I got a call late last week that the building Where are used to work… I store some of my science for kids equipment flooded and got filled with mud. I had to go in and salvage what equipment I could and throw away the rest so they could clean out the room. Building now belongs to GLOBALFOUNDRIES but they’re kind enough to let me still use it for my outreach efforts.… Getting in there was no small feat… Covid regulations required me to do a bunch of surveys and then show up to get a health check Before I could enter the building.… There are still several hundred IBMer I work in a facility. A really great guy Tim L offered to help me Clean out and sort the mess.

It was a trip down memory lane going there. Like seeing the stairs where I first met ‘Diane in 1982

Tim and I walked down to 966 and it wasn’t a pretty sight. Most of the building had been cleared out but there had been 4 inches of mud due to an equipment malfunction that washed bunch of water into the building

Here’s what my storage room look like

And that’s after I got about 2/3 of the stuff out of there. Lots of it was caked with mud but most of it was salvageable

All of my science equipment was up in tables so it was safe… That included my old favorite Tesla coil that scott helped me build and My original Van de Graaff generator.… I have newer smaller equipment now that I use for kids… But this old stuff is the best

I took advantage of having recycling bins and garbage bins to go through about 40 years of crud that I had gathered over the years

They were some great finds like a pickle fryer that I must’ve made it a restaurant dinner out of some stolen forks

Lots of mess. But lots of cool surprises too

Here’s a model of our house that my brother Billy made for us for some event

My old telephone 802-769-7676 (Which spells soy-porn)

Several boxes of plaques I’ve gotten for work stuff

ACool Clayhead that my friend Chris Wendel made for me back when we were at Mit

Inside it or some Serbian tesla currency

Some unopened discs of OS 2

And tons of scrap equipment that no one could use anymore… It’s hard to let go but better now than later

It’s amazing that in two hours I was able to go through 40 years of junk I felt so much cleaner and lighter after doing it

Nite all, nite sam

-me

A few minutes ago ‘Kyle texted us to tell us that she had heard something up in the attic… Sure enough I went up and checked and one of our haveaheart traps and caught the 10th flying squirrel.… In the last couple of weeks.… This guy was a little bit more active than the other ones. They usually just play dead when you pick up the traps.… Diane and I just drove him down to his new home couple of miles down the road. We gave him about a quart of bird seed to share with this other relocated buddies there. We figured it be just fine outside. They don’t hibernate and they like cold weather I guess

Only other news for today is the day and I took a lunchtime Mike around with his look at… Beautiful but insanely warm… Almost 30° which is crazy for this time of year

One really interesting thing… Someone had gone around recently and released lilies look at trailer with these giant blue patches… I managed to highlight some graffiti in a tree… It was sam’s initials

And the look of it the initials have been there a long time… It’s just the paint that I highlighted them. You must’ve walked by there hundreds of times in the last 14 years… Such a cool thing to see today fresh

Nite all, nite sam

-me

We had a nice treat today… I got a package from my friend Martin in Prague. He sent me a very nice thank you gift for a talk I gave their (virtually) a few months back. And there was this really cool mug it was actually like chalkboard… Some slivowitz (My favorite plum brandy)… And some Horicke Trubicky . They are these really strange and really delicious tubular cookies that you can only get in the Czech Republic as far as I know.… My friends Miro and Piotr. Sometimes brought them to Munich for us.… You can fill them with stuff or just eat them or use them like a cigar I guess… Anyway it was a very thoughtful gift and brightened up our Tuesday. Thank you Martin! !

Nite all, nite sam !

-me

Just came back in from skiing three loops around the front field… I needed to get some fresh air today… Lots of clutter in my life right now and there’s nothing more head clearing then outside

One thing that Was wonderful to see is that our neighbors have decided to turn off the street like they were paying for…. Our neighborhood is now much darker We really appreciate that they are did this. Here’s what our neighborhood looks like now

Just like nature intended

Nite all, nite Sam

-me