Greetings from the CUSP conference in Chicago.  I flew out this morning after a late night yeasterday watching the 9th and penultimate episode of the colony at Jen and Jim’s.. Amy our favorite tree hugger was with us.. actually.. Amy’s holding on to this tree so she doesn’t fall off a cliff into Triple Buckets gorge.

 
We got home last night around 11:30.. then I had to pack.in time to leave home at 5:15 AM.. Yawnnnnnnn  to fly to Chicago to attend this conference. I actually am splitting my time.. I’m putting in a full day of IBM work suring the day .. then attending the two days of conferences in the evening. it’s like being in two places at once.. but not really being in either..

I’m here at the request of some friends at IBM headquarters who volunteered me to speak at this eclectic design conference. The conference approached IBM looking for a ‘quirky’ speaker…   and, they told me , I came to mind. I think they meant ‘quirky’ in a nice way.. but I’m not too sure.. Anyway, the conference is amazing.. though it’s nominally about ‘design’ . it’s got folks from all sorts of disciplines.. It’s being held in the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art. which is a beautiful setting.

 Today we heard form a doctor, an ex priest wrapped in chains and bubble wrap (I missed that one). a cartoonist/writer/ an Islamic cleric, a twitter geek. a pilates teacher and a 150 piece student orchestra.

The company is fascinating.. though I’m finding

myself suddenly shy.. So shy that I can’t muster the guts to go up and

talk to anyone. though I find I’m good if someone engages me first.  I

cant figure out where this shyness is coming from.. normally I’d be

bouncing around working the room. I think I’ve had so little privacy

over the last few months.. that I’m looking for a little space.  

   Even so I did have some great conversations with a few folks at dinner..   One of my favorites was with Lynda Barry.. a cartoonist and writer who does the Marly comic strip we get in Funny Times

She gave a wonderful talk today. One thing she said that If the voice in your head that was always criticizing you and holding you back was another person.. you wouldn’t listen to them.. you’d dismiss them as a jerk.. so she asks,  why do we listen to those voices ?    Good advise..

She also said everyone in the audience was an artist.. and challenged us to go off and make a traced hand turkey to re-prove to ourselves that we were artistic.   I maintain that she’s a bit overoptimistic there.. and offer the attached sample of my own work as proof.

She also lead the folks at our dinner table through an exercise of drawing straight lines with Chinese brushes..   It was an amazing exercise in patience.. and was hugely fun to see how different folks approached the task. here’s a sampling  form our table.. Can you guess which one is mine ? If so. please tell me .. I have forgotten which one it is 🙂

OK.. all those wavy lines remind me just how sleepy I am.. I’m going to try and get a good nights sleep tonight.  SO More tomorrow..

Goodnight my friends.. Good night Sam

-me

Walked out of work today just before 6 into a beautiful fall afternoon. Maybe it was the weather.. or soemthing about the light.. but   something came over me as I got in the car. There are times like this when Sam’s presence.. or maybe his absence.. comes over me so strongly that it’s like a spell. It’s a funny mix of sad, sweet and quiet.. that lasts for an hour or so. I can actually feel it in my body.. it’s like a warmth right above my heart. … I had an errand to do on the way home.. but by the time I hit Richmond, I was deep in that spell.  I often talk to Sam when I’m alone in the car.. I don’t know if he can hear me.. but I do it for myself today ‘we’ talked about the town.. As I drove the 3 miles from Richmond to Jonesville I remembered Sam back into this place.. 

 Like k here where we’d wait for our place in the 4th of July parade…

Or the Boutin’s old place where we’d go to see the crazy Christmas lights

Or Everett’s where we bought a pie once.

I can picture passing Sam on his bike here

Sam came with me once when we were helping rebuild this barn.. since he died, we’ve had two memorial concerts for him here.  

Here’s Robin’s mountain.. the backdrop for our neighborhood.

This is the Williams.. There son Jerrod died in 2001.. I remember thinking how unthinkable that would be…

And here’s the old Jonesville store.. we all used to walk there to get ice cream on hot summer days. Our friend Dan is reopening the place into a cool hippy cooperative.

And.. here’s the rope swing where all the kids used to spend summer days. I remember coming home one day from work and seeing Sam doing a back flip off the rope .. thing was.. he had a cast on his arm.. he’d just broken his elbow. Worse yet, he decided to tell the orthopedic surgeon about doing the flip when we went to get the cast changed.  I remember  that I got in trouble for that.

here’s the winooski where we’d all tube or canoe or kayak..

ANd.. of course.. here’s home..

As I pulled into the driveway the sense passed, the dogs needed attention, I had to get dinner going.. I wanted to talk to Gabe.. Life resumed .. it was now again..
And now it’s late..

Nite folks Nice riding with you Sam.
-me

Another peaceful laid back day.. getting ready for the change of season.. We woke to a wierd and unpleasant surprise, someone had gone through both of our cars as they sat in our driveway. the glove compartments and all the contents had been rifled through. Stuff lay strewn about.. but nothing was taken as far as we know. it was  wierd sort of violation in a community like ours where folks rarely lock their cars.. ours will be locked from now on .. and we’ll be a little sadder for it..

Mid afternoon we stopped by Kristenn’s for the continuation of her birthday. It was nice hanging out with her family.. Her grandmother had the most amazing sunflowers !

Around 4,  Diane and I headed to the Huntington Living Art festival at Sarah Jane’s barn.   It was a quintessential Vermont event.. 

Walking into the barn was an emotional experience for me. I haven’t been in there since Sam died. We had several of our huge Halloween parties in this barn . Every place I visit for the first time ‘since’ I have to relive a bit of loss. I also get to  relive the fun memories of those parties with all three boys and their friends running around. Those were very good years for us. … We may have even hung some  of the lights that were in the barn today..

Outside, many of our artist freinds were plying their wares.. Jen was out there with a table for clay work. She’d made this cool Sun.. and asked folks to help decorate it..

Someone.. not sure who.. made a spontaneous SamStone.. Our family is held so close in the heart of this community.   We appreciate it very much !

Here’s friend Meg weaving …

And Duncan (that’s his leg) demonstrating a hundred yar old post and beam mortor drill (I think that’s what it’s called)

A spinner (Who’s this ? It’s rare I don’t know someone in this town )

Our friend Ben’s mobile pizza oven ..

It was fun seeing all of our friends.. many of them came up to talk about the colony..  Most said they’d heard about it, but hadn’t seen it.. since they didn’t have TV>. I love it . we’re not the only ones !

One the way home we found thies great mushrooms in front of Jen and Tim’s place.

And a fox in the field across from them !

Then we came home and cleaned up the last stuff in the garden.. including these mammoth zuchinni’s .. they are like building material now.

OK.. that’s about it for today.. I appreciate everyone’s comments on yesterdays blog about Calor Humano.. it motivated me to give this more thoguht..

OK… folks.. gnite.. have a good week
nite Sam
-me