So.. one of the things I picked up on my last adventure was a bad coffee habit. You have to understand that I stopped drinking coffee in 1988 right before grad school. The rasosn for this are all hazy to me now.. but I rememeber it had to do with how much I love Diane. Anyway… I struggled through graduate school without coffee.. and pretty much up lasted without it until I joined the Colony. I completley missed the rise of starbucks and all the fancy coffees that came with it.  I strated drinking coffee while working on the COlony  because it was hot, and relativly free from pathogens.. or at least the pathogens were harder to taste. Now, I love coffee again.. I dream of it.. I can’t pass it up when I see it at work. I even half to confess I drank half a caraff of cold coffee I found sitting on a desk at work. I like it because it calms me down and lets me focus…It’s like Red Bull for grown-ups.. I like it. I want some now… 

Today was a little tough at work. It was the first day I really felt ‘back’… THere’s so much I need to do.. and so much I have to come back up to speed on. It’s a differnt kind of hard work than I’ve been accomstomed to for the last 2 months.. But it’s all coming back to me. Still, I was reliveed when the end of the day came. I heade over to Gabe’s Lacrosse game.. it was cool, rainey and buggy.. We had to put on hoodys to stay warm and stop the swarming black flies (yuck)

Gabe had a good game.. he did manage to deflect a hard pass with his knee… it’s gonna be a big bruise tomorrow !

I managed to freeze my fingers watching the game… even in may

I should have work gloves.. I never learn.

Night folks… Night gabe..
-me

ps. Diane found this video about the state of the world.. I found it really interesting..

So.. I continue to be in a kind of spacey timeless zone after returning from the apocolypse. I’m in that kind of space where you’re most open to seeing magical asociations… the kind you find in improbable coincidences. I see them as messages from the cosmos trying to tell you something. They’re not usually very easy to read..   The one that keeps hitting me on the head over the last few weeks has to do with  Machu Picchu in Peru. For some reason   the lost city of the Inca’s keeps comig into my conciousness  by way of several freinds.. First  our good freinds Deb, Hannah, Brit. Ian and Matt went down there for a visit  and left a Samstone. A week later, my good freind Uwe from work left a samstone there.. A week later my freind Val from college was down there with her famiylll and a samstone.   Last week my very good freind and mentor Homer was there… today in the lucnh rimm my friends pete and sue told me that theur son  peter.. also a freind of mine.. just returned from placeing a samstone there…
   What the heck is going on ? What does this mean ? Does it mean anything ? I guess we’re going to Peru at some point to find out.   
    THe world s such a cool place .. isn’t it Sam ?
-me

Happy cinco del mayo folks. I’m just home ot an empty house. Gabe and diane are at lacrosse practice. I walked in to find a loaf of Diane’s fresh baked bread. Can I resist the temptation ?   Life here is pretty good.

I’ve been back home for one week tonight from my time on ‘The Colony’. Each day I’m feeling more back in the real world… but I’m still trying to hold on to a few of the things I picked up while I was gone. I’m still managing not to get completly caught up in email and cell phone mania. In fact.. this blog and facebook are the only computer time I’m alowing myself at home (That’s made easier by the fact that I can’t quite get my work email working at home.. too many of my passwords expired while I was out .. and I haven’t felt the urge to fix that 🙂   I’m also doing a pretty good job and not getting stressed out at work. It’s been interesting coming back to my work after 2 months away and seeing what has and what has not changed…. I relize that I left so suddenly that most folks didn’t know where I’d gone.. many didn’t even know I was gone.. I guess that’s good.. 
   One thing I am missing is the friends I made during the Colony project. I’m communicating with them by phone, facebook and email… but it’s not the same as hanging out with them. What we all went through together has made us into really good freinds. I’m hoping that we can all get together again when the show first aires in July ,
(Just talked to one of them by phone as I was writing).  THere’s so much I’d like to say about tehm.. and our shared expereince.. but I can’t do that for several more months.. That’s turing out to be one of the hardest things of all ..
   Well.. not much more to report today.. more tomorrow. gnite folks.. gnite Sam
-me

What a beutiful and emotionally full day.. It began with a suprise when I went through all the mail Id collected while I was gone. In there I found a package from my good freind Camil. He’d been to Lebanon in the fall and had planted several cedar  trees in Sam’s memory. In the packagage was a certicificate telling the parcels where the trees were. a map of the forest, an id card and a small tree figure with Sam’s names and dates. It was a beutiful way to remember Sam.. It was so moving to see this stuff from so far away now in or home. Shukran (Thanks so much) Camil..   That was a wonderful thing to do.

We also got a movie of a Samstone placement from my new good freind George. George placed his stone in the Joshua Tree forest while camping there. Check out this scenery..

Later  in the morning my good freind Vicki and her cool husband Greg dropped by on their way to see family. It was great catching up with them.. they are such amazing folks. We had a great conversatin on perspective. Vicki and Greg spend a good deal of their time volunteering with various orginizations. One of their favorites is the Ronald McDonald house in Burlington. We’re big fans of tthat orginization. They put us in Tampa after Sam’s accident.

Around midday we started on a big project with Gabe. Our goal was to build a skate board half pipe. We’d baught all the lumber yesterday.. . Our goal was to get most of it assembled today.. we got pretty close ! The first step was to trace the pattern for the ramp sides on a 4×8 piece of plywood. Diane had the good idea to use the video projector. That worked pretty well !

It was great working with Gabe.. he duid a big share of the work !

The shole thing came together nicely.. At this point we just need to move the 3 oeices and put the decking on !

Around 3 I got a call from all of our friends from The Colony TV show cast. Several of them were getting together in a resturant to talk.. It was great hearing from them all.. I miss them all very much ..  ThenAround 5, Gabe’s (and our) good freind Trevor came over. Trevor and his fmaily are moving to Texas on Tuesday. We’re realllllly goign to miss that kid !.  He’s been such a good friend to Gabe.. and has been an important addition to our family. He was here in the house the night we got the call that Sam had been hit.. I’ll never forget him being here.. Trevor’s such a great kid.. We’ll all miss him so much. I he he’s happy in Texas.. I think he wll be.

OK. I’m getting pretty sleepy.. so time for bed. More tomorrow.. Nite all. Nite Sam
-me