Thursday night – and the heavens poured fourth

July 4, 2013 johncohn Leave a comment

it was very strange wking today realizing that there would be no parade,no party in the park and no fireworks. All that had been called on account of expected bad weather.. a tough call to make I’m sure.. but ultimately the right one.. Even though it was hot and sunny all morning, we kept hearing about roads that had been washed away in the area.. by mid afternoon it was raining again and several more roads washed out including the Huntington road, we white hill. Sherman hollow . Nashville road and at one point browns trace.. it was insane !

We were determined to have a good time anyway.. and we did.. around 2Pm folks started showing up .. by about 5 we had at least 60 folks around.. maybe more.. folks brought food they’d probably intended for their own picnics.. so we had plenty..

Gabe set up a target and all the kids through knives and tomahawks.. we stayed across the yard from all that..

Diane demonstrated her pizza on the grill technique..

and I double dared patrick and bebb with my Indian pickle collection

my friends Dale and Bruce showed up from new york with their nephew andn eice.. it was great hanging out with them

Jim and Sue brought their friends Mike and Heidi from Sand Diego.. Heidi and I are all long time facebook friends.. so it was great to meet them both in person !

Keuth and ann were on the tramp practicing their double bouncing.. it was so cute to watch !

Things didn’t wind down until about 9.. as we were cleaning up. Pat reminded me that the picture you see of Sam as you enter our house or our barn was actually taken on the forth of july.Sam and his friends were walking on dugway up

near triple buckets. he was wearing that crazy Mexican hat we’d bought down near merida.. he was so happy that day.. i totally remember it..

all our boys love the forth.. it was great thinking of those days now…

nite all. nite sam

-me

Wednesday late – at least we had the third

July 4, 2013 johncohn Leave a comment

OMG.. we learned earlier tonight that our towns forth of july parade, festival and fireworks have been canceled for tomorrow.. ok.. not canceled, but delayed to an as yet unspecified later date..
ts as if they decided to call of Christmas … the whole town comes out for this event.. it’s unthinkable not to have it tomorrow..

that said, I understand what a hard decision that must have been to make.. we’ve had really horrendous weather.. and it probably would not have been comfortable.. or even safe.. to try and hold the event tomorrow. Today’s rains actually took out big parts of wes white hill, Sherman hollow and happy hollow roads.. who knows what the town fields look like.. Also the emergency vehicles that usually make up the parade are probably out saving folks homes now..

We’ll find some way to celebrate tomorrow even if the town can’t .. we’ll be here tomorrow after 2.. drop by and bring that potato salad you’d made for the picnic.. we’ll find some way to have fun !

Enough about tomorrow… today was great.. slow and unhurried.. it all stated with a beautiful luna moth on the back door screen.

what a great face.. if that’s his face.. ?

Mid day I went up to Saint Albans to meet ben and co to pln round 3 on the stampmobile.. then came back, and took a nap.. doesn’t get much better than that !. ( i did manage to sneak in 2 work meetings and a bunch of work calls.. but we spent much of the time talking about our vacations.. is that good or bad >

Around 7 we headed to burlington to see the fireworks at Eho.. We ran into lots of freinds down at the water front.. Colin was there with his sound activiated version of our headbands..

We saw our friends Jim and Sue.. and they had Jim’s friend Michael and my long time FB friend Heidi in tow from San Diego.. It was so nice meeting them !

before the fireworks there was a great display of aerial acrobatics in a stuntplane.. absolutely amazing !

the fireworks were spectacular.. .. they were completely symmetric this year which was a fun and odd twist..

Watching the fireworks at echo was great.. even better was the fast escape we made to our car down on pine street.. We were int he car and driving withing 15 minutes of the last boom.. We stopped at the store on the way home and ran into my old freind Joyce from Worcester.. she was my office mate back in 1981.. ..wow.. we’ve known each other for 32 years !!!! It was great catching up

ok.. time for bed. I know that because I just feell asleep and woke up to the sound of my own snoring..

more on the forth.. .. Like aI said. we’re goign to make it fun no matter what the weather does !

nite all, nite sam

-me

Tuesday night – my father’s socks

July 2, 2013 johncohn Leave a comment

I spent the whole day wearing my father’s socks.. and it felt good. Diane and I were staying with my mom and dad in sherborne the last two nights which wsa very nice.. . My dad had some socks hat were too tight for him.. so I took them…

They say to know a man you should walk a mile in his shoes… .. i say you can know a many by driving 200 miles in his socks.

I spent the the morning and early afternoon with my Saudi friends talking about world water challenges. Again, I found this group to be so thoughtful and inspiring..

One of the guys made a traditional Saudi sweet.. honey soaked bread filled with ghee and salted yogurt to drink.. really good, actually !

Our firend Joki (aka Jen) was there demonstrating a water carrier developed by Wellowhich is designed to help women move water more easily than carrying it on their heads.

Here jenn is demonstrating the device with Dr Hayat..

It was a great meeting .. good both for my soul and for business .. It was a little hard to say good bye to my new freinds..

Now back home and officially on vacation for the rest of the week (only a few meetings tomorrow .. looking forward to a little down time 🙂

nite all, nite sam

-me

Monday night -wasta man

July 1, 2013 johncohn Leave a comment

I just learned another cool,new word.. Its 'wasta' (واسْطة) an arabic,word meaning connections.. Or 'pull' or grease Or something you get from connections rather than merit. I learned it at a really interesting workshop i'm attending on entrepreneurship and water at the Harvard Innovation lab. The workshop is with fellows of the I2 program…. Which has been set up to promote entrepreneurism in Saudi Arab

I was so impressed with the fellows and organizers of I2.. They were smart, visionary and hard working..They all had really superb technical backgrounds.. And were deep thinkers…i felt honored to be there.. Dr. Sindi,a the founder of I2 was an insipring woman…she'd jsut invented a disposable test for liver falure made of paper.. How cool is that..

One of my favorite talks of the workshop today was from His Royal Highness Fahad al Saud, a member of the Saudi royal family, a stanfrod grad, social entrepreneur and tottally awsome and inspiring guy.. Hes The guy who told me the meaning of the word Wasta.. Or ,vitamin-W, His talk. Was aimed at the saudis in the audience encouraging them to move beyond privelidge and to come back and serve their country by inspiring their countrymen to innnovate, invent and give back.