Ahhhh… I’m lying down in Sam’s room after a really good day. Today was a million  times better than yesterday… or I should say I was million times better.. I guess the days are all the same. Yesterday was really tough for me..  Today I felt good, light and relatively carefree. This is another strange aspect of our new life. I never know what any day will bring until after its passed I never know how much energy or resiliency I’ll have… I’ve never had these kind of swings. I do see the positive in what I’m saying here.. having these swings means that I’m having some significantly good days.. and that’s real progress.

The approach of the six month anniversary of Sam’s passing had loomed pretty large in my head for a few weeks. The passing of the half year mark seemed somehow significant to me.. in the end.. there was nothing extraordinary  about the day   still it was hard.. Diane suggested that  these anniversary days.. and days like mother’s or fathers day are in one  way no different than every other day. There are good times and bad times in each… It’s just that other folks recognize those marker days and that how amplifies things…. Dunno…

    Anyway… today was splendidly unremarkable.. I had a big phone meeting with some of my superiors at work that had me pretty nervous and worked up yesterday… it went fine.. as it generally does.. Which reminds me of Sam’s questions to me about why I spent so much time working and worrying about work.. I guess the working is ok.. it’s the worrying about work that I don’t want to ramp back up to….  Here I am talking during the meeting..wearign my good luck light up headband..

   After work Diane and I went to meet our friends at the Inn at Essex. In the lobby, we spotted this sign.. At first I thought it was a calming drink.. the I realized it was a seminar. 

Max, Sam Jessie and Gabe joined us all  bit later at Tiny Thai in Essex for dinner. 

 Larry. Leah and Hannah who are up visiting from Pittsburgh . Larry and I went to grad school together… now he’s a big famous professor… Larry and his family have been coming up to see us for the last couple of years.. This is the first time we’ve seen them since Sam died.  They knew and loved Sam. Larry is a very open and spiritual guy.  We had a great time sharing experiences and thoughts about our own spiritual journey. He’s also knows everyone and everything about the folks in our industry.. so he’s a great source of corporate and academic gossip. I just love hanging out  with him and his family…

   Oh man.. it’s already past midnight.. I’ve got to get some sleep..  It’s nice being in your room again Sam…

-jc

   Today we left Steve and Denise’s for the trip back to Vermont. We jokingly called their house ‘little house on the prarie.. though they have neighbors on both sides, the next houses after that are about a half mile away.. All around them are green rolling hlls.. and I do mean.. that’s all that’s around them…

 

 

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And lots of these (not our relatives though)

 

 

 

 

 

    One thing I haven’t mentioned about Denise is that In keeping with the ‘Little Home’ theme, she’s a fabulous quilter. Before we left this morning we got a tout of just the stuff that was on the top of her and her mother Alice’s quilting pile. Evidently there was much more that we didn’t get to see. These pictures don’t do these things justice.. they are absolutely works of art.

 

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   We left Leavenworth about noon for the 45 minute drive to the airport. . Before we did, we planted a SamStone near the base of a newly planted tree…

 

 We got to the Kansas City Airport in plenty of time.. unfortunately our incoming plane had been delayed in Denver.. so we were going to miss our connection in Chicago.  Judging by the lines that sprung up, everyone else was going to miss their connection as well.   After three frustrating calls to the United phone service center  we inbally got our new flights squared way.. but not before we were sent over to another terminal to get on a Delta flight they had supposedly rebooked us on.. but eveidently failed to do so..

 

We sprinted back to our original terminal and made the later Chicago connection with only seconds to spare.. or so we thought. We ended up spending another 45 minutes waiting on the runway due to anticipated landing delays in Chicago.. Sheeeesh…   It’s never easy

   We’re now safely in the air again and headed to Burlignton. In the end we should get there only 3 hours late (I hope) .. .   Here I am on the plane frantically trying to catch up for all the IBM work I refused to do while I was traveling with my family (good for me.. I think/hope). I have a big meeting on Tuesday I’m just not prepared for.. but I really, really, really had a good vacation with my family..

 

 

 We’re eager to get home and see Scott, Mary and Chai.. and.. to be around Sam’s stuff. This trip has taken us to all four time zones in the continental US.. The four of us have really enjoyed being together and relaxing .. Of course we miss Sam like crazy . We’ve found ways of working him into our trip every day.. it’s a strange new life for us..

    Tomorrow marks the sixth month anniversary of Sam’s death.. It’s so hard to believe that it’s been a half a year already.. It literally seems like last week to me.. the memories are that sharp., If you’re reading this.. please mark the day by thinking of Sam.. thinking of us.. and really sending some love to your family and good friends. We’ll be doing the same..   

     On a related note…

 

Sam’s 15^th birthday would have been a week from tomorrow.. May 28^th.. that’s memorial Day. We’re going to mark his birthday with an Ultimate Frisbee Tournament in Volunteers Green in Richmond starting at Noon (5/28) .. followed by Ice cream, cake and of course, music. Please spread the word around ! Let us know if you’re available to play music !  

We love you all.. and we really love you Sam…

-me

ps. Gabe lost a tooth on the plane !

 

 We had a very peaceful day.  We woke late at Diane’s brother Steve and his wife Denise’s house. .Our nephew Michael had showed up sometime in the night.. so it was food catching up with him.  After a breakfast of cold pizza, Steve and I went out for a 5 mile run on the back country roads  Whoever told me that Kansas was flat was lying.. It was great talking with Steve. it helped slow him down so I could keep up and it was fun getting his views on stuff. Steve retired from the army after 28 years. It was fun doing the compare and contrast between our employers.   On our run  we had the ‘kids today’ talk… and the ‘George Bush’  and ‘Iraq‘ talks..  Our views are surprisingly similar given how different our backgrounds are..

    Steve is also an avid history buff.. World History, US History .. and even his family history. He showed us the most amazing family history he’s been working on. . He’s done a tremendous amount of research on old ship’s manifests, pension records and travel documents to trace both of his and Diane’s parents lines back in time.

Here are Diane’s granparents passports from Italy. Her grandfather had already been living in the US when his first wife died. He went back to italy to pick up Diane’s grandmother Piearina

 

Here they are as they boarded the boat to America

Here’s Constantine as an older man

Diane’s Grandmother , Pierina is in the center of this picture.. I’ always thought she looks very much like Diane ..

 

These family histories are even more important to me since Sam’s passing. Itss”s so important for us to capture these memories. My dad has also put together a family history . It’s a great read.  I think I’ll try to link all of these documents from Sam’s website.

 Steve managed to  pull a Mark Twain and convinced Gabe to cut the back 40 with his tractor… Gabe loved it.  

While he played farmer, Elizabeth took Diane and me on an explore of nearby Leavenworth knasas. Leavenworth is best known as the site of a large federal and military penitentiary…   In the mid 1800’s it was an important way point on the way west. Lewis and Clark came through here on their trip through.  We walked down to the River Shore of the Kansas river where large riverboats used to land… There was serious flooding here a few weeks back and the site has been pretty messed up. Here’s a swimming pier that was ripped up

And here I am ankle deep in the residual mud

 

Around 3:30 we all piled into cars and drove to a nice Italian restaurant to celebrate Elizabeth‘s graduation. Very nice…

 
Once we got home, our niece Stephainie showed up with her Italian greyhound   Zoey.. that made 6 dogs– 3 Italian greyhounds (Ziggy , Calvin and Hobbes,) and two German shorthairs : (Bones  and Zena )

 Four goats: (Pippy, Julie. Angel, and Sarah),

A chinchilla (Stitch),

two turtles: (Turtleman and Gamera)

Six hens (White, Black, Brown.. etc)  and one rooster: (Beak)

Approx 750,000 bees (mary1, mary2, mary3……maryN),

It was a bit like a zoo !

We spent the end of the day sitting outside watching the sun set, the moon appear and listening to the frogs come out..

  A perfect day in Middle America.  We felt you here Sam.

-jc

Before I start, I have a confession to make.. I’ve had too much mead to write coherently.. .. I know the expression ‘too much mead’ hasn’t been uttered much in the last millennium , but I’m at my brother in law Steve’s in Leavenworth, Kansas.. Steve is, among many other things, a very accomplished  mead brewer. He raises honey..

and basically useses a fair portion of it to make the world’s oldest alcoholic beverage.. yum. After two bottles of this it’s likely to add a little grog to the blog ..

    We’re here  in Kansas to celebrate the graduation of our niece Elizabeth from nursing school. Elizabeth graduated with honors for her nursing program in Topeka and will soon start working in Framingham Mass.. only a few miles from where my folks live.

      After a last late night walk around San Diego Bay we wet to bed early last night.

We had to leave very early this morning. We had to get up at 4:00 AM ..(ugh) to make our flight

The plane to Denver was full, I had a middle seat.. and was sitting next to a baby…

even so, I was on the plane for about 5 minutes before I fell asleep. It was an uneventful flight..  When we were pulling our stuff together to get off the plane, I looked around for Sam.. It’s always like that..

    We had a three hour layover in Denver then got to Kansas about 3:00 PM. Then drove about an hour to Steve and Denise’s . It’s great being here.. The last time we were here was about 9 years ago.  We had about an hour’s drive to get to Elizabeth‘s graduation ceremony. Before we left, we had a quick dinner of pizza with  Steve’s home grown hot peppers..   Just after I ate I walked around the house looking at all of the pictures they had of Diane, Max, Sam, Gabe and I.. some of the pictures were new to me., and they hit me hard.

As I reached o rub the tears out of my eyes I realized too late that my hands  were all covered with hot peppers.. Yow !. My eyes were on fire.. but it turned my tears into laughter.. Sam never lets us take ourselves too seriously… 

   We got in the car and drove about an hour more to get to Topeka to see Elizabeth‘s ceremony which was in an Episcopal Church associate with  the  hospital in which she trained.  We’re so proud of her..  I have so much respect for folks like nurses and doctors who devote their lives to helping other people. Could I do that ?

   We watched  the graduation ceremony. Then drove back to Leavenworth and started to hit the mead…

   Its now almost midnight and I need to sleep.. more tomorrow..(he says afte fallign alseep typing for 30 mintues) waitng for picture sot upload over mey clelphone)  Looks like I don’t have the bandwith i need to upload all my pictures.. I may need to do that tomorow.. G’nite Sam..

-jc