Monthly Archives: December 2008

Wednesday night – Dog ate my homework

I woke this morning (Thursday) and checked my myspace as I usually do..only to find that my post last night hadn’t gone through !

I’ll try to recreate what I remember of it from memory.. I say what I remember of it .. because we’d just come back from visiting our friends M and B.. For some reason I always come back from seeing them a little tipsy.  We always enjoy hanging out with them.

 
Unfortunately, their house burned down at the beginning of the month. They’d lived in that house for 30 years…Of all the things they lost that night . but most important to them were two young kittens.  That was very sad

We also talked about all of the stuff that  they lost and the stuff they managed to save. . What was irreplaceable and what you have that you never need to see again.. like old work papers. I can’t imagine the loss of  going through something like that.

We do have one very tough loss in common, one of their sons passed away about 20 years ago. That similar experience between us makes it very easy to talk about things that are difficult to discuss with other friends. It felt really good to be able to share that stuff… I know it sounds from the outside like a bunch of sad, tough  topics.. but he had a great time over there…  we laughed alot.. They are really great people

Lessseee. what else did I write about last night ? I did have these two pictures folks sent me after Sunday’s Candle lighting.for Sam .. The first is from my folks. Ou can see a great picture of my mom and sam next to the candle (Thansk for the picture, Mom !)

I also got this sweet picture form Hannah.. 

Thank you both for sending those !

I can’t remember what else I might have written about.. but It’s time for me to go to work.. so that’s gotta be it.. Be well folks.. TTYL Sam..
-me

ps. My frienf Peliera in Pretoria South Africa just sent me pictrures of his wedding from last month. 
Peliera is the guy next to the bride  with the very big smile on his face 🙂   COngratulations my friend !

Tuesday night – Raising Cane


Creative day.. lots of small inspirations.. managed to fix several software problems while sitting in meetings. It’s a strange time at work.. many folks are already out on vacation.. many changes occurring and just ahead.. the holidays coming.. Fells like a strange calm..

I did spend a few minutes staring out of the window in my office while on a conference call.. I realized agfter a few minutes that soemone was staring back at me !

Got home on the late side in time for Meditation class.. but no one showed up.. so we decided to skip class and cook instead. Kevin was over for dinner which always adds an offbeat flavor to the meal.. He’s so funny and cool. He taught us something none of new.: that you can melt candy canes and shape them over a candle.  No joke.. just take a regular candy cane.. preferably a flavor that no one likes .. unwrap it.. and hold it over a candle flame.. keep turning it as you do this to prevent burning. in  a moment it will get soft enough to bend, pull  or even weld…

Gabe even figure out how to make a candy cane valentine..

now.. no candy cane is safe in our house… I’m going to go melt some more !

Nite folks.. Nite Sam
-me

Sunday nigfht – Candles

Tonight is the Compassionate Friends annual worldwide candle lighting. At 7PM in their local time folks around the world have lit candles in remembrance of children that have died.

..

We ate dinner surrounded by candles. It was a warm and wonderful way to bring Sam’s spirit  into this very dark night.


If you didn’t know about the candle lighting before now, go ahead an light a candle for
Sam..it doesn’t mater what time or day it is. If you can send me a
picture of it.

Good night all.. night sam.. we’re thinking of you..
-me

Saturday night – Sugarbush

Really nice day.. Woke up early-ish (8:30) so that we could get Gabe to Sugarbush. there was a rail jam their today that he wanted to enter.. and he wanted to learn the course. As we were gettign ready to go, Deb and the kids called from Peru to say hi. They’re having a great time. They’re all working in an orphanage full of street kids who have been rounded up and placed there. They say the kids really need clothes . We’re goign to help them pull together a few boxes of kid and teen clothes.. (sweatpants, tee shirts, shorts, socks) and ship them down there. I’ll send out a post and bulliten on it. If you have some old clothes around.. please try and find them…

Anyway,  We got out of the house around 9:30.. and drove to Waitsfield. We dropped Gabe off..It was a mad house there.. tthis weekend is their 50th anniversary and the place was pretty packed. As soon as Gabe was settled, Diane and I escaped to Sugarbush East (also called Mt. Ellen) which hasn’t opened yet for the season. After askign around, Diane found a great Snowshoeing loop for us.  It was a beutiful.. and cold day to be outside.. I don’t think it got above 10 while we were out.. and we were outside from about 10 until about 4… The trail was marked with the Sugarbush log.. which reminded us of the bear scratches that we saw on lots of the trees.. 

 

. Judging by the thin crust on the snow. and the ice on the trees . they  must have gotten some freezing rain the other night. It was beutiful to see the sunlight glittering through the ice. 

It was a good ruggged trail which got our hearts and lungs pumping.. We found this cool upturned tree .. the roots looks like some sort of scuplpture.. so we put a Samstone in it..

We got back to sugarbush at 1:30.. the time the rail jam was to have started.. but it turns out they’d started early.

We were still able to catch a few of Gabe’s runs.. Here he is in the finals on the flat-down…

It was a good day for Gabe.. He place 3rd in the 15’s and under in a big field… and got some nice swag to show for it. We were really proud of him !. Double so because  he was putting himself out there on an unfamiliar mountain.

I guess he hadn’t gotten in enough boarding for the day.. He asked us to drop him off at Bolton on the way home.. !

Looks like it will be a quiet night… I’ll let you all know if anything interesting comes up. Just a reminder. Tomorrow is the Compassionate Friends’ Worldwide Candle Lighting.  . Please light a candle for Sam and other kids who have passed on tomorrow night at 7PM . If you think of it, take a picture of your candle burnign and send it to me and I’ll pos them here..

That’s it for tonight. Nite all.. Nite Sam !
-me