What a beautiful day… I  managed to stay outside nearly the entire day. I began the morning by starting the long process of getting the pool  ready.. As I sat there elbows deep in the icy water, it was hard to believe that in a few short weeks kids would be splashing around in the pool. Diane bought a a new sand filter.. and I spend many hours staring ant the users manual trying to figure out which hose led where and why. I think  I’m happiest when I’m halfway through a complicated project like that.   

   As we worked on the pool , Jen and Deb stacked carloads of junque on tables in our front yard as part of the town wide garage sale.. I’m proud to say that I did not buy a single thing today..  

    There was a steady stream of people coming through the house today.. some came to tell Diane that they were thinking of her as mother’s day approached.. others came to kibbutz at the garage sale.. and still others came to play music.. there were several bands practicing in the barn.. while various groupies, roadies and other hanger’s on  played video games, hung out on the steps, cooked, etc. I absolutely love that our house has become a music destination for everyone.. it makes the place so alive.. what’s even better is that all the bands that are currently using the place are really good. Black Night Vengeance had a live gig tonight at the Oddfellows hall  in Burlington. Max is there.. I can’t wait to hear how it went.  Here’s Nate playing Sam’s guitar.

    At late morning, Max, Gabe and I ran a pre-mother’s day errand at the nursery.. it was fun doing this yearly ritual.. though we really missed Sam.. I felt him right there with us.

As soon as we were back from the nursery we had to leave for Lacrosse.. a bunch of the kids around the house decided  to go with us.. we all piled into two cars and headed for Essex.   Gabe’s team won one, lost one and tied one. Gabe had a good day.. he scored 4 goals.. he looked like he was having fun out there . I had fun doing absolutely nothing lying there in the gorgeous sunshine.. what a life.

Marie

Here’s Ian

Trevor

Matt

Nate

   I came home just a bit early to finish up the pool. I had ot let some glue joints dry so I helped Marie paractice for her chemestry class project on Monday using Liguid nitrogen,

After that, I started working on a mothers day project for Diane.. Welding is one of the most therapeutic activities I know of.. by the time I was finished I was completely relaxed..  The kids were all off at friends so Diane and I had a quiet Indian dinner by ourselves..    

    Diane reminded me that we had to check our genetic results online. Last fall we both gave cheek cell samples as part of the Genographic project which National Geographic  and IBM are cosponsoring. We typed in the serial numbers of each of our kits. Diane’s analysis had been run on her mitochondrial DNA  which shows her maternal genetic line through history  (women can do either nuclear of mitochondrial DNA, men can just do nuclear). Her data showed that she was of haplogroup U which makes up about 10 % of people in southern Europe and the mideast  as well as some groups in Scandinavia.   It’s also very high in the ‘Roma’ or gypsy groups.. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplogroup_U_(mtDNA))   This is pretty interesting becaue Diane’s mother’s family is German/English from all anyone knows..  I think Diane’s mom Marcia is going to find this pretty interesting !  Here’s a map of Diane’s female ancestors.

 
    I was haplogroup J2.. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y-chromosomal_Aaron)  which is a common marker among Ashkenazik Jews like me. In fact,  I read that the J haplogroup is one of the markers of the Cohanim.. the Jewish High priest caste.. and the source of my last name.. Cohn == Cohen = Priest in Hebrew..   What this tet says is that my name does in fact come from my family caste over 5000 years ago.. pretty cool, no ?  Here’s my map.. and a short part of my gene map

   Yikes.. it’s late. I need to go get my sleep. I’ve promised to be Diane’s gardening slave tomorrow in honor of mother’s day.. Oh Mother’s day.. this is going to be bittersweet..    Please send Diane your love tomorrow.. it really helps.. Sam, we’ll be thinking of you !

-dad

 ps. for those of you who might be interested. this blog just had it’s 50,000th viewing this evening.

I took it very easy today. I had to to take my car in for servicing .. so I drove to the Toyota place an took my early meeting’s outside in the sun while my car was getting it’s manicure.. It was pretty peaceful working up in the small grassy plot above the car dealership.. no-one knew where I was.. it was quiet., the sun was shining.. work should always be like this. When  my car was ready to go , I went to the window to pay  and the woman their asked me if I knew Sam. She asked because of the Sam pin I was wearing. I told her I was Sam’s father.. and she told me all of the connections she had  to Sam. This happens to me all the time.. everywhere I go, people know Sam’s story.. I like seeing that.

    I had a lunch meeting with Julie, my time management coach…even as  don’t laugh.. I am a million times better about time management now than before I began working with her. .I was telling Julie how hard I was working trying to come up with ‘my next plan’.. ie/ what’s my plan for directing my life after the lessons I’ve learned from Sam’s passing. Her questions  lead me to one of those ah-ha moments when I realized  that it isn’t necessarily about ‘working hard’ .. it’s about being open to the inspiration which will come after putting your intentions out there in the world.. Dian has been saying this to me in a loving way for months.. I’ve been trying to really hear that… but what I think sunk in today was that it’s really OK for me to take it easy and wait for inspiration that will come.. rather than  felling guilty that I’m not being more productive more directed  now. I’ve been working my tail off for nearly 30 years so I have come to associate leisure or rest or ‘taking it easy’  with guilt and laziness .    I thin I just understood that that was stupid.. or certainly stupid right now.. I always remember one really memorable conversation with Sam where he was really trying to understand why I felt I needed to always work so hard. I know this sounds   I think Sam’s message really sunk in today.. I even wrote it on my ‘Palm pilot’

 

      After lunch I went and picked up some Liquid nitrogen at Huan welding for a friend’s science project.. then I met my friends Paul and Mark at Mexacali for a work meeting and a beer.. Now that’s a good workday

.. After that meeting I headed out to Homers to play with the new robot router.. It’s so very cool. Homer was using it to cut out lettering I plastic. I

t was amazing to watch it work. We plan to reinforce the table and then give it to MMU for use in the wood shop. It’s so cool to watch it run . I think the kids at school are really going to love it.

    By the time I got home, Sam’s old band, Black Night Vengeance was at the house practicing.. Aren’t they just lovely lads…

   Shortly after  that m  Diane and I headed over to Sumner’s to pick up  a passel  of kids to take them to see Spiderman.. It’s a longggggggggggggg movie.. and pretty good. It got a little confusing.. but during the confusing parts, I thought of Sam..

    Right now.. I’m thinking of going to sleep. G’nite all !

 

-jc

 

 

I got an early start today.. I had an early-for-me 8AM meeting.. so I went out for a run around 6:30. I noticed the ferns along the river shore trail had grown about 6 inches since yesterday. The woods are exploding with life. I could help but be lifted by it As always, I stopped at my midway point to say ‘hi’ to Sam and draw his name in the mud.. Today I found a cute slug on the ground that kindly offered to form the crossbar on the letter ‘A’ in Sam’s name…  

    Chai and I ran back to the beach where the Huntington meets the Winooski. . That’s  where I usually do a little yoga stretching before going home. .. It was hot this morning, summer hot. (I stop functioning over 60 degrees).. so I was pretty  miserable by the time I turned around to go back home.  Chai dove right into the Huntington.. it looked like fun.. so I did too. I splashed across the river.. I got halfway across before I started to loose the feeling in my toes.. it was wonderfully cold. I though of how many times we’d come down here with the boys to splash around.. Sam, Gabe and I tubed down the Huntington from the gorge last summer.. it was a hoot…

   I got to work by 8 to help start the last day of the three day meeting I’ve been attending.. it was a relatively quite close to a pretty exciting set of technical discussions. I found the meetings really ejuvenating.. I think we figured out some good  stuff. I certainly learned a bunch and I really, really enjoyed working with this group of people.   .. I think we mapped out a way to keep working together for the next couple of years.

    I got home around 6 just in  time to catch men’s yoga with Diane.. she teaches a men’s yoga class on Thursdays now… she takes it much easier on us flexibly challenged folks than she does in her normal Monday afternoon class.. only 2 downward dogs tonight.. thank goodness.

    I came into the house after yoga to find a beautiful surprise. Our good friend Coco had sent us a painting she’d done from a picture of Sam.   The picture is of Sam as ‘Wonderboy’ in a skit at camp Abenaki last summer. I love the picture…. The painting is beautiful.. here’s a view of it and the original picture.. amazing.. I cried when I saw it..

Here’s the original photo

   The four of us had a nice quiet dinner… which doesn’t  happen very often.. it’s unusual to just have us in the house. After dinner Diane ushered me into the mudroom to show me  the latest home improvement.. evindently the chewing sound I’vc been hearing the last few nights has been a rat wth redecorating ideas.. here’s the nice picture window he/she has gnawed in the floor.. Note the poor thing had to chew through the carpet to do this. Now that’s industrious..

   I, on the other hand, am not feeling the least bit industrious.. I’m going to bed.. what do you think of that, Sam ?

-jc

ps. I hear the Rat again !

Note.. I accidently had ‘Browse like a Pirate’ on when I went in to edit this entry.. somehow it piratized my writing. I started to undo it.. but it was funny.. so I’m leaving it.. I hope you all can figure out what I said 🙂

Avast! How are you ?’… I hear it at least 20 times every day.. not ‘how are you’ but ‘how are you’.. I hear the distinct accent on the word  ‘are’ which tells me that someone be askin’ me a real questin’.. not just making  the friendly, mechanical greetin’ I’ve always heard… You may remember early ‘n this blog that I used t’ really struggle when someone asked me how I was.. now I have come t’ really appreciate that extra questin’ which be hidden ‘n the italics  The emphasis on the word ‘are’ that means that they care enough t’ really wonder/worry ’bout how I an’ me family are doin’.. That little bit lifts me every time I hear it…

Yarrr!     I was just outside helpin’ Diane move our fountain back out into the back garden. As we wrestled with the heavy thin’ Diane remarked on the beautiful flowers that had sprouted ‘n the garden. She told me that the lass had not planted them.. it means that one  of our hearties must have come over an’ planted them ‘n anticipatin’ o’ how it would lift our spirits on a day like today… I even think I saw someone do it.. but I can’t remember who it was through the fog o’ those first few weeks.  It’s these kindnesses that allow us  to get through our days…

Blimey!      Tonight was a welcome peaceful evenin’.. Not much happenin’.. not much t’ do. Our matey Eric was over fer  dinner which was a treat.. In honor o’ Eric’s visit, Diane had made Gabe’s favorite cheeseburger burritos… with vegi versions fer us..  Eric  and gabe are still zoomin’ ’round outside an’ ’tis almost 10PM.. It’s great t’ see them goofin’ ’round. Simple pleasures …

Ahoy!

Harrr!     Speakin’ o’ simple pleasures… I’m ’bout t’ take a bath.. I just almost dropped me laptop ‘n the half full (I’m an optimist) tub… I take that as a sign that that’s enough writin’ fer tonight…

Aye aye!    How are you all tonight ? How are you Sam ?

-jc

Ps. I saw this bumper sticker today.. o’ course it made me think o’ our Sam.