Happy new years all. I  didn’t manage to take off any of today as  had intended.. it turned out to be an even busier work day than usual.. but I had an interesting opportunity. I was feeling pretty burned out and sad late in the day when I saw a group of Orthodox Jews.. some whom I knew.. walking down towards the lake near sunset. I quickly realized that they were going to do Tashlich.. literally ‘to cast’ .. on Rosh Hashona, jews everywhere walk to the side of a body of water and ritually through their sins in.. Interestingly, the water must have fish in it for it to ‘take’ ..

I  drove down part way to the lake, then ran down to catch up. Several folks in the group i knew including my friend Daniel .. We all gathered at the shore of the lake.  A young man came up and aced me if i’d heard the Shofar .. the rams horn trumpet.. yet this year . you are supposed to hear it during Rosh Hashonna.. When I answered that I had not.. eh gave me a private concert.. )Tequila godolahhhhhhhhhh !.    )

We waited for near sundown then the Rebbi lead us through the Tashlich prayers.. it revolves around the 9 attributes of g-d.. e.g. slow to anger.. ( a good one. ) At the end of the prayer some through bread in the water.. others just shake their prayer shawls..  symbolizing the casting away of the last years sins..

 

I just stood there and admired the sunset..  i had sins .. i’m sure.. i just have a short memory.

We then walked back up the hill.. I had a really nice talk with one of the guys in the group.. .. made for a good end to the day

Happy new year all. , Happy new year Sam

-me

שנה טובה ! Happy new year friends It’s new years eve  by the Jewish way of keeping time. By the Old Testaments calculations tomorrow begins year 5,775. Its a funny sort of new year.. no parties, no funny hats.. just contemplation. Its a time to think about the past year successes and failures..a nd prepare for the coming year. the idea is to get yourself written into ‘the book of life’.. I hope its a sweet new year for all of you..

 

this last one has been good..

We lead the year out with a  really nice day today.. beginning with brunch at our freinds george and jane who’ve recently moved to vergennes..

 

after brunch, we took an explore around george and janes new neighborhood. despite driving through vergeense many hundreds of times in the last 34 years, I’ve never really explored it like we didi today

 

on the way home, diane and I stopped at the new Stone corral pbrewery in our home town.. we sampled 4 of their 8 beers. They were excellent !

we finished the day in a great way to close out the year. we each went through all of our clothes… we are trying to declutter our house and our lives..\

 

in the end, we have 18 (!!!) bags of clothes in good condition to donate tomorrow. thats a greta way to start a year

 

Shana Tova everyone !

nite all, nite  sam

-me

We had such a nice slow day together.. Just what i needed after a long trip.. A run around preston pond with the dogs.. Then a kayak around gilette pond…

The water is very low while they are fixing the dam.. Gave us great viewing for fish, snapping turtles an a few painted turtles. So nice that this is only a mile from home

We came back and floated in the pool.. I actually fell asleep floating.. Not a bad place to work off my jet lag.

About 4 we headed into burlington for the second day of the art hop.. Last night diane went and it was packed.. It was pretty subdued today.

We were going to go check out the grand point north show at the waterfrront.. But decided not to when it started raining.. Instead we had dinner at the Spot with ellen..

Now.. Jet lag is closing in. Gotta shut my eyes.. More tomorrow

Nite all, nite sam

-me

 

1.2. Gigawatts ?!? What was I thinking..

I fulfilled a life long dream today,. i got to see the flux capacitor ! I actually got to drive around in my friend Peter’s mint condition 1981 Delorean !!!!

Actually.. hanging out with Peter was a treat in itself.. His  is a very funny and brilliant guy.. our conversations zig zagged between work , cars, the club of rome, you name it. He  made a special point of bringing in the time machine.. which he got with 0 miles on it.. .. into work. It has only 5000 km on it now. .. It was a thin

 

The car was even signed by John Delorian himself !

 

We took a quick spin on the highway out to shiphol airport.. it was great watching everyones reaction as we drove by..

we were moving fast.. but I can only assume that we never hit 88 mph.. since i’m still here and it’s roughly ‘now’ 

 

Peter arranged A fun impromptu  photoop by running in to the student event and yelling that everyone should exit the building.

people didn’t quite know why.. but as they poured out, they saw the beautiful and iconic car and loved it..

 

 

i was suddenly feeling like an introverted Doc Brown

 

Here’s friend Andy  from England taking the wheel

 

and my freind Fiona from Ireland.

what a treat.. Thank you peter.. you are one cool dude..

 

I had just 5 min to bus around the event and say good bye to the organizers and my friends.. I managed to get a quick pic of Rolf’s sausage cooking device. He and andy were speaking this afternoon. I wish i could have heard them both !

 

now flying home to burlington after more than a week away…   gotta say its strange flying on 9/11// my thoughts are out there for all the folks who were affected

who wasn’t ?

 

nite all, nite sam

-me