Tom Kowal writes !Hola, class of '65! I encourage each of you to retire early and often - the pix attached document some of the fun I've been having as a volunteer with Quaker and Human Rights org's, for the past 10 years. The upside of volunteering is you get to pick your work - the downside of course is that since you work for free, lots of folks have lots of projects for you to work on. Maybe there's a common theme in some of the pix: the '97 Ford pickup, with all the bumper stickers [still a Quaker...] and 230,000 miles on it now. Mostly the miles are from projects in Louisiana [hurricane relief after Katrina and Rita, and then again after Gustav and Ike] with the Chitimacha tribe on Isle de Jean Charles, right on the Gulf about 2 hours south of New Orleans], with the Lakota tribe in South Dakota, in Desemboque de los Seris, Sonora with the Comca'ac tribe on the Gulf of California, and along the Arizona-Sonora border with migrant, economic development and border projects [I leave in a week for our 7th Migrant Trail Walk - 76 miles in a week, walking on the trails the migrant workers risk their lives on to come build your houses and tend your crops]. Mostly I do logistical support for these projects, as well as marches and rallies in Colorado - the red shirts in one pic are Los Companeros de Seguridad [our crack non-violent mass rally Security Team] - the shirts were left over from our demo [second largest] during the Democratic Convention in Denver - "We ARE America". You can see my usual view of the marches in one or two of the pics - cops and butts -- as I trail the march in the old Ford and coordinate security by radio and pick up stragglers. Also more recently, lots of miles back and forth between Denver and Ojo Caliente, New Mexico, where the beat-up 90-year old adobe is [on 3 acres with a 1731 ditch right - on the old northern frontier of New Spain/Mexico] that we're fixing up with youngest son Joel. Now, getting physically trashed trying to keep up with Joel -- THAT's fun.   Other 4 kids and partners, and the 5 and 8/9ths grandkids are still in Denver metro [gracias a Dios], doing their things, all happy and full of vinegar. Walt said he had enough grandkid pix, so none of those - but I assure you, they're the cutest. Oh, and la Jefa - my wife Annette - is still in Denver too [gracias a Dios, tambien], still heading up Colorado's Community Health Center organization. This year has been pretty busy with lobbying and organizing for Humane Immigration Reform. Check the FCNL website for what the Quakes are up to wif dat. Look forward to hearing about all the world-changing activity the rest of you are up to -- !Adelante, compas! Paz y Luz -- Tom Kowal   <tomandannettecomcast.net> cell: 303-921-1481 [if I'm out of cell range, try  this number @ Ojo Caliente, NM: 505 583 2713]  There is a Principle which is pure, placed in the human Mind, which in different Places and Ages hath had different Names; it is, however, pure, and proceeds from God. It is deep, and inward, confined to no forms of religion, nor excluded from any, where the Heart stands in perfect Sincerity. In whomsoever this takes Root and grows, of what Nation soever, they become Brethren. -- John Woolman [d. 1772], Quaker Universalist