All posts by johncohn

Saturday night – in retrograde

Folks…
  Friends Sybil and Joanne haveboth written me to tell me more about the retrograde of the planet Mercury that we’re entering. A retrograde is when a planet appears to move backwards through the signs of the zodiac. Right now Mercury is going retrograde into Aquarius.. the sign of my birth.  I think it’s pretty interesting that Mercury is coming up so much in my life.. I’m reading a book chapter on mercury the day that the first space probe to orbit  mercury arrives at the planet.. and now I hear it’s entering an interesting (if not terribly uncommon) astrological cycle.  I’ve always loved the element Mercury… Quicksilver some folks called it. . I remember that we used to play with it as kids.. rolling little balls of it around in our hands.. losing it in the floor boards and carpets of our youth. Now  it’s considered so toxic that a drop is enough to evacuate a school (I still have several kilos of it stashed away in a safe place.. but don’t tell)

I’ve never put much stock in things in things such as astrology.. but with what we’ve seen and experienced this past year.. who’s to say that the movements and positions of planets  couldn’t effect our world and it’s working ? .  Though it’s a stretch for me, I love the thought that the movement of a planet through a pattern of stars perceived her on Earth could effect everyday life here..
Sybill tells met that

… Mercury rules thinking and perception, processing and disseminating information and all means of communication, commerce, education and transportation. By extension, Mercury rules people who work in these areas, especially people who work with their minds or their wits: writers and orators, commentators and critics, gossips and spin doctors, teachers, travelers, tricksters and thieves.

“Gossips and spin doctors, teachers, travelers, tricksters and thieves !.”. That’s such a cool collection of professions.. I think I’m at least 5 out of the 6 of those ! I Joanne tells me that we can expect the following during a retrograde of Mercury:

1. Communication breakdowns. Anticipate crossed wires, misunderstandings, confused communications and incorrect information. Double check all relevant information for accuracy. Take time to verify instructions, numbers, directions and appointments.

2. People tend to change their minds in midstream, backing out of contracts or agreements at the last minute. It is NOT in your interest to sign contracts during this cycle. It’s OK to consider options, but do not expect or plan to complete negotiations until after Mercury has moved forward.

3. Mechanical problems seem to arise with greater frequency. This includes vehicles, computers, locks and keys, and other vital appliances. If something mechanical breaks down, the culprit is generally the transport mechanism, such as piping, tubing or wiring. Expect a greater frequency of car problems such as flat tires, stalling and accidents. Whenever possible, be prepared with an alternate plan. Throughout the retrograde and shadow periods, back up your computer regularly. Have at least one backup copy stored in a separate location.

4. Schedules get thrown off, often requiring last minute adjustments. Be accessible and flexible.

5. Repairs completed under a Merc’ Retro may have to be reworked.
Hold on to documentation such as receipts.

6. It is best NOT to start new projects under this cycle. Wait until Merc’ moves direct for a more productive beginning, such as opening up a business, an account, mailing proposals or starting a new routine.

7. Expect increased accident-proneness in fingers, arms, hands, limbs, nerves, lungs, vessels

8. Anticipate delays in receiving info- mail can be delayed or info might be filed incorrectly.

9. Watch the tendency to do silly things like lock yourself out of your car or home. And be sure you have the proper paperwork on hand when leaving for outside appointments.

10. Undergo surgery only if it is essential. If surgery is absolutely necessary, be sure that all documentation is in order and that the surgeon knows exactly what is to be performed.

11. Travel plans go awry. Double check flights & accommodations. Prepare for last minute changes or glitches.

My understanding is that this retro period will be  over in early march.. so until then … keep the above in mind.. or not …. as you see fit..

While we’re still on the topic of  our quickest planet.. here’s a cool new picture beamed back from the MESSENGER spacecraft 2 weeks ago.. I knew about the Spiders from Mars.. but never heard about them on Mercury.

OK.. enough about the cosmos . Here’s what’s going  closer to home (and I’m sorry about the italics.. my editor wont seem to allow me to turn them off) .

It’s been a couple of days of very interesting weather.. I caught this sunset on Thrusday night from Champlain.. As always.. pictures of sunsets don’t do them justice. the sky was a blazing red after a day of  rain and sleet

By Friday night we had ice everywhere. the windows all looked like those old rippled glass shower stall doors. Here’s a picture of some of our old Christmas lights as viewed through the ice on the back door.

This morning everything had a thin sheet of ice on it.. very cool.. and treacherous driving ..

Diane and I did a quick run into Richmond this morning.to say hi to my friend John M whom I knew was going to be at Bridge Street. While I was there, I had a great talk with Marvin. He showed me the new ink he got in honor of Brandon K. Brandon worked at Bridge Street  and was Marvin’s daughter in law’s brother. Marvin chose ‘Bam-bam’ because that’s what Marvin’s grandkids called Brandon.  We talked about how the families were doing, how the folks at the Cafe were doing. We also talked about Myspace.. about how the kids use Myspace when someone dies.. I went home and looked up Brandon’s Myspace.  It brought tears to my eyes thinking about him.. and thinking about the early days after Sam’s death .

After Bridge street we went home.. I took a run while Diane took Gabe and Jack up to the mountain. Soon after we got back Avery, Dani. Kevin and Hannah showed up for a surprise brunch they’d put together. It was such a wonderful surprise..

The girls brought these cool fake mushrooms .. they looked absolutely real but were actually made of merreinge and chocolate .  (editor’s note. I just Im’d my friend Bryan.. one of the students I’m working with how to spell merrenge marainge ? mierengge  ?  he said

johncohn at ibm<..timestamp style="display: inline; font-size: 11px;"> (12:25:54 AM)….timestamp–>: how do you spell merrienge ? as in the thing on top of a pie ?
Flessen0<..timestamp style="display: inline; font-size: 11px;"> (12:26:17 AM)….timestamp–>: Ummm John you just asked ME how to spell ..

)

Then we sat around and watched Kevin and Nate’s ‘Bigfoot ‘ video

Gabe got home around 5:30 after a good day at Bolton.. we all piled in the car and headed to Green Mountain Gymnastics for an open Gym day.. The coaches there worked the kids pretty hard.

While the kids did sit-ups, I stole out and took Bryan and the gang working on the IBM project a bag full of empty calories and caffeine. Bryan is working on the Flash programming tonight (and is still at it as I type at 12:30 AM)  The Game lab was full of intense young game devlopers doing their homework on a Saturday night.. ok.. doing their homework is playing halo.. but.. hey.. it’s still homework !

After that.. I zoomed back picked up Gabe and Diane.. and a passel of other kids and we went to Rocky’s for dinner..

All in all.. a very satisfying day…   I’m still just watching out for that trickster Mercury

All for now.. more later.. Love you all. Love you Sam
-me

Friday night – slugs

It’s about 9ish on Friday night an Diane and I are (almost) asleep on the couch. The wind outside is howling and it’s sleeting/raining/snowing something firece. Everything is covered with a sheet of slushy. heavy ice.. which is why  …..   Diane and I are (almost) asleep on the couch. The wind outside is howling and it’s sleeting/raining/snowing something firece. Everything is covered with a sheet of slushy. heavy ice.. which is why   … Diane and I are (almost) asleep on the couch. The wind outside is howling and it’s sleeting/raining/snowing something firece. Everything is covered with a sheet of slushy. heavy ice.. which is why    …

OK.. no fair  , I was goign to keep doing that, but I already got away with one gibberish post for the week. It feels good being inside on a night like this.. This old house is creaking and groaning like soem sort of old ship. Everytime the wind kicks up the house sways so much that you can hear the old ciggarette machine we have clunk agains the chimney. Theis house just can’t stay warm on a night like this. e once had a friend of mine come in here with an ‘air door’ to guage the tightness of our construction.. The report came back saying that we have the equivalent of a 3 foot square hole in leaks…   But I like it when it’s like this. It’s like the house has some sort of story to tell.. think of how many students sat in here on stormy days and listened to the same thing.

I spent the day inside with students, too.. though not here.. at Champlain. We’re trying to finish up the project we’ve been doing together.. and still have a long, long way to go. It’s so much fun workign with these creative students. though. I think it would be so cool to go an be a professor somewhere.like here. or maybe a student again… I dunno

Speaking of creative students.. I have a treat for you all today.. my friends Professors Nate and Kevin have given me permission to post their definitive research on the true nature of BigFoot. Watch it and learn the truth …

And since we’re on the topic of deep science… I’d liek to also turn you all on to one of my favorite websites: xkcd.com. It bills itself as A Webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math and language.  It bears the follwoing warning:

 Warning: this comic occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors).

The site has tuff like this

and

Ok… enough for now.. my batteries (and my laptop’s) are low. More tomorrow.. have an ice night !

Love you guys.. love you Sam
-me

thursday night – not forgetting

Ok… No pictures tonight. I’m blogging from the bathtub on my blackberry. I’ve had a long day and need to relax. I hope this thing is waterproof.
My theme today is forgetting…. Or not. I’ve found myself getting increasingly forgetful as the pace of my life begins to accelerate again. This morning, for instance, I almost forgot to run because I started working on my laptop. When I remmbered, I only had 20 minutes before my next meeting. I grabbed my cell phone and Chai and headed out. I couldn’t figure out why I couldnt see… Then I remembered I was still wearing my reading glasses.I dialed up my conference call on my run and almost forgot to put my phone on mute. I came home and almost forgot that I was due at Champlain at 11. I took a 30 second shower then hopped in the car. I forgot my ibm badge.
The whole day kept in that vein. So many things I’d forgotten to do, say, bring or think. Late afternoon diane called me to tell me that we’d both foegotten to bring in the pump from the pool. It had frozen and exploded ….oooops.lots of dumb stuff. No real consequence.. Kinda funny when you think of it.
All this stuff came back to me a half hor or so ago wheb I talked to my friend larry on the phone. He’d called a few days back to tell me he had dreampt of Sam. In the dream, Sam said “tell my dad that its ok to let go a little”. The funny thing is that I’ve been worrying/thinking about some of the Sam ritules I’ve been doing for the past year.do I always touch his pictues.? Do I always touch the Sam rock ? Do I always have on my Sam pin. I think the message from larry is basically reasuring me that the rituals are not what keeps sam in my heart. He’s there forever. That’s the way I rewad it whether its the view of a concerned friend or a message from another world. I’m not forgeting you, sam… There”s no way in the world.

Ok enough of this tiny cellphone keybaord. More tomorrow

G’nite all g’nite Sam
-me

Wednesday night – Jen’s birthday

Grrrrr… I have already typed in this blog once.. I’d just hit save then my browser froze. I think it was due to a @%$& malware infection… I just spent 20 minutes looking through the browser cache trying to find shreds of what I’d written.. It would have taken less time to re-write it… but it was a point of pride.. Here’s what I was able to salvage :::

The day started drizzly, windy and warm.. The snow is starting to get pretty thin… the jump we made in the yard is looking pretty dubious at this point.


I came down stairs to find Mason’s snowboard in the entrance way. He must have stayed the night. He sometimes does when he has to be up on the mountian ealry in the morning.. I like his Sam sticker.   Turns out the mountain road was closed.. so he didn’t have to go to work.

I headed in to Champlain to deliver the morning bribe of donuts . The students are working so hard to get our project completed.. Right now my main contribution is to keep them well fed.   I’ve spent several days camped out in their parking lot taking work calls in the car and snagging free wireless from one of the dorms. Whenever I get a break in my meetings I run in and shout encouragement , pass around more donuts and run back out..   Here’s the view from my mobile office.

Last weekend I sat on Ray’s desk and it collapsed.. now they have a warning up.. I’m proud to have taught them at least this one lesson.

The day was blustery and raw.. around 10:30 it looked like the sun was abotu to set.. dark clouds, sleet and hail…

Around 1 I dashed back to IBM.. I wanted to see my friend Sharon’s talk.. good thing I made it.. Turns out I was doing her introduction.   We had more than a 100 folks turn out to hear Sharon talk about IBM’s new focus on alternative energy, climate protection and water management. It was really interesting. It was really great having Sharon visit !

Sharon’s travel plans got messed up when her return flight got canceled. Her buddy Gina was able o book her an earlier flight, so I had to speed her to the airport.. we got there in plenty of time, though . After dropping Sharon, I was going to head back to Champlain… but I couldn’t figure out if anyone was there. Instead, I stopped at Talent and borrowed some of the internet and worked there for an hour or so. I had some email stuff to do.. It was fun working there.. they kept feeding me !  i got to see Hannah, Dave, Adah and Senyah…

And even got to meet their frind Matt, who runs an after school program fro the South Burlington schools.

After that I had about another hour and a half of work calls. I took them in the parkign lot of the Japonese resturant.. (again.. free wireless !) ..I had good calls with friends Wolfgang and Ruchir.. always very good to talk to those guys !  Then picked up some take out and headed home. I ran into Bark W, Mallory C and two of Brandon Kilborns’ cosuins. It was good talkign to them. We were all heading up to Jen’s for a psuedo-suprise brithday (real birthday.. only the surprise was ‘psuedo’) . Deb and Hannah had made jena collage of pictures Hannah had taken of Nate and Marie.. they were really god pictures !

We drove up to Jen and Tim’s with Deb and the kids.. We had to sneak past the stair railing that their dog Wilbur had pulled off when he tried to chase a scent while on his leash.. He actually managed to get pretty far with the banister banging behind him until Nate caught up and jumped on him.

Jen was sitting upstairs not expecting us.. which was great… Here’s the table she made…complete with SamStone.

She loved the pictures from the Townsends…

Then out came the feast. it was a standard P.M.S. dinner.. (Pizza, Meatloaf and Sushi)

Here’s Gabe taking his first ever bite of meatloaf.. Amazing that a kid 12 years old has never had meatloaf.. but stranger things have happended. He said ‘it tastes like meat’

After dinner it was time for cake and candles.. Jen did the honors

The icing on the ice cream was an attractive blue

Tim gave Jen a book called ‘Porn for Women’.. don’t worry.. it was pretty tame..

Lots of normal dressed guys saying stuff like:

and …

It got late pretty fast.. so we packed up and headed home. Jen gave us a brand new box of SamStones that she had fired recently.. Good thing.. we were almost out..



Speaking of out.. I’m almost out of batteries.. time for sleep…
Gnite all.. gnite Sam
-me