Memories of The Steel City (Part 1)

I traveled to Pittsburgh, PA last weekend to attend the reunion of my high school class. Here are some general impressions:

-Flying commerically is way less comfortable than taking the cross town bus out to the Pitt campus. There is just no escaping being packed like a sardine!

-There always is a sense of familiarity about Pittsburgh. After all these years of living in California, I can still find my way to familiar haunts without a road map.

-Western PA is way greener than California.

-It was so enjoyable to see people that I have known for such a long time! Reminiscing about grade school and our time in high school was fun but even better was to hear stories about families, careers, children and grandchildren.

-The impromptu preunion get togethers were almost as much fun as the main event.

-That we are old enough to be grandparents is hard to wrap my head around. Time flies!

-The disappointing part of the get together was that our time together was too short to chat with everyone and hear what life has brought them. I worked about a one minute summary of the last 36 years of my life and that was a challenge.

-I am the luckiest guy in the world to have Linda as my wife who patiently traveled with me to renew friendships and make new ones. She is simply the greatest thing in my life and a wonderful photographer! She gets credit for all the great shots.

2010 Canevin 36 Yr Reunion - Picasa Web
Albums

The Place That Makes Us

My wife and I are getting ready to make a non-business trip for the first time in about eight years to the east coast. Actually western Pennsylvania where I grew up!

Through the social network sites I have reconnected with friends and acquaintances I have known since I was about.....six years old!! Many of these people I have not seen in almost 36 years.

So a friend today made a challenging question on her blog today, "Do you go to reunions?". I have to stop and think a bit. My wife and I did attend our reunion in 1994 last time. The key question is why?

Personally, I might not have changed a whole lot since those days. I tend to build quality relationships with a fewer number of people than shallow ones with a large number of people. Looking back, I have to say my high school years may have been more formative than college. My college years were more task focused and quite frankly, I remember many more of the people I will see this weekend than my college classmates.

For me it is important (and fun) to reconnect occasionally from where you came from. Those people, places and relationships (good and bad) have shaped the person you have become. There is also the "roots" factor.   Pittsburgh is the town where at least one set of great grandparents emigrated from Ireland and where I was born and raised.

It's not critical to me that I was not an athlete, or one of the "in" crowd in high school. It's who we have become and the mark we will leave behind that count. The broad array of business, professional and artistic talent represented by my classmates is impressive and I always look forward to the opportunity to renew old friendships and create new ones.

If my post is rambling.......blame Carol!

The White House Party Crashers

Is anyone really surprised at the lax security procedures that permitted these two do nothings within arms length of the President. Clearly the Dems believe in the invincibility of their guy!

The crashers should bring their Bravo film crew to Ft. Leavanworth for a real taste of reality for about the next 20 years!

Health Care Reform

I am in awe of just how lacking in comprehension our federal elected officicials are. If every person in this country has health insurance, there is absolutely no guarantee of healthcare. That piece of the puzzle has to do with the available providers (doctors and nurses).

You might get a doctor to accept the "public option" as payment. He or she just has an office 300 miles from where you live!

Over 60% of primary care physicians are contemplating leaving the profession by switching specialties or retiring. Barely 2% of graduating physicians opt for family practice as a specialty.

Wake up and smell the coffee!!

Obama Mania

It is wistfully sad to watch the country drifting toward electing Barrack Obama who by all objective measurements is less qualified to run this nation than Sarah Palin, Joe the Plumber or me.

Americans (mostly liberals/Democrats) regrettably value entertainment and "feeling good" over performance and achievement.

I am looking forward to kicking back and stop striving for success for a couple years. I am now gonna get all the free stuff I can imagine from, "The One" or "that one" or "The Messiah" depending on your point of view.

The Glass Ceiling and Feminists

What an incredible piece of theatre to watch the hate crazed liberals attack a woman like Sarah Palin.

Guess she does not fit the stereotypical bra burning, anti-child, anti-gun picture of a real feminist.

After all.... she is only the most popular governor in this country.

Tough to figure.

Six Jihadists Arrested In New Jersey Today

"If these people did something, then they deserve to be punished to the fullest extent of the law," said Sohail Mohammed, a lawyer who represented scores of detainees after the 2001 attacks. "But when the government says `Islamic militants,' it sends a message to the public that Islam and militancy are synonymous."


Okay now, everybody on three DUH!!!!!!!