Just got home from Honors night at Mount Mansfield. Gabe and a bunch of his classmates were getting recognized for having decent grades this year.. The gym was packed with students and parents.. which was kind of scary, as I was the speaker tonight. Our freind Elizabeth had invited me to give the Honors talk last year, but I had to bag out due to work travel I wasn’t going to miss it again. I had 15 minutes to give the students something to think about.. a hard task really. I was more nervous about this talk than I am for most of my big work talks. i think sucking in front of a bunch of strangers is not anywhere near as frightening as sucking in front of a bunch of people you know and love..
Luckily I didn’t suck.. it went pretty well. (Thanks to great help from Diane and Gabe helping me prep) I told the students that while they did need to work hard and have goals, they need to hang on to their ability to play. At the end of the talk I did a quick demo of the newly restored musical tesla coil.. it worked great.. that is until it set off the school fire alarm.. Luckily, we didn’t have to evacuate.. but the fire department did eventually show up.. it was just a too funny way to end my talk.. I think folks thought it was part of the show..

Anyway.. it was fun giving the talk.. and we were really proud to see Gabe and his freinds get recognized.. A good night overall..

ok.. I have some work to do.. so signing off. More tomorrow.
Nite all, nite sam
-me