I woke up excited because this was the day we were going to give away the first of the Sam Cohn Musical Saul Award guitar.  We all headed up to  MMU at about 8:30. We got there in about the middle of the underclassman awards ceremony. It was being held in the gym and I think the entire school was there..

In the middle of the program. Jen, the wonderfully  principled principal. took the mike. (P-A-L, the principal is your PAL)  she introduced the four of us and we went up to the podium. The nominations were in envelopes in a large glass bowl , Gabe started stirring them up while Max did a great job talking about Sam and this Musical Soul Award.

At the right moment, Gabe reached in and picked the name and Max read it out. We like this random selection because it gives Sam a chance to ‘vote’ The winner was Megan G… a freshman who I hear is a really good singer/songwriter.  I could tell that she was really surprised. To win. She came up and took the envelope.. but we haven’t had a chance to talk yet.

Sometime next week, we’ll go down to Advanced Music and she can pick out the guitar of her dreams… again.. the only strings attached to  this gift are 1)… that the winner keep the guitar  and not sell it.. and 2) the guitar can never be used for evil.. or for playing billy joel, barry manilow or anything close to that style of music. I’m guessing that won’t be a problem for Megan..   It felt so good for us to be able to kick off this program …It’s a really nice way for us to remember Sam.

    As soon as Megan sat down.. I had to run to work for a meeting.. and that’s how I spent the bulf of the day.. one phone call to the next.. I felt pretty productive today… The thing at MMU had me feeling pretty good.. I’d hoped to kick off a few hours early and get some personal time.. but I had a bunch of loose ends to clear up for the week. It was late afternoon by the time I snuck out the door.

     I decided to head over to Homer’s to  take a look at th milling machine. Going to Homer’s is like going to a museum.. there’s always unexplainable things.. like these gold painted frogs and dragon flies.. and this still life with expired bird.. I wish I could take pictures of what’s inside of Home’s brain.

I spent a few hours there goofing around with Homer trying to get the image of Sam that we used on our T-Shirts into the milling machine.. We were  able to get part of the way there.. but we were not able to get the image through the last software hurdle.. We were told that our ‘splines were not exploded’… Don’t you just hate that ?! You  work hard all day, come home tired and cranky just to find that your splines are not exploded.. . I’ve ended up spending a good portion of the evening trying to figure out how to explode my splines..( whatever that means. )  If you yourself are a spline exploder.. please let me know and tell me what to do…

    It was about 7:30 by the time I got back home. Gabe and friends were coming back from the bridge  and Diane was cutting the grass because she needed the clippings for mulch.. 

I sat down with a glass of wine. It was a prefect early summer evening.. well.. almost perfect.  We miss you Sam… we really do.

  -jc

Hey  ho – the wind and the rain… that’s a  song I’ve  always liked from Shakespeare’s 12^th night.. the play Gabe’s class put on tonight.. and a good song for tonight.. both windy and rainy. It was really nice seeing Gabe and his class perform Shakespeare. It’s amazing that these kids can memorize and act long sections form these complex plays. It’s also always amazing to me to see that Shakespeare’s plot’s are still funny after more than 400 years. Gabe played one of the guys that attends Count Orsino… I saw him out there tonight looking so tall and so  grown up and beautiful… I was very proud of him.

   The play was in the Camels Hump Middle School library.   It was nice walking around the middle school this evening before and after the play.. there are so many memories I have from all three kids coming through this school. I can still feel Sam’s presence in here.. This handwritten sign is in the entrance way as you enter the building. 

I also found a poster of Walt Whitman (I think) ..  Does he look lie anyone that you know ?

   Not much else to report on today I spent the morning working here at home.. then went in for a long day of phone meetings….. sort of the story of my life right now.  I’m really enjoying working at home. Here’ s me in the bell tower working yesterday… As I said.. it’a a great pace to work.. and to think

Here’s the bell.

And here’s the Christmas light that we keep burning since Sam died.. It’s a peaceful place up there..

   Tomorrow the day that all four of us got to MMU to do the first Sam Cohn Musical Soul guitar giveaway. I’ll write about hoe it goes tomorrow… Gnite all.. gnite Sam..

-me

ps. My cousins Martha and Sam just left a SamStone on the relics of the Berlin Wall.. Check these out:

 Pretty cool.. no ?