Last night about 30 friends of  our ‘house band’  Skanky Green showed up to celebrate the guys first big gig at Higher Ground . Folks started showing up at midnight …. We had quite a party going by about 2. 

We even managed to make a batch of SamStones.  I crept off to bed at about 2:30, while Diane stayed up with Max to help him gather his schoolwork and pack all his supplies for his trip to Pratt today. My job was to drive him to the Train station in Rutland in the morning to catch e 1045 to NYC. . Max has been working around the clock the last week or so getting ready to go back to Pratt to turn in his last semester’s work. I’ve been really proud of how he’s focused over the past week. Some of his stuff is really amazing. His film project ‘Tint’ was shot in black and white 8mm film then digitized. It’s really an amazing piece of work.. That boy is so creative.

   I woke around 7:30, woke Max and we were on the rode by 8 as planned. We got down to Rutland in an hour and a half. When we got there we found the station empty and locked. I looked at the posted schedule and realized that the train ran at 10:45 AM every day but Sunday .. On Sunday it left at something like 5:45 PM.   Each of the three of us had assumed that the other had checked the time.. When we figured out the micup.. what was there to do but laugh ?! I was the famous Cohn problem with time. I quickly got Diane on the phone and she helped us figure out that there was a train leaving from Albany NYC at 12 noon. At that point it was 10AM and the car was telling me that the train station in Albany was 2 hours and 20 minutes away.. We’ really had to zoom.  I drove as fast as my little Prius  would go.  By the time we were nearing Albany, we had made up some of the time.. but ti was clearly going to be close.. We had 18 miles to go and 20 minutes to do it. Soon we were 3 miles away form the station with 5 minutes to go.. and … and … I took a wrong turn !.. Arrrrrrgh.. We got caught for a few precious minutes in downtown Albany traffic while I figure our way back to the road to the station.. We found our way and drove up to the station (or so we thought) just as the church bells all started ringing noon. We could see the train. We hopped out of the car and grabbed Max’s stuff. I ran o r the door only to find it locked.. The station looked abandoned… That’s when we realized out mistake.. the  new station was right next store.. We ran towards it.. We had to run up three flights of staris to get to the ticeket office and the access to the overpass to the tracks. I ran ahead with Max’s light portfolio case.. while max wrestled with his huge duffle bag. I made it to the ticked counter but the guy aid that the train had already closed it’s doors.. I ran past him as Max finally cleared the stairs. I got down to the access door to the train.. and a not very friendly women told me that it was too late .. though the train was sitting there happily just 15 feet away.. She started to lecture me about the need to be places on time..   I managed to do some internal deep breathing to keep myself from saying anything I’d regret then I focused my Jedi powers and asked her to ask the conductor if they’d take one more. She said no.. but seconds later her walkie talkie went off and the conductor said.. ‘send ’em down’.. We shuffled down the stairs.. I gave max a hug.. pushed him on the train.. and the train started moving 30 seconds later.. Yow.. what a finish !  Good luck my son !!! I’ll be thinking of you this week at Pratt ! I love you Max.. !

   I took a few minutes to get back in my body.. then shuffled off to the car and the 3 hour trip home.  The ride home was so peaceful after that rush. When I get in those quite places.. like a long car ride… I realize just how much ‘work’ I still have to do around Sam’s passing. I talked to  him nearly the whole trip.. everything I saw along the Northway reminded  me of Sam.. places we’d stopped,  music we’d liked..   Much of it is bittersweet at this point. .The rearview mirror taught me  that when I think these things, I get sort of a  sad half smile on my face. Half a smile is progress….

   On the ride back I gave my folks a quick call to my parents to see how  Deb, Hannah, Avery and Jen were enjoying their stay. The girls went down for a State Radio show last night.. and my parents graciously offered to  play innkeeper.. I could tell by my call that they were all getting along really well.. I’m sure I’ll get some good stories from Hannah and Avery when they get back.. but here are two I heard from them and my mom… First, Hannah told me that Chad Urmston , the lead from State Radio.. was still wearing his am pin on his guitar trap.. I think that is so wonderful.. The second story they told me was that Chad‘s parents turn out to be pretty good friends of my folks. They live in the same town (Sherborn, MA) and work on some committees together.. Mom had even invited them over for dinner on Friday.. but they were out of town..  My mom new all sorts of storis about Chad and his siblings.. including his sister Farley in Waitsfield.. but she did not know that we are all manic fans of his band. It is a very funny small world.  I did manage to stop o n I-74 on the way home to write Sam’s name in some snow I found.. I’ll keep doing it as long as there’s snow to write in..

I also took a cool little accidental detour through ‘Ironville’ .. The ‘birthplace of the electric age’.. It’s called that because it was the site of the first use of  an electromagnet to help control a forge. In 1833. That’s pretty early !!!

    I got home around 4 after 350 miles of driving.. It was actually all pretty relaxing except for that nerve racking 5 minutes at the train station.  Gabe was still feeling pretty sick when I got home.. He has a sore throat and feels generally rotten.. In respect  of that we all plopped down in the TV room and watched Shawn of the Dead together. Nothing ‘s better for a sore throat than a good Zombie movie.. After that we just puttered around..   I was working to add RSS feeds of the comments’ from both Sam and my MySpace pages on the SamStones. Org website.. when I stumbled across ‘Browse like a pirate’ .. and extension for the Mozilla Firefox browser. It allows you to suref the internet and see every website you visit in pirate speak.. For instance. This blog looks like this in pirate mode”.. Arggggg

Well.. it’s been a busy night .. and I’ve only had a few hours of sleep.. time for sleep . Sam.. thanks for keeping me company in the car today..

-jc

ps. Want to see something bizarre ? Diane found this link from one of her yoga friends..Imagine this guy at a party !