All posts by johncohn

Thursday night – Happy Birthday Satori !

Howdy from the 19th floor of the Billagio in Las Vegas Nevada.. i’m out here for a conference.. which should be fun.. but it did cause me to miss our younger dog Satori’s birthday party !  Gabe and Diane made her a ‘cake’ out of scrambled eggs and cheese..

She just turned 3.. and she’s a really wonderful friend and companion. Her actual birthday was yesterday.. but we kind of spaced out on that. Satori .. which means ‘sudden enlightenment ‘ in Japonese… is a labradoodle-poodle mix… sort of a labrodoodledoodle.. She’s endlessly playful. and very loving.  If you’re in the room. Satori is by your side.. usually with a toy..  She’s a good.. if somewhat pesky little sister to our older dog Chai.. Over the years they’ve become quite close.. I now find them playing together pretty often..  Satori and her sister have been such good warm and loving presenses in our lives..

Happy birthday girl !

Aside from Satoris birthday.. today was pretty uneventful.. an insanely busy work day.. follwed by a loooooong

cross country trip.. Las Vegas is always an interesting assault on the senses.. I’m a lover of Neon.. so that’s one major draw for me.. Here’s a quick impression of the lights on the strip..

I love this place for it’s glitz..

but.. it’s really not for me..

more tomorrow from here..

nte all, nite sam

-me

Wednesday night – that guy

I worked at home all day… and alternated work calls with finishing up a talk I need to give on Friday morning. As part of pulling together that talk, I found  a picture of myself taken about  months before Sam died.

I know this picture well. It was taken when I got my last promotion t work . I slapped it into my tlak.. and didn’t think much of it.. but then a few minutes later I went back and stared at it. … I had this strong sense that I wanted to somehow reach back in time and…. what ? .. Tell him what was going to happen ? .. protect him from what was going to happen .. ? .,, .. It was a strange helpless feelign.. knowing thta there was nothign I could do from this point in the futre.

Instead, I sent this guy as much love as I could.. I wished him healing and strength.. I told him that while it would never be ‘all right .. he would survive.. even go on to thrive..

I am eaming a message to my future self to remember to look back on my present slef.. and do the same thing for me..

nite all

nite Sam

-me

Tuesday night – maitrī

I had a nightmare of a day.. everythign that could go wrong at work did..  by the end of the day, all of my composure and relaxation from the holiday break had vanished.. along with my sanity. It seemed that each new phone call or email brought more bad work news.. On top of that, I have a night full of work ahead of me.. including a major talk to prepare. By the time my last call was over at 7PM.. I was a wreck.. luckily it was time for Diane’s tuesday night yoga/meditation class. It’s a 45 minute quiet yoga class followed by 30 minutes of meditation..   During the first 30 minutes or so, my mind was on my day.. I was convinced that everythign I was doing was wrong.. that I wasn’t working hard enough. .. and that  I was pretty much a jerk… .. but slowly, the relaxing music, the deep stretching and Diane’s  beautiful voice took over..  That’s when the word ‘maitrī’ came into my head.. It’s a sanskrit word that means ‘loving kindness’. It’s a Buddhist tenant you practice first on yourself, then on your loved ones, then on your aquantances, then on your enemies.. and finally on all sentient beings. I was struggling on step 1 there.. I wasn’t practicing loving kindness on myself.. I stopped and said to myself.. ‘hey.. things are messed up.. but.. its not (all) your fault.. and you’re doing the best that you can do..” . actually.. I started repeating that long phrase in my head as a sort of mantra. that put me in a much better place.. After class, I had a nice dinner with Diane, Deb and Gabe (matt and ian are in New hampshire now).. I helped Gabe wiht his math and spanih.. and I’m just now sitting down to what looks like an all nighter.. Things are still messed up, I still have too much to do.. but I like myself better than I did at 6PM..

celibrate small victories..

nite all, note Sam

-me

Monday night – a Zatar Miracle !

You know it’s the time of the year for heartwarming stories of small  miracles.. Well, one happened to me today.

Yesterday, Diane and Deb decided to clean one of our cupboards. Like many folks, we have tons of botlles and bags of spices htat have been hanging around in there forever. Deb uncovered two bags of my favorite spice: Zatar.. it’s a middle eastern specialty  made with thyme, sesame seeds, summac buds and salt. You mix it with olive oil and dip pita in it.. or drizzle it over bread and roast it.. So yummy.. I love it so much that I adopted it as my stage name when I do science shows (‘Dr. Zatar .. the mad engineer !).,because I was tired of people calling me Mr. Cohn (Mr Cohn is my dad !)  .. I even used to tell all three kids crazy  bedtime stories with me as Zatar, Max as baby Zatar, Sam as baby Rataz and Gabe as baby Tazar..

I even have it on my license plate !

Anyway.. there were two bags of the stuff I’d gotten from who knows where ..   I was all set to make zatar bread for everyone when Diane pointed out that there were spider webs in both bags..   Sadly, I had to throw them out..

.. but today.. I had my little zatar miracle. Friend Betsy showed up for 6 PM yoga with the cutest bottle of zatar for me.. She didn’t know what it was for.. but she knew I liked the name.. and saw it in a store in boston..

We need to take our miracles where we can find them 🙂

nite everyone, nite sam

-me

ps. Last night Devon and I made a homopolar (ie. no cummutation) motor because he’d seen one on youtube. it’s made out of a D battery, a very strong magnet, a peice of copper wire and a piece of foil.. So simple and so cool Nice !