Month: March 2017

Holy war

Okay, hedline’s a bit overstated. Local alumni from BC and Notre Dame got together last Saturday to shoot paintballs at each other. What better place than Camp Pendleton?

The six gents on the left were the Eagles contingent and the equal number (counting a young woman) on the right were the Domers.

As no one had had this experience before, we chose “paintball lite,” aimed at kids and adult beginners. The guns are smaller, lighter, less powerful; the paintballs themselves smaller; the result . . . no bruises. Except maybe to pride. Yes, we felt somewhat sheepish seeing so many others, including kids, go with the full-bore paintball. Maybe next time.

Here’s a short (<4 minutes) video of some of the action.

You may notice that the ND contingent was a little on the young side. We had not been aware they had promoted the event among those in their “young alumni” section. With the exception of a graduate of 2009, the others were all 2013 or 2014. That’s like . . . yesterday! BC’s contingent featured mostly guys in their late 30s and one ancient alum.

I survived. And flourished at the post-event get-together in Oceanside.

These kids from Notre Dame are alright! We’re friends until September 16, when the Eagles and Fighting Irish meet again on the gridiron in Chestnut Hill.

Flowergeddon and borregos

Desert hillsides covered with yellow flowers

Spent a couple of days recently again out in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, leading a group of local BC alumni on a tour March 18 and later, on Friday, to help out serving all the visitors coming to the Park for the best wildflower blooms this century – a “flowergeddon.”

This is a brief video of some of the highlights of the tour with BC alumni.

We spent the morning traipsing about and got together for lunch at a Borrego Springs roadhouse.

Seated, l-r: Bill McDonald ’68, Mike Scott, Mary Ann Scott ’75, Lissa Tsu ’00, Brian Tsu ’00; standing, l-r: Mary Berube ’80, Ray Berube ’78, Jania Andreotti ’85, Pat Ahern ’11, Meryl Evangelista.

Returning last week to help out, I was chagrined when a visitor arrived at my wildflower info table and said he was already fully satisfied with his visit, because he had seen bighorn sheep. Hmmmph! In all the times I had been out to the desert, I had not seen the sheep for whom the Park is partially named (borrego in Spanish means lamb). He mentioned he had seen them while he was driving down the Montezuma grade, a dramatic ride (to which Larry Kenah, Ed Hattauer, and others can attest) from 4,000-feet elevation to the desert floor, switchback road all the way.

A hour or so later, I was driving up the Montezuma grad heading home when I noticed a number of cars pulled to the side of the road and people looking up into the hillside. Borrego? I joined them and, for my first time, saw the bighorn sheep. I immediately regretted that I had not brought my Nikon camera or Sony camcorder to capture the images. What you see is what my iPhone caught, grainy because of the sheep’s distance from me. When I get better images, I will provide.

This one sheep was captured taking a pose majestically on a rock. Two others later joined the first and, rather than try for a photo I knew would also be blurry, I just enjoyed their perambling.

To my left, I saw another borrego and then a companion to the first. They’re on the ridgeline.

Made the day!