Larry Moon (Director’s Office, 2001) recently took a 12-day cruise from the tip of South America to the Antarctic Peninsula.  They saw six kinds of whales, four kinds of seals, four kinds of penguins, and many kinds of birds.  They spent hours watching the penguins; porpoisesing through the water, cleaning and preening themselves, stealing rocks, protecting their chicks from the Skuas, walking and tobagganing up and down all over the place, and squabbling endlessly.  They made nine landings, one on the continent itself (as contrasted with the islands) and walked on sea ice south of the Antarctic Circle.  They were able to paddle kayaks in sheltered locations three times.  All in all, it was the thrill of a lifetime. 

 

Lee Dibley (Mechanical Engineering, 1990) just finished restoring a 1935 tractor purchased by his neighbor in Southeastern Minnesota (Caledonia) when he was in the first grade.  Lee liked the red wheels and fell in love with the tractor.  He first drove it when he was 14 and drove it a lot in the ‘40’s.  He bought the tractor from the original owner’s son about six year ago.  After building a shop with a 2,000 lb. hoist, he put in about 1680 hours restoring the tractor.  It was a fun project and a learning experience getting the sandblasting and painting done.  He was able to find sources for the new/used parts, such as a radiator core, manifold and oil filters, from several antique tractor magazines advertising parts sources.

 

He and his wife, Della, are busy in Spearfish, South Dakota, where they now live.  Della coordinates all the volunteers who work at the local museum and is State President of Church Women United.  Lee does Meals-On-Wheels at least once a week and has been active with the passion play for the past 8 years.  He is also president of their Road District.  They pay an assessment which goes toward roads, maintenance and snow plowing.  Retiring in South Dakota was a good move a fact that was really accentuated last September when it took 3 hours to cross the Bay Bridge, due to an accident.   (e-mail:  leedella@rushmore.com)

 

Because the Livermore Library is moving to its new facility, the LLNL Retirees Travel Slide Group has changed locations for March through June.  The March 23^rd, 2:00 p.m. meeting is in the Livermore City Council Chambers, 3575 Pacific Avenue.  This month’s show is entitled “Trip to Southeast Asia with Home Stay in Hanoi (video)” by Margaret and Jim Tracy.  The travel groups meets on the fourth Tuesday at 2:00 p.m. January through June. 

 

The next Retiree luncheon will be Wednesday, March 17th at Cattleman’s’ restaurant.  The speaker will be Page Stoutland from LLNL’s Homeland Security Program who will give us an overview of several of the project.  Click here to make your reservation. 

 

Please send any news or input to Jane or Gus Olson.  E-Mail:  Gus@LLNLretirees.org or Jane@LLNLretirees.org .   

 

This Retirees’ Corner column appears in a March issue of Newsline