1. The Northern Cohort, arriving promptly at 11:23 AM, found Geronimo waiting patiently in the parking lot of the Hoffman House. After exchanging greetings we proceeded to the patio and a warm welcome by owner Ginny. The question of outside or inside settled, a table was selected by acclaim for our serious deliberations. Deliberator found his chair too low and exchanged with another table; Geronimo found the air chilly and went for his jacket. Finally settled, we were introduced to our newest waitress, Kristin. Sandi and Official Waitress, Associate Member Jen greeted us. Jen missed serving us by the "luck-of-the-draw" and promised to do better next time. Both Jen and Ginny commented favorably on the HVBS meeting minutes they had received.
2. Selection of a beverage resulted in a split decision: two Killian Red beers (Geronimo and PC Wiz) and two Merlot’s (Shadow and Deliberator), presaged the battle to come. The toast commemorated Geronimo’s recent loss of his mother. Geronimo informed us of his upcoming "refined PSA" test, presently 6 instead of a desirable 4 or less. Deliberator is scheduled for a cholesterol blood drawing while PC Wiz mentioned for fellow cholesterol sufferers that he has been changed to Lipitor from Zocor. The Upstate Group had a 2" snowfall on May 18 while our Downstater had frosty conditions. Geronimo brought up the Dateline program on meat dating by major markets. PC Wiz and Deliberator were especially concerned with the high bacterial counts which probably would not be safe even after thorough cooking. He also saw a follow-up local program in which Price Chopper and Hannaford denied they ever change dates on packaging.
3. With Deliberator’s Oldsmobile as a trade-in, grandson Mark has bought a new black Nissan Altima. Insurance (outrageous, especially for a driver under 25 with less than three year’s experience) and expenses are his responsibility. He has already added trim (tape) and a new "boomer" sound system to the car. Shadow commented that he only had a bike when he went to school (ditto PC Wiz). After graduating, both he and Deliberator didn’t own cars while their girlfriends did. Shadow then told of going to vote in the school ballot and finding student’s $30,000+ cars parked across the spaces in the school lot. He told the Principal about the situation and how, in Virginia where Russ’s stepson Chris goes to school, parking spaces cost $150 a year for an assigned space. They don’t park across the spaces and he suggested using the money to help pay for the bus service they do not use!! Also Shadow mentioned that Bobbi and Randy have bought, in partnership with another couple, a Piper low-wing airplane.
4. Members sympathized as Geronimo went into the gruesome details of his computer crash. A $35.00 call to Microsoft tech support rescued our hapless Southern guru, although it did take a total of 8 hours on the telephone to accomplish the redemption. A note of caution for all us PC duffers: When typing in the "Run" window – do not leave a space between letters (caused the screen to vanish) and be sure to make a Windows "rescue" floppy disk. PC Wiz reiterated frequent use of ScanDisk and defragmenting the hard drive to avoid problems. Deliberator stated that the last "defragging" had taken 2 hours; Geronimo said that reflected how badly the drive was fragmented. Deliberator raised the issue of turning off the computer when not in use – consensus was it could be left on though PC Wiz turns his off. Geronimo again touted he was always on line with RoadRunner and that it is 10 times as fast as dial-up. Shadow’s pithy reply: "At your age, what’s the difference?" On a brighter note, Geronimo updated the members on a new Microsoft program, "TV Player" that allows you to play personal photos over your TV set or computer monitor.
5. During the meeting Geronimo regaled us (as soon as he could stop laughing) with outrageously funny "bumper-stickers". Since the jokes were so good, Shadow made him promise to send e-mail copies to the members. In our political section it came up that Tom Golisano is spending $75 million to get the Independence party nomination (which Governor Pataki is vying for also). Shadow reiterated his low regard for politicians in general while Geronimo said that we unfortunately need them for government. PC Wiz repeated his conclusion not to ballot for Pataki (the "midnight vote" was also too much for the Shadow) while Geronimo felt Andrew Cuomo has to be thwarted in his gubernatorial quest. Views on Jimmy Carter’s trip to Castro land centered on his good character that didn’t prevent him from being duped by Fidel. It was obvious he wasn’t being shown "everything", especially the Cuban human rights violations.
6. Although early in the season, our group is confident the New York Yankees will do well. Deliberator was concerned about the upcoming 4 game Red Sox series with Yankee pitching weakened. Deliberator and Geronimo agreed that Spencer was better than White while Giambi is "coming on". David Wells back problems were discussed (PC Wiz watched an interview). The Mets are doing quite well in a generally weak division. In the basketball playoffs, Shadow thought Celtics-Nets probable but a Sacramento-Nets contest would be great. Geronimo opined he just didn’t like the Celtics. Our resident hockey expert, the Shadow, expressed admiration for the Raleigh NC Carolina Hurricanes.
7. Members exchanged views on the continuing Catholic Church scandals with 500 court cases in Boston alone. As luck would have it, the Chandra Levy case came up in the news even as we were discussing it with the discovery of her remains that very day! Consensus was that Gary Condit will have to clarify where he was the day she disappeared and explain the dumpster episode. Also, we know now, the Washington police never searched the area where she was found!
8. Concerning the economy: Deliberator felt "gloom and doom" in the press was affecting the market and also the Democratic "who knew what and when" campaign. All members agreed Tom Ridge was ineffective and we needed someone with the authority to unite the government, especially the FBI and the CIA. PC Wiz mentioned the Bill O’Reilly item of the border patrolman fired on by the Mexican military five miles inside the U.S.! Deliberator informed us that as church treasurer, for the first time, he had voted "no" on two proxies because the accounting firm was Arthur Andersen. He subsequently found out a new firm had been engaged – the proxies were out-of-date.
9. Members had a final cup of coffee with PC Wiz being the only one ordering a dessert: raspberry sherbet. To wish Geronimo a special "bon voyage", Shadow bought a round of drinks. Geronimo mentioned he has been given a list of Japanese common phrases to practice and is giving the bride’s father a bottle of Metaxas as a gift. PC Wiz raised the issue of perhaps a different day for our meetings since Wednesday’s seem to conflict with medical appointments. Tuesday’s were out for Deliberator with any day OK for the rest. However, Shadow felt Wednesday’s should be meeting day with care taken in making appointments so the issue was dropped. Deliberator proposed Wednesday July 17, 2002 for a tentative date – to be verified when Geronimo returns from Hawaii. The Shadow stated our meetings are more important as we get older so a proposal has been made to set regular dates. The meeting was adjourned.
10. In the parking lot Geronimo and Deliberator examined PC Wiz’s new Dodge Stratus with Geronimo duly noting PC Wiz’s sloppy clean-up of the polished wheels. Final wishes for a good trip for Geronimo and Kay and best wishes for the bride and groom.

Thanks to the penetrating critique of Geronimo the minutes have been corrected. The matter of the Hoffman House logo has been referred to the Editorial Committee. They plan to re-think the concept and present possibilities at our next meeting.

HVBS Official Scribe PC Wiz

May 26, 2002