Today started out so lazily.. We’d talked about going up to Bolton for pond skimming .. Pond skimming is when you ski/board/sled down the hill into a 75 foot pool of water and try to skim over the top to stay dry..  At around 10 AM we were all sitting in the living room flopped on the couches thinking about how much we didn’t want to go outside and get wet… Gabe and I had tried several times to come up with an idea for a float or something like we did last year..   but we couldn’t come up with anything. Gabe and Jack decided that they were going up to Bolton for the second to last day… so I decided… what the heck.. I’d go check out the pond skimming and decided then if I wanted to do it.   I didn’t have a float… so I grabbed our old Little Tykes teeter-totter and drove the boys up the mountain. I walked in to the registration room and they only had 3 places left.. I grabbed one.

I walked out to check out the pond.. it looked… uh… cold…

Here’s my trusty skimming device…   all three kids played with this for years.

Zack H, the director of the night riders series.. and a good friend was going to take the first run.. they’d even made him his on ramp to get a flying start !

There goes Zack..  .. splash.. the first face plant !

Like always.. there were a ton of costumes… and a few sleds, floats and other conveyances.. Mine was the only teeter-totter. Here’s Hayden R. with his cool sled.

Here are a bunch of Gabe’s friends  freezin’ in their bathing suits.. (even though they were on the outside of their clothes )

Mr. Claus tunes up

As did the sun-burn duo

And lady Chiquita

I hung out of the wind by leaning against the Sam rail… Sam was all over today.. I felt him everywhere.

Vivian took her turn…

It was almost my turn.. I practiced the Captain Crunch pose.. All the kids used to say this teeter-totter thing looked like Captain Crunches hat.

Gabe was up hanging out with us..

As was Austin

The girls were shivering by this point.. I lent them an extra shirt I had..

Scout, Kirsten and Katy took a sled down..

Then it was my turn.. I used the standard riding position dictated by the United States Pond Skimming with Little Tikes Plastic Teeter-Totter Association (USPSWLTPTTA) guidelines… It was all I could do to balance.. Steering was a luxury I couldn’t afford.

Things went pretty well until about 10 feet from the pond.. I flew over the front of my trusty steed ..   I grabbed it and ran face first with it into the water.. Success !

I stood up out of the water and struck a Captain Crunch pose with my teeth chattering.> Man, that water was COLD !

I charged inside and changed into warm/dry clothes.. I went upstairs to wait for the judging.. Lots of friends were up here.. I hung out and talked to Hannah and Carolyn for a while.. and a whole lot of other folks..

Gabe came in shortly…

Brandon was there in his 2 dollar crabbing pants..

While I was waiting I wedged a SamStone into the rocks of the fireplace.

Fianlly, it was time for the judging. We all crowded into the pub… They gave away quite a few prizes.. a few of them serious… most of them not. I’m glad I stayed.. I won “2nd best face-plant” .. I can’t remember who won “1st best face plant” .. But next year.. they better watch out !

After the awards, I went and tossed a SamStone into the pond..

That’s just about it for Bolton.. just one more day. the kids are going to have trouble adjusting to this place being closed…   Gabe’s bummed. I know.

There really is so much Sam stuff up here… shirts, boards, stickers, helmets.

Wouldn’t you know.. the sun came out the moemnt the lift stopped for the day.

I took my wet clothes, got the car, went and got the car and drove Gabe and a bunch of his friends back home.    After a snack, we all got motivated to set up the trampoline.. There’s no better medicine for the the closing of the slopes.. First order of business was to untangle a few of the remaining springs from the safety net.. That was the hardest job !.. It was Spring Fever !

we got the pad, stretched it out and started hooking in all of those springs. We replaced about 2 dozen of the most stretched out ones with new ones..

Soon, it was time for the first bounce of spring.. The Legit crew strikes a pre-bounce pose..

Then they all layed hands on the tramp and performed a little ’big fun / no injuries’ ceremony .

And here it is folks.. the first back flip of spring…

OK.. gotta sleep now.. I’m too tired to keep my eyes open. Tomorrow I head to Florida for a conference. Lots of good talks.. and great friends. Should be fun..   Goodnight all, goodnight Sam !
-me

ps. here’s a picture of Sam all wet from Pnd Skimming in 2005

I worked at home  all day today  because Diane was out all day and I needed to puppy-sit   I love workign at home.. I seem to get so much more done I was on the phone working without a break from 8 through about 5. I even took the dogs for a walk in the woods while I was on a work call.. At one point, I lost my footing and slipped down an icy shoot.Luckily I was on mute whch blocked my swearing.

After work I took a  quick stop at Tim F’s to get my back adjusted.. He had this most curious diagram on his wall.

I got home around 6:30… just in time to run to Avery’s house to help celebrate her 16th birthday. Her folks had asked each of her friends to show u and play Avery a song..   I opted to bring my Theremin.. I played a rusty version of Happy Brithday on it.. At least I thought it sounded like Happy Birthday…

Even though it wasn’t my birthday. I got a present. Eric and Pam had commissieoned Ave’s mom Jen to make me a magic hat.. .. It is just so cool It’s covered in lightening bolts and looks just like Dumbledoor’s hat.

I only stayed at Ave’s for a few minutes.. then zoomed back to the house to intercept my buddy Jim. It was great having him come by. Jim lives in POK and has been  my close friend since we started working together in 2003. He Gabe and I went out to dinner. First we tried On the Rise.. but they were packed because there was music there.. Then we tried Bridge Street.. but it had just closed at 8… so we ended up at Zachary’s.. After dinner we came home and started some mischief. The first thing I wanted to show Jim was my new flash powder composition. I just got some new primo atomized aluminum.. I mixed it 30/70 with potassium perchlorate and put it in a paper cup. We lit it and got back… not far enough. It was so much louder and brighter than it had been with my 325 mesh Aluminum. It knocked me back and left us all seeing spots and with ringing ears.. it was quite cool..

Then we did some fire breathing using powdered starch. I rigged up a simple PVC pipe-like thing to allow us to blow the starch out without actually having to put it in our mouths. It was a pig step up from having a mouthful of starch powder

This simple set-up was amazingly effective !!! Here’s Gabe doing it.

And here’s Jim..

Jim liked it.. I think !

Diane got home around 10:30 .. She had some boxes to open.> The first was form Shaun and Billy and family.. It had some really cool stuff in it.. The bag they came in was pretty interesting too.. interesting English/Chinese hybrid language

Shaun had managed to find some very cool postcards of our town.  That took some real work !!!  Here’s a view of Mt. Mansfield form near the Richmond town center.

Here’s one of a famous train wreck from 1919.. This is the covered bride that used ot be next to our house before the 27 flood.

Here’s anaother view of that same wreck I found online

Here’s the Round Church where Diane and I got married !

…. and a very cool picture of Jonesville sometime near the turn of the last century. I marked our house with a red arrow. Note all the buildings near the river that were destroyed in 1927 Notice also how cleared all the hills were. Nearly everything was cleared to raise sheep at that time.

OK.. Time for me to got to sleep.. Busy day planned for tomorrow. G’nite to you all.. G’nite Sam !
-me

Today is Diane’s birthday.  Happy birthday Diane !  Wonderful, sweet , beautiful love of my life ! 

Gabe had the great idea to get tattoos in honor of Diane’s birthday.   We opted for the kind made with sharpies… they don’t hurt as much. We wanted to have them to show her at breakfast this morning, but there was a catch. I was going to the Victor Wooten concert last night.. and Gabe was going to be in bed by the time I got home. We came up with a great evil plan. Gabe drew his tattoo and took a picture of it with his camera.   He left me this note by the back door when I came in.

This morning both Gabe and I came down this morning super sleepy.. We both pulled out our ’ink’ to wish Diane a happy birthday…   

Diane thought it was pretty cool… I was so intent on having them match that I didn’t even realize that mine should have said ’Diane’ or ’Wife’ until mid day. You know you married the right women when she doesn’t even point out such a goofy mix-up !

I took Gabe in to school and noticed that the temperature outside was 55 at 7:30.. that’s amazing.. All the melting snow is creating this cool fog everywhere.  .

It was raining a bit, but Diane and I wanted to take a birthday walk. We took the doggies up on the catamount trail. It was surreal weather.. probably in the 60’s.. but more than a foot of snow on the ground.

It was so warm that I  couldn’t resist the urge to jump in the honey hollow creek.

 I had to slide down in the snow.. Diane stayed up above.. so I had to take this picture by hanging my camera on a tree.. this is the only G rated one that came out.  

That water was cold …

When we got back to the house I noticed that the inside and outside temperatures were the same. 63 in April with all this snow is a cool combination.

Diane went to Marci for a massage/reiki..while I stayed home and worked a bit.  around 3 Diane and Gabe came home… Around 5 a bunch of friends showed up spontaneously to help us celebrate Diane’s birthday !  Nate, Julia, Abbot and Jen were there. Jen made a cake and I had one made at Chef’s Corners.. We had lots of cake..   I put 5 candles on each…   a group of 2 and a group of 3… the prime factors of Diane’s age.. 48… she’s proud that she’s 4 times older than Gabe.. how often does that happen ?

Gabe’s lighting the Sam candle

Marie showed up for a few minutes on her way up to see Evan . I made him a special piece of cake for her to take… It had a big layer of mustard between theslices.. I know he liked the mustard filled twinkie I made for him before.

It’s so nice.. our house is full of flowers  for dianes brithday.. Here she is talking to her dad.. with the flowers her parents sent.

OK.. we’re going to take Diane out for dinner now.. so I better get going.. Happy Birthday Diane…   We all love you so much.. Sam we’re thinking of you today, my son..
-me