I have to admit that there are some nights when I’m tempted to go to bed before blogging.   I’m struggling to stay awake. Diane and I just came back from the big celebration dinner at the CTRE conference. We had  a good .low key day. We woke up early and got out for a run by 6AM. I dropped Diane by a fitness/yoga place for an early morning yoga class while I ran back for my 7AM breakfast meeting.

   The meting was a collection of all the IBM fellows  who were attending the conference.. there were about 50 of the 65 of us there for breakfast. It’s fun to get together like this occasionally to swap stories, exchange views and generally scheme. One thing I learned today is that one of my hero’s Bob D. has been working at IBM for 49 years.. longer than I’ve been alive… and what’s more, he’s still a major, major technical contributor.. Now that’s inspiring. !

   From there I met Diane and we went to the conference’s morning session.  There were three guest lectures at today’s sessions. The first was Jean-Michel Cousteau.. son of Jacques Cousteau, who is also a world famous oceanographer and film maker. He gave a terrifically inspiring talk on the state of the worlds water. He spent most of the time discussing his latest project of exploring the Amazon river and it’s tributaries. He had so much passin for what he did.. and his motives were so pure.. it was a great inspiration. He quoted his dad as having said.. ‘People protect what they love’  ,,, The sole purpose of all the film making they do is get people to fall in love with the worlds oceans and the creatures and plants in them.. I can tell you it worked for me this morning.. the wale movies he shot were amazing.   Cousteau  also said that you must win someone’s heart.. over to an idea then theit  mind will follow. If you try to win their minds first, it will never work..

    After Cousteau, we heard a talk from Prof. George Smoot, the co-winner of the 3006 Nobel Prizze in physics. He gave a fabulous talk on the search for dark matter energy in the universe, it’s distribution in space.. and the importance of these findings on validating the big bang theory and the universes projected future. It was so cool.. What was  also very interesting for me is that  Smoot, an MIT grad is the cousin of Oliver Smoot, the onetime MIT undergraduate who measured the Harvard Mass Ave bridge by lying end to end across the bridge/. To discover that the bridge was 364.4 smoots plus one ear. The funny thing is that Oliver parlayed this stunt into a job with the international Standards Organization SA.. He was actually  the head of ISO  for several years.

   After Smoot we were treated to a concert by ‘The Five Browns’ , 5 20 something Julliard educated siblings who play 5 identical Steinways together.. I cannot describe the richness of the sound.. or the absolute precision they demonstrated. It was great watching them play.. and listening to them talk.. they were really normal kids. They did a memorable cover of Gershwin’s ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ on five pianos.. how cool is that ?!

   After the Browns the session ended and we met up with the boys.. They’d just woken up … We all got our suits on and drove down to Coronado  beach.. it was an overcast day.. and half way between warm and cold.. Gabe and I messed around on the skim board some more.. I think I actually started to get it !. Gabe is getting quite good. We came up with a cool variation where I pulled Gabe along the beach as fast as I could while running. It was a very cool ride. When we were getting pretty cold, Max, Gabe and I walked out into the pacific and did some wave taunting. When we found the right wave.. the Kahuna… we tossed a SamStone through it.. It felt good. We were freezing at that point so we drove back to the hotel and got in the hot tub.

   At about 6 Diane went down for her Spa treatment.. part of th perks of this meeting.. and I went off to a work meeting.. We met back up around 6:30 to go to the big dinner.

The boys took off in the city to find dinner and fun/mischief.   Later they told us that they went into a restaurant and Max posed as Gabe’s agent/photographer. They tld the folks in that worked in the restaurant that Gabe was a famous skateboarder from the east.. The maitre-de  actually asked for Gabe’s autograph.. pretty funny !

   Our dinner was really nice.. again, I wasn’t feeling as social as I usually am. Rather than trying to ‘work’ the room as I would have done in the past, we basically stood stil land talked ot folks who unwittingly wandered in to our reach . It was very nice. there were nearly 1000 folks at this dinner.. Can you imagine making that work out for the food ? Diane and I were assigned ot host one of the tables. our table was all folks from the hardware division.. so we had some things in common.. We started talking about work.. ok I  started talking about work.. but the spouses directs s away.. we then talked about where we lived, interest.. and , of course, kids.. As always this brings up the question.. ‘how many kids do you have’… As always I answer 3.. then explain about Sam’s passing. It’s always hard to get through the story.. Folks are always receptive and responsive when we do. We gave out quite a few SamStones this evening..

    We finished the evening with a nice long quite talk with my friends Kevin and Betsy.. a good end to a good day. Diane and I went back up stairs to find the kids back home.. We’re having a great time out here. I’m so glad the boys came.. Sam, you’re so here with us too.. Tomorrow’s a complete vacation day.. nothing planned. Should be a treat.. Gnight all.

-jc

 

I woke up this morning and stepped out of bed almost stepping on Gabe who’d fallen asleep on the floor next to our bed

 

Diane and I took a great longish run along the boardwalk It was quite and beautiful this morning. We got back and went to the opening session of the IBM Corporate Technical Recognition Event. (CTRE).. CTRE is an absolutely fantastic party that IBM throughs every year for folks who have made a significant contribution to IBM in the past year. There are always great speakers, scientists, politicians, artists, explores. This morning’s speaker was Corporal xxx, the first woman to pilot a shuttle mention. She was both humble and inspiring. She showed some great pictures of the earth that she took from space.  It really put things in to perspective. In addition to great performers and speakers, there’s lots of great food. Someone said this morning that CTRE actually stands for ‘Cuisine That’s Really Excellent.’ The centerpiece of the meeting this morning was the naming of 6 new IBM Fellows.by IBM Chairman, Sam Palmisano. That was me up there  last year,,  seems like a lifetime ago. It’s really fun to watch  this from the cheap seats.

 

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After the formal session this morning, the 600 or so attendees broke into small groups to go participate in recreation events all around the area. Some folks went to paint watercolors on the beach, some went kayaking, other’s went hiking. Tomorrow Diane is getting a Spa treatment.  The events are only open to adults.. so the four of us  opted out today and went to the San Diego Wild Animal Park.. It was a great choice The place is huge.. with tons of cool animals to see close up.. It was a beautiful day and we spent 5 hours there wandering around checking out gorillas, meerkats, lions, elephants, giraffes, and several hundred random brown deer like things with exotic names. It was a wonderful day. 

 

The four of us had a great day together Sam was very much there with us two.. We placed a SamStone next to some beautiful gibbons.. Sam was always a monkey at heart.

 I noticed something really amazing yesterday and today every time I thought of Sam.. In the past, every time I think of him, I feel it strongly in my heart .. by that I mean I feel a warm tightness  near the midline of my body, near my heart. In eastern practices, this would be my heart chakra. The last  two days I noticed that same feeling plus a tightness in my throat. That would be my throat  chakra, the one associate  with speech. Diane and I talked about this.. it feels  like I need to talk more about Sam.. Interesting that this would start happening while I’m at a meeting  with good friends from all over the world.   I will do what  I need to make sure I honor that message.

    Anyway.. we left the wildlife park and drove to La Jolla beach. Gabe wanted to scope it out for skim boarding and/or skateboarding. Of course there were ‘no skateboarding’  signs posted everywhere.. but Gabe told me his philosophy is  “you can do whatever you want until someone tells you  that you can’t”.. Good words to live by…

 

While we ddn’t find the right beach, we did find a big pod (bevy? , herd ? , flock ? ) of harbor seals.. they were so cute.. they reminded me of Chai !

 

From there we went back to the hotel and walked out for dinner at a nice fish place..  We orderd raw clams in honor of Sam.. he loved to eat weird and slimy things. We each ate one.. then tossed one of them into the bay .. You’re always with us Sam…

-jc

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Long, long day.. we finished packing about 2 AM last night which gave us 3 hours of sleep before we had to wake up for our plane. Scott graciously offered to drive us to the airport.. none of us were too wide awake..

   The flight from Burlington to Chicago was uneventful.   It was good having all four of us traveling together..

We got to Chicago around 9:30   which gave us  little more than an hour to wander around O’Hare.. I’m always in such a hurry when I go through their that I never take the time to look around. There’s some cool stuff

    The trip from Chicago to San Diego  went very quickly for me since I slept nearly the whole way. While I slept, Gabe kept busy with my camera..   Some pretty weird stuff.

 We got in to San Diego about noon, rented a car and headed for the hotel. As soon as we had dropped our bag, we headed to a nearby restaurant for a quick bite.

After lunch, Max was so sleep deprived that he opted to stay in the hotel  and sleep while Gabe, Diane and I headed for the beach..   We headed over the Coronado bridge and drove to Coronado beach.. Believe it or not, it was almost deserted. Gabe and I went to a small surf shop ad bought a skim board while Diane slept off some of her jet lag.

   Gabe tried to teach me to skimboard with minimal success. His own mastery of the sport improved 100 times just today… By the end of the day he was skimming and.. he made it look easy.  When we were tired of skimming, Gabe and I headed out into the frigid water to dodge the waves. Gabe had to keep reminding me that I loved  cold water… my teeth were chattering after about 15 minutes.

     We were freezing as we drove back to the hotel. I had to stand in the hot shower for 10 minutes to chase the chill. The boys went out for an explore while Diane and I got dressed for the IBM CTRE dinner    … The dinner was out by the pool and very casual, As always with these things, I saw many, many folks that I know from all over the company.

Many folks came by to talk about Sam and tell us where they’d put their SamStones. I have to admit that I wasn’t feeling very social tonight.. I didn’t run around talking to everyone. I was content to stand pretty still and see who came by. We didn’t eat or drink much.. and drifted back up to the room around 10. The guys were here half asleep and watching TV.. they looked pretty peaceful.. Now it’s time for us all to get some sleep.. I’ll give more details of the meeting tomorrow.

G’nite everyone.. g’nite Sam..

 

-me

 

 

 

Mother’s day.. We had all been thinking about this day for months… dreading it even .  As it turned out, it was a fine day. There were tears, sure.. but there are tears every day. Diane and I talked about how the anticipation before an event like today often seems to be worse than the event itself. Diane was well cared for today… everyone who knows her knows that she is a wonderful mother.. and a wonderful person.. for the  last several days she’s been getting cards, calls, visits and packages from friends all over the place sending her love and support.. it helped so much.

    We began our day with a big crepe breakfast. 

We lit the candle we always light to invite Sam into family celebrations and dug in.

The hats in this picture came from   Scott and Mary who found them in an abandoned Chinese themed amusement park in Florida this week. 

     Just as we were finishing breakfast Avery showed up. Followed soon by Nate, Hannah, Ian, Matt, and Sumner. The kids had come up with a plan to visit Diane around lunchtime… our breakfast time… They even brought lunch with them.. It was a really nice surprise for Diane.   Gabe then lead Diane and the rest of us up to the bell tower. He told Diane that her traditional Mother’s day flowers were up there.. When she got up there, there were just two little potted flowers.. Gabe then told her to look out the window.. Gabe  had arranged all the annuals we’d bought  yesterday into a heart on the front lawn.. Here’s what it looked like from 55 feet up …

  Max made Diane a very cool rainbow prism which hangs on a lien covered with beads in the color of the Chakra’s. I welded her three small birds that spell out ‘MOM’ . 

    The rest of the day was really laid back.. lots of friends came by to give Diane a hug and hang out with us.. it was great having so many folks filtering in and out.

Norine’s came by after her studendts piano recital. It was deadicated to Sam.. here’s soem fo the cake..

 

Diane got some time in the garden which was her wish for the day. We all spent most of the day outside which was wonderful.

Around 7:30 we all went up to the Townsends for Hannah and Matt’s 15^th birthday..   We stopped at Bolton to get Ralhps hat.. there’s still snow up there !

Dinne at the Towwnsends was great ! Yet another party !.. Deb had made some hand filled cannoli’s in lieu of a birthday cake.. yum !

   Around 10 Gabe, Max, Scott and Mary went off to see Spiderman.. while Diane and I zoomed home to begin frantically packing for our trip tomorrow. The four of us are going  to an IBM thingy in San Diego for several days. It’s not usually for kids.. but we all wanted to stuck together.. and IBM’s been really accommodating. After San Diego we’re stopping in Kansas to see our niece Elizabeth graduate from nursing school. Scott and Mary are going to stay here and look after Chai…

Well.. we have to wake up in 4 hours… so I better pretend to get some sleep.. Happy Mother’s day to all you mother’s out there. Hug those kids tightly.. And thanks to all of you who have been sending Diane love  for the last couple of days.. it really, really helped.

I love you Diane Mariano.. you are such a wonderful Mom…   This pictures from a mtoehr/so dance several years ago..  I love both of those smiles !

 

-jc

Happy Mohter’s day also to my mom, Judy and Diane’s mom Marcia 

Ps. Being outside today was very healing for us.. it always is. Wise friend Homer turned me on to this poem  by  Wendell Berry on the subject of the peace we get when outside.. I really love it.. here it is..

 
The Peace of Wild Things

When despair grows in me
and I wake in the middle of the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting for their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.