Like out of an old western, the Borrego Boyz ride today. It’s the first of what were called “Leadership Meetings” back in Portland. Five of us in the neighborhood are getting together for lunch. I also got an invitation for our Portland Zoom meeting for this Friday – two excuses to drink beer in the same week. Borrego is the street that we now live on and is Spanish for a long horn sheep. Maybe it should be Baaa-rego? We’ll head down to Farlow’s on Englewood Beach for this get together that was typically held at Buffalo Wild Wings in Portland. We were eventually forced into Zoom meetings with the closure of the restaurant due to Covid. Once it reopened, it was time for us to move to Florida. The other participants in Friday’s get together will be from Napa Valley, Oakland, Portland, Netarts, and perhaps Ashland (a first time caller).

The Borrego Boyz have a trip planned to St. Pete for the Indycar Street Grand Prix in February. We’ll be finalizing arrangements today. The smaller Portland Leadership Group (primarily IU grads) will discuss potential future get togethers in Bloomington, Indiana, here in Venice for Spring Training, and other camping, kayak and music event gathering, My wife and I will be back in Portland prior to our Alaska cruise in September, where we hope to have a Wild Wings reunion. By then, the Borrego Boyz will have probably expanded to a larger group with regular meetings. It’s already starting at convention level, with five or more people present. That was rare in Portland, achieving only Convention level of 4 face-to-face on occasion. We have yet to get all of us together in once place for many years. 

When the Borrego Boyz get together this afternoon, I will probably have trouble with my voice and being able to hear. It’s typically exhausting to try to communicate with that many people at the same time. The Portland group has always been the perfect manageable size to prevent these age handicaps from becoming a problem. Even the Zoom meetings get challenging to even get a word in without stepping on each other. I’m concerned that the Borrego Boyz will get to the point of being uncomfortable for me. I’ll do my best to keep up.