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Santa Rosa West
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Santa Rosa West
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The 1,258th meeting found silver-tongued President Bill Gittins struggling to stay in control of a vocal, unruly group. Jim Sullivan and Phil Talamantes teamed up to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance - (why is the flag on the left?), and Robin Marrs delivered the second shortest invocation on record (after Rene Ocana). Several visiting Rotarians and guests were brilliantly introduced by Dennis Wilkenson and Bill Fisher (right) was given an "early" $1.00 fine for the timing of his introduction of a guest. Neil Silverman introduced his special guest, an acupuncturist from China.
Welcome back Ellen Friedman after a long medical leave! Charlotte Imboden is also doing much better. Barbara Rubins is continuing her recovery from surgery. Best wishes from all of us.
Chris Rosell announced the brunch at Mixx; cost is $32 per person; sign-up sheet going around.
Mary Farha announced that Monica Sequini from the Multi-Cultural Center was selected to represent SRW on the GSE team trip to Finland, April 13 to May 10, 1997. Chuck Baker reminded us that First Night badges (same as tickets) are now on sale for $5.00. Mark Decker has 400 tickets available for the Crab Feed, thanks to the sponsorship of Mike Moore, Discovery Office Systems. The auction needs more prizes. The net from Travel Extravaganza was $12,700. Mary Farha sold 40 tickets and won two airline vouchers. Ginny Pitts (below right) and Jim Sullivan sold 30 each and were awarded wine; Lou Capuano was a runner up at 29 tickets sold. The "talking table" bought $3,700 worth. Great job everyone!
Laura Bugbee negotiated out of a fine with highlights of her trip to Vietnam (the fine was prepaid??). Chris Rosell was levied 10% or $55 for his $550 black marble trip to Monterey. Jim Valinoti (above left) was nailed $20 for attending the Oregon-Cal game in the rain. Jim Hinton paid $42, the winning score of the "big" game. Bill Fisher was charged $20 for just being himself, as well as a Cal alum. Matt Myers paid $30 fine for cleaning tourist train windows - something about raising funds for his son's trip to the Jamboree.
No one drew the black marble - (Bill, check your pockets!!). Dennis Wilkinson donated his $20 to the Crab Feed.
Jerry Price, in "real life," is an investment broker with Robert Thomas Securities in Petaluma. That sounds "normal" for a unique individual whose idea of "light workout" is a double marathon or a casual jog along the John Muir Trail. His "other life" is taking on gravitational challenge - climbing mountains! This writer gets vertigo just thinking about this. Before his attempt to reach the summit of Mt. Everest, some of the smaller "hills" he has scaled (or attempted to climb) include Mt. Aconcagua, Ranier, Shasta and McKinley.
So how old is he? 25? Try 61 in 1995 when he got to about 24,000 ft. on Everest before getting very sick. Most of the climbers are less than half his age, and probably in almost as good condition.
Jerry Price is also very articulate in his description of the privately funded journey. He had special praise for the Sherpas and members of his special team. The slide show was excellent, and showed us a bit of life in Nepal, to offset the vertigo. The scary parts include the ice fall - two miles linear travel with a 2,000 vertical ft. climb over something resembling a bunch of nasty looking icebergs and crevasses that could swallow you at any time, and the ridge near the summit with 7,000' ft. drops off either side of the edge of a razor blade.
Jerry Price was forced to abandon the climb on May 6, 1995. The team encountered severe problems the next day. A group of five climbers finally made it to the top. At that high altitude, there is only about 3% the O2 found at lower levels. People can get pulmonary or cerebral edema at lower altitudes, as well as other life-threatening conditions.
Why do people pay $35,000 to $65,000 to go on such a risky and punishing expedition, and wait 5 years to get a climbing permit? - just for the adventure and challenge! His next trip planned is a joint US, Ukranian and Russian expedition --Climbers for Peace-- to 18,465 ft. Mt. Elbrus in southern Russia next summer.
This week's bulletin is written by Ray Mattison
Monday, December 2nd: Billy Gianquinto will talk about Hunting & Fishing in Sonoma County.
Monday, December 9th: Our speaker will be Ron Wolf who will talk about TV News.
Sunday, December 15th: Holiday Brunch, Mixx Restaurant
Monday, December 16th: Multi-Cultural Preschool Holiday Party
Monday, December 23rd: Dark
Monday, December 30th: Dark
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