Holy buckets….It’s Still Peaking in the Mountains

Autumn greetings my friends and near-friends:

“Our identity as a nation, unlike other nations, is not determined by geography or ethnicity, by soil or blood. … This means that people from every race, religion, ethnicity can be full and equally American. It means that bigotry and white supremacy, in any form, is blasphemy against the American creed”……………………………………………….George W. Bush

“A leaf falls from joy”………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Virginia Woolf

“This you call poetry?”………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………Jewish Proverb

After three weeks, it has remained Peak-ish in the mountains, which is some sort of tantric gift from the leaf Gods…..I mean what could be better than Autumn in Vermont?

So-we are on serous countdown now, with takeoff just 2 ½ weeks way….which is both challenging and traumatizing. Our yard tchotchkes have been disappearing into the recesses of the barn, the gardens are being systematically cut into nubs by the Project Master, and the tedious planning list is underway as a daily chore (can you say “I hate Time-Warner”?). Tuesday-after recovering from our previous week’s adventures- we spent a chilly day cleansing the yard of personality and engaging in mortal battle with the kayak roof rack on the Subaru….someone designed that one as an alternative to water boarding…..Once completed, as a reward, we went to Rutland to shop at Walmart and Hannaford (oh, goody, goody..) and had dinner at a very local downtown place in the shadow of Walmart that we and never tried- Kelvans- which turned out to be a very homey Vermont dining experience (even though we were greeted at the door with the warning that their “fryolator” was out….whatever that means-some kind of mountain magic cooking device, I presume)

The trip led me to the perplexing question of whether all Walmarts universally attract the same lookalike customers (us excluded, of course) or whether the same people travel around from Mart to Mart?

And the other question of note-“ where do Vermonters go during Stick season”?….brought on by the fact that I find myself routinely these days being the only human being at the ski resort gym…which I’m not complaining about..…but it is a bit reminiscent of “The Shining…

Midweek, we had another in a long line of heat waves- going into the mid-70s AGAIN…….our plants are all uber- growing, flowers are coming back up in the yard, the Pond is almost a dry gulch, Jenn is wearing her bathing suit around the house and to the store….and Stu is wearing shorts daily in mid-late October….D-O-N-A-L-D…are you listening? In any case, this corresponded with my last dance up to Montpelier to meet with the Governors’ Council. My goodbyes, until the spring, punctuated with “oh- enjoy Florida” and “must be nice to winter in the tropics”….which begs asking if missed some important memo along the way?

By the way, are you sick yet of all of my foliage photos? ……Sorry…I can’t help myself…..mesmerized by the God-like colors popping up everywhere I look….so just riffle through them if you’ve had enough…..even though you may miss THE one image that will change your life forever….

On Friday, Jenn left to go play with various dogs and find inspirations for her secret projects for next year, so I had a “Stu hangs in Vermont day”….which starts by cavorting around the house in the morning, ostensibly doing some form of change–the- world work at my computer, while actually reading stories about the coming NBA season and the pending season premier of Shameless….then off to the Gym while, of course, taking many repetitive foliage pictures along the way…..spending two hours in the Shining-like facility……then to my regular post-gym lunch at Java Babas, where my latest mother surrogate, Beverly, sits with me while I eat and read the Rutland Herald, and then refuses to let me pay (I have not paid for lunch in months)…..Beverly and her accomplice daughter Kate have offered me free lurch for one year if we would stay here for the winter, which is quite the temptation…….then back up the mountain, stopping to snap a few more must-see leaf pix……then on to the post office, where the hippy-dippy post mistress, Nicki, is refusing to give me any packages because “you’re leaving anyway” (who do you love, who do you love?”)…..then a quick stop at the General Store, to hear owner-curmudgeon, Kevin’s, daily grunting about the weather (too damn cold…too damn hot….too wet…too dry…you get the picture)……and finally, home for a little reading and late afternoon required nap- followed by bit of the baseball playoffs to root against the hated Yankees, since that is all that is left to do for this post season…..and this….is my Vermont world in a nutshell….

Late Friday afternoon, in the beauteous twilight of an autumn day in the mountains, we headed up Bowlesville road for the lung -busting walk to the top and The view. We trudged and Lucy sprinted up- past the growling/howling mongrel dogs at the squatter/renter folk , the empty summer places, the vestiges of the famed Austria House and the abode of our currently Cape-bound friends John and Lydia (in other words no one there on the road)….up to the top and then up the logging road for ten minute to the log with THE VIEW. Quite warm and Indian summer like (do you know where that phrase comes from? I’ll drive readers over the edge if I espouse on it here, but you can contact me for personal and inexpensive consultation on this). At the view spot we noticed a newly mowed path into the woods and followed it along several ubiquitous stone walls (what are they doing here, who built them, what are they walling?) to a remote billion dollar view cabin in a clearing…..sitting on top of a mountain. No idea how long it has been there since it was previously not apparently accessible, but we think it is part of the two billion acres own by the son of Halidol (refer to Blog entry dated 9/14 for more on Halidol and Helen…just kidding, but I’ll leave you to use your imagination).

It’s been a quiet weekend since, with more yard cleanup, putting the yard equipment down for the winter, blowing leaves in circles (far-out) and making a trip down to have dinner at East with the JFM (refer to blog entry #___). Currently waiting for our overnight guests to head back to the Poughkeepsie burbs (I think they are lost up Bowlesville Rd. searching for the billion dollar view). A mother and daughter from Oaxaca, Mexico, who apparently made it over the wall with their little Chihuahua like dog yapping all the way (some border patrol types need firing, don’t you think?). Probably the last of our guests at the Inn for the year…but who knows.

I’m off this week to Kansas City (Kansas City, here I come) to present at a conference and have some Jazz and BARBQ……the trip will take me about 14 hours each way, culminating in sled dogs…..

See ya……

Stu-bert