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27 Feb-2 Mar 2009:
Third Old Frogs Ski In Tahoe
by Mike Hammond
27 Jan – 2 Mar 2009: Old Frogs Tahoe Ski Weekend, Third Annual
Our third annual frog ski weekend included was well attended and as with past years everyone had a good time or at least an interesting diversion from their normal routines. It took some convincing to get Jebb to pry him away from his real estate company at a critical moment but he stood tall and the get together was more of a success with his presence. This year we had:
John Gulick aka Guns
Vern Clinton aka Silk Shorts
Bill Jebb aka The Heeb
Chris Stack aka COMINDY
George Tillotson aka Jorge
Mike Hammond aka Host
Vern ClintonBill Jebb, Mike Hammond, George
Tillotson, Chris Stack
Chris Stack arrived mid afternoon on Thursday, 26 Feb, to attend our northern California SPECWARFARE dinner in San Francisco at the Tres Agaves Restaurant. I met Chris at dinner which was extremely well attended by the old UDT standbys from many years gone by as well as maybe 40 newer younger SEALs who live in the immediate area. Guns Gulick who kindly organizes these dinners took a ration from several in attendance who found it a stretch to pay $50 to stand up and eat chips & salsa, tacos and Mexican hamburgers. We heard a few tails from those who just retired from SPECWARFARE, a power point patrol order brief that made the old guys feel really old and out of touch. BUDS is clearly building a better product as the years and the demands for their skills increases across the world. Near 10:00PM Chris and I rattled on south to our home in Palo Alto for the night before heading to Tahoe the next morning.
After packing the car with our gear and game-table chairs we got underway. Our drive passed quickly as Chris and I caught up with our lives, discussing books we had read including tomes written on the Viet Nam era. Our conversations drifted to the current political situation, George W Bush’s (43) administration and the present financial melt down. Time went buy quickly and after stopping for BLTs at Ikeda’s we were back on the road until we stopped at Dave’s to rent skis for Chris. We opened the house and then strapped on snowshoes and headed up to Eagle Rock where I introduced Chris to just one of the many magnificent views of Lake Tahoe. Thanks to my daughter, Anne Greene, who prepared a chicken stir fry dish making dinner a breeze to get ready for the impending crew due around 7:00PM. Chris was even able to cut the top off the salad bag and ensemble the pre-washed lettuce along with the prepackaged ingredients. We retired with wine in hand and watched The News Hour and Washington Week. Not long after Bill, Vern and John arrived and we tied into some wine and a few beers, Bill Jebb started getting spooled up launching into a few of his diatribes; once again arms flailing and jaws flapping at a prodigious tempo. The truth is he was already warmed up practicing on John and Vern as they were trapped in the SUV driving to Tahoe. John pretended to sleep most of the way trying to avoid most of the onslaught. Wine flowing, Bill ranting in his normal boisterous rebellion we served up chicken stir fry, rice and salad and had a great meal. The two main topics of course were current events and days gone by in the teams. It needs to be noted however that after committing for the past three years to provide copies of photographs of these “gone-by” years they remain missing. Now since Jebb has joined the electronic age he carries a digital camera that contains hundreds, maybe thousands, of great photographs but that’s where they reside, in his camera, inaccessible to others, occupying space on a very large chip.
Fashion Statement
Everyone was a great help cleaning up which is always a pleasant and welcome surprise for the host. All of the credit goes to two wonderful ladies in our family who pre-made the main dishes and put them in the freezer, Sara Hammond and Anne Greene. It was now late for those Eastern Time zone frogs so sleep was imminent. Before the lights-out we fired up the groat for breakfast and contacted George to rendezvous the next morning at Alpine Meadows, Broadway lift 10:30, giving us enough time to rent skis for those who needed them.
On Saturday morning after downing large portions of groat and buckets of coffee we got out the door, two cars, picked up skis at the West Shore Sports and drove to Alpine Meadows where we indulged in $20 priority parking. For five old guys gearing up, carrying our skis & poles, haggling for super-senior lift tickets, relieving ourselves of coffee and making it to the bottom of the lift was a noteworthy accomplishment if not an incredibly feat, we were still all together. Remarkably Guns did not relieve himself in the priority parking area. We even managed to get on the same chair lift for a couple of runs before we met up with George. Now the six of us on the same chair was a spectacle; amazing that no one fell----- or was pushed off. Needless to say Bill’s jaws were in perpetual motion jack hammering all the way up the hill. After a couple of warm up runs and then trips to the summit we took a pit stop at the mid mountain chalet. The day was warm and we were very hot soaking in sweat, beads of sweat rolling down Stack’s head. Now rested and re-hydrated but still wet from sweat we headed to the other side of Alpine for a variety of runs in heavier snow that soon brought us back to the mid mountain resort for lunch at 1:30.
After getting my sandwich in the cafeteria line I was completely surprised to see Connie Gomez, who I did not recognize at first, at the cash register. When I introduced her to the frogs as ‘my electrician’ (she and her husband, Luis, wired our addition) they were in complete disbelief. The chuckles ceased when she slipped me my sandwich ‘on-the-house’.
Post lunch skiing was a brief two runs the last one from the summit and then we headed back to the house to get an early jump on our thirst and soak our sore bodies in the hot tub while cooling our insides with Heinekens. By late afternoon following reading & rest time we broke out the wine and the staccato of jibber jabbering was once again filled the air in high gear. With the baked potatoes well on there way under elevated heat I slid in the meat loafs for a 7:30 dinner. George arrived to join us which re-energized Jebb soliciting support for his minority opinion. The crescendo of words, arguments and debates mostly about conservatives vs. liberals; Obama vs. Bush; the free market vs. government aid during this financial difficult time went unstoppably on and on. As these seemingly unproductive, self venting tirades grew louder the listener was not listening as he mentally prepared a retort. Taking extreme positions to make a point, painting or characterizing groups with the same brush never brings agreement. Disparate views seem to be what we’re all about but some how I think our opinions and beliefs come much closer together with calmer discourse or with a moderator using specific data. Black and white positions without compromise never moves us forward. The world’s problems remained unsolved.
After dessert and Jebb searching for more support George departed for Granlibakken with his companion Teal, his female lab he had stashed in the car during dinner. George who was headed back to the Bay Area the next morning would retrieve John who needed to get back as for a big case. With wine and the day’s skiing taking its toll on any residual testosterone it wasn’t long before everyone had settled in for the night.
Sunday morning, surprisingly John actually performed fairly well getting his ‘war bag’ packed, sheets changed (sort of) and eating breakfast before George showed up. Now since Vern was had given his all the day before, and did well I might add, that left Bill, Chris and I to ski in the rain at Homewood. When we arrived at 9:45 it was raining but on top a wet heavy snow was falling so I was thankful I had returned to the house to fetch my goggles. The runs were in good shape, the visibility fair but it was snowing hard. Bill, of course, thought it was the best day ever and Chris had some positive things to say as well. I showed them most of the mountain before we ducked into the white yurt for coffee and hot chocolate near noon to dry out and regroup. While warming up the wind kicked up knocking over skis and poles outside. We lingered and malingered to the point where we called it a day so we made our way down the mountain just after noon. On the way back to the house we almost got Bill to spring for the Sunday New York Times and he would have if we had not come clean before buying it.
We looked forward to hot showers, left over meatloaf sandwiches and settling in with the newspaper or respective books. The remainder of the afternoon Bill and Vern worked on the computer while Chris reclined in the living room trying to read the paper in between checking for light leaks in our eyelids. Vern’s real estate software was making good progress for Bill’s new website and new contacts began to trickle in. Bill then immediately called them on the phone to follow up to seek what he could do for them, or visa versa.
Since Bill had a noon time flight out of SFO he and Vern needed to get an early Monday morning start and it looked like they might have to endure an impending snow storm forecasted to hit the Sierras. For dinner the guys treated me to dinner at the Sunnyside Lodge, a great evening wrapping up our weekend and continuing to reminisce more about days of yore as we wolfed down hot sandwiches and beer. Outside heavy snow was falling rapidly in huge flakes piling several inches on the car during dinner. Back at the house we backed the cars into the garage for an easier early morning get away in case the snow removal service did not arrive in time.
The "Down The Hill" gang
O dark thirty Monday morning stirring could be heard, no it was Bill’s voice, getting ready to leave. With the beds changed I started washing and drying for the next group to use the house. Surprisingly the snow had stopped and by 5:30 Bill and Vern were sliding down our hill underway holding hot robust cardboard cups of coffee. Since more snow was due in and it was already coming down hard Chris and I got a bite to eat, finished getting ready to leave and closed up the house. We hit the road by 10:00AM and were over the pass by 11:15 and into the rain on the other side. The ride again was leisurely and compatible. We stopped at Ikeda’s for gas and lunch before continuing and arrived back in Palo Alto at 3:00PM.
I finished my administrative support duties to COMINDY by ensuring that he got his postcards to a mailbox and then escorting him around Stanford’s campus to recall his college days. We finally found his old Beta House fraternity but the ΣN’s had taken over, bummer. Is there no respect? As it turns out, well known persons attended Stanford in Chris’s day, Charles Schwab, John Arrillaga a Stanford philanthropist, and David Kennedy, in Chris’s class, now a history professor at Stanford.
Chris treated Sara and me to nice quiet dinner at Babo’s in the Stanford Shopping Center. The next morning I drove COMINDY to SFO where he caught his plane and he was off to his next biking adventure in South America.