Nice early summer day. Chai Scott and I went for a very hot and muggy run this morning. It was fn running with Scott. I had to keep him talking so he didn’t run too fast or me. We had a great conversation about ‘Kids Today’.. we were talking about the large number of 17-20 year old males that we know who are not interested in doing the whole   “study-hard-
so-that-you-can-make-good-grades-
so-that-you-can-get-into-a-good-college-
so-that-you-can-get-a-good-job-
so-that-you-can-work-your-butt-off-your entire-life-
so-that-you-can-die-rich“
thing.  Scott had some good thinking about why.. and I was talking about why grown-ups can’t understand it.   One of the big lessons I’ve learned from Sam.. both before and since his death… is that some of us overly driven grown-ups would be doing ourselves a big service to learn a little of that neo-slackerism.  We got to a point in the conversation where we started talking about a book about this topic with perspectives from both young and old folks… It sounds like a fun project.. put it on the infinite  maybe do list..

   We got back from the run just in time to leave for Gabe’s Lacross game.. our friends Chris and Casey came with us. The game was in Shelbourne at the newish rec fields. Gabe had a good day out there.. until the heat started  getting to the kids. It really felt like mid –summer.. I don’t function well myself over 65 degrees.

Gabe giving chase

Chris

Casey

Me napping

Our new friend Christina..

   After three games we came back, grabbed a bite in Hinesburg (Kovals Deli, Yum !) .. It was a little overcast when we left Hinesburg, but as we got closer to Richmond the temperature started to drop.. by the time we got home the temperature had dropped 16 degrees !.. It had obviously rained a ton . I later heard it had hailed too ! When we got home we saw that a large part of our neighbor’s tree had come down..

A bunch of us helped to clear the tree out of the road.  

 

There must have been a huge blast of wind.. the grass in the field opposite the tree had all been flattened. It was amazing !.   

As we were clearing that tree we learned that our friends Gale and Dave had also lost a tree that had fallen on both of there cars !..

By the time we all got there, they’d gotten the tree off.. but their cars were a mess. It is very cool to live in a community where neighbors   help each other…

 

    After that adventure, Max and I headed up to the Voices project fund raiser at the Jericho Community Center.. there were about 20 folks up there.. and some great music.

Max, Mason and Rusty did a funny rap routine unrehearsed.. it was a hoot..

    Right now it’s 11:30PM and thee are about 12 of Max, Sam and Gabe’s friends over here  for swimming and music. . and Diane is just about to pull a fresh baked cake out of the oven.. so I’m going to go nab some of it.. I’ll save you a piece, Sam .. Gnite !

-jc

I woke up excited because this was the day we were going to give away the first of the Sam Cohn Musical Saul Award guitar.  We all headed up to  MMU at about 8:30. We got there in about the middle of the underclassman awards ceremony. It was being held in the gym and I think the entire school was there..

In the middle of the program. Jen, the wonderfully  principled principal. took the mike. (P-A-L, the principal is your PAL)  she introduced the four of us and we went up to the podium. The nominations were in envelopes in a large glass bowl , Gabe started stirring them up while Max did a great job talking about Sam and this Musical Soul Award.

At the right moment, Gabe reached in and picked the name and Max read it out. We like this random selection because it gives Sam a chance to ‘vote’ The winner was Megan G… a freshman who I hear is a really good singer/songwriter.  I could tell that she was really surprised. To win. She came up and took the envelope.. but we haven’t had a chance to talk yet.

Sometime next week, we’ll go down to Advanced Music and she can pick out the guitar of her dreams… again.. the only strings attached to  this gift are 1)… that the winner keep the guitar  and not sell it.. and 2) the guitar can never be used for evil.. or for playing billy joel, barry manilow or anything close to that style of music. I’m guessing that won’t be a problem for Megan..   It felt so good for us to be able to kick off this program …It’s a really nice way for us to remember Sam.

    As soon as Megan sat down.. I had to run to work for a meeting.. and that’s how I spent the bulf of the day.. one phone call to the next.. I felt pretty productive today… The thing at MMU had me feeling pretty good.. I’d hoped to kick off a few hours early and get some personal time.. but I had a bunch of loose ends to clear up for the week. It was late afternoon by the time I snuck out the door.

     I decided to head over to Homer’s to  take a look at th milling machine. Going to Homer’s is like going to a museum.. there’s always unexplainable things.. like these gold painted frogs and dragon flies.. and this still life with expired bird.. I wish I could take pictures of what’s inside of Home’s brain.

I spent a few hours there goofing around with Homer trying to get the image of Sam that we used on our T-Shirts into the milling machine.. We were  able to get part of the way there.. but we were not able to get the image through the last software hurdle.. We were told that our ‘splines were not exploded’… Don’t you just hate that ?! You  work hard all day, come home tired and cranky just to find that your splines are not exploded.. . I’ve ended up spending a good portion of the evening trying to figure out how to explode my splines..( whatever that means. )  If you yourself are a spline exploder.. please let me know and tell me what to do…

    It was about 7:30 by the time I got back home. Gabe and friends were coming back from the bridge  and Diane was cutting the grass because she needed the clippings for mulch.. 

I sat down with a glass of wine. It was a prefect early summer evening.. well.. almost perfect.  We miss you Sam… we really do.

  -jc

  

   

Hey  ho – the wind and the rain… that’s a  song I’ve  always liked from Shakespeare’s 12^th night.. the play Gabe’s class put on tonight.. and a good song for tonight.. both windy and rainy. It was really nice seeing Gabe and his class perform Shakespeare. It’s amazing that these kids can memorize and act long sections form these complex plays. It’s also always amazing to me to see that Shakespeare’s plot’s are still funny after more than 400 years. Gabe played one of the guys that attends Count Orsino… I saw him out there tonight looking so tall and so  grown up and beautiful… I was very proud of him.

   The play was in the Camels Hump Middle School library.   It was nice walking around the middle school this evening before and after the play.. there are so many memories I have from all three kids coming through this school. I can still feel Sam’s presence in here.. This handwritten sign is in the entrance way as you enter the building. 

I also found a poster of Walt Whitman (I think) ..  Does he look lie anyone that you know ?

   Not much else to report on today I spent the morning working here at home.. then went in for a long day of phone meetings….. sort of the story of my life right now.  I’m really enjoying working at home. Here’ s me in the bell tower working yesterday… As I said.. it’a a great pace to work.. and to think

Here’s the bell.

And here’s the Christmas light that we keep burning since Sam died.. It’s a peaceful place up there..

   Tomorrow the day that all four of us got to MMU to do the first Sam Cohn Musical Soul guitar giveaway. I’ll write about hoe it goes tomorrow… Gnite all.. gnite Sam..

-me

ps. My cousins Martha and Sam just left a SamStone on the relics of the Berlin Wall.. Check these out:

 Pretty cool.. no ?

Today was interesting. We had one car in the shop, so I opted to stay home and work. It was a beautiful day, so I chose to work in the bell tower.. It’s a great place to work… It’s comfy, the view is great, there’s always a breeze, cell phone  and wireless reception is good and there  are few distractions. The only catch is that it’ a long way down to get a drink.. or to get rid of your last one.

    I spent my whole day on the phone. For some reason it was one difficult call after another. Each call had some element of conflict.. it was pretty weird. One thing I realize about myself after Sam’s death  is that I just can’t ‘do’ conflict anymore.  I have always  had a pretty high tolerance for.. conflict… which is good because I’ve always  enjoyed helping get folks to agree around difficult concepts..   Now.. I find that any conflict at all.. even  the most minor technical disagreement at work.. makes me instantly intensely sad..  I have no control over it.. and it’s hard to work through. It’s almost as if some wires are crossed in my head. I think what’s happening is this huge shift in perspective I’ve gotten since Sam died. When I feel  people getting personally agitated over ‘little’ stuff it just brings me down. I want to take them and shake them and get them to learn form our experience.. that these small things are not worth fretting over.. really., really, really . they’re not…

    Anyway.. the whole thing kinda wore me out today.. at about 6 Diane called  up for me to come downstairs.. she’d left me a hot bath.. and that turned the day around for me.. Not only had she    done that. But she’d bought me my favorite Dr. Bronner’s peppermint soap which  she hates.. You know you have a great mate when they buy you stuff that they themselves don’t like…    Dinner was fun.. Chris, Scott, Mary, and Mason happened to be over.  Max cooked steaks (yes. The kids eat meat !) while  we ate veggie burritos.. Diane made her first Rhubarb crisp  of the ear out of fresh ‘barb from the garden. It was our first grown edible for the year..

    One cool thing we did was mess around with ‘photobooth’ on Mary’s computer.. it gives you an interesting slant on reality…

Technology is wonderful.. actually… on that topic.. I got a really cool myspace msg  from Lucie tonight asking me if I would be interesting in talking about the positive aspects of technologies like MySpace and how they help kids. families and communities.  I’ll let everyone know where that goes…

   OK.. off to bed now.. Oh..  one reminder. The first ‘Sam Cohn Musical Soul’ gutar giveaway is going to be this Friday morning at the MMU underclassman awards ceremony.. Be there or be be quadrilateral. Hopefully  every MMU kid who’s interested in the possibility of getting a guitar from Sam has gotten someone to nominate the, It’ll be fun to see who gets it.   Sam.. remember, you’re selecting the winner from the bunch of finalists…    See you there…

-jc