Not much to report for the day. it was busy at work.. then I seen the evening working on a surprise xmas gift. for Gabe. It’s a 1949 Karl Zeiss trinocular microscope. (I can talk about it here now.. since I’m blogging several days after xmas)  

Gabe works with high end microscopes every day at his work as a cancer biology grad student. He loves what he does and  he  told us that he’d love to have a microscope at home to show friends the magic that lives in little things all around us.  It turns out that my good friend Scott also loved microscopes. He had several and before he died in August of 2021 he’d asked for our help in finding good  homes for all his cool science gear including his pride and joy, this beautiful old Zeiss scope. .. Scott and my friend Dave took a couple of Scott’s microscopes including the Zeiss.. but he didn’t have a use for it. When Gabe told me he was looking I asked Dave and he very graciously let me have it.    I’m now working to get it working. I found an illuminator bulb (6V 15W) in china and ordered it. I also found some modern LED light sources and ordered them. I am now cleaning up and aligning the device as best I can to make sure it will work for Gabe. I hope he likes it..

I think of Scott every day.. and think/hope it would make him happy to know that Gabe will have this scope and use it. 

 

Nite all, nite Sam

-me

Tonight was Ben and Tatti’s annual great latke party… I look forward to it all year. All the fried stuff your body craves crammed into one night. 
We egan with a quick walk up Bamforth to make way for the carbs. There we ran in to our friend Tom and his friend Scott. Always fun to find folks who love these woods like we do !

 

We went  over to Ben and Tati’s early  to help make the latkes.. and set up the place.  Diane took  first turn at cooking. Folks started showing up at 5.. it was a great crowd !

Then came the moment to light the candles.. Ben led while we all sang.. I was happy he was using the plumbing parts menorah I made for him as well as the wooden one he always uses.

And as always.. there was ice cream !

It was a great night.. and I don’t need to eat  another latke for at least 11 more.months !

Hag Sameach Ya’ll

 

Nite, all, nite sam

-me

Re the title: Not THAT Chipmunk’s Christmas. .. We captured this guy in our attic this morning. .. it’s the first larger anima in a long time.. and not like the 11 flying squirrels we caught this year. We escorted this guy out into the woods with a bunch of food. 

Later on in the day , our friend Andy, the town constable came over to help us on our Parking Advisory work. What a great guy.. quite a character   and a fantastic story teller!

 

Later in the day our friends Dave and Nancy dropped by.. Then we headed out to Duane and Laura’s for a really nice holiday party

Its getting to feel a lot like xmas !

nite all, nite sam

-me

We’re getting really excited for the kids visit this year. We haven’t all been in Vermont for the holidays since 2018 (I think) . DIane has been doing an amazing job getting the house ready and festive. One thing in the plan is to get a christmas tree up and decorated before the kids visit .. so that was the main task for the day. First thing, though.. a quick hike up to teh Duxbury window in the fresh snow.. then a ride over to Puritans to pick out the perfect tree !  

Then comes the decorations… 
What went up first were the redbull cans and garlands we made from all the red bull cans that Sam saved over his life. they have a special meaning to us and have been most of the decorations we’ve used since Sam died. This year we’re digging deep into all the ornaments we’ve collected over the years.    This year we started with birds.  Many on the tree this year haven’t been up since before Sam died.. It feels both good and sad to go through all of these. each ornament tells a story.. all three boys names on them.. brings back such good memories !

nite all, note sam

-me