Tuesday night – family ties

A few weeks ago in New Orleans  I managed to find the grave sites of my uncle, my grand parents , my great aunt and uncle and my great grandparents ..   It was a funny feelign seeing tose stones with my last name..       but somehow it felt good and connected me to my past…    This  evening , Diane’s brother Steve turned us on to a grave site registry called http://findagrave.com . Steve has been using it to research both sides of his (and Diane’s ) families.. He’s also inputting data on his family as he goes. It’s a little sad looking through these pages, , but it’s cool , too  .. For example.. Here’s Diane’s grandfather Constantino.. he came over from Italy and worked as a brick layer

Constantino ‘s first wife Theresa had a son Stefano who died at one year

Theresa died in 1930 of pnuemonia.

Constantino sent back a request to italy for a  a new wife to help him
raise his kids.. He found the beautiful Pierina Mariano . She wanted to leave italy because two of her suitors had a duel over her.. and one killed hte other !

Pierina was a beautiful and kind person.. she always used to tell me ‘John. sta’ bon’ .. ‘Be Good !’

Steve’s been putting in pictures of many of his family’s grave sites.. he has this one of his daughter Susan.. who did not live even a day

It’s comforting somehow to see these images for me.. it brings me a sense of place and time…

THat’s it for the day.

Nite folks, nite Sam
-me

Monday night – monastic life

Diane’s home from her trip to the Abbey of Regina Laudis to see Sister Cecilia and her other yoga friends. She had a great time.  . . It was so cool hearing about her trip. The  Brothers and Sisters of the Abbey sound like wonderful and gracious hosts.

Monastic life seems so appealing to me ..   Diane’s stories and pictures paint a picture of a happier , more self contained and simpliler life. Lots of hard work.. and few distractions.. surrounded by love and quiet.. The sisters and brothers there  do most of the work to raise food, make repairs and run the place.. Like a holy version of the Colony I suppose.

It would be fun to try, but who am I kidding ? I’d probably last about 20 minutes in the monastic life … I think I crave the hustle bustle and distractions of my life.. .though  I could probably use a little more quiet now

Think I’ll get some now..

Pax vobiscum folks.. Pax vobiscum Sam

-me

Sunday night – sole power

I’m really getting in to this barefoot running thing.. It’s so cool to have a different twist on something you’ve been doing the same way for 30 years.. Today i started from home which meant running barefoot on the road to the trail .. no problem at all. my feet are so tough from going barefoot around here all the time that the road was easy.. it’s the manure and slugs on the trail that are hard on the sole.

I like the way it makes me feel.. You really are in touch with the ground..     and it makes my feet, legs and hips feel good.. Here are my tootsies.. notice I have totally flat feet.. yet running with no shoes feels better than all the fancy running shoes I’ve evertworn.

The rest of the day passed blissflully without feature. the one big event is that both Gabe and I fell asleep in the sun  on the trampoline outside for about an hour..

Around sundown we sparekd up the mud oven and made some calzones..

Diane comes home tomorrow morning. I can’t wait to see her..   Now it’s time for bed.. I nneed to wake early to get gabe to school in the morning. Peace to you all

night folks. night Sam
-me

Saturday – working things through

Slow quiet day.. DIane is still down at the Abey. so Gabe and I got to ang out today.. I took . We were on the rode this morning at 7:15 on our way to two LAX games in Westford.. Gbae played well (3 goals)..

I sat on the sidelines shivering..   I was in shorts

and sandals.. but eventually had to borrow a parka from friend jerome

because my teeth were chattering..   

I don’t mean to complain. though.. I prefer too cold to too hot.. it

never has to go above 60 degrees for me !  Once it goes much higher 

I’m useless. my IQ drops a point  for every degree above 75.

We got home around noon.. Both Gabe and I accidentally fell asleep once we got home.. he slept for about 3 hours.. I slept for less… woke up in time to cut the grass..

Now, cutting the grass is a spirtital thing for me.. something about the noise and vibration puts me in an angry and problem solving mindset.. As I start the mower, something will pop into my mind. usually something that makes me angry.. by the time I finish the back yard I’ve managed to get it worked through and resolved..   Today it was work stuff.. by the time the tank was empty I was relaxed about it..    cheaper than therapy..

TOnight Gabe and I were both moving pretty slowly.. we decided to go out for sushi.. it was great, I love just hanging with Gabe. he’s always thinking..

As we sat there eating I saw several carload of prom goers come and go into the other resturants in the little strip mall.. That got me thinking f prms.. wcih got me thinking about Sam….  .this would have been senior prom time.. I wonder who he would have taken.. what he would have worn..

I ran into Sam’s friend John today.. he and his friends were all dressed.. not for a prom.. but for their friend Ben’s wedding.. wow..

I was thinking about all this when I just took a look at Sam’s old MySpace account.. a couple of friends had posted there this week.. while most of his (and everyones) friends have moved on to facebook, but kids still leave messages there ..   I love that

OK.. time to go and watch a movie with gabe.. I love these quiet nights

night all.. night sam..   .. watch over all these promgoers for us..
-me
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