Sleepy Saturday afternoon.. I just woke up from a couple of hour nap. This morning Diane and I drove up to Waterville, VT.. about an hour north of here to visit our freinds Marci. Matt and Lili and help them get their garden in. Marci is our wonderful Reiki and massage juju sorceress. It was a beautiful drive up. Waterville is a cute little town up near Johnson. Blevedere (the nations biggest asbestos mine .. eeeek !) and Morrisville.   Marci and Matt bought the place about 2 years ago.. and this is my first time seeing it. It’s a cute 1890’s town builidng that’s been a pig farm , a five and dime..and now a family home. Its been really nicely redone to make it bright and cozy..

Matt and Marci’s house is in the center of town. Waterville is pretty

tinly. Two chiurches.. .. one on either side of their house , a green

and and a country store.

Diane got right to work helping Marci get in onions, tomatoes, flowers, cukes, squash, etc..

My job was to help Matt straighten out the fencing.. which was fun and easy. It was fun workign with Matt.   I’d never met him face to face before.. so it was a good way to get to know him.. If ‘good fences make good neighers.’ as Frost says.. then sagging fences make new freinds..

My second job was to take over the tilling from Marci.. They’re putting in a new pumpkin patch.. so I spent a pleasant hour yankign around their tiller. I love that kind of work.. dirty, noisey and mindless.. It felt great..

We got home around 2:30 and I fell immediately asleep.. Driving always does that to me.. Diane woke me at 4;30 to get ready for Beth and Scott’s wedding tonight. If she hadn’t I’d probably have slept on through the night !

OK.. we’re off to the wedding.. It’s outside at Mills River park.. should be nice more about that tomorrow.   TTYL folks.. Nite Sam
-me

Hot day today.. It was 93 degrees when I got home htis afternoon.. that’s abotu 65 degrees warmer than it was on monday night.. Not many places you can live with that sort of temperature range !

I had a busy day with phone meetings.. still trying to find the best ways to add value at work. I did take my lunch time to go see a talk by Van Jones, Obama’s ‘Green Jobs Czar’.   Jones is the founder of Green for All, an orginization that helps put people back to work helping the country go green.

Jones was in town to speak at the VT Expo… a trade show set up by the

Vermont Chamber of Commerce. I met up with some of my fellow board

members from the Echo Center.  Jones gave a really great talk aboout this administrations intention to  rebuild america by investing in green technology. He talked about a program that puts jobless folks to work weatherproofing homes. He described how doing that takes folks off of public assistance, lowers homeowners heating expenses, increases home value and reducces the amond of electricity generation required… It’s good all around.  His story was really compellign and entertaining.. He talked abotu the need to get more kids interested in engineering and sceince.. a topic very near to my heart. It made me proud to be a geek !  He finshed by sayign that 100 years from now..(if we’re still here.. he added)  that Barack Obama will not be remembered as the first black president.. Jones said he’d be remembered a the frist green president.. cute !

After the talk I got the chance to meet Jones and tlak to him for s short bit. I asked about specific ideas he had for getting kids more interested in engineering and science.. He didn’t have specific ideas.. but he was fun to talk to.

The rest of the day was phoen calls and email… but the inspiration from Jones’s tlak kept me jazzed for the rest of the day..

OK.. gotta run now.. more tomorrow.    Gnite all.. gnite Sam
-me

Our dog friend Strider died last night. He’d been a constant friend to us as we ran by his house several times a week for the past 13 years; Diane and I went running this morning down by the rivershore. As we turned into the trail the dogs across Cochran road .. Coco and the two Doberman’s at  Deb’s house.. started barking like crazy. Not just their normal barking.. but an insescent wail.. almost a question. Chai and Satori couldn’t make out the sound either They stayed with me while Diane went to check what was up with all the dogs. She came back a few minutes later to tell me that that Strider had died yesterday night..   I knew it was coming.. but still it brought me to tears.   I knew he had not been doing well.. he was in clearly in pain. so I said my private good bye to him yesterday morning.   He would always be standing outside of his house watching me and the dogs run by.. The dogs and I would always walk over to him to say hi. I’d scratch under his chin and he’d smile.. He really did smile.. he had this funny way of curling his lips like he was going to growl   which meant he was happy.   I’m really going to miss him.. Good bye my friend . .. I wish you peace..

As I’m writing this I just found a note from Strider’s owner in tonight’s Richmond Front Page Forum .. Here’s the note

SO LONG AND THANKS FOR ALL THE BONES
By Molly D
Wed, 20 May 2009

Hi Neighbors – I’m not going to be making my morning rounds around Dugway, Cochran  Road and Wheeler Lane to visit you any longer.  I wanted to thank you  all for taking such good care of me.  You fed me bones and treats, you petted me and called me a good dog.  You gave me rides home when you thought I was lost or had wandered too far.   I loved riding in cars and I especially loved getting treats on my rounds.  You can still give your treats to Cocoa – she a really good dog and has been a best friend to me lately.   A big shout out to Max & Elcie across the road – keep howling – AWOOOO!  Chai & Sartori – thanks for the bones!  To the mailman, I hope you enjoy delivering the mail in peace and quiet.  I’ve got a resting place where I can watch Cochran Road and Wheeler Lane – so drive slow.  Thanks to Virginia Clarke for making an extra trip out to see me in the end.  I’m off to a place where my hips don’t hurt, I can run up and down hills, chew sticks into little toothpicks !
 and swim all day long!
Take Care,
Strider

I thought of Strider all through my day..   This evening I had a show down in Monkton. I was feeling a bit sad.. but the prospect of doing the mad science thing cheered me up. I always enjoy visiting the kids in Monkton. Tonight it was cub scouts from monkton, New Haven and Hinesburgh.   The show was noisy and fun.. a great group of kids..   After the show, the scout masters of both packs each handed me  very generous checks Sam’s fund.. I didn’ t even know they knew.. Once again  today I was moved to tears.. 

I love people….   and dogs..

Gnite Sam
-me

Wow.. I just relaized that I thought last night was Tuesday night… I think I’m still stuck in a timelss space…which isn’t at all bad. I just came back from an early dinner with two freinds… Crag and Aparna who are collegues in an engineering and science outreach project called Global Challenge.  B It was a great meeting and very inspiring both technically and personally. The Global Challenge is a program that engages high school stundents around the world in collaborative problem solving around world issues. Ive been peripherally involved with GC for several years.. I was actully on their board several years ago.. then dissengaged after Sam’s passing. The orginization has trsformed considerably in the past 2 years. They currently engage hundereds of kids worldwide.. mostly in the US, India and China. Most of the GC projects result in team written student reports that are judged on impact, science background and novelty. The winning teams get scholrships and other prizes.  Our conversation tonight was about how the orginizatiion could incorporate a more ‘hands on’ component in their projects.. and how the teams could better use collaboration and gaming technology..   The conversation was interesting in its own right.. but more interesting to me was the personal path that both Craig and Aparna had taken. Both of them made mid career choices to devote their time and energy to soemthing they felt passionate about..   it’s got me thinking abotu my own path…
  Hey.. Diane and Gabe are home. more on this tomorrow.. I gotta go hug my family  ! I love you all.. love you Sam
-me