1980

March 14,1994 This column is due tomorrow, when we are scheduled to leave for Florida on a longawaited, five-day getaway. I have yet to put pen to paper. Desperate for a delay, I telephone my editor and beg for a short reprieve. I get it. March 15,6:00 p.m. We board the plane. We're flying American, coach class. I take the middle seat. My knees are wedged in so tight that my breathing is restricted. I can't move. I certainly can't write.

7:00 p.m. We take off. The guy sitting next to us passes out. Apparently he needs more room. The flight attendant wheels him away, I spread my stuff out and start writing.

8:00 p.m.l leaf through the clippings supplied by the College. Actually, this month, it's one clipping. Tim O'Donnell is the president of the Health Care Initiative, a unique managed-care company created in 1988 through the collaborative efforts of three Denver-area hospitals. Tim is leading THI through a series of research projects designed to show how doctors and hospitals can improve patient care. I am reminded of the old Rodney Dangerfield story:

Patient: Doctor, I wake up in the morning, I look in the mirror, I start to feel sick. What's wrong with me?

Doctor: I don't know. But your eyesight's perfect.

Tim and wife Trece have three daughters. 8:10 p.m. My knees are still numb. I need more news. What to do? For my past few columns, I've been telephoning classmates at random. I contemplate the airphone. Way too expensive. My only choice is to update you on those about whom I have previously written. So much for political column correctness and multi-culturalism.

Got a Christmas card from AlanDaigneault. We played phone tag on our message machines, but never did connect. I'll leave it to you to decipher Al's holiday poem.

Ho! Ho! Ho! Where did Al go? Off to Kansas Off to Sprint But no water, mountains or snow!

Scott Bechler is another frequent mover. Bechs spent the late eighties in Denver and the early nineties in Dallas, all with IBM. In early 1993 he moved to Chappaqua, N.Y., where he helped to set up a new business providing integrated computer and data management solutions. Bechs is on the road much of the time. Last year he barely missed the L.A. earthquake, the Midwest floods, and several hurricanes. In February Scott, Susan, and their three kids, Stephanie, Michael, and Gregory, returned to Denver, where Scott will set up a permanent home office.

Jeff Citrin has started up a new business at Oppenheimer & Cos Jeff and his group buy up large portfolios of mortgages and other realestate assets and then sell them off in smaller bunches. I hope I'm not giving anything away.

I ran into Mike McClintock on the New York City subway. Mike also works for Oppenheimer and lives in Larchmont, N.Y.

Dianne and Winston Hutchins have a new daughter, Georgina, who, Winston reports, is growing like a weed. She is up to ten pounds and has graduated from playing volleyball to soccer with her big brother Harry. She used to be the soccer ball. Now she's the volleyball.

March 15, 9:00 p.m. Touchdown. I can breathe again. Two more connecting flights, and we're there.

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