John Cohn's Blog

johncohn — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 04:34:00 +0000

I woke up this morning and read that MMU grad Adam Muller was killed in Iraq this week. . I didn’t know Adam.. but we know his familly… and our hearts go out to them. It would be wrong for me to say ‘I know how they feel’.. because we’ve learned that everyone’s experience with loss is different. I do know that the family will need the love and support of this community. Please keep Adam and his family in your thoughts
-jc

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Wednesday evening – Home again

johncohn — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 20:15:00 +0000

Home again after 3 good days on the road. It’s nice to be back. I spend more and more time now thinking about the aniversary of Sam’s passing. How does it feel ? How is it supposed to feel ? I feel sad and determined., solid and scared.. and somewhat worn out. Sam is with me constantly… The driving and hotel time on a trip llke I just made is really useful for sifting through all of these mixed feelings.It’s felt good to be busy on my new assignment.. It’s so good for me to have the stress of my old job lifted a bit during these next few tough weeks. My fortune cookie told me so.

Today was really interesting. I left Dave and Jean’s around 7:30 and drove up to RPI in Troy. For all the times I’ve driven past here.. and all the folks I know who went to school herer, I was amazed to realize that I’d never set foot on the campus before today. I had to ask this guy for instructions on how to find the building for my meeting

The meeting was between IBM and folks at RPI to discuss collaorations between the new spercomputer center we’re helpign them buld and the new ‘EMPAC’ media center that they are building. EMPAC will be a state of the art theatre/media studio when it opens next year. It’s sudios have unbelievable acoustics, surround projection screen and computer operated rigging that will allow folks to fully immerse themsleves in simulated digital experinces. Computers will be able to control the image and sound at every part of the room and will allow objects.. including people.. to be moved to any point in the space under computer control . There is nothing like it anywhere in the wolrd. The thought of coupling that media display and interaction capability with a deadicated supercomputer is so cool to consider.. (I think I love my job)After a half a day of brainstorming we were invited to tour the EMPAC building which is still under heavy construction.

We suited up and walked inside

There are some beautiful views from the top of the structures.

Here’s one of the smaller theatre spaces.

Here you can see the hull within a hull construction

Te architecture is amazing in this place. many cool curves and walkways.It looks like they’re building an ark.

My friend Paul was down for the meting too

Here’s the building from the outside.. It will be amazing when it’s complete !

I got on the road home about 4PM. The drive was restfull and restorative.. I spoeke with several firends by phone.. As I neared home. Homer called to tell me that he’d successfully hooked a motor up as a generator on one of the wind sculptures. I was eager to get home.. but I also wanted to see this work. I told Homer that I could come by his shop on my way home.. but I could only stay for 5 minutes.. which is very hard when you visit home.. I usually drop by for a few minutes and end up spend ing a few hours. I stopped into Homer’s shop at 7:01 and was driving away by 7:05.. a new record in short visits.

Here you can see the lights driven by the generator when the sculpture is being driven by a small fan.

OK..that’s all for today. I need a full night’s sleep. More tomorrow. Love you all. Love you Sam !

-me

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Tuesday Night – Ehnebuske house

johncohn — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 20:55:00 +0000

It’s about 1 AM and I’m just finding my way up to bed at my friend’s Dave and Jean’s in Homes, NY. Dave and I worked together in the Academy for several years. They’re both amazing people with many interests. It’s so much fun to come here and see/here what they’ve been up to since Dave retired from IBM .
The day was really good. I can tell that this new job assignment is going to be very exciting (and challenging)/ My day started in Armonk at the learnng center. I always love the wildlife I see there.. this morning there were wild turkeys all over the road.
I had a great set of meeting in Somers. One of the meetings was with my buddy Susan.. she’s Lebanese.. she brought me a huge plate of hummous and baba ganuj. What a great way to start the day !

I met with several friends in Somers then headed back to Armonk for meetings with my new group. Here’s the cube I’ll be borrowing while the real owner, Grace, is out having a baby.

My next door neighbor is Neal.. We had a great conversation about Sam and his nephew Mark who died in an avalanche. Neal still wears marks beads around his neck 11 years since his passing.

I finally dragged myslef out of Armonk with a bit of work. It really a beautiful place

I made the 45 minute drive up to Dave and Jeans and found their beutiful house way out on a small country road. It’s full of the most interesting things… (including Dave and Jean) . For example, was pleasantly surprised to see a pile of lockpicks in their kichen.. they were pretty much just like mine.. Interesting hobby to share.

Here’s Dave

Here’s Jean

They have a ton of interesting original artwork here… Including Maurice Sendak

And soem original Dr. Suesses .. (Suess’s… ? Suessi ? )

Dave collects and plays interesting instruments (recorders, guitars, concertina’s, etc). I got him to play a bit for me…

Dave even made a concealable spud gun that fires gum drops..
g

We talked a long time about Sam… and about life. It was a really nice evening.. of talking and goofing around.

OK.. I’ve fallen asleep several times in writing .Better quit now More tomorrow.. . I love you all .. Gnite Sam

-me

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Monday night – Brooklyn/Armonk

johncohn — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 19:26:00 +0000

Yikes !… too late to begin blogging and the computer ate my first attempt. I’ll have to make this fast. I’m in Armonk NY at the IBM Leanring Center, my favorite hotel. I drove down today for soem meetings related to my new assignment (which I think I’m really going to like !) Ihad a few meetings here then drove down to Brooklyn to have dinner with Max.
We met up about 7PM.. then went oout hunting for some of his freinds to take to dinner… We first caught up with Nikki, Bella and Emily in their appt..

Nice a neat !

We then went up and found Tin and Ryan… Tin was painting some amazing protraits.

Ahhh Tin’s famous shoe collection again..

Max as art subject

We then went up to say hi to JJ and his vikings

They had one of Chris’s drawings.. these kids are amazing. I also got a copy of one of Max’s films I’ll post that when I can convert it.

We all walked down to Red Bamboo.. the Fake Meat resturant..

Max

Ryan

Tin

David

Chris

Huh ?

Bella

Emily

Nikki

Ayyyyyy !

Yummy fake food !

Goyles

Even the bathrooms had interesting art

Max’s claw contraption

… and his thing to do list

“Clean and reorganize room …” nahhhhh

Chris and the Jeep grill I brought down for him

It was so great seeign Max for the night like that.. I love that boy so much.. His friends are wonderful too.. Now.. I must sleep.. More tomorrow.. Diane and Gabe I miss you down here. I love youNite all, nite Sam !
-me

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Sunday night – Art for Kid’s sake

johncohn — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 18:02:00 +0000

Slow day… I woke after some hard trdreams. My dream had soemthign to do abut having to go back to Tampa Florida.. and me not wanting to go because of Sam. It stuck ith me until about mid morning. Diane and I puttered around the house for a few hours waiting for Gabe to wake up. We started to work on a new guitar for the sculpture of Guitar Sam I welded in the front yard. Diane has recently replaced the lights on the sculpture. We were trying t figure out what to use to replace the guitar shaped wreath we’d gotten last year from Puckett’s mom. Conincidentally,as we were thinking about it, Neighbor Amanda dropped off a guitar shaped CD rack of the perfect size and dimension. Diane and I spent an hour rigging up the srings with light up wire.. only to find out that the power supply was bad I’ve just ordered some new drivers for it so it should be up laste this week.

About 10 our friends Kathy and Lau called up to invite us for a dog walk up the long trail.. It was a perfect day forfor a walk in the woods. It was also really good hanging out with Lou and Kathy and dog Sophie..

As we walked, we talked abit about our plans for the anniversary of Sam’s death.. It’s even hard for us to choose which date to recognize.. the 20th, 21st and 22nd all have significance. It’s so for me to think abotu that .. I know ithat the anticipation is oftne much worse than the event itself.. I think the reason that milestones like this are hard to anticipate is that you can project yourself to a specific point in the future then imagine how you’re feel. The fact is that if I chose any arbitrary Tuesday in the future and thought about it enough it would be painful… every day is painful… It’s just that days lie Thanksgiving make it easy to imagine yourself there. We’re still thinking about how best to mark the year.. It all still sems so unreal…We climbed up to a good viewsot.. and found a nice bench deadicated to a guy who’d died quite young.. These dedication plaques now really mean something to me.. I loved the Dylan quote.. We placed a SamStone near the plaque for safe keeping.

After the viewspot, we decided to headback down. As soon as Chai realized we were on or way back down she grbbed the first tree branch she could and started to run down hill with it. It’s sort of a game with us.

We got to the bottom of the trail and I ran home just under 4 miles.. It felt good to be out runnign on a day like this.. As soon as I got home, I got dressed and took Gabe, Hannah, Avery and Matt down to Homer’s we’re all working on making two copies of the wind-powered snowboarder whilrygigs for sale at the JDK Frineds of Sam event on the 30th. It was greatworking with Homer in his shop/ H REALLY is a mad scinetist.. Hisworkshop is like the one from mythbusters.. it has everything !Homer’s great with the kids, we spent about 3 hours rebuilding two old whirlygig echanisms. We had to straiten the frames. reinforce them, replaces some bearings and grease them all.

We were all marveling at some of Homer’s other artwork.. Like these wax faces.

It was fun getting our hands dirty on these things.. we were all pretty dirty by the end of the rebuilding processes

Gabe and Matt spent soem time workign Homer’s flying camera…It allows you to slowly and smoothly pan a video camera very close to objects on a table. The effects can be dazzeling . Everyday objects come out looking like flying over the Grand Canyon. it’s a pretty surreal experience

Hannah stole my camera and went out side to mess around. She got soem pretty cool pictures of the kids running around in the field .

In the end, we were able to rebuild 2 new snowbarder mechnaisms. Hannah and Avery have the job of decorating the the new snowboarders bodies.. Theyr’e goign to be cool.. I’m srue that someone will really lke them at the Auction.

Speaking of the Auction.. we really need help collecting cool art to sell in the silent acution… Here’s the annoncement we’re sending around. Please send it to you your friends !

Artwork Needed

“Friends of Sam” is soliciting artwork for a benefit auction to help the Vermont Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf. We would appreciate any and all artwork: from kids to adults, from amateurs to professionals. Please consider submitting photos, pen & ink, paintings, sculpture, or whatever fun and funky pieces that you may have. Artwork needs to be in by Sunday 11/25/07. Please contact us with any questions. Email: FriendsofSamCohn@gmail.com or the Townsend family at 434-6421. Thank you!

Event: Friends of Sam Silent Art Auction & Cocktail Party

Hosted by Jager Di Paola Kemp (JDK), Burlington, Vermont

Friday November 30, 2007

Proceeds: to benefit Vermont Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf

“Friends of Sam” is a nonprofit group of kids helping other kids in the spirit and love of Sam Cohn.

OK.. That’s all for now… Gotta sleep now. Gnite all.. Gnite Sam
-me

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Saturday night – calling all artists !

johncohn — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 03:27:00 +0000

Very simple day… I woke to find Gabe nursing a black eye: a trophy from last night’s gymnastics class. He managed to land a double front flip.. but also managed to meet his knee coming up as he was coming down. He didn’t seem to shaken up by it.

The only goal I had for the day was to get the interior and exterior storm windows up. I wasn’t looking forward to it at all.. but we called in reinforcements to make it tolerable. Around 10 Brad, Pucket, Pj. And Corey came over to help and made quick work of it.. it’s so much easier with help.

I can’t recall doing muh of anything else during the day. Rand came over and schmoozed for a bit.. I managed to sneak in an accidental nap.. we managed a short run.. then before I knew it , it was night time

Austin was having a Friends of Sam party at his house, so we went up to give his dad David some moral support.. and some help in with his wine and pizza surplus. Gabe and his friends were in the hot tub looking pretty adult-ish… They’re all growing so fast…

Austin’s chinchilla Chester was running around the house too.. we all took turns rubbing his fur…

Speaking of fur.. check out these mustaches !

So that was all that happened today.. …Now that’s a perfect Saturday !

Ahh… one thing I want to bring up… On Friday. November 30^th. The Friends of Sam are going to hold an art auction. The folks at JDK have kindly offered to host the event which will be used as a fund raiser for the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf. The kids are looking for art that can art of the auction. They’re especially looking for art from kids… in the spirit of kids helping kids.If you know how to paint, draw, sew, weld, weave, whittle, print, sculpt, forge etc , please consider making something that the kids can auction off. Any piece no matter how big o how small can help Vermont families put food on their tables this holiday season. If you have some thing to donate.. or know someone we should approach, please contact me.. or call Deb at 802-434-6421

OK.. that’s all for now.. Peace out everyone.. peace out Sam..

-me

ps. Here’s a ccool movie that Scott made for us while we were in India.. I really like it..

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Friday night – blur

johncohn — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 20:08:00 +0000

Note: I just tried doing a manual spell check.. still bad I think – jc 11/03

Folks.. I have to beg your indulgence.. I can’t use the spell checker tonight.. so you get me at my dyslexic worst..Today was extremely full of stuff… it went by in a blur.. I was thinking at lunch that this whole year has been a blur. I ran into two people today at lunch whom I hadn’t seen since Sam’s passing… that’s almost a year… I also went to the dentist for the first time in 2 years.. I can’t believe it was that long.. how could it be that long. Sometumes, this whole past year seems like it’s past in a flash.. sometimes it seems like it will never end… My teeth were happy to go and see the dnetist. Elise the dental samarai was gentle with me.. amazingly.. my teeth were fine.. no cavities !

Mid afternoon I went in to make some liquid nitrogen ice cream for Vickie and Andrew in the cafeteria.. they’d had to clean up after me … We made some killer ice cream from the coffee creamer and some chocolate sauce we found around.

At 5:30 I headed out to load up my Jolts and Volts equipment for the show I had tonight in jericho… Diane had swapped the van for the Prius mid day.. I got out to the parking lot and realize.. ack…. no key !!!! @$%@ !!!!
I called Diane and she offed to come in and recue me.. what a sweetie..

She made it to work jsut in time for me to get the van packed and get to my show at the jericho public library.. It was a great show.. 75 folks..many kids and a perfect venue.. It was so much fun. I feel so good when I’m doing these shows.

I left the show at 8:30… I had a ticket to the Bob Wier/Ratdog show in burlington and it started at 8.. I was just about to get on the interstate when I notice the ‘need gas’ light.. I slid into the gas station as the miles-to-go thingy old me to stop now..

I crept in to the station on fumes.. and filled up.. Not sure what Iwas so worried about. The car holds 17.2 gallons according to the specs.. I still had 0.02 gallons !

I made it to Memorial Auditorium about 9.. the band had already been playing for an hour.. I walked into the room and it took my breath away.. I hadn’t been here for an event since Sam’s Memorial.. I sat there thinking about that.. and then .. realized that it was OK somehow. It felt right. Wier and the band were excellent.. they played two long sets.. The part of the first set I missed they sang ‘Birdsong’ the old Greatful Dead song…

Don’t cry now, don’t you cry, don’t you cry anymore.
Sleep in the stars, don’t you cry, dry your eyes on the wind.

I was sad to have missed it.. but for some magical reason they played it again in the second set so I could hear it !.. It was the right message for me.

I met up with friends George and Gary and Amy. During the intermission, Gary and Amy and I went downstairs to get a drink.. I had my freaky blinky headband on so lots of folks came over to talk to me.. (and pat my head) … This guy’s name is ‘Country’ .. and he’s the ‘drunken master’ of glass blowing .. His buddy gave me some cool pyrex beads that he’d made.. they were awsome.. It was great talking to all of these folks.

It was a great show.. I was trying to figure out how many times I’d seen the Greatful Dead with Wier.. or by himself.. I’m happy to say that I couldn’t remember. Live music really does restore my soul..Ahh.. home now.. about 1:30 AM and everyone just finished watching the Transformer’s movie.. Nice way to end a busy day. TIme for sleep now..

Gnite all.. g’nite Sam..
-me

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Thursday night – social day

johncohn — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 19:36:00 +0000

I woke up today with such a funny array of feelings.. This is November 1st.. the day that I officially start my new assignment at work.. I feel excited and scared to be doing something completely differnt for the first time in many years. It also feels like a huge weight has been lifted from me. I’m really excited about being able to work on something that might help society out… It’s also the beging on fthe month that marks the year anniversary of Sam’s passing. That feels wierd.. in some ways the anniverary scares me.. how will it feel ? In others, I know that it will hurt like every day hurts.. I’ve learned not to predict how I’ll feelWhat ever the month brings, today was a good start.. It was full of chance meetings with friends.. That’s always a good hing. It started with me talking to Phil and Shawn at Road ResQ in the five corners while I got one of the cars inspected. We got on the topic of blowing stuff u.. always a favorite topic. Phil showed me a very cool pcket size potatoe launcer he’d built .. very cool

In the middle of the day I had to run out to buy liquid nitrogen and ice cream makings for Ron Rose’s quaeter centruy celibration at work. My buddy Jason came with me as we tried to find where to score soem liguid nitrogen. The cryogneic gods were not smiling on me as I tried to get the dewer filled.. one place had no one to work the pump.. the next place alost wouldn’t sell it to me since my dewer lacked the appropriate top.. In the end they did fill it for me.. but just this one last itme (as they’ve said to me the past 5 times) …
I then had to run into the store to pickup the cream and choclate I needed.. I was happy to run into my friend Juergen in the parking lot. He was heading back to Germany today.. his suitcase was packed with steaks ! He told me that he hoped that his luggage wouldn’t get lost.. (it would give new meaning to the words ‘carrion luggage’ … (get it ? ))

Speaking of meat.. i ran into my friend Joe in the store.. he and I were treated to a cool demo of a bag vacuum outer thing by a woman named Lorraine.. we were facinated that she’s made the fake hambergers out of play-doh.. pretty cool ..

Hey Joe.. were you goign with that bag in your hand… ?

Hi Lorraine.. se.. you really are in my blog

I got back to workjust in time for Rons quarter centrury celibration. The folks in the cafteria were kind enough to let me do my mixinign in their kitchen.

About 60 folks showed up to wish Ron a happy 25th .. He’s such a great, great guy. he devotes so much time to helping othe r folks.. It was great listening to speaker after speaker talk about how much Ron had helped him/her through the years. He’s one of my all time heroes.

Pete O was master of ceremonies

When it came my time to talk.. I dragged out the lab coat and the liquid nitrogen and gt Ron to make the ice cream.

That’s to Ron’s expert stirrng the ice cream came out great.. It was a really nice event..

After work I went back to Champlain to see a demonstration of 4 kids who wrote 3 video games in 3 days at a conference a few weeks back. It was really, really cool. The kids were set up at a table at this major Leanring conference… they clicited ideas for the game from the conference attendees then coaded round the clock .. What they came up with is pretty amazing.. I’ll try to post my favorite one here when it coems out on their website in a week or so. I figure i need ot spend more time with these kids if I’m goign to become an expert in video games… (which is sort of my job now !)

From their I drove home and piked up Gabe.. We’d made a date to go out to Bridge Street for dinner… The place was full of our friends.. Including Casey , Jake, Justin. and Alex L..

After dinner we sauntered over to Film Buzz to help thme celibrate 5 years in business.. and Kelly’s birthday… SHe’d set up court ou on the street.. pretty wild ! They served us champagne.. and showed us soem of Kelly’s very cool paintings.

So.. that was the day.. one theme goign through my head all dayt was about pririties. Itfelt strange not worrying abut the things I normally worry about at work. I heard som many conversations today.. as I do every day.. of folks arguing, cursing and gernally worrying about such small stuff eithera t work or in their lives.. I had a wonderful case of ‘so what’ today.. and it felt great.. It’s a good perspective..I hope you can borrow the feelig from me and apply it to your own life..Whatever sam….
-jc

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Wednesday evening – Halloween

johncohn — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 20:18:00 +0000

Happy Halloween.. and it was more or less. I woke up wondering/worrying how this day was going to go. As I’ve said over hte last few days, Hallowen was one of Sam’s most favorite holdiays. How could it happen without him ? Well…. it did.. and I missed him like crazy.. as I do every day.. *and* I was able to enjoy the day with Gabe, Diane and our wonderful community. That’s life these days.. remembering, integrating, moving forward….The first sign I got that the day was really Halloween was at the security gate at work.. Seems everyone was in the spirit !

The day passed pretty quickly. I had a very interesting lunch meeting withthe folks form the Green Mountain Childrens’ Museum project. GMCM is planning a hands on fun museum for kids 0-8 in the old Moran building down by the waterfront. I’m goign to help out with the invention theme.

I also had a good meeting with my freind Ann at Champlain College on ‘Serious Games’ : the use of video gaming technology for learning and public good. It was my first official meeting of my new assignment at work. It felt good to begin digging in.The rest of the day passed quickly. I managed to get home early in time to get out trick or trating with Gabe before dark.. Just before we left, our firend Adam came by the house… He had soem new ink done.. a perfect Halloween tribute !

We were readdy to roll about 5 PM…

Gabe and Jack took off for Richmond with Adam while we got the house ready for the 2-3 trick or treaters we typically get..

Diane and I drove down to Richmond and walked back down to Jack’s .. The street was already hoping with Halloweeners.

We met up with the newest trick or treater.. Baby Indira born last Saturday !. Congratulations Ben , Ezra and Rachel ! Welcome Indira !

The kids were getting readdy at Jacks.. this has been our tradiion for the past several years.. normally Sam would already be off with his friends .. and we’d meet up later This year.. it was the trhee of us.. I was thinkign of our earliest trick or treating with Max in Pittsburgh.. (Max what did you do tonight ? )

I had a bit of an equipment malfunction withthe lights I was wearing. I ran up to Marshall and Gretchen’s to borrow their soldering island.. I was somewhat successful in my fix.. I then ran back down and met up with Gabe, Jack , Austin , Diane, Jack, Gay, Jean and David. The streets were jumping at that point.

Pleasant Street is always Halloween Central. I remember every year standing on that street and thinking how lucky I felt to live in Richmond Vermont. I thought that even more tonight.

Mr. Rainey is always there adding a bit of Scottish background music.

We ran into Michael with his new ‘Mr T’ hair… now THAT’S a costume !

Martha wante da picture.. so here it is !

Todd serves up hot or cold cider

Ad Gretchen serves up doughnuts to go with them.. That’s a Richmond tradition.

It also wouldn’t be Halloween without a sto in Bridge Street Cafe to see Marvin and family.. and get a quick ‘soda’ . We ran into Chris while there..

Kelly-aka-Frieda-Kalo was just outside.. (not yet in unibrow)

We eventually worked our way up to Southview. We dropped off the kids then Diane and I went to Susan W’s house to wait for them. They have a nice phot montage of Sam there.. We sat and talked about Sam, Sumner, life and everything else. She’s so easy to talk to .

Eventually Gabe and his buddies got to the Susan’s and we trundled thme down the hill to Jacks. On the way home we drove by Tower’s in Huntington to get a look at the annual pumpkin display.. another tradition..

We got hoem around 9. I got a few pictures of Gabe’s costume.. Standing and jumping.. He was pretty flashy !

I wnet out to blow out the pumpikins.. Looks lke we’d had a hnadfull of trick or treaters come by.. there was plenty of candy left.

This pumpkin just spoke to me … part of me feels just like he does right now..

Inside, Gabe was counting his loot..

Here are my favorites.. yum !

Gabe told me that he had 272 pieces of candy ! That’s quite a haul !Things wound down quickly from then on.. I fell asleep on the couch. Gabe and Diane went up to bed… I woke up and remembered I hadn’t blogged. What to say abotut a day like this.. I didn’t feel like I thought I feel.. it’s rarely the things you expect that are hard… Sam.. I felt you with me so much today… It made me happy … As I lay down to blog, I found that Diane had forwarded a picture to me from Rand and Julie. It’s of Sam and his friends at their house one year ago tonight getting ready to go out trick or treating. So much can change so quickly.. Look at these beutiful kids ! I love you guys.. I love you Sam !

-dad

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Tuesday night – Haloween eve

johncohn — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 17:59:00 +0000

The day before Halloween. Sam’s favorite holiday. It will be sad goign out without him.Everything is sad I guess.. I’m still looking forward to going out and seeing everyone tommorrow night . I alwas come back from Halloween beign so greatfull for living in such a close and wonderful town. I’m going to really need to tap into that tomorrow. .. that.. and Reese’s peanut butter cups are goign to have to get me through.. Not much more to say tonight.. I’m just beat.. I need to save my strength for hauling all of Gabe’s ‘s candy tommorrow night.. Until then.. Trick or treat everyone.. Trick or treat Sam.

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