Yearly Archives: 2008

Monday night – listening..

So.. today was fairly peaceful and very productive. Lots of folks are off work this week, which makes it a good time to get things done. I took an hour off in the middle of the day to take a friend to lunch. It was good catching up we hadn’t had a chance to talk in some time. We were were having a pretty heavy discussion about work.. and what wasn’t going well there when a friend of both of ours walked in to the restaurant. We hadn’t seen each other since Sam died.. I was very saddened to learn that her 40 year old daughter was in the final stages of a terminal disease. She told me how sorry she was about Sam.. then we talked for about 15 minutes about life, death, surviving, grief, endurance, love, knowing and not knowing and all the stuff around a major loss.. or impending loss. We mostly listened. She was quiet and peaceful as she talked.. In the end o gave her a SamStone and a promise that I would check in on her over the next few months. She got up, said good bye and left…

As soon as she was gone, my friend and I went back to our conversation about the frustrations at work.. and I could tell.. it wasn’t bothering either of us so much now. Our mutual friend’s visit had given us one of those reality reminders about the real priorities in our lives. I can’t help thinking that the timing of her visit hadn’t been accidental…

Anyway… not much else to report for the day.. I have a big batch of SamStone placements I nede to post.. so I think I’ll start working on that.. One cool thing before i go.: My firend Joanne just sent me these pictures from her last visit to England. She took these around DIane and my old neghborhood in Winchester in Hampshire

This is the river canal down by Winchester College at the end of our street.

Aother view, looking back towards our street..

A bit closer into town.. We used to watch huge trout swimming here..

Our old flat. the one with the white door. 75 Canon St

,, and again from the other side. it looks just the way it did 22 years ago.. but then again.. it’s probabl lloked liek that for the last 200 years.

Brings back very good memories.. Like the time the older sisters across the street wondered by to ask why we cooked with so much garlic. They asked whether my wife was talian.. I replied that es, she was italian.. but not (yet) my wife.. From that day on the refered to Diane as my ‘consort’…

Well.. gotta sleep now.. happy almost July.. nite all.. nite Sam
-me

Sunday afternoon – lazy day

I 8 wonderful hours of sleep last night. I managed to sleep through 2 alarms, the dogs, the wind blowing doors.. but what finally woke me was a strange thumpa-thumpa-thump coming from the dryer.. After I’d gone down and had my tea, I investigated the root of that sound and found a very clean and dry SamStone underneath the pile of freshly laundered clothees in the drer. This confirms that SamStoens are indede washable.. so. if yours is dirty….

Diane and I went for a nice run up honey hollow with the dogs this mornign. It was amazingly wet and swampy out there.. it felt more like belize or costa ria than vermont. The highpoint of the trip was when Satori managed to wade across one of the small streams without being carried.. I could tell she was proud of herself !

I got home, cleaned up and headed down to Champlain to watch the ending presentations from the Governors Institute for IT..

It was great.. I did a show for the kids last Monday .. it was great seeing what they did with the time since. There were lots of thanking of people includig the faulty and staff.. who are mostly friends of mine . They nearly outnumbered the kids in the program

There were about 200 folks in the auditirium.. many of them parents of campers..

Each team of kids presented the games, websites, and podcasts they did during the week

While the RA’s sat in teh back and playedgames.. which is working for them, I guess..

After the program, Ann was taking all the staff for lunch.. She invited me which was awflully nice !.. As we were waiting, I called Max.. he’s just SOCAPA. Max will be living on campus for 2 weeks teaching high school kids how to make and edit Videos.. It sounds like it’s goign to be awesome..

Max was guiding traffic just a buldign away, so he took a break to come up and meet my friends. They promised to let him into the gaming lab at night.. I think he’ll lik that..

I drove downtown to go to the lunch. n the way, i ran into John K and Burk wearing a Sam shirt !

LLunch was great.. it was in the back patio at Halversons.. We sent the time reading the student Evalsform GIV.. .

Ann had presants for each of us.. We got alien fingerpuppets… That’s more than I usually get for doing a show !

While there, I met newborn baby Rosa and her folks Geeda and Ken

Here’s Ann holding rose

I got home to find Gabe in friends tramping with the sprinkler on.. Looked like a ton of fun.. It was hot… !!

Now I’m taking those guys to the Hulk.. So I gotta stop here.. We’ll be late for the movie if I don;t
OK all for now.. note folks. Nite Sam
-me

Saturday night – Scott and Mary

I got home about 1AM last night… 6:30 this morning Diane gently woke us up, loaded us in the car and we took off for Maine. Scott and Mary were getting married at 1:30 in York Beach, Maine. I fell back to sleep about 10 minutes into the drive.. and woke up when we were almost there. Diane drove the whole way.. she’s such a sweetie.

We got to York about 11 .. it was cold, misty and windy..

We quickly ran in to some of Max and Scott’s friends, Adam 1, Adam 2, Andrianna, and Baz.. We all had brought shorts and short sleeves… we wrapped ourselves in towels and blankets to keep warm.. Brrrrr.

Adam 1 had some new (I think) ink that was pretty spectacular.

We had a few hours to kill and sunning on the beach was out… so we wandered around York.. lots of cute-ish tourist stores.. We found a great candy store.. they had the coolest floor

They had these other wierd props like this ‘linda blair’ style taffy stirring robot.

We checked out the Fun o Rama

Then went out on the beach.. brrrrrrrrrr

We wandered over to the park where the wedding was goign to happen. Ellis Beach

People started gathering at the Gazebo around 1:00…

It was great seeing all of Scotts friends that had made the treck to Maine.

Scott was really happy

The bride showed up around 1:30 in a carriage.

Andy and Baz serenaded Mary as she walked up.

Acotts grandfather officiated

Awwwwwwww

The new Mr. and Mrs Scott

Luckily our fleece blanket matched Mary’s flowers and Scott’s tie

Best lady was Mary’s good friend from home and Best man was Scott’s good friend Andrew

Both Scott and Mary are really artistic.. They had soem great phot shoots of themeselves hanging around. THis one told heir life story.. including the future.. ” they will live happily ever after!”.. I wish that for them.

After the wedding we all went to a small inn for a brief picnic.. Abbot was looking pensive.

Max was blowing bubbles.

And gabe was looking colorful

The inn had a fireplace goign which was wonderful given the chill.

Around 3 we marched back to the resturant.. Gabe and Abbott took the beach way

The food was really good. They even had special Vegan dishes for the vegan kids.. (Baz, Adam 1, Adam2 and Daven’s girlfriend) Look.. two adams… it’s a molecule

Instead of cake they had a pyramid of cupcakes…

Once dinner was over we all got this crazy idea…

It was in the 50’s and windy.. but that’s never kept me from cold water.. !

Brrrrr.. We got dressed and back to the party in time to see the tossing of the boquet…
My battery ran out after this picture…

We got back in the car and drove the 200 miles back home.. once again.. I fell immediately asleep.. Diane did the driving.. I love her..

We got home around 9.. Carolyn and Selene were here witht he doggies.. they’d made us all a cake !

OK. now we’re all sitting around tlaking.. I should go up to sleep and let the kids be.. So Nite folks.. Congratulations Mary and Scott… !!!

Note Sam
-me

Friday night – historic ardsley

I’m sitting at JFK airport…now.. seems I’m always sitting at an airport somewhere..
My flight is delayed, I’m hoping to use the time to get this blog in.

Lessse… oh yeah. I couldn’t  upload any pictures last night.. so here are a few leftovers..  

I made a quick stop on the way to Ruchir’s to pick up some ice cream.. and found the convenience store selling oxygen for 8 dollars a can..  You can sell anything !

Dinner at the Puri’s is always wonderful.. Even though it was about 10 at night, the girls. Anika and Isha were still awake !

Rashi and her mom made a delicios Indian dinner, bitter gourd, okra, potatos, dahl,  fresh made yoghurt. fresh made puri.. yum !!!!


Our meeting today was at the TJ Watson research center. No matter how many times I go there, I still feel.. like a  green new hire when I walk in the building. There are so many brilliant people in that building.. Maybe more than in any other building in the world.. It’s un and really, really really humbling..    I like the layout of the building.. lots of light, lots of windows.. lots of brilliant people talkign to each other in the halls…


lots of cool equipment all over the place (like these two class IV argon lasers.. me want !!!)


Our meetings lasted all day and went pretty well.. good ideas and good discussion.
Afterwords I went around to talk to some of my friends.. alike Al.. who just celebrated his 50th (yes 50th) service anniversary with IBM

I also spent time with my buddy Jeff… we go waaaaay back..


Around 7 I headed south to JFK.. I was cruising down takonic when I saw a sign to Ardsley.. the place I lived until I was almost 4.. I pulled across 3 lanes of traffic and got  off the freeway.


I called my folks to get the address of our old house.. 91 Hiltop Lane… I punched it into the GPS and in a few minutes I was there !!!!!..

It wasn’t as huge as I remember 🙂 .. In fact it was tiny..


I spoke a bit with the folks who lived there .. but the woman seemed to be a bit worried about me poking around. She didn’t think it had been our house, but I called my folks again to confirm.. They let me look in the back yard.. I remember this stone fence here


Here it is from the back

And the side..


I placed a SamStone on the house..


And one on the tree in the front yard..


the guy from the house took me down the street to meet one of the nieghbors whod been there since 1963 when we left. Meet Louann Kelly !She was absolutely great.. She asked me if I was little Johnny Cohn … she remembered our family.. and  told me a bunch of stories. The one I remember from being a kid is eating Swedish pancakes in her back yard with powdered sugar.. We still talk about it whenever  we eat crepes with my folks..   I gave LouAnn a SamStone

I even called my mom and let them talk to each other . It was very cool

I spent so much time tlaking to her that I got close to missing my flight !.. Speaking of whcih.. I better go check on it.. Talk to you all tomorrow ! Nite .. Nite Sam
-me