Nice slow day.. …  one quick story from last night. Gabel and some of his friends went camping up the catamount trip last night.. Being the goofy dad I am, i decided to hike up and bring them ben and egress at midnight.. Long story.. but I climbed up the trail to where I thought they were.. saw what I thought was their campfire.. turned on my led goggles and swooped out of the woods to surprise them.. unfortunately.. it was not their campsite.. it was a woman camping by herself.. ..

Oops..

the weirdest thing was. she wasn’t freaked out at all.. just i was.

i managed to find the guys a few minutes alter.. they were cooking dinner at midnight.. the ice cream was most welcome.

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aside from taking a run all i ddi today was sit in the pool.. and write some code for fun.. .. Around 4 diane and I headed into williston for our friends Andy and Jennifer’s daughters weeding.. It was in the golf club right by work.. I’d driven by it thousands of times.. but had never been inside.. it was really nice !

Heres andy with Christina

Here’s David.. ready to get married.. this is actually their third ceremony.. once by a jp, once in mexico.. an then here.. they had it down pretty well by now 🙂

The rain held off until they exchanged vows..   then the sky opened up

we were inside anyway the rest of the night.. really nice time.. great food.. , nice folks

i love weddings.. they remind me how much i enjoy being married !

nite all, nite sam

-me

Today Diane and I attended a memorial service for my good friend Jleigh. Jleigh died back in March after three long battles with cancer. She was my administrative assistant for about 5 years in the early and mid 2000’s..  She was a funny, creative and loving person with a great smile and laugh that used to brighten up my days. She loved her family, people, animals, and the outdoors .. And she loved organizing me . (and anyone who knows me how much i need that). I swear i was twice as effective when we worked together.. she always came up with the coolest systems of keeping things straight..

We spent much of the time she saved me talking about life. philosophy, kids.. she loved kids.. I will never forget that the first time i tried going back to work after Sam died.. she walked into my office with me and held on tom me as I broke down in there.. looking at all the pictures in my office. She always cared more about other folks than her self.. truly..

the memorial service today was really uplifting. the chapel it was held in was packed. Her uncle , who’s a cleric  officiated in a wise, funny and very personable way.. the service was short.. with most of it around family and friends  standing up to tell stories.. Like our friend Vicki stood up and told about the time I gave Jleigh some ghost peppers.. the hottest papers on the planet. Jeleigh loved spice.. especially after the cho knocked out her tastebuds.. She put those peppers in some brownies and forgot to tell her dad..  uh-oh…

her uncle told of the time I called Jleigh from Chin nd got the time zones wrong.. waking her up at 2am.. she helped me anyway..

Every story showed the same targets of sleigh.. funny creative.. caring, organized  and determined..  there were more laughter than tears.. I don’t recall being at a service that made me feel so good.. even while being really, really sad.  at the end, they hand out some wildflower seeds .. and asked us to take pictures of them when they came up.. .. i’m going to do that

After the service.. we traveled to a small church in berlin vt for a reception.. again.. you could hear more laughter than crying.. There were some great pictures and stories of sleigh

it was great meeting Sleighs family.. here’s her dad and her brother. both have the same cool blue eyes as she did

our friends vicki and greg  dixie, jen martha, kay, and mary were there.. .it was nice catching up with them 

all of these women have helped me over the years. .. I was once told I wasn’t the most difficult client they had..  only the second most difficult.. . .. not because i was mean.. i just generated a ton of work..

it was a very good gathering .. for a really wonderful person.. i will miss Jleigh.. and won’t forget her..

none of us will

nite all, nite sam

-me

Sam, today you would have turned 23 years old. Hard to believe my son..We love you and miss you so much , You are still so present in our lives. Today like all days you are in our hearts.

I was looking for birthday pictures of you and found  this one from the time you and I went to Disney . The guys at work got you a birthday cake as a surprise. .. it was so much fun !

Today we marked your birthday as we always do by climbing bolton. We decided to make it smaller this year.. just feeling a little quieter.  Several friends showed up to join us.. ..It was raining as we met at bolton.. but the rain stopped just as we started climbing and held off for the whole time.

As is our tradition, Gabe and I climbed the rickety fire tower at the top, took a hit of red bull for Sam   and set off a morter  with three reports..

Some of the other guys followed us up.. it was really nice to all be together !

We came down off the cold and windy top.. and headed down the hill. Deb came by with gazpacho and cakes in Sams honor.. we had a little birthday party.

This was the eighth birthday we’d celebrated without you Sam.. it felt good and sad at the same time..

I wanted to tell you that on the plane home yesterday I was listening to some music about you.. I came across this song ‘Captain Sam’ that Skanky Green wrote about you.. this is the recording from your memorial service.. Made me cry on the plane.. now it’s making me smile 🙂

Good night my son.. happy birthday.. you are always in our hearts

nite all, nite sam

-me

I have already had an interesting week. My quick trip to Korea gave me some quality airplane sitting time.. Like 14 hours one way and 12 hours back.. I’m not much of a movie watcher.. but I always look to see if there’s a new movie i’ve been waiting to see.. or an old favorite.. this time.. i found my all time favorite.. ‘The Big Labowski’.. i started watching it on the outbound.. and enjoyed it so much that I watched it again. then i dozed off.. so i watched it yet again.. for a total of 5 times on the way between Detroit and seoul.. then.. on the way back.. i figures.d.. why ruin a good thing ? I watched to 5 more times.. .. sometimes with the sound on.. sometimes with it off.. i slept a bit.. but kept restarting it..    .. for a total of 10 back to back viewings..  its hard to overachieve in underachiever circles.. but  could that be a new world record.. .?!?!

I gotta say.. that when you watch a movie that many times in the space of only 48 hours you start to see things that you never noticed.. .. actually  you start seeing things that aren’t even there !.. I found misread lines, weird art, inside jokes..

I can say that it positively affected my world view so much that I’m taking the next two days off…

The dude abides.. and so can i

nite all, nite sam

-me