Sunday night – connections

It was a weekend for renewing connections.. yesterday was a great day for hanging out with friends.. we had about 50 folks milling through the house at one point. May friends of Max’s. gabes and even Sam’s..

Last night the fireworks were great..I ran into Pete O. and my old freind and Mentor Terry K who’s in visiting form Schen-zen China. The Lawlors came buy and gave us all sparklers.. .

Afterwards we still had a bunch of folks in the house. I took advantage of the impromptu party to have a quick 3 generation drink with Max…

This morning cousin-in-law (son -of-great-aunts-sister) Billy G. stoppped by to say hi to my folks. It was fun hearing Billy and my folks triangulate on the common parts of our family. I’v ebene really enjoyeign getting to know Billy better throough our work on the Echo center board and .. .more recently… the hBurning Man Time Cycle project. He’s a great creative maker of things !

Abut 1is, my folks decided it was time to head back to boston.. so they gatherd up neice Betsy.. Its been really cool having her here.. she’s so easy to hang out with !

We had to take the obligatory 300 pictures before anyone could drive away..

We had a couple of hours lull which we spent outside doing yard work.. then the next wave of friends showed up. This evening we were really fortunate to have a visit from my old friend Saul and his wife Barry. Saul and I went to graduate school 20 years ago (is that possible ?). In fact .. we worked in an office where we  always had a jewish guy, an indian. and a tall blond guy  for three generations.. I took the jewish spot in the office when Saul graduated.  Saul adnd Barry were on ‘mom and dad camp’ after dropping kids off at camp. It was really great catching up with them..   We spent most of the enveing talkign abut life, kids, and ‘do you remember’… ? Saul and I know many of the same folks from CUM and in our industry..

OK.. it’s abotu 11:30 and I can hardly stay awake.. Time for bed.. more tomorrow. Nite all.. Nite Sam !
-me

Saturday afternoon – I love my small town

I just love my small town. There’s no place like Richmond VT on a beautiful  .. (if not cold and rainy) 4th of july.. We got up ‘early’ in time to make the 10:30 parade.. We dumped the car at Gary and Jean’s then strolled up and down  Main street. Absolutely the whole town was there. Tons of families , new babies (most vermonters calf in late winter or spring), kids everywhere.. THere are folks we saw today that we only see once a year.. and that in a town of just 4000 folks.

The parade began with the mile run. Freinds macx and lincoln were out cheering for neighbor Joe..

It was great having max in town for the forth. He was sportign a Jonesville T-shirt.. (Jonesville is our 300 person ‘suburb’ of Richmond)

The parade was wonderful as ever.. the grand marshal was our neighbor Brittany K.. Miss Tenn vermont.. Our local celebrity.

My mom caught this shot of 3 generation of cohns.

Wouldn’t be the 4th without bagpipes..

… and firetrucks

The floats were simple.. but spirited this year.. I

think the theme was ‘history’.. but they looked the same as last

year…  ..

We sat next to our friends John and Lorraine.. I havne’t talked to the much recently. John helped me fix the weathervane on our house in 2000. He likes talkign to my dad about their navy experiences.

These reninactment guys kept firing their rifles.. pretty cool

Here’s neighbor Louie and his tractor..

Lots of horse

and dogs

Soem old town fueds are acted out year after year… here are the sloans attacking the bressors with water guns.. while they are getting pelted with water baloons.. Richmond is a dangerous place

They’re already advirtising for the New Years celibration

Here’s the boat that worked as our ferry across the winooski as the bride was gettign reparied. .. It got a standing ovation !

No tractor was too small..

or too big….

Here are the local sports stars

We had pigmy ponies (straight out of frank zappa)

and dragons…

and lazy horses…

Hannah was there with her Sam pin (what beautiful smiles they both have.. )

Here’s hannah and her sister (remember that movie ?)  Two beautiful smiles.

And the fez guys… wouldn’t be the 4th without them..

There was a little bit of politics… from both sides…

and some social activism …

And fritz on his homemade electric motorcycle…

Every parade has to end with the ‘Wild Boomers’ They have been in this parade for nearly 30 years.. .. They play these weird broomstick instruments.. with drums, horns. cymbols.. Someday I wonder if I’ll be a wild boomer..

THen our grand anti marshal.. Marshal P.. taking the caboose of the parade as always..

After the parade the rain started in earnest.. we huddled under the trees waiting for it to let up… Finally it did.. As soon as it let up, we headed over to the green. I ran into Jay in his Sam shirt.. The 4th was one of Sam’s favorite holidays.. I’ve been thinking of him all day…

The green was hopping.. maybe a bit subdued because of the weather.. there was the dunking booth ..

and the dog agility show..

The richmond band played american fav’s

But the rain finally drove us home..   We’d invited folks over.. and by 2:30 we had a housefull. Here’s RJ tossing a pizza for Diane.

Max and his buds went down the Huntington on inner tubes.. It was even wilder than yesterday when I did it.    He came back and serenaded us. He’s a monster guitar player now..

I think the defining moment for the day was when diane decided to fight the chill by lighting a fire in the wood stove to make smores.. I love vt summers.. at least if it doesn’t get any warmer than this.. .

OK.. we’re heading back to the green later to see the fireworks.. A quintescential vt mid summer day.. I love it..

OK.. folks.. more later.. bye for now.. love you sam.. I’ll think of you during the fireworks
-me

friday night – dependence day

Very cool day. Started off with a run in the wet woods. My folks were up so we started off with anoter  wet walk in the woods…. and then another.. I’m getting kinda soggy 

It rained on and off.. so we did a bunch of just hanging out. My niece Betsy.. came up with my folks as well. It’s very good to have her up visiting. Here she is showing grandma how to use facebook..

Ma had the honor of picking the years first head of broccoli !

Still raining.. so Diane. Mom and I decided to cut up the soap that Diane and I made earlier in the week.

Shortly after that, there was a break in the rain. Gabe. Kristin. Betsy and I deceided to take advantage of the brief let up to tube down the Huntington river. Diane dropped us off at triple buckets with our intertubes. It started raining again just as we got down to the river. The river was so high and fast because of the rain.. it was pretty cool  going in. We launched in and immediately got shot down the river, bounced off of rocks, pulled under trees.. It was like the best log ride you’ve ever been on.. By that time it was raining and thundering pretty hard.. By the time we got down to the lower gorge we were freezing and tired.. but happy. it was only about a 15 minute ride.. but ti was fast and crazy. We got out with the idea that I’d run home and get a car.. but wouldn’t you know thewre was Diane.. she’d read our minds. Is she amazing or what ?

We came home shivering then jumped in the nice heated  pool to warm up ..

I came inside and warmed up.. then grabbed my mom and took her down to the South End of burlington to see my friends at pine street studio. They’re getting ready for the iron pour next weekend. I’m hoping to make another piece this year.. I gotta think of something that would be cool to make in iron.. Any ideas ?   It was good to see Yolk. Christina and Elijah there. Elijah comes up from New Orleans every year to do this event.   Here’s the home made furnace we’ll use to melt the iron.

Mom and I came back home.. we all ate. then we all piled back in the car and drove back down town. We’d been invited to watch the fireworks from the Echo center.. which is probably the best perk of being on the baord at Echo. We had front row seats to to burlingtons firewroks.. it was raining.. but still a great night for a show..

These were soem of the most amazing fireworks I’ve ever seen !!!

They went on for nearly 40 minutes.. as they ended, we filed out of echo.. .. As I wlaked out, soemone tapped me on the sholder and IT WAS MAX !.. he’d come in from NY just to suprise us !. Jessie was there too.. It was so wonderful seeign those guys !!!!

Yow.. It’s almost 1AM.. time to sleep.. More fireworks tomorrow !!!  see you at the parade. Nite all, Nite Sam
-me

The Colony – Premieres Tuesday July 21st @ 10pm E/P

Wow.. this is already getting pretty freaky. All day long I heard from folks that they saw the trailer for The colony on Discovery.  It’s a short 15 second clip that shows some moments from the first episode. There’s a few pictures of me  though I can’t quite figure out what I’m doing in the shots.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8U9NsaKFpk

It’s really wonderful seeing my friends in these clips. I like that my

old freinds can sort of ‘meet’  my new freinds now. It’s hard to

explain how close the ten of us got in the course of the two months of

filming. Let me tell you.. you don’t know someone until you’ve spent 58

days with them in a place with no electricity, no water.. and no

sanitation.  The 10 of us are talking all the time these days in the

lead up to the start of the show. I’d like you to meet them all:

Old friends, meet my new friends, New friends meet old friends.. I love you all.. (and there’s not a thing you can do about it.. as new friend George would say)

OK.. gotta go now..nite all,  nite Sam
-me