Woke this morning in Armonk did a quick run through the cafeteria and auditorium to see some friends who had just arrived for a training meeting   I was pleased and surprised  to see so many friends all in one place.. In just five minutes I ran into Tony, Ed, Dennis, Mike, Brad, Noah from the Us, Karl Heinz, Gottfried and Gunter from Germany and Robert from the UK.. IBM is a small planet !

 I left for Burlington about 8AM and drove home in record time (with a short stop for an oil change in Brattleboro) I spent nearly the entire 5 hours on the phone for work calls. I talked to friends overseas who were also driving somewhere.. something about two people in driving cars talking to each other on different continents seems pretty magical and weird.

 I got home around 4.. took a few more calls then headed up to the Jericho Center Store (formerly Desso’s) where the Voices crew was filming a scene. The scene inside the store was crazy hectic.. lots of people and equipment crowded into the stores many nooks and crannys.. Outside the store. The cast and extras sat their patiently.. for hours ! I could never hang out so dociley as they do. Gabe and Trevor had been waitig for 3 hours on the outside chance they needed extras.. they never got called Whatever big name actors get paid to sit around and wait.. it’s not enough !  What was most surprising is that the store was open all through out the shoot.People would come in and buy stuff between takes . pretty crazy.     The store owners desreve a big thanks for letting the filming happen here.. please reward them with your business ! Here are some snaps I took on the scene.

Josh chow’s down

Max exits fram left

Doug, My friend from work drops buy for his mail.

Filming Kario as a sales cleark

Kario and Dana

Merideth .. I know her from work

Ty and Hannah

Goofy looks !

Cora looking shocked

Vvvvvade

Bess directs

One funny story from this store.. in 1981 I stuck a card on the wall saying “. Responsible young professional seeking house to rent and/or roommates”    10 years later in 1991 I walked into the sore and found the card in the exact same place…   Now that’s stability.

 

 

During one of the waiting lulls I walked with Gabe and Trevor over to our  friend Chris’s house/shop to see if he’d had a chance to finish Sam’s stone. You might remember that we’d etched Sam’s Mayan Glyphs into a stone for the back yard,.. but we’d not had time to add his name or his birth or death  date s. Chris had come and picked up the stone and etched in that extra info. We’d asked him to put Sam’s dates on the bottom so it didn’t look so much like a grave stone. He’d done a wonderful job on it.. We all managed to muscle the stone up into the bed of Chris’s truck. 

While we were at Chris’s we got a chance to walk around and see some of his other projects. He’d just finished this piece called “wise’ that he did from memory in 3 hours  with an angle grinder fitted out with a diamond saw. He’s a true artist…

Even Chris’s woodpile is interesting and beutiful !

We all then headed home. I was surprised to find that while I’d been out, Debra and Emily the Voices Prop people had been working on our house. Diane and my bedroom had been transformed into a teenage girl’s room for Ruby’s character Daria..    And the downstairs bedroom had been transformed into another girls room for Annaleise’s  character Vita.. The transformations were quite amazing.. They’ll be shooting here on Friday,.> Diane and I are going to play Audrey’s character Naomi’s parents.. I’m supposed ot be a spaced out ex-hippy dad…   I’ll have to work on that…
Dowstairs .. Vita’s room

Upstairs – Darias room

Cleaning for the shoot turned up all sorts of precious stuff

Chris showed up with the stone shortly after that and we muscled it out of the truck and back in place. It was nice to have it back. I have to confess, seeing the dates on the bottom caused me to choke up hard They look so…. .. I don’t know.. real ?

 Muscling Sam’s stone out of the truck

Chris and his youngest sonn Sawyer

And older son Finn (the secound Finn I’ve met this month !)

Gabe and Trevor take in the sunset

Nick and Liz look well matched

Meanwhile, Diane had worked up a delicious dinner of pesto noodles and roasted eggplant . I think we had 9 again for dinner…   Never short of company these days..

 

Diane and I are sleeping on the floor these next two nights as not to disturb the movie set in our room.   The show must go on, I guess. Anyway…  I’m totally beat now and need to sleep..  Good night everyone, goodnight Sam.

 

-me