Sunday night – mishpokhe

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Perfect day in Vermont.. We got about 2 inches of snow last night which qualifies this as the 2nd (or maybe 3rd) real snowfall for the year.. that is just so strange. Diane and I took advantage of the dusting to get out our cross country skis and take the dogs down b the river. It felt great doing something a little wintery I am just not ready for spring.. but it feels like spring even now.

The rest of the day was quiet and peaceful.. I don’t remember doing much other than going to a Feldenkreis class and Marsha and Ira’s. I forgot to take pictures, but their yoga studio has a picture perfect view of Camels ump.. that was dusted white and sunny in the background. Really an amazing view.

Diane and I had a light dinner out then she dropped me at the airport for my trip down here to Armonk..

Since I don’t have pictures from the day. I’ve decided to share some pictures from my new found 4th cousin Mengele (aka Michael). He’s doing some genealogical tracing of my Mom’s family. Seems his grandmother and my mom’s grandmother were sisters. He’s the guy that photographed my great-great grandfathers tombstone

Anyway Mengele is somehow involved in a new museum of Jewish Emigrants in NYC.. It traces the background of all those relatives we all have that “… arrived with only a dollar in their pocket”  and went on to make bank in either textiles, real estate, law.. bah, blah, bah..   It’s funny how many of these rags to riches stories I remember hearing as I grew up.. It seems so many of ours and our freinds  relatives arrived on these shores as paupers and went on to wealth.that it didn’t make sense. Malcom Gladwell took this point on in his book Outliers It seems our progenitors landed on these shores at just the right time.. with just the right skills and just the right work ethic. . All we have to do is tell the story backwards to make their success seem so very unlikely..

Mengele’s museum is evidently full of posters about individuals and families . He sent me the following ones about distant family members.. or Mishpokhe (משפּחה)as we say in Yiddish. .. every one of them an Outlier.. I enjoy reading these and hope to find the museum one of these days..

Who knows what folks will write about us when we’re gone..
will they write at all ? Or are we writing our own histories ? (.. and are you reading one right now ? )

nite all, nite sam
-me

Saturday night – Snow day !

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At last.. snow.. we spent the day watching the snow come down.. not heavily.. but by about 10PM we must have 4-5 inches. It’s only the first or maybe second real snowfall this winter.. that’s pretty darn strange. We knew soemthing was up when we realized we didn’t even have a snow brush in the new Subaru.. because we’ve never needed it !

It was pretty warm though..  i did catch some birds like this cardinal and a blue jay hanging round the feeder. ..they’re winter birds, but we’re already seeing robins !

We managed to get outside for a hike.. I was hoping to use snowshoes.. but the snow was only about 2 inches deep at that point.. still.. it was so nice getting outside. We hiked up to where we’d decorated the xmas tree outside… We wanted to find itso we could collect the strings we’d used to hang the bagels and bread

After the hike I ended up sleeping on te couch for an hour or so.. I didn’t realize just how tired I was.. I woke up eager to work on soemthing. My buddy John came over and we worked on a musical project we’re collaborating on.. made some really good progress today.. It’s really fun working with him..

Around 6L30 Jen and Tim came buy and picked us up. A freind of Jen’s was playing in a makeshift folks club in Shelboure called the Silo Sessions at the ‘Bread and Butter Farm” . What a treat !! The farm served fresh home made bread, cheese and apples.. and we got to watch two great cats. The first was Jen’s freind Maryese Smith.. great, rgeat songwriter with a powerful voice. (Here she is with her dad)

Then we got to watch a fantastic performance by Seth Glier and freind and backup guitar play Ryan M. These guys were nominated for a Grammy this year. They had amazing music in them.. . I’m sure we’ll be hearing more of his stuff . Check it out !

Hmm…. not much else happened today.. Oh.. Jim P. found these three great pictures of Sam somewhere.. I love seeing Sam in the air.. Diane and I were wondering alound when we’ll have seen all the pictures of Sam that there are… I have to say I hope they never stop……

OK.. time for sleep..

more manana

nite all, nite sam

-me

 

ps. took this picture around 6AM on thursday as I left the boat..   I always feel at home there..

Friday night – thinktank

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Midnight and just back from a thinktank night. 3 friends and I had made plans to get together and brainstorm on a project we are all collectively working on. The only ground rule was that anything is possible.

anyway…..

Last nights brainstorming was really was my favorite kind. 4 folks with very different skills, backgrounds and ideas co
Ing T the same problem. We were at it for 5 hours but the time just flew by. At one point we even got some material out and started experimenting with them at the table . We took turns walking across the crowded restaurant to see the effect from across the room I even asked some other diners to offer opinions. I hope we weren’t obnoxious !
By the time dessert came around we’d come up with a few cool themes and discarded a few others. It definitely had been a worthwhile discussion… And a really awesome meal (Vermont cheese plate, oysters, sheep cheese dumplings , polenta, homemade ice cream and flourless chocolate cake and dirty martinis from Vermont made vodka) yummy and rich….I think I’m going to eat light today !

Ok time to get up… Again sorry for the late post
More later in the day … Hope to go play in the snow that’s finally here !

G’morning all, g’morning Sam
-me

Thursday night – too late to blog

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Midnight at the airport and just got back to Burlington after a whirlwind trip to see clients in dc and ny. I’m really liking that aspect of my new role. It’s so cool hearing different smart folks talking about their view of our (or their) industry. Ran into my friend mike on the plane and enjoyed catching up with him. We had fun comparing new jobs
Gotta finish up as Diane’s about to pick me up. Ah one note about the day. It was three years ago today that I stepped off a plane and was blindfolded and put in a van… And so started my time on The Colony. Great memories
Ok. Time for bed
Nite all , nite sam
-me