Friday, December 7, 2012

Update on January 2012 Posting

Tonight I updated a January 20, 2012 post with some additional important information.

Friday, July 27, 2012

'77 and '78 Reunion in October

San Ramon High School Classes of 1977 and 1978 have scheduled a Class Reunion for the weekend of October 13, 2012.  Guy Houston is organizing this from his Facebook account.  See the accompanying screenshot for more information or contact Guy on Facebook.  Judging from the price, this looks similar to the informal format of the '78/'79 reunion in October 2009.  By the way, the annual Primo's Half Marathon is also held that weekend, so start training now!


I expect that members of other classes (such as '79) who have good friends in those older classes would be welcome to join in on the fun.  I know that if I get out to California for that weekend, that I would sign up.  Pretty good price!

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

MobileMe/dotMac Expiration on June 30

As I wrote last Summer in the post, Future location of website, I have to make some domain address changes for my websites.  More than a year ago, Apple announced a move to iCloud as a replacement for MobileMe.  What this means for me is that the iDisk which was used to store my webpages would no longer be available as of June 30, 2012.  For now, it will be Dropbox which will store all my webpages on the Class of 1979, Devil Mountain Run and Rancho Romero Turkey Bowl.  Any address which uses "homepage.mac.com/JohnBRamsey/" should be changed to "dl.dropbox.com/u/36395968/".  Not exactly catchy, huh?  Well, most of the sites have simpler domain links like "1979.SanRamonHigh.com" or "TurkeyBowl.org," or "DevilMountainRun.com." But underneath the simpler domain name was the real address which WAS homepage.mac.com and now will be dropbox.com.

Please let me know if you find any outmoded links that refer to mac.com or aol.com or geocities.com.


Thursday, May 17, 2012

Donna Summer and the Class of '79

No musical artist better represents the Class of 1979 than Donna Summer.  Her 1979 album, "Bad Girls" was more than just the typical disco songs that we had been subjected to since Saturday Night Fever came out.  (How many versions of "More Than A Woman" should there be or how many times can KC and the Sunshine Band create new songs out of the same riff in "Get Down Tonight"?)  "Hot Stuff" and Bad Girls" were more like rock songs.  Despite the demise of disco on July 12, 1979 when the Chicago White Sox staged a promotion that had fans burn unwanted disco records at Comiskey Park, Donna Summer was able to maintain her musical success.  Donna passed away of cancer earlier today at the age of 63.  In a statement, her family said that Donna was "a woman of many gifts, the greatest being her faith." Rest In Peace, Donna.  


The DMR Replacement Run

The cancellation of the Devil Mountain Run did not prevent dozens of people getting together on the first Sunday in May to run a race in Danville.  Forward Motion Sports at 432 Hartz Avenue did a wonderful job of hosting an ad hoc Fun Run (being very careful not to use the name "Devil Mountain Run") and many veteran Devil Mountain Runners enjoyed the chance to reminisce and then run and then just hang out with their fellow runners for a while.

Since the race, I have been contacted by potential sponsors who would love to get the Devil Mountain Run going again.  Hopefully, Children's Hospital will agree to loan out the name to another charitable beneficiary.  You will find pictures at my website DevilMountainRun.com.

Saturday, March 24, 2012

2012 Devil Mountain Run Canceled

The 10k race that has been held every year in Danville since May 1978 has been canceled.  The charity that has put on the race as a fundraiser for all these years, Children's Hospital in Oakland, simply feels it is no longer an effective means of raising money.  We in the Class of '79 had two opportunities to run it while we were still attending San Ramon High.  I ran both those years (and then for another 32 years, as well!).

It was nice for me to be able to "go back in time" in a sense as I was still doing the same thing I had done all those years ago.  Growing up in Alamo was kind of like growing up in a small town, although it really was just part of the huge San Francisco Bay Area and all the suburbs.  Coming back "home" to do the run gave me the illusion that the "small town" experience still existed in Danville.  

I am hoping that we can keep the race going, but I'm depending on my Danville friends to contact the right people in the community to make that happen.  I've contacted race officials from here in Maryland, but to get the race going again, we'll need a local person to do the hard work of meeting city officials and coordinating with other groups.  And I have my website dedicated to the Devil Mountain Run, which will be hopefully be useful as well.

Friday, January 20, 2012

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Someone else in our class has passed away.  I just learned this today.  It happened in a Walnut Creek hospital in mid-December, but since I have only read this on a Facebook page I am reluctant to post the name online until I can post something more official (like a news clipping) or hear something from the family.  If you e-mail me directly, I will tell you what I know.  

You know, we're not that old and these events shouldn't be happening!  Very sad.