This is the final Regional Meeting for the year. Denise and I had an early flight so I got up early enough to kick the Chickens awake. Denise picked me up at 4:30AM so we could make or flight on time. We had a straight shot into Houston where David Ray met us and we stopped for lunch before delivering us to the hotel. He had to turn around and head back to the airport to pick up Regional VP Peggy Rider.
There were many folks checking in at the same time so we had a nice time greeting each other. Mike and Bruce came in on Thursday and were on the golf course, where else would they be??? The evening was filled with fellowship as more Senators from Region 8 and other parts of the country joined the party. Texas president David Johnson brought in some "take home" champagne glasses and was mixing many very interesting concoctions for the guests. Many of the drinks were pretty powerful and it began to show as the party went on into the night.
Around 10PM I joined the Rattlesnake Corps Commanders call as past Commander as well as Hexable from California. I gave my pitch for the corps of corps meeting to be held in Concord. Commander Dave Johnson gave us all some pillows in case any of us "old Farts" needed a nap. Back to the hospitality room until bed time.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Denise and I joined the group for breakfast then proceeded to the Region 8 meeting. Peggy ran a nice meeting, I addressed the group and Kent Singular, from Kansas was elected the new Region 8 Vice President. Denise was on the agenda to promote the Concord meeting and veered from the planned talk to announce that she had decided to challenge Mike and run for president of the Senate. This surprised Mike at first as it did myself since this was not something planned. Denise and Mike had been bantering each other, in a friendly way. This generated a lot of excitement and everyone joined in the fun. Folks were donating money for her filing fee and campaign expenses. Denise printed a filing form and filled it out so she had the form and fee for Steve. States were promising their votes to Denise. Mike made a call to Jim Mammon letting him know of Denise's candidacy and wanted to know "What the hell is happening". Unfortunately Jim was not answering so Mike just had to leave that message fully expecting Jim to call back with some concern. This spoof continued through Sunday breakfast when Denise returned every ones money to them. Quite some fun.
After the Region meeting Mike and I attended the PIE meeting of outgoing and incoming presidents for a discussion on having a successful year.
After lunch the Texas Senate had their meting where Jack Cornutt was elected president for 2010-2011. I and Denise left the meeting a bit early as our ride to the Ship Channel Tour was leaving.We arrived at the dock a bit earlier than expected but soon boarded the boat. The area is restricted so we all had to put our cameras back in the cars (although there were folks taking photos with their cell phones). This was a nice cruise through the shipping channels of the port of Houston which is 50 miles from the ocean and 25 or so from the bay.
It was pretty hot and humid on the channel so I took a nice shower when we returned to the hotel and felt much fresher. We arrived back at the hospitality room in time for a cocktail before heading into the banquet room. Gifts were exchanged and I had the honor of installing the new president and VP. We then had a bus ride to a comedy club for the evenings entertainment. The MC did a acceptable job in introducing the program but the first comedian really stank. He relied on way too many 4 letter words and was not funny. The second act was a much older guy and he was very funny. About the roughest word he used was Damn but he talked about life experiences to which we could relate. The third act was so-so and had some humorous moments. We returned to the hotel after midnight and had a few hours sleep
Sunday, May 2, 2010
We were up to join many of the Senators for breakfast then caught the shuttle back to the airport and home. My thanks to the Texas Senate for a wonderful weekend.
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