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

I want to say thanks to all the folks who have written, called or come by over the last couple of days. I must have been sounding down in my blog or on the phone.  It means the world to me that so many people would check in to see how we’re doing.. I’m feeling a whole lot better now.. I think I was really missing Gabe.. and I’ve been starting to think about Sam’s birthday coming up….
    Somehow things seem brighter today… I don’t have much mor to report tonight.. and I’mrally having trouble staying awake.. so I think I’ll try to get away with a one paragraph post.. Is that legal ? Hope so !  Gnite all.. Gnite Sam

Then I did some of he larger and more assorted bins.. Like this one.. i contains chemicals which are relatively non-flammable and fairly non-toxic.. Nothing I would eat, but the kind of chemicals you wouldn’t mind having in your house… I think the label really captures it..

Of course the previous label is only necessary relative to this one..   Though nothing really dangerous here either.

I had some early meetings so I headed off to work.. First thing I saw in the parking lot was this label on a car.. I’m sure it was there for me..

I tromped up to my office … and took a picture of th magnetic message I’d placed on my door.. At this point I hadn’t really made the connection that I was labeling everything today.

I went into my office and got on the phone.. As I talked I was admiring the cool engraving on my new bizzarro desk.. I couldn’t resist taking a picture..

I had some late meetings so I didn’t get home until nearly 7.. Soon after, Rusty and Tyler shoed up.. I’d figured out my theme at that point.. so I labeled them ..

Gabe was there.. so he got labeled too !

Then Brad, Silas and RJ showed up.. Brad told us he had a surprise for us.. He’d gotten himself inked with Sam’s initials … a great label !.. I was so moved by what he did. I can’t believe the love these kids all have for each other and for Sam.. All of these kids mean so much to me..

Here’s a newly shorn Silas… who also told us some good SamStone stories from his recent vacation to Dry Tortuga.

.and a freshly pierced RJ..

It took me a while to pick up on this hole labeling theme for today.. but here’s the lesson… and even though it sounds obvious.. it really came to me tonight.  It made me think about how I am now frequently labeling each day.. or each situation as “good” or “bad”.. or labeling myself as “Sad” or “OK”,   Diane’s advice to me is to just ‘be’.. not to try and simplify down to a simple label like that.. I think I get it….
   OK.. all for now.. gotta sleep…’Nite folks.. ‘Nite Sam
-me