Monthly Archives: May 2010

Saturday night – Clean Slate

Clean Slate… a great phrase.. a fresh start

in our life ? Well maybe, but I mean that that’s what I did this

afternoon.. .. clean slate.. as we helped our friend Chris  prepare

pieces of slate  shingles for sandblasting.. 

 Chris

makes these things into beutiful ornaments  He’s getting them ready for

the Vermont Artisanans Open Studio day and needed a few eextra hands.. 

My job was to use an air hose to blow off any chips of slate before their masked for sandblasting.

It

was so cool watching the thin sheets of slate come flying off under the

force of the air hose. Each of those sheets represented a layer of mud

sediment layed down on he bottom of soem body of water eans ago.. how

cool is that ? 

It was mindless. noisy and satisfying work. It was really gratifying to get to the bottom of the slate container. 

Here they are , ready to mask..

Meanwhile

Gabe worked on applying the rubber masks that pattern the sandblasting.

Gabe is really good at this sorty of fine work..

Chris

showed us the jar of used exacto blades he’s gone through over the

years.. He says that every one he’s every used is in either this jar or

an even larger oe he has in his shop !

While

Gabe and I worked with Chris on the rocks, Diane helped Kim weed one of

their many gardens.. It felt good to be useful !..

It’s always

cool visiting chris and kim.. they have soe much interesting stuff..

here’s Chris’s artistically done firewood stacks

Ans

his current in construnction sculpture project, mineral springs II.  

It’s a beutoiful copper and brassfoot treadle poered shower. It’s

really amazing 

The shower head is an old army helmet !

We each took a turn on Chris’s zip line to finish our day..

I noticed a Sam button in Chris’s work area.. been thinkign of him all day..

OK.. only 9 PM .. but I’m fading fast. Must get some sleep.. More tomorrow.
nite all, night Sam
-me

Friday night – ok to be tender

I’ve been feeling really sad on and off  for the last couple of days without acknowledging why.. Today on my run I had to admit to myself that it is Sam’s upcoming birthday. Sam would have been turing 18 a week from today.. and I miss him.. I really, really miss him.. with every bone in my body. The thing is, I miss him every hour of every day.

I often tell people that’ special’  days like fathers day and mothers day are not any worse than any other day . The things that make those days differnt is that everyone else puts extra weight on those days.. I am held hostage by my own expectations on myself.

This birthday seems different. Maybe it’s because of high school graduation.. or because all of sam’s friends will be going off to college.. Or maybe I’m just tired of the weight of being sad under the surface all the time..

I found myself crying on and off through the day today.. on my run., in the car, in my office.. That’s something I haven’t done in some time.. and it actually felt good.

Diane and I had a good talk this afternoon.. She always has such a good perspective..    She reminds me.. it’s ok to be sad.. ok to be tender. right now . ok,….

I’m going to try to take it easy this week
ntite all, nite sam
-me

Thursday night – VoMIT

Tonight was really fun.. we had our Spring meeting of VoMIT.. (Vermont’s own M. I. T.) club. It’ s my favorit group of ultr nice nerds on the planet.. We had about 15 folks over for a potluck.. and a talk on the Colony.   Here’s our Pres michelle flashing the school colors..


She even brought MIT napkins !.. (when I was at MIT people didn’t even use napkins !)

This is such a fun,  funny and diverse group of people… 

The only catch is.. it’s now too late for me to write much.. gotta get some sleep.. More tomorrow

-nite folks, night sam
-me

“E to the U, dU dX, E to the X, dX
Cosine! Secant! Tangent! Sine!

3-point-1-4-1-5-9!
Integral! Radical! µ, DV
Slipstick! Slide rule! M.I.T.!”

Wednesday night – drishti

Long, complicated day.. but somehow still loving my work. despite the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune..  Got home very late, tired and worn out.. but slipped into a beutiful evening here.. Diane, Gabe and I had dinner outside in the crisp (crisp in May !) air.. then puttered around the yard,. admiring Diane’s mulching job  on her new strawberry plants. (please comment on it.. she’s duley proud of it)   While we were admiring the mulch, DIane was telling me more about her weekend with the yoganaughts down at the Abbey.  She told me about the groups fun focus on the word ‘drishti’ (or dirsti..).. a word that I think means glance or sight in sanskrit. 

In yoga parlance the practice of Drishti is a gazing technique that develops

concentration—and teaches you to see the world as it really is.

To diane and her yoga friends. dristi also is the awareness of where your concentration is at any moment.. like in a relationship or a conversation..   the focus is on the awareness of where your focus lies (wait.. did that sentence make sense ? )   Yogis try to culture an awareness  .. not a control… of the movement of their attention.. it’s like the complete opposite of my ADD  brain.. though even thinking abut thinking in that way is fun…

 Where are you focusing now ? (I’m talikng to YOU ? ).. are you really paying attention to this blog post.. or are you thinking about going to bed.. or what you have to do tomorrow ?

I’ll leave you to think abotu that.. my drishtis on my pillow…
night folks.. night Sam
-me