I have to blog quickly tonight. Gabe and I are heading out for soem canoe camping tonight on an island in the Winooski. We’ve been trying to do it for the last couple of weeks.. and tonight looks like the perfect night.
   I took the day off today just to hang with Gabe and Diane. It was very layed back. We didn’t do much at all…  I got a massage at Marcie’s which was really nice and relaxing. When I got home the three of us  went up to Deb’s to meet with the Friends of Sam kids who’d just come back from their school supply shopping spree.

They rasied 922 dollars at last night’s event and used the money to purchase school supplies for kidsat CHMS  who have trouble getting all their supplies. It’s really, really inspiring to see these kids do this. The whole thing is their ideas and their effort. they find the causes, schedule and run the events and apply the funds. It’s a great experince for them and a great example for the rest of us..

After Deb’s the three of us went to Triple Buckets to go swimming.This was Diane’s first time there. It’s a beutiful place.. and a beutiful day. We walked up and down the shore looking for waterfalls. We found a nice 15-20 foot jump and jumped in a couple of times (ok.. me just once) … It was right across from the 45 foot jumpt that Sam used to do flip’s off of. Gabe’s even jumped it once. I think I’m going to need to build up to that one.

Gabe tossed a SamStone off it just for fun.

OK.. looks like it’s time to get out in the canoe. More pictures form camping later. Gnite all.. gnite Sam..

-me

OK..   now I need to make up for my short post yesterday. Lots to relate. Yesterday was an important milestone for all of us. We took Max back to Pratt to finish his freshman year.  We’d all worked pretty hard over the past few days to get everything worked out.. housing, registration, packing.. Max had the biggest job.. getting ready to be back out on his own. We’re all very proud of  him for jumping back in.. I know he’s  ready…  

 We got up yesterday around 6 to finish packing the car. We had decided to take the Prius. It took some doing, but we managed to get everything in. That Prius is an amazing car.  

The drive down to NYC was uneventful. Max slept the whole way and Diane and I talked peacefully.

As always.. the drive was easy until the last 20 miles..  which took an hour.   We got to Pratt around 1- ish.

The moment we got out of the car Max started running into old friends. It amazed me how connected he was considering the short 3 months he was there last year.   It felt good to be walking around  the campus. It’s such a cool and beautiful place.. The students there are all so into their craft. It’s a perfect place for Max.

Artwork everywhere !

Lots of trees and green spaces on campus.

Stabile hall.. where Max lives

We got him moved  into his dorm room ,104 Stabile Hall,  the same building as  last year. 

In room 104

An enterprising Stabile kid asks for help

We met his roommate Mankey who’s just moved here for Korea.. then we walked around with Max as he looked for more friends. It didn’t take us long before he found  his friends Dave, Chris, Ryan, and Tin. The last three guys are sharing a very cool dorm room which we got to see.

Tin’s shoe collection

They had a kaleidascope.. cool !

Best of all it was air conditioned !… it was like an oven on the streets.. over 90 and humid.. yuck.

We all went out to grab lunch at a Middle Eastern place on Myrtle St which is filled with restaurants from every part o the world. It was great seeing Max there with his friends

Chris., Tin, Max and Ryan

Around 5 we decided it was time to hit the road again.. Max walked us out to our car.. we all hugged.. and that was it.. I had been  worried about that moment for weeks… but  when it came, .. It felt really good. . I know that Max  going to love being back in school and is going to do well. It felt right.

 Saying goodbye

Max waves us goodbye.. 🙂

Diane and I started back on the long drive home.. We talked  and listened to the radio the whole way back. The second  of the two tearful moments for the day came for me as we listened to ‘this American Life’ around 9PM .  Ira Glass was doing a show on ‘break ups’. Somewhere in there he  played “Love Hurts” the song by Boudleaux Bryant.. Something about that song just hit me. reminded me of Sam.. reminded me of everything.. and I choked up

 Love hurts, love scars,
Love wounds, and marks,
Any heart, not tough,
Or strong, enough
To take a lot of pain,
Take a lot of pain
Love is like a cloud
Holds a lot of rain
Love hurts, ooh ooh love hurts

 
Glass played the version from Nazareth, but I’m partial to the version from Graham Parsons and Emmylou Harris on Grievous Angel.

The first tearful moment was when I saw Max go and say goodbye to Sam’s rock in our yard  . Love hurts.

 
OK.. so .. those two moments were really hard. yet the day  was very good. Life keeps moving somehow. We got home around 12 and went straight to sleep.

 
Diane woke up early this morning to head up to see her yoga friends at Lucy’s in Richford. I woke up totally alone in the house for the first time in…  actually.. I can’t remember. Diane was in Richford, Max was at Pratt, Gabe was at Dylan’s, Chai was at Jen’s and Sam…. Sam was everywhere around me.   I spent the morning puttering around the house, cleaning, doing laundry, fixing the computer… generally not doing much. My mind was peaceful .It was nice.. Gabe showed up around 11 with Dylan and Steve. They’d made shirts last night at Dylan’s.. Very cool

 

The three of us decided to tube up the Winooski. I drove the van up to the canoe access and biked back. The three of us grabbed tubes and jumped into the Winooski. The water was low and slow.. It took us two  hours to do the 1.5 miles to the canoe access By the time we got there we were f-r-e-e-z-i-n-g.  It was actually  nice being cold after yesterday’s heat.

We got home around 4.. around 5:30 we took off for the Friends of Sam event  at JDK. The FoS had organized a skateboarding night in the basement of JDK. Our good friend David (the ‘K’ in  ‘JDK’)  had offered the use of the skate park in JDK’s basement as part of the fundraiser.

JDK is a design firm that does high concept design for companies all over the world. You can tell that they’re very good at what they do. Their offices are a like a museum of design. Really beautiful !  There was artwork everywhere ..

David at his desk

Downstairs, there were about 80 kids there form 6 till 9 skating, eating pizza, drinking Red Bull  and bidding on hand made items in a silent auction.   It was great seeing all the stuff that folks had made in Sam’s honor. We had Sam shirts, buttons pins,. Artwork, shirts, jewelry.

Sumner made this shirt

Britteny’s artwork !

Jen made this cool mirror

We have a new batch of Samshirts.. More are available at Talent Skatepark !

Nate paineted his first guitar as an auction item.. Amazing !

Our friend Scooby and his friend (didn’t get his name… eeek) were DJ-ing with real vinyl they were truly excellent. The whole place was jumping. 

I don’t know how much they raised.. but I think it was a good night for the Friends of Sam.. I think they’re using the money to buy school supplies or some kids who can’t afford them.  

Hannah, Dave and Adah say goodbye

Jaki baught Sumner’s shirt

Gabe goes for the ring pops

JDK-ites

Kids out mingling

We’re so proud of these kids. Sam would be so proud.

-me

 Today was the calm before the storm.. no.. scratch that.. it was the storm before the calm.. I took the day off to help Max get ready for going back to Pratt.  I spent most of my day working on paperwork for health insurance financial aid, student loans and that kind of stuff. Just the stuff I try to avoid having to do at work.. yuck. For a guy that’s never balanced a check book, this stuff doesn’t come easy. It’s a wonder anyone gets to go to college withal the steps it takes.  Max and Diane ended up working the entire day on cleaning, sorting, packing all the stuff a kid needs to make a new nest elsewhere. At mid day the house looked like a tornado had passed through.

There were piles of things everywhere. Some going, some staying. Some undecided. Miraculously. All of it found a place by midnight.. the house is calm and quiet and the car is packed.

We leave tomorrow at 6AM.  It’s going to be so strange to take Max back to Pratt . But we all feel that it’s the right thing for him to do. I can tell that Max is psyched  to be going back . I admire his guts. I don’t think I could launch into something like that at this point in my life.

 

 

Aside for packing.. not much more to report..  I got a haircut today because I was begining to look too much like Santa.. 

Before

After

I also took a short break at midday to have lunch with my good friend Jolly who was visiting folks at IBM.

He and I went to grad school together. He’s such a great guy. I had intended to talk work during lunch.. but we mostly talked about life, families, Sam.. and more life. It was just what I needed today.. In the same.. just what we needed spirit, Jen and Tim knew we’d be stressing about getting Max ready  so they invited us up with Deb and Barry and kids for a quick delicious  dinner. We got there about an hour after their cat, Bob died of a heart attack.   That was pretty sad. Bob was a funny creature…. I’ll miss him. … At the same time, we got to meet their new cat Billy Jo, a tailless Manx cat.   Everywhere the circle of life…

 

 

Lots of goodbye-for-nows  today. We also had to say good bye to Eric who’s leaving to go to school in Switzerland this year.. ”

Eric, Shaun and Ralph

And we had to say goodbye to Max’s girlfriend Jessie.. who will be starting at SUNY Plattsburgh next week. Jessie’s become like a family member here… She was with us when we went down to FL after Sam’s accident.  It was really hard for me to say goodbye  to her.

 Jessie. her dad John. and sister Jacki

The final act for the day was for me to take Gabe over to Dylan’s where he’ll stay while were taking Max.   Max and Gabe  said a warm brotherly  goodbye  to each other.. It was good to see and hard to see. Then  I drove off with Gabe…  

 

All the brothers are looking out for each other.. all  the brothers.

 

G’nite folks.. g’nite Sam

-me

 Ps. There will be a Friends of Sam Fundraiser this Sunday nigth at JDK. Here’s the info :

I really tried hard  to shake my blues today. I had decided to shift my vacation around to maximize my time with the kids over the next few days. I was going to take next week off, but we take Max back to Pratt on Saturday and Gabe starts school on Wed.   I spent the first part of the day hanging out with Gabe and his friends Trevor, Paolo, Will and Dylan . Our friend Paulo had been trying to get us to go and swim in a granite quarry in Barre for the last few days This morning we all piled into two cars and made the 45 min drive out there.

 It was a really cool place. It had been abandoned for many years though some of the old cranes and scaffolding were still around. There were some great old walls that made it seem like a Mayan ruin.

The quarry  itself was full of beautifully clear, soft and cold rain/spring water.  Our first stop was a (I’m guessing) 35 foot sheer cliff. The kids were eyeing it s a possible jumping spot and I really freaked. I know I overdid it.. but I could let go of the worry of what might be hidden beneath that water.  Even though many folks had jumped off  there safely… I keep telling myself that I don’t want to live in fear since Sam died .. and I certainly don’t want to instill fear in my kids.. but I just couldn’t get beyond my gut instinct.   We wandered down the shore a bit and found a nice 10 -15 foot cliff. The kids had a great time jumping off of that.. I even gave it a try. It was a beautiful place.

Luckily, Diane had remembered to bring a few SamStones. Paolo fashioned a little boat out of some aluminum foil and we set one of the stones sailing out into the quarry.

 Paolo’s mom Patti took the other SamStone and swam across the quarry to the cliff on the opposite side She climbed up like a mountain goat and placed the stone on a ledge about 40  feet over the water… Brave woman !

 

We headed back around 3 to get Paolo and  Dylan to their respective sports practices.. The rest of the afternoon dragged a little bit.  Not much to do.. not nice enough to play outside. Around 6 Gabe. Trevor  and I had the idea to go to Pizza Put for Laser Tag. That was a total blast.

We played a quick round, during which both Gabe and Trevor trounced me.. e.g. Me 125 points, Gabe 1200, , Trevor 2500.   I thought it was a mixture ofmy gun  and beginners suck-age. .. Then we had dinner.

The food was good.. and begged to be played with. I made a car and a face out of my veggie plate. .One of the waiters came over and told us that they’d just had a veggie plate sculpting contest.. and he showed my a picture on his phone of the winning entry.. a small pond filled with  fish made out of cuke’s carrots. celery and ranch dressing… I think the idea of veggie art. is catching on

 

After dinner, the guys played a few arcade games.. and played with the crazy mirrors then I challenged them to a laser tag rematch..   I’m not a big ‘gun person’ but this game is awesome.. and this last time.. I actually was not that bad.

 

The day out with Gabe was really just wht I needed. I’m hoping to get some more time with Max tonight.. he still has lots of packing to do.. I’m hoping to help him out.  I have such mixed feelings about him leaving. I know it’s the right thing for him to do, though. I’m really proud of him…

 

OK.. I gotta get some sleep..   More tomorrow.   Gnite all.. gnite Sam.

-jc