Saturday Afternoon – quiet

We’ve had a wonderfully quiet and uneventful day.. We woke up to a cold (-7) and bright morning…  Diane got up much earlier so all three dogs climbed in bed with me. I felt like staying there all day… but managed to pry myself out of there around 9.  By the time we had Gabe and his friends up at the mountain it was 11..

At that point Diane and I started working on the travel logistics for my talk in San Fran on Feb 9th… which is also  my 50th birthday. In fact, my talk is  scheduled 50 years  to the hour from my birth. Thinking about getting out there got me thinking about this upcoming birthday which is something I’ve been doing quite a bit lately.Society tells us that  50 is a big deal. So… how will it feel ? Will I feel suddenly old ? Will I freak out and some sort of mid-life crisis ? I can’t predict the future.. but I don’t think it’s going to be like that.  I’m feeling pretty good about where I am in life right now.  Sam’s passing has changed so much for me. I miss him so much…. yet at the same time, I’ve found a strange sort of peace. I think his death fundamentally changed my priorities. At this point I don’t think there’s anything more I need in my life..  I love my family, I don’t need more things, I like my place in my community…I feel fit… I have more interests than I have time for  and I love my profession..  Sure, money is a bit tight as it is for everyone ..  but … we have what we need…  . …and I need to do better at aligning my work and my passions… but I’m working that…     I think  I’m going to like being 50…. 

Now… I do want to do some things this year to mark turning 50… I’ve been trying to come up with some ideas..  Maybe a trip with my family ? Maybe a retreat somewhere  I’m still thinking.. and . I’m open for suggestions…  I’ve got time to think about this.. My birthday is still a month off. .. and I need to spend much of the time between now and then gettign ready for that talk in San Fransisco…  

Speaking of which.. my talk beckons.. back to work.. More tomorrow.. Nite friends.. nite Sam..
-me

Friday Night – Johnny Winter

I had a very good and productive day working at home today. I worked straight from 8 Am till 6 with abut 1 15 minute break it felt strangely good to be that focused. I knocked off around 6 because My friend John H. had invited me  to go hear Johnny Winter at Higher Ground. When was the last time I went and heard Johnny Winter?.. Maybe 1977 ? … He walked out on the stage looking every bit of his 64 years.. he was bent over with pain and stiff….

He sat down ion a stool in the middle of the stage.. picked up his guitar… then the years just melted away. He is one of the best southern blues rock guitarists that there has ever been. .. and he sounded as good as he did30 years ago.. He was lightening fast and clean.. and his voice was sting.. It was an awesome show…  As always,  … as soon as the live music started, my head started to clear.. as the music washed over me .. I got lighter and lighter.. it’s probably the most spiritual thing I ever do…

Higher ground was packed… and for once.. I think I was at or below the average age in the place.. Luckily, there were few kids in the place watching us geezers dance.. It wasn’t a pretty site…   One pretty site I did see was some of my light up beer trays in use.. here’s number four.. the purple one being modeled by the lovely Terry.. Lights on…

Lights off…

Speaking of ‘lights on/ lights off’.. I finally finished the installation of the blog linker in the tower.. Now all of the lights in the tower blink off off for one second each time someone reads my blog.. .. Here’s a vid I took outside tonight while Max visited  the blog..   .. the same thing will happen when you visit it.. , gentle  reader. If you’re reading this now.. you just made the lights blink on my house… Go ahead.. do it again !

One strange thing did happen today… I needed to find some photographs of myself dressed up for an audition thing I’m doing.. since I rarely get dressed up… I asked a bunch of my work friends  to see if they had any photos of me in a jacket.. One of my friends at CMU found this picture .. This was taken at the DAC conference in 2005 (I think.. They’d brought in this palm reader to a party I attended.. She’s the women who read my palm and said ‘you’ve lost a child’… and I pulled my hand back from her in shock.. This was in 2005.. a year before Sam died…   I had no idea that someone had taken a picture.. Seeing this gives me chills…

Funny as it sounds.. the story of the palm reader actually is somehow reassuring to me.. there are things we just don’t understand.. and I need that…

Gnite folks.. Gnite Sam.. I love you
-me

Wednesday night – Choate

Woke up early and well rested in my personal hotel building at Choate.. I had time to take a short run around the beautiful campur.. really it was nicer than mpst college campuses I’ve visited..

Here’s the guest house I stayed in.. again.. I had the entire building to myself !

Here’s a few scens around campus from my run..   Here’s the dining hall

and some churchy thing..

And here’s my host Kevin in fornt of his house.. he and his family are the house parents for 12 tean age boys…

We climbde the hill to breakfast.. past all the pictures of past administrators.. I loved these old pictures.. lots of famous names Mellons. Carnegies, etc…


And then into the dining hall.. I felt liek I was in Hogwarts !

They did have orange juice and grape juice which I mixed together to give me super strength .. (though oddly they had no green tinkertoys to stir them).. Went well with bmy gagle-peanut butter-hot sauce-and-A1 breakfast.

I showed up at the I.M Pei designed tehatre aaround 9 for set up.. the place was perfect.. the kids filed in around 10.. THere were abotu 320 of them I think..






The show went really well.. teh kids stayed with me the whole way. A very funny and wierd thing happened at the end of the show.. The lights in the building failed… It was a perfect time.. Was it the tesla coil that knowcked them out .. or Sam ? I think it was Sam.. everythign I touched that was electrical for the rest of the day was freakign out as well (my headset, phone. lap op.. the car ciggarette  lighters stopped working, GPS stoped, then radio stopped.. .. I must be rasiatign soemthing !)

After the show I hung out with a bunch of the kids and tlaked.. while they rode the gokart.. It was a blast.. and I got soem good insight into what they liked abotu the show.. and about the fields of enginerering and science .



My friend Bruce had arrainged my visit.. .. his son Matt goes to Choate.. even thoug Matt was in China for the term Bruce showed up and helped me move my stuff, cleanu up, etc.. now that’s dedication.. 

After we cleaned up. bruce and I grapbbed a quikc lunch, then I went and visited a few classrooms in the scince building.. Around 1:30
I got on the road home.. None too soon.. it was rain and ice the whole way home !.. The 4 hour trip took 6 and a half hours.. but I had anothr good book on tape.. so it flew by..

I got home around 8 in time for a great dinner that Dinae made.. Then I had to spend a couple of hours workign to make up for lost time today..

One small hobby thing I finsihed is the blog hit counter.. This light in one of our front windows now blnks whenever anyone reads my blog.. .. So read it.  Is that Geeky.. or what ?   Here I am reading my blog

..

OK.. I can’t stay awaake anothe rsecond.. TTYL.. Nite Sam
-me

Tuesday night – Rosmary Choate

Greetings from quaint Wallignford Ct, .. I’m down here to do a science show at Rosemary Choate academy.. it’s a boarding school where a work colleague’s kid attends. I agreed to do a show here in return for getting some of the students to help me on some outreach projects. I drove down here after a full and uneventful day at work… The drive down was peaceful.. spoke with friends on the phone and finished listening to Malcalm Gladwell’s newest book ‘Outliers’.. I really liked it. Gladwell’s central premise is that upbringing, culture and opportunity have much more to do with a persons success than does natural ability.   He claims that most superstars.. be they rock stars, software moguls, physicists or wall street law partners .. only need to be ‘good enough’ and get the right lucky breaks. In fact he presents data that shows that most ability (eg, IQ, musical ability, etc) have a threshold level above which additional skill does not matter… The argument is important because it shows that if we spent less time trying to find and focus on the kids with the most talent, and spent more time providing opportunity and encouragement to kids who are talented ‘enough’.. we’d end up with more high achievers… I’ve always believed that..

Anyway… I’s just past midnight, and I’m in the three floor guest residence of Choate… it’s nicer than almost any hotel I’ve ever stayed in.. and from what I can tell.. I’m the only one in  the entire building..



Kinda cool.. and kinda spooky.. It’s the sort of place that makes me want to walk around in your bathrobe….. just because it’s empty.. But.. don’t worry.. I won’t…..  Gotta sleep now…

Nite folks.. Nite Sam
-me