Long day.. I left Endicott just before 9 this morning on a quick round trip to grab Max and his dog in NYC> The roads were sloppy.. but I had a good book on tape (Malcolm Gladwell’s new book ‘Outliers’.. it’s great !)
It ytook me about 4 hours to get to the city.. A completely different world. I know I’m close to Max’s when the signs turn to Yiddish.. 
… or chinese
It was a drag driving thoguht the city with no map, no copilaot.. and only the GPS on my phone (We took the van).. I was really happy to get to Max’s door.
We did a pretty effiecient Evacuation.. btu before we did.. max took me up on his roof to see his metal workign final… It’s called ‘Down in flames’.. He learned to Tig weld for this.. it’s really cool !
The drive back was fun-=ish.. the first bit of getting out of the city was rough with my cr*ppy GPS… we managed to have to cross Manhattan.. and the beutiful town of Newark NJ. Max and I talked on and off most of the way home.. which is a great pleasure. He’s so much fun for me to talk too. We’ve got so many similar interests now. I get inspired by listeing to his ideas.
It took us a little less than 4 hours on the way back.. as we pulled into the driveway, my milage for the day read 399.9 miles.. so.. I exagerated.. it was less than 400 miles.. We have another 320 tomorrow.. this will be a 1000 mile weekend.
It was nice having Max with us in Endiocott.. I love seeing the boys together..
Gabe had used his day to further perffect his candy cane welding.. he’s now the frank lloyd wright of candy cane architecture
My brother and sister in law Joe and Pat were there too.. We sat down and had a great meal.. toasteign each other.. and Sam…
Then we did a really nice gift exchange.. It was the first christmasy feelign I’v ehad this year.. It felt good to be all together with Diane’s family…
Diane’s mom had a nice suprise for us.. She’d found an old newspaper clippign of the time that Diane taight Highschool part time at Bellows Free Academy.. This is from Oct of 1986.. and she looks the same to me.. very cute !
OK.. Gotta sleep. We’re leavign early tomorrow to beat the snow..
Nite folks.. Nite Sam
-me