All posts by johncohn

Tuesday night – long strange trip

I’m at the end of a very long very good day.. it started around 2:30 last night.. I woke up and found I couldn’t go back to sleep.. lots on my mind.. all of it good stuff.. I lay in bed for an hour to try and sleep.. but no sleep came (that’s really, really unusual for me).. so I got up. showered and started driving to NY for a days worth of meetings.

On the way down I happened to go by the Markowski’s barn in Vergenees.. I pulled in to tak ea quick picture of the recently re-assembled Time cycle..

I pulled off the road for an hours more sleep, then I crossed into NY.. it was a beutiful sunrise !

Next stop was the Albany Nanoscience center. I had a 9:10:30 presentation I had to do, and I didn’t want to do it from the road. The guys at ananu were kind enough to lend me an office for y calls…

That talk went well…..

Then I got back in my car and headed south to Poughkeepsie …   I got there just in time for lunch with friends Bruce and Jim.. Friends Lisa and Bill wondered by as well.

At 2 I gave a Colony talk for well over 100 folks.. It was a good crowd and the talk went pretty well.. I did a little visiting with folks after the talk.. Then I headed down to  Ruchirs for his holoday party…

There were a ton of my friends there.. and Rashi had made an indian feast.. I just sampled.. rather than ate …   it was delicious as is everything that Rashi cooks.

around 7 I headed down to NYc.. to meet David K for an 830 dinner.. We went to an all vegetarian place. It was excellent !  ow I’m camping at David’s for the night.. Tomorrow, the two of us will drive back to VT..

Wow.. 4.. no 5.. stops all for different purposes.. all in a day.. no wonder I can’t stay awake to write more…

Night folks.. night Sam.
-me

Monday night – Seiche

Very interesting day..   I found out late last week that my friend Tim in Corporate had gotten some extra money to film the third installment in his ‘Mad Science’ series on IBM’s Smarter Planet program (I’ve already posted the link to the first one he did) .
The catch is.. the money had to be spent this week. I like doing these vids because I think they help raise folks awareness of how technology can help the environment..   I managed to clear my calendar today to help with filming. I met Tim and the film crew at about 10 this mornign and we began working on a story.. this movie would be about managing water quality in places like Lake Champlain.

The story took us to the Champlain Water District, the utility that provides drinking water to south burlington. shelbourne, essex and jericho.   I’d driven by it for years without noticing it.   The guys at CWD were amazingly nice, smart and helpful.. they showed us their hold setup.. it was really impressive.. I never new there was so much science behind clean water !

I was amazed at the array of chemicals it takes to make the water safe and healthful…..

Our first stop was the sampling station on Potash Brook.. this is where they measure temp. flow, turbidity ph, organics, etc for the water entering the lake. There are hundreds of small stations like this around the area.

The instrumentation in the control room was pretty fancy..

This was my favorite instrument.. this shows the water temperature profile near the two big intakes for the water system which are both about a half mile off shore at about 75 down.   The colors map to temperature.. you can see the shapr line between the wamr surface water and the colder deep water.. This scan was actually from this summer.. the real temperature today was all blue.. as in .. the low 40’s .. which proved to be pretty chilly as I later found out.

One cool feature of these plots is the periodic humps which occur at roughly 3 day period.. it’s evidence of the seiche, (isn’t

that a COOL WORD ?!?!) an underwater standing wave that traverses north

south in Lake Champlain all the time. it’s caused by the prevailing

north wind.. As you can see on the plot it makes a HUGE difference in

the distribution of the water temp.. which in turn allows the water

guys to adjust their treatment..

After we got those shots, we went to Echo to film the rest.. It was already near 3 PM.. and the sun was setting.. so we did our last shot next.. it involved me jumping out of a canoe into Lake Champlain.. Did I mention that the water was in the low 40s.. and it was in the low 30’s out.. and that it was snowing ?   I don’t want to give away the story line ..  so you’ll have to watch the vid to see why…

Anyway.. it was C-O-L-D out there !  Time was nervous thta he’d end up in the water too !!!!!

And guess what… I did manage to tip over the canoe.. and Tim went in too.. It was… uh… cold.. I mean really cold… but it was funnier than it was cold.. I was laughing hard enough to keep myself from freezing as I pulled the canoe over to the doc. Man, I hope they got the shot.. ‘cuz I wasn’t about to do it again..

We ran inside and dried off..  

As soon as our teeth stopped chattering we got in dry clothers and went and shot the rest of the vid in Echo with the ancient Sturgeons in the tank looking on..

.It’s 6 hours sinc eI was in the lake.. and I just realized I’m finally warm.. Never a dull moment…  

OK.. I need to leave around 4 AM tomorrow morning so I need to go..
More tomorrow.. nite folks.. Nite Sam !
-me

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Sunday night – Muddled

I spent all day working .. as in IBM working. I am trying to pull together a short presentation on something that I am both knowledgeable and passionate about. .. yet I am really struggling to put words to paper. What I’m realizing is that even though my brain seems to be working close to 100 % these days.. I’ve never really gotten back the ability to read or write much  since Sam’s passing. I used to read every night.. I’d always have several books going at any one time and probably read 30-50 each year.. now I’m lucky if I read 34 a year. Similarly, UI used to be able to knock out a set of powerpoint  charts in minutes if I knew what I wanted to say.. now it takes me hours or days.. I do a ton of staring at the blank screen, struggling to put one word after the other…

Now.. I know it sounds sort of silly given that I have no problem blogging every night.. but here, I’m not trying to convince, explain or teach anything in a linear way. I had thought it was something related to my diminished cognitive  function  after Sam died.. .. but .. as I just said.. my thinking feels pretty clear these days.   It’s more like I caught a mild case of dyslexia.. Is that possible ?

Or.. am I just lazy ?

nite folks, nite Sam
-me

Tell me to get back to work…

Saturday evening – sleepy

WOnderful, slow, sleepy day.. nothing planned.. nothing accomplished.. Slept till 9 and fell asleep two more times during the day. I’m recovering from the last frantic three days and saving up for the next 7 which will be packed with a ton of work, three big talks, many meetings, a movie shoot, two parties, a fathers group night and a trip down to three places in NY.

So.. sleepy now is good..

It’s snowing.. finally.. there’s a dusting on the ground.. one of the first for the year, which makes it one of the latest in recent memory.

No new things to share here today.. so I’ll post these pictures from my trip to NYC the last two days.. I thought these were pretty interesting. Max is doing a project for a class which involves casting his apartment mate Will’s hed in Jello. The process requires a plater outer shell with a siicone (Silly Cohn) inner layer. I was able to stay up only until 3Am to watch the back part.. it was fun and weird to watch . Will had to sit absolutely still .. which was pretty funny to watch considering the swirl of other roommates and dogs around him.


Ah.. here’s a picture of my seat-friends in 19B and C who kept me entertained all the way back from NYC. I got a pretty interesting picture of their lives in just 48 minutes. 

 I love people…….

Our one venture outside today was to go see the Richmond Christmas Craft fare in the richmond town center and the Congregational Church (the Congo) .. It was the first Christmassy thing I’ve done this year.. and it felt..OK.. actually, better than OK..

I love how our tiny town produces such cool stuff !

My personal favorite is Kathy and Lou’s secret recipe ‘Bonds Butter Crunch Popcorn’ and Chocolate covered toffee.   THey’re both receipes from Kathy’s Dad who used to make candy for a living. It’s amazing stuff. (Email them at info@bondsbuttercrunch.com if you want to try it yourself !)
 

Ahh.. I gotta go get cleaned up for a party tonight.. more later.. I think.. Night for now folks
Night Sam
-me