Long, and good day…   Started the day with a dream about Sam. Something was trying to erase all of his movies but I was able to stop it. It’s a repeat dream theme about being afraid I’ll start forgetting him. There doesn’t seem to be any chance of that while I’m awake. He was with me all day. .. in a good way. Diane and I spent some time this morning creating a list of all the todo’s we have around Sam’s legacy projects: thanks you notes to print, two scholarships to solidify, the web site to complete.. I find the work that goes into these memorial activities makes feel better.  Action feels good. 

    Around 10. Diane went up to get Sam and our friend’s Hannah. Morgan and Rebecca from up the hill. Avery showed up too.… The girls wanted to learn to weld… which is pretty funny since I’m sort of a beginner myself. We chose a simple practical project to start: a mitten rack. If you’ve ever visited the Townsend’s house in winter you’ll know how practical this will be. We copied the design of  mitten rack that we had.. but decided to super-size it. It was such a blast figuring out the materials, cutting the metal, bending it and welding it all together. I did some demo’s of each of the steps, but the girls did most of the real work. I was so impressed. These women are natural welders (some better than me, I think!)  I felt very close to Sam as I worked with his friends out there in the lab. As the last weld came together we all felt so proud of what we’d built.  All it needs now is some paint and a SamStone on the top and it’ll be ready for use in Hannah’s house.
   After the girls left around 4ish, Diane, Chai and I got out for a great snowshoe. Among other things we talked about one of the books I am reading “The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success” by Deepak Chopra…that my friend Julie gave me . Though I’ve never been a big fan of Chopra,  In this book.. as in others of his I’ve seen, he mixes spiritual stuff with advice on how to be materially successful. That said, there are many things I like about this book. One of his main themes is  the importance of living  in the moment, particularly the importance of not denying the facts of the present. He says to resist  the truth of the present  is to spend energy fighting the tide of the whole universe. He doesn’t say that in a fatalistic way.. he says that  each instant you must  take responsibility and make choices on how to shape your own future.   That really resonates with my own sense of how I have to apply this powerful set of messages I’m learning from Sam to steer my life.. I look forward to finishing the book..
    Around 6ish Gabe, Diane, Chai  and I headed up to Jen and Tim’s for a “Friends of Sam’s” meeting. FoS is a group that the kids have put together to do local public service in Sam’s honor. The kids were talking about having a fund raiser in the next couple of months. The kids are doing all the planning; we adults were just there to listen. (and eat !)… While we were up there we made a batch of very yummy instant ice cream with some liquid nitrogen I’d picked up  last week.. We nearly wrecked Tim and Jen’s kitchen freezing stuff (roses, balloons, bananas) and smashing them.   We then watched all of the Super Bowl commercials without having to watch even a second of football.. (Hurray for TiVo !)  We got home around 10:30. Max, Mason and Scott showed up a few minutes later after their successful trip down to Brooklyn. Max had to move some stuff out of his dorm room at Pratt. . It sounds like it was good for him to go down and take that step. He got to see some friends and feels like he’ll be fine fitting back in down there in the fall.   I’m so glad he decided to stay here this semester.
    One last closing piece of news.. Last night there was an MMU Cabaret night. Diane and I almost went but decided to have a quiet at home Sam night (very nice) ..    I heard today that Skanky Green premiered a new song there in Sam’s honor/ It’s called ‘Captain Sam.. Jeff D. sent me the words… I’ll get a recording posted as soon as I can.  Sam, you’re famous!

The Ballad of Captain Sam
By Skanky Green

VERSE 1

Captain Sam was staring
Down a hardline barrel
Positioned for the drop and smiling
He headed down the hill,
Saluting as he came
And flipping upside down he couldn’t help but grin

CHORUS

Relax a bit, you might just have some fun
Don’t take it all so serious
You’ll never live it down
Take the plunge, you might have to take a dive
‘Cause that’s what he would have done
if he was still alive

VERSE 2

Captain Sam he hopped a vessel
bound for Israel
And we all knew, he’d rock the middle east
He walked right in, cracked a grin
very next day he walked out again
And sure enough, ever since then,
there has been peace

CHORUS

VERSE 3

Captain Sam got himself a pirate ship
through somewhat dubious means
He sailed that thing across the ocean
but never once did a man
step across that plank
and the prisoners all swore
their allegiance to the captain

CHORUS

VERSE 4

Two months ago, we heard news
that captain sam had perished
Fighting pygmies in the amazon
outnumbered by a hundred he refused to run
he held them off from dusk to dawn
sam was never afraid
even when the odds were against him
he only feared for those he left behind
and he’s moved on to the next adventure
i think its best we keep his legacy in mind

CHORUS