Folks…I’m goint to try adding pictures in for today’s blog. I’m having to do this over a shaky phone line.. so.. I apologize if the pictures are all crammed together

I just added the pictures from yesterday’s blog.. so please go take a look. I apologize for my uneven postings, but getting to an internet connection is really tough here. The place is very technically advanced but for some reason wireless internet is just not that common. There’s no internet of any kind in the hotel rooms… but you can get wireless if you go down and sit in the lobby. That involves paying the equivalent of $20US for an hour of use . Then you need to use the service from one of the sofa’s in the lobby.. which you have  to share with the many ladies of the evening that seem to work the hotel. It’s a weird and unwholesome scene.  So.. I’m doing my blogging from work.

 

   So speaking of blogging… where was I ?    Let me start from last night. Just after I posted yesterday we were hustled into a bus and began the 40 minute drive to the hotel. All of us were exhausted and we took turns falling asleep mid sentence. The drive through the city was pretty interesting…

   The Hotel Metropol is quite nice. (every eastern European city I’ve evr been in has a ‘Hotel Metropol’ )  It looks just like you think an eastern European  grand hotel would look. It has lots of dark  corners to hide in and lots of mysterious  looking people hanging around. You can imagine a century of Communist Party officers walking these halls…

 

The hotel as it looked 100 years ago

Another guest, Leo Tolstoy

My humble room

The spooky hallway outside my room

After a quick freshen up, we walked across the street to an Italian restaurant. There were 14 of us including my Academy friends (Hugh, Mike, Kelly, Phillipe, Lori, Charlie, Takeo-San, Jane, Edie, Karl-Heinz, Robert, Guru, Fukanaga-san, John. Joanne, Steve, Caroly, and Deb) We were joined by some friends from other cites including Marcel and Stephan, Francesca, and Esther , Andreas from Slovenia and Christian from Vienna. Christian and I figured out that we lived only 2 doors away  from each other in 1979 when I lived in Vienna. at 42 Graf Starhembergasse . I gave him a SamStone to take to the Erol’s who still live there. I also gave a SamStone to Marcel to take to my friend Bhavna in Zurich.      The food and conversation were great. I just love being with these folks. In order to fit in better, we bought a liter bottle of Vodka.As they say ” When in Rome….. “

 

Weirdness on the menu

This one’s for you Vickie !

Huh ?

We toasted Sam

Dangerous stuff… tastes like water !

here goes

Nastarovie !

Everybody smokes here..

My Halo

Back to beer

Good dark beer.. tasted like chocolate

After dinner we wandered a block down the street to Red Square, home of the Kermlin, Lenin’s Tomb and St. Basil’s Cathedral. I remember grainy movies of uniformed party members watching a parade of tanks from the bleachers n this very square. Nothing could have prepared my for the beautiful and peaceful scene that greeted me last. It was really breathtaking.. It was a beautiful night with a few stars starting to blink on in a deep blue late afternoon color sky… funny thing was that  this afternoon sky was happening at 10:30 at night.!  Lori, Hugh and I walked around for about an hour

Here are some of the pictures from last night..

he old GUM State store.. now a very upscale department store in red square

All the crosses were replaced with stars after WWII

GUms again

Random cool building on Red Square

Lori and Hugh

An Icon over the gate to the square

St. Cyril’s (wow !)

The gates

Random cool roof thingys

Lenin’s tomb

St Cyril’s domes

St Cyrils around 10PM !

OK.. I lied it was 10:40 PM Note the color of the sky !

Da moon !

Can’t get enough of htis one.. St Cyrils that is..Hugh’s OK too

Tossed a Samstone in here.. Made me happy and sad

The Bollshoi Ballet under repair

My twin Karl Marx (for you Glenn !)

The metro sign

Stand on this and through a coin over your sholder and something good is supposed to happen.. at least it did for the person who cautgh my coin

 I tossed a SamStone into the grounds of St. Basil’s. It made me happy and sad.
It was still twilight at 11:30 when I went in. I made a feeble attempt to try and get on the internet, gave up and fell instantly asleep… There’s no better sleep than jetlagged sleep.. Ahh.

 

I slept through until 6:30. I got up and immediately went downstairs for a run. I took a quick jog around the Kremlin… which is about 1.5 miles around.. I’ll tell you one thing.. Russians are not early risers. The streets were still deserted when I went in around 7.

After a quick shower I ran downstairs for a very expensive.. but very tasty breakfast.. then a half hour ride to IBM. The day here has been pretty productive.. In addition to the Academy work were doing, we had some good meetings  with some recent hires and met with the communications folks here.   I love meeting new people . it reminds me why I really love IBM…

     I gotta pretend to be paying attention again so I should go. I just heard from Diane that it’s hotter than heck there and Gabe’s got a fever. I’m bummed  that I wasn’t’ there for his last day of school .. I guess he missed it too. I miss my family like crazy..   Hope everyone is doing well. OK.. gotta run !

Dasvidanya !

  -me

I’m now safely in Moscow.. though getting here was quite a trip in every respect. Things started out a little goofy in Burlington. My flight was delayed about 2.5 hours because the crew needed sleep.. Heck I needed sleep, too. But at least I showed up. Turns out that lots of flights were delayed

I made it to JFK with only a few minutes to spare. I got to the gate to the Moscow flight just as it was beginning  to board. The flight itself was gloriously uneventful… nice big comfy seat, good seat mate (Doug)  and pretty decent food. 

Doug sells securities for a Russian firm so he’s here every couple of months. We talked about Russia, politics, music (he’s in a band) and families. We talked on and off about Sam .. he walked off the plane with a SamStone and an unconventional idea on what to do with it.. (I’m not telling). Despite my best intentions I didn’t get a lick of work done either for IBM or for myself.. Instead I  managed to catch about 5 hours of sleep..      My family was with  me in my dreams. I could feel Sam close to me. 

   They woke us about a hour out of Moscow for breakfast. Just as we  landed, Doug whipped out his phone and let me hear one of the songs his band covers.. ‘Secret  Agent Man’   .. a perfect welcome to this mysterious place. ( I think he figured out that I was a spy) .

    Customs and immigrations was a snap since I was carrying my bag.. I went from plane to my preordered Taxi in about 10 minutes.. that’s when the fun began.I showed him the address in the briefing letter I received and we headed out.  We drove through unbelievable traffic for about an hour to get to a sparkling new IBM building .  Some familiar sights.. some wierd ones.

I paid the cab and went up , I thought, to my meeting. I walked into the conference room thinking I’d find my friends…. But saw a bunch of Russian folks and one friend of mine from Switzerland. He came out in the hall and quickly let me know that the office  I was looking for had moved two months ago and was now  across town  . Oy !

    The folks at the center offered to call me a cab which would arrive in an hour or so to take me to the other facility about an hour an a half’s drive away. I wasn’t interested in that at all. I asked about the Metro.. and they frowned.. It’s too confusing says them.. The perfect challenge says I.. Anyway.. I took off from there with my suitcase and walked about a quarter mile to the Metro stop.  I am a real subway junky and love being packed and jostled into a train. The trip was really cool. Most of the trains were modern.. and the stations were really beautiful. Someone explained that during the 50 years that artisan’s were not allowed to paint churches, they decorated subway stations instead.  The trains and stations were well marked… I found myself really, really glad that I learned to read Cyrillic when I was in High School…  I can’t speak or understand more than 100 words of Russian.. but at least I can read the street and subway signs.

     Here’s one example of one to the subway stops.. In English it’s ‘OktoberSkya’.. which reminded me of the movie October Sky. 

Here are some other images from the subway..

I made it cross town in about 30 minutes..   That was easy.. I came out on the street and had no idea where I was.. I ended up spending about 40 minutes looking for the address of the IBM place.. I asked tons of people a) ‘Do oyu speak English’ (govorite po Igleski ? ).. and getting the answer ‘Nyet'(no).. then having people explain loudly and slowly in impenetrable Russian where I was supposed to go.. Based on the pointing.. no 2 people agreed on the direction. I eventually walked into an office and asked to use their phone.. I called my friend  Jen and she guided me in.    The area around the plant is pretty gritty….

    I got to the lobby hot, sweaty and tired.. and surprise, surprise.. I ran into someone I knew from NY in the lobby.. She was here just as a coincidence.. It is a very small planet. Finally I found my meeting and my friends

OK.. We’re heading out.. I’m going to post this…now and add pictures later if I can

Dasvydahnia !

-jc

 

Today was a really good day.. which I know surprises folks to hear. Let me talk a little about Father’s day.. since I know folks are wondering. Of course any ‘big’ day like this looms large in our minds now.. the image of all those hallmark  card dad’s smoking their pipes in their lazy-boys surrounded by their families has been everywhere this week .. in the papers.. on the internet.. on TV .. .Sure… seeing all those happy face stirs up memories for me.. but today is not that much different for me. The fact that Fathers are being celebrated today doesn’t make my thoughts of Sam any stronger. They are always strong I’m thinking about Sam and my family all the time now.. every waking moment.  The think that’s so different about today is that everyone else realizes I’m thinking about him. .. and I don’t mind that at all.  I need … and get… peoples support and energy today.. and everyday.       And .. I handled today the way I try to handle every day.. I tried to make it the best day possible. And I turned out to be a really  great day….

    Thanks to the folks who called and emailed.. I got a really nice picture from Coco of the kids in her class holding SamStones..

 

I also got a pair of spy binoculars to take on my trip to Moscow this week (Mary is pretty sure I’m a spy.. should I tell her the truth ? )

 

   One of the things that made today so fun was that it was Max’s 19^th birthday.

He slept a good portion of the morning because he and Jessie had stayed up at Project Grad.. an all night party held by the school for graduating seniors in Jessie’s class. Diane went and picked Max up at 6 AM, brought him home and dropped him in bed.. then she went and picked up Gabe and shuffled him off an hour away to Middlebury for the final Lacrosse games of the season. I slept in and had a few hours of puttering time.. this is the nicest gift I could have asked for. I went for a great run with Chai, went swimming then went out to weld Jessie a graduation present.

    Around 12 I woke up Max and he and I drove down to Middlebury to see Gabe’s final game.

We got there just in time to see Gabe score.. Life should always be like that. Gabe seemed both happy and sad that the season was over.. 

 

Max left from there to go to a Voices Movie rehearsal in Duxbury .. another hours drive from Middlebury/ Gabe Diane and I headed back home.

   Right after we got home, Gabe wanted to go up tot eh Bolton potholes for a swim. Just as we were leaving, my good friend Juergen from Germany showed up on our doorstep. I knew he was coming to town this week, but I’d assumed that I would miss him because I was traveling. It was so good seeing Juergen.. we had so much work and social stuff to catch up on.  Juergen decided to go with us up to Bolton.. we (Diane, Gabe Scott, Chai and me)  drove up to the Towsend’s and  picked up Ian and Jessie’s sister Jackie  and headed back down to the ‘upper potholes’ . The upper potholes is a series of stream cut pools and caves just below the UVM Outdoors Club house on the Bolton Access road. It’s incredibly beautiful.. and .. today at least.. incredibly buggy. There were some very deep pools gouged out of the rock by the water.. there’s a very cool cave behind one of the waterfalls too.  We spent about 45 minutes swimming and climbing around.

 

One of the best sites is ‘croc rock’.. a natural split rock that some clever person decorated with stone ‘teeth’.. I wish I had thought of that .

 

Around 5:30 we headed back to the house to intercept Max for his birthday celebration.   As we were climbing out, Jessie and her father John met us on the trail.. Juergen and I caught a ride back with Jessie and her dad so Juergen could get to his dinner meeting. I took the chance to give Jessie the graduation present I had welded her.. a 15 pound solid steel graduation mortar board complete with tassle holder. She even tried it on for a picture.. I’m sure it hurt !

 

    We timed our homecoming  perfectly, as  Max showed up just after Jessie and co. dropped us off.  We sho-ed Max upstairs into a room and frantically wrapped his presents in a collection of towels, underwear, and sweatshirts. We all gathered downstairs and summoned him down to begin opening his haul. He made out pretty well. Some of his gifts were practical.. e.g. A new camera tripod.. other’s were just simple essentials.. like this  sparking  wind up nun.

 

Still others needed some explaining.. like this solid marble rock with Max and my favorite made up word, ‘Monkass’,  etched into it.

 

‘Monkass’ is a nonsense word that Max once used in a scrabble game.. then artfully lied about it’s origins (a medicinal plant used in medieval times) and convinced us it was real. Yesterday. Gabe and I stopped over at Homers just to show Gabe around.. and the three of us ended up cutting the word into masking vinyl and sandblasting it into apiece of rock. We put a nice pit of silver paint in the etched letters to brighten it up. It looks pretty sweet and I don’t believe there’s another like it in the world. . Everyone should have a Homer handy when shopping for their loved ones !

 

  

This picture made me think of the three boys together.

After presetns were open, We all piled in the car and headed for dinner..  we also had to drop off the van for servicing.  Plan A was to go to Nicco’s.in Taft’s corners. but we found it closed.. we quickly formed a Plan B around doing take out at Marco’s pizza (the best !)

We dropped the van, picked up the food and Max drove us  back and started watching the ‘Planet Earth’ DVD’s that he had received for his birthday. They are amazing.   Abbot, Carolyn and Tom M where here when we got back which was nice.

 

     After a bit of that, we’d saved up enough room to go downstairs and have cake. We some how found 19 candles.. and proceeded to sing happy birthday. Max wooshed them out with a single breath which created a huge cloud of smoke.. that’s what happens when you start getting up in years 🙂

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At that point it was bed time… I started doing some prep for my upcoming trip.. I poured myself the dregs from a bottle of tequila I had been keeping.. this last bit had the work in it.. (‘El Gussano’).. I sat there wondering if I should drink/eat it or not…  What would you do  ?

 

Cheers to all fathers out there.. Cheers to you all of my sons.. Happy birthday Max !

 

-dad

 

ps. Here’s the message I got from Sam last night.. anyone out there speak firefly ?

 pss. We had several wierd electrical disturbences in our cars today.. I heard several other firefly and electrical stories.. Sam is near us. 

Very full day.. Diane and Max left early to go catch Jessie’s graduation, which I heard was very moving. A bit later, I went and retrieved Gabe from Dylan’s house. Gabe had two Lacrosse games scheduled all the way down in Middlebury.  We left how around 12:30 and stopped at On the Rise to grab a byte. So many of our friends work and eat there… it’s like home coming every time you step in the door. Today we bumped into Collin.. he was wearing his Sam shirt which I love seeing. Collin still writer’s Sam’s name or initials  everyday on the blackboard  in the entrance of CHMS.

   The ride down to Middlebury was long… Gabe and I talked about everything from snowboarding to nuclear weapons. I lie that car time for catching up. The games themselves were long and hot. Gabe was playing well which is always fun to see. I had brought a book to read (Slow Man by J. M.  Coetzee .. (my same initials !)).. but put it down.. it starts with a guy getting hit by a car.. and I had trouble getting past that.   I busied myself during the times that Gabe was not playing by sleeping and  fiddling with my camera both worthy pastimes.

   After the second game we headed back to Richmond by way of Lime Kiln Road.. where Homer lives.. coincidentally. Homer called me as I was just about to go by his house so we stopped in..  Gabe had never seen Homer’s shop.. Everyone should see Homer’s shop. He has one of every type of tool, and a mad variety of impractical and impressive contrivances.. For example. He built a wireless control to open and close his windows. He also has a sculpture of a mask with chains on it that beats itself when you turn it on.  His favorite project right now is a 6 axis robotic arm that very smoothly move a video camera only inches from the surface of any object The effect is lie  flying over some vast landscape in a hot air balloon. It’s fascinating. Home let Gabe drive the thing over a table full of interesting doodads..

 

Homer’s now thinking of letting people explore a human figure in this way.. Homer has a very interesting  mind.

   While  we were there, Homer worked with Gabe and me on a birthday present for Max. I  have lots of pictures of us making it.. but I’ll save those or tomorrow as not to give it away to max in case he reads this tonight… Once done, Gabe got in the bat mobile and zoomed home. We got there just as Max and Jessie were heading out for the all night Project Grad. I grabbed one last picture of Max as an 18 year old.. He’ll be 19 tomorrow morning.

 

    We washed up and headed up to David’s beautiful log home up on Bolton.

It was a really , really nice evening. There was a small group of interesting folks from different facets of David’s life, excellent food and beautiful weather. It was magical. Towards the end of the evening we noticed a HUGE moth flittering on the  screened window. I tried to get some pictures to give a sense of the scale. Suffice it to say that when it grabbed on to my toe, I was afraid it was going to carry me off J .

 
Well tomorrow is going to be a full day.. Max’s 19t birthday, two more lacrosse games, a voices project script read through and… Father’s day. I’m not sure why thinking about Father’s day is not bothering me as much as I expected.. maybe because everyday is fathers day of a sorts for me. Even so, let me take this opportunity to wish my Father Hugh, my father in law Gabe, My Brother Billy  my brother in law John and all Father’s everywhere the very best father’s day. I’m proud to be a dad… it’s always been my best job…. It always will be. .. G’nite my sons and my dad’s

 -me

ps. Max just called at midnight to spend his turning 19 with us ! I love that kid so much !

pss. A firefly just came in our room and is zooming around. It’s a spark from Sam 🙂