blog, you will already know about the cloth napkins and the movie. They were on my birthday present wish list. It concerned me that I received them on Christmas, but it would not be the first time that Christmas and my birthday were merged.

We ended the evening at about mid-night playing the "Sponge Bob" version of monopoly.

The next morning we were off to Fresno to enjoy Christmas at my sister Susan's house in Fresno, but there was a hitch. After the arrangements for Christmas were made, Lila got a job through the holidays working at the La Quinta Hotel in Berkeley. She was scheduled to work Christmas day from 3:00pm to 11:00pm, so Lila was not able to go to Fresno with us. She did get to sleep in however and trust me she appreciated that.

Our neighbor Jackie was good enough to keep Lila company and go with her to her work.

My mother showed up about 9:00am with her homemade coffee cake. We all piled into Martha's mini van, which she was nice enough to loan us. We had one more person than would fit in out Ford Escape Hybrid SUV. So off we went, Mom, Ceci, Carmen, Lina, Edgardo and myself eating coffee cake as we rolled down the highway. It took us about 3.5 hours and while I drove the rest nodded off and enjoyed a good nap.

Other than Lila, everyone was there Susan, Willie and Jake did a fine job of hosting David, Charlie, Teressa, Bob, Reeva, Becky, Dad and ourselves. The food was great and there house was just right for such a gathering. Jake played the guitar as presents were passed out. Charlie looked pretty cool with his new sunglasses.

As we opened the presents. I noticed that everyone seemed to be getting presents but me. Finally the last present was taken from beneath the tree and sure enough, no present for me. I made the mistake of pointing this out.

Next thing I know, they pull out a 42 inch high definition wide screen television out of nowhere. I was floored. I had not expected this at all. The size is just perfect and will fit in our entertainment center. By the way, I think I heard someone mention that this was Christmas/Birthday present. Now just when I thought I was so spoiled, my sister Susan presented me with something I did not think existed.

It was my grandfathers railroad watch. My dad had been wrong, it did not get lost or stolen. Susan had it the entire time. Since she was not able to attend Fathers Day, we had no idea she had it. Susan declared me "Keeper of the Watch" and it is my duty to at some point in my life to declare the next "Keeper of the Watch", which she said should be a male. I have to admit, I had tears in eyes. I knew exactly what it was when she held up the sock containing the watch. As I reached for the sock, I touched it and my grandfather. I don't think I have ever been so spoiled at Christmas/birthday. It was very special and I want to thank all of you so much.

We ended our stay with a picture of the five kids of Laura and Jim.

We packed up our loot and drove back. We dropped Ceci off at her boy friends house and I was dropped off at Lila's work to spend the rest of the shift with her. Jackie caught a ride home and I decided to enter this into our blog and email a few high school friends to wish them a Merry Christmas

What about BoB?

2007-12-18T20:37:00.000-08:00

Bob Bear of Morro Bay, California has taken time away from his frito-lay driving day job to unleash on to an unexpecting web-surfing universe his website, whatmeanstheworldtome.com. I am inviting each and every one of you to visit and submit your story.

Thank you,
Bob Bear

Edgardo Turns 88

2007-12-08T22:57:00.000-08:00

Today was Edgard Sing's (Tata) 88th birthday. He spent the day with his daughters Carmen and Martha and their families minus Carlos who is in the US Air Force in Abeline Texas. Pedro, his wife and Jay (Ceci's boyfriend) came over for dinner as well.

Ed is Elected to Advisory Board

2007-12-08T22:54:00.000-08:00

While in Las Vegas this past week, I ran for the one spot on the advisory board that is allowed to vendors for America's Best Value Inn (ABVI). I was up against three other candidates and was elected.

Ed's Birthday

2007-12-02T19:56:00.000-08:00

Yes folks, once again December is here and the concern on everyone's mind is, "What do I get Ed Bear for his birthday? " Sure there are distractions such as Pearl Harbor, Christmas and New Years Eve, but who can even think about any of those things when you are stressed out about what to get me? Well, worry no more. Here is a list of presents that I will be expecting:

DVD "Writers Day" available from Amazon.com. Cost about $10.00.
Cloth Napkins Cost about $17.49
Rain Barrels. Cost about $100.00
Obvio 828e Electric Car. Cost about $49,000.00

This list has been provided out of the goodness of my heart to eliminate the stress and confusion you all suffer from during this time of the year. For those of you who are wondering, no this does not count as a Christmas present. I don't even own a BBQ to use all the coal you folks gave me last year, so I certainly won't need anymore this year.

Original Joes Catches Fire

2007-11-28T21:51:00.000-08:00

Long time Bear family favorite restaurant Original Joe's at the corner of Turk and Taylor in San Francisco is closed!

There is a sign in the window that says "Closed Due To Fire, Opening Soon". According to an article I read on the web, the restaurant caught fire on October 12th. I was working three days in the city this week and went by the restaurant twice, but saw not activity.

The other sign reads "That 20-something model with 30 years of experience that is on CSI has not shown up yet. So we just don't know nothin yet.

Carmen meets up with friends from Peru

2007-11-28T21:33:00.001-08:00

Saturday evening we drove down to San Jose, and hooked up with Mrs Chela, her husband and sister in-law as well as Norma and her husband Terry. We all took off to the Olive Garden for an evening of good food and the ladies chatted the night away.

Terry told me about a movie he and his friends produced "Writers Day" I plan to order it from Amazon and check it out. The story is a mystery that takes place on a train. I love trains and can't wait to see it.

Turns out it was Chela's birthday, so we topped off the evening with a birthday cake and a round of Happy Birthday.

If all that wasn't enough, in the table right next to us were some old friends that live in San Jose Linda "Amsel" and Chuck Spencer from IRC. What a small world!

Solar Living Institute

2007-11-28T21:16:00.000-08:00

The Saturday after Thanksgiving Mom, David, Charlie drove up to the Solar Living Institute in Hopland, California. Hopland is located north on Highway 101 just before Ukiah. We rode up in our Ford Escape Hybrid which seemed to fit in with the spirt of things.

The name "Solar Living Institute" is really misleading. They do so much more they, they generate power from Wind, the have their own water well, pond with fish, they grow their own food, the buildings are made from straw and mud, the bathroom doors are made from recycled prescription pill bottles, they have flushless urinals. There is really so much to learn from there. Their focus really seems to be leaving a small footprint on the earth.

We took the tour at 3:00 and were rewarded not only with a good tour and some great information, but you could buy their book called "Solar Living Source Book" for only $20.00, while inside their store the cost was $35.00. This book has 640 large pages filled with great information.

We had a really good time. I think I'd like to go back again, and perhaps stop at a winery and plan to have lunch at the local brew pub.

Thanksgiving

2007-11-22T15:06:00.000-08:00

Here's a picture from Thanksgiving! This is my friend Wade!

We had quite a few people here for Thanksgiving, we had Carmen, Ed, Lila, Ceci, Edgardo, Lina, Wade, Jay, Laura, Jim, Becky, Susan, Willie, Willie's mom, Jake, Martha, Kike, Edwin, and his two kids, Jackie, Puzz, Joyce, Christine, Mary Ruth, Carol, Scott, Bob, David, Teressa and Charlie.

We had so much great food and finished it offe with two pumpkin pies, a pecan pie and a blueberry pie....

Eco Fair in Concord

2007-11-17T23:40:00.000-08:00

Today I went to the Eco Fair in Concord. I asked everyone I knew to go with me, but no one could or wanted to. It seemed a bit strange to drive by myself in a vehicle designed to hold five to and Eco Fair, but there I was. I realized afterwards I could have asked my mom, but too late. At least I drove the hybrid. I got to tell you, those that did not go, missed out.

It was not a large fair, but it was good. PG&E was there, just outside of the room where the booths were, they had a Plug In Hybrid and were promoting the concept. They also gave everyone who came by a compact florescent light bulb and a book entitled 30 Simple Energy Things You Can Do To Save The Earth. It is actually a pretty good book.

Once inside I got a really nice Frisbee made completely out of recycled plastic, a water bottle courtesy of the Contra Costa water district. I got some pencils and a ruler that was made out of recycled dollar bills. How cool was that?

I got some cloth shopping bags from Safeway. They were giving one per person. I asked for two and they hesitated until I explained that I have a family of six living at home. Don't you think stores should give these away for free anyway?

I got some compresses sponges that expand when they get wet. I love these for preparedness kits. Using a sponge to collect water from morning dew is a great survival technique.

I got some literature with great information. For example, I can take our old Christmas lights that have been in the family forever and trade them in for a string of LED Christmas lights in Concord for free. I also found out that EBMUD who supplies the water where I live, will give me free water flow heads for my sinks and showers. That is great since I was getting ready to buy some. Oh, and PG&E had a booth inside where they were giving out two more compact florescent lights to each person for a grand total of three. My family and friends really should have come with me.

Oh, I almost forgot, I found a company that has a conversion kit to change a normal toilet to a French toilet for only $30.00. It automatically cleans you using the water, reducing your toilet paper consumption. My wife being from Peru is very interested. Bedea's are very popular throughout Latin America.

I found a woman owned company in San Francisco that specializes in maintance on Hybrids. It is supposed to be the first like it. It is claimed that they plan to offer upgrading Hybrids to Plug In Hybrids.

One of the greatest things about the fair was the exchange of ideas and the ability to ask questions and get answers to all those things I had been thinking about. My last stop was just outside across from the PG&E Plug In Hybrid, there was a guy from a home solar company that had an Electric Car that had been manufactured by Toyota about 10 years ago. It still runs great and is still using the original battery.