Very busy day. I had calls starting mid morning.. but I managed to get out for a quick snowshoe.. it was Beautiful… and very cold.. below zero.. even Chai wouldn’t go out with me. I made it back just in time for my first call.. then stayed on the phone until about noon. I then took an extended lunch to go to Chris’s stone workshop to finish the Christmas project I was working on. Chris  and his wife Kim have been so generous with their time and talent helping me. My task today was to finish the setup for the sandblasting masking. It was mindless and careful work.. Sort of a working meditation .

The hardest part was peeling off the letters in a way that didn’t distory them too much. I liked handling my son’s name that many times.

Chris had baught soem new 120 grade carbide grit  and finer nozzel just for this project.. he had to suit up first to blow the 60 grade grit he normall uses on stone out of the tool.. The suit is pretty cool..  He looks like a deep see diver or soemthing.. It’s not bad at 10 degrees.. I can imagine it’s a bear to wear at 80.

Chris cleared the plumbing then he helped me get into the suit.. It was pretty cool.. Fresh air is blown into the hood while razer sharp grit is bouncing off everything around you… It’s amazing how fast this stuff cuts anything hard, rock, glass, steel.. but it’s pretty harmless to anything soft like rubber or skin..   ere I am taking my first tentative blasts..

I quickly got the hang of it and finished all the thingy’s in just a few minutes..  I couldn’t see that great inside the suit.  Judging by the color of the snow in this pictures, I think I had the grit turned up too high.

The ‘objects’ came out perfect.. nearly every one of them came out OK !
I don’t want to show them here, because some of them are going to be gifts.  So .. nah-nah-nah-na-goo-goo.

I got home from Chris’s with just 2 min to spare for my 2PM call. I spent the rest of the working day in calls.. Then headed off with Diane and Gabe to South Burlington for a Rushford’s appt.. I snuck in a  bit of xmas shopping then met up With Gabe as Diane went off to shop.   Gabe and I had some shopping errands too. First stop was Talent.. mostly just to ogle Hannah’s belly.. I’m betting that baby comes tomorrow !

Hannah’s folks were up from Austin.. so I had a good time talking to them. Her dad Mike and I overlapped at IBM for many years.. but miraculously never met.. (which is really weird considering all the folks we both knew)

I always like seeing the Sam presence in Hannah and Dave’s shop.. They’ve been such good friends to us.

From there Gabe and I did a bit more shopping then ended up at Bridge Street for dinner.. We saw a bunch of friends there… By the time dinner was over, though.. I was starting to feel pretty lousy (sore throat and fever.. again !). Diane had something like this lat last week.. ugh. You know, I think our bodies know the calendar… and are working through stuff even as our hearts and minds do..

I got home as fast as I could.. put on every sweater and vest I could find.. flopped down on the couch and covered up with a blanket.. (and I’m still there)..

As I lay there I was helping Gabe with is history homework/studying.. They are doing a unit on the Aztecs, Mayans and Inca’s and the Conquistadors.. Gabe was asking me about a bunch of Cortez related stuff (‘who was dona maria ?’, ‘what was the royal fifth ?’, who was quetzalcoatl ?’.. I said.. ‘there’s a great Neal Young song called ‘Cortez the Killer’ all about that. and started my horrible Neal Young Falsetto impersonation…

and….. a few minutes after that…
 

You’d have to know our stupid  Musicmatch program to know just how weird this was.. there are hundreds of stations.. most of them obscure. We were listening to one on ‘Guitar Gods’ . This particular Neal Young cut is pretty obscure.. it was from 1975.. and it was banned in Spain because it offended Franco..   Gabe thought that was pretty weird.. To me.. it was another amazing coincidence.

Cortez The Killer by Neil Young 1975  (listen here)
——–
He came dancing across the water
With his galleons and guns
Looking for the new world
In that palace in the sun.

On the shore lay Montezuma
With his coca leaves and pearls
In his halls he often wondered
With the secrets of the worlds.

And his subjects gathered ’round him
Like the leaves around a tree
In their clothes of many colors
For the angry gods to see.

And the women all were beautiful
And the men stood straight and strong
They offered life in sacrifice
So that others could go on.

Hate was just a legend
And war was never known
The people worked together
And they lifted many stones.

They carried them to the flatlands
And they died along the way
But they built up with their bare hands
What we still can’t do today.

And I know she’s living there
And she loves me to this day
I still can’t remember when
Or how I lost my way.

He came dancing across the water
Cortez, Cortez
What a killer.

Here’s an old  video of neal young playing he song.. he’s in his 60’s now.

OK.. all for today.. more tomorrow. Goodnight all. Goodnight Sam. thanks for the tunes.
-me