We took Gabe to the airport this morning. It had been such a great visit with him and Max..  !

Dan and I went home got on her hiking gear and headed up the boat access road to hike up and then bushwhack down again. It was great playing in the new snow. Some of it was knee-deep.

we came home with happy faces and frozen hiking gear !

quiet here with no kids..   missing them already

nite all. nite sam

_me

Today was a good start tot he year. Diane and I did a bushwhack hike up on some old logging roads we found near bamforth ridge trail. On the way we went by the tree we’d decorated in the forest one week ago . Here’s how it looked that very cold eveing

And here’s how it looked today !. Everything had been eaten. we picked up all the old twine .. and you couldn’t tell anything had happened there !

we hiked back on bamforth ridge trail

I needed up working most of the day. I’m tryign to finish up a demo for work.. and made soem good progress today. 
I broke for an hour to work with gabe on fixing the old gramophone that my parents bought in cape cod in 1962 (?) the. device, and Edison model 4 gramophone . is from 1898.. ..in tryign to fix it, I broke a small eyelet on the ‘reproducer’ the part of the device that creates the sound.. Gabe and I tried to solder a ring back on it.. and succeeded 3 times .. but the loop we soldered using my microscope wasnt strong enough to hold.. we eventually gave up and I ordered a reconditioned diaphragm 

Later that evening. Gabe. Diane and I piked up Nate and Hannah and drove up to Georgia Vermont to Brad and Char’s house.. We had a n awesome visit. Their house is big and fun.. they have a great yard and they are surrounded with protected woods.. Kasey was there with him.. and we got to play with all of his toys !   Also their two dogs.. .. including Boon their new malamute 

We had a great dinner.. t

Kasey was showing us the automatic ball thrower for the dogs.. a tennis bal hit a picture of Sam ! (Sam and brad were best buds !).. the picture was fine.. it was pretty funny !

There is a ton of sam stuff in Brad and Chars house.. Kasey even talks abotu hi as ‘Uncle Sam.’ even though they never met <3

hen played soem games.. first burrito wars.. where one part is having a duel with two squishy burritos.. Gabe and Nate faced off

It is so great seeign Brad, Kasey and Char so happy here !

A funny thing happened on the way home… Gabe, Diane, Nate Hannah, and I decided to stop at the new gas station that had been built where Washburns used to be. It’s right off the Richmond exit. We went in there just to check it out because the outside looked pretty nice compared to the old gas station. We were hoping that they had, the wonderful Maplefields pizza… They didn’t have that but they had another surprise. The inside had been done up using historical pictures of Richmond and we were looking at them and all of a sudden we said hey that looks like our house and sure enough our house was prominently displayed in one of these pictures and we looked up a, it was actually in the wallpaper in the building. It was so fun… The woman who was working there actually grew up on stage. We had a lot of fun talking about the historical pictures !

Then back home.. Gabe played us soem more mandolin. I found an old book of Yiddish music and he was able to sight. Read one of my favorite songs which is called. ‘Der Rene Elemeilich” . It’s a Yiddish version of the song, old King Cole, kind of… And I did this really weird duet… Totally unrehearsed as you can see

What would our ancestors think of that ? 

super fun day.. 

nite all, nite sam

-me

Happy New Year everybody.. I know it’s going to be an interesting year.. I’m goign to make mine fun

We had a perfect new years day.. we didn’t do much of anything !   Gabe went to a party in Waterbury after the Hilight stuff was over, then headed back to  Burlington with his friends Hope, Alli and Jared.. .I went and picked Gabe up in Burlington. and brought him home .  He packed up soem things for hi overnight at Toms tonight and Diane and I drove him to Waterbury to pick up our other car..  Diane and I had planned to take a hike.. maybe at little river, but it was starting to rain.. so we went and hung out at home… 

Such a nice, chill way to ease into a new year.. 

nite all, nite sam

-me

ps. no pictures from today.. but I did take this picture today.. Our young freind Ilya drew a picture of a Nintendo Switch on our whiteboard . I think thats what he wants for his newt birthday.. Quite an artist for 9 years 

Today was the last day of February interesting and sometimes confusing year. Overall, though for us, it was a good year. I guess it’s all about what you make of it.

We’ve really enjoyed the holidays this year.. especially having our boys with us.   We’ve had a lot of people in and out of the house.

Nothing says lots of company like having every spoon in the house be used.:-)

 

after a workout and short run, dianeand I headed tot he waterfront in Burlington to help with setup for fluffy.. we’ were performing from 2Pm until 10 PM.. .. thankfully it was a relatively warm and sunny day (in the 40’s which is crazy warmer this time of year)

It was great seeign Chris’s Champ he’d made for the burn. He made two of them forming a heart.. in reference to the need to bring people together after such a divided year. 

n there was fluffy .. all ready for setup . Setup went pretty smoothly with the number of folks there

the BTV fire department came for a look.. I guess they let we were kosher

PTZ news was there and interviewed chris, gabe and me about  hilight.. both of them did a great job talking about the champ burn !

by sunset the place was gettign pretty busy.. we had a series of DJ’s playing on Fluffy alternating with bands on the stage at the other end of the park

fluffy was looking good !

there was a guy blowing big bubbles in front of fluffy. 

Our cousins Jon and Jean showed up ! They just arrived here from Wisconsin. Jon has a one month residency at the Gund school on the topic of climate change as a healthcare issue. We’re looking forward to seeing them in some of the rest of their family over the next month!

We got to see Elliot, Leah, Gustav and Ezra !

I loved watching the crew  in the lights of the cloud and the fire roofer . took at those smiles !

we were smiling too !

Rachel and Jovian came by too !

Suze, HansMartaan Illya and Kim came by too.. Here I am showing Illya how the lights work

hen came the fireworks !

then came the Fire dancers and the Champ burn. I tired to get close, but  It was packed down there.. so I went back to watch from the bus. .. 

then Chris and Gabe came out and blew fire on the champ sculptures to light them. Here are the pics I got.. but there were Buch better ones from my cousin Jon that I can share

we shut down around 11 . we took down quickly.. and fluffy headed out with lights still on 

we drove up hoping to see our friends the Wormdogs playing at a bar in the north end.. .. the place was packed.. and there was a long line to get in.. it was so great to see them so popular.. it was almost as fun as getting to see them !

We went home tired and happy..and stayed up just long enough to take a bath and float into 2025

happy new year everyone.. 
lets make it an interesting one.. lets make it a fun and kind one too !

nite all, nite sam

-me