Today was the satrt of my birthday weekend. We started the day with a ski.. we can walk right out of our back door and get on the tracks we’ve made.. First time in years the snow has been that deep and cosnistent

Today was allso the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC)  robotics championship. 

there were hundreds of young robot makers and their robos there to with their robots a it was so fun .

A very accomplished young violinist played the star spangeld banner and we were off !

Here are some of my FTC freinds from Essex

We had a great keynote from Jeasne from Greensea IQ. SHe is a FIRST Alum from NY .. now workign in Richmond. We invited her to join the FIRST in VT board and she said YES !

Scott did a great job as EmCEE as always !. He’re he is whereing his famous shark hat  (he has a squid hat too !)

GOt to talk to my freinds from CVU about their robot. I got Ben at Beta to print parts for this robot.. and they used it to win !. THey’re goign to worlds !

ONe great surprise is I got to meet Adam from Montpellier. Adam is a friend i’ve worked with at http://hackclub.com but we’ve only worked together online. He lead a team to develop a Hackclub pranded raspberry pi nano based on teh RP2040. I’d never met him in person..He actually gave me  0f the Orpheus Pico hed designed !  They are so great !

I enjoyed speakign with the coaches and refs too.. these are soem of the real heros of our robotics program. THis takes time and skill to do 

Ran in to my old friends Kevin and judy

It was a great event. Kudos to my friends Lyz, Joe and Mark for making it happen !

later in the evening Diane and I drove out to Bristol for dinner with our freinds Marie, Jordan and Wiki.. ristol is such a cute town We went to cubbers..a. place we used to go when we came out to see our midwifes here.   Broagt back good memories. B. Wiki had some weird chocolates.  the perfect desert

Diane, Marie, jordan and I walked down the street to the South Mountain Tavern to see the band Red Admiril. My good freind and sort of boss Ed plays harmonica and weird procussion for them. They were GREAT !!!!

 

We headed hom on the early side because we were just about to have another snow storm>>
great day !

nite all. nite sam
-me

We are loving the deep snow this year.. and I’m loving really taking Fridays off.. this is when I can appreciate being ‘part time’ . 

DIane and I decided to explore the Bamforth Ridge area by walking soem of the old abandoned logging roads, then cutting up the hill to make a loop. The snow was thigh deep in most places.. and the going was stepp. .

it was hard going.. and so much fun !

We’re loving this winter !

nite all, nite sam
-me

Sometimes the days just blur together.. as I sit here a few weeks behind in my blog I remind myelsef of the days events by looking at my pictures, notes and calander. THis si the one artifact for Feb 6th..

must have been an interestign day !
nite all, nite sam
_me

THis week our good friend Finn turned 16. I remember when he was born. Now he’s taller than me , stronger than me and and outweighs me . He’s an amazing and funn young man. We were goign to take hom out for dinner.. but the roads were so bad, we opted for sushi take out.. 

Happy brithday Finn !. we’re glad you were born !

note all, note sam 
-me