We woke up and said our goodbyes to Vincent, Trish and Gabe..and Victor and Pina and headed back to Vermont.> Again.. we had this great  historical account of the Galveston 1900 hurricane to keep us engaged as we drove back so the drive passed quickly.  We were hoem before we knew it !

 

We got home, changed clothes and drove in to Burlington to meet our Burning man friends. Our bus Fluffy was back in vermont after a 3 month oddessy  of repairs out in Reno. The bus broke down on the way out.. and .. unfortunately out on the desert.. it’s been in for repair ever since.  It finally got working last week Our leader Duane flew out and drove the bus and trailer  cross country  by himself .. !!!   We met p for bagels at hula.. then wen t and unpacked the trailer and bus to find all the tools and stuff we’d been missing for these last 3 months. It was fun and sort of triggering to get into all that dust. !.. 

Its gonna take more than one night to ‘unpack’ all that we’ve been through together on this bus project.. more on that later this week !
nite all, nite sam

-me

Diane, Victor, Pina and I woke up and walked to Boston Market for a quick breakfast. Boston Market is a non profit  communal restaurant where small vendors can  sell food and crafts. It was a really beautiful place with lots of variety. We were sitting there eating when a   woman came up and asked if I was John.. it was our friend Gina from  Vermont. She had moved to Boston and was the manager of the place !>. Small world !.. 

After breakfast we walked back to the hotel .. on the way we walked back through a very sobering holocaust memorial . It had been there since 1995.. but Id never seen it.. The side walk had inscriptions of the word  זכר  (Zakar .. remembrance in Hebrew) and   געדאנק (Gedank – Think  in Yiddish) .. There were other  other inscription os on the walls about Nazi atrocities. As you walked you went through four chimneys filled with steam, each one was named for oen of the the concentration camps.. It was very disturbing.. and very moving.. as it should be. 

Vincent, Trish and Gabriel drove  up from Rhode Island this morning. Gabriel is almost three and we’ve never met him face to face because of Covid. It was so fun to see this new human. He’s a fun and friendly kid who’s really in to anything related to Toy Story ! It was great catching up with Vince and Trish.. We haven’t  seen them face to face in almost 3 years. Vince is finishing up a Fellowship in Infectious Diseases and Addiction medicine at Brown.. Trish is working at a pediatrics center.. \ it was fun hearing about their lives.  We spent a fun day walking around Faneuil Hall and the Aquarium.. I hadn’t been there in sooooo long. It was fun to see it though young Gabriel’s eyes

After the aquarium, we headed back to Boston market for lunch. I was sitting there when I saw my friend Allie from Beta walk by,. Again a crazy coincidence !  Afterwards.. we headed back to Fanniel hall to see a dinosaur exhibit (fun!) .. then back to the hotel.. Gabe took a nap.. then we went out for an early dinner at Fanieul hall.. .. then out again for Canolli’s at Mikes.  .. a place I’ve been going for 45 years !

During dinner, my burning man friends called me from a party they were having in Burlington.. so nice to see them all together !.. I missed them !

Fun and full day.. Great seeing family !. Brought so many great memories of all the kids playing together

Nite all, nite Sam.. 

-me

Diane and I woke early and hiked duxbury window.. we wanted to get soem exercise before driving .. We’re very excited about this weekend. We’re meeting our nephews Victor and his wife Pina and Vincent and his wife Trish and their almost 3 year old son Gabriel down in Boston. We haven’t seen any of them since before Covid.. and we’ve never met young Gabe.

The drive down was fun.. beautiful weather and a good audible book.. “Issac’s Storm about the. 1900 hurricane that nearly destroyed Galveston… super interesting given that we all just came back from there !

We got down to Boston and met up with Victor and Pina. Pina is very pregnant and looks so great !.. We walked down through Quincy market tot eh North End and had an early dinner in a really wonderful Italian fish place thats been htere forever. It was so much fun !!!!

Really nice to be together !

Nite all, nite sam

-me

Fun start ot he day. I gave a talk on AI and the Vermont AI task force to a group of guys who belonged ot the Charlotte Senior Mens Group.. I don’t know what I was expecting.. but this group was a bunch of fun, fit and really smart guys who were interested in all sorts of things. We had a great time talking about both the good and potentially challenging  parts of AI.. . They were very keyed in to the issues and I really enjoyed the conversations. 

The weird thing is.. the guys at the charlotte senior mens group were all my age or thereabouts…

what does that mean ?!?!?! 🙂 
nite all, nite sam

-me