Greetings from quaint Wallignford Ct, .. I’m down here to do a science show at Rosemary Choate academy.. it’s a boarding school where a work colleague’s kid attends. I agreed to do a show here in return for getting some of the students to help me on some outreach projects. I drove down here after a full and uneventful day at work… The drive down was peaceful.. spoke with friends on the phone and finished listening to Malcalm Gladwell’s newest book ‘Outliers’.. I really liked it. Gladwell’s central premise is that upbringing, culture and opportunity have much more to do with a persons success than does natural ability.   He claims that most superstars.. be they rock stars, software moguls, physicists or wall street law partners .. only need to be ‘good enough’ and get the right lucky breaks. In fact he presents data that shows that most ability (eg, IQ, musical ability, etc) have a threshold level above which additional skill does not matter… The argument is important because it shows that if we spent less time trying to find and focus on the kids with the most talent, and spent more time providing opportunity and encouragement to kids who are talented ‘enough’.. we’d end up with more high achievers… I’ve always believed that..

Anyway… I’s just past midnight, and I’m in the three floor guest residence of Choate… it’s nicer than almost any hotel I’ve ever stayed in.. and from what I can tell.. I’m the only one in  the entire building..

Kinda cool.. and kinda spooky.. It’s the sort of place that makes me want to walk around in your bathrobe….. just because it’s empty.. But.. don’t worry.. I won’t…..  Gotta sleep now…

Nite folks.. Nite Sam
-me

We began the day with breakfast at Jean and Gary’s with friends Jane , George, Lou and Kathy. It was nice standing in their sunny kitchen and watching the ice flow by on the river.  

We started with a scrumptious hearty breakfast…

The land is really beautiful. It follows the old 19th century town road between Huntington and Richmond then cuts left up the ridge towards Jonsville. The plan is to someday connect these trails with the ridge trails and create a system that would allow someone to hike all the way from our house in Jonesville into Richmond.

The land was crisscrossed with old logging trails.. thetre were a few old trees still standing.. but most of the growth was in the last 70 years.. Here’s a beutiful old hollow tree we found.

It was wonderful being out with friends in the new year.  we talked about the new year.. and our resolutions and hopes..   What a great group of folks.

We got off the trail and bushwacked for a ahile.. eventually Gary foudn this old foundation.. the old springh ouse for the Richmond water supply many years back.. and he knew where we were.. I can tell these trails are goign to be a great resource for the town…

The rest of the day passed pretty quietly.. I had two nice visits.. first my friend Bob from Massachusetts came by to talk.. he was up visiting freinds.. he’s looking for some help on writing soem software to help stimulate differnt parts of the brain to enhance certain drug therapies and diagnostics.. It sounds like a cool project..  I hope that I cna help him.. Later on , my friend John and his son Sam came by. John had given me two robotic arms which his copany had developed for the medical testing industry. I’ve gotten one working.. He, his Sam and I spent abotu an hour writing soem simple code to get the robot arm to do some cool movces. I’m trying to convince the two of them to help us build a robotics club up at MMU next year…   That would be so fun… !

After Dinner, Gabe and I went tin the lab and started working with the fiber optics stuff we got for xmas. We want to embed it in a wall in our house. I had an old pice of sheetrock to use as a test.. Gabe drew some designs than drilled holes in them for the light guides.

We poked them through…

Then pluged them in.. It looked great !

Even better at night.. they’re actually a little too bright to photograph !

Well.. That’s it for the day.. and for my vacation !. I’ve bene off two weeks .. and really enjoyed it. I can’t say I got any major parts of my life worked out.. but the hanging out,and puttering in the lab have really cleared my mind. I knwo that these are tough times.. but somehow I feel excited abotu the changes and challenges that are coming. My mind feels clear and open.. which is relaly all I was lookign for in this vacation. I’m actually lookign forward to goign back to work….

Good luck to all of you and yours in pahsing in to the new year.. U2 Sam
-me

And here’s an after.. She looks about half the size.. but she’s still hairy enough to run around outside in sub-zero weather..   We keep having to reassure her that she’s still cute…

Last night was a quiet night just with the three of us.. We celebrated by melting a bunch of our xmas chocolate into fondue… Yum !…

This morning we spent getting ready for the rail jam this afternoon.Ralph K had set the whole thing up which was so great of him !He needed soem pinnies.. so we tore a bed sheet into 40 squares and numbered them .. then we gathered a bunch of Sam related stuff… . and I took Diane and Gabe up there to begin registering pople/ Meanwhile.. I went back and played joe handyman.. My job today was to repair a gfi outlet and replace the old light/fan in our bathrom with one that had a heater.. Like every project, theis took much longer than expected.. I took the old one down and realized that the guys who placed it here had to saw into a beam to get it in.. I had to do the same.. Ugh.. But…

It was an interesting archeological expidention seeing parts of the house long since covered.. here you can see to original lathe and plaster from the ceiling.. as well as some old sheetrock over that.. and the poisoness.. (figurativly and literally) old lead green paint that yused to cover the inside of the building.   And moutnains of blown in celluolose inssulation thats now in evey part of my body.

Like in everything I do here now, I finished it off with a samstone…

Actually I finished it off with a vacuum cleaner… what a $^% mess

I got up to the mountian at about 3:30 just as thec ompetition was about to start.. I found Diane, Tim and Jen and we hiked up to teh jungle park..  Even though it was a balmy 9 degrees, the wind was whipping like crazy.. it had to be be well below zero with the windchill..

The omeptition was good !. there were 36 riders and skiers competing which is a great crowd..!.. Here’s Gabe on the Sam rail… It’s great that everyone calls it the Sam rail…

It was beutifulup there as the sun started to set.. beiutiful and cold !.. As soon as the sun dipped, the temeperature did too..

Zach and the BV crew kept the music pumping to the very end.. I could tell they were all frozen… !

One bad thing that happened was Jack B hit the flat box with his shin and was really hurting.. Ski patorl took him down in a sled.. then Lincoln took him to the hospital.. The good-ish news is that it’s only a really bad bruis.e. Hes hoem and on crutches.. and will be back on his board in a week or so.. Good luck Jack !

Around 5:30 we all gathered in the small lunge outside of Zach’s office for results and  prizes..

I can’t remember who won what.. but I remember that Marie K won soemthing ,so did Ellis and  Ryan H. Luke also won something.. There was some good booty and cash prizes fo rthe winners.   The most fun part was when Marie donated the case of red bull she won to the crowd.. What a feeding frenzy.. I had to jump out of the way !

I was helping clean up when I came across this small Sam Shirne above Zach’s desk. I know Sam would have  loved htis.. and  somehow I feel he still does..

OK.. so that was the day.. TOmorrow is the last day of vacation,,, I’ll give soem thoughts on that tomorrow. For now.. ‘nite all. Nite Sam
-me

Friends,
     We’re trying to get the word out about the benefit Rail Jam  for Sam at Bolton on Saturday (Tomorrow !)   It’s for Riders and Skiers Men and Women. Registration is at 2, Competition starts at 3. Entry fee is $20 All proceeds go to the Sam Cohn Foundation .  Cash and booty prizes !
Thanks to the organizers Ralph K and Taylor C  and Sponsors Dark Side and 802 !!!!!!

Ya’ll come !

U2 Sam !
-me