My mom reminded us today that it would’ve been her and dad’s 63rd anniversary. That’s amazing. Dad died in 2014 and I think of him every day.

Mom sent this great picture of the two of them… I love looking at it

I sent her back this one… It’s at the top of the stairs and I say hi to my dad every day

I told my mom today and I’m really glad that she married my dad… It has been very good for my career :-)

I love you Ma and pa

Thanks for getting married!

Nite all, nite sam

-me

• It was very good to take today off. I really needed. I did some thinking about the real meaning of memorial day… I thought about all the veterans in my life… My dad, my father-in-law but what memorial day usually needs to me is it’s very near Sam’s birthday. Sam would’ve been 28 this Thursday on May 28.… He was 14 when he died and it’s been 14 years since… It feels particularly strange.… This year Diane and I going to climb up  Bolton mountain in time for the sunrise on Thursday. Anyone is welcome to join us. I put an invite out on Facebook
• Today we took a great hike… Kyle dropped us off on the notch Road and we walked back towards home. Diane fixed us a great picnic that we ate on a ledge overlooking camels Hump

Attack Brooke… We decided to bushwhack down the beautiful creek. It’s covered with stunning waterfalls. No one ever goes there because it’s so hard to reach

It’s not good to take a swim. And put a Sam Stoneway up in the waterfall

Later on our friends Vince and Maya came by to say goodbye. We’re heading out to Washington. Even at social distancing it’s nice to see new people.

OK… Time for bed.

Nite all, nite sam

-me

Really nice quiet day around the house. Got the pool ready to go, clean the garage, And I got our beautiful garden crows working

I did some Grant work for UVM and we basically hung out… Had a nice talk with my mom… She had just been to a video meeting of the 65th anniversary of her college graduation. She wore her 1952 field hockey uniform to the meeting… That’s pretty cool

At 8:45 we had some of the neighbors over to do a movie outside. ‘Diane and I had gotten the old movie screen out and washed it down and hung it on the side of our house. I got our 20-year-old video projector out and we gathered around and watched blazing saddles. Totally politically incorrect but super fun

OK… Time for bed

More tomorrow

Nite all, nite sam

-me

Hung around the house today… It’s hard to figure out what to do on a “holiday” weekend… When we’ve been homebound so long. I use the time to get the pool ready because it’s going to be in the 90s this coming week. As part of that I discovered two huge water scorpions in the pool water. I have no idea how they got it. I know they were water scorpions because I looked them up on an app. Evidently they are pretty amazing. They can fly, they can sting… And they were a good 4 inches long

About 1 o’clock Diane and I decided to go for a paddle. We hadn’t been in the canoe in over a year. We went down to the boat in Dam which is about 7 miles up river from us.

We ran into our good friends the Perren’s there… It was so great to see them… Honestly it’s so great to see anybody at this point.

It took us about two hours to paddle the 7 miles back home. We took a small stop on “Comair” island… It’s where me and the boys sometimes camp.… I put a Sam stone there

We got back to the house… And got on our bikes and went down to get the car. It was a good workout going both ways. Later that night we stopped by and ate with Deb… We socially distanced and everything… But it was almost like normal.… The dinner with Deb is never normal… She such a good cook.

OK… Heading to bed.

Nite all, nite sam

-me