(If I am asking the community to share a little bit about themselves on this website. I thought it only fair that I do the same. I can understand the reluctance to publish personal information in so public a forum. I have a couple stories that might be of interest, but I am still working up the courage to put them out here.)
I was born on April Fools Day, 1955, in Riverside, CA; a small city, still rural by temperament, and in 1955 just starting to become a smoggy suburb of Los Angeles. My parents were school teachers and had themselves been born in Riverside, where their grandparents had settled before the turn of the century. My Mother's family grew oranges. My Father's family was in banking and they had prospered during the Depression.
I left Riverside to go to school at UC Davis, where I studied Genetics. Rather, than go
immediately to graduate school, I took a year off to goof around in San Francisco and
work temporarily at Bank of America. As of this writing, I have been at BofA for 20 years, where I
work on developing and implementing new check processing technologies. I recently moved
from projects involving digitized check images to organizational consulting.
In 1991, I bought a "fixer upper/think potential here" cottage and a couple of acres in Manchester. After many checks, to a legion of contractors and subcontractors, I was able to move in. I split my time between San Francisco and Manchester. In Manchester, I live with my cats Nelda (an 18 year old Siamese) and Fang (an opportunist and Mendocino native of indeterminate age), and an assortment of foul including geese, ducks, turkeys and a peacock. I spend as much time kayaking, hiking and trying to garden in the middle of a Vinca major onslaught, as I can.
I am a relative newcomer to the MCJC. I have been learning with Margaret for a little over a year. I am gradually learning Hebrew with Mickey and suspect that I have the distinction of being the slowest Hebrew student in the County's history. I am amazed at my baal teshuvah, and find it little short of miraculous that someone with decades of cynicism behind them and a revulsion for organized religion, could find so much happiness pursuing spiritual studies and becoming a part of this community.
... todah rabah.
Copyright 1997 Robert G. Evans