Snow day !. Gabe was really hoping for a snow day today.. so we all wore our jammies backwards.. and at 5L30 this morning, the Randolph school system called to say that they were closed for the day thus my 10AM science show was canceled. Gabe’s school sent email around 7 saying they were closed too. We all had the day off !..  Bonus !

I took advantage of the newly empty morning to reschedule a working breakfast with my buddy Jason. It was fun and productive.

My mornign was still less clutttered than normal. So I headed over to UVM in the hopes of seeing some of the CS research day. I co-chair the departments Boar of Advisors.. and was eager to see what the students had been working on this semsester. On my way in to the building I ran into one of the Raskin girls from the Burlington Chabad house.I don’t know which kid it was… but she was wondering why I hadn’t done a show for them in the past 2 years. She and her family  hadnt heard about Sam’s passing.  She was giving out Shabbot in a bag kits,,, kinda wierd and kinda cute.

I spent the rest of the morning and afternoon watching the UVM students strut their stuff.  I was really impressed with what I saw.

Things ended about 4… on my way back over to Voety I ran into Marie on campus.. She actually does go to UVM.

On the way home, I dropped by the college Holiday party. It was nice seeign all the faculty in one place.

I got home aroudn 7 just in time to go u the moutiain to pick up Gabe.. We got home and broke out the Shabbat-to-Go

candles ……   tcandles…..

This Sunday is the annual worldwide candle lighting which Compassionate Friends sponsors every year in memory of children who have died. Please join us in remembering Sam and other much loved children who are not with us this season by lighting a candle at 7PM this Sunday.

Help us shine some light in this very dark season…

Nite all. nite Sam !
-me

Nearly midnight and just back from homer’s it’s snowing hard out there.. probaly will be a snow day tomorrow.. everyone where their pajamas backwards and let’s make it happen.

Busy day.. meetings solid from 8 till 6.. some interesting stuff…some not.
Tonight we had our monthly burning man  car idea throw-down at homer’s.

We keep working  the simple sofa/ferris wheel idea that we’ve been working for the last two meetings. I think i’t s go. I love these meetings.. so many goofy ideas. We’ve initiated the idea of the ‘reality stick’ that anyone can through at another when their ide defies the alws of physics or economics.. it rarley comes out.. so we must be jelling.

Pizza and beer is the usual fair..

Tonight I had soem of my science stuff.. (I have a show early tomorrow). ben couldn’t resist the chance to ride around on the go cart. That’s his dog Riley in the forint.. she’s cuuuuuute

Homers daugetr (and our freind) Raye was in town and came down to brains tomer with us..

Her’es duane-the-organizer

Our buddy John form our burning man posse last year

The roads home were pretty trrecherous.. thoguh the lights on teh snow were nice. Here’s Bob’s new barn… not even complete yet.. but looking nice

It’s begining to look alot like christmas…

It’s also lookign alot like nitetime.. so .. nite nite folks.. Nite Sam

-me

We woke to a warm wind outside.. it was almost 53 degrees out… impossible weather for this time of year .

It was nearly 60 degrees warmer than 2 days ago.. what a funny place we live.

I had a busy and surprisingly productive day at work.. Not much newsworthy there. The interesting part of my day came after work. I joined our friend Jim in speaking to a Drivers’ Ed class at Essex High School. Jim has given this talk in about 1000 classrooms..

Jim’s daughter Andrea was a senior at MMU when she was killed in a traffic accident about a quarter mile from her house. She wasn’t wearign a seatbelt becuase it had jammed as she tried to put it on. Andrea was a tripple organ donor..

Jim uses Andrea’s death to talk to kids about the improtance of seat belet usage and of the importance of having the organ donation conversation with you families.

Jim had brought his freind Chris with him. Chris is a kidney and pancreas transplant recipient. Before his transplant, Chirs was near death on dailey diyalisis.. Now he runs marathons in honor of organ donations. Here he’s holding the  Us olympic torch that he carried in the Salt Lake City Olypic opening ceremony in honro of the cause.

I’d met Chris first when Diane Gabe. Max and I had gone into MMU once with Jim.. it was just two weeks after Sam’s death. ‘ll never forget what it was like to talk to kids who knew Sam about the gift of organ donation.

Today I told the students abotu Sam.. and abotu the improtance of driving carfully..and about being alert to pedestrians. I tlaked about Sam’s accident and the steps up to and after his donation.
In a wonderful ‘coincidence’ just yesterday we received a wonderful and moving letter from one of the surgical nurses who assisted at Sam’s donation . I started to read it in the class tonight.. but I couldn’t get through it without crying too hard..   .. I’m posting it here for the kids .. and others to see. I’ve only removed the nurses name

My name is ****** and I am a nurse who works at All Children’s
Hospital. In 11/2006 I was a new nurse working in the operating room
at ACH. I assisted in the surgery that helped to save the lives of
the four very sick people the day that Sam died. It was the first
organ donation I had ever done in my career. It was a very emotional
experience for me. I cried for hours. On that day, the day before
Thanksgiving, I thanked God that there are such selfless people in
this world who choose to donate organs so that others can live.  I
don’t think I will ever forget Sam’s name, face, or the thing he was
able to do that day, even though I never got to know him.  He has
made so much of an impact on my life and I want to thank you so much
for that. I am still working at ACH and I love what I do. I would
love to have a stone as a way to remember him, the patient of mine
who has touched my heart the most. With lots of love,
******

As we were filing out at the end of todays’ class I noticed a bag that Lou the teacher’s books were in..

It had Sam’s intials ‘SMC; on the side I asked whether those were his initals.. nope.. was it becasie he went to St. Mikes ? Nope.. He and his wife had found the bag in a bargin bin at LL beans’ in main. Someone had had i mnogramed, then returned it due to a small tear. Lou baught it for a few bucks even though the intials didn’t mean anything to him…

He gave me the bag 🙂

Sam is everywhere…
OK.. all for now.. Goodnight my freinds, goodnight Sam..
-me