northern Arizona attending a Solari festival. He is taking his time
traveling back from Arizona to San Diego and then up the coast to his
home in Richmond California. La Quinta California was one of his stops
(after suffering a flat tire in Tonopah Arizona) on his trip.
I've known Ralph for more than ten years on the SEAINT list and today
was the first time I met him. It was a wonderful experience - a
genuinely nice man who shares a small office / home office structural
engineering practice similar to my own. It is amazing to me how many
people I have E-communicated with over the last 16 years (nearing the 15
year anniversary of the SEAINT Listservice). In that time, I remember
meeting in my own home, Mike Cochran, Steve Gordin, Naresh (and his
family), Bill Nelson, Scott Maxwell, Hugh Brooks, Mike Krakhower not to
mention the locals who I met while I still lived in Los Angeles
(including Joe Venuti and Denise Poeltler).
Five years ago I had the pleasure of meeting Roger Turk in Tucson (who
we should not forget as one of our fondest members who passed away
shortly after). I owe Roger a great deal - including his unknowing help
in finding Maggie, my five year old Golden Retriever. Roger sent me an
advertisement from the local news for property available in the Tucson
area. I lost my favorite travel dog - Jess, who died of cancer and was
looking for another dog. Maggie was just under 8-weeks old when we
popped into the Jeep (my wife who had just worked at 12-hour night shift
at the hospital, my granddaughter and I) and left for a seven hour ride
to Tucson. It was love at first sight and we started back that night,
but ended up spending another day in Tucson (a truly beautiful city).
Roger had the misfortune of meeting Maggie a few months later as Mari
and I were traveling back to Chicago by car. Roger, as ill as he was,
rolled his wheel chair down to the car to meet Maggie who promptly
growled at him (her growl is benign). Still, to this day, Maggie travels
with me wherever I go while our other four dogs remain at home with mom.
Ralph took a few pictures of our dogs with me in the middle and if asked
kindly, some of you may get to see my ugly puss.
I met many at seminars and one SEAOC convention in 1999 that I attended
in Santa Barbara, but it is not quite the same as meeting you on my own
turf.
So, if any of you are visitors to our beautiful vacation resort area
(Palm Springs California), I invite you to contact me. If you love dogs
(for they will overwhelm you including Nikki, our new five month old
Golden) then you may just have the chance to visit the canine pack.
It was a pleasure to meet Ralph and put a face (and body) to the name
and intellectual conversations we have all had on the SEAINT List.
BTW, I am not sure if there is a true date, but if Shafat has maintained
the server records, we might be able to find an anniversary to our List.
I think we are at least 12-years old, but it may be coming up to
15-years. If we consider the pre-server days when Andrew Skwara (another
one of our List who passed away a number of years ago) helped host us on
his Engineering Bulletin Board Service (EBBS). Shafat, if you are
reading this - can you track back a time span so we can have a celebration ?
Best Regards,
Dennis
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