Home again.. I was so happy to land in Burlington this morning.

The trip last night was surprisingly easy. The planes had all been on time and I’d slept miraculously well. Scott picked me up at the airport which I really appreciated.. it’s always nice to have someone waiting for you. .

Walking into the house is always strange now. It feels so good to see everyone.. It still feels like Sam is here.. I feel him strongly in our home. It’s like he’s just in another room. Diane has said its like he’s just behind some curtain, ready to come out.. but he can’t come out. I know he’s here and it feels good to be around his stuff.. It’s a funny thing.. I miss him always.. I like to miss him here the most.

It was an absolutely gorgeous day.. I feel asleep several times as the red-eye and jet lag caught up with me. Around 5:30 I went for a run because Chai was giving me that look that made me feel so guilty for not having run. We got out on the trail and the snow was almost all gone.. I had to find a place in deep shadow to find enough snow left to write Sam’s name. I got back just in time for men’s’ yoga night. This was our second.. 5 guys from our father’s group came. Diane is so great with the class.. She knows how far to push us without making us feel like inflexible klutzes. Yoga is the best thing to cure a back that’s been on airplanes all day.

Tonight was pretty uneventful.. Scott helped Gabe with his homework while Max worked on his school work. He’s heading back to Pratt this weekend to finish up his coursework from last semester. He’s working very hard… Tonight he showed us his film project. It had to be done in 8mm film.. like we used when I was a kid. Max filmed his project in 8mm then digitized it then worked some digital magic using AfterEffects and Motion.. the result is amazing. He is just so creative. Speaking of which.. he just came into Sam’s room where I’m typing looking like this:

I guess that’s some strange form of study break… Stranger still.. he just came in again with a piece of paper he used to take the black goop off his face.. It looks like the paper towel of Turin ..

What a goofy and wonderful kid…

Gabe was also very funny tonight to.. Diane was lying down to go to sleep and I was in saying good night when Gabe burst in with a wooden club and started thrashing around with it and screaming like he was in some sort of epic battle.. I wasn’t in the mood for violence… so I pointed a pretend remote control at him and told him I was changing the channel. Gabe started doing lightening quick improv.. his sword changed to a baseball bat (sports channel), then into a sausage (cooking channel), a clarinet (MTV), a hunting rifle (animal planet), a murder weapon (CSI).. etc.(not bad for a family without cable) He was very funny We were all laughing hard which felt good..

I took a look at the sky a little earlier .. Venus and the crescent moon are very close in the western sky. It looks like my heart/mind diagram from several months back.. Take a look to the west tomorrow after sunset.. it’s really beautiful.

It’s even cooler when the wind blows your camera a little…

OK.. time for sleep.. my internal clock is still all screwed up, but I think I should be tired now.. G’nite everyone.. g’nite Sam.

-jc