Gettin' the Hang of It

A rolling stone gathers no attendees, and we once again changed venues, this time to our more-or-less permanent home at the Old Spaghetti Factory in the Nimbus Winery complex.  Although Ray Wyatt was the scheduled greeter, it fell to Clarence Parkins to pick up the duty in Ray's absence and Clarence outdid himself by recognizing at least 45% of the club members who entered the room.  President Brett, fresh from his fatherly duties, opened the meeting by asking Paul Schubert to read the 4-Way Test and Paul once again demonstrated the value of a good remedial reading course.  Then the Prez went looking for Jerry Smuts to lead the Pledge, but naturally Jerry was in Oregon, so  it left Brud to fill the gap and nice gap-filling job he did.  Gary Spainhower was next up leading the song and Gary did his usual terrific job of it.  Once we sat through some quote by Muhammad Ali (I think it was "I am the greatest!" or perhaps it was "Float like a life raft, sting like a jellyfish" or something akin to that.... as I remember)

 

 

With that, we all sat down to a bowl of minestrone soup (mmmmm... good) and some pleasant conversation with our table mates.  Before long the entrees appeared, served up by the fabulous Mo and the serious masticating began in earnest.

 

 

 As always, next up were announcements and they were the usual ones, but there was a new one we need to keep in mind: we have volunteered to bartend the City of Rancho Cordova Christmas Party on December 9th and will need to stock and man a bar for the attendees.  This can be a nice fundraiser for us, since we get to keep the proceeds and we'll be looking for volunteers to help out in the near future.

 

 

In addition, there is an International Project Forum coming up on Nov 4 for those interested in getting involved in this worthwhile area of Rotary.  November 20 we are participating in the Thanksgiving Food Locker food distribution.  Regarding the Napa fire, PDG Bob Deering is accepting cash donations written out to the District 5180 Foundation, so if you're inclined to provide your neighbors with some much needed assistance, that is a terrific way to go.  Finally, Ross Johnson mentioned that the Ross Johnson Jazz Band is playing this Saturday at 4:00 P.M. at a location that escaped your reporter (Hey! I had a mouthful of soup!!!)  Check with Ross for the location.

 

 

 

Well, sir, in every life a few surprises pop up from time to time and today's surprise was that our Sarge would be the recently absent PP Sean Twilla, a job he has had his eye on since PDG Clarence once fined him for his felony record.  Truth be told the past Prez did a creditable job, yanking quite a few happy bucks from the crowd before nailing Bob McBee on the potential Yankees/Dodgers World Series and then Ross Johnson for his recent trip to Lake Tahoe, and Mike Passof for his recent fishing trip where Mike mentioned he didn't even have to clean all the fish he caught.  Clarence and Sharon both got mentioned for Sharon's blatant wearing of a green Marshall t-shirt and Marshall's recent football victory over a nearby preschool.  Paul Schubert crowed about his company's saving the day for someone in the recent Napa fires and then Navin Naik crowed about his Mexican cruise and then Merlin Mauk crowed about his house in Napa surviving the fires (I should have probably left that out because there is every possibility that Doreen does not know of such a house.)  

 

 

 

Chase Amer's relatives' house survived the fires and then Ross Johnson was noticed for wearing the wrong 'Ross' badge.  Brett paid for multiple infractions of the Rotary Code of Conduct ( I will only reveal my service number, I will not reveal any classified information, etc...) and then Sean paid for his multiple trips (including Vegas the day after the shooting) and then a general fine was levied against Gary Spainhower's end of the front table just 'cuz... and that was it.  Easy peasy, lemon squeezie...

 

Suddenly quiet descended on the room as President Brett stepped back up to the podium and introduced our guest speaker, Rebecca Graulich, who heads up the Rancho Cordova Respite Club.  The Respite Club is a resource for locals who are caring for elderly family members who are suffering from dementia and her program allows caregivers to bring their charges into the Respite Club to spend the day while the caregiver is able to get some 'me' time away from the demands of providing care to their parent or spouse or other family member.

 

 

  It is a terrific program and Rebecca has spoken to us before.  She mentioned that statistically the top three caregivers are (in order): spouses, then daughters, then daughters-in-law and she threw out some fairly dramatic figures on the prevalence of dementia in California and in the Sacramento region in particular.  She is obviously very knowledgeable and focused on her mission of providing an avenue for caregivers to get some relief.

 

 

 

  An excellent talk, Rebecca got the book at the end and the room scattered like ping pong balls in a tornado.  Good meeting.