Today was busy and awesome.. Most of the day was deicated to the Green Mountain Aviation Days.. BETA is the main sponsor of the event that was coordinated by my friend Zip and his wife.the feild days was not an airshow, but had zillions (liek a hundred) differnet types of airplanes for folks to see. Check out these pics. 

The BETA MTX hanger was set up as a STEM festival with representatives from ECHO, FIRST Robotics, the Drone club, and companies like Onlogic,  Wasted, ..  I helped out wiht the BETA/ECHO electricity generation demo that Melissa and I had helped with 

 

there were also bands and food trucks. The BTV airport had created a temporary security fence so the event could be held out on the runway apron. It was amazing !!!!

COngrats to Zip and Vicki and all the folks who helped make this happen. I learned later that they’d had over 8000 people attend in the two days the field days ran !

Around 4  I headed home to pcik up diane and sho..
. We headed to Barre to see an anual fire show id’ always wanted to attend called Rock Art. We stopped at the bolton dam on the way in to show sho (soshoshosho) 

I say  Rockart its annual… but eveidently this is the last one they are doing after running this for 14 years.

The setupo for the evening was great. It was on the feilds of a big farm on hill just outside of Barre.. THere was live music until the sun went down.. 

THen came the iron pour. I’ve done iron pours before  (see here and here) buit this was differnt. They had  a blkast furnace fulkl of melted iron.. THey’d take a ladel of melted metal ourt and through it at a plywood wall. It soends weird.. but it was amazing to watch !

Then came the fire spinners.. which is somethign we see all the time.. these folks were good !

Then we lined up in groups for a couple of mile walk throighh the forest.. it was all lit with candleitas ..with stations where you could see short skits, music, art.. very, very cool !

My freind of freind antoinette was there with her fire organ. We’d agreed to meet for a second tonight.. I got to introduce myslef and see her play her instrument.. it made earie sounds when you placewd a flame underneath the tubes.. SUper coolk

Really glad we finally made it to Rockfire.. 

nite all, nite sam
-me

Today is friday the 13th..   supposedly an unlucky day.. but it came and went in peacefully .. so no complaints !
First thing is that I took Sarah Ann to her authentic movement friend in SHelbourne It was fun driving around with Sarah Ann. .. Sarah ann and her friend  are going down to an Authentic Movement weekend retreat in Bomoseen (why bomoseen ? no clue).. . Her friend was really nice 

Next stop was BETA.. we’re preparing for the Aviation Field Days  event this weekend. I’ve been workign with my friend Melissa and Tyler on an exhibit for showing people how much electricity you can generate by riding an exercise bike.    

We’re using a bike generator setup we’re borrowing from our friends at  ECHO center. ..  It uses the bikes output to run an inverter that drives one of theose Wacky Waving Inflatable Tube Guys !
 I tehn did a minor hackjob to extract some data from the generator control box.. and then Melissa is writing a very cool Node-Red dashboard to show how much energy eaxch rider generated.. abnd keep a leader board of energy productions for the whole event.  

Today we did our first real test of the system.. which goes in to use tomorrow. >> Worked great  thanks mostly to Melissa’s node-red magic. 

later on that evening.. I met Diane and Sho later for a tour of BETA ..and then dinner

Busy day

nite all, nite sam
-me

TOday was special.. My cousin Sarah Ann is in town for a day on a way to an ‘authentic movement ‘ gathering. Sarah Ann is my Dad’s first cousin.. so/ my first cousin once removed .. I think ?   Sarah Ann is the sister of my causins Sam and Harry. THeir parents Louis and Florette died in a n airplane crash in France in 1962.. (note: I don’t knwo why I put in that part.. other than that sentence seems to come wiht any mention of the three of them  .. interesting how we ‘brand’ people based on their collective tragedies. We know how that works )

Anyway.. It has ben really great having Sarah Ann up here. I’ve always really liked her . he husband Howie and their kids. .. Genrelaly we only meet up for big family occasions,  so It was fun to have her to ourselves / 

We had a great time catching up on family and life stuff. I took her for a quick tour of BETA.. the we had dinner with her and Sho …  

 

NIce to have mishpokhe visit

nite all, nite sam
-me 

Beautiful fall-ish day. Diane and I did a quick run/hike up to the window

Later for lunch I met with my new friend Mark W. We’ve been trying to find a time to hang out.. and today for lunch worked.  Mark is an amazing ‘collector’ he’s very interested in accessible modern art. He has 4 (maybe 5)  curated collections spread across several buildings in the South End..  Mark collects lesser known , sometime local.. art.. and displays it in context with other pieces of related style. He has done a wonderous job at cataloging his huge collection.. and knows where everything is, where its from and its back story. We spent about 2 hours as Mark showed me around.. there were many artists and movements I recognized.. and far more that I’d never seen.. It was amazing !

 Mark is very well known and loved in the South End arts community. Everyone has great stories about him.. 

Mark’s long time goal is to find a permentant location for the collection so that more people can see it.. After seeing the collection.. I see why that would be soooo great. 

If you ever get a chance, get to know Mark and his collection. I think you will really enjoy it.. I did..

Nice to get to know Mark better !
Its fun to make a new freind after running in similar circles for so long

nite all, nite sam

-me