Rabbit, rabbit rabbit.. It’s december already.. hard to believe..   The Townsends really, actually and truly left Vermont today.. Last night we went up to Tim and Jen’s for their final (of at least 3) goign away dinners…

It was really emotional.. I can’t even guess how many times our families have all come together at one of the houses for dinner and companionship in the last 2 years.. In the months after Sam’s passing I remember eating with these guys a couple of times a week. The Townsends house was the first place we came after getting back after Sam’s passing..   Now.. the house belongs to someone else.. and Deb and the kids are world class nomads…

Diane spent several hours last night help Deb and the kids empty out the condo where they’ve been staying… then they all slept here last night.. The house was full of the stuff that they would be taking or storing .. It was was a really nice sort of chaos until about 1 AM..

This morning we all got up around 6:30 to see them off. We fed them then bundled them into the van to take them to meet Barry at the park and Ride.. It was so hard seeign them go. I’m going to miss them like crazy.. and I’m so very excited for them..

As soon s they were gone I got dressed and ran off to work.. I’d been out 2 weeks (!).. and needed to dig my way back.. On the way there I saw a rainbow… ! A good omen for the Townsend’s travel..It’s a bit hard to see in this photo.. but it’s there..

I took the photo into Photoshop to see if I could bring out the rainbow .. instead I accidentally did this.. no rainbow.. but it suited my mood…

Wow.. I wonder if those guys are in Peru yet ? If you’re interested in following Deb and family’s travel check out the blog I helped them start here.

Speaking of bloggin.. I have a paper to complete.. so I’ll sign off.. Talk to you all soon.. Safe travels friends.. ‘Nite Sam !
-me

Just back from a whirlwind 680 mile trip to NYC and back last night to take Max back to Pratt. He had some schoolwork he had to get done over the break so Diane and I opted for going down last night rather than today..   We left around 6:30 yesterday afternoon.. Just before we drove off, Gabe ran inside and told us to look at the sky.. Jupiter and Venus were right next together in the south west sky.   It was beautiful Tomorrow night the moon, Jupiter and Venus are going to be very close.. I hope we can see it.

Diane and I got on the road this morning around 7AM.. I wrote Max a thank you note with the only writing impliment I could find my finger dipped in A1 sauce…   

While goign down last night proved to be a good idea for the traffic.. it was  not such a hot idea for the weather.. The roads this morning  were covered with ice and snow this morning which made the first few hours of coming back  pretty trecherous . We got home around 2  .. went for a run.. then just hung out the rest of the day gettign ready to go back to work/school etc.

It’s now abotu 6PM  and we’re getting ready to go up to Jen and Tim’s for the Townsends final goign away dinner. Deb, Hannah, Matt and Ian are driving to Montreal early tomorrow morning then flying from there to Lima Peru. Brit is already down in Chile at her grandmothers. From there they’ll go to Chile , argentina, NewZealand (where’s old Zealand ? ) And who knows where else ?! They plan to be gone  2 years….

It’s goign to be hard to see them go.. at the same time I’m so excited for them. They’ve been such a part of our lives since Sam died..  

OK.. gotta go clean up.. now.. More tomorrow… ttyl folks.. nite Sam
-me

Just about to take a nap before driving Max back to NYC. I figure I’ll blog now so I don’t have to do it when we get to the city.

Another peaceful day.. about the only thing that’s appened of note was freind Abbot’s Eagle Scout induction.

I was honored because he asked me to say a few words during the ceremony. I put my thoughts into my ‘Palm Pilot’ right before the event… 🙂

It was great seeing the three Racht-Cambell boys up on the stage.. Mason got his Eagle right after Sam died.. Owen is just finishing his up.. They’re really good kids. We always had the three boys parallel going….

There were lots of speeches about Abbot..  Including onse from Mother  Heidi and Grandfather Willis

Abbot’s freind even gave him a bagpipe salute at the end…   It wasa nice ceremony..  

Abbot’s such a great kid.. original, creative and true to himself.. I
don’t know what he’ll end up doing in the world.. but it’s going to be
fun to watch him grow !

We’ll that’s it so far for today.. I have a few leftover pictures from yesterday and the days before.. Yesterday hd a few treats that I was too sleepy to write about last night. First was a nice visit by Gina and her brother Kevin who was in visiting from Boston. We always have such interesting conversations when they’re here. I love toalkign to those guys !.. They brought us a plant and a card becasue they were thinking about Sam.

Diane, Max, Gabe and I met up at Sikuras for sushi lunch.We ran into Sessi and her friend Nadia from College there.. it was fun seeing them again.. Nadia is from Mumbai and is studying with Jess in platsburgh.. what a culture shift !!!!!!

It was great being together as a family ..

Then I came home and puttered in the lab all night.. I am trying to reverese engineer soem cool comutper driven lights I found in china.. the only documentation I can find is in Mandarin.. so it’s just me and the ossciliscope.. I just love working in there… but look at the mess I made ! 

Well that’s about it.. we’ve got to take off pretty soon.  Talk to you from the road !  Nite folks, nite Sam !
-me

PS.  here are some pictures of the gingerbread men we all made and decorated at Brit’s goign away party the other night…