Wednesday night – other people’s tragedies

September 7, 2011 johncohn Leave a comment

Not sure I like that title.. but.. I’m not sure how to capture what I’m feeling tonight.. The last couple of days I’ve heard several very sad stories from friends and friends of friends.. I’m thinking tonight about those folks.. and the loss they are feeling.. and I feel the echo of it deep inside myself. It’s strange how soemthing that might catch your eye in a newspaper.. a flood, a fire.. and untimely death becomes so different when you know the person.. or their families.. We all felt that when the floods hit Vermont this past week. Seeing the pictures on TV and in the papers felt different than when we saw the same things happening to our neighbors and friends.. In the last couple of days I’ve heard stories of pets that have died, friends of friends kids that have passed away suddenly I didn’t know the people directly.. but knew folks who did.. but still d each of those stories knocks the wind out of me for a little while..

All this week I’ve been watching the stories of the Texas wildfires.. I saw this map yesterday and noticed that many of the blazes are near where I grew up.. I hear today that over 1200 homes and other buildings have been lost to the fires in the past week

Tonight when I got home learned that our good freind Trevor’s family’s house was one of those homes destroyed.. it was no longer a news story..it was ‘us’. I just can’t believe it.. Trevor used to live up here.. he was actually here at our house when we heard about Sam’s accident.. We’re not sure what to do for him now.. but we have to do soemthing. We love that kid..

We’re think of you trevor !

nite all, nite sam

-me

Tuesday night – Looking for trouble..

September 6, 2011 johncohn Leave a comment

Today I was speaking with my freind Scott at work.. In the course of trying to untangle a particularly thorny political problem he shared with me a quote from his Grandmother.. She used to say.. “don’t go looking for trouble.. trouble will find you”. In this case.. he meant that it would be best to wait for the hornets nest to come to us.. rather than to kick it and see what comes out (sorry to mix metaphors )

I thought about that bit of wisdom all afternoon. I’ve been really stewing about finding the ‘next big thing’ that I am supposed to do.. I am going through life these days with the feeling that I’m supposed to be doing something ‘bigger’ and more important .. something that matters more in the world than working at a big company. . The funny thing is.. over the past several weeks I’ve been getting a quite different message from the universe.. not that I shouldn’t be thinking bigger.. but that I shouldn’t be trying so hard to find it.. it will find me….

sounds like trouble.. no 🙂

nte all, nite sam

-me

Ps.. I mentioned above that the universe is sending me consistent messages about where I am now.. . just before I hit ‘post’ on the above entry.. I got the following note from Diane.. She follows this guy’s blog called Heron Dance. Every day he posts one of his watercolors and a thought. She sent his post today to me .. Today it included a short poem by Wendell Berry

The Real Work

It may be that when we no longer know what to do
we have come to our real work,
and that when we no longer know which way to go
we have come to our real journey.
The mind that is not baffled is not employed.
The impeded stream is the one that sings.

– Wendell Berry, Collected Poems

Monday night – fewer things… better

September 5, 2011 johncohn Leave a comment

Before I talk about my day . I have to reflect a bit more on yesterdays strange coincidence.. .. I think it’s really strange and amazing that only 20 minutes after I posted “86 degrees .. ugh .. won’t winter ever come”

the sky opened up and covered the ground with ice pellets.. .. not only is the timing strange.. .. but it seemed to be localized to just where we were in Jericho Center.. Folks int adjacent towns of Richmond . West Bolton and Jericho only saw rain…

Maybe I should wish for world peace next time ?

hmmm

Well.. I’ve been thinking about labor on this labor day.. more about the amount an type of labor I take on. Anyone who knows me knows that I frequently feel over committed. And it’s almost never someone else’s fault.. The combination of being an adrenaline junky and my inability to say ‘no’ often has me ‘red lining’ with too many things owed to too many people all at the same time….. and it frequently happens around this time of year. I hate letting folks down.. so i often go without sleep.. and certainly without peace as I try to make good on my commitments.. and .. I’m not always happy with the results of my work.. This fall I’m making a real effort to do fewer things.. and to do them better . I also want to spend less time tlaing about projects before they’re done and working.. This last few weeks I’ve bene making soem progress.

in the past week I’ve worked really hard to catch up on old projects..

I finished up a prototype for a music/lighting project Homer and I are doing for a freind.
I finished a wireless remote control for the giant pumpkin robot.. I had hoped to put that in last year.. but ran out of time
I finished a programming project I’d been trying to get done for work for months
i wrote the minutes for several meetings that I’d neglected to document
We finally got started on prepping the tower for paint

More importantly I’ve said ‘no’ to a bunch of opportunities to do stuff that folks have offered me. And I’ve asked for help on a few projects (Jerome.. thanks for your help on Echo !.. Scott.. my eternal gratitude for your work on restoring the coil )..

So Fewer things.. better.. let’s see how I do..

nite all, nite sam

-me

Sunday night – in the moment… or at least in the weekend

September 4, 2011 johncohn Leave a comment

Greetings from smack in the center of a three day weekend.. It’s got to be the best time there is.. far enough away from Friday’s day job hassles.. and not quite close enough to Tuesday’s planned frustrations.. i

Somehow the day conspired with me to let that perfect ‘in the moment’ moment last. Lots has happened today.. but the time has passed gently and smoothly..

Starting last night.. I was getting so nostalgic for burning man.. that I tuned into the live webcast.. and watched the man burn

It wasn’t like being there at all.. but.. it was fun to have the vicarious thrill with all the folks I know that were there watching (love you Max and Jac) .. and with the 9000 or so other souls watching on line..

We slept late today.. and went for a run.. there were folks out already to watch the Green Mountain Stage Race. It’s evidently one of the biggest cross country cycling races and it went by our house.

hey had to change the route of the race a couple of days back because some of the planned routes were badly damaged by irene. in fact they were goign to use the road we live on.. Duxbury road.. but ithe are it goes through was so badly damaged that one of the main roads off of it is now closed to the public and will be for weeks. We woke today to find this sign planted just down from our driveway.. “‘No Tourists !! ”

ANyway.. we got to see several of the packs of riders go by.. they were moving so fast and packed so close togheter. it was really cool !

Early this afternoon we wandered back into Richmond to help some neighbors.. A couple of folks were gathered at gary and jeane’s to clean up their yard.. The water was so high that it covered all but the top of the full size soccer goals in their yard !

check out what the storm did to their driveway !

Part of theur yard is still a lake..

the wierd thing is.. it was just a week ago that the flood crested.. and today it was hot. muggy and 86 degrees .. I posted to Facebook that I was ready for winter..

and about 30 minutes later Winter came.. or sort of came.. We were visiting our friend Chris when all of a sudden the heavens burst and everythign was being bombarded by marbel size hail. In moments the ground was nearly covered. with ice . it was just amazing..

here’s a piece of insulation board. the pock marks show how violent the hail storm was..

The hail passed.. then we drifted home and began the big project of the weekend.. well.. actually of the next several weekends. Diane and I are painting the inside of the bell tower. It’s the room I use as my home office.. and it’s been in need of paint for several years..