Gold Star Day.

I have to admit publicly that I spend most days at work looking forward to my next day off. I hardly think I'm alone in this. So when the day off ends up being both productive and fun its an epic win for the Olson clan. I can happily say that today was one of those days. Which is fun to type since most days of the week I find myself muttering 'oh, I guess its gonna be one of those days.'

I spent a large chunk of the day in my basement silkscreening Team Liam T-shirts for the March of Dimes walk which is at the end of the month. Mel, a friend of ours brought the equipment and the know how. She draw up an excellent logo for the shirts a few weeks ago and has donated a lot of her time and ability to the project. Karin and I appreciate it more than she probably knows.

The shirts came together wonderfully. A happy accident with color choice drove us in a direction I probably wouldn't have picked in the planning stages and actually gave us a better product; I am so happy with how these came out. Our original logo color just didn't POP against the bold material color we chose. Some quick improvising and paint mixing on Mel's part had us up and running quickly and after a few test runs we were banging them out easily. I was on board and hanger duty as I prepped the new shirts for screening and hung those freshly screened. I would later spend the early evening ironing all of the shirts to set the paint so that it won't wash out.


We could have uploaded the logo Mel designed for us to some website like Cafe Press and had nice, pretty, perfectly centered and printed shirts. Normal shirts. But nothing in Liam's life has led us in a normal direction and we've always ended up better for it. Each shirts is unique. Sure a few ended up perfectly centered and perfectly printed; but they're snowflakes. Some fade in at the top, a few feature a small line through the logo due to a crease in the board, vintage looks abound on the first couple of shirts that were printed just a slight shade less as we learned how much the material soaked up ink, a wrinkle here a tiny smudge there make them all perfect. I love them all and only wish we had made a whole lot more than we did. It makes me happy that instead of signing for a delivery we rolled up our sleeves and made something for the team.

I won't post the logo here yet. I'm saving that until after the walk. I'm sure that the internets will be flooded with Team Liam shirts by then since we are currently leading all RI teams for donations no thanks to me. I need to greatly increase my efforts but since I work in a facility with March of Dimes staff my market is already flooded. I can't ask my family because they are all already team members. I've got some ideas though and hope to make a dent this weekend. My family and especially Liam's 2 grandmothers have been working their butts off for this wonderful event and charity and I'm so proud of the whole team. Even if you can't give please click the link to the right to learn more about the March of Dimes mission.

During all of this fun Liam had an OT appointment and again gets a figurative Gold Star. He was tracking objects and hitting switches like a big boy. Karin learned a whole bunch more stretches and exercises to teach me and we set our new short term goals for his progress. Before he could fall asleep on the floor like usually does after PT or OT we scooped him into the stroller to enjoy the rest of the afternoon outside in the sunshine.

We took a leisurely stroll through the neighborhood taking streets we usually never turn down and enjoying the warm springtime breeze. A breeze not strong enough to keep Liam awake as he fell asleep within two blocks of the house. We ended up at the Dairy-Bee, the neighborhood ice cream shop of my youth, for an afternoon ice cream cone. Does a day get any better than that?

A funny thing happened on the walk as the three of us came to a busy intersection down the street from the house. "The Square" is one of those normal small town traffic light intersection but one that is fairly easy to cross on foot. The traffic lights allow for plenty of time to cross and the Nuttin buttons on the Don't Walk signs actually produce results most of the time. We approached the intersection just as the light changed and were ready to wait for the cycle to run through when a police cruiser in line to pass in front of us stopped midway through and put on his lights while turning to block the oncoming lane which contained 5 or 6 cars about to reach the light. And then he waved us through. He waved us through. A whole lot of fanfare for something that would have happened in a few seconds had we waited for the light to change. I thanked the cop and we pushed across the street as the oncoming cars wondered what the fuss was about. I have to say I wondered what the fuss was about. I mean, don't get me wrong it was a cool gesture and I do appreciate cops (or people in general) to do nice things for people and this was definitely a nice thing but the light would have changed eventually. It just seemed so weird, but it was kind of cool too.

Liam woke up by the time we got home and stayed awake for most of the day. Since he didn't fall asleep until after 9pm I'm hoping he stays asleep most of the night for us. With the nursing situation as it is our routine for the gym and other errands has been completely thrown out of whack. We'll get back to it. As much as we like our routine Liam has taught us not to rely on them. Too bad too because I could get used to days like today.

The Graveyard Post

After a busy morning of running errands and Liam's physical therapy and occupational therapy visits Karin and I decided that even though some steel gray clouds were rolling in that it was nice enough outside to take Liam for a walk. We haven't gone for a walk in so long. We bundled him up nice and tight, hooked up the portable ventilator to the stroller, made sure we had enough oxygen in the tank, grabbed the camera and headed out into mild temps for late February. It was wonderful. A few blocks behind our house is the Little Neck Cemetery, a very small but beautiful historic cemetery. Among its residents are a passenger from the Mayflower and the first Mayor of New York City. Sitting on the hilly shoreline of Bullock Cove the water views are gorgeous. Tucked behind our quiet neighborhood the little graveyard is protected from street noise and passers-by. You really need to know how to get there in order to find this spot. You're not going to just stumble upon it.


As a Boy Scout growing up my troop was responsible for an annual cleanup of Little Neck. We would setup grid patterns to search for litter and other debris as well as replacing all of the veterans' flags. In a solemn ceremony involving living veterans and the local American Legion chapter we would burn the old flags after placing new ones at each marker. Although it was usually a day of hard work that would start very early on a Saturday morning I always remember having fun doing it.

As I got older and spent less and less time being active with the Boy Scouts I would still spend a good deal of time in Little Neck. In high school this was one of our favorite hang outs. Before any of us had our licenses, walking around Riverside was a summer night staple. Its proximity to our homes and its seclusion made it a prime spot for 'hanging out'. Sometimes it was to play manhunt, and sometimes we'd bring our guitars and play, but more often than not it was a quiet place to sit under the night sky and talk about girls. I did alot of talking about girls in high school and sadly very little talking to girls. Sometimes the police would come to chase us out. This didn't bother us that much. We would run and hide and only once can I remember being caught and yelled at. They didn't understand us. Thinking that we were up to no good they had every right to kick us out but little did they know that we felt an odd sense of duty to the graveyard. Because of our background in Scouting my friends and I were very protective of 'The Cem' as we called it. We probably chased out more kids bringing in beers and spraypaint than the cops did those three summers. The vandals gave kids like us a bad name.



I haven't been back to The Cem since I was in high school until today. Aside from a couple of signs marking it as a historical site that weren't there before it hasn't changed a bit. A few of the older markers have a few more initials carved into them (bunch of savages in this town) but it is still quiet and peaceful and I was excited to show it off to Karin and Liam. I guess I still feel a strong connection to the 12 acres of hills and swamp as if it were my little secret garden to show off. I have a feeling that the route we walked today will become a routine of sorts through the spring and summer.