the valley sunrise - Clayton Valley Concord Sunrise Rotary Club

THE VALLEY
SUNRISE
-------------- March 6, 2014 ------------Award-Winning Newsletter for THREE CONSECUTIVE years (2010-2013)
Rotary Int’l President:
District 5160 Governor:
CVCS President:
Photographer:
Reporter:
Editor:
Ron Burton, Oklahoma
Steve Lack, Pleasant Hill
Bill Fuller
Clayton Worsdell
Mureleen Benton
Mureleen Benton
HOW IT STARTED
President and lead Pirate Bill Fuller called the
meeting to order and we began the meeting with the
Pledge that Mureleen Benton began and then club
members joined in.
Captain Bill introduced a brand new segment to our
club’s agenda – HAPPY BUCKS! Yes, boys and
girls, happy bucks are back after being gone for a
week. Oh how we missed our happy bucks.
Guest
Our guest this morning was John Gallagher from the Save Mt. Diablo
organization. More later.
HAPPY BUCKS
And so just in case President Bill might forget if he put it off too long,
he started with happy bucks (hbs). When he first asked if there were
any, I’m sure his little heart went pitter patter because no one raised their hands. Well, that was
soon remedied by MANY HBs since President Bill was going to match all HBs.
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Mureleen started them off by being happy that with her Sharks hockey
tickets that she won, her son Mike was on a plane headed here to see that
Sharks game – tonight.
Lisa Truesdell was next with happiness that her
friend Steve who had back surgery recently is
recovering and she wanted to thank the club for the
nice card we sent. She was also happy about her
son’s FOUR RBIs. Sounds to me like he might be headed to either the A’s
or Giants soon!!
Lisa also had a happy/sad buck about her friend Christy Harris who died
yesterday from cancer. As Lisa said, she’s now in a better place and no
longer in pain.
Fred Nelson was very proud that one member actually went to the club’s
website and changed her own data – nice going
Lisa. Makes all the rest of us look like slackers!
Bill Selb is happy to be celebrating his 10 years as
Chief pancake person for our annual 4th of July
breakfast. He reminded us that griddles and sausage are the biggest
expenditures so keep your eyes open for a griddle contact person or
sausage person. Maybe we should switch to bacon. How’s that for future
thinking?
Richard Lueck attended the Martinez Rotary meeting yesterday (in
Martinez) and realized that Oakhurst must be catering that event like they
do ours! Scrambled eggs, bacon, etc. Yum. He was there to support
Dave Kemnitz as Dave made a presentation to their club about the
Clunkers program. They jumped right on. Also, Dave still has that
motor home for sale. It is now up to $1,800 and it is rumored that you
could be the proud owner of this Class A motor home for a mere $2,500.
Think of it, no more motel rooms and you could
actually cook your own scrambled eggs and bacon each morning. He also
said interest in San Felipe appears to be growing and maybe next year we
could actually send a busload of Rotarians to SF.
Larry Hutchings had a sad buck because during his
absence last week he was actually in Las Vegas
attending a funeral for a friend of 55 years. This
man was a very influential person in Nevada.
Russ Anderson got a little taste of what it’s like in Wash., D.C. as he tried
to lobby Congress. As he said, there are thousands of people there and
NOTHING gets done. (Editor’s note: And what does get done is not
what we want them to do.)
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Torsten Jacobsen explained his absence last week by telling us about his extended stay in San
Felipe. He was able to see the Baja 250 where a bunch of VERY expensive cars are raced and
there is no winning bucket of money at the finish line. Why do it then??
Chris Ruzicka who has two incredible daughters told about his oldest
daughter and her track team and the youngest one won at a science fair
over the weekend.
Jim Swanson was cooperating with the FBI in
spying on his neighbor’s house as they were
growing pot on the premises. Must have been
quite a lot to get the FBI involved.
Tommy Wolf shared about a 21 year old patient
who was having trouble with his prostate and
how Tommy’s chiropractic skills seemed to ease these troubles. We
won’t go there now.
Steve Weir noticed that
Larry’s socks actually
matched something – we
just don’t know what.
John Wolfe was able to see
his “little girl” on TV as her
school did some
demonstration about Common Core. John’s
daughter has been a teacher now for 17 years at a
high school in So. Ca.
Don Ouimet was $2 happy – happy, happy, happy!
Irene Davids-blair told us a bit more about her
recent trip to Denver. Seems US Bank sent 1,000
of their top producers for a conference. She’s also
leaving this afternoon for PETS in San Jose.
Have fun, Irene.
Fred then increased the pot by another $1 by being happy that Irene is
going to PETS.
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Then Eric Rehn had a last minute HB but I really couldn’t hear what he
was happy about.
And Torsten ended the HBs by club members for
something also butonce again, I couldn’t hear what it
was.
And this, Ladies and Gentlemen, brought the total to
$58.50. So Generous and forgetful President Bill reached into his pocket and
came up with $60 HBs because he’s so proud of our club and all the things
we’ve accomplished just within the last few months. He also reminded us to mark our calendars
for May 15 when we will be having our meeting at the Monument Crisis Center to see where
some of our dollars have gone. (Editor’s note: Bet he won’t be forgetting HBs anytime soon.)
JOKES/MYSTERY GREETER
Mureleen told one about a guy with no arms –
it was a groaner.
And the Mystery Greeter was our own Tommy
Wolf. I saw a few bucks hit the pot.
BIRTHDAYS/ANNIVERSARIES
And today just happens to be John Wolfe’s birthday. He gave $100 to his
Paul Harris and his Hooy of $71 to the club. We did a very fine rendition
of Happy Birthday – not Take me out to the ball game.
____________CLUB STUFF_____________
Captain Bill announced that raffle ticket sales appear to be down so
please, next week just stop by the cashier’s table and drop your $2 for your raffle ticket. It is
suspected that because we are now on a monthly billing system that some people forget to stop
off at the table and leave their $2.
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The club was then asked to stand as Larry Hutchings recited the 4 Way
Test. Excellent job.
There’s a Mt. Diablo Rotary Club golf
tournament coming up April 11,a Friday at
Boundary Oaks. They are looking for 36
foursomes, donations, sponsors, etc., etc. Julia
and Mary Ann volunteered to assist in the
signups that day from 11-12:45.
The next Home Team, headed up by Clayton
Worsdell will be March 29. And Rotarians at
Work day will be April 26 according to Bob
Huck.
April 8 from 5-9 p.m. will be our club’s Future
Visioning program. Fred passed around a
signup sheet and everyone in the club is
encouraged to attend. Should be very
enlightening.
The next Board meeting is THIS coming
Wednesday at 7 at Country Waffles.
March 30 there will 13 of us in Sacramento hearing RI President Ron
Burton speaking. It’s $55 per person so please give your money to Jeff
NOW.
EREY still has 4 members that need to get their money in for a 100% participation for our club.
SPEAKER BEFORE THE SPEAKER
Torsten Jacobsen gave an update on our twin club in San Felipe and what they accomplish in
only 9 months because many of them return to the States during the summer. Each year they
raise about $200,000 and following is the list of the beneficiaries of their fundraising efforts:
San Felipe Cancer Society
$34,000
Education (providing scholarships and
computers, etc. for local schools
$105,000
Vision, eye care
$35,000
Aid the elderly and poor of SF
$ 4,000
Casa de Fe orphanage
$16,000
Desert Mothers (vocational training)
$7,000
Every member has a “job” within the club and all are VERY involved.
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WALKIN’ THE PLANK
Captain Bill had warned us that this week’s game would center around the Rotarian Magazine.
Many came prepared with their “open book” materials.
1. Ron Burton’s letter said this month was centered on what? Answer: Literacy. Yeah Bill
Selb
2. Travel section emphasized which highway: Answer: Route 66. Yeah Ken Nishimori
3. Self help section stressed what: Answer: (I think) Libraries Boo Hiss Eric Rehn
4. RI emphasizes 6 things but what’s the one thing in India? Julia thought Polio but oh, no,
it is clean water. Losers!
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SPEAKER
Our speaker today was John Gallagher from Save Mt. Diablo. John was very instrumental in the
removal and restoration of the beacon atop Mt. Diablo. He gave us a brief history of the
mountain beginning with 1928 when planes could not fly at night because they might run into
things like mountains. So Standard Oil helped fund a tower to put a light on Mt. Diablo. It was
one of 5 that was placed along the west coast. It was on continuously until 12/8/41 when the
west coast was encouraged to go dark for fear the Japanese would bomb us. It was not lit again
until 12/7/64 when Admiral Nimitz turned the switch in honor of those that lost their life at Pearl
Harbor.
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Then in May 2013, the beacon was removed for restoration at a secret warehouse in Concord.
Shell Oil participated also in this effort. The beacon was reinstalled on Oct. 22, 2013 and
continues to shine every Dec. 7 to still honor those that died at Pearl Harbor.
Did you know you could walk from WC to Brentwood and only cross TWO roads. Amazing
what the Save Mt. Diablo association has done to secure property for this mountain in our
backyard. There is a 4 day hike the end of April every year for those wanting to participate.
The book John signed was Titanic – voices from the disaster.
MARBLE DRAW ________________
Lucky Steve Weir had (red) ticket 807 and he reached right in that tin and pulled
out the clear marble. $50 to Steve. That’ll buy you a cup of coffee or two!
That’s all folks.
Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."
– Abraham Lincoln
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FOOD BANK VOLUNTEERS
Oh what a beautiful
morning, oh what a
beautiful day…
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Watch out for Food & Commodity Price Inflation
Although inflation has been tame lately, we could see a sharp rise
in meat prices soon. Due to the cold winter weather, the supply of
cows in the U.S. is only 87.7 million, the lowest level since 1951,
so beef prices are soaring. A porcine virus has also killed more
than four million pigs in the U.S., so pork prices are also rising.
Overall, meat prices are now forecasted to rise 3.5% in 2014, up
from a 1.2% rise in 2013.
Prices for wheat and corn, not to mention oil and natural gas, may
also rise due to the unrest in Ukraine. Overall food price inflation is definitely brewing, but
the new "chain weighted" Consumer Price Index (CPI), which expects you to switch to
Hamburger Helper when beef prices rise, will likely understate inflation, even though it will
be obvious to anyone who shops regularly at their local grocery store.
Happy 225th Birthday to the U.S. Federal Government
I can't let this tribute to smaller government spending pass without a mention
of our nation's alternative 225th birthday today. July 4, 1776 may be our day
of conception ("conceived in liberty"), but the U.S. government was born on
March 4, 1789, when the first session of the U.S. Congress was held in New
York City, near Wall Street. (George Washington was not sworn in as our
first President until April 30.)
March 4, 1789 marked an auspicious birth for fans of small
government. Only nine of 22 Senators and 13 of 59
Representatives showed up on Congress' opening day. On
Washington's second Inauguration Day, things got even better. His second inaugural
marked the shortest inaugural speech ever (only 133 words).
For 144 years, March 4 marked Inauguration Day, neatly divided by the Civil War into two
distinct eras:
On March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as the 16th President on the same day the
Confederate States adopted a competing (Stars and Bars) flag. This was the first day
America had five living former Presidents. America also had two active Presidents, both born
in Kentucky, eight months apart. But then, four years later, America began healing on
March 4, 1865, when Lincoln promised "malice toward none."
On March 4, 1933, the last Inauguration held on this date, Franklin D. Roosevelt promised
that we had "nothing to fear but fear itself," but we also feared loss of access to our money
in the bank. The next day, FDR declared a "bank holiday" for up to 10 days. In context, this
was the culmination of a rolling bank holiday. Banks were already closed in six states as of
March 1 and FDR opened most banks by March 10.
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P.S. In 1937 (and since then), Inauguration Day was moved from March 4 to January 20. RIP, March
4.arch 4, 1789 marked an auspicious birth for fans of small government. Only nine of 22 Senators and 13
of 59 Representatives showed up on Congress' opening day. On Washington's second Inauguration Day,
things got even better. His second inaugural marked the shortest inaugural speech ever (only 133 words).
For 144 years, March 4 marked Inauguration Day, neatly divided by the Civil War into two
distinct eras:
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FENDER SKIRTS AND SUPPER
I know some of you will not understand this message, but I'll bet you know someone who might.
I came across this phrase yesterday, "Fender Skirts." It was a term I had not heard in a long time, and thinking
about fender skirts started me thinking about other words that quietly disappear from our language with hardly a
notice, like "curb feelers," and "steering knobs," aka "suicide knobs" and "neckers' knobs."
Since I'd been thinking of cars, my mind naturally went that direction first. Any kids will probably have to find some
older person over 50 to explain some of these terms to you.
Remember "continental kits?" They were rear bumper extenders and spare tire covers that were supposed to make
any car as cool as a Lincoln Continental.
When did we quit calling them "emergency brakes?" At some point, "parking brake" became the proper term. But I
miss the hint of drama that went with emergency brake.
I'm sad, too, that almost all the old folks are gone who would call the accelerator the "foot feed." Many today do not
even know what a clutch is, or that the dimmer switch used to be on the floor. For that matter, the starter was down
there too.
Didn't you ever wait at the street for your daddy to come home, so you could ride the "running board" up to the
house?
Here's a phrase I heard all the time in my youth but never anymore - "store-bought." Of course, just about
everything is store-bought these days, but once it was bragging material to have a store-bought dress or a storebought bag of candy.
"Coast to coast" is a phrase that once held all sorts of excitement and now means almost nothing. Now we take the
term "worldwide" for granted. This floors me.
On a smaller scale, "wall-to-wall" was once a magical term in our homes. In the '50s, everyone covered his or her
hardwood floors with, wow, wall-to-wall carpeting! Today, everyone replaces their wall-to-wall carpeting with
hardwood floors. Go figure.
When was the last time you heard the quaint phrase "in a family way?" It's hard to imagine that the word
"pregnant" was once considered a little too graphic, a little too clinical for use in polite company, so we had all that
talk about stork visits and "being in a family way" or simply "expecting."
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Apparently "brassiere" is a word no longer in use. I said it the other day and my daughter cracked up. I guess it's
just "bra" now. "Unmentionables" probably wouldn't be understood at all.
I always loved going to the "picture show," but I considered "movie" an affectation.
Most of these words go back to the '50s, but here's a pure '60s word I came across the other day: "rat fink." Ooh,
what a nasty put-down!
Here's a word I miss - "percolator." That was just a fun word to say. And what was it replaced with? "Coffee
maker." How dull! Mr. Coffee, I blame you for this.
I miss those made-up marketing words that were meant to sound so modern and now sound so retro. Words like
"Dyna Flow" and "Electrolux" and "Frigidaire." Introducing the 1963 Admiral TV, now with "Spectra Vision!"
Food for thought: Was there a telethon that wiped out lumbago? Nobody complains of that anymore. Maybe that's
what castor oil cured, because I never hear mothers threatening kids with castor oil anymore.
Some words aren't gone, but are definitely on the endangered list. The one that grieves me most is "supper." Now
everybody says "dinner." Save a great word - invite someone to supper. Discuss fender skirts.
ROTARY/One, Chicago
As of Saturday 1 March 2014, the first 105 Rotary clubs will all have reached 100
years.
That was what started RGHF founder Jack M. B. Selway on a nearly fourteen year
quest: "Who were the first 100 clubs?" The beginning of RGHF was
www.rotaryfirst100.org. Tomorrow, that job will be done? But no, what about
the other 34,000 clubs. Don't they count?
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The First Sixteen Rotary Clubs
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