My brother Jason and a bunch of his friends arrive for the Labor Day weekend.

I turned a bowl on our mini lathe.

Pulled the second board of the four boards across the spilldam of Baumunk's Lake. It started raining by noon and rained steadily all day.

There was enough water in the lake after the rains that i could've kayaked right over the spilldam.

This is Seera running alongside the dump truck as i drove down the grade. Teco likes to stay out in front of me as i'm driving the tractor. First plotting with my new GPS, just along the grade.

Hiked around the lake today. Nice weather.

Seera running next to the tractor. I've clocked her at about 27 MPH.

420 Miles

Drove from Shunk to Wayland, MA.

I pulled in to Weir Meadow and no one was home (Henry was off in China with my parents, which i'd forgotten about). I knocked on the front door and that set off the burglar alarm. Pretty soon a Wayland cop drove up to check out my story. He had the dispatcher call Juliet Gibbs (the closest of Henry's 4 daughters) and she assured them that it was OK for me to be there. I set up my camper and after a while Juliet drove over and we had a nice Dubya-bashing chat.

I attended the fall Alumni Council meeting at C.A. Met some new people and re-met some folks from back when i was at C.A. It was raining all day and i let Teco and Seera just roam around the campus. You'd think they might have found some dry place to hang out, but no, they just wandered around, soaking wet, looking pathetic. That evening i visited Juliet again at her house in Sudbury (just up the street from the house that Babe Ruth once lived in).

Juliet picked up Henry at the airport EARLY Sunday morning and i got up when they arrived at Weir Meadow. We had breakfast, then i hiked around the property and down by the Sudbury river until early afternoon, when i drove over to Littleton to Edna & Greg's house. We all went out for Chinese food in celebration (one day early) of their daughter Francesca's birthday.

235 Miles

Drove from Wayland, MA. to Chelsea, VT.

I took the scenic roundabout route, up route 100 in Vermont, stopping to look at Mt. Snow, Stratton, Okemo, and Killington ski areas.

165 Miles

I drove over to Stowe ski area and filled out an application, then took a hike up to a little pond at the top of Smuggler's Notch pass, then drove down to Smuggler's Notch ski area and filled out an application there. After that i drove into Burlington and walked along Lake Champlain for a bit, then hit the highway back to Chelsea.

209 Miles

Drove from Chelsea to Killington (filled out an application), to Stratton (had an interview), then back to Chelsea in time for Amadea's soccer game.

162 Miles

Drove from Chelsea to Killington (had an interview), to Okemo (had another interview), down route 103 for a bit looking at houses (and also stopping by a stream), then back to Chelsea.

290 Miles (153 with camper)

I got up, took a couple pictures of a cool barn in the morning sun, letting off steam, then drove down to Edna & Greg's house in Littleton. I unhooked the camper and left it in their driveway, then continued south down to Providence, where i stopped in to see Patrick at the scooter shop, then went over to my sister's and had dinner.

After dinner, i drove back to Littleton, left the dogs with the babysitter, then drove in to Cambridge to the Middle East club near Central Square to see DADA. Pretty soon after i got into the club i spotted a guy setting up a video camera. Turned out to be someone i knew through the dada message boards, so i hung out with him and helped a little with the videotaping all night.

It's always cool to see dada at the start of a series of shows. After a break they're much goofier.

Setlist:

• Puzzle
• Dim
• Dog
• Crumble (with wah-wah intro)
• Next Train Out Of My Mind
• Surround
• Feet To The Sun
• A Trip With My Dad* / Rain
• Ask The Dust

• Dusty

• Any Day The Wind Blows
• Here Today, Gone Tomorrow (Hiker named Katrina, ended with Gimme Shelter)
• Heaven and Nowhere
• Baby Really Loves Me
• Posters
• Boston Blues
• Dizz Knee Land

• Dorina

There was supposed to be at least one more song on the encore (Moon i think), but it was 1:15 AM and apparently the police were milling around outside to make sure that the clubs all closed on time, durn it.

*At the end of ATWMD, they broke into an alternate rhythm, but then Joie lost the feed on his wireless rig so there was no bass. Mike and Phil "finished" the song, then Joie got his bass fixed and offered to play that ending again, so they broke into the alternate rythym part again, morphed into Rain, then finished with one last "a trip with my dad".

Lots of chit-chat by the guys, praising Boston. Phil was bummed that the Red Sox lost to the damn Yankees. Mike said early on that this was the "first album part of the set". If anyone listens to a recording of this, the loud THUNK at the end of "Dorina" is Joie's mic-stand hitting the ground after he knocked it over while flailing madly on his bass.

398 Miles

Drove from Littleton, MA. to Shunk, PA.

A final long day of driving after driving around too much all week. I was dead, and promptly got sick for a week after that. I found out that while i was gone, it rained so much in PA that our lake was flooding over the top of the docks, even with 2 boards out of the spilldam!

Walking around the grounds... or possibly mowing?

Hiked around, took some pics.