Not much time to write. We change our mind and decided to spend tonight here in Endicott .. That means that we need to leave before 6 tomorrow morning in order to get hom in time for our obligations tomorrow. We’ve had a great visit here in NY.. it’s the first time we’ve been here since Sam’s passing.. and that’s made it an emotional visit for me.   Last night Diane and I made a late night visit to Dave Linda and Andrea .. We had a really nice time sitting out on their candle lit patio..  We spent the time tlakign about Sam.. Andrea and Linda needed to do that.. and we love to talk about him… It was tearful and fun.. if you can imagine that.

Andrea, Me, Diane

Linda’s cool candle thing

Linda and Andrea

Their Sam ‘shrine’

We spent today just hanging out again. In a repeat of yesterday, Diane and Linda went for a longish bike ride and I went for a run. I found a loop that was just short of 6 miles.. which felt good. The hot sun fried my brain and I forgot to think on my run.. it was sort of a relief.

   The boys stayed here and hung out with their cousins and Andrea..   Lots of video games, basketball and swimming. Gabe managed to stick his foot inside of a water balloon.. Max gave us a musical serenade of ‘Hot Cross Buns’. While that was going on, What talent ! 

Gabe as ‘Balloon Foot Guy’

Diane and Linda took the dogs down to the river to place a  SamStone.

Dane and Linda

Chai and Colby

     Mid afternoon. Big Gabe. Andrea. Max and I went out on an errand to a local electronic store to find some components I needed…

Max with his eye on me

On the way we passed the old IBM sites.. Endicott was the home of IBM… but very little of it exists here now. Most of the old buildings are owned by other companies. It was somehow strange seeing those old IBM buildings with other companies logos on them.. I took the opportunity to grab a piece of the main building while I was there.. There’s so much IBM in me, I figure I deserve it.

The old main IBM building

The piece of the building I ‘borrowed’

   Shortly after we came home. David and Linda showed up.   David was in his scrubs.. He changed careers about 5 years ago. he’ been an electronics technician then decided he wanted to do soemthing more meanigful. He went back to nursing school and became an RN. He finds it fulling and exhausting. I’m really inspired by what he did.   As I mentioned Linda’s studying Reflexology.. and she practiced on me.. Felt great !

David checks out my heart.

We all had an early dinner.. then all went outside to play. We played about an hours worth of ‘capture the flag’.. a game the three boys, their cousins and I always played. Diane and Andrea joined us to round out our teams.. It was a hoot !.. The kids are so much faster than us old guys…  we kept having to remix the teams so we didn’t keep getting creamed. It was great !

Gabegrabs the flag

Trying to sneak around the house

Our flag hanging on the barn

Our flag hiding place (and where Sam used to play Guitar)

After capture the flag.. we did a little of our own flag flying.. A Cohn family specialty..

Monkey Max

Vincent does the flag

Diane gives it a try

Gabe does it

So does Max

So did I

When it got dark we all went in and packed… In the process, we found Chai camping out on Marcia’s bed… Chai !?!

We’re off tomorrow morning..  Sam… everyone here misses you …

-me

We’re down at Diane’s parents. Marcia and Gabe’s in Endicott NY.. just outside of Binghamton.

We got here around midnight last night and found our two nephews Victor and Vincent waiting up for us. It was nice getting off the road.  I  have to admit it was hard for me walking in the door without Sam with us. Diane, Gabe and I were last here when Sam was in Florida.. about 3 days before he died. The memories of that came back to me very hard.. I sat out on the stairs for awhile before coming in to go to sleep.  This house is full of pictures of Sam and our family.. I love it.

The kids made this poster for a play they did in 2000

Marcia just had these cups made

Here are the names of all the Mariano Grandkids as of early 1995. Susan was the name of the My brother- and Sister-in-law’s Steve and Denises baby that didn’t live

   This morning was bright and it felt very good being here. We’ve had a very relaxing day. Max and Gabe hung out with Victor and Vincent. Playing basketball and video games.. I always remember playing capture the flag with our three and their two boys.. . Diane went for a bike ride with here long time good friend Linda and I went for a run  up and over the hill that Gabe and Marcia live on. I used to do that run when Diane and I were just dating almost 25 years ago.. that damn hill has gotten quite a bit higher in that time  .

   Mid afternoon, Linda, her daughter Andrea, Victor, Vincent, Diane Max, Gabe, Chai  and I walked down the creek bed to a branch of the Susquehanna river that runs nearby We’ve always gone down there to skip rocks and look for fossils. Being there brought back so many great memories of the three kids and their cousins hanging out here.

Flowers down by the river

Sam was here !

We broke open ta rock and found fossils !

Max and Andrea

The culvert under the Highway

   Linda’s husband and our good friend David showed  up  we all  spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out in the pool, reading, talking, not-talking.   It was really relaxing.

Marcia

Gabe

Colby

Andrea

Linda

Sister-in-law Pat

Nephew Vincent

Nephew Victor

Brother-in-law Joe

Gabe as swamp monster

Linda and Diane

Linda is studying Reflexology and messed   around with Diane’s feet.. from what I could experience vicariously.. it felt pretty good .

I don’t think I could get anyone to touch my feet !

Around 5 Diane and I went out to get dinner. First stop was Chinese take-out.   I’d ben Jonesing all day for Tofu.. that’s what a vegan diet will do to you.. Next stop was Phil’s Chicken House.. a Mariano Family Tradition forever.   We all came back and gathered together to think of Sam  and wish Gabe and Marcia a happy 50^th anniversary.. then we dug in..

Aqua teen graffitti on the way to the resturant (Our kids love it.. Sam liked Meatwad)

   Right now we’re sitting outside in perfect weather… later tonight we’re going over to Linda and David’s … It doesn’t get any more laid back than this….

Sam.. we’re all thinking of you here… More tomorrow.

-jc

On the road again… I’m writing from the passenger seat as we drive down very scenic I 87 in the Adirondacks  of NY.

The four of us (+ Chai) are heading down to Diane’s folks in Endicott NY. Maria and Gabe’s 50^th anniversary is in a week or so.. my folks 50^th was in May.. big milestones !Last time we were down there was the weekend before Sam’s passing. Max hasn’t been there since  one of our college visiting trips in 2005.. It turns out that this weekend is the only weekend that the four of us are able to get away together this summer between camps, Max’s movie filming and my work travel. It’s remarkable to me how busy we are this summer given our emotional state.        On that front, last night and today have been pretty hard for me. The Fourth of July was always one of Sam’s favorite holidays… Actually, Sam loved all holidays.. Diane and I were talking about it last night.. he really lived every day like it was some sort of big holiday.. Last night, the rain let up enough for us to go down to Richmond to watch the fireworks…I was feeling a little low.. but the intensity of my reaction to the fireworks  surprised me.  broke down after the first couple of bursts .I lost it again during the finale. I’ve always had the tradition of hugging   each member of my family  at that point of the show.… It’s so strange how hard it is to predict my own reactions to things..

   I woke today in the same sensitive state…It’s a familiar pattern to me now.. kind of a backlash after any sort of celebration.. . Diane, Chai and I went for a run, then I got to sit in on Diane’s morning yoga class. Which was just what I needed… I broke down again during meditation… my emotions have been stronger these last two days then anytime since Sam’s birthday.    I think I’m a little worried about this visit to NY.. I know that I’ll be reliving many memories on this trip…

   The rest of the day passed pretty uneventfully… We did some house cleaning after the busy 4^th.. and packed for our trip. Gabe and I hung out for a few hours  and just goofed off. We spent some time playing on the trampoline which is really fun and a major workout.. I tried to see how high I could double bounce Gabe.. He’s  trying to help me get to a good back flip.. so far I’m too chicken to try.  When we got too hot we went and hung out in the pool.   I had the  weird idea to try and take some pictures underwater.. I put my camera in a couple of zip lock bags and  took it in the pool.. Iyt was pretty cool.. Here are some murky shots we got…

   Now we’re about an hour north of Albany.. We’re going to drop Max’s college friend Emma (aka Lydia, aka Mary, aka Otto) at the Albany bus station for her ride to NYC.   Emma’s been hanging out with us since Sunday.. it’s been good getting to know her.. It’s very cool to see how quickly she dropped into the the rest of Max’s friends.  The kids are in the back of the car playing Guitar Hero on the Van’s TV.. it’s fun to listen too.. They just tried some tongue tattoo’s .. wierd !

   OK.. I think I can get enough bandwidth to post on this stretch of highway.. Let me try..   More tomorrow.. Gnit’e all.. Sam.. we’ll be thinking of you ant Grandma and Grandpa’s

-jc

We had another pretty quiet day. My day began with a massage from Marci.. Diane had scheduled it for me a few weeks back after seeing some of my travel plans. She knew what all that airplane sitting does to me.. and decided to take the preemptive step of scheduling this massage for me. She’s such a  sweetie.

     On the way to Marci’s,  I had the opportunity to escort the mouse from 2 days ago blog posting out  of our house/ We’d caught the little guy I our have-a-hart trap. I wanted to make sure I released him across the river so he wasn’t likely to follow us back home. I released him at Marci’s with a small supply of food. He appeared grateful.. and told  me with his eyes that he had no plans to return to our house.

   After my massage/Reiki session (which was very wonderful) .. I went home and started in on assembling Gabe’s trampoline. He was due in around 5 today and we wanted the tramp set up fro Gabe to get the first bounce when he got home. As with  all things setting up the trampoline took lots longer than expected. There were tons of conflicting instructions, lots of extra strange shaped parts and an odd assortment of miss-sized components.. All you could ever hope for  in a days entertainment. In the end, Tim K and Max finished the last tie down just as we were picking Gabe up at the Airport.

max made a necklace out of blueberries here.

   Diane and I met at the airport around 5:15 to pick Gabe up, He’s been in Oregon since a week ago Monday. I missed him so, so, so much. He called at least once a day which helped. It was great seeing him walk out of the gate back in Burlington.    He seemed to have had a great time. We’ve been getting stories all night. It sounds like it was really wonderful  for him.  It was fun/sad hearing him describe some of the things that Sam saw there last year.

   As soon as he got off the plane, he wanted to go home and bounce.. He didn’t even go inside first.. up he went on the  trampoline.. It’s going to be really fun to have this thing. We all spent time getting the feel of it today.

Max left late afternoon to go in and watch the fireworks with his friends. Around 8PM, Diane, Gabe and I decided to go in as well. We drove in through Rt. 7 and parked in a skanky old parking lot near down town. It was an easy walk.  There were 10’s of thousands of folks down by the waterfront waiting on the fireworks.. We saw so many folks we knew. including Homer and Mary.

 Eventually we found Deb. Hannah and Jen and we settled in to watch the show. The fireworks were really great.. Of course, they made me think of Sam…

   After the show, we dawdled to let the traffic clear out then headed for home with a few overnight kid guests. Now its abut 1:30 and I can hardly keep my eyes open.. So Il’ll end here…  Happy Fourth everyone.. Happy birthday Sam… my firecracker …

-jc