Ahhhh .. home at last. Diane and I made it home at about 7:00 PM after a 3.5 hour flight and a 6.5 hour drive. I’m glad to be sitting still. It was a wonderful trip.. not because of the places we went.. but because I was  traveling  with Diane. It was a totally different dynamic than my normal biz trips.. instead of coming back frazzled and fried, I’m coming back  already chilled out.. I’m going to see if I can take family with me more often now….

    Yesterday I posted a bunch of pictures about going back  to my childhood schools and house..   The real reason for the trip to Houston was to visit my brother Billy, his wife Shaun   and their kids Ben. Betsy., Billy. ‘Berto and Christopher.  They had moved back down to Houston from Boston nearly four years ago . I’m embarrassed to say that  even though we see my Bro and his family pretty often, this is the first time I’ve seen their new house in Houston. In fact, this was my first trip back to my home town , in more than 6 years since my parents moved up to MA.  Diane and I were excited to see Billy ‘s family and the house. We got there mid-afternoon yesterday and just hung out with them for the rest of the day.   It was great hanging out with Billy ,Shaun and the kids.. I love talking to Billy, he is the person on the planet who thinks most like me. Talking to him is like having a conversation in my head. Shaun is a free spirited and creative thinker too. She’s very spontaneous and loving. We love being with her. The kids are all quite different. All are growing very fast.   It was fun checking in with each of them during this trip.  We miss having them so far away from us now.

 Billy

Shaun

Betsy
‘Baby” billy (no baby anymore !)

Christopher (the bobblehead)

Chris on drums




On the porch





Me and Tintin


Billy and Chris





More Chris


‘Berto

Billy and his trombone practicing

Their place is really great.. First of all, it’s huge !.. Is a big two story brick building on a tree lined quiet street in Bellaire TX.. an embedded suburb of Houston. The house is spacious and airy and has all sorts of amazing features e.g.  the whole outside of  property, including the tree house,  is plumbed with small jets that spray a natural repellent  to keep Houston‘s famous voracious mosquitoes at bay. They have a great pool with a spa, an outdoor kitchen, and a full guest house with full kitchen. Downstairs from that was Billy’s shop where he does much of his inventing.

Welcome !

The front of the house

The rearof the house

The guesthouse.shop and outside table

The pool

Their ceder works glider.. jsut like the one I rode on with all three of our kids. (We’d sing ‘Doggy-doggy-doggy meat !’)

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Yummy Texas food (you couldn’t make me eat okra as a kid.. now I love it)

My grandfather’s desk !

The inside kitchen

Our three boys are present

My brother is a world renowned  heart surgeon (http://www.oberlin.edu/alummag/oamcurrent/oam_winter99/hearts.html) , He’s invented many amazing devices to help in heart surgery.. most of them were prototyped in his how shop out of ordinary equipment such as spoons, PVC pipe, ti-wraps, film cans, etc. His shop is pretty nice.. I particularly love his desktop mill/lathe combination.   Billy is also a semi-professional musician. He’s currently playing in a tongue-and-and cheek Disco revival band )’Disco Expressions”) complete with white leisure suits and white platform shoes . Here he is practicing for an up coming gig.

    We stayed up late last night , cooked some food out on the grill  and hung around in the pool. Around midnight we wandered off  for a few hours sleep before leaving this morning at 5AM to catch our flight.

     Our flight was about 3.5 hours .. but I only remember about 30 minutes of it.. the rest I slept. We arrived at JFK around 11:30.   As we waited for our bags, I saw this add for Spamalot.. ‘Spam’ or ‘Spamus’ was always my nickname for Sam. I always collected  ‘Spam’ stuff for him. When I saw this add I instinctively started to take a picture.. but then  almost stopped … ‘Why stop’ I asked  myself ?

   We got our stuff, and boarded the Airtrain back to our car. On the trip I managed to fall against the emergency alarm button…. I had to explain my clumsiness to the Transit police  via intercom..  Oooops !   We found our car with out issue and began the long but smooth trek back to Vermont.   As we crossed the line back into Vermont we both let out a sigh of relief. Our trip had taken us through  Newark, the Jersey Shore, Austin. Houston. NYC., Urban CT, etc..  The unspoiled green of Vermont really felt like home to us. It’s quite a different world up here.. maybe not for everyone.. but it’s heaven for us.

Here

there

   We got home around 7PM. Max and a few of his friends were hanging out. The house was spotless which was nice to see. Max asked me to go get a voltmeter out of my lab.. he followed me over. I opened the door to see that he and Scott had completely cleaned and organized it for me as a Father’s day present. I almost cried I was so happy. You would have had to have seen it before to know what a huge labor of love that was for them to do.. what a wonderful gift.  I love Max so much.. he is such a loving guy..   Scott, that was so cool for you to help do !

Surprise ! Clean Lab !

   Diane, Max and I then headed off to Mexecali for dinner. It was a great homecoming. Now… time for sleep. It’s nice to be back in my own bed.  G’nite everyone !..

-me

We started today in Austin. I was planning on taking the whole day off but ended up doing a few hours of work before we left the hotel. I lost track of time and before I new it it was almost 9:30. Diane patiently waited for me to finish working.. She finally snapped me out of work mode and coaxed me out for a run. As soon as I was back we packed and hit the road.  I plugged in my boyhood address into the cars GPS and started driving.. It was like a drive back into my past.  We took Route 71 to I-10.. about 160 miles of flat, green, hot Texas. It hadn’t changed much in 30 years. Lots of cattle.. a few firework stands and lots of nothing. Coming into Houston was another thing. At about Katy things started getting built up… From there all the way into my old part of town was now quite built up. It was almost as if Houston had crawled out another 20 miles !. That stretch was full of new road and overpass construction. Strip malls, car dealerships… it was about as different from Vermont as one could get.  

The start of our journey.. find my old home address.

Ugh !

Wishfull thinking

Things were so built up that I almost didn’t recognize the turn off to my road. We pulled off the freeway and waited in traffic to make the turn down Echo lane.. the road to Memorial Senior High school where I went. I can honestly say this is the first time that I ever looked upon that school fondly.. It looked pretty much the same modulo a brand new front and prison like fences everywhere. We spent about 30 minutes walking around the place.. We found a few gates that had accidentally not been locked and even wondered around inside the compound.    It brought t back all sorts of memories..  I could really place myself back in that time..  I though of many folks.. friends, teacher.. I hadn’t thought of in probably 30 years.. it was pretty cool being there…  now at least.

In the cafeteria

My nrother drew this mural in 1978.. it’s been repainted, though

The interiar hallway.. the fences are new

The track’s named in honor of my dad’s friend Will, the track coach here forever.

I threw a SamStone on the roof in front of My Kozlozsky’s old chemestry class

Ms. Rae’s Chemestry II class

My old Calculus room <3 <3 <3

On the track that my dad and I used to run on. I foud out by goign through the superintendat’s office trash that this track cost $30,000 in 1976.. but they woudn’t give us $300 for a laser… I even petinitione them for it.. and never got it.. 🙁

World History Class

Mr. Saathoof’s old Physics’ Room “John… please be more attentive”

If Diane and I had met here

After leaving there, we made a quick stop at Spring Branch Middle School. Middle school was  not much fun for me so my memories from that place were pretty few..   My favorite memory from there was the time that my friend Phillip and I launched a very large homemade rocket from there with a fairly  large high explosive charge (Silver Azide as I recall)  as payload. It went off much closer to the ground than it was supposed to have. It scared us and we ran off just as the fire department was pulling up..  Ah  kids…

We then drove down Piney Point to Smithdale to See Memorial Drive Elementary… (I had forgotten that it was Memorial Drive  Elementary.. I remember it as Memorial Elementary. I found my Kindergarten class where Miss Mocha taught me.. I even got a shot inside.. I remember that was before we got air Conditioning in that school. I remember  it was unbearably hot sometimes. I remember the places I stood as part of the 5^th grade crossing cards. I remember being so proud of the white sash we  had to wear as a crossing guards.

 

The Bus stop

Ms. Mocha’s room

Mr. Eldridge. The Principal. he once made me squat for 20 minutes in a corner becasue I tripped Todd Mitchell

From there we drove past the church where I was in Cub and Boy Scouts then sanaked our way to Shady Glen where I grew up. Shady Glen used to be called ‘Scholars Hollow’ at one point because all of its residents were Rice professors. They changed the name when folks like us showed up

A tribute to our neighbor Bud

Our house looked great !. My folks moved from there up to Sherborn MA about 4 years ago. The guy who bought the house had put a bunch of work into spring up the place. It had new windows, a new fence, new landscaping and a new garage door. The essence of the place was not changed, though.  Knocked on the door, but no one was there. I walked around the place taking pictures. It was bitter sweet visiting there. I snuck around back and placed a SamStone in the bamboo that Sam like to play in when we visited here while he was little.  One big change was that the guy had cleared many of the trees from the  back yard so now it had healthy grass growing. Something we could never do with all of the shade.  It really looked great.  

Front View

The Garage which was my lab

‘Maggie’ , my favorite Magnolia tree (My friend Dari named her that)

Side view

The living room – this was where Xmas was

The front door

Our old mailbox

‘My’ firehydrant

Our old Thermometer (note the temp)

The kitchen

My old room

The new back yard

The patio

I put A SamStone in the Bamboo that Sam loved to play in

The back yard

The side door

Front of the house
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  It was hard for me to pull away from there.. but we had to get to my brother’s house. On the way., we made a quick stop at St. Francis Church which was across from our little road.  I used to go to nursary school there. Much later, my friends and I used to hang out there at night  and play music. I used to climb on the roof there and make tea… and I used to practice picking the locks on their doors. Those are strange memories. I left a SamStone in the capable hands of one of the statues of St. Francis who used to listen to me when I had problems to discuss.  (the statue I mean.. not the Saint)

An old St. Francis sculpture

In good hands

Ms Holliday’s Nursary school room .. my first school experience

   From there we made the urban drive to my brother’s house. In the interest of time now. I’m going to write about our grate visit to my brother’s house tomorrow on the plane. Right now I need to go to sleep as we have to wake up at 4:45 to get to the airport.

This has been a really good trip so far.  More tomorrow. G’nite all !

 -jc

Folks.. I apologize.. Myspace blogs were down last night.. I had to post this in the morning…

Oh man am I sleepy.. We got in so late last night. Found our nice hotel and fell asleep. Here’s a bad picture of flying in that came out pretty cool.

Note the name of the resturaunt behind the hotel.

I’ve fallen asleep twice while sitting down ready to start blogging. . I’ll do my best to get through it. We got in very late night and did not get enough sleep. I still managed to have a really nice and productive day, though. I began today with a short run around some of the roads and paths behind the hotel. I had forgotten what it felt like  to run in this moist Texas  heat. It was really quite beautiful. The Grackles were out making their normal racket..  which reminds me of growing up on Houston. There it was a comforting familiarity to it.     After a quick  breakfast, I headed out to work and Diane began her planned day of just relaxing away from house and yard work

   I spent my day in meetings in building 45  It was actually nice  being at so many meetings in person after all the phone meetings I do in Burlington.   This is my first trip to Austin since Sam’s passing. Many. folks came up to me here to tell me how sorry they were and to hug me. As always., the love an concern folks show us  really lifts  me up.

Here are my good firends Sybil (Slayergrll.. she posts to my myspace) and Peggy.

I finished up around 6:30 and drove aback to the hotel to pick up Diane. It was soooo nice to have her there at the hotel when I got home. I can’t tell you how many times a year I come back to a dark and empty hotel room somewhere n the world.

    Diane told me about her lazy day.. which sounded  very peaceful…she’d also talked to both boys.. Gabe was still having a good time in Oregon.. and Max was doing fine at home.. I miss them both so much..   Around 7 we headed out to meet my friend Leon and co. for dinner.    Leon was taking the managers who reported to him here in Austin for dinner. The restaurant.. was called “Mood and Food”  . Diane and I did the ‘we’re trying to be vegan’ dance with the menu and found something with no meat, eggs or dairy.. Once again.. I’ve been a vegetarian for years with no problem.. but trying to avoid eggs and dairy in our culture is really tough.  One interest side note about the restaurant. was that the room was filled with color changing lights  (I that kept cycling our food between shades of red . white, green and blue… I managed to take most of my bites during the white cycles.  Conversation at dinner was good… it was good getting to know these folks better. 

   AT about 8:30 we excused ourselves and headed over to my friend Jim and his wife Mary. Jim and Mary’s house looks our over Lake Austin… which was really beautiful tonight. Amazingly, the night was quite cool.. I think it’s cooler here tonight than back in Vermont. We sat out on Jim and Mary’s porch and listened to the rain.. t couldn’t have been nicer. One cool bonus for the evening is that Mary and I went to the same High School in Houston (Memorial High)// Mary is a couple of years younger than I am, but we still new many of the same folks. There are very few folks I know who I can reminisce  with about those days.. it was fun. 

    Now were back at the hotel and I keep falling asleep.. I just nodded off for the third time while tying. Time to post this and get to sleep. More from Austin tomorrow !  Goodnight folks.. goodnight Sam !

-me

A story from texas wouldn’t be complete with out a picture of the state mascott !

Diane and I had a great day today. We left our hotel in Parsipanny (sounds like a root vegetable) at about 8 for the drive to New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) in Newark. I was the keynote speaker for summer technology camp for high school kids.  Newark is about as different from Vermont as two places could be.. The air was hot, humid and hazy as people edged their cars along the packed freeways.. I’m not a great city driver. I’m pretty distractible (no.. really ? )   and there was so much to look at as I drove.  I was so happy to be driving the Prius.. it’s GPS got us right to the door of NJIT . My friend Maureen met us and guided us in to our unloading spot. A bevy of camp counselors descended on our car and lugged the equipment up to the third floor where my show was to be while Diane went and parked  the car. It was great having her here with me..  I think there were about 80 kids in this camp.. half from new jersey, half from out of state.. Some for inner cities. They were all interested in engineering and science. .  The show went great… I always choke up a little when I do the introduction and dedicate the show to Sam.. but once I’m into the shtick.. I’m ‘on’. All of the equipment worked today.. which is a bit of a miracle in itself.. the kids were great participants and the faculty and staff at NJIT were warm and welcoming as always. This place has such a great heart…

   After the show… the samy clutch of camp counselors lugged the equipment down stairs for me.. which is  the only part of doing these shows that I usually  don’t enjoy.  It was about 12:30 when Diane and I got the car loaded .. We had about 6 hours to kill until our flight to Austin. For no particular reason we headed down to the Jersey Shore..   It seemed like a better idea than heading into NYC on such a hot and muggy day. The temp outside read 97 degrees as we headed down the Garden State Parkway. 

    We turned off at Point Pleasant Beach because one of the students had told us it was one of the closest beaches. .. looking for the quintessential Jersey Shore experience.. and we found it.  Jenkinson’s Beach at Point Pleasant was about as Honky Tonk as you could get.. a boardwalk, expensive rides, rigged (I assume) games of chance.. cool beach food .. and lots of sunburned people. We looked  for a place to change our clothes.. For some weird reason changing in the restrooms was a punishable offense.. The only place you could change was a ‘bathhouse’ that wanted $4 apiece for the opportunity to change your clothes in a tiny stall.. no thanks.. We went back to the car and di the classic change in the car routine, then headed back to the beach.  We paid $6.50 apiece to be able to go down on  the beach and we sat down in a sea of people.. . I know it sounds yucky.. but for some reason, it was just what we were looking for. The breeze kept the heat down.. the sun was bright… and we just spaced out. We’d ate the few veggie sandwiches we’d found at  a health food store and fell asleep. I woke up before Diane and just stared up at the sky for awhile and spaced out. ..  The kids would love this place.. I missed them all…    When Diane  woke up, we went down to the water and put a SamStone in the Atlantic for him.. It felt good to do that..

Here we are in the parking lot

Check this out !

We’re going vegan in solidarity with Max.. It’s harder than I thouhgt.. and I’m already a vegetarian !

This is me spacing out and starign into the sky

Who does his shopping ?

   By then it was time to head back up to JFK.. We spent a few hours driving back up to NYC.. I had work calls for the whole drive.   New Jersey freeways are … err…. uh… picturesque ?!

We also talked to Max and Gabe. Max is home in Vermont and sounded hot.. We heard it hit 100 in Burlington today !!! Gabe sounded like he was  having a great time Snowboarding in Oregon. Snow sounds great on a day like today.

   Right now, Diane and I are sitting in the airport waiting for our flight..

we’re already an hour late.. which is no fun.. At this point, we’ll probably miss the rental car pick up in Austin. We’ll manage. I’m looking forward to seeing many work friends in Austin..

Hey they’re boarding our flight !..  Gotta go.. More tomorrow !

-jc