Monthly Archives: July 2010

Sunday night – amherst

We’re all just bac from a really nice trip to Amherst Mass forone of Gab’es All Star Lacross Tournements. This is his second Tourney.. it’s so much fun hanging out with these new kids on his teams.. their parents and the kids from the other teams. There were teams there today from Georgia, texas and .. who knows where else. THe weather held both yesterday afternoon and today.. it was hot.. but not too bad.. Overall it was a great couple of days.. the guys won two, tied two and lost one.. thhat’s the best showing for a u15 Vt team ever… so the guys were happy. Gabe had a good time, so I was happy..

The teams were all pretty good.. so the games were both gentlemanly and rough.. gabe got a pretty good chop to teh throat and to the forearm.

Luckily we had Coach Deadhead.. (not his real name.. but he sure likes the grateful dead !).. who’s an orthopedic surgeon take a look.. no broken boans, but a nasty whack ..

We actually choralled the kids long enough this afternoon to get a picture.. Luckily, the piicture doesn’t coem with scent.. they were al pretty frgrent after a couple of games in the 90 degree weather.

One of the joys of lacrosse is getting to hang out with some of the other families.. Gabe is one of 2 kids form his high school on his teama nice kid.. Hsis and Bella.

Lea nad her dad got in a cartwheel contest..

Lea won 🙂

One of the othe rpleasures of these games is that Diane and I get to explore.. We found a min version of Stonehenge near the playoing fields. It marked the solstice,s the equinoxes (equonii ?).. and the moon rise anand settings .. Very cool !

Hey.. they even had a pagan priestess !

as we drove out, Gabe ran back in and placed a SamStone in the ring..

After the games, we all drove to Puffer’s Pond.. a local swimming hole and hang out. I’d heard about it form my friend Mike who’d also been at the tourney watching the younger VT team play. Mos tof the team came with us to the pond. It was a beautiful hang out just liek we have in VT..

All the kids went in.. (which made it much easier to be in the car with them !)..
I went in.. some of the moms and dads did too..

Even Coach B went in !

Here’s ROb and his kids..

Around 4 ew said good bye to everyone and hit the road, intending to go straight back to VT>. but, we stoipped in to a small pizza place to get a drink just as the last game of the soccor wolrld cup was going in to over time.. 0-0 , spain vs netherlands.. 15 minute overtime, no sudden death.. wow !
I don’t even like watching soccor.. but this was too good to miss. We sat down and watched the two teams battle it out.. I was aso moved by the drama of it.. ther emust have been nearly a billon folks watching the game. has that ever happened before ? it was so cool !

Business basically stopped dirng the last few minutes.


We were glued to our seats.. (sort of)

..Spain got a goal.. then .. the clockran out.. and they won.. Even here in a small town in Mass you could feel both sides.. the victory and the defeat.. ! It was pretty cool !

and so ended the Soccer world cup..
and so ended our weekend..
more tomorrow

nite folks, nite sam !
-me .

Saturday night – fight club

Greetings from Ludlow Mass. We’re down here for a lacrosse tournement. Gabe drove us part of the way downon the interstate through pouring rain. He’s a great driver. I get to sit in the back and relax,,

Caught this goofy sentiment on a car at one of the resstops..

We got down to Amherst around 11.. It was absolutely pouring..  .. The fields were covered with water.. but the nice thing is the heat had broken..

Miraculously, the rain stopped just as the first of Gabes 3 games began and the weather behaved the rest of the day.  Photos form the gae are on the other camera.. but it went well !. Gabe had a good day as did the team.. . I do like these tournesys as folks come from all over the us to play.. and still, no one keeps score. I do like this game.

The games finished aroun 7.. then we had a 30 minute drive to the hotel. By the time we ewre cleaned up, we were all starving. We walked sown the street totto a chineese place that turned our to be a real treat.. the place was excelelnt.. there were 13 of us ..   (the french always had a batchelor frend.. a quatarsieen   they could invite at the last minute to change an unlucky 13 to 14,,,

We ended the dinner with a surprise birthday salute to almost 8 year old Belle

We dropepd the kids off t the hotel and the adults plus Belle walked a few blocks to get ice cream

In the half hour we were gone the boys had gotten into some funny mischief.. they’d created their own fight club.. They were boxing in the corridor wearing their LAX helmets and gloves… and filing it ..  One of the boys  (gabe, i think) almost knowcked out noen of the others..

By the time we got home they were watching it all on tvour hotel room     It was hilarious. 

Now watching a a scary movie in the room with Diane and Gabe… life down’t get much better,.
night folks. Nite Sam.. we’re thinking of you..
-me

Friday night – School of Rock

Nice evening.. Gabe and I stopped over at Chirs and Kims . They were havign a party to say goodbye to their rock word garden. Chirs sold the whole collection to St. Michael’s College !.. He’s goign to rebuild it.. still.. it’s kinda sad saygn good bye to the zany word puzzle that is his yard.. Here’s below are a few scraps of wizdom and madness …

BTW.. I take great pride in the fact that Gabe is helpign chris make the new words !..

We also got to see Chris new shower almost complete. .It has one pull for water, one pull string for air.. and another foot pedal for blowing an air whistle. It’s just so beutiful !.. and it’s all made out of copper and brass !

I got to see the fountain that Gabe’s been working on.. He’s done the  cutting, polishing and drilling of this.. It’s really nice !

Chris’s work space is full of the cooledst art he’s made.. .. her’s a moose rock.

Gabe just made this rock for our word garden. !

I brought my propane flame shooter over to show chris.. he’s thinking of adding flame ot the shower..

OK.. ealry start tomorrow for lacross.. so I Beteter sleep now..
nite all.. nite Sam
-me

Fri

Thursday night – the club…

Another day of record breaking heat.. no one is moving quickly..Life feels kinda like reading a Faulkner novel… everything is slow and sticky.. the air is thick.. sounds are muffled, the hills dissapear in the distance..

At least it’s air conditioned at work.. but I think they shut that down

around 4PM on hot days to save energy.. by 6 it was in the 80’s in my

office..

I went outside at 6PM to find my car thermometer reading 10 degrees.. ok.. so it WAS in the sun.. but.. 106 ?.. It was 87 inside our house when I got home..  Houston was like this all the time.. but we had AC..

THe heat put me in a peaceful and open mood.. Somehow the world new I couldn’t be bothered with much today.. so it sent me some really interesting interactions with people.. .. Lots of talk about how people were feeling …

two of the meetings were worth noting here. I made two new friends today.. and both are members of ‘the club’.. The club I mean is of guys who have had children who have died… there are no meetings, no badges, no slogans.. just a shared common tragedy. No one tells you about the club.. you just wake up one day and you’re a member.  I have one friend.. a club member who says it’s the club with the highest dues . The first guy I met was John from NY.. he’d seen an article about my science outreach work in the CMU magazine. John does similar outreach work for his company.. We’d talked for about 10 minutes when I mentioned how Sam’s passing had made my outreach work. into a life mission. He stopped me and told me about his daughter Sarah who’d died at age 4 in 1999.. She was also an organ donor.. we talked for an hour.. we’ll talk again I’m sure..   The second guy is only a friend in the facebook sense so far.. Robert, a a friend  of a friend connected us.. He’s a high level tech visionary in the government.. and he lost his oldest son in 2008. I’ reaching out to him by phoen to see if he wants to talk..

I keep running into club members I find them by accident.. or friends connect me. This club takes care of it’s own..It’s easy to talk to other guys who’ve been through loss like this.. the funny thing is.. we don’t usually talk about our loss loss..just at the begining.. then we go on to talk about other things, family, work , life..  it’s just a big piece of very regrettable common ground.   One thing that always comes up is ‘mission’.. I’m finding that loss often drives guys ot find a mission.. some way to turn work into healing.. arbeit macht frei

Anyway,, here’s to the other members of the club out there.. i think of you all every day..

night folks.. night sam
-me