Hello all from the glory of the 31st floor of the Indianapolis JW Marriott (Really!):
“Dream as if you’ll live forever; Live as if you’ll die today”- James Dean
Well, we made it back to the mountains after our whirlwind two weeks surrounding the wedding spectacular in Ohio…awfully good to be back in the mountains- even glad to see the scummy pond (more later). But, first a word, about Indianapolis. Here for work- goal to get in and get out; nice hotel but really, it’s Indy. Best you can hope for is race cars and steak. But, no- I am finding another side of this long forgotten Midwest mecca while being here without any colleagues during mid-summer…it’s a pretty cool place. Downtown is bordered by the White River State Park river walk area- with a real river (who knew?) that has all kinds of hiking/running paths, museums, gardens, zoo, live music and people biking, seqway-ing, carriage-ing, and strolling all over the place- it’s really alive- and I have been jogging around it for days plus I can see it all (including a Queen tribute band …REALLY…from my picture room’s window.) And to top it off, Indy has a real Jewish deli- with real Jewish people behind the counter- a place where you can get a corned beef sandwich, matzo ball soup and latkes for about the cost of a NY hot dog (but you have to walk through the hood first). So- don’t all run to make your Indy vacation plans- but if you come, they will build it.
Addendum: after I wrote the above- I went out in search of dinner and went wandering towards the sound of music. It took me to all things- a series of canals…yes CANALS..with al fresco dining, murals and glass sculptures, shops, apartments, little half round bridges AND singing gondoliers (in ITALIAN)…so apparently Indianapolis is the Venice of the Midwest…
So- I really think a picture is worth a 1000 words- and the attached pix kind of tells the story of last few weeks- but I know you, my very discriminating audience, will be irate if I don’t include a few illuminating words- so I will endeavor to keep it brief (how am I doing so far?):
You can’t leave for too long- without a lot going on…Check out Karen’s’ (now Jenn’s) flower gardens- wow- they are blooming wild despite the fact that the neighbors’ forgot to water them for 2 weeks (while they were busy sleeping in our beds at night- all of the three bears together..)and the pond…ughh.. I have returned to the kitchen strainer and am determined to make it a clear blue like the Caribbean before anyone comes. I did some work in it this week- and keep finding algae in hidden places on my body when I shower- which I believe is good for me, no?. Plus, our garage entry small door has become a giant spider web of glass- never seen one spider across the whole door- it’s really too pretty to fix, at least I think so. Unfortunately- our giant lawn rocks are now covered with their own kind of accumulated crud- so Jenn thinks we need to clean them (sorry- I missed the picture of her scrubbing rocks with a gas grill cleaning brush)
And the search for a good yard-boy (man): with trying to make sure the property is in good enough shape to not be publicly flogged should Karin show up for a visit- we have tried for 2 years to find a good yard helper. Put an ad in the local e-serve and got a number of response- so this week we met Collin, an 18 year old Zen mystic who “loves our land”…and he was willing to join me in straining out the pond inch by inch- so we had our first experience with him, and all we keep saying is “He’s not Marcus”…a mantra if ever there was one…but he is pretty cool and he lets me call him Dylan instead.
Preparing the house for guests…is very important to us. So the day after we got back we spent all day scrubbing everything to perfection for a visit from George an Connie- who wound up having to cancel….but the house is quite clean for now, and Jenn continues to move around furniture that she finds country-offensive. I then move it back to assure everything stays exactly the way we found it- and this goes on for a number of days until someone gives up ..I did find a very cool little wooden box with Norwegian rose maul painting on it hiding in a corner of the spare bedroom. The whole prep for guests will get a double whammy for the ages this week when we have a dinner party for all the couples we have met in the last two years…and on top of that have been told by her daughter, Christine, that we may have a visit from our benefactress, Karin, who is coming back EAST for few weeks…that is the visit of all visits and will require 36 hours of non-stop cleaning and then staying somewhere else until she comes. And by the way, we have now settled on our new Persian rug in the remodeled den- to go with our new furniture- after having lived with alternating 3 rugs for two weeks- to find Jenn’s absolute best match (we chose the red one by default)
The cat room- is actually our year round enclosed porch which is an amazingly lovely room surrounded by windows and with our inherited wicker furniture… great place to sit and have lunch or listen to the bullfrogs lament at the pond….but honestly we very rarely have sitting rights to it and the cats have squatted there and despite not paying any property tax have made it their own. Oh well- we get to visit.
The weekly trip north- we made one last week to work on the house of horrors in Groton and visit Connie and George in Brookfield. The horror is getting better all the time; we finished last of outside painting and cleared out last two rooms and of course added to Spencer’s donut supply…seems ready to sell if only someone would come and maybe look at it. From there- we went over the mountain and down to Brookfield for dinner with Connie and George- always a noteworthy event. Turned into a beautiful night and they had all the rooms occupied at the B&B- so we stayed at the old family cottage (Roundtop) up on a hill outside of town. Owned by Connie’s family since the 1930s- it’s a magnificent spot with generations of family tchotchkes and a sweeping view of the hillside below. Spent a very peaceful night unhampered by the family ghost…chilly up there and we slept in separate twin beds –which was a good brief separation for us. I read the better part of a novel lounging around in the quaint family room and got to take some cool pix before we left the next day
And another great performance happened the night we returned at the great Weston Playhouse, a very funny takeoff on a Chekhov play –called Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. Always well done and well-staged- but missed the band in the basement as not much music in this one. Since the band was not around, they served dinner in the basement before the play-which was actually quite nice in a great setting with views of the old mill and falls right out the window. I saw an African –American at the show- which brings our total sightings of people of color this year (in Vermont) to 26; we are planning a trip to Burlington which undoubtedly will double our number in one day. Speaking or people of color- was returning an item to Walmart last week ( we never miss a week of returns) and saw the astounding sight of a family of eight Hasidim Jews walk out…no, really ,and no drugs…there are apparently Hasidic Jews in Rutland, Vermont. But I can’t imagine where they eat.
Finally (I know this was supposed to be short- but a lot happened in my mind as I was writing)- we spent last Sunday afternoon at beautiful Chittenden Dam-just north of Rutland….what a spot; will be back there soon with the kayaks, if we can still fit them in the trunk, now that Jeep has been replaced by Subaru.). Took a nice hike and enjoyed a sunshine filled day in the brief summer of the green mountains.
So-enough, she said. See you soon?
STU
