Omens aplenty surround the date of Friday, September 16th: the date chosen for our Mount Tam Archipelago Reunion.

For one thing, it's Stuart's birthday and Stuart will be travelling all the way from Ohio to join us! It also happens to be the last Friday before the start of the school year at Ohio State, so Stuart's arrival will come at the last possible moment.

Larry's connection with this date is also interesting. Larry has never met most of you but he did meet Suzanne once, an astonishing coincidence that I reported in a voice card many years ago.

I was in the midst of one of my rare visits to San Francisco, staying with Suzanne, and the two of us were driving through the city on the way to some outing. Much to my amazement, I spotted Larry (who lives hours away in the south bay and gets into San Franciso about as often as I did when I was living in Montana) coming out of a church. We both did a double take and Suzanne wheeled her car to the curb for introductions. I am still amazed that I happened past that particular location in a crowded city at the precise instance Larry emerged from that church - the odds against such an occurrence are astronomical.

And what does any of this have to do with September 16th? It turns out that the sister of the woman whose wedding Larry was attending that day will be getting married on the very same weekend as our reunion. Thus Larry, who is determined to join us on the mountain, will have to scramble down the hill Saturday morning and don his tux behind a bush in order to attend this second wedding.

The day before September 16th is Yom Kippur, the pinacle of the Jewish high holidays. Stuart's arrival, therefore, will be an added treat for Betsy and for Janine, who usually hosts a lavish banquet to break the fast.

Paul has vowed to journey all the way from Salt Lake and Drury says she will try to cut short a stay in San Diego in order to join us. Roger and Suzanne should also be able to attend.

Although inconvenient for some, the 16th was the only possible date I could reserve at the West Point Inn for a party of (at least) twelve. And reserve it I have, with a non-refundable deposit of $340 ($100 of which I'm supposed to get back).

The cost will be $20 per person, significant others welcome. West Point Inn is a very rustic set of cabins clustered along a bike trail near the summit of Mount Tamalpais, just across the Golden Gate. It's a gentle two mile hike into the Inn. They have an old-fashioned kitchen but we have to pack in our own food. My fantasy is that we can con chef Paul into preparing a feast.

I made the trip to the Inn myself last month to check it out. It's nothing fancy. We'll have three small cabins with a total of ten beds (some out on porches). The cabins do have crude but workable INDOOR plumbing. We need to bring sheets and pillow cases and/or sleeping bags, food, flashlights, towels, toiletries, and mosquito repellant. Check in between noon and eight on Friday, check out the following morning by 10:30.

It is, in short, an adventure. I can attest that the views from the Inn are nothing less than spectacular, with wide sweeping views of the Bay, the City, and the Pacific Ocean.

And Mount Tam is only the beginning! If we are all still speaking to each other on Saturday, we will have our choice of A) a mass invasion of a nearby bowling alley, B) three hours of isolation in a "Malaysian hotbox" followed by an excruciating session in a chair at the San Francisco Dental College, or C) a starmaze lecture. I recommend option A.

Other group activities will evolve as this momentous date approaches. Please phone command central with confirmations, suggestions, questions, etc. See you at the summit!