After graduation from TLHS, I continued my education, but didn’t make the best of the opportunity. I think the distractions of life drove me to just get on with it. Computer programming was ok, but I probably didn’t give myself enough time to get used to it. I found my peace in the territory of a mainframe computer operator with Hills Brother Coffee in SF. It was a fun, process-oriented job, with no homework.
Once I had income, I married Mary, my high school sweetheart in 1977. We created two fine daughters, but I didn’t give our love enough time. My next love lasted thirteen years, but we never got officially married. Then in 1994, Gina came into my life and our love has lasted for over twenty years of married shared territory.
In 1980, I got very lucky and was hired by Hewlett-Packard in Santa Rosa for a twenty-five-year career. In 2006, I had the luxury to go back to college and earned an associate degree in environmental studies. I was hoping to get a job at the college, but the 2008 recession turned me into a community volunteer.
Since 2015, Gina and I have lived in Brookwood Park, a mobile home village of around 200 neighbors. We live next to a creek, far up a watershed in a corner valley of east Santa Rosa, at the edge of heaven.
(When I write, I often think of Mrs. Rocha and proper punctuation. Who knew back in ‘72 that we’d have word processing programs that spell & grammar check us? Thank you, Mrs. Rocha.)

1. I sure enjoyed being in Mr. Yun’s calculus class in my senior year. The process-oriented nature of mathematics was a comfortable territory for me. I remember Dayna Salter, Bill Dobbs and Allan Anderson from that class. Thank you, Mr. Yun.
2. I remember Mr. Swingle, who had the best sideburns, projecting the 1963 movie Tom Jones one evening after school. I have an affection for that movie, and pears, to this day. I think he also once used an early video tape recording system to give students the experience of talking in front of a camera and then watching themselves replayed on TV. Thank you, Mr. Swingle.
3. My dream of a career in Major League Baseball fell short at TLHS. Besides finding out I need glasses; I had a hard time running the bases, of all things. Playing for the Freshman Trojans, I was halfway to first base when I caught a cleat and rolled my ankle, resulting in a cracked cuboid bone in my left foot. The next year I slide into second base and broke the fibula in my right leg. I was safe, but I guess I figured I’d better think of something else to do for a living.