People often speak of the dog days of summer i think were in the dog days of spring. It hit something like 85 degrees Fahrenheit here today… If it wasn’t a record, it must have been close .
Everyone was lazy and listless like mid summer… Ell, maybe not listless . Speaking as one who never needs it to go over 60 degrees, i never look forward to heat like this…. But somehow , todays weather was welcome. Maybe it was because the humidity was low… Or maybe because theres still snow visible on the mountains. Whatever it was, i have to admit that i really enjoyed the heat.I spent the whole day working the tower…being hypnotized by the sleepy sound of flies bouncing against the windows,,,so many flies, that had they not been hitting all windows equally, the house would surely have jumped one way or the other under the influence.. of all their tiny frustrated wings….. Even writing something like that makes me think of someone like Falkner or some other heat addled southern writer.
I think that Its too hot to think,
On that steamy note , i’ll say goodnight
Very hard day to categorize… did lots of very different things. Day began with a run up in Honey Hallow. Another beautiful spot only 2 miles from home.
We were surprised and happy to see that much of Hurricane Irene’s devastation to the logging roads had been repaired . Where Diane is standing here was a 15 foot crater a few months ago. The river came out of its banks and erased the road for about 100 yards. . Somehow they found the money. time and dirt to fix it ! We didn’t think that would happen for years !
Further up the road, thre was still some of the destruction. Not sure a car will ever make it up this far again.
despite the dry weather, the streams were bubbling magically..
Trillium were popping up. and the 65 degree weather made it feel more like summer than spring. It;s going to be mid 80’s tomorrow !
We always stop and admire our freind the Wootan’s home up there.. there’s no prettier place that I know..
Then.. with spring on our mind .. diane and I set up Gabe’s trampoline .. . a bit of an ordeal. but he was so happy to come home and find it set up !
Mid afternoon, I headed in to UVM.. first th9guh. a quick stop to visit friend Ryan in the hospital. Ryan is lucky to be alive.. On Friday night some unknown guys (?!?!?!) pushed him out the 4th floor of the Burlington parking garage. He miraculously survived by landing on his feet. He broke both ankles and several vertebrae. He’ll b having surgery to repair them.. but for now.. he’s ok.. What a story. TH police are still trying to piece together what happened. I took him some samstones..
he had a good cadre of freinds there keeping him company..
then a quick stop at UVM to check on the SEED team. they’ve made SO much progress.. Here’s the nearly completed device.
here’s Colin demonstrating one of the interactive modes..eventually this will have water and bubbles goign through it. as well. this is going to be sweet.
Final stop in the day was freind Bill’s 60th birthday party.. Bill’s wife Julie had a wonderful spread of sushi and sparkling wines form around the world. Lots of nice folks from mad river valley there..
one of bill’s pieces gave the place a cool otherworldly look
then a cake
and of course.. with Bill, there had to be fireworks.. sparklers, and the real thing..
see what I mean.. a really busy day !
gotta sleep now..
nite all. nite sam
-me
ps. Folks,
Just found out that there’s still space in the Arduino class that Vermont Makers is holding at Champlain College EMC at 6PM this Tuesday night. Jeff from Sparkfun will be there to show off all his cool Sparfun shwag.. If you’d like to come, please send me your email address and I’ll forward it to the organizers. Please let me know ASAP. Thanks !
Diane and I had a beautiful Spring day.. Neither Diane. Gabe nor I had anything planned for the day.. which was amazing in itself.. add gorgeous weather and it was a memorably nice day.. We began with a walk up to the Gillette pond overlook with Jen, Tim and all our dogs.. It was good to be out.. the trails were dry and we marveled at all the new trees that had fallen over the winter. It’s amazing that these kind of views are only a mile from our home.
Then Diane and I spent a good part of the day prepping Gabes old room for paint.. that means covering up the murals on the wall that Max’s freinds painted there for Gabe. .. there comes a time you need to repaint.. so we recorded all the pictures..
this last one, I’m pretty sure that Dylan wrote…
tomorrow comes the paint.. and the room moves on to its new purpose.. whatever that turns out to be..we’ll just have to see.. OK.. time for bed..
I was hanging out with my good buddy John today after sitting together in an interesting meeting. I had gotten the new hires at work together for the second time to brainstorm about making another fun science/math/engineering promotion video. The meeting had been quite fun. Lots of good ideas, many variations, but in the end, no resolution. By the end of the meeting we had lashed at least three ideas together into a very fun … Albeit frankensteinish .. Mix of things that upon thinking back, may well have taken us years to accomplish as we walked out of the building, John turned to me and pointed out there is always a bit of ‘scope creep’ in everything that i take on. Simple things become complex, complex things become impossible its the way i see the world, i explained, i see an ever expanding array of possibilities spiraling out of any situation… Even when the situation requires a single actionable idea. There are just so many possibly attractive ways to do anything, why would anyone prefer to narrow it down just to one ?
This has always been a challenge to me… But now even more. As I settle in to my new role at work…. I am being bombarded with new possibilities. Some days i come home with my brain overflowing with new cool stuff… I then send hours reading what i missed while at work… In my normal mode, this would be non convergent… I would attempt to charge out after every idea… That just would not work isn this new role . What i
M trying to do now is to go around with a master list of 4 major areas that I’m trying to accomplish and use that as a filter to prevent me from spinning out if control. So far, it seems to be working,,, when something new presents itself,,, i refer to the list… If its not on the list… I’m trying to say ‘no thanks’… I started that mid day today.. And so far, i think its working.. Of course, no one has tried to ask me to do anything this afternoon,,, .. But hey.. Its a start !
