Already an amazing day.. and it’s only 1PM.. In last night’s entry I described how
I was sleeping in my car at the Beacon train station. Turns out I had a great night sleep. I think I woke up twice to turn on the heat.. but other than that I slept like a baby… albeit an upright, fully clothed baby.    The reason I was sleeping in the car was a complicated mix of poor planning. adventurousness and expediency. I came down here to pick up a piece of equipment form friend Marty.. and then participate in a great face to face meeting at work. The highlight of that day was a great talk byy my hero/,mentor Nick D. He’d retired last year.. and his g-dfatherly presence has really been missed around work. I invited him to come and address a group of our colleagues and he graciously accepted. He’s one of the most passionate and inspiring people I know.. He talked about the need for each person to make a lasting change for the good in the world.. Good message.. The energy in the room after his talk was really good and positive. It’s amazing to see how one persons energy can lift the spirits of so many others..

Again, doing a meeting face to face like this is now sadly a rare treat. It was great catching up with freinds like Dawn (here).. and Chandu (below)

Around 7 I drove down to brrokly to see Max. It was a short but great visit.. we ate weird veggie take out and sat around and played with our granddog Reptar. We also played with Marty’s coin tosser and kept denting the ceiling as we launched quarters at super sonic speeds.

I took off for points north about 11:30.. I decided to do that because my options for catching a train at Grand Central this mornign would have involved waking up really, really early.. So around 1 AM I got to Beacon, paid for parking , blogged.. and slept wonderfully..

Around  7:30 my buddy Bill came by and picked me up. We raided a min mart.. then

We drove over to Newburgh and boarded Scott’s boat .. here’s scott, bill, and most of tom…

We also had my good bud Jim on board.. We took off .. weather was wet and in the low 40’s.. That basically turned us off of skiing or wakeboarding.. which had been on the docket for the day. Instead we just motored south.. talked (actually yelled over the engines) .. and admired the very cool sights.

Like this weird old abandoned castle on an island.. Bill once lead an all night poker game here.

And West Point…

And a spooky old looking Nuke. Bill said it’s a good place to ski since the ater is 7 to 9 degrees warmer near the plant (huh ?!?)

We made good time .. doing between 40 and 50knots  .. in a couple of hours we were near the mouth of the river.. that’s where we started having to dodge big barges and ocean going ships

We even ran into pirates.. well they wern’t really pirates.. but we ‘Arghhhhhhhhed’ ’em

Here’s Brad and the Tappen Zee bridge…   Brad’s the one in the orange hood.. not the girders.

Here I am in a borrowed sweatshirt.. Yelllllllow ?????

Soon we were running down the ide of Manhattan.

Down to the end.. here’s where the World Trade center used to be..    wow..

We pulled up at the Statue of Liberty State park to meet Bill’s brother.. and refuel.. (whihc I don’ tthink they actually did)

Bill and Bob.. they DO look like brothers to be sure !

I looked at the time and decided I neded to jump off there in order to make my train back to the car.. I said good by to the guys and caught the ferry back to the financial district..   The guys took off to get Brad to JFK..

Here’s Lady Liberty.. shrouded in fog.. still looking beutiful..

I got off the ferry and took a few meditative moments to look at the Twin Towers site.. The memorial contruction is going strong.. I really admire the rebuilding that’s going on here.. you can build back from just about anything…    .. even if you’re never the same. Can’t you.

I walked up to Fulton and jumperd a 4 train to Grand Central.. I love the buzz of the crowd… welll.. I loved it as much as my conference calls would allow me. It’s pretty wierd that I can do my work walkign around NYC as well as I can sitting at my desk.. is that a good thing ?

I love the subway music (yes.. I left some money)

I got to my train in planty of time.. I’m on the train now.. just about to arrive at my car. I still have a full day of work ahead of me.. and then adrive back to VT>. It’s been a great day already.. …

Alright.. we’re almost ‘there’ better close up. More tomorrow. Talk to you then folks.. TTYL Sam
-me