Today was a day of contrasts.  I woke early-ish to start my trip down to NY.. I had hoped to get on the road by 6AM.. but I’d stayed up to late last night wiring the trampoline and blogging.. It was closer to 7:30 when I actually hit the road.

  The ride down to NY was very peaceful.. The day was beautiful and I had tons of good music to listen to . I notice when I drive now I no longer automatically get on the phone. I will occasionally make or take a call. But more often than not I’m sitting quietly in the car thinking… or talking to Sam.   I find I get places much more relaxed and composed this way…   I took the more scenic route and stopped for a brief rest at Ironville to take in the sites..at the perinieally closed Penfield museum.  I even found the memorial marker for the owner’s horse ‘Billy’. That was unexpected !

Some of the buildings on the Penfield Museum site

The memorial to Penfield’s horse !

   It took me about 5 ours to get to Poughkeepsie. My first stop was at my friends Bruce and Mary Beth. Mary Beth and their kids  Brad and Danny had made a beautiful vegetarian spread for me. I had a great meal with them.. then Bruce and I took a long walk to talk about work stuff and personal stuff. It was so great seeing all of them ! Stopping there was a great way to break up the trip…

Mary Beth and Bruce

Yumy lunch

Me in their bathroom

They had a SamStone in their living room

   From there I headed south to Mt. Kisco for the visiting hours for my friend Bill’s wife Linda who died at age 60 the week before last. I got there around 4 and stayed for about 2 and a half hours. There was a steady stream of folks coming and going. I spent some good time listening  to Bill, and looking at their pictures . It was nice to see a slice of their home life. Bill seemed to be doing pretty well. … though I recognized that coping ‘bubble’ that we had immediately after Sam’s death that insulates you a little from the world outside.  I kept having to swallow my instincts to say things like “I know what you’re going through:  because a)   I don’t   and b)   I realize from the vents we had around Sam’s passing that the last thing any grieving  person wants to hear is about other people’s tragedies.. I even wore my Sam button on the inside of my pocket as not to draw questions away from Bill.    I spent some time talking to some of the other guests and to Bill’s kids and their spouses. I was very glad I had come.     While at Bill’s, I ran into this  group of  mystery  women who I’ll just call Aents X, Y, Z and Q.  Mystery women.. you know who you are !

Bill

Agents X, Y, Z and Q

     Around 6:30 I headed out. My friend Joanne and I decided to have our meeting this evening  instead of trying to meet up tomorrow morning. Next October, Joanne is going to be the next president of the IBM Academy.. which is the job that Bill currently holds. I’m going to be the VP of the Academy for the Americas. We spent about an hour brainstorming on how we were going to approach  our Academy jobs to  help the organization.    At  around 8   Joanne headed north to visit her daughter .. before she went she demonstrated the very cool convertible/hard top thing she has going on her car.. Very cool

   At that point, I headed into Somers to my friends Ruchir and Rashi’s  house., When I got there Ruchir was their with his two daughters Isha and Anika as well as his father in law who is visiting from India. Rashi and her mom had stepped out to catch a movie.

 We had a great couple of hours playing with the kids talking, cooking and eating.   Ruchir even showed me how to cook my own pratha ! 

First you smash it flat

Then you roll it

It was supposed to be a heart.. but now it looks like Africa

Yum.. Hot and delicious

 Dinner was wonderful.. we had lentil balls, dahl , curried okra and a wonderful potatoes and dill curry. On top of everything was fresh coriander chutney and three types of indian’pickles’.. Rashi and her mom showed up around 10- and we had a nice talk with them. 

Rashi and Anika

Pickled fresh Tumeric yum !

My pratha
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Okra

Make it hot !… Mixed pickles and coriander chutney.. yum !

Letil balls.

Isha’s plate

It’s now about 12:30 and I’m about to fall asleep . Today was a strange mix of happy and sad… I’m glad I came down. More tomorrow. Gnita all.. gnite Sam.

-me