We woke to a warm wind outside.. it was almost 53 degrees out… impossible weather for this time of year .

It was nearly 60 degrees warmer than 2 days ago.. what a funny place we live.

I had a busy and surprisingly productive day at work.. Not much newsworthy there. The interesting part of my day came after work. I joined our friend Jim in speaking to a Drivers’ Ed class at Essex High School. Jim has given this talk in about 1000 classrooms..

Jim’s daughter Andrea was a senior at MMU when she was killed in a traffic accident about a quarter mile from her house. She wasn’t wearign a seatbelt becuase it had jammed as she tried to put it on. Andrea was a tripple organ donor..

Jim uses Andrea’s death to talk to kids about the improtance of seat belet usage and of the importance of having the organ donation conversation with you families.

Jim had brought his freind Chris with him. Chris is a kidney and pancreas transplant recipient. Before his transplant, Chirs was near death on dailey diyalisis.. Now he runs marathons in honor of organ donations. Here he’s holding the  Us olympic torch that he carried in the Salt Lake City Olypic opening ceremony in honro of the cause.

I’d met Chris first when Diane Gabe. Max and I had gone into MMU once with Jim.. it was just two weeks after Sam’s death. ‘ll never forget what it was like to talk to kids who knew Sam about the gift of organ donation.

Today I told the students abotu Sam.. and abotu the improtance of driving carfully..and about being alert to pedestrians. I tlaked about Sam’s accident and the steps up to and after his donation.
In a wonderful ‘coincidence’ just yesterday we received a wonderful and moving letter from one of the surgical nurses who assisted at Sam’s donation . I started to read it in the class tonight.. but I couldn’t get through it without crying too hard..   .. I’m posting it here for the kids .. and others to see. I’ve only removed the nurses name

My name is ****** and I am a nurse who works at All Children’s
Hospital. In 11/2006 I was a new nurse working in the operating room
at ACH. I assisted in the surgery that helped to save the lives of
the four very sick people the day that Sam died. It was the first
organ donation I had ever done in my career. It was a very emotional
experience for me. I cried for hours. On that day, the day before
Thanksgiving, I thanked God that there are such selfless people in
this world who choose to donate organs so that others can live.  I
don’t think I will ever forget Sam’s name, face, or the thing he was
able to do that day, even though I never got to know him.  He has
made so much of an impact on my life and I want to thank you so much
for that. I am still working at ACH and I love what I do. I would
love to have a stone as a way to remember him, the patient of mine
who has touched my heart the most. With lots of love,
******

As we were filing out at the end of todays’ class I noticed a bag that Lou the teacher’s books were in..

It had Sam’s intials ‘SMC; on the side I asked whether those were his initals.. nope.. was it becasie he went to St. Mikes ? Nope.. He and his wife had found the bag in a bargin bin at LL beans’ in main. Someone had had i mnogramed, then returned it due to a small tear. Lou baught it for a few bucks even though the intials didn’t mean anything to him…

He gave me the bag 🙂

Sam is everywhere…
OK.. all for now.. Goodnight my freinds, goodnight Sam..
-me

Hard day… It started out cold.. I think it was 7 below when I woke up.. Here’s where it was when I finally found my camera.

Perhaps my blood was frozen. Despite my efforts to stay on task I struggled to do anything today. I idin’t really feel .. I don’t know.. maybe sane ?   I’m not sure what’s up.. but I need to  shake it..   I could’t wait till 6 when I could take off. Tonight was our annual ‘fathers shoping night’ I’ve been getting together with these same guys since my kids were all young.. must be 15 years or so. Traditionally we start at the Daily Planet.. Eat and Drink.. then do herd shoping through Burlington. Over th e years there’s been more eating and drinking.. and less shoping.
It was good getting together and talking, though.. here’s the group .

We Sat and talked tile about 8 then walked around town for a feeble attempt at buying stuff.  I used to love this night of impulse buying.. tonight I didn’t buy a thing… I don’t know if anyone did. In fact.. Church street was nearly completely empty.. maybe it was the  economy.. or maybe it was the cold..

The Mall was a ghost town too.. we ended up having a paper airplane fight in one of the empty stores.. and no one was there to mind !

Pretty quiet… Now it’s about 11PM.. and  I need to sleep.. Hope my frame of reference is better tomorrow.. We’ll see…

OK.. night everyone.. Night Sam.. I love you !
-me

Quiet day today.. Gabe was up at Bolton. Diane and I took a run.. then.. not sure I did anything else (did I ? )..   It’s kind of a pattern this time of year. I don’t seem to have much energy or inspiration these past few weeks. I get that makes sense. The holiday season is coming up and I’m trying to find the mood. Tomorrow night is our annnaul shopping night out with the guys.. Maybe that will jump start my holiday spirit…

One thing this slow time of year is helping me do is think. Even with the downturn in the economy I am actually feeling pretty optimistic about the coming change in the government.  I’m trying to find a way that my interest in getting kids interested in science and technology might fit into all of this change. As I put into my paper.. I really believe that technology can be a huge help to our troubled society as we look for ways to manage environmental disruption, energy generation, clean water supplies, etc. The trouble is,   that’s not the message kids usually hear about engineering and technology. We need to start changing that message… If we do,  we can use that to engage a whole new set of kids that might not have otherwise considered careers in engineering or science.   I’d like to help change that conversation..and promote the idea of using technological innovating for the good of the planet…  I know what I’m doing in classrooms is a way to start. but I’d like to find ways of helping push this further…I’m just not sure where to start… So why am I saying this here ?

Sometimes when you don’t know where to start.. the first step is just ‘putting it out there’.. for the cosmos to suggest something…

Hey cosmos.. I’m listening….any ideas appreciated….
and that goes for ideas from any of you reading this 🙂

OK.. enough for this weekend.. have a good week everybody.. Gnite Sam
-me

ps. here are the backs of the videos the kids showed last night.. I just saw the samstone on the back of Angus’s ‘Get Some ____’ movie.. and Gabe made the front of Sam and Garret’s ‘It’s Geometry’ vid.. he’s the one that’s beeing held in the air..