Good Labor Day to all…and it’s BLOGGGGGGG time………….
“If you do not change directions, you may end up where you are heading”……………………………………………………..Lao- Tzu
“Mom please! There is no
need to put that dinner roll
in your pocketbook”………………………………………………………………..Haikus for Jews
Sunday was the last of visitation days for the week of the Bunties being here. Everyone left for the heartland on Sunday morning, except the Nave….and with a beautiful early fall afternoon, we spent a couple of hours restoring the property form the debauchery and then headed over to Nineveh for a kayak with our friend John, the local unemployed photographer. Gorgeous day out on the lake- with both Lucy and Rosie howling from the mast of their kayaks. As usual, Jenn got tired of the howling and dumped Lucy into the lake, where she proceeded to swim for the better part of two hours…..complaining almost all of the way. After a brief stay at home for naps, we did the traditional Sunday visit to East in Rutland and the glorious Chinese food, with the Retired Lutheran Iconoclast filling in for the Jewish Fish Monger.
After a week of rollicking, the last of the band, the Nave, left on Monday morning..…and we began to recover and resettle into mountain life. When Mitch got home he began to put up some of the individual song performances from our local gig on You Tube, which you can check out and avoid watching the entirety of the show (assuming that you are not a cult Bunty Station devotee who wants to punish themselves with the whole shebang) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGI0SwROVPgOvob3p8oGBhA
We spent the day Monday trying to reestablish some kind of normal routine and then headed out on another really fine day on Tuesday for a ramble through the countryside, watching the amazing early turning of the leaves (really), stopping for several hikes and eating our way across the region- New York corned beef from Weird Ernie’s in Rutland, Creamees at Roxie’s Famous Fries and dinner at the Wheel- a classic family dive in remote Benson, where we had somehow wound up. Wednesday we headed down to Weston for the last show of the season at The Playhouse- a presentation of Eugene O’Neill’s’ Long Day’s Journey Into Night. O’Neill was way ahead of his time, bringing real drama to the Broadway stage in 1920-when it was only featuring musicals and light farce….and the play, as usual, was amazingly well done…but, Holy Cow, the suicide hotlines must have been ringing off the hook for the patrons of that one. We had to come home and gobble several Prozac immediately.
Thursday was a mostly overcast and rainy day….that cleared up in time for the annual Folk Club Music on the Green performance….the traditional closing of the MOG season in our beloved Belmont. Despite having about fifteen people on the tiny stage, the gig went well and a small group of frozen devotes stayed until the bitter end and asked for an encore…..I had to consume vast amounts from my flask to avoid frostbite by the 8:15 finale in the dark and cold. Overnight, winter shades came to the Greens with our first frost of the season, while the flatlanders were still sweating in heat and humidity…
Friday night we had Airbnb guests arrive for a three night stay….faux Hells Angels from upstate New York… a pair of Chris’’ or maybe Kris’….who we have barely seen since, as they get their ya-yas out and maneuver the backroads of tourist infested Labor-Day Vermont. We sent them off today on wild goose chase to Burlington with a list of don’t’ miss Vermont spectacles.
Labor Day weekend always brings two thigs: the Plymouth Folk and Blues Fest and the triumphant return of John and Lydia from the Boston-area Irish ghetto.
Saturday morning arrived with our only predicted bright and sunny day of the holiday weekend, so Lucy and I headed to the Dump for a massive dump of our detritus from the festivities and a visit with Kevin the walrus-like dump master (“sorry to miss your party, but I was too drunk and stoned to make it down the hill”) and then a quick one hour push mow (Jenn insists on the front year being tidy)- from which I am still recovering….packed a picnic lunch and picked up TJFM at his house, where we made a quick stop to assist him with his perennial legion of broken down mowers and autos….and headed up to the Calvin Coolidge homestead for the annual Folk and Blues fest. More folk than blues…… but a magnificent setting and very laid back and appreciative crowd. The Vermont folk revival provides an excellent setting for a sun drenched afternoon nap, and for Lucy to howl along with the Woody Guthrie types.
After a quick trip home, we mosied up the hill (past the snarling dogs and the former home of Tanta Helen and Uncle Halidol) to our friends John and Lydia for our periodic crazed dinner and storytelling. (This also involved a quick drive by of our long dormant new neighbors, who have re-emerged in the last few weeks after having bought the place and promptly disappeared for a year. The African American couple and their four children are now being assisted by a massive group of third world types who are working on gutting the place and creating some kind of East-Bronx like summer home environment. When we passed them last night they had erected tents, fire pits and long picnic tables and were smoking some form of wild beast in the yard, which they may have chased and killed on the spot. This all represents quite a cultural revolution in our little haven of Mt. Holly).
Finally making it to our hosts home and after a great deal of imbibing of all sorts, a wonderful dinner, laugh till you drop stories from both of them (John usually winds up prancing around the room to illustrate some sort of adventure)….we finished the night around midnight with Lydia singing us A Capella sea shanties outside under the hidden moon, while staring out at their magnificent view of the shadowed mountains..…before we stumbled down the hill to bed.
Today the rains have finally come, and we have sent the Hells’ Angels out to find another roadside attraction, so getting ready to head down to the basement for long avoided completion of THAT project and then off to the movies in Rutland…..then we can start recovering again tomorrow….
Love Ya’ll…or at least most of you..
Ferlin’
