River Rock Update (Aug 22, 2022)

Miscellaneous

Repeat from last week or until no longer relevant or until I delete it:

Exchange student Max has arrived.

Pot luck BBQ at Richmond Funeral Home on September 11 from 4 p.m. – 8 p.m.

A signup for food will be distributed. Appies, salads, mains and desserts.

BYOB and Larry will supply other drinks. Debbie T. will get the beverage license and Larry has the ‘serve it right.’

Zoom Meeting Rules

THE LINK TO OUR THURSDAY MEETINGS WILL NO LONGER BE EMAILED BUT ACCESSED THROUGH THE LINK BELOW.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86855229058?pwd=c1pxUklLeDMwWGpCdjIrOS9Oak4wUT09

Meeting ID: 868 5522 9058
Passcode: 473892

1) Mute your microphone if you aren't already muted. Background noise is distracting.
2) If you are not engaged in the presentation, turn off your camera.
3) Chat function should only be used to address the speaker, not for Club member remarks during the presentation

4) Unmute when harassing the Sergeant at Arms or taking your turn during Sergeant at Arms.

Please direct any questions to the President or a board member of your choosing and we will discuss any and all questions or concerns during our board meeting. Also please refer anyone who may be interested in attending a meeting or joining the club.

Be kind and be calm and safe...

INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE

Train your mind to see the good in everything. Positivity is a choice. The happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts.

VISITORS

Chuck Keeling

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND

CLUB BUSINESS

November 3^rd our District Governor is visiting and will want to meet with the Board. Also any one interested in becoming DG can ask Melinda for an application.

September 11^th is the summer BBQ at the Life Centre and Newman’s is providing the beef. Let Debbie T. know what you intend to contribute. There will be a collection of $20 per person.

October 8^th is the million-dollar dinner for the Rotary Foundation at Quilchena golf course.

Mark Philips has resigned from the club as his business has moved entirely to Nelson and he is no longer able to come once a month. You will be missed Mark and all the best to you and your family.

Thanks to Bobby no Micheal, no Bobby okay the Ghirras for the Breakfast sandwiches this morning.

Sandra Hass was awarded her ruby, no sapphire Paul Harris for her sixth pin. Congratulations Sandra.

Marg is keeping Max’s schedule and if you are taking Max anywhere email Marg and let her know. He comes from a small town so anything big city including meals, sports or anything that gives him a wide experience. We will also be able to register our events with Max on club runner. He is back from Tweedsmuir Park today then off to Penticton. Sandra has agreed to bring him to our meetings. Our club needs to help the home stay family out. Big thanks to Sam Jaffe for all the work he has done and maybe Bill too.

sergeant At Arms Tidbits

Dick pointed out that covid has turned a corner he was the only one on zoom today (next week will be different Dick). He visited with friends from Kelowna and went to Steveston Seafood House for an enjoyable meal and evening.

Peachy thanked Sandra for getting her on to club runner. Peachy went out with friends she had not seen in two years and ate a lot which led to a Zoomba session. She attended a happy day service at Queens Park to support a friend who is running for City Council in Vancouver.

Garth is mediating today instead of golfing and back to Whistler for the weekend.

Susan was with us live and in person. But will start work at seven soon and will be on zoom forever until her holidays. Getting prepared for son Ryan to go to SFU who also just turned 18. Susan still has some symptoms in her arm but demonstrating full motion by trying to cuff some out of line members. (not saying who).

Pat’s grandson just turned 12 who was born 3 months to the day her husband died. Grandson is in hockey tryouts and Pat’s 14 year old to be granddaughter went to see Wknd. Debbie T has a nice personal page on the Tour de Cure web site. Support a Rider – The Tour de Cure | BC Cancer Foundation

Debbie S. enjoyed putting on Maroon 5. Also enjoyed a BBQ on the island with salmon, prawns and clams. Her brother in law went in for a quadruple by pass and has been told he will be 80% better then before he went in.

Larry had a good week with friends. An amazing night with Debbie and Judy at Granville hotel. He will be fitted for a mask for the radiation and going under the knife next week. The whole club is pulling for you Larry.

Gordon spent time at his favourite place, the dentist. For one of his favorite treatments, a triple root canal and but sadly only three hours in the dentist chair.

Mary Lou told Dick zoom will not be lonely next week. She had fun at a Blue Rodeo concert. Had a great dinner on the weekend hosting a family BBQ of 18. Many had not met Oscar or the new dog. She has changed her schedule to come to meetings as long as can do meeting and pick up Oscar. Next month she is off to Italy for a month.

Sam yesterday picked up paddle boards so he has tripled his modes of transportation (which may include his feet). Exciting news starting own division of the company he works for and even offered someone a job (no it wasn’t Bill). Makes him feel very adult (Sam not Bill). The Division will be Fraser Valley Services for Kids.

Bill advised that Brian Kirkham had heart surgery and his daughter is home taking care of him. Also sadly reported that two friends one of whom was diagnosed with colon cancer five years ago and only given months to live managed to make it years instead.

Kal confirmed Larry is going to make it. This week had lunch with a 78 and 88 year old, and Dalbir. Claimed it took him three minutes to get to the meeting????? Have you ever ridden with Kal driving???? Three minutes 🤣

Debbie M. has done a lot of paddle boarding which included winning a medal in the B division and finishing 7^th our of 28. Her granddaughter was asked to give grandma a kiss and it was more like a head butt. She has taken her to the pool twice and brings joy every day. She has booked a trip to Europe for three weeks which will include London Spain and Portugal.

Judy a nice week in Oliver. One glitch was spending 4 hours in emergency as Warren had chest pain that fortunately was a pinched nerve. Judy checked him in and the receptionist wondered if Judy was his wife (Judy neglected to tell the receptionist that she went to see the Beatles perform when they visited Vancouver). She won the water fight with grandkids this time in spite of 9 kids aged from 3 – 13 lined up with water guns(BIG WATER GUNS) against her (way to kick ass Gma). Parents agreed to four hours of saying nothing but yes to kids which led to the purchase of all kinds of candy that the parents had to eat. Then all adults had to go for a swim and on floating island and jump off. Judy needed help to get on the island (was this beer island?). Adults were rewarded with a trip to a winery. Next up Disneyland.

Marg’s week was just as exciting as Gordon’s as she broke a tooth while flossing. Went to see “Come From Away” which is amazing with fabulous energy. The Minister of Immigration performed a citizenship induction afterwards which was very moving.

Bob is back from UK where he had a good time even though he went for his uncle’s funeral who passed with stomach cancer 8 weeks after diagnoses. His uncle worked for jaguar and had 28 years of retirement. On the trip he always buys underwear from Marks and Spencer and this time apparently bought jammies for Sam. Is going on the Alzheimer climb on September 24^th and will take Max.

Elena is back after two weeks in the Philippines. She organized a multi-cultural event on Victoria Drive for 10 countries (started with 2 countries) that went well and successfully. As it is election time 20 politicians were there and allowed to speak for one minute. At least one or more of the politicians promised an easier time getting the license for the event and a significant tax break for local businesses.

Christine M (describing her job in retirement) was up at 4:45 AM to a whining dog and lets him out in the dark. He goes out and wanders around sniffs and does his business. Chris waters the businessed lawn and then feeds the cat and dog. The cat eats the dog food – no mention of what happens to the cat food. She then walked the dog around the block for number 2. So basically 1.5 hours of looking after the pets but for only 6 more days when Olivia comes home.

Carolyn had lunch with the rock star researcher in academic plagiarism, cheating, and integrity. The kids have now come home and the house is a wreck. Her kids went to Back Street Boys and had a blast. All went out for pirate packs (Back Street Boys included? Left unsaid).

Micheal was glad to be here after hanging out at home for 14 days of quarantine. He forgot to do arrive Canada app. Even though he had filled it out last time. Two days later he got a call from border services because he did not fill our arrive can. and he had to quarantine get a pcr test and there would be check ups with the possibility of $5,000 fine for noncompliance. He did work some hours but Bobby was handling it all so told Mike to go home and relax. But then work got really busy and told Micheal who cares about the fine. In the mean time he set up a pool for the kids and had a really good time. I was also informed by a source who requested anonymity for the purposes of this story that some alcohol may have been consumed pool and BBQ side.

Dalbir in the last week did some driving for a wedding. On Sunday he and Kal picked up the uncles for lunch who talked about stories they had told many times before. Dalbir worked two days this week so needs some time off.

I reported that virtually no one was wearing masks in Scotland and very few at the airports. There is no requirement for quarantine in Scotland and four members of our tour who tested positive were not allowed to tour with us, as per the tour company's guidelines, shadowed our tour throughout Scotland. British ground personnel for Air Canada at Heathrow wondered why we still needed proof of vaccination and the ArriveCan app.

Sandra received an email reminder to fill the ArriveCan App. Most travelers were masked at the Amsterdam air port. She is enjoying reliving the wedding.

Bobby has been busy with events at the Hall but also at the dentist about his middle teeth where he will spend $6 to $7 thousand for braces to close the gap in his front teeth which is widening with age (somewhat like other parts of our bodies which cannot be helped with braces).

Melinda went to her third wedding this year. They were driving in John’s prized Cadillac to Squamish to the wedding and when the red light comes on as the engine is over heated. BCAA towed it to Dueck. A fan belt had stopped working. They missed the wedding but made the reception that was catered by Newman’s. It was a business partner’s, daughter’s wedding. Willow's stitches are dissolving. John is going in for surgery for his eyelid where they will take skin from behind ione ear. He will be a pirate for 6 weeks with the one eye closed and patched. Aaahar maties!

SPEAKER

Chuck Keeling was presented with his Paul Harris plaque for community service. He said he was blown away by the award. Chuck explained that he could not make the dinner presentation because the Cullen report on money laundering was being released that day and he had to be ready for the media response. The River Rock has been open for a year now and largely back to normal. They were told to close their 15 properties across the country on March 15^th, 2020. In Richmond they laid off 1200 employees and across the country declined from 10,000 to 800 -900 employees. His department went from a team of 6 to just himself. He remembers giving a tour and the fire doors between the Canada Line station and the Casino were chained closed. They are now back to 900 team members and having trouble getting staff to fill the balance of the positions. They are just starting to book entertainment events. The buffet is back to 5 days a week. All hotel rooms are now open but just in the last three weeks because there was not enough staff to service all the rooms. In Moncton they had to keep 100 rooms off the market because they could not get the staff. The Cullen Commission Report was the epicentre of the media and Chuck had to deal with the media storm. Eby was using money laundering as a sledgehammer against the opposition. The Commission examined the industry and audits and the German report. They were hundreds of witnesses and a disproportionate time spent on the gaming sector. The Report is 1800 pages, 101 recommendations, of which only 4 applied to the gaming industry. Whole notion that bags of money were coming into the casino for a cheque was not true. There was no evidence of money going into BC real estate from the gaming industry. One recommendation applied to reorganization of the government bodies responsible for gaming. The reforms had already been started by the River Rock in 2015. The allegations were hard on the River Rock team. Going forward they are excited about a local restauranteur looking to take over one restaurant in 2023. In the marina there are only 20 slips that are useful and cannot dredge the rest until winter 2023 after appropriate approvals. They are very close to a really big deal with a celebrity chef to come to the River Rock in Richmond. Great Canadian Gaming was bought by a private equity firm and so far so good, Apollo has been great. Great Canadian is looking at entertainment opportunities to offer more non gaming activities. When their ex-COO, an otherwise brilliant guy made a bad personal decision to get vaccinated in the Yukon, Chuck almost deleted the email because it seemed so bizarre. The COO resigned that day. It was a story world wide and Chuck sent a statement to every major global news outlet. He was called often by news outlets trying to find the COO.

For his visit Chuck received his third Sunrise Rotary Pen.

Meanderings

So you have all seen the movie "Hidden Figures" about the black female mathematicians called "computers" behind the early space program. There were also female "computers" behind the advent of early astronomy. "On glass plates of starscapes, women astronomy pioneers inked insights and analyses, many were erased, a few became art." Further from the National Geographic August 2022. "At the Harvard College Observatory in Cambridge, three floors of metal cabinets house more than 550,000 glass plates, most of them eight by ten inches, a photographic negative format dating from the mid-19th century. These plates recorded astronomical data from telescopes trained on celestial regions and objects. One side bears the print of light from distant stars; the other side had been marked with equations, arrows, circles letters and other notations by women who were hired to interpret the data. From 1885 until the 1950s, hundreds of so-called women computers studied the plates. They discovered how variations in brightness of specific stars revealed their energy output, a relationship that provided a way to measure great distances. They examined a star's light spectrum and determined that the intensities of the star's colors indicated its chemical composition. They counted and cataloged galaxies. With such discoveries, these women laid the foundation for modern astrophysics. They left many marks of many kinds: on some of the plates, only a few arrows or characters; on others, notes from conversations between women across decades, each striving to better understand the universe."

You can read more about one of these "computers" by following this link Henrietta Swan Leavitt - Wikipedia

Who said women couldn't do math?????

🤯

Upcoming Events

Annual BBQ - September 11, Richmond Funeral Home from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Details to follow.

Friday May 6th 2023 Gala Auction

TODAY'S CHUCKLEs

🤣 🤓 🤪 🥸 😋😘 😜 😏 😂 😇

😁 🙃

So this is a true story told by one of our female companions on our tour of Scotland. She was staying in a hotel on another trip and went to her room. She opened the door and stepped inside and there was a naked man in the room. She was shocked, left immediately and returned to reception with the key. The reception area was very busy but she got to front of the line and said quite loudly (as she was still upset) "There is a naked man in my room." A woman behind her in line overheard and said "If she doesn't want it, can I have her room!"