So I was half way to work this morning before I realized that I didn’t have my Sam button in my packet. It’s the very same one that I wore every day for a year after Sam died.. I now carry it in my left shirt pocket.. over my heart.. whenever I where a shirt that has pockets.. When I relized I’d left it at home, I almost turned around.. but I had stuff waiting for me at work… and went on in..

Try as I might. though, I coulld not get used to not having that button in my bocket. I’ve got a custom now of reaching over and touching the button whenever I think of Sam.. it’s kind of an uncouncious movement.. Today I realized just how many times I do that each day.. I’d reach for it .. and find it not there.. and then notice I was doing it.

You know.. I thik that’s kind of nice.

Aside from that.. my day was pretty unremarkable.. I had a brief but nice meeting with my friend Kerry. Kerry and his freinds collect and repair old military vehicle.. I htink I want to take a tank to burning man to drive around.. Maybe Kerry can help !

The weather today was so gorgeous.. that I tried to work a bit outside.. I managed to walk up and down one fo the IBM service roads abotu 10 times while I was on the phone.. It was so bright and beutiful out..

Even te view from my windo at work was intoxicating.. How’s a persons ‘sposed to get any work done when it looks like this outside ?

Ah well. that was my day.. I just ended it by takign a look at Sam’s Myspace page. Belive it or not.. kids are still posting stuff to him every few days.. They also send him private messages.. but I never read them.. they’re for Sam.

OK folks.. time for bed. See you tomorrow. Nite Sam
-me

So.. today I did retire my trusty old powershot.. By way of an epitaph.. this reliable little camera has made 3 times around the world, visted at least 11 countries, at least 15 states and taken g-d knows how many other trips in the 18 months I’ve owned it. It’s taken more than
10,486 photos for this blog which generate an average of 78,300 hits monthly to my photobucket account.

Here’s it’s last successful picture .. it’s of Angus and his family making the donation to Sam’s fund that I described in yesterday’s blog.

Here’s a poem in honor of my old camera.. it’s one I like from Billy Collins called
Consolation that reminds me of our oint journies

Consolation

How agreeable it is not to be touring Italy this summer,

wandering her cities and ascending her torrid hilltowns.

How much better to cruise these local, familiar streets,

fully grasping the meaning of every roadsign and billboard

and all the sudden hand gestures of my compatriots.

There are no abbeys here, no crumbling frescoes or famous

domes and there is no need to memorize a succession

of kings or tour the dripping corners of a dungeon.

No need to stand around a sarcophagus, see Napoleon’s

little bed on Elba, or view the bones of a saint under glass.

How much better to command the simple precinct of home

than be dwarfed by pillar, arch, and basilica.

Why hide my head in phrase books and wrinkled maps?

Why feed scenery into a hungry, one-eyes camera

eager to eat the world one monument at a time?

Instead of slouching in a café ignorant of the word for ice,

I will head down to the coffee shop and the waitress

known as Dot. I will slide into the flow of the morning

paper, all language barriers down,

rivers of idiom running freely, eggs over easy on the way.

And after breakfast, I will not have to find someone

willing to photograph me with my arm around the owner.

I will not puzzle over the bill or record in a journal

what I had to eat and how the sun came in the window.

It is enough to climb back into the car

as if it were the great car of English itself

and sounding my loud vernacular horn, speed off

down a road that will never lead to Rome, not even Bologna.

Good bye old friend.

I bought a new camera today.. much like the old one.. this one is brown.. I promise to carry it in a soft case..and never toss it into my pocket.. or a sandstorm.. or liquid unprotected. … a favor I never extended to it’s predecessor.

I’m thinking of naming my new camera…

.. any suggestion ?

After buying the camera.. my day was pretty unremarkable.. A few house hold repairs. about 80% of them successful.. then a trip to Homer’s to work on the ‘project-x’ monster.. We’re woefully behind schedule.. but it’s coming together to be sooooo cool.. Here ‘he’ is nearly fully standing . The 10 foot ceilings in Homers shop won’t let him rise to full height. . He’ll have a scary costume .. and a head… when he’s done.. He’s pretty scarry when he’s waving those 8 foot arms..

Here’s part of the integration team, Homer. Dave and Jana… Watch these pages for the final assembly.. and wish us luck !..

I drove home around 5 and for the first time with camera rounded the bend where the big red barn used to be.. Another friend gone.. Oh well… As the Buddah taught.. and we’ve learned so fully.. .. earthly attachments only bring dukkha or suffering

Well.. I’m going to go soak in a hot bath tub.. my fever’s back and I feel a more concrete form of dukkha..I ache all over. More tomorrow. Gnite folks.. Gnite Sam
-me

I woke this morning in Pittsburgh.. showered quickly and drove to the airport. I got to the airport with none o the delays I had anticipated which gave me more than an hour of wandering around time. One of the the things I wanted to see in the airport was the doorway that my friend Mike (the one from yesterday’s blog) had designer here nearly 20 years ago.. Amazingly, it was just down from my gate. I remember seeing all these models of this structure on Mike’s desk. He agonized over the design and worked out every detail. Should the blue be on the right.. or the left ? That process made me realize how much thought goes into everything in our daily life.. Everything man made thing we touch or see was designed by someone..

I worked hard on the flight to JFK.. IA few min after I got off the plane I ran into my friend Tina. She’s from Austin.. We work together closely on a number of IBM projects. It was great running into her because we had several things to talk about.. It really is a very small world.

I got back to Burlington around 4.. then had a couple of phone meetings in the afternoon. By around 5 I was pretty beat.. so I headed home. Ave, Kevin and Nate stopped by just as I got home just to say ‘hi’ They’re on their way tot eh homecoming bonfire at school.. Sam belongs there, too.

Diane, Gabe and I decided to go to the Burlingotn Art Hop this evening. it’s an annual collection of local artists and shops. We staryed at JDK.. and worked our way basically south.

At JDK we met David’s good friend Marshall..who’s a painter. . There’s a certain resemblemnce.. no ?

We stopped at Church and maple and saw some of my good freinds from Champlain who were demoing thier wares.. Her’s Brian.. fresh back from South Africa.

Mike man was there..

As were Awesome and Alex.

We wondered from there down pine street. Most every shop and buliding had soem thing goign for the art hop It was a lttle like a microscopic comercial version of burning man ! There were art instalations. cosutmes, etc.

Here’s a funny group doing a movie using paper rollers which they accompanied with home made folk music. . i think this song was called ‘Jesus goes to Gitmo’
It was pretty strange and funny.

Thereywere still a few hours off of metling so we wandered down pine streed. We ran intoold frineds Robin and Sandy. It wsa Robin’s birthday. We hadnt seen each other in maybe 15 years.. whihc would make me pretty hard to recognize.

From there we toured a few gallerys and stores..

In one exhibit I saw this woman with a funny logo:

We then made the long hike to see the tail end of the fashion event. We went tehre also to meeteup with Tim and Jen..

Tim and Jen’s daughter Marie was on of the models.. she looked good !

From there we went back to the iron pour, but the furnace was still not up to speed. I saw many of my old iron pour friends there.. It was great to see Matt.

And Thea …

We just couldn’t wait for the pour, so we packed up and headed home.. right past the fire dancers..

I tell you .. this really is a bit like a scaled back burning man. lights. pvideo. techno music the works.

OK.. I really need to sleep .. More tomorrow.. Gnite all.. Gnite Sam !
-jc