Do you ever notice strange things happening all around you all at once? first it's one thing Then another.then it slowly creeps into your consciousness. That's what's happening to me now and the trend is things that are broken.

1. First it was the wash machine.. it is having a trouble code, F2 that means it's having trouble draining. Even after dissAssembling it three times I can't find the root of the problem.
2. Then it was the blender… Suddenly the end of it stripped off.
3. Then it was the windshield on our car … a sudden crack, We had to replace that,
4. but a rock came and chipped the new window on its first day in service !
5. Then the flatscreen monitor downstairs computer started blinking epilepticly . i looked it up and the trouble is three bad capacitors from a bad batch when it was made in mexico in 2007
6. And of course there's the sprayhead our kitchen faucet (though that's been broken for a while)
7. I Can't forget the exhaust hood for our stove..

I'm not sure what's happening… Please failure the Higgs boson holding all these things together ? Maybe there's some strange juju in the air due to the full moon tonight? Meet some sort of crack in space time? I don't know but I'm not taking any chances. I'm going to take Friday off.
Night all, night Sam

– Me

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My day was all about kids not just my kids. You may have surmised I've been trying to spend more days in the office and fewer days working at home. I'm realizing that I'm missing the socialization even though I'm pretty productive when I work here at home. So today I went in and was surprised to learn that it was bring your kid to work day. Crawling with kids babies through high school kids all with one or two proud parents in tow.

Man, that brought back memories… Bringing all three boys into work to show them off and eat cheap bad french fries with unlimited ketchup was the most appealing part of the visit. For many years I did my jolts and volts show for the bring your kids to work crowd. I was asked about it this year but I expected to be out of town so I declined. … That presented a wonderful opportunity today because I got to watch my friend Tom do the same show in front of a packed crowd of kids and parents. It was so much fun to sit in the audience and watch him go through the spiel. You did a fantastic job.

 

I talked to a whole bunch of kids and I was only able to stay there about half an hour. The rest of my day was pretty difficult as days go. But it was brightened by that a few moments of kid energy in the morning.

By the time to do was over, I was pretty whipped… I had another thing to look forward to it. Game has been away for 2 1/2 days at lacrosse camp during his school break. He and his team came to our house for a team dinner tonight. That was about 22 kids that hadn't had a decent meal in almost 3 days. Diane Lisa and Elizabeth make sure that there was plenty of food.

Again… The low average age around me lightened my load… And i needed it…

More tomorrow.

Nite all, nite sam

-me

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I'm trying to get a little mojo adjustment. Nothings wrong, but I'm not 100% Thinking clearly and strategically And that's what I'm paid to do .. so I tried mixing it up a little. Nothing big, I tried going to bed early last night. That seemed to help. I also ran a different route today .. i ran on the road instead of the trail… Also a nice change. But the biggest change… Wait for it… Is that I did not .. I repeat not wear khaki pants today. Now I know one should try to change too many things at once but I was bound and determined to turn over a new leaf today. So unlike the khakis that I have worn every day for the past 32 years I actually put on a pair of charcoal gray pants. ,

They seemed to function almost like my khakis in that they had a button in front and a zipper and two legs. They even had pockets like my khakis! It was strange as I slipped them on.. I felt like a totally different human being… Perhaps a totally different species?.

I walked around a bit in them and check my thinking. Yes I believe I was thinking more strategically. The feeling lasted through the day. I was masterful in most of my calls today and Clear thinking as I sorted out my life. I attributed it all to my Charcoal grey pants.

Tomorrow, I'm ready even try a new shirt… Who knows what that might change ?

Night all, night sam

-me

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Slow day here. Gabe took off for lacrosse camp for a couple of days during his break. That left Diane and me to work in the yard and try to prepare for the change of season. He didn't feel much like a change of seasons with weather in the mid-30s. We did get out for a good run. And a late Afternoon hike.

The big task for today was to decide What to do with the climber thing. Could we say one more time? Or was it time to burn it ?

The climber thing was a big Cedar swingset that we got for the boys when we returned to Vermont from Pittsburgh in 1992. Sam was not even yet born. I remember thinking we were going to go to New Zealand for a postgraduate school vacation, but we Excited to spend the money on a swingset instead. They proved to be a great choice. We spent so many happy hours swinging back and forth on that thing. It was our spaceship, it was our game Center, . The boys and I would swing for hours. We had this strange Wooden horse thing and I would ride with the boys In front of me and we would sing the stupidest songs. My favorite was doggy meat. It went something like this: the doggy meat, the doggie meat ….the dog Geeeee. Meattttttttt

Somewhere over that 20 years though it started to rot away.. Slowly at first. First a rung here, a rope there. A screw would pop out or a bucket would break. But still we would screw it back together and continue to ride. Eventually pieces would fall off. first the slide, then the bucket, then the ladder, Then the tarp, then finally the thing was not safe to ride.At that point Max was away at school, Sam had died, and Gabe was getting pretty big. We took the pieces apart and saved some of them. The ones that had solid wood we used to create a huge crazy chair out of.

took many many work telephone calls out on the swings and no one could tell.

What was left of it was guarding max's mud pizza oven. During one of the huge windstorms we had a few months back it blew over and shattered. The question before us was whether we tried to salvage it. But we finally gave up on it and burn it. I voted for salvage. But I have to admit, it didn't. All the main supporting members were broken. There was hardly enough wood to hold the screw. But I was determined.

It wasn't easy, and it wasn't pretty. Diana and I spent about two hours reinforcing the thing with about 100 deck screws, a bunch of scrap wood, and anything else we could find. We had to bring it back into true, reinforce all the major beams and remount the roof. End, was about as strong as it ever was., Which isn't saying much. I know full well that the next major windstorm will probably take it down again but I bought myself some time… I don't have to say goodbye to it yet.

It's funny the things we cling to
Time for bed
Night all, night sam

-me

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