I spent a few hours working on a new shirt design for the next Friends of Sam event… We’re having a Skate night at Talent in about 2 weeks (I’ll send out a bulletin). The proceeds will pay for Deb’s friend Abraham to bring his wife and baby over from a refugee camp in Sudan. Working on the drawings for the shirt is a true act of love.. I worked with Brit to edit out one of our favorite pictures of am… as a pirate at Camp Abenaki.. I had to edit out his mustache.. I sent hours staring at his face.

While Brit and I worked on the shirt design. Brit’s brother. Matt worked in the lab drilling wholes in 3/8″ plate steel to make decorative brackets for their post and beam house frame. He put in a ton of work drilling these holes. 

Shortly after noon my great friend Rafe showed up. He’d driven down from a conference in Montreal. Rafe is my old suite mate from MIT.. and now lives in Palo Alto..where he’s  the head of the Math Dept. at Stanford. Here he is looking very professorial..   It is so good to have Rafe here.. first order of business was to see some baby pictures.. Rafe and his wife Laurence have 2.5 year old Sabine and 6 month old old Sophie.. Both exceedingly cute.

We fed Rafe. then decided to take advantage of the beautiful warm weather and go for a hike up at Bolton.. .. and I do mean warm !!!  The car said it was 82 degrees !

We drove up to the ski area.. where we found they still had a ton of snow.. We didn’t need snowshoes.. but the snow was still quite deep.. it was mid thigh in some places if you feel through the surface.. other places it was less than a foot.

clear blue sky !

We kept climbing until we reached the very top. We took a short brake at the warming hut..

And checked out some of the Sam graffiti there.

Not sure why this metal thing is an ‘S’ .. but I took that as a Sam thing too..

Since we’d made it this far, I decided to go up the fire tower. It’s a place of special significance to us.. Thats where we sent up some of Sam’s ashes in fireworks in December of 2006.  It looks like something out of an old movie set.. but not as well built.

Diane,. Rafe and I climbed p the rickety ladders..

The view was so worth it !.

The dogs sat below barking.. ‘Where’d’ you guys go ? , Where’d you guys go ?”

Here’s Waterbury Reservoir.

The walk down was gentle and sunny.. What a perfect hike !  We got to the car and headed back to the house.

A few of the music kids were down at the house practicing (and sounding great0.. They helped me take down a few of the storm windows.. While I was out there I fixed most of the lights on the Sam guitar man sculpture in the front yard.

Meanwhile Diane and Rafe cooked dinner. Rafe had been talking about Risotto all day.. so we forced him to make us some.. It was delicious.. We also grilled some fish.. it was a great meal.

As I went out to get the fish… I caught a beautiful rise of the full moon.

Rafe and I decided to take a short walk up to the rock.. As I was leaving. Diane called down from the upstairs bathroom window.. I say window.. but there was no more window. It had blown off in the wind…  !

It now lay in a thousand pieces in the back yard.. Yikes ! Never, ever a dull moment around here.

Rafe and I too k the road over to the high meadow.. It was nice having the guitar guy lit up again !

We got up to the rock.. and in the  moonlight I saw that a daffodil had bloomed today up there !.

The moon was now clearing Robbins mountain.. Rafe and I sat up there and talked for a while It was a clear and warm night..

As we walked home. the moonlight was bright enough to cast our shadows..

We got home and Rafe told me a little about his research. I nodded politely to pretend I understood what he was saying.. (Actually.. he’s a good explainer.. I think I actually did understand what he was saying. tonight)  .. Rafe went to bed about midnight..It’s now about 1.. and time for me to go to sleep.. More stuff tomorrow. 
   G’nite everyone.. G’nite Gabe in South Caroline.. Max in NYC.. and Sam.. everywhere.. We love you !
-me