It was an easy trip home yesterday morning. I used the ferry trip to blog which always makes the time pass quickly. I did stand up once to toss a SamStone into Nantucket Sound.

which reminds me… … the SamStones website is having some major trouble.. Our hosting service ’upgraded’ their software and all the database queries that drive our website now take minutes instead of seconds. They say it will be fixed this week.. but that’s what they said last week !

Anyway… I got home yesterday after a nice drive.. it was a bit of forced mindfulness… I had lost my phone handset so I couldn’t talk much on the phone…
My ipod ran out of batteries, XM satellite public radio was doing endless pre-pre-election analysis and broadcast public radio was doing fund raising.. I just sat there and thought.. and not-thought for 5 hours. It was cool to see the climate shift from the cape to here.. it was in the 50’s and cloudy there.. but it was in the teens and full of snow back here… Some of the flowers are getting tired of it by this point. !

I got home around 2.. and we had a pretty quiet day. Gabe was at Jay with Dylan… so we just hung out and read… We’d been invited p to Deb’s for Fish Tacos… and Diane had the great idea to make sugar on snow !.. That requires donuts… so Diane started the closely guarded secret process of donut making.. Actually, I think she said that she’s only made them once before in her life.. and that was before we met 26 years ago…

It’s a pretty cool process.. it’s a yeasted dough.. a little softer than bread dough..

She roiled it out and cut the outside with a beer glass and the inside hole with a film container..

Then they got fired in shallow oil.. This is actually what I’m supposed to be eating for this ayurvedic diet.. sweet and oily food.. some diet.. eh ?

They looked perfect..

Are those for me, Mommy ?

The one catch is that one side of one batch got a little crispy when I called Diane over to see this cool video I’d found on Quantum entanglement … I think it was from ’What the Bleep do we know’ I wrote the author.. Dr. Quantum (aka. Prof Alan Wolf) asking him about how he made the animations.. I think they’re great.. there are several others out on YouTube like this one on the ’double slit experiment’ .

Anyway.. back to yesterday.. We went up to Deb’s around 7… It certainly still looks like winter up there !

We turned off (most of) the lights up there in honor of the ’Earth Hour’ which was being run yesterday to bring awareness to the need for more energy conservation in light of global climate change. After a great fish taco dinner we switched the lights back on and Diane went into sugar on snow production.. it took a good long while to cook the maple syrup down..

When it was ready, the kids brought in snow and Diane poured on the hot syrup . It’s amazingly good.. and amazingly sweet.. folks ate the donuts to cut the sweetness.. traditionally you’re also supposed to eat a pickle with it.. but none of us felt like going that far.. even though we had a jar of pickles with us just in case.

We got home around 10:30 – 11 and all went straight to sleep..

This morning was pretty sleepy, too.. we just hung around the house… Gabe and Will headed up to the mountain at around 11 with Victor. I noticed that Victor’s gloves and glasses made this cool fish-like guy on our counter.

Once Gabe was up boarding, Diane and I took the dogs up the honey hollow road for a hike.. The road is not plowed and  the snow was still deep.. but packed enough that we didn’t need snowshoes.. at least most of the time … At one point we found an old fence line with boarder markers and decided to bushwack up the hill. It was a beautiful walk.. 

It was cool following this old land line.. You could tell that this used to be some sort of pasture sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century. It was  probably for sheep.. Nearly this whole area was cleared then for grazing. It was hard to see that now except for these old fence wires embedded deeply in the trees.

The new markers were for the state forest…   We walked the boarder up several ridges.. it was clear you could get all the way up Robbins mountain this way. it would be a great hike back to our house if we had a GPS..

This area is know to have lots of bears.. Diane and I saw a big one up here a day or so before Max was born. We didn’t see any bears today.. but you could sure see signs of them.. Their scratch marks were everywhere.. and man, were they BIG !

YOu could see where a big one climbed all the way up this tree !

Satori was having a great time.. but she stayed pretty close to us.. maybe she instinctivly knew she’s still the size of an hors devours.

OK.. That’s it for today.. Diane and I are going out for some errands in prep for her birthday  this Tuesday… Talk to you all tomorrow. Nite Sam
-me

It’s about 7:30 in the morning on Saturday and I’m on the ferry. halfway back to Hyannis from Nantucket.   I’ve had a really great trip to the island.. I have a bunch of pictures to log here.. hopefully I can get it done before we doc.

The boat is pretty full of people this morning… I had it almost all to myself on the ride over Thursday night.. Here I am the other night with my only friend on the way over the other night.

I found a big stack of newspapers on the boat the other night.. I was the main article on the second page.. It was pretty cool….

Luckily the boat had warning signs as not to let things like this go to your head….

Eric was there at the dock to meet me when we got in… I followed him the few miles to their very nice house. It was cool how … I don’t know.. how ’islandy’ the whole place felt..   Even the car thought it was cool

 Pam, Eric and I talked for a couple of hours until about 12:00.. It was cool getting to know them better. Eric grew up with good friend Deb in Detroit.  Pam is from Texas, like I am..
I ended up working for a while.. then went to sleep around 1ish..   I woke up the next morning to find the house decorated for their middle son, Zach’s 11th birthday. They had printed a ton of 11’s  and spread them all over the house.. it was cute..

Eric and Pam took the kids to school while I went out for a run..   As I left, I spotted one of their bikes. The brand name was the same as my old friend Rosario… Rafe’s dad.. who passed away quite a few years ago. It was nice sitting there thinking of him. He was an amazing guy..

The run was nice.. it was definitely spring here.. flowers blooming, pretty warm and overcast. The place is full of cedar shaked beautiful homes.. It’s empty this time of year.. but you can imagine how busy it must be in the summer !

I got back to the Goddards just as they’d come back from the drop off.. Their house is really cool.. lots of good kids things.. they have a huge koi pond in the back and a cabin with fussbal, pool table etc.. Looks like a great place to grow up.

We grabbed a quick breakfast then drove down to the school. Natucket has one big public school . it combines kindergarten through high school in one really nice complex.

I was going to be doing two shows in their main auditorium. It was a big venue for this version of my show. It has a raised stage, sloped seating, great lighting and acoustics . I think it seats about 800 folks.  Eric and Pam helped me move my gear and set up

The first show was kindergarteners through 5th graders.. I heard that we had about 660 kids.. It’s a challenge to aim the show such that you can keep both  6 year olds and 11 year olds with you .. But it really worked this time.  

The show really went well.. The kids stayed engaged.. My timing was OK.. and the equipement worked well.. can’t ask for much more than that. he kids mobbed me when I was through which was pretty fun.. and freaky..

We had about 45 minutes between shows… so we shuffled off to the school cafeteria.. On the way I saw this very cool whale skeleton   they have hanging in the walkway.. It’s a ’Right Whale’ that washed up on the beach a few years back..    I think our schools need one of these.

I walked into the lunch room while the high school kids were eating. I was still wearing my blinking lights. The kids seemed to like it.. Quite a few came over to talk to me..

In the cafeteria, found myself on the discussion list from the last teachers meeting.

The second show was about 330 kids.. these were 6th through 8th graders.. a totally different challenge. You have to aim a little more goofy.. a littl e more sarcasm.. a few marginally off-color references to bodily functions… and t-you have them. This show went great too. I did have an equipment problem with the large Tesla coil.. The grounding strap broke off as I was moving the device.. It’s an important part of the function.. I was able to do a hasty field repair using some alligator clips.. I was expecting it to catch fire.. it didn’t.. so all was well.   The kids seemed to like the show.. and again they mobbed me at the end.. A bunch of the kids came up and started hugging me.. .. about 50 of them came up and did that.. it was weird but cool

Pam, Eric and Bob the facilities manager helped me pack up. Bob couldn’t resist a ride on the go cart.. he was a really good guy.

Eric helped me place a SamStone in the theater. He’s almost 6’ 7″   so he was able to reach a good high spot for the stone. It felt good to leave one there.

We dropped the kids off at home then Eric took me to see the Maria Mitchell museum.   On the way we saw this old house being raised for a new foundation. Pretty cool.

Maria Mitchel was a self-taught  Astronomer who worked on the island in the mid 19th century.   There’s a research facility set up here in her name. One of their primary missions is outreach.. They have a great intern program here in astronomy, life sciences etc. They’ve got a great summer program for young girls interested in science, too.

Mitchell is like a goddess in the community of amateur scientists.   Though I guess she went pro.. she ended up teaching Astronomy at Vassar… even though she was completely self taught. I have just read Dava Sobels’ book ’The Planets’  which contains  excerpts from some letters that Mitchell wrote to Caroline Herschel, .. part of the famous English family of Astronomers.. in which they discussed the Herschel’ss recent discovery of the planet Uranus.   That made this a cool pilgrimage for me.

The main astronomer, Vladimir welcomed us there.. but then retreated because he was sick. He introduced us to his co-worker, Gary… who showed us around (Gary’s on the boat this morning)

Here’s one of their telescope installations. it’s a 12 inch Takahashi folded path reflector with a great imaging set up. They do a bunch of quasar/blazar research.. and extra solar planetary research. I was really impressed.   They’d just upgraded it to a carbon fiber tube.. They’re going to replace it wuth a 17″ instrument in the near future..

Here are some raw images they’d just captured with the scope on Wednesday.

It was cool seeing this ultra modern scope on the 19th century cast-iron pedestal from Maria Mitchell’s old scope…

The old scope’s tracking clockwork was on display in another room.. It’s amazing to me  that folks could figure out mechanical mechanisms for tracking that were this accurate.

They had a bunch of other antique instruments on display including this mid 19th century 5″ refractor

And the main lens form the original 7″ (I think) refractor.. This would have been an amazing instrument in it’s day

Mitchell used instruments like this to do important comet observations. She was the first to identify and track one of the most visible comets, Comet Mitchell.

The US named a crater on the moon after her, too !

Here she is.. looking very scientific .

On the way home we drove by one of the other sites from the Mitchell observatory. This is their big ’scope. a 24 inch reflector.. That’s a pretty sizable scope.. It’s in active use for research.

I loved the little cobble stone streets on the island. I’ll bet their tough to navigate in the summer , though.

Eric and I headed back to the house.. where we were met by 3 of the islands science teachers and some kids. We had a nice time talking, listening to Eric and and Pam’s collection of old LP’s and eating..   Still no beer for me , though.

When it got dark we went outside and did science crazy stuff.. Like the swirling steel wool…

And fire blowing.. this time with starch.. It was great..   but tasted so nasty !

The teachers had brought over a bunch of thank you notes to the Goddards for bringing me over. We had fun looking at the drawings the kids had made of me.

Then we did a little more science in the kitchen.. we did the milk/food color experiment..(Put food coloring in milk.. then add soap.. it all swirls around)  then made birds nest sugar candy . You do that  by melting sugar and pouring it into cold water.. very dramatic.. We had a near disaster there.. when Keegan added the peppermint extract, the alcohol in the flavoring caught fire.. It singed the hair off my hand.. cool, but scary !

I went to bed around midnight… I tried to blog these pictures… but was too tired.. It seemed like I had just closed my eyes when the alarm rang at 5:30… ughh.. I packed up and drove to the ferry doc.. It was a pretty morning..

Hey.. looks like this worked out. well. we’re just pulling into Hyaninis now.. I better pack up..   Now I have about a 5 hour trip home… which I don’t mind. It’s been a great trip…

More tomorrow.. CU folks.. CU Sam..
-me

ps. I liked this sign behind the Nantucket High School Secretary’s desk.

I ended up having a busy and productive day down here.. I woke in my folks guest room this morning … and couldn’t figure out where I was for several minutes..   I was so confused. !

They both woke up and fed me and said good bye. and sent me on my way.
Even though I didn’t grow up in this here.. my parents house is fulled with so many memories of my kid-hood… I ate my peanut butter and jelly staring at this picture that’s over my folks dining room table.. it was over our table in Houston… Who are these kids ?… And why are they staring at me ?

It had been a really nice visit. I left my parents house about 7:15 drove the 20 or so miles to Lexington for my talk at IBM Rational Labs.   The traffic was nasty so it took me over an hour…

When I got to the IBM site, this nice woman, Lois,  came up to me and asked me for a funny favor.. She asked me to take this envelope and mail it from Vermont.. It’s some sort of secret pen-pal thing that her scrapbook club does…. or it’s a letter bomb… I’ll let you know which.   I gave her a SamStone as a swap..

I arrived just in time for my talk. The audience was a group of developers and support folks from IBM Rational in our Software Group. I was giving a general career talk.. I think I tried to cram too much in. but it went OK…   There were about 20 folks in the room and 25 or so on the phone.. not bad…   I love getting perspectives of folks in different parts of the company like this.   Here’s my host Jennifer.. and her beautiful crew.

I had a bunch of phone meetings for the rest of the morning .. so I hunkered down in the IBM office and worked there. Since nearly all of my work is now on the computer or phone I can truly work from anywhere now..   I cut out around 1 and went to meet my folks for lunh.. As I left the building I noticed how much closer Spring felt down here.

I met my folks at a bakery in Nattuck.. the building was the old Odd Fellows hall. It was a nice irony because one of the meetings I’d had this morning was the Council of all the IBM Fellows..   .. and most of them are Odd….

I found my folks tucked neatly in a corner of the bakery.. We ordered lunch…  The food sucked.. but the conversation was great.. so it was great… It was a nice bonus seeing them twice in a day..

I stayed with them for about an hour and a half then headed off to my next meeting. I was heading to another IBM office (Westboro) to see my friend John P. ..   On the way I found this bit of regrettable nostalgia..

I spent about an hour with John at the IBM Westboro site.. we had a short, productive meeting..   I’d never visited the site.. it was a really nice place

I  left Westboro at 5:30 in order to  make the ferry dock by 7:30  .. It was an easy drove down.. a few more work calls and a call to Homer and I was there.

The ferry dock was a pretty lively place…  

I only had to wait about 10 minutes until we loaded… This boat is HUGE. there were a ton of cars and trucks to load..

They won’t let you stay in your car…..

But I did notice the GPS showing the car already out in the water.. Don’t know why.. but I thought that was cool

I wandered upstairs and was pleasantly surprised about how nice the boat is.. they have a dining room, lounge, V’s, free WiFi, wall plugs.. you name it..   In fact you might forget it was a boat if it wasn’t for the queasy rolling of the floor (I’m really feeling pretty sick at the moment … )

I had a vision of standing on the point of the bow of the ship with the stars bright above and the wind whipping through my hair.. but then I remember theres was now pointed bow… it’s cloudy and I don’t have that much hair.. so I’ve settled for the more tame fantasy of sitting here at my own Formica table sipping a diet Pepsi and trying not to loose my lucnh…

OK you landlubbers… (what the heck is a lubber.. anyway ? ).. I’m going to go outside  and try getting some fresh air… or possibly heave over the rail..  

Smooth sailing folks.. ’nite Sam
-me

Busy and productive day.. though I got so distracted that I missed a major meeting that I was supposed to be speaking at. I don’t think I’ve ever done that. I felt  so bad… Sometimes a screw up like that is a small wake up call.. I realize that I’ve been getting pretty spacey at work again…  Nonetheless.. I did get a bunch done today.. My last act of my work day was to pack up my car for the trip down to Boston and Nantucket. I’m giving a career talk to some IBM folks down here early tomorrow morning.. then working down here for the day., then going over to Nantucket to do some science shows for them this weekend.  I’m psyched to see the schools on the island.  My buddy Willow (hi Willow ) found that they’d written a newspaper article about this trip.. before i got there… hope it lives up to the hype !  Given the length of the drive, I’d decided to take the Prius. Miraculously… everything fit !

Before I started the drive to Boston, I stopped at Marci’s for some Reiki body work. She wanted to test out her new Shirodhara  on me.. It’s a funky pot with a spigot that drips hot oil on your head for 20 minutes.. it sounds like torture.. but it’s amazingly relaxing.

The oil is at 110 degrees and has herbs infused in it .. Here’s the list of stuff in there.. As I say.. it felt great… but I did feel like a salad afterwards.

From there I ran home, hugged Gabe, Diane and the dogs and took off for Boston. The drive down was fast.. mostly work calls with folks I like talking too… but I also had  a long conversation with Dale D.. the guy who started Make Magazine.  If you don’t know Make, check it out.. it’s a magazine and online community that’s all about taking things apart and putting them back together in strange and wonderful ways. All 3 kids and I have had so much fun making stuff from that magazine.. It was an honor to talk to Dale. He’s making a TV show about inventing and hacking on PBS.. and I may get a chance to work on it !! 

I got to my folks house in Sherborn at about 11:15.. they had this great sushi spread waiting for me !

My mom with the sweater she just knit for my nephew.. I think this is the first she’s ever made.. Looks good !

We had a nice time tlaking for about 2 hours..It is great seeing them..  then it was time for bed !

I gtta be up early tomorrow.. so I’ll sing off here…   Gnite all, Gnite Sam.. Grandma and Grandpa say ’hey’
-me

Ps. here’s my great grandfather Phillip  (my mother’s mother’s, father)

And my father’s mother’s father Sam

And my father’s mother’s mother , Sarah   They say hi too