Monthly Archives: February 2012

Sunday night – no place like home

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Very nice to be home after a great trip/ It’s hard to believe that ‘only’ 23 hours of travel ago I was on a beach in Goa where it was about 90 degrees F.. Now I’m happily at home with my family where the temp is about 6 degrees F.. 84 degrees / 23 hours = 3.65 degrees per hour.. or.. it’s about 7800 miles so   84 / 7800 = 0.01 Degrees/mile:  a new record for me ?

Flight back was peaceful and uneventful.. Air India direct from Mumbai to Newark in about 16 hours.. The plane was packed, colorful, friendly and noisy but somehow that was like bringing a little of India back with me to ease the transition.

It is SO wonderful to be back home.. First order of business to attend to was to celebrate my delayed birthday with family.. Diane had made my favorite apple cake… Gabe, Diane and I snag then ate a third of the cake ourselves.. After that I truly felt home !

 

Max made me these two very cool light paintings.. the first he did with a laser pointer and a long exposure. Pretty amazing !

The second is even more amazing.. he set up his camera across from the boat and set a very long exposure…

Then he ran back to the boat , got to the upper deck and wrote ‘happy birthday’ with a flashlight…. and.. he had to do it backwards with reversed letters.. Even thinking about that makes my head hurt.. !  Thats the kind of birthday present that makes a dad proud !

 

One other very nice surprise was a box I had received from my folks.. Inside was a a pocket watch that they had found at home. They’re not completely sure, but we think it’s from my great grandfather Jacob Melivn Cohn . JMC .. just like me !. That’s a wonderful gift !

The only other thing I want for my birthday is a good night’s sleep. I’m a jet-lagged zombie right now..
better not try to type anything ore..
there’s no place like home !

nite all, nite sam
-me

Saturday night – heading home

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Friends,
Im in Bombay airport on my way home. Im in bollywood ! Planes already boarding . I just have time to check in. Great set of meetings in Goa these last 3 days. Met some great folks and learned many things. I love traveling… But i love heading home even more. Cant wait to see my peeps. More tomorrow !

Nite all, nite Sam
-me

In meetings all day so not many pictures. Heres the tandoor oven at lunch. The guys were making naan to order yum

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Left one samstone in the Bombay airport

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Friday night – Karaoke

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It’s 1 a .. and I’m finally getting back to my room to blog and to get some sleep. We worked hard all day straight through from 9 Am until 7:45 pm. My brain was positively glowing by the end of the day.. so much new stuff to learn. As always.. can’t go in to it here.. but I really enjoyed working with the people we were here to meet. Around 8PM we all wondered down to one of the hotel restaurants near the beach and started to relax.. relaxing Indian style generally means karaoke.. They had a great one man band guy playing music.. once folks inhibitions were sufficiently lowered by food and drink folks started singing.. in Hindi.. and kept it going all night long… I don’t speak Hindi.. and I dont quite know how to spell my new freinds’ name.. so I’ll substitute pictures ere.


Even my freind Manish pitched in.. he had a beautiful and well trained voice !

We finally stipped talking and singing around midnight.. now I need to go to sleep !.. more tomorrow

nite all, nite sam

-me
ps. heres’ the light over my bed.. I just figured out how to tirn it off.

Thursday night – in my prime

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Happy birthday to me. !. I’m a prime number again (53 ! )   .many folks think I’m older/// but i rationalize it this way.. if I can’t act mature.. at least I can look mature 🙂 .  I’m very happy to be this age. I love many people and feel loved in return. Can’t ask for more than that.. !  Here I am about 52 years ago.. hey.. I’m still smiling !!!

I’m celebrating the first birthday I can ever remember away from home. I miss my family.. both talked to Diane and the boys today.. and heard from lots of freinds from all over the place  (Thanks !!!) . It helps that I’m in a very cool place. I’m at a work meeting in Goa on the western coast of India.. I spent the day with a group of about 40 folks from my company..Some I know.. some I’ haven’t seen in years and some I’ve never met.. We had some really good technical discussions.. Then we met some very cool folks from another company for dinner. It is really fun and fascinating talking to folks from a completely different work culture..These guys are very smart and aggressive and are growing fast. I had some great conversations comparing and contrasting our two companies’  philosophy’s  and cultures. There are many, many areas of common ground.We’re going to be all working together for the next couple of days here and I’m really looking forward to it.

 

I’m also looking forward to another long run on the beautiful beach behind the hotel. This place is famous for it’s unspoiled beeches. In the 70s it was a major world-wide hippy hangout. I read a pretty interesting book on that a few years back called ‘Goa Freaks’ Being here I can certainly see the appeal of moving here and just hanging out.. It’s a paradise.

I placed a coupe of SamStones on the beach.. I always feel Sam .. I feel him even more strongly on  Birthdays , hand holidays. I guess that’s natural.. but.. it’s so hard sometimes..

Hey yoganauts.. can you read this guys shirt ?

I came back to my room just as a beautiful slice of chocolate cake was arriving to my room.. complete with candles and a knife wrapped with ribbon. It turns out that this nice lady at the hotel desk happened to notice that today was my birthday when she saw my passport at check-in this morning.. How nice is that ? Not only that but one of the servers at dinner brought me a happy birthday veggie finger food plate after some guys sang happy birthday.. But wait.. there’s even more..

New friend Monica brought me a vintage Univac discreet transistor logic board from her husbands collection as a birthday present


I just called Diane again and she helped me eat my cake .. she sang happy birthday as I blew out the candles.. A virtual birthday party. Nice way to end the day

 

OK.. lots of interesting stuff comng up these next two days .. and I only have had 3 and a half  hours sleep in the last 24.. so I’m  goign to sign off. Thanka again for all the good wishes today.. it means so much to me.. !

nite all, nite sam

-me