Buon Giorno:
“You must act as if the goal were infinitely far off”……………………………………………………………………………………………..Eugen Herrigel
“Forget abut enlightenment, just become a nicer person; this is already a difficult practice”…………………………. Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo
“Ding dong…the witch is dead”……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………Dorothy
“Four thousand years of Hebrew,
and still no word for “Tact”.
so who needs it?”………Haikus for Jews
Life has been slow in the mountains. after an early winter-like week, it has been in full glory here – with days sunny and in the mid-70s and nights in the high 40s –low 50’s……God-weather……….and I am…..well….around. Have not been traveling at all for work since our return, which has left me time to contemplate the order of things in the Greens. Taking a page from Hemingway (maybe a few pages), I’ve been writing each morning for a project I am doing on Organizational Culture for my friends at Casey…a few hours each morning…and then …what?….the gym, a hike, a drive and a fair amount of Pond contemplation (a lot actually). Prettyyyyyyyyyy slow……….So, what else is happening…what have I seen????
Behold…..a Sunday afternoon in the lovely hamlet of Middlebury…a trip to the museum for the student curated exhibit on the tumult of 1968…and floating men on the ceiling…….a trip to the local co-op, avoiding their magnificent breads and deserts to buy a carb- free lunch and picnic on the ground…then on to the proverbial search for a dirt road on a mountaintop for a walk in late afternoon sunlight…….
See……Jenn find more places to plant new flowers in the ever expanding gardening project….watching the colors bloom in what is late spring here (summer everywhere else)….whilst I furtively search the house , often in vain, for a piece of chocolate (give me chocolate or give me death)…….
Go…..to the semi-urbane majesty of Burlington…for the annual Jazz Fest extravaganza…..dinner at the Himalayan , stroll through the pedestrian only downtown, watch the magnificent sunset over Lake Champlain…..and….HEAR….. the amazing Bill Frisell play his guitar magic in a small intimate club like atmosphere….See Bill Frisell…..it’s a once in a lifetime experience…and hour an half of space infused jazz and improvisation without stop…no words, no gabbing….ethereal….
Trek to……………… Dartmouth…to see the infamous and quite eccentric medicine man there……..this is the master of all things Lyme disease and Lyme related conditions…..and the experience far exceeds weird…..just him, the scientist, in a huge office full of computers and science stuff…and then we get assigned seats to meet with him…and then he starts “The Interrogation” (his description) which lasts for two plus hours….gathering data, data, data….go give blood at the hospital in the woods, come back in a month for the cure….and bless his heart…stop with the diet bullshit and go carb up……”do not want you hungry”………
Find……a sandwich shop…..Vietnamese, no less, in Lebanon NH…..and sit in dappled sunlight on picnic bench eating BREAD and Carb stuff ….and feeling like we’ve gone over to the other side….”Don’t be hungry”…..Yes!
Return….home to find the gym shoes I took with me, in case of a walk, are not in the car…and had been left on the roof….headed back out to drive 20 miles down the road to find the escaped footwear…immediately find one shoe (how painful is that)…..and give up after holding up traffic for an hour…..but….then…..convince Jenn to go out with sickle on Saturday morning (while I go to town to complete the demanding and requisite weekend chores)….and have her walk up and down a quarter mile stretch of tall grass near where we found the first flying shoe…in search of the elusive second one ….no luck………………….just one missing sock (where is the other?), great photo, a lot of sickled grass and a few baby ticks to peel off……don’t you hate it when you lose one shoe?
And….. where the fuck is the Garlic Press?…apparently Stu cannot keep in mind where to store the dam thing (who uses a garlic press every day, anyway?)…..and every morning, Jenn asks me where I put the garlic press away …which is a daily mystery….
Observe….the ancient giant snapping turtle finding his way out of the POND, and postponing his consumption of our stocked trout….to lay around on a big rock all day…while Lucy runs in spastic circles around him, howling and snorting…he is one big boy…….
And then….we set out yesterday- and lo and behold….the Connecticut –Jamaican neighbors have returned for the first time since last summer….building their tent city next door, firing up a series of bar-b-ques and having the crew they bring with them hack down the six foot tall grass….they may be the only non-white people in a 20 mile radius, which means celebrate diversity day in Vermont…. and may have a plan to eventually make the crippled house inhabitable over the next decade or so…..
But….for now…. am going to try and find something worthwhile to do…or, maybe go check on The Pond…who knows…..
Love ya’ll till it hurts………………………………………..
Stu
