I know that I must be sending out powerful waves about my emotional state right now. .   not just through this blog or my conversations.. but through the ether somehow. Just as my tank gets low.. folks show up to fill it back up.   Friends have been calling and emailing me throughout the last few days with friendly encouragement and support. Today I was thinking about contacting a friend  in IBM HR to talk about how I keep from screwing up IBM while I’m not working at my best.. No sooner did I think of her name.. than she calls me on the phone.. What’s strange is we’ve never spoken by phone directly before.. it’s too strange even to call it a coincidence…  It’s pretty cool..

Midday I had to run home to pick up some visa pictures from Diane. On the way I stopped by Crate Escape to say ‘Hi’ to Chai who was spending the day there for some play time. As soon as I walked near the enterance the whole place exploded into barking. I could hear Chain thinking ‘Dad.. do you have to embarrass me like this ? )

Not too much else to relate about today.. I was somewhat productive.. but in a stuck in first gear sort of way.. Lots of effort.. small forward progress.   The high point of the day was an after work meeting of VOMIT (Vermont‘s Own M. I. T. club) at Good Times Café in Hinesburg. What a great place to eat !. It was great seeing the VOMIT crowd.. I haven’t seen them since Sam’s passing. It’s such a fun and eclectic group.. I love working with them.

One thing we discussed was next years MIT Teacher Scholarship. Every year we send one deserving Vermont Math or Science teacher to SEPT summer camp at MIT.. it’s a great program.  .. so please let me know if you know of a very deserving Math/Science high school teacher we should consider.

One other thing I got done today was to make reservations with United to use frequent flier miles to  take Diane and Gabe with me to India on a trip I need to take in October.. Our plan is to stay in Bangalore for a week then take vacation in Kerala on the sooth coast (Any recommendations from folks who’ve been there ?) The only routing we could find was Burlington -> Chicago->LA -> Singapore -> Bangalore -> Kochi -> Bangalore -> Frankfort -> Washing SC -> BTV.. so we’ll literally be going around the globe.

It will be a Loooong trip.. but I’m looking forward to the together time.. Gabe and Diane are excited too.  It will be very interesting..

I’ll end with a wonderful movie that Max just sent us for our Anniversary.. I love it… I love that boy.

G’nite  al.. g’nite Sam

 -me

ps. Thought folks would enjoy a look at the mutant tomato we plucked from the garden yesterday.

I’m strugglign to keep awake now. We just got home after being stranded twice when our car tried to commit elecrical hari kari…   Occasonally our Prius goes into ‘short out the auxillery battery mode’ and drans itself down to the point it needs a jump start . Even though it has tons of stored energy in the main battery One time I was able to re boot the car with some flashlight battiers. No joke. Is that cool.. or is that wierd..? never sure.
 Today was rough.. first day back after vacation.. I was really struggling to folllow everything that was being said in all the meetings I attended. I realized by the end of the day that I’d let everyting slide.. All my good intentions of working through problems, delegating, bridge building , etc. fell by the way side. I dirfted rather than moved in a directed path.. I call this ‘Intention Deficit Disorder’  Tomorrow I will be better… or at least that’s my intent : -)
   This evening I picked up Gabe and Diane at home and we went out for a delicious Sushi dinner.   We always order a 4th miso soup for Sam.. What made it especially nice was that I was able to find the SamStone I’d stashed in the resturant last winter . He’s everywhere !..

The evening got much more interesting when the car wouldn’t start. again..  This time we called our insurance road side service and got a jump.  It’s really never a dull moment around here.. is it Sam ?

-me

Nothing laborious about today.. we had a really fun and laid back day. Diane got up early and took Chai for a walk with Jen and Martha. I slept in for a bit. When I got up, my Dad and I went in to On The Rise and got some yummy breakfast food.  It was a good call because there were at least 4 kids sleeping in various parts of the house. After breakfast,   my folks, Diane, Chai and I headed out for a short hike along the Rivershore trail. 

Dad limbering up for the hike (note the house moving)

As we started down the trail, we were amazed to find the hot air balloon we launched at last night’s party lying right next to the trail in the woods. It was the almost a miracle that the balloon would have blown that far from our house and managed to land, unhurt , through the thick trees and land neatly by our trail. It was in perfect shape and ready to fly again.. Sometimes the word coincidence just doesn’t seem adequate.

After that hike, we had a quick bite and my folks packed up and headed back to Boston. It was really nice having them up here for my Mom’s birthday.. It’s nice having both sets of parents in driving distance.

Jen and Coco even brought my Mom by some birthday presents !

 After my folks took off, Diane and I got on our bikes (first time this year.. believe it or not) and headed down Duxbury Rd a ways.. It’s clearly different muscles than running or Yoga.  When we got back.  The  very cool snowboarder whirligig that Homer made for us was spinning I’d put it up yesterday. … It’s an amazing feat of art and engineering. If you haven’t seen it yet.. come by.

By that point, Gabe had headed over to Triple Buckets swimming hole on the Huntington with Dylan, Stave and families.. so Diane Chai and I jogged  up there and joined them…in the water. Chai was swimming up and down the river the whole time we were there .

We walked back in time for Diane’s 6PM yoga class… Followed by about a half an hour of jumping on the trampoline.. What an active day..  I’m BEAT !!.. (And so is Chai).

We closed the day out with some recreational spray painting (Gabe got my foot),

a round of Uno and a game of Blokus.. a game for 4 people. We played with 3…   Another reminder of our very different lives now..  Oh Sam…

Hope everyone had a good long weekend.. now back to work/school for all of us…  Have a great week

-me

Another beautiful day. It was nice having my folks up here with us… especially because today is my Mom (and my Brother’s ) birthday.. Gabe was having fun with spray paint this morning and did a cool decorating job on his skateboard helmet.

I spent the morning wrestling with a bad computer virus on our upstairs computer. (I think I won.. but I won’t be sure  for a few days) Around midday my folks, Diane, Chai and I drove up to Honey Hollow for a hike. The same one as yesterday, but this time in reverse. It was nice being outside with my folks.  We had a nice picnic up there overlooking Preston brook. 

We got back mid afternoon and kinda laid low until folks started showing up for the pot luck. We had a good crowd tonight. The food theme was ‘end of summer harvest’ so we had lots of, good veggie dishes.

There were lots of kids on the tramp and playing guitar. It was very nice seeing everyone even though I’d been feeling pretty low and not all that social. I think my parents enjoyed seeing/meeting  everyone too. After dinner we had a birthday cake for my Mom….

After cake we all started making SamStones. With all the hands we were able to go through another 2 bags of clay which is several hundred stones.   We’ve given out more than 2000 at this point.

I’m starting to get more reports of people finding them.. nearly one a day. Today someone found one in Netherlands.. probably from my friend Leon. Maybe this week I’ll share  some of the stories of found SamStones.

 Right now.. I’m off to sleep. Happy birthday Mom and Billy.. I love you both.. gnite everyone. Gnite Sam

-me