Babe’s girlfriend and Our very good freind Raya turns 21 today !.. Wooohoo !
Last week Gabe decided to make her a table as a present I helped a few places.. but he did all the work.. He found a cool old slab of red maple from our friend mike.. He designed the legs and welded them up.. Max helped us both set up the welder better than I usually do
he then put a billion coats of varnish.. ,screwed it together.. and there it was.. It’s a really nice design.. I hope Raya likes it.. There was a lot of love in its construction
After dropping the abel off with babe I headed home to clean up the garage and the shop .. i must have picked up several pounds of metal scrap and grindings.. Sign of a fun project !!!
happy birthday Raya. .we’re glad you’re in our lives !
Tonight I went over to Bill, Debra and Cora’s for a shiva service for their son Alan. . It’s customary when a close relative dies for a Jewish family to gather for 7 days of mourning. People come to visit bring food and have prayer services. Tonight there were about 30 folks in their home. We had a short service then all read Kaddish.. the Jewish prayer of mourning..
In Bill and Debras the mirrors were all covered in newspaper. .. its one of the customs of Shiva.. other customs includee tearing a garment and wearing a black ribbon .. / It was comforting to all be together..
Bill, Debra and Cora.. are bearing up well and have lots of love arid them, .. my heart aches for them.. i know how both how welcome and hard it is to have to cry with new people every night.. ..
I watched them comforting their friends.. They are warm and wonderful people .. again I wish them peace
nite all, nite sam
-me
ps. My cousais David and Billy (different billy) were in town for Shiva.. I got them both out to the house after the service.. Really nice to see them !
I’m just about to come off of two weeks of sort-of vacation.. I say sort-of because i did do a little work each day. I was taking the time because this is a tough time of year for us.. That mission was accomplished. I was able to be rested an present for the things I needed to do around Sam’s memorial time..
I also hoped to catch up on some projects and get a little more clear headed about work. On the project s front I did ok.. not too much accomplished but I was abel to finish some electronics projects for friends and I was able to install some automation in my house that I was excited about (look at the bell tower next time you drive by after sunset and before 10 pm)
On the work front.. .. maybe more mixed.. I was not able to detach as much as I wanted for work.. I was trying to do some deeper thinking a-on a few topics.. got some in.. but nt the clarity perhaps I needed. Maybe its too much to ask of myself to have instant clarity on hard topics like that..
i will say I am pretty refreshed and looking forward(-ish) to being back at work.. So much to do by the end of the year..
Today was hard. We attended the funeral of my cousin Bill and Debra’s son Alan. Alan was only 25
The service was at Ohavi Zedik in Burlington. That place was packed with friends and family. We heard from family. friends and teachers what an amazing kid Alan was. He was musical, athletic and academically gifted. Compassionate, dedicated.. politically aware .. and funny in a serous way.. A lot like his dad. We heard from Alan’s grandparents Sandy and Ruth about playing musical improv with Alan and about the stack of books he always borrowed on his visits. We heard great stories from his sister Clara about all she learned sharing a bathroom with Alan. We heard from his music professor at Dartmouth how Alan could make his Sax sing.. and from his friends about his confessions of being a Libertarian . As much as I loved the stories and the music, there was no avoiding the pain of being there.. and seeing Alan’s family in their grief. Even though we’ve walked this same hard, hard path, I don’t pretend to know hat they were going through.. One thing I’ve learned through Sam’s death is that everyone has to do their own grieving.. no ones path is the same.
After the service we all went to the cemetery.. We watched as Alan’s plain pine coffin was lowered into the ground.. Then we all helped cover it with earth. It was so hard to be there.. my heart was breaking.. everyone’s was..
After saying Kaddish we left the cemetery and headed back to Bill and Debra’s … we were all pretty numb.. Several family members from my Dad’s side of the family were there.. My cuisine John and his wife Jean. My cousins Suzie and her daughter Katie and my great aunt Ellen. I t was so good having them there … We brought them out to our house for a short visit which felt good.
now i’m sitting here thinking of Alan wishing him peace and his family strength. They have a lot of love around them.. I know how important that is
