May 2015 Volume 47 No. 5

Non-Responsibility Clause: All Tours and other activities arranged for or by Sons in Retirement, Inc. and its branches are for the convenience and pleasure of the members and their guests wishing to participate. Sons in Retirement, Inc. and its branches do not assume any responsibility for the well being or safety of the participants or passengers, or their property, in any matters pertaining to said tours, trips or other activities.

Branch 32 Website: http://branch32.sirinc2.org/

Sir Happenings Newsletter: http://sirinc.org/sirhappenings/ From Big Sir for a short time. I would like to see the 80% members of our Branch reverse it so that 80% of the members are participating, and we only have 20% “do-nothingers”. As I sit down to write this

column a potpourri of Please become a contributor instead of just a “taker”. thoughts enters my mind. It seems just yesterday Second, on June 17th, we have our annual Ladies Picnic. that we started 2015, and This is a great opportunity to take your spouse, girl now one third of the year friend, or neighbor out for a great lunch and an is gone… if you don’t enjoyable time. Paul Vogel, our Picnic Chairman, has a believe in time flying you great day planned and is guaranteeing wonderful need to wake up. weather. You need to buy your tickets at the May luncheon, so come prepared with a blank check. CONGRADULATIONS to Sir Jim Sleigh who was The life of our Branch depends on our membership. We awarded the “Honorable currently are about 40 members below our allocated Life Member” title by SIR President Bobbie Hairston at maximum. We all need to concentrate on bringing in new our April luncheon. Jim has been a member of Branch members. In April, for the first month this year we had no 32 since 1994 and has served on the Branch Executive new members. Fortunately we have 4 inductees due to Committee in different positions for the past 18 years. become members at our May luncheon. Thanks Jim for your support of our Branch and we all are delighted with your honor. The picnic would be a wonderful opportunity to bring a potential new member. As we enter the summer season we must keep in mind our fellow SIRs who are bedridden or otherwise Big Sir Bruce Henry confined. Our concern, love, and hearts go out to them and their families. If you have a few spare minutes I’m sure each would enjoy a phone call or a visit. Sunshine Membership Report chairman Harry Wenberg can provide you names and phone numbers are in your roster. Database Status as of May 1, 2015

We have two major events coming up in Branch 32. First Active: 104 Inductee: 4 and foremost is the selection of officers and committee Re-Join: 0 Inactive: 6 chairman for next year. While I understand the 80-20 Widows: 15 Other: 9 rule, we really need some more of you to “step-up” and help with the committees. A committee co-chair is easy, Open Numbers: 40 and can be very rewarding, and is necessary for when Total Database Count: 178 unexpected illness, or planned travel takes a chair away

-1- To be inducted at the May luncheon: Inactive #121 Bill Meehan has been dropped from membership. DAVIES Phil Phil #83 6006 Paxton Ct. Mo Inactive #20 Ray Thomas has been dropped from San Jose 95123-4533 (408) 281-8834 membership. [email protected] Program Manager, NASA 04/11 Respectfully Submitted: Fishing/Golf/Hiking Bruce Henry SPONSOR: Larry St. Denis #116 Membership Chairman FITZHENRY John R. Jack #56 17661 Dishman Drive Pam Birthdays and Anniversaries Los Gatos 95130-7104 (408) 395-7442 [email protected] (408) 892-1976 Birthdays Human Resources VP, Corp. 08/26 Golf/Tennis/Travel/Cooking SPONSOR: Bruce Henry #150

NORCIA Domenic B. Dom #90 Name Birthday 124 Regent Dr. Lydia Los Gatos 95032-5042 (408) 569-7177 [email protected] Tom Donovan 05/01 VP Sales & Marketing, Ascor Corp. 07/17 Jim Sleigh 05/06 RC Model airplanes/Golf/Photography SPONSOR: Don Erickson #132 Mike Price 05/15 Warren Lampshire 05/19 BRANDENBURG Gary L. Gary #92 12664 Kinman Ct. Susan Gary Ahlbrand 05/21 Saratoga 95070-3926 (408) 255-7217 Mike Console 05/23 [email protected] (408) 621-5191 Victor Miller 05/25 Human Resource Management, Brandenburg et al 04/17 Travel/Racquetball/Bocce Morton E. Berlant 05/26 SPONSOR: Warren Lampshire #22 William W. Allman 05/27 Membership changes: Dick Rossman 05/29

Active #34 Gary Pelton has been granted Emeritus status to care for his son during medical issues. Anniversaries Active #47 Fred Gardner has been granted Emeritus status to care for his wife during medical issues.

Active #101 Al Kosmata has transferred to Inactive status for medical reasons.

Active #43 Chuck Little has been terminated for violation Couple Anniversary Years of Rule 100. Married Inactive #88 Don Barnett has resigned as of April 6th.

Inactive #66 Vic Destin apparently died last year and has Bob and Theresa Catalano 05/08 11 been dropped from membership. Wes and Rosalie Howard 05/19 36 Inactive # 51 Gunther Greszik has resigned as of April Gary and Jeanie Ahlbrand 05/19 11th. Paul and Lori Twombly 05/27 37 Inactive #128 Jack Dolin has resigned as of 4/15/15. Victor and Jan Miller 05/27 36 Inactive #109 Jim Kooper has been dropped from Ken and Coleen Nelson 05/28 61 membership.

-2- Guest Speaker July Speaker

This Month Sister Donna Maria Moses, OP, Ed.D Board Certified Chaplain The May speaker is Barbara Santa Clara Medical Center Keegan, Director—District 2, Santa Clara Valley Board of Subject of talk: "End of life issues.” Directors. This Month's Luncheon On April 28th, the Mercury News’s front page headline fea- Three Flames Restaurant. 1547 Meridian Ave, San Jose tured “Recycled water” with a CA 95125. Wednesday May 20 at 11:00am. picture of Mayor Sam Liccardo and Santa Clara Mayor Jamie Matthews drinking a glass of recycled water from the Ribs, Anna potatoes, and veggies Santa Clara Water Purification facility. Call now if you know you will not be at the The Santa Clara Water District is calling for expanding May Luncheon. Call Jack Vierhus, Wesley that use from 20,000 acre-feet a year now to about Howard, or Bruce Henry before 6:00pm on 55,000 acre-feet a year—or 20 percent of the county’s Sunday May 17. total water demand—by 2025.

What an appropriate speaker in light of the constant flow of news on the current state wide water crisis. Bring some and take some!! Barbara Keegan first moved to San Jose in 1975 and has lived in District 2 for most of her life. Barbara and her husband Tom currently reside in Willow Glenn. Longevity Recognition Barbara is a third generation Civil Engineer and has lived in Canada, Ireland, the United States and Brazil.

She attended San Jose State University where she earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Civil Engi- neering. Barbara is a licensed Civil Engineer. 12 current active members joined Branch 32 in May Barbara has a strong professional background in Civil Engineering which includes many years of experience in The May members with the longest longevity are: successfully delivering capital projects and resolving # 12 Jeff White 20 years joined in 1995 construction disputes. # 39 Bob Berglund 17 years joined in 1998 She was formerly the City Engineer/Assistance Director of Public Works for the City of Sunnyvale. Barbara rep- resented Sunnyvale on the Cities/County/Water District New Members collaborative that dealt with land use authority adjacent to streams.

Barbara will speak to the history of the District and their mission, who they serve, where our water comes from No new members were inducted in April. and infrastructure that delivers it to their constituents. She will also include a Q & A session to address your questions on the water crisis in California.

So, make it a point to come to our May luncheon and bring a guest or a potential new member.

Pat Ryan, Co-Program Chairman Jim Claitor, Co-Program Chairman

-3- Awards Be sure to stop by the travel table at the luncheon to obtain brochures on the latest trips!!

Travel Bulletin If you would like to receive your Bulletin via E-Mail, email your request to rwshields @ comcast.net from the email address that you want your Bulletin delivered to. If you are not interested in travel get your name taken off our E-Mail list by contacting Bob Shields at (408) 268-4975, email [email protected], or your branch Travel Chairman. Activities

Camera Club

The camera club met to critique the pictures taken on the last two field trips, and pick the winners from each.

The following are the winners for the Water Purification Plant trip:

Bobbie Hairston presents Honorary Life Member plaque to Jim Sleigh Travel

August 20, 2015: “Phantom of the Opera” A 2:00 P.M. Performance at the Orpheum Theater in San Francisco.

This one day trip includes: round trip motor coach, hosted lunch at the Fog Harbor Restaurant on Pier 39, admission to Phantom of the Opera loge seating, driver Ultra Violet Purifiers – 1st Place – Don Pedrotti tip, and a short tour of S.F. Christmas Lights, if time allows and Christmas Lights available.

Cost: $178 per person. No deposit, full payment due on sign-up. Checks preferred, there will be a charge for use of Credit Cards. Trip costs are NON- Refundable— Although may be transferred if minimum count has been met and/or there is an active waiting list. Sign-up deadline: July 6th, 2015. We expect an early sell-out, so don't wait until the deadline to sign-up, you'll probably miss the show or we will put you on our waiting list for a second chance, if there are cancellations!!

Make Checks Payable to: Cruise Adventures Unlimited Trust Account Mail to: Mike Console 3527 Parkland Ave. San Jose, Ca. 95117

See brochure for Meal choices at Fog Harbor Restaurant in San Francisco. First Stage Pumps – 2nd Place –Rene Padilla

-4- Second Stage Filtration – 3rd Place – Dan Roberts Study in Colors and Textures - 2nd Place – Rene Padilla

The following are the winners of the field trip.

Moon Bridge and Koi Pond – 3rd Place - Robert Edwards

The next Field Trip will be to Wilder Ranch State Park and Waddell Creek Beach on Wednesday May 27, 2015 If you are going on the Wilder Ranch field trip please notify Bob Edwards, and also if you plan to ride pool or go on your own. This will help with our planning. We will ride pool from Ace Hardware, Los Gatos, parking lot, and plan to leave by 9:00 am. Wilder Ranch State Park is on Hwy. 1 north of Santa Cruz. We should arrive at about 10:15 am and spend an hour and a half exploring the old ranch. The next stop will be at Artist at Work – 1st Place – Don Pedrotti Davenport for lunch. There are two possibilities, Whale City Bakery Bar and Grill or Davenport Bar and Grill. Both are next door to each other at 490 and 500 Coast Road. We will continue north to Waddell Creek Beach which is known for its wind surfing. We should leave for home about 3:00pm to avoid the traffic in Santa Cruz. The ranch is wheel chair friendly but the beach presents a problem

Attend the Picnic June 17, 2015

-5- Club Meeting Results of the April 14 tournament are listed below: Wednesday July 29, 2015 1:30 pm Don Pedrotti’s home Closest to #3 The meeting will be at Don Pedrotti’s to critique the pictures taken at last field trip, and pick the three No One winners. Everyone should bring their Two (2) best shots for judging. Closest to #8

It was decided that the last two field trips of the year will 1st Galen Gipson 7’ 4” nd be: 2 Rick Hausman 9’ 10” 3rd Wayne Whorton 13’ 4” 1) Campbell Historical Museum and Ainsley House. 2) The Museum for a talk on Photography in the Closest to #13 (Less than 10’) production of semiconductors. 1st Wayne Whorton 5’ 1” Details will be provided later. 2nd Jim Caratozzolo 5’ 9” All Branch 32 Members are invited to participate in the Closest to #16 camera club activities. You do not have to have a fancy camera and some of our winning photos were made with 1st Dean Johnson 15’ 4” small compacts or smart phones. All Wives are also invited to participate in any Camera Club activities. Paul Vogel, Golf Chairman

See your roster for phone and e-mail. Bocce Don Pedrotti, Camera Club Chairman April 28th was a beautiful day at Golf Almaden Lake Park. Sunny, warm and no geese waddling around doing Twelve Sirs participated in our what geese do all over the place. April 14 tournament at Deep Cliff. (Maybe that is one positive result of Because many branch members our drought.) Anyway, 12 bocce players showed and were participating in the Sirs there was some very good play. Fred Gardner made state tournament in Napa no golf the shot of the month or year and it can be seen in the was scheduled for Deep Cliff on April 21. above picture. I guess it is equivalent to golf`s “closest –to-the-hole”. Team #1 consisting of Fred, Bob The Tournaments at Deep Cliff this month will be held Edwards and new member/player Phil Davies won all on May 12 and May 19. Our annual spring their games – a mixture of experience and beginners tournament will be held on the 19th. Wes Howard won luck. the honors last year and he’ll be trying to repeat again this year. Lets have a big turnout. It was nice to see Ray Hall show up. Initially we Congratulations go to Jim Caratozzolo, Jim Claitor, Art weren’t sure if it was him or his ghost as it had Lhowe and Wayne Whorton for taking third place in erroneously been reported that he had passed away. the April Area 5-20 golf tournament at Spring Valley in His luncheon name tag had been pulled, he was Milpitas. removed from the Bocce ball roster and emailing and his wife had received a condolence card. They (Ray This month’s Area 5-20 tournament is scheduled at and his wife) had a sense of humor about it all. Nice the Boulder Creek Golf Course in Boulder Creek on to know the various committee heads performed their May 18. The format is a 4-man scramble and the cost duties in a timely manner but we gotta do something is $50. Tee times will be scheduled rather than a about the initial reporting. Nice to see you Ray!! shotgun start. Once start times are announced I will notify everyone who is participating. Several of you have already contacted me about playing. Because of the short timeline, anyone else wishing to play should notify me ASAP via Email so I can contact the tournament coordinator.

-6- Mel Grant with onlookers The above photo of Wes Howard and Jack Vierhus was printed in the March newsletter. It was then displayed at the March luncheon asking members to attach a caption to it. An impartial judge reviewed the proposed captions and the winner was “I THINK I`D USE A 9 IRON FOR THS SHOT”. The suggestion had 2 names on it – Bruce Henry and Lee McLaughlin. The judge asked why it took 2 Sirs members to come up with one suggestion and all I could say was that “great minds think alike”. (I really don’t know why there were 2 names.) As I stated at the luncheon, the winner gets nothing other than the inner satisfaction of knowing that he is a winner. Periodically items of this nature will appear in the newsletter and/or at the luncheon. Look for them and take a second and participate. Larry St. Dennis, Bocce Chairman

Gardening

Our garden club is part of the SIR Areas 5 and 20 Garden Club. Members meet on a monthly schedule to enjoy guest presentations on gardening topics and to exchange information on gardening. Wives are encouraged to attend.

Larry St. Dennis - Witness to a great shot We meet on the 2nd Wednesday of every month at 11:00 AM at the Denny’s Restaurant at 1140 Hillsdale Ave. (near Almaden Expy) in San Jose, CA.

Contact our Club Chairman, Bill Allman who will answer any questions and insure you have badges.

-7- Bowling

Chairman: Vic Miller

Bridge Club

Chairman: Harry Wenberg From Left to Right: Bobbie Hairston, Jim Sleigh, and Bruce Henry Ladies Day Picnic Additional Photos Mark June 17 (3rd Wednesday) on your calendar and get ready for our annual Branch 32 Ladies Day Summer picnic. Once again, the venue is Saratoga Springs. The cost is $35 per person and the menu includes: Both Santa Maria Steak and BBQ Chicken (you can enjoy both), choices of salads, beans, buttered French bread, unlimited drinks (including beer, wine and sodas) and cookies for dessert. In addition to the fine food, beverages and good fellowship, we’ll have Bingo games and prizes.

You can purchase tickets at the May luncheon so don't forget to bring either extra cash or your check book. Galen Gipson and yours truly will be selling tickets at the table located at the front door as you walk in the Three Flames restaurant. If you are unable to attend the luncheon, you can mail your check to Paul Vogel, 12144 Covina Court, Saratoga, CA 95070. Don't forget to include a self addressed envelope.

Everyone is encouraged to purchase their tickets early as it makes the planning so much easier. And one last thing--we’re always looking for extra door prizes. Anyone wishing to contribute should contact Paul Vogel, Picnic Rene Padilla with Bobbie Hairston Chairman, at (408) 253-9355 or via email at [email protected].

Paul Vogel, Picnic Chairman

Wednesday June 17, 2015 10:30 am - Lunch served 12:15 Saratoga Springs

-8- Two Miles West of Saratoga on Hwy. 9

Door prizes, Bingo, and just Relaxing

Unlimited Drinks – Beer Wine, and Sodas Full lunch with BBQ Santa Maria Steak and BBQ Chicken $35.00 per person

Tickets will be on sale at the May Luncheon. You can also obtain tickets until Fri. June 7th by mail. Send a Stamped self addressed envelope and your check made out to SIR Branch 32. Mail to: Paul Vogel, 12144 Covina Ct., Saratoga, CA 95070

The final count must be given to Saratoga Springs by June 10, 2015. Cancellations after that date will not be refunded, unless the tickets can be resold.

Eat, Drink, and be Lucky

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