Greetings mes amis:
“I walk into where the light is”……………………………………………………………………………………………Mark Strand
“Sorry I’m not home
To take your call. At the tone
Please state your bad news”………………………………………………………………………………………………..Haikus for Jews
GO CAVS……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Ferlin’ Norris
You were probably wondering where the heck I’ve been today-as I try to have this ready for your Sunday brunch….but alas, country life in the mountains gets in the way…spent most of the day with chainsaw in hand cutting up limbs from our recent losing battle with 60 mph winds….then on to getting the yard machines running (so far- amazingly- so good)….and then lamenting the sudden loss of our clothes dryer with a lot of wet clothes to dry…in the rain….Still- a lot for nice Jewish boy from the Bronx, NO?
As a result….I am sore and tired and still have damn house things to yet fix today….So, again, he threatens the Zen version…but today I am committed….so bear (or bare) with me….
THE POND…is thriving…with a zillion little frogs’ eggs abounding, waiting to overtake our lives and some new resident ducks floating around…and the peepers at night are like a country symphony…..
Birthday came and went this week…quiet one, but made the requisite lunch trip to Java Baba, where treated like a local here for surviving for __ years (you’ll have to guess)…and then on to my first visit to our little local post office (only open for two hours each afternoon), where the postmistress, Nikki, came out to jump into my arms…apparently missed our fascinating brand of mailings..
Monday…got back to folk club, for Monday night music for the first time…the real folkies were missing and I am a bad influence, so we got little loud and crazy (Can you say 20 minutes of Neil Young ranting?) ..which I will have to temper for the next one
Tuesday, our bestie, Blue Skies, came over “for coffee”….which is a metaphor for a lot of Yenta action…and filled us in on winter’s life on the Mount…as she was leaving, she mentioned , in passing, that she was getting her knee replaced the next day…Vermonters are stoics, don’t you think?
Wednesday….the sun came out for the first time, and the temps soared to a ridiculous 86 degrees (it was 24 on Monday night)..so the snow is almost all gone now…and we headed up to quaint Middlebury for a drive through the mountains, lunch with Mama Corleone at Costello’s Italian Deli (we actually had a sandwich called the Don Corleone)….then up over the Middlebury Pass to find a dirt road and Big-Ass pond (actually a dam built in 1916..and still filled with ice) for a nice hike down…then the drive home down scenic route 100, and our first Maple Creamees of the season…which Lucy adores….
Speaking of Lucy, she is adjusting to the mountains slowly- going out at night to howl at the beasts of the mountain night (nothing there), digging massive holes in the yard, in search of what?….and rolling in shit daily…which adds to our cacophony of animal experiences- with Grace puking daily and old Niko leaving puddles of liquid poop..…this is all where Jenn comes into play…
Friday, we snuck under cover of darkness, over to the hated New Hampshire, to go to the Super Walmart and buy a new Smart TV at a silly-low price…AND…no sales tax….We’d love New Hampshire if everyone was not busy acting out the “live free or die” thing…..so now we have a massive unopened box in our living room that we are trying to figure out how to fit in our quaint country home (this was actually a Xmas gift from Max, that we returned in Ohio-so as not to schlep it to Vermont, and then re-bought, with our return Mart gift card…at $100 less…my momma wood be proud)…
Yesterday we spent the day as true Vermonters- picking up trash along the roadways for statewide Green-Up day and then volunteering for the first community supper of the season (thanksgiving in May…) at the ODDFELLOWS HALL (for real). I was rewarded for my superior serving skills with a few glasses of pinkish wine, which I did not know really existed- thought it was a myth…
Jenn is off next weekend to Cleve-town for baby Quinn’s first birthday (see her pix)-while I apparently will have the animal excrement assignment back in the Greens…and Tess… is halfway there with baby girl whatitsname…and that, my friends………is all she wrote…
Spin your dreidels and make a good wish…..Love Ya’ll,
Stu-man
