Very quiet and uneventful day.. The alarm on my phone went off… accidentally .. at 6:30 this morning. I sleepily dug it out of my jeans and shut it off.. I was determined to get a bit more sleep… I fell back into a light sleep where I dreamed
all sorts of very vivid and realistic dreams.. they were mostly work related.. though family came and went through them. I get occasionally views of Sam in these dreams.. I like seeing him there..  All of a sudden I realized that I was about to wake up.. I tried hard to stay asleep.. but couldn’t resist the 9:30 AM light that was pouring into the room.. I opened my eyes with the last bits of the dreams falling away.. the only part I remember was the phrase “falling awake”… I like the sound of it.. My dreams are often more ‘normal’ now than my waking hours.  
    Jessie called today to tell of of seeing Sam in a dream.. she said he looked happy and well.. He smiled and waved (and then she got reincarnated as batman… but so it goes) .. Let us know if any of you see Sam in your dreams.. If you do, tell him we said ‘hi’.. and we love him ..

     Lesseee.. what did  happen today.. not much.. I did go up to Tim and Wendy’s to see if I could coax their treaddmill back to life..

It did look a little peeked. I poked around in there for a few minutes with my voltmeter.. and voila !.. I found the problem..   The safety switch had broken off inside.

Here’s Wendy stylishly modeling the offending switch.

A bit of cutting and soldering later.. the thing was up and running. As Tim and I closed up the patient, Wendy called us upstairs to see something strange.. Their pet cat had gotten into the terrarium with their pet iguana.. (or bearded lizard.. I forget)   They said the cat frequently gets in there  and sits peacefully.. pretty interesting combo.. dontcha think ?

I came down the hill and worked around the house for a bit, worked on my paper for awhile.. then started procrastinating.. Diane and I decided to take the dogs on a hike.. we took them up to the cliffs behind the Safford preserve.. It was beautiful up there.. You can see all the trees below the cliffs ready to spring into full foliage.. We saw our first black flies of rhe season up tehre too.. it’s definitely spring..

On the hike back we ran into Gary and the twins.. they’d been kind enough to let us park our car there during our hike.

And.. believe it or not… that was the sum total of my day.. Sometimes its nice to have a down day.. this week may be crazy.. but at least  I’m well rested.. Time for sleep now.. gnite all.. Gnite Sam !
-me

I woke up around 6:30 this morning in Multonborough NH.. after a great night with the Fathers Forever guys. We stayed up way too late talking..   then blogging. I think I got less than 4 hours sleep. When my alarm went off at 6:30 I was pretty groggy.. The best thing for that was a quick dip in the lake…

It was cold.. but not too bad.. certainly woke me up..   I went back in to the house… got dressed and went upstairs. Craig was also up..so I said good buy.. and headed south to meet up with Lester and pick up the Sam shirts for tonight’s jam.

It was slightly less than an hour south to Concord.. I drove through the drizzly morning thinking about the conversations we’d all had the night before… it was good.. and sad hearing how all the guys were doing.. each had suffered a traumatic loss.. each was traveling his own path.. but there were many similar stories. … triumphs.. despair.. challenges. There were some really strong common themes.. The need to ‘make’ something from our tragedy.. the difficulties in getting back to work.. the changes in our personalities… the growth.. the muted sense of the world..  I have to admit it’s hard seeing some of the guys still struggling at so many years fruther into their grieving process.. It makes me realize I need to be careful about my expectations regarding any return to ‘normal’.   I really loved having the freedom to talk to other folks who ‘knew’ ..  what a strange club… wish I never had to join.. glad they’re with me now..
   As I drove I also thought about the strange and wonderful  ‘gift’ of last night’s exploding wineglass. I’m a trained scientist.. there is nothing in my training that can explain why an untouched full glass of wine would spontaneously explode at the mention of Sam’s name in full view of 5 people..   it’s inexplicable… and it’s … it’s… it’s .. what ? A miracle ? An incredibly improbable quirk of physics ? Who knows.. makes me feel good and strange whatever it was…

Anyway.. I made good time heading south… I got to concord abotu 10 minutes after Lester made it there from South of Boston. My idea was to shake hands, grab the shirts and zoom back to burlington… But that’s hard to do, because Lester is such a cool guy..     We met in the parkign lot of a strip mall. He showed me the shirts.. very cool !

We couldn’t resist playing with soem of my science toys.. e fired the potatoe canon  (which required a quick jump into the grocery store for hairspray)… and rode the go-cart around for awhile.. Lester is a geek like me… I could spend hours tlaking wiht him.

But I didn’t have hours.. Gabe’s first lacrosse game was today at 1 in St. Albans.. so I had to run.. I said goodbye to Lester and drove home. I  dropped off the shirts. fed and watered the dogs,  Ans headed north.. It was about a 200 mile morning.  I made it to Gabe’s game a bit into the first quarter of the first game.. Gabe is number 50. he had a good day.. I think the team is going to work out well !

Gabe’s team one their first game.. and ‘came in 2nd’ in the last game… Not a bad day… We headed home changed clothes and drove back to Talent for the Jam for Sam.  Hannah and Dave had opened their huge hearts again and let the Friends of Sam use Talent for their fundraising. We are so appreciative of all the support and love that that they have given us and the Friends of Sam .

We got to Talent about 5 for a 6Pm start.

First order of business was to put out the new Sam shirts.. The look so real.. !..

Around 6 kids just started pouring in … The Jam was Sam T’s idea.. he’s doing it as his public service project for CVU..   the whole jam was to benefit Abraham from Somalia .. The tall guy, 3rd fro the left. Abraham is from Sudan.. his wie Julie and their new baby daughter are in a camp in Kenya.. the money raised tonight will help Abraham bring his young familyl over. He’s a relaly nice guy.. very funny.. very quiet..

Sam T’s band also played the first musical set.  .. they were really AWESOME !

Here’s Sam. his dad and his grandfarther.. genetics at work !

The second band was excelelent too ! They did a great version of ‘Mama tried’ !

The place was packed for about 2 and a half hours.. kids of all ages.. soem skating.. some not.. it was a really fun time !

Phil showed up with some grip tape that he’d stenciled using a hand cut stencil of Sam’s face. it looked so cool !

It was so beautiful !  Hannah D. had the great idea to auction it off

At the end of the evening , Gabe reached in and grabbed the ticket for the winner.

It was Michael !  He was really excited to have won it !

At that point it was near 9.. folks started clearing out.. We gave out a bunch of SamStones during the evening.. an made a batch of new ones with some of the guests.

Folks took off while we tidied the place up as the kids totaled the snack/pizza take and Hannah tallied the shirt sales and the gate. in the end the Friends of Sam made over $2600 for the evening. That money will  provide a big help towards re-uniting Abraham’s family. it was a very good event .. and a very good day.
Once again we’d like to thank Sam T.. for putting the idea together and driving it., the Friends of Sam for running the event. The FoS parents for schlepping. and of course Hannah. Dave. Adah and Senyah at talent for the way too generous use of their karmically cool facility… Our hearts are full tonight. Thanks you all.. Sam we were really thinking of you tonight.. You were riding there too !
-me

We’ve had  a wonderful evening.. sharing stories and experiences… There’s no way to describe how good it is to be with folks that at least have a glimpse of what one another are going through.   We talked all night… did some fireworks. ran the tesla coil. and generally made mischief.

It’s now  about 1:30 in the morning.. and I need to be on the road at 7AM in order to meet lester in Concord to pick up the shirts..  for the Sam Jam ( Sat. Night 6-9PM  at Talent)  then drive to St. Albans to watch Gabe’s lacrosse game.

It’s too late to write much.. let me just put in this one amazing story.. we were sitting around the table at the end of dinner talking about our children.. I was talking about Sam when the wine glass I’d filled a few minutes earlier spontaneously exploded… I man it just BLEW UP… with no one touching it…  No one knew what to make of it..but  I did..  Very cool, sam… very cool.

OK.. I must sleep.. here’s the sign above my bed in this beautiful place. Good words to heed…

Gnite everyone.. Gnite Sam
-me

May-day, may-day.. a call given by ships in distress… .. A celebration of the victories of organized labor … We’re done with April.. the cruelest month.. Out like a lion or a lamb ? Which was it ?

    It’s a new month… Sam ‘s birthday month..   We’ll be celebrating Sam  this Saturday at Talent

  Before work this morning I spent some time working with our friend Lester down in Massachusetts on some new Sam shirts to have in time for the Jam. Here are some closeups of some of the artwork options… It’s always fun/hard/cool/sad doing these creative projects with Sam’s face. I stare at him often.

I had a busy day at work.. trying to build some momentum on my day job assignments.. Made some good progress today.   I had an early afternoon meeting over at UVM .. I was visiting my friends Dom and Victor ,   I was happily surprised to run across a proof copy of my good friend Jay’s new  engineering textbook on Dom’s desk. !  I read  proofs of this book.. it’s so nice to see it actually in print.  It’s a wonderfully ‘holistic’ approach to engineering education. i think folks will really enjoy using it !

Another bonus of going over to UVM was a chance to spend some time with Victor. Victor’s dad passed away last week and I hadn’t seen him since. It was good getting together and hearing how Victor and his family are doing. I find that I am very interested in and sensitive to folks stories about loss and healing.

After a few more hours work, It was time to head home. Homer had called to say that he was finished with the plaque design we’d come up with for the Sam Cohn Musical Soul Guitar giveaway at MMU.  . I needed to go down to his shop, pick it up and get it to Jen for her to finish the tile work. I drove down to Monkton and found Homer finishing the plaque.. it looks so beautiful

It’s brushed aluminum with an embedded video screen. Jen is doing some custom tile and grout work. i think it will look pretty cool. I love doing these creative projects for Sam.. Trouble is.. everything I do like this reminds me how gone Sam is…….

Here’s Homer signing his excellent work.

One cool thing about my trip from Burlington to Monkton and then to Richmond is that I got to see both a dromedary and a camel.. Not sure why folks keep these desert acclimated animals in our harsh climate.. but it’s pretty cool. Here’s the dromedary in Ferrisberg

And here’s our old friend Otis the camel near our house in Richmond,.. The message I took from this is that I am getting ‘over the hump’ on the funk I’ve been in for the last week. I’ve been unraveling a bit.. time to ravel some.

I got home. .. then went and picked up Gabe at the park. His shoe had fallen apart.. so I offered to repair his soul… and my own in doing the project.. A half a bottle of glue later.. voila-la !

Around 8 I got the urge to go see a concert I’d heard about in the North End of  Burlington.. I called my fiend Gary and we headed in to town. This band ‘Inner Fire District’ is 4 non Jewish folks playing authentic Jewish klezmer and protest music. their Yiddish is perfect. .. I even know many of the songs.  They were playing a program of protest and revolution songs in honor of May day..

Zoe the clarinetist is heading to Latvia and David the lead singer/accordion guy is headed to Poland.. I gave them all some SamStones to take with them.

After th show, Gary and I went y work to pick up my show gear.. I have a show during lunch tomorrow and I wanted to save time. I let Gary drive the go-cart. He loved it !
 

I dropped Gary off about 11PM.. I’m so impressed that all of his vehicles run on recycled vegetable oil.. pretty cool !

OK.. time to sleep. I find that good sleep helps me fight the blues.. that’s all for now.. Love you all. Love you Sam..
-me