It’s an amazing and wonderful day. Obama’s inauguration signals the need of 8 very dark years for us.. and the beginning of something new. I have no doubt that it will be hard going for this new president../// and there the tough realities of our economy and foriegn challenges are going to defy any quick fix… but… he brings something we’ve lacked for a very long time.. and that’s hope.

I did my best to follow the inauguration on the radio today…   But I had an eye appointment during the swearign in.. I asked the eye folks to turn on the radio.. so we listened to the pomp and circumstancs as they dilated my eyes.. I will never forget that…  (eyes are fine.. a mix of far sightedness and a little astigmatism.. got the first perscription glasses of my life.. still only for reading.. and I confirmed thta I have a laser burn in my left retina from a YAG laser I was tuning 27 years ago  bummer)

Diane spent the time in the laundremat in defference to our failing septic system . She figured as she fed coins into the machine she was indeed experinceing ‘change’. 🙂

It was an amazing day after the swearing in.. my email and facebook epxloded with Obama fever.. everywhere you went folks were happy and optomisstic.. ..
Even the colleagues  I spoke wiht in other countires were happy and buzzing with the regiem change’ Even having that for this one day during this tough times was a gift.. Thansk for that Mr. Obama.. we all needed it..

Not much else to report.. other than I found that  Kirsten had decorrated  Gabe’s feet again..   Cool.. huh ?

OK..  Everyone breath a sigh of relief.. and let’s get back to work.. Back to my talk ..  Gnite all.. Gnite Sam
-me

I have much to do in my life right now.. but I have got to step back right now /.. like so many others around this country.. and marvel at the wonderful history we’ll be making tomorrow. I’m thinking back to the day I first heard Martin Luther King’s name. it was the day he was assassinated.. I must have been 4 years old. and I came in and my mother was crying. She told my about Dr. King.. Ever since that day he was one of my inspirations.. It’s amazing to think that 46 years ago he was working to ensure that a black man could eat in any restaurant.. stay in any hotel.. .. Could he have imagined that we’d be swearing in our first black president tomorrow ? Of course he could have..   I’m sure he’d be wondering why it took us that long..

Well the day is here.. and I’m proud and hopeful.. So thank you, Dr. King for putting the wheels in motion that are bringing us to tomorrow.’s inauguration…

“And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring

from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will

be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white

men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands

and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! free at last!

thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”

Good bye George Bush…
Welcome Brrack Obama..
Goodnight Sam

-jc

Folks,
    I need to apologize in advance. It’s nearly 2AM and I need to go to sleep.  I’m also using  differnt editor.. so I have even less of  a spell checker.I really can’t see the spelling errors without it.  Hope this is legible..     I’ve been working most of the day on the charts for my talk next month. I wonder if My Obama is working as hard on his speach. Diane has been a wonderful help goign through and helping me refine the message. It’s a complicated, subtle  and maybe contraversial set of suggestions I’m makingin this talk . She’s really helping me to make sure the points come across.. She’s wonderful.

Not much to report on the rest of the day.. I did take a break midday to work with Homer and Mitch on two projects. The first is a variable delay timer for the propane flame throrower that Homer is teachign the Middllebury college kids how to build . It needs to have a way to adjust boththe flame time and the repitition rate of the 25 foot flame jets.. I ended up using a small microcontroller to build this little delay relay. It’s not pretty.. but it works well. Homer’s testing the flamethrower next weekend.. stay tuned for that…

The other thing we worked on was designs for the Burning man art car design.. As  you may recall, it’sgoign to be a 20 foot ferris wheel.. Homer’s built a great scale model.. We discussed the loading and unloading.. saftey (believe it or not) , and started estimates for weoght and cost.. It will be a big project. Does anyone have 30 thousand dollars lying aroudn that they’d like to toss into this project.. Not us !

Homer’s models are always great.. this thing is a work of art.. and works beutifuly…

OK.. Starting to nod off here.. so more tomorrow…   Big week this week…. Obama will be our pres.. That’s so amazing and cool

Nite all  Nite Sam
-me