Monday late night – RSI

 

I spent a pretty productive workday here in Sherborn at my folks house.. Like any day. I had back to back phonecalls all day.. and my parents let me work.. in fact they brought me food and tea all day.. not bad !

I lef tthere house just before 5 bound for Cambridge. I got there wwth saome time to spare.. so I visied some of my old haunts.. Here’s  my old dorm suite.. the one with the window open.

 

Ahh good old bexeley hall.. so many good memories.


no one was there, I  left a samstone as a calling card..

 

around 6 it was time to meet the students at 77 mass ave.. actually I was a few min early, so I decided t go up and visit a few folks.

 

before i did I had to admire a new piece of sculpture..

and here’s the chapel I was (worngly) accused of wiretapping..

 

and the infinite corridor !!!  (the sun supposedly sets down the corridor twice a year)

I found my way up to Doc Edgerton’s lab.. Doc is gone, but his cool maker sensibility lives on his lag..

Here’s a picture which Doc took in the mid 70’s  .Some say the figure is Nessie .. it’s a picture Doc took with sidescan sonor . Doc never claimed it was Nessie..

looks pretty convincing to me ! but.. it’s pretty interesting.no (Tim.. I apologize I said Champ when I first wrote this.. but that was at 3 AM 🙂

everything’s geekeier here at MIT.. even the hand wash signs in the bathrooms !

after a nice dinner with 6 of my student handlers, I was ready to give my talk.. 77 high school senior age folks in the audience.  40 from the US.. the remainder from 11 countries.  These are very smart and very fun kids..

The talk wet well at the beginning .then .. lagged a bit in the middle, then finsihed well. I wish I’d brought more toys.. next time I will.. i redeemed myself slightly at the end.. when I ran to the Coop store in the student center and jury rigged a glowing pickle for later in the evening.

 

I got pleasantly mobbed after the talk, so I got to talk to a bunch of the students.. I loved that.. Here’s Kate the co-director of the program..

The students wewre all so poised and driven.it was a real pleasure talking to them and hanging out with them.. we took many more pictures than this.. here’s a representative sample/.

It was also their ‘country night’. I stayed until midnight watching them tell stories about their home countries . Some even sang and danced. It was awesome !

 

They even danced the macarens..

 

 

After the event we all went to the kids dorm and had an international dinner of national foods.. yum !!

ok.. I keep falling aslseep.. gotta end here.. not sure I’m making sense (it’s 2:43 am)

-nite all, nite sam.

-me

 

 

Sunday night – Familial

greetings from almost home. I’m at my folks home in sherborne ma. I have a talk tomorrow for a bunch of very clever highs school students attending a summer program at MIT. I’ll work a full day down here tomorrow then give that talk in the evening tomorrow. I like being able to drop down here to see my folks. T Hey have a wonderful place out in the woods surrounding boston.. it reminds me so much of the place I grew up.. the trees, the house.. the food.. .. even the conversation is a fun and comforting echo of when I was a kid..

It’s fun, amazing .. and kinda weird that my folks and I can drop into a comfortable pattern that’s more than fifty years old..

if that’s not love….. what is ?

nite all, nite sam
-me

Saturday evening – long trail

Spent this morning preparing for a talk I have to give at MIT on Monday;.. got most of it it done. We rewarded ourselves by taking one of our favorite dog hikes.. We asked Hannah to drop us at the place the Long Trail crosses the Notch road.. and we we walked back home.  We love that trail because it has steep parts, even parts, views, streams, ponds, berries (often) animals (not so often) and great rocks..

 

like this interesting pile . Ok . so it isn’t a naturally occurring one.. but we always take a few samstones up there to drop for the through hikers.

 

We took most of the hike at a quick pace for exercise. We stopped a few places to let the dogs cool off. One of our stops was our favorite beaver pond.

Diane took advantage of the stope to pull the ferns out that had gotten stuck in her toes.

There’s an impressive three level beaver dam here.. its a little hard to see all three.. but these are long and strong constructions.

Next stop was the ckiffs overlooking Bolton and camels hump..

The heavy rains had left a bumper crop of interesting ‘shrooms..

and even a few early blueberries.. and raspberries .. yum !

 

THere was a ton of storm damage there.. this huge tree  was just snapped off by the wind..

 

Just before the final descent you come out into a panaramic view of our valley. if you squint.. you can even see the roof of our hous.e.

 

Thene there’s a long uncomfortable scramble down the thorny path home.. Still , well worth the walk..

Follweed by an accidental nap on the sofa..

 

I’m content..

nite all, nite sam

-me

 

 

Friday evening – cut and burned

I had a really wonderful day.. I know because my hands are all cut up and burned. I got really tired of work yesterday.. really, really tired.. so I decided to cut work to day and take an unplanned vacation. I spent it working with my hands .. that’s what grounds me..  it’s concrete.. it’s immediate..  I’m not that great at it, bur it’s what I love I spent the entire day at Homers working on a project,, We cut, sanded, bent, burned, melted, soldered. for about 8 hours.. I love working with him.. he’s got such a great intuitive understanding of mechanics and materials It’s a pleasure to watch him work.. I always learn something. It’s so fun working with someone who has perfectly complimentary skills. It’s why I love workign with my brother.. or Mike from The Colony.. Together we make a whole person.

Hmmm. again.. fun days don’t always make for the most interesting blog posts.. I hope you guys forgive me for being happy..

nite all, nite sam

-me