Nice break.. not as in “nice vacation” .. but as in “Gabe’s foot could have been broken much worse”.. Around 4 we got a call from babe that he’d probably broken his ankle Skateboarding. We were in the car  an heading for the Talent in minutes. We got there to find him being well cared for by the able staff

He had fallen off his boar and twisted his ankle. It had swollen up like a balloon. it was pretty clear something was pretty badly not right..

We got to the hospital about 15 min later.. then tied a longggkggg time to get checked in….

Once in, we har a really nice PA come in and arrange an Xray.. .. everyone there was really nice.. ..we ended up being there for more than 3 hours !

Eventually Jared the guy in charge came back and showed us the X-ray.. gabe has a small break in one of his metatarsals.. much better than a broken ankle..he’ll have to go easy for a couple of weeks.. but no cast or anything.. after how it looked, that seemed like relief.  they gave him a support boot to wear and set us up with an orthopedist to see this week.

all in all.. could have been much worse.. and it gave ius something meaningful to do today…

im greatful

night all, night sam

-me

Lots done today.. big news is ‘we’ finished painting the barn.. I say we because Gabe did 70 percent , diane did 29 percent and I did 1 percent.. but.. i did get a few brush strokes in today. First thing was to drive the lift from the front yard where Lee and team are using it and bring it around back

then a couple of hours of up and down.. and it was done !!!! helps to have just the right tool

gotta say it’s an amazing thing to use.. how else can you get 60 feet in the air in your own backyard ?

Beleive it or not, this thing is till not high enough to reach the weathervane on our house.   For that we will be  going  up with a rope over the top of the lift.  !

nite all, nite sam

-me

On our way home from sherborn… Had a good visit down there with family.. Began today with pancakes !

After some organized chaos, we all ended up at hale reservation,, a beutiful beachy place in suburban boston

We got back to my moms around 6 pm. Just enough time to head to Seabrook nH for the annual summer get together for Fathers Forever. FF is a group that i was very sad to join. Everyone of us has had a child of ours die. I joined the group after Sam died. My freind Craig reached out to me and invited me in, the group has been meeting for more than 10 years in boston. They get together once a month or so for breakfast..

Once a year they get together at the beach.. And today was that day

I met up with the guys at Browns Lobster Pot in Seabrook NH. They had mostly finished dinenr, but i was able to eat their remaining onion rings..Beleive it or not.. The ocnver sat ion was mostly light and fun,. The common expereince lets us say anything,,

We talked for about an hour about .. Our kids living and dead, our families, burials, writings, and overall how we were doing.

There were dads there who lost a child wihin the last year.. And others who were 25 years past,,it didnt matter where we were from, what had happened.. We were all bound by this very hard. Common cirmcumstance,, we say its the club with the highest dues…

O was so happy to have made it there !

I found this post from 2008 which is the last time i attended the FF summer meet up. Give it a read and see the amazing story of the exploding wineglass

http://johncohn.org/base/2008/05/03/friday-night-stop-and-smell-the-pine-tress/

We broke up around 9… And there was diane waiting for me out back under a street light with some fried scallops.. I love that woman !

Night all, night sam

-me

Day 4 down here.. Again didnt do much… Nice being with family ..trying hard how to remember how to do nothing

For dinner max and our friend sara offered to cook.. They did steaks, potatoes, cilantro rubbed corn and asparagus for the 19 of us..( well i dont eat steak.. So 18).. He did a really great job !

Too tired to write more

Nite all, nite sam

-me