I woke up this morning and stepped out of bed almost stepping on Gabe who’d fallen asleep on the floor next to our bed

 

Diane and I took a great longish run along the boardwalk It was quite and beautiful this morning. We got back and went to the opening session of the IBM Corporate Technical Recognition Event. (CTRE).. CTRE is an absolutely fantastic party that IBM throughs every year for folks who have made a significant contribution to IBM in the past year. There are always great speakers, scientists, politicians, artists, explores. This morning’s speaker was Corporal xxx, the first woman to pilot a shuttle mention. She was both humble and inspiring. She showed some great pictures of the earth that she took from space.  It really put things in to perspective. In addition to great performers and speakers, there’s lots of great food. Someone said this morning that CTRE actually stands for ‘Cuisine That’s Really Excellent.’ The centerpiece of the meeting this morning was the naming of 6 new IBM Fellows.by IBM Chairman, Sam Palmisano. That was me up there  last year,,  seems like a lifetime ago. It’s really fun to watch  this from the cheap seats.

 

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After the formal session this morning, the 600 or so attendees broke into small groups to go participate in recreation events all around the area. Some folks went to paint watercolors on the beach, some went kayaking, other’s went hiking. Tomorrow Diane is getting a Spa treatment.  The events are only open to adults.. so the four of us  opted out today and went to the San Diego Wild Animal Park.. It was a great choice The place is huge.. with tons of cool animals to see close up.. It was a beautiful day and we spent 5 hours there wandering around checking out gorillas, meerkats, lions, elephants, giraffes, and several hundred random brown deer like things with exotic names. It was a wonderful day. 

 

The four of us had a great day together Sam was very much there with us two.. We placed a SamStone next to some beautiful gibbons.. Sam was always a monkey at heart.

 I noticed something really amazing yesterday and today every time I thought of Sam.. In the past, every time I think of him, I feel it strongly in my heart .. by that I mean I feel a warm tightness  near the midline of my body, near my heart. In eastern practices, this would be my heart chakra. The last  two days I noticed that same feeling plus a tightness in my throat. That would be my throat  chakra, the one associate  with speech. Diane and I talked about this.. it feels  like I need to talk more about Sam.. Interesting that this would start happening while I’m at a meeting  with good friends from all over the world.   I will do what  I need to make sure I honor that message.

    Anyway.. we left the wildlife park and drove to La Jolla beach. Gabe wanted to scope it out for skim boarding and/or skateboarding. Of course there were ‘no skateboarding’  signs posted everywhere.. but Gabe told me his philosophy is  “you can do whatever you want until someone tells you  that you can’t”.. Good words to live by…

 

While we ddn’t find the right beach, we did find a big pod (bevy? , herd ? , flock ? ) of harbor seals.. they were so cute.. they reminded me of Chai !

 

From there we went back to the hotel and walked out for dinner at a nice fish place..  We orderd raw clams in honor of Sam.. he loved to eat weird and slimy things. We each ate one.. then tossed one of them into the bay .. You’re always with us Sam…

-jc

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